Entrepreneurship in the Late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 246 Flag Falling
His warhorse, Lu Bu, galloped swiftly, its hooves kicking up mud and sending clouds into the sky, while his lance pierced the morning mist.

Liu Xin led the Flying Tiger Cavalry, who had broken through the encirclement, back to fight once again.

Just now, he led the Flying Tiger Cavalry to break through the encirclement, and when he turned around, he saw a cavalry force rushing towards him at full speed.

The flag they were flying was that of his old unit, the Flying Dragon Cavalry. Back then, they didn't have that name; they were called the Righteous Army Cavalry.

When he saw the crimson dragon flag, Liu Xin finally couldn't hold back his tears. Without hesitation, he roared at his men behind him:

"Go back and kill those thieves!"

So they slowed their horses down, turned them around halfway down the road, and charged back the way they came.

Forgetting the scenes and battles on both sides, Liu Xin gripped his spear with sweat, tore off a strip of cloth from his clothes and wrapped it around his hand before charging fiercely at the enemy.

Those bandits on the periphery were still basking in the joy of victory, completely unaware that the Righteous Army would launch a surprise attack!

As these people looked blankly to the southwest, Liu Xin had already led the Flying Tiger Knights in again.

Facing the rising sun, seeing his comrades impaled in mid-air by spears, Liu Xin let out a shrill roar, slamming his horse spear into them, shouting:

"Kill!"

Behind him, a hundred Flying Tiger Cavalrymen roared in unison:

"Kill!"

"boom!"

The unsuspecting army's flank was instantly destroyed, and before the remaining soldiers could react, Liu Xin led his elite cavalry to cut out from the diagonal once again.

After throwing the corpse off the spear to the ground, Liu Xin crossed the enemy lines and suddenly saw a familiar corpse on the ground. He then charged out with his warhorse.

As soon as he emerged from the fray, his entire field of vision suddenly broadened, and the boundless anger that had surged within him suddenly turned into flowing water, leaving only endless sorrow.

He looked ahead, towards the northern front of the Grass Army. Previously, the Flying Leopards had charged towards this direction. Because it was against the sun, Liu Xin couldn't see clearly and could only see clusters of light jumping around.

Just then, Liu Xin's mind suddenly went blank. Then he could hear the sounds of the entire battlefield clearly: wailing and howling everywhere, warhorses and mules neighing, blunt weapons striking skulls, and sharp weapons piercing chests.

It turned out that his blood pressure had just spiked and he hadn't heard anything.

Just as he was about to turn his horse around again, he suddenly saw that the herdsmen to the northeast seemed to have deployed cavalry, preparing to cut off the flank of the Flying Leopard Cavalry within their formation. Without any hesitation, Liu Xin raised his spear and roared:
"Attention, all riders! Follow my horse's lead and keep charging!"

After saying that, he flicked the reins, and his warhorse snorted loudly before slowly moving forward and finally kneeling on the ground.

Only then did Liu Xin see that his beloved horse was covered in wounds, with a fatal gash running from its neck to its belly, blood gushing out and seeping onto the grass, turning it a bloody mess.

Liu Xin, who was being protected and standing safely on the ground, had already stopped crying. Tears streamed down his face and soaked his clothes. He weakly covered his beloved horse's wound with his hands and kept touching his forehead to the horse.

The horse's intelligent eyes reflected Liu Xin's face, but gradually lost their light.

And so, Liu Xin clutched his beloved horse, heartbroken, while countless cavalrymen charged in through the breach he had just created, utterly shattering the rebel army on the western front.

After these cavalrymen charged into the formation, some went directly towards the army's banner, while others followed the banner and headed straight for the north side of the battlefield.

The Flying Leopard Cavalry there need assistance.

……

As dawn broke, Geng Xiaojie led three hundred Flying Leopard Cavalry to begin reorganizing their troops. Their overall combat readiness was far superior to that of the Flying Tigers.

However, as a new cavalry force, the Flying Leopards were not as strong as the Flying Dragons and Flying Tigers. The core members of the two Flying Leopards were veteran cavalrymen who had participated in the Battle of Xichuan and had been tempered by the battle of 100,000 men.

The main personnel of Feibaodu are riders from the high-altitude grasslands of the Sichuan-Kang region, as well as some descendants of Uyghur and Turkic immigrants from Guangzhou.

Overall, the cavalry of the Flying Leopards were very skilled, even excellent. However, the problem is that good riding skills alone do not make them an elite cavalry force.

As a cavalry force formed in Gwangju, the problem with the Flying Leopards is that they have never experienced a major battle and do not know the difference between large-scale battlefield combat and individual skill-based hit-and-run tactics.

This drawback was directly exposed during this breakout attempt.

When Geng Xiaojie called over the other five teams to confirm the mission, the teams began their operations.

Geng Xiaojie is a highly experienced cavalry general. As a promising member of the Silver Knife Army of Xuzhou, he has been outstanding since joining the army.

Last night, he personally led several teams to probe the bandit army in the north. He has realized that this bandit army is quite strong in combat, and its overall quality is comparable to that of county and prefectural soldiers. Among them, there should be a team of two to five hundred men with the strength of a military officer.

So at daybreak today, Geng Xiaojie decided to divide the three hundred cavalry into six teams to break out of the encirclement, with him personally leading one team as a mobile force.

In his original plan, the six teams would break out in three echelons: front, middle, and rear. Then, when he led the last cavalry out, he would decide whether to continue the back-and-forth charge.

However, the breakout attempt went awry from the very beginning, and the reason for this was that the first cavalry charge went in the wrong direction.

They were supposed to advance northwest, but the group ended up heading due north and crashed right into the enemy's formation.

In order to rescue this cavalry unit, the second division commander, who was supposed to break out from the northeast, had no choice but to face them head-on.

Contrary to popular belief, cavalry charges typically involve crashing directly into the enemy ranks. In most cases, cavalry charges simply mean weaving through the gaps between enemy formations.

This method of breaking through enemy lines can quickly infiltrate the rear, but its drawback is that it can easily cut off the retreat route if it encounters a well-organized military formation.

Unfortunately, the bandits trained by Liu Hanhong barely possessed such organizational skills.

As the warm morning sun shone on this army formation, dozens of flags fluttered in the wind, and the hundred and ten soldiers, who were making their second breakout attempt, roared and then penetrated into the enemy lines in the middle.

Meanwhile, Liu's bandit army, having experienced the first wave of commotion, began to react. Under the old thief's shouts, they dodged the cavalry's charge while taking out their bows and crossbows.

As the Flying Leopard Riders charged in, the Grass Army on both sides merged like a tide, ultimately blocking the Second Division's retreat completely.

Geng Xiaojie, who was in the third unit behind, watched in disbelief as the group deviated from the breakout direction. However, he quickly adjusted his mindset, raised his lance, and led the third unit's hundred riders to charge forward.

At this moment, the bugle call of Liu's army also sounded, and waves of light arrows shot out from both sides.

Although these weak peasant soldiers also trained archer squads like the Tang army, they were actually unable to draw their bows due to insufficient heat replenishment.

Moreover, becoming a qualified archer requires more than just well-developed arm and back muscles and sufficient physical strength; honing one's skills takes years.

Even if a group of decent-quality soldiers were selected from these peasants, they still couldn't form a sufficient fighting force.

At this point, we can only use light arrows and volleys to attack.

But the generals of the grass army did not expect these arrows to be effective; they served more as a means of blocking and obstructing.

Because men wearing iron armor are not afraid of arrows, but warhorses are instinctively afraid, these arrows can provide some resistance to the Flying Leopard Cavalry's charge.

As Geng Xiaojie led his troops in the charge, he keenly noticed that the enemy ranks on the northeast side were in disarray. Without a doubt, this was the Flying Leopard Cavalry, who had already broken in, starting to disrupt the enemy forces from within.

Without any hesitation, Geng Xiaojie turned his horse and charged towards the northeast.

Because they were attacked from both the front and the rear, this part of Liu's hastily organized army quickly collapsed.

After Geng Xiaojie reunited with the second squad of this section, he immediately charged towards the grass army's front line in the middle.

At this moment, he galloped on his horse, his bowstring twanged like thunder, and arrows flew out in rapid succession, demonstrating the family craftsmanship of Tang soldiers amidst the vast army.

But it was precisely this ostentatious display that drew most of the grass army's attacks to him. His iron armor clanged as an arrow bounced off and struck him directly in the eye.

Fortunately, Geng Xiaojie closed his eyes in time. The arrow only grazed his eyelids, but the blood that flowed out covered his eyes.

He put down the arrows, took out a shield to protect his face, then removed his helmet, took out a cloth and wrapped it around his left eye, and then put the helmet back on.

At this moment, the warhorse, fearing the noise of the battlefield and the clatter of weapons, had already carried Geng Xiaojie to the outer line of the army.

The Flying Leopard Cavalry, unaware of what was happening, followed suit, getting further and further away from their comrades trapped in the middle. At this moment, Geng Xiaojie also realized something was wrong and hurriedly tried to turn his horse around, but just then, a detachment of enemy infantry advanced from the northeast.

Moreover, this bandit army was actually wearing Tang army iron armor.

This was the second armored bandit army that Geng Xiaojie had seen at the foot of Caozhou City.

Just as he was about to think, his helmet was struck, the force of which made Geng Xiaojie's head sway.

He glanced to the side and saw a general of the grass army, clad in iron armor, raising his horn bow, ready to fire a second shot.

Suddenly, Geng Xiaojie's anger was ignited. He pulled an iron mace from his satchel, tied the rope at the end to his wrist, and then charged forward with the mace in hand.

As he charged, the enemy warrior fired another arrow, which pierced through Geng Xiaojie's chest armor. Fortunately, he was wearing chainmail underneath, which blocked the arrow.

Even so, Geng Xiaojie still felt a sharp pain in his chest, and then the sweat from his inner lining dripped directly onto the wound, causing a burning pain.

But the pain only fueled Geng Xiaojie's frenzy. He gripped his lance, braced himself against the arrows in his breastplate, dodged another armor-piercing arrow, and charged toward the grass army warrior.

Looking down from his vantage point, Geng Xiaojie roared:
"You dare shoot me! Die!"

Then, the iron mace in his hand, like the giant axe of a giant spirit god, came crashing down with Geng Xiaojie's roar.

At this moment, the soldier realized he needed to dodge, but in that life-or-death situation, he froze.

Then, with fear still on his face, his entire head was smashed open.

With a single blow, Geng Xiaojie smashed the common army general to pieces. Then, raising his iron mace, he roared at the Flying Leopard Cavalry rushing towards him:

"Kill! Follow me to the middle section and save our brothers!"

At this moment, the iron mace in his hand was still dripping white liquid.

With this roar, nearly two hundred Flying Leopard Cavalrymen circled around Liu's army from the northeast, attacking from the middle without any formation. The knights charged in, brandishing their lances, maces, and swords.

……

Behind the army formation, Liu Hanhong, his face ashen, watched the Baoyi Army cavalry sweeping through his ranks. His expression shifted between red and purple, but suddenly he smiled:

"These are the kind of heroes I should recruit! Ten of these men dying are not as valuable as capturing one of these knights!"

"Let them kill me, I'm ready to die!"

A group of warriors surrounded Liu Hanhong, some of whom he had recruited in the past, and others whom he had met after joining the bandit army. However, after hearing Liu Hanhong's words, their expressions were not pleasant.

Hey, Ticket Master, what you said really hurt the brothers' feelings! Everyone else laughs when they have a new love and cries when they forget the old one, but you haven't even gotten your new love yet, and you're already throwing your old one away like a worn-out shoe?

Inappropriate?

And is this newcomer really necessary? These righteous rebels have killed so many of our brothers, and you're telling us in front of our brothers that life doesn't matter.

Our lives matter too!

At this moment, because of this sentence, the mentality of many people around Liu Hanhong changed.

However, Liu Hanhong was unaware of these things.

In the end, he was just a local strongman with ambition, but he wasn't a genius. He hadn't mastered the art of speaking to people in a way that suited them perfectly.

At this moment, looking at the Baoyi Army's elite cavalry that had once again charged into the central army formation, he suddenly said to his younger brother Liu Hanrong beside him:

"Take your cavalry and cut in from the sloping side to crush the Baoyi Army!"

Liu Hanrong clasped his hands in a fist salute, then led the two hundred riders waiting under the banner to mount their horses, circled around to the left, raising dust, and then also cut in from the northeast.

……

"Boom", "Boom"...

The bowstring kept being pulled until it snapped.

At this moment, Zhao Huai'an stood on the chariot, plucked the bowstring, shouted loudly, raised his hand and pulled the string, and the enemy fell to the ground in response.

When the bowstring finally broke due to the intensity, Zhao Huai'an took another one from Zhao Liu and continued firing.

The four-donkey-driven chariot stood steadily on the south side of the battlefield, resembling a mobile artillery platform under the support of Zhao Huai'an's military might.

As Zhao Huai'an was shooting arrows, the fat man next to him, Dou Pangzi, raised his long spear and roared:

"Charge! Charge! Don't stop!"

With his roar, some of the warriors of Bashandu jumped off their mules and began to form a battle formation with their shields raised.

Even though the enemy's lines seemed to be constantly retreating, a sign that they were about to collapse, the soldiers of the Bashandu still formed small formations of ten men each, holding the front and back, and charged forward.

In fact, when the southern rebels saw the main force of the Baoyi Army attacking from behind, especially since it was a mule and horse unit, their morale plummeted.

No one told them that there was another enemy force behind them.

When this Tang army appeared on the battlefield, the situation changed completely.

They were originally surrounding the Baoyi Army, but now? They are being surrounded! How could the already demoralized peasant army accept such a disparity?
At this moment, on the outskirts of the battlefield, in areas where the Baoyi Army had not yet engaged in combat, some of the rebel soldiers had already begun to discard their weapons and start running north.

But halfway there, a group of old bandits on horseback circled around. They used their lances to whip the fleeing soldiers to the ground. One of the leading bandit generals, while smashing the fleeing soldiers, roared:
"Go back! All of you go back! Keep killing!"

At first, some people were afraid, and then hesitated under the threat of swords and spears. But suddenly, someone threw a stone, which hit the general on the forehead, and blood gushed out immediately.

The man, dazed and confused from the impact, clutched his wound and roared:
"Who threw this? Nobody's going to live unless you come out yourself!"

These words ignited the fury of the bandits, who then surged forward, a surging tide of people, rushing towards those old thieves.

A crowd is still a tide, and no one can withstand the surging tide with their flesh and blood.

It's unclear who first pulled the straw-clad soldiers off their warhorses, but once the first person did so, chaos became inevitable.

The old thieves who used to bully others were either trampled to death or hit on the head with stones that were suddenly thrown at them.

The remaining grass army knights looked in horror at the grass army cavalry general who had been pulled off his warhorse.

By this time, he was no longer human. His body, crushed by countless feet, resembled a tattered rag. His chest had long been crushed, and the gushing blood had soaked the soil beneath him, which was then trampled dark red by the grass army.

Seeing their cavalry general die such a tragic death, these bandit knights didn't even think about revenge. Instead, they turned their horses around and galloped northeast, intending to report the situation to Wang Chongyin, the local warlord.

But when these people crossed the chaotic battlefield and ran to the east, they saw this scene.

The banner that once fluttered, proclaiming "Mending the Heavens and Ensuring Peace," had long since disappeared, and the last banner bearing the character "King" fell before their eyes.

Then they heard a roar in horror:
"The enemy general Wang Chongyin has been beheaded by my Wang Jin! Why don't you surrender?"

The thunderous roar nearly knocked the bandit cavalry into a daze. Had their valiant commander really died just like that?
Some people seemed not to believe it and wanted to rush over to see, but some cavalrymen fled directly to the east, without even glancing at the main camp that had been overwhelmed by countless armored soldiers of the Baoyi Army.

Seeing this, the grass army knights who were about to charge forward dared not charge anymore, and without even turning their horses around, they galloped off from the east.

At this moment, the banner and flag of the popular general Wang Chongyin fell one after another, and its influence finally spread to the entire battlefield.

At almost the same time, the four battle lines of the Cao army, which were still fighting in the east, west, south, and north, collapsed completely!

The Baoyi Army, surging in from all directions, roared with victory.

Then came the act of wielding spears, spurring on horses, and pursuing the fleeing enemy.

(End of this chapter)