Chapter 1268 Whoever Runs Is a Dog

The next morning, the snow cleared up, and the long-lost sunshine sprinkled on the snowy plains, so bright and refreshing.

"What a rare good weather." Wang Bi looked at the bright sunshine outside the tent while asking his personal soldiers to help him put on his body armor, arm guards, skirts, and foot guards, and then put on his neck guards, chest guards, and iron ribs one by one.

Finally, he put on the golden helmet with a red tassel. The helmet and the neck guard are called a helmet, which can provide strong protection for the head, neck, and shoulders.

This outfit weighs 40 to 50 kilograms. If it were an ordinary person, he would be exhausted just by walking two steps. Even a general like Wang Bi, who was born with supernatural powers, would not dress so neatly if he didn't go to the battlefield.

"It's really exciting to go to the battlefield in such good weather..." Wang Bi adjusted the red tassel on his head, revealing eight white teeth. "I'm so happy!"

After saying that, he strode out of the tent.

~~

Wang Bi’s army arrived at the Liao River yesterday and set up camp five miles away from the Yuan army.

Before the tents were set up, Liao Wang Azhashili sent someone to issue a declaration of war.

The letter of war was written in a fluent and elegant manner, and was on par with the clerks of the Ming army who were scholars.

The general idea was, ‘We, the three Wuliangha tribes, have always kept our distance from the Ming Dynasty, but you invaded our territory, destroyed our camps, and killed our people. This is really unjust. I, the king, wanted to take a step back and calm down, but you pressed on step by step and pushed us to the Liao River. What is intolerable? ’

‘Don’t think that I am easy to bully. I have 80,000 soldiers, all of whom are skilled in riding and shooting, and are fearless. Now we have gathered here to fight a battle with our backs to the river. With your mere 20,000 troops, it is like hitting a rock with an egg. ’

‘So I advise you to stop and turn back quickly, and both sides can still coexist peacefully. If you still insist on not changing your ways, then tomorrow we will each lead our army to fight to the death in front of the camp! ’

After reading it, Wang Bi picked up his pen and wrote five words as a reply:

‘Whoever runs away is a dog! ’

~~

Outside the tent, 20,000 cavalry soldiers have also been dressed neatly, waiting for the commander to lead them to the battlefield.

“Follow me and kill the enemy!” Wang Bi was very frugal with words, and only said six words before the battle.

Because he, the King of Double Swords, always led the troops in every battle and charged in front, there was no need to talk nonsense to the soldiers.

After Wang Bi finished speaking, he led his red horse and walked out of the camp with steady steps.

“Yes!” What kind of general leads what kind of soldiers, the soldiers did not waste words, and responded in unison, and followed their commander, leading the horses out of the camp one after another.

They weigh nearly 200 kilograms, including the people and armor, and the war horses themselves have dozens of kilograms of vests. In order to save horsepower, they will not mount their horses until the moment of charging.

After leaving the camp, Wang Bi and Guo Ying each led 10,000 cavalrymen to form a battle array in the left and right lines.

Formation is also important for cavalry, especially when the mobility of cavalry is equal to that of cavalry. Whoever has a more reasonable formation can better preserve themselves and kill the enemy.

In fact, whoever can maintain a more complete formation until the stage of close combat will become the final winner.

However, it is very difficult for cavalry to make large-scale formation adjustments during combat, so they also need to arrange the formation in advance like infantry.

Of course, in order to prevent unnecessary collisions between their own people during the charge, the cavalry formation is simple and loose compared to the tight and compact infantry formation.

The left and right cavalry of the Ming army are divided into three formations: front, middle and back.

Simply put, the front army is responsible for charging, and the middle army is responsible for breaking through the formation. The rear army is always ready to support.

In terms of specific military force distribution, the front army, the central army, and the rear army are each composed of three thousand households. Another thousand households are directly under the two main generals and serve as a reserve.

These thousand households are also the actual commanders on the battlefield. They either lead their own thousand cavalry to implement the plan made before the war. Or they execute the real-time orders of the commander-in-chief according to the flag and drum signals of the central army. It is the key to the implementation of the commander-in-chief's intention.

~~

At the same time, the Mongols on the opposite side are also arranging their battle formations.

They are all taught by the same master, and the formations of both sides are similar, but the generals will make some minor adjustments according to their own style and the characteristics of the army.

This time, Azha Shili was desperate and pulled all the troops he could send to the battlefield, gathering a full 40,000 cavalry, and the battle line stretched for several miles!

Looking at the Mongolian cavalrymen under his command, Azhashili suddenly became heroic. He imitated the actions of his ancestors before the war and rode his horse to patrol the front of the battle. Wherever he went, the warriors of the Wuliangha and Wengniute tribes raised their scimitars and shouted "ho-ho"!

The "ho-ho" sound became more and more uniform and louder, and the morale of the Yuan army soldiers became higher and higher.

When Azhashili drew out his scimitar and raised it above his head, the Yuan army's ho-ho sound shook the earth, and the morale reached its peak!

Azhashili swung his scimitar forward fiercely, and with the sound of the horn, the Yuan army took the lead in attacking.

Wang Bi, who was on the opposite side of the battlefield, saw this and ordered the drums to be beaten to advance.

But unlike what people imagined, the cavalry of the two armies advanced at full speed and fiercely collided. Neither the Ming army nor the Yuan army urged the horses to charge, but just maintained the formation and moved forward slowly.

During the advance, both sides deployed their cavalry into a relatively wide formation, and the front lines of the two armies were almost in a straight line.

When they were about fifty feet apart, the lines of both sides stopped at the same time. The cavalry drew their bows and arrows, prepared to shoot, and then followed their own captains and slowly moved forward.

When they entered the shooting range, the captain stopped advancing and ordered free shooting.

It's called free shooting, but you can't just shoot wherever you want. At such a long distance, you can only shoot at a high angle. No matter how good the shooter is, he can't guarantee the landing point. If you shoot freely, you won't hit the target.

Instead, the centurion will choose a shooting direction by himself, and the 100 cavalrymen under his command will shoot in that direction together.

Under the rain of arrows, there must be dead souls...

The cavalry of both sides shot at each other at the extreme distance. While shooting, of course, they can't just stand there as targets, but have to move to avoid the arrows.

The lines of the two armies did not move forward, but moved left and right, always shooting at each other at a distance of one arrow. Just like two parallel lines, moving back and forth on the grassland, but never getting close.

And the speed of the translation is also very slow. The reason is simple. The faster the speed, the more crooked the shot. If you want to keep killing, you have to slow yourself down...

In fact, the soldiers who can keep moving slowly under the rain of arrows without panicking and dodging are already elite.

From this point of view, the three Wuliangha tribes were indeed much stronger than the pure Mongolian cavalry of this era.

However, the "Mangudai" archery method that was feared by the Mongolian cavalry at that time was so abstract and ridiculous when used by both armies at the same time.