Chapter 97: Qin Army Pursues (Part 2)

  After finishing the second crossbow, Gao Yuan immediately hung up the crossbow, drew out a long spear from behind the saddle with his right hand, and put on a round shield with his left hand. At this time, he was less than ten meters away from the Qin army's cavalry. Gao Yuan also held the long spear horizontally and stabbed at a Qin soldier who was charging towards him. The opponent also held a long spear and stabbed at Gao Yuan.

  But Gaoyuan's body dodged the opponent's long spear on one side, and his own long spear also stabbed out, stabbing that knight under the horse.

  The second-place Qin army cavalryman, who had caught up, was about two or three meters away from Gao Yuan. Both of them simultaneously swept their long spears horizontally at each other, but Gao Yuan leaned back on his horse's back and adopted a Golden Iron Bridge stance, laying his entire body flat on the horse's hindquarters. As a result, the opponent's spear swept over Gao Yuan's head, while Gao Yuan's own spear struck the opponent's chest and shoulder with great force. The cavalryman immediately lost his balance, leaned back, and fell off his horse.

  Then Gaoyuan made a somersault, and just as he sat up straight on the horseback, there was another soldier on the other side, swinging his long spear and striking down at Gaoyuan's head. Gaoyuan raised his shield to block it, and with his right hand, he swung his long spear from the horse's head towards his opponent's face. The Qin soldier dodged Gaoyuan's incoming spear by a hair's breadth. But Gaoyuan followed through, changing his thrust into a slap, striking down at his opponent like a club, hitting him on the shoulder. The Qin soldier also lost balance on the horseback, swaying twice before falling off the horse.

  In almost an instant, Gao Yuan had knocked down three Qin soldiers. In fact, only one was stabbed off his horse by Gao Yuan, while the other two were actually beaten off their horses. At this time, the other cavalry of the Zhao army also engaged in battle with the Qin army, but the result of the clash was that nine out of ten times it was the Qin soldiers who were knocked off their warhorses. In this kind of all-cavalry warfare, once you fell off your horse, it was basically a matter of life and death. To avoid being trampled by other horses, one could only rely on his own moral character.

  In this regard, the Zhao army with double-bridle saddles and stirrups had a significant advantage, as stability on horseback increased greatly, allowing for various high-difficulty movements. The movement of dodging by lying flat on the horse's backside, which was done by the entire Hebei cavalry, was impossible to do in the eyes of the Qin army's mounted soldiers. If the Qin army were also equipped with double-bridle saddles and stirrups, it would not have been easy for Hebei to knock them off their horses.

  At this time, the long spear of the plateau stabbed towards the fourth Qin soldier. This time it was a direct hit, and with the help of the war horse's impact force, the long spear pierced through the opponent's chest from front to back, and the tip of the spear emerged from behind. However, when this Qin soldier fell off his horse, Gaoyuan was unable to pull out the long spear for the time being, so he had no choice but to let go and abandon the spear.

  In fact, being forced to abandon guns in cavalry battles is a common occurrence. Therefore, each Zhao army cavalryman was equipped with two long spears, one long and one short. The longer one was over four meters, while the shorter one was about 2.5 meters. Normally, they used the long-handled spear, while the short-handled spear was for backup, inserted at the back of the saddle, also for fighting on foot.

  However, the highland who lost his long-handled spear did not use a short-handled spear, but instead drew his dagger and swung it at a Qin soldier who was crossing horses with him. The Qin soldier let out a miserable cry, his chest armor was cut open, blood gushed out, and he fell headfirst off the war horse.

  Now, two batches of long knives have been cast, a total of 400 handles, but basically all are equipped with infantry, and only the centurion-level officers in the cavalry can be equipped with war knives. Of course, each general at this level on the highlands can be equipped with two handles.

  In fact, the war knife is more powerful in cavalry battles because its characteristics are conducive to chopping and slashing, and it can also take advantage of the speed and impact of the war horse. It doesn't require too much strength to swing and chop, making it easy to cut through armor and injure opponents. Unlike swords and spears, which rely on thrusting, not only is it easy to break off, but it's also difficult to pull out from an enemy soldier's body. The only drawback is that the war knife is too short, suitable only for close combat chopping and slashing.

  But this shortcoming did not have a great impact, and the distant enemy was not worth fighting, so after the high plains drew their war knife, they swung left and right, cutting down four or five Qin army cavalrymen in a row. The other Zhao soldiers were also unstoppable, wielding long guns and short swords, stabbing and chopping, killing the Qin army one by one, despite the large number of Qin soldiers, but the entire battlefield was completely one-sided.

  This result also made the two main generals, Zhang Han and Dong Yi, who were directing the battle in the Qin army, very puzzled. The individual combat effectiveness of the Qin and Zhao soldiers had always been comparable, and this had been proven on past battlefields. This time, both men had brought out the elite soldiers from the Qin army, so why did they completely collapse when facing the Zhao army? If the Zhao army's cavalry was really much better than the Qin army's cavalry, then it wouldn't be easy for the Qin army to win this war either. Of course, at this time, neither of them realized that this branch of the Zhao army cavalry had adopted new-style horse armor.

  In fact, Zhao Jun was able to gain an absolute advantage, and the use of new-style cavalry was only one aspect. The adoption of a conical formation and the use of piercing tactics were also another important reason, that is, the coordination of tactics and weapons. The Qin army's cavalry still adopted infantry-style horizontal formations, but with a depth of over 20 rows. However, in the face of Zhao Jun's piercing tactics, it was like inserting a red-hot knife into a piece of butter, without wasting much effort, and easily broke into the Qin army's formation.

  Behind the new-style cavalry, another two thousand Zhao cavalrymen, also arrayed in horizontal formation, caught up and engaged the Qin army in a comprehensive battle. In fact, this batch of cavalry was roughly equivalent to the Qin army, but because of the dozen or so wedge-shaped arrowheads that had pierced the Qin army's formation, greatly dampening their morale, after both sides clashed comprehensively, the Qin army still could not match the Zhao army, and casualties also massively increased.

  But the Qin army's array was not very deep, and after Gao Yue cut down two more Qin cavalrymen, he led the Zhao army to break through the Qin army's array. Meanwhile, on both sides of Gao Yue, other branches of the Zhao army also successively broke through the Qin army's array and killed their way out.

  Gao Yuan also let out a sigh of relief, knowing that the outcome of this battle had already been decided. He then swung his war knife, turned his horse's head around, and charged towards the rear of the Qin army, killing two Qin soldiers who were facing away from him with two consecutive slashes. The other Zhao troops also quickly turned their horses around and transformed from a triangular formation into a horizontal line, charging at the Qin army once again. Many Qin soldiers did not even have time to turn around before they were stabbed off their horses by the turning Zhao cavalry.

  This is also the result of the plateau cavalry's usual training, and in battle, they first use a wedge-shaped formation to break through the enemy's formation, then deploy horizontally behind the enemy army, counter-attack, and strive to defeat the opponent at once.

  As expected, at this time the Qin army was attacked from both front and back, some soldiers turned their horses to fight back, while others charged forward on horseback, instantly falling into chaos. Meanwhile, the morale of the Zhao army greatly increased, attacking from both sides, and a portion of the soldiers even broke through to the center, killing the Qin army until corpses were scattered all over the fields and blood flowed like rivers.

  Although the Qin army's discipline was strict, at this time everyone knew that this battle was bound to be defeated, so they didn't care about many things and fled from the battlefield one after another. Even Zhang Han and Dong Yi couldn't stop them. In a twinkling of an eye, it became a complete defeat for the whole army. At this time, Zhang Han and Dong Yi were also helpless and followed the defeated army to flee back together.

  After defeating the Qin army, the morale of the Zhao army was greatly boosted, and they pursued and killed for a while, chasing out more than ten miles before stopping under Gao's restraint, and then withdrawing back to the original battlefield.

  After a simple count, this battle killed more than 2,300 Qin soldiers and captured more than 170 people. The Zhao army itself had only 237 deaths, with more than 300 wounded. The new cavalry had only 52 deaths and 126 injuries. In addition, more than 700 war horses of the Qin army were seized, as well as over a thousand swords, guns, and other weapons.

  The array of the enemy was too close, and the Qin army might still send troops to pursue them at any time. Therefore, Zhao did not dare to stay in the original place for a long time. He only collected the bodies of the dead soldiers, took away the spoils of war, and took the prisoners with him, and quickly withdrew from the battlefield to retreat to Jinyong. Even the clothes and armor of the dead Qin soldiers were not taken away, let alone buried, anyway, the Qin army would come to clean up.

  But it was just that the results of this battle could also be considered very brilliant, because whether it was the casualties inflicted on the Qin army or the spoils of war collected, they far exceeded those obtained in the surprise attack on the Qin army camp. It can also be said to be an unintentional result, and this is a victory won in a formal confrontation between the two sides who have formed their battle arrays face-to-face. The Qin army was defeated without any excuses, so although this battle could not change the overall situation, it indeed gave the Qin army a warning shot, greatly dampening the morale of the Qin army.

  However, without the plan of ambushing the Qin army on the highlands, this victory could not have been achieved, so these two victories are actually closely related.

  As expected, soon after the Xiongnu army withdrew, the Qin army returned to the battlefield. It turned out that after Zhang He and Dong Yi fled in defeat, they escaped for nearly twenty miles before meeting Sima Xin's troops sent by Meng Wu to escort them. After merging their forces, they discussed and decided to return to the battlefield, at least to bring back the bodies of the fallen Qin soldiers; if the Zhao army was still on the battlefield and had not withdrawn, then they would fight another battle with them.

  But when the Qin army returned to the battlefield, all that was left for them were the corpses of Qin soldiers and war horses, as well as a few Zhao war horses that had not been taken away in time. The Zhao army had already withdrawn completely.

  One reason is that Zhao's army was a cavalry, and the Qin army couldn't catch up even if they wanted to. Secondly, after this battle, the Qin army didn't have the courage to pursue the Zhao army again. So people just collected the bodies of the dead Qin soldiers, cleaned up the battlefield, buried the dead horses, and then the Qin army retreated back to Jiuquan.