In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 136: Day and night pursuit (to make up for the debt No. 7)
In order to reduce the possibility of the war horses freezing to death at night, Jiannu not only drove all the war horses together, but also packed the small tents they carried with them on the outermost edge. The tents formed a circle and surrounded them. Tens of thousands of war horses surrounded the center.

The advantage of this is that the tents can be used to protect the surrounding war horses from the cold wind, and the cavalry can quickly pack up and mount their horses. Otherwise, if people are surrounded by the war horses, they will not be able to get on the road in a short time.

As for whether it would be too dangerous if the tents were set up on the outermost periphery or scattered into a huge circle, and they were attacked at night, neither Haug nor the leader of the Tumut tribe had considered this.

Because of this kind of weather, they would be shivering with cold even when they were hiding in a tent at night. Several people would have to huddle together for warmth to survive. If someone really dared to sneak up on them at night, they would not have to take action at all. The other party would freeze in the snow. inside.

So in such a huge camp, no one even posted a sentry, not because they didn't want to, but simply because they couldn't do it. If the wind blew for half an hour outside, they would probably freeze to death. To stand guard would be to die.

This is indeed the case. Even if Lin Rui and the others have arrived only five or six miles away from the Jiannu camp, they still have to hide in the sled and wait for the temperature to warm up after dawn before fighting again, giving up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a sneak attack.

As the sky gradually became brighter, Jiannu also got out of the small tent and began to get busy.

First, he used three wooden sticks to build a shelf to hang the iron pot, then filled half of the pot with clean snow, threw all the beans and dried meat in, and sprinkled a handful of salt. Finally, he took out the firewood he carried and started to light a fire.

After lighting the fire, he packed up the tent and loaded it on the horse.

There was no way, after a night of freezing, both the man and the war horse had to add a hot meal, otherwise the war horse would not be able to continue running during the day.

The meat is eaten by oneself, and the beans are fed directly to the war horses.

It's a pity that this time the slave cavalry didn't even set up the pots, but they discovered the sleighs in the south, and immediately blew the horn. Hauge didn't have time to sleep, and he was frightened and jumped out of the tent. Got out.

"what happened?"

As soon as Hauge rushed out of the tent, he asked loudly, it was just dawn, how could the other party's cavalry come here?

Don’t they have to light a fire to replenish hot food?
Don’t you need to pack up the tent and feed the war horses?
"Your Majesty, it's not good, it's Han soldiers coming from the south."

"How is that possible? There were none when it got dark yesterday. How could the Han soldiers suddenly appear?"

Haug looked shocked and didn't believe it at all. The cavalry couldn't come so early in the morning. How could the infantry come?

"Your Majesty, it's true. Those Han soldiers came in carriages last night. There were more than 2000 carriages in the south..." The Jurchen cavalry who came to report anxiously explained.

"This, this, this is impossible. The horses were frozen to death at night, how could they still be able to pull the cart?"

"go!"

After Hauge finished speaking, he climbed onto his horse, raised his whip and ran towards the south, wanting to see it for himself.

When Haug came to the south, the Tumut people here were already in a panic. They were all busy packing their things and separating the crowded war horses. They had no time to cook anything.

Hauge looked at the eight slowly advancing phalanxes to the south, took a breath, and said to himself that it was over.

Because the opponent's carriage was too close to them, only five or six miles away from the southernmost camp, and looking at the opponent's posture, it was obvious that they had lined up to kill them at dawn. They didn't just cook things to feed the horses, they just packed things away. Well, it would be nice to separate the horses.

"Quick, pull out some people and get on your horse to stop them immediately..."

"Don't let them get close, otherwise everyone will be ruined..."

Haug immediately began to command the Tumut people in the south not to worry about the wood and iron pot tents anymore. He wanted them to mount their horses directly to intercept the opponent, giving the cavalry on the left and right and the north some time to clean up.

There is no way, if you lose the wood, iron pot, tent and food, then don't go back, it would be more pleasant to die here directly.

"Go forward, go forward, stay in formation!"

Looking at the Jiannu cavalry so close, Lin Rui kept shouting and followed the team on foot with a knife in hand.

And all the young soldiers and longbowmen were trembling with excitement. Obviously, even the most ordinary soldier knew that they had caught Jiannu off guard. It could be seen from the fact that the other party had fallen into chaos.

Although the temperature was still relatively low in the morning, the Lin Jiajun, who had just replenished their hot food, were at their strongest, so even though they were walking through a foot of snow, they were still very fast.

After they had all advanced to within two miles of the camp south of Jiannu, Haug managed to organize Tumote's cavalry, and then rushed towards the phalanx in a hurry.

"Fire arrows!"

shhhhhh…

Looking at the cavalry running towards them, the archers in the formation bent their bows and nocked arrows, throwing arrows forward as hard as they could. Suddenly, the arrows fell like raindrops on the cavalry team.

Tumut's cavalry also planned to play the trick of hiding in the stirrups, but in the face of the powerful iron arrows, it did not work at all. The horses that had not yet started to run were hit by arrows and fell in pieces, and all the charging horses were knocked down. The Tumut cavalry were frightened.

Fortunately, these Tumut cavalry also knew that now was a life-and-death moment. Even if they escaped now, they would freeze to death on the road, so they chose to continue charging without hesitation.

However, the distance was too short and there was no time to attack the flanks of the phalanx in a roundabout way. In addition, the momentum of the charge was disrupted by the rain of arrows. Therefore, when the cavalry hit the spearhead of the spearmen, it was like hitting an iron wall.

Although the spear head was broken, it still knocked the man upside down. The key is that the spear was too long and the horse was slow. It did not rush directly into the formation. Even the spearman was only knocked over by the rebound force. On the ground, he was not hit or crushed to death by a war horse. "kill!"

The spearmen and sword and shield soldiers behind immediately rushed forward, stabbing horses and cutting down people. The archers behind were still firing arrows desperately.

The cavalry lost their speed and were still crowded together. Facing the close combat of spearmen and sword and shield soldiers, they were no match at all. The ones who were killed fell in pieces. No matter how many cavalry behind them, they could only act in a hurry. If you are good at archery, you can still take advantage of the opportunity to shoot an arrow.

Thousands of Tumut cavalry were squeezed into a heap and were slaughtered by the infantry. However, their sacrifices also successfully blocked the Lin family army and bought valuable time for the Tumut cavalry and Jiannu cavalry behind them.

Although Lin Rui was equally anxious and wanted to make a detour from the left and right wings, but the number of troops was too small, and it was too dangerous to rashly divide the troops and detour, so he had no choice but to kill the cavalry in front first.

"Don't run away, don't run, press forward!"

Hauge personally led more than 500 slave cavalry at the rear to constantly exert pressure and supervise the battle, forcing the Tumut cavalry in front to almost curse.

The two sides fought for almost half an hour. As the northernmost cavalry packed up their things on their horses and began to leave the group and outflank the Lin family army, Lin Rui gave the order to stop advancing the in-place defense.

Just when all the cavalry were packed up and all the cavalry were separated, Hauge planned to distance himself, besiege the Lin family army from all sides, and fight to the death, Na Muzhong finally appeared in the south with the cavalry.

There was no way, it wasn't that Namuzhong didn't want to come quickly, but that both the horse and the man had to have a hot meal. Even after eating, he didn't even have time to put away the pot and tent, so he jumped on the horse and rushed over in a hurry.

"withdraw!"

Seeing that the opponent's cavalry arrived, the condition of his own people and horses was extremely poor, and thousands of cavalry were lost. Hauge had to lead the cavalry back north in a hurry, leaving horse and human corpses on the ground.

Jian Nu fled, and the infantry could only stare, but Na Mu Zhong led the cavalry to chase after them. When they passed by Lin Rui and the others, thousands of horses were left behind.

"Madam, stop chasing us until noon and go back to the camp directly."

"Okay Rui Lang, the Jurchens will definitely shed their skin this time, I'm leaving..."

After Namuzhong finished speaking, he quickly caught up with the group.

"Commander, what to do with these dead horses? Do you want to take them all back?"

"How to take it? Hurry up and peel off the skin while it's hot!"

Lin Rui said angrily.

The crowd had to be divided into two. Some gathered their leather armor, scimitars, bows and arrows, and some went to skin the horses.

Even though his movements were skillful and quick, he only managed to peel off half of the skin, and the horse was so frozen that he could no longer use the knife. In the end, he had to discard all the remaining horse skin and horse meat.

"Report to the commander-in-chief that in this battle, our army beheaded more than 1 people, killed more than [-] horses, and suffered more than [-] casualties."

"Okay! This battle is a great victory. Let's go back and discuss our merits and reward you!"

Although Lin Rui shouted loudly, he sighed in his heart. He was so well prepared and caught the opponent off guard, but he still only killed more than 6000 people, and they were all Tumuts.

But there was nothing they could do about it. Firstly, their strength was less than half of the opponent's. Secondly, the infantry was really at a disadvantage against the cavalry.

If the infantry can defend itself against the cavalry, it is considered a strong army. If it can defeat the cavalry and kill the cavalry, it is an extremely strong army. As for severely damaging the cavalry or completely annihilating it, it must take advantage of the terrain to achieve it, otherwise it is a fantasy. .

Once the infantry is defeated by the cavalry in the field, the entire army will be annihilated.

Therefore, the results and risks of using infantry against cavalry are completely disproportionate.

After driving the horses to pull the sled over, Lin Rui hurriedly packed it up, and then started to return with the army.

The speed was much faster during the day, and they only returned to the camp in the afternoon, and Namuzhong also came back with the cavalry before dark.

Although Jiannu was not killed, because he fell behind, Jiannu could not stop to cook, so the corpses of Jiannu and Tumut war horses were all along the way.

It was not until Namu Zhong stopped pursuing at noon that Hauge stopped and hurriedly cooked a hot meal. After the people and horses had finished eating, they continued on their way without daring to stay longer. Apparently they were afraid that the Lin Jiajun infantry would catch up again at night. .

If the opponent can really pursue the cavalry during the day and the infantry at night, then they will never even think about going back.

Five days later, although Hauge successfully escaped back to Guihua with his troops, all the Tumut leaders who escaped were in tears, and those who did not go were grateful.

Because when we went there, there were more than 7 war horses and more than 3 people, but the number of horses that came back was less than [-], and many of them were severely frostbitten. It is estimated that they will not be able to fight again in the future.

Nearly seven thousand warriors failed to come back, but they killed very few enemies, and Ye He couldn't be rescued either. It was like a loss to his grandma's family.

(End of this chapter)