Eastern Jin Dynasty: My powerful father

Chapter 304 Array in Yinchuan
Xie Ai recruited 30,000 warriors among the 100,000 defenders.

Although the time was short and there was no time for them to get along and achieve a tacit understanding of each other, three days was enough for them to get to know each other well enough to be driven.

In the twelfth year of Yonghe (AD 356), April th, this was the day of the battle agreed by Xie Ai and Fu Jian.

Xie Ai was willing to go out of the city to fight, which Fu Jian naturally wanted. After all, it was not a big deal to remain in a stalemate outside Yinchuan City.

If possible, Fu Jian hoped to quickly capture Yinchuan and then move south to force Huan Xi to return to Guanzhong to relieve the crisis in Hedong.

Previously, Xie Ai's envoys went in and out of the Yu army camp without encountering any difficulties.

Fu Jian is more disciplined than Xie Ai. King Fu Tian cannot do such things as killing envoys and sacrificing flags.

It's just that when the envoy entered the camp, he was still strictly guarded and no valuable information was brought back.

As the sun rose, the soldiers had breakfast and were recharging their energy in Wengcheng in the north.

They didn't dare to eat too much. After all, when they went to the battlefield, no one would stop and give you time to go to the toilet.

In this battle, Fu Jian did not go out in full force, but only brought 40,000 elite troops to form an array outside the city.

If no trace of Deng Xia could be found, Fu Jian would not dare to easily attack him in this battle.

People in this era generally had little resistance to Confucian generals, especially Xie Ai, a Confucian general who was full of character and capable of fighting. Fu Jian dreamed of taking him under his command.

Compared with Ma Qiu's impulsiveness and irritability, Fu Jian, who was in the Yu army formation in the north of Yinchuan City, was full of admiration.

The reason why Fu Jian only brought 40,000 elite troops with him, leaving his servants to guard the camp, and hiding 10,000 elite cavalry behind as a reserve, was simply because he was afraid of Baibao Xianbei under Deng Xia's command.

The outcome of this battle is unknown, but Xie Ai's outfit is very impressive.

Therefore, Ma Qiu was impulsive and ordered the Black Dragon Army to attack Xie Ai. In the end, he was defeated by Xie Ai. .

It's not that Fu Jian thought he couldn't command a hundred thousand cavalry. He didn't lack mysterious self-confidence. Otherwise, he wouldn't have mobilized a million troops to march south, and contributed such allusions as throwing whips to cut off the flow of water, grass and trees being soldiers, and the sound of wind and cranes.

Fu Fei, the Xinxing County Duke on the side, heard this and was dissatisfied, and immediately said loudly:
"Please also ask the King of Heaven to allow the last general to go into battle, and the last general will capture this beast for the King of Heaven!"

"Deng Xia has not shown up now, so it is not advisable to act rashly. It will not be too late to fight Xie Ai after the sentinels find out his whereabouts."

During the Battle of Linhe, Xie Ai dressed like this and commanded Qianliang's troops to fight against Ma Qiu, allowing Ma Qiu, who saw him dressed from a distance, to break his defense on the spot: Ai is a young scholar, and with such a uniform, he underestimates me.

At the eleventh hour, which is ten o'clock in the morning in later generations, Xie Ai led the crowd out of the north gate in a light carriage with a feather fan and a turban on his head.

Fu Jian did not agree, he shook his head and said:

"Such a talent, I just wish I couldn't use it."

Baibao Xianbei had several battles with Yu Jun's fine cavalry. Although they were small in number, with only 10,000 cavalry, their combat effectiveness left a deep impression on Fu Jian.

Fu Jian sighed softly.

Fu Jian must guard against Xie Ai taking the initiative to go out of the city to fight, just to divert the tiger away from the mountain.

Once there were too few soldiers left to guard the camp, Deng Xia directly abandoned the frontal battlefield and attacked the Yu army's camp, burning its supplies and plundering its cattle and sheep. The Yu army would surely be in danger.

Although Deng Xia had not shown up yet, Fu Jian knew that Xie Ai must have pinned the outcome of this battle on Deng Xia. After all, the troops Xie Ai brought out of the city were inferior to Fu Jian in both quantity and quality.

No matter how outstanding Xie Ai was, he could not turn the 30,000 infantry and cavalry he had raised into a strong army in a short period of time.

Therefore, Deng Xia will definitely not miss this battle, and Fu Jian must figure out his dynamics to avoid being caught off guard.

After Xie Ai commanded the defenders to leave the city and form a formation behind the city, he looked at Fu Jian's military formation in the distance and had a rough estimate of its number.

Although it is said that with more than 10,000 people, there is no limit, but a famous general like Xie Ai can still make a relatively accurate estimate of the number of enemy troops through the opponent's flag, formation and other factors.

Of course, the difference between the number of 100,000 infantry and cavalry and the 40,000 Yu army in front of him was too big. This also made Xie Ai understand that Fu Jian must have left a heavy force to guard the camp.

In fact, Xie Ai really had the idea of ​​​​moving the tiger away from the mountain. Once Fu Jian brought more troops, Xie Ai would send an order to Suo Xia to raise light yellow smoke in the city.

When Deng Xia saw the smoke, he would naturally take a detour and attack the Yu army camp.

But Fu Jian was not fooled. Although Xie Ai felt regretful, he still said calmly:

"Send the order, black smoke rises from the city."

The sentinels sent by Deng Xia saw billowing black smoke rising from the towers in the south of Yinchuan from a distance. They quickly turned their horses and galloped.

The sentry rider found Deng Xia and told him the situation.

Deng Xia knew that this was a signal that Xie Ai had previously agreed in his mind to cancel the plan to attack the Yu army camp.

He no longer hides it. At worst, he will fight the Yu army with open swords and guns. With the ten thousand armored cavalry under his command, anyone who sees it will have to avoid the sharp edge.

"Send my order to the general! All troops mount up!"

Following Deng Xia's order, all the soldiers got on their horses and heard the swishing sound of beetle leaves rubbing against each other.

However, what Deng Xia and others were riding were not the heavily armed war horses beside them, but the Datong horses that were usually used for transportation.

After all, if you are riding a war horse at this time, wearing horse armor, and carrying cavalry armed to the teeth, weighing nearly three hundred kilograms, you will not have the strength to charge when you arrive at the battlefield.

I'm just afraid that after one charge, they will all fall down from exhaustion.

In fact, armored cavalry are not used to charge and kill repeatedly. It's not that they don't have this ability, but that the war horses under their crotches really don't have the physical strength.

Moreover, they cannot fight with the enemy's cavalry. Although it is difficult for the opponent's light cavalry to cause damage to the armored cavalry, they cannot catch up with the opponent.

During the previous raids, Baibao Xianbei had several confrontations with the Yu army's elite cavalry. Although Baibao Xianbei won the victory, the Yu army's elite cavalry came and went freely. We did not have the light cavalry to cooperate to hold them back. Deng Xia I can only say nothing.

Huan Xi knew the limitations of armored cavalry, but he still organized this heavy armored cavalry despite financial constraints, hoping that they would play a decisive role on the battlefield.

Xie Ai had never commanded armored cavalry in combat, but he had faced armored cavalry, the Black Dragon Army of Hou Zhao, and knew the advantages and disadvantages of armored cavalry on the battlefield.

Even after the Battle of Linhe, he often put himself in Ma Qiu's perspective, trying to figure out how to mobilize the Black Dragon Army if he were himself.

Therefore, Xie Ai had already been thinking about how to use Baobao Xianbei in this battle.

(End of this chapter)