Desert Eagle Suletan Khan

"Da~Da~Da~" The horses galloped, and the guards rushed to the front of Doni's central army in just a short while. Although they killed more than 10,000 enemies in the encirclement and annihilation of the Qing army's Luoto cavalry, they also suffered 3,000 casualties. At this time, the guards had about 47,000 soldiers, facing the main force of the Qing army of about 106,000. Although the guards were at a disadvantage in terms of numbers, they were all cavalry, one person riding two or even three horses, and they looked much more powerful than the Qing army. They also took the offensive, while the Qing army formed a defensive large circle and took a defensive stance. The disciplined guards formed an offensive formation, but did not attack, but quietly waited for the military order of the Lotus Khan. They advanced without orders, and even if they won, they would be killed. This was no joke.

The battle-hardened Lotus Khan was naturally not a reckless person. Before launching the offensive, he first took up a telescope to carefully study the enemy's formation. He saw that the Qing army's circular formation was dense on the periphery, sparse in the middle, and dense in the center. The outermost layer was the spearmen, one layer after another, a total of five layers, the next two layers were the sword and shield soldiers, the last two layers were archers, and the gunners were mixed in the first two layers. The small cannons were placed behind the spear formation. There was a high platform at the center of the circle with a large banner and various flags. There were passages from the high platform to each layer so that reinforcements could be dispatched at any time. He couldn't help but sigh: "Donny is really handsome and talented, this formation is exquisite!"

"Your Majesty, what is the magic of this formation?" Grand Secretary Liu Haogu was good at strategy, but knew nothing about how to deploy a battle formation, so he asked for advice.

Seeing that the teacher who had taught him since childhood actually asked him for advice, Sultan couldn't help but think of a saying: "A disciple does not have to be inferior to the teacher, and a teacher does not have to be better than the disciple. There is a sequence in learning, and there is specialization in skills, that's all", he laughed and explained: "Master Liu, please look, the periphery of this formation is dense and connected layer by layer, like a forest of long spears can block the hooves of our cavalry; the sparse distribution in the middle can reduce the casualties caused by our artillery fire; the center of the circle is dense, which must be where the elite soldiers and heavy artillery are hidden, so they can fire at our army and facilitate rescue. After all, no matter where the danger is, the distance to reinforcement from the center of the circle is the shortest; the small cannon is placed among the sword and shield soldiers, which can bombard the soldiers rushing over; the archers are arranged in the last two layers, and they can concentrate arrows to shoot; hehe~ the passage from the center of the circle to each layer is very wide, allowing war horses to gallop. If my guess is correct, Doni must have concentrated the few remaining cavalry in the center of the circle, so that he can send cavalry to gallop and kill our soldiers who rush in at any time."

If Doni heard this, he would definitely shout that he knew him. He did concentrate all the cavalry at the center of the circle, about 5,000 people, and handed them over to the first-class Adahaha Fan Sangtu for command. In addition, he also deployed 20,000 infantry and all heavy artillery at the center of the circle as mobile forces to reinforce each layer. Although Doni was not there, Liu Haogu also admired him. His lord was worthy of being the emperor on horseback. He could observe the enemy's formation so carefully with just a little observation! He asked slowly: "Your Majesty, do you have a way to break the formation?"

"This circular formation may seem simple, but it is actually very good for defense and very difficult to break. I don't have any good ideas. I can only drive the captives out to test it first, and then use the horses to charge the formation. Unless it is absolutely necessary, I must not sacrifice the lives of the warriors to attack." Sultan sighed, and his intuition told him that this formation was not as easy to break as he imagined! -
More than 3,000 Qing prisoners holding sharpened sticks and wooden shields were driven towards the Qing army. In order to prevent the prisoners from defecting, they were only given some sticks and wooden shields. These prisoners were all Luoto's subordinates and serious bannermen. They did not want to fight the Qing army. When they were driven to run, many of them threw away their "weapons" and even danced to the Qing army: We are our own people! Sultan was happy to see this. These people were consumables. If the Qing army shot at them, they could consume the enemy's arrows and ammunition; if the Qing army let these people into the battle, they would be disrupted by them, and their cavalry could take advantage of the chaos in their formation to follow and kill them. As for their life and death, it was really a trivial matter for the heartless Khan.

"Bang~Bang~Bang~" "Chirp~Chirp~" The Qing army chose to shoot, even though they knew that those who were charging into the battle were captives of the Rotuo tribe and legitimate bannermen.

"Your Highness, I am one of our own people~" A prisoner of the Eight Banners fell to the ground with his hands on his stomach, his intestines spilling out, still mumbling "one of our own people". Such scenes were everywhere. How could there be a woman's mercy when the two armies were fighting? Even though Doni knew that the prisoners on the other side were prisoners of the Eight Banners, he still ordered the archers to throw and the gunners to shoot. The dense bullets and arrows rushed madly towards the prisoners who were charging the battle formation, shooting them down in large numbers. Even those who rushed to the battle formation were mercilessly stabbed by the spearmen. In less than half an hour, more than 3,000 prisoners were consumed, and there were only a few hundred survivors, most of whom were injured.

Seeing the dense enemy arrows and bullets, Sultan frowned and thought to himself that it was fortunate that he did not order a direct attack, otherwise he did not know how many warriors would be killed! Seeing that there were not many surviving prisoners of war on the battlefield, the always kind incarnation of Guru Padmasambhava felt compassion and chanted "Amitabha" and ordered the prisoners to withdraw. Hundreds of dejected prisoners withdrew to the army. The shooting just now made them realize that they were no longer "their own people" in the eyes of the Qing army.

"Prepare the horses to charge the battle formation." Following the order from the Great Khan, the guards gathered 50,000 horses that did not need to carry loads, and arranged them into five formations, with 10,000 horses forming one formation, ready to use the horses to consume the enemy's spears, bullets, and arrows. Using livestock to charge the enemy's battle formation was a common tactic used by the Mongols, and the well-trained guards quickly organized the horses into formations.

"Charge!" Lotus Khan waved his hand fiercely and gave the order, no longer showing the compassionate look he had just shown when he chanted "Amitabha".

The first 10,000 horses began to charge, driven forward by a few carefully selected warriors. In order to make the horses fearless of enemy guns, arrows and spears, the guards coated the horses' tails with flammable kerosene and set them on fire. The horses, which were naturally afraid of fire, were stimulated by the flames on their tails and became frightened. They were no longer afraid of the enemy's guns, arrows and various weapons, and only knew to move forward, forward, and forward again.

“Da da da~da da~da da~”

The momentum of thousands of horses galloping was so magnificent that Liu Haogu and other Han officials were stunned. "How magnificent! Such tactics can only be found in the north!" Liu Daxueshi was deeply inspired and chanted with his hands and feet dancing: "The blood of the heroic soldiers has stained their clothes after hundreds of battles, and the eight horses are neighing and stepping on the iron hooves. Don't say that the enemy's formation is as strong as iron, thousands of horses are galloping and the sky is low." He just chanted casually, but someone remembered it. Later, a painter painted the scene of Lianhua Khan letting his horse charge into the Qing army's formation based on this poem, and inscribed this poem on the painting, naming it "The Picture of Lianhua Khan Driving Horses to Break the Formation".

Seeing his teacher reciting poems excitedly, Sultan was amused and explained with a smile: "Master Liu, you don't know, the most abundant thing on the grassland is livestock, when we Mongolians fight, if we encounter an enemy's tight formation that is difficult to break through, we often use this method to break the formation. Don't look at horses as timid, but if they are frightened, they will run very fast, even tigers, leopards, jackals and wolves will be afraid. If there are ten thousand frightened horses galloping, any strong formation can be broken. Hahaha~" After being proud, the god of war picked up the telescope and continued to observe the situation on the battlefield.

"Fire! Fire quickly! Order all troops to hold their positions. Anyone who retreats without permission will be killed!" Although the Qing army commander Doni was also shocked by this scene, he was a veteran after all, so he reacted quickly and ordered all troops not to retreat a single step, and ordered the cannons to fire. When the captives charged just now, he deliberately hid the cannons and did not fire them, only to use them at the critical moment. Now it was the critical moment!

"Boom~Boom~Boom~" The Qing army's heavy artillery at the core of the circle and the small artillery behind the long spear formation fired at the same time. There were more than 200 of them. One by one, the shells exploded in the herd of horses, tearing or knocking down one frightened horse after another. However, the frightened horses did not stop, but continued to move forward, rushing to crash into the forest of long spears in front of the Qing army. (End of this chapter)