Chapter 181 Battle of Liyang - Part 11 (2/2)
”Report! The enemy took a cavalry unit to the west! The estimated number was at least 2,000 men!”
”Good job! You can go.”
Zhu Jun rubbed his chin and pondered. The detached force had 49,000 men. Dealing with only 2,000 riders or even 10,000 riders would be an easy task for them. Also, even if footmen had disadvantages against horse charges, these guys were seasoned soldiers. They could form ranks and improvise if need be.
”Have I overestimated him?” Zhu Jun thought of the person he met during the fire attack night. ”He is either overconfident, or he is naïve. There's no way he can defeat my men with a lousy group of horsemen.”
Zhu Jun ignored this move by Tong and focused on the troops on the opposite shore.
…
3.15 PM.
The 5,000 horsemen detected Zhu Jun's detached force almost a kilometer in front of them. Without waiting for the enemies to form ranks, Tong took out a spear and roared.
”Crane formation! Charge!”
The horsemen scattered into triple triangle lines (^). The captains blew horns, and the rest of the horsemen got into the formation as they were galloping forward. They pointed their spears to the front, aiming at the front of the horse.
The sound of horse hoofs and the shaking earth alerted the river-crossing soldiers in no time.
”Enemy attack!” Shouted Zhu Jun's scout.
The soldiers abandoned what they were doing and formed the anti-cavalry spear-wall formation. The shield bearers dug tower shields into the ground in a slant shaped. Spearmen form the second and the third line with their spears pointing at the incoming cavalries.
30% of Zhu Jun's soldiers managed to form the formation in 10 seconds. The rest of the soldiers were too far away, so they took their weapons and formed the second and third line behind the first group.
The reserved men, who did not form rank in time, formed the secondary ranks behind the first line. They were the same formation as the front, but they placed themselves three meters behind the first group.
These reserved were the finishers of this formation. Had light cavalries charged into this tactic head-on, 70% of the horses would die by the first liners while the reserved troops would finish off the riders or the horses that got through the first line.
Seeing that the army's reaction speed was too fast, the cavalry soldiers hesitated. They glanced at Tong with paled faces if he would give them another order soon, or those spears would skewer them.
The distance was now 500 meters away.
Instead of panicking, a sadistic smile appeared on Tong's face.
”All troops! To the right! Circle them and reform the formation again!”
The horsemen sighed a relief and avoided running into the formation. They moved around the spear-wall and formed a line on the north of Zhu Jun's soldiers.
The river-crossing soldiers had also reformed their formation. They grouped up in ten men and form porcupine huddles. They circled themselves with shields and spears, like the back of porcupines. Even if Tong charged at them now, the one that died would be the horses and the riders.
The archers also took out their bows and arrows. They formed lines behind the formation of the groups of porcupines. The distance between the cavalries and the archers were still 500 meters away. They were out of range, so they could not shoot yet.
Tong gazed at the thousand groups of porcupines with a mocking gaze. Their defense was solid, but they failed to put pressure on the attackers. Without the counter-attackers, Tong could crush them at his leisure.
'Well, they may be elites, but they didn't have a proper leader.'
'Sorry, but this is war. No mercy!'
Zhu Jun's soldiers did not realize, Tong purposely sandwiched them. His force was facing them from the north, and the back of Zhu Jun's soldiers was the river. They had nowhere to escape.
Tong pointed his finger forward. A 300-meter-long black void gate appeared in front of Tong. From the gate, Tong discharged the river water he collected in the past few days to the front.
”Flash flood, biatch!”
Tong ejected the Yellow River's water from his [Inventory]. A one-meter wave of water manifested out of nothingness and slammed it onto the defending soldiers. The force of the wave was enough to make the spearmen staggered backward.
”Again!”
Another wave crashed onto the 20,000 soldiers on the shore. This time, some of them staggered and was carried by the stream into the river.
”Again!”
”Again!”
”Again!”
Tong spammed a total of 10 waves as there were too many defending soldiers. Because the first two waves broke the shield wall and other formation, 50% of the soldiers were swallowed by the flash flood into the river as well. The archers on the back neither crouched nor dug their feet into the ground, the three waves of flash flood swallowed them into the river.
The remaining men on the shore stumbled on the wet ground. The shoreline ground was nothing but soil and mud, so the soldiers had a hard time getting up.
”Crossbow!” Shouted Tong.
Five thousand horsemen switched their weapons to Julu's signature repeated crossbow. They loaded their clips and pointed forward without Tong telling them.
”Move forward 100 steps!”
The lined horses stepped closer to the ragged soldiers that could not reform their formation yet. The moment they saw the crossbows and the approaching horses. They knew what would happen if they got into their range.
”Retreat!” One of the captains shouted.
”Fire the first volley.”
Five thousand arrows flew into the air, creating the dark shadow blocking the light of the sun. They rained down onto the surviving soldiers on the shore.