Daqin Engineering Corps

If you are in the front and want to release an arrow, you have to turn around...not to mention that this turning movement is quite dangerous in the era without stirrups. The whole process is still within the enemy's sight. As soon as you turn around, you know you have to release the arrow, so you lie down. Body dodges.

So this is a situation that should be avoided as much as possible in riding battles, and the same is true for car battles.

Therefore, horse battles and chariot battles are more about rushing back and forth face to face, or simply dismounting and fighting on foot. Even if you want to escape, you will leave a team behind, instead of the whole army like the current black armor army. "Run away" ahead.

The more than [-] Chu troops led by Zhang Zha were now in a favorable position to pursue from the rear, so the morale of the Chu troops was high, and they fired crossbows and arrows while shouting and drinking.

However, it didn't take long for Zhang Zha and the Chu army to realize that something was wrong.

The Chu cavalry army is holding a crossbow, and the trajectory of the crossbow arrow is relatively straight, so the arrow can only be fired a few rows in front, and the trajectory will be blocked by itself.

Based on such a calculation, the more than 2000 people in the army can only play a role in a few hundred people.

What makes Zhang Zha even more angry is...the armor of the Black Armor Army is very tight. Not only does it have a hat-shaped helmet as big as a wheel, but also a cape. Only the forearm is exposed, and a round shield is carried on the back.

The rattan armor is light, and even with such a large area of ​​protection, it still doesn't weigh much.

Therefore, even though the Chu cavalry soldiers fired crossbow arrows forward from a favorable position, it was like tickling the black armor army. The arrows were either nailed to the rattan shield or could not penetrate and bounced off and fell to the ground.

Round rattan shields are not as protective as square rattan shields.

The reason why the round rattan shield is used is that the cavalry has less space to fight on the horse and needs to maintain balance. It is obviously inappropriate to carry an oversized square shield.

The round rattan shield is woven on the skeleton with rattan in circles, unlike the square rattan shield which is generally criss-crossed.

There is a problem with the circle weaving. There is a large gap between the circles. If the arrow is just inserted horizontally into the gap, it may penetrate and be nailed to the round shield.

But this is not a big problem, because the round rattan shield is carried on the back of the black armor army as an extra protection, and there is a layer of back armor underneath.

If the battle situation is just like this, then that's all. The two armies have nothing to do with each other and live in peace with each other.

But that's not the case...

The black armor army uses a bow.

The biggest difference between a bow and a crossbow is that its trajectory is curved, which means that it does not have the problem of occlusion like a crossbow, so the two thousand black armored troops can almost play a role, and the arrows are continuously fired wave after wave. Go and follow the Chu army who is chasing behind.

Seeing this, Xiang Luo who was following behind couldn't help but gasp.

Xiang Luo was surprised because the Heijia Army could not only shoot arrows on horseback, but also shoot arrows backwards, which had never happened before in the Central Plains riding battle.

In fact, the Heijia Army has also undergone several months of hard training in order to possess this ability, and it is not a "backward" in the real sense, but a "sideways and backward" arrow.

This is a bit like the tactics of the navy, that is, the black armor army is divided into several teams and marches side by side. This team is responsible for shooting the enemy troops behind the other team, and the enemy troops behind them are handed over to the friendly army.

So "backward" becomes "backward to the side" to shoot arrows, which is obviously much less difficult but can achieve the same combat effect.

The Chu cavalry army was wearing light armor...

This is the common feature of cavalry in this era. Without stirrups, it means that it is impossible to wear heavy armor, otherwise it is impossible to mount a horse and maintain balance.

As a result, almost all cavalry only wore breastplate, that is, to protect the vital parts of the chest, and most of them were lighter leather armor.

In this way, the range exposed to the Heijia army cannot be said to be large, but it is much larger than the rattan armor of the Heijia army.

So the Chu cavalry army was constantly shot off their horses during the pursuit. As a result, the more they chased, the less they chased. Only after chasing a few miles away, the Chu cavalry army lost half.

Zhang Za was frightened secretly, but when he thought that there were reinforcements behind him, he gritted his teeth and continued to chase.

However, after a few of the guards beside him also fell down, they shouted:

"Retract troops, withdraw troops!"

"Go back to Ruanqiao Town and join the main force!"

……

In fact, this is not "withdrawing troops", it is clearly running away, and it is still frightened to run away.

How could the Heijia army be willing to let them go? When they saw the Chu army reining in their horses and turning their heads back, they also turned their horses and came up from behind.

As a result, the pursuit of both the enemy and ourselves was lost, and it became the enemy fleeing and chasing.

At this time, the advantage of the Heijia army is even greater. As mentioned before, the fleeing cavalry army has almost no lethality... This is not true for the Heijia army, but it is true for the Chu cavalry army.

At this time, the Chu cavalry army was a target, and the Heijia army fired faster and drew their bows more fiercely because they were shooting directly. As a result, the Chu cavalry army screamed and fell off their horses when rows of arrows rained over.

Zhang Zha saw that the situation was wrong, if he continued like this, he might be shot clean before he escaped to Ruanqiao Town to join the main force.

shouted again:

"The soldiers are divided into two ways!"

Then he ran in the other direction alone with his bodyguard.

Zhang Za hopes to escape separately to escape the pursuit of a large number of black armor troops.

This may be right, because Zhang Zha and his personal guards are relatively small, and they may be regarded as a defeated army and ignored.

But Zhang Zha was soon disappointed, and the Black Armor Army then separated a small team to chase Zhang Zha and his personal guards alone.

Zhang Za gritted his teeth with hatred in his heart, all he could do was put an arrow on the crossbow in his hand, and then turn around and shoot.

Zhang Za knew that the crossbow arrows couldn't hurt the opponent, so he just vented his anger.

Unexpectedly, just as Zhang Za turned around, an arrow shot across his face with a "swish", Zhang Za was so frightened that he was distracted and fell off the horse.

Before he could get up in a hurry, the Black Armored Army rushed up... No one would stop because of this, even if the feathers on his helmet showed that he was an officer.

So, the horseshoes stepped on Zhang Za's back fiercely one by one, Zhang Za only hummed a few times, then lay on the ground without making a sound.

When the guards saw this situation, they panicked.

Once the main general died, even if they fled back, these personal guards would not escape death, so they didn't know who led them, and they all raised their weapons and surrendered.

2 Chapters of Tactics

At that time, Xiang Luo was leading the [-] riders who had crossed the bridge to come to help. Before he had gone far, he saw a group of scattered Chu riders retreating in embarrassment.

Xiang Luo only thought that these were stragglers who were greedy for life and afraid of death, so he immediately patted his horse and shouted:

"Those who run away, kill Wuhe!"

Then with a wave of his hand, the cavalry behind them raised their crossbow arrows to aim at these deserters.

But the deserter shouted:

"Lieutenant, our army has been defeated, and the army is waiting to die in battle!"

Naturally, Xiang Luo didn't believe it. It was only a stick of incense before and after, and it was a riding battle. How could he lose so quickly, so he shouted:

"Stop talking nonsense, don't blame me for being ruthless if you don't stop!"

The deserters had to stop one after another and prepared to fight again according to Xiang Luo's request.

However, this is just Xiang Luo's wishful thinking.

All the deserters knew how powerful the Black Armored Cavalry was, and they knew that Xiang Luo's two thousand five hundred cavalry were also no match for the Black Armored Army.

In fact, it's not just Xiang Luo's [-] riders, even [-] riders are helpless against the [-] black armored troops.

So Xiang Luo's orders returned to his orders, and the deserters were only forced to stop by the crossbow arrows.

But when the Black Armor Army appeared on the other side, the deserters started to riot again.

Xiang Luo still shouted:

"No retreat, those who disobey the order will kill Wuhe!"

This order was deterrent at the beginning, but as the Black Armor Army got closer and closer, no one paid much attention to it.

I don't know who took the lead, but the deserters fled from both sides as soon as they pulled their horses' heads... This is a very smart way.

Seeing this scene, Xiang Luo couldn't help being out of breath.

This is related to the prestige of his captain and the morale of the troops. If he continues to indulge like this, how will he command the troops in the future?

So he gritted his teeth and ordered: "Fire the arrow!"

With a sound of "whoosh", those deserters fell off their horses one by one.

Then Xiang Luo shouted again:

"Open the crossbow, ready to fight!"

However, it was too late at this time, and the arrows of the Black Armored Army shot into the Chu army's formation from the front in a blink of an eye, and then another batch... only made Chu Qi a mess.

Xiang Luo loudly urged the soldiers to go forward and fight the Heijia army in close combat.

In fact, the cavalry of this era is not suitable for melee combat. For example, if you wield a sword in your hand, although a sword can kill the enemy, but the reaction force can easily make the rider lose his balance and fall off the horse. Not to mention the long soldiers of the class.

Among them, the cavalry rushed to each other... When the horses running at high speed meet, they will definitely stand up and will undoubtedly throw the rider off the horse.

Therefore, in cavalry combat, either use a crossbow or dismount and fight on foot.

At this time, Xiang Luo seemed a little impatient, and ordered to fight the enemy in close combat.

But thinking about it in detail, Xiang Luo's order made sense.

First of all, Xiang Luo has believed the words of the deserter at this time.

I didn't believe it before because I thought that the deserters were just a few stragglers, but when a large number of black cavalry appeared on the opposite side, it was not stragglers that could be explained.

If it was just stragglers who fled back, where is the main force led by Zhang Zha?

Did it disappear out of thin air or escape to other directions?

So there is only one possibility, that is, as the deserters said, Zhang Zha's tribe has been defeated by the Heijia Army, and then the Heijia Army chased them all the way to this point.

Xiang Luo vaguely felt that this had something to do with the ability of the Black Armored Army to shoot with a bow on horseback.

However, he still felt his scalp tingling. Zhang Zha's [-] horses could be defeated in such a short time. Does that mean that his own [-] horses would have the same result?

That being the case, you should choose close combat instead of long-distance combat with the Black Armored Army.

Even close combat is dangerous, because Chu Qi is dangerous and Black Armor is equally dangerous.

But Chu cavalry has more troops, so it is obvious that Chu cavalry is more advantageous when they fight one by one.

The Chu army on the other side still has [-] cavalry, as long as they can fight until [-] cavalry come...then there will be no suspense in this battle.

Xiang Luo's idea is right, and there is still a chance.

Because at this moment, the Black Armored Army was heading straight towards Chu Qi... This was actually Chen Duan, or it could be said that the Black Armored Army was not skilled enough to use this tactic and made a mistake.

At this time, if Chu Qi also rode his horse to meet him, he was afraid that the Heijia army would run into him head-on before turning around.

Needless to say what the situation would be, the horses collided into a mess, the rider fell off the horse and was trampled by the frightened horse... Although the black armor army has the ability to ride and shoot, there is no one who does not fall off the horse and is trampled to death by the horse ability.

So the result will be as Xiang Luo expected, both the enemy and us will suffer heavy losses.

But a tie is a win for the Chu army.

From this point of view, Xiang Luo is a shrewd captain and a qualified commander.

The problem is that there are strong generals and elite soldiers.

Although Xiang Luo's order was issued, all the Chu Qimen were stunned when they heard it...

Wouldn't it be suicide if you rushed up?

Is the captain crazy?

We have more troops than the Qin army, so why use this suicide method?

So even though Xiang Luo kept yelling orders, all the Chu riders hesitated in place, only to be so angry that Xiang Luo cursed but had no choice.

The fighter plane was fleeting, and soon the Black Armored Army pulled their horses and headed towards the flank.

In desperation, Xiang Luo could only shout:

"Chase!"

At this moment, Chu Qi finally moved, and a large number of people followed the black armor army vigorously to chase and kill them.

Then, they quickly understood the situation of Zhang Za's troops before.

Unlike Zhang Zha, Xiang Luo had already prepared for this, and immediately pulled the troops back when the situation was wrong.

Naturally, the Black Armored Army chased after him.

However, Xiang Luo used the rain of arrows to pull the troops across the bridge and set up an formation at the head of the bridge, which stabilized his position.

This is indeed a good method, because the black armor cavalry relies on maneuvering to maintain contact with the enemy to play the role of cavalry and archery.