Chapter 385: The most powerful man in the Southern Dynasty, the most powerful army in history! Tadun: Have I hit a wall?

The Chu army had already landed, and Tadun in the distance could see every move.

As he watched, Tadun realized something was wrong.

In addition to infantry and cavalry, the Chu army also pushed chariots onto the shore!
You know, ever since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty vigorously developed cavalry and implemented a cavalry-versus-cavalry strategy against the Huns and other Hu peoples, the role of chariots has become increasingly smaller.

In border states like Youzhou, the Xiongnu, Wuhuan, and Xianbei peoples were entrenched inside and outside the Great Wall. When the Han army fought against them, it was basically cavalry like the Baima Yicong.

It was the first time that Tadun saw a chariot in a place like Youzhou.

In addition to the chariots, a rough estimate of the number of cavalry of the Chu army was only 800.

Compared to his 30,000 cavalry, it's not even enough to fill the gaps in his teeth.

"Is Liu Bei crazy?"

"He wants to force his way across the Yishui River with a few broken chariots and a few hundred cavalrymen?"

"Does he think my 30,000 cavalrymen are made of paper?"

Tadun frowned, and his suspicious eyes gradually revealed a bit of anger at being looked down upon.

Just as his thoughts were racing, the Chu army had already connected their chariots head to tail to form a semicircular formation.

They were almost halfway across the river. If they waited any longer, all eight thousand Chu troops would have landed.

Although he had superior cavalry at that time, if the Chu army formed a battle array with their backs to the river, the battle would be difficult to win.

"Warriors of the Great Wuhuan, charge forward and drive the Chu army down the Yishui River!"

"Kill me——"

Tadun swung his mace and let out a loud shout.

The ox horn sounded, piercing the sky above the north bank of the Yishui River.

The Wuhuan kings roared and urged the Wuhuan cavalry, who rushed towards the Chu army that had just landed like a tide.

The sky collapsed and the earth broke apart, and the weather changed dramatically.

The dust raised by the cavalry blocked out the sun above their heads.

The thunderous sound of the cavalry drowned out all other sounds in the world and made everyone's scalp numb.

The Wuhuan cavalry attacked the Queyue formation of the Chu army with the force of a violent storm.

The number of Chu troops that landed and lined up was no more than 4,000.

In the formation.

Zhang Liao saw the Wuhuan charging and smiled coldly:
"The Prime Minister's prediction was correct. The Wuhuan took advantage of our small number of troops and really mobilized their entire army to attack them halfway across the river."

"Seeing that everyone of them is holding a shield, they should be defending against our crossbows."

"Tadun, let's see whether your cavalry is indestructible or our Prime Minister Xiao's Queyue Formation is more indestructible!"

The Moon Formation.

This formation was created by Xiao Fang. It was a "divine formation" used to force a crossing of the Yishui River and resist the Wuhuan cavalry.

To be honest, this cannot be considered as his creation, it can only be said to be a reference.

This formation originated from the Southern Song Dynasty and was created by the founding emperor Liu Yu in order to deal with the Northern Wei cavalry.

Historically, Liu Yu led his army to the north to attack Guanzhong, intending to go west along the Yellow River and capture Tongguan by both land and water.

At that time, Hebei had already belonged to the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Northern Wei cavalry gathered on the north bank, following the Liu Song navy closely, intending to intercept them at any time.

Liu Yu went ashore and set up the Que Yue formation. With less than 3,000 infantrymen, he repelled nearly 30,000 Northern Wei cavalrymen.

This battle made Liu Yu famous as the toughest man in the Southern Dynasty, and also hurt the Northern Wei Dynasty so much that the Xianbei people no longer dared to stop Liu Yu from conquering Guanzhong.

After comprehensive consideration, Xiao Fang judged that the situation of the Battle of Yishui was very similar to the conditions when Liu Yu faced the Northern Wei Dynasty.

So he took out the Que Yue Formation and ordered Zhang Liao and Gao Shun to practice it for more than ten days.

Today, he ordered the two of them to lead the army and pretend to land downstream in order to lure the Wuhuan cavalry out of Yijing and attack them halfway across the river.

As long as Tadun brings all his troops to attack, Zhang Liao and Gao Shun can use this Que Yue Formation to break it in one fell swoop!
The 30,000 Wuhuan cavalry were severely damaged, and Yuan Shang's last trump card was gone. What else could he use to stop the main force of the 200,000 Chu army from crossing the Yishui River?

Judging from the current situation, everything is within Xiao Fang's expectations.

Just as Zhang Liao was sighing, the Wuhuan cavalry were already within an arrow's reach.

Gao Shun saw this, raised his sword and shouted:

"Launch the crossbows and shoot the enemy cavalry!"

When the order was given, more than 300 crossbowmen immediately pulled the trigger.

"Whoosh whoosh!"

A sharp sound of breaking through the air suddenly rang out, and in an instant three thousand sharp arrows flew out like a flood, rushing towards the Wuhuan cavalry that were attacking from three sides.

The next moment, a rain of arrows came.

"Clang clang clang!"

Accompanied by the sound of heavy rain hitting the window eaves, most of the 3,000 sharp arrows were blocked by the shields equipped by the Wuhuan people.

The number of Wuhuan cavalrymen who were shot and fell to the ground was less than thirty.

The flaws of the repeating crossbow became apparent at this time.

The advantage of this crossbow is that it can fire ten arrows in a row, forming a dense arrow net in an instant, catching the enemy cavalry off guard.

The flaw, however, is that its lethality and penetration are limited.

Once the enemy is equipped with a shield, let alone an iron shield, even the simplest wooden shield, the power of the crossbow is not enough to penetrate it.

After a round of volleys of crossbow fire, the Wuhuan people suffered few casualties, and the speed of the charge was only slightly slowed down, which did not have a big impact.

After a brief moment of tension, Tadun curled his lips into a disdainful sneer.

As Shen Pei said, this Chu army was actually equipped with the legendary repeating crossbows, and their purpose was naturally to deal with his Wuhuan cavalry.

Fortunately, he was well prepared and equipped his 30,000 soldiers with shields to withstand the crossbow attacks that were as dense as heavy rain.

"This crossbow is really amazing. It can fire ten arrows in a row. It's incredible."

"What a pity! It's too weak. How can it do anything to my cavalry?" After Tadun's sarcasm, his confidence burned wildly. He waved his mace and shouted:
"Warriors of the Great Wuhuan, keep charging and crush the Chu bandits!"

The Wuhuan people blocked the attack of the crossbows and their confidence surged. They continued to urge their mounts and rushed towards the Queyue formation from three sides like wild beasts out of a cage.

In the Queyue formation.

Zhang Liao's mouth corners slightly raised.

Xiao Fang had anticipated that Yuan Shang and Shen Pei would certainly remind the Wuhuan people to be on guard against their crossbows and would certainly equip the Wuhuan army with shields.

He knew that the previous round of crossbow volleys was useless against the enemy cavalry.

The reason why he used it even though he knew it was useless was just to boost Tadun's self-confidence and make him charge forward more boldly.

In the blink of an eye, the enemy cavalry had rushed to within seventy steps.

It's time to put on the real killer weapon.

"Bo Ping!"

Zhang Liao glanced at Gao Shun and shouted.

Gao Shun raised his long sword and shouted, "Crossbowmen, retreat, heavy crossbowmen, advance!"

When the order was given, the crossbowmen quickly retreated to the back row, and hundreds of heavy crossbowmen carried heavy crossbows forward, aiming at the Wuhuan soldiers coming from three directions through the gaps between the chariots.

This is the heavy crossbow that Xiao Fang specially made for this battle.

This crossbow uses double strings to shoot arrows. Although the arrow-releasing speed is relatively slow, it is far slower than a repeating crossbow, or even slower than an ordinary crossbow.

But its power is more than twice that of an ordinary crossbow and nearly three times that of a repeating crossbow.

Xiao Fang gave this crossbow a domineering name, called "Armor-Piercing Crossbow".

"Boom boom boom!"

The sound of the strings suddenly became louder, making people's scalps numb.

Hundreds of crossbow arrows, nearly half a person's length, whizzed away with a sharp sound of breaking through the air.

The leading Wuhuan cavalryman saw the cold light bursting in front of him and thought it was another attack from the Chu army's crossbows, so he subconsciously continued to raise his shield to resist.

"Crack!"

The wooden shield was as hard as paper and was pierced by the arrow!
The arrow broke through the shield, but its force was still there, and it penetrated the Wuhuan soldier's armor and pierced through his chest.

"what--"

A terrible howl was heard.

The Wuhuan knight in the lead was shot away like a kite with a broken string and fell heavily to the ground.

Almost at the same time, screams suddenly rang out.

Hundreds of Wuhuan cavalrymen were shot off their horses, along with their shields, and were all pierced through the bodies and killed.

Under a round of crossbow arrows, a large number of Wuhuan soldiers who were charging in the front were pinned down.

Tadun's face changed drastically.

He never expected that in addition to the repeating crossbows, the Chu army also prepared such powerful heavy crossbows!
It was so easy to shoot down his shield-carrying cavalry!

"Could it be that the Chu bandits's crossbows just now were just to make me underestimate the enemy, and the heavy crossbows behind them are the real weapons to deal with my cavalry?"

Tadun's thoughts raced, and suddenly he felt like he had fallen into a trap.

However, he was a veteran of many battles, so he immediately thought of changing his tactics, stopping this mindless charge and instead using the commonly used tactic of flanking and rearing.

On the plains, facing the Han infantry formation, they used light cavalry to detour from the flank and rear to disrupt the Han army's formation, which was their usual cavalry tactic.

But when Tadun was about to give the order to outflank the Chu army's rear, he suddenly discovered that his usual tactic could not be implemented against the Chu army in front of him.

Because this Chu army has no rear!
To be precise, this Chu army formed a semicircular formation with chariots and was attacked on only three sides, but its rear was backed by the Yi River.

Yishui River became a natural barrier behind them!

How could his Wuhuan cavalry get around to the rear of the Chu army?

"Could it be that…"

Tadun shuddered, and his face gradually solidified and deformed.

Only at this moment did he finally realize that he had fallen into a trap.

The Chu army's semicircular formation, with the river on both sides and chariots as walls, was specially designed to restrain his cavalry!

After waking up in shock, Tadun immediately became angry and embarrassed.

"I just don't believe that a few chariots and heavy crossbows can stop my 30,000 cavalry!"

Tadun, who was in a dilemma, let out a low roar and continued to urge his cavalry to charge wildly.

There was no way, because he had made a boast in front of Yuan Shang that he would return to Yijing with the heads of the Chu soldiers within three days.

If he were to flee in disgrace, wouldn't that be a slap in his own face? How could he hold his head up in front of Yuan Shang?
Just go for it.

Anyway, the Chu army only has a few hundred heavy crossbows. If they can withstand this wave of casualties and rush to the front of the Chu formation, everything will be easy.

So the 30,000 Wuhuan cavalry could only muster up their courage and continue to charge forward from three directions despite the heavy arrows from the Chu army.

After suffering more than a thousand casualties, the first wave of Wuhuan cavalry finally rushed to the front of the Chu army.

It was not until this moment that they suddenly realized that what was blocking their way was not the flesh and blood of the Chu army, but chariots!
They could knock over flesh and blood bodies with their war horses and chop them into pieces with their long swords.

How do they crash the chariots?
If I hit it, wouldn't I be smashed to pieces?

The Wuhuan cavalry, alarmed, hurriedly retracted their horses.

It's too late.

They rushed too fast and had no time to stop, and crashed into the Chu chariots in groups.

The screams sounded again.

Countless Wuhuan cavalrymen were either knocked to the ground by the chariots or pierced like colanders by the long spears that poked out from the gaps between the chariots.

Hitting a wall!
(End of this chapter)