Chapter 1010

Fully armored iron cavalry, in the age of cold weapons they could be called moving fortresses, and on suitable terrain they possess unmatched striking power and defensive capability.

When that thing slams into you, you either die or end up half-crippled; trying to counter-kill it requires extremely harsh conditions.

Both man and horse are covered in heavy armor, with some armor protecting everything except the eyes of the knight and warhorse, giving all-around protection with no blind spots—just what is this iron tortoise? What can ordinary cavalry use to hack at it?

Creating such a cavalry is extraordinarily costly, but their battlefield performance is beyond doubt—a decisive force that determines battle outcomes; a small number of heavy cavalry can often defeat enemies several times their size with an extremely high kill-to-loss ratio, directly deciding the course of a war.

During the Sui-Tang period, heavy cavalry was the main force on the battlefield, truly the elite of the elite.

One of the Western Xia's three main armies, the Iron Hawk, is a fully armored heavy cavalry unit; this army has given the Northern Song plenty of headaches, and in the battles of Good Water River and Dingchuan Fort, the Northern Song troops were utterly unable to resist.

Chen Wuji thought of this, and a rather obscure tactical term suddenly popped into his mind.

Mongol tactic!

This is the Mongol cavalry's tactic against the Western Xia Iron Hawk: simply put, it's a lure-and-harass tactic, using strong mobility to slowly wear down the cumbersome Iron Hawk.

If it weren't for suddenly thinking of the Iron Hawk, Chen Wuji would have almost forgotten this classic case.

"Damn, what's there to be nervous about? With harassment tactics plus Shocking Heaven Thunder, even if heavy cavalry shows up, they'll have to drink two buckets of my piss!" Chen Wuji felt relieved and quickly gave the order.

Pass the order down; all units quickly arm themselves. If the enemy charges the camp, immediately abandon it and retreat. The Vanguard Camp should feign defeat to lure the enemy—just putting on a show is enough. The Neck and Legs Camps, after leaving the camp, should circle around to cut off the enemy's retreat; they need not engage head-on, just greet them with Shocking Heaven Thunder.

If the enemy falls into disorder, do not pursue them aggressively; use harassment tactics to wear them down. If you have Shocking Heaven Thunder, use it first; otherwise, wait for an opportunity to act.

The Xùhòu yíng should send out more scouts to scout all suspicious movements within a twenty-li radius, guarding against enemy reinforcements. The Shìxiù yíng and Jīnwèi yíng are to act as mobile cavalry; wherever there's a gap, fill it.

The orderlies swiftly received the command and ran to deliver it to all camps.

Just as Chen Wuji had just finished preparing, a tremendous commotion, like a mountain flood bursting forth and like rolling thunder, suddenly came from the east of Luòfēng jí.

One after another, they were almost seamlessly connected.

Chen Wuji strode into the Zhōngjūn dàzhàng, handing Lu Wanwan and Zhang Xiuer over to a Lu clan disciple to withdraw first, and only then did he order people to pack up.

The battle on the east side of Dàyíng had already begun, with shouts of men and neighs of horses, and the cries rang out especially clear in the night.

A guard came running over in a hurry.

"My lord, the enemy is exactly as you guessed—indeed, they are heavy cavalry, with both men and horses fully clad in heavy armor, only their eyes exposed; their assault is fierce. Guo Training Officer has already followed your orders, feigning retreat, and is now leading troops to withdraw this way."

Chen Wuji asked calmly, 'How are the other camps?'

"Qin Training Officer and Chen Training Officer have already led troops to withdraw from Dàyíng!"

"Alright, let's withdraw too; just leave this camp for the enemy to mess around with."

Chen Wuji was truly calm now.

Now that the enemy situation is clear, he believes his central army, forged through countless battles, can follow orders and will not suffer a panicked rout when facing a strong enemy.

But it's also fortunate that he promptly thought of the possibility of heavy cavalry, and immediately, adopting the attitude of 'better to believe it exists than not,' adjusted his tactics.

Otherwise, the consequences would be hard to predict.

If we followed the original plan to set an ambush, we would definitely suffer a major loss tonight.

Light cavalry setting up an ambush against a headlong-charging heavy cavalry is no different from ramming one's head into an iron wall.

A bloody head is inevitable.

A suspected Uyghur heavy cavalry, though its true identity still uncertain, charged like a wild ox on the east side of Dàyíng, sweeping everything aside with utterly destructive force, straight into Chen Wuji's Dàyíng; wherever they passed, flames shot up to the sky, and no opponent could withstand a single blow.

In their eyes, they saw only all kinds of panicked flight.

The Uyghur Third Prince Li Qichen, riding his horse at full gallop, watched the scene and couldn't help but let out a sinister chuckle; he loved seeing these enemies, as weak as chicks, flee in panic under his butcher's knife, only to become a puddle of mud under his horse's hooves.

What nonsense about being invincible in attack—that's just because they haven't met Li Qichen!

Before him, there is no myth of invincibility in battle.

He admits that Chen Wuji is indeed capable of fighting, but he is only relatively capable.

It's because that bunch of glory-seeking, brainless fools among the Qiang People are so useless that they make his ability to campaign and fight well stand out.

A group of Mud Legs who came down from the mountains—no matter how well they can fight, they are definitely limited.

Now this proves it.

When they meet a true strong opponent, this so-called invincible, unstoppable army instantly becomes like a mouse in a drain suddenly seeing sunlight—all they can do is flee.

Look at them—how fast they run, whether it's the people or their horse hooves, they're swinging so fast they seem to fly.

Just then, an abrupt change occurred.

Suddenly, a deafening roar came from Li Qichen's rear, as if heaven and earth were collapsing, and like bolts of Shocking Heaven Thunder exploding right beside his ears.

Li Qichen still hadn't figured out what was happening when he suddenly saw dozens of warhorses go mad, wildly galloping through the ranks, crashing into anyone they encountered, without regard for whether they were friend or foe ahead.

The knights on the horses could barely control their warhorses, being shaken like ragdolls and swaying left and right on the horses' backs, their waists seeming to be twisted off, yet miraculously they didn't fall off.

"It's Shocking Heaven Thunder!"

Li Qichen's face suddenly turned cold.

He had long known that Chen Wuji possessed such a deadly weapon, and had even prepared countermeasures, plugging the warhorses' ears.

But he didn't expect that even plugging the warhorses' ears would still startle them.

"Charge, don't give them a chance to throw Shocking Heaven Thunder!" Li Qichen shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Your Highness, the enemy is behind us!"

An officer beside him shouted a warning.

Li Qichen grunted harshly, 'That's just a petty trick of besieging Wei to rescue Zhao—do you think I'll fall for it? Keep charging, smash through Chen Wuji's Dàyíng!'

"Yes!"

At the command, the mighty heavy cavalry accelerated once more.

Upon seeing Qin Yu and Chen Bang, who had already circled to the enemy's rear, they immediately led a small detachment of troops in close pursuit.

Within the camp, large forces of troops could not maneuver freely, while a small detachment of a few hundred men proved agile and mobile.

"Throw!"

Qin Yu gave a single command, lit the Shocking Heaven Thunder in his hand and threw it out.

Boom!

Boom!

The deafening sound rang out again.

"Withdraw!"

After throwing one round, Qin Yu did not linger in battle, immediately leading his team to charge out to the flank.

After observing that the enemy army did not have the vanguard turn into the rearguard to pursue and kill, he immediately led the troops forward again; light cavalry cannot match heavy cavalry, but it runs much faster than heavy cavalry.