Chapter 290: Cavalry and Infantry

At noon, the two armies were twenty li apart.

But after about half an hour, as both armies finished deploying in marching order and advancing forward, they were only fifteen or sixteen li apart. It could only be said that a distance of twenty li was not really that far, given the scale of several tens of thousands of troops on each side, totaling sixty thousand men.

The closing of the distance also meant two things: an increase in the frequency of intelligence gathering for both sides, and a rise in the difficulty of obtaining that intelligence... These two were not contradictory, because the frequency and bloodiness of skirmishes between their scout cavalry were also rising sharply.

Everything has a price; in other words, both sides had already begun their preliminary engagements.

Back to the present, for Yue Fei, the new intelligence naturally brought mixed feelings:

What worried him was that in a battle where there was no retreat, Li Cheng had also recognized the problem and showed no sign of wavering. This meant that a battle involving massive bloodshed, wounds, and death in a short time was inevitable today, and even the victor would pay a considerable price.

What pleased him was that, with the constant back-and-forth of scout cavalry, Yue Fei had just learned that although Li Cheng's force was nearly twice the size of the Imperial Guard Forward Army, and the neatness of their formation suggested considerable training and discipline, their elite quality and equipment level were far inferior to the Imperial Guard Forward Army... The scouts clearly indicated that the number of iron armor in the rear of the Qi puppet army sharply decreased, replaced by troops wearing leather armor, and finally a considerable number of unarmored troops, looking like civilian laborers.

This was only reasonable. After all, even if Jingdong was a fertile land with a large population, and even if Li Cheng plundered as thoroughly as the dead Kong Yanzhou, he still had to support troops, support scholars, and scrape together gold and silver to trade with the Jin for warhorses. There were bound to be shortcomings.

Insufficient armor and uneven troop combat effectiveness were a fundamental flaw.

Of course, at the same time, Li Cheng's side also had mixed feelings:

What pleased him was naturally discovering that the enemy had fewer troops, especially cavalry—he had over ten thousand cavalry, while the enemy had only a paltry three or four thousand. What worried him was, of course, the enemy's soaring morale, orderly formation, and terrifyingly high rate of armor... If the scouts' reports were true, then the armor rate of this Imperial Guard force before him was almost second only to the Imperial Guard Direct Troops he had encountered on the battlefield at Wushan that day.

But this force was fully about twenty thousand strong.

"My lord!"

A general galloped up from the front and reined in his horse face-to-face. "The scouts say the Song Imperial Guard army ahead flies the banner of Yue. Could it be a trick? According to the official gazettes, Yue Fei shouldn't have come this fast, right? I see only about twenty thousand troops... Maybe it's Zhang Jun's subordinate pretending."

"It must be Yue Fei." Li Cheng's expression was stern as he reined his horse in place, turning it in a circle. "No one else could put on such a display, nor have so many iron-armored soldiers so neatly arrayed. Only Yue Fei, like me, is willing to throw all his money and grain into the army."

"The Song official army gets few warhorses, so naturally they have more iron armor," the general realized, but then asked again. "My lord, since 'Big-and-Small-Eyes' has come in person... do we really have to fight? With such a posture, if we collapse, it's a total loss. Then, following Erubu's words, if we retreat to Hebei, what will we do without our capital?"

Li Cheng immediately flew into a rage: "Geng Er! With a great battle ahead, you don't think about winning this fight properly, but instead think about retreating to Hebei if we lose?! Are you only afraid of 'Big-and-Small-Eyes,' and not of me? Besides, his arrival here now—doesn't that just match a weary army? We are an army returning home, which cannot be stopped!"

That Geng Er, who was Geng Jian, the so-called righteous army leader Li Cheng had taken in early on his southward journey from Hebei, bowed his head on his horse, then reined it in a circle on the ground before asking again: "If that's the case, my lord, do you have any orders to issue?"

Li Cheng grew even angrier: "In such a situation, there's nothing else but for the entire army to be uniform, advance together, and fight to the death. What orders are there? Even if there were orders, it would only be one sentence... Without orders, no retreat! No one is to leave their unit without permission!"

Geng Jian dared not say more and directly turned to head toward the vanguard. After his peak of anger, Li Cheng grew somewhat tense again, and he looked to the two generals at his side, one named Xu Wen and the other Guo Zhongwei.

Among them, Xu Wen was a native of Mizhou in Jingdong (present-day area from Rizhao to Gaomi in Shandong). He had also carved out a territory and was a small, semi-independent force in the Mizhou area. But after the Battle of Yaoshan, the world was shaken, and popular sentiment shifted again. Now Mizhou had long been gradually and fully taken over by Zhang Jun through co-opting and persuasion. This man, however, was ambitious. Ignoring the overtures of his old Mizhou brother Li Kui and the local strongman Hu Cheng of Yizhou, he almost single-mindedly went alone to join Li Cheng... He had originally thought he could take over the remnants of Du Yan and Wu Shun's Mizhou troops under Li Cheng, but instead became his personal guard general.

Guo Zhongwei was a chivalrous hero from the Huai River region, one of the brothers Li Cheng had taken in while wandering in the old days, and was his original personal guard general.

As for these two... whether it was fashionable in these times or what, like Guan Sheng, the Song army general murdered by Liu Yu in Jinan Prefecture, they both had the nickname "Great Blade"... Xu Wen was called Xu Great Blade, and Guo Zhongwei was called Guo Great Blade. The two great blades together commanded Li Cheng's long-saber cavalry, which was quite fitting.

Ordinarily, Li Cheng compared them to Dian Wei and Xu Chu at Cao Cao's side in the storybooks.

Enough of this digression. Li Cheng, having driven off Geng Jian with a scolding, then let his gaze sweep over his two "Great Blades" at his side, but hesitated again... The reason was simple: he wanted to send someone to supervise the front, but didn't know whom to use.

It could only be said that every family has its own hard-to-solve problems.

Setting aside the specific battlefield situation for now, Li Cheng's hastily established army, like all new warlords in chaotic times throughout history, had formed factions... And most factions were basically divided along the lines of outsiders versus locals.

Li Cheng himself was from Hebei. During the great chaos of the Jingkang Incident, he came south from Hebei, circled around the Huai River region, and was finally forced by circumstances to settle in Jingdong, where he established his base. So his army could roughly be divided into two major factions: the Hebei refugee brothers and the Jingdong local magnates.

To be fair, Li Cheng, who styled himself a warlord, was quite skilled in commanding troops and handling people. Toward his soldiers, he would not eat until they ate, and would not sleep until they slept. When marching in the rain without enough rain gear, he was the first to get wet. When leading troops in battle, he never shied away from personally charging. Toward these leaders, he could usually share his clothes and food with them, reward and punish clearly, and use them fairly.

It was truly that both the Great Song and the Great Jin were such wretched entities that they refused to give this man a chance. Otherwise, with his caliber, he might have been able to unite a force and become a figure like the founding emperor, unlike a certain His Majesty hiding in Dongjingcheng, who would find it hard even to become a founding emperor of a new dynasty.

But conversely, since heroes must rely on the times, and the times were unfavorable now, Li Cheng had no choice... The Great Jin was strong in troops and horses, and the Great Song was vast in land and population. Even if Liu Bang himself were to descend here now, he might have to honestly become the head of a local loyalist society in Huaibei.

By the same token, although Li Cheng was a warlord, the current situation did not allow him to be reckless.

Within a few months, first there were renewed rumors of peace negotiations. From that time on, the Jingdong-born generals and troops began to pay lip service. Later, when the peace talks became undeniable, the Jin people were quite straightforward, directly offering conditions allowing Li Cheng to lead some elite troops north, where he would be formally granted a hereditary Meng'an status, a marching Wanhu tablet, and be stationed in the Dezhou and Dizhou area... The result was that even the Hebei men in the ranks became demoralized.

The world had been in chaos for several years. Seeing that a great undertaking could not succeed, and instead a situation of north-south coexistence was emerging, why not go home and get an official position?

Frankly, at that time, even Li Cheng himself was on the verge of despair under the weight of the general trend. For the previous two months, he had been constantly negotiating terms with the Jin people, hoping to maintain some independence, keep more troops, and carve out more territory.

However, how much face would the Jin people give him? After all the talk, they would never let him exceed the precedent set by Wang Bolong, a founding general of the Jin state and a Han Chinese Wanhu who had risen from banditry.

Yanjing and the Great Ming Prefecture marching headquarters had simply dug in their heels: a ten-thousand-man establishment, incorporated into the Great Ming Prefecture Marching Command system, just an ordinary hereditary Meng'an and marching Wanhu.

Thus, Li Cheng, at the call of the even more terrified Liu Yu, went to Jinan. It was a move by two desperate men to fight to the death, taking advantage of Yue Fei's absence from the Jizhou defense zone to launch an offensive and make a big splash.

But when it came to military affairs, the Jin people were no pushovers. How could they allow them to stir up trouble? After Wanyan Zonghan died, a host of founding Wanhus were still around. Gao Qingshan, alerted by Wulinda Zanmo, directly sent the Wanhu Erubu, who had long been waiting in Dezhou, to cross the river with light cavalry. He almost took Liu Yu in a coup-like manner and also controlled Li Cheng, who had coincidentally run into him.

And this brings us back to that old topic, and it's worth mentioning again, without getting tired of it, the tragedy of men like Li Cheng and Liu Yu:

In terms of strength, they were not without it.

In terms of ability, Li Cheng's military skill was recognized by both Jin and Song. His way of raising troops was modeled on his counterpart Yue Fei, and his personal conduct was superior to ten Zhang Juns or Zhang Boyings. As for Liu Yu playing emperor, he was said to be equally diligent, scraping together money to flatter Jin nobles and nurture scholars, while he himself, like the Song emperor, supposedly endured hardships... The Song emperor still wore luxurious cotton cloth, ate ice cream, and drank from Lanqiao Fengyue, but Liu Yu often wore only hemp cloth and ate vegetarian meals like the monks at Lingjiu Temple.

But the problem was that the attitude of that Song emperor was so resolute that he could never tolerate them. Liu Yu's dead biological son was clear proof. So, no matter how much helplessness or regret they felt, unless absolutely necessary, they dared not oppose the Jin. Otherwise, though the world was vast, there would be no place for them to stand.

But conversely, hadn't Zhang Jun suddenly launched a surprise attack?

Although Erubu had not received clear orders from Great Ming Prefecture, as a founding old-school military commander who had never suffered defeat in several previous wars, this Jin Wanhu, who had the authority to make independent decisions regarding Jinan and was not particularly keen on the peace talks, was still persuaded by Li Cheng to let him turn back and fight.

Not only that, Erubu even voluntarily sent a full-strength Meng'an, plus two thousand cavalry from Liu Yu's Jinan Prefecture, all disguised as Jin soldiers, to come along.

The situation flipped again. The local heroes of Jingdong in the army showed a renewed eagerness to return home, while the old brothers who had thought they could go back to their hometowns became increasingly perfunctory.

Back to the present, Li Cheng reined his horse and moved forward slowly. He glanced at Guo Great Blade, who had followed him for a long time and was from Huainan, and Xu Great Blade, who was a Jingdong native but had come later. He thought for a long time, knowing he could not delay, and finally gritted his teeth and pointed at one of them:

"Xu Great Blade!"

"Your subordinate is here!" Xu Wen, carrying a long-handled saber in a brocade cover, galloped over.

"You will lead two hundred armored long-saber troops, and I'll give you another thousand of the Jinan Prefecture cavalry. Go to the gap between the left wing and the center. Do you know what to do?" Li Cheng's face was ferocious.

"I know!" Xu Wen replied proudly. "Once the fighting starts, hold a line. Anyone who retreats, behead! If necessary, lead the troops to charge and succeed in one stroke! And if the front of the left wing is lost, take over the left wing and continue fighting as a priority!"

"Go!"

"Yes!"

In the center cavalry column located at the rear center of the army formation, half of them immediately dispersed.

After all, this was a battle that would decide life or death. Li Cheng gave these orders but was still uneasy. His greatest worry in this battle was simple: in the current grand situation, some generals in the army would inevitably waver, and he feared that once the bloody battle began, some would not be able to hold on.

Therefore, after much deliberation, as the troops advanced a little further, he gave another order, adjusting all the cavalry for easier deployment. He split the cavalry in two, arraying them on the left and right. He even sent that one Jin Meng'an unit to the right wing.

In other words, with less than ten li left to the enemy, he had finally chosen his final formation... It was the classic conservative formation: cavalry on both wings, infantry in the center, elite armored troops in the front, and weaker troops in the rear.

"My lord." Guo Great Blade seemed to have some thoughts upon seeing this, and he actively reined his horse forward after his commander gave the order. "Although this arrangement is sound, we still have to consider the terrain... This is our territory. Doesn't my lord know the terrain? The main road in the center is barely passable, but there are some hills on both sides. Even if the cavalry charges, their combat effectiveness will probably be limited."

How could I not know?

Li Cheng cursed inwardly… His formation was clearly designed so that the cavalry units he could directly control would encircle the main infantry force in the middle! It was a conservative tactic to prevent the infantry in the center from collapsing!

But he simply couldn't say this out loud. Helpless, Li Cheng could only wave his hand: "Old Guo doesn't understand; I have my own plans!"

Guo Dadao had only meant to offer a conscientious reminder, and seeing this, he naturally had nothing more to say.

Moments later, as Li Cheng's cavalry made large-scale movements, Yue Fei received the scout report and felt a slight stir in his heart, but his face showed no extra reaction. He waited until Li Cheng's forces had completed deploying their cavalry on the left and right flanks during the march… only then did he suddenly give the order to summon his main generals, including Tian Shizhong, Zhang Xian, Wang Gui, and Tang Huai.

By this time, the vanguards of both sides were only seven or eight li apart.

"The opportunity for battle has appeared. I already know how to defeat the enemy." Yue Fei reined in his horse amidst the army formation, with seven or eight dismounted generals standing before him. The command banner bearing the character 'Yue' stood erect behind him. When the troops behind encountered this banner, they split naturally like water flowing around a reef, continuing their advance without stopping. "Li Cheng, relying on his numerical cavalry advantage, has placed his cavalry on the hills on both sides and his infantry on the main road in the center… We will do the opposite: split our infantry in two, send them to meet the cavalry on the hills on the left and right, and unite all our cavalry units, along with the Beiwei Army, in the center to charge straight into his heart!"

The generals exchanged glances, knowing this was the final decision and could not be delayed, so they all nodded… In fact, for the convenience of marching and to protect the precious cavalry, the current marching route had already been arranged this way.

Therefore, everyone also realized that Yue Fei must have more to say.

And indeed, after saying this, Yue Fei immediately narrowed his eyes and fixed them on one man: "General Tian! There is one thing that only you can do… Let me state upfront: once this order is given, you will surely think I am using your guest army as a sacrificial pawn, maliciously trying to deplete Grand Commandant Zhang's trusted core… But even so, you must grit your teeth and do it, because your unit is indeed the most elite among the infantry! If you refuse, I will have to enforce military law!"

Tian Shizhong was silent for a moment, but seemed to have anticipated this. He then cupped his hands in salute: "We are all veteran soldiers. If Grand Commandant Yue truly had malicious intent, I would know it… So, Grand Commandant Yue, please give the order."

Yue Fei nodded slightly: "I want you to go to the very front of the left flank! Directly engage the rebel cavalry on the southern side—the one with the Jurchen cavalry—in a head-on charge on the mountainous terrain!"

Tian Shizhong let out a long breath and agreed frankly: "As the Grand Commandant says, my unit is the foremost among the army's infantry and has fought head-on against Jin cavalry. Given the Grand Commandant's strategy for engaging the enemy, I have no objection to this deployment… So be it. On the mountainous terrain, my unit can fight, and I will not shirk the duty!"

"Good!" Yue Fei nodded slightly, then shook his head. "I haven't finished yet… I also want General Tian's unit to immediately increase speed, advance first, and engage the enemy's main cavalry force on the southern hills in a mutual charge! The remaining units, from south to north, will slow their marching speed in sequence and make contact with the enemy in an oblique formation!"

Tian Shizhong looked up in shock, staring fixedly at Yue Fei without speaking.

Yue Fei, with his mismatched eyes, looked down from his horse and met his gaze: "If you have something to say, say it quickly… We can't delay!"

"Is the Grand Commandant ordering my unit to go to its death?" Tian Shizhong's breathing was heavy.

"Correct! The very front line of this battle will inevitably suffer heavy losses, and if your unit advances alone and fights first, it will likely die even more!" Yue Fei replied sternly. "But since you serve as a soldier for your rations, are you afraid of death?!"

Tian Shizhong's mouth twitched once or twice, lost in thought for a moment, then he directly mounted his horse, reined it around, and from his saddle, pointed his horsewhip and shouted harshly: "Grand Commandant, if we do this and still fail to achieve a complete victory, I will risk my life to go before His Majesty and weep, wiping out all the merits of your Imperial Forward Army's half-year campaign south of the river!"

Having said this, Tian Shizhong did not wait for Yue Fei's reply and immediately turned his horse and rode off.

The matter was urgent, with no time for grand speeches. Two quarters of an hour later, Tian Shizhong led the Beiwei Army of the Imperial Right Army—his father-in-law's prized three thousand heavy-armored, long-axe infantry—and actively advanced, initiating a mutual charge that first engaged the opposing cavalry on the mountainous terrain south of the main road. As soon as the two sides clashed, they entered the most brutal phase of hand-to-hand combat on the narrow, somewhat rugged battlefield.

Armor, warhorses, limbs, and blood began to spill instantly across the hills of the heartland of Qi and Lu.

The most elite troops of both sides, usually held back until the end as the decisive factor, were now thrown in from the start to grind each other down. However, thanks to Tian Shizhong's sudden counter-charge, Li Cheng's plan to use cavalry to encircle the infantry was caught off guard and shattered from the outset. With tens of thousands of Li Cheng's infantry already engaged in large-scale combat on the southern flank, they could not be controlled or commanded. They continued forward along the flat main road by the inertia of the formation, and a considerable portion of the troops were drawn to the southern battle like iron filings to a magnet.

At this time, all of Yue Fei's central army cavalry—the Beiwei Army, numbering a mere four thousand—had assembled under Zhang Xian's command. They were still a li away from Li Cheng's front-line infantry, advancing at a slow, crawling pace that was completely contrary to normal cavalry tactics.

Beneath the banner bearing the character 'Zhang', Yang Zaixing, seeing this kind of battlefield for the first time, was clad in double-layered iron armor, riding a large horse personally given to him by Yue Fei, and carrying a large iron spear. He trotted forward a few dozen paces, glanced at the situation on the southern battlefield to his left front, and couldn't help but breathe heavily, then began to tremble all over.

He was not afraid, but excited… Some people seem born for the battlefield.

Behind him, the fully armored and experienced Zhang Xian and Guo Jin were also breathing heavily as they reined their horses forward slowly. Unlike Yang Zaixing, these two showed a hint of caution and tension. It was caution, not hesitation; tension, not fear… The reason was their rich battlefield experience; they knew very well what a head-on collision on flat ground surrounded by narrow, rugged terrain would lead to.

Sacrifice was inevitable, and victory or defeat would be decided in an instant once one side could no longer hold out, followed by an unprecedented encirclement, pursuit, and forced surrender.

"Charge!" Yang Zaixing, seeing Tian Shizhong's flank gradually being enveloped by Li Cheng's infantry, couldn't help turning back to urge.

Zhang Xian remained silent, only looking at Guo Jin.

Guo Jin, with a large ladle tied at his waist, reined his horse to look back toward the north and shook his head: "Deputy Commander Wang (Wang Gui) hasn't waved the flag yet."

Zhang Xian nodded, feigning calm: "Those three thousand troops of Tian Shizhong can fight. Back then at Yaoshan, they blocked the Hezha Meng'an and held off Loushi. This little scene is nothing! It's perfect for drawing in the rebel central army, breaking up their formation, and making it easier for us to charge."

Yang Zaixing had no idea what Hezha Meng'an or Loushi were. He was just impatient and somewhat helpless, so he reined his horse and trotted forward in another circle.

Just as he was seething with uncontrollable bloodlust and about to return to urge Zhang Xian again, he suddenly heard the sound of drums from behind, then saw countless flags waving together… Caught off guard, Zhang Xian took the lead, charging forward with Guo Jin and a squad of personal guard cavalry, leaping out from his side.

Yang Zaixing, furious and exasperated, turned back to call his own unit and then led the charge himself.

Immediately, the entire Beiwei Army and all the hastily assembled cavalry, no more than four thousand men, charged with all their might toward the central formation of the forty-thousand-strong enemy army.

In less than half a quarter of an hour, the Beiwei Army of the Imperial Forward Army had driven deep behind the enemy flanking the Beiwei Army of the Imperial Right Army. The several thousand infantry of Li Cheng's force attacking those three thousand long-axe heavy infantry were instantly scattered on the spot… Seeing this, the northern cavalry, under their commander's orders, tried to turn and encircle this cavalry that had emerged from the center. Unexpectedly, on the somewhat rugged mountainous terrain, countless infantrymen shouted loudly and soon charged forward in a counter-charge under the lead of a banner bearing the character 'Wang'. The southern, central, and northern units staggered in an orderly fashion, seizing the opportunity: blocking the southern cavalry, drawing in and dispersing the central infantry, and engaging the northern cavalry, leaving the enemy no room to maneuver or adjust on the battlefield.

Suffice it to say, on this day, the two armies, having marched for most of the day, met on a narrow path. After only a hasty adjustment of formations, they collided head-on with all their might!

Truly a mighty collision!

Sixty thousand troops—forty thousand on one side, a little over twenty thousand on the other—smashed into each other head-on across the land of Qi and Lu, like two earthenware jars filled with boiling blood.

For a time, blood flowed everywhere, debris scattered, steam rose, and victory or defeat was unclear. Only the vast cries of battle echoed, rolling and reverberating, rising from behind the hills.

PS: Thanks to classmate Beef Noodles in the Sunshine for the double sponsorship!