Chapter 1243: Cavalry vs. Infantry

"Form ranks!"

Looking at the Jinghua side, Yu Qian was still standing on the wall, unhurried and calm.

Right now, he was the one coordinating the overall situation.

With Liu Zheng presiding and acting as his backing, no matter how others criticized him, it was useless.

What he wanted to achieve this time was to solve the problem once and for all!

What kind of place was Jinghua?

It was where the glory of Longyan resided!

He would not allow just anyone to come to Jinghua and stir up trouble.

He was going to wipe out these one hundred thousand troops!

Longyan must be this arrogant!

At the same time that the Youzhou Cavalry charged over in large numbers, Zhao Yan ordered them to form ranks.

The artillerymen lit the fuses of the cannons, and instantly, dozens of cannonballs flew toward the formation of the Youzhou Army's cavalry.

These cannonballs were all Explosive Shells; after landing on the ground, they immediately emitted thunderous explosions, and everything in the vicinity was overturned by the blast wave.

Wherever the cannonballs reached, there was a scene of utter devastation.

Although the Youzhou Army had decent practical combat experience, they usually fought against Grassland cavalry in their daily lives; they were accustomed to the tactics of fighting on horseback, and this was truly the first time they had been bombarded by cannons.

They did not know how to face such powerful artillery attacks, causing the cavalry formation to be quickly blown to pieces; with men terrified and horses panicked, after just a few rounds of shelling, the twenty thousand Light Cavalry of Youzhou were already on the verge of collapse.

And when the enemy cavalry charged within the range of the cannons, Zhao Yan immediately gave the order for all infantry to switch to Firearm and Crossbow to fire upon the enemy cavalry.

The improved Musket had a very high rate of fire, and the bullets covered the Youzhou cavalry almost without interruption.

After a few rounds of firing, nearly two thousand more Youzhou cavalrymen fell.

Next, the cavalry behind the Jinghua garrison infantry was also to take action.

After a burst of drumbeats for encouragement, the cavalry flew out from the infantry formation, three thousand Light Cavalry whistling as they charged toward the Youzhou Army.

However, their target was not the enemy's cavalry, but the enemy's infantry.

Even if the disparity in combat effectiveness between the two sides was vast, three thousand cavalry fighting against over ten thousand Youzhou cavalry would still fall into a disadvantage.

Therefore, before the war began, Liu Zheng had discussed a Method with Yu Qian.

Borrowing the theory of Tian Ji's horse racing, use infantry to overcome cavalry, and use cavalry to overcome infantry.

That is to say, use Jinghua's cavalry to deal with Youzhou's infantry, and use Jinghua's infantry to deal with Youzhou's cavalry.

Twenty thousand against one hundred thousand; under normal circumstances, the Jinghua Army would never be able to win.

But the Jinghua City infantry had a strategy for countering cavalry, and the number of infantry and cavalry was the same; as long as the formation was held properly, there would be no phenomenon of collapse.

The Youzhou infantry, however, were completely different; they were all in a state of charging, waiting for the Youzhou cavalry to break the Jinghua formation so they could advance and surround them; they had absolutely no preparation for dealing with cavalry.

Although their infantry numbered eighty thousand, in front of the three thousand Jinghua cavalry who were in high spirits, they were no different from a flock of little sheep.

The Jinghua cavalry were in high spirits, and with the cover of Musket and Cannon, they had a momentum of being invincible and unstoppable; three thousand men charged into the enemy's cavalry formation and quickly killed their way out, heading straight for the infantry in the rear.

The Youzhou cavalry could not stop them at all, and the infantry in the rear never expected that the opponent's cavalry would actually kill their way out from their own cavalry formation!

They had no means of dealing with cavalry at all, and after the Longyan cavalry charged into the Youzhou infantry formation, they slaughtered the Youzhou infantry as if they were chopping melons and vegetables.

This move stunned all the high-ranking commanders of Youzhou, and Meng Zan was no exception.

He had no idea what kind of tactic this was; how could the opponent's people charge out from his own cavalry formation while they were fighting?

The most fatal thing was that his infantry in the rear had no preparation for dealing with cavalry; these three thousand cavalry were like tigers in a flock of sheep, and within a few breaths, thousands of his infantry had lost their heads.

"Marshal, what should we do? We cannot let these cavalry run wild!" a general under Meng Zan asked with an anxious face.

Meng Zan was also thinking about this problem; the only thing that could deal with cavalry was cavalry, but if he let the cavalry currently charging turn back to deal with these three thousand cavalry, then the price paid for the charge just now would be in vain.

Moreover, he could also see that his cavalry's will to fight was already very weak; if he could not take advantage of this to charge and scatter the Jinghua garrison infantry formation in one go, a collapse might occur when they came for another charge.

Therefore, he absolutely could not let the cavalry retreat; the only way now was to continue moving forward.

The Jinghua garrison had about seventeen thousand soldiers, and after his cavalry charge, the number was about the same.

Cavalry against infantry; in a situation where the numbers were equal, the cavalry could win completely.

And their infantry on this side also had eighty thousand men, while the Jinghua cavalry were only three thousand.

With a huge numerical difference of nearly thirty times, even if the infantry were weak, they could at least hold them off even if they couldn't win.

As long as the cavalry quickly dealt with the Jinghua infantry in the front, they could quickly return to wipe out these three thousand cavalry.

"Order the infantry to withstand the pressure; anyone who retreats without authorization will be executed without mercy!"

Meng Zan's idea of wanting to annihilate the Jinghua City Defense Army outside the city was correct, but he had underestimated the ability of the Jinghua infantry.

For this battle, Liu Zheng had specifically trained these infantry in tactics to counter cavalry.

Each soldier in the front row had a thick Shield, and behind them were Long Spear reaching one zhang in length.

The roots of these Long Spear were firmly fixed in the ground, and there were four soldiers to ensure their stability; as long as the enemy War Horse charged forward, they would be impaled by these sharp Long Spear.

In the infantry formation, the outermost layer was Shield Infantry, behind the Shield Infantry were Spearman, and behind the Spearman were more Shield Infantry; behind this row of Shield Infantry were swordsmen.

The Shield Infantry in the center of the formation were there to protect the swordsmen, and the swordsmen had only one task: to chop the horses' legs.

It was like this layer by layer; as long as the Jinghua warriors were brave and fearless, the formation would not be broken, and the cavalry would be trapped in a bitter battle with these infantry.

And the facts were indeed so; when the already low-morale Youzhou cavalry charged into the Jinghua infantry formation, the first batch of cavalry was directly pierced by the Long Spear, and the cavalry following closely behind could not react in time and fell off their horses; the cavalry behind them jumped high, breaking through the first layer of the shield formation, but the shield formation was quickly replenished, and the horses that charged in were quickly chopped in the legs by the swordsmen, and then the cavalry fell and were killed by follow-up strikes.

The Youzhou cavalry charged into the formation in batches, but they were never able to break through it.

Moreover, what gave them the biggest headache was that the casualties were too high.

Less than one in ten of the cavalry who charged into the formation survived, but the Jinghua infantry had minimal casualties due to their organized structure.

At this moment, Meng Zan could no longer sit still.

While the cavalry were being slaughtered by the opponent's infantry, his infantry were also being slaughtered by the opponent's cavalry; in just two quarters of an hour, the infantry had suffered over ten thousand casualties! Yet the opponent's cavalry had suffered fewer than one hundred casualties!