Chapter 96: Qin Army Pursues (Part 1)

  At this time, General Dong Ou came over and knelt before Meng Wu and Xin Sheng, saying: "It was all due to my incompetence that the Zhao army broke into our camp, causing us to lose many soldiers and generals, and damaging the morale of our troops. I request that the general punish me for my crime."

  Actually, Meng Wu also knew that Dong Chou was somewhat wronged because no one had expected the Zhao army to rush over from such a distant place for a surprise attack. Anyone would have been the same, it just so happened that Dong Chou was more unlucky this time. Since they were defeated, there was nothing to say about it. Therefore, he said: "General Dong, you will temporarily remain in your position for now, and immediately clean up the remaining situation. When General Wang arrives, I will report the truth to him, and how to deal with you will be decided by General Wang."

  Dong Ai slowly got up and said: "Yes."

  Meng Wu said, "Order the whole army to strengthen their vigilance and send out more scouts to patrol and gather information fifty miles away, in order to prevent another surprise attack by the Zhao army. There must be no mistakes."

  The other generals hastily replied in unison: "Yes, sir."

  Meng Wu nodded and said, "Alright, everyone can return to their camps to make arrangements."

  Just then a general stepped forward and said: "General, are you going to let it go like this?"

  Meng Wu looked at him, this Qin general was named Zhang Han, who was less than thirty years old, brave in battle, and a rising star among the Qin army. He said: "General Zhang, what do you think we should do?"

  "General, although our army was defeated this time, it was only because we were caught off guard by the Zhao army. It's not that the Zhao army is particularly powerful, but rather that they launched a surprise attack from afar. Although they have already succeeded, their military strength must be exhausted, and they can't have gone far. Therefore, if we mobilize several thousand cavalry to pursue them, we can certainly give the Zhao army a taste of their own medicine and let them know that our Qin army is not to be trifled with. I, your humble general, am willing to lead 5,000 cavalry in pursuit."

  After listening to Zhang Han's words, Meng Wu also fell silent, while Xing Yu couldn't help but say: "General, I think Zhang Han makes sense. If we let the Zhao army run away like this, then our Qin army is useless too. We should go and attack them."

  Xin Sheng's words were followed by Dong Ou saying: "General-in-Chief, I originally followed General Zhang together to lead the army in pursuit and attack, to atone for my crime and establish merit."

  Meng Wu slightly furrowed his brow, and from his perspective, he didn't want to pursue the attack. As a cautious person, Meng Wu knew that Li Mu's military tactics were often unpredictable and prone to sudden changes, making it difficult to anticipate his next move. He was skilled at setting up ambushes and launching surprise attacks. Since Li Mu had dared to send cavalry to raid the Qin army, he must have anticipated that after a successful surprise attack, the Qin army would give chase, possibly deploying response troops along the way, or even laying in wait with an ambush force, ready to strike when the Qin army pursued. Moreover, the Zhao army's surprise attack hadn't inflicted significant losses on the Qin army; it was merely a minor setback. The Qin army only needed to strengthen its defenses, dispatch more scouts to gather intelligence, and be prepared for another potential raid by the Zhao army. Waiting for Wang Jian's main force to arrive before advancing towards Jinyong Pass would be sufficient; there was no need to pursue the enemy further. If they fell into Li Mu's ambush again and suffered another defeat, the blow to the Qin army would not be insignificant.

  But now most of the Qin generals advocated for pursuing, which also made Meng Wu difficult. After all, the Qin army had suffered a loss, and if they just let it go, it would be too weak. Although the Qin army had been defeated by Li Mu twice before, when it was time to fight, the Qin army never showed weakness. It had never endured humiliation like this before. Not even daring to chase after the enemy who had fled was really unjustifiable. Moreover, Meng Wu was only acting as the commander-in-chief at present and not the formal commander-in-chief of the Qin army. All the generals demanded to pursue the Zhao army, and Meng Wu could not refuse. In a certain sense, even if they failed to catch up with the Zhao army, it would be better to send troops to pursue them.

  Meng Wu nodded and said, "Alright, Zhang Yan and Dong Yi, I'll send you two to lead 5,000 cavalrymen to chase after the Zhao army. However, Li Mu's tactics are often unpredictable, so it's likely that he has set up an ambush along the way. Therefore, during your pursuit, be cautious and send out scouts to reconnoiter the route, in case of a surprise attack. Do you understand?"

  Zhang Han and Tong Yi immediately said in unison: "Yes." Then the two men clenched their right fists, struck their left chest, and immediately retreated to assemble their troops.

  Watching the two leave, Meng Wu slightly sank into thought and said: "Sima Xin."

  Another general of Qin came forward and said: "The commander is not here."

  Meng Wu said: "You bring two hundred war chariots and follow up to support them."

  "Yes." said Sima Xin hastily.

  In this era, chariots could not move alone. In the early Warring States period, the number of infantrymen equipped with a chariot ranged from 70 to 100 people. Although at this time, chariots were no longer the absolute weapon on the battlefield, the number of infantrymen equipped was greatly reduced, ranging from 40 to 50 people. Therefore, the actual force deployed by 200 chariots was approximately 10,000 people.

  Zhang Han and Tong Yi received the order from Meng Wu and immediately gathered 5,000 cavalrymen to pursue the retreating Zhao army.

  At this time, it was not long before the Zhao army retreated, only more than half a time, and the Zhao army had been running for a long distance, so their horses were exhausted, and their retreat speed was not fast. The Qin army, on the other hand, was full of energy, and Zhang Yan and Dong Yi estimated that they could catch up with this branch of the Zhao army in at most two or three hours.

  However, the two men still remembered Meng Wu's reminder to prevent Zhao's ambush. These two people were also seasoned veterans and knew that Meng Wu's reminder was very reasonable. When facing Li Mu, no one dared to be careless. Therefore, the two men also sent out dozens of scouts to explore on both sides in front of the main army to see if the Zhao army had laid an ambush.

  After chasing for more than a dozen hours, they had covered a distance of over 40 miles, and still hadn't discovered the ambush troops of Zhao's army. Just then, Zhang Han received a report from his scouts that Zhao's army was arrayed in formation about five or six miles ahead, apparently intending to engage in a pitched battle with the Qin army.

  After the highland rate army withdrew from the Qin army's large camp, they returned to the hiding place of other war horses. However, the highlands did not rush to retreat, but ordered the soldiers to rest on the spot and recover their strength. Then, he sent out scouts to investigate the movements of the Qin army. After more than a few hours, the highlands also learned that the Qin army had dispatched a cavalry to pursue itself.

  The highlands immediately began to estimate the strength comparison between the two sides. This time, the surprise attack on the Qin army's camp, the Zhao army only lost eleven cavalrymen and more than thirty soldiers were injured, but none of them were seriously hurt, and their strength was basically undamaged. After resting for another hour or so, they had basically recovered their physical strength. The war horses that stayed here rested for two hours or more, and removed their saddles to graze on some grass and leaves, and their strength also fully recovered. Moreover, there were still a thousand new-style cavalrymen in the Zhao army, so now the Zhao army could completely fight another battle. Even if they couldn't defeat the Qin army, they could withdraw calmly. Therefore, Gao Yuan also decided to find an open place to engage in a cavalry battle with the Qin army and give them another blow.

  The whole army, upon learning of this, all rubbed their fists and jumped up, eager to try again. Although the surprise attack on the Qin army's camp was successful earlier, it didn't last long, so many soldiers felt that they hadn't had enough killing. Upon hearing that the Qin army was pursuing them, they naturally wanted to fight another battle against the Qin army. Therefore, Gao Yuan immediately led his troops and retreated more than 20 miles again, found an open space, replaced their war horses, formed their formation, and waited for the enemy to catch up.

  Zhang Han and Dong Yi were also surprised and delighted to hear the news. They did not expect that the Zhao army would have such audacity, daring to stop and deploy their troops for a head-on battle with them. This also showed that the enemy had sufficient confidence in their own combat effectiveness. However, Zhang Han and Dong Yi were equally confident in the combat effectiveness of the Qin army. The Qin army was not afraid of the Zhao army at all, and this time they came out to pursue the Zhao army, determined to have a decisive battle with them and regain the face that had been lost due to the surprise attack by the Zhao army. Now that the Zhao army had stopped and were preparing for a decisive battle, it was exactly what the Qin army had hoped for.

  Then Zhang Han also immediately ordered, adjusted the formation, and the whole army prepared to meet the enemy.

  Within a distance of 50-60 li, at the speed of war horses, it only took a few minutes for the Qin army to discover the formation of the Zhao army. Of course, at the same time, the Zhao army also discovered the Qin army.

  Gao Yuan raised the long spear in his hand and shouted loudly: "Men, kill!" As he spoke, he violently squeezed his legs around the horse's belly and charged towards the Qin army.

  Zhao Jun's cavalry also urged on their war horses and brandished their weapons, charging out together.

  Although cavalry was not yet the main force on the battlefield in this era, large-scale cavalry battles had not yet appeared, but small-scale cavalry battles were still numerous, mostly with a scale of hundreds of people. It was rare for both sides to add up to nearly 10,000 people in a cavalry battle like this one. Most of the time, soldiers rode horses to the battlefield and then dismounted to fight, or followed chariots into battle.

  Zhang Han and Dong Yi, although they had not experienced many battlefields, had also never commanded a cavalry battle on a scale of thousands. However, the two thought that the Zhao army was no different either? Since the Zhao army could use full cavalry to go to war, the Qin army could also use full cavalry to go to war, so they urged their war horses and charged forward.

  The distance between the two sides was gradually narrowing, and Zhao Jun's formation was also changing. One thousand new-style cavalry and other cavalry opened up a distance and changed from horizontal array to more than ten conical charging arrays, while the other two thousand cavalry still maintained a horizontal queue shape.

  This change also greatly surprised Zhang Han and Dong Yi, as this was an array that the two had never seen before, but now they were no longer given time to think, both sides had already entered into bow range. The Zhao army's cavalrymen raised their bows and crossbows in their hands, shooting at each other. The Qin army's cavalry also drew their bows and shot arrows at the Zhao army.

  Suddenly, the sound of breaking through the air rang out incessantly, arrows flew like locusts, falling on the heads of soldiers from both sides. Instantly, in the formations of both sides, many soldiers fell off their horses with arrows lodged in them, wailing ceaselessly.

  However, the formation of the Qin army was horizontal, while that of the Zhao army was a pyramidal column. Therefore, in the mutual attack with bows and arrows, the casualties of the Qin army were still more than those of the Zhao army. In addition, some Qin soldiers fell off their horses. At this time, both sides were already galloping at full speed, and the distance was rapidly narrowing. Everyone only had time to shoot one or two arrows, and the casualties were not enough to affect each other's combat effectiveness. The final victory or defeat still depended on the close combat capabilities of both sides.