Chapter 107 Countermeasures

  After the Qin army returned to their camp, Wang Jian immediately gathered all the generals to discuss the gains and losses of this battle. Although at this time the casualties of the Qin army had not been counted, and the Qin army was also voluntarily withdrawing, it can only be said that neither side won or lost, and the Qin army did not lose, at most they were at a disadvantage.

  But all the Qin generals who have seen this battle cannot help but admit that, strictly speaking, the Qin army lost this battle. Because in this war, the military strength launched by the Qin army was twice as many as the Zhao army, but the casualties were definitely greater than those of the Zhao army. If it weren't for Wang Jian's timely and decisive decision to retreat, the defeat of the Qin army would be a matter of time. The generals of the Qin army are not the kind of people who die with their eyes open, victory is victory, defeat is defeat, no ambiguity at all. Therefore, in this battle, both the cavalry and infantry of the Zhao army showed strong combat effectiveness, far surpassing that of the Qin army, so it is also necessary to seriously summarize the lessons learned from this battle, and think about how to fight against the Zhao army in the future.

  At this time, the casualty statistics of the Qin army had also come out. In this battle, a total of 5,627 soldiers of the Qin army were killed, and another 3,784 were injured. One hundred and forty-three war chariots were destroyed, one hundred and seventy-six were damaged, one thousand one hundred and twenty-three war horses were killed, and four hundred and eighty-five were injured. In any case, the casualties of the Qin army exceeded those of the Zhao army by more than a factor of two, especially in terms of war horse casualties, which approached five times that of the Zhao army. This was because the Zhao army mainly targeted the war horses of the Qin army's chariots, resulting in heavy losses for the Qin army's war horses.

  King Jian looked at the casualties of the Qin army and said, "Generals, what do you think about today's battle?"

  In the main tent, there was a moment of silence, with no one speaking. Although it was the same as Zhao's side, the generals of the Qin army also did not know the number of casualties on the Zhao side. Therefore, although they knew that the casualties of the Qin army were definitely greater than those of the Zhao army, their mood was slightly better; otherwise, the generals of the Qin army would have been even more ashamed.

  Wang Jian smiled and said, "Everyone, what's going on? Although our losses in this battle are greater than those of the Zhao army, we haven't truly failed. Are you all so scared that you don't dare to speak? Xin Sheng, since you were in charge of commanding this battle, tell me, what do you think about it?"

  "General, to be honest, I lost this battle convincingly. The Zhao army didn't use any underhanded tactics; they were purely infantry and fought us in a straightforward and brutal manner. We were indeed defeated by the Zhao army, and we have no excuses for it. However, the Zhao army is unreasonably strong - they weren't this powerful before."

  Although Xin Sheng admitted defeat, the other generals did not refute him, and Wang Jian said: "You are the commander in front of the formation, you should see ten times more clearly, how the Zhao army fought, where is it strong?"

  Because most of the Qin generals were in the rear watching the battle, they did not see the overall situation on the battlefield clearly. Xiang Yu was a frontline commander and must have seen more clearly. Therefore, Wang Jian also hoped that he could speak clearly, so as to come up with a countermeasure.

  "Indeed, after some thought, Xing Sheng said: "Let's talk about the cavalry of the Zhao army first. At the beginning, the Zhao army used their cavalry to deal with our chariots. Their cavalry was organized in groups of five, with two men holding long spears and three using bows and arrows. When they encountered our chariots, they would first use their bows and arrows to shoot at the horses pulling our chariots. Although each chariot had four warhorses, if even one was killed or injured and couldn't move, the entire chariot would be unable to move. And if things went badly, the horses would collapse and the chariot would overturn. Even if the chariot didn't overturn, with only three soldiers on board, they wouldn't be able to withstand five cavalrymen. Moreover, the combat strength of the Zhao army's cavalry was indeed very strong, and our Qin army's cavalry was far inferior."

  Li Xin said: "What if we slow down the chariots, so that the infantry can keep up with them and protect the chariots from being attacked by Zhao's cavalry?"

  "But if we let the chariots slow down and be protected by infantry, then the power of the chariots will also be reduced by half. Isn't that a loss? I think we should change our past approach and use cavalry to protect the chariots instead."

  Wang Jian listened and pondered for a moment, saying: "Let's not talk about the difference between our Qin army's cavalry and the Zhao army's chariots. If our cavalry uses the same method to deal with the Zhao army's war chariots, would it be feasible?"

  Xin Sheng nodded and said, "Looking at it from the end, it should be feasible, but still need some training."

  Wang cut his mustache and said: "Alright, let's put aside the cavalry for now. What about the infantry? How did Zhao's army strengthen its infantry?"

  Xin Sheng thought for a moment and said, "Zhao Jun's infantry seems to be using some kind of formation, with ten or more people in a group, but they use different weapons, including shields, spears, guns, axes, bows and crossbows. They fight together, both at a distance and up close, with both offense and defense, and it's very ingenious. With just over a dozen men, they can resist our dozens of Qin soldiers. However, I'm not entirely clear on how Zhao Jun's formation works, perhaps we need to fight them several more times to figure it out."

  Wang Jian was taken aback and said: "In other words, the Zhao army mixed archers and crossbowmen with other soldiers to fight?"

  Xin Sheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Is it, is it really like this?"

  Wang Jian also furrowed his brow, because the Qin army was skilled in using crossbows, so they had always wanted to find a way to combine crossbowmen with other soldiers to fight together. The idea was to have the soldiers fight at the front and the crossbowmen shoot arrows from behind, fully utilizing the strengths of each type of soldier. However, this idea looked good on paper but was full of contradictions when put into practice. The reason was that once both sides' soldiers engaged in close combat, how could the crossbowmen shoot arrows without hitting their own people? And how could the other infantry protect the crossbowmen while not blocking their shots?

  In fact, it's not just the Qin army, but also all famous generals in the Warring States period who were thinking about this problem and tried many formations, but no one had a good solution to this difficult problem. As a result, on the battlefield, archers could only shoot at the enemy before the battle began, and once the enemy approached, they could only hide behind other soldiers and use throwing methods to attack the enemy's rear at most. However, throwing has two drawbacks: first, it lacks accuracy, and second, the power of the crossbow is greatly reduced when thrown, so this is not a good method either. At most, archers can play their role as much as possible before the two sides engage in battle, but after the two sides engage, archers basically have nothing to do.

  It seems that Zhao Jun has found a way to resolve the situation. However, this is also very likely because Zhao Jun's commander-in-chief is Li Mu, and no matter what he does, it will not be unexpected.

  At this time, other Qin generals also showed a difficult expression. If the Zhao army really found a way to solve the problem of bowmen and other soldiers fighting together, it would be too terrible. Therefore, some people's hearts began to waver again, can the Qin army still win this battle?

  Wang Jian naturally saw the psychology of the other generals and said: "Even if Li Mu really has a way to make the bowmen and other soldiers fight together, there's nothing to be afraid of. As long as we fight a few more battles with the Zhao army, observe their tactics carefully, and then train accordingly, our Qin army can also use the same tactics. Just like the cavalry tactics used by the Zhao army against war chariots, can't we learn to use them too? Moreover, our Qin army has always been good at using bows and crossbows. If we can learn the tactics of the Zhao army, we will definitely be stronger than them. Therefore, when we fight the Zhao army again, everyone must pay attention to observe. Even if we lose a few more battles, it doesn't matter. We can completely afford to lose, and when we fight the Zhao army again, we may not necessarily lose."

  The generals listened and also felt somewhat unexpected, but Wang Jian was not a person who liked to talk big, so if he said so, it meant that he had already come up with a way to deal with the Zhao army, or that he had come up with a plan. Therefore, everyone's attention was focused on Wang Jian.

  Wang Jian said: "The cavalry of the Zhao army has always been better than that of other countries, and now the infantry can also have new tactics, so it is considered stronger than our Qin army. But we, the Qin army, also have our own strengths. Generals, compared to the Zhao army, what is the greatest advantage of our Qin army?"

  Meng Wu immediately said: "The strength of our Qin army's bows and crossbows is also far superior to that of the Zhao army."

  Wang Jian also smiled and said, "That's right, our Qin army's bows and crossbows are far superior to those of the Zhao army. It's just that in this battle, we didn't bring out our full strength. Therefore, in the next battle, we must fully utilize our advantage in bows and crossbows to defeat the Zhao army."

  Li Xin said, "But the bow and crossbow have a range of less than 100 paces, it's fundamentally impossible to shoot into the Zhao army's formation. And if the Zhao army doesn't attack, then the archers and crossbowmen won't even get a chance to use their strength."

  Wang Jian smiled faintly and said, "If Zhao Jun doesn't attack us, can't our Qin army's archers and crossbowmen take the initiative to attack them?"

  Li Xin said: "What if Zhao's army attacks from above?"

  Wang Jian smiled and said, "Even if the Zhao army wants to attack, there is still a distance between us. We can divide our archers into three rows, with the crossbowmen in the first row and the bowmen in the second and third rows. They will take turns shooting, and before the Zhao army arrives, we can at least shoot five or six rounds, which will be enough to deal a significant blow to the Zhao army. Moreover, we won't just send out archers; behind them, we'll also arrange infantrymen. When the Zhao army approaches, the infantrymen will go forward to engage with the enemy. I really want to see if the Zhao army can maintain their formation and execute their tactics after being hit by our arrows."

  Meng Wu said: "What the general says is reasonable, but what about our chariots? If the Zhao army still uses cavalry to attack our chariots, what should we do?"

  Wang Jian said, "Let's do it your way. Let the cavalry follow the chariots into battle. Each chariot will be accompanied by ten horsemen, four of whom will use long spears and five who will use bows and arrows to protect the chariots on both sides. The three people on the chariot, excluding the driver, will all have bows and arrows. Let's see if Zhao's army can still use their bows and arrows to counter our chariots this time."

  Meng Wu also listened and nodded repeatedly, saying: "Good, I think this time our Qin army will definitely defeat the Zhao army."

  Wang Qian smiled faintly and said: "It's hard to say whether we can defeat the Zhao army, but we can try. We can't be intimidated by this battle, can we?"