Warring States Odyssey

  The whole process did not last long, and the Qin army would not be beaten passively. Just as the Qin army's chariot wall was barely built, a pair of two-wheeled wooden carts emerged from the gap in the chariot wall, carrying sand, stone, and mud soldiers to fill the trenches. Behind the carts were teams of black-clad Qin soldiers. After the carts broke through the chariot wall, they charged straight towards the Zhao army's position, while the Qin army quickly spread out horizontally, like dozens of streams converging into a mighty black wave that surged forward with a thunderous crash, sweeping towards the Zhao army's position in a shocking manner.

  The Qin army finally launched a formal attack.

  At this moment, in Zhao Jun's camp, the archers quickly moved forward and unfolded their defense lines, which had been smashed by the catapults. The arrows were shot simultaneously, and among the arrow rain, there were also a large number of fire arrows, all shooting towards the Qin army. For a time, the entire battlefield was filled with arrows like flying locusts, smoke and fog swirling everywhere.

  However, the highlands were clearly visible, and the wooden carts pushed out by the Qin army had thick wooden boards installed on both sides to block arrows. The car body was also coated with wet mud to prevent fire, so the arrows and fire arrows basically did no harm to the wooden carts. The attacking Qin army was not like a scattered sand, but maintained a neat formation throughout. The first three rows of soldiers held up their shields to cover the long-handled gunners and archers behind them, like a black wall, pushing horizontally towards the Zhao army's position.

  The arrows fell on the shields, making a "thud" and "thwack" sound. Although in places where the shields did not cover, through the gaps between the shields, many arrows still shot down, wounding and killing many Qin soldiers. Moreover, some crossbow bolts could directly penetrate the shields and hit the soldiers hiding behind them. A large stone also fell, crushing both men and shields into pulp. However, the Qin army maintained a relatively neat formation, advancing towards the Zhao army's position.

  Moreover, the crossbowmen in the Qin army formation also adopted a throwing method to counterattack the Zhao army. At the same time, some of the stone-throwing vehicles were pushed behind the chariot wall of the Qin army to make a deep attack on the Zhao army's position, which also killed and injured many soldiers of the Zhao army. However, from an overall perspective, the casualties of the Qin army were much greater than those of the Zhao army, because the Qin army was after all the attacking side, so they had to suffer more losses.

  But such casualties could not stop the advance of the Qin army, the dead forever fell to the ground, the wounded struggled back to their own ranks, and the vast majority of the Qin army continued to maintain its intact formation, advancing forward.

  Although Li Mu's position was about 300-400 meters away from the edge of the Zhao army's defense line, and the horizontal distance was nearly a thousand kilometers, soldiers constantly reported the situation on the battlefield to Li Mu, who marked it out on the map on the table. Thus, Li Mu basically understood the entire situation on the battlefield, and immediately ordered 10,000 infantrymen to launch an attack, preparing to engage the Qin army within the first defense line.

  Just as Zhao Jun was deploying his troops, the vanguard of the Qin army pushed out hundreds of carts filled with sand, stones and mud. Under the arrow fire of the Zhao army, they were pushed to the edge of the trenches, where the contents were dumped into the trenches, quickly filling them at dozens of points. At this time, the Qin army following behind finally broke through the neat formation, killing from the filled trenches, and rushed straight towards the first line of defense of the Zhao army.

  At this time, Zhao Jun had just completed the replacement of his troops, so the soldiers of the Zhao army also came out from within the defensive line and engaged in a fierce battle with the Qin army.

  The location of the highland is closer to the battlefield, so it can also see the changes in the situation on the battlefield very clearly. At the same time, he is also deeply respectful of Li Mu's command and deployment capabilities. The so-called famous general is not about being able to guess the enemy's intentions like a god, winning by surprise, or using troops flexibly, but rather it is the most basic command and deployment capability. Just like this time, if the replacement of soldiers was done too early, the impact on the Qin army would not be enough, and if it was done too late, it would cause chaos within their own ranks. However, Li Mu was able to grasp it just right, neither too early nor too late. This requires not only sharp observational judgment of the battlefield situation but also a deep understanding of the quality of one's own troops. In ancient times, when information transmission was not changing, this was even more difficult to achieve.

  The Qin army mobilized about 15,000 soldiers, and the Zhao army deployed 10,000 soldiers. The two sides clashed with a total of 25,000 soldiers, engaging in fierce fighting, with swords and guns clashing, killing bodies scattered all over the field, and blood flowing like rivers.

  Although the Zhao army was outnumbered, they had a geographical advantage because they only needed to defend one side of the trenches, while the Qin army had to cross them. Although the Qin army filled in dozens of places, it was impossible for all the Qin soldiers to cross at once. As a result, only two or three thousand Qin soldiers were actually able to engage with the Zhao army.

  However, not all of the 10,000 troops Zhao Jun led out were elite soldiers. Nearly 7,000 of them were new recruits. Therefore, although the number of Zhao's army was superior in a local area, it was also difficult to turn this numerical superiority into an advantage for a while. The two sides surrounded the first line of defense trenches of Zhao's army and engaged in a fierce battle with each other, leaving behind a large number of corpses on both sides. However, after Zhao's archers retreated to the back row, they could still use projectiles to attack the Qin army that failed to cross the trenches. At this time, the archers of the Qin army had to stop shooting. The catapults and bed crossbows in the positions of both sides were still attacking each other's positions at this time.

  Although the current situation is not very favorable to the Qin army, the commander of the Qin army, Huan Yi, does not feel any tension at all. Although he still doesn't know that Li Mu is in the Zhao army's large camp on the opposite side, since Li Mu left troops to garrison at the Fanwu camp, they must have made sufficient preparations for battle. Moreover, the Qin army is on the offensive, while the Zhao army is defending, and the combat effectiveness of the Zhao army is not inferior to that of the Qin army, and it was personally trained by Li Mu. If the Fanwu position can be easily broken through by the Qin army, then Li Mu would not have been regarded as the number one enemy of the Qin state.

  The current development of the war is basically within Huan Yi's expectations. Although the Qin army is currently at a disadvantage on the battlefield, it is only temporary. After all, the Qin army has already entered the edge of the Zhao army's first line of defense, which is a very good result. Moreover, the Qin army has an advantage in terms of military strength. As long as the battle continues to develop like this, the Qin army can gradually turn the situation around and eventually occupy the entire first line of defense of the Zhao army.

  In addition, Huan Zi also saw that the Qin army's offensive was being blocked, and a large part of the reason was due to the trenches dug by the Zhao army, which blocked the Qin army and prevented their forces from fully deploying. Therefore, Huan Zi immediately ordered 500 more sandstone carts to be sent out to continue filling in the trenches. At the same time, he also ordered 15,000 Qin soldiers to prepare to go up and reinforce at any moment.

  This time, the advancement of the sandstone wooden cart was much smoother than last time, as the Qin and Zhao armies were already mixed together in battle, with no one to stop the Qin army's push. As a result, the Qin army easily pushed the wooden cart to the edge of the trench, pouring sand, stone, and mud into the trench, instantly filling up dozens of trenches. In this way, the Qin army expanded its killing path over the trenches by more than double, and a large number of Qin soldiers wielded their weapons, crossed the trenches, and joined the fierce battle with the Zhao army.

  Under the fierce attack of the Qin army, the Zhao army was also unable to hold on and gradually retreated from the edge of the trenches into the interior of the first line of defense. With the help of the remaining cover within the defensive lines, they continued to fight against the Qin army. However, in the face of the Qin army's all-out attack, the Zhao army, despite putting up a desperate resistance, was ultimately no match for the Qin army in terms of numbers and quality, and had already begun to weaken, being killed by the Qin army and forced to retreat step by step.

  At this time, Li Mu, who was commanding from the rear high platform, had always been calm and composed. The battle had progressed to this point, and it was all within Li Mu's expectations. Li Mu's tactics were to first use new soldiers to consume the Qin army's morale, while also allowing the new soldiers to experience the battlefield and mature as quickly as possible. This goal had now been largely achieved. Although the Qin army had already broken through the Zhao army's first line of defense, they had also suffered significant losses, and their morale had been largely depleted. Therefore, Li Mu immediately ordered the commander of the vanguard, Yuan Xuan, to lead 15,000 Zhao soldiers to reinforce the battle and defend the first line of defense at all costs.

  After Yuan Xie accepted the order, he immediately went down to gather soldiers. At this time, Gao Yuan suddenly said: "General, let me go into battle with General Yuan!"

  Li Yinghong also said: "Father, I want to go to war too."

  Li Mu nodded after a moment of contemplation, saying: "Alright, on the battlefield, guns and swords have no eyes, you all must be careful." He then turned to Zhao Xuan and said: "Zhao Xuan, select 200 men from my personal guard and put them under their command."

  Zhao Xuandao said: "Yes." After finishing speaking, he took Gao Yuan and Li Yinghong off the stage.

  Before long, Zhao Xuan returned to the high platform and stood beside Li Muo, saying: "General, is this okay? Gao Yuan now leads the cavalry, letting him follow the infantry into battle, is it suitable? Although Ying Hong's martial skills are excellent, he is young after all, and has never experienced a real battlefield. Letting them fight in this war together, I think it's too dangerous."

  Li Mubai said, "Yinghong will always have to go through the battlefield. If not this battle, then the next one. There is no safe place in war, and she has been taught by you for many years. I believe she should have the ability to protect herself on the battlefield. As for Gao Yuan, you can rest assured. Don't forget that he once single-handedly killed over 200 Qin soldiers. I believe with these two going into battle, they will be able to decide the outcome of this war."

  Zhao Xuan said: "Although it is said that way, what if Gaoyuan has another outburst of anger in this battle, what should we do then?"

  Li Mu smiled and said: "Then let's wait until we defeat the Qin army, and then I'll ask you to take action to subdue him."