Warring States Odyssey

  At the time when the Qin army and the Zhao army were engaged in a fierce battle, Gao Yuan and Li Yinghong led several cavalrymen to stand on a small hill about 5-6 kilometers away from the Zhao army's camp, looking down at the battle in front of the Zhao army's camp. In fact, from this small hill, the people on the battlefield looked smaller than ants, only able to see a large color block, black for the Qin army and red for the Zhao army, but unable to see the situation clearly. However, it was possible to imagine that at this time, in front of the Zhao army's camp, the battle must have been very fierce.

  On the other side of the mountain, there was a dense forest, where Zhao's 5,000 cavalry were hiding, including the 1,000 elite cavalry personally trained by Gao Yuan. After several days of fighting, Li Mu had been gradually withdrawing and pretending to be weak in front of the Qin army, just to make them arrogant. Today was the day to launch a full-scale counterattack against the Qin army. Led by Gao Yuan and Li Yinghong, 5,000 cavalrymen were ambushing on the outside of the battlefield, waiting for Li Mu's order to attack the Qin army.

  At this time, several other Zhao soldiers couldn't help but feel impatient. Since last night, they had already left the Zhao army's camp and lay in ambush here. A whole night had passed, and now the Qin army was attacking the Zhao army, which had also been going on for nearly two hours. However, they still hadn't received the signal to attack, and everyone was getting restless. Some people were pacing back and forth, stamping their feet, and even Li Yuhong's hands were constantly rubbing together, showing how anxious he was. He kept muttering softly: "Why hasn't it started yet?" "Will Father forget?"

  It was actually the plateau that remained calm, because as a qualified special agent, one must remain calm in any situation, which is the most basic quality. So he also comforted Li Yinghong by saying: "Be patient for a while, it's not time yet."

  Just then, someone suddenly said: "General Gao, young lady, look, a wolf smoke signal has appeared."

  Li Yinghong listened and immediately jumped up, taking three or four steps to hurry over. In the big camp of Zhao's army, there was indeed a black smoke signal rising into the air, condensing but not dispersing. Li Yinghong excitedly shouted loudly: "The wolf smoke has risen, the wolf smoke has risen, prepare to attack immediately."

  At this time, Gao Yuan also walked over and said: "Don't panic, there is only one wolf smoke signal." Before he finished speaking, two more wolf smoke signals rose from the Zhao army's camp, three wolf smoke signals in total, all piercing into the clouds.

  Gao Yuan said: "One long and two short, this is the signal for us to attack the Qin army's main camp. Alright, let's set out immediately." It turned out that before leaving the camp, Li Mu had already made an agreement with Gao Yuan about the signal. If the wolf smoke rising was one long and two short, it meant attacking the Qin army's main camp; if it was two long and one short, it meant returning to reinforce the Zhao army's main camp.

  The crowd immediately mounted their horses and descended the mountain, leading the 5,000 cavalrymen who were ambushing in the forest, bypassing the small hill, and rushing towards the direction of the Qin army's large camp.

  Their ambush location was only five or six kilometers away from the Qin army's main camp, and it was also a full cavalry force. Therefore, in just over ten minutes, Zhao Yun led the Zhao army to kill their way to the front of the Qin army's main camp.

  Although the Qin army was attacking the Zhao army's main camp with all its might, Huan Yi was a famous general who was well-versed in military strategy and would not neglect the defense of the Qin army's main camp. However, over the past few days, the Qin army's attack had been relatively smooth overall, advancing layer by layer, and had already reached the front of the Zhao army's main camp. The Zhao army had only been defending and had not launched a counterattack at all. Therefore, Huan Yi was somewhat relaxed in his mind.

  In addition, Huan Yi was also somewhat eager to capture the Zhao army's main camp. This time, the Qin army almost exhausted its forces in the attack, leaving only 200,000 soldiers to guard the camp, including more than 80,000 wounded soldiers. Of course, from Huan Yi's point of view, the Zhao army had no ability to counterattack at this time, and he had set up troops to guard all major transportation routes, so he was not afraid that the retreating Zhao army would suddenly return. Therefore, leaving too many troops to guard the camp was completely unnecessary, and it was better to concentrate his forces and launch a full-scale attack on the Zhao army's main camp.

  Although the Qin army's garrison was not large and their mentality was relatively relaxed, they still maintained normal vigilance and did not let their guard down. When the Zhao army was over a thousand meters away from the Qin army's main camp, they were discovered by the Qin army's sentries. As a result, the battle horn sounded immediately in the Qin army's main camp, and a contingent of Qin soldiers rushed out to attack the Zhao army.

  In Zhao Jun's array, Gao Yuan immediately ordered the 1,000 new cavalry he had formed to engage in battle with the Qin army, while the other 4,000 cavalry temporarily held back.

  After the order was passed down, Gao Ping led a thousand cavalry to immediately distance themselves from the other Zhao troops and quickly formed an arrowhead shape, advancing at full speed towards the attacking Qin army.

  This team of Qin army has more than 3,000 people, all are infantrymen, only four or five war chariots, which are used by the commander-in-chief, and the commander-in-chief of the Qin army is called Yinghe, who is a member of the royal family of Qin. The purpose of their attack was not to defeat this branch of Zhao army, but to delay the attack of Zhao army, in order to buy time for the deployment of the main camp of Qin army.

  The Qin army that stayed behind had about 12,000 to 13,000 soldiers who could fight, which was not a small number. In terms of military strength, they were still superior to the attacking Zhao army. However, the main camp of the Qin army was a large one that could accommodate around 150,000 soldiers, so the remaining troops had to be dispersed to guard it, making them seem inadequate and insufficient. On the other hand, the Zhao army could concentrate their forces, attack only one point, and only temporarily occupy the campsite, which did not have complete defensive fortifications. Therefore, the Zhao army naturally had a significant advantage.

  Now the Qin army needs to transfer soldiers from other places to resist the Zhao army, which takes some time. Therefore, only a portion of the troops can be dispatched first to block the Zhao army and buy time for the Qin army to adjust its deployment. So he sent Ying Hui with 3,000 infantrymen to fight. This also shows that the Qin general left behind was not incompetent, but rather a master of military strategy with great adaptability.

  In this era, the cavalry was still an emerging force, and due to the immaturity of cavalry tactics and horse equipment, the potential of cavalry had not been fully exploited. Very few people used cavalry for frontal battlefield charges, and infantry did not have the same level of psychological fear towards cavalry as they would later on. Therefore, Ying Hu was quite confident about this, believing that his 3,000 infantrymen could at least hold off the Zhao army's cavalry for half a time unit, allowing the main camp to be well-prepared for defense.

  But seeing Zhao Jun divided into two parts, the front and rear, the Zhao army that charged forward had only more than a thousand cavalry, and it was still in an arrowhead formation, which made Ying Hui very puzzled. What did the Zhao army plan to do? Did they think that just relying on this thousand cavalry could defeat their own three thousand soldiers? Or were they planning to use this thousand cavalry to hold themselves back, so that other Zhao armies could attack the Qin army's large camp, but weren't they afraid that after defeating this cavalry, they would come from behind and kill them again?

  But now there is no time to think about it, first swallow this thousand cavalry and then talk. Therefore, Ying Bu also immediately ordered the Qin army to deploy horizontally, forming a fan-shaped array, and led the other four war chariots, also in parallel, charging at the forefront of the Qin army, facing the Zhao army.

  At this time, the distance between the two sides was rapidly narrowing. Gao Ping led his cavalry to charge at the forefront of the Zhao army, estimating the distance from the Qin army while taking out a crossbow that had already been cocked from behind his saddle and holding it horizontally in his hand. Each knight wore two crossbows on their body, although crossbows were not easy to draw, but before the battle, each soldier had already drawn the bowstring and loaded the bolt, so they could be used directly when picked up. This was also a good thing about crossbows. His Zhao army cavalry also raised their crossbows or bows one after another. The difference was that the front row of cavalry held their crossbows horizontally, while the back row of cavalry used bows and arrows to point upwards at an angle.

  "Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

  A string of dense arrow-breaking sounds rose, a dense rain of arrows shot out from the cavalry formation of the Zhao army, some arrows flew straight, some arrows flew obliquely into the sky and then fell down, but the ultimate goal was all without exception pointing to the Qin army.

  However, the Qin army was also well-prepared. The soldiers in the front rows immediately raised their shields to protect themselves and their companions. But the arrows shot by the Zhao army had both flat and arcing trajectories, and the number of Qin army's shields was limited, so they could not completely block them. As a result, after the arrow rain fell, a series of mournful cries rang out in the Qin army formation. In an instant, dozens of Qin soldiers were hit by arrows and fell to the ground. Moreover, one war chariot overturned because the horses pulling it were hit by arrows.

  Although at this time in the Qin army's team column, archers also opened their bows and shot arrows, counterattacking the Zhao army, but this time the number of archers brought by the Qin army was not many, and the formation of the Zhao army was also relatively scattered, so only more than a dozen Zhao soldiers were hit by arrows.

  After the two crossbows brought by Zhao Jun were shot, the distance between the two sides was further narrowed, so Zhao Jun's cavalry also put down their crossbows and used bows and arrows to continue shooting at the Qin army.

  In the process of approaching each other, every one of Zhao's cavalrymen could shoot at least four arrows, and some skilled ones could even shoot six or seven. Therefore, the number of casualties on the Qin side exceeded 150, while the losses on the Zhao side were less than 30.

  At this point, the distance between the two sides had narrowed to close combat range, and the speed of the war horses had reached its peak. Gao Yuan had already readied his bow and arrow, holding his long spear horizontally with his right hand, clamping the spear shaft tightly under his elbow, facing a Qin army chariot that was just inches away. And on the chariot, Ying He had also put down his shield, gripping his long halberd with both hands, thrusting it swiftly at Gao Yuan.

  "Right!"

  War horses and chariots crisscrossed each other, the long spear in Gao Yuan's hand brought out a whistling sound, heavily slashing onto Ying He's long halberd.

  Wingert suddenly felt a huge force coming from the long spear, and the long spear almost fell out of his hand. His whole body was shaken so hard that he had to take several steps back. But there was only a little space on the chariot, so when Wingert took one step back, he immediately bumped into his companion on the chariot.

  In the Warring States period, a chariot was equipped with three armored soldiers. In the middle was the charioteer, who was in charge of driving the horses. On the left and right sides of the chariot, there was one person each, responsible for fighting against enemies on both sides. Although Bai Qi was the commander-in-chief of the Qin army, his chariot also had three people, but generally the one located on the left side was more honorable, so Bai Qi's position was on the left side of the chariot.

  And with this blow, the charioteer was knocked off balance and fell to the right side, coincidentally colliding with the other two armored soldiers on the chariot. As a result, all three people fell to the right side of the chariot. The speeding chariot immediately lost its balance, its left wheel suspended in mid-air, and it promptly flipped over to the right side.