Chapter 40 Armored Cavalry Armored cavalry! The moment they saw the enemy clearly in front of them, many Xianbei cavalrymen subconsciously slowed down and tightened the reins, and the entire cavalry team immediately fell into chaos. Suli felt like she had lost both her parents. Having fought against the Han army for many years, he had seen the most elite armored cavalry among the Han army, but in terms of equipment, they were obviously inferior to the one in front of him. He was well aware of the power of the armored cavalry. They had suffered a lot in several encounters with the armored cavalry of the Han army. But after they figured out the weaknesses of the armored cavalry, they were able to easily use guerrilla cavalry and archery tactics to wear them down and defeat them. But now, both sides were charging head-on, and there were countless Han troops on both wings, so they could not escape no matter what. The die is cast. Now the two sides are at loggerheads, with no room for maneuver. He can only fight to the death. After all, the actual strength of this armored cavalry is still unknown, and there are not many of them. What if they are just for show? As soon as the confrontation began, Suli realized that he was wrong.
This was a completely one-sided massacre! The spears thrust by the Xianbei cavalry, whether they hit the Han people or the horses, were firmly blocked by the armor. Tian Ze attached great importance to the quality of armor. These armors were not only light and strong, but also extremely ingeniously designed, leaving almost no loopholes for the enemy to attack. The horse armor on the soldiers is tightly connected to the armor on the horses. Although it is a bit more cumbersome and inconvenient and requires the help of other soldiers to wear it, it can disperse the impact force to the horses well and prevent the riders from falling off the horses due to collision. War horses are the best breeds in the army, and are bred with a focus on having thick skin and good endurance. Each of the soldiers was muscular and strong, holding a huge spear in both hands, and there were even buckles installed at the connection between the armor and the spear. This is Guan Yu’s killer move, a terrifying weapon designed for charge—the armored cavalry! Armored cavalry has many flaws. It is expensive, bulky, slow, and has short endurance, but this still cannot conceal its terrifying power. In Tian Ze's eyes, it is an indispensable blade but one that cannot be used casually. Although it is usually used as a reserve force and is not easily deployed, at the critical moment of the battle, this trump card will give the opponent a fatal blow. Under the impact of the cavalry, the poorly trained troops will often be broken, and then their morale will collapse and they will be defeated. It is unimaginable that a "lump of iron" weighing nearly a ton can charge at a speed of 30-40 miles per hour, boosting the morale of its own side and bringing a terrifying deterrent to the enemy. This is something that ordinary soldiers cannot do anyway. Especially when combined with Guan Yu's "power" talent, the combination of the two can directly cause the opponent's morale to collapse. When the two sides collided, the Xianbei cavalry was as weak as willow branches and was knocked away directly. More Xianbei cavalrymen were so frightened that they stood still or turned their horses around to flee, but were either stabbed to death by a spear or fell off their horses, without even a chance to stand up, and were trampled to death by their horses. One hundred armored cavalrymen, divided into two rows, easily penetrated the charging Xianbei cavalry like a hot knife cutting through butter, leaving them almost unscathed. The Han light cavalry on both sides followed closely and launched continuous attacks, leaving no loopholes for the Xianbei cavalry. Suli felt the same despair as Su Puyan. As time went on, the casualties of the Xianbei cavalry became more and more serious. The Xianbei cavalry at the front collapsed completely and fled frantically to the rear, while Guan Yu's armored cavalry was still killing indiscriminately, with only a few casualties. Lost! Most of our morale has dissipated.
Suli knew that he was doomed to fail. If he continued to fight, he might be able to kill some Han soldiers, but it would be difficult to reverse the situation. He might even be in danger of being annihilated, after all, Ma Teng's army on the other side was basically sure of victory and could attack at any time. Therefore, Suli ordered a retreat without hesitation. The army was defeated like a mountain! Guan Yu led his troops in pursuit and slaughtered nearly three thousand Xianbei troops. By the time Suli withdrew from the battlefield, only a thousand defeated soldiers were left by his side. This battle was completely controlled by Guan Yu from the very beginning, and all of Suli's decisions were within Guan Yu's expectations. Even if Suli had chosen a conservative strategy of dividing his forces at the time, Guan Yu's light cavalry on both wings could still suppress the enemy by outflanking them, driving them to the center and giving the armored cavalry a chance to make the final move. Tian Ze watched the performance of the two generals and nodded continuously. Over the past two years, they have learned from and encouraged each other with the talented generals and colleagues around them, and with Cheng Yu's systematic instruction, their attainments in the art of war have become quite profound, and they have begun to show the demeanor of famous generals. After the battle, Guan Yu and Ma Teng unconsciously accumulated an aura of superiority, and the soldiers under their command also gradually developed a unique temperament. Tian Ze, who was in the rear, noticed this keenly, and he felt that Guan Yu and Ma Teng's talents were slowly increasing. This world is strange and extraordinary, as if it has unique rules. Tian Ze still cannot figure out the principles behind the talents of these brave generals and wise men, nor how they can be materialized and applied to combat strategies. But after being exposed to it for a long time, he gradually mastered some of the rules of talent. Not everyone's talent is fixed; to be more precise, everyone's talent grows slowly until it reaches a bottleneck. Take Guan Yu for example. In Tian Ze's perception, the bonus his talent brings to the soldiers' will and combat effectiveness is not high now, and the effect he shows in combat is not even as good as Han Dang's now. This is obviously inconsistent with the identity of "Martial Saint". The reason is that Guan Yu is still young and needs time to grow. For people like Tian Ze who come from aristocratic families, because of their profound foundation, the effect of their talents awakening is quite significant, but most of them find it difficult to improve further. For people like Guan Yu and Ma Teng who come from grassroots backgrounds, their talents may be average when they first awaken, but their potential is unfathomable. Once they grow up, they may not be inferior to the former, and may even have a higher upper limit. Because they are able to stand out from the bottom, their talents must be one in a million, generally higher than those of children from aristocratic families, and they have greater plasticity. Of course, this is for the talents of military generals who need physical training and leading troops in battle to improve. As for the talents of civil officials who need knowledge accumulation, government affairs processing and making suggestions, the children of aristocratic families have a firm upper hand in both quality and quantity. Victory was already decided, so Guan Yu and Ma Teng no longer insisted on pursuing the enemy leader. Instead, they dispersed their troops and cleared out the fleeing soldiers in the surrounding areas to prevent them from bringing harm to the civilians. Suli, who fled to the north, and Su Puyan, who fled to the south, each led their defeated troops and left with resentment. Tian Ze did not order a pursuit and interception. The number of the invading Hu people was large, and it was impossible to keep them all. The Han army on the battlefield had no advantage in numbers. If they forced them too much, the gain would outweigh the loss. The most urgent task was to clear out the Hu people in front of them first. The Xianbei tribe where Suli was located was far away, and it would be meaningless for Tian Ze to keep him there, as it would only allow other Xianbei leaders such as Miga to take advantage of him. It would be better to let him go back and disrupt the situation on the grassland. And in Tian Ze's eyes, Su Puyan was just a pile of dead bones in a grave, and Zhang He was waiting for him ahead. This time, Su Puyan was badly injured in the siege and could not organize an effective attack like Suli. He was chased all the way by Ma Teng. In the end, only six or seven hundred of his tribesmen escaped. How could they escape Zhang He's ambushes? (End of this chapter)