EBE Chapter 509 The Great Battle of Dangyang (1)
Chapter 509 The Great Battle of Dangyang (1)
In military battles, morale is paramount; it is crucial and can even be the decisive factor at any time.
The best way to boost morale is for the commander to lead the charge. Even if he cannot lead the charge, he must personally beat the drum to cheer on the soldiers. At the very least, he must stand in a prominent position so that the soldiers can see that the commander is with them.
Cao Cao, who had fought for decades, understood this principle, but his body no longer allowed him to lead the charge or beat the drums to cheer on the troops. So what could he do?
Cao Cao built a large cart that was over two zhang long and about one zhang wide. It only had wheels and a chassis, but no carriage. Instead, a fence about one meter high was installed around the edge of the chassis.
Cao Cao, dressed in the royal robes of the King of Wei and wearing the crown of the King of Wei, sat in a chair, holding the armrests and looking ahead. Behind him stood a cowhide drum taller than a person, and behind the drum was Cao Cao's black banner, which was in the very center of the army, visible to anyone who turned around.
Dressed in imperial robes and riding in a chariot, Cao Cao resembled a celestial emperor surveying the human world. His supreme majesty radiated across the entire battlefield. Even if he simply sat there doing nothing, he still gave people an extreme sense of oppression and security. At least, the Wei soldiers felt more at ease than ever before when they saw His Highness the King of Wei here.
Cao Cao did nothing at all, handing over command to Cao Ren and sitting comfortably in front of the chariot as a mascot.
Cao Ren climbed onto the war machine and stood beside Cao Cao. He looked down at Cao Cao and then looked up at the battlefield. Looking at the dark mass of troops, he felt an unprecedented surge of pride. He ordered his men, "Order Xu Huang to launch an attack immediately. Push down the Shu army's palisades and fill in their trenches. The rest of you, get ready and wait for my orders."
These past few years, he's been so frustrated by Guan Yu's beatings. Today, he's going to show the Shu army that he's not only a defensive iron wall of Cao Wei, but also a sharp blade of Cao Wei, adept at offense.
Upon receiving Cao Ren's order, Xu Huang immediately commanded his army to push the chariots forward. These chariots were the same as the ones Guan Xing used against Lu Xun, with four wheels supporting a large wooden box. The box was also covered with many serrated blades, and the front and roof of the chariots were modified into rounded shapes to facilitate the dissipation of force.
This is the design after Xie Jing instructed Liu Ye to modify it. Xie Jing had seen this kind of chariot when he and Lu Xun were fighting against Guan Xing. After joining Cao Ren's forces, he naturally told Cao Ren about it. Cao Ren built it and then Liu Ye, the inventor, improved it, and it became like this.
The first to charge were not just chariots. Xu Huang, a veteran of countless battles, would not be foolish enough to send only chariots to charge. Behind the chariots were swordsmen, spearmen, archers, and even catapults and ballistae. It was practically a simplified version of combined arms warfare.
On the Han army's side.
Liu Bei also stood on the chariot, holding the railing and looking ahead. Sun Quan and Guan Yu were positioned on his left and right, respectively, with the banner standing behind them. Guan Xing stood below the banner, ready to be summoned at any time.
In this battle, Liu Bei left Zhang Zhao and Sun Shao in Jiangling to assist Zhuge Liang, but kept Sun Quan by his side. His purpose was self-evident.
Liu Bei stood in front of the chariot, frowning as he watched the approaching war chariot. "What is this thing? I've never seen it before."
Guan Yu turned to look at Guan Xing, who quickly stepped forward and replied, "This is a chariot I designed to defend against Lu Xun's ballistae and bows and arrows. I didn't expect the Wei army to learn it so quickly. It must have been leaked by Xie Jing, who defected to the Wei army."
Instead of blaming him, Liu Bei asked directly, "How do we solve this?"
Guan Xing said, "The best way is naturally to set it on fire, but we don't have that much fuel, and there isn't that much time to slowly start a fire on the battlefield. We can only use axes to cut off the sharp blades extending from the carriage to eliminate the chariot's offensive capabilities, and then cut off the wheels to disable the chariot's mobility. Without offensive capabilities and mobility, the chariot is just a block of wood."
Liu Bei said, "Tell Zilong to do it this way. First, take down Xu Huang's vanguard. They think they can break through my formation with mere infantry? Dream on."
What Liu Bei feared most was the Wei army's cavalry. The Wei army also knew the role of cavalry, so naturally they wouldn't use the Wei army as cannon fodder right away.
The messenger galloped away and quickly delivered the order to Zhao Yun at the front line. Zhao Yun immediately ordered the Axe Battalion to be brought to the front line to receive the order.
Thanks to the steel mill, the Han army now has all kinds of soldiers. The Axe Battalion has about a thousand men, each equipped with a long axe about a meter long, a hand axe, and a goose-feather saber.
While having the Axe Battalion stand by his side, Zhao Yun kept his eyes fixed on Xu Huang's approaching army. Once Xu Huang was within range, he decisively roared, "Archers, fire! Catapults, aim at the chariots! Ballistae, fire at the densest areas! Attack!"
At Zhao Yun's command, the archers who had been preparing for a long time immediately released their bows and pulled the triggers. Countless arrows flew into the sky, drawing beautiful parabolas, and swarmed towards the Wei army like a locust swarm. The stones launched by the catapults were also mixed in with the rain of arrows and flew towards the Wei army.
The most ingenious weapon was the ballista. Among the hundreds of ballistas in the Han army were more than a dozen triple-bow ballistas with a range of more than 500 paces. Moreover, on Guan Xing's advice, Liu Bei equipped these ballistas with wagons, meaning that the ballistas were all mounted on wagons. This not only increased the mobility of the ballistas but also gave them a commanding advantage because the wagons were much higher than the ground.
Hundreds of ballistae were positioned in different locations, creating a crossfire that was devastating.
Faced with the Han army's long-range attacks, the Wei army either raised their shields to block or hid behind their chariots to avoid being hit.
However, the Han army's arrow rain was too dense, and although the Wei army tried their best to dodge, they were still shot down and fell to the ground, screaming in agony.
Xu Huang knew that this was the price that had to be paid for the attack, and he also knew that there was only one way to break this situation: to speed up and rush to the front to fight the Han army hand-to-hand. Therefore, instead of retreating, he ordered the army to speed up the charge.
The fearless Wei army finally charged to the front of the Han army after sacrificing thousands of lives. But in front of them was a trench about ten feet wide, behind which were deer antlers, and behind the deer antlers stood spearmen. Before the Wei soldiers could even stand still, the Han spearmen thrust their spears at them.
Most of the unfortunate Wei soldiers were either pierced or forced back by the spears. Those who managed to dodge the spears accidentally stepped into the trench and fell in, where they were impaled by the spikes stuck at the bottom of the trench.
The Wei army had also made preparations for the trenches. Later, the Wei soldiers pushed wheelbarrows and carts filled with sacks to the front of the battle line, and pushed the sacks and carts together into the trenches, intending to fill them in.
The Wei army charged desperately under a hail of arrows, throwing large quantities of sacks into the trenches. Combined with the corpses, they quickly filled the trenches to a passable level.
Then came the spearmen. The Wei soldiers either held up their shields to block the spears and competed with the Han soldiers in strength, or they grabbed the spears thrust at them by the Han soldiers and engaged in a tug-of-war, engaging in the most primitive and bloody competition on the front lines.
At the same time, the Wei army's ballistae and catapults were finally brought to the front lines, and they engaged in long-range firefights with the Han army.
The Wei army's long-range attack capability was clearly weaker than that of the Han army, but the Wei army was fearless and undaunted. One of the Wei soldiers pushing a cart suddenly had a brilliant idea. He overturned the cart and fell into the almost filled trench. Then, he actually climbed onto the cart and rushed towards the Han army camp.
The overturned chariots were taller than deer antlers. Wei soldiers stepped on the chariots, ran to the front, opened their arms, and leaped into the Han army's ranks, crushing several Han spearmen.
Xu Huang was overjoyed at this and immediately shouted, "Push down all the chariots and charge forward on their ramps!"