Chapter 69: The God of War (15)
The cavalries were known as the king of field operations, and the heavy cavalries were different from the ordinary cavalries. They were wearing heavy armors with bullet and sword proof, but the horses were also equipped with heavy armors, which made them have astonishing attacking power. One cavalry could deal with six to seven-foot soldiers, while it's not a problem for a heavy cavalry to deal with ten to twenty of them.
The heavy cavalries played a more critical role, especially in urban warfare. As long as there were more than fifty thousand heavy cavalries, they could easily conquer a city. Most of the soldiers guarding the city were foot soldiers. Each time they went out of the city to fight, the number of foot soldiers running out was minimal. They were often killed by the calvaries before they could line up in formation. They don't even have the chance to counterattack. As a result, Mo Xiao's troops galloped across the grassland. They were undefeatable after they entered the central region.
Right now, the Lin clan army would be facing such a dreadful army. Fortunately, they won a remarkable victory, which significantly boosted the fighting spirit of the soldiers. There were five thousand trained heavy cavalries and led them to plunder on the grassland, have them stained with blood, and stimulated their evil aura so that this battle would have a chance of winning. They also raided many war horses and armors, which made them well equipped.
In the distance, the drum was rumbling. When the army approached, Lin Dan had put on her heavy armor and steadily walked towards her horse. She walked through a group of hefty men like iron towers. She looked small, but her aura was not suppressed at all. The soldiers on both sides took off their helmets, and half knelt to salute her. They admired her from the bottom of their hearts and had already wholly subdued by her. Without her, there wouldn't have the existing Lin clan army, nor would the existence of this deadly army denounced as the devils.
Lin Dan, who was wearing a fifty to sixty pounds armor suit, seemed to be weightless. She jumped on the horseback agilely and ordered, "Let's go."
"Lin Dan!" A hoarse voice was suddenly heard, making her stop and look back.
Ding Mujie walked up gradually and forced a smile, "I wish you a triumphant victory, Lin Dan. Be careful on the battlefield! "
Before Lin Dan could express her gratitude, Li Xian said confidently, "With the help of a valiant general like General Lin and a military adviser like Ming De, we will definitely win this battle. Let's go. Just wait for our victory. "
Ming De was the name of Ding Mujie. These days, he tried his best to give advice to Li Xian, and the two of them had become friends from strangers.
After they finished their farewell, the warhorses set out together, causing a tide of yellow dust. The sand and dust blurred Lin Dan's back and Ding Mujie's vision. He tried his best to suppress his fear and bitterness. When the army was out of sight from afar, he waved his hand and said, "Let's find a high place to watch the battle."
A line of soldiers escorted him to a nearby high hill. He was now King Zhuang's military counselor, and he often came up with winning tricks, so he had a high position in the army.
The two armies met in plain, and both deployed their formation. Strictly speaking, the Lin clan army had more than a hundred thousand soldiers than Mo Xiao's army. Still, these hundred thousand soldiers were foot soldiers, which were nothing for the heavy cavalries. But Mo Xiao didn't look down upon the Lin army. He had constantly been learning from the scouts about Lin Dan's performance and reputation, which made him unwittingly had a grasp of her.
Seeing that gorgeous yet cold face of Lin Dan, he couldn't help but laugh. "Okay, this is the opponent I imagined!"
Lin Dan stood still.
Mo Xiao just raised his hand and ordered, "Attack!"
The armored Huns' cavalries were like a wall. A cavalry standing in front of the Lin army suddenly raised the flag in his hand and waved a few times. Then the army in the rear immediately began to change the formation. The foot soldiers ran up to the front in an orderly manner, ten people in a line and five people in a row. They formed a square formation in a staggered manner and protected the cavalries at the back instead.
The best battle formation was to position cavalries against each other; Positioning the foot soldiers against the cavalries was like surrendering their soldiers to the enemy. Mo Xiao had no idea what the Lin army was doing, and he hesitated. But this little hesitation didn't make him fear the army of the Wei Kingdom.
As the clatter of the horse's hooves approached, the Lin army's foot soldiers still stood firmly in the front and had no means to retreat. Whereas the cavalries were comfortably protected by the foot soldiers and had no means to attack.
Two hundred feet, one hundred and fifty feet, one hundred feet… The enemy was getting closer and closer, but the Lin army did not move, as if they were waiting for death. This was obviously illogical. There must be a trap! As soon as Mo Xiao thought of this, the cavalries who charged in the forefront suddenly sank. The cavalries behind them didn't hold back in time; they trampled over their bodies, causing more casualties.
Mo Xiao took a careful look, and only then did he found that the Lin army had somehow dug several trenches on the plain grassland. They were covered with bamboo nets and a layer of grass, which could not detect anything unusual from a distance. These trenches were like big mouths, devouring all the Huns' cavalries that were rushing over. The cavalries from the back can cross only when the pits were filled with the front cavalries.
It was already inconvenient for the soldiers and war horses to move in heavy armors. After falling, they had no time to get up and were trampled to pieces by their comrades' iron hooves. Fortunately, in order to hold the line, Mo Xiao didn't run in the forefront, or else he would have been killed. It was too late to retreat now, so the Huns soldier had to abandon their comrades-in-arms under their feet and continued to charge forward.
The soldiers of the Lin army still stood still. They waited until the Huns got close enough, then only they draw out a pole from behind their back and hold it in front of them. The initially neat formation suddenly turned into hedgehogs that could not get close at all. It was too late for the horses to stop; the Huns' cavalries crashed into the poles and caused many casualties.
A soldier of the Wei Kingdom waved the small flag in his hand as he ran backward. The Lin. army immediately changed their formation when they saw the situation. The foot soldiers guarding at the front threw away their broken poles and ran to the back. Only then did the light cavalries who had been hiding behind them run forward. The weapon in their hands was not an ordinary weapon but a six-foot-long war scythe. Instead of cutting the enemy's heads with these scythes, they bent down and attacked the horse's hooves with sharp blades.
The Huns' heavy cavalries were all wearing armors from top to bottom, which could be said they were invulnerable to swords and spears. Even their warhorses were hidden in thick iron armors, except for their eyes and the hooves. There was almost no place for them to attack. The Lin army attacked at that weakness. Once the horse's hooves were hurt, the horses with a weight of over a hundred pounds would immediately fall to the ground and could never get up. The heavy armors gave them layers of protection, but at the same time, they also restricted their movements.
The light cavalries of the Wei Kingdom cut off the hooves of the horses and walked nimbly among the Huns' heavy cavalries, causing them many injuries. Usually, when a horse fell, a group of horses would fall behind it, and heavy causalities would occur. Such a weapon, and tactic, was really something that the Huns' cavalries had never heard or seen before, and they were stunned at once.
Seeing that another group of Huns' cavalries fell to the ground, they didn't seem to have many advantages in numbers and combat effectiveness. Only then the five thousand heavy cavalries led by Lin Dan rush out from behind and wantonly kill them. This time, the Lin army had no strategic tactics to use anymore, so they were like the Huns, began to slaughter. They had been wandering on the grassland for months and were already used to killing. Wherever they went were like broken bamboos, causing the Huns' cavalries to abandon their helmet and armor, which was challenging to fight against them. After a series of tricks, Mo Xiao's mind was in a mess. Seeing that Lin Dan was running towards him with a sword, he turned around and fled unexpectedly.
He had never expected that the Wei squad would improve so much in just a few months. The wolves on the grassland were far from being his match! They were ruthless, cruel, and brave, far more spirited than the Huns' cavalries. This sick toothless tiger, which was raised by its family, had now become a lion.
"Retreat! Retreat!" Mo Xiao yelled. More than half of his seventy thousand heavy armored horses had been killed in less than an hour. If he didn't flee now, all his men would be buried here. Although he was the chief of the Huns, many tribes just pretended to obey him, but there were hidden intentions within them. If he didn't have enough force to intimidate these people, he would definitely be devoured by them in the future.
He had planned to take control of the central region to distract these people's attention. But currently, the place was like a doom; he would definitely don't want it.
Lin Dan definitely wouldn't let him run away so easily. She carried her sword and chased after him for hundreds of miles until she reached the depth of the grassland. When she led her horseback to the battlefield, the battle was already over. The Lin clan almost annihilated the army at the lowest cost and won the final victory.
Without the command of Mo Xiao, the rest of the Huns' army were no longer a threat. Lin Dan gradually gained her fame by leading her heavy cavalries to encircle these remnants of the grassland. As long as they heard that General Lin was here, the men would immediately run and hide in the tent. They didn't even dare to let out a cry. If they saw her cavalry galloping over from a distance, they would abandon their sheep and tents and flee as fast as they could. In the past, they were the ones who plundered the settlers of the central region and never the other way.
The Lin clan had guarded the border for generations and had dealt with the Huns countless times. The Huns hated them to the core, thinking that they could exterminate the Lin clan this time, but they didn't expect that such a ruthless person like Lin Dan would appear in their clan and almost kill the Huns in turn! Was it true that the Lin clan the bane of the Huns?
Mo Xiao didn't mention how much he hated Lin Dan, but he couldn't do anything to her even so. In terms of kung fu, Lin Dan was undefeatable on the grassland; As for her brutality, she only knows how to attack but not how to defend. Every drop of blood on her body revealed an unstoppable force. Anyone who was her enemy had to prepare to be smashed to pieces by her.
Mo Xiao had re-established his troops twice but was defeated by Lin Dan. He was afraid of her and gradually returned to his hometown. He couldn't afford to offend her, so the only way was to hide. He sent a letter of pleading for peace and made peace with the emperor of the Wei Kingdom. He didn't want to be killed by Lin Dan. He had no idea when she would come to his hometown and kill him.
However, he had heard that Lin Dan had made up her mind to exterminate the Huns to avenge her whole family. It's all because of Mo Li's cruel means and had driven her to a desperate situation. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been in such a difficult situation.