Tiantang Splendid

Chapter 4824 Invincible
"Armored cavalry!"

A scream filled with despair caused all the defenders to fall into panic and chaos.

Tubo's iron smelting technology was extremely primitive and backward. The iron knives they forged were either soft and weak, or too hard and easy to break. Even their ability to forge arrowheads was very lacking, and most of them used bronze arrowheads, not to mention the iron armor that represented the pinnacle of the current iron smelting technology.

Even the most powerful "Guangjun" around the Zamp did not have "armor for both men and horses". An iron helmet and a few pieces of armor were considered well-equipped, but it was impossible for them to be so extravagant as to even put armor on their horses...

Although there are only more than twenty of these galloping cavalrymen, they are all dressed in armor from head to toe, especially the "eight-petal helmets" on the cavalrymen's heads, which are unique equipment of the Tang army. It can be seen at a glance that they are the invincible "armored cavalry" of the Tang army galloping on the battlefield.

It was naturally impossible for the Tang army to directly participate in the war, which meant that even the most advanced equipment was given to the Gar tribe.

With Lu Dongzan, the "wisest man in Tubo", as well as generals like Zan Xiruo and Lun Qinling, and fierce generals like Bolun Zanren and Zanpo, the combat effectiveness of the Gar tribe has always been among the best in the sequence of various Tubo tribes. Now with the high-end equipment of the Tang army, its combat effectiveness has more than doubled.

The moment Su Pi Yangxiong saw the "armored cavalry" appear, his hands and feet became numb and his whole body trembled. Although there were only about twenty or thirty soldiers with armor on horseback, due to the narrowness of the battlefield, these horses were enough to penetrate his vanguard formation like a "sharp arrow". If he could not stop them and allowed them to advance straight in, the entire central army would be split in two.

The choice he faces now is to fight or retreat?

If they fought, it would be very likely that the "armored cavalry" would break through the center of the army and attack the rear army, causing the entire formation to completely collapse and more than 10,000 soldiers and horses to be annihilated.

If they retreat, it would mean collapse at the first touch. As long as Lun Qinling keeps chasing them, there would be a great defeat.

No matter how you look at it, "collapse" is the biggest risk.

Just as he was hesitating, the "Armored Cavalry" of the Gar tribe ignored the arrows and charged into the vanguard formation of the defenders. The wooden shields were shattered into pieces, and the shieldmen fell to the ground with blood spurting from their mouths under the impact of the war horses. The spears behind them could not hurt the "Armored Cavalry" at all unless they were extremely lucky and pierced the joints of the armor. The spears broke one after another, and the "Armored Cavalry" waved their steel knives, easily cutting off the spear shafts, breaking the leather armor, and cutting off the bodies. For a moment, blood splattered and limbs flew everywhere, as if they were in an empty space.

The front army collapsed almost the moment they engaged in battle. Soldiers dropped their shields and spears, turned and ran, crying and wailing, and plunged headlong into the formation of the central army waiting behind them. The central army didn't know what to do. In a trance, the entire formation was overwhelmed by the comrades who fled back from the front army, and the scene was in chaos.

Su Pi Yang Xiong no longer had any hope of luck. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was bloodshot. He shouted, "Retreat! Retreat! Retreat to Huashi Gorge!"

Then he turned around, rode his horse ahead, and ran away surrounded by his personal soldiers.

It's not that he was timid and afraid of death, but he was in charge of the rear army to supervise the battle. If he didn't move, the whole army would not know what to do. The soldiers in the front would retreat, and the soldiers in the rear would not know whether to advance or retreat. This would easily lead to inconsistent advance and retreat, and the consequence would be trampling on each other.

He was also a veteran on the battlefield and knew that this was the worst situation. Even if it was a great defeat, not many soldiers would actually die on the battlefield, because generally speaking, as long as the casualties reached 30%, the army would have collapsed. No matter how strong the army was, it would not be able to continue fighting if the casualties exceeded 50%. The greatest casualties often occurred in the self-trampling after the collapse.

These were the foundations of his survival, so he could accept defeat, but he could never accept his soldiers dying in Liemo Sea...

The commander-in-chief evacuated first, and all the soldiers knew what to do. Immediately, the rear army and the front army of more than 10,000 people turned around and ran away, and the whole battlefield was in chaos.

Bo Lun Zanren wore an iron helmet and iron armor, and the warhorse under his crotch only showed two eyes. He rushed into the enemy camp under a sky full of arrows and killed wantonly. He swung his nail-headed hammer and hit the hard chisel, which was invulnerable to swords and spears. He killed people with blood and flesh flying everywhere. He was very excited and took the lead in leading the "armored cavalry" to break up the enemy camp. Seeing that the enemy army had completely collapsed and was fleeing for their lives, he still pursued them relentlessly and killed countless enemies after chasing them for more than 20 miles. Then he received the military order to stop the pursuit and return to the post station by the Liemo Sea to rest and reorganize.

The post station had been completely captured, and it was filled with wounded people healing their wounds and cooks preparing meals. Bolun Zanren jumped off his horse, took off his eight-petal helmet, wiped the sweat off his face, and patted the top of his horse's head affectionately. The horse snorted and pawed its hooves, looking quite unsatisfied.

Bo Lun Zanren threw the iron helmet to his personal soldier and strode into the only room in the post station. He saw his brother Lun Qinling standing in front of the map. He walked closer, grabbed the kettle on the table, took a sip and found it was warm water, so he tilted his head back and drank it all in one gulp.

"Bang!" the kettle was thrown on the table, "Hu!" he let out a long breath, and sat on the stool with a sword in his hand, his eyebrows dancing with joy and fighting spirit high: "It's great! It's really great! The iron armor of the Tang people is really a good thing. It is impenetrable to swords and spears, and it is not afraid of arrows. It can break through the formation and kill the enemy as if it is in an empty space. It's great!"

Lun Qinling turned around and sat aside, looking at the armor on Bolun Zanren's body, shook his head and sighed: "It's just thirty sets of armor, but they defeated Su Bi Yangxiong and made him unable to resist. I heard that when Fang Jun led his army to rush thousands of miles to the Western Regions to defeat the Arab army, there were thousands of armored cavalry in the army. It is hard to imagine how thousands of armored cavalry would be when they launched a surprise attack on the desert Gobi... The Tang Dynasty is too powerful. It is said that the Tang army equipped a kind of artillery on the warships. When the shells fell, the walls collapsed, the houses collapsed, the mountains collapsed, and the ground cracked. The armored cavalry was like a piece of rotten leather and rags, and there was nothing to resist. The strongest spears and the strongest shields are in the hands of the Tang people. Who in the world can be their enemy?"

Bolun Zanren didn't understand his brother's worries, and said disapprovingly: "The Han people have a saying that 'a man who knows the current situation is a hero'. Since the Tang Dynasty is strong and invincible, why don't we stand together with them instead of being their enemy? For example, now that we are wearing this armor to fight against Tubo, and we have the Tang army's thunder bombs to attack cities and capture strongholds, what is there to worry about?"

Although he was extremely brave, he was not a stubborn reckless man, nor would he try to defeat the enemy when he knew he was outmatched. He understood the principle of "joining if you can't beat them". Since the Tang Dynasty was so powerful, he would stand on the side of the Tang Dynasty and attack Tubo.

If the situation is reversed in the future, then we can turn to the Zamp and attack the Tang Dynasty...

Lu Dongzan often taught his son that "there is no absolute loyalty, only absolute interests", and Bolunzan felt that this was right...

Lun Qinling shook his head and said, "I just have some feelings. At the beginning, my father tried his best to promote the marriage between Tubo and Tang Dynasty and asked the Zamp to marry a Tang princess. He wanted to form an alliance between the two countries and introduce various advanced technologies from Tang Dynasty to transform Tubo from a backward tribal country to an advanced and powerful country like Tang Dynasty. As a result, the marriage was almost completed, but it was obstructed by Fang Jun and failed. If it had been done at that time, not only would my father's prestige have greatly increased and he would not have been exiled to Qinghai Lake, but Tubo would have introduced Tang Dynasty's advanced technologies such as iron smelting, medicine, and construction, and the national strength would have doubled. Perhaps the offensive and defensive situation would have been very different."

In the confrontation between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo, Tubo actually had the upper hand. It was able to remain invincible simply by relying on the geographical advantage of the plateau. Then it looked for the weak points of the Tang army and launched sneak attacks and invasions from time to time, making the Tang army exhausted and plundering cities within the Tang Dynasty.

As long as the internal political power of the Tang Dynasty was unstable, Tubo could easily break through the Tang army's defense line and march straight in.

But now Tubo has failed to obtain the advanced technology of the Tang Dynasty to enhance its national strength. The expulsion of the Gar tribe has caused Tubo's strength to be damaged. In addition, the Gar tribe has to attack Tubo fiercely under the heavy pressure of the Tang Dynasty. The situation facing Tubo is extremely bad.

And the beginning of all this was the failure of Lu Dongzan's marriage proposal in Chang'an.

It can be seen that the success or failure of a strategic decision is enough to cause a country to have different offensive and defensive situations and unpredictable rise and fall for a long period of time...

Bolun Zanren was impatient to discuss these strategic matters, he did not understand them either, so he waved his hand and said, "Brother and father can make the decisions on these matters, don't tell me, I only care about whether we can pursue the victory or not."

Lun Qinling shook his head: "Subi Yangxiong retreated too quickly. As soon as the unfavorable situation on the battlefield appeared, he immediately took the initiative to retreat. He didn't care whether Liemohai was lost or not... This is a bit unreasonable. You know, although he is a prince of Subi, he was almost driven out of the capital. He was able to stay in Liemohai because the Zamp deliberately provoked disputes within Subi and therefore protected him. Under such circumstances, if Subi Yangxiong lost Liemohai, how could he repay the Zamp's appreciation? So even if Subi Yangxiong knew he was defeated, he should have fought to the death. Since he retreated so quickly, it shows that he didn't care whether Liemohai was lost or how the Zamp explained it."

Bo Lun Zan Ren was confused and dazed: "So what? What does this mean?"

"Subi Yangxiong is fearless and is not afraid of the Zamp's pursuit of responsibility, which shows that the Zamp is clearing the countryside and luring the enemy deep into our territory!"

Lun Qinling glared at his brother in anger and said, "Zamp must be waiting for us to go deeper into the heart of Tubo. When we are exhausted from the expedition and run out of food, he will gather a large army somewhere to fight us!"

"Ah? Is that so? Then where do you think the Zamp will choose to fight us?"

Bo Lun Zanren not only did not show any fear but was extremely excited. He was excited as long as there was a battle, and the stronger the enemy, the more excited he was.

Lun Qinling thought about it carefully: "It depends on how much the Zamp trusts the tribes. Although we can use our hands to consume those tribes that are unwilling to be loyal to him, it is impossible for every tribe that he fears to withdraw troops to fight us, so it is more likely to kill one to warn the rest. Now that Chisang Yangdun's tribe has been greatly weakened and has to rely on the Zamp with all its strength, the next one may be another major threat, the Subi Kingdom... Perhaps the decisive battle will take place in Huashi Gorge."