Chapter 175: The th Battle is Victorious
After more than an hour of repeated attacks, harassment, and intimidation, even the elite Danyang troops of the Wei army began to waver.

Because this was a kind of mental torture for them. For more than an hour, the cavalry just kept circling around the periphery, coming and going freely, occasionally approaching to shoot a round of arrows before quickly leaving.

Before the officers of the Wei army gave the order to shoot, they quickly threw arrows out of range. Although the hit rate of horse archery was not high and there were shields to protect them, many people were nailed to the ground by arrows and wailed in pain.

The panic caused by this would naturally spread within the square formation, and when the Wei army soldiers saw the dozens or even hundreds of war horses rushing towards them, even the elite soldiers had never seen such a large-scale cavalry charge. After all, they all grew up in the water towns of the south of the Yangtze River and had never seen a large group of cavalry.

Although these cavalrymen did not actually charge to the front, no one knew whether they would really rush over.

This kind of confrontation is the greatest test of the army's resilience and adaptability.

When the Wei army was forced to engage in a land battle with the Yan army, they took the initiative to use their own weaknesses to attack the enemy's strengths.

All of these are advantages that the Yan army gained by occupying key and contested locations.

Although they were on the defensive, the Yan army had the initiative, while the Wei army could only passively launch active attacks.

Although this may seem a bit confusing, it is the truth.

With the Yan army in control of Ruxukou, the Chaohu navy could threaten any target along the Yangtze River: Wuhu, Dangtu, Jianye, and Jingkou.

In order to avoid surprise attacks by the Yan army in these places, the Wei army could only attack instead of defend.

And because the navy could not enter the Jianghuai waterway, they could only engage in foot battle with the Yan army.
Time was passing by little by little, and Cao Yuanjing, Miao Xianyun and others who were watching the battle on the boats on the river also realized that their own army formation had begun to waver.

The Yan army's light cavalry also seemed to have discovered the changes in the Wei army's formation opposite them, and they were getting closer and closer.

The cavalry tied with branches galloped faster and faster, brushing the edge of the range of most crossbows, from left to right, and from right to left, completely disregarding the horsepower. The dust they raised was getting higher and higher, so that the air was filled with choking dust, causing many soldiers to start coughing.

The archers in the formation could not even see the movements of the Yan cavalry outside, so naturally they did not dare to shoot arrows at will.

And three hundred heavily armored cavalrymen also quietly appeared behind the smoke and dust.

The formation was already somewhat loose, and in the smoke and dust, the soldiers could no longer concentrate.

The next moment, after being circled by the Yan army's light cavalry for nearly two hours, the Wei army's infantry formation had become very loose and obscured by dust, making it impossible to see, and even difficult to open their eyes in the dust.

The heavy cavalry of the Yan army set out.

Like an arrow, it flew straight towards the gap in the area that Chang Yanheng had previously paid special attention to.

Liu Xuanji, the cavalry commander, held a large spear in his hand and rode in the front, facing the spearhead. Behind him were two teams of 100 heavy cavalrymen, shooting into the Wei army like arrows.

The soldiers in the first row didn't even have time to remind their companions behind them to hold the line, before they felt their shields hit by a huge force. The force was then transmitted to the soldiers behind them, causing them to fly into the air and then fall dizzy into the crowd.

The sword and shield soldiers and spearmen of the Wei army were in temporary positions. It seemed that the formation was complete, but in fact, the sharp corners of their shields failed to pierce the ground, and the soldiers were unable to get into a posture to withstand the impact. Moreover, the spearmen in the back were unable to hold their spears horizontally in time...

Under the attack of the heavy cavalry, the battle formation was repeatedly frustrated. The soldiers in the front suffered heavy casualties, and the rear row had to retreat to the rear and try to reconstruct the battle line.

"Stand still, don't retreat! Hold on!"

The Wei army's commander, Wang Xiongyan, shouted in the crowd, trying to stabilize the front. But the Yan cavalry charged forward with all their might. These Youzhou people, with their amazing riding skills, were like a whirlpool swirling under the dam, constantly turning and charging forward.

When the infantry tried their best to contain the charge of the first batch of knights, they did not want to fight any more but simply reined in their horses and turned around.

At the same time, the second group of knights began to accelerate in the rear.

The third group of knights began to line up. When the second group of knights marched into the battle formation, the first group of knights circled back from both sides of the fighting scene, and some even dismounted to rest their horses. The third group of knights began to speed up, and so on.

Although the elite Danyang soldiers of the Wei army were able to fight one after another and sacrifice their lives to fill the gaps in the defense line at the beginning; however, the ferocity of the heavy cavalry and the fierce charge they launched were simply impossible to resist, and eventually these Danyang soldiers lost the courage and bloodiness to fight back.

The Wei army's formation finally couldn't hold out and collapsed.

Afterwards, Chang Yanheng and Wang Tong each led their light cavalry to join the close combat and began to reap the fruits of victory.

Seeing that the retreat was irreversible, the Wei army's main general, Wang Xiongyan, had no choice but to be forced by his personal guards to join the fleeing team.

Chang Yanheng also showed his demeanor as a fierce general. Holding a large spear in his hand, he rode his horse into the Wei army's formation, like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, waving his spear and finding no one to match him.

The light cavalry either continued to use bows and arrows on the periphery to clear the way for their upcoming attack, or simply drew out their swords and followed behind the heavy cavalry to kill the defeated army.

After suffering a crushing defeat, the Wei army had no choice but to retreat. Fortunately, there was a big river behind them and the small boats they had brought with them. Even if they didn't get on the small boats, there were Wei army warships not far away.

The Wei army were all from Jiangdong. Some of them who were good at swimming simply dropped their weapons and jumped into the river to swim towards the distant warships.

The situation on the battlefield became one-sided again.

Of the three thousand elite Wei troops, more than eight hundred fought in battle, more than four hundred were captured, and the rest all escaped.

Although only a thousand people were injured, Cao Yuanjing still felt heartbroken.

You have to know that these were his elite troops, the Danyang men who had fought with him for many years. But now they were defeated so easily by the Yan army, with more than a thousand casualties in half a day. It was not only heart-breaking, but also physically painful.

The first day of the battle ended with a great victory for the Yan army. The Wei army tried to land twice but was driven back into the river each time, losing nearly 2,000 men.

After the battle, the Yan army soldiers in Wucheng and various camps began to cheer. On the contrary, the morale of the Wei army on the river was low, and even the generals who gathered together to discuss matters were a little depressed.

Cao Yuanjing said helplessly, "Mr. Zhang once said that northerners are good at riding and shooting, while southerners are good at sailing. Today I have really seen it. The cavalry is so brave that our Jiangdong infantry formation is really hard to resist. We can't sail north either. What should we do?"

Cao Rong said, "I heard that the Yan army only has a few thousand cavalry, and we have more than 100,000 people. Maybe we can try to land in sections to tire them out."

Zhang Hongping said, "King Wu is right. The only way to deal with this is to mobilize a large number of infantry and land on the shore to tire out the Yan army. The Yan army's cavalry is also very valuable. They will not waste their cavalry on our miscellaneous soldiers. All the troops should rush forward and tire out the Yan army. As long as one of them can gain a foothold, we can dig deep trenches, set up antlers and chevaux de frise to restrain the Yan cavalry."

Cao Yuanjing nodded. This was the only relatively reliable method at present.

Today's two tentative landings have made the Wei army fully realize the powerlessness of infantry against cavalry. Fortunately, the number of Yan army cavalry is not large.

Using large numbers of miscellaneous soldiers to consume the enemy's strength and then sending out elite troops to make the final decision was exactly the Wei army's favorite tactic before.

(End of this chapter)