Volume 5: Overlord of the Sea Chapter 598 Occupation
Being surrounded, Zhang Liao's desire to win and his confidence in his cavalry finally burst out...
Zhang Liao's original unique tactical thinking was completely sublimated into a unique combat skill - the Seed of Fear!
It can cause the defeated enemy troops to be infected with the emotion of "fear", thus leading to a major rout. And like "Fierce Bow" and "Heroic Posture", it is a special combat skill that can be used on the soldiers under your command.
After defeating the enemy, using their own rout to further attack the main formation and cause a greater rout was Zhang Liao's favorite tactic. The first time Bai Tu saw him use this tactic was when he dug up Weishan Lake and pursued the victory.
Zhang Liao had developed this combat habit much earlier, starting when he was in Bingzhou. Some of his tactics were similar to those of the Qiang Cavalry...
Now it is this tactic that has been completely sublimated into a combat skill, allowing Zhang Liao to have a strong ability to turn the tables in a melee battle where he is outnumbered!
If there is a "weakness", it is that the coverage area is not too large. Generally, two to three thousand people is the limit. Even around a thousand people is the most cost-effective.
The number is much smaller than that of Huang Zhong and Sun Ce's combat skills.
And... as a diffusible ability, the more enemies there are, the better the effect. When it spread a few times, there was not much increase, and it was ineffective against elite soldiers.
However, as the frequency of transmission increases, the proportion of "fear" will also increase, and eventually even the elite troops will suffer a morale collapse!
After possessing the "Seed of Fear", if Zhang Liao led a thousand cavalrymen, if the enemy had three thousand elite cavalrymen, they would actually have a great chance of defeating Zhang Liao. However, if it was thirty thousand miscellaneous soldiers plus three thousand elite cavalrymen, when facing Zhang Liao, there was a greater possibility of a total collapse.
Although Zhang Liao's cavalry was one of the few independent cavalry in the State of Chu at this time, it was no longer the configuration of the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry.
Instead, they are somewhat similar to the heavy plate-armored cavalry that was very famous in the Chu State a few years ago and is now hated by other princes!
The other princes gnashed their teeth at this, because they thought they had been tricked by the State of Chu, treating the useless plate armor as a treasure in front of the Qi catapults and artillery, and spent a huge price to buy it back...
But in fact, the effect of plate armor heavy cavalry is not very bad. After all, they have a certain chance of defense against Qi crossbows. It’s just... the cost performance is too low in comparison!
After the emergence of cheap Qi-fired crossbows and artillery that can easily tear apart plate cavalry, why do expensive plate cavalry still exist?
However, for the State of Chu, this problem is not a big one. After all, the State of Chu is now rich and powerful, and for other princes, plate armor is still very powerful.
However, the plate armor of Zhang Liao's cavalry has been reduced in thickness and defensive area, not for the sake of "cost-effectiveness" but to reduce weight.
It is more like an early bulletproof iron vest. Because there is also a bulletproof net inside, the defense is not much worse than the original plate armor, especially against penetrating sharp weapons.
In addition, mainly in terms of weapons, the lances used more by charging cavalry were completely abandoned, and replaced with short Qi crossbows and maces...
The short Qi crossbow has a smaller loading action. Although its range is shorter and its power is smaller, it can fire six shots in a row with one loading!
That’s right, it’s the same configuration as the Liaodong Iron Cavalry, the predecessor of the Guanning Iron Cavalry…
When fighting, use the musket to gain the upper hand first, then go up and swing the mace. Relying on the armor being strong enough and the mace being heavy enough, you can crush the enemy with force!
They are also the cavalry that is least afraid of being surrounded - even if the charging space is compressed, they can still rely on their hard offensive and defensive indicators to crush the infantry.
In the Battle of Nanpi, Zhang Liao used this characteristic of his elite cavalry and the "seed of fear" to break through the encirclement of the Yuban Organization and "smash it" in one fell swoop...
It's not just about breaking through, but about causing the surrounded party to collapse!
As for the other "pseudo-cavalry", they covered the artillery output and forcibly boarded the Nanpi position...
As a military city, Nanpi’s city wall is not square with only one layer, but is stacked with layers and not just one layer of urn. Moreover, the walls can be isolated from each other and there is a complex structure of internal passages!
However, even so, when the reinforcements outside were defeated, Li Dian who sent out troops was also defeated, and the enemy took over a part of the city wall as a position, the advantage of the military city was still greatly reduced.
Especially after half a day, when Zhang Liao's army seemed a little weak, Lu Bu's main force had already arrived, and directly took advantage of the situation to stabilize the city wall, and... had captured alive Yu Jin and Li Dian, who had tried to escape in the opposite direction and get away with it after the previous collapse!
Although there was Le Jin organizing the defense in the city, how could they be a match for Lu Bu when they had no defensive advantage and even lacked military strength?
Soon Nanpi fell completely, especially when the battle was halfway through, Yu Jin was persuaded to surrender - to be precise, he was willing to surrender to the Chu army and persuade the still resisting defenders .
Theoretically, Yu Jin was the commander-in-chief of Bohai County, and Li Dian and Le Jin were both under his control.
If Yu Jin was simply captured, because the Wei State had a military rule of "ignoring hostages", Le Jin could have declared that Yu Jin's order was invalid.
However, the morale of the Wei army is now very weak, and there is already a gap in strength, so... there is no need for Le Jin's consent. The middle and low-level generals of the Wei army all "gladly" carried out Yu Jin's orders.
This is exactly Yu Jin's purpose...
He did not surrender to the State of Chu, but was willing to recruit this part of the Wei army to surrender for the State of Chu in order to avoid meaningless casualties.
That's why he chose to raise this point to Lu Bu when he saw no chance of winning and that continuing the battle would only result in casualties.
Although to be honest, Yu Jin just "admitted defeat" and did not surrender to Chu, but Lu Bu naturally had no reason to disagree...
At this point, Lu Bu and Zhang Liao's assault was a great success. From the time of landing, they completely occupied Nanpi in three days and four nights!
Not only was the defense line from Nanpi to Yanci not lost, but the navy would soon support Lu Bu and recapture Bohai Port, making the area from Bohai Port to Nanpi completely under the hands of the Chu State.
From the perspective of land warfare, this means going deep behind enemy lines. However, from the perspective of naval warfare, Yanci Port and Bohai Port have open sea routes to the territory of Chu, so there is no need to worry about logistical supplies and military support.
That is to say, they actually controlled the western coastal area of Bohai County, which was similar to the situation in Qingzhou and Donglai. However, unlike Donglai, the navy not only captured Bohai Port again, but also sent a key figure...
On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, Lu Bu...or rather, the State of Chu announced that Marquis An Wei had "taken office" in Nanpi, and urged the State of Wei to give up Yecheng, the city of Marquis An Wei, as soon as possible!
At the same time, Cao Pi, the Marquis of Anwei, also declared to the northern nobles that as the "Marquis of Chu Anwei", he was the true "orthodoxy", hoping that the northern nobles would see the situation clearly as soon as possible and cooperate with the Marquis of Chu Anwei in Nanpi...
