Chapter 374
Chapter 374 – Kebineng's Mistake
July 10th .
Xu Huang altered his plan as he received more reinforcements from Zhao Yun and Tian Yu .
Tian Yu moved half of the granaries to East Linyu camp that Xu Huang had constructed while Zhao Yun secured Linyu in Tian Yu's place .
Xu Huang and his 59,000 soldiers marched west for another ten days, and he did the same with the former fortress . He built another camp, but he did not move forward .
As the threat of Kebineng was still present, Xu Huang did not rush in . He kept his defense tight and stable, but he pressured Xiangping City with their shortened distance .
Now, the distance from the current Xu Huang's position to Xiangping was less than ten days of marching .
Meanwhile, Kebineng camped one kilometer away from Xu Huang's new fort . All supplies from Gongsun Du gathered here for Kebineng's 20,000 soldiers .
The new Xianbei's chieftain grinned after Gongsun Du's messengers and helpers left . He looked at the bundles of rice and dried food in the granaries in glee .
"Shift these foods to the north . I want everything out of here as soon as possible . "
Kebineng predicted that Gongsun Du would lose this battle soon . As he did not want to risk his life for the losing side, he planned to bail from Han's territories and return to his homeland .
Letting these Han soldiers fight each other to the death was a better idea . Once they exhausted their resources and manpower, he would come back to claim these lands .
"Sir, we haven't planned where we will take these foods . Please designate the gathering place . "
Kebineng snorted, "I knew that . Take a battalion and come with me . Let's secure the perimeters first . "
One thousand men left the camp with Kebineng, leaving 19,000 horse archers to fortify the base .
One hour after their departure, Xu Huang's scout team returned to their fort, reporting their finding to their grand commander .
"A barbarian camp nearby and a scout team to the north? That's interesting . "
Xu Huang turned to Jia Xu, "I'm planning to ignore the scout team . What do you think, senior Jia?"
"I'm against taking no action this time, general . I think they have withdrawn all of their ambush parties and gathered in Xiangping . What we're seeing here should be their interception force, and they are securing the perimeters to search for an advantage foothold . Also …"
Jia Xu looked at the scout leader, "What's their troop number again?"
"Roughly 20,000, sir . "
"Good . Then, I was right . Nothing to worry about . "
Xu Huang frowned, "Elaborate, please . "
"Yes . Aside from these 20,000 soldiers, the rest of Gongsun Du or the barbarian forces should be in Xiangping . Because of your tactic, they should have thought that you were a coward, and they ignored your presence . Only after we have moved closer to Xiangping, they come out to intercept us . It's just a direct battle on the field with no ploy, so there is nothing to worry about . "
Xu Huang grinned, "In other words, they are looking down on me?"
"Indeed . "
Xu Huang's smile widened . Instead of getting angered by the news, he liked it .
"Let's provoke them into a fight then . Get all cavalries prepared . We'll probe their strength . Also, contact Tian Yu and Zhao Yun . Move their forces and all of their supplies to our current base . Tell them to prepare for a fight as well . "
"Understood . "
Late afternoon, 10,000 heavy knights and 4,000 light cavalries stationed in front of Kebineng's camp .
Kebineng's camp was made with haste . Only spike barricades and short fences presented as their lines of defense . As for their watchtowers, there were only three facing Xu Huang's direction .
Xu Huang grew more confident as he inspected the defense of this base . They looked down on him as Jia Xu had thought .
The Xianbei had already noticed Xu Huang's horsemen . They assembled and formed arrays behind the barricades while more than half of the soldiers rushed back to mount their horse .
Xu Huang would not wait for them to be 100% readied . He sent his order, "Knights, take out your crossbows, get into range and fire into the camp!"
With repeating crossbows in their hands, they galloped to their firing range and launched an endless volley beyond their fences .
The defense force also released their arrows, trading projectiles .
Arrow rain from Xu Huang reached the defenders first . Cries and death throes from the camp echoed throughout the battlefield .
Xu Huang's heavy knight also received the impact from the opponent's arrows . Clanking sound of metallic objects hitting each other resonated as the iron arrowheads hit the steel plate armors of the knights and their horses .
While the Xianbei used their silk and leather armors to deflect arrow's trajectory, the knights welcomed them with their impregnatable defense .
Tong used to call these knight armors as pay-to-win armors, which was not farfetched .
In Medieval time, not many western knights could afford to wear a full plate mail armor set . As it took times to wear and it costed money, only nobles could afford to go out to wars with these armors .
Pages and squares also had knight armors, but they only covered for their vital spots, such as the chest, head, and a portion of arms and shins .
The full plated knights were difficult to kill with slashing or thrusting weaponry, such as swords, arrows, spears, and lance . There was a record that a well-armored knight could take on a hundred light-armored soldiers if the men had only slashing and thrusting weapons .
Thus, many western soldiers wielded hammers, maces, and blunt weapons to counter these knights . The only way to kill these tanks were to smash them to internal bleeding or crippling them to submission .
Xu Huang's 10,000 heavy cavalries were sporting the expensive full plate mails . As a result, these arrows were a joke to the soldiers .
They stood still with their horses, tanking all the oncoming arrows as they fired theirs .
Ten minutes after the exchange, the defending archers were routed . All of them fled back into their camp to their horses .
Xu Huang did not follow up with the attack . Instead, he rearranged their horse formation .
All light cavalries covered his flanks while the heavy armored ones form a triple-line formation, getting ready to charge at the enemies .
Soon, 15,000 surviving riders got out of the camp with their horses . The Xianbei attempted to use their hit-and-run tactic with their horse archers as they ran around Xu Huang's formation in a circle .
"Whoops, this is troublesome . All light cavalries, charge into the camp and burn it down! As for knights, gather in a square formation and don't move . Reload your crossbows and keep firing at the enemies!"
Against moving targets, Xu Huang chose not to follow after their rhythms . Instead, he defined his paces and avoided unnecessary casualties .
By sending all light cavalries into the camp, it would pressure the Xianbei that they could not ignore their defense forces . Had they ignored it, their granaries, tents, and all supplies would be burnt to ashes .
Xu Huang used a mind game against the barbarians . He wanted to pressure them into returning to the camp, so they would be put in a defensive position . With this move, the pace of this fight would fall into his hands .
As if Xu Huang was playing chess, he predicted five scenarios that could happen after this move .
One, all enemies could return into the camp and focus on defending . In this scenario, Xu Huang could take his time to wither the enemy numbers before dusk .
Two, the enemies splitted into two groups . One would focus on defending while the other one would continue using the horse archer tactic on his heavy knights . Xu Huang believed that this scenario was likely to happen as it should be a standard protocol for the defenders .
Still, once they splitted themselves too thin, he would withdraw the light horsemen and concentrate on weeding out the troops on the outside .
Third, the enemies could charge at the heavy horsemen . This would be a check-mate had the Xianbei rushed at Xu Huang as the knights had advantages in melee combats .
Fourth, the enemies would retreat with organized troops . They would reenter the camp to control the fire and chase the light unit out . Then, they would secure the granaries, supplies, and slowly withdraw back from this location .
And the last scenario, the Xianbei would chase the light cavalry unit inside the camp and seek to eliminate them . This could also benefit Xu Huang as he could use the light horsemen as baits . Then, branches of strategies would follow after this .
Still, it seemed he overestimated them . He did not know that Kebineng, the only talented general in this army, had gone out with the scout team .
The Xianbei horsemen ignored the camp and concentrated on fighting Xu Huang in the open, which was a tactical mistake . Without protection on the primary supply depots, they were asking Xu Huang indirectly as "Please burn my granaries . "
Both sides continued to trade arrows for 30 minutes, which Xu Huang welcomed it with a sadistic smile .
The light horsemen did their job, burning down the entire camp and fled back to Xu Huang's position .
As for the useless Xianbei horse archers, they fled north after the flame devoured their entire encampment .
Looking at the retreating soldiers, Xu Huang had a complicated emotion . He was disappointed that the enemies were too weak, yet he was glad that he won .
"How dullard . Well, let's return . "
Xu Huang did not pursue . He led his men back to the camp .
.
At Dusk, all Kebineng soldiers gathered at Mount Dahei, the place that they used to hide and ambushed Zhang Bao .
From the initial 20,000 men, only 12,000 survived from the fight against Xu Huang .
The death of Xianbei's soldiers was nothing to Kebineng, but the loss of his assets, the granaries, and all weaponry pained him . Kebineng could feel his heart ached when he thought about the provision that he had lost .
"YOU MORONS! WHY DIDN'T YOU PROTECT THE BASE!?"
"T-The enemies are too tough! They were immobile, so we thought we could have killed them easily . But our arrows can't kill a single of them!"
"THAT IS NOT AN EXCUSE! WHY DIDN'T YOU DEFEND THE BASE!?"
A fist landed on the commander's face . Kebineng had lost it .
His rough breathing scared all of his followers . Fortunately, Kebineng was sane enough not to kill all of them .
"A loss is a loss . Since Xu Huang has journeyed this far, their rear should be weak . We'll detour and follow through with our old plan . "
His followers regained hope as they recalled their former plan that they had discarded . In this plan, they would seize Linyu County and steal their supplies . Then, they would flank Xu Huang from behind and take their weaponry .
"We'll adjust our schedules . Instead of flanking the Silver Axe, we'll take everything and return to our territories . We don't need to linger in Han's land anymore . "
