At 9:00 AM, the war drums sounded again.
The vanguard of the Yin army began its advance.
Three formations of five thousand men each marched in unison toward the Yi River.
The traces of yesterday's bloody battle are still there—the river water is still tinged with dark red, and the banks are piled with corpses that have not yet been cleared away.
The soldiers stepped over the remains of their comrades, their faces expressionless, but their knuckles were white as they gripped their weapons.
"Halt!"
At Li Mao's command, the three formations stopped a hundred paces away from the north bank of the river.
This is already at the edge of the range of the Fengtian Army's composite bows and crossbows.
Wu Shangzhi could see things clearly from the central command.
He raised his command flag: "Left flank formation, probe the enemy!"
The left-wing formation began to advance.
The swordsmen and shieldmen raised their shields and slowly approached the Fengtian Army's first line of defense—a trench two zhang wide and one zhang deep, behind which were densely packed deer stockades.
"Archers, fire upwards!" Han Fang shouted.
Three thousand archers drew their bows and nocked their arrows, which flew over the heads of the swordsmen and shieldmen and landed on the Fengtian army's position.
The Fengtian Army immediately retaliated.
The archers on the watchtower looked down and rained down arrows.
"Raise your shields!"
The shield was raised high, and arrows struck the shield surface, making a dense "thud" sound.
Occasionally, an arrow would pierce through the gap, and a soldier would fall to the ground with a muffled groan, but the formation remained intact, and the rear ranks would immediately fill in.
Arrows flew back and forth between the two sides, like two swarms of locusts crossing the sky.
When the Yin army's formation advanced to within thirty paces of the trench, the Feng army suddenly launched dozens of ballistae.
This is not an ordinary ballista, but a specially made "chevaux-de-frise crossbow"—it does not fire arrows, but three-foot-long iron spears with barbs at the tips, specifically designed to break through shield formations.
"put!"
Dozens of iron spears whistled out, accompanied by a piercing sound as they tore through the air.
"Shield array! Reinforce it!" Han Fang roared.
The swordsmen and shieldmen slammed their rattan shields heavily to the ground, while the soldiers in the back row braced them with their shoulders.
But the iron spears were too powerful—in the first volley, seven or eight shields were pierced, and the soldiers behind the shields were pinned to the ground by the iron spears, their screams heart-wrenching.
"Second squad, move in! Archers, suppress the ballistae!"
The Yin army archers adjusted their angles and concentrated their fire on the Feng army's ballista positions.
Under the barrage of arrows, the Fengtian Army's ballistamen suffered heavy casualties, but replacements were quickly brought in.
The two sides engaged in a fierce exchange of fire at a distance of thirty paces in front of the trench.
People fell every moment, blood soaked the soil, and corpses piled up into a low wall.
Wu Shangzhi frowned as he watched from the central army.
The resistance from the Fengtian Army today is even stronger than expected.
"Right wing formation, attack!" he commanded again.
The right-wing formation began to advance, pressing down on the Fengtian Army's defensive line from the flank.
The pressure increased sharply.
The Fengtian Army's defenses began to show signs of weakening.
The arrow tower on the left flank was set ablaze by the Yin army's rockets, billowing thick smoke; a section of the central trench was filled with corpses, and the Yin army's swordsmen and shieldmen attempted to break through from there.
"Now!" Ma Zongliang's eyes flashed with a sharp light on the lookout tower. "Order Li Biao to retreat thirty paces from the central defense line!"
The order was transmitted to the central defense line. Although the commander was puzzled, military orders were absolute.
The Feng Army began to retreat, seemingly forced back by the Yin Army's offensive, but in reality, they were deliberately giving up space.
Upon seeing this, the commander of the central formation of the Yin Army was overjoyed: "The enemy is retreating! Brothers, charge!"
The phalanx advanced rapidly, with swordsmen and shieldmen leaping over trenches and cutting down the deer stronghold, followed closely by spearmen.
In less than fifteen minutes, the central formation had broken through the first line of defense and was approaching the second earthen rampart.
But just as they began to climb the earthen rampart, something unexpected happened.
Countless flags suddenly appeared behind the earthen ramparts, and Li Biao personally led 5,000 elite imperial guards out to fight their way out.
These imperial guards, clad in heavy armor and wielding long swords and axes, were the veterans who had fought a bloody battle on the riverbank the day before.
"We've fallen into a trap!" Li Mao's expression changed drastically. "Form a circular formation! Quickly, form a circular formation!"
But it was too late.
The Feng army attacked from three sides, cutting the central formation of the Yin army in half.
Even more frighteningly, the Fengtian Army on the left and right flanks also began to counterattack, attempting to divide and encircle the two square formations of the Yin Army.
The battlefield situation reversed instantly.
Wu Shangzhi had a clear view from the central command, but he remained calm.
He had anticipated that Ma Zongliang would have an ambush.
"Order the left flank to move towards the center to support friendly forces. The right flank to hold their positions and not move without permission." He calmly gave the order. "Also, tell Murong Chunhua that they can move now."
Upon receiving the order at the rear, Murong Chunhua mounted his horse, raised his sword high, and shouted: "Eagles of the grasslands! Follow me!"
Six thousand light cavalry from the Murong and Wuhuan tribes charged out from behind the Yin army formation like arrows released from a bow.
Instead of directly attacking the Fengtian Army's position, they split into ten teams, each with more than six hundred men, and circled around to the flanks and rear of the Fengtian Army.
This is precisely the tactic of light cavalry—avoiding a direct frontal assault and instead targeting the weak points.
Murong Chunhua's first target was the Fengtian Army's crossbow positions.
The archers were firing with all their might when cavalry suddenly appeared from their flanks and rear, throwing them into chaos.
"Cavalry! The Yin Army cavalry is coming from behind!"
The Fengtian Army archers turned around hastily, but the light cavalry was too fast, and in the blink of an eye they were within a hundred paces.
"Fire the arrows! Fire them now!"
Scattered arrows were fired, but they posed no threat to the speeding cavalry.
Murong Chunhua suddenly turned around eighty paces away, not charging, but instead drawing his bow and launching an arrow.
They are a people who live on horseback, and archery is their specialty.
Although a bow drawn on horseback is not as powerful as a bow drawn on foot, it is faster and more agile.
A volley of arrows rained down, and a number of Fengtian archers fell.
What's even more frightening is that they have no desire to fight.
After unleashing a volley of arrows, they immediately turned and circled around to another position to continue their harassment.
Chaos erupted behind the Fengtian Army's defense line.
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