After the Cambodian army broke into the armor-piercing range of Qinghe's powerful crossbows, the battle became extremely intense.
As the main striking force of the Qinghe Army, the crossbowmen must be well protected. This means that Qinghe's heavy armored infantry must effectively block the advance of the Khmer Army, at least until the crossbowmen change their positions and resume firing.
Since both sides were protected by iron armor, ordinary swords and knives could not cause effective damage, so axes and iron maces became the main weapons. The fighting was very noisy. If a blind person were to travel here at random, he would probably feel like he was in a blacksmith shop.
Lin Hai saw it very clearly with a telescope on the stage. As expected, the era of cold weapons had developed to the extreme, which was to continuously pile up armor and increase one's own defense capabilities, until either both sides could not break the armor after fighting for a long time and could only lie on the ground gasping for breath, or they could not walk and could only stand still and output.
However, despite his feelings, Lin Hai knew very well that such armor would be penetrated if fired at close range by a powerful crossbow. However, as long as he was willing to pay the price of casualties, it was not impossible to rely on human charges for close combat.
In other words, if the numbers are equal, or if the team has the advantage in numbers, then Qinghe's rapid-fire crossbow will have a huge advantage, but if the enemy has more people and is willing to sacrifice their lives to clear a path, then the crossbow will still not be enough.
This can be seen from the early days of the development of muskets, when the army still had to be equipped with a large number of cold weapons to protect the musketeers.
Pure musket units did not appear until at least the flintlock era. Before that, muskets were mostly auxiliary forces in the army.
This is also the reason why Lin Hai has always refused to build a full-speed shooting crossbow unit.
An army that cannot be approached is meaningless.
"Flag signal soldiers." Ding Lin and the military staff officers on the side looked at each other. In fact, most of these military staff officers were students of the Military Department of Qinghe College. They came here mainly to complete internship tasks, oh no, to combine what they learned with practice and improve their abilities.
Just now, Ding Lin had been listening to the discussions of these military staff officers, but no matter what they said, Ding Lin neither agreed nor disagreed, but only encouraged them to continue analyzing and discussing the battle situation.
The flag signalman stepped forward and bowed.
"Tell the Second Regiment to hold out for another quarter of an hour and then withdraw, clearing the road for the Khmers to enter."
Ding Linxun looked at the chaotic battlefield in front of him and said seriously.
"Senior, oh no, Commander." A staff officer, Tian Shi, bowed and said, "I'm confused. The Second Regiment hasn't shown any signs of defeat, so why are they retreating? The enemy has come from afar, and we're well-rested. If the stalemate continues, we'll have the advantage in physical strength, and we can launch a counterattack soon."
"Well, you are right." Ding Lin glanced at Master Tian and actually admitted that the other party was right.
"What about you?" Master Tian became even more confused.
"At the end of last semester, I evaluated you as having the potential to be a group leader. It seems I was right." Ding Lin nodded.
"Thank you for your kind words, senior." Teacher Tian bowed his head in response to Ding Lin's praise.
"That's not an exaggeration. This sentence has another meaning." Ding Lin glanced at the flag signalman. Sure enough, the flag signalman ignored Master Tian's question and went straight to pass on the order. This reassured him and he continued to say to Master Tian, "What I mean is, if you can't open your eyes, you'll only be a regimental commander for the rest of your life."
"If we in Qinghe cannot break the deadlock, a regimental commander will be a senior military officer, which is not bad. But if Qinghe takes over Cambodia, or even a larger territory, a corps commander will be just that, and you will still only be a regimental commander." Ding Lin said sarcastically.
Teacher Tian's face flushed instantly, but this was not the time to feel bad. As the saying goes, opportunity is fleeting, and what he could learn now would definitely be more valuable than in the classroom. Teacher Tian quickly bowed and said, "Senior, please teach me."
Ding Lin ignored him and said to the staff officers, "The staff officers of the Third Army were supposed to be quiet. Come on, among you who are here for internships, who can tell me why I want the Second Regiment to retreat?"
Upon hearing this, the staff officers of the Third Army stopped talking and started to seriously conduct simulations on the sand table. Some of them even picked up binoculars and began to pay attention to the fighting on both sides.
The trainee staff officers were silent for a moment before one of them cupped his hands and replied, "Commander, is it because the enemy outnumbers us so much that you're worried that if the battle drags on, the Second Regiment will be surrounded?"
"Well, that's one reason," Ding Lin said. "If you look a little further, you can see that the enemy's spearmen have been destroying our fortifications, intending to expand the breakthrough point. As for many of our heavily defended areas, the enemy has given up attacking and is concentrating its forces behind the breakthrough point. They are simply waiting.
If the Second Regiment engaged the enemy for too long, it would be natural for them to be surrounded. Furthermore, the Second Regiment's heavy infantry were deployed primarily to cover the retreat of their regimental crossbow battalion. Now that the crossbow battalion appears to have completed its transition, what is the point of the Second Regiment's main force still holding on?
Ding Lin briefly explained, then continued, "Does anyone have a different opinion?"
At this time, another trainee staff officer, Huang Zong, bowed and replied, "Commander, are you trying to lure the enemy deeper into your territory?"
"Oh?" Ding Lin became interested and asked, "Tell me, how do we lure the enemy deeper into our territory?"
Huang Zong stepped out of the line, bowed, and spoke loudly, "The commander's plan to lure the enemy deep into our territory is certainly not to eliminate the enemy in front of us, but to find a way to get the elite enemy troops in the rear to fight. If we want to lure the enemy's elite troops, we must show a weak position. The best way is to retreat before the enemy can expand the breakthrough point, giving them the opportunity to take advantage."
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