Over these years, what Han Qian valued most was the cultivation of grassroots officers and military officials. This enabled Daliang’s small detachments to possess strong capabilities for dispersed, independent combat operations.
After cavalry tore open breaches in the enemy’s forward line defenses on both flanks, tens of thousands of elite troops advanced rapidly northward through slopes, valleys, and uneven field ridges in heavy fog with visibility of only seven or eight zhang. Even operating in patrol units of a hundred men, they could not see from the head to the tail of their formations.
Occasionally scattered enemy troops would crash into them, or streams, rivers, and villages would block their way. The formations advancing northward would inevitably be stretched thinner. Even when marching northward in patrol unit formations, they could not maintain coordination from front to rear.
For the armies of any other power in the current era, this would absolutely be a military disaster.
Yet Daliang forces would not lose combat effectiveness even when broken down to small squad scale.
Under normal circumstances, with enemy cavalry forces holding absolute superiority in the open Fen River valley, Wen Bo would absolutely not dare let his troops fight in overly dispersed formations. He had to ensure sufficiently dense formations to guard against possible enemy flanking strikes from all directions.
However, the heavy fog weather completely suppressed the enemy cavalry’s ability to conduct flanking and penetrating operations, while Liang forces could brazenly march and fight dispersed in patrol units or even smaller formations.
Pre-battle preparations had also included necessary mobilization and preparation for marching in fog.
The forces advancing first—each patrol unit carried one or two guides familiar with the terrain and left clear markers along the route to guide following troops.
Even when encountering scattered enemy forces and engaging in combat, the early phase clearly prioritized breaking up and dispersing them. The formations would also reorganize at intervals before continuing forward.
The entire process, simply put, tested whether the army’s organizational capacity had penetrated to the grassroots level.
Without clear banners to transmit combat orders, passwords and patrol drums in the heavy fog were mainly used to distinguish friend from foe. At such times, decisions about advancing, retreating, and timing rest periods, as well as how to handle suddenly encountered scattered enemies or organized enemy forces still maintaining considerable combat capability—all required grassroots officers to make independent and decisive judgments.
When small detachments temporarily lost contact with main force units, grassroots officers especially needed to overcome and calm their subordinates’ panic, deciding how to establish nearby defenses, assemble forces and contact the main units, or independently determine new march directions.
The Liang army’s expansion speed had been extremely rapid in recent years, and not all grassroots officers could become elite officers even after certain training. However, since Han Qian’s rise in Xuzhou, besides emphasizing the cultivation of grassroots officers, he had especially emphasized guerrilla warfare—these two aspects could even be said to complement each other. This meant that within the Liang army, there were large numbers of grassroots officers possessing the ability to independently lead troops in combat.
Even if this proportion across the entire army was only one-third, in such heavy fog, in situations where encountering enemy forces was destined to devolve into chaotic battle, the Liang army had already established absolute superiority.
…
…
While the main infantry combat brigades struck rapidly northward under cavalry brigade cover, they also left behind considerable elite forces to disperse and strike at scattered enemy soldiers on the enemy forward line’s flank positions, preventing these routed enemy troops from having any possibility of reassembling.
And although Wen Bo had replaced the combat-weaker reserve brigades before the decisive battle for the main forward forces assembled along the Jiang-Yuanqu post road, this did not mean they could simply squat in place watching the main combat units wreak havoc in enemy territory while they had no new combat missions.
To achieve complete success in one battle still required simultaneously breaking through their defense line from the frontal battlefield, thoroughly crushing the enemy army’s will to resist.
Otherwise, even if the surprise attack forces advancing into enemy depth could overrun all the camps on both flanks of Jiang County, the actual casualties they inflicted would be quite limited.
Such surprise attack operations could at most rout and scatter enemy forces in the rear, but would have difficulty completing the arduous task of severely damaging the labor army.
If they could not break through the frontal defense line, Jiang County, Wenxi, Quwo, Yicheng and other cities to the north were all under absolute Mongol control. Wusu Dashi could rally scattered troops and even organize counterattacks extremely quickly using these cities as bases.
This would not only greatly limit the expansion of battle results—they might not even successfully force the Mongol army to withdraw from the Fen River valley in this single battle.
If it truly came to that, this decisive battle would also mean it could not smoothly conclude here.
The reserve brigades’ basic troops were all new soldiers. Especially the forty thousand able-bodied men recruited from refugees fleeing eastern Henan and incorporated into the ranks—they were weak in breakthrough combat, weak in dispersed operations and independent combat capability. It was difficult to expect them to fight hard battles.
However, the reserve brigades’ officers from high-level commanders to grassroots military official backbone were all elite officers and veteran soldiers from the army. After organizing new recruits for three to five months of drill training, their capabilities in formation combat and siege warfare were still a cut above ordinary provincial state troops.
The Mongol forward line fortifications had to be built slightly more solid, with war machinery deployments also comprehensive and dense. But no matter what, they were far from comparable to Jiang County’s walls rising over three zhang high with deep moats over seven or eight zhang wide.
More critically, after both flanks were breached, the Mongol forces on the forward line had no idea how many Liang troops had reached their rear flanks, nor how many Liang forces would encircle from behind to attack their rear. Their minds were in complete chaos—in the confusion, some even fell from the crude defensive parapet walls.
People panicked, horses startled. In the chaos, some shouted loudly that “such-and-such general” had opened the main camp to surrender to the Liang army.
Listening carefully to the names, these were indeed subordinate generals of Tian Weiye. However, when Yuanqu fell, these men had remained north of Mount Li defending Anyi city.
In the chaos, true and false news were difficult to distinguish, making people’s hearts even more anxious.
Although Wusu Dashi continuously transmitted orders for forces on the forward line to stabilize their positions, in such circumstances, how could ordinary soldiers have such strong psychological fortitude to truly hold their positions without panic?
After the chen hour, visibility in the heavy fog improved slightly.
Wen Bo ordered one main infantry combat brigade and two reserve brigades stationed at the forward fortifications to cluster around trench-bridging vehicles, tunnel wagons, battering rams, and scaling ladder wagons, surging like a flood toward the enemy camp’s forward fortifications.
The enemy camp’s forward fortifications stretched across the Jiang-Yuanqu post road and both flanks. The terrain here was already quite open, with enemy forward fortifications extending east to west for about four li, forming a defense line composed of trenches, protective walls plus chevaux de frise, caltrop barriers, ground spikes and other obstacles.
On such a narrow defense line, deploying fifteen thousand combat soldiers in siege operations all at once—the density can be imagined. They essentially launched over forty simultaneous assault corridors organized by battalion, using human wave tactics to charge at the enemy camp’s forward fortifications.
With siege attack forces so densely packed, facing arrows, stones, and poured fire oil thrown and shot from behind enemy fortifications, the initial casualties were destined to be catastrophically brutal.
However, Wen Bo ignored the arrows and stones thrown from enemy camps as dense as locust swarms, completely disregarding how brutal casualties before the enemy forward fortifications would be. He ordered over a hundred large drums arrayed in a line, selecting strong soldiers to beat war drums, requiring charging troops to advance continuously when hearing drums without pause—those who retreated would all be executed before the battle line.
Though visibility was said to be slightly higher, scenery beyond ten zhang remained blurry and unclear.
The Liang army had prepared early, leaving clear marks and markers before enemy camps during night combat to guide siege forces. Along attack routes, they had established solid wagon formations as break points, which besides dividing attack corridors also transmitted information, military orders, and supervised combat.
Enemy commanders lacked adequate preparation. In the chaos, they had to personally enter the parapet walls where combat was most intense to grasp battlefield changes in time.
This was the greatest advantage of attacking the unprepared with preparation.
Wen Bo simultaneously opened over forty corridors to organize siege operations, using human wave tactics for saturated assault regardless of casualties. This forced enemy forward line commanders to be unable to attend to everything, ensuring they could tear open breaches in the shortest time.
Among the enemy forward camp fortifications, there were quite a few experienced veteran generals and old commanders. After all, even the commanders from Jin territory who had submitted and at this time still followed the Mongol forces with iron hearts were professional soldiers who had spent half their lives in military service, with quite a few elite personal guard troops around them capable of fighting bloody hard battles.
However, in such chaotic circumstances, unable to clearly understand the situation even a dozen zhang left or right, how could the enemy possibly attend to every aspect of the forward defense line over four li long?
Each time a breach was torn in the enemy forward defense line, Wen Bo would send an additional reinforcement unit to strengthen the offensive, unhesitatingly penetrating into enemy camp depth.
Reserve brigade soldiers were not strong in assault combat and unsuitable for dispersed operations. They advanced into enemy camp depth in dense fish-scale formations, shoulders touching as they raised sword shields, halberds and spears. They did not employ any flanking penetration or enemy division tactics, seeking only to break completely through the enemy camp and then hold the other side.
This tactic was difficult for minimizing their own casualties. When enemy bed crossbows shot arrows, a single shot could kill three to five men. When struck by stone projectiles thrown by enemy trebuchets, casualties were brutal. But it was simple and practical.
Actually, not all forty-plus corridors needed to make progress. After an intense hour, by midmorning the heavy fog finally gradually dispersed. Visibility could reach scenery within a hundred paces. By this time, the Liang army had over ten routes of troops successively break completely through enemy camps.
The enemy forward fortifications’ over thirty thousand troops had suffered unknown casualties. The remaining forces were either completely cut apart and trapped in chaos, or had taken to their heels, fleeing northward in disarray, abandoning helmets and armor.
Zhu Zhen commanded his units—cavalry teams killing into the enemy camp through breaches, amid the chaos striking down enemy troops still attempting to resist, clearing out two main corridors for He Liufeng, Tan Xiuqun, Zhao Ci and others who had conserved energy until this moment—four infantry combat brigades and one cavalry brigade that had not yet deployed. They rapidly crossed the enemy forward defense line, pressing forward toward Jiang County city.
Wen Bo made such deployments to use Cao Ba, Lu Ze, Su Lie, Huo Li and others who had launched strikes northward from both flanks at dawn as the first echelon; to use He Liufeng, Tan Xiuqun, Zhao Ci leading their units pressing toward Jiang County city as the second echelon; while simultaneously using the forty thousand troops currently on the forward line battlefield annihilating routed soldiers—mainly reserve brigades—as the third echelon to control the vast battlefield within a thirty to forty li radius around Jiang County and its outskirts.
Such deployments also ensured that barring unexpected developments, they would simultaneously maximize the possibility of holding Mongol routed troops back to inflict casualties.
Only thus could they achieve the combat intention of annihilating Mongol living forces to the maximum extent.
Of course, deploying He Liufeng, Tan Xiuqun, Zhao Ci and other units beneath Jiang County city was not because Wen Bo extravagantly hoped to capture Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing, but rather to pin them down.
At this time in Jiang County city, there were still six thousand escort cavalry directly commanded by Wusu Dashi.
These six thousand troops could be said to be the Mongols’ most elite cavalry.
If Wen Bo did not deploy a sufficiently powerful force to pin them down firmly, once the heavy fog completely dispersed in the afternoon, such an elite combat force with rapid mobile warfare capability, positioned almost at the most central location of the entire battlefield, would still possess the possibility of reversing the entire battle situation.
Using less than twenty thousand elite infantry and less than three thousand cavalry to confine the enemy’s most elite six thousand cavalry inside Jiang County city while the outer battlefield remained in chaos was an extremely difficult task to complete.
Ultimately, their cavalry numbers were too limited…
The twelve thousand cavalry were currently almost all deployed to the battlefield. Wen Bo had Zhu Zhen’s units only strike down enemy routs near the enemy forward fortifications, but strictly forbade him from leading units to freely penetrate into depth.
Wen Bo did this mainly because he worried about any variables arising on the battlefield at any time.
At that point, he could only order Zhu Zhen to rapidly assemble a portion of cavalry to rush over for reinforcement.
Among forces kept entirely in the rear army as reserve troops, there was not even a single complete battalion of organized cavalry left.
Even at this time, if just three thousand more cavalry could appear for Wen Bo’s deployment, he would consider keeping Wusu Dashi, Xiao Yiqing and other enemy commanders and generals behind.
Now, although he had given Feng Zhang, Tan Xiuqun and other commanders authority to act according to circumstances after entering the battlefield, in the overall battle arrangement, he did not entertain extravagant hopes of keeping Wusu Dashi and Xiao Yiqing behind…