Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors-Chapter 496 - 265: Counter-Encirclement_3

The cavalry battle naturally ended with the victory of the Jin soldiers.

The Jin’s Kidnapper Cavalry were already the strongest cavalry of the time, outnumbering the Qi Army, so it would have been absurd if they hadn’t won.

But the actions of this Qi Army detachment seemed rather abnormal to Wanyan Sheng. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

They even dared to actively attack the flanks of the Jin Army, and after entangling with the Jin cavalry for a long time, they managed to retreat in an orderly manner. Such results were not something any ordinary General could achieve.

It looked as though the Qi Army was indeed led by Liu Fa?

But then, who was commanding the main forces if Liu Fa was in charge of this detachment?

Could the intelligence reporting Zhong Pingyuan remaining in the capital have been false?

But that raised a new problem. Given that Zhong Pingyuan’s status within the Western Army was somewhat lower than Liu Fa’s, how could he possibly have the authority to command Liu Fa as the vanguard?

If not Zhong Pingyuan, then who could it be? Surely it couldn’t be the new Emperor of Qi?

It didn’t make sense. Although the new Emperor had once been the Grand Marshal of the northwestern military forces, Wanyan Sheng believed that a Qi Dynasty Prince steeped in poetry and literature could not truly hold command over the military. At best, he could be a nominal leader.

Besides, the new Emperor had only just seized the throne, and the political situation was unstable. Why wouldn’t he be sitting firmly in the capital rather than stirring up trouble in the military camp?

Impossible, impossible.

Wanyan Sheng still couldn’t make sense of the situation, but since the battle had already reached this stage, pondering any further was meaningless.

"Issue the order, while the Qi Army is yet to gain a solid footing, strike through their main formation with heavy cavalry! Pierce right through them!"

In Wanyan Sheng’s view, the Qi Army’s elite cavalry were worth noting, but their infantry typically collapsed at the first touch.

Now that he had already repelled the elite cavalry of the Qi Dynasty, pursuing the victory and attacking the infantry to break the Qi Army’s main formation would surely result in an outright win.

...

Liu Fa led the remains of the cavalry back to the Qi infantry formation and began to regroup.

This battle was a tough one, but Liu Fa’s aim was not to engage the Jin soldiers in a fierce fight to the death, but to achieve two objectives: one was to delay the Jin soldiers, buying time for his own infantry to form up and deploy; and the second was to feign weakness to the enemy, further exploiting the Jin’s underestimation of the Qi Army’s strength.

The Emperor had already said that their greatest reliance in this battle was the Jin’s lack of clarity about the Qi Army’s situation.

The Jin were unaware of the Western Army’s actual combat strength at this time, nor did they know that their Emperor was a master of military strategy.

Continuing to fight the Western Army as they had other Qi forces would invariably lead to failure.

The Emperor’s idea was to maximize the exploitation of this information disparity to create the greatest military achievement.

Liu Fa didn’t know exactly how the Emperor intended to do this; he was simply faithfully executing the Emperor’s plan.

At this moment, he could regroup, integrate the Qi forces, and wait in silence.

As expected, the Jin soldiers launched their attack.

For the Jin, since their cavalry had already won, scattering the Qi Army’s infantry formation would instantly determine the victor.

However, what the Jin did not anticipate was that this infantry was unlike any they had ever faced before!

Emperor Taizu of Sheng used to thrash the Northern Barbarians when he had few horses at the beginning, relying on infantry to combat cavalry.

Originally, the Northern Barbarians did not fear the Ma army under Emperor Taizu’s command. When they saw the cavalry and infantry moving together, they would feign defeat to lure the cavalry into pursuit, and only after the cavalry were separated from the infantry did they turn to attack the cavalry.

Now, after training, Emperor Taizu’s Western Army also had the strength to take on the Jin cavalry head-on!

Facing the first wave of the assault, these infantrymen raised their long spears, forming a forest of spear formations, and fought to the death without retreating!

This was somewhat reminiscent of General Han Fuyue shattering the Jin soldiers.

It can only be said that the battle methods of great generals often resemble each other, especially when they have roughly similar cards in hand.

But the current Western Army, though not quite on par with General Han Fuyue’s personal troops, had made it practically impossible to retreat step by step. As long as they could maintain their formation without collapsing and entangle the cavalry after it lost its momentum, that would be enough.

Wanyan Sheng frowned slightly.

This Western Army’s combat strength... was so formidable?

This was clearly beyond his expectations.

Wanyan Sheng had long known that the Western Army was strong, even having encountered them below the walls of Taiyuan City. But the Western Army now seemed... even stronger?

He was unaware that there had been a significant shift in the Western Army’s morale.

The Western Army of the past, even when it destroyed the nation of Xixia or served under Prince Yun, the Grand Marshal of the northwestern military, could not compare to the Western Army of today.

The military forces of the Qi Dynasty were divided into several tiers.

The worst tier was the Xiang Army, primarily composed of refugees from various regions. Such forces couldn’t even defeat bandits.

A better tier included the various Imperial Guards. Although they were professional soldiers, military discipline was lax, and the issue of embezzlement of rations was severe. They could handle bandits, but would crumble against the Jin.

The strongest tier, naturally, was the Western Army. Due to their constant battles with Xixia, they were the most formidable.

But the Western Army of the past still belonged to the warrior class and were at the bottom of the Qi Dynasty’s court. Even someone like Zhong Pingyuan faced grievances within the court, let alone other soldiers.

However, after Prince Yun ascended to the throne, numerous measures had been taken to boost the morale of these warriors.

From sufficient rations and pay to generous rewards after victories, these were the guarantees of material support.

And what’s more crucial was the guarantee of morale!

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