Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Chapter 1273 – Cavalry Will Not Die, It Will Only Take Another Form
Although the hill region seemed to have war castles all over, there were actually not many Beijiang legion corps soldiers there. Most of the soldiers were arranged at the exits and entrances of the hills.
A line of cannons had been prepared at every exit.
Next would be the gunners and the two wings of sword shield soldiers covering them. To the side of the sword shield soldiers were the cavalry.
For the Mongol cavalry that had suffered heavy casualties, breaking through such a defensive line was as difficult as scaling the heavens. Beijiang deputy marshal Chen Yucheng called this place the grave of Bo’er Hu’s forces.
Cannons sealing the exit, bullets raining down.
The 130 thousand Mongol cavalry troops were trapped amongst the hills. If they went forward, they would die, but if they retreated, they would still die.
Nothing was more hopeless than a situation like this.
In just one afternoon, close to 70 thousand cavalry troops were buried under the bullet rain. Those that barely managed to charge out had to face the chasing cavalry and the infantry of the Beijiang legion corps.
There was no way out for them.
They had no hope!
At 5pm, Bo’er Hu was smashed by a cannonball fragment and was heavily injured. The soldiers wanted to go all out to carry him to escape, but he rejected them.
This Mongol general carried his heavily wounded body to launch his final charge toward the enemy.
Along with the death of Bo’er Hu, the remaining Mongol cavalry finally lowered their arrogant heads and surrendered to the Great Xia Army. In just a day, the Beijiang legion corps had crushed one out of the nine forces of the Mongol army.
The moment news of this matter spread out, the entire Mongol Empire was stunned.
Karakorum, Palace.
When he received the news of Bo’er Hu’s death as well as the destruction of his forces, Genghis Khan nearly lost his footing. His face was ashen white as he muttered, “How is this possible, how…”
Such a result was something that Genghis Khan could not accept.
Looking at the intel report, Genghis Khan felt a chill that just would not go away, spreading through his entire army. Facing such a Great Xia Army, did the Mongol army consisting of basically only cavalry stand a chance at winning?
The famous Mongol iron cavalry was facing an unprecedented opponent.
When Tolei saw that, he asked, “Should we enlist the young men into the army?” Mongolia was a place where everyone had to enlist, so if they wanted to, they could gather close to 100 thousand more troops right away.
Obviously, Tolei was not feeling confident about this battle and wanted to get more troops.
“Let’s leave some seeds for our people!” Genghis Khan waved his hand in exhaustion. Facing such an opponent, enlisting troops now would just be squeezing dry the blood of the Mongol people.
“We are the ones that caused this problem. Let’s not have our people die together with us.” Genghis Khan painfully closed his eyes.
When Tolei saw that, this was the first time that regret rose up in his heart. If it were not for him supporting war with Great Xia, today’s defeat might not have occurred. They would not have dragged the Mongol Empire into a bloody abyss.
One could even say that Tolei felt resentment toward Ogedai.
However, an arrow fired could not be recalled. Since they had already declared war, and Great Xia had fought back, there was no room for peace. There were only two paths ahead of them.
They could either bow their heads and serve, or they die with their pride.
…
Not only the Mongol Empire, but even the Great Xia Army itself felt surprised. Many of the generals did not expect the firearms to be so terrifyingly strong.
During this round of disarmament, they clearly mentioned increasing the number of firearm-type troops and reducing the number of cold weapon troops.
In truth, many of the generals in the army did not understand this decision.
There were many people who opposed the disarmament process.
However, after detailed reports of the battle at the unknown hill were revealed by the Privy Court, those grumbling and insistent generals and soldiers lost their voices and cooperated to complete the disarmament.
When Ouyang Shuo received the report, he revealed a happy countenance and immediately decreed to promote Chen Yucheng to Beijiang legion corps marshal. He also awarded Chen Yucheng with the title of Grade 3 north settling general. The original marshal Yue Fei would receive a new appointment.
Once the Battle of Mongol ended, the Great Xia Army would welcome a new round of adjustments, and Yue Fei would have an important role to play.
Ouyang Shuo did this to reward Chen Yucheng for his work and to raise the morale of the army. It was also to reward Chen Yucheng for using firearms to remove the biggest obstacle to the military disarmament.
Chen Yucheng who came from Taiping Country was familiar with firearms. As expected, he did not let Ouyang Shuo down.
Chen Yucheng made use of the special environment and targeted the weakness of the Mongol cavalry to craft a suitable firearm tactic, getting famous in one battle.
The olden phrase was good, “See it to believe it.”
The Great Xia generals who had never seen the strength of firearms unavoidably had biasness against these new weapons. Some even stubbornly felt that cold weapons were the core.
Due to the differences in experiences and the restrictions of their eras, it was not surprising for some generals to have such thoughts.
Ouyang Shuo could understand these thoughts, but he could not agree with it.
The battle at the unnamed hill was like the first blood that woke up all of these stubborn generals. They truly focused on the strength of firearms and learned how to progress with the times.
Even the marshal of the Guards Legion Corps was inspired.
Without a doubt, this battle had the greatest impact on Huo Qubing.
After all, Huo Qubing was a cavalry genius, and his Guards Legion Corps were mostly composed of cavalry. He had helped the empire and earned a lot of merit, and he was deemed as the brightest pearl in the empire’s crown. However, he had now fallen to such an awkward position.
Was the tragic ending of the Mongol iron cavalry a sign of the future of the Guards Legion Corps?
This round of disarmament saw 100 thousand troops removed from the Guards Legion Corps. Half of the cavalry that remained had to change jobs, especially the light armored soldiers. They had to become gunner cavalry.
Although Huo Qubing’s confidence was greatly affected, Ouyang Shuo had really high hopes for him.
Huo Qubing was good at lightning quick battles and long-distance sneak attacks. In the post cavalry era, such methods still had a unique charm. Especially in the modern world, which had a lot of room to be used.
For example, the air force, which was deemed as the cavalry of the sky.
Apart from that, there were motorized forces such as tanks and heavy armored forces with high mobility that were just enhanced cavalry. The only difference was that the warhorses had become machines.
Generals like Huo Qubing that had a clear and special fighting style would always have a place.
“Cavalry will not die, it will only take another form!” Ouyang Shuo consoled him.
Ouyang Shuo had already instructed the Army University and the Navy University to make use of this chance to train up and develop Advanced Generals and train the current generals in firearms.
Huo Qubing was the first general who went to sign up.
…
This unnamed hill battle was not a special case; it was just the start.
11th month, 19th day, Guo Ziyi led the Phoenix legion corps to strike Chagatai’s troops, killing 30 thousand of them. At this point, the east part of the Mongol Empire was lost.
20th day, Li Mu led the Eagle legion corps to attack Muqali’s troops, killing 50 thousand of them.
Mongol general Muqali died in battle.
23rd day, the newly appointed Hou Junji led the Hedong legion corps to fight Jochi’s troops who came down south and killed 20 thousand of them.
The south defensive line of Mongolia was lost.
In just four days, the Mongol Empire had lost more than 100 thousand troops.
Although the three armies did not create a Chen Yucheng-like miracle, with the coordination of guns and cannons, Great Xia suppressed the Mongol cavalry completely.
One must know that these three battles were decided on the grassland. The vast Mongolian grassland was the main battlefield, and it was a place most suitable for the Mongol cavalry.
Unexpectedly, the Mongol iron cavalry was forced to flee in defeat.
Pure cavalry was destined to be eliminated in the 7th year of Gaia when firearms rose up.
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