Mythical Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1783: Chapter 1665: Destruction in Progress

With the cover of Xun Youi’s Spiritual Talent, Wei Yan easily maneuvered behind the Dingling People and then launched a direct assault, wiping out nearly half of the Dingling Cavalry coordinating with the war chariots from the rear and flank.

The war chariot, considered the most formidable weapon on the plains, possesses immense impact force, with its frontal formation-breaking capability unmatched by any other troop type of this era aside from comparable war chariots. Even heavy cavalry can’t compare in innate tonnage to the war chariot.

It is said that the two strong oxen pulling the chariot alone are enough to crush a heavy cavalryman to death, making the fully equipped war chariot essentially invincible in frontal collisions on the plains.

However, this nearly invincible war chariot eventually retreated from the annals of military history for very simple reasons: firstly, the chariot’s requirements for terrain are excessively high; secondly, its flexibility is far inferior to that of heavy cavalry.

Since the late Spring and Autumn Period, after a brilliant commander invented the tactic of flank-mounted archery to take out the charioteer, war chariots gradually withdrew from history.

Later, when a genius innovated chariot-cavalry coordination, the war chariot re-entered the battlefield, combining overwhelming frontal formation-breaking power with suppression of both the left and right flanks, and resolving the potential of adversaries pinpoint-killing the charioteer.

It was a virtually perfect tactic, yet such tactics still couldn’t keep the war chariot from being phased out of historical trends.

The reason is quite simple: the more perfect a tactic, the higher the difficulty is. With the reckless nature of war chariots, playing chariot-cavalry coordination poorly could result in harming one’s own troops before even striking the enemy.

With the destructive power of the chariot, anything it crashes over essentially couldn’t survive. After being run over by two oxen, two horses, and a chariot carrying seven men, transforming into a pulp is lucky; even hoping to survive is wishful thinking.

Furthermore, the purpose of the chariot is impact, thus the speed when it races forward is actually quite terrifying, and regardless of improvements, its essence is just two wheels. At high speeds, hitting anything can change the chariot’s original direction, often implicating the coordinating cavalry, leading to their deaths...

Thus, chariot-cavalry coordination requires even higher terrain standards, ultimately consigning such nearly unsolvable tactics to the shelf.

This time can be said to be the first in Zhuge Liang’s life seeing someone successfully executing chariot-cavalry coordination—the chariot’s formation-breaking impact, paired with the cavalry’s flexible mobility, magnifying each advantage for nearly unstoppable frontal assault.

Of course, this merely means the frontal assault is unstoppable. Even though chariot-cavalry coordination greatly ameliorates the weaknesses of the chariot’s flanks and rear, it can only be said to compensate.

”Wei Yan, it’s up to you; ignore the chariots, kill these cavalry!” Zhuge Liang reined in his horse to slow down, yelling toward Wei Yan’s direction, to which Wei Yan responded with a shout without turning his head.

Simultaneously, Zhang Liao leading the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry swept out in an arc to attack the coordinating cavalry on the chariot’s flank.

As soon as the two sides clashed, Zhang Liao activated his Legion Talent, his elite troops all ditching their bows and charging toward the Dingling Elite Cavalry.

At the moment of contact, soldiers equipped on the chariot raised their bows and fired at the Bingzhou Wolves. Unlike mounted archery, the soldiers on the chariots shot more steadily with better accuracy, but Zhang Liao had already activated his Legion Talent in advance.

Directly enduring the arrow rain poured from the Dingling chariots, he forcefully assaulted the flank-coordinating Dingling Elite Cavalry. In this fearless attack, the Dingling Elite Cavalry suffered heavy losses before realizing what was happening, leaving the charioteers exposed under the Bingzhou Wolves’ noses.

”You wish to vie for supremacy with us with such things? Courting death, we’ll send you to die!” Zhang Liao sneered, shooting an arrow directly to kill the charioteer, other Wolves followed suit, diligently slaying the charioteers.

In no time, the charioteers of a dozen chariots were killed individually by Zhang Liao and others after breaking the coordination of the flank Dingling Elite Cavalry, and the grassland oxen, not suited for pulling chariots, quickly deviated from their charge direction once the charioteers were lost.

Simultaneously speeding the chariot, as the oxen and horses deviated from normal direction, they tread the path of destruction.

The war chariots barreling forward, as soon as they deviated from their charge path, were driven by great inertia, causing the coordinating cavalry stuck in-between chariots to fall off their horses from the slightest nudge by the chariot framework, followed by being crushed amidst splattering blood.

The oxen and horses deviating from their trajectory were similarly dragged by the chariots, causing the tugs of war created by the twists to fling off soldiers not firmly standing on the chariot, followed by immense inertia flinging the chariots away. Anything or anyone collided with in this process would likely meet death.

”Fearsome impact force.” Chen Gong, having rushed from the rear camp to the front camp, frowned upon witnessing the scene of a chariot flipping over.

”Chengg Lian, have the Central Army use crossbow mechanisms; such a straightforward charging device attacking a camp equipped with crossbow mechanisms is asking for death, isn’t it?” At this time, Chen Gong had unlocked his spiritual talent, coldly remarked as he observed the war chariot rush futilely from afar.

Speaking of crossbow mechanisms, their accuracy is usually quite mediocre, but it cannot be helped that the goal of the chariots is particularly huge; unlike cavalry, who can dodge crossbow bolts from afar, war chariots must bear all frontal damage head-on.