But soon, Jian Bei discovered why he couldn't stop the Great Qian army's advance: the Heavenly Sun cavalry seemed to be sleepwalking on the battlefield!
"Why!" Jian Bei quickly inquired about the situation.
After hearing the general's explanation, Jian Bei was helpless.
It turned out that the Heavenly Sun cavalry had previously experienced the power of Great Qian's crossbows and arrows on the western front.
Facing Zhuo Ying's troops, they encountered a large number of longbows and Great Qian crossbows. The arrows could even pierce the small wooden shields they used for parrying. These Heavenly Sun cavalry were already startled birds, afraid to approach.
Without the strong restraint and harassment of cavalry crossbows, Zhuo Ying's troops accelerated their advance towards Liang Xiao.
"But no matter what, we absolutely cannot let them reinforce!" Jian Bei roared.
Hearing Jian Bei's roar, the Heavenly Sun cavalry generals seemed to have a sudden realization.
The Great Qian army on the other side should also be only about forty thousand, and they were already so troublesome. If tens of thousands more joined them, what would happen...
The Heavenly Sun cavalry had to grit their teeth and approach to harass, preparing for a surprise attack.
In the blink of an eye, several volleys of Great Qian arrows and longbow shots resulted in countless Heavenly Sun cavalry falling from their horses, shot by arrows.
"General, the enemy's warhorses' legs have only light leather armor!"
Upon receiving the news, Zhuo Ying was both surprised and delighted, and decisively issued an order: "Mao Dao soldiers, cut the horse legs first!"
Facing the death of their comrades beside them, the Heavenly Sun cavalry were finally stirred to their former ferocity, roaring and charging at the Great Qian soldiers.
The outermost Great Qian guards, holding heavy shields, with long spear formations and crossbow formations in the rear.
The first charge of the Heavenly Sun cavalry did not achieve the expected effect, being forcibly intercepted by layers of heavy shields.
Just as the Heavenly Sun cavalry attempted to use their sabers to slay the heavy shield soldiers through the gaps in the shields, one Mao Dao after another was swung out from behind the heavy shields.
To the horrified gaze of the Heavenly Sun cavalry, these Mao Dao did not slash at them but specifically chopped at the horse legs.
For the sake of mobility, the warhorses of the Heavenly Sun tribe wore horse armor that could not effectively protect their legs.
Horse armor that could protect the horse's legs would significantly increase weight and sacrifice mobility.
And their experience on the battlefield just now had confirmed that they did not need full-body horse armor, but rather more mobility to avoid Great Qian's bows and crossbows, as it was rare for arrows to hit the horse's legs.
But without the protection of horse armor, wherever the Mao Dao passed, the warhorses' legs were instantly severed!
As the Heavenly Sun cavalry were thrown from their horses, these Mao Dao, along with the spearmen, hacked and stabbed at these dismounted cavalry.
In an instant, these dismounted cavalry also met their end on the battlefield under the combined attack of swords and spears.
After suffering greatly, the Heavenly Sun cavalry did not dare to approach further and were forced to abandon a round of assault.
The Heavenly Sun cavalry generals were even more enraged and full of regret.
They had originally thought that even if they couldn't break through the enemy's defenses, they could still withdraw in time.
When the two sides engaged, the opponent's bows and crossbows, fearing friendly fire, could not arbitrarily shoot forward. If they specifically chose positions to hold the formation, the archers would need to be far from the front lines, appearing in the rear, making them vulnerable to cavalry raids.
But now, the Great Qian soldiers had discovered their close-combat weakness at the first opportunity, and those Mao Dao could easily cut off horse legs, making them fearless of cavalry charges.
After Jian Bei understood the situation, he could only abandon the idea of cavalry harassment and assault, and reordered his army to fight and retreat.
Just as the two sides were fiercely fighting, before the Heavenly Sun cavalry could withdraw from the battlefield, the neighing of warhorses and the shouts of men could be heard from afar.
It was Zuo Wuji leading five thousand Zhongzhou cavalry to reinforce, their battle cries shaking the heavens!
The Zhongzhou cavalry entered the field and immediately headed for the front line of Zhuo Ying's troops, charging the Heavenly Sun cavalry, and firing a volley of Great Qian arrows.
The Heavenly Sun cavalry, who were in the process of organizing their retreat, faced a cavalry charge and the ricochet arrows from the Great Qian crossbows behind them, finally falling into disarray with countless casualties.
The five thousand Zhongzhou cavalry, each wielding a long saber and with fierce expressions, reaped the chaotic army.
"We can't hold them, retreat to our main force quickly!!"
The arrival of the Zhongzhou cavalry disrupted Jian Bei's deployment. Jian Bei had to contract the battle line and switch to heavy shield soldiers to defend against the enemy's archery, and the army retreated.
Zhuo Ying's troops took advantage of the situation and pursued, leaving behind mountains of corpses and seas of bones wherever they went.
On the main battlefield, Liang Xiao's army was also continuously resisting the impact of the Jiaozhou allied forces.
Neither side temporarily ceased hostilities nor set up camp to cook. When they were hungry or tired, they took turns retreating to eat dry rations and drink water, waiting for their comrades to relieve them and re-enter the battlefield.
The engagement area was a confrontation of heavy shields against heavy shields, but behind the heavy shields of the Jiaozhou allied forces, it was almost empty, with only a few heavily armored spearmen holding shields in their left hands to block.
However, wearing heavy armor and holding shields and spears for an extended period was a great drain on their stamina.
The front-line heavy shield soldiers were also suffering immensely.
In contrast, in the Great Qian kingdom, the connected shield wall greatly reduced the physical exertion of holding shields.
From beginning to end, the Jiaozhou allied forces had not advanced a single step into the Great Qian army's formation.
At this moment, King Jinpao Xiao Che could only hold back Liang Xiao's troops, desperately waiting for reinforcements.
An hour and a half had passed since the fierce battle, and neither side was willing to yield.
Xiao Che suddenly remembered something and urgently asked Alexander, "Don't your Heavenly Sun tribe have many ballistas? Why are there so few ballistas brought here?"
He had discovered that without ballistas, they could not break through the Great Qian's heavy shield soldiers at all.
These ballistas couldn't penetrate the city walls of Luzhou, but on the open field, they could at least break through the defense of the heavy shield soldiers once, causing their formation to loosen.
Alexander said helplessly, "The material consumption for each use of a ballista is too great, and materials like animal tendons and hair do not preserve for long. To use a large number of ballistas in Great Qian, they would need to be produced in Jiaozhou, or even at their origin, rather than being transported from the Peacock Dynasty with its unpredictable climate. The ballistas I brought were used previously in the Peacock Dynasty, so there was no opportunity to rush their production here."
Xiao Che's brows twitched, and he could only lament.
They couldn't produce ballistas themselves, and it was already very considerate of the Heavenly Sun tribe to send a few for them to use. He couldn't blame them for bringing used ballistas.
"After this battle, our army may have to temporarily halt the siege and imitate Great Qian's trebuchets, or produce your ballistas," Xiao Che sighed.
Alexander also felt disgraced and did not object.
But what truly moved him were the "demonic magic iron balls," as well as Great Qian's trebuchets and three-barreled ballistae.
He could see that even Great Qian's new-style trebuchets could throw farther and had more power than ballistas.
"Given the thickness of Great Qian's former city walls, they might not have been able to withstand ballistas. Before Liang Xiao appeared, Great Qian did not have so many powerful weapons. I must tell the Heavenly Sun King when I return that we seem to have taken the wrong path, and we are only restoring the long-range weapons that the Europeans themselves have abandoned. Even if we cannot imitate Great Qian's weapons, we should improve and create based on these weapons..."
Alexander seemed to have realized something.
Back then, they were willing to bribe Roman officials to steal blueprints and detailed data in order to master ballistas.
Furthermore, the Dugu family monopolizing the Ministry of War also provided them with intelligence on Great Qian's military equipment, making them very confident that Great Qian's military equipment was weak, its armaments were lax, and its soldiers lacked fighting spirit, otherwise they wouldn't have suffered the defeat at Helan Mountain and the shame at Yanzhou...
However, these once formidable weapons that swept across the West were ineffective here. The fundamental reason was that Great Qian's city walls were becoming thicker and thicker, and Great Qian possessed more powerful long-range weapons, which severely hampered the advantage of killing weapons like ballistas and scorpion crossbows.
"Damn Romans, they're still trying to trick our Heavenly Sun tribe even as they are destroyed!"