Chapter 879 Ambush
The naked plateau was frozen dry. Xu Shu and his thousands of veteran soldiers lay down outside the inner house. From the top of the slope to the ditch behind, they were all full of people.
In order to prevent being discovered by enemy sentries wandering around inside and outside the city, these Taishan soldiers also covered their bodies with withered grass as a camouflage.
Xu Shu and others had also just arrived. Originally, some military officials suggested that they launch an attack directly into the Lishe inside, but Xu Shu refused after taking another look at the terrain here.
The village here is located in a dense plateau, with mountains in front and open woodland in the back.
If Xu Shu was an enemy general, he would definitely place sentries on these plateaus near Lishe to provide timely warning.
Therefore, even if Xu Shu launched an attack at this moment, it would not achieve a sudden effect. Instead, it would scare away the big fish in Lishe.
So Xu Shu and the others lurked in the valley, and only ordered a few capable You Yi to go to Lishe to investigate.
The land was still very cold in early spring, and the officers and soldiers of the Taishan Army did not wear much clothing. They just lay on the ground and waited, and soon they started to shiver.
Xu Shu saw all this and ordered his brothers to drink some wine to ward off the cold.
There was a sound of sound, and a capable official in short clothes crawled over.
He is You Yi who was sent in by Xu Shu to investigate.
After You Yi came over, he reassured Xu Shu that the enemy force in Lishe here was obviously of high standard.
Some of the patrolling enemy troops were wearing armor, in neat formation, and with strict discipline. This was something that could not be accomplished by the troops directly under senior generals.
But You Yi also brought bad news to Xu Shu, that is, according to the enemy's sentry layout, it is almost impossible to sneak in secretly.
Xu Shu pondered this information and quickly sketched out several possibilities in his mind, and finally came up with a solution.
In Guan Yu's army, Xu Shu was promoted along the way after he emerged. In addition to his true military exploits, Guan Yu appreciated his resourcefulness and believed that he was a natural general.
Soon, several generals were called over by Xu Shu. After a brief explanation, they were sent to prepare.
After a while, about 400 veterans, led by two generals, went down the slope first. Then Xu Shu and more than 600 veterans remained on the slope waiting.
Soon, the first troops to go downhill launched an attack on a guard post outside Lishe.
……
Xu Shu lay on the ground and kept observing, but after a while, the cold air on the ground was too strong and he couldn't bear it, so he wanted to turn over it.
But at this moment, an army rushed out from the inner house. Because everyone was wearing armor, they were particularly dazzling under the sunlight.
Xu Shu suddenly became energetic and whispered to the soldiers around him:
"Let the brothers in the ditch put on their armor."
Several soldiers quickly slid down the slope and rushed to the Taishan army officers and soldiers who were resting in the ditch.
As Xu Shu's order was issued to each team, about ten full-strength teams of fifty people stood up one after another, began to put on their armor and wind up their strings.
After doing this, we climbed up the gentle slope. After a while of commotion, everything became quiet again.
At this time, Xu Shu was concentrating and staring at the army. Finally, after they ran within sight, he finally saw an enemy warrior with extraordinary bearing, hurriedly speeding along the dirt road to the sentry outside.
Xu Shu's heart trembled and she shouted loudly:
"Cum!"
Following this violent roar, the officials who had been waiting behind the slope all stood up and shot arrows at Cao Jun on the dirt road.
In an instant, the dirt road became a mess, dust was everywhere, and there was constant shouting and shouting.
Xu Shu waited until the officials had finished shooting their arrows, then stood up.
He pulled out his Huanshou sword and rushed down the slope with a loud shout. Then more than 600 veterans of the Taishan Army threw away their bows and arrows, drew out their dazzling white blades, and jumped down the slope one after another.
The rows of shining swords and the flags representing the Taishan Army poured into the dirt road down the slope like a tide.
The dust was flying and the shouting was constant, especially Xu Shu, the leader, was shouting:
"Revenge!"
It turned out that Cao Jun severely defeated Guan Yu's army near Jinan last year. In that battle, eight thousand Taishan Army officers and soldiers were killed. It can be said that it was an unprecedented defeat since the founding of the army.
Many of those who died in the battle were relatives, relatives and friends of Xu Shu's men, so it was the right time to cry for revenge.
Cao's army on the dirt road was elite. In fact, only the first wave of arrows caused damage to them, and they were quickly blocked by their cards.
When they saw the Taishan Army rushing down, these Cao Army warriors did not hesitate at all and rushed forward with their swords drawn.
As a result, on the dirt road and down the slope, Taishan's army wearing apricot yellow uniforms and Cao's army still wearing crimson uniforms strangled into a mass.
These people on both sides are actually people from around Mount Tai, and some may even be from the same place. Just because of their different identities, encounters, and social relationships, they have become enemies for nine generations at this moment.
Although the Taishan Army had a numerical advantage and had the first strike, it could not crush these Cao Army warriors much.
Without him, these Cao Jun warriors are indeed too elite.
In fact, Xu Shu and others may not know that the group of people they attacked and killed at this time were the tooth soldiers around Xia Houyuan.
Xia Houyuan imitated Cao Cao's tiger and leopard cavalry, and specially selected brave generals from the entire army and specially organized them into the tooth tent.
So even though there were only a hundred or so of Cao's troops on the dirt road at the moment, they were fighting extremely fiercely.
At this time, the two sides squeezed and scattered on the dirt road, directly entering into a fierce hand-to-hand battle.
The clanging sound of swords clashing, the grunting sound of white blades digging into flesh, the painful wails of death, and the joy of having revenge, all intertwined with each other, staged despair and glory.
In fact, according to the Taishan Army's code of conduct, such random fighting is absolutely prohibited.
It's not that the Taishan Army can't win, on the contrary, the Taishan Army's individual combat power makes it more advantageous to fight this kind of battle.
But unfortunately, the casualty rate of this kind of chaos is too high, and it cannot take advantage of the Taishan Army's military system.
Chaotic warfare is like, you come with a knife, and I go with a knife. So what if you kill the enemy head-on? Without Paoze's support, you might have been stabbed in the back in the next moment.
Is your Taishan Army still capable of fighting? Can you defend yourself against someone attacking you from behind?
Therefore, both Zhang Chong and the generals at all levels have given repeated orders to form formations in every battle, and to use upright divisions and avoid dangerous tactics.
Moreover, the Taishan Army has developed to its current stage and has long become a military system with infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Only by cooperating with each other can it exert greater combat effectiveness. It is by no means just relying on individual bravery in the past.
But there was nothing Xu Shu could do. Instead of fighting like this, he formed a formation. What if the enemy simply ran away during this process?
Therefore, we can only fight quickly and bite the enemy first.
Moreover, Xu Shu had an intuition that this time they really caught a big fish. How can an ordinary general's fangs be so powerful?
At this time, the iron arm in Xu Shu's hand had been knocked apart. He simply took it off, then picked up his sleeves and fought shirtless.
The four or five guards around him were also warriors of the Taishan Army. They cooperated with Xu Shu and killed several people in a row.
Xu Shu is as fair and fair as a scribe, but only those who have interacted with him know that this person is a ranger with very high martial arts skills. If he is not good at riding combat, he is not good at military formation battles, but this kind of Chaos is his specialty.
At this moment, the two-handed sword in Xu Shu's hand was like a dragon flying between Cao's troops. Those tooth soldiers who were considered to be ten brave men were killed on the spot without a single blow under his brilliant swordsmanship.
But the enemy's army usually has the strength of ten soldiers, so how come there are no officers in their army?
Here, a tall, round-waisted guy with a little bow legs bumped into him.
This man was different from ordinary tooth soldiers as soon as he came up. There was no such cheering sound in his mouth. As Xu Shu swam, he stared at it motionlessly. Until he saw Xu Shu turn around, he held the gun in his hand. The long knife stabbed over suddenly.
This is actually the reason why rangers like Xu Shu are not suitable for military formations. Otherwise, there are too many tricks, which not only wastes physical energy, but also makes it easy for the enemy's masters to miss the timing of movement changes.
Obviously, this Cao Jun Ya general was well aware of the shortcomings of the knight errant warriors and had been lying in wait there.
But this Cao Junya general did not know that the name of the ranger he attacked was Xu Shu.
The moment Xu Shu turned around, he stretched his left foot to the side, and then turned with only the strength of his waist and abdomen, using his left foot as the center, he turned his body directly over.
At this moment, Cao Junya's thrust directly drove his body into Xu Shu's arms.
It turned out that Xu Shu had already spotted the fang general lurking in the crowd like a poisonous snake, and even a skilled man was bold enough to use a big flaw to catch this person.
In an instant, the hunter and the prey were completely reversed.
The two-handed sword in Xu Shu's hand is not a military standard, but is commonly used by their rangers, especially suitable for fighting in the market.
He knocked the back of his two-handed sword upwards, directly knocking away the center line of Cao Junya's thrust.
General Cao Junya was a master of martial arts. The moment the center line was broken, a thought came to his mind:
"Oops."
It's really bad. Anyone who has experienced martial arts knows that the center line is the line of life and death. Whoever can seize the center line can decide life or death.
Without any time to think about it, almost subconsciously, the tooth general raised the knife and tried to block it with the blade.
But it's too late.
Xu Shu knocked the knife out of his hand and took a step forward with his right foot that was retreating.
While moving his right foot forward, his entire waist and abdomen twisted along with his body, and then he held the knife in his hand horizontally. Driven by the twisting force, the knife struck the tooth general's neck.
At this moment, Xu Shu's sword skills were not as good as before. He took two steps from beginning to end. The sword only struck and crossed, the amplitude was very small, and then he took the life of the tooth general in front of him.
This is the killing ground.
One carelessness, one negligence, one wrong move, and your life will be someone else's.
You may be really good, and you may be diligent enough to practice three-nine in the winter and three-in-one in the summer without daring to slack off.
But if you make one wrong move, everything will go wrong.
Maybe that's not fair, but it's fair enough.
It can only be said that this is the charm of martial arts. It is first a game between people and then a skill.
After Xu Shu harvested the tooth soldiers smoothly and shook off the blood with the two-handed sword in his hand, he hurriedly called a few warriors among the generals over.
Without him, Xu Shu had already seen the enemy's general.
About nine people away from him, there was a warrior wearing red robes and armor. The ring-headed sword in his hand was so powerful that each sword could almost cut off the incoming Taishan army, including all the soldiers.
To be able to achieve such an effect, not only is the ring-shou sword in the person's hand a precious sword, but his bravery and combat prowess are also terrifying.
A swordsman like Xu Shu is just afraid of encountering such a reckless man. He has to go up alone. No matter how superb his sword skills are, the enemy general only needs to attack him, and he will be cut off and die.
So even the proud Xu Shu could only call over a few famous warriors in the nearby army.
He decided to take these people with him to surround and kill the enemy general.
Don't say anything disgraceful. This is a battlefield. Only the person standing at the end can judge what is honorable and what is disgraceful.
There were three warriors summoned by Xu Shu. They were all heroes from the Lu and Tai regions, and they were a perfect match for Xu Shu.
In fact, it can't be blamed that the martial arts masters in Taishan's army are all heroes. In fact, most people don't have the environment to practice these things.
Needless to say, the farmers in Guizhou are usually very tired from farming. Even when they are not working, they are just playing around because they don’t have the conditions for sparring.
The mountain lairs in the mountains do not have this condition. Although their living environment is harsh enough, the conditions in the mountains do not support their bravery. After all, just living is already exhausting all their strength.
But the special group of Rangers is different. They are not engaged in production, and their meals do not come from the fields. Instead, they serve powerful tribes, protect courtyards, or clear roads for business travelers.
Therefore, they rely on the swords in their hands to make a living. No matter how idle they are, they will not slack off in the work at hand, otherwise their lives will be long gone.
As for the art of martial arts, it is different from what is practiced in the military. It has to be a boy's skill. The longer you practice it, the deeper the skill in your hands becomes.
Therefore, the martial arts masters in the army are all heroes from Lu, Tai and other places.
However, this situation mostly applies to Guan Yu. The other legions of the Taishan Army have already absorbed a large number of Ping and Liao warriors, and their overall technology has long been different from the same.
In fact, because Guan Yu's army has been fighting in the Central Plains all year round, their tactics, tactics, and equipment are still at the level of a few years ago. In fact, they are far behind the camp army.
At this time, the three Taishan warriors rushed over first, trying to surround and kill the enemy general with a garden on three sides.
But what about the general?
He just smiled contemptuously, roared, and struck a Taishan warrior on the head with the thickened ring-shou knife in his hand.
The samurai tried to block with his sword, but the sword collapsed, and then half of his head and helmet were chopped off.
Seeing Pao Ze fall straight down, the remaining two jumped up and killed him from both sides.
But unfortunately, this general of Cao's army was Xia Houyuan.
As a brave general who ranks among the best in Cao's army in terms of force, what's the use of jumping and slashing?
Xia Houyuan was seen slashing horizontally with his sword, and then the stomachs of the two Taishan warriors were cut open, and the semen flowed all over the ground.
Xia Houyuan smiled contemptuously, and when he was about to look at the ridiculous enemy general, he saw this scene:
That brat actually raised a crossbow and pointed it at him!