Chapter 192 Sacrifice
Looking far away at the Han army's banner coming down on Gao Mountain, Xie Bi was urging his five hundred soldiers to tie up their horses and dig trenches. He wanted to defend here and wait for the main force of the rear army to arrive.
According to the Taishan military system, whenever an army marches, sentries and cavalry must be sent out in three directions, and when an army stops, it must form a formation. Since the troops often stop in a hurry and there is no time to set up camp, it is necessary to prepare the wood on the cart in advance and then assemble it on the ground.
Unlike most people who think that there are only armored battles in the army, the army actually has everything. Because the officers and men in the army regard the army as their home, there is no shortage of awls, nails, prongs and hammers.
At this moment, Xie Bi's two generals, Xie Guang and He Chengzheng, personally connected their carts to form a circular formation, with trenches on the outside to block the horses, horse ropes in the middle, and carts on the inside. Then in the circle were Xie Bi's 500 soldiers, 300 iron-armored soldiers, and 200 leather-armored soldiers. They were arranged in ten directions under the flags of their respective generals. Under the flag of each team, there are five more flags, and beside the flags, a canopy supported by bamboo poles is used to cover these armored soldiers.
On the one hand, this canopy is to protect the Taishan soldiers from the sun, and on the other hand, it is to block the enemy's arrow rain. In the previous battle between the Taishan Army and the Liu Yan tribe of Jibei Kingdom, the lesson learned was that they must guard against the rain of arrows from the opposite side. Although this canopy looks like it is just a cloth, it seems to be broken with one shot, but this kind of tent is indeed an effective way to block the rain of arrows. , this is also used for general city wall defense.
Only then did Xie Bi have time to look at the enemy soldiers on the opposite side.
At this time, Han soldiers had come down from Mount Gao one after another, and they saw several big flags on the opposite side, with the names "Li", "Zhang", "Gao", "Liu", "Wu" and "Huang" written on them.
With the smoke and dust billowing from the crowd, he couldn't see clearly and didn't know how many soldiers were on the opposite side, but Xie Bibing didn't panic because the army was behind him and he was confident that his brothers could hold it.
After a while, the sound of a horn that shook the sky came from the opposite side, and then a troop holding a flag with the word "Zhang" in the smoke came to kill them.
Xie Bi shouted loudly:
"Every team, hold still and use my flag to attack."
Then when the enemy was less than 150 steps away, Xie Bi waved a signal flag, and his 100 archers followed the order and fired their arrows, directly hitting the enemy soldiers on the opposite side.
But the result of the battle was not great. The enemy on the other side was obviously elite, and there was no shortage of large iron armor in the front row. They braved the rain of arrows and jumped directly over the trench dug by Xie Bi's troops. After all, we don’t have enough time and we can’t dig very deep.
The soldiers who rushed forward were Zhang Chao's troops who were provoked by Li Zan, the Prime Minister of Dongping, to serve as the vanguard.
After all, he was a brave man. He wore three layers of armor and rushed all the way to the foot of the Juma holding a big spear. The Taishan Army on the opposite side saw the enemy and immediately poked him, but was caught by Zhang Chao.
Zhang Chao poked his head and broke the spearhead on the opposite side. He was about to climb over the horse, but two Taishan soldiers on the other side poked him. Zhang Chao's heart tightened, and he immediately blocked the guard next to him, only to see the two spearheads stabbing the man in unison.
The two Taishan troops were about to pull out, but Zhang Chao cut off the spearhead with Bailian in his hand. Then he kicked the Juma over, and the Juma was hanging on the carriage behind.
The Taishan Army behind him was unprepared. His horse was overturned and hurt his eyes. He was holding his hands and crying. Taking advantage of this moment, Zhang Chao jumped into the car formation. With his majestic figure and iron armor, he directly knocked over the three Taishan troops in front of him.
These Taishan Army spearmen are all wearing iron armor. Yes, the Taishan Army is so arrogant. Therefore, he was not afraid of the brave Han thief who jumped into the formation in front of him.
As soon as the spearmen in the back row released their spears, they were about to hit Zhang Chao. Zhang Chao never expected that the rebel army on the opposite side had such high tactical literacy and courage, so he was directly hit by the spear on his shoulder.
For an ordinary person, this hit would have caused his head to explode, but Zhang Chao not only had a pocket gun, but also a first-class head iron, so he was just stunned for a moment, then let out an even louder roar and charged into the Taishan bandits in front of him. in the group.
As soon as these people put down their spears, Zhang Chao on the opposite side had already rushed out of the spear's striking range and was in front of the spearman. What the spearmen were most worried about was being attacked by the spearman.
Zhang Chao rushed forward and immediately struck the thief in front of him with a knife. The thief still had a look of surprise on his face, but he chopped off his head with a knife.
But this group of thieves should not be underestimated. They must all be veterans. Seeing that their companions had their heads chopped off, the two spearmen beside them did not panic. Instead, they lost their spears. They drew their swords and were about to fight Zhang Chao. .
But before the two men could rush over, they were cut down by the guards who followed Zhang Chao. Shouzhang soldiers from Yanzhou were pouring in continuously along the gap opened by Zhang Chao.
At this time, Xie Bi's officers and men were fighting hard against the enemy in front of them and could not spare any time to provide assistance. They saw that Zhang Chao's attacking side was about to collapse.
Xie Bi, who was in command of the inner formation, saw this and immediately jumped down from the mound and was about to lead his troops to block that side. But at this moment, Xie Bi saw that his brave general He Cheng had already rushed over with his men. .
Seeing He Cheng slashing the Han thieves neatly and blocking the gap, Xie Bi's heart agitated and he roared:
"Color!"
He Cheng was the first warrior of Taishanliao recruited by Zhang Chong. When he was recruited, he defeated three armored soldiers and was unable to stab his head. However, Zhang Chong felt that he was a brave general, so he tried to help him and made him a corps commander. . Later, in the battle with Gongsun Qiyi, he won the first level three, was promoted to general, and was transferred to the collision team. After several battles, there were first victories. Later, during the expansion of the army, he became a general and was subordinate to Xie Bi.
But later, most of Xie Bi's troops stayed behind, and their turn was not given in several battles. He's success was wasted, and he is still a weak general to this day. Xie Bi tried several times to move He Cheng to other departments, feeling that he had delayed He Cheng, but He Cheng remained unmoved. He just wants to follow Xie Bi because he respects Xie Bi and feels that he and Xie Tou have learned more than he has in more than 20 years combined. He then served Xie Bi as his teacher and stayed in Xie Bi's department with peace of mind.
He Cheng rushed over, killed three thieves in a row, and then met Zhang Chao. Zhang Chao may have been stunned by the previous spear, but he was stunned quite late. He didn't dodge when he saw He Cheng rushing towards him, and just stared blankly.
He Cheng was overjoyed when he saw this general like this. He took three steps and two steps before slashing at him with his sword.
But Zhang Chao was just pretending. Seeing He Cheng's knife raised high, he immediately jumped over and stabbed He Cheng in the chest. Fortunately, He Cheng had armor, otherwise this knife would have killed him.
He Cheng was staggered by the momentum of the sword, but he was not afraid and used his backhand to strike with the sword. Zhang Chao blocked it with his knife, and a sound of gold and iron came. He Cheng's knife broke, and Zhang Chao's Bailian Dao had a gap.
He Cheng was stunned for a moment, but just for that moment, Zhang Chao slashed him at the thin seam of his armor, causing He Chen to make a long cut on his left chest, and his heart was bleeding.
He Cheng's soldiers were still fighting with Zhang Chao's soldiers. In the blink of an eye, they saw their general Qu lying in a pool of blood, his eyes and teeth shattered. He no longer cared about the other side and hurriedly snatched He Cheng back.
He Cheng's younger brother, Mr. He, was the commander of his guard. At this moment, he led the guard to snatch his brother back. Seeing his brother's bloody blood, he clumsily blocked it with his hands.
His eyes were filled with tears and he cried and hugged He Cheng:
"Brother"
He Chengqiang opened his eyes, looked at his brother, and said:
"If you don't defeat the Han thieves, don't hold me back."
After saying nothing, He Cheng died, and the soldiers cried together.
Xie Bi, who was in the formation in the distance, heard the cries where Cheng Chong had just been congratulated, and his heart suddenly tightened. His joints turned white when he pinched his military partner. He murmured:
"He Cheng, please be sure nothing happens to you."
Zhang Chao didn't get a favor just now. When Zhang Chao struck He Cheng with a knife, He Cheng subconsciously stabbed Zhang Chao with a broken blade. The short part of this knife was blocked by the armor, but the long part was probably blocked by armor. A few inches, it was pierced into Zhang Chao's abdomen along the slits of the armor.
Zhang Chao felt a burst of warmth and knew he was bleeding. But he was already in the mood to fight and didn't care at all. He insisted on taking the head of the thief general just now.
Just when he was about to defeat the previous wave of soldiers and collect the heads of the thieves, he would add another layer to his martial arts prowess. The guard behind him stopped him, and then pointed to the south for Zhang Chao.
I saw a cavalryman holding high the banner with the word "Chong" galloping from behind. In a flash of lightning, he knocked away Zhang Chao's troops outside the circular formation. These troops had no formation, so how could they stop these cavalrymen? It was a massacre.
At this time, Zhang Chao's shortcomings of abandoning the routine and entering the battle himself became apparent. In the past, he had boosted morale by taking the lead in armor, but now that the army was without a general to command, it was going to collapse.
Outside this mountain pass, Zhang Chong led his assault cavalry and flew with long spears, killing the warriors in the Han army in front of him one by one. He saw Xie Bi in the circle formation and saw that he was fine, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
He only glanced at it and found that the circular formation was generally still maintained, with only one place being captured. It seemed that he had arrived in time.
When Xie Bi sent a military report saying that there was an ambush ahead, Zhang Chong made a prompt decision and came with his cavalry. However, when crossing the Wenshui River, because the bridge could not run the horses, he had to lead them, and the time was delayed. Down.
But fortunately, it came in time, didn't it?
Zhang Chong saw the military formation set up at the mountain pass on the opposite side. Just by looking at the flags, he knew that soldiers from the seven counties of Jibei State had come directly to four counties. The leading general was named Li, and the other formations were restrained and formed in strong formations.
But Zhang Chong had no intention of breaking the formation by relying on cavalry alone. Just as he taught Tian Jun, the cavalry should not be too upright. It was completely unnecessary to break such strong soldiers. Now they could completely massacre these Zhang soldiers who had messed up the formation.
At this moment, Zhang Chong felt no pressure at all to kill these Zhang clan soldiers. Sometimes they were all named Zhang, and they were not necessarily a family. Not only that, Zhang Chong also consciously drove away the frightened Han soldiers and drove them back to attack the strong formation behind his home.
If the opposing general is ignorant and is disrupted by his defeated troops, then Zhang Chong wouldn't mind taking advantage of the situation and reaping another wave.
But it's a pity that the opponent is not stupid, but also cruel. Directly under the orders of their respective commanders, they fired arrows at the defeated troops. In this way, in the wilderness outside Gaoshan Pass, the dead and wounded Han soldiers lay beside each other, a scene of hell on earth.
Zhang Chao, the leader of the Shouzhang soldiers, no longer cared about mourning for his hometown children. At this moment, he had taken off his armor and ran desperately to Wenshui with twenty naked men.
As long as he swims across the Wenshui River, Zhang Chao can survive.
(End of chapter)