When Ma Wu led the Tiande army slowly northward, Zhou Zhong, the Han army's Yue cavalry captain on the north slope, also saw this roundabout enemy cavalry.
Originally, he did not take this group of cavalry seriously, because the dense forest they were going to attack was where Ma Teng, the tough general of the army, was stationed.
Zhou Zhong didn't like this general from Xizhou very much and thought he was vulgar and un-Chinese. However, despite his prejudices, he still had to admit that Ma Teng was a capable fighter.
So Zhou Zhong turned his attention back to the east wall, where the situation of the Han army was quite bad.
Even though he had already underestimated the Taishan Army, he did not expect that his side would be unable to withstand the first wave of offensive. The two peripheral infantry battalions soon had no choice but to huddle in the warehouse outside the east wall for defense. The Taishan Army had surrounded the east wall from three sides.
Just when Zhou Zhong was hesitating whether to send troops to support Dongbi now, he saw a scene of vomiting blood.
Ma Teng, who was originally supposed to engage in a confrontation with the enemy's cavalry, ran out of the dense forest for some unknown reason. After communicating with the enemy, he took the initiative to hand over the flag to the Taishan Army's cavalry general, and also handed over all the weapons. Dropped on the ground.
After doing this, Ma Teng's troops were actively guided by a small group of enemy cavalry to withdraw from the battlefield.
Seeing this, how could Zhou Zhong still not understand that Ma Teng, who was like a qiang dog, had rebelled against the enemy? At this time, Zhou Zhong hated to eat his flesh and sleep on his skin, but now he couldn't care about that. He wanted to take the initiative to fill the defense loopholes caused by Ma Teng's betrayal.
Therefore, he ordered his general Zhao Wei to lead the three armored soldiers south to support the infantry in the dense forest.
The appearance of Zhao Wei's troops really stabilized the thousands of Han soldiers in the dense forest. They were confused because of Ma Teng's sudden surrender, but now that reinforcements have arrived, it means that the higher-ups are aware of the situation here.
Outside the forest, Ma Wu was also confused.
Just now, a Han cavalry force of similar size to our own suddenly rushed out of the forest, catching Ma Wu quite off guard as he was still driving slowly. But just when he was about to give the order to speed up his horse, a cavalry general rushed out from the cavalry on the opposite side.
This horseman has disheveled hair and looks like a Qiang man. He is holding a flag in his hand and shouting:
"A certain Ma Teng admires the high righteousness of the noble army and came here to join him."
Ma Wu thought it was a scam at first, but when he saw these knights starting to discard their weapons one after another, he stepped forward with hesitation.
Afterwards, Ma Wu and Ma Teng had a conversation. After learning that Ma Wu was the former Ma Cheng, Ma Teng immediately said that they were Tianding's brothers. Because he, Ma Teng, is also a descendant of Ma Yuan, and his ancestor is brother Paoze.
Ma Teng Na Te's Qiang Hu Feng Qiangluo was too much for Ma Wu. But Ma Wu also knew that if Ma Teng really surrendered sincerely, it would definitely be an excellent weapon to destroy the morale of the Han army, so Ma Wu responded falsely.
Then let a group of generals withdraw from the battlefield with Ma Teng's troops who had discarded their weapons, and assemble behind the Taishan military formation.
This is the standard procedure for the Taishan Army to deal with Han soldiers who surrender before the battle. Although they will not be used as prisoners, they will still not be allowed to participate in the next war.
Ma Teng and Pang De didn't say much and were happy to leave.
So the two of them withdrew from the east with five hundred Qin and Hu Yi.
After Ma Teng left, Ma Wu still felt a little unreal. He shook his head, and after remembering Ma Teng as his "brother", he once again focused his attention on the dense forest in front of him.
There, you can still see countless flags mixed in the jungle, rising one after another.
Ma Wu then ordered:
"All the troops followed me on foot into the forest to fight."
The Tiande troops sang loudly, dismounted their horses, prepared their armor, and began to form a small circular formation to prepare to enter the forest.
At this time, Zhao Wei of the Han Army made a mistake. When he saw the cavalry of the Taishan Army coming and the infantry of the Taishan Army on the flanks, he decided to abandon the dense forest.
Zhao Wei was from Wen, Hanoi, and his family had a close relationship with the Sima family in the same county. He was originally a Hanoi county official. He joined the army when Lu Zhi went north to Hanoi, and has been fighting in Hebei ever since.
At this time, Zhao Wei judged that with the current strength and morale of the Han army in the forest, it would be difficult to continue to hold on to the dense forest. In order to prevent the thousand-man battalion in the forest from being defeated and captured, he decided to retreat to the east wall outside the forest to the west. The friendly forces attacked the Taishan Army.
However, due to problems with his vision and level, Zhao Wei failed to understand the importance of this dense forest at all. He simply used it as a defensive method to hinder the enemy's cavalry from making detours.
In fact, this dense forest stretches across the south and north slopes of the slope. In other words, once the Taishan army occupied this place, they could use the cover of the dense forest to directly harass the Han army behind the slope, preventing them from resting.
But Zhao Wei didn't understand what he meant, and simply made the decision to abandon the dense forest based on the strength of his troops.
In this way, Ma Wu entered the forest in confusion once again and successfully occupied this key transportation location.
Ma Wu also wondered if he had some great luck. First, a Ma Teng surrendered before the battle, and then a Han soldier retreated without fighting, allowing him to complete the initial mission on the right wing without spending a single soldier.
But Ma Wu's operation went smoothly, but Han Hao suffered.
The two battalions of Han soldiers attacked by Han Hao and Wei Zhong were both core old battalions composed of the Northern Army as the backbone and supplemented by Youzhou counties and counties.
One of the generals of these two battalions was named Zhao Wei and the other was named Yang Huai, both of whom were officials of the Northern Army. One of them comes from a wealthy family in Brazil, the other comes from Lingling in Jingzhou, and both are brave generals.
This Yang Huai is just fine, he just has ordinary courage. But Zhao Wei was quite extraordinary. His father was a powerful commander of the Brazilian tribe. During the Emperor Huan's period, he accompanied the Han army to quell the Qiang rebellion. Later, he made Zhao Wei a boy boy with his military exploits. Zhao Wei was only six years old at the time.
Later, his father died in the Brazilian Banzhen Barbarian Rebellion, so Zhao Wei was raised by the state and studied under Chen Fan. Later, in his first year, Zhao Wei joined the Northern Army as a boy boy and participated in almost all the wars during Liu Hong's period.
After Zhao Wei joined the army, he continued to make meritorious deeds. He was even stabbed in the stomach during the Northern Expedition to Xianbei in the sixth year of Xiping. In the end, he was forced to climb out of the dead.
But such a Zhongliang Yulin orphan from the Han family was hated by the eunuchs because his teacher was Chen Fan. After serving in the army for more than ten years, he finally became a general. Later, after he went on an expedition with Lu Zhi, during the Battle of Jize, the Northern Army's officers and soldiers collapsed, and he had the opportunity to be promoted to the rank of battalion general and lead a battalion alone.
Although Zhao Wei's official career was in vain, he still had a high prestige among the lower-level officials. Whether it is his resume or the tradition of emphasizing heroes in the army, the officers and soldiers loved him very much.
At this time, Zhao Wei was sitting on his horse and continuously commanding the two battalions of Han soldiers. Yang Huai of the other battalion also handed over the command to Zhao Wei and asked him to provide unified command.
Zhao Wei had an injury on his head, which he had sustained in the previous battle at Dingting, but this still did not prevent him from displaying his excellent commanding skills.
Originally, the two battalions of Han troops had been defeated steadily by Han Hao and Wei Zhong, but after Zhao Wei took over the command, he blocked the Taishan Army's continuous offensive.
You know, the combined strength of Han Hao and Wei Zhong on the opposite side is almost 4,000, twice that of Zhao Wei's.
Both Han Hao and Wei Zhong lacked sufficient dispatching skills. They often led their leading troops to rush for a while, and then found themselves surrounded by Han soldiers, and then they had no choice but to break out.
They were obviously a party with a large force here, but they were forced to become a minority. One can imagine the frustration in Han Hao's heart. But Han Hao is the seed of a famous general after all, and he quickly grew up in frustration. After discovering that the opponent's flexible tactics relied on slow cooperation between him and Wei Zhong, he took the initiative to contact Wei Zhou and decided that the two armies would join forces and strangle the enemy together.
This approach worked quickly. In the increasingly narrow battlefield space, the Taishan Army's strength advantage was quickly brought into play. They continued to take turns fighting, and the Han army was exhausted.
Finally, the Han army began to collapse. They originally wanted to retreat to the east wall, but the Taishan Army pursued them too hastily. In the end, these defeated troops could only flee towards the north with Zhao Wei in their arms.
Another battalion general, Yang Xiuui, was not so lucky. He ran into Wei Zhong in a panic.
Wei Zhong beheaded the Han general with only three swords, and then showed off his head to Han Hao who was not far away.
But the Taishan Army's pursuit came to an abrupt end here.
The Han army from the east wall fired arrows wildly at the approaching Hanoi Town and Zhaojun Town.
Previously, in order to cover the Han soldiers outside the wall, the Eastern General Zhou Zhong sent all his archers to his son Zhou Hui and asked him to defend the east wall.
Zhou Hui is a twenty-year-old young military official. Compared with his younger brother Zhou Yu from his hometown, his appearance is much mediocre. But his mediocre appearance created his calm character.
He meticulously carried out his father's military orders and led more than a thousand crossbowmen to guard the east wall.
The soldiers in Hanoi did not know how powerful the Han army's arrows were before. In addition, the pursuit was so urgent that the cards in their hands had long been lost. So under the cover of the Han army's arrows, people fell to the ground like Yimai.
At a crenel on the east wall, Li Hu, the young commander of the Di people, was excitedly shooting the Taishan soldiers below with an ox-horn bow. He thought to himself:
"The Han people don't have any respect. Wouldn't they still die if they shot an arrow?"
The Di people, Zhao Wei, and the Bancheng barbarians were all recruited by the Han Dynasty to send troops all year round to obtain tax exemptions. They called it the blood tax.
Li Hu and his tribe were recruited when Lu Zhi led the Northern Army northward, and they remained in the army because the roads were cut off.
During this battle, Zhou Zhong gathered all the archers and crossbowmen in the army to garrison the east wall. Di people like Li Hu who grew up in the mountain roads were naturally among them.
Li Hu's shooting was very fast. Except for one majestic target that escaped because of his quick dodge, he had already shot to death eight Taishan soldiers.
But Li Hu's happiness quickly disappeared, because the Taishan Army below quickly rushed to the bottom of the wall with the support of the card players behind and started climbing directly.
Hanoi is very mountainous, so many of the garrison soldiers in the inner town are from mountain huts. They can climb the dangerous mountains with only a rope, let alone the dock wall that was converted from a manor.
Soon the Hanoi soldiers climbed up the east wall with their daggers in their teeth and their ring-headed knives, and then fought with these crossbowmen.
Although Li Hu is a slave-like figure among the Han people, he has a noble status among the Di people. So immediately three Di warriors ran to Li Hu to protect him from going down the wall.
But as soon as the four of them took a few steps, they were stopped by an armored man covered in blood. It was Han Hao who was very angry.
Li Hu also recognized that this person was the Taishan Army warrior who had just dodged his arrow.
He asked the other person's name, but his Qiang language was quaint, so how could Han Hao understand him. So Han Hao directly sent a flying ax to the opponent, hitting the front door.
The huge force of the ax directly smashed Li Hu's facial bones, blood spurted out, and Li Hu died just like that.
Before this was over, Han Hao drew out his iron sword again and knocked the three stupid Di warriors to death.
Looking at the smashed head, Han Hao had no desire to cut it. He just spit and cursed:
"I'll let you shoot Naigong, I'll let you shoot Naogong. Who else will I kill if I don't kill you?"
Afterwards, Han Hao left and headed deeper into the east wall.
But Han Hao had no idea who he was killing, so with just a casual throw, the flame of a nation's rise was extinguished by Han Hao.
On the ridge behind, Lu Zhi saw everything happening here.
Ma Teng's tribe surrendered before the battle, Zhao Wei abandoned it and left. Zhao Wei was wrapped in broken troops and fled north for his life, and a corner of the east wall also fell.
He did not expect that before he engaged in the battle, Zhou Zhong, the eastern general on the front slope, gave him such an explanation.
He was disgusted and ordered to Li En, the gentleman camp official next to him:
"Go to Zhou Zhong and ask if the face of the Zhou family in Luzhou will be lost in his hands alone? I will give him two more battalions to seize the dense forest and defend the east wall. If you can't do that, just Draw your sword and kill yourself.”
Lu Zhi said with such murderous intent that Li En didn't even dare to raise his head. Following the military order, he rode horseback to where Zhou Zhong's banner was on the front slope.
After Lu Zhi explained this, he indeed transferred 2,000 people from Gongsun Zan's troops behind Zhou Zhong to support Zhou Zhong.
After arranging these, Lu Zhi asked his subordinate Yu Shi to lead the iron soldiers to cut down the fleeing Zhao Wei.
Of course Lu Zhi had heard of Zhao Wei and knew that he was a talent. But what about talent? Is there a shortage of talent in the world? Not to mention that she is a liar who has no legs and no value. If she violates our military laws, she will be killed.
Yu Shi had also heard of Zhao Wei and knew he was a good man. He wanted to plead for Zhao Wei, but when he saw Lu Zhi's rosy cheeks, he swallowed it again.
Yu Shi accepted the order, put down his iron face, and took Lu Zhi's iron troops to enforce the law.
In the distance, Zhao Wei, who was being held hostage, suddenly felt cold all over his body. He saw Lu Zhi's ghost-faced general running towards him. No need to guess what its purpose is?
So Zhao Wei shouted:
"Brothers, fight back, let's fight back. The Iron Mask is coming to arrest us. Zhao Wei thinks he is a good man, how can a good man die at the hands of his own people? Brothers, if you still recognize me, , just follow us and fight back. You have to show the Taishan thieves on the opposite side that our Han army is also capable."
After saying that, Zhao Wei once again led the Han soldiers to fight towards the east wall again.
Over there, Yu Shi gradually slowed down when he saw that Zhao Wei knew what was going on. He looked at their backs:
"I can only help you so far."
At this time, the bloody battle around the east wall was still continuing.