Chapter 788: Raise the Arms
When Zhang Nan, the commander of the Eastern Front battlefield, saw the sudden cavalry coming from the Chinese army, he finally let go of his hanging heart.
Judging from the current situation, he still overestimated his army's ability to continue fighting. Although the six armies under his command are not at the end of their strength at this time, they are indeed unable to contend with Li Tong and Li Zheng on their own.
Fortunately, Li Tong's troops seemed aggressive, but their fighting spirit was actually not strong. They had suffered huge setbacks in previous attacks. In addition, some bad remarks were rampant in the army. Most of the officials were actually They all played very conservatively.
But this is not the case for Li Zheng's five armies. It can be said that although their number is only more than 10,000, their combat effectiveness is maintained very well because of recharging their energy.
In addition, not to mention that the core members of Li's tribe already hate the Taishan Army. Once they attack at this moment, they will be like tigers descending from the mountain.
So far, except for Wei Bo's army, which has collapsed, the other five armies have joined the enemy, but the situation is not good.
But what now? The Chinese army's sudden cavalry rushed over, which meant that the king had discovered the unexpected situation on the eastern front, and as expected, subsequent reinforcements were definitely on the way.
So, Zhang Nan held up the riding whip and said to the left and right:
"Work hard, the king's reinforcements are on the way."
For a time, the military morale was determined.
……
However, it was said that the army facing Zhang Nan was none other than Li Tai from Li's Tigers, who had already led his family's elite troops to the front line.
Li Tai was actually not a relative of the Li family, but a Yanzhou ranger. He made great contributions to recruiting the Li family and was given the surname "Li".
At this time, there were many people in the Li clan, and there were many outstanding talents. Generally speaking, there was no need to give a surname to attract people with other surnames, but Li Tai was able to do this, which just shows that he was an extraordinary person.
He is already a general of an army, with two to three thousand officers under his command, but he is still like a fighting general, rushing to the front line.
As he charged repeatedly, at this moment, the Jia soldiers led by him could already see the big banner in the distance, so he shouted:
"The enemy commander is right ahead. Brothers, follow me and charge forward and chop off the head of the moth thief!"
"Go!"
A group of armored soldiers marched forward one after another.
But no matter how much they were encouraged, no matter how excited the soldiers were, it was still difficult for them to advance forward, because the Gongsheng Army formation they were in was crowded with people, and everyone was pushing and shoving, unable to move.
Everyone was fighting hand to hand in this small area, fighting for their lives with the edge of their swords.
Needless to say, the combat effectiveness of the Gongsheng Army was needless to say, so even though Li Tai took the lead in the fight, they failed to gain much depth. After fighting for almost a moment, they still stood still.
At this moment, Li Tai gritted his teeth and shouted:
"Push the ballista up."
The guards rushed to the rear military formation, where six ballistas had been deployed.
It was no surprise that Yuan had a ballista, but what was surprising was that these six ballistas all had carriages, and each one was hung on a wooden cart and could be moved.
This masterpiece was the result of Li Zheng's improvements, but he had never shared it with Yuan Shao before.
As soon as the soldiers who retreated from the front line came to the position, they loudly ordered the commander of the ballistae here:
"Follow me to the front line quickly!"
Everyone here knew him and knew that he was Li Tai's guard, so even though it was against the rules, they still started to pack up the van and rushed to the front line after a while.
By the time the six ballistae arrived, Li Tai had almost retreated.
This was not because Li Tai and the others wanted to retreat, but because they were forcefully driven down by the Gong Sheng Army on the opposite side. Previously, the Gong Sheng Army organized two groups of elite warriors, half of whom were Pingzhou warriors who were the best at fighting.
Even though Li Tai was brave, he was still defeated in the face of samurai who could only exist in the last primitive era.
If the ballista hadn't been pushed up at this time, Li Tai and the others would have been driven out long ago.
Just at this moment, Li Tai saw that the ballista had come up. He was overjoyed and shouted:
"Everyone get down with me."
Then, all the soldiers who had received the order fell to the ground. Only a few who had been entangled by the Pingzhou warriors did not have time to get down.
The next moment, six crossbow arrows shining with sharp cold light pierced through their bodies and connected the Pingzhou warriors in front of them together.
Taking advantage of the braking opportunity provided by the crossbows, the Li's crossbowmen who had been prepared began to rush forward and release arrows.
Originally, in order to meet Li Tai's army, the Gongsheng Army was lined up very densely. Now, when arrows were fired from the opposite side at such a close distance, they were instantly killed and injured.
This was not over yet. When the front lines of the Gongsheng Army fell to the ground one by one, the sergeants Li Tai on the opposite side began to line up neatly and charged with their swords and spears.
Under this series of blows, the front line of the Gongsheng Army was already in a state of collapse.
……
On the huge chariot, Zhang Nan, who was behind the phalanx, had been paying attention to the situation of the front army.
At this moment, after watching the battle ahead, Zhang Nan, who was generous and fat, couldn't help but feel anxious.
He didn't notice at all that his left foot had been grinding against the wooden board, almost polishing off the tung oil on the wooden board.
This is not to say how powerful Li Tai is, nor to say how successful he has been, but to say that as the coach of the Eastern Front, he has hidden worries after overviewing the entire battle situation on the Eastern Front.
Previously, with the support of more than a thousand assault cavalry from the Chinese army, the war on the eastern front had been stabilized. Li Bi first defeated the enemy troops attacking the Guangwu Army, and then rushed into the main formation behind the enemy lines.
Not long after, when Li Bi and the others fought out, the large banner of the army behind them had disappeared, and all the battalions under it collapsed one after another.
But the fighting went so smoothly that Li Bi seemed to have forgotten the trump card that Yuan Jun had been hiding on the eastern front.
That was the Xifu Jiaqi led by Wen Chou.
After Li Bi and others defeated another small enemy camp, facing them were more than a thousand armored cavalry.
There was no suspense in the final result. Li Bi and more than a thousand cavalry were easily defeated. However, because of the slow speed of the Xifu Jia cavalry, Li Bi finally withdrew with most of the assault cavalry.
At this time, they had moved to rest behind the Guangwu Army, and there was no possibility of fighting again in a short time.
Without the deterrence of the sudden cavalry, Li Tong's army in the east once again advanced towards the flank of Guangwu Army.
Just now, Li Wu had already asked Zhang Nan for reinforcements, saying that without reinforcements, the formation would definitely not be able to hold its position.
Zhang Nan knew Li Wu's character well and knew that he would not say such a thing unless everything was over, so he urgently contacted Zhang Da's Xiongwu Army and asked him to dispatch at least two battalions to support Li Wu. However, the Xiongwu Army was right next to Zhang Nan. He was still very clear about their situation, and he also knew that their situation was quite difficult at the moment.
The Li family has been putting pressure on the Xiongwu Army from the front, so at most they can only deploy a small part of their military strength to support the Guangwu Army.
Where are the reinforcements?
To the west of him are Guo Mo's Bao Tao Army and Wei Zhou's Feng Xiang Army. However, these two armies suffered relatively large losses before. The total number of capable soldiers is only about four to five thousand, and they also need to cooperate with the defense of Gong Sheng. The right wing of the army cannot be mobilized.
Suddenly, Zhang Nan thought of a soldier, and he immediately said to a young general under the chariot:
"Amao, I'll give you a chance. You immediately go to the rear of the Guangwu Army. There are a large number of defeated troops gathered there. I need you to organize them to support your Uncle Li. Is it possible to do it?"
Amao, whose full name is Zhang Mao, is the son of Zhang Wu, an old brother in Dashangli. After his father died in Taishan, he joined the army. Therefore, although he is the second generation of the army, his qualifications and abilities are among the best among his peers. .
At this moment, Zhang Mao heard this and took the order without hesitation. Then he took the silver arrow handed over by Zhang Nan and galloped towards the rear of Guangwu Army.
Zhang Nan looked at Zhang Mao's back, sighed, and then said to another general, Yang Yong:
"A Yong, go to the west position quickly, find Wei Zhou and Guo Mo, and ask them to quickly gather their troops and attack the enemy's back from the flanks."
Yang Yong received the order and knew that the military situation was urgent, so he chose the fastest horse and galloped towards the battlefield to the west.
After all these arrangements were made, Zhang Nan's inner anxiety actually did not diminish at all, because he knew that the enemy's Xifu armored cavalry had been lurking somewhere on the battlefield and could deliver a fatal blow to his side at any time.
Thinking of this, Zhang Nan scratched the nanmu on the car until it squeaked. Suddenly, he heard a sound like an earthquake coming from behind, and he turned around suddenly.
In the thick smoke and dust, two military flags were particularly eye-catching: one was the general's flag, with the word "Pang" hanging high; the other was the camp flag, with the word "The Grand Imperial Majesty Qianjia Cavalry Camp" hanging high.
Needless to say, these are the armored heavy cavalry belonging to the Chinese army. Under the leadership of Cavalry Commander Pang De, they finally came to support.
Seeing these two flags, Zhang Nan's previous anxiety disappeared. He laughed loudly, slapped the car fiercely, and shouted:
"You bastards, let me beat you down. This time I will beat all your shit out."
……
Zhang Mao, who was galloping on the grass, didn't know what was happening in the formation. At this moment, he and twenty military officials were rushing towards the rear of the Guangwu Army.
As the son of Zhang Wu, Zhang Mao has been helped by his fathers since the beginning of the army, but this does not mean that his rise has been smooth.
Because Zhang Wu died too early, Zhang Wu could not leave any troops or team for Zhang Mao at that time. Therefore, except for the help of his uncle, Zhang Wu's development was actually no different from other middle-level and junior military officials in the army. .
But now, Zhang Mao's development has fallen into a bottleneck period, that is, he has reached the rank of captain. It is reasonable to say that he can directly control the soldiers of a battalion, but there are no soldiers for him to lead. That's why he stayed with Zhang Nan as a general.
Now, the remnants of Wei Bo's army are at the rear. As long as he organizes these people, they can be naturally integrated into the establishment. In this way, Zhang Mao can naturally enter the ranks of senior military officials.
This opportunity was also given to him by Zhang Nan, just to help him, but Zhang Mao also knew how dangerous this opportunity was.
But he always remembered what his mother said, telling him not to embarrass his late father.
And Zhang Mao himself also knew that if he could not reach the upper echelon of the military, the affection for his late father would eventually wear away, and by then, their family would be lost to everyone else.
Therefore, he has to fight and fight.
But fortunately, Zhang Nan assigned him twenty tooth soldiers under the tent. These twenty people had been promoted from the position of general before, and they had commanders themselves. Now they have been in the Chinese army for so long, and they still can Can't you bring fifty people?
This person can lead fifty or twenty people, which is equivalent to a thousand people, which is exactly a battalion, which is more than enough.
If so, Zhang Mao is quite confident.
But when he led the tooth soldiers to the rear of Guangwu Army, he saw that the wilderness was full of officers and soldiers preparing their troops. Although their clothes were stained with blood, their morale was not depressed.
They were scattered in the wilderness in groups, and in the middle of the crowd, a pony team was staying there. These remnants of the Weibo Army were organized around this small camp.
At this time, Zhang Mao seemed to understand something. He first revealed the talisman representing the Eastern Front Army on the periphery, and then was guided into the central camp by several warriors.
And sure enough, here he saw the commander of Wei Bojun, Xie Bi, who was said to have "no idea whether he was alive or dead."
……
Xie Bi was hit by an arrow in his left arm. At this moment, a doctor had just removed the arrowhead for him, and then branded the wound with a poker. Then he took out the herbs prepared in advance and wrapped Xie Bi's wound.
At this time, the surroundings were filled with the smell of meat. Xie Bi was unmoved. He looked at Zhang Mao walking over and said with a smile:
"Da Lang, why are you here?"
Zhang Wu had two sons, Zhang Mao was the eldest son, so Xie Bi affectionately called him Da Lang.
Zhang Mao was very depressed, but seeing that Uncle Xie Bi was still alive, the joy in his heart diluted his depression. He first reported the current situation of the war on the Eastern Front to Xie Bi, and then asked:
"Uncle, how much strength can Wei Bo's army organize now? Guangwu's army is attacked by Li Tong's force of more than 10,000 troops. I'm afraid they won't be able to hold on for long."
Xie Bi did not expect that the war on the Eastern Front had deteriorated to this extent. He always thought that only Li Tong's army launched an attack, but he did not expect that Li Tong's army, which had been on the sidelines since before the war, also sent troops.
If so, the Eastern Front is indeed dangerous.
So, he shouted to the guards on the left and right:
"Hel me up quickly."
Then, Xie Bi implored a very majestic warrior beside him:
"Brother Han Sheng, it stands to reason that this battle has nothing to do with you, and I cannot bear to have you draw your sword against your former benefactor. But at this moment, I, Xie Bi, need you, and I implore you to help our army again. No matter what, I, Xie Bi, will be grateful... ”
Before Xie Bi finished speaking, Huang Zhong interrupted him and said with unusual sincerity:
"My benefactor needs no more words. Ever since you saved my father and my son, we have been willing to trust you with our lives. Now, if my benefactor is in trouble, I, my father and my son, both of us who are in trouble, should serve."
Xie Bi shook his head and said to Huang Zhong:
"That's not the way it is calculated. Even if I live with you and your son, you and your son protected me from the rebel army before. No matter how great the kindness is, it must be repaid. So this time I am not begging you personally, but In my capacity as Wei Bojun, I would like to invite you two to be recruited by our army to help our army overcome this difficulty, so please do not refuse again.”
Of course Huang Zhong understood what Xie Bi meant and knew that he really wanted to praise the father and son. What else could the two of them say besides being grateful?
The father and son both prostrated themselves and shouted:
"We must fulfill our mission and not bring shame on the reputation of our army."
Then, two strong men worked together to raise Xie Bi's general flag, and then four strong guardsmen carried a wooden board. Xie Bi sat on the wooden board holding a spear, with Zhang Mao on his left and right. , Huang Xu, in front is the fierce general Huang Zhong.
Then, as Xie Bi raised his arms and shouted, Wei Bojun, with only about 800 men left, set off to the battlefield again!
They want the enemy to understand that their Wei Bo army cannot be defeated!