Chapter 874 Strong and Courage
Arrows were scattered all over the sky, and the war horses fell to the ground neighing.
Xu Huang could only lie down on the horse's back, gritting his teeth to prevent himself from being stung by the arrows.
He was lucky. In just three breaths, he rushed into the enemy's formation unscathed.
But just by hearing the wailing behind him, Xu Huang knew that not all of the brothers behind him were as lucky as him.
Angry at Sun Ce's despicableness, Xu Huang took out the bow and arrow from his horse for the first time. Then the horse kept rising and falling, his eyes staring at Sun Ce like a hawk.
He held the bow in his left hand and held two arrows in his right hand. Just when his figure was obscured by an enemy's sight, he suddenly fell down.
Sure enough, Sun Ce on the opposite side had been watching Xu Huang. At this moment, he just passed a person and he suddenly couldn't see Xu Huang.
Just as Sun Ce went to look for it, an iron feather arrow shot in from an unusually tricky angle.
Sun Ce decisively used his spear to draw the arrow. As soon as the arrow flew away, he felt bad again and quickly lowered his head.
It was because of this shortcoming that Sun Ce saved his life.
An arrow came right after the previous one and stuck directly in Sun Ce's pocket.
Sun Ce's bag was made of iron with leather and silk mixed inside, but it was still penetrated by this arrow.
Sun Ce tried to say something, but suddenly his face darkened and he fell off his horse.
The white horse guards around him only saw an arrow stuck in their husband's saddle, and then fell straight down. They thought that their husband had died in the battle, and they were all frightened.
These people jumped off their horses almost limply. Some felt their pulses, some their noses, and some their necks.
It was not until they confirmed that Lang Jun was still alive that the guards breathed a sigh of relief.
To them, Sun Ce's guards, it didn't matter whether they lived longer or not. They only cared about Sun Ce's safety.
This concern is not only based on emotion, but also on personal future.
As long as Sun Ce lives, they will be the core of the second echelon of the Sun Group. Once Sun Ce dies, even if they will not be executed for failing to protect themselves, their future will be completely final.
So after confirming that Sun Ce was just unconscious, these people didn't care that he was still on the battlefield and evacuated directly with Sun Ce on their backs. Even if they didn't even evacuate to the back of the formation, they even carried him on their backs on the boat.
When Sun Ce was injured and evacuated from the battlefield, Tiance's army did not fall into chaos.
Because at this critical moment, Chang Shi Yu Fan raised Sun Ce's banner and began to take over the command of the entire army.
Yu Fan was Zhu Jun's general at that time. As the successor of Zhu Jun's power, Sun Jian almost absorbed all of Zhu Jun's core followers.
However, Yu Fan relied on Sun Jian for his calm and wise style, leaving Sun Ce as the long history, trying to reconcile Sun Ce's frivolous character.
At this time, after Yu Fan raised Sun Ce's banner in the rear formation, he began to formally mobilize all the army's forces to encircle and strangle Xu Huang's assault cavalry.
As Sun Ce's elite soldiers in the southern and northern campaigns, Tiance's army ranked first in Jiangdong in terms of combat power and discipline. At this moment, under the control of the Chinese army's horn, they began to form an array along the Huaihe River.
The stragglers scattered on the periphery also began to pull up from behind under the control of banners and drums, compressing Xu Huang's galloping space.
In the blink of an eye, Xu Huang and others seemed to be surrounded.
All kinds of Wu dialects were everywhere, chattering and making Xu Huang and others dizzy.
At this moment, Xu Huang already understood that although the enemy general was "shot" by him, the one who succeeded him was a high-ranking commander, and he was still behind. Even Xu Huang wanted to behead the capital and was unable to do anything.
Seeing that the space was getting smaller and smaller, Xu Huang shouted:
"Did you see that the brothers from South Bank withdrew?"
When the knights around him heard this, they put their feet in stirrups, turned their heads and looked towards the south bank. They saw that there were still flags waving and smoke and dust, so they loudly replied:
"Brothers are still fighting to the death!"
Xu Huang bent down and pulled out a stick stuck in the ground. The eight-foot-long stick was held under his arm.
Afterwards, Xu Huang led the raiders straight out of the narrow gap that had not yet been closed.
Xu Huangbu pointed his finger and shouted to the crowd:
"Cum!"
Following Xu Huang's protrusion, the Baiqi took out their bows and arrows and began shooting at the Jiangdong soldiers outside.
After one round, Xu Huang led the cavalry for another gallop, and pointed at another infantry:
"Cum!"
Then there was another burst of arrow feathers.
After more than ten rounds, the Taishan Army's assault cavalry finished shooting all the bows and arrows in their quivers before they really gave up.
Do those Jiangdong soldiers think this is the end of it? No.
Taking advantage of the chaos in the enemy's formation due to arrows, Xu Huang led his assault cavalry directly to the east and cut through the narrow cracks in the enemy's formation.
With the same dash, the Bu Li in Xu Huang's hand was danced like a wind wheel, directly tearing through the formation's defense line.
The sudden riders from behind came in through the passage opened by Xu Huang.
Yu Fan, the temporary enemy commander of the Chinese army, reacted quickly and responded quickly. He quickly mobilized troops from nearby to cover the gap from behind, trying to fill the gap and catch Xu Huang and others in the urn.
But it was still slow in the end.
In fact, neither Yu Fan nor the Jiangdong soldiers present had ever encountered cavalry in the field.
Especially if this cavalry force is led by a cavalry commander who is unparalleled in cavalry combat, how terrifying will this cavalry force be?
What do the Jiangdong soldiers' military formations along the south bank of the Huai River look like at this time? It's like a giant with a flexible brain but unable to keep up with his limbs.
For example, Yu Fan of the Chinese Army clearly saw Xu Huang's intention, but by the time he dispatched his troops, Xu Huang had already returned from killing them.
Moreover, Xu Huang really aroused hatred. He charged into the formation with his sudden cavalry, but he was not willing to fight at all. Every time he charged, he would repeatedly charge and test the horse near the enemy's formation.
Once the enemy formation here was in panic, Xu Huang immediately rushed in with his cavalry and killed them, and then withdrew after the fight without going deep at all.
What does this tactic look like? It's like scraping fish scales, scraping a little bit at a time, although it can't defeat Jiang Dongbing in terms of results, it can delay them.
And this is what Xu Huang wants, he wants to buy time for Paoze near the pontoon to retreat.
But the Yu Fan that Xu Huang faced was no ordinary person. This fierce general who studied the "Book of Changes" had a very delicate mind, and he also keenly discovered Xu Huang's intentions.
So he came up with two killer moves.
On the one hand, he ordered the front army formation to slowly advance towards the pontoon bridge to the west. On the other hand, he secretly mobilized a group of crossbowmen to ambush behind a weak army in advance.
The combat power of this battalion is not outstanding among the Tiance Army, and it has not been attacked by Xu Huang so far, so Yu Fan feels that Xu Huang must attack this unit.
Even in order to catch Xu Huang, Yu Fan ordered this unit to move forward proactively, forming a protrusion, and then surrounded Xu Huang from the flanks.
He didn't believe that Xu Huang would hold back from catching this.
Sure enough, Xu Huang was overjoyed when he saw that an enemy unit took the initiative to break away from the line and move toward his flank. The formation of this kind of marching troops is chaotic, and the cavalry is most suitable for fighting this kind of team.
So, Xu Huang roared, and more than a hundred Tuqi broke away after a burst of blood in the formation, and then attacked the troops here.
But before they could move forward, the troops suddenly heard a sharp gong sound, followed by a burst of black arrows hitting from behind the enemy formation.
Although Xu Huang was shocked, he was still calm because he knew that there was a shortcoming in placing the crossbowmen behind the formation, that is, the shooting range was fixed, and he could dodge as long as he rushed in.
So he yelled:
"Shield up!"
The assault riders behind them all raised their bucklers with one hand, and then continued to gallop.
These small round shields have a small blocking area, so even the Flying Tiger Riders can only cover their fatal spots. As for the war horses under their crotches, they can only resign themselves to fate.
But in the end, except for a few assault riders who fell down because their horses were shot, the rest of the Flying Tiger Riders followed Xu Huang and rushed into the Jiangdong soldiers.
After killing several Jiangdong soldiers who retreated in panic, Xu Huang jumped into the formation, but as soon as he entered, he felt something was wrong because there were too few enemy troops here.
But at this moment, he couldn't control that much anymore. There was no turning back when he opened his bow. The brothers behind him rushed in one by one. Even though there were mountains of swords and seas of fire ahead, they had to rush forward.
Xu Huang led the assault cavalry further, but the enemy troops they encountered all formed small circular formations on the spot.
There are about ten people in this circular formation, with a circle of spearmen on the outside and a few crossbowmen inside.
These crossbowmen fought back against Xu Huang and the assault cavalry in the formation.
The crossbowmen's shooting is very slow, so when these crossbowmen really started shooting, Xu Huang and the others had already penetrated further.
But soon, both Xu Huang and the ordinary Flying Tiger Army knights discovered that something was wrong.
The deeper you go, the more and more such circular formations appear, and visible to the naked eye, there are many square formations forming such small circular formations in the distance.
This is of course not that these Jiangdong soldiers have given up on forming a large formation to resist.
But after a series of adjustments, the generals of the Jiangdong Army understood that the large formation was just like waving their fists to fight mosquitoes against such elite assault cavalry, and could not catch them at all, so they quickly divided into such scattered circular formations.
And after such a point, Xu Huang and the others really felt uncomfortable.
There were so many circular formations on the south bank of the Huai River that the cavalry's running space was greatly reduced.
And because there are crossbowmen in these circular formations, even if their shooting speed is slow, they still cause damage to the Taishan Army's assault cavalry.
Xu Huang and the others had been trapped in battle several times just now, killing so many people and not even a few of them died. But while galloping along these circular formations, more than twenty riders fell off their horses.
Xu Huang looked around and knew that he couldn't fight like this, so the next time he roared, he raised his hand again.
The flying tiger riders behind them looked at the small flag on the head of the spear, and followed Xu Huang one after another, and once again passed through the small gap to the south.
After Xu Huang broke out this time, he did not go deeper, but took his brothers to rest on the spot.
After the fight just now, the number of Flying Tiger Riders was suddenly reduced to more than fifty riders, which can be said to be reduced by half.
But they also achieved great results, not only seriously injuring the enemy's general Sun Ce, but also breaking through four enemy formations and killing hundreds of people.
But more importantly, Xu Huang and the others achieved their set tactical goal, which was that there were fewer and fewer battles on the pontoon bridge, and most of the brothers there had withdrawn to the north bank.
Seeing this, Xu Huang breathed a sigh of relief, rolled up his cloak behind him, and prepared to take another rest, then retreated from the pontoon to the north bank along the passage.
But at this moment, the trooper beside Xu Huang pulled him suddenly, then pointed to the southwest and said in surprise:
"Commander, listen, is someone calling you?"
Xu Huang listened intently, and sure enough, in the noisy battlefield, he heard a burst of shouting from the southwest, intermittent:
"Fight to the death...for Huang Tian..., for the king...fight to the death!"
Xu Huang suddenly became energetic and immediately understood that another group of Flying Tiger Cavalry that had been trapped in the enemy's formation was still fighting.
The Flying Tiger Riders who had dismounted to rest also heard these shouts. Before Xu Huang could say anything, they all got on their horses. Some of them even had weak legs and tried hard to climb onto the horse's back.
Xu Huang looked around at his brothers, smiled, and then rushed towards the northwest again with a walking stick in his hand and a yellow flag on his back.
Behind them, more than fifty assault riders followed without hesitation. No matter how many enemies there were in front, no matter how many brothers were still alive, even if there was only one left, they would lead him out!
Xu Huang once again took the lead. At this time, the bowstring of the bow had already broken, and he threw out the only three arrows left in the bag.
After throwing away several Jiangdong soldiers who were blocking the way, Xu Huang finally saw the situation in the formation over there.
I saw more than thirty brothers riding the Flying Tiger Cavalry surrounded by more than a dozen small circular formations. Several Jiangdong soldiers in the circular formation were slinging the lasso to lasso these Flying Tiger Cavalry soldiers.
Once the person is caught by the noose, he will be dragged directly into the laughing formation by Jiangdong soldiers, and then stabbed to death.
Seeing these subordinates being lured away one after another, Xu Huang shouted anxiously:
"The rats from the east of the Yangtze River will eat only a handful of their own!"
As he spoke, Xu Huang's hand suddenly exerted force and hit a circular formation in front of him.
Because of the power of the galloping horse, Bu Shan was finally overwhelmed and collapsed.
A few sawdust also scratched Xu Huang's face, leaving several blood stains on the face.
But with this powerful blow, the small circular formation on the opposite side was directly crushed.
Xu Huang pulled out the saber on the saddle, and with a flash of the sword and a smear of blood, he cut Jiang Dongbing's neck, and then cut off the trap with another slash, and pulled the Flying Tiger Cavalry brothers onto the horse's back.
At this time, the flying tiger rider had been stabbed to death by random knives, and blood was flowing continuously on the horse's back from the slits in the armor.
Xu Huang roared and shouted to the brothers in the formation:
"Brothers, let's break out and go home!"
The flying tiger cavalry behind them also entered the formation mixed with smoke. Together with Xu Huang, they responded to the more than thirty assault cavalry who were trapped, and then broke out to the west.
That direction is exactly where Xu Huang's formation was, so the enemy's formation is very fragile.
And walking in this direction is the closest to the pontoon.
After fighting out again, Xu Huang came to the pontoon with more than eighty riders exhausted.
At this time, Gao Ao and more than 200 cavalry were staying here waiting for Xu Huang, preparing to cross the river together.
At the same time, Pao Ze on the other side formed a formation on the north bank. After seeing Xu Huang and others on the opposite side, they burst out shouting to the sky:
"Cross the shore quickly! Cross the shore quickly!"
Not only the North Bank was shouting, but the Pei Guo soldiers who were struggling to block the Jiangdong Army navy on the Huai River were also shouting:
"Cross the shore! Cross the shore!"
Xu Huang took one last look at Shouchun behind him and sighed:
"Just a little bit, just a little bit close!"
But no matter how unwilling you are, if you don't withdraw when the enemy's navy is about to cross the river, you will be making a fool of your brothers' lives.
He, Xu Huang, longed for military success, but he had not fallen so low as to use the blood of his brothers to stain him.
But just when Xu Huang was about to lead the raiders across the river, new changes occurred on the battlefield.