The sudden sound of the horn pierced the silence of the world, and Ma Chao, who had eaten an inexplicable secret loss, suppressed the anger like a volcano about to erupt, and led the men and horses to the camp where Fei Fei was diving, and the five thousand cavalry pulled out a wide fan, raised the smoke and dust in the sky, and rushed towards the camp by the Qingni River.

Because of a farce in the camp yesterday, wounded or killed, a total of more than 80 war horses were lost, and the casualties were also nearly 100, although the number is not very much, but the blow to morale is relatively large, in this era of rampant mysticism, whether it is the Xiliang people or the Qiang people, there are many people who worship a certain god, so yesterday night, there were some gossip spread, saying that a certain god was guilty......

In order to avoid a further decline in morale, and to prove that the so-called surrender of a certain god does not exist at all, Ma Chao urged everyone to hurry early in the morning, and galloped more than 100 miles in one day and rushed to the next defense.

Even in the era of hot weapon combat, morale is still very critical, and one or two soldiers can chase dozens of soldiers who have lost their fighting spirit, running like ducks, which is not uncommon on the battlefield.

"Ling Ming!" As soon as Ma Chao saw the camp of Qingnihe, the tricolor flag was still fluttering, a smile climbed up his face, pointed the spear, almost no pause, and as soon as he entered the attack range, he immediately ordered, "Take the people in front to attack immediately!" ”

The camp of Qingnihe was originally set up for the convenience of transshipment, so although it was built at the bend of the water, in order to facilitate transportation, the front was still relatively open, so in Ma Chao's eyes, this became its fatal weakness.

Pound took the order, whistled, and rode forward.

Ma Chao did not expect to be able to take the camp directly in one fell swoop, because in most cases, the first wave of attacks was a tentative attack, which was an act used to spy on the opponent's strength.

The sound of horses' hooves shook people's hearts like thunder. Pang De led 800 Qiang cavalry, unfurled a goose array, and with billowing smoke and dust, he rushed towards the camp by the Qingni River......

Three hundred steps.

The Qiang rider roared, fierce and vicious, waving his war knife with teeth and claws.

Two hundred steps.

As if crossing an invisible line, almost all the Qiang riders immediately shrank on the horse's back, hiding their heads, faces, chests and abdomen behind the horse's neck, sweeping away the previous state of opening their teeth and claws, and they are all kicking the horse's belly fiercely to increase the horse's speed......

One hundred steps.

The sudden explosion of war drums was like thunder, instantly breaking the original silent silence of the Qingni camp, on the wall of the wall, suddenly stood a lot of archers, "boom" in the sound, the arrows were like locusts, instantly crossed the distance of less than 100 steps, and flew to the Qiang cavalry that hit the camp!

In the midst of the blood splashing, a burst of people suddenly turned on their backs.

People always have some mindset, for example, when there is an existing passage in front of them, if it is not particularly emphasized, most people will choose to walk along the passage, these Qiang riders unconsciously in the formation is slightly deformed, along the middle of the people and horses trampled out of an obvious passage, towards the Qingnihe camp gate to go.

Therefore, after withstanding the covering fire of the archers in the camp, the cavalry and war horses that turned to the ground in front also brought down the Qiang cavalry in one or two rows behind......

"Spread out!" Pound roared, and the Qiang cavalry suddenly separated from the two sides, and did not continue to attack the gate of the camp, but began to gallop around the camp, and then hoisted the arrows into the camp.

Of course, this attack did not have much lethal effect, but only put some pressure on the archers at the battlements of the wall.

In fact, most of the time, in addition to the training factors of some soldiers, the most important thing is personal luck. Some just stuck out half of their heads and were stabbed in the eyebrows by the arrows......

Amid the arrows in the air, some Qiang rode their horses and fell to the ground.

Ma Chao, who was in the back formation, couldn't help frowning when he looked at the changes in front of the formation.

It's not because of the bows and arrows in the camp, because it's normal to have bows and arrows to fight back, didn't you see that Qiang was ready to meet the rain of arrows when he was two hundred paces away?

But the question is, how could these archers be so accurate and shoot down so many cavalrymen with such a high number of archers at most?

You must know that the archers in the army are not those generals who are good at bows and arrows, and they can't talk about a hundred steps through Yang at all, even ten steps through Yang are enough to choke, and a hundred steps can be nine out of ten, only requiring the target, not requiring the red heart, for ordinary archers, it is considered qualified, so in the state of high-speed galloping of the cavalry, how many hit rates can there be?

And for the cavalry, because there is the shelter of the war horse, it is not easy to hit directly, plus the war horse has rough skin and thick flesh, generally speaking, unless it is shot at the vital part, or the impact is strong, the war horse will not immediately fall to the ground, and the situation in front of him seems to be a little wrong......

However, the mystery was soon revealed, and Pound led the men and horses around the camp for a while, turned back, and returned to the Ma Chao army formation.

"Young Commander! Zhengxi dug a lot of potholes in front of the camp, and once he fell into it, he would break the horse's hooves......" Pang De returned to Ma Chao's side, gesturing to Ma Chao, and said, "Such potholes are all around the gate of the village, if you don't clear them, you can't enter!" In addition to the antlers and horses on the front of the camp and on the tidal flats on both sides of the wall, it seems that a lot of sharp gravel and thistles are also arranged in the west......"

"Tribulus terrestris! This damn thief! Ma Chao nodded, pondered for a while, looked up at the sky again, and said in a deep voice, "Since you are on guard, you can't go down quickly...... Herald! Retreat five miles to camp and wait for tomorrow's decisive battle! "This thief who marched to the west arranged such a large area of thistles, how much does it cost......

To clear out a passage, it is not possible to do it in a short time, it is close to dusk, and this day is galloping, the horsepower is also exhausted, and the whole army is eager to press, and it may not be a good thing to forcibly attack, it is better to trim it, and the next day with abundant physical strength, it is better to go down in one fell swoop, and besides, this camp is in the bend of the river, as long as the wide side is blocked, where can the west run?

As for the forty or fifty Qiang riders who were lost in front of the camp of Qingnihe, whether it was Ma Chao or Pang De, or even those Qiang people, they didn't take it seriously.

War of the undead?

Is that a child playing at home?

Being able to detect the movement in the camp and know the defensive arrangements of the expedition to the west, the loss of manpower is already worth it......

"Ling Ming, fortunately, where to take the front men and horses to guard......" Ma Chao pointed in the direction they came, "If there is a change at night, Ling Ming can directly attack its flank!" ”

Pang De was stunned for a moment and asked, "Young Commander, do you want to bring someone over now or wait until after nightfall......

"Well, let's go now." Ma Chao glanced at Pang De, smiled, and said, "Ling Ming is really smart, and he will be a famous general the next day!" "Although it can be more concealed to go back at night, Ma Chao would rather let the people in the camp see his arrangement than toss for another night, he wants to use the most abundant energy and physical strength to break through the camp in one fell swoop!

"The young commander has won the award." Now that the order was clear, Pound led his men and horses away from the brigade and headed to one side......

On the battlement of the Qingnihe camp, Xu Huang looked at the direction of Ma Chao's retreat, sighed twice, and said, "The night attack is canceled...... Light the wolf smoke and withdraw the troops directly......"

After speaking, Xu Huang went down the battlement along the wooden stake on the side and went to the middle of the camp......

………………………………

Qingni River is mountainous on one side, flat on the other, the widest place has 50 steps, the narrowest place has nearly 30 steps, of course, compared with the Yangtze River, Qingni River is not on any level, although the water flow is a little turbulent, but it is not the kind of flow speed of rapids and rapids, but the interesting thing is that Qingni River has one of the upper levels.

As the name suggests, the Qingni River is naturally "mud......

This river, maybe because the woods have been cut down more, or maybe it flows through the loess high slope, anyway, it carries a lot of sediment, a pound of water is scooped up, at least three taels of sand, over time, a lot of sediment is piled up on the riverbed and both banks, maybe one day the riverbed is too high, the river will be diverted or cut off.

When there is a lot of sediment, it is inevitable that some tidal flats will accumulate, and some tidal flats will have more reeds or something, and they will be overgrown with weeds, almost as high as one person.

At this time, in a tidal flat by the river, a soldier who was marching to the west showed a head in the reeds, looked at the three wolf smoke rising in the distance, and hurriedly turned around to greet him, saying, "Come out!" Push the boat out! Captain Xu gave the order, let's go, move faster......"

………………………………

After nightfall, Ma Chao received an unexpected news.

"The soldiers of the West have begun to cross the river?"

Regarding the behavior of the soldiers who marched to the west, Ma Chao said that he could not understand it at all.

You must know that the side of the Qingni River is almost all mountainous, although some places are flat tidal flats, but most of them are undulating mountains and hills, and the most important thing is that there are no people there at all, and there are no roads.

Even if Zhengxi goes to climb the mountains, he can lead the cavalry to outflank along the perimeter, unless Zhengxi really decides to go into the mountains to be a savage?

Ma Chao immediately led the men and horses to approach the Qingnihe camp, although it was already late, but under the light of the camp fire, some figures could still be seen, and they were transported to the opposite bank by a small boat......

"Someone!" Ma Chao shouted loudly, "Send scouts to investigate the traces of soldiers and horses up and downstream!" Hurry up! ”

"Big brother, these ships must be destroyed!" Ma Tie pointed forward with his spear and said.

Ma Chao had a calm face, looked at the more than 20 boats coming and going in the middle of the river, and nodded. The ships must be destroyed, otherwise, the soldiers and horses of the expedition to the west can go ashore at any point along the shoreline of the Qingni River!

Even if you send men and horses to follow the ship, but the horsemanpower is always limited, if the ship runs down the water for two days, will not let the men and horses on the shore die of exhaustion?

Ma Chao slapped his hands fiercely, his face was pale, why did he never think that there was a boat in Zhengxi, although it was a small boat that transported grain and grass, it was also a boat that could carry people across the river!

In fact, this is a misunderstanding of thinking.

Unlike the Han people in the south who can't do without boats every day, in fact, for the Xiliang people, the word "boat" is not in their dictionary at all.

In Ma Chao's previous plan, it was normal that he failed to connect the expedition to the west with the ship at all.

Dealing with war horses every day, galloping on the Loess Gobi steppe for 20 years, and never taking a boat, will the Xiliang man include the ship in the category of strategic thinking?

"Someone! Order, whole team, attack the camp overnight! Ma Chaoda shouted, at this time, I don't care about what people and horses are repairing, the fighter plane is coming, so I won't wait for all the men and horses to cross the shore before starting, right?

Although the water surface of the Qinghe River here is not wide, only about 40 paces, but the camp is just at a bend in the river, the water gate of the camp is at the most prominent point of the waterway bend, if you shoot from the bank on both sides of the camp to the transport place, the distance is close to two hundred steps, the so-called strong crossbow can not penetrate Lu Mian, there are not many heavy arrows equipped with Ma Chao soldiers, even the ability to kill and injure transport personnel is not even long-range.

Therefore, if the camp is not captured, there is naturally no way to approach the water gate of the camp, and there is also no way to launch a threatening attack on the soldiers who are crossing the river.

The rapid sound of the horn sounded, and many Qiang people who had only been lying down for a short time were urged to get up, forming a scattered battle line, and approaching the camp on foot......

The battle to attack the camp was forced to advance, and these Qiang people marched on foot in order to fill the strange pits in front of the camp and clean up a passage that could provide a way for horses to rush to the village.

"The flanks are spread! Hanging shot! Suppress! ”

Behind these Qiang people, Ma Tie commanded the rest of the men and horses to deploy, covering with bows and arrows, and one arrow after another roared, rushing towards the wall of the camp.

In the light of the fire, countless arrows screamed through the air.

"Shield!"

With Xu Yu's order, a shield was suddenly erected on the battlements of the camp.

The long arrows were like a storm, crackling and knocking on the shield and the wall, some were directly pierced on the shield, and some were bounced off by the rivets and iron sheets on the surface of the shield, clanging, like a symphony played by the Grim Reaper.

If it is a recruit who has just entered the battlefield, in the face of such a fierce arrow array attack, it is inevitable that he will panic and be nervous, but now behind the wall, there are soldiers who have been on the battlefield for a long time, and after seeing a bigger and more terrifying scene, such a rain of arrows basically does not feel much pressure for these sword and shield hands.

"Kill!" The Qiang people at the front, when they approached the place of a stone's throw away, suddenly let out a shout, and rushed forward with their war knives!

Their goal is not to fight, but to take advantage of the front to fight and shoot from the side, under the cover of the Qiang people, fill in the holes along the way, sweep away the thistles, and sort out a road that can be ridden and charged......