The Qin army's greatest weapon advantage over the six countries outside the Guanwai and the Xiongnu has always been the strong crossbow, and this time is no exception, a large number of Han soldiers equipped with Qin's strong crossbows fired arrows in unison, and the dense crossbow arrows quickly shot the Hun cavalry to the back of the horse, and the people shouted that the horses neighed endlessly, and fell to the ground continuously.

Not only that, the iron arrows equipped by some Han soldiers also ignored the simple leather armor on the Hun cavalry, and directly pierced the armor and shot into the body of the Hun cavalry, so that these unlucky Hun cavalry were either good or injured, and at the same time they were shocked, either they didn't understand why the armor on their bodies couldn't play a role until they died, or they directly screamed, "What kind of arrow is this?" Why can't our armor stop it? ”

Fortunately for the Hun army, despite being hit head-on by the crossbow arrows of the Han army, the experienced Hun soldiers still charged non-stop, desperately narrowing the distance between the Han army and the circle formation with the danger of being killed and wounded by the arrow, rushing to the front of the Han army at the fastest speed to seize the opportunity of close combat, and after paying a certain number of casualties, they successfully hit the Han army formation from the east, west and north directions, and broke out with fierce roaring and slashing sounds.

There is no stirrup and high bridge saddle, naturally there is no large-scale impact trampling, except for a small number of particularly skilled Hun cavalry jumping on horseback, the horse's hooves are heavily trampled on the Han soldiers, most of the Hun cavalry can only be in front of the Han army to strangle the horse, riding on the horse and the Han army soldiers to cut and stab, and a considerable part of the Hun soldiers in order to gain flexibility, choose to dismount and fight on foot.

The advantages of the two warring sides are also reflected, the Hun cavalry that has long eaten meat and cheese as the staple food is generally taller, and the arm strength is obviously stronger than that of the Han soldiers, and the bronze weapons are waved wildly, as long as they can hit the body parts of the Han soldiers without armor protection, they can usually cut the Han soldiers to the flesh, and even directly cut off the hands and feet of the Han soldiers, causing serious injuries to the Han soldiers.

The advantage of the Han army is, of course, the weaponry, the iron knife that appeared nearly a hundred years in advance is both sharp and tough, and the iron spearhead is even sharper, even if it slashes the armor on the Hun cavalry, it can easily break through the armor and cause damage to the Hun cavalry. At the same time, because of the production of steel, even if the soldiers of the Han army still wore relatively primitive leather armor and bronze armor, the bronze weapons used to resist the Hun cavalry were still quite easy, and even if the body protected by the armor was hit by the bronze weapons of the Hun cavalry, there was usually no need to worry about any danger to their lives.

These two advantages of course make the combat effectiveness of the Han soldiers greatly increased, in the fierce battle, the Han soldiers only need to pay attention to prevent being cut by the Hun soldiers to stab the hands, feet and faces without armor protection, the iron weapons in the hands can be used to the fullest, like chopping melons and vegetables like crazy chopping the enemy, and usually only need to hit the target, can cause damage to the Hun cavalry, and even directly take the life of the Hun cavalry, in close combat to take a considerable advantage.

However, the Hun cavalry's magic weapon bow and arrow is still very powerful, after the front team engages with the Han army, the Hun cavalry who rushed to the follow-up all dismounted, stood on the ground and pulled out the strong bow, and threw feather arrows at the Han soldiers at the rear of the battlefield one after another, and because the Han army soldiers were too densely formed, they achieved quite a lot of results.

In this regard, Li Zuoche adopted two strategies to deal with it, the first was of course to let the Han soldiers in the rear team throw bows and arrows to shoot back, and the second strategy was to quickly pass the order to the front team, shouting: "Kill the enemy in front of the formation as soon as possible, and free up your hands to shoot the Hun barbarians back with a strong crossbow!" ”

The battle has therefore become cruel and bloody, in order to kill the enemy in front of them as soon as possible, open the space to return fire with a strong crossbow, the Han soldiers of the front team are all working hard, everyone is brave, desperate and crazy to stab the spear in front of the enemy, wielding an iron knife to slash the Hun cavalry, the Hun cavalry is not to be outdone, using the advantage of arm strength is also chopping and stabbing constantly, and the Han soldiers are fighting flesh and blood, blood spraying constantly.

Seeing this scene, Mao Dun, who personally commanded the ambush battle, did not even blink his eyelids, and immediately ordered more soldiers to step forward in close combat, covering the superior archers of his own army and killing the enemy one after another, but to Mao Dun's surprise, when more Hun cavalry rushed to the front of the Han army to help, the Han army suddenly threw out some mysterious objects with curling white smoke one after another, smashed into the crowd of Hun soldiers and exploded continuously, and broke out with a loud sound comparable to thunder.

"What's that?" Mao Dun was stunned for a moment, then quickly came back to his senses, and hurriedly turned to Zang Di next to him and asked, "King Donghulu, is this the palm thunder of the Central Plains people you said?" ”

"Returning to the Great Khan, it is the palm thunder." Zang Di nodded hurriedly, and hurriedly added: "Please rest assured, this kind of palm thunder is just a scary sound, and it actually doesn't have much lethality, unless it happens to hit the body and explode, it basically can't hurt people." ”

Zang Di, who has seen the primitive grenade, said it very easily, but the Hun cavalry who had never met the primitive grenade suddenly encountered this weapon, but none of them were not dizzy and frightened, many Hun soldiers screamed in surprise, morale plummeted, more Hun war horses were even more frightened and galloped wildly, fleeing in all directions, and the Han soldiers took the opportunity to speed up the counterattack, quickly killed the Hun cavalry in front of them, and made room for crossbow arrows. Then the Hun cavalry, whose range was inferior to the crossbow, was killed and wounded, and had to retreat to dodge, and the first wave of the Hun cavalry's onslaught was completely defeated.

Seeing such a scene, of course, the Han army was thundering with joy and morale, but Mao Dun's face was pale, and he quickly ordered to behead all the thousands of people who took the lead in fleeing, and then immediately reorganized the team and prepared to launch a second wave of attacks. During this period, Li Zuoche of course took the opportunity to command the Han soldiers to move westward, and the Han soldiers composed of about 14,000 people maintained a strict formation, slowly advancing westward step by step, and gradually approached the Bantianling Heights that had been successfully seized by the Han cavalry.

Of course, Mao Dun will not let the Han army move up the mountain unless he is stupid, and the Han army's circle formation with extremely poor mobility has not yet walked out of a hundred meters to the west, and the Hun cavalry has already rushed again, once again launching a surprise charge to the Han army's circle array.

Facts have proved that the primitive grenade has a miraculous effect on the Hun war horse, Li Zuoche is of course no longer polite this time, first wait for the Han soldiers to shoot the Hun cavalry with a strong crossbow after the Hun cavalry is killed and wounded, just wait for the Hun cavalry cluster to rush to the front, Li Zuoche decisively ordered the Han soldiers to throw the grenade again, the result this time the effect is also satisfactory, with a primitive grenade in the crowd of the Hun cavalry, the Hun cavalry's war horse was suddenly in a panic, or people stopped, or scattered and fled, Before getting the opportunity to fight in close quarters, it was already a big mess on its own, and the soldiers of the Han army took the opportunity to fire arrows in unison, and shot the Hun cavalry at close range with heavy casualties, far easier than the last time to repel the second large-scale charge of the Hun cavalry.

Seeing that the war horses of the self-army were too passive in front of the primordial grenades, after thinking for a moment with a black face, Mao Dun came up with an extremely genius to solve this problem, and resolutely shouted: "Order the whole army to block the ears of all the war horses!" (The method adopted by Lu Xiangsheng in the Ming Dynasty was to prick the ears of the artillery chariot and war horse deaf. ）

The order was conveyed, and the disciplined Hun cavalry quickly tore off the cloth strips from their bodies and stuffed them into the ears of the war horses under their crotches to block their ears, while the Han soldiers took the opportunity to continue westward, keeping the battle queue gradually approaching the Bantian Ridge, and then after the Hun cavalry all blocked the ears of the war horses, Mao Dun gave the order again and launched an attack on the Han army's round formation for the third time.

The effect of blocking the horse's ears is indeed a little, and the Hun cavalry who sacrificed their lives to impact also successfully got the opportunity to engage the Han army in close combat again, and the Han soldiers had no choice but to use the equipment advantage to start a close combat with the Hun cavalry again, Li Zuoche kept shouting in the formation, "Hold your ground!" Hold your ground! If you want to survive, you must not take half a step back, only by killing the Huns and barbarians, we will have the opportunity to escape to the half-day ridge and stick to the high ground! ”

The battle between the two armies became cruel and bloody again, the Han soldiers gritted their teeth and held their positions, using their strength to slash and stab wildly, and the Hun cavalry was also everyone competing for the lead, all of them were brave, constantly using brute force to stun the Han soldiers, cutting off the arms and spears of the Han soldiers, and desperately moving forward like a madman, tearing open the incision in the Han army's position. The feather arrows in the sky are like flying locusts, taking away the precious lives of the two soldiers all the time, and the battlefield situation has completely fallen into a stalemate.

In the stalemate, more Hun cavalry appeared on the periphery of the battlefield, and in accordance with Mao Dun's command, gathered heavy troops to cut off the connection between the Han infantry and Bantianling, the Han soldiers were inevitably a little flustered when they saw it, but Li Zuoche was silent, while constantly encouraging the Han soldiers to fight bravely, while constantly looking up at the sky, looking forward to the arrival of the night as soon as possible.

Also a military genius, Mao Dun of course also very concerned about the passage of time, seeing that the light in the sky is gradually weakening, the night is coming, in addition to ordering the Hun cavalry to quickly light up the torches to prepare for the night battle, Mao Dun once again put troops in front, and mobilized more than 50,000 troops in one breath to surround the Han army round formation, at the same time, Mao Dun sent someone to lead the army to charge the army to the right Xian Wang to give an order, roaring: "Tell the right Xian king, before the sky is completely dark, if you can't break the battle formation of the Central Plains barbarians, Ben Khan will at least cut him ten tribes!" ”

The order was conveyed, and the Xiongnu Youxian King, who did not want to be weakened, had no choice but to desperately urge the army to step forward and frantically impact the infantry circle formation of the Han army, but it was useless to do so, the circle formation of the Han army was originally the most conducive to defense, and the equipment inferiority of the Hun cavalry was very obvious, plus the soldiers of the Han army had passed the panic period of being surrounded by heavy surrounds, and the more they fought in the fierce battle, the more courage and confidence they had, so no matter how the Hun cavalry charged and attacked, it was impossible to break the infantry circle formation of the Han army.

Unconsciously, the night finally came, and it was estimated that the time had come, Li Zuoche decisively pointed to the west and shouted: "Beat the drums, break through to the west with all your might, throw all the grenades out to me to open the way, kill!" ”

The war drums beat violently, the primitive grenades were also thrown one after another, the Han army's breakthrough battle officially began, in order to survive, none of the soldiers of the Han army did not struggle to the west, red eyes to the Bantianling charge forward, the front soldiers were killed, the companions behind immediately followed, slashing axes and spears, fists hit stones and gnashing teeth, desperate to charge west.

Seeing that the Han infantry began to break through, Xiang Guan in addition to ordering the fire to be lit to guide the infantry to break through, he decisively sent a thousand cavalry to charge down the mountain, brandishing a saber to kill the back of the Hun army, and flanking the Hun army blocking the road to meet the infantry to break through.

Countless Han soldiers died heroically, lying down on the road to break out forever, more Han infantry relied on the cover of the night, as well as the response of the Han cavalry, successfully escaped to the Bantianling Heights, Li Zuoche himself was very shameless to put down the flag early, charged up the mountain under the protection of the directly subordinate army, and was extremely lucky to rush up the Bantianling Heights unscathed, and re-ordered with the long-awaited Xiang Guan.

After meeting, the panting Li Zuoche, of course, immediately ordered the Han soldiers to hold the road to prevent the Hun cavalry from taking the opportunity to attack the mountain, and also to take their own defeated soldiers up the mountain to save their lives, the result was okay, the Han soldiers all understood the truth that two legs could not win four legs, as long as it was a Han army soldier who could still move, there was no one who did not flee to the top of the mountain with a huge fire in Bantianling, basically no one was stupid enough to flee to other directions.

Approaching the second half of the night, the Han army infantry cavalry that could escape up the mountain basically fled to the high ground of Bantianling, although the thunderous Hun cavalry also tried to take the opportunity to attack the mountain, but was stubbornly killed and retreated by the condescending Han army, and had to withdraw the troops in the middle of the third watch, and withdrew to the temporary camp to rest.

The casualties of the Han army in this battle were much larger than Li Zuoche estimated, and only 10,000 of the more than 14,000 Han infantry fled up the mountain, and only more than 600 of the 1,000 Han cavalry who went down the mountain to meet them returned, and a considerable amount of pancakes and food were lost on the cart. As a result, after this situation was reported to Li Zuoche, Li Zuoche's face was gloomy at first, and his heart was cramped, and then he forced a smile and said: "It's okay, there are big losses and big benefits, at least the Hun barbarians can feel that there is hope to annihilate us, and they will not easily give up besieging us." ”

"Guangwujun, what should we do next?" Xiang Guan hurriedly asked.

"Of course, we are trying to find a way to let the Huns stay here, so that their rear army brigade will also come here and wait for death."

Li Zuoche smiled, asked people to get a silk pen, and personally wrote a letter asking for help to Xiang Zhuang who guarded Shanwu and Nie Zheng who guarded Ma Yi, telling them that he and Xiang Guan had been surrounded in Bantianling, and ordered Xiang Zhuang and Nie Zheng to immediately send troops to rescue him, and drew a mark on the letter, and then handed it to Xiang Guan and ordered: "Immediately arrange two dead soldiers to go to Shanwu and Ma Yi respectively to deliver the letter." ”

"Guangwujun, wait a little longer." Xiang Guan persuaded: "The Huns have just retreated, and they will definitely prevent us from sending people to break through and ask for help, and if we send someone to deliver a letter now, I am afraid it will be difficult to succeed." ”

"I wish both messengers had been stopped." Li Zuoche said with a smile: "My two letters are not written to Xiang Zhuang and Nie Zheng, but to the barbarian Mao Dun, I want him to know that as long as he insists on encircling us, he will have the opportunity to encircle and send reinforcements, and annihilate our Shanwu and Mayi defenders in the field, so that he will not give up encircling us." ”

Thinking that he was about to reach the main force of the Han army, Xiang Guan immediately understood what Li Zuoche meant, but Xiang Guan was still a little worried, and hurriedly said: "But Guangwujun, if our messenger really sent the letter to Mayi and Shanwu, and Brother and General Nie didn't understand our plan and really sent troops to save us, wouldn't their rescue be dangerous?" ”

Li Zuoche smiled, pointed to the last code he drew on the letter and said, "Do you see this mark?" I have long explained to Xiang Zhuang and Nie Zheng that as long as there is an order with this mark, it must not be executed. ”

Xiang Guan laughed, first expressed his admiration to Li Zuoche, and then hurriedly selected two dead soldiers who didn't know the situation to go down the mountain, and went to Mayi and Shanwu to send a letter for help overnight, and Li Zuoche, who had not rested, also sat down next to the fire and muttered: "I have done my best to do everything I can." Your Majesty, you have to hurry, your majesty won't last long here. ”