Chapter 34: The Darkest Hour
"What do you say, the rebels have stormed Miyagi." Lu Zhan couldn't believe it after hearing the news.
Seeing Lu Zhan stunned in place, Xu Hao patted Lu Zhan heavily and said, "Now is not the time to be stunned, we should go to the palace to beat those traitors."
"You're right, it should be too late to go to the palace." Lu Zhan took a breath and regained his spirits.
No wonder the capture of the city gate just now went so smoothly, it turned out that the main force of the rebels was concentrated in the direction of the palace. Now I don't know where the officers of the Southern Army are being held, and only by leading troops to the palace to rescue the Son of Heaven can the situation be broken.
Except for a small number of soldiers guarding the city gates, most of the soldiers went in the direction of the palace. The galloping horses rushed to the palace like a wind in the streets, and the sound of the horses' hooves shaking the earth made the people next to the streets think that there was an earthquake.
Stepping on the familiar streets of the capital again, Lu Zhan didn't have the heart to feel the joy of taking the door at night and returning to the capital, and now Lu Zhan had only one goal in mind - the palace. Now it's a matter of who is faster, whether the rebels will control the Son of Heaven first, or whether Lu Zhan's reinforcements will defeat the rebels.
Thousands of soldiers of the Southern Army blocked the road of the Northern Army to Miyagi, and the advantage of the cavalry on the street could not be brought into play at all, so Wen Qianhu ordered the cavalry to make way for the infantry who came behind.
Elite infantry in strong armor rushed to the southern army defending the street under the leadership of Xu Hao.
The Northern soldiers who took the lead in the attack arrived on horseback and then dismounted on foot, wearing two layers of armor that made it difficult for ordinary swords to break, and only blunt weapons could hurt these hoplites, and blunt weapons were not standard equipment, so it was a one-sided massacre.
"Everyone, listen don't kill the one who wears bright yellow armor, the Son of Heaven is only valuable if he is alive. Whoever can capture the Son of Heaven alive will be rewarded with a thousand gold, and the official will be promoted to the fifth level. Dong Cunren offered a bounty to his soldiers.
The Son of Heaven, who was protected by the forbidden army, calmly commanded the forbidden army, which was a collision of steel and blood. The rebels who rushed to the front of the forbidden army were forced back by the gun array of the forbidden army, and several rebels who had no time to retreat were poked with several bloody holes in their bodies.
Both the forbidden army and the southern army, as a rebel army, lacked the experience of real battlefield fighting, and many people couldn't help but retch when they saw the holes poked out of the corpses and the smell of blood everywhere.
Seeing the forbidden army defending in formation, Dong Cunren waved his hand, ready to let the archers deal with these stubborn forbidden troops.
"The archers obeyed the order, except for not shooting the Son of Heaven, the rest of the people were killed, let go!" Dong Cunren shouted loudly for the archers to release their arrows.
Several waves of dense locust-like arrows quickly knocked down many of the forbidden soldiers, and the forbidden army, which suffered huge casualties, was still trying to maintain the formation, although these forbidden troops were afraid and frightened, but none of them were willing to retreat, because the Son of Heaven was with them.
In the era of cold weapon warfare, the commander's willingness to take the lead in fighting will make the soldier's will surprisingly high, not to mention that this is the Son of Heaven's personal expedition.
"It's a big deal to die here today, and my son will definitely proudly say that my father killed thieves with the Son of Heaven back then."
"Grandpa is not afraid of your rebels, come on!"
The surviving Forbidden Army kept cursing at the rebels, who did not dare to step forward as if they were cornered beasts. Su Xin supported himself with a spear in his hand while covering the bleeding wound from the stray arrow, which was the pride of a military family, and he would rather die than give in to the rebel.
All the soldiers present felt that the earth was shaking, and Dong Cunren looked uneasily in the direction where the sound of horses' hooves came from, and thought in his heart: It is impossible for the Northern Army to break through its troops on the street so quickly, and these cavalry must be friends and foes.
"It's the hussar battalion brothers who are coming." A Praetorian soldier saw the armor on the cavalry and judged it to be a soldier of the hussar battalion.
Seeing the cavalry that was constantly accelerating the charge, Dong Cunren decided to use the rain of arrows again to curb the momentum of the cavalry charge, "The archers are ready to fire a salvo." ”
"No, the general has already used up his strength in archery just now, and even now, archery can't exert its power at all." The commander of the archer said to Dong Cunren.
Since there were no bows and arrows to curb the cavalry charge, Dong Cunren had no choice but to order the few elites under his command to prepare to meet the attack, as long as they resisted the momentum of the cavalry charge, they could let the infantry and cavalry close to each other.
The cavalry of the hussar battalion saw the elite of the rebels holding shields in front of them and preparing to receive the impact, so they raised the speed of their horses to the highest speed, and the galloping horses slammed into the shields, and the soldiers holding the shields were knocked out and flew up with blood in their mouths, while the speed of the cavalry only slowed down.
The cavalry of the hussar battalion waved the sabers in their hands to harvest the heads of the rebels, and the hussar battalion, which had defeated the rebels, quickly approached in the direction where the Son of Heaven was.
Lu Zhan, who was fighting fiercely on the streets of the capital, looked anxiously in the direction of the palace, while Xu Hao was lamenting that these rebels were so sudden and so capable of fighting. In fact, it was Tang Liyi who detained the families of these soldiers, and if these soldiers did not retreat at the appointed hour, their families would be executed.
Xu Hao's helmet was knocked off in the melee, so he waved the big knife in his hand and distributed Xu Hao's hair at this moment, which was very scary. Lu Zhan had to sigh that Xu Hao, this kid was deeply hidden, and he had the style of Lu Bu's reincarnation, although he didn't kill many people, but his momentum was comparable to Lu Bu.
"Brothers, hold on, our family is still there..."
"It's dying, and there's so much nonsense." After Xu Hao finished speaking, he waved the big knife in his hand and charged.
Lu Zhan, who was protected by many guards, rode on his horse and saw the defeat of the soldiers of the Southern Army, and immediately urged the cavalry behind him to quickly cross the street after the infantry was completely controlled.
Smelling the smell of blood in the air, Lu Zhan secretly sighed in his heart: Sure enough, the war seen in the movie and the war directly faced are completely different things.
The rebels besieging the Son of Heaven once again gathered to suppress the rebels with a numerical advantage, and the cavalry of the hussar battalion, which had no room to speed up, dismounted and fought on foot.
Just as the two sides were preparing to engage again, the ground began to shake again, and Dong Cunren looked back and saw that it was the cavalry of the Northern Army coming. Seeing the roaring cavalry of the Northern Army, Dong Cunren knew that he had failed.
Dong Cunren looked at the sword in his hand and didn't know what he was thinking, the rebels quickly collapsed under the flanking attack.
Lu Zhan, who was charging with cavalry, immediately rode his horse after seeing Su Xin, who was covered in blood, and the Son of Heaven wearing bright yellow armor. When he arrived at the Son of Heaven, Lu Zhan turned over and dismounted, and saluted the Son of Heaven.
"Wechen is late to save the car, and I hope Your Majesty will forgive your sins."
Without waiting for the Son of Heaven to speak, a scout quickly came to the front and said, "The vanguard of the Song army has entered the city, and now it is coming straight to the palace."