Chapter 3 Yangguan (Sixth Upper)

"Did you hear you clearly?" Kicking the guide Lao Yue away, Wang Xun stood up and asked the people nearby who were eavesdropping with their ears pricked up.

"What nonsense! Fight with them! Lao Zhou, Lao Zheng and the other Flying Dragon Guards twitched the corners of their mouths, and their faces turned pale. Along the way, everyone was worried, but when the worry really became a reality, everyone was not as scared as before. I just want to let out another bad breath before I die. Killing one is enough, killing two earns one.

"Yes, fight with them, kill one is enough, kill two to earn one." The people led by Wei Feng and Zhu Wuyi were not as angry as the Flying Dragon Guards, but the despair in their eyes was clearly visible. They are not soldiers, and even if they lose all their baggage, they may not be beheaded when they return. However, the confession of the guide Lao Yue extinguished the last trace of illusion in everyone's hearts. The group of robbers in the distance was disguised by officers and soldiers, and they were accustomed to killing people and killing people. The carriage was full of ordnance, and if the "officials and thieves" did not want to be held accountable by the imperial court afterwards, they would not let anyone get out of this desert alive.

"Don't think about how to get enough yet!" Wang Xun pointed at the official thieves in the distance and sneered loudly. "We have more than four hundred old and young masters here. Long and short weapons, strong bows and crossbows, how many or how many. What do they have? With a piece of broken iron, you want us to be killed, no way? ”

"No way?"

"Fight, fight, people are dead!" The guards and the people were surging and opened their throats in agreement. I didn't know if I was not reminded, but after listening to Wang Xun's words, everyone realized that their strength was not weaker than that of their opponents, and they were still far from the upper hand in terms of weapons and baggage supplies.

Hearing the shouts from behind the barracks, the enemy's movements immediately accelerated. But in a hurry, they couldn't think of any proper way to crack the crossbow arrows of the baggage team, so they had to order some of them to dismount and form a dense array of fish scales, and those standing on the outermost side each held a round shield, obliquely protecting the top of their heads and upper body.

This kind of fish scale formation can minimize the lethality of feather arrows, but it is not easy to maintain the formation, especially in the desert, where the feet are shallow and deep, and the whole team cannot be coordinated at all. With every few steps, you had to stop and regroup.

Therefore, Wang Xun still has enough time to boost the morale of his side to the greatest extent before the two armies come into contact. Gritting his teeth, he shouted at the guards and the people: "Since they can't do their best, then kill them all, let's start a group to cook!" ”

"Kill them all, start cooking!"

"Kill them all!"

"Kill them all! Let's cook! Lao Zhou, Lao Zheng and others took the lead, and the Flying Dragon Guards and Minzhuang responded in unison. Raise your long knife and short crossbow to form a jungle of steel.

"The Flying Dragon Guards, all of them, copy the Mo knife, block the back of the carriage, don't let a living person in!" Seeing that the morale was available, Wang Xun quickly adjusted the deployment.

The battle that follows will certainly be much more difficult than the previous one. The first two enemy forces were repulsed because they didn't take into account the number of crossbows in the carriage, and they also underestimated the combat effectiveness of the Wyvern Praetorian Guard. But the lucky thing happened again and again on the same side. It is impossible for a soldier of the Hexi Army, who has rich combat experience, to make the same mistake three times in a row.

Then give it a go and see who has the last laugh. Although Wang Xun has no actual combat experience, as the leader of the streets of Chang'an, the most important thing he lacks is ruthlessness. Seeing that Fang Ziling and the others followed their orders, they picked up the Mo knife without hesitation, and after a pause, he continued to shout: "Brothers Minzhuang, all the crossbow arrows will be handed over to you." Listening to the orders of Brother Wei and Brother Zhu, I aimed and shot, I would rather use up all the crossbow arrows than let the officials and thieves take advantage of them! ”

"We ......." I didn't expect Wang Xun to suddenly put such an important task on his shoulders, and Wei Feng and Zhu Wuyi, the leaders of Minzhuang, were stunned and instinctively wanted to push back. Their voices were quickly drowned out in a deafening roar, "Captain don't worry, the officials and thieves can't even catch a single crossbow hair." ”

"If they want a crossbow, they will exchange their lives!"

"Take your life for it, trade your life for it!"

Hearing a thunderous roar in the distance, the rider couldn't help but dry Gu Litu's throat. Pretending to be a sand thief to raid the caravans on this road was a common method of making a fortune for him and his brothers. But never before has the idea been as strong as it is today. Those caravan guards, no matter how large the number of them, were already frightened when they saw a large number of skeletons suddenly pouring out from all around, how could they organize effective resistance? And today, the group of Wyvern guards on the opposite side stubbornly resisted the first wave of sneak attacks that they had carefully organized with their lack of virtue and quick reactions.

In the second wave of attacks, the opponent's reaction was also unexpected. The captain who led the team is said to have never led a soldier, but he is more decisive than many battlefield veterans. At the risk of being held accountable later, he issued all the forbidden weapons and Fubo crossbows to the people. And it seems to organize a three-stage shot!

More than 300 Fubo crossbows fired volleys in succession, and the power was amazing. In an instant, more than forty brothers were folded under the command of Gu Litu. In order to avoid heavy losses, he had to withdraw the team as quickly as possible. At the same time, he was secretly ruthless in his heart, if he captured the kid surnamed Wang alive today, he would definitely cut dozens of holes on his body and watch his blood be sucked dry by the desert little by little.

And the premise of all this is that his brothers can successfully break through the barrier of crossbow arrows, get close to the barracks made of carriages, and open the way for the cavalry behind to attack. The Fish Scale Formation that was slowly moving forward was not Gu Litu's last killing move, and beside him, there were more than fifty henchmen of the same clan. They are all wearing bright light armor of all colors, and the horizontal knives in their hands are awe-inspiring. (Note 1)

"Hurry up, hurry up, don't fucking grind. Lao Tzu raises you every day, just for this time! "The more anxious I feel, the more difficult it is to wait. Gulitu gripped the hilt of the knife, his fingers parting and closing. In order to keep the formation in order, the foot soldiers marched too slowly, so slow that his eyes were on fire. From time to time, someone stopped and looked down in the sand to grope for the remaining thistles. Whenever this happens, the whole team has to wait in place, while the prey on the opposite side shouts unbridledly, as if they can't wait for the upcoming battle.

"There are times when you cry!" Gu Litu gritted his teeth, and secretly ruthless in his heart. No matter how slow the fish scale array goes, it will get closer to the carriage sooner or later. By that time ......... He didn't believe that a group of recruits who had never seen blood and three hundred strong people, and the advantage of the Fubo crossbow that had left could still be hard to fight with the group of brothers under his command who had killed countless people. You know, for the brothers to go out more than 20 times a year to do business, there has never been a single miss.

The facts also verified the correctness of his command. As soon as the fish scale array entered the range of the crossbow arrows, the rabble in the opposite camp was really at a loss. The first wave of bolts was fired too early, and most of them landed in the sand, and only a few of them hit the shields in the hands of the brethren, splashing a few sparks on the ground with a "dang" and then falling limply to the ground. The second wave of feathered arrows soon flew out again, and the momentum was huge, but the killing effect was still limited. The shield wall that ran across the front of the Fish Scale Formation effectively restrained them, causing most of the bolts to fall in vain. Seeing this scene, the rabble in the camp became more and more nervous, and the third wave of crossbow arrows was delayed at first, but when it was time to shoot, they didn't know whether to adjust the angle, and they still blocked the waist flatly, except for adding a few featherless short crossbows to the shield surface as decoration, there was no blocking effect at all.

The general who was sent by Gullitu to lead the shield bearer was named Ayuhui, and he was also one of his kindred. After Ge Shuhan succeeded in taking the place of Wang Zhonghe, he promoted his own people in the Hexi army. As a result, some Turkic officers rose to the rank of reed like a spring reed, but their own abilities and experience were very limited. Seeing that the opposite camp was the same trick three times in a row, Ah Yuhui's heart suddenly swelled with a burst of ecstasy, "Speed up and push the carriage away!" Crossbow arrows can only be fired horizontally! The knife jerked forward, and he commanded loudly. At the same time, he raised his shield and rushed ahead of everyone.

"Crossbow arrows can only be fired horizontally!! Ah Yu will make a lot of money now! Seeing the rapid acceleration of his team's advancement, Gu Litu was also ecstatic in his heart. The reason why the army is equipped with both crossbows and bows is because although crossbow arrows are extremely lethal, they are far less flexible than bows and arrows. Regardless of whether it is a flat end or an oblique end, the short arrow shot can only go in a straight line. When the strength is exhausted, it falls to the ground in vain. Bows and arrows, on the other hand, can be projectile from various angles to cover a large area of enemy troops.

More than a dozen crossbow bolts were fired from behind the carriage, and the effect was almost none. The rabble was in turmoil, and many people got up from behind the carriage and ran backwards. "Inform the scouts on guard on the perimeter, rob and kill all those who escape, and no one is allowed to slip through the net!" Gulito smiled, revealing a mouth full of white teeth. A rookie is a rookie, even if it stands up its feathers and hisses loudly, it can't avoid becoming a good meal in the mouth of the blue wolf.

The fish scale array pushed forward faster and faster, faster and faster, and many shield players were so eager to make meritorious contributions that they couldn't care about stopping and waiting for their robes. A large gap appeared in the entire array, and suddenly, a ray of ominous omen surged in Gu Litu's heart. There are dozens of wagons and ordnance hidden on the other side, how can they only know how to use Fubo crossbows?

"The whole team, hurry up and blow the horn to remind Ah Yuhui, this bastard, the whole team, don't be greedy!" He tore his throat and shouted. But it was too late, and a blinding white light rose from behind the carriage, and a terrible arc cut through the air, smashing squarely on the heads of the advancing team.

In an instant, the fish scale array was torn apart.

Note 1: Mingguang armor, one of the finest armor of the Tang Dynasty. It has a neck guard, and the front of the body armor is divided into two pieces, left and right, with a small round armor piece in the center of each piece, and a large deck on the back. The protective power ranks first among the thirteen types of armor in the army, and the cost is high, and only a few elite or the general's personal soldiers have the opportunity to equip it.