Due to years of wind erosion, the mountain range here is straight on three sides, and you can see the crimson mud and patches of rock. On the other side is a gentle slope that stretches for nearly a mile, sparsely dotted with birch trees that grow tender green branches. Under the trees is a pale layer of green grass.

In the woods, the non-commissioned officers of the reconnaissance battalion armed with steel crossbows were covered with green sap from leaves, and their bodies were covered with the camouflage of branches and grass, and even the steel crossbows in their hands were smeared with a layer of thin mud to prevent reflection.

On the top of the mountain, Zhang Yunwen measured the distance and waited for the knight who galloped over in the distance. And beside him, several soldiers with bows also looked at the three thousand knights with full attention.

"Well, Old Song, don't be busy charging now, wait until we attack first for a while before you rush down! Yes, don't hold a mace now, just put one end on the ground and save horsepower! Looking at Song Waterfall's nervous look, Zhang Yunwen said comfortingly, "Later, when you see everyone charging, Old Song, you will rush forward!" Don't worry, you can wear two layers of armor now, and the protection is super strong! ”

Song Waterfall swallowed a mouthful of saliva and nodded expressionlessly.

Looking at the cavalry galloping in the distance, and then looking down at the mortar shells that had been held in his hands, Zhang Yunwen suddenly remembered Marx's words when discussing the four great inventions: "Gunpowder blew the knight class to pieces." "Now, aren't you just blowing up knights with gunpowder?

The Turkic cavalry was getting closer and closer, and the cannonball in Zhang Yunwen's hand was already placed at the muzzle.

1,000 steps, 800 steps, 600 steps......

It is not only necessary to calculate the distance, but also to estimate the amount of advance, and where the shells fall, it happens to be the place where the vanguard cavalry is most concentrated.

Seeing that he had entered the best firing distance, Zhang Yunwen let go of his hand, and the mortar shell slipped into the barrel.

First I heard the sound of gurgling shells sliding in the barrels, and then there was a dull sound of "bang", and the shells had already flown out and fell in a parabolic shape towards the dense cavalry.

The formation of the Turks marching forward on horseback was scattered and disorganized. The pioneer general Ashnatidi was the first to run at the front, and his left and right riders followed closely behind the left and right sides of the distance half a horse. Then came a dense wave of cavalry, about seventy men. After this wave of cavalry, there were a few knights, and then another wave of dense cavalry. The entire forward formation is like a rock sugar gourd.

Zhang Yunwen's first shell fell in the first wave of dense cavalry.

The marching cavalry also heard a dull sound, followed by an elongated sound of breaking through the air. Instinctively, they felt danger and wanted to dodge, when suddenly a loud noise rang out. The shock wave generated by the explosion and the flying shrapnel and thistle terrestris arrived almost at the same time, shooting more than a dozen cavalrymen from a radius of nearly a dozen feet off their horses, and the knights on the periphery were also affected by the shock wave and almost lost control of the horses.

"Enemy attack!" A Turkic knight had just shouted loudly in Turkic when a second shell arrived.

"Boom-" A loud bang exploded, and more than a dozen Turkic knights were injured and fell from their horses, and then they were directly stepped on by the knights who swarmed from behind.

Ashnatid, who was running in front, suddenly stopped his horse's steps, turned his horse's head, and looked at the knight who was following behind him. The horse under the crotch moved its hooves restlessly and walked gently. Seeing the knight behind him with a somewhat flustered expression, Ashnatidi immediately shouted loudly in Turkic language: "We are not useless cowards, we are Turkic cavalry warriors, don't be afraid of these things, the steppe will bless us!" ”

As he spoke, another cannonball exploded in the crowd. Suddenly, the knights scattered in all directions, and the knights' mounts under the crotch that were closer to the explosion suddenly stood up and hissed.

Ashnatidi heard the direction where the cannonball whistling came from, swept his eyes, and found Zhang Yunwen on the mountain ridge and several knights beside him, and immediately roared: "Over there, rush for me!" ”

In an instant, I saw the rest of the knights turn their horses' heads in unison, turn to the side like a flood, and go straight to the mountain. Mighty and mighty, like a tide.

Zhang Yunwen didn't care about it, and said to Ma Wangshan and Wu Peng beside him: "You can work!" ”

The two of them, along with several soldiers who made bows, immediately took out three-stone and four-stone bows, bent their bows and arrows, and shot straight at the charging Turkic knights.

Such a dense charge almost did not need to be aimed, one arrow at a time.

Just as Ma Wangshan was shooting, Zhang Yunwen had already adjusted the angle of the mortar, picked up the mortar shell, and started shooting again.

The Turkic cavalry, charging over, spread out on both wings, slowly surrounded the entire mountain range, and nearly two thousand knights gathered in front of the gentle slope in front of the front, while the remaining knights ran back and forth around the mountain to prevent the people on the mountain from escaping.

Ashnatidi only saw a few figures on the mountain range, but did not notice the reconnaissance battalion soldiers hidden in the thin woods, just when the Turkic knights entered the range of the reconnaissance battalion's steel crossbow, the soldiers decisively pulled the trigger, and suddenly, more than forty iron arrows accurately charged the chest of the Turkic knights, and suddenly, more than thirty Turkic knights who rushed to the front fell to the ground.

Quickly pull the string, put on the arrow, take no more than three seconds, raise the crossbow and shoot again. By this time, the Turkic knights had advanced almost ten paces. This is due to the fact that there are trees blocking it, and if you are on flat ground, you can sprint 20 steps in one breath.

While the soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion below were shooting with crossbow arrows, Ma Wangshan and others, who were standing on the top of the mountain range, kept shooting the Turkic knights behind them with their bows, and Zhang Yunwen kept bombarding them with mortars.

Under the blow of this three-dimensional firepower, the Turkic soldiers, who had advanced more than fifty paces, slowly retreated like a receding tide. And when they retreated, the crowd still fired the last round of fire.

I saw a wide grassland in front of the gentle slope and the edge of the woods, scattered with a circle of corpses and ownerless horses. A rough estimate is that there are nearly 200 corpses on the ground, and those Turkic knights and horses that were injured by the cannonballs are probably even more.

Sure enough, in less than two quarters of an hour, the Turkic knights began a second round of attack, and the number of them was much smaller than before, and nearly four hundred people gathered on the steppe from afar, watching the movement here. They are probably wounded Turkic knights.

This time the Turks learned to be obedient, and saw them spread out in formation and advance quickly into the woods in waves. And everyone is holding a yellow birch bow in their hands, although it is much shorter than Ma Wangshan and Wu Peng's, I am afraid that there are also two stones.

After charging for a while, the Turkic knights stopped and fired two arrows into the woods, and then moved on. The range of the steel crossbow was obviously inferior to that of the two-stone bow, and the soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion had to hide behind trees to avoid the arrows.

Seeing this, Zhang Yunwen continued to let Ma Wangshan, Wu Peng and others shoot accurately, and one controlled the mortar, and from time to time shells fell on the Turkic front outside the woods, blowing up pieces of earth.

And the Turkic knights gradually came into range of the steel crossbow. This time they did prepare early, only to see that the iron arrow was shot on their breastplate, and it was indeed not completely penetrated, and the small half of the arrow tail was still exposed, which was worse than the last time it was completely penetrated.

Zhang Yunwen looked at their somewhat bloated figures, and suddenly woke up. It turned out that these knights took off the leather armor of the group of Turkic knights who were injured and did not participate in the battle, and put them on themselves, wearing two layers of leather armor, which greatly improved their protection.

The scout battalion soldiers below also noticed this, so they pointed their arrows at the Turkic knight's head and pulled the trigger.

However, the rain of arrows suppressed by the Turkic knights on the periphery, which greatly slowed down the firing speed of the reconnaissance battalion soldiers, and the group of five hundred Turkic knights who rushed in front finally advanced to the middle of the woods after paying the price of a hundred men, and according to the nearest reconnaissance battalion soldiers, it was less than fifty paces.

Seeing this, Zhang Yunwen secretly sneered, but he still did not shell those Turkic knights who advanced, but shelled those Turkic knights who were shooting from the periphery.

Due to access to the woods, which were blocked by trees, the Turkic knights were inevitably crowded together. At this time, the non-commissioned officer of the reconnaissance battalion took out a grenade, pulled the pull ring, and threw it towards a crowded place.

Suddenly, explosions sounded in the woods, and from time to time Turkic knights were blown off their horses. The soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion fought and retreated, gradually leaving the range of the bows and arrows of the outer Turkic knights. As time passed, the number of Turkic knights who rushed into the woods gradually decreased, and when there were only nearly two hundred people left, there was a sound of trumpets in the steppe,

The Turkic knights, who heard the sound of the trumpet, slowly withdrew from the woods again, mingled with the knights on the periphery, and retreated back to the steppe.

"General, we are about to break through their defenses and rush straight to that mountain, why did we order to retreat?" A knight who had retreated from the perimeter asked Ashnatidi indignantly.

Ashnatidi's brows furrowed tightly, and he pointed to the woods and sneered, "To break through their defenses? Do you see clearly, how many people have died in their battles until now? There was not a single one, only more than a dozen people were injured in the rain of arrows and went up the mountain to recuperate! They fight and retreat, what breaks through the defense, it's all fucking fake! It is to let Lao Tzu keep throwing troops inside! This group of damn Tang people! ”

"What? General, are they Tang? ”

"Except for the Tang people, who can have this kind of weapon that makes a loud noise and has great lethality! Look at the arrows in the soldiers' bodies, all made of iron, except for the Tang people, who will be so rich! ”

"Could it be that the Tang Dynasty participated in our war against Tuli?" The soldier couldn't help asking.

Ashnatidi was silent for a moment, and after a while, he said suddenly: "It doesn't matter if he is a Tang person or a Tang person!" How many soldiers did this group of bastards in front of you kill Lao Tzu? If this revenge is not avenged, Lao Tzu will not be a man! Pass the order, the whole army you press on, and prepare for the final attack! Lao Tzu wants to destroy this group of Tang people in one fell swoop! ”

So the Turkic knights, whether they were wounded or not, began to assemble and form a triangular charging formation, aiming directly at the mountains.

At this time, Ashnatidi realized that in the few shellings and two charges just now, nearly 1,000 of his soldiers had died, and the second charge alone was enough for 600 people.

Looking at the mountains like giant beasts with a gloomy face, Ashnatidi waved the scimitar in his hand: "Rush!" ”