Chapter 498: Human life on the battlefield is as cheap as grass

The army marched at the sound of the drums, and the drums stopped.

The two sides added nearly a million troops lined up outside Xiping City, and the banners stretched for dozens of miles, and the iron armor was like an ocean.

The rebel general Shi Lei glanced back at Li Yuanshan, who was surrounded by heavy horses, and there was something different in his eyes. Li Yuanshan ascended the throne and called the emperor of the Great Zhou, and named him the Duke of Suguo, ranking first among the princes of all countries, and the highest title among the generals. Although this title is like child's play, he is still dissatisfied with this title.

Wan Yansong and Zhou Dingguo were born in Li Yuanshan's own soldiers, and when Shi Lei was regarded as the head of the Seven Tiger Generals, Wan Yansong was just a pro-soldier captain, and Zhou Dingguo was just a brigade leader. After Li Yuanshan raised his troops, Wan Yansong was promoted to the fourth rank general, and Zhou Dingguo was the fifth rank general.

In the battle of the sneak attack on Zuo Xiaowei in Mandu Banner, the first to lead the troops into Zuo Xiaowei's camp was Wan Yansong, and after this battle, he was promoted to the general of the third rank by Li Yuanshan, and Shi Lei was in the same ranks.

Shi Lei has followed Li Yuanshan for more than fifteen years, and has been a four-pin general for more than seven years, once he thought he was the first person under Li Yuanshan, but later realized that Li Yuanshan had actually been wary of the Seven Tiger Generals. Shi Lei knew that when Li Yuanshan raised his army, the Seven Tiger Generals really didn't approve of it, but in the end, didn't they all leave and chose to follow. Because of this, Li Yuanshan began to cultivate new cronies, and this change made the Seven Tiger Generals feel uncomfortable.

This is also why until now, only he, Shi Lei, is still standing by Li Yuanshan's side in the Seven Tigers.

Wu Kui was defeated and killed, Chu Feiyun said goodbye after Li Yuanshan became king, Yin Poshan Meng Wanzai each led an army and no longer listened to Li Yuanshan's moderation, and the seven people are now dead and scattered, and there is no day to get together.

As if feeling Shi Lei's gaze, Li Yuanshan, who was wearing heavy armor, looked over here. Shi Lei's eyes flickered, and he turned his head to look in other directions. Li Yuanshan suddenly felt ashamed at this moment, and couldn't help but look at Shi Lei a few more times. The Seven Tigers are now the only ones left with Shi Lei to follow him, and is he too affectionate towards him?

This thought flashed in Li Yuanshan's heart, and disappeared without a trace in less than a second.

He looked at the Sui army array opposite, took a deep breath, and then ordered: "Blow the horn, let Shi Lei lead 50,000 troops to attack, and the left and right flanks feint." ”

As soon as he gave the order, the whining horn sounded.

Shi Lei retracted his thoughts, looked left and right at his cronies, and the generals nodded, and everyone clasped their fists, their faces resolute. Shi Lei pointed the long lance in his hand forward, and the army of 50,000 slowly started.

Good weather, good venue.

It seems that today is especially suitable for a decisive battle.

Shi Lei's rebels began to accelerate, and the team without cavalry moved forward neatly, and the array was still very neat when rushing forward, which shows that Shi Lei's army was quite strict. The hundreds of thousands of horses that Li Yuanshan allocated to him at the beginning, now there are only 50,000 left, these people are all crawling in the sea of corpses and blood, and their quality is stronger than those so-called elites led by the Li family's nephews.

Seeing the rebels attacking, Kim Shixiong waved the command flag, and the archers in front of him put the quiver at his feet, and when his hand hung down, he could easily draw out his feather arrows. The lookout stood on a high place, waving the flag, and the soldiers below loudly reported the distance of the rebels.

The Emperor reclined on a blanket-covered chair, one hand on his chin and squinting at it.

"Very good"

He said two words lightly.

Su Buwei lowered his head and said: "The slave doesn't understand military affairs, so I don't know what His Majesty's praise of this good sentence means?" ”

The emperor smiled and said, "I handed over this errand to Jin Shixiong, and what I am most worried about is that Jin Shixiong has not forgotten the defeat of the Mandu Banner more than three years ago. As the main general, if his reason is obscured by the resentment in his heart, then his command will be a mess. I was worried that Jin Shixiong would give the order to meet the attack, so I was relieved to see that he was holding me firmly. At this time, there is no need to exchange lives with the rebels one-on-one, those rebellious lives are not valuable, and Li Yuanshan's lives are not worth much, it is unwise to rush up to meet the battle, use strong troops to resist weak soldiers to attack, and then wait for the opportunity to counterattack, and be undefeated. Jin Shixiong is still leading the troops as steadily as ever, so I say it's good. ”

"Archer, shoot the arrow!"

The commander of the archers commanding in front gave a loud order, and the archers in the front row put a feather arrow dyed red on the bowstring, which was much longer and heavier than the normal feather arrow. The bow was thrown, and a row of feathered arrows was sent out neatly. About two hundred and thirty or forty paces away, the feather arrow poked into the ground, and the wave-like red line was clearly visible.

The lookout on the high spot stared at the row of arrows, and waved his banner as soon as he saw the rebel column cross.

"Projectile!"

The general gave the order, and the arrow array was launched. Tens of thousands of feathered arrows flew into the air in dense clusters, drawing a beautiful arc and then falling down. The feathered arrows that were thrown covered by the blow fell into the crowd of rebels like a torrential rain hitting the beach, and in an instant countless small craters were smashed out. Each small pit represents a rebel soldier who has fallen to the ground with an arrow.

"Raise your shield! Raise your shield! ”

The rebel generals shouted loudly: "Run, speed up!" Let the feather arrows fall behind, quick! Run for Lao Tzu! ”

As the rebel soldiers ran forward like crazy, the formation began to fall apart. But this scattering is not unstructured scattering, but a deliberate distance to avoid feathered arrows. There are not enough shields, and if they gather together and rush forward at this time, more people will only be sent to hell by feather arrows.

"Ballista!"

The general of the Sui army raised his right hand high, and then pressed it down violently: "Release!" ”

Call!

With his order, hundreds of heavy crossbows flew out flat, the speed of the heavy crossbows was far faster than that of feather arrows, and the strength of the coiling rope was far beyond that of human manpower. Archers striking enemies at a distance need to shoot feathered arrows to inflict damage, but the Heavy Crossbow flies parallel to the ground.

Thin iron is the feather, and steel is the edge.

The heavy crossbow with the thickness of the arm shot over as if it was cutting wheat with a sickle, and the strength of the heavy crossbow was so great that the shield could not resist it at all, even if the shield covered with a thick layer of leather would be easily smashed by the heavy crossbow at the moment of contact, and the soldiers behind the shield had no way to survive at all.

A heavy crossbow shattered the shield and passed through the rebel soldier's chest, leaving a bowl-sized hole in his chest, and several wounds extending outward around the blood hole, which were the marks left by the heavy crossbow iron feathers. With this kind of force, the leather armor on the rebel soldier's body was like a piece of window paper, which would break with a single stab.

The heavy crossbow that passed through the rebel's body only slowed down a little before crashing into the body of the second rebel soldier, who sliced the soldier's arm off his shoulder and the arm holding the steel knife fell to the ground with a clatter. His body was knocked backwards, and the wail immediately rang out. The soldiers who rushed up behind avoided it, but some people couldn't dodge and step on the wounded soldier.

He shouted frantically, but he couldn't stop the trampling from his comrades.

Soon, his shouts were drowned out in the crowd and gradually lost his breath.

……

……

Because the infantry was nowhere near as fast as the light cavalry, the archers could calmly fire six arrows when the enemy was in range, and even the weakest of them could send five arrows. Shi Lei's 50,000 rebels were washed away by the rain of arrows again and again, and almost none of the four or five platoons of soldiers who rushed to the front survived. The sound of feathered arrows falling and striking the shield was incessant, mixed with the muffled snort and painful howls of the attacker.

The rebels fell one by one, and those behind immediately came up to replace them. For the attacking side, there is no effective means to isolate the lethality of the enemy's feather arrows, and the most effective is to rush forward with a shield against it, and run as fast as you can. The pikemen and swordsmen who rushed to the front had nothing to cover at all, and their defense against feathered arrows depended entirely on the leather armor and luck on their bodies.

As a pikeman, whose marching speed is second only to that of cavalry, if he wants to survive the covering blow of the arrow array, he can only run forward with his head down.

The pikemen were the simplest in their equipment, with only one leather armor on their upper body, and the weapons in their hands were the cheapest. The cost of a Seiko-made lance can be exchanged for hundreds of spears.

Sacrifice defense in exchange for maximum speed.

The horn sounded again, and the imperial army began to change formations. The Ballista had to retreat after firing two rounds, as it was too slow to risk firing a third heavy crossbow. And the archers also began to retreat, giving their positions to their comrades. Although the quality of these soldiers cannot be compared with the Great Sui soldiers, the fighting in the past year has also made them qualified soldiers. There was no confusion as the archers retreated, and they retreated in line, leaving a gap between the two columns to allow the soldiers behind to fill in as quickly as possible.

The change was completed in just two minutes, and as the lancers and shieldmen moved forward, the archers and crossbows were out of danger. But they did not dare to stay, and once the hand-to-hand combat was completed, the archers had to retreat to the rear of the formation, otherwise they would block the support of the follow-up team to the front.

The one-man tall giant shield poked on the ground with a bang, and the people holding the giant shield were strong men with big shoulders and round waists, and after poking the giant shield on the ground, they half-squatted down, holding the handle of the shield tightly with both hands, and carrying the shield on their shoulders. Behind each layer of the shield is a row of lancers, who place their lances on top of the shield, ready to meet the impact of the enemy.

"Kill!"

Shi Lei waved his horizontal knife and shouted in a hoarse voice, and finally the rebel soldiers who no longer experienced the baptism of arrow rain understood that this was the time to fight hard, and the rebels who had been suppressed for too long knew that the success or failure of life and death was in this battle, so they burst out with unprecedented courage.

rumble

The torrent of rebels slammed into the embankment formed by the giant shield, and immediately stirred up a wave of blood. The impact of the Giant Shield Bearers can be imagined, although they are behind the Great Shield, they are not safe. Once knocked down, they have no weapons or armor on them, and they will immediately become the target of the enemy's anger.

The lance kept poking forward and shouting, and everyone's eyes were covered with a layer of blood. They don't look at the faces of the enemy on the other side, they just mechanically poke their lances out. Not many of the people who are still alive after the war will still vomit or incontinence from the bloody flight.

Human life at this time is the least valuable.

As more and more rebel soldiers crowded in, the first layer of the shield was overthrown, and the shield-bearers, who had no weapons or armor, had no choice but to meet the enemy's blades. And the Sui army commander behind resisted desperately, but they had no way to retreat and were soon overwhelmed by the torrent. Two people who are fighting for life and death hugging each other and dying are like a pair of old friends who haven't seen each other for a long time, so tight.

The main theme of the battlefield has never changed.

dead person

Life fades away, so quickly.