Nine thousand people attacking one wing of the Central Army have a numerical advantage, they can't concentrate all their forces on one side, right?

Unfortunately, he guessed correctly, Zhu Ling saw that the Jingzhou army was attacking from his left flank, so he moved part of the troops on the middle and right flanks, mainly crossbowmen, to the left flank position through the trenches.

At this time, this trench played the role of a communication trench, and even he transferred the cannons of the 11th and 12th brigades.

A battalion has three cannons, a regiment has nine, a brigade has twenty-seven, and the three brigades together have eighty-one.

Therefore, when the 3,000 hoplites of the Jingzhou Army slowly approached 150 zhang with a large shield, the large crossbow arrows roared, and the large shield in the front row first underwent the baptism of cannons.

Jingzhou's big shield is of good quality, it is indeed strong, and the large crossbow arrows of the Lianzhu cannon, with huge inertia, are rarely able to shoot through the big shield with one arrow.

However, the big shield can withstand it, but people can't, and the huge inertia can still knock the hoplite company with the shield to the ground.

At this time, it is reflected that Huang Zhong's usual training is strict, and the military discipline is strict, and if a person falls, someone in the back row will immediately fill in.

The hoplites still wore plate armor, and the newer chain armor was worn by spearmen and crossbowmen.

Only half of the 50,000 Jingzhou troops have changed into chain armor, after all, chain armor is only suitable for defending against long-range attacks, and it is not advantageous in hand-to-hand combat, and the production process and process are much more complicated than ordinary armor.

Therefore, although it has long been introduced to the Central Plains from the Western Regions, no one has built equipment, and it has never been popularized, and now it is also because the crossbow of the Central Army is too powerful that the princes from all walks of life remembered the chain armor and began to equip it on a large scale.

The chain armor is protected from the head to the legs, so that the weak neck is also effectively protected.

Therefore, when the spearmen of the Jingzhou Army entered the projectile range of the longbowmen of the Central Army, the previous invincible projectile tactics failed to achieve the expected results, which was beyond the expectations of Zhu Ling and Tai Shici.

Zhu Ling frowned, it seems that the Kwantung Coalition Army has worked hard to study the tactics and equipment against the CSKA, and their chain armor can indeed effectively reduce the damage caused by longbow projectiles.

When the crossbowmen of the Jingzhou army entered the range of the fire, Zhu Ling found that the protective effect of the chain armor on the crossbow arrows was also obvious, and although the hard crossbows of the Jingzhou army could not be fired continuously, the firing strength and reloading speed were significantly improved.

Coupled with the effective protection of chain mail, they can already shoot at the Central Army, and they have also learned to attack in three stages, no longer standing upright and reloading while shooting.

Fortunately, the blow of the cannon to them was still obvious, and most of the crossbowmen of the Central Army were hiding in the trenches, and only half of their bodies were exposed, and the area was very small.

Moreover, according to the tactical requirements of the Central Army, after the hoplites were brought down by the repeaters, the crossbowmen would shoot the spearmen and crossbowmen in the back row from the exposed gaps, and would not waste crossbow arrows on the hoplites' large shields.

In any case, the infantry of the Jingzhou army approached within thirty zhang with the minimum cost.

The Central Army in the trenches began to retreat behind the hoplites who were waiting behind the trenches.

The spearmen of the Central Army threw their throwing spears with all their might, and carried out their last round of long-range attacks.

Then the spearmen will pick up their spears and prepare for hand-to-hand combat.

But before hand-to-hand combat, there was one more problem waiting for the Jingzhou army, and that was that damn trench.

God knows how the Central Army dug such a deep and wide trench in such a short time.

Huang Zhong also saw the trench between the two armies on the horse, how did the Central Army dig it?

Two zhang wide and half a man deep, even a horse can't jump over, let alone hoplites?

The vice president will ask Huang Zhong for advice, what should I do?

What to do? What else can I do? If you are the attacking party, you can't stand still and look at the trench in a daze!

Keep attacking, flip over! After receiving the military order, the hoplites of the Jingzhou Army could only jump off the trench helplessly, and then sent up the steep slope with difficulty and attacked on their backs.

Clumsy that they need to use both hands and feet when climbing the slope, and the big shield is useless at all, and they are all left on the edge of the ditch.

Having lost the cover of the hoplites, the spearmen and crossbowmen were immediately attacked by the powerful long-range forces of the Central Army.

As many as seven or eight thousand crossbows covered the attack, and the cannon cannon wreaked havoc to the fullest.

Without the protection of the big shield, how can the chain armor block the large crossbow arrows of the cannon, and the scene of mutton skewers reappears.

When Huang Zhong saw this tragic scene, he had no idea, so he could only instinctively order Mingjin to withdraw his troops.

At this time, the trench of the Central Army once again showed its viciousness, with a steep slope on one side close to the Central Army, but a vertical ditch wall on the other side.

In a half-man-deep trench, the light infantry could climb out on their own, but the hoplites could not do anything.

Some of the spearmen, wanting to help their companions, plunged their spears upside down into the ditch and tried to pull the hoplites up, and the spearmen were immediately given priority by the repeaters and fell.

The others had no choice but to throw off their robes and flee back to their camp, and the hoplites in the ditch had to erect their bodies and climb up with great difficulty.

Tai Shi Ci would not let them escape easily, he rushed into the ditch with his spearmen and stabbed the Jingzhou army with his spear.

In the end, only a few lucky ones escaped back to their home camp with the help of their comrades, and the rest either died at the bottom of the ditch or surrendered and became prisoners.

The Central Army cleaned up the corpses in the trench and shouted for the Jingzhou Army to come and take away their wounded soldiers.

I cleaned up the battlefield and recovered the big and small crossbow arrows, after all, this is a consumable, it is enjoyable to shoot, and the loss is also large.

In this wave of attack, the Jingzhou army suffered heavy losses, almost all of the 3,000 hoplites were lost in the trenches, and half of the spearmen and crossbowmen were also lost.

The Central Army suffered several hundred casualties, all of which were lost in the fire.

Huang Zhong looked at his scarred subordinates and the 3,000 elite heavy infantry who couldn't come back, and he was very distressed!

Looking at the long trench that winds in front of the central army formation, it is really a headache.

At this time, one of Huang Zhong's lieutenants came over, "General Hansheng, we can fill the ditch with soil and crack the trench of the Central Army." ”

Huang Zhong's eyes lit up, yes, this is a good idea, there are many people by himself, each person digs a bag of soil, and there are 40,000 bags of soil.

Immediately the order was given, and everyone began to dig in the earth, and if there was no cloth bag, they used their battle robes.

Seeing that the Jingzhou army began to dig vigorously and vigorously, digging hard with knives and swords, it was in full swing.

Zhu Ling pursed his lips, "Aren't you stupid!" Came up with the idea of filling the ditch with negative soil so quickly? Hmph, think it's so easy to crack the trench natural danger? Wait and see! ”

(End of chapter)