Chapter Forty-Eight: The Battle of the Hetao (Part II)

The rousing horn sounded again, sounding the horn of war and informing everyone of the cruelty of this great war. And with the regrouping of the other party, the Tiance Army also began the final preparations.

"The warriors of the steppe, rush, rush over and kill the damned Han Chinese, to rob their cattle and sheep of their grain, to drink their wine, to snatch their women. I, a warrior of the steppe, are unstoppable. Accompanied by Tam's encouraging words, countless cavalry gathered and galloped on horseback, letting out a howl like a ghost crying wolf and rushing towards the position of the Tiance army.

"Crossbow formations shoot rapidly, crossbow troops shoot with all their might", "longbowmen throw", "catapults, fire oil projections". This time, the Tiance Army took out all the preparations, and the endless sound of orders was issued, and the rain of arrows on the battlefield was no longer the previous waves, but really sprinkled like raindrops. At the same time that the archers desperately blocked the opponent's advance, a huge burst of smoke and dust suddenly rose on the edge of the mountain, forty catapults were distributed on both sides, and a fifteen-pound canister of fire oil was quickly thrown out after being ignited, only for a moment, a black and pungent smoke flew through the sky, only to hear the continuous sound of "bang bang bang", the battlefield suddenly ignited a raging fire, and the cavalry who were smashed with flames all over the body kept shuttling, at the same time, The oil was doped with pepper, and the pungent smell of the burning flame also began to stimulate the horses that had long been restless, and many of the horses began to disobey their masters, and began to run all over the ground, and finally either hit the wooden stake and the anti-cavalry wooden gun, or stepped into the trap of the horse, and fell to the ground.

After many cavalrymen finally broke into the battle formation after finally escaping these nightmarish distances of life and death, the war horses under their feet suddenly wailed inexplicably, and fell headlong, and the huge inertia brought the originally blood-stained and moist land out of the ravines, and the cavalry on horseback was also thrown out at once.

"Haha, it seems that the effect of thistle terrestris is still good." Hu Xiaosi stood beside Li Xuanqing, and when he saw those war horses that fell to the ground inexplicably, he immediately laughed happily.

"Longbowmen ready, throw." Yang Tiancheng's voice came from the front corps, "Ta Shield pay attention to defense, and pikemen prepare." This time, Dinghu's cavalry finally rushed to a distance of sixty zhang in front of the formation.

The distance of sixty zhang, relying on the speed of the cavalry, only took ten breaths to cross it, but this distance of sixty zhang made all those who broke through the arrow and flame blockade in front of them dare not have any carelessness, and some of the cavalry began to slow down, trying to find another path. After all, this part of the people was a minority, and most of the cavalry shouted a chaotic "drink" in their mouths, clamped their horses' bellies and began to charge.

The idea was good, but he didn't run a few steps at all, and all the horses in front of him fell to the ground, and almost all the horse's legs were deeply trapped in the horse pit, and they were broken in the high-speed impact, and the cavalry was also thrown out of the horse, and life and death were unknown. The most important thing is that everyone's speed is very fast, after the front falls to the ground, no matter how good the riding skills in the back are, there is no way to avoid it at all, so they can only step on it, and then continue to be tripped over, the war horse falls to the ground, the soldiers throw out, and the cavalry thrown out for a while is the same as the stones thrown out, one after another.

At the same time, the arrows of the group of archers concentrated in three places in the frontal corps began to obscure the sky, and all the archers did not need to aim at all, all at an angle of forty-five degrees, and shot the feathered arrows as fast as possible.

"The first group of archers retreated to the front of the central army, the tower shield was ready, and the pikemen raised their guns." Yang Tiancheng's personality has become extraordinarily calm since he served as the commander of the capital, and at this moment, in the face of the cavalry assault is getting closer and closer, this calm personality makes all the soldiers on the front line extremely reassured. Li Xuanqing nodded, picked up a pair of five-stone strong bows that were put aside, bent the bow and arrows, aimed at a cavalryman who rushed to the front, and shot out with a whoosh, and the special iron-boned long arrow passed through the chest of this cavalryman like a meteor, piercing through the back and hitting another person in the back again.

With Li Xuanqing's movements, the fifty personal soldiers who served as the guards of the Chinese army joined this shooting feast at the same time, these personal soldiers were personally selected by Li Xuanqing, not only have a certain martial arts foundation, but also have undoubted abilities in all aspects, and their shooting targets are the most fierce, which looks like the targets of officers.

However, at this moment, the cavalry in front of the sudden attack finally collided with the cast iron spear in front of the tower shield, and the iron spear more than two zhang long pierced the whole horse, only to hear the sound of "poof" again, this time the distance from the Tiance army was too close, so that a lot of blood was splashed on the side of the soldiers.

"Heavy armor, engage." Tie Liang's big voice began to roar, due to the lack of troops, the thousand spears in front of him were unguarded, and they could only rely on the position of the spear itself to injure the enemy, so it was broken by the opponent with brute force almost instantly. The hoofs of the charging horses stepped on the tower shield.

"Whoosh", the tower shield was trampled by the horse's hooves, and the soldiers behind were almost crushed to the ground, but the spears that suddenly appeared along the mouth of the high shield took the lives of these cavalrymen at this moment, and the cavalry were instantly pierced into a sieve.

However, although the tower shield was strong, it could not continue to block the onslaught of the cavalry. It didn't take long for the 500-sided tower shield to be pierced in many places, and the Dinghu coalition army forcibly broke Li Xuanqing's layers of interception at the cost of the lives of the cavalry, and broke into the military formation.

"Defend in a circle, the archers shoot at the back, and the heavily armored guards engage." Yang Tiancheng saw that the tower shield was broken, and decisively gave up the crumbling first-line defense, only to see that the surviving tower shield protectors quickly picked up the spears beside them and began to keep up with the pace of their companions. In an instant, two huge circular formations began to move at high speed, stabbing the cavalry that broke into the formation into hedgehogs.

At this moment, Tamu, who had been looking from the rear, saw that the military formation had been broken, and immediately shouted excitedly, and personally led his own soldiers to quickly cross the obstacles in front, preparing to charge in person and take down these damn Han people. The three khans waiting in the rear could not hide their joy after hearing the herald's report that Tamu had personally rushed forward, and Tahi Khan waved his hand to let the last of the more than 1,000 mobile troops enter the front of the battle, ready to rush directly into the city of Western surrender in one go.

As soon as the Dinghu rear army moved, the pressure on the front increased sharply, and the circle array was also in danger under the cavalry charge, and the heavy armor guards began to lose their physical strength in addition to the fierce battle, and Li Xuanqing's mastery of Fengzhou was too short to make heavy armor at all, so the so-called heavy armor guards were just knockoffs wearing two layers of ordinary armor.

"The front army immediately retreated, and the recruits of the Chinese army began to prepare. Crossbowmen on both wings prepared to block the enemy's rear. Li Xuanqing naturally saw the movement of the opponent's rear army, and immediately asked the herald to start waving the trumpet flag, and the drummer began to change the drum sound, convey the latest order, and began to change the formation.

"Lord, you see, that's the enemy general Tam." Just when the frontal corps retreated as planned and the Chinese army covered and rearranged the defensive line, Hu Xiaosi suddenly pointed to a group of cavalry that was advancing rapidly and shouted, "Lord, the fattest one in the middle is Tam . It seems that the other party is desperate. ”

Li Xuanqing was about to get on the horse, but when he heard his words, he was suddenly shocked, and a trace of joy appeared on his face, and he immediately ordered to his personal guard: "Gather fire and kill Tam for me." After saying that, he personally picked up the bow and arrow again and began to aim and shoot.

Suddenly, fifty strong bows began to aim at him where Tamu hadn't noticed. Li Xuanqing even pulled the five-stone strong bow in his hand, and a special iron-bone arrow on the full moon-shaped longbow suddenly magnified to the extreme in Li Xuanqing's squinting eyes, chasing the distant target and slashing through the sky. In order to cover his arrows, the guards also fired their bows and arrows at the same time, and their bows and arrows did not shoot as far as the five-stone strong bow, but this sudden rain of arrows still made the cavalry who continued to charge into battle frightened, and many cavalry even turned back and prepared to retreat.

Among the many flying arrows, a dark ghost flashed by, and suddenly appeared on Tam's chest before everyone could react, and the huge impact still carried Tam's body away from the horse's back even more than a hundred feet away, and smashed far on the ground behind.

"The general is dead, not good, the general is dead." The accompanying soldiers were completely stunned by this sudden change of hexagram, this first warrior of Dinghu was killed by an arrow before he could touch the enemy, how could this battle be fought? All the pro-soldiers' heads were blank and they didn't know what to do?

"It's not good, General Tam is dead, go and report to the Great Khan." The motorized cavalry that followed was not far behind Tamu, and at this time, they naturally knew the news of Tamu's death and immediately shouted. The most taboo on this battlefield is to be discouraged, angry, not to be vented, this exclamation of a thousand people suddenly brought a chain reaction, and the nearby cavalry began to stagnate, and even affected the cavalry charge at the front.

"Beat the drums, blow the trumpet, and the whole army will attack." After the original plan was interrupted, Li Xuanqing did not hesitate and immediately ordered the whole army to assault. But seeing the sound of the trumpet, the left and right wing corps that have been hidden since the beginning of the war suddenly appeared on the battlefield, if you look down from the air, you can see that the two dragons out of the water all emerge from the water, and the whole battlefield presents a strange vortex-like situation, the left wing corps shrinks inward, and the front corps begins to surround the cavalry troops that are wrapped in it, and the right wing corps begins to pursue backwards and attack the rear corps of the coalition forces.

Li Xuanqing snatched a copper horn, operated the internal force, and sent this majestic horn sound far away, only to see the moment the horn sounded, in a corner in the distance, suddenly a team of cavalry drove out, and the person led by was Hou Yong, who had been disappearing, only to see him with the cavalry guard and the direct team rushed directly towards the location of the three khans of Dinghu.

Hou Yong waved the back machete in his hand, urged the war horse all the way, and rushed into the already panicked Khan's guards like a gallop, the big knife flew up, and the heads flew up one by one, and the blood that burst out instantly stained the armor on his body red, but it made him feel extremely happy.

"Charge the whole army and take down those three old bastards for me." The sudden appearance of the cavalry of 3,000 people naturally dispersed the Khan's personal guard, which was already less than 1,000. Hou Yong turned his horse's head and chased in the direction where Tahi and the other three khans fled, and the rest of the cavalry had long been forgotten by this guy.

Behind him, Chen Yu's troops had already caught up, and the panicked Dinghu cavalry was not at all the opponent of the Tiance Army, which had already been defeated. Although most of the Tiance army is infantry, but in groups of three, spears and knives plus an archer, there will be no problem at all when the enemy is caught on the battlefield. Under the sudden drastic changes in the entire battlefield, the speed of the attack and defense was too fast, and many Dinghu cavalry were killed or captured without even reacting.

Li Xuanqing stood in place, looking at the battlefield in the distance, his face showed a smile for the first time in a long time, and the military flag of the Tiance Army beside him was hunting and flying in the wind, dazzling.

"Immediately send a message to the rear, fly and ride one government, three cities and five counties, Hetao is a great victory, God bless the Tang Dynasty, and the Han army is mighty." In Li Xuan's clear voice, the Xuanying Guard cavalry drove towards the rear quickly, bringing back a new era.