Zhong saw that Pang Hui was wounded and defeated by the enemy, Qiu Ping was killed, his heart was furious, the whip pointed forward, and suddenly the war drums roared, the dust flew, and three thousand Wei soldiers rushed towards the Han army with a shout.

The two sides in front of the Sword Pavilion Pass are full of cliffs, only a vacant land in the middle, the suffering is not very wide, it is because Jiang Wei only ordered 2,000 soldiers and horses to go down the pass, Zhong Hui also knew that the terrain of the Sword Pavilion was dangerous, and too many soldiers and horses became a burden, so he only brought 3,000 men and horses. At this time, the Wei soldiers shouted together and rushed to kill, and the battlefield was suddenly black and oppressive, and there were people everywhere.

The formation of the Wei army was the same as that of the Han army, with tall and tall halberds holding thick shields in the front row, followed by several columns of cavalry, with a strength of about seven or eight hundred, followed by infantry. This is because the mountains in Hanzhong are high and the road is dangerous, the terrain is rugged, and it is difficult for the cavalry to be unable to exert their mobility ability when fighting in the mountains.

In fact, the main combat forces of the Han, Wei, and Wu kingdoms still rely on infantry. The main reason for this is that cavalry is an extremely expensive type of troops, and it often costs a lot of money to form an elite cavalry, which cannot withstand the toss of consumption. Therefore, in the conventional configuration of the Han, Wei, and Wu Kingdoms, infantry is the first priority, while cavalry is only an auxiliary branch and is rarely used to charge into battle.

After counting the three kingdoms of Han, Wei and Wu, Cao Wei is located in the Central Plains, and occupies two of the three parts of the world, and connects Wuhuan to the west and Qianghu in the north, and the geographical and geographical advantages are extremely obvious, so the number of cavalry is the largest, about 50,000 or 60,000 people.

As for the Han Dynasty, it was not until 219 A.D. that the veteran Huang Zhong killed Xiahou Yuan in Dingjun Mountain and took advantage of the situation to seize Hanzhong, Emperor Zhaolie prepared for the Northern Expedition and formed a regular cavalry unit with Ma Chao's Xiliang Iron Cavalry as the team, but the Han Dynasty was limited by geographical conditions and did not have a large area pastoral environment in Xiliang and other places.

The geography of Eastern Wu is full of waterways and lakes, and it has always attached importance to the allocation of infantry and naval troops, so the cavalry is even rarer, with less than 5,000 men and horses.

As for some of the famous cavalry units before and after the Three Kingdoms, there are also big differences with the historical records. For example, in the early days of the Three Kingdoms, the tiger and leopard cavalry who had made great achievements for Cao Wei, although it was the trump card army in Cao Cao's hands, its soldiers were all from 100 generals, so the number was less than 10,000.

Ma Chao, one of the five tiger generals of the Han Dynasty, was one of the five tiger generals of the Han Dynasty to fight against the entire Cao Wei with the strength of one state, and the Xiliang Iron Cavalry under his command was invincible, but the number was only more than 20,000 people. The number of white horse servants who frightened the Hu people such as Saiwai Wuhuan was only more than 3,000 people. As for some other elite cavalry units recorded in history, the number is more than a thousand, and the few are hundreds, all of which are not large.

Seeing that the Wei soldiers rushed in a sea under the leadership of the elite cavalry of the former army, Jiang Wei made a move back, and immediately after the Han army, more than 20 giant crossbow machines were launched and aimed at the rushing Wei army.

These crossbows are the prototype of Zhuge chain crossbows, each one is one zhang high, extremely powerful, but because the arrows are all iron materials, there is no arrow feather balance accuracy, so the arrows shot out will flip after reaching a certain distance, unable to accurately hit the target. At the same time, due to the huge size, high production cost and complex process of Zhuge crossbow, and not suitable for individual use, the Han army did not have large-scale equipment, only equipped at the most critical pass city, mainly used for defense and garrison.

When Guan Yi ambushed Shi Su and Deng Zhong's vanguard troops at Shimen Gukou, he first used a repeater to shoot a large number of Wei soldiers at close range before launching a full-army charge. However, the repeater of the blood guard's equipment was modified by Guan Yi according to the proportions of these giant crossbow machines, although the size was reduced to only the size of an arm, which was very convenient for close combat and carrying, but the range was greatly shortened, and under normal circumstances, more than 100 steps would lose the accuracy and strength, which can be described as equal pros and cons.

Guan Yi looked at the more than 20 giant crossbow machines, and then looked at the crossbow on the back of the blood guard, and suddenly felt that there was a world of difference between the two. Needless to say, these giant crossbow machines the size of a crash in front of them would definitely make the Wei army suffer a lot.

Sure enough, when the Wei army's front army had rushed to a distance of about a hundred steps from the Han army, Jiang Wei gave the order to launch. In an instant, the first wave of sharp arrows came out from the mouth of more than 20 giant crossbow machines, covering the Wei soldiers like flying locusts.

I only heard a wailing scream, and the Wei soldiers who rushed to the front became the souls of the arrows in an instant, and many Wei soldiers were shot by the crossbow arrows, and were hit by the powerful impact of the crossbow machine and flew out from the horse, and after falling to the ground, they were immediately trampled into flesh by the war horse that was rushing forward behind them, and the death was unbearable.

Guan Yi was shocked to see it, the power of this giant crossbow machine was indeed terrifying. Each crossbow machine can fire ten sharp arrows at one time, more than 20 crossbow machines are fired together, each time there are more than 200 sharp arrows, in front of the pass densely rushed to kill the Wei soldiers, there is no need to aim at all, every time you shoot out, you can knock down a large piece, it can be described as a hundred shots.

Jiang Wei was obviously prepared, and also expected that the two armies would be short-handed and melee battles, so he brought out the crossbow machine, in the narrow open space in front of the Sword Pavilion Pass, the Wei army could not rush over from all directions, and the crossbow machine undoubtedly became the Wei army's lifeline. When the giant crossbow was launched for the third time, the elite cavalry of the Wei soldiers' former army was almost completely lost. When Zhong Hui attacked Nanzheng, he once suffered a big loss from Zhuge Wuhou's ten arrows and crossbows, and if he hadn't been saved by the protector Xun Kai, he would have almost died in front of the pass. This time, when I saw that the crossbow machine on the Han army was even more powerful than that on Nanzheng Pass, I was already bitter in my heart.

Zhong Hui was a good calculator, according to his assumption, as long as the cavalry broke through the Han army's defensive line, the infantry behind them would be able to follow, and once the two armies were mixed together, the Han army's ten-arrow crossbow would be useless. He has 3,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, and only 2,000 from the Han army under the pass, and the strength is superior to the Shang Wei army, not to mention that there are 100,000 troops in the camp behind him to stand by. Of course, this situation will not happen, after all, there is such a large place in front of the Sword Pavilion Pass, it is impossible to accommodate tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to fight together at the same time.

Zhong Hui chose the melee between the two armies to save face, and it was a last resort, and he didn't expect to be able to capture Jiang Wei, but the current situation was completely beyond his expectations, his former elite cavalry was almost killed and wounded, but he still couldn't rush to the front of the Han army, and the giant crossbow machine on the Han army was fired less than three times, and if it continued, the infantry rushed up and died in vain, which was useless.

Zhong Hui was furious in his heart, but he also knew that at this moment, if he didn't withdraw his troops in time, his three thousand soldiers and horses would all be buried in front of the Sword Pavilion Pass. At this time, the general Tian Zhang and others also saw that the situation was not good, and they asked for the withdrawal of troops. In desperation, Zhong Hui had no choice but to order Ming Jin to withdraw his troops.

The front army of the Wei army suffered heavy losses, but the infantry that followed behind was not damaged at all, Jiang Wei saw that Zhong would order the retreat, knowing that he was a cowardly crossbow machine, and refused to let the sergeant die in vain. He fought with Zhong Hui in the Sword Pavilion for more than a month, and deeply felt that Zhong Hui was proficient in strategy, and his soldiers were well-trained, and they were indeed the elite of the Wei State. At present, although the Wei soldiers retreated, but the formation was not chaotic at all, obviously not affected too much by the defeat of the previous army, it was also to make an appointment with the Han army not to catch up, and after the Wei soldiers retreated, they collected their troops and returned to the pass, and a big battle disappeared in an instant.

Since the Wei army invaded Shu on three routes, the main force of the Han army led by Jiang Wei has been surrounded and intercepted by several Wei troops of Deng Ai, Zhuge Xu and Zhong Hui, and they have been in danger several times and extremely embarrassed. Finally retreated to the Sword Pavilion, due to the disparity in strength, has never been against the Zhonghui army, today's battle is almost the first time, although it is not a big victory, but the two female generals injured Pang Hui beheaded Qiu Ping, and shot hundreds of elite cavalry of the Wei army without a single soldier, and finally gave tens of thousands of Han troops in the Guannei a fierce breath of evil in the chest.

Jiang Wei was happy in his heart, and immediately after returning to the customs, he asked Bao Sanniang and Hua Wei to take credit, and at the same time ordered a general to discuss the strategy of retreating from the enemy in the Shuaifu.