Dozens of miles away, Zhang Shouyue was still beating the war drums vigorously. By the time the battle began, the sixty-year-old veteran's breathing had become rapid, and sweat was flowing like a stream on his brown skin. In the biting cold wind, the hot white gas on the bare shoulders rose up. But the force poured into the drumsticks by both arms can still shake the mountains, and the sound of the drums is still earth-shattering.

"Kill me!"

Under the sound of drums, Zhang Shouyue was furious. After 40 years in the army and countless battles, Zhang Shouyue has steadily stepped forward in the sound of drums for many times. A thief fell under his spear, battle flags fell at his feet, and the vibrating snare drum was Zhang Shouyue's other heart, on the battlefield, the sound of the drum could make his blood boil like smoke.

In the valley, the two armies were fighting fiercely. The rain of arrows did not stop, and there were muffled screams of the soldiers after being hit by the arrows all the time. A group of iron harriers continued to take turns to rush forward from both wings, and after throwing a rain of arrows at the Song army's position, they turned back to the starting point. The armoured infantry marched forward in a frontal column, firing at the Song army's crossbows to protect the cavalry from attack on the way back.

Crossbow bolts shot out from the strings, and a series of screams rang out at the target. The tactics of the party people, before the Song army's arrow array, did not have much significance, and the queue of the foot and iron harriers was chiseled out of the gaps by the arrows. The Song people relied on it as the arrow array of Jincheng soup pool, as long as the array was formed, it could make any enemy army hate. In terms of archery, the Kansai men are not under the party, and when it comes to weapons, the Song army's hard crossbows are invincible.

However, since the battle, the speed of the crossbow bolts has gradually slowed down. Even though the 2,000 soldiers led by Zhang Shouyue were all elites on Qin Feng's road, they couldn't withstand the huge amount of physical strength consumed by continuous shooting.

The hard crossbow used by the Song army often has as much as three stones, and the war bow is also up and down one stone. Winding the bow and crossbow consumes a great deal of physical strength, and ordinary soldiers often shoot more than ten or twenty arrows with a full bow, and their hands and feet are sore, and they are unable to get up again, which is also the reason why there are only twenty arrows in a pot of arrows. If the bow is only half wide, it can indeed shoot a few more arrows, but the long arrows fired in this way are weak and weak, unless you have extremely accurate archery skills and can directly penetrate the enemy's vital points, otherwise you can only hear a sound on the enemy's armor. As for the hard crossbow, there is only one choice, each time it is wound with a force of three hundred catties, even if it is the strength of the waist and legs, there are few people's physical strength that can withstand such consumption.

Zhang Shouyue knew very well, and every Song army general who participated in the war knew very well that if this kind of stalemate continued, the side with a lack of troops would definitely lose. Two thousand to ten thousand means that the party members can be rotated into battle, but the Song army can only grit his teeth and persevere.

Zhang Shouyue thought about it with distress, there were many choices in front of him, but none of them were safe and reliable enough for him to bring his sons back to Gangu City smoothly.

There is no way to retreat, there is no way to advance, how to break the game?!

………………

Victory seemed to be within reach, and Yu Zang Rongli couldn't hold back the agitation in his heart.

As a strong contender for the next patriarch of the Yu Zang family, the number one Tubo clan who guards the southwestern border of Western Xia and is attached to the party, Yu Zang Rongli has always secretly had a strong competitive psychology against his brother Yu Zang Huama, who has been radiant since he was a teenager. As the leader of the new generation, Yu Zang Hua Ma has always been firmly pressed on Yu Zang Rongli, and is more loved by the elders and clansmen in the clan. Therefore, Yu Zang Rongli's thirst for military merit and his expectation of overwhelming his brother are deep-rooted, and he is willing to pay any price for it.

This is the first time that Yu Zang Rongli has led a large army, and he wanted to deceive a few commanders from Gangu City to add some military merits to himself, but he unexpectedly caught the big fish of Zhang Shouyue.

On the red flag more than 200 steps away, the word 'Zhang' in black and gold shows off Yu Zang Rongli's eyes. The veteran Zhang Shouyue is famous on Qinfeng Road, that is, the capital supervisor of Qinfeng Road, and the mainstay of Gangu City. The military exploits of pouring heaven and earth are close at hand, which makes Yu Zang Rongli inexplicably excited.

Everything is close at hand.

Zhang Shouyue is close at hand, victory is also close at hand, and the position of the head of the Yu Zang family is also close at hand.

It's just that the resistance of the Song army continues, and the two armies of the horse and foot that stepped forward to attack the Song army's arrow array are constantly suffering huge casualties.

"Let the Crashing Linglang go up and rush again." Yu Zang Rongli knows that no general will oppose this order, don't the Han people pay attention to the use of raze to control the country, and the collision of Linglang is the product of the Han system, "As long as you can break through the arrow array of the Song people, after entering the Gangu, let it live happily for three days." ”

Bang Linglang obeyed the order and rushed forward, these Han scum have no integrity, no dignity, and they can't even take their own lives under the hands of the party, but let them rob their compatriots, but they are all scrambling.

Looking at the fierce battle line in front of him, Yu Zang Rongli lightly lifted the reins and rode his horse forward.

"Major General!" The guards didn't know what Lu Daoyu Zang Rongli was thinking, and thought that he planned to attack the enemy formation in person.

"Drumming!" Yu Zang Rongli's order was immediately issued, and he shouted loudly to the sound of war drums: "Pull out the flag!" The Chinese army advanced fifty steps! Listen to me, the whole army! Beheaded Zhang Shouyue, and after entering Gangu, he didn't seal the knife for ten days! ”

………………

Zhang Shouyue was still thinking about a way out, but the party members did not wait for him to come up with an eyebrow. The drums on the opposite side have sounded, and it is also the habit of the party members to beat the drums and march into the army. The Western Xia General's Banner, which was originally located more than one hundred and fifty steps away, began to advance slowly at this time, and in the cheers of the Western Thieves, after moving forward fifty steps, it settled again.

The old general stared at the white general flag more than a hundred steps away, and the general in full armor under the banner must be the master of the Western Thief. The move of the flag forward means that the movement of the Chinese army's main formation means that the next attack is about to begin, and it also proves that the next attack will be more violent.

The 10,000 elite soldiers of the party began to roar with the sound of drums, and their roars echoed in the river valley, and the offensive suddenly became fierce as Zhang Shouyue expected. The collision Linglang in front had already made the soldiers guarding the battle line scramble, and now, a team of iron harriers began to ignore the casualties and constantly rushed forward to attack the positions of the Song army's crossbowmen. The crossbowmen, who had consumed most of their physical strength, could no longer keep up with the rhythm of the Iron Harrier's assault, and the disadvantage in their forces was gradually revealed. The defensive line was crumbling, like a long embankment against a flood, crumbling and disintegrating in the raging waves of thousands of troops.

"Eunuch!" Wang Junwan strode forward and begged for his life, "Let the last general go and take the head of the thief general!" ”

Zhang Shouyue looked down at Wang Junwan, the eyes of the young and handsome cavalry commander were resolute and tragic. Zhang Shouyue looked up at the enemy general's flag one hundred and ten steps away, he slowly shook his head, and suddenly laughed wildly in the drums, and the laughter of Da Lu was as relieved as relief: "I don't need you!" ……”

Zhang Shouyue threw the drumstick to the drummer who was standing on the side, telling him to maintain the rhythm and continue to beat the drum. He walked a few steps in the confusion of his powerful subordinates, stretched his left hand back, and the old general Zhang of Gangu City said in a deep voice: "Take the Divine Arm Bow!" ”

A hard crossbow with a somewhat strange shape was immediately handed to Zhang Shouyue's palm by his own soldiers with both hands.

'With the body of the sword, the sandalwood as the bow, the iron as the head of the gun, the copper as the horse's face and teeth, and the hemp rope and silk as the string', although it is shaped as a crossbow, it is called a bow - a bow of the divine arm!

Compared to the crossbow of the past, the front end of the Divine Arm Bow has an additional pedal made of round iron rings. With this pedal, there is no need to step on the crossbow arm to wind, and there is no need to worry about stepping on the crossbow to break the bow, so the strength of the crossbow can be made bigger and stronger, generally reaching four to five stones. This was last year, and Li Ding, a Tibetan man, was dedicated to the imperial court. After the test firing of the Son of Heaven, Zhao Ji personally named it the Divine Arm Bow, and ordered the ordnance supervisor to expedite the supervision, in order to send the troops as soon as possible. Now the divine arm bow in Zhang Shouyue's hand is the first batch of newly issued to the Guanxi Zhulu.

One hundred and ten paces, this distance for a long arrow, unless it is a tailwind, and it is a typhoon, it is possible to fly to that distance. For the old crossbow, it is also at the limit of the range that has lost its lethality. But if you use the Divine Arm Bow, one hundred and ten steps has already entered the effective killing radius - the maximum range of the Divine Arm Bow has reached three hundred steps! [Note 1]

When the Divine Arm Bow was handed to his hand, it had already been wound in advance. Riding on the wooden feather arrow, Zhang Shouyue raised the hard crossbow, and together with Zhang Shouyue, all the divine arm archers stepped forward together, and at the same time aimed at the enemy general. More than a hundred divine arm bows, this is Zhang Shouyue's biggest reliance now.

Aiming at the enemy general, Zhang Shouyue gave an order, and he also pulled the trigger of the tooth hair.

One hundred and ten strings sounded in harmony, and more than 100 short arrows shot out at the same time, and a flying locust swooped straight under the enemy's flag.

Victory was in sight, but Yu Zang Rongli's eyes were only a piece of blood red. The pro-soldiers who stood under the same banner with him, together with Yu Zang Rongli, were pierced into hedgehogs by one hundred and ten sharp arrows. The right hand of the new generation of the Yu Zang family, who was already lying down on his back and with seven or eight short arrows on his face, was still unwillingly held high, but it fell in a blink of an eye, and smashed to the ground together with his ambition.

The first battle of the Divine Arm Bow on the battlefield of Qin Feng was to start with a slash to break the enemy.

One hundred and ten steps apart, it is impossible to see the situation on the other side at all. But in the blink of an eye, there was a panic under the banner of the enemy army, and the enemy general wearing a hard armor disappeared, Zhang Shouyue stared at it for a long time, and finally believed that he or other divine arm archers had indeed shot the target.

"It's really a magic weapon!" Old General Zhang stroked the crossbow body that still had some burrs that had not been polished, and loved this divine arm bow to the extreme.

The sound of trumpets from the enemy ranks whimpered and wept. More than 10,000 thieves retreated like a tide to the north. Zhang Shouyue's whole person relaxed, and finally won. But when he saw the number of casualties under the cavalry command, his mood became very bad again.

More than 80 of the 400 cavalry were killed in the battle, and almost all of the rest were wounded, of which more than 100 were seriously wounded. Zhang Shouyue was very aware of the level of treatment of the medical officers in the barracks, and it would be good if half of the more than 100 elite cavalrymen who were seriously injured this time survived.

Zhang Shouyue bit his lower lip and sighed in the last place: "They are all good men!" ”

Note 1: In the Song Dynasty, the length of one step was five feet, which is equivalent to one meter five today. In the record of the "General Essentials of the Martial Arts", the range of the Divine Arm Bow can reach 300 steps, that is, 450 meters, which is debatable and is likely to be a special case. However, in the "History of the Song Dynasty 61 Zhang Ruoshui Biography", there is a record of 70 steps of continuous piercing of iron armor. Extrapolating from this data, at a distance of one hundred and ten paces, the Divine Arm Bow should still be able to maintain a certain lethality.

ps: The Divine Arm Bow is the most famous weapon of the Northern Song Dynasty, and it is said that it can shoot 300 steps. Although there must be exaggeration, the actual power can be seen from the previous wars after the Shenzong Dynasty.

Today's second update, red ticket, collection.