The chase of the neighing horses continued, and the tiger and leopard cavalry and the gentleman's army, which were basically equal in strength, raised their hooves and launched a life-and-death cavalry and archery battle on the snowy land of Runan, shooting at each other with slower loading but long-range strong crossbows, short and powerful crossbow arrows drew a straight trajectory between the two armies, whistling into the ranks of both sides, splashing strands of blood from time to time, and from time to time there were cavalry screaming and falling off their horses, falling into the snow with blood, and then being trampled into meat sauce by the horse's hooves of the enemy or companions. The screams of dying echoed in the snow, and they were unbearable.

Although Cao Chun made a smart choice without a teacher, and arranged for the tiger and leopard cavalry to suppress the cavalry and archery tactics of the Junzi army with crossbows, forcing the Junzi army to only return fire with strong crossbows of equal range, limiting the strength of the Junzi army's bow and arrows, but after a lot of time, Cao Chun still found that the preparation of the tiger and leopard cavalry for this battle was too insufficient, and the less than one hundred and fifty strong crossbows mounted in the column could not form a numerical advantage over the more than 200 strong crossbows of the Junzi army, and the overly dense charging formation also became an ideal live target for the strong crossbows of the Junzi army. The hit rate of the Junzi Army's strong crossbows has been greatly improved - the formation of the tiger and leopard cavalry is too dense, and as long as the crossbow arrows of the Junzi Army are aimed at the brigade, Meng can also be targeted.

On the contrary, although the loose formation of the Gentleman's light cavalry is not conducive to close combat, when it comes to bow and crossbow combat, it can reduce the chance of being hit by the enemy, unless it is unlucky to run into the enemy's archer, otherwise the enemy's crossbow may pass by with a slight shake when firing, and pass through the loose queue of the Gentleman's Army, without any damage. The Tiger and Leopard Rider was not only the first time to encounter such a loose queue, but also the first time to use crossbow riding tactics on a large scale in the pursuit battle, and the hit rate was naturally greatly reduced.

In fact, the Junzi Army also has an advantage that is not easy to attract attention, that is, the Junzi Army uses crossbow arrows to shoot the approaching tiger and leopard riders at high speed, and two high-speed moving objects collide head-on, and the destructive power of the sharp crossbow arrows naturally increases greatly. The tiger and leopard rider uses crossbow arrows to shoot the high-speed fleeing gentleman army, and even if it hits, it is a high-speed moving object hitting the tail of an object moving at high speed in the same direction, and the strength is of course greatly reduced.

Relying on these two advantages, the result of the crossbow shooting is naturally conceivable, chasing and fleeing for twenty or thirty miles, the loose team of gentlemen only less than forty people were hit by arrows, and most of them were only injured, while the tiger and leopard riders were at least 100 people were hit by arrows, more than half of them fell off their horses and were killed or injured, and at the same time, the tiger and leopard riders, who were overburdened with war horses, also said that there was no way to close the distance with the gentleman's army, and could not give full play to the advantage of heavy equipment in close combat, and the neat team began to scatter. Seeing this scene, the rational and steady Cao Chun also quickly calmed down, knowing that he was only afraid of too much loss if he continued to pursue, so he decisively ordered to stop the pursuit and reorganize the team.

The bell gold gong sounded, the well-trained tiger and leopard riders reined in their horses one after another, and quickly returned to the team to reorganize the team, but at this time, Cao Chun was helpless and angry things happened, just now also ran faster than the rabbit The 'Yellow Turban Thief' light cavalry also quickly regrouped the team, turned around and shot with a bow and crossbow to shoot his own army, although the shooting frequency was not as dense as before, but after careful aiming, the accuracy of the head increased greatly, and the tiger and leopard riders were specially shot at the face door, limbs and war horses without armor protection, and the tiger and leopard knights could not parry left and right, You can only fight back with bows and crossbows, and start firing at the enemy on the spot.

Shoot on the spot, although the soldiers of the tiger and leopard cavalry are strictly trained and good at shooting, but the Junzi army is still not afraid of the tiger and leopard riding, because the Junzi army originally relied on bows and arrows to eat, and has a large number of innate advantages in bows and crossbows, and the loose queue can avoid a large number of arrows, and the ninety feather arrows carried by each soldier are also enough for the light cavalry of the Junzi army to squander, and it is still the tiger and leopard cavalry to squander, and the feather arrows in the sky are like locusts, and a large number of war horses and soldiers who are more expensive than gold fall to the ground with arrows, although the Junzi army also has casualties, but it is always much less than the tiger and leopard horse.

After shooting like this for half an hour, with the rapid reduction of bows and crossbow arrows, Cao Chun was inevitably a little flustered no matter how calm and steady he was, and he knew that he had met a nemesis today, in order not to be captured, Cao Chun could only give the order and launch a charge with a gambling surname, striving to be able to rush into the ranks of the gentlemen army to start a decisive battle. And the order was conveyed, when the tiger and leopard cavalry charged again, something happened that made Cao Chun so angry that he was like thunder, and the 'yellow turban thief' on the opposite side turned around and ran again, turning around and releasing arrows while running, not giving the tiger and leopard the slightest chance to get close at all.

In fact, this is also nonsense, the armor on the tiger and leopard cavalry is thick and hard, and it can't be pierced at all if it takes two or three hits in close combat, and the thin leather armor on the soldiers of the Junzi Army can not only block the strength of the arrow, but it can be cut and pierced at once in close combat, and it will be fatal by the enemy with one blow, so the Junzi Army will not easily melee even if it is stupid.

"Kill! Kill! Cao Chun, who was so angry that his forehead was bruised, brandished a steel knife and roared like thunder, "Rush!" Rush up and melee with this group of ant thieves! Kill an ant thief and get a tael of gold! ”

There is no need for Cao Chun to offer a bounty at all, the top and bottom of the tiger and leopard rider have already been completely angered by the leper dog tactics of the Junzi Army, these carefully selected soldiers from the Cao army, which one is not a brave soldier who has survived a hundred battles, and which one is not the elite of the elite, when has he suffered such a big loss on the battlefield, and he has killed and injured so many companions without even touching a single hair of the enemy? Therefore, the soldiers of the tiger and leopard cavalry were all like chicken blood, desperately clamping the horses and whipping, frantically urging the war horses to chase and kill, not only shooting with crossbow arrows, but also risking the risk of falling from the horse to draw the bow and release arrows, shooting the shameless 'yellow turban thieves' in front.

The tiger and leopard cavalry re-launched the charge, the endurance is super strong and lightly armed gentleman army is of course unwanted, and the last time to deal with the same Rong, a strong just desperate escape, the opportunity to turn back to pull the bow and arrows, but also learned the lesson of wasting a lot of bows and arrows last time, aiming at the opponent to pull the bowstring and then release the arrow, relying on the sacrifice of the frequency of shooting to improve the hit rate, and constantly accurate and strong hit the back of the pursuit, the tiger and leopard cavalry soldiers continue to fall from the horse or the horse is hit by the arrow and fall to the ground, angry wow wow yelling, angry roaring like thunder, It's helpless.

After pursuing for more than ten miles, the overloaded tiger and leopard cavalry began to lose its strength, and the speed was greatly slow, and at the same time, because of the lack of feather arrows, it was difficult to effectively suppress the cavalry and archery tactics of the Junzi army - this could not be blamed on Cao Chun and the tiger and leopard cavalry for their lack of preparation, the key was that the tiger and leopard cavalry had never encountered an enemy with so many feathered arrows, let alone an enemy who relied entirely on bows and arrows. Discovering the danger, Cao Chun was forced to have no choice but to order to stop the pursuit, adjust the team and let the war horse rest.

"Kill! Kill! Kill! ”

As soon as the tiger and leopard cavalry stopped pursuing, the 'Yellow Turban Thief' cavalry in the distance immediately turned around like a leprosy dog and bit it, shouting neat slogans to return to the horse and approach, and continued to shoot with bows and arrows to cover, the tiger and leopard cavalry with few feathered arrows left even fought back with very weak strength, and could only dodge the whistling feather arrows while roaring madly, "Shameless dog thief!" Shameless! Shameless! Have the courage to rush up and fight for 300 rounds! Shameless villain! ”

No matter how crazy and angry the tiger and leopard cavalry soldiers are, it is useless, basically composed of Xuzhou locals, most of them have a deep hatred with the Cao army team that slaughtered the city and dug up the grave, this will finally catch a chance to take revenge, naturally like a hooligan suppressed a ** beauty, say anything to shoot a happy one, as far as possible aimed at the tiger and leopard cavalry soldiers without armor protection parts, pull the Hun bow to the fullest, and then release it fiercely, and use the enemy's blood to vent the hatred in the heart.

"Kill! Kill! "The most angry in the ranks of the gentlemen's army is, of course, Tao Ying's cousin Tao Ji, who has personally experienced the Battle of Surabaya, and has seen the tragic scene of the soldiers and civilians of Xuzhou being slaughtered by the Cao army like a mountain of corpses and rivers of blood, Tao Ji will of course be so excited that he can't help himself, and he struggles to pull the bowstring again and again to aim at the enemy, and then shoot hard, and every time he shoots a tiger and leopard cavalry soldier, Tao Ji has to roar angrily, "Revenge!" ”

Almost without the power to fight back, he was wantonly shot by the Junzi Army, the casualties of the tiger and leopard riders naturally increased rapidly, and Cao Chun was also completely panicked, in order not to wipe out the whole army, Cao Chun could only stubbornly give an order that was absolutely unprecedented for the tiger and leopard riders - escape! Flee to Zhaoling! Go find Cao Jun's main force for help!

It's too late to run, to be precise, it's useless, seeing the tiger and leopard riding a very unheroic flight to the west, the heroic and invincible gentleman's army is of course chasing wildly, continuing to shoot arrows in the charge to kill the enemy, Tao Ying, who has been hiding from the rear, is also yelling, "Chase!" Resolutely chase! Kill this team of tigers and leopards and let Cao Lao Thief cry his nose! Kill the tiger and destroy the leopard! Kill the tiger and destroy the leopard! Kill the tiger and destroy the leopard! ”

"Kill the tiger and destroy the leopard! Kill the tiger and destroy the leopard! There was no need to rehearse in advance, and the highly organized and disciplined soldiers of the Junzi Army shouted this new slogan in a neat voice, and at the same time slapped their horses and whipped their horses, the light cavalry while biting the tail of the tiger and leopard cavalry, while constantly pulling their bows and arrows in the charge, accumulating little by little to eliminate the tiger and leopard cavalry, and the heavy cavalry was responsible for cleaning up the wounded and fallen tiger and leopard knights, wielding knives, axes, guns and spears to fight more and less, and stabbing those tiger and leopard knights who had lost their combat effectiveness or were stubbornly resistant, and cut them into pieces, so as not to give any tiger and leopard cavalry a chance to escape.

At the same time, Tao Ying Shao sent a messenger to contact Sun Guan and ordered him to send a team to clean up the battlefield and collect the expensive armor and weapons from the corpses of the tiger and leopard knights.

The battle has reached this point, and nearly half of the tiger and leopard riders who have been killed by the Junzi Army in the cavalry and archery war are also saying that there is no way to turn over, and the only thing that can be fought for is how to lose a little less troops and flee to Zhaoling, but at this time, the good armor on the tiger and leopard cavalry has also become their biggest burden, which not only increases their burden, but also makes their war horses unable to escape faster, resulting in them saying that they can't get rid of the pursuit of the light cavalry of the Junzi Army, They could only watch their horses run slower and slower, and the gentleman's army chased closer and closer.

It's not that there are no tiger and leopard cavalry soldiers who follow the example of the Junzi Army and turn around and release arrows to delay the pursuit of the Junzi Army, but their unilateral primitive stirrups can't keep them balanced for a long time, and this difficult action that they don't usually practice much often also makes their bows and arrows ridiculously accurate, not only the arrows shot out basically can't hit the target accurately, but also from time to time there are Haw Par Knights who do this action because they are used to falling off their horses, or being trampled to death by their own and the enemy's war horses, or because the soles of their feet can't get rid of the leather holster, they are dragged by the war horses on the snow and scream, drawing thick blood marks, shocking blood marks.

"Go to the armor! Give up your weapons! In desperation, Cao Chun could only give down the weapon of discarding the weapons and armor with tears, and took the lead in throwing down the heavy iron gun in his hand, taking off the expensive fish scale steel armor on his body and throwing it on the ground to reduce the burden of the war horse to the greatest extent, and the other tiger and leopard cavalry soldiers were also in tears, throwing down expensive weapons and armor to reduce the burden on their war horses, but there were also many tiger and leopard cavalry soldiers who refused to give up these weapons and armor that represented their identities, and wailed and refused to carry out Cao Chun's order. Say everything to keep these expensive equipment for Boss Cao, who is now so poor that he is almost a pants boy.

The tiger and leopard cavalry heavy cavalry that refused to give up their heavy equipment could not get rid of the pursuit of the light cavalry of the Junzi Army, and became the live targets of the soldiers of the Junzi Army one after another, and one after another because the physical strength of the war horses was exhausted, even the people and horses fell to the ground, either trampled into meat sauce by the hooves of the light cavalry of the Junzi Army, or were cut to pieces by the light cavalry of the Junzi Army who followed up and killed, screaming and becoming the victims of the revenge of the Junzi Army.

The tiger and leopard cavalry soldiers who gave up their armor and weapons were no better, not to mention that their horses had already consumed a lot of physical strength in the previous battles, and even if their horses had sufficient physical strength, it would be very difficult to get rid of the pursuit of the Gentlemen's Army, because the Gentlemen's Army not only had rotating horses, but most of them had the most variable stamina. It can be said that the longer the Mongolian horse runs, the more dominant the physical strength of the war horse of the Junzi Army. When Cao Chun found out about this situation, it was already too late, even the heavy cavalry of the Junzi Army had already chased into the firing range, and began to rotate the light cavalry whose arm strength was too exhausted, and continued to shoot the tiger and leopard cavalry with bows and arrows, and shot the tiger and leopard knights without even armor...... "Kill the tiger and destroy the leopard!" Kill the tiger and destroy the leopard! In the thunderous cheers, the bows and arrows of the gentleman's army hardly stopped for a moment, the feathered arrows whisted, the cheers were like a tide, the horses' hooves were like thunder, and the snowflakes were flying, playing a song of riding and archery. Unfortunately, as the opponent of the Gentlemen's Army, the price paid by the tiger and leopard cavalry was that one after another was hit by arrows and fell off the horse, and one after another blood splashed, leaving a long blood trajectory on the vast snowland, and the blood trajectory paved by the corpses of men and horses and the broken flags of the broken knives...... After the soldiers came to the border of Zhaoling County, and the Yellow Turban Thief Huang Shaobu started the war, Cao Boss has been smiling very happily, because what appeared in front of the elite of the five thousand Cao Army was the beggar-like enemy all over the mountains, all of them were ragged, basically did not wear armor, and few of them held serious weapons, many of them were holding farm tools, such as shovels, hoes, etc., and even more outrageous ones simply took bamboo guns or wooden sticks, and the equipment was extremely simple, and it was messy and disorderly, a bunch, a piece of the west, although there were also leaders such as Xiaoshuai running and shouting among them, desperately restrained, but the effect is not great, no matter how many there are, there is nothing to fear.

The only thing that made Cao Ying and Cao Jun's soldiers raise their spirits was Huang Shao's main battle team, that is, the team standing in front of Cao Ying's army, there were about three or four thousand people, quite disciplined, and the equipment was relatively good, spears, halberds, bows and crossbows, and the worst was also swords, and there were two or three hundred cavalry, and it seemed that there was still a little combat effectiveness. However, the battle-experienced Cao Boss and the soldiers of the Cao army can still see at a glance that this team is definitely not the opponent of the own army, because the combination of this team is not reasonable at all, there is no long shield protection in front of the archers and crossbowmen, and there are also problems with the equipment of long and short weapons, and the more important thing is that the formation is very scattered, and there is no feeling of being as solid as a rock. No matter which general of the Cao Army is, he has absolute confidence that he can completely crush this so-called main force of soldiers at one time.

What made Cao Boss laugh even happier was still behind, in the group of rabble in front, there was even a yellow turban thief general who rushed out of the horse, claiming to be a deputy marshal, waving a spear and asking Cao Jun to send generals to fight, and then without Cao Boss opening his mouth, Dian Wei, who was close to full force in the Three Kingdoms, rushed out with a double halberd, and fought with the deputy marshal, and did not fight three times, so he shouted and flew out of a halberd, stabbed the deputy marshal in the chest, and stabbed the deputy marshal from the horse, fell far to the ground, and was killed on the spot.

Like most armies in this era, as soon as the battle was defeated, the Yellow Turban thieves, who were already a typical rabble, were suddenly in chaos, and countless people ran backwards. Immediately afterwards, the general offensive war drums in the Cao army team sounded, and the Cao army team that was already impatient shouted out, roaring excitedly and rushing towards the chaotic yellow turban thieves, the poor yellow turban thieves did not even have the courage to resist, the main general Huang Shao took the lead in escaping, the big and small generals and soldiers scrambled to keep up, those beggars who were basically playing soy sauce were even more completely chaotic, scrambling to run for their lives and trampling on each other, countless dead, Cao Jun took advantage of the situation to cover up and kill, Chopping melons and chopping vegetables, like crazy harvesting, these ordinary people who rebelled because they had no food to eat, only killed the northern part of Zhaoling, where the corpses piled up like a mountain, and the blood flowed like a river, just like last year's Xuzhou reappeared.

Huang Shao's luck is not bad, not like many generals under his command, in the chaos of the army was trampled to death by their own defeated soldiers, with less than 2,000 defeated soldiers fled back to the tattered Zhaoling City, closed the city gate and closed the city to defend the city, no matter how the Yellow Turban soldiers who did not have time to escape into the city cried and begged, just did not dare to open the city gate and let them into the city, the Cao soldiers waved the butcher's knife slowly, wantonly slaughtered those Yellow Turban soldiers who did not enter the city, and the blood flowed outside the city, and the crying and killing sound shook the sky, comparable to the Shura slaughterhouse.

While the soldiers of the Cao army slaughtered the Yellow Turban soldiers, Cao Ying also led a large group of civil and military generals to comfortably climb to the top of the earth mountain outside the north gate of Zhaoling, and set up a flag array here, preparing to command the next siege battle. After carefully observing the city defense of Zhaoling, Cao Ying couldn't help but smile again, the city wall of this small county town built of rammed earth is broken and low, and the city defense fortifications are even more dilapidated, basically it is impossible to block Cao Jun's even a wave of offensive, the only moat that can create a little trouble for Cao Jun is basically filled with the corpses of the defeated Yellow Turbans, so that Cao Jun's soldiers can easily step on the corpses of the trenches.

After laughing happily, Cao Ying turned to Xun You behind him and asked, "Mr. Gongda, when will our two siege ladder trucks be able to arrive at the battlefield?" ”

"An hour and a half at most." Xun You replied with a smile: "The enemy is so vulnerable, when the thief army has just collapsed, I will go to the next and ask the 1,000 rear army led by General Yu Ban to escort the baggage to the south immediately, so as not to delay the lord's opportunity to attack the city." ”

"Okay." Cao Ying nodded with satisfaction, and then pointed at Zhaoling City with a horsewhip and laughed: "After the ladder car arrives, within an hour, I will break through this small city of Zhaoling!" ”

Boss Cao was able to laugh here, at this time, Cao Jun's scout sentry horse suddenly sent a dozen unkempt and ragged middle-aged men, Cao Boss and Xun You, Guo Jia and others at first thought it was a captured captive, Cao Boss also wanted to be angry and ask why the scout sent the captives here, but one of the men in tattered clothes rushed out, stumbled to the vicinity of Cao Boss, knelt down on Cao Boss's knees and wanted to speak, but his mouth just opened, but he couldn't help but cry.

After taking a closer look at the man's appearance, the horsewhip in Boss Cao's hand fell to the ground with a bang, because Boss Cao finally recognized that the man in front of him with blurred flesh and blood and even his shoes was his cousin, and the tiger and leopard rider general who had never suffered defeat - Cao Chun!

"General Cao Chun?" Guo Jia, a tuberculosis ghost, also recognized Cao Chun, and was so nervous that he even forgot to cough, and when he stood up, he blurted out, "General Cao, what's wrong?" How did you become like this? ”

Cao Chun cried bitterly, and had no shame to answer Guo Jia's question, and then Boss Cao was also anxious, grabbed Cao Chun's tattered collar, and struggled to lift Cao Chun up, staring at Cao Chun's eyes and roaring: "What are you crying about? Tell me, what's going on? What about the tiger and leopard ride? What about the tiger and leopard ride that I built with a lot of money? ”

"Lord...... Gong ......" cried bitterly for a long time, and Cao Chuncai opened his mouth with difficulty, choking up: "The last general...... Damn, the entire army of the tiger and leopard cavalry was annihilated, and only the last general ...... was left, and he fled back with these dozen soldiers. ”

Boss Cao's face was full of disbelief, and his mind was even more dazed, he let go in despair, and let Cao Chun fall to the ground, Cao Chun didn't dare to get up, just hugged Boss Cao's stubby legs and cried, "Lord, the end will be damned!" The last general is incompetent, so that the tiger and leopard cavalry built by the lord at any cost will be annihilated, and the last general deserves death! Please behead the last general immediately and ...... with military justice."

"General Cao Chun, I'll talk about it later." Xun You yelled, "How did you get wiped out? Did you fall into an enemy ambush? In the wilderness around Runan, how did the enemy arrange an ambush? ”

"Mr. Gongda, the last general is not ambushed." Cao Chun cried bitterly and told the truth that made all the generals of the Cao army speechless, "The last general was killed by the enemy on the frontal battlefield. ”

"How is that possible?!" Xun You and Guo Jia exclaimed in unison, and Xun You also asked, "How many enemies are there?" How many times yours? ”

"The last general is ashamed, the strength of the enemy and the last general is equal, both about a thousand people." Cao Chun cried even more, "The last general is incompetent, and he was killed by the same number of enemy cavalry, if it weren't for the darkness of the sky, the last general and these dozen soldiers would not be able to escape on foot." ”

Xun You and Guo Jia were already so shocked that they couldn't speak, and they couldn't believe anything, the elite of the elite who were strictly selected from the tens of thousands of Cao troops, a thousand tiger and leopard cavalry, could be annihilated by the enemy's cavalry with roughly equal strength, or in a head-on battle on an open battlefield, when did such an elite cavalry emerge in the world?

"Where is the enemy?" Boss Cao finally spoke, and asked in a hoarse voice, "Who is the enemy?" Who is so powerful to completely annihilate my tiger and leopard horseman? ”

Cao Chun cried and was about to answer, but the alarm sounded outside the flag array, and the scout Fei reported that a cavalry from the east was approaching quickly, and when Cao Boss and Guo Jia and others turned their heads to look again, they saw that the snow and dust were flying on the snow field in the east, and sure enough, a team of about 1,000 cavalry rushed in, waving the Beidou flag with yellow edges and gray backgrounds, all wrapped in yellow cloth, and obviously yellow turban thieves. Immediately afterwards, Cao Chun also pointed at this cavalry and roared, "It's them!" That's them! The cavalry of the Yellow Turban thief Wu Tiande! ”

"Wu-Tian-De! I'm going to cut you to pieces! Crushing bones and ashes! ”

(To be continued)