Wen Scandal pondered for a moment, and sighed: "It's not that we are incompetent, but the situation is compelling, if we attack rashly, the 200,000 army will not escape defeat!" At that time, the blood will flow like a river, the bones will be a mountain, and I don't know how many soldiers will be killed in battle! However, the lord treats us like a mountain, and the lord's order has to be obeyed, even if our army is defeated, it can hit Pang De hard, and only wait for the arrival of reinforcements to take Nanyang in one fell swoop! After that, he raised his spear and shouted: "The enemy army is no more than 100,000 people, and our army has 200,000 people, so why be afraid?" All the army is attacking! ”

As the words fell, the war drums in the Yuan army's camp sounded in unison, the horns were noisy, and the nearly ten-mile-long team launched a group charge like a tide. Even if the archers and crossbowmen are equipped with steel knives, iron swords and other melee weapons, it is difficult for their crossbowmen and archers to inflict actual damage on them, and it is better to take the lead in charging than the spearmen in front of them as live targets.

More than 200,000 people launched a charge together, and the scene was extremely spectacular, and the shouts of soldiers on both sides were heard for more than ten miles. Seeing this, Pang De was not surprised or overjoyed, and immediately ordered the herald beside him: "Transfer the order, order the army to stop advancing, the sword and shield soldiers cover the archers for long-distance shooting, and the crossbowmen are ready, and wait for the enemy army to be close to eighty paces and hear the order before firing ten thousand arrows!" ”

"No!" Dozens of heralds received the order and immediately galloped towards the area they were responsible for. In a moment, the 100,000-strong army came to a halt in a neat manner, and the sword and shield soldiers at the front protected the chest and abdomen with their steel-wood shields, while the archers hid behind and kept releasing cold arrows.

Eighty percent of Wen Chou's troops are pikemen, and their armor is tattered, most of which are crude cowhide armor, which cannot stop the penetration of feather arrows at all. Tens of thousands of pikemen had just approached a hundred and fifty paces before people were hit by arrows and fell to the ground, but fortunately, the casualty figure was not too large. There were only 5,000 archers in Pound's army, and a round of feathered arrows could only cause one or two thousand casualties at most, which was tantamount to tickling for an army of 200,000.

Wen Chou, as the main general, had to stay behind to command the battle, and while attacking Pang De's infantry forward, he also sent his generals Jiang Qi and Jiao Touch each with a pair of men and horses to guard against the cavalry who tried to attack the flank.

As the distance between the two armies became closer and closer, the hit rate of the archers in Pound's army became higher and higher, and the casualties of the pikemen who rushed in front of Wen Chou's army gradually increased, but this casualty did not hurt the bones of the 200,000 army. Ji Ling, Gao Gan, Gao Rou, Li Fu and other generals were in charge of commanding the battle, and when they saw it, they were about to engage in short-handed combat, and the speed of the charge was getting faster and faster.

Pound's army remained motionless, assuming a defensive posture. This situation made Ji Ling and the others overjoyed, the arms on the battlefield were mutually restrictive, although the sword and shield soldiers had an advantage, but it was absolutely difficult to escape the assassination of the pikemen at a long distance, of course, if they fought in close combat, it was still the sword and shield soldiers who had an absolute advantage.

Seeing Yuan Jun rushing into the range of eighty steps, Pang Demeng shouted: "Hit the gong!" ”

With a clear gong sound, the crossbowmen who had been gathering momentum for a long time in the army began to exert their might, only to hear the sound of "whooshing" breaking through the air, and countless special crossbow arrows and feather arrows rushed towards the Yuan army who rushed over. Yuan Jun immediately let out a miserable howl, and the number of casualties caused by one surname approached 10,000.

It turned out that this move was the killer weapon arranged by Pang De and Xu Shu, and this secret weapon was a thousand repeating crossbows that Ma Chao had just assigned. This kind of repeater was proposed by Ma Chao, designed and manufactured by Zhuge Liang, and later transformed by Ma Jun and Ma Chao, so Ma Chao named it Zhuge Ma Yu.

To put it bluntly, this is a super heavy bow, first of all, the bowstring is extremely powerful, with the power of six stones, which is now a strength of one hundred and fifty kilograms. In order to save time on the battlefield, it is generally easy for two people to work together. The bowstring is not fixed at one point, but at two points three inches apart, and ten crossbow arrows can be fired at a time, which is amazingly powerful.

Ma Chao originally thought that the repeater could fire crossbow arrows like a machine gun, but later learned that it was not the case. However, he came up with a brilliant idea based on the principle of machine gun magazines in later generations, that is, to improve the arrow clips of the repeater and develop a detachable arrow clip. This greatly reduces the time between launches in battlefield timing applications.

After testing, the two crossbowmen worked together to re-open the bowstring in a matter of seconds, swap the clips and fire again. And that's just enough time for a soldier to run a distance of about fifty paces.

A salvo of 1,000 Zhuge horses is 10,000 crossbow arrows, plus 5,000 feather arrows shot by 5,000 archers, and 15,000 feather arrows flew towards the oncoming army of 200,000. With such a dense crowd, it is difficult to miss a shot? Even more terrifying is that this crossbow arrow has no tail, the arrow is cross-shaped, and uses friction with air to maintain accuracy, which is much smaller than the arrow of ordinary feather arrows, but twice as fast. Although the destructive power is reduced, it is more powerful and penetrating, and can pierce a person's body like a bullet before attacking another target in the same straight line, and the cross-shaped wound is not easy to stop bleeding, it is not easy to stitch, and the person who is hit by the arrow is in pain.

Wen Chou's army was hit hard by this, and the momentum of the charge immediately paused, this dense rain of arrows was so terrifying that the soldiers who had just entered the battlefield saw a crossbow arrow pass through the body of one person in front of them and then shoot another person, and their eyes were so frightened that their eyes straightened. Some people were so frightened that they lay on the ground with feces and urine. But even in this case, no one dared to retreat, because behind them were the prison army, and once they fled, they would be killed by their own people.

Ji Ling and other generals had never seen this kind of formation, and the distance between them and the enemy army was only sixty or seventy paces, and there was no reason to give up, even if the losses were heavy, they had to continue to charge. At that moment, he raised his three-pointed two-edged knife and shouted: "The whole army rushes and kills!" If there is any fear, the former will be beheaded on the spot and the three clans will be punished! ”

Yuan Jun had no choice but to continue to charge, but he hated Ji Ling, Gao Gan and others in his heart. is also a charge, how can people have excellent armor and shields, and they have such a wooden pole spear in their hands, and if they rush up, wouldn't they let people cut off the wooden pole with a knife?

Pound was overjoyed when he saw this, and shouted: "Pass the order, let the sergeants charge after shooting the second round of feather arrows, and don't forget to shout slogans!" ”

"Order!"

After a while, the Yuan army, which had slowed down significantly, rushed to the place where Pang De had taken more than thirty steps before the battle, the gong sounded, the horns sounded in unison, the drums shook the sky, and the Zhuge crossbow that had just been installed immediately sprayed out a second round of arrow rain, coupled with the feather arrows that were already the fifth round, which immediately caused a fatal blow to the Yuan army.

As soon as the rain of arrows fell, a thousand crossbowmen immediately retreated, protecting the repeaters and retreating towards the camp, while the remaining tens of thousands of sergeants immediately charged, shouting in unison: "Lay down your arms, surrender and get a reward!" Stubborn resistance, sin even three clans! ”

The front line of the two armies immediately fought in one place, and the battle was extremely fierce. Ma Chao's army was in a unit, and five people formed a formation to face the enemy, surrounding several enemy soldiers in the middle to fight. Every fifth team formed a slightly larger formation, attacking and defending in a moderate manner, without any chaos. On the other hand, Yuan's army fought on its own, and it was like a quagmire without any rules.

However, it was said that Pang Rou and Wang Shuang each led 10,000 cavalry to make a detour, and seeing that the main force had begun to fight, they also launched a decisive charge at the moment. Although the Yuan army flanked with spearmen and heavy slurs, these Western Liang cavalry were also proficient in the art of mounted archery, dodging incoming crossbow arrows and returning fire with strong bows. A short distance of two hundred paces was only a matter of a few breaths for a cavalryman, and in such a short period of time, a crossbow could fire a maximum of two volleys, and a strong bow could fire at least three rounds.

After paying a certain amount of casualties, the cavalry of both sides finally approached the spearmen and used the art of mounted archery to snipe the pikemen on the periphery at close range. The pikemen and heavy men in the Yuan army were not protected by shield soldiers, and they did not know what to do in the face of tens of thousands of war horses running back and forth.

At the moment, the two sides competed for long-range firepower, so that the pikemen caught in the middle were unlucky, and the rain of arrows that came in round after round made them have nowhere to hide, and it didn't take long for them to lose their formation. Pang Rou is Pang De's cousin, and since he set out to fight in Xianbei, he has played for Ma Chao under the recommendation of Pang De, and Wang Shuang is a veteran general who has been in battle for a long time. As soon as he saw a flaw in the spear formation, he immediately led his troops to charge at the weak point.

Jiang Qi and Jiao Touch are both from Hebei, and although they have seen cavalry fighting, they have never seen a scene of tens of thousands of horsemen or even tens of thousands of horsemen charging at the same time. The cavalry of the two routes, wearing black iron masks and sharp swords, began to kill.

The Yuan army was able to resist for a while at first, but it didn't take long for the fierce Xiliang cavalry to break through the defensive line, and the spear array was completely dispersed, and the next thing was a unilateral massacre. Most of the cavalry under Pang De's command were Xiliang soldiers who had gone to Xianbei, and they had extremely rich experience in battlefield fighting.

The two wings were broken by cavalry, and the entire Yuan army's formation immediately showed flaws, showing its defeat. In addition, Yuan Junjun's morale was sluggish and low, and the soldiers who had suffered so much suddenly lost the heart to fight. This is also something that can't be helped, his guns are all wooden, and he was cut off by someone with a knife, and only half of the wooden stick is left in his hand and he farts? Rather than die in vain, it is better to simply surrender, maybe there will be a real reward. Besides, most of these people were either forced to join the army, or forced to make a living to eat, who was willing to really work for Yuan Shao!

"Lay down your arms and surrender with a reward! Stubborn resistance, sin even three clans! ”

Loud slogans resounded throughout the battlefield, and people kept laying down their weapons and asking for surrender, and many people fled from the battle, falling to the ground and pretending to be dead, and countless more fell to the ground after being slightly wounded, and the rest of the people were also crushed, and the casualties were extremely heavy. (To be continued.) )