Chapter 233: Raid
Five miles east of Shangtai City, dozens of boats are side-by-side in the river, and the boatmen on the boats are sweating profusely, connecting the wide and thick gangplanks together to form a pontoon bridge across the Weishui. They are skillful in their movements and cooperate tacitly, and it can be seen that this is the result of many exercises.
Soon, a pontoon bridge took shape, and no sooner had the boatmen straightened up than a wisp of smoke and dust rushed out of the valley in the distance and into the sky.
"Get into the water, solidify the ship!" One of the big men in the lead shouted and jumped into the water first. Holding a boat in one hand, he used himself as a humanoid chain, holding the two adjacent boats tightly together. The other boatmen jumped down as well, making a splash, their muscular arms like iron, and the boat was still a little shaky.
The icy water of the river quickly soaked through their winter coats, like knives, cutting at their flesh and skin. Many people were so cold that they gasped.
Wei Ba and Zhao Guang each led a cavalry and rushed to the river quickly, they did not dismount, but slowed down, and the war horses stepped on the pontoon bridge with brisk steps. The boatman in the water tilted his head and looked at the knight sitting high in the saddle with a nervous expression.
Wei Ba lowered his head and looked at those dark and simple faces, very moved. It's the moon now, and the Weishui is freezing cold, so jumping into the water is not a comfortable thing. Although these boatmen operate the boats all year round, they will certainly not go into the water easily if they are not forced. In order to complete this raid, these boatmen also suffered a lot. Not only did they have to transport food, stone bullets, and ordnance from Linwei, but they also had to jump into the icy water to make humanoid chains, so that the cavalry could quickly pass through Weishui and approach the city of Shangqi.
Wei Ba remembered the six Yimeng sisters who jumped into the icy river for victory, and although these boatmen did not have such a high revolutionary consciousness, they were equally worthy of respect. He held the reins with one hand and stroked his chest with the other. Bow slightly: "Hard work!" ”
There was no touching scene with tears in his eyes, and the boatman in the water just stared at him dumbfounded, his gaze moving forward with his figure.
Wei Xing, a personal soldier who followed closely behind Wei Ba, saw it. A little angry, but he didn't scold these boatmen, just shook the battle flag in his hand and shouted: "There is an order to join the army." Hats off to all the boatmen—"
As soon as they heard this order, all the cavalry raised their hands and stroked their chests. He bowed slightly to the boatman in the water. Those boatmen also understood, knowing that this was Wei Senjun's order to thank them, and they immediately became excited, they didn't say too many pretty words, but gritted their teeth and pulled the ship's chains hard, trying not to make the ship shake drastically. lest any horses be frightened and cause the cavalry to fall overboard.
The follow-up cavalry saw their companions in front of them, and did the same, and passed the pontoon bridge in an orderly manner, passing those boatmen. They all bowed and saluted, and some even whispered greetings.
"Hard!"
"Thank you!"
More than 2,000 horsemen, all passed through Weishui in half an hour, they lined up on the south bank, turned their horses' heads, faced Weishui, followed Wei Ba in front of the formation, and raised their right hands high.
"Waiting for the news of our victory!" Wei Ba pulled his throat and yelled: "Let's go!" ”
"Let's go!" The knights responded in unison, began to run in small steps, and galloped away under the city.
Under the city, a fierce battle was raging, and Guo Huai led Zuihou's 5,000 elites to storm Hu Ji's position. After Hu Ji sent a signal for help, he never had a chance to care about when the reinforcements would arrive. In the face of the ferocious attack of the Wei army, he ordered all the thunderbolts and ballistae to shoot non-stop, and then personally led the personal guard battalion to the front line, and together with the foot soldiers armed with spears, stubbornly blocked the Wei army.
Thunderbolts roared, smashing stone bullets into the sky above the Wei army. Stone bullets whistled in the air and smashed on the ground, trembling and dusty; smashed on the shield, the shield exploded, and the Wei sergeant behind the shield screamed and fell to the ground; smashed on people, broken bones and flesh.
Even the ballista was roaring, the archers stuffed Zuihou's arrow box into the ballista, the crossbowmen began to shoot frantically, one by one the crossbow arrows flew out continuously, pulled into a black line, and flew towards the Wei army in the distance, the fierce shooting made the Wei army unable to even raise their heads, they could only hide behind the shield, running with all their might, hoping to rush to the position of the Shu army alive. Many people could not fulfill this wish, and under the full fire of the thunderbolts and the ballistas, the battlefield of three or four hundred paces outside the west gate of Shangtai City became a Shura field, and countless Wei troops fell on these hundreds of paces.
Guo Huai was secretly frightened, he found that he had underestimated Hu Ji, he thought that after such a long time of shooting, the Shu army's reserves of stone bullets and arrows had been exhausted, but he didn't expect Hu Ji to have such a large amount of inventory. The Wei army's casualties increased rapidly, greatly exceeding his estimates.
However, at this point, it is impossible for Guo Huai to go back to Shangtai. This is the opportunity given to him by Zhang He, no matter what the cost, he must also defeat Hu Ji, and Zhang He will attack Xiang Lang to complete this zuihou battle. Although Hu Ji's counterattack was fierce, it was not enough to turn the tide of the battle.
"Kill!" Under the protection of his guards, Guo Huai braved the rain of stone bullets and sharp arrows and rushed to the front of the Shu army. His luck was good, at such a long distance, he was only hit by an arrow in the shoulder socket, and he had an iron armor body, and the arrow did not penetrate the body deeply, so the injury was not serious. However, the guards around him were not so lucky, three people were hit by stone bullets and died on the spot, and at least thirty people or horses were shot by arrows, and their lives and deaths were uncertain.
Listening to that scream, Guo Huai felt distressed, these are the children of the Guo family who have followed him for many years, and since he went into battle, there has never been such a heavy loss. Today, in order to atone for his crimes, he was not allowed to personally rush to the front line, and the casualties of these guards composed of the children of the Guo family also increased rapidly.
"Kill Hu Ji!" Guo Huai looked at Hu Ji, who was dozens of paces, drew his knife and shouted, urging the horse to rush forward. The guards roared in unison and rode forward. Not to be outdone, the soldiers of the Shu army stabbed dozens of spears, stabbing to death the knights and war horses who rushed to the front, and then resisted the war horses hard to prevent them from continuing to advance. The liliang of the war horse's impact was too strong, and more than a dozen foot soldiers couldn't support it with all their strength, so they involuntarily slid backwards, and the shoes on their feet were almost wiped off to the bottom.
"Shoot them!"
"Shoot!"
Far away, the soldiers who could not reach the weapons in their hands shouted angrily, raised their bows and crossbows in their hands and shot at each other. Between these more than ten steps, the sound of arrows galloping was endless, and one by one the warriors were hit by arrows, making muffled snorts or screams. The horse neighed, raised its hooves and kicked wildly. The soldiers of the Shu army scolded, stabbed with spears, and slashed with knives. Four or five men gathered around a war horse, some killed them, some pulled the knights on horseback, and pulled them off their horses. Hacked to death with a knife.
Guo Huai's guards were all tall and brave, and they sat on horseback. While urging the horse to rush forward, he used a sharp war knife to slash left and right, and slashed out a bloody path and rushed towards Hu Ji.
Hu Ji looked at the Wei knights who were getting closer and closer, and he was extremely nervous, Guo Huai was about to break through his position, and the reinforcements had not seen any trace yet. Do you want to die here? He couldn't stop looking in the direction of Shangtai City beside Guo Huai, praying that Wei Ba would appear soon.
Guo Huai didn't know what Hu Ji was looking at, thinking that Hu Ji was looking at him. He was even more enraged, and shouted orders for the knights to speed up the charge and kill Huzi.
His order had just been given. Suddenly, a majestic war drum sounded behind him. The sound of war drums came from a distance, but they were rapidly approaching, and in the sound of war drums, there were bursts of muffled thunder.
It was the sound of cavalry charging.
Guo Huai turned his head in surprise, he thought that Zhang He had sent cavalry to bypass Weishui and support him from behind. However, he faintly felt a little uneasy, because Zhang He did not mention this arrangement, and he wanted to completely hand over the task of defeating Hu Ji to him, only in this way could his merits make up for his mistakes. What's more, if it was the cavalry of the Wei army, there was no reason not to remind him to get out of the way.
He was shocked when he saw the battle flag rushing out of the dust. This was not a knight of the Wei army, and there were no generals surnamed Zhao or Wei in the Wei army.
They are the Shu army!
A cold sweat broke out of his body, and Guo Huai suddenly realized that a huge danger was approaching. He looked at Shangqi City, three or four hundred steps away, and knew the intentions of the Shu army.
"Retreat—" Guo Huai roared wildly, he gave up Hu Ji who was close in front of him, turned his horse's head, and galloped away in Xiangshang. The Shu army rushed out from the east of Shangtai City, and there could only be one purpose, to capture Shangqi City,
"Withdraw to Shangqi—" Guo Huai roared hoarsely, his eyes reddening. He pulled out almost all the more than 10,000 soldiers in Shangtai City, and only Ma Zun and others and some remnants who lost their combat effectiveness were left in the city, if the Shu army attacked, they would definitely not be able to resist.
Guo Huai's reaction was very fast, but on the battlefield, thousands of soldiers were killed together, how could it be said that they could be separated if they were separated. Many Wei soldiers heard the order, but they didn't understand what this order meant, their own side had already gained the upper hand, it was a good time to break the Shu army, why did they suddenly retreat? And more soldiers didn't even hear the order clearly, they were already stunned, and they couldn't tell which was the order of the Shu army and which was their own order. All they know is fighting bravely and cutting down every enemy in front of them.
Guo Huai was so anxious that his heart couldn't help sinking. He also knew that there was almost no chance of being spared by an enemy raid in the heat of battle. In order to succeed in one fell swoop, he has no backhand at all. In the face of this unexpected situation, he did not have any resistance to liliang.
Guo Huai tried his best to reorganize the battle formation and prepare to defend on the spot, and on the other hand, he sent knights to ask Zhang He for help. I encountered a cavalry raid from the Shu army behind me, so please support the general immediately.
The heralds rushed to both sides of the battlefield, there were forty or fifty of them, and they could reach Zhang He alive, I don't know how many.
As soon as Guo Huai sent someone for help, Wei Ba and Zhao Guang killed him with more than two thousand horsemen. Wei Ba stepped on the stirrups, stood up, raised the ring knife in his hand, and roared loudly: "Accelerate!" Charge—"
"Charge-" Zhao Guang raised the spear in his hand and danced in the wind. A thousand elite horsemen followed closely behind him, rolled up a wild spree, and rushed towards the back of the panicked Wei army.
"Shoot!" Sima Tang Qianyu shouted, raised the crossbow with one hand, and pulled the crossbow machine. With a "bang", three crossbow arrows left the string, hitting the chest of a Wei military marquis. The Marquis of the Wei army turned over and fell off his horse.
Thousands of knights raised their crossbows and fired a dense rain of arrows at the rear of the Wei army.
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The fifth chapter of debt repayment is one chapter away. (To be continued.) )