"Well, give the order, the Dragon and Tiger Legion will send five thousand cavalry to attack the enemy in the north." Zhang Chao also deliberately wanted to test the reality of the other party, and just now he watched through the telescope, the formation of the enemy in the north was the most chaotic when he impacted, and the clothes were also different, as if he was a mountain bandit, that should be the most ineffective, so he wanted to take this enemy a try.

did not order the whole army to counterattack, but only let the Dragon and Tiger Army send 5,000 cavalry to counterattack, Xu Chu naturally felt that it was not enjoyable, but this was Zhang Chao's order, he did not dare to have the slightest doubt, and immediately said to the standard-bearer beside him: "Pass the order." ”

Zhang Chao's order passed the standard-bearer's order, and then he saw the cavalry of the 5,000 Dragon and Tiger Legion mounted their horses, and then rushed out to the north under the leadership of a deputy division commander.

The cavalry of the Dragon and Tiger Legion was very fast, perhaps they knew the reason why there was an imperial throne behind them, and they were all in a hurry to perform, and the speed was faster than usual. It was only a pillar of incense before they began to approach the enemy, and the distance between the two sides was less than two miles.

Facing the pursuit of the cavalry of the Dragon and Tiger Army, the mountain bandits in the north were defeated without a fight, and from a distance, it was a defeat, only some bows and arrows were constantly reflected, making some of the Dragon and Tiger Army cavalry fall from their horses.

"Hurry up, speed up and rush up to kill." Xu Chu, who was standing on the side and also watching this scene with a telescope, shouted with some excitement.

As if hearing Xu Chu's voice, the speed of the cavalry of the Dragon and Tiger Army suddenly increased, shortening the distance between the two sides at the fastest speed, and in just a few breaths, the vanguard had already come to the front of those mountain bandits.

Seeing that the Dragon and Tiger Army was already approaching the enemy, Xu Chu couldn't help but wave his long arms to the ground, and said excitedly: "Great, if you catch up, you will kill hard." ”

At this time, not only Xu Chu, but also the other Celestial Empire generals who witnessed all this were also excited. At the same time, they also felt funny in their hearts, they originally thought that the enemy who dared to surround them must be very elite, but now it seems that they are so vulnerable, how ridiculous is the previous worry?

Everyone thinks that this battle will be won, but Zhang Chao really does not have the slightest carelessness, because everything is too contrary to common sense, if the enemy only has this ability, and wants to surround himself, how is it different from suicide?

Just when Zhang Chao had doubts in his heart, and the generals of the other armies were happy, the cavalry of the Dragon and Tiger Army was also less than fifty meters away from those mountain bandits. But at this moment, I saw that the retreating mountain bandits suddenly stopped, and then I saw their right hand raised, and then pieces of "secret weapons" with light were thrown out, and they landed on the ground in front of them.

"What's that?" As soon as they saw that the enemy army had made unexpected moves, Xu Chu and the others became a little nervous for a while.

"It's thistle." Sharp-eyed people recognize the thrown thing at the first time.

The so-called thistle terrestris is a sharp iron tool made of pig iron, composed of four iron thorns, and when used, as long as you throw it on the ground, there will always be a thorn head facing upward. Because of its sharp thorns, once stepped on by the flesh of a healthy horse, it will cause great pain, and even hurt the nerves, causing the horse to lose its hoof. In order to achieve a better effect of hurting people, some people also thoughtfully smeared this weapon with poison, so it is also called "ghost arrow". For cavalry, if you step on it during a high-speed sprint, it will do a lot of damage to the horse, and it can also deal damage to the enemy infantry.

The other party suddenly threw out the thistle, which was naturally something that everyone did not expect, and the five thousand dragon and tiger armies who were defenseless for a while were hit one after another, and because the speed of their impact was too fast, at this moment they had appeared in front of the enemy, even if they wanted to retreat, they couldn't do it.

The appearance of a large area of thistle terrestris caused the Dragon and Tiger Army to suffer heavy losses in a very short period of time, and the five thousand cavalry fell by more than a third in just one battle, and the rest of the cavalry was still rushing forward under inertia, and it seemed that it was a matter of time before they were hit.

"Despicable!" Seeing that those mountain bandits had thrown out so many thistles, Xu Chu couldn't help but scream angrily.

It was Zhang Chao, who saw the other party's moves, and his expression did not move. He had long thought that the other party should be prepared, and now it seems that this should be someone's secret weapon. I just didn't expect to use this trick.

If you want to say that thistle terrestris is against cavalry, everyone who has fought knows it. But there are not many places where they are usually used. First, with the technology at the time, it was not possible to manufacture this thing in large quantities, so if the quantity was too small, it would naturally play a small role. Second, this thing can only defend against everything, not attack, and there are even fewer people who use it.

But this time, it was obvious that Cao Chun came prepared and prepared a lot of thistles, which can be known from the scout's report, because when those mountain bandits threw out the thistles, a large number of thistles were also thrown out on the east, west, and south sides.

Cao Chun was obviously prepared, and he also knew that Zhang Chao was surrounded by cavalry with strong impact, which was exactly the way to deal with him, he wanted to trap the 40,000 troops of the Celestial Empire here.

With 85,000 people against Zhang Chao's 50,000 people, although he was prepared, he could kill thousands of enemies in a surprise attack, but Cao Chun didn't think that he could defeat Zhang Chao, so the thistle terrestris was where his confidence lies, with this thing, not to mention that he could severely damage the enemy, at least he could force the opponent's cavalry to be unable to pursue, and he would have been invincible a long time ago.

As soon as the iron thistle came out, the five thousand enemy troops rushed out of the dragon and tiger army were hit, Song Qian saw that the plan succeeded, that is, he led the soldiers to start attacking with bows and arrows, and the screams continued for a while, and the five thousand cavalry only fled back a few hundred people, and the others were all killed under the iron thistle and bows and arrows.

"Hahaha." Cao Chun, who was in front of Lu County, looked at this scene and couldn't help laughing happily.

"Zhang Zhiyuan, Zhang Zhiyuan, this time see how you can escape from my palm." After Cao Chun laughed, a sarcastic cold look appeared on his face. That's what he wants, aren't you a strong cavalryman? Okay, now with a lot of thistles, how do you play?

You must know that the thistle terrestris is not only used against cavalry, because of its sharpness, even the infantry cannot break out of the encirclement, it is conceivable that he doesn't have to do anything next, just rely on the encirclement to encircle Zhang Chao.

This time, Zhang Chao did not bring a lot of grain and grass with the army. In the battle with Rus, the consumption was already huge, and after the war, when something happened in Jizhou and Yongzhou, he sent several troops to the rescue, and they took a lot of grain and grass with them when they left. The rest was given to General Zhao Yun, who remained in Goryeo.

Now Zhang Chao only has two days of food and grass with him, which is also because he has to go all the way through the county to the county, and the problem of eating can be solved at any time, but who would have thought that this would be the case in Lu County?

In fact, under the siege, grain and grass are not the most critical issue, and water is the first priority. A person can go days without food, but he really can't go without water. Now that they are surrounded on all sides, they can't find a suitable water source at all, and the army must have been in turmoil at that time.

Thinking that once Zhang Chao's army was in turmoil, he would be self-defeating at that time, Cao Chun's face was full of the smiles of the victors.

In the big tent of the Celestial Empire, since the discovery of thistle terrestris, Xu Chu knew that this problem could not be solved in a while, so he immediately set up a tent and asked Zhang Chao to rest in the tent.

As soon as the big tent was completed, Zhang Chao walked in with the generals.

Needless to say, the situation outside is so bad that it is a little more complicated than imagined. Other brave generals, at this moment, there seems to be no better way to face the inexplicable iron thistle.

"Your Majesty, let's charge, even if we use my brother's corpse to pave the road, we will keep you out." Zhang Dao, the general of the Zhang family's light cavalry, said in a somewhat anxious voice. He knew that once there was no water source, not to mention the morale of the army, he was afraid that the basic physical needs would not be satisfied, and it would be difficult to solve the problem if he wanted to rush out at that time.

"Yes, please also ask the emperor to decree, we are willing to be the vanguard." Zhang Jian and Zhang Gun on the side also echoed the voice.

Their lives were all given by Zhang Chao, and now when it was time to repay them, they didn't blink their eyes one by one.

Zhang Dao and the three of them were very anxious, but Zhang Feng and Zhang Shou stood aside, without saying a word, as if they didn't see the predicament in front of them. This is the reason why they can become the main generals of the Zhang family's heavy cavalry army, they are all very heavy people, so they were entrusted with important tasks.

Of course, it doesn't mean that the two of them are not in a hurry, but they are not afraid of any difficulties in their eyes. The big deal is death, so what's the fear?

Seeing that Zhang Dao and the three of them were as restless as ants on a pot, Xu Chu, the head of the guard on the side, shook his head gently at the three of them. His move provoked them to finally settle down. yes, what's there to worry about? The emperor is here, isn't he in a hurry?

"Okay, give the order to go down, the army will bury the pot and eat, and then rest for a good life." Zhang Chao didn't seem to see the communication between the generals below, flicked his big hand, and said with an indifferent look.

Zhang Chao's calmness really calmed everyone down and began to go down to lead the army.

I always thought that Zhang Chao's existence was as high as a god, and the facts proved that there seemed to be nothing that their emperor could not solve. At the moment, he is so calm, the generals only need to obey the orders, in short, they must believe Zhang Chao.

The army of the Celestial Empire no longer rushed outward, but began to bury the pot in an orderly manner, except for a part of the archers who were left to guard the periphery, and the others looked like they were going to rest.