Chapter 95: Pursuit

Guan Shengyunbu, who was chasing behind, was actually not walking fast.

It was already afternoon when the Breaking Sky Battalion came out of Xin'an City, and in order to meet Zhang Ding's feint attack as soon as possible, the whole battalion rushed to Hangu Pass in armor. Although they did not directly enter the battle, each person was dressed in iron armor, holding a weapon in his hand, carrying a round shield on his back, carrying a day's food in his arms, and a water hyacinth hanging on his waist, and the average weight was fifty or sixty pounds.

However, they are in better form than the Gangfeng battalion. The main force that relieved Zhang Ding in front of the pass was the Gangfeng Battalion with Jia Yanzi as a temporary battalion officer. Because he was afraid of being slapped by Gu Baihua behind the Breaking Sky Camp, Jia Yanzi led the team to run fast. It is also a charge in armor, running forward consumes much more physical strength than striding forward, and it also fights a small battle, cutting down a lot of people, and many battalion soldiers carry trophies in their arms. Now he is about two miles behind the Breaking Sky Camp, all supported by a breath and excitement, and in normal times, he should have rested on the spot.

The situation of the horse team is not much better. From Xin'an to Guanqian more than ten miles, three trips back and forth at full speed wiped out the official army horse team, although it can still run now, but the generals from the northern border army know that it is time to let the war horses rest. The horse's stamina is very limited, of course you can ride the horse for three or four hundred miles a day, or let it charge at full speed for an hour or two in a short time on the battlefield, but the next few days must be allowed to rest and recuperate, otherwise, there is a high probability that it will die. In the steppe desert, the steppe wolves hunt wild horses in this kind of physical attrition. In terms of instantaneous speed, steppe wolves can never catch up with wild horses, but their stamina is much better. When the year is bad and there are not so many yellow sheep, hares and voles to hunt, the steppe wolves will gather together to form a large wolf pack of hundreds or thousands or even more to hunt the horses. This is the wolf plague that made the Great Khan smell it! The wolves will communicate with each other through howls, forming a huge arc-shaped encirclement that drives the wild horses all the way. For the first two or three days, the wolves will leave the wolves far behind, but the wolves will always drop out of the pack with their excellent sense of smell. Also herbivores, cattle with four stomachs can ruminate, while horses with only one stomach can only absorb nutrients as much as possible through the intestines, and the digestion and absorption rate is less than 20%, so they need to spend a lot of time eating and drinking water every day*. Within a few days, the lack of food and water combined with continuous running began to kill the horses one after another, and from this day on, the good days of the steppe wolf came.

But Guan Shengyun didn't care much about this. In pursuit battles, in fact, speed is not the most important thing, the important thing is to always put great pressure on the opponent. Forty miles from Hangu Pass to Luoyang, the narrow official road was not conducive to the horse team galloping and slashing, and the front of the sword and shield soldiers to meet the enemy was too small, and the real results of the battle were limited after all—the confusion of trampling on each other when the frightened enemy broke down and fled, the effect would be much better. Therefore, don't look at the fact that these people are not walking very fast, the movement deliberately made is not small: regardless of whether the deserters in front can hear it or not, it will not be long before the herald will climb a few feet high on the rock wall and put a few guns (at this time, the limited number of firearms in Guan Shengyun's department are used for communication), and various fireworks will also light two after a while for them to explode in the air. The ordinary soldiers didn't understand the meaning of the various fireworks combinations, but the whole movement was lively, so they walked happily. Of course, Guan Shengyun was indiscriminate, and he was so scared that he couldn't scare the officers and soldiers, and these guys could really boost their morale by themselves.

If it was a normal march, the speed of the officers and troops should be faster than Guan Shengyun, after all, they had a large number of Ding Zhuang's auxiliaries to help carry supplies. However, on the narrow official road, the royal guards, the miscellaneous soldiers of Luofu and Ding Zhuang huddled together due to fear, blocking a long section of the road tightly, greatly slowing down the speed of the march. Therefore, Guan Shengyun's pursuers only walked for more than half an hour, and then they saw the rear team of the Luofu officers and troops a few miles ahead.

If you look down from the air, on the forty-mile-long winding official road, closest to the direction of Luoyang City, there are nearly twenty horsemen far ahead, and it is only four or five miles away from the city, which is naturally the deputy general Kou Zhizhang and his family. In the last five or six miles, there was a small team of more than 100 people, and the speed was not slow, this was the officials of Luofu who were escorted by Sun Monkey. A little further back, there were a few people running around, these were some of the lucky ones who struggled out of the crowd. Five or six miles behind, there is a large crowd of people, tearing and entanglement with each other and stuck together, the road is crooked and the big cars block the official road tightly, the easternmost end of the crowd, from time to time a few lucky people who break free, desperately use their last strength to rush forward, and the vast majority of people are crowded together, almost no sign of this crowd of people advancing. There were some flashes of swords, guns and armor on both sides of the road, which were the royal guards who broke free from the crowd, helplessly waiting for the crowd to pass, and then lined up on the official road to block the enemy. About two miles further back were the two hundred guards in Guan Pei, all of whom stopped and blocked the official road and set up a column six or seven people wide, facing the west, waiting for an uncertain fate. Two or three miles to the west, there is the Xiaoxiao battalion pursued by the tail, although the soldiers are tired, but their morale is like a rainbow, and they take steady and confident steps, along both sides of the official road with a four-way column to press towards the rearguard in Guan Peizhong. There are also enough passages left in the middle of the official road for the exploration horses to transmit military information and issue orders back and forth.

It was almost dusk, and Guan Shengyun was not in a hurry. Butang, who had already climbed the mountain and lookout, reported that there were only about 200 guards in the official army, and it would not be long before his own sky-breaking battalion defeated this group of frightened birds, and it would soon be able to catch up with the brigade in Luofu. However, the officers and soldiers themselves were blocked on the road, and the Breaking Sky Camp could not pass either. was thinking, a sharp hoof sound sounded behind him, and the war horse looked back, it was a personal guard of the Luo military division sitting in Xin'an. When the guards came close and conveyed the advice of the military advisor to Guan Shengyun, Guan Shengyun laughed: "The military advisor is really good!" You go back and tell the military advisor, and the commander will do what he wants. On the way, tell Gu Baihua and ask him to transfer all the archers. ”

The Breaking Sky Battalion stopped about half a mile away from the central guard column of Guan Pei. Guan Pei, who was next to the Le Ma Road in the middle of the column, knew that the thieves were recovering their strength, and it would not be long before they would charge. However, although there is a lot of bad luck, he should still be able to complete the task of blocking the enemy: although he did not resist the horse, there were some temporary chopped and dragged branches on the road as cover and obstacles, and the road was so wide that it would not be difficult to defend it. The sky was getting dark, and as long as it lasted more than half an hour, it would be completely dark. Most of them, whether they are officers or thieves, are blind at night, and the chance of being cut down by the brothers next to them in the chaos is even greater than being injured by the enemy. In this case, the thieves can only stop and collect their troops.

The noise in the east did not abate in the slightest, and it was obvious that the crowd was still huddled together, and Commander Sun's backup could not be counted on. However, as long as they can hold out until dark and the thieves stop, most of the people in Luo Fu will always stumble back. As for yourself, then leave it to fate. Warriors, dying on the battlefield is a matter of time. Guan Peizhong straightened his chest on the horse and shouted, "Brothers, cheer up!" Let the dog thieves see, the guards of our Shouwang Mansion are all heroes! The soldiers in the column were in high spirits, and a sound of color sounded.

However, before the sound of color stopped, someone let out a burst of exclamation. Looking in the direction of his finger, a thick black smoke came out from the main direction of Sun Fugui in the east! The royal guards in the rearguard column were in an uproar.

Not good!

How can a backyard catch fire? Isn't it already a thief who has copied the back road?

That's not right! There is only one way from Hangu Pass to Luofu, if so, could it be that the thieves have wings and fly over their heads?

Guan Peizhong shouted loudly, barely suppressing the hustle and bustle of the guards: I can't manage that much, just keep it for a while.

The thieves had apparently seen the fireworks as well, but it was a little strange that they didn't rush over, but stayed half a mile away, as if waiting for something. Time is passing, about two moments have passed, and after a while, it will be completely dark, what kind of reputation are the thieves doing? Taking advantage of this moment, Guan Peizhong ordered that all the archers be transferred to the front row. When the thieves attacked, the archers fired from a distance, disrupting the rhythm of the attack was standard procedure in the field. However, there were not many archers in the guard, only about thirty people, and their physical strength had already been consumed, and there were not a few feathered arrows left in each person's quiver. Seeing this, the management training center sighed: It's better to wait for the thieves to get close before shooting flat, the precious feather arrows can't be wasted.

Suddenly, there was a flash of fire in the thief's ranks, and two dragons snaked in the distance to the west!

"Not good! The thieves want to raise fire and attack at night! Guan Peizhong "buzzed" in his head. Before he could think about it, the two fiery dragons had already pounced on him. Looking at his subordinates through the faint glimmer of light, the little morale that had just been mustered was completely gone, and they all opened their mouths and stammered their faces like dead ashes.

Guan Shengyun's sky-breaking battalion came to a stop more than ten feet away from the guard column, and at the same time, Guan Peizhong's longitudinal horse walked forward for a short while, and by the light of the fire, there were two rows of spearmen standing on the ground in front of the thief team, and the tip of the spear poked out was like a sharp tooth in the mouth of a monster to choose someone to eat, and in the gap between the spearmen and behind, there was a group of leather armor archers! Seeing this situation, Guan Peizhong subconsciously fell down, his upper body was all lying on the horse's back, holding the horse's neck with both hands and shouting: "Prevent arrows!" Archers shoot! Before the words fell, I only heard a string sound from the opposite side, followed by a burst of "tu" and "tu", which was the sound of the feather arrow, and then, there was an exclamation in the column!

Ordinary feathered arrows do little damage to armor, but their psychological effects should not be underestimated, especially for defenders who are in a state of high mental stress. Many of the arrows failed to pierce the iron armor, but those who were hit by the arrow were still staggered back by the impact, and the soldiers who did not have armour and armor were far from so lucky, and they screamed loudly and heart-wrenching at the first blow. Hearing Guan Peizhong's order, the archers in the guards shot back one after another, regardless of fatigue. However...... The effect is almost zero!

As a long-range suppression weapon, the standard method of warfare is to fire a salvo in formation, and the effect of covering fire is the best. Guan Peizhong is the general manager of horse soldiers, and he does not know how to command the unified shooting rhythm of the archers, and the archers in the guard team do not have the command command of professional officers, and the arrows that shoot freely are only sparse and fall to the ground is better than nothing, and lack the protection of shield soldiers, after four or five rounds of arrow rain on the opposite side, the archers who only wear leather cuirass have lost more than half, and have completely lost the ability to fight back.

Guan Peizhong didn't think about trying to do a Jedi counterattack, however, the branches in front of the column became his own obstacle at this time. In any case, it was not a matter of being pressed and unable to fight, and it was easy to drag it away after paying five or six dead and wounded, and the column had to stop after only seven or eight steps in the rain of arrows. It was almost dark, and there were torches shining on the other side, so I could see it clearly, but I couldn't see anything under my feet! The thieves' archers shoot flat or even down at such a short distance! Although the royal guards were well equipped, it was impossible to equip the minions with iron boots and leg armor. Those who were hit by arrows in the lower limbs of the front row fell to the ground, and one person could trip three or four rows with a roll, and the entire column stumbled and completely lost its formation! In this way, even if it was in the past, it was just a matter of death, and Guan Peizhong had to stop again.

At this time, the only thing that Guan Pei can do is to carry it to the death, and strive to carry it for a longer time, hoping that the iron armor can provide as much protection as possible, and hoping that the thief's feather arrows will be shot out quickly...... However, at this time, the cliff to the north also lit up with a sparkling fire, and then, feathered arrows struck from the top down!

These are the archers of the Gangfeng battalion. Guan Shengyun waited for them to come lightly after they were ordered, and then selected half of the people and asked them to work in groups of two or three to raise fire and climb the mountain to disturb them! Because the archers of the official army have lost their combat power, they do not need to consider the threat of the opponent's counterattack, coupled with the bandit spirit that came from Gu Baihua's ears, and in order to show their faces in front of the supreme commander of the whole army, Guan Dashuai, these guys grinned and climbed up along the mountain wall, and advanced to two or three feet above the head of the team in Guan Peizhong, leaning on the branches and leaning against the stones, unhurriedly aiming with arrows, and shooting at the officers and soldiers below who had no power to fight back!

* Off topic, human eating habits.

Although human beings around the world have different eating habits, if you look closely, there are great similarities: the staple food is all kinds of wheat/rice, and the meat livestock is mainly pigs, cows, sheep, chickens, etc.

In fact, our ancestors chose food according to several principles:

If it is a crop, it must be high-yielding, fast-maturing, easy to grow, and resistant to pests. In this way, the survival needs of the tribe can be met. In the same way, in the case of meat animals, they must grow fast, produce high meat and have easy access to feed.

There are some misinformation, such as that the meat of carnivores is not tasty. It's fake, whether it's lion meat or tiger meat, it's delicious. The real reason we don't eat them is that our ancestors found them too expensive to raise. For example, if you want to raise a lion and wait for it to grow up to eat meat – you may need to feed it with thousands of pounds of meat before it grows enough to provide you with 100 pounds of meat.

The same goes for horses. Except for nomads, few people eat horse meat. This is because although the same grass, the digestive system of horses is much worse than that of cattle and sheep, the latter will ruminate, and the former can only be digested through the intestines, relatively speaking, the amount of food is too large, if it is used as a meat animal, the cost is too high (horses have no night grass and no fertilizer, including the cost of time), so most of them are only used as force animals, and they are only eaten occasionally. From Asia to Europe to North and South America, pigs are the most widely raised: they have a heterogeneous diet, grow fast, produce a lot of meat, and have a high reproductive rate.