Chapter 242 Destroying the Blade

If the opponent is an armored hoplite, a distance of more than 100 steps, a professional archer can shoot more than a dozen rounds of feather arrows - no one can run with dozens of catties of iron on his body, in order to save his physical strength, he can only advance slowly, and then start charging when he is about to meet the enemy a dozen steps before the formation; Most of the Miao soldiers of Ah Grasshopper were almost unarmoured, and they began to rush when they were more than two hundred steps away from the Changjie battalion, and their speed was naturally much faster, and they were forced to the front of the battle in just a few breaths; Most of the soldiers in the Changjie battalion were sword and shield soldiers and spearmen who temporarily operated bows, although Sun Jie managed the army well, they were not professional archers after all, and they only had time to shoot three or four rounds of arrows during this time. However, the damage of the infantry bow to the unarmored was fatal, and it was these three or four rounds of shooting that two or three hundred of the Miao soldiers were shot, and they rolled and fell to the ground with a wail, and then tripped more people behind.

The Miao soldiers who were forced to the front of the formation were blocked by the shield wall, and the spears poking out from the gaps in the big shield made the small military formation look like a porcupine with long sharp thorns all over its body, even a hungry and bloodthirsty male lion could not speak for a while. Miao Bing, who was hugged by the back row and couldn't hold his feet, watched in horror as the shiny tip of the gun on the opposite side was sent forward, the barrel of the gun was twisted, and then pulled back, and the companion who was still alive next to him fell softly, and then he also felt a cold in his lower abdomen...... The person who was not poked by the spear for the time being slammed into the big shield, waved the Miao knife in his hand in vain and slashed forward, and blindly stabbed through the gap between the big shields, however, even if he could barely reach the opponent's arm or breastplate, the damage was almost negligible, on the contrary, the two adjacent big shields were clamped fiercely, accompanied by screams, and the unprotected little arm of the knife bearer was often broken with a "click"!

The kinetic energy of the impact also caused the single-layer shield formation of the two hundred people of the Changjie Battalion to fall back slightly. However, this kind of shield array was originally designed for the charge of the heavy infantry cluster—of course, the shield array would have two to three layers or even thicker in the face of the heavy armor cluster—and the Changjie battalion would never be broken by the unarmored Miao soldiers. The armor soldiers in the front row lowered their heads protected by iron helmets and lunged on their waists to support the big shield with their shoulders and their whole bodies, providing the greatest range of protection for the comrades in the back row to carry out counterattacks, one hundred and fifty pikemen stabbed the spears in their hands forward again and again, relieving the frontal pressure on the comrades in front of them, and the one hundred and fifty archers at the back were divided into three groups in the shape of "Pin", the largest group was at present, two groups were guarding the side carts, continuing to shoot with half a bow, and giving the enemy's rear team uninterrupted killing. Next to Sheng Degong's cart, one hundred and fifty sword and shield soldiers had already lined up, quietly waiting for orders. This is the famous "Destroying Front" of the Sun Family's Army, which has always been the elite of the elite led by the officers of the pro-guard battalion in the Sun Jiajun for nearly 200 years. When the Miao soldiers were forced to the front of the battle, they were ordered to abandon their bows and form a team, and at this moment they were held by Sheng Degong as a reserve, and they would be put into the battlefield at the most critical moment. At this time, the armored horsemen of the horse team had replaced their bluffing sabers with mounted spears hanging from the saddle, and took advantage of their speed advantage to drive back and forth on both sides of the military formation, charging the gathered Miao soldiers into skirmishers with much less threat, and the Miao soldiers who were not protected by formed pikemen were poked one after another and fell to the dust and rolled in the dust......

With the Changjie battalion in front of the ambush to withstand the first round of ambush, Liu Chao calmed down, and quickly commanded his two battalions to pull out two lines of defense behind the formation, and protected the auxiliary soldiers and the accompanying troops in the formation, and then dispatched some pikemen to cooperate with the Changjie battalion to assist in guarding the chariot defense line on the flank. Sheng Degong, who was standing in the big car in the formation, nodded to Liu Chao in greeting, Vice Marshal Liu smiled gratefully while returning the salute, came to the front of the car with his legs between the horse's belly, stood side by side with Sheng Degong, and praised him sincerely: "General Sheng has led a good soldier!" ”

On the official rank, Sheng was two levels worse than Liu Chao, and hurriedly hugged his fists and said humbly: "The last general will not dare to be!" The handsome man of my family often said that in recent years, Guizhou has relied on Liu Shuai's might. ”

Hearing this, Liu Chao's face turned red. Compared with Zhang Fang and others, his own soldiers can definitely be regarded as a strong army that dares to fight, and Deputy Marshal Liu does have some intention of looking forward to being arrogant. But as soon as the so-called connoisseur stretched out his hand, he knew if there was any, seeing the performance of the Changjie battalion, Liu Chao secretly calculated it in his heart, and quickly came to the conclusion: If the field battle is really done, the five battalions that are fully formed by themselves together may not be enough to make this battalion eat! When the enemy is well equipped, each soldier is equipped with an auxiliary soldier who carries special armor, well, this is a long-time holy favor, and people are used to it; When marching silently, when wearing armor and array, he does not look at the approaching enemy army, well, this is Sun Dashuai's strict management of the army, and Deputy Marshal Liu believes that if he is beaten with a leather whip and a military stick for a few months, his Hechi soldiers can also be eight or nine without leaving ten; However, every soldier, whether it is a sword and shield soldier or a spearman, can shoot a bow and arrow for more than 100 paces, which is by no means comparable to ordinary battalion soldiers! Especially in front of the enemy, more than 700 people are not small, the horse team went forward to disturb the enemy, dragged down the cart to arrange the flank defense line, the tacit cooperation between the shield wall and the spearmen and archers, and the awe-inspiring murderous aura that emerged from the silent sword and shield soldiers...... Liu Chao knows very well that without years of rigorous training day after day and brutal combat blood and fire, all this will never be as natural as flowing water!

The literati were fond of romantic exaggeration, and in their writings, various formations were depicted vividly, and the power of ghosts and gods was boundless when they worked. However, in fact, it is not the same thing at all: on the one hand, it is impossible for the enemy to cooperate with you to enter the door of death according to the passage you have left, and more importantly, nine out of ten of the soldiers are illiterate, and there is no God's perspective, it is impossible for their various squads to complete the fancy position that seems to be cool enough to fly on paper, and what the enemy army can do in the face of A is either to be tough and tough, or to turn around and flee for his life - the so-called "array" is nothing more than the main general according to his own prediction of the development of the battle situation, and arrange each battle group in the appropriate place in advance, And just throw them into battle at the right time.

At present, the small formation of Sheng Degong is similar to the hollow phalanx in the defensive formation: the large cart defense line on both sides can save troops to the greatest extent, and behind the car is the archers of the Changjie battalion, and the Miao soldiers who are trying to climb over are almost shot straight down by the bow and arrow as soon as they emerge, plus Liu Chao's one hundred and ten pikemen, which can support for a long time, and there are two battalions of soldiers behind, the Changjie battalion only needs to concentrate on dealing with the front, there are horse teams outside, and there is a reserve team left in the formation to attack at any time!

If it was an unexpected ambush war, with a superior force of nearly three to one, the victory or defeat was not difficult to predict, and the gang of Han dogs could not escape the end of the whole army, but they were discovered by the scouts of the Ming army, and the ambush war turned into a hard-fought frontal field battle...... Well, even though everyone had to run six or seven miles first, Ah Grasshopper was still confident enough to defeat this group of Hechi guys, but before he could fight, he found that the Ming army on the opposite side was extraordinary, not at all like his familiar old opponent! Rounds of feathered arrows were sprinkled all over the sky, and hundreds of clansmen fell to the ground. Under normal circumstances, the archers of the Ming dogs only account for more than 10%, and Ah Grasshopper smiled contemptuously in his heart: You bring so many archers, aren't you afraid that we will cut them down? When the forward collided with the Ming army's line, the entire attack momentum was firmly stopped, and Ah Grasshopper's heart began to hair: there were obviously fewer feather arrows in the air, indicating that many archers had joined the defense, but ...... There is only a thin defense line of about 200 people, and they have stubbornly withstood the attacks of thousands of people without retreating half a step, who are these guys? The small group of armored cavalry that came and went like the wind was even more powerful, although the number was small, and every charge and kill made the attacking front embarrassed...... Where did the Han dog surnamed Liu come from such a strong army?

Of all the ambush soldiers, including Grasshopper, only two or three leaders had mounts, and each was surrounded by more than 100 cronies to supervise the battle behind the line. These Miao generals have naturally attracted the attention of the armored cavalry of the Changjie battalion for a long time, but the cavalry is good at galloping and assaulting in the open area, and no one can rush over and fall into the formation. Suspicious in his heart, Ah Grasshopper timidly drove his horse forward to observe, his cronies still protected him in the middle, and those elite armored horsemen still couldn't break through.

Coming to the battle line dozens of steps away, A Grasshopper saw more clearly, in front of the shield wall of the Ming army, the corpses of Miao soldiers overlapped and staggered, and a corpse wall almost half a person high had been piled up, which provided an additional protection for the Han dogs: Miao Dao could not reach the shield wall, and this distance was a coveted advantage for the spear!

In order to observe the battle situation more comprehensively, A Grasshopper timidly stepped on the stirrup and stood up to look into the distance, and sure enough, he found an opportunity: there were only two rows of pikemen defending directly behind the Ming army's military formation, followed by sword and shield soldiers with small round shields on their arms, and many large shields were scattered next to the baggage carts! Ah Grasshopper immediately shouted, his arms were folded one by one, and he commanded the Miao soldiers to outflank the rear of the formation from both wings......

Sheng Degong estimated that the loss of Miao soldiers at this moment should have been seven or eight hundred, after fighting for so long, the morale of the attacking side began to decline, and the physical strength was almost exhausted. However, after all, the opponent's forces have an absolute advantage, and the armored charge can't chase too far, if they can't do it all at once, the Miao barbarians will run for a while, and they will gather again, and the battle will continue to be stalemate...... Fortunately, Vice Marshal Liu's attitude has changed a lot, many of his soldiers are leather armor, and he has not encountered too many attacks so far, and his physical strength should be maintained well, and he is trying to tell Liu Chao what he thinks, A grasshopper's shouting attracted his attention, and he immediately changed his mind, staring at A grasshopper timidity, and whispered a few words to Liu Chao beside him.

Liu Chao didn't say a word when he heard this, waved his hand and summoned several of his own soldiers and horse guards, scattered in front of Sheng Degong's cart, straightened his waist one by one, and covered Sheng Degong behind him. Sheng Degong took the iron bow from his guard, pulled out an iron-bone armor-piercing arrow from the quiver, took a deep breath and stood sideways, flicked his arm to draw the iron bow, and looked at Ah Grasshopper timidly from the gap in the helmet of the armored horse in front of him......

"Volt!" Liu Chao gave an order, and several horse guards threw their upper bodies on the horse's neck at the same time, and with a string sound of "Zheng", the iron arrow of Sheng Degong broke out of the air!

A grasshopper was wearing a suit of iron chain mail, and an ordinary infantry bow at a distance of seventy or eighty steps was naturally powerless, but Sheng Degong shot an iron-bone armor-piercing arrow with triple barbs, which was not only much heavier, but a pair of barbs about three inches away from the arrow cluster could play a role in balancing flight, and the accuracy of long-distance shooting greatly exceeded that of ordinary feather arrows; The arrow cluster is not an ordinary cone, but is designed into a prismatic shape, and there is a shallow blood groove in the middle of each edge, and the wounded person in the middle will not stop bleeding, even if it is not critical, if it is not rescued immediately, it will also bleed to death! This kind of arrow manufacturing process is complicated, especially to test the balance, when the acceptance should be erected on a flat wooden board, the arrow cluster to the ground, both hands rub the arrow shaft, the arrow should be like a spinning top can rotate smoothly without hindrance to be qualified (if the configuration of the barb is unbalanced, it will be crooked if it cannot turn one or two times). In the era of relying entirely on hand, the yield rate was extremely low, so the cost of each arrow was as high as one or two taels of silver. In other words, even an elite horseman, even in theory, can't afford to buy two arrows a month - this kind of arrow is specially made for sniping the enemy's commander!

Armor-piercing arrows enter the chest.

The cowardly upper body of the grasshopper standing on the stirrups with a huge impact force suddenly folded back, and the triple barb was completely submerged into the body, and the heavy and sharp arrow cluster actually broke through the armor on its back!

In a sense, Grasshopper was lucky, his death happened in an instant, and the pain was much less than that of most Miao soldiers.

Most of the Miao soldiers in front of the battle were looking at the grasshopper who ordered loudly, and the commander died in front of everyone's eyes, and everyone was so frightened that they stayed on the spot, and the people behind stopped one after another, and the Miao soldiers in the front row began to retreat unconsciously, and at the same time, a burst of cheers broke out in the Ming army's formation!

The drums beat loudly.

The small golden drum corps of the Changjie battalion beat the cowhide war drums. Hearing the sound of drums, the spearmen shouted in unison, and sent the spears in their hands forward with all their might, forcing away the last few enemy soldiers in front of them. The shield soldiers in the front row tilted their big shields to the corpse pile, leaned on the pedals and turned sideways to make way for the passage, and the sharp soldiers of the Destroyer Team stepped on the corpse of the enemy and jumped down with a roar, and the steel knives in their hands danced out of a dazzling cold light!

Sheng Degong turned to Liu Chao to report his fist, and was about to speak, Liu Chao raised his hand to stop: "Brother Sheng, Liu has saved it!" Then the long knife was drawn forward, "Sons, follow this will break the enemy!" The two battalions behind him, led by their respective battalion officers and officers, rushed to the terrified enemy.