With the rapid sound of the snare drums, the soldiers who had already fallen asleep hurriedly got up again, and while putting on their helmets and armor, they quickly ran out of the camp and lined up under the command of the officers.

The generals all had obvious nervousness on their faces at this time, and they kept shouting loudly, reminding their soldiers: this is not a drill!

It's not a drill, is it difficult or is it a real fight?

The vast majority of officers and soldiers are secretly speculating that this is probably some kind of trick made by General Du Jian.

Although the soldiers thought so, Du Jian didn't care about being wronged at the moment, and his heart was already occupied by the word "anxious" at this moment.

To tell the truth, from the beginning of the mobilization and assembly of the whole army to the completion of the formation at this moment, it was only a short time of hot tea, and it was definitely a quick response. But in Du Jian's eyes, it seems that the past hundred years are so long,

Even he himself felt strange.

It stands to reason that as a veteran who is used to the battlefield, he has encountered at least seven or eight night enemy attacks like this, even if not ten times, but why is he so restless today?

Du Jian couldn't help but squeeze the handle of the knife hard, secretly straining in his heart, forcing himself to calm down quickly.

For a general, not panicking is the primary condition.

At this time, all the troops participating in the drill were neatly lined up behind Du Jian. A bright ball of light and torches around lit up the nearby phalanxes as if it were day.

Du Jian glanced around, except for the bright side of his own front, all directions in the distance were like ink, and he couldn't see anything clearly in the dark. That feeling of uneasiness couldn't help but aggravate a little more.

Damn, in the dark, it's like a live target.

However, at this time, if the troops were allowed to extinguish the fire, Du Jian was worried that they would immediately fall into darkness, which would make the troops panic.

Just as he was hesitating whether to make adjustments, there was a sudden sound of horses' hooves in the distance ahead.

In the blink of an eye, Lin Feng rushed towards the big array with a small group of scouts, shouting as he ran: "Hurry—be on alert!" ”

Du Jian has been with Lin Feng for many years, and he has never seen him so panicked, so much so that even the voice of his shouting has changed his tune.

He knew that something was wrong, so he hurriedly drew his knife out of its sheath and shouted: "The whole army obeys the order!" Get ready to meet the enemy! ”

Lin Feng ran to him in one breath and shouted at Du Jian: "It's not the Iron Pigeon Army!" Du Jian, let's make a mistake! ”

"Mistaken?" Du Jian was suddenly puzzled: "It's not an iron pigeon, then who is it?" What the hell is going on, you say slowly! ”

Lin Feng waved his hand again and again: "I don't have time to elaborate, quick!" Fast! Extinguish all torches! Don't expose the target! ”

As he was talking, in the night in the distance, a wolf howl suddenly sounded, and in the dark world, it looked particularly poignant!

The next moment, something even stranger happened.

After that wolf howl sounded, a burst of wolf howls sounded around the Zhenjiang Army's large array at the same time, which sounded creepy.

Before Du Jian and the others could react, the sound of huge horses' hooves, like muffled thunder, came from far and near. All the officers and men of the Zhenjiang Army suddenly fell into tension, and kept looking around, hoping to see the enemy clearly.

"Alert!" Lin Feng shouted hoarsely, "Raise the shield!" ”

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sudden swishing sound in the darkness, and countless feathered arrows flew into the air towards the Zhenjiang military formation.

In the blink of an eye, the screams came and went, and the unsuspecting Zhenjiang soldiers were shot on their backs, and the frontmost phalanxes immediately became chaotic.

Du Jian and Lin Feng couldn't stop shouting and ordered their subordinates to raise shields to defend, but it was still too late. As soon as the two rounds of bows and arrows were over, countless Turkic cavalry slammed out from the left, center and right directions!

In the face of this situation, there is no use for any art of war, and the only thing that can be done is the most primitive and barbaric hand-to-hand combat!

However, the Zhenjiang army had the heart to resist, but the Turkic cavalry from three directions rushed out of the darkness and rushed all the way, even if they rushed into the formation of the Zhenjiang army, there was no sign of slowing down.

Hundreds of Zhenjiang warriors were directly knocked into the ground by the Turkic war horses, and the rest were either cut down by scimitars or pierced by spears, and they almost fell in a pool of blood without even seeing the appearance of the other party clearly.

The four large phalanxes of 12,000 men tore each other apart in just a few moments, and the three-way Turkic cavalry seemed to have no trouble successfully meeting in the core of the Zhenjiang army.

At this time, in the darkness on the periphery of the large array, a second wave of even larger cavalry groups appeared.

Fierce battles broke out in the blink of an eye. At this moment, Du Jian had been besieged by the surging enemy legions, and as far as the eye could see, the surrounding area was full of Turks. Seeing that his men died tragically on the spot one by one, and the army was in danger of collapsing, Du Jian's eyes were bloodshot, and he waved the long knife in his hand like crazy, screaming and roaring while slashing at the enemy.

He's gone mad, completely insane. There was only one thought left in Du Jian's heart: death! Dead Count Ball!

Suddenly, a scimitar arced around and slashed into Du Jian's left shoulder, the blade only inches away from his neck. Fortunately, the scimitar got stuck in the gap between the scales of his armor, otherwise the knife would have cut him in half. However, Rao was like this, the protection of the iron armor was limited after all, although he did not see blood on the spot, he still smashed his shoulder bone and almost fell off his horse.

A desperate pain suddenly surged into his heart, leaving Du Jian with no strength to turn back and fight back. He turned his head numbly and looked at the Turkic cavalry who had slain the killer.

At this critical moment, Lin Feng suddenly arrived from his horse, and a shot stabbed out, hitting the Turkic man's throat, shaking his backhand, and knocking him off the horse.

"Fuck you! Du Jian! What's wrong with you?! Lin Feng's face was covered with blood, and he glared at Du Jian and roared: "Cheer up!" Come with me! Breakthrough! ”

With that, he stretched out his hand and pulled the reins of Du Jian's war horse, rushing towards the southeast one after the other.

Du Jian finally came back to his senses at this time, and while desperately resisting the enemy's blades, he cried to Lin Feng who was in front: "It's over!" Lin Feng, it's all over! ”

Lin Feng didn't care about him at all, and after picking up two Turkic soldiers one after another, he quickly turned to the left. Over there, there were more than a hundred and so Zhenjiang soldiers crowded together, fighting fiercely with the Turks around them.

Lin Feng and Du Jian suddenly came up from behind, and immediately broke through the siege of the Turkic cavalry. He beckoned to the soldiers in a hoarse voice, and immediately formed a wedge-shaped attack queue to break through with him.

The soldiers were already desperate, but when they saw the main general again, they couldn't help but feel uplifted again. Everyone shouted, roared, hugged together, and rushed desperately, and they really fought their way out.

In this way, Lin Feng fought and made up, the east and the west, and gathered thousands of troops one after another, gradually forming a relatively complete formation.

"Go southeast!" Lin Feng kept shouting around: "Go to Homnitz City!" Run there! ”

With his shouting, more and more soldiers came to their senses, and everyone either struggled to get closer to Lin Feng, or fought alone, grabbed the way and fled, and began to break through to the southeast.

I don't know how long it took or how many brothers died, Lin Feng's small group of men and horses finally broke into the edge of the tragic battlefield and temporarily fled into a relatively safe area in the dark.

However, before everyone had time to catch their breath, the sound of horses' hooves sounded behind them again, and the howl of the Turks like wolves was getting closer and closer!

It is clear that the enemy has no intention of letting them go.

Seeing this, Lin Feng hurriedly shouted to Du Jian: "Old Du, you cheer up!" Hurry up and take everyone back to Homnitz to set up defenses, and at the same time report to Metasequoia City, the main Turkic force is coming, let the adults be careful. You give me the memory that none of us have the right to grieve! ”

After that, he didn't wait for Du Jian to respond, and immediately led a cavalry brigade that was still fully organized, and reflexively killed the Turks who were chasing this way.

-

According to the later "Western Xinjiang Chronicles", the fledgling Zhenjiang Army, after achieving a great victory in the anti-crusade war, only less than two months later, ushered in an incomparably heavy blow, known in history: the darkest hour.

This unbearable past began with the raid outside Homnitz.

Twelve thousand troops from the Metasequoia Fourth Army were attacked by the main Turkic forces without warning in the final stage of the exercise.

Except for the 613 people brought back by the commander-in-chief Du Jian, who desperately broke through the siege, the entire drill army was almost wiped out.

General Lin Feng, a general under Li Jiangyao, one of the founders of the Metasequoia Army, and deputy commander-in-chief of the Third Army, unfortunately died in battle, and his bones were gone.

What's even more serious is that the sudden appearance of the enemy army did not leave Li Jiangyao and them a moment of sadness at all.

As soon as Du Jian retreated into the city of Homnitz with the remnants of his army, the Turkic iron cavalry followed closely and rushed to the city. It only took them less than half an hour to successfully break through the city and swarmed in, and Du Jianwei and his subordinates hurriedly evacuated from Homnitz again, surrendering the city to the strong enemy.

The Turks carried out a terrible massacre of the city, and after killing the last of the people and igniting the raging fire, the brigade immediately set off and pointed its troops at the next target, Daban City.

In less than ten days, the Fourth Army of the "Shenhua" stationed in Daban suffered heavy losses. After paying the price of more than 8,000 killed, they were unable to redeem the loss of the city, and gave the Turkic army another chance to slaughter the city.

Almost at the same time, Ikulu County, located in the easternmost part, was suddenly surrounded by the troops of the Turkic Liangguan battalion, because there was no main force of the Zhenjiang army to defend this place, so the Turks only took one day to successfully occupy Ikuru, and also completed the revenge for the Turkic deputy marshal Ruhadi by beheading 30,000 people in the city.

Immediately afterwards, the first army of the wind that was ordered to gallop to the aid of Daban Castle encountered the Turkic soldiers and horses halfway. After a desperate battle, the ironclad cavalry lost more than 3,000 people, and finally relied on the superb command ability of the main general Xu Youchang, and got away with it, and all the staff returned to the metasequoia base camp.

Five days later, the main force of the Third Army stationed in the city of Paj, under the leadership of Horia, the lord of Nanhua, desperately broke through the blockade of the Prince of the Temple, Ronia, and escaped the doom of being surrounded and annihilated by the enemy. And the price they paid for this was that 5,000 soldiers were left on the way to break through forever.