Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3346: Beating is a defense

Amid the sound of golden drums, Pang Shanmin couldn't help but become nervous.

Although this was not Pang Shanmin's first time, he was still nervous.

Although Huang Zhong appeared relaxed, Pang Shanmin was naturally nervous because he attached too much importance to the battle.

What's more, on the surface, the number of troops on both sides is actually not that different.

Pang Shanmin looked back at his surroundings.

On both sides of the army, there were hussars wearing helmets and armor. The red tassels on their helmets seemed like red flowers blooming in the mountains, embellishing this cold and cruel world. Above the heads of these soldiers, three-color battle flags were fluttering and stretching. They seemed to not take the battle in front of them seriously and looked lazy.

Ah, the feeling of relaxation.

Pang Shanmin suddenly remembered this word, and then he looked across again.

Cao's soldiers seemed to be numerous as well, arranged in layers along the mountain path, all the way to the corner of the mountain path. The flags of the enemy generals could be vaguely seen on the mountain path, fluttering behind the trees.

This was not his first battle, but it was indeed the first step for Pang Shanmin to take back his homeland.

  Pang Shanmin was somewhat nervous about whether he could return to Jingxiang smoothly and whether he could raise the Pang family's flag in Wancheng again, but he also knew that only by taking this step could he truly grow up!

Pang Shanmin took a deep breath and stood straighter and more steadily.

Anyone can find an excuse not to do the right thing.

After all, doing the right thing can be difficult and hard.

To do something wrong, all you need is an excuse, no matter how poor the excuse is.

But doing the right thing requires more effort.

Now, it’s time to do the right thing.

Pang Shanmin said to himself secretly.

This is the most correct thing for Pang Shi and Pang Shanmin himself.

He cannot retreat, nor can he escape, and he cannot have any excuses!

Huang Zhong turned his head to glance at Pang Shanmin and nodded with a slight satisfaction.

Huang Zhong had a very close relationship with the Huang and Pang families. He hoped that Pang Tong would continue to develop well, and also hoped that Pang Shanmin would be able to stand on his own.

Pang Shanmin was a clerk, not good at charging into battle with a sword in hand. Logically, he could retreat and find a safer place, or even lie on a couch in the camp and wait for the final result. But Pang Shanmin still came, standing in the mountain mist, standing on the mountain road like those ordinary hussars, without complaining or feeling tired.

Pang Shanmin can naturally do what ordinary people can do, and he must also be able to do what ordinary people cannot do.

This is the standard that is gradually becoming popular among the children of the gentry in Guanzhong.

To enjoy more than ordinary people and to have more privileges, you need to work harder than ordinary people.

The general Fei Qian knew that it was difficult to change people's bad habits, but no matter how difficult it was, someone had to do it. It was impossible to say that people only thought about being greedy and lazy all their lives. Wouldn't that be any different from a pig being raised? Fortunately, under the influence of the Shoushan Academy and the Qinglong Temple, some of the sons of the gentry and the officials from poor families began to take this path.

Of course, there are still many young men from aristocratic families who wear long robes and feel that they should always be superior. They still refuse to change and find all kinds of reasons and excuses to evade their due responsibilities, avoid their own problems, indulge in greed, and commit self-degradation. It is also a very normal phenomenon.

Even if these greedy and lazy sons of the aristocracy still have some status now, they will eventually be replaced by those who are more energetic and more willing to do the right thing.

Maybe you can’t see anything in one generation, but after three generations…

Maybe some people don't need three generations.

Huang Zhong sighed and ordered the flag bearer beside him to wave the flag. Immediately, all the troops recognized the flag and responded. The long spears like a forest were raised, shining coldly under the sun.

"The front troops attack!"

Huang Zhong gave the order.

The sword-wielding soldiers at the stone bridge advanced like a wall following the command.

  Unlike the Cao army's soldiers, who would stop and reorganize after moving a few or ten steps forward after forming a formation, these swordmen moved forward with neat steps, like a piece of flowing molten steel, sliding towards the stone bridge. Their military appearance and formation remained strict at all times, without the slightest pause or flaw!

It can be seen that Huang Zhong has well-trained these sword-wielding soldiers and his orders are strict.

Behind the swordsmen, archers followed. The archers bent slightly, separated into two groups, and placed their bows and arrows in the appropriate positions, standing outside the range of Cao's arrows, lined up, and waited for orders at any time.

In the middle and back of the archers are the spearmen and halberdmen. They also neatly hold their spears and halberds in front of them, as if a steel jungle has appeared out of thin air.

Pang Shanmin looked at Huang Zhong's military formation and felt that it seemed a little thin, but it also felt that it should be so. Pang Shanmin watched Huang Zhong wave the flags in an orderly manner and issue orders, sometimes giving orders to multiple troops at the same time, but there was no confusion between the various parts. Even on the narrow mountain road, the various parts did not crowd together. Instead, they were like swimming fish, full of agile beauty.

Looking down from the air, the distance between the two sides was constantly shortening.

Wen Pin stared at Huang Zhong's swordmen who were slowly approaching, and looked at the shields they were holding and the armor they were wearing.

There is no other reason, they must be a group of guys with thick skin and long blood.

Although Huang Zhong's swordsmen were powerful, Wen Pin still felt confused by this arrangement.

  That’s right, the big shield and thick armor can indeed withstand the damage of close combat, but with this arrangement, did Huang Zhong really not notice the trap here?

These people are good at fighting in close combat, but not at fighting in long-range combat. They are also difficult to resist against crossbow carts or other heavy engineering equipment. If these people rush to the front of Cao's army, then the Cao army will be difficult to resist with its tragic morale. In addition, Cao's soldiers are poorly trained and their melee ability is far inferior to that of the enemy. Therefore, if they really fight each other, Cao's army will not have the upper hand.

But no matter how big the shield is or how thick the armor is, it is ineffective in the face of magic...well, water and fire damage!

Wen Pin didn't see any fire-fighting equipment these people were carrying.

  In this case, if these swordsmen were really lured into a trap and then the barricades were set on fire, then what would it matter even if they had thickest armor?

This is good too, a head-on attack, fighting in an open battle array. After defeating some of Huang Zhong's soldiers in the wild, the morale of the Cavalry Army will surely be greatly dampened!

Then I will feel more relaxed...

Thinking of this, Wen Ping's heart seemed to loosen a little, and he could breathe out a little. At his command, the drums sounded, and Cao's army came out in waves, with long spears and large shields piled up together.

Wen Pin had previously lost a large number of his troops and private soldiers when he attacked Wuguan Road, and he had not received any reinforcements from Jingxiang. Now among the Cao army's ranks, Wen Pin had no way of using his elite troops to fight against them like Huang Zhong did. He could only let his troops command some ordinary Cao army soldiers to maintain the formation.

Under Wen Pin's command and the guidance of Wen Pin's remaining troops, Cao's army also formed a dense formation at one end of the stone bridge. However, unlike Huang Zhong, the ones in the front were not sword and shield soldiers, but archers...

These archers did not wear heavy armor. Most of them wore the standard armor of Cao's army. This thing is composed of a breastplate and a back armor, which are connected by belts on the shoulders and belts on the waist. They are not connected under the armpits. If you say they are wearing armor, there are many exposed places. If you say they are not wearing armor, it is a formal standard armor. It is like a vest.

It was not only the standard armor of Cao's army, but also the standard armor for a long period of time in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, and even the standard armor from the Three Kingdoms period to the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China in the Jin Dynasty...

In fact, the armor in the early Han Dynasty was more like a tube-sleeved armor. But later on, the Han court became increasingly embarrassed, which was reflected vividly in the armor of the soldiers.

What’s interesting is that no matter in ancient or modern times, in China or abroad, the attitude towards the setting of vests is always somewhat strange.

If a gay man wears a vest, he cannot enter formal places because his clothes are not in order and do not meet the requirements of the regulations. However, if a gay woman takes off the same vest and puts it on, she can enter formal places...

It's amazing to hit someone with the ball.

It's a pity that the arrows of these archers of Cao's army were not big enough, so they were obviously not prepared to engage in hand-to-hand combat with Huang Zhong's swordsmen. Instead, they straightened their backs, took out their arrows, put on their bows and started shooting!

The arrow whizzed across the limited space between the two sides and flew towards Huang Zhong's swordsman.

At such a short distance and in a relatively narrow area, there was no room to hide, so these swordsmen were like a curled up pangolin. Before the arrows came, they shrank slightly and pointed their scales in the direction of the arrows.

The arrows pierced Huang Zhongxiao's swordsmen with a "pu" sound, while some arrows slipped on their legs and slid off the shields and armor with a "crackling" sound.

It’s not that these Cao army archers are soft-hearted, but that these Huang Zhong’s swordmen are indeed thick-skinned.

Compared with those Cao army archers who had difficulty even hitting people with the ball, Huang Zhong's swordsmen had sufficient nutritional intake from the beginning. In addition, when they were in Wancheng, Jingxiang, they had nothing to do every day so they practiced martial arts with Huang Zhong and tested their swordsmanship. Although they were not as good as those aristocratic families who had been trained to become military generals since childhood, their combat capabilities were also quite good, much stronger than ordinary soldiers.

Facing the overwhelming bows and arrows from Cao's army, the swordsmen seemed to have almost no breathing fluctuations.

There were crackling sounds on the shields and armor, and then under the shields, the swordsmen exchanged glances and breathed steadily.

It was obvious that the bows and arrows of these Cao troops could not effectively break the defense of Huang Zhong's swordmen, but could only block and hinder them as much as possible.

Amid the sound of passionate war drums, the school swordsmen advanced forward like a wall.

In order to avoid injury, the swordsman's speed slowed down slightly, but under the protection of shield and armor, the swordsman did not suffer much serious damage.

Seeing this, Huang Zhong shouted, "Archers! Step forward one by one! Provide cover!"

The archers standing on both sides of the stone bridge held two arrows and walked forward in a line.

The archers held one arrow halfway on the bow, and the other arrow was held between the ring finger and the little finger, pointing vertically downward. It was not that the archers could only carry two arrows, but because of the terrain of the stone bridge, the archers could not deploy a large area behind the stone bridge, so they could only shoot in turns like a wheel rolling.

"Roll in! Rapid fire!"

These archers stepped forward, and after getting close to the swordsman's position behind him, they shot the two arrows in their hands at the Cao army's archer formation at an extremely fast speed. Then they immediately stepped aside to allow the archers behind them to step forward and shoot.

Wen Pin, who was standing across the stone bridge, widened his eyes. "What kind of fighting method is this?!"

Unconsciously, the changes of the times have widened the gap between Guanzhong and Shandong, which is reflected not only in the economy, but also in many other aspects.

Pang Shanmin has adapted to the changes of the times, and so has Huang Zhong.

Wen Pin, who was supposed to be from the same era and the same place as Pang Shanmin and Huang Zhong, found that he could not understand and could not keep up...

When skills are improved to a certain level, they are close to the Tao.

Huang Zhong obviously uses it in current tactics, and there is a bit of "Tao" in it.

Due to the terrain of the stone bridge, the troops of both sides were unable to deploy smoothly, and the attacking side was obviously at a greater disadvantage. After all, they had to attack the opponent's "T" head vertically, and could easily be attacked by the opponent's concentrated fire.

So Huang Zhong sent out the swordmen with thick skin and long blood.

These experienced and well-equipped swordsmen withstood the long-range attacks of Cao's army without much damage, thus creating opportunities for the subsequent archers on Huang Zhong's side.

If they still use traditional tactics and outdated ideas, sword against sword and shield, bow against arrow, there is no doubt that on terrain like the stone bridge, the side that cannot deploy its troops will suffer a great loss.

  But Huang Zhong attacked directly, and also improved the archer's attack mode. Because now Huang Zhong did not need the archer to inflict much damage to the opponent, but to use the archer to disrupt the opponent's shooting frequency and create opportunities for his own swordsman!

The different purposes and flexible methods allow Huang Zhong to complete the predetermined goals with fewer people!

Shandong's model of relying on a large number of people to rush forward, and because of the limitation of the battle area, resulting in one core in trouble most of the time and seven cores watching, should indeed be optimized.

In the study materials of Guanzhong Military Academy, there is a sentence that is often mentioned, "Water has no fixed state, and soldiers have no fixed shape."

In the military academy battles that can be recorded, almost all generals, when recording their successes or failures, would emphasize that these were his considerations at the time and place, and that they might not be suitable for all times and all regions...

As for many people in Shandong, whether they really understand the art of war or pretend to understand it, they all seem to want to summarize and refine again and again, and then come up with a universal "military strategy" that suits all situations, all wars, and all enemies, and then draw a "battle formation" so that they can fight against tens of millions of enemy troops.

Everything requires specific issues and specific analysis.

What Huang Zhong needs most is not to fight Cao's army head-on, but to destroy those traps and make Cao's army shoot itself in the foot. Therefore, Huang Zhong does not want the swordsmen or archers to kill a certain number of Cao's soldiers. There must be some directional and performance-related indicators.

With this goal in mind, Huang Zhong only needed to have his swordmen approach Cao's formation to within fifty steps, just at the point where the lethality of Cao's arrows dropped by a level, to attract the firepower of Cao's archers.

If you get too close, the power of the bow and arrow is extremely great within ten steps, or even twenty steps. With the help of armor-piercing arrows, it is entirely possible to penetrate the armor. But within fifty steps...

  The archers from Huang Zhong's side who followed up had the opportunity to approach the enemy directly and deal a direct blow to the opponent's archers under such circumstances!

In this era, the shooting distance of long-range soldiers like archers is not much different. Huang Zhong's archers can shoot at Cao's archers, and Cao's archers can also shoot at Huang Zhong's position. But the problem lies here. Shandong's rigid war model does not allow these Cao's archers to change their shooting targets at will, and it is even more impossible for them to automatically turn to attack the opponent's long-range targets when they see Huang Zhong's archers coming forward...

Even if the Cao army archers turned to attack the archers on Huang Zhong's side, Huang Zhong still benefited.

  Because the archers on Huang Zhong's side advanced in a column, casualties would be at most near the two points in front, while the archers of Cao's army would be hit all over the ground, and they wouldn't know how to dodge!

As Huang Zhong's archers shot, the archers in the Cao army array who were wearing armor were sprayed with blood mist, and many of them fell down instantly. After being shot, many Cao army archers seemed to be stunned for a while, and then they woke up and rolled to the ground screaming miserably.

After being attacked, some of Cao's archers wanted to fight back, some wanted to dodge, and some were still continuing their previous actions. Wen Pin was shocked when he saw that someone on Huang Zhong's front line had actually started to prepare a brazier. He quickly ordered the archers to focus on suppressing Huang Zhong's archers and let Cao's swordsmen and shieldmen step forward to fight against Huang Zhong's swordsmen...

Wen Pin responded and everything seemed to be fine.

  If Huang Zhong's archers were allowed to continue shooting like this, although the damage caused would not be too much, it would put a lot of pressure on Cao's archers. More importantly, if Huang Zhong's archers found an opportunity to use rockets to ignite the traps they had set up on the mountain road, then the ones who would suffer would not be Huang Zhong and his men, but their own side who were still standing next to the trap!

There was no problem with the response and the order, but the turning point of the entire battle came quietly after Wen Pin gave this order.

(End of this chapter)