weaving

Chapter 1363: Those who retreat will die!

Hu Zichen left his personal general Hu Wei to lead 600 infantrymen to guard the rear, while he personally led 500 infantrymen to follow the elite cavalry and attacked the enemy army directly...

Liu Zhanyuan's side had just been split into two parts, north and south, by the elite cavalry of the Tiger Camp. He led more than a hundred trusted old bandits to defend the wooden bridgehead.

"Master Liu, remove the planks and demolish the bridge!" a confidant reminded loudly.

Liu Zhengyuan was also extremely anxious. He knew that the opposing government troops were stronger than his own and more ferocious and capable of fighting than his own. He knew that his thousand-plus troops could not resist them at all.

However, King Chuang's military law was extremely strict. Retreating without fighting would surely lead to death. Even if one retreated without fighting to the death and was defeated, one would be severely punished. And Dang Shousu's enforcement of military law was even more severe.

Just as Liu Zhengyuan was struggling over whether to fight or retreat, he suddenly saw a thick cloud of dust rising from the opposite side of the long trench. He suddenly realized that this was his own cavalry coming to support him.

"Our cavalry is coming, hold on... defend the bridgehead to the death... anyone who retreats will die!"

"Whoever retreats will die... Whoever retreats will die..." Nearly a hundred old thieves around Liu Zhanyuan stood in front of the wooden bridge and shouted together.

Although the bridgehead was blocked and the bandits could not escape back to the other side of the long trench from here, they were still extremely frightened when facing the fierce charge of the Tiger Camp's elite cavalry. Under the powerful sense of oppression, they rushed towards the government troops on the north and south sides like crazy, trying to break out a way to escape.

Just as the reinforcements of the Chuang army stepped onto the wooden bridge...

A sharp arrow suddenly shot out and hit Liu Zhanyuan's throat. His eyes were almost popping out of their sockets, full of disbelief and unwillingness. He raised his left hand and grabbed the shaking arrow shaft, and the long sword in his right hand fell to the ground with a "click".

Liu Zhanyuan used up the last bit of strength in his body to pull out the arrow that shot into his neck. A stream of blood immediately spurted out, shooting into the sky and splashing down again...

It turned out that an elite cavalryman from the Tiger Camp rode his horse and shot an arrow, hitting Liu Zhanyuan right in the throat.

Although the Huying had surrendered to the Earl of Yongning, they were still the old frontier troops under Hu Dawei. Not only had their armor, weapons, guns, and cannons not all been replaced, but even their tactics remained the same.

Therefore, their cavalry was not equipped with the cavalry weapon - the short-handed gun.

When cavalry was engaged in battle, they still used cold weapons such as bows and arrows, javelins, and flying axes as a means of killing the enemy before engaging in battle. Although there were also some three-barreled guns, they were only useful in mobile battles and were not convenient when riding a horse at a gallop.

At the same time that blood was gushing out of Liu Zhanyuan's throat, a warhorse came galloping over, its front hooves leaping into the air and kicking Liu Zhanyuan's head and shoulders, sending his body flying backwards. However, the warhorse did not stop at all and jumped directly onto the wooden bridge...

The wooden plank bridge is built with long, thick and rough wooden boards. It is indeed very strong and durable, and even war horses can run on it unhindered.

But its width is very limited, only enough to accommodate three war horses running side by side. If one were to gallop like Kong Sanqing, then at most two horses could run side by side.

The trench was only a little over two meters wide, and a galloping warhorse could even jump over it. But when Kong Sanqing stepped onto the wooden bridge, the cavalry of the opposing army also stepped onto the bridge almost at the same time.

At the critical moment when the horses of both sides were about to collide, the elite cavalry of the Tiger Camp following Kong Sanqing suddenly stretched out a long axe, but he did not chop and kill. Instead, he used the long axe to directly hit the cavalry of the bandit army in front of Kong Sanqing.

In just a moment, the two sturdy war horses, along with the knights on their backs, fell to the north and south in a row into the trench that was more than seven feet deep...

Although Kong Sanqing managed to avoid the danger of a collision with the enemy's cavalry with the help of his comrades, there were other enemy soldiers riding horses and charging towards him behind the enemy cavalry.

Seeing that there was no place to hide, no place to escape, Kong Sanqing roared and leaped from the back of his warhorse, rushing straight towards the enemy cavalry on the opposite side, hugging the elite cavalry of the enemy cavalry diagonally opposite, and rolled off the horse together, and then fell into the trench together...

"Whirl...chirp...hiss...whirly..."

"Ah...kill...help...I'm going to bite you to death..."

For a moment, the neighing of horses and the shouting of soldiers were mixed together. The cavalry of both sides were completely crowded together on the wooden bridge. Some were chopping with swords, and some were smashing with hammers...

Others were completely entangled together, unable to tell one from the other. They grabbed, dug, picked and pulled each other with their hands, no matter if it was the nose, eyes, ears, or even the neck, face and other parts. They would grab whatever they could get their hands on and would not let go. Some even opened their mouths and bit it, tearing it apart non-stop... At the same time, war horses, as well as the entangled officers, soldiers and bandits, kept falling into the trenches. Those who fell in first were not in any serious condition, but some were unlucky and were crushed to death by the people and war horses that fell in later.

People shouted and horses neighed, screams and wails alternated, and blood spurted out from the mixed crowd. The tragic scene - even the Avici Hell would be no less terrible!
But even so, the cavalry on both sides did not stop at all, and continued to swarm onto the wooden bridge. Some of them were smart enough to dismount and jump directly into the trench, waving their short knives, hammers, and hatchets to hunt down the enemy...

On the high earthen platform on the west side of the long trench, the enemy archers who were originally watching also received the order and drew their bows and shot deadly arrows.

Although they tried hard to aim at the officers and soldiers before shooting, the soldiers of both sides had already been entangled. They might have been aiming at the officers and soldiers, but when the arrows were shot, the situation changed, and in the end they actually hit their own people.

But who dares to disobey the Party’s military orders?
Don't you want to live?

…………

When the fighting here ended, Hu Zichen knelt in front of the original position of the wooden bridge and kowtowed three times towards the trench in front of him that was full of limbs and blood.

His eyes were full of tears, both in remembrance of the fallen soldiers and in regret for not being able to capture the wooden bridge!

It turned out that when the two sides were fighting fiercely for the wooden bridge, Dang Shousu also personally led more than a hundred personal soldiers to the bridgehead. He only took a glance and realized that this wooden bridge was destined to be lost.

Dang Shousu acted decisively and ordered the bandit soldiers to work together to drag the thick hemp rope tied to the back end of the long wooden boards. In the end, he even used his own and his personal soldiers' horses before he finally pulled back the two long wooden boards.

In desperation, he could only order his bodyguards to rush forward with long and short axes and chop the remaining three long wooden boards in half. Under no circumstances should any long board be left intact for the officers and soldiers.

In this way, both sides suffered heavy casualties...

Although none of the 1,500 bandits on Dang Shousu's side returned to the camp alive because the wooden bridge was broken, he still managed to hold the long trench.

Hu Zichen's Tiger Camp also suffered more than 200 infantrymen and over 100 cavalry casualties, which was a considerable loss for him.

Now, Hu Zichen ordered the infantry to set up artillery and prepare long wooden boards for building a plank bridge, as if they were ready to build a bridge and attack the other side of the long trench at any time; at the same time, he ordered the remaining 300-odd cavalry to reorganize, with 50 horses in each team, and chase the fleeing bandits in the north and south directions respectively.

Half of He Wang's face was wrapped in white cloth, with blood seeping out from the cloth. Occasionally, a small drop would flow down his jaw and drip onto his breastplate.

"General, are we really going to attack?"

Hu Zichen's expression did not change at all. He glanced at He Wang and asked calmly, "How is your injury?"

"It doesn't matter, it can still kill thieves!"

"What about Kong Sanqing? How is he?"

"Alas..." He Wang sighed heavily, and then said, "I broke a leg and an arm, and was stabbed twice in the ribs. Whether I can survive this depends entirely on my luck."

Hu Zichen's eyes contained a look of reluctance, and he said softly: "The military doctor in the commander-in-chief's camp is very capable. Send someone to escort Sanqing to the commander-in-chief's headquarters immediately."

"Yes."

Hu Zichen looked up at the battlefield where the bloody fight had just ended, and saw Liu Cai and Hu Wei commanding the infantry to clean up the bodies of the soldiers on both sides. He shook his head slowly: "The order given to us by General Chen is only to suppress Dang Shousu and make him unable to rescue other places. As for attacking the thieves' camp, it is not our mission today!"

He turned around and looked across the long trench, then said to his personal soldier, Tou Hu Meng, "Pass the order, men, take a short rest, and when the cavalry that chased the defeated bandits returns, we will march north to Yuyuan to join General Chen."

"Yes!"