Mi Han

Chapter 263
Because of the Queyue formation of the Han army, the Wei army's iron cavalry galloping forward could only encircle them from three sides.

Fu Xun, who was at the front of the Queyue Formation, looked at the Wei Jun cavalry who had entered within a hundred steps. At this distance, Fu Xun could even see the joyful look on the face of the Wei Jun cavalry.

They were rejoicing, and the Han army was fooled again.

But before the thousands of Wei army cavalry were happy, Fu Xun calmly raised the command flag in his hand, and then waved it fiercely towards the thousands of Wei army cavalry surrounded in front.

At the moment when the command flag in Fu Xun's hand fell, the Han army on the chariot, inspired by the sound of majestic drums, took out the rhubarb crossbows they were carrying.

Unlike the chariots that only carried soldiers in the Spring and Autumn Period, the chariots currently used by the Han army are larger in size. Not only can they carry more than 20 soldiers, but they can also put down a weapon to kill the enemy.

That is the rhubarb crossbow.

Bows and crossbows are the most frequently used long-range weapons in ancient military affairs, and there is a big difference between the two.

Crossbows are more powerful than bows.

Even at a long distance, the lethality of the crossbow bolts fired by the big crossbow is still terrifying.

Crossbows have been widely used as early as the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods in China. At that time, there were mainly four types of crossbows, namely: clip crossbow, thin crossbow, Tang crossbow and large crossbow.

In the Western Han Dynasty, whenever the infantry resisted the Hun cavalry, the Han infantry who defended the city and fought in the field often used crossbows to kill the Hun cavalry.

For example, when Li Ling led an army of [-] infantry and encountered tens of thousands of Hun cavalry in Junji Mountain, he relied on the power of crossbow arrows to inflict great damage on the Hun cavalry.

And among the people who are good at crossbows in the world, the strength of the crossbow machine is that Jingchu is the crown!
Most of the [-] infantry led by Li Ling were from Jingchu.

Now after hundreds of years of development, on the land of Jingchu, which is already good at bows and crossbows, a rhubarb crossbow with extremely lethal power has appeared.

The rhubarb crossbow is also known as the yellow shoulder crossbow. The strength of the crossbow in the Han Dynasty was calculated by stone, ranging from one stone to ten stones. Among them, the ten stone crossbow was the strongest and was called the rhubarb crossbow.

Soldiers who use the big yellow crossbow must be very strong, only such people can use the big yellow crossbow, and such people are currently gathered on these hundred chariots.

Under the command of Fu Xun's Lingqi, hundreds of Han troops raised the rhubarb crossbows they carried with them.

The Jingchu soldiers who are good at using bows and crossbows stand on the chariot, and their height is almost the same as that of the Wei army cavalry sitting on tall horses.

This allowed them to easily aim at the Wei Jun cavalry rushing forward.

Even because of the three-way encirclement of thousands of Wei army cavalry, the Han army on the chariot did not need to do fine aiming at all.

A moment later, under the command of Fu Xun, hundreds of crossbow arrows flew out rapidly, with cold killing intent, and shot towards the cavalry of the Wei army in front.

Most of the Wei Army cavalry currently present are armored cavalry, and the combat style of the armored cavalry is different from that of light cavalry.

The light cavalry troops may deliberately disperse around, mainly using bows and arrows to harass and kill.

However, since the day the armed cavalry army became an army, it has given up a certain amount of mobility in exchange for unparalleled impact.

For example, Cao Cao used five thousand iron cavalry to break through Liu Bei's infantry phalanx in Dangyang, for example, Cao Cao used five thousand iron cavalry to resist Ma Chao's Xiliang iron cavalry in Liangzhou.

Therefore, the formation of thousands of Wei army cavalry is very dense, which is greatly enhanced from the objective conditions, the lethality of the hundreds of crossbow arrows fired by the Han army.

The iron cavalry of the Wei army are all wearing armor, but after hundreds of years of development in the Han Dynasty, the crossbow has already become a sharp weapon for the infantry to restrain the cavalry.

In the history of China, the crossbow arrows of the rhubarb crossbow even have a record of directly shooting to death an enemy general from a long distance, not to mention the Wei army cavalry who are less than dozens of steps away?

So when hundreds of powerful crossbow arrows braved the cold and shot into the formation of thousands of Wei cavalry, many of the Wei cavalry who rushed to the front were shot and fell to the ground.

When the horses charge at high speed, even if the cavalry on the horse are not shot to death by the crossbow arrows, once they fall to the ground, the end may be even worse.

When many cavalrymen of the Great Wei landed on the ground, Xia Houba kept screaming in his ears.

Some of those screams were the screams of the cavalry when they were hit by arrows, but more of them were the screams caused by the intense pain caused by the body hitting the ground after the cavalry hit the ground.

What's more, after landing, many cavalry troops of the Wei army were trampled by friendly horses rushing from behind because they couldn't dodge in time.

The powerful impact instantly caused the cavalry soldiers of Wei Jun who landed to spurt blood from their mouths and noses, and died on the spot.

Xia Houba barely escaped the first round of crossbow attacks from the Han army by relying on his vigorous posture.

Xia Houba saw that the Han army had lost a lot of people in just one round of crossbow attack, and his contempt for the Han army instantly turned into anger.

Xiahouba looked at the soldiers of the Han army who were continuing to bow with his eyes burning with anger, and he didn't have any intention of shrinking back.

It is well known throughout the world that Jingzhou is good at bows and crossbows.

When the cavalry of the Wei army attacked the grain transport team of the Han army, they were also attacked by many arrows.

It is true that those arrow attacks did not cause as much damage as the thousands of Han troops in front of us today, but this is still expected damage.

At this time, the tens of thousands of cavalry troops of the Wei army who quickly gathered from not far away had already appeared on this river bank.

Looking at the shouts and shouts that continued to ring out all around, Xia Houba, who knew that most of his side had arrived, had great peace in his heart.

Even though he had lost a lot of sons just now, the thousands of cavalry of the Wei army he led were less than a hundred steps away from the formation of the Han army.

In this distance, relying on the high maneuverability of the horse under the crotch, it can be reached almost within the time of gnashing of teeth.

And as long as these thousands of cavalry rush to the front of the Han army's formation, the impact brought by their own speed is enough to tear up the thousands of Han troops in front of them.

With this thought in mind, Xia Houba didn't hesitate at all, and he continued to lead the thousands of Wei army cavalry behind him towards the front.

But at this moment, Fu Xun in the Yueyue Formation issued a new order.

The rhubarb crossbow is powerful, but it also consumes a lot of physical strength for soldiers.

So when the Han army finished shooting a round of crossbow arrows, these hundreds of strong men stepped back from their chariots to rest.

Then thousands of archers who were originally standing behind hundreds of crossbowmen began to stand in front of the two armies.

After thousands of archers stepped forward, they all raised their longbows and aimed at the thousands of Wei army cavalry ahead.

What is different from usual is that these thousands of archers are holding bundles of arrows in their hands.

After the arrows in the hands of every Han army archer are clustered, there are at least a few arrows.

Xia Houba may have thought that the Han army in front of him was less than 3000 men, but what he didn't know was that all of the less than 3000 Han troops were veterans who followed Guan Yu when he left the North Road.

In terms of physical strength, experience, and level of training, these two thousand and seven hundred Han soldiers are the elite of the elite.

Only such elites can, at a certain point in time, have the ability and the confidence to adopt the method of killing the enemy with a cluster of arrows.

When these thousands of archers in Jingchu, who could be called elites, pointed the cluster arrows in their hands towards the iron cavalry of the Wei army galloping forward.

After pulling the longbow in their hands into the shape of a full moon, they shot out the cluster arrows without thinking.

Given the number of concentrated speed arrows, this round of cluster arrow shooting caused great damage to the thousands of Wei army cavalry in front of them.

Thousands of Han army archers released at least thousands of arrows in this round of archery.

Moreover, because of the distance, these thousands of arrows were all shot into the dense array of Wei cavalry when they were at their most powerful.

Coupled with the special structure of the Queyue formation, these thousands of arrows almost covered the charging Wei army cavalry.

After thousands of arrows were fired in this round, the cavalry of the Wei army, who were less than dozens of steps away from the moon formation, almost fell down.

A series of louder screams began to appear in front of the two armies, and the tragic screams almost covered the rumble of Wei Jun's cavalry trampling on the ground.

The killing of two rounds of bows and crossbows cost at least thousands of Wei cavalry troops their lives.

After all, the current cavalry army of Cao Wei has not yet reached the terrifying level of defense in the form of the Iron Buddha in the later Southern and Northern Dynasties.

When thousands of Wei cavalry fell off their horses, this scene caused quite a commotion in the formation of the remaining thousands of Wei cavalry.

But before the commotion spread, the tens of thousands of cavalry troops of the Wei army who had already rushed behind the friendly army began to push the former army to continue towards the Yueyue formation.

The cavalry generals of the Cao Wei cavalry who led the troops arrived, such as Cao Tai, Sima Yi, Jiang Ji, Wen Qin, etc., had already seen that the cavalry at the forefront had arrived before the Han army formation.

In this case, the bow and crossbow of the Han army have lost their effectiveness.

And anyone can see that the Han army that can adopt cluster archery is definitely an elite.

The status of a general who can command such an elite Han army will certainly not be low.

Since the First Battle of Xiangfan, the Great Wei needed a victory against the Han army too much.

Although I don't know who the Han general protected by the Han army formation is, but based on a basic judgment, if he can be captured, it will be a great achievement.

No general can resist the temptation that all the armies are defeated but one's own army wins the first victory.

What's more, they still have nearly [-] cavalry!
The loss was huge just now, but the Han army adopted some special techniques. If they charged head-on, they would definitely be the victor in the end.

With all the generals of the cavalry army holding the same mentality, more and more cavalrymen of the Wei army began to gather here.

But at this moment, the Han army on the chariot began to take out a special weapon with a strange shape under the command of two powerful generals, Fu Xun and Liao Hua.

This weapon is sort of like a pike or spear, but it's much longer.

This is a special weapon.

There are different opinions about the origin of the lance, some say about the pre-Qin period, some say about the Han Dynasty, but no matter what point of view, they all believe that the period when the lance really rose was after the Wei and Jin Dynasties.

At present, the lance is not a mainstream standard weapon in the military.

Many soldiers in this world do not recognize this uniquely shaped weapon.

The lances in the hands of thousands of Han soldiers are made of hardwood and are divided into two parts: the handle and the head.

The handle of the lance is generally six feet long, and the head of the lance is shaped like a round hammer, and the head is filled with iron nails.

So when the Han army took out the lance as a weapon, it was a little strange to attract the cavalry of the Wei army who was about to arrive in front of the moon.

The strange-looking weapons in the hands of the enemy were actually longer than the spears in their hands.

But it didn't take long for the Wei Jun cavalry to be surprised. Under the command of Fu Xun and Liao Hua, the Han troops on the east and west raised their spears and stabbed at the Wei Jun cavalry in front.

Because the Wei army's iron cavalry rushed to the front of the Queyue formation with a huge impact, the Han army didn't need to use much effort to stab them, they just rushed straight towards the tip of the spear with a howl.

No matter how powerful the impact of Wei Jun's cavalry is, they will be hurt as deeply as possible.

Many cavalry troops of the Wei army were caught off guard and were stabbed off their horses by the spears in the hands of the Han army.

And when the cavalry of the Wei army wanted to fight back with the spears in their hands, they found out sadly that the length of the lance was longer than that of the spear.

Therefore, when they want to fight back with spears, they are often stabbed by the spears in the hands of the Han army first.

What's even more amazing is that before the arrival of a large number of cavalry troops from the Wei army, Fu Xun asked hundreds of soldiers to drive Changlong on the railing of the car.

The extremely sharp tip of the lance pointed directly at the iron cavalry of the Wei army who was charging fast, and when the tip of the lance was about to touch the enemy, Fu Xun immediately ordered the Han army to hammer the end of the lance with a sledgehammer to strengthen the impact.

In this case, a single spear can easily penetrate at least four or five cavalrymen of the Wei army, just like the "mutton skewers" of later generations.

And when hundreds of spears reaped the lives of thousands of cavalry troops of the Wei army, the morale of the Wei army suffered a great blow.

In the eyes of the Wei Jun cavalry at the front, their comrades were strung together on a "spear". Such a frightening scene made many Wei Jun cavalry shudder.

However, because of the large number of cavalry troops of the Wei army, after paying a lot of casualties, many cavalry troops of the Wei army crossed the distance of the lance and came to the front of the Han army.

For these cavalry troops of the Wei army who rushed forward, Fu Xun immediately ordered the soldiers of the Han army to draw out their long swords to fight the enemy in close combat.

When the Wei army and the Han army met hand-to-hand, an extremely violent cry of killing began to sound on the river bank.

This violent cry of killing came from the mouths of more than 2000 Han soldiers.

And after the fierce shouts of killing sounded, the sound of war drums behind thousands of Han troops became more and more intensive.

The dense sound of war drums is constantly improving the morale of the Han army.

At the time of handover, although the cavalry of the Wei army continued to surround them by virtue of their superior numbers.

However, because the Queyue formation is arc-shaped and has a small attack surface, the number of Wei troops facing the Han army in the Queyue formation will not be too many.

As for Wei Jun's side, the more they continuously impacted the arc-shaped Queyue Formation, the more lethal they suffered.

Coupled with the existence and protection of chariots, the condescending advantage of the Wei army's cavalry also disappeared.

If we ignore the land under the feet of the two armies, the current situation on the battlefield is not that the cavalry is colliding with the infantry's phalanx, but that the two infantry are forming formations to charge.

Among the infantry of the two sides, there is no doubt that the Han army's Queyue formation is more lethal.

Under such circumstances, the Wei army was constantly shot down by the Han army with long knives and lances.

Compared with the Han army protected by shields, the Wei army did not cause much damage to them.

As time went by, more and more Wei Jun screamed and fell off their horses.

At this point in the war, the morale of the cavalry of the Wei army who rushed to the forefront had long since disappeared.

The cavalry army of the Wei army charging at the forefront was exactly the thousands of cavalry troops led by Xia Houba.

Under the repeated attacks of the Han army just now, the thousands of cavalry troops of the Wei army led by him have already lost a lot of casualties, and how long has it been since the two armies fought?
Xia Houba, who rushed to the front just now, is undoubtedly the one who knows the horror of the strange formation in front of him best among the tens of thousands of cavalry troops of the Wei army.

The current Xia Houba no longer has any anger or contempt in his heart, and under the situation where his son Lang keeps dying, he already has the idea of ​​retreating in his heart.

However, a large number of cavalry troops of the Wei army in the rear were not very clear about the situation ahead, and were still rushing forward.

So Xia Houba couldn't make up his mind for a while.

But at this moment, a large number of warships of the Han army suddenly appeared on the Han River, and flags were planted all over each warship of the Han army, as if they were full of Han troops.

After seeing this scene, Xia Houba could no longer keep calm!

Only now did Xiahou Ba realize that the reason for the Han army's formation on the shore today was to lure him into fighting with them.

Then use this formation to take the opportunity to make the cavalry lose their mobility, and then mobilize a large number of Han infantry to encircle and wipe them out.

Once the Wei Jun cavalry is confined together and loses its mobility, the Wei Jun cavalry on a high horse is undoubtedly a living target.

Xia Houba, who thought he saw through Guan Yu's plot, immediately made a move that was most in line with the current common sense-that is, to retreat.

Xia Houba had a rough temper, he did what he said, and he started to retreat towards the rear.

And Xia Houba, as the chief general of thousands of cavalry troops of the Wei army, his actions were watched by many people.

When he started to retreat, many of the cavalry troops of the Wei army who had already lost their fighting spirit around him also began to retreat crazily.

Xia Houba, who lacked experience in leading the army, overlooked one point.

That is, when tens of thousands of cavalry troops of the Wei army gathered together, as a former army, he suddenly retreated, which would cause terrible consequences.

When Xia Houba's front army began to turn their horses and retreat towards the rear, the tens of thousands of cavalry troops of the Wei army in the rear were still rushing forward.

In this way, under the collision of the two phases, the dense formation of tens of thousands of cavalry troops of the Wei army instantly became extremely chaotic.

The cavalry is different from the infantry, and sometimes the chaos of the cavalry formation will cause more serious consequences.

Under the collision between the front army and the rear army, many cavalrymen of the Wei army were knocked off their horses by their colleagues, and then trampled to death by tall horses.

The tragic cries of those cavalrymen before they died further caused a commotion among a large number of cavalrymen of the Wei army.

In this case, a large-scale flight of the Wei cavalry took place a few moments later.

At this time, Cao Tai and others in the rear looked at the cavalry of the Wei army who kept retreating. They had no way to stop this phenomenon, and they could only lead the cavalry of the Wei army to flee to the distance.

Because at this time they have also seen a large number of Han warships appearing on the Han River.

Xia Houba understands the truth, so they naturally understand too.

Escape first is the most important thing.

When the tens of thousands of cavalry troops of the Wei army began to retreat on a large scale, because there was no unified command, a large-scale cavalry stampede was spreading to the entire army at an extremely fast speed.

(End of this chapter)