Goose Three Kingdoms

Chapter 542: The Fierce Battle
"General Wenyuan has reported that the garrisons of Tianyu have not moved!"

While Black Bear was watching Zhang Fei chasing the defeated soldiers, Yang Xiu, wearing a slim and light double-crotch armor, came quickly and looked up and shouted to Black Bear on the chariot.

Hearing the sound, Black Bear glanced at the several scouts who had dismounted and were sitting on the ground a few dozen steps away, drinking water from bamboo tubes. He then looked at the Xianbei camp in the north and saw that the other side was still unwilling to come out of the camp to fight.

Without even a second thought, he said to Yang Xiu, "Retreat as planned, and don't fight to the bitter end!"

"Yes!"

Yang Xiu answered loudly and immediately came to the front of the carriage, where Wei Kang was writing a military order with a pen.

The military order is carried on paper with prints on both sides and stamps in advance. Even the date and time have corresponding Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.

After Wei Kang finished writing a few words, Yang Xiu took it, folded it in half, turned around and handed it to the team of messengers who were waiting on the side and took the initiative to come forward.

Wei Kang then recorded the time and content of the sending and receiving of the military order for reference after the war.

In the carriage, Black Bear saw more cavalry pouring out of the camp at the northwest foot of the mountain. Seven or eight camps were sending out troops, with a scale of no less than a thousand cavalry.

Seeing that he had to support the fleeing troops, he was worried that Zhang Fei would suffer a loss, so he immediately said to the flag officer beside him: "Order Taishi Wengong to attack from the west and support Zhang Yide's troops!"

After hearing this, Wei Kang in the carriage continued to record this information.

The flag officer on the carriage waved his flag diagonally toward the northwest. More than 50 armored cavalrymen who were resting in the north mounted their horses and followed Lu Bu to the west.

On the northern ridge, Ke Bi could sense an opportunity to fight. He stood up instinctively, raised his hands to cover his brows and stared at the cavalry moving westward.

"My lord, the Han horse is running out of strength, now is the time!"

A Xianbei tribe leader who was known for his bravery stepped forward quickly and pointed at the Youzhou knights who were retreating in the southwest: "Xianyu Fu wants to save them, we should help them, so that they will owe you a favor."

"Well, you can try. I'm also curious about the kind of horse Han rides."

Ke Bineng knew very well what this guy was thinking. He simply had his eyes on the other man's horse.

Under the primitive military democracy system, even though there was a principle of collective distribution of spoils, it was reasonable for the captors to retain a portion.

Seeing this, some other leaders asked to fight one after another, and seeing that the morale was good, Ke Bineng agreed to all of them.

He also realized that he must destroy and severely damage Black Bear's cavalry in a field battle, otherwise the camps at the foot of the mountain would not dare to support each other and would be quickly defeated by the Guanzhong soldiers with their local superior forces.

The continuous breach of the camp will greatly affect the morale of the entire army.

Of course, those stationed in the periphery and frontier camps and strongholds are all from distantly related tribes, or simply mixed Hu people.

Kebi Neng himself and his relatives and tribesmen stayed behind the mountain, recuperating and gathering their strength.

Black Bear saw many Xianbei people riding horses down the mountain ridge from afar, and estimated that there were about three to four thousand knights. He immediately controlled Lu Bu to go southeast and slowed down the horse, as if he was maintaining the horsepower.

The Xianbei people had already concluded from common sense that this cavalry was short of manpower, so when they came down the mountain, the Xianbei cavalry were like tigers, rushing forward one after another.

Driven by the traditional instinct of hunting and encircling the enemy, some attempted to encircle the enemy from both wings in advance, while others rushed straight towards Lu Bu.

Seeing that they had an absolute advantage, the Xianbei people in the various camps at the foot of the mountain attacked without any military orders from Kebi Neng, and headed towards Gao Shun, who was cleaning the camps and collecting heads.

Gao Shun only had about a hundred heavily-armored Taoist soldiers and more than three hundred lightly-armored spearmen and halberd-wielding soldiers, who could barely fill in and guard the camp's defense line.

The Xianbei people’s camps were crude and their defensive fortifications were just so-so, so their purpose was more to restrain the beasts.

Under the remote control of the black bear, the Taoist soldiers in the camp abandoned the fence and formed a formation to wait for the fight.

He and Kebineng were both two or three miles away from the battlefield. Kebineng had a better field of vision, but he did not intervene. Instead, he wanted to test the strength of the Guanzhong infantry.

So Zhang Fei pursued the defeated soldiers on the western front, Lu Bu stayed on the central front and was surrounded by thousands of Xianbei knights, and about four or five hundred Taoist soldiers in the camp near the Shuipo Lake on the eastern front were surrounded and beaten.

Fa Zheng was also watching the battle, his hands clenched in his sleeves. He saw that several teams of Xianbei knights seemed unable to reach the core battlefield, and instead turned south to attack their own banner.

He took a deep breath and was about to persuade the black bear to avoid the arrows, but he saw the black bear turn his head to look at Yuan Shu. Yuan Shu was now wearing a silver helmet, silver armor, earth-brown robe and cloak, and a mask. He was holding an extended horse-slaying sword and looked very majestic.

Yuan Shu immediately boarded the chariot, and more than 200 lightly armed Taoist soldiers assigned to him followed with shields and swords on their backs and heavy crossbows in their arms. They quickly arranged a goose-shaped formation in front of the chariot, constantly adjusting their positions to maintain an inverted V structure and aiming the opening direction at the oncoming Xianbei knights.

Yuan Shu's own chariot is at the bottom of the inverted V structure, with a battle flag flying on the chariot. It is a "car"-shaped battle flag, and the color is the same as Yuan Shu's robe and cloak, which is earth brown.

Seeing that the defense line was thin and the number of people was small, the Xianbei knights gathered together nearly 200 riders and rushed forward faster.

On the tall chariot, Black Bear also reached out to take the strong bow handed to him by Gao Jun. He held his breath, drew his arrow, aimed at a wild Xianbei cavalryman who was rushing in the front, and shot first.

Before he could fully pull the bow and release the second arrow, the first arrow pierced the opponent's chest. The whole man was thrown off the horse's back, and after a very short period of suspension in the air, he fell to the ground. His body rolled halfway and was trampled by the knight behind him who was unable to dodge, causing chaos and collisions.

When the collision occurred, Black Bear shot the second arrow.

He shot three Xianbei knights with three arrows in a row, and at this time, the crossbow-wielding Taoist soldiers pulled the trigger together. Under the crossfire, and the close-range steady oblique shooting, nearly half of the Xianbei knights fell off their horses in an instant. The Xianbei knights who rushed to the front and were closer to Yuan Shu suffered more and more frequent attacks, and almost all of them fell off their horses.

Yuan Shu drove forward, and the crossbow-wielding soldiers abandoned their crossbows, picked up swords and shields, and rushed forward, engaging in a melee and fighting with the remaining, slowed-down Xianbei knights.

These lightly armed Taoist soldiers with swords and shields moved swiftly and fearlessly, and everyone rushed to be the first, giving the Xianbei knights almost no chance to reorganize their defenses. They were all killed in a dozen breaths.

Even horses were not spared; any living creature that hindered their movement would be eliminated.

At this time, more Xianbei knights rushed here. Except for dozens of cavalrymen who did not slow down, the rest of the cavalrymen moved to both sides, took out bows and arrows, and cooperated with the original cavalry to start large-angle shooting and harassment at the Black Bear chariot.

The Black Bear left and right guards stood behind the shields and chariots with crossbows, looking for opportunities to fight back.

Even the shogunate's retainers put on helmets, picked up crossbows and joined the battle.

So after a dozen breaths, only Black Bear, Fa Zheng, Wei Kang and a flag-bearing officer were left at the tall chariot.

The rest of the manpower relied on simple vehicle formations for defense and shooting.

From time to time, a skilled Xianbei cavalry squad would break through the gaps in the chariot formation and would be immediately surrounded and killed by the Black Cavalry.

From a distance of five or six miles, Kebi could vaguely see that his own cavalry were harassing the enemy's main camp, and he wanted to attack with his entire army.

But in this case, all the mountain pass camps and a series of defensive fortifications that were previously built with so much manpower would be in vain.

No one knows how many people are hiding behind the opponent's main camp.

What really made him hesitate was the battle nearby. Thousands of Xianbei knights surrounded them, but Tai Shi Wengong in the formation was leading the cavalry to charge left and right.

Although it was difficult to break out of the Xianbei people's circular cavalry formation, wherever they charged in, there would inevitably be bloodshed.

Fortunately, the opponent's horsepower was insufficient. After charging rapidly for a while, they slowed down their horse speed and formed a small circular formation, rotating at the core of the formation.

The Xianbei knights' formation was spinning forward, while the cavalry team inside was spinning counter-rotating, but they would collide and deviate during the spinning process in an attempt to break the siege.

At the point of rotation and collision, the Xianbei knights fell off their horses one after another, becoming obstacles for the subsequent cavalry formations of both sides.

Not to mention the intersection of the two sides, even in the outer circular formation where the Xianbei knights were, as long as they fell off their horses, the knights around and behind would have no time to dodge.

Although the casualties were obvious, the Iron Cavalry's divine horses were very tempting to the Xianbei people.

The air was filled with smoke and dust, and most of the Xianbei knights who were galloping could not see the fighting and killing scenes in the core area.

They were well aware that they had absolute advantages in numbers and physical strength. As long as the formation was still rotating, it meant that fighting was still going on in the core area and the other side was still resisting.

It also means that I still have a chance to grab such a peerless divine horse!
The head of Taishi Wengong and the unparalleled martial reputation of the man who killed Taishi Wengong were meaningless to them. They just wanted the divine horse that could make the tribe prosperous and strong!

Ke Bineng watched for a long time, and vaguely saw that the enemy cavalry had suffered minor casualties in the smoke and dust. He sighed to his left and right: "The Han army has excellent armor, and this historian Wen Gong is as brave as King Xiang."

As he was sighing with emotion, someone beside him suddenly pointed to the eastern camp and exclaimed, "Sir, look!"

There is no smoke and dust to obstruct the view in the camp, so the distance is closer and the view is clearer.

Ke Bineng thought he was dazzled, and he couldn't see clearly when he opened his eyes wide, so he squinted and saw that the killing on both sides in the camp had stopped.

The attacking Zahu and outer Xianbei people have retreated in full force, leaving behind a red ring of corpses that spread outward.

As the surrounded Han soldiers shrank and reorganized their formation, the ring of stacked corpses became more obvious.

Ke Bineng took a deep breath, and when he saw the barbarians starting to surround and shoot arrows at the enemy, he slowly exhaled and said with regret: "Without the protection of the knights, this brave warrior will also die under our arrows."

Then he went to see a confidant and said, "Take some people to capture a few alive later. I need them to train infantry for me."

"Yes!"

Ke Bineng continued to raise the stakes, and one of his followers asked, "Should we light the signal fire?"

Ke Bineng hesitated now, and after weighing the pros and cons, he shook his head and refused to send out his entire army to attack. He raised his hand and pointed at the black bear's main camp in the distance: "Send out another thousand cavalrymen, I want to see his next move!"

Seeing that the people around him were reluctant, Ke Bineng patiently explained: "This battle cannot be ended today. We must conserve our energy to deal with the counterattack. Although Kui Tou and Qian Man are incompetent, the warriors under their command are not petty people made of clay."

Seeing this, everyone could only obey.

When the brothers Kuitou and Qianman were fighting a civil war, they couldn't even intervene.

The Grand Marshal of Guanzhong killed the two brothers together. The obvious contrast in combat power is still very obvious.

(End of this chapter)