Late Tang

Zhang Dewei was defeated and left, and Wang Zhong led his troops to pursue him.Not long after escaping, on the way suddenly another young soldier rushed out of the sky, under the firelight, a green wolf banner fluttered first, and there was only one young soldier and horse, the soldiers were well-armed.All of them are tall and burly, all wearing iron armor and helmets in front of them. One side is carrying a four-foot square iron shield, and the other is holding an eight-foot three-edged lance.

Behind this iron-walled thorn forest, there are still many heads shaking, and there are countless tall men with the same iron helmets behind them, but they are holding a two-edged Mo Dao that is ten feet long, and there are countless groups of knives on both sides. The shield stands on one side.Further back, there are many crossbowmen waiting with open bows.

Zhang Dewei yelled bitterly in his heart, although it seemed that there were only 800 or less than [-] people on the opposite side, but just looking at the formation, the momentum and equipment of the soldiers, he knew that this must be a elite army.

At this time, there was an interception in front, and there were pursuers in the back. Even though he knew that the opponent was an iron wall, he could only bite the bullet and hit it upwards.Zhang Dewei pointed forward with his big iron gun, and shouted: "If there is no retreat, kill it!"

It was the 3 soldiers and horses of the Qinglang Battalion who were intercepting in front. Except for the cavalry, they were all transferred to follow Li Jing, and the rest were all here.Long before the start of the war, Li Liang, the staff officer, had suggested that the most elite Qinglang Battalion be ambushed a few miles east of the city to intercept Zhang Dewei.When Li Liang proposed this arrangement, Wang Zhong was still full of doubts.Zhang Dewei's Salmonella army has [-] horses, even if more than [-] were killed in the previous battle, and [-] troops were divided to surround Huang Huzi and others, and the [-] Tibetan soldiers who had been bought were removed, but the number was still [-].

Li Jing handed him a total of only 6000 people, and the other [-] were the Eighth Army. If the elite Qinglang Battalion were transferred away, how would they beat Zhang Dewei.You must know that although they have internal support and Fei Huo, the other party can retreat into the city.

But now seeing the Blue Wolf Battalion stop the fleeing Zhang Dewei, Wang Zhong couldn't help but admire Li Liang, the staff officer who looked like a private school gentleman.

Zhang Dewei and a group of defeated soldiers were originally horse thieves. Seeing that they were in a desperate situation at this time, they all went crazy and rushed straight to the Qinglang camp.

"Fire the arrows!" Liu Shouqian, the deputy tenth general of the Qinglang Battalion, was a cavalry general, but this time he stayed in the Qinglang Battalion to direct the ambush, and when he saw the enemy rushing, he immediately ordered.

Immediately, the eight hundred Qinglang soldiers, whether they were Qi soldiers, jumping soldiers or even Mo Dao soldiers, all drew their bows, put on the arrows that had been inserted on the ground long ago, and shot at the enemy.

After shooting an arrow, no matter what the result is, all the blue wolf soldiers stick to the training rules, just keep their bows tense and shoot arrows quickly.

All soldiers of the Shamen Town Army are equipped with longbows, and longbows are a necessary training subject for all arms.Basically, the standard for the longbow assessment of the soldiers in Shamen Town is to accurately aim and shoot 1 arrows per minute, and [-] random arrows per minute, and some outstanding ones can even reach [-] arrows per minute.People with excellent archery skills like Li Jing and Li Yuan can basically reach an arrow in three seconds.

In an archery test, Li Jing competed with a soldier on the spot. He fired five arrows in a row, and the soldier just shot one arrow.

At a distance of 120 steps, it takes about 1 minute for light infantry to charge in an array, about one and a half minutes for infantry with iron armor, and even 15 seconds for cavalry.Against such a moving target, slow and precise shooting is obviously meaningless.The key is the density of shooting, one more arrow is shot, one more hope of life and victory.

Another factor to increase strike density is to increase the number of people.In the hands of horse thieves, the longbow is just an individual weapon that only a few people can use well.In the tradition of the Tang Dynasty, the equipment rate of bows and arrows is 1%, and everyone is equipped with a bow.During the battle, the Tang army usually assembled thousands of longbowmen and launched salvos from the flanks of the infantry line and the gaps in the formation.A thousand longbowmen fire at the same time, and tens of thousands of arrows can be shot in one minute, forming an out-and-out storm of feather arrows.

The prosperous Tang Dynasty is no longer at present. In the late Tang Dynasty, because the feudal towns became a semi-separatist situation, the soldiers were raised by the feudal towns themselves, so the equipment dropped a lot, and it was rare for the entire army of the feudal towns to be equipped with bows.But Shamen Town is different. Not only the whole army of Shamen Town is equipped with armor, but also the whole army is equipped with bows.

Facing the charging enemy army, the Qinglang Battalion did not panic, but methodically opened the bows of the whole battalion. Eight hundred longbows were fired in just over a minute when the enemy army entered the range and rushed to the front of the formation. In the short period of time, basically everyone shot more than ten arrows, and 800 people shot tens of thousands of arrows in a short period of time.Such dense arrows formed a deadly metal storm within a hundred steps, and countless Beisha troops rushing forward kept falling down.

"Raise the shield!" As the enemy approached within twenty steps, Liu Shouqian ordered the surprise soldiers and sword and shield soldiers to stop shooting and instead raised their shields to meet the impact.

"Kill!" The [-] soldiers from the Second Team of the Raiders shouted loudly, and under the guidance of the red gun flags of the captains, team leaders, group leaders, and corporal leaders, they all raised their shields and held their guns.The crossbowmen behind also put down their bows and began to raise the crossbow.Ballistas have stronger power, longer range, less effort, and easier precision strikes.The only disadvantage is that the rate of fire is slow, and it takes two or three arrows to shoot a crossbow.But for the archers, after shooting more than a dozen arrows in a row, it took a lot of energy.Switching to the crossbow at this time will not only restore strength, but also be more suitable for precise aiming and shooting within a short distance.

The Beisha soldiers continued to charge with their round shields on their backs, and more than a thousand cavalry rushed in the front. These light cavalry were regarded by Zhang Dewei as heavy cavalry to break the formation.Under normal circumstances, seeing more than a thousand cavalry charging into the formation, the opponent's hundreds of soldiers and horses must have been scared away immediately.But what surprised him was that instead of retreating, the opponent was firmly nailed to the spot.At any moment, a majestic roar sounded, and countless spear heads suddenly stabbed out from behind the iron wall.

The tip of the sharp spear gleamed with a faint cold light, like the gaze of death.

Behind the shield formation of the blue wolf soldiers, the strange soldiers in the first row knelt on one knee and squatted on the ground. The tail end of the eight-foot three-edged spear in their hands was fiercely inserted into the ground, and the long spear was pointed obliquely forward.The spears of every second row of surprise soldiers are placed on the shoulders of the first row, and then the third row.This is a standard spear-to-cavalry formation.

The horseshoes rumbled, and the horses kicked up countless dirt and dust.Seeing the enemy cavalry getting closer, the soldiers of the Qinglang Battalion showed no fear, but held their spears more tightly.

Like a sea wave crashing into a rock, the galloping iron stream slammed into the forest of shield spears, and the horse rushing to the front was directly stabbed by the spear, and blood flowed out.Before he died, he slammed into the shield formation with huge inertia.The surprise soldiers behind leaned sideways, with their shoulders hard against the four-foot-high iron shield, and their feet were firmly nailed to the ground.

The shieldmen in the first row successfully blocked the fiercest first wave of impact. Under the cover of the shieldmen in the front row and the crossbowmen in the back, the surprise soldiers kept stabbing, retracting, and stabbing the spears in their hands. out.

One by one, Beisha soldiers fell in front of the rock-solid shield and gun forest, building up a mountain of corpses, and blood flowed all over the ground.

Hit, hit, hit.

Hold up, hold up, hold up again.

In just a quarter of an hour, despite the turbulent waves, the [-] soldiers of the Qinglang Battalion did not take a step back. Countless Beisha troops fell in front of them, but they still couldn't break through this checkpoint.

Taking advantage of this time, Wang Zhong's army had already chased them, and came from behind to cover up and kill them. Beisha's army could not rush through the front, but was killed by the pursuers again, and they were defeated immediately.Many Beisha cities fled with a lot of gold, silver, jewels, money and silk that they had robbed when they attacked Qingni city.

At this time, it was too late to escape, so Zhang Dewei ordered all the money, silk, gold and silver to be thrown away along the way.The Shamen town army remained unmoved and only pursued and killed them.However, when the eight soldiers and horses of Dengzhou saw the money and silk, they were all moved.Regardless of chasing the deserters, they scrambled and looted property, allowing the Beisha army to flee everywhere.Seeing that only his own soldiers and horses were left to pursue, Wang Zhong was afraid of losing, so after a while of killing, he hated to withdraw his troops.Zhang Dewei was like a frightened bird, he did not dare to turn back when he led the defeated army, and ran straight back to Beisha City, not even caring about the [-] subordinates who were still besieging Chishan Valley.

Wang Zhongsheng returned to the army, Li Juren was very grateful for the support from the Shamen town army, and immediately invited Wang Zhong, the Dengzhou Eighth Division and the Sanfan soldiers to return to Qingni City.Li Juren only saw that Wang Zhong did not see Li Jing, so he hurriedly asked: "I don't know where Uncle is?"

Wang Zhongdao: "The general is leading the army to rescue the two sons of Juyi and Juli, and they will triumph in victory in the morning."

Li Juren wanted to lead an army to come for reinforcements, Li Meng hurriedly persuaded: "Young master, you can't. Although Zhang Dewei has been defeated, Qingni City is in chaos. At this time, we should trust General Li Jing's arrangement, and we should send troops to sweep around. The enemy army is routed and the remnants of the army are defeated, and the scattered people are called back to restore order."

Wang Zhong also nodded and said: "Director Li's words are not bad. Although Zhang Dewei is defeated now, it is only defeated but not wiped out. The Beisha army may make a comeback at any time. The yamen previously explained that if the Beisha army is defeated, then it will be defeated." Let me lead the headquarters to temporarily stay in Qingni City and defend it. As for the two young masters Ju Yi and Ju Li, please don't worry, there will be no trouble in the Ya Nei personally."

After hearing this, Li Shouren finally made up his mind and stopped sending troops.At the moment, Li Meng, the chief executive, is ordered to arrange a feast for the generals and schools of the Qinglang Camp and the Eighth Department of Dengzhou, and the sergeants will also be rewarded.During the banquet, Wang Zhong asked Li Liang in a private voice: "Why don't you send troops to reinforce Yamen, but stay here instead?"

Li Liang chuckled, and said softly: "This is actually the master's plan. Before sending troops, the master thought that Qingni City would not be safe this time, so our purpose is to take the people from Qingnipu back to Daxie Village. But now The situation has changed, and things are going smoothly than we planned. We successfully repelled Beisha City, and no accident, the reinforcements from Duli Town are likely to be defeated. In this way, the situation has changed greatly. Therefore, the Lord The superiors thought that we could save Qingnipu. However, Li Lingfu is dead, and Qingnipu’s entire army is annihilated right now, so it’s hard to support it alone. My lord’s idea is that we will send troops to station in Qingnipu in the future. This will not only enhance our army’s prestige, but also deter Contain the great enemy of Duli Town. Moreover, after a long time, maybe Qingnipu will become the master's property."

Hearing Li Liang's explanation, Wang Zhong suddenly understood the meaning of his last sentence. Even if Qingnipu was rescued this time, it would be difficult for them to support without soldiers and horses.Instead of giving this piece of fat to Duli Town and Beisha City to eat, it is better to find a way to swallow it.

Qingnipu has the largest port in Liaodong, and as long as Shamen Town has Qingnipu, it will open a door to the southern end of Liaodong.With such a wedge wedged into the land of southern Liaoning, it will be much easier to deal with Duli Town in the future. The unfavorable situation that was reversed because of Li Lingfu's defeat and death can be reversed immediately.

However, this matter of seizing someone's foundation is not taking advantage of someone's danger?

Wang Zhong thought about it, and finally told himself that even if Shamen Town did not take Qingnipu, Qingnipu would not escape the fate of extinction in the end.If he didn't die in Duli Town, he must have died in Beisha City.It's better to take it from Shamen Town, at least it can guarantee to treat Li's family well.

Li Liang took a sip of his fine wine, smiled and said to him: "Understood? In today's world, the weak are preyed on by the strong, and the emperor loses his prestige, making it difficult to order the world. It is also difficult to have peace among the towns. The lord is no longer a small He already has such a large foundation. If you don’t work hard, it will only make others cheaper. You and I are both the master’s subordinates. Naturally, we hope that the master can have greater development. Do you think so? ?”

"Greater development?" Wang Zhong was a little surprised, then thoughtful.

But it is said that Duli Town set up a plan to defeat Li Lingfu, not only killed Li Lingfu who had been troubled them for many years, but also successfully wiped out the [-] coalition forces.After this battle, the unfavorable situation that caused the combined fleet to be wiped out due to the fact that they joined hands with Feng Zhang to send troops to Shamen Town last time was immediately reversed.However, although Li Lingfu was killed and Li Lingfu's coalition forces were annihilated, the families in Duli Town and Wang Pu felt a little regretful that although this also killed more than a thousand people under Li Jing's command, it did not really hurt Li Lingfu at all. Jing.

When Li Jing still raised his troops after Li Lingfu's entire army was wiped out, it really made the people in Duli Town feel angry and frightened.What is angry is that Li Jing took the money, but now he is still fighting.The fear is naturally because Li Jing has never been defeated, and every time he wins more with less, this makes them worried.In particular, although Li Lingfu was completely wiped out in this battle, the casualties in Duli Town were not small. In the end, more than 8000 people were killed in Duli Town. Duli Township was also a huge hit.

However, after receiving the request letter from Beisha City, Wang Pu still disregarded the opposition of many family representatives, and finally persuaded most representatives to agree to his proposal to send troops.They sent only [-] cavalry to Qingni City to deal with Li Jing together with Zhang Dewei.

Li Lingfu had already died in battle, and now the only one who still poses a huge threat to Duli Town is Li Jing. For Li Jing's challenge from crossing the sea, they must meet and completely defeat Li Jing.

(To be continued)