Diqin Designer

Chapter 374: The Final Battle with Donghu

In the Donghu territory, on a pasture, after a spring of growth and recovery, the grassland has entered the most prosperous season of the year. "The sky is vast, the wilderness is boundless, the wind blows the grass low and cattle and sheep are seen" is no longer a scene in folk songs, but a real scene before our eyes.

On the green grassland, herds of cattle and sheep are grazing leisurely, occasionally shaking their tails to drive away those annoying mosquitoes.

Although the grass at this time of year is not as tender as when it first grows in spring, it grows more lush and can fill their stomachs better and make them fatter.

The Donghu herdsmen patrolled the surroundings on horseback, alert to jackals, tigers and leopards that might be lurking nearby. If nothing unexpected happened, this would definitely be a picture of harmony between humans and nature, and between livestock and nature.

But suddenly, many cattle and sheep that were grazing looked up to the west, as if something was coming there. Noticing the movement of the livestock, the Donghu herdsmen's expressions changed and they all looked towards the west.

A Donghu herdsman with sharp ears heard an unusual noise coming from the north, as if the ground in the north was shaking. Having dealt with horses for many years, he knew that a large group of people were approaching them!

At this time, the Donghu troops coming from the west could basically be determined to be enemies rather than friends, and the urgent Donghu horn sounds quickly spread across the grassland.

Hearing the horn, the King of Donghu hurriedly walked out of his yurt in a large yurt area in the distance, looked to the west, and asked anxiously: "What's going on?"

A Donghu soldier guarding outside his tent replied, "Your Majesty, we don't know either. The horn sounded suddenly."

Just as the Donghu King was about to speak, several Donghu leaders came over and one of them said, "What else could it be? It must be the Xiongnu or the Qin people who are attacking!"

The face of the King of Donghu darkened. They had been informed in advance by their spies in the Xiongnu that the Qin people would send troops at this time, but they did not expect that the Qin people would come so quickly and so suddenly that even their spies in the Xiongnu could not notify them in time.

Fortunately, after their spies informed them that the Qin people would send troops this month, they had already gathered the elite troops of the tribe here in advance, otherwise they would have been caught off guard by the Qin people.

Another leader said, "Your Majesty, whether they are Qin people or Xiongnu people, they must come with bad intentions. Give the order as soon as possible!"

The King of Donghu also knew that now was not the time to hesitate. He drew out the sword from his waist with a clang and raised it to the west: "My fellow Donghu, the Qin people and the Xiongnu people are coming. They want to take our lives, rob our livestock, plunder our sisters, wives and daughters, and kill our brothers and descendants. Are you willing to let them kill and rob you?"

The surrounding Donghu people shouted in unison: "No! No! No!"

The King of Donghu shouted: "Since you don't want to, follow me and let them die here!"

After saying that, the King of Donghu chopped a wooden stake beside him with his sword, and the stake was cut off directly.

The King of Donghu quickly put on his armor and took his soldiers, mounted his favorite warhorse, and led the Donghu cavalry westward together with a group of Donghu leaders.

As he marched along, scouts and herdsmen kept coming to report to him that the army that was coming was a coalition force composed of Qin people and Huns.

Hearing that the Qin people were really coming, the King of Donghu and a group of leaders looked more serious. A man's reputation is like a tree's shadow. The Qin people were able to destroy the six southern states and were by no means easy opponents. What they feared was the Qin people, not the Huns.

The Huns were just a group of timid and cowardly people. They had been extorted and humiliated by them before, but they dared not resist. If it were not for the Qin people, the Huns would have continued to be bullied by them.

On the other side, Wang Ben sat on horseback, holding the reins with his left hand and holding a telescope in his right hand. He looked ahead and said to Touman who was following nearby, "Here they come!"

Touman also had a telescope in his hand. When he saw the Donghu army coming towards them, he couldn't help but show some worry in his eyes. The number of Donghu cavalry coming here outnumbered theirs. Could they really win the battle?
If something unexpected happens, I'm afraid they will all die here today!
But now that they are on the Qin ship, they cannot jump off the ship. They can only follow the ship and hope that the Qin ship is strong enough to protect them.

After joining the Qin army, they finally saw what was being pulled by the chariots. Unfortunately, they were helpless as they could not quite understand what was going on.

That thing was a big thick round tube. Judging from its material, it seemed to be made of copper. One end was open and the other was closed. The opening was thinner than the other end. It was a thick copper tube that was thin at one end and thick at the other end. It was also equipped with wheels to facilitate moving it.

Seeing that one end of it is open, Touman and others guessed that this thing might fight its enemies by launching something from the opening, but what could it launch?
They are nothing more than arrows, stones or iron balls, but how powerful can they be?
As the two sides approached each other, the King of Donghu also saw the Qin-Xiongnu coalition army in the distance. He saw a cavalry unit break away from the main force and rush towards them first.

Looking at the flags raised by this cavalry, it was not the Huns but the Qin Army. The King of Donghu immediately understood that this Qin cavalry was challenging them to a battle before the main force started the war: Let me ask you, King Donghu, do you have the courage to send out a cavalry to fight with us?
The King of Donghu and his leaders quickly judged in their minds that if they could win this first battle, it would greatly undermine the morale of the enemy and boost their own morale. But if they failed, it would become a double-edged sword that would undermine their own morale and boost the morale of the enemy.

The Qin people must have felt confident of victory before they dared to send this cavalry to challenge them. However, if this is the case, then they had better not follow the path set by the Qin people and not accept this invitation.

But if they directly said they did not accept Qin's invitation to fight, the soldiers might think that they were afraid of Qin and therefore did not accept the invitation, which would affect morale, so they had to find a reason.

An Donghu leader gave a reason: "Your Majesty, the Qin people are cunning, we must be more careful. Now the victory is in our hands, we must not fall into the Qin people's evil schemes!"

The King of Donghu immediately followed the lead given by the Donghu leader and nodded, saying, "The Qin people must have seen our army coming and knew that they were doomed to fail, so they acted this way. They didn't expect that the leader Zabo saw through their plan at a glance. The Qin people's plan will fail!"

The King of Donghu looked at the Qin cavalry that was still charging at him, and said, "How dare a Qin cavalry challenge us to a fight? Who is willing to help me capture them?"

The King of Donghu and his leaders did not want to send a cavalry team of similar strength to engage in a head-on confrontation with the Qin army. If they failed to win, the impact would be too great. Instead, they could use their superior strength to defeat the Qin cavalry and get their first victory, which would still be acceptable.

The intention of the Donghu King was also figured out by other leaders, and one of the Donghu leaders immediately requested a fight. The Donghu King selected four people and asked them to each lead a Donghu cavalry to attack the Qin cavalry.

The leader of this team of Qin cavalry was Wang Li. He led only 3,000 cavalrymen, but the Donghu people sent tens of thousands of cavalrymen to meet him. This made Wang Li a little depressed: Are the Donghu people so cautious?
Fortunately, the order he received was: If the Donghu people accepted the invitation to fight, then he would win a battle first to undermine the morale of the Donghu people; if the Donghu people did not accept the invitation to fight, then he would retreat.

Wang Li was confident that even if the Donghu people sent out tens of thousands of cavalry, he could lead these three thousand cavalry to defeat the Donghu's ten thousand cavalry. However, if he fought with the Donghu's ten thousand cavalry, he would be entangled by them. If the Donghu sent more cavalry, he and the three thousand cavalry would be in trouble.

Considering the overall situation, Wang Li decisively ordered: "The Donghu people are all cowards and dare not fight us in an upright battle. Soldiers, follow me back to the army!"

Wang Li turned his horse and returned to the main force of the Qin-Xiongnu coalition army before tens of thousands of Donghu cavalry arrived. Seeing thousands of Qin cavalry being forced back by them, the King of Donghu pointed at the direction Wang Li fled back and shouted: "See? The Qin people are also human beings. They will also be afraid and scared. They are not invincible. Follow me and leave these Qin people here, so that they will always be afraid of us!"

Following the words of the Donghu King, the morale of the Donghu army was immediately boosted a lot. It turned out that the Qin people would also flee in a panic, and were not as scary as the rumors said.

Well, we are all human beings. We all have one head and two legs. If we are shot by an arrow, we will bleed. If we are beheaded, we will die. What is there to be afraid of?

At this moment, the Donghu people completed their demystification of the Qin people and felt that they had a chance to defeat the Qin people and win the war.

Touman and others saw that Wang Li led his army back after a short journey without much damage to morale. They could see that Wang Li returned because the Donghu had no martial ethics and did not dare to engage in a fair fight. Instead, they used their numerical advantage to force the enemy. If the troops were equal, General Wang Li would definitely defeat the Donghu!

Moreover, Wang Ben was sitting on the horse calmly, not at all panicked. His attitude of having everything under control made Touman and others feel at ease.

Despite the minor setback caused by Wang Li sending troops to challenge the enemy, the Qin-Xiongnu joint army did not stop its advance and soon approached the critical distance between itself and the Donghu army on the cavalry battlefield.

As long as this distance is crossed, both sides can launch an effective charge on each other, and even if the other side can escape, it will suffer certain losses.

The King of Donghu and a group of Donghu leaders looked at the Qin-Xiongnu coalition. The Qin army and the Xiongnu in the coalition were easy to distinguish. The Qin army's weapons and armor were more sophisticated and of a more uniform style, while the Xiongnu's weapons and armor were varied, and some Xiongnu knights did not even have armor.

What made the King of Donghu and others even more delighted was that in this coalition army, although the Qin army had excellent weapons and armor, its number was only between 20,000 and 30,000, and the rest were all Huns.

What could the Huns accomplish?

He is nothing but a cowardly dog ​​who was once bullied by them and is now wagging his tail and begging for mercy at the Qin people!

As long as the Qin army is defeated, the Huns will not be a concern.

The King of Donghu also noticed that there were strange things in the coalition army, but he could not figure out what these thick copper tubes with two wheels were used for. Although he was a little concerned, the coalition army was already in front of him and they had no time to think about it carefully.

After reaching the critical distance, the Qin-Xiongnu coalition forces did not stop and continued to advance in the direction of the Donghu army. After breaking through the critical distance, their speed slowed down. They were no longer marching at a forced pace, but were advancing steadily step by step.

When the King of Donghu and other Donghu leaders saw that the Qin-Xiongnu coalition forces continued to advance, they realized that the commanding generals were forcing them to fight.

If they did not want to avoid fighting, they could only retreat or disperse, but ahead of the coalition forces was their base, where their livestock and their tribesmen were.

It is impossible to allow the coalition forces to advance there, otherwise the coalition forces will break through the garrison. Even if they are still alive, after losing their livestock and women, the Donghu general will be seriously injured and will be disabled if not dead.

But there was a huge disadvantage to the coalition forces doing this: it gave them the opportunity to complete the encirclement of the coalition forces, and they might have been able to wipe out all the members of the Qin-Xiongnu coalition forces.

When they thought of this result, an inexplicable glow appeared in the eyes of the Donghu King and a group of Donghu leaders. That would mean completely annihilating the Qin army. As long as it succeeded, the reputation of the Donghu would be known throughout the grassland: even the Qin army could be destroyed in their hands, so who would dare not submit?

This must be done. The King of Donghu looked at the leaders who came with him and could see each other's thoughts: to destroy this Qin army here and boost the power of Donghu!

Following the order of the King of Donghu, the Donghu army, led by various leaders, first avoided a head-on battle with the coalition forces, and moved to the rear and left and right sides of the coalition forces, forming an encirclement to surround the coalition forces.

But the generals commanding the coalition forces seemed unaware that they were in a dangerous encirclement and continued to advance forward.

This was exactly Wang Ben's strategy: cavalry was too mobile. If the Donghu cavalry were allowed to move, with so many of them running all over the mountains and plains, it would increase the difficulty of the coalition's operations. It would be difficult for the coalition to defeat them. Even if they were defeated, it would be difficult to severely damage and destroy the Donghu. The Donghu army must be concentrated to engage in a head-on battle with them.

Now, Wang Ben showed his intention to attack the Donghu people's base. As long as the Donghu people did not want their base to be destroyed and their people and livestock to be looted, they would choose to fight with the coalition forces. Wang Ben also deliberately gave the Donghu people the opportunity to form an encirclement, thinking that they had a chance of winning and further luring the Donghu people.

Wang Li had just led his troops to challenge Wang Ben, but was forced to withdraw. Although that was not Wang Ben's original intention, it also helped boost the morale of the Donghu, making them think that "the Qin army is nothing more than that."

This is a very risky thing to do. You must be sure that you can defeat the enemy head-on and break the enemy's encirclement before you can do it. Otherwise, this strategy will only result in the destruction of the entire army.

Wang Ben was very confident that the hot weapons troops that he and Wang Jian had trained for nearly a year would be able to surprise the Donghu people with the power of their artillery.

Seeing that the coalition forces slowed down again but continued to advance, the King of Donghu and a group of Donghu leaders became more convinced that the coalition forces were indeed forcing them to fight.

When the encirclement was completed, the trumpets of the Donghu sounded across the wilderness. It was the signal for the start of an attack, a war horn passed down by the Donghu thousands of years ago.

At the Donghu garrison, many Donghu people heard the horn sound and looked over here. Their gazes transcended the barrier of space and they saw the warriors of their tribe charging towards the enemy on the field.

Except for a small number of cavalrymen, the rest who stayed behind in the garrison were all the old, weak, women and children of the Donghu. All they can do now is to wait for the outcome of the battle. When the horn sounds, they should be able to win, right?
Suddenly, there were strange sounds, like thunder exploding in the sky. Many Donghu people were frightened, and the livestock were startled and screamed and jumped around. For a while, the whole garrison was filled with the sounds of cattle and horses neighing.

But the Donghu people had no time to pacify the frenzied livestock. They looked up at the sky. It was clearly a sunny day, so how could there be any signs of thunder?

But, if there was no thunder, where did that strange sound like thunder from the sky come from?

The strange sound did not stop and continued to be heard from the west. The Donghu people in the garrison had an ominous premonition.

(End of this chapter)