Entrepreneurship in the Late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 63 Iron Beast
After the Nanzhao army appeared at the foot of the slope, Zhao Huaian immediately ordered Zhao Liu to wave the military flag and order the entire army to attack.

No formation is needed, just rush down and capture and kill the enemy general.

Just like the Nanzhao knight Duan Zhongjian's judgment, Zhao Huaian also believed that this battle would be won, but the reason was not those empty ones, there was only one point.

That is, after the Nanzhao army defeated the Fengxiang army in the east, they took off their clothes and armor and put them on the baggage carts behind them and marched.

What is the status of the thousands of people under his command in Baoyi?

The army consisted of 780 officers and soldiers, 430 of whom were in iron armor, and the rest were also wearing rhinoceros leather armor. It could be said that the armor rate was 100%.

At this moment, except for Sun Tai and Zhao Hu who stayed under their flag with some Beiwei as a reserve, the remaining fourteen teams all rushed straight into the confused Nanzhao army convoy like tigers descending from the mountains.

This was the first time that Zhao Huaian did not lead the charge, but stayed on a high place to take in the overall situation. So even though he was very confident, he couldn't help but hold the knife handle at this moment.

We must win this time!
……

When Zhao Huaian stood on the slope and took in the overall situation, he saw that the first to rush into the Nanzhao convoy were a group of armored soldiers from Beiwei. Among them, one warrior was the most courageous, and he was at the front.

This man was wearing three layers of armor: an iron skirt armor at the bottom, a chain mail armor inside, a leather and iron skirt armor tied around his waist, chain mail arm guards on both arms, and a leather and iron body armor on his chest and back.

Finally, he put on an iron shoulder pad, leather and iron arm armor, and a helmet with flip-up ears, and held a long-handled iron bone pistol in his hand, and rushed into the Nanzhao army like an iron beast.

He is Han Qiong, Han Yaozi, who was knocked unconscious by Zhao Huaian before.

Through the gap in the iron face of his helmet, Han Qiong stared intently at the iron-clad Nanzhao general not far away. The octagonal helmet with precious feathers on his head revealed his identity.

Han Qiong's eyes were sharp, and he thought to himself:
"That man must be the enemy commander. I must capture and kill him and present him to the commander."

After the fight with Zhao Huaian, Han Qiong was completely convinced.

Now he wanted to stand out among the Beiwei people and become a team leader to live up to his bravery, and that enemy general was the stepping stone for him, Han Yaozi, to advance.

After casually killing two reckless Nanzhao enemy soldiers, he ran straight towards the Nanzhao commander.

……

At this moment, although Wumenglong on the opposite side was in chaos, he quickly organized a defense.

He arranged the archers in the army into three rows, charging towards the Tang army rushing down the hillside, and then organized the spearmen and lancemen in the team to form a formation on the dirt road. As for the remaining sword and shieldmen, they immediately took advantage of the time to put on armor.

Wu Menglong himself took out a longbow as tall as a person. He was known as the best archer among the thirty-six tribes in eastern Yunnan, and it was with this longbow that he became famous.

When other people use bows, they only string them before a battle and keep the bowstring loose at other times. But Wu Menglong is different. He always carries a strung longbow with him, even if it damages the bowstring.

This was a habit he developed while hunting in the jungle, because you never know what kind of beast you might encounter next.

It is this habit that comes in handy at this moment.

Wu Menglong held up the longbow, took the five armor-piercing arrows handed to him by the guard with his left hand, then put the arrow on the bow with his right hand, pulled the bow to most of its length, and shot the armor-piercing arrows out.

Afterwards, Wu Menglong took the arrows directly from his left hand and started firing again, shooting five arrows in a row in an instant.

Because the Baoyi people rushed down the hillside in a dense crowd, although Wu Menglong did not aim deliberately, he still shot four of them.

The four armored soldiers of Baoyi Du wailed and fell to the ground after being shot by arrows.

At this moment, the guards surrounding Wu Menglong saw the army leader's sharpshooting skills and shouted loudly, their morale boosted.

But it was precisely this person's high profile that attracted the attention of Baoyi's team leaders.

Those who were close by, such as Sun Chuanwei, Han Tong, and Qian Tiefo, roared excitedly after seeing the enemy general with feathers on his head, and led their troops to charge towards this side.

But the Nanzhao army's convoys were all parked on the dirt road, and the middle was crowded with Nanzhao soldiers. They were holding their rifles and blocking the outside. Even if Sun Chuanwei and others wanted to, they could only sigh helplessly and could not get through at all for a while.

On the contrary, it was this crowded and congested environment that became Wu Menglong's enemy. Under the cover of the guards holding shields, he raised his longbow and shot the armored soldiers of the Baoyi Army.

Some other Nanzhao soldiers also took out their crossbows from their waists, strung them and fought back.

For a time, the Nanzhao army stabilized the situation that was on the verge of collapse.

Unfortunately, Wu Menglong and his guards were all holding shields to block the surroundings, so they didn't see at all that a group of Tang army armored soldiers were approaching in a rain of blood.

……

Three more people became the dead souls under Han Qiong's iron bone flower.

He couldn't help but sigh that his companions were indeed different from each other.

Before, their group would only chase after him to get the head, but now that they were at Beiwei, these companions tried their best to cover his two sides, allowing him to charge without worry.

At this moment, he was even more eager to achieve military exploits and win glory and rewards for his companions.

But the miscellaneous soldiers in front were too much of a hindrance. They were crowded together, and although these people had no armor, they could all be killed by his iron armor.

But there are too many of these people.

At this moment, Han Qiong saw a group of comrades coming from the flank and shouted:
"Hurry up and clear out these miscellaneous soldiers."

As he spoke, Han Qiong ignored the ugly expression of the leader leading the group of people, and squeezed through them with Beiwei behind him, leaving the battlefield to these people.

With the addition of his comrades, Han Qiong and his men got closer and closer.

A long spear swept across, and Han Qiong did not dodge at all. He relied on his armor to resist, then turned around and hit the man's lower abdomen with the Iron Bone Pole, causing the man to vomit blood and fall to the ground.

Afterwards, Han Qiong led the team forward without stopping, bravely shouting loudly, even until his voice became hoarse.

Just as they were about to approach the commander, Han Qiong suddenly spotted a group of armored soldiers approaching. They had been donning their armor in the rear, protected by the rest of the Nanzhao army, and now, finally, they were ready and immediately approached their commander.

At this moment, Han Qiong could no longer bear it, and he shouted to the six Beiwei warriors behind him:

"Son of a bitch, we have to kill that guy this time, otherwise when those armored soldiers come and surround us, we'll all die. Fight with me!"

As he spoke, Han Qiong directly untied his outermost leather and iron armor, and then wearing only chain mail, he took a big axe from the attendant next to him, and rushed inside with a roar.

The six Beiwei warriors at the back were also provoked by Han Qiong. They took off their outermost iron armor, each holding a sword, an axe, a mace, and a hammer, and rushed forward like crazy with Han Qiong.

Han Qiong and others crossed over piles of corpses. In the process, a warrior tripped and fell, but he quickly jumped up with the help of his companions and caught up.

At this moment, the Nanzhao army and Baoyi were all killed in a group, with no formation and fighting in chaos.

The situation is very tense.

……

Standing on the hillside, Zhao Huaian had a panoramic view of the situation on the battlefield. He never expected the battle to turn out like this.

Although the Nanzhao troops had no armor, they relied on lances, bows and crossbows to occupy advantageous terrain and withstand the charge of the Baoyi Du soldiers.

He could even frequently see some tribal soldiers armed only with short weapons, fearlessly rushing out of the formation and launching a desperate charge against Bao Yidu's iron soldiers.

And they were committing suicide just to buy time for their companions in the rear to put on their armor.

At this moment, Zhao Huaian realized that he had overlooked something before.

Duan Zhongjian had told him before that this Nanzhao army was one of the thirty-six tribes in eastern Yunnan, so these people must have come from the same tribe, and they were either brothers or uncles and nephews.

This blood-bound team is really strong when they fight for their lives.

Zhao Huaian saw that the enemy commander had shot down another of his own soldiers with a longbow, and his eyes became even colder. Wang Jin beside him saw this and volunteered:
"General, I will go down and shoot this beast for you."

Wang Jin had the confidence to take the enemy's head amidst thousands of troops.

But Zhao Huaian did not agree. He had to leave a reserve force to deal with the worst case scenario.

What was the worst-case scenario? It was that the Nanzhao army in Tang'an City on the other side of the river would see the fighting and send reinforcements.

If he threw all his troops there, and the enemy reinforcements arrived, he would be doomed.

This is the hardship of starting a business at the bottom like Zhao Huaian. He can win countless times, but if he loses once in the early stage, he will be eliminated in this game of power.

So even though the battle would be tense, Zhao Huaian still did not release the reserve team. He had firm confidence that victory would definitely belong to him.

Although the number of the enemy's armored soldiers was increasing, they were still fewer than those on his side.

Zhao Huaian was comforting her when suddenly his defenses broke down.

Damn it, if the armored soldiers that Zhao Daqian had worked so hard to gather can't defeat these unarmored Nanzhao tribal soldiers, then they are pure waste.

At this moment, he finally shouted to the people below:
"Whoever kills the enemy general will be promoted to team commander and rewarded with 100 strings of cash!"

All the Beiwei people on the hillside roared together, their voices echoing throughout the entire place.

……

On the hillside, Han Qiong heard the bounty offered by the general, and he finally got to the enemy general.

But at this moment, he did not feel any excitement in his heart, he just felt that the blood in his body was freezing.

It turned out that in front of him, Wu Menglong was holding his longbow, with an arrow pointed at him.

The armor-piercing arrow in this man's hand had an arrow head as big as a chisel, with the tip separated to the left and right. The entire arrow blade was like a crescent moon, revealing a murderous cold light.

Such a heavy arrow would cut off even a human calf, let alone gold or iron.

At the moment when he was pointed at by such an arrow, Han Qiong felt a tightness in his heart and his eyes went dark. At this moment, he thought of his great-grandmother who had died many years ago. Maybe he should go to see her.

But no one expected that the arrow would not be shot out.

The bow in Wu Menglong's hand had not been released for a long time, and so many arrows had been shot continuously before, so it finally reached the critical point.

The moment he pulled the bowstring hard, the bowstring broke completely. The rebounding bowstring hit Wu Menglong's eyes directly, blinding him instantly.

There was a sharp pain in his eyes, but Wu Menglong didn't care at all at this moment. He covered his eyes and shouted frantically to the people around him:

"Protect me quickly!"

Of course he could not forget that just five steps away, the Tang army's tiger guards were pouncing on him like hungry tigers.

But just as he finished speaking, Wu Menglong was knocked to the ground by a huge force. Before he could see what was happening, a sharp pain came from his neck, and then it was completely dark.

The next moment, Han Qiong, covered in blood, held up the withered and bleeding head of Wumeng Long Diao and shouted madly:

"Here's the enemy general's head! Why don't you surrender immediately?"

Zhao Huaian, who was standing on the hillside not far away, saw this sentence and the whole scene. He jumped up and shouted to Wang Jin beside him:

"This little Han is truly a match for ten thousand men!"

(End of this chapter)