Han Dang is stronger

Chapter 542 Decisive Battle against the Huns (4)

Even Xiang Kang, who has seen countless turbulent waves, has only seen such a huge and chilling scene when he met the Zhang Han Corps of the Qin Army in its heyday on the Suiyang battlefield.

On the snow-covered land, there are neat formations of Xiongnu cavalry lined up in patches. The left and right wings start from Heihuliang, west of Bantian Ridge in the west, and reach Xiaofeng Mountain more than ten miles away in the east. All kinds of dragon flags, eagle flags and wolf flags cover the mountains and fields, like a dense forest, and the soldiers and horses are densely packed, almost like an ocean. What is even more daunting is that with so many soldiers lined up, there are almost no soldiers in the Xiongnu army. No human voice could be heard, only the horse neighing continuously, showing the demeanor of a strictly disciplined iron army.

That’s not to mention, when the [-] Han troops stopped three miles to the south and formed an emergency formation, first a Mingdi roared and shot out from the banner formation of the Xiongnu army, and then before the Mingdi landed, more than [-] troops The Xiongnu soldiers drew their bows and released their arrows at the same time, and shot out more than [-] cymbals almost at the same time, bursting out like a huge whistling sound like a storm, which directly numb the eardrums of every Han soldier.

Fortunately, Xiang Kang personally commanded the [-] front troops of the Han army to the north, all of which were the core elite of the Han army stationed in Guanzhong. Not only did every soldier have received strict training, but there were also countless soldiers in the army who had participated in the anti-Qin war The elites of the civil war with the vassals were naturally not intimidated by the Xiongnu's head start. Even though they were inevitably a little nervous, they still arranged their battle formations in an orderly manner and quickly formed an equally tight and orderly infantry battle formation.

During this period, Zang Tu, who hated Xiang Kang so much, didn't dare to neglect, and hurriedly said to Maodun who was sitting high in the middle of the flag formation: "Khan, you can't let the tyrant's army form a formation smoothly. Infantry is best at battle. If we let them form a formation smoothly, our next battle will definitely be difficult. The minister suggested that we should send troops to the formation immediately, and the formation of the tyrant army has not been formed yet."

Mao Dun was also a person who never talked about etiquette and rules in battle. After nodding his head, he immediately ordered the banner to be raised, and ordered the soldiers on the two wings of the Huns to send [-] troops each to attack the two wings of the unformed Han army at full speed. Disrupt the formation of the Han army to facilitate the next main attack.

At the same time, Li Zuoche, Xiang Guan and others also confirmed on the Bantianling Highland that Xiang Kang personally led the army to fight the Huns. He scolded: "Shameless barbarians, it's fine to set up a battle formation first and wait for work, but they don't want to give us a chance to form an formation. This is troublesome, brother..., His Majesty is notoriously bad at formation battles."

"Don't worry." Li Zuoche said calmly: "Your Majesty personally led the army to the north to lure the enemy to a decisive battle. What he brought must be our core elite. This little trick of the Huns will not trouble them. Also, Your Majesty is not good at Compared with the masters of Western Chu King Xiang Yu and Zhang Han, it is definitely more than enough to deal with the barbarians of the Xiongnu who only like to attack and fight. We just need to rest assured and wait for the good show."

According to Li Zuo's prediction, although the Xiongnu cavalry screamed strangely and immediately rushed into the formation, the Han soldiers who were still forming the formation were still not at all chaotic. When the cavalry rushed to the range of the crossbow arrows of the Han army, they completed the formation, and then waved the command flag of the Han army flag array.

This is also the first time that the poor Hun cavalry encountered the elite crossbow arrows of the Han army. The Xiongnu cavalry team also fell off their horses suddenly, and there was a constant sound of people shouting and neighing. Accurately, almost all of them were shot into the crowd of Hun cavalry, shooting each of the Hun cavalry off their horses one by one, and shooting the horses so that they screamed, running around uncontrollably, and the formation quickly became chaotic.

"Immediately go and pick up some barbarian crossbow bolts."

After Maodu issued the order with a blank face, soon a guard flew forward, picked up some crossbow arrows shot by Han soldiers and brought them to Maodu. Sure enough, they were all black iron arrowheads, and he couldn't help snorting, "As expected of the army led by the barbarian emperor, all of them are iron arrows, no wonder our losses are so great. But it's good, we won this battle, We could make a fortune."

At this time, after paying a heavy price, the Xiongnu cavalry had successfully rushed to the front of the Han army for close combat. As a result, Zang Tu, Xiang Guan and others who were familiar with Xiang Kang's temper were surprised that Xiang Kang did not let the two wings change into a Zang Tu, who had heard that Xiang Kang is not good at battles, was overjoyed and said in his heart: "Okay, the more you underestimate the enemy, the more important it is for us to fight against the king's restoration of the country." more hopeful."

The cruel facts soon stunned Zang Tu's eyes. Amidst the shouts of killing, the soldiers of the Han army lined up brandished knives in the front row, stabbed spears in the back row, and waved strange shields with two iron hooks (hooks). Inlaid, see Chapter 48 of this book) parrying the weapons of the Huns cavalry, they quickly counteracted the offensive of the Xiongnu soldiers. The Huns cavalry who were forced to dismount without stirrups and fought were not only unable to advance an inch, but were killed by the Han soldiers on the contrary. They retreated steadily, and the Xiongnu cavalry who were hiding behind and shooting arrows were also shot with heavy casualties by the feathered arrows thrown by the Han army, screaming constantly.

Mao Dun had already stood up, walked to the edge of the high ground, and tried his best to look at the scene ahead. Seeing that the Hun cavalry were fighting so passively, Mao Dun was inevitably very surprised, and said to himself: "What's going on? Even the barbarian army is Elite, the equipment is much better than ours, and we also have advantages in physical strength and arm strength, how did they fight like this?"

"Khan, our attack is not going well, do you want to send another army forward?" King Zuoxian asked hurriedly beside him.

Mao Dun shook his head and said, "Don't worry, there is no chance to stop the barbarians from forming an array anyway, tell the front team to come back first, you go ask the soldiers who are fighting, why are we playing so passively?"

According to Mao Dun's order, the Huns who had failed to attack quickly withdrew their team amidst the cheers of the generals of the Han army after dropping corpses all over the ground. Not long after that, King Zuo Rijian was the first to rush back to Maodun, and said: "Qi Da Khan, I have basically asked clearly. There are two main reasons why our close combat is not going well. One is the barbarian soldiers. The leather armor we wear is sewn with iron plates to protect the vital points. Our weapons are difficult to cut or pierce. The second is the weird Taike used by the barbarians. Our bronze pecks can be hooked easily with two iron hooks. Stop our peck, so that our peck can't be retracted immediately to launch a second attack, and then the iron knife of the barbarian soldier can take the opportunity to hit our soldier, and there are spikes in the front of the strange shield, which can be used directly Shields kill people, our soldiers are not used to this kind of weapon, so they fight very badly."

As he said that, King Zuo Rijian also presented a hook-inlaid shield that a Hun soldier had snatched by chance. Modu just took a cursory glance, and immediately found that the two iron hooks on the hook-inlaid shield were indeed easy to hook. The bronze peck used as a melee weapon, and the spikes on the front can also be directly used as weapons, and he couldn't help but uttered annoyed, "You barbarian, how could you come up with such a weapon? Now it's hard for us not to suffer in melee combat."

"Khan, no matter how difficult it is to fight, you have to fight." King Zuo Xian said hurriedly: "The rear army of the barbarians in the Central Plains has probably already begun to dispatch. We must hurry up and destroy the front team of the barbarians, otherwise we will wait for the rear army of the barbarians." When the brigade arrives, our battle will be even more difficult.”

Mao Dun nodded expressionlessly, and then said: "It seems that it can only rely on the number of people, order, send [-] troops from the left and right wings, rush to the flanks of the barbarian army, and then send [-] troops from the left wing, and detour to the barbarian army. If there is an opportunity in that battlefield, give me a fierce attack on that battlefield!"

After the order was conveyed, the Xiongnu army suddenly strengthened, [-] cavalry rushed out from the two wings, howled and charged at the sides of the Han army's two wings, and another [-] troops detoured forward, interspersed to the Han army's rear and waited for orders. Therefore, we should remain unchanged and respond to all changes without making any adjustments, and let the Han army soldiers meet the enemy on their own. At the same time, they ordered the Han army soldiers on the positions of the Chinese army who were not attacked by the enemy to hurry up and eat, and prepare for a decisive battle that is destined to be long.

The fierce fierce battle quickly broke out again. After overcoming the rain of arrows from the Han army, the Xiongnu cavalry who came from the two wings all chose to go up to close combat with [-] soldiers, leaving [-] troops to hide behind and shoot arrows. Resolutely stabilize the ground, line up a dense horizontal team to stand firm, and use the advantage of equipment to fight to the death with the tall Hun cavalry. Huns archers.

The huge shouts of killing and the clashing of gold and iron quickly drowned out all the sounds on the battlefield. During the fierce battle, the soldiers of the two armies kept pecking and pecking each other with their knives, spears and axes. , penetrated into the muscles, the spear pierced the body, brought bloody arrows, the ax and the copper peck kept chopping off the head, cutting off the limbs and arms, the blood and brains sprayed together, the soldiers in the front row just fell, and the companions behind immediately took their places, Continuing to greet the enemy facing the enemy with red eyes, there were feathered arrows whizzing and criss-crossing in the sky, falling into the rear teams of both sides, and taking away the lives of the soldiers of the two armies who were hiding behind and shooting arrows.

"Long live the sweat!" The Huns soldiers shouted one after another, motivating more Huns cavalry to move forward crazily, even though the front was already crowded with blood.

"Long live the big man!" This is the roar of the soldiers of the Han army in response. Accompanied by these shouts, there are also ring-headed iron knives slashed frantically, sharp iron spears stabbed hard, and hook inlays that Xiang Kang obtained mass production after he became the throne. The shield played a huge role in the fierce battle, effectively restraining the bronze peck, a close-combat weapon of the Xiongnu cavalry, which greatly offset the combat effectiveness of these grassland bandits.

The battle situation fell into a stalemate, and Maodun finally began to lose his composure. After careful calculation, Maodun decisively dispatched [-] cavalry soldiers to assist in shooting, and covered the Han army's position with the best bows and arrows of the Huns cavalry. It finally had a certain effect. The soldiers of the Han army who could not use the crossbows all relied on the rear team to shoot back with bows and arrows. They suffered a lot in terms of attack frequency. Under the cover of the Huns' dense feather arrows, the casualties began to increase, and the right-wing position also began. Loosening occurred, and they were forced to shrink their positions to strengthen their defenses.

The Xiongnu cavalry who turned around to the back were waiting for this opportunity. As soon as they saw the right wing of the Han army shrinking their positions, the Hun cavalry behind immediately shouted to kill, surrounded the right wing of the Han army on three sides, and continued to attack the right wing of the Han army. Helpless, he could only quickly raise the banner and order the right-wing Han army to transform into a circular formation to strengthen defense.

During this period, Chen Ping, who came with the army, made a suggestion to Xiang Kang, saying: "Your Majesty, should we use that kind of weapon? As long as we use that kind of weapon, our right wing will be able to turn the crisis into safety immediately."

Xiang Kang shook his head and said: "It must not be used until the last moment. It is best to save it for a full-scale counterattack, so that we have a chance to severely damage the main force of the Huns and barbarians."

Of course, Xiang Kang's deliberate retention made the [-] Han soldiers on the right suffer. They were already at a disadvantage in terms of strength. One choice, all the phalanxes and conical formations were forced to turn into circular formations to meet the enemy, and several thousand-man formations were forced to fuse themselves, helping each other and gritting their teeth to persevere. , exerting tremendous pressure on the right-wing Han army all the time.

Fortunately, after all, the generals of the Han army have an advantage in equipment. No matter how critical the situation is, they still survived the sudden intensified offensive of the Huns cavalry, gradually stabilized their positions, and brought the battle into a stalemate again. Due to the superiority in the equipment of self-made weapons, in the fierce battle, the Hun soldiers were killed and injured, and the corpses were strewn all over the ground.

Seeing that the opportunity for the right wing to finally appear gradually disappeared, and looked up to see that it was getting late and the light was gradually weakening, Maodu inevitably became anxious in his heart. After careful calculation, Maodu simply dispatched to the right wing of the Han army again. The [-] new force stepped up the offensive, and at the same time sent [-] troops to detour to the left wing of the Han army, and rushed behind the left wing of the Han army, trying to drown the Han army on both wings with the crowd tactics, and at the same time lured Xiang Kang to send troops from the central army to rescue wings.

Xiang Kang, who was not good at battle, was really fooled. Seeing that the right wing was even more tense, and the left wing was also besieged by the Huns, Xiang Kang first ordered all the torches to be lit in the central army positions, and then he said to himself: "Yes! It's time to be fooled, use the flag to draw [-] troops from the central army's position and march eastward to reinforce our right wing."

The flag was raised, and the [-] Han troops in the central army's position immediately shouted and rushed out, charging towards the right-wing position that was already crowded with people. Mao Dun was overjoyed when he saw it, and immediately ordered: "Order the whole army, light the torches, Prepare for the night battle! Zuo Xianwang, you personally lead [-] fine cavalry to the back of the barbarian's central army in the Central Plains, and find an opportunity to attack the back of the barbarian's central army. You Xianwang, you lead [-] fine cavalry and [-] archers Arrive at the front of the battle and wait for orders. When you hear the drums, immediately attack the barbarians in the Central Plains. The rest of the elite cavalry will be commanded by Ben Khan himself!"

"Your Guli King, you lead [-] cavalry to monitor the barbarian army on Bantianling Mountain, and always prevent them from going down the mountain to rescue the barbarian emperor!"

Mao Dun did not dare to forget that Li Zuoche, the Han army who was still capable of fighting in the first battle, was under Li Zuoche's command. Li Zuoche had also been silently watching the battlefield at the foot of the mountain from the high ground of Bantianling. He suddenly burst out laughing, and said with a smile: "It is a correct tactic to dilute our central army by storming our two wings, and then gather elite troops to besiege our flag formation. But it is a pity, with our majesty's temper, how could we Don't bring that army? How could he not keep that army by his side to obey his orders? Get ready to suffer big losses and be deceived."

After the sneer, Li Zuoche decisively issued an order to tell the Han army soldiers on the Bantianling Highland to hurry up and feed their horses, eat more dinner, and bring more torches to prepare for the night battle. Then Li Zuoche smiled and said: "If there is no accident, Since our Majesty dares to use the remaining hundreds of thousands of troops as the rear army, Uncle Zhou must be in command. Taiwei Zhou, it’s up to you. When will you be able to bring the rear army to the battlefield, this battle will be sure. When will the winner be determined?"

(End of this chapter)