Chapter 289 The Great Breaking Bandit Army

Chapter 289 The Great Breaking Bandit Army

On the fierce battlefield, both warring parties did not notice the approaching sound of horse hooves in the valley to the west at first. They only fought hard with the enemy in front of them and tried their best to put their opponents to death.

When it comes to the level of armament and military appearance, there is still a big gap between the attacking bandit army and the defenders of Guangwu City. Except for the elite troops of the powerful chieftains, many barbarian soldiers have very inferior equipment. Some even charged forward just waving wooden sticks and stone spears.

But in addition to being more numerous, there is another thing about these barbarians that makes people feel awe-inspiring, that is, the desperado spirit that is undaunted by death and permeates their bodies.

Of course, they are not really not afraid of death, but they are very aware of their situation. The strong soldiers in those tribes also had their respective chiefs, Qushuai, to provide food and supplies, but they did not.

Only by conquering the city in front of them and rushing into the city to loot it could they obtain enough supplies to survive. But if they can't break the city, they will have no choice but to die. In this cruel winter and the long journey home, the chiefs will never give away precious materials to people other than their tribe's trusted friends.

Based on this awareness that countless people in similar situations have awakened with their lives, those barbarians attack desperately every time they face a battle. If they retreat, they will die, but if they advance, they will have a glimmer of hope.

The trusted men and horses of those tribal chiefs have a certain armed foundation, and their physical strength, morale and other conditions have also been maintained. In addition, the cannon fodder soldiers on the periphery have exhausted the enemy's physical strength, and they will be able to fight again when they go into battle. Enjoy the advantages.

Faced with an opponent who regarded their own lives as trivial even more than the enemy, the defenders of Guangwu City were miserable.

However, seeing the various desperate tactics of the thieves, they also knew that these enemies had no mercy at all and would only treat their enemies more cruelly than they would treat themselves. Therefore, the only way to survive was to fight hard to kill the enemies in front of them.

Under the persistent attack of the bandits, the ice shell outside the city wall had broken and fallen off, revealing the rammed earth wall itself. However, as the fighting on the top of the city became more and more fierce, the outer wall of the city wall was gradually covered with a layer of blood-colored frost, with some hair and flesh fragments sealed in it, making it shocking to look at.

The first to notice the enemy's reinforcements entering the battlefield were the thieves who remained on guard at several valley entrances.

Although most of the troops have been engaged in siege operations, and those who remained behind were already out of formation, they were still able to use their ears, eyes, and tongue. After discovering the enemy's movements, they immediately rushed back to report to the formation, and some The thieves remained where they were, retreating to the rear of the horse-rejecting defense line, raising their spears in an attempt to stop the approaching reinforcements.

For several days since the reinforcements arrived, they had been engaged in small-scale battles such as encircling and intercepting enemy scouts. Seeing the bandit army marching straight in to besiege Guangwu City, they were eager to fight in their hearts. Finally, they waited until the Governor gave the order. Participating in the war naturally made me feel very excited.

"You brave thief, how dare you stop me! Die!"

Following the roar of the commander in front, the front troops fired a volley of crossbows, killing the thieves who were still on the spot trying to resist into hedgehogs. There were also those with strong arms who waved their horseshoes to fly away or smash the thin and messy horses, allowing the people behind them to rush towards the battlefield unimpeded.

"It finally appeared..."

Liu Aqi, who was supervising the battle in the formation, saw the enemy reinforcements rushing out of the valley mouth with great momentum and quickly approaching the battlefield. He couldn't help but take a deep breath and raised his hand to rub his stiff cheeks, hoping to relax his tense heartstrings a little. When I got down, I prayed silently in my heart for a few times, and then loudly ordered: "Send the troops with gold, form a formation to meet the enemy, with spears in the front, and archers in the middle..."

Under Liu Aqi's instructions, all the rebel troops on the battlefield also quickly made tactical adjustments. They no longer fought on the front line of the city wall. Taking advantage of the fact that the enemy's light cavalry had not yet arrived on the battlefield, they withdrew one after another towards the Chinese army's headquarters. Get closer.

But not everyone obeys the military orders. Those Hu soldiers who are used as cannon fodder and consumables completely ignore the military orders conveyed from the rear.

They relied on their lonesome courage and paid a heavy price. They finally stepped on the corpses of their companions and climbed to the top of the city. They could break through the blockade on the city wall at any time and completely capture the city. How could they be willing to give up just like that? !

But this part of the Hu soldiers are not part of the backbone of the main force. Whether they retreat will not have much impact on the subsequent battle. Staying on the top of the city and continuing to attack the city can continue to put pressure on the defenders in the city and prevent them from responding internally and externally. .

The first to arrive on the battlefield were naturally the light cavalry troops. As the vanguard general, Li Yantou saw that the bandits were still hastily forming formations and immediately ordered a charge to the enemy's formation.

Thousands of light knights galloped past the enemy's line, their bows drawn in their hands, and half a bushel of arrows were thrown into the enemy's line.

The enemy's battle formation, which had not yet been solidly formed, suddenly became a bit chaotic, and there were many timid soldiers who retreated into the formation, making the battle line of the army formation as uneven as a wolf tearing apart a dog.

"Enter the battle and kill the enemy!"

Seeing the large and small gaps appearing in the rebel army's formation, Li Yantou immediately seized this opportunity, grabbed Ma Shan and took the lead in charging towards the corner of the enemy's formation.

The horse spear in his hand was like a dragon coming out of its hole. Although the enemy in the formation also raised his spear to assassinate and counterattack, the spear blade had not even hit the opponent, and he had already been pierced by the spear and knocked away.

The grown-up horse flew up and down in the enemy formation, and its indestructible sharp edge opened up a path of flesh and blood that was several feet wide. Under the tail-to-tail penetration of the people and horses at the rear, this corner of the enemy formation was completely separated from the main formation. When they came down, hundreds of Hu soldiers were forced to come out.

These barbarian soldiers were involuntarily swept out by the rapidly charging Qingqi. Seeing that the distance between them and the main group of troops was getting farther and farther, they were also panicking. They were about to move closer to the main formation desperately, but the Qingqi along the way... They went and came back again, with sharp blades piercing their bodies, and iron hooves trampling right over them!

"What a brutal enemy army..."

The soldiers in the bandit saw hundreds of living beings, but within a few dozen breaths they were all wiped out by the enemy like chopping melons and vegetables, except for the bloody stumps on the ground. Apart from broken arms and flesh and blood, there is almost no more evidence to prove that those barbarians once existed.

"Hold the formation and don't act rashly! As long as my formation is solid, it will be difficult for the enemy cavalry to break the formation..."

The military formation was filled with the roars of the commanders and chiefs. However, compared with the one-sided slaughter before, these words were really weak. The soldiers who were lined up in the front retreated into the formation one after another. Be willing to face the enemy head on.

Taking advantage of this majestic power and intimidation, Li Yantou led his troops to repeatedly infiltrate around the enemy's formation. Every time they passed by, a group of frightened Hu soldiers were trapped in the enemy's formation, making the enemy's formation more and more compressed and increasingly complex. It's getting more and more confusing.

"The number of enemy troops is small, don't panic! Hold tight... spread out on the left wing, spread out, let my cavalry come out!"

Although the enemy troops on the battlefield were divided into two groups, there were tens of thousands of troops gathered around the big banner, which far exceeded Li Yantou's thousands of light cavalry. If they could each perform their duties in the battle formation, Li Yan would The more than a thousand light and sharp soldiers at the head may not be able to shake this battle formation.

But today, all the troops are in panic and commotion, various orders and arrangements are not implemented at all, the battle array is in chaos, and even the Chinese army's banner is coerced by the chaotic fluctuations in the array and retreats for more than ten feet.

Seeing that the panicked soldiers were about to lose control, Liu Aqi simply ordered the supervising team to swing the butcher knife at the overly restless Hu soldiers in the formation. Anyone who could not maintain their position in the formation, wandered forward and backward and made noise, would be killed without mercy!

Under the shock of this intimidation, the rebel battle formation began to gradually stabilize from the inside to the outside, but the outer formation had been destroyed in a mess, and a full circle of debris was scattered around the battle formation as far as the eye could see. Their limbs and arms were broken, and at least more than a thousand Hu soldiers died in the enemy's swift and violent attack just now.

Seeing that the rebel army's formation was gradually stabilizing and that there was no opportunity for them to take advantage of it, Li Yantou stopped fighting and led his men and horses to move straight to the vicinity of Guangwu City on the south side of the battlefield, while letting his men and horses take a breather. , to regain their strength, one side of the soldiers pointed at the barbarian soldiers at the head of Guangwu City who were driven back one after another.

On top of the city, Li Mu and other garrison officers also saw the brave performance of Li Yantou and his men repeatedly attacking the enemy's formation, and they felt greatly inspired. They slashed harder.

"My sons, quickly defeat the bandit army at the top of the city, go out to meet Governor Li's reinforcements, and continue to kill the enemy side by side! The thieves are so bold that they invade our garrison. If we don't kill them all, we can strengthen the power of our army!"

Seeing Li Tai's powerful troops showing off their military prowess on the battlefield outside the city, Li Mu was happy and excited, but also felt a little bit disgusted.

As the governor of Dongxia Prefecture, he was accidentally surrounded by the rebels in Guangwu City with their superior strength, and his face was already somewhat disgraceful.

Li Tai is not as good as him in terms of qualifications and position, and he has no more elite troops than him. It is indeed touching to come to the rescue for his righteousness, but if Li Mu cannot seize the change of fighter opportunities and strive for some outstanding performance, he will inevitably feel even more ashamed.

So while he encouraged the soldiers to fight the enemy bravely at the top of the city, he also mobilized a group of elite men and horses to prepare to wear armor. When the barbarians on the top of the city were defeated, he would go out of the city with heavy armor to fight back, trying to win back some face.

Li Mu was still making plans here. The rear army led by Li Tai finally arrived at the battlefield. After taking a quick look at the latest situation on the battlefield, Li Tai ordered Li Dao to lead some troops. Cutting straight to the north along the periphery of the battlefield, they assumed a posture of wiping out all the bandits on the battlefield.

The rebel army on the opposite side gradually stabilized after experiencing the initial panic. When they saw Li Tai leading his troops to the battlefield, their originally tense heartstrings relaxed a lot, because they saw that Li Tai's troops were far outnumbered. My side is so powerful, so I feel a little contempt in my heart.

When they saw Li Tai's arrogant attitude, several Hu chiefs who felt humiliated couldn't help but jump to their feet and curse, and even ordered his cavalry to line up and rush to the opposite side, taking advantage of the enemy's unstable foothold. Let's go for a wave of interspersed raids and killings.

But when these people just came within shooting range, they were greeted by a wave of powerful arrows.

Li Tai has accumulated a lot of experience in fighting Jihu, and he knows that no matter which Jihu team he has, they all have one thing in common, which is that the rate of being attacked is not high. Therefore, when fighting with Jihu, other armed ordnance is not too important, only long-range offensive weapons such as bows and arrows must be given priority.

Of course, under normal circumstances, even with such experience, there may not be enough rations, otherwise Li Mu would not have been almost defeated by the rebels because he underestimated the enemy. Although Jihu was so-so, the Western Wei army was far from being able to Generous.

However, Li Tai led his troops directly northward from the Baishui Grand Review. One of the major contents of the review was hunting, so naturally a large number of bows and arrows were prepared in advance. Yuwen Tai allocated funds and the Dushui Administration had already prepared materials for the review, so Li Tai naturally had to get enough bows and arrows to equip the army.

Although this bandit army was much stronger than those Li Tai had fought before, it was only in numbers, and this feature was not improved much. Therefore, when these light cavalry Hu soldiers just entered the range, they were immediately shot and knocked down in batches.

The bandit army wanted to copy the hunting moment of Li Yantou and his men before, but they didn't expect to be actively sending heads. There were many cavalrymen who went out to fight, but almost none of them could really impact the enemy formation. Thousands of people and horses just went straight into the battlefield against the so-called cavalry charge.

When the situation exceeded the conventional cognition, the sense of oppression suddenly surged into the heart again.

Seeing that the enemy was not afraid of the charge of the light cavalry, Liu Ahqi immediately ordered to form a sword and shield formation, and at the same time the cavalry withdrew to the two wings, and the infantry formation was deployed on the battlefield, in order to once again overwhelm the enemy on the battlefield with the advantage of military strength.

When he saw the enemy army spread out and occupy various places, Li Tai frowned slightly, and immediately ordered the team to speed up the pace to advance towards the enemy's central army.

He was not afraid of being surrounded by the enemy army. This kind of encirclement that could not withstand a single force would have limited effect no matter how large it was. However, it would be difficult to gather and annihilate the enemy's central army after the enemy's horses were scattered, so he had to quickly destroy the enemy's central army command system.

On the battlefield, both sides made arrangements that were beneficial to their own side. The encirclement of the enemy army soon opened more than half, as if a ferocious beast's huge mouth was slowly opening and closing, trying to swallow up all the thousands of Li Tai's troops.

Li Tai's troops were not far from the enemy's central army's banner. When the enemy's drums suddenly turned into a loud voice and the troops on the battlefield accelerated to encircle, Li Tai also issued an order to attack.

Fifty strong soldiers in the army turned over and dismounted, and each general put on his armor. At the same time, there were auxiliary soldiers beside them to put on armor for their respective mounts. Soon, fifty heavily armored cavalrymen armed to the teeth appeared on the battlefield and rushed towards the enemy's banner. Although the speed was not too fast, it was unstoppable. It was almost effortless to break through the enemy's central army defense line, like a red-hot iron clamp piercing straight into the condensed wax block, and the obstruction in front of them was irreversibly melted.

Li Tai led his own troops to follow behind the fifty heavily armored cavalrymen, and deeply embedded in the enemy's army before the enemy's formation formed an encirclement, and opened left and right. The soldiers rode forward bravely, and carved a bloody firework on the battlefield with the bows and swords in their hands!

Fifty heavy-armored cavalrymen had a clear target and continuously launched attacks on the enemy's central army banner. Although the bandit army set up defenses and tried to resist, the flesh and blood still could not stop this steel-forged killing machine.

Liu Ahqi shouted at all his might to return to help, but he was still powerless to see those heavy-armored cavalrymen getting closer and closer to him, so he could only order his personal soldiers to carry the banner and move back.

As the flags and drums of the bandit army moved, the offensive of Li Tai's troops became more and more fierce. Without effective dispatch and command, the bandit army's formation was stagnant and difficult to move, and the troops in various areas could not respond effectively.

Li Tai did not participate in the front-line battle again, but climbed the high ground where the bandit army's banner was located before, surrounded by his personal soldiers, overlooking the battlefield, and carried out various clutch dispatches on the soldiers through drums and horns, encircling and dividing the bandit army on the battlefield and annihilating them one by one.

When the initiative on the battlefield changes, it is undoubtedly a disaster for the passive party.

Even though the bandit army still has far more troops than Li Tai's side, because there is no sensitive and effective coordination and dispatch, it is completely a panic response. The troops have already fallen into the dilemma of fighting on their own, and they are completely unable to match the organized and efficient harvesting and killing.

When all efforts cannot reverse the decline, collapse becomes inevitable. It was the first time that Li Tai saw the defeat of tens of thousands of troops. He only saw all kinds of dust flying around, people crowded, and all kinds of chaotic noises. In such a chaotic scene, even he lost his overall judgment and control of the battlefield for a while, and it was difficult to issue orders to his subordinates to intercept and encircle them in the first time. He could only stand here and let the captains of the troops in various places play their own roles.

"Quick, quick, dig open the city gate! Drop the rope on the top of the city wall and go out to kill the enemy!"

In Guangwu City, when Li Mu saw that the main force of the bandit army outside the city was defeated by Li Tai's troops, he suddenly became anxious. Although there were still some bandit soldiers on the city wall that had not been cleared, he could not hold back and urged his subordinates to go out of the city to fight. He was not greedy for merit, but just hoped to save his lost face through a side-by-side battle.

The bandit army's full-line collapse soon returned to the camp in the rear. There were still some reserve troops and the elderly, weak, women and children in the camp. When they saw the defeated army rushing towards the camp, the troops left in the camp did not have the courage to go out of the camp to help in an attempt to save the situation, but hurriedly picked up the supplies in the camp and fled across the camp.

"Young master, our army has been defeated. Liu Duhou asked the slaves to escort the young master out of the camp to join the retreat..."

Several soldiers of the central army rushed into the tent in the camp in a panic and reported to the young master Liu Kuzhen in the tent.

After hearing this, Liu Kuzhen's face turned pale, and he murmured: "This stupid slave, this stupid slave is still boasting... Fortunately, I only said that I would take in his daughter after victory, so it doesn't count now! How many guards are there outside the camp now?"

"There are still 500 elite soldiers, enough to escort the young master to evacuate!"

After hearing the sergeant's report, Liu Kuzhen shook his head and said: "Nonsense, the evil slave is still lying to me! Tens of thousands of troops are still defeated, how can a few hundred guards protect my safety. I won't leave, I can't go out, there are enemies outside the camp, I am still a distinguished nobleman if I stay in this big tent, and after leaving the camp, what's the difference between me and those lowly soldiers?"

While speaking, he hurriedly ordered all the guards outside the tent to come in and surround him. He did not allow these soldiers to wear armor and carry weapons, but wrapped a lot of silk and brocade around their bodies, and he himself had more.

"I am a noble in the clan, and a living person is more valuable than a dead body. Even if the enemy soldiers can't tell the difference, they will not be willing to pierce me with swords and guns when they see the silk and satin on my body. You can just guard me, it is much safer than running away from the camp!" After making these arrangements, although Liu Kuzhen still looked uneasy, he still sat down in the big tent with a stiff upper lip, and had already written himself a fate of being captured by the enemy.