Chapter 82 Ride by Step

The crisp applause was heard clearly in the big tent. Sun Shao and Cao Zhang looked at each other and smiled, but only they knew what they were laughing at.

Sun Shao immediately agreed with Cao Zhang to move the camp back five miles to ensure that he could protect the rear of the Allies while maintaining a certain distance. Cao Zhang hid the cavalry behind him to prevent the Sassanids from breaking through from both wings. At the same time, he had to hide his traces so that the Sassanids could not see their shadows.

Sun Shao's destruction camp is not completely a step-by-step cavalry, but there are relatively few cavalry, a total of less than 2,000. Some of these people are Liaodong elite riders sent by Su's thick legs, with Yuqiu Jian as the cavalry general, and the other part was formed by the Guan family's personal guards in those years, with Zhao Feng as the cavalry generals. This part of the people once followed him from Xiang at the beginning. The city rushed back to Xiangyang, which was a great gift given to him by Guan Yu. The strength of these guards is not bad. Needless to say, the equipment is the best, and the training has not been relaxed. The state has been very good. After arriving at Aksum, in order to adapt to the march in the desert, they also specially trained to ride camels to fight. Speaking of all-round battles. Shi, it's just that he hasn't had a chance to make contributions after him over the years, so he doesn't have a good reputation.

This time, Sun Shao used these two thousand guards to put them on both sides. This is a relatively common formation. Both the Han and the Romans are used to this formation. Even the Sassanians are familiar with this formation. They often use this formation in battle, but their cavalry ratio is high. , and the pawns are all troops with poor equipment and weak strength. Most of the time, they are used as cannon fodder. In the end, they have to rely on the cavalry to determine the victory or defeat, so they are slightly different from the formation of the Han and Romans, which are mainly pawns.

Although Cao Zhang hid the cavalry in the rear, he often came to Sun Shao's camp himself. He was curious about what weapons Sun Shao would use to kill a large number of Sassanians, but what confused him was that in addition to arranging people to bury a large number of horses in front of the battle, Sun Shao let people dig several pits, and the width and depth of the pits were It's standard enough to make the cavalry fall in and can't jump.

If there is an accident, it is not only the slaves or the people who dug the pit, but also the soldiers of each heavy battalion led a few slaves to make a strange-shaped machine. The machine made a deafening roar. Cao Zhang is not strange. These steam engines are used a lot in the coal mines of Bingzhou. In recent years, technological progress It is very obvious that in more than ten years, the body size has become smaller and smaller, leaving only half of the size of the model Sun Shao gave him at the beginning, but the surname energy is getting higher and higher, about twice, and the stable surname has also made great progress. It is simply fast and good to dig pits.

"Is that all?" Cao Zhang pointed to those roaring machines and asked puzzledly, "With this, do you want to kill more than 10,000 Sassanians?"

"What does this have to do with you?" Sun Shao asked, "We agreed that if I can't kill 15,000 Sassanids, you can stay still. Don't inquire about military secrets casually. This is common sense. Don't you understand it?

"And!" Cao Zhang knew that Sun Shao pushed him off by jokingly and refused to give up. Instead, he took Sun Shao's army: "We are now allies, and we are all part of the Han army. Don't provoke disputes."

"Hahaha..." Sun Shao smiled and said, "I said Ziwen, I won this time. You should be promoted to a general, right?"

"Don't change the topic." Cao Zhang can't be fooled by him, but when it comes to this topic, he is also a little embarrassed. If he has made contributions, he will definitely have a fief here. Is it better to go back to Luoyang to be a general or a free king here? When I go back to Luoyang, I can only retire. Here, hey hey, maybe there will be a war at some time.

"Don't care about black cats and white cats. Catching mice is a good cat." Sun Shao said, "What is more effective than rejecting horses, digging pits and strengthening crossbows against the enemy step by step?"

Cao Zhang glanced at Sun Shao with his obviously skeptical eyes and curled his lips. The meaning was self-evident. Of course, he did not believe Sun Shao's words, but if Sun Shao didn't say anything, he could not ask, so he had to hide his curiosity in his heart. Almost everyone in the Allies is in awe of Sun Shao, including the Roman emperor Quintus and King Guishuang. Only their brothers have always been able to look at Sun Shao with equal eyes, and can naturally joke with Sun Shao, including looking at Sun Shao with the current disrespectful eyes.

"I don't care if you are a good cat or a coy cat. Anyway, if you don't kill half of the Sassanians, don't expect me to take action." Cao Zhang crossed his waist, and the red cot blew in the wind. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the endless land in the north. After a long time, he suddenly said, "I heard that there is a piece of land there. It is a good pasture and produces excellent war horses."

Sun Shao smiled and pretended not to hear it. He turned around and left. He threw Cao Zhang alone there. Cao Zhang turned his eyes and turned around to follow.

Two days later, Sun Feng sent the news that the siege officially began. Aldahir was fully prepared this time. He also used oil tanks full of stone fat water to attack and burn the city two or three hundred steps into a sea of fire. The Romans and nobles who were eager to make contributions suffered a lot of losses, but their oil The size of the tank varies, and the effect of the attack was affected. Because the distance was adjusted in advance, most of the oil tanks prepared by the Han army reached the predetermined range and attacked the head of the city. Based on the current attack situation of both sides, it is estimated that at least within two days, the real battle in the siege will not be launched, mainly by pretending Attack to achieve the consumption of the other party's reserves.

Two days later, the counterattack in the city gradually weakened. Sun Feng began to arrange a real siege battle. Because he promised a heavy reward in advance, almost all people refused to let go of the opportunity to make contributions. With the strong firepower of the Yue people as the backing, the Romans, the Guishuang people and the Tianzhu people competed to climb the city. For this reason, they almost fought with Li Yan. Cao Zhi had a conflict.

Aldahir was well prepared. He used oil bombs to counterattack. The crossbow cannon of Yue could not be too close. The threat to the wall was insufficient. He gathered superior troops to counterattack and repelled the coalition attack many times in a row. The city wall of Taixi was covered with blood stains. On the first day, the loss exceeded 3,000 people and the barracks were injured. Overcrowded.

Sun Feng did not say that after a day's attack, Quintus and Bo showed their remorse. They felt that they had lost too much and asked the Han army to increase the intensity of the attack. At the same time, they questioned Sun Feng's arrangement to attack only the north gate, and felt that it was more conducive to Aldahir's defense, and against the attacking side. Unfavorable, it is required to increase the attack point.

In the face of the doubts of Quintus, Bo Tho and others, Sun Feng was not angry. He calmly accepted their doubts and asked the generals' opinions. When most people expressed their support for this view, he agreed to attack in three ways the next day, or to go to war with the first time. In the same way, the Romans and the Guishuang were responsible for a section of the city wall, and the Han army was responsible for the attack of the main gate.

After the Romans and Guishuang left with satisfaction, Sun Feng left Cao Zhi and Li Yan behind.

"Would you like to take a break?" Sun Feng asked bluntly, "Let's make the Vietnamese army attack tomorrow."

Cao Zhi and Li Yan looked at each other and were a little uncertain. They did not want to be used by Sun Feng, but also afraid that Aldahir had reached the end of the crossbow. If Sun Feng advanced to the city, there would be nothing to do with them. Cao Zhi hesitated for a moment and asked, "Your Highness, will you still attack the city like this tomorrow?" Is there any change?"

Lu Xun coughed: "Tomorrow, the tactics will be changed. The three-way people will attack at the same time, and Aldahir may be in trouble. If he mobilizes the army to other places to strengthen the defense, we may have a chance to break the city in one fell swoop, but there may also be another situation. Aldahir did not re-mobilize his defense. Quantity, then we will face the most enemies, and may let the Romans or the Frost people break the city first.

Li Yan smiled silently, which means you didn't say anything.

Chen Hai waved his hand and said, "No matter how Ardahir responds, we still attack the same way. Don't fight. We'll take the lead tomorrow. To be honest, I'm itchy when I watch you cut people every day."

Sun Feng smiled and said, "You have also seen that the generals of our Yue are anxious."

Cao Zhi looked at Chen Hai and shook his head and said, "What are you talking about? At this time, there is still a division between the State of Yue and the State of Wei. Since we have come here, we are all Han troops. Don't divide each other. Otherwise, the strength will be dispersed. In my opinion, in order for everyone to maintain combat effectiveness, we take turns to fight, and no one will suffer this time. Brother Zhengfang, what do you think?

Li Yan understood and nodded quickly and said, "It's better for Zijian's advice. We can take turns to fight in turn, so that we can maintain enough physical strength and maintain enough pressure on the head of the city."

Sun Feng and Lu Xun exchanged a look, nodded to agree, and agreed to divide the army into three groups, and Chen Hai, Li Yan and Cao Zhi would take turns to attack.

This method is indeed a good way. Although it failed to break the city the next day, the rotating attack made the soldiers maintain their physical strength well. Continuous attacks made the head of the city very nervous. Often a group of enemies had just been repulsed. Before they could catch their breath, another group of enemies rushed up along the siege ladder, not at all. Give them a chance to rest.

The head of the city was in a series of emergencies, and the horns for help came one after another, which aggravated the tense atmosphere. Hearing these horns, the Romans and the nobles did not dare to neglect them. They were afraid that the Hans would break the city first, rob them of the first, and also used all their strength. They took advantage of the opportunity of Aldahir's lack of troops on both sides of the gate to attack, and rushed to the city several times in a row, making the Sasans embarrassed, forcing Aldahir to send out the reserve team. Only the undead army can protect the city gate.

Ardahir felt great pressure and had to give orders to Awad to wait for the opportunity to attack the rear camp of the coalition forces to relieve the pressure of defending the city.

As soon as Awad received the order, he immediately moved the army forward and forced it to Sun Shao's front.

A heavily guarded array appeared in front of him. The crisscrossed rejection formed a defensive formation with a depth of 500 steps. The Han sergeants with weapons stood in the middle of the rejection, waiting, and the formation stretched to both sides. On the wide river, there were also warships of Vietnam. From a distance, you can see that two small cavalry maintain a guard posture on the rear wings on both sides of the array.

Awad breathed a sigh of relief. From this array, it can be seen that the other party only took a defensive position and was not equipped with enough cavalry to attack him. In this way, he could at least take the initiative to attack and take the initiative to withdraw from the position when the situation was wrong.

While reassuring, Awad also had a headache. The other party set up such a formation, which greatly limited the attack power of the cavalry. If you want to pass this big array, the only feasible way is to let the horse dismount and clean up a passage.

Awad had no other choice but to immediately order two thousand-person teams to step down and open the road.

Two thousand-person teams dislode and line up in front of the battle. The two hundred-man teams, one left and one right, holding shields and holding sharp axes or swords, carefully leaned towards the anti-horse array. The other two hundred-person teams raised their bows and arrows and followed them closely, ready to cover them with bows and arrows.

The ambush of at least 5,000 soldiers was silent. The soldiers in the destruction camp squatted behind the horse one by one, with the same posture. His left hand held a shield tightly in front of him, blocking their huddled bodies, and only showed cold eyes from the cracks. His right hand held the weapon in his hand and waved. On the back of the body, be ready to attack at any time.

The drum sound was low, neither tight nor slow, and a sound seemed to hit people's hearts. The Sassanians slowly approached the rejection horse array. Because they were nervous, they did not speak. They just took cautious steps and moved forward step by step. The silent rejection of the horse array seemed to have an invisible murderous atmosphere, forcing them to breathe, if not Because there is a law enforcement team watching behind them, they are likely to turn around and run away.

One hundred steps, eighty steps, the Sassanids began to shoot. They raised their bows and arrows diagonally upwards and shot long arrows into the sky. The long arrows galloped in the air for 30 or 40 steps, and then turned down and rushed to the soldiers in the battle against the horse.

As soon as the drums changed, two consecutive rapid drums suddenly broke the original rhythm. The soldiers in the horse array raised the shield neatly and lowered their heads. The long arrow roared down, hit the shield, the helmet, or nailed to the horse, making the sound of Ding Ding Dongdong. The soldiers were as quiet as a rock and did not move.

The Sassanians began to run, and a centurion found that the Han army had not arranged archers in the battle, because so far, they had not shot an arrow. He was overjoyed and began to run with his men with an order.

The distance of 80 steps arrived in a blink of an eye. Two hundred people were divided into several groups, one to two in each group. They flew to the rejected horse. The few people in front of them bypassed the rejected horse and rushed straight to the camp soldiers hidden behind the rejection. The people behind them raised the axe in their hands and split the rejection horse with all their strength.

"Kill!" The ten soldiers squatting behind the horse suddenly stood up and showed the crossbows in their hands to the four soldiers. They pulled the crossbow machine with a glancholy smile. There were three soldiers on each side to form a triangular array. The commander was in front of them and waving their knives. The two soldiers followed closely behind them, tightly protecting their flanks, and the three of them faced in the same pace. The Sassans rushed from the side of the horse.

Close at hand, the long arrow shot out unexpectedly and decisively. The Sassanians who were preparing to chop the horse with an axe did not think of this at all. Although they raised the shield in their hands at the fastest speed, the speed was obviously not enough. The two Sassanids who rushed to the front were immediately shot by crossbows and could not control their feet. He staggered and fell on the sharpened stake. Suddenly, he was out of breath, and the axe in his hand was also thrown out.

The soldiers of the destroyer's camp kept holding their shields when they were shooting. When they saw the axe flying, they did not panic. They just lifted the shield slightly to protect their heads and upper body. The axe touched the shield, slid down the shield, and landed on the land in front of their feet.

The blood shed from the Sassanians stabbed by wooden stakes dripped on the axe.

The four crossbowmen were not in a hurry, and they aimed at the enemies shouting at each other one after another. The Sassanians hurriedly raised their shields to block the continuous shooting, and at the same time waved the weapons in their hands to chop the horses. On both sides of the horse, two small triangular arrays firmly defended the position. The three soldiers were like one, advancing and retreating in an orderly manner. Although the place was not big, it did not affect their cooperation at all. Their assassination is very simple. There is absolutely no fancy place, and the movements have not changed much. Most of them first hold the opponent's weapon with a shield, and then wave the weapon in their hands at a speed that is so fast that people can't see. The knife flashes, either cutting off the other party's neck, cutting off the other party's arm, or stabbing into the other party. The body has almost no time to fail. If there are two enemies on the front, the commander in front will take a step back, and the two soldiers behind will meet them and force the other party out of the empty door with shields and swords, so that the commander can come forward again and kill the enemy accurately.

Although the number of Sassanians is much larger, they can't operate in a narrow space. Only two or three people come forward at a time, and they often squeeze each other and can't use their hands and feet. They are far less than the soldiers in the vanguard camp. They also wanted to cooperate with each other, but they couldn't be so proficient in the eagerness. Unconsciously, they were confused by the opponent and fell into the siege of the other three people. As soon as they cut a knife, they found that two or three knives were cut at the same time, and they had to guard against the roll call of the opponent's crossbow.

The Sassanids squeezed into a mass in the narrow space and fell several people in the blink of an eye. The ten-man with a bearded face shouted anxiously, pushed away his companions and rushed forward, and was stopped by three soldiers in the destruction camp. He was furious. He waved the tomahawk in his hand and chopped three axes, which were held by the other party with a shield. He took a step back and wanted to take a breath and cut again. However, the destroyers who had been holding the shield followed him like a shadow, quietly stabbed the sword into his chest, and then quickly slid away and waved the knife straight. Cut off his companion behind him.

The tenth husband only felt a cold in his chest, and a stream of blood spewed out and shot directly on the shield of the Han soldier opposite. The hot blood splashed a charming flower on the shield, showing a sneering face on the side of the blood flower.

The face and the blood flower on the shield approached sharply, hitting him and hitting his companion behind him. The companion could not avoid it and made a mess. The three enemies who had been leaning together suddenly dispersed, snatched into the chaotic crowd, and waved their weapons in their hands to kill ruthlessly.

The ten-man slowly turned around. He suddenly found that there were no companions standing in front of him, only the three devil-like enemies. They returned to the triangular formation just now and quickly retreated after rejecting the horse. The tenfold commander opened his eyes wide and slowly fell to the ground.

The last thing he saw was a dead face of his companion.

(to be continued)