Chapter 148 Why are you in such a hurry to escape!
Chapter 148 Why are you in such a hurry to escape!
The fighting actually first broke out outside the city.
There were about a hundred Xianbei people left outside to take care of the horses because they did not bring all the horses into the city.
When the Xianbei people who were feeding their horses saw Chen Yougen arriving with 400 long sword soldiers, they were confused. What was he going to do?
Someone shouted something, but no one could understand.
After the four hundred men dismounted, twenty of them were left to gather the horses, and the remaining three hundred or so immediately formed a team, put on armor and held crossbows, and rushed towards the grazing Xianbei people.
Some Xianbei herdsmen felt something was wrong, so they subconsciously seized the horses and turned around to flee.
Some people looked on foolishly, and what greeted them was a dense barrage of crossbow arrows.
The screams were endless.
One Xianbei people after another fell to the ground.
Some people took out weapons to resist, but were quickly chopped to the ground by the longsword warriors who abandoned their crossbows and took up swords.
It was almost a one-sided killing.
"Chang Can, take fifty people, mount your horses and pursue the remaining enemies." Chen Yougen ordered.
"Yes." Chang Can didn't waste any words. He immediately led his team of fifty people, each leading three horses, carrying a crossbow and a heavy sword, and chased in the direction where the enemies fled.
"Liu Da, you lead fifty people to collect the horses." Chen Yougen continued to order: "The rest of you, follow me to search for the thieves and see if there is any land for horse grazing."
"Yes." The soldiers responded loudly, dispersed and mounted their horses, and disappeared into the night with a roar.
Towards the door, the battle started a little later.
The first group of 600 Silver Spear Army members set out first. When they arrived, they found Xianbei warriors chatting in groups of three or four in the city gate.
Two hundred veterans, armed with well-strung bows, met the enemy head-on with a hail of arrows.
From the pitch-black city gate, there were constant sounds of muffled groans and screams.
The archer did not stop. After shooting a round, he drew the second arrow from the quiver at his waist and shot at the place where there were many shadows of people while moving forward.
The screams gradually became less and less, until they disappeared.
Four hundred new recruits of the Silver Spear Army pulled seven or eight baggage carts and rushed in in formation.
After walking for dozens of steps, they finally encountered the first group of Xianbei people, who had come to investigate after hearing the screams at the city gate. There seemed to be about a hundred of them, no horses, holding a variety of weapons, and looking aggressive.
"Woo--" As the horn sounded, the veteran archers rushed over again, drew their bows and arrows, and shot at them all over the head.
The Xianbei people were caught off guard and more than twenty of them fell to the ground.
The others started cursing and fled backwards, apparently to call for help.
"Boom, boom, boom..." The drums sounded and the sword and shield soldiers of the left guard of the imperial army rushed up. Led by the leader of the group, Huang Biao, they held large shields and ring-handled swords, and followed closely behind the baggage vehicles, advancing along the avenue.
The sound of rustling footsteps was heard, and the spearmen wearing the only four hundred sets of iron armor followed the swordsmen and shieldmen.
Behind them, there were even more infantrymen armed with spears, wearing only leather armor or even no armor - but that was enough, as not everyone needed to be armored in the narrow streets.
Four hundred archers were sent from the base camp to Chaomen to assist in the battle.
They looked in amazement at the Silver Spear Army, all of whom were holding bows.
Some archers have been soldiers for more than ten years, but this is the first time they have seen an army composed entirely of archers and melee fighters.
People from the Strong Crossbow Battalion also arrived.
While they were building a second barricade in the rear, they used horse-drawn carriages to pull several huge crossbows and tried to support the infantry.
The entire offensive formation was quickly formed.
The powerful crossbow was carried onto the carriage, and sword and shield soldiers and spearmen guarded from the front, back, left and right, providing support for the crossbowmen as they operated the crossbow.
A large group of people followed behind.
The dense forest of spears stretched as far as the eye could see, and archers moved forward and backward, ready to provide support at any time.
The base camp even sent some archers to enter the houses on both sides of the street. Some climbed onto the roofs, and some even squatted on trees. Holding strong bows, they looked down from above and killed the Xianbei people in groups of three or two.
The sound of hurried horse hooves could be heard at the end of the street.
After hearing this, Shao Xun immediately climbed up the wall of a private house and looked from afar.
The cavalry was getting closer and closer, and their speed was getting faster and faster.
Shao Xun was too lazy to take action because there were always idiots who wanted to perform cavalry charges in the narrow streets.
"Woo——" the horn sounded.
The powerful mechanism shot out instantly.
The thick crossbow arrow, with a scream of death, pierced through the thick night sky and, with a tremendous force, crashed into the oncoming Xianbei cavalry.
People turn their backs!
The powerful crossbow brought terrible damage. The horse stood up in pain and threw the knight on its back to the ground.
The knight relied on his agility to roll out the moment he landed on the ground. Before he could get up, the other horse fell to the ground with a bang and crushed his calves.
With a "click", a scream echoed throughout half the street, just like the miserable scream of the woman he tortured to death last night.
Another batch of crossbow arrows came, and this time the knight fell off his horse.
The iron armor on his body was like paper and was pierced directly by the crossbow arrow. The man was also blown away by the powerful force and finally fell to the ground with a bang, motionless.
Crossbow arrows continued to shoot out, and the bodies of the cavalrymen piled up like a mountain. After they fell, they formed even larger and more obstacles, completely blocking the subsequent cavalry's charge. "Boom boom boom..." The drums sounded.
"Kill!" The archer passed over the corpses of the centaurs and shot a wave of arrows while standing.
The spearmen climbed over the obstacles with difficulty, then lined up in a row and trotted quickly, chasing after the Xianbei cavalry who were riding their horses back.
"Kill!" Long spears stabbed out in rows. The cavalrymen in groups of three or five were no match at all and were stabbed to the ground in an instant.
Someone waved his halberd in vain, but the gaps under his armpits and in front and behind him were too big when he was sitting on horseback. He was first knocked to the ground by a wooden club, and then his throat was cut by the sword and shield warrior who rushed up. After his body twitched for a while, he stopped moving.
The infantrymen advancing in a wall formation were invincible in the streets and alleys.
Powerful crossbows and infantry bows provided long-range firepower, large shields blocked the threat posed by weak cavalry bows, long spears stabbed, and ring-handled swords beheaded, no one could stop them.
The Xianbei people had "enjoyed themselves" for a whole day and night, and were already exhausted. Many herdsmen and slaves could not find their leaders, and the largest rebellion they organized consisted of only a hundred people, which was quickly crushed.
The streets were littered with corpses of men and horses, piled up like mountains.
The horses certainly couldn't run anymore, so they could only fight on foot, which they were not good at.
But infantry warfare requires organization, equipment, and training, and they were lacking in this area. When faced with the Imperial Guards' Left Guards, who were arranged in a strict formation, with all kinds of arms and tacit cooperation, they could hardly stop them for a moment.
Not to mention that some people have bow legs, so it is really difficult for them to dismount and fight on foot...
******
A dark cloud floated across the night sky.
A strong wind suddenly blew away the bloody smell in Chang'an.
But the killings didn't stop.
Lines of imperial guards, armed with swords and spears, cleared out the remaining enemies in the northern part of the city house by house.
There was no time to count the details, but at least more than a thousand people were killed.
After advancing for a while, they encountered a vanguard battalion of more than 500 people who were charging in from the direction of Yongzheng.
These hundreds of heavily armored infantrymen were covered in blood. After joining forces, they laughed loudly and shouted, "What a joyful kill."
After the two armies joined forces, they continued to clear out the remaining enemies along the streets.
Not long after, the sounds of killing from the direction of Zhicheng Gate and Qingming Gate became sparse. Nearly two thousand infantrymen from both sides successfully killed their way through the entire street and met up in the center.
Up to this point, the several tribes that had joined forces had killed at least 2,500 Xianbei cavalry, with remarkable results.
The left guard soldiers stationed at the south, southwest and southeast gates were still fighting.
But judging from the sparse sounds, it should be coming to an end.
Everyone became more and more excited. If it were any other day, how hard would it take to kill five thousand cavalrymen?
After this battle, Luoyang’s biggest enemy was also eliminated - uh, something seemed to be wrong.
Qi Hong hurriedly hid in the palace.
He was not stupid and knew that it was impossible to rush out on horseback under such circumstances.
The streets were blocked by corpses of men and horses, and at least three barricades were set up inside each city gate. People were afraid that if they rushed out, they would be shot into sieves by crossbows.
He once wanted to escape from the city wall, but he didn't find the opportunity, so he fought and retreated, hid in the palace, and tried to resist stubbornly.
But in such a rush, there were only about two hundred people gathered around him, which made him want to cry but had no tears.
If the five thousand once mighty cavalrymen charged in the wilderness, who could stop them?
Unfortunately, they were ambushed and trapped in Chang'an City, with no way to escape.
What to do?
What made people even more desperate was that after this severe blow, could the Duan tribe Xianbei, whom Governor Wang had won over by marrying his daughter, rise again? You know, in the many battles in the past few years, they had already lost more than 3,000 cavalry in bits and pieces. Losing another 5,000 this time would be a serious blow to the Duan tribe Xianbei, which had a population of only 150,000 or 160,000.
The Duan tribe of the Xianbei were not without enemies.
The most fearful thing on the grassland is to show signs of decline, because once you do, you may be eaten by your vicious neighbors.
Ugh!
However, now is not the time to feel sad for Duan Bu, as it has little to do with him. Qi Hong gathered his thoughts and looked around for a way out of the predicament.
At this time, outside the Shenhu Gate and Yunlong Gate of the palace city, there was a clashing of drums. After a while, the sound of weapons clashing could be heard, and the Xianbei soldiers who stayed behind the gate fled in panic and scattered.
The two palace gates, one in the east and one in the west, opened one after another.
"Kill the bandits!" Hundreds of soldiers from the Silver Spear Army charged in from the Shenhu Gate, and hundreds of soldiers from the Vanguard Camp charged in from the Yunlong Gate.
The army formed a square formation in the wide square in front of the palace and then marched forward quickly.
"It's over!" Qi Hong sent out the last hundred men to fight with the enemy.
He took several close followers with him and ran towards Xiaoyao Garden in the north of the palace.
When I got closer, I found that Xiaoyao Garden was full of dead branches and leaves. It had not been used for a long time and all the doors were sealed.
He was in a panic.
In desperation, he called an attendant and asked him to carry him up. After grabbing the top of the wall, he was about to use force when he heard a "whoosh" sound and a long arrow flew from behind and pierced his neck.
Qi Hong's hands grabbed the wall a few last times, then fell down weakly and fell to the ground with a bang.
The golden-armored general rushed over quickly, slashing with his heavy sword one after another, and there was almost no one he could match.
A moment later, all four people in Xiaoyao Garden, including Qi Hong, were killed.
He wiped his heavy sword slowly, then took out his ring-handled sword, cut off Qi Hong's head, held it in his hand, and said with a smile: "General Qi, why are you in such a hurry to escape!"
(End of this chapter)