Chapter 338: Training Ground Competition
Chapter 338: Training Ground Competition
The bad news that You Junda brought back was that Gao Zhu had fled back to Hebei with a dozen of his important subordinates. More than a thousand troops were disbanded, and each person was given a few strings of money and hid in various counties.
But the good news was that You Junda seized hundreds of war horses, one of which was Gao Zhu's Red Hare. They could not take the horses across the Yellow River, so they could only leave the horses in a farmer's home. The farmer was greedy for a small profit, so he took the horses to Yanggu County to sell them, and was seen by You Junda.
Red Hare does not just refer to the horse from the Three Kingdoms period, it is actually a breed. Horses with rabbit heads are mostly heavy horses, which are characterized by strong bodies and great strength. They are also the tallest breed of horses. Judging from the color of Red Hare, it is of course chestnut brown, which is commonly known as red.
You Junda presented Gao Zhu's Red Hare, a horse that was one in a million, to Xiao Xia.
Xiao Xia was overjoyed. This horse solved his most troublesome problem.
Xiao Xia's own Feilongju followed him into battle and suffered many injuries. After returning to Beijing from Zhangye County, Xiao Xia no longer used the Hantian Spear because the Feilongju could no longer bear the weight of the spear.
The standard load-bearing capacity of a general war horse is about 100 kilograms, and the maximum load-bearing capacity is 200 kilograms, so each soldier has to bring two horses for long-distance marches, one for riding and the other for carrying weapons, armor and dry food.
It was impossible for soldiers to ride long distances on horseback wearing armor, as ordinary war horses simply could not bear the burden. Either they had to lead the horses on foot and let the horses carry armor and food.
Therefore, the cavalry cannot be tall and strong. If they are too tall and strong, weighing two hundred kilograms, and have to wear armor and hold weapons, think about how ordinary war horses can bear it?
But the best quality war horses can carry 250 to 300 kilograms of cargo, and these are the fine horses that generals pursue.
Yuwen Chengdu's wind-winged gilded boring bar was said to weigh two hundred and forty kilograms, but it was just an exaggeration. Of course, it was normal to exaggerate, as it could hit the enemy psychologically, just like Cao Cao clearly only led an army of hundreds of thousands to the south, but he falsely claimed that the army was eight hundred thousand.
The Turkic Khan Qimin had only a few hundred thousand troops under his command, but he also advertised that he had a million armored soldiers.
The actual weight of the Wind-Winged Gilded Boring Sword is only slightly heavier than Xiao Xia's Heaven-shaking Spear, so his White Dragon Horse is also an extremely rare BMW, which was awarded to him by Emperor Yang Jian.
Even so, Yuwen Chengdu had two horses, one for him to ride and the other for carrying his weapons and armor.
After all, whether a horse is a BMW or not depends mainly on how much weight it can carry, so it must be tall enough and strong enough.
Gao Zhu's Red Hare was tall and strong, with a carrying capacity of 350 kilograms, 50 kilograms more than Xiao Xia's previous Flying Dragon Horse. For Xiao Xia, this BMW came just in time.
Of course, war horses must be carefully fed to keep them in top condition.
Xiao Xia immediately gave You Junda a great achievement, which could be considered as abusing his power for personal gain!
Xiao Xia jumped on his horse. He was tall and strong, holding a four-meter-long Heaven-shaking Spear in his hand. He looked very majestic. He also wore a bronze mask, just like a ferocious god from heaven. The soldiers were afraid of him.
Xiao Xia pointed his long spear at his general and said, "Which general is willing to accompany me to try the horse spear?"
Luo Shixin was itching to get up, but Wang Junkuo got up first and said with a smile, "I am willing to accompany the steward to test the spear!"
Xiao Xia smiled and said, "It's been a long time since I've seen a general with such great swordsmanship. Today I can open my eyes."
Wang Junkuo mounted his horse and picked up his sword. He had been taught by a master in the depths of Taihang Mountains since he was a child, and had practiced a set of advanced martial arts, especially his sword skills, for which he was known as the great swordsman.
The two men shook their heads and Xiao Xia pointed with his spear, "General, please!"
"How rude of you!"
Wang Junkuo swung his long sword and galloped on his horse. The two men gradually approached each other. Xiao Xia pointed his long spear at the opponent. His spear was three feet longer than Wang Junkuo's sword. If Wang Junkuo wanted to get close, he had to chop the long spear. But thinking that the opponent's spear weighed 120 pounds and his sword only weighed 60 pounds, Wang Junkuo felt a little timid.
He suddenly did a trick. He disappeared from the warhorse, hung on the side of the horse, and swung his sword with one arm to chop at the legs of Xiao Xia's horse.
There was an uproar all around. This move seemed ingenious, but it felt a bit despicable, like throwing lime in a fight, which was not presentable.
This also vividly portrayed Wang Junkuo's character as a horse bandit, who only wanted to win, and would do anything to win. Xiao Xia smiled slightly, rode his horse back a few steps, dodged Wang Junkuo's ground-wading knife, and before he could recover, he gently scratched his saddle with his long spear, breaking the saddle leather, and the saddle slipped off, and Wang Junkuo fell to the ground with the saddle.
The soldiers around him burst into laughter. Wang Junkuo's face flushed red. He stood up and clasped his fists, saying, "My skills are not as good as the general manager. I admit defeat sincerely!"
Xiao Xia shook his head. "Only the winner is king on the battlefield. Everything else is nonsense. It's not that you can't use this knife, but the timing is wrong. If you change from the front of the horse to the back of the horse, the effect will be much better. It may even become your unique move. Go back and think about it carefully. You need to be open-minded. You don't have to use a big knife."
Xiao Xia took out a flying knife, turned the horse's head, swung it backwards, and the flying knife "whoosh!" nailed on the saddle bridge.
"If this knife hits the horse's leg, it will definitely stumble. Do you understand?"
Wang Junkuo woke up as if from a dream, clasped his fists and said: "I understand, thank you for your guidance!"
Xiao Xia smiled and said, "I'll give you the flying knife. Go back and think about it carefully!"
A soldier came forward to help pick up the saddle, and Wang Junkuo led the horse down.
Xiao Xia smiled and asked, "Which general would like to give it a try?"
Luo Shixin stood up and shouted, "I'm here to ask the chief steward for advice!"
Luo Shixin picked up the big iron spear and jumped on his horse. His big iron spear was the same length as Xiao Xia's halberd and weighed eighty kilograms. He was known for his bravery, unlike Wang Junkuo who was cunning.
He rode forward and stabbed with his big iron spear more than thirty times at lightning speed, with unparalleled speed.
"Good marksmanship!"
The eyesight of a ninth-rank master is like a high-speed camera. Even the fastest shooting looks like slow motion to Xiao Xia. His spear head pressed accurately on the gun shaft, and the spear blade slid along the gun shaft, slashing towards Luo Shixin's hand like a shadow.
Luo Shixin was so frightened that he trembled all over and almost dropped his big iron spear. He leaned back suddenly and pulled the spear out from under the spear head, thus avoiding the blow that would have severed his hand.
In fact, how could Xiao Xia possibly let him lose his hand?
Luo Shixin's face was hot. He roared and stabbed at Xiao Xia with the big iron spear again like a storm.
Xiao Xia also countered Luo Shixin's moves and occasionally made a counterattack, which made Luo Shixin flustered. The two sides fought for more than a dozen rounds.
Xiao Xia suddenly let out a long whistle, and stabbed the iron spear straight towards Luo Shixin's chest at a speed that was neither fast nor slow. Luo Shixin, like before, used the barrel of his gun to hold the spear head and lifted it up.
But this time he couldn't block it. The spear head seemed to weigh thousands of pounds and didn't move at all. It stabbed towards Luo Shixin little by little and was about to hit his chest.
Luo Shixin yelled and prepared to jump off his horse, which was the only way to save himself. Unexpectedly, his arms suddenly felt light, and Xiao Xia had already withdrawn the spear.
"General Luo, we are just going to stop here. There is no need to fight to the death!"
Luo Shixin sighed, clasped his fists and said, "Thank you for your guidance, I am ashamed of myself!"
Luo Shixin knew very well that if the general held down his spear from the beginning, he might not be able to hold out for even one round because the power gap between the two sides was too great.
Xiao Xia also nodded and smiled: "General Luo's martial arts are indeed very strong, and he can be called the second best in the Liangzhou Army."
Xiao Xia urged his horse forward and shouted to the generals: "The battlefield is ruthless, but I don't want anyone to die on the battlefield. The only way is to train hard. Every drop of sweat you shed in training means a drop of blood you shed on the battlefield!"
(End of this chapter)