Chapter 392 Returning in vain

Chapter 392 Returning in vain

Chapter 392 Returning in vain
Although there were only one thousand Sui army soldiers on the stone wall, there were actually two thousand soldiers behind them as backup support, including shooting crossbows from the rear, stringing heavy crossbows, replenishing and replacing soldiers, etc.

If the opponent has a shield, an ordinary arm-drawn crossbow may not be able to penetrate it, and it is necessary to switch to a more powerful crossbow, especially a two-person heavy-duty crossbow. The crossbow has a force of five stones and a killing range of five hundred steps. It can easily penetrate the opponent's shield within three hundred steps, and can also penetrate leather armor.

Within one hundred and fifty steps, it can penetrate shields and ordinary iron armor. Of course, heavy armor is still difficult to penetrate, but nomadic people basically do not have heavy crossbows and heavy armor, so this requires a high level of technology and national strength support.

At this time, the Sui army soldiers changed to a two-person heavy crossbow. Two strong soldiers lay side by side on the ground and pedaled together to string the crossbow, load the arrows at the same time, and insert a safety pin. The soldiers were also afraid of accidentally injuring their teammates, so the clever craftsmen made a safety pin that just stuck the hanging knife and prevented it from being pulled.

One after another, heavy crossbows were handed up. The top 500 soldiers changed to heavy crossbows, and the second batch of 500 crossbows also began to be strung.

The enemy appeared three hundred steps away, advancing cautiously with shields and short spears in hand. They had already entered the killing range of the Sui army's heavy crossbows. Cao Taiyue shouted, "Don't panic, listen to my orders!"

One thousand Sui soldiers waited patiently for the enemy to approach. As the five hundred contradictory soldiers approached step by step, the whole atmosphere became tense.

The enemy finally came within 200 steps, and Cao Taiyue gave the order, "Fire!"

A thousand crossbow arrows were fired at the same time, and the effects were indeed different. The opponent's shield was a standard Sui army shield covered with double-layer boards and cowhide. Ordinary crossbows could not penetrate it, but the heavy crossbows easily penetrated the shield and the opponent's leather armor, and soldiers screamed and fell to the ground.

The Tuyuhun soldiers suddenly started running, and changed to a second batch of heavy crossbows. They pulled out the safety pins and directly pulled the trigger to shoot. The powerful crossbow arrows caused the enemy to fall one after another. The ordinary military crossbows also changed their targets and shot at the legs. In just two rounds of shooting, more than 300 of the 500 Tuhuohun soldiers fell, but they had not yet rushed within a hundred steps.

The remaining 180 or so people were frightened and turned around to flee. The Sui army fired the third round of crossbow arrows, and the enemy soldiers were shot in the back and fell down one after another, screaming. In a blink of an eye, the fourth round of shooting came, and only about 50 soldiers were still running. They luckily escaped the Sui army's hunt and turned and disappeared.

Murong Shun sucked in a breath of cold air. Even the shield could not block the shooting of the Sui army. Wouldn't the entire army be doomed?

General Murong Pingyuan, who had just escaped death and was still in shock, said: "The only way is for all the troops to attack together, killing some soldiers and letting the rest of the soldiers rush forward to fight the enemy. Maybe there is still a glimmer of hope!"

Murong Shun pondered for a long time. Of course, he hoped to bring good news back to his father. Well, you can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a child. Let's fight!
He immediately ordered: "General Tuoba, your army will be the vanguard, General Murong Pingyuan will lead the rest of the army, all soldiers, charge forward, no one is allowed to retreat without my order, charge up the city wall, and each person will be rewarded with 50 sheep!"

Tuoba Tong almost vomited blood, but there was nothing he could do, because his men were all Qiang soldiers.
He immediately ordered 1,300 Qiang soldiers to line up. Soon after they were done, Tuoba Tong shouted, "The prince has ordered us to charge up the city wall. Each of us will be rewarded with 500 sheep!"

He arbitrarily added a zero to the reward, for he knew very well that no one would risk their lives for fifty sheep; five hundred would be about right, but the promise could not be fulfilled.

At this time, the 2,500 Xianbei guards at the back also lined up, and Murong Shun shouted, "Beat the drums!"

Several soldiers beat the attacking drums, and the sound of the drums echoed in the valley.

"Kill!"

Thousands of soldiers shouted and rushed forward like a mountain torrent. Cao Taiyue shouted, "Use ordinary crossbows, and the whole army is ready to shoot!"

This means that in addition to the one thousand soldiers on the city wall, the two thousand soldiers supporting them from behind also raised their crossbows and fired.

When the front army rushed within 300 steps, Cao Taiyue shouted, "Shoot!"

The three Sui army soldiers raised their crossbows and fired at the same time. Arrows flew in the sky and shot at the running enemy soldiers like a rainstorm.

The Qiang soldiers running in the front suffered heavy casualties. They had no shields and no sturdy leather armor, so they could only run for their lives. Many of them held their heads with their hands, preferring to get their hands injured rather than be shot to death.

But life and death are in the hands of God. There is no room for choice. Once you have walked into a dead end, there is only death.

Qiang soldiers fell to the ground one after another, and hundreds of them were shot dead in a blink of an eye. The rest wanted to turn around and escape, but the Xianbei soldiers were behind them and would not let them escape at all. They forced them to charge with knives and short spears.

Helplessly, the remaining Qiang soldiers had to run crying, and kept falling down while running. When they were still a hundred steps away from the stone wall, more than 1,300 Qiang soldiers were almost all killed or wounded, and their dream of reward was shattered.

Without the Qiang soldiers as shields, the Tuyuhun and Xianbei soldiers behind them also suffered serious casualties.

But after suffering nearly 1,500 casualties, the remaining Tuyuhun soldiers finally rushed to the stone wall.

When the Sui army was building the stone wall, they took into account that the enemy would rush forward. Yin Shishi formulated three plans. The first was a long-range defense plan, which mainly used crossbows; the second was a plan to approach the city, which changed to a plan that used both spears and crossbows; the third plan was to retreat to the second stone wall.

The third plan was the most desperate one for the enemy. They didn't know that the Sui army had built two stone walls in total. Even if they fought desperately to capture the first stone wall, the second stone wall was waiting for them two miles away. If Murong Shun knew that there was a second stone wall, he would never send his entire army to fight against it.

At this time, Cao Taiyue had ordered the second plan. The soldiers on the first and second layers raised their spears, and the soldiers on the third layer were still shooting arrows, killing the Tuyuhun soldiers behind them. At this time, the backup soldiers continued to shoot arrows, but some soldiers entered into replacement preparations, ready to replace the wounded Sui soldiers.

Two thousand Tuyuhun and Xianbei soldiers swarmed forward, holding up their short spears and fighting fiercely with the Sui army. They were not ordinary Qiang soldiers, but guards. Their equipment was much better than that of the Qiang soldiers. They were basically equipped with the equipment of the Central Plains soldiers.

The only difference was that they chose short spears. This was because they did not fight in a military formation, but each fought in its own formation. It was inconvenient to use a five-meter long spear, so they chose an eight-foot short spear, which was about two and a half meters long and was very convenient to use on horseback.

The casualties on both sides were increasing rapidly, and the Sui army also began to suffer serious casualties because a special group of two hundred soldiers, the spear-throwing army, appeared in the Tuyuhun team.

This caught the Sui army by surprise. When two hundred spear-throwing soldiers suddenly appeared in the crowd, they raised their five-foot short spears and threw them at the Sui soldiers. The dense short spears whistled over and the Sui soldiers could not dodge and were stabbed by the short spears one after another. Casualties began to increase rapidly.

(End of this chapter)