Chapter 518 Grass Bridge
Chapter 518 Grass Bridge
A large flag appeared in the wilderness.
On the tip of the flag, there was a shriveled human head.
Behind the big flag, there was a continuous rustling sound of footsteps.
Lu Ming climbed up to a high ground and lay down in the grass.
There is a small river ahead, which is a tributary of Zhangshui River, flowing eastward.
There is a bridge over the river, called "Caoqiao", which is not really a bridge made of grass. Its original meaning is "Caoshi Bridge". In fact, this bridge is made of stone and is very strong.
The vanguard of the Jin army has appeared on the other side of the river.
They are extremely bold and arrogant.
Even if the scouts had been killed or driven away, they still dared to advance forward without fear of being ambushed.
Perhaps, those who act as pioneers no longer care about being ambushed.
The enemy's vanguard had already put on their armor, with their bows strung and swords unsheathed. When they reached the bridge, the entire army of more than 3,000 people stopped.
A moment later, they selected more than a hundred warriors and rushed towards Caoqiao.
The battle broke out immediately.
Lu Ming watched patiently for a while. There were only a thousand soldiers guarding the bridge, most of them were old, weak, sick and disabled. It didn't take long for them to fight before they were directly attacked by the hundred men.
Sword and shield soldiers fell to the ground one after another, spearmen retreated in a hurry, and archers were at a loss as to what to do...
So, without any surprise, these thousands of people collapsed.
The Jin army began to pursue and kill, and the follow-up troops on the other side of Caoqiao also followed in great strides.
"It's time!" Lu Ming came down from the high ground and came to a small forest below. He jumped on his horse and said, "Attack!"
The waiting cavalry mounted their horses and followed closely behind.
On the grass below the slope, the defeated soldiers ran around in panic, not knowing where to go.
The cavalry rushed out from all parts of the woods, like streams flowing into rivers and seas, gradually converging into a line.
Lu Ming rushed forward while waving his saber to boost morale.
"Kill!" More than a thousand riders responded loudly, shaking the entire wilderness.
The horses' hooves stepped on the ground, and the Hun cavalry maintained a steady advance.
The soldiers drew their arrows and drew their bows.
Or hold the reins in one hand and a spear in the other.
Or a round shield in the left hand and an iron sword in the right hand.
Others carried thick-backed machetes or wooden clubs.
Everyone was solemn and brave.
When boosting morale again, Lu Ming turned his head and took a look, feeling very satisfied.
These are the warriors that Da Hu has recruited with a lot of money. The cost is high, but at least at this moment, their performance is worth the money.
The cavalry raised a trail of dust, turned a corner, and appeared northwest of Caoqiao.
Lu Ming looks back at the last morale boost.
Everyone raised their swords and guns and responded in unison.
Lu Ming laughed loudly, increased the speed of his horse, and rushed forward. Before charging, he subconsciously glanced and was shocked -
The sword and shield player holds the shield in one hand and the sword in the other, raising them diagonally above the forehead to facilitate chopping.
Smoke and dust rose up on the ground, but just a row of sword and shield soldiers, marching in unison, also exuded the momentum of thousands of troops.
Behind the sword and shield men were several rows of lancemen, holding long black lances at an angle, striding forward with great momentum.
The other side did not seem to have expected to encounter cavalry, because they were deployed in long horizontal rows to sweep away the remaining enemies. When they saw the cavalry from afar, they were terrified.
In their haste, they did not panic.
As the command flag was waved, the strategy of "changing a horizontal line into five vertical rows" that was almost engraved in their bones was improvised.
The enemy cavalry was gaining speed.
The Black Legion Army was still changing its formation nervously.
Archers came forward from the rear and shot arrows at the cavalry from a distance.
A small number of cavalry also gathered together and launched a hasty counterattack against the enemy.
Arrows flew through the air, and the enemy cavalry kept falling off their horses. During the charge, their formation once again condensed into a pointed cone shape, trying to rely on their bravery and speed to crush the Jin army in one fell swoop.
The Heilongjiang Army's formation change has reached the late stage, and the first two rows have been organized.
The swordsman placed the shield in front of him and squatted on the ground.
The lancemen took half a step forward and pointed their long lances at the enemy cavalry from a distance.
The archer passed through the gap between them, came behind the shieldman, drew his bow and drew his arrow. After shooting two arrows, he turned around and walked away without even looking at the result, leaving the battlefield to others.
Many enemy cavalrymen fell off their horses. They gritted their teeth, furious, and sped up even faster.
The archers on both wings had already withdrawn, and some of them picked up their lances again and held them diagonally outward.
Those who were better at archery still held their bows and waited for orders.
The enemy cavalry is close at hand.
"Xilulu--" The horse stood up, raised its front hooves high, and moved sideways to avoid the sharp spear blade.
"Kill!" The sword and shield warrior swung the ring-handled sword and chopped the horse's legs.
The lancemen thrust their lances straight forward, knocking the cavalrymen who were trying hard to keep their bodies steady on horseback off their horses.
There were also cavalrymen who forced their horses and crashed into the crowd of infantry with a "boom".
The shieldman was knocked away, spitting blood.
The lancers lost their balance and fell to the ground. The horses fell down in pain, crushing a group of people.
The subsequent cavalry rushed in through the gap, waving their spears and swords.
The Heilongjiang Army was a little confused, but did not collapse.
Some people got up from the ground, while others stepped forward with spears, constantly stabbing the huge cavalrymen in the gaps under their armpits.
The two sides actually engaged in a battle for a while: the Heilongjiang Army was suddenly attacked and was in some chaos, and the Xiongnu cavalry was unable to successfully disperse them, and their speed suddenly slowed down.
War drums were beating on the Caoqiao side, and hundreds of Black Legion infantrymen quickly crossed the bridge and came to the north bank of the river for reinforcement, but they were still a short distance away from the fighting.
A part of the Xiongnu cavalry went around to the two sides, firing their bows continuously and engaging in a fierce battle with the infantry archers on both wings.
One side was powerful, the other side had more people, and people from both sides were constantly fighting. Blood and screams filled the left and right wings.
The mounted archers quickly moved away and gave up their position.
The Black Legion infantry crossing the bridge sped up, and some archers had already rushed to the front, ready to use the tactic they had practiced for years of "shooting straw men with bows and arrows while marching."
The Hun melee cavalry came up.
They rushed to the area vacated by the mounted archers, holding long spears and halberds, and during the charge they pushed aside the thin layer of black spears of the Black Knights and crashed into the infantry ranks.
The archers covered their heads and fled away, trying to avoid it.
The Xiongnu cavalry were overjoyed and were about to redouble their efforts to break through the thickest infantry formation in the middle from the flank when dense arrows flew from the side and rear.
The reinforcements of the archers did not care about being exposed on the open battlefield. They marched quickly, drawing arrows from their waists and firing arrows continuously as they marched, raining arrows on the Xiongnu melee cavalry at close range.
The screams of dying people and the painful neighing of war horses continued to sound.
Blood was splattered everywhere, and the battlefield was littered with corpses.
The infantry on the left and right wings that were overwhelmed slowly came to their senses.
There was no formation anymore, and it was even harder to command in the chaos. Everyone picked up weapons they could find and shouted at the cavalry closest to them.
The infantry and cavalry fought again, and both suffered heavy casualties.
The Hun horse archers rushed forward again.
The reinforcements of the Heilongjiang Army infantry rushed directly into the melee, without any formation, and engaged in a chaotic battle with the Xiongnu cavalry.
The mounted archers walked around, somewhat hesitantly, as if they were unsure whether they should shoot both their own people and the enemy.
Just as he hesitated, the opportunity was gone, because the third batch of reinforcements arrived on Caoqiao.
The leader whistled and led the mounted archers away from the battlefield to look for opportunities elsewhere.
At this time, the fighting on the front battlefield had just passed the most brutal stage.
The Xiongnu cavalry, who had lost their speed, sat on their horses, clumsily thrusting their spears, but with little success. Instead, they were too big a target, and were constantly knocked off their horses, hacked by swords and axes, and soon died.
Lu Ming's warhorse had just been stabbed by a lance, and the horse rushed around like crazy, causing a cry of surprise and creating a great chaos.
Lu Ming quickly stood up from the ground, drew his sword, and faced the two lance-wielding men.
As the saying goes, an inch longer is an inch stronger. After barely holding off two attacks, he suddenly killed a lance fighter, then fought and retreated, trying to go back to get his horse and fight again.
A man rushed forward, thrusting his spear straight at his face, quickly and accurately.
Lu Ming swung his sword to block and held the man's spear.
Unexpectedly, another spear came from the side. Lu Ming subconsciously dodged to the side, but saw that the spear blade on the opposite side lowered slightly and stabbed directly into his thigh.
A sharp pain came instantly, and Lu Ming staggered. Just as he raised his head, he saw that the man had thrust his spear at him again and stabbed him under the armpit.
As if all his strength had disappeared, Lu Ming could no longer hold on and fell to his knees.
"Whoosh!" A long axe came and almost smashed his head.
Lu Ming's personal soldiers were unable to rescue them in time, and rushed forward wailing, exchanging wounds and lives for each other, fighting with the Jin army.
But the frontal battle was actually coming to an end at this time.
Looking down from the air, the hundreds of infantrymen of the Heiliang Central Army on the north bank of Caoqiao had gradually restored their formation and began to push outward, continuously killing the Hun cavalry who had lost their speed.
The Huns were not fools. They knew it would be a disadvantage to fight in the same place, so they turned their horses around and retreated.
The fighting on the left and right wings continued, but the Huns no longer sent reinforcements, and the remaining people turned their horses around and tried to break out.
The mounted archers went to the front and fired a round of arrows, which slowed down the advancing infantry of the Black Legion Army. Some of the unlucky ones fell down directly.
Hou Feihu on the south bank of Caoqiao was furious when he saw this.
When they were pursuing, they were suddenly ambushed. Before they could deploy their battle formation, the Hun cavalry took advantage.
So far in the battle, their casualties were actually slightly greater than those of the enemy, and some small formations were directly disrupted. This was truly intolerable.
He once imagined that the Black Spear Army could compete with the Silver Spear Army. Now it seems that he still needs to practice hard.
The south wind blew across the land, and the fighting gradually subsided.
The two sides tacitly broke off contact and looked at each other from a distance, still in shock.
One side suddenly launched a surprise attack, and the commander led the charge, but not only did he fail to disperse the enemy, he also lost his general.
One side had been formed for more than two years, had been training hard, and was well-equipped, but it suffered even greater casualties.
After the ceasefire, the soldiers on both sides were breathing heavily, silently recalling the bloody battle that had just taken place.
Drum sounds were heard on the south bank of Caoqiao.
"Attack!" Hou Feihu rushed over and ordered a counterattack.
"Kill!" After the Heiyao Army soldiers arranged their formation, they advanced with bows and spears.
The Huns were silent for a while and disappeared in the distance.
In the afternoon of that day (July 23), the Heilongjiang Army, as the vanguard, arrived at the south of Yecheng, dug trenches, placed deer antlers, and set up camp around carts.
The three stations were shaken.
(End of this chapter)