The Qinghe Army gave people an increasingly oppressive feeling.

This is how it is on the battlefield. If an army is scattered in the wilderness, it is just a bunch of chaotic civilians, and anyone can take a bite. But once they line up in neat formations and walk towards you, they become an extremely oppressive army, which can make you standing opposite them more and more nervous as they get closer.

Fortunately, due to the delay in selecting candidates for the first battle, the leaders of the coalition forces decided to send out the entire army, so the large number of people offset a lot of pressure transmitted from the Qinghe army. At least for now, it seems that the morale of the coalition forces did not collapse as soon as they entered the battlefield.

As one of the few leaders who had been to the battlefield, Leader Cao knew that war was not a simple comparison of the number of people. There were countless examples of a small number of elite regular troops using strict formations to defeat a rebel army that was several times larger than their own. After all, he was a member of the elite regular army back then, but the Chen Dynasty lost the battle, and he stayed because he was unwilling to admit defeat.

So someone must regain the momentum. Boss Cao knows that he can only rely on himself at this time.

"Someone needs to stop them!" Chief Cao still had a clear understanding of the situation. Fortunately, his changing status hadn't forgotten how to train his troops over the years. While his men were a bit more disorganized, he could still muster five thousand soldiers, trained according to the principles of the Great Chen Dynasty. Even if their training was a bit sloppy, their equipment a bit inferior, and their morale a bit low as they weren't fighting to defend their country, they were still a world apart compared to the other chiefs' troops. This was not only the guarantee of Chief Cao's leadership within the coalition, but also his greatest source of confidence. It was even the fundamental reason why his name was the only one mentioned among the eight chiefs.

"Let them continue to form up, and once they have completed the formation, push forward to support me. I will take the lead." After giving the order to the messenger, Boss Cao drew out his long sword. This long sword that had been with him for many years had not been used to kill the enemy for a long time. When he slaughtered women, children, and the elderly and the weak on weekdays, Boss Cao was never willing to draw out this sword. Yes, this was a military sword, the military sword issued to him by the Great Chen Dynasty, and the military sword should be used to kill the enemy.

The other leaders probably couldn't understand why Cao Dadang suddenly became so loyal and fierce, but they were still quite grateful for the time they had been given. They all promised to join the battle as soon as they could form their own teams. At the same time, they expressed deep approval of Cao Dadang: "If Cao Beifeng dies, which of his concubines should I choose? I really want to take them all, but those other bastards will definitely not agree."

"Put the big shield in the front, brothers, charge, don't be afraid of the powerful crossbows of Qinghe County, charge over and fight hand-to-hand, we have more people, we will definitely win." Cao Da Dangjia knew that the distance between the two armies was getting closer and closer, and he could not issue too complicated military orders, otherwise it would definitely cause chaos. However, when he heard that the Qinghe Army's crossbows were powerful, he ordered the felling of trees to make big shields. Although these shields made directly from logs were a bit heavy, they could definitely protect against the crossbow arrows of a single soldier, and in order to prevent the opponent from firing rockets to burn the shield, he also ordered a thick layer of wet mud to be coated on the surface of the shield, which would definitely be foolproof.

"Come on, you bunch of cold dogs who deserve to be cut into pieces. I will not lose this time." Thinking of this, Cao Da Dangjia strode forward to the front of the shield formation, pushed a soldier away, and took his place. Together with the personal guards beside him, they lifted the heavy shield with all their strength and shouted, "Soldiers, forward!"

"It looks quite real." Ding Lin watched the coalition forces gradually stabilize and begin their steady advance. "Although most of them are still in disarray, influenced by the advance of Cao Dazong, the coalition soldiers naturally gathered around their leader, forming square formations. Although from a distance these formations looked neither square nor well-arranged, they already had the rudiments of a military formation. Coupled with the opponent's numerical advantage, if a desperate fight were to happen, the First Regiment wouldn't necessarily win.

"It seems that the intelligence is correct. The Cao on the opposite side was once a lieutenant general. Even though he became a bandit, he did not waste all his skills on looting and raping. But since they want to come over with shields, let them walk a little more. Pass the order, stop advancing." Ding Lin saw that the biggest disadvantage of those large shields made of logs was their weight. According to his character, he would take advantage of them no matter how small the advantage was, so it was not surprising that he would find a way to make the other party walk a little more and waste more energy.

Besides, this time Lin Hai demanded that the coalition forces must be defeated face to face, not only to achieve the purpose of training troops, but also to promote the reputation of the Qinghe Army. Otherwise, when Ding Lin saw such a large shield, he would immediately want to order a slow retreat - don't you want to come? Aren't you strong? I will always keep a distance from you and see how long you can hold on.

"Captain, they are about to enter the firing range. Shall we take action?" Adjutant Ma Wen, a student of the third term of Lin Hai's training class, asked after observing for a while.

"Let the front row fire the crossbows, and the back row don't move. At this distance, our individual crossbows should not be able to hit a shield made of a whole tree. However, we can ask the clerk to record the effects of the attacks at different distances. I think the experience on the battlefield is always more real than that on the test field, and it should be useful to record it back." Yes, as I said just now, Ding Lin wants to take advantage of everything.

The sound of the crossbow bolts hitting the shield was terrifying. Chief Cao could clearly feel the shield he was carrying being hammered repeatedly. From the sound, he could easily tell that the Qinghe crossbow bolts were more powerful than any he had ever encountered before, especially at such a great distance. This proved that the Qinghe crossbow bolts were indeed powerful.

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