Chapter 635: Tiger Guards (Please vote and subscribe)

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh -

several waves of dense rain of arrows fell, instantly covering the enemy cavalry in front of the battle. Many herdsmen warriors were hit by several arrows and fell off their horses, while others were wounded and fled. Even the horses were injured. Several herdsmen leaders were shocked. It was the first time they saw the bows and arrows of the Han tribe. They didn't expect that they could shoot so far, which really scared them.

The leaders just now had tried to attack the lake with projectiles, but because of the long distance, they never succeeded. Now they were suddenly counterattacked by the Han tribe, which made most people start to be afraid and only kept a certain distance from the outside to shoot cold arrows, but basically had no effect.

When Xue Tu saw this situation, he instantly had a bottom line in his heart and became more confident in this battle. He hurriedly urged the archers to take advantage of this gap to land. Thousands of people were divided into two groups and soon came to the protection of the shield wall on the shore.

"Advance a hundred steps, form a circle to resist the enemy!" Xue Tu, who finally reached the shore, was wearing a silver-white scale armor and began to give orders loudly. The flag bearer and bugler beside him immediately conveyed his orders to the entire army. The two thousand-man army began to change its shape like a tight machine.

The leading shield soldiers began to advance quickly, followed by the spearmen. The archers who had just landed formed a square formation and stood in the middle of the shield wall. The shield soldiers on both wings shrank back, and finally turned the shield wall into a circle, protecting the archers firmly in the middle.

Several leaders under Maodun began to worry secretly. The Han tribe's tight defense formation made them feel helpless. This was completely different from the pursuit and being hunted they usually experienced. The enemy stood in front of them, but they had no good way.

However, their not moving did not mean that the Han tribe would not move. Xue Tu was very clear about Luo Chong's strategic goal, which was to consume the enemy's manpower as much as possible. They were not here to defend, but to attack and sabotage, so Xue Tu quickly issued the second order after landing.

"Archers take turns shooting forward, spear and shield soldiers move forward

slowly, and halberd soldiers hold fire." New orders were issued, and the halberd soldiers who were responsible for carrying tung oil and torches began to prepare fire attack tools. The defense circle formed by spear and shield soldiers began to move slowly inland, gradually pressing towards the enemy camp.

The heavily protected archers were automatically divided into several waves, taking turns to shoot at the surrounding enemy targets. After the first wave of shooting, they stopped in place to install new crossbows. The second wave passed the first wave and continued to shoot. This process was repeated alternately, causing the Han tribe's circle to be hit by arrows like a spring, and all the enemies who approached were hit by several arrows and fell off their horses. Whoosh,

whoosh, whoosh -

the crossbow arrows were thrown out continuously, causing many casualties to Maodun's cavalry. They did not dare to approach easily, nor did they want to leave easily, allowing the Han tribe to rush into their camp without hindrance.

Most of these cavalrymen wore clothes made of felt, or went into battle bare-chested. A few leaders wearing leather armor still suffered heavy casualties under the attack of the Han tribe's iron arrows. They rode their horses and kept circling the Han tribe's circle, but they did not dare to get too close. They could only use the same projectiles to slow down the Han tribe's advance. However, wolf-tooth arrows and a small number of bronze arrows were almost useless for the Han tribe equipped with large shields and iron armor. This was an asymmetric war.

Seeing that the Han tribe was getting closer and closer to the camp, some enemies began to feel unbearable. Their own tents were right behind them, and it was too late to move away at this time. The bows and arrows in their hands had almost no effect on the Han tribe, which reminded them of the spears they used at the beginning.

Someone repeated the same trick and rushed towards the Han tribe's circle from a distance again, intending to throw the spear when he was thirty meters away. However, the situation was different from the beginning. When the Han tribe's archers had not landed, the spearmen and shieldmen could only passively defend and could not make effective attacks. But now it was different. The archers in the center of the circle had joined the army, which had given the army the ability to shoot from a distance. Therefore, when the opponent's spear throwers had just rushed to about fifty meters, they were attacked by the archers' concentrated fire. Dozens of crossbow arrows covered them densely like locusts, instantly turning those brave spear throwers into hedgehogs.

The horses that were hit by several arrows were frightened and ran around. Some of them rushed directly to the circle, but were also killed by the spearmen's seven-and-a-half-meter-long spears on the spot, and could not get close to the shield wall at all.

When the circle was only about two hundred meters away from the camp, the halberd soldiers in the circle also lit torches, prepared tung oil and other items for fire attack, and then shouted reports.

"Report, torches are ready."

"Report, tung oil is ready."

"Report, felt strips are ready."

The reports came one after another, which made Xue Tu alert. Looking at the white tents not far away, he immediately shouted, "Load the rockets, aim at the tents and shoot."

"Yes! Prepare the rockets."

The halberd soldiers quickly used bamboo tweezers to pick out the wool felt strips soaked in tung oil from the bamboo tube, and then helped the archers to wrap them around the crossbow arrows. After a wave of them were all loaded, the halberd soldiers responsible for holding the fire next to them lit the crossbow arrows for them one by one. The archers looked for tents, felt houses and other grassland buildings within the range, quickly aimed at the target and pulled the trigger.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh -

a bright flame dragged black smoke, flying towards their tents and felt houses in the terrified and desperate eyes of countless herdsmen. The felt tents pressed with wool caught fire as soon as they saw the fire. With the help of the morning breeze, they turned into big fireballs in just a few tens of seconds, darkening the sky that had just turned white again.

Countless herdsmen children and women came out of the burning tents in terror, their cries and curses were loud, and some herdsmen warriors saw such a scene and hurriedly left the team to find their families, put their children and women on horseback, and then rushed to their own animal pens to release the livestock. Their homes were gone, and the livestock was their only property. Now they could only think of ways to keep the last supplies of life.

"Don't run, there are not many of them, rush up and kill them all, you, come back, don't run." A small leader under Maodun shouted hoarsely, but not many people listened to him. Some ran away directly, and some attacked the army of the Tiger Guards. The small leader bent his bow and shot a fleeing cavalryman off his horse, but he was immediately shot to the ground by a cold arrow from somewhere.

"Damn Li Liang, if you want to charge at me, go charge at me. Don't you see they are all wearing armor? Our arrows can't hurt them at all. Go to hell." A herdsman not far away cursed in a low voice after shooting an arrow. He was not discovered in the chaotic camp. He turned his horse's head and ran to his home, wanting to take women, children and livestock to escape from this place of trouble.

However, some cavalrymen saw that the Han tribe began to destroy so recklessly, and their eyes began to turn red in the firelight. They picked up their spears and rushed towards the circle of the Han tribe like crazy, but were immediately blocked by the spearmen outside the shield wall. Some people picked up flying stones and stone axes again for long-range attacks, but the attack distance of 30 to 40 meters could not penetrate the range of the Han tribe's arrows at all. The cavalrymen who dared to rush to the front of the army fell on the spot.

With the surrounding flames rising to the sky, billowing smoke, the howling of the wounded, and the neighing of the war horses, the herdsmen's camp was already in chaos. At this time, the weaknesses of Maodun's cavalry were exposed. They did not have a strict military organization, and many soldiers did not have a clear leader to lead them. They rushed up in a swarm when they saw that they could win, and went their separate ways when they showed a slight decline. The lack of officers and the randomness of the structure made it impossible for them to organize an effective counterattack. Those

who dared to run over to charge were sparse, and the timid ones had already run away, and even started to go home to pack up their belongings and prepare to run away. Such a chaotic scene made Xue Tu secretly despise it.

There was no shortage of warriors among the grassland cavalry. Those who dared to charge were all good players. If they were allowed to organize and launch a group charge, the thin shield wall of the Tiger Guards might not be able to stop them. It was a pity that they could not organize themselves at all. These bravest warriors often rushed into the battle alone, and basically became suicidal attacks.

Although they won the battle, Xue Tu was still worried when he saw the herdsmen and livestock fleeing in the distance. This was not in line with their strategic goal. The leader wanted to destroy them, not just defeat them. However, the habits of nomadic peoples were often like this. They would advance when they saw an advantage and retreat when they saw an disadvantage. They could not be caught up even if they ran away.

Seeing such a scene, Xue Tu no longer played it safe. In order to expand the results of the battle during the chaos, he quickly ordered, "The whole army is disbanded. Each team of the five-element formation will find the target on their own. Burn all the tents and kill all the herdsmen. Chase them and don't let them run away!"

As soon as the military order was given, the large circle formation of the Huben Guards was immediately dispersed. Each branch of the army formed a five-element formation according to the usual training method and rushed in all directions.

The five-element formation of the Han tribe is a multi-arms combination combat method. There is one sword and shield soldier, one spear soldier, one halberd soldier, and two crossbowmen in the formation. A group of five can be both offensive and defensive, forming a combat system in itself, and it is easy to deal with the herdsmen who have no organization.

The herdsmen who were unwilling to flee, seeing that the Han tribe's formation had disbanded, hurriedly called on their companions to fight back, wanting to take the opportunity to kill some enemies and snatch the Han army's weapons, especially the iron armor that was invulnerable to swords and spears, which made them jealous.

The sound of horse hooves came from all directions, and some brave and fierce cavalrymen broke into the army of the Huben Guards and used various weapons to attack the Han soldiers divided into groups. However, even if the wolf-tooth arrows they shot were shot at the iron armor at close range, they still could not break the Han army's defense. The stone axes and spears thrown were also blocked by the flexible shield soldiers. The crossbowmen did not give the enemy a second chance to attack, and two iron arrows were shot one after another, instantly knocking the invading enemy off his horse.

However, due to the chaotic battle and the fact that there were only two archers in the group, the long-range shooting ability was greatly reduced, and it was impossible to form a covering firepower advantage. It was also difficult to exert accuracy under the flexible maneuvers of the cavalry. The battle of the Tiger Guards also fell into a stalemate until someone improvised and came up with a good idea.

In the group led by Jiandun, two archers shot four arrows but failed to hit the cavalry wandering around them. Jiandun immediately scolded, "Are you two stupid? If you can't hit the man, shoot his horse. Shoot his horse down and we'll go up and kill him together."

The two archers muttered, "Those are all good horses. If we bring our horses back to the tribe, how much more land can we plant?"

These are all civilians who are used to living a poor life. Although the Han tribe lives a good life and can live a life without worrying about food and drink by farming, the shortage of cattle and horses in the Han tribe is still a realistic problem. Every year during the spring plowing season, each family can only rent cattle and horses from the public animal pens. In this way, many people have to queue up during the spring plowing season. Their ideas are very simple. They just want to seize some cattle and horses this time to improve their lives, so they are reluctant to shoot horses and just want to kill people.

But now is the time to fight, of course, the purpose is to kill the enemy. Although they are in pain, they still quickly aim the crosshairs on the crossbow at the enemy's horse.

A few arrows were shot, and the horses hit by them immediately fell to the ground. A herdsman fell off his horse and rolled several times. He looked at a group of Han soldiers behind him, saw the javelin in his hand that was not as tall as a man, and then looked at the long spears and iron halberds in the hands of the Han army. He was so scared that he ran away.

Most of the herdsmen's cavalry used bows and arrows as weapons. There were not many weapons such as stone axes and javelin that could be thrown or used for close combat. A lot of them had been consumed in the previous attack. However, even if they had stone spears in their hands, they did not have the courage to dismount and fight with the spearmen of the Han tribe. The long weapons of the Han tribe really had an advantage in this kind of battle.

But Jiandun finally got such an opportunity, how could he let go of this horseless enemy? Their sword and shield soldiers stood in the first row and were beaten since they landed. The subsequent attacks were mainly from archers, supplemented by spearmen. It was not the turn of the sword and shield soldiers to attack. This half-day battle had made him feel very frustrated. Whether it was the enemy's head or the living captives, they were all real military merits, which could be directly promoted and rewarded. How could he let them go easily? He immediately led his team to rush up with a cry.

The herdsman who fell off his horse had a leg injury. He limped and couldn't speed up at all. Seeing a group of armored Han soldiers rushing up from behind, he was so scared that he threw the stone axe in his hand, but was knocked away by the solid wooden shield in Jiandun's hand. The spearmen next to him saw the opportunity and immediately rushed up with their seven-and-a-half-meter-long spears, piercing the herdsman through the heart.

Jiandun secretly said what a pity, but still ran over and chopped off the man's head with his knife, then hung it on his waist and said to the team members behind him, "Everyone, hurry up. We have only killed two people so far. We need to chop off five heads to upgrade everyone. Don't just stand there, let's go."

(End of this chapter)