Chapter 86: One Arrow Kills
The sudden enemy attack caused King Xiutu's expression to change.
The sounds of horse hooves and footsteps all around were approaching this place along with the arrow that seemed to be pointing in a direction.
He grew up in the grassland environment where fighting was frequent, so there was no way he could not hear how many people were coming here.
This is a team of at least a thousand people, and this number is definitely not just the beginning.
But such a team suddenly attacked, and it seemed that there was no sign at all.
He was angry in his heart. Were the cavalrymen he deployed at the Yinshan Pass and on the grassland all blind?
But no matter whether these people are blind or not, he now has to face the situation of being attacked by a large number of enemies.
The arrow shot out was, at best, a perfect shot. I was afraid that the next moment...
No, he had already seen the cavalry riding towards him from behind the blazing bonfire!
Then he heard the wailing coming from his own side.
"What are you panicking about!" King Xiutu shouted loudly. With the vigor of this grassland nomad, everyone present could hear his shout. "Don't you have any weapons in your hands?"
Yes.
Although it was a celebration, it was also an oath-taking ceremony. According to the habits of the Huns, they were not restricted from carrying weapons, so they were not surrounded and unarmed at this time.
As soon as King Xiutu said this, someone gave a signal to call for the horses to come.
These enemies came suddenly, but they were not unable to fight back.
King Xiutu's words immediately calmed them down.
As the crowd below the stage drew their swords and lined up in formation, King Xiutu suddenly noticed from the corner of his eye that the Han captive who was tied up and lying there suddenly turned around from the desperate situation of being used as a sacrifice and food, and instead a glimmer of hope appeared in his eyes.
This expression was clearly reflected by the bonfire.
King Xiutu was filled with rage, and he immediately wanted to kill these people as a sacrifice, so that his fellow tribesmen would be more courageous in fighting the enemy.
However, as he took two steps at a time and moved forward, before he swung his sword, he had already developed an intuitive reaction to the crisis.
He instinctively stepped back a few steps and saw a feather arrow flying towards him and nailed to the ground in front of him.
This was not the same arrow that had previously shot down the flagpole.
But this is obviously not the point at this moment!
If he had been even a moment slower, he would have died here.
While he was still in shock from his lucky escape, he saw that the person who shot the arrow was leading a group of cavalry to attack him.
The tall and fine horses produced in Bingzhou flew over the surrounding fences and flag formations. The warriors on horseback were majestic and the cavalry following them were definitely not ordinary people.
The guards beside him just rushed over with their shields, and there was a sound of arrows hitting the shields. It was these cavalrymen who were riding and shooting arrows in his direction.
Almost at the same time, another cavalry attacked from another direction.
This is not a team that attacks by shooting, but a team of spearmen!
Soldiers with spears on horseback!
The team that had just formed a battle formation to meet the enemy encountered such a cavalry, and it was like a wall made of paper that was easily broken by a single poke. The leading general fired his spear like a whistling wind, and the tip of the spear, which was reflected by the campfire and produced a spark, pierced through the chest of the nearest person without any hesitation. When it was pulled out, it looked like a real stream of fire because of the blood on it.
He looked at the arrows and shields on the platform, as well as King Xiutu who was surrounded by them. A hint of excitement flashed across his young face.
"Wenyuan! Are you going to give up the credit?"
Before he finished speaking, he turned his horse around and headed straight for King Xiu Tu.
As the row of people moved, they chopped down many of Xiu Tu's best fighters with their spears, which almost merged into a silver wave that caused a huge storm. Or perhaps it was because the movement was too fast that people had such an illusion.
But no matter whether it was an illusion or not, in the face of this terrible deterrent force, King Xiutu had no doubt that even with this row of guards and iron shields, he would not be able to stop the advance of these spearmen.
King Xiutu knew a few words of Chinese, and he could tell from what he said that these two men were targeting his head for merit.
But he thought that the young general who was said to have made the contribution would come forward out of anger. The conflict between the two teams for credit would give him an opportunity to take advantage of. However, he saw that the young general holding the bow and arrow had turned the tip of the arrow in another direction, pointing at the Xiutu nobles.
They clearly divided the work and each performed their own duties!
One must know that Zhang Liao's actual combat experience on the border of Bingzhou might not have been enough for him to achieve his later abilities, but it at least taught him one thing: cooperation in combat is far more important than competing for the first merit.
Qiao Yan also said on their way here that the competition for King Xiutu's head must not affect their command of their subordinates.
Well, since he is only one step away from success, why not give this opportunity to others.
He laughed loudly and said, "I'll give in if you want! Just win this victory first and then show off to me!"
The target of this team of cavalrymen suddenly changed from King Xiutu to other people. The sudden attack of arrows caused more than a dozen of these people to fall to the ground and die.
Almost at the same time, the cavalry spear formation led by Zhao Yun stepped onto the protective shield.
King Xiutu jumped down from behind the platform without hesitation, intending to use the short time that the shieldmen were blocking the fight to quickly mount his horse and return to combat status.
He even saw that the young gunman's goal had turned to clearing out the shield soldiers first, which seemed to give him a chance to regroup.
But just as he jumped on his horse and gathered with the Xiutu warriors who had also shouted to get their horses, and before they could even form a charging formation, he collided head-on with the third group of cavalry that was charging in.
Coincidentally, this was the team that was most targeted at the Hun cavalry.
These cavalrymen were armed not with spears or swords, but with hooks and sickles.
Under the leadership of this leading general who seemed very young to King Xiutu, as soon as the sickle came out, a burst of wailing from war horses was heard at the first moment of the charge.
His hasty attempt to turn the horse around did not prevent the horse from going crazy after its leg was injured and throwing him off its back.
Fortunately, for a man like him with thick skin and strong flesh, he did not faint immediately after suffering such an injury. Instead, he climbed up with the help of their Xiutu warriors, and during the confrontation, or overwhelming charge, between the cavalry of both sides, he managed to escape for a while.
However, at this moment, he heard an unusually dull sound.
It was like a heavy thunder booming on the ground.
Boom!
And then the second sound.
The third tone.
…
This sound did not come from one direction, but just like when he first heard the footsteps and horse hooves, it surged in from all directions, forming a terrible sound that surrounded them.
As the other party approached, he finally saw these people.
They were clearly wearing only ordinary cloth clothes, and not many of them were wearing armor. But when they marched in unison towards the center to close the encirclement, it was impossible not to feel panic.
In the darkness of night, this special method of pressure made it difficult to tell for a moment how many people there were and how much military force they had.
All King Xiutu could see was his compatriots trying to break out of the encirclement, but when they ran into these ordinary-looking soldiers, their desperate attempts to escape were not as high-spirited as the other side's.
This was a scene he had never expected to happen.
But how could he know that these Baibo bandits were just trying their best to take the heads of the Huns to get a chance to redeem themselves and then join Leping.
So these seemingly brutal Huns were nothing more than stepping stones in their eyes.
Just kill him!
It was as these Baibo bandits approached that King Xiutu finally saw the most eye-catching presence in the team.
Compared with the cavalry that appeared earlier, this girl in tight clothes, although riding on a horse, just slowly advanced with these infantrymen, showing the calmness of a leader.
She was not within the range of the bonfire's light, but was in the moonlight and starlight.
Even though King Xiutu had never seen a Han woman leader before, it did not prevent him from immediately determining who was the leader of this special force.
She watched quietly as King Xiutu finally gathered some manpower after escaping death three times, and then his eyes fixed on her.
Just as most of the Huns did not understand what she said, "Follow me to kill the enemies," she also did not understand the command that King Xutu made that sounded like a wolf's howl.
But I think it just means to catch the leader first.
But can he really do this?
Qiao Yan gave Xu Huang another order and raised the bow in his hand again.
With King Xiutu's eyesight and the special color of the white feather arrow, it was enough for him to judge that this was the arrow that had previously shot down the outer flagpole.
The arrow that had once served as a signal for the enemy to attack was now aimed at his head.
The trouble was, he was no longer surrounded by his personal guards holding shields, and he had no guarantee that he could rely on his intuition to escape from such a fierce and accurate Yi She.
Besides, this arrow was not the only one posing a threat to him at this moment.
The Han army was advancing around them.
These soldiers advancing as infantry posed no less threat than those cavalry.
What was even strange was that he and his reunited followers felt that they both possessed a kind of wild and untamed banditry.
So much so that in this kind of fighting, he could not even notice how much advantage his side had in physical strength or momentum.
It also made his plan to capture and kill the enemy leader seem like jumping up and down in a tightly sealed cage.
At this moment, the leader whom he called the "king" had his bow and arrow drawn until the bowstring was taut.
King Xiutu had a bad feeling.
Even at this point, there was still a close protection array led by Dian Wei between the two sides!
Especially Dian Wei.
His performance of holding a long spear and chopping with devilish force was enough to make people feel that he could definitely protect the area around Qiao Yan like an iron barrel, with no possibility of anyone breaking through.
So when the edge of the arrow condensed in the moonlight, he suddenly had a strange illusion.
Wasn’t this exactly what he had done to the Han people in Guyang City before?
They surrounded him on all sides and could not escape. Among them, there were a few brave and courageous ones who tried to attack him, the leader, but were blocked in the distance. He shot arrows one after another, taking the lives of these people as if he was hunting in a hunting ground.
But now it’s the other way around—
He became the targeted prey!
This inverted relationship made him feel extremely humiliated.
But this is exactly what Qiao Yan hopes to see.
She looked at Zhao Yun, Zhang Liao and Zhang Yang, and saw that these three people had tacitly handed over the task of killing King Xiutu to her under the current circumstances. They seemed to think that killing king by king was the most appropriate action at this time, so they did not hesitate in their actions.
The arrow is on the string.
Bow in hand.
This King Xiutu was not the first person with whom she had practiced the art of archery.
Her previous act of shooting down the flagpole was sufficient proof that in the context of this nighttime celebration, there would be no chance of misfiring.
The tragedy she had witnessed in Guyang City and the murals she had seen on Guyang Road, along with the anger that had fermented in her heart during the past two days of march, should have erupted at this moment!
The jade hook on her fingertips was hooked on the bowstring, and her eyes were always fixed on King Xiutu who was trying to dodge the arrows.
But at this moment, her mind was still extremely clear, and she was driving her body. The moment King Xutu intended to move, she decisively shot the arrow out.
Therefore, no matter whether it was Qiao Yan's side or the Xiongnu side, what they saw was a scene that seemed to have been specially sent by King Xiutu to the tip of the arrow.
The white-feathered arrow pierced through his head, leaving only the arrow feathers stuck in his forehead.
The arrow passed through the head, which was a fatal shot.
As King Xutu fell down, he seemed to finally remember something.
One Han can defeat five barbarians.
The sounds of fighting around gradually faded away.
When King Xuetu had already died here, the Huns became increasingly discouraged, but their opponents seemed to be getting braver as the battle went on.
This made them even more powerless to fight back against the aggressive enemy.
Until the last Hun fell to the ground, Qiao Yan slowly rode his horse to the side of King Xiutu's body.
King Xiutu, who was thrown down from the top of his dream, still had an expression of extreme despair and fear on his dead face.
But compared to those Han people who died in Guyang City and even were treated as playthings or food by them, his death was rather cheap.
Thinking of this, Qiao Yan immediately looked towards the boiling furnace on the high platform.
For a moment, she felt a little regretful that she couldn't let the other person experience what it felt like to be placed in boiling water and cooked like fish.
But she sounded the alarm in her heart and repeatedly reminded herself that she is still a human being and must never cross her bottom line!
Above all, she could not set a precedent by which this reciprocation would be repaid in the same barbaric manner.
She closed her eyes and thought for a moment, and when she opened them again, there was only clarity left in her eyes.
However, although throwing oneself into the cauldron as an act of revenge is not advisable, it does not mean that she cannot take actions that are powerful enough to deter others.
Especially when she thought of the traces of man-made destruction on the Inner Great Wall outside Guyang City, a cold light flashed in her eyes.
She is indeed terrifying!
It's not just the Xiongnu forces north of the Yin Mountains, but also the people who are making trouble within the Great Wall.
She glanced around and confirmed that there were no more Xiu Tuge Hu alive. Everyone's eyes were focused on her, the leader, so she ordered in a deep voice: "Cut off the heads of all the Xiu Tuge people here."
Cut off heads and build a Jingguan?
No!
Shoujiang City is located outside Yinshan Mountain. If only Zhujingguan was built here, how could some special audiences see this scene?
If she guessed correctly, the damage on the Great Wall was caused by the naturalized Southern Xiongnu tribesmen!
Since they were dissatisfied with the imperial court's edict of conscription, it was reasonable for them to take action against Qiangqu, the Chanyu selected by the Lieutenant General of Protecting the Xiongnu, and to lead the way for the Xiutuguhu forces outside the pass.
But in the absence of evidence, and since they had already "surrendered" to the Han Dynasty, Qiao Yan could at most destroy the assembled troops of Xiu Tugehu because of their obvious crimes, but he could never act rashly against the Southern Xiongnu.
But what about letting them see the fate of their companions and the bloodiness of the Han people?
"Hang his body above the Surrender City, and his head—"
The features of these heads were enough to identify them as Xiongnu rather than Han Chinese.
"Tie his head to the sides and shoulders of your horses, and we will return singing and attack the Southern Xiongnu tribe in Xihe County!"
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