Bartley's favorite thing to do is to draw the bow and shoot arrows on the back of a galloping horse. This can not only show off his archery skills, but also give the enemy a strong shock of surprise attack. But this time, just as he drew the bow and put the arrow on, he put his arms down again - because he had to dodge the feather arrows flying from the side first.
Wu Lai ran as close to the outer bank of the canal as possible in order to pull the Fox and Wolf Bandits into the archers' shooting range, but it is particularly worth mentioning that the best archers in Salt Marsh Town were not stationed in the arrow tower, but were scattered along the inner bank of the canal from the south gate to the west gate, each stationed at a commanding height, acting as observers when there were no enemies, and sniping when sporadic enemies appeared.
Now, it's time for these archers to carry out sniping - although now the enemies are not isolated but a large group, but these guys are chasing the respected Lord Governor Wu Lai.
According to Wu Lai, the archers who could be deployed by him on the inner bank of the canal were all good archers who used their brains, so they would naturally "take care of" the bandits who posed the greatest threat to Wu Lai first - such as Bartley who tried to aim and the other guys in his bandit group who were chasing him with bows and arrows.
Moving target shooting is a compulsory course for archers in Saltmarsh Town. Although those who can be called good archers by Wu Lai are still a little far from being archers, at least this course is well practiced. Therefore, the archer Bartley was in a mess, and Osus, who was riding a horse near him, was also in a mess.
After leaving the South Gate area and running a short distance, several of the bandits around Osius had already fallen. Although the situation was not good, Osius became more determined to capture Wu Lai alive.
I will slowly torture you to death, and then dry you on the tree trunk on the horse trail! Osius said in his heart to Wu Lai, whose back was getting closer and closer.
Bartley pulled the bow again. He had been irritated by the archers in the town. When he was angry, he never cared about anything - you can just shoot me to death, but before I am shot to death, I will definitely shoot him to death.
The "he" Bartley was thinking of was naturally Woolley.
When the tip of the arrow pointed at Wu Lai's back, Bartley hesitated for a moment, and finally managed to suppress the urge to shoot Wu Lai and moved the tip of the arrow slightly downwards.
"Bang" - the bowstring sounded, and the arrow flew out, seemingly creating a series of ripples in the air, humming as it gathered towards Wu Lai's horse...
No matter how fast the arrow flies, it can't be faster than the eyes at such a distance. Woolley had already seen Bartley's aim in the mirror, so as soon as Bartley's hand loosened, he pulled the reins to the left and whipped hard...
When he saw the arrow miss the target, Bartley was in a trance, because he really couldn't figure out whether he was dazzled or hallucinating or whether it was indeed the truth. If he could still accept that the arrow he shot at El was blocked by Wu Lai, it was too unbelievable that he dodged his own arrow without even turning his head.
Is it the god Amon who is helping him? This thought suddenly popped up in Bartley's mind, and then he heard a humming sound in his ears...
"Puff" - blood spurted out, and Bartley felt as if his neck was hit hard by a big wooden stick. The place where he was hit was sore and painful, and the strength of his whole body seemed to be drained away in an instant. He couldn't even hold the reins...
I was shot by an arrow? As soon as this thought came into Bartley's mind, he swayed and fell off his horse.
"Bartley!" Osius cried out in shock. At the same time, Wu Lai suddenly raised his hand and a thin leather bag was suddenly shaken open. A large cloud of gray mist mixed with dense black spots was thrown out rapidly. The gray mist instantly covered Wu Lai's figure, and those black spots fell to the ground rapidly.
The moment he caught a glimpse of the gray fog, Osius narrowed his eyes and shouted loudly "Charge!" He had to do so. Even though he was speculating about the origin and purpose of Wu Lai's gray fog and was even a little nervous, he still didn't dare to order a stop - hundreds of people were riding horses in a hurry, and the formation was so far apart, how could his order be heard in front and behind? If the front team stopped suddenly, and the people and horses behind rushed up, then it would be a real "succession".
It has to be said that Ossius's approach was very correct. Unfortunately, Woolley's focus was not on the gray fog, but on the black spots that fell on the ground. They had a common name - copper caltrops.
Wu Lai's copper caltrops are actually a replica of iron caltrops. In Wu Lai's previous memory of ancient China, iron caltrops were one of the defensive weapons. According to "Mozi·Preparing for the City Gate", in the city defense battles during the Warring States Period, "all piled up ginseng and caltrops". "Six Strategies·Tiger Strategies" records: "In narrow roads and paths, iron caltrops are spread, with spikes four inches high and eight inches wide." After the Qin and Han Dynasties, iron caltrops became a common defensive equipment in the army. In addition to being laid out on roads, defense zones, and around cities, they were also laid out around the camp when the troops were stationed.
The copper caltrops that Wu Lai scattered were all the stock he had on hand. If there were more, he wouldn't mind scattering them lavishly. After scattering them, Wu Lai had no intention of stopping. There were hundreds of people chasing him, and occasionally shooting arrows. How could he care about the effect? Naturally, he ran as fast as he could...
The first one to be hit was actually Osius. In Wu Lai's opinion, this was very counterintuitive. If Wu Lai had seen Osius fall to the ground with his horse, he would have been surprised and asked, "Isn't the villain's boss always the last to fall? How come he was the first to be hit?"
But Osus was the first to be hit - his horse's front hoof stepped on a bronze caltrop, and then the horse's front legs broke and bent, and Osus fell heavily over the horse's head to the ground. Then, his horse rolled over and fell heavily on him.
Before Osus had time to think about why his horse stumbled, he felt a pain in his left thigh. At the same time, horses around him kept falling down with screams, and of course, the people on the horses were not spared.
Almost in the blink of an eye, nearly half of the "first phalanx" where Osius was located fell, but did this mean that the bad luck had stopped? No, because the "second phalanx" was following too closely and there was no time to rein in the horses...
After rolling rapidly on the ground several times, Osus finally moved himself to a safe place, but the price he paid was not small - at least five or six copper caltrops were stuck in his flesh, and the bloody and sour pain was something that not everyone could endure.
"Boss!" A small bandit leader who was lucky enough not to be hit quickly got off his horse to help Osius, and asked, "Should we continue to chase?"
Osius struggled to stand up and looked forward. Wu Lai's figure had almost become a small dot. After a slight hesitation, Osius gritted his teeth and shouted loudly: "Go back to the town! Burn the city gate!"
When Wu Lai's figure appeared near the west gate, Sales, who was watching the situation in the arrow tower, hurriedly ordered two archers to open the city gate, and he ran to the wooden bridge to greet Wu Lai into the town. Wu Lai naturally knew about the bandits' retreat, but he didn't think these guys would withdraw so easily.
After running into the west gate, Wulai rushed towards the east gate without even getting off his horse. As he rushed, he loudly ordered Sarres not to leave the west gate easily, and shouted to Malone and others: "Here comes Seneca! Bring your bows and arrows and follow me to the east gate!"
Ma Long and the others immediately dropped what they were doing, grabbed their longbow quivers, jumped on their horses, whipped their horses, and followed behind Wu Lai...
When Osus really began to think of retreating, it was almost noon. During this nearly half a day, he launched a total of 17 charges against the east gate with only one purpose, which was to burn down the city gate.
But what made him feel even more distressed was that all these 17 charges failed without exception. Not only was the arrow tower-city gate defense system stronger than Osius had imagined, but Wulai's endless defensive methods made him exhausted and even gave him an illusion - he was not the attacker, but Wulai.
Don't blame Osius for thinking this way, because the process of these dozen battles was too disgusting -
In the first charge, Osus sent out twenty of his men, carrying large wooden shields on their heads, to rush towards the city gate. Just as they ran within fifteen steps of the city gate, at least a hundred stones suddenly fell from the wooden bridge. Each stone was as big as a human head, and when they fell from above, they even made a whistling sound.
The shields that could block the arrows were immediately smashed and twisted. Naturally, Osius's twenty men were immediately thrown into chaos. However, as soon as a few small cracks appeared in their shields, the arrows from the arrow tower began to fall...
…In the fifth charge, Osius sent out another twenty men, still with large wooden shields on their heads, and rushed to the city gate smoothly. Before the fire could be lit, no less than twenty large basins of boiling water poured onto the wooden bridge…
...During the eleventh charge, Osius used more than ten horses to cover four of his men as they charged towards the city gate. They also rushed to the city gate smoothly. As soon as the four men took out the oil bags, several small holes suddenly appeared on the city gate. Then, at least a dozen long spears suddenly pierced out from behind the small holes...
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For the fourteenth time, hot oil poured down the wooden bridge...
The seventeenth time, there were no stones, feather arrows, spears, boiling water, or boiling oil, but the seventeen men sent by Osus all turned into firemen...
There were seventeen charges, and each time, Wu Lai patiently waited for the Fox and Wolf Bandits to charge up, and then he responded to their moves, and even found time to chat and laugh with Ma Long and others. It felt as if he was not fighting an offensive and defensive battle, but a game of chess where winning or losing was not important at all.
Osius gave up the idea of launching the eighteenth charge. He had to do so because more than half of the 800 men he brought with him had been killed or wounded. If he continued to waste time like this, the entire army would be wiped out and he would not be able to enter Salt Marsh Town.
In the end, Osius chose to withdraw his troops. After leaving behind a hundred men, he led the rest of the troops and left with the wounded who were still worth saving. But what he didn't know was that when he began to plan the withdrawal, Wu Lai was also planning...
"Look, this is the consequence of lacking long-range weapons and effective means of attack." Wu Lai pointed at Osius's receding figure and said to Malone with a smile, "Change me a horse."
"I'll follow your instructions, master." Ma Long nodded, bowed and left.
When Wu Lai stepped down the stairs of the arrow tower, more than thirty archers mobilized from the south gate and the west gate were already waiting there in the open space inside the city gate. Each man was riding a horse, wearing light armor, carrying a quiver, and a wooden bow hung next to the saddle.
"This group of bandits lacks bows and arrows, so this is a rare opportunity." Wu Lai raised his right arm, "Let us avenge the dead townspeople!"
"Revenge! Revenge!" more than thirty archers shouted loudly.
"Now! Everyone, get on your horses!" Wu Lai gave a loud order and took the whip handed to him by Ma Long.
"Master, you have been tired for most of the day, take a rest." Ma Long couldn't help but say when his eyes swept across the tiredness in Wu Lai's expression.
"No, we must wipe out all the bandits this time." Wu Lai shook his head and said, "Now they are exhausted, it is a good time to chase them. If we let them go now, it will be difficult to guard against them in the future because they already know my routine."
Ma Long nodded heavily: "I listen to my master."
After saying that, Malone turned around and raised his arm, "Seneca Guards, mount your horses! Protect the master!"
"Yes!" A response louder and more orderly than that of the archers suddenly rang out...