Chapter 634: Shield Wall Covered with Spears (Please vote and subscribe)
As the drums beat and the flags fluttered, all the armored soldiers of the Han tribe began to land and attack under the orders of officers at all levels of the army.
In order to gain more time to seize the beach and avoid wasting time on the boats, the landing boats had been put into the water before departure and had been towed behind the sailboats with ropes. Now that it was time to land, the soldiers only needed to jump on the boats and paddle towards the shore.
According to the order, the sword and shield soldiers and spear soldiers landed first, and thousands of archers gathered on the decks of each ship, aiming at the enemies that might appear on the shore. They were here to provide fire cover for the troops waiting ahead, and wait for the first batch of soldiers to gain a foothold, and then they would follow.
The herdsmen on the lakeshore were stunned. In the eastern sunrise sea, dozens of unprecedented behemoths suddenly appeared, full of sea monsters covered with iron scales. Their mounts roared like thunder, urging the sea monsters to pounce on the lakeshore.
No one dared to stay here any longer. Although the women on the grasslands were known for their bravery, they couldn't help but feel weak in the knees when they saw such a scene. They were so scared that they dropped the things in their hands and ran away.
Some of them just stood there stupidly. However, when the first landing troops were about to reach the lake shore, hundreds of crossbows flew out from the big ship behind and concentrated fire on these women. The dozen people who stayed on the shore were hit by several arrows and fell in a pool of blood.
Although a dozen women were insignificant to the war situation, war is war. The archers received the task of clearing all the targets on the shore before the first landing troops landed. They didn't care whether they were women, children or anything else. Everything must be based on the smooth landing of the first landing troops.
Sure enough, after this wave of women who were scared fell down, with the sound of paddling, the first landing troops finally rowed to the shore. The soldiers jumped directly into the shallow water on the shore and quickly lined up to land on the west bank of the lake.
As the woman who ran back kept giving warnings and the deafening sound of war drums by the lake, there was a commotion in the herdsmen's camp by the lake. Many shirtless men who had not even put on their clothes came out of their tents. Some of them held spears in their hands, and some carried bows and arrows. Without any organization, they ran to their own stables and led their war horses out first.
"What's wrong? What happened?" Many men had a clue after riding their mounts, and began to catch the women who were running around to ask about the situation.
"It's a water monster. There are water monsters coming from the sea at sunrise. They have glowing scales on their bodies and killed people from our tribe with strange bows and arrows. They are going ashore!" A woman shouted in panic.
"Water monster?!" The men who asked were a little confused. They had never heard of such nonsense, but since that water monster killed the women of their tribe, they had to take care of it.
A group of fully armed men ran straight to the lake. From a distance, they heard the sound of drums like thunder. They were a little nervous. Could it really be a water monster? Otherwise, how could it come with thunder and water?
However, just when they were hesitant, many people began to run inland, but what they shouted was different from before.
"Hurry up, the Han tribe is coming from the lake. Everyone, take your weapons and go to fight." A woman in her twenties put her hands in front of her mouth like a trumpet and shouted while running. A
dozen knights passing by her immediately stopped her, "What did you say? Is it the Han tribe that is attacking?"
"Yes, it's the Han tribe. There are a lot of them." The woman nodded affirmatively.
"How do you know it's the Han tribe?" someone else asked.
"Some of their flags say 'Han'. I know that word. It's the same word on my pottery bowl." The woman explained again.
"But someone just said it was a water monster, and it has fish-like scales on its body?"
"That's the armor of the Han tribe. Don't you know armor?" The woman asked the questioner directly.
This time everyone understood that the so-called water monster was just a group of people wearing armor. They had heard of armor. Their leader also learned from the Han tribe and got a heavy cavalry wearing leather armor. But now they are also equipped with some bronze arrows that can shoot through leather armor. There is nothing to be afraid of. No matter how powerful they are, they are still human beings. What's the difference between them?
However, some more cautious people asked again, "How many people from the Han tribe have come? How many horses are there? How did they get here? Are they all wearing leather armor? What weapons do they have?"
The young woman answered calmly, "I didn't count carefully just now. There are about two or three thousand people, all warriors. I didn't see any horses. They all came from the water and were sitting on a strange thing that I haven't seen before.
But they are not wearing leather armor. The armor glows white and looks like gold and iron. The weapons they use include strange spears and bows and arrows."
A dozen knights imagined based on her description and felt that the number of people was not that large and they should be able to fight. As for the weapons, they were all spears and bows and arrows, which were similar to their equipment. So someone said, "Go and call more people. Tell them that people from the Han tribe are here to fight us. Tell them to come and meet the enemy with weapons quickly, otherwise they won't get any share of the spoils."
The woman nodded, didn't say much, and went to call people everywhere again.
However, while the young and strong men from all over the Maodun tribe were still gathering, some herdsmen who were closer had already come to the lake. When they arrived at the lake, the vanguard troops of the Han tribe had all landed. However, these soldiers did not launch an attack rashly. Instead, under the command of officers at all levels, they quickly formed a semicircular military formation with their backs to the lake.
The sword and shield soldiers stood at the outermost perimeter, holding large shields more than half a person's height. The shields formed a seamless shield wall. Behind this low wall of shields, there were spear and shield soldiers. Although the spear and halberd soldiers of the regular army belonged to the same order, their weapons were different.
The halberd soldiers all used four-meter-long iron halberds, but they had no protective gear. The spearmen, who were mainly used to defend against cavalry charges, had a seven-and-a-half-meter-long spear and a half-meter-diameter round shield, which was mainly used to form a formation with the sword and shield soldiers. This was the formation at the moment.
On the low wall formed by the sword and shield soldiers, a row of super-long spears stretched out diagonally. On top of the dense defense line formed by the spears, there was another row of round shields that raised the shield wall by one section.
Outside this army formation, thousands of grassland cavalrymen rode back and forth on horseback, looking at this army formation and were a little dumbfounded. This was the first time they had seen such a battle. The enemy's fighting style was different from theirs. The enemy did not have a horse, but used large wooden boards to block themselves tightly. They could not even see a single person outside.
And their combination made these grassland people feel like a cat catching a hedgehog, and they had no idea where to start.
Countless wooden boards were arranged without any gaps, so that their bows and arrows could not work at all. They rushed over to stab with spears and were blocked by the long spears protruding from the wall. If they rushed forward, they would probably be the first to die.
However, staring here was not a good idea. The enemy's formation was obviously defensive. They did not let their side get close, nor did they take the initiative to attack. It was obvious that they were buying time for the people behind them, because many people had noticed that many soldiers in armor were rowing boats on the lake. These people were holding strange bows and arrows. Perhaps the shore was waiting for these archers to come up and meet before launching an attack.
In just a short while, many herdsmen gathered, and the number of cavalry had reached more than 2,000. A man who looked like the leader saw that his own soldiers did not attack, and the enemy did not move, and it looked like the two sides were in a standoff, so he asked in confusion.
"What's going on? Why don't you attack? Don't you see that there are people coming behind them? Do you want to wait for more and more enemies?"
At this time, someone replied, "They have wooden walls, and our bows and arrows can't penetrate them. They also have spears. We can't charge even if we have horses. We can't let everyone die like this."
However, the leader whipped the man who replied directly, and he howled miserably, "Are you all stupid sheep? If you can't shoot arrows through, you can't use flying stones and throwing spears? Quick, drive them into the water for me." After saying this, he sent a few confidants on fast horses to inform Maodun that the Han tribe suddenly attacked their grazing land, which was not a good thing.
The battlefield near the lake also quickly moved. The herdsmen launched an attack at the urging of several small leaders. Countless flying stones and spears were shot at the shield wall of the Han tribe, making a series of thumping sounds. Although the shield wall was shaking, it was still stable.
Jiandun was a member of this shield wall. As the general flag of the sword and shield soldiers, he was shouting and ordering his soldiers to hold on.
"Everyone, wear your helmets, lower your heads, hide your bodies behind your shields, and pay attention to the protection of your limbs."
The sword and shield soldiers all wore mountain-patterned armor. This kind of armor pieces were connected to each other without the need for hemp ropes. They were all double-layer three-dimensional structures, and the coverage area was very large. Needless to say, the upper body, the entire upper arm to the shoulder, was covered with a shoulder guard as long as the elbow, and the forearm was covered with iron armor wrist guards, which protected from the elbow to the back of the hand. The armor on the lower body also hung down to the knee. The only weakness was the exposed calf, but it was blocked by the big shield at this time. As long as they hid carefully, they would not be attacked.
The enemy's stone attack was obviously useless to the army. Without weapons such as cannons or catapults, the most they could do was to throw stones as big as eggs at the shields. They soon discovered this and increased the number of javelins.
With the sound of whizzing through the air, countless javelins flew towards the shield wall, instantly causing some damage to the Han tribe's army. Some of the stone javelins were blocked by the shield wall, while others flew over the shield wall and stabbed into the open space behind. Some short javelins that seemed to be on fire flew in through the gaps between the round shields, causing some scratches to the spearmen standing behind.
But because the Han tribe was equipped with iron armor, they only had some scratches. The injured ones could continue to hold on, and the impact on the battle was not great.
However, the only javelin that could pose a slight threat to the Han tribe was immediately declared exhausted after two rounds of throwing. After all, the javelin that the cavalry could equip was limited. It was not their main weapon. Three javelins was considered a lot for one person. How could there be so many in stock?
However, seeing that the effect of throwing spears was not very obvious, and the Han tribe archers on the water were getting closer and closer, several small leaders who were appointed by Maodun to stay behind to watch the house became anxious, and hurriedly asked everyone to go around the side of the army to find flaws, and those with bows and arrows threw arrows towards the water to prevent the archers
from landing. More than 2,000 people fired arrows in a volley, but the range of their bows and arrows was obviously not that far. The dense rain of arrows shot into the water, stirring up a white splash, but it could not stop the archers from landing.
And one of the small leaders with bronze throwing spears was even more unconvinced and rushed directly towards the army. When he was about 30 meters away, he pulled the reins and began to run to the side, but at the moment he turned around, the bronze short spear in his hand was also thrown out fiercely.
The golden spearhead was fast and fierce. It pierced a large shield with a thud, directly poking a hole in the 2.5 cm thick oak hard shield. The spear tip penetrated the shield and hit the side face of the warrior who was holding the shield. Fortunately, their helmets had three sides of soft armor hanging down to protect the side face and neck. The bronze spearhead did not penetrate the double-layer mountain pattern armor, but the fierce impact still broke three teeth on the side of the warrior, causing him to spit blood and faint on the spot.
As the unlucky man fainted, a gap appeared in the shield wall that was originally flawless. Although the halberd soldiers standing in the back row immediately dragged the man down and raised the shield, in just a few seconds, someone had already seized the opportunity to shoot a few arrows at this empty space. The halberd soldiers who came up were fired at by more than a dozen arrows while holding the shield. Although most of them were blocked by armor, one arrow still hit his calf.
However, due to his standing position, the arrow hit his shin bone and was blocked by the bone. It fell off his leg before it stayed there for two seconds. Although his shin bone was in excruciating pain, the warrior knew the importance of the formation, so he gritted his teeth and persisted, hoping that the archers behind him could land quickly, so that they would not be so passive and could fight back earlier.
While he was talking about this, Xue Tu, who landed with the archers, also noticed this situation. He quickly stopped hundreds of archers and asked them to shoot a round at the enemy from the boat to relieve the pressure on the sword and shield soldiers in front and cover the other half of the archers landing.
(End of this chapter)
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