Chapter 718: Defeat (Two chapters in one, please subscribe)
Su Ritu came uninvited, which was something that no one on the Han tribe had expected. Even You Zhi, who was in charge of intelligence, had not heard about it in advance. The pressure from Maodun and Xin tribe was too great, and Su Ritu had always been relatively honest, so it was understandable that they did not notice him.
However, the bigwigs in Kaiyuan County were not panicked, because just as they thought, Su Ritu did not have the courage to attack the Han tribe for the time being. He was different from Maodun. Maodun at least had the cooperation of Xin tribe, which could get him a lot of living supplies.
Su Ritu was not good enough. He could only rely on the Han tribe. Once he broke up with the Han tribe and lost the support of the Han tribe, Maodun, who was backed by the Xin tribe, would definitely be the first to kill him.
Of course, he also had a second choice, which was to be willing to bow down to Maodun and become Maodun's younger brother, but this was impossible. Su Ritu was also an ambitious person. If he could be Maodun's younger brother, he would have done so two years ago. There was no need to wait until the Han tribe had a firm foothold in the grassland before doing so. This was not in his interest.
Therefore, Xuetu and Chai Duoduo were not very worried. For the time being, they just needed to send someone to keep an eye on Su Ritu. As long as there was no obvious defeat on his side, he would never dare to act rashly. If his side was going to win, he would even take the lead in leading his troops to chase and beat the fallen dog.
There are many advantages to doing this. The first is to curry favor with the Han tribe and get a favor in hand. The second is to kill Maodun, not for the Han tribe, but for himself. Think about it, if Maodun is gone, Su Ritu will be the largest nomadic force on the entire grassland.
In order to gain more say in front of the Han tribe in the future, Su Ritu will also pursue Maodun.
Xuetu ignored him and focused on the Maodun army that was about to attack.
Although Maodun did not have such a strict military system as the Han tribe, he also had his own set of methods. The
regular army of the Han tribe was a guard system, which was mobilized according to the organization, flag, and drum. The herdsmen who surrendered to the Han were a garrison system, which was organized according to the household registration and also obeyed the golden drum flag.
Maodun was different. They had flags, trumpets, and gongs, all of which were learned from the Han tribe, but they didn't have drums, because those things were not easy to make. The Xin tribe couldn't make a decent war drum for the time being, and his military system was not unified. They all fought according to the tribal alliance model.
Whether it was the tribe he conquered, the tribe that took the initiative to surrender to him, or the tribe that organized according to their own tribes, in this way, the power of each tribe was naturally uneven, and Maodun only needed to give orders to the small leaders of each tribe.
In fact, these were also his cannon fodder. His main heavy armored cavalry were all from his own tribe, sitting in the central army. As for the 3,000 troops of the Xin tribe, most of them were technical support. For example, the chariots and ladders of the Maodun coalition were provided and made by the Xin tribe. In terms of use and maintenance, all these things were done by the people of the Xin tribe.
The Xin tribe and Maodun had the same enemy, so there was a possibility of cooperation. Maodun sent troops and the Xin tribe provided logistical support. The two sides hit it off. Even if Maodun knew that he was suspected of being used as a gun, he would not give up this opportunity.
According to Maodun's idea, he came out in full force this time, intending to defeat the grassland distribution of the Han tribe in one blow. By then, the Xin tribe was far away from the mountains, and there was no opponent on the grassland. The legacy left by the Han tribe could be used as he wanted. By then, he could completely get rid of the shackles of the Xin tribe after two years of digestion. It was not impossible to completely rule the grassland.
With the intelligence sent back by the scouts, the Han tribe had figured out Maodun's troop deployment and weapons and equipment. The same was true for Maodun. They also learned about the information from the Han tribe through their own scouts.
However, the response strategy of the Han tribe obviously exceeded his expectations. He originally thought that the army of the Han tribe would rely on the advantage of the city wall to shrink in the city and fight a war of attrition with them using the advantage equipment such as iron armor and iron.
However, this was not the case.
When they heard that the 20,000 troops of the Han tribe began to line up to meet the attack far outside the city, all the bigwigs in the Maodun coalition were very surprised.
What does this mean?
They don't want the city? They actually ran out to prepare for a decisive battle with themselves?
Are they so confident? Twenty thousand soldiers dared to fight against sixty thousand of his own?
Maodun was very afraid of the Han tribe, but this did not mean that he was afraid of the Han tribe, otherwise he would not have repeatedly opposed the Han tribe. So, Maodun first issued the first order very cautiously, first pulling the army to one thousand meters opposite the Han army to see what happened, to put some pressure on them and see how the Han tribe reacted.
In Maodun's view, one thousand meters was already a very safe distance, about four arrows away, that is, the range of four bows and arrows. Even if the quality of the bows and arrows of the Han tribe was good, it was impossible to shoot arrows into his army without moving.
It takes at least two to three hundred meters for a horse to accelerate from a standstill to full speed. If the Han tribe launched a cavalry raid at this time, he would have enough reaction time to mobilize his army, whether it was a counter-charge or bypassing the main force of the Han army, he would have time to act.
However, with the official service of the Han tribe's artillery, he still miscalculated. Maodun could not have dreamed that he had already entered the range of the Han tribe.
The rumbling sound of horse hooves was like thunder in the sky, and also like a strong earthquake. Tens of thousands of war horses galloped over, and only stopped a thousand meters away from the opposite side of the Han tribe's army. The two sides began to enter a confrontation phase.
Maodun waited for the reaction of the Han tribe. He even hoped that the Han tribe would surrender voluntarily, or flee back to the city after seeing that they had more people. In this way, he would be more confident to deal with the Han tribe slowly, even if it was a siege war. From the hundreds of long ladders they brought, it can be seen that they were actually prepared to attack the city. Who knew that the Han tribe would suddenly go crazy and run outside to block them, and it was so far away from the city.
This was simply stupid in Maodun's view. At that time, as long as the Han tribe was slightly defeated, they would not even have the opportunity to escape back to the city. At such a long distance, he would definitely be able to intercept them before the Han tribe's defeated army returned to the city. At that time, there would be even fewer troops in the city, and they would not be able to stop the attack of his coalition army.
In the Han army camp, Xue Tu, Chai Duoduo, You Zhi and others were standing on the wooden command building, and they had already seen the dark coalition forces a thousand meters away.
Xue Tu took out a wooden range-finding card for artillery, but after gesturing for a long time, he still couldn't figure out how far the other side was from him. Anyway, since he could see it with the naked eye, it must be at least 700 to 800 meters away, which was completely within the attack range of round bullets. So he ordered the artillery to start loading ammunition without saying anything.
The instructions were quickly passed on through flags and drums, and the personal soldiers also ran to each gun position to notify them one by one, and soon the artillery received the news.
According to the firing angle of five degrees, one times the charge, solid spherical iron bullets were loaded, and the firing method was volley.
Because they had prepared in advance, the artillerymen began to load the ammunition in an orderly manner, and the speed was very fast. After all, the basic calibration had been done in advance.
At each gun position between the Han army's chariots, the artillerymen skillfully carried out a series of operations such as aiming, clearing the chamber, loading the gunpowder, loading the ammunition, igniting, etc., and then each gun commander raised the instruction flag.
"Report, one gun is ready."
"Two guns are ready."
"Six guns are ready."
Seeing the flags indicating that the guns were loaded, Xue Tu gave the order to fire without hesitation.
"Fire."
After seeing the flags of the central army waving, the artillery commanders immediately waved the flags in their hands to fire, and the gunners immediately pulled the hemp ropes on the flintlocks.
Boom boom boom boom————
For a moment, a series of earth-shaking noises came from the front of the Han army, as if thunder had exploded on the ground, with flashes of fire and smoke, and shells whistling forward one after another, crashing into the enemy formation.
Maodun's coalition forces were numerous, and they were not as easy to command as the Han tribe. His central army was the first to line up and stop, and the coalition forces on both wings followed closely. Just as they stood in line, they heard a rumbling sound from the Han tribe army. It sounded like thunder, and it felt like it was exploding repeatedly in their ears even from a thousand meters away.
Maodun was stunned for a moment, and he couldn't figure out what was going on. Could it be that the Han tribe had come up with some new war drums? The noise was so frightening?
But it didn't sound like the sound of a drum. Even the most powerful drum couldn't make such a loud noise, could it?
But the Han tribe made such a loud noise. Could it be that they wanted to take advantage of the gap when they were rushing thousands of miles and had not yet established a firm foothold to preemptively attack? Did they give the order to charge across the board?
But after the noise, he didn't see any unusual movement in the Han army. Those people were still lined up in a row.
"What on earth is the Han tribe doing?"
Just as Maodun opened his eyes and looked carefully at the Han tribe, after the loud noise, he suddenly saw some black spots on the opposite side flying towards him at a rapid speed.
Maodun's heart suddenly skipped a beat, and he immediately realized that this should be an attack from the Han tribe.
"Not good,"
Maodun shouted immediately, but before he could react more, dozens of black iron balls had already flown into his army at an incredible speed.
In an instant, the iron ball flew into the army formation, leaving dozens of blood alleys among tens of thousands of troops. Anything on the trajectory, whether it was a person, a horse or a vehicle, was smashed to pieces by the flying iron ball.
Blood and flesh flew everywhere in Maodun's army, and dozens of blood lines were thrown into the sky. After the cannonball flew over, the army heard the wailing of wounded soldiers and the screams of fear from others.
The person who was hit by the cannonball was shattered on the spot by the huge kinetic energy, and his limbs and flesh were splashed all over the place. Before he could even scream, he turned into a bloody rain, soaking the soldiers on both sides.
The same was true for those behind. Those who were hit died on the spot. Even if they were grazed by the cannonball, they would be seriously injured and disabled even if they didn't die. Some people were directly shattered, some had half of their heads grazed by the cannonball, and some were only grazed by their limbs, but the limbs also separated from their bodies in the blink of an eye.
The huge impact of the shells swept across the coalition camp, leaving dozens of bloody paths, and finally fell to the ground after running out of kinetic energy, then bounced up again from the ground, continuing to kill the coalition behind, and jumped twice before completely smashing into the ground.
Due to the many "obstacles", the number of ricochets of the shells has obviously decreased by one or two times compared to the test, and the final range has also been greatly weakened, but the results are still very impressive.
After a round of artillery volleys, Maodun's central army formation has been thrown to the ground, but the coalition forces on both wings were less attacked. The outermost army even heard a thunderous sound, and then there was a commotion in the central army. They didn't even know what happened.
Maodun, who was in the central army, was so scared by the miserable situation of the army behind him that his face turned pale. The two sides were so far away, how did the Han tribe attack them, and the power of this attack was so huge and cruel that it was either dead or injured in one blow, and his central army was almost destroyed.
In this round of attack alone, at least 6,000 to 7,000 people in his coalition were killed on the spot. Even those who were not dead now would definitely not last for a meal.
The scouts of the Su Ritu tribe who were watching the battle not far from the battlefield also looked at the scene in front of them stupidly. They had actually been waiting here for a long time.
When they saw that Maodun's army had just arrived, they were afraid from the bottom of their hearts that Maodun had a large number of people and strong soldiers and horses. Then there were loud noises from the Han tribe, followed by a flash of fire and white smoke. The other soldiers did not move at all, but Maodun's side was beaten to pieces, with blood and flesh flying everywhere, and people and horses falling.
This bloody scene did not excite them, but instead gave rise to fear from the bottom of their hearts, because it was something they could not understand. Such a shocking power and unparalleled effect would be more appropriate to call it divine punishment or witchcraft.
Seeing the Han tribe use a big move at the beginning, Su Ritu's scouts didn't even dare to watch any more. They turned their horses around and ran away, wanting to tell their leader how powerful the Han tribe was as soon as possible.
On the Maodun coalition side, the coalition had already collapsed before the battle. They hadn't even seen the enemy yet, but they had suffered so many casualties. Especially those herdsmen on both sides of the blood alley who saw the people around them being blown into pieces in an instant were almost scared crazy by this strange attack and amazing power.
If the Han tribe continued to use such attacks, how could they fight?
Once fear came out of the heart, it was uncontrollable, and with the exclamations and shouts of the soldiers, it began to spread rapidly among the army.
They began to flee around like crazy, but they couldn't run away because they were squeezed by people, and finally pushed and shoved into a crowded group.
Maodun tried his best to mobilize the army, but no one listened to his orders. Just when he was extremely anxious, a loud rumbling sound came from the Han tribe opposite.
(End of this chapter)
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