Chapter 843 The Action Begins (Part 2)
It was midnight, and the moon was bright in the sky.
In the Xin tribe military camp on the top of Qingqing Gorge Mountain, as all the militiamen had evacuated, the entire camp had become quiet.
Not long after, a soldier who had gotten up to use the toilet at night opened the tent curtain and walked out, but felt something was wrong.
The camp was so quiet, so quiet that it was a little scary.
The militiamen who were supposed to patrol the camp disappeared, and those who were on guard also disappeared.
The man suddenly became scared, and he wanted to go out to relieve himself, but now he didn't dare to do it. He ran back, holding his stomach, and started calling for people as soon as he got into the tent.
"Everyone, get up quickly, something is wrong outside."
Someone rubbed his eyes, turned over on the mat, and replied in a daze: "What's wrong? Huh? You are so old, but you don't even dare to relieve yourself? There are people patrolling in the camp, what are you afraid of? Can the people from the Han tribe come here to cut off your head?!"
When he mentioned cutting off heads, the man was so scared that he touched his neck immediately, and then said more and more anxiously, "Something is wrong, you guys should get up and have a look. There is no patrol outside, not even those on guard. The whole camp seems to be empty."
"What, there is no one in the camp? Could it be that those patrolling soldiers are hiding somewhere to be lazy? Or are they hiding in the corner and taking a nap?"
"I don't know, come with me and take a look."
"Oh! Really, you can't even sleep in peace. Okay, then I'll go with you to take a look. If nothing is wrong, I'll beat the shit out of you."
Just like that, several soldiers came out together and walked around the camp, and they really found something unusual.
In such a large military camp, apart from those who slept in the tents, there was not even a single patrolling guard outside. The soldiers immediately panicked, and one of them immediately suggested: "Let's go and call people, wake everyone up, something must have happened."
Several people looked at each other, and realized that something big might have happened. They began to go to each tent to call people. After a while, all the remaining 2,000 soldiers in the camp were called up.
After explaining the situation to each other, they began to search around the camp, and soon confirmed the result again. Except for them, there was indeed no one else in the camp.
However, some people bravely ran around the camp to check if the Han tribe had attacked. As a result, when everyone was panicking and at a loss, a shout suddenly came from the camp. Everyone looked sideways and found that someone was running and shouting at them.
"There are Han troops coming down the mountain, so many Han troops, the Han tribe is attacking."
Everyone panicked when they heard this, and someone hurriedly asked: "Where did the Han troops come from, and how many people are there?"
"I found them in the east, halfway up the mountain, there are so many people, probably several thousand." The soldier who reported the news hurriedly replied.
"What about the north? Are there people in the north?" Someone hurriedly asked.
"I, I don't know, I just looked to the east."
Before the soldier who reported the news finished speaking, several soldiers ran back from other directions in the distance. They were all people who went to scout the surroundings. Some of these people immediately said that they also saw the figures of Han troops in the north, and some said that they also saw a large number of Han troops in the west.
Everyone looked at each other and stood there in a daze, not knowing what to do for a while, but this abnormal silence was soon interrupted by a question.
"Where did those militiamen go? Why did they all disappear?"
Someone immediately speculated boldly, "Damn, we might have been betrayed by those militiamen, maybe they were the ones who led the Han tribe here."
"No way, are they that bold? Maybe they were killed by the Han tribe?"
"Kill your head, the militiamen are more numerous than us. If the Han tribe wants to kill them, it will make a big noise. I think they led the Han tribe here. I saw more than a dozen militiamen running to Elder Jin yesterday."
"Yes, is our elder still here?" When they heard someone mention the elder, everyone reacted at this time. Those
who were quick on their feet hurried to the camp of the central army camp to look for Elder Jin's anvil, but found that the central army tent had long been empty, not to mention living people, not even a hair.
After this person passed the news back, everyone knew what situation they were in.
Now it was obvious that the elders had run away with all the militiamen, leaving only them behind, and also attracted the Han army to surround them.
Of course, there was another possibility, that is, the elders had evacuated all the militiamen for some unknown reason, and then the Han army discovered the unusual movement here, so they led people to surround them.
But no matter what, they were surrounded by the Han army.
Everyone hurried to find their weapons, but found that in the entire camp, not to mention swords, spears, swords and halberds, they couldn't even find an arrow. Those grassland soldiers who ran out had bows in their hands, but they didn't have a single arrow. They could only turn around in a hurry, cursing in the grassland language, but it was useless.
In the messy camp, someone yelled, "Fuck him, we've all been sold out, the elders ran away with all the militiamen, and led the Han tribe to surround us, and even took away all our weapons. They're forcing us to death."
"What should we do now? How far is the Han tribe from here? We have to think of a solution quickly."
"First find a weapon to protect yourself. Everyone can use whatever you have, wooden sticks, bamboo poles. If you can't find any, even picking up a few stones is better than having nothing." One person immediately suggested.
Everyone reacted at this time and immediately began to look for weapons everywhere.
Some people couldn't find sticks, so they simply dismantled the tents and used the tent pillars as weapons. Some people didn't even get the tent racks, so they just picked up a stone that was convenient to them.
Even if they were to fight the Han army in close combat, maybe they could knock down one or two, right?
Of course, this was just some consolation. The Han army were all wearing heavy armor and holding long spears. It would be impossible for them to rush to the Han army with stones. At most, they could throw a few stones from a distance, hoping to knock down a few people. However, this was also the only solution.
Some people were so scared that they burst into tears, worrying that they would be killed by the Han army.
You know, everyone still remembers the incident of the Han army attacking the camp a few days ago. Three soldiers were beheaded. No one would not be afraid.
Some soldiers began to complain.
"What should we do? The Han army is about to rush over. Are we all going to die?"
"What's the use of being afraid? It's time to think of a solution."
"Think of a solution? What solution can we have? There are only two ways for us to go now. Either we fight to the death with the Han tribe or we surrender directly. What else can you do?" "
Why? Can't we run?"
"Run? Where do we want to run?" Someone asked immediately, his eyes full of expectation.
They really didn't want to fight with the Han tribe. They didn't have confidence when they had weapons, and now they have even less confidence when they are unarmed.
The man who said he wanted to run away did not answer directly, but asked in return, "Which direction did the Han tribe come from? Can't we just run away in a direction where there are no Han troops?"
The soldiers who had previously conducted reconnaissance came out to report the situation immediately. One said there were Han troops in the east, another said there were Han troops in the north, and another said there were Han troops in the west. In the end, after asking around, they found that there were no Han troops in the south.
For a moment, everyone was stunned. Someone collapsed and yelled, "But there is a cliff in the south. How can we escape? If we jump off the cliff
, we will die!!" The person who suggested running away immediately said, "That's not necessarily true. There is a Qingshui River below the cliff. At worst, we can just jump into the river and swim to escape. After we escape the Han army, we will swim to the shore and then go to Qingquan Valley to meet up with other defenders."
"Jump into the river? Don't be ridiculous. It's such a high cliff. Jumping down will also kill you." Someone said very dejectedly.
Indeed, this is true. The Xin tribe originally set up the camp here to control the Qingshui River from a high position to prevent the Han army from advancing by water.
The terrain here is excellent. The cliffs on both sides of the river are 40 meters high, which is as high as a building with more than 30 floors. Ordinary people will feel dizzy when standing at this height and looking down, let alone jumping directly from here. Let alone
whether they have the courage or not, the key is that many people can't swim.
Half of the camp is grassland soldiers. How can these herdsmen swim? There is not much water on the grassland. Even if they really dare to jump down, they will drown in the river.
There are clan soldiers in the Xin tribe who can swim, but not many, and even fewer of those who can swim really dare to jump down. Among the thousand clan soldiers, only about two or three hundred people want to try to see if they can risk their lives to jump from the cliff and escape.
But when these people bravely reached the edge of the cliff, they found that in the river below, many small single-masted sailboats had sailed in at some point, and the boats were full of Han soldiers holding crossbows.
The group of people on the cliff were immediately desperate. The Han tribe did not even leave them the last retreat, and the river was blocked for them. Even if they really jumped down, they would definitely die.
The crowd had no choice but to choose the other two options, either to fight to the death or to surrender directly.
But at this time, someone suddenly proposed, "Why don't we break out? Let's choose a direction where the Han army has fewer troops. The Han army is coming from all directions to surround us, and there must be a place where the troops are weak. If our two thousand people rush out from one place, more than half of them will be able to escape. If they really can't rush out, they can only blame their bad luck."
When everyone heard this, they immediately thought that this idea was feasible, and began to send more scouts to investigate. As a result, they found that the number of this Han army was much larger than they had imagined, and there were many in each direction, and there was no so-called weak point at all.
Under the moonlight, the iron armor of the Han army wearing heavy armor all flashed coldly, as if a circle of reflective silver rings had grown on the hillside, surrounding them tightly.
The warriors of the Xin tribe were dejected again and fell into despair.
However, the Han army did not stop their actions because of their reaction. No matter what the other side was doing or how many people they sent to scout, the Han army advanced steadily regardless of it. After knowing that they had been exposed, Xue Tu simply ordered people to beat the war drums. The three armies stepped on the drums and advanced forward. The momentum clearly told them that the Han army did not take them seriously at all.
Hearing the sound of war drums not far away, the soldiers of the Xin tribe on the top of the mountain could not stay. Now they had to come up with an idea. Someone immediately shouted, "Brothers, let's break through. Since there is no weakness, then we will rush out of a weakness and make a gap. There are so many of us, how many can run."
While speaking, the Han army was already in front of them. There was a cliff on the top of the mountain, and enemies were surrounded on the other three sides. It was a life-and-death moment, and their lives were at stake. With one person's passion leading the way, others also responded and followed the crowd to rush towards the dense military formation composed of the armored Han army.
However, since Elder Jin Tiezhen took away a large number of officers at all levels, although the Xin tribe had 2,000 people, it was difficult to organize them effectively. Some people were so excited that they rushed towards the Han army regardless of anything. Others who were timid either found a place to hide and pretended to be dead, or retreated towards the cliff. Some people, perhaps because of a nervous breakdown or because they were lucky, jumped off the cliff screaming.
The 40-meter-high cliff, the man screamed for two or three seconds before a splash of water was heard from below. However, as for whether he was dead or alive, no one knew. Only the soldiers of the Han tribe were seen poking around with long bamboo poles on the sailboat below, and some were shooting arrows into the water with crossbows. It seemed unlikely that the man would survive.
Besides, on the top of the mountain, the army of 2,000 people broke through in a group but there was no one to command them. In the end, only 700 to 800 people ran over sparsely and charged westward, and there was no formation. When some people rushed to the distance of 30 meters from the Han army, they immediately threw the stones in their hands and threw them hard into the Han army camp.
But those stones didn't hit any target.
When they saw a rain of stones flying in front, the grassroots flag officers and general flags immediately ordered the army to change their formation. The sword and shield soldiers in the front row immediately formed a dense formation, forming a shield wall in an instant. The sword and shield soldiers in the second row placed their large shields on the shields in the first row, raising the shield wall by one section. The spearmen in the third row also stretched their long weapons through the gaps in the shield wall. The spearmen in the last row placed their exaggerated seven-and-a-halberd long spears on top of the shield wall.
With such an airtight formation, even if the Han tribe stood still and let the other side hit them, they might not be able to break through even if they knocked themselves unconscious.
Dongdongdongdong————
The sound of the stone hitting the wooden shield was extremely dull, but it did not cause any damage to the Han army. The enemy threw another round of stones, but it still had no effect. At this time, the fast runners in front had already rushed to the face of the Han army formation. Some people raised their shields and hit the shield wall of the Han tribe. The two sides began the most primitive and barbaric strength competition.
However, the Xin tribe had fewer people, and the scale of three or four hundred people could not overturn the shield wall of the Han tribe.
On the Han tribe side, after blocking two rounds of flying stones from the enemy, the drums behind them sounded the drums of advancement again. The soldiers continued to march forward on the drums. The dense formation of thousands of people advanced together, and immediately overturned the hundreds of people in front of the Xin tribe to the ground. The sword and shield soldiers went up and punched and kicked, holding the solid wooden shields weighing dozens of kilograms in their hands and smashing them hard. In a blink of an eye, they submerged all the hundreds of people in front of the formation.
The other Xin tribe soldiers who were running slower and had not yet rushed to the front of the battle formation were also frightened by such a horrible scene and screamed and tumbled back to run away.
At this point, the Han army that came to encircle them had no more obstacles and advanced forward steadily, until they blocked all the remaining soldiers of the Xin tribe at the edge of the cliff, and then they stopped.
(End of this chapter)
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