Ji Han Liu Zhang

After several rounds of bombardment from the Thunderbolt Chariots, and with Li Kan's soldiers too cowardly to step forward and unwilling to risk their lives to support the crumbling gate, after a while, the gate where Li Kan was located finally collapsed and fell to the ground with a loud bang.

The gate of the village was broken.

Gan Ning, the Assistant General of the Central Army of Han, naturally saw this scene. He took the helmet from his personal guard, put it on his head to protect his head, and then he took an iron ghost mask from his personal guard and covered his face with it. Only a pair of eyes as dark as the night sky were revealed on his entire face.

As for Gan Ning's body, from top to bottom, first the basin collar that protected his neck, then the light and dense iron helmet like fish scales, tightly attached to Gan Ning's body, followed by the shoulder pads that covered his arms on both sides, and the leg skirts used to protect his legs below.

Gan Ning in front of him was dressed like a humanoid weapon. In addition, on Gan Ning's side, more than a hundred Jinfan Rangers were dressed the same as Gan Ning, surrounding Gan Ning on both sides, holding a cold and intimidating ring-handled sword in their hands, waiting for Gan Ning's orders.

"Lord Yin, you can take a break now. It's my turn to step forward." Gan Ning called out to the Thunderbolt Captain Yin Pu, asking Yin Pu to stop throwing stones.

"Yes, I will be here to support the General of the Central Army." Yin Pu nodded in agreement. When the gate of Li Kan's camp was broken, it was Gan Ning's turn to appear.

Gan Ning picked up the ring-handled sword stuck in the ground and pointed the blade at Li Kan's camp. He shouted, "My men, follow me."

After a heroic order, Gan Ning took the lead and charged towards Li Kan's camp. Under the ghost mask, he could not help but look happy. He had a natural love for fighting, risking his life, and bloodshed. Every time he went into battle, he seemed like a fish entering the sea or a tiger running towards the mountains.

More than a hundred vanguards dressed like Gan Ning, wearing ghost masks, heavy armor, shoulder guards, and leg skirts, without revealing a single flaw on their bodies, followed their leader and charged towards the enemy camp at Gan Ning's command.

Charge into battle and never turn back.

Killing the general, seizing the flag, being the first to reach the enemy camp, and breaking the enemy's formation were the four major military exploits in classical warfare. Now Gan Ning focused on being the first to reach the enemy camp. He intended to be the first to rush into the enemy camp, break a hole in the enemy camp, and thus destroy the camp set up by Li Jue and Guo Si outside the city.

Gan Ning led more than a hundred heavily-armored soldiers to attack, and Li Kan naturally saw it. He secretly swallowed his saliva. There was still no movement in Chang'an City. Now he could only rely on himself to defend the camp.

As for how long he could hold out before reinforcements arrived from Chang'an City, Li Kan had no idea. He could only defend with all his strength to have a chance of survival.

Here Li Kan couldn't help feeling a little regretful. He regretted leaving his wife in Chang'an City. Otherwise, he would raise the flag of surrender and simply surrender to Liu Zhang, the governor of Yizhou, to save his own life and repay Li Jue and Guo Si for their evil deeds of guarding the city and not lending a helping hand.

"No wonder when I was sent out of the city to set up camp, Li and Guo said that Chang'an was safer and I could leave my wife in the city. It turned out that they were plotting against me." Li Kan cursed in his heart. If his wife had not been in the city, he would not have been at a loss and was controlled by Li Jue and Guo Si.

It was also his fault that he was confused at the time. He thought that Li Jue and Guo Si had something to ask of him, and the camp outside the city was indeed not a good place. Swords and knives were merciless, and the battlefield was ruthless. If he was not careful, his wife would be hurt. Besides, he thought that his good friends Hou Xuan, Cheng Yin, Liang Xing and others were in the city, so his wife would be safe.

'Hou Xuan, Cheng Yin, Liang Xing, none of these gangsters are trustworthy.' Compared with Li Jue and Guo Si, Li Kan was more angry with his friends Hou Xuan, Cheng Yin, Liang Xing. It was understandable that Li Jue and Guo Si did not help him, but Hou Xuan, Cheng Yin, Liang Xing and others were very close to him, so they did not lead troops to help him, but just watched from inside the city.

While cursing in his heart, Li Kan's hands and mouth kept moving. He commanded the spearmen in front, the sword and shield men in the middle, and the archers in the back to block the damaged gate of the village. He planned to withstand the first wave of attacks from the Shu army, and then take advantage of the opportunity to repair the lower gate and hold out until the defenders in Chang'an city came to rescue.

"One hundred steps..."

"Eighty steps..."

"Sixty steps..."

Li Kan calculated the distance between the Ghost-faced Shu Army and his camp gate. When the Ghost-faced Shu Army was fifty steps away from his camp gate, he shouted and issued an order to the archers in the back of his camp: "Shoot, shoot hard..."

Bows and arrows, as long-range weapons for fighting on the battlefield, have always been popular among the young men of Guanzhong. Especially in recent years when the Qiang rebellion in Liangzhou has occasionally invaded the three prefectures, the young men of Guanzhong have cultivated their strength and attached importance to martial arts, and many of them have mastered archery.

Although Li Kan was a native of Hedong, he took advantage of the chaos in Guanzhong to lead his troops into Guanzhong and seize control of one side. However, many of the soldiers under his command were children of the Three Auxiliary Provinces. They were naturally outstanding in archery and much stronger than ordinary soldiers.

At Li Kan's command, the archers under his command shot arrows in response. The arrows flew like drizzle at Gan Ning and others who were running towards Li Kan.

The rain of arrows came instantly and quickly, but facing the rain of arrows, Gan Ning did not dodge or evade, but continued to rush forward without any pause, and his speed even increased.

Gan Ning's confidence in being so bold and reckless came from the heavy armor on his body and the ghost mask on his head. These were the ingeniously made armors from the Pu family of Qiongdu, and had surprisingly high defensive power. The rain of arrows shot by the archers under Li Kan fell on Gan Ning like mosquito bites and did not cause any harm to Gan Ning.

Jin Fan'er, who was charging with Gan Ning under his command, did not hide or evade, but just followed Gan Ning's footsteps and rushed forward, as if what was facing them was not a rain of arrows, but a warm spring breeze.

This is also because Li Kan’s family is poor and he does not have enough resources to hire top-notch blacksmiths to make arrows.

Therefore, the arrows used by Li Kan's soldiers were not straight enough and their tail feathers were mostly incomplete, so their potential energy was insufficient after being fired.

Secondly, the material for the arrowhead generally requires high-quality steel, so that it has a strong ability to break through defenses. However, Li Kan has a poor foundation, and the arrowheads are crudely made. For the Shu army's vanguards wearing fine armor, it is just a tickle.

‘No. ’

"No way." Li Kan, who was in the battle formation, watched the Shu army charge forward without dodging or hiding, and his own rain of arrows did little harm to the Shu army. He couldn't help but smile bitterly twice, unable to believe it.

But the facts before him forced Li Kan to believe that the Shu army had excellent armor and surprisingly high defense, which was not something his archers could deal with.

"Spearmen, listen up, thrust your spears diagonally." Li Kan was no mediocre man after all, and he responded quickly. Since the archers were useless, he would rely on the spearmen to stop the Shu army's vanguards. They had to block the Shu army's vanguards outside the camp gate and prevent them from entering the camp.

Following Li Kan's order, the spearmen tilted their spears at an angle, with the tips of the spears pointing at the Ghost-faced Shu army charging towards them.

Faced with the ghostly Ghost-faced Shu Army, ordinary soldiers might have lost the will to fight, but this group of spearmen were the personal guards under Li Kan, and the personal guards were usually the most valiant in a legion, so the spearmen were able to stay where they were and face the Ghost-faced Shu Army calmly, determined to fight it out.

At this moment, Gan Ning was only twenty steps away from the camp gate of Li Kan. It would only take him a few breaths to break into Li Kan's camp. Of course, he needed to deal with the spearmen in front of him first. The spearmen were like a wall, with countless spears shining with cold light extending from the formation, blocking his way.

After a moment or two, Gan Ning came up with a plan. Without hesitation, he continued to rush towards the spear formation and soon fell into the attack range of the spearmen. The spearmen under Li Kan were unwilling to miss this opportunity. They thrust their spears and gathered at the spear tips to attack Gan Ning.

Gan Ning showed a triumphant smile under his ghost face, but unfortunately, this smile must be seen by the spearman on the opposite side.

Gan Ning had a smile on his face and his body never stopped. He just flashed and lightly avoided the spears that were coming at him. When the spearmen were coming at him, the formation was disturbed, leaving a gap. He moved his feet into the gap and swung his sword forward.

At this moment, the spearmen in the first row were instantly panicked. They saw Gan Ning rushing towards them with a sword in hand, and wanted to fight with Gan Ning, but they were spearmen, and they could not retract their spears after just attacking. So the spearmen thought about taking a few steps back to avoid Gan Ning, who was like a demon, but the formation was dense and they could not retreat.

As a result, the spearmen in the first row could neither advance nor retreat. They had no way to go up or down, and could only show an extremely panicked and distorted expression in front of Gan Ning.

"It's not decent." Gan Ning raised his lips slightly. Seeing the ugly expression on the spearman's face, he felt unhappy. He took a step forward, got close to him, swung his sword, and started to chop.

Like a lumberjack, wherever Gan Ning's blade pointed, the spearmen fell to the ground with a bang, like a tree being sawed off.

As Gan Ning charged in, the spearmen's formation became disrupted. The soldiers in the front row retreated desperately, trying to escape the attack range of the killing god in front of them, while the spearmen in the back had to disperse quickly, so that they fell all over the place and were in a mess.

Once the spearmen's formation was broken up and the line was no longer formed, the more than a hundred heavily armored soldiers who followed Gan Ning to the front took advantage of this opportunity and charged into the spearmen's formation. However, in just a few breaths, the spearmen were defeated and fled.

"Hold on, hold on, Nai Gong." Li Kan, who was in the center of the army, was shocked when he saw such a defeat, and his body trembled uncontrollably. But he still wanted to fight like a trapped beast to turn the defeat around, so he shouted loudly, intending to let the scattered spearmen stabilize their formation and resist the Shu army.

However, the defeat was like a landslide, which was beyond the control of Li Kan. Li Kan also did not have the ability to motivate the defeated soldiers to stabilize the formation again. That would require good generals and top-notch soldiers.

There was nothing that could be done, and things had come to this point. Li Kan was not a stubborn person. He valued his own life and was even more concerned about his wife in Chang'an City. So, under the protection of dozens of personal guards, he prepared to escape from this deadly place.

If the army wants to surround the enemy camp or enemy city tightly, it will need ten times as many soldiers as the enemy. But now the Shu army needs to besiege Li Kan's camp on the one hand, and deal with the attack of Li Jue and Guo Si in Chang'an city on the other hand. Naturally, they can't surround Li Kan's camp tightly, so there are some loopholes that can be exploited.

Li Kan took advantage of the fact that the Shu army was focused on attacking the camp and the encirclement was not tight enough, intending to find a way to escape, rush back to Chang'an City, and take his wife away from this place of trouble.

However, Li Kan, who abandoned the front camp and ran towards the gate of the rear camp, chose the wrong way. When he arrived at the gate of the rear camp, dozens of horsemen rushed out of the gate and tried to escape.

Secretly, an arrow was aimed at Li Kan who was surrounded by dozens of riders. It was "Little Yang Youji" Lou Fa. When Gan Ning attacked the front camp, he was blocking Li Kan's rear camp. However, he was not attacking by force, he was just exerting pressure.

However, Lou Fa was very lucky. Although he failed to break through Li Kan's rear camp, he ran into the fleeing Li Kan. Lou Fa was an excellent archer. Although Li Kan was surrounded by dozens of riders, he was confident that he could attack. He just calmly shot an arrow and then lowered the bow.

Lou Fa's bow and arrow dropped, and Li Kan, who was just rejoicing at having escaped, suddenly paused. His stretched arms, bent body, and legs clasped around the horse's belly seemed to have been drained of all their strength and all relaxed in vain. He fell off the horse crookedly, with the tail feather of an arrow raised high dangling around his neck.

"Xingba was the first to ascend the mountain, so I will not lag behind. My achievements in killing generals are enough to rival him." Lou Fa saw Li Kan fall off his horse, and he smiled calmly.

With Li Kan's death, the nails planted by Li Jue and Guo Si outside the city were completely removed, directly taking away a wing of Li Jue and Guo Si.

Just as Gan Ning and Lou Fa attacked Li Kan's camp from the front and back, Hou Xuan, who was standing on the top of the city wall, saw the camp gate collapse from afar. He hurriedly said, "General Li, General Guo, the situation is urgent. The camp gate has been breached and Li Kan's life is at stake."

"Incompetent, truly incompetent." Li Jue had also seen the gate of the camp outside the city being broken, and he cursed in his heart, thinking that Li Kan was incompetent, and that with the solid camp, he could not hold out for even half an incense stick of time.

Although he was unhappy with Li Kan, Li Jue also knew the importance of the camp outside the city. If the camp outside the city was lost, they would only have an isolated city left: "Guo Aduo, you and Generals Hou and Cheng lead the troops out of the city and quickly go to rescue Li Kan. I will follow you."

Li Jue issued an order, asking Guo Si, Hou Xuan and Cheng Yin to lead the troops out of the city first, while he followed behind to provide support.

After saying this, Guo Si, Hou Xuan and Cheng Yin were preparing to go downstairs, but just when they reached the middle of the horse path leading up to the city, they heard a kettle of boiling water outside the city, and the sound of an excited and soaring "Victory" came straight into their ears.

Hou Xuan and Cheng Yin exchanged a glance, and both saw the uneasiness in each other's eyes. Even if the Shu army outside the city shouted for victory, Li Kan's camp would certainly be in danger. What's worse, Li Kan might not be able to be saved either. (End of this chapter)