Eastern Jin Dynasty: My powerful father

Chapter 176 Destroyed like powder

The Xiongnu archers galloped towards the phalanx begging Xianbei. Feilian Helong was also among the crowd. When they were still more than 200 steps away from the infantry phalanx begging Xianbei, everyone had already taken the initiative to slow down, and finally in He stopped more than a hundred steps away.

The range of a stone's foot bow is 105 steps. The Huns' horse archers generally prepare a stone's throw of a foot's worth of foot bows. However, Qifu Xianbei's bow requires a stone less than one stone. Keeping a distance of a hundred steps is enough for the Huns' horse archers to pour arrows without any scruples. rain.

"dismount!"

The general gave the order, and the five thousand archers dismounted one after another.

"Change your bow and shoot! Nocking the arrow!"

Everyone drew their bows and arrows, pointing to the sky.

Feilian Helong waited with bated breath, waiting for the signal before throwing the arrows in his hands towards the enemy formation.

Projection is an extremely inefficient way of combat, especially when the arrow falls, there is a large angle of incidence, and the arrow is easily spread by the armor. In terms of power, it is far inferior to level shooting.

But it also has its advantages, such as a longer range, the ability to cross the large shield in front of the formation, and a wider strike range under large-scale group fire.

"put!"

Following the general's shout, in an instant, a dark cloud rose into the sky and shot towards the infantry phalanx begging to ambush Xianbei.

Yes, the projectile is less powerful and can be easily deflected by armor, but the Xiongnu archers are now facing the nomadic infantry begging for Xianbei.

Limited by the smelting level of the Qifu Xianbei, these infantrymen did not have any armor. Most of them only wore leather armor, and they were all inferior leather armor, and their defensive power was not even as good as the Huns' horse archers.

Five thousand arrows were shot down, and hundreds of people fell to the ground in an instant in the phalanx of Xianbei.

After all, it is difficult to control the accuracy of projectiles. It is impossible for all arrows to land accurately in the enemy's formation, and the enemy is not just a wooden stake, just standing there and letting people shoot at it.

Although the lethality was small, it was unable to withstand the shooting of an arrow. The generals of the Huns' archers and cavalry were shouting again for everyone to draw their bows and set up their arrows.

Seeing this scene, Qi Fubu almost gritted his silver teeth:

"If my brother's cavalry is still there, it will be the turn of these Huns to be rampant!"

Although the chariot formation can hinder the charge of the cavalry, it also limits the movement of the formation. However, the range of the bows and arrows in their hands is not as good as the opponent's. If we do not take the initiative to drive away the Hun cavalry, it is equivalent to more than 10,000 infantry, and they can only huddle in In the car formation, they unilaterally accepted the baptism of arrow rain.

Seeing this, Qifu Budan shouted for the Qifu infantry to cross the car formation and prepare to drive away the archers. However, as soon as they appeared, the elite cavalry who had been prepared for a long time also moved forward under the command of Huan Xi.

Although the lancers are not armored cavalry, they are also close combat infantry wearing armor. When facing a group of light infantry who have lost the cover of the vehicle formation, there will be no surprises in the outcome, unless Huan Xi, who is advancing with the lancers, is shot by a stray arrow.

However, Huan Xi would not charge forward. According to his habit, he would definitely command the battle from a safe distance.

Qifubu looked down and saw the spearmen coming forward in the distance, and could only retreat to the car formation. He could only hope that the army officers could survive this period of time and wait for the Huns' archers to use up their arrows.

Huan Xi also stayed two hundred steps away from the spearmen.

After the archers fired ten arrows in a row, they had to stop and rest temporarily. People are not machines. Repeatedly pulling the bow and shooting arrows will make the muscle groups feel tired. If they don't take a break, it is easy to strain the muscles.

The begging infantry also gave them precious breathing space.

However, in a short period of time, a total of 50,000 arrows were shot at them. Although the casualties were not many, only more than a thousand people, being beaten passively was a fatal blow to morale.

Qifu Budan obviously understood this very well. He had to encourage the soldiers:

"The Huns are running out of arrows! As long as you get through it, everything will be fine!"

Sure enough, after shooting ten more arrows, Feilian Helong's quiver was empty.

The horse archers use standard equipment, and each quiver is equipped with twenty arrows.

Ten arrows have been shot before, and now if ten more arrows are shot, there will naturally be nothing left.

When the begging infantry saw the Huns' horse archers retreating, they burst into deafening cheers. Although they suffered heavy casualties, they finally survived the torture of the horse archers.

Qifu Budan also breathed a sigh of relief. He looked in the direction of the cavalry, hoping that they would launch a charge and overwhelm the car formation.

But Qifu Buden soon realized the despair that Crassus, one of the three giants of the Roman Republic along with Caesar and Pompey, had felt during the Battle of Calle.

In the Battle of Calle, seven Roman legions, a force of 40,000, faced off against a Parthian army of 30,000. In the end, Rome suffered a loss of 30,000 people, and even the commander Crassus was captured alive, while the Parthians only suffered 3,800 casualties.

The reason was that this Roman army lacked archers. After they threw all their javelins, they no longer had any means of long-range attack and could only passively accept the unilateral attacks of the Parthian horse archers.

Crassus originally thought that he could wait until the arrows of the Parthian archers were exhausted, so that the two sides could launch a close battle, but the arrows of the Parthian archers were replenished, which became the last straw for the Romans.

The Huns' horse archers retreated, not evacuating the battlefield, but taking out new quivers from the backs of their walking horses.

When they appeared on the battlefield again, just a wave of arrows completely defeated the will of the begging Xianbei people. They didn't know how many arrows the Huns carried, and they didn't know how many more arrows they had to withstand. of baptism.

The Xianbei infantry, who saw no hope, were no longer willing to stay in the car formation and be a living target. They no longer obeyed the orders of Qi Fu Bu Dai and scrambled to get out of the car formation and fled towards the camp.

At this time, the Lancers, who had been preparing for a long time, had already started.

It turned out that Huan Xi had already predicted that when the Xiongnu horse archers retreated and the Xianbei soldiers cheered, the Xianbei soldiers would be defeated when the horse archers replenished their arrows and returned to the battlefield.

After all, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. Such a blow is enough to destroy the fighting spirit of any army. Even the legions of ancient Rome could not hold on, let alone begging for Xianbei.

Deng Xia led 2,500 lancers from the right side of the begging formation to the rear, while Huan Qian and Shen Chiqian led the remaining 2,500 lancers from the left side of the formation to the rear. The distance between the car formation and the camp was not far, only a few hundred steps. However, this short distance of a few hundred steps became an insurmountable obstacle for the Xianbei light infantry under the repeated attack of five thousand lances divided into several echelons. of the gap.

"Those who surrender will not be killed!"

The Lancers shouted their newly learned Xianbei dialect in a bad accent as they killed.

"Surrender! I surrender!"

The Xianbei people begged for mercy one after another. Due to the language barrier, the spearmen could not understand what these Xianbei people were shouting, but they could still understand their meaning from their frightened tone and the way they dropped their armor and knelt down to beg for mercy. So these people were let go.

When the people at the rear saw this, they also followed suit. For a time, the three armies disarmed and were no longer able to fight.

Qifu Budan was brought to Huan Xi, knelt down and surrendered, and said in his fluent Chinese:

"Bu decade pays homage to the Great Chanyu."

Huan Xi was not surprised. It had been decades since Xianbei came south from Yinshan Mountain.

Although the lifestyle of nomadic tribes is still preserved, it is normal for upper-class people to learn Chinese.

Huan Xi did not give him a good look:

"You still think I'm the Great Chanyu?

"On that day, I put down Zhang Zuo's rebellion and begged Xianbei to send envoys to surrender. Hengxi asked himself that he had never oppressed you, but you were so ambitious that you took advantage of me leaving Liangzhou to cause trouble!

"Today I return to Liangzhou to beg for Xianbei's survival. Now Huan is just thinking about it. Is this the result you want?"

After saying that, Huan Xi pointed at Qifu and shouted:

"Come here, take this person's head for me and pass it on to his aunt Zang!"

Qifu Budan was horrified when he heard this. He begged Huan Xi, begging to be spared.

At this time, an old voice came from outside the crowd:

"Da Shanyu! Wait!"

Huan Xi followed the call and saw the crowd parting. Deng Xia came over escorting Qifuxi Dahan's family. It was Qifuxi Dahan who was shouting just now.

Qifu Dahan was helped by his grandson Qifu Guoren to Huan Xi, and he bowed down and said:

"The sinner has killed Dahan and paid homage to the Great Chanyu."

Huan Xi did not help him up, he just looked at Qifuxi Dahan and said coldly:

"The matter has come to this, what else do you have to say."

Qifuxi Dahan shook his head and said:

“Sinners have blind eyes and do not recognize God, and they have ended up in this situation only because of themselves and do not dare to blame others.

"However, I would also like to ask the noble Lord to spare the sinner's family."

Huan Xi sneered:

"If you don't destroy your whole family, An can eliminate the hatred in my heart. Do you think you can make me let them go with just a few words?"

As Huan Xi spoke, he glanced at Qifu Budan, Qifu Guoren, and all the women and children of the Qifu clan. They all lowered their heads in fear, avoiding Huan Xi's gaze.

Only Qifuxi Dahan said calmly:

"There are still 30,000 begging cavalry in Guzang City. If the Great Chanyu can forgive the family members of the sinners, Sifan the Begging Officer knows the great generosity of the Great Chanyu, and he will definitely offer Guzang to the Great Chanyu, and the 30,000 cavalrymen will also remove their armor and leave. drop.

"If the Great Chanyu insists on killing people to vent his anger, the sinner will just beg Si Fan and fear his crime, so he will choose to resist."

Huan Xi's face became serious and he asked:

"Don't you want to find a way out for yourself?"

Dahan, the beggar, said helplessly:

"The sinner is already in his twilight years and doesn't have much time left to live. He has already taken life and death lightly, so why should he put Da Shan in trouble again.

"I am the culprit of the chaos in Liangzhou. If the law is not rectified, how can the Great Chanyu dominate the world?

"The sinner knows that he will surely die. I only hope that after controlling Qifu Xianbei, the Great Chanyu can treat my family well. The sinner will have nothing more to ask for."

Huan Xi sighed after hearing this:

"You are a smart man, why did you do such an unwise thing?"

Qifusi Dahan smiled bitterly and said:

"After all, it is greed that causes trouble, and my mind is blinded."

Huan Xi was silent for a moment and said:

"I promise you that your family will not be harmed. They will live in Chang'an from now on and will not be able to return to the tribe in the future."

Hearing this, Qifusi Dahan turned around and shouted to his family:

"Why don't you thank Shanyu for your kindness!"

Everyone knelt down to thank him.

　Next chapter at 8 p.m.

　　

　

(End of this chapter)