Eastern Jin Dynasty: My powerful father

Chapter 430: Battle in Hedong (XVIII)
He Naci was the designated successor of the Xianbei Helan tribe and the elder brother of Huan Xi's concubine He Muluo. He was the commander of the Henan tribe's eastward expedition this time.

The Helan tribe was arranged on the right wing of the Liang army, and Huan Xi also entrusted an important task to his brother-in-law and handed over the 20,000 archers and cavalry on the right wing to him.

At this time, Fu Fei and the five thousand iron chain cavalry were in a dilemma. Facing this group of living targets, He Naci had no mercy at all.

"Shoot! Shoot at these cavalrymen!"

He Na pointed his finger forward and shouted.

The lethality of arrows shot a hundred steps away is greatly reduced, but Fu Fei and others were only forty steps away from the right wing of the Liang army. The closer the distance, the greater the lethality.

Arrows that covered the sky and the sun rose from the right wing position and poured down like raindrops. The arrows did not distinguish between friend and foe. The soldiers and horses used to stop the charge of Yu army suffered heavy casualties in a short time. Countless horses fell to the ground with their eyes blinded, and they had no idea what happened until they died.

The situation of Yu's 5,000 iron chain cavalry was not much better.

Even though the knights were wearing armor, arrows shot from more than forty steps away might not be able to penetrate their armor, but the war horses had no armor. Because they could neither advance nor retreat, they became living targets, with only their shields being able to cover the entire torso of the horse.

You can protect the horse's head but not its buttocks, and you can protect the horse's buttocks but not its head.

No matter how well a war horse is trained, it is still an animal. After being shot by an arrow, it will feel pain and be frightened and will run around in panic.

Most of the Liang army's 3,000 cavalry were killed in the first round of arrow rain because they had no protection. After all, it was not just the right-wing cavalry that shot the arrows, but also the 10,000 Hun archers in the center. As for the left wing, it continued to suppress the Yu army's formation from a distance.

Even though the few remaining military horses were blindfolded, they would still run around like headless hawks in fear after hearing the painful screams of their own kind. However, the distance of forty steps was enough for the Liang army to shoot and kill some of the frightened horses that rushed towards their own formation, so as to avoid disrupting their own formation.

After all, after a round of rain of arrows, there were only more than a thousand horses left. If they fled in all directions, not many of them would run towards the Liang army's formation.

However, the cavalry of Yu army who were connected with iron chains suffered a miserable fate. They were tied together in a 50-50 manner, which made it difficult for them to move. However, after being frightened, their horses would not obey commands. If one horse did not go in the same direction as the other four, the whole army would fall to the ground.

But the question is whether the five horses can communicate with each other in the panic.

They were only connected by iron chains, not by their hearts. The five horses had their own ideas. One went east and one went west, so how could they escape?

"Untie the ropes! Untie the ropes!"

After leaving these words, Fu Fei rode away. The five thousand cavalrymen were connected in fives and fives, but he was the only one riding alone and could move freely.

If we don't leave now, are we going to wait for the Liang army's cavalry archers to practice their aim?

However, in order to prevent his soldiers from retreating in the face of the enemy, Fu Jian made the connections between the iron chains extremely strong. Some soldiers, in desperation, swung their swords and cut at the chains, but even if they cut sparks from the iron chains, it was of no avail.

At this time, the 20,000 Xianbei archers on the right wing of the Liang army and the 10,000 Xiongnu archers in the center had fired six rounds of arrows in total, firing 180,000 arrows.

Countless knights of the Yu army were thrown off their horses and trampled or crushed to death by their own horses or other people's horses.

Finally, more and more people couldn't bear it anymore. In this situation, no matter how much chicken soup they had drunk before, it was all forgotten. As cavalrymen, they abandoned their horses and fled backwards.

Of the five thousand chain cavalry, only a thousand were left at this moment.

Huan Xi had of course been keeping an eye on the situation on the field. He was unwilling to let go even the remaining thousand men. After all, these were all cavalrymen with rich combat experience. As long as they were given war horses, they would become an elite cavalry of more than a thousand men.

"Xie Xuan! It's your turn to see blood!" Huan Xi gave an order, and Xie Xuan, who had been impatient for a long time, led his two thousand guards to the battle and killed more than a thousand survivors who were trying to escape back to the main camp of Yu army.

That group of people were just a group of cavalrymen who had lost their war horses and had no long-handled weapons. They were already like frightened birds and had no fighting power at all. They were perfect for training the two thousand new recruits under Xie Xuan.

Of course, Huan Xi could not let Xie Xuan lead the army alone. Once the Yu army came out to rescue, this newly recruited guard would probably not be a match.

Therefore, Huan Qian was ordered to lead the remaining 8,000 guards and volunteers to follow him out to plunder the enemy camp for Xie Xuan, while the Baibao Xianbei were also ready to go. As long as the cavalry of the Yu army dared to come out to rescue, they would be intercepted by them.

Fu Jian witnessed the defeat of 5,000 iron chain cavalry and almost fell.

He thought this was a killing move. As long as the iron chain cavalry could hold back the melee cavalry of the Liang army, he could command the infantry and cavalry in the rear to form a formation forward and severely damage the two melee cavalry units that were the nightmare of the Yu army.

But now, reality has hit him hard.

"Yue Wan has misled me!"

Fu Jian gritted his teeth and said that it was Yue Wan who gave him this idea, and now he was so angry that his teeth were itching.

Five thousand elite cavalrymen were sacrificed in vain, and only three thousand horses of the Liang Army were gained, and those were inferior horses used by the archers.

When fifteen-year-old Xie Xuan went to the battlefield for the first time, Huan Xi found an easy target for him: a group of frightened fleeing soldiers. How could people outrun horses? After catching up with the fleeing soldiers, Xie Xuan led two thousand cavalrymen to charge into the crowd twice, until Fu Jian gave the order to fight regardless of friend or foe, and then he drove away the two thousand guards with arrows.

However, the Yu army cavalrymen who escaped back were not only hacked to death by the guards, but also had to face arrows from their own side. Less than a hundred of them escaped alive.

After suffering such a blow, not only did Fu Jian's belief in whether he could win the battle waver, but the morale of the entire army also almost hit rock bottom.

At the same time, the morale of the Liang army, which had won the first battle, was high. Compared with the two, Fu Jian was unwilling to continue this battle.

He called Zhang Yu:
"Zhang Sikong, our army's morale has fallen. We should not fight any more. If we withdraw hastily, we will be pursued by the Liang army and suffer a great defeat. Now the task of covering the rear is handed over to you!"

The reason why Fu Jian let Zhang Yu cover the rear was not only because all of Zhang Yu's men were Han people, but also because Zhang Yu had been humiliated by Huan Xi several times and had a deep hatred for him.

Zhang Yu knew that he would die if he stayed behind today, but when he thought of Huan Xi who regarded himself as his father, and because Huan Xi himself was forced to leave Luoyang and live under someone else's roof, all those things were still fresh in his mind. Zhang Yu would rather die than let Huan Xi be proud.

"Your Majesty, I will fight to the death!"

Immediately, Zhang Yu gathered his troops and lined up in front. There were a total of 10,000 Han soldiers under his command, all of whom were his old followers.

Fu Jian's army was already retreating in an orderly manner. As the Yu army retreated, the Yan army followed suit.

Huan Xi certainly also saw this scene.

"Drum roll! Attack!"

Huan Xi shouted.

(End of this chapter)