A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 354: Attack and defense in Yaxian County, tiger generals
Xianshui is a river within the Lujiang River. It starts from the territory of Longshu, passes through Qixian and Liu'an from south to north, and flows into Shaopi.

Shaopi was the first water conservancy project built by Gongsun Ao in Chu State, which also benefited the people within hundreds of thousands of miles of Shaopi.

However, there is no major road connecting Xian County to the outside world, and it is all connected to it by the Xianshui River.

After a short rest in Long Shu, the 5,000-strong army led by Lu Zhi went down the Xian River and all the way north, relying on the Xian River to transport grain and grass. After many days of marching, they finally arrived at the foot of Xian County.

Are you from Xian County? The barbarians have long received the news of the failure of the Longshu barbarians. The more than 20,000 barbarian troops have not defeated the Han people, let alone the more than 10,000 people here. And I and others are in the plain terrain. The barbarians are good at fighting in the mountains. If the running characteristics are not brought into full play, they are no match for the Han people.

Now that Longshu had fallen, there was no way for him and others to escape into the Dabie Mountains, so they could only decide to defend the city and hope that the Han people would not retreat for many days and retreat on their own.

Fortunately, Yaxian County is good at producing food, and there is enough food in the city. With more than 10,000 troops, it is not a problem to defend for two or three months.

Lu Zhi looked at the colorful flags on the city head. These were the totems or lucky colors of various tribes. The barbarians are proud of the five colors, so they like to use the five colors in their clothing totems. According to legend, they were passed down from the ancient Chu Kingdom.

Knowing that a fierce battle was inevitable, although the Han people were good at urban warfare, Lu Zhi preferred to fight in the field, because urban warfare meant more casualties.

Lu Zhi divided his 5,000-strong army into three, with the south as the main attack direction, placing 1,000 forbidden troops and 500 county soldiers. The west of the city was close to the Xian River to prevent 1,500 county soldiers from feigning an attack and protecting the grain on the Xian River. Road, to prevent the barbarians from rushing out of the city and crossing the river to burn the Han army's food and grass.

A thousand county soldiers were placed in the direction of Liu'an in the north of the city to feign an attack. Their task was only to prevent the barbarians from abandoning the city and fleeing north. Hidden in the dense forest far east of the city were a thousand Imperial Guard cavalry.

Lu Zhi surrounded three towers on the surface, but actually tied up his pockets on all sides. He intended to drive the barbarians to the plain east of the city. When the time came, the cavalry would cover them up and keep the barbarians as much as possible.

The Han army did not attack the city immediately, but buried pots to make rice and rested for two days.

In these two days, the Han army built siege equipment, and the war was about to begin.

"Boom boom boom!"

This is the beating of the Han army's drum. When you hear the drum, you advance, and when you hear the gold, you retreat. This is the general practice among the Han armies.

"Hey! Hey!..."

The conscripted civilians pushed hard to push the wooden siege tower that was as high as the city wall forward. The front of the siege tower was covered with cowhide to prevent the rocket from being burned.

Also moving along was a hundred-man army. They pushed the collision car hard, and under the cover of their teammates' big shields, they slowly moved towards the city gate.

When the siege tower and the ramming vehicle were halfway through the journey, the rhythm of the drum suddenly became more rapid. In the military formation, several groups of Han troops began to run towards the front carrying several siege ladders. They were going to put up the siege ladders. On the city wall.

The siege ladders of the Han army were not simple siege ladders made of bamboo, but much heavier wooden siege ladders made of solid wood.

Of course, these were not built on the spot, but had been built long before departure. They set off with the convoy transporting grain and grass, and when they arrived on the battlefield, they were temporarily pieced together by the craftsmen accompanying the army.

Lu Zhi waited for two days, just waiting for these engineering equipment to be delivered from the rear.

Since the siege ladder was lighter than the tower and the chariot, the siege ladder overtook them when the tower and chariot were still one-third of the distance away.

When they reached the arrow range of the defenders, dense arrows struck at the attacking Han army. Fortunately, the attackers were all forbidden troops and were very experienced.

The running Han officer saw the incoming arrow and shouted: "Arrow attack, guard!!!"

After hearing the order, the Han soldiers stopped without hesitation, dropped the siege ladder in their hands, squatted down, and hid under the round shield, which was only one-third of their height.

"Dun! Dun! Dun!"

Arrows were constantly inserted into the shield and the ground, making the ground in front of the city wall densely covered with arrows, like giant hedgehogs all over the ground.

Although it looked terrifying, due to the excellent combat qualities of the Han army, few were lost at all. However, the barbarian army continued to fire arrows, and the Han army's offensive troops were suppressed under the shields and unable to move forward.

Seeing that the fastest siege ladder was about to be overtaken by towers and vehicles, hundreds of crossbowmen from the Han army finally arrived.

The Han army's crossbows were infinitely more advanced than those of the barbarians. Therefore, although the barbarian army could shoot from a high position, the Han army could still fire at a distance of just one step within the range of the barbarian army.

"Crossbowman, throw four!!!"

"Prepare!"

"put!"

As the Han army fired the order of the military lord, arrows with a completely different shape from those of the barbarians were shot towards the top of the city.

In an instant, many barbarians were shot down at the top of the city, and the density of barbarian arrows weakened a bit.

"Crossbowman, adjust half a finger downward."

"Prepare!"

"put!"

After another more precise adjustment, this time the Han army's arrows were more accurate, and more barbarians were shot down.

This caused great psychological oppression to the barbarians at the top of the city. Many barbarians did not dare to show their heads above the battlements, nor did they dare to stand in the open space on the city wall.

The officer in charge of the attack felt that the enemy's arrows had weakened and could no longer do any harm to his own army.

He suddenly stood up, raised the long sword in his hand, and shouted to the soldiers under his command: "Brothers, a real man, you can take fame and wealth immediately. You can be rich and glorious, and serve the country now. Follow me and kill!!!"

After speaking, he took the lead in killing towards the city head. The hundreds of Forbidden Army soldiers under his command also raised the siege ladder again, completely throwing away the protection, and ran desperately towards the city wall. Soon, the Han army came to the city wall.

"Take the ladder and be careful of falling objects such as wood and kerosene on the city wall!"

"Get ready, pull! Pull again! Pull again!..."

The siege ladder was put up on the city wall. At this time, the barbarians had not made any move. They did not react until the first Han army appeared.

"The Han people have entered the city!"

The Han and barbarian armies began a fierce tug-of-war on the city wall.

Although the Han army was elite, there were too many barbarian troops, and they were the siege party.

The time is about to reach noon, and the sun is getting stronger and stronger. If it drags on any longer, it will be even more detrimental to the Han army. Now they lack a strong general to open a gap.

Lu Zhi looked at the remaining people under his command. Now a thousand forbidden troops have been engaged in the battle, and there are only 500 county soldiers around him.

He had great doubts about whether these county soldiers could carry out such a high-intensity fierce battle, so he never put them into battle, but instead let them serve as reserves.

But now that the war has reached a stalemate, he has to use them.

Lu Zhi called the county captain of this county soldier, looked at the sturdy man in front of him and asked, "What's your surname, the county captain?"

Sun Jian respectfully performed a military salute: "I am the county lieutenant of Xunyang County, Sun Jian, a native of Wu County."

Lu Zhi looked at him seriously: "Now that the front is in a stalemate, I only have five hundred men left in my hands. Do you have the confidence to go up and tear the barbarian defenses apart for me?"

Sun Jian looked at the fierce fighting ahead, and he had long wanted to go up, but Lu Zhi had not spoken, and he did not dare to speak randomly. After all, he was just a small county captain, and Lu Zhi was a member of the Central Committee and a famous general of the country.

So he knelt down on one knee and said, "Sun Jian hereby issues a military order to the emperor. He will not return until he defeats the barbarian army!"

"Okay, good warrior, as long as you can tear through the barbarian army's front, I will remember you as a great achievement."

After Sun Jian received the military order, he excitedly led his five hundred men along the siege tower and rushed to the city.

I saw Sun Jian descending the mountain like a fierce tiger, with a long knife in his hand that made the tiger powerful. The barbarians on the opposite side were killed when he touched them, and they were injured when they touched him!

Seeing Sun Jian's bravery, the Forbidden Army Marquis on the side suddenly lost his strength and irritability and shouted: "Good martial arts, brothers, brothers from counties and counties are so brave, our Forbidden Army cannot be left behind, all follow me." kill!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

As Sun Jian joined the battle, their bravery and fighting spirit inspired the Han army behind them. The Han army was like on steroids, using Sun Jian as a nail to drive deeper into the barbarian army.

Seeing this situation, Lu Zhi couldn't help but clapped his hands and laughed: "This tiger general is not as good as the ancient famous and honest Bai Zhi. Let me beat the drums to cheer you up!"

"boom!"

Sun Jian, covered in blood, fought from the top of the city to the bottom of the city, killing the barbarian troops who had been resisting the city gate. Without the manpower to help resist, the gate gate was soon rammed and broken, and the city gate was broken.

The ramming car slowly retreated, leaving space for the army to pass by. Due to the limited attack width, many Han soldiers piled up under the city. Seeing the city gate open, they turned around and filed in through the city gate, fighting towards the city.

"It's broken! The city gate is broken! The Han people have entered the city!"

With the shout of a barbarian army, the barbarian army's line collapsed. Thousands of barbarians in the south of the city dispersed in a rush. The barbarians stationed on other city walls also quickly received the news.

Seeing that there were no Han people in the east of the city, they swarmed towards the east of the city.

Lu Zhi came to the south gate of the city, looked at Sun Jian who had become a bloody man in front of him, and said with admiration: "The strong man still has some strength left. If the barbarians flee eastward, they can be chased eastwards."

Sun Jian immediately clasped his hands and reported back: "Sun Jian can fight again!"

"Very well, I will allocate you three hundred forbidden troops to go out from the east gate and pursue the barbarians until you meet the Han knights, then you can stop the pursuit."

"Order."

Sun Jian turned around and immediately took the 300 men assigned to him towards the east gate of the city. Lu Zhi commanded the remaining sergeants who still had some strength to deal with the funeral affairs in the city.

Thousands of barbarian troops pushed out from the east gate. Those who managed to get out seemed to feel a new life, while those who were still blocked in the back were yelling at those in front, and even hacked to death with knives.

When Sun Jian arrived, he killed the remaining barbarians at the city gate. The rest were either trampled to death at the city gate or hacked to death by his irrational companions.

Only two to three thousand barbarians managed to escape. Just when they thought they had escaped, a "rumbling" sound sounded in their ears. Their faces were as pale as if they were mourning for their heirs.

Some of them collapsed to the ground, unwilling to move anymore and gave up the struggle. Some were unwilling to die here and ran with all their lives towards another dense forest on the left front. They knew that as long as they entered that dense forest, the Han cavalry would be defeated. There's nothing we can do about them.

The distance was only a hundred steps or so, like a natural chasm. After a few quarters of an hour, only a few hundred people managed to escape into the dense forest. The rest were left here by the Han cavalry and became local fertilizer.

At the end of the war, the Han army of 5,000 men lost more than 1,000 people and successfully captured Yan County. Of the more than 10,000 barbarian troops, only a few hundred escaped, thousands were killed or wounded, and only two to three thousand lucky ones were captured.

In this battle, the Han army beheaded more than 4,000 people, and 5,000 to 6,000 barbarian soldiers died at the east gate. Four to five thousand of them were trampled to death due to internal fighting among themselves.

(End of this chapter)