People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 137: We Yellow Turbans are too powerful

The 15,000-strong Yellow Turban army marched towards Liaoxi in a mighty manner. This huge movement immediately attracted the attention of Zhang Chun of Wuhuan. They were certainly not stupid and could immediately see through the Yellow Turbans' intentions.

Whether it is Qiuliju or Subuyan, their ethnic groups' main activities are in Liaodong and Liaoxi.

Just as the Yellow Turbans were unwilling to let the Wuhuan destroy their rear, when they saw the Yellow Turbans running towards them aggressively, they were a little panicked for a moment. The Wuhuan were able to maintain nearly ten thousand warriors by relying on the support of their own hundreds of thousands of people.

Without the support of a large ethnic group, these nearly 10,000 warriors would soon be unable to survive. Regardless of farming or nomadism, they ultimately cannot do without the most basic ethnic group.

So, what was originally just a looting plan by Wuhuan Zhang Chun against the Yellow Turbans turned into a battle between the two sides because of the Yellow Turbans' early reaction.

Right in the wilderness on the edge of western Liaoning, the coalition forces of the Yellow Turbans and Wuhuan Zhang Chun have already met. This is the intersection of the two forces. The outcome of the war will determine who can step into the other's territory.

There are more than 10,000 Yellow Turbans, most of whom are the Yellow Turbans' reserve forces. But even if they are not the elite troops of the entire army, the overall quality of the army is much stronger than that of ordinary troops.

The young and strong soldiers of the Yellow Turbans would basically undergo a small village drill every five days by their respective squad leaders, and a large township drill would be held by the garrison chief every month. The intensity of this training was no less than that of regular officers and soldiers, and might even be higher.

Not only do they enjoy tax reduction benefits every year, but they also receive salaries when fighting in official wars. Even if they are killed in battle, they also receive pensions. With comprehensive treatment, they can be considered as semi-professional soldiers.

When such an army of more than 15,000 appeared before their eyes, both Qiuliju, Su Puyan and Zhang Chun felt a strong sense of oppression.

The Yellow Turbans seem to be stronger than last time.
That kind of powerful momentum is actually reflected in every detail. The larger the army, the more difficult it is to achieve fine management.

The army in front of us, just the square-shaped formation of each army, is enough to surprise people, because the opponent's array is so neat.

Seeing this military formation, they felt a little suffocated, which meant that every soldier on the other side had very strong basic qualities.

Moreover, the Yellow Turbans had more armored soldiers than last time. Before, the Yellow Turbans had only two or three thousand armored soldiers, but when they met them again this time, they found that the Yellow Turbans had at least five thousand armored soldiers.

The scary thing is that these are real iron-armored warriors, not leather or cloth armor!

"Are they still rebels? The elite army of the Han Dynasty is no more than this. Where did the Yellow Turbans get so many pieces of armor?" Qiuliju thought of the result of the last competition with the Yellow Turbans, and when he saw the scene in the distance, he felt a toothache.

Last time, he was only facing one thousand heavy cavalry, one thousand armored soldiers and three thousand infantry, and he only managed to fight them to a draw. Now, facing five thousand armored soldiers, he felt like he had no idea where to start.

Although Zhang Chun gnashed his teeth at the Yellow Turbans, he was somewhat temperless when he spoke: "In terms of equipment, the elite troops of the Han Dynasty are just like this, and the combat effectiveness of the Yellow Turbans is even higher. I always feel that the Yellow Turbans may be more difficult to defeat than the elite troops of the Han Dynasty."

Qiu Liju looked solemnly into the distance, then looked at his own position, then sighed helplessly.

Although their side had the advantage of the cavalry, the main body of the war was ultimately the infantry. The role of the cavalry was mostly to cut and destroy the formation and harass the guerrillas, thereby creating conditions for the infantry to win. If the combat effectiveness gap of the infantry was too large, the Wuhuan cavalry would appear somewhat powerless.

After all, the Yellow Turbans in front of them were not ordinary local county soldiers, nor were they refugee troops. If they were such opponents, a few cavalry charges would naturally be enough to solve everything.

But Qiu Liju didn't think his warriors could charge the iron army in front of them.

After all, Zhang Chun's army couldn't stop the fighting and couldn't help at all.

"We have to fight eventually. The Yellow Turbans are setting up their camp. Let's fight them first while they are still unstable!" Qiuliju snorted coldly and decided to launch the attack first.

Today, Zhang Chun is on a downward spiral and can no longer get along with Qiu Liju on an equal footing. Instead, he has become Qiu Liju's vassal.

He had no way to refuse Qiu Liju's order and immediately ordered his army to organize an attack.

The first 10,000 troops pressed forward directly, and on the left and right sides, there were nearly 10,000 Wuhuan cavalrymen who were ready to move. Once they found the weak points of the Yellow Turban Army, they would immediately pounce on them.

Like Qiuliju and Zhang Chun, they felt that the Yellow Turbans were difficult to defeat, and the Yellow Turbans also felt that the Wuhuan cavalry were difficult to deal with.

Although their infantry formation was not afraid of the enemy's attack due to the advantage of armor, the infantry could not do anything about the cavalry and was ultimately in a passive state.

A great battle quickly began. Zhang Chun and Wuhuan used all their strength almost from the start, intending to create a miracle with great force.

However, the Yellow Turbans were well-trained now. Even when they were building camps, they always had barracks to guard. Zhang Chun's army attacked and soon encountered a strong counterattack from the Yellow Turbans. There were more than 10,000 troops, with 2,000 heavily armored infantry at the front, followed by thousands of ordinary soldiers, and 2,000 armored soldiers and 1,000 heavy cavalry as reserve troops ready to serve at any time.

The infantry of the two armies began to fight, and the gap in their combat skills began to appear visibly.

The Yellow Turbans maintained a stable and solid overall formation, with the left and right camps of the central army advancing and retreating against each other, forcing Zhang Chun's army to retreat step by step with a good offensive rhythm.

When it comes to specific local combat, apart from the separate sequence of armored soldiers, each ordinary Yellow Turban century-man team is a fully functional composite team that cooperates with each other in skillful combined attacks, which often produces extremely strong effects.

Each century basically consists of thirty spearmen, thirty sword and shield men, and forty archers equipped with ring-handled swords.

At the front of the battlefield, even if the enemy tried their best to break through the formation of the armored soldiers in front, they would first face the second human wall composed of sword and shield soldiers. Behind the human wall, there were soldiers holding spears nearly three meters long to cover the sword and shield soldiers in their fight.

What made Zhang Chunjun even more desperate was that when they were facing these, there would be countless crossbow arrows shooting at them very accurately.

Although the modified repeating crossbow is not as powerful and ranged as the bow and arrow and the strong crossbow, its strength lies in its high rate of fire. If the range is not high and the power is not great, the combat scene can be set at a medium distance of ten to twenty steps, which can completely make up for the existing shortcomings.

More importantly, in today's era of extremely low production efficiency of iron products, the repeating crossbow can hit every target accurately.

Each century is equipped with forty crossbowmen. If it is expanded to a large legion with thousands of soldiers, that would be one or two thousand crossbowmen. Moreover, these crossbowmen are not arranged in a separate sequence, but are mixed into each century. This allows them to play a flexible and powerful combat role in small local battlefields.

The improved repeating crossbow is equipped with basic sights, and can hit almost anything it points at a distance of more than ten steps, while also maintaining a high frequency of shooting, which makes the crossbowmen play a powerful role on the battlefield.

When Zhang Chun's army charged forward, they were immediately faced with countless crossbow shots. The power of the more than ten-meter-long crossbow was definitely not something that flesh and blood could withstand. As long as they were hit by an arrow, they would instantly lose their combat effectiveness even if they were still alive.

Fighting in this way, Zhang Chunjun had no way to cope with it and his offensive was quickly suppressed.

The Wuhuan cavalry on both sides were unwilling to remain calm. Nearly ten thousand cavalrymen were dispatched in an instant, almost surrounding the entire flank and rear of the Yellow Turban position, and then began to accumulate power to attack and cut the corners.

Although the Yellow Turbans' rear position was not composed of armored soldiers, their spears and crossbows still made life difficult for the cavalry.

But there were enough Wuhuan cavalry after all, and their repeated attacks did bring tremendous pressure to the Yellow Turbans' rear.

At this time, the Yellow Turbans were in an advantageous position on the entire battlefield, except for a position in the corner which was slowly broken up and destroyed under the fierce attack of the Wuhuan cavalry, and it had obviously become a weakness of the Yellow Turbans.

At this time, the armored soldiers and armored cavalry prepared by the Yellow Turbans in the rear also moved and took the initiative to charge towards the Wuhuan cavalry.

Neither armored soldiers nor armored cavalry were afraid of the Wuhuan cavalry. As they joined the battlefield, the offensive of the Wuhuan cavalry was immediately curbed, and the obvious weakness of their own battle formation was compensated.

"The Wuhuan cavalry is so powerful!" Huang Long, who was still in shock, looked at the enemies being chased away by the armored soldiers in the rear, feeling as if he had survived a calamity.

Zhang Baiqi, who fought alongside him, also felt scared. If he hadn't received reinforcements just now, he would have been defeated by the Wuhuan cavalry. At that time, his help would probably only make things worse.

"The Wuhuan cavalry is indeed powerful, but our Youzhou brothers are even more powerful!"

After recovering from his shock, Zhang Baiqi was even more amazed when he saw that the situation had stabilized.

Only by personally fighting against the Wuhuan cavalry can one feel the powerful oppression of the Tuqi attack. The impact is like an unstoppable torrent, making people despair and powerless.

Every time a Wuhuan cavalry charge intersected with one of his brothers, it would surely take a life. He could only watch his brothers being killed by the enemy one by one. Not to mention counterattacking, even resistance was extremely difficult.

The Wuhuan cavalry already made them feel invincible, and now seeing that the Youzhou brothers could even chase after the cavalry, they were even more shocked.

This time, they had a more intuitive personal experience and had a new understanding of the strength of the Yellow Turbans in Youzhou. They knew they were very strong before, but they didn't know they were so strong. If they were so strong, it was no wonder they could remain calm about the attack of the Wuhuan.

It is of course a cause for celebration that our brothers are strong, so Huang Long became excited: "We Yellow Turbans are really strong. Today, we defeated the enemy together with our brothers from Youzhou. When the White Cavalry returns, we will have something to brag about."

Zhang Baiqi also felt completely relieved. The Yellow Turbans were so strong, so why should he worry about having no future?

(End of this chapter)