Ni Chu

The Chu army stopped more than 500 steps away from Yongqiu City.Xiang Yu originally wanted to advance the army to form an array three hundred paces away from the city wall, but Zhong Limei reminded him to pay attention to the Qin Nu, so he gave up his original plan and formed a formation five hundred paces away.

The Qin army on the city wall set up crossbow arrows under Li You's command, and each of the buckled crossbows aimed at the Chu army's formation. The Qin army with the crossbows all had cold sweat on their palms and stared nervously at Chu under the city. military.

"Where is Ji Bu?" The Chu army lined up, Xiang Yu held the reins in his hand, and shouted loudly behind him: "Get out and listen to the order!"

As soon as his words fell, a general of Chu rode out of the queue, came to Xiang Yu and clasped his fists and said, "The last general is here, please give orders!"

Xiang Yu pointed at the city wall of Yongqiu, which was painted with black mountain paint, and said to Ji Bu, "You can order your troops to attack Yongqiu immediately!"

"Yes!" Ji Bu clasped his fists in reply, and rode his horse back to his camp.

After Ji Bu ran back to the formation, one of his generals rode his horse out of the formation, drew out his sword and shouted to the neatly lined up Chu army under Ji Bu's command, "Get out of the shield formation!"

With the shout of the general, more than [-] Chu soldiers with large shields stepped forward in unison, and walked out of the formation after a burst of uniform steps.

"Archers, insert into the shield formation!" The general gave another order, and five thousand archers walked into the shield formation with loose steps.

After the shield formation and archers came out, he rode his horse and ran up to Ji Bu, bowed his hands and said to Ji Bu, "Report to the general, the shield formation and archers are ready, general, please order to attack the city!"

Ji Bu raised his halberd and shouted to the general, "Siege the city immediately!"

"Siege!" After receiving the order, the general turned over and jumped off his horse, and ran towards the shield formation. At the same time as he ran towards the shield formation, nearly a thousand Chu soldiers carrying ladders rushed out of Ji Bu's camp.

After these Chu troops rushed out, they followed closely behind the shield formation and rushed towards the city wall of Yongqiu.

"Kill!" A loud roar came from the shield formation of the Chu army rushing towards the city wall.

The shield formation slowly moved forward, approaching the city wall step by step. Every time they took a step forward, the Chu army holding the shield would roar "mighty", and tens of thousands of people roared at the same time, with a truly majestic momentum.

The archers bowed their bodies and hid behind the big shield with their bowstrings tightly clasped; behind these archers were more than a thousand Chu troops carrying ladders. Yunti Mao followed behind and slowly moved towards the city wall.

Li You looked at the Chu army approaching the city wall with his hands on the battlements, and when the Chu army advanced to a distance of more than two hundred steps from the city wall, he said to the general beside him: "Fire the crossbow arrows. "

After receiving the order, the general quickly raised his fist and shouted to the Qin army holding the crossbow: "Crossbow! Fire!"

"Swoosh, swish!" Following the general's order, the Qin army on the city wall fired rows of crossbow arrows at the approaching Chu army's shield formation.

These crossbow-shooting Qin troops lined up in three rows. The first row finished firing, and the second row stepped forward. By the time the third row stepped forward, the first row had reloaded the crossbow arrows.Back and forth like this, the crossbow arrows of the Qin army fired towards the Chu army without any pause.

The power of the Qin crossbow was well known to the world during the Warring States Period, and the Chu army naturally would not underestimate it. It is precisely because of this that Ji Bu sent out a shield formation with a large shield before attacking the city to resist the Qin army's crossbow arrows.

The crossbow arrows hit the Chu army's large shield like raindrops. Most of the crossbow arrows were bounced off by the shield, and only a few got in through the gaps between the shields and shot at the Chu army hiding behind.

After the Chu army who was shot fell down, Tongze next to him would immediately move his position to fill the vacancy of the fallen Chu army. The shield formation kept a dense formation until it reached a place only about fifty steps away from the city wall. .

The general who gave the order to attack earlier hid in the shield formation with a dagger in his hand. When the shield formation stopped, he raised his arm and shouted loudly: "Archer, counterattack!"

"Whoosh!" As soon as he shouted, a crossbow arrow shot at his raised arm with strong wind.

The general's attention was all on the archer who was about to counterattack, and he didn't pay attention to this crossbow at all. With a "poof", the crossbow arrow pierced straight into the general's forearm.

Because the distance is too close, and the strength of the Qin crossbow is indeed very strong, with the general's miserable howl, the crossbow arrow passed through his arm, bringing up a cloud of blood and a few pieces of blood-stained bone dregs flying out .

He howled in pain, and his slightly bowed body straightened unconsciously due to the pain.As soon as he stood up straight, several crossbow arrows shot at his chest like lightning.

Following the rain of blood, several crossbow arrows all fell into the general's body.The hard leather armor on his body failed to block the crossbow arrows in the slightest.

The powerful force of the crossbow arrows sent the general's body flying backwards. After flying four or five meters in the air, his body fell heavily on the ground, and several large holes in his chest that were pierced by the crossbow arrows gurgled outwards. Braving blood, a crossbow arrow shot through his heart impartially. Even if Bian Que was reborn, he might not be able to save him.

In Ji Bu's camp, another general saw that the general in the shield formation was shot into the air by the crossbow arrows, shook the reins, rode his horse up to Ji Bu, cupped his hands and said, "General, General Chen died in battle. You can't be without a general for a while." , the young general is willing to go to command the battle!"

"Be careful, General Cao!" Ji Bu saluted the partial general and said, "Everything depends on General Cao!"

"Young general will fulfill his mission!" General Cao received the order, took the shield from a soldier, and rushed towards the shield formation on horseback.

On the city wall, the general of the Qin army saw General Cao rushing out of the Chu army's camp, and quickly directed more than a dozen crossbowmen to shoot crossbow arrows at him.

General Cao held the shield in one hand and the reins in the other, and clamped the horse's belly between his legs fiercely, urging the horse to charge towards the shield formation.

More than a dozen crossbow arrows flew towards him with strong wind, and he raised his shield to block in front of him. All the crossbow arrows hit the face of the shield, and fell to the ground after making a "crackling" sound.

The powerful impact of the crossbow bolts threw him backwards, but he still sat firmly on the horseback, and the horse rushed towards the shield formation without hesitation.

"Hurry up, shoot his horse!" Seeing that a round of crossbow bolts didn't work, Qin Jun hurriedly shouted to the crossbowman beside him who was loading the crossbow bolts.

More than a dozen crossbow arrows flew towards General Cao again, the difference was that this time the crossbow arrows did not go straight to his chest, but shot directly at the horse under his crotch.

More than a dozen crossbow arrows pierced into the horse's body at the same time. The horse hissed miserably, and its two front legs went limp, turned over and fell forward.

Just before the horse rolled forward, General Cao pressed the hand holding the rein on the horse's back, his body flew into the air, and fell towards the shield formation.

Before landing, he curled up his body and rolled on the ground. When he stood up again, he had already reached the end of the shield formation.

After getting up, he bowed his waist and got out of the shields to the front of the shield formation.

At this time, the archers hidden in the formation had already begun to shoot arrows on the battlements.

As the Qin army on the top of the city continuously shot crossbow arrows at the Chu army's shield formation, the counterattack of the Chu army's archers seemed a bit scattered and disorderly.Even so, the counterattack of the bows and arrows still had a certain effect, and the crossbows fired by the Qin army on the top of the city were obviously looser than before.

When the two sides shoot at each other, the Chu army's archers hiding in the shield will naturally suffer more than the Qin army's crossbowmen hiding behind the battlements. Every time a row of crossbow arrows is shot, there will be several or even a dozen Chu soldiers who stand up and shoot arrows The archers were shot through the body, while the crossbowmen of the Qin Army suffered relatively fewer casualties.

"Siege ladder! Go up!" Seeing that the crossbow arrows shot down from the city wall were looser, General Cao hurriedly shouted to the thousand or so Chu soldiers who were carrying the siege ladder behind them.

The thousand or so Chu soldiers got the order, and they all shouted, holding a small shield in one hand to block in front of them, and holding on to the siege ladder with the other hand, they ran towards the city wall quickly.

When these Chu soldiers rushed out of the shield formation, Li You pulled the corner of his mouth slightly, showing a playful smile.

"Archers!" The general of the Qin army who gave the order saw the Chu army's ladder rushing towards the city wall, raised his arms and shouted loudly: "Cooperate with the crossbowmen and shoot at the enemy!"

Following the general's order, two rows of archers stood behind the crossbowmen. While the crossbowmen fired arrows at the shield formation below the city, these archers stretched their bowstrings to the full, divided into two groups, and moved towards the people holding the siege ladder. Chu Jun shot out.

General Cao obviously did not expect that the Qin army would have such a skill. When rows of arrows rained down on the city wall to the Chu army carrying the siege ladder, he was stunned.

Originally, his plan was to strengthen the attack of the Qin army with bows and arrows immediately after the siege ladder attracted the attention of the Qin army's crossbowmen on the top of the city. Unexpectedly, the Qin army's crossbowmen did not shift their attack targets at all, and still fired crossbow arrows towards the shield array , while the Chu army holding on to the siege ladder was attacked by the Qin army's archers who had newly joined the battle.

The shields held by the charging Chu army were much smaller than the large shields of the shield array. When the arrow rain flew down overwhelmingly, pieces of the Chu army fell down.

The Chu soldiers who were not shot by the arrows saw their companions fell to the ground. They did not step forward to help them, but continued to rush forward with the ladder.

Some Chu soldiers were shot in the legs or arms by arrows. Although there was no danger of their lives, the pain made their actions much slower.

The wounded Chu soldiers let go of the siege ladder, those with injured arms hugged their arms and rushed forward; those with injured legs limped and ran towards the city wall behind their companions; Rolling and struggling on the ground.

The overwhelming rain of arrows did not stop for a moment because of the bravery of the Chu army. On the contrary, the Qin army on the city became more excited because the attack was effective, and the speed of firing arrows also increased a lot.