Horse on the World

Chapter 579 Shocking News
The vanguard army was defeated like a mountain, not to say that these soldiers were not brave, but that in front of these rampant elephants, human strength seemed so weak. When it was thrown high into the sky, the last trace of fighting courage of the army disappeared, and they turned around collectively and fled backwards.

Sun Yao was riding on the horse, with the big knife in his hand hanging down limply, staring blankly at the soldiers who had been defeated like a mountain, and did not yell at the soldiers to turn back and attack. In fact, he, who was always brave, also had a kind of deep feeling A deep sense of powerlessness.

"General, retreat quickly, if you don't retreat, you will be entangled!" The soldiers shouted loudly, seeing Sun Yao's appearance of not guarding the house, several soldiers looked at each other, and then stopped turning Sun Yao's horse's head, With a heavy whip on the horse's buttocks, the horse suffered from pain and immediately ran forward, surrounded by his own soldiers, and fled away.

The Qiang soldiers waved their scimitars and chased after them with strange screams. Anyone who was caught up by them was chopped down with their knives, and then their heads were chopped off with one knife, and the bloody heads were pinned to their waists. Then they caught up again. For them, an enemy's head is a fortune.

In Qiu Zhi's central army, more than ten thousand soldiers took advantage of the time when the vanguard was fighting to dig deep trenches, erect high fences, keep horses, antlers, and scales, and some thick earth walls are being built together. Little by little was built high, and in front of these, there were piles of firewood drenched in grease.

"General, Sun Yao has lost!" The officer's voice trembled, looking at the front of the army, Sun Yao's forward army was fleeing back in a panic, and behind them were Qiang soldiers all over the mountains and plains.

Qiu Zhi was expressionless, "Lead the vanguard into the main formation of the Chinese army, and prepare the archers, trebuchets, and eight-ox crossbow."

Among the central army, rumbling drums sounded. Although the forward army was defeated, they were well-trained after all. When they heard the sound of the drums, they understood that this was to let them go around the formation. If they collide with the formation, the Chinese army will mercilessly pour the rain of arrows on their heads.

When the defeated soldiers were about a few miles away from the front of the Chinese army, they were like a torrent hitting a tidal rock standing in the middle of a large river, split into two with a bang, and rushed to both sides.

"Light it up!" Qiu Sheng shouted sharply.

Rockets were shot out one after another, and the flames shot up into the sky with a bang. The flames were accompanied by bursts of green smoke, soaring into the sky, and the Qiang soldiers who followed the vanguard's defeated army rushed up shouting. Qiu Zhi sneered, "Shoot the arrows!"

The archers of the Chinese army raised their bows and arrows, and thousands of long bows were shot at the same time. The scene was spectacular. The Qiang soldiers suddenly felt that the sky was dark. The sound of screaming immediately came and went.

The Qiang soldiers who survived the first round of arrow rain by chance had a worse end. Thousands of barbed caltrops were scattered on the ground to meet them. The straw sandals of the Qiang soldiers were effortlessly pierced, deeply embedded in the flesh, and the Qiang soldiers hopping around with their feet in their arms would soon step on the second and third.

Throwing away their weapons, they hugged their feet and screamed, and then they heard Linlin's endless voice. If anyone from the barbarians was here, they would know clearly that it was a special Baifa crossbow that was scheduled to be released, and countless Qiang soldiers were shot immediately. became a sieve.

The Qiang soldiers' attack was frustrated, and the invincible elephant army following them rushed up. Seeing their own invincible army, the Qiang soldiers who hesitated due to casualties immediately summoned up their courage again. In their hearts, the elephant army was A symbol of invincibility. In the battle just now, the elephant soldiers have fully proved this point. The enemy's forwards are almost helpless to fight back, and the forwards of an army are basically all in the middle of an army. The most powerful troops.Howling, they followed the elephant soldiers and rolled up like a tide again.

"Catapult, eight-ox crossbow!" Several words burst out coldly from Qiu Zhi's lips.

Huge boulders fell from the sky, accompanied by the unique cry of the eight-ox crossbow, the majestic elephant soldier immediately became unlucky. The elephant is huge, with rough skin and thick flesh. If you go down with a knife, you may not be able to give him How much damage was caused, but the huge boulders weighing dozens of catties falling from the sky fell on them, and their huge power could cause them to suffer extremely serious injuries, while the eight-ox crossbow was within hundreds of meters, and its strength could be pierced. It is about half a foot deep into the solid city wall, and the flesh and blood of elephants can't resist it. The elephant soldiers who had just fought with the vanguard and the Chinese army without any damage just fought, and dozens of elephants wailed. They fell to the ground with a bang, and in front of them, the soaring fire made them hesitate.

The ones in front didn't move, but the ones behind rushed forward one after another, and the huge elephants immediately huddled together.

Qiu Zhisen smiled and pointed his finger, "All trebuchets and eight-ox crossbows cover this area!"

Seeing her elephants being knocked down one by one by boulders and powerful crossbow arrows, the commander of the elephant soldiers and Princess Ma Lanhua of the Qiang tribe finally realized that the Chu army is not the indigenous tribes in the mountains. Hesitating, so the hundred or ten elephants had to wait here. With a whistle, they turned around and left first. As soon as she left, the rest of the elephant soldiers followed immediately. As soon as the elephant soldiers left, the Qiang soldiers seemed to be drawn away Like a spine, he also turned around and left.

As soon as the Chinese army exerted its strength, the enemy retreated immediately, and even the elephants that made the soldiers daunting also ran away in a hurry.

Only their coach, Qiu Zhi, was still frowning, watching the retreating Qiang soldiers, looking preoccupied.

"Dig the trench wide and deep, put more horses and antlers, build a thicker parapet, and make it higher, set up double-layer fences, and fill the middle with soil to make the city wall." Qiu Zhi gave orders repeatedly.

"General, Sun Yao has lost the battle. He has no face to see the general. Please punish the general." Sun Yao, with disheveled hair and blood all over his body, staggered to Qiu Zhi, knelt down with a sound of crying Hao Tao said: "General, I will bury most of the vanguard, please kill the last general to follow the military rules to boost morale."

Qiu Zhi took a step forward, supported Sun Yao with both hands, shook his head and said, "This defeat is not due to the battle. I have seen the bravery of the forward soldiers."

Turning his head, he looked at a group of dejected vanguard generals behind Sun Yao, and said in a passionate tone: "Victory and defeat are commonplace in military affairs. This is just a small defeat. What's the point in front of my army? You saw it just now, just deal with it." Get the Fa, how can these demons and ghosts that come out of the deep mountains be the opponents of my majestic teacher? Raise your heads and hold your knives tightly. In the next battle, I believe you will prove yourself."

With just a few simple words, coupled with the fact that they had just easily repelled the elephant army that they thought was invincible, the courage of the generals of the vanguard army was immediately aroused. They all drew their swords in their hands and shouted in unison, "Kill, kill!" , kill them all!"

Qiu Zhi laughed loudly, and ordered his personal guards, "Come here, go and drag those elephants into the camp for me. Today, the whole army will come to eat a meal of elephant meat and see how it tastes. Hahaha, little ones!" , You have a good taste, this thing is not easy to eat."

The surrounding generals and soldiers laughed together, and the depression brought about by the defeat just now disappeared in the blink of an eye.

He walked back to his big tent of the Chinese army with ease. As soon as he stepped into the big tent, Qiu Zhi's steps immediately became heavy. Just before repelling this round of attack by the Qiang soldiers, he had received news that his two troops left behind The troops on the flanks have been defeated by Hu Zequan and Lanshan. Hu and Lan's second army is completely defeated.

"Good plan!" Qiu Zhi sat heavily on the chair. King Ning is worthy of being a generation of heroes. He actually used himself as a bait to lure himself into the gourd. Stick to the camp, wait until His Majesty's army has defeated Yizhou, and attack across the board, one to relieve the siege, and the other to defeat King Ning's main force.

As long as I am still here for a day, His Majesty the Emperor will be more confident in defeating King Ning. My biggest role now is to contain the main force of King Ning.For defense, Qiu Zhi still has some experience.The only thing to worry about is food and grass. All the food and grass in the army can only last for ten days at most, but how many days will the battle of Yizhou last?
"Come here!" Qiu Zhi said a little tiredly.

"An order was sent to the quartermaster to distribute food and grass in a centralized manner. Starting today, soldiers preparing for combat will eat two meals a day, and the rest will eat one meal. All officers are only allowed to eat one meal a day."

"Call all the generals to discuss matters immediately."

Taking advantage of the time to wait for the generals of each battalion, Qiu Zhi leaned back on the chair, preparing to take a short rest. His nerves have been too tense today.

Just when Qiu Zhi was in a daze, hurried footsteps suddenly sounded outside the tent, the big tent was lifted, and a Chinese military officer led a man in ordinary clothes strode into the tent.

"General, the official secretary is here!" the officer said in a low voice.

Qiu Zhi hurriedly opened his eyes and looked at the person coming.

"The official secretary, Wan Changfeng, greet the general!" The visitor respectfully gave a military salute to Qiu Zhi, "The last general sent a top-secret letter to the general under the order of the commander Yuan, who originally thought that the general Still at the station, I never thought that the general has arrived here!" Wan Changfeng smiled wryly, "General, you have been surrounded by the enemy."

Qiu Zhi let out a breath, "Where is the letter?"

Wan Changfeng lifted the bottom edge of his clothes, tore them open, took out an envelope, and handed it to Qiu Zhi with both hands.

Qiu Zhi tore open the envelope, opened the paper, glanced at ten lines, his face became paler and paler, his hands loosened, and the letter paper fluttered down, Qiu Zhi's tall figure swayed and almost fell to the ground.

The letter was written by Tianqi himself, and one of the central meanings is that Li Qing was not dead, Dingzhou army invaded from Minzhou, Zhang Aimin's retreat was cut off, tens of thousands of troops were alive or dead, Qiu Zhi must hold the front line, and prevent King Ning from taking the opportunity to make trouble .

The letter came too late.

(End of this chapter)