The last three kingdoms

Chapter 709 The Battle of Weishui

Although the river in early winter hadn't frozen yet, it was still icy cold. Even if the soldiers of the Di people were screaming men, it was by no means easy to survive in such a harsh environment.

Many soldiers of the Di people who jumped into the river were lucky enough to escape the bows and arrows of the Shu army, but because they had been soaked in the water for too long, they had no chance to land ashore and were frozen to death alive.

Do not enter or die!This is a difficult problem for all the Di people. From the broken end of the pontoon bridge to the south bank, there are only fifty steps, but it is these inconspicuous fifty steps that keep harvesting the lives of the Di people.

Many people braved the rain of arrows and rushed to the shore, but fell into the muddy beach, making it even more difficult to move an inch. They finally struggled out of the mud, and the sharp spears of the Shu army could easily end their lives. At the place closest to the south bank, even when they fell down, they could touch the embankment with their hands, but that was all. They had no chance to set foot on the land of Weinan again in this life.

A unilateral killing made the Di people realize that a ignorant strong attack is not effective, and the attack method of stragglers is completely useless.After paying a painful lesson like blood, Qi Wannian quickly adjusted his attack method, that is, before the Di soldiers reached the pontoon bridge and cut their heads, they first launched into the water a stone's throw away from the shore, and then formed one by one. In the phalanx, the shield soldiers are the first, and the archers are behind, forming an offensive and defensive formation, and then advance together.

Densely packed shields can form an effective line of defense, and the archers in the back have the ability to counterattack, so that the attacking Di soldiers are no longer completely passive and beaten, and the archers can more or less injure them when they counterattack. And the Shu army on the shore must have relieved the pressure on the attacking phalanx.

Each phalanx can be as small as a hundred people or as large as four or five hundred people. After the formation is completed, it slowly advances and enters the bow and arrow range of the Shu army.Since the phalanx is protected by dense shields, the security is greatly improved, and the strong counterattack of the Dibing archers also caused slight casualties to the Shu army on the shore, and more importantly, it prevented the Shu army from launching unscrupulous attacks , They must also guard against the counterattack of bows and arrows.

Facing Diren's new offensive method, Fu Qian responded calmly, and ordered the two armies of Zhang Le and Zhao Zhuo to also form a corresponding defensive formation, dispatching shield soldiers to the front line of the embankment or building defenses with sandbags Positions to fight against Di Bing's archers.

As for breaking this dense defensive phalanx, the Shu army used catapults and bed crossbow carts, and used powerful crossbow arrows and stone bullets to forcibly tear apart the formation of Di soldiers. In addition, it also uses a 45-degree upward shot to directly lock the target of the attack on the archers behind the phalanx.

The arrow rain was like a sudden, and the entire river was covered in the vast arrow rain. The phalanxes of the Di people moved slowly and with difficulty in the river.At this moment, the heavy equipment of the Shu army showed its power, and the Di people's phalanx moved slowly in the water, completely becoming a target training for catapults.

Stone bombs roared out, drawing arcs in mid-air, and threw them towards the Di army phalanx.The shooting accuracy of the catapult has always been a problem. It is not easy to hit the target within the range of fifty or sixty steps. Often, the larger the Dibing phalanx, the easier it is to become the target of the catapult. If a stone bomb hits the phalanx, its destructive power can almost paralyze half of the phalanx.

But the smaller phalanx can easily avoid the stone bullets on the top of the head. When each stone bullet fell into the water, it caused huge waves, which made people feel palpitating.

The catapult is effective against large battle formations, but it is difficult to hit the target in small battle formations. As for hitting those wandering soldiers, it is completely a blind cat meeting a dead mouse.

In order to avoid being beaten, Di Bing's phalanx kept breaking into parts, changing from a large phalanx of 500 people to a medium phalanx of 300 people, and from a medium phalanx of 300 people to a phalanx of about 100 people. Small square array, and increase the distance between each other.

But in this way, the hit rate of the catapult has dropped, but the attack of the bed crossbow has not weakened at all. The extremely destructive crossbow arrows can easily shoot through the shield of Di Bing, causing fatal damage to Di Bing.Many phalanxes had already disintegrated before they could reach the shore in time.

Part of the phalanx approached the south bank, which made Qi Wannian, who had been watching the battle from a high place by the river, suddenly nervous and saw a glimmer of hope.

However, Qi Wannian was soon disappointed. Those phalanxes that were lucky enough to reach the bank were immediately attacked and killed by the Shu army. A phalanx of about a hundred people was already exhausted to reach the south bank. The counterattack and siege, the exhausted Di soldiers seemed to have no combat effectiveness, and they were soon wiped out.

Since each phalanx is independent of each other and far apart, when this phalanx lands, it cannot get the support of other phalanxes. By the time other phalanxes land, that phalanx may have been wiped out, almost The bloodless Shu army immediately threw itself into the next round of siege.

The casualties of the entire Shu army were minimal, but the casualties of the Di soldiers were extremely heavy. The battle lasted for nearly a day, and the total casualties of the Di people had exceeded 7000. It's time for a great drink.

It was getting late and the wind was blowing so hard that the accumulated water on the pontoon bridge turned into a thin layer of ice, and the river became colder and colder. Di Bing, who jumped into the river, was so cold that his lips were purple and his body was trembling uncontrollably , was unable to resist this severe cold at all, Qi Wannian could only order the withdrawal of troops as a last resort, ending today's first attack.

In the entire Weishui River, floating corpses almost clogged the river channel. Countless people were shot to death and drowned. After the sun went down, the muddy river water became gloomy, and the blood-stained river surface became dim at this moment. Many, the colors look even more terrifying.

This seemingly not too wide river has become the protagonist today. Thousands of Di people buried their corpses, but they could not cross the thunder pool. The plot ultimately failed.

But Qi Wannian was not reconciled to failure. The casualties of 7000 people were nothing more than a drop in the bucket for an army of more than [-]. After retreating on the first day, Qi Wannian still did not give up. Wannian vowed that no matter how much he paid, he would break through the Weihe River and take Chang'an.

(End of this chapter)