Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 50 Trials of Overlord Strategy (4)

The huge momentum of the horse jumping over the shaft caused Zhao Xingde to stumble and fall to the ground, just one step away from the horse thief, both sides saw each other.The horse thief's hat had fallen off, his hair was braided in a mess, and his face was full of filth. Only the scars of different shades criss-crossed and criss-crossed, the shaggy beard completely covered his chin, and a pair of round His eyes were fierce, he stared at his surroundings viciously, and he let out a beast-like cry from the depths of his throat. Frightened by the ferocity of this thief, the nearby townspeople not only did not rush forward, but backed away timidly a few times. step.

The horse thief was struggling desperately to get out from under the horse, while glaring at Zhao Xingde, as if a wild beast was staring at its prey.On the contrary, Zhao Xingde was aroused by him fiercely, with a low growl, he rushed over, his big hands tightly grasping the horse thief's throat.The horse thief who had just sat up did not expect that the Han man was unarmed and rushed up, caught off guard by Zhao Xingde and pressed him back to the ground. There were bloodstains, but the other hand took out a short knife that was usually used to cut meat from his waist, and suddenly "inserted" it on Zhao Xingde's left shoulder. He was about to pull it out and stab it towards the heart. The strong wind brushed the side of Zhao Xingde's face, and with a pounce, he nailed the horse thief to the ground. The spear was pulled out, and the brains and blood splashed all over his body. Throwing his long spear, he 'pierced' a horse thief's mount that had just rushed into the car formation, and then swung the horse back with a knife, sending another horse thief nearby flying out with his head.At this time, the iron cavalry had already jumped into the formation of chariots one after another, and together they hacked and killed a dozen or so horse thieves who rushed in. Most of the iron cavalry jumped off their horses, and kept beating the chaotic Xiangyong with the back of their knives, ordering They shot arrows at the horse thieves outside the car formation with all their strength.

Just now, after going through life and death, Zhao Xingde let out a sigh of relief like a dream, until now, he felt a piercing pain in his left back shoulder, but he braced himself up, staggered to find his own bow and arrow, and leaned on the shaft of the chariot Nock the arrow and open the bow, and the arrow 'shot' out.

"You guys!" Han Shizhong shouted at the bodyguards guarding merchants and employers with a knife, "Go protect the archers!" While shouting angrily, he turned his horse and looked outside, and saw that more than a hundred horse thieves had already rushed to fifty paces In addition, under the urging of the dismounted iron cavalry, the Xiangyong archers are firing arrows in a hurry. Although the accuracy is not enough, it is still much better than before without the power to fight back.

Seeing that the bodyguards were still timidly standing beside the employer, Han Shizhong shouted to Xiao Yanping, the leader of the caravan, "Old Xiao, the thieves team rushed in, everyone is finished!"

Xiao Yanping has seen the world among many merchants, so he didn't say much when he saw this, and shouted at the people around him: "What are you doing in a daze, today's affairs are all up to Mr. Han!" As if waking up from a dream, they left the merchants and employers in the center of the car formation, and ran towards the periphery of the car formation where the horse thieves rushed over. They also knew that short-handled weapons were not very effective against cavalry, and no matter what they usually used, everyone He took Gan Xiangyong's spear in his hand.Although these people may not be proficient in spear skills, they are after all practitioners who have been 'licking' blood with knives all year round. Now they are facing a near-death situation, piercing with long spears in the distance and slashing with swords nearby. Kan and the horse thieves approaching the car formation were in a stalemate, and Han Shizhong was able to gather more than [-] cavalry troops to garrison the formation, specifically to clear the leaky fish that broke through the car formation.

Xiangyong was protected by the cavalry army and these people, and after the initial shock period, the leader gradually woke up, and began to work hard to cooperate with the cavalry army's password to command his subordinates, and the rain of arrows "shot" slowly It became more and more powerful, 'forced' so that the horse thief could no longer stand up and charge unscrupulously, but began to circle around the car formation.Seeing that the sky was getting darker, the horse thief seemed unwilling to attack the car formation with more casualties, and gradually stopped attacking, and dismounted to rest not far from the car formation. There were more than 300 riders in the east, and the other three directions continued There was the sound of whistles and shouts, and it seemed that there were endless horse thieves hiding among the trees and bushes.

Until the end of the battle, Zhao Xingde couldn't count how many arrows he had fired, but his arms felt sore and numb, and the wound on his left back shoulder was torn apart even more during the battle. It was red, swollen, burning, and itchy, as if a small hot saw was constantly cutting flesh. Soybean-sized beads of sweat flowed down his forehead. Wei gritted his teeth and endured the pain. He sat on the ground leaning against the wheels of the carriage and touched the Stuffing a handful of fried rice into his mouth and chewing, the horse thieves outside shot cold arrows at the fire in the car formation from time to time. Roasting and cooking food near the fire is tantamount to courting death.

"You have good guts." Han Shizhong walked up to him and threw him a piece of dried meat. Zhao Xingde took it and put it in his mouth and bit it. Tears almost fell from his eyes. It was bought by Han Shizhong from the Liao Kingdom. If the salted bacon is transported to the south of the Yangtze River, the small piece that Zhao Xingde bit off just now would be enough salt for the whole family to cook five pots of soup.Han Shizhong sat down next to Zhao Xingde, and said with a sad face, "Seventeen have died, all brothers who have followed for many years." He bit a piece of meat, drank his saliva, and looked out viciously, as if chewing It is the meat of horse thieves, and their blood is drunk.

Outside, behind the woods in the east, west, and west, there are almost two or three hundred blazes everywhere, with the occasional ups and downs of whistles and the neighing of horses, as if there are horse thieves everywhere.Many townsmen and merchants were intimidated by the horse thieves, some sighed, some young people cried, and some quietly ate dry food such as fried rice and fried noodles, but their mood was extremely depressed.

Zhao Xingde looked at the torches all over the mountains and plains outside, remained silent for a long time, held back the pain, and said in a deep voice: "The horse thieves are bluffing, they don't have that many people." The Iron Cavalry Army and more than [-] Xiangyong bodyguards will never be able to defend the car formation, and the battle will not last until night.

"Even if there are only more than 300 riders, it is difficult to defend. Even if they escape, few people can escape."

"If you change the place, you may be able to defend it. When you come, the mountain you pass by is rugged, with deep forest and dense grass, which is not conducive to the cavalry's galloping attack. There is only one road up the mountain, and it is not easy to walk. If you can form an formation on it and stick to it, the horse thief It's hard to attack." Zhao Xingde pointed to a hill in the north, although there were dots of torches there, but he guessed it was just a few horse thieves bluffing there and monitoring the whereabouts of Song Kingdom's caravan. .

"As long as the car formation is 'disordered', these horse thieves will rush in. Do you think you can maintain it with these brave men and bodyguards?" A whetstone sharpened the blade of the saber one by one, making a crackling sound.

"We can do everything. Put clothes on the sheep, connect the tails of the sheep with cloth ropes soaked in grease, and tie torches on the body. Find a few brothers to drive these sheep and the extra mules secretly to the south. The horse thief's sentinel came into contact with them, and immediately after sending a round of arrows, he lit the fire rope. When the rope was burnt, the sheep with his tail on fire would flee everywhere. The horse thief knew the number of us, and when they saw so many torches moving around, they would surely I thought it was because we wanted to escape at night, and they were scattered in all directions, and it was inconvenient to communicate, so we must go to the south to intercept and chase them with all our strength. At that time, we will throw away the heavy things and go up the mountain quickly. If we go fast, we may be able to catch up with the horse thieves Regroup before turning back."

Zhao Xingde's eyes reflected the light of the bonfire, and Han Shizhong followed his gaze. In addition to the mules and horses, there were more than 100 sheep in the car formation, which were bought by a businessman from the people of Liao. Other merchants, Xiangyong and military soldiers bought them from him and slaughtered them. Han Shizhong felt that this merchant was really good at doing business. The flock of sheep didn't occupy the carriage, and they might all be turned into money before they reached the Song Dynasty.

If the sheep was covered with clothes, and the torch was tied to the horns, from a distance, it really looked like a cat crawling around in the bushes and grass with the torch in its hand.

Han Shizhong groaned for a moment, then slapped his thigh and said, "Left and right are dead, just try the method you said!" He found Xiao Yanping and discussed the layout with him. Xiao Yanping went down and told the merchants, and the sheep owner immediately agreed Let these animals out to save their lives, and more than a hundred sets of clothes were quickly assembled.

Porters, Xiangyong and bodyguards were also assigned by Han Shizhong to the iron cavalry soldiers. The head of the capital, Xie Yuan, led some bodyguards to protect the merchants and went up the mountain. Valuable goods, and drive as many carriages up the mountain as possible, Han Shizhong led the iron cavalry and some bodyguards to guard against the horse thieves who suddenly came out, and Dong Ming led the sheepherder and several soldiers to drive the sheep south. After encountering a horse thief, shoot an arrow and light the matchlock, and then retreat up the mountain.

It was a matter of life and death. After eating something at the end, the merchant tied the burden of gold, silver and Jiaozi to his body, and sighed and picked the most valuable things from the carriage. Together with Xie Yuan, Xiao Yanping kept reminding those who tried to bring Merchants with more and more goods, life-saving is the most important thing.The bodyguards and Xiangyong who survived the daytime battle had different expressions, quietly listening to the soldiers of the cavalry army explain the precautions.

The things that should be done were almost done, and everyone sat quietly on the ground waiting for the time to set off. The only sounds in the car formation were heavy, breathing sounds of different lengths, and the sound of sharpening knives.Just at this time, a song was sung in the horse thief camp in the east, the song was faintly heard along the cold wind, but Zhao Xingde didn't understand what it meant, but a merchant named Jia Chang next to him was listening attentively, so Zhao Xingde asked softly: "What are these thieves singing about?"

Jia Chang replied tremblingly, "It's a hunting song," he murmured, "The hunter raised his horse and whipped his whip, and surrounded many yellow sheep. The yellow sheep are fat and big. The hunter was full of joy and opened his bow." Shoot and kill, gazelle corpses are strewn across the field, desperately trying to break out of the encirclement, there is a wide river in the east, the corpses of gazelle are piled up on the bank, and there is a rapid river in the west, the corpses of gazelle are piled up on the bank Beside, the hunter shot and killed the gazelle, the gazelle is all over the place, no matter how agile the gazelle is, it can't escape the hunter's encirclement." The horse thief's singing became more cheerful, and Jia Chang's eyes revealed a look of fear. , his face became paler.

With a "snap", Han Shizhong broke off the firewood in his hand and threw it into the fire, sparking a spark.