Accompanied by the sound of drums and horns, tens of thousands of people poured into the Tang army's battle formation like a tide.

At the forefront were the Shule soldiers from the Pei Amo tribe. Shule had a small population, with less than 20,000 households, and only 3,000 soldiers. However, since ancient times, martial arts were practiced, and men were often violent and proud of their bravery. The infantry of its heavy armor soldiers

His combat capabilities are second to none in the entire Western Region.

These Shule soldiers were arranged in five square formations. They all wore bronze helmets on their heads and wore double-layered heavy armor. They held square wooden shields in one hand and iron spears in the other. They roared in unison every few steps.

It sounds quite impressive.

The position is slightly behind, and following the Shule heavy armored soldiers on both sides are the servant armies from Shi, Kang, Mi, An, He, Shi, Dong Cao, Xicao and other countries in the river. These people are old and young, wearing armor.

Old and broken weapons - in the words of later generations, they were just a bunch of cannon fodder.

Behind Shule's heavy armored soldiers and behind them were tens of thousands of Huoxun infantry archers. The Huoxun people lived in the remote lower reaches of the Wuhu River and the southern shore of the Aral Sea. They mainly engaged in farming and also engaged in animal husbandry, fishing and hunting. Because of the Huoxun people's oasis

The city-states had been fighting each other for a long time and had some experience in infantry warfare and sieges. Therefore, after successfully losing the siege troops, he forcibly recruited them.

Protecting both sides of the Huoxun soldiers were the Turkic Tocharians. They were originally light cavalry, but now they had to dismount to form an infantry formation and act as spearmen.

Walking behind the Huoxun and Tocharian people were naturally the two thousand armored cavalry carefully crafted by Asana Shuni. The men were covered in ring armor and the horses were covered in chainmail. Only two pairs of eyes and four horse hooves were exposed.

Just by looking at this, you can tell that he has extraordinary fighting prowess.

Bo Butqin and Geshu Queqiqin each led more than 10,000 Turkic elite cavalry to follow the left and right rear of the large army respectively, in order to wait for opportunities to break into the battle situation.

"This Turkic people have made great progress in operating in the Western Regions for many years. Their fighting skills are much more comprehensive than those of the same people who dominated the Qibei Grassland back then!"

Su Dingfang looked at the various armies on the opposite side and sighed, but his eyes were full of confidence in victory.

Because the Turkic army was full of murderous intent, the Tang army was already well prepared.

With their backs against the sparkling sea of ​​fish, seven thousand Tang troops neatly formed a Yanyue Formation. However, the formation arranged by Su Dingfang was exactly the opposite of the classic "Yanyue Formation". The convex side faced outwards, the concave sides faced inward, and the two ends were very

It is thick and has almost no weak points. It is more like a semicircle than a crescent shape.

At the outermost edge of the formation are three rows of crossbowmen, followed by five rows of longbowmen, then a row of sword and shield bearers and five rows of long bowmen, and then followed by jumpers holding long and short blunt weapons, and

The long-sword soldiers, divided into three groups: left, middle and right, are all in front of the general.

Behind the general, there were three thousand cavalry serving as a reserve force. All the horses and pack horses were gathered at the lakeside and temporarily handed over to the care of Duguda and others.

In the eyes of Zhelishi and others, what the Tang army put out was a typical hedgehog formation, and its combat intention was obvious - to defend against the water and wait for backup.

The enemy was about to enter the strike range of long-range weapons. Zhonglang Liang Jianfang immediately raised his voice: "Crossbowman, positioning arrows, prepare!"

The crossbowmen in the first row raised their crossbows with arrows ready in advance and raised them slightly. With Liang Jianfang's "release", they all pulled the hanging knives, and the densely packed crossbow arrows immediately flew off the strings.

Pei Amozhi looked at the crossbow arrow inserted not far in front of him and was so frightened that he almost fell off his horse.

This King of Shule was very familiar with the weapons of the Central Plains and knew that the "Qingzhang Crossbow" of the Tang army would never be able to shoot arrows so far.

So, as soon as he stabilized his body, he asked others: "What... is the distance?"

A guard officer with particularly good eyes immediately replied: "My lord, it's about two arrows away."

Everyone who hears this takes a breath...

"Arrow" is a unit of length commonly used by the Turks and other countries in the Western Regions. "The distance of an arrow" is equivalent to 180 meters in later generations. If converted to the calculation of the Tang Dynasty, it is one hundred and twenty steps.

This crossbow with a range of up to two arrows was named "Wude Crossbow" and was invented by Li Yao to replace the "Qingzhang Crossbow" inherited from the former Sui Dynasty.

The Wude Crossbow's crossbow is recurved, and because it uses sinew composite materials instead of traditional mulberry wood, its effective killing distance is comparable to the "God's Arm Bow" of the original Song Dynasty. Moreover, the crossbow arm has a lever device to help the crossbowman quickly string the bow.

, both in terms of labor saving, rate of fire and range, they are far from comparable to ordinary Sui and Tang infantry crossbows.

"Two hundred and twenty steps, let go!"

Soon, the Tang army's formation roared loudly again, and three rows of crossbowmen launched a real long-range attack.

Shule's heavy armored soldiers quickly raised their shields to cover, but most of the crossbow arrows were actually fired at the array behind them, and two to three hundred people fell in just a few breaths.

"Two hundred steps, let go!"

"One hundred and eighty steps, let go!"

"One hundred and sixty steps, let go!"

"One hundred and forty steps..."

Every twenty steps the Turkic army formation advanced, they had to withstand a bloodbath of random arrows. When the distance between the two sides approached one hundred and twenty steps, Liang Jianfang suddenly raised his voice even louder: "The crossbowmen continue, and the archers are ready with light arrows."

!”

The light arrows did not have strong penetrating power, but had a long range. Following the orders from Liang Jianfang and the battalion commanders, brigade commanders, and team commanders, five rows of archers and three rows of crossbowmen fired alternately, cutting those bodies like a sickle.

The miscellaneous Hu soldiers wearing leather armor or without armor were shot to the ground.

The screams were endless, and the Khan who was watching the battle from a distance almost twisted the riding whip in his hand into a twist. This scene made him feel angry, but he was helpless.

After paying the price of thousands of casualties, the Turkic side finally had the opportunity to end the unilateral situation of being passively beaten.

The Huoxunbu archers all used their special skills of shooting arrows on the move and launched a counterattack against the Tang army's arrow array.

Thousands of arrows shot out in unison, covering the sky and blocking out the sun.

However, the crossbowmen and archers of the Tang army still stood in their original positions and operated the murderous weapons in their hands, without any pause in their movements.

This is because the entire Tang army under Su Dingfang was protected from head to toe by heavy armor, knowing that the enemy's arrows would be difficult to damage their bodies at medium and long distances.

And the fact is exactly what they thought. The gap in weapon craftsmanship often also represents the gap in the level of civilization.

In the eyes of the soldiers of the Tang Army, the feather arrows shot by the Tocharians were really shoddy, just like the garbage on the ground.

Liang Jianfang grabbed an arrow that was deflected by his own neck armor. He only looked at it for a moment and then lost interest. He threw it to his feet and immediately issued a high-pitched and long command: "Sixty steps! Clap your hands.

Enter--!"

The sword and shield bearers quickly came to the front of the crossbowmen and connected the chest-high shields tightly. The crossbowmen and longbowmen hid behind them and continued to shoot the enemy with armor-piercing heavy arrows.

Within fifty steps, the power of a heavy arrow is extraordinary.

Clusters of three-edged arrows penetrated the wooden shields and armor easily. Even the Shule heavy armored soldiers suffered a large number of casualties. Lord Amozhi, the leader of the country who directly taught them, felt his heart bleeding and his heart aching:
Chapter completed!