Chapter 122: Offensive and Defensive Battle of Wei State (2)
Thousands of arrows were fired together. This was definitely the most spectacular scene Zhao Hongrun had ever seen.
The 10,000 arrows fired by the 10,000 Chu long archers were like a tide of locusts, like the dark clouds before a heavy rain, covering the entire sky in front of them. As far as the eye could see, everything was dark.
Even Zhao Hongrun, who thought he had excellent psychological quality, swallowed his saliva and his hands trembled uncontrollably when he saw this spectacular and terrifying scene.
And behind it, it was even colder.
"Protect King Su! Protect the general!"
Zongwei Zhang Ao shouted, and immediately, more than a dozen Wei shield soldiers nearby rushed over and protected Zhao Hongrun layer by layer with the iron shields in their hands.
After a moment of dead silence, the sound of arrows hitting shields was heard near the southern wall of the Wei camp.
“Tuk tuk tuk”
“Tuk tuk tuk tuk”
The sound was so dense that it sounded like a downpour pounding on the window. Zhao Hongrun was so frightened that he pursed his lips and could not make any sound.
There's no shame in that.
Because only those who have faced what it means to be a person with thousands of arrows fired at the same time can understand the despair. It is just like a person facing a rough tide. Personal strength is too insignificant in the face of such a disaster that can be called a catastrophe.
This shower of arrows "fell" for a long time.
Zhao Hongrun secretly speculated that the 10,000 Chu longbowmen outside the camp must have shot not just one arrow, but at least three or four arrows each, or even more than five arrows.
This means that the Chu army fired a total of 50,000 arrows over the heads of the Wei soldiers in the Wei camp in just a dozen breaths.
Even more.
The entire south camp wall of the Wei camp was filled with deathly silence.
All the Wei soldiers were hiding under bunkers and shields, not daring to show up easily.
The Chu army's human sea offensive was most fully demonstrated at this moment.
Outside the Wei camp, the Chu army's general Zai Fugen finally ordered to stop shooting.
It's not that he intentionally let go, nor that the Chu army ran out of arrows. The reason is that each of the 10,000 longbowmen already had soreness and numbness in their arms after they persisted in shooting five arrows.
It’s no wonder, after all, pulling a longbow requires stronger wrist strength and takes a lot of effort. Shooting five arrows with a full bow in a short period of time is extremely draining of the archer’s physical strength.
If nothing else goes wrong, at least half of the ten thousand long archers have temporarily lost their ability to shoot arrows in a short period of time, and it will take a certain amount of time to recover.
But in the view of Zaifugen, the leader of the Chu army, it was worth it, because if everything goes well, the five waves of thousands of arrows fired by the 10,000 Chu army long archers will cause heavy casualties to the Wei soldiers in the Wei camp.
For this reason, Zaifu Gen did not hesitate to have the five thousand infantrymen of the Chu army buried with him.
But the current result did not satisfy Zaifugen, because he felt that the screams of the Wei soldiers coming from the direction of the Wei camp wall did not reach the number he expected.
"Has it been seen through?"
After muttering, Zai Fugen frowned and looked at the dead Wei camp, feeling a little disappointed in his heart.
"Second team. Attack!"
Following Zaifu Gen's order, the Chu army dispatched a whole battalion of 5,000 infantrymen and launched a charge towards the Wei camp.
It is undeniable that the effect of the rain of thousands of arrows just now was indeed excellent. No, it was clear that the Chu army's second infantry team had rushed within the shooting range of the Wei camp's archers, but there was no such thing as the Wei army's.
The archers raised their bows and fired arrows.
I believe that those Wei soldiers have not yet recovered from the majestic rain of arrows just now.
Indeed, at this moment, on the wall of the Wei camp, all the Wei soldiers were still hiding under their shields, huddled together. On the wall of the camp, all the shield soldiers were holding their shields above their heads, protecting them together with the surrounding shield soldiers.
Looking at his comrades, at first glance, the entire Wei camp wall seemed to be a shield wall, but it was facing the sky.
"bang"
A shield fell to the ground, and General Gong Yuan of the Wei army pushed away a soldier's corpse that was pressing on him and stood up.
Gong Yuan couldn't help but feel a little regretful and sad as he looked at the corpse. Because the Wei shield soldier was not very lucky, an arrow penetrated the gap between the shields and shot into his neck.
But even so, the Wei soldier still insisted on holding up his shield and protecting Gong Yuan until the Chu army's volley ended and until he died.
These are the soldiers of my dredging army!
Gong Yuan felt a strong sense of pride from the bottom of his heart. He squatted down, stretched out his hand to gently close the eyes of the fallen soldier, and immediately picked up the shield that the latter had dropped. He put his left arm through the armband on the inside of the shield, raised the shield and lifted it again.
stood up.
"The Chu army's second wave of offensive has arrived, and the whole army is ready to attack!"
After he gave the order, the shield soldiers stood up one after another on the dead wall of the camp, and stood up together with the crossbowmen they were protecting.
But there were also some shield soldiers who still knelt on one knee and held their shields high, motionless.
"Hey, hello?"
A Wei archer pushed the motionless shield soldier beside him, only to see the latter sway and fall to the ground with a clang and his shield.
"Hey, you..."
The archer looked horrified, and when he looked carefully, he discovered that an arrow had penetrated the iron shield and entered the back of the shield soldier's head.
The archer opened his mouth, and his eyes couldn't help but turn red.
Because only then did he realize that the reason why he was still alive was because his comrade still held up his shield to protect him after death.
"Damn Chugou!"
The archer cursed through gritted teeth.
Just after cursing, the archer heard the order from the general, so he shut up and rejoined the battlefield.
Gong Yuan, the general in charge of the command, had seen similar scenes, but at this moment, he could not care less about the sacrifice of the outstanding soldiers of Junshui Camp.
"The Chu army's infantry is approaching the camp wall. The archers are replaced by crossbowmen. The shield soldiers are responsible for carrying the dead people down the camp wall."
Gong Yuan calmly gave the general order, and the Wei soldiers in the Junshui camp also calmly carried out the general order. The archers jumped off the camp wall one after another, and the crossbowmen who replaced them stepped forward, aiming the machine crossbows in their hands.
The Chu infantry were getting closer and closer to the camp wall. During this period, the Wei shield soldiers quickly carried the body of Tongze, who had been sacrificed in the arrow rain just now, down the camp wall to prevent the body from occupying its position.
During this period, the shield soldiers who were protecting Zhao Hongrun, Bailiba and others with layers of shields also dispersed one after another.
"Your Highness, be careful." Zhang Ao immediately raised his shield to protect Zhao Hongrun, fearing that the Chu army would suddenly launch another volley of bows and arrows.
"fine."
Zhao Hongrun gently pushed Zhang Ao away because he found that the Chu army's formation far outside the camp. The long archer's target, which acted as the "wings of the war crane", had slowly retreated a certain distance to the rear.
This meant that the long archers of the Chu State no longer had the energy to fire arrows, so Zhao Hongrun was not worried about the Chu army's "sneak attack" on them again.
Yes, it was a sneak attack.
Although Zhao Hongrun did not know that the general of the Chu army who was commanding the war was called Zaifu Gen. He also did not know him well, but this did not prevent him from having a high opinion of Zaifu Gen.
How inconceivable is it to sneak attack the enemy in an upright manner on the frontal battlefield!
But Zaifugen did it.
Zaifugen used 5,000 Chu infantry to attract the attention of the Wei soldiers on the wall of the Wei camp. When the latter shot the 5,000 Chu infantry with their bows and crossbows, Zaifugen quietly changed the formation of the army and divided the two soldiers. A battalion of 10,000 Chu long archers were placed on both wings of the Crane Wing Formation. Immediately, under the guise of the entire army advancing towards the Wei camp, the 10,000 Chu long archers were within sufficient shooting range.
Fortunately, the north wind is still blowing today, so the long archers of Chu must get closer to the Wei camp. Otherwise, the Chu army's volley of thousands of arrows will come earlier and more suddenly.
Yangcheng Lord Xiong Tuo has a very good commander under his command...
Zhao Hongrun sighed sincerely. He was not at all complacent that he had just discovered Zai Fu Gen's intention. Instead, he was afraid, because if he had not noticed Zai Fu Gen's plot a moment earlier, I believe that at this moment, Wei Yingying's wall There must be corpses everywhere.
Of course, Bailiba, the general of Junshui Camp, was already angry and sullen about this.
"Shameful! Absolutely shameful!"
After all, Bailiba was a general who was good at war. How could he not understand Zaifu Gen's intentions now? But he could not accept Zai Fu Gen's "shameful" behavior.
In Bailiba's view, casualties are bound to occur in any war. Every soldier and general who has been trained so hard by one's side may die in a war. This is understandable. After all, there is no one who can't die in a war.
However, in order to achieve tactical goals, deliberately asking his soldiers to die and be buried as bait, this kind of thing is absolutely unacceptable to Baili Ba.
This is the difference in values between the orthodox generals of Wei and the generals of Chu.
"That Chu general... is really not worthy of being a general!" Bailiba cursed with a sullen face. He sincerely felt sorry for the outstanding Junshui camp soldiers under his command who died in the hands of Zaifu Gen, a Chu who was "unworthy of being a general." He held it in his hands and felt inexplicable anger.
Zhao Hongrun does not have such strong resentment. In his view, on the battlefield, everyone depends on life and death, and they can use whatever tactics they can to achieve the ultimate goal of victory.
Of course, understanding is understanding, but Zhao Hongrun does not want a general like Zaifu Gen. After all, this kind of unscrupulous approach to achieve the goal has gone beyond the rules he adheres to.
Look at the Chu infantry outside the military camp who were used as bait by Zaifu Gen. Look at the fate of those people. I am afraid that these Chu soldiers who risked their lives to rush to the vicinity of the Wei camp never dreamed that they did not die in the bows of the Wei army. He was under the crossbow, but died under the salvo of their friendly forces.
Those Chu soldiers who could not rest in peace until death were simply a travesty!
This kind of country has not yet been destroyed, but has overtaken the Wei Dynasty. It is simply... unbelievable!
Zhao Hongrun couldn't help but shook his head, lamenting that things are indeed unpredictable.
And this kind of military use method that is incomprehensible to the Wei people seems to be commonplace to the Chu people. At least Zaifu Gen, the leader of the Chu army, did not care about the sacrifices of the infantry who acted as bait. At most, he only regretted that these The sacrifice of the bait did not give him enough reward, and the Wei soldiers in the Wei camp suffered heavy casualties as expected.
Of course, as a general, Zaifugen would not send his troops to die for no reason. He just wanted to win.
It is no exaggeration to say that even if the sacrifice of the five thousand baits can be exchanged for the casualties of three thousand Wei soldiers in the Wei camp, or even just two thousand Wei soldiers, Zaifugen feels that it is a profit. After all, there are only three thousand Wei soldiers in the Yanshui camp of the Wei army.
Ten thousand soldiers, but now their Chu army has 110,000 troops, and the casualty rate of Wei soldiers is high, which will undoubtedly increase the chance of conquering this military camp.
But unfortunately, today his tactics seemed to be seen through by the Wei soldiers, and they did not achieve the expected gains, nor did the morale of the Wei soldiers drop.
In the past, Zaifugen would have chosen to retreat temporarily and think of several tactics that could effectively kill the Wei soldiers, but today, he could only bite the bullet and continue to attack.
"Third team, attack!...The long archers diffused towards the Wei camp, suppressing the Wei camp's crossbowmen and providing infantry cover." (To be continued.)