After the elite cavalry from Guanzhong of the Wei State entered the south of Helan Mountain, Pupu County, the easternmost part of the Lushui (Shiyang River) basin, became an outpost for garrison defense of the Han Dynasty.
Traveling eastward along Wushaoling from Pupu to Yuwei County, this stretch of hundreds of miles of barren valley that used to be uninhabited has now become a battlefield where cavalry and scouts from both sides frequently encounter each other, chasing each other and fighting each other.
Today is no exception.
But in the desert scorched by the scorching sun, there were more than ten cavalrymen in obvious Han army uniforms, galloping hastily towards Puchuan County.
The knight on the war horse kept holding the horse's belly hard, leaning his body on the horse's neck to prevent the wind and sand from covering his nose and eyes, and looked back from time to time, his face full of eagerness.
Because behind them, there were about a hundred riders chasing them desperately.
Some of the cavalrymen wore felt hats, some had crotch heads, and half wore standard leather armor. They were obviously many Wei cavalrymen from Xianbei and Xiongnu.
The distance between the two groups of cavalry was less than a stone's throw away.
Many Xianbei or Xiongnu cavalry who were skilled in riding and archery did not forget to draw arrows and draw their bows when chasing, to see if they could shoot the Han soldiers in front of them off their horses. However, they fired arrows against the wind and the riding bows they used were too weak.
Therefore, it is difficult to achieve success.
But the well-equipped Wei soldiers were different.
I saw them leaning slightly sideways with the strength of their waist and abdomen, using the hand holding the horse's reins to cross their forearms as a fulcrum, mounting the well-made crossbow, squinting through the mountain for a moment and then pressing the hanging knife.
The powerful sound of more than twenty crossbow bolts piercing the air created a dangerous situation for the fleeing Han cavalry ahead.
Zhang Te, whose body was almost pressed against the horse's back, was in a very embarrassed state.
His face was covered with sand stuck to sweat, and his hair was scattered and fluttering wildly in the strong wind. Just now, a crossbow arrow passed by his scalp, blowing away the braid that bound his hair.
Yes, it was Zhang Te who previously supervised two hundred armored cavalry.
In the last field battle between the Prime Minister and Cao Zhen, his ability to seize the opportunity to break through the formation with two hundred armored cavalry impressed the Prime Minister. Since the imperial court is now short of financial and material resources, it is unable to expand more armored cavalry, so in Liang
After the state was restored, the prime minister transferred him to Ma Dai's command as a school captain.
First of all, he is the general who leads the formation-breaking armored cavalry. He only needs to be brave. There is no need to let Zhang Te be overqualified.
Another thing is that Ma Dai is getting older after all.
After two massacres in Yecheng and Ji County, the Ma family had very few heirs. Now they all stay in Chengdu and hold noble positions. The generals who command the Xiliang cavalry have no successors. After all, according to the unwritten rules in the Han army in the past,
According to the usual practice, Ma Dai's deputy, Yang Ji, the king of Baima Di in Wudu, could not become the main general.
Zhang Te, who also came from a borderland and was good at riding combat, was a good choice.
Naturally, Jiang Wei is more suitable.
But the prime minister expected Jiang Wei to be a governor, not a general.
Zhang Te, who was transferred to Hexi to take up a post, out of gratitude and meritorious service, voluntarily asked for orders to come here to garrison at the war outpost, and often personally led the scouts to guard and spy on the military situation.
With his proficiency in bow and horse, every time he went out on patrol, he was able to capture the third and fifth level Wei scouts and return home.
But today he was clearly unlucky.
Wei Guo didn't know whether he was angry because of the repeated defeats of his scouts, or was about to launch a large-scale attack, so the scouts sent out were actually composed of fifty or sixty riders.
Zhang Te went out with only twenty horses and met him, and immediately ordered him to turn around and return.
The scouts in the army have always been elite. The enemy is outnumbered and we are outnumbered. There is no need to lose our lives due to recklessness before the war has begun. Moreover, the distance between the two sides is about two arrows, and the Wei cavalry cannot catch up if they turn back.
However, sometimes the house leaks when it rains all night.
Just as both sides were chasing me for about twenty miles, another group of Wei scouts suddenly appeared in front and came diagonally from the south of Wushaoling! In order to avoid being cut off, the Han scouts had to
Turn the horse's head to the north to avoid it, then turn west and head back.
A war horse galloping at full speed, extremely fast.
Such a moment's delay of the Han cavalry turned into a dangerous situation where the pursuers from behind were less than a stone's throw away.
Fortunately, crossbow bolts are very slow to cock.
It was even slower on the bumpy horseback, which allowed the Han army scouts to take a break.
However, despite this, only three quarters of an hour after being approached by Wei scouts, six of Zhang Te's cavalry had already fallen off their horses.
The cavalry and scouts chase and fight, and those who fall off their horses will surely die.
Whether he was pierced by a crossbow bolt while on his war horse, or he was trampled or decapitated by the horseshoes of the Wei army who arrived later.
And based on the fact that this place is still more than eighty (Han) miles away from the outpost of Puchuang County, I am afraid that only two or three of the Han army's scouts can return intact.
This made Zhang Te helpless and angry.
He had thought more than once in his mind that instead of being shot down one by one by the anti-Wei cavalry, he could simply turn his horse around and go back to fight. At least before they all died in battle, he could win several levels of kills in exchange for his life.
But every time this thought came up, he suppressed it forcefully.
Because they still have a glimmer of hope.
While fleeing, he asked his scouts to shoot a buzzer every ten miles or so to call for help.
Just as the Wei State sent more than one team of scouts, the number of scouts who rushed out from the Han army's outposts to spy on the military situation was not limited to him.
There are also Lu Shui, Hu Li Tang Mang, who was a horse thief, Hu Bo Juzhi, who was persuaded to surrender by Zheng Pu, and Sima Liu Zhu, the cavalryman of the Qiang camp who he placed his hope on (Shaodang Qiang King Zhu Yi).
Liu Zhu, who was in charge of two thousand Qiang cavalry, always led more than two hundred Qiang cavalry out to patrol and guard.
If he could hear the call for help and come to the rescue, the ones who fled in panic were the Wei Wei scouts. However, in the vast desert and valley, it was not easy to meet the scout teams who were responsible for spying on different areas!
Not to mention, this place is still more than thirty miles away from Liu Zhu's inspection range.
"Speed up! Speed up!"
Wiping the dust off his face, he raised his head slightly and shouted to his subordinates, "There is no need to skimp on horsepower! But if we can travel thirty miles, we can all survive!"
But as soon as he finished speaking, Wei Jun's scouts fired a new round of crossbow arrows.
As expected, there were new casualties this time.
A cavalryman riding alongside him was not only hit by crossbow bolts, but suddenly burst into mournful screams and was knocked directly to the sand in a "奥蹥子" manner, causing the crisp sound of bones breaking from the horse.
The neck exploded.
And its owner is even worse.
Following the inertia of the gallop, he was lifted high into the sky and flew forward for more than a foot before landing. Before he could even scream, he was severely crushed by the horse corpse that turned over immediately.
Accompanied by a muffled hum that suddenly stopped, a faint mist of blood appeared briefly in the flying dust.
Zhang Te saw it so clearly that his facial features were squeezed together in pain for a moment.
Immediately, the canthus of the eye was completely split.
"Speed up! Speed up!"
Roaring like thunder again, he pulled the reins slightly to let the horse shoot arrows, and raised the two-stone strong bow from the side of the saddle.
