The leaves of the surrounding mountains and forests were whirling, like a strong wind whistling by, causing the horses in the cavalry behind Hua Xiong to retreat slowly.
The voice of this person born with a loudspeaker is really amazing, and his ears are buzzing from a distance of more than thirty feet.
Hua Xiong's pupils shrank, his legs clamped tightly on the horse's belly and he said, "I'll fight you!"
The good horse from Xiliang spread its hooves and galloped away. The distance was more than thirty feet, which is more than 60 meters, and it seemed to arrive in an instant.
The long knife whirled in his hand, and Hua Xiong's whole figure seemed to be integrated with the horse on his crotch. The broadsword carried the force of wind and thunder, and suddenly struck Zhang Fei's head.
Seeing that this powerful and heavy blow was about to chop Zhang Fei and his horse into two pieces, the clinker Zhang Fei just grinned and raised his eight-foot steel spear horizontally.
boom!
The heavy blow hit the spear shaft and it didn't move at all. It only made Zhang Fei's horse take a small step back.
How can it be!
Hua Xiong's eyes widened. He knew how powerful his blow was. Even if he couldn't split the enemy's steel spear weapon, he still had to suppress the opponent's weapon by a certain amount.
According to the experience of killing enemies in the past, if you use your own strength, even if the weapon is held up, you can directly cut off the enemy's head by pressing the enemy's weapon to the opponent's shoulder and changing the sword to chopping.
Now people are holding up the steel spear like this, but they are not moving, not even trembling, and they are making a judgment!
Could it be because of those two strange tread cloths?
Hua Xiong had noticed the saddle before, but he didn't know what its purpose was. Now that he thought about it, wasn't it just for borrowing strength?
But he had no time to think about it, Zhang Fei smiled slightly, showing his white teeth, and suddenly raised and pushed his hands.
Call!
A terrifying force surged in and pushed Hua Xiong backwards.
Fortunately, Hua Xiong reacted quickly. Just when he was about to fall off the horse, Qidao wrapped his arms around the horse's neck, spun around in the air, and climbed back onto the horse.
The good horse from the north that sat down was also quite humane. It seemed that he noticed his master's failure and turned around and ran towards his cavalry team.
"General!"
Hua Xiong's deputy general and dozens of guards immediately rushed to prepare for rescue.
But at this moment, the sky behind Zhang Fei seemed to be filled with dust, and the clatter of horse hooves came from the corner at the end of the valley road. It seemed that thousands of troops and horses were galloping out to kill them.
"There is an ambush, retreat quickly!"
Seeing this scene, the elite Xiliang cavalry soldiers turned their horses around and retreated.
It's not that they are afraid, or that they don't dare to fight a tough battle.
But they are a team that has traveled a long distance and has not rested. If the enemy waits for work, this battle will not be fought.
What's more, Xu Rong's order to Hua Xiong was to keep up with the enemy and try to delay the enemy's footsteps. Don't go head-to-head with the enemy's heavy armored cavalry, which would be a big loss.
As a tactical genius, Xu Rong knew very well that in a real fight, he would have to rely on his main elite infantry regiment. Hua Xiong's light cavalry regiment should avoid fighting as much as possible.
Hua Xiong followed Xu Rong's orders very strictly. After discovering that the enemy might have an ambush, he immediately turned around and retreated.
Looking at their departing figures, Zhang Fei burst out laughing, their figures filled with dust, and dozens of cavalrymen came over.
"Third General!"
"Fourth brother, have you prepared the ambush?"
"We've laid an ambush, and just wait until they run into each other when they run away."
"Then let's catch up and kill him."
Zhang Fei chuckled.
Hua Xiong is indeed quite capable. You must know that his strength is not small, and with the help of stirrups, if an ordinary person is pushed by him, even the man and the horse will be overturned.
Unexpectedly, Hua Xiong was only knocked off his knife, turned over on his horse and was able to escape on horseback. The people from Xiliang were indeed better at controlling horses than the people from Youzhou.
At this time, Chen Mu was ambushing in the rolling hills west of Handan, with groups of war horses hiding in the wilds.
After Hua Xiong's team passed by, they emerged from the mountains and forests a few miles away and lined up on the wide official road to wait for the enemy to turn back.
This battle was fought with psychological tactics. Chen Mu was waiting for work. He expected that Hua Xiong's light cavalry did not dare to resist his heavy cavalry and would inevitably turn around and escape based on the speed of the light cavalry.
So he led the men and horses to the wild mountains to hide, and when Hua Xiong turned back, he happened to meet them.
Some people may wonder, is it possible to enter the mountains and forests with so much luggage and horses?
However, when our army crossed Chishui four times and flew across the Jinsha River, there were more than 30,000 people, carrying a lot of baggage and horses, relying on a pair of iron feet. However, in Guizhou and Yunnan, the mountains were ten or a hundred times steeper than now.
Combat in roundabout ways.
Even when crossing the Jinsha River, the horses became tetraathlon and learned many skills such as diving, swimming, and boating. The difficulty was ten thousand times higher than it is now, and it is almost incomparable.
Therefore, it is almost nothing to take the horses into the wild mountains and hide in the forest. You only need to arrange scouts for reconnaissance and pay attention to the enemy's movements.
Hua Xiong quickly retreated over there, without any precaution or worry. When they turned the corner of the winding road, they saw the Youzhou Xuanjia heavy cavalry lined up neatly in front of them, waiting quietly.
them.
Although the official road is wide, it can actually only allow more than ten riders to line up side by side. If there are more, it will be difficult to form an array. Therefore, both the enemy and ourselves are arranged in a long snake formation, arranged in sequence.
Under the strict military orders of the Xiliang Army, the galloping horses slowed down in an orderly manner, and finally stopped with a distance of seventy or eighty feet between the two sides.
The scene became extremely quiet for a while, except for the constant snoring of the horses and the heavy breathing of the soldiers, there was no other noise.
Chen Mu looked from a distance on a hillside, surrounded by dozens of guards to protect him. He was more than two hundred meters away from the battlefield, so he couldn't see very clearly.
But he could see that the black-armored heavy knight, who was like a black snake, raised the ring-shou sword in his hand at the same time, and the scene instantly became murderous.
"This place is not a cemetery chosen for you. If you are more honest and obedient, you should go back and report to Xu Rong."
Chen Mu looked at the deliberately created gap on the left side of the battlefield and muttered to himself.
Where is this area?
Located in the mountainous area between Wu'an and Handan.
In later generations, it was a hilly mountain range in the northern part of the Xiangtang Mountain Scenic Area.
If you look at it from a map, here is Wu'an to the west, Handan to the east, Xingtai to the north, and Anyang to the south.
It seems that transportation is developed in all directions, but this is from a later modern background.
At that time, this place was almost deserted. It was backed by the Taihang Mountains, and except for Wu'an County, there were no towns within hundreds of miles. It was an inaccessible and isolated place.
This is why Hua Xiong wonders why they want to go here.
Because going further north, the foothills of the Taihang Mountains, which are hundreds of miles long, are full of rugged mountain roads. The paths along the way are difficult to walk, and there are no county supplies, so marching is very difficult.
The place where they ambush happened to be at a three-way intersection. This place was the same as the three-way intersection where the four brothers met the Luo City thief He Liang when they followed Lu Zhi to fight.
One is in the direction close to Wu'an. The direction to the northeast is the road to Yongnian Township northwest of Yiyang County. The direction to the southeast is to the three-way intersection where they met the Luo Shi thieves. This is the road they came from.
road leading to Handan.
The road blocked by the soldiers and horses sent by Chen Mu was the road to Yongnian Township. The reason why he opened a gap and forced Hua Xiong to retreat to Handan was to provide Xu Rong with wrong information——
He is going to Yiyang.
"kill!"
After a short silence, everyone led by the middle-level generals of the black armored heavy cavalry, such as Ah Da, Ah Er, Zhang Long, Zhao Hu, etc., took the lead in letting out a dull cry of killing.
The thick iron armor made a clanking sound on the body. Due to the heavy load, the speed of the galloping horse was not very fast. However, precisely because it was not very fast, the momentum came over it like a mountain, giving people great shock and impact.
.
There was no lack of heavy armored cavalry in the Xiliang army. That cavalry was Dong Zhuo's treasured son and the last of Dong Zhuo's fortune. The commander of this team was given to Niu Fu, not even the newly adopted son Lu Bu.
However, this time Xu Rong chased with light cavalry and followed with infantry. At the same time, according to the imperial court's order, Wang Fen, the governor of Jizhou, mobilized soldiers from various counties in Jizhou to encircle and suppress him. There was no heavy cavalry to follow.
In fact, Dong Zhuo made great efforts to pursue Chen Mu this time. Not only was he wanted nationwide, but he also ordered Xu Ronghuaxiong to lead troops here, which was very powerful.
After Cao Cao assassinated Dong, he only ordered the governors and magistrates from various places to send troops to hunt him down. He did not send any troops, and the pursuit was very small.
Everyone knows the subsequent result. Cao Cao changed his name, took a country road, easily escaped from the encirclement, ran back to Chen Liu's hometown, and then called on the princes of the world to fight against Dong Zhuo.
This time, because he was wary of Liu Bei's current reputation and status, Dong Zhuo, on Li Ru's suggestion, decided to use Chen Mu to blackmail Liu Bei and sent General Xu Rong to take action personally.
The troops in various counties in Jizhou are now very empty. The main force was transferred by Zhu Jun to Bingzhou to fight with Xianbei. However, under the orders of the party members, the rebels in Jizhou have retreated. The powerful locals have taken back their own soldiers and are dormant in various counties and villages.
Yes, Jizhou is currently in a vacancy stage of troops and horses.
However, Xu Rong used the empress dowager's edict to mobilize troops from the five southern counties of Jizhou including Wei County, Zhao Kingdom, Julu, Anping, and Qinghe, totaling more than 20,000 people. Including his own infantry, the total force was
Nearly thirty thousand, surrounded Chen Mu's one thousand cavalry.
It's really not easy to escape from the encirclement.
But just because it's not easy doesn't mean it's impossible. Many things depend on people.
The Xiliang cavalry fell into a brief chaos after the Xuanjia heavy cavalry charged. Hua Xiong stepped out of the crowd and shouted loudly: "Withdraw the troops towards Handan, I will break up the rear!"
The rumbling cavalry rushed towards the road on the right like a tide. The heavy black armor cavalry from the east was rushing towards them and was about to cut them off.
Hua Xiong led more than a hundred dead soldiers and charged them brazenly.
Use a light cavalry with only leather armor to fight against a heavily armored cavalry!
This is death charge!
The moment the weapons were exchanged, the first row of Xiliang cavalry fell one after another.
Their ring-headed knives could not even cut through the enemy's iron armor, only leaving a mark on the iron sheet, while the enemy's horse-cutting knives easily cut them off their horses. Even if they were still alive, they were trampled to death by the galloping horses.
Immediately after the second row and the third row, more than a hundred knights were arranged in only seven or eight rows. In a short moment, in less than a few dozen breaths, they were all killed.
Except for Hua Xiong and his lieutenants who were still holding on, these dead soldiers were almost wiped out, and no one could survive.
But their efforts were not in vain. Their large force was not intercepted by the enemy and successfully broke through. Relying on the speed of their light cavalry, they withdrew towards Handan like flying.
"Walk!"
After repelling the siege of several cavalrymen on the narrow official road, Hua Xiong knew that he would be overwhelmed by the enemy if he didn't move forward. He called to his lieutenant, reined in his horse, turned around, and slashed with great force, cutting his way out of the encirclement.
The deputy general followed closely behind, and the two of them ran quickly towards the three-way intersection. Unexpectedly, the black-armored heavy cavalry behind them did not follow, but a giant man roared: "Hua Xiong, stop leaving, or take a spear from me!"
Zhang Fei came to kill again.
The deputy general gritted his teeth and said: "General, go first, I will stop the rear!"
After saying that, he turned around and stabbed Zhang Fei.
Hua Xiong slapped the horse's butt desperately. When he looked back, he saw that his lieutenant had been killed by the horse in two rounds. He gritted his teeth and ran as hard as he could!
Chen Mu must report the news about Zhang Fei here alive to Xu Rong, so that Xu Rong can send an army to destroy them!