Countless sounds of drawing bows and strings were heard from the Wuping army formation, directed at the Han soldiers who were advancing uniformly in front. Once they reached the shooting range, thousands of arrows would be fired, shooting them into a hornet's nest.
"Is the Han army stupid? With such a dense formation and moving so slowly, isn't it asking for death? We don't need to rush into the formation. A single shot of bows and arrows can destroy their entire phalanx." I don't know who is lowering this. said the voice.
This sentence is also the doubt in the hearts of all the soldiers of Wuping Army. A dense and slow formation is extremely disadvantageous in a field battle. Archers can fire without restraint without even aiming. On the other hand, if it is a normal battlefield fighting, they will either form a skirmishing formation or fight in a stalemate, even if the archers do not distinguish between ourselves and the enemy. Concentrated shooting, the casualties caused in an area are actually very limited.
However, the Han army in front of them soon answered their questions. After approaching the bow and arrow range of the Wuping Army, which was a hundred paces away, the formation of the Han Army suddenly changed, from advancing head-on to a group of phalanxes. Almost in an instant, the leading square formation composed of more than a thousand Han soldiers suddenly pulled out a black shield reflecting light from behind.
Those shields were like pieces of solid scales blocking the Han army. Suddenly the five thousand Han soldiers were obscured by the shields, and the entire formation suddenly turned into a crawling turtle, slowly moving Advance.
"Hiss!" Li Yuan suddenly took a breath of air, then lowered his face and tentatively ordered: "Fire the arrow!"
A dense rain of arrows immediately rained down from the sky. The turtle formation at the front was hit by thousands of feather arrows, but the sound of the bounce was endless, and the arrows bounced around on the shield. Except for the dozens of arrows that got through the gaps in the shield and hit them, the rest were all bounced away. The shield formation walked slowly past, leaving only a dozen corpses behind them.
Everyone in the Wu Ping army was stunned. The formation of shields was indeed the nemesis of archers. Even wooden shields could block the shooting of bows and arrows. What's more, the Han soldiers in front of them were holding iron shields.
The first group of Han army shield soldiers soon arrived fifty steps away from the Wuping army formation. Although arrows were flying like rain on their heads, it had little impact on them. However, when they reached this point, they suddenly stopped and did not go straight to the enemy's position. The shield changes and the personnel reposition themselves. The team became long and narrow, but the shields above their heads seemed more dense, one on top of another, airtight.
"What are they doing?" Zhu Kuangcong asked in shock.
Li Yuan frowned for a long time under the banner of the Central Military Commander, then suddenly raised his eyebrows and sighed: "A good idea, it is indeed a good idea. I didn't expect that the shield has such a wonderful effect! I have learned a lot from this."
"Commander, what do the Han troops want? The general is at a loss." The soldiers asked hurriedly.
Li Yuan nodded and said: "Just now, I was still thinking about how expensive these iron shields are. Even if the Han Dynasty has abundant supplies, it is still laborious to cast these iron shields. It is almost impossible for one person to have one, and this thing is not practical in combat. It's high and too heavy. Who can carry a shield in one hand and slash with one hand?
Therefore, they could only allow a few thousand soldiers to attack the formation with shields as protection, because they could only cast a few thousand such shields. But what is the use of attacking with thousands of people? But Xie Gui used a clever trick.
If the governor is not wrong in his estimation, the second group of shield soldiers behind will be like the first row, lined up in front of our army's formation. In this way, thousands of shield soldiers can form a line to resist bows and arrows and reach directly in front of our army's formation. The long corridor, and the elite soldiers without shields behind can calmly pass through the battlefield beyond the range of our army's arrows and attack and kill our army at close range. "
"Ah?" The generals were stunned. How could they do this? Use shields to build an arrow-proof corridor? In this way, the archers have all become decorations, and they can no longer be killed with bows and arrows.
Zhu Kuangcong was the first to be unable to restrain himself and asked in a deep voice: "Captain, this is a field battle and not an siege! If we charge into the formation on foot and cavalry, what's the use of this shield wall?"
Li Yuan frowned and replied: "It is really useless when the enemy and our numbers are equal. But now the difference between our army and the enemy is doubled. We all know that the outcome is unpredictable if we only rely on catching each other to fight. Xie Gui naturally understands this truth. They are just trying to do this. Only a large number of people dare to suppress us like this... And we can only rely on our army's strong bows, hard crossbows, and fine cavalry to charge into the formation. Now that the Han army has put up this formation, it has completely defeated our army. The bow and crossbow are powerful, and the iron shield is to prevent our cavalry from charging into the formation."
Zhu Kuangcong spat fiercely on the ground, gritted his teeth and said: "Sigh! This Xie Gui has some real abilities. He knows all the strengths and weaknesses of our army! Grand Governor, let the general give it a try. ! Let the last general lead the soldiers forward to break the formation!"
"No!" Li Yuan waved his hand to stop him: "Don't forget that our army is at a disadvantage in terms of numbers. It is difficult for flesh and blood to break through iron objects. If you fight hard, it will only increase casualties! I want to replace their shields. Soldiers, we will definitely have to pay a huge price in our bloody battle! If you lead your troops forward to charge at this time, you will be playing into Xie Gui's hands!"
"Hey! This won't work, and that won't work either! The Han army is killing us right in front of us, can we just wait here to die?!"
Li Yuan's eyes were confused for a few breaths, and then he hurriedly raised his hand to give orders. Taking advantage of the slow advance of the Han army, only a thousand shield-bearing soldiers were left behind to cover the entire army's retreat to the camp.
Unexpectedly, the Han army did not disrupt their formation because Wuping's army all retreated to the camp behind them, or took advantage of the situation to pursue. As if to prove Li Yuan's guess, the Han army's several shield phalanxes were not rushed. Slowly began to change, and soon as Li Yuan said, the various Han army shield formations began to line up, like a winding black python.
Xie Gui waved the command flag in the middle army, and the drum beat of the attack became dense and noisy. The remaining Han soldiers rushed behind the giant python. Behind each shield, there were hundreds of figures lined up in front and back, with two crossbowmen each. On the side, the spearmen were close to the front, following the shield soldiers in front in an orderly manner.
Not long after, more than 10,000 Wuping troops retreated safely into the camp, and the Han troops continued to force themselves unscathed to the front of the Wuping Army camp. However, they changed their formation again and quickly moved toward both sides along the wooden walls of the camp. He scattered sideways, looking for a suitable position and finally set up the iron shield with a "clang" sound.
This long black python soon tightly surrounded most of the camp, and the unsurrounded part was all cliffs. The Wuping Army camp seemed to be tightly curled up by the python. It seemed that this was Xie Gui. The situation suddenly became critical.
The two sides were only separated by a fence and could almost fight at close range. Sergeant Wu Ping in the camp had no choice but to raise his spear and sword, aim at the right time through the wooden wall, and start stabbing randomly. However, this method of fighting was obviously a technical task, and the gap in the wooden wall was already narrow. , coupled with the fact that the gap between the shields is only a few feet, the probability of hitting the enemy is really small.
However, the Han army had all the advantages. With such a tall black iron shield in front of them, the sword could be stretched out from nowhere in the blind spot of the Wuping army's sight at any time. If the Wuping sergeant who was close to Chi Chi could not react in time, he would Suffered casualties. But when thousands of shields are placed in front of them and thousands of places need to be defended, the Han army, which has an absolute advantage in strength, is almost certain to win.
The iron shields had been erected one by one, and a large number of Han soldiers began to push the wooden walls of the camp with their flesh and blood. Even though the iron shields were thick, they were still pushed by human power. This was something that the Wuping Army soldiers It was obviously something unbelievable in his eyes, but he still had to stab the gap with his sword, trying to stop the black python from devouring him.
But Wu Pingjun still thought too simplistically. At the critical moment, a strange scream suddenly floated from behind the shield array, and this howl, which was getting closer, was accompanied by a slight vibration of the ground under his feet. Fear and uncertainty are often the most frightening.
The generals and guards beside him all turned pale with fright, but Li Yuan's brows were knitted tightly together. At this time, the neighing echoed intensified all around. If his memory was not wrong, it was those beasts who were about to go into battle... ..
