The rumble of horse hooves dispersed the thick morning fog, in a small village called Mapao Spring on the north bank of the Wei River.
This place is only more than twenty miles away from Xiwei Bridge. The residents of the village either hid in the mountains or were dragged away by the rebels. The women were used as sexual objects and reserve army rations, while the men died in the ravines.
Zhang Xiaoguo plunged into Mapaoquan Village in an extremely embarrassed manner. The thatch, branches, door panels and other items covering the houses in the village had long been looted.
But the half-collapsed earthen walls of the houses made Zhang Xiaoguo feel a little more at ease. The advantage of the fast horses of the Hexi cavalry could not be used at least.
The cavalry under Zhang Xiaoguo's command almost rushed into the village like hungry dogs eating shit. Everyone was disgraced. Even Zhang Xiaoguo's general identification flag was torn, and the flags and drums of each capital and general were basically lost.
The terrain of Mapaoquan Village is higher than the surrounding areas. There is a spring water in the village that is not very sweet.
During the Tang Dynasty, the nobles of Chang'an City liked to race horses or go on horseback trips around Mapaoquan Village, which is why it got its name.
After Zhang Xiaoguo felt a little more at ease, he climbed up to the tallest earth building in the village and started observing.
Around Mapaoquan Village, fierce cavalry chases were still taking place, but they were much less than a few days ago, and the results began to show a one-sided trend.
The Hexi people's horses were fast and their riding skills were even better than those of the rebels. During the more than thirty miles of fighting between them from Xingping County to Mapaoquan Village, they caused great losses to the rebel cavalry.
Fortunately, after Sun Xiaoguo set out, he specially ordered a large number of horn bow and crossbow equipment, so he was not directly destroyed.
As a standard equipment used by the Tang army specifically for cavalry, the horn crossbow was powerful, had a long range, and had excellent armor-piercing effects.
In the past, when Zhang Zhao was in the Western Regions, they were used by the infantry. These rebels relied on the sharpness of the horned bows and crossbows to barely block the constant attacks of the Guiyi cavalry.
And they began to lose their strength gradually, also because the crossbow strings made of horn bow tendons began to loosen and the arrows ran out.
"Shura Martial God"
The entanglement of small units of cavalry is called a dog fight, which is a very vivid metaphor.
In this kind of chase battle involving more than ten or twenty riders, the two sides are like two fighting mastiffs, with their mouths open. Sometimes you pounce on me, sometimes I pounce on you, and sometimes they fight together. Until one party can't defeat Huilihe and escapes.
Li Cunhui is riding on a yellow horse. He holds a sword in his left hand and a pecking hammer in his right hand.
The so-called pecking hammer is also the standard weapon of cavalry after the Middle Tang Dynasty. One end is a hammer and the other is a beak. The end is a good weapon for dealing with heavy armor.
At this moment, Li Cunhui led more than a dozen of his cavalrymen to entangle more than twenty rebel cavalrymen. The rebel cavalrymen lowered their bodies on their horses, took out their riding bows, and kept firing arrows diagonally backwards.
The arrows shot out made a soft whizzing sound and kept flying past Li Cunhui's head. Some of them hit Li Cunhui's pocket and shoulder armor, but Li Cunhui didn't care at all.
Because there is no horned crossbow, it is still not easy for an ordinary horse bow to break through the cotton armor on his body.
Moreover, there is a small round shield on his right arm. Li Cunhui raised his right hand slightly, and the round shield can also play a certain protective role.
As the sound of missing arrows piercing the air became more and more intense, Li Cunhui, who was lying on the horse, took the risk to lift his body up a little.
The distance was getting closer and closer, and he needed to attract firepower for the war horse, and the man was wearing armor, but the war horse only had a piece of iron protecting its forehead and a small piece of armor hanging down to protect its chest. If he was unlucky, an arrow would do the trick. Let the horse suffer a big loss.
Getting closer and closer, the cavalry behind Li Cunhui also took out their bows and arrows and shot at the rebel cavalry.
At least a dozen arrows were lodged in the back of an unlucky little rebel cavalryman, which made him scream in pain, but he was probably wearing ring mail, so he did not suffer any serious injuries.
But he couldn't run away, because several arrows were stuck in the butt of the rebel cavalry horse. The horse's butt was soaked with blood, and the horse's running posture began to twist.
Li Cunhui's horse was fast and he quickly arrived at the cavalry's side. Seeing that he could not run away, the 'hedgehog' cavalry could only turn around and look at Li Cunhui with desperate and frightened eyes.
However, Li Cunhui, who had experienced the tragedy in Jingzhou and Pizhou, would not be soft-hearted towards these beasts.
But just when these thoughts flashed through his mind, suddenly, the 'hedgehog' cavalry smiled coldly, and his desperate eyes were instantly replaced by pride. He took out a loaded horn crossbow from his arms.
"Hey! How dare you, thief!" Li Cunhui roared loudly, like a thunder exploding in the ears of the 'hedgehog' cavalry.
While roaring, the long sword in Li Cunhui's hand slashed past like lightning.
The 'Hedgehog' cavalryman was also very nervous, because the only arrow in his horn bow crossbow was missing. If he could not hit Li Cunhui, he would die.
Facing the tense moment between life and death, the 'hedgehog' cavalry was frightened by Li Cunhui's roar. He tightened his hands habitually, and the arrow missed and flew away.
Done!
Before he even had time to regret it, severe pain came from his hand.
It turned out that almost at the same time, Li Cunhui's long sword had already struck. This heavy sword, which weighed five or six kilograms, was polished to a very sharp point. It cut the "Hedgehog" cavalry's horn crossbow and its fingers into pieces like a cucumber. one slice.
"My hand! Ah! My hand!" The 'Hedgehog' cavalryman used his left hand to cover Flesh Mold Lake's right hand and screamed loudly, but it immediately stopped abruptly.
Because Li Cunhui made a beautiful twist on the horse, pecked the tip of the hammer's beak, and hit the "hedgehog" cavalryman on the back, directly carving a bloody hole in his forehead.
As the 'hedgehog' cavalry fell, Li Cunhui and a dozen others caught up with the rebels' twenty-some cavalry.
They ran side by side with each other, and at the same time used the weapons in their hands to kill each other fiercely.
Li Cunhui's left and right hands rotated like flying. He used the heavy sword to deal with those with light armor, and used the pecking hammer to deal with those with thick armor. In an instant, he knocked three or four enemy cavalry off their horses.
On the other side, Murong Nobunaga, Zhang Xibao and others, also drove away the rebel cavalry who had not had time to enter the village and killed them all.
The most important thing about cavalry is nothing more than equipment, horses and riding skills. When the rebel cavalry lost the power of bows and crossbows, they were completely in a passive situation of being beaten.
Sun Xiaoguo saw it clearly in Mapaoquan Village, and his face was miserable.
Thirteen hundred cavalrymen left the city and were cautious all the way. In less than two days, only more than 900 cavalrymen were left, and now they were driven into the village.
The cavalry lost its mobility, and death was not far away.
"Boom! Boom!" A violent explosion sounded, followed by brilliant fireworks at the east end of the village.
Not long after, an officer with half of his hair burned off and several blisters on his dark face ran in front of Sun Xiaoguo, and he fell into the dust.
"General! A band of thieves with magic skills came from the east of the village. Their spears could spit fire. The soldiers occupying the high places at the end were burned down by their fire-breathing spears. The exit at the east end, at the end, was Will not be able to defend it!"
"This is to surround us and use us as bait to draw out the army from Xiwei Bridge!"
Sun Xiaoguo let out a long sigh. Since these Guiyi troops from the west of Hexi have surrounded them, they are still coming to seize the entrance to the east of the village.
Moreover, they were not in a hurry to attack after they had captured them. It was obvious that they were going to block them so that they could not escape. The thought behind their back was that they must still surround them and call for reinforcements.
"Lei Bao'er! I will give you fifty people and a hundred good horses. Later today, you rush out to Xiwei Bridge to report the news!" Zhang Xiaoguo pointed at Lei Bao'er who was burned and had flowers all over his face.
"Are you going to tell Ambassador He not to be fooled?" Lei Bao'er said hesitantly.
"Fucked your mother? Was the dog slave beaten stupid by the people from Hexi?" Zhang Xiaoguo laughed angrily.
"I didn't want to come out at first. It was because that thief in He Chuan was so smart that he tried to trick the enemy. I swore to him that we would share the joys and sorrows together. Now that I am surrounded, who will come if he doesn't come? Forget it, you bastard. It doesn’t matter if people don’t go!”
With that said, Sun Xiaoguo pulled over the bodyguard beside him. This was his clansman and was far more reliable than someone like Lei Bao'er.
"Jiulang, if you go this time, tell He Chuan that there are 8,000 Hexi soldiers around Mapao Spring, including 2,000 cavalry and 6,000 infantry. Come and fight in the field quickly. Kill them and no one will dare to come again." We are being conquered."
Sun Xiaoguo thought for a moment. If He Chuan didn't come, he would die. If He Chuan came, it would be a decisive battle with tens of thousands of troops.
He has all the cavalry under his command. If you can defeat them, you can stay. If you can't defeat them, you can leave. The probability of survival is at least much higher than now.
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
I am writing and updating now. I have no one left. I carried two bags when I went out, and only one suit of clothes when I came back... I spent a whole day in the car today, and I can only go to bed later tomorrow.
