Tan Shihuai also came to Tan Zhi's side, followed Tan Zhi's gaze, and laughed: "My lord, this demon thief obviously failed to attack the formation, and left hundreds of corpses in front of the car formation. How can he What’s so bad?”
Tan Zhi gritted his teeth and said in a deep voice: "You kid, watch carefully. The demon thief is just a tentative attack. We have to see our counterattack and defensive strength before a large-scale attack can follow. Moreover, our On the flank defense line, the carts are connected two by two, which makes it impossible to move at all. In case of fire attack, even dispersion is impossible. Although Hongzhi has established a defense line, this defense line does not have any means of preventing fire attack. Now the north wind is strong, and the demon The thieves, this former army unit, just proved that they have fire attack methods like kerosene jars."
Having said this, Tan Zhi paused, pointed to the corpse in front of the flank defense line, and said solemnly: "Their exploratory attack like this is to test the strength of our defense line. Where there are more crossbows, where the defense is stronger." , will avoid it and instead attack the weak points. As long as these jars of kerosene are thrown onto our chariots within a hundred steps, they will inevitably ignite quickly. By then, these connected chariots will It’s impossible to disperse even if we want to, the collapse of our army’s defense line will happen in an instant!”
Tan Shihuai's eyes widened in fright: "Then, what should we do? Is there any way to crack it now?"
Tan Zhi gritted his teeth: "We can only hope that the enemy army did not notice this wind direction, or that they were unable to attack with fire. But this is unlikely. The demon thieves are extremely cunning, and they are trying to break our army's formation. We have already prepared for the fire attack. If we don’t use it at this time, we will not be the demon thief. We must prepare for the demon thief’s fire attack formation, shrink to the central area, and prepare the second line of defense, the southern line. It's shrinking there, so it's a good thing to give up defenses on the outside. Here on the north side, as long as we can withstand the next round of attacks, we have to give up proactively. But if it's a fire attack from monsters and thieves, we have to defend in the center in advance. , The collapse of the periphery cannot trigger the collapse of the entire situation."
Tan Zhi looked at Tan Shihuai and said in a deep voice: "Immediately take the jumping soldiers and the wounded and quickly go to the center to set up a defense formation. Remember to try to isolate the contact with the defenders on the north side, especially be prepared for fire prevention. . If the army on the north side breaks up and attacks the central defense line, they must form a formation to deal with it. Anyone who rushes into the formation will be treated as an enemy and beheaded!"
Tan Shihuai's expression changed: "What, treat him as an enemy? This, this is his brother, how can we kill him?!"
Tan Zhi said sternly: "Compassion does not lead an army. In this critical time, if the enemy attacks with fire, our brothers on the north side will collapse. Then they will run around like headless flies, and even their bodies will be on fire." , will even run away in pain, which will break up our central defense line and formation, and the monster thieves will follow to cover up the kill, which will mean the entire front army collapses. If you don’t want to die ten times or dozens of times more brothers, then you can only endure the pain and stop it. These brothers who are counterattacking our army's formation, let them know that this way is not possible, and it is also not possible for the monster thieves to follow the way of covering up and killing them, do you understand?"
Tan Shihuai gritted his teeth and said sternly: "I understand, my lord, you have to be the commander of the retreat here, and I am the only one to do it."
Tan Zhi nodded and turned to the two people on the other side: "Captain Axiba, Captain Luo Shangwen, you must have heard what I just said."
Captain Asiba and Luo Shangwen looked at each other and nodded at the same time. Captain Asiba saluted and said: "You all heard it. Our troops returned to their formation first and are resting inside now. Although there are not many in number, I am also quite tired, but in order to defend the seven phalanxes in the center, I have no swerving duty."
Tan Zhi smiled slightly: "In the square formation in the center, Tan Shihuai has sent a message. On the south side, Liu Zhendao's heavy armored infantry, who have retracted back to protect them, can form a formation of 1,000 people to hold a stalemate. However, their numbers are insufficient after all. If the enemy forces attack with all their strength, it will be difficult to defeat them. To resist, this requires Captain Asiba's Dongman brothers to grit their teeth and persevere, and Captain Luo and your archers to provide arrow rain support. You have just experienced a hard battle, and you are said to be very tired. You should return to the Chinese army. The phalanx has come to rest, but the situation is critical now, so I can only let you hold on a little longer."
Captain Asiba laughed: "It's nothing, that's what we came here to do today. Now I have more than 300 brothers here, which means more than 700 brothers have died in the battle. We don't want to go back now, we just think about I want to kill more demon thieves for revenge, I have to thank Brother A Zhi for giving us this opportunity for revenge!"
Luo Shangwen's eyes were red, and he gritted his teeth and said: "Our brothers in the archery team, there are less than 200 people left. If you hadn't ordered us to retreat just now, none of us would have wanted to come back. This time there is a chance to continue fighting, and we can't ask for it." .”
Tan Zhi nodded: "Very good, your fighting spirit is high, your morale is strong, and your military morale is available, but be careful, everything must be obeyed when the time comes. To hold the line of defense is to hold the line of defense. No pursuit is allowed outside. Everything is waiting. I will make a decision after I come back. If I am not here, it will be commanded by Fu Hongzhi. If Fu Hongzhi is not here, then it will be controlled by Liu Zhendao. Shi Huai, you must tell Zhendao to only defend and not attack, and wait for reinforcements."
Tan Shihuai said in a deep voice: "I have the order. However, if the demon thieves don't use fire attack, we can hold the first line, and then do we need to go for reinforcements?"
Tan Zhi shook his head: "Absolutely not. It is only a matter of time before the demon thieves find out that they can attack with fire. If they attack in a large scale, they will lure our troops to support them and then annihilate them. We must not be fooled, even if they don't find out. , we must also take the initiative to abandon these seven square formations on the north side. If Fu Hongzhi and others cannot withstand it, they will withdraw in an orderly manner. Then you can help him continue to defend the center. Within a quarter of an hour, I will definitely withdraw our formation. But at this moment, we have to rely on everyone to get through it!"
As he spoke, he took out a token and handed it to Tan Shihuai: "In a quarter of an hour, we will meet inside the formation."
Tan Shihuai held the command arrow in one hand and a broadsword in the other. He ran towards the central square without looking back: "I will definitely meet the lord in the center when the time comes."
Jin army's front army, on the north side of the phalanx, 300 steps away.
Li Nanfeng folded his arms and stood behind the military formation. More than 20 ballistae carts were already pushed to the front of the formation amidst the shouts of the Tianshi Tao disciples. The soldiers were running back and forth, throwing missiles one by one. Fei Yang mounted the crossbow arm and began to take aim at the Jin army's vehicle formation three hundred steps away.
He Tianping said with some surprise: "Isn't it a fire attack? Why are we still using these regular flying spears?"
(End of chapter)
