NCCnovel Chapter 462: Pursuing the Defeated Army
Chapter 462: Pursuing the Defeated Army
The team sent by Ren Chaohui was on their way in a hurry. The soldier in front suddenly felt some movement behind him. He turned around subconsciously and saw that it was Wang Biqing's Jinyang Army of 200 men.
The team stopped and a Pingyang Army soldier asked curiously, only to find out that they were there to help.
"Hey! Brother, what can you do with so few people here?"
A centurion of the Pingyang Army couldn't help but laugh. Looking at the small number of Jinyang Army, he was somewhat skeptical about what role they could play.
"See what we have? I'm going to use it to harass them later."
A leader of the Jinyang Army said confidently, pointing to an iron pipe carried by the soldiers behind him.
"Oh, it's a cannon. Are you planning to scare them with it?"
The centurion looked doubtful. In his opinion, if the enemy did not come out, this kind of cannon would only make a noise and would not have much practical effect.
"Yeah! You're right. We're just waiting for the noise. When we retreat later, you have more people to protect us."
The leader of the Jinyang Army was quite frank. He knew that if he ran with this weapon, he would not be able to run fast.
"Okay, we have more people, we will definitely take care of you."
The centurion laughed heartily, but this time there was no hint of mockery in his smile. After all, everyone had the same goal, which was to deal with the enemy.
The leader of the Pingyang Army was a captain. He had been discussing in low voices with the Jinyang Army as they walked, as if they had reached some kind of tacit agreement.
After walking for three quarters of an hour, they saw the black flag of the Huns flying in Zhongyang Town from afar. The flag fluttered in the wind, exuding a solemn and murderous atmosphere.
At the entrance of the town, there were still more than a dozen Hun soldiers patrolling back and forth. They looked alert and had no idea that danger was approaching.
The Pingyang Army carefully found a shelter, and then quietly began to set up some stakes and horse ropes on the road.
The so-called ground stakes are actually a relatively small and shallow horse trap, which is full of sharp barbs. Once a warhorse steps into it, it will inevitably be injured.
The lasso works on a similar principle, but because it is not easy to set up the lasso directly on the road, it can only be cleverly arranged by digging a pit.
At the same time, the Jinyang Army set up their mortars in an orderly and tense manner. They carefully selected several positions, adjusted the angles, and aimed at the direction of Zhongyang Town.
Everyone looked focused, ready to shoot at any time, with a hint of tension and excitement in their eyes.
When the Pingyang Army retreated from the road, it was the signal for the Jinyang Army to open fire.
"Dong dong dong..."
Suddenly, bursts of dull noises were heard from the artillery positions, accompanied by rising wisps of green smoke. Before the smoke could dissipate, violent explosions were heard in Zhongyang Town.
The flames of the explosion shot up into the sky, instantly breaking the tranquility of the town.
Hu Shanzhong and Xiahou Geri were both veterans of many battles and had experienced the baptism of artillery fire. When they heard the explosion, they immediately realized that they were under artillery attack.
"Go check where the explosion came from! It must have been a cannon. Also, send someone to the town entrance to observe."
Hu Shanzhong looked serious and gave orders quickly. Then he immediately began to assemble his troops, secretly thinking about the enemy's intentions and preparing to fight at any time.
Xiahou Geri was not so patient. He was extremely anxious and wanted to find out what was going on. He immediately rode his horse and rushed towards the direction where the sound came from like an arrow.
Sure enough, he soon discovered smoke rising in the sky outside the town.
"Look, that's where it is."
Xiahou Geri excitedly pointed to the firing position, and then ordered impatiently: "Everyone, follow me to attack."
Just as he finished speaking, another row of artillery fire came from the front, and green smoke rose again.
Xiahou Geri had no time to wait for Hu Shanzhong. He was anxious and took his 30,000 men to chase after the location where the artillery was fired, regardless of everything.
When Xiahou Ge arrived at the entrance of the town, the Jinyang army had already planned to pack up their artillery and flee.
However, the shells have already been loaded, and it seems a pity to just give up and not fire them.
The barrel of the cannon that had just been fired was still warm, but the soldiers didn't care about that. They hurriedly wrapped it in sackcloth, carried it on their shoulders, and turned around to run. They had only one thought in their minds, to evacuate quickly.
When the Pingyang army saw that the Jinyang army began to retreat, they knew that the plan to lure the enemy was almost ready, so they deliberately slowed down their pace and pretended to retreat in disarray and defeat.
Everyone was sweating and praying that the plan would succeed.
Xiahou Geri didn't think too much about it and really thought these people were the defeated soldiers of Shizhou.
Seeing that the other side had few people and had not even organized their formation, and was fleeing in panic, he was overjoyed and felt that this was a perfect opportunity to give chase.
He didn't care about much at the moment and just led his men to chase after them.
Although they lived on the grassland, they actually did not have many war horses.
After all, raising horses is different from raising cattle, especially war horses, which have extremely high maintenance costs.
Unless they are important figures or units in the army, they are generally not equipped with war horses.
There were not many horsemen in Xiahou Ge'ri's army, only a few thousand men and a thousand horses at most.
Considering that there were infantry following behind, their speed in chasing the fleeing soldiers was already very slow.
Despite this, the cavalry still left the infantry behind by several hundred steps. It was because Xiahou Ge was eager to win and drove his horses too fast.
Just as he was creating some distance for himself and was about to catch up with the fleeing soldiers in front, someone suddenly cried out in surprise. A cavalryman's horse seemed to have lost its hoof, and he fell to the ground with his horse.
This was not a big deal, but the cavalry behind were unable to stop in time, resulting in a rear-end collision and trampling.
However, someone soon discovered that something was wrong. Some people's horses seemed to have stumbled, but in fact their horses' feet were tied with ropes, causing a large number of people to fall to the ground.
This disturbance forced Xiahou Geri to slow down his troops. He looked back in anger and saw that his troops had lost over a hundred men and horses. More importantly, their morale had been crushed, and they had lost their original fighting spirit.
The people in front were still trying their best to escape, and it was estimated that there were at least two thousand of them.
When the people behind caught up, Xiahou Geri was so angry that he shouted, "Are you all pigs? You run so slowly. You don't even see the people in front. It's only a mile away, and why don't you hurry up and catch up?"
The soldiers who were running felt a little dissatisfied when they were scolded, but they had been accustomed to his bad temper for a long time, and no one stood up to object.
Although everyone felt aggrieved, they still gritted their teeth and continued to chase.
The fleeing Pingyang Army initially planned to lure the enemy deep into their territory in an orderly manner, but when they saw the cavalry chasing them closely, they knew they would really lose their lives, so they didn't care about any plans and ran as fast as they could.