My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 664 Fierce Battle Between the Two Armies

The next moment, Wen Ping raised his hand and waved, and a group of archers stepped forward, took the arrows with special arrowheads, and a squad of soldiers followed, each holding a torch.

The archers heated their arrows over torches, instantly igniting the arrowheads, then nocked them and fired them at the grappling hooks and ropes ahead.

These ropes were about two or three fingers thick, and they dragged on the ground after landing. It was only because the distance wasn't far that the hit rate was guaranteed; otherwise, they would have flown off somewhere long ago.

Soon, the arrows fired by the archers streaked through the air and landed precisely on the ground. The ropes were instantly ignited by the arrows, and like a fire snake being awakened, a trail of flames crawled out of the ground.

The flames grew larger and larger, eventually spreading along the wooden shafts of the ballista to the wooden wall. However, the wooden wall had been reinforced with fireproofing, so it wouldn't catch fire for a while.

Before Shi Huan could even breathe a sigh of relief, he saw Wen Ping on the other side waving his hand again.

The next moment, four huge leather bags were hurled high into the air by the catapult and crashed down on the wooden wall.

These leather bags were quite fragile. After hitting the wooden wall, they were either pierced by the arrowheads of the previous iron arrows or hit by the subsequent powerful arrows. They quickly broke apart on the wooden wall, and the black, pungent liquid inside flowed out and smeared on the wooden fence.

Shi Huan felt a chill run down his spine. Although he didn't know why, he instinctively felt that the Left Army's actions were terrifying.

Before he could do anything, the fire, which had already begun to weaken, suddenly flared up as if fueled by a huge amount of firewood.

"not good!"

Shi Huan cried out in alarm, cold sweat beading on his forehead.

After swallowing hard, Shi Huan turned and ordered, "Have Huang Kang's troops immediately move forward to reinforce the area and use sand to stop the fire from spreading. Also, push the heavy shield carts to the back of the fire and stand by, ready to fill any gaps at any time."

The messenger immediately received the order at the foot of the high building, then mounted his horse and galloped towards Huang Kang's troops.

Before long, a group of soldiers sprang into action, urging each of the laborers to carry a sandbag and then rush toward the fire.

These laborers needed to carry sandbags onto the wooden fence and then throw them over the fence into the fire outside the wall.

This kind of fire cannot be extinguished with water, and the effect may not be as good as using sand. However, this would expose the laborers to the long-range firepower of the Left Army, which would obviously be very dangerous, and the casualties would be extremely high.

Therefore, Huang Kang's swordsmen and shieldmen would climb onto the wooden fences for cover and use their shields to block arrows, in order to reduce casualties among the laborers.

In reality, this operation was quite dangerous. The Left Army was equipped with powerful bows and crossbows, and even shields might not be able to block all of these arrows. Not to mention hitting the unprotected parts, even the center of the shield could be pierced and hit the arm or hand.

Even more terrifying were the ballistae from the ballistae and the stones from the catapults. A hit from these weapons could result in serious injury or even death on the spot. Moreover, these ballistae and stones didn't just inflict single-target damage; they often harmed a whole group or even a large area. Even veteran soldiers of Cao Cao's army trembled with fear when faced with ballistae and catapults.

However, they have no choice but to go up and carry the sandbags themselves if too many laborers are injured or killed.

As the battle unfolded, Cao's army gritted their teeth and covered the laborers as they climbed onto the palisade, throwing sand and dirt. Meanwhile, the left-wing army's archers, under the cover of the tower shield bearers, began to approach the palisade, focusing on shooting down the laborers who had broken free of cover.

Behind them, ballistae and catapults began firing continuously.

The ballistae were replaced with new crossbows, and the catapults were equipped with stone projectiles. Their target shifted to the two arrow towers in this area.

The once sturdy arrow tower began to crumble under the onslaught of stones and crossbow bolts.

Wen Ping's eyes lit up with joy, and he asked a handsome young man behind him, "Yanfu, can you break through this stockade within half an hour?"

The man Wen Ping called Yanfu was his cousin Wen Ze.

This man was handsome and refined, but he was a true martial artist. He disliked studying in his youth, preferred to associate with chivalrous knights, and terrorized the countryside.

After the chaos of the times arrived, he changed his usual ways. When he heard that his cousin Wen Ping had been recruited by Liu Biao and appointed as a commandant with a separate troop, he gathered dozens of wandering heroes to join his cousin. It has been five or six years since then.

After hearing Wen Ping's words, Wen Ze revealed a handsome smile: "I regard this village as a dilapidated house. Why do you need to use such a provocation method, cousin? It won't take half an hour, just a quarter of an hour, to break through this wooden fence."

"it is good!"

Wen Ping was overjoyed and clapped his hands together. To boost Wen Ze's morale, he allocated an extra twenty armored soldiers and twenty powerful archers to his troops, instructing him to prepare to lead the team to scale the city walls.

**
At this time, discord had also begun to arise on other fronts.

On the Chengdu Plain in late spring, two rows of spearmen slowly approached like a steel forest.

The Left Guard Army on the south side stood in neat formation, with three hundred armored soldiers clad in black leather armor. They held elm wood shields in their left hands and twelve-foot-long spears in their right, the iron arrowheads of the spears gleaming coldly in the morning sun, and the spear shafts peeking out from the gaps in the shield wall like dense thorns.

The Cao army on the north side mostly wore red leather armor, and their spears were mostly made of sharpened hardwood shafts. The quality of their spear tips was not as good as that of the Left Army, but their morale was still quite good.

Cao's vanguard consisted of Jia Xin and Yin Shu. Jia Xin's troops numbered only two thousand, so Cao Ang transferred two thousand men from Wu Ban's troops in Dongzhou to Jia Xin's command.

With the might of eight thousand men, they formed a dense gun array on the plain, hundreds of paces wide and five or six rows deep, their shouts shaking the grass like ripples on the water.

"Raise your shields! Hold your rifles!"

As soon as Zhou Mu, the commander of the Left Guard Army, finished his roar, the sound of horns rang out from Cao Cao's army ranks. More than two hundred spearmen in the front ranks quickened their pace, their spear tips pointing diagonally to the sky, and surged towards the Left Guard Army ranks like a tide. Their footsteps pounded on the gravel and mud of the plain, making a muffled "rustling" sound, mixed with shouts of "Kill the traitors!" The rough wooden shafts of their spears drew chaotic arcs in the sunlight.

The shield wall of the Left Army sank instantly, and sharp scraping sounds rang out one after another as long spears peeked out through the shield wall.

The next moment, Cao Jun's spears slammed into the spears of Zuo Mu Army, some even passing through the spear formation and piercing the elm shields, the spear tips embedding themselves in the cracks in the wood.

The left-handed swordsman braced his shield with his left hand and swung his longsword with his right, slashing it into the spear shaft. Cao's soldier was momentarily unable to stop his spear and watched helplessly as the spear was trampled under his foot, while he himself staggered forward two steps.

Within those two steps, three spears thrust in from different directions, piercing his throat, left shoulder, and abdomen—three places where his armor crevices met.

The Cao soldier immediately coughed up blood and foam, opening his mouth to cry for help, but found he could no longer make a sound, with copious amounts of blood gushing from his neck. Soon, the Cao soldier collapsed and died on the hard mud, while the three Left Guard soldiers sheathed their spears and threw themselves back into the new battle.

The spears on both sides kept thrusting and striking.

Some were bounced off the shield and almost fell over.

Some had their gun barrels broken off by the other side, with splinters flying up tiny wood chips from the broken ends.

Zhou Mu stood behind the shield wall, spotted an opening, and slashed his spear diagonally, the tip of the spear grazing past the leather pouch of a Cao soldier's platoon leader, tearing the pouch in two.

Before the opponent could react, Zhou Mu thrust out again, the spear tip piercing through the opponent's face and protruding from the back of his head. The Cao soldier groaned, his body sliding down the spear shaft to the ground, blood dripping from the shaft onto the field, instantly absorbed by the mud and leaving dark marks.

Cao Jun's second wave of attack quickly followed. This time, they split into two groups. The group on the right tried to extend their formation, hoping to get around to the flank of the Left Army's shield wall. Meanwhile, the group in the middle, still in rows of two hundred, charged at the Left Army's spear formation and tower shields with their bundled spears.

After being attacked from the flank, the Left Army on the west side immediately began to face difficulties.

A young armored soldier's shield was blocked by two spears at the same time. He tried to push forward, but Cao's soldiers seized the opportunity and a third spear pierced through his calf from under the shield. The soldier screamed and fell to his knees, and the shield in his hand crashed to the ground.

The spear pierced the blood vessel, and blood gushed out, flowing down the shaft and dripping into the sunken mud, instantly forming a pool of crimson.

Before the soldier could retreat, several more spears thrust forward. Fortunately, his two left-wing comrades were able to free their hands and block the attack.

His comrades rushed forward and pulled him back, then used their bandages to bandage him up.

The situation was far from optimistic. The wound that pierced his calf had also severed blood vessels, and the bandage that had just been put on was now stained crimson with blood. Forget about returning to the fight; even his life depended on luck.

Soon, the civilian laborers caught up and carried the soldier back on a makeshift stretcher to a field hospital for emergency treatment.

The bloody and fierce battle continued, and casualties kept rising.

In just a quarter of an hour, the two armies had suffered hundreds of casualties on the front lines, with half of them in the central army alone.

Cao Jun was determined to break through the Central Army, and the Liao Hua and Xi Zhen troops at the front were actually pushed into a disadvantageous position.

This is quite normal. Liao Hua and Xi Zhen were newly established units. Although their soldiers were elite troops from the surrendered soldiers of Jing and Jiao, they were inferior to the units of Lu Xun, Wei Yan, and Huang Zhong. Moreover, the two units differed in equipment and experience.

Throughout the entire Battle of Nanzhong, the forces of Lu Xun, Wei Yan, Huang Zhong, Sun Ce, and others fought almost the entire battle, while the forces of Lü Dai, Wen Pin, Lü Meng, and others at least fought for half the battle.

Liao Hua's troops had the fewest battles, and were later assigned to garrison the southern region. Although they never slacked off in training, their skills and experience were clearly something that training could not fully compensate for.

As for Xi Zhen's troops, the difference was even greater.

Although both groups of men were equipped with forged iron armor, powerful bows and crossbows, making them no less capable than Cao Cao's elite troops, they paled in comparison to Lu Xun and his own elite troops.

At present, Cao Cao's army clearly has the spirit of "burning the boats and throwing the pots," and everyone from top to bottom knows that this battle can only be won, not lost.

During the previous Battle of Guangcheng, at least we had the fortified city of Chengdu as a support. Even if we suffered a minor setback, we were not afraid that the Zuo Mu army could take advantage of the victory and pursue us. We only needed to hide in Chengdu's city defense system to be safe.

The situation is very different now. The city behind them is too large to even accommodate their army. Once they are defeated, it will be a complete rout, and there will be little chance to recover the lost troops.

As soon as the battle began, Jia Xin and Yin Shu attacked the front lines of the Left Army's central force like tigers unleashed from their cages.

Liao Hua and Xi Zhen were caught off guard, and their abilities were inferior to those of generals such as Wei Yan and Huang Zhong. Their troop strength was also far less than that of the enemy, so it was normal for them to be suppressed.

However, for Liao Hua and Xi Zhen, it was a great humiliation.

Cao Jun and Shu Jun were defeated by Zuo Mu Jun, and had never been defeated in many battles. But now they were being forced into a disadvantageous position by the other side. How could they tolerate this?

Before Liu Feng could make any arrangements, Liao Hua and Xi Zhen made the same choice: to personally lead the armored soldiers in a counterattack.

As if by prior arrangement, Liao Hua launched a counterattack from the left flank and Xi Zhen from the right flank, each leading a battalion of personal guards, two battalions of armored soldiers, and a battalion of archers, totaling eight hundred men, and they launched their attack from both sides.

Facing them head-on were Jia Xin and Yin Shu, who had spread out to try and flank the Left Army's lines.

Liao Hua and Xi Zhen didn't say much, and went straight to meet the attack with a barrage of arrows.

This barrage of arrows threw Cao Cao's army into disarray, and Liao Hua and Xi Zhen seized the opportunity to lead their troops in a charge, cutting straight into Cao Cao's battle lines.

The two sides then engaged in an even more brutal close-quarters combat, a battle that was not only cruel but also extremely fast-paced.

A duel between long spear formations can often last for one or two hours. As long as the generals on both sides make proper arrangements and always replace the front-line soldiers with fresh troops to rest, the battle can go on from morning till night without a clear winner.

The danger of close combat lies in the primal, deathly tremor of clashing cold weapons.

That wasn't the abstract killing of long-range shooting, but the oppressive feeling of being able to hear your breath before the blade pierced flesh.

You can see the bloodshot in your opponent's pupils, smell the sour, putrid odor of their breath, and feel the faint airflow created when their blade slices through the air. Every inch the distance closes means death is one step closer, and the creaking sound of metal rubbing against bone travels from the hilt of the blade straight to your palm.

In a close-quarters fight, there is no room for maneuver; a spark from a block might illuminate the white foam spewing from the opponent's mouth.

The resistance of the knife piercing the chest cavity was like piercing a bundle of wet straw. When the knife was pulled out, warm blood and foam would spray onto the lips, instantly filling the mouth with a salty, fishy taste. The person who fell often did not die immediately, but rather convulsed in a pool of blood, clutching the fatal wound, turning their screams into gurgling blood bubbles in their throat.

The most terrifying thing is that sticky intimacy. When your knife is stuck between the other person's ribs, his dagger may have already pried open your ribs; while you are snapping his neck, his fingernails are digging deep into the flesh of your arm.

The victors often crawled with their ripped bellies hanging from their backs, while the losers became forever trampled carpets of flesh. In such brutal battles, the generals leading the troops would inevitably become the most eye-catching targets, attracting all sorts of attacks.

(End of this chapter)