All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 242 Your Grandpa Han will come back!

Han Shizhong quickly came to Xin Xingzong's side and saluted, "Yanei."

“Huh?!~” Xin Yanei immediately stared.

Han Shizhong paused, then changed his tone and said, "Commander, I have seen that the rebels are well-organized. They are not ordinary. We only have a few thousand people, and the enemy has tens of thousands! If we line up with our backs to the river, we will be defeated."

"Shut up!"

Xin Xingzong was furious and whipped him with the whip in his hand. "The war is about to start, and you are disturbing the morale of the army. I will spare you for the sake of your past contributions. Get out of here!"

Han Shizhong, covered in dust and dirt, could only return to his team in frustration.

An old soldier in the team came forward to ask.

"That thief is so unreasonable!" Han Shizhong was furious. "A few thousand against tens of thousands, are you blind? The enemy is not a bandit who will collapse at the first blow, but is just relying on having a good father."

His voice was so loud that many people around him could hear it and looked at him sideways.

A friend in the army quickly covered his mouth and said, "Han Powu, shut up!"

Han Shizhong was a well-known tough guy in the Western Army. He made many military achievements during the war against Western Xia and even captured the Western Xia prince consort alive. His prototype was probably the prince consort of the monk Xu Zhu.

However, the Song army had its own traditions. Han Shizhong, who came from the lower class, had most of the credit given to his superiors. After fighting for so many years, he only managed to become a minor general.

Unlike Xin Xingzong, who became a commander easily because he had a good father.

In history, when Fang La was pacified, it was Han Shizhong who captured Fang La alive, which was a great achievement.

But in the end, the credit was snatched away by his boss Xin Xingzong.

Xin Xingzong, who was on horseback, glared in the direction of Han Shizhong and said to himself, "I will deal with you, a scoundrel, after this battle."

Although his unit only had a few thousand people, Xin Xingzong had a very high opinion of himself.

The enemies on the opposite side were just the useless Bianliang Imperial Guards. How could they compare with the fierce warriors of the Western Army under his command?

He planned to take the first place and even be the first to enter Bianliang City.
While I was daydreaming, I heard the muffled sounds of horns and drums coming from the enemy army two miles away.

In response to the sounds of trumpets and drums, rows of soldiers in neat formations continued to march forward in small steps.

Brother Zhang Wu, wearing leather armor, held the suona tightly with both hands and blew it with all his might.

The musical instrument and singing industry in Bianliang City was very developed and was mostly run by the imperial guards.

Chen Ran incorporated these people into the army and served as buglers.

Each city has a hundred men, with a bugler standing beside the city leader. The soldiers adjust their pace according to the rhythm and pitch of the suona.

After all, on a large-scale battlefield, the environment is very noisy. Even a general with a naturally loud voice cannot rely on his own voice to convey the message to the ears of all the soldiers.

At times like this, various musical instruments come in handy.

The reason for choosing suona is that, on the one hand, the pitch of suona is high enough, but more importantly, musicians these days are rare talents, and the majority of musicians in the city of Bianliang are suona players.

"Slow down, don't rush~"

The Jingdong accent of the captain next to him came into his ears, and Brother Zhang Wu was also blowing the flute rhythmically.

There were hundreds of them, each holding a weapon and moving forward in small steps.

During these few months of rigorous training, the most severe one was queue training. Those who could not stand or walk properly were scolded, beaten, deprived of meals, forced to clean dry toilets, and other punishments. However, they were able to adapt quickly.

But even so, after walking a distance, the leader still shouted "Stop!"

Brother Zhang Wu hurriedly blew a long note.

They all stopped and the captain trotted over to yell at the whole team, realigning the increasingly disorganized queue as they moved forward.

Brother Zhang Wu, who had a rare chance to rest, looked around subconsciously.

All I see are people!

The soldiers were arranged in small square formations in units of cities, forming a larger square formation. At least from the perspective of Brother Zhang Wu, there was no end in sight.

He subconsciously turned his head and looked into the distance behind him, and the super-large flag that was three meters high and fluttering in the wind appeared in his eyes.

'The king is behind me.'

Chen Ran, who was on horseback, also turned his head to look at the banner behind him. "Erlang, thank you for your hard work."

Wu Song, holding the big banner, laughed and said, "Don't worry, brother. The banner is here and we are here!"

The big banner is a symbol of the commander-in-chief's identity. When the big banner is raised high, it means that the commander-in-chief is still there.

In the era of cold weapons, morale was the key factor in determining victory or defeat on the battlefield, and the commander was the source of an army's morale.

When there are too many soldiers and horses, it is impossible for everyone to see the commander-in-chief. At this time, a large banner must be used instead.

Those who can hold up the banner are all heroes of the world.

It’s like Dian Wei is the one carrying the flag for Prime Minister Cao.

Chen Ran specially built this extra-large and long flag, which is more than three meters long and weighs hundreds of kilograms.

Ordinary people can’t even carry it, let alone run with it.

However, Wu Song, whose arms were as strong as a thousand pounds, resisted with ease.

To him, it was no different than a bamboo pole.

"Your Majesty." Hu Yanzhuo rode over, "The battle is about to begin."

"General Huyan." Chen Ran replied sternly, "You are the commander-in-chief. You should command this battle on your own. There is no need to report everything to me." Huyan Zhuo's eyes flashed with joy. He immediately saluted, turned his horse's head, and headed straight for the front line.

Looking at the big flag in the distance, Chen Ran's eyes were sharp. "Xin? Who is the elder in the Xin family?"

The Xin family is very famous in the Western Army and is considered one of the generals.

There are five brothers in the family, and each of them is a general.

However, as for their actual abilities, there is no record of them in history books after the Jing Kang period.

Those who rose to prominence were famous generals such as Yue Fei and Han Shizhong who came from ordinary backgrounds.

As the Bianliang army got closer, Xin Xingzong began to distribute rewards.

That's right, even the so-called elite Western Army has to pay out rewards before a battle, otherwise they will just run away and show you what it means to be all over the mountains and plains.

The boxes were opened one by one, and silver bowls were distributed to the archers.

It's okay not to shoot. If you don't shoot, it will be like shooting three arrows before the battle. After shooting three arrows, you won't fight anymore.

The combat organization of the Song army was different from that of the Qin and Han dynasties which were mainly infantry, and that of the Tang army which was mainly cavalry. Their main force was archers.

In an army, long-range firepower can account for up to half of the troops.

The archers of each city came out in formation, stuck their heavy arrows on the ground at their feet, and drew their light arrows and put them on their bowstrings.

When the front row of Bianliang City approached about 150 steps, the crossbowmen began to fire arrows.

The powerful crossbow has stronger penetration and longer range, but it is more troublesome to load.

A round of crossbow arrows fell into the formation, and dozens of people fell down with screams. There was obviously some chaos in the formation.

Fortunately, the chiefs of the various cities were all veteran soldiers, who shouted loudly to maintain the formation and shouted, "Kill one armored soldier and you will be promoted one level!"

When Chen Ran said he wanted to use the military merit system, he was not talking nonsense; he was really promoting it in the military.

Even for the first-class officials, the rewards are extremely generous.

You can get one hectare of land, a house and a servant!
Of course, it is not easy to gain military merit, because you have to kill the armored soldiers.

The so-called armored soldiers are the enemy soldiers wearing armor.

The recruits, who were a little shaken, quickly calmed down after hearing the shouts and continued to march forward to the music.

When they reached eighty steps, the archers began to release soft arrows.

The light and soft arrows flew far, but they had almost no killing power to the Bianliang army, which was almost fully armored.

When the two sides were fifty steps apart, the musicians from each city almost blew long notes in unison.

The soldiers stopped in their tracks, and officers at all levels began to shout at them to straighten out the ranks.

At the same time, the Western Army archers on the opposite side also switched to heavy arrows, unleashing waves of rain of arrows.

The lethality of the heavy arrows increased significantly, and more and more soldiers of the Bianliang army fell.

However, what shocked Xin Xingzong who was watching the battle was that the imagined situation of collapse did not actually happen, and those cowards from the Bianliang City in the past actually stood firm under the rain of arrows and did not retreat!

When the ranks that had been scattered by the march to the capitals were reorganized, Hu Yanzhuo, who was watching the battle from behind, shouted, "Beat the drums!!"

Dozens of shirtless drummers beat the bass drums vigorously.

The dull drumbeat was the signal for attack, and all the musicians raised their instruments and played short, quick notes.

A group of captains, sergeants and corporals shouted, "Kill the enemy! Whoever takes the head of a soldier will be promoted one level! Kill~~~"

A large number of well-equipped Bianliang troops, stimulated by military achievements and suppressed by military law, quickened their pace and began to charge.

What happens next is simple.

The two sides engaged in battle. Although the individual combat effectiveness of the Bianliang Army was not as good as that of the Western Army, their morale was very high and their equipment was much better than that of the Western Army. For a while, the battle became a stalemate.

Soldiers from both sides kept falling to the ground. Many soldiers from the Bianliang Army were beheaded because they leaned over to chop off heads. However, they kept rushing forward one after another, and the look in their eyes when they looked at the Western Army soldiers was naked greed.

A quarter of an hour later, Hu Yanzhuo sent out hundreds of cavalrymen to bypass the battlefield and head straight for the pontoon bridge.

This action broke through Xin Xingzong's psychological defenses. As the general, he was the first to turn his horse around and rushed onto the pontoon bridge to escape.

The consequences of the commander's escape were disastrous.

Xin Xingzong's troops of the Western Army were defeated, and everyone rushed to the pontoon bridge frantically, even hacking and killing each other in order to fight for an escape route.

As the Bianliang army arrived at the shore, a large number of Western troops, with no hope of escape, chose to surrender.

Those Western troops who managed to escape onto the pontoon bridge were so panicked that many of them fell into the river.

The Western Army soldiers, wearing armor, struggled a few times after falling into the water and soon sank, leaving behind a series of bubbles.

When the Bianliang Army was about to win, a team of hundreds of Western Army soldiers suddenly broke through the blockade of the Bianliang Army and arrived at the pontoon bridge.

Instead of fighting frantically or even killing each other, they fled in an organized manner onto the pontoon bridge.

The troops of Bianliang City closed in on them, and the Western Army, which had not yet reached the bridge, formed a battle array to resist, and held out for nearly a quarter of an hour.

In the end, nearly half of the Western Army successfully escaped onto the pontoon bridge and ran back to the other side.

There was a strong man in the Western Army. He was the last one to get on the pontoon bridge. He turned around and roared as he ran away.

"Your Grandpa Han will come back!"

(End of this chapter)