All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 245 Collision
Different from the weak archers in our impression, archers who have received several years of training are actually mostly strong men.

After all, archery is a typical physical job, and people without strength can't even draw the bow.

Archers who have received several years of military training are actually quite powerful.

Faced with the Bianliang City rushing over, some archers did turn around and run.

But there were also a large number of archers who threw down their bows and crossbows, drew out their short blades and went straight for the attack.

Although they often stop fighting before the battle to ask for rewards, they will still dare to fight if the reward is received.

The two sides collided with each other, and in an instant weapons flew and blood splattered, and the sounds of shouting, cursing and wailing were endless.

The Western Army's elite archers are very strong, but their equipment is inferior to that of the Bianliang Army.

Archers basically wear leather armor and hold short weapons.

The Bianliang army, especially those in the front row, were almost all wearing iron armor.

Two-thirds of the Song Dynasty's iron armor were stored in the armory of Bianliang City. In history, the Jin people obtained these iron armor and craftsmen and made the Iron Pagoda.

Chen Ran took out all these armors and equipped the army, which played a huge role at this moment.

An archer from the Western Army rushed over to knock down the Bianliang soldiers and hacked at them with his short weapons, but only a noise was heard.

The Bianliang soldiers reacted quickly, swung the bones in their hands and smashed them on the archer's head, causing red and white splashes.

Pushing away the archer who was pressing on him, the Bianliang soldier tried to get up, but another Western Army archer rushed over and pounced on him, stabbing him in the face with the short weapon in his hand and poking it into his mouth, killing the soldier.

Before the archer could stand up, a whistling sound suddenly came from behind his head.

Acting on the instinct of a veteran, the archer lunged forward, his axe brushing past the fur hat.

The archer swung the short knife in his hand and chopped the leg of the Bianliang soldier beside him.

But the Bianliang soldiers were wearing leg armor and stood still.

The short axe fell again, and this time the archer failed to dodge it. It hit him directly in the chest, instantly ripping him apart.

This scene is not noticeable on the huge battlefield, but it is a portrayal of what is happening constantly in many places.

The poorly trained Bianliang soldiers, relying on their equipment advantage and their desire for titles and rewards, forced their way into the fight against the elite archers.

Tong Guan had led troops for many years and had some military talent.

Standing on the viewing platform, he saw the archers in front of him being gradually suppressed, and immediately ordered: "Liu Zhen, Yang Keshi, Xin Xingzong, Liu Yanqing, Liu Guangshi, you all should lead the armored soldiers forward quickly!"

The archers have suffered heavy losses, and if this continues the situation will inevitably lead to collapse. At this time the armored soldiers must step up to hold on.

The generals of the Western Army led their own soldiers and formed a battle formation to support the archers.

In novels, there are often descriptions of swordsmanship masters going to the battlefield and sweeping away thousands of enemies with their swords in hand.

But in reality, if a swordsman really goes to the battlefield, unless he is a cultivator, he will never use a sword. He will use long weapons, and each one is longer than the other.

Even a peerless strong man like Wu Song, whose arms are as strong as ten thousand pounds, would use long weapons to play to his advantage on the battlefield, and it is impossible for him to use swords to show off his swordsmanship.

The Western Army soldiers were holding long weapons such as spears that were more than two meters long, and they rushed forward and stabbed randomly.

The armored soldiers charging at Chen Ran's side mostly used short weapons, mainly axes, hammers, bone fragments, etc. The main purpose was to hold the shield to resist the rain of arrows and to break armor.

Facing the counterattack of the Western Army, the Bianliang soldiers were beaten back step by step with short weapons against long weapons.

Chen Ran, who was watching the battle, immediately ordered the messenger beside him to "beat the drums and wave the flags, and the rear team will move forward."

The messenger rode his horse to the drum array filled with hundreds of large drums and loudly conveyed Chen Ran's order.

The drums suddenly sounded louder, and hundreds of flag bearers waved their flags almost at the same time to signal.

Hu Yanzhuo, who was supervising the battle at the front, was reminded by his personal soldiers and turned around to see this scene. He immediately ordered the rear team to move forward.

The so-called rear team refers to the armored soldiers holding spears, halberds, long axes, and other long weapons. Under the command of generals at all levels, they are arranged in a tight formation and march forward in small steps to fight.

This is how it is on the battlefield, people test each other, attack each other, and respond to each other until one side collapses.

Seeing the Bianliang army's long-armored soldiers coming in formation, the Western Army also spontaneously stopped and reorganized their ranks.

Taking this opportunity, the Western Army archers and the Bianliang Army's vanguard short-sword soldiers also retreated and reorganized.

It was still the roars of generals at all levels and the military music that led the army forward.

Behind the generals at all levels are flag bearers, who point out the core location for the soldiers in their team. This is also the source of morale in the army.

Looking at the Bianliang army coming towards them without fear, the generals of the Western Army felt a gloomy mood in their hearts.

"Aren't they all lazy people in Bianliang City? They usually follow those yamen and show off their power. They are either heavy bag carriers, waiters in restaurants, dung collectors, or singers. It's only been half a year, and they dare to go to the battlefield and fight head-on. How did they do it?!"

Before the Western Army set out to the southeast, they went to Bianliang City to accept rewards from the government.

Naturally, I have also seen these so-called Bianliang City Imperial Guards.

In their view, all the capable Bianliang imperial guards had followed them to the southeast, and the rest were all trash.

But the people who were now forming a formation, holding guns, and walking towards them in small steps without fear, were none other than the same trash that they had looked down upon half a year ago!
When they were forty or fifty steps apart, the generals on both sides shouted almost at the same time, and the soldiers holding long weapons laid the weapons flat in their hands.

The archers behind both formations began to shoot arrows.

The soldiers holding short weapons followed the team in a half-crouching position with their backs bent.

As I said before, thank you for the gift from the Song Dynasty.

The armory of Bianliang City was filled with a large number of Shenbi bows and Mahuang crossbows. The so-called Shenbi bow was just a bow in name, but in essence it was a special kind of powerful crossbow.

These well-made and powerful crossbows have the advantages of long range and great power.

The more important advantage is that it is very simple to train a crossbowman, and it only takes a month at most to train a crossbowman.

But if you want to train archers, it will take at least several years.

Compared with crossbows, bows and arrows have no advantages other than shooting speed.

Chen Ran took out all the divine arm bows in the armory and trained a large number of crossbowmen.

In order to increase the speed of shooting, a segmented shooting method similar to that of a musket was adopted.

After the front row shoots, turn around to make room and reload while retreating.

The back row followed up with shooting, and also turned around and retreated.

Multiple rows of crossbowmen can do this, forming a relatively dense rain of crossbow arrows.

In essence, there is really not much difference from a musket.

The archers on both sides shot at each other. The Bianliang army relied on the segmented rotation shooting method and shot at a speed almost the same as the archers of the Western Army on the opposite side.

Arrows rained down from both sides into the opposing formation, and people fell to the ground one after another, while more were pierced with arrows.

Wearing armor does not mean just putting it on your body, there is also an inner lining.

It is usually made mainly of silk, with multiple layers of silk woven together to form an inner lining, which can effectively reduce the impact force, especially providing good defense against arrows.

If the distance was farther, even if the arrows and crossbow bolts pierced through the armor, they would be blocked by the silk lining inside, resulting in the story recorded in various historical books: "He was hit by dozens of arrows, like a heavy hedgehog, but he still fought hard!"

When the two sides were within ten or twenty steps, their pace had become very slow.

As the weapons in their hands gradually collided with each other, all kinds of clanging sounds suddenly became more intense.

It is indeed a strong army that can directly thrust the long weapons in their hands into the opponent's face before taking action.

But it is obvious that neither the Western Army nor the Bianliang Army has such a calm and resolute heart.

The generals' shouts were of no use. Facing the pressure of death, a melee soon broke out between the two sides, and they desperately thrust their weapons towards each other.

The people in the front row fell down, and those in the back row quickly stepped forward to fill the vacancies. Before long, a layer of people were lying on the ground.

At the same time, the sharp warriors holding short weapons also bent their waists, facing the jungle of long weapons stabbing back and forth above their heads, and rushed to the feet of the enemy.

He swung his weapon left and right, trying to cause as much chaos as possible.

Once discovered, the tall soldiers in the back row will stab the ground, and if you can't dodge in time you will be stabbed into a bloody gourd immediately.

Even if you can dodge, it is easy to run into the opponent's short weapons, and then it will be a short but extremely tragic life-and-death battle.

In such a fight, the loser is sure to die.

Therefore, those who can serve as the brave warriors are all carefully selected and willing to die.

A fight of this magnitude no longer tests the generals' command capabilities, but rather the soldiers' morale, courage and fighting will.

There will be deserters on both sides who collapse due to the pressure of facing death, and they will all be killed on the spot by the generals.

After all, once a chain reaction is formed, the formation will collapse.
In terms of training and combat experience, the Western Army, which has been fighting against the Dangxiang people for many years, naturally has the advantage.

But in terms of morale, courage and willpower, the Bianliang army was more resolute.

The Western Army fought for wealth and goods. The Bianliang Army also fought for wealth and goods, but the price offered by Chen Ran was too high, several levels higher than that of the Western Army.

The Bianliang army thought that if they killed one more person, they would be promoted to a higher rank, and they and their families would receive a lot of extra income.

Even if people around them continue to die or get injured in battle, they can still grit their teeth and persevere.

But the Western Army is different. They are the most typical feudal army, and they do as much as they are paid.

The fierce battle before them was obviously so cruel and intense that it exceeded the limit of money and grain.

Chen Ran, who was extremely experienced in the battlefield, keenly observed that the Western Army had begun to show signs of retreating and even gradually disintegrating.

Under normal circumstances, this is the time to deploy the reserve forces and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop.

But Chen Ran didn't do so because the geographical environment of this battle was different.

Tong Guan's choice to cross the river to fight essentially put himself in a dead end.

He might not have thought that so many elite Western Army troops would be defeated, but the reality was that the river behind them became a natural barrier that cut off their chances of survival.

"Erlang." Chen Ran, who had come down from the viewing platform, immediately jumped on his horse and told Wu Song, "Follow me!"

Wu Song, holding a big flag, immediately rode his horse to catch up.

At the same time, thousands of cavalrymen mounted their horses and followed.

"If the reserve forces rush into the middle, they will only defeat the enemy. Once the Western Army is defeated, a large number of them will surely flee across the river, especially Tong Guan and other Western Army generals who are good at escaping. They will surely flee to the floating bridge first."

Chen Ran rode slowly, reorganized the cavalry along the way, and was still thinking about explaining to Wu Song, "These people have committed many evil deeds and harmed countless people. No matter what, we must not let them escape across the river and continue to harm the people."

"Let's bypass the main formation now and rush to the floating bridge to cut off their escape route and completely wipe out these bandit troops!"

(End of this chapter)