My father, King Chu, was besieged at Gaixia

Chapter 148: Having a Son
"Boom, boom, boom, boom..."

The dull and powerful drumbeats, accompanied by the majestic and powerful trumpets, spread far and wide across the vast land.

The west and north gates of Gaixia City were opened wide, and the Chu army came out in full force, lined up in neat rows, and stared at the Han army camp opposite with an attitude of swallowing up everything.

Standing on a high observation platform, Xiang Chang looked down at the mighty army of the Great Chu and the high morale, with endless pride and heroism growing in his heart.

After all the efforts to strengthen the strength of the Chu, it finally had the capital to compete with the Han camp. When he sent several cavalry to intercept the logistics supply of the Han camp, the Han camp finally couldn't stand it and was forced to come out of the turtle shell and fight to the death with him.

"Han Xin was killed by old Liu Bang. In this battle, is old Liu Bang going to fight in person?" General Zhongli Mei, who was standing behind Xiang Chang on the left side, said with sarcasm and ridicule.

Since Xiang Chang returned to Gaixia, Zhongli Mei immediately and spontaneously retreated to the position of deputy, giving the main general to Xiang Chang. Now standing behind him, although the battle with the Han camp is imminent and the outcome is uncertain, his heart is strangely filled with a sense of security that he will win.

"The eldest son has grown up to this point! It is a great blessing for the Overlord to have such a son." Looking at Xiang Chang's figure, Zhongli Mei was in a trance, and he felt like he was back to a few years ago, following the Overlord who was victorious in every battle, and fighting across the world indisputably during those happy and dreamy days.

No matter how powerful the enemy was at that time, no matter how fierce the fighting force was or how exaggerated the military strength was, everyone in the Great Chu, including him, was full of confidence, arrogant and conceited. The only belief in "victory" was in their heads, and they never had the thought of "defeat".

"It's like a rabbit pulling a cart. Old Liu Bang is going to suffer this time." Xiang Zhuang, who was standing behind Xiang Chang on the right, also laughed out loud.

After Xiang Chang returned to Gaixia, Xiang Zhuang asked him about the whereabouts of Overlord. Xiang Chang then explained his plan in detail, and at the end he said in a leisurely and expectant tone: "Let's wait and see the infighting drama! I'm afraid Han Xin will die tragically at the hands of Liu Bang this time?!"

Although Xiang Zhuang was extremely impressed by Xiang Chang's plan at that time, he did not think that things would eventually go according to his plan. When the news of Han Xin's death really came, it was indeed Liu Bang who killed him. Xiang Zhuang was shocked and could not believe it for a long time.

Han Xin, a military genius who was no less than the Overlord, was actually eliminated by Master Chang with a simple trick? It must be said that although he had already decided to follow Xiang Chang to the death, he was still shocked by this unimaginable and miraculous operation.

Compared to Xiang Zhuang and Zhongli Mei's almost worshipful feelings towards him, Xiang Chang had a calm and composed expression, but his heart was extremely solemn and cautious. He did not feel the slightest contempt for being an enemy of Liu Bang.

The history of his previous life told him that Liu Bang's military strategy might not be as good as those of Xiang Yu, Han Xin, Peng Yue, Ying Bu and other rare genius generals, but he definitely deserved to be one of the top generals of the time.

Next, he commanded the entire Han camp army to fight, and he also had an advantage that Han Xin did not have, that is, he had control over the entire Han camp! It can be said that no one in the Han camp dared to ignore his military orders, especially he knew the style, ability, and level of the generals of the Han camp very well, and was able to send them to the appropriate positions appropriately.

"Old Liu Bang, you owe my father and the Great Chu, today is the day for you to pay it all back!" Xiang Chang's eyes gleamed fiercely.

Xiang Chang divided the 40,000 infantry and 40,000 cavalry of the Chu into four groups. Xiang Sheng was the commander of the central army, Xiang Guan was the deputy commander, Ji Bu was the commander of the right army, Tian Jian was the deputy commander, Huan Chu was the commander of the left army, and Qu Fu was the deputy commander. Each of them led 10,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry to fight the decisive battle with the Han camp. He, Zhongli Mei, and Xiang Zhuang led 10,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry to coordinate in the middle.

Ji Bu, commander of the right army of the Great Chu, looked at the 40,000 infantrymen in the Han camp opposite and the two huge flags of "Zhou" and "Chai" flying high. He stroked his messy beard, squinted his tiger eyes and kept thinking.

After so many years of fighting with the Han army, he was very familiar with the Han army's main generals. For example, Zhou Bo was one of Liu Bang's old team members. He was not only skilled in military strategy, but also had extraordinary personal courage. Now that he was fighting with him, Ji Bu could not help but feel heavy pressure.

As for the deputy general Chai Wu, he was no pushover either. In the process of the heroes rising up against Qin, he gathered a group of elite soldiers on his own and made his mark in the siege of the last remaining light of the Qin Dynasty - General Zhang Han. Later, he led his 4,000 troops to surrender to Liu Bang and made significant contributions to Liu Bang's conquest of Qin and Chu.

In other words, Zhou Bo was Liu Bang's childhood friend and was loyal to him, enjoying the old thief Liu's trust. Otherwise, the two should have switched positions as the main general and deputy general of the left army now.

This was not the first time that Ji Bu served as the chief general. He had always been decisive and ruthless in the past, and he was unwilling to lag behind others. But the reason why he was so solemn and cautious now was that he knew too well that the current situation of the Great Chu was hard-won.

It can be said that this battle is too important. It is directly related to which camp between the Great Chu and the Great Han will rule the world next. This inevitably makes him feel the heavy responsibility on his shoulders.

"General, how do we fight this battle? Do you have any strategy?" The deputy general Tian Jian, who was riding beside him, suddenly asked.

Ji Bu glanced at him sideways, unconsciously putting on the conceited posture of a commander. Just as he was about to speak, a thought suddenly occurred to him: this boy has followed Master Chang for a long time and understands Master Chang's mind best. Master Chang promoted him from a low-level officer to a deputy general of an army in a short period of time, so it is obvious that Master Chang has high hopes for him. Perhaps he has outstanding insights.

Ji Bu had a genial smile on his face, and even disregarding his position as the commander-in-chief, he bowed to Tian Jian and said, "General Tian, ​​what insights do you have? Why don't you tell us so that we can discuss them together?"

Unexpectedly, Ji Bu, a well-known general, was so polite to him. Tian Jian was flattered. Hearing Ji Bu's words, he did not flinch. He pointed at the Han left army opposite and said proudly:

"With 20,000 troops of the Great Chu against 40,000 troops of the Great Han, and with the advantage of cavalry, what else do we need to have a brilliant idea? Just do it! This battle is crucial to the Great Chu, and the Overlord and Prince Chang have also released the reward for being made a marquis. This battle will surely give birth to a large number of marquises! Looking at the entire army, everyone is rubbing their hands, and their eyes are red, hoping to take a big chance! It is said that General Huan Chu of the Left Route Army intends to take advantage of the merits of this battle to come from behind and ride on your neck to pee."

"Now the general and I are one, I cannot stand this humiliation. If the general trusts me, I will lead the army to charge in the front, and the general will lead the army to cover me. We can defeat the 40,000 Chu troops in front of us and show our skills in front of Master Chang. What do you think?"

Ji Bu looked at Tian Jian in surprise, then laughed and said, "General Tian, ​​you don't have to provoke me! Since you think highly of me, how can I hinder you? Just do as you say! Go ahead and attack, even if you fail, don't worry. I will personally go into battle and see how loud Zhou Bo, the drummer, is!"

Tian Jian was overjoyed and said, "Don't worry, General. If I don't defeat Zhou Bo completely, I will lose!"

Seeing Tian Jian going to prepare his army for battle with high spirits, Ji Bu suddenly felt his blood boiling, and he suddenly felt that the fearless spirit he had when he followed the Overlord to conquer the world had returned!
"Woo--" The marching horn finally sounded. The 80,000 neatly lined up Chu troops were like a waking beast, and they immediately took action and rushed towards the Han camp opposite.

Tian Jian, protected by his personal cavalry, rushed to the front. Behind him were three thousand cavalry and four thousand infantry. Above his head, a large flag with the Chinese character "田" fluttered and flew.

Looking up at the big flag that had established his name, Tian Jian was excited, and secretly made up his mind that if he didn't be the first to defeat the Han army in this battle and make his name known throughout the two major camps of Han and Chu, he would not be a human being!

At the moment when Hei Shi is in charge of Linjiang Kingdom, he can be said to be the representative of the civilian generals promoted by Xiang Chang. Therefore, this battle is not only for Da Chu, but also for him to demonstrate the dignity and prestige of their civilian generals. He is worthy of Master Chang's vision and responsibility!

Tian Jian controlled the speed of the horses so that the cavalry and the infantry in the rear could maintain a coordinated speed.

As they got closer and closer to the Han army camp, they saw the Han army set up a barricade formation, with soldiers hiding behind them, drawing their bows and holding their spears, ready to fight. The Chu army had already figured out a way to crack this. When Shimoda Kenichi waved his hand, 3,000 Chu cavalry stood up on their horses, and shot arrows at the Han soldiers behind the barricades, suppressing them. The infantry lowered their heads and rushed forward, running to the barricade formation, or throwing out flying claws and hooks to hook the barricades and turn around to drag them, or directly holding up their spears to fight the Han army hand-to-hand, fighting to the death.

The Chu cavalry was in a commanding position, and their arrows had a great advantage, suppressing the Han cavalry archers behind the barricades. When the arrows they shot desperately hit the Chu soldiers, they found that most of them were in vain and were bounced aside.

These 4,000 infantrymen were equipped with iron armor from the Hengshan Kingdom, which had amazing defensive capabilities and could not be penetrated by ordinary arrows.

As the infantry pulled aside the barricades, the cavalry could not wait to charge in, trampling back and forth on horseback in an attempt to disperse and defeat the Han army behind the barricades.

The Han soldiers were killed and fled in all directions, leaving behind a powerful army composed entirely of burly men.

This group of tough men wielded huge hammers, axes and hatchets and attacked on the ground, targeting the three lower routes, chopping the horses' legs from above and the horses' hooves from below, and every chop was accurate.

The Chu cavalry were caught off guard. Their war horses neighed sadly, their hooves broke, blood spurted out, and they fell heavily to the ground like a meteorite, carrying the cavalry on their backs, with their bones shattered.

This is the "Zao Cavalry" specially organized and trained by Han Xin against the Chu cavalry!
Unexpectedly, they inflicted such heavy casualties on the Chu Cavalry. The morale of this "Zao Cavalry" was greatly boosted. They continued to charge forward and completely threw themselves into the Chu Cavalry team. According to their usual training, they crouched at the waist, exhaled and shouted, wielding their heavy blades and slashing around randomly.

This fierce and targeted "Zaoqi Army" not only stopped the unstoppable offensive momentum of the Chu cavalry, but also caused heavy casualties to the Chu cavalry, forcing them to retreat step by step. The 3,000 Chu cavalry could neither charge forward nor retreat, and were stuck here, and the Chu infantry following behind could not come up either, and they were anxious and stared blankly.

Seeing that the battle situation suddenly became so dangerous and the 3,000 Chu cavalry were about to destroy this place, Tian Jian was furious. He waved his spear and ordered the messenger to blow the horn immediately.

The three thousand cavalrymen who were hacked to death were at the forefront. When they heard the horn, they stretched their necks and screamed. They knew that charging forward would mean death, but they still rushed forward without hesitation and fell into the trap one after another.

As expected, their horses' legs were all chopped off by the "Zao Cavalry", and they fell off their horses, or were smashed into a pulp, or were hacked to death by the "Zao Cavalry". No one was lucky enough to escape.

The remaining thousand or so cavalrymen in the rear, as their comrades in the front charged forward desperately, created a buffer space and flexibly turned their horses' heads, switching from charging forward to running quickly to both sides.

Tian Jian, who watched helplessly as nearly half of his 3,000 cavalrymen were killed and still wanted to win a decisive victory, was like an angry wolf. His eyes were red as he stared at the "Zao Cavalry" of the Han camp and muttered, "Have you had enough fun? You've had enough fun, it's my turn next!"

It has to be said that Tian Jian was no pushover. He led hundreds of escort cavalry and personally rode forward, rushing straight to the front of the "Zao Cavalry" formation.

The "Zao Cavalry" thought that the Chu Cavalry had come to deliver food again, and was feeling both pleasantly surprised and delighted. They were preparing to receive the heavy gifts with their heavy troops in hand. However, they didn't expect that these hundreds of Chu Cavalry would roar explosively, and at the same time, they would lean sideways on their horses and throw hundreds of javelins at them with a whoosh sound.

The surprise on the faces of this "Zao Cavalry" froze, and the ferocity in their eyes instantly turned into horror. They almost watched as hundreds of their comrades in the front were nailed to the ground by spears.

Those who did not die at the moment were still twitching violently and wailing miserably, which was creepy.

Almost in the blink of an eye, the situation reversed again.

The remaining one thousand or so "Zao Cavalry" were terrified, and then the Chu Cavalry galloping to both sides began to shoot arrows continuously, killing hundreds of them again.

At this time, the four thousand Chu infantry finally rushed up, holding spears and standing like a forest, advancing step by step towards the "Zao Cavalry".

The "Zao Cavalry" were unstoppable in killing the Chu Cavalry, but they were helpless against the Chu Infantry. Compared with the Chu Infantry's spears, the handles of the giant axes, hatchets and hammers in their hands, which were specially forged for killing war horses, were too short to reach them at all. They were constantly stabbed in the chest and skewered like meat.

With the complete annihilation of the "Zao Cavalry", the Han army's first line of chevaux de frise was completely broken.

Tian Jian did not rush to continue the attack, but gathered the cavalry that had suffered heavy casualties, along with his own hundreds of guard cavalry, and collected the javelins. He then sent out a team of Chu infantry to quickly equip the giant axes, hammers, and hatchets that had fallen from the ground by the dead Han camp "chisel cavalry".

(End of this chapter)