Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 328 My Lord, you may take a rest now!
The sky is high and the clouds are light, and the sun is shining brightly.

In the dense forest where no one noticed, the reflection of armor could be vaguely seen. Two hundred armored men rode on tall horses and slowly moved through the forest. The armor on the knights was not beautiful. The silver-gray armor tightly wrapped the body from top to bottom. Under the helmet was the knight's stern face, but now it was covered by a cold and ferocious mask.

Two layers of human armor weigh more than 140 kilograms. The horse armor of a six-foot (cm) high horse is slightly heavier than the human armor. From the horse's head, neck, belly to the horse's tail, it actually weighs kilograms. The total weight of the man, horse and armor is more than kilograms.

The armored cavalry has the ultimate in defense, and is equally powerful in offensive weapons. Not only are they equipped with exquisite and tough lances and heavy and sharp horse bows, but they also each have a slightly curved ring-handled sword and a steel whip. Those who are good at using meteor hammers have additional equipment.

"Bah!"

Each steel beast weighed 500 kilograms, was covered in tiger-striped and leopard-spotted fur, and had feathered wings on their shoulders. They rode their horses and marched to the outside of the forest, following the direction of the pennant.

The reason why the Han Dynasty's Yulin Cavalry was named Yulin is because the Han cavalry carried wings on their backs, which looked like a forest of trees from a distance. However, the wings of the Yulin Cavalry were different from those of the Polish Winged Cavalry. They were slightly smaller in shape and closer to the neck, similar to the flag-carrying cavalry.

Although the wings of the Yulin Cavalry and the Winged Hussars are different, their essence is the same, which is to exaggerate the momentum of the heavy cavalry and their size in order to scare the enemy.

Zhang Yu's armored cavalry was formed very early. When he was in Bingzhou, the prefecture government allocated heavy armor and horse armor for Zhang Yu. When he was the lieutenant of the imperial army in the capital, Zhang Yu expanded the number of heavy cavalry with the help of Emperor Ling of Han.

When Zhang Yu first started his army, the armored cavalry helped him a lot, so they were assigned to the National Defense Army. As Zhang Yu's territory expanded, the number of armored cavalry did not increase much, but the supply of weapons, armor and horses was of high quality.

Although the heavy cavalry following Zhang Yu are only two hundred in number, the deterrent force they give to the enemy is almost as great as that of a thousand cavalry, or even more terrifying than a thousand cavalry.

However, behind the silent Long army formation, a group of two hundred armored cavalrymen were galloping towards the Han banner indifferently and silently. The only sound along the way was the dull thunder-like sound of horses' hooves hitting the ground.

Soon, the fearsome armored cavalry was noticed by the Long army soldiers. Seeing the mighty armored cavalry charging, the soldiers were shocked and shouted: "Armored cavalry, heavily armored cavalry!"

First one person discovered it, and then dozens or even hundreds of soldiers discovered it. Everyone was terrified by the armored cavalry that suddenly appeared in the rear.

"General, Zhang Yu has set up an ambush, and his cavalry are circling the mountains and forests, and now they want to attack our army!"

Cheng Gongying noticed it with sharp eyes, pointed at the group of armored cavalry approaching from the east, and said in shock.

All the generals of the Long Army were unable to support the armored cavalry, but now they saw the armored cavalry suddenly galloping over, which must belong to Zhang Yu!
"Zhang Yu knew he couldn't defeat me, so he deployed a large force of cavalry to attack the center of the army. His tactics really shouldn't be underestimated!"

Han Sui's expression suddenly became heavy. He didn't have time to think about why the armored cavalry appeared here. Now he was nervous about the central army with only 2,000 soldiers. If Zhang Yu drove his horse to attack the central army, wouldn't he be defeated here?

Cheng Gongying said: "General, you are the commander of the army. If Zhang Yu and his cavalry are defeated and flee, the other troops will be terrified. You can lead the central army to hold the position and send troops back to support. If you can stop the armored cavalry from breaking through the formation and wait for the other troops to defeat Zhang Yu's army, then the danger will be resolved!"

"Bo Ying is absolutely right!"

Han Sui drew his sword and pointed at the central army, saying sternly: "Form a circle, set up spears, and mount bows and crossbows to prevent the armored cavalry from breaking through the formation. Also, order Yan Xing to send troops back to support us. I want to see how Zhang Yu breaks through my central army!"

"promise!"

At Han Sui's command, the troops in the central army changed. Before, they were lined up facing south, but now the infantry faced the periphery of the army, holding spears and forming a dense spear forest, hoping to use the spear formation to resist the armored cavalry.

After a while, Zhang Yu led the armored cavalry to the central army. Seeing that the central army led by Han Sui was well guarded, the cavalry did not dare to charge head-on. Instead, they took out their horse bows and divided the two hundred cavalry into four teams, each with fifty cavalrymen, who took turns to surround and shoot the enemy in the central army with bows.

"Whoosh!"

The armored cavalry were heavily armored and not afraid of ordinary bows and crossbows. They almost approached several dozen steps and shot and killed or injured many Long army soldiers. However, the Long army's bows and crossbows could hardly cause damage to the armored cavalry. Many armored cavalry were hit by several arrows, but because of their heavy armor, they were still alive and well, and they didn't even know they were hit by arrows.

"Bah!"

"Sir, when the enemy sees that we are surrounding the central army, they have made some changes and sent out infantry and cavalry to support us!" Zhao Yun shot an arrow with his bow and reported what he had observed to Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu looked around and saw that the left and right wings of the Long army had troops returning to support the central army, and Yan Xing personally led elite troops to rescue them, while the Qiang and Di troops only sent cavalry to support them.

"go!"

Seeing that the front army's formation had changed as he expected, Zhang Yu decisively gave up encircling and shooting at the central army, and instead blew the unique "Strange Valley" whistle, summoning the armored cavalry to evacuate with him.

Looking down from the sky today, we can see that when the reinforcements of the Long Army were about to encircle the 200 cavalrymen, Zhang Yu led the cavalry to suddenly change direction, go out through the gap, and charge towards the eastern formation led by Agui.

It was said before that the front army of Long was divided into two parts, the eastern part was the mixed Hu soldiers of Qiang and Di, and the western part was the Song and Han armies. The position where the armored cavalry was attacking was the eastern position where the two parts met.

Four teams of fifty cavalrymen launched an attack that was even more fierce than the siege of the central army. Zhang Yu personally led the armored cavalrymen to a distance of ten steps from the enemy and fired a wave of fifty arrows. Under the close-range shooting, several unarmored Di people were killed in an instant, and several others were injured.

Zhang Yu led his cavalry to turn their horses and leave space for the next wave of fifty cavalry to shoot. Suddenly, a whirlwind blew, and the next wave of arrows shot at the Di people at the bottom of the formation. The two armies rained down arrows, and facing the pressure brought by the heavy cavalry, the Di people at the bottom of the formation faintly became agitated.

Zhao Yun led the third wave of armored cavalry and suddenly arrived. Seeing that the formation was in chaos, Zhao Yun did not hesitate at all and fired his bow and arrows, then put away the bow and used a spear.

The next moment, Zhao Yun's murderous face was covered by a mask. He carried a feather on his back and used his long spear as a sharp arrow to charge into the battle formation fiercely.

The spear-wielding Di people were frightened when they saw the giant steel beast charging into the battle formation, and subconsciously retreated quickly to avoid Zhao Yun's charge route.

"Bang!" The cavalry weighing more than 500 pounds charged into the battle formation and knocked the Di soldiers away.

Zhao Yun thrust forward with his spear, lifting the Di soldier into the air. Then he exerted force with his arms, shouted loudly, and swept the wailing Di soldiers down, killing several of them in an instant.

He kicked the horse lightly in the belly, and the armored horse galloped. Zhao Yun entered the battle array with a spear in hand, stabbed with the spear, killed three people in a row, and directly opened a gap for the heavy cavalry. Then fifty heavy cavalry followed in and directly rushed the Di soldiers who were holding the battle array into pieces.

"Good Zilong!"

Zhang Yu, who was in charge of the team, saw that Zhao Yun was the first to break the formation and praised him loudly.

As the Shanxi Army had a high proportion of cavalry, Zhang Yu had already formulated corresponding tactics for the cavalry. For example, when breaking into the enemy's formation, fifty people would be divided into groups and take turns to provoke the enemy formation. If the enemy formation was in chaos, anyone had to break into the formation, otherwise they would be subject to military law.

"rush!"

Seeing the cavalry rushing in, Zhang Yu pointed forward with his spear in hand, and along the widening gap, he led fifty armored cavalrymen to charge into the battle formation.

"puff!"

Zhang Yu stabbed the Di soldier to death with the long spear in his hand, then pulled out the spear with his backhand, blood splattering on his armor and robes, and then swung the spear fiercely, killing another Qiang soldier, and then followed the passage opened by Zhao Yun and rushed into the battle.

In less than a moment, two hundred heavy cavalry entered the battle array from the foot, like a dagger stabbing diagonally into the army formation.

As the heavy cavalry went deeper into the army formation, the impact force brought by the horses became slower and slower, and enemy soldiers with spears appeared in front and behind, trying to surround and kill the heavy cavalry.

"Zilong, be careful!"

Zhang Yu stabbed a swordsman to death, but saw that Zhao Yun, who was acting as the spearhead, was surrounded by fierce Qiang soldiers. A Qiang soldier wanted to stab Zhao Yun from behind, and he shouted anxiously.

Zhao Yun looked back and saw someone attacking him from behind. He pulled out the steel whip from his belt with his left hand, first knocked the spear away, and then hit the Qiang soldier's cheek with the whip. The corner of his mouth was sunken, his teeth were flying, his eyes were full of stars, his nose was bleeding, and he didn't know whether he was dead or alive.

Before the middle period of Zhang Yu, most horse whips in the army were made of wool. However, due to frequent expeditions, horse whips were often worn out, so Zhang Yu promoted steel whips and wooden whips in the army to save wear and tear. Among them, cavalry generals liked iron whips the most, which could be used as close combat weapons in battles.

Zhao Yun was good at using the sword before. Now that he had an iron whip, he practiced the whip technique diligently. Now when he entered the battle, he held the whip in one hand and wielded the spear in the other, and he was quite calm.

"Shut up!"

Suddenly, Zhang Yu heard a whine from his mount, and saw a mixed Hu warrior slashing the mount's leg with a knife in the chaos.

Zhang Yu cursed inwardly, drew back the spear and stabbed it at Zahu's face. The sharp spear head pierced his cheek and knocked him to the ground. Zahu's face was covered with blood and he covered his face and wailed.

"puff!"

Zhang Yu turned his spear and stabbed back, completely finishing off the miscellaneous Hu. He glanced at the white horses that were still able to fight, and then continued to lead the heavy cavalry to charge, disrupting the general's formation, so that the front-line Long soldiers were greatly shaken and lost their will to fight.

"Your Majesty!"

When the heavy cavalry broke into the battle, Xu Chu took the lead and led the infantry to take advantage of the enemy's chaotic formation and attack from both inside and outside with the heavy cavalry, thus defeating the Qiang and Di soldiers between the two.

Xu Chu strode forward, holding a shield and a sword, and relying on his extraordinary strength, he hacked and killed his way into the battle. No one dared to stop him wherever he went. Because he was worried about Zhang Yu's safety, he led his troops to meet up with the heavy cavalry while shouting for Zhang Yu in the chaotic crowd.

Or maybe he heard the loud sound of Xu Chu's trumpet, and Zhang Yu responded hastily, then swung the steel whip in his hand, hitting the enemy's head hard, trying to drive away the enemy as much as possible.

When Xu Chu heard Zhang Yu's voice, he hacked at anyone who blocked his way, until his hands were covered in blood. He finally got ahead of Zhang Yu, whose appearance was unrecognizable.

"Your Majesty!"

Zhang Yu looked in the direction of the voice and saw that it was Xu Chu who had already rushed to his side. He took off the mask covering his face and asked with a smile, "Why are you here, Zhongkang?"

Xu Chu grabbed Zhang Yu's reins and said distressedly, "Sir, our army has broken through the enemy's formation, and the other troops are taking advantage of the situation to pursue you. You have worked hard for days and nights, now you can dismount and take a rest!"

Zhang Yu looked in the direction of Han Sui, and saw Han Sui leading the central army to retreat. He cursed: "Han Sui is withdrawing now. How can he be as cowardly as a rat and not dare to fight with our army?"

"Chase!"

Zhang Yu dared not rest, so he pushed away Xu Chu's hand and said in a strong voice: "Zhongkang, now is not the time to rest. You lead the infantry to wipe out the remaining soldiers, and I will lead the cavalry to chase and kill Han Sui."

"If I don't kill Han Sui, I won't be able to get over the knot in my heart!"

ps: There is another one in the evening

(End of this chapter)