Jinting Han people

Chapter 110 First Battle (4k)

The battle began. In such a chaotic environment, Liu Xian actually couldn't see clearly the first wave of fighting between the two armies.

He only saw people's heads rising and falling, surging, waving weapons in their hands, and the sound of people shouting and roaring rang in his ears. Then, with a "bang", just like two huge rocks colliding, countless soldiers were entangled together, and the torches in the front fell to the ground one after another, just like sparks from exploding charcoal.

Then Liu Xian heard the crisp and fine sound of metal, like ripples.

It was the result of hundreds of soldiers hacking and killing each other. Swords and halberds, swords and halberds, armor and armor, the three colliding back and forth, mixed with people's awareness of life and death, dissolving the waves and boundaries between the two sides.

But as soon as the battle started, Liu Xian could see that his side was in a disadvantageous position.

These Qinzhong warriors trained by Yang Ji were indeed worthy of his reliance. Although each of them had different heights and were not as burly as Sima Wei's subordinates, they all looked very tough. They were covered in armor and moved skillfully. Facing the long spears of the palace guards in the front row, they stood up fearlessly and formed small triangular formations of four or five people, like wedges, forcefully nailing into the palace guards' line.

In comparison, the palace guards were clearly deficient in both courage and experience. Facing the enemy's offensive, they simply tried their best to keep pace with their companions, advancing when their companions advanced and retreating when their companions retreated. At the same time, they blindly waved their weapons at the enemies in front of them and were unable to look for flaws independently.

The most important issue is morale. Most of the palace guards were from Luoyang. Although they had received training on weekdays, they had experienced too many days of peace and had become somewhat lazy. They could not truly face death with equanimity. Facing the enemy's raging attack, it was impossible for them to remain calm and they could only retreat step by step.

As they retreated, those who had not yet engaged in the battle also retreated, and the palace guards had unknowingly retreated three feet.

Liu Xian saw this and knew it was not a solution. He said to Wang Dun, who was in charge of the command, "Chu Zhong, we should meet the enemy head-on. It seems we are no match for them."

The East Palace was in an uproar. Wang Dun didn't hear him the first time he said it, so he got closer and called out again. Only then did Wang Dun reply in the same loud voice, "I know, but what can we do now in such a hurry?"

Liu Xian said: "Let's rely on the geographical advantage!"

"what?"

Liu Xian shouted loudly: "Rely on the geographical advantage!"

"If we keep fighting like this in front of the palace, we'll just have to retreat! We'll easily be overwhelmed by the enemy!"

"I know that too!" Wang Dun, observing his own side's repeated defeats, grew anxious. He asked, "But the area is so small, where are the advantages?"

"Let's retreat to the stairs. They can't form a full formation. If we attack from below, they probably won't be able to move forward. We can also rotate our attacks!"

Wang Dun immediately replied loudly: "I have thought about what you said, but it is not possible!"

"why not?"

"We didn't defend the steps ahead. Now that the two armies are colliding, it's too late to retreat! If the enemy charges in when we retreat, we'll be easily overwhelmed if we're not careful. At that point, let alone defending, we won't even be able to escape!"

Liu Xian understood what Wang Dun meant. Most soldiers were opportunists because the larger the number of people, the more difficult it would be to unify their hearts.

They often make their choices based on the battlefield situation: if the situation is favorable, they will kick someone when they are down; if the situation is unclear, they will take advantage of the situation; if the situation is unfavorable, they will retreat. This means that the outcome of a battle is often determined by the vanguard. If the vanguard wins, everyone wins; if the vanguard loses, everyone loses. There is no other way.

The saying "When two brave men meet in a narrow road, the braver one prevails" actually means this.

The palace guards are now in this dilemma. The guards in the vanguard are retreating step by step. If they retreat directly, they will probably suffer a rout.

But if we continue like this, failure is inevitable.

But Liu Xian could not tolerate failure. If the prince fell into Yang Ji's hands, not to mention how great a political disaster it would cause, Jia Mi would definitely make a big fuss about it. By then, he would probably be in a desperate situation!
What should I do? Liu Xian's thoughts raced, and he skimmed through the battles he had learned, trying to find similar cases.

Liu Xian suddenly had an idea. He recalled Zhuge Liang's Fifth Northern Expedition, when he crossed the river to attack Guo Huaibei's troops, used his crossbows to protect their flanks, and repelled Sima Yi's surprise attack from the Wugong River. Suddenly, he had an idea. He said to Wang Dun and Jiang Tong, "Hold on here for a while. I'll be back soon!"

After saying that, Liu Xian quickly left the team, walked up dozens of bluestone steps, and returned to the hall amid the sound of metal.

Under the protection of more than forty guards, Crown Prince Sima Yi was sitting in the hall drinking calmly. Princess Yingchuan Sima Xiuhua was sitting next to him, feeling confused because of the fighting outside the hall.

Sima Yi put down his wine glass and said with a smile, "Huai Chong, why did you come in?"

"Your Highness, the Taibao is rebelling, and we are not fighting well."

"Unfavorable? Are you asking me to escape? What a shame, I don't want to go anywhere."

Of course, this was not the case. Liu Xian could see that Sima Yi's face remained calm, but his hand holding the wine was trembling slightly. It was not that he was not afraid or did not want to escape, but he knew too well that he was the morale of the guards. If he left, the soldiers in front would probably collapse directly, and the situation in the Eastern Palace would be reversed, allowing Yang Ji to gain the upper hand.

By then, regardless of whether he could escape, even if he did, his political career would be tarnished. So he had to sit here and pretend nothing had happened.

Liu Xian replied, "Of course not, Your Highness. What I meant is that you please hand over the remaining guards in the palace to me so that I can stabilize the situation."

These were Sima Yi's last guards, assigned to protect Sima Yi's safety and not to leave the Crown Prince's side easily. However, after hearing Liu Xian's request, Sima Yi did not hesitate much and asked, "Are you confident?"

"We will surely be able to repel the thieves!"

"Okay!" Sima Yi heard this and without hesitation, he said to Lu Yao, the Crown Prince's Right Officer beside him, "Take these people and follow Huai Chong's orders!"

Lu Yao subconsciously wanted to refuse: "Your Highness, your safety..."

"If we lose ahead, there's no chance of safety." Sima Yi slammed the table and said, "Go quickly!"

Lu Yao was speechless and could only bow, then follow Liu Xian out of the hall with the last guard.

As the group walked, Liu Xian asked Lu Yao, "Brother Lu, I remember that all your men were equipped with horn bows, right?"

"Yes."

"How far can it shoot?"

"The maximum range is three hundred paces, or forty feet, but it's so dark tonight, I'm afraid it won't be very accurate."

Liu Xian didn't need much accuracy, so he replied, "That's enough." The fighting outside the palace had intensified, like a disturbed hornet's nest. It took less than a quarter of an hour for Liu Xian to leave and return, but the palace guards had already retreated another ten feet. Standing on the steps, Liu Xian could already see the terrified faces of the guards at the rear.

Wang Dun, who was supervising the battle, had already drawn his sword and shouted at the palace guards who wanted to retreat, "Hold on! Anyone who retreats without permission will be killed!"

But it can be seen that this kind of intimidation is of little use, and the front line is inevitably retreating.

On the other side, Jiang Tong, wearing leather armor, had already joined the fighting team.

"Chu Zhong! Chu Zhong, I'm back!"

"Oh?" Wang Dun saw Liu Xian bringing the last of the palace guards over and immediately shouted at the top of his voice, "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has come personally to oversee the battle. Now is the time for you to fight to the death for your country!"

His shout finally boosted the morale of the palace guards and slightly stopped the attack of Yang Ji's assassins.

Wang Dun then turned around and asked in a low voice, "What do you mean? What's your idea?"

"I'll have Lu Yao and the others shoot arrows from thirty feet away to crush the rebels. You go and inform everyone that when they hear the sound of arrows, they should immediately retreat to the steps and switch to bows to shoot back. We'll engage them in a round-robin battle here to outnumber them!"

Using a rain of arrows to cover the retreat is not actually a very sophisticated tactic, but for the East Palace guards who have never been on the battlefield and rarely even participate in military training, it is the most suitable and will not show any disadvantages.

Wang Dun immediately understood Liu Xian’s idea. After shouting “Good!” three times, he quickly ran up the stairs to the side of the military drum.

When Wang Dun took the drumstick, he looked back down and saw Lu Yao and the others already lined up in four rows, bows drawn, arrows hanging in the air. Liu Xian was staring at him. Their eyes met, and they nodded simultaneously. Liu Xian immediately waved his hand and shouted, "Release!"

With a whoosh, dozens of sharp arrows flew out from the air, leaving traces of tracks and drilling into Yang Ji's death squad like iron stones falling from the sky.

Upon seeing this, Wang Dun immediately changed the fast drum to a slow drum, and the continuous drum beats were suddenly changed to two fast and one slow heavy hammers.

The palace guards fighting in the front heard the order to retreat and immediately turned back, as if they had been pardoned. They retreated like birds returning to their nests. Yang Ji's soldiers in the front wanted to pursue the enemy, but after charging for ten steps, they realized that their comrades behind them were suppressed by wave after wave of arrows and could not move forward. To fight against the enemy with a small number of people was to commit suicide in vain.

They had no choice but to stop and draw their bows to shoot at the palace guards. The palace guards, who had gradually calmed down, also launched a counterattack along with Lu Yao and his men.

For a moment, arrows fell from the sky like rain, hitting and crackling in the air. Both sides were enjoying themselves. Sometimes, the second arrow flew out before the first arrow hit the ground, like swans playing with each other.

But in fact, these rain of arrows did not cause much casualties, because both sides were armored soldiers. Unless the arrows hit the uncovered vital points, they would basically be nailed between the armor, so densely packed that the people who were hit looked like hedgehogs. If the arrows could not penetrate the armor, the armored people would feel like being hit by a fist, and that was all.

At this time, both sides calmed down.

The fight had lasted three quarters of an hour, but Yang Ji was clearly the more dominant party. His men were more courageous and experienced, but they were outnumbered. After this fierce battle, Liu Xian and his men had already figured out Yang Ji's strengths. The enemy had perhaps only three hundred men, at most four hundred.

On the other hand, the guards of the East Palace were not very resistant to fighting. After three quarters of an hour of fighting, they left behind more than forty corpses and twenty to thirty seriously injured people, which was probably more than three times the number of the enemy.

But this didn't mean defeat. The palace guards didn't need to decide the outcome here. Their mission was actually to stall for time. With such a commotion, half of Luoyang must have heard it. Reinforcements were surely on their way. Furthermore, they had a slight advantage in numbers, perhaps a hundred more men. Now stuck on the stairs, holding on would offer a chance of success.

Jiang Tong returned to Liu Xian, breathless, and asked, "Huai Chong, what do you think Yang Gong will do? Will he give up?"

Liu Xian stared intently at the silent enemies in the darkness and replied, "It's hard to say. Yang Ji was so trusted by the late emperor, so he shouldn't have only these few tricks up his sleeve."

"What? You mean there's still a tough battle?"

"I don't want to either! But this kind of thing is never up to you or me."

"Where are the reinforcements? Why haven't they arrived yet?"

"Don't be anxious, stay calm first, there will always be a way."

As he spoke, the dark clouds in the night sky dispersed slightly, and the silvery moonlight shone down again, gradually sweeping away the original darkness and outlining some outlines in the hazy world: gently undulating lake waves, willow branches floating in the wind, the silent and upright palace walls, the steaming pool of blood on the ground, and dozens of trampled corpses with their eyes open.

When the guards of the East Palace looked towards the enemy, they could easily see that among the dead soldiers, there stood an old man who had taken off his armor and revealed his gray hair. His face looked very tired, and his hair bun shone like ripples in the moonlight.

But strangely, the guards of the East Palace were attracted by another person and gradually felt fear.

It was a towering figure, like a small mountain amidst the crowd. While people used the phrase "a crane standing out among chickens" to describe Ji Shao's brilliance among scholars, it was merely a metaphor. But in this case, the phrase "a crane standing out among chickens" was a literal and fitting description. Before him, everyone else, including Liu Xian, was like shrubs before a willow tree.

Jiang Tong couldn't help swallowing his saliva when he saw this person. He then said, "Where did Yang Ji find this monster? How tall is this person?"

"It should be about 2.3 feet ( meters)." Liu Xian's mind was also shaken. He had never imagined that a human could grow to this height. It was like entering a wild myth. "Maybe even more..."

He suddenly remembered that when he was fourteen years old, he first met Sima Wei in Chen Shou's house. Sima Wei once told him about this incident:

"You know the Three Yangs, these three have treasures to protect their homes!"

"The Prince's tutor (Yang Ji)'s treasure is a person."

"That's no ordinary man. He's a strongman recruited from Hedong. He's the strongest and bravest of all three armies, capable of taking on a hundred enemies alone! He's on par with Guan Yu and Zhang Fei! Previously, when the Crown Prince's Grand Tutor was the General Guarding the North, he once encountered a large tiger on the road in Youzhou. It was this warrior who killed the tiger with just three punches and two kicks! Isn't that incredible?"

Liu Xian had originally thought that this brave warrior was probably just eight feet tall, with a broad back and strong arms, and possessed of brute strength. As for the claim that he could defeat a hundred enemies alone and kill a tiger with three punches and two kicks, it was probably an exaggeration.

I have practiced sword for many years and may be a little inferior in strength, but if it comes to a sword fight, I will not necessarily lose in a one-on-one duel.

But now, after seeing this giant with his own eyes, Liu Xian completely dispelled this idea. He no longer had any doubts about Sima Wei's description: This man can definitely kill a tiger!

And now, he took heavy steps, like the movement of mountains, and appeared before everyone in an unstoppable manner.

A giant, he is about to join the battle.

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(End of this chapter)