Tiger Guards

Chapter 153: Kill the King Again
To the north, King Qiangqu sat with his back against a tree trunk, sitting on a felt carpet.

For comfort, he also took off his leather boots.

Looking at the Tiger Guards chariots a mile away, an idea popped into King Qiangqu's mind. He asked with a smile, "Will the Han generals attack here?"

A cousin of his, Lu Xiao, asked back, "Where can we find such a brave Han general nowadays?"

Another man spoke up, "Even Lü Bu and Zhang Yang were skilled archers, and Tai'ahou was shot dead by a Han general yesterday. Today, this Han general is merely engaging in a roving exchange of fire with our warriors. By noon, our troops are exhausted, so how could he dare launch a surprise attack and engage in hand-to-hand combat?"

"Yes, I think King Qiangqu is worrying too much."

The laughter of his fellow tribesmen could not dispel King Qiangqu's doubts.

He stood up and looked around, and saw that most of the horses in the camp were eating the young crops and grass near the river bank on the west side of the road.

There were less than three hundred knights on guard and ready for battle around, which made him feel even more dissatisfied, and it was not easy to mobilize his troops forcefully.

Especially the powerful herdsmen of the tribes who have horses, these people are the leaders of the group.

When participating in tribal battles, they often brought multiple cavalrymen, several sons-in-law, and slaves. They were the grassroots nodes of the Xiongnu armed forces.

Even if you are one of the nineteen famous kings, if you are too arrogant and unreasonable, your followers will leave you one after another.

This has been the biggest problem since the Huns moved into the Great Wall.

The pastures and grazing areas were not clearly divided, the disputes among the tribes were difficult to resolve, and the tribes were fickle, with the strength of each tribe increasing and decreasing.

Whenever one person's strength increases greatly, he will be besieged and isolated by others.

Or maybe someone rises very quickly, and an unfair decision in the internal distribution of pasture may cause many of his followers to abandon him.

Since entering the Great Wall, the Xiongnu tribes have lost their existing order, and a new order has not yet been established.

Now, to be a famous king, one must be careful about what he says and does, and win the hearts of the people.

From the leaders of settlements to the kings of tribes, all need to be treated well.

Even though he envied the straightforwardness and savagery among the Xianbei tribes, King Qiangqu had no choice now. Being among the Xiongnu, he had to be a relatively gentle king.

Otherwise, not to mention your tribesmen and relatives, even the powerful people in Taiyuan and Hedong will not do business with you.

Not daring to force the Xiongnu cavalry to prepare for battle, King Qiangqu could only dispatch two teams of infantry.

He really wanted to mobilize a few more teams of his own infantry, but he was afraid that his relatives around him would misunderstand him, so he gathered the nearby troops and formed two battle groups to be on the safe side.

Out of caution, King Qiangqu took the opportunity to get up to urinate and put on his boots naturally.

His relatives took off their boots and lay on the felt carpets under the shade of the trees. Some of them took off their upper body breastplates and opened their clothes to get some fresh air and cool down.

These Huns had fought many bad battles, and there were also brave Han generals who dared to charge into the enemy lines, but there were too few of them.

Hedong is so small, and there are such heroes among the Han people. They have long made a name for themselves and spread their fame far and wide.

As for the Han court, many Huns retreated angrily because they could not get the bounty...The gathering of so many Huns at this moment may be motivated by revenge.

How could there be such a brave general who could break into the enemy's territory in such a Han Dynasty court?
Rich experience told them that Qiangqu was too suspicious.

A gentle southeasterly breeze blew occasionally. A fellow with a thick beard opened his shirt, stroked his wine-red chest hair, and sighed with emotion: "It's strange to say, enjoying the cool breeze in other places at noon is not very pleasant. But in this battle formation, the cool breeze blows, and it is refreshing to the bone marrow and heart."

"Yeah, come out to fight and stretch your muscles, then you'll feel comfortable when you get home, hehe."

It was originally a normal sentence, but the obscene laughter immediately made the meaning of the words specific, and several people started laughing at each other.

Suddenly, a warrior standing guard shouted: "My king, the Han army is charging!"

Upon hearing this, King Qiangqu jumped up and saw the entire southern Han army front advancing in unison, raising a cloud of dust five or six miles wide.

And the Han army chariots a mile away were rushing towards him.

The Huns standing nearby had already started running, and many of them ran desperately towards the west bank of the river.

King Qiangqu grinned grimly, "Apart from that little orphan Qubei, who else could have such a method?"

"Bring me my horse!"

He shouted to his guards, and his relatives scattered, each going to look for their own tribesmen.

Even if you can't find your troops, you have to stay away from here.

Zhao Ji's chariot gradually accelerated. He saw dozens of Xiongnu archers forming a sparse small formation. When these people were about to draw their bows in unison, Zhao Ji shot rapidly.

His arrows have a long range, fast speed, heavy force, and relatively stable deviation and displacement.

The first arrow hit the archer who was shot and was holding the arrow. The arrow immediately pierced his chest and the arrowhead went out from his back. He screamed in pain and fell backwards, affecting the archers beside him.

Before he could fall, arrows that were normally scattered came one after another. The entire group of archers could not fire in unison and immediately scattered to avoid the arrows.

By the time they and other archers had drawn their bows, the Tiger Guard chariots had already rushed to within fifty steps.

The archers on the chariot began to suppress the enemy with rapid fire at seventy steps, while the crossbowman serving as the chariot commander remained restrained and waited for a better shooting environment.

The Huben chariot took this round of volleys. At this time, Zhao Ji changed a pot of arrows and hung it on his chest.

He immediately drew his bow and shot at each Hun soldier on horseback, easily hitting both the man and the horse.

Those who can still ride horses now must be Xiongnu nobles or various leaders.

Zhao Ji had no time to observe carefully. Almost relying on his shooting instincts, he fired an arrow at the mounted Hun who was about to mount his horse. The King of Qiangqu placed his left foot on the exquisite lacquer stirrup... which looked more like a wide wooden clog hanging from the left side of the saddle.

He lifted his left foot and placed it just in the groove of the clogs, keeping it steady; at the same time, he pushed off the ground with his right foot, grabbed the saddle with both hands, and lifted his right leg to straddle the saddle.

Just as he was about to sit firmly, a powerful arrow hit the raised right thigh of King Qiangqu and penetrated more than a foot deep.

King Qiangqu fell down immediately in pain, and his majestic white horse was also frightened. The rider could not control it, and the horse kicked its hooves and trampled on the ground, running towards the direction where there were fewer people, to embrace the brief freedom.

The chariots slowed down one after another, and some Huns with spears were pressing forward.

Zhao Ji's chariot was also stopped by a dozen people waving spears. Zhao Ji saw that the chariots in various places were slowing down one after another. If they continued to delay, they would most likely be hunted down by the Huns and defeated one by one.

Without thinking, he drew his long-handled horse-slashing sword, threw his bow behind the chariot, and jumped down from behind it.

Three Huns came to fight barefoot on the yellow earth from the side. Zhao Ji quickly met them, raised his horse-cutting sword and stabbed forward swiftly, knocking away the opponent's wooden spear. The broad Shangfang sword pierced through and cut half of the neck, causing his head to tilt immediately.

The other two Huns attacked with spears, but Zhao Ji ignored them and swung the Shangfang sword across, cutting one of them in the neck. The other's spear pierced his chest guard, making it difficult to break through the defense.

Another Hun's spear blade pierced Zhao Ji's right abdomen. The spear blade slid along the armor plate, and the whole person quickly approached Zhao Ji due to the force of the stab.

When they passed each other, the other party had no time to react and was hit on the bridge of the nose by Zhao Ji's right elbow. His forward momentum stopped immediately and he fainted on the ground.

At this time, a Xiongnu follower who followed the charge pointed at where the Qiangqu King was and said, "That's the Qiangqu King!"

Zhao Ji was taking out a short spear from behind when he glanced to the side and saw several people dragging a man behind the fence. They were more than thirty steps away from him, with more than a dozen Huns in between, some advancing and some retreating.

Without thinking, he pulled out his short spear and threw it towards King Qiangqu.

He threw five short spears in a row, and before he could observe the results of the battle, several more Hun infantrymen rushed towards him.

Among them was a Hun warrior wearing a feathered bronze helmet. He was short and strong, holding an iron halberd in both hands, and had a grim smile on his face as he walked.

Suddenly, an arrow flew from the flank and hit the opponent's front door. The Hun warrior's head tilted suddenly and he fell to the ground motionless.

The short spear that Zhao Ji was about to throw could only be slightly deflected and shot towards another Xiongnu infantryman wearing regular leather armor. The short spear penetrated the opponent's front and killed him completely.

When Zhao Ji took out the next short spear, the three Huns in front of him turned around and ran, but were nailed to the ground one after another by arrows from behind as they fled.

Behind Zhao Ji, the sound of horses' hooves was dense. Dozens of elite cavalrymen came leading the billowing dust. Everyone drew their bows on the horse and quickly shot and killed the Huns in front of them.

Zhao Ji also charged forward quickly, rushing into the crowd of Huns, swinging his imperial sword wildly.

When he rushed to the front of King Qiangqu, the man was crawling sideways, looking back at him, trying hard to force a smile.

Zhao Ji glanced at the arrow on the other party's right leg, then looked at him again: "King Qiangqu?"

"It's Xiao Wang."

"It's fine if it's you."

Zhao Ji stabbed down through his face shield with the Shangfang sword, and the broad blade pierced through the chest of the Qiangqu King.

The other party held the Shangfang sword tightly in his hands before his death. Several Xiongnu warriors rushed towards Zhao Ji, and the Xiongnu warriors who surrounded him did not dare to shoot arrows at will.

Zhao Ji drew his sword. The most dangerous of his sword moves were the sideways sweep of the sword, and the stabbing and slashing when pointing the sword.

The three Hun warriors had not yet come close, and there was no sound of swords clashing.

The first one had his arm cut off and his throat slit by a slash of the sword when Zhao Ji drew his sword; the second one was stabbed in the palm by Zhao Ji, and then the sword was stabbed into the throat.

The third one stopped and tried to turn around, but Zhao Ji caught up with him and stabbed him in the back of the neck with a sword.

Without time to think, he turned around and cut off the head of King Qiangqu along the gap between the cervical vertebrae with a sword without emotion.

When Zhao Ji threw the enemy's head onto the chariot, a Xiongnu volunteer dismounted, drew his ring-handled knife and chopped off the arms of the Qiangqu King.

After cutting off both arms, the opponent still held the Shangfang sword with both hands. Yicong cut off the debris on the Shangfang sword with a few quick strokes, just like cutting sugarcane.

He sheathed the ring-handled sword and handed the long-handled Shangfang sword to Zhao Ji with both hands.

Zhao Ji reached out to catch it, felt his whole body, then took off the sword at his waist and threw it to the other party: "Reward."

"Thanks!"

The Yicong held up his sword horizontally to show it to his companions. At this moment, a nobleman rode up and shouted, "Shizhong Gong, retreat quickly!"

As he shouted, the man raised his hand and pointed to the northwest bank of the river, where the Huns had met up with their horses and were mounting them.

Zhao Ji took one look at the huge herd of horses and shouted to those around him, "Blow the horn! Retreat!"

The driver turned the car around and was about to speed up, but Zhao Ji patted the other driver's helmet and said, "Finally, retreat. I'll cover the rear!"

"Here!"

While the driver was answering, Zhao Ji had already taken out his strong bow, hung the quiver diagonally on his chest, and began to shoot and kill the nearby Huns.

The sound of trumpets filled the air, and the charioteers reacted the fastest, marching straight away. When their chariots were damaged, they seized the horses.

Instead, various cavalrymen dismounted to grab and pick up the spoils, and stayed until the end before withdrawing.

Even if he was going to Bei, he dismounted and ran over to grab a few black dragon flags of his fellow tribesmen before evacuating with the large group of knights.

(End of this chapter)