Tiger Guards

Chapter 197: Advance or retreat
The Hedong soldiers' fleet exposed the rebels' plan.

No longer hiding their presence, more than a thousand knights emerged from behind the reed wall, with even more infantry and cavalry staying behind it.

When the thousand-plus knights formed their battle formation, the leader held a long flag and ran towards Zhao Ji's chariot.

Zhao Ji grabbed the bow, reached out to take the arrow from the carriage, clamped the arrow and fixed it on the bowstring.

The chariot did not stop, he had already adapted to this level of bumps.

He stared at the knight holding the flag, predicted his trajectory, and without even aiming, he released his weapon decisively.

The arrow flashed by, leaving a shadow. Gong Chang, the representative of the powerful people who was a hundred and fifty steps away, was hit in the face by the arrow. He lost control without any reaction, fell off the horse, and rolled around without raising any dust.

Behind Zhao Ji were four flag carriages, with "Pingyang Hou Zhao" and "Chijie Shizhong" in the middle, "Hu Ben Zhonglang Jiang" on the left, and "Taiyuan County Governor" on the right.

Seeing Gong Chang shot by an arrow and fell off his horse, the other powerful people were surprised. However, Gong Chang's brothers immediately rode away from the battle and led more than a hundred local knights to charge first. Everyone rushed to be the first, wanting to take revenge and kill the rebels, and save the emperor and the court from danger.

The temporary commander, the county commander Xianmo, felt uneasy on his horse. He reined in his horse and rode across from the tyrants. "This Zhao Aji led the Hedong gentry to hold the imperial court hostage. He accomplished this with only 800 men. I had at least 5,000 men, and now he only has 3,000. How can he be my match?"

To encourage and motivate the powerful people around him, Xian Mo held his horse whip, twisted his waist and pointed at Zhao Ji, saying loudly: "This man is ruthless. If we are defeated, we will die and our clan will be destroyed soon!"

"Only by defeating him can righteous men from all the counties rise up, welcome the emperor, support the court, and everyone can be promoted and granted titles!"

As he spoke, Xianmo waved the whip in his right arm and said, "Kill the thief!"

"Kill the thief!"

The powerful men also had no way to retreat. They shouted one after another. A few of them who could not help but ride their horses to charge into the battle formation first. Their faces were red and their ears were red. Their sons, fellow villagers, and knights followed on horseback.

After the sound of horse hooves, Xian Mo turned his head to look at the others and lashed out with his whip again: "Charge!"

These powerful men with strong self-control looked at each other, and without hesitation, they all drove their horses, but did not rush to charge. Instead, they led their fellow villagers and troops to attack from both wings and did not go to the center to fight Zhao Ji.

After the cavalry of the powerful coalition attacked, the county infantry and cavalry came out from behind the reed wall. They were well-armored, but their morale... was not very high.

More than three hundred strong cavalrymen from the county gathered behind Xianmo, and nearly a thousand volunteer cavalrymen under the command of Wang Rou, the General of the Central Army of the Xiongnu, also divided into two teams on the left and right, rode out on horseback, and went forward to fight.

There is a wide enough area in front for fighting, which will be flooded when the Fen River floods in spring and autumn.

As a result, there was no land reclamation, and the surface vegetation was very dense, making it ideal for large-scale military confrontations and decisive battles.

Just rush over and you will find the enemy.

As Zhao Ji expected, influenced by the Huns, the Taiyuan knights also mainly used cavalry tactics.

They all like to shoot crossbows or draw bows to release arrows from a certain safe distance; they instinctively resist charging tactics and close-range massacres of hundreds of people.

Neither the Han knights nor the Yicong knights were from poor families.

No one likes to charge into battle with a spear. When you can overcome your fear and charge into a cavalry group with a spear... the commander will consider using you to charge into an infantry formation.

Therefore, even if many knights master the skills of assault, they will not actively cooperate in implementing this tactic, let alone take the initiative to implement it.

Instead, more than a dozen of Gong's fellow villagers and followers, inspired by hatred, launched a charge against Zhao Ji.

However, these dozen people broke away from the team and rushed forward, but none of them could get within thirty steps of the chariot, and were killed by Zhao Ji's swift arrows.

Now Zhao Ji has learned to be lazy. When shooting within fifty steps, he will use a light bow and quick arrow.

There is damage amplification, and the shot is aimed at the face.

Therefore, the physical strength consumption is limited, the shooting rate is fast, and it has both lethality and damage.

Human resistance is limited. There is no essential difference between a light arrow hitting the face and a fierce heavy arrow splitting the head.

Behind Zhao Ji, in the flag carriage of the "Minister of Imperial Seal," Gao Yanglong, wearing a visor, swung his arms behind him and roared, "Beat the drum!"

The drummers at the rear were also wearing armor. At this moment, they could not hear Gao Yanglong's voice or see his face clearly, so they all accelerated the drum beats according to Gao Yanglong's gestures.

A dozen chariots in the rear began to accelerate and formed two teams on the left and right to protect the flanks of Zhao Ji and the flag chariot.

More righteous knights in purple leather armor rushed forward from both sides and exchanged fire with the enemy cavalry coming from the opposite direction.

Neither side reined in their horses or sped up, they just followed their own flags and shot arrows at the enemy knights that appeared in front of their left and right sides.

Either shoot the other party or be shot by the other party.

After being shot by an arrow, you must stay on the horse. Once you fall off the horse, it will be difficult to survive.

There were no cavalry on either side, it was all just cavalry shooting at each other.

The basic tactics of both sides were similar, with each side forming a formation of more than 500 cavalry, the rebels forming four formations, and Zhao Ji forming three formations, and they engaged in a round of intensive collisions with each other.

They penetrated each other, and the knight leading the team in front changed direction, gathered his own team or friendly knights, and launched another round of charge after a brief observation.

Zhao Ji's volunteer knights generally wore purple robes, while the rebels' uniforms were mainly red. The county soldiers wore red, and the powerful knights wore red clothes because they wore red clothes in summer. The Xiongnu volunteer knights did not have bright robes, and mainly wore gray and brown leather clothes.

Pei Xiu led more than 500 cavalrymen to watch the battle. The scattered cavalrymen who were scattered and unable to find their teams gathered around him and reorganized.

The rebel knights are similar. After disrupting the order, they will retreat to the open space on both sides behind the county soldiers' formation in front of the village and regroup.

There were also Shang clan heavy infantry in the village, and outside the village were Taiyuan County soldiers forming a battle formation.

Except for the Shang family's heavily armored troops, the other families' infantry forces mostly stayed on the west bank to protect women, children, the elderly and the weak.

Xian Mo stared intently at Zhao Ji as his chariot slowly advanced toward him. Brave cavalry squads rode their horses to counterattack, firing arrows, but almost without exception, any who got within seventy steps of Zhao Ji's chariot were shot down by him.

In Xianmo's observation, almost no one could dodge Zhao Ji's arrow.

Xian Mo did not notice that his mount was uneasy, and he even felt that his legs could hardly hold the saddle.

Zhao Ji continued to break through, and the purple-robed volunteers fought around both sides of the chariot, disrupting or leading away the teams of rebel knights who tried to stop him.

After falling behind in the melee, many purple-robed volunteers gathered towards Zhao Ji, following the other flag-bearing knights in charging and shooting arrows.

Mo squinted his eyes and observed Zhao Ji. When he was sure that the distance between them was less than 200 steps, he turned his head to look at the county soldiers and shouted loudly: "Where is the strong man?"

"Lead the strong men here!"

A military officer also answered loudly, holding his sword high and pointing it at Zhao Ji: "Draw your bow!"

More than 200 county soldiers and strong archers stood in five rows, forming an infantry and archery array with astonishing lethality.

Their one volley of fire was as effective in killing as five hundred cavalrymen.

At this time, Zhao Ji's chariot was 150 steps away from Xianmo. Xianmo endured the discomfort, raised the whip in his right hand, stared at Zhao Ji, waiting for the strong soldiers' covering projectile to kill, and then decide whether to deploy the more than 300 cavalry around him.

The more than 300 cavalrymen behind him were assault cavalry. With the cooperation of the cavalry, they could quickly drive away and compress the range of activities of the enemy cavalry.

When he was one hundred and thirty steps away, Zhao Ji had already drawn his bow and was staring at the archer officer who was ready to shoot. It was not surprising that the other party was wearing iron armor with a basin collar.

Even Xianmo wore the iron-clad armor commonly seen among middle and high-ranking military officers, and the same cloak as the surrounding military officers.

More than a hundred steps away, it was difficult to find the general among the military officers who were riding horses and wearing similar armor.

Even Zhao Ji didn't care who the rebel leader was.

He released the arrows, and without thinking, he immediately took the heavy arrow, put it on the bow, and drew it into a circle.

The enemy was not a moving target, so there was almost no need to aim carefully or screen the target. He shot the second arrow at a burly cavalry general.

Xian Mo held his breath and concentrated his mind. In front of him was a row of infantrymen holding shields and forming a formation. Suddenly, the military officer in charge of commanding these hundreds of shield soldiers was shot by an arrow.

Hit in the face by an arrow, his strong and sturdy body fell off his horse, causing the formation of the surrounding shield soldiers to change.

Xian Mo was shocked and turned to look at the officer of the Strongbow Team. His eyes were originally filled with anger, but he saw that the officer of the Strongbow Team was also shot in the face and was falling backwards in front of the formation.

As he fell, more than 200 archers launched a volley of arrows almost in no particular order, and the advancing chariots were hit by a dense rain of arrows.

Zhao Ji was shot in the left shoulder, and he only had time to reach out and grab an arrow that was shot towards his face.

The horses pulling the chariot were shot and panicked, and the driver's hand was also shot. He struggled to pull off the noose and let the frightened horses escape.

The shaft of the chariot tilted forward and fell to the ground, and the driver rolled in front of the chariot.

Zhao Ji had just stood firm by holding on to the carriage when he saw Xianmo waving his whip about seventy or eighty steps away. The cavalry rushed out from both sides of the shield soldiers and headed straight for Zhao Ji.

Just as Xian Mo was about to join the shield soldiers, he saw Zhao Ji standing in the tilted carriage and shot an arrow at him.

Instinctively, Xian Mo retracted his neck and tried to curl up his body, but he still felt a chill on his scalp, and then he lost all senses.

Zhao Ji remained expressionless as he continued to shoot at the officers wearing high-grade armor in the county soldiers' formation.

After seven or eight consecutive arrows, the remaining soldiers and officers were defeated and retreated in a panic, leading the infantry who had not yet engaged in the battle to stride out of the battle area.

Seeing them retreat, Zhao Ji immediately changed to a light bow and began shooting at the approaching cavalry.

For cavalry within thirty steps, he didn't even need to observe the opponent's movement trajectory.

It’s just such a short distance, no need to predict, the arrow will hit the target!

The Turks couldn't even disturb him with their bows and arrows. Occasionally, a Turk would throw a lasso at him, but it was blocked by the tilted green umbrella cover on the carriage.

After the green umbrella cover was tightened and pulled away by the lasso, Zhao Ji immediately gave priority to shooting every knight who was swinging the rope nearby.

The archers on the nearby chariots also aimed their bows at close range, shooting arrows at the horses. The herd of more than 300 cavalrymen was frightened and their formation was in disarray, making it difficult to control.

The Tuqi were also human beings. After Zhao Ji shot and killed more than twenty of them in succession, he saw that it was difficult to get close and immediately chose to retreat.

However, when they retreated, seeing that the infantry could not stop the rout and the cavalry lacked a safe space to rest, they could only retreat in large strides.

The retreat of the infantry formation caused the cavalry team to lose the "resurrection point" for the entire battlefield, and they retreated to the village one after another.

Without friendly cover, they had to retreat far enough before they could regroup safely.

At this time, Xue Zhu, who blocked the river, saw this and prepared to disobey Zhao Ji's order.

The fleet came towards the east coast and crashed directly into the mudflat. The Tiger Infantry stood on the deck and began to draw their bows, aimlessly shooting at the Shang family troops in the village from a long distance.

The Shang clan's troops had armor and shields, so they could still withstand the attack; but their women and the elderly and weak immediately fell into chaos.

Commander Ximen Jian led ten teams of tiger infantry in an oblique formation. When each team approached the village, they immediately sent out skirmishers to throw torches in an attempt to create more chaos.

Pei Xiu also led more than 500 knights to press forward, and the rebel cavalry that was scattered and persisted in the melee immediately fled to the north.

The battlefield was filled with purple-robed Knights of the Righteous Concubine chasing the enemy northward. Some brave Knights of the Righteous Concubine seized the fire and began to set fire to the village, exacerbating the chaos.

(End of this chapter)