Tiger Guards

Chapter 533 Paying Tribute to the Master Before Battle
Twelve strong draft horses, in pairs, six rows ahead and behind, galloped lightly.

On the ice, Zhao Ji's heavy sled chariot maintained a speed of about forty miles per hour, which was nothing for a knight's charge, only half the charging speed.

But for a vehicle, that's already a very fast speed.

And this is just a normal, steady run, a warm-up process for the draft horse.

Unlike the simple, light sleds, sled war machines like Zhao Ji's had iron-clad tracks and heavy, dense hardwood tracks.

This is to lower the vehicle's center of gravity as much as possible to maintain stability when the vehicle is moving forward.

If given enough time, Zhao Ji also wants to build heavy armored vehicles with spring-loaded shock absorbers.

At this moment, the Xianbei vanguard cavalry was marching at a normal pace. The larger the army's movement, the more important it was to maintain the distance between the various units.

The snow-covered ground in the dead of winter actually reduced the difficulty for both sides in deploying and moving their large armies.

The fastest rushing troops were the Xianbei scout squads and the messenger squads that traveled between the various camps.

Qianman, the commander of the Xianbei central army, also stood on a tall, wheeled cart decorated with various precious animal hides, such as black bear and white bear furs stitched together in a black and white pattern, simple and solemn.

At this moment, Qianman was in high spirits. As long as he won this battle, he would be the greatest king and chieftain since his grandfather, Tan Shihuai!

He was separated from the vanguard and the front-line army by a large horizontal formation. On such a flat and vast river surface, Qian Man did not notice Zhao Ji's chariot in the distance.

The first to notice were the Xianbei scout squads. Like a pack of wolves or a school of deep-sea fish, they rushed forward, attempting to shoot the horses or the charioteer as they passed around the sled.

The twelve draft horses were clad in leather armor inlaid with iron plates, and even their heads were adorned with specially made lacquered leather helmets, with single horns made of cowhide sewn onto their foreheads.

The draft horse used by Zhao Ji was the strongest horse he could find, enough to pull the Iron Cavalry Battalion.

Moreover, these draft horses are generally older, at least seven or eight years old, and they are more adaptable to the battlefield.

Common noises did not frighten them; they maintained their composure and pulled their heavy sleds as they charged toward the gradually gathering Xianbei scouts.

Even without the driver whipping them, these well-trained, tall draft horses gradually accelerate under the lead horse's guidance.

Zhao Ji held his breath and waited until the Xianbei scouts and archers appeared fifty paces in front of him before entering a state of extreme focus, maintaining a cone-shaped field of view of less than ten degrees in front of him.

He gathers his strength in both arms, holds the bow in his left hand, and nocks an arrow with his right, firing a rapid series of arrows.

The arrows were so fast that the guards who were replenishing his arrows didn't have time to think. They could only quickly grab the arrows from the wooden box, place them in a wide trough, and send them to Zhao Ji to retrieve the arrows.

Over such a short distance of several dozen steps, Zhao Ji had very low requirements for the arrows, even if they had old wounds or major defects.

At such close range, the dispersion error of an arrow fired at high speed can be controlled within one foot.

Even if the arrow misses the vital spot in the chest, it can still hit the body. If the opponent doesn't die on the spot, they will be knocked off their horse by the powerful arrow!

Five or six miles apart, He Hunzhuo, the vanguard general of the Xianbei, held the reins to control the speed of his horse. He held his lance horizontally to block the cavalry of the tribes on the left and right. By keeping them from moving forward, he could suppress the order of the entire army and prevent any spurs from appearing.

Even if a protrusion appears, it can quickly react, slow down, and merge into the forward-pushing horizontal formation.

Only in this way could He Hunzhuo, as the sole salient, command the vanguard.

Therefore, his vision was excellent, and he watched as more than a dozen scout squads converged into two lines and charged towards the opposing chariots. If nothing unexpected happened, these scout squads would pass by the chariots on the left and right sides, drawing their bows to wound or kill the enemy horses within a few dozen paces, bringing the enemy's battlefield to a standstill, and then surround the chariots to fire a hail of arrows at the enemy's heavily armored soldiers.

What would happen was not only something He Hunzhuo himself could predict, but any Xianbei knight who could stand in the front or second-front row could foresee the fate of the enemy's chariot.

However, the Han army's chariots showed no sign of slowing down and instead charged faster and faster.

Xianbei scouts passing by on either side often fell off their horses as they passed each other, or were even shot off before they even passed each other.

The lone Han chariot was unstoppable. The seventy or eighty Xianbei scouts and archers barely inflicted any effective damage. Most of them were shot off their horses when they got close to the chariot, rolled around, and then did not react at all.

The very few scouts who survived on horseback glanced back at the chariot, then turned back and sped off in the northwest, the direction of their homeland and tribe.

He Hunzhuo was so shocked that he had an instinctive reaction to avoid the risk. He pulled hard on the reins with his left hand, and his horse, in pain, reared up and neighed loudly.

He suddenly reined in his horse, which, still carrying momentum, reared up and took a few steps forward on its hind legs. The tribal riders around him also reined in their horses, and the entire vanguard line immediately became jagged and irregular, like a sawtooth pattern.

The knights in the front row reined in their horses, either turning to look at He Hunzhuo or his battle flag, or to look at the Han army's chariots.

After breaking through the scouts' blockade with overwhelming force, the Han army's chariots charged towards the right flank of the Xianbei vanguard's formation to the south. When they were about two miles away, they slowed down and began to turn north.

Even though they were two hundred paces apart, Zhao Ji's charioteer was still afraid and dared not take the Grand Marshal any closer.

If the draft horse is wounded or killed by an arrow, although he can cut the tether, it will still affect the efficiency of evacuation from the battlefield.

One of the horses had already been hit by an arrow, the arrow lodged in its armor, making it impossible for him to assess the horse's injury.

At this point, we can only be conservative and change course ahead of schedule.

Even if it's only two hundred paces, with a slight northerly wind blowing, the chariot moves at a steady speed across the flat ice surface... for Zhao Ji, that's enough.

The Xianbei vanguard reined in their horses in unison. After He Hunzhuo had controlled his mount, he watched as the Han army chariots were about to pass in front of him from south to north.

Thinking of the Han Chinese stories, He Hunzhuo said to his tribal companions on the left and right, "This is the Han Chinese paying homage to their teacher, isn't it a bit too early?"

A cousin beside him nodded in agreement: "Yes, the Han army should only send troops after the king arrives. At that time, we should also send people to fight and duel with them. If a duel can quell the war, that would be a good thing."

As a member of the royal cavalry who had escaped, he was pessimistic about the course of the war.

Just as He Hunzhuo was about to speak, he saw the Han army chariots pass by two hundred paces in front of him without slowing down or stopping.

As he turned around with a smile to speak, Zhao Ji fired three arrows in quick succession, attacking from three different angles almost simultaneously.

He Hunzhuo was immediately hit by arrows. One arrow shot into his chest, grazed his armor, and hit his cousin behind him in the chest; the other arrow shot into He Hunzhuo's left cheek and passed right through his face.

Another arrow grazed the back of his head and struck another knight behind him in the face.

In an instant, He Hunzhuo and his two cousins ​​were hit by arrows and fell from their horses.

For a moment, the Xianbei vanguard stood still, only able to watch the Han army chariots drive away.

Soon, some of He Hunzhuo's tribal cavalry reacted and began to chase after them, pushing He Hunzhuo's battle flag forward. The vanguard of more than 5,000 cavalrymen accelerated, and there was no longer any order as they rushed to catch up with the Han army's chariots.

(End of this chapter)