Tang Dynasty Bandits

Chapter 9: Battle of the Long Chariot
Just as Huang Chao expected, the imperial court stopped sending reinforcements after the Taining Army arrived.

The standoff between the government troops and the rebels became a series of dreadful attacks, each relying on its own stronghold. Huang Chao and Wang Xianzhi were both well-connected and well-connected, able to dispatch roving armies to forcibly requisition rations and attract numerous black marketeers who secretly sold them to the rebels. This ensured that the rebels' supplies were not in short supply.

Furthermore, Wang Xianzhi's troops had previously been ambushed by Song Wei, leaving many of their specialists wounded, often with broken legs and arms. However, Huang Chao had already secured renowned physicians and rare healing remedies. The longer the time passed, the more complete the recovery of these specialists would be, effectively disadvantageous to the imperial army. Clearly, Song Wei, intimidated by Huang Chao's maneuverability, failed to launch a full-scale attack while Wang Xianzhi's troops were weakened, waiting for Qi Kerang's reinforcements to arrive, effectively losing the initiative.

It was impossible to maintain a permanent confrontation, so Huang Chao decided to lead his army to take the initiative.

Meng Kai was still in the vanguard, shouting, "Meng Juehai is here, and the enemy is in danger!"

Meng Kai wielded his great axe, roared, and charged forward. The impenetrable infantry line of Xue Shuai's "three thousand Yue armored soldiers" was driven inward by Meng Kai's fierce cavalry charge, and seemed to be on the verge of collapse. The Cao army cavalry followed suit and charged.

Qi Kerang's troops were few in number and he was inevitably at a disadvantage.

"Shut up!"

Suddenly, with the sound of a high-pitched spurt of horses, clouds of dust rose up, transforming into a torrent of horse hooves. In a flash of cold light, men and horses were thrown to the ground, and broken limbs and arms flew everywhere. In the blink of an eye, the infantry troops who had left the camp to support the cavalry were slaughtered and forced into a bloody alley.

"Pinglu Army General Ye Luoliang is here, if you are not afraid of death, come over!"

A man with a face as black as charcoal and a strong body, like a black iron tower, held a snake spear in his hand, glared at his horse, and shouted loudly, which was deafening.

Song Wei led the forces of the Pinglu, Zhongwu, and Xuanwu military governorates to suppress the Cao army. Ye Luoliang was from Pinglu Town, one of the three military governorates. Because Wang Xianzhi's troops were unable to completely contain Song Wei's army, Ye Luoliang's cavalry attacked from the side.

The Cao army soldiers saw Ye Luoliang's cavalry, each one fully armored, their swords and spears as sharp as frost, their armor gleaming like the sun. Even more terrifying was the fact that they all rode tall, majestic horses from the Jiaodong Peninsula. Not only were the horses majestic, but they were also covered in armor made of leather and iron, completely sheathed in steel, emitting an intimidating metallic glow.

Armed to the teeth, like huge and highly mobile iron boxes, the fully armored cavalry immediately overwhelmed the light cavalry of Huang Chao's army. How could this not be terrifying?

Obviously, although Ye Luoliang was shouting like this, he had no intention of fighting Meng Kai or Huang Chao alone. Instead, he planned to use this armored cavalry of hundreds of people to directly defeat the infantry of Huang Chao's army, and then use the force of a heavy hammer to attack the cavalry of Huang Chao's army together with Qi Kerang's troops, and finally deal a devastating blow to Huang Chao's troops!

However, Huang Chao at the rear of the team laughed heartily when he saw this. With a command, the army flags fluttered and the cavalry led by Meng Kai dispersed in an instant, ignoring the infantry under Qi Kerang's command, and scattered around the battlefield like a swarm of bees.

And from the infantry formation, a series of objects with the same cold flashing light suddenly emerged, pulled by draft horses, forming a tight line, facing Ye Luoliang's fully armored cavalry.

Chariots! When Zhu Wen first joined the rebel army, he discovered that Huang Chao's army had a large number of these steel monsters, which should have been obsolete for nearly a thousand years. These chariots were made of wood with iron sheets nailed on top, and most of them were obviously modified carts used to transport salt.

Seeing this, Ye Luoliang laughed heartily. "Huang Jutian, you scoundrel, you truly don't know the art of war! During the An-Shi Rebellion, Prime Minister Fang Guan met the enemy with chariots and suffered a crushing defeat. How can these thousand-year-old antiques be used in battle again?"

As soon as Ye Luoliang said this, the armored knights under his command echoed him.

Upon hearing this, Meng Kai immediately retorted, "Master, there must be a reason why you value chariots so highly. You must know that during the Battle of Yunzhou, our army deployed chariots to ambush and kill Xue Chong, the governor of Tianping. You say chariots are useless, but that's just bullshit. It stinks."

Ye Luoliang sneered and said, "Although Xue Chong is a descendant of the famous founding general Xue Rengui, he was brave but not wise. He underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly, which is why he fell into your trap and died in battle. Is this the effectiveness of a chariot?
Zhu Wen heard this and thought to himself, "What Ye Luoliang said seems reasonable, but the actual situation is completely different."

"Fang Guan was fighting with ox carts. He was untrained and the carts lacked impact power. He was also fighting against the wind, and the An Lushan rebels used the wind to set fire and create smoke, leading to a crushing defeat."

"Our army is all horse-drawn chariots, and they are well-trained and have ample combat experience. How can a useless scholar like Fang Guan compare to them?"

"Pinglu Cavalry, charge!" Ye Luoliang gave an order, and the entire army was assembled. The fully armored cavalry began to accelerate, raising clouds of dust, and pounced on the Huang Chao army that was turning in the opposite direction with the momentum of a tiger descending from the mountain, like lightning striking the clouds, coming and going suddenly.

On the Cao army side, the chariots were arranged in a straight line, each draped with iron chains. The soldiers driving the chariots began to connect the chains together, forming a chain of chains. The horses pulling the chariots hid behind the chariots and lay down.

Seeing this, Ye Luoliang laughed heartily: "The enemy is so cowardly that they use iron chains to chain their vehicles together! If our army can overturn a few of them, it will cause the enemy's entire chariot formation to collapse! Brothers, follow me and take down Huang Chao and Huang Jutian's heads!"

Huang Chao heard this from a distance, but smiled without saying anything. He then jumped onto a large chariot and personally commanded the battle. The chariots formed a chain with a shield in front, and the soldiers on the chariots were divided into spearmen and archers.

As the government cavalry, armed with lances and in shining armor, came roaring, the rebel spearmen also straightened their spears, ready to fight.

Ye Luoliang was brave and courageous, leading the way, glaring and shouting, his 10-foot-long snake spear circling left and right, shining with a cold light that made it impossible to look directly at it.

Two soldiers on the chariots directly ahead of the Cao army raised their spears to block the attack, but were swept away by Ye Luoliang's snake spear, spear and body alike. Then, the archers on the chariots were about to fire, but Ye Luoliang also pierced the wooden planks used for protection and knocked them over with a single strike of his spear. The impact of the combined forces of men and horses instantly rushed down like a mighty river, crashing down on the chariots.

The chariot's wheels shook and bounced, almost turning it sideways, but the iron chains connecting the two chariots on the left and right pulled the chariot back to its original position.

Ye Luoliang suddenly discovered that from the gaps between the chariots, sharp spears were extending towards his horse's hooves, trying to penetrate under the horse armor, forcing him to spur his horse and retreat quickly.

Among the spear array, there were warriors holding big swords. The swords had blades on both sides and shone with a cold and intimidating light. They were the extremely famous Mo Dao of the Tang Dynasty, which was developed from the horse-slaying sword of the Han Dynasty. It was said that it could smash both men and horses into pieces and was unstoppable.

The spearmen on the chariots used special conical spears that were designed to pierce armor. They were used exclusively by strong men, and one shot was enough to penetrate heavy armor.

Zhu Wen was also hiding under the chariot, holding the Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sword. He jumped out and cut off the horse's hooves of a Pinglu Army knight who was stopped by a spear, causing him to fall off his horse. He picked off the knight's helmet with a knife, and was about to take action when Zhu Cun next to him used a Mo Dao to cut the man's neck and chopped off the knight's head like cutting tofu.

"Hey, second brother, you can't steal my military achievements!" Zhu Wen shouted.

"You even killed the enemy general, Feng Geyin. Second brother has never killed an enemy before, so let us kill them to our heart's content." Zhu Cun showed a leisurely smile, still looking silly.

Zhu Wen shook his head and sighed.

"The enemy is within twenty steps, shoot!"

Huang Chao waved and shouted from a huge chariot. He was dressed in golden armor and looked intimidating. His ordinary words had the power to rally the morale of the entire army. This was the power that only a natural leader could possess.

Waiting until the enemy was twenty paces away before releasing an arrow seemed quite unreasonable. However, the archers on the chariots were no ordinary archers. They all used strong bows with extremely strong bow force. The arrows came towards them, whistling through the wind and instantly piercing the armor and penetrating the bones.

Seeing his brothers being shot and shot one after another, although their armor was thick and few were killed in one blow, they were often injured and bleeding. Ye Luoliang was shocked and realized that he had underestimated the enemy.

Originally, the fully armored cavalry of the Pinglu Army rushed like a landslide or tsunami. With their bravery, they were able to break through the infantry phalanx of the rebel army head-on. However, Huang Chao used iron chain-linked chariots to block the charge with the huge weight of the chariots. Even the huge impact of the fully armored cavalry became powerless.

But after several attempts to charge, Ye Luoliang became cautious. With a command, the fully armored cavalry separated like waves and went around to the left and right sides of Huang Chao's army, preparing to attack the weak flank.

However, Huang Chao had taken precautions. First, he arranged his infantry into a phalanx on the flanks, placing deer antlers on the ground and positioning longbowmen within to hurl projectiles at the enemy. This deterred Qi Kerang's Taining troops from attacking from the other side. Second, his chariot line was actually deployed on three sides, forming a square with only the rear open.

Ye Luoliang turned to charge from the flank, but still under Huang Chao's precise command, several charges all failed and he had to retreat and reorganize his formation. When he turned around to look at his comrades, he saw many dead and even more wounded. Some knights' horses were injured and they had to jump off their horses, losing their ability to charge.

The damned bandit Huang Chao's chariot array had blunted the armored cavalry he was so proud of, resulting in heavy casualties. Ye Luoliang didn't even know how he would explain himself to Marshal Song Wei when he returned to the camp!

"This black-faced kid is far inferior to General Yan. Sanlang, do you want to take his head and make a great contribution?" Zhu Cun winked at Zhu Wen.

"That guy's martial arts skills are not weak. It's not easy to kill him in the chaos of the army."

"Hehe." Zhu Cun laughed, dragging the body of the knight he had just killed over to him and stripping off his armor. "When the enemy is completely defeated, you will mount your warhorse, change into the Pinglu Army's armor and horse armor, and charge in during the chaos to take that man's head. I will assist you. Nothing is difficult in this world if you are determined. I, your brother, have taken your head, and I will also do my best to give you this achievement."

After Ye Luoliang commanded the cavalry to reorganize, he still waved his spear unwillingly and ordered the cavalry to charge, completely unaware that his head had become the target of the two brothers.

(End of this chapter)