Second-hand time travel: Liu Bei, the big-eared bandit

Chapter 118 Charging into Battle (Thanks to Alliance Leader jamesxu-SBZ)

Once the population exceeds ten thousand, it truly seems endless.

The sheer number and scale of the event created a powerful sense of oppression.

The armored cavalry that Liu Bei brought were mostly experienced and had fought against the Hu people, but they couldn't help but feel nervous when they saw an enemy force of nearly 10,000.

"This rabble will surely crumble in a single blow..."

Guan Yu spoke calmly, stroking his long, beautiful beard as he spoke.

"Yun Chang, let's split into two teams... I'll go and harass the enemy, you find a high place to observe the enemy leader, and when the opportunity arises, behead him... I'll gather them together and devour them!"

Seeing that the two leaders were so calm, one thought they could easily defeat them, and the other even thought about swallowing up the enemy completely, the armored cavalrymen were no longer nervous, and even began to point and look for the enemy's leader.

"Those who carry bows and arrows, follow me!"

Seeing that the morale of his troops was high, Liu Bei led over a hundred armored cavalrymen equipped with bows and charged horizontally toward the enemy.

The enemy had, of course, already spotted Liu Bei's cavalry.

They gradually gathered together, forming a large and crowded group before Liu Bei approached.

The enemy on the outer perimeter set up long spears or long bamboo poles.

It seems the enemy leader knows how to deal with cavalry, but the rebels' execution is not very effective. They also lack weapons, with their spears and bamboo poles held haphazardly and most of the people huddled together.

Clearly, the rioters were quite panicked when they saw the cavalry charging.

As they got closer, Liu Bei discovered that the enemies were not just mobs.

Actually, there were some elite troops in the enemy ranks.

There were a few riders mixed in with the mob, but not many.

In addition, there were some armored bandits in the enemy ranks, all mixed in with the mob.

It's no wonder that these mobs still maintained a certain level of formation when they saw the cavalry approaching; the enemy must have had some basic command structure.

However, the enemy had neither raised any flags nor had any clear central command markings, making it extremely difficult to identify the commander amidst the vast army.

"Spread out and fire!"

Liu Bei led his armored cavalry in a scattered formation, bypassing the enemy diagonally from a distance of several dozen paces. Instead of charging directly into the enemy lines, he used mounted archery.

In fact, the armored cavalrymen's archery skills were quite average... to say average would be an understatement; they only practiced occasionally.

Although the Imperial Guards were required to master the "five weapons" (bow, crossbow, sword, spear, and halberd) as Duan Jiong demanded, archery is a different matter when it comes to standing and riding.

Liu Bei did not encourage large-scale training in horse archery. Although this skill is very useful, it requires training from a young age and is not easy to master.

If long-range capability is desired, Liu Bei would rather use a crossbow... a weapon with a short training period is a good weapon.

However, the current situation is suitable for mounted archery harassment.

Liu Bei himself was not good at archery, but the advantage of double stirrups and a high saddle was that, even if he only practiced rudimentarily and occasionally, he could at least draw his bow and shoot an arrow normally on horseback... whether he was accurate or not was another matter.

Now, facing a densely packed group of nearly ten thousand enemies, the vast majority of whom are unarmored, there's no need to consider accuracy.

After a volley of fire, a pitiful howl rang out from the enemy ranks, and two rioters on the outskirts even began to flee.

But as soon as they left the formation and tried to escape, the two were killed by two armored enemies behind them.

Clearly, the armored bandits mixed in with the mob were the supervisory team, and also the true core bandits.

Liu Bei led his cavalry to circle halfway around the enemy's perimeter and fired two more volleys of arrows.

The two volleys of arrows had a decent effect; about twenty or thirty enemies fell, and two or three more rebels tried to escape from the enemy lines, but they were quickly caught up and killed.

Seeing that Liu Bei and his group were skilled in mounted archery, it was clear that they couldn't leave them unrestrained. The mounted men in the enemy ranks made a move, and some of the bandits surrounded Liu Bei.

Liu Bei glanced back, still riding his horse in an arc, and at the same time turned around and shot another arrow to his side and rear.

Turning around and shooting requires skill, and Liu Bei's skills were very rough. This arrow went way off course, flying past the pursuing cavalryman three feet away, but still hitting the bandit behind him.

His accuracy is all guesswork, but his luck is alright.

This arrow provoked a large-scale counterattack from the bandit group—a hail of stones and arrows flew towards Liu Bei. Fortunately, Liu Bei was on horseback, several dozen paces away, so the projectiles thrown from behind certainly wouldn't hit him.

Most of the arrows fell to the ground, but only two arrows grazed past Liu Bei, one of which struck his shoulder armor.

Judging from the force with which the shoulder armor was struck, the enemy did not possess powerful bows or crossbows, and the pursuing arrows shot from behind were not strong enough to penetrate the armor.

Liu Bei continued his pursuit with confidence.

The armored cavalrymen also drew a counterattack, and several of them were hit in the back by enemy arrows, but they suffered basically no losses.

As Liu Bei continued to circle around the enemy's side, the enemy finally reacted reliably. They withdrew their troops, stopped in place, and sent some archers to the outer perimeter.

Meanwhile, some armored bandits, carrying door panels or simple wooden shields, began to set up defenses and moved in the same direction as Liu Bei's circling.

This is a strategy of trying to exchange fire.

Liu Bei did not know how many archers the enemy had, nor did he intend to engage in a direct firefight. Instead, he led his armored cavalry out of the enemy's range and patrolled about two hundred paces away.

If the enemy doesn't move, then they don't move. Liu Bei can at least take a rest for his horse.

This fly-like tactic is precisely the cavalry's greatest advantage; if the enemy continues their march, Liu Bei will harass them again.

Anyway, the enemy can't catch up with us.

The enemy cavalry consisted of only about twenty men, and they looked quite similar to Gongsun Zan's former band of loyal followers.

If they and those armored bandits were to break away from the enemy lines and venture out on their own, they might be able to cause Liu Bei some trouble.

However, these people were responsible for commanding and suppressing the mob. Once they left the camp, the huge bandit group would quickly collapse, since these mobs were just ordinary commoners.

……

"Brother Zhong, how about we divide our forces?"

In the midst of the bandit ranks, Yue Hedang suggested to Liu Weitai, "We can't linger here. This cavalry looks very elite, just like my elder brother Bogui was back then..."

“Alright, we have the numbers, so we should divide our forces… Let’s do as the Taihang bandits did back then! I’ll hold off these cavalrymen, and you go and attack Xinting, forcing them to charge into battle!”

Liu Weitai nodded.

These two appear to have followed Gongsun Zan in the battles outside Zhuo County.

Now, they plan to use the same methods they used against Gongsun Zan to deal with Liu Bei.

The problem is that Gongsun Zan would be caught in a tough battle because he was charging from the very beginning and then got caught in the Taihang bandits' formation, exhausted and unable to rest.

Liu Bei, however, had no intention of charging into battle.

Charging into battle was Guan Yu's job.

Moreover... the Taihang bandits did not scatter their troops in the face of battle.

The bandits were now splitting into two groups, and their ranks were becoming more chaotic.

At this moment, Guan Yu had been observing from a gentle slope at a slightly higher altitude for a while.

He saw two men in lamellar armor talking in the enemy ranks, one fat and one thin.

They also saw that after the two men talked, the enemy split into two groups.

"rush!"

Guan Yu was never one to waste words. With a lance tucked under his left arm and a long sword in his right, he charged straight into the enemy ranks.

Seeing this, dozens of armored cavalrymen followed suit, forming several groups of ten riders each, each group charging out at intervals of twenty paces.

The lances were all held horizontally under the armpits.

They were not charging towards Liu Weitai's band of bandits who were holding their positions and had not moved.

Instead, it was Le Hedang, who had just split his forces and was still unsettled.

(End of this chapter)