But there is no way now. I have to walk slowly and consume a lot of physical strength. It is better than being attacked by orcs and dying because of not wearing armor.
The group moved cautiously until noon. The marching speed was much slower than before, and it was estimated that they would reach the vicinity of a safe city at night.
And when the sun was at its hottest at noon, the huge orc cavalry, accompanied by the trembling earth and the sky full of smoke and dust, appeared again at the end of the sight.
"Cavalry! Massive cavalry!"
The border scouts immediately sounded the alarm. The Han army blew their horns and beat drums to warn the enemy. Ding Yuan was ready to attack the Xiongnu cavalry. Among the thousands of soldiers, there was a blood-red Skug, as big as a rhinoceros! Its body was covered with a layer of scarlet rough skin, and it had eight elephant-like legs to support its larger body. On its shoulders were two rhinoceros-shaped heads, but with a huge mouth and full of sharp fangs.
Squigs are a kind of multifunctional livestock unique to the Orcs. Most of them are grazed for eating, and have the same uses as cattle and sheep. However, their genes are very unstable, and there are many subspecies of Squigs. Some sniper Squigs will grow large and scary eyes to assist orcs in shooting, and some Oil Gourd Squigs have extremely amazing fat content, and can even produce oil like producing milk, helping orcs to make rockets.
The thing in front of us is a giant Squig, which is extremely rare even among the various Squig subspecies. It is specially used for war, killing, and riding.
On the back of this two-headed beast, there was a war sculpture that was over four meters tall. The giant sculpture was wearing black iron armor tailored for it by orc craftsmen. Red ropes strung together thousands of pieces of black armor, wrapping its dark green body tightly, leaving only a pair of lifelike eyes exposed. Various giant fang bone carvings, gold jewelry, and other random decorations on this giant sculpture like a nouveau riche made it look extremely terrifying. Only this kind of beast could carry such a giant sculpture.
No, that's not a sculpture! If you get close, you can hear the sculpture's frighteningly strong breathing coming from its nose, and you can see his slightly rising and falling chest and swaying eyes - this is not a sculpture at all, it's clearly a four-meter-tall orc warlord! The real King Xiu Tu!
An orc warlord of this level can already challenge the position of Great Khan of Southern Xiongnu, but the rare thing is that King Xiutu not only has a terrifying physique, but also brains - now the kings of Southern Xiongnu have been fighting for the position of Great Khan.
I thought, I can take this opportunity to plunder the Han territory, expand my tribe, wait until the battle in Hetao is almost over and everyone has suffered heavy casualties, then I will go back to clean up the situation, easily defeat the other Xiongnu kings, and become the next Great Shan! Yu!!!
But before that, these Han border troops were not easy to deal with.
King Xiu Tu waved his hand and played one of his trump cards - it was a troop of 2,500 orc boys. They came roaring on wild boars and horses, and suddenly stopped collectively 600 meters away from Ding Yuan. The 2,500 orc boys dismounted one after another, and accompanied by deafening roars of beasts, they quickly assembled into dense infantry phalanxes on the spot!
Ding Yuan was stunned. He saw the first row of orcs holding swords and shields, the second row holding halberds, the third row holding infantry spears, the fourth row holding battle spears, and the fifth row holding bows and arrows. Two thousand five hundred orcs were marching in unison, singing war songs, and killing him under the dark red blood axe flags! The tight and orderly square formations were not in chaos even when they were moving quickly!
The green-skinned orcs are naturally very lax creatures, and the rule of the grassland people is even more lax. The orcs are naturally warlike, and they only switch back and forth between three states: fighting, on the way to a fight, and resting for the next fight. It is so chaotic that there are almost no laws, and whoever has the bigger fist has the final say.
However, some orcs will enter a rebellious period during their adolescence. They feel disgusted with the looseness of the greenskin society and spontaneously gather together to learn the Han army's drill code in a disciplined manner, such as marching in unison, marching in square formations, washing their clothes regularly, maintaining their weapons, wearing Hanfu meticulously, and reading "The Spring and Autumn Annals"... This phenomenon is particularly concentrated among the Blood Axe of the Southern Xiongnu, who have been heavily influenced by the sinicization of the Han people.
The Han-equipped camp at present is the Xiongnu heavy armored infantry specially selected from rebellious boys by King Xiutu and built in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Han army.
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Chapter 166: Airdrop Order
Javelins were thrown and crossbows were fired at each other. The two armies attacked the enemy with the same long-range method without any reservation, and at the same time raised their shields for cover. For a time, arrows rained down and javelins flew like locusts. The first row of soldiers on both sides were shot like hedgehogs by the dense rain of arrows. Their shields and armor were densely pierced with arrows and javelins. They were not killed immediately because of the treatment of the ancient literature scholars behind them with magic.
In the safest center of the army, spellcasters from both sides were engaging in a tense and exciting battle. Fireball was a spell with high lethality, wide coverage, long range, and only a third-ring spell, making it relatively easy to learn. It was well received by Confucianists and was their favorite spell to use to attack the enemy in war.
However, this time it is different from the Yellow Turban Army. Even the number of Huangtian priests in the Yellow Turban Army is not large. The Han army has an absolute advantage in magic in the process of suppressing the rebellion, and there are also a large number of priests and psychic boys in the orc army.
I saw blazing fireballs rising slowly in front of the Han army. For a moment, it seemed as if there were thirteen dazzling suns in the sky, dragging brilliant tails of flames, spewing terrifying tongues of fire, and falling towards the orc army with unparalleled ferocity.
However, thirteen brilliant and dazzling fireballs also rose in the orc army formation. Thirteen bright suns of Confucianism were spinning, dancing, whistling, and tearing the sky apart, flying towards the enemy's sun like interceptor missiles!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!!!"
Amidst the bursts of fiery explosions, fireballs collided fiercely with each other and exploded in mid-air into beautiful yet dangerous balls of flaming fireworks. Tens of thousands of broken sparks dragged thick tails of flames and were splashed in all directions by the shock waves of the explosions, transforming into balls of brilliant and beautiful flaming clouds in the air.
Seeing that their fireball spells were countered, the Confucian scholars used other spells, but they were also suppressed by the orcs one by one. Several psychic boys tried to fight back, but the destructive rays they blasted out were also annihilated and crushed by the Han people's magic dispels.
Both sides countered with each other's Confucian counterattacks, I dispelled your magic, and dozens of magic rays whizzed across the battlefield. It was so lively, but in the end nothing happened. No one could penetrate the other's magic defense system. It was all because they were all taught by the same master and could not be broken.
Under the cover of rain of arrows and magic, the two huge infantry forces finally rushed together. The orc boys in the first row carefully raised their shields to block the halberds and spears that emerged from the second, third, and fourth rows of the Han army.
At the same time, the halberds and spears of the second, third and fourth rows of orcs also emerged from behind the first row and attacked the Han army. There was always a distance of about two meters between the two armies. Countless long weapons crossed this distance, frantically stabbing and hitting the shields and armored soldiers in the first row of the enemy, causing sparks to fly and clanging sounds to sound.
If you look at the military formation from the side, the two massive armies look like two dense metal forests, stretching out tens of thousands of sharp spears, branches and blades, which constantly flap and sway in the strong wind, performing a dance of death.
Seeing that his 2,500 rebellious boys were confronting the 5,000 Han army head-on and attracting the attention of a large number of the main forces, King Xiutu nodded with satisfaction and dispatched 4,000 cavalry to start harassing on both wings, looking for a chance to win. The Han army was extremely skilled in using the right tactics and the unexpected.
Seeing the cavalry approaching, the border troops on both wings immediately launched standard anti-cavalry procedures. Halberds and spears formed a dense anti-cavalry spear wall. The Han army in the first row also raised their shields to build a shield wall to resist the arrows, providing all-round defense against the rain of arrows and charges of the nomadic cavalry. Their movements were done in one go and were extremely skillful.
The orc cavalry knew that these border troops were powerful, and this formation was a natural counter to cavalry, so they did not charge head-on, but suddenly dismounted at a distance of 60 meters and hid behind the horses. At this distance, the horses would not survive more than twelve seconds before being shot to death by the Han army's crossbows all over the mountains.
But it didn't matter, this was exactly the effect the orcs wanted. The horses they rode this time were inferior ones such as pack horses, not war horses, so they didn't feel bad at all if they died. They hid behind the entities and simply used the horse carcasses as shelters for their bows and arrows. They hid behind the horse carcasses, drew their bows and arrows, and launched fierce bow and arrow exchanges with the two wings of the Han army!
At a distance of sixty meters, it is easy to kill a steppe horse with a crossbow, but it is very difficult to shoot through a steppe horse covered with leather gear and then kill the orc boy hiding behind it.
Seeing a large number of orc archers doing this, Ding Yuan was also very annoyed. He decided to send out the cavalry. The corpses of these war horses served as both shelters for archers and roadblocks for cavalry, and the effect of charging would not be very good.
What's more, a large group of orc cavalry was right behind these archers. If he charged rashly, he would be entangled by these orc cavalry.
If he sent out infantry to clean up and expel the orcs, there would be loopholes in his defensive formation. After a day and a night of fighting, he was sure that King Xutu was not a traditional orc. He was a very cunning and smart orc warlord. If he found a loophole and launched a charge, it would be a big trouble.
There was no choice but Ding Yuan to continue to endure and at the same time dispatch more archers to the two wings to shoot against these Hun orc archers.
King Xiutu looked at the battle situation and nodded with satisfaction. Don't panic. You have to be patient when hunting. I have already burned his food last night. I want to see how long these prey can last.
As for the reinforcements of the Han army? According to the intelligence of the special warfare boy, Liu Zhuang, the governor of Hedong, just pacified the Baibo bandits in Linfen yesterday. It will take some time for them to arrive here. Others cannot mobilize a large-scale army, and the number of local Han army reinforcements will not be too large.
Just when King Xiutu was calmly thinking about killing Ding Yuan, suddenly, several scouts came running from the south with terrified looks on their faces.
"King! King! A large-scale Han army has been spotted in the southeast! There are more than a thousand of them!"
"impossible!"
King Xiutu turned around suddenly and said in disbelief.
"How could it be so fast? I thought that with the speed of the Han army, he should not have left Hedong yet. How could he have come directly to Xihe? Did he fly here?"
"It's not Liuzhuang! It's the Xianbei people! I think they are the ones who defected to Liuzhuang last year! Their ranch is near the Zi family! They are all heading here now! There are probably around 2,000 of them!"
"Damn it, keep surrounding this big fish! Don't let Ding Yuan go!"
King Xiutu remained calm in the face of danger and immediately began to deploy, pointing his huge finger at four giant orcs who were at least two meters and five in height.
"I want you, you, you and you! You four-qu soldiers, follow me! Let's go fight those Xianbei people! Let's see who is the boss!!!"
King Xiutu led the Siqu troops, which meant two thousand orcs, and quickly left the battlefield. They galloped two miles in the southeast direction, began to deploy defense lines, encircle and attack reinforcements, and sent scouts to continue reconnaissance.
After a while, he could see the enemy without scouts. King Xiutu picked up a crystal-clear Farsighter and held it in front of his eyes, staring at the army in the distance. There were about a thousand soldiers and horses, but in addition to that, there were a thousand Han people on horseback?
King Xiutu stared at the flags of the two gangs. One of the flags had "Xianbei Thousand Households" written in small characters, and the other had "Yuwen" written in large characters.
On the second side, "Biebu Sima" was written in small characters and "Gao" was written in large characters.
Yuwen Tai? Isn’t this an old acquaintance?
This was Liu Zhuang's emergency system: he gave considerable independence to his captains, Sima of other departments, and Qianhu. As long as his orders were airdropped to Yuwen Tai, who was closest to Ding Yuan, he could immediately mobilize his own Qianhu and rush directly to the battlefield.
Therefore, even though he was still on his way to Hedong, the troops stationed in the Zi area had already begun to rush to his aid.
Chapter 167: Micromanagement on the battlefield
"Hey, hey, hey! Isn't this Yuwen Tai? Why is he so handsome after not seeing him for a few years? The little mare that once roamed the grasslands is now being domesticated by the Han people and used as a concubine and mount?"
King Xiutu was roaring loudly from a distance of two miles.
"Is the dragon's thing bigger than a horse? Why do you want to follow the Han people so wholeheartedly? Why don't you surrender quickly? The Han Dynasty has run out of luck! The country will perish! Quickly gather all your Xianbei people! If you and I join forces, how can Bingzhou be any enemy?"
As soon as Yuwen Tai arrived at the battlefield, he was inexplicably ridiculed. He was in such a bad mood that he even didn't want to pay attention to King Xiutu. He immediately ordered the entire army to rest on the spot and reorganize the formation which was a little scattered due to the march. All the soldiers took off the armor from the backs of the pack horses, put it on themselves, and prepared for battle.
The two sides were two miles apart, and the orcs had no time to stop the men and horses from putting on armor, so they simply rested where they were and waited for the opportunity to tire themselves out.
After everything was prepared, Yuwen Tai personally led eight brave generals under his command and charged into battle with his own soldiers, rushing towards King Xiutu. The range of the centaurs' longbows and arrows was times longer than that of the orc cavalry's shortbows. Before the two sides engaged in battle, the orc cavalry archers saw the centaurs shooting out horrifying rounds of arrows and heard horrifying string vibrations. Before they could react, they were shot by the rain of arrows, with blood and flesh splattering and their bodies covered with wounds. The arrows that covered the sky seemed to be falling from the sky like a rainstorm!
In an angry state, Yuwen Tai personally held a large black bow and shot arrows at King Xiutu from a distance of two hundred meters. Four arrows hit King Xiutu's chest, three were bounced off by the iron armor, and the last arrow only penetrated the outermost layer of armor without hurting his flesh.
After the orc archers suffered heavy damage, the distance between the two armies was less than a hundred meters. Only now could they fight back with the short bows in their hands. The cavalry on both sides began to shoot passionately on their galloping horses. Thousands of arrows were like countless birds, flapping their wings and flying high into the sky, then turning into torrential rain and falling from the sky, tearing the air fiercely and falling on the heads, shoulders and horsebacks of the cavalry on both sides with a scream.
With the overwhelming rain of arrows, orcs and horses were shot into hedgehogs, and their bloody bodies covered the entire battlefield!
"WAAAGH!!!"
"Support the Han Dynasty!!!"
The cavalry of both sides galloped and shot arrows at the same time. Seeing that the distance between the two armies was less than ten meters, the orcs and the horses put away their bows and arrows, took out their long spears and halberds, and began to charge at each other! The two huge cavalry, like two groups of black armor torrents sweeping across the world, collided heavily! The soldiers roared, howled, shouted, and brandished their weapons in a bloody battle.
An orc boy raised his lance high, and with the help of the force of the charging warhorse, he pierced the centaur's abdomen with one blow. The centaur's eyes were blazing with pain, and he roared and swung the long-handled sword in his hand, cutting off the orc's right hand with one blow, and then with another blow, splitting the orc and his mount in half. Scarlet blood splattered all over his armor and body, and the broken pieces of flesh that were constantly bleeding were all over the ground.
In a corner of the battlefield, a huge and burly centaur wielded a huge long-handled warhammer, swinging it vigorously above his head. At a distance of three meters, he smashed the head of an orc boy with one hammer, and then smashed the head of the second orc boy into his own chest with another blow! The warhorse under his crotch could not withstand the strange force that came from the sky, and its four hooves softened and it collapsed on the battlefield.
When the cavalry of the two armies were engaged in close combat, the orc cavalry without the bonus of stirrups had to try their best to maintain their balance while sitting on horseback, and they had no way to fight with all their strength. The orc infantry had a variety of weapons, including armor-piercing and shield-breaking weapons, but once on horseback they could only choose bows and spears that were convenient for maintaining balance.
But the centaurs are different. They are born as one. Forget basic things like spears. They can use hammers, swords, axes, etc. without worrying about balance on horseback. As monsters, the strength of the centaurs is not inferior to that of the greenskins. They have the advantage in the close combat charge of the cavalry and even defeated the greenskin cavalry.
King Xiutu was not in a hurry either. He was four meters tall and was riding on a monster that was more than four meters tall. With his height advantage, he overlooked the entire battlefield and began to micro-manipulate.
Ordinary people standing on a battlefield of 4,000 people can only see heads all over the mountains and nothing else.
King Xiutu was better off. With the huge advantages of his height and mount, he could look down at the battlefield from a high vantage point and barely see some enemy and friendly formations. He began to make adjustments accordingly, ordering two groups of troops to surround the enemy from both sides, and ordered hundreds of special forces guys to lurk and make detours, trying to create an encirclement network to surround the troops.
But no matter how he commanded or how he micro-managed, the encirclement could not be closed. A large number of troops were always able to sense, block, or even repel his encirclement attempts in a timely manner, which made King Xiutu puzzled. He knew that cavalry was difficult to deal with, so he concentrated his forces and began to attack another thousand Han cavalry, hoping to open a gap from them.
However, his encirclement plan failed again. When the encirclement was just formed, the Han cavalry quickly broke out of the encirclement from the weakest point and even launched a counter-encirclement.
Five hundred Han cavalrymen resisted and even defeated their own orc cavalrymen on the front battlefield, and the other five hundred cavalrymen were divided into five groups, cooperating with each other to start cutting, tearing, and encircling and annihilating their own orc cavalrymen? This level of training, tacit cooperation, and control over the battlefield are simply terrifying!
King Xiutu felt that something was not right. What was going on? With similar equipment and manpower, how could the Han cavalry defeat the orc cavalry head-on?
When he looked carefully, he found that the horse equipment of these Han cavalry was very strange. There were two huge bulges in front and behind the saddle, which fixed the cavalry like the back of a chair, and were equipped with two iron stirrups. The cavalry leaned on the saddle and stepped on the stirrups, which gave them a higher balance. As a result, when the cavalry of both sides fought, the Han cavalry had an overwhelming advantage, which enabled them to suppress their own orc cavalry.
The Han people’s technology has been updated again!
King Xiu Tu was so shocked that he could see at a glance what a huge improvement these two small modifications would be for the cavalry.
But, this didn't make sense. It was not like Yuwen Tai had never fought before. The little girl was indeed powerful, but her power lay in charging into battle, not micro-manipulating the battlefield. Moreover, she was charging into battle not far in front of him, so how could she micro-manage the army???
The Han army's technology has been updated, and I accept that the cavalry has the advantage. After this war, I will go back and start imitating it immediately.
But how could they see through their cavalry's detours and outflankings time and time again, and fight back immediately? ? ?
Just when King Xiutu was puzzled, suddenly a shadow of a wing covered and fell on her head. Gao Huan flapped his dark succubus wings, soaring above the sky, taking in the entire battlefield.
If it was said that King Xiutu had a better grasp of the actual situation on the battlefield than others simply because of his tall stature and the distance he could see, Gao Huan directly turned on the full map perspective, overlooking the entire battlefield from a high vantage point, and taking in every move of the enemy and our own soldiers.
Afterwards, she used ten flags of different colors to send out completely different flag signals in the air, commanding the loyal Gao family troops as if they were the control of her own arms. More than a thousand people of the Gao family were divided into five teams, and each team had a person who was specifically responsible for reading Gao Huan's flag signals and conveying orders. Each team represented a flag of black, white, red, yellow and green.
When Gao Huan raised the black flag with his right hand, it meant that the first team obeyed orders. His left hand used flags of other colors, as well as shaking up and down, rotating left and right, to convey specific commands. Then he changed his right hand to a white flag to command the second team, and so on.
The combination of a panoramic view of the entire map, efficient flag communication, and loyal retainers made it possible for the Wuyuan Han cavalry to perform and operate like gods on the battlefield.
Under Gao Huan's command, these Wuyuan Han cavalry, like they had a perspective cheat, repeatedly detoured, outflanked, cut off, and annihilated the enemy on the bustling battlefield, and by constantly accumulating small advantages, they let the balance of victory constantly tilt towards them.
It was not until this moment that King Xiutu suddenly realized.
I was talking about the Sima of the other tribe named Gao, why haven't I heard of her? She is a piece of shit from the Gao family! Isn't this the girl He Liuhun?
Chapter 168: Xianbei and Xiongnu
"You guys! Cover me! I'm going to take down that girl He Liuhun! With her watching from the sky, she will see through all my plans and deployments!"
King Xiutu shouted and immediately unloaded a twelve-stone large rhubarb crossbow from the giant beast. That thing was two meters long. The Han army's large rhubarb crossbow had to be installed on a chariot to march normally, but King Xiutu, thanks to his terrifying four-meter-tall body, directly used this thing as a normal-sized crossbow and shot an arrow at Gao Huan in the sky.
The crossbow arrows shot out from the Dahuang crossbow were even thicker than the largest javelin, and the terrifying whistling sound of the wind made people shudder. What was even more terrifying was that ordinary Han soldiers had to use auxiliary equipment such as winches to restring this monster with a pulling force of twelve stones, but King Xiutu could pull the crossbow string to full again with one hand, and then quickly reloaded the crossbow arrows. Only six seconds later, he shot the second arrow at Gao Huan!
Gao Huan was frightened to the point of breaking out in a cold sweat. He first cast a shield spell, narrowly deflecting the first crossbow arrow. Then he quickly cast an invisibility spell, and with changing light and shadow, he disappeared into the sky, avoiding the second shot.
Invisibility is good, but its duration is too short and the mana consumption is too high, so it cannot be used for a long time. Moreover, after becoming invisible, you cannot use flag signals to initiate textbook micro-management.
Fortunately, after discovering Gao Huan's predicament, Yuwen Tai also led his troops to break through the center. The murderous big orc guards turned into cute marmots in front of Yuwen Tai, spinning in panic. Yuwen Tai led his elite troops to rush forward and directly arrived in front of King Xiutu. The distance between the two was less than ten meters!
The elite soldiers of the Yuwen Xianbei collectively shot a round of conical-headed armor-piercing arrows at King Xiutu. A large number of conical-headed arrows directly pierced into the gaps between the armor and injured King Xiutu's body. Blood gushed out through the gaps in the armor.
"I haven't seen you two girls for a few years. You two girls are becoming more and more troublesome."
King Xiutu gave up the sniper attack on Gao Huan with a curse, aimed the large yellow crossbow in his hand at Yuwen Tai and pulled the trigger. A crossbow arrow flew straight to Yuwen Tai's head, forcing her to quickly turn into a petite and cute marmot to avoid the attack. Then she returned to her original form and used the transformation magic on King Xiutu. In an instant, colorful black light enveloped the giant beast that was more than four meters tall, but nothing happened.
Yuwen Tai frowned. The spell failed. Magic was not omnipotent. Those with agile reflexes could dodge the explosion of fireball, those with strong will could resist the magical temptation of charm, and those with strong bodies could resist the magic curse of his group transformation into rats. Obviously, this greenskin was too strong, and the probability of him turning him into a rat was a little low.
But it didn't matter. Yuwen Tai's second transformation weapon hit his mount directly. King Xiutu only felt his body sink, and a horrible feeling of weightlessness came in his heart. Then he sat down heavily on the ground. His four-meter-tall body shook the earth, and the groundhog under him let out an earth-shattering scream!
Under the heavy pressure from King Xiutu, the groundhog turned back into the giant beast Squig, but all of its bones were shattered and fractured. It collapsed on the ground and coughed up blood madly, which made King Xiutu very distressed. When he looked at Yuwen Tai, his eyes were burning with rage!
"Do you know how hard it is to raise a giant beast called Squig that I can ride? No! My mount! You pay for it!!!"
King Xiu Tu was furious and put away his crossbow. He picked up two huge axes and joined the battlefield like a black whirlwind! Each of the two axes was three meters long, as thick as a baby's waist, and the axe blade was as wide as a wolfhound. He swung it with great vigor, and with one blow, he could even split the earth and smash rocks!
Yuwen Tai was not afraid at all. After casting several transformation-related amplification spells on himself, he fought with King Xiutu with a long spear in hand.
She knew that she, at a young age, could not defeat the King of the Southern Xiongnu who had been famous for decades, so she charged into the battle with eight brave generals under her command. The nine men and horses circled around King Xiutu like a revolving lantern, and long spears and hammers fell on King Xiutu's body like raindrops.
The Xiongnu royal guards also wanted to help, but those who came to help were either stopped by the troops or turned into groundhogs by Yuwen Tai, and could not be saved at all.
King Xiutu saw that he was surrounded, but he was not afraid at all. He relied on his rough leathery skin and the black iron armor covering his entire body to resist the fierce attacks of the nine horses. He wielded his two axes with great force and did not care how many enemies besieged him there were. He just attacked anyone in front of him!
The long spears of two centaurs pierced through the gaps in his iron armor and penetrated deeply into his thighs. The war hammers of three centaurs cracked the armor and made dents in his calves.
