Chapter 907: Engagement

Just when the cavalry of both sides left the infantry battlefield, the heavy infantry and Huang Wudie's army were less than a hundred steps apart. What surprised Li Gui was that his army had entered the range of the opponent's crossbows, but the expected rain of arrows did not come. Li Gui's heart moved, knowing that the other side was waiting for his army to get closer before starting to attack.

Li Gui couldn't help but sneer secretly. He had more than 7,000 infantrymen with extremely high defense. Did the generals of the opposite coalition really think that the attack of ordinary arrows could break through his defense and cause a lot of casualties to the army? The 7,000 heavy infantrymen were willing to be shot and killed by him for 1,000 people. At that time, there were still more than 6,000. Once these 6,000 heavy infantrymen killed in front of the opponent's army, they would definitely not be able to stop them.

Eighty steps, the opponent's crossbowmen still did not respond.

Sixty steps, still did not fire.

The opponent's calmness made Li Gui's heart beat a little. Could it be that the opponent had other means against his heavy infantry? But at this time, the arrow was already on the string and had to be fired. Li Gui had no time to think about it, but just ordered the army to continue moving forward.

Fifty steps.

"Crossbowmen, shoot ten times in a row, fire!"

With Huang Wudie's order, four thousand Yuanrong crossbowmen began to pull the trigger on their hanging swords towards the heavy infantry of Yuan Shu's army fifty steps away.

"Buzz buzz buzz!"

Four thousand crossbow arrows rushed towards the Yuan Shu army on the opposite side like locusts.

Hearing the firing order from the opposite side, Li Gui secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The other side had already started firing crossbow arrows, and his army only needed to block a few rounds of his crossbow arrows. Thinking of this, he shouted loudly: "Defend against arrows!"

In fact, he didn't need to give orders. After hearing the crossbow firing order from the opposite side, the soldiers of Yuan Shu's army had already prepared to defend against arrows. However, everyone was wearing heavy armor, and the first row of soldiers were holding shields, so everyone didn't feel any pressure. The reason for holding shields for defense was just a habit.

But soon the soldiers of Yuan Shu's army found that their ideas were wrong.

"Knock, knock, knock..."

When everyone was ready, the crossbow arrows like a rainstorm had already hit the shields. The huge impact force made the soldiers in the front row pause. Fortunately, the heavy infantry formation was tight and the soldiers were close together, so the soldiers in the front row did not fall down directly.

It's just that each heavy infantry's shield was hit by several crossbow arrows. You should know that the effective killing distance of the Yuanrong crossbow arrows is 100 steps, but now it is fired at a distance of 50 steps. The force can be imagined. Several crossbow arrows hit the same shield at the same time, but the positions are completely different, resulting in a completely unbalanced force. Therefore, although many heavy infantrymen did not fall down, the strong force has made them unable to control the shield well.

But just when the heavy infantry wanted to stand firm again and control the shield, the second round of crossbow arrows came again. This time, nearly 300 of the more than 1,000 heavy infantrymen in the front row could not hold on at all. At this time, the tight defense of the heavy infantry was finally broken, and some heavy infantrymen couldn't even hold their shields and fell directly to the ground.

Then, the third round of crossbow arrows came again, and this time, nearly two hundred heavy infantrymen were shot by crossbow arrows and fell down screaming.

Soon, the fourth and fifth rounds came one after another.

The casualties of Yuan Shu's heavy infantry were getting bigger and bigger. Although due to the strict training in normal times, the heavy infantry did not panic. When a soldier in front fell, the companions behind immediately stepped forward to fill his vacant position, but the speed of the crossbow arrows was too fast, and as the distance was shortened, the armor of the heavy infantry was more and more difficult to withstand the attack of the crossbow arrows.

With the end of the ten rounds of crossbow arrows, the heavy infantry had approached the distance of twenty steps in front of Huang Wudie's army, but it was this short distance of thirty steps that caused the loss of more than two thousand heavy infantrymen, of which more than one thousand five hundred were shot dead on the spot, and more than one thousand soldiers were shot and wounded, falling to the ground screaming.

The situation in front of him made Li Gui furious. He had already prepared to sacrifice a thousand elite soldiers, but he did not expect that the crossbows of the Anton Army were so powerful that his soldiers and horses lost as much as 30%.

However, Li Gui could not retreat at this time. Li Gui, who was in the middle of the heavy infantry, shouted loudly: "Forward, keep moving forward! Although the enemy's crossbows are powerful, they will be helpless as long as they get close to the enemy's infantry!"

The huge casualties also aroused the bloodiness of the heavy infantry. The surviving soldiers in the front row shouted loudly: "Kill! Kill!! Kill!!!"

Soon, the shouts of killing rang out in the entire heavy infantry phalanx: "Kill! Kill!! Kill!!!"

After the Yuanrong crossbow soldiers shot a box of crossbow arrows, they had to reload arrows. If it was a normal defense, Huang Wudie would not arrange it this way. She would definitely let the crossbow soldiers attack in turns to ensure the continuity of firepower, but the situation today was different. She had to kill as many heavy infantry as possible before engaging with the heavy infantry, otherwise it would be impossible for her current combat battalion to support the return of the cavalry.

Sure enough, after ten rounds of crossbow arrows, the number of heavy infantry dropped to more than 4,000, but the crossbowmen were too late to fire another round. Huang Wudie immediately ordered: "The Yuanrong crossbowmen retreat fifty steps to block the shooting, and the sword and shield soldiers line up. We only need to wait until the cavalry returns to win. Fight to the death! Kill!"

"Kill!"

The current Hu Ben Camp was reorganized after Huang Zhong led his troops to Yuzhou. The old soldiers and new soldiers fought half each. After entering Huainan, after several battles, there are now only more than 4,000 people. The loss of old soldiers was not large, only more than 100 people, but the loss of the newly joined 2,500 soldiers was nearly 1,000. The more than 4,000 soldiers of the Hu Ben Camp were divided into four columns by Huang Wudie. The first two columns were old soldiers before the reorganization, and the back was a mixture of old and new soldiers.

"Boom..."

Twenty steps away in a blink of an eye, soon the two armies were killed in a group. Facing the impact of Yuan Shu's heavy infantry, the two columns of old soldiers of the Hu Ben Camp tried their best to stop it, but it also caused the Hu Ben Camp to lose two or three hundred people, and Yuan Shu's army lost about the same amount.

The two armies soon fought in a group, and Huang Wudie was riding on a warhorse, with her long sword flying, and the soldiers of Yuan Shu's army were no match for her. Her military strength is as high as 88, ranking in the top ten in Huangfu Chaobo's army. Even her brother Huang Xu is three points lower than her. Just because she is a female general, Huangfu Chaobo has always placed her in the position of a guard, and she rarely has the opportunity to fight with the army.

In fact, both Huang Wudie and Zhao Yu are very good generals, and their four dimensions are quite balanced. They can be said to be on par with Tian Yu and Huang Xu, but slightly inferior to Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, Zhang He and other generals. So this time, after Huang Zhong was transferred to Yuzhou, Huangfu Chaobo appointed Huang Wudie as the chief general of the Huben Camp.