Chapter 916: The Second Line of Defense

Seeing this, Huangfu Chaobo pulled the general of the rear camp and said: "Prepare 100 baggage carts immediately, and build a defense line 30 steps away from several pontoon bridges. Leave only two passages for baggage carts to pass through each place. When the army retreats, block the passage to resist Ji Ling's army."

The general was stunned, and immediately understood what Huangfu Chaobo meant, and hurriedly asked people to prepare.

An hour after the battle began, some soldiers finally couldn't resist the attack of Ji Ling's army, and the breast wall was broken several times. Seeing this, Huang Zhong immediately sent Gao Shun's trap camp. At the same time, Huang Wudie ordered archers and crossbowmen to fire at the back of the defense line to block the reinforcements of Ji Ling's army. After several battles, Ji Ling's army was finally driven out of the defense line.

However, this only temporarily repelled Ji Ling's army. The retreating Ji Ling's army only rested for a while more than a hundred steps away, and then launched another attack on An Dong's army under the urging of the war drums of the central army. This time, Ji Ling only left 10,000 soldiers in his hands, and sent out all the rest of the troops.

Because he had seen that, firstly, the defense line of the Anton Army had been somewhat loose, and secondly, there were not many baggage carts left behind the defense line, estimated to be less than 500. If he could not break the defense line, then he would have no chance of defeating the Anton Army here. At that time, he would have to lead the troops to attack the city. At that time, the Anton Army had a strong city defense, but he still needed to be on guard against the reinforcements of the Anton Army from Runan at any time.

Huangfu Chaobo reacted quickly. When he ordered the rear army lieutenant to arrange the defense line at the bridgehead, Ji Ling's army once again attacked the front of the breast wall defense line. This time, there were 50,000 elite troops attacking at the same time, which doubled the pressure on Huang Zhong and other generals.

For Ji Ling's second round of attack, the Anton Army only lasted for a quarter of an hour before the defense line was breached several times. Although the generals were everywhere to put out the fire, they were somewhat stretched. Seeing this, Huang Zhong knew that his army could not hold out for much longer. Just then, Huangfu Chaobo's messenger came over and told him that he could arrange for the army to retreat.

After Huang Zhong defeated a wave of Ji Ling's troops, he looked back at the river and found the second line of defense arranged by Huangfu Chaobo by the bridge. When he looked at the baggage carts by the river, there were less than 200 left. He knew that his master was ready to abandon these baggage carts.

So he ordered the crossbowmen to retreat to the second line of defense by the river. When they retreated to 80 steps behind the breastwork, they immediately covered the trench with bows and arrows, fired a blocking shot, and then quickly retreated to the second line of defense to prepare to support the army's retreat.

Huang Wudie, who received the order, immediately led nearly 10,000 archers to retreat quickly, and re-formed their battle array 80 steps away from the breastwork. Then, more than 10,000 arrows rained down on the Ji Ling army in the trench, knocking the Ji Ling army who were preparing to attack the breastwork off their horses, and instantly cleared a blank area several steps wide. As for the An Dong army behind the breastwork, there would definitely be a lot of accidental injuries, but Huang Wudie and Huang Zhong didn't care about that.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Ji Ling army's attack was out of sync, Huang Zhong gave an order and led the army to launch a round of counterattacks, killing the Ji Ling army around the breastwork by surprise. Thousands of Ji Ling soldiers who crossed the breastwork were killed and fled in embarrassment.

Then, before the Ji Ling army could react, the An Dong army sounded the horn, and the generals who had already received the military order immediately led the surviving soldiers to retreat quickly and retreat towards the second line of defense.

By the time the Ji Ling army soldiers reacted, the An Dong army soldiers had retreated nearly 20 steps. Seeing this, the morale of Ji Ling's army was greatly boosted, and they immediately turned around and attacked in the direction of Anton's retreat.

The army had just rushed past the breast wall for ten steps, and tens of thousands of arrows from the Anton army attacked again, once again shooting more than a thousand Ji Ling's soldiers to the ground. Ji Ling's offensive was stagnant again.

The Anton army, led by the generals, had retreated to the front of the second chariot wall. As the infantry army retreated to the chariot wall, more than 10,000 archers had retreated from several floating bridges to the other side of the river under the command of Huang Wudie, and re-formed on the shore.

When the Anton army counterattacked,

Ji Ling had already discovered something was wrong. Later, when the Anton army retreated, he ordered the army to pursue with all their strength regardless of casualties. Therefore, although the subsequent rounds of arrow rain also caused considerable losses to Ji Ling's army, the army that received Ji Ling's order did not stop at all. Tens of thousands of troops attacked in the direction of Anton's retreat like crazy.

When Huang Zhong and his generals led the soldiers back to the second line of defense and just blocked the passage, Ji Ling's army had already rushed to within ten steps of the defense line. Fortunately, the crossbowmen on the other side of the river had already been in place. With Huang Wudie's order, more than ten thousand arrows flew again, stopping Ji Ling's army in front of the formation again.

However, Ji Ling's army only stopped for a few breaths before rushing up again.

The generals of the Andong Army who withdrew to the defense line had already arranged the defense behind the baggage carts. When the soldiers of Ji Ling's army rushed up, the crazy killing began again. Soldiers from both sides stabbed each other across the baggage carts. One row fell, and soon another row came up from behind.

While Huang Zhong arranged his soldiers for defense, he sent a message to Dian Wei and other generals to prepare for alternate retreat. In the current situation, if the army wants to retreat safely, it is estimated that there will be a lot of losses.

After much consideration, Huang Zhong decided to leave behind 3,000 elite soldiers from the Xianzhen Camp and the Tiebi Camp as the rear guard. They were first arranged to withdraw to the west end of the stone bridge to set up defenses. Except for the stone bridge, the rest of the pontoon bridges would be burned after most of the troops had crossed.

The last line of defense set up by Huangfu Chaobo was not just one defense belt, but two defense belts, about ten steps apart. After Huang Zhong arranged 10,000 soldiers to defend the baggage carts outside, the rest of the troops began to retreat alternately under the leadership of the generals.

When the rest of the troops had almost withdrawn, Huang Zhong fired a rocket into the sky. After receiving Huang Zhong's order, Huang Wudie launched two rounds of volleys at the Ji Ling army in front of the defense line. However, with the previous rounds of arrow rain, the Ji Ling army was already prepared. When the arrow rain came, many soldiers raised their shields and blocked a lot of arrows, but their offensive was weakened a lot. Taking this opportunity, Huang Zhong led the soldiers to attack again, pushing the Ji Ling army back a few steps, and then threw a few torches on the baggage carts in this line and quickly retreated, running towards the car formation behind.

Ji Lingjun was not stupid either. He rushed forward quickly and tried his best to put out the torches. The rest of the army immediately chased after them and soon reached the front of the chariot formation. The two sides fought again.