Chapter 272 Frustrated

"Lord, we have recovered more than 30,000 arrows. It is difficult to use the rest. They have been collected." Ma Chao came to Lu Bu and reported the losses in this battle.

This continuous crossbow is easy to use, but it costs money.

Six thousand people shoot a crossbow box empty, which is 60,000 arrows. Although this continuous crossbow is powerful, the consumption is equally astonishing. Pure iron three-edged crossbow arrows are not cheap, so if conditions permit, they will recycle the crossbow arrows. Those Those that cannot be used will be taken back as much as possible and recast.

In the past few years, Xiliang has excavated several open-pit iron mines. Every year, a large number of preliminary refined iron ingots are sent to Chang'an. Shenji Camp now has special molds for making this kind of crossbow arrows, and imitates the Qin Dynasty. The Shishenji Battalion's methods barely keep up with the forging of this crossbow. Even so, as the most expensive consumable, recycling is a must.

Lu Bu nodded, looked at the desolate scene around him, and felt a little emotional. When he returned to his old place, it looked like this. When the princes attacked Dong, there were still Wubao in this area. Lu Bu could supply supplies on the spot. Now he sees What he saw was the long-abandoned farmland and the dilapidated Wubao, and his mood was not immune to being affected.

"Pack your things and go to Xingyang tonight to repair and wait for Gongzheng's army to arrive!" Lu Bu looked around and said.

This time Nanyang sent troops, in addition to Lu Bu's six thousand flying cavalry troops, Gao Shun also led the enemy camp and ten thousand Nanyang elite troops. According to Lu Bu's plan, after these two troops occupied Xingyang, they counterattacked with Xu Rong. Yuan Shao, although the purpose of this battle is not to capture the city, but since Yuan Shao has taken action, it is not too much to want Hanoi so that he can send troops to Yuan Shao in the future.

"Xingyang..." Wei Yan thought for a while, looked at Lu Bu and said, "My lord, it is said that Wen Chou, the defender of Xingyang, is a general under Yuan Shao. We are all cavalry. If we want to attack the city, I am afraid..."

"If the flying cavalry camp dismounts, it will be trapped in the camp!" Lu Bu looked at Wei Yan and said calmly.

The flying cavalry camp and the trap camp are carefully selected and trained. On weekdays, they eat food that has been mixed with decoctions by doctors. It is not very delicious, but it is definitely the best for the body. In fact, most of the cavalry dismounted. They can also be called elites. Cavalry is not just called cavalry when infantry mount their horses.

Wei Yan nodded silently, then it would be no problem.

"Let's hit the road and enter the city tonight." Lu Bu arranged for the soldiers to continue on their way. Even if they were trapped in the camp and wanted to attack a city, it would be impossible to conquer it with a head-on confrontation. Lu Bu came with the flying cavalry battalion to attack. With a time difference, Xingyang was captured first without the opponent being prepared.

Back then, he was forced to retreat by the coalition forces here. Now he has returned to his old place, but the situation is completely different from what it was back then!

After the Flying Cavalry Army cleaned up the battlefield, they immediately left. As for the Xuzhou Army who surrendered, they could only watch blankly as the Flying Cavalry Army walked away... No one cared about them.

Some people dispersed, and some chose to enter Meishan to find Liu Bei. After all, they were Liu Bei's soldiers, and most of their family members were in Xuzhou. Although Liu Bei was more benevolent and righteous, who knew whether he would wear small shoes in the future.

The other one...if there was no Liu Bei, who would care about their food?

Liu Bei, surrounded by Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, fled into Meishan with Chen Gong. After waiting for a long time, he didn't see Lu Bu attacking the mountain. He was slightly relieved and stopped in the mountain to repair. In his mind, among the thousands of horses galloping, countless people The scene of the overwhelming rain of arrows still lingers in my mind.

Liu Bei is not an ignorant person. He was born in Youzhou, and he followed Gongsun Zan for a while. He has certainly seen riding and shooting. He himself is also good at riding and shooting, but the infantry under the overwhelming crossbows and arrows like today There is no chance to fight back. Let alone the cavalry, the two armies cannot shoot in such a formation.

If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would have suspected that he was surrounded by an army of tens of thousands of people instead of thousands of people fighting him.

But judging from the formation, this cavalry is definitely not enough for 10,000.

It is possible for an army of 20,000 to be overwhelmed by 10,000 cavalry. The cavalry comes and goes like the wind, but the infantry must always be on guard. Over time, it is not surprising that it will be overwhelmed. When the barbarians surround the Han army, as long as they Without reinforcements, this method is usually used.

However, less than half an hour after the two sides fought, the 20,000-strong army was directly defeated by others. Before today, Liu Bei could not imagine it.

What kind of weapon does the opponent have in his hand?

"Brother!" Guan Yu's call interrupted Liu Bei's thoughts, but he saw Guan Yu coming up with a group of people.

"How?" Liu Bei took a deep breath, trying his best not to be affected by the emotion of defeat, and looked at Guan Yu and said.

"The traitor army has gone, but our soldiers have not been killed. Many people have left, but there are still many soldiers staying. There are probably more than 3,000 soldiers around now. I have ordered Mi Fang and Zhou Cang to go and collect the defeated army. Maybe they can also I can take some away." Guan Yu sighed, feeling a little angry after losing the battle today, but he didn't have any temper.

After all, they didn't use any conspiracy, they just had more powerful weapons than them.

Seeing that Liu Bei was not in a high mood, Guan Yu sat next to him and said, "I have long heard that Lu Bu attaches great importance to this craftsmanship. He has sent edicts to the world to recruit famous craftsmen more than once. Now it seems... quite useful."

Liu Bei looked at Guan Yu, sighed and nodded: "Yun Chang, do you think we can win this battle?"

Today's battle destroyed Liu Bei's confidence.

Liu Bei entered Xuzhou in the first year of Xingping, and it has been eight years since Xingping. After such a long time, he has made considerable progress. Before fighting Yuan Shu, he almost wiped out Yuan Shu. Later, when he fought with Cao Cao, each of them had his own victory. Negative, there must be a gap. Cao Cao's family background is much richer than Liu Bei's, but it is extremely difficult to destroy Liu Bei.

Liu Bei always felt that he was qualified to compete with the world's heroes. Why did Zhang Fei feel that Yuan Shao looked down on them? It was precisely because he and Liu Bei felt that the two sides should be equal, but Yuan Shao used them as subordinates, which made Zhang Fei very unhappy with Yuan Shao. Liu Bei actually had a similar mentality, but he didn't show it.

But the appearance of this cavalry directly destroyed Liu Bei's pride and self-confidence that he had just risen.

The opponent suffered almost no losses, while Liu Bei's entire army was wiped out without being beaten because he had no time to deal with him. This contrast, no wonder Liu Bei was wavering about this battle.

After all, when fighting Dong Zhuo, although the coalition forces were all new and didn't know how to cooperate, they were not desperate. Now Liu Bei asked himself that his current army would not be weak even against the coalition forces back then. Who knew that in this situation In front of a sudden attack of cavalry, he seemed vulnerable.

Guan Yu was obviously not very good at comforting people. After a long silence, he guessed: "Brother, don't be too anxious. Lu Bu's army cannot be all such elites."

This is true. Not to mention the repeating crossbow, the consumption of the crossbow arrows alone is enough to make Lu Bu feel distressed. Now it is not difficult for the Shenji Battalion to make repeating crossbows, but it is too difficult to provide the corresponding crossbow arrows.

In an ordinary battle, one hundred thousand arrows could be used for a long time, but here, in less than half an hour, sixty thousand crossbow arrows had been shot empty by Lu Bu. The power was astonishing, but the consumption was equally astonishing.

At the beginning, Gao Shun left 900,000 crossbow arrows in Xinye, which sounds like a lot, but if it is divided among three thousand soldiers, that is, there are thirty crossbow boxes per man. If we fight like today, we will not be able to shoot many.

There are indeed not many elites like Lu Bu, but any one of these elites is enough to withstand a hundred thousand troops. As long as there are enough crossbows, only a thousand people can hold off a hundred thousand Yuan's army at Hulao Pass.

When Guan Yu said this, Liu Bei felt even more uncomfortable. He felt that the total Xuzhou army might not be enough for this elite to fight, but he didn't want to make people worry. He said with a strong smile: "In this battle, I underestimated the enemy. Yide Where are they? Let him prepare his troops and horses, and I will go back to find the leader."

The army has been defeated. It is definitely impossible to continue to attack Yique Pass. In addition, with the existence of this elite, Liu Beijue himself needs to remind Yuan Shao that he will definitely suffer a big loss if he encounters him without preparation. .

Of course, even if he was prepared, according to today's fighting style, Liu Bei would only die a few fewer people, and his morale would also collapse.

What a bummer.

"Lord, the three generals have just caught two deserters and are whipping them now!" Xiahou Bo said in response after hearing this.

"Nonsense!" Liu Bei quickly got up and followed the soldiers to the other side. He heard the screams of half-dead people in the distance, but it was Zhang Fei who was holding a leather whip and whipping two soldiers crazily. Only two of them were beaten. The man's skin was torn and his flesh was torn. When Liu Bei arrived with Guan Yu and Xiahou Bo, the two soldiers were already breathing too much out, and they could not survive!

"Yide, what are you doing!?" Guan Yu stepped forward, frowned, grabbed the whip, looked at Zhang Fei and shouted.

"Brother, second brother?" Zhang Fei took a breath, pointed at the two of them and said: "These two wanted to escape, but I caught them. At this time, you must not be merciful as a woman!"

Obviously, in Zhang Fei's view, the morale of the army was already in chaos at this time. If heavy punishments were not used to deter the morale of the troops, more people would run away.

"You..." Liu Bei pointed at Zhang Fei and was so angry that he could not speak. After a long time, he said: "It is human nature to be afraid of death. If you and I were not afraid of death, why didn't we fight to the death before? All the soldiers followed my brother on a thousand-mile expedition. , failed to die on the battlefield, but died under your whipping, how can you bear it? "

"Brother, if we don't do this at this time, there will only be more people running away!" Zhang Fei frowned.

"I would rather they all run away than vent your anger by killing soldiers who have been through life and death like this!" Liu Bei snorted coldly.

"Brother!" Seeing Liu Bei's angry face, Zhang Fei finally became a little scared. He was usually not afraid of anything, but he was afraid of his brother. Seeing Liu Bei like this, he knelt down in front of Liu Bei in pain: "I know my mistake, I It’s just... I’m just so angry, why did you lose like this?”

Liu Bei was silent after hearing this. For a long time, he looked at the two deserters who had expired. He sighed and said, "Bury these two people. We will set off overnight to meet the leader of the alliance. Lu Bu has elites participating in the battle, so we must be on guard." Na!"

"Brother, in my opinion, that troops came here for Xingyang." Guan Yu looked at Liu Bei and said.

"Xingyang." Liu Bei thought for a while, then his expression changed and said: "No, if Xingyang is not prepared or is taken advantage of by thieves, Yun Chang, please hurry up and set off for Xingyang immediately, inform Wen Chou of the matter, and let him He must be careful not to let thieves take advantage of him!”

"Brother, don't worry, I'll go right away!" Guan Yu nodded and immediately set off towards Xingyang...