At this time, the Han crossbowmen who were retreating to the rear were busy changing the arrow boxes.
The earliest crossbows used a wooden slot connected to the crossbow body. After each wave of shooting, the crossbow player himself opened the metal structure at the top of the crossbow machine, and the crossbow player's assistant took out the iron arrow from the quiver and pressed it into the slot in sequence. The entire loading of the iron arrow requires two people to cooperate and take a considerable time.
At this time, the Han army soldiers used the latest version of the crossbow. They just need to directly insert the hardwood arrow box prepared with the fishing line into the groove of the crossbow body to continue shooting. Of course, this design puts forward extremely high requirements for the process accuracy of the crossbow, and the operation requires caution and a complete set of processes. Generally speaking, as Cao Hong and Zhang Liao estimated, it takes about half a moment.
In the past six months, every Han army soldier has undergone hundreds or thousands of trainings. They are as familiar with their crossbows as their arms, and they are even more memorizing the entire process. When changing the arrow box, they stripped off all unnecessary movements.
But it still takes half a moment.
Cao Hong sacrificed his life to break through the formation as a relative general of the Cao clan, and died in front of the formation just to buy this half of time for Zhang Liao!
This is the heaviest price that the Cao army can pay; at this time, the most critical results can be achieved!
Cao Hong knew very well that facing the heavy rain arrows, the extraordinary generals were no different from ordinary soldiers. But when they were fighting each other, their personal courage could still play a huge role. On such occasions, no one in Cao's camp could be stronger than Zhang Liao!
At that time, Zhang Liao used thousands of cavalry to attack Wuhuan and 200,000 people, and 800 warriors to attack Sun Quan and 100,000 people. Now, Zhang Liao came to Guanzhong with two thousand elite troops who had followed him for many years, and of course he could win against thousands of enemy Han troops!
When such close forces were connected, the Han army's crossbows could not be fully utilized, and the Cao army's iron cavalry was always strong! Those border warriors from Yanmen and Mayi followed Zhang Liao through ups and downs, and they were born and died countless times; they were also iron cavalry in heavy armor, and when swords and guns were raised, they must be stronger than the Han army infantry!
Not to mention, Zhuge Liang, who led the Han army, was a scholar after all! Judging from his calm attitude, he seemed to have the talent to lead the army, but no matter how talented he was, he might not necessarily end up fighting with the swords and swords of the warriors. Only if Zhang Liao was able to get into the battle, victory would not be far away!
The two 55 square formations that were at the forefront of the Han army array did not even give out a surprise, and were instantly swallowed by Tieliu. Tieliu continued to run into the multiple square formations that were trying to surround and kill Cao Hong's remnants.
The galloping horses stepped on the oars and shields, trampled on the Han soldiers running back, with long spears and long swords, slashing wildly from a high place, reaping their lives like wild beasts. For a moment, the Han soldiers flew across the broken limbs and arms, and blood mist soared into the sky. In a very short time, their casualties exceeded the sum of more than an hour before.
Many soldiers were killed on the spot, and many were seriously injured and screamed. After all, they were all old soldiers selected from the Han army, the emperor's imperial guards, and their fighting spirit and arrogance were extraordinary. Some people even had their arms and feet cut off, or had their bodies trampled by war horses, and their bones were broken in many places, but they still got up and fought with Cao's army to fight to the death.
But no one could stop the fierce general with a red tail feather on his neck.
Zhang Liao rode his horse back and forth, dancing wildly with his spear, and was invincible.
He was not always at the forefront of the cavalry, but looked ahead and suddenly behind, rushing around and disturbing repeatedly. Although the sword, shield and spear at the forefront of the Han army tried their best to arrange in a dense manner, he could not restore the original state of close connection. The soldiers barely restored the square formation twice in a row, and were then broken by Zhang Liao.
Several soldiers swung their knives and axes to cover the killing, trying to cut off the legs of his mount, but were forced to retreat by Zhang Liao's sword and gun.
At this time, the Cao army cavalry was like surging waves, rushing and killing in the gap that Cao Hong made. Within the gap, Zhang Liao was like an evil dragon in the sea, and storming and swaying wherever he went, beating the reefs on the shore that were about to fall.
Outside the gap, Zhang Liao's brother Zhang Fan was in front, and Zhang Liao's son Zhang Hu was in the back, leading his troops to fight. Zhang Fan held a long sword in his hand, without a snare, and shouted with disheveled hair and repeatedly moved forward. Zhang Hu broke the back and led more than a hundred archers, and immediately fired arrows into the Han army formation, trying his best to suppress the many archers in the Han army formation who used long bows and horn bows.
Two thousand people and eight thousand horses were galloping, rolling up dust and spreading all over the sky, moving like thunder, and the momentum was amazing. Every time they launched an impact, the people and horses roared in a row, echoing Zhang Liao at the forefront. The battle entered a white-hot situation from the beginning and never retreated again.
At this time, the problem of the new type of crossbow was seen. If the previous crossbow reached a critical moment, one or two crossbow arrows could be fired, which was enough to respond when it was urgent. However, the new crossbow had to be fully equipped with a arrow box. Overall, although time was saved, the Killing God Dance Formation is now, but the crossbow cannot be used, and only some shooters used longbows to shoot sporadically.
What should I do?
Xiang Chong only felt that the crossbowmen were too slow, so he wanted to come out in person and snatch a crossbow to install it himself.
Of course, that's not possible. His movements are much slower than those well-trained crossbowmen.
In an instant, Zhang Liao's troops had already broken into the array for dozens of steps and collided with the third round of square formations that were facing it.
The distance of dozens of steps is already very terrifying. If the infantry array is regarded as a dam, the key to how long the dam can last is the small gaps. Any small gap may quickly trigger a terrible collapse. The distance of dozens of steps is more than just a small gap? If you are not careful, the overall situation will collapse in an instant!
The Han army had only more than 2,500 people in the rear formation, and the array was not large in size and was not thick. The gap of dozens of steps was not far from Xiang Chong.
Several war drums beside Xiang Chong rumbling, and the sound of the drums made him unable to hear any sound. He watched his soldiers fall to the ground and people keep getting on the ground. He saw soldiers jumping, hugging the Cao army knights and rolling on the ground. He saw the gray-white snow on the ground be stepped into black and then turned into a sticky reddish-brown color.
Xiang Chong bit the handle, drew his sword in his hand, and prepared to urge more than 500 people from this formation to move forward. Two generals around him advised: "The Prime Minister has no military order, how can General Hu Ben move lightly? Let's stop him first!"
The two generals of the village were also famous warriors in the Yizhou army, and were originally the vanguard of Zhang Ren's army. They each led more than 20 soldiers to run along the horizontal and vertical formation roads. They rushed to the front line in a moment, took an opportunity, and rushed towards Zhang Liao at the same time.
However, Zhang Liao lifted the reins lightly, and the war horse suddenly rushed forward. He waved his long spear and slashed it down. The sharp blade cut off the throat of a general and cut off most of the neck.
The hot blood sprayed out from the wound, as if a bright red silk suddenly shook open in the air. Zhang Liao quickly turned sideways, letting the blood spill to avoid obstruction of his vision. Then his body leaned back slightly with instinct and avoided another spear that pierced the slant.
The two were too close to each other, and the long spear in Zhang Liao's hand was placed on the periphery and could not be used at all. He let go of the long spear in his hand without hesitation, and grabbed the long spear and grabbed it and snatched it hard. When he grabbed the spear, he immediately used the handle of the gun to rush back. The handle of the gun hit the chest of the general. Only the sound of iron fragments of armor were broken, Na Tun will fly back a few steps and faint on the ground.
The surrounding Cao army knights were excited and shouted repeatedly: "General is mighty!"
One man urged the horse to move forward, leaned over and waved his knife, and cut the fallen general to death.
More than fifty steps behind Xiang Chong was the high ground where Zhuge Liang raised the banner of the chief general.
"This Zhang Liao is like a ghost!" Ma Su gasped in the air, and his forehead was filled with cold sweat. He turned around and said to Zhuge Liang, "Prime Minister, you have to let Liu Xiuran go!"
Zhuge Liang shook his head: "Don't be anxious."
"Prime Minister!"
Chapter completed!