***
The sky was furious, overturning the silver sea and scattering the pearl foil. Six kinds of strange flowers were flying, and thousands of horses were whistling in the wind... ... .
The war on earth may have angered the gods. The sky was filled with leaden clouds and heavy snow fell. The plains were covered with a dark night. Qin Mu led 4,000 cavalrymen and rushed south.
Four thousand were chasing thirty thousand, and the difference in strength was huge. The soldiers all felt a sense of tragedy that the hero would never return.
Snowflakes were flying in the night, the strong cold wind was cracking the skin and causing pain, the iron armor on the body was freezing, the war horses were neighing constantly, and the sound of hooves was like waves.
When they came out, Qin Mu not only gave the army a good meal, but also made an exception and lifted the prohibition on alcohol. Every soldier's water bag was filled with liquor. On the galloping horses, soldiers kept taking off their water bags and drinking a few sips of liquor to keep warm.
Scouts kept reporting the enemy situation, and learned that Liu Meng was blocking the enemy in the area of Xiatang Village. The two sides were fighting fiercely, and the blood was falling. Meanwhile, Duoduo's main force had already reached the north bank of the Chu River and was preparing to cross the river.
Qin Mu was secretly shocked, fearing that Liu Meng could not hold on. If the 50,000-strong army was defeated, it would be like a death sentence for an old woman.
This time, Qin Mu insisted on leading the troops himself because the situation was complicated. He was afraid that Niu Wanchuan and the others might not be able to change. As for Hong Niangzi, although she had some smart ideas, Qin Mu was still worried about letting a woman like her take risks alone.
"Come on! This king orders Li Jiu from Quanjiao to go south immediately. There is no need to defend the western front anymore. Hurry!"
“Yes!”
"Soldiers, victory or defeat depends on this one move. Please be patient and keep going. The Tartars are in a hurry to cross the river, so they will not hesitate to fight. Let's attack them suddenly. The Tartars will be caught off guard and will surely be defeated. Soldiers, I will always be with you, we will advance and retreat together, live and die together, so please work harder. Kill the enemy..."
Qin Mu kept encouraging the morale. Maybe the situation was not as simple as he said, but the march and battle in the cold and snowy night was very hard for everyone. In order to encourage the morale, he could only make the enemy sound easier to deal with.
Hong Niangzi followed him closely, always paying attention to the situation ahead and reminding him to pay attention to the ditches and bumps in time. On such a snowy night, even if everyone was holding torches, it was still very dangerous to march at such a fast speed. Many soldiers had already stumbled and fallen.
***
At this moment, the banks of the Chu River were already filled with flames and blood. Another 10,000 Qin troops arrived, bringing with them two Portuguese cannons and hundreds of Hundred Tigers with arrows.
Liu Meng immediately ordered these fresh troops to push forward from the rice fields in the east. Tulai led a thousand cavalrymen and rushed forward. The soldiers in front holding huge shields and long spears split to the sides when they heard the drums, revealing the cannons hidden in the formation and the hundred tigers rushing towards them.
Boom! Boom! First, two Portuguese cannons burst into flames. Two pieces of bullets whistled away and swept through the Qing cavalry that was rushing towards them. For a moment, people and horses fell to the ground, and the noise was like a tide;
Immediately afterwards, there was a burst of "whoosh! whoosh!" sounds in the Qin army's formation. Thousands of rockets whizzed away, drawing an extremely magnificent picture in the snow-filled night sky. The rockets hit the Qing army's formation with a puff, and there were waves of light rumbling sounds of war horses tumbling to the ground, the wailing of defeated horses, the howling of the wounded, and the sky stained with blood.
Just as the Hundred Tigers' arrows passed by, two Portuguese cannons roared again. When Tulai's thousand troops rushed in two hundred steps, they had lost more than two hundred people. Corpses and blood paved the way. Such heavy casualties made his heart bleed. "Kill!" He was like a wounded beast, roaring continuously and driving his warhorse desperately.
The Qin army had no time to fire the third shot. Under the command of the drums, the soldiers in the front gathered together again. The giant shields as tall as a person slammed to the ground and piled up like a wall. The soldiers leaned sideways and supported the giant shields with their shoulders.
In the gaps of the giant shields, there were huge spears that were two or three meters long. Two soldiers worked together, one carrying the gun on his shoulder, and the other holding the tail of the gun, extending obliquely out of the shield wall like a sharp thorn forest.
The Qing army rushed forward quickly, and after they were within a hundred steps, they rode on their galloping horses, with their bows drawn to full length, and gusts of powerful arrows whizzed towards them.
The archers behind the Qin army's shield wall were equally unwilling to be outdone. Thousands of arrows flew into the air at the same time, covering the sky with black mass and preventing the wind and snow from penetrating.
In an instant, arrows rained down from both sides with sharp gusts of wind, piercing flesh with a sound of "pu pu", bringing out screams and bursts of blood.
In order to quickly break through the Qin army's formation, under Tulai's strict order, the Qing cavalry ignored the dense forest of guns and rushed forward with a roar.
The war horses neighed and charged into the forest of spears with an unstoppable momentum. The fierce impact pierced the horses' bodies, but the spears could not withstand such a fierce impact and broke with a snap.
The war horses continued to crash into the Qin army's shield wall with great inertia. One by one, the Qin soldiers, along with their shields, were knocked back and blood spurted out.
The Tatars on horseback rolled out from their war horses, some were pierced by spears, and some rolled into the Qin army's formation, waving their sabers and slashing wildly, looking extremely ferocious.
The Qin army's sword and shield soldiers also rushed forward, fighting hard and chopping the Tatars who had turned around and joined the battle into meat paste.
At the same time, thunder bombs flew out from the Qin army's formation and landed in front of the enemy's formation. The violent explosions caused the Qing soldiers to fall off their horses, with blood and flesh flying everywhere. The thick smoke and flying snow obscured the flames, making people blind.
In the Qin army formation, some soldiers lit the thunder bombs, but due to the negligence of their shields, they were shot to death by arrows before they could throw them out. The thunder bombs exploded in their own army formation, causing heavy casualties.
The two sides fought fiercely. After all, Tulai had fewer people, and the Qin army used up ten layers of spears to form a forest of spears. When they broke through the first five layers, under the Qin army's heavy bombardment and rain of arrows, Tulai suffered more than half of his casualties. Seeing that he was running out of strength and could not completely break through the Qin army's spear forest and shield wall, he had to retreat temporarily.
The Qin army took this opportunity to advance towards the Qing army's beachhead again. The two cannons were pushed forward by the soldiers with their joint efforts and shouts.
The number of Qing troops crossing the river increased, and the number of Qin troops coming to reinforce them also increased. Within a few miles of Xiatang Village, soldiers and horses were fighting, with voices like tides and fire like a sea.
Liu Meng also sent people to the upper reaches of the Chuhe River to pile firewood on small boats and bamboo rafts and pour kerosene on them. After they were ignited, the whole river was filled with flames rising to the sky. The small boats and bamboo rafts floated downstream with the raging fire and rushed towards the Qing army's floating bridge.
The Qing army, which was trying to cross the river urgently, was shocked. Duoduo ordered some people who were good at swimming to jump into the river and use long wooden poles to support the fireboats. However, there were too many fireboats and they could only support one but not another.
Then a row of people holding wooden poles stood by the pontoon bridge. However, the fire on the boat was raging, and the two or three-meter-long wooden poles were still scorching. Some Tartars could not bear the heat and ran away screaming.
The fireboat crashed into the floating bridge, causing chaos among the people who were trying to cross the river. Many people were pushed and fell off the bridge. They had no horses' necks to hold on to, so they skipped a few times before disappearing on the windy and snowy river.
"Put out the fire quickly! Go quickly!" Duoduo, who was standing on the north bank, saw that some parts of the floating bridge were caught on fire by the fireboat. He became furious and drew his sword and roared.
The Qing soldiers also knew that if they couldn't put out the fire they would have no choice but to cross the river in the icy water holding onto their horses' necks, so they rushed to put out the fire.
Ning Wanwo stretched his neck to look around, and saw that the Qin army on the south bank was increasing in number, gradually turning the tide of the battlefield and getting closer and closer to the beachhead. He could not help but exclaimed in surprise: "Your Majesty, we can't wait any longer. We must let our troops continue to wade across the river. Otherwise, if the south bank can't hold on, tens of thousands of troops will be finished."
Duoduo thought it made sense and quickly ordered the soldiers to take off their clothes and hold the horses' necks to cross the river. On this windy and snowy night, the river water was icy cold, and many people would be frozen and drowned in the river if they crossed the river like this, but it was better than the whole army being wiped out.
Time waits for no one, and some sacrifices must be made, Duoduo accepted it.
At Duoduo's order, the Qing soldiers took off their clothes, put down their bows and arrows, and rushed into the river naked on horseback. The river surface was boiling again. Rows of Qing soldiers entered the water, their teeth chattering from the cold and their hands and legs numb.
Because the floating bridge was on fire, the fire could not be put out for a while. After the naked Qing soldiers crossed the river holding the horses' necks, their clothes were not delivered. The battle situation on the south bank was dangerous and they could not wait any longer. In addition, waiting naked on the river beach, it was better to rush into the battle and fight to keep warm.
So, when this life-and-death battle reached this point, the most bizarre scene appeared: groups of naked Tatars, brandishing swords and guns, and cavalrymen and horses shouted and rushed towards the Qin army's battle formation, making a very ugly scene.
This strange naked battle was unprecedented. At first, many Qin soldiers were stunned and forgot to shoot...
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.(To be continued..)
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