The sky gradually darkened. Xiang Xun's army fought hard, but the troops were limited. In the early stage, they bravely penetrated the enemy's formation, but soon they could not charge and kill. Some cavalrymen looked for weak gaps in the formation and galloped back and forth, while more people were entangled in the Liao army and the majority of the capable troops could not get away.
At this moment, Xiang Xun suddenly shouted: Shi Yanchao is in front, who will help him
Guo Shao and others followed the cavalry while fighting on foot. They were at a lower position and could not see Shi Yanchao. But they looked in the direction pointed by Xiang Xun and saw a large group of Liao cavalry. It was so dense that it was unbelievable. The cavalry needed to maneuver. If they moved faster, they would easily collide with each other, so there was usually a large gap between horses. But the group of Liao cavalry in front was crowded together, surrounding the middle. The horses and the men basically gave up maneuvering there because it was so dense that the horses could not run at all.
At that time, a general beside Xiang Xun led his troops to charge forward. There were only a few dozen cavalrymen, which was the majority of cavalrymen Xiang Xun could mobilize. The general was the first to charge forward, trying to push away the immobile Liao cavalrymen; but as soon as he approached, several spears stabbed at him. The general was unable to defend himself and was immediately stabbed off his horse, and then chopped to pieces by swords.
Another Zhou knight followed the general and saw the man in front of him was chopped to pieces and bloody. He was horrified and turned his horse around. Unexpectedly, he was stabbed in the abdomen again. The horse rushed sideways and the long knife that stabbed into the abdomen immediately tore the wound again. The knight's scream was very scary. After falling off the horse, he could not die immediately and lay on the ground crying.
His hand covering his abdomen immediately turned dark red, and a piece of intestine flowed out. The scene was very horrific.
The Zhou cavalry behind rushed to the front of the Liao army and fought a few times, then rode back on horseback. Their repeated charges back and forth were completely powerless to break through the siege.
Yang Biao on this side watched for a while, then turned back and said to Guo Shao: Let's break through the opening and let General Xiang's cavalry reinforce us in time.
Guo Shao stretched his neck to look, and saw Zhang Jianxiong still beside Xiang Xun. Zhang Jianxiong was indeed a fierce general. The first time he rescued Shi Yanchao, he did it with one strike. It would have been difficult to do it if he was not fierce. The Liao cavalry was already powerful enough. This fierce battle was almost the strongest and most durable ancient army that Guo Shao had encountered since he joined the army.
Be patient and wait for Zhang Jianxiong to come up first. Guo Shaodao.
Xiang Xun joined the battle regardless of the cost and his life this time, his tactical goal was to rescue Shi Yanchao; now that Shi Yanchao was surrounded, he could not help but make a final effort with all his strength.
As Guo Shao expected, Xiang Xun ordered Zhang Jianxiong: "Zhang Jianxiong, you must break through the Liao formation in front immediately. If you fail, bring your head to me."
Zhang Jianxiong immediately called on the only cavalry around him to turn around and rush forward. At this time, Xiang Xun was already weak in strength. If a small group of Liao troops could break into the center of Xiang Xun's troops, the commander would be in danger.
Zhang Jianxiong jumped on his horse and shouted: The deadline has come, if we don't succeed, we will die. Go all out
The tragic and passionate roar made Zhang Jianxiong's image at this moment become very dazzling. The courage of the soldiers doubled, and the army's morale gathered on him, and he suddenly became the most powerful among the three armies.
Zhang Jianxiong used a small number of the most elite soldiers as the spearhead, and he himself led the charge in the middle, with only 20 to 30 cavalrymen following closely behind him. The Liao cavalry were densely arranged, and their spears were like a forest in front of them to resist; Zhang Jianxiong's vanguard first charged at high speed, and the horses instinctively slowed down when they were close to the front, but the front charge was too fast and could not be stopped at all, and the thousand-pound horse rushed straight into it.
There was only a long shout, and a loud clang in the chaos. It was unknown what Zhang Jianxiong's saber had hit, and sparks were clearly visible in the gradually dimming light. The powerful roar reminded Guo Shao of the force of a stonemason's hammer hitting a stone. It is said that stonemasons roar the most fiercely to prevent internal injuries caused by too much vibration. So, all close combat warriors like to shout loudly before making a move, perhaps to prevent shock.
In front, people and horses were falling to the ground, and there was a lot of fighting. The Liao army's cavalry formation was loose and disorganized, and the horsemen were running around randomly.
Seeing this, Guo Shao shouted: It's time for us to go up!
As soon as he finished speaking, before he could give the order, Yang Biao raised his sword and strode forward. Guo Shao and others hurriedly picked up their weapons and followed to protect his flanks. Yang Biao bravely led the way, his iron shoes stomping heavily on the ground, and every step he took splashed dust, like a locomotive smoking.
This group of Liao cavalry had no mobility, and was similar to infantry, except that they sat higher than infantry. Their formation had been disrupted by Zhang Jianxiong, and they could not look left and right. Yang Biao rushed forward and killed anyone he saw. The loud noise of swords hitting armor made people's ears buzz.
A Liao soldier was knocked off his horse. Just as he was about to stand up, he was stabbed by the following infantry. He didn't have time to defend himself and was stabbed all over his body. He was bleeding and screaming. Everyone stared at another cavalryman approaching from the flank and rushed forward. The Liao cavalryman turned sideways and swung his sword to hit the spear, but he was stabbed several times in an instant, and blood spurted out of both him and his horse.
Yang Biao was so angry that he charged forward without hesitation. Guo Shao called on Luo Mengzi to protect his flank with a shield and hammer, and he also took advantage of the situation to provide cover. With a fierce general charging, Guo Shao didn't need to fight desperately, and he was not good at long weapons such as spears and sabers.
Guo Shao and Yang Biao fought from Gaoping to Jinyang, risking their lives several times. They had a very good cooperation. Yang Biao led the charge, using violence and power to dominate the situation. Guo Shao's strength was that he was good at perceiving the situation. When Yang Biao was in the most dangerous moment, he could always take action in time, often when a step slower would have been disastrous. This ability of his was probably acquired through long-term practice of archery, because to shoot accurately with an archery, one needs to be good at observation, especially for moving objects, one must not only observe their movements but also guess and understand their motives.
Soon, Guo Shao followed Yang Biao and broke through the encirclement. Looking up, he saw a circle of corpses, some of them from Liao and some from Zhou, and many horse carcasses. In one place, they were piled up to form a crude fortification, and there was a pool of blood on the ground. Guo Shao thought he had gone to the wrong place and entered a slaughterhouse by mistake.
Shi Yanchao and dozens of wounded men fought to the death inside. All their horses were gone, and they were surrounded and killed by Liao soldiers. Under the violent beating and shooting of Liao soldiers, Shi Yanchao fell to the ground in a moment. The situation was at a critical moment of life and death. The Liao people may have known that this guy was Shi Yanchao, and they were determined to kill his most powerful general's personal soldiers at all costs. It was not so easy to do. It was so miserable to see them.
The most peculiar thing is Shi Yanchao himself. This guy is the tallest and most eye-catching, with arrow feathers all over his body, especially on his back, which makes him look like a hedgehog. What's even more peculiar is that this guy is not dead yet. The Liao soldiers are skilled in archery and horse riding, but they shot so many arrows at him and didn't kill him. It can be seen that the precise archery skills like Guo Shao's shooting Zhang Yuanhui are rare in the world; perhaps this thing requires not only hard practice, but also talent.
The Liao army here does not have Shao Ge'er, so Shi Yanchao can stand there.
Guo Shaozhen had never seen anyone shot like this since he was born. If he didn't know, he would have thought that Shi Yanchao was not playing the role of borrowing arrows from a straw boat. How could he be hit by so many arrows
Shi Qianfeng Guo Shao shouted.
Shi Yanchao looked back at him and finally recognized him as Zhou Bing's ally. A moment later, Zhang Jianxiong also broke through the Liao formation and rushed in with his cavalry.
Once the siege was lifted, Shi Yanchao was not stupid, and quickly ran over here with his sword in hand, with several more arrows on his back. Not many of the personal soldiers could run, most of them were wounded and hanging on by a thread. As soon as Shi Yanchao left, the formation was shaken, and the Liao cavalry swarmed up and quickly split them, with screams from behind.
The group reunited along the way and turned back to escape. The Liao cavalry pursued them, but they met Xiang Xun who was leading the cavalry to support them, and the situation eased a little.
At this time, Guo Shao discovered that Xiang Xun's troops had been gathered from the surrounding areas, and nearly half of the troops had been killed in the battle, so the space for movement was even smaller. Looking back, the Liao army had reinforced the south, and Xiang Xun's troops who came to rescue were all trapped in a large encirclement.
The Liao army reserve reinforcements even caused chaos on the right wing of Shi Yanchao's main force, and Shi Yanchao's troops were on the verge of collapse. In such a bad situation, they did not flee in a hurry, probably because they thought Shi Yanchao was not dead yet and placed their hopes on reinforcements.
Fortunately, it was dark soon. The sky was full of stars but no moon. The troops fighting in front had no chance to light torches, so the light was very dim. Guo Shao and others found their mounts and followed Xiang Xun's troops to charge in the chaos. They finally managed to break out of the Liao formation with the remaining elite cavalry. Most of Xiang Xun's cavalry, nearly 400 in total, had been lost. After the right wing of Shi Yanchao's main force was defeated, they fled all the way and were attacked by the Liao army, causing chaos.
The scattered soldiers fled southwards and soon encountered the infantry lined up behind them. The light was dim and the vision was unclear. The retreating cavalry rushed and broke through the infantry camp. The infantry first avoided their own cavalry, and soon they scattered and ran away.
The infantry and cavalry were running wildly in the darkness, and the army was in disarray. In just one day, Zhou's army, including Shi Yanchao's troops and Xiang Xun's troops, lost more than 4,000 people in one day, and an unknown number of them were killed or wounded.
The only good thing was that Xiang Xun's tactical goal had been achieved, and he finally rescued Shi Yanchao, who was half dead.
Everyone was silent along the way, and Guo Shao didn't want to say a word either. He felt exhausted all over. If it weren't for the possibility of pursuers behind him, he would have wanted to lie down on the side of the road.
At this moment, the hedgehog Shi Yanchao suddenly turned around and asked: What's your name
Guo Shao. He didn't want to say a word more, including which army he belonged to. But after thinking about it, he said: Although we were the first to break through the encirclement, the person Shi Qianfeng should be grateful to is General Zhang Jianxiong.
Zhang Jianxiong was also not far away and snorted after hearing this.