After the gunpowder exploded, a large cloud of thick smoke seemed to have fallen from the sky. The billowing smoke and dust enveloped the city wall, and the clouds slowly spread upward and around in the wind. Hundreds of steps away, the horses in front of the Zhou army camp were panicked and the camp was in turmoil.
The sky and the earth were shrouded in rumbling echoes and shock. After a while, drums sounded in the Zhou army camp, and a somewhat messy group of horses rushed out of the front line and rushed forward. As for what happened after the gunpowder buried underground exploded, no one knew because the smoke was too thick.
The Zhou army did not approach the explosion point in advance, because they might expose their position and they were afraid of accidentally hurting their own people. The huge explosion panicked the horses, and the vanguards who rushed out first were in a mess, and seemed a little hasty and impatient, because every snap of the fingers was too important at this time, and any delay would give the defenders more time to prepare.
The large group of troops in the camp were reorganizing their ranks, shouting and yelling. It was useless to rush too many people. Before the battle, the central army judged that the gap would not be too big, so no matter how many troops approached in the early stage, they would not be able to be used.
Guo Shao stood on his horse with his sword in hand, watching the situation with the people around him. The camp was in turmoil, with drums beating and shouting, and flags floating in the sea of people; the two groups of people, far apart, had already rushed towards their respective targets.
The scene was tense and chaotic, but there was order in the chaos, and each commander was doing his own thing. The shouts of the soldiers and the calls of the generals made the atmosphere on the vast land outside the city tense.
The moment before the sharp conflict, the atmosphere was the most tense. However, Guo Shao did nothing at this moment, and said nothing, silently paying attention to every subtle atmosphere around him.
The grand scene was no longer controllable by any one person at the moment of its outbreak. It was like a wild horse that had broken free from its reins and would run wildly in the direction it should go. But in the beginning, Guo Shao held the initiative, controlling everything from planning to timing, as if the point and rules before the explosion of the universe originated from the Creator.
Guo Shao knew that his decision would cause many people to die and change the fate of many families. He stared at the crowd that had already rushed to the city wall with wide eyes, and said silently in his heart: As long as there is a war, people will die, and all this is worth it.
Deep in the smoke of the explosion, the light was dim, as if rushing into the cloudy dusk. But the sunlight in the sky pierced through the smoke like an arrow, proving that it was a sunny day.
Visibility was low, and the horses were running slower and slower. The man in front of him covered his mouth and nose with his hands, breathing carefully, but he was still coughing.
A dark shadow came into people's sight, and in the middle of the regular shadow of the city wall, a gap about six or seven steps wide appeared in front of them. In fact, it was not a gap, but a pile of ruins-like earth hills, and it was very high. But that section of the city wall had indeed collapsed. The thick stone foundation and rammed earth of the city wall that was more than ten steps thick did not fly into the air, but collapsed downwards, and most of the earth and rocks were piled in the original place.
The first few horses had already rushed to the ruins, and the war horses could not go any further. The entire group of horses was like a flood rushing to the barrier, and they were all blocked.
The commander who followed also saw the situation clearly, and he immediately shouted: Pass the order, once the horses stop, everyone dismount and take up their weapons!
There is no way to go while riding a horse, so of course you have to dismount; so the commander immediately issued a military order without thinking, which is not redundant. At this critical moment, people are on edge and their performance is completely different from their usual calm and smart performance. Most people rely on instinctive reactions and their brains are confused. The commander has been like this for a long time when he was a soldier and a low-level general, and he has a lot of experience. At this time, once the generals they are familiar with give orders, and with thousands of trainings in obeying military orders, everyone will obey the orders of the superiors without thinking; everyone knows what to do, so there will be no chaos.
Sure enough, everyone dismounted and prepared their weapons, and no one ran around.
The commander was now nervous and anxious. In fact, he was a little confused, but he couldn't get dizzy.
He remembered the military order that the Central Army had asked him to repeat: First, do your best to send troops into the city, and second, stabilize the position and open a gap. For other actions, the commander has the right to make decisions on the spot.
The commander did not dare to hesitate. Even if it was not the best order, it was better than saying nothing. At this moment, his words were the order that everyone had to obey. Only when he died could the deputy commander have the right to speak.
Anyone who rushes forward and retreats can be killed, the commander shouted loudly.
The people in front of them shouted and tried their best to climb up the dirt pile. But soon they found people's heads swaying in the smoke. The Northern Han army had already rushed up. Obviously, the Northern Han army was prepared for bombing the city. The Zhou army had only had a few hundred steps on horseback. As long as the Northern Han army was prepared, it would be in time for reinforcement.
First, many long spears were thrust downwards from the mound, and the soldiers thrust their lower bodies backwards and their upper bodies forwards. A large number of people dived from above, and some even rolled down.
The Zhou army was holding shields and one-handed weapons, such as single swords and hook hammers, but they could not stop the spearmen from diving. For a moment, the iron spears attacked the Zhou soldiers first, and there was a clanging sound when the close weapons met. However, the Northern Han army was in trouble as soon as they met the enemy. After they dived down, their formation was in chaos, and their feet stumbled. Many people directly crashed into the depths of the Zhou army crowd, almost turning it into a single-soldier melee. At the point of contact, the Zhou army was outnumbered, and many people in front and behind surrounded a Northern Han soldier and smashed and chopped him.
A scream of pain suddenly rang out from the dirt pile, and the splattered blood was covered by the thick smoke.
People rushed up the slope desperately, as if struggling in the mud. The people behind them shouted, "Kill!" "Anyone who retreats will be killed!"
The Zhou army soldiers shouted loudly and rushed towards the crowd of Northern Han soldiers. Their swords and shields were short, so they could not reach the ranks of the Northern Han army unless they actively rushed. The people in front raised their shields and swung their swords randomly, but they didn't know what they hit. They only heard screams of crying for their parents. The Zhou army soldiers were also screaming. It was difficult to move on the ground. There were people all around, so they couldn't dodge at all. They could only use their torsos to block the long spears. A shield couldn't block many attacks.
The iron spear heads stabbed into the plate armor with great force. Most of the time, they did not penetrate the armor, but they would make a deep dent in the armor, causing the Zhou army soldiers to scream in pain. In addition, everyone was actually still carrying fear in their hearts, so the screams at this time were even more like ghostly howls. If the weapon stabbed the wrong position, it would slide against the armor with great force, and in the dim and turbid air, sparks would indeed fly; the sound of metal rubbing against each other was so sour that it could make people's teeth soften.
A wounded Zhou army soldier fell to the ground with limp limbs, and was immediately trampled on all over the head and face by various feet. He screamed in pain, but could not get up. The people stepping on him weighed more than 200 pounds each, making it difficult for him to stand up again.
Fight until the last drop of blood falls and one of the ten generals will die, screaming at the top of their lungs.
The gap was only six or seven steps wide, and there were five hundred Zhou soldiers who rushed in first. In addition, the climbing path was extremely difficult to travel, and they were blocked by the Northern Han army from above, so their advance was hindered and soon caused congestion. The number of troops at the gap became increasingly dense.
At this moment, there was a whooshing sound, and arrows in the air were thrown down like raindrops, and hit like hail, and screams of pain were heard from time to time.
The Zhou army was in a state of confusion. The commander looked up and shouted: "Bow and arrow!" Before he finished speaking, a bolt suddenly flew out of the smoke and hit the chain mail on his neck with a clang. The force penetrated the thin iron ring and the arrowhead pierced his neck.
The commander didn't even scream, he just fell backwards with his eyes wide open, blood and saliva oozing out of his mouth.
General Li and his officers and soldiers rushed forward to help him up.
The commander kicked his feet on the ground a few times, and the face of Deputy Commander Zheng Bin appeared above him, covering the commander's neck with his hands. The commander held the scabbard tightly and raised his hand. Deputy Commander Zheng Bin hurriedly grabbed his scabbard and asked anxiously: General Li, are you going to hand over the military power to me
The commander closed his eyes, nodded slightly, and released his sword.
Zheng Bin took the sword, gritted his teeth and looked at the man who was being supported, then stood up suddenly and shouted loudly: Commander General Li, order the soldiers under my command to be under my control, and Deputy Commander Zheng Bin
Zheng Bin clenched his fists and frowned, completely ignoring the arrows flying overhead. After a while, he shouted again: "Order not to retreat in front of the battle line; those five steps behind the battle line, immediately repair the attack ramp!"
He continued to give orders: "Below the hillside, all the generals drove their soldiers to the sides and reorganized their formations. The archers gathered in the center."
In the close combat area in the front, people probably didn't care about the orders from their superiors. The soldiers in front and behind were crowded together, and both sides fought desperately to the death. There was no way forward and no way back. It was like a Shura field, and people's screams were very tragic.
However, the troops at the back who were not engaged in the battle reorganized their ranks and gradually restored order. The battle began to become stalemate, and it was no longer possible to make any breakthrough based on morale alone. At this time, organization and tactics were particularly important.
In the distance, another Zhou army cavalry came to reinforce. The reinforcements were no longer a chaotic mass of people and horses. Although they were riding horses, they were clearly arranged in rows and columns, advancing in an organized manner. The big man guarded by a group of heavily armored personal soldiers was not just a commander, but the commander of the Sixth Army of the Right Wing. The general went into battle personally, and he needed to go to the front line to supervise the battle and maintain order in front of the battle.
The Northern Han army gradually came to their senses. On both sides of the collapsed gap, a large number of troops were reinforced on the city wall. They reached the top of the gap and shot at the dense Zhou army with bows, arrows, wood and stones. The Zhou army's vanguard was attacked from three sides, but it did not collapse and continued to restore its organization. The elite troops' ability to withstand pressure gradually became more prominent than that of ordinary troops.