Chapter 267
Chapter 267 – The Skirmish at Northern Anping
Lu Bu Army was pushing forward, threatening to get into the range of the trebuchets .
Wen Chou’s face fell as he knew that his men were outnumbered and they had disadvantageous range . He could not retreat either or Lu Bu’s 5,000 horsemen would pursue them if they were to turn their back on them .
Exhaled out all air in his lung, Wen Chou steeled himself .
"Men! Loose formation and ready your shields! We’ll move into the range of our crossbows! March forward 100 steps!"
The soldiers panicked, yet they followed Wen Chou’s command . Each of the 5,000 footmen was carrying their shield on their back . They put the wooden tower shields the cover their front and scattered in a loose array .
Instead of marching in with soldiers walking side-by-side, they kept a meter distance between each other as a countermeasure against boulders, trebuchet attacks, arrow rains, or any AOE attack that could harm everyone in large areas .
However, the loose formation was weak in melee combat . It was a risky tactic to use when Wen Chou only had one battalion to command .
On the other hand, Lu Bu and Li Feihong came with two battalions, 5,000 footmen and 5,000 armored horsemen . In this home game, they had both number advantage and location advantage .
Wen Chou knew about this, he bellowed, "YAN LIANG! GAO LAN! I NEED SUPPORT!"
In two seconds, he heard a response, "HOLD THE LINE! REINFORCEMENT FROM THE MAIN CAMP IS COMING!"
Both of them were half a kilometer apart, but they could yell loud enough to communicate .
.
Meanwhile, Lu Bu and Li Feihong could also hear their yelling voices .
"Feihong?" Asked Lu Bu .
"I’m looking . Gao Shun has withdrawn to regroup . A massive army about 2 or 30,000 men are moving toward the front of our fortress while 10,000 more men are coming toward Gao Shun . "
"Anything from Jia Xu or others?"
"Lu Zhi is moving to help us with 5,000 cavalries . Zhang Liao is ordered to maintain his position in the fort . Jia Xu also wanted me to kill at least one of the commanders . "
Lu Bu’s mouth curled upside-down into a [^] and frowned, "Do not aim for their army generals . You can kill any of their sub-commanders, but don’t try to get their main leaders . You’ll die if you do . "
Li Feihong raised one of his eyebrows, thinking that Lu Bu threatened him again .
"Okay, boss . I’ll leave their leaders for you . "
As they conversed, the trebuchets got into their firing range . Without the need of Li Feihong or Lu Bu’s order, the sergeants of each squad stopped moving forward and set up their trebuchet to get ready to fire .
All crude oil barrels and boulders were brought to the siege weapons . The trebuchet crews loaded all their wares onto the pouches .
Lu Bu shouted to hasten their work, "Trebuchets, fire at will!"
Noises of large objects flying through the air resonated as the trebuchet slings hurled burning barrels and rocks at Yuan Shao’s 5,000 men .
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
Burning barrels landed on top of a few unfortunate soldiers and caused flame explosions . A hundred crude oil barrels ignited a sea of fire which hampered Wen Chou’s plan .
*BOOM*
Several gunpowder bags and woven bags exploded as it caught fire, causing chain reactions . The bags did not just contain only gunpowder, scrape irons pieces, and sharp bronze pieces had been mixed inside as well . Each explosion caused the shrapnel to scatter, harming the nearby friendly soldiers .
Small rocks and a couple large boulders slammed onto the crowd of soldiers afterward . Shields of the soldiers managed to block the small stones, but a boulder squashed the unlucky men on its path .
Wen Chou gritted his teeth and endured the incoming barrages of trebuchet attacks . Though the fire attack was intense as flame and smoke covered the battlefield, he and the surviving soldiers continued to run forward, carrying their gunpowder bags, crossbows, and shields .
As they ran, they got through the layer of smoke and got into the range of their crossbows .
Before his men could aim their bows, sharp whistling noises came from the front . Ballistae from Lu Bu’s side had begun firing, and Julu Infantries poured their arrows from their repeating crossbows .
Wen Chou’s men raised their shield in a slant 45 degrees, blocking the arrow rain from the front .
*BOOM*
Logs and spears which were shot from ballistae pierced several men as if they were sausages prepared for a BBQ .
Even though they did not have the initiative of the first attack, 3,000 of 5,000 made it through the onslaught . As soon as Wen Chou Army completed setting up their shields in a fish scale formation, Wen Chou’s archers fired back at Lu Bu’s infantries .
*RUMBLE*
Before the arrow volley of Wen Chou archers reached Julu soldiers, Lu Bu and his 5,000 armored cavalries moved .
Lu Bu placed his horsemen on the flanks of Julu Infantries, which each side consisted of 2,500 men .
The two flanks of two 2,500 horsemen units rushed at the archers . They were not charging at the enemies in a squire or a wedge formation, the two groups formed a shape of two fangs which looked like they were about to chew Wen Chou Army .
Among one of the two units, Lu Bu was leading the charge .
*SOEK* *CLANK* *CLANK*
The arrows from Wen Chou Army pierced Julu men while the majority of arrows were blocked by the iron tower shields . Unfortunately, five hundreds of the soldiers were still killed without realizing what hit them while a thousand were caught at the non-vital parts and survived .
The barrages of Wen Chou force just now were made of over 10,000 arrows from their repeating crossbows . It was Julu Army’s first time to taste its own medicines .
"Step back 50 steps and keep the shields above your head! Form fish scale formation of 50 men and move with your squad!" Bellowed Li Feihong as his eyes still locked onto a floating monitor .
Li Feihong found a target to kill, but he decided to wait for a better chance .
*BOOM*
Lu Bu and his men collided with the archers of Wen Chou Army .
The archers were preoccupied firing their arrows and forgot to defend themselves . Glaives, halberds, spears, and other polearms made their way towards their bodies, mincing them apart .
The two fangs arrays of Lu Bu gnawed the flanks of Wen Chou’s loose formation .
In the middle of the fight, Lu Bu sensed an omen, just like when Yan Liang sensed Gao Shun .
Lu Bu gestured with his hands, which his subordinates understood it .
*WHOOSH*
Flag bearers of Lu Bu force waved their signal flags . Both fangs that were charging into Wen Chou archers did not bite, but they went straight toward the east, ignoring the existence of the archers .
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
Archers of Wen Chou ignited their bomb bags, which were placed in the corner of their formation .
"Tsk!"
Lu Bu clicked his tongue as he watched his men at his rearguards got caught on the explosions . Had Lu Bu did not move away from the Wen Chou archers, the entire army of 5,000 heavy cavalries would have been crippled by the explosive bomb trap .
’Foolish scums! I sensed that you’re using a coward tactic . You can’t catch me with that!’
Lu Bu regrouped his men and turned his back toward the field which was barraged by the fire attacks .
Wen Chou also clicked his tongue . He had planned to bait Lu Bu using his men, which he believed that the reckless monster among men should have fallen for this delicious defenseless archers .
’I see, you’re the same type as Yan Liang!’
As a tactician general and the secondary brain of Yuan Shao Army, he analyzed that Lu Bu had relied on his instinct to detect the omen and escaped from the trap by a hair breathe .
The ignited trap managed to take down a few hundred horses along with their riders, but the threat of the joint attack of Lu Bu and Li Feihong had not ended .
*BANG* *BANG*
The thunderous bang sounds of gunshot alerted Wen Chou as he recognized this weapon .
’Thunder magic! Is Zhang Tong here?’
The horror of Tong’s magic still haunted Wen Chou since the day Tong shot his feet and captured both Yan Liang and him as hostages .
"General! Both our 2000-man commanders have been killed!"
Wen Chou did not look at his messenger, but he glared at the direction of Li Feihong, who had pulled his right hand and his gun back from a portal .
The killing intent of Wen Chou locked on Li Feihong at full force, yet Li Feihong ignored it and turned to his men to maneuver his troops .
’That’s not Zhang Tong, but he’s experienced! From Tian Feng’s intel and that Li flags, that should be Li Feihong . To think that a young strategist has this mentality . ’
’Zhang Liao should still be inside the fort . If this guy comes out, we will have a chance to strike down the north fort!’
’I’ll bait this young strategist . If he’s still a greenhorn, he will fall for this . ’
Wen Chou looked back toward the bridge . Lu Bu had regrouped and formed two-row formation, getting ready for a sweeping charge . 400 Meters behind Lu Bu, Yan Liang’s armored cavalries were crossing the reinforced bridges, creating arrays and getting prepared to pincer Lu Bu from behind .
On the other side of the moat, a reinforcement of 20,000 soldiers rushed at their location while another 40,000 men form ranks in front of the north fort, getting ready to attack it .
"All archers, turn around and aim at the horsemen behind our back! Get ready to defend against their charge! Anyone with a spear, group with others that have shields . Form a 10-man porcupine and endure their onslaught!"
Wen Chou bellowed . He rode back to stood behind his men, facing Lu Bu and his armored cavalries and showing his back to Li Feihong .
All soldiers under Wen Chou were elites . They completed their roles and arrays in 10 seconds, and they were ready to send their arrow barrage at Lu Bu Cavalry units .
Seeing the back of Wen Chou force, Li Feihong did not want to let this chance slip away, "Archers, dash forward 50 steps and fire at will! Now!"
Wen Chou smirked and shouted, "Archers, turn around and fire immediately! Empty your clip! Porcupine squads, stay in your formation!"
Wen Chou’s elites made a 180 degrees turn and launched their barrages without looking at the enemies .
The running archers of Li Feihong did not expect a sudden arrow rain as they were out of their range a moment ago, they ran into the range of the fired arrows .
’I was tricked!’ Li Feihong wanted to shout to stop all of them, but he was too late .
"Shields up! Shields up!" Shouted Li Feihong, but a thousand of his men had already fallen by Wen Chou’s archers .
"Protect your friends and shoot back! Lu Bu will pincer them from behind! Keep them occupied!"
Surviving Julu archers return-fired, which also caused damages back to Wen Chou’s archers .
*BWOO*
Lu Bu blew his horn, signaling his troops to charge at Wen Chou .
*BWOO*
Yan Liang, who was getting ready, also blew his horn, signaling all of his horsemen to pursue Lu Bu from behind .
*BWOO*
A third horn sounded from the north, which surprised Wen Chou and Yan Liang .
*RUMBLE*
The sounds of galloping horses came from the northern direction, and the [Gao] flags could be seen in among the troops .
Gao Shun crossed back the moat to assist Lu Bu!
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