Chapter 267 The Skirmish at Northern Anping (1/2)
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 Gao Shun has withdrawn to regroup.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.