Chapter 24: The Ghostly Ambush

  "General, this road is rugged and difficult to travel, and with the mountains on both sides, I'm worried there might be an ambush nearby... Let's take another route."

  He raised the torch in his hand high, and one of Hou Cheng's personal soldiers beside him couldn't help but say with a nervous tone as he looked at the mountain path ahead.

  At this time, Hou Cheng looked at the other side and saw that the other was only a seventeen or eighteen year old soldier. He disdainfully said: "What do you know? We are cavalrymen, if there really is an ambush, we can also forcefully break through it. Moreover, I heard that Chenliu has only 2,000 soldiers under Xiahou Dun's command, which is not enough to defend the city, where would they get the troops for an ambush?"

  He said with a cold hum, leading his army to advance quickly.

  On both sides of the mountain.

  Cao Xin also held his breath at this moment, staring at the faintly discernible horseshoe sound, it seemed that the number of enemy troops was far higher than their own.

  Cao Xin knew that the cavalry had always been a sharp weapon for charging and breaking through enemy lines. When it came to charging and breaking through enemy arrays, this was the characteristic of the cavalry. After all, the cavalry was originally used for charging.

  On the other hand, Cao Xin's side had mostly sword and shield wielders, who held a great advantage in chaotic battles. Unfortunately, they were at a disadvantage against charging cavalry, and would often have their formation disrupted by the enemy's charge.

  Although they also had arquebusiers, there were only 500 of them. The guns used by the arquebusiers in this era were only two meters long and did not reach the length of three meters or more like some arquebusiers during the Warring States period. However, even so, they could still play a role in countering cavalry. Most cavalrymen used lances that were only about 1.3 meters long, which was quite short.

  So the gunner became the best soldier for defensive cavalry, but Cao Xin added three shieldmen to increase the defense of the gunner, with left, middle and right sides protecting him, thus greatly enhancing his resistance to cavalry.

  Perhaps in this era, such a seemingly chaotic battle strategy is only dared by Cao Xin.

  In the dark mountains, Dian Wei was leading a battalion of 400 men and horses to observe, but saw that there were enemy troops. A small school on the side leaned in and said: "General Dian, the enemy has arrived, let's kill them..."

  Duan You shook his head, and although Dian Wei had already seen the enemy army, he suddenly looked at Cao Xin's side on the opposite mountain, who was also lying in ambush, and said in a low voice: "Not yet, General has an order, without his command, do not act rashly..."

  "But... General Dian, the enemy is about to pass by, if we don't make a move now, when will we?"

  "Wait a bit longer..." Seeing the endless cavalry on the small path, Dian Wei immediately saw the leader at the very front of the cavalry, and with a cold glint in his eye, he whispered: "Get the wooden spears ready... wait for General's torch command..."

  "Agreed."

  The original 4,000 wooden guns were given by Cao Xin to the 800 people who were ambushing on both sides, with each person getting 5 wooden guns. There were 400 people on each side, and they were equipped with a total of 2,000 wooden guns.

  Although they cannot take action at this moment, every soldier knows what he will do next.

  At this time, Cao Xin's heart was even more tense as he gazed coldly at the cavalry advancing slowly on the small path, but he knew that it was not yet time to take action.

  Cao Xin did not expect the other side to bring so many people, but what he needed to consider most at this moment was the trap buried under the mountain valley in the distance.

  The sky was like a silent black sand with bright lights scattered, but the starlight did not illuminate the darkness at all. Looking at the trees on both sides that were as still as death, Hou Cheng felt somewhat stifled riding his horse.

  No matter how slow the army behind him was advancing, Hou Cheng stood at the forefront of the cavalry, staring at the stars in the sky with a gloomy expression.

  Originally, he should have followed the lord to attack Puyang next... but unexpectedly, he had to lead 5,000 men to pacify Chenliu, letting those guys follow the lord to attack the city, and he lost the first achievement. This was extremely frustrating for him.

  "Grandma's..." Hou Cheng said so, but suddenly felt strange.

  It seems that just one star in the sky, watching it, it's getting brighter and brighter, and then it's like a flame, burning fiercely...

  It seems like... it doesn't seem to be stars...

  "Let go!"

  A torch suddenly flew out from among the mountains...

  Suddenly a loud shout came from both sides of the mountain top, followed by a series of deafening killing cries!

  "Enemy attack! Enemy attack! Charge!"

  However, by the time Hou Cheng reacted, it was already too late.

  All that can be seen is the dark sky, with countless sharp whistling sounds piercing through the air.

  At the same time, in the blink of an eye, these five thousand people suddenly saw nearly a thousand wooden guns swooping down from the sky like rain.

  "Hmmph..."

  "Hmmph..."

  "Hmmph..."

  One thousand wooden guns, in an instant pierced through the bodies of hundreds of cavalrymen, as if it were a dark night demon claiming lives. In the formation of five thousand cavalrymen, countless people fell to the ground, wailing and crying out in agony, filling the fields with mournful cries.

  "Hold steady! Hold steady!" At this time, Hou Cheng was shocked to discover that the army was in great chaos. Just as he was about to rally his troops...

  But never thought... this is just the first wave...

  "Whoosh whoosh whoosh"

  "Ahhh!!!!!!......"

  In the mountains and forests, in just one short minute, 4,000 wooden guns were divided into four times, continuously sweeping and firing.

  But this dark sky had already been submerged in a hail of bullets, and the cavalry on this path were all wounded.

  Cries of agony, neighs... shouts of killing... deafening.

  A simple wooden spear, one by one, pierced the bodies of the cavalrymen. Five thousand horses and men were caught off guard in an instant, struck by four thousand gunshots, and suffered heavy casualties in a short moment.

  "Kill! Kill kill! Kill kill kill!!!"

  At this time, Dianwei and Caoxin led the vanguard to kill, taking advantage of the enemy's chaos, a loud and shrill killing cry came from behind, which made the enemy even more frightened.

  "Hurry up and rush over, don't let them catch up, hurry!"

  At this time, Hou Cheng immediately reacted and didn't care how many people had died under his command. He felt that there were ambush troops chasing behind him, so he hastily led the army to charge forward.

  The mountain path was rugged and difficult to traverse, but this group of cavalrymen galloped forward like startled war horses, rushing headlong into the unknown darkness ahead, having just survived the terrifying hail of bullets, everyone was now recklessly charging forward with abandon...

  Most of the cavalry's war horses were also startled by previous excessive fright, and during the march, they galloped wildly, even trampling each other, with miserable cries.

  It can be seen how chaotic the cavalry is at this moment.

  The four thousand wooden guns from earlier had all been fired in a short period of time, and Hou Cheng's five thousand cavalry had already lost nearly half. The frightened war horses were even more numerous, to the point where they couldn't be counted. Generally speaking, any horse that hears the sound of firecrackers will become startled and frantic. In this situation, whether it was modern times or ancient times, whether it was a weak horse or a strong one, not even these soldiers could care about formation anymore. They hastily followed Hou Cheng in a rapid charge.

  It was supposed to be a charge, but it had already turned into a retreat.

  "The thief is going to escape! I, Zhou Yu, have been waiting for a long time!"

  At this time, more than a thousand people who had been waiting for a long time at the foot of the mountain took advantage of the situation and killed them.

  Zhou Ju laughed loudly and was the first to speak up.

  Suddenly hearing these words, Hou Cheng's heart, which was already icy cold, became even more desperate.

  However, when the war horses galloped again, they unknowingly fell into the trap ahead, and these remaining two thousand cavalrymen also fell into it...