Chapter 53: Three Battles with Song Piao

  On the fourth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, Gongsun Zan led his troops southward. The Huating army retreated southward, and Gongsun Zan occupied Huating.

  He knew that from the capture of Huating, after the county seat was captured again, there would be no revival of the Qin army. It wasn't just the county seat, many villages and towns had been occupied by various forces in the northwest, reviving a military soul once, and there were no more spare military souls for him to revive.

  Because there were no Qin troops garrisoned in Huating, Gongsun Zan could not charge forward as he had before. He now had to consider the problem of his own rear, and if his rear was cut off, he would lose contact with Xianyang and become a completely isolated army that could only be ground to death by the enemy.

  Huating is empty, all the original population has been withdrawn by the Liang army. Even the defensive fortifications are damaged everywhere. Gongsun Ce can only camp in the city and search for supplies and repair the defensive fortifications in the city at the same time.

  "Report!" A scout cavalryman rushed into the city, with Qin troops making way for him along the way.

  "My lord! Song Pei leads the elite troops of Liang and Western Xia, attacking from the west! They are still twenty miles away from our army! Due to the flying dust, we cannot determine the exact number of enemy troops!" The scout rushed in, his clothes soaked with sweat.

  "This Song is quite capable, and in just four or five days, he's gathered an army of over ten thousand! I'm starting to feel a bit reluctant to kill him!" Gong Sun Ce chuckled lightly.

  Inside the hall, it was unclear what was going on, and even Chu Mengmeng was a bit confused, but he guessed that Gongsun Ce had some reservations about Song Pei.

  Gongsun Zan had already made up his mind to kill him, having spared Song Xian twice out of consideration for their friendship with Ma Cheng. However, Song Xian repeatedly clashed with him and this time even joined forces with the Western Xia to attack him, clearly intent on destroying his military strength.

  Gongsun Ce also knew that his current self had already disrupted the development trend of Jun Xun's forces. Apart from Qin, all other camps wanted to destroy him or directly surrender.

  But he can't surrender, the combat effectiveness of his army is now under his command, and the Qin Fu soldiers are the mainstay. If he surrenders, these symbol soldiers will leave, and his own combat effectiveness will be reduced by half or more. Moreover, Xue Ling is also in Xianyang City, even if the symbol soldiers betray him and join other camps together, he can't make up his mind to do so.

  "If we can defeat Song Piao twice, we can defeat him a third time! This time he must not be allowed to escape again!" Gong Sun Ce slammed his fist on the table, and all the generals stood up waiting for orders.

  "The whole army will go out of the city, this battle must be won and leave no armor intact!"

  Gongsun Zan led his troops out of the city, leaving behind Zhuge Xuan and 200 men as well as cart drivers and other logistical personnel to defend the city.

  "Grand General, this battle must be won at all costs!" Looking at the Qin army's formation, Song Cheng said beside Song Pei. He was a descendant of Song Pei, but in the military, only military ranks were considered.

  Song was now the Grand General of the Liang army, commanding all Liang forces south of Jincheng. He naturally knew that this defeat could not be tolerated, as the Qin army had already occupied Tianshui Commandery and was consolidating its position and integrating resources.

  If Gongsun Zan's troops can connect with Tianshui and Xianyang, the pre-Qin forces will be connected as one, and no one can stop them. Therefore, Song Xian must prevent the Qin army from merging, and gain time for his own Liang State.

  To deal with Gongsun Zan, he drew out the elite of the six counties south of Jincheng and persuaded Li Suiyan, the current leader of Western Xia, to join forces and attack Gongsun Zan. He promised that after breaking through Gongsun Zan, he would help Western Xia take Pingliang Prefecture.

  That is, the south of Jincheng has already appeared defensive loopholes, and it is easy to be taken by other forces. Therefore, Song Pei cannot drag on, and Gong Sun Ce must be solved quickly.

  As for the Pingliang city, let the Western Xia army handle it themselves! Anyway, he had made up his mind to defeat Gongsun Zan and immediately withdraw his troops to attack Tianshui. Attacking instead of defending is the best defense.

  "This battle cannot be delayed, Gong Sun Ze has won several battles in a row and is now overconfident! This battle will not be difficult to break, the difficulty lies in how to explain it to the Western Xia army." Song Pei did not want to antagonize the Western Xia army, before this fierce tiger of Great Qin fell, he did not want to engage in battle with other powers in the northwest.

  "Beat the drums!" Gong Sun Ce's heart was stirred with excitement, this is a real war!

  Across from him was an endless army of Liang, but he did not fear. He only felt joy, for as long as he defeated this enemy force, he could pursue and kill them, and would surely sweep away the Liang army. This would greatly accelerate his pacification of the northwest and open up a path back home.

  "My lord, this battle will be difficult. The Lü Bu's army is equipped with a large number of shields and they are also elite troops that are not inferior to the Yu brothers'!" Chu Mengmeng observed the enemy situation with great concern.

  Chu Mengmeng was worried about this battle. The Liang army had equipped themselves with large wooden shields, which was beyond their expectations. As a result, Gong Sun Zan's crossbowmen and spearmen could only exert half of their usual strength:

  Moreover, there were Western Xia reinforcements, and they defeated the Liang army, so it's not necessarily a victory.

  "No harm, Song Yi thought he could escape from me twice and wanted to escape for the third time. But this time it's wishful thinking! As long as I kill him, the Liang army will naturally collapse! The Liang army collapses, and if the Western Xia army doesn't counterattack, it would already be a very humanitarian manifestation!"

  "I wish the lord a great victory in this battle, but Huating cannot afford to lose, leaving only Zhuge Shuang alone, I'm afraid it will be difficult to cope." Chu Mengmeng knew that this battle was perilous, and his small arms and legs couldn't withstand the turmoil.

  "Uh, prepare for the worst in treating the wounded. The casualties from this battle may be heavy. I don't want them to survive the battlefield only to die during treatment afterwards. That would be a sad thing for a warrior! Gong Sun Ce knew that his original tactics were no longer effective after seeing the Liang army's shield formation, and he needed new tactics to achieve a decisive victory."

  After Chu Mengmeng left, the formation of the Liang army changed and formed a fish scale array. The sound of drums and horns rose, and two teams of Liang army soldiers carried large wooden shields to attack Gong Sun Ce's winged infantry lines. What made Gong Sun Ce puzzled was that Ma Cheng had gone into battle again, and his military rank had been promoted once more, becoming "Lieutenant Colonel of the Sharp Edge".

  "How are you still alive?" Fighting with friends feels terrible. Gong Sun Ce decided to capture Ma Cheng and imprison him, to torture him thoroughly.

  "Dou Yuanzheng, go and find the war opportunity yourself!" Gong Sunzhi regretted that Dou Yuanzheng's troops could not be increased, otherwise the bow and horse soldiers would open the way, and the gods would kill the gods, and the Buddhas would cut off the Buddhas.

  "White Tower, launch at the enemy on the right wing!" Seeing the cool army's shield, Gong Sun Ce naturally wouldn't waste his crossbow arrows shooting at the cool army's large wooden shields.

  "Order the second echelon to prepare for reception, and as soon as the vanguard withdraws, they can immediately join the battlefield. We must not give the Qin army time to rest! Even if we wear them down, we must wear them out!" Song Pei's army marched on, with many men and a strong momentum, but still slightly fatigued.

  Under Song Pei's military order, some of the coolie troops in the second echelon who were squatting on the ground to rest were scolded by their officers and stood up to form a line. In their opinion, the vanguard with 3,000 people can have a good fight with the enemy for half a day, if they don't take this opportunity to rest, when can they rest?

  They could hardly imagine how quickly the front would collapse.

  "Fire!" White Tower wielded his sword and swung it, the three hundred five-linked light crossbows lined up behind the central army's rear array fired simultaneously, five rounds in a row. The arrow rain was dense, and one thousand five hundred crossbow arrows fell on the Liao army's left wing. This leading military officer's flag read "Front Vanguard Officer", and at this time, they were only two hundred meters away from the Qin army.

  "Shields!" The front-line officer shouted loudly as he saw the rain of arrows.

  A large wooden shield was lifted up by the joint efforts of the front row of soldiers, the Qin crossbow was strong, and the wooden shield had to be thickened, so it was very heavy. The middle and rear rows of Liangjun stood up with a plank from the formation and hid behind the plank.

  The first wave of arrows fell, and for a time, all was "thud" "thud" muffled sounds, with more than half of the crossbow bolts being blocked, shooting into wooden shields or boards. The second wave of arrows fell, in addition to the sound of crossbow bolts hitting the board, there were also the cries of wounded soldiers.

  The front row of the cool army's large shield was thick and solid, with only a few unlucky eggs being shot dead by crossbow arrows that passed through the gaps in the shield array. The cool army behind, using wooden boards to block the arrow rain, were extremely unlucky because the wooden boards were not effective against the crossbow arrows, layer after layer of wooden boards were pierced, and the cool army standing behind them naturally suffered casualties.

  To be honest, these doors are all made on demand and the quality of goods in China is not something you can have high expectations for. Plus, with the awakening of various natural spirits, including wood spirits, these machine-processed doors will naturally be eroded by the power of the wood spirits, making the quality of the wooden boards even more unbearable.

  "Damn it! I didn't think this thing was so useless!" Huang Long, carrying a wooden shield, had already seen the friendly troops being shot to pieces by Qin's crossbow arrows and loudly cursed. However, the wooden shield still had an effect, at least the front row of soldiers in the friendly army's formation were intact.

  Ma Cheng raised his spear to deflect the incoming arrows, he knew that Gong Sun Ce was holding back again. His own Elite Army was surrounded by archers and horsemen, who seemed to be shooting a continuous rain of arrows, but they didn't cause much damage to him.

  "Less nonsense, remember to run faster later! I have a bad premonition!"

  "Is something wrong again? Are we going to lose again?! If it can't be helped, then...” Huang Long's face was filled with worry and distress. His dream of winning every battle had shattered, and he could already imagine how later generations would evaluate him: "Huang Long, who lost battle after battle, died in battle in a certain year..."

  "Cheng Shen, trample the vanguard army for me!" Gong Sun Ce saw that the opponent's vanguard army had been shot into disarray and would not give them a chance to reorganize!

  Cheng Sheng let out a loud roar, and 1,200 spirit riders galloped forth with a mighty shout: "We must win!"

  Seeing the Qin army cavalry launch a charge, Song Pei's command flag hastily made a response, and the second echelon of the Liang army, 3,000 people, hurriedly held up their shields and took big strides towards the vanguard army 100 meters away, trying to help the vanguard army resist the Yuqi cavalry's attack.

  "Next is Fēng Xiào Wèi, then Fēng Xiào Wèi? What a pity it's too late!" Gong Sun Ce lightly read out the two military numbers of Liang Jun's second echelon, his face cold and stern, with a hint of a smile.

  "Regrettably, miscalculated!" Song Pei really hadn't expected the wooden boards to be so useless. Although they had blocked the Qin army's arrow rain and reduced the number of casualties in the troops, they had left a trail of wounded soldiers on the front lines!

  Infantry countering charging cavalry usually only have the gun formation of musketeers, the concentrated shooting of archery and crossbow units, and chariot formations.

  The shield wall was effective, but it needed to be coordinated with other troops. A single shield wall could only be described as suicidal. Thus, the vanguard of the Liang army met a tragic end!

  A thousand riders rolled over the ridge! The Yu ride was like a whirlwind, directly breaking through the vanguard's shield array! The shield soldiers were knocked flying along with their shields, and as soon as they landed, they were trampled to death by the charging Yu ride. Not to mention the wounded soldiers behind the shield array, who didn't even have time to let out a miserable cry before being trampled into pulp by the Yu ride's horses, rotting into dust.

  "Go die!" Cheng Shen leapt on his horse, spear in hand, and stabbed to death the vanguard commander of the Liang army. He then swiftly picked up the Liang army's flag that was about to fall to the ground.

  Capture the flag and behead the general!

  "Kill!" The two lieutenants of the second echelon saw that the vanguard lieutenant was killed and were furious.

  Even the greatest anger is dull and powerless in front of charging cavalry.

  Although these two coolie troops were equipped with shields, they became a drag during running advances and although they didn't lose any, they also couldn't form a shield array.

  "Ah!" The two armies clashed, with some of the Liao soldiers being knocked into the air and letting out mournful cries. Some of the Yu soldiers were also thrown off their horses and trampled to death in the chaos.

  The horses were neighing, one by one bursting forth with great force amidst the crowd of people, colliding and causing the Liao army to retreat continuously. Moreover, there were Liao soldiers who had fallen down and could not get up, being trampled by the horses, one by one involuntarily stretching out their limbs, dying in agony.

  "General Zhongjian, charge!" Song Pei saw that the Qin army's symbol riders were about to break through the second vanguard of three thousand people, so he deployed his own killer trump card.

  "General Song has received the order!" Song Cheng cupped his fists and accepted the command, turning around and striding towards his own troops.