Chapter 607: A Life-and-Death Battle

After listening to Xu Yuan's order, Chen Bin silently drew out his knife, strode forward, walked to the front of the queue, turned around, looked at the bloody soldiers behind him, suddenly raised his knife high, and shouted: "Brothers, do you still want to be slaves?"

After a short silence, a roar like a mountain suddenly broke out, "No!"

"Do you still want to reclaim wasteland for those Hu people under the whip of the Donghu people?"

"No!"

"But the Donghu Tartars are coming again. If we don't want to be dogs again, what should we do?"

"Kill them all!" The roar sounded again.

"Yes, kill them all!" Chen Bin said sternly: "The dog Tartars don't know how to live or die, and dare to cross the river to fight. As long as we destroy these floating bridges, they will become turtles in a jar and fish on our felt boards. Follow me and kill them all!"

"Ten thousand wins!"

Chen Bin turned around and strode forward. Behind him, rows of soldiers looked stern and followed his steps closely.

First he walked with big strides, then he trotted. Chen Bin's steps became faster and faster, and his footsteps stepped on the soft grass. Every step he took left a deep mark on the grass.

In front of them was the array of soldiers of the Donghu people, and less than a hundred meters behind these soldiers was the surging Liaohe River. On the river, a floating bridge rose and fell with the waves.

The grass under his feet was no longer green. In the past few days, the blood flowing here had softened the grass, and the green grass turned red, and the yellow sand turned into red sand.

Chen Bin is now a regiment commander of the First Division of the First Army, with 5,000 soldiers under his command. All of these 5,000 soldiers came from the captured Yan army soldiers. In the first half of this year, Gongsun Yi and Luo Lei led their cavalry under the leadership of Chen Bin. With the autumn wind sweeping the fallen leaves, they swept most of the Donghu settlements on the Hetao Plain and rescued about 12,000 soldiers. Most of them belonged to Xu Yuan's First Army. Sun Xiao took away 2,000 and allocated 3,000 to Yan Peng. And Chen Bin's regiment was composed of such soldiers.

Surrender, capture, being scolded by dogs, living without dignity, settling for the Donghu people, and being rescued. These people were re-armed, and the strong sense of shame made them fight the Donghu people very bravely. For three days, blood was shed and pestles were flying, not only their own blood, but also the blood of the enemy.

Before this floating bridge, nearly two thousand people had fallen on both sides.

Tian Zongmin's pupils shrank slightly.

In the past three days, he had repelled countless attacks from his opponents, but this time. Obviously, it was different. He saw the opponent's determination to move forward. Those who rushed to the front of the team were all officers.

From the bottom of his heart, Tian Zongmin didn't want to stand here at all, standing in this position. He was a Qi countryman, and came to Donghu on the order of the prime minister to help Donghu train infantry. It has been a whole year since he arrived in Donghu.

He couldn't understand why he was a Qi countryman. To help the barbarians train the Donghu, in his opinion. This is completely contrary to the education he has received since childhood, and they are not of my race. Their hearts must be different. The cavalry of the Donghu people has made the Central Plains countries extremely vigilant, but because they have fatal weaknesses, they are helpless against the defense of solid cities and positions. However, if they have the same powerful infantry as the Central Plains countries and a deep understanding of city defense and attack and defense, once they invade the Central Plains in the future, what can the Central Plains use to resist?

But the prime minister Tian Dan told him that this is in the interests of Qi. For Qi, he must come to help the Donghu.

Tian Zongmin is a professional soldier who takes obeying orders as his duty. Although he does not understand, he still executes them, but now standing here, commanding the Donghu people's expeditionary army to fight, he still feels unbearable.

I can't stand it, but I have to bear it. I am a Qi person. Everything I do is for the interests of Qi, so that Qi can become the overlord of this land one day. Even if I am misunderstood and insulted, I must complete my task.

Tian Zongmin believed in Prime Minister Tian Dan, because it was during the decades when Tian Dan served as Prime Minister that Qi State grew from its previous weakness to its current national strength and status.

"Archers, get ready!" he shouted.

"Shoot!" With a shout, arrows rained down. At the same time, behind the Eastern Expedition Army, a dense mass of crossbow arrows soared into the air. The two sides shot at each other, and the number of people who fell was almost the same. The feather arrows of the Donghu infantry were a little soft, but the attackers ran forward, and the gaps were large, so many people were hit by arrows. The defenders protected their bodies with shields, but they could not withstand the powerful arm crossbows of the Eastern Expedition Army. The Donghu people could not afford iron-wrapped shields or iron shields. Their shields were either made of wood or woven with rattan. If they encountered a perverted crossbow like the arm crossbow, they would end up with the shield shattered and the person killed.

"Forward, forward!" Chen Bin lowered his head, shrank his body as much as possible, but took big steps. The first step to rush out of the rain of arrows, there was more hope of survival.

The arrows fell on the armor, making a tinkling sound. It must be said that although the armors allocated to the generals by the Zhengdong Army were thin, their protective power was extremely amazing. When he first received this kind of armor for battalion commanders and above, he thought it was a shoddy defective product. It was only when the army commander Xu Yuan cut the armor with a knife and only split it a crack that he realized the value of this thing.

When he was in the standing army before, the armor equipped to a general of his level weighed dozens of kilograms. It was extremely difficult to run when wearing it, and in terms of durability, it could be cut in half with one knife.

This new armor weighed less than ten kilograms, but it had such strong protection. So when Chen Bin was running, he only paid attention to protecting his face. The opponent's feather arrows could not penetrate his armor at all, unless he was unlucky and was shot by the opponent's crossbow. But if you really get hit by a crossbow, it can only be said that your luck is too bad. Don't say that you only wear one set of armor. Even if you wear more sets, you will be killed by the collision.

Chen Bin looked up, wiped his hand at his waist, and held the crossbow in his hand. The opponent's army formation was already more than ten steps in front of him. He was very familiar with this formation. He knew that the next step would be for the opponent to step forward and stab forward with a spear. With a raised hand, the three crossbows were already fired when the Donghu people in front of him just took a step and stretched out their spears. The three spearmen in front fell down with screams, and the spears in their hands fell to the ground. Chen Bin shouted loudly, and took advantage of the moment when the row behind the opponent had not yet made up, and the whole person had already crashed into the queue in front. He chopped left and right with the steel knife in his hand, and in an instant, he killed several people in a row, cutting a hole in the neat queue. Behind him, the soldiers quickly followed and killed in through this gap.

At the same time, in front of the hundreds of meters long military formation, there were as many as a dozen places that were torn open like this. This is why Chen Bin asked all the officers to run at the front of the team.

The officers not only had better armor, but were also equipped with crossbows. This thing, at close range, is a big killer. It is small and does not attract attention. Within a dozen steps, it can break armor and kill people, and it is invincible.

After Chen Bin charged into the army formation, he did not rush forward to break through, but attacked horizontally. The spearmen stood closely together, but all faced the enemy. They were attacked from the side by Chen Bin, but they could not turn around in a hurry, and were completely passive. The soldiers in the second row were also trapped by the long spears. Facing Chen Bin who was darting around in front of them like a fish, they were helpless.

Finally, an officer in the queue came to his senses and shouted: "Throw away the spears, draw the swords, draw the swords!"

The spears could not play an advantage in such close combat, but it was different when the swords were drawn.

But his reaction was too slow. At this time, the first two rows of Donghu Army had been messed up by the Zhengdong Army who rushed in. There was chaos, and more Zhengdong Army rushed in.

Tian Shoumin's pupils shrank, and he waved his hand and said sternly: "Blow the horn, one, two, three, four rows, squeeze forward, starting from the fifth team, retreat fifty steps, and re-form the battle array!"

When the horn sounded, this infantry, which had been trained by Tian Zongmin for nearly a year, showed a level that was not inferior to the infantry of the Central Plains. The first four rows stepped forward and mixed with the Zhengdong Army that rushed in, while the ones behind immediately turned around and retreated. Fifty infantrymen re-formed, and a forest of strict spears formed again.

About five miles away from the battlefield, Yuwen Ke sat in the big tent in a leisurely manner, carefully wiping his sword with a piece of flannel. The plan to send 5,000 cavalry to attack Dayan Lake would definitely not be concealed for long. From the fact that the vanguard, Tongwan and Liangcheng suddenly launched a full-scale attack, it can be known that the other party has understood his overall plan, but what does it matter? Even if all the 10,000 infantrymen under his command were destroyed, as long as Dayan Lake was destroyed, this battle would be won in the end. He still had 5,000 cavalrymen who had not been put into the battlefield?

However, the infantrymen trained by the Qi people for a year were really not simple. They had fought with the vanguard and Tongwan for three days and were still firmly guarding several pontoon bridges. If they could still hold on when the army that attacked Dayan Lake returned, then this battle would be perfect.

Thinking of this, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. After this battle, he might ask the King of Donghu to train more such soldiers.

The coordination of infantry and cavalry is the kingly way!

The big tent was suddenly opened, and a Donghu officer rushed in. Looking at the other party's face, Yuwen Ke asked lightly: "What's the matter, the pontoon bridge can't be defended? How many were lost?"

"General Yuwen, not the pontoon bridge, it's General Yuwen Chui!"

"Chui is back?" Yuwen Ke was overjoyed and stood up suddenly.

"Yes, I'm back, but General Yuwen, our plan to attack Dayan Lake has failed!" The officer was pale. "General Yuwen Chui lost many soldiers and generals, and less than half of the 5,000 cavalrymen are left." (To be continued)