As a result, as soon as they approached, they were immediately hit by a round of extremely terrifying crossbow arrows from the Han army, and blood flowed on the spot. Even the Chosen of Khorne, whose flesh and blood were fused with brass and whose armor value was terrifyingly high, could not bear it - the Han army had several large yellow crossbows deployed on chariots with a pulling force of 12 stones! A Chosen of Khorne had just rushed up when he was shot dead on the spot by a large yellow crossbow arrow that was bigger than his body! The crossbow arrow shot into his human body from the abdomen, penetrated the entire horse's body, and shot out from the buttocks, directly nailing him to the spot.
Seeing that the Han army was so well-trained and well-defended, Murong Xianbei's troops felt a bit troubled and thought about retreating.
However, Murong Chong did not dare to retreat and had no way to retreat.
There was no way. Although her father Murong Jun was a great chief, her fourth aunt Murong Ke was a great general of the Murong Xianbei, whose prestige and military power were even higher than her father's. Her fifth aunt Murong Chui was the most powerful individual warrior in the tribe, and was even the wife of the previous Great Chanyu. Each one was more powerful than the other, it was terrifying.
It is foreseeable that if I cannot accumulate military achievements to rival those of these two aunts before my father's death, then once my father dies, I will never be able to inherit his position.
Murong Chong gritted his teeth, and suddenly spread his red and gold phoenix wings, soaring high in the sky, making a pleasant phoenix cry. His wings and tail instantly burned with a magnificent golden sacred fire, burning half of the blue sky into a sacred and magnificent golden color. The entire phoenix team was like a blazing flaming meteor, swooping down towards the Han army alone!
Chapter 195: Flaming Phoenix
"Who is this Phoenix Centaur with golden flames burning all over his body?"
Zhao Yun was a little nervous. He stared at the golden flame that was getting bigger and bigger in the sky, and asked Tuoba Yun hurriedly.
"She is the Xianbei Yanshi Murong Chui who was extremely brave and good at fighting and had never been defeated in her life, right?"
"No."
Tuoba Yun shook his head, also somewhat confused.
"Didn't the elders in the clan say she could fly? And she looks very young, so she must be a member of the Murong family."
Liu Zhuang was also very confused at this moment, because all of Murong Chong's attributes were clearly visible in his double pupils. He was just a very young, low-level, half-Centaur with ordinary attributes. His name was Murong Chong. The phoenix wings and sacred fire looked intimidating, but his flying speed was not even half as fast as Zhang Yan's.
How dare you fly over here alone to charge my army? Who do you think you are? Lu Bu?
Liu Zhuang personally operated a large crossbow with a pulling force of twelve stones and a size so large that it needed a chariot to transport it. He aimed at Murong Chui who was swooping down from the sky. He locked the target with his double pupils, making Murong Chui's speed become slower and slower in his extraordinary dynamic vision, and then he immediately pulled the trigger!
With a loud "hum!!!" sound, a giant crossbow arrow over two meters long whizzed across the sky and shot directly into Murong Chong's neck with the force of thunder! The thick, huge crossbow arrow tore through her flesh and blood, broke her cervical vertebrae, and opened a fist-sized flesh hole in her slender neck. Scarlet blood and golden flames exploded in the sky like fireworks!
The terrifying impact force of the crossbow arrow directly tore her flesh and tendons, tearing the remaining flesh and veins on her neck with a force that crushed everything in its path, causing the young and beautiful head to fly off her neck while spinning! Her long hair, which was a gradient of deep red, orange, and light yellow, as beautiful as flames and as smooth as a waterfall, also spun in the air, creating gorgeous sunset glows.
“Colorful! Colorful! Colorful!!!”
A thunderous carnival instantly broke out in the Han army, celebrating the Lord's archery skills, who could kill an enemy flying unit with a single arrow from four hundred meters away. Judging from the boy's full body armor and the gold ornaments on his body, he was definitely a big fish, and he had just been killed in one second by a single arrow from the Lord's large yellow crossbow!
But the next second, the flaming phoenix soaring in the sky did not fall headfirst. Instead, her head that was shot off turned into a ball of golden flames and gradually went out in the air.
And the body that was shot through the head actually grew a new head accompanied by sacred and glorious golden flames, holding a long spear, and rushed directly towards Liu Zhuang!
What a strong regeneration ability!
Liu Zhuang sighed, then immediately drew out his lance, but before he could do anything, Zhao Yun had already rushed over - I really can't fly, and I can't help in air combat, so I can only let Tuoba Yun protect the Lord.
But now that the Lord is on the ground, if I let the enemy approach at will, then I, as the chief of the guards, would be derelict in my duty.
There was a flash of silver light, and Zhao Yun disappeared in an instant like a pale ghost. A silver door opened above Murong Chong's head in an instant. Zhao Yun, wearing silver armor and a white robe, riding a pale horse, appeared above Murong Chong's head as if a divine soldier descended from the sky!
"Uh-huh!!!"
The bright silver spear was like a dragon emerging from the sea, piercing through the enemy's heart with one thrust. The white horse's four hooves trampled on her burning body, interrupting Murong Chong's dive attack. Relying on the weight of the white horse, it directly interrupted Murong Chong's dive attack, causing her to fall vertically in the air. Zhao Yun and his horse trampled her to the ground from mid-air, making a shocking loud noise!
"boom!!!"
The two men and the horse fell to the ground, creating a huge crater on the ground. The smoke, dust and soil were splashed into the sky several meters high by the shock wave! Murong Chui was pierced through the heart, and his flesh was broken and his bones were broken. The large number of caltrops under his body made his body pierce like a sieve, and he could not bear the liquid in his body. Dozens of small wounds were bleeding at the same time.
However, every wound on her body was burning with golden flames and began to regenerate at a speed visible to the naked eye. After her physical flesh and blood turned into illusory flames, she easily broke free from the suppression of Zhao Yun and the pale warhorse.
Zhao Yun recognized what was going on immediately. This kid was a bit like Zhang Liao. His elemental bodies could make him immune to physical damage to a certain extent. However, Zhang Liao was as fast as thunder, while this centaur was a healing flame.
Zhao Yun gently stroked the bright silver lance given to her by her master. A holy storm, carrying silver fragments, danced and entangled on the tip of the lance like a shining silver dragon. She took a deep breath and waved the silver dragon lance to attack again, using a standard set of stabbing, picking, sweeping and chopping. Zhao Yun's speed was so fast that Murong Chong could not resist at all. Even if his body turned into healing flames, he would feel excruciating pain if hit by the silver dragon lance!
This was not an elemental or magical attack, but the rarer holy silver damage. Silver was a type of magical metal that had a strong restraint on the demons of hell and a large number of evil spirits. Unfortunately, the silver element was too soft and was not suitable for making weapons and armor. Therefore, Tong Yuan used magical means to transform a large amount of broken silver into silver-scaled dragons under the entanglement of the sacred wind, entwining them around the long spear forged from fine steel and cold iron, adding a huge amount of holy silver damage to the weapon.
Murong Chong was also a little surprised at this moment. She had just reached adulthood, and her fighting ability was only okay among her peers. However, relying on her extremely powerful dragon blood talent, even warriors and hunters who were much higher in level than her could do nothing to her. This also made this little girl extremely proud and arrogant, until today when she suddenly met Zhao Yun.
No, how can she be so powerful as a warrior? How can this spear hurt me? ? ?
The two fought for only three rounds, and Murong Chong was sweating profusely and covered with wounds. If it weren't for her strong dragon blood talent, she would have been killed in seconds by Zhao Yun. After failing to charge into the formation, she flapped her wings and wanted to fly away, but how could Zhao Yun give her this chance?
Every time she wanted to run, she would find a terrifying silver light coming from in front of her eyes. Her speed was not as fast as Zhang Yan, and her take-off speed was even slower. Every time she took off, Zhao Yun would suddenly teleport above her head as if from the underworld, ride his white horse, trample her again, and knock her back to the ground!
After this happened several times, Murong Chong had become somewhat desperate. The other men wanted to rescue him, but they couldn't fly, and even this patch of caltrops had difficulty crossing it!
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Author's words: 3050 monthly tickets plus more~
Chapter 196: Ambush
At the critical moment, it was a team of Khorne's Chosen Gods directly under Murong Chong who rushed up. The people in the front held up their brass shields and barely withstood the Han army's terrifying crossbow fire that was like raindrops. Then the other people drew their bows and arrows, and indiscriminately rained arrows at Zhao Yun and Murong Chong.
This kind of arrow wound could not cause any harm to Murong Chong's Phoenix Flame, but it was still quite troublesome for Zhao Yun and her white horse without horse armor, which seriously interfered with Zhao Yun's performance. The white horse was hit by six arrows and bleeding profusely. His armor was also hit by the continuous Xianbei arrows, and two arrows even shot into the gaps in the armor and stuck in it.
Zhao Yun had no choice but to retreat a step. Murong Chong also saw the opportunity and stretched out his wings and tail, burning with golden flames. In an instant, the hot wind carried the golden holy flame and spread around with Murong Chong as the center! If you look down from the sky, it seems that a golden and magnificent flaming star has exploded on the ground with the little phoenix as the center. The raging sea of fire mixed with rolling heat waves came over, forcing Zhao Yun to retreat, and then quickly retreated.
Although Murong Chong escaped, his failure to charge the enemy line dealt a serious blow to the morale of the Murong Xianbei. Looking at the Han army formation that was on high alert and into which even their leader could not get through, they felt that charging forward would be tantamount to seeking death.
In order to preserve his strength, Murong Chong did not dare to wipe out the personal troops given to him by his father. He could only hide outside the range of the large crossbow and stare at the Han army.
Liu Zhuang waved his hand and ordered the army to retreat in an orderly manner. He first sent out soldiers to pick up the caltrops under the cover of strong bows and crossbows. This thing was made of iron and was quite expensive.
Afterwards, the soldiers picked up these temporary wooden stakes, deer antlers, and chevaux de frise, and placed them on horse-drawn carriages. The carriages were pulled by a team of horses and they slowly retreated. Liu Zhuang personally followed the chariot soldiers to cover the rear.
Seeing that the Han army had withdrawn its defenses, Murong Chong tried to launch an attack tentatively. As a result, three large crossbows opened fire again at a distance of five or six hundred meters, killing two horses charging in the front. Seeing that the Xianbei were still charging, the soldiers turned the chariots sideways as quickly as possible and rebuilt the defensive positions. Then, under the cover of a large number of crossbowmen on the chariots, the engineers quickly deployed chevaux de frise, deer horns, and sprinkled some caltrops.
By the time the Xianbei cavalry crossed the range of the Dahuang crossbow and rushed to the front, the Han army had already completed the transition from marching to defense. They were like hedgehogs, making it impossible for Murong Chong to attack them. He could only leave behind a few corpses shot by crossbows and leave in disappointment.
Seeing the Xianbei retreat, Liu Zhuang also ordered everyone to put away their defenses and continue retreating. The first day finally passed without any danger. At night, this group of Han troops not only carried out night defense according to the triple standard defense of caltrops - deer horn chevaux de frise - wooden cart walls, but they even dug a trench and pits in front and behind the first layer of caltrops to ambush Murong Xianbei's cavalry.
Behind the wooden cart on the third floor, four temporary wooden towers more than six meters high were built. A large number of elite heavy armored infantry of the Han army climbed up and aimed at the distance with their crossbows from a high position.
Not only that, the engineers placed torches all along the way, illuminating the nearby darkness as if it were daytime. Since such a large force could not hide anyway, it would be better to light up the surroundings so that the enemy could not hide either.
That night, Murong Chong did not give up. He led his direct Xianbei troops and, like a pack of wolves finding their prey on the grassland, they chased after Liu Zhuang, hoping to see if there was an opportunity for a night attack. But when he saw the lights outside the Han army camp, which were even brighter than those inside the camp, he felt extremely overwhelmed. Before the fight even started, he already wanted to admit defeat and retreat.
Murong Chong gritted his teeth, thought about the horrific military exploits of his uncles and aunts, and the threat they posed to his throne, and mustered up his courage to try to launch another attack.
She first sent cavalry to clear the caltrops, but a large number of soldiers and horses fell directly into the pit, triggering the Han army's alarm. A barrage of crossbow arrows shot directly at them, causing heavy casualties among the Xianbei soldiers. Relying on the effect of his fire healing skills, Murong Chong went to the front line in person and led his soldiers and horses to put wooden boards on the trenches to clear the caltrops.
Murong Xianbei suffered heavy losses and finally passed the first layer of horse-trapping trenches and the second layer of caltrops. When he rushed to the third layer of antler barricades, he found that there was a layer of trench before the antler barricades!
This impenetrable defensive offensive completely crushed the morale of the Murong Xianbei. The soldiers and horses could not bear to do such earthwork under the volleys of crossbows from the Han army, and they all fled.
The advantage of cavalry has always been its extremely fast maneuvers, looking for the enemy's weaknesses, and then launching a thundering attack, breaking through the enemy's entire formation at the weak point in one go.
However, under the firepower of powerful crossbows and arrows, they had to attack head-on against a bunch of trenches, caltrops, and chevaux de frise that were specially designed to restrain cavalry...even if the Great Chanyu Tan Shihuai was resurrected, he would not command the cavalry to do such a suicidal task!
The next morning, the scouts reported that Murong Chong had finally given up chasing him and returned to Yinguan with his soldiers. Liu Zhuang breathed a sigh of relief and immediately led his men to continue evacuating carefully, taking this damn 50-kilometer mountain road.
In fact, at this moment, Murong Chui had already arrived with his troops. Seeing her niece dressed as a man in embarrassment, she closed her eyes and decided to ignore it.
She had once been the most capable princess of the Murong family and one of the strongest contenders for the throne. However, as Tan Shihuai's army was approaching, the two sides fought bloody battles for days without a clear winner, and finally had to marry each other and form an alliance. She married into the family alone and lost all her base in the Murong Xianbei family.
A daughter who is married off is like water spilled. What? You don’t think you can still inherit Murong’s family property even though you are married off?
But it doesn't matter. After all, I have become the wife of the Great Chanyu of the Xianbei. I, Murong Chui, can rebuild my power here with Tan Shihuai. According to the rules of the grassland, when the head of a family dies, the wife has great power, not to mention that she is the wife of the Great Chanyu. What's a small Murong? I am targeting the entire Xianbei!
But unfortunately, after Tan Shihuai's death, the entire Xianbei collapsed completely. Everyone went their own way. The Xianbei tribes that were forcibly bound together by Tan Shihuai's bravery also collapsed directly because of his death. His personal soldiers and private property were also inherited by Helian, the eldest son born to Tan Shihuai's other wife.
Naturally, the boy was very wary and hostile towards his father's other wife. The power he had accumulated after marrying into the family was no match for Tan Shihuai's personal guards. After several battles and infighting, the strength he had accumulated was once again wiped out.
There was no other way, Murong Chui had to go home in frustration, and then he found out that he had sacrificed everything for his family and Xianbei, but the power in his hands was reduced to zero twice, and the throne fell into the hands of his brother Murong Jun. He could only depend on him and acknowledge his brother as the new king of Murong Xianbei.
But it didn't matter, there was still hope. The inheritance system on the grassland was very chaotic, and it was very common for the sister to succeed the brother. Although his troops were killed in the vortex of the Xianbei civil strife, the prestige he had accumulated over the years of fighting with the Murong Xianbei and Tan Shihuai was still enormous. He still had a chance to inherit the Murong family business after his brother died.
Then, Murong Chui was surprised to find that during the years when she was away from the tribe, Murong Jun pointed out the feudal inheritance system - the system of brother-to-sister succession did not exist, and he would pass the throne to his own children!
Murong Chui was very angry. Why? I sacrificed everything for my family! When Tan Shihuai attacked, I was the one who married him! Among all my father's children, Murong Ke and I are the most brave and good at fighting! You, Murong Jun, are the second child in your family. After your elder brother died young, you are the eldest son, so you will inherit the throne.
But, the third son Murong Zun is a useless piece of shit. According to the seniority, after you die, the head of the family should at least choose one between the fourth son Murong Ke and the fifth son, Murong Chui, right? Why should your daughter Murong Chong be your heir? That little Phoenix ghost is young, impulsive, naive, and has no ability? Why should she rule the Murong Xianbei???
What's more, she was dressing as a man, which was totally inconsistent with the system of primogeniture in Han law!
Due to various factors, Murong Chui had almost no interest in assisting her niece in hunting down Liu Zhuang. She did not shoot an arrow at Murong Chong and let her die inexplicably in the chaos of the army because she was my niece.
At this moment, Murong Chui was lying lazily on the Hu bed, watching Liu Zhuang retreat calmly, too lazy to move at all - why should I help that kid to brush up his military exploits and resume so that she can smoothly inherit her brother's throne?
What's more, I said from the beginning that in order to respond to Xiutu Xiongnu's request for an alliance, the Murong tribe fought from spring plowing in March to the hot summer in August. Although the harvest was fruitful, the casualties were also heavy. This situation is useless.
Liu Zhuang didn't know that the factional struggle within the Murong Xianbei would be so intense that it would directly affect the foreign war. The expected bloody battle did not happen at all. There were only small-scale conflicts along the way. After he spent four days to walk this difficult mountain road and settled the people of Yinguan in Guangwu, his men had given up the pursuit.
Now, the tables have turned.
Before, if Liu Zhuang wanted to support Yinguan, he had to let the baggage train carry a large number of cattle and horses and cross the 50-kilometer Hengshan mountain road to deliver food and fodder to Yinguan to support Yanmen Prefect Guo Yu.
Along the way, only one stone of every ten stones of grain and grass could reach Yanmen, and the rest was consumed by the baggage troops on their way back.
Now, it was the Xianbei people's turn to cross the more than 50-kilometer Hengshan Mountain Road to plunder the Han people's farmland and pastures.
The terrible pressure of transporting grain, along with the contraction of the front line, has shifted from Liu Zhuang to the Xianbei people.
Chapter 197: Natural Born War Marshal
Not only that, Liu Zhuang rode Tuoba Yun and soared in the sky, carefully observing the 50-kilometer mountain pass road, and finally found the construction location of Yanmen Pass in the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
Yanmen Pass is the same as Yubi City. The terrain here is extremely dangerous. The reason why the Han Dynasty did not build a huge castle or fortress here is because there is no need. There was no unified power on the grassland during the Zhao and Qin dynasties. The border between the two countries was along the Yinshan Mountains and Dai County. Yanmen Pass is not the front line at all, but the inland area. No matter how dangerous the terrain is, there is no need to build a strong pass. Only some temporary defensive strongholds were built.
The Han Dynasty was even more powerful. Not only did it inherit the Yinshan Mountains of Zhao and Qin dynasties on its border, it even defeated the Xiongnu south of the desert and made them have no royal court. Unfortunately, the moon waxes and wanes, and with Tan Shihuai defeating the border army of the Han Dynasty, Ding Yuan withdrew from Yanmen County with the remnants of his troops. The Great Wall defense line of Yinshan collapsed across the board, and the entire Pingcheng Basin was indefensible, so it had to be abandoned.
It was not until the Northern and Southern Dynasties when the country was in chaos that this place became the main battlefield and Yanmen Pass officially began to expand.
The same goes for the Jade Wall. He knew in advance about the civil strife in Baibo and the several invasions of the Hu people to the south, so he built the Jade Wall in advance.
Therefore, he had to immediately build a Yanmen Pass to block all the Murong Xianbei in the Pingcheng Basin. If they wanted to go south, they had to first pass through a 50-kilometer mountain pass and then forcibly attack a towering and tall pass. It became extremely necessary to use the terrifying cost of transporting food to crush the Murong Xianbei alive and force them to retreat and prevent them from advancing south.
In this way, we can buy ourselves time to rebuild the northern defense network and make full preparations to retake the occupied areas in the future!
Liu Zhuang immediately began to collect corvée labor nearby. According to the old rules, the government provided food. He began to expand the old scattered passes of the Han Dynasty into the majestic Yanmen Pass. This majestic pass is located on Yanmen Mountain in the Hengshan Mountains, overlooking the Guangwu-Yinguan mountain pass, controlling the Central Plains in the south and the Moyuan in the north.
It has the momentum of one man guarding the pass and ten thousand men unable to open it. It strengthens the defense of Pingcheng from outside and secures the key to Taiyuan from inside. It reaches the three passes and is the throat of the whole Jin Dynasty.
With Jingxing, it was difficult for foreign enemies to invade Shanxi from the east.
With Yanmen Pass, it was difficult for foreign enemies to invade Shanxi from the north.
With the two super fortresses of Jingxing and Yanmen, Taiyuan and Hedong counties will become safe inland areas, providing a continuous supply of manpower and food for their rear base.
However, more than 100,000 Han people have already fallen at Yanmen Pass, and it is hard to say whether more Gao Huans will emerge to provide siege technology to Murong Xianbei.
In order to ensure that Yanmen Pass would not be breached, Liu Zhuang thought about it and used the city-building technology of the Song and Jin dynasties to give some advice to the craftsmen. They said, "Don't build traditional rammed earth city walls. I'll give you some advice on building this kind of composite city wall."
The craftsmen took the draft given by Liu Zhuang with doubts. After taking a look at the drawings, they exclaimed that it was amazing and immediately began to try it. This kind of city wall is composite, with the outermost layer being hard stone, the inner layer being rammed earth, and the innermost being soft mud and sand.
This kind of city wall is specially designed to resist catapults. Trebuchets can only smash the outermost layer of stone city wall and destroy the second layer of rammed earth. They will then sink into the inner layer of sticky mud and sand, and all impact force will be absorbed by the soft mud and sand.
Therefore, the huge stone used to destroy the city wall was stuck in the mud and sand and became a part of the wall. The more stones you smash, the thicker the composite wall will be, which is the natural nemesis of the catapult.
As for Murong Xianbei not going through Yanmen Pass but taking the road from Loufan to Fenyang...
Well, let's put it this way. From Loufan to Fenyang, there is a super long canyon about 200 kilometers long. Moreover, this super long canyon was washed out by the Fen River and Luoshui River. There is almost no flat land between the two mountains. The Han people relied entirely on boats to travel this section of the road. It's okay for a small-scale reconnaissance force, but a large army? Not to mention cavalry, even infantry can't be deployed in this canyon with mountains and rivers.
Unless these Xianbei troops built hundreds of warships overnight and made the men living on the grassland instantly familiar with naval warfare, there was no need to worry about the safety of Fenyang at all and he could just send troops to garrison there as usual.
During the construction of Yanmen, Murong Xianbei also sent soldiers to harass, but after harassing once or twice, they found that the main force of the Han army had not withdrawn and had been stationed near Yanmen on high alert. They fought twice tentatively, but withdrew when they saw there was no hope.
After trying twice, Murong Jun, who was anxious to improve his daughter's military record and make her surpass the achievements of several of his aunts, was surprised to find that after capturing Yinguan, no one was willing to go south to plunder. The Xianbei troops all said they would not go. "No matter how much you give me, my king, I will not go!"
I have to run 50 kilometers of difficult mountain roads to reach the Han army. I am exhausted before the battle, and I have to run another 50 kilometers of mountain roads on the way back! I have to run 100 kilometers back and forth on the bumpy and steep mountain roads, and be shot at by the Han army who are ready for battle? When I got home, I saw that the food and grass consumed along the way were astronomical.
Damn it, I can't even grab a grain of food, and I have to suffer this old punishment, and even pay for food. Whoever wants to do this harassment mission can do it! Anyway, I'm not going!
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In this way, Liuzhuang and the Murong tribe occupied the north and south respectively with the Hengshan Mountains as the boundary, and temporarily settled down. Liuzhuang was temporarily unable to counterattack, and the Murong Xianbei was temporarily unable to move south.
On the other side, Guo Huai took charge of the overall situation and led Lu Bu, Zhang He, Yuwen Tai, and Xu Huang to attack Jingxing in one go!
Guo Huai's dragon blood talent is of a magical type, which is very simple but also very powerful.
[Dragon Blood Talent·Heavenly Question]: Add [Fourth Ring Psionic Power·Communication] to your spell-like spells, with unlimited use per day.
This communication technique is nothing special. It is similar to a long-distance psychic phone call. As long as Guo Huai marks a target, no matter how far apart the two are, they can use this spell to communicate with each other through telepathy for up to ten minutes.
Ignores distance and has no cost.
When Guo Huai was just an ordinary general and military supervisor, her magic was of no use at all. At most, she could make a psychic call to her parents when she missed home.
However, when she was promoted by Liu Zhuang to be a commander-in-chief, the use of this spell was simply incredible.
