Daqin Engineering Corps

Looking from a distance, one could see the Yuezhi cavalry in chaos under the bonfire.

Although I couldn't see anything, there were running figures everywhere, the fire flickered on and off, and there were a few shouts and neighing from time to time.

The Yuezhi people seemed to want to fight in formation.

This was expected by Shen Bing.

Even though Yuezhi had planned to fight and run from the very beginning, he still had to resist for a while when the camp was already set up.

The reason is simple, the Yuezhi army also needs rations.

It's just that the Yuezhi's military rations are different from those of the Qin Army. Their military rations are the sheep that accompany the army.

When camping, they need to gather the sheep together and surround them with wooden stakes to prevent them from escaping... In fact, they lay a few stakes around the sheep, and then connect the stakes with a few hemp ropes.

So when they were suddenly attacked by the Qin army at this time, they had to buy some time to drive the sheep out.

What's more, Yuezhi is still in an unknown state...

Although the sounding arrows had given him a warning, the sounding arrows only meant "enemies are coming to attack", and the Yuezhi people were not sure whether it was a small group of enemies or a large number of enemies.

After all, the Yuezhi is considered a big country, so it is impossible to face a small group of enemies' tentative attacks and run away in fright at the first moment!

Therefore, this gave Qin Jun the opportunity to approach them.

Qin Jun was still walking step by step, his footsteps were neat and steady, holding the crossbow tightly in his hand, looking towards Yuezhi with a chilling murderous look in his eyes...

Chapter 396 The Flock

"Let go!" Following Li Yan's order, tens of thousands of Qin soldiers released crossbow arrows in the direction of Yuezhi.

The dense crossbow arrows flew towards the Yuezhi cavalry with a sound of piercing the air.

The Yuezhi cavalry raised their leather shields one after another, but it was of no avail... In the darkness, they didn't know where the crossbow arrows were coming from, so they could only roughly cover their vital parts.

The crossbow bolts hit their stomachs, legs, and shoulders from every hole like locusts that penetrate everywhere...

For a while, the Yuezhi cavalry screamed, and the wounded horse threw the knight to the ground and ran away desperately under the pain.

But Qiu shouted and ordered the soldiers to stabilize their formation... At this time, he had realized that the Qin army was not attacking by a small group of troops but a large-scale counterattack, but he had to stabilize for a while.

It's not that he is reluctant to part with those cattle and sheep.

In fact, Qiu at this time already knew that the cattle and sheep brought with the army could not be kept.

If the Qin army counterattacks in an all-round way, it will not stop easily. If the Yuezhi army is still driving the cattle and sheep to retreat at this time, wouldn't it be suicide?

At this time, Qiu just wanted to stabilize the formation because the retreat required batches of withdrawals and he could not act recklessly.

Retreating is no better than attacking, especially when the road behind is not spacious enough. A brain-brained retreat will only turn into a rout in the end.

But Qiu soon realized that his little wish soon turned into an extravagant wish.

I saw some fire points lit up in the direction of the Qin army, and after a burst of noise, dozens of fireballs soared into the sky and went straight to the Yueshi camp...

These fireballs are sackcloth fireballs fired by the Qin army with trebuchets.

In fact, they can no longer be regarded as sackcloth fireballs, because they have been improved by Shen Bing... As mentioned before, there are three formulas for gunpowder: one is mainly for blasting, one is for releasing poisonous smoke, and the other is for setting fire.

At this time, the sackcloth fireball is not only covered with turpentine, but also wrapped with gunpowder added with dry lacquer, tung oil and other combustibles on the inner layer.

The reason why the gunpowder is wrapped in the inner layer is because the Qin army needs some time delay... If there is no time delay, it will hurt yourself if it burns so badly when it is ignited on the trebuchet.

Wrapped in the inner layer, there are about twenty breaths of time... In fact, it is more than one minute. In ancient times, there was no concept of "minutes", and the short-term calculation can only be called "one breath, one breath".

These twenty breaths are enough time for the Qin army to complete the ignition and launch it.

At the beginning, these "sackcloth fireballs" were still burning normally in the Yuezhi cavalry, and the Yuezhi cavalry didn't take them seriously.

After all, it was a fireball burning on the ground, and it didn't have much effect on the rider on the horse.

But soon they exploded violently like fireworks and shot sparks everywhere, scalding or igniting the surrounding riders immediately, and the nearby dry grass and tents that were not put away in time were also ignited.

With a wave of Shen Bing's hand, he understood, and with a yell, he led the cavalry out from the flank.

The cavalry of this era is not suitable for fighting at night, but it will be different if the enemy's camp is set ablaze.

This is actually a kind of step-riding coordination:

The infantry has a better line of sight and can become the observer of the cavalry to determine the target for them. After the target is determined, the "sacked fire bomb" is used to indicate the target, and then the cavalry will attack the place where there is fire...

Although the Qin army and the Pulei cavalry didn't even understand the language, Shen Bing could still find this special way to make them cooperate closely.

At the same time, the infantry of the Qin Army also advanced towards the Yuezhi Army while shooting arrows.

At this time, Qiu could no longer control the troops.

In fact, Qiu couldn't even control himself. He had heard about "thunderbolt fireball" from the Xiongnu and even experienced it... Before that, the Xiongnu sent a batch of "thunderbolt fireball" to Yuezhi.

Of course the Xiongnu had their intentions in sending the "thunderbolt fireball" to the Yuezhi.

Mao Dundan thought this way:

In the area of ​​the Western Regions, whoever is more powerful should be able to restrain the countries of the Western Regions.

So this should not be the time to hide and tease.

If the Yue family saw on the battlefield that the Qin army had "shocking thunder" but the Xiongnu did not... would they fall to the Qin army and even fight against the Xiongnu with the Qin army?

Then will the 36 countries in the Western Regions also fall to the Qin army along with Yuezhi?

Therefore, Maodun Shanyu sent a batch of Yuezhi, so that the Yuezhi could be mentally prepared to deal with the Qin army.The second is to show that the Qin army also has the Xiongnu, so as to consolidate the prestige of the Xiongnu in the Western Regions.

What's more, the Xiongnu only gave the Yueshi more than a hundred pieces of "Shocking Thunder" instead of the method and formula, so the Yueshi would just sit on the mountain and use one less, and the Xiongnu didn't need to worry that the Yueshi would use it to deal with the Xiongnu .It can be said that it is a success in one fell swoop.

However, the Xiongnu only knew the "shocking thunder" but did not learn how to make the "sackcloth fireball"... This is related to the fact that the cavalry of the Huns were not suitable for using trebuchets.

So Qin Jun played the "sackcloth fireball" at this time and received such a miraculous effect in the night battle, which made Qiu Jiu's heart burst into surprise:

"The Xiongnu only said that there is a 'shocking thunder', but the 'shocking thunder' does not burst into flames."

"And the Qin army not only has 'Shocking Thunder' but also this kind of thing that emits flames..."

"Then is the Qin army stronger than the Xiongnu?"

"If Qin's army is even stronger, did the Yue clan vote for the wrong person this time?"

Amid waves of doubt and fear, Qiu shouted:

"Withdraw troops, withdraw to Suzhou!"

Before he finished speaking, Qiu turned his horse's head and fled away with his personal guards.

In fact, Qiu Jiuqi couldn't be blamed for this, because he knew in his heart what the Yuezhi army was about to face... The army collapsed and crowded together, and even if they wanted to leave, they would not be able to leave.

Couldn't he be captured by the Qin army in the first battle like this?

After fleeing for a few miles, Qiu found that the situation was worse than expected, because the cattle and sheep had just been let go by the soldiers. At this time, the road was blocked by mountains and plains, and he moved slowly while calling, and occasionally stopped to eat. They only move when the soldiers call to drive them away.

The personal guards rushed to the front and chased Qiu, but made a way for Qiu.

But Qiu Jiu ordered the soldiers who drove the sheep as he advanced:

"Drive Yangjun to the side of the road, don't block the road!"

The soldiers responded and drove the flock according to the order.

Qiu Jue had a good idea.

Driving the sheep off the road allows the army behind to flee, or as many as possible.

However, there is always a gap between imagination and reality.

If there were not many cavalry troops fleeing from the Yuezhi, they might be able to escape along the road smoothly, but it was [-] Yuezhi troops, and they collapsed and fled and swarmed down.

In their panic, quite a few of them wanted to bypass both sides of the road, and galloped wildly... This frightened the sheep to run around, and blocked the road again after a while.

Chapter 397

Needless to say what happened next.

The cavalrymen of the Yuezhi retreated from horses to sheep to horses, and soon became a chaotic pile.

This made the Yuezhi cavalry have to get off their horses to drive them forward.

However, the Qin army soon came over from behind.

The first to arrive was the Pu Lei cavalry army led by Ji, they just shot arrows at a distance to create some disturbance... This is what Shen Bing had confessed, and they were not allowed to engage in close combat with the enemy.

The main reason for this order is that the number of Pu Lei cavalry is not large, only 3000.

Moreover, these 3000 people are good at riding and shooting, and it would be a waste to use them to rush into the enemy's line to hack and kill.

More importantly, for cavalry troops from the Western Regions like Pu Lei, if they suffered heavy casualties in just one battle, it would not only affect their morale, but also discourage the enthusiasm of other Western Region stragglers to vote.

No one in this world is a fool. If you vote for the Qin army and die in one battle, then what are the rewards and benefits?

But these people have to do without. Only by winning a few battles and rewarding them with merit can their morale be improved.

So it was just right for Shen Bing to do so.

For the Yuezhi cavalry, the most terrible thing was the Qin army's infantry.

The Qin army came all the way from afar, and at the same time, the trebuchets continued to throw sackcloth fireballs into the crowd... The night battle sackcloth fireballs were obviously much more useful than thunderbolt fireballs.

This series of blows immediately made the Yuezhi cavalry scream again and again, especially those who were ignited by the exploding sackcloth fireball screamed heart-piercingly while running around in the dark, and even hugged their comrades around them desperately. Others ignite.

Then, Qin Jun pressed up with his long spear and bronze sword.

The Yueshi cavalry, who were only good at riding and shooting, could not withstand the impact of the Qin army. The place where the two armies met was immediately covered in blood, and stumps and broken arms fell all over the ground like felled branches.

This made the Yuezhi cavalry desperately scramble for their lives, and countless people were accidentally injured or trampled to death under the crowd.

In the end, only more than 2 of the [-] people escaped, and the rest were either killed by the Qin army or dropped their weapons and surrendered.

In this battle alone, the Qin army captured more than [-] prisoners.

However, the battle did not end there.

But Qiu Jiu let out a sigh of relief after he escaped with the remnant soldiers for a certain distance.

He knew that the Qin army mainly had infantry marching slowly, and as long as they were out of contact with them, it would be considered safe, so that they could catch up with them, that is, the cavalry.

But Qiu Jiu was not worried about those cavalry troops, and the equipment they used was just bows and arrows.Qiu Jiu was worried about those Qin troops.

But at the same time, Qiu knew that the enemy's cavalry should not catch up, otherwise he would never have a chance to escape if they entangled him.

Then Qiu shouted:

"Hurry back to Suzhou and join the garrison in one place before making plans!"

After responding to the sound from left and right, they rode their horses all the way towards Suzhou.

If the cavalry walks at night in the Central Plains, they must be very careful, but in the flat areas such as the Hexi Corridor, the cavalry can move forward at a relatively fast speed even if they cannot see the ground clearly.

In fact, the cavalry don't need to see the ground clearly, they only need to see the direction of the road clearly.

However, the roads in the Hexi Corridor are made by horses coming and going, and the roads are easy to recognize under the moonlight without any grass.

However, the more he went west, the more he felt relieved. He only said that he had got rid of the pursuers in the rear, so he breathed a sigh of relief and took some jerky from his bosom to eat.

It was just the right time for the Qin army to attack in that battle, but Qiu was just about to let his subordinates roast a sheep and was about to enjoy it, but at this moment the warning gong sounded.

At this time, Qiu Jiu was starving and could only eat dried meat to satisfy his hunger.

However, just as Qiu Jiu was biting into a large piece of jerky, there was a sudden hiss, and Qiu Jiu fell to the ground with a muscle before he understood what was going on.

All the guards screamed in alarm and rushed up to rescue them, but they also fell to the ground one after another.

It turned out that Wang Ben and his party had tampered here.

Wang Ben led [-] Shenwu troops and [-] Xiangli troops to sneak in the mountains. After the Yuezhi army passed by, they came out from the mountains to dig horse pits and lay down horse ropes on the road and nearby.

In fact, it is mainly a trap.

Compared with tripping ropes, trapping horses has many advantages.

For example, a tripping rope requires cost, and its two ends must be fixed with spikes, and a piece of rope is also required.

Although the spikes and ropes are nothing, if there are too many, the loss will be quite large.