Chapter 106: Clever Crossing the Wei River

The setting sun dyed the sky a bright orange-red color. The clouds in the distance were rows, and against the setting sun, it seemed like a ball of rolling flames, floating slowly with the breeze.

A trace of gloom slowly appeared on the edge of the east sky, and slowly spread westward. As dusk gradually passed, the battlefield also tended to calm down.

After Shi Yong's death, the Jie people attacked for more than an hour, and the news of Shi Yong's death gradually spread among the Jie army.

However, unlike the Xiongnu and Xianbei, the composition of the Jie army is relatively loose, and Shi Yong was originally just the leader of a medium-sized tribe among the Jie people, and did not play a significant role in the clan like Ke Bineng, Bu Dugen or Liu Bao. The Jie people did not have any sense of belonging to the general Shi Yong, so Shi Yong's death did not have a fatal impact on the attack of the Jie army.

When A Dou went around and returned to the military formation, he realized that the attacks of the Jie people were still like a tide, one after another. If it weren't for the incompetence of the vine armor and the Zhuge crossbow, the front line might have been gradually torn apart by the Jie people.

However, as time went by, the Jie people also found that the Han army's vine armored soldiers were all like monsters, and they were invulnerable to swords and guns. Except for a few unlucky vine armored soldiers who were trampled to death on the chaotic battlefield, the Shu army basically had no casualties.

The Jie people finally retreated, and the Han people were invulnerable to the enemy's weapons. If they continue to fight like this, the Jie people will only waste their troops. Therefore, the Jie people chose to temporarily withdraw their troops if they could not conquer for a long time. However, even so, the Jie people still left more than 20,000 corpses, and more than 10,000 were injured.

The weather is getting hotter, which will be a big test for these injured Jie people who have suffered external injuries. There are many germs in summer and the wounds are more likely to be infected. According to the poor medical level of Jie people, these injured soldiers will lose at least one quarter of their lives.

The Jie people retreated, and Adou immediately ordered people to clean the battlefield and count the results of the battle.

On the battlefield, the corpses of the Jie people's cavalry and horses were everywhere, especially after entering the range of Zhuge Crossbow, they could see the corpses of the Jie people without taking a single step. From time to time, the two Jie people who were not dead would moan a little, and the Shu army would walk up without hesitation and make up for it.

Zhang Yi came over with the result after counting, and Adou immediately asked, "What is the loss?"

"Reporting to the Crown Prince, it is estimated that less than 100 people were trampled to death in the chaos, and more than 500 people were broken."

Adou nodded and exchanged more than 20,000 lives for more than 100 people to die in battle and injured more than 500 people. This should definitely be a big victory.

"It's just that our battle consumed nearly 500,000 arrows." Zhang Yi continued.

"So much?" A Dou was shocked. A Dou also knew that Zhuge Crossbow consumed arrows very strongly, but he did not expect it to be so powerful.

When Zhuge Liang borrowed arrows from a straw boat, Cao's army shot at most 200,000 arrows in two hours. Now, in two hours, nearly 500,000 arrows were consumed!

Zhuge's crossbow has one crossbow and ten arrows. In addition to the time of pulling strings and laying arrows, the firing rate is three times faster than that of ordinary bows and arrows.

If you calculate the losses of the Jie people, an average of twenty arrows cannot kill an enemy, but the shooting rate is already low. At such a long distance, the chance of being able to hit the vital points is even lower. Moreover, the Jie people will also use weapons to block it. It is normal for 500,000 arrows to create such an effect.

At this time, Adou finally understood why the Qin army would bring hundreds of cars of arrows every time they went to war. Arrows could not withstand consumption at all. In this way, Zhou Yu asked Zhuge Liang to create 100,000 arrows, which was somewhat petty.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince, there is one more thing." Zhang Yi continued with a bitter face: "Those Yuanrong crossbows have broken a lot."

"How much is it broken?" A Dou asked hurriedly.

"There are more than 1,500 people who can no longer use it."

"More than 1,500? How could there be so many?" Adou was really shocked this time. He shot more than 1,500 Zhuge crossbows in one battle, which was equivalent to a reduction of nearly one-third of his combat power. This number was a major loss for the Shu army.

A little helplessness arose in Adou's heart. It is normal for the crossbow to fail due to the use of too fast frequency in the battle, but the failure rate of nearly one-third is too high. Why is the Zhuge crossbow designed by Zhuge Liang so unbearable? One-third of it was broken in a big battle? This Zhuge crossbow is too practical!

After thinking about it carefully, A Dou immediately realized that at this time in history, the Zhuge crossbow should not have appeared. If Zhuge Liang did not take out the Zhuge crossbow, there must be a big problem of stability. Then decades later, Zhuge Liang slowly solved this problem and designed a more powerful and durable Zhuge crossbow. Therefore, the Zhuge crossbow used by A Dou is at most a semi-finished product, so naturally it is not strong enough.

"How many more can be repaired and used?" A Dou asked hurriedly.

"If the crossbow string is broken, it can be repaired, but if the parts are broken, none of them can be repaired well. Moreover, our soldiers are all from barbarians. Those clumsy guys are okay to do rough work, so they can repair things... hey, it seems that special craftsmen still need to be repaired." Zhang Yi replied.

"If you can't repair it, forget it. Keep it well and find the Prime Minister to repair it later. But you will send someone to collect all the arrows tomorrow morning." Adou immediately ordered.

The arrows of Zhuge Crossbow are specially made. Each arrow is eight inches long and one minute long or one minute shorter. Moreover, the Zhuge Crossbow consumes very strong arrows, and the Shu army itself does not have the ability to create arrows, so they must recover the arrows immediately in preparation for next use.

Most of the arrows shot out by the Shu army were shot empty and were all inserted into the ground, but the number was too large. The Shu army took a morning to pack up all the arrows. After recycling, there were only 300,000 arrows that could continue to be used.

Zhang Yi hurriedly broke into the central army's tent. Before he could breathe, he spoke, "Your Highness, the prince, come to report to the horse. A large number of Hu people came to the east, and it was less than two hours away from here."

"How many enemies are there?"

Zhang Yi shook his head: "A lot, very many, there is no margin at all. But judging from the banner, Ke Bineng, Bu Dugen and Liu Bao are all here!"

"It seems that the Hu people besieging Chang'an came out in full swing." Adou sighed slightly.

The place where the Jie people fought was only more than 100 miles away from Chang'an, and less than 200 miles away. Adou did not expect that the Hu people would not be discovered by the Hu army in Chang'an, but he did not expect that the Hu people would come with all their strength.

Although the vine armored soldiers were invulnerable to swords and guns, hundreds of thousands of Hu people could kill all the Shu army even if they were consumed, so Adou decisively chose to retreat northward.

More than an hour after the Shu army, the vanguard of the Xianbei tribe arrived here.

When marching and fighting, the more people, the slower the marching speed, so the main force of the Hu people is not fast. On the contrary, the speed of the vanguard is much faster, so it took only one hour to arrive.

Looking at the corpses of Jie people all over the ground, there were still arrows scattered everywhere, and carefully checked the wounds on the Jie people and the wet blood on the ground. The Xianbei people immediately understood that a great battle had just started here not long ago.

More than 20,000 corpses of Jie people, plus the corpses of war horses, are so shocking to put them together! What surprised the Xianbei people even more was that no Han corpse was found!

Could it be that the Jie people were defeated? The scene in front of us immediately reminded the Xianbei generals who led the troops of the army. The ability of the Han people to defeat the Jie people shows that the strength of the Han people is very strong. At least because of this vanguard, the vanguard is not an opponent of the Han people. So the Xianbei general just sent people everywhere to investigate whether there were any traces left when the Han people retreated, and did not dare to rashly pursue A Dou.

Another hour passed, Ke Bi Neng led the army to come here too.

The smell of blood floating in the air made Kebi feel a little bad. Then, when Kebi could see the corpses of Jie people all over the ground, he was also shocked. Kebi could secretly estimate that there were at least 15,000 to 20,000 corpses, and all of them were from Jie people. In such a short time, the Jie people lost 15,000 people, and the tragic situation of the battle can be imagined.

"Shanyu, look, there are all the corpses of Jie people here, why are there no corpses of Han people? Could it be that all the corpses of Han people have been transported away?" Liu Bao asked.

Ke Bineng shook his head: "Something is wrong. The Jie people have lost so many people, so the Han people must have suffered a large number of losses. It is estimated that the Han people have lost at least 20,000 people. Judging from the traces left by the Han people's camp, the Han people should have only been gone for a short time. In such a short time, it is absolutely impossible for the Han people to transport 20,000 bodies away."

"But there is not even a Han corpse here. Could it be that it was cremated on the spot?" Liu Bao murmured.

A Xianbei general next to him interrupted quickly, "Zuo Xianwang, this should not be the case. We have checked the neighborhood and there is no trace of cremation at all."

"That's buried!"

"It is unlikely that no new soil was found nearby."

"Damn it, did it disappear out of thin air?" The more Ke Bi Neng thought about it, the more incredible it became.

Bu Dugen beside him curled his lips and said, "Hmph, maybe one of the Han people is not dead, so he did not leave any corpses."

"This is impossible!" Ke Bineng and Liu Bao said at the same time.

"What's impossible? The Han people are full of tricks, and maybe some tricks are used." Bu Dugen continued.

"Use strategy? Bu Dugen. You see this is a plain. You can see the horizon at first glance. What strategy can the Han people use! Moreover, the Jie people died of external injuries, and their wounds were hidden in front, so they should have been killed in frontal battles."

"Hmph..." Bu Dugen snorted coldly. Without words, what Kebi could say was very reasonable, and Bu Dugen had no room for refutation.

Ke Bineng frowned slightly and asked, "Which direction did the Han people run?"

"When returning to the Shanyu, judging from the traces of the Han people's withdrawal, they ran away to the north." The general next to Kebineng answered immediately.

"To the north? To the north is the Wei River! Why did the Han people run there?" Ke Bineng said to himself.

"Maybe the Han people were preparing to cross the Wei River to escape. As long as the Han people cross the Wei River, the Wei River is now abundant. It is not that winter. Now our cavalry has no way to cross the Wei River, so as long as the Han army crosses the Wei River, we will not be able to catch up with it." Liu Bao replied.

Pang Tong initially sank all the ships on the Wei River, making it impossible for the Hu people to cross the river. Later, the Hu people waited until after the Mid-Autumn Festival. At that time, the Wei River was very low, and some places even dried up. Horses could find places with shallow rivers to successfully cross the Wei River. Now that summer has entered, the Wei River has gradually become abundant. Without ships, the Hu people and cavalry could not cross the river.

After hearing what Liu Bao said, Bu Dugen suddenly laughed, and there was a bone of mockery in his laughter. Liu Bao naturally heard that there was another smell in Bu Dugen's laughter, and immediately said furiously: "Bu Dugen, why are you laughing at?"

"What are you laughing at? Of course I laugh at you! The Han people crossed the Wei River... It's ridiculous... Hahaha... What did the Han people use to cross the Wei River? There are not many boats on the Wei River now, and there are so many Han soldiers. How can they pass by? Can't they all swim? Do you think the Han people all have such good water properties?"

Both the Xianbei and the Huns grew up on horseback since childhood. Basically, everyone is a landslide and cannot enter the water. Now there are not many ships on the Wei River, which is not enough to transport the army. Of course, the Wei River can also swim. However, in summer, the Wei River flows rapidly, has a large amount of water, and has a wide river surface. Unless people with particularly good water properties can swim, it is difficult for ordinary people with water properties to swim through the Wei River.

"Okay, don't make a noise." Ke Bineng's face darkened, and then said, "No matter why the Han people ran away to the north, let's chase after them. If those Han people cannot cross the river, it happens that the Han people's burial place by the Weishui River!"

At the same time, Adou also arrived at the Weishui River.

As the largest tributary of the Yellow River, the Wei River also has similar characteristics to the Yellow River, that is, the on-ground river.

In summary, the terrain of the Wei River is higher than the main stream of the Yellow River. If the Wei River water level is lower, the Yellow River water will flow into the Wei River. Moreover, in summer, the Wei River flow rate is no worse than that of the Yellow River. It is not easy to swim over the turbulent river water.

Although Pang Tong sank the ships on the Wei River, there were always a few fish that had missed the net, and the Shu army could also make rafts nearby. However, these were not enough to support the 30,000 troops crossing the river. The ships and rafts were just helping to transport some supplies.

If it were ordinary soldiers, they would probably be trapped by the Weishui River, but the vine armor soldiers under A Dou were different. You should know that in addition to being invulnerable to swords and guns, there is another characteristic, that is, the Yu River is not sinking, and if the main and deputy vine armor is tied and placed in the river, it can even be used as a boat.
Chapter completed!