At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Everything depends on prestige and strength. Hu people really only look at strength, and kindness is the foil of strength.

The more vicious you are, the more vicious you fight, the more people you kill, the more you can get their services. Isn't that what those Karasuma Xianbei people in the Changshui Cavalry Team are like?

But now, he has been serving as Captain Go Karasuma for several months, and the tribes under his jurisdiction have not done much, and no tribe has come to take the initiative to contact him, which is obviously contempt for him.

For this kind of contempt, it is necessary to use a steel knife to make them pay attention.

Helian, Helian, pride has underestimated the enemy.

This is good news.

Exactly, sir, I am so sad because of the lack of horses, you can send it over to court death, and I will satisfy you.

In late February, the intelligence collectors got the news through various channels that the Xianbei people in Saibei were preparing rations to gather knights, and Guo Peng knew that these guys were coming.

And he also heard the news, saying that Helian planned to give Guo Peng a slap in the face and show him some color.

So Guo Peng immediately ordered the Karasuma camp to go out of the fortress to start field exercises, cross the Great Wall and gallop on the grassland to become familiar with the battlefield.

The clan members were greatly surprised when they heard about it, and immediately dispatched [-] cavalry and [-] infantry that could be assembled quickly to Ning County to support Guo Peng. The Karasuma cavalry was recruited to prepare for the battle, and all the prefectures were ordered to enter a state of preparation immediately.

All the counties immediately became tense, and all entered a state of combat readiness. They began to reinforce the city, prepare weapons for defending the city, and prepare for battle.

Once the Xianbei break through the Great Wall, they will start to defend the city.

At the beginning of March, the news was clear, and there was no need to doubt that Helian had already led his troops to take Shanggu County.

Helian brought [-] cavalry from the central Xianbei to show Guo Peng some color.

After careful preparation, Guo Peng informed the sect members, and without waiting for his news, he led two thousand infantry, three thousand cavalry and a large number of chariots, following the direction Helian came.

Crossing the Great Wall and facing Helian head-on, Guo Peng is going to confront Helian head-on.

Five thousand to ten thousand, the opponents are all cavalry, Guo Peng not only has no advantage, but also all disadvantages.

But Guo Peng is not looking for a dead end, he has his own way.

Before taking office, Guo Peng thought of many ways when considering how to use inferior troops to counter the superior troops of the northern nomadic cavalry.

The Xiongnu and Wuwan people of the Xianbei were not infantry, but cavalry. Unlike the Yellow Turbans, they could fight very well, and they did not have any advantage.

The cavalry he can command together will not exceed [-], and the mobile force is far inferior to the Xianbei leaders and companies.

However, at this time, the biggest threat of the nomadic cavalry to the Han army was not rushing, but cavalry and shooting.

In this era, the formed stirrup saddle has not yet appeared, and the amount of iron and bronze mastered by nomads is not large, so it is impossible to mass-produce weapons that can be used for frontal confrontation in horse warfare.

According to archaeological excavations, the nomadic cavalry of this era had only melee weapons such as short swords, short swords and short spears, except for bows and crossbows, and there were no symbolic weapons such as the so-called machetes.

Compared with the Han army's spears, spears, and knives, it has a great disadvantage in length, and its armor is far inferior to the Han army, so it cannot gain an advantage in a head-to-head confrontation with the Han army.

Therefore, when the Han army is arrogant, one can fight five, which is the so-called one Han as five Hus.

The only thing they could threaten the Han army was riding and shooting.

There is no doubt that riding and archery takes a lot of effort to practice.

Cavalry shooting is also much more difficult than riding a horse and wielding a sword or charging with a spear on a horse.

At this time, the Han army had an advantage in weapons and a disadvantage in the number of cavalry and the skills of cavalry and archery, so it was very helpless to encounter cavalry and archery.

If you can't rush to catch up with others, you won't be able to hit them, but they turn around and shoot an arrow to their side, but they can't escape at all.

The nomadic cavalry did not confront the Han army head-on, but chose to play cavalry and archery with the Han army.

Its basic tactics are to use cavalry to shoot down the Han army, and then use its own short weapons to chase and kill the chaotic Han army that lost the army.

When the Han army formed an army to fight against each other, the nomadic cavalry did not need and did not dare to approach, so they went around in circles to play cavalry and archery against the Han army bowmen to see who's arrows were used up first. That's why Li Ling can use five thousand The reason why the infantry fought against the Huns' [-] cavalry and killed them in large numbers.

The Han army's arrows were exhausted first and then it was over. The army collapsed and died horribly.

The nomadic cavalry ran out of arrows, patted their butt and left. If the Han army had more cavalry, they would be able to chase for a while, but if there were fewer cavalry, they would be powerless.

In most periods, the cavalry of the Han army was relatively small, so the nomadic cavalry was very dominant in this period.

Guo Peng has no system and no superpower.

All he has is an understanding of the future generations and an insight beyond a thousand years. This is his only advantage over his opponents, and nothing else can form a crushing state.

So he has to find a way to deal with the nomadic cavalry from his own advantages.

Recruiting cavalry and training troops is not a good method. It takes several years to recruit and train soldiers to develop usable elite soldiers. The Eastern Han government did not have the ability to mobilize resources to form cavalry during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

Then there is only one way to go.

Is there any tricky way?

A few months ago, a few days after arriving in Ning County, Guo Peng thought about it and suddenly thought of a good solution.

"Slaked charcoal and sulfur? What is this for?"

Guo Peng told Cheng Li about this. Cheng Li felt strange and asked Guo Peng what he wanted to do.

"Don't ask Zhongde what to do, can you get these things?"

"Of course it can. Pulpstone and sulfur are medicinal materials, and charcoal is naturally not difficult. If Youzhou doesn't have it, Jizhou must have it, but what's the use of these things?"

Guo Peng still didn't say anything, and asked Cheng Li with a mysterious face to mobilize a hundred sentinel knights under him to go to various places to buy and collect enough hydrazine and sulfur.

On the other hand, Ning County has a large number of blacksmiths responsible for making weapons.

Guo Peng recruited more than a dozen old blacksmiths and asked them to build thin iron boxes similar to bamboo knots for themselves. It doesn't need to be very standardized, just make a batch to try.

The thin iron box is being made here, and the hydrazine, sulfur and charcoal are in place there. Guo Peng personally took his trusted family soldiers to the secret base on the outskirts of the city to make the gunpowder ratio.

According to the mass ratio of 15.00% sulfur, 70.00% charcoal and [-]% hydrated stone, Guo Peng led people to make a batch of rough primitive gunpowder, made a pile, lit it with fire, and looked at the violently burning gunpowder. Guo Peng nodded in satisfaction.

I don't need the extra stuff. He didn't plan to make any artillery or something. That's not realistic. He also doesn't need lethal gunpowder weapons. Neither matter.

What Guo Peng wanted to get out was a simple thunder that could make a huge noise.

Chapter 97 This battle must be won

Guo Peng knew that making gunpowder now doesn't make much sense.

Without supporting steel production capacity and forging technology, gunpowder does not have much actual lethality to boast about.

But at this moment, what he really needs is not the lethality of gunpowder, but the sound and noise produced by the explosion of gunpowder.

Horses are animals and will be frightened. Humans are animals and will also be frightened. A sudden violent explosion that they have never seen before is happening around them, and a violent sound is ringing around them. How will they react?

However, this requires extremely sophisticated calculations and training preparations to implement.

The opponents were light cavalry soldiers who were good at cavalry and archery. They would use cavalry and archery to attack the Han army, which was not as easy to deal with as the Yellow Turbans.

Although the core of the tactics has been prepared, how to use gunpowder to achieve the final victory obviously still needs a lot of time to prepare.

Zhentianlei's thin iron shell and gunpowder are ready, but there is still a lack of leads. No one else can find the lead. Guo Peng really has a batch of paper he made by himself.

There are not many, but it is enough to save a little.

Cut the paper into long strips, dip a stick with calcite powder, shake it, and the calcite falls on the paper strip into a long strip, then directly knead the paper into a thin strip, then stain the rice pulp with your hands, stroke it, and then dry it. It is the simplest lead.

Everything was ready, Guo Peng found an uninhabited valley west of Ning County and started the experiment.

Thirty thunderbolts were built in the first batch. Guo Peng used these thirty thunderbolts to test the effect of the explosion, the sound, the burning speed of the lead wire, and the success rate of the explosion.

The first test began in January, and three more tests were carried out in February. By the time we heard the news that Helian was going south in March, seven tests had been completed. Shoot out with a bow to achieve long-range attacks.

Anyway, Cheng Li never thought that Guo Peng was actually making this new type of weapon. After seeing it with his own eyes and hearing it, he was greatly surprised and asked Guo Peng why.

Guo Peng made up an excuse at random, and then explained his tactical ideas to Cheng Li. Cheng Li did not doubt that he had it, and said that with such a weapon, he would have a chance of winning this battle.

The nomads fight all by bravery. Once they are scattered, they are like the rabble. When encountering things they cannot understand, they will think about ghosts and gods.

At that time, if some rumors are spread, the Xianbei Xiongnu and Karasuma people who do not know the truth will be scared to fight against Guo Peng.

Cheng Li participated in the design of Zhentianlei's tactics, and planned the essentials of use for Guo Peng in detail. The two also calculated some distances, explosion time and counterattack points together.

The main force of the Han army maintained a full cavalry lineup. The two thousand infantry troops were responsible for forming the formation. They also carried a large number of bows and crossbows. Guns are facing each other.

Guo Peng put on black armor, and mobilized fifty of the most powerful soldiers to also be equipped with black armor to form a stormtrooper.

This is his own battle of prestige. If he wins this battle, it will be much more convenient to do things in the future.

This battle must be won!

On March [-]th, all the sentries sent by Guo Peng to search for the enemy rushed back and reported the movements of the cavalry under the Helian Company to Guo Peng.

At the same time, Helian, the leader of Xianbei, also learned that Guo Peng led his army out of the fort and took the initiative to fight. The big and small generals laughed in unison.

"There is no one left in Han! They actually pulled out a boy who doesn't know how to fight. Wouldn't these 5000 people be all boys? Hahahaha!"

Another burst of laughter.

After laughing, Helian's face was full of bloodthirsty desire.

"Kill all these five thousand Han Chinese, and then loot them once!"

Helian's words aroused widespread approval from the generals around him.

In fact, Helian went south this time not only for looting, but also for his own purpose.

After his father's death, the three originally unified Xianbei ministries showed signs of different degrees of separation.

He didn't have his father's great feat of defeating the [-] cavalry of the Han Chinese, and no one wanted to listen to him sincerely, so he tried his best to stop it, but he couldn't stop this trend.

Although he is still the leader of the Xianbei, except for the Danhan Mountain Royal Court and some of the forces belonging to the central Xianbei, most people are in a state of not listening to the propaganda.

So Helian desperately needed to prove himself.

He spent a lot of time in order to stabilize his position before. Now that his position is stable, he needs greater military exploits to pursue greater power.

Military exploits are always the best way to gain prestige through combat exploits, and prestige directly brings power, this is what Tan Shihuai said.

At this time, He Lian was pleasantly surprised when he learned that the new Captain Hu Karasuma sent by the Han Dynasty was a 20-year-old young man, and felt that he had found the road to success.

Guo Peng, the stepping stone on his road to success, was destined to be killed by him in exchange for a prestige prop.

So when he learned that Guo Peng took the initiative to lead his troops to challenge him, Helian was very happy and felt that he finally didn't have to spend time attacking the city. The Han people's city was really troublesome, and it was too difficult to attack.

On the early morning of March [-], Guo Peng's forward Xiahou Yuan and Helian's forward had a confrontation.

At noon, Guo Peng saw from a distance a large black mass of cavalry on the skyline, lined up in a non-standard array and slowly approaching Guo Peng's direction.

Guo Peng looked around and saw that it was a vast prairie, so he decided to use it as a battlefield.

"Infantry formation! The cavalry blocks the horse's ears with cloth balls!"

Guo Peng ordered the cavalry to block the ears of the war horses with cloth, and then a group of cavalrymen dismounted and lined up behind the shield soldiers and spearmen with bows and crossbows.

The infantry lined up the carts brought by Guo Peng in a circle. The shield soldiers placed the shield on it, and the spearmen set up their spears behind them.

It didn't take long for a complete defensive counterattack to form.

"Is that Guo Peng's army?"

"Yes, their banner is Go Karasuma Colonel Guo."

Helian and his cronies around him confirmed the identity of the main general of the Han army opposite.

Helian looked at the place where the Han army formed the formation, and saw that the Han army had a complete lineup. There was a standard army formation consisting of carts and shield soldiers and spearmen. There were also cavalry in the army formation, but the number was too small. It's not enough to fight by myself, I feel very happy.

This boy probably doesn't know what cruelty is, and he's not very good at fighting. He dares to go out to the city to fight with fewer troops than himself. It seems that because he was not the one who was beaten and wiped out the whole army, he was bold.

In recent years, the Han army has not dared to go out of the city to fight in the field.

Teach him what cruelty and war are.

Helian looked at the sky and said to the people around him, "Let's end it as soon as possible. Tonight, we can live in the Han people's city for the night!"

The cronies around him were very excited.

Chapter 98 If I can call the shots

The Xianbei people plan to live an ecstasy life in the Han people's city tonight.