Three Kingdoms Eschatology

The arrows fired at the camp became more violent, but there seemed to be no reaction in the camp, and there was no screaming and wailing that Horsang wanted to hear.In fact, Liang Jun soldiers are now divided into two parts, one part uses large shields, scull shields, and grain bags as cover to avoid the opponent's arrow attacks.After a part of the battalion, they stepped up to transfer important supplies to the Viking ships.

Halthorne could have fired rockets now, and in this dry season, the opposing camp could easily catch fire.It's just that Horsang is still thinking about the huge military supplies of the other party.

"Report to Khan, our right-wing scouts found that some Liang troops were transferring supplies to the ship!" An Avenk commander rushed to report.After hearing this, Horsang rode his horse and ran to a mound on the flank without saying a word. On the top of the mound, he looked at the lake surface of the North Sea in the distance. Load supplies.Some ships even left the lake shore.

Horsang said to himself suspiciously: "You only have these dozens of small boats, is it still too late to transfer?" A trusted subordinate next to him immediately reminded him: "Qi Khan, my subordinates are very concerned about this. The North Sea is somewhat familiar. There is a small island on the sea not far away. They may be moving to this small island!"

Horsang became anxious when he heard this, and scolded: "You didn't tell me such important news!" The subordinate thought aggrievedly: "You didn't ask, I know what you think."

Horsang hurriedly ordered: "Pass on my military order, speed up the attack, and don't let the enemy slip under our noses."

The Avenk cavalry finally mobilized, divided into more than a dozen groups, and charged towards Liang Jun's camp from different directions.As they approached the fence outside the camp, the longbowmen on the shore of the lake fired heavy arrows.The distance between the longbowman and the front was nearly two hundred steps, so the opponent's bow and arrow could not reach the longbowman, but the longbowman's heavy arrows could reach the Avenk cavalry.

Amidst the screams and howls, the Avenk cavalrymen were shot off their horses one by one.A brave Avenk cavalryman was shot in the shoulder by an arrow, but he still bravely rushed to the fence, jumped on his horse, and tried to jump over the fence.

In the end, he only heard the mournful roar of the war horse, and he flew out, and then fell heavily from the air. A soldier from the Liang Army charged forward and pierced his body with a spear.His war-horse, disembowelled, hung from the sharpened log fence.

There was also an Avenk cavalryman who used the corpse of a war horse as a springboard to leap over the fence, but a heavy arrow shot into his head in midair.

More and more Avenk cavalry rushed in, but they either failed to jump over the fence, or were immediately killed by Liang Jun's infantry after jumping over the fence.

Chapter 357 Mammoth Cavalry

Horsang stood on the high hill, his eyes fixed on the battle situation.In his sight, an Avenk cavalryman was wounded by arrows, stepped on the dead horse, and jumped over the fence.

Suddenly, four or five infantrymen of the Liang Army rushed out in front. These infantrymen held big shields and stopped the five battles in front of the cavalry. Horsang sneered in his heart, how could these shields stop our cavalry?

But afterward, Horsang couldn't laugh anymore. Behind several large shields, he shot five flying spears and javelins, and no one could dodge them at such a short distance.The Avenk cavalryman was pierced by two flying spears, and the horse was also hit by three flying spears. Both the man and the horse fell to the ground, and under the action of inertia, they slid forward for more than two battles before stopping.

It was only at this time that Horsang realized that although the opponent's fence was short, it was difficult for him to conquer the opponent's camp with these inferior cavalry alone.Looking at the busy boats on the lake, he became more and more anxious, knowing that he had to use his trump card.He ordered loudly: "Pass my military order and let the mammoth cavalry go to battle!"

A horn sounded with a very special rhythm from Avenk's army formation.Then several behemoths appeared on the horizon.They are mammoths, or mammoths as they are called.

The appearance of mammoths is similar to their close relatives, elephants. The difference is that these mammoths are covered with thick hair, so they can live in cold regions. In addition, they are much taller than elephants. The shortest adult mammoth is as tall as a shoulder. , the tallest is even two stories high.Compared with elephants, their tusks are both slender and hard.

Horsang's tribe was just a small tribe before. By chance, a mammoth was discovered on the edge of the Black Forest in the northwest of the prairie, and some larvae were obtained, and the mammoth was successfully domesticated.These behemoths that can march and fight in the ice and snow have become their strategic weapons to dominate the North Sea ice sheet.

At this time, five giant mammoths were galloping towards the Liang army camp, and three Avenk soldiers were placed in the saddle on their backs. Liang Jun soldiers in the middle.

Pang Tong was shocked when he saw this scene. He had never seen such a huge beast in the Northern Territory before in any book.He hurriedly ordered the longbowmen to concentrate their arrows on these mammoths.

Big arrows shot at the mammoths one after another immediately, but they were covered with heavy armor made of animal skin and wood composite armor, and it was difficult for even heavy arrows to shoot through.In the sound of puff puff puff chiffon, the mammoth was hit by countless arrows and became like a huge hedgehog, but it didn't seem to have suffered any damage and continued to move forward quickly.

Seeing this situation, Pang Tong thought that this thing might be as afraid of fire as the elephants in the south, so he shouted anxiously: "Use fire, mount the ballista quickly, and snipe these monsters with explosive bombs!".

Before he could finish his words, a mammoth had arrived at the fence of the big camp, with its huge head lowered and swinging, picking it up with its long tusks.Then a section of the fence was torn down to pieces.

At this time, a fireball landed directly in front of the mammoth, and flames soared as high as they could reach.But when the mammoth saw the flames, it paused slightly, and then continued to rush forward.

When its huge body squeezed through the fence, it crushed a large section of the fence wall.When it walked in front of the flame, the embers had become only two feet high, and it crossed the small wall of fire without hesitation.

At the same time, the remaining four mammoths also approached the fence, opening four more gaps in the same way.Aiwenke's war cavalry divided into five strands, rushing towards the five gaps opened by the mammoth respectively.

Beads of sweat rolled down Pang Tong's face, and he shouted suddenly: "Shoot the arrow!" Several loud arrows with red tail smoke rushed into the air.Horsang muttered in his heart, don't you still have ambushes?

The sound of galloping horses came from the northwest again, and a large number of war cavalry appeared on the horizon of the northwest grassland, and their attack direction was exactly where Horsang was.Horsang was startled, and secretly said: "It is impossible for the main force of the enemy army to return so soon!".

Horsang didn't have time to think about it, he hurriedly ordered: "Let the cavalry turn around and intercept the enemy cavalry in the northwest!".A moment later, with the whining horn, all the Avenk war cavalry turned their horses and headed northwest.

The five mammoths were entangled with Liang Jun's infantry at this time.In the big camp, the mammoths rushed left and right, and the soldiers of the Liang army surrounding them also moved left and right, gathering and dispersing.

A soldier of the Liang Army had just avoided the impact of a mammoth, but was shot in the cheek by an arrow, and fell to the ground covered in blood, and was trampled into meatloaf by the rushing mammoth.The arrow turned out to be a cold arrow fired by an Avenk archer in the Mammoth Saddle.

Another mammoth turned its head around suddenly and swung its six-foot-long fangs. In an instant, two Liang army infantrymen were thrown to the ground, and their shields were also broken into several pieces.But at the same time, several flying spears pierced into the mammoth's huge body from the rear and side respectively.

Knowing what would happen to the five mammoths fighting alone, Halthorne immediately ordered the mammoths to be recalled.But in the end, only four mammoths withdrew back, and the other one had already been besieged by chaotic spears and javelins and turned into a hedgehog, and finally lost too much blood and fell to the ground.The three Avenk men on the back of the elephant were just getting up when they were stabbed with spears and guns by the Liang army soldiers who swarmed up.

To the northwest, the nearly thousand soldiers and the Avenk cavalry and deer chariot soldiers, whose strength was far greater than their own, fought for less than half an hour, and then dispersed in all directions amidst the sound of whistles.Ai Wenke's horse and deer cart were far slower than the opponent's. After chasing for a while, he gave up and returned to the position in front of Liang Jun's camp.

Horsang ordered another attack on Liang Jun's camp, but not long after the attack was launched, those Dingling men repeated their old tricks and attacked from the periphery again.Horsang finally understood that the thousand enemy cavalry who had just escaped from the siege were not going to report to Lv Bu, but were trying to delay their own offensive from the outside and transfer to the small island for the Liang army in the camp. To gain time.

Horsang rolled his eyes twice, and came up with another countermeasure. He divided his troops into two groups, one continued to attack the Liang army camp, and the other set up an ambush in the northwest direction.But this time, the nearly thousand and zero war cavalry never appeared again.

On the other side, under the continuous attack of Horthorn's deer carts, war horses and mammoths, the Avenk finally broke through the opponent's camp.But to Horsang's surprise, a raging fire broke out in the camp.

Several mammoths continued to rampage through the camp, advancing towards the shore of the lake.The Avenk cavalry followed behind, rushing into the tents one by one to search.

Pang Tong followed the last batch of Liang soldiers on the Viking ship, and when they were away from the shore of the North Sea lake, two mammoths also rushed to the shore, surrounded by a large number of Avenk war cavalry. Weird smell.A rocket was fired from the bow of the ship towards the shore, and that area suddenly turned into a sea of ​​flames...

Chapter 358 The Winter is Coming

The moment before Horsang's army rushed to the shore of the lake, Liang Jun in the camp was still urgently transferring supplies to dozens of Viking ships.But even if there is a small island two miles away, facing a mountain of supplies, it is impossible to transfer all of them away in just one hour.

When they were transporting a batch of explosive bombs, due to the rush of time, a basket of explosive bombs fell on the ground and was smashed to pieces.

Seeing this, Pang Tong acted accordingly and ordered everyone to smash all the explosive bombs left on the shore on the simple pier by the lake, and set up a flame trap.At the same time, people burned food and other materials that were too late to be removed on the spot.

At this time, several mammoths and hundreds of Avenk cavalry were engulfed in the sea of ​​flames, and tragic howls resounded through the heaven and earth.Although those mammoths are not as afraid of fire as their elephant cousins, it does not mean that they are immune to fire damage.

At this time, the leather armor and long hair on their bodies have been ignited.They roared and mourned, like a small volcano, rushing wildly among the crowd of Avenk's army, many people couldn't avoid it, either were pierced by their long fangs, or were trampled to death by them.

Seeing such a scene, Horsang stomped his feet angrily.He rode his horse into Liang Jun's camp and found that Liang Jun's supplies were not all transported away, but they were all caught in a sea of ​​fire. His hopes of capturing the enemy's supplies to supply him also fell through.He shouted hysterically: "Burn, burn all, burn this place to nothing!".

In fact, Pang Tong on board was in a bad mood at this time, and [-]% of the battalion's supplies were lost.For nearly [-] soldiers and horses, it will be difficult to maintain operations after such a loss.

……

At this time, Lu Bu's four thousand cavalry had marched for more than a hundred li to the southwest grassland.Lu Bu was always vigilant to prevent the Avenk man from telling lies and luring his army into a "trap". Therefore, during the march, the scouts kept frequent investigations on the front of the march.

However, during the 100-odd miles, they found nothing but a small Yakuk camp and seized hundreds of horned deer, cattle and horses.He immediately brought the Avenk man who had been captured before, and interrogated him again, but the other party laughed wildly,

This time Lu Bu knew that he had been duped. One of Lu Bu's personal guards put a knife on the Avenk man's neck and asked sharply, "What is your purpose in luring us here?".The other party didn't care about intimidation, and ignored Lu Bu at all.

The personal guard cut off the Avenk man's ear, and even though the blood flowed profusely, the man still kept sneering.Cutting off his fingers and palms, this person's expression became painful and grim, but he still kept yelling.

Lu Bu said in a cold voice, "But he's a tough one. I should have thought before that the people of Avenk are not afraid of death, but I was threatened to tell the truth. There must be deceit in it. Let me give you a good time now." As soon as the words were finished, Lu Bu pulled out his saber and pierced the man's heart, and he fell to the ground without saying a word.

Lu Bu was still puzzled, the Avenk people did not set up an ambush for him, and there was no dangerous place to set up an ambush on the way he came.Then why did they go to such lengths to lure themselves here?

It was not until the next day that Lu Bu returned to the Liang Army Camp at the northern end of the North Sea with [-] cavalry that he understood.

Lu Bu thought that the Avenk people might come to attack the camp in order to divert him away.But he believed that there were still enough soldiers in the camp, and with the strength of the Avenk people, it would be difficult to conquer the camp even if they had an absolute advantage in military strength.It's just that Lu Bu didn't know that the Avenk people had a "strategic weapon" called the mammoth.

After Pang Tong told Lv Bu the whole story, he kowtowed to Lv Bu and said, "Your subordinate fell in with the enemy's plan to divert the tiger away from the mountain, and then the enemy broke into the camp and lost countless supplies. This is Pang Tong's crime. Please follow the law punishment."

Lu Bu hurriedly helped Pang Tong up and said, "Shiyuan, don't say that. It's not your fault. It's because you underestimated the enemy's aggressive advance and didn't return to the camp in time, which led to this result. Shiyuan, get up quickly, we regret it now." It’s too late, let’s discuss carefully what to do next.”

The two and the generals in the army, including some leaders of the Dingling tribe, entered into accounts and discussed together.

Pang Tong was the first to say: "Now, it is less than a month before the beginning of autumn. Once the beginning of autumn, this place will enter the harsh winter season. Under the severe cold, it will be difficult for the army to move..."

Lu Bu interrupted him and asked, "Does Shi Yuan want to withdraw his troops?"

Pang Tong replied leisurely: "No. Since the enemy can gather heavy troops here to attack our camp, they must have a place to store supplies nearby, otherwise it will be difficult to supply tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. Moreover, the enemy It is composed of several tribes such as Avenk, Yakuk, and Saha, and they are scattered over thousands of miles. Within a month, they have no time to evacuate. Therefore, they must gather in that supply hoarding place to spend a long time winter."

Lu Bu said approvingly, "So that's how it is." But then, he shook his head and said, "There are endless grasslands and forests on the northern shore of the North Sea. Moreover, the Avenk people were born in fishing and hunting, and have strong anti-scout detection capabilities. Therefore, even if the police station There are scouts, and their hiding place, we can't find it in less than a month."

Pang Tong smiled strangely and said: "Pang Tong has a situation to report to Jiedu. Just when the enemy retreated, a certain party has sent more than ten routes of the most elite scouts to follow them. Even if they did not find the exact location of the opponent, as long as they know In general, if we dispatch a large number of scouts and use airships, it should not be difficult to find their lair."

Lu Bu said happily: "If they really have such a lair, and we find them, then we can complete our efforts in one battle!"

At this time, Toli reminded: "But Jiedu, it's about to enter the severe winter. We need to make up for the gap in our own food and supplies. In addition, we need to mobilize more sleds from the rear and the south bank of the North Sea as soon as possible." OK."

Lv Bu nodded approvingly and said: "Tuo Lidu reminded that someone will send a message to the south bank. But we don't have many ships, and it's impossible to deliver all the supplies we need on time with all our capacity. .”

Pang Tong made another suggestion from the side: "We can not rush to mobilize sleds and dogs. Instead, we should use boats to transport scarce supplies. After the weather enters winter, we can change these boats into sleds, and then use the mobilized Dogs and sleds haul more supplies and soldiers from the North Sea ice."

Tuo Lidu also added: "This place is close to the North Sea, we can also fish to alleviate the shortage of food and grass." The rest of the Beifu generals and tribal leaders also gave suggestions...

Chapter 359 The eve of the decisive battle

On the green grassland, a few healthy horses are galloping, a bald eagle is flying in the sky, and three silent mountain dogs are running ahead.At this glance, it was obvious that it was Liang Jun's scout troops.The three bulldogs stopped and sniffed around from time to time.They were following the trail of the retreating Halthorne army.

Centaurs and bald eagles in the sky also followed them.After all, even if the falcon can be overlooked from a high altitude, it is not as easy to use as these hounds with a keen sense of smell at a super long distance.

Suddenly, the bald eagle in the sky let out a howl, and circled in a certain position in the sky.This shows that the figure of the enemy has been found nearby.The five scouts immediately became alert and galloped towards that direction.

When they arrived at the location, they discovered that it was an open space surrounded by pine forests on three sides.There was no sign of the enemy in the clearing.A scout exclaimed: "Boss, have we been discovered and set an ambush on us?"

The leader of the scouts replied: "No, we followed the opponent deliberately from a distance with hounds. If the opponent's large army could find us, we should have been seen by us long ago. We won't wait until now. So even if the enemy finds us, It should also be a small group of troops after they broke up."

As soon as he finished speaking, the three dogs suddenly barked one after another and rushed towards the forest. "There are people in the forest! Follow me to kill them!" The leader of the scouts shouted loudly.

At this moment, three sharp arrows flew towards the open space, the leader lowered his head to dodge, and a sharp arrow flew past his head.There are dogs barking, dogs screaming and people screaming in the forest.The three scouts also took this opportunity to rush into the forest.

They saw three bulldogs fighting three Avenks.A mountain dog had been chopped into two pieces by a machete, an Avenk was bleeding profusely from his arm, and two other people were also bitten to death by fierce dogs.One of them kept stabbing the bulldog with a short knife.

The Avenk with a wounded arm slashed at the scouts again, and the three scouts cut and stabbed three times without saying a word, killing each other in the blink of an eye.Another Avenk had just stabbed the mountain dog that was biting him to death, and then he raised his dagger and rushed towards the scouts. At this time, the leader of the scouts also rushed into the forest, and cut off his head with a knife in his hand.

After the last Avenk got rid of the hounds, he ran to the depths of the forest. A scout had bent his bow and set an arrow, and quietly aimed at him. "Don't! Keep alive..." The leader of the scouts was about to stop him, but before he finished speaking, the arrow shot out quickly, hitting the back of the Avenk man.

The leader of the scouts ran over quickly, helped the Avenk man up, breathed his breath, he was utterly dead, and was so angry that he threw the body to the ground again.Two of the scouts' hounds died, and one was seriously injured. It was impossible to continue tracking the whereabouts of Horsang's army.

Several scouts had no choice but to give up, and left in a hurry after making detailed records of the incident location.When they returned to the camp on the north shore of the North Sea, five scouts also returned to the camp. Like them, these five scouts did not find the exact location of each other.

After synthesizing their information, Pang Tong drew several circles with the place where they were finally thrown off by the other party as the center and the approximate distance of the mountain dog's sense of smell as the radius, and found that these circles had a general intersection area.

Pang Tong drew a heavy circle on this area with a brush, and said to Lu Bu: "Jiedu, if there is not much error in the information reported by these scouts, and if there is indeed only one Halsang headquarters, then it should be in this area."

Lu Bu's face changed slightly, and he said with some doubts: "Shi Yuan, with the simple information of these scouts, you can roughly estimate the position of the enemy's camp by drawing a few circles?"

Pang Tong smiled and explained: "Don't worry, Jiedu, this technique was not created by Pang Tong alone, but learned in Zhuyang Academy. This is science." Then Pang Tong patiently explained the principle to Lu Bu.

Naturally, Lu Bu couldn't understand the mystery for a while, but he believed in Pang Tong, and even more in what was taught in Zhuyang Academy.Because of the Zhuyang workshop, the school did allow him to see things and knowledge that he had never heard of.

Lu Bu said: "Since we're here, immediately call the most elite scouts of the entire army to investigate here. Remember, don't try to scare the snake away. What I'm most worried about now is that they will slip away after discovering our intentions. Once they slip away It would be a waste of time and energy to wipe out the vast forests, seas, snowy plains and grasslands one by one."

Pang Tong, who was on the side, moved his lips a few times after hearing this, but finally he didn't say it.He wanted to say that even if the other party found out, it would be fine, because winter is coming soon...

Fifty scouts, one out of a hundred in the entire army, then divided into ten groups and quietly drove towards that area.Soon, they brought back information that there was indeed a huge Avenk camp, located at the foot of the mountains, where the black forest and the grasslands meet, and a river flowing southward into the North Sea surrounded it.

In the camp, in a large shack built of thick logs, several of Khorsang's trusted subordinates hurried to report to him—in the past few days, traces of enemy scouts were found near the camp.

"Khan, it's not suitable to stay here for a long time, let's withdraw quickly!" A tribal leader suggested.

Horsang shook his head sadly and said, "Withdraw? How can we withdraw now? In three or four days, it will be the season of snowfall, and the severe winter will come. We have sleighs pulled by reindeer, but we came out in summer, and the army did not With so many sledges. Besides, there are mountains to the east and north of us, and the mountains are closed when it snows. Even if there are reindeer sleds, you can't pass. Do you want us to freeze to death in the mountains?"

Halthorne is right.There were mountains to the north and east of Beihai, and the Avenk people could only run west or south if they wanted to run, and that direction was the direction Liang Jun was marching in, and Liang Jun could easily stop them.

Another Yakuk tribal leader echoed: "That's right, not to mention that even if we can leave, how can we take away the livestock food we store? If we can't take the food away, we will starve to death when we return home!"

When Horsang heard this, he raised his hand and said: "Stop talking. The situation is clear now, let's go! We definitely can't go, but fight! We still have the ability to fight. We can only fight the enemy here. The army is in a decisive battle! Our winning rate is not low. I want to see how these people who live in the warm areas of the south fight us in this icy and snowy world. Pass my military order, and all ministries will start fighting against us from today Prepare…"

In the camp on the north shore of the North Sea, Viking ships shuttled endlessly on the simple pier.They gave priority to transporting the soldiers' winter clothes, ballista projectiles, naphtha, coal for heating, and some food and grass.Some Dingling people pull nets in the North Sea for days and nights to make dried fish.

The weather is getting colder and colder, and the snowflakes are finally falling down one after another...

Chapter 360 Two Kinds of Sleds

In the Liang Army camp on the north shore of Beihai, temporary shacks have been erected for winter shelter.The north wind howled outside the camp, but there were still many people breaking the ice and fishing on the frozen lake of the North Sea.

A big man with dingling and beard stood on the frozen lake.Holding a wine gourd in his hand, he gulped two gulps into his mouth. This was not an ordinary drink, but a highly distilled spirit produced by Zhuyang Distillery.

In the early years, such spirits were used as fuel for explosive bombs and were not for human consumption.It was only after the birth of naphtha that such spirits were allowed to be sold.It is also the most popular product among the tribes such as Dingling people and Yuanhe people who belong to Beifu.

After the man drank two sips of wine, his body warmed up, he simply took off his fur coat, and only put on a close-fitting sheepskin vest with two thick bare arms. He swung a conical hammer and hammered the ice noodle.The shards of ice flying around seemed to be on his beard.In fact, it was the hot air exhaled by the man, which instantly froze into ice slag on his beard when it was cold.

With a muffled bang, the big fist hole on the ice surface finally overflowed with lake water, and the rest of the people rushed to help, and after a lot of tossing, the hole was expanded to the size of a washbasin.Dingling people lowered their fishing nets through the basin-sized hole.

The man hurriedly put the leather jacket back on, and said, "This is the last day of fishing. After tonight, the ice surface will be completely frozen to death, and even a chisel can't break through it!".

About an hour later, the crowd began to draw in the nets. The nets were full of fat, lively fish, and the crowd cheered.After a few breaths of time, these fish were frozen solid and turned into ice fish, even the step of drying the fish was avoided.

At this time, Lu Bu's tent in the form of a shack was warm as spring, and coals had already been burned in the fire tunnels buried in the ground around the shack.Lu Bu and the generals have already made a plan to attack the Avenk camp, and now everyone is discussing with each other what is missing.

"Is there enough food for us?" Lu Bu asked this question many times, and now he took it out and asked it again worriedly.

Immediately someone replied: "Qijiedu, the supplies we sent up before were mainly winter clothes, fuel, bullets, etc., and only a small part of the food and grass were sent up. But we caught a lot of fish, and spent many winters. The horses on board were transported back to the rear by boat, so there is still enough food for half a month. After the lake is completely frozen, our sled team can bring a lot of food and grass as soon as it arrives."

Pang Tong replied: "Everything is ready now, just wait for the water to freeze." As soon as he finished speaking, someone came to report that the water in the North Sea had been frozen three feet thick, and that after tonight the sleds would be able to ride on the ice in the North Sea. Come and go freely on the face.

Lu Bu smiled slightly and said, "In other words, our sled team will arrive within four or five days, and it's finally time for the decisive battle with the Avenk people."

Four days later, a long and endless sled team appeared on the ice of the North Sea.These sleds were all driven by Dingling men, and they all learned to drive dog sleds during the period when they were attached to Lu Bu.

Among them are large sleds converted from Viking ships, but this Viking ship is not pulled by Xianbei sled dogs, but by captured reindeer.All sledges are loaded with food and other supplies.

Lu Bu chose a relatively sunny day to send troops.The small river that flows into the North Sea has been frozen to death for a long time.Hundreds of sledges galloped along this frozen river towards Horthorn's camp...

……