Transmigrating into a Turbulent Era as a Soldier, Starting with Marrying a Wife

At this moment, the Liang army was stationed on the southern bank.

Seeing the vanguard of the Tiele people begin to cross the river,

these soldiers, inexperienced in battle, were thrown into confusion by the Tiele's sudden appearance.

Fortunately, the personal guards dispatched by Marquis Longxiang played a crucial role in supervising the battle.

They directly beheaded several cowardly soldiers who turned to flee, finally managing to stabilize the situation.

From the direction of the Liang army's central command, the thunderous sound of war drums echoed.

As the war drums sounded, the flags of the generals from various prefectures slowly advanced on the hillside, occupying the commanding heights.

The soldiers, uneasy in their hearts, looked up at the hilltop.

Seeing their own flags flying and the war drums thundering, their morale, though not weak, helped calm their somewhat panicked hearts.

At this time, in the Redwater River, the Tiele vanguard cavalry plunged into the river like dumplings, preparing to cross.

They had sent people to measure the water depth yesterday, and this section of the river at the Red Sand Ferry was not too deep, allowing them to ford it on horseback.

The vanguard of the Tiele army consisted of three thousand cavalry.

Most of them were light cavalry wearing leather armor, with some elite troops wearing iron-studded armor. These light cavalry were responsible for reconnaissance and probing the enemy's situation before the battle.

It had become a customary practice for the Tiele to have them lead the charge in every battle.

At this moment, urged on by several chiliarchs, these cavalrymen were vigorously spurring their horses, rushing towards the southern bank.

Looking towards the river from the hillside on the southern bank,

the Tiele cavalry resembled a pack of wolves wading through the water, with black masses of cavalry filling the thirty to forty-foot-wide river.

At the location of the Liang army's central command on the southern bank's hilltop,

Li Yuan, holding a flying dragon flag, stood beside Marquis Longxiang.

The flag in Li Yuan's hand was no ordinary one, because according to military orders, the four thousand five hundred archers drawn from the entire army were all focused on this flag.

As long as this flag waved forward three times, all the archers would immediately unleash a rain of arrows onto the riverbank.

Before long, with the sound of warhorses neighing, the first Tiele cavalryman had ridden onto the southern bank of the Redwater River.

Immediately afterward, more and more black-clad and black-armored Tiele cavalrymen spurred their horses out of the river and onto the riverbank.

However, they were dumbfounded as soon as they landed.

At this time, the riverbank on the southern side was full of crisscrossing trenches, some as deep as twenty feet.

The horses neighed upon seeing these trenches but dared not leap over them.

As more and more Tiele cavalry rushed ashore, they began to crowd and jostle on the riverbank.

Several Tiele chiliarchs leading the troops, seeing that the situation was not right, immediately dismounted to observe the battlefield environment.

This one look chilled them to the bone. The long trenches dug by the Liang army had turned the entire riverbank into an obstacle zone where horses could not run.

The Tiele cavalry could not charge on the riverbank at all, essentially losing their cavalry's mobility.

The chiliarchs exchanged glances, their faces filled with fear.

The more hot-tempered ones even cursed and swore loudly.

"These Liang people are too cunning!"

"They actually used such a despicable method as digging trenches."

"What should we do now?"

They looked up towards the hillside.

Those Liang soldiers had hastily built many wooden fences and walls on the rocky hillside.

Countless figures of Liang soldiers were moving behind the wooden walls and fences.

The chiliarchs of the Tiele were all veterans of many battles, knowing that at this time, warhorses were of no use.

If they wanted to continue the assault, they could only order the entire army to dismount, walk over the Liang army's long trenches, and then attack the Liang army's makeshift wooden walls from below.

However, even so, these chiliarchs did not believe that those Liang soldiers on the hill could withstand the Tiele's attack.

The Tiele soldiers responsible for reconnaissance also began to tentatively advance towards the wooden fence.

Sure enough, as some Tiele squads approached the wooden wall, the Liang soldiers defending behind the wooden fence began to counterattack frantically with bows and arrows.

They launched some feather arrows towards the Tiele people in a scattered manner.

Although these arrows shot relatively far, they were very weak upon landing.

Some arrows that fell to the ground could not even penetrate the soil.

A Tiele vanguard chiliarch casually picked up a feather arrow shot by the Liang army from the ground.

After just one look, he let out a contemptuous sneer.

The other chiliarch behind him asked.

"Anchige, why are you laughing?"

The chiliarch named Anchige handed the feather arrow shot by the Liang army over and said.

"Look, the Liang army's feather arrows have rusted arrowheads, the shafts are made of balsa wood and are already bent, and the fletchings are even from domestic fowl."

"This kind of broken arrow has no accuracy or power. It is obvious that the Liang soldiers bought inferior arrows to make up the numbers in order to save money."

"This kind of inferior arrow probably can't even pierce our herdsmen's leather robes."

"Moreover, the Liang army is shooting these kinds of inferior arrows. Are they really here to fight a war?"

However, Anchige then sighed and said.

"It's just that the wooden fences and shields on the mountain are a bit troublesome."

"When our warriors shoot at the Liang army on the mountain, they have wooden fences and shields to hide behind, making it difficult for us to hit them."

Another chiliarch, after hearing this, also revealed a look of contempt.

"Since the Liang army's arrows pose no threat to us,"

"then let's just have the warriors rush up directly and tear down those fences and wooden walls."

"Let the warriors bring more two-handed hammers and axes that can break through wooden fences and charge in a dense formation."

"Let's try to take down the mountain pass in one charge!"

The chiliarchs nodded in agreement after hearing this.

They began to organize the Tiele cavalry to dismount and form dense square formations on the riverbank, preparing to charge.

Standing on the hilltop, Li Yuan narrowed his eyes, carefully staring at the riverbank.

The Tiele people were indeed doing as he had predicted.

They were preparing to dismount and fight on foot.

And in order to break through the temporary wooden fences and walls built by the Liang army,

at least half of the Tiele soldiers chose to abandon their shields and replace their weapons with large hammers and giant axes that could break through wooden fences.

At this time, thousands of Tiele vanguard soldiers were forming formations in a chaotic manner on the riverbank.

However, these warriors, who were usually good at riding warhorses, were somewhat unfamiliar with forming formations on foot, and the scene was very chaotic.

Under the banner of the central army on the southern bank,

Marquis Longxiang, Bai Jing, looked at the Tiele people densely packed on the riverbank with disbelief.

The Tiele people's actions were all as Li Yuan had predicted.

She glanced again at Li Yuan, who was holding the flag not far away.

She felt both incredible and excited in her heart.

Her younger sister, Bai Yuxuan, also looked at Li Yuan with sparkling eyes.

And the thousands of archers hidden behind the wooden fences were also staring intently at the flying dragon flag on the mountain.

Because their vision was blocked by the wooden fences, they did not know the situation on the riverbank outside.

However, the sounds of the Tiele cavalry shouting and the horses neighing outside the wooden fence made their nerves highly tense.

At this moment, the flying dragon flag on the mountain was raised high by Li Yuan, using the spearhead of the flagpole to draw a circle in the air.

This action of the flying dragon flag was a signal for all archers to prepare.

In an instant, thousands of archers who received the signal each drew their bows and nocked their arrows, and there was a creaking sound of bowstrings behind the wooden fence.

Immediately afterward, the flying dragon flag suddenly waved forward three times in a row.

The order of the Liang army's central command had been issued, which was to order all archers to immediately launch a volley of arrows at the riverbank!

At this time, Tiele chiliarchs Anchige and Ajike, after a brief period of chaos,

finally arranged the three thousand dismounted Tiele vanguard troops into several dense square formations.

It was not that they did not want to arrange them more sparsely, but after the long trenches were dug on the riverbank, the area of flat ground on the riverbank was drastically reduced.

The Tiele people could only arrange the three thousand people into formations on the limited flat ground.

Immediately, the three thousand vanguard troops slowly advanced towards the rocky mountain.

After walking only a few dozen steps, suddenly, a terrifying buzzing sound came from the air. Chiliarch Anchige, who was walking at the front, looked up.

He saw a patch of black dots rising from behind the wooden fences on the hillside, like a swarm of dense locusts suddenly flying up.

Anchige's eyes widened instantly.

It was a large number of arrows fired in a volley by archers!

He immediately shouted at the Tiele soldiers beside him, tearing his heart and lungs.

"Enemy arrows! Scatter! Be careful!"

But before the Tiele soldiers under his command could react,

dense arrows poured down from the air like a swarm of bees, like a rain of iron arrows.

Instantly, a red mist of blood was stirred up in the Tiele people's dense array.

Countless Tiele people who were advancing towards the hillside were shot and fell to the ground.

The wounded were even screaming loudly in pain, rolling all over the ground, and the array instantly became chaotic.

The sudden change in the battle situation made Chiliarch Anchige's eyes turn red.

"How is this possible? Weren't the enemies shooting inferior arrows?"

"How can they have such great lethality?"

But before he could figure it out,

the second wave of arrows fired by the Liang army fell densely from the air like a sudden rain.

An arrow suddenly pierced into Anchige's arm armor, directly penetrating the armor, and only then did he suddenly realize.

The arrows shot by the Liang army were not the inferior arrows shot just now, but were all armor-piercing arrows made of refined steel.

The three-edged arrowheads of this kind of arrow were exceptionally sharp, and Anchige watched helplessly as a guard beside him was shot through his iron-studded armor and died.

Watching his subordinates being shot by the rain of arrows, suffering heavy casualties and constantly falling to the ground, Chiliarch Anchige could only desperately spur his horse and shout loudly.

"Shields! Everyone raise your shields!"