The Qin army's greatest weapon advantage over the six countries outside the pass and the Huns was always strong crossbows, and this time was no exception. A large number of Han soldiers equipped with Qin-competing powerful crossbows fired arrows at once. The dense crossbow arrows quickly shot the Huns' cavalry and overturned the horses, shouting and neighing, and fell to the ground.

Not only that, the iron arrowheads equipped by some Han soldiers also ignored the simple leather armor on the Xiongnu cavalry and directly penetrated the armor and shot into the body of the Xiongnu cavalry, causing these unlucky Xiongnu cavalry to be either good or injured. At the same time, they were extremely surprised. They either didn't understand why the armor on their bodies could not play a role until they died, or they screamed in surprise, "What kind of arrow is this? Why can't our armor stop it?"

It was okay for the Xiongnu army. Despite being hit by the Han army's crossbow arrows, the experienced Xiongnu soldiers still charged continuously, fighting for the danger of being killed or injured by arrows and desperately narrowing the distance with the Han army round formation, rushing to the Han army formation at the fastest speed to seize the opportunity for close combat. After paying a certain amount of casualties, they successfully hit the Han army formation from the east and west directions, and bursting out violent roars and slashing sounds.

Without stirrups and high bridge saddles, there would naturally be no large-scale impact and trampling. Except for a few Hun cavalry with particularly excellent cavalry, jumping on horseback and trampling on the Han army soldiers with their horses, most of the Hun cavalry could only hold their war horses in front of the Han army formation, and riding on horseback and chopping against the Han army soldiers. In order to gain flexibility, a considerable number of Hun soldiers chose to dismount and fight on foot.

The advantages of both sides of the war also emerged. The Hun cavalry, which had long been staple with meat and cheese, were generally taller, and their arm strength was obviously stronger than that of the Han army soldiers. When the bronze weapons were wielding wildly, as long as they could hit the body parts of the Han army soldiers without armor protection, they could usually cut the Han army soldiers into their skin and flesh, and even directly cut off the hands and feet of the Han army soldiers, causing serious injuries to the Han army soldiers.

The advantage of the Han army is of course the weapons and equipment. The iron sword that appeared nearly a hundred years in advance was both sharp and tough, and the iron spearhead was extremely sharp. Even if it hit the armor on the Hun cavalry, it could easily break the armor and cause damage to the Hun cavalry. At the same time, due to the steel output, even if the Han soldiers were still wearing relatively primitive leather and bronze armor, the bronze weapons used to resist the Hun cavalry were still quite easy. The key to the body protected by the armor was even if it was hit by the bronze weapons of the Hun cavalry, it usually didn't have to worry about the danger of their lives.

These two advantages certainly greatly increase the combat effectiveness of the Han army soldiers. During the fierce battle, the Han army soldiers only need to pay attention to prevent being cut by the Hun soldiers and stabbed the hands, feet and faces without armor protection. The iron weapons in their hands can be used with the craziest and vegetables. They usually only need to hit the target, which can cause damage to the Hun cavalry and even directly take the lives of the Hun cavalry, which has taken quite a lot of advantages in melee combat.

However, the Hun cavalry's magic weapon, the bows and arrows, are still extremely powerful. After the front team fought with the Han army, all the Hun cavalry rushed out of their horses, stood on the ground and pulled out strong bows, and shot feather arrows at the Han soldiers behind the battlefield. Because the formation of the Han soldiers was too dense, they achieved considerable results.

In response, Li Zuoche adopted two strategies to deal with this. The first one was of course to let the Han soldiers in the back team shoot bows and arrows to fight back. The second strategy was to quickly send orders to the front team and shouted: "Kill the enemy in front of the formation as soon as possible, free up your hands to shoot the Huns and barbarians back with a powerful crossbow!"

The battle also became extremely cruel and bloody. In order to kill the enemies in front of him as soon as possible and open up the space for counterattacks with strong crossbows, the Han soldiers in the front team worked hard, and everyone was brave, and they stabbed the spear at the enemy in front of him, wielding iron swords to chop the Huns cavalry. The Huns cavalry were not willing to be outdone, and they used their arm strength to slash and stab, and they fought with the Han soldiers so hard that their flesh and blood were sprayed continuously.

Seeing this scene, Maodun, who personally directed the ambush, did not even blink, and immediately ordered more soldiers to go forward and fight in close combat, covering his superiority, the archers who arched arrows to kill the enemy one after another. However, what surprised Maodun was that when more Xiongnu cavalry rushed to the front of the Han army to assist, some mysterious objects with white smoke suddenly threw out from the Han army formation, smashed into the crowd of Xiongnu soldiers and exploded continuously, and loud noises that were comparable to thunder broke out.

"What is that?" Mao Dun was stunned at first, then quickly came to his senses, and quickly turned to Zang Tu next to him and asked, "King Donghu Lu, is this the thunder in the palm of the Central Plains people you mentioned?"

"Reporting to the sweat, it's the thunder in the palm of your hand." Zang Tu nodded quickly and added quickly: "Please don't worry, this kind of thunder in the palm of your hand is just a scary sound, and it actually has no lethality. Unless it happens to hit the body and explode, it will basically not hurt anyone."

Zang Tu, who had seen the primitive grenade, said it very easily, but after he had never met the primitive grenade, he suddenly encountered such a weapon, none of them were dizzy and frightened. Many Xiongnu soldiers screamed and their morale plummeted. More Xiongnu war horses were so frightened that they raised their hooves and ran around. The Han soldiers took the opportunity to speed up their counterattacks and quickly retreated the Xiongnu cavalry in front of them, making room for crossbow arrows. First, the Hun cavalry near them were so hot that they howled and ran away, and then shot the Xiongnu cavalry whose range was not as strong as the crossbows, causing casualties and injuries, and had to retreat and dodge. The first wave of fierce attacks of the Xiongnu cavalry was completely declared defeated.

Seeing this scene, the Han army was of course cheering and morale was greatly boosted. Maodun's face turned pale and quickly ordered all the thousands of people who took the lead in escape, and then immediately reorganized the team and prepared to launch a second wave of attack. During this period, Li Zuoche of course took the opportunity to command the Han army soldiers to move westward. The Han army soldiers composed of about 14,000 people maintained a strict formation, slowly advancing westward step by step, gradually approaching the Bantianling Highland that had been successfully seized by the Han cavalry.

Of course, Maodun would only allow the Han army to move up the mountain unless he was stupid. Before the Han army's circular formation with extremely poor mobility could go west, the Hun cavalry rushed over again and launched an assault charge at the Han army's circular formation.

Facts have proved that the original grenade has miraculous effects on the Huns' war horses. Of course, Li Zuoche is no longer polite this time. First, he waited for the Han soldiers to shoot the Huns' cavalry with a strong crossbow and died and injured a lot. As soon as the Huns' cavalry cluster rushed to the front, Li Zuoche decisively ordered the Han soldiers to throw the grenades again. As a result, the effect this time was also satisfactory. As the primitive grenades exploded in the crowd of Huns' cavalry, the Huns' cavalry's war horses were suddenly in panic again. They either stopped or fled in scattered. Before they had gained the opportunity to fight in close combat, they were already in chaos. The Han soldiers took the opportunity to fire arrows at close range and shot the Huns' cavalry to death and wounded, which was much easier to repel the second large-scale charge of the Huns' cavalry.

Xiang Guan, who had been following Li Zuoche for several years, finally learned some tricks. Seeing that the Han infantry began to break through, Xiang Guan not only ordered the fire to light the fire to guide the direction of the breakout, but also decisively sent a thousand cavalry to charge down the mountain, waving his sabers to kill the Xiongnu army, and attacking the Xiongnu army blocking the road to meet the infantry to break through.

Countless Han soldiers were killed bravely and lay down on the road to break through forever. More Han infantry soldiers, relying on the cover of the night and the response of the Han cavalry, successfully escaped to the Bantianling Highlands. Li Zuoche himself shamelessly lowered his flag early, charged up the mountain under the protection of his direct army, and was extremely lucky to rush to the Bantianling Highlands without any injuries, and re-sent the order with the eagerly-looking Xiang Guan.

After meeting, Li Zuoche, who was panting, immediately ordered the Han army soldiers to guard the road to prevent the Xiongnu cavalry from taking the opportunity to attack the mountain, and to pick up his defeated troops to go up the mountain to save his life. The result was not bad. All the Han army soldiers understood the truth that they could not beat four legs. As long as they were still able to move, there was no one who fled to Bantianling with huge fires on the top of the mountain. Basically, no one was stupid enough to escape in other directions.

As the second half of the night, the Han army infantry and cavalry who were able to escape up the mountain basically fled to the high ground of the Bantianling. Although the furious Hun cavalry also tried to take the opportunity to attack the mountain, they were stubbornly killed by the condescending Han army. They had to withdraw the troops after the third hour and retreat to the temporary camp to rest. Only then did Li Zuoche wipe the sweat on his face and order to count the losses of the soldiers and grasp the situation of his own army.

The casualties of the Han army in this battle were much greater than that of Li Zuoche. More than 14,000 Han infantry soldiers fled up the mountain, and only more than 600 Han cavalry who came down the mountain came back, and quite a lot of biscuits loaded on the car were lost. As a result, this situation was reported to Li Zuoche. Li Zuoche's face was gloomy and his heart was cramped, and then he said with a forced smile: "It's okay, the big losses are also great benefits. At least it can make the Hun barbarians feel that there is hope that they can annihilate us and will not give up siegeing us easily."

"Guangwu Jun, what should we do next?" Xiang Guan asked quickly.

"Of course, I'm trying to find a way to keep the Huns here and let their rear brigade come here to wait for death."

Li Zuoche smiled and asked someone to take a silk pen. He personally picked up the pen and wrote a letter for help to Xiang Zhuang, who was guarding Shanwu and Nie Zheng, who was guarding Mayi, each telling them that they and Xiang Guan had been surrounded in Bantianling. He ordered Xiang Zhuang and Nie Zheng to send troops to rescue him immediately. He also drew a mark on the letter and handed it to Xiang Guan and ordered: "Arrange two dead soldiers immediately to Shanwu and Mayi to deliver letters respectively."

"Guangwu Jun, wait a little longer." Xiang Guan advised: "The Huns have just retreated, so they will definitely be wary of sending people to break through and ask for help. If you send someone to deliver the letter now, it may be difficult to succeed."

"I wish both messengers were stopped." Li Zuoche said in a shocking voice and said with a smile: "These two letters of my letters were not written for Xiang Zhuang and Nie Zheng, but for the barbarian Maodun. I want him to know that as long as he insists on surrounding us, there will be a chance to surround us and annihilate our Shanwu and Mayi defenders in the field, so that he will not give up surrounding us."

Thinking that he was about to reach the main force of the Han army, Xiang Guan immediately understood what Li Zuoche meant, but Xiang Guan was still a little worried and hurriedly said, "But Mr. Guangwu, if our messenger really sent the letter to Mayi Heshanwu, and my brother and General Nie didn't understand our plans and really sent troops to rescue us, wouldn't their reinforcements be dangerous?"

Li Zuoche smiled and pointed to the last code he drew in the letter and said, "Did you see this mark? I have explained to Xiang Zhuang and Nie Zheng a long time ago that as long as there is the command of this mark, it must not be implemented."
Chapter completed!