Mythical Three Kingdoms-Chapter 1667 - 1606: Defensive Counterattack

"Yeah, it’s quite awful, hahahaha!" Chen Xi laughed as well, then his expression turned serious, "Prepare the crossbow arrows!"

It’s obvious that the commander of the mixed army of Northern Huns and Miscellaneous Hun forces opposite is an extremely capable leader, at least he knows how to leverage strengths and avoid weaknesses. For instance, the pride of the Miscellaneous Hun, mounted archery, was completely absent in this battle.

Clearly, the Xiliang Iron Cavalry’s exceptional ability to resist arrows provided enough warning to this army’s commander to avoid any unexpected pitfalls.

However, without arrow suppression, the Danyang Elite troops defended against the Miscellaneous Hun’s charge on the exterior, while thousands of Eastern Wu Archers shot from within; this battle might not guarantee a win, but holding the enemy at bay certainly won’t be an issue.

"Accurate shooting, release the arrows!" Zhou Yu gauged the speed of the Miscellaneous Hun’s charge. Once it crossed a certain limit, Zhou Yu immediately issued the command, and thousands of arrows were fired in a covering formation toward the front.

Hundreds of Miscellaneous Hun, caught in this dense barrage of unavoidable arrows, fell from their horses immediately. Yet the surging Miscellaneous Hun army showed no sign of slowing, continuing to flood forward like a turbulent river.

The three waves of arrow rain, totaling around twenty thousand arrows, cleared over a thousand Miscellaneous Hun riders, but still couldn’t halt their forward assault.

Quickly the most vigorous Miscellaneous Hun reached the front of the Danyang Elite Troops, the Long Spear thrust at the Great Shield behind the Danyang Elite. However, before the Long Spear penetrated the Danyang Elite Troops upfront, the perfectly coordinated Danyang Elite Troops seamlessly stabbed their Long Spears into the horse’s neck.

A mournful cry, as the warhorse reared, the Miscellaneous Hun who had almost struck the Danyang Elite Troops was thrown off the horse by the startled steed, while the Long Spear pierced air immediately, followed by an arrow from the side that directly nailed through his neck.

By now, countless Miscellaneous Hun had already collided with the front defenses of the Danyang Elite Troops; the fierce impact combined with the overwhelming numbers caused even the Danyang Elite, despite sharing strength and distributing impact abilities, to be knocked flying.

In the instant that dozens of Danyang Elite were hit hard by the tremendous impact, soldiers on both sides immediately filled the gap, with rear soldiers using Long Spears against the Miscellaneous Hun, their tacit cooperation quickly extinguished the Miscellaneous Hun invading the formation, and used their Great Shields to seal the breached defense line.

At this moment, Zhou Yu’s outer formation suddenly caved inward, the front line of the regular hexagon directly became arc-shaped, the Miscellaneous Hun suddenly pressed down following the retreat direction of the Danyang Elite Troops, and during the retreat, the sides of the concave formation abruptly formed two needle-like, sharp tips. The cavalry, who had been at the rear, seized the opportunity to press into the flanks of the Miscellaneous Hun!

Initially, before encountering the Miscellaneous Hun, Zhou Yu’s formation had been compacted, the length of the front line of the Danyang Elite Troops being only three hundred paces. With the concave formation, the cavalry at the rear, with one push, extended abruptly on both sides, forcing the enemy to be compressed to several hundred steps.

For such distance, especially when intercepting at the waist, this is no issue for the cavalry’s assault capabilities; they need only charge one hundred and fifty steps to converge.

Though the Wuhuan led by Su Puyan appeared as auxiliary forces to both the Northern Huns Elite Cavalry and the Han Elite Cavalry, they were not so weak in the eyes of the Miscellaneous Hun, especially after being boosted by Zhou Yu and Chen Xi’s Legion Talent, Su Puyan’s cavalry was clearly superior by a margin.

Given such an opportunity, Su Puyan certainly did not disappoint Zhou Yu, within a few breaths cutting through the front vanguard entering the formation, then enclosing them within the hexagonal hive, followed by an endless rain of arrows.

Unlike the previous scenario where accurate shots were needed and there was a great chance of missing, the Miscellaneous Hun trapped in the hexagonal hive were nearly instantly barraged from all directions, without any need to aim, countless Miscellaneous Hun fell from their mounts.

As for charging to break out, facing Danyang Elite Troops in front and being sealed in tight by the Wuhuan Elite Cavalry behind, even if the Miscellaneous Hun wanted to turn back and break through the Wuhuan Elite Cavalry’s direction, it wasn’t something they could achieve quickly.

"Hey, do they actually want to rescue my archers from here?" Zhou Yu sneered repeatedly. He admitted that nine of ten Eastern Wu infantry were trash, but Eastern Wu’s archers absolutely weren’t inferior to those elsewhere.

"Wen Pin, lead the flank to open a gap, allowing the Miscellaneous Hun to see the chance to attack from here!" Zhou Yu ordered Wen Pin as he scanned the Miscellaneous Hun charging towards the open flank defense.

The Miscellaneous Hun fiercely charged towards the archers exposed by the open flank defense. As for rescue, hey, is it necessary? Defeating the enemy is the order given to them by the Northern Huns, not to mention those nearly encircled ones aren’t from their tribe.

Just as the Miscellaneous Hun entered the flank’s charging range, chaos erupted suddenly in Zhou Yu’s formation, and a disturbance appeared on the side facing the Miscellaneous Hun. The Miscellaneous Hun leader squinted and found that those previously thought to be encircled had actually entered the flank’s interior.

The leader immediately, with his cavalry battle experience, decided without hesitation to charge towards the turbulent area on Zhou Yu’s flank. Success in inside-out collaboration would mean any military formation has only the path to collapse.

Since most military formations, once breached, can no longer maintain their operation, but unfortunately, Zhou Yu’s formation, even when breached, has a predictive compensatory strategy.

The Miscellaneous Hun cavalry, under the leader’s command, almost instantly killed into the formation, while the surrounding archers showed no intention to hinder, naturally yielding a passage from all directions.

Thus, the Miscellaneous Hun cavalry did not bother attacking the surrounding archers; strategically speaking, breaching the formation has far greater significance than attacking these cowardly archers.

With the speed of the Miscellaneous Hun cavalry burst forth without any archer obstruction, within a few breaths, they broke through the last layer of archers.

However, what awaited them was the Xiliang Iron Cavalry in black armor; both sides reached maximum speed, but the difference lay in the Miscellaneous Hun resembling a snake trapped in a tunnel unable to turn back, while the Xiliang Iron Cavalry raced like a bullet train prepared to enter a tunnel.

Naturally, in the instant of collision, the superior side emerged, and the archers who were dispersed rather than shooting instantly turned to fire towards the two armies charging within the alley, as for friendly fire, are you kidding?

Even without the first Military Spirit Effect, the second effect remains. Given the Iron Cavalry’s nearly inhumane defense, such arrow rain amounts to nothing more than drizzle, so Zhou Yu’s order was simple: shoot without regard, crazily, at close range!