The black-armored army passed in front of the Chu army like a gust of wind, and the wind also brought several batches of dense arrow rain. The Chu cavalry army was killed and wounded more than a hundred people on the spot.

Since Xiang Luo was not willing to let it go, he immediately ordered:

"Chase, don't let them escape!"

The subordinates responded enthusiastically and rode after him.

There were more than 2,000 people in the first batch to catch up. This team was led by a military commander named Zhang Xi.

Perhaps it was because of the large number of people, or perhaps because the black-armored army was "escape", so Zhang Xi didn't feel afraid at all, but was rather eager to perform meritorious deeds.

So Zhang Xi led the cavalry to pursue them at full speed from the beginning.

During the Qin Dynasty, cavalry fought against cavalry, and being chased by the enemy was often a taboo.

Because being chased by the enemy means you are in the front, which will become the enemy's target. The enemy can safely fire the crossbow and aim from behind.

If you are in front and want to release an arrow, you have to turn around... Not to mention that this turning movement is very dangerous in the era without stirrups. The whole process is still in the enemy's sight. As soon as there is a turning movement, you know that you have to release the arrow, so you lie down.

The body avoids.

Therefore, this is a situation that should be avoided as much as possible in mounted combat, and the same is true for vehicle combat.

Therefore, the battles on horseback and chariots are more about charging back and forth face to face, or simply dismounting and forming formations to fight on foot. Even if they want to escape, they will leave a team in the rear, rather than the whole army like the current black armored army.

"Escape" ahead.

The more than 2,000 Chu troops led by Zhang Xi were now in a favorable position to catch up from behind, so the morale of the Chu troops was high, while they fired crossbows and fired arrows while shouting loudly.

However, it didn't take long for Zhang Xi and the Chu troops to realize something was wrong.

The Chu cavalry army held crossbows, and the crossbow arrows had a relatively straight trajectory, so they could only fire arrows a few rows in front, and the trajectory further back would be blocked by themselves.

Based on this calculation, only a few hundred people can be effective out of the more than 2,000 people in the army.

What made Zhang Xing even more angry was...the black armored army was very heavily armored. Not only did they have a hat-shaped helmet as big as a wheel, but also a mantle. Only the forearms were exposed, and they also carried a round shield on their backs.

Rattan armor is light, so even if it protects such a large area, it still doesn't weigh much.

Therefore, even if the Chu cavalrymen fired crossbow arrows from a favorable position, it was like tickling the black-armored army. The arrows were either nailed to the vine shield or could not penetrate and bounced off and fell to the ground.

The round vine shield is not as protective as the square vine shield.

The reason why a round vine shield is used is because the cavalry has a small fighting space on horseback and needs to maintain balance. It is obviously inappropriate to carry an oversized square shield.

The round rattan shield is made of rattan woven into circles on the frame, unlike the square rattan shield which is usually criss-crossed.

There is a problem with knitting in circles. There is a large gap between the circles. If the arrow happens to be inserted horizontally into the gap, it may penetrate and be nailed to the round shield.

However, this is not a big problem, because the round vine shield is carried on the back of the black-armored army as additional protection, and there is a layer of back armor underneath.

If the battle situation is just like this, then that's it. The two armies are helpless and live in peace with each other.

However, this is not the case...

The black armored army uses bows.

The biggest difference between a bow and a crossbow is that its trajectory is curved. The curve means that it does not have the blocking problem like a crossbow, so almost two thousand black-armored troops can play its role. The arrows are shot one after another.

Towards the Chu army who were chasing after them.

Seeing this, Xiang Luo, who was following him, couldn't help but feel cold.

Xiang Luo was surprised because the black-armored army could not only shoot arrows on horseback but also shoot arrows backwards, which had never happened before in cavalry battles in the Central Plains.

In fact, the Black Armored Army has gone through months of hard training in order to have such a skill, and it is not actually "backwards", but "sideways and backwards".

This is somewhat like the tactics of the navy, that is, the black-armored troops are divided into several teams and move forward side by side. This team is responsible for shooting the enemy troops behind the other team, and the enemy troops behind it are handed over to friendly forces.

So "shooting backwards" becomes "shooting arrows sideways", which is obviously much less difficult but can achieve the same combat effect.

The Chu cavalry army was wearing light armor...

This is a common feature of the cavalry of this era. The lack of stirrups means that it is impossible to wear heavy armor, otherwise it will be impossible to mount the horse and maintain balance.

Therefore, almost all cavalry only wore breastplates, which protected the vital parts of the chest, and most of them were lighter leather armors.

Although the area exposed to the Black Armored Army cannot be said to be large, it is much larger than the Black Armored Army's Vine Armor.

As a result, the Chu cavalry army was continuously shot off their horses during the pursuit. As a result, the number of Chu cavalry troops chased became smaller and smaller, and the Chu cavalry troops were only chased a few miles away and half of the Chu cavalry troops were lost.

Zhang Xi was secretly frightened, but when he thought there were reinforcements behind him, he gritted his teeth and continued to chase.

However, after a few of the guards beside him also fell down, they shouted:

"Pull back the troops, pull back the troops!"

"Return to Ruanqiao Town to join the main force!"

…

In fact, this does not mean "retreating troops", it is clearly about running away, and even running away out of fear.

The black-armored army was not willing to let them go. When they saw the Chu army reining in their horses and turning back, they also turned their horses and came to cover them from behind.

As a result, the pursuit between the enemy and ourselves was completely reversed, and it became a situation where the enemy was fleeing and we were pursuing.

At this time, the advantage of the Black Armor Army is even greater. As mentioned before, the fleeing cavalry has almost no lethality... This is not true for the Black Armor Army, but it is true for the Chu Cavalry Army.

At this time, the Chu cavalry army was a target, and because the black-armored army was shooting directly, they fired faster and drew their bows harder. As a result, rows of arrows rained down on the Chu cavalry army, and the Chu cavalry army screamed and fell off their horses.

Zhang Xi saw that something was wrong. If he continued like this, he was afraid that he would be shot dead before he could escape to Ruanqiao Town and join the main force.

shouted again:

"Split the troops into two groups!"

Then he took his bodyguard alone and ran in the other direction.

Zhang Xi hoped to escape separately to escape the pursuit of a large number of black armored troops.

This may be correct, because Zhang Xi and his bodyguards were relatively small in number, so they might be dismissed as a defeated army and ignored.

But Zhang Xi was soon disappointed, and the black armored army then separated into a small group to pursue Zhang Xi and his personal guards alone.

Zhang Xi gritted his teeth with hatred in his heart. All he could do was to nock an arrow on the arm-shaped crossbow in his hand, then turn around and shoot.

Zhang Xi knew that the crossbow arrows could not hurt the opponent, so he was just venting his anger.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Zhang Xi turned around, an arrow swiped across his face. Zhang Xi was so frightened that he fell off his horse.

Before he could get up in a hurry, the black-armored army rushed forward... No one would stop because of this, even if the feathers on his helmet showed that he was an officer.

So, each horse's hooves stepped hard on Zhang Xi's back, and Zhang Xi only grunted a few times before lying on the ground and making no sound anymore.

When the guards saw this situation, they panicked.
Chapter completed!