As we all know, the Western Liang soldiers were good at using spears.

But it is precisely because of the bulk and burden of the spear, the spearmen can only choose and take into account two of the three aspects of weapon length, movement speed and shield-holding defense.

Either like the Spartans or Macedonians, one with a super spear and the other with a shield, but you can only set your posture and advance slowly and give up your speed.

Either you just have a short gun and a shield in one hand, and you will run forward and give up the length advantage. Or you may simply hold the spear end in both hands and run flat and give up the shield.

It is impossible to take into account both threes. One-handed super-long spear and want to charge. The leverage principle teaches people in minutes, and will trample on oneself and trip up a lot of comrades.

Li Jue is also an old veteran who has fought for more than ten years. Since he had observed that the crossfire of Guan Yu's army's crossing firepower was sharp before commanding the charge, he certainly could not allow soldiers holding spears and giving up their shields to fight in the front line, so they would not be shot into a hedgehog.

Therefore, the soldiers rushing in the front are all light infantry holding short spears and shields, or sword and shield hands with ring-headed swords and shields.

The sword and shield hand is the main force in melee combat, while the short spear and shield are the most flexible, which is somewhat similar to the Western shield-equipped javelins. When encountering hard-to-chew hard bones, you can throw a wave and open a bloody path.

In order to break through the corridors between various formations of Guan Yu army just now, the assault explosive power of these short-slingers had played a lot of role. Even soldiers in iron armor, who were stabbed by the full force of the Xiliang soldiers at a very close distance, would be injured by the huge penetration force.

Unfortunately, all of this "army-related advantage" was reversed instantly when the battle elephant entered the field.

If Jia Xu could personally visit the front line to supervise the command, with his IQ, he might be able to see that the only two tactics that the Western Liang army would have to resist the war elephant are:

Either use a ranged weapon with loud noises or flames to scare away the elephant; or use a large number of super-long spears arranged in densely arranged in two meters to resist the direction of the elephant's advance, and use the gun forest to force the elephant to take a detour or even retreat.

However, the weapons required for these two tactics are not available in the front-line troops of the Xiliang Army.

The attack distance between the short spear and the ring-headed sword, if you want to hit the elephant, the soldier himself has to overcome his huge fear and break it within half a foot of the elephant's leg. Perhaps he was knocked away before he could even cut it out. People with this courage are afraid that there will be no such thing.

Of course, there are many people who have over 10,000 people, and they have to try it out if they are not good at using their brains, but they quickly gave it to them for nothing and told their comrades with their own personal practice:

It is not easy to use a ring-headed knife to force the bamboo mat and armor hanging on the elephant. The angle of the force is too small. The blade just cuts the smooth arc of bamboo tube, and then there is nothing.

Unless you are further closer to within three feet, and holding the knife in both hands, you must have a comfortable space to squeeze the arm and exert force, you can cut the skin of the elephant, then break a few pieces of bamboo armor, and cut off a few bundles of hemp ropes that tie bamboo.

But it would be a loss to replace a few bamboo tubes and a few hemp ropes with a life, so when the small group of young soldiers with hot blood died, the rest would be the only thing that would collapse like a tide.

"Cruff! Kala!" There were muffled sounds, which were the movements of soldiers being stepped into the soil and shattered all over their bodies. There were also all kinds of wailings.

"Puchi! Tear!" There were sounds of spearheading into the flesh. It was a group of Western Liang sword and shield soldiers who wanted to escape to the left and right sides, but were finally stabbed into a hedgehog by the spear of the Yizhou army.

But even so, countless sword and shield hands were still flying towards both sides of the corridor, as if they would rather rush towards the tip of Rulin's gun than be stepped onto meat pie, or be picked on ivory and assassinated and thrown away.

At least, I still know how I died when I was shot and killed by the gun. There is no fear of unknown things.

In just a few minutes, one hundred war elephants were divided into five routes. In the corridor between the fourth section of the Guanyu Army, they tread five bloody paths, and directly stepped on the ground and killed the ivory and poked the corpses, which were more than a thousand.

The Xiliang soldiers who had tried to assault the division from these weak points were all driven out without any left.

There were even many people who turned around and fled, hating their comrades behind them blocked their way, and directly slashed at the robes a few minutes ago, and the whole scene was in chaos. The exit of each corridor was like a whirlpool black hole that was crazily devouring life.

There are far more soldiers who trampled on each other and died of civil strife than those who trampled on them directly to death.

Li Jue and others who were supervising the battle behind the battlefield, and even Li Li, who was on the front line, all looked numb and stunned. They were at least confused for a minute or two. After the tragedy was at its worst, they recovered a little and tried to command and stop the decline.

"The spearman lined up! Hold on! Force the elephant back! Don't be afraid! The elephant won't hit the gun straight!"

As the sword and shield hands and spearheads were killed and injured, the soldiers on the second line of the Xiliang Army who did not hold shields and held super spears in both hands rushed to the front line. Li Li, who was supervising the battle on the front line, immediately shouted such an order, trying to stabilize his position a little and survive this most confused and chaotic dark moment.

He actually didn't have much courage to resist, but the two armies were crowded together, so he had to advance but not retreat. He could only act as a dead horse and take the opportunity to jump over the wall.

If the entire army collapses directly, the outcome will only be even worse.

Fortunately, the soldiers in Xiliang were numerous and powerful. The troops on the front line were full of blood. They were not affected by the random troubles of Duan Wei from the distance behind them. The fighting was so loud that they didn't know what happened behind them. Countless soldiers holding two-meter-long spears in their hands lined up in the densest formation, almost twenty or thirty spears aimed at an elephant, waiting for the battle, relying on the many people on their side to boost their courage.

Not to mention, this move really had a certain effect when it was just organized. Maybe it was because I was crazy about trampling and charging in the corridor before, and many Ailaoyi's Elephant Barbarians were also passionate and rushed wherever the enemy troops were densely affected.

Then three or four elephant-controlling hands were pricked directly from the elephant saddle at the back of the elephant's neck by a spear more than two meters long.

The elephant lost control and saw the Rulin gun formation again, and began to be timid, changing from rushing straight to passing by horizontally. Although it still broke more than a dozen spears horizontally due to inertia and crushed several spearmen to death, it proved that the elephant could be forced to retreat and turn.

However, there were only a few elephant-controlling hands that were assassinated, and more than ninety elephants remained rushing forward. Both sides were trapped in densely arranged ground meat.

Because the Xiliang spearmen lined up to defend, the soldiers' standing density was much denser than when they were fighting at the beginning of the sword and shield. Whenever a line was stepped on by an elephant, dozens of lives were killed.

However, this resistance gradually took effect. As the war elephants suffered, they slowed down the speed of lifting up at the beginning, and the impact force decreased sharply. In a short while, several war elephants had dozens of spears inserted all over their bodies, and they fell to the ground. The moment they fell down, they naturally crushed several front row Xiliang soldiers who had no time to abandon the gun and retreat.

"These giant beasts can also be stabbed by spears in intensively! The spearmen stepped forward! They all fought hard for me to fight to the death! There were not many elephants, only a few dozen! We have an army of 100,000!" After seeing the elephants stabbed to death and fell to the ground one after another, Li Li, who was supervising the battle on the front line, finally showed an ecstatic expression.

Although this scattered thing is not worthy of happiness at all, and although they are facing countless difficulties today, at least the crisis that attracts the most attention and urgent in front of them does not seem to be completely unsolvable, and people are easily excited.

After a total of deaths in battle and having escaped more than a dozen elephants, the Ailao Yi Elephant soldiers finally calmed down and knew that they could no longer rely on rushing hard according to the combat style of the Southern Barbarians - the Zhuge crossbow on the elephant's back is not a decoration!

At the beginning, the crossbow did not show its power. On the one hand, it was because it was still fighting in the corridor and not on the open battlefield. The elephant only had the enemy on the front and friendly forces on both sides, so splashing arrows was more hindering.

The best space for elephants to play with crossbows is that they are enemies from all directions, and they can hit effective targets when shooting randomly. This is something other long-range soldiers dare not imagine. Because other crossbow soldiers have weak melee capabilities and poor defense effects, once they fall into a siege, they are basically dead.

Only the war elephant is not afraid of surrounds, so the crossbowman on its back can also enjoy the treatment of "being stuck in a heavy siege and still calmly outputting from all directions, without considering escaping", which is a kind of treatment that other long-range peers dare not imagine.

In addition to the formation that was not conducive to performance when it first entered the battle, there were two reasons that restricted the performance of the elephant's crossbow on its back:

One is that when the enemy fled wildly, because the formation density is low, the cover crossbow cannot exert its firepower advantage. In this case, it is better to rush up and continue to step on it. Only when the enemy is denser and the resistance is more determined, can the crossbow soldiers become more excited.

Another point is that the car on the back is limited in weight. You need to install a heavy crossbow, plus two thin, flexible and agile crossbow drivers/loading hands. There is really not much load to load crossbow arrows, so you must save money. Don’t shoot arrows when you can easily chase and kill young people.

Of course, this "not much" must be relatively speaking. It is compared with the crossbows with fixed positions in the city tower and the arrow tower. If it is compared with ordinary single-shot crossbowmen, it is more than enough. At least there are a few boxes of arrows, two or three hundred.

After a brief anxiety, as the Ailao crossbowmen entered the output rhythm, the Xiliang spear formation that had finally resisted the Xiang soldiers' rampage, and was tragic in an instant.

Those spearmen were holding guns in both hands to control such long weapons, so they could not be equipped with shields at all. Moreover, in order to withstand the elephant, they stood denser than usual, basically shoulder-to-shoulder-to-shoulder tips, concentrated the tips of twenty or thirty spears within a square area.

The elephants were forced by such guns to stop rushing again, but crossed their bodies and swept across the front three feet away from the gunmen. At this moment, the crossbow on the elephant's back opened fire.

If you have no idea about the range of three zhang long, you can think of it this way - if you are eating chicken, it will be a face-to-face spray, and the squirt spray will directly make all living beings equal.

Zhuge's crossbow arrow has no tail feathers, has poor flying balance, and has sharply reduced lethality outside thirty steps, making it difficult to aim and hit... All of these disadvantages have been avoided.

It is only ten steps away from three feet, and it is still so dense that even blind people can shoot.

"Puchi pud...Puchi pud..." The strafing sound of the crossbow became increasingly dense, and soon reached the point where even the "she" of the sharp blade entering the flesh in front was covered by the next "puff".

At the most exaggerated moment, one elephant-backed crossbow shot ten times in a row, and shot ten times in ten times. He directly washed his face and sprayed ten Western Liang spearmen to death!

The fire density of this face washing has no less than that of the M270 steel rain during the Katyusha organ washing floor or the "Desert Storm Operation".

The most iron-core, elite and determined Xiliang spearmen under Li Li also ran away in the rain of arrows. They gave up the attempt to resist the battle elephant and fell down like a sickle and were cut by wheat.

"Don't retreat! Don't retreat! Let the army retreat first! Now you will trample on each other!"

Li Li tried to stabilize the formation, but from his words, he could see that his request was getting more and more humble, and he had been reduced from the beginning to "retreating in an orderly manner and not trampling on each other."

Unfortunately, this is still impossible. Li Li's front military flag formation was quickly knocked down during the elephant's rampage. After he was knocked off the horse, he lay on the ground with his head in his arms waiting to die. He felt the shadow behind him darken again and again, and thought he was about to be trampled to death by the elephant's legs.

This mental torture lasted for a long time, but he was in danger. He was buried in the lower body by the corpse of a war horse, and no elephant came to step on his head.

After a long time, until the sound of the elephant gradually faded away, and the sound of the infantry shouting in the Yizhou army in front became louder and louder. It was obvious that the enemy's rear army had followed the elephant to chase and annihilate the remaining enemies.

Li Li then secretly raised his head and wondered in confusion whether he was still alive or had become a dead soul, so the enemy soldiers could not see him?

He saw a cavalry general with a long armored spear slashing the horse sword, and rushed towards his broken flag with a group of elite soldiers. It was obvious that this general was Gao Shun of Guan Yu's central army.

Looking at the specific direction, it seemed that he was aiming straight towards the broken flag, and seemed to ignore him, which made Li Li increasingly doubt whether he had become a ghost and invisible.

Until Gao Shun passed by him a few steps away, he looked back and found that there was a horse corpse here that was suppressed by a horse corpse and could not get up. His upper body was still supporting the ground and his arms were still holding his head and looking around. Moreover, Li Li was wearing an iron helmet, and he saw that his level was good.

Gao Shun and Li Li looked at each other, confirmed Li Li's pain, and their confused and confused eyes were seen. Gao Shun was gentlemanly riding his horse and approached the army, thrust the soldiers to the ground, pulled out the horse-slashing sword and cut Li Li's head with a sword.

"So I haven't become a ghost yet! He can see me!" The last thought flashed through Li Li's mind and was relieved.

Gao Shun and Xu Huang Taishi Ci rushed forward with the main infantry force, followed the bloody path of the war elephant, and crazily killed the defeated soldiers of the Xiliang army.

On the other side of the battlefield, Duan Wei's 30,000 soldiers also lost several thousand after melee and civil strife, but at least 25,000 followers Duan Wei joined the ranks of fighting the wind.

There are also many new recruits who were originally captured by Li Jue, who are generally owned by Li Jue's troops. But as Duan Wei received the "secret order to fight against the thief", he seemed to be able to survive and make contributions after Duan Wei.

They immediately pulled the white sweat towel, which represented the troops directly under Li Jue, threw it away, joined Duan Wei's troops, turned around and rushed back.

Anyway, there is no difference in armor and weapons between the various units of the Xiliang Army. The simple way to distinguish Li Jue and Guo Si Duan Wei from his respective troops is to use the sackcloth to wipe sweat on his shoulders to different colors.

Knowing that the situation was hopeless, Li Jue rode his horse back and fled, heading straight to the Jing River, jumped onto an empty grain ship on his side, cut off the cables tied to the ship, and led dozens of personal soldiers down the river.

Now he can only count on Liu Bei's army that has no ship available on the Jing River, and cannot catch up with him who is going downstream, and abandon his army and flee back to Chang'an. He can save as much as the troops can save, and hope that other generals can help gather the remaining troops.

——
Chapter completed!