Chapter 217

"Fire! Fire! Fire!" Whoosh whoosh whoosh!

With a roar, ten thousand crossbowmen shot all the crossbow arrows in their hands. In an instant, a dark cloud appeared in the sky.

Falling toward the enemy's formation.

The pitch-black crossbow arrows, with matte black arrowheads, carried a bloodthirsty edge.

Swish swish swish!

"Damn it! Shield bearers, raise your shields quickly!"

In this instant, hundreds of people died miserably, and the Xiliang generals were furious.

"Charge! Charge in and kill them!"

"Three-stage shooting!"

"Fire! Fire! Fire!"

Gao Hu looked at the Xiliang large army about to charge over, without a trace of fear on his face, but instead showed a bloodthirsty smile.

Twenty thousand crossbowmen continuously released crossbow arrows. In a breath, they quickly installed the crossbow arrows.

The range of the crossbows was a full hundred zhang, not to mention the lethality.

At a distance of a hundred zhang, Xiliang cavalry might only need a few breaths, but for infantry, it would take more than twenty breaths, which was enough for their crossbowmen to shoot more than a dozen crossbow arrows.

Two or three hundred thousand arrows could cause quite a lot of lethality.

The crossbow arrows turned into a dark cloud, falling from the sky, launching a bloody slaughter on the Xiliang large army.

Their crossbow arrows were heavy arrows, and their lethality was extremely powerful. Without iron armor, as long as they were shot in vital parts, there was almost no possibility of survival.

"My Lord, this Xiliang large army is indeed fierce. Even after suffering such a blow, they are not retreating, but charging even more fiercely."

On the high platform in the middle army, Xi Zhicai stood beside Su Fan, looking at the front line, and said with a serious face as the Xiliang large army was about to charge in.

"These Xiliang generals have rich combat experience. As long as they retreat now, the damage will still be serious, so it's better to charge in one breath and slaughter our crossbowmen."

"Obviously, these generals understand the power of our crossbowmen and want to strangle them."

Su Fan saw through the enemy's plan at a glance, but would he let those people get their wish?

Of course impossible.

The advantages and disadvantages of crossbowmen were very obvious. Long-range strikes were very powerful, and generally, there would be melee sword-shield soldiers or long-spear soldiers to protect them.

And these crossbowmen of Su Fan, besides crossbow arrows on their backs, also had a short sword. Throwing away the crossbow, they could turn into sword soldiers.

His soldiers were soldiers waiting for production. Every day, besides training, they were training. Their physical fitness and military skills could be said to be weapon experts.

Almost all could adapt to various infantry, and even once they obtained war horses in the wild, they could turn into cavalry.

It was just that Su Fan didn't have that many war horses under his command.

In close combat, Su Fan's crossbowmen were not bad either. They wore battle armor and held fine short swords. Besides combat will and experience being inferior to Xiliang soldiers, they had advantages in other aspects.

Especially in terms of weapons and equipment.

The value of an ordinary soldier of Su Fan was estimated to be more than five times that of a Xiliang soldier.

Don't look at the leather armor on these crossbowmen, but in fact, they were wrapped with pieces of iron.

In these years, the total steel production under Su Fan's rule was also constantly increasing, and now the annual output had reached one million tons.

So iron armor in the army had already reached the lowest level of soldiers.

This was quite terrifying.

The armor-wearing rate of the army in this world might be higher than the peak of ancient history, but iron armor was still very rare.

The Imperial Guard and border army of the Divine Han had the highest armor-wearing rate, a full 70%, but the soldiers at the bottom wore battle armor mostly made of wood and bamboo pieces, and those who could have leather armor were low-level officers.

As for iron armor, they were almost all officers above the rank of military commander.

It was precisely this super-high armor-wearing rate that made the Divine Han's large army invincible.

Especially in the border army, the reason why the Divine Han's large army could suppress foreign races was by relying on the advantage of equipment.

In terms of personal physical fitness alone, ordinary soldiers were no match for those foreign races.

After all, one ate vegetables and one ate meat, and the gap was still a bit large.

However, relying on equipment and military formation tactics, the Divine Han suppressed foreign races for thousands of years.

Su Fan's army now had more than 70% wearing iron armor, although it was just iron armor wrapped in leather armor.

The defense was not much worse than ordinary iron armor. After all, this could be considered two layers of armor.

Therefore, after close combat, Su Fan's large army still performed very well. Indeed, in terms of fighting ability, the experienced Xiliang large army might have some advantages.

However, in fact, when the two armies met, the sword-shield soldiers who walked out from both sides of the crossbowmen first fought with the Xiliang infantry, and the advantage was on Su Fan's side.

"Damn it!"

"Sound the retreat!"

In the battle between the two armies, the martial generals of both sides also charged. There were quite a few Gang Refining martial artists under Su Fan's account. Zang Ba didn't move, but Gao Niu and Gao Hu killed their way in.

Both were Gang Refining martial generals, and a sweep of their Gang Qi could take away a large area.

Under the leadership of the two, the sword-shield soldiers began to suppress the Xiliang infantry.

In just a cup of tea, the ten thousand Xiliang large armies in the melee had lost no less than two thousand, and coupled with the losses of no less than hundreds shot by arrows during the charge.

This lost nearly three thousand.

Before the leading martial general could react, a horn sounded in the Xiliang camp. Hearing this sound, the Xiliang infantry fled one after another.

This great battle also made these Xiliang infantry feel different, and their original pride was hit quite a bit.

They understood that the object they were fighting today was not like the previous ones.

"General Niu, this subordinate is incompetent, leading the large army to suffer heavy losses. Please punish me, General."

The vanguard general who led the troops returned to the camp and hurriedly pleaded guilty to Niu Fu. The latter had a gloomy face, looking at this person, with killing intent in his eyes.

Although this Xiliang infantry was not the most elite warrior of the Xiliang border army, it was also the direct line of Xiliang. Losing three thousand troops today was not small.

You know, in the previous great battle for more than half a month, there were no such losses of troops.

He only had twenty thousand troops here, of which the real Xiliang elites were only fifty thousand, of which only ten thousand were Xiliang cavalry and forty thousand were infantry.

As for the other fifteen thousand, they were all scraped from local areas to show off their power. They could win battles, but once there was a headwind, these fifteen thousand large armies might become a threat instead.

"Drag him out and give him eighty heavy boards."

Niu Fu said coldly.

"General, wait."

Just as Niu Fu's personal guards in the camp were about to move, Xu Rong, who was sitting on the side, hurriedly stood up and said.

"Hmm! Do you have anything to say?"

Niu Fu was a bit unhappy.

"General, today's battle is not a crime of war. This army is extraordinary."

"In my observation, the large army that appeared today has a strict military posture, a dense aura, and fine equipment. It is probably the elite large army among the Guandong feudal lords."

"I don't know which side's army this is, to have such financial resources?"