Mythical Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1784: Chapter 1665: Destruction in Progress (Part 2)

Although with the two strong bulls and solid framework, it can basically knock away any enemies in front, even the regular heavy crossbows can’t stop the raging bulls before their physical strength is exhausted, but this absolutely does not include crossbow mechanisms.

Back then, the medium Qin crossbow taught the war chariot a lesson, and now the medium crossbow machine can definitely teach the Dingling people a lesson too.

”Cao Xing, Hao Meng, take the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry around to the rear of the war chariots, let the Wolf Cavalry conduct a barrage.” Chen Gong said to Cao Xing and Hao Meng.

As for the front camp, Chen Gong and Zhuge Liang shared the same view, it basically can’t be saved. To be precise, without war chariots to counter the enemy’s war chariot charge, everything on the enemy’s charge path can’t be preserved.

”Yes!” The three all clasped their fists and then quickly ran to handle their respective tasks.

”You are Yin Luo, right?” Chen Gong said to the young man beside him who seemed a bit panicked.

”Reporting to the Chief Historian, yes.” Yin Luo nodded and said.

”Go find Zhuge Kongming, tell him I have deployed troops.” Chen Gong gazed ahead without turning his head and spoke, knowing this explanation was enough when passed on.

Cheng Lian quickly led a group to set up a row of medium crossbow machines on the fence wall of the Central Army Camp, and without needing further instructions, everyone was ready. With a command, special arrows over seven feet long were loaded into the crossbow machines.

As the strings wound, the crossbow machines successfully completed their upper string, and the soldiers operating them immediately began aiming using the sights. After selecting targets, they promptly pulled the triggers. The great power of the crossbow machines caused a sharp roar at the moment the arrows were shot.

Most of the arrows missed, despite having sights, the lack of stabilizing devices led to low accuracy.

Fortunately, the few that hit created astonishing results, certain great power crossbow machines even pinned down bulls with a single arrow, such devastating force killed the bulls almost instantly. As they fell forward due to inertia, the powerful inertia of the chariot crashed directly onto the already dead bull’s spine.

The powerful impact was enough to break the bull’s bones, however, such a chariot suddenly stopped in collision lacked safety belts and airbags, which sent the Dingling soldiers on it flying.

”Hmph, using war chariots for camp raids, you must be quite confident. If it were cavalry, I’d find it challenging to deal with, but with such large targets as chariots, the chances of hitting are high.” Chen Gong sneered.

”Adding shield plates to the chariot to defend against heavy crossbows, sounds clever but who would be foolish enough to attack a vast target like a chariot head-on with arrows.” Chen Gong squinted into the distance, then issued orders for Cheng Lian to engage in free shooting.

Although Zhuge Liang’s performance wasn’t flawless, the mere act of clearing the battlefield and letting loose showed his vision.

[Zhuge Kongming lacks not intelligence, but experience. He probably intends to burn down the entire front camp, a fine emergency plan indeed but using it directly shows Zhuge Kongming’s uncommon ruthlessness.]

Chen Gong silently gazed at the front camp, hoping to see Zhuge Liang, previously he found Zhuge Liang the young man to look refined and courteous, now though, that impression was thoroughly erased, his resolve was indeed no joke.

With the arrival of the second wave of arrows, another dozen Dingling war chariots were scrapped as their oxen and horses were killed, and the massive damage to the preceding chariots led to numerous crashes among the chariots behind.

Car crashes between the war chariots nearly wiped out the soldiers on the chariots in an instant and the elite cavalry coordinating between the gaps, indicating the terrifying nature of the crashes.

Meanwhile, Wei Yan finally tackled the Dingling People’s rear army, exposing the entire rear ends of the war chariots to Wei Yan.

Since Wei Yan led the Xiliang Iron Cavalry to cut down the riders coordinating with the chariots, Dingling archers on the chariots kept shooting at the Iron Cavalry, however, with repulsion protection from Xu Huang’s Legion Talent and the Iron Cavalry’s own defensive power, the arrows were mere trifles.

In any case, as long as no critical hit occurred, these arrows were merely superficial wounds that the Xiliang Iron Cavalry need not overly concern themselves with.

Thus, although the archers on the Dingling war chariots worked hard, it had almost no effect on the Xiliang Iron Cavalry under repulsion protection.

After all, this protection form essentially acted as a force field, causing a decline in attack speed for close combat, but for arrows, it equated to slowing down their motion speed due to repulsion.

The problem with arrows is their terminal speed directly impacts piercing damage, and after forcefully reducing part of their terminal speed, these arrows only inflicted minor injuries on the Xiliang Iron Cavalry.

But enduring more, the constantly undefeated Iron Cavalry of Xiliang appeared indeed quite intimidating.

With their hands and feet freed using war chariots, the Dingling archers had decent accuracy, but the strong defensive power of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry, coupled with the repulsion protection from Xu Huang’s Legion Talent, greatly reduced the damage from Dingling arrows.

While they couldn’t achieve the exaggerated unbroken defense like Li Jue’s eggshell, they reached another horrifying achievement - being shot and not killed.

Those hanging ten or more arrows, seeming like a sieve, waged battle holding a horse-cutting sword in one hand and a saber in the other, which had a huge psychological impact on the clueless Dingling people.

In truth, the collapse of the Dingling rear was largely due to the many arrows from the Dingling archers hanging off the Xiliang Iron Cavalry soldiers, but despite such arrow wounds, the Iron Cavalry continued to chop away, creating an almost undying situation, deeply stressing the Dingling people.

”Are you guys okay?” Wei Yan looked at the soldiers converging on him, having some doubts upon seeing their bodies pierced with seven or eight arrows.

”Just superficial wounds, the arrowheads didn’t penetrate even halfway.” Zhou Xianxiao dismissively said, ”The Dingling arrows lack power, a little ointment will do the trick, they’re no problem.”

Seeing the military officers seemingly shot to pieces yet in high spirits, Wei Yan couldn’t help but crack a smile; were it not for their faces showing no signs of excessive blood loss, he might’ve believed the arrows merely broke skin.

”Come on, follow me to crush these war chariots!” Wei Yan heartily laughed, prompting his troops to accelerate towards the exposed rear of the chariots, now unhindered by elite cavalry.

As Wei Yan readied to act, Cao Xing and Hao Meng had already led the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry to circle behind the Dingling people, needing no direction from Wei Yan, their cavalry promptly attacked the inadequately defended rear.

”Now!” Cao Xing proudly launched three arrows from one bow, each piercing through gaps in the chariot framework and instantly taking down the drivers, followed by Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry drawing their bows and hitting the cart-pulling oxen and horses, causing turbulence that flipped the chariots.

At this time, Wu Dun and Yin Li had arrived with kerosene, and as war chariots crossed a certain line, the tung oil canisters were immediately launched.

Afterward, flaming arrows shot rapidly from both sides of the war chariots, using carriages made from flammable materials like spruce, fir, and pine, fueled by tung oil to ignite ferociously.

In the instant the chariot frameworks ignited, the oxen and horses pulling the carts caught fire from the Tung oil splatter, fur igniting, quickly losing any previous straight charge ability, they panicked and raged.

With the crazed charge, oxen and horses dragged the war chariots toward destruction, as flames erupted the cart-pulling beings, gripped by fear, madness ensued, losing all control, smashing the chariots to pieces amid the chaotic collision.