A battle with a huge disparity in strength ended with the complete victory of the Tang Dynasty's army. The glorious result stunned all the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty who participated in the battle. This made them full of confidence again. They were not afraid of the next battle at all. Instead, they were full of enthusiasm.
In the short battle, not only did they completely eliminate the bandit team, but they also seized 100 carriages of military provisions. At this time, Dongnu Province was short of food. With these provisions, they could also reduce the pressure on the rear, so that the rear would not need to transport too much food to the front line.
The current problem was the lack of personnel to transport the food carriages. Ang Lee only had 300 men under his command, and he did not have any other auxiliary troops. If he divided 100 men to transport the food, the remaining troops would not be enough. Therefore, Ang Lee decided to let some of the captured bandits be in charge of the food carriages and let them escort the food carriages with his team.
More than 500 captured bandits, most of whom were ordinary people. They became bandits because they had no other choice. After Ang Lee's education, they all expressed regret. Ang Lee directly dismissed more than 200 wounded bandits and let them go back to their hometowns to make a living. The other 300 were responsible for escorting 100 food carriages with his team and providing reliable logistical supplies for his team.
After a little rest, the troops continued their journey. They continued south for more than 30 li before reaching a fork in the road. From this fork in the road, they could directly enter the other road of Pan Long Mountain. From there, they could easily circle behind Pang Gui's bandits. Since the elite troops under Li An's command could wipe out the 4,000 bandits under Zhao Yong's command, they could naturally wipe out the bandits under Pang Gui's command. For Li An, this wasn't difficult at all.
In order to prevent these captured bandits from running away, Li An's two hundred and fifty men led the way at the front, leaving behind fifty men at the back of the group to escort these three hundred captured bandits to transport the rations. If these bandits dared to play any tricks, they would immediately eliminate them.
The path leading to the fork was very difficult to traverse. It took them an entire day to traverse the short distance of a dozen li. When they arrived at the other side of the mountain, the bandits under Pang Gui's command were already sixty li away. With no other choice, Li An and his men could only launch a fierce pursuit. It took them two days to catch up with Pang Gui's rear guard, which was the team that transported the grain. This team had fewer people, only three hundred men and horses. They were also carrying a hundred carriages of grain. They were at the back of the line and were at least five li away from the main force in front of them.
Perhaps in Pang Gui's opinion, there was no enemy behind them at all. The provisions were absolutely safe behind them, so there was no need to send extra troops to protect them. It was precisely this carelessness that made Pang Gui pay a heavy price.
With a surprise attack by Ang Lee's 100 men, the last 100 carriages of provisions and 300 bandits under Pang Gui's command were eliminated. Out of the 300 bandits, 100 ran away, 100 were killed, and the remaining 100 could only choose to surrender.
The bandits who ran away naturally ran forward and told Pang Gui the news. Immediately, Pang Gui was so angry that he wanted to tear apart the Tang Army with his bare hands.
"Chief, provisions are the foundation of our army. Now that the provisions have been attacked by the enemy, we have no provisions. The morale of the army is slack!"
"Yes! Chief, we can't go any further. We must immediately take back the provisions. "
"Take back the provisions, take back the provisions."
A group of small leaders said excitedly. In their hearts, nothing was more important than provisions. If they had provisions, they would have everything. If they didn't have provisions, their troops would soon collapse, and everything they had would no longer exist. This was obviously a very difficult thing for the bandit leaders to accept. Therefore, they had to take back the lost provisions as soon as possible.
Pang Gui said doubtfully, "Why are there enemy troops behind us? How is this possible? Did they fly here? "
Obviously, Pang Gui was very clear about the surrounding terrain. Their five armies were moving side by side, leaving no gap for the enemy troops. So, how could the enemy troops appear behind them? This was really strange.
Not only Pang Gui couldn't figure it out, but the other small leaders also couldn't figure it out. No matter what, the officials shouldn't appear behind them.
"Chief, could it be that one of the armies was defeated and the enemy troops went behind us?"
"Yes! Other than this reason, I really can't think of any other reason. But it doesn't seem very possible! "
"There are four thousand soldiers in each army, and eight thousand in the main army. How could they be defeated so easily?"
"If that's not the case, what other reason could there be? Could it be that there are disobedient people nearby who pretended to be officials to rob us of our provisions?"
"That's possible. Now that the food shortage is serious, there are too many people who don't have any food to cook. It's not impossible for them to rob us after seeing our food. Pan Long Mountain is so big, it's not difficult to hide hundreds of people."
The small leaders were puzzled for a while and focused their suspicions on their peers from Panlong Mountain. They felt that it was very likely that some ignorant bandit from Panlong Mountain robbed them. Although they had already subdued all the bandits in the south, it was definitely not all of them. It was inevitable that there would be bandits who hid deeper that they didn't notice or didn't want to be subdued. It made sense that they pretended to be soldiers to rob them of their provisions.
Pang Gui's killing intent rose when he thought that the bandits who robbed his provisions might be from Panlong Mountain. He wanted to teach these people a lesson to vent his anger.
"Pass down my order. Vanguard to rear guard, rear guard to vanguard. All troops move out to take back the provisions."
Pang Gui shouted very loudly.
Immediately, the four thousand main army turned around and prepared to eliminate Ang Lee's army.
Facing Pang Gui's four thousand soldiers, Ang Lee repeated the same trick. He also found a sniping position halfway up the mountain and let Chen Long lead the main army to defend the mountain path.
When Pang Gui's army surged forward, Ang Lee also targeted the small bandit leaders and killed more than thirty people in one go. It was even smoother than when he attacked Zhao Yong's group. In addition, Pang Gui's army was originally the rear guard who was charging at the front. Their fighting strength was relatively weaker and naturally easier to deal with.
As the bandits approached, Chen Long also ordered the archers under his command to start firing. Immediately, more casualties were inflicted on the charging bandits. A large number of bandits fell and their formation was completely messed up.
Pang Gui was dumbfounded by the sudden change. He no longer thought that the other party was from Panlong Mountain because no bandit could have such strong fighting strength. The range of the other party's crossbow was two to three times that of his own. This could only be the elite soldiers of the imperial army and definitely not the bandits of Panlong Mountain.
"The imperial army is actually behind us. Could it be that our troops have been defeated?"
Pang Gui muttered to himself. At this moment, he was nervous. If one of their troops was really eliminated, then they would be too passive.
"Map, give me the map."
A small bandit leader shouted. He took a look at the map and said, "Leader, from the map, it can only be that Zhao Yong's troops have been defeated. Otherwise, the imperial army would not be able to get behind us."
Pang Gui also glanced at the map on horseback, and immediately agreed with his subordinate's opinion. This immediately surprised him. Although Zhao Yong was not as good as him, he was still a very powerful person. He did not expect that he would be defeated so easily.
"Leader, Zhao Yong has four thousand men under his command. To be able to defeat them so quickly, it must be the elite soldiers of the imperial army. Moreover, there must be a lot of them. The imperial army must have sent out all their elites. Therefore, the defense of Gui Chang City should be weaker. "
A small bandit leader said.
Pang Gui said, "So what? If there is no food, our army will not be able to reach Gui Chang City. We will starve to death halfway. No matter what, the food must be taken back. Even if we have to pay a high price, we must take back as much food as possible."
Although he lost hundreds of men in an instant, Pang Gui was still unwilling to give up. After all, food was too important for him. Without food, his troops would soon collapse. Only by taking back food could his troops continue to exist.
Under the urging of the small bandit leaders, Pang Gui's troops continued to attack desperately. However, under the attack of the elite soldiers of the Tang dynasty, the attack had no effect. Moreover, Ang Lee's sniper was not to be trifled with. He specifically targeted the small bandit leaders. Soon, all the small bandit leaders who were commanding the troops in the front were killed. The bandits who had lost their commander could only flee in all directions.
"How is this possible? There are only 200 soldiers in the imperial army. How can they be so strong? Our troops have lost more than 500 men in just a few attacks. We can't even touch the imperial army."
"If this goes on, we will lose at least half of our troops. Only then can we defeat these 200 soldiers! Who knows how many more reinforcements the imperial army will have? It can't be that there are only 200 soldiers! "
"Yes! They are so difficult to deal with with with only 200 soldiers. If there are hundreds more reinforcements, we will be defeated. "
"I finally understand why Leader Zhao Yong's troops were defeated. The imperial army is so strong. It's terrifying."
The small bandit leaders were frightened. They did not want to die. All the small bandit leaders who were commanding the troops were killed. They were terrified.
Pang Gui also saw the strength of the imperial army. It made him very scared. However, at this moment, he had no other way out except to take back the food. Without food, his troops would be doomed sooner or later. If he took back the food, there was still a chance of survival.
"The imperial army is small after all. The arrows are limited. As long as everyone rushes forward, we will be able to destroy the imperial army."
Pang Gui shouted.
A small bandit leader beside him picked up a heavy shield and covered his head and body. Then, he urged his horse forward and was ready to command the bandits to continue the attack.
Ang Lee looked at the small bandit leader and smiled. This foolish bandit thought that he would be safe with a large shield. In fact, he was just deceiving himself. In front of Ang Lee's sniper rifle, a wooden shield was like a thin piece of paper.
"Die!"
Li An could roughly determine the body of the bandit leader behind the shield. He aimed at the bandit leader's chest and fired.
Instantly, the shield and the bandit leader fell to the ground. Obviously, they were dead.
This small bandit leader died as soon as he rushed out. This made Pang Gui and the rest of the small bandit leaders extremely terrified. They could tell that Ang Lee would be killed as long as a small bandit leader commanded. The strangest thing was that none of the small bandit leaders were hit by arrows. They all died mysteriously.
"What is going on? What is going on? Why did all the leaders die as soon as they went out? What kind of terrifying weapon does the enemy have?"
Pang Gui was also scared. His body was trembling.
"Leader, I will send people to get their corpses back."
One of the leaders didn't dare to go forward himself, so he sent his subordinates to snatch the corpses, which were the corpses of the dead leaders. They were very curious as to how these leaders had died, and why there was almost no trace of them being killed.
Soon, the corpses of the three bandit leaders were brought back. There was not a single arrow on the three corpses. It was obvious that they were not killed by arrows.
"Leader, one of them has a hole in the back of his head. The other two are bleeding from the chest and back. They are all pierced through. But why are there no arrow shafts? Could it be that the crossbow is so powerful that all the arrow shafts have passed through? This power is too terrifying! "
A small bandit leader exclaimed after checking the corpses.
Pang Gui took a look at the corpses and gasped. The strength of the enemy army was too terrifying. The small bandit leaders under his command were all elites, but all of them were pierced through. This terrifying piercing power must have been caused by a powerful weapon. Moreover, the accuracy of the arrows was also very high. How could they not be nervous when the enemy army had such a powerful weapon?
In Pang Gui and the others' eyes, the powerful weapon of the enemy army was simply a divine weapon that could kill their main commander. It was too big of a threat to them. Once the bandit leaders were dead, the rest of the bandits would be like a plate of loose sand. In this way, the enemy army could do whatever they wanted.
"Leader, an inch-thick shield was pierced through. After that, it even pierced through a body covered in bamboo armor. What kind of weapon is this? How can it be so powerful? This is too terrifying. "
A small bandit leader held the pierced shield and said with lingering fear.
Pang Gui looked at the shield that had a small hole in it. The shock in his heart could not be described with words. He was simply too shocked. The imperial army actually had such a powerful weapon. How could they fight against the imperial army?
"Don't retreat. Everyone, charge! Charge!"
Although the enemy army was powerful, Pang Gui was not willing to give up. He wanted to defeat the enemy army in front of him and see what kind of powerful weapon could pierce through an inch-thick shield and a small bandit leader wearing bamboo armor.
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