Du Qi was still calmly standing at the entrance to the camp, quietly waiting. Hou Junji had not immediately pursued the army when it retreated yesterday, so Du Qi's army had already made detailed arrangements for the defense of the camp.
The distance was rapidly closing.
When Hou Junji's eight thousand Tang soldiers were around one hundred paces from the camp, the archers in the camp nocked their arrows and fired. Du Qi's soldiers had all been recruited from the Western Regions, and many of them were even from Yizhou. They had no sense of belonging to the Tang Dynasty. On the contrary, they were loyal to Du Qi.
Only by following Du Qi would they not starve and be able to feed their families.
Now that the Tang Dynasty's army was here to destroy Du Qi, they were essentially cutting off their food supply. Thus, these soldiers under Du Qi's command began to exert all their strength. One arrow after another flew through the air, whistling through the air as they landed, and in the blink of an eye, they were like raindrops hitting banana leaves, plopping into the ranks of the Tang soldiers.
In a flash, more than one hundred people had been killed.
The Tang army's offensive was thwarted.
After all, the Tang soldiers Hou Junji had brought with him were all elites, veterans of the battlefield. When these people charged forward, although they paused for a moment when they encountered the arrows, they immediately sped up and charged forward without slowing down in the slightest.
"Kill! Kill them!"
Soldiers in the crowd began to shout.
The soldiers shouted to each other, responding to the soldiers around them while also cheering themselves on.
Du Qi looked at the charging Tang soldiers, his eyes so deep that they seemed ready to devour everything. With the casualties of the Tang soldiers, more and more soldiers were killed or injured on the way.
The distance was also closing.
Eighty paces!
Sixty paces!
At sixty paces, more ballista bolts were fired from the camp. Compared to bows, ballista bolts were more powerful, and they traveled in a straight line. At sixty paces, each bolt could kill two or three people.
Even so, this did not stop the Tang army's advance.
The Tang army was still charging forward.
As a veteran general on the battlefield, Hou Junji had long ago gotten used to killing and death. The lives of ordinary soldiers were of no concern to Hou Junji, and he didn't care about them.
How could there be no deaths on the battlefield?
If he wanted to live, then he had to show his abilities and charge forward with all his might.
Hou Junji only cared about the final result.
When Hou Junji was less than fifty paces from the camp, a dazzling smile appeared on his face as he turned to Gao Shilian and said, "Jiedushi Gao, today, we will attack Du Qi's camp. It will take at most two hours to break through Du Qi's defense. "
"Du Qi thinks he's great, but in fact, all his achievements are based on the bravery of the Tang dynasty's army. Back then, he won every battle because of the foundation laid by His Majesty, and because he had the support of many tiger generals. "
"Although Du Qi has a plan now, the problem is that Du Qi's military strength is nothing to be afraid of."
"They're just a motley crew."
Hou Junji said, "A tiger leading a flock of sheep wants to fight with a pack of lions? That's just a fool's dream. In this battle, I will let him see what it means to have an army made of iron. The soldiers of my Tang dynasty are unparalleled in offense, and no one can stand against them. "
As he said these words, Hou Junji had a smug look on his face. In his view, Du Qi's defeat was certain.
Gao Shilian said, "Du Qi is just deliberately mystifying things. Yesterday, Du Qi retreated thirty li to show his respect to His Majesty, but he was no match for His Majesty. "
Hou Junji said, "Jiedushi Gao's words are exactly what I want to say. Du Qi is just so-so. "
The two of them flattered each other.
Both of them belittled Du Qi.
Su Dingfang stood on the side, his brow deeply furrowed. In the current situation, Su Dingfang believed that Du Qi was about to make his move. Su Dingfang had previously learned that Du Qi had set up traps outside the camp. If the army approached, they would trigger these traps and cause the ground to explode, injuring countless soldiers.
In the blink of an eye, the distance between them was already around forty steps. Su Dingfang was even more worried. Du Qi, who was at the entrance of the barracks, had a smile on his face. Looking at the troops rushing over, he suddenly grinned.
Boom!!!
At forty paces, the first landmine exploded.
The explosion of the landmine sent the Tang soldiers who were stepping on it flying into the air. The surrounding Tang soldiers were also thrown into the air by the explosion, their flesh and blood flying everywhere.
The first wave of landmines had killed ten-some people.
Hou Junji's eyes flew open, his heart thumping against his chest. Everything had happened too suddenly, and he was completely caught off guard. Before Hou Junji could recover from his shock, the explosions had already begun to ring out.
The dense explosions threw the earth outside the camp into the air, and countless Tang soldiers were sent flying into the air. By the time they fell to the ground, they were already dead or had fainted from the explosion.
The successive explosions had instantly killed several hundred people.
The soldiers at the front no longer dared to charge.
It was too frightening.
The ground in front of them seemed to be a mountain of blades and a sea of flames, perhaps even more frightening.
But while the Tang soldiers at the front were not charging, the soldiers at the back were still pushing forward, and some of the soldiers were unable to control themselves and ended up stepping on landmines that exploded.
After a long while, the soldiers at the back stopped, not daring to continue forward. But in this area of forty paces to one hundred paces, the arrows and ballista bolts were still rapidly firing, reaping one life after another.
The Tang army continued to suffer casualties.
Du Qi saw that the Tang army had stopped moving forward, and he turned to look in Hou Junji's direction. He couldn't see Hou Junji because of the dense mass of soldiers, but he knew where Hou Junji was.
How should Hou Junji deal with this?
Hou Junji gulped. His expression had yet to recover from his shock, and now, it was tinged with fear. The successive explosions just now had seemed like the heavens were falling apart, and also like an earth dragon had flipped over.
Not only had the earth been sent flying into the air, the ground had also been trembling. Hou Junji's soldiers all had looks of fear on their faces.
Gao Shilian's face was also ghastly pale.
Gao Shilian was a scholar who had lived for more than half his life, and he had seen many storms. He had never seen anything like this before, and the sight of his soldiers being slaughtered was completely beyond his imagination. Even as Gao Shilian rode on his horse, his hands trembled as he gripped the reins.
He was somewhat afraid.
Gao Shilian was actually brimming with fighting spirit when it came to his appointment as Regional Commander, and he was certain that he would take up the post. No matter what Du Qi wanted to do, Du Qi would have to submit in the end.
But at this moment, Gao Shilian had an ill foreboding.
The situation wasn't good!
Du Qi had such a powerful weapon, but the Tang Dynasty didn't. For a moment, Gao Shilian's heart sank, and he felt that his future was bleak.
Gao Shilian even began to feel regret.
If he had known that this would happen, he wouldn't have gotten involved in this mess. He should have followed Li Xiaogong and pretended to faint.
Then, he wouldn't have ended up in such an embarrassing situation.
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