C290

Gongsun Xu brought over fifty guards and rushed forward, but unexpectedly, they were met with continuous arrows. Even though they were all wearing sturdy armor, their warhorses did not wear any, and very quickly, a dozen of them fell to the ground as they were hit by the arrows. The riders on their horses also fell to the ground. Fortunately, there were not many people who were in charge and their riding skills were of the first order so there was no major chaos. However, those who fell to the ground fell heavily and it would be difficult for them to get up to fight again in a short period of time.

Previously, when he was under Xiao Pei City, the other party didn't even have that many crossbows attacking him. Could it be that Guan Yu had brought along all of the crossbows from Xiao Pei City? Because he didn't have a thick enough shield to block the heavy cavalry's charge, Guan Yu collected all of the bows and arrows in the military and tried to replace them with dense arrows. Looking at the current situation, Guan Yu's plan was effective as it successfully slowed down the speed of Gongsun Xu and his men's charge.

Gongsun Xu frowned, if all the warhorses were wearing heavy armor, he would dare to rush forward like this, using the strong impact force to break the enemy's shield array. Unfortunately, all the warhorses were not wearing any armor, and there were very few of them, so running into them like this was tantamount to seeking death.

He raised his spear and shouted, "Stop!"

The twenty odd men's movements were uniform. At the same time, they reached out their hands to tighten the reins. The warhorses only rushed forward five or six steps before stopping.

"Crossbow!" Gongsun Xu shouted once again. Since he could not rush over, he could only use his crossbow to attack. Even if he did not win much, it would give the soldiers a little more time.

Hou Yong and the rest quickly hung their weapons on their horses, took off their crossbows and started to pull the trigger.

In just a few breaths of time, all one hundred crossbow bolts flew out, at such a close distance, the powerful force penetrated the several inches thick wooden shield, and then passed through the bodies of the Xuzhou Army soldiers behind them. The dozens of Xuzhou Army soldiers standing in the front fell to the ground screaming, but the people at the back quickly caught their shields, and did not give Gongsun Xu the chance to rush in.

Gongsun Xu hurriedly turned his head around to look. The warriors behind him had most of them changed into armors and were now donning heavy armors on their horses. They would start charging in at most another one hundred breaths. They had already bought enough time, even if the opposing Xuzhou Army launched a fierce charge, it would not be able to stop the warriors behind them from donning their armor.

Just then, a loud shout came from the forest not far away, "Release the arrows!"

Hearing the voice, he knew it was Guan Yu. Right after he finished speaking, a large group of arrows pierced through the sky and shot towards Gongsun Xu who had just turned his horse. What he was waiting for was the best opportunity to attack, and the main target to attack was not Gongsun Xu, but the black cloud. Guan Yu thought that as long as Gongsun Xu fell, even if he had three heads and six arms, he would not be able to escape.

Hou Yong and the rest turned pale with fright, and shouted one after the other, "General, be careful!" Amidst the shouts, he quickly turned his head, attempting to rush over to help.

There was no need for Hou Yong and the others to warn him, when Gongsun Xu heard the dull bow sounds, he immediately became more vigilant. The black cloud definitely did not have time to turn around, and if he turned around to block, it would be very difficult for him to completely block the incoming arrows. As long as the black cloud was hit, it was very likely that he would fall to the ground together with his horse. In a split-second, Gongsun Xu made a choice that stunned everyone. He suddenly squeezed the horse's abdomen with force, and an iron bridge fell onto the horse's back. The long spear in his hand danced like a windmill, firmly protecting the black cloud.

With a crisp clanging sound, all of the arrows aimed at the black cloud were blocked by Gongsun Xu. The arrows aimed at him were all blocked by the armor, unable to harm him in the slightest.

Guan Yu, who was in the forest, was shocked and angry at the same time. The attack that he was so determined to get was actually countered by Gongsun Xu so easily. At this moment, Guan Yu suddenly had a feeling that he was powerless to kill these thieves. Previously, when he was at Xiao Pei City, the damage caused by the soldiers' crossbow arrows was minimal, but at that time, the distance was still very far, and today, it was merely a distance of forty odd steps. It was precisely within the scope of the bow's greatest might, yet it could not penetrate through the armor on Gongsun Xu's body.

Chen Gong and the others who were behind saw that Gongsun Xu had successfully escaped death, and all of them shouted out in excitement. Hou Yong and the rest had already rushed to Gongsun Xu's front, protecting him as they rushed to the back.

Guan Yu regained his senses and anxiously shouted: "Catch him! Hurry up and chase after them and surround them! "

Guan Yu knew very well that once the heavy cavalry started charging, even if his side had a few dozen times stronger opponents, he would still not be able to stop them. The only way to prevent himself from encountering the kind of one-sided slaughter like when he was fighting the Xiao Pei City. If not for the fact that he was unable to fight on his horse, he would have rushed out to fight Gongsun Xu to the death long ago.

The warriors of the Xuzhou Army were also clear on this point. No one wanted to repeat the same mistake and send their heads to their opponents, so they all shouted and quickly chased after them.

Unexpectedly, the black cloud suddenly shrieked miserably, and with a somersault, it fell onto the ground, throwing Gongsun Xu off his head and flying back to the ground. It turned out that the few Xuzhou Army soldiers were in a hurry to throw out their spears. One of the spears grazed the armor of someone on the ground and changed direction to hit the right hind leg of the black cloud.

Hou Yong was so scared that his soul almost left his body. He did not care about the large group of pursuers who were close by, he immediately jumped off his horse and rushed towards Gongsun Xu.

Chen Gong who was at the back also became pale at the sight. If anything happened to Gongsun Xu, the entire Bingzhou Army would be done for! He whipped his horse hard and quickly charged forward. Even if he had to die in battle, he had to protect Gongsun Xu's life.

Most of them were elites that Gongsun Xu had picked out when he was creating his whole team. Ever since they followed Gongsun Xu, they had repeatedly achieved meritorious military service, and the rewards they had received were also very generous. Forget about the money and rations, just the amount of land they had obtained was enough for their families to live without worries for the rest of their lives. If something were to happen to General Gongsun, his anger would definitely burn away everything, and the whole family's old and young lives might even be lost just like that.

One of them shouted angrily, "Charge over there and protect the general!"

The rest of the people quickly complied, and rushed forward as fast as they could.

Gongsun Xu rolled on the ground five or six times before he stopped. He felt his mind was in a complete mess, and stars were shooting out of his eyes. He tried his best to sit up, but a strong feeling of dizziness overcame him. His hands could not obey his commands. He tried several times, but to no avail. At this time, a pair of hands suddenly helped him up, followed by Hou Yong's extremely anxious shout.

"General, are you alright?"

Gongsun Xu shook his head hard, then raised his right hand to pat his forehead.

Seeing Gongsun Xu not saying a word, Hou Yong was even more alarmed, and immediately asked: "General, how is your injury?"

Gongsun Xu shook his head, and said solemnly: "Let's go!"

At this time, the Xuzhou Army soldiers had already rushed over, the remaining 20 personal guards rushed over on their horses, all of them disregarding their own lives, no matter what, they had to protect the life of the general, otherwise, not only would they let down the kindness of the general, there would be only death waiting for them when they turned back.

Bang! Bang bang! More than twenty war horses struck the shield array s of the Xuzhou Army, followed by countless pikes and spears. Most of the personal guards on the horses were not injured, but countless bloody holes were pierced through their groins, and they died one after another. The personal guards who were lying on the ground got up, and used all of their strength to hack at the shields in front of them, blocking the attacks from enemies who were ten times stronger than them.

However, their deaths gave Gongsun Xu some precious time. When the personal guards rushed over, Hou Yong quickly pulled his war horse, supported Gongsun Xu on his horse, and held onto the reins as he ran back. As for the black cloud that was wailing on the ground, it could not escape at all.

At this time, Guan Yu had already spurred his horse out of the forest, and shouted to his soldiers to chase after him, and the heavy cavalry s were already at a distance of 40 to 50 steps away. If he did not leave Gongsun Xu behind before they rushed over, he was afraid that he would never have the chance to do so again.

Hou Yong held onto the reins and sprinted forward a dozen or so steps. When he turned his head to look, the enemy had already caught up to him. With that said, she clenched her ring head knife and rushed over.

Gongsun Xu simply did not have enough time to stop him, as he rushed into the midst of the enemies. He reached out to grab his spear, but it wasn't because he grabbed onto anything, and only now did he realize that his spear had already left his hand the moment he fell off his horse. He heaved a long sigh and lashed his warhorse forward.