After Gongsun Zan learned the news, he sent a message to Yanmen County asking Duan Xuan to send reinforcements to help resist Xianbei. At the same time, he left Tian Kai to lead three thousand soldiers and horses to guard Yuyang, and then ordered him to immediately cross the Yanshan Mountains to fight back.
He asked Gongsun Ji to take a message to Cheng Xu: "You concentrate on guarding Yijing. I will lead the troops to attack the enemies in the east. Once the east retreats, the siege of Yijing will be relieved." Cheng Xu disagreed and said to Gongsun Ji : "When a prince is on an expedition, he always wants to win a quick victory, but he doesn't want Yi Jing to be surrounded and unable to provide food and grass supplies. Once the rebel army insists on not fighting, he only has a month's supply of food and grass. Once it is used up, the situation in Youzhou will change. It’s all ruined.”
Gongsun Ji thought it made sense, just like Cheng Xu asked for advice. Cheng Xu added: "You can reply to the prince in this way, saying that although our army has a small number of soldiers, it has sufficient food. Although the Yuan thieves have a large number of soldiers, they have come from a long distance to support the Wuhuan army, so the food expenses must be exaggerated." . It is better for the prince to advance to Fanyang and help Yi Jing. When Yi Jing runs out of food and has to withdraw his troops, the prince will lead his army to pursue him, and he will naturally win a complete victory."
Gongsun Ji conveyed Cheng Xu's words to Gongsun Zan. Gongsun Zan also agreed. He said: "Cheng Xu is still somewhat resourceful, so let's just defend the city." However, he thought that this was Yuan Shao's first attack on Youzhou, and he had to defend the city to show weakness, and he was still a little unhappy. , and then said: "It's just that before we defend the city, we have to fight a small battle to destroy the majesty of the Yuan thieves and make the thieves fear me."
So Gongsun Zan ordered 60,000 troops to go south from Anci, Guangyang, and slowly arrived at Fanyang. He led 4,000 fine cavalry to the south quickly, passing Fanyang without entering, crossing Yishui and Shunshui one after another, and reached the west of Gaoyang City. Gaoyang is only separated from Yijing by a river. This time Yuan Shao launched a large-scale attack on Yijing and used it as an outpost to attack Yijing and also as a hub for transporting grain and crops.
Gongsun Zan arrived too quickly. When he arrived thirty miles west of Gaoyang City, Yuan's army in Gaoyang was still gathering and reorganizing. When Yuan Shao discovered that Yan's army was heading south, he was quite panicked for a while. But their scouts immediately came to report that the Yan army's forward seemed to have less than 5,000 men, and there seemed to be no reinforcements in the rear, so they felt relieved again.
Half a day later, the scout reported back that after the Yan army crossed the Qishui River, they did not move where they were. They simply built a pontoon bridge and cooked food by the water. Yuan Shao laughed loudly after hearing this and said to his generals: "These Yan people have the same character as Gongsun Zan. Thousands of them dare to camp against the water. It seems they want to challenge our army!" He didn't know that they were Gongsun Zan's relatives. To, hence this statement.
Not long after, as expected, another messenger reported back, saying that the enemy sent people to provoke in front of the camp, claiming to be the elite of the Yan army, and said: "We have come from afar, our carriages and horses are tired, and we cannot attack, but I want to compete with you, so We must form a formation with our backs to the water. Even if you come to attack, if we retreat to the west bank, we will lose and we will never survive."
Yuan Shao sneered when he heard this, and said to the generals: "I have 80,000 troops here, and tens of thousands more reinforcements in the north. The pile of swords and swords can form a mountain of iron. It is ridiculous for this man to think that a mantis' arm can be used as a chariot!" He immediately ordered his life. The messenger went to respond: "Then let's fight tomorrow morning to see who is the true hero of Heshuo!"
Early the next morning, just when the eastern sun emerged from the clouds, Yuan Shao's eldest son Yuan Tan led 8,000 cavalry to the place where the battle was scheduled. Sure enough, he saw the Yan army arrayed by the river. Yuan Tan looked at the Yan army's formation and flags, and was trying to figure out who the enemy generals would be in this battle, when he suddenly saw a change on the opposite side. The crowd was bustling, and gradually spread out to the wings, revealing hundreds of white horse knights in the center. They held high the white deer flag, wore silver armor, and the long spears they held high shone in the morning light.
It's Baima Yicong! Yuan Tan suddenly woke up, and his military advisor Wang Xiuyi changed his expression and said: "It's the white horse thief who is here in person!" Everyone saw the heroic appearance of the white horse Yicon like a god, and their morale was a little low for a while. Only his brother-in-law Wen Ling was not surprised but overjoyed, and encouraged his morale by saying: "Brother, don't worry too much. The white horse thief himself does not defend the city or lead a strong army, but he comes here alone to take risks. This is a great contribution made by our army." What a great opportunity! Besides, our army is well-equipped and well-armed, how can we win with the bravery of the Yan people?" The morale of the army then slowed down a bit.
As soon as Gongsun Zan raised his flag, he launched a fierce attack with all his troops, hoping to take advantage of Yuan Jun's unsteady footing and overwhelm their formation first. The angle of attack chosen was to penetrate from the north wing to the south, with the white horse Yi Cong as the forward, and the light cavalry to the left and right to cover, and then divide Yuan's army one by one and eliminate it. Gongsun Zan has used this kind of offensive several times, and it has worked well in battles with Yuan's army. Therefore, he can win first every time, so Gongsun Zan is very confident.
Yuan Tan ordered the entire army to be divided into three divisions, arranged in three square formations from east to west, commanded by Guan Tong, Wen Ling, and Liu Xun respectively. Unlike the Yan army, which is equipped with horses, the Yuan army does not have so many horses. There are fully 6,000 infantry among the 8,000 infantry. However, they are not without advantages. All the 8,000 infantry are wearing armor, and even the horses are half-covered. , in sharp contrast to the fact that only Bai Ma Yi Congpi had heavy armor among the Yan army.
Gongsun Zan ordered Baima Yi to attack the Wenling tribe directly, but after rushing into the battle nearby, he found that it did not go as smoothly as expected. The soldiers of the Yuan army formed a circular formation, and the knights also dismounted and held their bows, standing motionless in front of their horses. When the knights on the white horses came forward, they suddenly ordered to shoot. In an instant, thousands of arrows were fired, and the offensive of the Yi followers also slowed down. , the Yi followers only slightly knocked out a small gap, but it was quickly filled by the heavily armored soldiers.
Seeing that the charge was unsuccessful, Gongsun Zan immediately formed his team and organized another attack. The Qingqi behind him sent out a screen of arrows to cover, and he drove through again along the original location. But when he stepped forward again, he saw a group of soldiers suddenly pouring out of Yuan's army, holding long halberds eight feet long, leaning on the ground with one hand, and raising the tip of the halberd high with the other hand, like an iron wall made of sharp edges, facing the horses that were rushing towards him. . The tip of the halberd and the belly of the horse went in toward each other. Many people heard a "pop" sound, which was the sound of the tip of the halberd penetrating into the horse's body. Suddenly, people and horses fell on their backs between the two armies.
Yuan Jun himself did not expect that the newly formed Euphorbia Warriors would be so powerful. When he realized it, Yan Jun was already quite timid and took the initiative to withdraw from the front line to the north, thinking about countermeasures while circling half a mile away. But this withdrawal exposed the pontoon bridge. Yuan Tan was overjoyed when he saw this and ordered the three troops to march westward, hoping to take advantage of this to cut off the Yan army's return route.
Gongsun Zan then realized that he had made a foolish move, and quickly led his troops to seize the bridge. In the third formation, heavy cavalry came out to intercept. In terms of changing formations and attacking, the knights of the Yuan Army may be far less flexible and sophisticated than the Yan Army, but the current battlefield situation does not tolerate such changes. The knights met in one place, and dust and smoke rose rapidly, accompanied by the continuous sound of military attacks.
With this level of assistance, the Ministry of Management and Control successfully occupied the pontoon bridge and roared to the sky to show their prestige. Seeing that the retreat was dead, the Yan army was at a disadvantage in the field battle, and suddenly fell into a very depressed situation. First, there were more than ten riders running toward the Qishui River, and then most of them collapsed like a tidal wave and rushed toward the water. Gongsun Zan yelled to stop, but he was immediately pursued by the heavy cavalry of the Yuan army. It was difficult to reorganize the formation. At the same time, the Yan army raced to swim in the water, and many of them were submerged by the undercurrent. Only a few hundred riders crossed the water, and more than a thousand people dismounted and surrendered.
Yuan Tan won this great victory and found that Gongsun Zan had also crossed the water and fled. Immediately ordered the heavy riders to take off their armor and cross the pontoon bridge in light gear to pursue the pursuit. After running fifty miles north, we found white smoke swirling around us, and a group of broken soldiers with incomplete armor were cooking in the wilderness. The Yuan Army knights took the opportunity to fight again and defeated them. The remaining Yan Army soldiers were killed and wounded.
Gongsun Zan had a majestic appearance and a majestic air in his words and deeds. He was also wearing bright silver armor, which Yuan Qi recognized at a glance. So dozens of cavalry surrounded him and beat him with all their strength. Gongsun Zan was unable to get out for a while, and was extremely embarrassed. He shouted to his subordinates "Save me" repeatedly, but the others only wanted to run for their lives, so how could they care about him? During the fight, an arrow from Yuan Qizhong flew out and hit Gongsun Zan on the right side of his face. Gongsun Zan felt so painful that he thought he would definitely die, and lamented: "Did I die at the hands of a child?"
Yuan Qi was about to dismount and chop off his head, feeling extremely happy. However, something happened suddenly. Three consecutive arrows flew through the air. The three cavalrymen fell to the ground. They suppressed all the Yuanqi for a while. However, they saw a man fighting into the crowd. He cut his throat with a hook and halberd in his left hand, and the sword in his right hand was as bright as lightning. , actually killed five people in a short period of time, and rushed in front of Gongsun Zan like cutting paper.
When Gongsun Zan saw that Zhao Yun had arrived, he was overjoyed and said, "Zilong, save me!" However, he was hit by an arrow in the cheek and his voice was distorted by the pain. Seeing that only one horse came to the rescue, the Yuan cavalry immediately formed a circle and stepped forward to fight. However, Zhao Yun ignored the knights and stabbed the horses with his hook and halberd while dodging, causing the horses to neigh and jump up and down. Yuan cavalry grasped the situation. Unable to hold the reins, many were knocked upside down. Zhao Yun took advantage of the situation to help Gongsun Zan and fight out of the crowd.
There were still more than ten Yuan Qi who followed Zhao Yun for more than ten miles, but they had no choice but to retreat because they had no choice but to retreat.
Gongsun Zan escaped from death and was very grateful to Zhao Yun. After the two escaped back to Fanyang, Gongsun Zan immediately promoted Zhao Yun to the rank of captain of Zhuojun. However, the elites who died in the battle of Qishui were irreparable.
What has a more far-reaching impact is that Gongsun Zan had previously fought with Yuan Jun in the field. If he had not rushed into the battle and encountered an ambush, he would have always won every battle. However, in this joint battle, Gongsun Zan originally planned to undermine the morale of the enemy army before the war, and took the initiative to fight Yuan Tan's army with the elite of the army. However, he suffered a fragile defeat. There was no possibility of victory from the beginning to the end, and almost the entire army was wiped out. This caused the Yan army to be extremely panicked and their morale was extremely low. Even Gongsun Zan himself was helpless, but he was extremely pessimistic about the war. Even though he still had 60,000 troops under his command, Gongsun Zan only stood firm and could not bring himself to think of another decisive battle with Yuan's army. He just looked in the mirror and sighed every day.
Yuan's army took advantage of this victory and marched north to encircle Yijing. The Wuhuan tribes in the east took the opportunity to plunder the three counties of Yuyang, Guangyang and Shanggu. The situation in Youzhou suddenly deteriorated.
Fortunately, Duan Xuan of Yanmen responded quickly. After receiving the news about Gongsun Zan and Wang Ling, he immediately sent troops to Youzhou. Before Wuhuan could react, he quickly occupied Gaoliu, Macheng, Ningxian, and Guangning counties, leaving a thousand troops each. After the soldiers and horses were stationed, he led 10,000 cavalry to Juyongguan, where he waited for the response from Jinyang Bafu.
After Liu Bei learned the news, he sent envoys to rebuke Yuan Shao and ordered him to retreat. At the same time, he rectified military affairs and ordered his generals to gather troops. Xianbei Kebi originally planned to take advantage of the situation to attack Daijun, but seeing the huge strength of the Han army in the south, he had to gather at Danhan Mountain to temporarily observe the situation.
The situation in Hebei was changing for a while, and it seemed that a war would break out at any time.
