About ten miles due west of Beipi, the Zhang River flows quietly through here. On both sides of the silent flowing river, there is also a vast expanse of reed swamps. As if affected by the sound of fighting in the distance, the reed tips swayed slightly in the air, but the deer did not notice it and continued to drink water in the bushes as always.
At this time, several human figures emerged from the reeds on the right bank, making partridge-like calls into the air. They looked anxiously towards the opposite bank, causing the deer to watch curiously. At this time, a dozen people from the left bank also came out of the screen tent and asked the other side: "Are they from General Zixiao?"
The right bank replied loudly: "Yes, General Zixiao first sent two thousand people as the vanguard and asked us to build the pontoon bridge. They will arrive soon. Where did you hide the boat?"
The left bank was overjoyed when he heard this, so he put up a small tiger-head flag and said to the right bank: "Follow our flag. When we stop, let some people swim over first. There are planks on both sides." With the boat, string them together with a rope and tie them together, and you can come over.”
Then a small yellow flag began to shuttle among the reeds. They walked west for about a few hundred steps and stopped at a place where the reeds were particularly prosperous. It turned out that there were about a hundred ships lying horizontally here, and they were just covered with cut reeds. This place is more than five miles away from the flank of the Han army. Although it is not far from the battlefield, it is still some distance from Cao Jun's headquarters. Therefore, no one is checking here, and no unusual movements of Cao Jun here can be found.
The soldiers who built the bridge cleared all the reeds and pushed the boats one by one into the mud. The boats were heavy and heavy. They soon became tired, but someone urged: "Hurry up, time waits for no one." , if we delay for a long time, we will all end up dead." So this group of people got busy again.
In order to save trouble, these prepared ships were equipped with iron rings at the bow and stern. All the soldiers needed to do was to connect all the ships from end to end with ropes, then tie them to the prepared wooden piles, and then lay them on the ships. board. These things were done very quickly. It only took them about half an hour. The boats stopped shaking unnecessarily like cattle being led by the nose, and lined up in the river. The soldiers moved one by one like ants. Put down the planks and the pontoon can be used for people.
At this time, about two hours had passed since the fighting, and the sky had already passed noon. Liu Bei wanted to look up to confirm the time, but he only saw a gray sky, completely covered by battlefield dust.
This made Liu Bei a little anxious. Since the first year of Yanxing, Liu Bei has rarely fought in battles on horseback, but he still has the habit of watching battles from the front line, which can not only boost morale but also control the situation of the battle. However, this time when the horse racing and fighting broke out, the terrain was extremely narrow and blocked by reeds. As a result, Liu Bei was unable to reach the front of the formation. He could only frequently move his troops forward to observe the formation and report back to the enemy.
He had long heard the news that Guan Yu had rushed to Cao Cao's main formation, and he thought that victory was imminent. However, Cao Cao's army was like a bowstring made of beef tendon, which was obviously stretched to the extreme, but it still did not collapse. What came next was the news that the generals on both wings were being killed one after another. As the vanguard, Zhang Yang was also unable to support himself. Liu Bei drew his sword angrily and said, "Even in the decisive battle with the Liang bandits in Chang'an, I have never suffered such injuries. Could it be that the Cao thief is better than the Liang thief?"
He made up his mind and named Zhang Fei, Taishi Ci, Liu Mi, and Wang Sheng, and ordered them to lead ten thousand more elite men forward, while the forward Zhang Yang withdrew to rest.
Baimeng book
Just when Zhang Fei led his troops to fight and the military formation had just changed. To the northwest of the Han army, thunderous drums suddenly sounded, interspersed with several heavy and translucent trumpet sounds. The dim sky in the distance gradually became covered with a layer of dust and mist like yellow gauze. , anyone familiar with war knows that it is a scene that accompanies knights galloping on their horses.
The army arrayed here was the Yingchuan Army, whose leader was Pan Xu, the prefect of Yingchuan. Although they were arrayed here to prepare for war, they actually knew that the Yingchuan army was the weakest among the Han armies, and if they wanted to fight with the thieves, they would probably not be their opponents. Therefore, Liu Bei did not ask them to come forward and fight to the death. He just told them that when the battle was about to end, he would leave it to them to clean the battlefield and other matters. Now that they knew there was no need to fight, the Yingchuan army naturally relaxed their mentality. When Cao Ren led the charge, their formation was loose and in vain.
Pan Xu did not have time to respond to the command. Cao Ren's forward heavy cavalry only braved two scattered arrows before they were in front of the Yingchuan soldiers. It was like a sharp knife slicing through cheese. The knights' first charge actually penetrated them. The Yingchuan army suddenly rushed to Huang Zhong, the prefect of Donghai.
The Eastern Navy did not expect that the Yingchuan Army was so cowardly and retreated so quickly. They could only look at the approaching iron cavalry in surprise. Some people exclaimed: "Where did this iron beast come from!"
The iron beast at the front swung its halberd left and right to stab it, while swiping left and right to block the ground and shoot down the arrows that flew over like rain. Even the Han army was moved and admired by its sentiments and scenery. Even if someone writes this, they have to record their names to show their bravery. They are Pinglu general Yan Liang, Euphorbia soldiers Peng An and Zhou Gu, knight commander Zhang Qing, Zou Yi, Gongsun Xiu, they are called.
Fortunately, Huang Zhong had already reacted and ordered the infantry on the left to stand ready. He fired arrows at these people, and then used his halberd to hook their iron armors. Finally, these people slowed down their momentum and fought with the Han army. Tough hand-to-hand combat.
In the crowd, Huang Zhong repeatedly fired cold arrows at the cavalry who showed flaws. Not long after, both Zhang Qing and Shi Sheng were seriously injured. An arrow penetrated through the gap in Zhang Qing's neck and got stuck in the cartilage of his throat. Zhang Qing hugged the horse with his neck sideways, unable to make a sound. Even if he swallowed his saliva, he was in severe pain.
Shishi was originally not shot through by arrows, but they broke out too far forward and were surrounded by infantry dozens of times more numerous. Shishi was on the far flank and had to face the largest number of Han soldiers, so he was surrounded He rushed repeatedly, and his mount got stuck in the mud. The Han soldiers took the opportunity to rush up and stab him randomly with long halberds, and hooked the chain mail draped around his neck and shoulders with the hook point of the halberd. Only then did Huang Zhong fire the arrow, which hit the bell on his foot. Shi said he resisted desperately and waited until Yan Liang arrived before dragging him out of the mud pit and taking him to the cavalry center to rest for a while.
Although Huang Zhong initially stabilized the situation, the collapse of the Yingchuan army could not be saved. Cao Ren's infantry gradually surrounded him. Hebei famous generals such as Wen Chou, Zhang He, Gao Lan, etc. also joined the battle and attacked Huang Zhong's area with all their strength. The Eastern Navy The situation suddenly became critical.
At this time, Liu Bei also learned about the extremely unfavorable situation on the left wing. He couldn't help but become very anxious. This was the critical moment of the decisive battle. The flank was suddenly attacked by the enemy. Who could he send to assist Huang Zhong? Zhang Xian, the right-wing governor of Xuzhou, was originally the best candidate, but Zhang Xian's army and Huang Zhong's army were separated by three armies: the Hanoi Army, the Hongnong Army, and the Pei State Army. If he were to be transferred over, the Eastern Navy would have been defeated, but if the Hanoi Army were to When these troops went to help them win, Liu Bei really didn't have the confidence. He thought: If these troops were defeated, the whole army would be defeated, and the defeat of this battle would be a foregone conclusion.
But who should be transferred? Xu Shu on the side saw Liu Bei's problem, so he stepped forward and said: "Ming Gong, although the three armies are weak, it is difficult to defeat the enemy, but as long as we handle it properly, it is not difficult to be undefeated. If Ming Gong does not give up, I can supervise Pei." The Guo and Hongnong armies went to stop the bandit attack."
When Liu Bei heard that Xu Shu asked for battle, he immediately felt relieved. He nodded and said, "With Yuan Zhi plundering the formation for me, what else do I have to worry about?" He immediately ordered brothers Tuoba Pigu and Tuoba Liwei to escort Xu Shu and let him Go to the left wing to lead the battle.
However, not long after Xu Shu left, Army Commander Ma Mengda was still very worried and said to Liu Bei: "Although Xu Jun is a disciple of the Dragon Head, he has rarely fought in his life. He is a figure of the same rank as Xiao He and Zhang Liang. Why did Duke Ming let him supervise the army? Cao's army has been fighting to the death, obviously in the hope of this bandit attack, and there must be quite a few elites among them, but Xu Jun is a scholar and lacks prestige, so it is difficult to convince everyone, and it is even more difficult to defend against the enemy!"
Liu Bei didn't care about anything else, but when he heard Meng Da say that Xu Shu's prestige was not enough, he felt it was reasonable and asked, "What's Zidu's plan?"
Meng Da said: "Now that Cao Cao's bandits are facing a decisive battle, it is difficult for our army to deploy. It is obviously not a good idea to continue to fight with them. The bandit reinforcements are coming from the side. Although they are strong, they are located in the plains. Our army can easily defeat the troops in the north." Turn the attack into defense, then assemble the troops, launch a counterattack from the side, and defeat the enemy reinforcements. How can the enemy Cao Cao persist? He will die in the water!"
Liu Bei was very moved and asked Fazheng for his opinion. Fa Zheng sneered at this in his heart, but he and Meng Da had been good friends since childhood, and he didn't want to refute him face to face, so he said tactfully: "This plan is indeed good, but our army has been fighting for a long time, and the soldiers are all exhausted. Yes, it would be a bit difficult to force them to move to the north and move sideways."
Liu Bei stroked his chin and nodded and said, "I think so too." But he then said, "It is not advisable to mobilize most of the troops to fight the enemy, but it is enough to call Yide and the others back." Everyone also felt that it was reasonable, so Liu Bei then sent troops to convey orders to the north, ordering Zhang Fei's troops who were rushing to assist Zhang Yang to turn to the west and assist Xu Shu's troops.
However, Liu Bei did not expect that Zhang Yang's troops on the front line were exhausted, and he was counting on Zhang Fei's troops to come to help ease the situation. When they heard that there were no reinforcements in the rear, the morale of the Shangdang army collapsed. Cao Cao noticed that the front offensive was greatly weakened, and immediately ordered Cao Hong to lead the last tiger and leopard cavalry into the formation.
Zhang Yang's troops were scattered by this blow, and he himself was cut into pieces by Cao Jun. A knight from Cao Jun guessed his identity when he saw that he had a gold belt around his waist and his armor was full of arrow feathers but not penetrated. Feifan, so he rode up to catch up with him, grabbed his belt, and pulled Zhang Yang onto his horse.
Zhang Yang struggled hard and raised his hands to shake off the enemy soldier. The two men struggled on the horse and fell to the ground together. Unexpectedly, Zhang Yang's armor was too heavy and he found it difficult to get up after falling, so he was held down by Cao's soldiers. The Cao soldier then took off his iron armor and struck Zhang Yang hard on the head and face.
After Zhang Yang's face was covered with blood and his consciousness became blurred, the man got up and looked for a weapon. It turned out that he had lost his knife during the fight and only the bow in his bow bag was still there, so he put the bowstring around Zhang Yang's neck and strangled him to death.
