After the battle, the Han army returned to Pengcheng to rest and take inventory of their losses. They found that more than 3,000 people were killed or injured. Fortunately, the horse losses were not much, which did not affect the cavalry's combat effectiveness. Seeing that he could not break through the Dongren's defense line for the time being, Liu Bei also gave up his thoughts of a quick victory and waited for the follow-up reinforcements to arrive.
Two days later, troops from Bingzhou and Guanzhong arrived one after another. In addition to Sili Colonel Chen Chong, there were also Yulin Zhonglang General Dong Yue, Huben Zhonglang General Xu Huang, Liangzhou Governor Huangfuli, After the arrival of partial general Wei Yan, Changqi Colonel Yang Qiu, Jianzhong Captain Zhang Xiu and others, the number of Westerners' troops reached 140,000, which already exceeded the Shendai First Army stationed in Wuyuan. , so many in the army want to fight again.
So Liu Bei held a military meeting again to discuss the battle plan with the staff of the two governments.
This meeting was chaired by Xun You. He first discussed the movements of the Easterners: At present, the Western Army is gathering first, but the reinforcements of the Eastern Army have not yet arrived, so that the Western Army has a strength advantage at this time. If the two armies join forces, it will be greatly disadvantageous to the Easterners. Moreover, the small town of Wuyuan cannot accumulate a large number of soldiers. Shenpei should have camped and retreated to wait for reinforcements. However, now Shenpei would rather risk a battle and camp outside the city. There is probably only one explanation for the reason: most of Cao Cao's reinforcements have arrived. , just in the past two days.
Therefore, he summarized the purpose of tactics and said: If a joint battle is to be held, not only must we win, but we must also win quickly. Otherwise, once the Eastern reinforcements arrive, the chance of victory will no longer exist.
In order to achieve this effect, he thought that he should take advantage of the sufficient strength of the troops and take the initiative to join the battle in the more open wilderness to the north of Yuwang Mountain so as to better expand the two wings and make more use of the strength advantage of the flanks to open up the situation, while the Chinese army As long as the front is stabilized and a reserve team is prepared to repel the Eastern Army's desperate struggle, the matter will be settled.
Chen Chong nodded in agreement. He turned to Liu Bei and said: "I will sit in the center, and you will sit on the right wing! Although the plan is good, it still needs to be lenient to the enemy. If Cao Cao arrives halfway, how should we respond? This should not be considered Don’t do it.”
After hearing this, everyone thought it was reasonable, so Xun You added something more. The scouts had previously discovered that the Dongren had built three pontoon bridges on the Yishui River, forty miles northeast of Wuyuan. If Cao's army arrived, they would definitely cross the river here. Therefore, after the two wings start to outflank and achieve certain results, more than a thousand people can be sent to seize the pontoon bridge. The Yishui River is not a small river, and due to the ups and downs of the river, the current is extremely turbulent. Once the pontoon bridge is lost, Cao Jun will be unable to cross in a hurry, and even if he arrives, it will be of no avail. The discussion is over,
The next morning, the rain stopped for a while, but the sun had not yet come out. The white clouds in the sky made it difficult to predict the development of the weather, just like the situation of the upcoming battle. The Westerners were divided into twelve teams, carrying halberds and hanging shoes, and trekked barefoot through the shallow water. It was the summer weather, and the weather was still a bit sultry, so when the water and fine sand flowed through the soles of the feet, it made people feel almost It was so comfortable that it almost made people forget about the upcoming war.
As early as when the Westerners were cooking in the camp, the Eastern scouts noticed something was wrong when they saw the smoke coming from the kitchen, and then guessed that the Westerners were about to prepare for a battle. Therefore, when the Westerners were halfway through the water, the Eastern cavalry arrived unexpectedly like a flock of crows.
The leader was Yan Liang, the commander-in-chief. He wore a golden douche on his head and bright light armor painted in gold that day. There are three stone bow bags hanging on the left and right sides of the saddle, and he stands proudly with a long spear in his hand. The knights behind him are all wearing armor, and the sharp and sharp spear points are shining forward with a cold light. They are constantly beating the horse and galloping, even the rear team The main army was still five miles away, and he had already rushed to the shore with two thousand cavalry.
The Westerners who were the first to cross the river had not had time to form their formation. Suddenly seeing such elite cavalry coming, they were a little frightened, and many flags swayed left and right. However, the distance between the two sides was shrinking rapidly. Without instructions from the military commander, the soldiers could only fire arrows in units of tens of thousands to counterattack. However, such sparse arrows were lost in front of the heavy cavalry, with almost no damage. Yan Liang then used his momentum to kill all the scattered arrows. The crowd suddenly burst into shocking screams and wails.
The vanguard here was none other than Huang Zhong, who was the vanguard of the Chinese army. When the Dongmen rushed into the formation, he had just gone ashore to change his armor. Seeing the enemy's long soldiers fighting among the unformed infantry, he felt uneasy. Miao, without even waiting to put on the iron armor, only wrapped in cowhide lining, he got on his horse and called out to the surrounding infantry: "halberd array! halberd array!"
After forming the formation without soldiers, he led another 300 infantrymen who came closer to outflank Yan Liang's left wing. However, Yan Liang was not willing to fight. When he saw someone trying to encircle him, he immediately moved his horse's head and ran eastward, waiting for He ran to his original position, turned his horse's head again, and looked leisurely towards Huang Zhong. Different from the Western tactics of piercing the Chinese army like sharp arrows, his tactics are more like a rasp, trying to knock down the enemy's forward force layer by layer. Although it is less powerful and more calm, it is not effective against the enemy. The blow to morale was huge.
Huang Zhong had arrived directly opposite Yan Liang at this time. There were more people around him, about 500 people. However, in order to speed up the formation, these people did not have many spears and halberds in their hands. Most of them brought some round weapons. Shields and knives, some people carry bow bags, but the quiver is not with them, but the good news is that as the forwards of the Westerners, they at least carry a lot of iron pear.
When Yan Liang started the fourth round of charging, these people formed a circular formation in an orderly manner, threw all the iron pear in their hands behind them, and then slowly advanced towards the enemy cavalry. Seeing that they did not have halberds and were in a very tight formation, the Easterners immediately lost the idea of fighting these people. The cavalry immediately divided into two columns like waves hitting rocks, and went straight towards the infantry behind them. However, while accelerating, the horses suddenly stepped on the traps scattered in the mud. The horses' hoofs were pierced by iron thorns. The horses in the front raised their hooves and neighed. Many knights fell to the ground. The knights collided together, resulting in many casualties.
Seeing the decline of the Eastern knights, Huang Zhong, who was behind, immediately changed the circular formation into a rectangular formation and killed the enemy troops who were charging in the opposite direction. Seeing that the situation in front was unclear and the Westerners were not far behind, the Easterners simply dismounted from their horses and fought on foot with Huang Zhong's troops who came from behind. The two sides soon became a group, stabbing armor and slashing at each other with swords. The sound is endless.
The knights under Yan Liang's command are all good fighters. Even when fighting under horses, they have no fear. Instead, they rely on the advantage of the length of their horses to be quite lethal. However, without the advantage of horses, the overall situation is destined to fall to the Westerners. More and more Westerners came from the west with halberds, gradually surrounding the front line of the Eastern cavalry like a rising tide. Yan Liang immediately decided to retreat, but the way back was blocked by Huang Zhong, so he went to the rear in person Fight hard.
Yan Liang had a reputation for bravery in Hebei, and people at the time thought he should not be inferior to Gongsun Zan. At this time, he wielded a long sword that was ten feet long and charged into the crowd. It was like a tiger entering a flock of sheep. He struck with the sword almost immediately. This caused great panic among the Western infantry. Even though they knew he was a wealthy man, few of them stepped forward to attack him and fight vigorously.
Some people expected Huang Zhong to step forward to fight, but Huang Zhong had no intention of doing so. He didn't even wear a horse or armor. How could he fight against such an iron beast? But he carries with him a long bow and withered feathers.
When Huang Zhong saw Yan Liang charging into the formation, he disappeared among the crowd without saying a word. Because he was not wearing iron armor, no one from the east noticed him. Not long after, Huang Zhong stood at a higher slope. He stared at Yan Liang who was fighting in the distance, drew out a withered feather arrow as white as snow, and silently filled the three-stone bow he carried.
Only then did he realize that Yan Liang's golden armor was not only extremely dazzling, but also had a knot around his neck, covering most of his face, leaving almost no weak points that could kill him with an arrow. So he put away his bow, took out two more withered feather armor-piercing arrows, held them in his hand, and drew the bowstring to full capacity again.
When Yan Liang killed another person and was holding his sword on the spot and gasping for air, Huang Zhong suddenly fired an arrow, drew the bow, and fired again. In almost a breath, the three withered feathers in his hand had disappeared, and the attendants had hardly reacted. , Huang Zhong had already put the bowstring on his shoulder, and waves of unceasing exclamations came from the enemy formation. It turned out that Yan Liang was sitting on the ground with a knife in his hand. In his lower abdomen, an arrow had penetrated the armor.
Seeing that their leader had fallen, the will of the people in the East suddenly collapsed. Except for a few people who surrendered, most people no longer fought on foot, but mounted their horses and ran as hard as they could to the east. Even if they were facing the blade, they waved the whip without hesitation. Many people were chopped into several pieces during the breakout process. In the end, only a scattered group of more than a hundred riders broke through the encirclement and ran towards the main force of the East, which was slowly coming from the distance.
At this time, Huang Zhong's attendant went to examine Yan Liang's body and saw that there was only one arrow in the abdomen. He couldn't help but be extremely surprised. He had clearly seen his master shoot three arrows in a row, but how could one arrow penetrate Mingguang's iron armor? With this in mind, he struggled to take off Yan Liang's armor and stomach, and then he was surprised to find that there were three arrow clusters buried under the armor and stomach. Obviously only three arrows hitting the same location can achieve such an effect. After the soldiers around him learned about it, they called Huang Zhong General Chuanshi.
After the news of Huang Zhong's victory reached the commander's camp, most of the Westerners had crossed the Zu River, and all the generals were in position one after another, and began to expand the front lines to the east and west as planned. But within a quarter of an hour, Dongren's group gradually appeared on the edge of the battlefield, like a giant snake that was entrenching and biting people.
After witnessing each other's traces, the two armies unanimously stopped at the plain called Huoshi Port at their feet, and soon began to march again. The densely packed people looked at each other and felt that they were insignificant, but they still had awareness in their hearts. They believe that when every insignificant force is piled together, every shout and spark that flashes in every subsequent collision will change history.
Among the Westerners, the first to attack the Easterners was Qu Yi, who came from Yuan Shao's old tribe.
