After Gan Ning's defeat, although Zhang Liao still wanted to fight, Liu Fan still gave up his intention to continue the challenge. Seeing that his previous attempts had failed, he couldn't help but murmur to himself: "Although the mountains and rivers in Shu are dangerous, they are still difficult. The knights in iron armor who cannot live in the north!" But he did not intend to change his previous strategy of continuously consuming the Han army. However, after the failure of side attacks in the remaining battles, the focus of the battlefield fell on the frontal battle for the pontoon bridge.
The location of the pontoon bridge erected by the Han army was extremely clever. Chen Chong inspected the hydrology of the east coast and placed it on the boundary of the terrain.
South of the pontoon is a hilly and dense forest that is twenty miles long. Even though it is the Mid-Autumn Festival, the view is still undulating green.
Therefore, the view is extremely cramped and the movement is extremely inconvenient, which is not conducive to the attacker's attack formation. To the north of the floating bridge, there is an extremely open and flat sandbank, which is enough for thousands of cavalry to gallop across it. Therefore, the Han army has built camps and fortifications on the sandbank.
In this case, if the Shu army wanted to destroy the pontoon bridge, they had to cross the hills and open up their position. While withstanding the offensive pressure of the Han army's reinforcements on the west bank, they also took the lead in capturing the Han army's camp on the east bank. The difficulty was different from pulling out a tooth from a tiger's mouth.
Liu Fan discussed this matter with his staff. Everyone thought that since he had to attack, it was better to temporarily move the camp to the hills on the east coast and use the naval navy of the building as a shield to prevent the Han army from setting up ambushes in the forest. After the foothold was stable, he could then attack again. Liu Fanshen thought it was appropriate to send troops to fight in turns.
The next day, the Shu army broke out and crossed the river to the east, with Zhang Liao's 5,000 men as the vanguard, and Huang Quan leading 50 ships to protect them from the waterway.
After crossing the river, the army marched along the river, climbing up hills and rocks. The distance to move the camp was not far, only about thirty miles, but because they were afraid of the Han army coming to attack, the Shu people walked very cautiously. About when it was getting dark, a gust of autumn wind blew, and the surrounding cypress and fir trees Fallen leaves swayed one after another.
Suddenly there was a flock of crows chirping, and people couldn't help but look up, but they didn't see the flock of birds. They only saw the extremely dark sky. The thick clouds in the east were like surging waves rushing to the west, suppressing the faint shadow of Mount Emei in the distance. The clouds were dark red, as if wrapped in coagulated blood, which gave them a bad omen.
Fortunately, there was no surprise. Zhang Liao in front did encounter some Han army scouts, but the two sides did not engage in a large number of battles.
After the Han army saw the shadow of the huge ship on the river, they knew they were outmatched and quickly retreated to the pontoon.
This allowed the Shu army to march smoothly, and after finally crossing the Nixi River, an open space of more than ten miles in radius was cut out on the river bank as a camp.
The northwest end of the camp was less than four miles away from the Han army's pontoon bridge. The two armies could be said to be within striking distance of each other.
After spending about three days repairing the fortress, everything was ready. Liu Fan asked the generals who was willing to test it first.
At this time, Dong He, the Pingyi general who led the Nanzhong army, asked for orders: "My men have been in Nanzhong for a long time and have been fighting with the Nanman for more than ten years. They are especially good at wandering and fighting. They have never fought with the enemy before, so how can they dare to fall behind now." Liu Fan looked at Dong He and thought that he still had secret weapons in his army that could be used to intimidate the Han army. He immediately nodded in agreement and said with a smile: "If there is a young slaughter, the Northern invaders will be frightened!" The next day! Early in the morning, although the sky was still cloudy, the sunshine was still charming. The slightly warm light touched everything on the earth, and there was an indescribable flow of tranquility.
But the silence was quickly broken. The Han army felt a slight tremor on the ground, and the woods not far away began to shake from side to side. The veterans in the Xifu Army all knew what this meant. There was no need for the officers to say more. They He has spontaneously picked up the knife and cut it, and is waiting in the camp.
Sure enough, after about a while, the faint trembling on the ground turned into the clearly audible sound of stepping on leaves. In the shadow of the slightly yellowed dense forest to the east, people walked out one after another and began to form an array on the ground.
For a time, the green flag gradually fluttered in front of the forest. The two armies were only a few arrows away. The sharp-eyed Han army could even see the Shu soldiers holding large shields, wearing daggers on their heads, and wearing leather armor, all with their heads exposed. Vice angry face.
The man in charge of guarding the camp on the east bank was Yang Fu. He looked at the Shu army's formation and found that only about 6,000 people came from the other side. It was obviously a probing attack rather than a desperate fight, but there was no one in the rear. In the distance is the Shu army's camp. If the battle shows signs of weakness, it is not difficult for the opponent to take advantage of the victory and send troops to turn it into a decisive battle.
He secretly thought in his heart that if he could beat the people of Shu with this one move, many things would be easier to handle later on. So he rode his horse into the military formation and sent orders to the five thousand Han cavalry on the east bank. He planned to charge the Shu people back into the jungle when they were not yet firmly established.
During this period of time, the Han army had been passively defensive. When they heard that they could take the initiative to attack, they did not gear up and mounted their horses with excitement.
As the drums symbolizing the march sounded in the military camp, hundreds of knights shouted one after another, and then whipped their whips at the horses beneath them. Thousands of pairs of horse hooves stepped on the wet ground, splashing several yellow-red mud spots, crackling. Crackling on people's boots, legs and even clothes.
The Han cavalry shouted wildly and rushed towards the Shu army. They were greeted by bursts of arrows from the Shu army. A row of arrows were shot down, and they were resisted by the armored forwards. They quickly rushed into the Shu people. As the waves of knights came in behind them, the archers who fired the arrows soon couldn't tell the difference. We were both enemies, so we had no choice but to put down our bows and use our swords to fight the Han cavalry in bloody battles.
This group of Shu people who have been trained in Nanzhong for many years do have extraordinary combat power. When faced with the attack of the Han cavalry, they did not fight with the opponent, but actively evacuated, holding their shields high above their heads. To resist the thrusts of the Han cavalry, they stooped down to steal the horses' legs. Once someone fell off the horse, they swarmed up, pushed the knights to the ground, and cut their throats like mowing grass.
But this was not enough to shake the Han army's advantage. After all, most of the Shu army wore rhinoceros armor, while many of the Han cavalry wore iron armor. There was a qualitative gap between the two.
When the Han cavalry saw that the situation was not right, they immediately changed their tactics. After approaching the Shu people, they chose to dismount and fight on foot with their swords drawn.
They formed small circles with ranks as units, and then gradually squeezed the Shu army's space to the north. Under the face-to-face slashing, there is not much room for skill, it is the collision of iron and iron, and the contest of will and will. However, both of these are the strengths of the Han army, and they are well aware of this.
After about half an hour, the Shu army quickly showed signs of decline. After creating an obvious gap, some Han men mounted their horses and charged, driving the surrounding Shu people into the mountains and forests.
Yang Fu, who was commanding the battle from a distance, breathed a long sigh of relief. Once all the Shu people's formations were broken up, the Han army would achieve a complete victory.
But at this moment, a burst of monster howls pierced the sky, and some of the running Longshang army horses slowed down in surprise, puffing out white steam ominously.
Soon, several tall and huge beasts were seen rushing out from behind the Shu infantry. These giant beasts are so tall that the horses look like playthings in front of them.
The giant beast fluttered its ears as big as lotus leaves, and vigorously shook its long nose tied with a sharp blade. Possibly stimulated by the beast tamer riding on its head, the giant beast roared continuously and charged forward with its huge pillar-like legs.
This is an elephant from Yongchang in Nanyi. The soldiers and horses in the north have never seen this huge beast.
The Longyou knights were all stunned by the sudden monster, and they couldn't figure out what kind of monster the animal in front of them was.
However, those Liangzhou horses that were good at running in the ice and snow Longyuan could not stand the roar of the elephants and the oppression of their huge bodies. When they saw the giant beasts coming, they panicked and ran around.
The knight on the horse wants to rein in his mount, but where can he restrain it? The frightened horses fled in all directions. The mahout, who was sitting on the top of the elephant and commanding him with spikes, urged the beast with all his strength and ran straight towards the densest part of the Han army. With three clicks, the elephant in front of him stepped on it. In front of the gap, the Han cavalry here suddenly dispersed.
I heard the sound of wood breaking. It was the remaining wooden frames that had been trampled to pieces by the elephant. The Shu elephant took this opportunity and continued to charge straight towards the panicked cavalry behind the Han army. It was like a sharp knife cutting through cheese, and the frightened Han cavalry all ran towards the back.
Immediately behind the elephant, there was a loud killing sound, and some of the infantry and cavalry of the South China Army, who had regained their spirits, rushed out together.
The Han army, which was the first to dismount and fight, was soon overwhelmed by the torrent of Shu counterattacks. If a few people could survive, they would have become prisoners of the Shu army.
Originally, the Han army was all cavalry, and fighting on the sandbank was just what they wanted. The elephants at the head of the army were charging wildly, and the Han cavalry in front was rushed to pieces. Instead, they became the prey of the Liang people who were killing like swarms.
The bulky elephant, puffing out white steam, gradually stopped running and retreated slowly towards the back. The Shu army, whose confidence was greatly increased by this, continued to charge and fight against the defeated Han cavalry, trying to continue to expand its advantage.
Fortunately, Yang Fu had reported the news to the west bank before. Just when the Shu army began to besiege the Han army camp, the first batch of reinforcements from the west bank finally arrived. After Ma Chao and two hundred Fufeng cavalry stood on the bank, they came from the flank. When they attacked the Shu people, they saw that it was Ma Chao's flag, and some Shu people were also excited.
After Gan Ning's defeat, they had many discussions in private, calling Ma Chao "
"The No. 1 Warrior in the North". When Dong He learned that the reinforcements of the Han army had arrived, he thought that he had achieved good results today and was a little greedy to defeat the camp, so he ordered the withdrawal. Only then did the Han army on the west bank, which was in danger of collapse, gradually stabilize the situation.
They gradually gathered together and watched the Shu people slowly leave. Under the Shu people's footsteps, corpses as densely packed as pillows were gradually revealed.
After calculating the losses, it was found that the Han army lost more than 800 people in the first battle, and more than 500 people were seriously injured and could not fight. The number of minor injuries was minor, but only more than 300 Shu people were killed. The gains and losses cannot be compared at all.
This is entirely due to the Shu people's elephants as a surprise soldier. For a time, how to defeat this behemoth became a proposition that the Han army had to consider.
