,!
Just as Liu Bei was about to think about fighting, he was suddenly startled and shouted loudly: "Advancing from south to north, he only has a few troops, how can he be so calm? Cao Cao is so cunning and easy to take advantage of others, so he has to be on guard."
He urgently ordered Meng Da, Chen Dao and several trusted generals in the tent to rush to the East and West Chui and rear armies with general orders, ordering all armies to be on guard to prevent a surprise attack.
The Han army's military formation arranged by Liu Bei was a horizontal formation from west to east. The front row and both wings are composed of cavalry. Liu Bei's middle army is actually part of the cavalry, located in the center. The infantry was concentrated in the middle and rear position. This is actually because Liu Bei took into account that Cao Cao's troops were small, and prepared to ride out the front row and ride again when the two armies faced each other, while spreading the cavalry on both wings to outflank Cao Cao's army.
If Cao Cao formed a majestic formation and fought against him, he would definitely lose. But now Liu Bei saw Cao Cao's cavalry marching forward and backward, advancing towards the western army formation in a horizontal column, so carelessly, he couldn't help but feel suspicious. It was expected that Cao Cao must have lured the enemy in the middle and sent the elite troops out to the side! Therefore, we urgently ordered the armies on the two wings and back to be on guard. If there is a challenge, they are not allowed to send out troops without authorization to prevent falling into the trap.
Meng Da led his personal entourage and flew towards the western border. As soon as he was talking to Yuan Tan, who was in charge of the second power, he heard the sound of gongs and saw a large group of cavalry from the Eastern Army pouring out from the distant mounds, rushing over like a tide. The enemy's knights were only wearing light hunting clothes, and their horses were without armor. They were galloping like flying, and they were almost there in an instant.
Meng Da said loudly: "Your Majesty is so good at predicting the situation, the thieves are really sneaking up on the side!" The knights in front all jumped off their horses, holding their bows and shooting at the charging cavalry. The dense rocks fell like rain, and the Eastern Army's Qingqi didn't dare to get close. They just changed to a horizontal grazing formation along the arrow range, fired at each other for a while, and then circled back to the hill. But seeing the enemy knights dismounting one after another, some were sitting cross-legged on the ground, and some were talking and laughing loudly, as if they were not fighting but hunting.
The Han soldiers here abided by the emperor's orders and did not attack easily to pursue the emperor. They remained unmoved despite the people on the hill shouting and neighing, and continued to defend their formation.
Liu Bei returned to his own formation early. Facing the approach of Cao Cao's army, he calmly sat back on the bed and discussed with everyone how to deal with the enemy. Fa Zhengjin said: "The bandit army mostly consists of light cavalry. They are approaching my heavy cavalry. They are not good at it. Our army is not afraid of him coming. When the two armies engage in battle, I will poke him with my long spear. It is not like poking a straw man." Yeah? His bow and arrows can't hurt my heavy cavalry."
Liu Bei was quite convinced, but he expected that Cao Cao had backup, so he did not order an attack. Instead, he looked at the empty bed beside him. Guan Yu, who was originally sitting on it, had returned to his front row. He was pacing back and forth, muttering to himself, "What does this dwarf want to do?"
The newly promoted Lingwu Captain Jia Kui came over and asked, "Do you want to rush out and catch him off guard?"
Liu Bei waved his hand and said, "I'm afraid he will scatter as soon as I hit him! Or is he trying to trick me into attacking?"
He suddenly had an idea and whispered to Fazheng Xunyou. When he felt that he was fine, he immediately summoned the cavalry envoy and asked him to tell Wuhuan Colonel He Naipinglin at the eastern edge of the military formation, and immediately divided the Wuhuan cavalry to attack Cao Cao. The camp on the back hillside. Regardless of whether it is laid down or not, it is necessary to quickly light the fire and let the camp catch fire.
"The east thief turned around and saw the black smoke rising, and the morale of the army was in chaos! But I guarded the front and held him here." Liu Bei unconsciously smiled slightly, and when he continued to talk to Fazheng on the side, he seemed to have seen victory. waving to him.
After a while, there was the sound of horse hooves in the east, as if the Wuhuan cavalry had begun to take action.
At this moment, the trusted knights next to Liu Bei were shouting: "Your Majesty, look ahead!" Liu Bei hurriedly mounted his horse and could see far away under the gentle hill. In the open space where the enemy and the enemy faced each other, thousands of horses were flying towards him. Come running, but there is no rider on the saddle!
How is this going? Not only Liu Bei was puzzled, but the heavily armored knights in front of the Western Army's formation were even more puzzled. They saw the Eastern Army approaching on horseback, but suddenly they heard an order. The knights in the enemy's front row all jumped off their horses and whipped their horses wildly. , the frightened war horses ran forward, completely ignoring the Changshan Forest of the Western Army in front of them.
The knights were still shouting: "Do you want to shoot arrows?" Some people also said: "Go down and drive them away!" But the frightened horses had already run forward. When they encountered obstacles, many horses began to sweep horizontally, and some They were running west, some were running east, and they were in chaos.
The knights in the front row were all blocked from view by the frightened horses, while Liu Bei, who was watching the battle from behind, saw the dismounted Eastern Army soldiers rushing up quickly! Although they were far apart, they could still be seen wearing only two pieces of leather armor and holding short knives, swarming up like enraged wasps.
Liu Bei couldn't even shout. His own knights were all crowded together, wearing heavy armor and clumsy movements. If they were surrounded by these monkey-like enemy troops, it would be difficult to use them. But it's too late to send the order to attack. Do you want to retreat? Such a huge and dense military formation, layered on top of each other, would not be able to move for even a moment after an order was given. How could it be moved? Liu Bei secretly complained, but he didn't know what to do. He saw the Eastern Army rushing over the frightened horses like a tide, and suddenly merged into the Western Cavalry formation.
These Eastern Army soldiers only wore cloth shirts with round collars and narrow sleeves, and a layer of leather armor outside. They held knives in their hands and carried bows on their backs. They threw themselves into the formation of the heavily armored knights of the Western Army. They buried their heads and just dug in. When they saw the legs of men and horses, they picked up their knives and hacked at them. Although the heavy cavalry of the Western Army was capable, they were crowded together and had nowhere to display their ability to kill the enemy on horseback. For no reason, the enemy soldiers who kept their heads down and squeezed around had their legs and feet chopped off. He was so frightened that he had no way to resist, so he had to pull the reins and pull the mount to avoid it, and at the same time, he was looking for enemies in the crowd with his long silk sticks and poking at them randomly.
Unfortunately, everyone was crowded together, and the horse's head hit others as soon as it turned. When the pole was raised, it either hit its companions or hit each other. How could it compare to the enemy soldiers who were as dexterous as monkeys? This situation is like a pack of wolves rushing into the cavalry, biting the horse's legs. The horses are in chaos, and everyone is frightened, but there is nothing they can do. The cavalry of the Western Dynasty suddenly fell on their backs and cut down a large area like a crop.
Seeing that the front team succeeded, the people on foot and cavalry following the Eastern Army rushed forward with shouts. Some people fired at the Western Army soldiers who were still resisting in the front line, while more people desperately poured into the messy formation of the Western Army, charging, killing and ravaging, causing the already chaotic Han Army formation to move towards the rear. Fall apart.
Within a short while, the Eastern Army was waiting to be killed, and they reached the front of Jizhou Governor Qianzhao. As the fleeing sergeants pushed and trampled each other, even though the more than a thousand knights leading the headquarters were still strong in fighting spirit, they were scattered and retreated with the current. Lian Zhao, who was still hesitating and moving slowly, and the few remaining trusted knights around him, were instantly overtaken by enemy soldiers wearing short armor and holding short swords.
Things happened in a hurry, and the knights around him hurriedly fired arrows. They missed the enemy and instead attracted several enemy soldiers. Seeing that the situation was critical, in order to protect the general, he called on the two knights beside him to jump off their horses and waved their swords to drive away the enemy soldiers. Unexpectedly, an enemy rushed from behind.
This man also only wore a hunting suit with a round collar and narrow sleeves, and carried a long bow on his back. However, he did not even wear leather armor. His clothes were stained with blood, and there were several nicks on the edge of the knife in his hand. This person is the champion general Wen Ji, the most famous tiger warrior after Xu Zhu. When Cao Cao created the Hushi, he only accepted people with special skills. Although Wen Ji is not as famous as Xu Zhu, he is eight feet long, powerful and good at shooting. He is said to have shot an arrow into a stone like Li Guang, and he is known as a fierce soldier.
When Wen Ji saw General Qianzhao dressed up, he was secretly happy. Taking advantage of the gap between them and the enemy in front, he suddenly rushed to the side of Qianzhao's horse. He grabbed the horse's mane with his hand, picked up the knife with his right hand and slashed at the man on the horse. Unexpectedly, the horse's back hurt, and it jumped up in fright, almost knocking off the owner of the horse.
However, as the war horse jumped up, the chopped knife also lost its accuracy and sliced across the horseman's left thigh. On the day of Qianzhao, he wore a suit of bright iron armor painted in ocher red. The armor skirt covered his knees and was lined with rhinoceros leather. The enemy's knife slashed through it, slicing the armor skirt on his knees, and scratched the rhinoceros skin inside. It penetrated deeply and cut through the flesh, cutting through his knees, revealing the white bones.
Wen Ji failed to kill the man on horseback with one blow. He raised his hand to look at the knife and saw that the edge of the knife was rolled up, making it almost impossible to cut people. Just when he was feeling annoyed, he was suddenly hugged from behind. The two of them were unsteady and fell to the ground together. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Gongsun Ji, a close confidant of Qianzhao, rode on his horse, freed his hand to grab the reins of Lianzhao's mount, pulled the horse and the injured general and ran back.
Wen Ji, who was lying on the ground, relied on his strong strength to turn over and press on his opponent. He was not very angry when he saw that the lead had been pulled away. He said to the Han knight under him: "I lost my wealth, but you have to lose your life. It's not worth it!" Seeing that the knight turned his head and said nothing, Wen Ji simply cut off his head with a short knife and rode on The horse left by the deceased went to pursue the defeated Western Army.
At this time, the front line of the Western Army had been defeated. Seeing that the situation was irreversible, Liu Bei decisively ordered a retreat. It was said that they were retreating, but in fact all the armies were speeding up and fleeing northward for their lives. In order to prevent the infantry from being surrounded and causing heavy losses, Liu Bei led his troops to intercept and kill Cao Cao's pursuers.
Unexpectedly, rocks were flying on the battlefield, and several missiles flew from nowhere. One shot Liu Bei's horse in the neck, and the other shot his waist armor. The heavily injured war horse jolted, and Liu Bei turned over and fell to the ground.
The attendants nearby were shocked and rushed up to surround the emperor. General Chen Dao supported Liu Bei and tested the arrow shaft. When he saw that the arrow was not deep, he pulled out the arrow cluster. He quickly untied Liu Bei's armor, exposed the wound, and leaned over to suck out the blood from the wound. Liu Bei didn't panic. He just spit a few mouthfuls of saliva into his palm and applied it on the wound. Afterwards, he simply bandaged his pain, stood up, and climbed onto a batch of horses with the help of servants. When the soldiers in the distance saw him galloping away, they were relieved and said comfortingly: "Your Majesty, his horse was just hit by an arrow, nothing serious!"
Because some Han cavalry insisted on crossing to intercept the enemy and tried their best to separate the Eastern Army from our own infantry, the Han army's formation did not completely collapse. And gradually broke away from contact with the Eastern Army and retreated towards the north. The Eastern Army had fewer people and fewer cavalry. The previous frightening force had already used most of Cao Cao's horses, so it was unable to organize a pursuit that could kill the enemy, let alone achieve a decisive victory.
After the Han army retreated, they turned around and captured the remaining enemies, collected their horses, and stripped off the clothes of the dead and wounded to collect their belongings. The cavalry rushed into the camp left by the Western Army to the west, and the sergeants guarding the camp fled. The baggage in the camp, including the large number of horses and grain currently available, fell into the hands of the Eastern Army.
Besides, Wuhuan Captain He Naipinglin was originally ordered to attack the Eastern Army camp. Unexpectedly, the battlefield situation suddenly changed drastically. Liu Bei's army was defeated early. When they came back, they were surrounded by enemy soldiers again. At the moment of panic, he saw Cao Cao's yellow-snake banner. He was frightened and lost all fighting spirit, so he dismounted, disarmed and asked to surrender.
In this battle, the Eastern Army captured tens of thousands of troops and horses, countless baggage, and nearly 10,000 prisoners. Cao Cao originally wanted to trap and kill them, but then he thought about it, these were all Hu people's righteous followers, and they may not be truly loyal to Liu Bei. He would win this battle in the future. The war might also be used for their own purposes, so they were taken to the south bank of Jiangshui River and all were released.
At this time, the Western Army retreated northward. Fortunately, Cao Cao's army did not pursue them, so they were able to gather their forces. Liu Bei considered that Boluoting in the northwest had convenient waterways and could rest. So he led his army to the north and camped in Julu, a hundred miles west of Xindu. Cao Cao also moved his camp, and the two sides resumed their confrontation at Zhangshui.
