Different from the romance line, this time the people who came to Xinye first were not the suspicious soldiers led by Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang on the north side of Xinye, but the five thousand soldiers and horses of Cao Ren's headquarters on the south side.
These five thousand soldiers and horses are also the key to Liu Bei's victory.
If these five thousand soldiers and horses cannot be defeated in a short period of time, Cao Ren will attack both front and rear. With the city defense of Xinye County, it will be difficult to stop Cao Jun's attack.
If these five thousand soldiers and horses can be defeated quickly, Cao Ren will have no choice but to cross the river and retreat to Wancheng. He will not even dare to return to Fancheng.
Behind Fancheng is Xiangyang. Liu Biao will not just watch Xiangyang City exposed to Cao Jun's sight. He will definitely send troops to recapture Fancheng. If Cao Ren retreats to Fancheng, he will face Liu Bei and Liu Biao's flanking attack.
Cao Ren is very confident in himself now.
Liu Bei was defeated by Cao Cao many times, so all the generals under Cao Cao despised Liu Bei.
Although my lord has always said that Liu Bei is a hero of the world and should not be underestimated... But have you ever seen a hero of the world who was defeated and escaped every time? !
Cao Ren's investigation was very clear. Liu Bei's Xinye City only had 3,000 soldiers and horses, and what he brought with him were 5,000 elite troops from his own army who had been trained for a long time.
Moreover, Cao Ren attacked the strategic town of Fancheng with almost no effort, cutting off Liu Bei's retreat. However, Liu Bei's army was completely unprepared. Knowing that his retreat was cut off would definitely shake Liu Bei's military morale. Maybe as soon as he arrived In Xinye, Liu Bei's army dispersed like birds and beasts.
Five thousand versus three thousand, prepared versus unprepared, the advantage lies with me.
Therefore, Cao Ren also had the idea of completing his victory in one battle and marched non-stop towards the new wilderness.
Although Li Dian, who had been cautious all his life, tried to persuade him, Cao Ren did not listen at all. He only wanted to take down Liu Bei and ask Cao Cao for credit.
Li Mancheng is also an unlucky man, both in history and in romance. This guy has always been very cautious and has seen through many of his enemies' tricks. But the only person who can listen to him is Zhang Liao, who doesn't get along with him. ...
Cao Ren marched quickly and soon reached a place less than fifty miles away from Xinye.
It’s not easy to move on after that.
I was in a hurry to send out troops, so I left too fast and didn't bring any important siege equipment. Now I can only set up camp, cut down trees and build ladders.
As for Liu Bei, he would not wait until the enemy troops approached the city before taking action. Instead, he led his troops out of the city early and set up camp outside Xinye City, waiting for the arrival of Cao Ren's army.
The defense of a city in ancient times was not like what was filmed in the TV series. One party was surrounding the city, and the other was shrinking in the city... If it really came to this point, it would be a sign that the city could no longer be defended.
In real city defense, almost half of the battles are fought in the wild.
The reason is simple. Almost all the cultivated land these days is outside the city.
If the confrontation only lasts for a month or two, then fine, you can still survive with the food in the city, but if the siege lasts for more than a year, no matter how much food and grass is accumulated in the city, it will not be enough for the army.
Therefore, we must leave the city to protect our food harvest.
Apart from Zhang Xun, there seems to be no other case in history where a city that was completely besieged could last for more than a year.
Not to mention Xinye County, the city is short of food and if we really have to rely on the city wall to defend it, I'm afraid we won't be able to hold on for a month.
So we have to go out and fight.
And this is what Cao Ren hopes.
If Liu Bei can be defeated in a field battle, then the next thing will be easier to handle.
Cao's army was behind him. Once Liu Bei was defeated, he could only flee back to Xinye County for the final struggle. However, it was not difficult at all to conquer a small Xinye County.
Cao Ren had a good plan and took the initiative to lead his army to challenge Liu Bei's army camp the next day, and Liu Bei's army also came out of the camp gate to challenge.
Then Cao Ren was a little dumbfounded, and then burst into laughter.
"Everyone talks about Liu Xuande's benevolence and righteousness, but in my opinion, it's just hypocrisy!" Cao Ren laughed loudly and said to Li Dian beside him, "Mancheng, let's see, Liu Bei's army is so short of weapons that he actually used bamboo poles instead, but he drove these people If the soldiers come to fight with our elites, wouldn't it be a big joke in the world!"
Li Dian looked strange... There really was a sergeant holding a bamboo pole.
No, Liu Bei, a hero in Cao Cao's eyes, couldn't even equip three thousand men with weapons, right? !
Li Dian was very cautious, so he said to Cao Ren, "General, don't be careless...it may be Liu Bei's arrogant strategy."
"Mancheng is too careful. How could he have such a arrogant plan?!" Cao Ren sneered coldly and said, "The soldiers on both sides are already in formation. We just need to rush to cover up the enemy. How can he be so arrogant? With the weapons in his hands, Mancheng is too cautious." Bamboo pole?!"
"This..." Li Dian was also speechless.
Also, if such soldiers appear in fortifications, it can be said to show weakness to the enemy and paralyze the enemy.
But they are all in formation. As long as they charge with their troops, these soldiers holding bamboo poles will not be able to escape. So what is the point of showing weakness to the enemy?
However, Cao Ren was very proud and said, "This must be because Liu Bei has been cornered, so he has made the people act as soldiers to build up his momentum... Wait for me to defeat him before it's too late!"
After speaking, Cao Ren waved his hand, and immediately another group of soldiers came forward to conduct a tentative attack.
Cao Ren is also an old soldier. Although he looks down on Liu Bei, he will not take it lightly at this time.
First send a group of 500 people to test. If they can rush in, the whole army will follow. If not, they can retreat and start again. There is no need to worry about damaging morale.
But what Cao Ren didn't expect was that when his five hundred soldiers marched forward with spears in hand, they encountered the group of "common people" holding bamboo poles, and they didn't even make a splash.
The opponent started with a hail of arrows, which was to be expected. This is how wars are fought in these years. If they are far away, there will be a shower of arrows first, and then they will fight when they are close.
Cao Renjun also raised his shield as usual. After suffering more than a dozen casualties, he broke through the range of the arrow rain and approached Liu Beijun, preparing to fight at close range.
Then the script changed.
Originally, according to Cao Ren's imagination, once his soldiers got close, the group of "peasants" holding bamboo poles would disperse in a rush. When the time came, he would take advantage of the situation and defeat Liu Bei in one fell swoop.
As a result, what Cao Ren saw was that these farmers raised bamboo poles and stabbed Cao Jun who was running over.
At first, Cao Ren was still thinking about the use of this, but the next second he saw that the attack speed of his army paused and gradually slowed down.
Then, there was some confusion in the army's formation. It seemed that the soldiers were avoiding the threat of bamboo poles and unconsciously disrupted the offensive formation.
Cao Ren realized something was wrong at this time, but out of confidence in his army, he continued to watch patiently.
Then he saw Liu Beijun taking the initiative to attack, with a long row of soldiers in front.
Cao Ren was still wondering. This was a close combat, and there were no arrows. Why did we need long-term soldiers? !
Then Cao Ren discovered that the spears and spears of his soldiers could not penetrate the shields of the long-soldiers, and the opponent used the upper and lower gaps to attack his own soldiers with spears.
Finally, someone was able to get close to the long-sword soldiers. When they were about to fight these turtle shells at close range, they found that several long-sword soldiers came out of nowhere to block the way. Then they were either killed by the long-sword soldiers or were killed by someone who didn't know where. The spear came out and fell to the ground.
All in all, each of the five hundred attacking soldiers experienced various unlucky encounters. The luckier ones were injured and retreated, while the unlucky ones died on the spot.
As for whether the enemy's soldiers were killed... there should be some, but as far as Cao Ren could see, it was too limited.
After fighting for less than a quarter of an hour, Cao Ren had to order the attacking formation to retreat and retreat to repair.
There is no way to fight anymore. If we continue to fight, none of our five hundred soldiers will come back.
Even though Cao Ren quickly ordered to retreat, after counting the soldiers who came back, he found that 130 of the 500 soldiers were killed and more than 200 wounded, and only more than 100 were still able to fight.
This is basically equivalent to announcing that these five hundred soldiers have withdrawn from this battle and have no combat effectiveness.
And on the opposite side...Zhang Fei was so happy that his nose was full of snot.
Originally facing Cao Ren's challenge, Zhang Fei did not want to bully Cao Ren and planned to send 500 men to fight.
But Zhang Xi disagrees.
Liu Beijun's situation is indeed not good now.
There were a total of 3,300 troops. Liu Bei led 500 troops as the central army. The remaining 2,800 troops and 1,000 troops were taken away by Guan Yu to attack Fancheng. Only the remaining troops headed by Zhang Feiying were left. These 1,800 people.
If this is not the case in the first battle, it will have a great impact on morale.
Therefore, Zhang Xi tried hard to persuade Zhang Fei that except for leaving a small group of soldiers as a reserve, all the remaining 800 people would go into battle, with Zhang Fei's troops and Kou Feng's troops as the lead.
These people are the most proficient in the Yuanyang Formation, and the core defense formation must be built around them.
But Zhang Xi really didn't expect that the level of soldiers in this era was so different. Cao Ren's so-called elite soldiers were not even a little worse than Liu Bei's white soldiers.
At the same time, Zhang Xi did not expect that the Yuanyang Formation was so powerful... The 500 people on the opposite side retreated leaving corpses on the ground, while on his own side, only eight people were killed and 19 were injured.
Not to mention Cao Ren, even Liu Bei was shocked when he heard about this battle loss ratio.
Liu Bei was a little worried at first, thinking that if it didn't work, he would let his white soldiers go into battle. Even if all the white soldiers were exhausted, they would stop Cao Ren. But now it seems... Haha, little Cao Ren, I will make sure you come back today.
