Although Bowang is in the northwest of Xinye, it is actually closer to Nanyang County. Therefore, if Liu Bei's army wants to set up an ambush in Bowang, it must set off earlier than Cao's army.
Therefore, as soon as Liu Bei's army discovered signs of Cao's army's departure, Liu Bei's army immediately reported to Liu Bei, and Liu Bei's army had to set off immediately to reach Bowang before Cao's army.
It took Zhang Xi three days to leaching out the first batch of rockets, but the effect was still very poor. Apart from shocking people, they had almost no lethality.
But time waits for no one, and Zhang Xi has no time to improve again. They must set off to meet the enemy.
This time Zhang Xi did not receive a separate combat mission. He was Zhang Fei's deputy general.
In order to take care of him, Zhang Fei was afraid that Zhang Xi would encounter any danger, so he specially arranged for a group of Kou Feng's men to follow Zhang Xi's orders.
Zhang Xi, the deputy general, can be regarded as having soldiers under his command.
But Kou Feng was still responsible for the daily marching work. After all, Zhang Xi didn't understand this.
After another three days of marching, Liu Bei led his army to the vicinity of Bowang, and then Zhao Yun led the more than a hundred rangers he had finally organized to go out to investigate the movements of Cao's army.
At this time, Xiahou Dun had indeed led his army out of Wancheng and was heading towards Bowang.
In addition to the general Xiahou Dun, the people leading the army this time were also two generals, Yu Jin and Li Dian.
Cao Ren, this unlucky boy, was transferred north by Cao Cao to bully Wuhuan.
According to the military intelligence gathered by Zhao Yun's cavalry, Xiahou Dun marched fairly rigorously and set up camps along the way in a well-organized manner. He was not an incompetent person.
It's just that the marching speed was a bit fast, so the army's march seemed a bit hasty. The fact that the queue was relatively long made Liu Bei a little confused, and made Zhuge Liang and Xu Shu laugh slightly in their hearts.
Zhang Fei didn't understand why, but Zhang Xi probably guessed it.
"Xiahou Dun is Cao Cao's trusted general. Every time Cao Cao goes out to fight, he will leave Xiahou Dun to guard the rear. This shows that Cao Cao trusts him!" Zhang Xi smiled slightly and explained to Zhang Fei, "But who wouldn't want to be a general? If you go out to fight and imitate Wei Huo and achieve immortal feats, how can you be willing to die in the rear?!"
After saying this, Zhang Fei understood.
"Yuan Chang is saying that this Xiahou Dun is eager to make meritorious deeds?!" Zhang Fei frowned and said, "But Zilong also said that this man is very organized in setting up camp, doesn't he look like an incompetent general?!"
"I don't know whether they are all incompetent, but there is no contradiction between being eager to make meritorious deeds and having a well-organized camp, right?!" Zhang Xi continued to explain, "Furthermore, although Xiahou Dun was the commander-in-chief of Cao's army this time, Cao's deputy generals Jin and Li Dian , these two are talented generals. Li Dian is a cautious man, very good at defending the city, and never rushes in. Yu Jin is even more calm in the face of danger. When Cao Cao was defeated in Wancheng, the Qingzhou soldiers took this opportunity to mutiny and plunder. Thanks to this man in time Gathering the defeated army and improving military discipline gave Cao Cao a chance to make a comeback. With these two people here, if Cao's army's camp is not well established, it will be a fraud."
Zhang Fei understood clearly that it was Xiahou Dun who was eager to make meritorious deeds, but he had two good helpers. The march was strictly organized along the way, and Liu Bei's army still did not find any opportunity for a sneak attack.
"If Zhuge Kongming's plan is like this, I'm afraid it will be difficult to implement!" Zhang Fei sighed and said.
Zhang Xi shook his head and said, "But that's not necessarily the case. The commander-in-chief of the army is Xiahou Dun after all, and this time the lord personally acts as a bait. Even if Cao Cao comes in person, he may fall into the trap!"
What's really irresistible about Zhuge Liang's plan this time is that he dares to use Liu Bei as bait.
And Liu Bei is ruthless enough, he really dares to do it himself.
To a certain extent, this can be considered a conspiracy.
Even if Xiahou Dun really sees that there is a fraud in this, his current mood is not only eager to achieve success, but also facing Liu Bei, and Liu Bei only has 3,000 men, and he has 20,000. What if Liu Bei has an ambush? !
Is it possible that 3,000 people could surround and kill him with 20,000 people? !
If you don't pursue this, you would be short-sighted.
And Liu Bei was also very ambitious. He really dared to fake defeat in front of 20,000 people, and he was defeated quite decently.
In the official history, Liu Bei burned his own camp, which means that he fled all the way back and the camp was burned down.
In the novel, Liu Bei also personally led the army to fight against Xiahou Dun, but was defeated and retreated.
No matter which link goes wrong, if Liu Bei is really defeated or surrounded by Xiahou Dun, the consequences will be disastrous.
With Liu Bei's reckless performance, let alone Xiahou Dun, even if Cao Cao came, he might not be able to help but pursue him.
Zhang Xi was still confident about the success of Zhuge Liang's plan. What he was really not confident about was whether he and Zhang Fei could intercept Xiahou Dun's army, which was eager for survival, and whether they could block Cao Cao's rear army.
But when things came to an end, there was no way to back down. Zhang Fei took his troops and set off to Anlin to ambush him.
The progress of the frontal battlefield was basically the same as in the novel. First, Zhao Yun came forward to provoke Xiahou Dun into fighting.
At this time, Zhao Yun was not as famous as he would later be, so Zhao Yun and his army could not resist Xiahou Dun, and Xiahou Dun had no doubts at all.
After all, he is an "unknown general".
Even this time, even Li Dian didn't think there was anything wrong with Xiahou Dun's choice to pursue.
But when Zhao Yun retreated to the mountain trail, Li Dian realized that something was wrong, and stepped forward to persuade Xiahou Dun, saying, "The terrain here is quite bad, so be careful of Liu Bei's ambush!"
Xiahou Dun was still very calm at this time and felt that what Li Dian said made sense.
But at this time, Liu Bei personally led his army out and commanded the army to fight Xiahou Dun's forward team.
Xiahou Dun was immediately overjoyed when he saw Liu Bei. When he saw that Liu Bei had led his army to fight out, he was firmly suppressed by his forward troops, pressing forward step by step, and was about to be encircled.
At this time, Xiahou Dun thought nothing of it. He waved his flag and pressed the entire army to capture Liu Bei alive.
Li Dian didn't try to persuade him at this time. When he saw Liu Bei himself appearing and possibly being defeated at any time, Li Dian couldn't keep a cool head.
In addition, the deputy general had no choice but to obey the orders given by the general.
However, Li Dian had a backup plan after all. He called him too forbidden and said, "Wen Ze will stay with General Xiahou. If anything goes wrong, retreat quickly. I will lead the rear army to support the public." .”
"Don't worry Mancheng!" Yu Jin agreed.
At this time, Liu Bei began to retreat. Xiahou Dun and Yu Jin hurriedly led the front army to pursue them, and Li Dian also began to command the rear army to follow up, trying to stay as close as possible.
But Li Dian never expected that Xiahou Dun would run so fast to pursue Liu Bei, regardless of whether the rear army could catch up.
Li Dian had no choice but to repeatedly urge the rear army to follow. As a result, Cao's army's formation was stretched longer and longer.
Cao's army in the front army only focused on pursuit, and even the basic marching formation was lost. It was completely dispersed.
Although Cao's army in the rear still barely maintained its formation, it was also in a state of rapid march in order to keep up with the pace of the front army.
Therefore, when evening approached, Xiahou Dun pursued Liu Bei's army to an ambush and was attacked with fire and arrows by the ambush led by Guan Yu. Cao's army was completely in chaos.
Cao's army in the front army had no formation at all at this time, and they were all jammed in the mountain road in a chaotic manner.
On the mountain were archers led by Guan Yu's army, and the valley was filled with sulfur, hay and other fire starters. Once ignited, the entire Cao army's front army was in chaos.
At the rear army, Li Dian saw a sudden thick smoke and fire in front of him, and immediately knew something was wrong. He quickly prepared his army for battle, trying to meet Xiahou Dun, but at this time, a group of men and horses came out from An Lin, blocking him. the way to go.
There were not many people, only about a thousand, but the timing of their appearance was perfect. Not only did they block the mountain road while they were hurriedly organizing their troops, they also immediately set up a defensive formation.
Li Dian was very anxious. Just by looking at the troops blocking the way, he knew that Xiahou Dun had fallen into a trap.
But Li Dian knew that he couldn't be anxious now and had to calm down - he was Xiahou Dun's last hope now, and he had to find a way to defeat the sergeant blocking the road in front of him and rescue Xiahou Dun.
But now due to the urgent march, Li Dian's rear army also maintained its formation. If they launched an attack immediately, the effect would not be great. If their energy was dampened, it would be troublesome.
We must first call back our troops, make new arrangements, and strive to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop.
But Li Dian didn't have much time. He didn't know the situation ahead, nor how long Xiahou Dun could hold out. Even though he repeatedly warned himself to be calm, he couldn't spend too much time organizing an attack.
And Li Dian also knew his opponent.
The last time General Cao Ren personally led five thousand elite troops to attack Xinye, Li Dian was beside Cao Ren. He had seen how powerful this army with bamboo poles was.
None of the elite soldiers trained by Cao Ren himself were any match, and Li Dian did not dare to underestimate the thousands of troops in front of him.
Therefore, Li Dian had three thousand soldiers as soon as he started, with an attack and defense ratio of three to one.
It wasn't that Li Dian didn't want to send more men to attack. The key was that the mountain road was so wide, and the hillsides and dense forests on both sides made Li Dian very wary. He was afraid of an ambush, so he only dared to send so many soldiers.
At this point, in order to launch an attack formation, Sergeant Cao's soldiers had already expanded their team to the middle of the mountain.
The conventional attack routine starts with a hail of arrows that consumes the opponent's soldiers.
However, the formation gaps in Zhang Fei's army were very large, and the arrows were protected by long soldiers. The arrows had little effect and did not move the opponent's formation.
Li Dian saw that he had no choice but to use local methods. The sergeants pressed forward and relied on the human sea tactic to win.
But before Cao Jun's soldiers could advance a few steps, they saw a sudden light of fire in the opposite formation, followed by a rain of fire flying toward Cao Jun's formation.
It's not like Sergeant Cao has never seen arrow rain. Generally, the first step for both sides to attack or defend is to shoot arrows. Everyone is used to this and has corresponding preventive measures.
But what is this fire rain? !
Could there be ghosts and gods helping the other party? !
Not to mention Cao Jun's soldiers thought so, even Li Dian was dumbfounded and had such thoughts in his heart.
People in this era would mostly attribute things they couldn't understand to ghosts and gods, not to mention Li Dian, even if Cao Cao came.
In addition, it was already approaching evening, and the sky was getting dark. Li Dian could not see clearly the way Zhang Fei was shooting arrows in the army. All he could see was a little spark slowly getting bigger in front of his eyes, and finally landed on his own In the middle of the attacking soldiers.
Because he didn't know what it was, Li Dian forgot to give command for a while, and even if he gave command, it was useless. The offensive formation of the former army was completely messed up.
The soldiers didn't know what was being shot, but human instinct would be more subconscious when they see fire falling. If there are too many people to avoid, they would subconsciously run away.
If it were a bow and arrow, the soldiers would still know how to defend against it, but if fire fell from the sky, how would they defend against it? !
Cao's army immediately fell into chaos, and the front army changed from an offensive formation to a chaotic running around. If Zhang Fei failed to seize the opportunity at this time, he would not be the future general Ji Han's cavalry.
Zhang Fei commanded his 500 soldiers to rush forward to pursue and kill the enemy, while the remaining 500 soldiers held down the formation to respond.
In this way, chasing and running, Zhang Fei easily repelled Li Dian's first attack. If Li Dian hadn't been calm and ordered the military law team to kill many running sergeants in time, Zhang Fei would have He was even able to lead his army to drive Cao Cao's soldiers to disrupt Li Dian's army's formation, thus defeating Li Dian in one fell swoop.
But unfortunately, Li Dian was indeed a famous general as Zhang Xi said, and he was not so easy to deal with.
But no matter what, Li Dianjun lost in the first round.
(End of chapter)
