Liu Bei returned to the military tent and immediately discussed with brothers Guan and Zhang, Zhang Xi and Xu Shu about sending troops to attack the city tomorrow.
Now that he has led his troops here, Liu Bei also knows that it is impossible not to fight. Zhou Yu is not so kind.
The battle must be fought, and it must be fought beautifully so that Zhou Yu can see the combat effectiveness of Jiang Xia's army.
Moreover, everyone has seen today's exploratory attack and has an understanding of Cao Jun's strategy of defending the city. So, everyone must discuss how to fight the battle tomorrow.
Of course, Liu Bei mainly asked about his two brothers, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.
Xu Shu had always been responsible for government affairs and making suggestions, and had no experience in leading troops in war.
Although Zhang Xi has experience in leading troops, his experience is not enough compared to Guan Zhang.
So, at this time, Liu Bei knew very well who to ask and who not to ask.
Guan Yu and Zhang Fei looked at each other, and the older Guan Yu spoke first.
"Cao Ren's strategy for defending the city is not very unique, but the thousand cavalry are quite difficult to deal with." Guan Yu stroked his beard and said, "In the past, when the third brother was at Changbanpo, he could use infantry to fight against tigers and leopards without losing. It is better for the third brother to go out tomorrow and just entangle the cavalry to delay time for us. We will lead the army to attack the camp as soon as possible. If the camp is eliminated, the cavalry will return to the city."
The reason is this. When using infantry against cavalry on the plains, unless you set up an ambush in advance or take advantage of the terrain, you can only delay the attack and there is no possibility of defeating the enemy.
Zhang Fei didn't have any big objections to this. He only had one small problem: what to do if the losses were too great.
The current situation is different from that on Changban Slope. On Changban Slope, Zhang Fei only had to guard Chang Banqiao, and Cao Chun's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry would not be able to pass.
But under Jiangling City, he wanted to intercept the cavalry coming and going like the wind. With the thousands of people he brought, he couldn't form a circular defense at all. He could only arrange it in an arc shape to try to extend the defensive range of Wugang's chariot. Only then can it be possible to block Cao Ren's cavalry.
However, if a circular formation cannot be formed to defend, the defensive capabilities of the Wugang chariot formation will be reduced by half. Without the cooperation of the cavalry, although Zhang Fei is still confident that he can command everyone to defend and delay time, it is estimated that the casualties of the soldiers he brought will be Not too small.
Liu Bei's army is here to help, not to fight for others. Even if all the five thousand people brought by Liu Bei are killed in the battle, Zhou Yu will not have any mercy when Nanjun is captured, let alone hand over Nanjun. Let Liu Bei manage it.
Therefore, how to reduce casualties is also an issue that needs to be discussed.
As for this, Xu Shu smiled slightly and said, "This is why I asked Zhou Gongjin for troops!"
It's not that Xu Shu had thought of these siege strategies a long time ago. It was just that Xu Shu felt that his own army could not be used to attack the city tomorrow and let Jiangdong Army watch, so he asked Zhou Yu to bring some troops over, just in case.
Look, it’s in use now.
Of course, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu did not want Jiangdong Army to be used as cannon fodder. Although the two leaders had different styles, they would not let Jiangdong Army die in vain.
Jiangdong's army failed to attack the city. In the eyes of Zhang Fei and Guan Yu, the problem of the ability of the soldiers was secondary. The real reason was that Jiangdong's army had no experience in using infantry against cavalry.
Jiangdong Army does not have this kind of experience, but Liu Beijun does, and it is very rich. Although most of them are failures, there are always times of success.
The next day, Zhou Yu sent Ling Tong and 3,000 men to Liu Bei's army to cooperate with Liu Bei's army in fighting.
Guan and Zhang immediately assigned the task to Ling Tong's army - to face the enemy in front of Liu Bei's army, facing the direction of Jiangling.
Ling Tong almost jumped up when he heard this.
The infantry and the cavalry also use the front-arrow formation to meet the enemy. The front-arrow formation is an offensive formation. It focuses on attacking but not on defending. Are you going to risk your own death? !
Guan and Zhang were obviously not so petty, and explained the importance of this sharp arrow array to Ling Tong in detail.
Although the formation was a front and arrow formation, Ling Tong was not allowed to attack forward. Instead, he used the front and arrow formation as a formation. The whole army stood firm with their spears raised and could withstand the first wave of Cao Ren's cavalry.
The purpose was to take advantage of Cao Ren's eagerness to rescue the camp and his pride in the cavalry's superiority over the infantry to force Cao Ren to divide his troops.
In the past, Jiangdong's cavalry formations to stop Cao Ren were basically in circular formations, which made it easier to mobilize troops and horses for defense.
It is correct to use a circular formation for defense, but the opponent is cavalry. Once the cavalry charges up, they can break through the circular formation from one point and break the circular formation. Once the circular formation is split, it will be difficult to reorganize. It was very troublesome, so he repeatedly let Cao Ren succeed and rescued Cao Yong's camp.
Now Guan Yu asked Ling Tong to defend with the sharp arrow formation, which was to use the sharpness and heavy formation of the front section of the sharp arrow formation to block the first wave of cavalry attacks.
As long as the first wave of impact is blocked, Cao Ren will definitely not compete with a forward formation with a limited defensive area. He will definitely divide his troops and advance. At this time, Zhang Fei's chariot formation has already formed behind Ling Tong, and Ling Tong's army can retreat. Withdrawn.
A thousand people attacked one point of the car formation at the same time. Even if Zhang Fei had the confidence to defend it, he would probably suffer heavy losses.
But a thousand men were divided into two places and attacked two points of the chariot formation. For Zhang Fei, the command was still the same, but for Cao Ren's cavalry, the attack power was much weaker.
It doesn't matter to Zhang Fei whether Cao Ren will reorganize his army after he finds out. Anyway, he is just stalling for time. If Cao Ren wants to retreat and reorganize his army, Zhang Fei is eager to do it.
After explaining these things, although Ling Tong understood the purpose of this battle, he still felt distressed.
Indeed, doing so would be of great benefit to Liu Bei's army, and it would also reduce the pressure on Zhang Fei's defense. But the people in front who withstood the first wave of cavalry were his own soldiers.
The first wave of cavalry attacks is the fastest and has the most complete formation, so it is also the most powerful.
He is at the forefront. If he cannot stop Cao Ren's cavalry and Guan Yu fails to attack the camp, the responsibility will be his own. If you block the first attack of the cavalry and force the cavalry to divide their troops, you will certainly gain the greatest credit, but you will probably also suffer the greatest casualties.
Zhou Yu sent him Ling Tong to assist in the battle, not to be cannon fodder.
Ling Tong wanted to repay Zhou Yu and asked Zhou Yu to make a decision, but he felt that there was no use in repaying the favor.
No matter whether this plan can succeed or not, Zhou Yu cannot reject Liu Beijun's battle plan just for the loss of his own people.
You must know that in addition to your own 3,000 people, the remaining 5,000 people of Liu Bei's army will go into the battle this time. If you don't do it well because you feel sorry for the loss, then Liu Bei's army will hold you accountable in the future, if anything happens. If you show off like this, Governor Zhou can't do anything about it.
So, bite the bullet and go for it.
After Ling Tong returned to camp, he prepared his troops, distributed spears, and formed an array in the direction of Jiangling City in a spear formation.
Zhang Fei, on the other hand, led a thousand soldiers and carried 200 improved Wugang chariots to form an arc-shaped formation behind Ling Tong.
Guan Yu personally led 3,000 soldiers to launch an attack on Cao Yong's camp. Zhang Xi led 1,000 soldiers to intercept the possible reinforcements from Niujin's camp.
As for Xu Shu, he accompanied Liu Bei and Zhou Yu and stood at the place where they watched the battle yesterday, climbing up to watch Liu Bei's army attack Cao Yong's camp.
Zhou Yu was actually very confused about Liu Bei's army's formation. He especially didn't understand why Ling Tong was asked to set up the spear formation, and why Zhang Fei led the thousand men behind Ling Tong. The weapons are so diverse.
But it wasn't until the war actually started that Zhou Yu's eyes were opened.
First, Guan Yu's three thousand troops besieged Cao Yong's camp. He used crossbows almost immediately to suppress Cao Yong's camp with arrows.
This is nothing new. Everyone does this when attacking a city. The crossbows in Guan Yu's army were borrowed from Jiangdong's army.
However, the pedal crossbow is used when attacking a city because the pedal crossbow is very powerful and has a long range. If it is to hit the city wall, it may not be possible to rely solely on strong bows and crossbows.
But when building a small camp, there is no problem of range. Why use a crossbow? It feels like a waste of arrows.
Later, Zhou Yu understood Guan Yu's intention - to use the power of the crossbow to suppress the bows and arrows in Cao Jun's camp, forcing Cao Jun to defend himself with shields and not dare to shoot arrows in return.
Then, Zhou Yu discovered another difference in Guan Yu's command.
Guan Yu did not wait for the arrows to stop before ordering the attack on the camp. Instead, before the last round of arrows ended, he ordered his soldiers to come out and attack forward.
At this time, the soldiers in Cao Yong's camp were suppressed by the arrows fired by the last batch of crossbows. At this time, they were all raising their shields to avoid the rain of arrows. When the rain of arrows stopped, the soldiers in Cao Yong's camp wanted to shoot arrows to block the siege troops. , only to find that the siege troops were almost approaching their camp.
In this way, Guan Yu's soldiers escaped the enemy defenders' arrow fire and quickly approached the camp.
Zhou Yu fell into deep thought. This was not a great tactic, but he had never considered it before.
If his soldiers could approach Cao Jun's camp so quickly in the past few times, I don't say whether they can capture it, but at least the losses will be much less.
Then, another scene occurred that surprised Zhou Yu.
In the direction of Jiangling City, Cao Ren discovered that Cao Yong's camp was surrounded so quickly, and immediately decided to go out of the city for rescue again.
A thousand cavalry rushed out of the south gate of Jiangling City. Cao Ren personally led the troops and came towards Ling Tong's spear formation.
Although I don't know if the Jiangdong Army sent an idiot to lead the troops this time and actually used the sharp arrow formation to block the enemy. But Cao Ren will not be polite and will attack when it is time to attack.
Then Cao Ren's cavalry collided with the spear formation led by Ling Tong.
Of course Cao Ren's cavalry suffered casualties, but the greater casualties must have been from Ling Tong's army, who were infantry after all.
However, Ling Tong still commanded his soldiers tenaciously, and worked hard to defend the first wave of Cao Ren's cavalry attack, and was not distracted by Cao Ren's formation during the first wave of attack.
This surprised Zhou Yu.
If the success of the siege before was due to the high quality of the Jiangxia army led by Guan Yu and their ability to advance despite arrows, then this is his own soldier now.
Two days ago, these same soldiers, under the command of Ling Tong, did not block Cao Ren's first wave of cavalry attack. But today they actually blocked it? !
Although the losses were heavy, it is estimated that it would be difficult to block the second wave of attacks. But if Ling Tong could block the first wave of attacks in the past two days, he would have had time to mobilize his troops and organize a second line of defense, and he would not be defeated by Cao Ren. The cavalry will break through as soon as they charge.
Same soldiers, same commander, different. Only the formation? !
Not to mention that the sharp arrow array can be used for defense, Zhou Yu would not believe it, something that went against military common sense.
But facing the cavalry, this sharp arrow formation is indeed somewhat effective. If combined with Zhang Fei's car formation,
Zhou Yu was thinking and watching, watching Cao Ren divide his troops into two groups, bypass Ling Tong's army, and rush towards Zhang Fei's chariot formation in the rear.
Then, Zhou Yu was completely dumbfounded.
(End of chapter)
