At the foot of Jiangling City, Zhang Xi once again opened a small stove for Zhang Fei and told him about the "method of using troops."
Of course, it's just a small talk. If you really want to teach Zhang Fei the art of war seriously, you should let Zhuge Liang teach him. He is the one who has read the art of war seriously, and Zhang Xi, he knows everything Just some superficiality.
It's just that Zhuge Liang's teaching method may not be acceptable to Zhang Fei, but Zhang Fei was quite impressed by Zhang Xi's chatty explanation.
The two were chatting animatedly when suddenly a close associate of Zhang Fei came to report that Zhou Yu had invited Zhang Fei and Zhang Xi to discuss matters.
Well, it has been seven or eight days since I stayed at Jiangling City. This Zhou Yu finally remembered that he still wanted to discuss something.
Then go ahead.
Zhang Fei and Zhou Yu were not familiar with each other. They had only met each other once and greeted each other when Liu Bei brought them here.
But Zhou Yu is now very familiar with Zhang Xi.
"Yuan Chang is here. Hurry, come and talk to me!" Zhou Yu first greeted Zhang Xi warmly, and then he called Zhang Xi cordially, and then personally pulled Zhang Xi into the military tent. Those who didn't know it thought the two of them were friends. What a good friend.
When dealing with Zhang Fei, Zhou Yu just nodded slightly to say hello, and then handed Zhang Fei to the soldiers to greet him. Although it was in line with etiquette, it revealed the unfamiliar smell.
Zhang Fei was not angry about this. One was that Zhang Fei trusted Zhang Xi very much and had no idea what Zhou Yu's little actions were. The other thing is, well, scholars from aristocratic families these days have this kind of virtue, Zhang Fei is used to being ignored.
After some polite remarks, Zhou Yu didn't mince words and talked about serious matters.
"The two generals are invited here today to discuss how to get rid of Cao Ren's cavalry."
Although Cao Ren failed to reach Cao Yong's camp last time, Cao Yong's camp was breached and Cao Yong himself died in battle.
However, the damage to Cao Ren's cavalry was not serious, and more than 800 cavalry were left to retreat to Jiangling City. Niu Jin also retreated to the camp to defend the situation, and the losses were not great.
If this force of cavalry is not broken, Zhou Yu will always be wary when attacking the city. After all, the cavalry has a great restraint effect on the infantry.
When it comes to breaking cavalry, Zhang Xi said that he is not very professional. The real professional is Zhang Fei.
Then, Zhang Xi pushed Zhang Fei out and asked Zhou Yu to ask Zhang Fei himself.
Don't think that Zhang Xi didn't notice the little move just now in front of Zhang Fei. You are so warm to me and so cold to Zhang Fei. What do you want to do? ! Want to separate? !
This Zhou Gongjin is still doing these little things at this time. Now it’s okay. You can ask Zhang Fei yourself.
Zhou Yu was also a little embarrassed, but fortunately, the head coach was not too thin-skinned. Zhou Yu immediately complimented Zhang Fei a few words, and then asked about the tactics of infantry to restrain cavalry.
Zhang Fei was quite honest at this time. He didn't care about Zhou Yu's attitude before and after, and directly started to talk about the difference between infantry and cavalry, and how infantry defeated cavalry.
Theoretically speaking, cavalry has a natural ability to restrain infantry. It is almost impossible for infantry to defeat cavalry.
In most cases, this is true, but there are some exceptions.
For example, the Battle of the Boundary Bridge.
A few years ago, when Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan fought for Hebei, Liu Bei was on Gongsun Zan's side at that time. Although he did not see it in person, Zhang Fei also heard about the general process of the Battle of Jieqiao.
To put it simply, Qu Yi used 800 infantry and a thousand machine crossbows to defeat Gongsun Zan's cavalry at the boundary bridge.
This is a typical case of infantry defeating cavalry and defeating more with less.
First of all, the infantry must be elite soldiers. After all, they have to maintain a stable formation in the face of cavalry charges, which is not something ordinary soldiers can do.
The next step was to defend the first wave of cavalry charges and create time for the machine crossbows behind to defeat the enemy.
As for these two things, Zhou Yu thought about it for a while, and it seemed that he could probably do it himself.
There are elite soldiers. The thousand men led by Zhang Fei, relying on those carts, once intercepted Cao Ren's cavalry.
There are also machine crossbows. Nothing else is available here in Jiangdong, but there is definitely no shortage of machine crossbows and crossbow archers. After all, fighting on the river, if you don't have crossbowmen, you will suffer a big loss.
The problem now is how to lure Cao Ren's remaining cavalry out of the city to fight a battle of annihilation. Zhou Yu instantly thought of Niu Jin's camp outside Jiangling City.
Zhou Yu was suddenly a little lucky that Chen Wu and Pan Zhang did not succeed in the sneak attack, but asked Niu Jin to retreat to the camp.
This is a natural, as good as any bait.
Zhou Yu immediately decided to transfer a thousand crossbowmen from the rear army. At the suggestion of Zhang Xi, he also transferred 500 crossbowmen as backup, and then began to formulate a battle plan.
In fact, it didn't have much value. It was just to besiege Niu Jin's camp and force Cao Ren in Jiangling City to send troops to rescue.
If Cao Ren did not send troops, Niu Jin's camp would definitely not be able to be saved. Zhou Yu could be considered as having taken out a stronghold outside Jiangling City, killing a large number of Cao's troops.
But if Cao Ren sends out cavalry to rescue, then just like the last siege of Cao Yong's camp, let Zhang Fei lead the army to cut off the rescue route and block the cavalry's way, and then Zhou Yu will let the crossbowmen and crossbowmen who ambush in advance kill the cavalry with arrows .
After formulating the battle plan, Zhou Yu decided to launch an encirclement and suppression operation against Niujin Camp in two days.
Zhang Xi and Zhang Fei also returned to camp to prepare. After all, in Zhou Yu's plan, whether they could block Cao Ren's cavalry was key. If they couldn't, those cavalry would come and go like the wind, and it would be difficult for bows and crossbows to effectively kill them.
Two days after everything was ready, Zhou Yu began to surround Niujin's camp.
The number of Cao's troops in Niujin's camp was not large, only about 2,000. The last time they went out to rescue Cao Yong, they suffered some losses and killed 1,500.
This time Zhou Yu sent Chen Wu to lead an army of 3,000 men to besiege Niujin camp, while others supported him from the outside.
The soldiers of the Jiangxia Army commanded by Zhang Fei and Zhang Xi set up a line of defense early in the direction of Niujin Camp and Jiangling City Gate, just to prevent Cao Renjun's cavalry from rushing over to rescue them.
As for the crossbowmen and crossbowmen, they were hidden in the Jiangdong Army's support team. As long as Cao Ren's cavalry left the city and approached Zhang Fei's chariot formation, the crossbowmen and crossbowmen would quickly form formations and use Kill the enemy with arrows.
All arrangements were in place. Zhou Yu was observing the entire battlefield from a high place, confidently waiting for Cao Ren to be fooled.
One morning passed, and Chen Wu was still working hard to attack Niu Jin's camp, but Niu Jin's camp was very firmly guarded. With Chen Wu's three thousand men, it seemed that he really couldn't shake Niu Jin's camp.
Zhou Yu sighed in his heart.
Guan Yu commanded 3,000 men and easily shook Cao Yong's camp, forcing Cao Ren to go out of the city to respond. But now, Chen Wu's 3,000 men were actually defended by others.
Zhou Yu knew that Chen Wu could not compare with a famous general like Guan Yu, but he still felt unhappy.
Call Pan Zhang and ask him to lead 2,000 more people to help in the battle. That will do the trick.
Sure enough, after Pan Zhang's two thousand men joined the siege, Niu Jin's camp began to appear in danger. Some of the wooden walls of the camp had collapsed and could be lost at any time.
As expected, Cao Ren in Jiangling City couldn't sit still anymore. He opened the gate of Jiangling City again and sent out his trump card - the cavalry.
Zhou Yu sneered slightly, planning to just watch Cao Ren's cavalry fall into the trap. But something unexpected by Zhou Yu happened.
Cao Ren's cavalry did leave the city, but they did not form a formation and come directly to meet Niujin's camp. Instead, they divided into two groups after leaving the city and rushed forward along both sides of the city wall.
Zhou Yu didn't quite understand it at first, but when he saw the direction of the cavalry's advance, he immediately realized the opponent's purpose - to use the mobility of the cavalry to bypass the car formation arranged by Zhang Fei, and attack in a roundabout way from both wings of the Jiangdong Army to meet Niu. Jin's camp.
Zhou Yu immediately knew something was wrong, frowned, and stared at the changes in the field.
Now Zhou Yu can only hope that the Jiangdong Army on both wings can block the impact of Cao's cavalry and buy time for Zhang Fei's car formation to change direction.
Zhang Fei's reaction was much faster than Zhou Yu's.
Zhang Fei knew Cao Ren's purpose as soon as he saw the cavalry leaving the city and dividing their troops and rushing along the city wall.
Zhang Fei made a decisive decision and began to prepare to split the vehicle formation into two groups to support the two wings of Jiangdong Army without waiting for Zhou Yu's order.
After all, if Cao's cavalry is allowed to attack from both wings of Jiangdong's army, the thousand soldiers led by Zhang Fei and Zhang Xi will also be greatly impacted.
When the Wugang chariots did not form a circular formation, they could not defend themselves from the front but from the rear. Once Cao Cao's cavalry charged in from the flanks, facing the impact of the cavalry, Zhang Fei's soldiers were not much different from ordinary Jiangdong soldiers.
But just when Zhang Fei was about to order the car formation to be split, Zhang Xi always felt that something was wrong, but couldn't put it right at the moment, so he could only suggest Zhang Fei to split the car formation into three parts.
The two groups quickly moved toward the two wings of the army, trying to set up their cavalry formation before Cao Ren's cavalry attacked the Jiangdong Army's flanks. The other group served as a reserve, depending on the situation, and would go to support whichever side could not withstand it.
The situation on the battlefield changed quickly, and Zhang Fei could not afford to think too much. Moreover, Zhang Fei also had a high degree of trust in Zhang Xi. He immediately adopted Zhang Xi's suggestion and split the car formation.
However, the movement speed of the chariots and soldiers is really slow, even slower than the infantry's formation changes. Even if Zhang Fei gives the order in time, it will take time for the chariot formations to be broken up, moved, and reorganized.
The speed of the cavalry does not give you this time at all.
At this time, the test is the Jiangdong Army general's ability to command on the battlefield.
Fortunately, the generals of the Jiangdong Army were poor at land warfare and lacked experience in sieges, but their ability to command on the battlefield was not a problem at all.
Ling Tongyi on the left saw the cavalry taking a roundabout way, and without saying a word, he asked the pikemen in the army to rush forward and form an arrow formation to meet the enemy, while he led his own soldiers to hold down the formation in person.
They don't seek to win, they just seek to delay time and create time for Zhang Fei's car formation to shift.
Lu Meng, on the right wing, asked the shield soldiers in the army to rush forward at about the same time, and set up three defense lines of shield soldiers in a short period of time. The purpose was also to delay time and wait for Zhang Fei's vehicle formation to be in place.
It can be said that Jiangdong Army made the best response they could in the short term. Even if Zhou Yu personally commanded it, it could only do this.
Today's purpose is to eliminate these cavalry, so the positions of the crossbows and crossbows cannot be exposed, otherwise the Jiangdong Army on the left and right wings should not only defend but not attack. This is only to provide cover for the crossbowmen, so that they can follow Zhang The position of the speeding car formation was transferred to the correct position.
It has to be said that the Jiangdong Army on both wings responded promptly and at the same time tried their best to block the cavalry assault.
But fortunately, after Cao's army was divided, there were only four or five hundred cavalry on both sides, and the pressure seemed to be there. Wait, four or five hundred cavalry? !
Zhou Yu finally discovered that something was wrong.
The last time Cao Jun returned to Jiangling, the number of cavalry was about 800, including wounded cavalry.
But this time, the number of cavalry that Cao Jun left the city seemed to have remained at about a thousand.
Could it be that Cao Ren sent out his own soldiers and cavalry? !
If that was the case, it would be okay, but Zhou Yu always had an ominous premonition.
And soon, Zhou Yu's ominous premonition came true.
The gate of Jiangling City opened again, and another cavalry rushed out of Jiangling City. The leader was Jiangling guard Cao Ren.
Damn Cao Ren, he still has cavalry available.
(End of chapter)
