The attack and defense at Jiangling City finally came to an end as night fell.
In this battle, both Jiangdong and Cao Jun suffered heavy losses, but they both achieved their goals.
Zhou Yu did not expect that Cao Ren actually hid a cavalry force, attacked at the critical moment, and took Niu Jin away.
Cao Ren also didn't expect that the two-wing cavalry he sent out as support would suffer an almost devastating blow from Jiangdong's army.
During the day, Cao Ren understood the situation clearly and knew that Zhou Yu besieged Niujin camp to lure him to rescue.
However, Cao Ren misjudged Zhou Yu's purpose. He thought that Zhou Yu wanted to use the Niujin camp as bait to force him to fight in front of the chariot formation, so that he could find a way to defeat the cavalry he led.
Cao Ren must not be able to do what Zhou Yu wishes.
Therefore, Cao Ren first sent cavalry to pretend to attack the two wings of Jiangdong Army, and mobilized Jiangdong Army's defensive formation to adjust to the two wings. At the same time, he led the 500 cavalrymen who had not been used to fight out when the center was empty. If possible, the Chinese army broke in and killed If you stand on your back, you might be able to defeat the Jiangdong Army in one fell swoop and force them to retreat.
At the worst, you can save Niu Jin while retaining your own 1,500 cavalry troops to preserve your strength for future city defense.
But what Cao Ren didn't expect was that the Jiangdong Army on both wings was not easy to chew, and they were almost using their lives to delay time.
What's more, what he didn't expect was that because of Zhang Xi's temporary suggestion, Zhang Fei actually had a reserve team of 200 people hidden when he split the car formation.
It was this reserve team that immediately formed a formation when the center was empty, blocking Cao Ren's sudden advance in the center and buying Zhou Yu time to adjust his military deployment in the center.
Cao Ren knew at that time that his plan to attack the Jiangdong Army's center was in vain.
Zhou Yu is not an idiot. Cao Ren's trump card has been completely exposed at this time. At this time, Zhou Yu will definitely strengthen the protection of the Chinese army. If he relies on 500 cavalry to rush in, he may die.
So Cao Ren changed his plan on the spot, bypassing Zhang Fei's temporary car formation and heading towards the camp where Niu Jin was trapped. As long as he could rescue Niu Jin's thousand soldiers, it would be considered a success.
Cao Ren's plan was very good, but Zhou Yu was not an idiot. His ability to adapt to the situation was much stronger than Cao Ren's.
As soon as Zhou Yu saw Cao Ren leading the cavalry out of the city, he realized that the situation would become so complicated and that his central army would be in danger.
But Zhou Yu saw Zhang Feijun temporarily blocking Cao Ren's cavalry route and forcing Cao Ren to go towards Niujin Camp. He immediately knew Cao Ren's plan, made a decision in his heart, and immediately gave corresponding commands.
Zhou Yu ordered Zhang Fei's chariot formation to continue moving to the two wings and form a formation as soon as possible to block the cavalry on both wings.
But at this time, the originally hidden crossbowmen no longer needed to hide. They quickly moved to the two wings. When they reached the shooting position, they didn't care whether the vehicle array was in place, and just shot directly.
As for Niu Jin's camp, Zhou Yu's order was that Chen Wu and Pan Zhang led the troops to form a formation on the spot to prevent Cao Ren's cavalry from joining Niu Jin.
In other words, Zhou Yu didn't care whether Cao Ren wanted to join Niu Jin or whether he could break through his besieging army. His purpose was to compete with Cao Ren for speed and time.
As long as Cao Ren did not respond to Zuo Niujin, the supporting cavalry on both wings would not retreat easily, otherwise Cao Ren in the middle would be in danger of being surrounded.
Zhou Yu's current goal is not Cao Ren and Niu Jin in the middle.
It's okay to say that Niu Jin is just a foot soldier, so it's really not that difficult to keep Niu Jin.
But Cao Ren is a cavalryman, and the infantry of Jiangdong Army cannot keep Cao Ren.
Therefore, Zhou Yu quickly made a decision to contain Cao Ren and Niu Jin in the middle. The current purpose was to keep all the supporting cavalry on the two wings.
The transfer speed of the crossbowmen was faster than that of the vehicle formation, and they started shooting as soon as they arrived.
First, the crossbow was used to show its power, but the purpose was not to kill the cavalry, but to fly over the cavalry's head and use a large number of arrows to cut off the cavalry's retreat, forcing the cavalry to move forward and break through the infantry's obstruction to find a way out.
Then the crossbowmen showed off their power. This time they aimed at the cavalry. Regardless of the men or horses, they all fired.
Most of the cavalrymen responsible for attacking both wings of Cao's army were forced to rush forward by such arrow attacks. A small number of cavalrymen who were out of the arrow shooting range did not dare to rush in anymore, so they could only temporarily withdraw their troops and return to the city.
It is not difficult for the cavalry within the arrow attack range to use their mobility to avoid the incoming crossbow arrows while trying to break through the interception of the infantry in front of them. After all, the impact and mobility of the cavalry are the natural enemies of the infantry.
But soon, as the chariot formation commanded by Zhang Fei was in place, the Jiangdong Army's infantry retreated, and the cavalry found that they had been led into a place surrounded by an arrow net.
If you rush forward, you will not be able to break through the barrier of the car array. If you retreat, you will directly hit the arrows of the crossbow. You will be in a dilemma as you advance or retreat.
Soon, conflicts broke out among the cavalry. Some wanted to go to the left, while others wanted to retreat to the right. The result on the battlefield was chaotic formations and collisions with each other.
The cavalry cannot stop, nor can it be chaotic. Once it stops, it will have no speed advantage. Once it is chaotic, it will be a target for arrows.
In the Battle of Jieqiao, Gongsun Zan's cavalry was defeated like this. If these cavalry could break through the eight hundred shield soldiers with casualties, Yuan Shaojun would be the first to be defeated.
But unfortunately, it was the cavalry who got into trouble first, and then became a living target for the crossbowmen.
Now, Cao Ren's cavalry was also in chaos. The cavalry attacking the two wings suffered heavy losses under such circumstances. Only a few cavalry were lucky and risked their lives to break through the arrow encirclement net.
Although Jiangdong Army achieved considerable results on both wings, it suffered a defeat in the battle in the middle.
The five thousand Jiangdong soldiers tried their best but failed to intercept Cao Ren's more than five hundred cavalry. Cao Ren broke through the formation and took away more than a thousand infantry from Niujin's camp.
In this battle, both sides gained something, but both sides also suffered losses. After careful calculation, Cao Ren's loss was even greater.
Not only did Cao Ren lose all the camps outside Jiangling City that were the fulcrum, but more than half of his cavalry was damaged. Now he only has seven or eight hundred cavalry available.
Although Jiangdong's army destroyed many of Cao Ren's cavalry, it did not destroy Cao's powerful Niu Jin's army. It also suffered more than 2,000 casualties from the cavalry assault.
After this battle, both sides were a little frightened and entered a truce period in a tacit understanding.
Zhou Yu wanted to consider a better siege strategy to avoid greater losses. After all, Cao Ren still had enough cavalry to form a cavalry assault group. In Nanjun, he still faced Jiangdong soldiers without cavalry. Cao Jun’s cavalry The advantages are too great.
Cao Ren didn't have many cavalry on hand now. He also realized that Zhou Yu wanted to destroy his mobility, so he didn't dare to go out to challenge again. He could only huddle in Jiangling City to reinforce the city defense and prepare for the next siege. war.
As for Zhang Fei and Zhang Xi, when they had nothing to do, they stayed in the camp again and couldn't come out.
This time the Jiangxia army led by Zhang Fei also suffered losses, but they were basically caused by Cao Ren's 500 cavalry. Because it was a temporary formation, the vehicle formation was attacked by Cao Ren's army without being fully prepared, resulting in more than a hundred casualties.
But compared to Jiangdong Army, Zhang Fei's losses are indeed nothing. Besides, when it comes to fighting, we can't always ask for zero casualties.
What's more, afterwards, in order to express his gratitude to Zhang Fei's army for timely intercepting him in the middle, Zhou Yu specially sent two hundred soldiers to supplement the losses of Jiang Xia's army, and Zhang Fei had nothing to say.
The casualties were within the acceptable range, and Zhou Yu was also a good person, so Zhang Xi and Zhang Fei couldn't argue with others anymore, as they looked petty.
The two sides have temporarily ceased fighting, so Zhang Fei and Zhang Xi continue to "class" behind closed doors.
About ten days later, the two were called to a meeting again by Zhou Yu.
This time it was not a private interview, but a serious military meeting. Zhou Yu was about to start arranging serious siege missions.
It was considered a field battle before, so all the armies were gathered together, and the generals were also there.
The next step was to divide his troops to surround each city gate, so Zhou Yu had to make corresponding arrangements and assign the main generals to attack each gate.
Zhou Yu will refer to Zhang Fei and Zhang Xi's opinions on how to attack the city, but when it comes to the specific implementation, Zhang Xi and Zhang Fei's guest troops will not need to participate.
Therefore, in Zhou Yu's siege plan, the Jiangxia Army was used as a reserve force, and its usual task was to provide support and security on the periphery of the Chinese Army.
So Zhang Xi just said, staying here is really boring.
Almost a month has passed. Except for that thrilling field battle, the rest of the time was either supervising military drills or sitting in the military tent chatting with Zhang Fei.
But no matter how boring he was, Zhang Xi would not take the initiative to help Zhou Yu plan an attack on Jiangling. The Lord Liu Bei had probably just organized his team to set off, and now Zhang Xi was anxious that Zhou Yu's attack on the city was not going well.
Zhang Xi was free, but Jiang Dongjun was busy at the moment.
After assigning the attack tasks to each sect, the next step is to cut down trees and build siege equipment.
After that, it will probably be a time-consuming and laborious siege battle, just like the E County offensive and defensive battle, which will last for a long time.
These days, attacking a city is really a painful thing, especially if one party is determined to defend it, it is normal for the attack to last for several months and half a year.
That kind of thing of "taking several cities in one month" is either because the disparity in military strength is too large, or the defenders surrender voluntarily.
Seriously attacking a city is not that easy.
As for Jiangling City, there are more than 40,000 people on the siege side and about 20,000 people on the defender side. Taking into account the losses suffered by both sides in previous field battles, it can only be said that the number of people on the siege side and the defender side is similar, far reaching There is no problem of disparity in military strength.
In terms of the will to defend the city, Cao Ren was left by Cao Cao to defend the city. This in itself illustrates the will of Cao Jun to defend the city.
What's more, Cao Ren is not alone. He has Xiangyang as support behind him, and he can reach Jiangling at any time with food, grass, weapons and even reinforcements. Moreover, behind Cao Ren, Cao Cao also arranged three lines of defense, Man Chong, Le Jin, and Xu Huang, to ensure Cao Ren's retreat. It was impossible for Cao Ren to abandon Jiangling easily.
Therefore, don't look down on Zhou Yu with this battle example. Zhou Yu fought for more than a year and was able to force Cao Ren to withdraw from Nanjun, which is already a very good record.
On the contrary, Cao Ren had such a huge advantage in defending the city that he was able to lose Nanjun. It really can't be said to be "good at defending".
(End of chapter)
