Agreeing to fight in the field is equivalent to a semi-clear battle.
The two sides will agree on the time and place of the decisive battle, and the number of soldiers each will send will be stated in advance.
In this way, there will be fewer opportunities to use strategies, and there will be no ambush to lure the enemy in. The victory or defeat will be determined purely by the commanding ability of the coaches of both sides.
At this point, Zhou Yu was full of confidence.
Therefore, Zhou Yu and Cao Ren agreed that on the first day of June half a month later, just outside the west gate of Jiangling City, both sides would send out 10,000 soldiers for a showdown.
The reason why Zhou Yu chose the west gate instead of the south gate of Jiangling City is because the south gate is completely flat, and outside the west gate of Jiangling City, there is a small earth slope about fifteen meters high.
Zhou Yu did not forget that Cao Ren still had hundreds of cavalry available. If he did not take advantage of the terrain to find a way to block the cavalry, Cao Ren would use the cavalry to rush in as soon as the battle started. There are only 10,000 Jiangdong Army infantry, and they cannot all be used to defend Zhou Yu. Chinese army? !
If it really gets to that point, half the battle is already lost before the fight even starts.
Therefore, the location was chosen at the west gate, and more bows and crossbows were needed, and Zhang Fei's soldiers were also brought along.
As for the coalition forces, if Liu Bei's army doesn't show off in this kind of decisive battle, wouldn't it be called the coalition forces for nothing?
Moreover, Zhou Yu was very unkind and placed Zhang Fei's chariot formation at the most prominent place of the front army, euphemistically calling it a defense against Cao Ren's cavalry assault.
But in fact everyone knows what is going on.
If Cao Ren really wanted to make a cavalry assault, it would be impossible to attack the front army. The distance between the front army and the center army was too far, and it was also the most heavily defended place. Cao Ren's most likely assault position was on the two wings east of the Yangtze River.
Governor Zhou would not fail to understand this truth, but Governor Zhou did not seem to care. He placed Zhang Xi and Zhang Fei in the front army, and also handed over the offensive arrow task to Zhang Fei.
This seems to be a reuse, but according to general battlefield experience, the casualty rate of the vanguard will not be low. If your attack is unfavorable, you may be held accountable by the coach afterwards.
So, Zhang Xi accepted the order on the surface, but kept complaining in his heart - what a "magnanimous and noble" Zhou Gongjin. Sure enough, what Luo Guanzhong said was right, he was just a petty person.
Zhang Fei, on the other hand, did not make any protest against this.
It was Zhang Fei who understood Zhou Yu. No matter how magnanimous Governor Zhou was, he "lost" four prefectures and counties that should have been in his pocket in one breath. No one could easily swallow this tone.
Back in the army, Zhang Fei first confirmed with Zhang Xi whether he should do his best to help Zhou Lang defeat Cao Ren in this decisive battle.
Zhang Xi thought for a moment, then nodded.
Now Liu Bei has taken over the four counties in Jingnan and has begun to manage them, and Guan Yu is also working hard to conquer the North Road, and the results are good.
Liu Beijun's goals have been achieved, so there is no need to work as a foreigner. Otherwise, Zhou Yu will really give you small shoes to wear.
Although he didn't really treat Zhang Xi and Zhang Fei badly, Zhou Yu would not be polite to Liu Bei's soldiers, and he would probably be the first to do something like this in the future.
It would be better to hurt Cao Ren directly this time and make Cao Ren retreat, or he would have to close the city and defend, which would be less risky.
After hearing this, Zhang Fei expressed that he understood, and then went to arrange the ordnance and equipment, train the soldiers, and then think about the attack plan for the decisive battle.
As for Zhang Xi, there is nothing to do at the moment.
In the decisive battle half a month later, Zhang Xi still stayed with Zhang Fei as a staff officer, and Zhang Fei was always the commander of the army.
As for how to arrange Zhou Yu's decisive battle, Zhang Xi doesn't have to worry about it. In this kind of battle that purely focuses on commanding ability, Zhang Xi doesn't believe that Zhou Yu can be inferior to Cao Ren.
Before I knew it, the end of May was here.
Before the decisive battle, Zhou Yu held a final military meeting to allocate combat tasks to each army. Among them, Zhang Feijun's combat task was to attack Cao Ren's Chinese army at the beginning of the war.
Zhang Xi was still complaining in his heart that Zhou Gongjin was not a son of a human being and used Liu Beijun as a consumable.
But after the military meeting, Zhou Yu chatted with Zhang Xi alone for a long time, and Zhang Xi finally left Zhou Yu's Chinese military tent with a sigh on his face.
On the first day of June, the weather was sunny and warm.
Outside the west gate of Jiangling City, Cao Jun and Sun Liu's coalition army each had 10,000 troops, facing each other three miles apart.
Governor Zhou rarely put on his own silver helmet, held a spear, and personally commanded. This is called a majestic appearance, and it is called a heroic spirit.
On the opposite side, Cao Ren was no less willing to give in. He was wearing armor and carrying a broadsword, with an aura of evil and solemnity.
Today, the two of them are going to fight it out outside the west gate of Jiangling City, not relying on tactics or relying on the city wall, but relying on their own methods.
The two commanders took their positions, and Zhou Yu took the lead in waving his command flag. As soon as Zhang Fei saw the command flag waved, he immediately commanded his 500-man front army to attack in a sharp formation.
Zhang Xi led the remaining 500 men and formed an arc-shaped defensive formation with 300 Wugang chariots to prevent Cao's cavalry from attacking.
The Sun-Liu coalition took the lead in launching the attack.
Cao Ren did not dispatch his cavalry immediately, but asked the infantry to engage in a circular formation, and met the front army commanded by Zhang Fei head-on.
At the same time, Cao Ren ordered that Cao's troops on the left and right wings began to advance forward, outflanking in a roundabout way, intending to eat the front army commanded by Zhang Fei.
Naturally, Zhou Yu would not let Cao Ren get what he wanted, so he waved the flag again. The left army led by Lu Meng and the right army led by Ling Tong also advanced, intercepted the left and right wings of Cao's army, and started fighting.
For a moment, the three armies of both sides met in the center of the battlefield and started fighting.
Up to this point, it was just an ordinary and common battlefield fight. Neither Cao Ren nor Zhou Yu had any intention of winning by surprise from the beginning, and they both knew that the other party must have a backup plan.
Cao Ren's backup plan is basically obvious, which is his cavalry. Zhou Yu must know this, but Zhou Yu doesn't know when and how this cavalry will appear.
Cao Ren also carefully considered Zhou Yu's backup plan. He felt that Zhou Yu should rely on the crossbowmen of Jiangdong Army.
Cao Ren had already seen how powerful the Jiangdong Army's strong bows and crossbows were. He had lost seven to eight hundred cavalrymen under the Jiangdong Army's strong bows and hard crossbows.
That is the cavalry. Although it is not as fully armored as the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, it is still the best-equipped and most well-protected unit in Cao Ren's army. The losses are so great. Those soldiers with lower armor coverage rates encounter this Using a strong bow and a strong crossbow is not seeking death.
Therefore, Cao Ren formulated a corresponding response plan.
After the two sides fought, Cao Ren would immediately ask Cao Jun on the left and right wings to quickly engage Jiangdong Army. The two sides strangled together to entangle Jiangdong Army as much as possible, and asked the soldiers to press forward in time to make the formation of the two wings as flat as possible.
No matter how powerful the crossbowmen of your Jiangdong Army are, faced with such an entangled situation, they cannot just carry out a range-covering strike regardless of their own casualties.
In this way, Cao's troops on the left and right can avoid being hit by Jiangdong's crossbows.
In the middle, Cao Ren also made his own arrangements.
He had no intention of letting the Central Army advance forward, but instead defended in place, so that he was out of the range of Jiangdong Army's crossbows and there was no possibility of being threatened by Jiangdong Army's crossbows.
Moreover, Cao Ren also knew that Zhang Fei was under Zhou Yu's command now, and he also knew how difficult the thousand men commanded by Zhang Fei were. After all, this was not the first time they had fought against each other. Cao Ren had suffered losses before in Xinye.
But no matter how powerful Zhang Feijun is, his soldiers are still human beings and there will be casualties.
I won't attack you this time, I will form a military formation to defend. This will be no problem.
One thousand Zhang Fei's soldiers attacked, and Cao Ren used two thousand Cao's elite soldiers to defend. Not only did he defeat Zhang Fei's soldiers, but he just had to hold on to the army tightly and prevent them from doing other things.
In this way, Cao Jun's three-pronged army could not only avoid being attacked by Jiangdong's army's strong bows and crossbows, but also entangle Jiangdong's three-pronged army.
Although at first glance, the three groups of Cao's troops are passively defensive and appear very timid. But don't forget that Cao Ren has cavalry in his hands. This is Cao Ren's real trump card.
It was indeed a passive defense at the beginning, but that was to wear down the vigor and physical strength of the Jiangdong Army. When the soldiers on both sides were exhausted from fighting, Cao Ren would suddenly send out his own cavalry to attack Zhou Yu's main formation.
This is Cao Ren's plan.
This plan was not brilliant at all, and even Zhou Yu had anticipated that Cao Ren would adopt this plan.
The real trouble with this plan is that Cao Ren's cavalry is almost invincible in front of Jiangdong Army's infantry.
The chariot formation commanded by Zhang Xi can only passively defend and face the enemy head-on. The advantage of the cavalry is speed. He can change direction at any time and enter the battlefield from a place that Zhang Xi's chariot formation cannot defend, directly attacking Zhou Yu's central army. This formation.
Zhou Yu was not sure when Cao Ren would send out his cavalry. Although Zhou Yu also had corresponding measures, he would not reveal his trump card easily if Cao Ren's cavalry was not dispatched.
In this way, a fighting continued. The Cao army and the Sun and Liu coalition forces on the two wings were almost mixed together. As a result, the archers on both sides did not dare to shoot easily. If they were not careful, they would shoot their own people.
In terms of the quality of soldiers, Cao's army was ultimately superior to Jiangdong's army in land warfare. The reason why they were still so entangled was mainly due to the difference in the level of the commanders on the two wings of the two sides.
Niu Jin is already the most capable general in Cao Ren's army, but when he faced Lu Meng, he was still dragged by Lu Meng's command and could only passively defend according to Lu Meng's offensive rhythm.
Although Chen Jiao had also served in the army, he was mostly engaged in civilian work and had a serious lack of experience. However, he met the young Ling Tong.
Ling Tong's commanding ability was lacking, but he was motivated and superb in martial arts. He personally led his troops as a vanguard and took the lead in the front line. Chen Jiao was really suppressed by Ling Tong for a while, and the defense line was a bit dangerous. In the end, It was also because of the better quality of Cao Jun's individual soldiers that they stabilized the defense line.
Although the left and right armies were a bit at a disadvantage, they generally achieved Cao Ren's intended purpose. They were entangled with Jiangdong's army and did not give Jiangdong's strong bows and crossbows room to exert their power.
But on the Central Army side, Cao Ren was really a little anxious.
Two thousand people, a full two thousand people arranged by himself, are still the invincible elite Cao army in Hebei, not a second-line army like the troops left behind in Wancheng. No matter how strong Zhang Fei's "beggar army" is, there should be some limits, right? !
Cao Ren originally thought that he did not underestimate the enemy at all this time. Two thousand versus one thousand, not seeking victory, only seeking to entangle, should be foolproof.
But now Cao Ren discovered that Zhang Fei only commanded the attack with 500 soldiers, and he did not even lead the army himself. Cao Ren's two thousand soldiers were in danger of being in a messy formation.
One to four. Can’t beat this? !
Cao Ren became anxious and looked at the chariot formation behind Zhang Feijun's forward formation. There were still 500 Zhang Fei's soldiers who had not been dispatched. Zhang Fei himself remained in the chariot formation to command, and this powerful weapon against ten thousand enemies did not attack.
Cao Ren hesitated and became anxious, but soon decided to put his last reserve force, a thousand soldiers, into the central army.
In this way, Zhang Feijun's attack was finally withstood, and there was a faint intention of suppressing it back.
This made Cao Ren hesitate again. Should he push forward along the middle road? !
(End of chapter)
