The battle plan formulated by Zhang Xi is to lure the enemy deep, which has a lot to do with the geographical location of Badong County.
Badong County is really too mountainous.
If there are many mountains, although there will be accessible mountain roads, most of these mountain roads will not be too wide.
To put it bluntly, Zhang Xi's purpose is to let Xia Houyuan enter these narrow mountain roads, objectively causing Xia Houyuan to divide his troops, and then wait until Xia Houyuan passes Baihe Town north of Hanfeng County, and let Chen Dao lead 3,000 Baihe troops to retake Baihe Town and cut off Xia Houyuan's retreat.
Zhang Xi carefully considered why he chose Baihe Town to start.
Here we have to talk about the terrain north of Hanfeng County.
Hanfeng County is actually built in a basin surrounded by two large mountains in the north and south.
There are three roads leading to Hanfeng County, one in the east and west directions. They are all within Badong County and cannot be bypassed from the outside.
The remaining road is the only way from Hanfeng County to the north. Baihe Town is a village formed on this only road. It was originally a place used by merchants to rest, supply and trade.
But the terrible thing is that when heading south from Baihe Town, you will first encounter a large lake, and Hanfeng Town is actually on the south bank of the lake.
In other words, after Xia Houyuan led his army and broke through Baihe Town, what he faced was not Hanfeng County, but a large lake.
At this time, Chen Dao personally led the Baiyun soldiers to retake Baihe Town. At the same time, on the rocks on both sides, there were county soldiers led by Zhang Xi, shooting condescendingly with bows and crossbows.
In just one moment, Xia Houyuan was trapped in a situation where he could neither advance nor retreat.
Of course, the price Zhang Xi paid was not small, especially the loss of Bai Jie soldiers.
Zhang Xi's previous strategy of luring the enemy, the main inducement was of course military supplies, but in several battles, Zhang Xi asked Chen to allow defeat but not victory, and the losses were also not small.
These days, cheating defeat is not as easy as it seems in the TV series, as long as the general steps forward and gestures twice and then escapes for his life.
The price paid for defeat these days is the lives of soldiers.
The general knew it was a fake defeat, but most of the soldiers didn't know. Even if they knew, if they couldn't escape, their lives would be in danger. Some people would be killed before they even had time to kneel down and beg for mercy.
Especially in order to stop Xia Houyuan's pursuit of the front army, the two blocking attacks organized by Chen Dao not only allowed the retreating army enough time to break away from contact, but also allowed Xia Houyuan to "break through" in time and continue the pursuit. Chen Daozhen It's not easy.
These two false defeats actually resulted in huge losses. Even with the training and organizational skills of the Baijie soldiers, Chen Dao didn't know how many of them would eventually return to the team.
When he set out, Chen Dao led 10,000 white soldiers to support the battle, but now, he only had 5,000 white soldiers left at hand.
And 3,000 of these 5,000 people have to take on the task of attacking Baihe Town and defending it to the end. The remaining 2,000 people have to serve as a reserve team to serve as the rear guard and cover the county in case the battle plan fails. The task of retreating soldiers.
There was no way, the combat effectiveness of the county soldiers was really poor, and Zhang Xi had no time to strengthen their training, not to mention that there were two thousand new recruits among them.
It is no longer easy for the county soldiers to undertake the task of ambushing and firing arrows on the hillside. How can they complete such a difficult fake defeat, and even have to withstand attacks from two sides and defend Baihe Town.
Therefore, it had to be done by the Baijie soldiers, and fortunately, both Chen Dao and Baijie soldiers did a good job. Now Xia Houyuan and thousands of former troops were all trapped on the mountain pass from Baihe Town to Dahu in Hanfeng County.
The passage was not wide, about the size of two carriages running parallel to each other. It was impossible to avoid the arrows shot down from the mountain in such a small place, so Xiahou Yuan's front army suffered heavy losses immediately.
The mountains in Badong County are not small hills. The mountain walls here are very steep, and it is impossible to climb up the hillside.
Therefore, Xia Houyuan's only way out is to return to the army and attack from front to back with the rear army, trying to defeat Baihe Town and finally escape.
The commander of the rear army is Xu Huang, and Xia Houyuan believes that Xu Huang will not let him down.
But similarly, Zhang Xi also believed in Chen Dao and would not let him down.
Therefore, Zhang Xi's task is to let the county soldiers shoot arrows as hard as they can. Regardless of whether they can still lift their hands tomorrow, as long as there are arrows, shoot them down and kill them one by one.
By the way, Zhang Xi also called some heavy crossbowmen in the army, and even Zhang Yi and Li Qiu, and asked them to focus on attacking Xia Houyuan's escort. If they could directly kill Xia Houyuan, the rest would be fine. Too much to do.
But Xia Houyuan was Xia Houyuan after all. He didn't panic too much when he found that his retreat was cut off. He also paid great attention to protecting himself. More than a hundred personal guards, all in iron armor, were guarding Xia Houyuan with shields. The crossbowmen actually took down the entire iron turtle. What can I do?
Xia Houyuan did not stay where he was and take fire. Instead, he organized his soldiers to retreat while looking for opportunities to form formations and launch an attack on Baihe Town.
Baihe Town is just a small village. It does not have a decent city wall, only some earth walls used to prevent bandits. In front of the elite soldiers, these earth walls are no different from fences.
Therefore, the battle in Baihe Town was not actually an siege and defense battle, it was a field battle.
The defending white soldiers faced off against the Yongliang elite soldiers led by Xia Houyuan.
The two sides had a head-to-head battle in a small village like Baihe Town. The Baijie soldiers led by Chen Dao first unexpectedly cut off the connection between Xiahou Yuan and the rear army Xu Huang, and then faced the enemy on both sides to block the flanking attack between the two armies. .
Chen Dao played very hard, but still persisted.
Neither Xia Houyuan nor Xu Huang expected that Liu Bei's soldiers would be so difficult to defeat.
Especially Xia Houyuan.
In the past, when facing those Qiang and Hu soldiers in Liangzhou, the Liangzhou Legion under his command had always been one-on-two or even one-on-three. But now, even two-on-one can't take advantage, and it often takes three-on-one to win. Occupy a certain advantage.
But the mountain path is too narrow.
As generals, everyone knows that even if the troops are insufficient, as long as they can create a local strength advantage, there is still a chance for a comeback.
But this narrow mountain road doesn't give you any room to create a local advantage in strength.
Therefore, in fact, Xia Houyuan and Xu Huang were also very tired. They could only rely on the large number of people and pile up little by little. When the three thousand people in Baihe Town were piled up to death, Xia Houyuan could escape.
Xu Huang's side is better, there is no threat from the rear army, just pile up.
But on Xia Houyuan's side, there were four thousand county soldiers shooting arrows wildly above their heads, and they could take away the lives of his men from time to time.
Xia Houyuan's front army originally numbered nearly 7,000 people, but they were blocked in the mountain road and were hit by arrows for a quarter of an hour. At least one third of them had been damaged.
Xia Houyuan knew that he could not wait any longer. If he waited any longer, he would definitely be found in this mountain road.
Xia Houyuan acted fiercely and pushed away the protection of the guards. Holding a spear and leading his own one hundred armored guards, he personally launched an attack on Baihe Town.
At the same time, Xia Houyuan also sent a signal, telling Xu Huang that the defenders on the north side must be defeated as soon as possible, otherwise military law will be imposed.
Xu Huang had no choice but to push all the troops forward and at the same time let the archers shoot arrows into Baihe Town regardless of casualties.
The "ignoring of casualties" here refers to not counting the casualties of one's own people.
Part of the troops on both sides were entangled together. At this time, due to military orders, Xu Huang could no longer care about that much. The enemy himself shot together.
It's not that Xu Huang is cruel, but everyone who is an official in Cao Wei knows that these generals of the Cao family are the real treasures in Cao Cao's heart. Xia Houyuan really can't die here.
As a result, Chen Dao really couldn't stand it anymore.
Although the Baijie soldiers were Liu Bei's personal soldiers, they were only wearing leather armor at most. Only generals like Chen Dao could wear mail armor, and their defensive ability against bows and arrows was not high.
Cao Jun's bow and arrow attack did not count his own casualties this time. Bai Jie's soldiers were caught off guard and injured hundreds of people.
The desperate attack launched by Xia Houyuan also made the Baiji soldiers on the south side a little unable to withstand it.
Others have iron armor, but you have leather armor. Even if they try their best to change it with you, you may not be able to really change it.
For a time, both the northern and southern defense lines were a little shaky.
When Zhang Yi and Li Qiu on the hillside saw that the situation was not good, they immediately asked Zhang Xi for a fight, asking them to lead the remaining two thousand white soldiers reserve team into the battle of Baihe Town.
If you can kill Xia Houyuan in this place, even if he is defeated by Xu Huang in the end, it will be a great achievement.
Zhang Xi was also very excited, but Zhang Xi looked back at the arrow stocks of the county soldiers, and then looked at Xia Houyuan's desperate state in the mountain road, and shook his head.
The arrows are almost gone.
Without arrows, relying on this group of county soldiers to fight down the hillside with the elite Liangzhou Army, it was impossible for them to be a match for the Liangzhou Army. In the end, Xia Houyuan had to rush out.
Instead of doing this, it is better to preserve our strength and scare Xia Houyuan so that he does not dare to unite the rear army and rush into the army again.
The reserve team of two thousand Baijie soldiers was sent out, but not to support the defense of Baihe Town, but to bring out Chen Dao and the remaining Baijie soldiers.
Baihe Town, give up defense.
Xia Houyuan, on the other hand, suddenly felt that the pressure was relieved. He had no time to react and had already led the front army into Baihe Town.
Then in Baihe Town, after joining the rear army's supporting troops, Xia Houyuan, protected by his personal guards, did not dare to continue the attack. He led his army to retreat fifty miles and directly retreated to the previous station.
Zhang Xi, on the other hand, did not give up when the situation was good. Instead, he continued to lead his troops northward, pretending to pursue them, but in the end he stationed himself at the mountain pass.
The meaning was very clear. As long as Xia Houyuan dared to continue to advance, he would continue to retreat to the mountain road. If he had the ability, he would ask Xia Houyuan to come in again and see if he could escape again this time.
Xia Houyuan was indeed frightened and worried about Zhang Xi's subsequent moves. Therefore, the two armies fell into a confrontation again.
After the war, an inventory showed that Xiahou Yuan had lost nearly 6,000 soldiers, nearly a quarter of his troops.
Zhang Xi's side also suffered heavy losses. Of the 10,000 white soldiers, only more than 6,000 successfully returned to the army, and less than 5,000 were able to continue fighting.
The battle loss ratio between the two sides was more than 4,000 to more than 6,000, almost one to one. Zhang Xi used the terrain to set up an ambush, but he did not win a complete victory, which shows Xiahou Yuan's ability to command troops.
But as far as the situation is concerned, Xia Houyuan does not dare to attack Badong County easily, nor does he dare to send reinforcements to meet Zhang He's army. Generally speaking, Zhang Xi has accomplished his strategic purpose.
Afterwards, both armies made no major moves. Xia Houyuan also gave up the idea of marching into Badong County, and instead continued the original strategic purpose of quickly moving the population in the northern part of Brazil County to Hanzhong.
Zhang Xi had no good way to deal with this. If he wanted to stop Cao's army from migrating the people, he must first defeat Xia Houyuan in front of him. However, Zhang Xi's troops and Xia Houyuan's tight defense did not give Zhang Xi this chance.
Therefore, the two armies were in a stalemate for more than a month. One day, a battle report suddenly came - Zhang He's army of more than 10,000 people was beaten violently by Zhang Fei at Wakou Pass because it was alone. Climb a mountain to escape.
The war on the Western Front is over, Zhang Fei has led his army to northern Brazil, and Xia Houyuan may face the dilemma of being attacked from two sides at any time.
Therefore, Xia Houyuan did not hesitate. After leaving Xu Huangduan behind, he slowly retreated to Nanzheng.
(End of chapter)
