Xu Huang is indeed a famous general in the world.
Since Xu Huang left Yang Feng and returned to Cao Cao, he successively participated in major battles such as the Battle of Xuzhou, the Battle of Guandu, the attack on Jizhou, the Battle of Bailangshan, the Battle of Nanjun, the Battle of Weinan, and the Battle of Liangzhou, and made many meritorious deeds.
Of course, Xu Huang basically fought as a lieutenant or general in these battles. The battle that truly made him famous has not happened yet.
However, compared to Chen Shi, Xu Huang can indeed suppress him in terms of ability and merit.
Well, Chen Shi. Let’s talk about it. Although this general is a minor character in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", in terms of ability, he is actually not bad.
After Liu Bei entered Sichuan, he promoted a group of new generation generals. Among them, two of the most valued people were Chen Shi and Gao Xiang. In fact, both of them were not bad in ability.
The Battle of Hanzhong was a battle where famous generals gathered. Chen Shi can leave his name in this battle, which shows his ability and Liu Bei's trust in him.
In a head-to-head attack, Chen Shi was indeed no match for Xu Huang, but Chen Shi had Chen Shi's methods.
Xu Huang is withdrawing his troops now, and the sergeants are focused on returning to Hanzhong, so even if someone cuts off the rear, they will not be too far away from the main army.
Therefore, Chen Shi chose to hang not far behind Xu Huang's army. He would make a sneak attack when he had the opportunity. If he didn't have the chance, he would continue to hang like this, which disgusted Xu Huang to death.
Soldiers who are in a hurry to go home are followed by a group of enemies. They will attack you from time to time. How can you retreat with peace of mind? !
If this continues, it will be very detrimental to the morale of the army.
Therefore, Xu Huang had designed to ambush Chen Shi's army more than once on the way, trying to give Chen Shi a fatal blow and completely eliminate the tail behind him.
Chen Shi did fall for the trap sometimes, but he never advanced rashly. As soon as he saw that he was being ambushed, he retreated quickly, not giving Xu Huang's army a chance to pursue him.
Although some soldiers and horses would be lost as a result, they were not defeated in the end. They still pestered Xu Huang's army and continued to disgust Xu Huang.
In the end, Xu Huang had to slow down his marching speed and be on guard at every step until the army retreated to Yangping Pass.
Chen Shi was not willing to fight either. After Xu Huang retreated to Yangping Pass, he also led his army to retreat and camped in the middle of Mamingge Road.
If there was a grain transport team coming from Yangping Pass, Chen Shi would not attack with a large army. Instead, he would send a small force to loot some today and consume some tomorrow, absolutely not giving Xu Huang a chance to use the grain transport team to set up an ambush.
And Chen Shi's way of sending away the accumulated little has indeed made it more and more difficult for Yangpingguan to supply Guangshi.
The Maming Pavilion Road has not been eliminated, but it is not completely eliminated. On this road, to ensure the transportation of grain and grass, a certain amount of military protection is still needed.
This also affected Xu Huang's strength and attention, preventing Xu Huang from going to the front of Yangping Pass to help Xiahou Yuan defend.
In this way, in the battle at Mamingge Road, Liu Bei's group was indeed at a disadvantage, but it was not without the power to fight. Although Cao Jun had the upper hand, it was unable to send troops to threaten Liu Bei's army's food road.
At this time, Liu Bei made another move and ordered Gao Xiang to lead 10,000 soldiers to assist Wei Yan. The two men joined forces and besieged Zhang He in Guangshi, intending to directly capture Guangshi City.
With Guangshi City in hand, Liu Bei no longer has to think about whether there is a way out, and there is no threat to the grain and grass passage in the rear. He can withdraw Wei Yan and others' troops and strengthen the frontal attack at Yangping Pass.
But Zhang He disagreed.
Zhang He can be arrogant, but the bottom line for his arrogance is that Guangshi City cannot be lost. If it is lost, he will be unlucky.
In order to avoid misfortune, Zhang He immediately used all his abilities.
And once Zhang He shows his true skills, it really cannot be done by Gao Xiang or Chen Shi.
Zhang He first took advantage of the lax defense of the siege defenders on the west side and suddenly led his troops to attack. After a rush, he defeated Liu Bei's army at the west gate. Then he immediately sent several cavalry to Yangping Pass to ask Xu Huang for help.
Then, Zhang He took advantage of this rare gap to try to bypass Liu Bei's army's siege position at the south gate and directly attack Liu Bei's main formation.
If Liu Bei's army could be defeated in one fell swoop and Liu Bei's commander killed, things would go much smoother.
Fortunately, the leader of Liu Bei's army at this time was Wei Yan.
Although Wei Yan did not expect that Zhang He could defeat the besieging soldiers at the west gate, nor did he expect that Zhang He would be so bold to attack the formation and come so quickly, Wei Yan was Wei Yan after all.
Zhang He didn't have many defenders in Guangshi City, so he didn't have many soldiers to attack, just over a thousand.
Wei Yan already had Gao Xiang's assistance, and now he had the absolute upper hand in military strength.
The only problem was that because Zhang He's surprise attack was too fast and unexpected, it caused some confusion in the Chinese army's main formation, and some soldiers didn't know what to do.
If this atmosphere spreads, and if Zhang He really defeats the soldiers at the front, it may cause the entire army to panic and collapse.
Wei Yan knew this very well, so he made a quick decision. He immediately ordered Gao Xiang to stay behind and command the other soldiers to surround Zhang He.
Zhang He's advance must be stopped in time to stabilize the morale of the army. As long as the morale and morale of the army are stabilized, Zhang He's people are nothing to be afraid of.
This choice is actually very risky. If Wei Yan fails to block Zhang He's assault and is even beheaded by Zhang He on the spot, tens of thousands of soldiers in the entire camp will collapse and flee, and Liu Bei's army will be defeated.
But this choice is really Wei Yan.
Throughout history, Wei Yan's command operations can only have two outcomes, either a great victory or a great defeat.
This is determined by Wei Yan's character and command style. Sometimes Wei Yan will win in a heart-wrenching manner, and sometimes he will lose inexplicably.
In the past, Wei Yan's official position was not high and he did not lead an army alone. This trait has not yet appeared. This siege of Guangshi was the first manifestation of his trait.
Wei Yan arrived at the front army, and Zhang He was immediately overjoyed. He originally thought that with this small force, he might not be able to attack the central army, so Zhang He planned to retreat as soon as possible.
Who would have thought that the other party's general would actually come to his door on his own.
Zhang He was so polite that he ordered his soldiers to concentrate their forces and attack Wei Yan.
Wei Yan's reaction was not slow, and he also commanded the Chinese army's personal guards, and the two groups of people facing Mai Mang came together in a melee.
Wei Yan's ability as a personal guard of the Chinese army is really not bad. After all, he has been with Zhang Xi for a while in Jiangxia. Although Wei Yan doesn't like Zhang Xi very much, Wei Yan thinks Zhang Xi's training methods are "really good". .
Therefore, as time went by, Zhang He found that the soldiers he led were unable to defeat Wei Yan's Chinese guards. This was a bit incredible.
However, the situation on the scene changed and Zhang He was not given much time to react. Seeing Liu Bei's soldiers slowly calm down, Zhang He knew that he did not have much time left and had to withdraw quickly, otherwise he would suffer too much damage and it would not be appropriate. own interests.
Therefore, Zhang He personally led the troops to break up the rear and covered the retreat of the soldiers.
As soon as Cao's army withdrew, Wei Yan did not take advantage of the situation to withdraw his troops. Instead, he continued to lead his army in pursuit, and soon ran into Zhang He's troops who had broken off the rear.
This time, Wei Yan did not command the soldiers to fight, but took the lead in charging towards Zhang He.
When Zhang He saw Wei Yan's posture, he thought to himself, can my veteran general be afraid of you? !
Immediately, he ignored him, rode his horse forward, and led his soldiers to kill him.
The two sides fought against generals and soldiers against soldiers.
Wei Yan and Zhang He, in particular, were going back and forth on the battlefield, not commanding the soldiers to fight at all. Instead, they were recreating the tradition of the Spring and Autumn Period and engaging in one-on-one duels between generals.
The two rode their horses back and forth for more than ten rounds, but it was still hard to tell the winner. However, the soldiers on both sides fought and decided not to fight.
These two men charged forward on horseback, with no one else in their sights. In the dozen or so rounds they fought, they did not suffer any damage. More than a dozen soldiers were injured, which was more casualties than the two sides fighting each other.
When the soldiers on both sides saw this situation, they gave up the field in an unusually tacit understanding, divided into two groups, and banged their weapons to encourage the generals on both sides to stop fighting.
Wei Yan and Zhang He were fighting and calming down slowly, and they also realized that something was not right at this time.
Why are there only two of us fighting on the entire battlefield? !
Zhang He was the first to not want to fight. Anyway, his soldiers had almost withdrawn into the city. If they didn't leave, it would be too late.
Although Wei Yan usually has a bit of a tigerish personality, he is also arrogant. He has been fighting with Zhang He for so long and failed to do anything to him, so he has some respect for Zhang He.
Looking at the battlefield, there were only two people fighting, everyone else was watching the show, and Wei Yan didn't want to fight.
Wei Yan had little education, so he didn't know that this type of duel in front of the formation was something that only generals could do in the Spring and Autumn Period. Regardless of victory or defeat, it was a symbol of honor. Wei Yan felt that as a general, fighting with others in front of the formation was a little bit... Loss of status.
It's like a fighting dog in a street market being watched by people, so I won't do it.
Therefore, the two of them had a tacit understanding with each other. After a round ended, and the outcome was still undecided, they each retreated to their own formations.
Zhang He led his troops and retreated slowly, but Wei Yan just sneered and did not pursue, letting Zhang He leave.
Wei Yan felt that Zhang He was a very capable person, so he didn't want to take advantage of others' danger by attacking more and less.
But in Zhang He's eyes, this was because Wei Yan had the style of a general, and he praised Wei Yan highly after returning.
But after this, we have to fight as we should.
Wei Yan, who was more vigilant, would not give Zhang He another chance to break through the encirclement. He surrounded the four gates again, relied on the large number of people to bully the small number, and attacked the city with all his strength.
Now Zhang He could not praise Wei Yan. After all, he had few soldiers and Guangshi City was not a strong city. The four gates were in a hurry, forcing Zhang He to go up to the city wall several times to kill the enemy and fight to the death, and then he could barely hold on to Guangshi. .
To put it bluntly, it was really difficult for Zhang He.
Xia Houyuan has a total of more than 30,000 soldiers, and they have to guard Yangping Pass. The garrison that can be allocated to Zhang He is only 3,000 people. Although Xu Huang's rescue force has 5,000 people, they are still at Yangping Pass for the time being. They need to get rid of Chen Shi's It will take some time for harassment to come to the rescue.
In Wei Yan's hands, with the help of Gao Xiang, there are more than 10,000 people, attacking Guangshi City, which is not very well-defended. It is not easy for Zhang He to hold on until now.
Not to mention that Zhang He took the initiative to attack, defeated the Ximen siege army, and attacked Wei Yan's central army, killing more than 2,000 people, which was already considered outstanding.
In addition, Zhang He defended Guangshi for more than ten days, and finally waited for Xu Huang's second rescue, which temporarily alleviated the danger of Guangshi's city being destroyed, and also obtained supplies of food, grass, weapons, and troops.
The battle on Mamingge Road continues.
(End of chapter)
