After making the decision to go to war, Zhang Xi began to send troops to form a formation.
When fighting on the ground in Liangzhou, we must first be prepared for cavalry charges, so the vehicle formation is a must.
However, there were not many vehicles in Hebei County, and it was too late to do both. Zhang Xi had to ask a messenger to notify Zhang Fei, and asked Zhang Fei to send someone to send a batch of Wugang vehicles into the city, and at the same time made an agreement with Zhang Fei to fight. plan.
According to Zhang Xi's idea, the chariot formation was used to protect the left and right wings and prevent them from being attacked by cavalry. Therefore, the chariot formations on both wings were handed over to the command of Jiang Xu and Zhang Yi.
The cavalry on the frontal battlefield could only be carried by force, so Zhang Xi placed all the pikemen in the county on the front and gave them to Wei Yan to command.
Zhang Xi himself was in charge of the central army, with three thousand elite soldiers ready to respond at any time.
This is Zhang Xi's military formation arrangement.
As for Zhang Fei, Zhang Xi asked Zhang Fei to lead his troops into the battlefield from the southwest when Zhang Xi and Guo Huai were engaged in a fierce battle, and attack Guo Huai's flanks. It would be best to cause Guo Huai's army to shake its formation.
Zhang Xi gave the last trump card to Jufu and ordered Jufu to lead 3,000 men. When Guo Huai's middle army found a gap, he led the troops to attack Guo Huai's middle army.
The reason why Jufu was used was because Jufu's position in the army was not conspicuous. Guo Huai did not understand Jufu's ability at all and would not take extra precautions against the soldiers led by Jufu.
But Zhang Xi knew that those who could compare with Wang Ping in the late Shu Han Dynasty must be quite capable.
And to be honest, as long as Jufu had 80% of Wang Ping's abilities, he would have been able to complete this unexpected task.
Not to mention, for the sake of safety, Zhang Xi asked Jiang Wei to join the army as Jufu and lead the troops together. Guo Huai can't be killed by Jufu. If I add Jiang Wei, I don't believe you can defend him. .
After arranging these, Zhang Xi could only leave the rest to fate.
There is a saying that this is the most uncertain battle Zhang Xi has fought since his time traveling, except for the first battle in E County.
Moreover, this battle showed that the inferior troops were fighting hard and almost certainly had to sacrifice the lives of their soldiers in exchange for an uncertain victory. Zhang Xi's mood couldn't be said to be very good.
Zhang Xi has been in this era for more than ten years. He knows that in this troubled world, there is nothing extravagant to ask for. The mainstream of this era is that one general can achieve great success. But after all, he feels bad.
There is a saying that Zhang Xi is now angry at Ma Chao. If only the goods could be delivered early, he would not have to sacrifice his soldiers' lives to fill them.
But now, what can be done?
Adjust your mentality and go out to the city for a decisive battle the next day.
Guo Huai was also very curious. Ji County, which had been a coward for ten days, unexpectedly went out of the city to form an array at dawn, seemingly planning to go out to fight.
Although I don’t know what Zhang Xi’s tricks are, but since you are out of the city, I don’t have to worry about your turtle shell.
Guo Huai immediately led his troops out of the camp, and the two sides started a confrontation at the north gate of Ji County.
There was no unnecessary dialogue or mutual testing. After Zhang Xi arranged the defensive formations on both sides, he directly waved the flag. Wei Yan led the spearmen to rush forward and launched an offensive against the Wei army.
Guo Huai was not polite and directly ordered his cavalry to start mobile warfare. Some of them attacked Zhang Xi's vehicle formation from the flanks, while the other part launched an assault directly on the front army.
However, the Liangzhou cavalry under Guo Huai would not charge directly towards the spear formation. Instead, they would walk in an arc, first kill the spearmen with cavalry fire and disrupt the formation of the spearmen, and then The cavalry assaulted. After defeating the defenses of some pike formations, the cavalry retreated and used cavalry fire to disrupt the formation again. After retreating to a sufficient distance, the cavalry attacked again.
Therefore, Wei Yan's front army fought very hard.
The pikemen must hold a four- to five-meter-long spear with both hands, and there is no third hand to hold up a shield for defense. Therefore, the pikemen resist the threat of bows and arrows, try to get close to the cavalry quickly, use the spear formation to kill the cavalry, and at the same time shorten the cavalry's sprint distance.
As long as they reach a distance where the speed of the cavalry cannot be increased, the pikemen will be able to face the impact of the cavalry with a little more ease.
But along the way, soldiers will fall every step they take. In such a military formation, once they fall, they will not only face casualties caused by arrows, but also the trampling of their own soldiers. It is basically impossible to leave any soldiers behind. Life comes.
Either keep going after being hit by an arrow, or fall down and face death.
Therefore, after paying a huge price of casualties, Wei Yan still commanded the pikemen, barely maintained the formation, and reached a distance where it was difficult for the cavalry to start quickly.
At this time, Guo Huai was also desperately thinking of countermeasures.
It's not that the cavalry has difficulty in starting quickly. This is a common situation on the battlefield, so Guo Huai quickly responded - letting the cavalry use cavalry to kill the enemy, and once they get close to the spear formation, they will retreat. To a certain extent, the cavalry will retreat, and when the rear army reorganizes its formation, it will strengthen the attack and impact on the enemy's flanks.
As long as they break through the defense of the vehicle formations on both wings, the infantrymen brought out of the city by Zhang Xi will all be lambs to be slaughtered.
As for the front, Guo Huai still has more than 4,000 infantry. It is enough to use the bows and arrows of these infantry and hand-to-hand combat ability to stop the advance of the spearmen.
What Guo Huai is really worried about is Zhang Xi's back-up plan.
So far, Zhang Xi's formation was too normal. It was so normal that even a general would attack in this way. And the most important thing is that such an attack is not only inefficient, but also has no chance of winning at all.
Guo Huai did not believe that a commander like Zhang Xi would make such a low-level mistake, so Guo Huai believed that Zhang Xi must have a back-up plan.
At the same time, Guo Huai immediately thought of Zhang Feijun on the southwest side.
Until now, Zhang Feijun has not made any move, which is abnormal.
Obviously, Zhang Xi wanted to use his own troops to attract Guo Huai's attention first and create opportunities for Zhang Fei's army to defeat the enemy.
But the problem is that this strategy is too obvious. Guo Huai has been guarding against this strategy. He still has 5,000 cavalry on hand that he has not used.
Of course, Zhang Fei's army was extremely numerous, with more than 20,000, but if Zhang Fei's army just hid behind the car formation and used bows and arrows to kill his own cavalry, then Guo Huai really had no good solution.
But once Zhang Fei's army left the protection of the camp and the chariot formation and went out to fight in the field, Guo Huai believed that his five thousand cavalry would definitely teach Zhang Fei a lesson.
Therefore, while Guo Huai commanded his soldiers to respond to Zhang Xi's frontal attack and ordered the cavalry to increase the attack on the flanks, he also always paid attention to Zhang Fei's movements in the southwest.
At this time, on the frontal battlefield, the spearmen led by Wei Yan could no longer advance.
Without the harassment of the cavalry, the losses of the pikemen were much reduced. However, at this time, the pikemen were already close to Cao Jun's infantry, and they were still fighting hand-to-hand.
At this time, the spearmen were at a disadvantage in terms of weapons because their guns were too long. Many soldiers had to abandon their spears and use ring-headed knives to fight. The entire spear formation was scattered, and they were basically fighting on their own.
It is absolutely impossible to retreat at this time. Once retreating, the soldiers will be dispersed, and Zhang Xi's central army will be immediately impacted, resulting in a complete defeat.
Therefore, Wei Yan was still struggling to maintain the formation, relying on his personal bravery to kill the enemy to boost morale, and hold on to his last breath.
But even so, Zhang Xi himself didn't know when Wei Yan would be unable to hold on and when the front army would collapse.
Therefore, Zhang Xi gritted his teeth and asked Jiang Ji to lead his 2,000-strong Chinese army escort to the front army to support Wei Yan.
The front line must be maintained, otherwise the consequences will be disastrous.
After Guo Huai saw Zhang Xi's use of the Chinese army, for a moment he wanted to change his cavalry strategy and directly sent 5,000 cavalry to attack Zhang Xi's Chinese army. Maybe he would win this battle.
But is Zhang Xi really so unscrupulous? !
Just when Guo Huai felt something in his heart, he discovered that Zhang Feijun had moved.
More than half an hour after the battle started on the frontal battlefield, Zhang Feijun dispatched.
The entire army of 20,000 soldiers came out of the camp and attacked Guo Huai's army from the flank.
One thing is true, if Zhang Fei does not come out at this time, Zhang Xijun will be defeated by him head-on.
But Guo Huai always felt that this was an action that Zhang Xi had planned long ago. Maybe Zhang Xi deliberately exposed a flaw in the Chinese army to attract his own cavalry to attack, and then let Zhang Fei suddenly attack and defeat his flank. .
Fortunately, I didn't fall into the trap.
Anyway, my troops have the upper hand, and your front army won’t be able to withstand it for too long. If you grind it out bit by bit, I will win in the end.
After thinking about this, Guo Huai gave up his plan to attack Zhang Xi's army, and instead sent out five thousand cavalry according to the original plan to intercept Zhang Fei's army.
At this time, Zhang Xi was actually quite anxious.
In fact, this battle, from the very beginning, deviated somewhat from the expected track.
Zhang Xi knew that the cavalry had a military advantage, and even spearmen would find it difficult to completely defeat the cavalry.
But Zhang Xi didn't expect that this advantage would be so great.
The reason why Wei Yan was placed in the front army was that he hoped to use Wei Yan's bravery and command ability to gain an advantage in the front army and force Guo Huai's middle army to support the front army.
But until now, Guo Huai's central army has not moved, but Wei Yan's front army has suffered heavy casualties and shows signs of collapse.
For this reason, Zhang Xi had to invest his Chinese defense forces into the front army in advance to stabilize the battle situation of the front army.
Zhang Fei's dispatch of troops was not requested by Zhang Xi. Zhang Fei saw that Zhang Xi's former army was showing signs of being unable to hold up. In order to prevent Zhang Xi from being defeated, Zhang Fei had to send troops in advance to attack Guo Huai's flanks and attack Guo Huai's flanks. Zhang Xi's frontal attack reduces the pressure.
And sure enough, Guo Huai sent 5,000 cavalry to block Zhang Fei's advance. The pressure on Wei Yan suddenly eased a lot, and he began to slowly reverse the decline of the front army. With the assistance of the 2,000 Chinese army led by Jiang Jiong, Wei Yan The front moved forward again, suppressing Guo Huai's front army.
And Guo Huai also started to frown.
Guo Huai's intuition told him that the development of the battle was not as simple as he imagined, and that Zhang Xi must have a back-up plan.
But the reality is that if Guo Huai does not provide sufficient support to the former army, the former army will not be able to hold on.
Although Guo Huai's right army temporarily blocked Zhang Fei's 20,000 army under the shuttle attack of 5,000 cavalry, Zhang Fei was a famous general after all, and he brought a large number of soldiers. As time went by, Guo Huai He is not sure whether his right army can stop him.
Therefore, there are two choices before Guo Huai now.
One is to have your own central army support the front army, try to defeat Zhang Xi's front army in one fell swoop, and attack Zhang Xi's central army where there are not many people defending at all, so defeating the enemy in one fell swoop is easy.
The other one continued the stalemate, with both sides fighting for their lives until Liu Bei's army couldn't bear the heavy casualties and retreated on its own.
The former is risky, but can be decided in a fight.
The latter is safe, but if Zhang Feijun breaks through the interception of his right-wing cavalry, he will suffer heavy casualties.
Therefore, after much thought, Guo Huai decided to use the first method.
(End of chapter)
