Zhang Xi always felt uneasy and felt that something was going to happen in the direction of Shanggui, so he left Wang Ping to lead 3,000 men to defend the main road of Jieting, while he led 7,000 troops to march in the direction of Shanggui to investigate the situation.
Almost at the same moment, Zhang He temporarily repelled Zhang Fei and solved the siege of Shanggui. He then arranged for Guo Huai to continue to hold on to Shanggui to contain Zhang Fei. , cooperated with Fei Yao on the front of the street pavilion to attack from front to back, and completely wiped out the defenders of the street pavilion.
Zhang Xi did not expect that Zhang He would repel Zhang Fei so quickly, and Zhang He also did not expect that Zhang Xi would not obediently wait for death in the street pavilion. The two armies suddenly encountered each other near Lueyang City.
This was an encounter that no one expected.
Both sides were a little stunned at first, but the generals on both sides were not idiots and reacted almost at the same time.
There is no need to ask about Zhang He's reaction. He must have attacked immediately before Liu Beijun could react. After all, he brought many people with him. Even in an encounter, he would be more confident.
Zhang Xi instantly arranged his soldiers into a defensive formation.
On the one hand, it was Zhang Xi's subconscious behavior. When encountering such a sudden situation, he first defended and then counterattacked depending on the situation.
On the other hand, Zhang Xi brought too few soldiers, and he had less information than he could get, so he had to take a defensive posture first.
Zhang He at least knew that Zhang Xi only had 10,000 soldiers in his hands, and Zhang He had 20,000 soldiers. No matter how he thought, he had the upper hand. However, Zhang Xi did not know how many people were on the opposite side of the Wei army, and why they appeared in the battle. Zhang Xi knew nothing about Zhang Feijun's condition near Yangcheng at this time, etc.
Taking the lead in taking the defensive and defending temporarily can buy Zhang Xi time to judge the current situation and buy time for himself to make decisions.
An encounter started directly outside Lueyang City.
The defenders in Lueyang City were now trembling as they watched the two armies fighting in front of them.
There were not many defenders in Lueyang City. At the beginning, neither Zhang Fei nor Zhang Xi had any manpower to guard this place.
Although Lueyang is also a strategic location, with Shanggui in front and Street Pavilion in the back, as long as there are no problems in these two places at the same time, there is no need to arrange people to defend Lueyang.
And if problems arise in two places at the same time, Lueyang alone cannot defend it.
Therefore, when Zhang Xi passed by Lueyang, the defenders in Lueyang City sent a hundred soldiers to symbolically declare their sovereignty and occupy it.
What these people can do is probably act as an atmosphere group for Zhang Xi's 7,000 soldiers on the city tower.
If Zhang Xi can win, there is no need for them to go out to fight. If Zhang Xi is defeated, a hundred of them will not be able to defend Lueyang City. There is no hope at all.
As for the two armies outside the city, neither of them took Lueyang City seriously. They were caught off guard and had no time to consider too many other factors.
Zhang Xi has actually not thought about it, whether he can find a way to retreat to Lueyang City to hold on. After all, he has fewer troops than the opponent. It is hard to say who is stronger in a head-to-head fight. If there is a city wall to guard, the defense will be much easier.
But, no, absolutely not.
Because it is an encounter, no one can retreat easily. Once the retreat is ordered, the impact on morale will be huge. Even if they can retreat to Lueyang, the morale and morale of the army will be lost, and it will be impossible to defend Lueyang.
This is what an encounter is like. It must be fought until one party cannot hold on and collapses. Otherwise, there must be no retreat.
The next thing to compete is the pure combat power of the soldiers and the command ability of the generals on both sides.
There is no need to ask Zhang He. Although Zhang Fei beat him up a few years ago and was hailed as a "mountain-climbing general" by Zhang Xikou, the famous general who has been fighting for decades has no doubt about his ability.
And Zhang Xi, well, Zhang Xi is actually not bad either.
After more than ten years in the army, he has always been in the decision-making level of the Chinese army. This is not the first time that he has led an army alone. He still has the ability to command the defense of 7,000 people.
And really speaking, Zhang Xi actually has more experience in mountain warfare than Zhang He. After all, Zhang Xi has either been in Pingnan Middle School or out of Qishan in recent years, and has fought in mountain warfare for several years.
Zhang He obviously does not have as much experience in mountain warfare as Zhang Xi.
Although Zhang He often fought in Liangzhou over the years, Zhang He commanded more cavalry than infantry. The time when he really had experience in commanding infantry in mountain warfare was probably when he followed Xia Houyuan to guard Hanzhong.
But during that time, Zhang He's record in defending the city was okay, but his record in the field was really unsatisfactory. For example, in Danqu, Zhang Fei was pressed to the ground and rubbed, and finally had to climb a mountain to escape.
Therefore, when the two of them fought, Zhang Xi's defensive organization was very good at it. Although Zhang He commanded the attack without any mistakes, Zhang He always felt dissatisfied. He felt like he was almost breathless and could not break through the enemy's defense line. .
Slowly, Zhang Xi also gradually got used to Zhang He's attacks. He watched Zhang He command his soldiers to launch an offensive. After a period of unsuccessful attacks, he slowly retreated and immediately organized a second wave. Zhang Xi immediately understood that Zhang He's experience in mountain warfare was, But it's not sufficient.
Fighting in the mountains is different from fighting on the plains.
The mountain road is uneven, and the soldiers will consume more energy when attacking and retreating than on the plains. Therefore, if you want to attack, you must attack with all your strength and the attack cannot stop. However, once you stop and retreat, you cannot immediately organize a second wave of attacks, and you must take a certain degree of rest.
Otherwise, it will be the same as Cao's army now. In addition to the fierceness of the first wave of offensives, the combat effects of the subsequent offensives will become worse and worse. In the end, even the retreat will appear to be a bit messy.
It’s not that Zhang He has no experience in mountain warfare. He also knows that in mountain warfare, the attack cannot stop and must be carried out in one go. However, once he retreated, Zhang He did not give his soldiers adequate rest time and forced them to immediately launch a second attack. This way The offensive efficiency is actually not high.
This is probably the reason why Zhang He has had poor performance in mountain battles in recent years.
For this reason, Zhang Xi obviously would not be so kind to tell Zhang He. Even Zhang Xi was waiting for the moment when Cao Jun's attack became increasingly weak and the morale of the army dropped.
When Cao's army failed to attack again and retreated, Zhang Xi immediately invested his 2,000-man reserve force, suddenly commanded his soldiers to counterattack across the board, and launched a counterattack against Cao's army with a wave-like attack frequency.
Zhang Xi wants Zhang He to take a good look at what kind of attack is suitable for the characteristics of mountain warfare.
The first wave of offensive formations is pushed forward, the second wave of offenses must follow immediately, and then the third wave of offensive formations must be prepared immediately.
After the three waves of offensive formations are pushed forward, if you still cannot break through the enemy's line, you must organize defenses on the spot and make rest and recuperation. You cannot easily launch the next attack, let alone retreat to rest and recuperate.
Facing Zhang Xi's counterattack, Zhang He seemed a little at a loss.
Zhang He commanded his soldiers to easily stop the first wave of attacks, but after the second wave of strengthened attacks came, Zhang He's front army wavered in their front.
Upon seeing this, Zhang He immediately responded as usual. He commanded and dispatched some soldiers from the Chinese Army to go to the front army to support. However, before the Chinese Army's supporting soldiers could be organized, Zhang Xi's third wave of attacking troops had already arrived.
Three consecutive attacks caused Zhang He's front army to decline significantly and keep retreating. Eventually, Cao's army's formation continued to shrink. Seeing that the front army was about to collapse, Zhang He gritted his teeth and personally led the organized Chinese army to the front. The army relied on personal bravery to boost the morale of the entire army, and then barely stabilized the front.
After stabilizing the front, Zhang He did not want to be passively beaten all the time. He tried to organize his soldiers to counterattack, but found that the enemy had already switched from offense to defense. Zhang He's counterattack could not push the enemy's front immediately.
After several such situations, Zhang He finally understood that it seemed impossible for him to defeat this enemy force in a mountain battle.
With his thoughts changing, Zhang He also began to make adjustments.
No longer emphasize the attack blindly, and strive to eat the opponent in one go. From the perspective of vision and scout reports, the enemy on the opposite side only has a few people. Your own troops have the upper hand, so there is no need to rush to eat the opponent in one go.
You have a large number of troops, and losing a few thousand men will not have a big impact on the overall battle situation. But the enemy army only has five or six thousand men, and casualties of two thousand men will cause a collapse effect. There is no need to fight for a temporary victory. burden.
Let's just fight for losses. I can afford the losses anyway, but you only have a few people, do you dare to fight for losses with me? !
Marching combat is like this. In most cases, there are no clever tricks. As long as it is suitable for the battlefield situation and allows you to take the initiative on the battlefield, even if it is a stupid method, you can use it.
But Zhang He used this stupid trick to fight you. Zhang Xi felt uncomfortable all of a sudden.
Indeed, as Zhang He expected, Zhang Xi only had 7,000 soldiers, which he could not afford to consume.
Perhaps at the beginning, the morale of the soldiers can be temporarily improved by relying on continuous victories, but after a long time, as the casualties increase and there is no hope of defeating the enemy, the morale of the soldiers will definitely continue to decline, and finally they will suffer losses. If it is too large, the soldiers will definitely collapse.
Therefore, when Zhang He also started to take the defensive, that is, after fighting you, Zhang Xi began to feel uncomfortable and thought about how to defeat the enemy.
Should we continue to increase the offensive, strive to break Zhang He's front army, threaten Zhang He's middle army, and force Zhang He to retreat? !
Or should we just give it up when it gets better, hold on until dark, take advantage of the darkness to keep distance from Zhang He's army, fight and retreat the next day, and retreat to the street pavilion to hold on? !
Now Zhang Xi is quite hesitant.
(End of chapter)
