An encounter in front of Lueyang City lasted from day to night. Both sides suffered losses, but in the end there was no final outcome.
After each side suffered more than a thousand casualties on the battlefield, after nightfall, both sides began to disengage from each other. Each side slowly retreated and set up camp, waiting to fight again tomorrow.
Zhang He is not worried at all. After all, he is the one who has the advantage now. Even if someone discovers the surprise attack, it doesn't matter. Anyway, he has arrived in Lueyang, not far from the street pavilion, and the enemy is right in front of him, so he is not worried at all. This group of enemies ran away.
As for Zhang Xi, he was currently pacing back and forth in the simply set up camp, feeling extremely uneasy.
In the past, no matter who was around him, Zhang Xi always had someone with whom he could discuss things, and with Zhang Xi's foresight, the person he could discuss with was more or less a famous general, and at the very least, he had to be a staff officer like Ma Su. Talent.
But not this time. This time there was only Zhang Xi. All decisions had to be made by Zhang Xi himself. Suddenly he felt a lot of pressure.
Just feeling uneasy, just in case, Zhang Xi led his troops to take a look, but they actually met Zhang He.
It was an encounter during the day, and there was no time to think too much. When I saw the enemy there, my first reaction was to retreat first. Now I finally calmed down and had enough time to think carefully, but the more Zhang Xi thought about it, the more he felt. The current situation is troublesome.
The most urgent task is to decide, what should I do next? Should I hold on locally and continue to fight Zhang He, or should I retreat temporarily and return to the street pavilion to hold on? !
After thinking carefully for a long time, Zhang Xi felt that he must not compete with Zhang He for consumption. Even if he had to compete, it should not be in a field battle. He had to enter the fortifications and rely on the defenses to effectively kill the enemy. Otherwise, he would suffer casualties in such a field battle. Quite disadvantageous to myself.
Therefore, Zhang Xi decided that he could not continue to confront Zhang He outside Lueyang City, but should find a way to retreat, at least to Jieting, where there was a city, a camp, and at least the capital to hold on.
But if we just retreat to the street pavilion, if we think about it carefully, it seems that the entire strategic focus has returned to the old path of the historical line.
The entire Longshan Road has two main points, one is Shanggui and the other is Street Pavilion.
Although Zhang He did not lead the cavalry at the street pavilion before and was replaced by Fei Yao, but now, Zhang He still came to the street pavilion.
Moreover, although Zhang He did not surprise Zhang Xi, he did surprise Zhang Fei in Shanggui and temporarily repelled Zhang Fei, giving himself a sufficient advantage. However, Liu Bei's side still failed to defeat Shanggui and Guangwei. situation.
Zhang Xi must hold on to Jieting in order to hold on to Liu Bei's group's bottom line to continue to break Long, and to provide enough time for Zhang Fei to make a comeback to conquer Shanggui and Liu Bei to conquer Guangwei County.
After all, I still have to stick to the street pavilion.
And the situation Zhang Xi is facing now is even worse than what Ma Su faced in history.
After all, Ma Di still had Zhuge Liang's main army as backup. Even after learning that Ma Di had gone up to the mountain to camp, Zhuge Liang could ignore Shanggui and directly lead people to rescue the street pavilion. Zhang Xi did not have this treatment.
Zhang Xi now doesn't know when Zhang Fei will get reinforcements to counterattack Shanggui, nor when Liu Bei can completely conquer Guangwei County. In other words, Zhang Xi has no backup, so he must rely on the thousands of people he has. Defending at Jieting, you can either defend until your entire army is annihilated, or defend with the support of Liu Bei's army and defeat Zhang He.
It was even said that even if Zhang Xi wanted to evacuate, he would have no place to evacuate.
In front of him are 20,000 Cao Jun infantry led by Zhang He. To the east of the street pavilion are 20,000 Cao Wei cavalry led by Fei Yao. Behind him is Guangwei County, which is now Cao Jun's territory. Zhang Xi is surrounded by Cao Jun. All retreat routes are They are all blocked and there is nowhere to run if you want to.
In this case, it is not easy to defend the street pavilion, maintain the morale of the army, and encourage the soldiers to stick with you, let alone not knowing how long it will last.
But there is no other way. If Liu Bei Group wants to cut off Longshan, then the street pavilion must be defended. Otherwise, even if Liu Bei occupies the five northern counties of Yongzhou, he will not be able to free up his hands to attack Liangzhou, and Guanzhong and Liangzhou are constantly connected. Cao Jun can also send troops to recapture the five counties at any time.
The distance between Guanzhong and the five counties is too close, and Hanzhong is too far away from the five counties. This situation means that even if Liu Bei captures the five northern counties of Yongzhou, he will not be able to hold on for a long time. Sooner or later, Cao Wei will take them all back, let alone Liangzhou is even more distant.
Therefore, even if there is a glimmer of hope, this street pavilion must still hold on.
After making the decision, Zhang Xi had no choice but to organize his soldiers to break out of camp and march at dawn, when he could barely see the road, trying to put as much distance as possible from Zhang He's army, quickly retreating to the street pavilion, and joining Wang Ping to hold on.
As for Zhang He, after discovering Zhang Xi's retreat, he immediately launched a pursuit. Although he didn't really expect to defeat the enemy with pursuit, chasing the enemy's ass like this could greatly reduce the enemy's morale and create psychological pressure on the enemy. .
There are so many enemies, and the current situation is very unfavorable to them. If we can mentally dismantle the enemy's fighting spirit, it will definitely be more cost-effective than fighting for the lives of soldiers.
Zhang Xi knew Zhang He's plan, but he really had no choice.
A previous encounter brought the two sides very close. Even if Zhang Xi wanted to arrange for his soldiers to set up an ambush in advance, he did not have time to implement it, so he could only force Zhang He to get behind Zhang He's disgusting butt, and had to retreat quickly. Street pavilion.
As long as we retreat to the street pavilion, we can take a breather for a while.
Of course, Zhang Xi did not forget to notify Wang Ping in advance and asked him to lead his troops to meet outside Jieting City and arrange bows and arrows to repel the enemy. Don’t look back. Zhang He just took advantage of the situation and chased him directly into Jieting. That would be funny. What about.
Zhang Xi would not make such a low-level mistake, and Zhang He was obviously not an idiot. After pursuing the enemy near the street pavilion, Zhang He ordered his troops to recover, set up camp, and begin preparations for a strong attack on the street pavilion.
Zhang Xi also returned to the street pavilion with Wang Ping's support and began to prepare for defense.
Wang Ping also didn't expect that Zhang Xi actually met Wei Jun during such a trip, and was suspected of being "driven back" to the street pavilion by Wei Jun.
And what Wang Ping is even more worried about is, since the Wei army has appeared on the right side of the street pavilion, what is the situation of Zhang Feijun in the direction of Shanggui? !
Zhang Xi couldn't give Wang Ping answers to these matters. He just briefly recounted his own experience and told Wang Ping that no matter what, we must guard the street pavilion.
If we guard the street pavilion, everyone still has a chance of survival. If we don't guard the street pavilion, we will be pursued by the Cao Wei Army's infantry and cavalry, and it is winter. If we want to climb the mountain to escape, we will not have this chance.
Wang Ping deeply agrees with this.
After Zhang Xi unified their combat ideas, he finally formally discussed with Wang Ping how to defend this street pavilion.
Ma Di had to deal with Cao Wei's cavalry, which only numbered 20,000 people, but now Zhang Xi had to deal with Cao Wei's cavalry and infantry, a total of 40,000 Cao soldiers.
Although some arrangements have been made at the street pavilion in advance, God knows whether it will work.
Therefore, Wang Ping's suggestion is to mainly use crossbowmen to contain Fei Yao's cavalry.
After all, a lot of antlers were repaired before, covering an area of five or six miles.
If Fei Yao's cavalry wants to attack the first camp, they must first dismantle the antlers along the way. Fei Yao has already sent them to dismantle the antlers for two days, but they still have not finished dismantling all the antlers outside the camp.
Wang Ping's main defensive method in the past two days was to use bows and arrows to prevent these cavalry from coming to remove the antlers. The effect was not bad. Fei Yao was very annoyed about this, but there was nothing he could do.
Therefore, Wang Ping suggested that Fei Yao's cavalry should continue to be restrained in this way, and try not to allow Fei Yao's cavalry and Zhang He's infantry to merge, as long as it takes one day.
As for Zhang He's infantry, there is no other way but to rely on the city defense of Jieting Tucheng to stop Zhang He's infantry from attacking the city.
After several days of repairs, the city defense of Jieting Tucheng is equivalent to no city defense.
What’s the point of repairing it for a few days? !
It might be useful to prevent cavalry from attacking the city, but facing Cao Wei's infantry directly, this earthen city would be useless.
Holding on until death is nothing more than a high platform, except for a little comfort in your heart, it is of no use.
So, in the final analysis, we still have to fight tooth and nail and rely on human lives to persevere, right? !
Is there any other way?
(End of chapter)
