Wu Yi is indeed not Wu Ban. Wu Yi's ability is more than one level higher than that of his younger brother Wu Ban.
But if you want to say that Wu Yi is better than Guo Huai in terms of command ability, then you think too highly of Wu Yi.
If the two sides really meet on the battlefield and fight in each other's battle formations, there is a high probability that Wu Yi will not be defeated by Guo Huai's opponent, or he will not lose too miserably.
But now, doesn't Wu Yi have the advantage of making a sneak attack?
The distance of seven miles was not that far away for the Northern and Southern Han armies trained by Zhang Fei and Wu Yi. This short march time was not enough for Guo Huai to take many defensive measures.
Therefore, Wu Yi is advantageous in terms of taking the lead.
In terms of military strength, Wu Yi was indeed at a disadvantage, with fewer troops than Guo Huai's, but in terms of military morale, Wu Yi's elite Northern Army was going to have the upper hand.
After all, the Wei army chose to retreat when they could not attack Mei County. The morale of the soldiers would definitely be affected. Now the Chinese army is fighting fiercely again. It is not clear what the situation is. The soldiers are also worried that the Shu army behind them will catch up at any time. It's strange that such military morale can be so high.
As for the Northern Army, although it was their first time to go into battle and lacked battle experience, this unit was considered to be responsible for the sharp offensive of the Han Dynasty when it was first formed, and the soldiers were carefully selected. , people with slightly poor physical fitness and slightly less wealthy people are not qualified to become a member of the Northern Army.
Therefore, from the very beginning of its formation, the Northern Army has had extremely high demands on itself. It also has extremely high self-esteem and even pride. Now that they are entering the battlefield for the first time, everyone is holding back their energy and wants to prove that they have this self-esteem. Even the capital of pride.
Under such circumstances, the commanders of both sides were a little surprised when the two armies fought.
Wu Yi was surprised that under such circumstances, Cao Wei's imperial army, under the command of Guo Huai, could still unleash such combat effectiveness. The combat effectiveness of Cao Wei's march should not be underestimated.
Guo Huai, on the other hand, was shocked by the combat effectiveness of this Shu army, which was ridiculously strong.
To be on the safe side, Guo Huai did keep a thousand reserve troops and only sent 4,000 imperial soldiers to fight, but there were only 3,000 people on the opposite side.
Four thousand Wei imperial troops defeated three thousand Shu troops, and they were evenly matched. This is absolutely unscientific! ! !
Guo Huai fought from Liangzhou to Yongzhou and had experience fighting against all kinds of Shu armies.
The county soldiers in Yizhou, the Yuanyang soldiers under Zhang Fei, and the Baiji soldiers under Chen Dao. Guo Huai has seen them all, whether they are strong or weak in combat effectiveness.
Among them, the most difficult ones are definitely the Yuanyang soldiers under Zhang Fei. The most powerful ones are the Yizhou County soldiers under Chen Dao. They are just like that, at the level of ordinary Cao soldiers. Compared with Cao Wei's imperial army. , it’s still a bit worse.
During this period, Guo Huai fought with Wei Yan, and it was basically certain that the soldiers under Wei Yan were just county soldiers from Shu, and their combat effectiveness was not too high.
So, where did this Shu army with such a powerful fighting force come from? !
The more Guo Huai observed, the worse his expression became.
The Shu army in front of them now is definitely not an ordinary Shu army.
Judging from the equipment, this Shu army has a very high armor coverage rate, and they are all made of black iron armor.
It is not surprising that Xuantiejia is the standard armament that has been equipped with troops since the Han Dynasty. Now in the Wei Dynasty, which has accepted the abdication of the Han Dynasty, the standard equipment of the Central Forbidden Army is also Xuantiejia.
But this armor coverage rate is a bit too high!
Because of the continuous wars in the past few decades, not only the people's lives were difficult, but also the imperial army found it difficult to maintain the large-scale military equipment Xuantie armor like the Han Dynasty.
Even the Wei Dynasty, which occupies the most elite places in the world, the Central Plains and Hebei, can only equip the central imperial army with mostly black iron armor. The other local county soldiers are basically equipped with a mixture of leather armor and black iron armor.
But in this Shu army's offensive force, except for a few archers, the armor coverage rate was almost over 90%, and all of them were black iron armor.
With the economic capabilities of Shu, how did Liu Bei do it? ! Where did Liu Bei get so much iron? !
I haven’t heard of a large-scale iron production place in central Sichuan or Jingzhou! ! !
Let's talk about the ordnance in their hands. What these Shu soldiers are holding is not the Huanshou sword standard for the county soldiers, but a knife that is longer than the Huanshou sword but with a narrower blade.
This kind of knife can not only be used with one hand, but also with both hands, and most importantly, the material of these knives is obviously better than the material of the ring-shou knife of the own imperial army.
Guo Huai once heard from Man Chong and General Cao Ren that some soldiers in the Jingzhou Army were equipped with such knives, but the number of soldiers was not large, only a few thousand. It couldn't be that these soldiers came from Jingzhou, right? ? !
This possibility is too absurd. No matter how imaginative Guo Huai is, he will not believe this possibility. But no matter what, this army is definitely not the county soldiers who originally belonged to Wei Yan.
This had to make Guo Huai think more.
Has the main force of the Shu army behind him already caught up? Or, have they even caught up with his front army? !
If that's the case, that's trouble! ! !
If the main soldiers of the Shu army are only a few, then Guo Huai is not too anxious. But what if it is Zhang Xi, Zhang Fei and others who personally lead the troops to catch up? !
When he thought of this, Guo Huai suddenly became anxious.
He must defeat this strange Shu army as soon as possible, and then immediately lead the troops to relieve the Chinese army in person. Then he must speed up the march and meet up with Governor Cao Zhen as soon as possible. If it were later, he might not be able to escape.
Guo Huai was indeed a little anxious and did not dare to hold back any more. He quickly dispatched a thousand reserve troops who stayed with him, trying to use his numerical advantage to defeat the Shu army led by Wu Yi as soon as possible.
As a result, Wu Yi was a little struggling.
In terms of command level, Wu Yi is really not weak, but he can't stand it because of his small number of troops and his soldiers' lack of experience in fighting formations.
On several occasions, the Han soldiers had the upper hand by relying on their superiority in ordnance, and could have taken advantage of the situation to expand their results. However, when Wu Yi's military orders were passed on to the subordinates and executed again, too much time was wasted, causing the Wei army to slow down. After taking this breath, he came up again.
This was due to lack of battlefield experience, and Wu Yi could not blame anyone.
At that time, Wu Yi led an all-out attack with 3,000 Northern troops, but Guo Huai only sent 4,000 Wei soldiers to fight, and still had a reserve of 1,000 people. But now, Guo Huai is not holding back either. With all the troops deployed, it was very difficult for Wu Yi to deal with it.
It's not that Wu Yi was defeated even if he didn't have enough troops, and even if his soldiers were inexperienced, it wouldn't be difficult to hold on for a while.
But the problem is that Wu Yi's purpose is not to contain Guo Huai's front army. He wants to find a way to defeat Guo Huai's front army. At least he must force Guo Huai to retreat into the central army and hold on there.
How can you achieve your strategic goals when you are being suppressed and beaten? !
Wu Yi was angry and anxious.
What makes me angry is that the Northern Army of the Han Dynasty, which had been trained for more than a year, was actually suppressed and beaten by the Imperial Guards of the Wei Dynasty. Even if there is a difference in military strength, it would be so embarrassing to say this.
What's urgent is that if he still can't get rid of this situation of being passively beaten, then the pressure on General Wei Yan who is attacking the Chinese army will be really great.
There are seven thousand against ten thousand people there. If one mistake is made, the whole army will be annihilated.
Therefore, Wu Yi really tried his best and still couldn't find any good solution.
Just when Wu Yi was about to despair and was wondering if he could temporarily save his strength and retreat, and then go to the center of the army to relieve Wei Yan, a sudden change occurred.
Hundreds of soldiers suddenly appeared in the forest on the other side of Guo Huai's army and rushed towards Guo Huai's main formation.
The reason why Wu Yi was ecstatic and Guo Huai's expression changed drastically was that these hundreds of soldiers were fighting under the banner of the Han Dynasty.
Yes, it's Wang Ping.
Wang Ping, who had been hiding in the mountains and forests for two days and had been standing still, suddenly emerged from the mountains and forests at this most critical moment with six hundred flying troops and appeared on the other side of the battlefield.
At this time, Guo Huai had already sent out all his reserves. His central army was now only protected by less than a hundred people.
Faced with such a good opportunity, the ecstatic Wu Yi immediately ordered the entire army to counterattack. Regardless of the cost of casualties, the Wei troops in front of him must be held back and not allowed to return to reinforce the Wei troops.
On the other side, Guo Huai's face was ashen as he looked at the more than 600 Shu soldiers rushing towards him. He calculated the strength of his guards. Even if his guards were elite, it was too much for them to fight one against six. .
Guo Huai hesitated for a while on the question of whether to leave or stay, and finally decided to recall the former sergeants and withdraw to the Chinese defense.
The Shu army in front of them is not important. As long as they ensure their safety, there will always be a chance to counterattack and come back.
But if you stupidly wait for death here, once you die in battle and the whole army will be leaderless, that will be the most fatal thing.
Guanqiu Jian and Wen Qin alone were too inexperienced to command so many soldiers.
As for the question of whether the Shu army has already arrived in pursuit, I can think of a solution after retreating to the Chinese army. Now I have no choice.
In this way, Guo Huai gave the order for the front army to retreat and led the troops to withdraw to the central army.
(End of chapter)
