Because of the detour outside Huayin City, Zhang Xi arrived at the Tongguan battlefield one day behind Cao Zhen.
Although he knew that Wei Yan's defense at Tongguan must be very difficult now, Zhang Xi still did not lose his calm. He did not launch an attack on the main force of Cao Zhen's army as soon as he arrived at the battlefield. Instead, he camped for a long time to rest, and then followed Zhao Yun Discuss how to deal with the next situation.
After all, after Cao Zhen joined Wang Chang and others, his military strength should be more than 40,000, while Zhang Xi and Zhao Yun's combined strength was only 15,800.
It is no longer possible to delay Cao Zhen's plan to return to the army. What needs to be done now is how to reduce the offensive pressure on Tongguan.
The best way is to open a bloody road, pass through Cao Zhen's main army, and directly enter Tongguan with 10,000 infantry.
As long as there are enough troops to support Tongguan, holding on to Tongguan will not be a problem.
Considering the amount of food and grass that the Wei army currently has left, Zhang Xi estimates that as long as it can hold on for another four or five days, Cao Zhen will run out of food. By that time, there will be no need to fight, and the Wei army will definitely be demoralized.
This is the optimal solution to the current situation.
But the problem is that Cao Zhen is not a fool and would let Zhang Xi lead his troops into Tongguan so easily.
There are more than 40,000 troops, enough to surround Tongguan. It is very difficult for Zhang Xi to break through Cao Zhen's interception and enter Tongguan.
The suggestion given by Zhao Yun was to use the Liangzhou cavalry to clear the way, and use the impact of the cavalry to drill a passage through the Wei army's infantry to cover the infantry led by Zhang Xi into Tongguan.
This trick is either impossible or very risky.
The five thousand cavalry can use their mobility on the battlefield to cause considerable damage, but if they charge straight into the depths of the enemy's defenses, the outcome will not be much better.
If the enemy's defense line cannot be penetrated and the enemy is encircled, the losses will be huge.
Another thing is that Cao Zhen does not have cavalry in his hands. He also has a light cavalry team of about 8,000 people.
Although they were a defeated army, they had not had a good rest during the retreat, and their combat power was probably not good, but they were still cavalry.
When Cao Zhen was really desperate, he forced these cavalry to go to the battlefield to stop Zhao Yun's Liangzhou cavalry. Even if they could not completely stop them, they could still weaken the impact of the Liangzhou cavalry on the infantry.
Therefore, Zhang Xi thought about it and felt that Zhao Yun's method was really not good.
Whether it can happen or not depends entirely on destiny.
Regarding this point, Zhao Yun actually recognized it, but apart from this method, did Zhang Xi have any other methods to quickly support Wei Yan who was holding on in Tongguan? !
Once Wei Yan is unable to defend Tongguan and allows these Wei troops to safely withdraw to the pass, it will not be a matter of life and death for Wei Yan and the three thousand defenders, but a matter of failure of the entire Zuo Fengyi battle plan.
Therefore, although it is very risky and the success or failure depends on fate, Zhao Yun believes that it is still necessary to give it a try.
Regarding Zhao Yun's remarks, Zhang Xi had no way to refute. Indeed, apart from this method, there seemed to be no other way.
But Zhang Xi finally made slight modifications to the plan.
The strategy of letting the cavalry suddenly attack and the infantry follow up is too simple, and it is easy for Cao Zhen to realize the purpose, so it must be slightly modified.
This resulted in a situation where early the next morning, Zhang Xi's infantry remained stationary in the camp, but Zhao Yun led his army around Cao Zhen's flank.
Cao Zhen was a little confused about the way the Shu thieves used troops. Could it be that the Shu thieves wanted to use cavalry harassment to prevent themselves from launching an attack on Tongguan? !
If the number of troops was less than half, Cao Zhen might not dare to act rashly. But now the enemy's cavalry is only 5,000, and he has more than 40,000 infantry and 8,000 cavalry.
Cao Zhen thought for a moment and decided to divide his troops.
Wang Chang continued to lead 20,000 infantry to attack Tongguan, Dai Ling led 10,000 infantry, and Han De led 8,000 cavalry to intercept Zhao Yun's troops.
As for himself, he led the remaining more than 10,000 infantrymen to continue the confrontation with Zhang Xi's 10,000 infantrymen to prevent Zhang Xi from doing anything wrong again.
The troops are sufficient according to Cao Zhen's dispatch. If it were not for the serious shortage of food and grass in the army, then Cao Zhen would really be sure that he would have a showdown with Zhang Xi at Tongguan.
It should be said that there was no problem with Cao Zhen's scheduling. He not only took into account the actual threat of the cavalry, but also took into account Zhang Xi's possible response.
Regarding this, Zhang Xi was actually scratching his head in the military tent.
According to the battle plan discussed by Zhang Xi and Zhao Yun, Zhao Yun led the cavalry to fight with mobility, attack and harass Cao Zhen's flanks and center, and mobilize the Wei troops in these two positions.
After some of the Wei troops in these two places were mobilized, Zhao Yun used the mobility of the cavalry to get rid of these Wei troops and turned to attack the Wei troops' defense in front of Tongguan. At that time, Zhang Xi would also lead the infantry that had been prepared in the battalion. The soldiers quickly followed up, broke through the enemy's defense line in one fell swoop, broke into Tongguan, and joined Wei Yan to defend.
To be honest, this move is actually not a good strategy. It just adds a slight feint in the early stage to Zhao Yun's forceful assault to tear apart the defense line. It is really not clever and can be easily seen through.
But the problem is still the same. We can't just watch Wei Yan lose Tongguan. We must support Wei Yan as soon as possible. Such feints can increase the success rate of breakthrough by 10%, which is also good.
But now, when Zhang Xi saw Cao Zhen's response, he knew that his move was a mistake.
Cao Zhen has sufficient troops and calm tactics. Apart from a head-on attack, there seems to be no room for any strategy to be used.
Zhao Yun's cavalry can no longer be counted on.
Facing the obstruction of 8,000 light cavalry is already difficult for Zhao Yun to deal with, let alone the 10,000 infantry soldiers following the 8,000 light cavalry. The infantry soldiers may not be able to intercept the cavalry head-on, but as support, they must cooperate with the cavalry. Maybe it can still be done by blocking Zhao Yun's route.
As for Wei Yan, although he will not face the full attack of 40,000 Wei troops, he still has to face the attack of 20,000 Wei troops led by Wang Chang. Although it can be said that it has alleviated Wei Yan's defensive pressure a little, it is not much better.
Zhang Xi himself also had to face the frontal containment of more than 10,000 soldiers led by Cao Zhen himself. If he wanted to break through the interception and enter Tongguan, there was no other way except a head-on fight.
In this case, Zhang Xi gritted his teeth and let's fight! ! !
Although he has been seeking stability in his life, when he encountered this situation where he had no choice but to fight, Zhang Xi also knew that he could not give up.
The whole army came out of camp, formed a formation, and launched a full-line attack on Cao Zhen's troops.
There is no way out this time. We must break through Cao Zhen's obstruction, enter Tongguan, and rescue Wei Yan.
Zhang Xi became fierce, and Cao Zhen also became energetic.
Cao Zhen had never fought against Zhang Xi like this, face to face, using field command to decide the outcome. Before, he was either going around in circles with Zhang Xi or engaging in siege battles.
Let’s not talk about the other methods for now, but who’s method is better, but in face-to-face field command, Cao Zhen doesn’t think that he will be inferior to a scholar.
Therefore, Cao Zhen did not stay behind. He pressed forward with his entire army and collided with the 10,000 infantry led by Zhang Xi.
Then, it’s a competition between their respective command levels.
Needless to say, Zhang Xi, as the offensive breakthrough party, must have adopted a forward formation to launch the attack.
As for Cao Zhen, under this situation, he did not lose his calm and asked the entire army to form a semicircle formation to fight.
It's not that Cao Zhen didn't want to use a circular formation to defend, the main reason was that behind him was the siege Wei army led by Wang Chang. Cao Zhen didn't need to guard against the situation behind him. If he only needed to face the enemy head-on, a semi-circular formation would be enough.
Moreover, doing so can also strengthen the defensive strength of local areas. Although the operation is not as smooth as the circular formation, under the current situation, it is not much different.
With this, Zhang Xi's attack suddenly fell into a state of frustration.
The point of the Front Arrow Formation is the speed of an attack. Therefore, in the front army, Zhang Xi arranged a lot of troops for the attack. Cao Zhen's semicircle formation also saw this, and in Zhang Xi's front army's attack A large number of defensive forces have been accumulated in this direction.
In a battle involving more than ten thousand people, it is almost impossible to quickly determine the outcome in a short period of time.
As time goes by, if the offensive side is unable to open up the situation and the attack does not make progress, the morale of the military will inevitably decline or even waver.
Therefore, Zhang Xi was working hard to command, constantly adjusting the offensive direction of his front army and looking for weak points in the defense of Cao Zhen's soldiers.
As for Cao Zhen, he also had a very clear understanding of the combat power of his soldiers. Seeing Zhang Xi constantly adjusting the direction of his attack, he was also constantly adjusting the direction of his military deployment to deal with Zhang Xi's army's attack.
As time went by, Zhang Xi slowly discovered that his offensive troops really could not penetrate the defense line laid out by Cao Zhen.
Of course, this was due to Cao Zhen's command, and part of the reason was that Zhang Xi found that in terms of soldier organization and combat effectiveness, the county soldiers he led were really no match for the soldiers commanded by Cao Zhen.
This made Zhang Xi very surprised.
You know, along the way, Cao Zhen was in the process of withdrawing his troops and retreating. In this case, the morale of the troops would not be too high.
As for his soldiers, although they have experienced a long battle, the defenders will definitely have an advantage over the attackers. In addition, the morale of the soldiers has already been improved by the pursuit. Can they not defeat the opponent? !
And there was no other reason. The more than 10,000 soldiers Cao Zhen left to guard him were all from the Wei imperial army.
(End of chapter)
