Cao Zhen did a perfect job in pre-military training, mobilizing the morale of the troops, and inspiring morale through a series of arrangements.
Now the morale of the Wei army has been re-energized. In this way, even if a small number of troops are used to block the pursuit of the Shu thieves, the chance of victory can be greatly improved.
Of course, Cao Zhen also knew that today's lecture actually had both pros and cons.
In a short period of time, Cao Zhen could indeed force his soldiers to fight by confessing that they were short of food and grass. However, if Tongguan could not be captured before the third day and the food and grass were completely exhausted on the third day, this army would definitely mutiny.
Therefore, Cao Zhen was also betting that he would use this method to improve the morale and fighting will of his soldiers in exchange for the possibility of capturing Tongguan and opening up a retreat.
After the lecture, Cao Zhen did not give his soldiers a chance to think too much, and immediately ordered the entire army to march out. Twenty thousand people, led by Wang Chang, went to attack Tongguan, while the previous five thousand people followed him to intercept the Shu thieves' pursuit. attack.
There is no way, this kind of verbal encouragement also has shortcomings. It cannot leave the soldiers room for daydream. The more they think about it, the easier it is to get into trouble. So hurry up and send people to the battlefield. When you are fighting for life and death, you must survive if you want to. Let’s talk about it later.
In this regard, Cao Zhen is relatively "calm".
As for Zhang Xi, last night, Su Ze, who had hurriedly traveled for almost a month, finally joined the Yongzhou soldiers led by Zhang Xi with his 15,000 Liangzhou infantry.
Su Ze breathed a huge sigh of relief. He finally caught up with the battle, and now he would not be blamed by the entire Liangzhou Army.
Zhang Xi was also very lucky that the Liangzhou Army came to help in time. He was worried that there would be insufficient troops in the future and it would be difficult to launch the rescue of Tongguan.
There was no way. In the daytime battle yesterday, although on the surface, the Wei army was defeated, the Han army actually did not take much advantage.
As for the cavalry, under the command of the veteran general Zhao Yun, it can be said that they achieved a complete victory, which suddenly destroyed the combat capability of the Wei army's cavalry. However, in terms of infantry combat, Zhang Xi and Cao Zhen actually fought to the death.
Not only were the losses of troops serious, but the coaches of both sides were almost killed on the battlefield. In the end, they only managed to save their lives by throwing weapons at each other.
After returning to the camp, Zhang Xi took stock of the returned troops and found that they were seriously insufficient.
Although Zhao Yun successfully rescued the front army and gathered the cavalry that was caught in the chaos, there were only more than 6,000 infantry and 3,800 cavalry who returned to the camp. The total number was just over one thousand. Thousands of soldiers and horses.
Even though Cao Zhen's army on the opposite side suffered more casualties than the Han army, there were so many people on the other side that they could afford the losses.
With such a small amount of troops, Zhang Xi doubted that after tomorrow's war, Cao Zhen would ignore Tongguan and directly take action to encircle and suppress himself. He would first solve the trouble on the back road and then concentrate on besieging Tongguan.
This is not impossible.
Zhang Xi was worried about this, but the military envoy came to report that Su Ze was leading the army and was only twenty miles away from the main battlefield.
As soon as Zhang Xi heard this, he directly asked the military envoy to pass the order to Su Ze, asking him to risk traveling all night and come back as soon as possible. This way, there would be enough soldiers to make appropriate arrangements for tomorrow's battle.
Then, early in the morning, the Wei army made a lot of noise and created a huge formation, which shocked Zhang Xi.
He quickly sent out scouts to investigate, only to learn that Cao Zhen had some tricks up his sleeve to arouse the fighting spirit of the Wei army. Now the Wei army was divided into two, with about half of the soldiers forming defensive formations facing the direction of the Han army's camp, and the other half of the soldiers forming a defensive formation. Set off to attack Tongguan.
As soon as Zhang Xi thought about this posture, he quickly called Zhao Yun and Su Ze, and also began to arrange combat tasks.
In fact, when Su Ze led his troops to Zhang Xi's camp overnight last night, Zhang Xi discussed with Su Ze and Zhao Yun what kind of offensive to take today.
After many discussions, we finally felt that we must break through the blockade of the Wei army as soon as possible and send reinforcements into Tongguan to support Wei Yan.
If he didn't go, Wei Yanke would really die in Tongguan.
Not to mention Wei Yan's death in battle, after the fall of Tongguan, these more than 30,000 soldiers retreated into the pass, which would also create very large variables for the next Northern Expedition, which was very unfavorable.
Therefore, in order to encircle and suppress this Wei army, the prerequisite is to defend Tongguan, which means that we must find a way to send reinforcements to Tongguan.
In the past, this matter was difficult to handle because Zhang Xi's troops were insufficient and he was not sure that he could break through Cao Wei's blocking line of 40,000 people.
But now, Cao Wei's cavalry has been completely lost, and the infantry has been reduced to about 35,000 people. And he, from the beginning with a total force of 15,000 people, has become a total force of 25,000 people. The strength gap between the two sides Shrunk too much.
Now, Zhang Xi believes that he is still confident that he can break through the Wei army's interception and send people to Tongguan.
So, get out of the camp, line up, and start the battle.
When the two armies faced each other, Zhang Xi was shocked to find that Cao Zhen actually gave him a big gift - there were only 15,000 Wei troops who came to intercept his attack.
In other words, Cao Zhen still put most of his troops in the direction of attacking Tongguan, and the number of troops to intercept him was much less than expected.
In this way, Zhang Xi became more confident that he could break through and support Wei Yan.
However, Zhang Xi is always cautious first. Even if he sees a considerable breakthrough, he will not be too careless. According to the plan, Zhao Yun will lead 3,800 cavalry first and detour to On the right wing of the Wei army's defense line, use cavalry to kill the enemy.
This time the cavalry was still not the main attack, but harassment and dispatching the Wei army.
After all, it was Zhao Yun who led the cavalry to kill everyone on the battlefield yesterday. Zhang Xi did not believe that the Wei army would not take strict precautions in the face of Zhao Yun's cavalry attacking again.
Of course, it would be better if the troops were divided again to block Zhao Yun's cavalry attack like yesterday.
But this time, Zhang Xi miscalculated.
Facing Zhao Yun's harassing cavalry fire on the flanking Wei army, Cao Zhen remained unmoved at all and asked the flanking infantry to raise their shields to defend, but they would not leave the defense line even half a step.
It's quite a bit like relying on shields to defend, fighting casualties and delaying time.
Now, Zhao Yun was at a loss.
The 3,800 cavalry can indeed kill and injure the enemy through mounted shooting, but the enemy has the means to defend themselves with shields, and their lethality is really limited. A round-trip mounted shooting can only cause dozens of casualties.
It's okay to grind slowly, but Zhao Yun's purpose is to mobilize the Wei army's flank soldiers to adjust their troop deployment and create conditions for Zhang Xi's frontal assault.
Wei Jun was beaten without fighting back, but could not move a step. What could Zhao Yun do? !
Assault? !
Assault is not impossible, but cavalry can attack infantry in the face of infantry defense. Although it can effectively kill infantry, its own losses will not be small. You have to find a way to break through the spear formation in the first level.
Zhao Yun only has 3,800 cavalry left. If he continues to adopt the assault strategy today, it is hard to say whether he will still have 3,000 cavalry after returning to camp.
Once the cavalry is out of scale, the effect of the assault will decrease exponentially.
Seeing that Zhao Yun's battle on the flank was of no use, Zhang Xi also knew Cao Zhen's plan.
Even if they fight hard, hold on, and stop Zhang Xi from going to Tongguan to support despite the number of casualties, they will still return to the old way of yesterday's battle.
What else can we do? Just fight like yesterday.
Even though old man Wei Yan is hateful and unpopular, he can't just ignore him! ! !
Zhang Xi immediately ordered the entire army to attack! ! !
This time, Zhang Xi no longer directed the entire battle alone. After yesterday's battle, Zhang Xi also had a hand - he divided the 20,000 infantry into separate troops and led 10,000 to attack Cao Zhen head-on. With the frontal center army, Su Ze was asked to lead 10,000 people to attack the right wing of Cao Zhen's army.
In this way, even if Cao Zhen seizes the opportunity to break out of the army, he can retreat to Su Ze for protection, and he will not have to gamble whether Cao Zhen dares to die with him.
Moreover, from yesterday's battle, Zhang Xi seemed to understand something - key breakthroughs seemed to be of no use to the Wei army in front of him.
There is only one point of attack for the key breakthrough. Wang Chang, who is attacking Tongguan from the rear, can observe changes in the battlefield at any time. If the battle goes unfavorably, he can recall the siege troops and quickly rescue them. Even a fool can know where the focus of your attack is, so it can't be blocked. of? !
But now, with three lines attacking at the same time, Wang Chang must also guard against the possibility of a breakthrough on all three lines.
As long as there is a line of defense that can break through the defense and rush into the main battlefield of Tongguan, it is possible to break into Tongguan and support Wei Yan before Wang Chang can react.
In the past, Zhang Xi didn't dare to play like this because he didn't have enough troops, so he could only use key breakthroughs.
But now, Zhang Xi has enough troops to use this method of warfare.
Yesterday, 10,000 Yongzhou soldiers faced off against Cao Zhen's Chinese army, and almost achieved a breakthrough. If Wang Chang hadn't come to the rescue quickly enough, Zhang Xi and Zhao Yun might have been standing on the tower of Tongguan with Wei Yan, watching the Wei army attack the city.
Now two armies and horses are attacking with 10,000 soldiers each. At the same time, Zhang Xi discovered that the newly arrived Liangzhou Army seems to be full of fighting spirit. It depends on what Cao Zhen does to stop it!
Yesterday, Cao Zhen was confident in blocking Zhangxi's attack. Today, it was Zhang Xi's turn to command his soldiers with confidence and launch a siege against the Wei army.
Then. Zhang Xi was just like Cao Zhen yesterday. The more he fought, the more he realized that things were different from what he thought.
It is true that in the first battle of the Liangzhou Army, the fighting spirit was very high and they were always suppressing the Wei army's attack. However, the actual combat effect was not very good.
One reason is that Zhang Xi is not yet used to the offensive routine of the Liangzhou infantry and does not cooperate well with his original Yongzhou County soldiers, thus wasting many opportunities.
And another reason. Zhang Xi discovered that Wei Jun's resistance was very tenacious, so tenacious that he was completely desperate for his life.
Zhang Xi was really puzzled.
It had only been one night. What did Cao Zhen give these Wei soldiers? ! What did you drink? !
Stimulants don’t have this effect, right? !
(End of chapter)
