Among Zhu Hao's five thousand troops in the right army, half are members of the Poyang Wang family and half are Zhu Hao's self-recruited rural soldiers. They are the weakest among Zhu Hao's troops in terms of combat effectiveness and morale.
In Zhu Hao's view, his biggest enemy was Zhuge Xuan, who competed with him for the position of governor of Yuzhang, followed by Liu Pan, who had a reputation for bravery. As for Yuan Yao, a son of an aristocratic family who was in his early twenties, he didn't take it seriously.
Although Peng Cai had warned him to be careful of Yuan Yao before, and took the initiative to ask Ying to lead the right army against Yuan Yao.
But Zhu Hao only thought that Peng Cai had a grudge against Yuan Yao, and this move was just for revenge. Therefore, he was stubborn and only allowed such a partial force to contain Yuan Yao.
Zhu Hao's father, Zhu Jun, came from a poor family, and his family made a living by selling silk. However, Zhu Jun had the appearance of a famous general. Step by step, he became famous all over the world through his solid military exploits. He was granted the title of marquis and became a general. The Zhu family also became a distinguished military figure in the late Han Dynasty.
When Zhu Hao was young, he followed his father to Jiaozhou to quell the rebellion, and then stayed in Jiaozhi with his elder brother to guard it. He believed that he had obtained the true inheritance of his father Zhu Jun, and he looked down upon Yuan Yao, a queen from a famous family with only a false reputation.
At this time, he paid the price for his narrow-mindedness and contempt!
If Peng Cai were here, he would have noticed something was wrong as early as Lu Dai took the initiative to retreat. He had already experienced the power of Lu Dai and his subordinates in Shangliao, so there was no reason why Lu Dai would not be able to defeat a partial army here.
"My sons, it's time for them to see how powerful we are!"
"Army attack!"
The shield soldiers at the forefront no longer retreated, but withdrew their shields one after another. Soldiers holding long weapons and short blades rushed out like hungry wolves.
Sergeant Zhu Hao would never have imagined that Yuan Jun, whom he had driven to beat just now, would suddenly become many times more ferocious, as if he had been replaced by a different person.
It's like I was driving a dog with a stick just now. One second it was running with its tail between its legs, and the next second it turned back and showed its mouth full of sharp fangs.
Some of the timid ones were so frightened by this scene that they were cut down to the ground in the next second.
There were also those who boldly raised their weapons to resist, but they were no match for Lu Dai's soldiers. After a few strikes, the gap in combat power between the two sides became apparent, and casualties began to appear on a large scale.
Before long, they turned into dogs with their tails between their legs, turned around and ran away.
"My sons, keep moving forward, our army will win this battle!"
Lu Dai waved his sword on his horse, urging his men to rush forward to expand their advantage.
"Don't run away, hold on!"
The captain appointed by Zhu Hao also wielded his sword and shouted at his soldiers to strengthen their positions.
There was a whoosh, but the captain was shot under the horse with an arrow without being able to shout a few more words.
Lu Dai was overjoyed when he saw it. He turned around and asked, "Whoever shot this arrow will be rewarded heavily by our captain!"
"You can penetrate armor and penetrate the chest from a hundred steps away. There is such a sharpshooter in our army!"
The commander of the archers under Lu Dai scratched his head and said, "Captain Lu, this arrow was not shot by our archers."
"Our bows are all made of stone. Even if we shoot from such a long distance, we still can't penetrate the captain's breastplate!"
Lu Dai didn't care so much: "No matter who shot it, this captain will remember him for his great contribution."
"The enemy captain is dead, charge with all your strength to kill him!"
Lu Dai looked around the battlefield and gave an order to another subordinate on standby: "There is a gap over there. Qian Jiaohou, lead your troops to tear open that gap for me. Don't worry about casualties. You must divide the enemy forces for me." Come on!"
In the battle of Shangxiao, Qian Duixue had been promoted to Qian Jiaohou.
"promise!"
Qian Jiaohou immediately took the order and left.
…
Before engaging Yuan's ambush in close combat, and merely dealing with Lu Dai's counterattack, Zhu Hao's right army was already overwhelmed and showed signs of defeat.
"Don't run back, raise your shields for me, raise them!"
Wang Hai is Peng Cai's younger brother. Peng Cai told him to be more cautious when facing Yuan Jun.
Therefore, Wang Hai was not stupid enough to run to the front to command the battle like Zhu Hao's captain, but huddled behind and commanded his troops.
But even though he was so cautious, he didn't expect that Yuan Jun would have an ambush attack from the side. In Huang Zhong's first wave of arrows, he was hit by an arrow in the shoulder.
Fortunately, this arrow was the end of a powerful crossbow and only caused him a little flesh wound.
"What are you doing standing still? He's dead. Pick up his shield!"
Wang Hai waved his riding whip and whipped it on a subordinate next to him.
The attendant holding Wang Hai's horse shrank his head and tried to persuade Wang Hai.
"Uncle, you'd better dismount. It's too dangerous to ride on a horse."
Wang Hai whipped the man with his backhand whip: "How many times have I told you, I am now the captain personally appointed by Governor Zhu. From now on, you will call me captain, captain Wang!"
Having said that, Wang Hai was also very afraid of Liu Ya flying from time to time, so he climbed off the horse with the help of this person.
In the distance, Huang Zhong, who was riding a horse and bending his bow, frowned.
If he were a few years younger, he wouldn't have even aimed at the enemy captain just now.
But this was not a problem for Huang Zhong. He adjusted the direction slightly and released the arrow.
The feather arrow drew a beautiful arc in the air, flew over a high point and then began to fall, landing exactly on the spot where the captain dismounted.
Wang Hai dismounted, but the servant was still offering his hands to apologize: "Yes, I know my mistake, please forgive me..."
Before he finished speaking, he saw Wang Hai's eyes straightened and his whole body straightened towards him.
The subordinate did not react in time and was directly pressed to the ground by Wang Hai's huge body. Everyone around him screamed.
"The captain got an arrow in his back!"
"The captain is dead! The captain was shot to death with an arrow!"
Only then did the subordinates see that there was an arrow stuck in Wang Hai's vest. Wang Hai's eyes were dull and he was already dead.
…
Huang Zhong galloped his horse while bending his bow and shooting arrows. He fired six arrows in a row, without missing a beat.
Only when he was less than ten steps away from the enemy, Huang Zhong put his strong bow back into his pouch and drew his sword to fight the enemy.
At the top of the hillock, Huang Yi stood behind Yuan Yao. Wherever Huang Zhong went, he saw flesh and blood flying everywhere. He was able to chop several people at once, but he was still unable to do anything. His eyes were opened.
Huang Yi also knew that his uncle could fight, but he didn't expect that he could fight so well.
And especially that shooting skill, it is simply superb. Every arrow in his hand was like an eye, specializing in picking out the captains, captains and military princes on the enemy's horses. Everyone was killed with one arrow, and he never fired any unnecessary arrows.
Yuan Yao glanced at Huang Yi and said angrily:
"Put your chin back, this is just the beginning."
"If there's no trouble, your uncle can just take Zhu Hao's head back today!"
In the blink of an eye, Huang Zhong's troops were also in close combat with the enemy, and Zhu Hao's troops, who had lost their command and restraint, completely turned into headless flies.
The better ones can still fight on their own, while the worse ones just join the establishment and become deserters.
In just a few minutes, these five thousand people were completely defeated.
Yuan Yao stared at the battlefield and immediately gave orders:
"Don't chase the poor enemy! Blow the trumpet to gather the soldiers and horses, and immediately launch an attack on Zhu Hao's central army!"
These thousands of defeated soldiers have no value in hunting down them. If Liu Pan cannot hold on, even if he wins this small battle, he will lose the overall situation.
The drummer immediately slowed down the rhythm of the drum beating, the trumpeter puffed up his cheeks and blew the horn, and the flag soldiers kept waving the flag at high places.
On the battlefield, Lu Dai and Huang Zhong heard the sound of the trumpet almost at the same time, and immediately restrained their soldiers and reorganized their formation.
According to Yuan Yao's flag order, Lu Dai's troops and horses from one school were on the right, and Huang Zhong's troops and horses on the left were on the left. They joined forces on the left and right to attack Zhu Hao's central army.
…
Zhu Hao had already noticed something was wrong in the Chinese Army.
When Yuan Yao's ambush troops came out, Zhu Hao immediately understood that his opponents in today's battle had already set up an ambush on both sides.
But he still felt lucky. If the 5,000 men in his right army could hold out for an hour under Yuan Jun, then he would have a chance to work with Zuo Rong to deal with Liu Pan's Jingzhou army first.
At that time, if he and Zuo Fengjun were together, he would still have an advantage against Yuan Yaojun.
But what Zhu Hao didn't expect was that the entire five thousand right army collapsed and dispersed before even half an hour or even a quarter of an hour.
Such a sudden change gave Zhu Hao no time to even draw his horse and run away, let alone deploy troops and horses to prepare for defense.
Five thousand Yuan troops, led by Lu Dai and Huang Zhong, entered Zhu Hao's central army.
Liu Pan was very depressed. He had never fought such a passive battle since he joined the army as a general.
He had been surrounded and fought by Zhu Hao's dozens of fine cavalry for a while, but he still couldn't get out.
During this period, Liu Pan's subordinates also saw the critical situation, and people kept trying to rescue Liu Pan, but most of them were blocked by Peng Cai's command.
The few Jingzhou soldiers and cavalry who fought through the tight siege were defeated by the elite cavalry of Zhu Hao's army wandering around the periphery, and were all killed off their horses.
Fortunately, Zhu Hao had been trying to persuade him to surrender, so most of the dozens of fine cavalry had spared their hands, otherwise he might have died long ago.
Even so, his mount was seriously injured and fell to the ground. Liu Pan himself was caught in the infantry battle and suffered seven or eight wounds on his body.
"Zhu Haopifu, aren't you from Jiaozhou? How can there be so many good knights in that miasmatic land in the far south?"
Liu Pan tried his best to dodge and block, while cursing angrily.
Zhu Hao snorted coldly: "If you surrender to me, I will tell you!"
"Daydreaming!"
Liu Pan rolled over and finally found an opportunity in the siege of several cavalry. He cut off a horse's leg and learned the life of the cavalryman on the horse.
This momentarily scared off the surrounding knights. Liu Pan held his sword and said with a smile: "Old man, even if you didn't tell me, I would have guessed it!"
"These are the horses your father Zhu Jun brought to Jiaozhou to quell the chaos, right? Hahaha!"
"Bold madman, you can't call my father by his name, which is taboo!"
Zhu Hao was completely irritated: "Come on, come on, kill this boy for me!"
A general next to him hurriedly stopped Zhu Hao's hand: "My lord, Yuan's army is coming with a fierce force. If we don't retreat, it will be too late!"
Zhu Hao looked hesitant, but the general beside him waved the order for him and made a gesture to withdraw his troops.
"Quick, protect the lord and go east!"
The soldiers of the Zhu family who were racing around Liu Pan immediately pulled their horses and ran away. They also fought extremely hard in this battle.
Thinking back then, under Zhu Jun's command, these elite cavalry were all sent to charge into battle and open up the battle.
But beside Zhu Hao, they could only serve as Zhu Jun's personal guards. After finally being on the battlefield, it was used to besiege the enemy general.
The siege is about to siege, but we can’t kill him rashly!
What a frustrating thing!
Liu Pan's body tensed up, but he took advantage of a cavalryman's unpreparedness and stepped forward to grab the horse's tail under his crotch.
This was very risky, because after the horse was in pain, it was very likely to kick Liu Pan to pieces.
But fortunately, Liu Pan made the right bet. The war horse only raised its front hooves when it was in pain, trying to relieve the pain in its tail.
Liu Pan took advantage of the situation and killed the cavalry on horseback with a sword, then jumped on his horse.
Liu Pan, who had his mount again, became more confident and pointed his sword at Zhu Hao: "Don't run away, old man. Do you dare to continue fighting?"
It was not that he was aimless, but when he saw Yuan Jun coming to kill him not far away, he finally felt relieved.
Zhu Hao was so angry that he wanted to draw his sword at him, but the general around him held him down first.
"My lord, please don't fall into this trap!"
"You will escort the lord out of here quickly!"
Seeing Zhu Hao walking eastward under the escort of a group of horsemen, Liu Pan breathed a sigh of relief.
He didn't have much strength left. If Zhu Hao was really angered, he really wouldn't be able to hold on much longer.
…
When Peng Cai saw Yuan's army all over the mountains and plains coming from the north, he knew that the situation was over.
What kind of general leads what kind of soldiers? These five to six thousand Jingzhou soldiers were able to fight bravely in the face of attacks from two sides, causing great casualties to their own side.
If you want to defeat him in a short time, you have to kill Liu Pan or capture him alive. However, the lord Zhu Hao...
He didn't expect that Zhe Rong could turn defeat into victory. After he saw Zhe Rong for the first time, he was very afraid of this man who talked about Amitabha but killed people without blinking an eye.
That old bald donkey hasn't run away yet, probably because he hasn't seen Yuan Jun coming to kill him yet.
If he saw it, he would definitely run faster than anyone else.
"General, listen, Ming Jin has withdrawn his troops!"
"Prefect Zhu has withdrawn to the east, let's withdraw to the east too!"
The tribesmen were waiting for Peng Cai's order.
Peng Cai looked to the north in the direction where Yuan Jun was coming, and seemed to see Yuan Yao's figure.
These days, he never wants to take revenge on Yuan Yao.
I thought I could help Zhu Hao win today, and then use the opportunity to fight Yuan Yao to avenge the blood feud of the past.
But he didn't expect that even members of the other two branches of the Peng family would be here.
In a daze, the past incident where Yuan Yaoqi attacked Liao and destroyed the Peng clan flashed through his mind again.
Peng Cai suddenly thought of something, and his eyes flashed.
"No, we can't retreat eastward!"
"Give me the order and the whole army will follow me to charge westward."
"The east is the direction of our army's camp, the west, the west is the direction of the enemy's camp!"
Someone wondered.
"Don't say any more, just follow me to the west!"
Peng Cai shouted loudly, calming the surprised and uncertain crowd.
Peng Cai's prestige in the Peng clan was unparalleled. With an order, all the leaders, big and small, immediately shouted to their subordinates and headed west to fight.
To the north are Yuan's troops who are coming, and to the south are the Jingzhou soldiers who are fighting endlessly. Although the east is in the direction of the camp, they are bound to be intercepted by Yuan's troops.
Zhu Hao was in the back, so it was easier to run out. However, he and Peng's tribe were too far forward, and if they tried to run back, they would be easily surrounded.
Zhuge Xuan's army in the west has scattered and fled, but it is easiest to escape.
You Yuan Yao could do the opposite in the past, and I, Peng Cai, can do the same today!
