Su Shang and Dong Bi were shocked at first, and then looked at each other and showed that this was indeed the case.
Su Shang quickly asked the scout captain: "How many troops are there in the Shu army? Who leads the troops? And how are they arrayed?"
"Returning to the general, the Shu army has about four to five thousand men, half of them cavalry. The leader is Wu Yi, the pseudo-Shu Zhendong general and the Anding prefect. The Shu army is arrayed behind four mountain strongholds, which is blocking our army's path. "The scout captain replied with clasped fists.
Su Shang nodded slightly and continued to ask: "Have you ever explored the inside of Sizhi Mountain?"
"The Shu army is holding the mountain pass. We can't get close. The situation inside the mountain is unknown."
Su Shang waved his hand and said: "I know, you can investigate again and report later."
"promise."
After the scouts left, Dong Bi stroked his beard and said: "General, the school administrator of Anding once said that there are eight or nine thousand soldiers in Anding County. Now Wu Yi leads four to five thousand people to block the road in front. This means He brought all the stable mobile troops here."
"Yes, our army has five thousand people. If he wants to stop us from marching westward, he can't bring less troops. These four to five thousand people should be the largest force he can mobilize. After all, General Dai leads thousands of troops. In Qixian, stability also requires leaving guards." Su Shang nodded in agreement.
Dong Bi added: "Since Wu Yi was able to lead his troops to intercept us at Sizhi Mountain in advance, it means that he already knew our army's marching route. It seems that someone leaked the secret."
"Those Qiang and Hu must have leaked the news. When this happens, I will definitely lead troops to clean up these thieves." Su Shang said bitterly.
Dong Bi said: "We can't care about them now. How should we deal with the enemy in front of us? Should we take a detour?"
"No, if we take a detour, we will lose time again. The sooner we wait, the sooner Liangzhou will fall.
Moreover, the Shu army also has two thousand cavalry, and their scouts have probably discovered us a long time ago. If we lead the army to take a detour, the Shu cavalry will definitely come to pursue us, and they will definitely be entangled by then. Once entangled, if we want to It’s harder to get rid of it quickly.
Therefore, it is better to go up and defeat the Shu army in one fell swoop. This way, we can have an unimpeded road and our army can rush to Liangzhou with peace of mind. "Su Shang waved his hand.
Dong Bi nodded. After pondering for a moment, he still felt it was inappropriate and advised: "It's just that the Shu army has four to five thousand people, and they must have made complete preparations, so they dared to set up formations to stop our army. If we attack like this, the outcome will be unpredictable."
"Haha, Brother Dong is too cautious. You and I have five thousand cavalry in our hands. Why are we afraid of the Shu thieves' four or five thousand soldiers and horses? Even if the Shu army has two thousand cavalry, how can they compete with me?" Riding on par?
Even the Huns and Xianbei, who grew up in the desert grasslands, would need at least 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers and horses to fight against my 5,000 cavalry. "Su Shang laughed loudly, and then said confidently.
Dong Bi then thought about the same reason. Five thousand cavalry was no longer a small number, enough to equal tens of thousands of infantry, so there was no need to worry about the obstruction of four to five thousand enemy troops.
Soon, the Wei army arrived at Sizhishan. Su Shang and Dong Bi rode their horses forward to observe the Han army's formation, but saw that the Han army's infantry formed a square formation and were ready.
Outside the formation, there were defensive fortifications such as Juma and Wugang chariots to prevent the Wei cavalry from directly charging into the formation. In addition, there were a thousand cavalry cruising on both sides of the square formation to protect them. This formation of the Han army could be regarded as both offensive and defensive.
Wu Yi stood in front of the formation and saw that the Wei army did not take a detour. Although the Wei army detoured and the Han army could still take advantage of the situation to pursue, it was ultimately safer than fighting at Sizhishan. After all, our side was here. Hidden behind the scenes.
"General Su, do you want to attack?" Dong Bi asked Su Shang on the right in front of the Wei army's formation.
Su Shang nodded and said: "Although the Shu army's formation is tight, it can only be regarded as quite satisfactory. It is not difficult to break through."
After a pause, he said with a worried look: "It's just that the Shu army is backed by the Four Branches Mountains, and the situation in the mountains is unknown. If the Shu army hides an ambush in the mountains, our army will be in danger."
Dong Bi didn't expect that Su Shang, who had been so confident just now and didn't pay attention to the Shu army, became cautious when he came to the pass. It seemed that his general was not a foolhardy man. No wonder this man could get The reuse of the governor.
"What the general said is true, but the stable Shu army only has seven or eight thousand people in total, but there are four or five thousand people in front of our army. Even if Wu Yi went crazy and brought all the soldiers and horses, the Shu army in the mountain The ambushes are no more than one or two thousand infantry at most, so our army doesn’t need to be afraid of these troops at all.”
When Su Shang saw Dong Bi's uncharacteristically brave and energetic attitude, he couldn't help but laugh heartily: "Haha, General Dong said it well. At the critical moment, Su Shang hesitated and hesitated. It really shouldn't have happened."
After laughing, he looked solemn and said coldly: "That being said, we still need to find out first."
Then, Su Shang ordered a close lieutenant to lead a thousand cavalry to launch a trial attack, intending to see the quality of the Han army.
After a while, the drums of the Wei army were beating loudly, the horns were blasting, and a thousand fine cavalry were charging towards the Han army's formation like a strong wind.
"Fire the arrow!"
Wu Yi, who was in the formation, saw that only a thousand soldiers and horses were dispatched on the opposite side. He immediately understood that the Wei army was just testing the attack. In order to confuse the enemy, he did not wait for the Wei cavalry to enter the range of the bow and arrow before ordering people to release arrows. Instead, he issued the order as soon as the Wei army dispatched. Military order, this is to create the illusion that the Han army lacks confidence and only wants to stop the enemy.
Sure enough, Su Shang, who was watching the battle from behind, raised his eyebrows and thought thoughtfully after seeing the Han army's fighting methods.
The Wei army that came to attack only had a thousand cavalry, so they would not be stupid enough to attack the Han army's formation directly. They circled around the Han army's formation and fired arrows, calmly looking for the weak points of the Han army's formation.
Yang Qing, who was hiding high in the mountains, could not help but admire the skill of these Wei cavalry after seeing the exquisite cavalry and archery skills of the Wei army. Although he had not seen the cavalry and archery skills of the Huns and Xianbei people, he felt that in front of the Wei cavalry, he could not help but admire them. His riding and shooting skills are definitely not inferior to tribes on horseback such as the Huns and Xianbei.
"The Wei army's cavalry is really impressive, but our Han army's cavalry is still far behind them!" Yang Qing sighed softly.
Liu Yin on the side nodded and said: "What the envoy said is that our cavalry has just been formed not long ago, and is not as sophisticated as this group of Wei cavalry in terms of riding and shooting skills."
"But I believe that given time, our Han cavalry will eventually regain the glory of Emperor Xiaowu's period." Zhang Yi on the left was not discouraged at all and said with confidence.
Yang Qing nodded when he heard this and said: "Bo Qi is right. Our cavalry will one day catch up with and surpass Wei's cavalry, and this day will come soon."
"Does your Majesty have any good ideas for increasing the combat effectiveness of our cavalry?" Zhang Yi asked curiously when he saw that Yang Qing seemed to have a plan in mind.
Yang Qing was noncommittal and smiled slightly: "You will know later."
When Zhang Ni and Liu Yin heard what Yang Qing said, they immediately understood that he must have some way to quickly improve the combat effectiveness of their cavalry. They looked at each other and saw eager anticipation in each other's eyes.
