Chapter 912 Playing
In the fourth year of Taiwu, on the ninth day of the third month, it was the end of Sishi.
After running for about five miles, the battalion general Zhang Tai led the vanguard of about two thousand people and finally arrived at the destination of their trip, Hulinkou.
At this intersection of Populus euphratica trees, there is a dock wall, which looks bleak and seems to have been abandoned.
Zhang Tai was very cautious. He was worried that this was Cao Jun's ambush point, so he just ordered his 500 men from the front to investigate first.
Sure enough, as soon as the Taishan army officials at the front arrived at the end of the dock wall, they saw five or six camps standing behind the dock wall.
Before the Taishan Army in the front could withdraw, a row of crossbowmen appeared from the top of the dock wall and fired at the Taishan Army.
However, the Taishan Army's armor was strong and equipped with hundreds of long archers. Therefore, even if they were suddenly hit by a rain of arrows, they did not cause trouble to the Taishan Army. Instead, they quickly launched a counterattack.
But it was also at this time that Zhang Taimingjin signaled the front to retreat.
Hearing the sound of gold, the Taishan troops picked up the wounded with support or dragging them, and then retreated until they were beyond the range of Cao's arrows.
While the front troops retreated, Zhang Tai asked Dou Tai to take twenty horseback riders to disperse near the battlefield to conduct reconnaissance, trying to obtain more battlefield information.
After obtaining certain intelligence, Zhang Tai urgently reported the situation to the military headquarters in the rear.
Before the war, they had estimated various situations, and now the worst one among them was that the important place of Hulinkou was occupied by Cao's army in advance, and the fortifications were also reinforced.
After sending the information to the rear, Zhang Tai was ready to dispatch his troops to test the combat power of Cao's army here.
But before he could finish arranging the task, he saw about dozens of riders coming from behind, and it turned out to be Zhang Heizi.
Zhang Tai hurried to meet Zhang Heizi and was about to help him dismount, but saw Zhang Heizi cross the horse's back with his left leg and get off the horse smoothly.
Zhang Heizi met Zhang Tai's cavalry on the way back. When he learned that the important place of Hulinkou had been occupied by Cao's army, he directly handed over the command to Huang Yong, and then took the tooth cavalry with him. Rushed to the front line.
At this time, Zhang Heizi looked far into the distance and listened to Zhang Tai reporting on the current situation.
After he heard this, Zhang Heizi took Yaqi deep into the front and observed the surrounding situation.
Zhang Heizi can judge that Cao Jun has deployed a large number of troops here, and Zhang Tai's two thousand men alone may not be able to conquer it.
So Zhang Heizi ordered a tooth cavalry and asked him to return to Huang Yong behind, and let Huang Yong lead the large army to speed up the march.
While waiting, Zhang Tai launched the first round of attack.
Soldiers are valuable and quick.
……
At this time, it was Xiahou Dun's powerful generals Liu Zhu and Lu Jian who were stationed at Hulinkou.
This was Liu Zhu's camp. After Xiahou Dun's military orders were sent to the various ministries, Lu Jian, who was stationed nearby, had already moved closer to here and entered the camp before the Taishan Army arrived.
In addition, Xie Ji's troops, who are stationed in the dense forest to the west, are also moving towards Hulinkou, but because the dense forest is difficult to travel, they have not been able to get there yet.
Therefore, Zhang Heizi's estimate was correct. The number of Cao's troops in Hulinkou at this time was indeed much larger than that of Taishan's army, with the number being almost five thousand.
But even so, Liu Zhu and Lu Jian were shocked to find that they were somewhat unable to stop the Taishan Army's attack.
The longbowmen of the Taishan Army had too far a shooting range. Even though they had barriers to rely on, they were still at a disadvantage in the exchange of fire.
When the enemy's long archers were shooting, the knife bearers holding the banners rushed over. They rushed to the front without fear while carrying the short ladders.
Because the crossbowmen of Cao's army on the barrier were shooting at the longbowmen outside, the archers of Taishan's army rushed to the bottom of the barrier with almost no casualties.
In just the first round of testing, the Taishan Army rushed under the barrier.
Even with only rough wooden ladders, they climbed up the barrier and began to engage in hand-to-hand combat with Cao's army.
In the end, the warrior Liu Zhu personally led the charge, and at the cost of heavy casualties, he pushed these Taishan troops over the barrier.
It can be said that the Taishan Army's combat effectiveness and fighting style scared these Cao troops.
Many of them had fought against the Taishan Army, such as against Guan Yu in the Battle of Jinan and against Ding Sheng in the Battle of Pingyuanjin.
But two years later, when they met the Taishan Army again, they felt that they were powerless.
How come the Taishan Army has made such rapid progress in recent years?
Can it be faster?
When the Taishan Army completed the construction of urban and rural organizations, it was able to use all the manpower and material resources in the North.
Not to mention, in the past two years, a large number of Hu people from the grassland, Daibei, Pingzhou, and Liaodong have joined the Taishan Army. With the training and equipment of Hanfa, they are simply born battlefield rulers.
And what has Cao Jun been doing in the past two years?
In the two battles against Qingzhou, although many were captured, there were also many casualties.
Originally, it would be fine if he could occupy Xuzhou, but the external situation changed suddenly, and Cao Cao had to vomit to Xuzhou all he had eaten in order to control Xuzhou.
If you didn’t have it before, forget it. It wouldn’t be a loss, but what about now?
Cao Cao was right for the sake of the overall situation, but the decline in morale of Cao's army was inevitable.
In addition, in the past two years, Cao's army has not stopped, fighting all the way, and there are no new recruits, so the combat power has also inevitably declined.
So when the two sides collided today, Cao Jun almost got out of the way.
But just when Cao Jun thought that Taishan Army would continue to attack, he saw Taishan Army retreating.
This was actually caused by Zhang Heizi's poor decision-making.
When Zhang Tai's troops launched the attack, Zhang Heizi discovered that regardless of the intensity of Cao's resistance and the density of arrows, the number of Cao's troops in the camp was definitely large.
Moreover, when Zhang Heizi saw the Populus euphratica forest, he saw that the birds above were not falling, and he even felt that there was an ambush inside.
Therefore, he estimated that there might not be ten thousand enemy troops here.
In order to prevent being ambushed, Zhang Heizi decided to postpone the attack and wait for Huang Yong from behind to arrive with the main force.
But Zhang Heizi never expected that Cao's army at Hulinkou would number more than 4,000 at this time, and that if he really wanted to fight, he might not be able to defeat the 2,000 people in his front camp.
However, Zhang Tai also agreed with Zhang Heizi's judgment and felt that he should be more cautious.
If they continue to attack from the front according to the tactics just now, they will most likely be flanked by Cao's army hidden in the Populus euphratica forests on both sides.
At this time, both Zhang Heizi and Zhang Tai were unconsciously becoming more conservative. This is why an army must have metabolism. Which of these people didn't dare to fight back then? But now it is also stained with a trace of twilight.
Zhang Heizi decided to wait for someone to come up from behind, and he waited for an hour.
After Huang Yong arrived with his eight thousand main force, Zhang Heizi ordered Zhang Tai to attack again, but this time until they broke into the barrier, Cao's troops inside did not attack.
Finally, after the Taishan Army braved the pressure and broke into the camp, they discovered that it had already become an empty camp.
And when the Taishan Army entered the Populus euphratica forest on both sides, there would be no ambush here.
At this time, the Taishan Army on the west route did indeed achieve its original goal, which was to capture the key hub of Hulinkou.
But their strategy failed completely.
Because the reason why Hulinkou was taken before was to block and cut off the connection between Xiahou Dun and Cao Cao, and to serve as a chopping block on one side to block Cao's army in the middle.
But now it is obvious that Xiahou Dun's troops ran away directly from Hulinkou, and they probably went to the middle to join Cao Cao.
So when Zhang Heizi found out that he had been completely fooled by Cao Jun, one can imagine his anger.
He ordered the entire army to pursue Xiahou Dun's troops, and this pursuit really allowed them to catch up.
On the open plain on the southeast side, the two hundred cavalry of the Taishan Army caught up with the two retreating Cao troops.
Cao's army of about a thousand men moved slowly, or more accurately, they underestimated the anger of Taishan's army.
So after being bitten by the sudden cavalry in the wild, the two Cao troops could only form formations on the spot. However, as the Taishan Army troops came one after another, these Cao troops were eventually outnumbered and annihilated in the wild.
But so what if we achieve such a small victory?
At this time, Zhang Heizi knew very well that as his side failed to cut off Xiahou Dun's return route, the situation in the middle was becoming dangerous.
……
In fact, Zhang Heizi didn't know that Ding Sheng, who had already crossed the river at this time, was also confused.
When he led the main force to the outside of Cao's army camp, he saw that the drum horns in the camp were kicked out by a group of upside-down goats.
Looking at the deserted Cao Jun camp, Ding Sheng was obviously a little confused.
What is thief Cao doing? If he didn't want to fight him, why would he come back to help? Could it be that Cao Cao is giving up on Linzi?
At this time, Ding Sheng had two guesses in his mind.
One is that the traitor Cao may be really weak and dare not fight with him, so he wants to lead his troops to retreat, and it is very likely that he will retreat towards Xuzhou.
But now the passage into Xuzhou is blocked by Guan Yu. Does Cao Cao already know that Guan Yu led his troops north? So he wants to have a disagreement with Guan Yu? Missed it?
This possibility is not small, but Ding Sheng is actually more inclined to the second guess, that is, the Cao thief is playing tricks on him, trying to make Ding Sheng chase him, so that he can ambush him at a key position.
You can't blame Ding Sheng for thinking this way. After all, they have been dealing with each other for so many years. How could Ding Sheng still not know that Cao Cao is a man with eight hundred scheming minds?
But as Jinquan and others in the east began to send military reports one after another, Ding Sheng lost his original determination.
It turned out that Jin Quan and others reported that small groups of Cao's troops were attacking them in front of them, and it was obvious that they were the troops who stayed behind.
At this time, when Ding Sheng learned that Xiahou Dun's troops were sniping Zhang Heizi and others on the west side of the road at Hulinkou, Ding Sheng's original judgment was completely shaken.
Whether it is the east or west road, Cao Jun there is obviously here to cover the retreat of Cao Jun's main force in the middle.
If Cao Cao wanted to pretend to be defeated, he would obviously not use two groups of troops to separate the rear.
But at this time, Ding Sheng was still cautious. He ordered the entire army to enter the camp left by Cao Cao, and buried pots in the camp to make rice so that all the officials could have another meal.
During this process, Ding Sheng decided to wait and see what would happen on the east and west roads.
……
After receiving a military report from the Chinese army Ding Sheng, Jin Quan on the east road learned that Cao's army had retreated on the middle road.
At this time, Jin Quan decided to let Xie Hui continue to lead the Chinese army, while he took half of the troops to the front line to take charge of the overall situation.
In front of them, two battalions of the Taishan Army were surrounding Cao Cao's important general Zhao Yan.
Zhao Yan is one of the few generals in Cao Cao's army who is both civil and military, and his civil and military skills are both very top-notch. It can be said that he has the talents of a prime minister and auxiliary, and the strategy of Han Bai in military affairs. Cao Cao has always regarded him as a future handsome man to train.
However, in order to complete the task of blocking the Taishan Army, Cao Cao was still willing to let Zhao Yan take on this task, which shows the trade-off in Cao Cao's heart.
Zhao Yan is responsible for guarding a transitional area between hills and plains. On the left is the edge of rolling hills, and on the right is a farming area full of farmland.
And extending southward from here, you can reach Guangxian, where Cao Cao wants to evacuate.
It can be said that the barrier guarded by Zhao Yan was the last line of defense left by Cao Cao.
At first, Zhao Yan only had 3,000 men stationed on this line of defense, but as Cao's troops on the outside gradually retreated, the number of Cao's troops here increased rapidly, reaching about 8,000.
From the beginning, Cao Cao gave Zhao Yan great authority, granting him the ability to control Cao's armies on the eastern front.
Therefore, Zhao Yan was very strong and confident at that time.
Even when two battalions of the Taishan Army, with about 4,000 people, arrived at the defense line, Zhao Yan led his troops to launch an attack.
Although they were blocked by the Taishan Army in the end, they succeeded in giving the two battalions of the Taishan Army the illusion that this was a stronghold of Cao's army.
It was also because of the fighting spirit shown by Cao Jun that the two Taishan military camp generals also did not launch an attack on Zhao Yan's troops immediately. Instead, they began to fight steadily and confront each other first.
But what the two men didn't know was that after Zhao Yan launched a round of active attacks, he had already ordered the Cao army in the camp to retreat to the hilly areas to the west.
At that time, Zhao Yan judged very clearly that there were two battalions of Taishan Army in front of him, and a large group of Taishan Army was approaching his right wing, so Zhao Yan was always in danger of being cut off from his retreat.
Zhao Yan was indeed given to Cao Cao, but it did not mean that he was going to die.
After estimating that Cao Cao's retreat was almost complete, Zhao Yan's first priority was actually no longer the rear, but to think about how to break out of the encirclement smoothly.
So he made a move of advancing before retreating. When the Taishan army in front was still hesitant, he took the initiative to launch an attack to cover the evacuation of Cao's army in the camp.
In fact, when most of Cao's army broke through the hilly areas to the west, they happened to encounter a Taishan army of twenty or thirty riders, You Yi.
But it is obvious that this Taishan Army You Yi chose to retreat wisely because of the large number of Cao's troops. It seems that they intend to send the information to the base camp.
When Jinquan arrived here after a long journey, he told the two battalion generals here that Cao Jun was going to run away, and the two men hurriedly organized their troops and began to attack Cao Jun.
In the end, all the more than a thousand Cao troops left in the camp died in the battle, and their corpses covered the camp, and the Taishan Army also captured this last line of defense.
But it is obvious that in the fourth year of Taiwu, on the ninth day of March, the battle has been going on until now, and the Taishan army seems to have been being fooled around by Cao Jun.
The situation is not optimistic.