Chapter 218 The Game of Generals
After the heavy rain, it was a sunny day with clear skies and clear clouds for several days.
The main force of the Wei State, 160,000 troops, is setting out from Luyang. The 40,000 troops of Wu and Yue are located in the west. The 60,000 soldiers and horses of the capital and the 10,000 Tiefeng Yijie Army are located in the middle road. Sui and Qing Er The state's 50,000 troops are located to the east.
One hundred and sixty thousand people, horses, chariot shafts, and various equipment spread across the plains mixed with hills, extending for a distance of more than 20 miles from left to right.
The banners stretched endlessly, blocking out the sky and the sun. Even if they were separated by several miles, the march of the armies and the splashing dust that filled the sky were clearly visible like a sandstorm.
The 70,000 soldiers and horses of the capital in the center are the main force this time. The flag with the character Wei and the big flag with the character Zhao are flying in the wind. Along with the advancing road, sitting on a chariot pulled by four horses, Zhao Guangshi, who is over seventy years old, is full of body. Wearing armor, he sat on a chair and wiped the sweat from his forehead from time to time. Scouts were running around him.
Various reports described the surrounding landforms and the situation of enemy scouts. On both sides of the chariot were the generals from the capital brought out from Luyang, as well as a group of subordinates who were capable of fighting and cultivated in Huizhou. One of them is very suitable for charging into battle. He holds a big ax and is brave enough to defeat all three armies. The first-level masters in the world are no more than fifty enemies in his hands.
"Meng Tuo, the soldiers and horses of the Yan State are very capable of fighting. The generals are not only good at commanding, but they are also good at charging into battle. After encountering them, obey the orders and do not act recklessly."
Distant War. A few steps away on the right side of the car is a burly figure on horseback, wearing black iron armor and a pair of ferocious beast heads on each shoulder. This man has disheveled hair, a red ribbon on his forehead, a ring of cheeks under his chin, and a majestic appearance. A brown horse with a long-handled ax hanging upside down.
Hearing Master Zhao Guang’s words, he nodded silently, but his eyes showed excitement.
At this time, another scout handed in information. After being received by the personal guards, it was forwarded to the general, Zhao Guangshi. His gray brows frowned slightly, "Twenty thousand people?"
At the moment, the scouts in front were already fighting fiercely. , racing against time to convey their message.
On the fields, in the woods, and among the hills, you can see scouts from both sides spying on each other and then clashing. Occasionally, several riders will pass quickly through, chasing and killing a Wei scout.
Rushing out of the forest, arrows shot in the sky. The nearby Wei scouts formed a small team and came for reinforcements. Most of the two sides were dressed in short clothes and leather armor, but they were skillful in drawing bows. The pursuing Yan scouts saw each other. There were so many people that after shooting a few arrows, they turned around and left.
There were also those who could not escape. They also shot loud arrows and attracted nearby comrades. The two sides chased each other in the wilderness and started riding and shooting. The good horses in the north and the scouts of the Bingzhou Army had also been trained by Lu Bu. For riding and shooting, Much stronger than the Central Plains Scouts.
In the two days that Wei State advanced northward, only forty-five of its scouts were killed and seventy-two were injured, which made it more difficult for Division Zhao Guang, who was heading north, to understand the surrounding intelligence.
"Twenty thousand people?"
Master Zhao Guang narrowed his eyes slightly, looked at the content written on the note, and pointed his finger on the armrest of the chair, "More than 100,000 troops from the Yan Kingdom went south. There are also some injuries, but it is not enough to use 20,000 people to resist my 160,000 troops. Interesting, generals, what can you see? "
On the left is the Gyeonggi Department of Luyang? The generals commanded 60,000 soldiers and horses from the capital, and they did not dare to neglect the emperor's uncle, Zhao Guangshi.
A general named Yu Zangbing raised his hand and said: "Back to the governor, only 20,000 troops and horses are left here. Naturally, they are not used to resist the 160,000 army. It is estimated that the formation will be suspicious and delay our army's advance. Speed.”
"Well, I think so too." Master Zhao Guang nodded and looked at the several Huizhou generals he had trained on the right, "Mengtuo, what do you think?"
A few generals on the right were parallel, The general named Meng Tuo thought for a moment: "Although I agree with the general's statement, since it is a suspicious soldier, the other party will definitely not dare to fight, so don't pay attention to it and just push it over."
Zhao Guangshi He smiled, but there was still a look of disappointment in his eyes. He continued with a smile: "Yes, since the suspicion formation has been established, just push it through. But you need to know why he laid the suspicion formation, and whether he wants to fight or retreat." Withdraw? If we fight, where should we attack the Qiliang 90,000 troops in the northwest? Or should we divert our main force to attack the rear and cut off our army’s supply route?”
“Why not withdraw?” Meng Tuo pursed his lips and asked. road.
“More than 100,000 soldiers and horses came to attack us. We have been fighting until now and we are calling for withdrawal. If you were the Xia King of Yan State, would you be willing to do so?” Over seventy years old, Zhao Guangshi couldn’t understand anything. “Don’t care about it. If the city is gained or lost, he is rushing to destroy the Wei Dynasty. If he only takes a few counties, he can capture the city in the three states on the south bank of the Hun River! "
The old man stood up with his sword in hand.
"For this reason, the formation was suspicious, but in fact it was a partial attack on the flanks. Send my general's order to the chief generals of Qi and Liang, asking them to capture Guangfu within five days with 90,000 troops. On the left, the troops of Yue and Wu, The right wing follows the troops from Qingzhou and Qingzhou, and moves closer to the center! "
"What does the governor mean?" asked another general from the Gyeonggi general on the left side of the chariot.
The old man looked at an eagle flying across the sky in the distance and smiled.
"Guangfu City is a must-have point for attacking the enemy. It is the main road back to the north. If it is lost, his suspicious soldiers will be meaningless, and his purpose is nothing more than to attack our partial army and cut off my arm." ! Keep moving forward, let’s see what the Yan army in front looks like! ”
The sky was bright and the vast wilderness stretched as far as the eye could see. The two wings advancing along the center were still moving forward slowly before receiving the order.
Facing the approaching Wei army, the Bingzhou army standing in front was commanded by Zhang Liao to form three groups, evacuating all the way back, and the other two groups dispersed in the east and west directions.
The two armies clashed, each showing their own abilities. Zhao Guangshi, the veteran general in charge of the Wei army, remained unmoved and continued to advance slowly, approaching Guangfu City four hundred miles away with a sweeping attitude.
However, in the vast wilderness, the scouts on both sides were still catching each other and fighting. Perhaps knowing that the Yan scouts were more capable, the Wei army sent light cavalry to assist. Zhang Liao also asked Lu Bu to disperse the wolf cavalry to assist the Yan scouts. Chasing the opponent's cavalry, small-scale cavalry battles broke out from time to time in the wilderness, fields, and mountains and forests.
The Wei army lost more and won less, and the subsequent advancement began to reduce the presence of scouts and light cavalry.
On the third night of the advance, in the southeast, in the mountains and forests connecting the hills and plains, groups of soldiers, and then horses, were led through the woods and shrubs, and then more soldiers continued to move southward. Come over.
The monkey sleeping on the treetop looked at the torrent passing below in amazement. He tried to keep walking as quietly as possible and came to the edge of the forest. In his eyes, on the plain in the distance, there was a makeshift camp, simple and crude. On the fence, soldiers resting all over the place hugged their weapons, or fell asleep with their swords on their pillows.
In the burning bonfire in the camp, the patrolling soldiers were alert to the movements in the night, and the archers on the sentry tower occasionally looked towards the mountain forest with the sound of monkeys.
“Damn, these soldiers and horses from Sui and Qingzhou have deviated from the direction.”
“Maybe they received the general’s order and moved towards the middle road.”
"Grand Master, they are close to the main force of the Wei State. Do you want to fight?"
"Ask Xia Houyuan, who was the one who came up with the idea!"
In the darkness, there were rustling voices. There was a movement, and someone walked through the forest hunched over, and when he got to the other end, he got the answer: "Why don't you fight?"
Soon, lurking figures moved toward the edge of the forest, pressing their footsteps. Go over, and then, the infantry slowly walked out, followed by the archers, picking up arrows wrapped in oilcloth.
The figures leading horses one after another in the forest mounted their horses one after another at the signal of the generals in lion helmets and white horses and silver armor raising their guns.
Out of the relatively gentle slopes of the forest, slowly moving figures spread slowly like a quiet lake, approaching the simple camp. The horses had their muzzles uncovered, swaying their heads and breathing heavily, and stepped forward. Horse hooves stepped out of the edge of the forest.
The archer broke off the fire break, blew on it, and placed the weak flame on the oilcloth wrapping the arrowhead.
......
In the distance, on the sentry tower that was not too high, the archer looked around. In his peripheral vision, he vaguely noticed a dim yellow light shining in the darkness.
The moment he turned his head, the fire became more intense, and dense fire spots spread out under his eyes, and then... one by one they flew up into the sky, and while countless fire spots crossed the sky, they also reflected the black mass below. A moving figure.
He hurriedly drew his bow, and the arrows flew into the sky with a roar. When they exploded, a rain of flaming arrows poured down from the sky. During the camp in Sui Qing's Erzhou, the soldiers who were lying on their backs or resting on their sides had no time to react. Many people He was directly nailed to death by falling arrows, or fell on tents and ignited fires. Sneaking figures followed Dong Zhuo and Xia Houyuan's screams, roaring like the tide, and rushed towards the camp gate on the east side of the camp. Among the Xiliang soldiers, there were two-sided swords in their hands, one foot long, with long handles and long blades. Dozens of soldiers directly cut off the simple fence.
The moment the fence was torn down, the waiting men wearing iron masks, Le Jin led the Xiliang army, Zhang He led the Qingzhou army, swarmed in like a flood breaking a bank, except for those who rushed in the front More than a thousand soldiers holding Modao and five hundred Xiliang soldiers with repeating crossbows raised their crossbows and fired fiercely at the Wei soldiers who woke up or ran around in a panic to form formations.
The crossbow arrows were powerful, with more than ten shots fired from each crossbow. Many Wei soldiers were shot to the ground while running, and a large area of the hastily formed formation was also shot over. Until Bu Dun arrived, they immediately The shield wall was raised to stabilize the position. However, the east camp gate was opened by Qingzhou soldiers. The Xiqiang cavalry who had been waiting for a long time roared in. They did not engage with the array. They only rode their horses to chase down the fleeing Wei soldiers in the camp, or shot arrows, ignition.
The camp of 40,000 soldiers and horses stretched for five miles. In an instant, there were fires and screams, and it was a scene of chaos.
The rising and flying sparks streaked across the fighting figures, and the firelight illuminated the plump figure on horseback. Dong Zhuo's beard was bulging, holding a serrated knife in his hand, laughing ferociously, and beside him, his eyebrows were raised, his eyes were raised. The gloomy Xia Houyuan.
"Haha! Have fun! Keep killing--"
Unlike Dong Zhuo's fanaticism, he calmly observed everything in the camp. After a moment, he raised his hand and summoned the messenger.
......
Almost at the same time, a series of footsteps and horse hooves rushed out from the larger camp to the west, rushing towards the burning military camp of Suiqing Erzhou soldiers and horses.
Wei State Camp.
Master Zhao Guang did not fall asleep. He was sitting in the handsome tent waiting for something. Half an hour later, a fierce general named Meng Tuo handed over his weapon at the entrance of the tent, lifted the curtain and strode in.
"How is it?"
"It was as expected by the governor. Unfortunately, we arrived a step too late. The Yan army only charged halfway and suddenly retreated."
Master Zhao Guang nodded and calmed down.
"I'm very cautious... I must have noticed the trap I set. How many casualties are there?"
"There are more than a thousand people. According to the soldiers over there, the Yan army's crossbow arrows are particularly powerful and can be fired continuously. ...Most of the thousand people died under this kind of crossbow."
"The soldiers and horses are strong, and the weapons are sharp. No wonder they are ambitious!" The old man pondered for a moment, "Be wary of that Yan army. I'll come a second time."
"Yes!"
Meng Tuo accepted the promise, then turned around and left the tent, asking Ling Qi to send the order to Suiqing's two states.
Far to the east, the two retreating armies hid in the darkness of the forest. The scouts sent out came back after inquiring and reported on the situation of the camp they had just attacked, which made Xiahou Yuan, Dong Zhuo and Ma Chao feel pity.
"The other party's general has no less experience than us. I'm afraid the second attack on the camp won't work. The other party is already prepared."
Xia Houyuan rubbed a piece of grass in his hand and said, "The Qingzhou soldiers stayed behind , Grand Master Dong leads the Xiliang Army to join the king. Can you confuse the Wei Army general into thinking that the main force has returned to the Bingzhou Army in the middle?"
"..." Dong Zhuo bit the grass root and was silent for a moment? , and then vomited it out, "Like what happened when I entered Luoyang? If it doesn't work, use the method of increasing stoves!"
The so-called increase of stoves is actually the reverse application of the strategy of increasing troops and reducing stoves, which made Wei Jun think The number of earth stoves increased, and they mistakenly thought that the Yan army that attacked Sui Qing's second state had returned without success, and that it joined Su Chen's middle road and was the main force of the Yan army.
"That's it. The grand master asked your Xiliang soldiers to leave dry food for two days."
In the darkness, Dong Zhuo and Xia Houyuan slapped each other, and the two armies immediately separated, and the Xiliang army quickly Traveling north, in the middle of the night, we found the Bingzhou Army's scouts twenty miles away. However, they did not rush back to camp. Instead, they looked for tree branches and thatch weavers on the spot. At dawn the next day, the soldiers were killed one by one. Take one and use your body to block your field of vision. From a distance, the military formation of 20,000 people seems to have turned into a scale of tens of thousands.
In the afternoon, the Wei army received news that the Yan army was retreating. In the abandoned camp, the scouts checked everything inside and brought the news back to the advancing Wei army.
Zhao Guangshi looked at the note in his hand silently, "The army that came back should be the one that attacked the soldiers and horses of Sui Qing's two states last night. It looks like they are about the same size, and there are a lot more earthen stoves in the camp. , it seems that the Yan army has gathered other soldiers and horses, plus the army stationed in Guangfu, the main force should be here."
"That's not enough for a hundred thousand!" Yu Zang's troops arrived. Said aside.
"It is indeed not enough, but have you generals forgotten? The soldiers of the Yan army are also human beings. After fighting for so long, there were no casualties anywhere. The bodies were collected by them and either buried or stored in Guangfu City. They will never let our scouts see or touch them. Find out how many soldiers they have left."
Master Zhao Guang gently stroked his long beard. He was still somewhat confident in his judgment.
"Send the order and form an array on the spot. We will not force the Xia King of Yan Kingdom. Now, we will wait for Qi Liang to attack the city and see if he is in a hurry to withdraw. If he withdraws...hehe... ...The whole army is covering up!"
...
The news came that the Wei army had stopped advancing. Su Chen, who was sitting on the ancestral coffin, was discussing with Dong Zhuo and other generals. He had thick eyebrows when he heard the news. He wrinkled up, and after a moment, he still breathed out a deep breath: "This Wei veteran is a bit difficult to deal with."
"Let the scouts return to Guangfu and check the situation!"
He ordered Wu Zixun.
……
Guangfu City.
In the wilderness to the west, the white horse righteous soldiers were running across the field, and they were inseparable from a group of light cavalry coming from the northwest. They fired arrows at each other, and then the galloping horses circled around to form their own formations.
It was an army divided into two large formations standing in the wilderness to the west, and a large number of equipment was being assembled.
Guan Yu stood at the foot of the city tower, stroking his long beard, closing his phoenix eyes, listening to the rapid sound of horse hooves outside, and shouting loudly. He couldn't help but think of the scene in Maicheng, and his cheeks bulged slightly.
"Unexpectedly, the scene from that year reappeared in front of Guan. If the city is broken, there is only death..."
"Second brother, I don’t want to talk about this, but this time I will tell you Together!" Zhang Fei walked back and forth excitedly behind the wall with his snake spear, punched the wall, and said loudly: "There are Zilong and Zhang Yi outside!"
"This time, Cang. Keep the wall no matter what!”
Zhou Cang stood behind Guan Yu carrying Qinglong Yanyue and also laughed.
Soon, the armies of Qi and Liang began to attack the city. Several trebuchets followed several battalions of military formations and advanced.
(End of this chapter)