Chapter 226 Showdown
Guan Yu killed the general and captured the flag, and then Zhang Chong led the 500 cavalry brought by Tian Jun to charge against Cao Cao's cavalry. When the Han army failed to form an army, Cao Cao secretly took off his cloak, hid among the defeated troops, and fled south.
The encounter in the field of Nagashe was over, but the fighting continued.
At that time, Cao Cao's cavalry department still had 800 cavalrymen. However, the Taishan Army's sudden cavalry cut off the return route. When they were about to escape elsewhere, the left and right formations of the Taishan Army did not know when they had surrounded them and continued to close the encirclement.
In this way, Cao Cao and others were surrounded by Taishan's army without realizing it.
At this time, the Han army was in danger, and Cao Cao decisively ordered all the troops to disperse and break out of the encirclement. It was also during the breakout process that he realized how powerful these Taishan troops were.
Who is the thief who can lift a horse? Who was the one who missed all his shots and killed three of his guards? How many warriors are there in the world? But why did they all vote for the Taishan bandits?
It was with this mixed emotion of fear and envy that he slipped out through the gap in the southwest corner. The price was that half of the original fifty elite guardsmen were lost.
But the successful breakout was only the beginning. The subsequent pursuit made Cao Cao understand that the battlefield is really a place of life and death. Along the way, several thieves had chased him within a few steps of him, and once a thieves had even grabbed his sleeve. If Cao Cao hadn't cut off the cuff decisively, and the yellow gelding he sat down on, it would have been impossible to buy. The BMW allowed him to escape and ascend to heaven.
But the horse under his crotch also exposed his identity.
The person who can ride such a horse must be a senior military officer of the Han army. Therefore, Cao Cao was like a magnet attracting the Taishan Army's rangers who were pursuing death in the north.
Only five of his soldiers were left chasing him along the way, but they were all close associates of the Cao family. Later, a guard volunteered to ride in Cao Cao's BMW and attracted the pursuers away. Cao Cao himself and the two of them hid in the grass and watched the pursuers go away.
Although Cao Cao was a son of the public clan and had to endure hardships, this wave of escape still left him with lingering fears. Three days later, when he trembled and rushed back to Huangfu Song's camp with his two companions, everyone was shocked.
Is this still the young gentleman from Kyoto who originally looked after Zixiong?
His clothes were in rags, his military bean had been lost, his hair was disheveled, and his previously well-groomed beard was gathering like weeds, but what remained unchanged was his eyes, which were still so calm and composed.
In Huangfu Song's tent, Cao Cao told the old commander without reservation the success or failure of the Battle of Changshe. He believed that the old commander had his own judgment.
Originally, a man like Cao Cao who had lost his army and defeated his army would have no chance to appeal. The best situation was that he would be sent to the Beijing Office, and the worst situation was that he would be directly engaged in military law.
But whoever gave Cao Cao a big background, even a veteran commander like Huangfu Song had to be careful and give him a chance. Sure enough, when Cao Cao finished talking about the battle, Huangfu Song pondered.
Huangfu Song was also surprised. He had already taken the Taishan thieves very seriously, but unexpectedly, he still underestimated them. Two thousand elite men fought against the thieves in the wilderness and lost.
Moreover, the commanders of many Han generals in this battle were also remarkable, and there was no arrogance or arrogance. On the contrary, Cao Cao, Fifth Commander, and Geng Zhi all did a good job in their battle strategies.
For example, Cao Cao, who was in battle for the first time, took the lead, had an insight into the fighting opportunities, and listened well to the tactics of his subordinates. He was not as arrogant and arrogant as the son of a minister. He was a talented general. The strategy proposed by the fifth hero is also very good. This strategy has been used in the past. At that time, when the country first became a great treasure, when Yang Xuan, the Marquis of Xinyang Township, was quelling the rebellion of Cangwu and Guiyang bandits, there were many bandits and Yang Xuan was weak. The Marquis of Xinyang Township made dozens of specially made carriages with sacks filled with lime. Later, there was a battle with the thieves. The marquis of Xinyang Township blew up the ashes in the wind, and the thieves were ignored. Then the cavalry rushed into the bandit formation and defeated the thieves. Therefore, the strategy offered by the Fifth Master is a good one.
Even like Geng Zhi, who was responsible for the defeat of this battle, Huangfu Song's evaluation was very high. He is indeed the first-class general's son in the country. He is fearless, aware of opportunities and decisive in this battle. His fearlessness can be seen from the fact that he dared to climb the slope on the edge of the battlefield with only 600 cavalry. Then we can realize that the key to the success or failure of this battle is that the thieves' thousands of troops dare to charge downhill, which shows that they know the opportunity. Even knowing that something must be done, he immediately returned to the formation, and even when the cavalry was intercepted, he could still continue to implement the previous plan, which can be described as decisive.
But the more generals like Cao Cao did nothing wrong and did well, the more Huangfu Song became afraid of the Taishan generals. You must know that Geng Zhi just made a mistake on the battlefield that was not a mistake, and was caught by the thief general, and then attacked decisively to reverse the situation. When Cao Cao charged with force, the thieves were not panicked, but they could still find ways to counterattack, and even bravely broke into the formation, beheaded the generals and captured the flag.
The more Huangfu Song thought about it, the more frightened he became. He stood up immediately and was about to order an army to intercept and kill his troops. After a long military journey, Huangfu Song already had a battlefield intuition. His intuition told him that this group of soldiers was the biggest variable in this battle and they must be eliminated.
But at this moment, there was a sudden loud sound of drums in the sky and the earth. A guard opened the tent and knelt down to report:
"Commander, across from you, the Runan Yellow Turbans are out in full force. They have set up a large formation in the wilderness and are pressing towards us."
Huangfusong was startled and no longer cared about the Taishan bandits. He hurried out of his tent and went up to the watchtower to observe the formation.
Sure enough, Runan's Taiping Road really came out in full force. In the wilderness, the sun shines golden, shining on yellow clothes and yellow flags, and the whole is a sea of yellow.
They lined up in seven large formations, densely packed throughout the field of vision. Among them, the one holding a six-section battle with an apricot-yellow flag was the most eye-catching. The total number of them was no less than ten thousand, and they lined up neatly and came towards the Han army camp. Among them were warriors holding high yellow flags, as many as five or six hundred, with verses from the Taiping Jing painted on them. These people chanted scriptures as they walked, and the whole world was solemn and solemn.
Then came the three formations on the left. They marched parallel to the center formation with the apricot-yellow flag in the middle, holding the flags of the three generals "Wu", "Gong" and "He", and thousands of prayer flags. They also recited scriptures: < br>
"The Emperor Taiping Jinque, the Holy Emperor, the King, the Master, and the Assistants track down the years, calmness comes and goes, signs are waiting for the sages, meritorious deeds cultivate the people, and the origin of the law."
The direction of the left wing was obviously towards several fortresses on the edge of Yingshui River. They followed the apricot-yellow banner, and then queues continued to branch out and stationed in the bridge villages on the east bank of Yingshui River. Their intention was very clear, which was to block the east bank. Zhu Jun's reinforcements. It seems that Peng Tuo of Runan is about to fight Huangfu Song to the death.
Huangfu Song stood on the watchtower thoughtfully, and then continued to look at the right wing of the bandit formation. There are about 20,000 flags in this part, and their leaders are "Liu", "Huang" and "He" respectively. Once the number of people exceeded 10,000, the sky was boundless, and the dust stirred up by tens of thousands of people made the sky and the earth darken. They formed a long and wide formation from the southwest, obviously hoping to outflank the Han army's position from behind with their numerical advantage from further away.
There was no need for orders from Huangfu Song of the Chinese Army, and all the lieutenants under his command had the right to take advantage. After the initial panic, they quickly organized a tentative attack.
Rangers from each camp of the Han army came out in all directions, constantly harassing the approaching Yellow Turban Army. At the beginning, the Yellow Turban Army and cavalry rushed out from behind to drive these people away.
But the Yellow Turbans in Runan are people from the hinterland, and people from the border areas are not good at riding. Now most of the riders of the Yellow Turban Army are the grassroots Tang newspapers, sentries, and riding slaves of the original Han Dynasty. They can ride horses, but you have to It would be delusional to say that he could fight against the knights of Kyoto. Therefore, the Yellow Turban Cavalry that quickly fled were strangled by the Han army, and the rest did not dare to attack. In the end, the Yellow Turban troops who were lining up simply stopped driving away and only asked the soldiers to hold up their shields to block the scattered arrows. The large team was still approaching the Han army.
The knights of the Han army really had nothing to do with these large formations. When these moth thieves marched to only 300 steps away from the many camps of the Han army, they stopped and began to organize their troops one after another, forming a strong formation again.
At this time, the situation was very unoptimistic for the Han army. Because of the sudden attack of the moth thieves, even with the harassment of the rangers, the Han army still did not have enough time to form an army. Even because the moth thieves were approaching the Han army less than 300 steps away, the Han army did not have enough space to form an array outside the camp.
In this case, Huangfu Song decisively ordered the tents in the camp to be dismantled and formed an array in the camp. Then, when all the troops are in formation, they will dismantle the front wall of the camp and attack directly.
Huangfu Song has already understood that this battle is the decisive battle that he has been waiting for for many days, and the opportunity cannot be missed.
Indeed, Huangfu Song's vision was very accurate. This time Runan's Qu Kui Pengtuo was not a probing attack or a bluff. He really wanted to fight Huangfu Song to the death.
This was not what Peng Tuo wanted, but he had to do it. Just because the supplies of the Yellow Turban Allied Forces in Yingyang began to run out, it had been several days since Runan and Chen had not sent military food from the rear.
Now Peng Tuo's camp has enough millet to feed the army for ten days. After excluding the limit of seven days of food, there are only three days of redundancy. In other words, Peng Tuo's troops must fight the Han army in these days, and then no matter whether they win or lose, they will have to fight elsewhere.
In fact, Peng Tuo was opposed to Ma Yuanyi's strategy from the beginning, which was to gather 150,000 hedgehogs in the small area of Yingyang.
What is the concept of gathering 150,000 people in one place? You must know that Kyoto only has a population of a few hundred thousand, so it needs to be transferred and supported from all over the world. Now they have 150,000 people who need to be transferred to the rear. To be honest, it is very rare for the rear of Runan and Chen to persist until now.
Moreover, the old brothers who stayed in Runan also sent Peng Tuo the latest situation in Runan.
The Han army recently had a governor of Yuzhou, who constantly connected the powerful families in Runan. Not to mention those who have become mortal enemies with Taiping Dao, but those who still do not conflict with Taiping Dao, they have all raised troops in the rear and constantly harassed various strongholds on Taiping Dao.
It is already the seventh month of summer, and the Yellow Turban troops who have settled down in various places in Runan are busy farming near their strongholds. Now these resurgent powerful tribes are constantly burning the fields and intercepting Taiping Road outside, causing the situation in Runan to change. An earth-shaking reversal.
The main force of the Yellow Turbans from Runan went north, but not many stayed there, and they had to shoulder heavy transportation work, which was very difficult.
Peng Tuo regretted deeply. If he had still stayed in Runan, how could he have allowed these old brothers to die miserably. But it was useless to regret. At this time, for him, the most important thing was to defeat the Han army on the opposite side before the food ran out.
At this time, on the battlefield on the west bank of Yingshui River, due to Huangfu Song's military order, the Han army filled in the wells, knocked down the walls of the stronghold, and began to march into the battlefield in neat formations.
Huangfu Song's regiment had 20,000 soldiers, divided into five divisions. Among them, Bao Hong, the left military commander, Feng Fang, the former military commander, Chun Yuqiong, the right military commander, Zhao Rong, the middle army Sima, and Xia Mou, the rear army Sima.
These five captains either came from the military or were transferred to the imperial court to advise the officials, but they all believed in Huangfu Song's military strategy and were ready to fight to the death with the bandits. At that time, Lieutenant Zhao Rongzheng and Huangfu Song were in the watchtower. They couldn't hold it back and asked Huangfu Song:
"Commander, you are so impatient. Didn't you want to keep them calm before and wait for their food and fodder to be cut off before striking with thunder? Now the armies are unprepared and have rushed out. The outcome is still uncertain."< br>
After hearing this, Huangfu Song thought of the conversation he had just had with Cao Cao in the tent, and thought of the Taishan bandit who would arrive on the battlefield at some point. The urgency in my heart is not something outsiders can understand.
He hesitates about one thing now.
The question is whether we should continue to send troops north to intercept the Taishan bandits. To really think about this issue, we must first think about the appropriate number of troops to send. Previously, Cao Cao, the cavalry commander, led 2,000 cavalry to fight against the thieves. The battle lasted only one morning before he was defeated. But if you want to stop his army now, you must at least go to the captain's headquarters.
But in this case, Yingyang's forces will be weak. The actual strength of Peng Tuo's troops on the opposite side is 70,000. If I only have four captains, I'm afraid I won't be able to withstand them. As for Zhu Jun's troops on the east bank, there were still 15,000 soldiers, but Huangfu Song did not have the confidence to expect them to come to support.
And if the Yingyang battlefield side loses, what's the use of successfully intercepting the Taishan bandits?
Therefore, his rationality told him that instead of adding fuel to the Taishan bandits coming from the north and defeating them one by one, it would be better to concentrate his forces for a decisive battle here and take advantage of the Runan Yellow Turbans to come out in force and defeat them in one fell swoop.
But instead of being afraid of ten thousand, be afraid of the worst. What Huangfusong is most worried about is that when the battle with Peng Tuo reaches a critical point, the Taishan Army will come out from behind. He has spent half his life in the military and knows that what he fears most will often happen. Therefore, even a veteran like Huangfu Song would inevitably hesitate on this matter.
To gamble or not to gamble?
Finally, Huangfu Song finally called the guard Huangfu Li, who was his nephew. Huangfu Song whispered to his nephew. He was wearing a basin collar armor and was not heavy at all. He walked down the watchtower vigorously and led Huangfu Song's guards. Set off.
Huangfusong was still worried after all, so in the end he had to compromise and let his 200 soldiers go north to block the attack. He didn't want to be able to resist the Taishan bandits from going south, as long as he could send the intelligence in time.
Here, he will use the Central Military Academy Lieutenant Department as the final preparation to deal with the Taishan bandits at any time.
Everything was ready, and Huangfu Song focused all his attention on the battlefield in front of him.
Here, there is still a tough battle waiting for him.
(End of chapter)