Chapter 665 Human Nature
Hearing the soldiers' report, both Zhang Chong and Xun You burst into laughter. Zhang Chong smiled and said to Xun You:
"Who would have thought that Lu Bu would start to use tricks? This is a fake retreat."
Cai Zheng, who was standing behind him, was confused and asked:
"Your Majesty, why are we retreating? The general feels that whoever encounters the front of our army will be defeated. Then Lu Bu is also a human being, how can he be an exception?"
Cai Que's views represent the mentality of most generals of the Taishan Army today, that is, our Taishan Army is invincible.
But Zhang Chong shook his head and said:
"If it were you, would you retreat if you encountered the sharp edge of my army?"
Cai Que's face turned red and he patted his chest and promised:
"Am I, Cai, that kind of person? No matter how strong the enemy is, if I don't even have the courage to draw my sword, how can I be considered a warrior? I might as well go back and hug my little wife."
Then Cai Que said fiercely:
"Here at Lao Cai, no matter how tough the enemy is, we, Lao Cai, will still bite a piece of flesh from him."
After hearing what Cai Que said, Zhang Chong asked him:
"If you, Lao Cai, think this way, then other people who think they are warriors will think the same way. You have to understand who people like Lu Bu are. They were born in the frontier army and lived in the bitter cold. They have lived a hard life. These people They often don’t value life and death, but value their military reputation as high as the sky. If you ask these people to be cowards, it means that these people are really scared.”
"But a fool who loses courage will dare to attack Zhao Yun's rear camp?"
When the king said this, Cai Que understood. He glanced at Xun You who was smiling next to him, and felt that he was the fool.
After Zhang Chong explained, he continued to say to the soldier just now:
"Let Xie Bi lead Wei Bojun to continue the pursuit."
If Cai did have some understanding just now, now he is confused again. Doesn’t this already mean that Lu Bu is cheating to retreat? Then let Lao Xie chase after him? Isn't this a complete ambush?
But Cai Que had realized the fact that he was stupid, so he stopped talking and listened silently.
Soon, the huge convoy continued to move forward, and the war was about to begin.
……
When the soldiers sent back the king's military order, Xie Bi knew what the king meant.
Before, he had also seen that Lu Bu in front was pretending to surrender. After all, looking at the carriages and belongings scattered on the side of the road, and even some abandoned livestock, this seemed too deliberate.
So when the king asked him to pursue him, he understood that this was the king's attempt to lure the snake out of its hole.
Of course, in other words, he is the bait.
However, this was nothing that Xie Bi couldn't accept, and he even felt quite excited that the hero could finally be used.
The Wei Bo army he brought was re-woven from the front of Zhang Dan's foreign marshal's headquarters. From last autumn to this spring, Xie Bi had been leading the troops for training in Handan to hone the combat effectiveness of the new and old armies.
But this time, after more than half a year of hard work, he finally got the opportunity for Wei Bojun to go on an expedition.
Under the king's order, he wanted to lead 5,000 Wei Bo troops through Fukouxing and enter Shangdang from the flank. However, the departure was not good. They underestimated the danger of Huguan. The army was blocked at Huguan for several days and could not advance. In the end, Zhao Yun defeated Luxian. , it was only with the talisman of the above-mentioned party governor that Huguan was closed.
It was precisely because of the disadvantages of entering the battle that Xie Bi had to work harder.
In fact, both his Wei Bo Army and Zhao Yun's previous Crane Controlling Army started to adapt last year or so, and even the Crane Controlling Army was even slower.
In fact, this also reflects a trend, that is, the Taishan Army is gradually de-marshaling. In the past, the Taishan Army has been divided into combat zones according to the five armies. Except for the Central Guard Army who stayed in Yecheng, the other four armies were divided into various towns.
However, with the long-term division of the army, regional hills were inevitably formed. This was something Zhang Chong had clearly opposed in the political hall before, and what followed was the reform of the military system.
Among the five armies, except Guan Yu's Left Army Marshal's Department, which was located in the heart of the Central Plains and faced the most complicated situation, the army had not yet been reorganized. Like Wei Bo's army, the other armies began to reform the military system.
First, with the Central Guard Army as the main force and elite battalions from the other three armies, a new Forbidden Army was formed.
And successively formed ten "Feilong", "Tiger Wings", "Controlling the Crane", "Holding the Sun", "Gongsheng", "Tianwu", "Xuanwu", "Dingwu", "Yiwu" and "Zhenwu" Two armies.
These twelve military numbers, with a total of 60,000 soldiers, are called the Central Forbidden Army.
In addition to the Central Forbidden Army, with the remaining three armies as the backbone, many Outer Forbidden Army were organized and distributed in various key places.
For example, Xie Bi's Wei Bo army was stationed in Handan, with an additional force of five thousand. There are also others such as the Lulong Army stationed in Pingzhou, the Yunzhong Army stationed in Daibei, etc., with about 60,000 troops.
In this way, the core armament of the Taishan Army was formed, with a victory of 120,000 soldiers.
As the number of people increased, the battle for the battle became fiercer, so after receiving the king's order, Xie Bi led 5,000 Wei Bo soldiers to speed up the pursuit.
The main body of Wei Bo's army is composed of three thousand infantry and one thousand cavalry. As the pursuing party, the cavalry will naturally go first.
Xie Bi knew that this pursuit was risky, so he decided to lead the cavalry in pursuit himself. The engineering battalion in front had already set up a bridge on the frozen water, and Xie Bi and others quickly passed the pontoon bridge.
After passing through a pile of scattered baggage, Xie Bi quickly caught the tail of the Bingzhou soldiers.
But contrary to Xie Bi's expectation, the Bingzhou soldiers in front acted with unimaginable drag. They did not have the panic of escaping at all. Instead, they seemed to be on a spring outing.
It wasn't until Xie Bi arrived with his cavalry that these people became confused and confused.
But they obviously also have good military qualities. When Xie Bi's cavalry appeared, these people first sent out about a few hundred people to guard a military stronghold, and then held there steadily.
The remaining Bingzhou soldiers also began to gather and formed a solid military formation.
At this time, Xie Bi was more certain that the enemy had an ambush. He did not launch an attack while the enemy was in formation, but slowly stopped with his cavalry.
Xie Bi put up a pavilion with his hands, and the garrison watched from a distance. His face became more and more serious the more he looked at it, but on the opposite side, Lu Bu's banner had slowly appeared on the battlefield.
What does this mean? Isn't this Lu Bu an ambush? Come and fight head-on?
Lu Bu also has a certain reputation in the Taishan Army. He seriously injured Ma Chao from the front and destroyed the He Controlling Army camp. It can be said that no matter what he does, he is top-notch.
So when he saw Lu Bu personally leading his troops to attack, he did not dare to neglect, and instead gave the order to the troops behind him:
"As the main forward, our army must win the first battle. Let each team check their armaments and listen to my horn later."
Many of the cavalrymen in Wei Bo's army were Wuhuan people back then. Unlike the Wuhuan people from their hometown in Pingzhou, these people were all professional warriors who had participated in wars in the Han region all year round.
The knights in my hometown still need to herd sheep and loose horses. Sometimes they have to milk goats when they are short of manpower. But the Wuhuan warriors in Han Dynasty were different. As professional warriors, they studied one thing all day long, how to kill people efficiently.
After these people defected from the camp of the Han army to the camp of the Taishan army, they began to learn Chinese and wear Han clothes, but what remained unchanged was their warlike attitude. These fighting men, who could only prove their existence through war, started making noises after hearing the general's military order.
What Jiuyuan Lu Bu? I don’t even recognize it, let alone the knife in my hand? It's useless for anyone to come, it's just a matter of one blow.
As a result, the horns blew, flags flew, and more than a thousand cavalry formed a dense formation on the river beach on the south bank of the frozen water, preparing to launch the first round of attack.
……
A moment later, Xie Bi's banner moved to the forefront of the battle line. Although he was not known for his martial prowess, since he was in charge of the cavalry, he had to be on the front line.
Only in this way can the brothers see you and follow you.
Wei Bojun's assault cavalry lined up in a row of ten, with General Shi at the head of the row, holding a short copper flute whistle in his mouth to regulate the rhythm of the team. There was a small flag behind his back, writing his military number and organization, which was used to prepare the team. Team logo.
At the front, there were waves of intensive horn sounds coming from under the banner. At the end of the first pass, all the knights leveled their horses together. At the end of the second pass, each platoon started to move their horses slowly.
When the third horn sounded, more than a thousand cavalrymen galloped together. From then on, the sound of the horn never ended. Accompanied by the sound of intensive horse hooves, it was like a violent storm, overwhelming the top of Mount Tai.
When the Taishan Army began to charge, the Bingzhou soldiers on the opposite side, or more accurately, the Shangdang soldiers were also changing their formations.
Judging from the semaphore of the general on the opposite side, he probably wanted the Shangdang soldiers to form a chariot formation, rely on baggage chariots, and shoot with powerful bows and crossbows.
But unfortunately, thinking back, in the end it still depends on whether everyone can do it.
People like Lu Bu are experts in using cavalry, but they either don't pay attention to infantry training, or they don't know how to do it.
This is actually a common problem among most frontier generals. Gongsun Zan, who had died in the Zhongren Pavilion, just didn't care about infantry training and only used sudden charges to assassinate.
And now people like Lu Bu are also like this. They are path-dependent and focus more resources on the cavalry, which has more offensive power and mobility, and ignore the infantry.
At this moment, these Shangdang soldiers also gave people like Lu Bu the answer.
There were probably more than four thousand Shangdang soldiers on this battlefield. These people had never practiced cavalry confrontation training. At this moment, seeing the scene of more than a thousand cavalry charging on the opposite side, everyone was trembling.
No one had told them that a thousand cavalry charges would be so terrifying.
Therefore, even though there were loud gongs and drums from the rear and loud shouts from the Bazhan team composed of frontier troops, it still could not prevent the camp from collapsing.
I have never encountered such a large-scale cavalry charge. If you ask him to remain rational and stand there waiting to be trampled to death, that is too high a request.
In this way, Xie Bijun just charged, and before they even came into contact with the enemy, the Shangdang soldiers dissipated like frost and snow.
And this scene of retreating like minions, on the contrary, aroused the murderous intention of these Taishan troops. Facing the enemy troops who only left their backs, these professional warriors used the horses in their hands to kill one by one, and some even I felt that killing like this was too slow, so I simply switched to the ring-shou knife.
In this way, on the edge of the Taishan Army's sudden cavalry, countless lives withered under the ring-shou sword.
Maybe these Taishan soldiers will silently lament the deaths of these people after the war, but I'm sorry, here, at this time, when you pick up your sword and gun and point it at me, you are my enemy.
When dealing with the enemy, the Taishan Army has always been as rough and cruel as the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.
Soon, the rout of party troops in the front swept across the rear. Those troops staying behind also began to disperse. Some generals even abandoned their troops and fled southward.
The first few hundred soldiers to seize a military camp were originally tasked with keeping an eye on the enemy's flanks as strategic fulcrums on the battlefield. However, when they saw that the friendly forces were so helpless, they had no choice but to run towards the valley to the west.
A surprise general from the Taishan Army saw this and chased them with more than 20 cavalry. Then these people failed to organize a resistance and were killed by an enemy army with only one-twentieth of their number.
Everything went so smoothly.
When Xie Bi, who was under the banner, watched his soldiers chasing the dead and harvesting their heads wantonly, he had only one thought:
"Lu Bu, that's it?"
But as a veteran of the Taishan Army, Xie Bi was not willing to think about the enemy in this way. He secretly wondered if this was the enemy's method, to ambush him during the pursuit?
After thinking for a while, he finally decided to withdraw his troops and gave up the pursuit of the remaining defeated Bingzhou Army.
And when the golden sound was loud, more than ten horsemen rushed over carrying a large banner, which was the "Lu" flag.
So here comes the question, if the banner is here, where are the Lu Bu people?
Thinking of this, he looked at the surrounding terrain repeatedly, and suddenly a bold idea appeared in Xie Bi's mind.
He opened his mouth wide and couldn't believe it:
"Is he going to...?"
……
At the eastern foot of Mount Taiyue, rolling hills rise and fall, where countless lives emerge and disappear.
In this lush jungle, there is a mountain shed where some refugees who fled into the mountains and their descendants gathered.
Even though this place is already on the edge of Taiyue Mountain, it is still desolate and sparse. This has the advantage that no one comes to collect taxes from you.
But today, the mountain lairs living in this small settlement are facing destruction.
Not because they made any mistakes or because they offended anyone, but because a group of Han soldiers passed by and massacred them.
At this time, in the center of the settlement, Zhang Liao couldn't bear to look at the open space on the side, where dozens of corpses were piled up in disorder, including even children who were no more than knee high.
He tried hard to save these people, at least the child.
But Lu Bu laughed at his womanly kindness and told him what if these people were let go and their whereabouts were exposed to the Taishan Army? By then, dozens of their brothers would be dead.
Zhang Liao sighed, but still tried to ask why he didn't even let the child go.
Lu Bu seemed to be reminiscing. He told Zhang Liao that this was the child's life. Even if he did not kill him, he would not be able to survive in this mountain forest.
For this reason, the settlement was wiped out.
In fact, Zhang Liao knew that these were reasons but not reasons. Because he understands people like Lu Bu, these warriors who grew up in the border areas have endured hardships that ordinary people cannot understand. This not only tempered their will and fighting power, but also buried the violent animal nature in their hearts.
War and massacre have always been the best means to express animal nature. The massacre of mountain people who have no resistance is their pleasure.
At this moment, Zhang Liao suddenly had the urge to leave these people.
Because he is not a beast, but a human being who longs for light.
At this time, he heard Lu Bu calling him over.
Carefully burying his thoughts, Zhang Liao stopped looking at the child and turned around.
But he knew that he would never forget it for the rest of his life.