Chapter 741 Natural Disaster
In the third year of Taiwu, May 20th, this was already the second day that the Guo and Liu armies attacked Xin'an, and Xin'an City was still in the hands of the Taishan Army.
Guo Si, who was taking a group of generals to visit the city, looked at the apricot-yellow cavalry and the big flag with the word "Zhao" on the top of the city. After all, he was a little embarrassed and cursed:
"Damn it, once this Xin'an is destroyed, the whole city will be slaughtered. Don't even let me spare the dog."
The Liangzhou generals behind him responded sparsely, and then fell silent.
Guo Bang was discouraged for a while, but he had nothing good to say to comfort these people, so after looking at the city for a few times, he led the generals back to the camp.
Today, neither the Guo nor Liu armies chose to go to battle, because since the morning, there had been mist near Xin'an and the visibility was low.
In addition, yesterday's fierce attack caused heavy casualties on our side, and there was great resentment among the army, so Guo Bang took a day off.
But at noon, after the sunshine dispersed the mist, Guo Bang became more and more angry and decided to attack Xin'an City again.
This time, Guo Si and Liu Bei lined up in formation.
Among them, Guo Si's 13,000 men were divided into twelve battalions, which were lined up on the south bank of Jianshui River. Liu Bei's 11,000 men also had eight battalions, distributed at the foot of Badou Mountain. The two sides are two or three miles apart, and Xin'an is surrounded from the left and right.
The battlefield situation in this area is not suitable for the deployment of the Corps.
The Jianshui turned three times here, forming two relatively large riverbanks. The largest one was about four miles from north to south and six or seven miles from east to west. Therefore, the Guo and Liu armies were not only separated from each other. , even the various camps within the camp are divided by streams.
In such a narrow space, if Liu Bei had not repeatedly asked people to investigate the surrounding area and confirmed many times that there was no Taishan Army nearby, otherwise he would not have taken this risk with Guo Si.
But even so, Liu Bei still chose to set up the formation on the west side of Badou Mountain, and arranged his eight battalions in a slightly conservative formation of three in the front, three in the back and two in the back.
The advantage of this is that the entire military formation is thicker, and the front and rear battalions support each other. At the same time, Badou Mountain in the south can also block the south side for itself.
And when Guo Si and Liu Bei were arranging their troops, Xin'an in front actually opened the city gate, and a military formation of about 6,000 people lined up at the foot of Xin'an City.
They did not stay away from the city wall. As soon as they came out, they arranged the Juma in the city in front of the formation. Because most of the battlefield space had been occupied by the Guo and Liu armies, these Taishan armies even rushed to the hills to the north to set up strong positions.
At this time, Liu Bei stood on the chariot and unexpectedly looked at the Taishan troops lined up in a row. He was very puzzled. He couldn't help but said to Yang Xiudao:
"Dezu, what does this Taishan Army mean? You don't think that this small force is going to fight with us in the wild, do you?"
At this time, Yang Xiu and Liu Bei were standing side by side on the chariot. He saw the Taishan Army pouring out from the Xin'an City Pass. The front group was walking to the north slope, and the battalion heads behind were still in the city. He counted the numbers on the opposite side. flag, feeling uneasy.
He said to Liu Bei:
"Brother-in-law, there is something wrong with the number of enemy troops. Now there are two military flags coming out of Xin'an City, and the number has reached 6,000. So where did Zhao Yun get so many people?"
Yang Xiu's words reminded Liu Bei, and he also looked carefully.
It is easy to determine the number of people in an economical army like the Taishan Army. From the army, battalion, department, song, and team levels down, they all have their own flags.
After confirming it again and again, Liu Bei comforted him with uncertainty:
"Perhaps the enemy has already sent reinforcements, and now they want to fight with us."
Speaking of this, he smiled again:
"Isn't this just what we want? Isn't it possible that with our 30,000-strong army, we can't defeat the enemy's less than 10,000 soldiers?"
As he spoke, Liu Bei pretended to laugh.
But soon, Liu Bei stopped laughing.
When the sun was high, Guo Si in the north took the lead in launching an attack.
Two moments later, a leading battalion of his army hit the Taishan Army first.
There are no twists and turns, no clever plans, and no strategizing. The two armies fought directly on the narrow bend of Jianshui River.
A sword is a sword, and a spear is a spear. He passed by thousands of spears, but I shot out thousands of arrows.
Blood stained the ground red, the sound of fighting covered the clouds, and then, Guo Si's vanguard camp was defeated.
There is no surprise, this river beach is so narrow, the competition is not about who has the most people, but who is brave enough and strong enough.
In the moment when the two sides engaged in battle, three to five hundred assault cavalry, led by a Taishan Army cavalry general, rushed straight into Guo Si's vanguard camp.
Without much fighting, the cavalry general penetrated into Guo Si's front camp along the thin crack and directly found the flag of his camp general.
Then there were no surprises.
After just a face-to-face encounter, the cavalry general killed Li Yong, the general of Guo Bang's former military camp.
Li Yong, a native of Chengji, Longxi, had little talent, courage, and arrogant strength. He should have been destined to create a generation of emperors, but unfortunately he failed in Xin'an before Yingyang could reach it, ending his short-lived military fortune.
After the cavalry commander killed Li Yong, he directly chopped down the camp flag behind him, and then rushed out again.
At this time, the crowd in the north was shouting:
"Mighty God, Zhao Zilong!"
"Mighty God, Zhao Zilong!"
……
For a time, the entire battlefield was singing this name.
Guo Si's vanguard battalion still persisted when its leader was beheaded by the formation, but when they saw their camp flags being pulled down, they no longer had the fighting spirit in their hearts and retreated one after another.
At this time, Li Yong's battalion was completely collapsed, but Guo Si's other battalions behind him did not panic. On the one hand, they used arrows to stop the defeated troops and let them burrow into the hills to the north. On the other hand, they shouted loud chants that shook the sky. Pressing towards the Taishan Army.
Over there, after Zhao Yun attacked and beheaded the enemy camp general, he did not hesitate to fight and led the cavalry directly back to the formation.
Don't worry, it's still a long day.
Zhao Yun retreated, and soon Guo Si's main force came up as a substitute.
They had no sympathy for Li Yong's death. It was not pity for this man of great ambition and talent to die.
Of course, some people will say that Li Yong is also a capable general and not a mediocre person, but it's a pity that you will be dead.
In fact, it doesn't matter if Li Yong is dead, the position of the platoon camp will be reserved for them. I don’t know what kind of blessing this kid has that allows Guo Shuai to leave the position of the front camp to him.
Is it because Li Yong, Li Jue and Li Shuai are both named Li?
Soon, Guo Si's two battalions rushed to the battlefield together and launched an attack on the northern slope military formation where Zhao Yun was located.
And Guo Si is indeed a powerful faction of the Liangzhou faction, and he has something on hand after all.
This time there were probably two battalions of approximately 4,000 armored soldiers attacking.
Like other generals, Guo Bang also gathered the armor among the generals for the use of his trusted troops. Among Guo Si's troops, there are only two people whom he trusts the most, one is his wife's brother Yao Naxing, and the other is the powerful general Linghu Zheng.
The two men each rushed to the front of Taishan's army with two thousand troops, and once they engaged, the fighting became extremely fierce.
Among them, Yao Naxing wore three layers of armor and rushed into Mount Tai's army several times, unable to stop him.
The Qiang soldiers led by Yao Naxing were very brave. In addition, they had been the main force in Guo Si's army for a long time. Not only were they familiar with Han Dynasty, but they also developed their morale.
Originally, there was a wave of broken troops from the former camp blocking the Qiang camp. Linghu Zheng next door just used arrows to drive them away, but Yao Naxing went on a killing spree.
These lower-level Qiang people are generally hostile to the Han, because many of their family members have died at the hands of the Han, so even though they know that these defeated troops are their own friendly forces, they still show no mercy.
After slaughtering a wave of defeated troops, the blood inspired the fighting spirit of these Qiang soldiers, and they charged fearlessly. Then it was obvious that Zhao Yun's front line collapsed.
Soon, Zhao Yun's front camp could no longer withstand it, and it was not until Zhao Yun from the rear came forward again with his reserves that he could hold on.
Obviously, the combat effectiveness of the troops led by Zhao Yun is very problematic. This does not seem to be the combat effectiveness that the Taishan Army should have.
Coincidentally, when the north slope position collapsed, a similar situation occurred to the Taishan Army's troops under Xin'an City.
What was wreaking havoc in their formation at this moment was a cavalry with armor. Except for the war horses, this cavalry had no harness, and everything else was in armor.
Led by a cavalry general, these iron cavalry, numbering around 300, moved unhindered directly within the Taishan Army's formation.
The leader of the formation, Xu Sheng, was covered in blood and shouted loudly, but he still could not stop the cavalry from charging.
With no choice, Xu Sheng gritted his teeth and rushed forward with his soldiers.
Two moments later, Xu Sheng's head was lifted high by a horse. His withered face and wide eyes spoke of endless unwillingness.
Xu Sheng, a former Hucheng of the Jianghuai River, was rising to prominence in the Taishan Army, and even left his name as Tianting. He had a great future and prospects, but at this moment everything was stopped.
At this time, the Han cavalry general held Xu Sheng's head high, galloped and roared:
"I am Zhang Yide from Yan!"
"Zhang Yide!"
All the Han troops roared and shouted for peace, witnessing Zhang Fei's peerless martial arts.
At this time, Liu Bei, who was in the rear, heard the sound of his brother Zhang Fei showing off his martial arts, and a smile appeared on his face.
And Yang Xiu over there also had a rare look of relief, because both he and Liu Bei discovered the problem with the enemy army, that is, the condition of Zhao Yun's troops on the opposite side was very average.
It simply collapsed at the first touch, with no power to fight back.
Judging from this situation, in another hour, no, in another half an hour, the enemy army will completely collapse.
At this moment Yang Xiu said to Liu Bei:
"Then Zhao Yun should have sent some brave civilians into the army. It is really a short-sighted move. Those people have been sent into the army. No matter how many enemy troops there are, what's the use?"
Liu Bei was greatly impressed.
At this time, various voices of victory continued to come from the front. It seemed that the situation was really as Liu Bei and Liu Bei expected.
……
Over there, Zhang Fei had just killed Xu Sheng and was about to lead his cavalry to expand his victory when he suddenly heard a loud shout from the right side.
"Zhang Yide, die!"
As he said that, a knight's eyes were bloodshot, he stepped out of the horse and rushed straight towards Zhang Fei.
This person is none other than Zhao Yun's general Han Dang.
Han Dang was not with Xu Sheng. He was standing at the top of the city with his trapped soldiers as support.
But when he saw Xu Sheng leading his troops to stop Zhang Fei, he realized something was wrong. He took the last fifty cavalry in the city and rushed out of the city, preparing to cooperate with Xu Sheng.
Han Dang knew Zhang Fei's reputation. He was from the border area, and Zhang Fei was also famous in the border area, so Han Dang knew Zhang Fei's ability to fight early on.
Later, they joined the Han army and participated in the battle to quell the Taiping Army. Zhang Fei became even more famous. Even if he had not fought alongside Zhang Fei, Han Dang knew Zhang Fei's achievements.
Later, the home army leader Zhao Yun almost died in Zhang Fei's hands again. In this case, Han Dang knew that he was no match for Zhang Fei.
So when he saw Xu Sheng rushing forward, he knew he was going to be in trouble. Xu Sheng's combat power was about the same as his own, so he would be in serious danger if he went up!
But when he rushed into the formation, he saw that Xu Sheng's head had been lifted high in the sky. At this time, Han Dang was blinded by anger and rushed towards Zhang Fei regardless.
In fact, Han Dang was not a sneak attack at this time, and he actually shouted loudly before him.
This violent shouting immediately reminded Zhang Fei. He turned around and passed Han Dang on the wrong horse. The two soldiers struck each other and separated.
Because Zhang Fei didn't charge up his strength and was in a hurry, he didn't shoot down Han Dang. It would have ended here because Zhang Fei wanted to let Han Dang go.
The reason was simple and casual. Zhang Fei saw that Han Dang had martial virtue and was a good warrior, so he wanted to save his life.
But just when Zhang Fei was about to leave and prepare to seize Xu Sheng's flag, he suddenly heard the knight behind him mockingly:
"I thought Zhang Yide was an unparalleled warrior in the world, but that's it? I'm afraid you don't know how to use it. My unweaned son is stronger than you!"
After Zhang Fei heard this, his whole face turned red. He turned his horse's head directly, looked at Han Dang with his hands lowered, looked at him with a mocking look on his face, and shouted:
"This thing is looking for death!"
Then Zhang Fei crossed his arms and his legs, and rushed straight towards Han Dang.
At this time, Han Dang didn't react at all, just staring at Zhang Fei who was approaching.
It wasn't that he didn't want to move, but Zhang Fei's casual blow just now tore his palm and shoulder. He knew the gap between him and Zhang Fei, but he didn't expect the gap to be so big.
At this moment, looking at Zhang Fei who was getting closer and closer, Han Dang lowered his eyes and looked at Zhang Fei's horse head, where the heads of Xu Sheng and several other generals were hung.
Han thought he was doomed.
But at this moment, Zhang Fei was still in the middle of the road. He suddenly swung his horse across the road, smashed it into the air, and then knocked away an iron arrow.
Then, Zhang Fei flew with his horse, shot down four arrows in a row, and then stared at the city head.
There, Hu Luding, the top marksman of the Crane Control Army, was looking at the monsters under the city in astonishment.
He didn't expect that there would be someone in this world who could shoot down five of his arrows in a row. But at this moment, after being locked with Zhang Fei's gaze, he even lost the courage to draw the sixth arrow.
It wasn't until Zhang Fei withdrew his gaze and pointed Ma Shan at Han Dang again that Hu Luding recovered. At this time, his back was soaked.
And just when Zhang Fei was about to kill Na Han, suddenly the whole battlefield was filled with the sound of gold, and Zhang Fei looked at the formation in confusion.
But further to the west, billowing sand and dust were approaching like a natural disaster.
Zhang Fei's face turned pale and he realized something. He no longer cared about Han Dang and quickly returned to the army with his cavalry.
And Han Dang, who was lucky enough to survive, couldn't help but feel sad when he looked at the natural disaster in the west:
"Wen Xiang, if only you could hold on for a moment longer!"
After saying that, Han Dang drew his sword with his good left hand and roared:
"The entire army strikes back! No one will be left alive in this battle!"
With that said, Han Dang took the lead and rushed after the retreating figures of the Han army.
Behind him, countless remaining soldiers roared! Most of these people were not regular soldiers of the Taishan Army. Many of them were local soldiers recruited by Zhao Yun in Xin'an. This was also the reason why the He Controlling Army was so unsuccessful in this battle.
But at this moment, these brave men looked at the backs of countless enemy soldiers and had only one thought in their minds:
revenge!