Chapter 768 Watching the Battle
In the third year of Taiwu, on May 28th, at the end of the day, Zhou Xin's main formation was on the south bank of Yishui River.
At this time, a pontoon bridge had been erected on the Yishui River just north of the main formation of the Right Guard Army. It was a pontoon bridge tied to seventy wooden boats and paved with wooden planks, and Zhou Xin's twelve thousand officials surrounded it. Floating bridges are arranged left and right here.
Zhou Xin's previous task was to cross the river north from this pontoon and cooperate with Zhang He on the middle road from the southwest. But later Yuan Shao changed his military strategy, so that the Zuohu Army continued to stay on the south bank of Yishui River.
In fact, if Yuan Shaoneng had followed Ju Yi's suggestion from the beginning and let Zhou Xin cross the river, maybe Zhang He in the middle would not have been annihilated.
But Zhou Xin didn't know this. At this time, he was having someone set up a watchtower.
But the watchtower in front of me is not so much a watchtower as it is a scaffolding ladder erected on the ground. At this time, Zhou Xin was directing the soldiers below to adjust the ladder.
"Left a little, left a little, don't you know? Idiot."
Seeing that his men were still moving the ladder to the right, Zhou Xin was so angry that he rushed up and kicked the man and cursed:
"The hand holding the bow."
The warrior understood immediately and moved to the left.
Zhou Xin was also helpless by the warriors under his command who came from the Runan Yellow Turban. He selected a random person and asked him to go up and test the quality of the scaffolding first.
The warrior who was called didn't understand, so he climbed onto the scaffolding and even jumped. Seeing that the quality was indeed good, Zhou Xin asked the guard:
"How many enemy troops are coming?"
The Zuo Army had previously reported that enemy cavalry had appeared in the upper reaches of the Yishui River, so Zhou Xin thought of setting up a scaffolding to see the enemy's military strength.
But the guard looked at it for a long time and said there were many, but he couldn't tell how many there were.
Zhou Xin scolded Runan below, then asked the man to come down, and then climbed up the scaffolding himself.
After climbing up and looking into the distance, we could see all the scenery on the upper reaches of Yishui River. It’s no wonder that the guard just couldn’t see the number. The number of enemy knights was indeed unclear. Although there was smoke and dust everywhere, how many people there were? Do you know?
Therefore, Zhou Xin just asked the left army to stand still and defend their own formation.
……
At this time, it was Ma Chao and other elite cavalry of the Taishan Army who suddenly appeared upstream of Zhou Xin.
They started crossing the river from the upper reaches of Luoshui River, and then went all the way south. After crossing Yishui, they went straight to Yuan Shao's main formation.
Ma Chao is a man who does not care about his own life, and the elite cavalry he selected are also like this. Therefore, although there are only a few hundred cavalry, they are not afraid of Yuan Shao's camp in the distance.
At this moment, Ma Dai, who came with Ma Chao, looked at the army with the Zhou flag in front of him and said to Ma Chao:
"This should be Zhou Xin's left guard. This Zhou Xin is a son of the public clan, and his brother should not be underestimated."
But Ma Chao looked ahead and sneered:
"Then Nan'er also knows how to use troops?"
Seeing what Ma Dai was going to say, Ma Chao waved his hand directly and said:
"I have my strategy. At this moment, our army and the bandit army must have already fought in Yiluo. Our army is smaller in number than the other side. Although our combat power is no less than that of the enemy, I still have to undermine the morale of the bandits. . This is why the king asked our army to come.”
Ma Chao moved out of the king, and Ma Dai and others were naturally speechless, so Ma Dai asked:
"Then how should brother reduce the morale of thieves?"
Ma Chao already had a strategy in mind and said confidently:
"It's very simple. I will lead more than ten cavalry to lure the enemy deep in a while, and then you will lead the rest to attack, killing the thieves first and creating a powerful display."
It's really simple, but sometimes the simpler the strategy, the more practical it is.
After that, Ma Chao arranged the attack sequence, then left Generals Ma Dai and Ding Xuan to command the remaining fine cavalry, and then really ran up with more than ten cavalry.
Ma Chao led more than ten cavalrymen straight to the left army, and then ran back and forth outside the position, cursing the enemy troops.
What Ma Chao did was actually very childish and would not be taken seriously by any mature general.
But the Zuo Guard Army in front of Ma Chao is a bit complicated. Its family is mainly a mixture of Zhou Kang's tribe from the Zhou family in Ancheng, Runan, and the Yellow Turbans from Runan.
The Runan Zhou family is a family of Confucian classics, but in this troubled world, if they want to seek stability and progress, even the Confucian classics family must take up arms.
As a disciple of the Yuan family, Zhou Kang of Runan has brought his own tribe to conquer since Yuan Shao raised his army. However, during the Battle of Jiangxia, Zhou Kang died of illness in Jiangxia due to miasma, so his tribe was Inherited by his son Zhou Fei.
That's right, in Duke Chen's army, father and son openly agreed one after another.
Zhou Fei was only eleven years old at this time. In order to take over the family branch, he was crowned in advance. However, due to the lack of military strategy and prestige, military affairs were all assisted by veterans of the family.
Originally, Zhou Fei's family elders would not care about Ma Chao's little teasing. After all, no matter how much they fight, they would still damage their own strength.
But at this moment, a clan elder who was in charge of observing the formation suddenly saw Yuan Shao's clan flag and general flag appearing in the southeast, and shouted:
"No, Mr. Chen is here to watch the battle."
Hearing this, the generals of the Zhou family below were shocked. One of them rushed to the military vehicle to look out, and sure enough, he saw Yuan's blue bird holding a spike flag appearing in the southeast.
So, the old man made another decision:
"It's true, Mr. Chen is coming to watch the battle."
At this time, several clan elders discussed it and decided that they had no choice but to fight if they didn't want to fight at first.
A well-known reason is that although Chen Gongguo has always implemented the direct leadership system, it does not mean that Yuan Shao is willing to tolerate this.
The reason why the direct-college system is so popular is not because it is good, but because Yuan Shao had to do it when he started his business. But now, Yuan Shao thinks that he has become more powerful and wants to take the military power as his own, so as long as his military leaders make mistakes, they will be captured.
Originally, the enemy's clamor was just a clamor, and they would not lose a piece of meat. But now that Yuan Shao has come up, if they let them do nothing, they will definitely be deprived of military power.
For this reason, several clan elders discussed it and asked one of the family members to lead a cavalry team of 50 and 500 soldiers directly under the family to drive away the rebel army.
Therefore, little Master Zhou Fei, who was so young that the hair on his lips had not yet faded, gave the order to attack.
After a while, the drums and horns of the left guard's left army moved in unison, and a group of soldiers and horses went straight towards Ma Chao.
……
Behind Zhou's troops, Zhou Xin suddenly saw the Zuo Army beating the war drum. Looking at the situation in the distance, he cursed:
"Did Zhou Fei really mislead me this time? Didn't he know that the other side was tempting him to attack?" He was about to order the soldiers below to go to the left army to teach the boy a lesson, when he suddenly saw the flag and cavalry appearing in the southeast. His expression changed quickly.
After secretly cursing, he led a group of horsemen to greet him.
In fact, he also knew that he would definitely be reprimanded if he took his cavalry to meet Yuan Shao. After all, as the leader of an army, how could he leave so easily? But Zhou Xin and Yuan Shao had been playing together since they were young, and this guy in his family was He knows exactly what it means to be a human being.
He knew that if he didn't go, even though he would be praised by Yuan Shao on the surface, he would definitely hate him later. But now I went straight to the past. Although I lost face, I gained a lot of respect.
This is the difference between him and Ju Yi. Why did Ju Yi, a veteran, make many military exploits and win but lose everything in the end? Isn’t it because you don’t understand this?
Sure enough, when Zhou Xin led a group of knights straight to Yuan Shao, Yuan Shao pretended to ignore him, and instead pointed at the northwest battlefield with several generals and staff.
In fact, what can Yuan Shao see from this distance? Nothing could be seen except puffs of smoke.
He pointed to the flag of the Zhou family in Runan and said to Xu You:
"That's the flag of the Zhou family. Uncle Zhou Yuan is indeed a hero of his generation. Even if he dies, his style will still be inherited by future generations. Uncle Yuan used to fight like this, he marched forward bravely."
Xu You smiled and nodded, saying:
"My lord, I have met Uncle Yuan's son. He is a young man who loves to read. His attainments in Confucian classics are already among the best among his generation. I thought he was weak in literature, but I didn't expect him to be so brave in battle. It seems that Uncle Zhi is really good. She gave birth to a baby boy.”
Yuan Shao laughed, took out a scroll of silk from the horse's side trousers, and then wrote Zhou Fei's name on it. There were also some scattered names written on the silk. If anyone could see it, they would find that these are all They were some teenage warriors in the army.
Obviously Yuan Shao wrote down these outstanding warriors to supplement his son Yuan Shang's side. With such warriors with battle experience assisting Yuan Shang, he could greatly enhance his control over the army.
What a pity for the parents in the world.
Here, Yuan Shaogang wrote Zhou Fei's name, as if he saw it suddenly, and was surprised to see Zhou Xin, who had been hunched over behind him, and said:
"Old Zhou, why are you here? The left army under your command is fighting, and you still leave the formation?"
Zhou Xin hunched over and said with a flattering smile:
"My lord, don't you understand Lao Zhou? How can I know how to fight, Lao Yuan is watching. Besides, Zhou Fei is a young hero, what can he do wrong?"
The old Yuan in Zhou Xin's mouth is the disciple of Yuan Shao's family. He was given the surname Yuan. He is now the visitor around Zhou Xin and represents Yuan Shao.
In fact, Zhou Xin is also a son of the royal family, and he actually wants to be brothers with Yuan Shao's slaves. Zhou Xin is really someone who can afford to let go.
Not only that, what Zhou Xin said was very appropriate. He didn't know how to fight, and Lao Yuan was enough. In fact, he said that Zuo Hujun belonged to the Yuan family, and Zhou Xin did. Temporarily received if not available.
He knew that Yuan Shao loved hearing this.
Sure enough, Yuan Shao, who originally wanted to scold Zhou Xin a few words, did not embarrass Zhou Xin anymore after hearing these words. Instead, he smiled and asked him to mount his horse, rode close to him, and allowed him to watch the battle together.
The staff and generals behind Yuan Shao were all watching with smiles. In their opinion, although Zhou Xin was a little pretentious, they were not worried about the battlefield ahead. After all, there was a huge numerical gap between the two sides.
But soon, the situation on the outer battlefield took a turn for the worse.
The enemy's cavalry "could not hold up any longer" and began to retreat toward the rear, while Zhou's troops were chasing after them and even far away from the left army's main formation.
At this time, the Handan merchant beside Yuan Shao made a sound and whispered to Yuan Shao:
"The Zhou family is about to be ambushed."
Yuan Shao was still talking to Zhou Xin. After hearing these words, he was stunned for a moment, then looked towards the direction of the battlefield and stopped talking.
Sure enough, the situation on the battlefield soon turned out as Handan Shang said. Just as Zhou's tribe broke away from the left army's main formation, suddenly hundreds of cavalry were actually killed from the smoke on both sides.
At first, Yuan Jun thought that the smoke and dust were an illusion created by a small number of enemy troops. No one expected that a wave of cavalry would actually rush out.
These hundreds of cavalry rushed directly to the rear of Zhou's tribe, and immediately killed dozens of people. After that, the cavalry charged back and forth, directly defeating the pursuing Zhou's tribe.
Without the cover of the military formation, Zhou's tribe wanted to retreat, but was cut down by the chasing cavalry.
Seeing that the troops who had gone out were about to be annihilated, another horn sounded from the Zuo Army's main formation, and a cavalry army numbering about a hundred riders quickly passed through the race track. They were the assault cavalry force affiliated to the Zuo Army, and they were obviously going to The rescue of the Zhou family.
But it was already too late. After the knights rushed over, Ma Chao led the cavalry and ran away with a roar.
Originally, the Zuojun's assault cavalry wanted to pursue, but when they heard the sound of gold ringing from behind, they gave up and then returned to their position with the remaining soldiers.
At the last count, the left army had 550 infantrymen and cavalrymen out of the battle, and 200 men came back alive. Among them, 180 had their heads chopped off. It was obviously a great defeat.
The most terrifying thing is that this defeat happened under Yuan Shao's nose.
Zhou Fei also knew that he was in trouble, so he hurriedly brought a cavalry commander and three heads to see Yuan Shao. These three heads were chopped off by this cavalryman, and they were one of the few bright spots in the attack.
Looking at Ju Yi who had been silent beside him, Yuan Shao felt that he had lost all face. Although Ju Yi had no expression from beginning to end, Yuan Shao knew that he was laughing at him in his heart.
But looking at Zhou Fei, who was kneeling on the ground, meticulous and as old as his youngest son, Yuan Shao finally managed to hold back his anger.
The fathers of Yuan Shao and Zhou Fei were not only from the same hometown, but also the same age. They were born and died together during the party members. Later, Zhou Kang followed him and died in Jiangxia.
Looking at Zhou Fei who looked exactly like Zhou Kang, Yuan Shao could not reprimand him no matter how angry he was.
He turned around and saw that the knight who had followed Zhou Fei was holding a bloody head in his hand, looking at him with a silly smile.
Yuan Shao angrily cursed:
"What a dog slave. Didn't you know that the head was brought up to be cleaned? And what's the matter with your military uniform? Why don't you wear my Yuan's uniform and the placket of the yellow scarf?"
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As he said this, Yuan Shao took out his whip and whipped the knight.
After beating the cavalry general, Yuan Shao ignored these people and rode directly back to the camp.
On the contrary, Xu You smiled kindly at Zhou Fei:
"Your uncle is in a hurry to go back and drink medicine. He has no objection to you. You can apologize to your uncle properly outside the military tent later and forget about it."
Zhou Fei's face turned pale, he saluted Xu You respectfully, then pursed his lips and stopped talking.
Xu You said with a smile to several merchants from Handan:
"Look, Zhou'er does have the style of a general. Before you win, you must not be arrogant or discouraged by defeat. Work hard!"
After comforting Zhou Fei, Xu You and others hurriedly pursued Yuan Shao.
It is indeed unhappy to come to watch the battle with great interest and return disappointed.
But no one paid attention to the face of the cavalryman who was beaten by Yuan Shao, which was full of resentment.