I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 245 Regular Army vs. Young and Dangerous
In order to ensure the successful implementation of this "grand" plan, Liu He resolutely decided to hand over the more than 20,000 most "elite" soldiers in their hands to Cao Shao for command.

In addition, he also handed over most of the more than a thousand cavalrymen he had gathered with great difficulty to Cao Shao.

In fact, Liu He did not have more available people. Cao Shao claimed that he liked to study military books and strategies, and had bravery. After a little display of his bravery, he was highly recognized and valued by Liu He.

This was the best choice Liu He had to make when there was no one else to choose from.

This is like selecting a general from a group of lame people, or picking a tall person from a group of short people. It is really a helpless act.

Therefore, Liu He chose Cao Shao, who looked mighty and had the demeanor of a general.

Cao Shao had no objection to this appointment.

Now that the rebel group had a backbone and basic organization, he had nothing to fear and his heart was filled with hatred.

He had long longed to avenge Cao Jie.

Cao Jie took great care of him, looked after him and promoted him all the way, which enabled this guy who didn't even know Confucius' real name to jump out of the circle defined by the gentry and become the governor of a county with a salary of two thousand stones.

Although they are not biological father and son, they have a very deep relationship, and he also wants to avenge Cao Jie very much.

Ever since he learned that the heads of eunuchs such as Cao Jie were brutally chopped off by Yuan's army and hung on the city gate of Luoyang to be exposed to the wind and sun, the grief and anger in his heart have never disappeared.

He vowed to take off the heads of Yuan Feng and Yuan Shu, father and son, to commemorate Cao Ji's spirit in heaven.

If the war could be won, he would fulfill this oath without hesitation.

In the early stages of the war, Cao Shao's actions were relatively smooth and he encountered almost no substantial obstacles. However, the good times did not last long and he encountered unprecedented setbacks.

The vanguard general Jiang Yin was highly recommended to him by Liu He. He was praised by Liu He as a brave man. He had followed Liu He for more than ten years and had always protected Liu He's safety. He was a very reliable and loyal person.

Cao Shao originally lacked capable and powerful generals, so he appointed Jiang Yin as the vanguard, allocated half of the cavalry to him, and let him lead 3,000 infantry to attack first, hoping that he would lead the way for the entire army.

As a result, the vanguard troops led by Jiang Yin were completely wiped out, and only more than 200 people managed to escape and come back to report the news.

As soon as this news came out, it immediately caused an uproar throughout the army, and Cao Shao also became nervous after hearing the news.

He realized that the Luoyang court was not as easy to deal with as he had imagined, and the Han army was not as timid and cautious as Liu He said.

Liu He clearly said that once the Han army heard the news that the rebels had taken the initiative to attack, they would definitely be frightened and take a defensive stance to protect themselves. However, this was not the case in fact. The Han army actually took the initiative to launch an attack!
For a moment, Cao Shao even had the idea of wavering and retreating.

But when he thought about how he boasted that he was the bravest man in the army and had threatened to fight to Luoyang to avenge Cao Jie, and now he was going to back down because of a little setback, if this came true, wouldn't he be humiliated and ashamed?
Thinking of this, Cao Shao gave up the idea of withdrawing his troops.

However, he felt that it was too dangerous for him to lead the troops to charge into battle on the front line, so he arranged for his general Gao Rang to lead 5,000 soldiers from Yan County to advance to Zaocheng for garrison.

In this way, they can not only share the firepower of the Han army, but also support each other with the main force and form a favorable tactical coordination.

This should be the "horn force" mentioned in the art of war, right?

He thought so.

After that, Cao Shao adopted a strategy of steady and cautious attack, no longer thinking about taking the initiative to send troops, and tried his best to avoid fighting with the Han army too early. Anyway, Liu He's intention was to let him try his best to buy time and scare the Han army, and did not explicitly require him to win a certain battle.

Cao Shao also deliberately concealed the fact that the vanguard troops were completely wiped out and did not report it to the Puyang base camp.

He even did not tell Puyang about the important information that the Han army had taken the initiative and launched a large-scale attack on the Suanzao line.

He believed that the Han army would not take action so quickly and could continue to delay for a few days to see the results.

But he didn't know that the Han army focused on speed, accuracy and ruthlessness, and would go all out to eliminate the rebels and not give them any chance to do anything. So before Cao Shao had been at peace for a few days, he suddenly received a request for help from Gao Rang, saying that the Han army was coming to attack with a large number of troops and asked him to provide quick support.

Now he was a little panicked, and quickly asked the advisers and generals around him what to do.

It turned out that this group of so-called counselors and generals were not even as good as Sun Zun, the dog-headed military advisor beside Wang Ji. Everyone had different opinions, and in the end Cao Shao was annoyed. He gritted his teeth, stamped his feet, and waved his hand -

Go to the rescue!

Then, this is the scene that Yuan Shu saw.

To be honest, Yuan Shu felt that this enemy force could not even be considered an army. If he had to describe it, it reminded him of the three words "young and dangerous". It was like the scene before the young and dangerous gangs in the movies, where a group of handsome, rogue, tattooed young men stood together, with fierce faces and full of momentum, gathering in a black mass. People who don't know much about it would certainly find it a bit scary.

But the problem is, this is not a gang fight between young and gangsters.

This is a battle between two armies.

Two armies confront each other, one is the regular army, the other is the gangsters...

For someone who has military experience and has led troops in battles, just by taking a glance, he can instantly find thirty or fifty fatal flaws of this group of gangsters.

If Duan Xing were here, he would probably order the cavalry to charge immediately, and then beat these gangsters until they screamed in pain, and then trample them into a pool of blood and mud.

In other words, Yuan Shu lacked experience and was more cautious, so he did not do so.

Despite this, Yuan Shu also ordered the entire army to be on alert, and archers stepped forward and were ready to shoot at any time.

The shooting distance of ordinary bows and arrows is relatively short, and they are medium- and short-range attacks. The Han army is also equipped with crossbows, which use the whole body's strength to shoot. They have a longer range than ordinary bows and arrows and are suitable for long-range attacks.

When Yuan Shu was training the Yi Xin Hui armed forces, he would also provide them with this type of crossbow for training. So this time when the Yi Xin Hui armed forces followed Yuan Shu to attack, they were very familiar with these high-end standard equipment in the army that ordinary people had never seen before, and they could use them right away.

Facing the slowly approaching rebels, five hundred soldiers were already sitting cross-legged on the ground, with crossbows placed in front of them, and another five hundred people were squatting beside them, responsible for providing them with and assisting in loading arrows.

Behind them were a thousand archers. Their task was to launch medium and short-range attacks on the rebels who were closer to the Han army camp after shooting with crossbows, so as to further reduce their combat effectiveness and fighting will.

Further back were five hundred sword and shield soldiers and five hundred spearmen, who were responsible for engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the rebels who had rushed to the edge of the camp and protecting the camp from being breached by the rebels.

After entering the melee, the previous crossbowmen and archers will retreat to the second line and change their equipment. Depending on the situation, they will become sword and shield men and spearmen and join the melee to ensure that the camp's defense line is not breached.

Yuan Shu referred to Fan Li's advice and made such plans for the 3,000 infantrymen, arranging their tasks in detail.

As for when the soldiers should take action and when to retreat, this is communicated by military flags and bugles.

These contents are also the most basic contents in military training, even more important than techniques and tactics.

Finally, there are two thousand cavalrymen, who will be led by Fan Li and Lian Da. Their task is to launch flank attacks from the left and right when the two sides are in a stalemate, take advantage of the rebels' disadvantage of not having many cavalrymen to disrupt them, and then cooperate with the infantry to completely defeat the rebels.

Up to this point, Yuan Shu's idea was still very normal. He just wanted to stop the rebels' attack and defeat their momentum, so as to support Duan Xing's action of leading the main force of the Han army to capture Zaocheng.

However, Cao Shao had no idea what Yuan Shu's arrangements were, nor did he know how large the Han army he was facing was. He only knew that a Han army had set up camp at a place they had to pass through to try to stop them from supporting Zaocheng, and that the number of soldiers and horses was relatively small.

What else is there to say?
How can we not win by outnumbering the minority?
Therefore, Cao Shao's order was to use the battalion as a unit, and let the captains of each battalion lead their own troops to surround and attack the Han army camp, quickly capture the Han army camp, and then support Zaocheng.

He had no tactical plans and did not have many ideas. Of course, the reality did limit his ideas - archers and cavalry were both important technical arms that required training.

Unlike the general armies responsible for hand-to-hand combat who can be sent to the battlefield as fill-in babies after a few months of training, this type of technical troop, no matter how fast the progress is accelerated, it will not be able to master the skills and tactics without a year or two. If they rashly go to the battlefield, they will probably cause greater harm to their own people.

Therefore, although Liu He's rebel army had a large number of people, technical arms such as cavalry and archers were very scarce.

Among the entire rebel army, there are only more than 1,500 people who can be considered cavalry, and there are only more than 3,000 mounted infantry who can ride horses but cannot perform tactical actions. There are only more than 1,200 people who can skillfully use weapons such as bows and crossbows.

Moreover, it is impossible to assign all these people to Cao Shao's use.

Cao Shao brought out 20,000 men, but there were only 300-odd archers and crossbowmen of the same level as the Han army. Even if he had the Dongjun arsenal and the number of bows and crossbows was guaranteed, what good would it do if he didn't know how to use them?
Therefore, they could only choose the tactic of close combat, rushing forward directly, relying on their numbers to see if they could succeed.

The result is - it can't be typed out.

Because the Han troops on the opposite side are all elite soldiers.

As soon as they saw the rebels had entered the attack range of the Ju Zhangnu, Yuan Shu gave an order and the messengers around him immediately began waving the command flags, and a deep and long horn sounded.

Five hundred crossbowmen immediately carried out tactical actions. They lay down and used their feet and body strength to push the crossbows away. The assistants beside them immediately helped them load arrows and prepared for shooting.

then……

"put!"

(End of this chapter)