My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 517 Zhang Fei vs. Zhang Xiu

On the third day of April, Xiahou Yuan devoted the entire day to strengthening the camp's defenses and filling in the gaps.

Including Jia Xu, no one in Cao's army took the trouble to guard against Liu Bei's army crossing the Jialing River and heading north - it was not that Cao's army was unprofessional, but they could not see such an obvious opportunity and did not want to attack them halfway across the river.

But they knew that the enemy was too cunning. Liu Bei had Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong on his side, so how could he give Cao's army a chance to attack them halfway across the river? How could he make such a stupid mistake?

According to Jia Xu's deduction, even if Gan Ning wanted to help Zhang Fei cross the river, he would at least go around a very long way and then cross it safely. By the time Cao's army reached there, Liu Bei's army would probably have already established a firm foothold, so there would be no need to give away their lives in vain.

"Zhuge Liang was cautious throughout his life." Although Zhuge Liang was only 26 years old, this impression had been deeply rooted in the hearts of his enemies.

Who made this life's Zhuge Liang start his career early? He already had nine years of work experience at the age of 26.

As a result, when all the generals in Cao's camp, including Jia Xu, were in the dark, at the end of the afternoon of the third day of the first lunar month, Xiahou Yuan and Jia Xu in Cao's camp suddenly received reports from their scouts.

"Report! Thirty miles upstream on the West Han River, Gan Ning's river patrol fleet suddenly landed and released thousands of enemy troops. Our army approached the scouts, but was shot back by the enemy's strong crossbows. However, we found out that the enemy commander who landed was Zhang Fei!"

When Xiahou Yuan heard the news, he immediately stood up and subconsciously looked at Jia Xu standing beside him.

Jia Xu was also surprised. "How dare Zhang Fei get so close to us and personally serve as the vanguard of landing? Is Liu Bei so eager to fight? Is he deliberately trying to lure us to attack halfway across the river and turn defense into offense?"

Xiahou Yuan clenched his knuckles. Based on his instinctive intuition as a fierce general, he certainly wanted to send out the cavalry immediately to attack Zhang Fei and drive him off the Jialing River.

However, the experience of being repeatedly tricked and consumed by the enemy in the past few months forced him to stay calm and think about the conspiracy behind it.

In the end, it was the "Zhang Fei" card that played a decisive role.

Xiahou Yuan angrily punched the table and said with determination: "Liu Bei is a man of brotherly loyalty. He will not take risks with Zhang Fei. If Zhang Fei dares to go ashore, then he must be the main force that landed!
Maybe they are taking advantage of the fact that we dare not take action, so that they can land safely and launch a general attack with high morale! As long as Zhang Fei is killed, even if this route is not the main attack, I will not lose anything! "

Xiahou Yuan thought that even if the 50,000 or 60,000 troops were defeated and suffered heavy losses, as long as he could annihilate part of the enemy, cause significant losses to Liu Bei's army, and kill Zhang Fei, then he would not lose out.

Zhang Fei's life is worth the price. As long as Zhang Fei dies, Liu Bei will definitely be in a state of panic, and it may even affect Liu Bei's strategic decision-making, causing his subsequent entire plan to go awry.

Xiahou Yuan's judgment was not wrong, and it could even be said that he understood Liu Bei very well - historically, after Guan Yu was killed, Liu Bei did not make the most rational and calm decision, but an emotional one.

Liu Bei valued loyalty, and this weakness was well known even to his enemies.

……

Xiahou Yuan made up his mind and immediately dispatched the cavalry unit in the army, led by Zhang Xiu, to rush straight to the battlefield where Zhang Fei was crossing the river.

As for the infantry troops, they probably wouldn't be able to catch up, so only a part of them were prepared as reserve troops.

Thirty miles is neither far nor near. If the infantry run too fast, more than half of their physical strength will be consumed by the time they arrive at the battlefield. How much combat power will they have left?

Only cavalry can ensure that they are still in good condition when they arrive on the battlefield.

Zhang Xiu led thousands of elite cavalry and marched quickly, arriving at the battlefield in just over half an hour.

He was not reckless. When the two armies were only three or four miles apart, Zhang Xiu slowed down his horse to allow his soldiers to adjust their condition.

At the same time, he took the opportunity to get closer and observe the enemy situation, and then he soon noticed that Zhang Fei had actually set up a semicircular Que Yue formation along the north bank of the Jialing River, assisted by chariots and sticks. This was a typical tactic of infantry fighting against cavalry with their backs to the water.

Historically, similar tactics became famous only when Liu Yu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty defeated the Northern Wei cavalry. But in this world, Guan Yu and other generals had already used it on a small scale, and the Zhuge brothers had also discussed the effectiveness of this tactic, so it was not something new.

But no matter what, at this moment, Zhang Fei's number of people on the shore was not large. As infantry, their total strength was less than Zhang Xiu's cavalry. This was a disadvantage brought about by crossing the river in batches, which could not be avoided.

Zhang Xiu saw that the longer he delayed, the more people Zhang Fei might bring ashore, so he was not willing to wait any longer. He rushed forward in a hurry.

The two armies soon engaged in a battle. The cavalry led by Zhang Xiu at this moment included the Xiliang Iron Cavalry he had originally brought with him, as well as the Cao army's direct cavalry temporarily allocated to him by Xiahou Yuan. The equipment level of these cavalry was already very good in Cao's army, and the rate of wearing armor was also good.

In daily fighting, if they were shot by ordinary bows and arrows, these elite cavalry of Cao's army would be difficult to kill. At most, their horses would be shot and they would fall off their horses and get injured.

However, Zhang Fei's blocking firepower soon surprised Zhang Xiu. Zhang Fei's troops were well prepared, with almost no bows and arrows. All the soldiers on the chariots used pedal crossbows, which had amazing penetration power. As soon as Zhang Xiu's cavalry approached, steel cone-headed arrows whizzed in like locusts, and immediately stunned Zhang Xiu's front troops.

Some of the crossbows even used crossbow arrows without tail feathers. Although this type of crossbow arrow made entirely of steel had poor flight stability and a short range, because there were no tail feathers to get in the way, it could be placed directly into an arrow slot that looked like a magazine in later times. After firing one arrow, it would fall off, and it could be reloaded by simply re-stringing it.

There is no doubt that this weapon is obviously the Zhuge Crossbow in history. In this life, it was improved by Zhuge Liang more than ten years earlier, and only Zhuge Liang himself could make it. Even his elder brother Zhuge Jin did not understand its structure at the beginning.

It can only be said that a capable person can do anything. Zhuge Jin just relied on his many years of experience and foresight to strengthen the training of his second brother, but in the end it was Zhuge Liang's own brain that created the thing.

This time, Zhang Fei wanted to lure the enemy into a counterattack, and the battlefield situation was to form a battle formation with his back to the water and use infantry and chariots to defeat cavalry. Zhuge Liang therefore equipped Zhang Fei with all the crossbows that he had hastily made after entering Sichuan last year.

So even though Zhang Fei's team of troops that landed to lure the enemy were small in number, they were definitely the elite among the elite, all armed to the teeth, and they deliberately showed weakness by having fewer numbers in order to lure the enemy to charge.

……

"What's going on? Zhang Fei only has so few men, why is the rain of arrows so dense?"

Fortunately, Zhang Xiu did not lead the charge to the front line, and there were many soldiers ahead to clear the way for him. But even so, after being hit by the heavy rain of arrows from Zhang Fei's troops, Zhang Xiu was still caught in a dilemma, and he fought desperately to block several crossbow arrows shot at him.

However, the front-line soldiers under his command were not so lucky. They suffered considerable casualties in the rain of arrows that came close to their faces, especially the cavalry in the first two rows, most of whom were killed or wounded, and fell straight down in rows.

After finally rushing to the front, Zhang Fei's halberd soldiers relied on the defensive line formed by the chariot sticks, and some simple spikes temporarily inserted between the chariots to delay the horses. Zhang Xiu's impact was greatly weakened.

There were only a few places where Zhang Fei's halberd soldiers' defense line was barely broken through by desperate efforts, or even by the inertia of the impact of the dead cavalry. But Zhang Fei's reserve troops quickly rushed up with horse-slaying swords to block the gaps and fought to the death with Zhang Xiu's army.

Zhang Fei himself was not reckless at the beginning. When the crossbowmen were shooting arrows, he was calmly directing the troops, shouting loudly to encourage them, and adjusting the deployment to plug the gaps.

It was not until the window for firing three arrows before the battle had passed, and Cao's cavalry had been badly killed and wounded, and completely engaged in hand-to-hand combat, that Zhang Fei took up his Zhangba Snake Spear and personally led a small number of cavalry to launch a roundabout counterattack, fighting a desperate battle with Zhang Xiu's army.

This was Pang Tong's strategy of luring the enemy, and the first appearance of Zhuge Liang's Zhuge Crossbow. How could such a luxurious configuration be justified if the enemy was not given any bargaining chips?

"You Xiliang bastards, don't run away! I will send you to see the Lord of Mount Tai to have your sins counted!"

Zhang Fei's loud shouting made the enemy soldiers in front of him dizzy. He took the opportunity to swing his snake spear wildly. Even if Cao's cavalry blocked his weapon, they would be directly broken by his huge force, and even their knuckles would be cracked.

Zhang Fei stabbed left and right, but no one could match his opponent with his spear. It seemed that all the resentment that had been pent up over the past few years was vented out with the stabbing of the snake spear. Every move he made pierced through the opponent, and every move of the spear left a transparent hole.

Amid the bloody battle, Zhang Fei saw Zhang Xiu's flag from afar, and urged his troops to follow and charge forward, trying their best to tear through the enemy's blockade.

Zhang Xiu had no intention of fighting Zhang Fei. He knew Zhang Fei's reputation before he came, so he just urged the cavalry to charge back and forth, trying to defeat Zhang Fei, while he hid behind to give orders and kill Zhang Fei's soldiers whenever he could, just to boost morale.

But Zhang Xiu was unexpectedly spotted by Zhang Fei despite hiding so deeply, and he was gradually killed through the siege. Especially when the two sides were engaged in a melee, the cavalry was surrounded and forced to move by the long halberds, and the formation gradually became scattered, making it increasingly difficult to unite.

"I am Zhang Yide, and anyone who stands in my way will die!" Zhang Fei saw that there were several layers of enemy soldiers in front of him trying to stop him from killing Zhang Xiu, so he could not help but fight with all his might, roaring like thunder in a plain of sky.

The personal guards around Zhang Xiu, rationally thinking about protecting the general, but their bodies' instinctive reaction was frightened by Zhang Fei's roar, and they subconsciously dodged to both sides.

Zhang Fei cleared a little space by shouting, then quickly jumped forward on his horse and engaged in battle with Zhang Xiu.

Zhang Xiu did not expect that Zhang Fei would break through the last few layers of guards so quickly, and he was quite surprised. Fortunately, he was also a well-known brave general, so he immediately grasped the spear and fought hard.

"Zhang Fei, you dog thief, stop bullying others!" Zhang Xiu drew his spear in anger and stabbed it with great force, like a point of cold light arriving first.

Zhang Fei swung his spear and violently pushed away Zhang Xiu's spear, using the potential energy of his horse's charge to continue approaching. However, because he had already passed the stabbing distance and had no time to change his moves, he could only use the spear as a short weapon to strike.

Zhang Xiu was horrified and tried to dodge, but was still hit by the spear. The huge force made him grimace in pain.

He tried his best to dodge to the other side, turned his horse to pass by, and the two sides pulled away, and then got into a chaotic battle with the ordinary cavalry behind the enemy general. The enemy cavalry rushed towards them one after another, making Zhang Fei and Zhang Xiu a little flustered. After each of them stabbed and killed several enemy cavalry, they turned their horses around and approached again to fight again.

(End of this chapter)