My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 520: Zhang Fei fights to the death, Wang Ping goes behind

Following Liu Bei's decisive order, a strange army that looked agile and strong and only wore thin leather armor or even rattan armor soon appeared on the battlefield where the sound of killing was deafening.

The troop consisted of not many people, only about two to three thousand, and those who were in charge of leading the troop were Wang Ping and several other officers from the Bandunman tribe who had just returned.

In later history, the "Wudang Flying Army" of the Ji Han regime was mostly composed of soldiers from the Bantun Man and even Nanzhong. Among them, the Bantun Man, because they surrendered earlier, could serve as the backbone and officers of the Wudang Flying Army, while the troops of Meng Huo from Nanzhong came later and their loyalty was relatively unreliable, so they could only start from the relatively grassroots level, which was also normal.

In the later period, the Ji Han regime also added a part of Qing Qiang soldiers to the Wu Dang Flying Army. Those Qing Qiang people were the mountain ethnic groups in the Daliang Mountains in western Sichuan and near the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in later generations.

(Note: Zhuge Liang wrote in the original text of "The Second Expedition" that during the period between his first and second northern expeditions, "since I arrived in Hanzhong, it was only a year, but I lost Zhao Yun... and more than 70 people including Quchang and Tunjiang, as well as Tujiang, Wuqian, Xiongsou, Qingqiang... more than a thousand people."

It can be seen that during the Second Northern Expedition, these troops were still separated. The "Wu Qian" mentioned in the text is what was later commonly known as the Wu Dang Flying Army, which was listed alongside the Qiangsou and Qingqiang. These troops were later merged.)
Because of the addition of these military components, the Wu Dang Flying Army of later generations was gradually equipped with better armor, and became accustomed to using the poison arrows from Nanzhong and the crossbows issued by Zhuge Liang, and were positioned as "elite mountain jungle crossbowmen."

But now these Bantun barbarians have just joined Liu Bei, so naturally they cannot enjoy the bonus of new weapons, nor have they had time to learn from others. They are just a group of lightly armored mountain soldiers with high morale and swift movements, and they are not even equipped with long-range weapons. At most, some of the warriors have the habit of equipping themselves with flying knives.

Less than ten days after he came here, he was given an important task by his lord. Of course, the young Wang Ping was a little nervous and excited, and he also had a deep hatred for Xiahou Yuan's slaughter of his people. When facing the enemy, he felt his blood boiling, eager to try and wish he could kill more rebels.

On the opposite side, Xiahou Yuan, while commanding his troops to defend the camp, also observed the deployment of Liu Bei's reserve troops from time to time.

Before Wang Ping, Liu Bei had also deployed some reserve troops, so the appearance of Wang Ping did not arouse Xiahou Yuan's special vigilance.

Especially when Xiahou Yuan noticed the opponent's equipment, he felt an extra sense of contempt.

"What kind of troops are these? Their armor looks tattered and their weapons are not sharp. Has Liu Bei exhausted his potential? Except for the regular troops led by Zhang Fei at the beginning, the reserve troops behind them can no longer afford to equip themselves with armor.

Hmm? Why do these people look like the Bandun Barbarians that we killed when we were collecting food a while ago? Aren't they the local soldiers of Yizhou? Are they sent to Liu Bei by Liu Zhang? It seems that Liu Bei really has no more strength to spare. It is more than enough to hold the camp today. Finally, I can let Liu Bei kick on the stone and break his leg! "

Seeing that the enemy had even sent Liu Zhang's soldiers, Xiahou Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and felt quite at ease for a moment.

Xiahou Yuan was well aware of how rubbish Liu Zhang's soldiers were. After he defeated Zhang Lu in May last year, he marched south and captured the entire Baxi in August. During that time, he was fighting Liu Zhang's troops.

It was not until he reached Diaoyucheng and met Liu Bei's reinforcements that Xiahou Yuan's offensive was contained. It can be said that before this, he was also considered an ever-victorious general in Shu, fighting all the way from Chencang to Diaoyucheng without losing a single battle.

Strength and weakness are relative. He couldn't bully Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang, and Zhang Fei. So how could he not bully Zhang Lu and Liu Zhang?

Liu Bei even attacked Liu Zhang's garbage, which shows that he is at the end of his strength!

……

Because of Xiahou Yuan's contempt and carelessness, he did not make any special adjustments to the deployment in response to Wang Ping's entry into the battlefield.

He still controls the deployment of Cao's defensive reserve forces and the flexible defense rhythm of each layer of defense at his own pace.

Since it is about defending the camp rather than the city, it is also very important to control the rhythm of the defense line.

When defending a city, since there is only one wall, you must never give it up. You have to defend it to the end, and there is no flexibility at all.

Defending a camp is different, there can be many trenches and antler lines of defense.

When the enemy's offensive is too fierce, or there are too many long-range crossbow firepower and catapults, it is necessary to occasionally abandon the front-line positions and retreat to the back lines to make the enemy's supporting firepower disconnected.

Xiahou Yuan was good at defending the camp, and there was no need to explain how skillfully he used this skill.

Soon, Wang Ping led two to three thousand shield-armored barbarians to charge forward. Wearing light armor, they were originally very afraid of being covered and shot by the enemy's crossbowmen.

But because Liu Bei and Pang Tong's deployment today was very clever, they sent the heavy infantry in steel armor to fight first and stick to the enemy's front-line troops, the battle had already reached a white-hot state.

The archers under Xiahou Yuan's command had no stable foothold behind the first line of antler defense in the trench and had already retreated to the second line of antlers.

These crossbowmen were unable to exert much pressure on the enemy's reserve troops. Because of the lack of vision, even if they managed to shoot at a high angle, it was all blind shooting.

The Bandunman soldiers under Wang Ping had been mentally prepared to be killed by bows and crossbows first, but in the end only a few arrows flew past, and the entire army passed through the crossbow coverage area with only dozens of casualties. Naturally, the morale of the remaining Bandunman was high.

They had never encountered a Han enemy army with such weak long-range firepower. "Kill! Kill Cao the thief! Avenge our grievances!"

As these shield-armed soldiers approached the trench's antler defense line, they quickly climbed up along the rafts and door panels left behind by their comrades in front of them.

Originally, when Han soldiers climbed this kind of raft, they could basically only go up one by one, unless the raft was more than ten feet wide, then two people could barely sit side by side.

These shield-armed soldiers walked very fast and climbed up the mountains as if they were walking on flat ground. Four or five of them could walk side by side on a ten-foot-wide raft without bumping into each other.

The soldiers on the left and right sides can even run sideways and climb up, which not only saves space but also can resist the stabbing attacks from the left and right sides.

You know, one of the most important reasons why Cao's army was able to suppress Zhang Fei's offensive in hand-to-hand combat was that they were able to form a local situation of using more troops to defeat the smaller ones.

Zhang Fei's soldiers had to rush up from the wooden door panels one by one, but the enemies blocking the entrance on the opposite side might be several times more numerous.

Faced with the crazy smashing of iron rods and bronze clubs in front, as well as the long spears that suddenly stabbed out from the left and right sides, even a warrior wearing steel armor would be no match for four hands with two fists.

But once the Bantun barbarians arrived, a large number of troops could surge in a short period of time, and the local situation of outnumbering the enemy was instantly alleviated.

Moreover, they were originally lightly armored and agile, and it would be best if they could use weapons and shields to block and deflect the blows of iron rods and bronze clubs. Even if they could not block them, they would mainly dodge and move around, and would not take them head-on. For a while, the heavy weapons troops of the Cao army, which were specially designed to deal with the bulky iron-clad soldiers, were no longer useful.

The fighting on the front line tilted almost within a cup of tea.

Liu Bei's army was rapidly expanding its victory, while Xiahou Yuan's soldiers were gradually running out of steam. Even though Xiahou Yuan urgently sent two batches of reserve troops, the results were minimal.

As the Cao army's defensive loopholes became larger and larger, some tiny loopholes that had originally gone unnoticed became more and more obvious as they were washed away by undercurrents, like ant holes on a levee.

For example, in the fierce battle just now, many of the siege weapons left by Liu Bei's first batch of attacking troops, such as the rafts set up on the wall of Lujiao Camp, have been half-destroyed by Cao's army. Originally, such a large raft on the wall would have required at least five or six thick trees tied together side by side and then piled on the top of the wall.

But in the fierce battle, Cao's army would also try to use various weapons to push the raft down, or cut the wood and even the ropes that tied the wood.

After some of the rafts were cut, they were scattered into individual trees and placed on top of the wall. Seeing that there was no threat, Cao's soldiers did not bother to push each piece of wood down the wall. In their opinion, it was not worth it to lean out and risk being shot by Liu Bei's crossbowmen for such a small matter.

As Wang Ping's Bandunman troops joined the battle, these small defensive loopholes that seemed harmless immediately became deadly.

Xiahou Yuan soon noticed that in dozens of places on the battlefield, there were barbarian soldiers running directly up along a single piece of wood, just like walking on a single-plank bridge.

The defenders did not expect that these places would also be weak points for the enemy to break through, so they focused their attention elsewhere and did not take precautions at all. By the time they rushed over to block the new holes, the Bantun barbarians had already climbed over the camp wall, and the two sides entered into a melee.

Cao's army arrived in a hurry and could not use their spearmen to form a tight formation to stab and repel the enemy. Soldiers with heavy weapons such as iron rods and bronze clubs would obviously be suppressed in terms of flexibility when facing barbarians using curved swords, rattan shields and small nail hammers. As soon as the two sides fought, Cao's army suffered heavy casualties.

After all, the cycle of long soldiers defeating light soldiers, light soldiers defeating heavy soldiers, heavy soldiers defeating armored soldiers, and armored soldiers defeating all soldiers except heavy soldiers does exist to a certain extent in the real world, and is not just a random design in war games.

In order to penetrate armor, soldiers with heavy weapons have sacrificed their sensitivity, and are naturally at a disadvantage when encountering lightly armored and agile enemies.

Wang Ping led the charge, as aggressive as a mad tiger, wielding his two swords with extraordinary agility, slashing and killing indiscriminately. After killing seven or eight clumsy Cao soldiers with heavy weapons, more and more Bantun barbarians gathered around him and gradually gathered into a group.

Then Wang Ping led these soldiers to penetrate the backs of the enemy troops on both wings. Cao's army was suddenly breached on the flank, and the gap was getting bigger and bigger, and the formation became more and more chaotic.

After seeing this, Xiahou Yuan finally realized that something was wrong and quickly gave the order: "Abandon the first trench! All soldiers retreat to the second line of defense and continue to fight to the death!

The second line of defense is ready to respond! Don't be afraid! These barbarians are only brave for a moment, but they are not disciplined and cannot last long. Once we survive this wave, there will be a turning point!"

After hearing Xiahou Yuan's order, Cao's army's drummers and buglers immediately started to blow the gong to transmit the signal. When the Cao's officers on the first line of defense heard the gong, they knew that they had to abandon the current line of defense, and they all fought and retreated in groups.

Zhang Fei led the main heavy infantry to cross the trench and re-formed their troops behind the first line of defense. They also smashed open the outermost gate with the help of internal and external forces, allowing the subsequent reserve troops to rush in directly through the gate.

After Wang Ping and Zhang Fei joined forces, they immediately launched a new offensive.

(End of this chapter)