My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 536: Defeat Xiahou again and subdue Wu Yi

Xiahou Yuan shouted at the top of his lungs to encourage morale, which barely aroused the determination of the soldiers in Cao's camp to fight to the end.

However, Zhang Fei, Wei Yan and Wu Yi on the opposite side did not care about the enemy's reaction. They still launched the charge step by step. The anti-Cao coalition soldiers looked gloomy. Although they were nervous, they were more united in hatred of the enemy. The shouts during the charge were smaller than those of the Cao army, but they seemed more determined.

This may also be because most of the front-line soldiers of the anti-Cao coalition were equipped with iron armor. Such heavily armed soldiers did not have the extra energy to yell. However, this relatively quiet charge, with the clanging and friction of metal, could convey a sense of oppression and frighten the enemy.

"Shoot! Shoot with all your might!" Regardless of saving arrows, the officers of Cao's army began to order their archers to shoot with all their might from a distance of 200 steps. Even if they couldn't kill many people, it was at least good to scare the enemy and give them courage.

A rain of arrows rushed across the narrow valley road like locusts. Most of them missed the target, and the few that hit the enemy soldiers were stuck in their armor and could not penetrate.

But there were always some arrows shot from powerful crossbows, or those with good luck, that hit weak spots, and then the armored soldiers would fall down without making a sound. However, this level of weakening was far from enough to stop the charge of Zhang Fei and Wu Yi.

The attackers soon entered the stage of trench bridge warfare and fortification warfare. They still used simple trench bridge vehicles and rafts, simple battering rams and ramming logs, and some door panels and flying ladders.

Ignoring fire suppression and casualties, the auxiliary troops of the attacking side built simple trench bridges on the pits dug by Cao's army, and then piled bags and baskets of soil on top to compact the two ends of the trench bridges.

The soldiers who were covering the attack rushed to the rammed earth wall, put up a raft, and began to climb over the wooden stakes and antler fortifications on the top of the rammed earth.

Cao's troops' spears were like a forest, densely stabbing each other, and they fought desperately with the armored soldiers who rushed up.

In fact, such a scene had already happened once more than a month ago on the battlefield in Dianjiang County.

The two warring parties are still the same people, and everyone is familiar with each other's tactics.

But both sides could only grit their teeth and hold on, using the most unskilled brute force attack to defeat the opponent with force.

The front of the battlefield was soon turned into a bloody meat millstone. As Zhang Fei's soldiers gradually opened up some holes, Xiahou Yuan quickly sent in blunt-tool soldiers with iron rods and bronze clubs to plug the gaps.

The battle between the two sides became more and more brutal, from long-range stabbing to close combat, with every move being a life-and-death struggle.

"Xiahou Yuan was not frightened by the defeat in Dianjiang more than a month ago, and dared to fight head-on like this. I didn't expect that."

Zhang Fei commanded his soldiers to attack with all their might, but seeing that there was no breakthrough for a long time, he became quite impatient.

To be honest, in today's battle, Zhang Fei initially wanted to rely on his arrogance and the psychological advantage of "we have won the same battle before" to suppress Xiahou Yuan's mentality.

As long as Cao's army is afraid of repeating its previous failure and is afraid of being defeated again and again in almost the same battlefield environment, their morale will be low and I can immediately seize the opportunity to expand my victory.

But Xiahou Yuan actually dared to resist twice in the same pit, and was still so tenacious and meticulous, which really caught Zhang Fei off guard.

I was still careless.

The bloody battle lasted from morning to early noon. Seeing that the enemy's defense was still tight, Zhang Fei decided to take a final gamble and sent out the Bandunman troops in the army as a reserve force, hoping to have more people climb and break through the wall, disperse the enemy's defense, and reduce the pressure on the main attack point.

This tactic had been used almost exactly the same way before in the battle of Dianjiang, and now it was used again.

However, after using it, Zhang Fei found that the situation was not ideal.

Firstly, Xiahou Yuan was more mentally prepared. Cao's army had been practicing and reviewing for more than a month, so they were not so panicked when they were harassed by the barbarians.

Although the Bandunman soldiers were as brave as ever, Cao's army relied on their determination and tenacity, despite more casualties, to withstand these sudden and intensified attacks.

On the other hand, the combat power of the Bandunman soldiers under Zhang Fei at this moment was much weaker than that in the Battle of Dianjiang. Wang Ping himself was currently in the direction of Dangqu in Baxi County, clearing out the remnants of Cao's army in the southern part of Daba Mountain and consolidating Liu Bei's army's Daba Mountain defense line. He was not at the main battlefield of Yangping Pass.

When Wang Ping left, he would naturally take some of the Bantun barbarians with him. In addition, many recent missions of crossing mountains and ridges and scouting and communicating with each other required the use of Bantun barbarians. Compared with more than a month ago, the number of Bantun barbarians that Zhang Fei could directly call on was only 30% or 40% left.

Once the number of these soldiers who are extremely skilled in climbing decreases, they cannot be concentrated to make breakthroughs at key points, and their power is greatly reduced.

Moreover, the terrain of the battlefield in front of Yangping Pass was actually narrower than that of the battle in Dianjiang County more than a month ago. The Qinling Mountains and the Daba Mountains met here, and the valley formed by the clamp was more precipitous, resulting in a narrow front width of the battlefield where Cao Ying could be attacked.

If the battlefield terrain is narrow, the side with superior military strength will find it difficult to deploy, and the larger number of troops will not be able to make full use of them, so they can only fight in a rotation battle.

Zhang Fei was very impatient, but it was of no avail. He could only wait until one troop was tired, retreat for a while to rest, and then take over with another troop to continue the attack.

"No, we can't keep fighting like this. Xiahou Yuan is quite capable and knows how to learn from his mistakes. This terrain is not conducive to the deployment of the larger force. Let's wait for my brother and the military advisor to arrive, and then think of other strategies to add."

Zhang Fei felt a lot of pressure. Although he did not go into battle himself, sweat continued to pour down his forehead. Finally, he decided to be humble, listen to others' advice and eat his fill.

"Sound the horn! Retreat today!"

Following Zhang Fei's order, his attacking troops quickly retreated. Moreover, Zhang Fei was a man of few words and did not betray his teammates. Before temporarily retreating, he sent people over the mountain to contact Wu Yi's side, to give Wu Yi some psychological preparation and to arrange a time to retreat together.

As Zhang Fei and Wu Yi withdrew one after another, Xiahou Yuan finally breathed a sigh of relief. Since the defeat in Dianjiang County, he had lost five battles in a row. Now he finally won a battle by relying on this solid camp in front of Yangping Pass! He repelled the joint efforts of Zhang Fei and Wu Yi!

The road to Shu is indeed difficult. Whoever attacks at the throat of Shu will suffer!
……

Zhang Fei temporarily withdrew his troops and returned to the camp to rest and reinforce.

After waiting for another day, Liu Bei and Pang Tong finally arrived at the battlefield with the rear troops and Gan Ning.

Zhang Fei changed his previous aggressive and reckless attitude, and humbly went out of the camp to greet them, asking for advice with an open mind, and briefly described the battle situation here.

When Liu Bei heard that Zhang Fei failed to break Xiahou Yuan's camp in his first attack, he did not blame him but comforted him:

"Victory and defeat are common in the military. Besides, this is not a defeat. We just failed to conquer the city in the first attack. Now that the military advisor is here, let's discuss countermeasures. We will surely win the next time we attack!"

As Liu Bei spoke, he patted Zhang Fei on the shoulder, and at the same time his eyes involuntarily glanced at Pang Tong.

Pang Tong felt a sense of pressure for no reason, but there was nothing he could do but to help Liu Bei and Zhang Fei come up with a plan.

After reviewing the failure of the first battle, Pang Tong quickly pointed out: "It seems that Yide had intended to repeat the story of breaking through Xiahou Yuan's camp during the Battle of Dianjiang, but unfortunately the situation changed with the passage of time, and the weather and terrain changed, so he failed.

The Jinniu Road was much more steep and narrow than in Dianjiang County. The larger force on one side could not deploy its forces, and a frontal attack would make it difficult to break through quickly.

Moreover, Xiahou Yuan had the strong support of the pass behind him, so even if they were defeated this time, they could retreat steadily and safely back to the pass, and the morale of the soldiers would not collapse.

Therefore, we cannot expect to annihilate Xiahou Yuan in this battle. We can only hope to force Xiahou Yuan back to Yangping Pass at the lowest cost and abandon the large camp blocking the road in front of the pass."

Pang Tong's analysis quickly enlightened Zhang Fei, who originally had a unclear strategic goal.

Before this, Zhang Fei had only thought about how to defeat Xiahou Yuan and what tactical means to use, but he had never thought about what level of victory he wanted to achieve strategically.

From this point of view, Zhang Fei's military ability is very good, but it is hard to say that he is a commander with a broad vision.

After Zhang Fei figured it out, he immediately asked for advice: "It seems that the goal I originally set for this battle was a bit hasty. It's just to force Xiahou Yuan back to the pass and rescue Wu Yi... Then I would like to ask the military advisor, how should we adjust our offensive?"

Pang Tong thought for a moment and said, "Since we need to force the enemy back and rescue our allies first, then we should attack their hearts first and then attack them by force. You don't need to change the tactical arrangement you made yesterday. Just fight as it is. However, there are two points that need to be adjusted besides tactics:
First, let the Bandunman soldiers cross the mountain to Wu Yi's camp, and temporarily give him hundreds of sets of iron armor to win his heart. As for the reason, don't say that you want to use him for your own benefit, just say that they are allies and they need him to contribute more. Give his vanguard soldiers more iron armor to improve the combat effectiveness of the troops attacking Cao's camp from the northwest.

After all, Jinniu Road is narrow, and the side with more troops cannot deploy. The attack surface on our side is only so wide. We need to let Wu Yi play his role as well to achieve a better pincer attack effect.

Secondly, let the soldiers shout loudly before the battle tomorrow, saying that Ma Teng of Xiliang has responded to our army and joined us in the fight against Cao, so Cao Cao's reinforcements cannot cross the Qinling Mountains and cannot reinforce Xiahou Yuan. During this period, Xiahou Yuan must have been encouraging his soldiers with "The Prime Minister will come to reinforce us soon, and we can get through it if we grit our teeth", and his troops also relied on this confidence.

If they suddenly knew that Cao Cao couldn't come, how could they still have the energy to defend the camp? One battle can break it!"

Zhang Fei was shocked: "Is Cao Cao really unable to come?"

Pang Tong: "Yide, why are you so honest? You don't care whether Cao Cao comes or not. Anyway, Cao Cao hasn't come yet. We say that this is not temporary, but he will never come. How can a soldier in Cao's camp judge whether it is true or not?"

Zhang Fei was stunned, then he slapped his thigh: Why didn’t I think of using this bad news to cheat?

"What a brilliant plan, strategist! I really went to a mountain of treasures but came back empty-handed! How could you not think of using such beneficial information!"

Zhang Fei listened to the advice and had his fill.

The next morning, he quickly reorganized an offensive according to Pang Tong's instructions.

Xiahou Yuan looked at Zhang Fei's tactical deployment and saw that it was the same as yesterday, so he was not worried. He even sneered: "What a fool! After being defeated once, he wants to die again in the same way a second time!"

But as Zhang Fei officially opened the curtain, Xiahou Yuan soon stopped laughing.

Because Zhang Fei really followed Pang Tong's instructions and shouted at the enemy before the charge: "Ma Teng is causing trouble, stop Cao Cao, Cao Cao can't come! You are already trapped in the jar, quickly prepare to be killed!"

Upon hearing this, the Cao army became increasingly disorganized and panic-stricken.

Zhang Fei took advantage of the situation and launched a fierce attack. This time, it took him only more than half an hour to break through Xiahou Yuan's two lines of defense, achieving what he had not been able to do in the entire morning yesterday.

Seeing his side successfully break through the camp, Zhang Fei shouted for a fierce fight and also rode his horse into the camp. As his snake spear flew, he couldn't help but admire Pang Tong in his heart:

"Although Military Advisor Pang is not as good as Brother Zhuge, he uses this method of attacking the heart and taking away the spirit very skillfully. The same tactic can be turned into something extraordinary. I admire you so much."

(End of this chapter)