My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 555: Swallowing the Xiliang Army

In terms of Pang De's actual martial arts skills, even if he is slightly inferior to Ma Chao, he is at least the second best in Xiliang.

Among the five best generals under Cao Cao in history, Zhang Liao could compete with Pang De because of his bravery and strategy in breaking through the siege and killing the enemy chief.

As for the other two, Yu Jin and Le Jin were far inferior to Pang De in terms of their personal martial arts skills. Zhang He and Xu Huang were also probably slightly inferior.

In this life, Zhang Liao, Gao Shun and other generals of Lu Bu's faction were all accepted by Liu Bei. Only four of Cao Cao's five best generals remained, and Pang De joined Cao seven or eight years earlier than the same period in history. If Cao Wei compiles a real history in the future, Pang De will most likely be included in the "new five best generals" to make up the number.

(Note: This does not say that Cao Wei will revise history in the future, only that they will revise the spare historical materials. Whether they will be used in the end is not a spoiler.)
After all, Pang De's two victories, defeating Ma Chao in the Battle of Tongguan and then retaking the city of Chang'an, are enough to leave a significant mark in historical records.

Unfortunately, such a brave and fierce general, who dared to fight and was extremely persistent in making achievements, was defeated by Zhang Fei within ten rounds.

This can only mean that Pang De underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly, without any advantage of time, place or people.

Zhang Fei's martial arts skills were slightly better than his, and he was also very good at using double-sided metal stirrups and a high-bridge saddle for the first time, catching Pang De off guard. In addition, Pang De had an old sore from Ma Chao that left him with hidden dangers.

The combination of these three factors, everything came together to make Zhang Fei's powerful strike completely avenge his humiliation.

"I am Zhang Yide! Pang De has been executed! Who else is going to die?"

With this earth-shaking shout and Pang De's body being thrown into the air and then falling heavily to the ground again, Zhang Fei completely washed away the life trajectory that had made him unable to hold his head up after Xuzhou was stolen ten years ago.

At this moment, he finally had the confidence to say: I am not much worse than my second brother. I finally won a great victory by breaking through the siege, killing the enemy's main general and defeating the entire enemy army.

It was a major battle in which both sides brought 20,000 to 30,000 troops.

"General Pang was killed!"

"Is that guy a human or a ghost?"

"I heard that Zhang Yide had won three battles in total before, forcing General Xiahou to retreat eight hundred miles, fleeing all the way from Baxi back to Hanzhong!"

The Xiliang soldiers around Pang De were quickly intimidated by Zhang Fei's might. Zhang Fei continued to attack and charge fiercely, taking advantage of the enemy's panic and killing more than ten people in a row. The remaining Xiliang cavalry finally dispersed.

Some of those who ran slower were caught up by Zhang Fei's army, who cut them off and left them with no way to retreat, so they dropped their weapons and surrendered.

Zhang Fei used the defeated soldiers of Xiliang to serve as his free vanguard, and the situation snowballed, making the collapse of the Xiliang army more and more severe.

Countless Xiliang infantrymen in the center and rear were trampled and could only run for their lives on the hillsides on both sides to avoid the enemy's attack.

But they were not good at climbing, nor were they familiar with the surrounding terrain, so it was impossible for them to climb over the mountain and get away from the battlefield. After the fighting was over, these people had to go down the mountain and be captured.

Zhang Fei charged along the valley road and soon captured thousands of surrendered soldiers, with even more enemies fleeing.

Finally, Zhang Fei drove the defeated enemy soldiers to the place where Pang De had temporarily camped. From a distance, he saw a general of Cao's army leading thousands of defeated Cao's soldiers, rushing to escape to the camp.

However, the camp gate was too narrow to allow a large number of soldiers to pass through quickly, so the retreating soldiers were crowded at the gate, resulting in trampling on each other.

The Cao general waved his sword wildly to kill the chaotic soldiers who were charging at him, but he could not maintain order. Instead, more chaotic soldiers began to climb the rammed earth antlers of the camp, trying to return to the camp by an unusual route.

Zhang Fei saw an opportunity not to be missed, so of course he continued to expand his offensive and chased after the fleeing Cao troops, hoping to seize the camp.

As Zhang Fei's troops charged out of the camp, the defeated soldiers of Cao's army became more and more panicked and rushed forward without distinguishing between friend and foe.

When General Cao, who was in charge of guarding the camp, saw that something was wrong, he immediately ordered the camp gate to be forcibly closed, blocking his own fleeing soldiers outside. If anyone tried to climb over the pit and antler defense line, he would be shot without distinction.

For a moment, Cao's army fell into a fratricide, and those who were blocked outside the camp were completely desperate. Especially the deputy general who was responsible for leading the troops to fight, he yelled at the top of his voice: "Yang Qiu, you old pig dog, open the door for me! Let us in!"

Zhang Fei took advantage of the situation and broke through the chaotic army formation, and went straight to the enemy general. Seeing Zhang Fei getting closer and closer from behind, the enemy finally broke down mentally, shouted that he was willing to surrender, and surrendered with hundreds of his personal soldiers.

Zhang Fei was about to stab him, but he stopped himself when he saw this. He just lightly poked the opponent's sword off his shoulder, and then ordered his soldiers: "Tie him up!"

……

An hour later, the chaos on the battlefield gradually subsided. Most of the Xiliang soldiers who were blocked outside the camp surrendered to Zhang Fei, and only a few managed to escape by taking a detour.

Zhang Fei did try to attack the camp during the chaos, but the enemy's remaining generals defended very resolutely.

However, Zhang Fei had not been well prepared for the attack and had no siege weapons in a hurry. After charging for a while without success, he decided to stop while he saw that the opportunity was ahead.

After the two sides put some distance between themselves again, Zhang Fei quickly ordered his subordinates to focus their energy on searching for the defeated soldiers who had fled to the hillsides on both sides of the valley, and to capture more prisoners to expand the results of the battle.

As for attacking the camp, Zhang Fei planned to spend a night to let the auxiliary soldiers prepare the siege equipment and try again tomorrow.

It was at this time that Zhang Fei had time to slowly interrogate the enemy general who surrendered in the battle, and learned that the other party was Liang Xing, one of the Eight Generals of Xiliang.

Liang Xing was quite active when he surrendered to Ma Chao before, but when Cao Cao counterattacked Chang'an, he was the first to change his mind again and opened the door to surrender directly when Ma Teng called out.

Zhang Fei naturally despised such people, but since the other party had surrendered, he still had to give him some face, and Zhang Fei did not humiliate the other party.

From Liang Xing, Zhang Fei learned that the person appointed by Pang De to guard the camp was another of the Eight Generals of Xiliang, Yang Qiu.

He also carefully inquired about Yang Qiu's style of doing things and combat capabilities, intending to know both himself and the enemy, and to specifically attack his weaknesses tomorrow.

Unfortunately, Zhang Fei's preparations did not have any effect.

When he prepared simple rafts and door panels to attack Yang Qiu's camp early the next morning, he found that Cao's army in the camp had actually withdrawn overnight.

Seeing this, Zhang Fei said to Wu Yi with regret, "I should have asked you to send Advisor Pang to the front line to give us advice on the battle.

If there was a military advisor here, he would have definitely judged from yesterday's battle situation that the Xiliang army had lost their courage and dared not defend anymore. What a pity! We missed the opportunity to take advantage of the enemy's retreat and chase them down!" Wu Yi also hurriedly comforted him: "General Zhang's achievements today are already brilliant enough, why do you want more? Mr. Kong Ming and Mr. Shi Yuan are both geniuses who want to coordinate the world. How can they take risks in a place like ours where we have to retreat after defending for a while?"

Zhang Fei thought about it and realized it made sense, so he stopped being depressed and entangled.

Liu Bei's mission was to resist and delay Cao's army along the route from Chencang Road to Yangping Pass. These camps were to be abandoned after a while, so there was no need to let the distinguished military advisor go to dangerous places for such a small bargaining chip.

Furthermore, no matter how good Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong were, they could not have predicted that Zhang Fei would win so thoroughly and kill Pang De directly. How could they have predicted the retreat of Cao's vanguard in advance?

After Zhang Fei sorted out the battle situation on the front line, he occupied the empty camp left behind by Yang Qiu after his retreat, counted the results of the battle, and quickly sent a battle report to Liu Bei, asking for instructions on the subsequent battle plan.

……

Zhang Fei's victory report was delivered to Liu Bei at Yang'an Pass just half a day later.

After receiving the report, Liu Bei naturally shared it with Zhuge Liang immediately, and the Han army camp was soon filled with a joyful atmosphere of celebration.

“Yide actually killed Pang De and annihilated more than 15,000 Cao troops, most of whom were from Xiliang.

The number of Cao's troops who followed Yang Qiu in retreating was less than 10,000. In addition, Pang De's previous attacks on the camp and Hechi County probably resulted in the loss of several thousand soldiers.

I'm afraid that Cao Cao's newly conquered Xiliang old troops have already lost more than 20,000 people in total. This is really cause for celebration!"

Liu Bei held the victory report and waved it in front of everyone. His expression was as excited as Zhang Fei himself.

Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong also congratulated him in a friendly atmosphere and helped him to do a simple calculation.

The total number of Xiliang soldiers who surrendered to Cao was no more than 30,000, of which more than 20,000 had been killed. Among these 20,000 people, about 7,000 to 8,000 were killed, seriously injured, or fled, and at least 12,000 to 13,000 were directly defeated and surrendered.

These people were like those who followed Ma Chao to fight against Cao in Chang'an, and then surrendered to Cao after Pang De fought back. Now they were forced by Cao Cao to do dirty work, and surrendered to Liu after being defeated. If we simply count the number of times, these troops have surrendered three times.

Therefore, even a vassal like Liu Bei, who was always confident in his reputation for benevolence, did not dare to take it lightly when facing such an army, and did not think that he could completely control the morale of the surrendered troops.

Thinking of this, Liu Bei could not help but consult Zhuge Liang: "Sir, what do you think of the future use of these Xiliang surrendered soldiers who have surrendered repeatedly? If we let them participate in the subsequent battles against Cao immediately, we are afraid that they will surrender too many times and the people will be unstable. Should we let Ma Mengqi continue to lead?"

Zhuge Liang thought about it quickly and answered immediately: "If we return Ma Mengqi directly, he might become arrogant again. It is better to place him in the rear for a few months.

When our army has weakened Cao's army as planned and the situation has reversed, we will return these troops to the Ma family and let them fight back."

Liu Bei thought about it and it made sense. What he had advocated from the beginning was to never use the newly surrendered troops as cannon fodder. Now there was such a good reason, so he sent them back to the rear for a few months to win over the hearts of the troops before returning them to Ma Chao. This way he would be able to use Ma Chao with more confidence in the future.

Otherwise, Ma Chao had just been in decline for more than a month, and had rebounded from only 4,000 men to 16,000 or 17,000 combat forces. He might even become arrogant.

After Liu Bei finished his work, he stroked his moustache and sighed: "Yide has made such a great contribution this time. He has finally washed away his previous shame and will be able to rule a state in the future. After this decisive battle with Cao Cao, I will naturally not treat the generals unfairly. They will all be promoted at that time. Yide can finally be on par with Yunchang and Zilong."

Although Liu Bei was close to Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, he had to treat them equally and reward or punish them according to their merits. Before entering Sichuan, Zhang Fei's military merits were a bit far behind those of Guan Yu and Zhao Yun, but now they have been completely compensated, and Liu Bei is now confident.

……

The words are divided into two parts.

While Liu Bei's side was celebrating Zhang Fei's great victory, Cao's army soon received the bad news.

The first person to react was not Cao Cao himself, but Xu Huang who was besieging Hechi County.

Because Cao Cao's main force marched relatively slowly and the Chencang Road was too narrow to accommodate too many troops, Cao Cao's central army had to pass through one by one, which was very bloated.

Of course, because six days had passed, the number of Cao's troops in Hechi County had also increased a lot, now numbering as many as 70,000 or 80,000, twice as many as Xu Huang's previous 30,000.

Now, Xu Huang had just built the heavy ladders and battering rams needed to attack Hechi County and was ready to launch the attack. It had only been six days since Pang De bypassed Hechi and continued his advance.

So after hearing that Pang De was killed and his own side was defeated, Xu Huang was a little bit unbelieving at first, and even thought it was a trick of the enemy.

Finally, it was not until another day later, when Yang Qiu fled back to Hechi with more than 6,000 defeated Xiliang remnants, that Xu Huang fully realized the seriousness of the situation.

"Only 6,000 people returned from 20,000 or 30,000 vanguards? How could we be defeated so badly? Zhang Fei only attacked head-on along the Chencang Road, and our army couldn't resist. Can't we retreat in an orderly manner?"

Seeing that Xu Huang did not understand the hardships of the front, Yang Qiu was also angry and could not help complaining: "The soldiers have fought hard! Zhang Fei first let Wu Yi show weakness, which made our soldiers tired and frustrated, and their morale is low.

As a result, he suddenly took advantage of the fact that our army learned that the food supply route was cut off and launched a counterattack. During the charge, although Zhang Fei's cavalry was not numerous, their attack was extremely fierce and swift, and our Xiliang Iron Cavalry could not resist! Moreover, General Pang was caught up by Zhang Fei, and was killed by Zhang Fei after less than ten rounds of fighting, so he was completely defeated. "

Upon hearing this, Xu Huang couldn't help but gasp.

He also had some knowledge of Pang De's martial arts, but he felt that he was not as good as Pang De.

Such a person was actually killed by Zhang Fei within ten rounds. Doesn't that mean Zhang Fei's bravery is even better than Guan Yu's?
This is impossible!

Xu Huang racked his brains, but he could not figure out why Zhang Fei suddenly gained the advantage of double-sided metal stirrups and a high-bridge saddle, while Pang De's old injury relapsed. It was the combination of gain and loss that led to his complete victory.

As a result, Xu Huang felt an inexplicable fear in his heart, and he imagined the scene of "Zhang Yide taking the general's head amidst thousands of troops as if taking something from a bag" in his mind.

In this life, Guan Yu never surrendered to Cao Cao, so he never had the chance to brag to the generals in Cao's camp about his third brother's bravery. But the inertia of history is so strong that many years later, Zhang Fei once again raised the awareness of the generals in Cao's camp by "killing Pang De in ten moves".

After expressing his feelings, Xu Huang had to face the problem at hand: Zhang Fei’s attack was so fierce, how should his side respond?

After a brief thought, Xu Huang discussed with Le Jin, who had just arrived at the front line a few days ago: "Let's send the defeat report to the Prime Minister and ask him to make a decision. In addition, we should also work hard to use all the siege weapons we have made and try to capture Hechi County as soon as possible.

If Wei Yan can be killed, at least Pang De's death can be saved."

(End of this chapter)