My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 569: Defeat Cao Xiu and Besiege Xiahou

The eleventh year of Jian'an, the first day of August, morning.

On the Hanzhong Plain, 20 miles west of Mianyang County and 10 miles east of Yangping Pass.

The 80,000-strong army marched in a mighty force, with their troops deployed in strict formation, their flags covering the sky, and their drums and horns roaring in the sky.

Zhang Fei and Xiahou Yuan each led tens of thousands of soldiers, Zhang Fei in the east and Xiahou Yuan in the west. The army formation stretched for more than ten miles in front, behind, left and right, almost out of Mianyang County, all the way to Yangping Pass, and the entire plain in between became a battlefield.

The Han River flows through the south side of the battlefield, so Zhang Fei's left army is right next to the Han River, and the same is true for Xiahou Yuan's right army.

Because neither side had any naval warships available, and at most only had some weak grain transport ships, it was impossible for anyone to make a flanking attack in this direction. All attempts to encircle the enemy would be concentrated on the other side of the battlefield.

The two sides were on the verge of a fight and seemed evenly matched, so no one dared to hold back. Both sides tried their best and deployed all their main combat forces.

Xiahou Yuan left about 10,000 men in Yangping Pass as a general reserve to defend his home. Similarly, Zhang Fei also left 10,000 men to defend the line from Mianyang County to Dingjun Mountain, also as a strategic reserve. On the main battlefield, only 30,000 were deployed against 30,000 for the time being.

……

At noon in the morning, Zhang Fei and Xiahou Yuan were fully armed and came to the front of the battle.

Zhang Fei wore a breastplate and shoulder guards forged from cast steel, his limbs and lower body armor covered with fish-scale black armor, he rode a large black horse with his snake spear hung on the saddle.

Xiahou Yuan was wearing fish-scale armor, with golden breastplates on the front and back, and a neck and shoulder guard made of iron sheets under his helmet, painted red. He also hung his spear on the saddle. A strong composite bow made of cow tendons was inserted in his waist, and two pots of carved feather cone-head arrows were hung on the side of his horse.

The two camps faced each other, about three arrows' distance apart, and they began to observe and test each other. It was obvious that both sides were very cautious and did not get too close, which was also to leave more room for their own side to maneuver and respond flexibly.

In this life, Zhang Fei did not follow Liu Bei to Xudu, so there was no question of him snatching Lady Xiahou as his wife. Zhang Fei had married another wife in his early years, and he was not separated from his old home due to the war. Now Zhang Fei's original wives and concubines have already given birth to several children for him, and have no financial relationship with the Xiahou family.

Therefore, when Zhang Fei met Xiahou Yuan on the battlefield, there was no friendship at all. They were just enemies based on official matters.

"Xiahou Yuan is very strict in commanding his troops. Although he was defeated several times and fled back to Hanzhong, his soldiers are still fighting with high spirits, which is remarkable. Although our army has the advantage of the vanguard wearing armor, the enemy army mostly uses long spears and halberds, and has abundant arrows. These two aspects are disadvantageous to our army."

After carefully observing the enemy's formation, Zhang Fei came to two conclusions.

In the past few years, Liu Bei's army has been able to crush Cao's army with its armored troops. This is a great advantage that makes it difficult for Cao's army to resist.

Even if the proportion of heavy weapons such as iron rods, bronze clubs, hammers and battle axes was increased in an attempt to break armor, it would still be impossible to offset the advantages of Liu Bei's army.

However, specifically in the Battle of Hanzhong, although Liu Bei's army still had an advantage in armor rate, judging from the numbers, it was not as overwhelming as before.

Ultimately, the road to Micang Mountain is too difficult to travel on. That place couldn't even be considered a road originally. It is even more difficult to travel on than the plank road of Baoxiade.

When Liu Bei's army marched over the mountains, they had to control the weight they carried, so only the most robust and strong elite soldiers could wear iron armor to walk on such a steep and difficult mountain road. Others with weaker physiques and weaker climbing abilities could only wear leather armor.

As a result, in today's battle, Zhang Fei can only ensure that the core of the front team of about several thousand people wear steel-filled armor, while the soldiers in the middle and rear army, which account for about 70% of the entire army, can only wear light armor.

Also because of the difficulty of walking on Mi Cang Mountain, Zhang Fei rushed here in a hurry, and there were almost no cavalry, and only middle and high-level officers could have war horses. There were not many consumables such as arrows, and each archer only brought two or three pots of arrows, so they had to shoot sparingly.

The proportion of long weapons equipment is also lower than normal, which is a common problem. Therefore, there are almost no traditional spearmen in Zhang Fei's troops, only steel halberd soldiers, horse-cutting swordmen, sword and shield soldiers, archers and crossbowmen.

Fortunately, halberd soldiers can be considered long weapons. Although not as long as spears, they can at least hold their own.

Speaking of the wonderful use of halberd soldiers in climbing mountains, this matter is also closely related to the original idea of Zhuge Liang. Before this battle, Liu Bei and Zhang Fei thought that it would be difficult for soldiers holding steel halberds to climb mountains. Later, Zhuge Liang pointed out that it was entirely possible for soldiers to use the cross-blade branches of the halberds to hook and beak at the dangerous places on the mountain wall to provide support for the soldiers, and the iron halberds could also be connected and locked together.

After Liu Bei and Zhang Fei heard about it, they were quite inspired and quickly asked people to try it out. They found that it was indeed true. Later, Zhang Fei was able to lead thousands of long-spear soldiers over the mountain.

When Liu Bei asked Zhuge Liang how he came up with this brilliant idea, Zhuge Liang certainly would not steal his elder brother's credit, so he said that his elder brother came up with it when he and his elder brother were discussing military affairs a few years ago. After hearing this, Liu Bei did not doubt him at all and could only admire him.

In fact, only Zhuge Jin himself knew that these insights were all derived from the time traveler's cognition that was ahead of his time. The famous "White Pole Soldiers" of Qin Liangyu in Shu during the Ming Dynasty used a kind of white wax pole long spear similar to the hook-sickle spear. The side hook of the hook-sickle spear was quite useful when crossing mountains and ridges.

Of course, the original Bu-shaped halberd of the Han Dynasty is different from the hook-and-sickle spear of the Song and Ming dynasties. At least the angle of the curved hook of the horizontal blade is different.

However, the halberd head made of cast steel and forged in one piece after the Zhuge brothers improved the process has better stability when hooked than the original split-type welded and forged halberd head of the Han Dynasty, which is why Zhang Fei can use it so well today.

……

While Zhang Fei was secretly worried about Xiahou Yuan's military discipline, Xiahou Yuan was also very nervous.

Before today's battle, Xiahou Yuan had expected Zhang Fei's army to cross the Micang Mountain, with a lower rate of armor and simpler weapons.

It would be best to have the same opening troops as Wei Yan and Wang Ping before, with only sword and shield soldiers and hammer and shield soldiers as the main force.

However, at this moment, after witnessing with his own eyes the thousands of armored soldiers leading Zhang Fei's vanguard and the neat array of steel halberds and horse-slaying swords, Xiahou Yuan knew that most of his expectations had been dashed.

The soldiers of Liu Bei's army have always been more elite and better equipped than him. Today's battle will definitely be an unprecedented hard and fierce battle.

But he was full of expectations at the beginning, and vowed to defend Yangping Pass at all costs and prevent Gan Ning and Liu Bei's rear army from entering the pass to join forces. But now, he has found himself in a desperate situation.

"If I had chosen to retreat to Nanzheng, Yangping Pass would have been lost soon, and Liu Bei and Gan Ning would have been let in, but at least I could have fought and retreated. Even if the situation was unfavorable, I could have gone north along the Baoxiade Road or even the Tangluo Road to retreat back to Guanzhong.

Now we have retreated to Yangping Pass. The terrain is very narrow. If we don’t fight and drive Zhang Fei away, we will be stuck in the pass with nowhere to retreat... What should we do?"

When Xiahou Yuan thought of this, he couldn't help but look towards the north side of the battlefield, which was his left wing.

That direction was the route Cao Xiu had taken when he came to reinforce him. The Mian River and the southern valley of the Baoxiadao extended from that direction.

Xiahou Yuan made a rough estimate based on the enemy and our own situation, and thought that after the battle started, Zhang Fei would definitely try every means to take a detour and encircle us in that direction, cutting off the passage between his side and the southern valley entrance of Baoxiade Road.

Thinking of this, he could not help but discuss with Jia Xu: "I did not expect Zhang Fei to come over Micang Mountain with such excellent equipment. In this case, he will certainly outflanking to the north and try to surround our flank.

I want to concentrate all my elite troops and cavalry in the army on the left to block Zhang Fei. What do you think? Fortunately, Wen Lie set up camps along the way when he came to help. We still have some old camps to rely on along the way to the southern valley entrance of Baoxiadao."

Jia Xu also realized this problem. When faced with the commander's inquiry, he immediately expressed his absolute support and took the initiative to ask to follow Cao Xiu to strengthen the left wing.

Xiahou Yuan glanced at Jia Xu meaningfully, but did not expose him: This old man who is good at protecting himself, wouldn't he be thinking of leaving a plan for himself to escape first, and once things are impossible, he will occupy the southern entrance of the Baoxiade Road to ensure his escape!
But Xiahou Yuan had no choice. Even though he saw through this, he still had to do it. As the commander-in-chief, since he had made a desperate decision to defend Yangping Pass, he could not escape in the middle of the battle and personally go to ensure the retreat route, otherwise the morale of the army would be ruined.

……

After the two armies tested each other, Zhang Fei and Xiahou Yuan each cursed and listed the other's crimes.

Seeing that the time had reached three quarters past noon and all the preludes and tests had been completed, Zhang Fei indeed took the lead in launching an offensive against Cao's army.

Zhang Fei's central army was composed of sword and shield soldiers in the front row, assisted by archers and horse-cutting swordmen in the back row. They pushed forward one line at a time and pressed towards Xiahou Yuan's army.

Zhang Fei's right army concentrated most of the steel halberd soldiers, and the soldiers were more likely to wear armor. Most of the elite soldiers wearing steel armor were deployed in this direction. Their goal was also very clear, which was to encircle Cao's army from the north and completely cut off the passage between Cao's army and the southern valley of Baoxiadao in the north.

Facing the front-line push of Liu Bei's army, Cao's army, as the defending party, of course, tried their best to suppress it with bows and crossbows, and began to shoot arrows crazily from a distance. There were also scattered sharp wooden stakes stuck in the ground in front of Cao's army, forming deer horns to block the rapid approach of Liu Bei's army.

Liu Bei's army lacked spears, but had a surprisingly high rate of shields. Because arrows were relatively scarce, the soldiers approached with shields and fought closely with Cao's army.

Seeing that the two sides were about to enter hand-to-hand combat distance, Xiahou Yuan waved his flag and archers from various units retreated from the corridors between the military formations and retreated to the second line, ready to continue shooting arrows.

The phalanx of spearmen pushed to the front, trying to rely on the advantage of the length of their weapons to deal a severe blow to the enemy's sword and shield soldiers.

However, Zhang Fei's shield soldiers were very well-organized, and they were only 60 or 70 steps away from the enemy. Cao's army had already changed their formation. However, Zhang Fei's front-row shield soldiers stopped at the command of the officers, and then began to shoot with crossbows.

It turned out that in today's battle, in order to make up for the disadvantage of crossing the Mi Cang Mountain and not being able to carry too many long weapons, Liu Bei's army had to greatly increase the proportion of crossbowmen, especially a considerable number of sword and shield soldiers, who were equipped with light hand crossbows. Long-range soldiers were supposed to carry short swords as melee weapons, so adding crossbows to sword and shield soldiers was not a very novel operation.

Although each person could only carry two pots of arrows, they were enough for close range and accurate shooting. Previously, Wang Ping's Bantun Barbarians were generally equipped with light, short-range crossbows, and the crossbows of those barbarians were also poisoned, which once gave Cao's army a headache.

After approaching and firing a round of arrows, Zhang Fei's front-line crossbowmen immediately put their large shields on their backs, turned around and reloaded the crossbows with their feet, and then turned around and quickly aimed and shot the Cao army spearmen who were waiting in battle. Only those Cao army spearmen who were also equipped with large shields could rely on the solidity of their shields to hold the battle line.

Zhang Fei had practiced this tactic many times. Since Liu Bei's army began to equip crossbowmen with large shields a few years ago, after repeated practice, the psychological quality of the crossbowmen has generally improved. They can even stop fifty steps away from the enemy and slowly reload and shoot rounds, without losing their composure because of fear of the enemy's counterattack.

Nowadays, these crossbowmen are "part-time" soldiers from the sword and shield soldiers. They have only undergone some simple assault training with crossbows before the battle, so they are naturally not afraid of close combat with the enemy.

If viewers who have played "Age of Empires 2" see this scene, they will definitely be amazed. Isn't this just the "Genoa Crossbowman" tactics used by later Italians?

The two sides exchanged several rounds of shots, and both suffered casualties, but Cao's army was not equipped with shields at such a high rate, and soon lost their patience. How could their spearmen stand there and be shot at, relying only on their own back-row archers for output?
As a result, many middle-level officers of Cao's army began to adapt to the situation and commanded waves of spearmen to launch a direct counterattack, rushing out of the protection of the deer horn bunkers and charging at the crossbowmen of Liu Bei's army fifty steps away.

On Liu Bei's side, the officers commanding the crossbowmen and shield soldiers, when they saw the enemy charging, they also shouted orders loudly, asking the soldiers to put away their crossbows, pick up their swords again, and transform back into sword and shield soldiers to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy.

Although sword and shield soldiers are still at a disadvantage against spearmen, if they can be forced to take the initiative to attack and charge, this disadvantage can be more or less compensated - as we all know, the strongest posture of spearmen is to fight in formation, waiting for the enemy to rush up and kill them.

If the spearmen were to take the initiative to launch a charge, their formation would certainly not be as stable as a defensive posture. The soldiers would always move faster or slower when advancing, and it would be difficult for the weapons to form a forest of spears and advance like a wall.

As long as there is a difference in the order of speed, the sword and shield soldiers will seize the opportunity, and then they will jump in and engage in close combat.

What's more, the sword and shield soldiers under Zhang Fei could pre-load a crossbow arrow on their crossbows, then draw the crossbow but not fire it. When it comes to close combat, they can take it out and fire the last arrow, and then rush forward to engage in close combat.

This close-range crossbow strike could often change the situation of a battle, and in the instant before the battle, it could tear huge gaps in Cao's spearman formation.

"Puff, puff, puff!" Light crossbow arrows without feathers were fired at very close range, cunningly and viciously knocking down rows of Cao's spearmen. Then, Liu Bei's sword and shield soldiers took advantage of the chaos in the enemy's formation and the lack of time for the back row to fill the position, and rushed forward and rushed into the gaps in the enemy's formation.

The Cao army's spearmen turned their weapons again and again and stabbed hard, but they could not completely keep the enemy out, and the two sides soon engaged in a bloody fight.

"Zhang Fei, this fellow, uses his troops so arbitrarily and without following any rules! Yet he always manages to catch people off guard. What kind of divine help does this have?"

Xiahou Yuan was stationed in the center of the army. He was a little dumbfounded when he saw the enemy army fighting in such a disorderly manner, strangling the central armies of both sides.

He and Zhang Fei had fought several times, and Zhang Fei had defeated him several times. But Xiahou Yuan asked himself, Zhang Fei's ability to use troops was not really that of a master of military tactics, but was completely dependent on his strangely sensitive battlefield sense, and he was able to adapt to changing circumstances and defeat the enemy.

In layman's terms, it's just a bit of random punches that kill the master. But his random punches may seem very random, but in fact they have another set of rules that are hard to explain.

……

Seeing that the bloody minced meat on the central army's side was difficult to decompose for the time being, the two sides' detour to the north side of the battlefield soon fell into a bloody battle.

Because Wei Yan was slightly injured in the battle of Dingjun Mountain a few days ago, although he can go into battle now, his condition is not good after all, and he can't be too tired. Therefore, in today's encirclement battle on the northern line, Zhang Fei chose Wang Ping to take the lead, and Wei Yan only stayed in the second line as a reserve.

On the other hand, Cao's army had Cao Xiu facing Wang Ping, and Jia Xu providing some advice before the battle.

Cao Xiu was also considered the best among the second generation of Cao family generals. Cao Zhen was still too young to have mastered the art of war, and Cao Zhang was not yet an adult and did not even have the ability to go to the battlefield. Among the second generation of Cao family, only Cao Xiu was worth mentioning.

When he was under Cao Cao's command, Cao Xiu led more cavalry. In today's battle, he naturally personally led almost all of Xiahou Yuan's cavalry, hoping to take advantage of mobility.

Seeing that Liu Bei's army's flanking troops, led by Wang Ping, were attacking his own flank, Cao Xiu also stretched out the battle line, letting his own spearmen and crossbowmen hold off Wang Ping, and then concentrated all his cavalry, detouring to a position farther than Wang Ping, preparing to attack Wang Ping's flank.

Because Cao Xiu had cavalry, their mobility was definitely far superior to Wang Ping's, there was no way around it. Wang Ping wanted to race with the other party to see who could make a deeper detour, but he definitely couldn't win.

After recognizing the situation, Wang Ping did not waste his time. After getting to the right position, he decisively ordered his soldiers with long spears to form a sharp line and penetrate the enemy's formation, trying to cut the enemy off in half.

"Don't worry about the Cao cavalry's encirclement! As long as they are not behind you, don't be distracted, just move forward! Only when the enemy is behind you can you turn around and fight with the halberd formation!"

Wang Ping shouted orders loudly, urging groups of soldiers wearing steel-filled breastplates and holding steel halberds to march forward bravely.

The spearmen of Cao's army also responded tit for tat and were ready for battle. The two sides soon came within stabbing distance of each other, fighting frantically.

The steel halberds with horizontal blades swung left and right, shaking and pecking vigorously, locking and swinging away the long spears one by one, creating opportunities for assassination for friendly forces. The halberd soldiers of Liu Bei's army in the back row took the opportunity to stab and stab vigorously, and also used the horizontal blade of the halberd to cut the hands of Cao's long spearmen holding the spears.

In contrast, the Cao army's spearmen's stinging could not cause effective damage unless they hit the front directly. Most of the spear blades were deflected and slid away when they stabbed the steel breastplate, leaving only a white mark on the armor.

"Hurry up and send in the iron staff soldiers! Liu the bandit has too many iron armored soldiers! The long spears can't penetrate them at all!"

"Why are all the armored soldiers of Liu Ze crowded onto our side?"

The bloody battle lasted for a while, and the infantry on the left wing of Cao's army fell into a precarious situation, and it seemed that they might collapse at any time.

Sometimes, the decisive factor on the battlefield is so plain and simple. You know that the enemy will do this, but when the enemy really concentrates the most advantageous forces and weapons and equipment and makes a desperate bet on one point, you just can't defend against it.

Cao Xiu found that something was wrong and did not bother to continue to encircle the enemy. He just ordered all his cavalry to rush to the side of Wang Ping's steel-armored halberd soldiers' formation.

"All troops should form a battle formation and defeat the cavalry!" Wang Ping roared at the top of his lungs, and ordered officers at all levels to command the halberd soldiers on the right to turn around and withstand Cao Xiu's cavalry charge.

Because the formation was not complete and uniform, Wang Ping's halberd soldiers fought back on the spot, which seemed a bit weak. Cao Xiu relied on twisting the cavalry into several wedge-shaped formations and successfully tore several holes on the side of Wang Ping's army formation.

However, the morale of Liu Bei's soldiers was high and the military spirit was stable. Even if the enemy broke through their formation and they fell into a melee, they still fought to the death.

Cao Xiu's cavalry did not have double-sided metal stirrups or high-bridge saddles, so their impact was ultimately limited. Once they got into close combat and lost their speed advantage, both sides quickly began a bloody battle of attrition.

Just when Wang Ping seemed to be in danger, Wei Yan, who was in the reserve team, regardless of his minor injuries, decisively rushed up with a group of armored halberd reserve soldiers to fill the position and fought a bloody battle with Cao Xiu.

"The one riding the white horse is Cao Xiu! Use the crossbow to get close and shoot him, and raise the crossbow a little higher! Don't be afraid of shooting your own people!" Wei Yan saw that the two armies were engaged in a bloody fight and he was unable to break the situation quickly, so he could not help but issue this improvisational order.

Liu Bei's army had almost no cavalry in this battle, so they had the crossbowmen shoot at a high angle at close range, which basically ensured that only people on horseback would be hit.

Of course, this slightly upward shooting method also has certain risks. If the arrow is fired in vain, after it flies a hundred steps, it will fall back to the ground due to gravity and may accidentally injure one of your own. If the soldiers of the friendly army knew that the later crossbowmen shot arrows indiscriminately, it might cause serious damage to the morale of the army and even lead to mutiny.

But Wei Yan gambled that his front-line troops were generally equipped with iron armor and were not afraid of these stray arrows with reduced kinetic energy. In addition, they were difficult to identify in the chaos, so he dared to use this risky tactic occasionally.

Groups of reinforcements under Wei Yan's command quickly took out their crossbows, raised them a little higher, looked up at the mountain, and shot at the enemies on horseback over the heads of their own soldiers at a medium to close distance of fifty to a hundred steps.

After a storm of dense arrows, although Cao Xiu was not shot dead, some of the Cao cavalry in the front row were shot to pieces and fell off their horses screaming. The morale of the Cao cavalry was stunted, and they were finally held back by Wang Ping and Wei Yan. They completely lost their mobility and could only fight on the spot with sabers and lances.

Cao Xiu's cavalry was ultimately unable to stop Wang Ping and Wei Yan's encirclement. As Cao's cavalry gradually collapsed and retreated far away, they tried to reorganize their formation.

Wang Ping continued to attack with all his might. After a bloody battle, three or four lines of defense formed by Cao's spearmen and iron rod soldiers were successively broken through by Liu Bei's army.

Wang Ping and Wei Yan attacked all the way to the hillside, and in front of them was the remnant of the Qinling Mountains between the north of Yangping Pass and the southern valley of Baoxiadao. The Cao army's position on the plain was completely cut off by Liu Bei's army.

Cao Xiu and Jia Xu tried to counterattack several times, trying to reconnect the life path of the friendly army, just like a Go player trying to get back the "qi", but these attempts ultimately ended in failure.

During several charges, Cao Xiu himself was hit by a crossbow arrow and finally had to retreat with injuries. He retreated to the southern valley entrance of Baoxiade with a small number of cavalry and the defeated soldiers outside the encirclement and defended the dangerous place.

However, as Cao Jun's northern retreat route was cut off, Xiahou Yuan's main force was completely blocked in a small space in front of Yangping Pass, with no way to escape.

Of course, if Xiahou Yuan had the ability to take the initiative to open Yangping Pass from the other side, that is, the west, and then work together with Cao Cao to break through the defense line of Liu Bei and Gan Ning in the west, it would be possible to break through successfully, join forces with Cao Cao, and then withdraw via Chencang Road.

However, if Xiahou Yuan really had this ability, he would have defeated Zhang Fei long ago. Why would he need to go far away?
(End of this chapter)