My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 632: Both routes collapsed, the feint attack was in vain

A few days later, in Nanpi City.

"Report to the Lord! Lü Kuang led about 30,000 soldiers and marched eastward along the land route. He has already plundered Gaocheng County and is approaching Fuyang, harvesting summer wheat in various places."

"The enemy's front has approached the Changlu Salt Field east of Gaocheng County. The Gaocheng County Magistrate has sent a letter to ask whether to relocate the salt officials and salt workers. Please give your instructions, my Lord."

As Lü Kuang led his troops to harvest wheat and seize salt along the way, Zhou Yu, who was in Nanpi, of course also grasped Lü Kuang's movements in real time.

The county magistrates, county lieutenants, and military commanders stationed in various counties all came to Zhou Yu to report the emergency, hoping that Zhou Yu would help them make a decision on whether to fight or hide.

Zhou Yu's current military position is General of Andong, a position he was promoted to when Liu Bei recommended himself as Grand Commandant and promoted all his officials after the Battle of Hanzhong ended the year before last. However, he also concurrently holds the position of Governor of Bohai, so local officials are still used to calling him Lord Zhou, and only his subordinates call him General.

With Zhou Yu's wisdom, before Lu Kuang's invasion, he speculated that this year Cao's army would most likely take advantage of the opportunity of his lord's battle with Liu Zhang in Shu to launch provocations and tests in other battlefields.

Therefore, Zhou Yu had made some preparations in advance and pulled back some of his elite troops and generals that had been deployed on the periphery.

For example, in the past two years, his general Xu Sheng was mostly stationed in the Han River Plain on the opposite peninsula, building new cities and naturalizing the people of the Three Han.

Occasionally, a fleet would be sent to inspect Jeju Island to see how the newly taken over Gongsun Huang's territory was being managed, what new progress had been made in the construction of the local horse farm, and to give Gongsun Huang a warning.

However, since late spring this year, after the spring plowing ended, Zhou Yu sent people across the Yellow Sea to contact Xu Sheng and asked Xu Sheng to bring his troops back.

With the shipbuilding and navigation capabilities that Liu Bei's army had been operating for many years, Xu Sheng could easily sail across the Yellow Sea, but he didn't need to do so. This time, the army would first sail northeast from the Ongjin Peninsula to the coast of the Liaodong Peninsula, rest briefly in Dashi County (Dalian), and then cross the Bohai Sea to return to Bohai County.

Therefore, when Lü Kuang invaded, Zhou Yu actually had more mobile forces than Zhang He and Lü Kuang thought. He even pulled back part of the garrison troops on the peninsula.

At this moment, upon hearing the urgent calls from Gaocheng and Fuyang counties, Xu Sheng, who was full of youthful vigor, immediately challenged Zhou Yu to a battle:

"General, please allow me to lead the troops to fight and intercept Lü Kuang to prevent the Changlu Salt Field from being destroyed! Lü Kuang went down the Zhang River and abandoned the water and marched eastward by land before reaching Nanpi. He was not in a hurry to take steady steps.

This is clearly an attempt to deceive our army, which is only good at naval warfare and city defense, but not at land warfare or field warfare. We should meet the enemy from land, so that these enemy generals in Hebei can also know our ability in land warfare!"

Faced with his subordinates' hatred of the enemy, Zhou Yu remained calm. He just waved his hand slightly to stop Xu Sheng's impulse:
"Lü Kuang looks down on my ability in land warfare, so let him look down on me. Why should I rush to prove myself? He seems to have only brought 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers to invade, but if our army goes all out now, he won't penetrate deep into the enemy. Even if we defeat the enemy, it will only be a bloody victory.

Zhang He is behind them and can provide reinforcements at any time. Once Zhang He's troops are deployed to the battlefield, we will be at an absolute disadvantage in terms of manpower and it will be impossible for us to launch an encirclement and annihilation campaign."

Xu Sheng scratched his neck eagerly, he knew that Zhou Yu was right, he just didn't want to miss the chance:

"If that's the case, even if we let Lu Kuang go deeper into our army's hinterland, can we still fight an encirclement and annihilation? After all, the land of Bohai County is flat and there is no river network in this area, so it is difficult to set up an ambush. Do you want to let them go all the way north and destroy the Changlu Salt Field along the Bohai coast?"

Zhou Yu said calmly: "How can he destroy the salt field so easily? Our army has built the cofferdam for several years. At most, he can dig a few holes in the embankment. Can he really tear down the entire 100-mile long dike?
If you just dig a few holes, you can plug the holes after the enemy withdraws. A salt field is not like a dam. The water level difference on both sides of the cofferdam is not big. Even if you dig a hole, it will not cause a complete dam collapse. You can just fill the hole where you dig.

Lu Kuang thought he could threaten me, but it was just because he used the common sense of ancient people to build water conservancy projects and was not familiar with the method of drying salt from seawater. This is a flaw that he gave me for free, so I won't use it."

Not only was it impossible for Lu Kuang to realize what Zhou Yu said, but even Xu Sheng, who was listening to Zhou Yu's statement in person, took a while to understand.

In the eyes of the ancients, once a breach was made in a dam or other water conservancy facility, the damage would easily expand, the water would wash away the breach, and eventually collapse. This is what the saying "a thousand-mile dam collapses because of an ant hole" means.

The method of producing salt directly from seawater was first invented by Zhuge Jin, who then taught it to Zhou Yu for practical implementation. Before that, ancient people only knew how to boil salt from seawater.

Therefore, even if Cao Cao's army had sent spies into Bohai County to scout and observe the salt fields built by Zhou Yu from afar in recent years, they could only see from the surface that the salt fields looked like a series of seawalls, cutting vertically and horizontally to divide the shallow mudflats, and then using the sun to dry the salt.

The seawater has tides, and when the water level rises, the difference in water level inside and outside the salt field cofferdam can be several feet or even more than ten feet. However, this tidal water pressure, which only lasts for two or three hours a day, cannot be compared with the continuous scouring of the large drop in the river.

Zhou Yu had personally practiced for several years and knew that the cofferdam of the salt field had to be opened and blocked frequently, and new seawater was put in after the salt was dried. It was simply a pipe dream for Lü Kuang to expect to destroy the salt field by destroying the traditional water conservancy facilities.

After hearing this, Xu Sheng felt relieved and no longer wanted to fight. He just asked Zhou Yu humbly and sincerely for advice. He would resolutely carry out whatever Zhou Yu asked him to do without asking any more questions.

Zhou Yu also arranged the deployment he had just made up: "I have already asked them to fortify the walls and clear the fields in Gaocheng County. If Lü Kuang wants to attack and cannot resist, I will allow them to surrender temporarily and pretend to be friendly with the enemy. After all, Lü Kuang has just entered the country, and he must see some sweetness.

You should immediately bring several thousand lightly armed reinforcements to Fuyang County for reinforcement. You must defend the city to the death. I do not intend to give up Fuyang County. As long as you force Lu Kuang to bypass the city and continue to advance northward along the sea, you will have completed your mission.

When Lü Kuang goes north along the coast, I will send ships to land behind him and intercept him with cavalry. If Lü Kuang wants to retreat at that time, he will be killed or even killed.”

Xu Sheng immediately accepted the order, but before he left, he still had one question in mind, so he couldn't help but ask, "When did our army have so many cavalry available?"

Zhou Yu didn't hide it from him, "Of course, we'll ask General Zhao to send reinforcements. You don't need to worry about the details. Just be confident that our cavalry will penetrate the enemy's rear. When you see the enemy retreating through Fuyang, if there's an opportunity, you can attack and cooperate with our friendly forces."

Xu Sheng had not yet figured out the details of how Zhou Yu would cooperate with Zhao Yun, but these were none of his business, so he just followed the order and left.

……

In the following days, Zhou Yu allowed Lu Kuang to advance deeper, and Lu Kuang did make some progress.

He was very greedy. When the military vehicles were fully loaded with new wheat, he ordered the baggage train to return to Dongguan County, Raoan County and other places to unload the goods, and then come back empty-handed.

When passing through Gaocheng County, he divided his troops to besiege the city and tried to bluff and attack the city, but in fact his ability to attack the city was not sharp.

Zhou Yu had clearly allowed the military commander stationed in Gaocheng County to surrender if things became impossible to stop in order to daunt the enemy and keep himself useful - in such a short period of time, even if Cao's army accepted the surrender, they would not have had time to relocate the people, and at most they could take away some money, grain, salt and other valuables.

However, Lu Kuang's strength was weaker than Zhou Yu expected. He could not force the defender of Gaocheng County to surrender in a short period of time and could only rob everywhere.

Soon it was late April, and Lü Kuang advanced to the shore of Bohai Bay, plundering and destroying along the coastline all the way northward. He dug up the salt field cofferdams one by one and transported away a large amount of stored sea salt.

When passing through Fuyang County, Xu Sheng actually went out of the city to harass him. Previously, because Zhou Yu had always avoided fighting by clearing the countryside, which paralyzed Lü Kuang, Lü Kuang, who was not on guard, was actually taken advantage of by Xu Sheng.

Lu Kuang was naturally angry and wanted to besiege Fuyang County to establish his authority. Unfortunately, under Xu Sheng's defense, even though Xu Sheng's troops were less than one-fifth of Lu Kuang's, Lu Kuang still could not succeed and wasted some time.

Time quickly came to the end of April.

Early that morning, Zhang He, who was in Hejian County, Hejian Prefecture, listened to the military intelligence reported by his scouts and messengers as usual.

Find out about Lü Kuang's progress on the Bohai County front, whether he encountered any trouble, and whether there were any unusual movements by the enemy forces on the northern Yishui defense line.

The messenger who came back from Bohai brought back good news that everything was going smoothly for Lu Kuang.

But the scouts on the Yishui defense line in the north brought back urgent news.

"General, yesterday our garrison in Wen'an County discovered that the enemy's navy had turned from the Yishui River to the south bank of the Longshui River, bypassed the county, landed deep into our territory to plunder, and abducted the people. The garrison in Wen'an County did not know the strength of the enemy and did not dare to go out of the city to intercept them. Please give instructions, General!"

When Zhang He heard this, he immediately asked someone to bring a map and did a quick comparison.

Yishui is the boundary river between Youzhou and Jizhou, but there are also several tributaries on both the north and south banks of Yishui. Longshui is a tributary on the south bank of Yishui, which goes deep into the hinterland of Hejian County. The intersection where Longshui merges into Yishui is where Wen'an County is located.

Liu Bei's navy had an advantage, and Zhang He knew very well that if he hoped to intercept the enemy by going down the river, he would probably get nothing. But this time the enemy dared to land and harass, so he had to fight back resolutely and nip the enemy's arrogance in the bud.

"It seems that Zhou Yu has asked Zhao Yun for help. Zhao Yun wants to attack Wei to save Zhao and share the troops with Zhou Yu. Pass on my order, gather the cavalry immediately and follow me to Wen'an to assist in the defense. Let the infantry reinforcements from Gaoyang, Wuyuan and other counties follow as soon as possible!
By the way, did the frontline defenders see the flag of the enemy army entering from Longshui? "

The scout quickly added truthfully: "The enemy is attacking Zhao Yun's banner!"

After Zhang He confirmed this, he dared not delay any further and sent all his cavalry reserves in that direction.

After a day's march, the two armies soon came into contact and a small-scale contact battle broke out.

The enemy troops that advanced deep into the territory of Hejian County from the Longshui River seemed to be quite powerful. They used many small boats. Judging from the size of the fleet, it was estimated that they could carry 20,000 to 30,000 people.

In fact, Zhang He had no way of judging whether these ships were fully loaded or not. However, the fleet's draft was indeed quite deep, and the officers in Zhang He's army who were familiar with naval warfare did not see any flaws.

However, this time, "Zhao Yun" was not reckless. Every time Zhang He approached him, he retreated slightly, allowed the cavalry to reboard the boat, and repeatedly fought with Zhang He.

Zhang He did not dare to neglect it, so he blocked the estuaries of the tributaries on the south bank of the Yishui River with heavy troops, and ordered his soldiers to build reefs. In short, he used various temporary means to restrict Zhao Yun's activities. As a result, Zhang He was delayed for several days.

Little did they know that at the same time, in the area of Fuyang County in the east, a real reinforcement of Zhao Yun had already landed to the south of Lu Kuang's troops.

……

On the third day of May, east of Fuyang County.

After more than ten days of armed looting, Lu Kuang once again filled up all the baggage carts that came with the army. Seeing that he still could not fight in the field, he could only transport the looted things back in disappointment.

They had successfully transported the goods back several times, from the initial robbery of wheat to the later transportation of sea salt, Zhou Yu had never stopped them. This also made Lu Kuang more and more proud, thinking that the enemy was just afraid of fighting and avoiding the enemy, so he could just rob as much as he wanted and leave.

However, good things obviously never come in threes.

This time, shortly after Lu Kuang's baggage caravan left the main force and returned south alone, a fleet appeared on the coast of Bohai Sea and then found an anchorage with relatively deep water to land.

Thousands of light cavalry quickly intercepted to the west.

Every time Lu Kuang transported supplies back, he would not send no troops to escort them, but it was certainly impossible for him to let the entire army go to escort them, and he felt that there was no need for that.

Therefore, the several thousand Cao troops escorting the convoy were quickly defeated by the intercepting Liu Bei's troops. Most of the baggage carts were seized, and the few defeated soldiers immediately returned to report to Lü Kuang.

What made the escorting Cao army even more desperate was that they actually saw Zhao Yun’s flag on the Bohai side.

Isn’t it said that Zhao Yun himself is fighting with General Zhang He on the Yishui battlefield?
General Zhang He had blocked the Yishui defense line so tightly that not a single enemy could escape. As long as the enemy dared to cross the Yishui River to the south or infiltrate the tributaries on the south bank of the Yishui River, they would be blocked by General Zhang He.

Then how did Zhao Yun appear here?

When Lü Kuang learned about all this, he was so angry that he immediately ordered the entire army to withdraw and be ready to fight the enemy along the way. But Zhang He couldn't be blamed for this, because the defense area Zhang He was responsible for was indeed flawless. Zhao Yun came from the sea this time and landed from behind. You, Lü Kuang, can't blame your teammates.

After Lu Kuang gave the order to prepare for withdrawal, he had only walked sixty or seventy miles when he ran into Zhao Yun head-on on his way back south the next day.

If Lu Kuang dared to retreat directly westward instead of retreating to the south-southwest, he would actually have a chance to avoid Zhao Yun - but Lu Kuang obviously did not dare to do so.

Because if he retreated due west from Fuyang, he would have to divert the Zhangshui River north of Nanpi County and in the lower reaches of the Zhangshui River before he could return west.

Lu Kuang knew that Zhou Yu's navy was still powerful. If he crossed the river downstream of Nanpi and was intercepted by Zhou Yu halfway across, it would be the end of him. So he had to go south to bypass the Zhangshui River section controlled by Zhou Yu and go a little upstream before he could cross the river.

But then you have to face Zhao Yun who appears out of nowhere. When faced with two evils, you have to choose one. It is impossible to avoid all bad things.

Lu Kuang apparently decided to face Zhao Yun in the end, because he heard that Zhao Yun came in a hurry and only brought a few thousand cavalry with him, without any infantry army.

Finally, the two armies met on the plain southwest of Fuyang County.

When Lü Kuang came, he brought a force of more than 25,000 people, but because they had previously divided their troops to protect the baggage convoy, that part of the troops and the transport auxiliary troops were defeated by Zhao Yun. Therefore, Lü Kuang's main force was only about 21,000 to 22,000.

It’s not that the remaining 4,000 people were all annihilated by Zhao Yun, but the troops were defeated, and the defeated soldiers must have fled back to Dongguang, Raoan and other places. It is impossible for them to risk their lives to come back and fight for Lu Kuang again.

Zhao Yun on the opposite side brought five or six thousand cavalry, and in order to speed up the journey, most of them were light cavalry.

After the two armies met, Lu Kuang observed the enemy situation clearly and felt slightly relieved.

Although he was intercepted by Zhao Yun, the number of Zhao Yun's troops was only 30% of his own.

Even if Zhao Yun's troops are composed entirely of cavalry, Lu Kuang himself also has several thousand cavalry under his command. From this point of view, this battle can still be fought.

While Lü Kuang was observing, Zhao Yun had already rushed out on his horse with his spear in hand, accompanied by a group of loud-voiced guards. From a distance of more than a hundred steps, he shouted:

"You bastard Lu Kuang! You've fallen into the trap! Now your way home is cut off and your baggage has been robbed, yet you still refuse to surrender. Are you seeking death? If you want to die, don't drag your soldiers down with you!"

Lü Kuang was naturally furious when he was scolded, and he immediately had someone scold him back: "Zhao Yun, you lunatic! Don't think you can be arrogant just because you have won some battles! In today's battle, your troops are only 30% of mine, and you still dare to be so arrogant? You dare to call this a trick when you are so foolish and overestimate your own abilities!"

Zhao Yun was too lazy to talk any more, and just sneered in a low voice: "Gongjin's plan was to ambush and kill Zhang He, but you stupid pigs and dogs insisted on seeking death. It's a pity that Gongjin's plan was of little use, and I made a wasted trip.

If I kill Zhang He, I might even be able to get another level of nobility. Killing a fool like you is not worth the nobility, considering the rewards and punishments of the Taiwei and Situ! If I wanted to kill you, I could have killed you at the same time when I killed Lu Xiang in the battle of Nanpi!"

Although Zhao Yun spoke in a low voice when he said this himself, the abusive fighter did not hold back his voice at all when he repeated it.

Against this backdrop, his contempt for Lu Kuang becomes even more apparent.

Lu Kuang had only suffered a loss at the hands of Liu Bei's army once in his life, so how could he tolerate such an insult? Of course, he immediately ordered the entire army to attack Zhao Yun.

After Zhao Yun completely infuriated Lu Kuang, when he saw Lu Kuang rushing up, he was not in a hurry to fight with Lu Kuang. Instead, he ordered his generals to retreat slightly with the heavy cavalry. He personally led the light cavalry in the lead, swept across the formation, and harassed the enemy with horse archery.

Equipped with double-sided metal stirrups, the cavalry is naturally more stable in archery than before. The Youzhou cavalry is already famous for its cavalry archery, and with the blessing of equipment, the rain of arrows is even more tricky and efficient.

Lü Kuang had originally hoped that Zhao Yun would take the initiative to attack and charge his infantry formation. In that case, Lü Kuang's foot crossbowmen could also maximize their crossfire - since ancient times, the dumbest tactic for archers and infantry to fight was to use archers to charge directly.

During the Battle of Jie Bridge more than ten years ago, Gongsun Zan became too arrogant for a moment, and seeing that Qu Yi had few soldiers, he wanted to directly break through his formation and destroy the enemy, which led to his disastrous defeat.

But Zhao Yun had served under Gongsun Zan more than a decade ago, so how could he not learn from Gongsun Zan's lesson in fighting Yuan Shao? Since the light cavalry was the priority today, Zhao Yun naturally had to keep fighting.

Although the range of the infantry crossbow is far greater than that of the cavalry bow, as long as Zhao Yun starts to pull, Lu Kuang's formation will inevitably be disjointed.

The crossbowmen have a slow mobility and cannot keep up with the front-line troops, so Zhao Yun does not have to worry about the enemy's pursuing vanguard shooting at him.

Although Lu Kuang had good basic skills in commanding troops, he could not withstand the continuous pulling of more than 20,000 troops and the difficulty in focusing on one thing while neglecting another.

After chasing for a while, although there were not many casualties, only a few soldiers were shot down by Zhao Yun's archers. However, Lu Kuang's men continued to run, and their physical strength decreased seriously.

After chasing for less than half an incense stick of time, Lu Kuang saw that he could not catch up, so he had to change his mind and ordered his soldiers to form a formation and march slowly, with bows and crossbows placed outside.

He tried to use the range advantage of infantry bows and powerful crossbows against cavalry bows to force Zhao Yun to not dare to move forward.

But after Lu Kuang changed his formation, Zhao Yun also changed his previous attitude of fleeing and turned back, keeping a distance and walking around Lu Kuang's formation.

Lu Kuang knew very well that if he sped up his march and could not maintain the strict formation of the crossbowmen outside, then Zhao Yun would definitely rush up - infantry marched slowly against cavalry, and this has been the way to fight since ancient times. They all had to sacrifice their movement speed to ensure that the crossbowmen were in a highly alert posture.

When Liu Bang withdrew from the siege of Mount Baideng four hundred years ago, he did the same thing, asking his archers to draw their bows outward to guard against the Xiongnu Chanyu Maodun. Later, Li Ling tried to withdraw to the interior of the pass, and did the same thing, but he ran out of arrows and failed to retreat.

Therefore, there is nothing wrong with what Lu Kuang did today. His basic tactical skills are quite solid, and he can be regarded as a Hebei general of average strength.

If he could stay alert like Li Ling and walk slowly for two days, he could escape from Zhao Yun's entanglement and return to Dongguan County, his original attack base.

Unfortunately, Zhao Yun on the opposite side was much stronger than the Huns that Li Ling faced back then. The key was that Zhou Yu, who was planning the deployment for Zhao Yun, had already thought of this.

Lü Kuang's troops were on high alert, and they retreated with Zhao Yun. After walking for another half a day, by the evening, they were exhausted.

At this time, Zhou Yu's backup plan finally appeared - on the eastern horizon, the troops that Xu Sheng, under Zhou Yu's orders, had deployed to Fuyang County in advance to defend the county town finally appeared.

Xu Sheng followed Zhou Yu's pre-war orders and maintained daily scouts. This morning, he received a report that Zhao Yun had landed to intercept Lu Kuang. Xu Sheng immediately ordered his troops to prepare for battle and join forces with Zhao Yun to attack.

Zhou Yu himself did not come, because he was leading the navy to fight with Zhang He on the Yishui River.

Zhou Yu was good at water battles, and the Yishui River, as the boundary river between You and Ji, could certainly better play to Zhou Yu's strengths.

When Zhou Yu was making the deployment before the battle, he discussed with Zhao Yun:

In the Yishui battlefield, Zhao Yun's banner was used instead of Zhou Yu's, but Zhou Yu was actually helping Zhao Yun. In the Bohai battlefield, Zhao Yun could suddenly appear, and then Xu Sheng would cooperate in the pincer attack.

At the same time, because Zhou Yu's flag was not raised on the Yishui battlefield in the north, Xu Sheng could raise Zhou Yu's flag here in Fuyang County. Even if Xu Sheng did not have Zhou Yu's ability, it would be a good thing to raise the flag to scare the enemy, making the enemy more convinced that they had fallen into a trap, thereby lowering morale and causing panic.

All is fair in war. Any tactics that can undermine the enemy's morale and create confusion should be used as much as possible.

When Lu Kuang saw Xu Sheng appear in the east under Zhou Yu's banner, he was disheartened and finally realized that he had fallen into a trap.

"It turns out that Zhou Yu's original idea was to have Zhao Yun use light cavalry to slow down my retreat, and then he would reinforce with infantry to attack our army from the flank!"

At this point, Lü Kuang still had some pride as a famous general in Hebei. His total number of troops was still superior, and even if he was attacked from the front and left sides, he was still able to fight, so of course he had to fight to the death.

"Change formation! Form a circle to meet the enemy!"

Lü Kuang shouted loudly, not caring about retreating, and immediately asked his men to change the formation that was most suitable for fighting on the spot. At the cost of completely sacrificing mobility, he gained the defensive bonus of holding the line in battle.

Xu Sheng finally arrived at the battlefield with nearly 10,000 infantrymen, and then engaged in battle with Lu Kuang.

Xu Sheng's troops had more sophisticated crossbows, and as soon as the battle began, they gave Lu Kuang a warning in a hail of arrows.

Then, the soldiers with long halberds and horse-cutting swords in Xu Sheng's front team, who were filled with steel sleeve armor, began to advance like a wall and killed towards Lu Kuang's central army.

The two armies soon engaged in a fight. Although Lü Kuang had a large number of troops, his physical strength had already been seriously reduced after being pulled by Zhao Yun for most of the day, and his morale was also low, and his people were in panic and confusion.

The biggest disadvantage of Xu Sheng's front-line armored soldiers was originally in terms of physical fitness. Wearing such heavy equipment, it was difficult for them to sustain in combat.

But the enemy had been tired for a long time, and Xu Sheng's troops rested for more than half an hour before rushing to the battlefield, and finally came to the gate for a decisive battle. After the physical disadvantage was eliminated, Xu Sheng's core armored soldiers relied on the equipment advantage and quickly beat Lü Kuang's front line to pieces.

After Xu Sheng completely stuck to Lü Kuang's front row and broke several positions, Zhao Yun was finally able to get rid of Lü Kuang's defense, maneuvered to create a gap, and then fiercely attacked Lü Kuang's side and rear.

After a hard fight, Lu Kuang no longer had the energy to stop the enemy, so he could only gather his cavalry and reinforce the attack in the direction of Zhao Yun's attack.

Unfortunately, how could the cavalry under his command be a match for Zhao Yun?

Zhao Yun led the charge and before entering the battle, he fired a series of arrows in the forward direction using the split-bristle method, shooting down several enemy cavalrymen who were charging towards him.

Taking advantage of a slight tear in the front, he rushed into the enemy camp with his spear flying, tearing it apart with all his might, like pouring boiling water on snow.

The cavalry behind Zhao Yun also followed the arrow head of Zhao Yun's wedge formation and rushed into the gap together, then rushed to both wings, tearing and expanding the gap as much as possible.

Lu Kuang's resistance soon became a joke and gradually fell into a trend of total collapse.

It was unknown how long the melee lasted, but Lu Kuang, who had been ordering his men to attack Zhao Yun from all sides, was finally attacked by Zhao Yun and his personal guards.

The generals of both sides, together with their elite cavalry guards, fought each other in a ball, tumbling and rolling, with blood and flesh flying everywhere.

In the melee, Lu Kuang was stabbed repeatedly by lances, blood gushed out like a fountain, and he fell off his horse and died with a scream.

-

PS: I'm sorry... I couldn't come up with any useful tactics or strategies for this battle. The final description is a bit similar to some of the previous battle examples (although not completely the same, but the strategy seems to be patchwork).

If I had known this earlier, I could have omitted this battle and directly reported the results. It didn't add anything new to the writing.

Return to the Jingzhou map view tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)