Late Han Zhao Tang

Chapter 242: Ten people capture one, and Zhang Yu can be defeated

On the 24th, Zhang Yu learned that Li Jue showed signs of advancing, so he let each unit have a full meal and then led his troops to Puling to form a battle line.

The battle array at Pu Ling was approved by almost everyone. After all, the enemy was numerous and we were few, so how could we set up a battle array on flat ground? We needed external forces to reduce the impact of our small number of troops.

Therefore, Zhang Yu led the army with its back against the Luo River, and formed a north-south formation, relying on the water in the north and Pingling in the south, trying to avoid being encircled by Li Jue on both wings.

Zhang Yu personally sat in charge of the central army, the Yunzhong Army led by Li Song was the rear army, Gao Shun and Xu Chu led the heavy infantry as the central army, the right wing was commanded by Zhang Yang and Xu Huang, and the left wing was commanded by Zhang Liao and Liu Bei.

Taking advantage of the fact that Li Jue's troops had not yet arrived, Zhang Yu rode to the right wing and inspected Zhang Yang's troops.

Zhang Yu looked at Xu Huang and asked, "Li Jue is relying on his large army and is now attacking us. If our army wants to defeat the enemy now, how should we respond?"

Xu Huang replied with a serious expression: "Although the enemy has many soldiers and horses, their morale is not unified. Your Excellency has arranged the battle array at Puling. If the enemy cannot take it for a long time, then they will not be able to hold out for long. Wait until their morale is weakened, then you can attack them!"

"good!"

Zhang Yu smiled and said, "Gongming's thoughts are the same as mine. The left army is close to the water, so it is not convenient for cavalry to charge. Although the right army has low hills to rely on, it is easy to be besieged. Whether we can win this battle depends on whether the armies in Hezhong and Heyang can hold on."

As he spoke, Zhang Yu looked at the densely packed Right Army soldiers and said, "The Hezhong Army is newly established, and the surrendered soldiers have not returned for long. Gongming needs to pay more attention!"

Xu Huang said: "Please rest assured, the Hezhong Army will live up to your expectations!"

Zhang Yu looked at the high-spirited Hezhong Army and nodded.

There were not many generals in his army who were good at managing the army, and Gao Shun, Xu Huang, Meng Ningzhi and other generals were the most outstanding. However, Xu Huang was both wise and brave, and he had made contributions in persuading Yang Feng and Han Xian to surrender, so Zhang Yu let Xu Huang be responsible for recruiting the surrendered soldiers and taking charge of the Hezhong Army.

Then, Zhang Yu exhorted Zhang Yang, saying, "The Heyang Army has selected the best soldiers from Hedong. They have strong weapons and excellent equipment. I hope you will do your best!"

Zhang Yang was full of confidence and said, "The Heyang troops are all strong and brave men from Hedong. They came from the remnant of the Black Mountain Army and joined us. I have selected strong and brave men again, and with Bo'an's training, the Heyang infantry may not be inferior to the soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp!"

When the Heyang Army was first formed, Zhang Yu arranged for Meng Ningzhi and Hao Zhao to assist. After Hao Zhao was appointed as the General of the Central Army, Meng Ningzhi succeeded him as the Deputy General. Meng Ningzhi learned the method of training troops from Gao Shun in his early years, and the infantry he trained can be called elite.

When Zhang Yu finished inspecting the right army, he saw Shi Yi coming on horseback to report.

"My lord, the enemy's scouts have arrived, and most of the infantry are following closely behind. The soldiers and horses cover the sky and the sun, and are countless." Shi Yi said.

Hearing this, Zhang Yu's expression became serious. He held the reins and ordered, "Notify the entire army to prepare for battle!"

"promise!"

The central army beat the war drums, the sound of drums was like thunder, and the infantry and cavalry of the three armies were in order.

After returning from the right army to the central army, Zhang Yu looked at the dark army formation and reluctantly put aside his worries.

The reason for Zhang Yu's anxiety today is not that he is not confident in his ability to command troops, but that he is worried whether the expanded three armies can win this difficult battle.

In recent years, Zhang Yu's rise was too fast. He expanded from a thousand men to tens of thousands. He fought a lot of battles in the early days. He was very confident in the fighting ability of his soldiers. But since he occupied Bingzhou, he has hardly fought any hard battles. Among them, the National Protection Army, as Zhang Yu's personal army, has not participated in battles for a long time.

Now, with the army outnumbered, Zhang Yu had no choice but to burn his boats and cross the river in order to make his soldiers fight hard. He forced his soldiers into a desperate situation and, in line with his deployment, defeated the Guanzhong army in one fell swoop.

While Zhang Yu was thinking about his arrangements, Li Jue's soldiers had already arrived at the battlefield. One hundred thousand infantry and cavalry were marching on the plain. Looking down, one could see densely packed infantry like ants, and cavalry riding on horseback.

As the Guanxi army gradually approached Zhang Yu's troops, the sound of footsteps and horse hooves hitting the ground was like the roar of muffled drums, mixed with the clanging of armor and weapons, a murderous atmosphere arose spontaneously.

"Shut up!"

When the Guanxi army was gathering strength, Li Jue led his generals to ride out on horseback to observe the Bingzhou troops arrayed in Puling.

Hu Feng, Li Jue's nephew, was eager to give it a try and said, "General, Zhang Yu has deployed his troops at Puling and intends to defend it by relying on the terrain. We should divide our forces and attack together to drive him into the Luo River."

Li Jue narrowed his eyes and looked at it, saying: "There are priorities in the art of using troops. Now we should defeat the enemy on the low hill, take advantage of the low hill, be high above, and attack the middle army. We should be able to win in one fell swoop."

As Li Jue's nephew, Li Li was proud of his martial arts. Seeing that Zhang Yu had few soldiers, he said arrogantly, "Our army is large and powerful. We can capture one with ten men. Can't we defeat Zhang Yu?"

"General, if you trust me, I am willing to lead my troops to besiege the enemy's right army."

Seeing that his nephews were eager to fight, Li Jue said with a smile: "In that case, you lead the troops to besiege the right army; Guo Duo, your troops are brave, you can attack Zhang Yu's central army; the left army is near the water, let Fan Chou lead the army to attack."

"promise!"

In the Guanxi army, Li Jue relied most on Generals Guo Si and Fan Chou, who were brave in battle, well versed in military strategy, and had the best troops under their command. Therefore, whenever there was a tough battle, Li Jue would basically let the two generals go out, so their official positions in the army were second only to Li Jue.

Of course, since the two generals had many soldiers and horses, Li Jue might have had the idea of annexing them, otherwise he would not have trained his sons and nephews so vigorously. After a pause, Li Jue looked around and asked, "Why can't I see Wenhe?"

"Mr. Jia was invited by Zhang Ji and is now in the rear army!" said the attendant.

Li Jue frowned slightly. Although he didn't know why Jia Xu suddenly came to Zhang Ji's side, he didn't ask much because of the battle ahead. He just ordered, "After defeating Zhang Yu, invite Mr. Jia to the central army."

"promise!"

After Li Jue finished his arrangements, he asked his cousin Li Ying, Guo Si, and Fan Chou to lead 30,000 elite troops to attack, and asked Yang Zheng, Li Meng, Hu Zhen, Zhang Ji and others to lead the troops to prepare.

Although Guanxi has a large number of troops, due to the terrain, each unit cannot deploy its troops to their full potential and can only form a formation like this.

Thick clouds blocked the sun in the sky, making the world a little cooler, and the flags of the Bingzhou army fluttered.

Under the banners, the Bingzhou warriors in the first row were wearing armor and holding spears, looking solemn. In their sight, they saw the soldiers of the Guanxi Army lined up in a column or a horizontal line, looking at the three square formations, surging forward like waves, swallowing up the green fields, and there was no end in sight.

Seeing the Guanxi army's infantrymen continue to press forward, the Bingzhou warriors became more and more solemn. The armored warriors in the square formation held their shields facing outward, the warriors in cloth armor silently raised their strong bows and crossbows, and there were also spearmen standing among them.

Gao Shun was extremely courageous. On the eve of the fight, he inspected the front row and encouraged them by saying, "Although the soldiers from Guanxi are brave, they have to stop and reorganize their troops after marching for more than 20 steps. They are no match for you. Hold your formation and wait for orders, and you will surely win!"

"Wan Sheng!"

Liu Yi clenched his double-handed ring sword. Since he was selected into the Xianzhen Camp, he began to practice with various weapons, and the double-handed ring sword was the weapon he had become obsessed with recently.

The two-handed ring sword was derived from the ring-handled sword. The blade alone was more than one meter long, and the handle could be held with both hands. This type of two-handed ring sword was called a horizontal sword in the Tang Dynasty, and spread to Japan, becoming the prototype of the samurai sword.

Although the Xianzhen Camp had not been on an expedition for a long time, it did not mean that they had no experience. Under Gao Shun's training, the soldiers became more versatile. They were not only equipped with ring-handled single-swords, spears, and bows, but they were even equipped with double-handed ring-swords for better hand-to-hand combat.

The soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp are armed to the teeth with spears, ring-handled single-swords, double-handed ring-swords, bows, camels and horses, etc., and all the soldiers and officers need to be proficient in the above equipment.

Soon, the Guanxi soldiers approached.

A horn sounded in the army. The soldiers put their spears at their feet, took out their bows and fired a volley of shots.

As elite soldiers trained by the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Guanxi Army was well-equipped with armor. Braving the rain of arrows, the infantry fought back with good accuracy. However, because the Bingzhou warriors in the front row were all wearing armor, their lethality was not high.

After the Guanxi soldiers shot three waves of arrows, they rushed to the front of the Xianzhen Camp with spears in their hands, urged by the sound of drums.

As the head of the garrison, Liu Yi did not need to hold a spear in front, so he hid in the forest of spears with a knife in both hands. When the opportunity was right, Liu Yi and several brave men, holding knives, rushed into the enemy formation.

"kill!"

With a roar, he chopped the enemy in front of him with all his strength. As the blade moved down, there was a huge resistance and the enemy screamed in pain. Then Liu Yi exerted force suddenly and stabbed the big knife diagonally, blood splattered in the air, and a head fell to the ground immediately. It can be said that he was brave.

Seeing Liu Yi so brave, several spears stabbed at him. Liu Yi was immediately protected by his subordinates with large shields. Liu Yi, realizing that his goal had been achieved, retreated and handed the battlefield over to his colleagues holding spears.

However, the soldiers of the Xianzhen Camp formed a tight formation. While Liu Yi was disrupting the enemy formation, the soldiers holding spears seized the opportunity to stab out with their spears. With their quick hands and eyes, they were able to hit the target directly.

Veterans fight differently from recruits who have never been to the battlefield. Veterans are steady and know that they cannot be impatient in combat. Their calm mentality prevents them from panicking and allows them to perform normally at the level of their usual training.

Not only that, veterans understand how to cooperate and know the importance of mutual cooperation. They can use cooperation to kill soldiers who have more sophisticated martial arts than them individually.

This is where the value of veterans lies. Even if they are old and not as physically strong as young adults, they can still find a position in the team that suits them.

The reason why the elite divisions of all generations were difficult to rebuild after suffering devastating blows was not only because of the huge cost of weapons and equipment, but more importantly, the loss of personnel inheritance.

Amid the sound of weapons clashing, the armies of Guanxi and Bingzhou engaged in a bloody battle.

In the right army, Xu Huang and Zhang Yang took advantage of the hilly terrain to fight with the elite troops under Li Jue; in the center army, Xu Chu and Gao Shun commanded the infantry of the National Protection Army to charge and killed the infantry under Guo Si, who were almost unable to resist; in the left army, with water on the flank, Zhang Liao and Fan Chou were engaged in a bitter battle.

In order to see the battlefield situation clearly, Zhang Yu rode his horse to the high slope and had a panoramic view of the battlefield situation.

"My lord, the battle situation is very tense!" said Zhao Yun.

Zhang Yu pulled the reins tightly and said in a deep voice: "The mob still has blood in them. Now that the enemy is in the first battle, their morale is high. We should use the infantry to wear down their energy and wait until the enemy soldiers are exhausted!"

Zhang Yu did not expect to defeat the Guanxi Army, which was several times larger than his, just by relying on the terrain of Puling. His real backup plan was behind him, and the infantry was just a tool for him to drain the morale of the Guanxi Army.

(End of this chapter)