The Three Kingdoms: Hindsight is 20/20, and the Three Revivals of the Han Dynasty

The Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, a heavily armored cavalry force that Cao Cao had painstakingly built and placed great hopes on, was now like someone mired in a quagmire.

Zhang Luan, Kou Pan, Wang Chi, and Geng Ling, the four Wuhuan cavalry units, formed a square formation and relentlessly pursued the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, strictly executing Zhuge Liang's military orders and sparing no effort to keep Cao's cavalry at bay.

The light cavalry did not attempt to directly confront the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry's heavy armor. Instead, relying on their agility, they attacked the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry's warhorses like wolves tearing apart a giant beast.

The fearless cavalry charged into the hooves of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, using hooks to cut the hooves of the horses that were covered by their armor.

The hook-and-shield is a composite weapon that evolved from the shield, combining a hook and a shield. It has hooks at the top and bottom, and a small iron shield with a handle at the back in the middle. The hook-and-shield appeared in the Western Han Dynasty, became popular in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and disappeared in the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

Because private fights were not prohibited, small-scale brawls and duels between two people occurred frequently. Swords, knives, spears, and other weapons were commonly used in the countryside. In order to win in duels, hooks and halberds were developed as special weapons for parrying and countering conventional weapons.

After studying the armor style of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, Zhuge Liang came up with the idea of ​​using hooks to damage the horse's legs. However, damaging the horse's legs was not easy. The Tiger and Leopard Cavalry could not ignore protecting their warhorses, nor could they stand still and let the enemy damage their horses' legs.

Therefore, the use of hook-and-insert requires extremely demanding conditions: first, the charge of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry must be contained, and then fearless and valiant soldiers must fight to the death.

At present, Zhuge Liang has successfully achieved both of these conditions.

Fire attacks and a four-sided formation halted the advance of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry. The fearless and valiant cavalry, in order to repay Liu Bei's great kindness and protect the existing order in the north, were willing to die for Liu Bei.

These are the suicide squad members!
Even if it takes three to exchange for one, the elite cavalrymen still charge forward one after another.

For the elite cavalry, Liu Bei was like a god; without him, they would have remained kneeling before the Wuhuan people as slaves, like livestock.

However, this scene greatly shocked Cao Chun.

Cao Chun couldn't understand where Liu Bei had found this group of loyal followers who were willing to go to such lengths for him!
"Break through immediately!"

Faced with the suicidal tactics of the elite cavalry, Cao Chun was both shocked and terrified.

It wasn't that Cao Chun was afraid of death; what he feared was that Zhuge Liang would use this death-for-death tactic to wipe out his five hundred Tiger Leopard Cavalry!
More importantly, if the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry were to be wiped out like this, they would be nailed to the pillar of shame and become the stepping stone for the rise of the Wuhuan Cavalry.

Just like the White Horse Cavalry of the past, they were crippled by the Vanguard Death Squad. Whenever the White Horse Cavalry is mentioned, people will think of the Vanguard Death Squad that crippled them.

Those vanguard soldiers were also fearless of death, and even when facing the renowned White Horse Cavalry, they dared to intercept them at close range with powerful bows and crossbows.

You must understand that when faced with thousands of warhorses galloping towards them, let alone intercepting them, even ordinary soldiers might not dare to make a move.

At this moment, Cao Chun also felt the same helplessness he had when the White Horse Cavalry was intercepted by the Vanguard Death Squad. He couldn't understand why the Wuhuan Cavalry were so fearless!

With the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry on the outer perimeter eliminated, the dead Tiger and Leopard Cavalry became obstacles for the living Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to break through, and also made the tactic of cutting off the horses' legs by the Suicide Cavalry more difficult.

However, before Cao Chun could come up with a countermeasure, the cavalry threw out firewood laced with oil again, and thick smoke spread among the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry.

Heavy armor could protect against swords and spears, but not against thick smoke. The Tiger and Leopard Cavalry's formation was thrown into chaos again. As the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry were thrown into disarray, they were forced to split up, and then some elite cavalrymen directly knocked the fierce Tiger and Leopard Cavalry soldiers off their horses.

If you can't kill him, you can strip him of his armor and capture him alive!

To deal with the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, Zhuge Liang employed all sorts of underhanded tactics.

"Prefect Tian, ​​lead your Dai Commandery cavalry in a flanking maneuver to capture Cao Cao's central army." Seeing the opportunity presented itself, Zhuge Liang gave the order again.

Tian Yu, who had been waiting patiently for a long time, then led the Dai County cavalry in a flanking maneuver.

Tian Yu also spent many years suppressing the Wuhuan in Dai Commandery. Those who resisted were first intimidated by force, so his thousand cavalrymen were also fierce soldiers who grew up in battle. After Liu Bei pacified the six commanderies of Youzhou, the combat strength of Liu Bei's infantry and cavalry also increased day by day.

As the oil seller said: There is nothing special about it, it's just a matter of practice.

Only through years of training and honing skills on the battlefield can one truly grow into an elite force, and this process requires a significant amount of time to accumulate.

The appearance of Tian Yu made Cao Cao's situation even more troublesome.

In a battle between masters, one wrong step can lead to a series of mistakes.

Cao Cao was indeed experienced in battle, but Zhuge Liang was a master strategist. Moreover, Zhuge Liang was unprepared and directly set his sights on annihilating Cao Cao's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, rather than causing Cao Cao to suffer a crushing defeat.

With 10,000 against 10,000, and without the assistance of fierce generals like Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhao Yun, it was impossible to defeat Cao Cao, who had such powerful generals, in a head-on confrontation. Even Zhuge Liang wouldn't have dared to make such a boast afterward.

However, if the goal is to specifically eliminate Cao Cao's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, then it would be much simpler.

Even the fiercest Tiger and Leopard Cavalry only numbered a few hundred!

As time passed, although Cao Cao could still command his troops to remain undefeated, he was unable to rescue the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry from Zhuge Liang's encirclement and attack.

Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, and Li Dian launched several fierce attacks, but all were forcefully repelled by the Wuhuan cavalry.

Cao Cao wanted Xu Chu to lead the Tiger Guards in a forced breakout to attack Liu Bei, but they were blocked by Chen Dao, Yang Qun, and Ding Li.

If there aren't enough fierce generals, then numbers will make up for it. If one-on-one isn't enough, then three against one. Besides, the White Feather Soldiers are no weaker than Cao Cao's Tiger Guards.

"My Lone Tiger and Leopard Cavalry!"

Cao Cao's mindset was no longer as calm as it had been at the beginning.

The Tiger and Leopard Cavalry were extremely important to Cao Cao!

It should be noted that after the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao had less than ten sets of horse armor. These five hundred sets of horse armor were only collected after Cao Cao won the Battle of Guandu and after his subsequent campaigns against Yuan Shang and Yuan Tan!

If Cao Cao were to suffer losses here, the consequences would be incalculable in terms of money and provisions, and could even affect his future struggle with Liu Bei for control of Hebei!
"Send word to Xu Chu to bring Cao Chun back to me at all costs!" Cao Cao roared angrily.

Upon receiving the order, Xu Chu abandoned his fight with Chen Dao and the others, and led the Tiger Guards straight to the location of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry.

In an effort to stop Liu Bei from intercepting them, Cao Cao concentrated his forces on Liu Bei's troops. However, Liu Bei was no pushover. Seeing Xu Chu leave, Huang Zhong, who had been roaming around, was also ordered to intercept him.

"This road is blocked. Do you know Huang Zhong from Nanyang?" Huang Zhong forcefully blocked Xu Chu's path and led his personal guards and fierce warriors to fight Xu Chu and his men.

From morning to noon.

After fighting for half a day, both sides were exhausted, tired and hungry, and the outcome was still uncertain.

Neither Cao Cao nor Liu Bei had any new reinforcements to draw upon at this moment; otherwise, any new reinforcements from either side could have completely crushed the other.

At this moment on the battlefield, Cao Chun's Tiger and Leopard Cavalry had only a hundred or so men left on horseback!
The remaining Tiger and Leopard Cavalry mostly lost their horses, were either killed or captured, or were reduced to infantry fighting in groups.

Cao Cao's meticulously crafted Tiger and Leopard Cavalry suffered heavy losses, losing more than half its men in a single battle! (End of Chapter)