I did it all for the Han Dynasty!

Chapter 296 Heavy Cavalry (Second Update)
Liu Miao watched with great interest as Yuan Tan drew closer and closer.

Zhou Yu had already informed him of all the battle plans.

However, Zhou Yu also told Liu Miao in his letter that defeating Yuan Tan was not difficult.

But it would be very difficult to defeat Yuan Tan quickly!
Especially now that Ma Teng and Han Sui could arrive at any moment, we must defeat Yuan Tan as quickly as possible!

However, the forces in Guanzhong are currently insufficient, and the key to a swift victory over Yuan Tan lies not with our side, but with Yuan Tan's side.

The goal is to ignite Yuan Tan's competitive spirit, persuading him to abandon his advantage of superior troop strength and also choose a swift victory.

After that, a decisive battle is needed to turn Yuan Tan's swift victory into a swift defeat and drive him out of Guanzhong completely!

This battle cannot be fought by Zhou Yu.

This battle must be fought by Liu Miao!

Only in this way can we quickly break down Yuan Tan's psychological defenses and cause his army to collapse in defeat!
At this moment, Liu Miao looked at Yuan Tan, who suddenly retreated, and knew that Zhou Yu's tactic had been completed!
"Han Sheng, Gong Ming!"

Liu Miao raised his whip high and pointed it at Yuan Tan's army, which was retreating in panic: "Chase after them!"

"Keep chasing them!"

"Drive Yuan Jun and those Xiongnu people out of Guanzhong completely! Leave no one alive!"

"Here!"

Huang Zhong and Xu Huang were both warriors with extremely strong offensive capabilities!

Although the two can only lead a thousand soldiers each now, these thousand soldiers have actually made a show of ten thousand!
When Yuan Tan saw that Liu Miao's generals were charging so fiercely, he didn't bother to take a closer look at Liu Miao's mere three thousand soldiers and retreated to the main camp without looking back!

"Retreat immediately! Liu Miao has indeed arrived in Guanzhong!!!"

The high-ranking officials left behind at the main camp were equally panicked when they heard Yuan Tan's shouts!

At this very moment, Linjin, which had been besieged by Yuan's army for several days, actually opened its city gates on its own initiative!
Zhou Yu, in his heroic and dashing appearance, clad in gleaming silver armor, personally led his troops out of the city to join Liu Miao in a two-pronged attack on Yuan Tan!

If Yuan Jun could maintain morale, he would realize that even now, their military strength is no less than that of Liu Miao and Zhou Yu.

But by this time, Yuan Tan and Gao Gan had already panicked, not to mention the soldiers below!
Moreover, the intense siege battle during the day had exhausted Yuan's army, leaving them demoralized! Many hadn't even had time to eat a single bite all day, and were in a state of weakness and exhaustion. How could they possibly have the will to fight against Liu Miao's army?
The area around Linjin is mostly plains, with no mountains or rivers to provide any protection.

On such an open battlefield, once a defeat is made, the army collapses like a house of cards!
As the two armies plunged into Yuan's lair, the entire Yuan army collapsed instantly!
The original structure was forcibly cut off, shredded, and melted away.

When a united army loses its cohesion, it's like dough suddenly turning back into flour, flowing swiftly through your fingers without any resistance.

Seeing his army defeated, Yuan Tan became increasingly panicked.

It's unclear what Yuan Tan was thinking, but he suddenly changed course again, seemingly wanting to fight Liu Miao again!
This terrified Gao Gan and Liu Qubei, who quickly tried to stop him: "Our army still has cavalry! We can retreat smoothly to the north! Once we cross the river and return to Hedong, we can still confront Liu Miao! Young Master, you must not be impatient!"

Hun cavalry!

This is Yuan Tan's greatest asset at this moment!

Speed ​​is an advantage!

There is still a large army in Hedong, so this battle against Yuan Tan is not a complete defeat!

Even high-ranking officials felt that they had actually gained something from this battle!

Unlike Yuan Tan.

Gao Gan initially followed Yuan Shao's orders, believing that his side was merely a detachment, a secondary battlefield used to attract and disperse the forces from the Central Plains.

Now that even a big fish like Liu Miao has been attracted here, doesn't that prove the strategic success?
Although they suffered a major tactical defeat, they achieved an unprecedented strategic victory! That's why Gao Gan couldn't bear to see Yuan Tan go to his death!

As for Liu Qubei, his mentality was even more simple and honest.

Nonsense! If Yuan Shao's eldest son dies here, will the Southern Xiongnu still want to stay under Yuan Shao's nose?
Both men begged Yuan Tan to retreat, and Yuan Tan, having no other choice, reluctantly followed them away.

This retreat completely dashed Yuan's hopes.

If the ferry crossing were still standing, Yuan's soldiers might have been able to return to Hedong from Puban.

Unfortunately, their escape route was cut off by Zhou Yu long ago.

As Huang Zhong and Xu Huang continued their sweeping campaigns, more and more of Yuan's soldiers chose to accept their fate and surrendered to Liu Miao.

Liu Miao had already ridden up to Zhou Yu's side, and upon seeing Zhou Yu, he immediately became very affectionate.

"Gongjin, come here! Let me see if you've lost weight! You've really worked hard!"

Even Zhou Tai felt somewhat uncomfortable hearing Liu Miao's words, let alone Zhou Yu.

Zhou Tai even went so far as to expose Liu Miao's secrets—

"Didn't our lord previously scold the Commander for insisting on crossing the Sa Xiao Mountain himself?"

"Nonsense! But didn't we win?"

Liu Miao, exposed in public, became even more self-righteous!
"If we win, everything will be fine! Even if Gongjin only asks me to cross the Xiaoshan Mountains, or even if he asks me to cross the Taihang Mountains, that's a small matter!"

Zhou Yu couldn't help but laugh when he saw Liu Miao's face.

"My lord is indeed just like that."

"I originally thought that my lord might arrive a few days late, but I didn't expect that it would be just in time!"

Not too early, not too late. Just the day before Yuan Tan decided to launch a full-scale attack at all costs, Liu Miao arrived in the east as promised and made contact with Zhou Yu.

And that's precisely why the outcome of this battle was exceptionally good!

With Yuan Tan's complete defeat, at least there was no longer any need to worry about a pincer attack from Yuan's army and Ma Teng and Han Sui.

However, Zhou Yu's ambitions clearly went beyond that.

"The strategy that Lord and Boyan initially devised was not to engage Yuan Tan in a stalemate in Guanzhong, but to break through from the west, using this as a starting point to expand the overall situation and completely turn the tide of the war in our favor!"

"Yuan Tan and his men now have cavalry and have headed north. If we let them cross the river... then we'll probably be forced into a standoff along the river!"

Burning the ferry crossing certainly allowed Zhou Yu to achieve a series of tactical objectives.

However, this also brought Zhou Yu the biggest constraint: when he had the advantage, he could not quickly push forward to Hedong and expand his gains.

Therefore, Zhou Yu had already decided to resolve the war and Yuan Tan completely in Hexi!

Liu Miao waved his hand after hearing this: "What's the rush?"

Zhou Yu was about to emphasize the importance of completely eliminating Yuan Tan in Hexi when Liu Miao said, "Anyway, Gongjin has already deployed his troops, hasn't he? We can just wait here for the outcome!"

"Ugh?"

Zhou Yu looked at Liu Miao in surprise, wondering how Liu Miao knew about this.

"Ziyi, Wenyuan, and the heavy cavalry I spent a lot of money building are not here."

Liu Miao glanced at the battlefield and already knew what Zhou Yu's final killing move was.

"Our soldiers are exhausted and their horses are worn out. They are only sustained by that one bite of beef and are no longer able to pursue."

"The soldiers in Linjin City are in the same situation. After fighting hard for so many days, they are already exhausted."

"With Ziyi and Wenyuan around, Yuan Tan can no longer cause any trouble! Gongjin, you can rest assured!"

------

Yuan Tan and his men in the north were like frightened birds, running for a while and then turning back to see if Liu Miao had caught up.

Yuan Tan only dared to stop and rest after fleeing all the way to Hancheng.

At this moment, Yuan Tan looked gloomy, showing no trace of his previous high spirits.
Although Liu Miao's appearance here was a great strategic victory for Yuan Shao, it also completely extinguished Yuan Tan's hopes of leading his troops to conquer Guanzhong and besiege Xuchang!

In other words... it means that the hope of using this military achievement to persuade Yuan Shao to establish an heir apparent has been lost!
Yuan Tan felt a tightness in his chest and shortness of breath, and even his throat tasted sweet.

When Gao Gan gathered the defeated soldiers and learned that he only had six thousand troops left, Yuan Tan covered his face and wept.

When Gao Gan saw Yuan Tan crying, he could only try to encourage him by citing the example of King Goujian of Yue.

"Goujian was once defeated by the State of Wu and became a slave of the King of Wu, suffering all kinds of humiliation, but in the end, wasn't it still the State of Yue that destroyed the State of Wu?"

"We are far from reaching our dead end, so why are you so sad, young master?"

Seeing that Yuan Tan remained unmoved, Gao Gan directly invoked Yuan Shao's name—

"It is indeed a pity to lose this battle!"

"But after all, Liu Miao was led to Guanzhong, which fulfilled Lord Yuan's purpose! Lord Yuan will naturally not blame the eldest son."

"But if Lord Yuan knew that the eldest son would weep and lose his fighting spirit over a single defeat, would he still favor him?"

Yuan Tan's crying gradually subsided.

Yes!

Although the goal of conquering Guanzhong and besieging Xuchang could not be achieved, the struggle for the crown prince position is far from over!

If Yuan Shao knew that I was crying my eyes out because of the defeat in battle, wouldn't that just make Yuan Shao disappointed in me for nothing?

Once Yuan Tan understood this, he immediately wiped away his tears so that no one could see them!
"Yuan Cai is right! My current predicament is not due to a lack of fighting spirit!"

Who would have thought that Liu Miao would suddenly appear in Guanzhong?
This unconventional attack brought immense shock to everyone in the world!
Yuan Tan kept comforting himself and finally regained some fighting spirit.

Gao Gan quickly added, "We didn't see Liu Miao's cavalry on the battlefield earlier. However, our army still has two thousand Xiongnu cavalry, which is our advantage!"

"As long as we can use the might of our cavalry to prevent Liu Miao from advancing, our army can cross the river at ease and regroup!"

Yuan Tan agreed with this and immediately ordered Liu Qubei to lead the Xiongnu cavalry to monitor the movements near Longmen Ferry, buying time for the infantry to cross the river!
Although Liu Qubei was not very willing, he clearly had no room for negotiation at the moment.

Otherwise, not only would Yuan Tan be unable to cross the river, but he himself would also be unable to cross the river!
Liu Qubei dispatched his cavalry, but only half a day later, scouts came looking for him.

"Damn it? Do Liu Miao's soldiers have four legs? How did they catch up so quickly???"

"No, not the South!"

The Xiongnu scout seemed to have seen something extremely terrifying; he was even trembling as he spoke.

"It's to the north! There are cavalry!"

"And they're heavily armored cavalry!"

(End of this chapter)