I did it all for the Han Dynasty!

Chapter 451 Heavy Arrow!

The sounds were getting closer and closer. Although they were still two or three miles apart, to some of the Han soldiers, the thunder of hooves seemed to brush past their bodies, and even a gust of cool wind felt like the dust kicked up by Yuan's cavalry charging!
If it weren't for Gao Shun's personal training and Taishi Ci standing in front of them with a bow and arrow, the Han army on the flank would probably have been routed long ago!

At this moment, Taishi Ci looked up again.

But the crimson figure on Mangdang Mountain remained unmoved, its teeth clenched, its cold eyes fixed on the approaching Yuan army cavalry from the east.

Taishi Ci was not the only one looking at Yuan's cavalry.

Liu Miao, Zhou Tai, Chen Wu, and Zhou Yu, who was on the mountainside, all kept glancing eastward, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

But no one made a move at this moment; they all remained where they were, waiting.

While the Han army's attention was drawn to Yuan's cavalry, Ju Shou kept his eyes on the Han army's main force.

When the Han army under Taishi Ci fell into disarray, Ju Shou was instinctively delighted.

But when he saw that the Han army's formation quickly stabilized and that there was no sign of the Han cavalry moving, Ju Shou's face gradually turned gloomy and he became hesitant.

When Yuan Jun's cavalry was only two miles away from the flank of the Han army and was about to break into the Han army's formation, Ju Shou's face had become completely ferocious!
“Zhou Gongjin…”

Ju Shou's gaze settled on the mountainside of Mangdang Mountain.

He knew that if he did nothing at this moment, Yuan's cavalry could easily crash into the Han army's formation and wipe out the entire battle!
but……

"Pass down the order! The cavalry must withdraw!"

"Ok?"

The scout beside him looked astonished.

They were about to win, so what was Ju Shou doing?
Just like the scouts in the Han army who received Zhou Yu's orders, the Yuan army scouts, though full of doubt, immediately went to the flank, struck the bronze gong, and issued the order to retreat!
Taishi Ci could clearly feel the wind, a whisper of "death," brushing against his temples, freezing a bead of sweat in place. But just like that "death-and-resurrection" arrow that had been through countless battles, this wind actually grazed right past his neck!
"Yuan's cavalry have turned around!"

Someone shouted first, and then everyone around looked up.

The Yuan army cavalry, which had been charging aggressively, suddenly changed direction at a sharp angle, pulling themselves to the edge of the battlefield instead of charging straight toward the center!

"Long live!"

"Long live!!!"

To die and be reborn!!!
At this moment, every pore of the Han army was groaning! Every pore was screaming!

Although the war was not over, the rebound after hitting rock bottom clearly gave the entire Han army a fiery and devastating morale!
"What are the cavalry doing? What are the supervising officers doing?!"

The Yuan army general at the front turned around, cursing and looking at his own camp with confusion.

How could the cavalry stop?

How dare the cavalry stop?

Could it be that even Ju Shou was a spy for the Han army?
Zhou Yu stood there, supporting his sword.

At this moment, Zhou Yu exuded an aura of unfathomable prowess!

Combined with the demon mask on his face, it was so convincing that people dared not look directly at him!

As everyone knows...

If Zhou Yu's armor were removed at this moment, one could see that his back was already soaked with sweat in the dead of winter!

"Snapped!"

A hand landed on Zhou Yu's shoulder, causing Zhou Yu to instinctively want to dodge!

However, upon seeing who it was, Zhou Yu suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, as if he were about to collapse into Liu Miao's arms.

"Is Gongjin making another risky move in chess?"

Zhou Yu put his hand on Liu Miao's shoulder and shook his head, saying, "Actually, it doesn't count."

"When you offend someone with a matter, do not explain it with words; when you offend someone with a benefit, do not explain it with harm. Throw them into a place of certain death, and they will live; trap them in a deadly situation, and they will survive. When the masses are trapped in a state of harm, they can then determine victory or defeat. Therefore, the essence of warfare lies in understanding the enemy's intentions, converging on them in one direction, and killing their general from a thousand miles away. This is what is meant by skillfully achieving success!"

When assigning combat tasks to subordinates, do not explain your intentions; only tell them the favorable conditions, not the unfavorable ones. Only by placing soldiers in perilous situations can danger be turned into safety; only by putting them in a desperate situation can they be revived. Only when soldiers are deeply trapped in a hopeless predicament can defeat be turned into victory. Therefore, the key to commanding battle lies in understanding the enemy's intentions, confusing them, and then concentrating elite forces to attack their vitals. In this way, even a long-distance raid can result in the killing of the enemy general. This is what is commonly referred to as strategic brilliance leading to great achievements!
"Therefore, this is not a risky move, but simply a clever tactic."

"Tsk! Gongjin is getting more and more shameless! I wonder who he learned it from!"

Liu Miao stared at the battle situation below the mountain: "So, Gongjin has guessed Ju Shou's battle plan?"

"Of course!"

Zhou Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

"Both Ju Shou and I know that infantry is not the key to this battle."

"The reason why Yuan Shao chose to launch the Battle of Mangdang Mountain suddenly, and why Ju Shou was able to mobilize all of Yuan's cavalry, was not for the sake of the 20,000 infantrymen in this area!"

The allure of 20,000 infantrymen was considerable, but considering the size of both Han and Zhao, and the scale of the battle, neither side could achieve a decisive victory by losing such a number of infantrymen. Yuan Shao's objective, and Ju Shou's objective, from beginning to end, was the Han army's cavalry!
Especially after Yuan Shao learned that Liu Miao knew that Yuan's heavy cavalry was not in the Central Plains, he would surely guess that, given Liu Miao's personality, he would definitely bring out the Han army's heavy cavalry and take advantage of the situation to bully others!
Therefore, Yuan Jun's goal in this battle, and Ju Shou's goal in this battle, was not only to defeat the Han army, capture Mangdang Mountain, and defeat the 20,000 infantrymen, but also to annihilate the Han army's cavalry!

“Ju Shou should know that if Yuan Jun’s cavalry had actually charged in just now, he might have won the battle, but because of the terrain of Mangdang Mountain, he would not have been able to directly threaten His Majesty.”

If it really came down to a life-or-death situation, Liu Miao was perfectly capable of retreating from behind Mount Mangdang.

Once Liu Miao withdraws, it means that the remaining main force of the Han army will be completely holed up in Pengcheng. At the same time, the Han army's cavalry force will not be damaged at all. With the mobility of the cavalry, the Han army is fully capable of taking care of the Pengcheng-Langya defense line, preventing the main force of Yuan's army in the Central Plains from joining forces with Yuan Tan in Qingzhou.

That's why Ju Shou didn't run into them at the last moment!

He is waiting!
Once the Han cavalry shows up, we can annihilate their mobile forces in one fell swoop! From then on, the Han army will be nothing more than a slow-moving, fat pig ready to be slaughtered!
"Ju Shou is a man of deep thought."

“He knew from the beginning what kind of results he wanted to achieve, which is why he did not directly order the cavalry to attack.”

Zhou Yu shook his head: "But this pursuit of perfection has actually harmed him!"

Zhou Yu believed that even if he gave the 20,000 infantrymen to Ju Shou and the victory of this battle to Ju Shou, Ju Shou might not accept them.

Ju Shou's ambitions are greater than those of 20,000 infantrymen! Greater than the victory in this battle! He truly wants to annihilate the Han army's cavalry forces! To completely cut off the Han army's rapid reinforcements in the Central Plains.

As it turned out, Zhou Yu's judgment was correct!
"Now we can send a message to Wen Yuan."

Zhou Yu leaned on Liu Miao to regain some strength and stood up again.

"The reason we are taking this gamble is that Wen Yuan's cavalry is not actually suitable for chaotic battles where infantry and cavalry are mixed together."

"If we had gone to intercept them just now, our cavalry would likely have been forced to fight Yuan's cavalry on the edge of this narrow battlefield."

Zhou Yu was well aware of Zhang Liao's battle tactics and the characteristics of the archer cavalry he had built.

Only when the battlefield is large enough can the full power of that tactic be unleashed!
"Now, we all depend on Wen Yuan!"

…………

Yuan Jun was the main force.

The moment Ju Shou ordered the cavalry to turn around, he knew that he had lost the biggest battle he had ever fought against Zhou Yu.

"You actually risked your lord's life and the nation's honor to gamble with me this time... Zhou Gongjin, didn't you think of Han Xin and Zhou Yafu?!"

Liu Miao sat atop Mount Mangdang!

The emperor's dragon banner fluttered on the battlefield!

How could Zhou Yu not immediately send cavalry to protect the Han army's main camp?

But Zhou Yu did exactly that!

Ju Shou simply couldn't believe that a ruler and his subject should go to such lengths to entrust their lives to each other.
Could it be... that Liu Miao also married Zhou Yu's mother?

Ju Shou had a terrible headache.

He glanced resentfully in the direction of Yuan's cavalry.

The reason he dared not easily collide with the Han army's infantry formation was because there was a powerful weapon hidden inside!
Ju Shou was unwilling to give up until he used that powerful weapon against the Han cavalry!
Right now!

Suddenly, another cloud of dust rose from the south!
"Report! It's Han cavalry! The leader is Zhang Liao, Zhang Wenyuan!"

Han army cavalry!

Zhang Liao!

That’s right!
During the Battle of Kunyang, Yuan's army had already obtained a great deal of intelligence about the Han army.

Among them, the commander of the Han army's heavy cavalry was Zhang Liao, the former cavalry captain under Lü Bu, who was known to everyone!
Zhang Liao's presence here means that the Han army's heavy cavalry has also appeared here!

Seeing the victory he had been pursuing finally appear before his eyes, Ju Shou finally breathed a sigh of relief and even let out his only laugh since the start of the war!
"Hahahaha! Fate is on Yuan! As long as Zhou Yu dares to send out heavy cavalry, the Han army will surely be defeated!"

Ju Shou immediately reorganized his troops: "Tell Jiang Yiqu! Focus all your efforts on eliminating the Han cavalry! They must be annihilated!"

"Here!"

Having received the order, Jiang Yiqu suppressed his dissatisfaction with Ju Shou's earlier decision not to let him charge into battle.

If we can annihilate all the Han cavalry here, then it will all be worth it!
"The whole army attacks!"

Jiang Yiqu reorganized his troops and charged towards the Han army!

Soon, Jiang Yiqu's lips curled up in a smile!
The Han army's cavalry was clearly not as fast as Yuan's army's cavalry!
Clearly, the Han army's warhorses were ultimately inferior to Yuan's army's warhorses!

This battle is in the bag!
Jiang Yiqu excitedly spurred his horse forward, until he caught a glimpse of cold light out of the corner of his eye and realized something was amiss.

"This is... an arrow?"

(End of this chapter)