Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 495 Chasing down Cao Rui
Cao Jun's thousand riders swarmed, swirling the wind and thunder, and charged towards the right wing of Shen Chen's army.

Shen Chen rode on the horse and couldn't help but praised: "This Cao Rui is worthy of being the descendant of Cao Cao, but he is quite capable."

Although Cao Rui had never really fought in a battle in history, what is more surprising is that his command ability was not bad in the fight, and the opponent chose to use his strengths to avoid his weaknesses.

The strength of the cavalry lies in its mobility, and it is absolutely impossible to fight the infantry head-on. Therefore, Cao Rui first sent hundreds of cavalry to contain the main Han army, and then planned to concentrate his strength to break their right wing first.

This is broken down one by one.

If Shen Chen's right wing is farther away, it is really possible for Cao Rui to succeed.But the right wing is only about half a mile away from the main formation, so how could he not be able to react?

At that moment, Shen Chen responded immediately and ordered a general and two people to rush to help.

With the sound of sharp whistles, several teams of Han soldiers in orange leather armor split out from the large square formation, and marched forward in three rows, their leather boots kicked up a long circle of floating dust, and moved to the right.

Cao Jun's cavalry in the middle formation wanted to come over to intercept them, but Shen Chen's main force quickly approached, and at the same time separated another group of people from the rear formation, and began to move further to the right again.

In this way, the situation of the entire battlefield became that the main line of the Han army shifted to the right, while the main force of the Cao army galloped towards their left hand.

Cao Jun's cavalry came fiercely, and the Han army had just set off on the other side and encountered the outflanking troops of the Han army on the right. After two rounds of cavalry and shooting, the formation of the Han army's right wing was slightly scattered, and Cao Rui immediately issued an order for a surprise attack.

They did not directly attack directly, but hundreds of cavalry first detoured to the right flank of the Han army, and cooperated with the suppressed cavalry with bows and crossbows to intercept them.

This is a standard cavalry attack method, with frontal containment and side outflanking.

Although Shen Chen also wanted to outflank the two wings, but the mobility of the cavalry is here, so at the beginning the Han army was beaten hard, but lost the first advantage.

But then Shen Chen made adjustments. In addition to sending people to rush to help, he immediately organized scout cavalry, quickly went around the battlefield to the flank of the cavalry cavalry in the front, and launched a surprise attack at the same time.

Cao Jun plans his right-wing team, so why doesn't he covet the opponent's frontal containment of the troops?

If the opponent's containment troops choose to evacuate, then the main force of the Han army will directly pounce on the flank of the Cao cavalry on the right, which will cause a big loophole there.

So Cao Jun gritted his teeth to contain the troops head-on, and fought with the scout soldiers of the Han Army.

The number of scout soldiers is not large, only two teams of about a hundred people, while Cao Jun's side has four to five hundred people, obviously unable to compete head-on.

However, their role has been completed, and they have successfully dragged the main force of the Han army close. The more than 2000 Han troops in the front quickly entangled with hundreds of Cao troops, killing people on their backs in an instant, and screaming Cao troops everywhere.

Cao Jun’s elite cavalry all wore small Zhajia, but their defense was not as good as the big Zhajia. It only protected the chest and stomach, and other parts should be injured. What’s more, they were trapped in the infantry formation, and their horses were also attacked. Big, succumbed to death and injury while being slowly strangled.

But at the same time, the right-wing Han army was also attacked by Cao Jun, causing many casualties.After the supporters sent by Shen Chen's main formation arrived, Cao Rui kept looking at the situation in the central formation. Seeing that the hundreds of cavalry in the central formation were about to be wiped out, he immediately gave the order to retreat.

"woo woo woo woo!"

The desolate sound of the horn resounded throughout the wilderness, and Cao Jun's cavalry, who were still fighting, immediately withdrew from the battlefield and quickly approached Cao Rui's position behind.

Although the Han army pursued them all the way, Cao Jun fled to the east, running several miles at once, leaving the Han army behind.

Seeing this situation, Shen Chen also had someone knock the copper gong, and Ming Jin asked the soldiers to come back.

"This Cao Rui is a little level."

Shen Chen looked in the northeast direction. After Cao's army gathered quickly, they moved away from the battlefield and disappeared to the east.

A guard next to him wondered: "Cao Rui lost troops and lost generals, is this considered to be a level?"

Shen Chen frowned and said, "Don't look at them losing hundreds of people, but we lost even more."

"But they are cavalry."

The personal guard said: "Even if the infantry suffers more damage when fighting cavalry, one cavalry can take six steps."

"Look over there."

Shen Chen pointed to a further direction on the compass.

There were more than 1000 Han troops rushing out there, but it was a pity that Cao Jun was not intercepted and could only watch Cao Jun walk away.

Shen Chen said: "That's the left-wing troops outflanking the past. I originally wanted to use the tactics of refueling, and deliberately fought against the cavalry held by Cao Wei in the center, and slowly sent small groups of troops to surround them. Boiling frogs in warm water surrounded their main force. Cao Rui took advantage of it like a rabbit and ran away, this man's ability is not bad, if he is a little slower, the whole army will be wiped out."

The guard's eyes widened, and he didn't know whether to call Shen Chen's tactical skills or Cao Rui's ability.Anyway, even if he had followed the governor for many years, if he had commanded in the past, he would probably have been hanged and beaten by the governor.

Only Shen Chen still frowned.

He had 1000 people on the right wing, and then sent another 1000 people to support them. The two sides fought for almost half an hour.Because the Han army marched in a hurry and did not bring too many things, including bows and crossbows, Cao Jun's horses with cavalry bows took the lead and shot and killed many people.

Then Cao Rui cut off the right-wing formation of the Han army from left to right, and killed at least 800 people. Compared with Cao Wei who only lost 500 people, the casualties of the Han army were obviously more than Cao's.

of course.

If the loss of horses is counted, Cao Jun's battle damage must be higher than that of the Han Army, but Shen Chen is more concerned about casualties, so he feels a little heartbroken.

In fact, if Cao Jun could be kept, such casualties would be within an acceptable range.

However, Cao Rui has some skills.

In addition to sending two groups of 1000 people, Shen Chen also sent another group of people to the right to continue to outflank, and the original left-wing troops also went around. The total is about 500 people plus the right-wing 2000 people who are fighting. An anti-outflank operation was carried out against about [-] cavalry of Cao's army.

On his main side, there were only more than 2000 people left to fight against the 500 people that Cao Jun was restraining.

If Cao Rui didn't notice these things were wrong, and Tan Gong continued to entangle with the Han army, and those people suddenly rushed out, cutting off the opponent's cavalry, and at the same time, Shen Chen easily eliminated Cao's frontal troops, then these cavalry would be completely useless. up.

Cao Rui himself would probably have to be hunted down to death.

It's a pity that Cao Rui really has a keen sense of smell, and he ran away at the most critical moment.

"Chase!"

Shen Chen rode his horse to the battlefield where Cao Jun died in battle, found several Cao Jun's horses in a row, touched their bodies, and gave the order to pursue them.

Every war horse is covered with sweat, which means that the opponent should be rushing over, and there will not be too much rest time.

His soldiers are different. They have rested this morning and are more energetic.

It seems that Cao Rui thought I was a feint attacking force to attack Luoyang, but it just so happened that he sent Luoyang's troops to search for Huchuquan and let me succeed, so he wanted to defeat me and take Luoyang back again.

Shen Chen rode his horse and yelled at the soldiers to continue the pursuit, while thinking in his heart.

Then compare who has the longest endurance.

Thousands of Han troops rushed eastward like a flood.

By heart.

If Shen Chen was in Cao Rui's position, he might not necessarily be better than him.

Not only did he sharply judge the situation on the battlefield, but he also retreated immediately when he found something was wrong.

But it's a pity that the opponent he met was not an ordinary person after all.

As soon as I left Novice Village, I encountered a big boss.

How to fight this?
At this moment, Cao Rui led the remaining [-] Cao cavalry all the way to the east, and quickly ran for more than ten miles.

Since the Han army would not come after them for a while, Cao Rui asked the soldiers to stop and rest.

It's not that he doesn't want to go further, but that the horses are too tired.

Some knights had already fallen behind because their horses were limp and tired, so he had no choice but to find a small river to stop.

There is a forest on the east bank of the small river, and an abandoned village on the west bank. The former countryside has turned into a plain. I don’t know how many years there are no people living here. You can see whether the Han army is chasing after you.

The soldiers got off their horses and led the horses to the river to drink in an orderly manner. After drinking, some of them took out soybeans from the bags they carried with them and fed them to the horses, and then led the horses to eat some grass.Some take care of themselves first, and take care of their war horses after eating something chaotic.

In the midst of order, Cao Rui dismounted and asked his guards to feed and rest the horses, while he stood on a small hill overlooking the west. Within his field of vision, there were undulating hills with uneven heights, which had been covered up. Cyan weeds and jungle cover.

"Your Majesty, we are about to wipe out that part of the enemy army. Why do we have to evacuate?"

Until this time, Cao Rui's cavalry generals did not understand and asked.

At that time, he led a team to launch a fierce attack on the right wing of the Han army. The battle went very smoothly, and almost wiped out 1000 people on the right wing of the Han army. At the critical moment, Cao Rui ordered the withdrawal of troops.

Cao Rui shook his head and said, "The enemy has increased their troops by 1000."

The cavalry general was unconvinced and said: "The 1000 people will also see it, but the general will believe it. If the fight continues, the 1000 people will definitely die."

"But you didn't see another 500 people outflanking from the south, and another 1000 people further away."

Cao Rui glared at him and said: "Obviously the enemy is pretending that the main force is fighting with our containment force, but in fact they want to slowly increase their troops, let the right wing hold back our main force, and then suddenly encircle them. Annihilated!"

"what?"

The cavalry general was dumbfounded. He was in the formation at the time, and naturally he didn't know the situation in the south. When he heard the Han army outflanking him, he broke out in a cold sweat and said, "Thanks to your majesty's command, otherwise everything will be over."

Cao Rui stood with his hands behind his back and said: "I have been familiar with the military books left by my grandfather since I was a child, and studied the art of war. Although this battle is the first time to command in actual combat, I have repeatedly deduced it many times. The opponent's enemy is really powerful. He reacts quickly and has insight. His sharpness makes me feel lingering fears. If an ordinary enemy general has this level, Great Wei will be in danger."

"."

The surrounding guards looked at each other and dared not speak.

After a while, Cao Rui shook his head and said, "It's impossible. To have such an ability, he must be a famous general in the world. The opponent is too far away, and I didn't see the appearance of the enemy general clearly. Did any of you see it?"

Although there was a confrontation on the current battlefield, Cao Ru's position was to wait and see on the hillside more than a mile away to the east, and did not go to the edge of the battlefield in person.

The distance between them must be at least about 500 meters. With such a distance, Shen Chen couldn't see Cao Rui clearly, and Cao Rui couldn't see Shen Chen clearly, so neither of them knew the identity of the other.

It's just that Shen Chen guessed that it was Cao Rui who was blocking him, so he continued to chase.

However, because of the delay in the news, Cao Rui didn't know that Shen Chen had already learned about the rebellion of the Huns, and that he didn't know that the feint attack from Luoyang was the main attack with a large number of troops, so there was a mistake.

If he had known more complete information, he might have made other arrangements long ago, instead of going so hard to find Hu Chuquan, fearing that the news would leak.

Hearing Cao Rui's question at this moment, one of the cavalrymen thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, I vaguely saw a general in their rear line protected by a dozen cavalrymen. He is about 40 years old, and he is powerful. The face is not very clear."

40 or so?
Are there famous generals in their 40s in the Han army camp on the western front?
Cao Rui frowned.

As the emperor of the Great Wei Empire, he naturally found out the information of the senior generals of the Southern Han Dynasty.

In the Han army camp on the western front, only Shen Chen, Pang De, Zhao Yun, and Ma Dai could be considered high-ranking generals, and the rest were middle- and high-ranking generals.

Only Shen Chen and Ma Dai were in their 40s. Pang De and Zhao Yun were both in their [-]s and did not meet the requirements. According to intelligence, Shen Chen was in Bingzhou.

So here is Ma Dai?
Ma Dai is so powerful?
Cao Rui put a question mark on the identity of the opposing general in his heart.

Although Ma Dai was promoted to General Pingdong because of his military exploits, he obviously obeyed Shen Chen's command most of the time. It is still doubtful whether his ability and level are so outstanding.

If the opponent has such ability, then Cao Rui may have to re-examine the talents of the big man.

Just one of the top generals on the western front is so powerful, how strong is the main force of Zhuge Liang and Guan Yu on the central and eastern fronts?

Thinking of this, Cao Rui sighed for a while.

After a while, many figures appeared on the distant horizon, and the Han army chased them again.

This time Cao Rui did not choose to continue to be tough, but shouted, and all the soldiers of Cao Jun rushed into the forest on the other side of the river.

The forest was quiet, as if there was no border in Manglin, the scouts of the Han army first entered the forest to investigate, and after discovering that Cao Jun had not set up an ambush, the main force continued to pursue.

It is also very difficult for so many horses to get rid of the pursuers. Horseshoe prints and fresh horse manure are sources of continued pursuit.

It was not until night time that the Han army caught up with the exhausted Cao army in the direction of Guoting in Xingyang in the southeast, but what is surprising is that this time Cao army had more than 2000 more infantry.

The wandering pawns who were scattered on the south bank of the Yellow River to search for Huchuquan were gathered together by the scouts sent by Cao Ru, and joined Cao Jun on the way to support in the Xingyang area.

Shen Chen immediately commanded the soldiers to fight, and when it was completely dark, the more than 2000 infantry were dispersed, and Cao Rui, who was breathing heavily, fled northeast again, heading towards Hu Ting.

At the same time, Sima Yi in the south heard the news and immediately sent Xia Houshang with 8000 people to the north to help.

By the next day, they had arrived in Xingyang, and also headed in the direction of Huting.

(End of this chapter)