Great Han Empire

Chapter 123
Zhang Niujiao saw his soldiers being slashed and killed by the enemy's iron cavalry without any power to fight back, and his heart was like a knife.

He ordered the sounding of the golden gong, and ordered the soldiers on the river valley to withdraw quickly into the chariot formation.

Within a hundred paces from the bottom of the hill to the chariot formation, the soldiers who did not have time to escape were immediately killed by the cavalry of the Leopard Army.

Li Hong on the hill saw that the cavalry was about to rush into the bow and arrow range of the Yellow Turban Army, and immediately ordered the horn to be sounded to stop the attack.

Evening has come.The twilight land is gradually shrouded in a thin layer of mist, and the darkness is about to be lifted.

On the hillsides and in the river valleys, there were dead bodies everywhere.The strong smell of blood floated everywhere with the bleak cold wind.

"Civilian, Zhang Niujiao took advantage of the terrain and built a solid defensive vehicle array with heavy vehicles. If we want to completely annihilate him, it is best to use infantry to open the gap. We have lost too much if we attack with cavalry." Yan Rou looked at the position of the Yellow Turban Army and said helplessly.

"The Black Panther Yicong and Yan Wuwei's troops chased the enemy all the way, but they failed to break through their chariot formation, and instead were beaten back. It can be seen that Zhang Niujiao is prepared for this battle. He is very good at this chariot You put in a lot of effort." Li Hong pointed to the Yellow Turban Army's position on the Jiuli River, and said to a group of officers standing behind him: "Look, the slope here is one hundred steps long, and the valley below is two hundred steps long. But half of the river valley was occupied by his chariot formation, leaving us with only [-] paces to attack, and another [-] paces was within the range of his bow and arrow. The vertical and horizontal distances are not suitable for our cavalry to launch an attack. "

Li Hong said with a smile: "Do you have any clever plans to defeat the enemy?"

Beard was full of anger, and shouted loudly: "When we were in Guangning, we used to train infantry to fight. We changed half of the cavalry into infantry. The infantry and cavalry cooperated and attacked at the same time. We will definitely win."

Xian Yuyin immediately retorted: "No way. We can't fight a war of attrition with them. The advantage of cavalry is long-distance raids, charging into battle, rather than attacking the enemy's fortress. Now we use cavalry to fight against the Yellow Turban Army's car formation, we are simply seeking our own death .”

Tie Yue said: "I also agree with Master Xianyu. Now that we have an absolute advantage, there is no need to fight the enemy for consumption. The Yellow Turban Army has been trying to capture the hills to break through. After a long period of fierce fighting, their losses are far greater than ours. .According to my estimate, there are at most half of them left. Just look at the dead bodies on the battlefield. Now it seems that there is no place to plug in. We can keep surrounding them until we starve to death in the here."

Yan Wuwei continued: "It's not an option to encircle like this. Once the Yellow Turban Army at Dingxing Ferry arrives, we will be very passive. If we fight reinforcements, we don't have the strength to surround Zhang Niujiao. If we fight Zhang Niujiao, we will be attacked by enemy reinforcements."

Yan Rou nodded and said: "It is indeed very passive. Zhang Niujiao is shrinking the chariot formation, obviously because of too much loss of troops. But the smaller his chariot formation is, the more difficult it is for us to attack. Now the Yellow Turban Army is like a shrinking car formation. Head turtle, we have no way to start."

Li Hong laughed: "Yes, yes. It's like we gnaw on a cow's bone. Gnaw it, you're too tired, don't gnaw it. There's still bone marrow in it, and a little tendon on the surface. It's a pity to throw it away."

Seeing his stingy look, everyone burst into laughter.

"Does your lord like to chew on beef bones? I'll treat you next time." Fist cried out.

At this time, Yan Liang hurried over.

"How about the casualties of Black Panther Yicong?" Li Hong asked immediately.

With a sad face, Yan Liang said in a low voice, "More than 200 brothers have been lost."

Li Hong was taken aback.

In a short meeting, Black Panther Yicong and Yan Wuwei's trilogy lost more than 500 people.Although the enemy paid a greater price, Li Hong was still very angry.

He roared: "Hit."

Looking at the gradually darkening sky, Zhang Niujiao felt more and more heavy.

Zhang Baiqi must have been eaten by a leopard.Otherwise, he just crawled and crawled.

"Pinpu, something happened to Ziyin?" Zuo Yan who also felt bad sighed and said softly.

Zhang Niujiao shook his head, as if he wanted to get rid of his thoughts.

"It's getting dark, what do you think Leopard is going to do?" Zhang Niujiao asked coldly with a cold light in his eyes.

Zuo Yan looked sadly at the battlefield strewn with corpses in front of him, without making a sound.

"Junyi...?" Zhang Niujiao raised his voice slightly and called out to him.

Zuo Yan shrank his head, as if he couldn't resist the cold wind on the embankment, and walked to the side of the cart.Zhang Niujiao stared at him intently, waiting for his answer.

"When we set off from Zhongshan, there were 15 people." Zuo Yan smiled wryly, and said with a self-deprecating voice: "Now we are left with more than 1 people. Even if we kill the leopard and his cavalry, We were also a fiasco, a fiasco of total annihilation."

Zhang Niujiao glared at him angrily, and said loudly: "Junyi, we still have Fang Biao's 1 people, why is the whole army wiped out? As long as we wipe out the leopards, the whole army will be wiped out by Youzhou's army. Next year. We will be able to capture Youzhou unscathed next spring."

Zuo Yan seemed too lazy to chat with Zhang Niujiao, he sat under the wheel of the car and closed his eyes.

Zhang Niujiao looked at Zuo Yan mockingly, and continued: "We are like a dying goat dripping with blood, and Li Hong is like a vicious leopard, running around us. What he is waiting for now It's an opportunity to kill with one blow, to end our lives completely."

The corner of Zhang Niujiao's mouth raised a murderous look.

"Now is the time when he is most negligent."

Zuo Yan suddenly opened his eyes wide, and asked in surprise: "Is there another way?"

Li Hong was ready to attack again.

Xian Yufu heard from Yan Rou that Li Hong insisted on launching a joint attack on foot and cavalry. Xian Yufu was taken aback, and rushed to the front line barely.

On the hill, the sound of horns and horns resounded one after another, resounding throughout the battlefield.The battle flags of each trilogy are moving rapidly, changing positions alternately.The cavalry lined up on two wings, and the infantry gathered in the center, and the entire hill was covered in darkness.The tense atmosphere of the imminent war was almost overwhelming.

Night is about to draw.

In the Yellow Turban Army's chariot formation, all the soldiers were full of anger and energy, each standing in his own defensive position, ready to fight, vowing to fight to the death with Fengyun Iron Cavalry.

Li Hong was covered in blood, with disheveled hair, holding a shield in his left hand and a knife in his right, standing at the forefront of the infantry rushing forward.

Xian Yufu came galloping on his horse, and the wounds on his body burst open due to the violent jolt of the horse, and blood oozed out, staining the blood-stained clothes red.

"Subject, don't be reckless, take it easy. After you have finished this battle, we in Youzhou have almost no cavalry. It is impossible to raise so many cavalry in a short period of time." Xian Yufu was excited and said loudly, "You Regardless of the future of Youzhou, I want to think about it. Although I can't order you, don't forget your promise to Lord Liu. Before leaving, Lord Liu hopes that you will form a cavalry, a cavalry to protect northern Xinjiang. But This cavalry is not your own, it belongs to the Han Dynasty, and it belongs to Youzhou. For the sake of the more than 1 people in front of you, you want to fight the wind and cloud iron cavalry. Are you doing it for your own military exploits? My reputation is still for Youzhou."

"We have wiped out more than 3 Yellow Turbans, and our goal has been achieved. Even if Zhang Niujiao returns to Fanyang with these 1 people, his main force has already been defeated, and it is very difficult for him to stay in Zhuojun. If Jizhou The army is fighting fiercely, and he still has to withdraw from Zhuojun. He must return to Changshan and Zhongshan, the old nests of the Yellow Turban Army, to reserve a piece of land for the survival of the Yellow Turban Army."

Seeing that Xian Yufu was angry, Li Hong hurriedly said with a smile, "Isn't it better to wipe them out now? Don't get angry, I promise to wipe out Zhang Niujiao before dawn."

"No." Xian Yufu said decisively: "In order to cooperate with you in fighting, we brought four thousand soldiers from Zhuocheng, and almost all of them were killed in this battle. Now the number of troops in Youzhou is very small, we can't fight for an unrelated battle. Lose another 5000 troops in the overall battle. Absolutely not."

Xian Yufu was an official in charge of military affairs in the Governor's Office of Youzhou, his opinion represented the opinion of the Governor's Office, so naturally he had to take it seriously.Li Hong scolded him head and face, feeling a little annoyed.

"Yu Xing, destroy Zhang Niujiao, and there will be no war in Youzhou. The army can still be rebuilt."

"My people, we don't know anything about the situation in Jizhou now. We don't know if they attacked the Yellow Turban Army, how many troops they have, let alone whether Jizhou has agreed to our request. Now that the Yellow Turban Army has suddenly withdrawn, The reason is unknown. All kinds of reasons are our guesses, without any basis. If it is not the reason of Jizhou, maybe there is some internal problem in them, which caused Zhang Niujiao to withdraw his troops?"

"We must not make big mistakes because of small things. In order to be sure, we must reserve enough troops to deal with emergencies. This is not a question of you commanding the army to fight, it is a question related to the security of Youzhou."

Li Hong understood what Xian Yufu meant.What he considered was whether he could completely annihilate the enemy, and whether he could take back the entire Zhuo County in the shortest possible time. For this purpose, he would do whatever it took.But what Xian Yufu was thinking about was the whole of Youzhou. He had to consider whether this battle should be fought from the perspective of the whole Youzhou, and how to fight it would be more beneficial to the future of Youzhou.

Li Hong had nothing to say.He admired Xian Yufu's knowledge.A few words explain the current situation and point out the key points.Indeed, no one knew why Zhang Niujiao suddenly withdrew his troops.Now based on my own guess, what if Zhang Niujiao is eliminated?The Yellow Turban Army still has many leaders and many troops. They can still attack Youzhou and drive straight in.

The purpose of the battle has been achieved, and there is indeed no need to fight again.

"Okay, I'll listen to you." Li Hongzhan put his saber back into its sheath, patted Xian Yufu vigorously, and said with a smile, "After washing your face, it immediately returned to its original shape. I'm convinced."

Assistant Chief Xianyu let out a sigh of relief, and said gratefully, "Thank you for saving my life."

Li Hong shook his head indifferently, "Remember to save me next time."

Then he turned around and shouted loudly: "Order all the ministries to immediately surround Zhang Niujiao and closely monitor him to prevent him from breaking out at night."

"Send someone to inform Yu Junhou, and hand over the captives to Tian Junhou in Weiwei, and suspend the attack."

"Tell Zheng Junhou to send out scouts immediately. There will be dense scouts within thirty miles."

As he was talking, he saw Zheng Xin galloping towards him on horseback.

"Shouyan, do you want to go down the mountain to single out Zhang Niujiao?" Li Hong shouted seeing that Zheng Xin had no intention of stopping his horse.

"My people, the situation is critical. Chu Feiyan's troops suddenly appeared in Jiuliting."

Li Hong's smile suddenly froze on his face.

(End of this chapter)