Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1219 Raid
Cao Hong comforted Zhang Xiu with a few words, but when he thought about the fact that the Jin army had invested so many generals in his direction, he couldn't help but feel secretly shocked and had a bad premonition in his heart.

Some time ago, he received a secret order and learned that Zhang Xiu came as bait without knowing it, so he prepared to let Zhang Xiu lure the Jin army to attack fiercely. But to his surprise, the Jin army did not attack, and even Lu Su and Jiang Qin were transferred away in the middle, which made Cao Hong relax his vigilance.

But he didn't expect that the Jin army had already started planning in secret and made a big move in one go!
Last night he received news that the Jin army suddenly broke through the northern road guarded by Yu Jin, and more than 10,000 troops were approaching Yecheng. This made Cao Hong panic. Although he did not think that the Jin army could capture Yecheng with such forces, who could have known that there was only one Jin army approaching Yecheng?
But Cao Hong did not dare to retreat his entire army immediately. After all, it was easiest to be ambushed by the enemy when retreating. Not to mention that the Jin army on the opposite side had assembled so many generals. It was obvious that they were targeting this part of his army. He was afraid that they were waiting for him to avoid a fight and then launch the most rapid attack against him!
Thinking of this, Cao Hong now doesn't want anything to happen to Zhang Xiu. If Zhang Xiu is killed by the Jin army now, he will be alone and helpless!

So he had to comfort Zhang Xiu and let him go back to rest for a while. As a result, shouts and screams were heard outside, and soldiers rushed in to report that the Jin army had launched a full-scale attack!

Zhang Xiu heard this and struggled to stand up and said, "General, let me lead the front!"

"I'm just injured in the thigh, it won't affect my immediate combat!"

Cao Hong saw Zhang Xiu's pale face and felt guilty for no reason. He shouted, "Okay, I will support you!"

The two men, one leading the cavalry and the other leading the infantry, commanded the soldiers to fill the battle line. When they arrived in front of the battle line, they saw an unknown number of Jin troops pouring over the mountains and plains. The large number of them made the two men feel dazed for a moment.

When did the Jin army recruit so many soldiers?

However, they did not know that a considerable portion of the Jin army that came this time were Qingzhou soldiers recruited by Zang Ba Changxi.

Previously, Cao's army dug a river, causing flooding in Qingzhou downstream. This action had long aroused the anger of the people of Qingzhou, so Zang Ba and Chang Xi were ordered by Yuan Xi to recruit soldiers in Qingzhou. The local people of Qingzhou gathered to respond, and the Jin army recruited a large number of soldiers in a short period of time.

Although according to common sense, newly recruited soldiers must be trained for a year or so before they can go into battle, otherwise they might even cause more trouble than help. This is why Cao Hong did not anticipate the sudden increase in the number of Jin troops.

But Qingzhou is different. This is because the people of Qingzhou have been tough since ancient times. Many of them practice martial arts, and many of them are farmers and part-time bandits. Especially since the Yellow Turban Rebellion, even the originally honest villagers have been forced to practice martial arts to defend themselves and resist bandits.

So in this situation, the civilians in Qingzhou generally have high fighting skills, and many of them have reached the level of ordinary soldiers. Although they are not as experienced as veterans, after simple training, they have no problem going into battle.

Zang Ba and Chang Xi have not been idle in the mountains in recent years. With Mount Tai at their backs, they can hide in the mountains at any time and can advance or retreat. The Cao army can do nothing about them and can only retreat to Yanzhou for defense. The two took the opportunity to expand their territory and experiment with military training methods under the instruction of Zhuge Liang.

This military training method was not intended for training elite soldiers, but was tailored specifically for the mountain people of Qingzhou. The two men explored for several years before applying their experience to practice and eventually developed a set of quick military training methods.

Previously, when the Yellow River burst its banks and Qingzhou was hit by a flood, the two men recruited young and strong men in the name of flood control, and trained them while controlling the flood. After entering autumn, the flood damage was reduced and the soldiers were almost trained. Then, these soldiers relied on the food support from Xuzhou that had been sorted out, and stayed quietly in the mountains for more than a month, until finally the moment came for them to play a role.

Yuan Xi had a very clear positioning for these Qingzhou soldiers. They did not need to attack cities and strongholds, or overcome difficulties. They only needed to rely on numbers to create a military advantage, and then kill Cao's army in the shortest time possible.

The target they chose was naturally the one closest to Qingzhou, and the battle line was close to the east line of Mount Tai, so Cao Hong unfortunately encountered this wave of offensive.

Tens of thousands of Qingzhou soldiers were driven almost by their spontaneous hatred towards Cao's army. In this situation, Zang Ba Chang Xi's lack of command and his strategy of letting things take their own course was the most suitable. If it were Zhang He or Gao Lan, who were familiar with the art of war, they would be at a loss as to how to control this torrent.

Seeing that the Jin army was about to attack his front line, Cao Hong immediately rode forward and shouted, "Raise the shield!"

The Cao soldier in the front immediately placed his large shield on the ground and leaned sideways to hold it. The soldier behind him also squatted down and leaned his shoulders against the backs of his companions in front of him to defend against the first wave of attack.

This row of Cao's soldiers formed a shield wall, completely blocking the pass and buying time for the cavalry on both wings. The next moment, the torrent of Qingzhou soldiers slammed heavily into the wall.

The Qingzhou soldiers running in the front almost flew into the air and used their entire body weight to attack the shield wall. They hit the shield formation hard with their bodies, causing wave-like ripples on the shield wall.

Most of the shield soldiers blocked the first wave of attack. A few shield soldiers were knocked to the ground, creating a tiny gap. The Qingzhou soldiers were about to rush in, but a row of shield soldiers behind them immediately filled in and pushed the Qingzhou soldiers back.

The first offensive was blocked. The Qingzhou soldiers in the rear had no time to stop and bumped into their companions in front, pushing them forward, but they were blocked by Cao's shields.

The subsequent Qingzhou soldiers rushed up, and the two sides began to wrestle with shields, but the shield formation did not collapse.

The spearmen of Cao's army in the rear took the opportunity to thrust their spears forward through the gaps. The Qingzhou soldiers were stabbed by the spears and fell to the ground screaming. Seeing this, Cao Hong felt relieved. As long as the shield formation was not broken in the first wave of attacks, it would be useless no matter how many people came from behind. As long as he used the spearmen to slowly consume the enemy, sooner or later the enemy's morale would collapse and they would flee.

Moreover, Zhang Xiu on the side had already begun to go around to the rear of the enemy. With two sideways attacks, he could accelerate the collapse of this mob!

Cao Hong had already seen through it a long time ago. This group of Qingzhou soldiers were the worst equipped among all the Jin army soldiers he had fought against over the years. They were simply a group of discarded pawns sent out to consume him!

Thinking of this, Cao Hong felt contempt. The so-called fierce tiger and benevolent man were all lies. Aren't these methods no different from his own?
But what happened next was beyond Cao Hong's expectations. The Cao army soldiers in the front suddenly fell to the ground, and a large gap appeared in the shield formation, which showed signs of collapse in an instant!
Cao Hong was shocked. When he looked carefully, he found that it was actually several Qingzhou soldiers who were working in groups. They were holding both sides of the shield and exerting force at the same time, pushing the bodies of Cao soldiers holding the shields to the side!

The Cao army's shield soldiers were shocked, but before they could react, they were stabbed into the body by several long spears of the Qingzhou soldiers behind them and fell to the ground.

The Qingzhou soldiers seized the large shields and used them as cover, and immediately advanced with the shields under their feet. The Cao army's spears stabbed out repeatedly, but were blocked by the opponent's shields. The Cao army's battle line kept retreating.

Zang Ba saw this and sighed to Chang Xi: "The people of Qingzhou are really brave."

"If we use shields to attack, Cao's army will be prepared, and both sides will just waste their energy. But now we take away the shields unexpectedly, leaving the other side no time to respond. In just a blink of an eye, we have broken the shield formation."

Chang Xi felt the same way. "It's all based on arrogance. They all had their families drowned in floods, so they naturally wanted to fight Cao's army to the death, just like the Jizhou soldiers did before."

Cao Hong on the other side had already realized that he had fallen into a trap. He quickly ordered his soldiers to retreat, which put him in a disadvantageous position. What's more, the opposing general Chunyu Qiong had not appeared yet!

Cao Hong sneered as he retreated. He had already anticipated what the other side was going to do. It all depended on who had calculated more!
At the same time, Chunyu Qiong, who wanted to raid Cao Hong's rear army from the south, was marching hurriedly with the main force of Jizhou troops, but ran into an ambush by Cao's army head-on.

Seeing the soldiers in front of him falling to the ground one after another due to arrows, Chunyu Qiong had no choice but to order the soldiers to defend. He was extremely depressed because his route had been guessed by the opposite side and Cao's army had been prepared!
The one in ambush was Li Dian. This was a secret plan laid by Cao Hong in advance. Zhang Xiu in the north was in the open, and Li Dian in the south was in secret. Now Chunyu Qiong suffered a big loss.

While Li Dian was commanding his soldiers to shoot arrows, he was thinking that with Chunyu Qiong's military strength, he could only hold him off for one day. The key to victory or defeat would be the cavalry.

At this time, Zhang Xiu, enduring the pain in his leg, also encountered Yan Rou and Xianyu Fu. The two of them stood on both sides and took turns shooting arrows to restrain Zhang Xiu.

The two men were very wise. They were proficient in bows and arrows but not in close combat. Zhang Xiu was a famous and fierce general in the Western Liang army, and his spear skills were no less than Ma Chao's. If they were to get close to him, I am afraid that even if Yan Rou and the other man joined forces, they would both be killed by his spears.

So the two of them cunningly gave up close combat, and Zhang Xiu deflected the arrows one by one. Although he was very anxious now, he had no choice but to be patient and wait for the other party to make a mistake.

The two armies were in a stalemate in the three directions of the battle, and they were all expecting the other two sides to break the deadlock, so a strange balance was formed on the battlefield for a while.

If this continues, I'm afraid that after a day of fighting, there will only be a loss of lives. To change this situation, something needs to happen, either one side has the upper hand, or reinforcements come from outside the battlefield.

After both sides had fought for most of the day and were exhausted, this change finally came.

At that time, Cao Hong had just stabilized the defense line. He was retreating while moving closer to Li Dian. He saw clearly that after fighting for most of the day, the casualties of Cao's army were slightly less than those of Jin's army. This was because the Jin's soldiers in Qingzhou were not strong enough.

As long as Cao Ren's army and Li Dian's army meet, they can take turns to rest, and after getting a chance to catch their breath, they can turn around and counterattack. By then, the exhausted Qingzhou soldiers will have no power to resist at all.

When the sunset had already set on the top of the mountain, Cao Hong and Li Dian finally joined forces. After the two sides formed a battle formation, the Qingzhou soldiers who were pursuing them were already exhausted.

The two men were about to launch a counterattack, but they saw a cavalry unit appearing in the distance on the south side of the battlefield, with the word "Wei" on it.

Cao Hong was a little confused. Is this a general of Wei State?

Judging from the direction, it is coming from the north of Yanzhou. Have you recruited friendly troops?

(End of this chapter)