Ji Han Liu Zhang

Ma Chao was a general under the command of Qin King Liu Zhang.

When Ma Chao, commanding the Liangzhou cavalry, approached Qu Yi's camp, his face did not show the excitement of catching up with the enemy, but confusion and bewilderment.

"How strange." Ma Chao asked in confusion.

Pang De heard this and asked, "Fubo, our army has caught up with Qu Yi's troops. This is really a happy event. There is no need to be surprised!"

Ma Chao replied, "Now Qu Yi has Wu Dang's flying army in front of him and our Liang Province's iron cavalry in the back. We are attacked from both sides, which is what military strategists call a dangerous place."

"And Qu Yi was not in a hurry to leave. Instead, he stayed here and defended his camp..."

“This is not a normal reaction.”

In short, when facing danger, Qu Yi did not want to escape, but instead put himself in danger. Ma Chao did not understand and felt puzzled.

"Perhaps Qu Yi is confident that he can defeat us, so he stayed here." Pang De said nonchalantly.

Pang De did not take Qu Yi's current behavior of defending the camp seriously. He believed that Qu Yi was about to be surrounded and was in imminent danger. Even if Qu Yi had supernatural powers and the ability to calculate as good as gods and ghosts, he would have to die here.

"Or maybe Qu Yi felt that if he left now, he would be defeated by our army, so he stayed here and planned to hold on and wait for help. It's hard to say." Pang De gave the second guess.

"Yeah." Ma Chao nodded. Regarding the two inferences given by Pang De, he estimated that it was more likely that Qu Yi would hold on and wait for help.

Although Qu Yi was a famous and brave general, no matter how brave he was, he did not dare to ignore the Qin army which was several times larger than his number.

Therefore, Ma Chao deduced that Qu Yi was most likely planning to hold his ground and wait for help, and then join forces with the reinforcements to launch a wave of attacks in the center.

Next, things happened just as Ma Chao had predicted. The scouts from Liang Province whom he sent out to patrol the surroundings brought back news at noon, saying that more than ten groups of cavalry had fled from Qu Yi's camp, one of which was killed by the scouts from Liang Province, and a letter asking for help was found in their camp.

"Qu Yi wants to hold his ground and wait for help. Once the reinforcements arrive, he will attack our army from both inside and outside." Based on the letter asking for help, Pang De made the same inference as Ma Chao did.

"Nine out of ten." Ma Chao nodded in response.

Then Ma Chao asked, "Has Gan Xingba arrived yet?"

The herald officer replied, "According to the news from General Gan, they will arrive soon, at the latest by sunset."

"That's good." Ma Chao showed joy on his face. He followed Qu Yi on land, Gan Ning blocked Qu Yi's passage to cross the river to the north on the Fen River, and the Wudang Flying Army, which crossed mountains and rivers and ran at a very fast speed, blocked Qu Yi's way forward.

Being surrounded from several sides, Qu Yi's escape route became narrow. Once Gan Ning arrived, Qu Yi would have no way to escape and could only pin his hopes on reinforcements.

However, Ma Chao was very confident. He was confident that he could capture Qu Yi's camp before the reinforcements arrived, and try to keep Qu Yi, a famous general from Hebei, in Hedong, giving Wei Gong Yuan Shao a little shock in Liangzhou. When it was dusk, Gan Ning arrived as expected. He discussed with Ma Chao, Shen Mi and others to build a large camp, first surround Qu Yi, and then attack him.

Two days passed like this. Outside Qu Yi's camp, there was a long, newly built wall. Although it was not very high, it was enough to trap Qu Yi's troops inside.

During the two days when the Qin army set up camp, Qu Yi tried to destroy the Qin army's construction of camps and interrupt the Qin army's encirclement attempt. However, there were three armies: Gan Ning's Jinfan Army, Shen Mi's Wudang Flying Army, and Ma Chao's Liangzhou Iron Cavalry.

Qu Yi was unable to gain any advantage from the three groups of troops. He could only watch as walls were built one after another, his way was blocked, and the morale of the soldiers in the army was low.

Under such circumstances, Qu Yi could only do two things. One was to reinforce the defensive facilities of the camp and turn the camp into an iron barrel. The second was to wait for the arrival of reinforcements. After all, if an isolated city was not defended and there were no reinforcements, defending the city would mean waiting for death.

"Gao Gan, come to our aid quickly." Qu Yi looked northward, hoping that Gao Gan, Zhang He and others who were attacking Taiyuan County would lead their troops to rescue him as soon as possible after receiving his letter for help, so that he would not be left alone and helpless.

On the third day, Qu Yi heard the rumbling of war drums outside. The sound spread in all directions. He hurriedly strode to the front of the camp and observed the movements of the Qin army.

But in the Qin army camp, tall Thunderbolt chariots were pushed out. Qu Yi had seen this kind of weapon in the Qin army camp and knew its power. He couldn't help but look worried.

"Pull up our Thunderbolt Chariots." Qu Yi gave an order, ordering the soldiers to pull out the Thunderbolt Chariots made in Hebei. As Qu Yi's order was issued, one catapult after another, which was smaller than the Qin Army's Thunderbolt Chariots, was pushed behind the fence of the camp.

Looking at these smaller-sized Thunderbolt chariots, Qu Yi couldn't help but sigh in his heart. In the previous battle of Yu Bi, after seeing the power of the Thunderbolt chariots, Yuan Shao urged the craftsmen to build the Hebei Thunderbolt chariots.

However, since the Qin army kept the manufacturing method of the Thunderbolt Chariot a secret, craftsmen could only imitate the style of the Thunderbolt Chariot and were unable to create a weapon exactly the same as the Qin army's Thunderbolt Chariot.

Therefore, today, when facing the Qin army's Thunderbolt Chariots, Qu Yi could only pull out these smaller Thunderbolt Chariots. He thought that since the style was only smaller, the power of the Thunderbolt Chariots should be 70% to 80% of that of the Qin army's Thunderbolt Chariots.

However, as the two sides of the Thunderbolt Chariots fought back and forth with real swords and guns, Qu Yi's heart gradually sank to the bottom of the icy cold lake.

There is no other reason. It is because the Thunderbolt Chariot of Hebei is only a smaller size than the Thunderbolt Chariot of the Qin Army, but its power is far less than that of the Thunderbolt Chariot of the Qin Army, and the range of its stone throwing is far less.

On the battlefield, the cannonballs fired by the Qin army's thunderbolt chariots could easily hit the Hebei thunderbolt chariots. Now several Hebei thunderbolt chariots had been damaged, and the cannonballs also made the camp set up by Qu Yi's troops shaken.

However, the shells fired by Hebei's Thunderbolt Chariots could not reach the Qin Army's Thunderbolt Chariots, and could not even touch the edge of the Qin Army's Thunderbolt Chariots.

"General, the cannonballs fired by our Thunderbolt Chariots cannot hit the Qin army's Thunderbolt Chariots." The thousand-man supervisor who controlled the Thunderbolt Chariots had a sad face and reported to Qu Yitong.

Qu Yi glared at the commander of a thousand men. He was right here. After a battle, how could he not know the difference between the two sides' Thunderbolt Chariots? There was no need for the commander of a thousand men to come and report and waste his breath.

"Quickly reinforce the fence and don't leave any flaws." Qu Yi looked at the fence that was a little shaky due to the heavy bombardment of cannonballs, and urged the soldiers to go forward to repair it. However, under the heavy bombardment of the Qin army's thunder chariots, the soldiers had to hold up their shields while repairing the fence, and their posture was very embarrassing.

Qu Yi looked worried when he saw this. He looked north, hoping that Gao Gan and Zhang He would arrive soon. (End of this chapter)