Goose Three Kingdoms

Chapter 556: On the Chanhe Pond
In the evening, the evening drum sounded.

In the central army camp, Black Bear sat on the throne, holding up a scroll of silk and shaking it: "Yuan Shang just sent us a declaration of war. How should we respond?"

Fa Zheng replied: "Our camp is strong and well-stocked with food and fodder. Reinforcements are coming. We should hold our camp firmly."

Zhang Liao stood up and saluted: "We should go out of the camp and form a battle array to weaken the enemy's spirit, and then hold our ground."

Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun, who were from the guest army, remained silent at this moment. Mi Fang mixed in the crowd and reluctantly sat in the front row to eat, but he did not want to express his opinion at this time.

Seeing that there was no third opinion, Black Bear said, "In that case, tomorrow Fa Zheng will guard the camp, and I, Wen Yuan, Yi De, Zi Long and the other three generals will lead our troops out of the camp to fight."

Fa Zheng also bowed and said, "Your Majesty, will you dispatch the chariot camp to attack tomorrow?"

"It's not time yet. The soldiers in the chariot camp should rest as usual."

Black Bear said as he looked at the accompanying military doctor and said, "The wounded soldiers' camp should be ready."

"Yes."

This is a tall and thin Taoist priest. He wears a half-length sleeveless armor over the Bagua yellow robe. At this moment, he just bows his head to salute.

Black Bear then went to see Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei and said: "Tomorrow, the two generals will be my left and right wings. I will not be in charge of the deployment. The two generals will wait for an opportunity to join the battle. When the smoke of war rises in the camp, you will withdraw your troops and return to the camp."

"I will obey the general's orders."

The two men stood up and bowed solemnly. They were both cavalrymen. If a field battle broke out tomorrow, the scope of the engagement would be very large, and normal flags and drums would be difficult to command over such a long distance.

Needless to say, the entire cavalry of both sides engaged in a decisive battle. Except for the initial charge, they were able to maintain their organization. When the fighting started, it was a dogfight of all sizes and a circle of chasing each other.

Black Bear looked at Zhang Fei with emphasis: "The enemy is numerous and we are few, and they can hardly stop our cavalry. Tomorrow they may lure us into chasing with their defeated troops, and then ambush us and kill us. So when we chase them tomorrow, you must not chase them beyond ten miles."

Zhao Yun followed Zhang Fei and bowed again: "Yes!"

This is a challenge that must be fought. Only by fighting this battle can we stabilize the newly formed Youzhou knights in the camp.

It is unknown how the enemy discussed the matter.

Around four o'clock the next morning, the troops that went out of the camp to fight began to eat and feed the horses with fine feed.

In order to facilitate the cavalry's repeated charges, the extra spare horses in the camp were also fed so that the cavalry could withdraw and replace horses when the battle was about to begin.

When it was light, Black Bear rode a giant chariot slowly out of the camp and headed towards the open fields south of the camp.

There is a lot of moisture here, fog grows in the morning, and the Cold Dew is extremely heavy.

Three miles out of the camp, our scouts began to patrol back and forth. After the left and right wings arrived at their positions one after another, the entire army continued to advance southward.

After walking another two miles, the confrontation between the scouts of both sides quickly became fierce.

As the sun rose, the fog quickly dissipated, and the allied forces of Yuan Shang and Tadun appeared in the southeast and southwest, in a state of being half surrounded on three sides.

The enemy in front of them was the Han-Hu coalition forces outside Pingcheng. At this moment, large and small infantry and cavalry regiments were roughly arranged into two large horizontal formations in front and back.

There was no separation between infantry and cavalry. All battle groups were formed according to the original social relations, and their equipment and weapons varied.

Zhang Liao boarded the chariot and expressed his opinion: "Your Majesty, there are flags waving on the hills in the distance. They must be the troops led by Tadun. This battle is to force this barbarian tribe to consume our army's spirit. Tadun and Yuan Shang will wait for an opportunity to join the battle. If a war breaks out, we should defeat them quickly and not fight for a long time."

To the east, Yuan Shang was facing Zhao Yun. Yuan Shang looked at the half-surrounded Black Bear Central Army and the conspicuous chariot and asked his men: "How long can the mixed barbarians hold out?"

When Jiao Chu, the general of Youzhou, saw several people looking at him, he replied, "The Zaohu are not very determined to fight, and they are no match for the enemy army. However, there are many infantrymen among the Zaohu, and once they are scattered, the enemy will not let them go easily. If we can lead the enemy army to pursue and kill us, the Zaohu will succeed."

"Yes, that's what I thought. Let's release the signal smoke to signal Tian Yu to attack the enemy camp!"

Yuan Shang immediately made a decision. The terrain of the Chanhebi camp was high in the north and low in the south, which was conducive to Tian Yu's attack from the north to the south.

He also didn't think that Tian Yu could break through the camp in one fell swoop and disrupt the fighting spirit of the troops outside the camp.

When the smoke of war rose from Yuan Shang's place, the battlefield was thirty miles away in Pingcheng.

Liu Bei stood on the west gate and watched Guan Yu lead more than 3,000 cavalry out. Excluding the 500 cavalry taken by Zhang Fei and the more than 2,000 cavalry taken by Zhao Yun, there were less than 2,000 cavalry in the city, and there were 1,000 elite infantry.

After leaving the city, Guan Yu turned north and ran towards Tian Yu.

"Report~!"

The scouts rode to the city on horseback and shouted to Liu Bei: "My lord! The Grand Marshal has started the battle!"

Xu Shu waved his hand and said, "Explore again!"

The scout changed to another horse, mounted it nimbly, and rode away westward at a gallop.

Liu Bei stared at the rising sun, his hands resting on the cold parapet: "Yuanzhi, why do I feel that the Grand Marshal will defeat the enemy in one battle? He always uses his full strength in his troops, leaving no room for slack, just like chopping wood with an axe."

"Ma Shoucheng's reinforcements are coming, and the Grand Marshal's Central Army has suffered heavy losses. If we attack by force, I'm afraid we won't be able to handle it and will suffer instead."

Xu Shu's expression of his views is like pushing a wall. If he cannot push it over directly, the wall will sway and hit him back, and he will be seriously injured if he doesn't die.

While they were talking, Lu Bu led the cavalry to charge.

The Iron Cavalry Team expanded to more than 60 cavalrymen overnight, and the infantry and cavalry regiment of 500 to 600 in front of them split into two without a second thought and fled to the two wings.

The narrow ditches that had been dug behind the formation were exposed, and even the excavated soil and rocks were piled into an earthen wall. Behind the earthen wall were two rows of heavily armed spearmen crouching.

At this moment, these heavily armed spearmen stood up one after another. Although they were nervous, they were also generally happy and excited about the successful tactical counterattack.

Then the cavalry that was charging at full speed split into two and quickly turned to chase the cavalry that were retreating on both wings. These people were immediately defeated and had no time to organize a counterattack. They could only flee for their lives. Seeing this, Black Bear smiled and said, "Did you dig it overnight?"

He raised his right hand and waved it forward. The officer holding the flag did not move. Gao Shun in front of the chariot raised the horse-slaying sword in his hand horizontally, then swung it forward diagonally, leading the heavily armed hundred-man team to move forward.

This was just a tentative fight. Black Bear's cavalry did not move, but their horses were anxious.

The more than 3,000 Youzhou cavalrymen led by Zhang Liao dismounted and sat on the ground to avoid physical exhaustion.

Only military officers were allowed to stand up and walk around their subordinates, but they were not allowed to speak.

The knights sent by Zhang Liao would patrol back and forth, and anyone who dared to make noise or discuss military affairs would be punished with harsh military discipline on the spot.

After killing hundreds of people, the Iron Horse Team broke away from the formation and headed north without losing a single horse. Immediately, cavalry from several nearby regiments launched a pursuit.

The retreating cavalry suddenly split into two and ran in an arc to launch a pincer attack. The two sides immediately formed a battle circle and began to chase and fight.

A group of pursuing cavalry broke away from the main group and headed towards Gao Shun's 100-man team.

This group of cavalrymen rode in front, drawing their bows and shooting arrows to harass the enemy.

Gao Shun's hundred-man team also quickly stood still, holding shields and forming a formation. As a result, the cavalry began to gallop around the tortoise-shell shield formation and shot arrows at the tortoise-shell formation.

Seeing this, Yuan Shu led more than 200 soldiers armed with shields and crossbows to break out of the formation and head north, forming a goose formation and slowly pressing forward.

At this time, several cavalry groups broke away from the formation and headed north. Two cavalry groups came towards Yuan Shu's crossbowmen from the left and right.

The entire mixed Hu coalition army began to retreat dozens of steps, the infantry hid behind the earthen ramparts, and the cavalry began to gather on both wings.

Watching Zahu changing his formation, Black Bear couldn't help but narrow his eyes: "What a big net."

He immediately turned his head and instructed the messenger: "Order the chariot battalion to come to help, and let the left and right chariot battalions stand behind Zhang Wenyuan's formation to reinforce the south side of Zhao Zilong and Zhang Yide."

Wei Kang, who was accompanying him, immediately wrote a military order and handed it to a personal soldier who acted as a messenger.

The personal soldier jumped on his horse, and when he left the chariot, he waved his hand, and several more knights followed him, accompanying him back to the camp.

Wei Kang also climbed onto the top of the chariot at this time and saw the cavalry charging in front of him. Although the number of enemy cavalry besieging was large, the casualties were tragic. There were fallen horses everywhere, and the ownerless horses fled in all directions from the battle circle.

Gao Shun's tortoise-shell battle formation stood there steadily, allowing more and more cavalry to shoot from below. There were nearly a thousand cavalrymen, forming a huge circular cavalry formation, riding horses and shooting arrows.

On the other side, the crossbow team also gave up their arrogant goose formation that pursued shooting efficiency and formed a double-layer square hollow circular formation.

These elite crossbowmen fired from time to time, and enemy cavalry within the shooting range were hit by arrows one after another.

This group of crossbowmen did not pursue accurate shooting, but mainly focused on killing or injuring horses.

In the dozen or so breaths that Wei Kang observed, about forty or fifty enemy riders were thrown off their horses, and there were more than a hundred horses lying struggling near the four-sided hollow formation, and more horses ran away.

On the west side of the battlefield, Tadun's big-horned stag battle flag stood on a tomb. He was sitting on a couch on the tomb with a small table in front of him.

At this moment, Tadun held the lamb leg with his left hand and cut it with a short dagger in his right hand, not forgetting to lick the lamb fat from his fingers. Tadun asked the leaders of the tribes around him: "Can the Zahu hold out until noon?"

While asking the question, he caught a glimpse of the cavalry groups on both wings of the mixed Hu people rushing out to fight on the front line.

This is just a tentative confrontation, and the winner will be determined. Is it necessary to continue investing?
However, the Guanzhong soldiers did not continue to send in troops. When Tadun and his left and right were puzzled, they saw new troops pouring out of the enemy camp and heading south.

Due to the great distance, and thanks to the high terrain in the north, they were able to clearly see any signs of movement in the flags and the outlines of the men and horses.

"Report!"

The scout rode quickly to the grave and shouted, "The enemy's chariots have left the camp. I don't know how many there are!"

"Another chariot soldier!"

Tadun smiled. He had also heard about and studied the decisive battle in which the Huns were defeated. The sled was a kind of chariot.

At this moment, the black bear carefully observed the arrays of the various Hu people, trying to find the location of the main general based on the movements of the knights in the enemy array or the changes of the flags.

But the Zahu people seemed to know that their leader was in danger. There were eight large battle flags, but no obvious flag of the leader.

It seems that they had prepared in advance to prevent the cavalry's sudden attack and decapitation.

He had no good solution for this and could only wait for the chariot troops to arrive.

During this time, I watched the three groups of puppet Taoist soldiers confronting and fighting with the enemy cavalry. The first wave of cavalry who were conducting circular archery around the tortoise shell formation had shot all their arrows and retreated back to the formation, and the more than a thousand new cavalry joined in seamlessly.

The battle ended here in Yuan Shu's hollow square formation. The cavalry did not dare to get close and shoot back. After being shot back several times after tentative charges, the cavalry were regrouping more cavalry in an attempt to destroy this strange anti-cavalry hollow square formation in one fell swoop.

The cavalry in the center of the battlefield began to move. There were too many dead bodies of soldiers and horses left on the ground in the original area, making it no longer suitable for the knights of both sides to charge and fight.

Black Bear thought about it and turned to look at Dian Wei who was wearing a mask behind him.

Dian Wei trotted forward and jumped off the chariot, his steel boots sinking several inches into the ground when he landed.

Then Dian Wei held a heavy hook halberd in each hand and collided them above his head, making a crisp sound, and led the thirty or so heavy infantrymen in front of the chariot to advance.

Almost at the same time, the tortoise shell formation began to slowly advance southward.

The mixed Hu infantry regiment facing the tortoise shell formation was obviously in a panic. As the distance got closer, the entire tortoise shell formation looked like a fluffy hedgehog, covered with feather arrows.

The confidence of some of the miscellaneous Qiang people mixed in with the miscellaneous Hu formation increased greatly. Theoretically, as long as they could skillfully cooperate with their ancestral combat tactics, they could also achieve the same effect as the opponent now!
(End of this chapter)