Chapter 451: Kong Ming Sleeps, Kills Zhang He, Captures Xia Houba
Chapter 451 Kong Ming sleeps, kills Zhang He, and captures Xiahou Ba
Author: Playing with Basilisk
Chapter 451 Kong Ming sleeps, kills Zhang He, and captures Xiahou Ba
The Han army's trumpets sounded continuously. When the Han troops who were still fighting outside heard this order, they abandoned their helmets and armor and fled to the rear in embarrassment.
The Han army in the middle immediately changed the way of fighting and dragged out the baggage vehicles from the rear.
This is the ground formation.
Some look like a circular formation, but the actual formation is an umbrella formation, with the front row forming a human-shaped tip defense and the middle row thickened to withstand enemy charges.
A large number of Han troops fighting on the periphery began to run to the rear as if they were defeated, while Cao Jun continued to pursue them.
They have only one formation - no formation.
It was difficult to maintain a position during the pursuit. Although the people fighting in front of the Han army did not have a formation and could only be chased under normal circumstances, there were those behind them.
Soon, one baggage train after another was placed on the outside, and the fleeing Han troops ran into the baggage train. The outer battlefield was in chaos. At least seven or eight thousand Han troops had no time to escape, and were chased and killed by Cao's army.
However, soon after Cao's army gathered to pursue the pursuit, the crossbows behind the baggage vehicles began to use their power to cover the retreat of the Han army, which greatly reduced the losses of the reorganized Han army.
At this time, the battlefield was already full of corpses from both sides. Cao's army did not take advantage, and Han's army did not gain the upper hand. They were still in a tug of war.
But the balance was broken as the Cao army's offensive in the rear began, because the main force of Cao's army arrived. This time Xia Houyuan judged that Zhuge Liang had violated a military taboo by retreating, so in addition to not sending the rear army, he sent both the left and right wings and the main force of the front line.
The Wu pressed down nearly 100,000 people and spread across the entire wilderness. As far as the field of vision could be seen, there were all Cao soldiers. The reason why the Han army was able to retreat was because the battlefield was too large and various departments were scattered and fighting.
If the battlefield is compressed, no matter how well-trained the Han army is, the overcrowding will definitely lead to widespread chaos in the entire formation.
If Cao Jun takes advantage of the situation to attack, he will definitely be defeated.
But spreading out the battlefield has obviously been in Zhuge Liang's plan for a long time. The plate itself is large, and the territory will be spread wider to avoid being bloated.
So far, the Han army had only dragged up the baggage vehicles on the northern periphery. The Cao army in the rear roared and the horns sounded. At night, a large number of Cao army soldiers began to return to the cavalry, remounted their horses and regrouped, hoping to launch an attack from both wings.
Zhuge Liang was unmoved and allowed the battle situation to change like this. Soon Cao Jun was entangled with them again. The situation in the east was even more severe. Several formations encountered surprise attacks and were scattered.
About two-quarters of an hour later, the main force of Cao's army finally arrived. Following Xiahou Shang's order, tens of thousands of Cao's infantry rushed over.
At the same time, the Han army was in the formation, and the high-pitched drums sounded again.
"drum?"
In traditional military operations, drums and horns often bear the command of active attack.
In the distance, Xiahou Shang had just pressed up his infantry and launched an attack with his entire army. He suddenly heard the intensive drumbeats and was shocked. He didn't know why the Han army dared to launch a counterattack.
But the next second, countless arrows rained down from the dense jungle in Ziyun Mountain on the left, dispelling his doubts and making him terrified.
No wonder the Han army suddenly shrank its formation and began to launch a defensive counterattack. It turned out that the opponent had already set up an ambush in the mountains.
In fact, under normal circumstances, even if the Han army is well-trained and elite, if it suddenly encounters such a pursuit, its morale will often be shattered and it will be difficult to fight for a long time.
The reason why they are able to persist until now is entirely because their superior officers have told them long ago that if Cao Jun pursues them, don't be afraid. The prime minister has set up an ambush and reinforcements will arrive soon.
This news boosted the morale of the army, and the soldiers believed that they would win, and even sacrificed their lives to fight against Cao's army.
Otherwise, it would have collapsed from the beginning.
Among the rebellious troops, Cao Jun on the Ziyun Mountain side was caught off guard and many people were shot and killed. Immediately afterwards, a large number of Han troops from the mountains suddenly came out and attacked Cao Jun's right flank.
Even though Xiahou Shang immediately ordered to stop the advance and gather the troops back, the right wing was still defeated.
"What's going on?"
Zhang He, who was fighting with the enemy on the right flank of the Han army, suddenly heard the roar of the mountains and the tsunami, and just as it was getting dark, he vaguely saw countless Han troops rushing down from the mountains like a tide in Ziyun Mountain in the northwest.
Oops, we were ambushed.
Zhang He suddenly felt bad and wanted to rein in his horse and flee the battlefield, but he was surrounded by Han troops and could not rush out in a short time.
If you look down from a high altitude, you will see that at dawn, the vast land with a radius of more than ten miles is littered with the corpses of Cao Jun and Han Jun. The two sides are entangled and fighting with each other, fighting back and forth.
Gan Gui and Zhang Bao were covered in blood at this time. Although they were generals, their martial arts were still far behind Zhang Fei and Gan Ning, so they had a few bruises on their bodies.
If it hadn't been for the desperate resistance of the personal guards and the careful command of the Han army, I am afraid that these two brothers would have been killed by the Wei army long ago.
During the chaotic battle, two people with their personal guards happened to meet each other. After the two sides merged, two groups of Wei soldiers not far away came towards them with ring-headed knives in their hands and howling like wild wolves.
Zhang Bao mustered up his courage and stabbed a Wei soldier to death first, and was about to stab another one next to him when he suddenly heard Gan Gui shouting from one side to lower his head, and he instinctively shrank in a hurry.
With a "swish" sound, he dodged a steel knife. He looked up again and saw the enemy on the left sweeping away the enemy. He was stunned. Before he could break out in a cold sweat, the enemy on the right had already raised his knife to attack him. Fortunately, Gan Gui provided timely support and helped him.
Block the enemy on the right, and the enemy on the left will be stabbed to death by him.
"Good brother."
Zhang Bao shouted, and the two of them went back to back to help each other resist the enemies on both sides.
Although their personal strength was not as good as that of Zhang Fei and Gan Ning when he was young, they often fought together and practiced martial arts together, so their cooperation was extremely close. Even when more than a dozen Wei troops attacked, they were able to retreat.
In a short time, the ground was covered with the corpses of both enemy and enemy soldiers. While they were fighting, the sound of horse hooves was heard from the side. When I turned around, I saw a Wei army general rushing over.
Zhang Bao and Gan Gui roared angrily and rushed over together. One stabbed the enemy general and the other chopped off the horse, trying to knock the Wei general off his horse.
That general was Zhang He.
Zhang He often chooses to evacuate when the situation is not good. After discovering that the Han army is ambushing, he wants to break out of the fighting circle and escape to the outside. As a result, he encounters a small group of Han troops blocking the way.
In order to survive, he also roared and bent down to avoid Zhang Bao's prodding, and used his knife to split Gan Gui's attack on the horse.
Although he has armor on his body, if the enemy's powerful and heavy blow is received forcefully with the armor, it is very likely that he will be knocked off his horse due to the inertia of the horse's charge and the force of the impact.
Therefore, Zhang He wisely avoided their sharp edges and did not intend to fight with them at all. He dodged Zhang Bao's stab, blocked Gan Gui's attack, and then wanted to break out of the encirclement with his sword.
However, the two men refused to give up and continued to fight to intercept. Even when Zhang He wanted to rein in his horse and rush over, a Han soldier next to him slashed the horse's leg.
The horse suddenly stumbled and Zhang He fell from the horse.
When he got up from the ground after being thrown to pieces, Zhang Bao Gangui had already come to kill him again.
This made Zhang He even more angry.
It is true that he is afraid of death, but he can still burst out with powerful force in desperate situations. Even the peak Zhang Fei in history could not stop Zhang He who wanted to escape, let alone the two young men?
At that time, Zhang He roared angrily and rushed towards Zhang Bao Gangui. The long knife in his hand struck Zhang Bao first and struck Zhang Bao like lightning.
Zhang Bao was caught off guard and hurriedly started a fight. The moment the swords and blades collided with each other on the first day of the fight, Zhang Bao felt that something was not good. The spear in his hand was hit so hard by Zhang He that he almost lost his hand. If Gan Gui had not helped cover it up, he would have been killed by the enemy in just a few seconds.
will be defeated.
The three men were fighting together. Zhang He swung his sword from left to right and slashed at the two of them like a gust of wind and rain. The surrounding Cao army and Han army were also fighting together, and the two sides were fighting inextricably.
In the distance, Xiahou Ba was still greeting the soldiers to fight hard. At this time, the sky was already bright, and it was already sunrise. The morning sun was rising, and the earth was bright.
On the vast land in the east, billowing dust swirled up from nowhere.
The Han army and Cao army on the battlefield to the east heard the movement here for the first time. Those who were fighting desperately had no time to look. Only a few soldiers who had defeated their opponents and were panting for a short rest in the wilderness turned their heads.
They saw a disk-like orange-red sun rising slowly on the distant horizon, with countless black shadows moving under the sun, filling the entire horizon like a tide.
Because of the backlighting, at first glance, I thought those people were wearing black armor and the uniforms of Cao Wei soldiers, which shocked and frightened the Han army for a while.
But soon the people over there were getting closer and closer, and their appearance and the color of their clothes were quickly exposed to their sight.
I saw that all the cavalry were wearing orange-red Han army uniforms with small armors on them. They were like the fiery red sun, almost blending in with the sunlight.
They are the light cavalry of the Han Dynasty!
In an instant, all the Han troops were excited, their morale soared, and they shouted and spread the news throughout the battlefield.
Zhuge Liang was still standing on the chariot and looking into the distance. This battle was not his first time fighting Cao Jun, but it was his first time coordinating the overall situation as a general, so even though he had planned it in advance, he was still very nervous.
However, when the cavalry appeared, he was finally relieved. He had not slept all night and felt a little tired. He slowly sat on the four-wheeled vehicle and told Wang Ping: "I will take a nap until we defeat the Wei army."
Afterwards, wake me up."
Wang Ping couldn't laugh or cry. At such a critical juncture, the prime minister was about to sleep.
However, he also knew that the hussar general often advised the prime minister not to work too hard and try not to micromanage major national affairs. Now that he was handling the entire military affairs and had no rest for another night, it was normal for him to feel sleepy.
The most important thing is.
The battle has been decided.
The cavalry in the wilderness rolled up the rolling wind and thunder and rushed towards Cao Jun's left wing like a tide.
The most terrifying thing is that there are also five thousand heavy cavalry among them.
It rumbled in like a heavy tank, rushed into the sea of people, and defeated the left wing of Cao's army on Xiahou Shang's side.
At that time, Gan Ning attacked Cao Jun's right wing from Ziyun Mountain, and Xiahou Shang was already struggling to support it. As a result, the Han cavalry came and broke through Cao Jun's left wing cleanly, wrapping Cao Jun's army like dumplings.
Caught between two sides!
Cao's army encountered an ambush, and for a while the entire army began to collapse.
At this time, Zhang He's side didn't even know the situation, because he was on the main battlefield in front, surrounded by soldiers fighting between the enemy and ourselves for miles.
Zhang Fei's cavalry was even seven or eight miles away from him, attacking the main force of Cao's army further north.
So Zhang He didn't even know that the Han cavalry had arrived.
He is now preparing to kill Zhang Bao.
The two sides fought for forty or fifty rounds. Zhang Bao and Gan Gui were young and strong, and kept fighting him in a war of attrition. The old Zhang He could no longer hold on.
To this end, he made dangerous moves, preparing to use tactics to kill or seriously injure someone, and then take advantage of the chaos to escape.
In the midst of the chaos, he pretended to be exhausted and fell to the ground.
Zhang Bao was inexperienced and actually wanted to go up and capture Zhang He alive, but Zhang He suddenly grabbed a handful of dirt and threw it over.
"mean!"
When Gan Gui saw this, he was furious and went up to chop him with his knife.
Unexpectedly, Zhang He simply used his back to catch it, but the knife in his hand stabbed Zhang Bao straight.
He is wearing armor.
It won't hurt if you take this knife forcefully.
At this critical moment, Zhang Bao will undoubtedly die.
An arrow from the rebel army shot through the air like a cloud, directly piercing Zhang He's neck.
The knife stopped less than five centimeters in front of Zhang Bao. When it fell down due to inertia, it also scratched Zhang Bao's calf.
"ah!"
Zhang Bao screamed in pain, his eyes were blurred and he couldn't see clearly, so he could only stab at Gan Gui randomly with his spear.
"Father!"
Gan Gui took a few steps back and looked to the right.
They saw Gan Ning riding on horseback, about ten feet away from them. He put away his precious eagle bow, reined in his horse and said, "Take Zhang Bao to the back, the army is going to charge and kill him!"
Only then did Gan Gui look in all directions.
I saw that the Han army in the wilderness had begun to launch a full-scale counterattack. The mountains and plains were overwhelming, and Han troops were charging everywhere.
After encountering an ambush, Cao's army began to rout in large numbers. A large number of Cao's troops abandoned their helmets and armor and fled north.
Under the sun, countless Han troops ran past Gan Gui like a tide, shouting cheers like wild wolves.
"Win!"
This thought suddenly came to Gan Gui's mind.
Looking back, Zhang Bao had heard the conversation between him and Gan Ning. He was rubbing his eyes, sitting on the ground holding his injured leg and moaning.
He thought for a while and cut off Zhang He's head first, then went up to help Zhang Bao and evacuate backwards.
Although I don't know who this general is, he looks very old and is wearing a Wei army general's armor. He must be a senior general with a name. Let's take the head back first.
And just when Gan Gui led Zhang Bao back to the rear army, on the northern battlefield, Xiahou Ba and dozens of Cao's cavalry behind him were running away like crazy.
The Han army's ambush caught Cao's army off guard, and the entire battlefield situation suddenly reversed, and he had no choice but to retreat.
Just as his horse was galloping, dozens of Han cavalry suddenly appeared far behind him. The leader saw Xiahou Ba at a glance, and urged the horses and shouted: "Uncle Zhongquan, don't run away, dismount and accept the surrender."
Come on. Come back to the south with me, and I promise not to kill you."
After hearing his words, Xiahou Ba ran faster, whipping his horse wildly while turning back to look at the giant man with swollen beard and hair.
Although Xiahou Ba wanted to kill the man, the situation was stronger than the man.
If you don't run now, you will really be a prisoner.
However, after only running for less than three miles, the horse suddenly neighed and accidentally stepped on the air and fell to the ground.
Xiahou Ba flew out and hit the mud with his head, causing a bloody injury.
When he finally got up from the ground, he opened his eyes and saw a big furry hand grabbing at him, accompanied by a demonic voice.
"Hahahahahaha, uncle, where are you going? Follow me back to the south. I guarantee you will be rich and prosperous!"