Gan Ning was riding on horseback, watching the fierce battle in the distance, constantly urging the soldiers to move forward.
But people are not made of iron. They had just attacked for more than 20 miles. They had a fierce battle at the bridge north of Niyang and wiped out half of Yu Jin's troops. It was really difficult for them to attack after a long distance.
So they actually rested for a while. After all, Cao Cao thought that Yu Jin would come, so they were also wasting their time, buying both the enemy and ourselves some time.
It happened that the war between the two sides had already started when Gan Ning came back. However, because the land was located on an endless plain and was discovered several kilometers away, it would be too late to rush to the battlefield as soon as possible, so he could only urge the soldiers to hurry up.
At this moment, Cao Cao and Zhang Xiu had been fighting for almost an hour. The two sides were fighting fiercely. In this small-scale positional battle involving about 20,000 people, Zhang Xiu had the advantage of the location, while Cao Cao had the advantage of the people.
This refers to the people and people. In addition to Cao Cao's army fighting bravely and closely cooperating, the most important thing is that Cao Cao himself used his tactics extremely well and disrupted the enemy's formation.
Now the left and right wings of Zhang Xiu's army are all tight, and the formation has become chaotic. Cao Cao ordered the entire army to attack again, putting huge pressure on Zhang Xiu from the front, causing Zhang Xiu's troops in the front to be unable to hold up.
If it weren't for the two thousand archers on the top of the mountain still shooting arrows to put pressure on Cao's army, the Xiliang army would have collapsed by now.
The only good news is that Gan Ning will be arriving soon.
As long as Gan Ning launches a flank attack against Cao Jun, everything will be fine.
After Shen Chen cooperated with Deng Zhao to repel Han Hao, the rebel army noticed that Zhang Xiu's left front line was in chaos due to Shi Huan's attack, so they stepped up and continued to support.
However, what he never expected was that he was finally allowed to hold the wing, but Zhang Xiu, who was at the front, lost his position.
Both the left and right wings were attacked, and the army's formation was already in chaos. Zhang Xiu himself fought fiercely with Cao Hong, but he could not hold on and was repulsed by Cao Hong, so he had to retreat.
Fortunately, if he didn't withdraw, the army in front of General Da Zhen could barely hold on. Once he withdrew, the army in front would directly follow him in retreating.
The originally dispersed Chinese army formation instantly retracted and retreated, directly selling off the left and right wings.
If Shen Chen were still on the top of the mountain, he would definitely scold Zhang Xiuzhu's teammates.
However, others were not around and did not notice the movements of the front army. Huangmenting soldiers and horses were gathering to attack Shi Huan's tribe. They were still fighting fiercely. Suddenly, it was as if they were defeated like a mountain. The left and right wings of Zhang Xiu's front army collapsed in chaos.
"The general retreated."
"Quick, quick, get back."
"Oops, the enemy is catching up."
"Run."
For a time, the entire battlefield turned into a rout.
Shen Chen was dumbfounded at that time. He didn't know how he was defeated. He thought he had succeeded in putting out the fire and mending the hole. However, in the blink of an eye, Zhang Xiu's former army fled.
But now was not the time to investigate what the problem was. Seeing Zhang Xiujun's defeat, he immediately realized that something was wrong and shouted: "Withdraw!"
"withdraw!"
Deng Zhao, Chen Zhen and others around him immediately blew their whistles.
The sharp whistle sounded throughout the battlefield, and the Huangmenting soldiers moved closer one after another, heading north under the command of Shen Chen.
The reason why they went north was to get closer to Gan Ning, because Gan Ning was about to arrive at the battlefield.
At this time, the situation on the battlefield reversed almost instantly. Just as the saying goes, the battlefield is changing rapidly. No one knows whether what was an advantage one second will turn into a disadvantage the next second.
Zhang Xiu's army was completely defeated and fled back in droves. Cao's army pursued them all the way and beat the Xiliang army to such a state that they lost their armor and helmets and were extremely embarrassed.
On the far bank of the river, watching the army's victory, Cao Cao breathed a sigh of relief. When the soldiers on the left and right were not paying attention, he wiped the sweat from his forehead, and then returned to his calm and composed appearance.
In fact, this battle was very difficult for him. Zhang Xiu had a good location and occupied the hillside on the left bank of the bridge, so he could shoot arrows from high altitude.
Although they have a numerical advantage, if they continue to delay, this advantage will soon be eliminated.
Because enemy reinforcements are coming.
Therefore, how to use this advantage to defeat the Xiliang army before the enemy's reinforcements arrive has become Cao Cao's top priority.
Time is tight, the task is arduous, a slight mistake, or delaying for too long will cause him to fail.
Therefore, it is very critical for Cao Cao to find a breakthrough in a short time.
Fortunately he succeeded.
First, taking advantage of the brief confusion on the enemy's left rear flank, Han Hao was sent to make a precise breakthrough.
He also asked Shi Huan to make a move to scare the enemy and attack the enemy's left wing, which caused problems in the formation of the entire Xiliang army.
You must know that Zhang Xiu has two thousand soldiers stationed on the mountain, so at this moment he only has more than 4,000 soldiers on the front battlefield, and his total strength is less than 5,000.
Cao Cao's troops were nearly 3,000 more than his, so the space for maneuver was naturally much larger.
However, there are still more than a thousand people in Shen Chen, and this cannot be ignored.
Therefore, if there were a mediocre general, or a commander who did not perfectly capture the slightest flaw, it is very likely that Shen Chen's more than a thousand people would cover up Zhang Xiujun's exposed weaknesses.
Fortunately, Cao Cao successfully seized this opportunity.
He saw the situation on the battlefield suddenly reverse. Zhang Xiu's troops fled in large numbers. His own troops were chasing after him. After running for about half a mile, Cao Cao issued an order: "Ming Jin!"
"only!"
At this time, even the stupidest people around Cao Cao would not question this order.
Because Gan Ning's army was already less than two miles away from them.
The tinkling sound of gold sounded.
Cao Jun's soldiers were also well-trained and did not continue to pursue and expand the victory, but quickly gathered back.
In this battle, Cao's army suffered more than a thousand casualties, while Zhang Xiu's army also suffered more than a thousand casualties. Huangmenting's soldiers suffered dozens of casualties. The bridgehead battlefield, hills, and plains were littered with corpses.
It seems that everyone's casualties are about the same, but don't forget that at least half of Cao's troops attacked under the rain of arrows, so if Zhang Xiu had not occupied the favorable location on the left bank of the hill, Cao's casualties might even be reduced by half.
From here we can see how strong Cao Cao's command on the battlefield is.
Although Shen Chen tried his best, he was inexperienced and had almost no experience in commanding tens of thousands of people in combat.
Secondly and most importantly, he actually did not have command authority over Zhang Xiujun, only the Ganning Army and Huangmenting soldiers.
Gan Ning was not here, and he had few troops at hand, so he was led by Cao Cao, who demolished the west wall to make up for the east wall. In the end, it failed to save the Xiliang army from defeat.
Fortunately, Gan Ning arrived in time and did not give Cao Cao a chance to expand his victory. Otherwise, if he had arrived an hour later, Zhang Xiu's army would have lost at least a thousand men.
When Gan Ning arrived at the battlefield, Cao Cao had already gathered his soldiers. The quality of his soldiers was still very high, at least countless times better than that of junior high school and high school students in later generations.
When he was studying, Shen Chen remembered that on Mondays, during the school's usual morning meeting in the playground, it took more than twenty minutes for the four to five thousand teachers and students in the school to line up, and then they lined up according to the order of each class.
After Cao Cao's voice sounded, Cao Jun on the front line was already running back. Cao Jun at the back, under the command of officers at all levels, quickly formed a defensive formation toward the north.
When Gan Ning was less than a mile away from them, which was less than ten minutes, they were already in position, and the spear array was positioned at Gan Ning's army.
The two sides quickly fell into a confrontation.
Shen Chen led Huangmenting soldiers closer to the direction of the Gan and Ning Army.
After the two sides met, Gan Ning came over and said, "Ah Chen, how are you?"
"unsatisfactory."
Shen Chen shook his head and said: "I underestimated Cao Cao's ability and overestimated my own ability."
"How to say?"
"I thought I could fight him, but unfortunately I couldn't command Zhang Xiu's team, otherwise I should have been able to hold on a little longer."
"Is Zhang Xiu so unbearable?"
Gan Ning frowned, how did he defeat Liu Biao's army back then?
However, I was relieved when I thought about what I saw in Liu Biao's army about his so-called military strength, which was indeed not very good.
Shen Chen said: "It's not that Zhang Xiu is incompetent. His Xiliang army is still very brave. It's just that Cao Cao's ability to adapt to the situation is far better than Zhang Xiu's. He loses because he is not as good as him in using troops."
We have to admit this. As the top military strategist in the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao was indeed powerful in his military use.
Especially in this kind of small-scale war involving 10,000 or 20,000 people, Cao Cao's command level can be called artistic, his sense of smell is extremely keen, and in future generations he will be at least at the level of marshal.
Zhang Xiu's Xiliang Army is even better than Cao Cao's army in terms of individual combat capabilities. But in terms of coordination, personal quality, and the command levels of Zhang Xiu and Cao Cao, the two sides are not at the same level.
In just over an hour before Gan Ning arrived, he found an opportunity to defeat Zhang Xiu's Xiliang army. Even Shen Chen couldn't mend the holes, which is indeed admirable.
However, Shen Chen gained a lot from this battle. Although he was not as good as Cao Cao in on-the-spot command, at least he still achieved tactical success. He first broke Cao's army's partial division, and then waited for reinforcements to arrive to defeat the larger number and complete the tactical victory.
And seeing Cao Cao's beautiful command on the battlefield also inspired him deeply. At least he will benefit from it for a long time in the future, and use it as learning motivation to continue to study hard.
certainly.
Although he achieved a certain tactical victory this time, Shen Chen also understood that the tactical victory was due to his foresight, and Cao Cao did not know that Gan Ning had intervened in this war.
The war between Cao Cao and Zhang Xiu had only passed for less than half a month. He didn't believe that Liu Biao would react so quickly, but he didn't know that Shen Chen had been involved from the beginning.
So fundamentally speaking, Shen Chen actually had the upper hand and had a huge information advantage.
If he and Cao Cao were placed on the same information level, the battle might not be a half-match like it is now, but a complete defeat by Shen Chen.
Therefore, he was not happy at all because he defeated Cao Ren. Only when he faced Cao Cao in person could he feel how powerful he was.