The Cao Cao coalition attacked Xinyang with such great momentum that Zuo Liangyu, since he was not blind yet, naturally noticed the movements of the rebels very quickly. He was shocked by the overwhelming momentum of the 20,000 coalition forces, and hurriedly ordered his subordinates to
The war generals Ma Jinzhong, Jin Shenghuan and others were on tight alert.
Dong Yuan, an aide favored by Zuo Liangyu, was originally a member of the Tong family of a large family in Liaodong. Because the Tong family had connections with the Eastern captives, he committed treason. Most of the Tong family members were arrested. Only Dong Yuan concealed his name and fled to Zuo, an old acquaintance of his.
Liangyu became a secret friend in the camp and became more and more prosperous.
Thief Zuo Ping also adheres to the creed of "one more friend, one more road", especially now that Donglu is becoming more and more powerful, there is really nothing to lose by giving Dong Yuan more preferential treatment.
Although Zuo Zhen's military discipline was lax, Zuo Liangyu recruited wavering elements from the rebel army everywhere, bribed and bribed a large number of extremely vicious and militant warriors with crazy looting and massacres and generous gold and silver rewards.
Ma Jinzhong, also known as "Hun Shiwan", was originally a relatively well-known leader among the Qin invaders. After surrendering to Zuo Zhen, he became a killer-level field mobile force in Zuo Liangyu's hands.
Although Jin Shenghuan's troops were smaller than Ma Jinzhong's, many of his men were from Changping soldiers, who were more powerful in the army, and they had plenty of firearms. Therefore, when defending, Jin Shenghuan had fewer troops.
, can often play a greater role than Ma Jinzhong's.
These two large corps, one attacking and one defending, plus Zuo Liangyu's retainers, are well prepared and will never allow Cao Cao's coalition forces to easily cross the Xinyang front line.
But Zuo Liangyu looked suspicious and discussed with Dong Yuan: "Although I am not familiar with the Eighth Army generals, Cao Cao is an old friend who has fought against me many times. The way the rogues used troops this time is really not like Luo Rucai's.
style."
Dong Yuan almost died at the hands of the intruders in Zhuxi County two years ago, so he did not realize that there was a trick and tried his best to persuade Zuo Liangyu to attack with all his strength and annihilate the intruders.
He urged: "General Kunshan (Zuo Liangyu, also known as Kunshan), today's battle is unusual. The emperor has repeatedly urged the supervisors, and the governor personally went to Henan to lead troops to suppress the army. The Holy Heart really wants to wipe out the bandits in one fell swoop. To end this
The end game in the Central Plains. If the general can fight hard at this time and defeat the Qin invaders like he did at Agate Mountain, then the reward from the world's lord will only be in an instant."
Zuo Liangyu smiled and nodded twice. No matter how bad Zuo Zhen's military discipline was, no one could deny that Zuo Liangyu had an extremely keen sense of changes in the military situation.
He didn't feel that now was the so-called good time to attack, so he pretended to be mysterious and said: "There must be a good strategy to control the situation. I think the Qin army will definitely take advantage of the rogue bandits to attack their backs when they move south. We just need to remain unchanged in response to any changes and stick to the defense.
Just live on the front line of Xinyang and prevent the rogue bandits from escaping from the encirclement on our road."
Zuo Liangyu took a long breath and continued: "Although this town is called an aid and suppression town, it has always fought against Zhang Xianzhong. Now Zhang Xianzhong has been abandoned by Cao Cao and has been defeated by us several times in a row. It has reached the end of its rope.
Chuang, Cao is in Henan. Naturally, he should first let Fu Zonglong, Li Xianfeng and other governors, as well as He Renlong and other generals take care of it themselves. The town only needs to do its part."
These few words of Zuo Liangyu finalized Zuo Zhen's overall combat policy, which was to hold firm and respond to all changes by remaining unchanged, and not to rush out into the field with Cao's coalition forces lightly.
He also warned Ma Jinzhong, Jin Shenghuan and other troops that no matter what favorable situation arises, they should not be deceived by the Qin invaders. As long as they hold on to the Xinyang position, no matter what happens to Fu Zonglong's side, it will have nothing to do with us in Zuozhen.
Besides, Fu Zonglong has nearly 40,000 people in his hands. Even if he can't kill Cao Cao's coalition forces at once, it won't be a problem to block it, right? As long as it is blocked for a while, the bandits will trap themselves in Runing and they will be destroyed.
Zuozhen's attempt to hold on made the situation completely fall under the control of the Chuang army. Originally, according to Li Laiheng's suggestion, the Chuang-Cao coalition forces went south to feign an attack, and it was enough for Zuozhen to maintain this motionless posture.
But Li Zicheng still felt that it was not safe, and felt that it was necessary to give Zuo Liangyu a hard blow to make him bleed, so that Zuo Liangyu could better control his hands and not rush out to fight the rebels easily.
As for Cao Ying, during the days when Luo Rucai fought with Zhang Xianzhong, he was defeated by Zuo Liangyu many times, so much so that the troops in Xi Ying and Cao Ying suffered from "Left-phobia".
He also felt that at this time, it was necessary to win a moderate victory against Zuozhen first, so as to reverse the fear of Zuozhen in the hearts of Cao Ying's soldiers and boost their morale.
Luo Rucai seized the task of leading the first attack. Since breaking into Cao's joint camp, Cao's camp has seldom independently taken on a major battle target. Since Deputy Commander Cao was provoked by Ji, he had some thoughts about breaking arms with Li Zicheng in the future.
I even want to highlight my ability to lead troops.
Otherwise, Luo Rucai could still retain people based on Li Zicheng's personality attractiveness in various aspects such as being a person, earning a salary, and treating his friends during the period of cooperation, as well as Chuangying's overall more energetic temperament, which is many times more energetic than Cao Ying's.
?
Cao Ying's army moved very quickly. In order to prevent Ma Jinzhong, who was guarding the front line of Xinyang, from noticing, Luo Rucai also ordered not to fly any flags. Their team was soon submerged in a dark green wave and marched forward half-hidden in the dense forest.
Tian Jianxiu sighed: "This Cao Cao, why are his hands and feet so fast today?"
Liu Fangliang analyzed: "He has to take a small road to get behind the enemy, and may have to ambush the troops in the dense forest... But I estimate that Zuo Zhen will still be unable to hold on, and Luo Ru will not be able to lure the Zuo soldiers out, and in the end he will have to fight hard for a while.
"
Li Zicheng said nothing, his mood was very complicated.
After Luo Rucai joined the camp, he seemed to have indeed discovered many weaknesses of Cao Ying compared to Chuang Ying. He was also determined to strengthen military discipline and enhance Cao Ying's strength.
Since it was a coalition fighting, Li Zicheng certainly hoped that Cao Ying would be a brave and capable team; but when he really saw the improvement in Cao Ying's performance, he felt uncomfortable and felt that he had digested Cao Ying's big goal and retreated.
Half step.
Luo Rucai first sent a small force to lure the enemy, but the officers and soldiers were very cautious. They stood firm in several strong fortresses in the north of Xinyang and were determined not to venture in or out lightly.
Cao Ying had no choice but to sneak through the dense forest and move his troops to the side and back of the Zuozhen camp. Thanks to Zuo Liangyu's strict orders not to leave lightly, Cao Ying could calmly seize the initiative on the battlefield.
Only after Cao's camp deployed all its forces did Luo Ru feel that the opportunity to fight was ripe. More than 80% of his troops rushed out of the dense forest at one go and attacked the Zuozhen camp from three directions.
The war drums at Cao's camp were beating in unison, with Yang Chengzu and Luo Yanqing taking the lead, followed by a large group of cavalry who rushed toward the enemy's formation like a whirlwind.
The camp was guarded by Ma Jinzhong's troops. As soon as their crossbowmen fired the first wave of arrows, Cao Ying rushed to the vicinity and began to attack the camp. Because Cao Ying attacked from several sides and was quite strong,
The left army could not stand almost immediately.
Fortunately, left-wing soldiers from other nearby camps also came out to reinforce. They were equipped with many firearms and fired cannons and cannons, which suddenly caused Cao Ying's offensive to come to a standstill.