The melodious trumpet sounded long and long, the war drums thundered, and everyone was stunned.
Without any prelude or hesitation, the war started.
When Cao Cao's Yanzhou Army appeared on the horizon, Zhang He already knew that today's battle was inevitable.
Cao Cao's army appeared at this moment, so there were only two messages sent to Zhang He.
First, Lu Bu withdrew his troops for unknown reasons, and Cao Cao's Yanzhou was no longer at war, so he could withdraw to intercept him.
Second, Qingzhou had known its movements for a long time, so when they sent Guantao's defenders to intercept Yuancheng's reinforcements, the pursuers must have been behind them.
Therefore, when he saw that Cao Cao's army had appeared on the east bank of Gudu River in the distance, Zhang He did not hesitate and ordered an attack.
If he can't break out of the interception net now before the people behind him catch up, then when Chen Mu mobilizes tens of thousands of troops to encircle him, then his troops may be in danger!
"kill!"
Zhang He rode on his horse and directed the first row of sword and shield men to start moving forward slowly.
Cao Cao was not stupid. He was certainly not willing to suffer huge losses in order to help Chen Mu, so he just formed a formation at a distance in an attempt to delay time.
If he really wanted to fight head-on, Zhang Hejun was completely unprepared last night and could have attacked the laxly guarded village at night without waiting until the next morning for Zhang Hejun to wake up and show up here.
Therefore, it cannot be said that there is no effort, but if Zhang He's army is very strong and his own army suffers a certain amount of damage, Cao Cao will definitely not continue to fight with all his strength, but will choose to withdraw his troops.
Anyway, he did his job of intercepting. As for whether he was successful or not, that is another matter.
And if you are lucky and the opponent is a mediocre general, he will hesitate for a moment when he sees so many troops suddenly appearing outside his camp, and the two sides will stand in a stalemate and wait until Chen Mu's army comes. This is the best, and Cao Cao will get 80,000 shi of food and grass in vain.
.
Unfortunately, Zhang He was also decisive and immediately called the generals at all levels to come out of camp and form their formation. After the soldiers formed their formation, they began to attack the Yanzhou Army without stopping.
When Xiahou Dun saw that the enemy started to press forward without hesitation, he said to Cao Cao: "Mengde, the generals on the opposite side are very smart. They know that they cannot fight for a long time and choose to attack immediately. What should we do now, should we fight them to the death?"
"
Cao Cao squinted his eyes and said: "The art of war is to avoid the real and attack the weak. We have few soldiers, and the enemy's heart is like an arrow. We will fight to the death. We must not be able to defeat the enemy. I should slowly lure him and plot against him. Send the order to retreat slowly.
.”
"Okay, retreat slowly!"
Xiahou Dun immediately sent messengers to convey the order.
Cao Ren, Cao Hong and other generals who led the troops in front immediately ordered the soldiers to retreat.
They saw that Cao's army was well-organized and magnificent. Even though the enemy was very close, about two miles away, he showed no signs of panic.
The reason for this is that Cao Cao's army has gone through a long period of war training and is no less elite than the Qingzhou Army.
In addition, the famous farming general Yu Jin followed Bao Xin in the early days. Bao Xin referred to Cao Cao as the herdsman of Yanzhou and became Cao Cao's subordinate. Now he is staying in Cao Cao's hometown, so Yu Jin naturally followed Cao Cao.
Therefore, although Cao Cao's troops are now small in number, they have been trained by Yu Jin and have been fighting in the north and south for many years. If they really confront Zhang He head-on regardless of the cost, they will have a chance to defeat Zhang He's soldiers who are Shaojing warriors.
Unfortunately, Cao Cao was certainly not so selfless as to use his remaining elite troops to help Chen Mu delay time, so when he saw Zhang He ordering the attack, he immediately chose to retreat.
The whole process of retreat was like a textbook-level performance. The rear team changed to the front team, making way for the passage to disperse on both sides. The front team turned around and trotted back.
Even while jogging, Cao Jun did not have any problems with the military formation being scattered, showing extremely superb military qualities.
When Zhang He saw this scene, his face suddenly fell, because this meant that the enemy was extremely powerful, far from ordinary.
"General... what to do."
Zhu Ling's skills were not bad either. When he discovered that the enemy was actually retreating in an extremely orderly manner, he immediately had a worried look on his face.
Zhang He gritted his teeth and said: "We can only chase them. If we ignore them, our army will definitely be dragged by them."
"But Cao Cao came well prepared. All his troops had cotton-padded clothes and were well-trained in their retreat. Our army not only lacked winter clothes, but also didn't even eat food. How could we catch up with Cao Cao's army?"
His face looked pale.
"Yes, the soldiers have just put on the cold armor. It's so cold. How can they catch up with Cao Cao's army?"
"If you don't want to go back to the camp and hold on, send someone to Yuancheng to ask for reinforcements."
"Gong Yuan is now in charge of Jizhou. Reinforcements should arrive soon. It is not a bad thing to stick to the original position."
Several generals discussed it one after another.
Cao Cao's cotton-padded clothes came from a batch of about 5,000 pieces given to him by Liu Bei when he first challenged Dong. Later, he purchased a batch from Qingzhou, so all the soldiers had cotton-padded clothes to wear.
With cotton-padded clothes, you can keep warm and your body will not be stiff. If you run on one wheel, you can run much faster than Zhang Hejun who lacks winter clothes.
After all, you are so cold in the winter that your face is purple and your whole body is shivering. Even if you want to run fast, you won't be able to run fast.
Hearing everyone's words, Zhang He's brows tightened and frowned to the point of dripping with tears.
Stay where you are?
It's a shame they figured it out.
If you stick to Ganling City, there may be hope. If you station yourself in a shabby village in the wild, and wait for the Qingzhou Army to surround you, they can easily overwhelm the entire camp.
What's more, they don't have much food left, only about ten days' worth of food.
Although it is only two or three days' journey from Yuancheng to here, the problem is that no one knows the current situation in Jizhou. If Yuan Shao had not sent reinforcements, they would have been alone. When Chen Mu's army came around, no one here could
Can't run away.
"I'm afraid it won't work to stick to the camp. We have little food, and the pursuers must be approaching. If the Qingzhou Army and Cao Cao's Yanzhou Army are combined, how can our army compete with them?"
Fortunately, Zhu Ling had a clear mind and explained the predicament at hand.
Zhang He sighed and said: "It's hard to catch up even if we catch up. Even if we catch up, we will still have a fierce battle with Cao Cao. If we are in a stalemate for a moment and are held back by him, our army's situation will be critical."
Zhu Ling hesitated for a while and said: "General, since we can't leave and we can't stay, it's better to send one general and ten thousand people to watch them, and the main force will evacuate. If we don't catch up with Cao Cao in a short time, we may delay it even longer."
Long."
"What Wenbo said makes sense, who is willing to end the marriage?"
Zhang He immediately turned his head and looked at the generals on the left and right, and found that each of these people had flashing eyes and did not dare to look into his eyes.
This is actually the best way, cut off the tail of the gecko and abandon the car to save the handsome man.
The 40,000-strong army cut off 10,000 horses to fight with Cao Cao, and the remaining 30,000 people evacuated, which at least ensured that the main army would not be completely annihilated.
But in this case, the generals sent out will definitely be in bad luck.
So Zhang He deliberately didn't say anything before, just waiting for the upright Zhu Ling to tell him, but Zhu Ling was indeed fooled by him.
After all, if Zhang He directly appoints someone, he will offend someone in Jizhou, where interpersonal relationships are complicated. These people all say that it is difficult to offend anyone because they come from powerful families.
Upon hearing Zhang He's questions, many generals either lowered their heads and said nothing, or simply looked around, but did not dare to respond directly to Zhang He's questions.
Are you all not fools, sacrificing yourself in order to cover the smooth transfer of the main force?
It is impossible for this kind of spirit of self-sacrifice and lofty thoughts to appear in the hearts of these people.
Therefore, no one was willing to take up Zhang He's words.
Seeing this scene, Zhu Ling's expression became extremely bad, and Zhang He's expression was not very good either.
Zhang Nan hesitated and said: "Otherwise, we should retreat together with the army."
Zhang He's face turned dark and he said, "How to retreat? Wear all your armor and retreat in formation? How many miles can you travel in one day?"
Everyone stopped talking.
After all, they were all generals leading the army, and they knew very well that a direct retreat of the army was impossible.
People are watching eagerly from the sidelines. Your army retreats, and no one can stop it. The enemy only needs to launch a charge, and the 40,000-strong army will fall apart in an instant.
Because there will definitely be no military formations when you march, and no one from the generals to the soldiers will wear armor when marching.
The armor commonly used by soldiers in the Han Dynasty was the small Zha armor, which weighed more than ten kilograms, while the general armor was the big Zha armor, which weighed more than fifteen kilograms.
Including helmets, weapons, full armor, and dozens of kilograms of stuff on the body, how fast can the marching speed be?
So in many wars in history, why were they easily defeated once they were attacked during the march or while sleeping in the middle of the night, even if there were more people beating them?
It is because ancient cold weapon warfare relied on courage and tenacious struggle to work together.
During the march and during the midnight rest, if there is no formation and no armor, the army will naturally have no combat effectiveness. If it is charged by the enemy, it will be on the verge of disintegration.
Everyone knows this truth. When many famous generals in ancient times were setting up camp, in order to prevent being attacked, they would often order their soldiers to sleep wearing armor.
So from a rational point of view, if a 40,000-strong army faces nearly 20,000 troops, if they cannot repel the enemy at once, how can they escape without paying a price?
"I stayed."
After a long time, Zhu Ling said calmly.
Since he proposed the strategy and no one else was responsible for it, it was only him.
"Wenbo!"
Zhang He held Zhu Ling's hand and said movedly: "In this army..."
Zhu Ling smiled calmly: "General, there is no need to say more. Once a man is born, he can only die to serve others. How can he be greedy for life and afraid of death, and run away from the battle?"
Many other generals couldn't help but look ashamed after hearing this. They lowered their heads or looked away without saying anything.
After determining who was going to break up the attack, Zhang He issued an order for the entire army to retreat.
Many soldiers retreated to the camp one after another, began to take off their armor, wrapped themselves in winter clothes covered with reed catkins, packed their bags, and returned to marching status.
Only Zhu Ling led his own 5,000 troops and some people separated from other captains, a total of about 7,000 or 8,000 people. They were waiting outside the camp and watched Cao Cao's army in the distance with vigilance.
Seeing this scene, Cao Cao said to Cheng Yu and Guo Jia: "The leader of the army will be called Zhang He in the future."
Cheng Yu nodded: "Yes, I am from the Zhang family in Hejian."
"It's quite a talent."
Cao Cao nodded: "You know how to cut off your tail to survive, and you can make a prompt decision."
Guo Jia smiled and said: "It's true. If an ordinary general looks forward and backward, he will often delay time and be overtaken by the enemy in the end. But he dares to make such a decision, which can be regarded as a famous general."
"But Chen Zigui is not a kind person. I think he must have taken this into account, and I'm afraid he won't let them get away so easily."
Cao Cao smiled and put it on Chen Mu's mouth. With his understanding of Chen Mu, how could he let it go.
Guo Jia pondered: "When Chen Zi returned to his army, he divided his troops into three groups and sent people to borrow the road from Yanzhou to capture Qingyuan and Guantao counties in Wei County. I'm afraid it was just for today."
"It's a pity that Chen Zigui, if he and Liu Xuande hadn't become brothers..."
Cao Cao's eyes flashed with confusion.
If Chen Mu hadn't already sworn sworn brothers to Liu Bei, he would have wanted to sworn sworn brothers with him.
With such a great talent here, why worry about big things happening?
However, if Chen Mu knew about this, he would probably laugh it off.
His sworn sworn relationship with Liu Bei has been verified by history.
At least in history, after becoming a sworn sworn brother to Liu Bei, he never failed his brother throughout his life, and even before his death, he wanted to avenge Guan Yu with the whole country.
But I am sworn sworn brother to your old Cao... With your suspicious character, who knows if I will be betrayed by you one day.
It's better for you to keep this brotherhood for yourself.
"Don't worry about Chen Zigui for now. Since Zhang He chose to leave one of his troops to break up the empire, should we take advantage of them?"
Cheng Yu asked.
With nearly 20,000 people on our side, there is still no problem if we want to take down the 7,000 to 8,000 rear-cutting troops on the opposite side.
The question is whether it's worth eating.
There will be casualties in a war. Letting yourself suffer casualties to help their Qingzhou Army is what Cao Cao should consider.
Cao Cao looked at Guo Jia, who smiled and said: "Eat, why not eat? The weapons and equipment of these seven or eight thousand people are also a fortune, not to mention that only by fighting them can we give Qingzhou an explanation."
"Um."
Cao Cao thought for a while and nodded: "Yes, if we don't fight a battle and let them go, Chen Zi will be resentful of me when he comes back. Liu Xuande will not be able to explain it at that time. Only after a battle can we give them an explanation.
"
Cao Cao's power is still too small now. If he does nothing and just watches Zhang He's people leave, Chen Mu will inevitably be suspected of defrauding Yanzhou into adding 80,000 shi of food and grass.
If Liu Bei or Chen Mu accuses him at that time, the truth cannot be justified. Therefore, in order to give Qingzhou an explanation, this battle must be fought.
What's more, Cao Cao won't suffer any loss in the battle. Not only can he get the weapons and equipment of these seven or eight thousand people, and even some baggage, but he can continue to be an ally with Qingzhou and harvest their wool without giving Qingzhou any excuse. What do you think?
All cost effective.
So thinking of this, Cao Cao waved his hand and said: "Okay, let's fight!"
"The entire army is under pressure!"
Xiahou Dun mounted his fast horse and quickly issued orders to the troops in front.