The Warriors of the Three Kingdoms

Although Liu Zheng encountered an ambush and was shot by the first wave of arrows, and lost a small number of people, but the difference in strength made Liu Zheng not plan to retreat, because he knew that if he retreated, it would really make him suffer. Morale dropped sharply, and more soldiers and horses were lost.

And to fight upwards under pressure, there are the commanders of the legions under Liu Zheng, and the commanders stabilize the morale of the troops. It only takes some time to quickly stabilize the panicked soldiers and horses, and then they will have the power to fight. .

Liu Zheng has never had contact with the troops of Zhang Miao, Liu Dai and others, but Liu Zheng has seen Cao Cao's troops. Some of these soldiers and horses are now Cao Cao's troops. If Cao Cao's soldiers and horses take the initiative to pursue them, Liu Zheng will not be good. Fighting, so it must be transformed from a passive side to an active one.

After Liu Zheng finished his orders, Zhou Cang immediately led the sword and shield fighters at the forefront of the army to press up.

Zhou Cang's subordinates are mainly infantry, and the infantry is a mixture of swordsmen and pikemen, which is most suitable for this kind of jungle warfare.

Except for some panic when the arrows were shot at the beginning, after Zhou Cang yelled a few times, those descendants soon woke up and heard Zhou Cang's command to charge. The first few chiefs began to direct The team under him began to charge.

In Cao Cao, Liu Dai, and Zhang Miao's team, there was no commander in command, but their respective lieutenants commanded the army.

The commander of Cao Jun was Cao Hong, Cao Cao's younger brother. Liu Zheng had met this man before, but it was only a few years ago, and since he had never had a direct confrontation with Cao Hong back then, he naturally didn't recognize him.

Cao Jun was right in front, leading his army to rush over, pointing directly at Liu Zheng's position, while Liu Dai's army on the left was led by Cheng Yu.

Cheng Yu was originally an important counselor under Cao Cao's account in history, but before he defected to Cao Cao, Cheng Yu was actually a member of Yanzhou Mu Liu Dai's subordinate, and was recommended to Liu Dai by Liu Dai's subordinate Wang Yu.

The main reason is that when Cheng Yu resisted the Yanzhou Yellow Turban Army a few years ago, he put in a lot of effort and was quite famous in the village. In this way, he was appreciated by Yanzhou Shepherd Liu Dai, and he joined the army. Liu Dai was able to compete against Cao Cao in Yanzhou for half a year For a long time, thanks to Cheng Yu's help, he won Liu Daizhi's trust.

On the right, Zhang Miao's army is commanded by Zhang Chao, Zhang Miao's younger brother.

The soldiers from all three sides rushed over, but did not start the second round of arrow rain attacks.Because, in addition to the fact that the first round of arrow rain can have a surprising effect and cause more damage to Liu Zheng's soldiers and horses, when the second round of arrow rain comes, Liu Zheng's soldiers will all be there. Be prepared, it will be a bit difficult to hit again.

Therefore, shooting again would not have much effect, and it would be easy for Liu Zheng's troops to withdraw calmly. Therefore, Cao Cao and the others' troops did not conduct a second round of shooting, but instead used infantry to press them up.

If you want to fight head-on, use Liu Zheng's army to be ambushed and the morale of the army is at a disadvantage, and defeat Liu Zheng in one fell swoop on the frontal battlefield.

Although by doing so, Cao Cao, Liu Dai, and Zhang Miao's troops will definitely suffer losses, but compared to defeating Liu Zheng, they are still happy with this loss.

After all, it is not the troops of one family that are lost, but the soldiers and horses of the three families. There are not many troops that really belong to them, but they can cause a lot of damage to Liu Zheng. They will not be happy about it.

The intertwined sound of pinging, bang, bang, and metal, the screaming and roaring hysteria, the sound of arrows piercing through the air, and the crash of people turning their backs on their backs, one after another.

The battle was on this official road, and it was on the verge of breaking out, and it broke out in an instant.

In other words, in this battle, Liu Zheng's soldiers and horses should be at an extreme disadvantage.

After all, after a two-day long journey, Liu Zheng's army marched directly from Poyang to the border of Shouchun just to support Yuan Shu, and they didn't have a good rest on the way.

Coupled with being hit by an ambush set up by the enemy, the soldiers were at a disadvantage both in terms of morale and physical strength.

However, these people under Liu Zheng did not show too many disadvantages in the battle with the enemy, but they still had the upper hand.

This is mainly because the [-] soldiers and horses led by Liu Zheng at this time are all the most elite [-] soldiers and horses in his army.

Huang Zhong's first battalion was the early Runan Yellow Turban Army under Liu Zheng, and some of them had followed Liu Zheng for more than three years.

After being trained by Huang Zhong for three years, naturally, his individual strength and overall quality have improved extraordinary, and all of them are drawn out, and they are all captain-level figures in other military camps.

And Zhou Cang's battalion of soldiers and horses is also not bad. After Liu Zheng was in Jiaozhou, he recruited soldiers and horses from all over Jiaozhou, plus some bandits from Mingyue Shanzhai.

The time following Liu Zheng also continued, and the bandits were good at this kind of mountain warfare.

Chapter 454 Temporary Retreat

These people naturally have no disadvantages against the troops of Cao Cao, Zhang Miao, Liu Dai and others.

After all, among the three sides of the enemy army, most of Zhang Miao's subordinates were county soldiers, and they were village braves recruited just last year.

The only ones who are more powerful are these troops under Cao Cao. Some of these people are soldiers who followed Cao Cao when he followed Cao Cao to fight against the Yellow Turban Army.

He can also be regarded as a veteran, so naturally his combat power on the battlefield is much stronger than that of ordinary county soldiers and recruited local braves.

It was also the five thousand elite Cao troops led by Cao Hong who fought from the front, making it difficult for Liu Zheng's troops to resist, so that they were able to fight the enemy army regardless of the outcome.

"Huang Zhong! Let your shooters shoot accurately, aim at the enemy's rear and kill the opponent's shooters first!"

Seeing that this battle would not be over in a short time, Liu Zheng immediately withdrew from the fight, then approached Huang Zhong a few steps, and ordered Huang Zhong to shoot accurately.

Most of Huang Zhong's soldiers are shooters. If Liu Zheng only relied on infantry to fight the enemy on the frontal battlefield, although Liu Zheng could be invincible, it would be extremely difficult to end the battle in a short time, and even win. Also difficult to win.

Maybe, even if they defeated these troops, their troops would also suffer heavy losses, and they would be unable to support Yuan Shu at all.

After all, Liu Zheng's men and horses traveled long distances and rushed on the road for two consecutive days. They were physically exhausted. They could hold on for a while to stimulate their fighting potential in a short period of time. If it took a long time, they would definitely be suppressed.

Therefore, Liu Zheng wanted to end the battle as soon as possible, so he could only order Huang Zhong to lead the archers to shoot and kill some of the enemy's troops to make the enemy fearful.

Only then did Liu Zheng find an opportunity to retreat and take a temporary rest.

After Liu Zheng's order.Huang Zhong didn't hesitate at all, immediately put away the bow and arrow in his hand, and began to wave a few times at the archers behind him.Let the remaining archers begin to gather.

The archers under Huang Zhong were well-trained and dispatched well, and the surviving archers quickly gathered into a square formation after he waved several times.

After Huang Zhong gave an order, arrows began to soar into the sky, and thousands of sharp arrows rushed towards the enemy's phalanx.

At the beginning, the soldiers and horses on the battlefield were a little afraid, not knowing who the arrows were aimed at.

But after figuring out the direction of these arrows in the blink of an eye, the soldiers on Liu Zheng's side breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the shooters on his side had begun to come up to suppress the opponent, and they also had a little confidence in their hearts, and they attacked more fiercely.

In Liu Zheng's army, the morale is high at the thought of it, because there are no worries, there are few deserters, and most of them are desperate fighters. The main commander ordered to charge, and they would all fight with their lives and charge ahead.

The fall of the arrow caused more casualties to the people on the officer's side.

Cao Hong, who originally thought he would win this battle, began to frown. The infantry he led was dealing with Zhou Cang's army under Liu Zheng's command.

Cao Hong had heard of Zhou Cang a little bit. He was one of the first few generals who followed Liu Zheng. He had a relatively high status in Liu Zheng's army. He thought he would be able to defeat the opponent in the first battle, but after a positive battle After a round of charges, Cao Hong soon realized that Liu Zheng's soldiers and horses were not so easy to repel.

Compared with the first battle in Runan three years ago, the soldiers and horses under Liu Zheng's command have become stronger now, and they are no longer those yellow turban bandits in the past. They have a unified dispatch and closely cooperate , When fighting, it is not easy to form a solid phalanx and break the opponent's formation.

Even if they use some advantage to break the formation in one of them, the soldiers in the rear will quickly make up for it and reinforce the blocked area again, so that Cao Hong's initial charge will be somewhat in vain.

Especially after the shooters led by Huang Zhong started shooting serially, Cao Hong's 5000 men lost at a faster rate, and soon there were only 5000 of the 3000 men left.

On Liu Zheng's side, although there were some losses, they were not so huge.

Looking at the dark enemy army in front of him, there are Zhang Miao's army and Liu Dai's army on both sides who were also suppressed by Liu Zheng.

Cao Hong believes that he only needs to give him some more troops to supplement the follow-up source of troops, and he will definitely be able to fight Liu Zheng heartily. But now, it is obvious that he has suffered the crazy counterattack of Liu Zheng's army, and Cao Hong has retreated a little.

He was puzzled in his heart. Obviously, the soldiers and horses of himself and others took advantage of the sneak attack and used the terrain to fight an ambush. Why the advantage in the battle was still on Liu Zheng's side.

Perhaps he can only blame it on the fact that there are too few soldiers on his side.

Seeing that Liu Zheng's counterattack became more and more fierce, Cao Hong saw that many of Liu Jun's soldiers had been beheaded by his people, so it was not good to continue to fight to the death here.

Immediately, he waved his hand and asked Cheng Yu, the commander of Liu Dai's army, who was beside him.

"General Cheng Yu, the enemy army is fighting desperately and their morale has risen, which is not good for our army. Let's retreat temporarily. Anyway, we have killed a lot of Liu Zheng's soldiers and horses. Our goal has been achieved, and we can go back and return."

Cao Hong didn't want to put all his troops here. Liu Zheng's counterattack was too fierce. If he didn't retreat now, the whole army might really be wiped out.

Cheng Yu was thinking the same as Cao Hong at this time. After seeing Liu Zheng's crazy combat power, he also wanted to quit, but it was not easy to say it alone at first.

Now that Cao Hong brought it up, he will naturally reconsider it immediately.

"Well, we have fewer soldiers than Liu Zheng. This battle is just to catch the ambush, which is a little disadvantageous. It will not be beneficial to continue fighting. Let's retreat."

Cheng Yu's answer satisfied Cao Hong, but he didn't say it directly, but looked at Zhang Chao on the other side.

After all, this is the decision of the three parties, and the opinions of the two of them cannot directly affect the overall situation, and they need to ask the people on Zhang Miao's side.

And Zhang Chao didn't want to fight at first, and everyone advocated retreating, so he naturally had no opinion.

He immediately agreed with Cao Hong and Cheng Yu's opinion.

In this way, before Liu Zheng's crazy counterattack arrived, the three parties simultaneously sounded the clarion call to retreat.

Withdrew from the official road one after another.

Liu Zheng's side is actually at the end of his battle. If he doesn't launch a final charge and let the opponent retreat, Liu Zheng might have to retreat first.

Fortunately, he made the right bet. During the last attack, the enemy retreated first.

Chapter 455 I have a plan to defeat the enemy

Cao Hong, Cheng Yu and others led the troops quickly, and they also retreated quickly.

Having been prepared for a long time, they naturally thought of the way to retreat, and at the same time knew that Liu Zheng's soldiers and horses would not pursue them.

Because Liu Zheng had just been ambushed, although he stabilized the morale of the army and was not directly dispersed, he still caused a lot of losses to his soldiers and horses.

What should be done at this time is to restrain the soldiers and horses, and divide the troops to chase the officers and soldiers. If they encounter an ambush again, it will really be a desperate situation.

Liu Zheng has always been cautious, so naturally he would not do such a thing.

When Cao Hong and others led the troops to retreat, Liu Zheng did not stay here for too long.

First, Zhou Cang and others were ordered to quickly restrain their troops, and then those who could still move were temporarily evacuated from the battlefield.He didn't even bother to clean up the battlefield, so he retreated fifty miles from the vicinity of the battlefield.

After all, this place is too close to Shouchun City, and what Liu Zheng knows is that the combined forces of Cao Cao and others exceed [-] troops.

Even if Yuan Shu's people will drag some people, they can still mobilize tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to deal with Liu Zheng.

So Liu Zheng had to be cautious, first retreat to a wider place, take defensive measures, set up camp, and then wait for the opportunity to act.

The soldiers and horses retreated until night, and several waves of spies were sent out. After confirming that there were no pursuers, Liu Zheng breathed a sigh of relief.

That night, in Liu Zheng's military tent.

This was the first time Liu Zheng was ambushed, and the morale of the army was a little low. In the army tent, several generals did not speak.

Huang Zhong and Zhou Cang's faces were not very good-looking. They stood at the front. As the generals, they were ambushed this time because they did not take precautions and had a certain responsibility.

At this time, he didn't know how to speak, but Liu Zheng didn't blame them too much. After all, the main reason was that Liu Zheng didn't realize that Cao Jun and others would set up an ambush here.

It's not that Liu Zheng didn't realize it, but Liu Zheng didn't expect Cao Cao's soldiers to come so fast, and he thought of the people who intercepted him here.

"Everyone, how are our casualties?"

After a moment of silence, Liu Zheng still asked the generals present.

Zhou Cang spoke first, and responded to Liu Zheng.

"My lord, my battalion suffered 3000 casualties."

"Three thousand, the casualties are a bit heavy. How about you, General Huang Zhong?"

After hearing Zhou Cang's words, Liu Zheng frowned, his face darkened a little, and immediately asked Huang Zhong.

"My battalion is alright. It didn't engage the enemy head-on, and the loss was only over 1000."

"Is the total loss more than four thousand? It's really not good news to lose one-fifth of the enemy's main force before seeing the main force of the enemy."

Listening to the battle damage reported by the two battalion commanders, Liu Zheng not only had a headache.

Originally, he went to Shouchun to support Yuan Shu, but unfortunately, the journey was too far to get there before Cao Cao, Liu Dai and others. Beat down.

Fortunately, they are currently camping here, and there is no sign of the enemy coming to pursue them. If the enemy pursues and leads 8 to [-] people to attack, I am afraid that Liu Zheng will have no choice but to escape.

"My lord, this battle is not good for our army. We didn't expect that the enemy army would be so rampant. It was our carelessness to set up an ambush in the middle of the road."

Huang Zhong didn't say much, stood up, and took the initiative to stop the responsibility for the unfavorable march this time.

"It's also because the opponents we have encountered in the recent period are too weak, and the battle is too smooth. We have not encountered any setbacks all the way from Jiaozhou. This battle is also a lesson for us, let us start from the excitement. Wake up."

Liu Zheng hit everyone again.

"Everyone must always keep this failure in mind, and at the same time send people to find out about Shouchun's current situation. If Shouchun can still be saved, we will save him. If the situation is beyond our control, if it is not possible, we will We are going to retreat."

"Yes, my lord."

The crowd joined in unison.

"My lord, I have doubled the dispatch of some scouts, and now the first batch of people have returned, bringing us some news."

"what news?"

Zhou Cang's words immediately caught Liu Zheng's attention.

Immediately, he asked Zhou Cang, wanting to know the current situation in Huainan battlefield.

"Previously, the scouts we sent out contacted our secret operations in Huainan. Several scouts came back and reported that now Cao Cao, Zhang Miao, and Liu Dai have occupied less than half of Huainan, and are currently leading an army of [-] to besiege Shouchun. .”

"Cao Cao and Zhang Miao didn't make a move before, and they had been on the sidelines, so Shouchun City was still in a stalemate, and Yuan Shu was still desperately resisting, but just yesterday, Cao Cao and Zhang Miao sent some troops and Liu Dai's people to leave Shouchun City. Chun, whereabouts are unknown."

"I think the people we met were the ones who ambushed us halfway."

Zhou Cang told Liu Zheng the information he currently has.

After Liu Zheng listened, he lowered his head and fell into deep thought.

If someone else led tens of thousands of soldiers and horses and failed to capture Huainan County, Liu Zheng might only think that this person is not strong enough and has no brains. However, under the siege of Cao Cao, Zhang Miao, Liu Dai and others, Huainan County actually Only a small half of the territory was lost, so there must be ghosts in it.