Cao Wenzhao didn't know about this arrangement, in his opinion, the peasant army and Li Zicheng were already turtles in the urn, and it would be difficult to escape. As long as Li Zicheng is tightly bitten, he will definitely be captured alive. [Full text reading. 】

The two sides ran for a day, the sky was completely dark, and it was still thirty miles away from Maning Town, Cao Wenzhao saw that his men and horses were too tired, so he ordered him to rest. Li Zicheng's men and horses over there were also extremely tired, and the two sides were more than ten miles away, so they didn't fight, burying the pot and cooking.

Cao Wenzhao was full of confidence, as long as he rested for one night, the next day the people and horses were resting enough, and he would be able to catch up with Li Zicheng and wipe him out.

Cao Wenzhao is confident in this point, because the horses of the official army are better than those of the peasant army, and the war horses of Guanning Tieqi are all carefully selected good horses.

This night, neither side dared to sleep too peacefully, for fear that the other party would come to attack. Each sent a number of scouts to spy on each other's movements.

Early the next morning, Cao Wenzhao hastily had breakfast with the whole army, mounted his horse and began to pursue. Li Zicheng's men and horses were in front, and they were getting closer and closer.

At this moment, Li Zicheng had already led his army to the east of Maning Town, which was outside the ambush circle.

After coming here, Li Zicheng had already seen the red flag on the hill, which was a signal, so he led his troops to run up the hill and disappeared behind the mountain.

Cao Wenzhao led five thousand iron horsemen and chased after him, he came to the outside of the ambush circle, looked around, and had a sudden shock in his heart: This place is so strange! How is the terrain like this?

He led his troops to fight, has been fighting for half his life, from outside the pass to inside the pass, almost all kinds of terrain have been seen, Cao Wenzhao deeply understands what kind of terrain the cavalry likes in battle, what kind of terrain they don't like, and the terrain in front of them is exactly what the cavalry dislikes the most.

There are mountains, water, river beaches, and stone beaches, but there is no flat land, and when fighting here, the cavalry cannot rush up, and those rivers cut the terrain into several pieces, and it is difficult to support each other.

Cao Wenzhao looked up and saw that Li Zicheng's men and horses were running up the hill, and it seemed that the brigade had passed, leaving only scattered stragglers running upward.

Cao Bianjiao ran up, immediately stood beside his uncle, looked at the terrain, and took a breath of cold air: "Uncle, if Li Zicheng sets up an ambush in this place, it will be too unfavorable for us." I don't think it's going to chase it. If you really want to chase it, let's take a detour. ”

Cao Wenzhao's most powerful thing about fighting is not his ferocity, but his cunning. Due to his small number of men and horses, he was thousands of cavalry every time, chasing tens of thousands of peasant troops, and he did too much to win more with less, but even so, he was also cautious and never lightly put into danger. If he bites the ass of the peasant army, needless to say, once he senses that the peasant army has begun to play tricks and set up an ambush, Cao Wenzhao will be very careful, and he will not enter the terrain that is not conducive to the cavalry attack.

This is the case right now.

Cao Wenzhao sneered: "You're right, we can't easily enter this place." Passed the order to go, detour in pursuit. ”

So the five thousand horsemen began to go around the depression, picked up the flat place, went around in half a circle, and chased after them again.

After bypassing this valley, the front suddenly opened up, it was a large plain, the woods in the distance, only a faint shadow, the wind blew through the ground, from time to time to roll up some dust, look up, Li Zicheng's men and horses are not far away, because there is a flying earth like a yellow dragon.

Cao Wenzhao laughed: "Li thief fled here, he deserves to be unlucky." Everyone rushed forward and defeated the Li thief, and there was a lot of reward. ”

Five thousand iron horsemen shouted and killed, the sword light reflected the sun, and the murderous spirit was soaring.

Li Zicheng's men and horses are still on the run, and they don't look like they're in a hurry, not like they're fleeing in a hurry.

When Cao Wenzhao saw this scene, he immediately felt that something was wrong. By this time, his men were about to chase into the dust raised by the peasant army.

At this moment, suddenly there was a bowstring sound in his ears, and countless crossbow arrows flew out of the dust, with a piercing whistle, shooting down twenty or thirty of the Guanning iron cavalry that was rushing in front.

Cao Wenzhao knew that there was an ambush at a glance, and he immediately ordered not to pursue, first protect the men and horses, and wait for the dust to fall to the ground, and then see the enemy situation clearly.

Guan Ning's iron cavalry retreated, shielding the horses and himself with soft shields, and the crossbow arrows could no longer kill them.

After a while, the dust settled, and Cao Wenzhao raised his eyes and looked at it, and his heart sank.

He saw that in the distance there were layers of people and horses, and he couldn't see the edge at a glance, and then he looked behind him, and there were also ambushes. And most of them were cavalrymen, standing still in formation, their eyes fixed on their men and horses, as if they were a flock of sheep that had fallen into the wolves.

Directly in front of the distance, a big banner was held high, no need to ask, it was Li Zicheng.

Cao Wenzhao smiled, he originally expected that Li Zicheng would come to this hand, but he didn't expect the other party to choose the ambush location here.

The Guanning Iron Cavalry that surrounded him in the plains was as ridiculous as a sheep eating a wolf.

Cao Wenzhao is very experienced, he ordered his men and horses to rest in place, set up a soft shield, don't rush to break through first, wait for the war horse to rest for a while, and then talk about it.

He had reached the point where he was comfortable with the use of cavalry, knowing when to charge and when to rest.

But Cao Wenzhao knows, and the other party also knows.

Li Zicheng raised the sword in his hand and gave a loud order, and the sound of thunderous hooves sounded in all directions, and the cavalry of the peasant army appeared, and began to charge with a thunderous momentum.

According to the arrangement of Liu Zongmin and Bai Qi in advance, the ambush soldiers were originally ambushed around the depression, but Bai Qi always felt unstable, he once again inspected the terrain, and suddenly felt that it was not safe to ambush here.

He could see that this was not conducive to the cavalry attack, so Cao Wenzhao would not be able to see it?

According to the Qin army's intelligence investigation of all parties over the years, it can be known that Cao Wenzhao is the most powerful general in the official army, and the battle is both ruthless and treacherous, tricky and poisonous.

The only few ambush battles did not surround him, but was rushed left and right by Cao Wenzhao, and the ambush army was scattered, and finally defeated the peasant army.

From this point of view, Cao Wenzhao is an extremely delicate person and will not be fooled casually.

He immediately found Li Yan and said what he thought, and Li Yan was also taken aback: "General, you think well." I'm going to find Liu Zongmin. ”

Li Yan invited Liu Zongmin over to discuss, and Liu Zongmin frowned: "Gongzi Li, General Bai, according to what you said, we will ambush the people here, and Cao Wenzhao will definitely not get in?" ”

Bai shook his head: "If I were him, I definitely wouldn't." ”

Liu Zongmin said: "But this is the best place to encircle and annihilate the cavalry. Bai Qi said: "No matter how good the place is, if people don't come in, you can't fight." Liu Zongmin looked at Li Yan and saw that he also looked deeply appreciative, so he knew that these two people had the same idea, so he spread his hands: "You are two people, I am one, and the number of people has the final say." ”

Bai Qi pointed to the plain in the distance: "It is most appropriate to ambush soldiers there." As long as Li Chuang will lead the men and horses to run over, Cao Wenzhao will definitely chase and enter the ambush circle. ”

Liu Zongmin took a look at the plain, the wildflowers and weeds in one place, and there was not even a shallow ditch, which was extremely conducive to the galloping of the cavalry, and said: "The two of you can think clearly, if we trap Cao Wenzhao there, we may not be able to eat people." Cao Wenzhao had encountered many such encirclements before, but none of them were successful. ”

Bai Qi said indifferently: "In everything, there is always a first time." ”

Liu Zongmin stomped his feet: "Okay." I will listen to you. But when it really came time to encircle and annihilate Lao Cao, the Qin army didn't want to swing and pee his pants. ”

Bai Qi said: "My Qin army has never been afraid of any enemy. You will ambush the men and horses in the northwest and west, and the southeast and southeast to our Qin army. ”

The three of them agreed, and brought the men and horses to the plain, and lay down to wait.

After Li Zicheng led his troops to arrive, as soon as he saw that Cao Wenzhao had entered this plain, Bai Qi took the Qin army to copy the back road of the official army, he took 2,500 men and horses in the east, Li Dang and Li Yan took 2,500 people in the south, these 5,000 cavalry carried bows and arrows, held hammers in their hands, and waited for the battle.

In order to encircle and annihilate Cao Wenzhao this time, the Qin army was fully prepared. They knew that Cao Wenzhao's Guanning iron cavalry were all wearing iron helmets and iron armor, and this kind of protection, the sword slashed and stabbed, and it had little effect, so when they were not out of Xi'an, they rushed to make thousands of iron hammers overnight.

This kind of iron hammer is more than two feet long, the structure is simple, it is an iron rod with the thickness of a small arm, the head is an iron lump, the size of a fist, the whole hammer weighs about ten catties, and it is dedicated to smashing human heads and horse heads.

Because the Guanning Iron Riders all wear iron helmets, and if they hit it with a hammer, they will be stunned if they don't die of shock. Even if it hits the back, it can break the ribs and make people vomit blood.

Therefore, the hammer is the best weapon against the iron armor.

At this time, Cao Wenzhao found that he had fallen into a heavy encirclement, especially the cavalry behind him, who did not look like the peasant army, all of them were wearing black clothes, and between the actions, they were very strict, which was different from the chaotic formation of the peasant army.

When Bai Qi was up, there was no flag, so Cao Wenzhao didn't know which team they were, he judged the situation, and felt that it was better not to touch Bai Qi easily, it was best to concentrate his forces, assault forward, and defeat Li Zicheng first. Just when the peasant army began to charge, Cao Wenzhao also gave the order. He ordered the 5,000 men and horses to be divided into five teams, with four generals each leading 1,000 cavalry, charging forward, and himself leading 1,000 men to block the men and horses coming from behind. He instructed these partial generals to immediately change directions and attack as soon as they rushed out, and as long as they made a few such charges, the peasant army would be scattered and unformed.

The 5,000 Guanning Iron Cavalry collided head-on with the oncoming peasant army like a torrent of steel.

Accompanied by the shouting of horses and neighing, the guns of the Guanning Iron Cavalry were loud, and their three-eyed firearms exerted their power, and they were more than a dozen steps away, and they knocked off the peasant army in front of them.

Then the two sides got together.

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