There is a move in the art of war, which is called 'half-crossing and attacking'. Originally, it was to build a dam to hold back the water, and then lead the enemy to cross the river, and when the river was halfway crossed, when it was in a dilemma, the water attacked the enemy.

Zhang Baoke does not have the ability to cut off the Hutuo River, but he also has his method of 'half-crossing and attacking'.

In his opinion, if the soldiers want to cross the river, they must be divided into two groups within a certain period of time. One is in front and one is behind, and it is estimated that the baggage troops will be in the middle, so it is safer to cross the river.

Then the so-called half-crossing attack is to wait until the enemy is halfway across the river and the army is divided into two parts, and attack the troops on one side with superior forces. Let's just say that now, 3,000 elite soldiers are attacking 1,000 vanguard troops, and they have basically succeeded in peacetime.

In order to be more safe, he sent another 500 cavalry to cross the river in advance and wait, and after the signal wolf smoke was lit in the rear, this force also began to move towards this side.

"If you win, you will fight, and if you can't win, you will retreat!" Rao is like this, Zhang Bao is not confident that he can eliminate this army of officers and soldiers, but he strictly ordered the two generals to protect the soldiers to the greatest extent.

After fighting a lot, I realized that a victory for a while and a half is not a victory, and the final victory is a victory. Zhang Liang on the front line said that many officers and soldiers used to sacrifice some soldiers and even material supplies, so that they were careless, and then suddenly a counter-killing, or even an ambush, 30,000 or 40,000 people were actually defeated by a few thousand.

There are many such battles, and people have begun to learn to be smart and slowly learn to summarize. Most of the generals of Ye Luzi have grown up like this, this thing depends on talent very much, after all, how much can be comprehended without systematic learning, which determines what position this general can eventually go to.

"Restrain these soldiers for me, and don't let them cross the bridge!" On this side of the riverbank, the thief general, who saw that there were only 2,000 soldiers left, was directing the soldiers to meet the sword and shield soldiers under Guan Yu's command, and at the same time, he had to be careful of the archers behind him suddenly throwing them. Especially those crossbowmen, although the power of the crossbow bolts after the second round is not so great, but the accuracy is not reduced, this is very disgusting.

But the question is, what exactly is the first round of shooting? What did they use to make the arrows and crossbows so powerful all at once? Seeing that almost all the broadsword soldiers under his command were either killed or wounded, the thief general's heart was about to drip blood.

Without the broadsword to break the shield, it would be very troublesome for the pikemen to advance. In order to delay the enemy, he had to make the pikemen form a formation and attack the officers and men in three groups, hoping to give the cavalry about a quarter of an hour.

"Mother, if you don't hurry up, I'm going to leave first!" The thief looked across the river, and the smoke and dust were already faintly visible in the distance.

Perhaps the two thief generals didn't know that when the thief cavalry unit entered the five-kilometer range, Liu Tao had already 'seen' them and immediately warned them.

"Baggage trucks, immediately connect together, prepare for fire!" Lu Yan knew what to do at this time, and immediately gave an order when he heard the words. On the one hand, let the baggage vehicles form a circle and guard the grain and important supplies in the middle, and at the same time let the baggage soldiers quickly take the two buckets equipped with the vehicles to the Hutuo River to fetch water.

Not everyone went, and some took out sackcloth bags and dug in the ground. Fire extinguishing does not necessarily require water, especially a large fire, at this time a bucket of water not only can not extinguish the fire, I am afraid that it has not been poured on, it has reacted with charcoal into hydrogen and carbon monoxide, and it will burn even more at that time.

The pikemen were already in formation in front of the vehicles, and there were no swords, shields, or archers, and they had to be prepared to fight in formation. Liu Tao was ready, as long as the enemy army came, then he didn't mind casting a 'stone skin'.

Zhang Fei's cavalry had already run in advance, and Liu Tao's 'eyes' would not go wrong, so even if the enemy was still five miles away, he could prepare in advance. Just a simple warm-up, some noisy dust was already seen on the horizon, and a rumbling sound was faintly heard. This voice is not dense, and the enemy army should be less than a thousand cavalry.

"Start cruising!" Zhang Fei shouted, and the cavalry troops began to trot.

Cavalry, especially hoplites, need to travel about a dozen meters from the start of running to full speed. Cruising now is to warm up the horse in advance, so that it can get into full throttle as soon as possible later.

The scouts who were sent out hurried back almost at this time to report the news that a cavalry was coming towards this side. Everyone is a horse, and when they run with all their might, no one has an advantage. When the cavalry saw the cavalry troops, and when they returned, the enemy was already on the horizon.

Fortunately, Zhang Fei was already ready, and he saw him swing the snake spear in his hand and point forward, and the soldiers quickly rushed out in the direction he was pointing.

According to Liu Tao's orders, all the soldiers were equipped with an elongated spear, which was actually very close to the spear. This thing is very cumbersome to change, because there are no stirrups, and the soldier needs to put his arm around the horse's neck to attack. The means of attack that can be chosen, unless it is a heavy cavalry, are basically sabers and bows.

An excellent cavalryman in this era, not to mention anything else, except for equestrianism, saber skills and shooting must be mastered, and training with a cavalry is much more complicated than archers.

Generals who know how to train cavalry and command cavalry generally occupy an important position in the army.

Liu Tao has stirrups on his side, plus let the soldiers wear scale armor to ensure the soldiers' ability to resist arrows to the greatest extent, and at the same time equipped with mounted spears, or spears, so that they can attack the opponent one step ahead of the opponent. Based on this consideration, the cavalry was not required to master the skills of shooting...... I really don't have time to train like this. Of course, the formation of a cavalry unit in the future is not ruled out.

"............" Zhang Fei looked at the opponent's troops carefully, originally he planned to use the tactics taught by his brother to deal with the cavalry of the thief army with flank attacks or wolf packs.

When the enemy army appeared completely on the horizon, it was discovered that the speed and equipment of this cavalry were not very good, mainly because they did not even have spears, and it seemed that they only planned to rely on sabers to attack.

"Ha, it seems that the Yellow Turban Thieves have not been able to train many cavalry!" Zhang Fei was overjoyed, there was no need for such an enemy army to flank at all, it was purely time. A flank attack means attacking the enemy's flank, and the opponent will obviously also find out the intentions of their own army, and the two sides are constantly wandering, so it is very troublesome to operate.

The simplest, most direct, crudest, and most effective way is, of course, hedging! Zhang Fei didn't bother to play flanking or wolf packs at the moment, and directly ordered to rush towards the enemy at full speed.

"This Yide ......" Liu Tao frowned, this guy really chose the easiest way. It is not denied that this method is simple and crude, and if the other party does not have a carbine, it is not a big problem.

In desperation, he could only cast a 'stone skin' to increase the defense of the cavalry, hoping to reduce the damage.

"Huh?" As the magic was unleashed, Liu Tao realized a problem that he had noticed and ignored......