In the earth-shattering shouts, the two sides returned to their respective positions.

As soon as he returned to the command vehicle in his formation, Cao Mengde immediately summoned the remnants of the tiger and leopard cavalry on his side, which was now the last ironclad cavalry on his side, and waved his sword and ordered:

"Send the order down and tell the commanders of the armies that our army is well prepared and morale is high, and that the enemy's cavalry is tantamount to asking for their own death...... And our whole army is not allowed to move, and watch the posture of the enemy, first stubbornly kill and wound, and when the enemy is a little slack, then listen to my command, move in order, and return to the camp to the south! ”

The Haw and Par Cavalry, who temporarily served as heralds, scattered and did not mention the herald.

On the other side, Gongsun Xun returned to the white horse flag, and when the shouting slowed down a little, he also calmly waved his sword and ordered: "The enemy army is in full step, the shield spear is in front, the bow and crossbow are mixed in the back, and there are a lot of armor soldiers, the cavalry is really difficult to get close, and let the armor cavalry stay for a while, and the commanders of each department will personally lead the light cavalry to scatter in all directions, test the strength of the enemy's battalions by riding and shooting, and report the results again!" Remember, all the cavalry of the whole army, except for the Tian Yu Department who needs to rest, all the rest must test the seven battalions on the periphery of the enemy once and report again! But save arrows! ”

In addition to Tian Yu, Cheng Lian, Zhang Liao, Tian Chou, Yang Kai, Yuwen Black Otter, Yu Fuluo, and Xu Bu Juci, who also happened to be seven generals, obeyed orders one after another, and then each returned to the formation, immediately selected the light cavalry of the headquarters, and began to test the seven battalions on the periphery of the Cao army with cavalry shooting. And the crossbowmen were an important part of the defense of the cavalry, so the Cao army was naturally unwilling to show weakness and counterattacked.

For a time, the bows and arrows of both sides were scattered, and the arrows were intertwined, while one side stood with a big shield, motionless like a mountain; The other side is galloping left and right, speeding like the wind, and the end is shaking people's hearts.

In fact, this is the plain, and even the commander can only barely stand on the chariot or horse and observe the battlefield slightly...... And if someone can condescend and observe the entire battlefield from a bird's-eye perspective, then aside from the more than 10,000 armored cavalry gathered behind Gongsun Xun on standby, these fighting Beidi light cavalry and the infantry formation of the Central Plains Coalition Army happen to form an extremely huge 'Brother Kong Fang' similar to five baht coins!

The square in the middle is naturally a large phalanx composed of the heavy infantry of the eight battalions of the Cao army, and the circle on the periphery is to follow the direction of the shadow of the sundial to surround the light cavalry of the various units of the Xingyan army, they got the order of their own lord, and were asked to test every 'small' phalanx on the periphery of the Cao army, the best way, of course, to run directly around the enemy formation, and then divide part of the troops to gallop and shoot!

In other words, the Yan army system is distinct, the 35,000 cavalry of this attack are fully equipped, but there are slight differences, 3,000 white horses are not mentioned, and the remaining 32,000 cavalry, in terms of establishment, happens to be 12,000 armored cavalry, plus 20,000 so-called light cavalry that can ride and shoot in fact, which are generally worn by officers...... At this time, Tian Yubu did not participate in the war, so the remnants of this light cavalry around the parade were actually less than 20,000 horsemen, but it was only less than 20,000!

And nearly 20,000 cavalry galloping around the Cao army's array, how shocking is it?!

There is no need to pretend to step forward and trample at all, and the basic cavalry intimidation effect is already apparent.

Cao Mengde's face was also pale...... Of course, he was not afraid of these cavalry, but he was afraid that there would be people in the outer camps who would waver, and then directly disperse, and then attract the trampling and expulsion of the more than 10,000 armored cavalry behind Gongsun Xun, and finally rout directly?

Of course, it turned out that Cao Mengde's worries were actually superfluous, and the reason why these soldiers and horses were selected by him was that they represented the most essential part of the Guandu camp in addition to Cao Ren's department...... They are not stragglers, but a well-organized army from top to bottom! Even the troops of Wen Ping and Li Tong were formed armies that had grown up after seven or eight years of war.

And in the military, people's courage can be collectively bonus.

In other words, if the entire army is not destroyed by effective destruction, such an army cannot be crushed by other means.

The cavalry of the Yan army surrounded the Cao army for a week, and after a rain of arrows, they each retreated slightly with the advantage of the cavalry, and then the generals of the various departments gathered under the banner of the white horse again...... By this time, two quarters of an hour had passed.

And after Cao Mengde saw that the Yan army stopped the palpitating galloping ring, he was naturally overjoyed for a while, but he once again summoned the tiger and leopard cavalry to give an order: "Tell the battalion commanders that the Yan army's skills are exhausted!" They didn't dare to really rush into hand-to-hand combat, and it was useless to intimidate them with mounted archery...... Let its battalions be stabilized, and our army will definitely be able to return to the camp in this battle! ”

"How?"

After a while, under the White Horse, Gongsun Xun also began to seriously inquire about the group of cavalry generals he trusted the most, and they may also be a group of cavalry generals with average quality on this planet. "Which battalion of the Southern Army has the most crossbowmen? And which battalion has the most pure crossbowmen? Also, under the cavalry of our army, which battalion of the Southern Army suffered the most damage? And which battalion was the most effective in intimidation? ”

The generals did not dare to slack off, and they all gave it up.

Some of the final answers are obvious, but some are unexpected.

For example, the second battalion of Wen Ping and Li Tong in the east, which has the largest number of crossbowmen and the most abundant counter-attack arrows, is naturally the thickest military formation, and even has the responsibility of serving as the rear battalion, which hides a lot of livestock vehicles and military baggage; And the quality of the army is the worst, that is, in the face of the intimidation of the Yan army knights, it is also these two battalions that cannot help but be frightened; At the same time, in the circle just now, the Yan army killed the most and killed the two battalions with the highest killing efficiency...... That's all to be expected, of course!

As for the crossbowman that Gongsun Xun particularly proposed, it was unexpectedly in the process of being cleaned up, and it was actually the middle three battalions...... That is, the Zhou and Tai army formations in the middle of the west, the Mao rank army formation in the middle of the south, and the Du raid army formation in the middle of the north.

Obviously, this is because of the status and political nature of these three troops, the best crossbow is not easy to build, and it is the fatigue period after half a year of fighting between the two sides, good things naturally have to be distributed to the core troops, Mao Jie, Du Xian These two military formations are Cao Cao's Chinese army, which is basically Cao Cao's Chinese army, and Zhou Tai's three thousand Danyang soldiers are Liu Bei's old foundation, of course, they are also qualified to be treated with Cao Cao's Chinese army.

And Gongsun Xun lowered his head and thought for a moment, but he asked again: "In other words, although Xu Sheng and Chen Wu are almost all wearing armor, you can also cause damage?" ”

"As His Highness said, there will always be killing."

The first person to answer was Zhang Liao, who almost instantly woke up to Gongsun Xun's meaning. "These two battalions are located on the two corners of the enemy's main formation, and they can shoot at both sides together, and the number of bows and crossbows used by the two battalions to counterattack is indeed the smallest, so if you want to concentrate all units on cavalry to kill and wound, you should indeed start with these two battalions...... But with all due respect, these two battalions are extremely powerful, almost all of them are armored, there are a lot of big shields, and the military appearance is also extremely neat. ”

Since Zhang Wenyuan said this, the generals around him also had no opinions, but most of them bowed their heads.

In other words, since Zhang Wenyuan beheaded Xiahou Yuan and Cao Chun, everyone knew that he would inevitably be a marquis after the war, and the army has always respected military merits and dared to fight, and Xiahou Yuan's first-level generals were still dissatisfied, but after the bloody battle that day, his status among the generals gradually rose...... In addition to Cheng Lian's qualifications are too old and can still suppress him by half a head, the rest of the generals can't help but feel a little backward, and today's youngest Tian Yu's defeat in the battle is difficult to say whether it is because Zhang Wenyuan's department is behind him.

"You don't have to worry about anything else, let's shake the second battalion a little first." Unexpectedly, in the face of the almost unanimous opinion of the generals, Gongsun Xun's face was as usual, and he directly issued a military order against the norm. "The light cavalry of the whole army immediately took turns to fight, flanking on both sides, and first emptied the quivers of the light cavalry of each division on the heads of these two battalions!"

The generals did not dare to slack off, and they took orders to leave.

A moment later, the previous shocking arrow battle instantly resumed, but it was the Yan army that concentrated its forces, took turns to replace forward, and threw all the arrows into the so-called Huainan Shangjia military formation of Chen Wu and Xu Sheng, the two battalions.

Unlike the previous Yan Army's light cavalry when it traveled around the entire large array, Chen Xu's second general encountered a concentrated blow like a storm, and the person who raised the shield listened to the crackling on the shield as if he was hiding from the rain. If you are not careful, arrows will fly through the gaps in your shields, and you will engage in a second round of battles with the armor of these soldiers, causing some casualties.

Cao Mengde stood on top of the Chinese army's chariot, and looked at it for a long time, but he was also worried...... He knew that this was the maneuverability advantage of the cavalry with one more horse than the infantry!

In the final analysis, the benefits of mobility on the battlefield are too many, it can allow light cavalry to easily concentrate in a local corner of the battlefield, forming a huge force advantage in the local battlefield; It is also possible to maintain a continuous blow to the infantry in a rotational way; Moreover, the cavalry with a huge mobile advantage can easily retreat and rest after the attack is completed.

Correspondingly, under this kind of rotational attack and projectile, the soldiers and horses of Chen Wu and Xu Sheng's two battalions could only remain still, and then while being passively beaten, they tried their best to seize the gap in the rotation of the cavalry and use their bows and crossbows to counterattack.

However, even this kind of tactical counterattack that seizes the gap is much more disadvantageous than expected...... Because it was not until this time that the second general Chen Wu and Xu Sheng discovered a serious problem, that is, the originally imagined that the bow was slightly softer, and the bow and crossbow of the army should be flat later, but at this time, the cavalry of the Yan army used the horse to shoot, and the speed bonus brought by this kind of war horse in turn gained some advantages, which could make the arrow easily cross the outer shield and fall into the second battalion formation; And the other way around? Although the crossbowmen of the Central Plains Coalition Army under the protection of the big shield were able to counterattack, they were limited by the critical range and the back and forth dodging of the Yan army's light cavalry, and they often suffered insufficient damage.

It must be said here that the end of the Han Dynasty was a meeting point between the bow and the armor spiral game in Chinese history, and it was difficult to appear that the armor defeated the bow and crossbow in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and it was difficult to appear that the bow and crossbow were invincible in most of the Qin and Han dynasties. In other words, a well-made recurve bow will compete with a traditional iron armor in the second half of its range, depending on luck and other factors.

At this time, compared with the counterattack of the Central Plains coalition army, the cavalry of the Yan army seemed to have such a layer of speed bonus of war horses, resulting in small but effective kills.

Of course, the more important point is that the Yan army is bullying more and less, attacking from both sides and taking turns to step forward, and the density of arrows on both sides is not at the same level at all!

In other words, under such a rain of arrows, although it is subject to armor and large shields, and the killing efficiency is low, there is no doubt that for the warring parties, it is the Southern Army that has been passively and continuously attrition!

In such a state, Cao Mengde was of course terrified...... He didn't dare to go to the aid of these two battalions when the cavalry of the Yan army was still so demoralized and the bows and arrows were still sufficient, if he wanted to help them, he would inevitably need only 2,000 cavalry to cover them, but the only remaining 2,000 cavalry of the entire Central Plains Coalition Army was simply the defeated general of the Yan army in the bloody battle that day.

Moreover, he didn't dare to directly order the infantry to move to respond, or let the two generals Xu and Chen retreat under such a posture of the Yan army, because that was an opportunity for the Yan cavalry to charge and fight a decisive battle.

But what is gratifying is that although there were actually hundreds of casualties, Xu Sheng and Chen Wu's second battalion actually gritted their teeth and persevered, and took the initiative to concentrate the wounded in the middle of the military formation, and seized the time and made every effort to let the front and rear soldiers exchange positions, in order to have a chance to breathe...... Such a quality also made Cao Mengde feel relieved and secretly sighed that Liu Xuande governed the army well.

"Go and tell the two generals Chen and Xu respectively that the arrows are precious, and our army's arrows are exhausted, and the enemy's arrows will inevitably be gone!" Seeing that the second wave of Yan army knights advanced again, and the counterattack efficiency of the second battalion dropped sharply, Cao Cao couldn't help but grit his teeth and order the heralds to cheer up. "As long as they hold up two more waves of arrows, our army can calmly retreat south...... When the time comes, I will ask Du Xun and Mao Jie to turn to the front and cover them up! ”

Immediately, a knight galloped towards the second battalion, which was being beaten at the two horns.

"Go and give orders to the rest of the generals." Cao Cao looked at the Yan army's continuous shooting, but gave another order. "Ordered the whole army to carefully check the stock of arrows...... If the enemy's arrows run out and our army goes south, we need to use arrows to guard against the enemy's charge! Be sure to save! Then let the two generals, Wen and Li, prepare their livestock and arrows, and prepare to distribute them to the rest of the formations! ”

The knights of the Cao army scattered again.

On the other side, as the Yan army continued to rotate and shoot continuously, Xu Sheng and Chen Wu's troops had basically begun to hold on...... Even if there were arrows on the ground, the Southern crossbowmen who were in the strike range did not dare to fight back at all, because counterattacking meant removing the shield on their heads, and moving the shield on their heads meant that even if there was an increasing probability of death for the iron armor.

In addition, compared with the physical strength and horsepower maintained by the Yan army under the rotation tactics, the two Chen Xu divisions who were beaten have begun to show a lack of strength...... Raising shields and constantly archery counterattacks, as well as pulling heavy crossbows, are all laborious.

The abandonment of the Southern Army's crossbowmen in turn allowed the Yan Light Cavalry to let go of their courage, and they began to get closer and closer to the enemy formation, throwing arrows at a more oblique angle, making the arrows more and more powerful.

Suddenly, there was a particularly piercing scream, Chen Wu, who had just listened to Cao Cao's herald's words, raised his head suddenly, but he was stunned with the herald on his side, it turned out that it was more than ten steps away, and a shield hand stumbled and fell to the ground in pain, but Chen Wu and the others clearly saw that there was actually an arrow that penetrated the soldier's iron shield, and strung his palm and the big shield handle together! In pain, the soldier turned over with his shield, causing chaos around him, and then a rain of arrows flew in, and he shot a crossbowman who had lost his barrier into a hedgehog along with the shieldspearman.

I don't know if it was God's malice, the crossbowman died on the spot, and the shield spearman was hit by arrows in many places, but he was still angry, and he kept struggling and howling there.

Chen Wu didn't say a word, risked possible dangers and stepped forward directly, ending the pain of his subordinate with a knife, but hurriedly returned to the messenger's side, and said seriously: "Cao Gong's words are right, I don't have any words, but please be sure to report this situation to Cao Gong!" ”

The messenger bowed his head one after another, turned and left the rear, and rode away.

And not long after his people left, the rain of arrows that lasted for nearly half an hour finally came to an end - Chen Wu, who was close to numbness, was half heartbroken and half happy, and the heartache was naturally that his headquarters suffered heavy casualties, and the reduction of four or five hundred people was basically beating the whole army; Fortunately, he saw the front line more clearly than Cao Cao, and the Yan army seemed to be the last batch of light horsemen in rotation!

In other words, the precious arrows of the Yan army's light cavalry have finally run out! These majestic-looking cavalry faced such an elite heavy infantry formation of the Cao army, and the last effective means of killing were finally disappeared with the arrows.

In fact, if he hadn't understood this truth, Chen Wu would have ordered the whole army to raise their shields and charge desperately, and he believed that Xu Sheng on the other side would only rush faster than him...... Because the feeling just now that you can only be beaten passively, and then continue to be injured and injured in the beating, and the rate of casualties is getting faster and faster, is really not something that a normal person can bear.

Cao Cao was also completely relieved, and the entire Central Plains coalition army was relieved.

And almost immediately, Cao Cao gave another order, but he said sadly to the only two remaining cavalry divisions, Sima Xiahou Shang and Che Xuan: "The matter is over, Boren will go to General Chen's formation, and Che Sima will go to General Xu's formation, first escort the wounded soldiers to me, and then immediately join forces, first north and then south, to cover the movement of the army!" ”

This is a matter of course, and the second general will naturally hurry up to do it.

Carrying the wounded in the large array was naturally very fast, but it only took a moment, and then the 2,000 cavalry hurriedly went to the north to line up, preparing to sit and cover the exchange of positions of Chen Wu and Du Xian's second battalion behind them...... But the process took more than a quarter of an hour.

The reason is very simple, although he knows that the other party has run out of arrows, and he also knows that the infantry array behind him will also cover himself, but in the face of the cavalry that is ten times his own, as the remnants of the previous bloody battle in Guandu, these Cao army cavalry are really a little cowering.

It took them a long time to choose a safe distance next to the large array.

Since the beginning of the war, more than an hour has passed, and the sun has moved a lot westward...... After the cavalry of the Cao army held the bow to cover it, Du Xian, who had already been impatient, took the lead in moving, but he pulled out the formation and quickly went to the southwest from behind the cavalry, and then quickly set up.

Immediately, Chen Wu looked at the corpse on the ground, sighed, in the end, the overall situation came first, and immediately ordered to pass through the cavalry and Du raid formation, and move to the east.

They succeeded, and the light cavalry of the Yan army, which lacked the means of attack and was afraid of the opponent's crossbow, only tested it halfway, and immediately retreated after encountering the blow of the bow and crossbow, and then watched them weaken Chen Wu's department, which had been weakened for half an afternoon, moved to the middle of the relatively safe large array, and sat back and watched the morale-filled and well-organized Du raid department come to the northwest corner of the large array and successfully set up a formation.

Not only that, but because Du Xian's troops carried a considerable number of crossbows, the Yan knights had to retreat further. However, the 2,000 cavalry of Cao's army hurriedly passed through the large array and went south.

Next, it is almost conceivable that after the Xu Sheng Department and the Mao Jiebu in the southwest corner successfully exchanged positions, the whole army of the Cao Army would take cover in a calm posture, slowly head south, and return to Guandu.

Xiahou Shang and Che Xuan repeated their old skills, and used the cavalry to hold the bow to stand in the position, and then the Mao Ladder moved first and established successfully...... But at this moment, a shocking change struck!

Suddenly, a light cavalry of the Yan army went straight forward, and before they had time to shoot around the cavalry, they directly shot a round of arrow rain on the head of Xu Sheng's department, who had already put away his shield and was about to move to the formation!

—————I'm still a little bit of a dividing line—————

"Riding on foot, not according to the mountains and rivers, not doing fortifications, not setting up camps, and lining up on the plains, although the formations are detailed, they are actually trapped in death." - "The Art of War"

PS: And ......