The scouts of the Central Army did not expect the enemy to also learn this trick, ignoring the ground under their feet, only to report that they did not find the enemy's situation.

Zhang Liao did not panic, but ordered the whole army to spread out a formation and launch an attack.

He knew that the Xuzhou Army was the last line of defense in front of him, as long as he broke through the past, it would be a tiger entering the mountains and forests, a dragon returning to the sea, and the vast world could be obtained.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei had never fought against the Central Army, so they overestimated their army too much.

They can learn the methods of ambush of the Central Army, but they cannot learn the combat effectiveness of the Central Army.

They spread out their 25,000 infantry and lined up in a phalanx of five or 5,000 men, each with a thousand hoplites, two thousand pikemen, and two thousand crossbowmen.

Seeing their formation, Zhang Liao did not hesitate to concentrate the three brigades of the Second Division to attack the left phalanx of the Xuzhou Army together, and the three cavalry brigades were responsible for attacking the two infantry phalanxes on the far right.

The Xuzhou army is generally equipped with chain mail, which has a good protection effect against long-range attacks, but they do not have crossbows, and their counterattack ability is much worse, and the throwing guns of the cavalry brigade are still a great threat to them.

The three infantry brigades of the 2nd Division simultaneously began to besiege the 5,000 men on the far left side of the Xuzhou Army, who had only 1,000 hoplites, while the three brigades of the Central Army had 4,000 heavy infantry troops.

Moreover, each infantry brigade of the Central Army was already equipped with a Modao battalion, which was used to deal with the big shield of the Kwantung Coalition Army.

Hiding behind the shields of their hoplites, the Mosaber will step up when the Central Army begins to use rolling offensive tactics.

Sharp and heavy enough, the Mo's knife can split through the enemy's large shield, and sometimes the hoplites behind the large shield by the way.

A well-trained crossbowman will shoot at the enemy behind the shield at the first moment when the enemy's shield breaks, and the close-range shot is not something that chain mail can easily resist.

Guan Yu hurriedly ordered the second phalanx on the left and the central phalanx to support the first phalanx on the left, while the two phalanxes on the right were dragged by the cavalry of the Central Army.

The battle is progressing very quickly, and the huge gap in combat effectiveness cannot be made up by equipment, not to mention that the equipment is only barely tied.

When the second Xuzhou military formation on the left finally approached the past, the Xuzhou army of the first phalanx had completely collapsed, and they were either killed in battle or fled.

The three brigades of the Second Division surrounded the second phalanx that was coming over and frightened Guan Yu to personally lead the central phalanx to desperately approach the second phalanx.

At this time, the sound of trumpets came from the northwest direction, and Li Yan's 20,000 Jingzhou Army infantry also rushed to the battlefield.

Seeing this, Zhang Liao hurriedly ordered that the second division's maximum fire attack, crossbows and throwing guns were no longer used sparingly.

At the same time, he ordered all the troops of the 7th Cavalry Division to move closer to him and defeat the two phalanxes of the Xuzhou Army on the left together.

Now that a gap has been opened, there is no more love to fight.

When Guan Yu saw the heavy losses of his side, he remembered the confession of Liu Bei and Chen Gong when he was about to leave, and never forget that Cao Cao was the number one mortal enemy of the Xuzhou army.

In the battle with the Central Army, it is necessary to mainly preserve strength, and it is okay to fall into the well, and it is okay to lose both.

Guan Yu ordered the whole army to shrink the defense and get out of the way, in fact, the only thing he could shrink back was the three phalanxes in the middle and on the right, and the two on the left, one was disabled, and the other was surrounded to death, and it was almost crippled.

However, Zhang Liao also noticed the changes in the Xuzhou Army, and quickly judged Guan Yu's intentions, if someone wants to preserve his strength, how can he not be an adult?

He also ordered the Second Division to stop the siege, get out of the battle, and break through to the north, before the Jingzhou army blocked the gap.

Just as the second division broke away from the battle and began to assemble the whole team, rumbling thunder sounded in the east, and the experienced Zhang Liao immediately heard that it was the sound of horses' hooves, and it was heavy armored cavalry, and the Yanzhou army had arrived!

The next moment, a large area of black cavalry appeared in the eastern field of vision, Cao Cao's army clothes were all black, and these cavalry were also black armor from men to horses.

Zhang Liao's eyes were very good, and he was surprised to find that Cao Jun's heavy armored cavalry was actually holding the reins in his left hand, holding a halberd in his right hand, and his feet were in the stirrups.

Cao Jun was actually equipped with stirrups, no wonder he dared to build heavy armored cavalry.

It turned out that Cao Cao discovered the secret of the use of stirrups by the cavalry of the Bingzhou Army very early, but he didn't pay much attention to it at first, and there was no large-scale cavalry in Yanzhou, so there was no money!

It was not until later that he monopolized most of Yanzhou and Yuzhou, and when he had enough resources, that he began to equip a large number of cavalry and stirrups, and soon felt the benefits of stirrups.

The arrival of Guo Jia prompted Cao Cao to make up his mind to equip the heavily armored cavalry, and Liu Ye also successfully imitated the unique repeater crossbow of the Central Army at this time.

Cao Cao felt that this was simply the heavens helping him, he spared no effort to build these new equipment, and when the finances were insufficient, he even sent his own men to dig ancient tombs and make a fortune from the dead.

It was not easy to build 20,000 cavalry, including 5,000 heavily armored cavalry, which was named the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry.

He regarded the tiger and leopard riders as a treasure, and his son Cao Zhang personally served as the commander of the tiger and leopard horses.

However, he didn't know that the other magic weapon of the cavalry of the Central Army was the horseshoe, so his cavalry did not play horseshoe.

This also led to the fact that his cavalry did not have as strong a weight-bearing capacity as the cavalry of the Central Army, and the ability to run long distances was obviously insufficient.

The weight was not good, so that his heavy cavalry was discounted, the horse armor was very thin, and the heavy armor of the knights was not as thick as the armor of the hoplites.

They were not as rich as Lu Bu's Broken Army Wolf Rider, and they could neither be equipped nor build a horse lance, but only used an extended version of the halberd.

Seeing the Yanzhou army rolling in, Guan Hai offered to take a cavalry brigade to entangle the heavy cavalry of the Cao army and cover the breakthrough of the large army.

Zhang Liao was still hesitating, Guan Hai had already taken the 21st Brigade to meet him, and when he set off, he turned back to Zhang Liao and shouted: "General Wenyuan, go back and tell the lord that I Guan Hai has entrusted my son to him, and he has to be his own son!" To my dad and big brother... Forget it, needless to say! ”

The 5,000 officers and men of the 21st Brigade did not complain at all, did not hesitate at all, and did not retreat from the battle, and they all resolutely followed Guan Hai to meet Cao's army.

As soon as Zhang Liao stomped his foot, Guan Hai had already taken the initiative to intercept the heavily armored cavalry of the Cao army, what time did he waste?

"Break through to the north, we will definitely take revenge!"

Guan Yu was also shocked when he saw Cao Jun's heavy armored cavalry coming, but fortunately, this time he encircled and suppressed Zhang Liao, so that Cao Cao Lao'er showed his secret weapon in advance.

Otherwise, it will be used against them in Xuzhou, but it is enough for his brother to drink a pot!

However, since Cao Jun has sent out the heavy armored cavalry, he can't shrink anymore, so he still has to mean it!

He re-ordered his subordinates to go out to intercept the Central Army, Zhang Liao led the army to break through to the north while fighting, and Li Yan's Jingzhou Army also came over and advanced east and west with the Xuzhou Army to intercept the Central Army that broke through.

(End of chapter)