"Report to the general, a cavalry army of unknown origin has appeared in the southwest."

Xiahou Yuan, who was commanding the siege, was shocked when he heard this, and asked urgently, "Under whose banner?" How many people? ”

The spy replied: "About four or five thousand horsemen, and who led the troops is unknown." ”

Four or five thousand rides? All the cavalry of Cao's army combined did not have 4,000 people, and those who came must be friends and foes.

"Enemy attack! Defend the Formation! Xiahoudun suddenly hissed and shouted wildly, "In the southwest direction, the pikemen are in front, the sword and shield are in the center, and the archers are in the middle, forming a circle formation, and defending intensively!" ”

"Mingjin retreats! Ordered Li Dian to stop the siege of the city and form a formation alone under the city to prevent Zang Ba's army from going out of the city to attack! ”

Xiahoudun issued a series of tactical orders, and Cao's army ran wildly. I have to say that the quality of this Yanzhou soldier under Xiahoudun is good. Although it is not necessarily stronger than the Nanyang infantry soldiers, it is obviously more than a step higher than Yuan Shu's Yangzhou soldiers and Tao Qian's Xuzhou soldiers.

Although Li Dian did not know why Xiahoudun suddenly ordered to stop the siege, judging from the defensive formation of the Chinese army, Li Dian also realized that there was a strong enemy attacking. But who will this strong enemy be? Will it be the Nanyang Army?

Sure enough, after a short time, the southwest of Lu County was full of dust, accompanied by the sound of heavy horses' hooves, which could not be concealed. The sound of horses' hooves was not in a hurry, indicating that the leader was in no hurry to launch a surprise attack. Three miles away, Zhang Liao reined in his war horse, and the five thousand Bingzhou flying cavalry slowly stopped from the previous trotting state, and consciously lined up into the front, middle and rear armies. A huge banner with the word "Zhang" rises in the wind.

"And the state of flying! Zhang Liao! Nanyang reinforcements came so fast! Xiahoudun was horrified in his heart, gasped, and hurriedly instructed his guards: "Quickly go and inform the lord that Nanyang reinforcements have arrived, please be more careful!" Xiahoudun only informed Cao Cao to be careful of the surprise attack of the Nanyang army, but did not take the initiative to ask for help. Because he trusted Cao Cao's judgment, he obeyed unconditionally whether he rescued or not.

Xiahoudun was observing Zhang Liao's Bingzhou flying cavalry, and Zhang Liao was also observing Xiahoudun's Cao army. Seeing that Xiahou Xuan's army sent dozens of fast horses to Cao's camp, Zhang Liao did not pay attention to it and did not send troops to intercept it. Xiahoudun was just an introduction, and the real target of the Nanyang army was always Cao Cao himself. Killing Cao Cao was the biggest purpose of the Nanyang Army's raid.

There is a flat river near the city of Luxian County, which is most suitable for cavalry to make a large-scale detour. The reason why Zhang Liao stopped was not to greet Xiahoudun and recount his past grievances. On the one hand, he had to observe the defensive camp of Cao's army, determine what tactics to adopt, and from which direction it was most appropriate; On the other hand, it will take some time to line up and put on some special equipment.

"Circular formation? Xiahoudun is a serious person, and when the enemy army is unknown, the circular formation is indeed the most suitable choice. For our army, there is no obvious weak point to choose from. Since you don't have one, let's attack the nearest position! Zhang Liao silently analyzed in his heart and decided on tactics.

"General, Nanyang Heavy Cavalry is ready!" Zhang Liao's personal soldiers came back to report.

"Order the light cavalry to dispatch, draw a circle tactic, and shoot on three wheels!"

"No!"

After hearing Zhang Liao's order, the four subordinate colonels rode away separately and came to their respective military formations. As the horn of the attack sounded, the first thousand-man team of Zhang Liao's army rode out and began to slowly speed up.

"And the state flying horse, attack everything!"

In the majestic shouts, the first thousand-man team of the Bingzhou Flying Cavalry rushed to a place that was still a stone's throw away from Cao's army in an instant.

"Bow ~ Shoot!"

With a loud shout from the colonel, a thousand cavalrymen controlled their horses with their legs, took out the short bow behind their backs with their free hands, and then drew arrows from their waists, shooting three rounds in a row.

Xiahoudun stood under the protection of the big shield of the Chinese army, and seeing the uniform riding and shooting movements of the Bingzhou flying horse, Xiahoudun suddenly had a twitching movement in his heart. In this branch of the state, Xiahoudun vaguely saw the once familiar appearance. It was in front of the Tiger Prison Pass, the Xiliang Iron Cavalry, which was known as the strongest soldier in the world, and the person who commanded the troops was Xu Rong, the lieutenant general of the army. And now that Xu Rong was recalled by He Xian in the name of the emperor to teach at Nanyang Shuijing Academy, Zhang Liao must have learned the essence of cavalry tactics from Xu Rong.

"Shield! Stay protected! Among Cao's army, the colonels shouted one after another, commanding the soldiers under their command to resist the arrows that covered the sky and the sun. Cao Jun's preparations were quite sufficient, but he still couldn't block all the arrows, and there were soldiers who kept screaming loudly on the ground. No one dared to come to the aid of the arrows, and even if they dodged the rain of arrows, it would be difficult for these wounded soldiers to survive until the end of the battle. On the contrary, those soldiers who were directly shot in key parts such as the face or heart died cleanly and did not have to endure the painful torment.

The best option to deal with dense arrow coverage is actually to disperse in formation, widening the gap between each soldier, and the power of the arrows will be greatly reduced. But Xiahoudun didn't dare, he would rather resist the casualties caused by the rain of arrows than dare to change the dense formation. Because a rain of arrows kills a hundred is a hundred, and a thousand kills are a thousand, unlike being directly impacted by cavalry. The evacuation formation could not withstand the impact of the cavalry, and after the formation collapsed, the foot soldiers were really only left to be slaughtered in front of the cavalry.

The pikemen and sword and shield hands of the Cao army at the forefront looked nervously at the closer and closer Bingzhou flying horses, arrows flew and they could still use wooden shields to resist, and the men and horses were coming, what should they use to resist? In addition to the spear in his hand, he has only his own flesh and blood. To say that there is no fear is to be deceitful. Under the impact of the momentum of thousands of galloping horses, a person's strength is extremely small, and only by relying closely together can it be possible to survive. The Cao soldiers in the front row leaned tightly together, taking a deep breath, waiting for the verdict of fate.

"Turn!"

Seeing that Cao Jun's formation had not changed due to the baptism of arrow rain, the junior colonel of Bingzhou led by him immediately issued the next order! The Bingzhou army, which was still murderous a moment ago, put away its bow and replaced it with an iron spear, and was ready to fight to the death, suddenly turned around. They did not opt for a direct assault. The thousand horsemen and horses naturally divided into two teams in front of the Cao army's formation, just like two torrents separating to the left and right, drawing two large arcs, and then returning to the main formation of the Bingzhou army. At the same time, the second thousand-man team of the Bingzhou Flying Cavalry had broken away from the brigade under the leadership of the colonel and slowly started to speed.

"Archer, counterattack!" Xiahoudun shouted loudly in the Chinese army. The order was handed down layer by layer and passed to the archers of the Cao army, who hurriedly drilled out from under the wooden shield, drew their bows and arrows, and fired at the retreating Bingzhou flying horses, but the effect was not very ideal.