The sharp blade swept across the necks of Li Shengjun's soldiers, and taking advantage of the momentum of the war horse, Cao Chun led his cavalry to quickly break into Li Shengjun's rear road, and cut off their heads with the blades in his hands. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info They didn't spend much effort, but they just arbitrarily put a horizontal knife on the waist side to use the high speed of the war horse to add a sharp impact to themselves, so as to get everything done. Of course, this is a very easy thing, and at most it is just a few actions to adjust the angle of the knife in your hand.

The tiger and leopard rode into the rear army of Li Shengjun. Under Cao Chun's command, they smashed everything they encountered with a dense onslaught. In the face of such a huge and irresistible force, Li Shengjun was in disarray, and in the absence of a unified general, many soldiers acted on their own instincts. However, this instinct to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages did not make his situation better, but further disrupted his formation, making the already somewhat weak resistance even more powerless.

Soon, the panic of Li Shengjun's rear army affected the front. Although they were fighting on a narrow forest road, and the distance between the rear army and the front army was still a long way apart, the chaos of the rear army spread like a plague. The people in the front army did not know what was happening in the rear army, but they knew very well that their rear army was in a situation that was difficult to support. They understand that their situation is not good.

"What's going on? Behind us? …… Could it be that there is an ambush? At this time, the stable military spirit was shaken, and these few questions that suddenly appeared in the hearts of the soldiers darkened the earth like a cloudy cloud covering the sky.

The vacillation of mood soon turned into weakness in the moves in his hands, and the reduction in combat power brought about by this weakness was quickly grasped by Cao Ren's Cao Ren of Cao Cao's army. As a veteran soldier, Cao Ren quickly judged from Li Shengjun's subtle actions that Cao Chun's outflanking had been successful, and Li Shengjun was in a chaotic situation.

"Attack! Cooperate with our brothers to scatter our enemies! Cao Ren shouted at the right time. In such a long and narrow space, although his cry could not make everyone really hear everything, it also made most of the people around him get the news.

“…… There are enemies behind you! When Li Shengjun's soldiers heard the news, they became more and more flustered. On the contrary, it was naturally the morale of the soldiers on Cao Cao's side that was greatly boosted: "Our reinforcements are coming." Although they didn't know who led the reinforcements, how many of them were, and whether they were "real" reinforcements, they still thought so. They know that this is the most wonderful situation.

The decline of morale naturally led to a change in the comparison of combat power, and the identities of the offensive and defensive sides on the battlefield changed. The front army of Li Shengjun, which was generally intact, chose to defend very cautiously when they did not know what had happened to the rear army: they shrunk their own troops, formed small square circles into units, and then used such square circles as a benchmark to form larger square circles. It was a formation that was purely defensive and had little mobility - and this was so because they had not received orders from the rear to retreat. Li Shengjun's middle-level generals have a certain degree of autonomy in battle formation tactics, but in terms of advancing and retreating tactically, they can only carry out according to orders, and this is a very strict set of orders.

Li Shengjun's familiarity with arrays was limited to some practical and simple arrays, and he completely ignored those complex and cumbersome arrays, such as the Eight Gate Array and the Nine Palace Array. Of course, this is not to say that Li Shengjun's people have not practiced these things, but because these things are complex and powerful, they are not often used on ordinary battlefields and cannot be quickly arrayed, so they were gently thrown aside. Li Sheng believes that a well-used formation can improve the combat power of his army, but he believes that this formation needs to be fast, and only by quickly arranging the formation can the formation exert the power that he should have. Naturally, this requirement was placed in the training of all Li Shengjun's soldiers. When Cao Chun led his men to the front army very smoothly, the large array of Li Sheng's front army had also been arranged and was ready for battle: countless spears were divided into three rows and set up in a circle; Countless shields stood in front of the gun array in layers, protecting the entire formation tightly; As for the archers, who are the most important attack power, they are placed inside the pikemen and the big shieldmen, and in the darkness they all use their bows and arrows in the direction of the enemy's voice. Everything is so rigorous and dense, if you don't see it with your own eyes, I'm afraid everyone will wonder if Li Shengjun's formation has been lined up a long time ago and is waiting for his side to attack.

"Is it difficult to fight with a well-organized formation?" Cao Chun muttered, a flash of surprise flashed in his eyes, it was that he was surprised by the speed of Li Shengjun's entire team. As for this Fang Yuan Array, which had the strongest defensive power, although he saw it in his eyes, he didn't pay attention to it. After all, his task at the moment was not to defeat all the enemies in front of him, but to disperse their pursuit as much as possible, so that his army could retreat smoothly to the raft. In other words, he wanted to eliminate Li Shengjun's interference in his retreat, and how to eliminate it was his own business. As long as the goal can be achieved, whether to fight or not to fight is a matter of two things: if only he Cao Chun exists at the moment, he will definitely go to attack desperately, but now he must take care of the safety of Cao Ren and his men. Facing the opponent's formation, for the safety of his own comrades, Cao Chun naturally chose to go around the formation. Obviously, he knew that the extremely low mobility of this formation would not affect the retreat of his side.

As a result, there was such a strange situation on the battlefield, the two sides that were originally facing each other suddenly stopped fighting. The defending side formed a square circle and shrank aside, gathering together its own forces that were obviously inferior to the opponent, while the attacking side, although in a strong state, did not pay attention to the presence of the defending side, but just turned a blind eye and left the defending side three feet apart. Despite the tension, there was no friction between the two, and there was a strange peace between the two sides.

Such a peace is undoubtedly an anomaly, and the anomaly will not last long. Generally speaking, as soon as something goes wrong, the two sides will definitely start fighting again, and it will be even more fierce than before. For this point, whether it is Cao Ren, Cao Chun's side or Li Shengjun's side at the moment, they are unwilling to see it. Although neither side is afraid of sacrifice, both sides are willing to make senseless sacrifices. Among them, Li Shengjun, who did not receive further orders, was even more so.

Although both sides wanted to further maintain the peace, the change in circumstances made it difficult to achieve: shortly after Cao Chun and his troops passed through the front army of Li Sheng's army, a large number of torches like stars were lit from the west side of the forest. Under the faint and heavy firelight, countless figures flashed in it. They quickly approached here, flashing their names, but it was a dark red flag, and the flag had a big Guan character written on it, but it was Guan Ping who arrived with his team.

Originally, Guan Ping did not arrive so quickly, but because he was worried about the injury of his brother Liu Feng, after receiving a summons sent by Pang Tong on the way, he actually forced his way through the woods, directly through the forest, and finally arrived at the battlefield nearly a quarter of an hour earlier than the scheduled time. This was the time when Li Shengjun's front army had no choice but to allow Cao's brigade to pass in front of them after being attacked by the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry. Originally, Li Shengjun chose to hold on because of the lack of his own combat strength, but the arrival of Guan Ping's team at this moment undoubtedly greatly alleviated this shortcoming.

Originally, it was because the combat power of the two sides was barely in a state of equilibrium that there would be that strange peace, but now with the addition of Guan Ping, a thousand Li Shengjun soldiers, the delicate balance was suddenly broken. As countless javelins were projected from the gaps in the woods, they shrouded Cao Jun like a big net, and the square circle array that was cowering on one side suddenly moved. The bowstring, which had already been tightened, was relaxed, and there was a burst of "boom...... Boom! The sound of the blow sounded, but the arrow feathers like locusts flew quickly in the dim firelight and shot towards Cao Jun in arcs.

The enemy appeared so suddenly, and so quickly, that the soldiers of Cao's army did not even have time to react, and they suffered this overwhelming blow. The narrow length of the forest road greatly expands the scope of this blow. Under the constraints of this kind of terrain, which is extremely thick from the back to the front, but extremely thin from the left to the right, Cao Jun's formation is naturally like a thick water snake. Countless javelins stabbed the serpent's body, causing them to wail in pain. They never knew that this hand-thrown weapon could be so powerful. Not to mention those infantry who only have uniforms and no leather armor, even these tigers and leopards who are equipped with iron armor in important parts can't stand it under such javelin projection. Countless tiger and leopard knights were pierced through their bodies by javelins falling from the sky under such a blow, and fell miserably to the ground. They writhed in pain on the mud floor, and before they could let out a few screams, they were trampled into mud by the iron hooves of their comrades. This may have been the end they never imagined - so most people had a look of horror on their faces.

"It was so unexpected." Cao Chun looked at this expression and muttered this, and the surprise in his heart was not much less than that of those soldiers.

In the art of war, there is a saying that the army that crosses the river and fights is applicable, and there seems to be little comparison with the current Cao Ren. But the principle is the same between the two. In fact, for a team walking in the mountains and forests, the terrible attack does not come from the attack in front of and behind them, but from their own side. When Li Shengjun's Guan Ping team crossed the woods and appeared directly on the flank of Cao's army and launched an attack on Cao's army, the balance of victory was clearly tilted to Li Sheng's side, and the battle situation had been completely grasped by Li Shengjun's army.

"It's irreparable, the general goes first! Let me be the general in the back! The crisis obviously appeared in front of him, and Cao Chun quickly judged what was the most important thing for him, and he quickly suggested to Cao Ren. Although it is a suggestion, the meaning of the words is very obvious. Although in terms of grade, his grade is about the same as Cao Ren's, but now Cao Ren is the chief general of the whole army, and he has to keep Cao Ren as his first consideration.

Cao Chun will say this, and Cao Ren will also know. He wanted to stick to it and cut it off by himself, but after seeing the burning anger in Cao Chun's eyes, he already understood that Cao Chun had seen everything thoroughly, and he had already made up his mind to break off. "It's a life-or-death thing." Cao Ren thought so, but there was nothing he could do. The current battle is going on, and every hesitation will undoubtedly kill more of its own soldiers. Cao Ren didn't insist on it at the moment, but quickly turned his head and left, and said, "You have to survive." ”

Although the words were light, they were so clear in Cao Chun's ears. It's just that in the face of the current erosive battle situation, such words can only move him for a while. Looking at the steady stream of enemies coming out from the right side of the woods, even though he was always strong, he was not very sure whether he would be able to escape from such an attack and survive. Because he knew he had to fight with the same determination to die as before.

"Want to live? The first thing you have to do is not fear death. Cao Chun has always thought so.

However, "the situation in front of us is much worse than before." This is also what gives Cao Chun a headache. Originally, when he was on the mission, Cao Chun had 5,000 elites intact in his hands, but after suffering continuous losses, now the tiger and leopard cavalry in his hands is only more than 3,000 people: he has lost hundreds of people in the battle since crossing the river to Xiangyang, and he has lost more than 100 people in the battle just after Li Sheng's army...... None of this is the most critical thing, of course. The most important thing is that in the wave of throwing spear attacks he encountered just now, his tiger and leopard rider was wiped out more than a thousand in one go. This was a disaster for him, a tiger and leopard rider with only 5,000 men. And now, he has to bear the consequences of this disaster, and further block the steady stream of enemies. It was a dangerous work, knowing that the enemy had more than 10,000 men, and he had only 3,000 men; The enemy is an infantry suitable for fighting on this terrain, and he is a cavalry not suitable for fighting on this side. Everything except combat experience is in favor of the enemy and not against oneself.

"It's a real headache." Cao Chun patted his forehead, but he took off the riding bow from behind his war horse, he felt that in this kind of blocking environment, the bow was more practical than the knife.

With an arrow, the bow was stretched, and the ape's arm was lightly relaxed, only to hear a crackling sound The long arrow flew out of the string, whistling dozens of steps away, piercing the neck of a Li Shengjun soldier. Maybe this was intentional on his part, or maybe it was just the poor soldier's bad luck, anyway, the soldier didn't believe that he was the unlucky ghost until he died. His eyes widened, and he endured the hot sensation coming from his neck, and tried to cry out loudly, but he could not do it—the deadly white feather pierced his neck and punctured his trachea, so that he could not make a sound at all, and could only sit and wait for death to come. Although he was only a quarter of an hour away from death, these quarters of an hour were an unbearable thing for him. He must have found these quarters of an hour as unbearable as hundreds or thousands of years.

But these are the feelings of the poor soldier, as for Cao Chun, he would not have such thoughts at all. He was a general of Cao's army, and his primary task was to destroy his enemies. Of course, the enemy here is not the enemy of him Cao Chun alone, but the enemy of the entire Cao army's forces, whether it is Li Shengjun's people, Liu Beijun's people, even Sun Quanjun's people, as long as they are the enemies that Cao Cao thinks, then they are his Cao Chun's enemies. For his enemies, Cao Chun instinctively thought that they were damned. If they deserve to die, then they don't care how they will die and what kind of pain they will encounter when they die. It can be said that he has a hard heart, or it can be said that he simply does not have time to care about this. After all, on such a battlefield, it is a very luxurious thing to even care about the life and death pain of your own soldiers, let alone care about the life and death pain of others. Cao Chun is a general, not a saint, so naturally he won't do these things that he doesn't have.

Seeing that he had shot an enemy, and that such a shot seemed to be able to deter the enemies around the enemy soldier to a certain extent, Cao Chun's face couldn't help but reveal a smile: "This is the best." He thought of it, but the movements of his hands did not slow down in the slightest. I saw that the white feathered arrows shot out of his hand one after another, but in a short period of time, they hit several soldiers of Li Shengjun's army, leading them into pain and despair one by one. Like the first unlucky bastard, these people who were hit by Cao Chun were also pierced through the neck by arrow feathers, struggling to fall to the ground for a while but not dying, and could only let out a dry howl. The howl wasn't very loud, but it was terrifying at the moment. After seeing how miserable his comrades were so miserable, Li Shengjun, who was afraid for a while, involuntarily slowed down. They were all terrified by this, and the whole offensive was suddenly shaken. Although they reacted very quickly later and rushed over at this shout, everything was already different for Cao Chun. It was the previous delay that gave Cao Chun's subordinates a chance to breathe, and they all had enough time to pick up their bows and arrows to harvest the lives of the enemy.

Although on the whole, such a harvest is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket for the enemy's army, in this narrow battlefield, such a harvest is a very shocking thing. Seeing his comrades-in-arms fall under each other's arrows one after another, and he didn't seem to be able to do much harm to them, the feeling of powerlessness that surged in this was really uncomfortable.

"But...... I'm still going to rush forward. Li Shengjun's soldiers were stunned, but they still thought so. Why? Because there was no order to retreat, military discipline always came first in Li Sheng's army. There is no order to retreat, and you must move forward desperately, even if there is a dead place ahead. All Li Shengjun's soldiers understood this, and naturally did not have any objections to this.

It's just that moving forward is certain, but how to move forward is the existence of rules. The forest road is so long and narrow, and the section that allows for rapid passage on the front is not large, and Cao Chun's side only needs to use a part of the men and horses to block this place to the death. Although the range of the bows and arrows used by the cavalry is definitely not as long as that used by the infantry in general, in the current environment, people's vision is limited by dimness, which makes the gap between the two not so big, which is also one of the advantages that Cao Chun can rely on. His subordinates are all very elite cavalry, and his skills in riding and archery are also very strong. From the point of view of Li Shengjun's low-level officers, Cao Jun's cavalry and archery skills seem to be similar to the cavalry led by General Zhao Yun that was trained by General Huang Zhong, and they are all very strong. At least in terms of continuous firing: countless arrows were constantly shot out of their hands, flying in the air one after another, but they were intertwined into a dense network of arrows. "If you rush forward, you will definitely be captured by this arrow net." Thinking about the appearance of being shot into a hedgehog by an arrow feather, everyone shook their heads in unison: "The front is definitely a dead place." ”

Since the front is not good, it is natural to detour to both sides. This may be more suitable for the current situation. On both the left and the right there were woods that could be used to allow people to pass, and the dense growth of these woods might have been a nuisance for the cavalry, but for these infantry of Li Shengjun's army, it seemed to be just right. At that moment, Guan Ping made a plan, using some men and horses to attract Cao Chun's attention in the front, and the other part of the men and horses to carry out the plan of outflanking, so as to quickly break the troops into the formation of the tiger and leopard cavalry, and fight a real hand-to-hand combat with those elite tiger and leopard horses.

"In that case, I think we'll win." Guan Ping thought so. This is a certain thing, the main power of the cavalry lies in their impact, and once this impact is not surrounded by the infantry, and the infantry is engaged in melee hand-to-hand combat, then the cavalry will not have an advantage in any way. This is true even for the tiger and leopard ride. In Guan Ping's view, once such a situation occurs, no matter how the combat power of the tiger and leopard rider is overestimated, and the combat power of the tiger and leopard rider is compared with one to two, the tiger and leopard rider will not be his opponent. After all, these people on his side are also very elite soldiers.

The order was given quickly, and the team was quick to move. In order to confuse Cao Chun over there, Guan Ping played a trick on this matter, they did not directly transfer the front to directly contact Cao Chun, the army under Cao Chun's nose, but used the people in his rear, as for the front, he transferred a large number of archers. "Just one direction, you just give me a deadly shot." Guan Ping's orders are straightforward and practical.

Once again, the tightness of the bowstring rang out over the trees. In order to be able to suppress Cao Chun's archers, Guan Ping sent two thousand archers to step forward. For a while, arrows came and went, and countless people fell, but there were still people who persisted. Because Li Shengjun's reaction was so fierce, Cao Chun further increased his attention to the front. He seems to be focusing all his energy on this side, neglecting his left and right sides.

However, does he Cao Chun really not know that his left and right wings are his weakness? How is this possible? Outflanking such a thing, he Cao Chun had just done it, and tasted the sweetness from it, how could he forget it so easily at this moment. With such a long and narrow terrain, it was enough for him to put more than a thousand people in front of him, and as for the rest, he was ready to deal with the enemy's 100% possible outflanking operation.

"When the enemy comes from both sides, then it will be time for us to retreat from the front." Cao Chun said. In such a critical situation, his mind has never been clearer, and he has his own plan for the entire battle situation.

When he got a report from both flanks that there was enemy movement on the left and right, Cao Chun laughed coldly: "Let the front army shrink its formation a little." We need to go. Cao Chun ordered lightly. At the same time, the person who reported was informed, "Everything is going according to plan." ”

Plan? What is the plan? Cao Chun naturally wouldn't tell Li Sheng's people that he knew, but Guan Ping didn't guess the existence of this plan. Therefore, it was normal for Li Shengjun's people, who were on Guan Ping's orders to carry out the outflanking mission, to step into the "trap" set by Cao Chun in advance: when they approached Cao Jun in great strides, thinking that everything was being served and hidden, countless rockets fell from the sky and ignited the thick leaves on the ground.

This is not the season for fire attack in the forest, the water vapor in the weather is still thick, the humidity in the forest is very heavy, and it is difficult for ordinary sparks to ignite the forest. However, the rockets brought by the tiger and leopard riders make up for all this very well. The incendiary material made of viscous black oil is unique to Cao Jun, and it is also one of Cao Cao's secret weapons. And the tiger and leopard cavalry, as the most elite troops in Cao Cao's hands, are naturally equipped with such weapons - there is a bag of such things in the three bags of quivers behind them, and it comes in handy at this moment. The rocket made of cotton soaked in black oil has the characteristics of being as difficult to extinguish as black oil, but it is now shot by Cao Chun's men and horses, but dozens of fires have been lit in the huge woods, burning the raging fire, evaporating the water vapor in the air and the moisture on the ground, and suddenly climbing the trees, causing a fire in the woods.

"Damn it!" Guan Ping hammered his chest hard. The enemy actually saw through his own plan? This is something Guan Ping did not expect. He first examined whether he was too light on the enemy, so much so that he gave his army to the enemy for nothing. "I don't know how many of the people I sent will survive under such a fire." Guan Ping regretted it slightly, and then became curious again: "But in such a humid environment, how can the fire burn so quickly?" Could it be that Cao Cao's army has any special equipment? "It's a very noteworthy thing.

The enemy discovered his intentions and used fire to stop his attack, which undoubtedly completely bankrupted the flank outflanking plan on Guan Ping's side. There was no way, Guan Ping could only choose to continue along the path in the forest. Although that would definitely be blocked by the enemy, it was the only way to pursue, and Guan Ping believed that under the scorching heat of the fires on both sides, Cao Chun's troops would definitely not stay long, and they would also retreat, and he only had to follow Cao Chun's actions.

The situation did turn out as Guan Ping had speculated: after Cao's army set fire to his left and right flanks, they began to retreat. Although they were very careful to alternate retreats with each other, without giving Li Shengjun the slightest chance to approach, they were indeed retreating, weren't they? As they retreated, Li Shengjun's troops naturally advanced step by step under Guan Ping's command. As for whether he can outflank the enemy and eat the enemy, Guan Ping is not very sure. What he executed at the moment was the most helpless step in Pang Tong's entire plan, pressing the enemy step by step, suppressing them on the river beach, and then using the warships of the navy to deal with them.

"It should have been delayed a little longer, but for now, we can only hope for the water army. I really hope that the brethren of the navy will come soon. Guan Ping thought, and immediately looked to the north as he raised his eyes hard. Of course, he couldn't see anything right now, but he still wished he could.

The dark night is the best cover, and when you can't see your fingers when you can't reach out, the retreat of Cao Cao's army is proceeding in a panic and quickly. Even though the people here couldn't see much and their vision was blurred by the darkness, they did it according to their original instincts. Of course, there will inevitably be collisions, falls, mistakes, falling into the water and other things, but because there is Li Shengjun's army in the rear in pursuit, the retreating Cao army is not in the mood to quarrel at all, and after these accidents, they often stand up without saying a word, take what they should take and leave by mistake. There is more than one end of the spectrum, so although the whole retreat scene seems a little chaotic, the progress is not slowed down.

By the time Cao Chun arrived with his cavalry, Cao Ren had already done most of the work.

"Hurry up. It's waiting for you. Cao Ren was waiting for Cao Chun on the shore. He could have crossed the river as soon as possible, but because he was worried about Cao Chun's safety, he had been waiting here.

"Okay......" Cao Chun nodded silently, but he breathed a long sigh of relief, the battle that had been going on all night had made his mood tense, and now that he was finally safe, he naturally had a chance to relax. For Cao Ren's care, he was moved in his heart, but he didn't say anything. He got off his horse and was about to get on the raft, but suddenly he thought of something and asked, "We are gone, what about these war horses?" We can't take them with us. ”

"Kill them?" Cao Ren inquired about the suggestion.

"I'm afraid I don't have that time." Cao Chun listened attentively for a while, but said with a wry smile.

"So......" Cao Ren asked again.

"I'll have to let them be here. Alas, the enemy is pressing too hard, and if you hadn't moved quickly, I'm afraid we would have been driven down the river by them. Cao Chun said helplessly. Just now, he heard the sound of stamping in his ears: "These guys are really fast. Cao Chun said this, but quickly got on the raft, and Cao Ren was on the same plane as him.

In the sound of the murmuring water, the raft started to move, slowly speeding up, and it was not fast for more than 5,000 rafts to start at the same time, but it finally left the shore. At present, the enemy has not yet pursued, but he has already left, this fact makes Cao Jun's people completely relieved, and they all breathe a sigh of relief: "It should be safe, right?" ”

Safe? Not necessarily! Just when Cao Jun's people were relieved that they should be safe, a surprised thing was discovered by them: "Look...... What is that? ”

I saw that a few lanterns hung high on the eastern water surface in the misty darkness, and they were slowly floating towards me. Of course, the lanterns themselves can't float, and the reason why they are in such a situation is undoubtedly that there is something with them. What could that be? Cao Jun's people suddenly thought of something, and their hearts sank suddenly-the only one who could drive the lantern was the warship. And in the current environment, of course, the warships that appear here will not be those of other forces: "They can only be Li Shengjun's warships." ”

"Trap, this whole thing is a trap." Cao Ren suddenly realized, but it seemed that it was already too late. The appearance of Li Shengjun's naval army here undoubtedly cut off their way to Fancheng. Where else can they go in such a situation? Maybe there is still a chance to return to Xiangyang. Cao Ren had to give the order to turn around, but he knew that even if he returned to Xiangyang, he was afraid that it would be the result of nine deaths: "It's just that staying here is ten deaths." "Raft vs. warship, everyone knows it's self-defeating.

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