However, it was said that as soon as Gongsun Yue saw the Xiangyang cannon, he knew that Yi Jingcheng was difficult to preserve, and while struggling to resist, he sent people to the Gongsun Zhan camp to ask for help. Yijing City is only more than 150 miles away from Gongsun Zhan's camp, which is only a little more than an hour's journey for fast horses.

Gongsun Chan was shocked and angry when he learned the news, and said loudly: "Ma Chao's thief is so untrustworthy, and he has promised three days, but he has gone back on his word to assist Liu Yu in attacking my Yijing, which is very hateful!" After a pause, he gritted his teeth and shouted, "Someone! Quickly push Ma Tie out and cut it, and send his head outside Gaoyang City, so that everyone in the world knows that my Gongsun Zan is not easy to mess with! ”

"My lord, no!" As soon as the words fell, Zou Dan came out and persuaded: "Please think twice!" If the lord kills Ma Tie, in case Yi Jing is broken, there will be no room for us and Ma Chao to turn back, and even the last life saver will be lost. On the contrary, if Ma Tie is left behind, no matter how the situation deteriorates, we can save our lives without worry! ”

After Gongsun Chan calmed down, he also figured out this truth, and said angrily: "Having said that, Ma Chao is extremely deceitful, and he actually secretly crossed Chen Cang with the general Ming Xiu Plank Road, which is really hateful!" Send the order to go down and immediately gather all the cavalry to return to Yijing! ”

Zou Dan frowned and said: "Ma Chao has already supported Liu Yu, he must have already designed an ambush, if I wait for the reinforcements at this moment, most of them will be ambushed, and Yi Jingcheng will not be able to save it at that time, if Ma Chao takes advantage of the situation to attack the camp, I am afraid that it will be difficult to keep the two ends, and the gains will outweigh the losses!" ”

Gongsun Chan said angrily: "What should I do? Do you want Ben to sit idly by? The families of me and others are all in Yijing, and if it falls into the hands of Liu Yu, the consequences will be unimaginable! ”

Zou Dan pondered for a moment, suddenly moved in his heart, and said loudly: "It was said that there were Hun cavalry who came to disturb at night, and it must have been Ma Chao's suspicious plan, so he took the opportunity to transfer the troops of Gaoyang City to Yijing to assist Liu Yu, plus the troops used in the ambush, Gaoyang City at this moment must be empty, if you send troops to attack Gaoyang at this time, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break the city!" ”

Gongsun Zhan's heart was moved, but Yi Jing was not an ordinary city, not only his two younger brothers, but also a group of wives and concubines and his only son Gongsun Xu, if he didn't go to the rescue, it would be difficult to escape Liu Yu's hands. But whether the rash dispatch of troops can succeed is still two words, first of all, this ambush is a headache. After pondering for a long time, Gongsun Chan finally made up his mind and shouted: "Ma Chao deceives people too much, even so, it is better to give up and return to Yijing City and concentrate all his forces to attack Gaoyang, if Ma Chao can be captured, all problems will be solved!" ”

Zou Dan said: "I also have this intention below, Ma Chao calculates that the lord will definitely wave his army to rescue, but we just do the opposite and attack Gaoyang by surprise, even if Ma Chao can't be captured, he can break through the defense line and attack the hinterland of Jizhou, where the army is empty." In this way, Jizhou can be disrupted, all the deployments of Ma Chao can be disrupted, and no matter how bad it is, Ma Tie can be dedicated to Yuan Shao. With such a great achievement as capital, once Ma Chao is defeated in the future, the lord is still afraid that Youzhou will fall into the hands of others? ”

Gongsun Zhan's eyes flashed, and he nodded and said, "Having said that, my family members are afraid that their lives will not be guaranteed!" ”

Zou Dan said: "Liu Yu has already taken refuge in Ma Chao, and with Ma Tie in hand, he is not afraid that Ma Chao will dare to kill him!" It's just a big deal that the two sides are even, so why be afraid? ”

Gongsun Chan laughed, stroked his palms and praised: "Zou Zhi's words made the general like a cloud, but he almost missed a big thing!" After that, he shouted: "Pass the order, immediately reorganize the soldiers and horses, and immediately attack Gaoyang City, the general will not believe that Ma Chao has three heads and six arms!" ”

"Order!"

In order to show his determination to break the cauldron and sink the boat, Gongsun Zhan ordered people to burn the camp, only bring the necessary baggage and a few days of grain and grass, and wave an army of 40,000 to Gaoyang City.

Ma Chao had already sent scouts to keep an eye on Gongsun Zhan's every move, and at the same time sent Tian Hukang to lead 10,000 cavalry to attack a hundred miles away to ambush in advance, and only wait for Gongsun Chan to return to help. Unexpectedly, the result was very unexpected, not only did Gongsun Chan not have the intention of returning to help, but instead poured his nest towards Gaoyang City.

Ma Chao's mind was racing, and he quickly figured out Gongsun Zhan's intentions, and sneered at the moment: "The wishful thinking is sound, and today I will let this general teach you a lot of skills!" Then he shouted: "Gather the army and prepare to go out of the city to meet the battle!" ”

At noon, Gongsun Chan led an army of 40,000 to Gaoyang City, and Ma Chao led 5,000 heavy armored cavalry and 10,000 infantry troops to go out of the city early to meet the battle.

In front of the two armies, Ma Chao was already fully prepared, and immediately took a few steps forward and said loudly: "Gongsun Zhan, what do you mean by this?" Didn't you say it before? Do you really want to fight to the end with Ben with the mantis arm? ”

Gongsun Chan was furious, took a few steps forward and scolded: "Ma Chao thief, you are famous in vain, and you claim to be a righteous gentleman, but you are a fraudster who has no faith at all, and now I will be in trouble with you!" ”

Ma Chao pretended to be puzzled and said: "Ben will not talk about faith? Where does this begin? ”

Gongsun Chan scolded angrily: "Shameless! If Liu Yu hadn't been secretly helped by you, how could he have a sharp weapon for Xiangyang cannons? So far, I'm still playing tricks with Ben, when I'm a three-year-old? ”

Ma Chao said: "Liu Yu is the state pastor of the imperial court, responsible for the military and political affairs of a state, and as a general of the imperial court, he has the obligation to provide him with the necessary ordnance. As for the holiday between you and Liu Yu, what will happen? ”

Gongsun Chan was speechless for a moment, and forced himself to defend himself: "Why should the general be duplicitous? What you ask for is just our family in Yijingcheng? Even so, the general will also be able to let you, but if you want to exchange this for Ma Tie, it is a thought, today it is said that the general will break through Gaoyang City and enter Jizhou, so that your rear is on fire! ”

Ma Chao sneered: "It's a real joke, your Gongsun Zan is just a clown who can be killed in the eyes of Ben General, if Ma Tie hadn't been captured, how could you be qualified to let Ben General go out in person?" Ma Tie's death is not a pity, the general will avenge him, but if you want to use this as a bargaining chip to threaten the general, it is a big mistake. ”

"How dare Piffan despise me?" Gongsun Zhan's face turned pale with anger, and he turned around and shouted: "Ma Chao is here, who is going to capture him?" ”

None of the generals under Gongsun Zhan dared to fight, Ma Chao's reputation was no worse than Lu Bu's, a Ma Tie was still so powerful, Ma Chao's ability can be imagined.

Ma Chao was slightly proud in his heart, and shouted with a halberd: "I have heard for a long time that General Gongsun Zan is a civil and military all-rounder, I don't know if I will have the opportunity to learn it today?" ”

Gongsun Zhan's face was embarrassed, but he was not dizzy yet, wouldn't it be tantamount to death to fight with Ma Chao? shouted at the moment: "The whole army listens to the order, captures or kills Ma Chao alive and rewards a thousand gold, seals the county, and attacks!" At the sound of the order, 20,000 cavalry took the lead in the charge, and the remaining 20,000 infantry troops followed closely behind, shouting and killing, and gongs, drums and horns sounded in unison.

Ma Chao only has 5,000 heavy armored cavalry at the moment, and in addition to the 5,000 soldiers and horses defending the city, only 5,000 elite soldiers are left to fight. Although there was a huge disparity in strength, Ma Chao did not mean to be afraid, and when Tima returned to the front of the formation, he raised his halberd and shouted: "Prepare for the bed!" Put! ”

Just listen to "Whoosh!" There was a sound of breaking through the air, and the only fifty beds immediately began to wield.

The bed is seven feet high and ten feet wide, and has an extremely complex structure. There are five rows of embosses, each of which can fire thirty iron crossbow arrows, with a range of 300 paces. In this way, one hundred and fifty iron crossbow arrows can be shot at one time, and fifty arrows are seven thousand five hundred arrows.

Gongsun Zhan personally led the army to charge, and when he saw that the Ma Chao army neither charged nor released arrows, his heart was very different. As soon as he rushed out of two hundred steps and saw that he was about to meet in a short battle, a rapid sound of breaking through the air suddenly sounded in the enemy camp, and countless large and small arrows came rapidly, causing a large number of casualties at once. Even if the person who fell from the horse with an arrow in front of him could not escape the trampling of the horse's hooves behind, the screams shook the sky.

Only one round of shooting caused tens of thousands of casualties to Gongsun Zhan, and even the infantry troops who rushed behind could not escape. Because of the large number of crossbow arrows fired, it took half an hour to load a crossbow arrow, so it could only be used once when the two armies were fighting. But this does not affect the power of the bed, because his rate of fire is so great that a crossbow arrow can often penetrate a person and then injure a person a second time, which is unusually powerful. Not only that, there are also five hundred Zhuge horses in Gaoyang City, and the two sharp weapons together have tens of thousands of crossbow arrows.

Gongsun Zhan's forward cavalry was hit hard by this and immediately fell, and the formation was chaotic, Ma Chao saw the opportunity to attack immediately, and five thousand heavy armored cavalry appeared on the battlefield for the first time. Ma Chao had the intention of forming a heavy armored cavalry team as early as when he sent troops to Hedong that year, but this type of army has extremely high requirements for war horses and personnel, and the armor is by no means an ordinary fish scale Kai and a chain Kai, it is a genuine full-body armor, and the armor of the equipment with people and horses weighs 50 kilograms. The financial and material resources required are extremely huge, and Ma Chao has only had such a team of 5,000 people after operating in the north for several years.

The greatest use of the heavy cavalry was to charge into battle, so the soldiers were not equipped with iron-tired bows, and had no weapons other than a large saber. This time, because of Ma Chao's personal leadership, the morale of the whole army became more and more high, and the 5,000 people were divided into five squads, and the formation was always extremely scattered, and they rushed into the forward troops of Gongsun Zhan with thousands of horses and fought hard.

Ma Chao led a thousand people in the center, and he himself had long locked the target on Gongsun Zhan, and the Heavenly Dragon Breaking City Halberd in his hand stabbed forward and backward, slashing left and right, and the place he passed was like entering a no-man's land.

Gongsun Chan was also excited to see Ma Chao personally go into battle, and shouted loudly: "Capture the thief and capture the king first, and the reward for killing Ma Chao is ten thousand!" ”

"Kill!"

"Swear to kill Ma Chao!"

There must be brave men under the heavy reward, although Gongsun Zhan's cavalry team lost tens of thousands, but the rest of the people still occupy an absolute advantage, and immediately rushed to Ma Chao's side after receiving the order.

Ma Chao was not afraid of danger, and while rushing to kill, he shouted: "The whole army rushes to kill, and today it is said that the combat exploits have been doubled, and the rewards have been doubled!" Those who take the head of Gongsun Chan will be given the title of lieutenant colonel, and the bounty will be 1,000! After that, he saw the direction where Gongsun Chan was and rushed away, but he just met Guan Jing, the general under Gongsun Zhan. (To be continued.) )