Just when Liu Bei captured Liu Zhang, Qiao Ziyan got the Longyuan Sword at the same time. On the flat road leading to Tongguan, a large army is also slowly moving westward.

Whether it was the battle of Xuzhou to attack Liu Bei or the battle of Jingzhou a few years ago, it was a lightning strike against the enemy.

However, this army led by Cao Yingqin set out from Xudu, passed through the tiger prison into Luoyang, and slowly arrived at Tongguan for more than a month. At this time, Cao Renjun, who was on the front line of Tongguan, had been struggling to support him for more than three months and was exhausted. This abnormal state made the ministers under Cao Ying's command puzzled.

The army finally arrived at Tongguan, and the army went down to the northeast of Tongguan, forming a north-south solidarity with Cao Renying, who arrived first in the south. In the evening, the camp was completed, but Xun You, who was with the army, could no longer hold back the doubts in his heart, and came to see Cao Ying secretly overnight, and said straight to the point: "Prime Minister, I have been doubting for a long time, but I don't know where to start?" ”

Cao Ying, who was reading, put down the bamboo slip in his hand, leaned on the couch, stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Gongda wants to ask, why did Lone choose a long way to attack Tongguan, and despite the tense situation in Tongguan, he walked for a whole month. ”

Xun You's expression was shocked, and he exclaimed: "It turns out that the prime minister is deliberately like this, and you are just confused about this matter, according to common sense, if you enter the customs from Xudu, you can take the east of the river to cross the Yellow River from Pubanjin to the west is the shortest way, but why did the prime minister choose the big long road of going to Luoyang first and then west to Tongguan, you are deeply puzzled, does the prime minister have another deep meaning?" ”

Cao Ying scolded with a smile when he heard this: "Gongda is wise and foolish, since you don't want to say it." If the lonely army goes to the east of the river, the thieves in the Guanzhong will hear it, and they will inevitably guard the ferry with heavy troops, and the lonely army may not be able to get their wish if they want to cross the Yellow River west into the pass. In order to deceive Ma and Han, Gu Cai deliberately took a detour to Tongguan, so that the thieves thought that Gu wanted to attack Tongguan and lightened his precautions against Hedong. Xu Huang and Zhu Ling, the two generals who were alone and led 4,000 elite soldiers to smuggle across the Yellow River from Pubanjin, were unable to prevent our army from entering Guanzhong smoothly, although there were many thieves. ”

"The sound of the east and the west, the prime minister is clever." Looking at Cao Ying, who was full of confidence in front of him, Xun You finally put his mind at ease.

After the defeat of Chibi, Cao Ying never returned to the official crossing, and after the complacent, no one in his eyes, he returned to the far-sighted Cao Ying.

"Then why did the prime minister deliberately slow down and make Tongguan repeatedly in danger?"

Cao Ying stroked his beard and said with a smile: "The thief of Xiliang, there are countless warlords of all sizes, and now they are extinguished, and they are resurrected tomorrow, the reason why Lone has dragged on for so long is to give them enough time to gather in Tongguan, and then Lone can be destroyed in one fell swoop, so it saves a lot of effort." Besides, Zi Xiao is good at guarding, and he is a horse thief in the west, how can he get him. ”

Cao Ying's breath was not small, and he planned to eat all the warlords in Guanzhong in one go, and he was very confident in his demeanor and tone.

Xun You was afraid that he would commit the old disease of arrogance when he was in Chibi, so he hurriedly said: "Most of the thieves in Guanzhong are mediocre people, but that horse is comparable to the hero of Lu Bu back then, although the prime minister is stable and victorious, but he should not despise this person too much." ”

"Although the horses are brave, they are not as numerous as my warriors. In the past, it was said that Lu Bu's heroes were not a cup of loess, and in order to attack the heart of the way, the battle was just a small Doyle. ”

Cao Ying didn't plan to have a decisive battle with the Guanzhong army in Tongguan at all, but if he didn't fight a battle and closed the village, it would be easy to arouse the enemy's suspicion, so he planned to fight a few small-scale tentative battles, first, to distract the enemy's attention to Hedong, and secondly, to touch the strength of the Guanzhong army.

However, to Cao Ying's surprise, on the second day of the arrival of his army, Ma Chao led more than 10,000 men and horses out of the customs to challenge, and issued a war letter to fight Cao Ying to the death.

This is a provocation to him, since the battle of Guandu, which prince in the world is not afraid of him, and this legendary Xiliang Jin Ma Chao dared to take such an arrogant initiative to challenge, Cao Ying decided to give him some color to see.

So, the next day, more than 30,000 Cao troops out of the camp, in front of the Tongguan wide terrain formed a large formation, the front array of halberders and spearmen, the rear array of crossbowmen, the two wings are tiger and leopard iron cavalry, the standard Cao infantry cavalry formation.

Although Xiliang is famous for its cavalry, and Dong Zhuo's iron cavalry wreaked havoc on Guanzhong and Si Li, the Cao family's soldiers, who had been tested by war for a long time, were already fearless. Cao Ying was confident that his elite infantry would be able to withstand the impact of the Xiliang cavalry, and then, his tiger and leopard cavalry, which was even more elite than the Xiliang cavalry, suddenly rushed out from both wings, and Ma Chao Xiaoer would inevitably flee back to Tongguan without an army, and a big victory would be so easy to get.

However, Cao Ren on the side told him, "Brother, Ma Chao's Xiliang Legion is not the same as Dong Zhuo's Xiliang Iron Cavalry, and it doesn't seem to be my Han's military formation in terms of tactics." ”

The wind blew away from the morning mist, and what caught Cao Ying's eyes was not the imaginary iron cavalry regiment, but a square shield array formed by dozens of huge infantry. The shields held by these Xiliang foot soldiers are all huge shields of nearly one meter and a half, layered and impermeable, and dozens of shield arrays are slowly advancing forward, like an iron wall pushing horizontally.

Such a military formation, Cao Jun from top to bottom was the first time to see it, and everyone was surprised and stunned, and even Cao Ying was shocked. If Qiao Ren were here, he would have exclaimed, 'Roman phalanx'.

"Crossbowmen! Shoot! ”

More than 2,000 elite archers bent their bows and arrows, and at the sound of drums, a dense rain of arrows crossed the arc, raining down on the enemy's formation.

Jingling, arrows raining down, but there is no impact on the Xiliang army, their giant shield is not only tall but also thick, ordinary arrows do not pose the slightest threat to it, if it is the bed crossbow of Dongwu or the giant crossbow of Cao Jun, there is still some damage.

Seeing that the bow and arrow were ineffective and the enemy was approaching step by step, Cao Ying gave an order, the sound of the Chinese army's drums changed suddenly, and the Cao army's own infantry formation also began to move forward.

Just when the two armies were only about ten meters apart, Ma Chaojun's shield array suddenly opened, and in the blink of an eye, a thousand soldiers rushed out of it.

"What's that?" Cao Ying couldn't help but exclaim, "Rushing into battle with infantry? ”

Just when Cao Ying couldn't figure out his head, these guys who didn't look like Han people rushed forward a few steps, and with the help of their usual surnames, they threw out the weapons in their hands.

The black shadow approached, and Cao Jun realized that what they threw was not spears, but slender javelins.

Not far away, a general in his thirties, wearing a brocade robe, with a ghostly face, and tassels hanging down on the golden crown. Secretly sneered: "Let you see how powerful I am." ”

Let the javelins fly, and a dull sound of flesh piercing the silence.

The javelin thrown by the Ma Chao Infantry Regiment is a sharp spear head made of bronze with a great weight, coupled with the help of a strong soldier, it shoots at Cao Jun with a strong impact, and it can easily penetrate the simple armor equipped by Cao Jun's soldier, and if he wins the bid, he will wear it for two or three people.

If being shot with a bow and arrow is not fatal enough, then once the javelin is pierced, no matter how strong the soldier is, he will be killed immediately, and even if he is lucky enough not to die, he will only have half a life left. And this Xiliang infantry regiment attacked at such a close range, and the hit rate was even more amazing, javelins were shot out like rain, and more than 1,000 Cao troops in the forefront were immediately tied into meat skewers.

This terrifying and peculiar attack immediately shattered Cao Jun's military heart, looking at the comrade who was tied into a meat skewer, dead and not dead for a while, unable to move and not move, like a grasshopper wearing a wooden drill, only to struggle and howl in pain, the more he struggled, the more blood came out like a spring, piercing the intestines and breaking the stomach, and the internal organs or the meat intestines in the abdomen fell to the ground at this time. Such a bloody scene, like Shura's purgatory, is enough to make any Predator tremble.

I saw Jin Ma Chao personally with a thousand ghost-faced cavalry troops, following the javelins. It's messy, Cao Jun is messed up. Defeated, after meeting an attack by the Xiliang Army, Cao's army was defeated.

And Cao Ying in the formation was both shocked and angry, Ma Jun's javelin tactics certainly surprised him, but what made him even more angry was that the elite Cao Army, who followed him to conquer the world, made him proud, actually broke the army's heart under one blow, how could this not make him angry.

Cao Ying was furious, and beheaded several people, but he could not control the defeat, and the defeat was decided, so Cao Ying had to be escorted by the soldiers, mixed in the flow of defeated soldiers, and fled to Dazhai.

Ma Chao persevered and pursued with his ghost-faced knight, so he staged another tragedy of cutting off his beard.

It is also thanks to the fact that Ma Chao's subordinates are different from other Xiliang armies, there are not many cavalry, but mainly infantry. If it was an ordinary Xiliang army, when the Cao army was defeated, the iron cavalry would cover behind him. The consequences were terrible.

Therefore, when Ma Chao led his cavalry regiment to finally catch up with the defeated Cao army, it was already very close to the enemy village, and the Cao army defending the village immediately counterattacked with intensive bows and arrows to cover the defeat into the village. Ma Chao also accepted it when he saw it, and when he saw that the strong attack could not be achieved, he immediately turned the horse's head.

Cao Ying originally wanted to take advantage of the retreat of the horse army to send tiger and leopard cavalry from both flanks to mortar, but the regrouped Ma Chao army was not in a hurry to retreat, but still formed a shield formation, staggered retreat between each other, covered each other, and slowly retreated to Tongguan, such a strict formation, Cao Ying's cavalry could not find the slightest flaw to attack.

Cao Ying returned to the tent and was so angry that he directly slammed his helmet on the ground, "The horse is not dead, and the lonely will never be at peace." ”

And the generals in the tent are also disgraced, angry, holding a breath of depression, this battle is too embarrassing, they were defeated by a charge.

Just yesterday, Cao Ying was still full of confidence, although this battle was just a trial, but his original intention was to give a small blow to the Xiliang Army and let them taste the power of Cao Jun. But I didn't expect the ending to be the opposite of what I expected, and it was myself who was taught a lesson.

At this time, Cao Ren, who was the only one in the tent with complete armor, blamed himself: "The Ma army's tactics are very different from the Han military laws, and Ren failed to tell his brother in time, and please punish him." ”

"No!" Cao Ying is quite serious about Cao Ren, and just this morning Cao Ren also mentioned that Ma Chao's tactics are weird. "This battle is careless, it has nothing to do with you, and it has nothing to do with the generals."

Of course, Cao Ren knew that Cao Ying would not blame him, and said: "Ren and the thief army have been holding on for several months, and the previous battles have been created by the thief army's shield array and javelin fighting method, so I have no choice but to defend it. Prime Minister, if we want to break the Xiliang Army of the horses, we must first break the shield array and javelin of the thief army! ”

Cao Yinghu was stunned, looked at the famous generals and ministers in the tent, and asked, "Do you have any countermeasures?" ”

"Does the minister have a plan or can he break the horse phalanx?" Cao Ying looked at it, but he saw Huainan Liu Ye, who was known as the talent of the world.

Cao Ying didn't particularly trust this authentic Han clan member, but Liu Ye repeatedly made strange plans and was also valued by Cao Ying. "What is Ziyang's plan?"

Liu Ye said with a smile: "What the minister thought of was a stupid way, and there was a lot of fire oil in Guanzhong since ancient times. There are still more than a dozen catapults in our army, and if the horses come to attack, our army can use urns to fill the jar with fire oil, throw them with catapults, and then shoot them with rockets. Although its phalanx is not afraid of ordinary bows and crossbows, is it not afraid of fire? ”

The people in the "hiss" tent seemed to recall the tragic situation of the Battle of Chibi, and they all gasped. And Liu Ye is worthy of Cao Wei's Zhuge Liang, and he has a rich imagination for mechanisms and weapons.

Cao Ying nodded with satisfaction, his eyes were full of praise for the strategist who had followed him for many years, and Cao Ying was also very conflicted about this strategist who would have whimsical ideas at every critical moment, but it was a big deal to solve Ma Chao in front of him.

Cao Ying stroked his palms and smiled: "Ziyang is really extraordinary, and only you can think of this strategy." ”

"Report!" At this time, a guard came from outside the tent and handed a letter to Xu Chu.

Xu Chu handed it to Cao Ying's hand again, Cao Ying looked sideways, but it took only a few minutes to read this short letter, "Haha! Komeito crossed the river from Kasakatsu and seized a place on the south bank. ”

"My lord, how should our army act?" Cao Ren, as the leader, naturally asked questions from him.

A gleam flashed in Cao Ying's eyes, and he said with a smile: "Zixiao continues to guard Tongguan and guard according to Ziyang's method." The army followed me from Kasakatsu and crossed the river. ”

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