Chapter 240: [Driving the Tiger and Devouring the Wolf] (2)

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Standing on the tower of the city and looking down at the Wei army under the city, Zhao Yun's eyes quickly locked on the Chinese army commander flag two miles away, which was the handsome flag of Cao Ren, the general of Wei State.

Suddenly, Zhao Yun's face changed abruptly, his brows furrowed together, and his expression became solemn.

Wei general Cao Ren followed Cao Cao for more than ten years, experienced a hundred battles, has long been a well-known general of the Cao army, since Cao Cao ascended the throne and became emperor, Cao Ren served as the general of Wei, commanding the three armies.

At this moment, since Cao Ren personally led the army to attack the city, without even thinking about it, Zhao Yun could guess that the 100,000 Cao army in front of him was definitely not all the troops under Cao Ren's account, and he must still have a backhand.

"The general is right, Cao Jun really came prepared this time!" Xiahou Lan, who followed Zhao Yun to the city tower, couldn't help but sigh when she raised her eyes and saw the black and oppressive Wei army under the city.

Zhao Yun nodded lightly after hearing this, but did not speak. Although he had guessed that Cao Wei's army must be a bad person and a big plan this time, he did not expect Cao Cao to send Cao Ren to lead an army of more than 100,000 to attack the city. This can no longer be regarded as a sneak attack, but a real large-scale attack, with great fanfare, to send troops to crusade against the Western Jin Dynasty.

Just when Zhao Yun was thinking to himself, he only heard Xiahou Lan behind him say softly: "For the sake of a small city in Kaifeng, the Cao army dispatched 100,000 troops. You must know that my Western Jin Dynasty has a million soldiers, and Kaifeng City is an important border town to resist the Yanzhou army, but it is only more than 30,000 soldiers, and there are only 5,000 defenders stationed at the city gates on all sides. The remaining 30,000 iron cavalry can only be used for field battles, but they are not good at defending the city.

Compared with. At this moment, the Cao army attacking the city head-on had more than 30,000 infantry troops, and 50,000 iron cavalry were still stationed in the wilderness on the east bank. With more than 80,000 cavalry to attack a county town, Cao Jun really looks up to us. Not only that, judging from the formation of Cao's army, it is not difficult to see that these more than 80,000 foot cavalry are only their front army and middle army, and there must be tens of thousands of soldiers and horses behind them who are responsible for the rear of the palace to provide food and grass for the army.

In this way, Cao's army dispatched at least 100,000 troops this time, and it was a bit of a fuss for so many soldiers and horses to attack a county town. Killing chickens and slaughtering cattle with knives, hundreds of thousands of Cao troops can completely attack the entire Sili. Engage in a head-on decisive battle with our army. "Xia Houlan has read very little, and he doesn't know much about the art of war, and what he has relied on for many years of war is his own exquisite martial arts; is because his words are very vulgar, blurting out "killing chickens with a cattle slaughtering knife", demeaning himself, but his words are not rough, but they appropriately describe the current form.

His words coincided with what Zhao Yun was thinking. As Xiahoulan said, there are more than 30,000 soldiers and horses in Kaifeng City, except for 5,000 county soldiers who are responsible for defending the city. The main responsibility of Zhao Yun's 33,000 unequaled iron cavalry was to guard against Cao's surprise attack on Henan County. Because of this, Zhao Yun had expected in advance that the Cao army might sneak attack Henan County, so he prepared in advance, and ordered the Wushuang Iron Cavalry Battalion to prepare half a month's worth of dry food three days ago. Be ready for long journeys at any time; He also ordered the defenders to prepare enough armor to defend the city, and all the archers were given fifty arrows. And all the remaining grain and grass in the city were transferred to Luoyang.

Despite the pre-war preparations, almost everything was thought of. But Zhao Yun never expected that the Yanzhou army, which was hundreds of miles away from Kaifeng City, would pour out. More than 100,000 troops were crushed like a tsunami. Just now, Zhao Yun had the confidence to hold Kaifeng City for more than half a month, but now that he saw the overwhelming and powerful formation of Cao Jun with his own eyes, his confidence couldn't help but begin to waver. He wasn't sure if he could hold on for half a month, and even doubted that he could keep Cao's army under the city for ten days, or five days, or three days.

It's not fear, it's not timidity. He Zhao Yun was born without knowing what fear was, never afraid of any opponent or enemy, no matter how powerful the enemy was, he dared to fight to the death with it, and never flinched. But at the moment, he is not alone, there are thousands of soldiers guarding the city around him, and there are 30,000 iron horsemen and more than 50,000 people behind him, he himself can not be afraid of life and death, but he can't bring all the soldiers and people in the city into the fire pit, and the jade is burned.

The most important thing is that Li Li had already ordered that once he could not do anything, he would immediately abandon the city and retreat to Luoyang. This is the strategic principle that Li Li has always advocated for the loss of land and the preservation of people; if you can fight, you will fight, and if you know that you are invincible, you should not fight to the death; it is best to be able to retreat with all your body, but if you can't, you should also preserve your vital strength as much as possible, and exchange space for time so as to facilitate another war.

So Zhao Yun made it difficult, the scale between the retreat of this battle is really difficult to grasp, and if there is a slight mistake, the previous achievements will be wasted and the whole army will be wiped out. In the face of more than 100,000 Cao troops attacking the city, if you want to retreat with your whole body, the safest way is to block the east gate and immediately organize the people to retreat. However, when encountering a strong enemy, he retreated without a fight, which was not Zhao Yun's combat style, nor was it in line with his principles of doing things. In the more than ten years of leading the troops, which battle did he not charge ahead, which time did he not kill the enemy's fart, and how could there have been precedents of avoiding and retreating without fighting?

After pondering for a moment, Zhao Yunlang ordered: "Xiahou Lan listened to the order, immediately passed the order, and ordered General Zhenggu to lead the 10,000 iron cavalry of the headquarters to organize the people in the city to evacuate from the city, and be sure to rush to Zhongmu County tonight; If there is any delay, it will be severely punished! Ordered Ma Tie to lead 5,000 cavalry to reinforce the north gate, you personally led 5,000 cavalry to reinforce the south gate, assist in the transfer of the people, and immediately reinforce Ma Tie's department after the people left, be sure to guard the north gate. ”

"No, the last general will take the order!" Xia Houlan answered. Then he turned around and left, but at this time, Zhao Yun reached out and grabbed him, leaned into his ear and whispered: "Divide half of the black pimple with you, take it to the north gate and hand it to Ma Tie, remember that you can't use it during the day, and only at night can you use it to exert its maximum power." We must defend the city gate during the day no matter what, and if our army suffers too many casualties, we will go out of the city tonight and rush to kill, throw all these black bumps into the camp of the Cao army, and then retreat at night. If the casualties are not large, we will hold on for a few more days, try to delay the time for Cao's army to move south, and win time for His Majesty to dispatch troops and horses. ”

Xiahou Lan nodded happily, and said reluctantly: "Brother, take care, don't be rash, once the battle situation is unfavorable, don't fall in love with war." If something happens to the elder brother, the foolish brother will never live alone in the world, and swear to follow the elder brother to the death. When he had finished speaking, he lifted his leg and left.

Zhao Yun clearly saw that Xiahou Lan's voice was choked when he left, with tears in his eyes, and the corners of Zhao Yun's eyes moistened as he saw him leave. I saw him looking up at the sky, raising his hand to cover his eyes, it seemed that the sun was too strong and dazzling, and wiped the moisture from the corners of his eyes without a trace, and then turned around and looked at Cao Jun who was going forward under the city with a cold expression.

No one knows that he looked up at the sky to wipe away his tears, and no one knows that Changshan Zhao Zilong, who was praised by Li Li as "a gall", would also shed tears, although his tears were only shed for his brother and for more than 20 years of friendship. Tears are not cowardice, not cowardice, but true feelings, because he is not a god, but a man of flesh and blood.

Whether it is ability or officialdom, Xiahoulan cannot be compared with Zhao Yun, the gap is huge, and there is no comparison at all. Since ancient times, some people have said that people gather like things, but there is not only fame and fortune between people, not only people with equal status and wealth can become friends, and real friendship comes from friendship that is not mixed with fame and fortune, otherwise life is too boring.

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When the fierce battle in Kaifeng City was in full swing, the war in Deng County was nearing its end.

In the case of the loss of the city gate, the Deng County Guard will not be able to recover the defeat even if he has the talent of the heavens and the earth, not to mention that he does not have this talent, so the failure is inevitable, and there is only one way left for him, which is to lead the army to break through.

At the moment when he learned that the East Gate was attacked, Yu Ban tried to gather troops and horses to start a street battle with the Jingzhou army that had entered the city, even if the defeat was decided, he would give the Jingzhou army a blow and resolutely strike at it. After all, the Xiliang Army does not have the habit of not fighting back when beaten, and an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is the consistent style of this tiger and wolf army.

That's exactly what happened. When Liu Pan, the vanguard general of the Jingzhou Army, led 25,000 iron cavalry to the north city where the city guard mansion was located, the overwhelming rain of arrows rushed towards him, and there was a strong sound of breaking the air, which was the scream of crossbow arrows piercing the air. In just one round of random arrows, Liu Pan's cavalry paid the price of nearly 2,000 casualties, and Liu Pan, who was charging ahead, bore the brunt, and four of the crossbow arrows were aimed at him.

At the last moment, Liu Pan decisively gave up the mount under his crotch, jumped up regardless of it, and broke the lattice window of the private house on the right side, so as to escape the catastrophe and save his life with the help of the private house. After the first wave of arrows, followed by the second wave, and then the third wave, the continuous random arrows caused huge casualties to the Jingzhou army, about 3,000 iron cavalry were swallowed up by the rain of arrows, and there were not a few wounded cavalry.

After three rounds of arrows, at least 5,000 Jingzhou iron cavalry lost their combat effectiveness, and it was really a head-on blow, which made the Jingzhou army dizzy and demoralized. However, this kind of resistance could not last after all, at best it was short-lived, and with the follow-up war cavalry rushing over, the more than 3,000 county soldiers led by Yu Ban ushered in a catastrophe.

The mere 3,000 infantry army could not stop the charge of tens of thousands of iron cavalry at all, and it was only a charge that broke through the defense line that Yu Ban had set up with great difficulty, and scattered more than 3,000 soldiers defending the city.

Seeing that the general trend had gone, Yu Ban immediately made a decision and immediately ordered a breakthrough, not to mention the direction of the breakthrough, because breaking through to the north was their only choice.

―――――― To be Continued ―――――――――――――――― (To be Continued......