Turning his gaze to the west again, Cao Cao, Fang Zhiwen, and Yuan Shao were fighting very hotly, and Yizhou's backless was actually very anxious, he was afraid that he would miss this opportunity to reach the water dogs!

originally thought that Cao Cao would retreat to Jingzhou in one go, then the situation would evolve into a confrontation between the two sides in the southwest of Jingzhou, and whether Cao Cao could be completely annihilated at this time depended on the attitude of Yuan Shao and Fang Zhiwen, but according to Pang Yuan, Fang Zhiwen would definitely not continue to attack Cao Cao, on the contrary, he would even pull the hind legs of Yuan Shao, who was ready to pursue with victory.

Liu Bei also thought that the chance of retaking the northeast of Jingzhou might be quite slim, but now, I don't know if Cao Cao was confused, or for other reasons, Cao Cao actually slowed down the pace of westward expansion and fought with Fang Zhiwen and Yuan Shao in the Central Plains, which bought Liu Bei valuable time, so that he could calmly transfer the troops in Shuzhong to the east, and at the same time readjust the troops originally deployed to the west to the east, and prepare for a counterattack on Jingzhou.

The continuous arrival of reinforcements made Zhang Fei in the new city gradually have confidence, plus his original losses were not too big, after replenishing the lost troops, he basically recovered the strongest combat power, but Zhuge Jin suppressed Zhang Fei's attempt to counterattack, after all, at that time, Guan Yu in the north was still in a very passive state, and Jiangling in the south was also actively deploying a defensive line, even if Zhang Fei could repel the Xiahou brothers, the role he could play was quite limited, if the war was unfavorable, The defense line that has been built up with great difficulty may collapse again, in that case, Guan Yu's flank will be exposed, and the upper echelons behind him are not ready to defend.

Finally waited until Guan Yu gained a firm foothold in Nanxiang to complete the defense, and Shangyong's troops were also replenished, and it happened that Cao Cao was still entangled with Fang Zhiwen in the Central Plains, and Zhang Fei didn't want to miss this opportunity. Zhuge Jin didn't want to miss it either.

So the battle of the new city broke out logically.

On the other hand, on the Cao army, the Xiahou brothers and some of Xun You's troops have a total of 70,000 cavalry, and their combat power is quite considerable, which can be compared with Zhang Fei's 100,000 infantry cavalry and 30,000 militia in Xincheng, which is at a disadvantage. Originally, according to the plan, Chen Gong's troops would arrive in Xiangyang. Taking over from Xun You's troops to defend Xiangyang, Xun You's troops advanced westward and joined up with the Xiahou brothers, striving to push the front to Shangyong.

Unfortunately, Chen Deng's troops did not arrive in time, while Zhang Fei's follow-up troops had already arrived. This small time difference contributed to the battle of Xincheng entering the most intense stage as soon as it broke out.

The battlefield of the two sides was about five miles outside the city, and Zhang Fei launched an attack first, and the two sides formed a field battle.

Xiahoudun and Xun Yu commanded 50,000 mixed troops, set up a defensive circle, and Xiahou Yuan's archers pinned down the guerrillas on the periphery. Zhang Fei put on a triangular formation from the front. The composite infantry on both sides and the heavy infantry in the middle made a decisive breakthrough posture, Zhang Fei personally led the team to attack, and the cavalry was handed over to the deputy general to lead.

Zhang Fei's advantage lies in the number of Inhumans, on the battlefield, the number of Inhumans on Zhang Fei's side is more than two or three times more than that on the Xiahou brothers' side. This advantage was not visible in the early stage of the battle, but in the later stage, this advantage would make the Xiahou brothers miserable.

The battle began in hand-to-hand combat, with the cavalry of both sides becoming ornaments, entangled with each other on the periphery, unable to support the infantry.

After the start of the engagement, Cao's infantry began to change formations, from a circle formation to a phalanx, and tried to press Zhang Fei from both flanks, and Zhang Fei was not to be outdone. The heavy infantry of the rear and rear armies of the Chinese army were pushed forward together, and they resolutely broke through from the middle, and the two sides were evenly matched in the local area, and it turned out to be a melee.

Zhuge Jin frowned, the melee was not good for Zhang Fei. Because there are few generals on Zhang Fei's side, the melee requires the command ability of the grassroots generals to be as high as possible, and this is obviously the opponent has more advantages.

Seeing this, Zhuge Jin could only retreat the heavy crossbow and put it in the position of the original Chinese army to assemble, and concentrate on using the heavy crossbow to make up for the shortcomings of the grassroots generals.

Xun Yu on the opposite side was not to be outdone, and threw all the heavy infantry of the rear army to the right flank, trying to crush Zhang Fei with a breakthrough on one side.

The battle lines of the two sides were completely entangled, the frontal battle was extremely fierce, and the morale of both armies was very high, and the consequence was that the number of casualties skyrocketed, and the whole battlefield was filled with a thick bloody atmosphere, which made people breathless.

Xun You stood on top of the high cart, watching the soldiers on both sides who had been completely entangled in the slaughter sacrifice their lives, the dust raised by the cavalry running and chasing gradually covered the battlefield, making the whole world hazy, but the rumbling horses' hooves shaking the ground, the drums of war drums drumming with blood, the crazy shouts and screams, and the metal impact sound that seeped into the bone marrow and made people's hairs stand on end, but it was clear and unbroken into the ear drum and into Xun You's heart.

Xun You couldn't help sighing in his heart, this battle shouldn't have been like this, although today's tactics are also pre-planned, but this is also a helpless move, the reinforcements that were originally said to come can't come in time, and the Xiahou brothers can't retreat, this retreat will expose the flank of the Ji Ling Department in the north, so Xun You's choice can only be to fight to the death, even if his troops are disabled, he must consume the power of Zhang Fei's attack to stop it, as long as his follow-up reinforcements come up, then everything will be fine, I hope the lord will not continue to hesitate.

The fierce battle continued, both sides tried their best, all the means they could use were used, both sides did not have the slightest intention of retreating, the battle was fought from morning to noon, and then to evening, at this time, more advantages of the aliens in Zhang Fei's camp were slowly brought into play.

The first unlucky was Xiahou Yuan's cavalry, the Inhumans began to cooperate with Zhang Fei's cavalry around the battlefield to make traps, Xiahou Yuan will fall into the trap if he is not careful, of course, the level of these traps will not be high, at most it is to contain Xiahou Yuan's speed, the impact is not very big, but when the physical strength of the war horse declines, the effect of these small means is getting stronger and stronger, and it can often make Xiahou Yuan's troops chaotic for a while, and then Zhang Fei's cavalry will seize the opportunity to counterattack.

After many times, Xiahou Yuan gradually found that he was suffering more and more losses, and had to divide his energy to guard against and chase strangers, but in this way, Zhang Fei's cavalry became active again, and after coming and going, Xiahou Yuan was gradually forced to retreat to the infantry. in order to get the support of the heavy crossbow.

The disadvantage of the cavalry made the initiative on the periphery of the battlefield fall into the hands of Zhang Fei, Zhuge Jin immediately commanded the Inhuman troops to step forward, use heavy crossbows and paper talismans to support the infantry in battle, and attacked the infantry formation of the Cao army from the periphery, and the Cao army originally had a slightly smaller number of infantry. Under the elimination of each other's strengths, Cao Jun's formation was a little unable to hold on.

The sky gradually darkened, Cao Jun began to retreat, Zhang Fei took advantage of the situation to attack, and threw the reserves behind him into it at once, and for a while Zhang Fei's troop morale completely burst out, but Cao Jun was extremely tenacious. After sacrificing the broken troops, the Cao army infantry finally completed the detachment, and slowly retreated under the protection of the cavalry, until they retreated to the camp ten miles away, and the Cao army retreated into the camp.

Zhang Fei rushed and found that Cao Jun was still quite tenacious. had to set up camp not far away, and then issued a large number of tasks to prepare for continuous combat, which is also Zhang Fei's combat habit, if he does not defeat the enemy army in one go, Zhang Fei is unwilling to give up.

But Cao Jun was really tenacious, even if Zhang Fei mobilized a large number of Inhumans to set up long-range positions outside and bombard. Cao's camp remained immovable, and even Cao's cavalry would rush out from time to time to attack the unprotected Inhuman troops. After attacking for most of the night, the soldiers were exhausted, but the Cao army was still resisting to the death, although the camp was on fire everywhere, but the arrows of the counterattack in the Cao army's camp were still dense like rain, which made Zhang Fei angry, but helpless.

"Three generals, collect the troops1

Zhuge Jin found Zhang Fei who had just retreated from under the wall, and Zhang Fei was full of blood. He was gulping ginseng dew, as if he was drinking water.

When Zhang Fei heard Zhuge Jin's words, he put down the bottle in his hand, and waited for his round eyes to shout at Zhuge Jin: "Collect the troops?!" Strategist, do you know what you're talking about? １

"Of course I do. I'm here to suggest that the three generals guard the troops, the generals look at the soldiers around you, do they still have the strength to continue fighting? Lack of physical strength and low morale will only increase casualties if we continue to fight, and if the enemy forces fight back when we are exhausted, the consequences will be even more disastrous1

Zhang Fei waved his fist with a vinegar bowl and shouted unwillingly: "Tired? Whoever is not tired, the enemy army is even more tired! Are you tired? Are you tired? You can't move? Or are you? １

Zhang Fei's glaring soldiers all shook their heads, although their eyes were full of anger and unwillingness, but they didn't dare to say a word.

"Third general, why do they need to answer, as the chief general, can't you see the true state of the soldiers in the army?"

"Humph! The enemy army is more tired! If we can break through the camp in one fell swoop, Cao's army will inevitably be wiped out1

"Three generals, even if the enemy army is exhausted, can we still use these remnants to counterattack Xiangyang? At most, it will force Ji Ling to shrink back to Wanxian, and once Cao's follow-up troops arrive, they will soon return to their original strategic situation. ”

"According to the military division, we shouldn't have fought this battle at all.1

"No, we should fight, firstly, to stabilize the defense line of Xincheng, and secondly, if we defeat Cao's army at a relatively small cost, we may indeed counterattack Xiangyang, at least we must do our best to consume Cao's army, so as to delay its attack to the south and west. But now, we are not fighting this battle ideally, the losses are too great, the three generals, we do not have the strength to fight again continuously. ”

Zhang Fei looked at Zhuge Jin angrily, didn't he say that he had made a mistake in command and was incompetent in combat!! Zhuge Jin looked at Zhang Fei without showing weakness, although Zhang Fei was angry, but he didn't dare to treat Zhuge Jin as such, Zhuge Jin was an official at the same level as him, and Liu Bei's right-hand man.

"Three generals, please face up to reality1

"Humph! The Strategist may be able to break through the camp with one more attack.1

"I know, but maybe it can't be broken, maybe it will hurt more, the problem is that it's not much of a profit to break through us, it's better to force the Cao army to retreat like this, don't forget, the three generals, there are still 50,000 Cao army elites in Xiangyang City, and the reinforcements of the Cao army will also arrive at any time, when the time comes, our army will not be in good shape, and it will be counterattacked by the opponent at any time, and the victory in front of us will be thrown away in vain."

Zhang Fei slammed the bottle in his hand to the ground, and said in a dejected voice: "Collect the troops, collect the troops!" I'll go back and rest, and the military advisor will call the shots.1

Zhuge Jin breathed a sigh of relief, and saw Zhang Fei get on the horse and leave without looking back, Zhuge Jin ordered the troops to be collected and issued the task of cleaning up the battlefield. To be continued...