Chapter 235: Fang County Encounter

As mentioned last time, Cao Ren was suspicious and fled overnight, and after dawn, the movements of the Wei army were nowhere to be hidden under the reconnaissance of the heat ball, and Zhang Fei immediately ordered a pursuit. On the other hand, on the Eastern Front, Liu Hou also received the news that Cao Ren was going to escape, and he immediately made a decision and immediately ordered the troops to intercept this piece of big fat that fell into his pocket.

The Hong army traveled day and night, and finally met the fleeing Wei army in Fang County, the terrain of Fang County is very special, the ancient book description is: "Thousands of miles longitudinal, mountains and forests, its solid high tombs, if there are houses", Fang County is named because of such a terrain.

The topography of Fangxian County is high in the west and low in the east, steep in the south and gentle in the north, and the middle is the flat dam of the river valley. The north is high mountain, the south is Shennongjia primeval forest, and the central part is centered on the Malan River Valley, forming a long and narrow fault basin, in which there are river valley basins scattered in between. The Wei army is now blocked in this narrow basin in the middle, and it cannot advance or retreat.

The two armies were marching in a hurry, and they met each other by surprise, and the front line of contact between the two sides was dozens of miles long, and there was no superfluous nonsense at all.

Because the Wei army had as many as 300,000 men, if it wanted to march quickly, it could only spread out in formation, and if it was still like usual, two or four people marched in a column, the speed must be very slow, so Cao Ren ordered the troops to disperse and leave Xincheng County as quickly as possible.

His order was indeed very sensible, not only did the march be fast, but it also caused great trouble for the interception of the Hong army. Because the Hong army also had to spread the front within a range of several tens of miles, such a large area, it was difficult to ensure that every place could be taken into account, and it was inevitable that some stragglers would escape from the gaps between the various units.

The Wei army fell into a desperate situation, with the Hong army intercepting in front and Zhang Fei and Pang Tong's army chasing after them, and the shape was very critical. After Cao Ren found out that there was an intercepted enemy in front, he immediately called a meeting of the generals of the various units, and he made it clear that he was willing to fight to the death and break through:

"Ladies and gentlemen, I believe you also know the current situation of our army, Zhang Heitan's pursuers in the rear are at most a day's journey away from us, according to the spies' report, Zhang Fei and Pang Tong each led 100,000 horses, a total of 200,000 troops poured out to pursue our army, if they catch up, our army will definitely die without a place to be buried.

We are about to leave the scope of Xincheng County and return to the territory of Wei, but there is an enemy army in front, and there is no doubt that the banner must be the Hong army of Liu Chan, the little emperor of Shu State. The attack power of the Hong army is famous all over the world, and I believe everyone knows a lot, they may be more terrifying than the troops of that black charcoal.

However, we must rise to the occasion and break through their defenses and break out of the new city in one fell swoop, so that we can have a chance to survive. There is a cloud in the art of war: 'If you fight, you will survive, and if you don't fight, you will die.' Fight to the death. Our army is now in the dead ground, and only by fighting swiftly can we survive the death. ”

Cao Ren quoted the words in the 11th chapter of the "Art of War" "Nine Lands Chapter" to explain the current situation of the Wei army, obviously the current situation of the Wei army is indeed the "place of death" described in the "Nine Lands Chapter", in this case, Sun Tzu and his old man believe that only "rapid fighting" can have a glimmer of life, if there is a slight hesitation, there will be death.

To put it bluntly, it is to fall into a desperate situation, like a gambler who loses a red eye, he can only show his hand to make a desperate bet to have a chance to turn the tables, this is a big gamble, you can turn the tables if you win, and you will be out if you lose.

Cao Ren is a veteran of the battlefield, followed Cao Cao to fight in the world, and his prestige in the Wei army is very high, especially after the battle between Xiangfan and Guan Gong, it proves that he has extraordinary vision and ability to master the fighter, and the main general in the army is very convinced of him, not to mention, Cao Ren moved out of Sun Tzu's Art of War to support his views, so that his analysis and orders have the support of theoretical basis.

The generals did not hesitate after hearing his order, they all gladly agreed, they all knew very well that they only had one day at most, and if they could not break through the encirclement within this day, when Zhang Fei Pangtong's army caught up, they really had only one way to die.

After they returned to the various units after the meeting, they did not care whether their troops were ready for battle, and immediately drove their troops and horses to attack the Shu army in front of them.

Therefore, as soon as the two armies met, there was no superfluous action, no envoys were sent to each other to talk nonsense, scouts were not sent to reconnoiter the enemy's situation first, and a small force was not sent to test the opponent's military strength first.

The Wei army launched an attack in a hurry, and the Hong army also responded in a hurry, both sides were caught off guard and started fighting, the Hong army was scattered on a line dozens of miles long, and when they saw that the enemy was coming up, they directly began to return fire, and they didn't even have time to ask the base camp. Many units reported the situation to the base camp only after the war with the enemy.

Liu Hou and the strategists were stunned when they suddenly received the news of the war from various departments in the commander's tent, but in a very short time, the battle reports were like snowflakes, densely floating in front of them, so that the monarchs and ministers were caught off guard and did not even have enough time to read these battle reports, let alone what reactions, what orders to issue, and how to deploy troops and so on.

Fortunately, the Hong Army was well-trained, strictly enforced, and disciplined in peacetime, and had regulations for dealing with all kinds of unexpected situations.

After the last reorganization, although the fire # gun unit sacrificed part of its attack power, its defensive capability was greatly enhanced, which greatly improved the survivability of the unit in the face of the enemy's crazy onslaught.

Now the advantages of this reorganization are manifested, and now the musket units use the battalion as a basic combat unit to defend against the enemy, of course, when encountering a large force of the enemy, the battalion is integrated into a regiment, and the regiment is used as a unit to confront the Wei army.

Each battalion is lined up in a phalanx, and in the front row of the phalanx are rattan armor soldiers holding rattan cards, and behind the rattan armor soldiers is a pikeman, and then there are three rows of fire # spearmen, and then there are grenadiers, and so on. When the enemy charges, the fire # spearmen first deliver a three-stage strike.

If the number of enemies that are attacking is small, they are often eliminated by the fire # gunmen before they rush to the front of the formation. If the enemy is too numerous to suppress in the third stage, let them rush to the front of the formation, and there are rattan armor soldiers who use rattan cards to resist them to the death.

This trick is very effective, the rattan is actually almost a person high thick rattan shield, which is considered the category of the tower shield, when used, this rattan card is paused on the ground, and the shield holder behind is resisted by the shoulder, using this method to resist the impact of the charging enemy.

Therefore, the shield bearers of the tower shield are usually men with big shoulders and round waists and infinite strength, and they may not be able to withstand the impact of the cavalry, but they are still very sure of the impact of the infantry.