Zhang Xi always felt uneasy, and felt that something was going to happen in the direction of Shangqi, so he left Wang Ping to lead 3,000 people to defend the main road of Jieting, and he led 7,000 troops to march in the direction of Shangqi to investigate the situation.

At almost the same moment, Zhang He temporarily repelled Zhang Fei and relieved the siege of Shangqi, and then arranged for Guo Huai to continue to hold on to Shangqi and contain Zhang Fei, while he led 20,000 soldiers to march lightly, preparing to take advantage of the poor information and cooperate with Fei Yao in front of the street pavilion to attack the front and rear of the street pavilion to annihilate the defenders of the street pavilion.

Zhang Xi didn't expect Zhang He to repel Zhang Fei so quickly, and Zhang He didn't expect Zhang Xi to die in the street pavilion obediently. The two armies suddenly encountered near the city of Luoyang.

It was an encounter that no one expected.

Both sides were a little stunned at first, but the main generals of both sides were not idiots and reacted almost simultaneously.

Zhang He's reaction didn't need to be asked, he must have attacked immediately when Liu Beijun couldn't react, after all, he brought a lot of people, even if it was an encounter, he was more confident.

And Zhang Xi instantly arranged for the soldiers to turn into a defensive formation.

On the one hand, it is Zhang Xi's subconscious behavior, when encountering such a sudden situation, he will defend first, and then counterattack depending on the situation.

On the other hand, Zhang Xi brought too few soldiers, and he had less information than he could know, so he had to take a defensive posture first.

Zhang He finally knew that Zhang Xi had 10,000 soldiers in his hands, and Zhang He had 20,000 soldiers, no matter how he thought about it, he had the advantage, but Zhang Xi didn't know how many Wei troops were on the opposite side, why they appeared near Luoyang City, what was the situation of Zhang Feijun at this time, etc., Zhang Xi didn't know anything about these information.

Taking the lead in taking a defensive position and defending first for the time being can buy time for Zhang Xi, judge the current situation, and buy time for himself to make decisions.

An encounter was fought directly outside the city of Luoyang.

And the defenders in Luoyang City are now a little trembling as they watch the two armies fighting in front of them.

There were not many defenders in Luoyang City, and at the beginning, Zhang Fei and Zhang Xi did not arrange manpower to guard this place.

Although it is said that Lüyang is also a strategic location, but in the case of Shangqi in front and Street Pavilion in the back, as long as these two places do not have problems at the same time, otherwise there is no need to arrange people to defend Lüyang.

And if there is a problem in two places at the same time, it will not be able to hold on to one place by relying on Lüyang.

Therefore, when Zhang Xi passed by Luoyang, the defenders in Lüyang City sent a hundred soldiers to symbolically declare their sovereignty and occupy it.

What these people can do is probably to serve Zhang Xi's seven thousand soldiers on the city tower as an atmosphere group.

Zhang Xi can win, there is no need for them to go out of the city to fight, Zhang Xi is defeated, and their 100 people can't hold Luoyang City. I can't count on it at all.

And the two armies outside the city, likewise, no one took Luoyang City seriously, and they were caught off guard in the field battle, so they didn't have time to think about too many other factors.

Zhang Xi actually didn't think about it, can he find a way to retreat to Luoyang City to hold on, after all, his own troops are less than the other side, it's really hard to say who is stronger, if there is a city wall guard, it will be much easier to defend.

But, no, absolutely not.

Because it was an encounter, no one could retreat easily, and once the retreat was ordered, the impact on morale was huge, and even if it could retreat to Lüyang, the morale of the army was dispersed, and it was impossible to hold Lüyang.

Encounters are like this, they must be fought until one side can't hold on to the rout, otherwise, they must not retreat.

And the next thing to compete is the combat power of the simple soldiers and the command ability of the generals on both sides.

Zhang He doesn't need to ask, although the famous generals who have been fighting for decades have beaten Zhang Fei violently a few years ago and were called "mountain climbing generals" by Zhang Xikou, his ability is beyond doubt.

And Zhang Xi, well, Zhang Xi is actually not bad.

After more than ten years in the army, he has been staying at the decision-making level of the Chinese army, and it is not the first time that he has led the army alone, and he still has the ability to command 7,000 people to defend.

And if you really want to talk about it, in terms of experience in mountain warfare, Zhang Xi is actually a little richer than Zhang He. After all, Zhang Xi has either been out of Pingnanzhong or out of Qishan in the past few years, and has been fighting mountain battles for several years.

And Zhang He obviously did not have such rich experience in mountain warfare as Zhang Xi.

Although Zhang He has often fought in Liangzhou over the years, Zhang He has more of a command of cavalry than infantry, and the time when he really has the experience of infantry commanding mountain warfare is probably the time when he followed Xiahou Yuan to guard Hanzhong.

But during that time, Zhang He's record in defending the city was okay, but the record in the field was really unwatchable. For example, in the ditch, Zhang Fei was pressed on the ground and rubbed, and finally had to climb the mountain to escape.

Therefore, as soon as the two fought, it was Zhang Xi's defensive organization that did it with ease, and although Zhang He commanded the attack, there was no mistake, but Zhang He always felt unsatisfied, and he felt that he was almost breathless, and he could never break through the enemy's defensive line.

Slowly, Zhang Xi gradually got used to Zhang He's attack, watching Zhang He command his soldiers to launch an offensive, and slowly retreated after a period of inconclusive offensive, and immediately organized a second wave. Zhang Xi immediately understood that Zhang He's experience in mountain warfare was there, but not sufficient.

Fighting in the mountains is different from fighting on the plains.

The mountain roads are uneven, and the soldiers will consume more physical strength when attacking and retreating than on the plains, so if you want to attack, you must go all at once, and the attack cannot be stopped. However, once the second wave of the offensive cannot be organized immediately after the stoppage and retreat, a certain degree of rest and recuperation must be carried out.

Otherwise, it will be the same as the current Cao army, in addition to the first wave of the offensive is more ferocious, the next few offsets, the combat effect is worse and worse every time, and in the end, even the retreat looks a little messy.

Zhang He was not without experience in mountain warfare, and he also knew that in mountain warfare, the attack could not be stopped, and he had to work hard, but once he retreated, Zhang He did not give the soldiers enough time to adjust their rest, forcing the soldiers to launch a second attack immediately. This kind of offensive efficiency is actually not very high.

This is probably the reason why Zhang He's poor performance in mountain warfare and field warfare over the years

And for this reason, Zhang Xi obviously wouldn't be so kind to tell Zhang He, and even Zhang Xi was waiting, waiting for the moment when Cao's army's attack became more and more weak and the morale of the army declined.

When Cao's army was weak to attack again and retreated, Zhang Xi immediately put in his 2,000-man reserve, and suddenly commanded the soldiers to counterattack on the whole line, and launched a counterattack against Cao's army with a wave-like attack frequency.

Zhang Xi wanted Zhang He to take a good look at what kind of attack was an attack that was in line with the characteristics of mountain warfare.

After the first wave of attack is pushed forward, the second wave of attack must be followed immediately, and then the third wave of attack must be prepared immediately.

After the three waves of offensive formation are pushed forward, if they are still unable to break through the enemy's line, they must organize defenses on the spot and make rest, and they cannot easily launch the next attack, let alone retreat to rest and recuperate.

In the face of Zhang Xi's counterattack, Zhang He seemed a little at a loss.

The first wave of attack was easily stopped by Zhang He's commanding soldiers, but after the second wave of strengthened attacks arrived, Zhang He's front army wavered.

Seeing this, Zhang He immediately responded according to the routine, commanded and dispatched a part of the soldiers from the Chinese army, and went to the front army to support, but before the Chinese army could organize the support soldiers, Zhang Xi's third wave of offensive team had already arrived.

Three consecutive attacks, so that Zhang He's front army declined significantly, kept retreating, and finally led to the continuous compression of Cao's army's formation, seeing that the front army was about to collapse, Zhang He gritted his teeth and personally led the organized Chinese army team to kill the front army, relying on personal martial arts to improve the morale of the whole army, which barely stabilized the front.

After stabilizing the front, Zhang He didn't want to be beaten passively all the time, and tried to organize his soldiers to counterattack, but found that the enemy had shifted from attacking to defending, and Zhang He's counteroffensive could not push the enemy front in the first place.

After several such situations, Zhang He finally understood that it seemed impossible for him to defeat this enemy army in mountain warfare.

Under the turn of his mind, Zhang He also began to make adjustments.

No longer blindly emphasize the attack, and strive to eat the opponent in one breath From the perspective of eyesight and scout reports, the enemy army on the opposite side is just such a few people, and their own forces completely have the upper hand, so there is no need to eat the opponent in one breath in a hurry.

With a large number of troops, the loss of a few thousand people will not have much impact on the entire battle situation, but the enemy army is only five or six thousand, and if there are two thousand casualties, there will be a rout effect, and there is no need to fight for a momentary victory.

Let's fight for consumption, anyway, I will lose, and you are such a person, dare to fight with me for losses?!

This is the way it is to march and fight, in most cases there is no such thing as a clever plan, as long as it is suitable for the situation on the battlefield and can allow you to take the initiative on the battlefield, even if it is a stupid method, it can be adopted.

And Zhang He uses this kind of stupid trick to fight with you. Zhang Xi suddenly became uncomfortable.

Indeed, as Zhang He expected, Zhang Xi only had 7,000 soldiers, which he could not afford to consume.

Maybe at the beginning, you can rely on the non-stop victory to temporarily improve the morale of the soldiers, but after a long time, as the casualties rise, and there is no hope of breaking the enemy, then the morale of the army will definitely continue to decline, and finally after the losses are too large, the soldiers will definitely collapse.

Therefore, when Zhang He also began to take a defensive position, that is, after fighting with you, Zhang Xi began to feel uncomfortable and thought about how to break the enemy.

Is it to continue to increase the offensive, strive to break through Zhang He's front army, threaten Zhang He's middle army, and force Zhang He to retreat?!

Or do you accept it when you see it, hold on until dark, take advantage of the night to distance yourself from Zhang Hejun, fight and retreat the next day, and retreat to the street pavilion to hold on? !

Now Zhang Xi is quite hesitant.

(End of chapter)