Because of the detour outside Huayin City, Zhang Xi was one day behind Cao Zhen before arriving at the Tongguan battlefield.

Although he knew that Wei Yan in Tongguan was bound to be very difficult to defend now, Zhang Xi still did not lose his calm, he did not attack the main force of Cao Zhen's army as soon as he arrived at the battlefield, but camped and rested for a long time, and then discussed with Zhao Yun how to deal with the next situation.

After all, after Cao Zhen joined Wang Chang and others, the military strength should be more than 40,000 people, and Zhang Xi and Zhao Yun combined were only 15,800 people.

It is impossible to continue the plan to delay Cao Zhen's return to the army, and what needs to be done now is how to reduce the offensive pressure for Tongguan.

The best way is naturally to open a bloody road, pass through Cao Zhen's main army, and directly enter Tongguan with 10,000 infantry.

As long as there are enough troops to support Tongguan, then holding Tongguan is not a problem.

As for the remaining amount of grain and grass in the Wei army, Zhang Xi estimated that as long as he could hold on for another four or five days, Cao Zhen would run out of food, and at that time, there would be no need to fight, and the Wei army would inevitably collapse.

This is the optimal solution to the current situation.

But the problem is that Cao Zhen is not a fool, and he would let Zhang Xi lead his troops into Tongguan so easily.

More than 40,000 troops, enough to surround the front of Tongguan, Zhang Xi wants to break through Cao Zhen's interception and enter Tongguan, no matter how you think about it, it is a very difficult thing.

The suggestion given by Zhao Yun was to use the Liangzhou cavalry to open the way, and use the impact of the cavalry to cut through a passage among the Wei army's infantry to cover the infantry led by Zhang Xi to enter Tongguan.

This trick is either impossible, or very risky.

The 5,000 cavalry can inflict a lot of casualties if they exert their mobility on the battlefield, but if they go straight into the enemy's defensive depth, the end is basically not much better.

In case it does not penetrate the enemy's defense, let the enemy army come to a counter-encirclement. That's a big loss.

Another one, Cao Zhen is not without cavalry in his hands, he also has a light cavalry team of about 8,000 people.

Although it was a defeated army, it retreated all the way and did not have a good rest, and the combat strength was not very good, but it was also cavalry.

It's really urgent, Cao Zhen forced these cavalry to go to the battlefield to stop Zhao Yun's Liangzhou cavalry, even if it can't be completely blocked, but it can also weaken the impact of the Liangzhou cavalry on the infantry.

Therefore, after thinking about it, Zhang Xi felt that Zhao Yun's method was really not good.

Whether it can be done or not depends entirely on the destiny of heaven.

Regarding this, in fact, Zhao Yun also recognizes, but. In addition to this method, does Zhang Xi have any other way to quickly support Wei Yan, who is holding on to Tongguan?!

Once Wei Yan can't hold the Tong Pass and let these Wei troops withdraw safely to the pass, it will not be a matter of life and death for Wei Yan and the three thousand defenders, but a matter of the failure of the entire Zuo Fengyi's battle plan.

Therefore, although it is very risky, it depends on the destiny of heaven whether it can be achieved or not, Zhao Yun believes that it is still necessary to give it a try.

Regarding Zhao Yun's statement, Zhang Xi has no way to refute it, and now there seems to be no other way except this method.

But Zhang Xi still made a slight modification to the plan in the end.

The tactics of letting the cavalry raid and the infantry keep up with it are too simple, and it is easy for Cao Zhen to perceive the purpose, so it must be slightly modified.

This led to a situation early the next morning, Zhang Xi's infantry was still standing still in the battalion, but Zhao Yun led the army around Cao Zhen's flank.

Cao Zhen was a little confused about the way of using soldiers like the Shu thief for a while. Could it be that the Shu thieves want to use cavalry harassment to prevent themselves from launching an attack on Tongguan?!

If the army was less than half, Cao Zhen might not dare to act rashly. But now the enemy has 5,000 cavalrymen, and he has more than 40,000 foot soldiers plus 8,000 cavalry.

Cao Zhen thought for a moment and decided to divide the troops.

Wang Chang continued to lead 20,000 infantry to attack Tongguan, Dai Ling led 10,000 foot soldiers, and Han De led 8,000 cavalry to intercept Zhao Yun's troops.

As for himself, he led the remaining more than 10,000 infantry to continue to confront Zhang Xi's 10,000 infantry to prevent Zhang Xi from making any more moths.

The troops are enough for Cao Zhen to dispatch. If it weren't for the serious shortage of grain and grass in the army, then Cao Zhen would really be sure that he would have a showdown with Zhang Xi under Tongguan.

It should be said that Cao Zhen's dispatch was not problematic, not only taking into account the actual threat of the cavalry, but also taking into account the possible response of Zhang Xi.

In this regard, Zhang Xi was actually in the military tent, and he was a little scratching his head.

According to the battle plan discussed by Zhang Xi and Zhao Yun, it was Zhao Yun who led the cavalry to fight with mobility, attacked and harassed Cao Zhen's flank and middle road, and mobilized the Wei army in these two positions.

After the Wei army in these two places was partially transferred, Zhao Yun used the mobility of the cavalry to throw off these Wei troops and turn to the Wei army defense in front of Tongguan, and at that time, Zhang Xi would also lead the infantry in the battalion to quickly follow, break through the enemy's defense line in one fell swoop, break into Tongguan, and join Wei Yan to defend.

To be honest, this trick is actually not a good strategy, that is, it is a little bit more than Zhao Yun's method of forcibly assaulting and tearing apart the defense line, but it is really not clever, and it is easy to be recognized.

But the problem is still the same problem, you can't watch Wei Yan lose Tongguan, you must support Wei Yan's feint as soon as possible, and it can improve the success rate of Yicheng's breakthrough, which is also good.

But now, as soon as Zhang Xi saw Cao Zhen's response, he knew that he had made a bad move.

Cao Zhen has sufficient troops and a calm dispatch, and there seems to be no room for any scheming except for a hard encounter.

Zhao Yun's cavalry could no longer be counted on.

Facing the blocking of 8,000 light cavalry was already difficult for Zhao Yun to deal with, not to mention that there were 10,000 infantry soldiers behind the 8,000 light cavalry. The infantry soldiers may not be able to intercept the cavalry head-on, but as a countermeasure, it may still be possible to cooperate with the cavalry to intercept Zhao Yun's marching route.

As for Wei Yan, although he would not face the all-out attack of the 40,000 Wei army, he still had to face the attack of the 20,000 Wei army led by Wang Chang.

And Zhang Xi himself also needs to face the frontal containment of more than 10,000 soldiers led by Cao Zhen himself. If you want to break through the interception and enter Tongguan, there is no second way to choose except for frontal hard fighting.

Since this is the case, Zhang Xi gritted his teeth, so let's fight!!

Although he has been seeking stability all his life, when he encounters this kind of situation where he really has no choice but to fight, Zhang Xi also knows that he can't be cowardly.

The whole army went out of the camp, lined up, and launched a full-line attack on Cao Zhen's department.

This time there is no way back, we must break through Cao Zhen's obstruction, enter Tongguan, and rescue Wei Yan.

Zhang Xi was ruthless, and Cao Zhen was also energetic.

For a long time, Cao Zhen has never been like this, face to face, with a field command to fight the winner. Before, he was either going around in circles with Zhang Xi, or fighting siege warfare.

Other ways don't mention who has more clever means for the time being, but in the face-to-face field command, Cao Zhen doesn't think that he will be inferior to a scholar.

Therefore, Cao Zhen did not stay behind, and the whole army pressed on him, and collided with the 10,000 foot soldiers led by Zhang Xi.

Then, it was time for the respective command level to compete.

Zhang Xi doesn't need to ask, as an offensive breakthrough party, he must have adopted a front-arrow formation to attack.

As for Cao Zhen, in this case, he did not lose his cool and let the whole army respond to the battle in a semi-circular formation.

It's not that Cao Zhen doesn't want to defend with a circle formation, the main thing is . Behind him is the siege Wei army under Wang Chang's department, where does Cao Zhen need to guard against the situation behind him, he only needs to meet the enemy head-on, and the semi-circle formation is enough.

Moreover, this can also strengthen the defense forces in local areas, although the operation is not as smooth as the circle formation, but in the current situation, it is actually not much worse.

As soon as this happened, Zhang Xi's attack suddenly fell into a state of frustration.

The front arrow formation, what is important is the speed of an attack, so in the front army, Zhang Xi arranged a lot of troops for the attack, and Cao Zhen's semi-circular formation also saw this, and hoarded a large number of defensive forces in the offensive direction of Zhang Xi's front army.

In such a battle of more than 10,000 people, it is almost impossible to quickly distinguish the winner in a short period of time.

And with the passage of time, if the attacker is unable to open up the situation for a long time and the offensive does not progress, the morale of the army will inevitably decline and even waver.

Therefore, Zhang Xi was working hard to command, constantly adjusting the offensive direction of his front army, looking for the weak points of the defense of Cao Zhen's soldiers.

And Cao Zhen also has a very clear understanding of the combat strength of the soldiers under his command, seeing that Zhang Xi is constantly adjusting the direction of the attack, he is also constantly adjusting the direction of the deployment of this army, so as to deal with the attack of Zhang Xi's army.

As time passed, Zhang Xi slowly discovered that his offensive troops really couldn't attack the defense line arranged by Cao Zhen.

In this, of course, there are reasons why Cao Zhen is well commanded, and part of the reason is that . Zhang Xi found that in terms of the organization and combat power of the soldiers, the county soldiers led by him were really not the opponents of the soldiers commanded by Cao Zhen.

This made Zhang Xi very surprised.

You must know that along the way, Cao Zhen is in the process of withdrawing and retreating, and in this case, the morale of the army will not be too high.

And his own soldiers, although they have also experienced a long battle, but the defenders of the city must have an advantage over the besieging side, plus the pursuit of this way, the morale of the army has already been raised. You can't beat each other?!

And for no other reason. The more than 10,000 soldiers that Cao Zhen left behind to guard by his side were all the Great Wei forbidden army.

(End of chapter)