Xiahou Yuan pursued the strategy of high military speed, and marched from Shu County to Wanshui with great speed. However, in two days, he led the army to climb over the rugged rocks, trailers and other mountain roads, crossed the diving of the water level drop, and arrived at the Longfeng Pavilion in the flat terrain of Anhui City.

Anhui City is located in Anhui, the impact of the two rivers on the plain, the south of the city lake thousands of acres, and the Anhui water circulation; The terrain in the north of the city is flat, the water and soil are fertile, the people multiply, gather the people to set up pavilions, and the name is Longfeng. However, with the frequent wars, not only the city of Anhui was deserted, but Longfeng Pavilion was also gradually dispersed, and the people took refuge in the mountains.

Xiahou Yuan led his troops to the west bank of Wanshui, and chose the same as Huo Jun, not to settle in the deserted Anhui City, but to camp on the hill west of Longfeng, ready to confront Huo Jun across the Wanshui.

The next day, to Xiahou Yuan's surprise, Huo Jun chose to take the initiative to attack.

Xiahou Yuan rode his horse on the low mountain, and he looked out with sound eyes, only to see the small warships of the Jingzhou Navy Division like the dexterity of fish, lightly cutting through the water and shuttling between the Anhui waters.

As the ships approached the shore, the soldiers stepped on ankle-length underwater boats, carrying bows, crossbows, knives and guns from the boats, and then carrying light carts. Busy back and forth, the river was muddy by hundreds of Jingzhou soldiers. The officers who were the first to land shouted and urged the soldiers to line up on the water as soon as possible.

Seeing this scene, Xiahou Yuan laughed and said: "Before I was ordered to go south, Ming Gong told a certain person that Huo Jun was a famous general in Jingzhou, known as a military strategy, and he was bold and able to fight, so let Yuan be careful. ”

"I thought it would be a tough battle, but now I didn't expect Huo Jun to follow Han Xin's example in the water formation, and the whole army crossed the river, don't bully me into not knowing the military affairs? If all the generals of Jing Chu are like this, they will be able to unify the world by calming the north and waving their troops to the south. ”

Huo Jun's manipulation made Xiahou Yuan laugh out loud, he was familiar with military strategy, and he knew the subtlety of Han Xin's array near the water. Han Xin lined up at the waterfront, lured the enemy out of the dangerous place, lured him to attack, and then led the cavalry to take the opportunity to attack the camp, so that he could succeed in one fell swoop.

Now Huo Jun is near the water, but he is crossing the river under his nose, and he can break the enemy by using cavalry to attack halfway.

Xiahou Yuan stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Wen Ze, this can be attacked halfway!" ”

Yu Ban took a closer look and commented: "Overseer, Huo Jun sent hundreds of elite people, and the outside column was light and carrying, so as to prevent our army's cavalry from charging into battle." ”

In the forbidden field of vision, a tent 'Huo' flag was raised on the bank, Huo Du commanded six hundred elite troops to begin the formation, only to see the Jingzhou soldiers relying on the Wanshui River beach, a hundred steps away from the water array, but unexpectedly using the arc formation, the two light cars hugging the river, with the Anhui water as the moon string, vaguely showing the shape of the moon.

Seeing that, Yu Ban frowned slightly, pointed to Huo Du's headquarters, and said: "Overseer, Huo Jun crossed the river and lined up, although he was mediocre, but he was prepared. It formed a formation with light chariots, with its back to the river, and the six hundred men had already formed a formation, and they should be attacked quickly. ”

Xiahou Yuan held his sword and pondered, and said: "Six hundred people are not afraid to form a formation, let Huo Jun cross the river with another thousand people, and attack halfway." ”

After a pause, Xiahou Yuan said in a deep voice: "Order Zhang Xi to lead the cavalry to line up the whole army, and Wen Ze to organize the infantry to wait to kill the enemy." Let people send a message to Sun Yu and ask him to send a water master from the mouth of Anhui to attack Huo Jun's headquarters. ”

Xiahou Yuan led 7,000 cavalry to the south, with 2,000 cavalry and 5,000 soldiers, all of whom were elite warriors. He can have the confidence to defeat Huo Jun, and he doesn't take Sun Yu in his eyes, he relies on the two thousand cavalry.

"No!"

With a sneer, Xiahou Yuan said: "This governor wants Huo Jun to know what a famous general is, not to kill a few wastes, and to pacify Shui Kou can be called a famous general." ”

"Hurry up!"

Huo Du stood on the light car, nervously watching the Cao army cavalry gathered in the distance, and urging the soldiers to quickly arrange the car formation.

Although the chariot withdrew from the historical stage of frontal combat in the Qin and Han dynasties, it has been retained in the military sequence and was still used in the army until the Ming and Qing dynasties.

During the Han-Hungarian War, the Han army also invented new tactics of chariots, such as the famous general Wei Qing, who fought against the enemy with chariots and cavalry as the left and right wings.

Liu Yu, Emperor Wu of the Southern Song Dynasty, was also proficient in chariot fighting, using the waterfront array to lure the enemy to take the bait, and line up the chariot formation to break the enemy's coquettishness, and counterattack the 30,000 troops of the Northern Wei Dynasty with 3,000 cavalry, so as to be famous in the Central Plains.

Huo Jun was born in Jingchu and came from later generations, so he naturally studied the tactics of famous generals of the past dynasties in depth during the period of commanding the army. Qi Dashuai's small mandarin duck formation, crisscrossing hills and ravines, he can defend Pengze City, and the mandarin duck array has made great contributions; Serving as the Taishou of Poyang, stationed troops in Sang Luozhou, and faced the Cao army that might fight, Huo Jun naturally went to study Emperor Liu Wudi's Moon Formation.

With the experience of commanding troops, and then studying the moon formation, Huo Jun has a different understanding and experience. However, the essence of the moon array is a variant of the vehicle array, and combined with the tactics of water warfare, under the combination of the two, the moon array exposes the disadvantages of the vehicle array, that is, it lacks mobility and belongs to the form of positional warfare.

However, this is also the essence of the moon array, Emperor Liu Wu discovered this shortcoming, and made up for this, that is, the use of the water array, luring the enemy to attack half-crossing.

It's easy to see why a half-cross is the best time to attack. If you attack the river crossing sergeant too early, the results will not be maximized; If the attack on the sergeant crossing the river too late is too late, the army formation will not be easy to overcome, so the Pareto optimal solution that will maximize the results of the battle is actually attacked.

Emperor Wu took advantage of this wittily, just as Huo Jun was doing at the moment, sending a small number of elites to join the chariot formation, to whet the opponent's appetite, and let the other party expect his side to send more troops, but to attack it.

But once the formation is formed, the opponent will realize that the formation of the army has been formed, and it must be attacked immediately, otherwise it will be difficult. However, after the formation of the chariot was completed, and the sergeants were arranged, how could they be defeated so easily.

"Bow and crossbow, tree wolf and hook."

Huo Du stepped on the light car, looked at the front of the smoke and dust, wiped the sweat on his forehead, and shouted.

In the face of the assembled cavalry, not only Huo Du was too nervous, but the six hundred soldiers under his command were also hurriedly arranging the car formation. Six hundred elite foot soldiers, a total of 100 light vehicles, six people with a car, two with wolves, four with knives and spears, relying on light vehicles to fight. The wolf is still easy to use in the car formation, with its huge body and dense branches, it can not only be used as a horse rejection, but also increase the morale of its own soldiers.

As for the hook lock on the light car, it is to enhance the stability of the car formation, and it is not easy to be broken through by the foot soldiers.

On the river beach, the moon formation gradually took shape, but Huo Jun on the warship did not press the flag, and only 600 people were left alone in the north of the river. And on the east bank of the Anhui River, Cao's cavalry gathered one after another in the distance, leading to nothing, as if waiting for something.

"General, Huo Zhonglang has raised the big red flag!" The squire shouted as he leaned against the ship's wall.

Huo Jun saw a big red flag rising in the moon array, which represented the meaning of the formation.

"Come on, raise the flag and send the high school department ashore!"

"No!"

The military flag fluttered, and the boats floating on the Anhui River carried thousands of foot soldiers close to the east bank, and these soldiers either went ashore through the pedals, or stepped on the shore of the Anhui River, carrying crossbows and arrows, and carrying twenty bed crossbows ashore, wading on the water to make a splash.

After the moon formation is deployed, in order to resist the enemy's charge, it is necessary to equip the corresponding crossbow and strong bow to protect the army formation and kill and wound as many enemy troops as possible.

Xiahou Yuan, who was looking at the formation, saw another group of sergeants coming ashore, and then looked at the formation of the car formation, and knew that he could not let these soldiers finish the formation.

"Quickly let Zhang Xi lead a thousand cavalry to test, Wen Ji led a thousand cavalry to press the formation behind, and ordered Yu Ban and Biqiu Xing to rectify the soldiers and prepare for battle."

"No!"

The sound of drums came from the silent mountain plains, waking up the sleeping mountains. The sound of horses' hooves and shouts resounded one after another in the field.

Huo Jun couldn't help but prop his hands on the wall of the ship, watching the battle on the east coast. In front of his eyes, the banners on the hillside were like clouds, and the yellow sand was rolling on the field. The soldiers and horses of Cao's army spread out among the low mountains and hills, and slowly pressed towards the Qiyue array on the river beach.

"Let's go!"

Zhang Xi rode his horse and galloped, and more than 1,000 horsemen surrounded the car formation and slowly pressed on. In order to prevent the crossbow from being hidden in the car array, Zhang Xi ordered dozens of rangers to ride in front of him to test the bottom of the car array.

The east bank of Anhui is flat, the water and grass are abundant, the rangers gallop between the grass and the horses' hooves, and the grass splashes. Approaching the car formation, the rangers were cautious and did not dare to get too close.

In the car array, Huo Du looked at the approaching rangers and shouted loudly: "Shoot it with a soft bow and arrows, and you can't use a strong bow and a hard crossbow." ”

Under the command of Huo Du, the chariot array shot arrows sparsely at the approaching rangers, and the soft bows and arrows were not lethal, and those rangers found that the bows and crossbows of the Jingzhou army were weak and weak, and sent the arrows to Zhang Xi.

Zhang Xi increased his troops, and then sent 200 more horsemen, but the Jingzhou chariot array still shot weak bows and arrows. He was overjoyed immediately, ordered a thousand horsemen to go into battle, and sent the battle report to Xiahou Yuan.

"Kill!"

The cavalry began to accelerate, and the roar of the horses' hooves rumbled, deafening, and the momentum shook the sky, pouring in like a torrent, and the dust flew into the sky.

While galloping, Cao Jun's cavalry was quite excited, holding a longbow in his hand, ready to go.

Cao's cavalry circled the formation, flew out, broke through the air, and shot into the formation. Seeing that it was another soft bow and arrow, he rode a horse again and slowly approached, and another wave of horsemen shot out.

"Shoot!"

Huo Du saw through the gap that the cavalry was less than sixty paces, and shouted vigorously.

After the car formation, the crossbowmen lined up in two rows pulled the crossbow machine, and the sour bowstring sound suddenly exploded, and hundreds of strong bows and hard crossbows shot out, accompanied by a piercing sound of breaking the air, and fell into the array of Cao's cavalry.

The water battle is especially heavy on bows and crossbows, and how can the Jingzhou army not have strong bows and crossbows, and they are proud of the enemy in array, planning a blow, and shooting the enemy horseman. At such a close distance, how could these Cao army cavalry, who were not armored cavalry, resist.

Even if you are dressed in fine iron armor or ordinary leather armor, you are vulnerable to the fires of armor-piercing crossbows. Whether it is the flesh of a horseman or a sturdy war horse, blood will be splattered and fall to the ground.

In an instant, a large number of horsemen fell to the ground with arrows, smoke and dust billowed up, and they were either killed on the spot or groaned in pain. But the worst thing was the cavalry in the front row, who were killed by arrows on the spot, and they didn't have time to make a sound.

"Withdraw!"

Zhang Xi shouted in horror: "The enemy has a strong bow, so don't attack easily." Let the Overseers order their foot soldiers to surround and break the formation on three sides. ”

After a volley of bows and crossbows, almost all of Cao's cavalry retreated timidly, not even daring to take care of their wounded colleagues. Just as the cavalry retreated, the crossbowmen in the front row took the heavy crossbows loaded in the back row, and shot a wave of arrows flying out, and a large number of cavalry soldiers fell with arrows. The second round of close salvo fire, the number of dead and wounded cavalry was as high as more than 300.

Zhang Xi couldn't help but say that Xiahou Yuan, who was watching the battle on the low mountain, was already furious, broke the piece of arrow sent by Zhang Xi, and shouted: "Quickly ordered Yu Ban, Biqiu Xing led the infantry to march quickly, broke the car formation, and drove them into the water with the strategy of attacking them halfway." ”

Xiahou Yuan can't be allowed not to be angry, if more than 300 cavalry are killed in normal fighting, it is okay, but so many cavalry casualties before the battle is taken, there is no doubt that he is slapping him in the face.

"No!"

"March!"

Yu was forbidden in the Chinese army and gave orders. Cao's infantry marched in formation, and the soldiers in the front row held large shields, forming a shield wall. The spearmen followed, raising their spears into a forest and slowly marching forward.

In Huo Jun's field of vision, he saw Cao Jun's foot soldiers solemn, the army formation was neat, the banner was orderly, and he exclaimed: "Cao Cao can do evil, but he relies on the elite foot soldiers under his account." If it is a battle in formation, and its infantry and cavalry are combined, our army will be difficult to win! ”

Although it was a preliminary confrontation, Huo Jun deeply felt that the Cao army was elite, if it weren't for his clever array near the water, luring the enemy to attack, and walking in the moon formation, with strong crossbows, it is estimated that nearly 2,000 foot soldiers in Jiangbei would have folded in the hands of Cao Jun.

However, the deployment of the moon array is the time when he overcomes the strong with the weak and breaks the Sun Cao coalition army.

"Someone!"

Huo Jun's expression was solemn, and he ordered: "Order Ding Feng to lead a thousand foot soldiers ashore, and be sure to hold the military formation; And let Shiren lead three hundred cavalry ashore, hide in the array, and wait for our army flag. ”

At the moment, he is not only at war with Xiahou Yuan, but also plotting against Sun Yu's army. Gan Ning led an elite 3,000 sailors, took a small boat to contain the danger of Anhui water, and fought against Sun Yu, who went upriver to assist Cao's army; Chen Yue led 1,000 people to go south with Huo Yuan, who was guarding Sangluozhou, with a total of 2,000 people, taking advantage of the emptiness of the Jiangdong Navy Division's camp and taking the opportunity to seize the ship.

Not counting the thousand people in Sangluozhou, 8,000 people and 4,000 people, Huo Jun and Xiahou Yuan fought against the soldiers and horses, only 4,000 people remained. Coupled with Xu Sheng's headquarters to cut off Xiahou Yuan's retreat, Huo Jun had less than 4,000 soldiers available to fight against Cao's army.

The 1,300 steps that are about to go ashore can be said to be the last force under Huo Jun's tent. The remaining hundreds of people stayed on the ship, ready to meet the elite sergeants in the Qiyue Formation.

As for the thousands of people commanded by Ding Feng, they are not veterans who have been fighting for a long time. It was only the elite thousand people he selected from the six thousand new soldiers, who were handed over to Ding Feng to command, with the chariot formation as the backing, and other elite infantry soldiers to suppress the formation, which could fight with the Cao army.

From this, it seems that Huo Jun's appetite is extremely great, and it seems that he has a tendency to swallow Sun Cao's coalition army. Huo Jun is actually severity, although Huo Jun has the Moon Array in hand, he does not dare to guarantee that he will be able to defeat Xiahou Yuan, so he has two purposes, to swallow Sun Cao's coalition army; If you retreat, you will drag Cao Jun and seek to capture Sun Yu and his sailors.

When Ding Feng and Shiren led their foot soldiers ashore, the foot soldiers under the command of Yu Ban and Biqiu Xing had already advanced from the three sides of the Qiyue Formation, and set up a shield wall to block the bows and crossbows fired by the chariot array; Shoot a crossbow inward, trying to inflict damage on the soldiers in the formation.

In the face of the approaching Cao army's military formation, seeing that the bows and arrows shot by the crossbow were blocked by the shield wall, the sergeants in the moon array launched a big killing weapon - a bed crossbow!

(End of chapter)