At this time, Cao Zhang, with the remaining less than 1,000 soldiers around him, had gradually retreated to the center of the camp.

All their grain and grass were piled up here, and Xu Shu brought five hundred people to guard here.

The terrain here is a gentle dirt slope at the top, only a few feet high, with a slight slope, but not very steep.

All the grain, grass and supplies have been transferred to the carts and transported to the dirt slope.

Although Xu Shu knew that Cao Zhang's arrangement was to win the trust of the Xiliang army and constantly introduce them into the ambush circle, the enemy's strong strength and large number of people, and the shouts of killing from all directions still made Xu Shu feel nervous!

Cao Zhang led the soldiers to quickly retreat up the dirt slope and stood on the edge of the dirt slope.

Cao Zhang realized that he had reached the limit of retreat and could not retreat any longer, so he calmly issued an order: "Ring Formation, Protection!" ”

The soldiers around Cao Zhang were the elite soldiers carefully trained by Xu Huang, but they were the most elite of Cao Zhang's troops on this expedition.

Cao Zhang also knew that it was very dangerous for him to be a bait, so he also allocated the best armor and equipment to these thousand soldiers.

Xu Huang's training of these soldiers is extremely strict, in addition to practicing various battlefield fighting techniques, he also often practices various formation tactics, so he is also very fast and proficient in operation.

Now there are enemies attacking in all directions, taking advantage of the terrain of the soil slope, forming a circular formation, protecting Cao Zhang and the grain and grass camp in the middle, and condescendingly blocking the enemy army, which is the best defensive formation.

When the soldiers heard Cao Zhang's command, they immediately acted quickly, some of them overlapped the round shields, and some of them stretched out the spears in their hands from the gaps in the round shields, staggered with each other, and quickly tightened to form a circular defensive array.

Cao Zhang stood in the ring formation with dozens of soldiers, as the second layer of defense, which could be mobilized at any time to supplement the destroyed outer ring defense.

This circular defensive array protected Cao Zhang, Xu Shu, and the grain and grass cart in the middle.

The ring array had just been arranged, and Li Shi's troops had already been killed, he looked at Cao Zhangjun who was in a defensive state in front of him, and was fierce, and pointed his sword at Cao Zhangjun: "Give me arrows, kill Cao Jun, kill Cao Zhang!" ”

The enemy army is only less than a thousand people, and in the concept of Li Shi, it only takes a moment to kill them all, capture Cao Zhang, and take revenge!

Following Li's order, the Xiliang army first launched a round of attacks with bows and arrows.

The ring array effectively protected Cao Zhang and the others in the center of the earth slope and the soldiers hiding behind the round shield, and there were no big casualties.

Li Shi, who was outside the ring formation, couldn't help frowning, and immediately gave the order to charge: "Rush!" ”

Under Li Shi's command, the soldiers of the Western Liang Army brandished their spears and launched a fierce attack on the circular formation of Cao Zhang's army.

Xu Shu stood in the middle of the ring formation, although the first round of enemy bow and arrow attacks was tightly defended, it still caused a trace of panic in his heart.

Although Cao Zhangjun is elite, they are facing the elite of the Xiliang Army several times their size, and he really has no bottom in his heart whether they can withstand the second round of impact.

The soldiers of the Western Liang Army attacked the ring array one after another, but the defense of the ring array was very good, and Cao Zhang's army was extremely well armored and weaponized.

They also had the advantage of terrain and condescending defense, and the impact of the Xiliang army could not break through at all, but was killed and injured by Cao Zhangjun's spears constantly piercing from the gaps.

Li Shi was anxious when he saw this, he didn't expect that the defense composed of thousands of people would be so difficult to break.

"Cavalry charge!" Li Shi gave an order that bordered on madness!

On the battlefield, spearmen have always been able to inflict a certain amount of damage on cavalry, so it is easy not to attack the cavalry head-on with spearmen, because this will cause more casualties among cavalry.

But now Li Shi has completely lost his cool, and when the infantry cannot break through the defense of the ring formation, he decided to use the strong impact of the Xiliang cavalry to break through the ring formation and open a breakthrough.

Anyway, his current strength is far superior to Cao Zhang, even if he sacrifices some war horses and cavalry, but he can kill Cao Zhang, he will not hesitate to pay any price!

Several Xiliang cavalry lined up, and after pulling a certain distance, they launched a charge towards the ring formation on the dirt slope.

This shock mode uses the horse's speed and inertia to create a powerful impact.

Li Shi hoped that he could use this impact to break through the defense of the ring formation.

Boom!

After the war horse collided with the round shield array, the Cao soldiers behind the round shield received the impact and fell backwards.

Although the horses and horsemen were also stabbed by the spears sticking out of the gaps at the same time as the impact, the simultaneous impact in all directions still knocked the ring array open countless gaps.

Although Cao Zhang immediately commanded the soldiers around him to replenish, the number of the Xiliang army was too much, and the war horses were like waves at high tide, constantly impacting wave after wave, and the ring array gradually became unable to resist, and there was a danger of being washed away immediately!

Seeing that the situation was critical, Xu Shu quickly rushed to Cao Zhang, who was commanding the battle, and said in a low voice: "Childe, the enemy army is strong, can you send a signal to let General Duan and Gongming attack?!" ”

Cao Zhang was on a high place, raising his eyes to look into the distance, judging the situation of the Xiliang army.

The entire camp was covered with torches, so that he could clearly see the situation of the enemy army, and nearly half of the 30,000 Xiliang troops were still rushing towards the camp and had not completely entered.

Cao Zhang wanted the main force of the Xiliang Army to be annihilated, so he said firmly: "Don't worry, wait, wait until the Xiliang Army enters the camp!" ”

"Is that for my five hundred soldiers to join the defense, and now I won't be able to withstand it immediately?" Xu Shu proposed to Cao Zhang.

"Good!" Cao Zhang knew that delaying for a while at this time would allow more Xiliang troops to enter the ambush circle, so he decisively agreed to Xu Shu's suggestion.

Xu Shu quickly waved his hand, and the five hundred soldiers he was responsible for guarding the food were also quickly replenished and joined the defense of the ring formation.

It's just that the number of Xiliang Army is too much, and the addition of these five hundred people is equivalent to a drop in the bucket, and it can't play any role at all, and the gap in the ring formation is still increasing.

Li Huan also rushed to the side at this time and came to Li Shi's side.

He saw Li Shi ordering the cavalry to attack the ring formation in a suicidal way at any cost, and shouted in distress: "Shi'er, what are you doing here!?" ”

The Xiliang army is famous for the fierceness of its cavalry, and in this period of scarce resources, it takes a lot of money and energy to train a war horse and a knight.

Li Shi is so crazy about consumption, how can Li Huan not be sad!?

Li Shi pointed at Cao Zhangjun in the ring formation on the dirt slope with his finger, and responded to Li Huan loudly: "Uncle, take a good look, Cao Zhangjun's grain and grass materials are here, and he has already transferred the last troops guarding the grain and grass to defend!" As long as we break away from his formation, we can kill Cao Zhang, what is it to sacrifice a little military horse and knight!? ”

Li Huan listened to Li Shi's explanation, turned his head to look at the ring array, and sure enough, he saw that the situation was just as Li Shi said, and Cao Zhangjun had fallen into a desperate situation.

Li Huan is no longer entangled, after all, he killed Cao Zhang, repelled Cao's army, and snatched grain, grass, and baggage, which is enough to make up for the current losses.

"Kill!" Li Huan brandished his war knife and also gave the command to impact loudly.

The two generals of the unified army issued an attack order together, and the Xiliang army was like crazy, wielding spears and broadswords, and launched an attack towards the ring formation from various gaps.

At this time, the ring formation had been completely dispersed, and the soldiers of Cao Zhang's army had lost their formation and fell into the final bitter battle.

"Childe, give the order!" Xu Shu urged Cao Zhang, the situation was already quite critical at this time.

Cao Zhang looked up and looked around, it was the heads of the soldiers of the Xiliang Army who were pressed by the black, and now the number of enemy troops entering Cao Zhang's army camp had definitely reached its peak.

"Put the signal!" Cao Zhang no longer hesitated, and decisively gave the order to attack!