Not enough, but enough.
This sounds confusing, but Zhang Liao did not show a confusion. He felt that Cao Hong had something to say, so he waited quietly.
The ravine they were in was not very wide, and they were in a corner that just avoided the Han army's sight. Thousands of cavalry stood inside, with their heads touching the horse's heads, their legs hitting the horse's legs, shoulder to shoulder, and densely occupied the space. Because there were many people and horses, the heat from the people and horses slowly rose, condensed into a faint white mist in the cold wind, and slowly drifted away by the wind.
Several overly active war horses shook their tails, but ended up throwing on the side of the war horse. The war horses on the side were alarmed, and their four hooves were about to neigh. The knights quickly tried their best to comfort them, took out the special feed and fed them to the war horses little by little.
Except for the words between man and horse, there is completely silent between man.
The soldiers present were all close elites of Cao Hong and Zhang Liao. Over the past many years, they had been well-mannered by the commander and had far more gold, silver and wealth than others. More than half of the soldiers were given the position of Hu Benlang this time by the emperor, so that they could protect their family and offspring.
Why are they treated so kindly? Naturally, they are to die at the most critical moment.
It's now.
These old soldiers had extremely rich combat experience and knew the importance of maintaining physical strength before the war. No one moved around and few people spoke. Some people felt tired of standing, so they sat cross-legged on the ground, letting the horses bow their heads, and licked their salty turbans or faces intimately.
A cold wind blew in front of the ravines, and their armor and croakers were whimpering. The wind was very fierce, and occasionally the armor leaves moved, making a little light sound. The sound of the wind brought the sound of golden swords and iron horses, which was the cavalry that was storming rushed forward again.
The soldiers' expressions instantly became solemn.
This is the eighth team of cavalry that launched a storm. The first four teams were not damaged, and the fifth and sixth teams suffered heavy casualties and injuries. However, the sacrifice of these soldiers allowed Zhang Liao and Cao Hong to determine many data on the Han army's crossbow arrows.
The eighth team of cavalry could not escape the tragic ending. Their role was to attract the attention of the Han generals and create a gap created with their lives, that is, half a moment when the crossbows were installed with crossbow arrows.
This gap will be the opportunity for Zhang Liao and Cao Hong.
"Wenyuan, please see." Cao Hong stood up straight, took the pants on, pulled out the short knife from his waist, and wrote on the hard soil layer on the edge of the gully: "Jiang Wei's troops are about 2,500 people. This is the case for the crossbowman. This is confirmed. Xiang Chong's troops are about 2,500 people, and the formation is the same as Jiang Wei's troops, so the situation for the crossbowman is roughly the same."
Zhang Liao nodded: "That's right."
"The two battalions of men of that army set up two stacks of formations on the plain, which was obviously tempting us to attack their flanks, and used the hundreds of steps between the two formations as a killing field for crossbows to shoot in both directions."
Zhang Liao continued to nod.
For the sake of concealment, neither of the two men came to see the situation of the enemy. However, their combat experience was too rich. They could accurately estimate the status of the enemy by just listening to the fighting and drum mobilization with their ears, and they would never make any mistakes.
Cao Hong continued to gesture with a short knife. He used a lot of strength in his hands, and wherever the tip of the knife passed, hard earth and stone fell down.
"Since that happens, after a while, our troops will simply go first. I plan to divide the troops into two groups, and the right wing is responsible for restraining Jiang Wei. I personally lead the left wing to attack Xiang Chong's troops. Our troops are all iron armored heavy cavalry, and they eat three or five arrows in a row, and there is no obstacle in the air. They will be able to force the ten arrows of the troops to shoot all the crossbows... Then Wenyuan's troops followed the formation and cut into Xiang Chong's troops horizontally, causing them to fall into chaos. In the end, it depends on whether Ziwen's movements are fast enough."
"……good."
Cao Hong put his knife into the sheath. He looked at his own stroke plan and chuckled twice.
"In the first year of Chuping, I followed Meng De to fight against Dong. Later, in the thirty years, I followed the army to fight in all directions, pacifying Yanzhou, defeating Lu Bu, defeating Yuan Shao, conquering Liu Biao, and conquering Guanzhong. I fought for no less than a hundred times and killed hundreds of enemies with my own hands. Wen Yuan knew which time was the most dangerous?"
Zhang Liao shook his head.
"It was the time when we fought against Dong in the first year of Chuping! That time, our army was defeated by Xu Rong in Xingyang, and Meng De even lost his war horse, and Xu Rong's troops chased him. I gave up the good horse I rode to Meng De. Meng De was still twisted, so I told him that there is no Hong in the world, and he must be the king, so he should get on the horse and flee quickly." Cao Hong said this and sighed heavily: "Now, Meng De is dead, and the enemy is helpless. The situation in the world is so corrupt, what can I do?"
"After all, Zhuge Liang is a scholar. Even if he has the ability to manage the army, he cannot develop a talent for adapting to the situation out of thin air." Zhang Liao said slowly: "What we need to do is to guide the situation to chaos, seek victory in chaos and survive in chaos."
Not only this battle in front of him is the general trend of the world, but what Cao Wei asked for was just a word of chaos. Everyone believed that as long as they raid Chang'an and kill Liu Bei and his civil and military officials around him, the Liu Bei's regime could fall apart. Many local forces under Liu Bei rose up, and the world fell into chaos again, so they could find the possibility of rising again in the chaos.
But the problem is that the enemy army in front of us is clearly led by a scholar, but it has resisted the harassment of many parties continuously and is still unrest. And their crossbows are so terrible... If we sit down and watch them continue to play, our army will be in chaos first!
This forced Cao Zhang to send out powerful generals and powerful generals in advance, and invest more strength in an attempt to succeed.
"Yes... Seeking victory in chaos and living in chaos." Hearing Zhang Liao say this, Cao Hong laughed dryly.
Cao Hong was also a decisive warrior who had been through the battlefield for a long time, but now he seemed a little long-winded and always wanted to say something. But before he could speak again, a familiar crossbow buckle was heard in his ears, and the sound of the bowstrings buckled.
Zhang Liao stood up silently and put on his helmet. The thick helmet edge could not stop the terrible sound from continuously penetrated into his eardrums.
The Han army crossbow is a powerful weapon that can be used by one person, and its specifications are not huge. If it is a single hand, the sound of the plucking of the copper crossbow machine and the buzzing of the bow string are very slight. But thousands of crossbows are fired at the same time, and the crossbow machine repeatedly turns, which brings together the most terrifying sound of life-seeking. The sound of life-seeking was immediately overwhelmed by the sound of arrows breaking through the air and the screams of the Cao army soldiers.
Ten arrows are all set, only a hundred breaths.
Cao Hong jumped on his horse in an extremely agile posture and shouted loudly: "My soldiers, follow me!"
Countless knights rush onto the horse, speeding up instantly, like a boiling iron stream pouring into the open plain.
The angle and orientation of this Iron Cavalry assault were specially selected, which was different from the several places that the light cavalry had raided before, and almost went around to the side and rear of the two overlapping formations of the Han army.
The time when the Iron Cavalry appeared was undoubtedly beyond the expectations of the Han army. The knights were still more than 200 steps away, and there were arrows fired by longbows and crossbows with longbows flying out sporadically in the Han army formation.
These scattered arrows penetrated into the cavalry lined up in armor, just like using arrows to shoot the rolling river tides and waves, and almost useless. Occasionally, a knight fell into the ground with an arrow, and his companions around him kept horseback and stepped directly over his body.
Chapter completed!