A relative and noble general like Cao Hong had a very high status in the Cao Wei regime and had a huge influence. During the Chuping period, Cao Gong was defeated at the Bian River and his troops were separated. Cao Hong had all his family members and contacted Chen Wen, the governor of Yangzhou who was friendly to Cao Hong, and recruited 2,000 troops on the Lujiang River. He then went to Danyang to obtain thousands more, which made Cao Gong's momentum slightly boosted.
In addition to Cao Hong, only Cao Ren and Le Jin came to support him at that time, and the troops of these two were only a thousand people. In other words, Cao Hong's subordinates accounted for more than half of Cao Gong's entire army. With this army, Cao Gong was able to defeat Yudu, Guan Gu, and Yu Fulu of the Huns. For their military merits, Yuan Shao was represented as the prefect of Dongjun.
Since then, Cao Gong's power has continued to expand, and Cao Hong's status has also risen. As early as more than ten years ago, he had already commanded tens of thousands of troops and held many important positions. He also served as the general of the magistrate and supervised the entire army. With his identity, no matter where he went, he was in charge and commanded military affairs. He did not have to lead thousands of cavalry and fight to the death on the battlefield.
But at this moment, Cao Hong personally led his army to charge forward. This was certainly due to Cao Pi's expectation to mobilize the elite troops of the entire army and earn his contributions to the battle, but it was also because of the numerous problems within Cao Wei that he had to do so.
Cao Pi led the Guanzhong Cao army back tens of thousands, and then suppressed Cao Zhang, unified the Cao army originally stationed in Wancheng, and successively gathered tens of thousands of defeated soldiers who had retreated from Xiangyang and Fancheng. If we do not consider the blow to morale by the painful defeat, this is still one of the few powerful heavy troops in the world.
Cao Pi then led the military drums and returned to Xudu and Yecheng, and gave up political and economic benefits at all costs. Finally, he stabilized the situation in the storm and then ascended the throne and became emperor.
Although the situation is temporarily stable, it is difficult to maintain for a long time. The benefits distributed can temporarily win the support of many powerful figures, but it is difficult to conquer people's hearts afterwards. The countless national worms who were originally firmly suppressed by Cao Cao once tasted the benefits, they immediately turned into monsters with unsatisfactory desires. In Cao Pi's eyes, it was that although there were many righteous people in the court, in fact, the government was corrupt and the government orders were always ineffective.
But in the past three years, natural disasters have continued to occur within the territory of Cao Wei. First, there were repeated rampant diseases in Luoyang, Xudu and other places, and then there was locust plague in Jizhou, which led to famine. The central government of Cao Wei had long been in internal and external difficulties, and could not even provide money to provide relief to the victims. In this case, Cao Wei relied on moving east and west to ensure military expenditures. In fact, he had the will but lacked the ability to train soldiers and promote talented and brave men.
Not to mention, among the hundreds of thousands of Cao troops, countless grassroots backbone soldiers were elite soldiers from all directions who had been strife in the east and west for many years. They were elite warriors who had been through the sea of ​​corpses and blood in the chaotic times and gained a foothold in the most cruel wars, and were not cultivated by daily training alone.
These soldiers suffered countless losses in the Battle of Jingxiang, and Cao Pi had to draw backbones from the team with still combat effectiveness to fill in other departments.
Because of these two reasons, although the total scale of the Cao Wei army can still maintain a huge number, its combat effectiveness is actually a continuous decline. The strong army that can wear armor and hold sharp weapons to fight tough battles against the wind is even more shrinking.
Last year, Sun Quan seized Liaodong, to a certain extent, it was indeed due to the tacit understanding between the Sun and Cao families. But how could the Cao family really sit idly by and watch the Sun family get benefits?
At that time, Cao Pi issued an order and dispatched the Taiwei Yu Jin, General Pingbei Xiahou Shang, General Huya Xian Yu Fu to dispatch 50,000 troops from Hejian, Bohai, Zhongshan, Anping, Julu and other places to go to Liaodong. Although it was a strategic deception of the Liu Bei regime, it did not stop when it came to the specific battle.
As a result, the 50,000 army advanced all the way on the plain, but in the end it could not do anything to the miscellaneous army formed by the Sun clan joining the troops of Gongsun Yu in Liaodong. What does this mean?
It represents the millions of powerful troops and thousands of tiger cavalry that Cao Wei is proud of. The decline is obvious! Such an army cannot even win the Sun army, so how can we strive for the great enemy in the world?
Finally, a long-time general like Cao Hong also has a group of old subordinates who can survive and die. The number is a little smaller, but this is really the old foundation that the Cao Wei regime can use.
At this time, the one who surrounded Cao Hong's head to attack was Cao Du's troops. Although this person was unknown, he had been with Cao Hong for a long time and was a general who dared to fight for the rest of his life. In addition, Cao Zhang's full Tiger and Leopard Cavalry Warriors who were transferred from his team were all tall and strong, wearing heavy armor.
Cao Du is already in his fifties. He is wearing black iron armor, an iron trouser, and covers his neck with a slight neck to cover his white hair and hair and frost. While galloping on his horse, he encouraged his companions around him and said, "If you don't have the intention to die, there is no reason to defeat him. If you want to die in battle today, you only want to die heroically!
As they spoke, the Iron Cavalry had approached the rear formation of Liu Bei's army.
Cao Du saw the high ground in the middle of the back formation. There was a tall middle-aged man in military uniform but not armored. He pressed his long sword on his waist with his forehand and stared at the torrent of the cavalry quietly.
That person must be Zhuge Liang! I will annihilate the enemy today and capture Zhuge Liang. I will be able to enter Chang'an City tomorrow and capture Liu Bei! By then... at least my descendants will have a future!
Cao Du laughed twice and shouted, "Kill! Kill!"
The next moment, dense crossbow arrows flew out of the Han army like dark clouds.
Cao Du immediately leaned over the horse's neck and raised the round shield that was tied to his left arm forward.
The sound of breaking through the air was heard, and several crossbow arrows hit the shield, causing continuous impact. A crossbow arrow fell from a high place and plunged into his thigh.
Cao Du added a chain mail under his waist armor, which covered it directly above his knees. But the iron ring was too big, and the slender crossbow arrow made of fine iron penetrated straight through the iron ring, penetrated into his thighs two or three inches deep, and blood immediately poured out, dyeing the entire chain mail red.
Cao Du cursed a few times and continued to ride his horse desperately. However, the dark clouds in the sky seemed to be dispersed, and the crossbow arrows continued to pour out like raindrops. An armored cavalry in front of Cao Du was killed in a row and died immediately, and his body was still falling together on the battle horse.
After he urged the horse to move forward dozens of steps, another crossbow arrow followed one after another and shot his mount in the face.
The war horse was in pain and neighed and jumped up. Cao Du was caught off guard and fell off the horse. Cao Du pressed his hand on the ground and was about to get up. Suddenly, he felt a severe pain in his vest. He was immediately trampled into meat paste by his own war horse following in the back row.
Cao Hong said in a deep voice: "Continue to move forward!"
Zheng Fu, who was the leader of the family army with Cao Du, originally led several subordinates to draw bows and shoot frequently. At this time, he waved his whip hard, whipping the war horses bloodied, and snatched Cao Hong in front of him.
Cao Hong's troops had more than a thousand people, and after running out of the gully, they were divided into two teams.
A small team was responsible for continuing to disturb Jiang Wei's troops, and the brigade rushed straight to the back formation where Zhuge Liang was located.
There are naturally crossbows in the back formation, and the number is not inferior to the front formation. Ten arrows are fired, only a hundred breaths are needed. Thousands of crossbowmen shoot in a volley, and tens of thousands of arrows are tilted within a 100 breath. Cao Hong has experienced many battles and has long known that this is not something that his cavalry team, which is short of thousands of people, can compete with.
As long as your side is hesitant about the progress, the Han army's crossbowmen can even be divided into two or three liners to shoot, forming an uninterrupted rain of crossbow arrows.
But Cao Hong did not hesitate. His plan was to go forward with all his might, creating a desperate aura, forcing the Han army's crossbowmen to do their best. He wanted to use all his lives and all his cavalry teams to launch a continuous attack, forcing the Liu Bei army's crossbowmen to use up ten arrows in one breath, and leave half a moment to Zhang Liao!
Such an assault is like a death sentence. It should not have been completed by a relative and noble like Cao Hong.
But at this critical moment, if the generals of relatives and nobles dare not die and do not want to die, how could other generals and even ordinary soldiers have the determination to fight to the death?
No one expected that Zhuge Liang would be so calm, and he did not expect that his excellent equipment would cause such damage to the cavalry. This battle was harder than expected. But if this battle was won, then the most dangerous moment would become the closest moment to victory!
I, Cao Zilian, enjoyed glory and wealth for decades, which is enough! Today, let everyone see the determination of the Cao clan relatives!
There were so many crossbow arrows in the Han army. In a trance, Cao Hong could not tell which crossbow arrows were flashing cold light, which were the broken snow and dust rising in the air. Cao Hong gasped heavily, held up his shield, and resisted the rain of arrows without a sound. The knight's determination seemed to have been passed to the war horse. The white horse under his crotch had been shot with an arrow, but he only neighed twice and continued to run wildly.
The crossbow arrows kept falling, and the knights in front were swaying and falling horses. The knights behind ignored the casualties and stepped past the dead and continued to approach forward.
In Cao Hong's sight, the Han crossbowmen kept pulling the crossbow machine, and the crossbow gradually changed from being shot to being shot. Zheng Fu, the leader of the sequel who was running in front of Cao Hong, suddenly pulled his horse and landed behind Cao Hong. Cao Hong turned his head and glanced at him, and saw that his chest and face were covered with crossbow arrows, like a hedgehog standing up.
"Continue to move forward!" Cao Hong muttered, ignoring him.
He noticed that the Han army's array began to adjust. The crossbowmen were shooting while retreating to the inner circle, while the spearmen quickly filled the big oars and shields arranged in the ground.
At this time, he was very close to the enemy formation. The soldiers surrounded Cao Hong abandoned their shields almost at the same time, turned to flattened up their long spears and spears, preparing to penetrate into the enemy formation with the speed of horses.
Cao Hong also put down his shield and bent down to get his spear.
At this moment, he saw several Han army sharpshooters holding longbows, still looking for targets in front. He saw a man looking straight at him, loosening his left thumb, and the arrows on the longbow flew out.
Good ejaculation. I wonder who this person is?
Cao Hong thought of it in an instant.
This confusing thought suddenly disappeared and severe pain came.
Cao Hong's consciousness disappeared into the vague and dark chaos.
While Cao Hong fell off his horse, Zhang Liao clamped the horse with both legs and gradually got up and started.
Chapter completed!