After Gan Ning's defeat, although Zhang Liao still wanted to fight, Liu Fan still gave up his intention to continue the challenge. Seeing that his previous attempts had failed, he couldn't help but murmur to himself: "Although the mountains and rivers in Shu are dangerous, in the end...
I can’t trap the iron knights of the North!”
However, he did not intend to change his previous strategy of continuously consuming the Han army. However, after the failure of side attacks in the remaining battles, the focus of the battlefield fell on the frontal battle for the pontoon bridge.
The location of the pontoon bridge erected by the Han army was extremely clever. Chen Chong inspected the hydrology of the east coast and set it up on a terrain boundary. To the south of the pontoon bridge, there is a hilly forest that is 20 miles long. Even though it is the Mid-Autumn Festival, it is still a vast expanse of land.
The undulating green area makes the view extremely cramped and the movement very inconvenient, which is not conducive to the attacker's attack formation. To the north of the pontoon bridge is an extremely open and flat sandbank, which is enough for thousands of cavalry to gallop across it. Therefore, the Han army has already reached the sandbank.
Go up to build a fortification.
In this case, if the Shu army wanted to destroy the pontoon bridge, they had to cross the hills and open up their position. While withstanding the offensive pressure of the Han army's reinforcements on the west bank, they also took the lead in capturing the Han army's camp on the east bank. The difficulty was different from pulling out a tooth from a tiger's mouth. p>
Liu Fan discussed this matter with his staff. Everyone thought that since they had to attack, it was better to move the camp to the hills on the east coast for the time being, using the naval navy of the building as a shield to prevent the Han army from setting up ambushes in the forest. After the foothold was stable, they could then move to the hills.
Liu Fanshen thought it was appropriate to send troops to fight in turns.
The next day, the Shu army broke out of camp and crossed the river to the east, with Zhang Liao's 5,000 men as the vanguard, and Huang Quan leading fifty ships to guard the waterway. After crossing the river, the army marched along the river, climbing up hills and rocks. The distance to move the camp was not long.
It was only about thirty miles away, but because they were afraid of the Han army coming to attack, the Shu people walked very cautiously. Probably when it was getting dark, a gust of autumn wind blew, and the surrounding cypress and fir trees swayed and dropped their leaves. p>
Suddenly there was a flock of crows chirping, and people couldn't help but look up, but they didn't see the flock of birds. They only saw the extremely dark sky. The thick clouds in the east rushed to the west like surging waves, suppressing the faint shadow of Mount Emei in the distance.
The clouds appeared dark red, as if wrapped in coagulated blood, which gave them a bad omen.
Fortunately, there was no surprise. Zhang Liao in front did encounter some Han army scouts, but the two sides did not engage in a large number of battles. After the Han army saw the shadow of the huge ship on the river, they knew they were outnumbered and quickly retreated to the pontoon.
. This allowed the Shu army to march smoothly. After finally crossing the Nixi River, an open space of more than ten miles in radius was cut out on the riverside as a camp. The northwest end of the camp was less than four miles away from the Han army's pontoon bridge.
The army can be said to be as close as a foot, within reach.
After spending about three days repairing the fortress, everything was ready. Liu Fan asked the generals who was willing to test it first. At this time, Dong He, the Pingyi general who led the Nanzhong army, asked for orders and said: "My subordinates have been in Nanzhong for a long time.
, I have been fighting with the southern barbarians for more than ten years, and I am especially good at wandering. I have never fought with the enemy before, so how can I dare to fall behind now."
Liu Fan looked at Dong He and thought that he still had secret weapons in his army that could be used to intimidate the Han army. He immediately nodded in agreement and said with a smile: "If you have a young slaughterer, the Northern invaders will be frightened!"
/p>
Early the next morning, although the sky was still cloudy, the sunshine was still charming. The slightly warm light touched everything on the earth, and there was an indescribable silence flowing. But the silence was quickly broken, and the Han army felt a slight noise on the ground.
It shook, and the woods not far away also began to sway from side to side. The veterans in the Xifu Army all knew what this meant. No need for the officers to say more, they had already spontaneously picked up their knives and prepared their swords, and formed formations in the camp to wait.<
/p>
Sure enough, after about a while, the faint trembling on the ground turned into a clearly audible sound of stepping on leaves. In the shadow of the slightly yellowed dense forest to the east, people walked out one after another and began to form an array on the ground. For a moment, the cyan flags were raised.
Gradually, the forest opened up, and the two armies were only a few arrows away. The sharp-eyed Han army could even see the Shu soldiers holding large shields, wearing hoods on their heads, and wearing leather armor, and they all showed angry faces. The person responsible for guarding the camp on the east bank was Yang Fu. He looked at the Shu army's formation and found that only about 6,000 people came from the other side. It was obviously a probing attack rather than a desperate fight, but there was no way for the rear to attack.
In the distance is the Shu army camp. If the battle shows signs of decline and the opponent takes advantage of the victory and sends troops to turn it into a decisive battle, it is not difficult. He secretly thought in his heart that if he can beat the Shu people hard with this one move, many things will happen later.
Easy to handle.
So he rode his horse into the military formation and sent orders to the five thousand Han cavalry on the east bank. He planned to charge the Shu people when they were not yet secure and force them back into the jungle. During this period, the Han army had been passive.
To defend, if you hear that you can take the initiative to attack, don't gear up and get on your horse. As the drums symbolizing the march sounded in the military camp, hundreds of knights suddenly shouted one after another, and then whipped at the horses under them, and thousands of pairs of horse hooves were wet.
On the ground, several yellow-red mud spots splashed up, crackling on people's boots, legs and even clothes.
The Han cavalry shouted wildly and rushed towards the Shu army. They were greeted by bursts of arrows from the Shu army. A row of arrows fell down and were resisted by the armored forwards. They quickly rushed into the Shu people, and as they followed
Wave after wave of knights came in behind them, and the archers who fired arrows quickly couldn't distinguish between ourselves and the enemy, so they could only put down their bows and fight the Han cavalry with their swords.
This group of Shu people who have been trained in Nanzhong for many years do have extraordinary combat power. When faced with the attack of the Han cavalry, they did not fight with the opponent, but actively evacuated, holding their shields high above their heads.
To resist the thrusts of the Han cavalry, they bent down and secretly cut the horses' legs. Once someone fell off the horse, they would swarm up, push the knights to the ground, and cut their throats like mowing grass.
But this was not enough to shake the Han army's advantage. After all, most of the Shu army wore rhinoceros armor, while many of the Han cavalry wore iron armor, which meant a qualitative gap between the two. The Han cavalry saw that the situation was not right.
They immediately changed their tactics. After getting close to the Shu people, they chose to dismount and fight on foot with their swords drawn. They formed small circles in ranks, and then gradually squeezed the Shu army's space to the north. Under the face-to-face hacking, there was no
There is room to play with skills, which is the collision of iron and iron, and the contest of will against will. However, both of these are the strengths of the Han army, and they are well aware of this.
After about half an hour of progress, the Shu army quickly showed signs of decline. After creating an obvious gap, some Han men mounted their horses and charged, driving the surrounding Shu people into the mountains and forests.
Yang Fu, who was commanding the battle from a distance, breathed a long sigh of relief. Once all the Shu people's formations were broken up, the Han army would achieve a complete victory.
But at this moment, a burst of monster howls pierced the sky. Some of the running Longshang army horses slowed down in surprise and puffed out white steam ominously. Soon, several Shu infantrymen were seen rushing out from behind.
A tall giant beast. These giant beasts are so tall that the horses in front of them are like playthings. The giant beast flutters its ears as big as lotus leaves, and vigorously shakes its long nose tied with a sharp blade. It may be hit by someone riding on its head.
Stimulated by the beast tamer, the giant beast roared continuously and charged forward with its huge pillar-like legs.
This is an elephant from Yongchang in Nanyi. The soldiers from the north have never seen such a huge beast before. The knights of Longyou were stunned by the sudden monster and could not figure out what kind of monster the animal in front of them was. And those
The Liangzhou horses, which are good at running in the ice and snow Longyuan, could not stand the roar of the elephant and the oppression of its huge body. Seeing the giant beast coming, they panicked and ran around. The knight on the horse wanted to rein in his mount, but failed.
Where can I live?
The frightened horses fled in all directions. The mahout, who was sitting on the top of the elephant and commanding him with spikes, urged the beast with all his strength and ran straight towards the densest part of the Han army. After three or two clicks, the elephant in front of him stepped on it.
In front of the gap, the Han cavalry here suddenly dispersed. The sound of cracking wood was heard, and the remaining wooden posts were trampled to pieces by the elephants.
The Shu people's elephant took this opportunity and continued to rush straight towards the panicked cavalry behind the Han army. It was like a sharp knife cutting into cheese. The frightened Han army cavalry all ran towards the back. Following the elephant, there was a sound of killing.
In the sky, some of the infantry and cavalry of the South Central Army, who had regained their strength, rushed out together. The Han army, which was the first to dismount and fight, was soon submerged in the torrent of Shu people's counterattack. If only a few people could survive,
He has become a prisoner of the Shu army.
Originally, the Han army was composed of cavalry, and fighting on the sandbank was just what they wanted. The elephants at the head of the army rushed rampantly, and the Han army's cavalry in front was rushed to pieces. Instead, they became the prey of the Liang people who rushed out like a mad swarm.
The bulky elephant, puffing out white steam, gradually stopped running and retreated slowly. The Shu army, which had gained confidence, continued to charge and attack the defeated Han cavalry, trying to continue to expand.
Advantages.
But fortunately, Yang Fu had already reported the news to the west bank before. Just when the Shu army began to besiege the Han army camp, the first batch of reinforcements from the west bank finally arrived. After Ma Chao took two hundred Fufeng cavalry to stand on the bank, they came from the flank.
When they attacked the Shu people, they saw that it was Ma Chao's flag, and some Shu people were also excited. After Gan Ning's defeat, they had many private discussions and called Ma Chao "the number one warrior in the North."
When Dong He learned that reinforcements from the Han army had arrived, he thought that he had achieved good results today and was a little greedy to defeat the camp, so he ordered the withdrawal. Only then did the Han army on the west bank, which was on the verge of collapse, gradually stabilize the situation.
They gradually gathered together and watched the Shu people slowly leave. Under the Shu people's footsteps, corpses as densely packed as pillows were gradually revealed.
Calculating the losses afterwards, the Han army lost more than 800 people in the first battle (either dead or captured), and more than 500 people were too injured to fight. The number of lightly injured people was only 300 or so from Shu.
Gains and losses cannot be compared at all. This is entirely due to the Shu people's elephants as a surprise soldier.
For a time, how to defeat this huge beast became a proposition that the Han army had to consider.