Enraged, Yuan Shao gave up his plan to rest in Changyi, commanded the army, and rushed to Pengcheng.
In order to avoid repeating the mistake of Chunyu Qiong being killed last time, Yuan Shao ordered his generals Zhang He and Gao Lan as the vanguard, leading 10,000 infantry and cavalry to attack Pei County. He himself led the main force and followed closely behind.
At the same time, he sent an order to the Yanzhou Mu Shen Pei. He asked the Shen Pei to leave some troops to guard Suiyang, while the rest rushed to Pengcheng to contain Liu Bei and prevent him from having the opportunity to reinforce Pei County and prevent Chen Deng from going north.
After receiving the order, Shen Pei left 10,000 men to guard Suiyang and personally led 20,000 infantry and cavalry to Pengcheng.
Almost at the same time, a Yuan army of about 20,000 men launched an attack from the direction of Qingzhou, with their swords pointed at Langya.
After Zang Ba heard the news, he sent his brothers Sun Guan and Sun Kang to Zhucheng and defended the area. He himself gathered his troops and garrisoned Kaiyang.
For a time, reconnaissance cavalry appeared in all directions, alarms were heard frequently, and the atmosphere in northern Xuzhou became extremely tense.
Zhang Fei, who was stationed in Pei County, received the news and learned that Zhang He and Gao Lan were leading his troops. He immediately summoned the tribesmen Cao Bao and Xu Dan to discuss the battle.
Cao Bao and Xu Dan were both from Danyang, Tao Qian's township party. They came to Xuzhou with Tao Qian and commanded the Danyang soldiers. The four thousand Danyang soldiers that Tao Qian gave to Liu Bei came from their command, and they are still the most important soldiers under Liu Bei's command today.
strength.
The atmosphere was originally quite harmonious.
Zhang Fei decided to lead 3,000 elite soldiers out of the city to set up an ambush, annihilate Yuan Shao's vanguard, undermine the morale of Yuan's army, and then defend the city. In order to ensure nothing was missed, Zhang Fei decided to take Xu Dan out of the city to fight, and Cao Bao would defend the city.
This decision originally had no problem. Although there are no mountains in Peixian County, there are rivers and lakes and reeds. It is late summer and early autumn. It is not difficult for Zhang Fei, who is familiar with the terrain, to find an ambush point.
Zhang Fei had experience fighting against Yuan's army. He knew that according to custom, Zhang He and Gao Lan would arrange one to two thousand people as the vanguard. The first was to gather information, pave roads and build bridges, and the second was to collect food and fodder, and force the people to serve as slaves.
They gathered under the city to cut wood and make weapons.
In order to facilitate movement, these vanguards have a relatively high proportion of cavalry, perhaps three to five hundred cavalry.
If this cavalry can be defeated and its horses captured, it will not only damage the morale of Yuan's army, but also enhance the strength of our own cavalry and replace a batch of horses.
After cutting off the source of war horses, the more than a thousand war horses brought by Liu Bei from Youzhou were aging seriously and needed to be replaced.
But a suggestion from Cao Bao caused differences between the two parties.
Cao Bao hoped that Tao Ying would be responsible for defending the city, while he would cooperate with Tao Ying. When necessary, he could lead his troops out of the city to assist Zhang Fei.
Zhang Fei got angry when he heard this and scolded Cao Bao severely.
Tao Ying is the eldest son of Tao Qian, and he also has a younger brother, Tao Shang. Tao Qian did not serve as an official when he was alive. After Liu Bei took over as the pastor of Xuzhou, he provided them with adequate living supplies, but never let them hold any positions. For this reason, Cao Bao,
Xu Dan and others couldn't stand it anymore and repeatedly proposed to let Tao Ying and Tao Shang take official positions, but Liu Bei rejected them for various reasons.
This time Yuan Shao came to attack, Liu Bei handed over the main force to Zhang Fei and asked him to guard Pei County. The Danyang soldiers were the absolute main force. Cao Bao thought he could take this opportunity to win a chance for Tao Ying, but he hit a wall.
He was even scolded by Zhang Fei, which made him very angry.
He wanted to argue with Zhang Fei, but Xu Dan stopped him.
Xu Dan said that General Zhang was brave enough to be worthy of all men, but Zhang He was insignificant, let alone one of their vanguards. Just defend the city, prepare food and wine, and celebrate General Zhang. There is no need to be so nervous.
Cao Bao reluctantly agreed.
Zhang Fei was very satisfied with Xu Dan's reaction and ordered all ministries to prepare.
After leaving the Chinese army's tent, Cao Bao couldn't help but ask Xu Dan what he meant.
Xu Dan said, "Liu Bei and his ministers were ungrateful. They got Xuzhou from Tao Shijun, but they were so mean to Tao Shijun's son and rude to you and me. Is it tolerable? Which one is intolerable?"
But there is no point in arguing. Neither you nor I are Zhang Fei's opponent. If he kills him for disobeying military orders, there will be no place to redress his injustice. You can't help but wait. I will accompany him out of the city to fight, and you will wait in the city.
Get food and drinks ready.
Zhang Fei is a good drinker. After returning from victory, he will definitely drink to celebrate. When the time comes, we will get him drunk and give it to Yuan Shao together with Pei County as a promotion. Are we still worried that Yuan Shao will not treat me well?
Cao Bao was overjoyed and asked, why not dedicate the city to him while he was out of the city?
Xu Dan chuckled.
Zhang Fei is so brave that even if he is defeated by Zhang He, he still has a chance to escape back to Pengcheng. If we only sacrifice Pei County, how can Yuan Shao take us seriously? Only by capturing Zhang Fei alive will the credit be great enough.
Liu Bei's men have limited talents, and Zhang Fei is considered the only general. If he were captured alive, Liu Bei would have no one to use, so how could he defend Xuzhou? Therefore, we sent not only Zhang Fei, but also Xuzhou.
Cao Bao suddenly understood and raised his thumb, admiring Xu Dan with admiration.
Zhang Fei led his troops out of the city and set up an ambush near Peize.
Soon, a cavalry of about two to three hundred people appeared nearby. Although the number was small, their uniforms and weapons caught Zhang Fei's attention.
Not only did these cavalry have neat armor, but the weapons they used were uniformly shaped halberds.
This reminded Zhang Fei of Zhang He's Euphorbia.
The Euphorbia soldiers were Zhang He's private soldiers. They once served as Yuan Shao's personal guard camp and were famous in Hebei.
Since the Euphorbia warriors appear here, Zhang He himself is probably among them.
If Zhang He can be killed, the effect will be better than defeating the striker.
Zhang Fei ordered Xu Dan to lead the Danyang infantry to stand by and prepare for the response, while he led five hundred cavalry and rushed out.
Most of these five hundred cavalry were from Youzhou's Wuhuan and Xianbei tribes. They had fought with Liu Bei for many years and had rich combat experience. They were divided into two teams. One team was led by Zhang Fei himself and went straight to Zhang He himself to attract Zhang He.
Attention. A team detoured behind Zhang He, preparing for a surprise attack while preventing Zhang He from escaping.
The tactics were good tactics, but it was a pity that their opponent was Zhang He.
Zhang He had gone south with Yuan Shao and had seen the terrain of the Central Plains and even Huainan. He knew that this place was different from Jizhou and he had to be more careful. In order to avoid the negligence of the forward generals, he led the Euphorbia soldiers as the forward to explore the terrain.
When he saw more than two hundred cavalry rushing out of the reeds, he realized that these cavalry were no ordinary scouts.
Liu Bei's cavalry is limited, and the only cavalry must be in the hands of generals. Even if there are some who serve as scouts, they will not be of such a scale.
Therefore, the general at the front is most likely Zhang Fei from Shoupei County.
Zhang Fei wanted to capture him alive, and he also wanted to capture Zhang Fei alive. While he ordered his men to prepare for battle, he also ordered people to rush back to the camp to ask for help.
His reaction was quick, and several Euphorbia warriors rushed out before the roundabout cavalry arrived.
Zhang He raised his halberd and leapt on his horse, heading straight towards Zhang Fei.
Zhang Fei was overjoyed when he saw that Zhang He did not escape, but came towards him. He kicked his horse and danced with his spear, and ordered his men to attack Zhang He from a flank, preparing to kill Zhang He before Zhang He's reinforcements arrived.
The two of them had the same idea and wanted to kill each other. They didn't hold back from the beginning and went all out.