Chapter 636 The decisive battle in the Central Plains (Part 2)
Chapter 636: The decisive battle in the Central Plains (Part 2)
After rescuing Kong Rong, Taishi Ci asked Wu Anguo to escort him away first, while he stayed alone.
After Kong Rong was completely safe, Taishi Ci chose to break out, while Huang Chao's three generals, Zhu Wen, Peng Zan and Shan Xing, joined forces to stop him.
Taishi Ci, who was in a critical situation, did not have the slightest fear. He came to fight with his spear drawn, and after ten rounds, he saw the opportunity and broke out.
Zhu Wen and the other three generals were not willing to let Tai Shi Ci go, so they all rushed to catch up. Tai Shi Ci turned around and shot Peng Zan and Shan Xing to death with a flurry of arrows, while Zhu Wen barely managed to escape. Although the army was defeated, Taishi Ci was able to defeat three generals with one, and even killed two generals, which became the biggest highlight of the battle.
The name of Donglai Taishi Ci has now become famous all over the world.
After Kong Rong's defeat, Huang Chao faced the three major princes Liu Yu, Liu Bei and Song Jiang, with a total of 80,000 Han troops.
Due to the great defeat of Kong Rong, the morale of Huang Chao's army was at its peak at this time.
Therefore, although the strength of his troops was not as good as that of the Han army, Huang Chao still dared to fight against the three major princes.
Liu Yu was eager to fight Huang Chao to the death as soon as possible. He had absolute confidence in the combat power of his Youzhou Army, so after receiving Huang Chao's letter of challenge, Liu Yu agreed directly after some consideration.
On September 15, the decisive battle finally started in Licheng County, Jinan. Huang Chao personally led 60,000 Ming troops against Liu Yu's 80,000 Qingyou coalition forces.
This time, Huang Chao learned the lessons from the battle with Qin Hao. While fighting more steadily, he also set up pocket formations for the Han army.
Unfortunately, Song Jiang's military advisor Wu Yong saw through Huang Chao's plan, so the Han army did not fall into the trap.
On the day of the battle, Huang Chao personally led an army of 50,000 to face the enemy directly, but secretly ordered Wang Xianzhi to lead an army of 10,000 to retreat to the rear of the Han army, preparing to attack from both sides and defeat the Han army in one fell swoop.
There was nothing wrong with Huang Chao's strategy, but he still underestimated the Han army, or in other words, he overestimated the combat power of his own army.
Can Huang Chao's 50,000-strong army really stop the Han army's 80,000-strong army?
Liu Yu adopted the safest method and divided the 80,000-strong army into three parts: left, right and center. Liu Yu personally led the middle army, while Liu Bei led the left army and Song Jiang led the right army.
After the war started, Liu Bei personally led the charge, with Guan and Zhang guarding him.
It was impossible for Huang Chao's left army to resist. Zhang Yan was directly killed by Guan Yu's sword, while Zhao Zhang was stabbed to death by Zhang Fei's two spears.
If Huang Chao had not seen that the situation was not good and sent Zhu Wen to support him in advance, I am afraid that the left army would have been defeated long ago.
As for the situation of the right army, it is also very bad.
Song Jiang's generals such as Li Kui, Lu Zhishen, and Liu Tang were all very murderous people.
Li Ying, the flying eagle, was shot to death by Ji Kui with a hidden arrow. Then Liangshan's fierce generals seemed to have gone crazy. They all swarmed up and hacked Ji Kui to death with random swords.
Such a formation frightened Cui Qiu, another general of the right army, so he dared not show the courage of an ordinary man and focused on commanding the army to fight, but in the end he was still defeated by Li Kui.
Everything went as Huang Chao expected. All 80,000 Han troops had entered the battle. He only had to wait for his 10,000 troops to attack the enemy's back, and he would win the battle.
However, Huang Chao did not expect that the situation of both the left and right armies was actually in an unfavorable state, and he did not know whether he could survive until the strange troops joined the battle.
In order to win, Huang Chao decided to join the battle himself to boost morale.
With the addition of Huang Chao, the morale of the Ming army was greatly boosted again, and within a short period of time they were in a stalemate with the Han army.
At this moment, Wang Xianzhi's army arrived and attacked the back of the Han army. For a while, the Han army was in chaos.
Seeing this, Huang Chao also saw the right opportunity and concentrated his forces to attack the weak central army of the Han army. Liu Yu's army did not have a powerful general, so Huang Chao actually broke through the central army.
Once the Chinese army was defeated, Liu Bei and Song Jiang had no choice but to grit their teeth and withdraw their troops.
Huang Chao did not choose to pursue it because the Ming army no longer had the physical strength.
In this battle, Huang Chao's army lost 30,000 troops, while the Han army also suffered nearly 40,000 casualties. It can be said that both sides suffered losses.
The goal of directly defeating the Han army failed, so Huang Chao could only defend firmly.
The Youqing coalition only had 40,000 troops at this time, which was no longer enough to completely annihilate Huang Chao, so Liu Yu ordered Gongsun Zan to send troops to assist in the battle.
Gongsun Zan, who was far away in Liaodong, did not personally lead the troops after receiving the order. Instead, he sent his younger brother Gongsun Xuanyuan to lead an army of 20,000 to help. As for himself, he continued to garrison Liaodong to defend against the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
Before Gongsun Xuanyuan's army arrived, the battle situation in Qingzhou once again fell into a strange peace, but this peace was destined to be broken soon.
October 1, the fourth year of Zhongping.
Since Li Mi and Li Zicheng joined forces, they have been defending the two countries in Yuzhou for several months.
Faced with this turtle shell, the Yuan-Cao coalition had no choice but to respond, and the morale of the army gradually declined.
Seeing this, Li Mi finally saw hope in regaining the territory from Yuan Shu, so he and Li Zicheng worked together to prepare to take the initiative.
Little did he know that this was all a plan by Cao Cao, who deliberately made it look like he was seeing it. Soon after he walked out of the city, he was ambushed by Yuan and Cao's coalition forces.
In this ambush, Ren Zhong on Li Mi's side was shot to death by Xia Houyuan with an arrow, while Lian Ming died at the hands of Lian Po.
Cheng Yaojin, Wang Junke, You Junda, Xie Yingdeng and Shi Danai were successively captured alive by brothers Xiahou Dun and Xia Houyuan, as well as brothers Yang Jiliang and Yang Jizu.
As for Li Zicheng, the losses were also considerable. Hao Yaoqi was killed by Zhao Kuangyin, Li Laiheng was killed by Cao Ren and Cao Chun, and Yuan Zongdi directly rebelled against Yuan Shu.
If Xu Shiji hadn't led all the remaining soldiers and horses in the city to arrive in time and launched a counter-ambush for the Yuan-Cao coalition, I'm afraid more than half of the Ming army would have been damaged.
Xu Shiji's general Luo Shixin fought alone against Yuan Cao's eight generals in this battle, and those who fought with him were: Xiahou Dun, Xia Houyuan, Yang Jiliang, Yang Jizu, Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Guangyi, Zhao She, and Lian Po.
If it weren't for the combination skills of Xiahou Dun and his brothers, as well as Zhao Kuangyin's brothers, I'm afraid not even the Eighth Army and the First Class would be able to gain the upper hand.
Luo Shixin fought against eight, and all eight were world-famous generals. Although he was at a disadvantage, he was not defeated. Therefore, Luo Shixin was also famous all over the world after this battle, and was praised as being no less powerful than the other generals.
Li Yuanba and Xiang Yu's fierce generals.
Xu Shiji's counter-ambush was an extremely beautiful one. If Cao Cao hadn't led the army in person, the result would have been even more brilliant.
In this battle, the casualties of the Han army reached nearly 30,000. Even Zhao Kuo, the son of Zhao She, also died in the rebel army. It can be said that both sides suffered losses once again.