Taking advantage of Gao Lan's free time to gather the various battalions, Yan Ran took the time to torture the prisoners and roughly learned the truth about Wuyang at this time.
It was not much different from what Guo Jia had expected. There were less than a thousand Cao troops in the city. But the key was that a new military camp was established in Lishui not long ago. About three thousand troops came from Kunyang. They also sent this night sentry.
Seventy percent of them were infantry, with only a few hundred cavalry, and the guard was a captain named Li Dian.
"Kunyang actually separated a group of troops?"
Hearing this, Yan Ran couldn't help but feel a little surprised, and immediately thought, could this be the vanguard sent by Xiahou Dun to attack Runan County?
However, for the name Li Dian, Yan Ran was not a time traveler like Wang Zheng after all, so he did not pay too much attention to it. When Yan Ran came over, he said: "Captain Gao, although two of Cao Jun's night sentries escaped, they must not have thought of us.
The gathering is so fast that Wuyang can easily be conquered, but do we need to deal with Cao's army in Lishui first?"
"If we attack immediately, Li Dian will not have enough time to concentrate his troops and mount a defense."
Gao Lan has never heard of Li Dian's name. You must know that although the Li family is a large family in Juye, Shanyang County, its current main lineage is Li Dian's father-in-law, Li Qian.
Li Qian was very heroic. He gathered thousands of diners in Chengshi (place name) before Chuping, and immediately led the crowd to defect to Cao Cao. He fought against the Yellow Turbans in Shouzhang, defeated Yuan Shu in Kuangting, and in several battles against Tao Qian in Xuzhou.
, Li Qian's performance was quite outstanding, and he was highly valued by Cao Cao.
Later, due to the rebellion of Zhang Miao, Chen Gong and others, Lu Bu was welcomed into Yanzhou, and all counties and counties joined him one after another. Lu Bu also heard of Li Qian's name, so he sent Xue Lan to control Li Feng and led his army to Juye County.
He recruited Li Qian to surrender and persuaded him to rebel against Cao Cao. However, Li Qian refused to obey, so the two of them worked together to kill him.
After Li Qian's death, all his works were inherited by his son, Li Dian's elder brother Li Zheng.
According to the original history, it was not until the fifth year of Jian'an after Li Zheng's death that Li Dian received the full support of his family, and began to enter Cao Cao's field of vision. He first served as the magistrate of Yingyin County, served as Zhonglang General, commanded Li Zheng's troops, and was later promoted.
As the prefect of Lihu, he led the entire family to take charge of Cao Cao's military supplies during the Battle of Guandu.
"Of course we have to remove this nail first!" Gao Lan nodded and said: "Three thousand men and horses are quite a lot, but a few hundred cavalrymen are not expected to be our opponent, and his night sentry escaped quickly, and the time is still short. There is definitely no chance at the moment.
Now that we know the exact number of our troops, the only way to plan now is to make the best of our tactics."
"Just follow the plan?" Yan Ran asked, "How do you say that?"
They had to attack a long distance without a chief general. In terms of current official position, Yan Ran was superior to Gao Lan, but when it came to battlefield battles and commanding experience, he was still quite lacking. Therefore, Wang Zheng still appointed Gao Lan as the chief general, and even more demanding.
Yan Ran must cooperate.
"Divide the troops into two groups. One is virtual and the other is real." Gao Lan explained: "I will take charge of the virtual route. I will lead my own soldiers and infantry to attack his right wing first to attract his attention. The real one will be carried out by me."
Lieutenant Yan will be in charge of all the way. You will set off later with the remaining cavalry. After the focus of the cavalry and infantry defense has been attracted by our troops, wait for my signal to be sent, then take advantage of the opportunity and quickly launch an attack.
offensive from its left wing.
"The two hundred men from the Tianzhu Battalion sent to us by Zhou Mu are the elite of our army. They will be held back and march slowly. If Yan Xiaowei's attack encounters resistance, they will be added to strengthen the offensive. If Yan Xiaowei succeeds in the surprise attack, we will adapt accordingly.
, you can postpone the response, or you can join the surprise attack. There must be one way to ensure the response, and at the same time, make sure the team is on horseback!"
After Gao Lan gave the order, he immediately stepped onto his horse, looked at Yan Ran and looked at each other, cupped his fists slightly, and said in a deep voice: "After running for thousands of miles, we failed in one fell swoop. Lieutenant Yan, I will take the lead."
The battle was in a hurry and it was necessary to boost morale. Before setting off, Gao Lan rode a horse around the battle formation and tightened the reins hard. Bandit Li immediately raised his two front legs, raised his head and hissed. He looked around at everyone with a solemn expression.
His eyes stayed on his direct lineage for a while, and then he shouted loudly: "Brothers, face the enemy in battle and fight to the death!"
"When we charge into the battle, Gao Lan will be at the forefront. If we win, let's go to Zhou Mu with our merits together. I'll take credit from everyone!"
He raised his arms and shouted: "There will be no truce until the blood dries out!"
His headquarters first raised their swords in response: "We will not fight until the blood dries out!"
The formation was full of shouts and raised swords, and spears stood like a forest. Yan Ran also led dozens of people, galloping on the flanks, rolling up mud and dust all over the sky, shouting at the top of his lungs: "Until the blood is shed, we will never truce!"
The wind stirred the forest trees, undulating like waves, and the swords slapped the armor. Thousands of people shouted in unison: "Until the blood is shed, there will be no truce!"
The sound was like a rushing torrent, resounding throughout the night sky and causing birds to fly in all directions.
The next moment, the Xuzhou Army launched an attack amid shouts.
The sound of hoofbeats was like thunder, and before long, Cao Jun's camp was already in sight.
.....
As expected by Gao Lan, Li Dian was indeed not prepared for defense.
Cao Jun, who had rushed forward in a hurry, became timid in the face of the indomitable attack from the opposite side. Taking advantage of the horse's speed, Gao Lan crashed into the enemy's formation several feet almost in the blink of an eye. He waved the long-handled battle ax in his hand, and every slash was sure to have a certain impact.
Blood splattered everywhere and limbs flew everywhere.
Seeing how brave he was, an officer of Cao's army came at him with a spear. Gao Lan dodged to avoid it, and then struck back with an ax, following the gap in the enemy's armor, and easily inserted it into it. He heard Cao General scream in pain.
Gao Lan sneered and clamped his legs again. Pirates raised his hoof and turned sideways. The two horses passed each other. With the momentum of his mount, Gao Lan made a strong force, just in time to draw out the battle ax again and roll it up at the same time.
The handle of the ax was a sweeping blow, knocking General Cao off his horse immediately.
The man didn't even have time to get up, before he was trampled by countless horse hooves that rushed in, and he died while wailing continuously.
Almost as soon as the battle began, the Heavenly Army formed an unstoppable advantage.
On the one hand, it was because of surprise, and on the other hand, it was the troops on Gao Lan's side. Although most of the infantry were newly recruited by Xuzhou, the leader was the Jizhou Army from Gao Lan's headquarters, all veterans who had experienced hundreds of battles.
Death.
On the contrary, the Cao army currently blocking the front line of the military camp is not an elite force.
This is of course because Li Dian has not fully accepted the family's main story. On the other hand, when Xiahou Dun lured Liu Pi to death, Li Dian raised objections, which caused the other party's displeasure.
Li Dian was sent here from Kunyang, and he was already a semi-dispatched person. Naturally, there were not many elites, so even if he had one, he would still stay with him.
After charging into battle three times in succession, Cao Jun's 400 to 500 cavalry suffered nearly 100 casualties. They were defeated and scattered, and fled.
In less than half an hour of fighting, many people on Gao Lan's side were killed. Dangjie signaled the flag-bearing soldiers behind him to raise the flag high, rode back, and took the remaining people in a circle.
He increased the speed of his mount to the maximum again, kept up his efforts, and rushed towards Li Dian's infantry camp.
As soon as he ran closer and looked up, Gao Lan's heart skipped a beat!
During the fierce battle just now, he noticed that Li Dian's camp had no torches and was completely dark. But at this moment, a fire suddenly lit up, and the rising flames jumped so high that they lit up the area for miles outside the camp...
He even took a clear picture of the situation ahead.
There were five or six stone cannons and seven or eight bed crossbows, lined up in the camp.
If we attack with force, we will definitely face a barrage of bullets, and the losses will be huge. But if we don't attack with force, we won't be able to divert his attention, which will definitely cause trouble for Yan Ran's actions...
When the thoughts in his mind were racing, one of his soldiers came over and said hurriedly: "Master... Lieutenant, we have just fought with the leading troops of Cao's army. They have already had time to prepare. If this is the case, If we continue to attack at this time, we will suffer too many casualties, especially the cavalry, but this is our only asset."
This "we" naturally does not refer to the heavenly army.
Among the Jizhou troops who surrendered outside Fenggao City that day, part of the royal government was left to Chang Xi, and the rest all followed Gao Lan to Xuzhou. Naturally, they were all his direct descendants. They had previously attacked Yilu and suffered little damage during Fenggao. , naturally can bear it.
And this kind of field battle was against Cao's army. If the opponent had already deployed their weapons and attacked head-on, the losses would be considerable.
Naturally, the meaning of the personal soldiers was to advise Gao Lan to retain his own strength, otherwise Wang Zheng might not take him seriously if he becomes a mere commander.
Hearing this, Gao Lan looked uncertain for a while, but finally he secretly became cruel and shouted categorically to the soldiers: "No need to say more!"
"You will lead a hundred men to protect my rear formation and prevent Cao's cavalry from coming back. In today's battle, you will either win or die!"
"Captain!"
Still waiting for further persuasion, Gao Lan whipped his horse, took the main force with him, faced the rain of arrows and arrows from Cao Jun, changed his position, picked a position where the arrow rain could not reach, and charged against the current. He went back and forth several times. The night gradually faded away. , Cao Jun's long-range offensive became more and more fierce. Gao Lan couldn't remember how many times he attacked. He only remembered that he changed the direction of the attack at least four times. On two occasions, he almost broke into the camp.
He wiped his sweaty face, looked up, and saw a fish-belly white sky in the east, it was almost dawn...
I couldn't help but feel anxious.
At dawn, the whereabouts of Yan Ran and Tianzhu Camp will be exposed to Cao Jun!
Then there’s no way to delay it any longer!
Glancing at the troops behind him, although he had no time to count them in detail, he could visually tell that half of the casualties were already gone. Gao Lan also knew very well that he could only do this.
In this case, we can only start it in advance!
He finally stretched out his hand: "Send the signal!"
Then they saw the sound of thunder and rockets flying into the sky.
He glanced to the side. Cao's cavalry, which had been recharging for a long time, formed an arc and quietly outflanked them. After a fierce battle in the middle of the night, even though many of his men were one person and two horses, it was almost too much. Gao Lan tightly held the battle ax in his hand, clamped his legs together, and urged the bandits to move. He looked back and shouted:
"kill!"
Regardless of the encirclement of the enemy's cavalry, he once again launched a charge towards Cao Jun's camp. Not only to assist Yan Ran, but also for their own survival. If Yan Ran could not successfully charge the camp, with his hundreds of casualties, even now, Even if he left, he would never be able to escape Cao Jun's pursuit.
Gao Lan's desperate charge completely confused Li Dian. After all, he had not experienced much at this time and was far from the general who had grown up in conquests in Hebei, Jingzhou, Xiliang and other places.
It was not that Li Dian had never suspected that the enemy was setting up a suspicion formation. After all, Gao Lan's troops were actually not that many.
But... will Sui Bingzhi be so desperate?
Could it be that the troops were divided into two groups, one group attacking the military camp, and the other group attacking Wuyang?
Li Dian could only think of this possibility.
If this is the case, then we must quickly deal with this enemy force!
With this idea in mind, Li Dian not only transferred most of Cao Jun's large defensive equipment to the right wing, but he also personally went to the right wing to take command.
This resulted in the left wing's defense line being extremely empty and completely unprepared!
At the moment when the rocket soared into the sky, Li Dian was shocked. At the same time, Yan Ran was also ready to seize the opportunity. He lived up to Gao Lan's trust and launched a charge at the most critical moment!
Then there was an overwhelming momentum, with the Tianzhu camp charging at the front and turning into the sharpest arrows. In just two charges, they completely broke through the first line of defense on Cao Jun's left wing.
Seeing the bravery of their own vanguard, even the remaining recruits were greatly boosted in morale. Everyone rushed into Cao's camp like wolves and tigers, rushing left and right, slashing with swords and guns, shooting wildly with bows and crossbows, and lighting improvised torches.
Throw it everywhere.
Seeing that the situation was about to be settled, Gao Lan felt relieved, took a long breath, and immediately sent two hundred people to support Yan Ran, and then personally led the remaining troops to rush in.
Cao's army became more and more defeated amidst the howls of ghosts and wolves. The soldiers scrambled among themselves and fled east and west like headless flies. Rockets and torches ignited the tent, and the raging flames emitted billowing smoke. Without Li Dian's command, the left wing was very weak.
It almost fell into chaos, which further led to the instability of the Chinese army.
The instability of the central army was linked to the commotion on the right wing, and the turmoil in the front camp was followed by panic in the rear camp, creating an situation that was out of control!
At this time, Li Dian naturally knew that he had fallen into the enemy's plan. He hurriedly abandoned his right wing and rushed to the left wing. He killed several fleeing officers and wanted to organize a defense. However, the chaos was already in place and he could not suppress it at all costs. Thousands of steps
The soldiers could not even withstand the invincible force of nearly a hundred enemy cavalry, and they cried out in vain.
What should I do?
Li Dian felt a strong sense of crisis in his heart!
He had insulted Xiahou Dun with his words before, so being released now was actually because the other party took advantage of his father and brother. After all, Xiahou Dun's status in Cao Wei's camp was so high that if he wanted to kill someone to establish his power, he could only kill a school captain.
Wait for your business.
But nothing can be done again. If there is another crime of defeat, Wuyang will even be lost because of him, which will affect the strategy of conquering Runan...
Li Dian no longer dared to think about it!
At the critical moment, while Li Dian continued to organize Cao Jun's counterattack, his thoughts suddenly changed. Just before Cao Jun was about to fall into a complete rout, he was staring closely at the tidal offensive of the Heavenly Army on the opposite side. When he glanced at a place with his peripheral vision, he suddenly
His eyes lit up and his thoughts came to mind.
It was a pothole near Cao Jun's camp. Because it was the Linji Wu River, and there was a lot of rain this spring, it formed a swamp. The original area was not very large, but now it has expanded to several miles in radius.
The key is that the swamp is overgrown with weeds, covering it, so if you don't look carefully, you can't see it at all.
According to what his sentry said, last night's encounter was an accident, which means that the enemy has just arrived here not long ago, and may not have the opportunity or time to explore the nearby terrain, right?
No!
Not necessarily!
The Xuzhou Army must not know!
Because only if they don't know can they be led into this swamp, then victory or defeat can be reversed...
This is the only chance for our family to make a comeback!
So what kind of bait can make the enemy abandon the military camp and go to the swamp?
Thinking of this section, a cold light flashed in Li Dian's eyes.
To the enemy, the most valuable thing on the battlefield is the same.