Since the north had just been settled, there were a series of complicated matters that required Cao Cao to personally handle, so Cao Cao did not personally lead the troops during this expedition.
Xia Houyuan was appointed as the commander-in-chief, with Gao Shun, Zhao Yun, Guan Yu, Huang Zhong, and Zhang He as his deputies, plus a group of partial generals such as Ya Jiang, etc. Cao's army totaled 100,000 people and marched out of the Great Wall to attack Xianbei.
After unifying the north, Cao Cao began to further develop cavalry and established an elite unit from it, named the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry.
The selection of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry is very strict. In terms of the criteria and standards for selecting soldiers, it can definitely compete with Gao Shun's trapped camp and Zhang He's Euphorbia soldiers. Historically, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry is said to be "all the best in the world, or
"A hundred men will make up for it." Although this sentence may be an exaggeration, in any case, it also reflects from the side that the combat power of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry is absolutely first-class.
Due to the short development time, the current size of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry is only 800 people. But these 800 people are all warriors who are equal to ten. Cao Cao believes that even if he is faced with someone who is said to be born on a horse, he is born to ride a horse.
As long as the number of foreign cavalry is the same on both sides, the result will definitely be victory for this tiger and leopard cavalry!
During this expedition, all the eight hundred tiger and leopard cavalry accompanied the army and were under the control of Xiahou Yuan. In addition, the number of Gao Shun's trapped camp had also recovered to 1,200 at this time, and Zhang He's Euphorbias also made up for the 3,000 men.
Number of people.
These three troops, totaling 5,000 men, are the most powerful and brave soldiers in Cao's camp.
Cao Cao even said in private: "With these three elite troops gathered together, even if the enemy's strength is ten times greater, it will take a lot of trouble to win."
In March of the third year of Jian'an (AD 198), one hundred thousand troops left the Great Wall and headed for Wuyuan County.
During the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ordered Wei Qing and Huo Qubing to expedition beyond the Great Wall, completely driving the Xiongnu out of the Hetao area, and established Shuofang County and Wuyuan County there, and included them in the territory of the Han Dynasty.
However, by the end of the Han Dynasty, the country was weakened, and no one cared about taking care of these marginal areas, let alone setting up county guards. Places such as Shuofang and Wuyuan had been abandoned for a long time, and sometimes they were even often occupied by foreigners. The original residence
Residents in these areas either choose to move south or simply move north to join the foreigners.
The Xianbei army wanted to raid the border, and these abandoned cities were undoubtedly the best outposts for them.
We must be the first to station in Wuyuan County before those foreign races and gain the upper hand in this war.
——————————————————————————————Jiuyuan County is the seat of Wuyuan County, and it is also the seat of the flying general Lu Bu.
's hometown.
When Xia Houyuan led his army to the outside of Jiuyuan City, he found that the city gate was closed and Xianbei soldiers were guarding the top of the city.
It's still a step too late, but we can't blame them. The Xianbei territory is not far from Jiuyuan City. It is really easy for them to occupy this Jiuyuan County City before the Han army.
"Attack the city!" Xia Houyuan ordered without hesitation when he saw that the city was occupied by the Xianbei army.
Although Jiuyuan City has fallen into the hands of foreigners, there is nothing to worry about. All we need to do is take it back by force.
These foreign races are really good at fighting in the plains, but their ability to attack and defend cities is not so good.
As soon as Xia Houyuan's military order came out, the whole army was seen moving forward in an orderly manner and attacking the city in batches.
The Xianbei soldiers on the city looked very panicked when they saw an army suddenly appearing to attack the city.
Obviously, the arrival of the Han army was absolutely unexpected by them.
According to the information they learned, the northern part of the Han Dynasty had just experienced a great war, and it was at a time of turmoil and weakness. Moreover, it was said that the two major princes in the northern Han Dynasty were fighting fiercely. After the battle, even the victorious party
, the number of its troops is also quite small, and it is impossible to have any spare power to deal with Xianbei's offensive.
Therefore, after the Xianbei army entered Jiuyuan City, they seemed very relaxed and showed no signs of vigilance at all.
They never expected that the Han Dynasty's army would suddenly appear in front of them, and the opponent turned out to be such a large army.
This force is just a vanguard, with a total of no more than 10,000 people. Looking at the enemy's posture, there are only 80,000 if not 100,000.
The Xianbei people suddenly panicked. Defending the city? They had never had similar experience. Even now facing the enemy troops under the city, they didn't even know what to do. Not to mention that the number of Xianbei soldiers inside the city was far less than outside the city.
The number of Cao's troops made these Xianbei people even more overwhelmed and frightened.
"Calm down! Calm down all of you and recruit a group of vulture shooters to shoot arrows for me on the city!" The one shouting was a thousand-man general. It can be seen that compared to ordinary Xianbei soldiers, this thousand-man general can be regarded as a leader.
He is very knowledgeable. At least he knows how to use bows and arrows to defend against enemies.
As the name suggests, "eagle shooter" is a person who can shoot down large eagles in the air. It was originally the Xiongnu's laudatory name for the sharpshooters in the tribe. Xianbei and the Xiongnu are both horseback tribes, and there are naturally many people in the tribe who are good at shooting, so they continued to use it.
This title.
The vulture shooters were mobilized to the top of the city one after another and shot arrows at the Han army below the city.
However, the only way to defend the city in Xianbei is archery. They have not thought of methods such as wood, rolling stones, and hot oil. But even if they know that there are other ways to defend the city, as a county town that has been idle for a long time,
There are no such things to defend the city at all.
Without wood, rolling stones, hot oil, etc., the effect of archery alone will not be much better. After all, even if you are an expert archer like Huang Zhong, you cannot guarantee that every arrow can hit in this kind of chaos.
People, let alone every arrow can kill a person.
Moreover, vulture shooters are rare. It is not easy to find six to seven hundred vulture shooters among ten thousand soldiers. A rain of arrows will usually kill dozens of people. A rain of arrows can kill a few dozen people.
If one hundred people were shot to death, it would be considered great luck for the Xianbei army.
Cao Jun's siege progressed very smoothly. Although the troops at the front would inevitably suffer losses, the losses were completely within the tolerance of Cao Jun.
Someone has already climbed to the top of the city and killed the vulture shooters on the city.
Generally speaking, when the siege troops board the city, the morale of the defenders will be somewhat low. However, for these Xianbei people, who are not good at defending the city, they are more inclined to this almost cruel approach.
Hand-to-hand combat and hand-to-hand combat on top of the city can further arouse their bloodiness.
Therefore, Cao's army's attack on the city was quite smooth, but after reaching the city, the situation gradually fell into a stalemate.
Before Cao's army attacked the city, these Xianbei soldiers were indeed panicked for a while. However, after Cao's army actually launched the offensive, they forgot all fear, and their eyes were filled with bloodthirsty.
This is the horror of the aliens on the grassland.
The Xianbei people are extremely brave. Although the scimitars in their hands are not as long as spears, they are sharper. Coupled with their fearlessness of death, the Cao soldiers who climbed to the top of the city were almost about to be defeated by the opponent.
It means rushing down to the city.
"Wonderful talent, let me fall into the camp." Gao Shun saw that the situation at the top of the city was unfavorable, so he asked Xia Houyuan to fight.
"Yes." Xia Houyuan nodded and agreed to Gao Shun's request to fight.