Chapter 672: The wind is blowing!
This is a war that broke out suddenly at the wrong time. Unless there are huge decision-making errors, the outcome of such a war cannot be determined.
Gongsun Zan, enraged, launched an attack, which was exactly what Yuan Shao wanted.
Although Yuan Shao did not intend to defeat Gongsun Zan in this battle, it was equally satisfying to inflict a considerable loss on Gongsun Zan and then disgust him severely.
Gongsun Zan was riding a white horse, and the White Horse Volunteers were galloping past on both sides like a dragon cloud. Gongsun Zan originally intended that the White Horse Volunteers serve as a wing guard for the infantry and let the infantry charge forward, but there was a mistake in his order, and the White Horse Volunteers directly launched an attack.
Then the White Horse Volunteers were greeted by a swift and violent rain of arrows. Almost in an instant, all the men and horses were thrown to the ground, and the white horses' bodies were stained with red blood.
Fortunately, the Baima Yicong were all elite soldiers. When they received the order from their superiors, they realized that something was wrong, and when they attacked, they followed the harassing tactics they had used in the past, sweeping across the flanks layer by layer.
The losses were not that great. The white horses were incredibly fast. They also fired a hail of arrows and then withdrew from both sides of Yuan Shao's army. Their movements were so agile that it was hard to imagine that they were riding on a horse. They were completely in the legendary state of unity between man and horse.
Gongsun Zan's heart was bleeding as he looked at the white horse lying on the ground. The White Horse Volunteers were his life, his spirit and energy. It was because Zhang Jue defeated the White Horse Volunteers last time that he was so devastated.
It was not until the reconstruction of the White Horse Volunteers and the death of Zhang Jue that he regained his spirits. Now, seeing hundreds of White Horse Volunteers die in just one encounter, Gongsun Zan found it difficult to accept.
Yuan Shao's army also found it difficult to accept this. In their opinion, the results of the battle were too small.
As for the war with Gongsun Zan, the civil and military officials of Hebei had simulated it countless times, and they finally came to the same conclusion: if they could not defeat Gongsun Zan's cavalry, then the war would be impossible to win!
Especially the elite White Horse Volunteers who had fought in many battles. If they were not defeated, they would not be able to pursue the defeated soldiers if they won, nor would they be able to escape and survive if they lost. If they wanted to change their formation and attack the flank, they would not be as fast as the White Horse Volunteers in returning to defend.
Although a group of white horses cannot confront heavy infantry and heavy cavalry head-on due to their mobility and combat effectiveness, they are everywhere, like a thorn in the flesh, causing great annoyance.
Yuan Shao was in charge of the central army, but he was not proficient in commanding troops, so he just watched to boost morale without saying anything to influence them. The generals in Hebei led their troops respectively, while Qu Yi stared at the crisscrossing white horses, holding the sword tightly in his hand, restraining his murderous intent.
It’s not the time yet!
Qu Yi was not only good at training a strong army, he was also a nearly perfect general. He had extremely accurate observation of the timing on the battlefield and knew exactly what he was going to do next.
He had thousands of vanguards and halberd soldiers at his disposal. These were elite troops trained with all the strength of Hebei. He wanted to use these soldiers to open up a grand road for Hebei.
After the casualties of the White Horse Volunteers, Gongsun Zan finally regained some sanity. Every time he faced Yuan Shao, he seemed to have lost his mind. The mental pressure Yuan Shao brought to him was too great.
The attacks of both Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao's army were very restrained. The cavalry of both sides were trotting on the flanks to prevent each other's attacks. Yan Liang, Wen Chou and other four pillars of Hebei kept changing positions, but the White Horse Volunteers were too flexible and could not find any chance at all.
When the troops were called back, Gongsun Zan's army had suffered heavy casualties, and Yuan Shao's army had also suffered heavy casualties. The two armies confronted each other not far from each other, and each of them tightened its camp, with tens of thousands of people stretching across the land of Jizhou.
When the Hebei army returned to the camp, some people noticed that Yuan Shao was in a very good mood, so they asked what happened. Yuan Shao waited for them to ask, and then said with a smile: "Although we did not complete the task today, Gongsun Zan really did not exceed my expectations. This battle will definitely be won by our army. Isn't this enough to make me happy?"
Everyone recalled Yuan Shao's extremely sharp evaluation of Gongsun Zan that day. It was not pleasant to hear, but now when they think about it carefully, it is really true, especially today when he was still angry and humiliated in front of the battle. If it were not for the bravery of the White Horse Volunteers and the indestructible Youzhou Cavalry, they would probably have suffered a great defeat today.
Yuan Shao saw everyone laughing, and the solemn look on the battlefield just now disappeared. He sighed and said: "But these Youzhou cavalry are really brave. If I have such elite cavalry in Hebei, I can really dominate the world.
I don't know where Lu Bu has gone. I haven't received any letters from him in these days."
Apart from the tactics outside the battlefield, Yuan Shao had two means of war to defeat Gongsun Zan. One was the strong army trained by Qu Yi, and the other was Lu Bu, whom no one knew.
Hebei does not have such powerful cavalry in a short period of time, so it can only borrow it.
Lu Bu's Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry is no less elite than Gongsun Zan's Youzhou Iron Cavalry. They will surely achieve great success in a surprise attack.
As for where Lu Bu is now?
He was still on his way on horseback.
When Lu Bu entered Jizhou from Jinyang, Bingzhou, he came with all his cavalry. The Taihang Mountains lay between Bingzhou and Jizhou, and the roads that could be passed were relatively fixed. In addition to bypassing those mountains that made it difficult for the army to march, he also had to try his best to avoid being noticed by Gongsun Zan.
Lu Bu and the entire Bingzhou attached great importance to this battle. This was the first battle that Bingzhou would show in front of the princes of the Central Plains. Whether it could become famous in front of the people of the Central Plains depended on the outcome of this battle.
The army led by Lu Bu is the elite of the entire Bingzhou, including all the powerful generals under his command. I am afraid that even Yuan Shao did not expect that Lu Bu would put in so much effort, and he came here with the intention of destroying the entire Gongsun army.
More than ten thousand cavalrymen and thirty to forty thousand war horses galloped on the road, and the scene was quite shocking.
Yuan Shao then asked Ju Su, "Gong Yu, is there any problem with the supply of food and grass?"
Ju Su replied, "Don't worry, my lord. Jizhou has not suffered any natural disasters in the past two years, and the grain harvest is abundant, which is enough to supply the army. Even if Lu Bu's 10,000 cavalrymen come to Jizhou, they can be supplied on time.
The one who should be under pressure is Gongsun Zan. Youzhou is not a grain-producing area. If he continues to fight us like this, he will be the one who can’t hold on in the end.”
Yuan Shao smiled and said, "We need to make Gongsun Zan feel the pressure. He is impatient and will not be willing to retreat. He will definitely seek a decisive battle. That will be our chance."
This was a strategy that had been planned beforehand to tire out the enemy with food, and everyone agreed with it. This was Hebei's natural advantage, with plenty of food and people, and they could even tire out a border warrior like you.
…
While Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan were fighting each other, the war between Liu Bei and Cao Cao also gradually unfolded.
The two sides have different frequencies, and the difference between them is still very large. Cao Cao now has a relatively complete political team under his command.
He was not short of either strategists or military generals. The military generals were naturally mainly his clan brothers and people like Xu Chu. The strategists included the people from Yingchuan in the beginning and the Yanzhou gentry when he was developing in Yanzhou.
The people of Yingchuan were led by Xun Yu. Although Yingchuan was just a county, people from Yingchuan seemed to be everywhere in the world, but they were mainly in the big group of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.
Xun Yu brought many talented people from Yingchuan to Cao Cao. These strategists had their own strengths and formed Cao Cao's group of advisers.
The people of Yanzhou took Chen Gong as their leader. Chen Gong took to Cao Cao at first sight and thought that Cao Cao was a great hero. Chen Gong played a big role in Cao Cao's success in gaining control of Yanzhou.
Chen Gong himself was also a first-class strategist. Among the Yanzhou people, there was also Cheng Yu, a strategist who looked rather gloomy. However, Cheng Yu was a rather eccentric person and did not fit in among the Yanzhou people. Naturally, it was even more impossible for him to join the Yingchuan group. However, Cao Cao liked Cheng Yu very much and thought that Cheng Yu's ideas were quite consistent with his own in many aspects.
Liu Bei had many generals under his command, but he lacked many strategists. There was a severe shortage of talent in internal affairs, military strategy, and so on. There was no need to be too anxious about internal affairs in the short term, but military strategy and strategy were both necessary for fighting.
Han Xin was a master of military strategy and the pinnacle of the war-strategy school. Look at these two words, the key word in both of them is "strategy"!
The ability to command troops is very important, and strategy is the means to bring the ability to command troops into play. Generally speaking, generals who command troops have the ability of strategy, but compared with those professional strategists, they are certainly lacking.
If the general is not a god-like person like Han Xin, then he will usually be accompanied by a counselor who acts as an external brain. The counselor makes suggestions and the general decides whether they can be implemented.
Liu Bei's subordinates are now quite lacking in this kind of external brain. When their army of tens of thousands fights against a smaller number of enemies, they are naturally invincible. But now they have only 30,000 elite soldiers. How many auxiliary troops do they have to cooperate with them and how many troops do they have to serve as logistics for these armies?
If all these complicated affairs were handed over to the general in charge, it would certainly greatly distract his attention.
Being able to handle the eating, drinking, defecating, urinating and various emergencies of tens of thousands of people is an extremely powerful ability. This is why it is quite remarkable that Liu Bang could lead an army of 100,000.
Liu Bei led the Qingzhou army into Yanzhou from the Qingzhou border, and Cao Cao also led his army to fight. The distance between Qingzhou and Yanzhou is short, and it doesn't take long to march to reach them. Besides, except for a few mountains, most of the two areas are quite flat. They are rich grain-producing areas and the most prosperous places in the Central Plains.
Although Jizhou is the first of the Nine Provinces, Yanzhou and Qingzhou are not destroyed, especially Yanzhou, which is not very weak compared to Jizhou.
Cao Cao and Liu Bei met because of their mission to serve the king. Cao Cao was quite moved that Liu Bei had acquired such a great power so quickly, which made him a little envious.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
