Chapter 221 Battle of Yuyang
No one expected that the Xianbei branch north of Yanshan Mountain would invade Youzhou at this time.
No one expected that Gongsun Zan, who was now in a weak position, seemed to have retreated, but in fact it was all for today's preemptive attack!
As the temperature continued to drop over the past three days, the freezing of the upper reaches of the Baoqiu River had spread to the narrow part of the river near Yuyang, forming an ice surface large enough for cavalry to cross.
This also happened to be the passage for crossing the river.
When Gongsun Zan and Tadun joined forces to cross the river, large pieces of ice flew up on the ice surface, but there was no sign of cracking. Under the moonlight, it glowed an almost cold white color.
However, after crossing the river, the cavalry galloped across the field with an momentum as fierce as fire!
Target – Yuyang County.
This is the county seat of Yuyang County. Just by looking at the same name of the two places, you can know the importance of this place.
It is a pity that the Zhang Ju Rebellion in the past caused a large-scale collapse of the county wall here. Although it was repaired under the leadership of Liu Yu, he did not completely restore it to the level comparable to before as he first considered restoring the people's livelihood in Youzhou.
This time when stationing troops here, Liu Yu, like his earlier practice, strictly forbade his soldiers to interfere with the lives of local people and to damage people's houses because of the stationing of troops here. Therefore, except for the guards on lookout on the top of the city wall, all other soldiers were stationed in the camp outside the city.
Gongsun Zan knew about this arrangement.
It was precisely because of Liu Yu's arrangement that he dared to use cavalry as the main force of the attack after agreeing on the time of the attack with Tadun and Kebineng, without considering the possibility of siege at all.
The cavalry on white horses galloping in the night were like a wave of snow flowing on a frosty field.
At the forefront of this snow wave, Gongsun Zan, the commander of this cavalry, stared fixedly ahead, revealing a fierce look as if he was grasping his prey tightly.
Of course he knew that a large-scale cavalry attack, as it approached Yuyang, would inevitably transmit the sound of horse hooves to the enemy's ears.
But as long as he moves fast enough, as long as he can remove the sentries along the way, as long as his encirclement on both sides can be completed before Liu Yu and others can mobilize their troops -
This kind of voice that "notifies" the opponent one step in advance is not a loophole that allows the opponent to prepare for war first, but a signal that allows the opponent's camp to be intimidated by the enemy first.
Once he could seize this opportunity, he could rely on the individual combat capabilities of the Youzhou cavalry, Wuhuan cavalry and Xianbei soldiers to kill the Yuyang defenders, whose number was more than three times theirs, at the gates of the city.
It would be best if this also included Liu Yu, that hypocritical guy!
When the outline of Yuyang City appeared in his sight, Gongsun Zan heard two voices.
One was the voice of the Xianbei people who were moving south along the river from the north.
The Xianbei branch led by Kebinen had been depressed for a long time because of the silence in the past few years. Today, they finally had a chance to break out. How could they not give a shout before killing the enemy?
This sound mixed with the howling of the night wind vaguely sounded like a wolf's howl.
The other sound was the noisy noise coming from a military camp not too far from Yuyang County as the enemy attacked.
Gongsun Zan turned around and shouted to the Wuhuan cavalry behind him: "Tadun! We have to speed up too!"
We can’t let those Xianbei people get ahead of us!
Although due to the barrier of the Yanshan Mountains and the obedience of the Xianbei in recent years, Liu Yu rarely arranged outposts in the north, and it was much easier for them to advance straight ahead than on their side.
But he, Gongsun Zan, was the commander-in-chief who brought together these three coalition forces. How could he allow Kebineng of the Xianbei to snatch all his military achievements!
The short time that the cavalry advanced was not enough for the Yuyang defenders to retreat into the city.
If Liu Yu had any experience in commanding troops, he should have known this.
Rather than turning our backs to these enemies, we should prepare for war at this time.
But even in the military camp at this time of year, most soldiers slept in their clothes, and it took time to issue military orders.
In Gongsun Zan's sight, the fire that lit up in the military camp showed a state of chaos, indicating that the other side's response was hasty.
He was sure that this was the best time for them to trample the camp and launch a surprise attack!
Thinking of this, Gongsun Zan clenched the spear in his hand.
The lance tip, which is nearly two feet long, has a more visually powerful and intimidating effect than the tip of a spear, and in fact it is so.
Long spears are often only equipped on heavy cavalry, and are also the hard power guarantee that allows his White Horse Volunteers to run rampant!
Amid the chaos caused by the Xianbei invasion from the north, Gongsun Zan headed straight for the east gate of the camp.
Faced with the destructive power of the heavy armor on the horses and the long spears sweeping across, the deer antler trees outside the camp could not pose any obstacle to them.
The same is true for the soldiers who are gathering in this direction.
The little flame that was running back and forth was swept away by the strong wind, and before it could even issue a warning, it was chopped to death by the long spear.
Gongsun Zan didn't even look at these hastily formed soldiers, but issued a clear order to his subordinates.
These troops with excellent riding skills quickly changed direction and, together with Gongsun Zan, rushed straight towards the central army's flag.
At this moment, he felt that Kebineng's group of Xianbei people ran particularly fast, which might not be a bad thing!
If the Xianbei's raid on the camp had not diverted the attention of the defense here, the obstacles he encountered would not have been so few.
Judging from his experience of fighting with Zhang Liao and others in the past six months, the only people defending this area at this moment could be Liu Yu's men.
This couldn't be better news.
As he raised his hand to give orders, these cavalrymen with superb riding and archery skills drew their bows and arrows while riding their horses, and released a rain of arrows towards the gap between the camps ahead.
If it weren't for the frost in winter, it would have been extremely difficult to catch fire in the military camp tents. The trenches in the camp here were dug with the assistance of Zhang Liao to prevent the spread of the fire. Gongsun Zan wanted to release not only arrows, but also torches found along the way.
But that's enough!
Covered by rain of arrows and cleared by long spears, the defenders who blocked his way to the position of the big flag all fell in front of him, and the cavalry led by him drove straight in with an unstoppable offensive.
However, just before he was about to reach the place where the soldiers were fully organized, with a crazy smile on his face, ready to kill along the way, countless tripwires suddenly appeared under the feet of the horses they were riding.
They were learning horse riding, not acrobatics, and they immediately tripped over the ground.
If Gongsun Zan's generals had not rushed to the front of him one after another, he would have almost become one of the people in the fallen team.
Almost at the same time as the trap appeared, the sound of heavy armored infantry approaching rapidly rang in Gongsun Zan's ears like thunder.
This sound immediately drowned out any noise in the camp.
Just as he broke into the camp so suddenly, the other party did not give him time to react at all, and surrounded and rushed into the team from both sides.
That was indeed an infantry force.
But when the infantry, armed with long weapons, reach this distance, it is the cavalry that will suffer.
What's more, they had already been tripped by the tripwire.
The Youzhou cavalry, who were well versed in riding techniques, still had the energy to mount their horses quickly in the face of such a sudden change.
However, their opponents are by no means ordinary.
Gongsun Zan turned his horse and raised his spear, looking towards the foreign army that had crashed into his cavalry team, but because of the flickering firelight and the dark clouds covering the moon, it was difficult to see the enemy's appearance for a moment.
All he could see was that the cavalry's overly long lances just happened to become a breakthrough for the infantry to counterattack the cavalry during the attack.
Seeing these elite troops suddenly appear, they formed a solid barrier to protect the central army’s flag.
Seeing that in the two teams that were torn apart in a moment, his side was actually at a disadvantage!
Especially the Wuhuan people who were traveling with him.
At this moment, although it was unclear where the commander of this infantry was, it did not affect Gongsun Zan's judgment based on the strength of the people who came, that these were the people commanded by Qu Yan.
Even if Zhang Liao was not the one here, this heavily armored infantry could still have a blocking effect in Qu Yan's hands!
Gongsun Zan would never understand how agonizing it was for Qu Yan to wait for this opportunity to fight, just as Qu Yan would never understand Gongsun Zan's hatred towards Liu Yu.
The restrictions that Qiao Yan imposed on the powerful people in Liang Province forced Qu Yan to make sufficient military achievements in order to have a chance to wrest resources from Qu Yi. However, in his earlier battles in You Province, he had few opportunities to confront Gongsun Zan head-on.
Only this time is different!
Zhang Liao gave a different interpretation to Gongsun Zan's signs of retreat.
The coast road east of Endless End is indeed in disrepair, and the difficulties faced by both the attacker and the defender are far greater for the former than for the latter.
But this trouble is concentrated in the summer and autumn, not in the winter when even the river freezes.
There is only one possibility, that Gongsun Zan is not really going to retreat, but is deliberately creating confusion.
While Zhang Liao had his men pay attention to investigating the enemy's attack, he also assigned Qu Yan a task against Gongsun Zan.
So when the cavalry of Gongsun Zan and Tadun attacked, Qu Yan, who had been prepared for this, quickly assembled his troops.
Perhaps the only unexpected thing was the attack from another Xianbei branch in the north, which forced Zhang Liao to give up reinforcing the outer defense line due to a shortage of elite troops and lead his men to quickly intercept the northern team.
The task left to Qu Yan was to deliver a head-on blow to the enemy after they had penetrated deep into his territory.
Due to the warlike and competitive nature of the people of Liangzhou, Qu Yan was not at all intimidated by the momentum of Gongsun Zan's cavalry. Instead, he started the counterattack with a shout of "kill".
Gongsun Zan was indeed not pulled off his horse by the lasso, but his and Tadun's particularly conspicuous positions in the team made him the target of public criticism in an instant.
Those heavily armored infantrymen holding shields had a more reckless momentum than the cavalry he led.
In order to break up their offensive, these people adopted an attitude that could not be mistaken: to capture the leader first.
As a result, Gongsun Zan's long spear just hit a shield, making a dull sound, and the next moment, several hook-and-sickle spears stretched out from under the shield, dragging him off the horse's back along with his spear.
If his subordinates had not rescued him in time, Gongsun Zan would have been stabbed to death here.
But when he got back on the horse, there was a bloody wound on his shoulder.
Thinking of the fierce eyes he met in the terrifying moment just now, Gongsun Zan gave the signal to withdraw without hesitation.
This decision was not made just for this reason.
As they were repeatedly obstructed and pulled, Liu Yu's guards had already reacted from the previous chaos and were about to form a siege of archers against them.
If we stay any longer, something bad will happen!
Gongsun Zan and Tadun abandoned some of the soldiers who were guarding the rear and fought their way out, intending to meet up with Kebi Neng who was coming from the north. However, at this moment, they suddenly heard a shout that resounded throughout the camp. The shout was exactly -
"The thief general is dead! Ke Bineng is dead!"
When Zhang Liao was guarding Yanmen, he had dealings with Kebineng.
However, at this critical moment of the battle, he had no time to ask Qiao Yan remotely whether Ke Bineng should be killed.
In order to defeat the enemy forces as quickly as possible, he made a prompt decision to kill Kebineng and then publicize it.
This hero of the Xianbei branch who came from afar thought that he would carve out a future in this raid, but he did not expect to be met with a fatal blow.
The announcement that the enemy general was dead not only caused the Xianbei cavalry who followed Kebi Neng to panic and be at a loss, but also made Gongsun Zan and Tadun realize that they had lost one of their allies and had to change direction.
What they had never expected was that the outer defense line that they had easily broken through with their fierce momentum was suddenly attacked by another team at the moment when they led the remaining soldiers to leave.
Although this group of troops was not as elite as Zhang Liao and Qu Yan's troops, they were definitely not comparable to Liu Yu's troops.
As it charged towards them, it actually had a wild and unruly aura that could not be ignored.
In the gradually increasing firelight around him, Gongsun Zan saw a face that he still remembered.
During the Yuyang Rebellion several years ago, this man, as a general of the Southern Xiongnu who surrendered to the Han Dynasty, was forcibly recruited to fight in Youzhou.
Gongsun Zan had met him once, and perhaps they had fought together for a period of time.
But today, Yu Fuluo, the son of the Chanyu of Southern Xiongnu, volunteered to come and help after Qiao Yan entrusted Zhang Liao and Qu Yan to assist Liu Yu in the battle.
In earlier battles, he and his Xiongnu cavalry mixed in with Zhang Liao's generals, and were slightly inferior to the Bingzhou Army trained in the Battle of Yanmen.
In this sudden battle, he was also capable of becoming a lone interceptor.
In Gongsun Zan's retreating team, Yu Furuo captured Gongsun Zan's presence in the team with his excellent dynamic vision developed from hunting and his not-too-bad night vision.
It was at the moment when their group of people rushed out that the crossbow arrow in his hand, which had already been strung and pulled tight, flew out.
Even though Gongsun Zan was able to quickly dodge to the side due to his ability to respond to emergencies during the battle, the crossbow arrow still pierced into the gap in his torn armor on his shoulder.
The sudden pain almost made Gongsun Zan drop the spear in his hand.
But the countless battles since he took office have made him develop an instinct.
If he really puts down his weapon, then it will be the end!
Thinking of the backup plan he still had, Gongsun Zan gritted his teeth, resolutely abandoned his rear army, and led his personal guards and cavalry who could keep up with the team to charge out.
If this iron cavalry, famous in Youzhou, wanted to leave, no one could stop them at this time.
By the time Liu Yu and Zhang Liao joined forces and headed in this direction, Gongsun Zan could no longer be seen in the thick fog of the night.
Fortunately... although Gongsun Zan was not captured, the crisis of the attack on the camp was over.
Liu Yu couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
Gongsun Zan's tripartite alliance was missing one of the parties, and suffered such a defeat. It would be difficult for him to make a comeback.
Even if he had such an intention, the Wuhuan people who participated in the attack on the camp suffered such a loss. When they could not seek justice from Liu Yu, they could only blame Gongsun Zan!
He is in big trouble!
But before they could rejoice in this victory for long, in the early morning, a rider suddenly came from the south.
Before anyone arrived, a voice had already reached this place -
“Oh no!”
Liu Yu was already supervising the reinforcement of the camp defenses because of Gongsun Zan's attack.
He looked at the sound and was surprised to find that it was a close follower of his eldest son Liu He. He couldn't help but have a bad premonition.
The man came to Liu Yu and stopped his horse.
Because he had to brake suddenly and was extremely panicked, he fell off the horse. With the help of Liu Yu's attendants, he stood in front of Liu Yu.
Perhaps because it was particularly cold in the early morning, the hot sweat on his face condensed into white frost on his temples.
But what he said made Liu Yu feel like he was falling into an icy cave.
"Tonight, a scout came to report a battle here. My lord, you are fighting hard. Upon hearing the news, my eldest son led troops from Hunu County to help. On the way, he met a general under Gongsun Zan and was captured by him."
"Please save the eldest son as soon as possible!"
Liu He actually fell into Gongsun Zan's hands tonight!
An urgent military report was quickly sent from Dai County to Yanmen, and then delivered to Qiao Yan who was in Jinyang City.
In this urgent report, Zhang Liao wrote that after Gongsun Zan kidnapped Liu He and retreated to Wuzhong, Liu Yu, in shock and anger, chose to send troops to pursue him.
According to Zhang Liao's analysis, Gongsun Zan and others should have chosen to retreat directly to the east after their defeat, rather than heading south to Hu Nu first. Therefore, Liu He's capture was most likely a premeditated move by Gongsun Zan, and a pursuit at this time would inevitably lead to an ambush.
This was different from the situation when Huangfu Song attacked the kingdom after lifting the siege of Chencang.
At that time, it was called eradicating all evil, but now it should really be called not pursuing a desperate enemy.
But Liu Yu did not listen to Zhang Liao's advice. Instead, in anger, he told him not to give up his decision. 1
In order to prevent Gongsun Zan and others from continuing to escape eastward after passing through the Wuzhong Pass and escaping to the area east of Lulong Pass, Liu Yu immediately reorganized the Yuyang garrison and the people and sent out an army of 30,000 with Liu He as a hostage to negotiate terms with Liu Yu, and to prevent Gongsun Zan from plundering the people east of Yuyang after his defeat.
But the facts proved that Zhang Liao's judgment was not wrong. Gongsun Zan and Tadun indeed ambushed on the Binhai Road and defeated Liu Yu's soldiers who were not good at fighting.
During the battle, Liu He, who was held hostage by Gongsun Zan, was unfortunately shot and killed by a stray arrow.
Liu Yu was nearly captured by Gongsun Zan, but fortunately Zhang Liao, under the guidance of Tian Yu, bypassed Xuwu Mountain and rushed into the formation from the north. He joined forces with Qu Yan, who was protecting Liu Yu, and rescued Liu Yu.
Liu Yu only suffered some minor injuries and fortunately was not seriously injured.
But when he heard the news of the heavy casualties and Liu He's death, he vomited blood and fainted.
Zhang Liao urgently sent him to Bingzhou, and then retreated to Shanggu Juyongguan to form a new line of defense to prevent Gongsun Zan from taking advantage of the situation.
This military report was sent to ask Qiao Yan to decide what to do next.
After receiving this series of news, Qiao Yan guessed that Gongsun Zan would never sit idly by and would definitely take actions to improve the situation after learning that Liu Yu was about to become the emperor. He never thought that he could so efficiently unite the Xianbei branch and the Wuhuan alliance to attack together.
He was able to even blackmail Liu He and trick Liu Yu into sending troops, thus turning the tables!
Gongsun Zan, who was able to establish the White Horse Volunteers, is indeed capable!
She immediately ordered people to prepare horses, led her entourage north, and rushed to Yanmen County, where she met Liu Yu who was still bedridden.
It has only been about half a year since he bid farewell to Qiao Yan and returned to Youzhou at the beginning of this year.
Qiao Yan didn't even notice any changes in the appearance of his subordinates.
But when she saw Liu Yu again, the Youzhou governor, who was not yet fifty years old, had already seen off his loved ones. He had a lot of white hair on his temples and his eyes revealed a deep fatigue.
He seemed to have aged five or six years overnight.
Liu Yu looked at Qiao Yan, who was still wearing a wind cloak and hurried over, and suddenly burst into tears. He sighed and said, "Yeshu, I regret not listening to Wenyuan's words!"
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