Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 469
"Ding ding ding ding ding!"

Jin Cheng's voice resounded throughout the battlefield. Cao Zhen was wearing a black Wei army armor, looking solemnly at the retreating Han army.

It has been nearly 20 days since the Han army launched a sudden attack in early February, which is close to March.

On the western front, the strength of the Han army and the Wei army were about the same, both around [-].But this time the Han army obviously came prepared, adopting the standard Tian Ji horse racing offensive.

The deployment of Wei's troops in the Hedong and Tongguan area is as follows. Cao Zhen's main force in Tongguan is about 1, Xu Huang's in Puban is about [-], and Zhu Ling's in Pi's is less than [-].

There are thousands of other people scattered in Hedong and Hebei County and Dayang County to the south of Zhongtiao Mountain, so Cao Jun's troops in Hedong are at a disadvantage as a whole.

There is no way, Tongguan leads directly to Luoyang. If Tongguan cannot be defended, Luoyang is in danger of being attacked.

So Cao Zhen can only guard at Tongguan.

The Han army took the initiative to attack this time, Zhao Yun led about 1 cavalry from Huayin, and fought with Cao Jun at the junction of the Weihe River and the Yellow River, which is later Qindong Town, Tongguan County, Weinan City, Shaanxi Province.

About 2 of Shen Chen's main force crossed the Yellow River and went straight to Puban. Pang De's [-] men crossed the river from Longmen and attacked Pi's where Zhu Ling was.

For a while Cao Jun in Hedong was under great pressure, especially Xu Huang's department.

After the grain and grass were burned, he immediately dispatched cavalry to cross the river from Zhongtiao Mountain to meet Cao Zhen, while he himself led less than 2 people to defend Puban to the death, waiting for his reinforcements to arrive.

It has to be said that Xu Huang's response has been very good.

With a large group of cavalry, Cao Zhen also had the ability to pursue Zhao Yun who was constantly harassed by cavalry. Finally, he repelled Zhao Yun in Weinan Township east of Huayin, and even wiped out a group of Han cavalry on a small scale.

"call."

After the Han army retreated back to Huayin, Cao Zhen let out a long breath.

He's under a lot of pressure right now.

Zhu Ling also sent a messenger to ask for help. Pound raided the Pi family, and almost all the outer camps of the Pi family were captured by the Han army. Only Zhu Ling was left struggling in Pi's city.

The situation in Hedong was not good, and he was frequently harassed by Zhao Yun. The main reason was that although Tongguan was on the edge of the Yellow River, it was still tens of miles away from the Yellow River.

Tongguan in the Han Dynasty was located in Yangjia Village, the port town of Tongguan County in later generations, while Tongguan in the Ming Dynasty was located in Qindong Town in the north. Therefore, Tongguan in the Han Dynasty was far away from the Yellow River, and there was a vast plain area on the south bank of the Yellow River.

If Cao Zhen came out of Tongguan and crossed the river at Tongting, which is the later Qindong Town of Tongguan County, he would be attacked by Zhao Yun's cavalry.

Zhao Yun's cavalry came and went like the wind, he was crossing the river there, and when he crossed halfway, if the Han cavalry raided his rear camp, it would be impossible to take care of both ends, and the entire army would be in a very chaotic scene.

Therefore, there was a stalemate for more than half a month, until Xu Shang's cavalry came over, and Zhao Yun's harassment was repelled.

This ambush Cao Zhen still showed the aura of a famous general in history. Zhao Yunyi relied on his cavalry to be superior to Cao Wei, and attacked dozens of miles from time to time.

Before Xu Shang came, Cao Zhen took advantage of this and pretended that Xu Huang's situation was critical and he had to forcefully cross the river, so he arrived at Tongting and began to march.

After Zhao Yun came, just like Ma Chao beat Cao Cao in history, he wanted to use a cavalry attack to defeat Cao Zhen by the Yellow River.

However, Cao Zhen had a good command in front of the battle. With two-thirds of the army crossing the river, he used the remaining infantry to form an formation and entangled with Zhao Yun's army. Then Xu Shang's cavalry ambushed in the rear attacked and repelled Zhao Yun. Thousand Han Army.

But then Zhao Yun stabilized his position and retreated slowly. He also commanded Cao Wei's cavalry to fight many times, beheaded Xu Shang, and retreated to Weinan Township east of Huayin. The fighting between the two sides forced Zhao Yun to retreat to Huayin. Negative.

Seeing the retreat of the Han cavalry in the distance, Cao Zhen breathed a sigh of relief. At least Zhao Yun had lost a lot of troops now, and he probably couldn't continue to harass him anymore. He could cross the river calmly.

"Report!"

A war supervisor in charge of counting the battlefield came leading a Han army horse and reported to Cao Zhen: "General, we have captured the Han army horse."

"Ah."

Cao Zhen didn't care, he waved his hand and said, "Use the horses you got for the cavalry."

The war supervisor continued: "General, their horses have some new equipment, you can still take a look."

"New equipment?"

Cao Zhen wondered, "Apart from stirrups and saddles, what else do they have?"

Because the Liu Bei Group did not have a source of horses in the early days, if the cavalry was equipped with stirrups, saddles and horseshoes, it was basically no different from the enemy.

So Shen Chen started to form a large-scale cavalry only after he arrived in Liangzhou and had a stable source of horses.

He even formed a heavy armored cavalry of 5000 people.

In subsequent wars, Cao Wei suffered repeated defeats and failed to capture the horses of the Han army. However, they observed the stirrups and Takahashi saddles of the Han army from a distance through battles, imitated them, and are slowly promoting them throughout the army.

The war supervisor pulled up the horse's hoof, pointed to the hoof and said, "Look at it, General."

Cao Zhen squatted down to watch.

I saw that the hoof of the horseshoe was cut off, and a thin iron plate was installed on it, like a person putting shoes on his feet.

"This is?"

Cao Zhen was quite puzzled.

The war supervisor said: "The Han army installed iron plates on the horseshoes, there must be a purpose for it. Bei remembered the wear and tear of the horses' hooves due to continuous combat. Often, a surprise attack may cause many horses' hooves to crack and cannot be used. Continue to fight, this may be the reason why the Han army has been able to attack us every day for nearly a month."

"Well."

Cao Zhen touched his chin and nodded slightly.

It is recognized that the stamina of horses is not as good as that of humans, but before the Yuan Dynasty had horseshoes, there was another reason why horses were not as durable as humans. That was that without the protection of horseshoes, long-distance running would cause excessive wear and tear on the horseshoes, which would wear down the nails of the horseshoes. Light can cause inflammation and injury to the horse's hooves.

This is the same reason that if humans plan the ground with their hands, the damage to the nails will cause hand injuries.

Horses in the wild do not run continuously like war horses. They rest when they are full, and protect their hooves from wearing them down for a long time.

But war horses are not good. Not only do they have to carry out various trainings at ordinary times, but they also need to run in a hurry in case of emergencies, which will cause a lot of wear and tear on the horseshoe nails.

Therefore, before the Yuan Dynasty, dynasties with cavalry would have such troubles.

Seeing this scene now, Cao Zhen also understood why Zhao Yun's cavalry were always able to come and go like the wind, not afraid of the loss of horses at all.

It turned out that there was such equipment.

He said to the war supervisor: "Send the captured war horses to Luoyang, report to His Majesty, and let the general inspector take a look."

"only!"

The War Supervisor led the way.

Cao Zhen took a look at the battlefield from a distance. Cao Jun's cleaning personnel had escorted the enemy's corpses and prisoners of war back. For Cao Wei this time, it was already a small victory.

From the Battle of Guanzhong and the Battle of Xiangfan to the present seven or eight years, Cao Wei has not had such a victory, which is always a good thing.

Until the afternoon, Cao Zhen sent people to clean up the battlefield, and then retreated back to Tongting to prepare to cross the river.

On February 27, Cao Jun successfully crossed the Yellow River and arrived at Fenglingdu.

At the same time, Zhao Yun retreated back to Huayin.

In Huayin City, Ma Dai escorted Zhao Yun back to the city. When the two reached the top of the city, he cupped his hands to Zhao Yun and said, "Former General."

Zhao Yun was General Zuo before, but after Huang Zhong's death, he was promoted to former general.

At present, Guan Yu of the Southern Han Group is the Marshal of the World’s Army and Horse and concurrently serves as the General, Shen Chen is the General of Hussars, Zhang Fei is the General of Chariots, and Ma Chao is not allowed to be reused by Zhuge Liang after Liu Bei’s death, and he temporarily serves as General Wei for the elderly.

Fortunately, Zhao Yun was old and strong, now in his sixties, he was still agile and active on the battlefield, and even beheaded the enemy general Xu Shang before, he was a great general.

Zhao Yun stood at the top of the city and looked to the east. Seeing that Cao Jun was not chasing him, Zhao Yun said to Ma Dai with a serious face, "Cao Jun suddenly appeared with a large number of cavalry. Appeared in Tongguan."

Ma Dai said in a deep voice: "Tongguan is mainly defensive, and the terrain is relatively narrow. There are many mountainous areas and it is not suitable for Cao Wei to deploy too many cavalry, so the cavalry is all in Hedong County. It shows that Xu Huang has transferred all the cavalry. .”

"Exactly."

Zhao Yun nodded and said: "It seems that the governor's guess is right. Cao Zhen intends to cross the river with the main force, and then take our army in Puban from Leishou Mountain. If he cooperates with Xu Huang to outflank, the governor's side may be in danger. .”

Zhang Yi, the general of Zhao Yun's department next to him, wondered: "General, the last general is a little confused. I heard that Cao Jun has a lot of cavalry. Why must the cavalry of Cao Jun who appeared here be from Hedong?"

Ma Dai smiled and said: "You don't know, Cao Wei lost troops and lost generals in several successive battles. Even the cavalry responsible for guarding the frontier at the Youyan border in the north were transferred here. Cao's army no longer has so many cavalry."

"Those Youyan cavalry?"

"If they were the ones dispatched, wouldn't the prime minister die laughing?"

"Ah, the general is confused."

Zhang Yi scratched his head, he actually came from a famous family, his grandfather was a prefect, so he can be regarded as a scholarly family.

However, at present, Cao Wei's internal actions are only being probed by Shen Chen carefully, and only some high-level officials know about it, and even Ma Dai only knows about it after he often follows Shen Chen.

So it's normal for Zhang Yi not to understand Cao Wei's current predicament.

Now Cao Wei is incomparable with the southern big Han in terms of total force. He is in a disadvantaged situation, and the number of cavalry has dropped sharply. It is difficult to have extra cavalry to assist the western front.

Zhao Yun said to Ma Dai: "Then according to the governor's plan, you will lead the Huayin cavalry, and I will cross the river to Hedong immediately."

"only!"

Ma Dai surrendered.

At that moment, Zhao Yun handed over his general seal to Ma Dai.

Ma Dai is currently General Anxi, and his position is not too high, so his general Yin is needed to lead the army and suppress the scene.

Here Zhao Yun secretly crossed the Wei River according to the original plan, and then crossed the Yellow River from Puban to Hedong County.

Over there, Cao Zhen's main force also crossed the Yellow River, and marched in the direction of Fenglingdu to Leishou Mountain.

On March [-]th, it was exactly [-] noon. The main force of Cao's army was heading north along the official road. Cao Zhen was riding on horseback, looking solemnly into the distance.

On the right side of the road are endless mountains, undulating mountains, majestic and vast, it is the late spring season, the birds are singing and the flowers are fragrant, and the scenery is beautiful.

The warm sunshine is falling, the valley is fresh, the trees are green, and the dendrobium, daylilies, mulberries, and roses on the roadside, the flowers and shadows are scattered, competing for beauty, and the mottled sunlight shines in the forest, which makes people feel relaxed and happy.

On the left side of the road is a plain and grassland, close to the Yellow River. From a distance, you can see the vast Yellow River rolling in waves, and the water surface is a bit turbid, but it is not as exaggerated to the point of muddy yellow as in later generations.

There are some forests and trees growing on both sides of the bank, the branches are drooping, and the weeds and basil are intercepted on the road. The scouts in front need to keep clearing the weeds before they can move forward.

"what!"

At this moment, a shrill scream pierced the entire sky.

Cao Zhen suddenly became nervous.

Naturally, it is impossible for him not to send scouts, so the forest on the left bank and the mountains on the right all have scouts spread out to open the way.

The sound seemed to be coming from the scouts in the forest on the right. Could there be an ambush?

He quickly ordered martial law for the former army.

But after a while, it was discovered that it was a false alarm. Snakes, rats and ants were everywhere in the forest. When the scouts were dealing with the thorns and bushes in the forest, they stepped on a poisonous snake and were bitten back.

The injured scouts were carried to the back for treatment. Occasionally, the sound of tigers roaring could be heard in the forest, which made the subsequent scouts more careful in their investigation.

At noon, the weather became hotter and hotter. Cao Zhen wiped the sweat from his forehead, looked around, and finally ordered the three armies to rest in place after a while, and went to the river to let the horses drink some water.

Cao Jun's army stretched for more than ten miles along the way, and there were still several miles of plains on the left. They could only see the bank of the Yellow River in the distance.

The horses entered the water in an orderly manner, and boarded the opposite river beach in an orderly manner, and Cao Jun's soldiers also went to the river to fetch water and boil them in batches.

Since we set off in the morning until now, everyone is hungry. It is also a good thing to be able to boil some water in a cauldron, put some sauce in it and eat it with cakes.

Soon the cries of the riders and the neighing of the horses mixed with the sound of the river gravel rolling under the hooves of the horses, overwhelmed the soothing sound of the water for a while, echoing back and forth in the tumbling river bend.

Cao Zhen's front army worked a little harder and had to stand guard for the central army and the rear army. At this time, Cao Zhen's general Dai Ling, who was at the forefront of the team, moved forward slowly and continued to open the way for the army.

As a vanguard, he must fulfill this responsibility.

But after walking for about a mile, Dai Ling suddenly felt that something was wrong. The chirping of birds in the mountains seemed to be particularly rhythmic.

Immediately afterwards, the ground in front of him began to shake at some point.

A small stone shook slightly.

Hooves!
The sound of rolling thunder suddenly appeared, causing Dai Ling's heart to snap violently, and then let out a mournful cry.

"Enemy attack!"

(End of this chapter)