Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

Chapter 599: Boundary Bridge Attack and Defense
To put it simply, Gongsun Zan still did not think highly of Guo Jia and regarded him as a junior who came here to gain experience.

Therefore, Guo Jia knew that the dispute over Jie Bridge was not in Gongsun Zan's favor, but he was unable to persuade Gongsun Zan to change his mind.

In Gongsun Zan's view, he was always the one taking the initiative.

He was also the one who pushed for the situation in the Battle of Jie Bridge, forcing Yuan Shao to fight a decisive battle with him, and then sweeping across Jizhou with thundering force.

More importantly, Gongsun Zan believed that the 60,000 cavalrymen under his command were far more powerful than Yuan Shao, and that the White Horse Volunteers were invincible and had no rivals.

At this moment, Gongsun Zan, wearing white armor, white robe and white horse, was not in the central army, but as usual, he went to the front army, pointing the long spear in his hand directly at the boundary bridge across the Qing River, calling out.

"Enter!"

Of course, as a brave general with many battles under his command, Gongsun Zan would naturally not let his cavalry charge towards the Jie Bridge on the other side which was heavily guarded by Yuan Shao.

It was the infantry under Han Fu who moved across the bridge under Gongsun Zan's command.

In name, Han Fu and Gongsun Zan were an alliance of two families. Even as the governor of Jizhou, Han Fu was the superior of Gongsun Zan, the prefect of Bohai County.

Of course, given Gongsun Zan's strength and arrogance, how could he possibly obey the orders of a mere Han Fu?
The command of the coalition forces was firmly in the hands of Gongsun Zan. Under Gongsun Zan's order, a group of 3,000 infantrymen marched out in formation, most of them holding large shields and spears, and were the first to step onto the boundary bridge.

Not destroying the boundary bridge was a tacit understanding between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan.

Once the Jie Bridge was destroyed, Gongsun Zan no longer had the right terrain to force Yuan Shao into a decisive battle, and Yuan Shao was helpless against Gongsun Zan's highly mobile cavalry.

As that section of infantry slowly moved forward across the boundary bridge and reached the middle of the bridge, Yuan's army lined up on the opposite bank suddenly raised a huge cloud of arrows with the force of thunder, covering that section of soldiers.

"Clang clang clang clang!"

However, with the protection of shields and armor, the damage caused by the rain of arrows is quite limited.

While the soldiers raised their shields for protection, they also quickened their pace and rushed to the other side.

Under Gongsun Zan's sharp gaze, Yuan's army did not send troops to block the narrow boundary bridge to forcibly stop that group of soldiers.

On the contrary, from a distance, it seemed that Yuan's army had opened a pocket on the other side of the boundary bridge, waiting for that part of the soldiers to rush out of the boundary bridge, and then surrounded and killed the soldiers from three sides.

The fact is just as Gongsun Zan judged.

It is not difficult to cross the boundary bridge, but the difficulty lies in being surrounded on three sides after crossing the boundary bridge.

For ordinary people, the boundary bridge is quite wide, and on normal days it is even wide enough for two carriages to travel towards each other.

But for the soldiers, how many people can pass through at the same time? How can they resist the siege from three sides after rushing across the boundary bridge?

That group of soldiers encountered several waves of arrows and finally rushed across the boundary bridge to face the siege of Yuan's army.

They only lasted a cup of tea before retreating in panic.

However, when attacking, they can line up and protect themselves with shields, but when retreating, the armor on their backs alone may not be able to block many arrows.

This unit began to collapse when there were only 2,000 soldiers left, but less than 800 soldiers were lucky enough to cross the boundary bridge and retreat.

The deaths of more than 2,000 people made the battlefield begin to be filled with the pungent smell of blood, and the water of the Qinghe River under the Jie Bridge was even stained with some color.

Gongsun Zan, who witnessed the whole process, remained unmoved and simply uttered a word with contempt.

"Little tricks."

These three thousand infantrymen were only intended to test Yuan's army's deployment.

Yuan Jun's deployment was not very clever, but it was able to effectively kill and wound the enemy. This in turn made Gongsun Zan smile.

If Yuan Shao intended to continue delaying, he should deploy heavy troops directly on the Jie Bridge.

The bridge was narrow, and no matter how fierce the battle was, even if it lasted a whole day, the casualties would probably not exceed a thousand.

In Gongsun Zan's view, this undoubtedly meant that Yuan Shao was short of money and food, and he did not dare to delay any longer, so he chose to open the bridge and line up on the opposite bank.

Immediately, Gongsun Zan, having made up his mind, reorganized his troops.

This time, Gongsun Zan once again ordered 5,000 infantrymen to lead the way, but they were followed by another 5,000 archers.

When the five thousand infantrymen crossed the bridge with shields, they were once again hit by a hail of arrows.

However, when the 5,000 archers slowly reached the middle of the boundary bridge, they immediately counterattacked in the direction of Yuan’s archers.

Both sides were essentially Han troops, and there was no obvious difference in their various military equipment and weapons.

You can shoot me, and I can shoot you too.

Especially the archers deployed by Gongsun Zan were behind. When those archers drew their bows and shot arrows in unison, the archers of Yuan army were undoubtedly a beat too slow to fight back.

"Puff puff……"

A series of chilling sounds of arrows piercing flesh rang out in Yuan's army formation, causing a momentary chaos.

Then, the archers of both sides shot arrows at each other from a distance.

For a moment, arrows were flying all over the battlefield, and all kinds of stray arrows were splashing everywhere. Some unlucky guys were hit in the vitals and died on the spot.

With the support and cover of the archers, the situation of the infantry in the front was undoubtedly much better than before. They could spare more energy to form a battle line to resist the attack of Yuan's army as soon as possible after rushing out of the boundary bridge, trying to gain a foothold on the opposite bank.

The situation at the moment is somewhat similar to a siege. As long as the people crossing the bridge can gain a foothold for a short time, a steady stream of infantry will join in and continuously expand their foothold.

However, the two armies fought in a stalemate for a full hour.

These 10,000 soldiers were ultimately unable to gain a foothold, and after suffering casualties of more than 30%, their morale inevitably began to decline rapidly, followed by a series of routs.

However, this time, with the cover of the archers, they were able to retreat along the boundary bridge without causing more than half of their troops to be killed or injured.

"waste."

Gongsun Zan commented with contempt and continued to order the infantry under Han Fu to continue to attack Jie Bridge.

Some of Han Fu's generals questioned Gongsun Zan, believing that he was deliberately depleting Han Fu's military strength. However, Gongsun Zan silenced Han Fu's generals with just one word.

"If the infantry won't charge, are you asking me to lead the cavalry to attack?"

The Yuan army will always have rain of arrows covering the boundary bridge. The infantry can still pass through with shields, but even if the cavalry use shields to protect themselves, can they protect the horses under their crotch?

Moreover, even if they crossed the boundary bridge, no matter how many cavalrymen they had, they would not be able to break through head-on against the densely packed and well-equipped Yuan army on the other side of the river.

The Han army's formation was not that fragile, otherwise the Han army would not have beaten the various ethnic groups so hard that they cried out in despair.

Therefore, the main force to break through the boundary bridge can only be infantry. At least they have to gain a foothold on the other side so that the cavalry can have room to play.

No matter how unwilling Han Fu's generals were, they could only lead their troops and continue to organize their forces to try to break through the Jie Bridge.

(End of this chapter)