People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 159
"Liaodong was defeated, Su Puyan was defeated!"

When the news reached the western battlefield, Liu Yu and Gongsun Zan were both shocked. What frightened them even more was that not only was Liaodong lost, but a large Yellow Turban army in Liaodong had also begun to march westward and had already traveled most of the way, and would almost reach Guangyang in a few days.

The military intelligence was only a few days faster than the Yellow Turban reinforcements, but it brought great shock to the officers and soldiers.

Liu Yu sat down with a worried look on his face. "During this period, we have fought against the Yellow Turbans with many times our troops, but we have not been able to gain any advantage. If we let them wait for reinforcements, I am afraid we will not be able to deal with them."

Qi Zhou on the side sighed: "The Yellow Turbans are indeed powerful. Once their reinforcements arrive, the offensive and defensive situation on the battlefield will be reversed."

Gongsun Zan paced back and forth in the big tent, seemingly thinking about a countermeasure, but no one paid attention to him. Although Gongsun Zan was the main force in this battle, everyone naturally regarded Liu Yu as the center.

After all, Liu Yu was a governor, a famous Han scholar, and a relative of the Han royal family. Gongsun Zan had no sense of presence standing next to him.

Liu Yu pondered for a moment and said in a deep voice: "The Yellow Turban reinforcements are still a few days away. We can't just sit there and wait for death. I think we should take advantage of our current military advantage and launch a full-scale attack."

Cheng Xu on the side was worried: "What the governor said is true, but we can't gain the upper hand in the battle against the Yellow Turbans during this period. If something goes wrong when we go all out, it will be irreversible."

The big tent suddenly became quiet, as they could all imagine the serious consequences that Cheng Xu mentioned.

Once the war enters a protracted confrontation, both sides will look for opportunities through constant small-scale probing, then continue to increase their strength at the right time, and finally launch an all-out attack to secure victory.

However, the Yellow Turbans remained as still as a mountain during this period. They responded to whatever moves the government soldiers made and never took the initiative to attack.

Looking back now, it is obvious that the Yellow Turbans had no intention from the very beginning to use more than 10,000 troops in the western battlefield to fight to the death. After all, even if they won in the end with such a small number of troops, the cost would be very high.

Therefore, the Yellow Turbans just held their ground all the time, not giving any chances or showing any flaws.

In this situation, the officers and soldiers did not have enough confidence and did not have a good opportunity. They just launched a general attack. If they failed, they would have no choice but to retreat. Even more pessimistically, it would turn into a major defeat, which would be a complete failure.

"I can't care about so many things. I will personally lead the troops to launch a general attack. If we don't take the initiative to fight now, they will fight us in the future."

Gongsun Zan stopped and looked at Liu Yu: "Our army must seize the remaining opportunity of our military advantage. Although the Yellow Turbans are powerful, they are not invincible. We have hope of winning with our military advantage. As long as we win here, we won't have to worry about the Yellow Turban reinforcements that will come later."

Everyone looked at each other, and finally followed Gongsun Zan's gaze and looked at Liu Yu.

Although Liu Yu was in a heavy mood, he had already thought of this, so he did not hesitate too much and nodded to Gongsun Zan.

"In this case, Bogui should lead the entire army to attack. If there is a chance, it would be best to break through the enemy camp in one fell swoop. If a general attack is also unsuccessful, then retreat safely and think about retreating and shrinking later."

"I understand. The governor just needs to wait for good news."

Gongsun Zan glanced at everyone, calmly bowed to Liu Yu, then turned and left the tent.

Soon, an army of more than 30,000 officers and soldiers was assembled.

Gongsun Zan looked at the huge army formation, but he did not feel much excitement or passion in his heart. To be honest, it was difficult for him to have much confidence when facing the Yellow Turbans.

Over the past two years, he had suffered countless setbacks at the hands of the Yellow Turbans and had long lost his fighting spirit.

If there hadn't been the formidable enemy of the Yellow Turbans before him, why would Gongsun Zan be so polite to Liu Yu today? With his military rank as the Captain of the Breaking the Enemy Army, he could have ignored the governor if he didn't want to.

But in order to gain more power to defeat the thieves, he had to humble himself.

At least in the past, they would definitely not be able to carry out a sustained battle for one or two months. It was only this time that Liu Yu took the lead and many noble families in Youzhou each contributed money and food to support the war. Otherwise, the officers and soldiers would have collapsed long ago.

On the contrary, the Yellow Turbans' strength exceeded his imagination. They had been staying here for a month or two without any shortage of food and grass.

Even though he ordered the White Horse Volunteers to harass the Yellow Turbans' food supply routes and delay their logistical replenishment, this still did not cause much trouble to the Yellow Turbans.

After many thoughts flashed through his mind, Gongsun Zan mounted his horse, and the more than 3,000 white horse volunteers who had been fully recruited after two years immediately followed him, and a strong aura emerged spontaneously.

But Gongsun Zan just sighed. Although the White Horse Volunteers were very strong, they were still not enough to deal with the Yellow Turbans.

The armored positions of the Yellow Turbans were too strong. Although the White Horse Militia, who mainly relied on horseback shooting, could cause certain damage to the Yellow Turbans with their mobility, they could not change the situation on the front battlefield.

The tactics specially developed to deal with nomadic cavalry are no longer so effective when the opponent changes.

This is still cavalry bullying infantry. If we wait until the Yellow Turban reinforcements arrive, there will be no shortage of cavalry, and the White Horse Volunteers will have no chance to fight at that time. So even if it is difficult to fight, we must attack while we still have the advantage.

This is the last chance! "Attack and break through the enemy camp!"

Following Gongsun Zan's icy command, the entire position of officers and soldiers moved, like a black cloud covering the entire area, as if it was going to swallow up the Yellow Turbans' position.

Although the Yellow Turban camp was quiet at this time, it was not because the Yellow Turbans did not react, but because the Yellow Turbans had made all preparations.

On the observation deck of the camp, Huang Long looked at Xu Chen beside him and sighed, "Just as the leader expected, the enemy army became desperate after learning about the situation in Liaodong."

Xu Chen nodded. In fact, he could not really predict the actions of the officers and soldiers. It was just that the officers and soldiers could only make so many choices. The Yellow Turbans only needed to make corresponding defenses and preparations.

It has to be said that the officers and soldiers' choice put them under a lot of pressure. The gap in troop strength was real. With more than 30,000 troops launching a full-scale attack, the grand scene alone made people feel a little breathless.

Gongsun Zan's army was not a fake army like Zhang Chun's. Even if it could not compare with the Yellow Turbans, it could still reach the average quality of the Han Dynasty's officers and soldiers.

A small-scale battle involving a few thousand people is completely different from a large-scale battle involving tens of thousands of people.

"General Huang will lead 5,000 troops to defend the camp first. I will lead 3,000 central troops to support the rear, and Tian Shitou will lead the vanguard battalion to wait at the side gate of the main camp. When the battle becomes fierce and tense, we will send more troops to fill the gap!"

Xu Chen was only thankful that it was the Yellow Turbans who were defending, so the pressure would not be too great. By relying on the advantages of the camp, he could greatly limit the enemy's troop advantage.

Soon the army of officers and soldiers arrived and immediately encountered the front camp position led by Huang Long. There was no retreat or buffering on both sides, it was like two torrents colliding.

It has always been a battlefield of small-scale skirmishes, and finally a major battle has come about, which will be the decisive battle between the two sides.

The entire Yellow Turban camp was filled with shouts of killing, but unfortunately the cavalry was not able to perform well in attacking the camp. Although the White Horse Volunteers were outside providing cover and shooting, they could not pose any threat to the Yellow Turbans. Instead, the infantry's strength advantage on the front battlefield soon became apparent.

Although the Yellow Turbans were powerful, they were able to stubbornly withstand the attacks of government soldiers by relying on their battle formations and camps. In some local battlefields, the Yellow Turban soldiers were the ones committing brutal acts.

Their coordinated fighting style of swordsmen, spearmen and crossbowmen was actually not something particularly unusual. The Han officers and soldiers also had this kind of coordination of troops. It was just that the gap in equipment and training between the two sides made the final coordinated combat effects very different.

On the Yellow Turban side, the soldiers were like precision-moving machines. The offensive continued one after another without a break. The officers and soldiers were always holding the large round shields of the sword and shield fighters to face the threats of swords, guns, and crossbows.

However, it was difficult for them to coordinate with each other. In the beginning, they could still cover each other's attacks, but as the battle became more intense, they soon became chaotic and in the end they all rushed forward.

However, when they wield swords and guns but often fail to penetrate armor, they become extremely desperate.

On the other hand, the Yellow Turbans were able to advance with unstoppable force, especially their repeating crossbows which were truly terrifying.

In the hands of the Yellow Turbans, these crossbows not only fired arrows one after another continuously, but were also extremely accurate.

The combat distance of crossbowmen is usually only a dozen steps or even a few steps, and there are aiming aids on the crossbows, so for soldiers who are familiar with using crossbows, it is really not difficult to hit the target.

The officers and soldiers also had crossbowmen, and the crossbows were equipped with armor-piercing arrows, which could really effectively kill the Yellow Turban armored soldiers.

However, the firing frequency of the strong crossbow was far lower than that of the repeating crossbow. In the chaotic situation of an already engaged battle, it was not as light and flexible as the repeating crossbow, and it was difficult to achieve large-scale killing. In the end, its killing efficiency was far behind that of the Yellow Turban Repeating Crossbow.

The well-equipped and well-trained Yellow Turbans were at the forefront of the battle and completely suppressed the officers and soldiers.

However, the number of officers and soldiers was too large. As they charged and fought one after another, the Yellow Turbans' casualties began to increase significantly. Many Yellow Turban soldiers had begun to feel the pressure, and fighting became more and more difficult.

The tense battle situation continued, and the officers and soldiers kept taking turns to attack. After more than an hour, although they still could not shake the camp gate, Gongsun Zan saw hope that the battle could continue.

Of course, he is also under tremendous pressure at this moment.

The Yellow Turbans were as powerful as ever, and our side was suffering casualties all the time. Once the casualties reached a certain level, the morale of the army would collapse.

He needed to launch a fierce attack at the critical moment to secure victory, and he felt that the opportunity had come.

He had already put on silver armor, and there were also five hundred armored warriors gathered around him. The group was ready to attack the Yellow Turban camp.

He wanted to use himself as a knife to cut open the Yellow Turbans' tortoise shell. Today, he would finally vent all the frustrations he had suffered over the past two years.

As he raised his sword and pressed forward, hundreds of warriors rushed out, and he followed closely among them and began to rush towards the middle gate of the Yellow Turbans.

(End of this chapter)