People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 356 Ten Wins Ten Defeats
It was unknown how long the fighting had lasted. The bloody smell wafting over the city walls seemed to have become substantial, and even the sky was dyed blood red. However, when Zhang Liao came to his senses, he realized that it was the red sunset.

At dusk, the Yellow Turbans finally retreated, and Zhang Liao let out a long breath, then sat on the ground gasping for breath tiredly. At this moment, he only felt a sense of relief.

Although the fighting has stopped today, Zhang Liao still feels a lingering fear.

This was actually the first time he fought against the Yellow Turbans. Before that, he followed Lu Bu in his campaigns, and most of his opponents were various princes. Zhang Liao never felt any pressure fighting against these princes.

But today was different. After a fight, he finally understood why the Cao army was so serious about the Yellow Turbans.

Strong, really too strong.

The Yellow Turbans displayed terrifying strength in both their battle formation coordination and combat skills. Coupled with their fearless ferocity and sophisticated equipment, they were like steel behemoths on the battlefield.

Zhang Liao even discovered that, apart from these things, even in terms of the most basic height and body shape, the Yellow Turbans were obviously much superior to the Cao army, which was of varying quality.

Everyone says that Lu Bu's Western Liang soldiers are fierce. As an old subordinate of Lu Bu, Zhang Liao feels that the Western Liang soldiers are only 20% or 30% inferior to the Yellow Turbans. After all, the Western Liang soldiers are simply fierce and brave, and in other aspects they are completely incomparable to the Yellow Turbans.

The bravery of the Xiliang soldiers came from years of experience fighting with the Qiang people, but the Yellow Turbans obviously took a different approach.

From the tall stature of the Yellow Turbans and their coordinated battle skills, Zhang Liao knew that the Yellow Turbans were an army truly produced through a powerful training system, which was obviously a more efficient and stable approach.

In real large-scale military operations, the effect of system training is definitely far greater than the effect brought about by the strength of ordinary soldiers themselves.

Zhang Liao was well aware of this. Fighting against the Yellow Turbans was like fighting against a cold, constantly moving killing machine. The dense and continuous offensive made it difficult for people to even have a moment to breathe, which made Zhang Liao somewhat desperate.

The quality of the soldiers on both sides was too different. He didn't know how to win such a battle.

After resting for a long time, he finally stood up with great effort, then wiped the blood off his face and walked towards the top of the city. Naturally, he had to report on the battle situation after today's battle.

As soon as he walked up, he heard a burst of lively conversation.

".Therefore, the Han Dynasty had ten victories, while Xuan Xia had ten defeats. The Yellow Turbans were known for their fighting prowess, but they were by no means invincible. Today's battle was enough to prove that.

The outcome of a war is the result of many factors, including the strength of the troops, offense and defense, terrain, logistics, and generals. As long as we can make up for our shortcomings and develop our strengths as much as possible, we can naturally make up for the difference in strength, and it is not impossible for the weak to defeat the strong.

Listening to the scholar in front of him giving advice on the country, Zhang Liao just stood quietly behind the crowd.

Of course he knew who this person was. It was Guo Jia, who had been highly trusted by Cao Cao in recent years. This person had brilliant ideas and strategies, and was favored by Cao Cao. He had been appointed as the chief priest of the army.

However, Zhang Liao disagreed with Guo Jia's theory of ten wins and ten losses.

The battles are fought by generals like himself, and the scholars only need to talk. In reality, it is not that simple. Zhang Liao didn't even dare to say anything about defeating the strong with the weak.

If the general princes recruited peasants to form an army, even if the enemy had hundreds of thousands of people, Zhang Liao might have the confidence to lead a small elite force to defeat the enemy in extreme cases.

But for an elite army like the Yellow Turbans, it would be sheer wishful thinking to have such an idea.

Zhang Liao also saw that after Guo Jia's speech, the people around him still looked solemn, and it was obvious that no one was stupid. What ten wins and ten losses? As long as he was willing to find it, Zhang Liao could find a hundred wins for Xuan Xia.

Cao Cao coughed and laughed: "What Fengxiao said is very reasonable. The Yellow Turbans are so powerful. They can't enter Puyang today. Our army has countless talented generals and strategists. How can we be afraid of the Yellow Turbans?"

When the boss spoke, the effect immediately changed. Everyone immediately agreed, and Cao Cao also laughed, acting free and easy.

But Cao Cao felt very bitter in his heart. How could he not understand that what Guo Jia said was inevitably deceiving himself and others? However, at this critical moment, people's hearts and morale needed to be boosted, so this was the only way.

After today's battle, all the generals and soldiers looked miserable and gloomy. If they didn't say something, their morale would collapse.

Sun Quan, Liu Bei, your reinforcements must come faster, or I really can't hold on!

Although Cao Cao was complaining in his heart, his expression remained calm.

He then looked at Yu Jin and Zhang Liao and said with a smile: "Our army won the battle to defend the city today. The two generals have made great contributions. Thank you for your hard work!"

Yu Jin and Zhang Liao looked at each other. Although they felt tremendous pressure, they could only force themselves to take a deep breath and respond.

But afterwards, both of them were filled with pessimism about the future. Not to mention the future, they had no idea how they could hold on tomorrow.

In fact, Zhang Liao and Yu Jin's premonition was very accurate. There was no need to wait until later. When the next day came, Xuan Xia still came with a strong offensive. The momentum and state did not decline at all. Instead, it became stronger. At this time, Zhang Liao and Yu Jin's defense became more painful.

An army built with a strong training system and perfect ideological construction can maintain a very stable state, but this is not something that Cao's army can do.

Xuan Xia's high-intensity attack actually made it quite difficult for Cao's army to cope with. After just one day, Cao's army began to feel exhausted.

As the situation becomes more and more difficult, it becomes increasingly difficult to hold Puyang. Fortunately, there are enough defenders in the city who can take turns to hold the city, so that the situation does not collapse all at once. However, if the current trend continues, its fall is foreseeable.

Zhang Liao, Yu Jin and some other generals worried about the next day every day, and when they managed to hold on the second day, they were grateful for it and did not dare to think about the third day at all.

The Cao army continued to fight the Yellow Turbans like this until the eighth day, when it finally collapsed after having been stretched to its limit.

The defensive fortifications inside the city gate, which were repaired every night, were completely breached by the Yellow Turbans. Even though Zhang Liao had tried his best to resist, he still couldn't hold on, and finally allowed the Yellow Turbans to march straight into the city.

The narrow terrain of the city gate gave Zhang Liao a lot of advantages in defense, but this could only allow him to hold out until the eighth day.

The battlefield has always been comprehensive and dynamic. Once one place collapses, the entire front will have a chain reaction. So Cao's army began to retreat across the board. Seeing that the situation was not good, Cao Cao had no choice but to order the abandonment of Puyang and the entire army to withdraw and prepare to move to the next city.

However, Wang Dang would not let Cao Cao complete the evacuation so easily, and immediately sent a large army to pursue him. Cao Cao seemed to have reached the most dangerous moment in his fate.

When leading his army to escape from Puyang, Cao Cao looked back and was overwhelmed by a strong sense of crisis.

Be it the battle in which he was defeated by Xu Rong, or the battle in Wancheng where he almost fell into the hands of Zhang Xiu, neither seemed to be more dangerous than the Yellow Turbans.

(End of this chapter)