Turning his eyes to the west, Cao Cao and Fang Zhiwen and Yuan Shao fought very hard, and Yizhou's back-exposed look was actually so anxious that he was afraid of missing this opportunity to fall into the water!

I originally thought that Cao Cao would retreat to Jingzhou all at once, and the situation would turn into a confrontation between the two sides in the southwest of Jingzhou. Whether Cao Cao can be completely annihilated at this time depends on the attitude of Yuan Shao and Fang Zhiwen. However, according to Pang Yuan, Fang Zhiwen will definitely not continue to attack Cao Cao. On the contrary, he will even in turn pull the back of Yuan Shao who is preparing to pursue the victory.: Read the novel

Liu Bei also thought that the chance of retaking the northeast of Jingzhou might be quite slim, but now, whether it is Cao Cao who was confused or for other reasons, Cao Cao actually stopped his progress westward and fought with Fang Zhiwen and Yuan Shao in the Central Plains. This gave Liu Bei precious time so that he could calmly transfer the troops in Shuzhong east, and at the same time re-adjust the troops that were originally arranged to the west to the east, and prepared to counterattack Jingzhou.

The continuous arrival of reinforcements gave Zhang Fei of the city a confidence. In addition, his original loss was not too great. After replenishing the lost troops, he basically restored his strongest combat power. However, Zhuge Jin suppressed Zhang Fei's attempt to counterattack. After all, Guan Yu in the north was still in a very passive state, and Jiangling in the south was also actively deploying the defense line. Even if Zhang Fei could repel the Xiahou brothers, the role it could play was quite limited. If the war was unfavorable, the defense line that had finally been established would have the possibility of collapse again. In that case, Guan Yu's flanks would be exposed, and Shangyong behind him was not ready for defense.

Finally, Guan Yu stood firm in Nanxiang to complete the defense, and Shangyong's troops were also replenished. Cao Cao was still entangled with Fang Zhiwen in the Central Plains. Zhang Fei didn't want to miss this opportunity. Zhuge Jin didn't want to miss it either.

So the battle of the city broke out naturally.

On the other hand, in the Cao army, the Xiahou brothers and some of Xun You's troops had a total of 70,000 infantry and cavalry, and their combat power was quite considerable. However, compared with Zhang Fei's 100,000 infantry and cavalry and 30,000 militia in the city, they were at a disadvantage. According to the plan, Chen Gong's troops would arrive in Xiangyang. The troops who replaced Xun You's troops defended Xiangyang, and Xun You's troops advanced westward and met with the Xiahou brothers, striving to push the front line to Shangyong.

Unfortunately, Chen Deng's troops did not arrive in time, but Zhang Fei's subsequent troops had already arrived. This small time difference led to the most intense stage as soon as the battle of the city broke out.

The battlefield between the two sides is about five miles outside the city. Zhang Fei launched the attack first, and both sides formed a field battle.

Xiahou Dun and Xun You commanded 50,000 mixed troops and set up a defensive round formation. Xiahou Yuan's archers and cavalry restrained guerrillas on the outside. Zhang Fei set up a triangular formation from the front. The infantry on both sides were combined and the infantry in the middle was heavy, and he made a desperate breakthrough. Zhang Fei personally led the team to attack, and the cavalry was handed over to the deputy general.

Zhang Fei's advantage lies in the number of aliens. On the battlefield, the number of aliens on Zhang Fei's side is more than two or three times more than that on the Xiahou brothers. This advantage cannot be seen in the early stage of the battle, but in the later stage, this advantage will make the Xiahou brothers feel in pain.

The battle began with hand-to-hand combat, and the cavalry of both sides became decorations, and they could only entangle each other on the periphery and could not support the infantry.

After the battle began, the infantry of Cao's army began to change from the circular formation to the square formation, and attempted to oppress Zhang Fei from both wings. Zhang Fei was not willing to be outdone. He pushed the heavy infantry of the central and rear army forward together and resolutely broke through the middle. The two sides were evenly matched in the local area, and they actually fought into a melee.

Zhuge Jin frowned. The melee is not good for Zhang Fei. Because there are few generals on Zhang Fei's side, melee requires the higher the command ability of the grassroots generals, the better. This is obviously because the opponent has an advantage.

Seeing this, Zhuge Jin could only withdraw the heavy crossbow and put it in the original position of the central army to gather, and use heavy crossbows to make up for the shortcomings of the grassroots generals.

Xun You on the opposite side was not willing to be outdone, and threw all the heavy infantry of the rear army to the right wing, trying to use one side to break through to crush Zhang Fei.

The front lines of both sides were completely twisted together, and the front lines were fighting fiercely. The morale of both armies was very high. The consequence was that the number of casualties rose sharply, and the entire battlefield was filled with a strong smell of blood, which made people breathless.

Xun You stood on the high chariot, watching the soldiers on both sides who had been completely entangled and killed each other and fought for the fierce battle. The dust raised by the cavalry running and chasing gradually covered the battlefield, making the whole world hazy, but the sound of horse hooves shaking the ground, the sound of bloody dong dong war drums, the crazily shouting and screaming, and the sound of metal that penetrated into the bone marrow and made people's hair stand up all over their body, were clearly transmitted into the ear drums and into Xun You's heart.

Xun You couldn't help but sigh in his heart. This battle shouldn't have been like this. Although the current tactics were planned in advance, this was also a move. The reinforcements that had been agreed upon could not arrive in time, and the Xiahou brothers could not retreat. This retreat would expose the flanks of the Jiling tribe in the north. Therefore, Xun You's choice was to fight to the death. Even if his troops were destroyed, he would have to consume and stop Zhang Fei's attack. As long as his subsequent reinforcements came up, everything would be fine. I hope the lord would not continue to hesitate.

The fierce battle continued, both sides tried their best and used all the means they could. Neither side wanted to retreat at all. The battle started from morning to noon, and then to evening. At this time, Zhang Fei's advantage of many strange people in his camp was slowly exerted.

The first one was Xiahou Yuan's cavalry. The aliens began to cooperate with Zhang Fei's cavalry around the battlefield to get traps. Xiahou Yuan would fall into the trap if he accidentally did. Of course, the level of these traps would not be high. At most, it would be to restrain Xiahou Yuan's speed, and the impact would not be great. However, when the physical strength of the war horses decreased, the effect of these small methods became stronger and stronger, which often made Xiahou Yuan's troops chaotic for a short time, and then Zhang Fei's cavalry would seize the opportunity to repel.

As time went by, Xiahou Yuan gradually found that he was suffering from greater and greater losses, and had to devote his energy to guard and chase the stranger. However, Zhang Fei's cavalry became active again. After a while, Xiahou Yuan was gradually forced to retreat to the infantry in order to obtain the support of the heavy crossbow.

The disadvantage of the cavalry made the initiative on the periphery of the battlefield fall into Zhang Fei's hands. Zhuge Jin immediately commanded the Yiren troops to advance, and used heavy crossbows and paper talismans to support the infantry battles, harassing and attacking the infantry formation of the Cao army from the periphery. The number of infantry in the Cao army was slightly smaller. As one rose and the other grew, the Cao army's formation could not hold on.

The sky gradually faded, and Cao's army began to retreat. Zhang Fei took advantage of the situation to attack and threw the reserve team behind him into the air. For a moment, Zhang Fei's army's morale completely burst out, but Cao's army was extremely tenacious. After sacrificing the troops that had broken the rear, Cao's infantry finally completed the separation, and slowly retreated under the protection of the cavalry, retreating to the camp ten miles away, and Cao's army retreated into the camp.

Zhang Fei rushed for a while and found that Cao's army was still quite tenacious. He had to set up camps not far away, and then issued a large number of tasks to prepare for continuous combat. This was also Zhang Fei's combat habit. Zhang Fei refused to give up by defeating the enemy in one breath.

But the Cao army was really tenacious. Even if Zhang Fei mobilized a large number of Yi people to set up long-range positions outside and bombarded the Cao army's camp, the Cao army's camp remained unmoved, and even the Cao army's cavalry would rush out from time to time to attack the Yi people troops that lack protection. After the attack for most of the night, the soldiers were exhausted, but the Cao army was still resisting to death. Although the camp was on fire, the counterattack arrows in the Cao army's camp were still dense as rain. This made Zhang Fei angry, but he could do anything.

"Three Generals, stop the troops!"

Zhuge Jin found Zhang Fei who had just retreated from under the village wall. Zhang Fei was covered in blood. He was drinking ginseng dew in big mouthfuls, gurgling as if drinking water.

When Zhang Fei heard Zhuge Jin's words, he put down the bottle in his hand, waited for his round eyes to yell at Zhuge Jin: "Get off the troops?! Military advisor, do you know what you are talking about?!"

"Of course I know. I'm here to advise the three generals to guard the soldiers. Generals look at the soldiers around you. Do they still have the strength to continue fighting? They are not strong enough and their morale is sluggish. If the enemy fights back when we are exhausted, the consequences will be unimaginable!"

Zhang Fei waved his fist as he was big in a vinegar bowl and shouted unwillingly: "Tired? Who is not tired? The enemy is tired! Are you tired? Are you tired? Are you tired? Can't you beat him? Or are you?!"

The soldiers who stared at Zhang Fei shook their heads one after another. Although their eyes were full of anger and reluctance, they did not dare to say a word.

"Three generals, why do they need to answer? As the chief general, can't you see the true status of the soldiers in the army?"

"Hmph! The enemy is tired! If we can break through the camp in one fell swoop, Cao's army will definitely be full of troops!"

"Three generals, so what if the enemy's entire army is exhausted? Can we still use these remaining troops to counterattack Xiangyang? At most, we will force Ji Ling to shrink back to Wan County. Once the Cao army's follow-up troops arrive, they will return to the original strategic situation."

"According to the military advisor, we shouldn't have fought this battle at all!"

"No, it should be fought. First, it can stabilize the city's defense line. Second, if we defeat Cao's army at a relatively small cost, we will indeed be able to counterattack Xiangyang. At least we should consume Cao's army with the best ability to delay its attack to the south and west. But now, our battle is not ideal, and the losses are too great. Third generals, we have no strength to fight again in a row."

Zhang Fei looked at Zhuge Jin in anger. Isn’t this saying that he made a mistake in command and could fight?! Zhuge Jin looked at Zhang Fei without showing any weakness. Although Zhang Fei was angry, he did not dare to do anything to Zhuge Jin. Zhuge Jin was an official at the same level as him and Liu Bei’s right-hand man.

"Three Generals, please face the reality!"

"Hmph! Military advisor... Maybe you can break through the camp by attacking again!"

"I know, but maybe it may not be able to break through, or it may be damaged a lot. The problem is that if we break through, we won't have much benefit. It's better to force Cao's army to retreat like this. The third generals don't forget that there are still 50,000 elite Cao's army in Xiangyang City, and Cao's reinforcements will arrive at any time. At that time, our army is in poor condition and will be counterattacked by the opponent at any time, throwing away the victory in front of us in vain."

"This...hey!~" Zhang Fei threw the bottle in his hand heavily to the ground, and said in a muffled voice: "Get off the troops, stop the troops! I'll go back to rest, the military advisor will make the decision!"

Zhuge Jin breathed a sigh of relief and watched Zhang Fei get on the horse without looking back. Zhuge Jin ordered the withdrawal of troops and issued a task to clean the battlefield. To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to Qidian (. voting for recommendations, monthly votes, and your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile phone users please go to m.. to read.)
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