Chapter 49 Eight, smoke array

On the riverbed under the Changban Bridge, layers of corpses were piled up, the river was stained red with blood, and the desolate autumn wind wafted a strong smell of blood.The groans and howls of wounded soldiers and the mournful neighing of fallen horses echoed one after another, which sounded really desolate and piercing. It was already the fourth round of charging across the river that repelled Cao Jun's tiger and leopard cavalry. Zhang Fei's central army stood still on the east bank. Under Feng and Sun Qian's desperate supervision, they can always make up the complete formation in time.Relying on the half-deep and half-shallow Changban River as a buffer and screen, Liu Jun finally took advantage of his geographical advantage and was never completely dispersed.

At this point in the battle, even Cao Cao did not expect that this vicious battle would turn out to be as fierce as it is today.It seems that Liu Bei assigned his Xuzhou veterans with the most combat experience to Zhang Feilai to stop Cao Jun's tiger and leopard cavalry with all their strength-so, this decisive battle between the world's number one cavalry and the world's number one pawn It's no wonder it's so intense. After fighting fiercely for three hours in a row, Cao Jun's tiger and leopard cavalry charged across the river several times and lost a total of 312 cavalry, while Liu Jun paid a heavy price of more than 800 people killed in battle, and there were nearly 300 more cavalry. wounded.Even so, Zhang Fei, Liu Feng, and Sun Qian were still undaunted and led their troops to fight desperately on the wall of flesh piled up by the corpses of soldiers from both sides. "The viciousness.

Cao Cao watched all this from a distance behind the tiger and leopard cavalry formation, his face full of anxiety, and finally he raised his whip, and ordered to the guards around him: "Go—immediately send an order to Cao Chun and Xia Houyuan Let them bring all the tiger and leopard riders here, adopt a roundabout outflanking strategy, and attack from the upstream and downstream directions of the river at the same time, and must kill the east bank before sunset!" Jia Xu listened with a relaxed expression on his face.The prime minister should have made arrangements like this a long time ago—it should be too late to do so now.

However, at this moment, Xun You, who had always been dignified, said in a deep voice: "Prime Minister, wait a minute—" "Gongda..." Cao Cao hurriedly turned his eyes to Xun You when he heard the words.Xun You didn't have time to salute, looked up at him, and hurriedly replied: "Prime Minister, are we really going to hang out with this reckless Zhang Yide on the bank of the Changban River? Even if we surround them, it seems that it will be a battle." Fierce battle." "This..." Cao Cao couldn't help hesitating. Xun You continued to remonstrate with a serious face: "My lord, Zhang Fei and other traitors are now jumping over the wall in a desperate manner, resisting in a corner... As the saying goes, 'The poor should not be chased.' Even if it is Cao Chun, Xia Houyuan and other two generals who are drawn The tiger and leopard cavalry joined the battle group and won the victory, which is also "killing one thousand enemies and self-defeating eight hundred", which is not good."

Cao Cao said coldly: "Gongda, it's just that Liu Bei is a cunning thief, and he can't be taken lightly, so we must kill him! "Your Excellency, Xun also knows that Liu Bei is not to be taken lightly." Xun You said seriously, "However, Liu Pan, Huang Zhong and others are leading the navy from Changsha County to attack Jiangling City. The terrain of Jiangling City is dangerous. , Grain, grass and equipment are piled up in the warehouse, so don't lose it." Cao Cao couldn't help hesitating after hearing what he said.Xun You glanced at the east bank of the Changban River again, and said slowly: "Besides, there seems to be dust rising in the woods behind Yide, I really don't know how many ambushes they hid there, the Prime Minister must think twice! "

Jia Xu finally couldn't hold back, and interjected softly: "Mr. Xun is too worried. In Xu's opinion, there should not be many ambush soldiers hiding in that forest. They have been hiding for so long. How come there is still no cavalry or pawn to come out?" Xun You gave him a cold sideways glance, and was about to speak when he heard the sound of shouting and killing, and suddenly seven or eight hundred Liu Jun horses and horses rushed out from the bushes. Zhang Fei and other soldiers on the east bank of the Changban River rushed to help. At this moment, the tiger and leopard riders on Cao Cao's side were suddenly joined by a formidable enemy, and their morale was immediately setback. Withdrew back.

Seeing this situation, Jia Xu couldn't help but froze, and a ray of confusion floated in his eyes.Xun You didn't push him with any words, but just sighed leisurely.His sigh, to Jia Xu's ears, felt like a heavy whip had been whipped on his face, and it hurt a little... Sparks almost burst out of Cao Cao's eyes, he waved his hand, and ordered loudly, "Temporarily withdraw from Changbanpo!" Seeing Cao Jun's tiger and leopard riders retreating westward one after another, Zhang Fei secretly breathed a sigh of relief.In this afternoon's fierce battle, Liu Jun has already suffered nearly 1,400 casualties, accounting for one-third of the total elite force of the entire army. At the last moment, the input of 700 or 800 cavalry can be regarded as an all-out force, sparing no effort up.If he fought for another two hours, he would definitely not be able to integrate this hopeless soldier with his iron-like control.At that time, it must be a complete collapse of the endgame.However, at this critical juncture, Cao Jun actually retreated westward by himself.

Zhang Fei was overjoyed at such a godsend opportunity. As soon as Cao Jun's tiger and leopard riders had withdrawn from his field of vision, he immediately ordered the demolition of the wooden bridge that was not very strong, and led a large group of troops straight to the place. Han Jinkou fled away. About half an hour later, there was a sudden surge of killing sounds, and all the cavaliers of Cao Jun's Tiger and Leopard Battalion came back from the slaughter under the personal leadership of Cao Cao-the torch dragon that stretched for nearly fifteen miles made Zhang Fei leave behind. The scouts along the east bank of the Changban River shuddered when they saw it.

It turned out that at Changbanpo, Cao Chun captured a clerk in Liu Bei's shogunate. He leaked all the details of Liu Jun to Cao Cao in order to save his life.At present, there are only five or six thousand elite veterans left in Liu Bei, all of which are handed over to Zhang Fei to fight from the rear. At this moment, Cao Cao's courage became stronger again, and he hurriedly gathered six or seven thousand tiger and leopard riders, turned his head, and rushed towards the Changban River again. Cao Cao was even more pleasantly surprised when he saw that the wooden bridge on the river was demolished by Zhang Fei.If Zhang Fei hadn't demolished the bridge, he might still have the deceitfulness of ambushing soldiers and taking advantage of the gaps to attack; but now that Zhang Fei demolished the bridge, it would prove that he was actually cowardly, and he was only afraid of being chased by soldiers. So we had to go across the bridge.So, with a firm mind, he still led the main force of the army to chase eastward despite the dissuasion of the group of officials.

Climbing up and over the mountains until the early hours of the morning, Cao Jun's tiger and leopard cavalry vanguard led by Xia Houyuan and Xiahou Shangtang's uncle and nephew followed the Jingzhou post road to a cypress forest with a radius of three or four miles.The terrain around this cypress forest is full of rugged and narrow rivers and streams, and some slightly flat places are scattered with rural paddy fields. The mud is deep enough to reach the knees of horses, which is extremely unfavorable for cavalry maneuvering.Looking around, there is only a post road with a width of more than three feet leading to the cypress forest - judging from the chaotic shoe prints on the road, Liu Jun obviously fled eastward from this cypress forest.

But what made Xia Houyuan and Xia Houshang hesitant was that puffs of thick black smoke were coming out of the cypress forest in front of them with the dawn wind, and the unpleasant smell of burnt air rushed towards their faces, covering the tiger and leopard riders. line of sight.It turned out that the cypress forest had been quietly lit by Liu Jun who was lurking inside. "Uncle, thief Liu is setting fire and smoking in the cypress forest to block our way!" Xia Houshang turned his head to Xia Houyuan when he saw it. "Playing with mystery!" Xia Houyuan curled up his lips and beard, snorted coldly, and as soon as he reined in the horse, he was about to kill him. "Wait a minute, uncle!" Xia Houshang urged hastily, "Be careful there is an ambush in the forest!" After hearing this, Xia Houyuan hesitated for a moment, frowned and said, "So what if they have soldiers? It's hard for us to see in the billowing smoke. Could it be that they can see us clearly through the smoke screen? Why? Uncle does not believe it! What if they are bluffing, so they cast doubt? "Master Uncle, after all, Thief Liu is more familiar with the surrounding terrain than we are. We are in the light and they are in the dark. It is really necessary to guard against!" Xia Houshang is not a superficial person like Xia Houru, his heart is as clear as a mirror, Still admonishing Xia Houyuan bitterly. "Then Shang'er, what do you think we should do?" Xia Houyuan was so anxious that he dragged his horse around in a circle, "I lost a great opportunity and delayed the pursuit of Liu thief. If the Prime Minister blames it, how can you and I bear it? " Xia Houshang pondered for a while, and had no choice but to suggest: "Well, let's use the crossbow to shoot directly at the post road in the forest, and see how they react!" Xia Houyuan nodded with a sullen face, raised his long lance with his right hand and raised it high. A row of tiger and leopard cavalry archers behind him immediately stopped their horses and bowed their bows and raised their crossbows together, only to hear the sudden "swish, swish" sound, and a sharp arrow shot into the cypress forest like rain. . In this way, they fired continuously for about two quarters of an hour, and there was still a dead silence in the cypress forest, like a giant frog that had swallowed thousands of crossbow bolts, squatting there sullenly, without any movement. Seeing this situation, Xia Houyuan no longer hesitated, and ordered loudly: "Masters! Go straight in and capture Liu Bei alive!" Before Xia Houshang had time to say more, the cavalrymen of the Cao army echoed in unison, following Xia Houyuan's leaping horse and raising their whips, plunged headlong into the thick smoke of the cypress forest. The choking smoke made Xia Houyuan cough heavily, but in order to catch up with Liu Jun, he ignored these things and galloped forward with a whip.Before he ran a few feet deep into the post road in the cypress forest, an inexplicable warning premonition suddenly rose in his heart. He hastily and subconsciously leaned back on the horseback, a gust of wind blew across his face, and the sharp blade almost brushed away against his skin. Before he recovered, he suddenly felt the body of the mount under his knees lighten suddenly, as if floating, and then suddenly jumped forward again.Following a series of extremely painful neighing sounds from the war horse, he was thrown off the saddle and flew into the air, falling heavily to the ground. A dazzling light flashed in front of his eyes, which was actually a long-handled sickle, which slashed obliquely from a height of about two feet from the road, and cut off his own body with astonishing speed and unusual sharpness. horse leg. Oops!Sure enough, he was sniped by Thief Liu—and, who would have expected that their sniper weapons would be so secretive and difficult to guard against. Xia Houyuan was so annoyed that he hit the ground hard with his fist.At the same time, amidst the black smoke billowing all around, the panicked wailing of Cao Jun's horses and the mournful howling of soldiers came one after another... It turned out that Zhuge Liang ordered Zhao Yun to set up the smoke screen in the cypress forest.After Zhao Yun caught up with Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, he was ordered to lead 800 black-shirted soldiers to ambush in this cypress forest to meet Zhang Fei's large group of troops and snipe Cao's pursuers. These eight hundred soldiers in black shirts were all carefully selected, and each of them was unusually sturdy and stocky, as strong as a bear; the weapon they used was a long-handled scythe with a sharp blade and a height of about two feet.After they ignited cow dung, branches, dead leaves and other flammable and smoky things in the forest, they all covered their mouths and noses with wet cloth towels to prevent themselves from being choked by the thick smoke that filled the forest.This is the biggest advantage they have in lurking in the middle of the bushes to snipe Cao Jun's tiger and leopard cavalry. In strict accordance with the formation method taught by Zhuge Liang, the soldiers in black shirts leaned against the trees along both sides of the post road in the forest—two people in each group, one half-squatting and the other standing upright.As long as they heard the sound of horseshoes coming from the post road in front of them, this group of powerful soldiers would attack at the same time.The upright ones used the long-handled sickle to hook the cavalry on the back of Cao Jun's war horse, while the half-squatting ones were responsible for using the long-handled sickle to cut the horse's legs from below. Once their all-round cross interception method of up, down, left, and right is deployed, how can the troops of Cao Jun's Tiger and Leopard Battalion stand it?Immediately, a crowd of people turned upside down on the post road in the forest, the sounds of puffing, puffing, puffing and hissing were intertwined.Cao Jun's Cavalry Vanguard Brigade, which has lost sight of things and disrupted order, is falling into a nightmare of secret attacks... Relying on his high martial arts skills, Xia Houyuan put his mind to the ground, and shouted at the top of his voice, "Dismount the whole army! Dance with spears and move forward!" While dancing the spears in front of and behind him like a millstone, he rushed forward wildly, ping-pong Swinging away a lot of long-handled scythes that were stabbing at him-he only had one thought at the moment: to lead everyone to break out of this smoke area at one go, and then fight after stabilizing the ground. I don't know how long I rushed forward, and I don't know how many places I was scratched by Liu Jun's long-handled sickle. Finally, my eyes gradually brightened, and bursts of fresh air came oncoming. Xia Houyuan took the lead and rushed out. This smoky cypress forest.In ecstasy, he stared at an increasingly clear figure in front of him, and couldn't help but sweep away viciously and angrily. When there was a loud noise, the man picked up the long spear in his hand and lightly blocked it—when the two guns intersected, sparks flew, and Xia Houyuan's arms were numb from the shock, and he couldn't help but "cracked" and fell away. How far to go. But seeing the heroic Zhao Yun standing astride his horse, holding a long spear, standing awe-inspiring. After Xia Houyuan stood firmly on his stick, he raised his eyes and looked intently.A mile ahead is the wharf at Hanjinkou.In the open area between Hanjinkou and the woods, Zhao Yun, Zhang Fei and other powerful generals of Liu Jun led densely packed soldiers and were waiting neatly in formation. Seeing this situation, his pupils couldn't help shrinking for a while.The vanguard brigade led by him lived up to the great trust of the Prime Minister, and finally caught up with Liu Bei and the others.