You know, Li Yan was once the top cavalryman in Jingzhou. In the history of his fortune over the years, the cavalry also played an important role.

Li Yan knew very well that Zhang Lu's tactics were nothing more than using light cavalry to make a detour and attack his own army's rear when the two armies were in a stalemate. Throughout the ages, the tactics of light cavalry have been basically the same.

"Have Wei Yan's troops been dispatched?" Li Yan asked.

The deputy general stroked his beard and said with a smile: "Wei Yan's five thousand soldiers and horses set out from Dingjun Mountain last night. They must have crossed the Mian River by now, and they will probably be able to follow the plan soon."

Li Yan nodded slightly: "Then let's wait for a while and let Zhang Lu attack. Just concentrate on guarding his cavalry."

After the order was passed, the military formations, large and small, began to change.

The military formation that was originally spearheaded by spearmen quickly became spearheaded by large shields. The military formations moved closer to each other to minimize the gaps between them.

At the same time, crossbowmen from a company of several thousand yuan also appeared on both wings of the military formation, waiting in line.

To crack down on light cavalry plagiarism, the repeating crossbow is undoubtedly the most effective weapon.

Li Yan's intention was also very simple. He used shieldmen and gunners to form an iron wall to block the Hanzhong Army's frontal attack, and used crossbowmen and a small number of light cavalry to protect the rear. If the Hanzhong Army dared to use cavalry to bypass the rear, Li Yan would

Then he fired ten arrows from his crossbow, which filled the sky with arrows, and shot his cavalry into a hornet's nest.

Beyond Li Xu, Zhang Lu could also clearly see the changes in the Chu army's formation.

Obviously, Li Yan is not so arrogant that he is arrogant. He is well prepared for today's battle.

Zhang Lu vaguely felt that this battle was not as smooth as he imagined.

However, it is difficult to get off the tiger, and the posture is stretched. If we retreat at this time, where will the situation be?

"Chu Jun, let's compete."

Having made up his mind, Zhang Lu pointed his horse whip forward and shouted: "Send the order, the front army attacks."

The rumble of war drums was beating, and the flags of the Chinese army were dancing like the wind.

At the front army station, 20,000 Hanzhong Army infantrymen shouted slogans and began to advance towards the enemy's position.

The first row is composed of sword and shield men, followed by the spearmen in the back row, and even further behind are the elite archers and crossbowmen.

The 20,000-strong infantry army roared forward with steps that made the earth tremble.

"Forward troops, prepare to meet the enemy!" Li Yan shouted loudly.

The order was passed down from level to level, and soon reached the generals of the front army.

Gao Shun, Huang Zhong and others each gave orders, and the big shields in the front row hurriedly raised their shields, while the spearmen lowered their blades pointed at the sky, densely packed like a forest, pointing at the enemies coming from the opposite side.

In the back row, three thousand crossbowmen have their arrows on the string, ready to fly away at any time.

four hundred steps

three hundred steps

two hundred steps

The two armies of each other have entered the range of the crossbows.

"Fire arrows" The generals on both sides gave the order to fire arrows almost at the same time.

The buzzing sound was like a flock of birds flapping their wings and flying together. Thousands of arrows soared into the sky at the same time, intertwining into a dragnet in mid-air and swooping at each other like locusts.

There were screams and clattering sounds in the blink of an eye.

The Chu army remained motionless, while the 20,000-strong Hanzhong army continued to advance despite the rain of arrows.

The crossbow arrows shot past, and in a short time they were within the range of the bows and arrows.

The rain of arrows became increasingly dense. Even though both sides had swordsmen and shieldmen to clear the way, the dense arrows could still pass through the gaps from time to time, shooting down the unlucky soldiers to the ground.

In a moment, the Hanzhong army was approaching fifty steps.

The sound of war drums suddenly became louder, as fast as a mountain falling apart.

Le Jin, who was in charge of the "whole-army assault", gave a sharp shout.

The 20,000-strong Hanzhong Army, which was advancing steadily, suddenly accelerated like a torrent bursting through a dike, carrying dust all over the sky, and crashed into the Chu army's formation wall in a moment.

The moment the two armies collided, the sound of explosions shook the earth, and blood and broken weapons in the center splashed into the air like a backwards waterfall.

Tens of thousands of soldiers from the two armies fought on the banks of the Mian River.

Li Yan's eyes were stern, silently watching the fierce battle ahead, as calm as he was, and did not intend to throw his army into it all at once, because he knew that Zhang Lu's trump card had not been used yet.

A few hundred steps away, Zhang Lu looked calm on the surface, but he was quite anxious inside.

Li Yan was too calm, and it was this calmness that made Zhang Lu feel very uneasy.

The fighting in front of the formation has been going on for a long time, and although the two armies were bleeding like rivers of blood, there was still no winner.

Seeing that Li Yan still did not use all his troops, Zhang Lu lost his temper.

"Send an order to Zhang Wei, ordering his cavalry to dispatch and bypass the enemy's flanks!" Zhang Lu raised his whip and shouted.

A loud horn sounded, and soon, the five thousand cavalry hidden behind the Hanzhong army galloped out, revealing their ferocious faces. They bypassed the battlefield between the two armies and headed towards the left flank of the Chu army.

Li Yan, who was watching the battle in the formation, looked at the dust in the sky. A sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"As expected, the Hanzhong army can't keep calm. I sent an order to Zhao Yun. If there are enemy cavalry approaching, just shoot me hard and randomly." Li Yan shouted loudly.

Orders were passed down layer by layer. Zhao Yunjun's thousands of soldiers on the left wing immediately became nervous and were on alert at any time.

The dust in the sky first moved to the north, and soon turned to the south, sweeping diagonally towards Zhao Yun's flank.

Even though Zhang Wei, the cavalryman, was keenly observing the changes in the enemy's formation when he was running, when he used the light cavalry to run back and forth on the flanks of the Chu army for several times, the Chu army had been affected by the formation. He immediately mobilized.

He turned his head and ordered two thousand cavalry to hit the enemy.

The iron hooves rolled, carrying wild dust all over the sky, and headed straight towards the flank of the Chu army.

The enemy cavalry came very fast, and in just a moment, they had already reached more than fifty paces.

"Sure enough, it's just as the king expected. Hmph, it's just the right time." Zhao Yun sneered, raised his gun and shouted: "Serial crossbowman, shoot me hard."

Amidst the loud shouts, the flags were waved, and the swordsmen and shieldmen in the front row suddenly broke into formation, and more than a thousand crossbowmen hiding behind them quickly moved forward.

A few seconds later, a buzzing sound suddenly sounded like lightning and thunder, and in an instant, more than 10,000 arrows roared out.

The more than two thousand Han Chinese Army cavalry that rushed towards them did not even have time to react before they were swept up by the overwhelming "heavy rain".

There were screams and neighs, and people fell on their backs. In the tragedy, five to six hundred Hanzhong Army cavalry were shot by random arrows, and they fell to the ground one after another.

The remaining surviving cavalrymen were already so frightened that if they dared to attack again, they immediately turned their horses and retreated.

Zhang Wei, who had led the rear army to wait and see, did not expect Li Yan to be prepared, so he waited to call them with a repeating crossbow.

Seeing that his cavalry had lost five to six hundred in just one round of arrows, Zhang Wei was completely shocked and did not dare to attack again. He quickly sent the remaining troops to meet the defeated army and retreated away.

Hundreds of steps away, Zhang Lu witnessed Zhang Wei's defeat with his own eyes, and the original anxiety in his heart had now turned into disappointment.

"This Chu army has been guarding my cavalry for a long time. It's hateful." Zhang Lu gritted his teeth with hatred. His confidence was hit hard, and now he was a little angry.

In anger, Zhang Lu made up his mind and planned to attack with all his troops to fight Li Yan to the death.

Since the two armies were of equal strength, Zhang Lu thought that as long as the two armies fell into a full-scale melee, his cavalry would be able to escape the crossbows and find a fighting opportunity.

With his mind made up, Zhang Lu was about to issue the order for a general attack.

At this critical moment, someone in the army suddenly shouted: "Oh no, there's a fire over there in the camp!"

With such a scream, all the troops turned their heads to look, and sure enough they saw a raging fire in the direction of Nanzhengkou, and thick black smoke rising into the sky.

"No, the Chu army must have robbed our camp!" Zhang Lan exclaimed.

Zhang Lu's face, which was not very confident to begin with, suddenly changed and was filled with astonishment.

At this time, Zhang Lu just woke up and wondered why Chu Fa issued that letter of challenge and why he took the initiative to fight decisively.

It turned out that Li Yan wanted to take advantage of the unstable morale of his army to fight, but it was just a superficial illusion. The real purpose was to rob his camp while the two armies were fighting.

Insidious, good things lead to insidiousness.

Zhang Lu couldn't help but think of Yang Shu's advice, but he didn't want to think that if Yang Shu told him what he said, how could he have the face to see Yang Shu.

Just when Zhang Lu was feeling ashamed, tens of thousands of Hanzhong soldiers had already seen the billowing smoke beacon in the direction of the camp.

On the battlefield, what could be more damaging to confidence than this? The Hanzhong Army, which was originally lacking in fighting spirit, was on the verge of moral collapse in the blink of an eye.

A few hundred steps away, Li Yan, standing with his sword across the sword, sneered: "Lieutenant general, this plan of yours is enough to make our Zhang Lu drink a pot."

The lieutenant smiled and said nothing.

According to the plan of the lieutenant general, when Li Yan led the main force to fight Zhang Lu, Wei Yan secretly led 5,000 soldiers and horses from Dingjun Mountain to the north, crossed the Mian River secretly, detoured to the east of Nanzheng, and unexpectedly raided the Hanzhong camp.

In fact, at this moment, the generals were still defending the Hanzhong camp, and Wei Yan's five thousand soldiers and horses were unable to break through the enemy camp.

However, Li Yan's order to Wei Yan was that it was not necessary to attack the Hanzhong camp, but only to use fire to burn the antlers outside the Hanzhong camp, and use the fire to disintegrate the morale of the Hanzhong army on the battlefield.

Obviously, Wei Yan did it.

Looking at the thick smoke in the direction of Nanzheng from a distance, Li Yan suddenly raised his murderous intent. He slowly pointed his long sword forward and shouted loudly: "Attack the entire army and defeat the Hanzhong Army."

The remaining 30,000 soldiers made a roar, like a torrent that broke a dike, rushing towards the Hanzhong army.

The Chu army launched an all-out attack.

The soldiers of Hanzhong were already confused. The hands holding their weapons began to tremble. Everyone was panicking. They looked at the burning camp for a while, and then looked at the rushing Hanzhong army.

, the fear is fully reflected in the color.

Zhang Lu was also full of surprise. Looking at the fierce Chu army's frenzy, Zhang Lu didn't know how to respond for a while.

"Your Majesty, the morale of our army is in chaos. We must not fight again at this time. Retreat quickly. If we are caught by the Chu army, it will be too late." Zhang Lan, who was accompanying the army, shouted anxiously.

Only then did Zhang Lu realize in shock, the hatred and unwillingness in his heart.
Chapter completed!