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Chapter 2741 Ambush from Ten Sides!

In this situation, if they continue to attack for another two or three days, Zangba Lejin will have no city left to defend.

Looking at the sky full of stones, Zangba said to Le Jin with frustration, "Where did this catapult come from? Why does it have such a long range and launch such large stones?"

Le Jin said helplessly, "This thing first appeared in Jiangxia and later in Yangzhou. I guess it must be the work of Guan Yu's son-in-law."

"Since we got this thing, we've never gained an advantage in our battles against Liu Bei; it's too demoralizing."

Upon hearing this, Zangba said helplessly, "Then what should we do next? We can't hold out any longer. They can just throw stones at us every day and crush us to death here."

After all, once the city walls are breached, there will be no more cover. They can attack us at will; we'll have nowhere to hide.

Le Jin understood Zang Ba's meaning and said helplessly, "Guan Yu's son-in-law has gone to Qingzhou. Should we break through to Yanzhou and wait there to support General Cao Zhen? I guess once these catapults reach Xuchang, Xuchang will not be able to hold out either."

Zang Ba was waiting for these words, so he didn't hesitate after hearing them and decisively chose to retreat. He knew very well that with these catapults, even if he hid in the mountains, it would be useless.

Of course, if only Zang Ba and a few personal guards were hiding in the mountains, there would still be hope, but that wouldn't be of any use at all.

When Zang Ba Le Jin retreated, he discovered that Guan Yu was personally leading a large army to follow them, while Guan Ping and Zhang Bao had gone and did not follow, which reassured them a lot.

As for Taishan County, Guan Yu sent men to search it, but there was no one to guard it, because the city had already been breached, so there was no point in defending it.

Zang Ba and Le Jin were unaware of all this. They led their soldiers to Dongjun without incident, only to encounter Cao Zhen, who was leading 20,000 remnants of his army.

When Cao Zhen saw Zang Ba Le Jin, he knew that Xuzhou and Qingzhou were doomed. Without saying a word, he asked to cross the river without hesitation.

In Cao Zhen's view, the only option now is to cross the river and defend, just like Yuan Shao did back then, relying on the land north of the river to hold onto this half of the country.

Just as they were preparing to cross the river, a massive number of boats appeared from the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and those boats were flying the banner of the Great Han.

When Cao Zhen, Zang Ba, Yue Jin, Zhang He, and other military generals saw these ships, they knew that something was wrong. Cao Zhen immediately ordered the army to change course and go upstream along the Yellow River, preparing to head to Luoyang.

When they fled, they discovered that the navy had completely ignored them, sailed upstream, and quickly overtook them.

Cao Zhen knew that their retreat would definitely be cut off by the navy, and it would be difficult to cross the river again, so he hurried towards Chenliu.

Unfortunately, as soon as they arrived in Chenliu, they found a burly man with a dark face leading a group of men, blocking their way. Who else could it be but Zhang Fei?
At this point, Cao Zhen dared not linger in battle, so he arranged for Zhang He to cover the rear and immediately turned around to head towards Dingtao City, hoping to find a place to stay.

Unfortunately, when they arrived, one of their men arrived first and saw that the city was garrisoned by the banners of Liu, Guan, and Zhang. These were Guan Ping and Zhang Bao, who had left Taishan County earlier, and Liu Feng, who had arrived in Chenliu ahead of time.

Cao Zhen once again left Zang Ba to cover his retreat and continued his eastward escape, preparing to head towards Miqiu.

Although the city is small and cannot accommodate so many people, it can at least ensure that their central army will not be ambushed, so this battle is still fightable. After all, as long as the Wei army on the other side of the river reacts and comes to their aid, along with the troops from Luoyang, they can still find a way to survive.

As Cao Zhen was about to reach Dingtao, he discovered that a large banner with the character "Guan" was erected in that small, dilapidated city.

Seeing this situation, Cao Zhen understood that if they continued to flee, they would become like stray dogs, and their morale would plummet. They would have no morale to fight again, so he prepared to attack directly.

As a result, they had just reorganized their formation and hadn't even had a chance to charge when they heard the ground tremble. Somewhat surprised and uncertain, they quickly ordered their scouts to investigate.

Several scouts rushed out, but returned shortly afterward, kneeling arrogantly on the ground and loudly warning, "General, an army has arrived from the south of Dingtao, carrying a large banner with the character 'King' on it. According to our observations, their numbers are at least tens of thousands."

Cao Zhen's face turned pale instantly. He wasn't Xiang Yu, so why was he being ambushed from all sides?

Cao Zhen had no other choice but to let Yue Jin lead 10,000 troops to guard the east, while he himself would act as the central army. The three armies would surround Cao Zhen in the middle from the three-pronged formation, and Cao Zhen could provide support when needed.

If the Han army were to actually charge into battle, although they could annihilate the more than 50,000 troops due to their numerical advantage, they would definitely suffer even greater losses.

By then, the Han Dynasty had lost its chance to cross the river and fight Cao Pi.

What Cao Zhen didn't expect was that Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and even Guan Ping and Zhang Bao didn't make a move, but Wang Yue was the first to act.

Wang Yue's soldiers formed several square formations. The front formation consisted of spearmen and archers, followed by catapults, and behind them were countless auxiliary troops pushing wheelbarrows, each carrying two or three huge stones.

As the formation drew near to Le Jin's army, the giant catapults were the first to be activated, and the huge stones accurately struck the positions of the archers arranged by Le Jin, blasting them into a rout.

Meanwhile, Wang Yue's archers seized the opportunity to advance thirty paces and quickly launched three volleys of mounted archery, once again annihilating a large number of Wei archers.

Just as Yue Jin finally managed to stabilize the formation and organized the archers to prepare for a counter-fire, the second team of catapults was also ready. They were more than thirty paces ahead of the first team and quickly launched a volley of boulders.

The archers, who had just been arranged by Le Jin, were once again thrown into disarray by the attack, and had no time to shoot. They could only retreat and dodge.

Once they had reorganized their formation, the archers fired several more volleys in succession, once again suppressing the archers.

After several rounds of this alternation, Le Jin's army was suppressed and pinned down. When faced with the onslaught of boulders once again, the soldiers could no longer suppress their fear and charged out without regard for their formation.

At that very moment, the more than three thousand cavalrymen hidden behind Wang Yue suddenly charged forward, beginning to slaughter the soldiers who had rushed out still armed, while shouting...

"Put down your weapons! Disarm and you will not be killed!"

“Get out of the way!”

(End of this chapter)