Three Kingdoms: The Kingdom Cannot Be Partial

Chapter 23: If a fine horse cannot be ridden, why would one be so anxious and anxious to find more?

Sakagami battlefield.

Wei general Le Lin was caught in a bloody battle.

In fact, before they even started fighting, he began to look down on the Han army when he saw that half of them were veteran soldiers.

He thought that even though the Han army's left wing had strong soldiers, the troops under his command were by no means inferior in equipment, confidence, and morale. As long as his troops could hold out against the Han army's left wing for a moment, he would be able to break through the Han army's right wing and easily win the first victory in the battle!
However, he never expected that it would be so difficult to deal with the group of old soldiers on the right wing of the Han army who looked half-buried in the ground and vulnerable. None of them had any will to die, and they attacked him indiscriminately. At the beginning, there was no sign of retreat at all!

Even after being chopped down to the ground, he could still exert his strength to grab them tightly, trip them, or occasionally swing his sword to delay their attack.

It was not until the Han army's right wing had been reduced to more than half that the old and weak began to panic and retreat.

What he never expected was that the Han army's left wing, which did not look very young, could suddenly burst out with such astonishing combat power!

It took him almost a quarter of an hour to lead his men to break through the Han army's formation, but the Han army only took a few dozen breaths to rush all of his troops down the slope, and it seemed that they were going further and further!

If they had not discovered that the general's reinforcements had appeared not far away, the morale of the more than 300 soldiers trapped in the Han army would probably have collapsed!

On the Yushan plateau.

Liu Chan watched Feng Hu's troops suddenly rise up and continue to drive Cao's army away, and he finally felt relieved.

After all, these are the elite and death-defying soldiers of the Han army. If they are really so vulnerable, it is hard to imagine what the subsequent full-scale battlefield will look like.

Then look towards the center of the battlefield.

After being pushed back more than ten steps on the earth slope by the Han army, most of the Wei army gradually stabilized their front line and began to enter a stalemate with the Han army, which had lost its advantage of being on high ground.

After losing more than 200 soldiers, Le Lin, who was surrounded by the Han army, finally managed to form a circular spear formation of 100 people on his back and began to move slowly towards the bottom of the slope.

The besieging Han army had been fighting for so long without feeling any sense of weakness. They still formed dense formations and fought hard to annihilate the besieged Wei army!
At this time, both the Han and Wei sides had an infantry force coming to support.

But at this moment, the earth began to creak.

Five hundred Tiger and Leopard Cavalrymen carrying spears and bows arrived at the battlefield faster than the supporting infantry from both the Han and Wei sides!
As soon as these 500 cavalrymen arrived at the battlefield, they circled to the right wing of the Han army, where Le Lin was surrounded. Afterwards, they formed a cavalry formation and rode counterclockwise, while indiscriminately firing at the dense battle formation where Le Lin was surrounded!

Hundreds of heavy arrows flew high into the sky, and finally rushed down with the acceleration of gravity!

Suddenly, nearly a hundred Han and Wei soldiers fell at the same time!
Feng Huhu looked at the Wei generals in front of him who had only dozens of troops left, and was extremely angry. However, he had to urgently order his men to loosen the formation after another round of indiscriminate shooting by the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to reduce the probability of being hit by arrows.

At this time, with only the last twenty or so pieces left, Le Lin, who had been shot with several bleeding holes by his own heavy arrows, finally found the right opportunity to rush out in a panic, but still could not break out of the Han siege.

Sima Panghui, the commander of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, then ordered the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry to abandon their bows and arrows and pick up their spears to launch a side charge towards the outer perimeter of the Han army that was still surrounding Le Lin.

In the end, at the cost of twenty cavalrymen, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry finally broke through the outer perimeter of the Han formation and successfully took Le Lin away. However, they left the last twenty or so of Le Lin's men to fend for themselves in the siege of the Han army.

On top of the Yushan general's platform.

Liu Chan’s fist is hard!

Unexpectedly, the trapped Wei general who was about to be annihilated was rescued!
The old general saw the emperor's anger and said:
"Your Majesty, this is unavoidable.

"The Cao Wei cavalry arrived too quickly, and they were so indiscriminate with their horse and archery, charging at all costs. If we continue to maintain a dense battle formation and stalemate with them, I'm afraid another two or three hundred people will be killed or wounded."

Liu Chan pondered for a moment and nodded helplessly, but he was also a little curious about who was the general who would charge into the Wei army's battle and who was worth the Wei army spending such a high price to rescue.

At this time, on the battlefield, the two thousand infantrymen coming to support from both sides had not yet arrived at the Banpo battlefield, but they all began to retreat at the same time in tacit understanding as the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry retreated.

The first battle ended like this.

What was originally just a first battle to test each other almost turned into a devastating battle in which the commander was beheaded. Cao Zhen was in a bad mood and just wanted to scold Le Lin.

However, when Pang Hui threw Le Lin, who was covered in blood and completely unconscious, off his warhorse, he finally held back, curled his lips, and then looked towards Chang'an.

Yushan General's Platform.

Feng Huhu, covered in blood, walked to the Jinwu banner, clasped his fists towards the fully-armored emperor, and shouted in high spirits:

"I failed to capture the general and flag for Your Majesty, and I have disappointed Your Majesty!"

Liu Chan ignored the blood and stench on the man and stepped forward to help him up: "Shan Ju is a true minister of tigers! Why should I be disappointed!"

In fact, Feng Hu, who was unknown in history and was only labeled as the son of Feng Xi by Liu Chan, fought this battle very well.

If the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry had not come to their aid and sacrificed twenty cavalrymen, he would have been the first to behead a general in this battle.

This could not help but make Liu Chan feel a little emotional. Before, he had thought about it and couldn't think of any other talented generals in the Han Dynasty besides Wei Yan, Jiang Wei, and Wang Ping.

Now I think that if I slowly delve deeper into the army, I might be able to find a few more capable generals for the Han Dynasty in the future, just like Zhaolie discovered Wei Yan, right?
Besides, I can’t just follow the names in history books to find the right person, right?
If a fine steed is not to be ridden, why would one be so anxious to find it again?

At this moment, Feng Hu, who was covered in a foul smell, saw that the emperor, who had a bad reputation in the army, ignored the blood and dirt on his body and shook hands with him for a long time. He suddenly felt an urge to die to repay the emperor's kindness, and he also wanted to kill a few hundred more Wei dogs for the emperor.

"Is Hu Chen injured?" Liu Chan asked with concern, feeling regretful that he had no jade belt to give him.

"How can a dog from Wei hurt me!" Feng Hu became excited when he heard the word "Hu Chen".

"Okay, okay, okay!" Liu Chan let go of Feng Huchen's hand and patted his blood-stained arm armor.

"Hu Chen, please take a short rest and gather your strength. I estimate that the war will start again soon. I rely on Hu Chen to kill a few more Wei rebels for me!"

"Yes!" Feng Hu retreated excitedly.

On the general's platform, the old general who had been standing side by side with the emperor looked silently at the young monarch and his minister, and there seemed to be more reminiscence in his eyes.

"General Zilong, I want to go down to the main camp and find out who has been killed and how many heads have been beheaded. I also want to announce the compensation that the fallen soldiers deserve and let everyone know. What do you think?"

Zhao Yun was startled at first, then spoke vigorously:

"Your Majesty, Holy Might!"

He really didn't expect that the young Majesty could think of something that even he would overlook.

But then again, after spending these few days together, hasn't His Majesty given him enough surprises?
Soon, under the protection of the old general's second son Zhao Pijiang, the emperor, fully armed, arrived at the Han army camp at the foot of Yu Mountain.

The battle losses have been counted.

In this first battle, a total of 364 Han soldiers were killed or seriously injured.

Among them, 292 old and young soldiers who dared to die were killed or seriously injured.

Of the thousand elite soldiers commanded by Feng Hu, seventy-two were killed in action.

Almost all of these seventy-two people were killed when they were besieging the Wei generals, as they were killed by two waves of indiscriminate shooting by the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry due to their dense formation, as well as by the wave of cavalry charging with lances.

The losses were not small, but the results were equally significant.

The Wei army left behind more than 500 corpses and lost 20 war horses.

If we exclude the more than 300 people who were surrounded and annihilated by the elite troops led by Feng Hu, then in the battle, basically, if one brave old soldier or young man died, one Wei soldier would die.

The blank check he issued really earned the soldiers' death, and the soldiers' death was really valuable, which surprised Liu Chan a little.

In any case, although it was because there were elite soldiers on the side, it was enough to illustrate that there is indeed truth in the saying that there will always be brave men when there is a big reward.

Not long after, the military supervisor Deng Zhi presented Liu Chan with a report on the deaths and beheadings of the grassroots officers of each squad, ten, team, and group.

Liu Chan issued another decree, granting land and houses to those who died in battle, and granting the titles of attendant officials and heroic officials to those who were beheaded one level or who died in battle after being beheaded one level, and exempting their generations from corvée and taxes.

The list and corresponding pensions were made into a notice and announced to the three armies, and then the grassroots officers were ordered to inform every soldier.

The three armies were then encouraged.

Many soldiers also took the initiative to apply to their officers to become death squads.

Even those who were afraid of death signed up. They seemed to have figured out a problem: if I follow a group of people who dare to die, the probability of dying in battle will probably be smaller than if I follow a group of people who dare not die, and the probability of gaining something will probably be greater.

In short, the small victory in the first battle did boost the morale of the Han army to some extent.

This is indeed what Zhao Yun and Liu Chan want to see.

Return your attention to the battlefield.

From the time when the first battle ended at 9:00 PM until the time of 5:00 PM, which was nearly two hours long, the Wei army did not take any further military action.

The Han army had few soldiers and no cavalry available, so it had no initiative on the battlefield. It could only wait helplessly for the Wei army to make the first move so that it could strike back and gain the upper hand.

At 2:15 PM, Cao Zhen, who had been sitting on the stage, seemed to see something and stood up.

A moment later, he summoned his personal guards and issued his first military order:
"All troops, put on your armor and prepare for a decisive battle!"

(End of this chapter)