What went wrong with Sun Ce, the old general didn't know, and he didn't want to know.

"Hah!" With a soft snort, he shook the spear in Sun Ce's hand away. It's a pity that because the opponent's strength is too great, the old general of this shot did not seize the opportunity to fight a counterattack, but had to recover it a little, so that the hand that was a little numb could regain his breath.

However, the old general only knows one thing, as an enemy who fights for life and death, he must definitely "take advantage of his illness to kill him", otherwise if Sun Ce is really allowed to solve those problems on him, the old general does not think that he has the possibility of defeating the other party.

Yes, even if he has mastered the path of the opponent's martial arts, but in the face of the opponent's amazing strength and dexterity, the old general's experience and skills cannot take too much advantage, and because of his age, the rapidly depleting body is constantly eroding his body.

Even the former "gun king" Tong Yuan, in the battle against the Xianbei people a few years ago, the result of Kaida was almost exhausting and cramping, if it weren't for the enemy's courage, it is estimated that the old man Tong would be bleeding on the battlefield.

However, Sun Ce was also uncomfortable.

If you exclude the somewhat special and somewhat chaotic battle that happened in Yanshi, the opponent at this time is definitely the strongest person he has encountered in less than twenty years, even if he doesn't want to admit it in his heart, but he definitely surpasses his father.

The other party's mastery of the gun really won the sentence "the knife of the month stick, the gun of a lifetime". Sun Ce didn't know what the strength of Tong Yuan, who was known as the King of Guns and was once again famous because of Li Shushi and Zhao Yun, was there, but he only looked at the ordinary moves of the old general in front of him, whose reputation was not very prominent. Let all his methods fail, and he can know the gap between himself and the other party.

If it weren't for Sun Ce's ability to take advantage of his youthful and strong body, this fight might have ended a dozen rounds ago.

Naturally, Sun Ce must be the man with his head on the ground and the man with the back who has achieved the wisdom of the other party, just like the generals who fought with him before who may be humiliated alive, or who may have died long ago.

Because each has its own advantages and problems, the two of them can't help anyone for the time being, and the situation is once again at an impasse.

Also in a stalemate is the general trend of the entire battlefield.

"Is Cai Yang already dead? Hum. Well dead! ”

Hear the message from the herald. Cao Cao pursed his lips and didn't pay much attention.

Well, in fact, Cao Cao's heart is already happy now. Speaking of which, Cai Yang is also a well-known old ranger in the Central Plains, good at using knives, although he does not have a self-proclaimed title such as "Sword King". But it can also be regarded as a well-known storage zài. For Cao Cao, who loves talents, he will naturally not let go of the opportunity to invite.

But when I saw that I was about to succeed. Yuan Shu's invasion made Cao Cao's army, which originally seemed to be thriving, flee in the wilderness, and could only barely hold on to the last base and resist stubbornly.

At that time, Cao Cao could be said to have no future, no prestige, and at most he just got an evaluation of repeated defeats and repeated defeats. It is also mostly negative, and naturally the attraction of those opposition people who are ready to go out of the mountains to fight for a wife and son is greatly reduced.

People who are a little better at the festival or who are not optimistic about Yuan Shujun naturally politely declined, saying that they would have to wait and see before the time came.

Therefore, for such a guy who has no vision for development, death can be regarded as a grievance, and it can also be a wake-up call.

However, the young man who was able to behead Cai Yang, who was famous in the Central Plains, was under the horse...... Cao Cao really felt a little jealous in his heart.

Well, the situation on the battlefield is no longer for Cao Cao to think nonsense.

This battle took place in the area of Sheqiu County in the south of Yanzhou Jibei Kingdom, and the Wenshui that originated from the original mountain of Taishan County flowed through here and flowed all the way westward into Junoze, which was also known as the huge lake-type wetland of Onozawa, because it was not in the wet season, so most of the Wenshui could be swam across, and the war horses could cross the river without hindrance.

In the north of the battlefield are some uneven hills, and the more famous ones are mainly the Da and Xiaolong Mountains in the northeast and the Yunmeng Mountain and Zhenxie Mountain in the northwest, which are slightly lower than the Xiaolong Mountain. Among them, the Chinese army camp of Cao Cao's army was stationed at the top of Dalong Mountain. And in the distant contrast is the middle army of Sun Cejun, which is located under the low and dilapidated Snake Hill City, and the actual commander is Zhou Yu.

This battle was not a sudden encounter, although both sides almost reached this area on the front and back feet, but did not immediately put their troops into battle, but took a few tests to really open the position.

Naturally, this was completely Zhou Yu's idea, otherwise with Sun Ce's temper, he would definitely not have the patience to wait for these few days.

The composition of Cao Cao's army is a bit complicated, there are three in total, in addition to the support troops sent by his ally Yuan Shao, there is also a friendly army that rushed over from Liu Bei's side, but the number is not large, only a few hundred, but it is enough to have two masters, Zhang Fei and Yang Qun.

Well, Cao Cao and Liu Bei borrowed people to just want the masters around Liu Bei to help deal with Sun Ce and the fierce generals around Sun Ce, because aside from Sun Ce's personal influence on the battle situation, Cao Cao didn't think that Yuan Shujun was really powerful.

Even if the main force of this Yuan Shujun is the old team left by Sun Jian, it is Zhou Yu, a young newcomer, who commands the troops.

This time the battle can be regarded as a relatively dignified head-to-head duel.

Sun Ce's troops were backed by the city, but it was not strong, and behind the not large city was Wenshui, which was not deep at this time.

Sun Ce's Chinese army of about 2,000 people, all of whom were not veterans left by Sun Jian, but Sun Ce's newly recruited troops, which could be said to be a new army that was condensed entirely by Sun Ce's personal charm. However, the combat effectiveness of this army should not be underestimated, because this army composed of Huaisi and Jingchu rangers has quickly sharpened into a strong army after this period of southern and northern battles.

There were about 500 people in this army who followed Sun Ce into battle, while the rest were entrusted to Zhou Yu by Sun Ce. The first is to protect his good friends, and the other is to allow Zhou Yu to have a force that can better carry out his orders when needed.

In front of the Chinese army as a barrier were 6,000 light infantry led by Sun Ce's uncle Sun Jing and veteran Zhu Zhi, whose main role was not to attack, but to protect the Chinese army in the rear as much as possible. Unless there is a serious change in the war, this army Zhou Yu will not move lightly. Of course, it is more likely that this will become the direction of the enemy's priority attack, and it will not be possible to mobilize at all.

Sun Cejun's left flank was divided into two parts, of which close to the central army were 6,000 light infantry led by Huang Gai and Cai Yang. Before these light infantry, Zhou Yu also arranged 4,000 archers, which were mainly used to deal with Cao Cao's army, whose cavalry strength was almost the best in the Central Plains after receiving funding from the state. Whether Cao Cao's army attacked Sun Ce's left flank or the center, it could deal the enemy's greatest blow.

Behind the main forces of the left flank. It also hid a force led by Chen Lan and Lei Bo, which was mainly composed of thieves. Zhou Yu hoped that they would be able to bypass the battlefield and surprise Cao Cao's army from the flank or rear, so as to play the most important role in the battle situation.

However, although Chen Lan and Lei Bo are not very good at leading troops, they are definitely not without IQ (9). Although what Zhou Yu said was very good. But this could not be changed in any way, depriving two people of the command of the Wanwu troops. And then just threw them the fact that there were 3,000 remnants of soldiers, you must know that even if Zhou Yu did not treat those unruly Shan Yue Yi from Zhou Yu as ruthlessly, at most it was just a general who ordered the other party to obey the main general. However, it does not plan the attribution of the ministries.

For a moment, the two of them really seemed to be pulling these thousands of people to find a mountain and become a tyrant in the mountains like this, or if it weren't for Yuan Shujun's prestige at this time, the two of them would probably surrender directly to Cao Cao.

But even if the situation really evolves to this kind of Cheng Dù, at least these two people probably won't be able to please it, after all, since Zhou Yu dares to make such a move, he will definitely not have no follow-up preparations, maybe he is still waiting for the two of them to make some noise.

On the right flank of Sun Ce's army were 6,000 light infantry commanded by Cheng Pu and Han Dang, and more than 2,000 Shanyue Yicong from Yangzhou.

In addition, Sun Cejun's only more than 800 cavalry were also arranged on the right flank, hidden behind the light infantry, as for when to put into the battlefield, Zhou Yu handed over the right to make a decision on the spot to Cheng Pu and Han Dang, two cavalry generals from Youzhou.

Overall, Zhou Yu made such an arrangement, and the obvious purpose was to defend the Chinese army and lure the enemy deeper; The left flank is mainly to help the Chinese army defend while constantly using archers to effectively strike at the enemy, which can be regarded as a defensive counterattack; The right flank was an outright offensive flank, and Zhou Yu arranged all the offensive firepower of Sun Cejun's army on the right flank, except for Sun Ce's nuclear bomb, which was difficult to determine the time and place of the explosion, turning the right flank into a ferocious punch.

Of course, this is a preliminary judgment of the layout on the surface, in fact, whether it is Huang Gai on the left wing or Cheng Pu on the right wing, the light infantry in their hands are the old team left over from the Sun Jian era, so don't look at the troops on the left flank It seems that the defense is the mainstay, but if the war is anxious, it can also provide some unexpected contingency measures.

In this way, the total strength of Sun Cejun's participation in this battle was about 30,000, and Zhou Yu seemed to be estimating something, and did not put all the troops that he could mobilize into this battle, perhaps because he was worried about the strong enemy in the north of Xuzhou.

As for Chen Lan and Lei Bo, who are in charge of the roundabout silhouette, hehe, let's go back and see that Cao Cao's army has been arranged.

Although Cao Cao's orders are different, if you assume that Cao Cao's army's combat effectiveness is not strong, it is a big mistake.

Cao Cao arranged a combination of Xiahou Yuan and Cao Hong on his left flank, of which Cao Hong led 8,000 light infantry, all of which were incorporated from the remnants of the Yellow Turban Army that ravaged the Central Plains, although they were strictly trained, but there were still some problems in discipline, if it was a battle with limited intensity, these soldiers might be able to maintain considerable combat effectiveness, but if the battle was too long or too strong, even Cao Cao could not believe how much of a role these troops could play.

So behind these people, there is a law enforcement team of 1,500 people led by Yu Ban, these Yanzhou natives recruited from Cao Cao when he raised troops in Yanzhou, although their combat effectiveness may not be as good as those of the remnants of the former Yellow Turban Army, but the only advantage is that their families are in the territory of Cao Cao's army, and their loyalty is very good. And the discipline is excellent because of years of training.

In front of the light infantry unit commanded by Cao Hong was a skirmish line composed of nearly 2,000 Taishan crossbowmen who were skilled in using crossbow machines. This force does not have a clear commander, and they have a very large degree of freedom in their special role.

Whether it is Bao Xin, who has always supported Cao Cao, or Yu Ban later, or even the former enemy and current friendly Zang Ba, Cao Cao has always been able to maintain a relatively good relationship with the big and small families of Taishan County, so even when Cao Cao is weak and Yuan Shu is strong, the big and small families of Taishan still support Cao Cao, and these fierce Taishan County righteous servants. It is a symbol of this friendship.

These forces are already a good combination for most princes. But it was still just a pretense, and it was Xiahou Yuan's cavalry unit that really played a decisive role, or was given high hopes by Cao Cao as a killer weapon.

This force can be said to be the trump card in Cao Cao's hands. They were trained by Xiahou Yuan, who had studied and fought in the northern part of Bingzhou.

Compared to some natural stays. In addition to his outstanding personal combat effectiveness, the best thing is unexpectedly Xiahou Dun, who manages Tuntian's affairs. Xiahou Yuan was more inherited by the state army in leading troops in combat and training, although this cavalry lacked enough training and went through several reorganizations, but the size of 2,500 people still had the ability to influence the battle situation.

Moreover, this unit inherits the glorious tradition of the state army. It can be used from far and near to disrupt the enemy's formation with mounted fire, kill and injure the enemy's living forces, and when you get close, you can pick up a spear and charge, giving the enemy a devastating blow.

Originally, the trump card of this Cao Cao army was a cavalry unit stationed outside Puyang City, similar to the Northern Army, but in order to be able to avenge the shame, Cao Cao not only brought this army out, but also handed it over to Xiahou Yuan and placed it on the flank.

Such a move naturally avoided the archers phalanx carefully prepared by Zhou Yu, but he had to encounter Sun Cejun's attack group, but he didn't know whether it was fortunate or unlucky, it depended on the result on the battlefield......

The main force on the right flank of Cao Cao's army was a thousand guards cavalry led by Xu Chu's brother Xu Ding.

Without Dian Wei, Xu Chu, and Cao Chun, Cao Cao's personal guard commander became Xu Chu's brother and his neighbor Xu Ding, and Cao Cao's personal guard troops were naturally built by Xu Ding.

Xu Ding is not as good as Xu Chu in terms of personal strength, and Xu Ding cannot be compared with Cao Chun in terms of training ability, but he is a very modest person, and at the same time he is more calm than Xu Chu in the past, he summarized the training methods and experiences left by Cao Chun and Xu Chu, and then got some of their training experience from Cao Ren and Xiahoudun, and reorganized the resources he could control through various relationships, and then began to start the formation of the troops.

On the whole, this thousand-person guard cavalry inherits the characteristics of the Xuanjia cavalry built by Cao Chun for Xujiabao back then, but it is obviously more complex than Xujiabao in terms of personnel composition - in addition to the private soldiers who once belonged to Xujiabao brought by Xu Ding from Xujiabao and the Jianghu rangers who were attached to Xujiabao, there are also various good players selected from other grassroots troops of Cao Cao's army, as well as rangers who defected to the "innocent" family background under the introduction of Cao Ren and Xiahoudun.

The ingredients are so complex that they are naturally not easy to manage.

It's a pity that Xu Ding doesn't have the talent of his younger brother Xu Chu, nor does he have Cao Chun's excellent skills and the golden sign of the Cao clan, so he has been very tired in the past few years, both physically and psychologically. If it weren't for Cao Cao's absolute support, Xu Ding felt that he would either choose to retreat to the rivers and lakes, or probably leave a whole corpse with a three-foot white silk.

But now, at least it seems that this army still has terrifying power, and in several battles that are not very intense, it has also shown that it is far stronger than the strength of the Xuanjia cavalry of Xujiabao at the beginning, as long as it passes the test of a high-intensity war, the final and most fundamental transformation will occur, and at that time, Xu Ding feels that he may be considered a success.

Compared with Cao Cao's side mixed with the historical tiger and leopard cavalry and the tiger guard cavalry, which are not like the Xuanjia cavalry in the past, the other ace army in Cao Cao's hand sounds much more reliable - I don't know if it was stimulated by Li Shushi running to Puyang in person, or because Yuan Shao thought that the battle against Gongsun Chan seemed to have reached the end stage, and Gongsun Chan couldn't come up with any tricks, so he could adjust his strength and support his good friends by the way, anyway, no matter what the reason. The support troops sent by Yuan Shao were temporarily replaced by the most elite troops in his hands - the strong army of land warfare and the Euphorbia who returned from the battle in the Northwest Battlefield and then crisscrossed Jizhou and Youzhou.

Although because of Li Shushi's butterfly, without Koji, there will naturally be no Xiandeng Dead Soldier who knows how to fight and is good at bows and crossbows, Yuan Shaojun is most famous for being the Euphorbia, under the leadership of the powerful Han Lao General, who came to support Cao Cao.

General Han Lao was naturally one of Cao Cao's trump cards in requesting support against Sun Ce, and the Euphorbia, although it was also somewhat unexpected by Cao Cao, did not prevent this black-skinned dwarf from unceremoniously holding the command in his hands.

Probably Yuan Shao had also ordered him before, and these three thousand halberds had no desire to resist. The handover was very smooth.

As for the rest of the six thousand, they were probably Yuan Shao's newly recruited recruits and close to a thousand people, and the scale did not seem to be much of an elite cavalry unit. It was handed over to Li Dian, Zhu Ling, Shi Lian, and Yuan Shaojun's Yan Ming, Lu Kuang, Lu Xiang and others to share.

Among them, several of Yuan Shaojun's generals were cavalry commanders, and they didn't seem to want Cao Cao's army to get involved in this cavalry force. Perhaps Yuan Shao had made up his mind to use this war to sharpen the cavalry under his command and the generals who commanded the cavalry.

Coupled with the mixed force of 5,000 light infantry and archers commanded by Xiahou Lian and Yang Qun from Liu Beifang, Cao Cao's right flank surpassed the left flank in terms of the number of soldiers alone, and the 3,000 halberd warriors alone surpassed Cao Yuan's coalition army in terms of reputation. Plus the Xuanjia cavalry that Xu Ding worked hard to build. At least theoretically. Cao Cao's right flank also had a strong offensive force.

In addition, Cao Cao also left 2,000 soldiers in the base camp as a reserve, and the leader of this force was one of Cao Cao's most relied on strategists. was recommended by Xun Yu to Cao Cao's genius - Drama Ugly Drama Zhicai.

Although it is said to be a reserve, in fact, this army is also reserved by Cao Cao, because the core of this force is not the generals, but the civilian officials in Cao Cao's camp - including the Taoist troops commanded by Xi Chou, the feng shui troops commanded by Manbai Boning and Mao Yu Mao Xiaoxian, and the strategist troops led by Cao Cao's brother Cao De and Taishan Taishou Liangmao, who are also dressed in linen and filial piety, and Taishan Taishou Liangmao - although these civil officials are not many in number, if they are allowed to play, they are the most tricky group of people.

The total strength of Cao Cao's side was about 33,000 people, slightly more than Yuan Shu's army on the opposite side. However, considering Sun Ce's unstable factor, Cao Cao's side would never dare to be careless, after all, they had suffered too many losses.

In addition, it is worth mentioning that whether it is in Li Shushi's Cao Cao's army in that direction, or Cao Cao's army in this direction, the names of the former Chen Liutaishou Zhang Miao and his subordinates cannot be found in all the battle sequences, and there have always been rumors on the rivers and lakes that Yuan Shao was very dissatisfied with Zhang Miao's escape without a fight, and even wrote to Cao Cao many times asking Cao Cao to kill Zhang Miao with the heart of the army.

Although Cao Cao was also very disdainful of Zhang Miao's pus, but considering the relationship between the two people, it seemed that he had never made a move, but he also excluded Zhang Miao from Cao Cao's battle sequence, and even Zhang Miao's henchman Zhao Pet was also just given an idle post and stayed in Puyang with nothing to do.

Even if Zhang Miao is worried about this, it's not an unusual thing to think about.

After the two armies were arrayed, Cao Cao could climb the mountain to look, and Zhou Yu could also temporarily climb the tower of Snake Hill City to look at the enemy formation.

I have to say that Cao Cao and Zhou Yu really have a bit of a heart, and the heroes see the same. Although Zhou Yu put out the left, center, and right armies, while Cao Cao only put out the left and right armies, in general, both sides were slightly stronger on the right flank than on the left, but the only thing that was not quite similar was that Cao Cao actually placed his assault direction on the slightly weaker left flank, while Zhou Yu was completely on the right flank. And this will also doom the battle on this side to be extremely tragic.

Zhou Yu's move was quite helpless, because in such an open terrain, Cao Cao's army, which was better in both quantity and quality, was obviously more advantageous, which forced him to take the "bet on one side" method to arrange his troops.

And what about Cao Cao in reverse? He can play with two wings flying together, even if his left flank is slightly weaker, but in such a hilly and plain terrain, the infantry can almost be regarded as "one out of ten" against the cavalry.

Therefore, the key to this battle was how Cao Cao's army could limit Sun Ce's play, while Yuan Shu's army was how to make more effective use of Sun Ce while resisting the surprise attack of Cao Cao's powerful cavalry troops. (To be continued......)