Chapter 2862 Cao Cao wants to fight to the decisive battle, Bai Qi swung the dragon gate
Chapter 2859: Cao Cao wants to fight to the decisive battle, Bai Qi swung the dragon gate
With the arrival of Bai Qi''s army, Cao Cao, who finally attacked Dingtao City, had to take the initiative to withdraw all the troops in the city, rather than choose to defend the city.
This seems very contradictory, but in fact it is a helpless move.
It’s not that Cao Cao didn’t want to defend, but he couldn’t. There are three reasons why he chose to transfer all his cavalry out of the city:
First, it is very difficult to defend the current Dingtao City;
Bai Qi is different from Deng Jiugong and Cao Cao, who are all cavalrymen. The main force of the Qin army he led is all infantry, and his army must have carried heavy siege equipment.
Although Deng Jiugong''s fire did not burn all the defending equipment at the Dingtao East Gate, it also greatly reduced the defense of the East Gate. In addition, there were still Qin army remnants who were fighting stubbornly in the city that were not completely wiped out.
Although the Qin army in the city cannot pose much threat to Cao Cao, facing Bai Qi, who has super strong siege ability, Cao Cao has to defend the city and wipe out the remaining troops inside. This is really too dangerous, and defensive wars are not fought like this.
Second, all cavalrymen in Cao Cao''s troops were good at field battles, not defending the city. Using cavalry to defend the city is to attack the enemy''s strengths with one''s own shortcomings;
If the three thousand Qin cavalry led by Deng Jiugong were out of the city to fight, if the lineup of fierce generals on both sides was excluded, the five thousand cavalry led by Yin Shou and Dan Tai Yu might not be able to defeat these three thousand Qin cavalry.
But it was Deng Jiugong who chose to defend the city. After entering the city, the Qin cavalry was restricted and could not exert the combat power it deserved, so that more than half of the casualties were casualties, while Cao''s casualties were minimal.
Of course, this is not considered as a fierce general''s personal force, and it cannot be said that Deng Jiugong''s decision is wrong.
As for this third point, the most important point is that Dingtao City, which lacks defense, is not only not a barrier for the Cao army, but may be a cage.
After Bai Qi conquered Puyang and Xuchang, the Qin army was relatively mobilized. If he adopted the siege tactic, he would not even need to siege the city. He just had to dig deep into the trenches. It would not be so easy for Cao Cao to go out of Dingtao again.
Even if Bai Qi''s troops do nothing, as long as they hold Cao Cao''s cavalry, it will still be a great achievement.
But Cao Cao is different. His 5,000 cavalry is the last savior of Cao Wei. If he was trapped in Dingtao, Chen Liu''s 100,000 troops would be miserable.
Therefore, instead of trying hard to defend a Dingtao, which is likely to be unable to defend, and may even be trapped in the city, Cao Cao might as well go out of the city to fight Bai Qi to the death.
Before attacking Dingtao, Cao''s army suffered not much casualties, and a total of nearly 500 people were killed or injured, which means that Cao Cao still has 14,500 cavalry now.
As for Bai Qi''s troops, the maximum strength will not exceed 50,000, and the powerful generals such as Li Cunxiao, Huang Feihu, and Qin Niu are still not there, so the overall combat power will definitely be greatly reduced.
Cao Cao felt that he had nearly 15,000 iron cavalry and fought against Bai Qi''s 50,000 infantrymen on the plains, and his side had Yin and other powerful generals such as Dan Tai Yu, so he might not be able to defeat Bai Qi, who had no generals available.
If this battle is won, it will not only break Bai Qi''s unbeaten record and greatly increase his morale, but also the critical crisis on the Western Front will protect his retreat, which will be a killing of one kill.
Just as Cao Cao was immersed in the many benefits of victory, Fan Li, a military commander, poured cold water on him.
"Lord, with Bai Qi''s ability, it is impossible not to know the pros and cons of the battle between the infantry and cavalry plains, let alone the fact that there are no strong generals available in his army, but he still dares to lead his army to fight me head-on. What does this mean?"
Hearing Fan Li''s words, Cao Cao was instantly excited.
Yes, although Bai Qi has a lot of troops, it is common sense that a cavalry can reach at least five steps. Even if the Qin army has heavy infantry, its combat effectiveness is not as good as the cavalry, but its mobility is far inferior to that of the cavalry, and the disadvantages encountered in the plains are still extremely great.
Bai Qi cannot not know about these, let alone that he has no strong general yet.
The Qin army clearly had so many disadvantages, but Bai Qi still dared to fight the Cao army''s cavalry head-on, so there are only two possibilities:
First, Bai Qi was bluffing. He wanted to act like he would win, and wanted to use this to scare Cao Cao and let Cao''s army retreat without fighting.
Second, Bai Qi is sure to win, and the Qin army''s open power is definitely impossible to win, so Bai Qi must have another move.
Based on Cao Cao''s understanding of Bai Qi, he felt that the probability of the latter was much greater than the former. After all, Bai Qi could not agree with other Qin generals.
There are no shortage of risk-taking generals among the Qin army, such as Huo Qubing, Xue Rengui, Zhang Liao, etc.
Especially Huo Qubing, he always uses troops unexpectedly and is used to taking risks. Although his winning rate is high, it has to be admitted that his playing style is a bit too risky.
That is, the opponent Huo Qubing encountered was not as good as his commander and wisdom. If he met an opponent who was superior to him, his trick would obviously not be successful.
This is also the main reason why Ying Hao placed Huo Qubing in the northern border and specifically asked him to deal with foreign races instead of using him to fight against the Central Plains.
What the Central Plains lacks the most is a cautious and intelligent general. With Huo Qubing''s military style, it is obviously difficult to be able to eat in the Central Plains. It would be better to put him in the northern border and be an unbeaten general who wins every battle.
As for Bai Qi, he rarely takes risks, not because he can''t seize the opportunity, but because he always takes three steps and there is no need to take risks at all.
Originally, Cao Cao thought that if the war started, there would be a high probability that he would win Bai Qi, but when Fan Li reminded him that this might be a trap set by Bai Qi, Cao Cao couldn''t help but feel a little upset.
The price of defeat was something that Cao Cao could not afford, but if he really retreated without shooting an arrow, Cao Cao could not afford it.
"Military advisor, how sure are you? This is Bai Qi''s trap, not him bluffing?" Cao Cao gritted his teeth.
Fan Li was actually not sure. He just analyzed Bai Qi''s past style, but Bai Qi is an extremely rare general in the history of military strategists who has no flaws. No analysis is of much use in him, so he can only give an ambiguous number: "Sixty percent."
“Sixty percent?”
Cao Cao''s heart couldn''t help but sink. After all, the probability is not low, but he couldn''t give up Dingtao and withdraw his troops.
After some thought, Cao Cao decided to test Bai Qi that all his cavalrymen had a certain tolerance rate. If they really couldn''t win, it would not be too late to retreat.
"The whole army was sent to go north immediately to fight Bai Qi." With Cao Cao''s order, the 14,500 Cao army cavalry gathered outside Dingtao City immediately ran to the Qin army twenty miles away from the city.
At the same time, Deng Guan and Liu Tichun, who escaped from Dingtao, also successfully met with Wei Rui and Fu Youde.
Although Wei Rui and Fu Youde did not go directly to Dingtao and went to war with Cao''s army, they were prepared to respond. However, they did not expect that only more than a thousand cavalrymen came in the end, as well as Deng Guan and Liu Tichun. However, when Deng Jiugong and his son were not seen, their hearts suddenly sank to the bottom.
"Deng Jiugong and General Deng Xiu both died in Dingtao City."
After saying that, Deng Guan lost their east gate, and on the way to retreat, they were all informed Wei Rui and Fu Youde of the process of being chased by Yin Shou.
After hearing this, Wei Rui and Fu Youde both felt sorry for their deaths. After all, the father and son did not have to die, but Deng Jiugong felt sorry for the casualties and made a wrong judgment.
If he did not detour the West Gate but broke through directly at the North Gate, both father and son would definitely survive, and the Qin army would not have suffered or suffered losses of 2,000.
But it was this wrong judgment that not only caused the death of Deng Jiugong and his son, but also lost 2,000 of the three thousand iron cavalry that came to fight.
This is also the second most serious battle to lose since the war began.
Previously, Jia Fu was defeated. Although the Qin army suffered more than 12,000 casualties, most of them were infantry. Now these two thousand people are cavalry more expensive than infantry. The casualties of two thousand cavalry may not be smaller than those of 12,000 infantry.
"Before General Deng Jiugong withdrew his troops, he set fire to many of the equipment from the East Gate. Now the defense of Dingtao East Gate is not as good as before and is difficult to defend.
The main army led by the Grand Governor will soon arrive in Dingtao. Then we will settle the accounts with Cao''s army and avenge the two generals Deng Jiugong Deng Xiu. "Fu Youde said hatefully.
After hearing this, Wei Rui said worriedly: "But what if Cao Cao doesn''t defend the city but chooses to go out of the city to fight?"
Fu Youde, Liu Tichun and Deng Guan were stunned when they heard this.
Yes, if the Cao army went out of the city to fight, the Qin army''s 50,000 troops would fight against the 15,000 Cao army cavalry on the plain. Without the presence of powerful generals such as Li Cunxiao and Huang Feihu, they would not be able to win.
"Report to the general, after the entire Cao army gathered outside the city, he headed north to the general''s place."
"not good."
Wei Rui and Fu Youde exclaimed at the same time when they heard this. Wei Rui hurriedly ordered: "Go back quickly and go to support the general."
With Wei Rui''s order, the four thousand cavalry immediately changed directions and rushed to the Bai Qi army''s position at full speed, but received Bai Qi''s flying pigeon letter halfway.
What Wei Rui and other generals did not expect was that Bai Qi did not let him come to join him, but moved ten miles away to the army to hold his troops.
"The decisive battle begins, and there are no strong generals in the army. Why did the general make such arrangements?"
Liu Tichun asked with confusion. He was born as a surrendered general of Cao''s army and knew too well the power of Yin Shou and Dan Tai Yu. Li Cunxiao was not there, and Bai Qi had no strong generals. If he even used infantry to fight cavalry, it would be impossible to resist the impact of Yin Shou and Dan Tai Yu.
Wei Rui actually didn''t understand, but chose to obey the order and said, "The General has never been defeated so far. Since he has made such a arrangement, he has his own reasons. We just need to obey the order."
On the other hand, shortly after Cao Cao led his army northward, he met the main force of the Qin army led by Bai Qi in front of a big lake between Juyang and Dingtao.
At this time, the main force of more than 40,000 Qin troops had formed a large formation with their backs, and the formation was very familiar to Cao Cao.
"Is this?"
Did Cao Cao recall a past in his mind, and said in a stern voice: "Longmen Formation?"
The Longmen Formation is Xue Rengui''s famous formation. It is said to have great restraint on the cavalry. It has appeared on the battlefield three times so far.
The first time he appeared during the heroes'' confrontation against Dong, it was during the Battle of the Second Hulao Pass. Xue Rengui, including Zhao Yun, Jiang Song, Ran Min, Gongsun Xuanyuan, and the Little Dragon Gate Formation formed by an army of 10,000, blocked Li Shimin''s 30,000 Xiliang Army.
In the end, although Li Shimin forced the Longmen Formation to be forcibly captured by military forces, the Western Liang army suffered much more casualties than the Qin army.
As for the second appearance of the Dragon Gate Formation, it is even more amazing.
During the Second Hetao War, Ying Hao formed a complete version of the Dragon Gate Formation with an army of 100,000. Not only did he block Temujin''s 200,000 cavalry, he even won and achieved a record of killing 80,000 enemies. Even the Yuan Emperor Temujin died in this battle.
The third time the Longmen Formation appeared was in Luoyang. This time the formation was no longer the Qin army, but Li Shimin, and Haihui Temple was used to deal with the Qin army.
But Li Shimin himself launched the Longmen Formation, which was obviously not as powerful as the original version. In addition, his luck was not very good, so he met Zhang Liao who had communicated with Xue Rengui.
Therefore, Li Shimin''s version of the Dragon Gate Formation was eventually cracked by Zhang Liao.
After being cracked once, the Dragon Gate Formation fell from the altar and was no longer as legendary as before.
But what was broken is Li Shimin''s version of the Dragon Gate Formation. What does it have to do with Xue Rengui''s version?
Therefore, all countries are still studying ways to break the formation to prevent them from being unable to deal with it after encountering it on the battlefield.
Cao Cao naturally also studied the method of breaking the formation, but he was not like Li Shimin. Sima Yi had a steal and incomplete formation diagram to retort him, so there was not much progress in cracking the Longmen Formation.
(This chapter ends)