Volume 5: Overlord of the Sea Chapter 597: Surprise Attack
Compared with the nearby Bohai Port in Bohai County, Yanci Port in Pingyuan County is a dwarf, and because of their proximity, its "popularity" has been further robbed.
As you can tell from the names, one is named "county" and the other is named "county"!
Yanci Port had been attacked three times in the previous two months. Except for the first time when it withstood a feint attack by the Chu Navy, after which the Chu Navy withdrew to Bohai County, it was attacked and looted the other two times.
The Chu State naturally had other descriptions for its act of liberating slave labor workshops, but in the eyes of the Wei people it was "plundering", and the Wei court also promoted it in this way.
Lu Bu also did not deny that he had seized some spoils in the just battle, and both Bai Tu and the people of Chu agreed with this.
When the port was breached for the first time, the Wei defenders suffered heavy casualties here, but the second time... Wei had already abandoned this place and destroyed the basic facilities of the port, forcing the Chu to change to small boats when landing.
In November when winter has already arrived, Yanci County obviously did not expect that it would be attacked again at this time!
And this time, the Chu army was not just "strolling around", but 8,000 elite cavalrymen attacked Yanci County directly...
That’s right, it was the special forces led by Zhang Liao—eight thousand of them were “cavalry”, but only three thousand were real cavalry, and the other five thousand... were just infantry equipped with horses.
Of course, since the latter was also institutionalized as a new type of soldier by the Privy Council, they did not use original "horses", but rather trained civilian horses, a kind of transportation that... looked like a suspended tricycle!
In short, it does not have the charging capability of cavalry, but it can greatly improve the ability to escort supplies, and can barely keep up with the slower cavalry during long-distance raids.
For the Chu army, transportation is obviously very important - smooth transportation means artillery is knocking on the door...
After Zhang Liao organized the landing that night, he arrived at the location of Yanci City just at dawn. After a round of artillery fire, he successfully broke through the gate and captured Yanci County!
And at noon that day, Lu Bu's main force, who was originally responsible for "making a noise to the east", returned to Yanci for support, and Zhang Liao's cavalry, after a short morning of rest, continued to rush to the northwest...
The target was Nanpi, the seat of Bohai County and an important town in the eastern part of Jizhou!
Nanpi has been a military city that has been built with emphasis since the Yuan Shao period. After the Battle of Bai Ma, when the Yuan family was severely damaged, Yuan Tan used Nanpi as his base camp and survived for a few more years, thus buying time for the Chu State to completely widen the generation gap in development.
Even after the Wei army "retreats", Nanpi is still one of the places that must be defended, but now it is obviously lacking in vigilance...
Calculating the time, I'm afraid that Yanci's defeated army may not be able to give an early warning.
However, since it is a military city, there is naturally no reason to "defend the city to the death". There are military camps crisscrossing the key points of the surrounding roads .
However, under Zhang Liao's surprise attack, these ordinary military camps were directly demolished by the "transport cavalry" and killed Nanpi City...
In fact, even an ordinary military camp, if well prepared and with trenches, might be able to withstand Zhang Liao's advance. However... without any preparation, they were expecting to rely on wooden deer horns with iron tips to resist the cavalry and artillery of Chu. Obviously, they were overthinking!
Zhang Liao also carried forward the tactics that Bai Tu "taught" himself - artillery bombardment, cavalry charge, infantry attack...
That is the "mainstream" tactics of Napoleon, the legendary emperor of the Developed Kingdom in the early 19th century!
First use artillery to clean up the ground, then charge with cavalry, and then use infantry to press forward and occupy the position...
A strategy to maximize the advantages of the then developing country in artillery and cavalry.
Now the third step can be omitted. After all, Zhang Liao only has 8,000 people, and his goal is only to break through the defense line. As for holding the position, it can be left to the main force behind.
As the "gunhead", Zhang Liao undoubtedly completed the task very well, because he reached the city of Nanpi at the fastest speed.
Even though the walls of the military city were extremely thick, and there were acropolises and walls all around, which were very complex and had defensive capabilities and were conducive to the defense of the defenders, the artillery could not be pushed up for a while...
However, Zhang Liao's rapid attack did cause chaos in Nanpi's formation!
At this time, Lu Bu's main force had already begun to move forward, steadily occupying positions and advancing step by step.
The one guarding Nanpi City was Li Dian, a good general of Wei State.
In the history without the White Rabbit Effect, he was one of Zhang Liao's deputies when he was guarding Hefei.
Li Dian's style is completely different from Zhang Liao's. Whether in dealing with people or in deploying troops, he is very conservative and introverted.
As for the incident at Xiaoyaojin in history...
After all, Zhang Liao was the commander-in-chief and Li Dian was merely mobilized.
But now in Nanpi, when Li Dian himself serves as a general, he displays more of his "elegant and easy-going" style. Although he is stable, he seems very passive.
However, in terms of ability, Li Dian is indeed weaker than Wei's first-line generals. At this time, he is stationed in Nanpi, a crucial position, but he is not the commander-in-chief of Bohai County's defense.
Soon after learning the news, Yu Jin, the commander-in-chief of Bohai County, became more decisive. He not only actively came to help, but also formulated the grand strategy of "blocking Lu and trapping Zhang"!
Reorganize the defense to delay Lu Bu's main force, and also... take the opportunity to annihilate Zhang Liao who has been surrounded by our side!
Of course, Yu Jin himself knew clearly whether it was "being surrounded by one's own side" or being "killed into the defense line by the enemy", and it was just a statement to boost morale.
And I don’t know whether to say Yu Jin’s luck is good or bad…
It is said that autumn and winter in the north are very dry. However, on the third day after Zhang Liao arrived at the city of Nanpi and Yu Jin had already arrived, it happened to rain heavily that day, and it even started to snow!
As a result, not only did Zhang Liao's troops, which were mainly composed of the Southern Army, suffer a reduction in combat effectiveness due to the sudden drop in temperature, but the effectiveness of their artillery was also greatly reduced in the subsequent drizzle.
Yu Jin believed that the opportunity could not be missed, so he raised a fire as a signal. He not only surrounded the city from all sides, but also ordered Li Dian to lead his troops out of the city to meet the enemy, preparing to take down these 8,000 people by force!
Up to this point, Yu Jin's luck seemed to be very good?
After all, if it weren't for the bad weather, it would not be easy to swallow Zhang Liao first while delaying Lu Bu's main force for a few days.
However, if there was any bad luck, it was that Zhang Liao not only had a burst of fighting spirit amidst the heavy siege, but also the combat skills that he had gradually accumulated and suited his characteristics since the battle in Xiaopei... no, it should be said that they were completely awakened at this time since the battle in Bingzhou!
Seeds of Fear - When leading troops in battle, the deterrent power is greatly enhanced, and the enemy troops that are deterred and defeated by Zhang Liao's troops will carry the seeds of fear that can be spread, causing the collapse of morale to spread, effectively accelerating the collapse of enemy morale...
