While Taishi Ci and Guan Hai were engaged in a bitter battle at Dangli, Zhao Yun led the cavalry of Tiger Leopard Camp, the elite infantry of Tiger Infantry Camp, and Vermillion Bird Camp, a total of 5000 men (all the horses were transferred to temporarily form cavalry), and secretly set off from the North Sea Army on the night before the North Sea Army set off. They began to secretly prepare to infiltrate the camp behind Guan Hai. The soldiers who attacked only brought 10 days of rations each. Since there were not many hidden roads from Beihai to Guan Hai's rear camp, it was almost impossible to march directly to Guan Hai's rear camp without being discovered by Guan Hai's scouts. Therefore, Zhao Yun disguised himself and marched toward Le 'an overnight. He planned to lurk near the county near Guan Hai's rear camp when he entered Le' an County, and then attack Guan Hai's rear camp at night!
This way, even if they were discovered by Guan Hai's scouts when they set off, they would not know the specific intentions of this side army. Meanwhile, the army from the North Sea slowly advanced north, preparing to either receive Zhao Yun's troops or block off the remnants of Guan Hai's army from heading south. Not long after the Beihai Army set off, Guan Hai's scouts sent the news back to Guan Hai's camp overnight. However, Zhao Yun's partial army successfully evaded the surveillance of Guan Hai's scouts. When he received the news, Guan Hai had already set off with his army.
Zhang Baiqi's expression was solemn when he received the news that the Beihai Army had moved out. After thinking for a long time, he decided to build two more defensive camps in the south of the original camp to guard against the Beihai Army from the south. The main force of the remaining 40,000 soldiers was divided into two defensive camps, one on the east and the other on the west, which were separated by a few miles. If the enemy came from the south, they would be surrounded on three sides. As for the north, it was close to mountains and rivers, and the entrance was narrow. There was a natural cliff behind it. Although it was only a few hundred feet high, it was not something that could be climbed by humans. Therefore, more than a thousand Yellow Turban soldiers and hundreds of archers were placed here to defend. From the terrain, it was impossible to attack such a defense without tens of thousands of people. After all, the sea was not far from the north, and many of them were tidal zones that were difficult for people to cross. In terms of tactics, Zhang Baiqi had strengthened Guan Hai's original defense and increased the attack range of the invading enemy. The two camps and the middle base helped each other, and the entire base camp that had shrunk into the valley was tightly defended, making it convenient for them to concentrate their troops at the same time. To attack such a defensive formation, tens of thousands of people had to hold off each department separately. It was really a very clever defensive formation. Zhang Baiqi was indeed worthy of being a Yellow Turban veteran general with outstanding wisdom!
However, due to the limited time, the defensive camps in the east and west had only been built for a short day after receiving the news. Currently, they had only set up a simple layer of wooden stakes against the mountain, as well as simple antlers and anti-horse barriers outside the camps to guard against the cavalry's assault. The offensive facilities such as the arrow tower had not been built in time, so the defense was not perfect. The current strength of the two camps that could kill from a long distance was the two to three thousand archers left behind by Guan Hai, most of which were concentrated in the east and west camps. Each of them had over a thousand archers, while the rest of the defensive forces were mainly infantry.
However, Zhang Baiqi estimated that the Beihai Army was more than a hundred miles away from the camp, and it would take at least three to five days to arrive. With this period of time, the new camp would take shape, and all the defensive facilities would be completed. With the advantage of the number of troops and the natural geographical advantage, it might not be impossible to hold the camp.
In such a situation, Zhao Yun's thousands of troops were facing the tight defense of 40,000 troops. With a huge difference of about 8:1 in numbers and terrain advantage, could Zhao Yun's sneak attack still succeed?
When Zhang Baiqi was rearranging the formation, Zhao Yun led his elite troops to rest on a small hill about 40 miles west of Guan Hai's camp. At this time, the whole army had finished eating their rations and were resting and recuperating. For this battle, Beihai's 5000 horses were fully equipped with this side army. They moved extremely quickly and covered more than 100 miles in a night. Zhang Baiqi never expected that our army would send a side army with light and fast horses. Even 5,000 soldiers wouldn't be a threat. While Zhao Yun's army was resting on the grass during the day, Zhang Baiqi was busy arranging the defensive camp.
In Zhang Baiqi's eyes, the real danger was the army that was slowly advancing from the North Sea. When he sent out his troops, he had already predicted that the North Sea Army would not sit idly by and would definitely take advantage of the situation. Taishi Ci's army was just a bait that he had to swallow. Meanwhile, the scouts sent by Zhao Yun took a detour to gather information from the south of Guan Hai's rear camp. The scouts from both sides avoided each other after meeting each other many times from afar. Guan Hai's scouts determined that this was a scout sent from the North Sea. They had no idea that Zhao Yun's army had already infiltrated the vicinity of Guan Hai Base and was planning to launch a fatal attack!
On the first day that Zhang Baiqi moved the Yellow Turban soldiers and rearranged the three defensive camps, Zhao Yun's scouts discovered this major change and took a detour back to Zhao Yun's hiding place. Zhao Yun frowned after hearing the report. This Zhang Baiqi was not simple. The 40,000 troops were separated by several miles. It seemed that the scattering weakened the strength of the Yellow Turban soldiers. In fact, the Yellow Turban soldiers were always loose in organization and could easily blow up the camp in the face of setbacks. The overall combat strength of the Yellow Turban soldiers had improved. At the very least, after one division was attacked, the chaos would only affect that division. The other divisions would still have time to prepare for battle. They could arrive in fifteen minutes or so, either to rescue or defend.
10,000 men was not a small number. With the terrain advantage and Zhao Yun's current military strength, it would be extremely difficult to defeat even one of them from the front. Facing an enemy that was already prepared, it would not be possible to complete it in a short time. At that time, the enemy at the front had not been eliminated, and the reinforcements from the other two sides had already surrounded them. From the position of Zhang Baiqi's camp, as long as they could not finish the battle within fifteen minutes, they would definitely be surrounded by tens of thousands of troops. Although Zhao Yun's elite troops were strong, facing a prepared enemy, one against two or three was already the limit. Although the cavalry's attack power was strong enough to fight one against ten, they still needed time and space to charge. Otherwise, the cavalrymen who could not charge on horseback were not as agile as the infantry. With Zhang Baiqi's intelligence, he could imagine that he would definitely add obstacles in the camp to prevent Zhao Yun's cavalry from charging forward. Under such a head-on clash, most of them would probably not be able to return to the North Sea except for Zhao Yun and the other peerless generals.
Zhao Yun pondered for a long time. The south was heavily guarded, but what about the north? Thinking of this, Zhao Yun suddenly felt enlightened. Guan Hai's army had limited strength and couldn't take care of everything. However, after discussing with Jiang Guang, he found out that the north was a coastal area with a dangerous terrain. Although people could barely pass through, horses could not. Moreover, the northern entrance was not conducive to cavalry attacks. This way, it was even more impossible for the entire army to take a detour and launch a surprise attack from the north. After all, if the cavalry could not charge and display their powerful combat strength, attacking a strong camp defended by tens of thousands of people with such a small number of troops would be equivalent to sending themselves to their deaths.
However, the weak defense in the north was obviously a loophole left behind by Zhang Baiqi. It would be a pity if he did not take advantage of it. Zhao Yun quickly thought of all kinds of possibilities. "Then let's do it." Zhao Yun finally made up his mind and called Jiang Guang over. Jiang Guang nodded repeatedly as he gave out his orders. He couldn't help but admire the military strategy of his new superior. Such a plan was really something that the general could think of.
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。