Liu Bei was silent for a few moments, but his eyes glanced at the young man named Sima Yi. Finally, he blinked and said, "Okay, seeing that you are suppressing thieves for the court, I will not be ashamed of the past, and I will cooperate with you this time. But this time I have to wait for you to take action first before our army can cross the Mianshui River, and it is just a feint attack!"

"Thank you, King Linjiang, I'll go back and report to the coach."

...

At the end of Zhuyang City, Liang soldiers in groups of several people were patrolling along the "Little Great Wall" built along the Mian River. Suddenly, a sound like thunder in summer came from afar. Experienced veterans knew that it was a large number of cavalry coming.

"Warning! Unknown soldiers are approaching!" One after another, the warning shouts immediately sounded. A large number of Liang soldiers rushed to the top of the city, and everyone looked into the distance.

Black dots appeared one after another on the horizon on the other side of the Miansan River. As these black dots became more and more large, they gradually formed a black "tide" that rushed towards the banks of the Miansan River.

They were all cavalrymen, and the number was actually not large, but because they were running in a hash formation, they looked overwhelming. These men and horses were the three thousand Wei troops led by Zhang He.

Shortly after Guan Yu gave up Xinye to Zhang He, the Wei infantry who were in charge of guarding Xinye arrived as scheduled. According to the plan, Zhang He should have led these cavalry to gather on the other side of the Mianshui River in Dankou City, and after meeting with the main force, he attacked the fort on the high ground on the other end of the dam.

But Zhang He suddenly had an idea. He thought that Xinye was not far from Zhuyang, so it would be better to bring these three thousand war cavalry to Zhuyang to provoke. First, it could slash the spirit of the Liang army, and second, it could create an illusion for the Liang army. The commander of the Liang army thought that the Wei army would also attack Zhuyang.

Of course, Zhang He was unable to cross the Mianshui River. He could only let the three thousand Wei soldiers and cavalry line up on the banks of the Mianshui River, shouting and scolding in succession, and filthy words were endless.

The soldiers of the Liang army at the head of Zhuyang City did not react at all except for being alert to the other party's every move and seemed very quiet. This was all within Zhang He's expectations. Since the Liang army had not crossed the Mianshui River to occupy one city and one land in Nanyang, they would definitely not cross the Mianshui River now and confronted him, the cavalry, on the shore of the Mianshui River.

But he soon found that he was wrong. Zhuyang's water gate suddenly opened wide, and one after another of the ships and troop transport ships drove out of Zhushui behind the water gate. It seemed endless, and quickly filled the water surface of the Mianshui River.

Before the ship passed through the middle of the river, a stone bullet, crossbow gun, and hot bullet were shot out by the ship-borne crossbow shells, drew arcs in the sky and fell into Zhang He's cavalry formation. Because Zhang He's cavalry formation was very sparse, they did not have much killing effect. It was just that a crossbow gun hit the chest of a war horse, piercing the entire horse's body from front to back, and nailing it to the ground. The Wei cavalry on the saddle immediately rolled to the ground. However, this caused a stir in Zhang He's army, and many war horses were even frightened and galloping.

The Liang army's actions were far more than just shooting the crossbows. Many ships leaned towards the other side of the Mianshui as quickly as possible. Zhang He saw it and said in surprise: "Does the Liang army really dare to cross the river to fight me?"

In fact, after receiving this news, Feng Yu from Zhuyang directly asked the cavalry of the Yulin Legion to cross the river to launch an attack. His intention was to make the Wei army not think that the Liang army would not cross the river to attack Nanyang, which means to show the Wei army that the Handong County of Daliang was actually very abundant, so there was no need to huddle on the southwest bank of Mianshui to defend.

At this time, Zhang He glanced at the river again, his eyes full of sails, and he could not estimate how many soldiers and horses of the Liang army were crossing the river. In fact, these warships of the Liang army were brought by Feng Yu from Shangluo, and there were only more than 200 ordinary ships for transporting troops in total. At most, more than a thousand soldiers and horses could be transported across the river.

However, Zhang He's original intention was to provoke Liang's army, and he was not mentally prepared to fight with the other party. Seeing that things were beyond his expectations, he made a quick decision: "Stay away from the river bank! Retreat to a place beyond the range of the opponent's crossbow from the river bank!" He needed to stay in a safe place, observe carefully first, and then make the next decision.

Under the leadership of Zhang He, the three thousand war cavalry immediately moved away from the Mianshui River bank and rushed northeastward. They stopped at a distance of more than 150 battles from the river bank and turned their heads to continue observing the movements of Liang army.

The Liang army warships in the river did not retreat and continued to sail towards the river. The warships on the dock gradually lowered their springboards, rushed down the ships with one horse and began to gather on the river bank.

Zhang He squinted his eyes and observed the river surface carefully. After a while, he finally estimated that the opponent's troops were about. If the soldiers and horses crossing the river would not exceed more than 2,000 infantrymen, and if they were all combat cavalry, at most, they would only be a thousand cavalry.

At this time, the Liang army's combat cavalry had landed and gathered five or six hundred cavalry, including light cavalry and iron armored heavy cavalry. Of course, Zhang He would not wait until they all gathered successfully before launching an attack. He sneered, pointing the horse whip in his hand at the gathered Liang army cavalry and said, "Sons, rush over and kill them all. Our Wei army has not yet won the bandits after arriving in Nanyang. Today we will make such a contribution!"

After Zhang He finished speaking, surrounded by his personal soldiers and officers, he brought three thousand combat cavalry and roared towards the Liang army cavalry gathering on the beach on the river bank.

Zhang He's cavalry formation was originally a hash, but now it is about to attack the Liang army cavalry gathering on the river bank, so they naturally gathered together. When they were more than seventy battles away from the Liang army cavalry, the cavalry had formed a black and denser cavalry formation than before.

At this time, Liang Junshi warships lined up on the banks of the Mianshui River shot out "fireballs". These "fireballs" drew arc trajectories of different angles in the sky, accurately landing within a range of less than thirty battles in a radius. This range is exactly the center of Zhang He's cavalry formation.

As the flames soared into the sky, the Wei army's war horses became frightened one after another. The Wei army soldiers who were knocked off the horse were immediately trampled into meat paste by the subsequent horses.

Zhang He saw with his own eyes that one of his own soldiers was engulfed by flames. Fortunately, his personal soldiers were skillful and did not fall from the back of the running horse. But the war horse and the soldiers were burning, and the fireman and horse ran wildly to the side without being controlled, and still lay on the ground far away. The soldier was powerless to roll around the horse's corpse, and there was no movement.

The situation was too unexpected to Zhang He. He did not hesitate at all and shouted in a very high tone: "The enemy's troops are too strong. Pass our military orders and retreat quickly! Withdraw the entire army! "At the same time, he had turned the head of the horse, and the soldiers around him also shouted loudly, trying their best to convey the military order.
Chapter completed!