SFS Chapter 202 Zhang Fei's Night Raid on Guo Huai
Chapter 202 Zhang Fei's Night Raid on Guo Huai
Huang Quan was a shrewd man. As early as when he left Wuzhangyuan, he set up a temporary intelligence system. Simply put, he ordered scouts to be scattered around Guo Huai in a net-like pattern, to keep an eye on Guo Huai's location at all times, and to send the information back to the rear as quickly as possible.
Therefore, Zhang Fei, who was heading to Qishan to join the detachment, received information about Guo Huai from scouts every quarter of an hour, and his location was constantly updated.
At the fourth quarter of the Yin hour in the morning, Zhang Fei successfully appeared outside Guo Huai's camp. He hid the main army in the distance and quietly sneaked into Guo Huai's camp with two veterans. He found the camp crowded with people and heavily guarded, but he did not panic. Instead, he took a detour to explore the surrounding terrain. It took him a full quarter of an hour to return to the army.
Upon returning, he did not immediately launch an attack. Instead, he selected a thousand troops and divided them into two teams, ordering them to circle around to the front and right front of Guo Huai to intercept him. He then waited until both teams reached their designated positions before taking action.
This time, he not only wanted to defeat Guo Huai, but also to completely cripple or even kill him, so that Guo Huai could no longer stick to him like a leech.
As for whether two thousand soldiers can cripple Guo Huai, whose forces outnumber them several times over, there's no need to worry. Huang Quan is right there, isn't he? Once the fighting starts, Huang Quan certainly won't be sleeping soundly in his camp.
At dawn, when it was pitch black all around, Zhang Fei led a thousand soldiers to stealthily approach the enemy camp under the cover of darkness. They rushed in from a spot where the Wei army's defenses were weak, and with a bow and arrow, easily killed two dozing soldiers and stormed into the enemy camp.
"Enemy attack...enemy attack..."
The sentry's dying screams startled the other sentries, who hurriedly issued a warning. The broken shouts and urgent gong sounds instantly echoed throughout the Wei camp. The Wei army, which was on guard against Huang Quan in the west, was dumbfounded when they heard the shouts of battle behind them. Weren't the Han army in front? How did they end up in the back?
The Wei troops on duty were debating whether to charge back to provide reinforcements or continue to guard against Huang Quan when Guo Huai shouted, "You all stay where you are, leave the rest to me."
Guo Huai slept fully clothed tonight, ready to fight. The moment he heard the shouts of battle, he quickly got up, grabbed his sword, and went out, calling his personal guards to charge in the direction from which the shouts came. At the same time, he ordered his men to wake up the other soldiers to join the battle.
Wei soldiers are also human and need to eat and rest, so Guo Huai divided the army into two groups, one to guard and the other to sleep. Now that they have been attacked, the group on guard cannot move and needs to guard against Huang Quan's attack.
Therefore, those who were sleeping could only deal with the harassment from behind. Moreover, Guo Huai was certain that the main force of the Shu army was with Huang Quan, so there wouldn't be too many Shu soldiers attacking his camp, at most a thousand or eight hundred.
That's a valid point, but Guo Huai overlooked one problem: it's impossible for every soldier to have the same awareness as him and be able to get up quickly upon hearing the battle cries.
It's important to know that dawn is when people are most tired and sleep the best. The Wei army had been following the Shu army all day, and both the Shu and Wei armies were on edge and on edge.
After a long day, I'm exhausted. Now that I've finally fallen asleep, how can I possibly wake up and get back into the fight so easily?
Guo Huai led over a hundred personal guards to the battlefield and encountered Zhang Fei. Looking back, he found that after so much time, there were still only a hundred or so men behind him. Although a large army was approaching from afar, they were all sleepy and their formations were chaotic, making it difficult for them to join the battle in a short time.
Guo Huai's heart sank to the bottom, but he had no choice but to grit his teeth and launch an attack on Zhang Fei. He had to buy time for the soldiers who had just woken up and were still not fully recovered. If he could hold out for half a quarter of an hour, these soldiers would be able to fully wake up and join the battle.
But will Zhang Fei give him that half an hour?
Seeing Guo Huai charging towards him, Zhang Fei smiled wickedly, picked up his eighteen-foot spear, and charged forward, with his five hundred soldiers following closely behind.
As for the remaining five hundred troops, they split into two groups and bypassed Guo Huai from the left and right flanks, like two giant pythons attacking the Wei army behind Guo Huai who was still asleep.
It is worth mentioning that Wei Jun, being a cavalryman, would sleep with his warhorse at night. Theoretically, he could immediately mount his horse and fight upon waking up, but the warhorse was also tired and needed time to recover after waking up.
Moreover, this was in their own camp, with obstacles such as fences and tents, so the horses couldn't pick up speed. Cavalry that couldn't pick up speed and generate impact posed little threat to the infantry. Therefore, the Shu army gained the upper hand for a short period of time.
Meanwhile, Zhang Fei quickly arrived in front of Guo Huai and shouted in his loud voice that could be heard from two miles away: "Boy, you must be Guo Huai. Come here and let me give you some pointers on your martial arts."
Guo Huai felt a pang of guilt. This was Zhang Fei, the Zhang Yide who could take the head of a general from the midst of a thousand troops. No matter how confident he was, he didn't think he could defeat Zhang Fei. Although Zhang Fei was old, he was still someone he couldn't handle.
Although he was scared, he couldn't back down. Guo Huai sneered, "Zhang Fei, right? You're so old, why don't you go home and take care of your grandson? What are you doing messing around with young people? What if you die on the way?"
As he spoke, he swung his sword at Zhang Fei. Zhang Fei was so enraged that he roared, "How dare you underestimate an old man? Kid, today I'll show you what an old man can do!"
Then he swung his spear and clashed with Guo Huai's longsword. Sparks flew as the spear and sword clashed, producing a screeching sound that almost pierced eardrums. After the clash, Zhang Fei was unharmed, but Guo Huai was so shocked by the force of the spear that his hand ached and he staggered back three steps.
High judgment.
Guo Huai dared not delay and called his personal guards to attack together. To deal with a fierce general like Zhang Fei, you had to gang up on him. The problem was that Zhang Fei also had soldiers behind him.
The two sides quickly engaged in a fierce battle, fighting fiercely until the sky darkened and the battle was evenly matched.
At the same time, the Shu army on the left and right flanks also clashed with the Wei army that was rushing towards them. Although the Shu army had superior combat power, it was outnumbered and the Wei army continued to grow, causing the Shu army to gradually lose ground.
The Shu Army Camp in Qianyang Town.
Huang Quan did not rest tonight either, but instead selected 5,000 troops to be on standby. As soon as the battle cries rang out, he led his troops to attack and head straight for the Wei camp.
The Shu camp and the Wei camp were five or six miles apart. This distance was neither far nor close. When Huang Quan arrived, the shouts of battle inside the camp were already deafening. In his haste, he immediately ordered a charge.
Before they could even start running, they heard a rapid sound of hooves. The Wei army had already mounted their warhorses and were charging towards them ahead of time.
Huang Quan seemed to have anticipated this, and upon hearing the sound of hooves, he immediately ordered a retreat. However, during the retreat, he left behind many boxes of varying sizes on the ground.
Calling them boxes is inappropriate, because they were just makeshift wooden frames, some about a foot tall, some half a meter tall, scattered haphazardly on the ground. If a charging cavalryman were to bump into one, there would certainly be a surprise.
The Wei cavalry quickly arrived. In the pitch black, they couldn't see the road clearly. Some cavalrymen unfortunately bumped into the box frame, causing it to roll backward and being knocked down by the recoil. Others bumped into small boxes, their horses tripping over the box legs and being thrown off. The other cavalrymen were startled and pulled hard on the reins, forcing their horses to slow down abruptly and rear up with shrill neighs.
Huang Quan had been waiting for this moment. Seeing the Wei cavalry's charge stalled, he immediately mustered his strength and roared, "Loose the arrows..."
At a command, ten thousand arrows were unleashed simultaneously, forming a rain of arrows that traced parabolic arcs through the air, raining down on the Wei cavalry.
Caught off guard, the Wei cavalry were collectively stunned, letting out mournful howls on the battlefield.