Chapter 497: Deeply Trapped

Seeing that the situation was critical, Yuan Xi wanted to take out the ox horn bow to shoot the enemy, but he found that the two enemy generals were shaking constantly and he could not aim at all.

Yuan Xi knew that this was due to the enemy's rich combat experience, and felt very troubled. He had to tilt his bow and shot dead a Cao soldier who wanted to launch a sneak attack.

His personal guards also shot arrows, and continuous Cao army soldiers who came up were shot dead. At this time, they heard shouting, and several Cao army generals had led their men to rush forward with swords drawn!

Seeing this, Yuan Xi's guards had no choice but to put away their bows and arrows, draw their swords and go up to fight. The two sides fought in a mess. Seeing that the other side had more people and more power, Yuan Xi also drew out his ring-handled sword, thinking how long it had been since he had killed someone with a sword himself?

When Lu Lingqi heard the noise behind her, she glanced over and saw that she was surrounded by enemies. She was distracted for a moment. Seeing this, Xiahou Yuan rushed over and swung the long sword in his hand repeatedly, forcing Lu Lingqi to retreat.

Yuan Xi yelled, "Take care of yourself first!"

He shouted loudly and stabbed out with his knife, directly into the abdomen of the Cao soldier who fell in front of him. Then he twisted the knife, and the man fell to the ground with a scream, his body bent like a shrimp and twitching continuously.

Just as Yuan Xi was about to put away his knife, he was stabbed on the back. He staggered two steps, stabbed the knife from under his armpit, and stabbed it into the chest of Cao Jun who was rushing over. He turned around and kicked the opponent hard in the abdomen, knocking him to the ground.

These attacks were quite dangerous, and Yuan Xi was also gasping for breath. He looked around and saw Cao's army rushing towards him like a tide, with cruel lights flashing in their eyes. It was obvious that the reward for the title of marquis had driven them completely crazy, and they all wanted to take Yuan Xi's head!

Yuan Xi saw that the time was almost right and shouted, "Form a formation!"

After hearing this, Lu Lingqi and Sun Li launched a few quick attacks, forcing Xiahou Yuan and Li Dian to retreat. They took the opportunity to retreat back. Hundreds of Yuan Xi's personal guards took the opportunity to set up dozens of shield formations around them.

This was the five-man formation that was practiced before the Battle of Black Mountain, with swords and shields in front, spears in the middle, and crossbows in the back. All of a sudden, relying on the terrain of these abandoned houses, everyone completely blocked the attacking Cao army, but Cao army still relied on the advantage in numbers and pressed forward in a dark mass!

They were also very cunning. Under Xiahou Yuan's command, they followed suit, with sword and shield soldiers in the front and spearmen in the middle, focusing on attrition.

Xiahou Yuan was very proud. As a general, how could he not study the combat methods of the Youzhou army in advance of the Battle of Black Mountain?

Now both sides have the same formation, so if we fight to consume the resources, it would be a win-win for me to exchange one for one!

The sword and shield soldiers of both sides collided with each other, and both sides roared and exerted their strength, neither of them was willing to retreat. The situation was deadlocked for a moment, but everyone could see that it was definitely the Youzhou army that was exhausted because they had fewer people!

Yuan Xi did not delay and shouted, "Light the fire!"

The last person in the five-man formation is the squad leader. What he holds in his hand is a bamboo pole, and tied to the front end is a bamboo tube that has been lit on fire!

With a shout, two spearmen made way, and the sergeant took up the position and thrust the bamboo tube directly into the opponent's face!

The sword and shield soldier on the opposite side was startled and subconsciously dodged the bamboo tube, letting it pass over his shoulder.

If Yang Feng was present, he would understand what this was, but Cao Jun didn't know!

The next moment, dozens of bamboo tubes exploded in front of Cao's army.

Although the Youzhou army was well prepared, they were still forced to retreat again and again by the blast, and their ears, which had been plugged in advance, were buzzing.

Even though some squad leaders had been very careful in advance, they were still injured in the hands by the explosion and were bleeding profusely.

The sword and shield soldiers of Cao's army on the opposite side were in a miserable state. Some of them had their ears blown off, and blood kept oozing out of their ear canals. Some of them had their necks blown open, and blood spurted out of their arteries. Some of them had their faces blown to pieces, and their facial features could not be distinguished.

Because gunpowder contained a lot of impurities, the power of the explosion was not the same, but even so, the mildest ones would fall to the ground and twitch, covering their ears, while the worst would be completely disfigured and die on the spot.

Yuan Xi was also shocked. He didn't expect that some gunpowder could be so powerful by accident. Come to think of it, firecrackers in later generations could also kill people, let alone this kind of gunpowder with dozens of times the amount of gunpowder?

Seeing that the enemy's front line was in chaos, he shouted, "Kill!"

The Youzhou army took the opportunity to rush forward with their swords. In this explosion, more than half of the sword and shield soldiers in the front row of Cao's army were killed or wounded, and the spearmen in the back were like defenseless lambs and were killed in an instant.

The front row collapsed, and the people in the back rows immediately panicked and crowded together.

When Xiahou Yuan saw this, he shouted at Cao's army to maintain their formation. As a result, when he looked up, he saw more than a dozen bamboo tubes more than a foot long thrown out from Yuan Xi's formation.

If the bamboo tube that exploded just now was only as thick as a wine glass, then the bamboo tube now was as thick as a bowl. Even if Xiahou Yuan was a fool, he knew something was wrong, and he shouted, "Get out of the way!"

However, it was too late. The timing was good. As soon as it fell into the crowd, the explosion sounded.

This sound was heard by the Cao army soldiers who were close by, like a thunder explosion at close range. The Cao army soldiers all roared in pain and could not help but drop their weapons and cover their ears.

When the bamboo tube exploded, the surrounding soldiers were all blown to the ground, some dead and some injured. Hundreds of soldiers were killed or injured in this encounter!

This was also because Cao's army had formed a dense formation, because no one expected that the Youzhou army would have such weapons!

Xiahou Yuan stumbled a few steps and saw the Youzhou army rushing over. His formation was completely broken, so he could only shout, "Retreat!"

With a puff, his thigh was hit by a stray arrow. He raised his head in horror and found that the ferocious tiger opposite him was drawing its bow and arrow again, and the look it gave him was extremely cold.

With a "puff", his other thigh was also shot, and the arrow even went through it. It turned out that Lu Lingqi also took action.

Xiahou Yuan fell to the ground. Li Dian rushed up and carried Xiahou Yuan away on his back. The surrounding soldiers became even more panicked when they saw this and collapsed completely with a loud noise.

Yuan Xi thought that Lu Lingqi knew what he was thinking. It is better to injure than to kill. In order to save the enemy general, a general had to be eliminated. Now the enemy has no one to command!

He yelled, "Kill them!"

The Youzhou army took advantage of the situation and attacked, killing thousands of Cao's soldiers. Soon most of them were killed.

Yuan Xi realized that they could not continue fighting at this time, so he quickly ordered his troops to withdraw, took Liu Bei's wife, daughter and Mi Zhen, and returned along the way they came.

The group walked back in the dark for more than ten miles. When they were almost back to the camp they came from, the deafening shouts of killing had already sounded.

With the help of a telescope, Yuan Xi saw that a dense crowd of Cao Cao's soldiers were attacking the camp several miles away. It was obvious that some of Cao's troops had arrived in advance!

Yuan Xi knew that Lu Xun, who was guarding the camp, must be in a difficult situation without any generals under his command, so he was about to rush over to support him. At this time, the soldiers who were left behind came to report that the Cao army, which had just been dispersed, had gathered again and followed behind.

Yuan Xi sneered and shouted, "Turn around and form a battle array. Kill all those following behind us!"

Li Dian was following behind with his troops at this time. He had only defected to Cao Cao in the last six months.

The Li family was wealthy and had thousands of guests. The clan leader Li Zheng had led the family to repel the invading Yellow Turban bandits several times. When Lu Bu started an uprising in Yanzhou, he led his servants to successfully block Lu Bu's army.

Li Dian was also among them and was appreciated by Cao Cao, so he followed Xiahou Yuan on the march. It happened that Cao Cao launched a surprise attack on Xuzhou, so Li Dian followed him.

He had been familiar with the art of war since childhood and was good at strategy and martial arts. He and Xiahou Yuan complemented each other very well. The two of them cooperated to besiege the Youzhou army. They thought it was a sure win, but they did not expect that the Youzhou army used strange things, which led to the collapse of the army formation. Even Xiahou Yuan was shot and wounded, which made Li Dian quite unwilling.

He originally wanted to take Xiahou Yuan away, but Xiahou Yuan grabbed his collar and shouted, "Mancheng, if we retreat, what about the other two routes?"

"Don't worry about me. Take them with you and nail the fierce tiger to death. Make sure he can't take care of both ends!"

Li Dian heard this and immediately took orders to take Xiahou Yuan away, saying, "General, I will avenge you for this arrow!"

Xiahou Yuan thought to himself, it was two arrows, two arrows, it hurts me so much, this damn tiger is so insidious!

Counting the time in Huaicheng, how many arrows did the Youzhou army hit me?

Li Dian rushed over with the remaining soldiers and was about to attack Yuan Xi's rear formation when he heard the sound of horse hooves in the distance.

He took a look in the moonlight and his face suddenly changed.

It is best not to use cavalry in the dark. If the horse stumbles, the people on it will fall half to death, which will have a counterproductive effect.

But now the Youzhou army has deployed cavalry to attack, and is targeting their own harassing team?

Li Dian was at the point of crying but had no tears. Wasn't your camp attacked? Why didn't you go to rescue it?

The next moment, the thousands of soldiers he had gathered with great difficulty were scattered by the cavalry.

Seeing that the enemy had finally collapsed completely, Yuan Xi ordered the troops to withdraw. Everyone rushed towards the city and engaged in a melee with the armies of Le Jin and Cao Chun that were besieging the camp.

The dark night concealed the tragic scene on the battlefield, but gave the soldiers on both sides inexplicable courage. Both sides seemed to be blood-thirsty and no one was willing to retreat. The dead body gradually piled up. The fighting started in the middle of the night and continued until the sky brightened in the east. Only then did both sides become exhausted and temporarily stop fighting.

Yuan Xi counted his own soldiers and found that the casualties were not a small number. Although he knew that Cao's army had suffered several times more casualties, Yuan Xi was still extremely heartbroken.

However, reality did not give him any extra time, as dense crowds of figures appeared on the horizon.

When Yuan Xi saw the color of the enemy's flag, his heart sank. The main reinforcements of Cao's army arrived so quickly, one day earlier than he expected!

On the other side of the battlefield, the exhausted Cao Chun and Le Jin looked at each other and laughed. They fought desperately to hold back the Youzhou army, and now their goal had been achieved, the ferocious tiger could not escape!

To the northeast of Xia Pi City, a defeated army was marching towards Guangling in a panic.

Zhang Fei angrily grabbed a civilian lying on the roadside and interrogated him for a long time before throwing him back to the roadside. He ran over and said to Guan Yu, "Second brother, my eldest brother was attacked by Cao Cao. It is said that the whole army collapsed and my eldest brother is also missing!"

"What should we do now?"

Guan Yu was also confused and worried. After they evacuated Xia Pi, they followed Liu Bei's route. However, they learned on the way that Liu Bei was ambushed by Cao Cao's army and Liu Bei himself was missing.

Liu Bei was also a knowledgeable general, and he led as many as 10,000 soldiers. How could he be defeated like this?

Guan Yu hesitated. What if Liu Bei really died? What would happen to him and Zhang Fei?