Chapter 22 - Long Distance Surprise Attack (2/2)
“Father in law, about the situation outside…?!”Liu Mang asked out what he was most concern for.
“Outside?!” Lu Bu frowned. To be trapped by the Ferocious Cavalry was a great shame for Lu Bu! What is the origin of Lu Bu?! He started from a the heavy cavalry! Starting from the Bing Province, he had driven back the foreigners! Then he went to Luoyang to intimate Dong Zhou. Although Dong Zhou had the Xiliang Heavy Cavalry, he dared not to do anything to Lu Bu!
Finally when eighteen warlords fought against Dong Zhou, Lu Bu was still able to come and go as he pleases with his Bing Province Cavalry!
Never had Lu Bu ever been trapped by cavalries!
And now his retribution came! Back then, the Bing Province Cavalry had almost took Old Cao’s life. Thus Cao Cao decided firmly to create a cavalry unit himself - the Ferocious Cavalry. And now, this Ferocious Cavalry have trapped Boss Lu.
Lu Bu did not speak, however, just from Lu Bu’s demeanor, Liu Mang knew that the situation was bad.
Chen Gong spoke. “Let me call you Hanyang too!” Chen Gong is already middle aged now. For him to call Liu Mang by his courtesy name was something that is acceptable. “The commander of the cavalries outside should be Cao Chun. This Cao Chun is familiar with the art of war, he knew both the strength and weakness of cavalries. His cavalry unit numbered fifteen hundred. They surrounded Kaiyang with two hundred cavalries per gate!”
“Two hundred cavalries per gate?!” Liu Mang was completely ignorant of the arts of war, thus he stupidly asked “two hundred people, we have thousands! Can’t we just send a thousand troops to destroy those two hundred cavalries?!”
“Hehe!” Chen Gong did not blame Liu Mang for being ignorant. Instead he had a wry smile and said. “If it was that easy then we would’ve already done it instead of debating about what to do! Although two hundred heavy cavalries cannot possibly break through the gates we also cannot go out! Cao Chun still have with him seven hundred Ferocious Cavalry soldiers! Upon trying to destroy their two hundred cavalries outside the gate, he will immediately send his seven hundred cavalries over as reinforcement!”
“Even if we are to fight them with more people, we cannot win. And if we are to fight them with less people, then we might be the one being destroyed!” Chen Gong explained to Liu Mang.
“Is there really nothing we can do?!” unable to accept it, Liu Mang asked.
“Yes, there’s a way! We can attack with our whole army and break through with all our force!” said Chen Gong. “However, in that case, our causality will certainly be very high! But there’s nothing we can do about that!”
“Break through with all our force? When?!” Liu Mang knew that there’s no way for him to escape. It would appear that this will be another battle.
“Tonight when the moon is high up in the sky!” said Chen Gong. The Xu Province have no shortage of forests. As long as they can break through and enter the forest, they will be able to escape! Not to mention there’s also Zang Ba, a local of Langye. Once they enter Mount Tai, they’ll be able to escape!
“Okay!” Liu Mang nodded his head. He decided to go rest himself up before the break through.
“Reporting! Reporting to the lord! The situation has turned bad!” Cheng Yu who had just left suddenly rushed in. “Reporting to the lord, outside, outside the city there’s suddenly a couple thousands more troops! They have surrounded Kaiyang!”
“Couple thousands more troops?!” Lu Bu was shocked. The original fifteen hundred Ferocious Cavalry had already left Lu Bu with a headache. And now, there’s an addition of a couple thousands more troops?! Had it been before then perhaps Lu Bu wouldn’t care much of it. However, he had only now decided that they are going to break through when the moon is high up in the sky and such a thing happened.
“Xiahou Yuan’s troops!” said Liu Mang and Chen Gong at the same time.
Chen Gong knew that this was Xiahou Yuan’s troops because he had already looked into all of Cao Cao’s advisors and generals when he was setting up plans for Lu Bu. Liu Mang knew that this was Xiahou Yuan’s troops thanks to the help of the Baidu Encyclopedia of the modern times.
Xiahou Yuan’s troops. not as elite as the Formation Breaker, not as strong as the Dangyang soldiers and not as strong against cavalries compared to the Vanguard Battalion. However, his troops one distinguis.h.i.+ng features that others don’t have - they specialize in long distance surprise attacks!
[TL: translating 先登营 as a Vanguard Battalion.]
From the Xiapi to Kaiyang was distance worth four days and he arrived in just two days!
Time is of essence in the battlefield!
This time, Xiahou Yuan’s arrival in a timely manner was like a strike to Boss Lu’s b.a.l.l.s!
“The commander shouldn’t be Xiahou Miaocai. Cao Cao really have an unending supply of great generals!” Chen Gong sighed with lament. Xiahou Miaocai was already deeply injured by Lu Bu, something that he couldn’t recover in short period of time.
For the Xiahou Yuan’s troops to obey, this commander must also be another great Cao general.
“What to do now?!” asked Liu Mang. Lu Bu too looked toward Chen Gong.
What to do now? How would I possibly know what to do? Chen Gong with a helpless expression said “let’s observe the situation!”
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