Chapter 393 Different Confidence
South of Yuzhong is Ma Chao’s camp.

The battle flag of the Huqiang Captain was standing on a high hill. When Ma Chao saw the wolf smoke rising in the north, he arrived at the hill.

The cold wind blew, and the snow-white sheepskin cloak fluttered behind Ma Chao.

He reined in his horse and tilted his head to gaze at the vicinity of Yuzhong City. He vaguely saw people gathering and flags waving. "Is there any change outside Yuzhong City?"

"The various Qiang tribes sounded their drums and horns, and the infantry and cavalry of each tribe assembled."

The military strategist in charge of the investigation replied based on previous information: "There is no sign of a large force gathering or joining forces for combat."

"I understand, it must be him, Taishi Wengong!"

Ma Chao raised his whip in his right hand and tapped his left arm, making a slight sound when it hit his armor. He turned around and told his personal guards, "Gather the guards and follow me out ten miles to watch the battle."

"Here!"

The guard general answered loudly, pulled the reins hard to turn the horse's head, led a few leaders to mobilize the guard troops.

Yu Fan, the chief secretary assigned to Ma Chao, opened his mouth to advise him, but when he saw Ma Chao's high-spirited and extraordinary attitude, his words were immediately stuck in his throat.

Ma Chao turned around and smiled at Yu Fan, saying, "Master Changshi, you don't know how powerful Taishi Wengong is. It is a great pleasure to watch him break through the enemy lines!"

"I have heard about it for a long time, but unfortunately I have not been able to see it in person."

Yu Fan also became interested, and asked with a smile, "Then let's go out of the camp and watch the battle together."

"That's what I meant."

Ma Chao turned to look at his Qiang Protector General Jiang Jiong, who immediately bowed and said, "Captain?"

"Sima Jiang, stay in the main camp and do not move troops without our order."

"Here!"

Jiang Jiong also responded loudly. He cherished his current position very much. It was rare that Ma Chao and Yu Fan respected each other, and Jiang Jiong did not need to be caught in the middle and make things difficult for himself.

Behind him is Yang Fu, but behind Ma Chao is even more terrifying.

Fortunately, Ma Chao is not a harsh or difficult person, so just don't argue with him and everything will be fine.

Relatively speaking, Ma Chao was quite satisfied with Jiang Jiong. This man did not have any outstanding talents, but he was good at sticking to his job.

For Ma Chao, a stable deputy is more important than anything else.

As for Yu Fan, he was the partner and cooperation partner that Black Bear found for him.

Moreover, after spending some time together, Ma Chao found Yu Fan's humor very comfortable. The best thing was that Yu Fan had excellent physical fitness. If Ma Chao fought on foot with a spear, it would be difficult for him to defeat Yu Fan easily.

After arranging the positions of the Chief Secretary and the Military Secretary, Ma Chao looked at the dozen or so Qiang and Di leaders who served as military officers and said, "You all should also come with us."

"Here!"

Yang Qianwan and others bowed sideways. Seeing this, Ma Chao howled wildly to the sky, swung the whip on the horse's butt with his right hand, and immediately jumped off the horse.

The rest of the people followed, and when they were about to leave the camp, more than 500 cavalry guards formed into 12 battle groups and marched in a line.

When Ma Chao left the camp gate, he stretched out his arm and waved his whip to signal Ma Dai who was guarding there. Ma Dai simply raised the iron halberd in his hand in response, and watched Ma Chao's fifty-plus riders leave the camp first, followed by twelve of his personal cavalry battle groups.

It is said to be ten miles away from the camp, but in fact it is only five or six miles.

There was an earthen ridge formed by flooding on the plain. Ma Chao reined in his horse and exclaimed in amazement: "It is indeed the Grand Historian Wengong. Please look, Grand Historian, the Qiang cavalry dare not advance to drive us away."

Yu Fan was also an excellent rider. He stationed his horse steadily on the beam and saw the Qiang cavalry cruising a mile away, but they did not dare to get close.

As more and more of Ma Chao's personal cavalry climbed onto the earthen ridge and deployed on both wings, the Qiang cavalry began to retreat.

Noticing that the Qiang cavalry were about to retreat, Ma Chao instinctively kicked the horse's belly lightly, then immediately realized something was wrong and pulled the reins hard. The horse under him felt pain and raised its front hooves into the air, neighing loudly.

After his horse calmed down, Ma Chao took a closer look at the area around Yuzhong City.

Then we saw Qiang cavalry gathering four or five miles away, forming a group of two or three hundred cavalrymen and heading north to the northern suburbs of Yuzhong City.

Ma Chao tightened the reins with his left hand, turned his head and said to Yu Fan who was looking around: "Lord Changshi, the Qiang camps are in chaos, and Taishi Wengong should be charging outside the north city. Would you like to follow me through the enemy camp and go to the northern suburbs to watch the battle?"

Yu Fan did not agree directly, but pointed to the clear seven smoke signals and asked: "Is that where the Lord is?"

"Of course it's him."

Ma Chao couldn't hold back any longer, and was eager to charge into battle with Taishi Wengong. He looked anxious, "Based on my understanding of Taishi Wengong, he currently has less than one-tenth of my men under his command. If he can still do this, I hope you all will not underestimate yourselves."

The young and energetic Yang Qianwan immediately said, "I am willing to follow the captain into the battle!" Ma Chao's personal guards said nothing, but raised their lances at an angle, and the personal guards knights raised their spears and halberds at an angle one after another.

Seeing this, Ma Chao looked around and said, "We are not as strong as the horses under the command of Taishi Wengong. We can only charge three times. Follow me and charge. Do not fight!"

Worried that his men might not hear him clearly, Ma Chao gave a direct order: "What we need to do is to penetrate through, not to fight! This trip, killing the bandits will be fruitless! When we reach the headquarters of the Grand Marshal, I will ask for a reward for you all!"

"Here!"

Ma Chao was still worried, and in order to slow down his horse's momentum, he summoned the leaders of each battle group to his presence and gave them new orders, almost giving them instructions in person.

When the military order was known to everyone, Ma Chao took up the water bag and drank some water. Finally, he put on his armor and said to Yu Fan: "Changshi Gong, please follow me and don't leave!"

"Don't worry, Captain."

Yu Fan looked serious. Since he was assigned to Ma Chao, he had participated in many small-scale expeditions and battles to kill the rebellious Qiang people, but this was the first time he participated in such a large-scale cavalry battle.

Ma Chao glanced at the dozen or so knights assigned to Yu Fan. These knights all nodded without saying anything. Seeing Ma Chao nod at them, they put on their visors.

After a dozen breaths, Ma Chao drove his horse slowly down the earthen ridge and slowly accelerated towards Yuzhong City.

The Qiang cavalry on the opposite side numbered nearly two thousand in size, but they were divided into different tribes and formed more than a dozen battle groups.

When the Qiang cavalry regiment was hesitating whether to engage in battle or to retreat, they saw that Ma Chao's 500-odd cavalry were speeding up.

There was no sign of the Qiang cavalry regiments on the two wings coming together to help in the battle. Immediately, a relatively small number of Qiang cavalry regiments in front of them moved to the flank, directly causing the other two regiments to retreat and make way for the passage.

But as Ma Chao got closer, the Qiang cavalry regiments on both wings instinctively began to move towards the center and started to speed up, trying to close in and block Ma Chao's retreat.

Ma Chao charged ahead alone, and a total of thirteen knight battle groups of more than fifty people gathered together and formed a cone formation during the acceleration process.

With almost no fighting, Ma Chao easily crossed the Qiang cavalry's defense line, but his retreat was soon blocked by the Qiang cavalry.

Afterwards, these Qiang cavalry began to speed up their pursuit, while a group of Qiang infantrymen in front of Ma Chao began to move, but in order to maintain their formation, they generally moved slowly.

In short, there was no fearless infantry phalanx in front of them.

Without fortifications, trenches or fences, even a phalanx of Qiang infantry consisting of a thousand men would not dare to block the charge of the cavalry in a complete formation!

North gate of Yuzhong City.

Yan Xing was watching the battle, and the black bear on the mountain was not watching very carefully.

But the defenders in Yuzhong City and the people in the city watched the battle from close range.

His blood was boiling at this moment, and Yan Xing held the railing in front of him tightly with both hands, fearing that he would lose control of himself.

At this time, the people around him shouted: "Captain, there is movement in the west of the city!"

Yan Xing turned his head to look to the west, and saw Ma Chao's 500-plus cavalrymen charging forward. The square formations of 200 to 300 Qiang people had long been dragged down by Tai Shi Wen Gong, and their morale was low.

Seeing the larger Ma Chao's 500-plus cavalry charging out from behind, they instinctively thought that the south city had been breached, their formation became disorganized, and they turned around and fled towards their own tribal camps.

Some of the scattered Qiang people fled desperately, causing the Qiang cavalry formation that was besieging and encircling Taishi Wengong to lose coordination.

Or people and horses might collide and trample on each other, causing chaos when changing formation or turning around.

At this time, Ma Chao could no longer control the knights on the periphery and in the rear.

Some knights saw that the Qiang people's posture was so good that they couldn't help but charge with spears almost instinctively.

Fortunately, they had no support, so after they succeeded in killing the enemy, they quickly chased after the main force and did not dare to linger in the fight.

There were still a few knights entangled by the Qiang cavalry, but the Qiang cavalry's horse bows could not kill them on the spot.

These knights were hit by several arrows and fled north for their lives.

On the mountain, Black Bear commanded Lu Bu to cover Ma Chao's retreat, and then said to his men: "This battle should be over. I thought Zhang Xiu was nearby, and he would lead his knights to wait for an opportunity to join the battle."

Yang Fu explained neutrally: "Zhang Xiu's troops are mainly knights from vassal states, how dare they act without authorization?"

This is not a question of whether to act rashly or not, but whether Ma Chao can afford to lose.

In response, Black Bear just smiled and slowly straightened the long flag in his hand.

Lu Bu, who was charging into the battle formation, began to break out of the siege and headed north.

(End of this chapter)