Chapter 270 Xiao Fang: Don't worry, I have my own secret weapon! Lao Liu: You can't shoot all five thousand pigs, right?
"Jing Lue's tone is a bit too arrogant..."

Even Liu Bei had such a thought at this moment.

Those are five thousand cavalrymen, not five thousand pigs!
Everyone present was a veteran of the battlefield, and everyone knew how powerful cavalry was.

Why was Gongsun Zan so powerful? It was because he relied on the White Horse Volunteers to sweep across Youyan.

The reason why Lu Bu is so strong is because the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry is unstoppable.

Why was Dong Zhuo so powerful back then? Wasn’t it because he had the Western Liang Cavalry, which was known as the strongest in the world?

Over the years, the primary reason why Liu Bei was able to sweep across Jing and Yang was certainly Xiao Fang's brilliant strategies and assistance, but the one thousand Xiliang cavalry under Zhang Xiu's command also played a crucial role.

With only one thousand cavalrymen, they were able to dominate the south and defeat the various princes of Jing and Yang. One can imagine the power of these cavalrymen.

What Yuan Tan has in his hands now are 5,000 elite Youyan cavalry!

If used properly, even a million-strong army can defeat you!
But in Xiao Fang's mouth, it became "what's the point of mentioning it", which made everyone dumbfounded.

"Five thousand cavalrymen are very powerful. They can only be defeated by wits."

"Could it be that Military Advisor Xiao has a brilliant plan to defeat these five thousand Youyan cavalry?"

Pang Tong was the first to guess the hidden meaning of Xiao Fang's words.

He liked to win by surprise the most. Although he could not think of a clever plan to defeat these 5,000 cavalrymen at the moment, he guessed that Xiao Fang must have a good idea.

After all, Xiao Fang's wisdom was superior to his, and he admitted this wholeheartedly.

Liu Bei and everyone else's eyes lit up and their gazes turned to Xiao Fang.

"In a head-on confrontation, no matter how brilliant your strategy is, it will be useless. I certainly don't have a brilliant plan to defeat these five thousand Youyan cavalrymen."

However, under everyone's expectant gaze, Xiao Fang shook his head slowly and gave a negative answer.

Everyone was stunned, and their eyes changed from expectation to confusion.

Pang Tong's guess was wrong, and he could not help but say in confusion:
"Since Military Advisor Xiao has no ingenious plan, how can we defeat these five thousand Youyan cavalry?"

Xiao Fang gently waved his feather fan and said seriously:

"How else can we break it? Of course we have to fight head-on and break it fair and square."

Everyone was stunned again.

You look at me, I look at you, it seems like you understand, but also it seems like you don’t understand.

"Jinglue, our army is equal in strength to Yuan's army, but our cavalry is only over a thousand."

"In this head-on confrontation, if we want to defeat these 5,000 Youyan cavalry, I'm afraid our cavalry alone will not be enough."

Old Liu was the first to come to his senses, and mistakenly thought that what Xiao Fang meant by defeating the enemy head-on was to defeat cavalry with cavalry.

Although Zhang Xiu's Xiliang Iron Cavalry and Zhang Liao's Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry were both elite cavalry regiments, their overall number was still too small.

It was more than enough to defeat the southern princes like Liu Biao and Sun Ce, but it was not enough to face the 5,000 Youyan cavalry.

"Our army has too few cavalrymen, so it is unrealistic to defeat cavalry with cavalry.

Xiao Fang smiled slightly, but asked back:

"My lord, do you still remember how Gongsun Zan's White Horse Volunteers were defeated by Yuan Shao in the battle at Jie Bridge?"

The battle at Jie Bridge?
Old Liu was stunned and was unable to react for a moment.

Pang Tong rolled his eyes and blurted out:
"Military Advisor Xiao, do you mean to ask us to imitate the Battle of Jieqiao, where Ju Yi defeated Yuan Tan's 5,000 cavalry by using his first-line crossbowmen to defeat the White Horse Volunteers?"

Say it right.

Liu Bei's eyes lit up and he suddenly realized.

When the dispute over Hebei first broke out, Gongsun Zan actually had the upper hand. After all, he had led troops in battles on the border for many years, and the Hu people were terrified by the news of his killings.

The White Horse Volunteers under his command are the elite cavalry that are famous throughout the world.

In the Battle of Jie Bridge, Yuan Shao deliberately showed weakness, while Gongsun Zan was arrogant and conceited, so he ordered the White Horse Volunteers to launch an attack right away.

Unexpectedly, Yuan Shao played a trick and deployed Ju Yi's vanguard crossbowmen in front of the formation. When the Baima Yicong rushed to them, the vanguard crossbowmen suddenly appeared and shot the Baima Yicong with powerful crossbows, knocking them off their horses.

After this battle, he became famous throughout the world, and frightened the Hu people, so the White Horse Volunteers were defeated.

The offensive and defensive situation between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan was thus reversed.

This battle, which determined the strength of Hebei, was known to everyone in the world. When Pang Tong reminded them of this, Lao Liu and the generals naturally remembered it immediately.

"If we use crossbowmen to defeat the Yuan family's cavalry, that is indeed a solution."

Liu Bei's brows relaxed slightly and he nodded slightly:
"The reason Yuan Tan dared to look down on me was that he relied on his five thousand cavalrymen, and took advantage of the fact that I did not have enough cavalrymen to deal with him."

"As the saying goes, a proud army will be defeated. This is somewhat similar to Bo Gui back then."

"If we follow the military advisor's plan and suddenly show up the crossbowmen at the critical moment, we may be able to imitate the battle at Jie Bridge and kill Yuan Tan by surprise and destroy his 5,000 cavalry!"

The generals were immediately excited and started discussing.

At this time, Zhang Liao coughed a few times and suddenly said:

"In the battle of Jie Bridge, Yuan Shao did use crossbowmen to defeat Gongsun Zan's White Horse Volunteers."

"But as far as Liao knows, Yuan Shao's crossbowmen are not ordinary crossbowmen, but the Xiandeng Battalion commanded by Ju Yi. The crossbows they are equipped with are the most powerful in the world, and their power far exceeds that of ordinary crossbows."

"Now that the two armies are about to engage in battle, our army is running out of time and has no time to build the strongest crossbow machine comparable to the Xiandeng Battalion. This is one reason."

Zhang Liao swallowed his saliva and continued:
"Secondly, even though Yuan Tan was arrogant and self-reliant, he personally participated in the battle of Jie Bridge and witnessed the process of the crossbowmen defeating the White Horse Volunteers."

"So Liao believed that when the two armies were fighting, he would definitely guard against our army's hidden crossbowmen. He would not be like Gongsun Zan, who saw Ju Yi's first crossbowmen appear, but still dared to rush the White Horse Volunteers forward without fear."

"Taking these two points into consideration, forgive me for being frank, but although the military advisor's plan can restrain the enemy cavalry, I'm afraid it may not be successfully implemented." Zhang Liao is worthy of being a famous general in the north who is proficient in cavalry warfare. His wisdom and strategies are also better than those of other generals. He actually saw the loophole in Xiao Fang's plan.

The exciting atmosphere in the tent suddenly became quiet.

The generals looked at each other and nodded slightly. They obviously agreed with what Zhang Liao said, but they didn't know how to express their opinions.

After all, Xiao Fang's meticulous planning has already won the hearts of the people.

Since this plan was proposed by Xiao Fang, how dare they question it?

"Jinglue, Wenyuan's concerns do seem to be reasonable."

Liu Bei turned his gaze to Xiao Fang, and his words and expression revealed a hint of worry.

"Wenyuan is indeed both intelligent and brave. He can see the flaw in my plan. It is truly commendable."

Xiao Fang gave Zhang Liao an approving look, and then changed the subject:
"But Fang has already thought of what Wenyuan is worried about. My lord, please take a look."

Xiao Fang picked up a branch and started scratching on the ground.

"In the battle of Jie Bridge, Yuan Shao ambushed his crossbowmen in front of the battle line. They suddenly appeared when the battle was about to begin, and killed Gongsun Zan by surprise."

"We will openly imitate the battle at Jie Bridge, so we will naturally ambush a group of crossbowmen in front of the battle. Yuan Tan will definitely not follow Gongsun Zan's example and charge head-on, but will definitely order his cavalry to detour and charge our flank instead."

"And our army's left wing is protected by the Si River, so the Yuan family's Youyan cavalry can only attack our right wing instead."

"We will deploy 300 crossbowmen on the right wing and wait for Yuan's cavalry to run into our guns and shoot them down without leaving a single piece of armor behind!"

Xiao Fang explained the details of the plan one by one.

Old Liu and the other generals gathered around the battle formation drawn by Xiao Fang. Their eyes gradually brightened and they were filled with surprise again.

"It turns out that the military advisor had considered everything and had long anticipated that Yuan Tan would take precautions, and had already filled this loophole."

Old Liu showed a look of delight and couldn't help but nod in admiration.

The generals were excited again.

Pang Tong frowned slightly, pointed at what Xiao Fang had drawn and said:

"The military advisor's deployment of the battle array can indeed catch Yuan Tan off guard and make him unable to defend himself."

"But these three hundred crossbowmen, aren't they too few?"

After Pang Tong's reminder, Lao Liu and everyone else came back to their senses.

Our crossbows are not as powerful as those in the Xiandeng camp. If the power is not enough, we can only make up for it with numbers. Ju Yi defeated the Baima Yicong with only 800 Xiandeng soldiers, so we should at least arrange 3,000 crossbowmen for him.

How come when it comes to Xiao Fang's place, the number of crossbowmen is not even as many as that of the Xiandeng camp, and there are only 300 crossbowmen?
This is too little!
It's not even enough to fill the teeth of the Youyan Cavalry. Can it stop their charge?
"When a crossbowman fights a cavalryman, he can only shoot three times in battle."

"Even if half of the three hundred crossbowmen can hit the target, three rounds of crossbow arrows can only kill less than five hundred enemy cavalry, which is not enough to defeat the five thousand Yuan family cavalry."

"Military Advisor, please forgive me for being blunt, but aren't three hundred crossbowmen a little too few?"

Zhang Liao spoke out again, expressing the same doubts in everyone's mind.

Liu Bei nodded slightly and said:
"Jinglue, Wenyuan is right. Three hundred crossbowmen are indeed a little too few."

"According to Bei's opinion, we should at least increase the number by ten times, and only three thousand crossbowmen can break it!"

Everyone nodded, agreeing with setting up an ambush.

Xiao Fang shook his head and said:

"Yuan Tan is not stupid. When he saw three thousand crossbowmen suddenly appear on the right wing of our army, he would immediately realize that he had fallen into our trap and would immediately turn to retreat."

"Even if the crossbows were launched immediately, they could only fire one round of arrows at most, and could only kill a few hundred enemy cavalrymen at most. It would not be enough to severely damage or even completely wipe out the Yuan family's cavalry."

"As long as the Yuan family's cavalry is not destroyed, it means that Yuan Tan always has a sharp sword hanging over our heads, preventing us from quickly taking Xuzhou."

After a pause, Xiao Fang's face flashed with a bit of weirdness, and he sneered:
"But if we only deploy 300 crossbowmen, Yuan Tan will not believe that he has fallen into our trap. He will definitely look down on us and continue to charge forward."

"Only in this way can we have a chance to deal a head-on blow to his 5,000 cavalry and inflict heavy damage in one fell swoop!"

Xiao Fang further revealed the secret behind why he only deployed 300 crossbowmen.

But the crowd only understood half of it, while the other half was still confused.

"Jinglue, I understand your previous meaning. I just don't want Yuan Tan to be alerted and know that he has fallen into our trap."

"It's just that I'm a little confused about the latter meaning."

"Even if Yuan Tan didn't flee and continued to charge, how could we defeat his 5,000 cavalry with only 300 crossbowmen?"

Old Liu frowned and pointed out the biggest question.

Pang Tong also nodded slightly and said:
"If these 300 crossbowmen cannot stop the enemy cavalry, our flank will be penetrated by Yuan's cavalry in one fell swoop. The entire army will be in chaos, and the consequences will be disastrous!"

All the generals shuddered, and all looked at Xiao Fang with surprise and doubt.

Obviously, they couldn't understand why their wise military advisor Xiao didn't take such an obvious flaw into consideration this time.

Xiao Fang waved his feather fan lightly and said with a faint smile:

"My lord, you may not know that Fang had already taken the initiative to secretly summon the artisans to build three hundred new crossbows for you."

"When our army is about to go into battle, we only need to equip ourselves with these three hundred new crossbows, and destroying the five thousand Yuan family cavalry will be as easy as pie!"

Liu Bei's body trembled and he took a breath of cold air.

What kind of magical crossbow is this? It can kill five thousand enemy cavalry with only three hundred crossbow machines?
Even if there are 5,000 pigs, you still can't shoot them all...

(End of this chapter)