Three Kingdoms: My Strategy Simulator

To put it bluntly, Gongsun Zan still didn't think much of Guo Jia, regarding him as a junior who had come for experience.

Therefore, Guo Jia knew that the battle for Jie Bridge was unfavorable for Gongsun Zan, but he couldn't persuade Gongsun Zan to change his mind.

In Gongsun Zan's view, he was always the one taking the initiative.

The situation of the Jie Bridge battle was also orchestrated by him, forcing Yuan Shao to fight a decisive battle, and then sweeping through Ji Province with lightning speed.

More importantly, Gongsun Zan believed that his 60,000 cavalry troops were far superior to Yuan Shao's, and the White Horse义Cong (Righteous Cavalry) were invincible and unmatched.

At this moment, Gongsun Zan, in white armor, white robe, and on a white horse, was not in the central army but, as always, personally at the front, his long spear pointing directly at the Jie Bridge across the Qing River, shouting:

"Advance!"

Of course, as a seasoned general, Gongsun Zan would not let his cavalry charge directly at the Jie Bridge, which was heavily defended by Yuan Shao's forces on the opposite bank.

Under Gongsun Zan's command, the infantry under Han Fu moved forward to cross the bridge.

In name, Han Fu and Gongsun Zan were allies, and Han Fu, as the Governor of Ji Province, was even the superior of Gongsun Zan, the Prefect of Bohai Commandery.

Of course, in reality, with Gongsun Zan's strength and arrogance, how could he possibly listen to a mere Han Fu?

The command of the allied forces was firmly in Gongsun Zan's hands. Under Gongsun Zan's command, a unit of 3,000 infantrymen lined up, holding large shields and spears, and took the lead in stepping onto the Jie Bridge.

Not destroying the Jie Bridge was the tacit understanding between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan.

Once the Jie Bridge was destroyed, it would be difficult for Gongsun Zan to find suitable terrain to force Yuan Shao into a decisive battle, and Yuan Shao would also have no way to deal with Gongsun Zan's highly mobile cavalry.

As that unit of infantry slowly advanced from the Jie Bridge, when they reached the middle of the bridge, the Yuan army lined up on the opposite bank instantly launched a large-scale arrow rain like a thunderbolt, covering the soldiers.

"Clang clang clang clang!"

However, with the protection of shields and armor, the lethality of the arrow rain was quite limited.

While raising their shields for protection, the soldiers also quickened their pace to rush towards the opposite bank.

Under Gongsun Zan's sharp gaze, the Yuan army did not send troops to block the unit on the narrow Jie Bridge.

On the contrary, from a distance, the Yuan army seemed to have opened a pocket on the opposite side of the Jie Bridge, waiting for the soldiers to rush out of the Jie Bridge before encircling and killing them from three sides.

In fact, it was just as Gongsun Zan had judged.

Crossing the Jie Bridge was not difficult, but the difficulty lay in the three-sided encirclement they would face after crossing the Jie Bridge.

For ordinary people, the Jie Bridge was quite wide, even wide enough for two carriages to pass each other on weekdays.

But for soldiers, how many people could pass at the same time, and how could they withstand the three-sided encirclement after crossing the Jie Bridge?

The unit suffered several waves of arrow rain attacks and finally managed to cross the Jie Bridge, facing the Yuan army's encirclement.

After only holding out for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, they were defeated and retreated in panic.

However, when attacking, they could line up to protect each other with shields, but when retreating, the armor on their backs might not be able to block many arrows.

The unit began to collapse when only 2,000 soldiers remained, but less than 800 soldiers were fortunate enough to pass through the Jie Bridge and retreat back.

The death of more than 2,000 people caused a pungent smell of blood to permeate the battlefield, and the Qing River under the Jie Bridge was stained with a little color.

Gongsun Zan, who had witnessed the whole process, remained unmoved, merely spitting out a contemptuous sentence.

"Petty tricks."

These 3,000 infantrymen were just to test Yuan Jun's deployment.

Yuan Jun's deployment was not very clever, but it could effectively inflict casualties.

This, on the contrary, made Gongsun Zan's face show a smile.

If Yuan Shao intended to continue to delay, then he should have directly deployed heavy troops on the Jie Bridge.

The bridge was narrow, and no matter how fierce the battle, even if they fought for a whole day, they would probably not kill or injure a thousand people.

In Gongsun Zan's view, this undoubtedly meant that Yuan Shao's money and food were insufficient, and he also did not dare to continue to delay, so he chose to open the bridge and choose to line up on the opposite bank.

Immediately, Gongsun Zan, having made a decision in his heart, reorganized his forces.

This time, Gongsun Zan once again ordered 5,000 infantrymen to be the vanguard, but then followed by a full 5,000 archers.

When the 5,000 infantrymen holding shields crossed the bridge, they were once again attacked by arrow rain.

However, when the 5,000 archers slowly advanced to the middle of the Jie Bridge, they launched a counterattack towards the direction of the Yuan army archers.

Both sides were essentially Han troops, and there was no obvious difference in various military weapons.

If you can shoot me, I can also shoot you.

Especially with the archers deployed by Gongsun Zan in the rear, when those archers simultaneously drew their bows and released arrows, it was undoubtedly a beat slower for the Yuan army archers to fight back.

"Puff puff puff..."

A series of chilling sounds of arrows entering flesh rang out in the Yuan army's formation, causing a momentary commotion in the Yuan army's formation.

Then, the archers on both sides were throwing arrows at each other from a distance.

For a time, arrows flew across the battlefield, and various stray arrows splashed everywhere, and there were many unlucky people who were hit in vital points and died on the spot.

With the archers suppressing and covering, the situation of the infantry in front was undoubtedly much better than before, and they could free up more energy to quickly line up to resist the Yuan army's attack after rushing out of the Jie Bridge, trying to gain a foothold on the opposite bank.

The current situation was quite similar to attacking a city. As long as the people crossing the bridge could gain a temporary foothold, then subsequent infantry could continuously join in to continuously expand the foothold.

However, the two armies fought and stalemated for a full hour.

These 10,000 soldiers ultimately failed to gain a foothold. After losing more than 30%, their morale inevitably began to decline rapidly, and then there were continuous routs.

However, this time, with the cover of the archers, retreating along the Jie Bridge did not lead to more than half of the casualties.

"Waste."

Gongsun Zan commented contemptuously, continuing to demand that the infantry under Han Fu continue to attack the Jie Bridge.

Some of Han Fu's generals questioned Gongsun Zan, believing that Gongsun Zan was deliberately depleting Han Fu's forces, but Gongsun Zan silenced Han Fu's generals with just one sentence.

"If the infantry doesn't charge, wouldn't you rather have me lead the cavalry to attack?"

The Yuan army would always have arrow rain covering the Jie Bridge. The infantry could still pass with shields, but even if the cavalry held shields to protect themselves, could they also protect the warhorses under their crotches?

And even if they crossed the Jie Bridge, facing the densely packed Yuan army waiting in formation on the opposite bank, no amount of cavalry could break through head-on.

The Han army's formation was not that fragile, otherwise the Great Han would not have beaten all the foreign races until they howled.

Therefore, the main force to break through the Jie Bridge could only be the infantry, at least to gain a foothold on the opposite bank before the cavalry could have room to play.

No matter how unwilling Han Fu's generals were, they could only lead their troops to continue to organize their forces and try to break through the Jie Bridge.