The Battle of Wei River 4

After Liu Biao and the Xiongnu rushed out, Guo Huai didn’t just stay still either. To allow the Xiongnu horse archers to properly play the role of hammer, he advanced his army to pressure Jiang Wei’s heavy cavalry unit.

Liu Biao said their attack was a blunder caused by greed for merit, but Guo Huai didn’t think so.

He thought there was some reason to it. It’s true that for a moment he wavered, really wondering if it was due to Zhang Ran’s decreased control over her army.

However, Guo Huai believed in Zhang Ran. That Zhang Ran who killed Zhang He would certainly not be one who couldn’t even manage her own soldiers.

Zhang Ran’s eye for talent was famous even in Wei. Her character evaluations of Shu Han personnel this time were fully transmitted to Wei and became a core reference for evaluating Shu Han officials.

It was unthinkable that the person such a Zhang Ran entrusted with heavy cavalry, the most valuable in the army, would make a blunder.

She must have some kind of purpose. There must be a true intention she wants to achieve even while throwing out the heavy cavalry.

And as per Guo Huai’s belief, Zhang Ran showed it. The heavy cavalry was neither being discarded nor moving on their own. With firm trust that the heavy cavalry unit would hold out, she assigned them the role of anvil.

There was no excess in the formation that reversed the encirclement as soon as the Xiongnu surrounded the heavy cavalry unit, as if by ghost.

A reversal that seemed to come straight out of a military treatise. It was such a picture-perfect reversal of the battle situation that one might absurdly think they had coordinated with each other. The principle of Wind Forest Fire Mountain was fully embodied.

When only the heavy cavalry charged at first, the unit was as quiet as a forest. But the cavalry that enveloped both wings as they charged forward was like a fierce wind.

The sight of forming a reverse encirclement looked just like fire spreading, and the defense of the heavy cavalry who became the position blocking the retreat path was as firm as a mountain.

Now Guo Huai had two paths.

Either abandon those Xiongnu and use them as a means to buy time and withdraw safely, or participate to save them and risk escalation.

If Guo Huai hadn’t anticipated Zhang Ran’s hammer and anvil maneuver at all, it would have been right to choose the former.

It was obvious that if they rashly charged in without proper preparation, they would end up like those who had only raised Zhang Ran’s reputation so far.

But Guo Huai’s two eyes continuously searched for gaps in the enemy army, and his heightened senses were measuring when to strike.

Even Guo Huai found it incredibly surprising that they attempted an encirclement operation by throwing out bait against an enemy with greater numbers than themselves. That move was certainly bold. But it overlooked the danger.

Future people mainly remember Wind Forest Fire Mountain, but there are two more after it.

When being cautious, hide your body as if in shade, and when finally moving, be as intense as thunder and lightning.

If Zhang Ran took Wind Forest Fire Mountain (風林火山), Guo Huai took Shade Thunder (陰雷).

“The whole army attacks! Abandon the Xiongnu! While they face Zhang Ran’s cavalry, we’ll turn around and strike the enemy infantry!!”

Zhang Ran and Guo Huai had different ranges of choices.

For Zhang Ran, the heavy cavalry unit was a target she had to protect. It was her own army.

But for Guo Huai, the Xiongnu cavalry was an existence that could be used as a discarded card. If he could inflict massive damage on Zhang Ran’s infantry, it didn’t matter if the Xiongnu cavalry was annihilated.

“General Cao, swing to the left! I’ll go to the right!”

Entrusting command of the right wing to Cao Zhen who came with cavalry support, Guo Huai glanced at Zhang Ran whom Cao Zhen would face.

The Wei army’s right wing was in a position facing the Nanling Army’s left wing.

Cao Zhen, who was said to be second only to Cao Zhang among the kinsmen generals after Xiahou Yuan’s death, should be able to hold out even against Zhang Ran.

‘They haven’t finished crossing the river yet. The cavalry are separated forming the encirclement of the Xiongnu. The infantry are practically isolated.’

Zhang Ran would have no choice but to agonize.

Whether to break the Xiongnu’s encirclement and stop the Wei cavalry’s attack, or continue encircling the Xiongnu while letting the infantry alone stop the Wei cavalry.

‘Whichever she chooses, it can only be a loss.’

If she breaks the Xiongnu’s encirclement, the trapped cavalry will pour out and this time truly the whole army will be in a position of being surrounded and toyed with by horse archers. But if she maintains the encirclement, the rear infantry look likely to be ravaged by the Wei cavalry.

‘Did you think the tactic of forced choice was yours alone?’

The move of Surrounding Wei to Rescue Zhao (圍魏救趙) – attacking the Nanling infantry to save the Xiongnu from encirclement.

The move of Stealing Beams and Replacing Pillars (偷梁換柱) – turning the Xiongnu who seemed to be the main force into a discarded card and making the Wei army the main force to strike the infantry.

No matter how Zhang Ran’s martial prowess reached heaven-shaking levels, there are limits in the late chaotic period when armies have become elite.

It might be a different story in the era of warlords when most were militia or volunteer armies. To overturn the war situation with individual martial prowess alone, one would need to bring someone like Xiang Yu who was said to have collapsed an army of over 500,000 with just 30,000 troops in ancient times.

“What will you do? Zhang Ran.”

Guo Huai was confident. No matter what decision Zhang Ran made, Wei would gain more from this battle.

However, if Zhang Ran had heard that muttering of Guo Huai, she would have answered like this:

That this was exactly what she wanted.

§

‘Abandoning the Xiongnu. A heartless decision, Guo Huai.’

Confirming that Zhang Ran had started breakthrough towards the Xiongnu’s center as is, Guo Huai guessed her intentions on horseback.

‘Is she planning to deal with the Xiongnu as quickly as possible and save the infantry… Good. Then while you kill the Xiongnu, we’ll completely wipe out your divided infantry!’

Giving up the Xiongnu horse archers and taking the Nanling Army’s infantry. An exchange Guo Huai welcomed with both hands. While encouraging the cavalry, Guo Huai rode his horse with all his might to occupy the rear of the Nanling Army.

Excluding the cavalry, and excluding some who hadn’t even fully crossed the river, the remaining infantry was only a few thousand at most. Among them, how many archers could there be?

No matter how much longer the average range and higher accuracy of bows used by foot archers compared to horse archers, it tends to lose meaning in the face of overwhelming numerical superiority.

Just as the violence of the majority was about to be carried out, Guo Huai saw it.

The iron rain covering the sky.

A quantity unbelievable to have come from infantry numbering just a few thousand at most.

The first thing Guo Huai thought upon seeing the arrow rain was an instinctive sense of defeat that ‘something went wrong’.

“What the hell is this…!”