Chapter 772 Zhang Fei: It’s my turn finally!

Since Zhang He and Gao Lan could not withstand Cao Cao's attack on the Liyang front, Yuan Shang had to control the troops of Changshan and Zhongshan County in the northern border of Jizhou and Bingzhou, and dispatched Liu Bei's troops to support him.

However, Yuan Shang has always inherited his father's indecisiveness, and this support decision was made only when he had no choice but to do so. In addition, the troops he was about to mobilize were removed from Bingzhou last year, and his cousin Gaoguan was the troops of his cousin.

As Yuan Shao's nephew, the high-ranking cavalry was appointed as the Bingzhou Observer during his lifetime. They were both cousins ​​with Yuan Shang's three brothers. Therefore, although he supported Yuan Shang, he was not a direct subordinate of Yuan Shang, and he was still slightly fence-bearing attribute.

It was only a little easier for Yuan Shang to command the senior officials than to command his second brother Yuan Xi, but it was normal to provide some discounts and delay some time in the dispatch of troops. If Bingzhou, the base of the senior officials, had not been lost, he would not even need to rest.

Therefore, the senior officials spent half a month assembled troops, allocated materials, dispatched and deployed generals, and then marched south slowly.

In the area under its own control, we did not have to carry food and tents with the army. We only traveled more than 70 miles a day. We walked from Changshan to Yecheng for five days, and we had to go south to Liyang for three days. We were preparing to set out to march, but it took us twenty days in total.

Moreover, the senior officials did not even lead the reinforcement army personally, so they also gave as much as possible discounts as possible for their subordinate generals.

Originally, according to Yuan Shang's request, he should have taken Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang to the south. As a result, it was temporarily changed to Lu Kuang as the chief general, and Gao Rou, the cousin of Gao Jian, was the military supervisor. Gao Jian himself and Lu Xiang stayed in Zhongshan and Changshan respectively.

As for the lack of reinforcements, the senior officials asked the prefect of Changshan Yin Kui to lead troops south with Lu Kuang. The prefect of Zhongshan Yin Kai continued to stay in place, which was considered to assist the senior officials in governing the local area, and also made Yuan Shang feel at ease.

Yin Kui and Yin Kai are both direct descendants of the Yuan Shang faction, and locals from Jizhou, and they are both Shen Pei's confidants. When the senior officials retreated to the two counties of Zhongshan, Shen Pei asked the two prefects to secretly supervise the movements of the senior officials.

Now Yuan Shang wants reinforcements, so the senior officials should make some careful thoughts and let his own direct general and the surveillance general left by Yuan Shang, each of them will lead the troops south and take the water to the right. There is nothing to blame.

The high-ranking official even thought that if Zhang He and Gao Lan could not hold on, they would withdraw back to Yecheng. In that case, he would just go south to Yecheng, and more than 100,000 people would join forces to make a break.

Otherwise, if you go south to Liyang, that place is not as dangerous as Yecheng, and maybe there will be more dangers, and it will not be conducive to preserving the strength of the direct troops. If Cao Cao makes dumplings, it will be done.

It can only be said that at this critical moment, the power of Yuan Shao’s camp was really a mess, with fences watching the wind everywhere, and there were few absolutely loyal ministers who were willing to be loyal to Yuan Shang or Yuan Tan until death.

...

However, the senior officials acted slowly, but did not drag him to Zhang He. Gao Lan later retreated to defend Yecheng.

Since the beginning of March, Tian Feng, who had repeatedly issued urgent reports, had to hold on for the past twenty days, and delayed the arrival of reinforcements from senior officials in late March.

During this period, Zhang He and Gao Lan dared not fight to the decisive battle, and were unable to be attacked. It was very uncomfortable to be neither up nor down, but they still endured huge losses in stalemate every day. Yuan Shao's family was consumed every day, and the losses were all his own people.

The reason for this situation was that Cao's army's fierce offensive slowed down for a while, and Tian Feng, who was supervising the battle in front, could not solve it.

Later I found out that it was Cao's army that was under new pressure on the Yuzhou defense line. At the beginning of March, Guan Yu, who had been in a winter and busy spring farming season, actually took action from Kunyang and Dingling.

Guan Yu's troops pressed Yancheng eastward and posed as if they wanted to attack Yancheng, which Guo Jia was responsible for defending. On the other hand, Gao Shun followed Xiangcheng north along the land, as if he wanted to seize Xu Chang.

Of course, these actions are not possible, because there is no food anywhere in the spring famine. It is impossible to get from the enemy because of food. There is no possibility of a protracted war when leaving the waterway. It is just a matter of scaring people through an armed trip.

However, in the face of this behavior of infiltration and intimidation of weak links, we cannot ignore it completely, otherwise it is possible to turn from virtual to real. The defensive forces that Cao Cao had left in Yingchuan before were indeed not enough to deal with Guan Yu and Gao Shun's full-scale attack.

Cao Cao could only temporarily draw part of the Yanjin Cao army confronting Zhang He and Gao Lan in a hurry, and turn around to guard against Gao Shun's infiltration. It was extremely painful to run back and forth, just like Xiang Yu was as imposing as when he faced the method of "Peng Yue raiding Chu".

When Xiang Yu and Liu Bang were in stalemate, Xiang Yu, who was in charge of Guandong, also confronted Liu Bang in Guanxi on the front line of Xingyang (Hulao Pass).

Then every time Liu Bang fought with Xiang Yu on the northern front, Peng Yue would take advantage of Xiang Yu's absence from crossing the border and threaten Yingchuan and Chenliu. Xiang Yu rushed back, and Peng Yue immediately ran away like a fly and never wanted to fight. On several occasions, although he was killed and the entire army collapsed after running slowly, Peng Yue himself escaped and continued to pick up the remaining troops to fight guerrilla warfare.

Of course, Cao Cao is not unfamiliar with the tactics of "Peng Yue and Chu". He is also a famous general of the world and has excellent intelligence. What Cao Cao couldn't understand was his strategic considerations:

Damn, are you Liu Bei's brain twitching or what? I didn't see that Yuan Shang is so weak now. You don't follow the wall and fall down and push everyone. You attack directly from Bingzhou to Huguan in Jizhou, and attack Yecheng and divide the spoils. What's the point of competing with me, Cao?

You Bingzhou, Sili, Jingzhou, and the front line bordering the Guandong princes is so long. It is difficult for you to attack Jizhou from Bingzhou and Hanoi? Do you have to attack Yuzhou from Jingzhou?

Fortunately, there is no tradition of later generations of heroic dogs. Cao Cao really took a lot of time to think of a terrible and vicious possibility.

Isn't Liu Bei trying to play a balance between Yuan and Cao's families? Whoever is strong will join forces with the weak to fight the strong, so that the princes of Guandong can shed the last drop of blood during internal friction? That's too poisonous. Did Liu Bei not regard the people of Guandong as the target of his own unification and future rule? It's really good to die for so many people for a long time?

Of course, Liu Bei was not that vicious, because he didn't want to check and balance for a long time, he just pulled temporarily, pulling open a gap that is most suitable for attack.

The "Peng Yue and Chu" behavior on the front line of Yuzhou, Jingzhou, ahead was not actually the care of Liu Bei, but the decision made by Zhuge Liang, who was ahead, according to local conditions and the times.

Although Zhuge Liang received a secret letter from his mentor, Prime Minister Li Su shortly after he started to implement it, he actually had the same meaning as what Zhuge Liang had already started to do.

Li Suxinli hoped that Zhuge Liang would use Guan Yu's reputation and continue to strengthen the impression that the Guandong princes said that "Guan Yu's place is the main attack direction", and delayed until Yuan Shang transferred the defense force on the northern line to Liyang, and the movement was in place to create space for Zhang Fei.

Judging from the results, the pulling effect was also very perfect. One of the important catalytic factors for Gao Gan and Yuan Shang to completely ignore the Northern Line was that through careful investigations in the army, they learned that Guan Yu had launched an offensive in Yuzhou again.

Yuan Shangke didn't know whether Guan Yu was a feint or a main attacker, so he really felt that Liu Bei wanted to "repel the strong and help the weak and play checks and balances" and would not attack the Yuan family.

...

On March 25, Yanmen County, Bingzhou.

Zhang Fei had already made all the attack preparations, prepared his troops, and brought 70,000 elite troops, so he could attack at any time.

Among the 70,000 troops, 60,000 were the troops that Guan Yu had attacked Lu Bu last year. They were originally stationed in Hedong, Hanoi and other places, and 10,000 were surrendered local soldiers from Taiyuan County.

Last year, when Lu Bu surrendered and withdrew from the pass, wasn't it a severance fee for local soldiers who were unwilling to follow the grassland to suffer? These soldiers were not Lu Bu's direct lineage and were not very elite, but they had fought wars and were incorporated by Guan Yu.

Of course, when Guan Yu attacked Lu Bu last year, there were two groups of people, 60,000 main forces heading northeast of the river and 30,000 Zhuge Liang heading north of the Shangdang.

However, today I want to take action against Youzhou, and Zhuge Liang sent 30,000 people from Shangdang were useless, so he would return to Shangdang to garrison on the spot.

Because Liu Bei could not have left no defensive force on the Taihang Mountain border between Shangdang and Jizhou. The existence of the 30,000 people could also play a certain deterrent role, making Yuan Shang afraid to transfer the defenders of Yecheng too empty.

Therefore, all Zhang Fei could use was the original Hedong garrison and Taiyuan surrendered troops. At the same time, considering the Sanggan River, Hutuo River and other rivers flowing from Bingzhou to the east to both sides of Yanshan Mountain, the logistics support capacity was only so large, and 70,000 people was the limit.

Especially in the north, the grain harvest is relatively late, the summer grain is very small, and most of the crops are autumn grain. If there are more people, the logistics supply will last for a long time, and you may starve to death.

In February of the lunar calendar, the plains on both sides of the Yellow River can be killed and killed without any traffic and logistics barriers. However, the Yanshan area has just been ensuring that the snow has completely melted. The peak period of the ice flood season has just passed. If it is earlier, the road conditions will not support Zhang Fei's troops.

While Zhang Fei was ready for everything, Pang Tong, who had just been the military for more than half a month, also sorted out the latest intelligence results, bringing Zhang Fei two good news.

"General Zhang, good news, the reappearance and feint attack of the general in Yuzhou successfully delayed the Cao army's speed of defeating Yuan Shang, and made Yuan Shang relax further, and transferred all the troops in Zhongshan of Changshan to Liyang.

This news is absolutely true. Now Yuan Xi has drawn 20,000 people from Zhuo County, led by Han Heng, a military officer, to assist Changshan and Zhongshan.

Before Han Heng arrived, only Lu Xiang, a group of peasants and soldiers in Changshan, and only Gao Gan and Yin Kai in Zhongshan, had almost no field troops.

Yuan Xi had only 60,000 to 70,000 Youzhou troops, and now he had more than 20,000 to assist in the defense of Jizhou, and his troops were even weaker. Now, the Guangyang, Yuyang and other places where Ji County are located have less than 30,000 troops.

There were only 10,000 soldiers in Dai County, Shanggu and other two counties north of Yanshan Mountain. Yuan Xi seemed to have realized that the defense on the western front was unstable, and was drawing up the guards of Youbeiping Wangmen to lead 10,000 people stationed between Liaoxi and Liaodong to move westward to fill Yuyang and the gap in Shanggu."

Zhang Fei slapped the table and said, "I finally waited! I could have started fighting ten days ago! If the eldest brother and the prime minister had not come to the urgent letter and said that the second brother could have held on more, making Yuan Shang even more empty. Now he has been to Dai County and Shanggu!

If we waited ten days longer, we would have to ask Yuan Shang to collect some interest. I think this time we will not only revival, but also take Changshan in Guannan, and Zhongshan will also be in the pocket! Anyway, the order given to us was to take down the land where Yuan Xi was defending. Changshan, Zhongshan is now Yuan Xi’s defense zone, so we will accept it together!"

It turned out that Zhang Fei planned to kill Yuan Xi under the disadvantaged forces. After all, the generals on Zhang Fei's side were much stronger than Yuan Xi. Yuan Xi's only subordinates, Jiao Chu, Zhang Nan, had no talent, and his strength was even weaker than those of the Jizhou generals of Zhang Hegaolan.

Zhang Fei felt that with his commander's strength, he could make up for the slight shortcomings in military strength.

Now when 30,000 senior officials leave, Yuan Xi only has 60,000, and Zhang Fei defeats 60,000 for 70,000. Not only does he have more troops than Yuan Xi, but his equipment is better than Yuan Xi, but his military generals are even more powerful. Zhang Fei himself feels embarrassed not to charge two counties in a dangerous place as interest.
Chapter completed!