In fact, if Li Su was present at this moment, he would be amazed at the inertia of history when he heard the monarch and his ministers’ complaints: Isn’t Huang Quan’s plan exactly the same as the words of extorting Liu Bei before the Battle of Yiling in history?

In the Battle of Yiling in history, Huang Quan also believed that the Han army left the Three Gorges and went downstream, which was easy to advance but difficult to retreat. Therefore, before ensuring that the breakthrough of the gorges was dangerous, the main force should not go all up. Go up and test it first, and then make a long-term plan after fighting back.

Unfortunately, Liu Bei in history was blinded by hatred, and he was still looking forward to changes in the external environment and was eager to achieve success.

At this moment, Liu Bei was not so eager to achieve success.

More importantly, Liu Bei's staff team is now unprecedentedly strong. After a quick assessment by Lu Su Fazheng and others, they also felt that Huang Quan's plan was very reasonable.

Since Huang Quan followed Liu Bei, he has participated in some military operations and made some contributions to military strategy, but he cannot stand alone. Now he is the only one who pursues the vanguard. He just makes the best of his talents.

"Your Majesty, I also agreed that the division of troops in this way is just right to advance and retreat, and it is enough to be invincible. Even if Cao Cao lures the enemy into a trick, he can be wary of it in time."

"Then follow your advice." Liu Bei nodded, and finally adopted this suggestion after unanimous persuasion from the civil officials.

He said that he would lead 220,000 infantrymen to advance slowly, keep a distance from Cao Cao in the same county, chase slowly, and leave enough reaction time. Even if he encounters a sudden accident, he can immediately turn from attack to defense and build a line of fire.

When Cao Cao retreated, he would use scorched earth strategies to destroy all fortifications. However, Liu Bei had the engineer troops trained by Zhuge Liang and Gao Shun for three years to dig the canal. The potential of this engineer troops was always beyond Cao Cao's imagination.

As long as Liu Bei was given one to two days of buffering time, he thought that with this 200,000 army, he could dig a large area of ​​fortifications on the flat ground!

At that time, you can still turn field battles into offensive camps at any time, with a line of defense backing, and you will not be afraid of 200,000 people even if they fight against enemies several times!

What's more, at that moment, Liu Bei didn't have to fight against the defensively and counterattacked the Cao army himself. He just stuck to the Cao army for ten or eight days, and at most half a month.

After Zhuge Liang, Zhao Yun and Li Su, the reinforcements from three directions, came over from the northeast and south, and surrounded the Cao army on the battlefield of Qiao County. By then, the entire Qiao County would be the place where hundreds of thousands of Cao troops were destroyed.

Of course, war will be risky. Liu Bei's approach to delay waiting for assistance and survive the time difference between the enemy and our troops gathering period is ultimately a "dividing and advancing attack, external strategy."

Zhuge Liang had already summarized the advantages and disadvantages of fighting the inside line in his military book "The Art of War. Internal and Outer Chapter" written during the Battle of Hanoi. The military book was not spread to the outside world, but Liu Bei had also read it as an emperor.

The advantage of the inside line is that "no matter how many ways he comes, I will only go all the way", gather troops, fight a time difference, and defeat the enemy on the outside line that is surrounding the attack, forming a local battlefield advantageous force.

Specifically for the last battle in front of him, if Zhao Yun advances rashly and is eager to save his master, he might be attacked and surrounded by Cao Cao.

But with Zhao Yun's courage and the cavalry of the entire army, Liu Bei believed that even if he encountered this situation, Zhao Yun would definitely be able to break through easily.

As for Cao Cao's attempt to fight Li Su southward, or Zhuge Liang eastward, Zhou Tai, he would eat up any of these two movies in advance...

Haha, Liu Bei was not worried at all. He knew that with the prudence and wisdom of Li Su and Zhuge Liang, Cao Cao and Guo Jia could not have caught such an opportunity by using tricks.

After discussing the details clearly, Liu Bei finally calmed down and issued a formal order with the generals and the teams of various troops:

"Then everything will follow the plan. The vanguard cavalry is divided into two parts. The original cavalry of the central army was led by General Huang, and the cavalry sent by Chief Yun from Hebei to reinforce was led by Bo Qi.

The two of them led a total of 40,000 cavalrymen, and took Gongheng as the army to join the army, bit the Cao army's rear team, and test the withdrawal of troops. I personally led 220,000 main forces and then maintained a difference in marching distance with Bo Qi for one to two days, and walked in turn."

All the generals and ministers took their orders and did not mention the deployment of troops.

The next morning, Huang Quan followed Huang Zhong and Ma Chao to send troops first and pursue Cao Cao.

The cavalry brought by Ma Chao were all from the north after the Hebei Battle, supported by Chenliu, and their base was also located on the north side, so they played the pursuing left wing.

Huang Zhong's cavalry was local to the Yuzhou battlefield. In the first half of the year, he followed Liu Bei's men to fight, so he was deployed on the south side and on the right wing.

After crossing the gulf, Ma Chao's 20,000 people chased along the Wo River north of Chen County, passing through Yangxia and Wuping, and finally rushed to Qiao County, the capital of Qiao County.

Huang Zhong's 20,000 people went slightly south from Chen County, approached Luyi along the canal water, and finally surrounded Qiao County. The distance between the two armies would be between 30 and 50 miles. Because they were all cavalry, any accidents that could be encountered along the way could quickly react and retreat.

The reason for the advancement separately is that there are as many as 220,000 main forces behind, and the front of the marching is very wide. Ma Chao and Huang Zhong are a little far apart to ensure that enough searches for the front so that the enemy's ambush and other tricks cannot escape.

Huang Zhong was originally left by Liu Bei and used as the main cavalry general of the Central Army. Now that Huang Zhong has been sent away, Liu Bei uses Guan Yu as the main general of the Central Army and Gao Shun as the deputy, and leads more than 200,000 infantry to fight steadily.

Of course, the main force of the central army is as high as more than 200,000, and only a few major generals can't be commanded. Those middle-level generals must also play their full role.

Therefore, the main infantry force's left wing was handed over to Tuo Yi for cover, and the right wing was handed over to Gan Ning.

It just so happened that these two generals were originally supported by Chenliu and Huainan, and they brought tens of thousands of people when they came. Now it is only equivalent to letting them continue to command the troops in the headquarters.

The front, back, left and right were arranged, and more than 200,000 people were pressed over in such a dignified manner.

...

Liu Bei's army continued to go east from Chen County, and while advancing,

One hundred and fifty miles east of Chen County, Cao Cao himself had led his army to retreat to Qiao County, and reorganized layers of defense in Qiao County, so he could counterattack elastically at any time.

On the way to retreat, before Cao Cao arrived in Qiao County, he passed by Wuping County, which was upstream of the Wo Water.

This place has nothing to do with Cao Cao now, but it has a close relationship with Cao Cao in another time and space. In history, Cao Cao had just supported Liu Xie and moved his guard to Xuchang, Liu Xie appointed Cao Cao as Marquis of Wuping. Cao Cao was given the title of "Mr. Wuping" for more than ten years until he became Prime Minister and was renamed Duke of Wei.

The reason why Liu Xie conferred him in Wuping in history was that Wuping County was very close to his hometown Qiao County.

Chen County is the county seat of Chen County, equivalent to Huaiyang, Zhoukou City in later generations.

Qiao County is the county seat of Qiao County, equivalent to Bozhou in later generations. (Cao Cao and Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown are very close)

There is a hill between Chen County and Qiao County. However, in a plain area like Yuzhou, this is already quite obvious geographical boundary. Therefore, this is not only the county boundary of the two counties, but also the junction of Henan and Anhui provinces in later generations.

The big plains of two counties were just about to fight a decisive battle of hundreds of thousands of people.

The day when Cao Cao himself retreated to Qiao County was already the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month. Liu Bei's vanguard of the pursuit troops would arrive within one or two days. It is estimated that the final final battle will not start around the end of the year.

It was cold and the weather was frozen. When Cao Cao retreated to Qiao County, it snowed again in central Henan. Cao Cao had been in the army for many years, and he did not have the experience of commanding the army to fight to the death on a snowy day.

The heavy snow will undoubtedly cause a lot of obstacles and additional losses to the attacking side. Moreover, the proportion of new recruits and men in Cao's army is extremely high. I don't know if the harsh climate will cause more people to flee or even freeze to death, and Cao Cao also doesn't know.

But what are the options to go to this point?

This is like a long pass and a ball. It has already made a last shot. You have to stop shooting, right?

Even if the ball is frozen and becomes a whole with the earth, even if this kick breaks your leg, you have to shoot!

The harsh battlefield environment made Cao Cao's anxiety worse and his head became more violent, so he couldn't fall asleep overnight.

In this time and space, there will be no Chen Lin writing a manifesto, using Zuan therapy to help him curse cerebral thrombosis, so he can only bear it to death.

The next morning, on the 26th day of the 12th lunar month, Cao Cao recruited Xiahou Dun at the hour of Mao, and Cao Hong, who had just been transferred from the rear, asked about their situation in the front army, where Liu Bei's pursuers were, how many vanguards were there, and whether the rear army had all pursued the chasm.

Of course, Cao Cao knew that it was normal for hundreds of thousands of troops to stretch for one or two hundred miles. Therefore, he had to make sure that Liu Bei's troops had all chased through the Great Valley, and it would be better that even the troops behind the hall had reached dozens of miles east of the Great Valley.

In this way, once Liu Bei's forward retreated and Liu Bei had to retreat, he could not run away quickly.

It would take Liu Bei a lot of time to cross the Gang. Even if Cao Cao could not completely wipe out Liu Bei's defeated army, he could still swallow up the part of Liu Bei's army who had no time to cross the river and was stranded east of the Gang.

Xiahou Dun replied: "Report to the Prime Minister! According to the scouts and provocates left by our army, Liu Bei had already pursued the whole army through the gulf, and the troops at the end had reached at least twenty or thirty miles east of Chen County.

However, there is also bad news, that is, the vanguard of Liu Bei's army and the main force of the central army are 60 or 70 miles apart, while the main force of the central army behind is 50 miles from the front to the end, so the total is 120 miles.

The vanguard of Liu Bei had already broken through Wuping this morning, and our army gave up Wuping as planned. Moreover, the enemy vanguards were all cavalry, with at least 40,000 to 50,000, and they could arrive in Luyi before afternoon.

According to the plan ordered by Guo Junzhi, Luyi will remain firm at that time, but the defenders will not leave the county town to fight, but will only restrain the exhausted enemy. The enemy will continue to be placed in the western suburbs of Qiao County, and our army's main force will officially launch a counterattack field battle, attacking Liu Bei from three sides of the north and southeast."

Cao Cao frowned: "Liu Bei's main force and the vanguard are seventy miles apart? The vanguards are still all cavalry? Liu Bei is very cautious in advance. He felt that if I had a fraud, he would immediately turn off the attack and defend? Hold on to aid aid? Or wait for our army to lose food and morale, and not be discontinued? This can't change anything, right?"

Cao Cao didn't expect Xiahou Dun and Cao Hong to come up with advice, so he arranged them and continued to lead troops to prepare for the attack.

Cao Cao wanted to talk to Guo Jia and find some comfort before the war. Although he knew that at this point, Guo Jia could not change anything.

However, just before Cao Cao summoned Guo Jia, a close servant came to report that Xun Yu, who was guarded by him, wanted to report something about it.

After Xun Yu came back from Liu Bei's envoy, Cao Cao was promoted and demoted to him secretly, and deprived him of his power, but he was politely raised.

Mainly, Xun Yu's performance was really bad during the peace negotiations, and Cao Cao also learned from Sima Yi and Sima Lang that some of Xun Yu's frivolous behaviors and his bad deeds of "losing power and humiliating the country".

Moreover, Xun Yu's cousin also surrendered to the enemy a few months ago. Cao Cao did not deal with Xun Yu, but just hid it, which was worthy of him. This was about the ten-year old friendship between the two.

This feeling is actually similar to the concept of someone in later generations who issued a statement after the peaceful negotiations broke down, saying that "the writing is incompetent, and the country is lost."

At this moment, Xun Yu still wanted to see him and complain about military affairs. Cao Cao felt that he was idle and was idle, so he would say a few words to his old friend before the final battle.
Chapter completed!