After Yuan Shao vented his anger, he asked everyone: "The situation is so critical now. How can our army break out of the predicament?"
Xu You, Guo Tu, Feng Ji, Xin Ping, Xin Pi and others were at a loss for a while.
Tian Feng said firmly: "My lord, the forts we built are not completely useless. Without these forts, Dingtao would have become the first line of defense against Thunder God! It is precisely because we built the forts in Yanzhou A large number of forts prevented Daqian's cavalry from rampaging through Yanzhou!"
"What we have to do now is to find a way to repel Thunder Lord's cavalry and open up contact with the front line. If we never contact the front line defenders, I'm afraid they will surrender to Thunder Lord out of fear!"
Xu You asked: "Now that Yanzhou has 100,000 cavalrymen from Thunder Lord, how can we open up the connection with Dongjun?"
Tian Feng thought for a while and said: "The total number of cavalry in our coalition is 30,000. Although the number is less than one-third of Daqian, now Lei Gong has dispersed his 100,000 cavalry throughout Yanzhou. Let's concentrate our forces." It may not be impossible to annihilate the Daqian Cavalry and open up the connection with the front line!"
The Han had a lot of cavalry from the coalition of princes. Yuan Shao collected the Sanhe knights from the Han Dynasty, plus the thousands of cavalry remnants he collected in Jizhou, and the war horses he bought from Xiliang. Together, Yuan Shao established 20,000 cavalry. These 5,000 cavalrymen followed Zhang He and were stationed in Chang'an City, one battalion was in Luoyang City, and the remaining 10,000 people were in Yanzhou! The cavalrymen from Luoyang City followed Yuan Shao to Dingtao, so Yuan Shao had 15,000 cavalrymen in Dingtao.
Liu Bei also had a lot of cavalry. He recruited 5,000 cavalry from Xiliang, and later opened up channels for Xiliang to purchase war horses, trying to expand the cavalry to 10,000. Lu Bu and other generals also had 5,000 cavalry. So in total, Liu Bei now has 15,000 cavalry, and these cavalry basically followed Liu Bei to Yanzhou!
This time, in order to deal with the powerful enemy Lei Gong, Liu Bei brought all the most capable generals of the Han Dynasty to the front line, such as Lu Bu, Zhang Liao, Gao Shun, Hao Meng, Cao Xing, Cheng Lian, Wei Xu, Song Xianhe Hou Cheng. Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, Han Dang, Jiang Qin, Zhou Tai, Chen Wu, Dong Xi, the generals from Jiangdong who followed Guan Yu, and Zhang Ren, Yan Yan, Gan Ning, Yang, the generals from Shu who followed Liu Bei to Xiangyang. Huai, Gao Pei, Deng Xian, Leng Bao, it can be said that this time Liu Bei brought most of the generals from the Wu and Shu camps!
Cao Cao has the least cavalry among them, but he still has 3,000 cavalry, but these cavalry are still stationed in Qingzhou under the command of Xia Houyuan! But there are many powerful generals who followed Cao Cao to Dingtao, including Dian Wei, Xu Zhu, Yu Jin, Li Dian, Yue Jin, if you add Xiahou Dun, Xia Houyuan, Cao Ren who are on the front line, most of the generals in Cao Cao's camp are here.
Although the allied forces of the princes of Dingtao Han have not yet been fully assembled, there are already 30,000 cavalry stationed here.
Moreover, the Han's coalition of princes now has no shortage of generals who can fight. If under the command of these powerful generals, the Han's coalition of princes takes the initiative to attack, it may not be unable to achieve results!
"Take the initiative to attack?" Yuan Shao and the others were a little hesitant.
The cavalry in their hands is no better than that of Lei Gong. Lei Gong occupies the grassland and the three states in northern Xinjiang. It can be said that all the horse breeding land in the world is occupied by Lei Gong. Even if Lei Gong annihilates all 100,000 cavalry, he can still form 10 troops again. Thousands of cavalry, but the Han coalition forces really had one less horse. The cavalry in their hands died in the battle, and there was no need to replace them at all!
Tian Feng nodded solemnly and said: "Although we don't know the situation in Dongjun, a large number of Lei Gong cavalry have appeared in Juyang and Chengyang. These cavalry are attacking our Wubao in Yanzhou. If we don't support Juyang, Chengyang will Yang, after Daqian's cavalry pulls out all these forts, they will definitely rush towards Dingtao! If we take the initiative to attack, Lei Gong will definitely dedicate more than 50,000 cavalry to defend us! This will definitely delay the settlement. The progress of Lei Gong's attack on Yanzhou will also buy time for our army to assemble!"
Then Tian Feng pointed to the front line of Chenliu County and Taishan County and said: "Lei Gong now has abundant troops in Yanzhou, and he has cavalry to help block the reinforcements, so it is difficult for us to do anything to the two armies in the middle of Lei Gong, but Yang Feng and Li Gang's armies are attacking separately. Luoyang City and Qingzhou are on the front line, which saves us a lot of time in gathering soldiers!"
"We can assemble an army of 200,000 in these two directions. If we can annihilate these two men of Lei Gong, the Da Gan Army will lose both arms, and Lei Gong's plan to attack the Central Plains will go bankrupt for the first time!"
Jian Yong shook his head after hearing this and said: "This is not realistic at all. Lei Gong's artillery is so powerful that we have no way to deal with it. There is also the advantage of cavalry. Even if we have the advantage of troops, it will be difficult to annihilate Yang Feng and Li Gang." His subordinates, let alone when they are in danger, Lei Gong will definitely send cavalry to support the two of them. Although the battlefield in the Central Plains is huge, it only lasts a few days for the cavalry!"
Tian Feng smiled and said: "It would be best if Mr. Lei really did this, but it is hindered by the cavalry. We can send soldiers to open up the connection with Dongjun!"
"As for the artillery!" Tian Feng really didn't have any good ideas.
This new type of weapon has only appeared on the battlefield for a few years, and no one is familiar with it. If Lei Gong hadn't produced too many artillery pieces this time, and the quantitative change caused a qualitative change, the big man really wouldn't pay much attention to the power of the artillery. At most, he would He regarded it as a siege weapon like a trebuchet! He was unfamiliar with the weapon, so naturally it was difficult to find its flaws.
At this time, Zhang Fei said: "What's there to think about? This artillery is just an enhanced version of a trebuchet. If you want to prevent the artillery from exerting its power, all you have to do is rush together and engage in hand-to-hand combat. It's impossible for Lei Gong to destroy his soldiers." Let's blow them up too! We are on the defensive side. We can build some low walls and dig some trenches to block the artillery attack. When the large army rushes up, we will fight with them. Now Lei Gong has entered Yanzhou with only about 200,000 people. We have 800,000 people, how can we still win if four of us fight against each other? As long as we fight to the death with 100,000 cadres, we will win this war! Not to mention that on the left and right wings, our strength advantage is as high as 8 times, how can 8 people still win? One person cannot fight to kill Lei Gong!"
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and Liu Bei suddenly understood after listening to Zhang Fei's words.
That’s right! It’s impossible to defeat Thunder Lord with just defense. Only by consuming a large number of Thunder Lord’s soldiers and causing Thunder Lord heavy losses is the right way to defeat Thunder Lord!
So Yuan Shao and Liu Bei gathered the cavalry in their hands, appointed Lu Bu as the commander-in-chief of this army, and Yuan Tan as the deputy commander-in-chief. They led the 30,000-strong army to open up connections with Dongjun!
At the same time, they ordered the generals in Luoyang and Qingzhou to find ways to annihilate the armies on the left and right flanks of Dagan.
Early July of the second year of Xingping in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 195)
Xu Wei, Wang Ge, Jia Xu and others were sitting around, and they were discussing the latest battle situation!
"It has been 10 days since we crossed the river to our southern expedition." Jia Xuhui reported: "The results are still gratifying. The four armies have successfully completed the task of crossing the river and occupied the entire crossing of the Yellow River. The 300,000-strong army has successfully completed the crossing. Cross the Yellow River!"
"The West Route Army, under the command of General Yang Feng, is advancing rapidly towards Luoyang City. Judging from the latest intelligence, General Yang Feng has begun to attack Suanzao City and will soon enter the territory of Sili. However, General Yang Feng The obstacles are getting stronger and stronger, and the armies of Sili and Yuzhou begin to gather in the direction of General Yang Feng. When all these armies are fully assembled, General Yang Feng will face an enemy army of nearly 200,000 people, and Yang Feng The general only has 50,000 soldiers, and the gap in strength between the two sides is too big! My subordinates are a little worried about the danger of the army on the east route!"
In less than ten days, World Yang Feng penetrated 300 miles into Yanzhou, and now he is almost reaching Yin, Henan. Looking at Yang Feng, he really wants to capture Luoyang City in one go.
Xu Wei thought for a while and said: "Let Yang Feng attack Chenliu County, pay attention to cooperating with Huang Long, and don't go too deep into Sili. Luoyang City is not the target of our attack yet!"
Wang Ge wrote down Xu Wei's order, and then asked the messenger to convey Xu Wei's order to the army on the east road!
Jia Xu continued: "Huanglong and Wang Yong in the middle road encountered greater obstacles. The capitals of Puyang and Dong'a were high and deep, and the guards Gao Lan and Xiahou Dun were also experienced. Although our army had the upper hand, These two cities have not been conquered yet! However, General Huanglong has broken through the outer city of Puyang, and now the two sides are fighting for the inner city of Puyang! And General Huanglong requested support of 100,000 kilograms of gunpowder!"
Of course Gao Lan and Xiahou Dun and Xu Wei knew these two names, and they were considered famous generals of the Three Kingdoms. It was good that Huang Long and Wang Yong had the upper hand, but Huang Long's request for 100,000 kilograms of gunpowder made Xu Wei frown. The production of gunpowder in this era was not only unsafe, but also extremely limited in quantity. Even though Xu Wei had been hoarding it for several years, he only prepared 2 million kilograms for this expedition.
Each of the four armies in front prepared 200,000 kilograms of gunpowder, which means that half of the storage has been used. Now that the war has been going on for less than half a month, World Huanglong has asked for gunpowder support. I am afraid that the other groups will have the same amount. If he continues to use it like this, the gunpowder in his hand may not even be used for a month. Then when the decisive battle comes, the artillery in his hand will become a decoration!
Xu Wei thought for a while and said: "Ask the logistics battalion to give Huang Long 100,000 kilograms of gunpowder, but tell him that this is all he has. Once all the gunpowder is used up, let him make his own trebuchet to attack the city later!"
Xu Wei secretly sighed, but the technology tree was not climbing fast enough. Two million kilograms of gunpowder seemed like a lot, but it was only equivalent to 500 tons of gunpowder. This was nothing more than a bombing by the modern country of hope. He wanted to reappear the big army. The tactics of fire coverage still have a long way to go, and they don’t even have much gunpowder to support their men!
Thinking of this, Xu Wei ordered: "Let the gunpowder factory speed up the production of gunpowder. We must not let the artillery on the front line go out!"
Xu Wei didn’t want to display the artillery made with more than 100,000 yuan!
Wang Ge wrote down Xu Wei’s order!
"The army on the east route was progressing smoothly. General Li Gang approached Chiping City with his ships, and then directly covered the walls of Chiping City with artillery and thunder cannons. The guard Jiang Ji and the supporting Cao Ren were frightened by the artillery and thunder cannons. They simply did not dare to continue to garrison Chiping City, and instead fled to Lu County of Jibei Kingdom with their army. Now General Li Gang is leading the army to pursue Jiang Ji and Cao Ren, and wants to annihilate them all in Jibei County!"
Xu Wei thought for a while and said: "Order Duan Yun to send 10,000 cavalry to support Li Gang. If we can really annihilate Jiang Ji and Cao Ren in Jibei County, it will be considered a big victory!"
Then Jia Xu continued: "The two generals Duan Peng and Duan Yun will be told that Yanzhou did not encounter the Han coalition forces in the wild. Yuan Shao and the others gathered their troops in Dingtao. Now the two generals are leading the cavalry to pull out Dongjun and Jiyin. At the county's Wubao, they also asked for artillery support. Although the flying thunder cannons can attack the city, it is difficult to destroy the city wall. The two generals have run out of gunpowder!"
Xu Wei thought for a while and said: "Let the two of them completely surround Dongjun, cut off the combat mission of the Han army's support, pull out Wubao and wait for the capture of Puyang and Dong'a. Besides, using cavalry to attack the city is completely brainless!"
Wang Ge wrote down Xu Wei's order, and then asked the messenger to convey Xu Wei's order to Duan Peng and Duan Yun!
Jia Xu continued: "In addition to these, the four armies have asked us to recruit more civilian men from behind! Yuan Shao completed the clearing of the wilderness in Yanzhou very cleanly. We can not find many civilian men in Yanzhou, which makes the transportation of grain, grass and baggage even slower. Go up to the army. Now the army on the west route has been affected!"
When Xu Wei heard this, he frowned and asked, "Can't you find people in the rural areas of Yanzhou?"
According to Xu Wei's plan, after occupying Yanzhou, in order to reduce the amount of food for relief, they directly recruited disaster victims as local husbands, so that the victims could feed themselves!
Jia Xu smiled bitterly and said: "Yanzhou has been suffering from drought for three consecutive years. Although Yuan Shao also provided relief, it was still a drop in the bucket. The people of Yanzhou fled to our land in Hebei in large numbers, and then they were moved to Liaodong by the ruler! So! There are not many people in Yanzhou now, and most of them have been settled by Yuan Shao near Wubao and the city.
After Yuan Shao discovered that we had a tendency to attack Yanzhou, Yuan Shao immediately established a wall in Yanzhou to clear the country. All the people were forcibly taken to the big cities and Wubao. Although we occupied some cities in Yanzhou, the people were very few and the area was large. Some of them are old and weak, which is far from being able to meet the logistics tasks of our hundreds of thousands of troops!"
Xu Wei asked: "How many civilians do we need to recruit to ensure the logistics support for the 300,000 troops on the front line!"
After calculating for a long time, Jia Xu said: "Now with the help of the transportation team, only 100,000 can solve the logistics problem of the 4th Route Army. But as our army goes deeper into Yanzhou, more and more civilians will be needed. If there is a need later,
To capture the entire Yanzhou, even one million is not too much!"
Xu Wei thought for a moment and said immediately: "Send an order to Zhang Baiqi and ask him to recruit another 300,000 civilians in Jizhou to ensure that we have four armies on the front line."
Then Xu Wei said to Jia Xu: "You and Zhang Baiqi will discuss how many civilians are needed in the future. We must not let the soldiers on the front line lack food and grass!"