"What? The enemy bypassed us all night and went straight to Kunyang?"
It was night, and Cao Hong did not rest.
During the day, he noticed that the enemy troops outside the city began to pack up their camps, so he kept a close eye on them.
After dark, a large number of scouts were sent out to investigate.
Soon the scouts reported back. Shen Chen's army first pretended to retreat. After retreating for more than ten miles, they then headed west to the Lushan area near the Funiu Mountains. After dark, they headed north towards Kunyang.
The place they bypassed was more than ten kilometers away from Ye County, but Cao Hong had a group of cavalry scouts who were following them and reported immediately when they discovered this situation.
Cao Hong was shocked when he heard the news. His lieutenants immediately came up to him and said, "General, are they going to attack Kunyang at night?"
"It's possible."
Cao Hong frowned and said, "But we don't rule out the possibility that they will pass by Kunyang directly and attack Xudu."
"Attack Xudu?"
A lieutenant general said in surprise: "How is this possible? They only have 10,000 troops, but now there are nearly 10,000 people guarding Xudu. Isn't this asking for death?"
Cao Hong muttered: "But Xudu is so big now that nearly ten thousand people may not be able to defend it."
Ancient cities were actually not very large, averaging 2-3 square kilometers.
For example, Changsha City had an area of only 5 square kilometers during the Republic of China. It was even smaller during the Han Dynasty, less than half of that during the Republic of China, but it was already the most prosperous city in Jingnan.
Originally, Xuchang was just a small county town in Yingchuan. The city was three to four meters high and covered an area of two square kilometers. It was a small ordinary city.
But later, Cao Cao moved the capital to Xuchang, and the Emperor Wangjia, the Three Gongs and Nine Ministers, and all the major families in the world moved in. As a result, the city's population surged, and the city was overcrowded, and there was no place for the nobles and nobles to live.
So Cao Cao began to expand the city, using the original city as the inner city and Liu Xie's palace, and built an outer city outside the city for the residence of the officials and the common people.
According to historical records, after Cao Cao's expansion, the outer city of Xuchang was five times the size of the inner city. This means that the total area of Xuchang now reaches 12 square kilometers, and the outer city wall alone has reached a length of 12 kilometers. There is already an imperial capital. meteorological.
But the problem is that to reach this level, it was the situation before Cao Pi forced Liu Xie to abdicate and then moved the capital from Xuchang to Yecheng. That is to say, it took until 220 AD to build the entire city into this look.
Now that Cao Cao has just established his capital in Xuchang for only four years, where will he get the money to expand on a large scale?
Therefore, Xuchang at this time had no inner and outer cities, but the outer city wall had not yet been built, and there were only a large number of houses.
In other words, in Xuchang now only Liu Xie's palace has a city wall. There is no city wall protection outside, so it is useless and can be penetrated directly.
If Shen Chen really decided to attack Xuchang by surprise, it would indeed be an urgent matter for Cao Hong.
"How dare his ten thousand people march three hundred miles to Xudu?"
The lieutenant couldn't believe it.
Cao Hong said coldly: "Is there anything else that Shen Chen doesn't dare to do?"
"this"
Everyone was right. Shen Chen and Cao Cao were sworn enemies. Although attacking Xu Du was dangerous, once it succeeded, Cao Cao would be destroyed. It was really possible that his lunatic could do it.
Cao Hong pondered for a moment and then asked: "Are you sure they only have an army of ten thousand? Are there any civilians accompanying the army?"
"No."
The scout replied: "We have been following him since before dark, and there are no civilians."
"Is there any carriage or horse baggage?"
"nor."
"Are you sure they don't have any baggage?"
"Bi can see clearly that there is indeed no such thing, but their soldiers all carry bags with them."
"Is that so?"
Cao Hong lowered his head and thought.
Then there are only two situations before him.
One is to attack from the east and west, pretending to attack Xudu, but actually ambushing him.
The second is that the opponent is really preparing to surprise Xudu.
In ancient times, wars indeed required a certain number of civilians to help transport grain and grass.
For example, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty defeated the Xiongnu, he had a total of 600,000 troops, of which at least 400,000 were civilians transporting grain and grass.
In addition, Zhuge Liang's several Northern Expeditions required a large number of civilians to transport food and grass to the rear, and the troops often retreated due to lack of food.
But they had no choice but to fight long distances or the roads were difficult and dangerous.
Normal plain warfare, unless a large-scale campaign like Yuan Shao's with more than 100,000 troops, requires civilians to escort grain and grass. Otherwise, a small-scale war with tens of thousands of people is not necessary at all.
For example, Sima Yi traveled thousands of miles to attack Mengda, marching an average of 56 kilometers per day in the mountains. There would be no civilians in the rear to help transport food, and his own soldiers would carry a month's worth of dry food.
Cao Cao's several eastward expeditions to Xuzhou and Liu Bei's eastward expedition to Lu Bu did not have civilians to transport food and grass. The troops had to carry their own food for a few months. Often the war could only last two or three months before retreating.
Also, before our long march, we prepared approximately 1.6 million loads of grain for our 40,000 troops. We also had no civilian help to escort the food, so we had to rely on our soldiers to carry it by hand or on horses or carts.
The places they traveled along were all warlord lands, with no mass base and no one to help our army, but they had to rely on two shoulders and a pair of iron feet to walk 25,000 kilometers.
It can be seen that when fighting in the Central Plains, there are often few civilians to help transport food, and the troops carry it themselves.
Shen Chen went north this time. With an army of 10,000 people, he only mobilized about 5,000 civilians, for a total of 15,000 people. He brought with him about 2,000 weapons and equipment baggage trucks, and about a thousand grain and grass baggage trucks, totaling about 50,000 shi.
In addition, every soldier carries a bag with twenty days of dry food. According to the "Juyan Han Slips", soldiers consume 2.7 shi of food per month. If they save some food, they can last for three months.
It stands to reason that he has consumed two months of food and grass in Duyang, and should have less than twenty days of food left.
But when he was stationing troops to block Yang, more than 200,000 stones of grain and grass were successively transported from the rear. Therefore, his grain and grass supply increased instead of decreasing, and he was very sufficient.
Cao Hong speculated that Shen Chen did not bring a large amount of food and grass to the north, and only the soldiers carried part of the rations with them. This meant that Shen Chen might really intend to travel lightly and raid Xuchang.
You know, Xuchang is only 130 kilometers away from Ye County, about 300 kilometers away. The road is flat with no obstacles, so it is not a long-distance journey at all.
If Sima Yi marched at a speed of 56 kilometers per day, he would start in the morning and arrive in the afternoon of the third day. Not to mention that Sima Yi's speed was considered slow. During the Long March, our army had a record of 120 kilometers a day in mountainous terrain.
Therefore, Cao Hong had to know whether Shen Chen really planned to attack Xuchang by surprise, or whether he was setting up an ambush to trick him out.
Thinking of this, Cao Hong immediately said: "First send someone to report the news to Xudu immediately, and then send a message to Liu Dai and Wang Zhong, asking them to be careful, and Li Kuang."
"The end will be here."
One of Cao Hong's lieutenants stepped forward.
"You lead a thousand troops and pursue them immediately to see if they have set up an ambush."
"only."
Li Kuang was about to take the order and leave.
Cao Hong said again: "Wait a minute."
"General."
Li Kuang turned around and handed over his hand.
Cao Hong pondered for a moment and said: "If there is an ambush, be sure to see how many troops the opponent has. Remember not to fight. If something goes wrong, withdraw immediately."
"clear."
Li Kuang took the order and left.
Another deputy general on the side asked puzzledly: "General, what does this mean?"
Cao Hong said: "If Shen Chen really wants to raid Xu Du, he will definitely leave some troops to stop us. Otherwise, if we chase immediately, wouldn't we be attacked by Xu Du and us from both front and back? So the number of their ambush troops depends on It determines whether he is really going north or whether he plans to ambush us."
The lieutenant general said sincerely: "Best greetings, general!"
.
.
While Cao Hong was making arrangements, Shen Chen was also making arrangements.
The army set out overnight without bringing a large amount of food and grass, leaving a thousand men behind to guard Duyang. Each soldier carried twenty days of dry food and marched northward.
On the way, Shen Chen said to Gan Ning: "Uncle Xingba, when you lead the main force to hide in Lushan, you must first send two thousand troops to set up an ambush in the road. When Cao Jun comes, kill them immediately to scare them away. ."
Gan Ning was confused and said: "Doesn't this tell him that we have an ambush?"
Shen Chen said: "Cao Hong is also a veteran who has followed Cao Cao for many years. It is impossible for him to follow us immediately just because we bypassed Ye County. He will definitely doubt whether we are setting up an ambush, so he will definitely send a small number of people to test. If we use all our main force , he understood that we were ambushing him, so we had to expose a certain number of troops first to make him think that this was our force to stop him."
"oh."
Gan Ning nodded, suddenly as if he had an idea, and said: "If we use all our main force, wouldn't Cao Hong be scared off? He must think that we are ambushing him, and when he hides in the city, we will directly Wouldn't it be better to go to Xudu?"
Shen Chen rolled his eyes and said: "The attack on Xudu is the most ideal situation, but what are we most afraid of? The defenders from Ye County, Kunyang, and Wuyang came over immediately, waiting for us to fight Cao Jun in Xudu During the battle, attack our rear. Then they will attack from the front and back, and our army will be defeated. Therefore, although this plan can deceive Cao Hong, when our main force wants to pass Kunyang and Wuyang, they are not blind. They will report to Cao Hong. , doesn’t he understand?”
"That's true."
When Gan Ning thought about it, he was indeed overthinking it. The main force could indeed deceive Cao Hong after passing through Ye County, but there were also counties such as Kunyang and Wuyang behind them. If the main force was discovered by them when they passed by, then the so-called ambush of Cao Hong would be over. They had to reveal their secrets and let him know their true intentions, or they had to catch up immediately.
Therefore, Gan Ning's statement is not reliable at all.
Shen Chen said: "The art of war is all about the virtual and the real. What we have to do now is to make Cao Hong believe that we are really going to raid Xudu. Instead of letting him know that we are ambushing him, otherwise, we will really attack Xudu. We can't deceive the defenders of Kunyang and Wuyang, so this is also the purpose of my partial division going north, which is to deceive the defenders of these two places, so as to trick Cao Hong out and kill him."
"knew."
Gan Ning nodded, now finally understanding Shen Chen's intention.
The army lit torches and traveled all night. In the middle of the night, which was around 12 o'clock in the evening, they walked for about 2 hours and more than 20 kilometers. The average speed was 5 kilometers per hour, which was about the same as the walking speed of ordinary people.
Ye County is about forty kilometers away from Kunyang, and on their left is the majestic Lushan Mountains.
The soldiers in Huangmenting were okay. In addition to daily training, it was normal to train for ten kilometers every day. Gan Ning's troops began to have some sore feet, and their speed slowed down one by one.
Fortunately, they had arrived at their destination. Shen Chen and Gan Ning parted ways. Gan Ning hid his army in Lushan and sent two thousand people to set up an ambush outside. He led the main force to hide in the mountains behind, while Shen Chen took Three thousand people, holding three-pronged torches, headed towards Kunyang.
Without the encumbrance of Gan Ning's army, Shen Chen ordered a hasty march and covered more than ten kilometers in less than an hour. Using the torches on the wall of Kunyang City, he saw the city hidden in the darkness from a distance.
"Walk!"
Shen Chen himself was also on foot, constantly urging the soldiers. Their destination today was to cross Kunyang and then go to Xiangcheng.
Xiangcheng is located more than 40 kilometers north of Kunyang. After arriving here, there are only 50 kilometers away from Xudu, so as long as his people appear in Xiangcheng, it will definitely cause a huge shock.
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