Chapter 178 Yuan Benchu ??is cautious in adversity
Chapter 178 Yuan Benchu, cautious in adversity
In the spring and March of the seventh year of Jian'an, Cao Cao's troops in Xudu withdrew to Yingyin, Linying, and Jianqiang counties.
These three counties are the southwest barrier of Xudu, Yingyin is in the west, Linying is in the southwest, and Jianqiang is in the south. Each county is only more than thirty kilometers away from Xudu, about a day's journey.
So basically when you arrive in these three counties, you are outside Xudu City. When Shen Chen came to Xudu for the first time, he occupied Linying County and sent cavalry scouts to patrol around Xudu City, which shocked Yingchuan.
After learning about this, Zhang Yun was overjoyed and immediately sent his troops north to station at Zhou Nan Pavilion. The location was probably in the Daguo Town area to the west of Linying County in later generations, facing the enemy across the Yingshui River.
From the time he set out until now, Zhang Yun's uncle Liu Biao has sent him a large number of official documents every day. The short road of more than 200 kilometers from Xiangyang to Yingchuan is full of messengers coming and going, at least once a day. With more than three seals, always pay attention to the battle situation.
Since the strategy adopted by Cao Hong, Xia Houdun and others was to destroy bridges and hinder the advancement of their large forces along the way, Zhang Yun set out in January and was trapped in Xiangcheng, Dingling and other places in February, unable to move forward.
Liu Biao was of course very unhappy because he had done nothing for more than two months and had not even had direct contact with his opponents. He sent an army of more than 100,000 people, but the enemy only had 20,000 to 30,000 people, and the battle hadn't even started yet.
Therefore, Liu Biao scolded Zhang Yun in his document, which put Zhang Yun under great pressure. Now that Zhang Yun was beginning to retreat, of course he happily ordered the generals at all levels to pursue them.
But what is Zhang Yun’s ability?
He had almost no planning or commanding skills. He only made some basic arrangements, such as who should go first and who should go last, who would be the vanguard, who would be the front army, the middle army, and the rear army.
But there is basically no specific time, how to go, route allocation, and arrangements before and after.
This caused the entire team to be extremely chaotic. The soldiers did not know the generals and the soldiers, and they crowded on the road in a noisy manner. All kinds of shouting, collisions and even fighting sounds were heard endlessly.
Those who knew knew that they were pursuing them, but those who didn't knew thought that the 80,000-strong army had been defeated, broken up, and was being pursued by the enemy.
So in the midst of such a chaotic advance, it took Zhang Yun's army several days to pursue Xiahou Dun to Yingyin.
Overlooking the entire Yingyin area from a high altitude, you will see that the army commanded by Zhang Yun is spread out on the road like countless dense black spots. Their military discipline is corrupted, they wander around, trample on the fertile fields, and plunder the people, leaving countless people around the city. People migrate.
Xiahou Dun stood on Yingyin City and looked at the distant horizon. When he saw the chaotic formation, he spat on the ground and said to the lieutenants on his left and right: "Bah, you dare to come to Yingchuan with this ability to lead troops, Han Hao !”
"The end will be here."
His deputy general Han Hao stood up and said.
Xiahou Dun said: "Look at the city, I will lead two thousand men out of the city and charge for a while."
"General."
Han Hao quickly advised: "Sikong asked us to just garrison the city."
"Um?"
Xiahou Dun revealed a displeased look in one eye and said, "Are you asking me to just watch an enemy that I can defeat and be so indifferent?"
"General."
"It goes without saying, I have my own idea!"
Han Hao still wanted to say something, but Xiahou Dun had already decided to leave, and he had no ability to stop him.
At that moment, Xiahou Dun immediately ordered two thousand elite soldiers.
Cao Cao left 30,000 troops in the rear, and now they are basically all around Xudu. From Yingyin, Linying, Jianqiang to Xudu, there are densely populated rural pavilions and important places. Cao Cao's troops are there.
However, the number of Cao's troops in the three cities was not large, each with 5,000 men, led by Xiahou Dun, Cao Hong, and Li Dian respectively. Among them, Xiahou Yuan and his old partner Xun Yu were in Xudu to command the remaining troops to prevent them from attacking like above. Cixu Du was short of troops and was attacked by surprise.
Due to the heavy losses of Yuan Shao's main elite force, it was difficult to carry out an all-round attack like the original Battle of Guandu, which gave Cao Cao a huge sense of oppression. Therefore, Cao Cao even had the remaining strength to send Zang Ba north to attack Qingzhou to contain Yuan's army.
Therefore, although there are currently only 30,000 people in Xudu, the situation is slightly better than last time. It will not be like the last morning morning, when they were running around with a small force, leaving them exhausted because of the small number of soldiers.
At this moment, Zhang Yun's army still appeared in chaos to the west of Yingyin. The 80,000-strong army was like locusts, covering the sky. The wilderness, farmland, and villages were densely packed with Jingzhou soldiers who had no military discipline.
Xiahou Dun led two thousand troops out of the city.
This situation is not similar to the Battle of Hefei. In the Battle of Hefei, the God of War of Hefei was stupid. The main force was still far behind, so he took thousands of people and ran to Hefei City to wait and see the situation.
As a result, when Zhang Liao rushed out of the city with 800 men, Sun Quan and the thousands of soldiers did not react. They were separated by a few hundred meters and quickly approached.
Then Zhang Liao chopped and killed Sun Shiwan almost to the point of peeing in his pants. Under the protection of the dead soldiers, he managed to escape.
The current situation is not that Zhang Yun himself leads thousands of people in front and 80,000 troops are behind. Instead, the 80,000 troops have no formation at all. They are scattered in the entire wilderness to the west of the city, as if they were out for an outing, and there is no fighting at all. consciousness.
Is Zhang Yun stupid?
yes.
But there is another reason.
He and Sun Quan had the same idea: Sun Quan was going to fight 7,000 with 100,000 people. The advantage was mine. I brought 100,000 people here. Why would you dare to come out with 7,000 people to fight?
The same goes for Zhang Yun.
I have 80,000 vs. 5,000. I have the advantage. I am bringing 80,000 people here. Why do you dare to leave the city with 5,000 people?
So both of them are confident.
But both Sun Quan and Zhang Yun made the same mistake.
That is because their military strength is strong. First, they need to form a team outside the city and wait for it seriously before they can exert their combat effectiveness.
But before even a single soldier arrived, he led thousands of guards to the gates of Hefei.
The soldiers and horses were not controlled in place, and the soldiers were not organized into formations. They were scattered in the wilderness, showing no military discipline at all.
Therefore, the whole body is full of flaws, and any general with some ability will choose to take the initiative to take advantage of the opportunity.
Although Xiahou Dun never won a battle and never stopped getting promoted, it does not mean that he is poor in ability.
The main reason for previous defeats was that the opponents were too strong. For example, the enemies we lost several times were Xu Rong, Lu Bu three times, and Liu Bei, all of whom were elites of the era.
How dare Zhang Yun mess with rotten fish and shrimps?
So the Yingyin city gate opened, and Xiahou Dun personally led two thousand infantry and suddenly charged towards the Jingzhou army.
What was Zhang Yun’s reaction at this time?
No response.
Others were still behind, and they didn't know that the enemy was attacking.
Then Han Hu, the general at the front, saw the Yingyin city gate open, and a large number of Cao's troops rushed out of the city, crossed the bridge and came towards them.
Zhang Yun had better luck than Hefei God of War in this battle, because the terrain of Yingyin is close to Lishui and is located on the right bank of Lishui. Although Lishui is smaller than Yingshui and Rushui, it can still be regarded as a medium-sized river.
So Xiahou Dun had to cross the river when he rushed over.
The bridges they destroyed before were the bridges between Yingshui and Rushui. The Lushui bridge was less than a mile away from the city. Therefore, a group of troops and horses were deployed by the river. If the enemy attacked directly, they would use fish paste to destroy the bridge.
Burn.
But now that he saw the enemy's command ability, Xiahou Dun didn't care about destroying the bridge and immediately led two thousand men to rush out. In this way, the distance between the two sides was much further than in the Battle of Hefei.
Han Hu was the vanguard at the front, only half a mile away from the Tongshui Bridge. He suddenly saw the enemy coming out of the city, rushing across the bridge, and attacking them. He was frightened for a moment and quickly shouted for the soldiers to regroup.
But in such a chaotic situation, how can they be organized in a short time? Xiahou Dun galloped on his horse, and the soldiers behind him howled and charged like wild wolves. Hanhu was instantly stood by Xiahou Dun under the horse, and the vanguard team was in chaos. Thousands of people were in chaos.
People began to throw away their armor and flee.
They were the vanguard and rushed farther than the front army. A stronger general would have reacted earlier, but Zhang Yun was still in the rear. As a result, the front army was in a hurry and unprepared, and was directly attacked by the vanguard.
The soldiers and horses were scattered and rushed into chaos.
"Ha ha ha ha."
Xiahou Dun actually killed Han Hu and a few Jingzhou soldiers. Before he could take action, the front row soldiers only rushed to kill them one by one. The enemy was defeated. He immediately laughed and ordered to continue the pursuit.
However, when he dispersed Zhang Yun's 5,000 vanguards and more than 10,000 front troops, a team suddenly blocked him.
These tribesmen were not large in number, just over a thousand, but they were well-trained. The leading general was named Huo Du, who was Zhang Yun's army commander. Hou Dun had already reacted when he left the city in early Xia, and sounded the horn to warn the entire army.
Array in place at the same time.
The broken soldiers rushed towards his army, and when they saw that they were about to break up his team, Huo Du decisively ordered to shoot arrows, killing many of the broken soldiers. The broken soldiers were so frightened that they ran away from both sides of the team like a tide.
Huo Du was like the mainstay and the sea-fixing needle in the middle of the river, forcing the scattered soldiers to both sides to face Xiahou Dun alone.
Xiahou Dun came to kill, with arrows like rain flying towards Cao Jun.
"Quickly retreat!"
Seeing an enemy force blocking the way and rain of arrows coming, Xiahou Dun quickly issued an order to retreat.
For a time, Cao Jun abandoned dozens of corpses and fled in panic.
The rout at Han Lake over there dispersed the front army, and even the central army was almost in chaos. If Huo Du hadn't turned the tide, it would have been a huge rout like the Battle of Feishui.
Knowing this, Zhang Yun had no choice but to order the generals of the Chinese army to collect the defeated troops, and he led the rear army to retreat ten miles and set up camp.
Afterwards, investigations by both parties revealed that Xiahou Dun's losses were more than 40 soldiers who were shot dead by Huo Du.
Where is Zhang Yun?
Han Hu's vanguard was killed by Xiahou Dun's army, with less than a hundred people killed.
The remaining front troops and vanguards suffered nearly a thousand casualties. A small number of them were defeated soldiers who were shot by Huo Du, and most of them fell and were trampled during their escape.
This made Zhang Yun lose face. After two days of rest, he reorganized his team and started provoking again. This was another matter.
At the same time, Cangting front line.
Yuan Shao paid as much attention to Liu Biao's army as Cao Cao. Almost as soon as the three troops of Jingzhou army began to form a circle around Xu Du, the scouts had already rushed north to report.
Three days later, Yuan Camp in Fengqiu, 200 kilometers away, received the information that Cao's army had retreated three days ago, and Zhang Yunwen hired Liu Bei's army to pursue it northward.
This news is obviously relatively late, because it took Zhang Yun three days to catch up with Xiahou Dun.
This also means that almost as soon as Yuan Shao got the news that they were heading north, Zhang Yun hit a wall today at the foot of Yingyin City. Xiahou Dun took the initiative to attack and almost defeated 80,000 people and was on the verge of collapse.
But Yuan Shao didn't know.
At this moment, in Yuan's camp, Yuan Shao summoned several counselors to hold a meeting.
On the eve of the Battle of Guandu, one of the two main counselors, Jushou and Tian Feng, was deprived of military power by him and the other was imprisoned by him.
But Jushou fled back to Hebei and used Shen Chen and Liu Bei as examples. He encouraged Yuan Shao with his words, restored Yuan Shao's former generosity, released Tian Feng, and improved the status of the two.
In fact, to a certain extent, the suppression of them before Guandu was mainly due to the factions of counselors under Yuan Shao. For example, Jushou, Tian Feng, Shenpei and other Jizhou factions, Xin Ping, Guo Tu, Xun Chen and other Yingchuan factions, Feng Ji, Xu You Nanyang Sect.
The Jizhou local faction was too powerful, and Yuan Shao was afraid that he would not be able to suppress it, so he supported the Yingchuan faction. Xin Ping, Guo Tu, and Xun Chen were his most valued advisers. However, Xun Chen died unexpectedly of illness, so he could only rely on Guo Tu to suppress them.
Under normal circumstances, now Xu You rebelled and Xun Chen died of illness. The local faction in Jizhou was too powerful. Even if Jushou fled back to Hebei, Yuan Shao should abandon him and Tian Feng, and then support Xin Ping, Guo Tu, and Feng Ji. This is the right way to fight against the Jizhou native faction.
However, the battle of Guandu stimulated him too much, so Yuan Shao no longer used any means of balancing the emperor's mind, and simply let Ju Shou Tian Feng be the mastermind. Although this would make the Jizhou native faction who supported Yuan Tan stronger, in order to defeat Cao Cao also took the risk and did not engage in such messy things.
Then, under the advice of Ju Shou Tian Feng, they slowly planned it. More than four months have passed since the two sides faced off in Pingqiu in November last year. At least Yuan Jun still has a certain initiative advantage. Cao Jun has provoked countless times, and still has Stay still and calm.
At this time, news came from the south. In the general's camp, Yuan Shao looked at his four men, Ju Shou, Tian Feng, Guo Tu, and Feng Ji. They raised the official document in their hands and said: "The document came from the south. The Jingzhou army attacked Yingchuan in three groups. , the soldiers and horses that Cao Cao left behind were forced to retreat to the vicinity of Xudu, what do you think?"
Tian Feng caressed his beard and said thoughtfully: "Ming Gong, Cao Cao doesn't have many troops left in Xudu. Liu Biao's troops have advanced and have reached the vicinity of Xudu. This shows that Cao Cao is likely to retreat. But Cao Cao has always been cunning. I think if he If we really want to retreat, we must first stand still and then evacuate under the stars.”
"Hmm."
Yuan Shao nodded and said: "Cao Cao is used to fighting at night. I am also wondering if he will leave at night."
Jushou said: "If he leaves at night, it will not be easy to send scouts to explore the surrounding areas of Cao's camp. However, you can send scouts to lurk on the roads he must pass to see if he will go south at night."
"good."
Yuan Shao followed Shan Ruliu and said, "Then let him do as he sees fit."
None of them doubted the authenticity.
If Liu Biao had not advanced and Cao Cao had retreated without any reason, he would have been unable to hide it from Ju Sue and Tian Feng.
But Cao Cao spent a lot of money this time and directly used Xu Du as bait.
How can there be any reason in this world to use the old nest as bait?
Isn't he afraid of being destroyed in one day?
Therefore, they all took it for granted that Cao Cao's rear was empty and Liu Biao's army pressed in, putting too much pressure on Cao Cao.
Everyone believed that Cao Cao would definitely withdraw his troops and go back to defend Yingchuan.
According to Yuan Shao's understanding of Cao Cao, Meng De was the best at making clever plans, either by surprise or by withdrawing his troops at starry night.
So they all felt that these two nights would most likely be the time when Cao Cao retreated.
Immediately the order was issued and the scouts went out one after another.
It is too difficult to place scouts around Cao Ying. There are countless scout posts around. Yuan Shao is no longer the Yuan Shao he was before Guandu, and his strength cannot be crushed. Therefore, he can only settle for the second best and choose the official way.
However, it is not easy to detect news on the official road where Cao Cao withdraws his troops. The rear is a grain road and a document transportation channel. Countless Cao troops come and go every day, and there are many sentries along the route.
Just as Cao Cao had to pass through many Yuan Shao sentry posts in the Battle of Guandu to get to Wuchao, it was also very difficult for Yuan Shao's scouts to break through the blockade and lurk on the roadside.
Therefore, they finally broke into pieces and chose to work as small teams and hide in the woods, hills, wilderness and other places dozens of kilometers along the rear where they were not easily discovered by Cao Jun's scouts.
March 7th.
This was the second night after Yuan Shao received the news.
At midnight, Yuan Ying was silent.
At the same time, the rear of Cao's camp was busy, with a large number of torches heading south.
For more than ten miles to the south, there are mighty torches.
This situation naturally alerted Yuan Jun's scouts, who hurried back to Yuan Camp at starry night to report to Yuan Shao.
However, it was difficult for Yuan Jun's scouts to return. The journey was long, and they could not take official roads and could only take small roads. It was close to dawn before Yuan Shao learned the news.
"What?"
Yuan Shao just got up at this time, wearing a plain silk lining. When he heard that the scouts had come to report, he immediately said while dressing: "You go down first, where are the guards."
The scout went down, and the guard at the door came in and said: "General."
"Let Jushou Tian Feng Guo Tu come over."
"only."
The guard immediately went to deliver the order.
After a while, Yuan Shao put on his clothes and waited for Jushou Tian Fengguo Tu in the tent.
He looked at the three people coming in and laughed and said: "As expected, Cao Cao withdrew his troops at midnight last night. At this time, there are only a few troops left in the camp."
Tian Feng pondered and said: "Cao Cao is used to making surprise attacks. I'm wondering if he will deliberately set up an ambush to repel us first and then go south to Xudu?"
Yuan Shao said: "The scouts have investigated. Cao's army has traveled dozens of miles, all the way south. There can be no lies."
"I'm afraid it's just a trick."
Jushou frowned and said, "Cao Cao would not have thought that if he went south at starry night, we would chase him immediately. If he could not defeat Liu Biao within a few days in Xudu, when our army arrived, we would be attacked from both sides. If I were Cao Cao, I would retreat first.
, so that we don’t dare to pursue, and then go to relieve the siege of Xudu.”
Although Xun You used Xu Du as bait, he succeeded in convincing them that Cao Cao was eager to return to Xu Du for rescue.
But Tian Feng and Jushu are not fools either.
They felt that Cao Cao would not be stupid enough to ignore Yuan Jun directly. No matter how anxious he was, he would definitely find a way to deal with it. Moreover, it was very likely that he was arranging suspicious troops and just used Xu Du's incident to lure them into pursuit, thereby achieving the strategic goal of quickly repelling Yuan Jun.
.
Yuan Shao hesitated and said: "Then according to Gong Yu and Yuan Hao's wishes, we should stand still?"
"What if Cao Cao just made us suspicious and stood still, wouldn't we have missed a good opportunity? By the time Cao Cao goes south and repels Liu Biao, it will be too late for us to advance."
Guo Tu finally spoke at this time.
His strategy failed several times in the Battle of Guandu, which caused his status in the army to plummet. Now he finally found an opportunity to counterattack.
What was rare was that Jushou and Tian Feng did not refute him.
Because what he said is true.
If Cao Cao was taking advantage of their paranoid mentality and went south to attack Liu Biao at lightning speed, defeated Liu Biao, and then went north to meet them, then they would have missed a good opportunity.
So this is where Jushou and Tian Fengya struggle.
Chase it.
Afraid of an ambush.
Don't chase it.
I'm afraid there won't be an ambush.
It makes them feel like they are riding a tiger now.
There was silence for a moment.
Yuan Shao let out a long breath, looked at Jushou Tian Feng, and said with some displeasure: "Young Master and Yuan Hao, let's make an idea."
Jushou pondered again and again, and finally said: "Ming Gong can attack Cao Camp first today. There are few people in Cao Camp at this time. After the attack, Cao Camp will not be too hasty when we march south. Instead, we will send the vanguard and the front army to pursue it. The main force will slow down. Even if
Even if you lie in ambush, you can keep the army safe."
"Um."
Yuan Shao nodded. This was a relatively safe suggestion. Although it would still be a step slower, attacking Cao Ying must be done no matter what.
You can't just leave Cao Cao's camp with 10,000 troops alone and just go after Cao Cao.
So what should he do with his subsequent food and fodder?
Therefore, Yuan Shao did not hesitate at that moment. In the early morning of March 7, after Cao Cao had evacuated Cangting three hours ago, he mobilized his troops and began to attack Cao's army fiercely.
At this time, Cao's camp had very few troops. Yuan's army launched an all-out attack on Cao's camp in the morning. By noon, Cao's camp, with few major generals, could no longer hold on. The remaining seven or eight thousand troops, under the command of General Jin, who stayed behind, attacked from the south gate.
Evacuate.
Yuan Shao then ordered generals Lu Kuang to be the vanguard and Jiang Qi to be the commander of the front army, leading 25,000 men to pursue Cao's army. Yuan Shao led 30,000 men to follow in the rear as the center army, and the rest of the troops escorted the baggage for the rear army.
In the afternoon, Lu Kuang and Jiang Qi began to pursue Yu Jin, who was retreating south. Yuan Shao's main force followed them about ten miles away, approaching the south in a mighty manner.
After passing Cangting and heading towards Huang County, Yuan Shao suddenly heard a piece of news on the way.
Since Xudu is close to 200 kilometers away from the front line of Cangting, news from the south often takes three or four days to arrive. The news Yuan Shao received before was that Liu Biao's army surrounded Xudu, but he did not know that at the same time he got the news, Xiahou Dun would
Zhang Yun was almost defeated.
"Two thousand men almost defeated the 80,000 Jingzhou army?"
Yuan Shao looked at the messenger with a look of disbelief.
The messenger replied: "Exactly!"
Yuan Shao looked at Ju Shou Tian Feng and others on the left and right, looking at each other in confusion.
Although it is a consensus that the southern soldiers are not as good as the northern soldiers in infantry fighting, but 80,000 versus 2,000, it was almost a disastrous defeat?
Are all Liu Biao's troops a bunch of losers?
"not good!"
Jushou's eyes widened and he suddenly said: "Liu Biao's army is far less powerful than Cao's army. This shows that Cao Cao should not worry about Xu Du. I'm afraid there is a scam inside!"
Yuan Shao also noticed something was wrong and immediately said: "Let Lu Kuang and Jiang Qi come back."
"Report!"
Almost at the moment when this order was issued, a knight rushed over. When they got close to the army, Yuan Shao turned over and fell to the ground, knelt on one knee and said: "General, General Lu and General Jiang were suddenly ambushed by Cao's army. At this moment, they are already here."
Big defeat!"
Yuan Shao's brows instantly wrinkled, he glanced at Ju Shou, and suddenly felt a little lucky.
fine.
If it were him in the past, he would definitely have gone his own way and ordered a hot pursuit.
Fortunately, Jushou Tianfeng's strategy was sound, and now he only lost the front army and vanguard, so there was no serious problem.
So he ordered: "Withdraw!"
"withdraw!"
New orders were issued, and tens of thousands of Yuan's troops evacuated northward like a tide.