In late April of the 10th year of Jian'an, Yuan Shao had already learned that Cao Cao had personally arrived in Henan and defeated Gao Gan and Tao Sheng.
He didn't send anyone to rescue him because it was too late.
Gao Gan and Tao Sheng were confused by Yu Jin and had no idea that the enemy's general was actually Cao Cao. They were defeated head-on and the entire army was wiped out that day.
Even if Yuan Shao got the news the next day, if he sent troops again, they would only be able to help Tao Sheng collect the body.
Therefore, in addition to just sending 5,000 men across the river from Yanjin to defend Dangyin County to prevent Cao Cao from unexpectedly attacking Yecheng, he began to launch an all-out attack on the main force of Cao's army.
In fact, Yuan Shao is not worried about the rear.
After three years of recuperation, the total strength of Yuan's army has reached 170,000 to 80,000. This time, 120,000 people were brought to the front line, and tens of thousands of horses were left behind in Yecheng. Cao Cao would only attack Yecheng if he was crazy.
Therefore, he confidently and boldly began to launch a fierce attack on Cao's army on the front line of Kuangcheng. However, Xiahou Dun sat in Cao's camp and remained motionless. He attacked for several days with little effect.
In Yuan Shao's camp, he summoned several counselors to discuss countermeasures.
"Cao Cao rushed to Henan and defeated Gao Gan and Tao Sheng first. It must be because many soldiers and horses in Guanzhong were approaching, which made him feel the danger, so he went to stop the Guanzhong army first."
Guo Tu spoke eloquently: "Ming Zhengyi can take advantage of this opportunity to attack Cao's camp. This is called a snipe and a clam fighting for the fisherman's profit."
"Cough cough cough."
Yuan Shao's face was a little pale. He had been ill last winter and barely recovered after resting in the camp for more than a month. Now the root of the disease has fallen into place. He coughed from time to time and said in a hoarse voice: "I don't know, it's just that Cao Ying insisted.
If you can't get out, you can't attack, do you have any ideas?"
He looked at Jushou.
Jushou thought hard, shook his head and said, "Ming Gong, I can't think of any way."
As a strategic talent, tactics are indeed not his specialty.
Guo Tu suggested: "Ming Gong can send partial troops to assist the eldest son in defeating Cheng Yu, Zang Ba and others, and then ask him to attack Chen Liu from Jiyin. Then Cao Cao will be defeated."
Yuan Shao glanced at Guo Tu.
I still don’t know what his plans are?
He just wants to help Yuan Tan make great achievements. When the time comes, the choice of heir apparent must be Yuan Tan.
But Guo Tu's suggestion is somewhat reasonable. Yuan Tan is still entangled with Zang Ba Cheng Yu's army in the Shanyang area of Mount Tai, and the two sides are in a fighting stage.
If we can help Yuan Tan defeat the two men, the area east of Chen Liu will be empty, and Yuan Tan can march straight in.
Just as he was about to respond to Guo Tu's suggestion, Tian Feng said, "You can't do it for me."
"oh?"
Yuan Shao asked in confusion: "Why not?"
"When Cao Cao comes to Luoyang personally, the princes in Guanzhong will not be able to hold on for long. I predict that they will be defeated within a month."
Tian Feng said: "However, although Zang Ba Cheng Yu and others do not have many troops, they still have more than 10,000 troops. Moreover, they have enough food and grass to defend the city, and they may not be able to break it for a year. Therefore, we must not divide our troops and attack Cao's camp with all our strength!"
"
Guo Tu was dissatisfied and said: "Cao's camp is entrenched and it is difficult for our 80,000 troops to break through. Can Zang Ba and Cheng Yu's mere 10,000 men be as good as Cao's 50,000 troops here?"
Tian Feng shook his head and said: "The camp and the city are naturally different. At the beginning, Zang Hong had thousands of people and lacked food, and he could still be trapped for more than a year. How about Cheng Yu and Zang Ba? If we can't break them, it will be impossible for us to divide our troops to harass Chen Liu.
.”
"Um."
Yuan Shao was reminded by Tian Feng and immediately remembered what happened to Zang Hong. He personally led tens of thousands of people to surround Dongwuyang. As a result, Zang Hong still defended Dongwuyang for more than a year. The city's defense was indeed much stronger than that of the camp.
"Then what should we do?"
Guo Tu spread his hands and said, "Are we just going to watch Cao Cao defeat the Guanzhong Army? Or we should just go rescue them."
"What are you doing to rescue them? Does Gongze want to help Cao Cao solve his crisis in Kuangcheng?"
Jushou laughed mockingly.
Their current troops have been deployed. Cao Cao did not mobilize the troops on the front line of Kuangcheng at all, but instead mobilized the troops of Yu Jin in Henan.
However, Gao Gan and Tao Sheng, who originally hoped that Yu Jin would be defeated, would have to mobilize their troops either from Yecheng or from the front.
It is impossible to mobilize men and horses in Yecheng, and the rear is very important. Once Cao Cao gets jealous and plans a surprise attack on Yecheng, and the lack of troops in Yecheng allows him to succeed, it will be an eternal joke.
It is even more impossible to mobilize the front line. The combat effectiveness of both sides is already 50-50. If the front line mobilizes troops to support the Guanzhong Army, at least 20,000 people will go there. If there are fewer people here, the combat effectiveness will be weaker. When the time comes, Cao's army will be strong and they will be weak.
Okay, how can this work?
"It won't work this way, and that won't work either. There must be a regulation."
Guo Tu glanced at Jusuke with dissatisfaction. If his original plan had not failed and his status had declined, how could he have endured such cynicism from Jushou.
Tian Feng pondered for a moment and suddenly said: "It must be the summer flood season for the river recently. I think the Pu water seems to have risen a lot."
Yuan Shao nodded: "The river is indeed in the summer flood, and it is like this every year."
"If we can dig the Pu River and the Ji River, what if Cao Ying is flooded?"
Tian Feng came up with a plan.
The flood seasons of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River are staggered. The Yellow River has spring and summer floods every year, with minor spring floods and major summer floods.
This is because the water flow of the Yellow River mainly comes from the melting of snow mountains in the upper reaches. The hotter the weather, the greater the water flow. Heavy rains in the upper reaches of Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi and other regions will also increase the water flow.
The flood season of the Yangtze River occurs every autumn and winter, mainly due to the large amount of moisture brought by the monsoon from the southeast coast every year, and then heavy rains in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River in the second half of each year. For example, the devastating flood in later generations was in mid-June 1998.
Caused by continuous heavy rains in the Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake areas.
Tian Feng's strategy was to take advantage of the flood season of the Yellow River, dig the Pu River and Jishui River, and let the floods submerge Cao Ying on the south bank of Pu River. Even if it could not turn into a flood and wash away Cao Ying, at least Cao Ying would be flooded.
The water accumulated there, making it impossible for Cao's army to fight.
Yuan Shao's eyes lit up and he said: "This is indeed a good strategy. Yuan Hao, I will ask you to complete this matter."
"only."
Tian Feng's old body stood up and bowed to Yuan Shao.
At that time, Tian Feng followed Yuan Shao's order, brought a large number of auxiliary soldiers and craftsmen, and began to dig ditches in the Pu River and Jishui area upstream of Kuang City.
There is no need to build dams, because Pu River and Jishui River are both tributaries of the Yellow River. At this time, the water level of the Yellow River surges, causing the flow of these two rivers to also surge. If a dam is built to store water, the dam will be submerged soon, which is meaningless.
.
After a month of construction, the canal was finally built. Numerous criss-crossing tunnels were excavated outside Cao Ying. As the dam blocking the water was opened, water suddenly swarmed and flooded towards Cao Ying.
Dong Zhao, Mao Jie, Guo Jia and others had actually noticed something was wrong and wanted to stop it, but Yuan Shao sent troops outside the camp. Once Cao Jun dared to leave the camp, countless arrows rained down on him.
Therefore, even though Xiahou Dun wanted to send people to stop Tian Feng from digging and building a canal several times, he was beaten back. They could only dig a diversion canal in Cao's camp to block the water from flowing into the camp.
But it is a pity that Xiahou Dun and others still underestimated the flood tide.
The backflow of Pu River and Jishui River was far more exaggerated and rapid than they imagined. Although a large number of diversion canals were dug and built in the camp, the soldiers even felt like they were in a water city in the camp, having to cross bridges built with wooden planks.
Move around.
But even so, the water continued to rise rapidly. By the end of May, the camp was covered with a thick layer of water. Most of the soldiers were soaked in the water, and they could only try to hide in high mountains.
For a time, the morale of the entire Cao camp was very low. If the food and grass had not been transferred to the highland slopes in time, tens of thousands of Cao's troops might have been wiped out by this flood alone.
Just when Yuan Shao was digging canals and flooding Cao's camp, from mid to late May, on the 21st, Cao Cao officially launched an attack.
That day, he, Ma Teng and others raised fire as a signal and personally led the troops to launch an offensive against Han Sui's troops stationed on the south bank of the Yellow River.
At night, Han Sui, Hou Xuan, Li Kan, Ma Wan, Cheng Yin and others did not expect that Cao Jun would attack at this time, and the camp was in chaos for a while.
Ma Teng and others took advantage of the situation to fish in troubled waters and cut off the retreat of Han Sui and others. The two sides fought internally until dawn, and the entire Shaanxi County was ignited by the flames of war.
Han Sui's camp was quickly breached, and Cao Cao sent Yu Jin, Han Hao and other generals to pursue him. Under the protection of Xu Chu, Cao Cao watched on the slopes of the plateau below the Qinling Mountains in the south.
In the middle of the night, countless torches were shining, and Cao Cao, standing on the top of the mountain, was paying attention to the entanglement between his own army's torch team and the enemy's torch team.
When he saw that after the imperial army raided Han Sui's camp, Ma Teng's army also attacked from the north, he felt relieved.
When the fighting lasted until dawn, Han Sui and others were defeated, and the dust had settled.
"Ming Gong."
Zhong Yao, Xun You and others followed him. Seeing this scene, Zhong Yao said with a smile: "The counterintuitive plan was successful."
"Um."
Cao Cao stroked his beard and smiled and said: "After this battle, Guanzhong will be peaceful for a while, and I can concentrate on dealing with Yuan Shao. Yuan Chang, you continue to be the commander of Sili, sit in Chang'an, and appease Ma Teng and others, and wait for me to pacify Yuan Shao."
, and then completely regain Guanzhong."
"only."
Zhong Yao cupped his hands and said.
Zhong Yao was also indignant about being driven out of Chang'an by people like Han Sui and Ma Teng.
Now that I'm back again, I feel relieved.
"Yuan Chang, I remember Guo Yuan, the garrison of Dayang County, is your nephew."
In the morning light of May 22nd, Cao Cao looked at Dayang County on the north bank of the Yellow River.
The Guanzhong Allied Forces were stationed in the north and south, with Huchuquan, Guo Yuan, Hou Xuan, Li Kan and others stationed on the opposite bank.
The noise here had already awakened them. The army had been watching on the other side of the river. Just because they didn't know what was happening on the other side, no one dared to cross the river from Maojin Ferry to rescue them. This fully demonstrated the fragility of the Guanzhong Allied Forces.
.
Zhong Yao sighed and said: "I have written a letter, but Guo Yuan is stubborn and unwilling to surrender to Duke Ming."
"What a pity."
Cao Cao licked his dry lips. If Guo Yuan surrendered, he could also destroy the enemies on the north bank.
While the two were talking, a messenger suddenly galloped up and shouted: "Report!"
"Come in, what's the matter?"
Cao Cao turned his head and his guards stopped the messenger.
The messenger was let in, knelt down on one knee in front of Cao Cao and said: "Report to Sikong. Yuan Jun is digging the Pu River to prepare to flood the military camp. The military advisor is offering wine and I have always reported to Sikong!"
"What?"
Cao Cao was shocked and said: "What's going on now? Did Yuan Rang stop it?"
The messenger replied: "The general led his men out of the camp several times to stop it, but they were shot back by Yuan Jun's arrows. The military sacrifice of wine can only make everyone dig aqueducts in the camp. We don't know the situation now."
Cao Cao's face turned dark and he looked into the distance. He originally wanted to completely annihilate Han Sui and others in one battle, and pacify Guanzhong, so that it could come and recover in the future.
Now it seems that it may not be possible.
He glanced coldly at the collapsed Han Sui army in the distance, waved his hand and said indifferently: "Ming Jin, retreat!"
The sound of "ding-ding-ding-ding-ding" suddenly resounded throughout the world.
Cao's troops began to retreat one after another.
Ma Teng and others followed Cao's army and were attacking Han Sui. At this time, Cao's army retreated and sold him out. They were so frightened that they did not bother to pursue Han Sui. They gathered their troops and retreated to Guanzhong.
Suddenly, the entire Guanzhong Army fell apart in an instant. After returning to Guanzhong, the generals began to fight among themselves again.