After the exploratory attack, Liu Bei discussed with everyone the difficulty of attacking the city. Everyone thought that the enemy had been entrenched for a long time and might not be able to easily break through the siege, so they all said they could only think of other strategies, but what strategy should be used to deal with it?
, everyone is at a loss.
When it comes to the reason why the Han army was unable to defeat the enemy quickly, everyone knows it. The main reason is that the enemy attacked first and seized the gap before the army arrived. If the Han army wants to defeat the enemy, it must first cross the gap.
Back then, Xiang Yu defeated Emperor Gaozu's 560,000-strong army in Pengcheng and marched into Henan with a complete victory. He thought that the world was at peace, but he was blocked in front of the chasm. He could not break through for two years, which shows the danger of the chasm. And now the Cang army is even more dangerous.
It is about three times larger than the Han army, making it even more difficult to break through the defenses.
Just when everyone thought that the year's war was about to end with no results, General Duan Xuan came up with a suggestion. He had experienced wars in Liangzhou for a long time and had encountered this kind of situation many times. He said: "General
Don’t be impatient, autumn has arrived, and it’s a good time to fatten up your horses. We’ve been waiting here for half a year, so why worry about waiting another two months?
By October, ice and snow will fall in winter, and the river and the chasm will be frozen. Our army, with more than ten thousand large horses on horseback, can tramp across the river ice and storm the siege. However, the rebel army's cold clothes are thin, and their limbs cannot lie down.
How can we behave accordingly? Once the gap is broken, the false emperor is captured and the false dynasty is destroyed, it is like a backhand."
When Liu Bei heard this, he praised Duan Xuan and said: "Ting Jian often said to me, if you don't plan for the whole world, you can't plan for a moment; if you don't plan for the overall situation, you can't plan for a region. If you are loyal to this plan and have a thorough understanding of the time and place, you can be said to be a famous general.
."
So he ordered the generals to gather their horses in one place, and Duan Yan was responsible for feeding the horses and training the troops to prepare for the next war. But at this time, Cao Cao raised objections again. He said: "In the past year, I have suffered a lot from moth thieves in Yanzhou.
, fully aware that his battles are not very brave, but his tactics are extremely cunning. General Duan's strategy is certainly reasonable, but if the enemy sends people to cut ice along the water in winter, what should our army do?"
This is indeed a problem, but Xun You on the side replied: "This is not a difficult task, as long as the bandit army can be deployed elsewhere so that no one has time to dig ice."
Zhang Fei was surprised when he heard this and asked: "Since our army cannot break through the gap, how can we divide our troops and mobilize the thieves? Isn't it too risky to allow His Highness King Chen to enter Yan!"
Xun You said with a smile: "That's not the case, but Ming Gong had previously asked General Guan to row a boat from the river into Yan. I'm afraid he already had a suspicion in his heart."
Everyone turned their attention to Liu Bei. Liu Bei held his sword, nodded, and said with a smile: "I knew I couldn't hide it from Gongda. It's not that I have any clues. This is all Yuan Zhi's design."
Xu Shu was in Chenggao at this time and was not here. Liu Bei still thanked him in public and explained in detail: "Yuan Zhi had a discussion with me earlier and said that although the enemy's force was huge, it seemed to be unkind navy soldiers. This is our
What an opportunity!"
Everyone suddenly realized and thought: It turns out that at the beginning of the month, General Guan came across the river, seemingly to rescue the two generals Xiahou Dun and Cao Ren, but more importantly, he wanted to see the reality of the Gengcang navy!
As the commander-in-chief of the navy, Guan Yu said of the enemy: "I took a boat eastward last month. The enemy's fleet was so large that it was difficult to say that it was skillful to pilot it. It could only be said that it could only be transported by water."
Cao Cao then said with great joy: "In that case, why not use a boat to flank and attack the enemy's rear? As a herdsman in Yanzhou, Cao Cao is willing to be the vanguard of the army!"
But Liu Bei waved his hand and said: "Zhongming has just mentioned the countermeasures, and there is no need to take such risks. What the army needs now is someone who can build a camp behind the enemy to mobilize the enemy's heavy troops, and then hold on until winter. Meng De your army
Since I have no experience in boating, I think Deming should be responsible for this move."
The Deming he mentioned was none other than Zhang Xian, the former governor of Changsha and current general of Anton. After all, Zhang Xian had been in Jingzhou for a long time, and his subordinates often trained naval forces in Yunmengze. Most of them were people who were skilled in naval warfare. Zhang Xian often
I was worried because my subordinates were not familiar with horse fighting. When I heard Liu Bei's arrangements, I was relieved. I stood up and promised, "Since it is the general's order, I will do everything I can."
The plan was settled, and the next step was to prepare. Xu Shu was stationed in Chenggao at this time to be responsible for rebuilding ships. In half a month, he built 245 stern ships, each of which could accommodate 70 people.
The ship and the planks were all wrapped in cowhide, and a large hole was opened in the bow of the ship, which was equipped with iron pile heads for ramming the enemy. Zhang Xian was very satisfied when he saw this, and after two days of getting familiar with it, he took the ship on August 14th.
Depart from Heqiao.
Just at this time, there was another light autumn rain. The yellow leaves on both sides of the bank were knocked down by raindrops, and the turbid current became even more turbid. The river was full of yellow, but the people on the bank seeing off were very happy.
As we all know, the last autumn tide is here, and this is the best time to take a boat eastward.
Before leaving, Liu Bei held Zhang Xian's hand and said: "The success or failure of one hundred thousand soldiers is entirely in your hands." After that, he said to the Jing people who got on the boat: "As long as you can hold on until
The river is frozen, no matter whether you are demoted or not, you can be awarded two levels of knighthood!" The morale of the whole army was greatly boosted, and they all expressed their intention to stick to Liu Bei. Zhang Xian was also very moved and promised Liu Bei: "If this matter fails, General
Just look at my head."
So the fleet weighed anchor and sailed eastward along the autumn tide, sailing down three hundred miles in less than half a day. When passing by Juan County where Gengcang was stationed, Gengcang's army was already prepared after the battle last month, and they all headed toward the river.
The arrows hung with pine trees were shot, but under the autumn rain, they could not penetrate the cowhide, and naturally they could not ignite the cockroach. The Han army on the cockroach responded with arrows, hitting the south bank like fallen leaves, leaving many corpses and even
Three small boats carrying grain were also captured.
From then on, no one stopped on the shore. Zhang Xian was able to reach the north of Puyang City that night. According to the original plan, they planned to camp ten miles east of Puyang City, but one mile further east, Zhang Xian discovered that Gengcang's army was here.
There are three iron ropes, and it cannot be broken through in a short time. However, if you stand here for too long, enemy troops will come to encircle you, and the encampment will not be possible.
Zhang Xian made a prompt decision and chose to turn the ship around and return to the city twenty miles north of Baima City, with his back to the river, and disembarked to build a fort. It was already Mao hour, and Zhang Xian knew that time was running out, so he first asked some people to go ashore and build several forts on the river bank.
After the small camp with a capacity of a thousand people was completed, he planned to dig trenches around the camp and then divert water from the river into the trenches to ensure preliminary defense.
Two hours later, the soldiers of the Geng Cang Army indeed appeared in the south. They were different from the ordinary soldiers on the front line. They were riding brown horses and wearing thick leather armor. The long swords in their hands still remained strong in the autumn rain.
The cold light flashed, and they were obviously elite soldiers of the Geng Cang Army. What was even more eye-catching was that these people had a small loess-colored moire flag tied to their backs, which looked like rocks rolling in the air in the wind and rain.
There are about a thousand of these people. They are elite soldiers composed of Gengcang Situ Guancheng and his followers. They are famous for the yellow flags on their backs. They are called the "horse flag army" within the Gengcang army. They are led by their general Wu Juqi.
After relieving the siege of Dongmin, they moved their troops to Baima, preparing to rest here and then move to Yuanyang to change defenses. At this time, they encountered the Han army's attack. They took the initiative to ask for help, intending to destroy all the Han army's fortresses.
When Zhang Xian saw them arriving and saw that none of his forts had yet been repaired, he was very anxious. He called all his officers over and asked them: "When I was in Changsha, I defeated the bandits and the bandits were all bandits and barbarians.
A hundred horses would be considered a big deal, but the thieves I met today were extraordinary, with thousands of horses charging into the formation. When it comes to water and foot battles, I am actually not afraid of them, but when dealing with these knights on flat ground, I
But there is nothing they can do. Now that the matter has come to this, I would like to ask you for help. Who can stop them? I am willing to express my merits in front of the general!"
Everyone in his tent looked at each other in shock, not daring to speak for a moment. This is no wonder, Zhang Xian is not good at riding and fighting, could they be good at it?
Just when Zhang Xian was disappointed, a middle-aged man suddenly came forward and said: "This is not a difficult task. When I usually train troops, I often think about how to fight the enemy in the north of the Yangtze River and how to control the cavalry. I have also gained a little. If you don't
If you don't like it, then let me go and fight the enemy!"
Zhang Xian was overjoyed when he heard this and thanked the man: "Unexpectedly, today there is a strong man like Han Sheng! Okay! I will send my best nine hundred soldiers to you, do you think you can do it?"
"Nine hundred is too much. You only need to give me 600 soldiers and 800 crossbows, and I will definitely win!"
"Good! Good! Han Sheng is a true warrior!"
The Han Sheng he was talking about was one of the officers donated by Liu Biao. His name was Huang Zhong, who was from Nanyang and was sent to Zhang Xian's army by Liu Bei. Zhang Xian was originally at odds with Liu Biao and had no intention of re-employing Huang Zhong, but at this critical moment, he did not care.
There were many, and six hundred soldiers were hurriedly handed over to Huang Zhong to see how he would fight against the enemy.
At this time, the Ma Banner Army had already rushed in from the gap in the camp. Some Han soldiers tried to assassinate the enemy, but they were no match for the Ma Banner Army's fast horses. After a few charges, the Han troops in the camp were smashed into pieces.
Organizing an effective resistance, some Han troops prepared to flee to the river bank, but not many escaped, and the exit was blocked. They were driven to the wall and stabbed to death by Gengcang troops.
Their leader, Wu Juqi, was getting ready to fight when he suddenly heard from his subordinates that someone was coming from the north. He looked north, and then he saw hundreds of brightly-looking soldiers approaching, holding large wooden poles in their hands and walking very slowly.
, so much so that they seem to be squirming, but their goal is obvious, precisely to interrupt their cavalry.
When Wu Juqi saw this, he was very disdainful and said to his subordinates: "I think the enemy army has lost its head." Then he became excited again: "These are soldiers, they must be the enemy's elite. Wait for us to kill them."
If you shoot them dead, the enemy will be helpless!" After saying that, he immediately gathered his knights and surrounded Huang Zhong and the others.
But Huang Zhong was calm and commanded the soldiers to form a circular formation, and still walked slowly towards the Gengcang Army.
The Ma Banner Army knew that they might not win in a head-on fight, so they spread out, drew a large rolling circle around the circle, and kept shooting arrows at the Han Army. The Han Army did not resist at first, but kept shrinking their formation.
The flag army also shrank its formation, and before they knew it, most of the knights were within the range of the infantry.
At this moment, Huang Zhong suddenly shouted loudly, and the Han soldiers dropped their wooden poles one after another, revealing the powerful crossbows under the wooden poles. In the enemy's flying arrows, a dense rain of arrows was reflected and fell into the air.
More than two hundred men and horses were immediately killed and wounded in the guarding horse banner army. Then they all shouted loudly and tried their best to chase down the injured knights.
In a hurry, Wu Juqi suffered a big loss. After fighting for two moments, he found that he could not gain the upper hand. For the sake of the overall situation, he abandoned more than a hundred corpses and hurriedly defeated the White Horse.
The Jing people didn't care about these private individuals. They seized the time and continued to build the fort on the same spot.