The terrain of Runan is open and flat, making it a battlefield that is conducive to attack but not conducive to defense. On this land, there was a battle in the past where Cao Cao annihilated the Yuzhou Yellow Turban Army He Yi, Liu Pi, Huang Shao and other tribes with tens of thousands of people each.
The officers and soldiers believed that this was a blessed land suitable for suppressing bandits, and the coalition forces believed that their deputy commander was Cao Cao Luo Rucai. So how could they fail on this land where Cao Mengde had achieved great victory?
Both sides believe that time and destiny are on their side, and the entire army is gearing up and ready to break the short-term stalemate.
But there was more planning on the side of the Cao Cao coalition. After Li Zicheng adopted Li Laiheng's strategy of rushing to Chu, he decided to adopt a tactic that avoided reality and replaced the illusion, creating a blinding illusion for Fu Zonglong and confusing the judgment of the officers and soldiers.
Therefore, the coalition's first attack was to attack the Zuozhen army stationed in Xinyang.
This is indeed puzzling. After all, Li Laiheng's strategy of rushing to Chu was to seek a breakthrough to the south. Although the attack on Zuo Liangyu also moved south, such a direct and simple action could easily expose Chuang Cao.
The ultimate goal of the coalition forces. Moreover, Zuozhen has a strong fighting force and is not easy to fight. If the coalition forces are forced to attack like this, if they fail to achieve a breakthrough in a short time, they will face the tragic ending of being surrounded and annihilated by the army from the north and south.
However, the generals in the army were not surprised. Obviously, this move of the coalition forces had a deeper meaning.
In order to prevent Fu Zonglong from attacking the rear of the rebel army while the rebel army was attacking Zuo Liangyu to the south, the coalition forces still left Li Guo behind in Ruyang, and Yuan Zongdi, two calm generals, set up defenses to block the attack. The rest of the army moved camp together.
They all went south, but because Fu Zonglong was content to build a stronghold in his "Xiang-Li defense line" and fight in vain, he did not compete with Li Guo and Yuan Zongdi in the end.
The main force of the attack southward was Mali. This time, the pro-military forces led by Li Zicheng and Deputy Commander Luo won the bid. The second battalion of Li Guo and Yuan Zong stayed in Ruyang, and other troops such as Li Laiheng followed in turn.
Behind the general marshal, they gradually moved south to attack Zuozhen, forming a formation of flying geese.
When it was almost noon, the rebel cavalry galloped and shouted, urging the battalions to move quickly, so large groups of soldiers and horses bypassed Xincai and Xixian and headed for Xinyang, in a mighty and mighty manner, with yellow dust covering the sky.
Li Laiheng was at the rear of the army going south. He left the batch of Hongyi cannons presented by Luo Rucai in Ruyang. It can also be seen that the Chuang-Cao coalition forces went south to attack Xinyang this time, and they did not seem to intend to rush away from Zuo Liangyu.
Blockade, led directly from Xinyang to Chu to attack Chengtian Mansion.
Guo Junzhen followed Li Laiheng on horseback and said, "Does the commander predict that Fu Zonglong will leave Xiangcheng and take the opportunity to attack our retreat?"
Before Li Laiheng could answer, Hao Yaoqi worriedly said: "Fu Zonglong has thirty to forty thousand soldiers and horses, most of whom are capable and capable Qin soldiers... and Madman He is also under his command! The supplementary commander and the Han commander are both under his command.
There are only more than 5,000 soldiers and horses in total. If Fu Zonglong comes to attack, how can they withstand it?"
"The Generalissimo and Deputy Marshal Cao would not have thought of this. It seems that they judged that Fu Zonglong would only stand still in Xiangcheng." Li Laiheng said with a smile, "You also guessed the same in Junzhen, right? But even if he really goes south to attack Ruyang
, five thousand men can be carried for a while, waiting for the main force to return... Anyway, our purpose of going south is not really to attack Zuo Liangyu."
This time the Chuang Cao Allied Forces went south to attack Xinyang. In fact, their purpose was to avoid the reality and attack eastward and in the west. Since Li Zicheng adopted the strategy of rushing to Chu, it would be a foregone conclusion for the allied forces to invade Hubei. In order to mislead Fu Zonglong's judgment, Li Zicheng decided
The army first went south to pretend to attack Zuo Liangyu, and then immediately returned north to launch a surprise attack on Xiangcheng and Yancheng.
The purpose was to make Fu Zonglong in the north misjudge that the real battle target of Cao Cao's coalition forces was the northern front, and to make Zuo Liangyu misjudge that the rebel army going south was just a feint attack, so that the famous Zuoping thief could relax his vigilance as much as possible.
After Fu Zonglong on the northern front was ready to fortify the city and attack the thieves, and Zuo Liangyu on the southern front relaxed his guard, it was a good time for the coalition forces to fire a shot in the air and leap into Huguang.
Guo Junzhen once said that he only admired two and a half people in the camp, one was Li Zicheng, one was Li Guo, and the other half was the dead Liu Zongmin.
It now appears that Li Zicheng did have master-level attainments in the movement tactics of avoiding reality and making use of falsehoods, and making false claims in the east and attacking in the west.
Although the entire strategic plan of the Ben Chu Strategy was formulated by Li Laiheng, Li Zicheng's perfection of the specific processes and details of the plan revealed King Chuang's superior skill in mobile warfare.
At least in terms of "moving towards the enemy", Li Zicheng did belong to the first echelon of military leaders in the late Ming Dynasty.
The former Biao Army was about to leave Ruyang. Before leaving, Li Laiheng, Guo Junzhen, Hao Yaoqi and others passed by the place where Cao Cao's troops were camped before: inside and outside the camp, it was no better than the Chuang Army after several reorganizations of the old camp.
It was very dirty, with cow and pig heads, skins, intestines and lungs everywhere, as well as the corpses of some women, scattered everywhere.
After Li Laiheng finished reading, he smiled at Guo Junzhen and said, "Junzhen, have you read the biography of Zhuge Liang in "Three Kingdoms"?"
"Read it."
Guo Junzhen's real name is Guo Xiongli, which means "Junzhen". He uses Chinese characters. He is obviously not an illiterate person, but a semi-literate man who has read some books and gone to some schools. He has naturally read the "The First Four Histories".
"Three Kingdoms".
When he saw Li Laiheng suddenly raising this question, he immediately thought of a sentence in Zhuge Liang's biography, and with a bit of ridicule towards Cao Ying, he laughed and said: "Is the post about Zhuge Liang's death at Wuzhangyuan?"
Although Hao Yaoqi and Zhang Pili had taken many literacy classes, their literacy level was still limited to knowing a few words, and they had no idea what riddles these two were playing.
Hao Yaoqi couldn't help but ask: "Old Guo, isn't the five feet something that Grandpa Kong Ming lit up to extend his life? What does it have to do with us?"
"Haha." Li Laiheng laughed twice and then whispered, "King Sima Xuan went to Wuhou's old fort, looked at his camp, and praised him as a genius in the world. But Luo Rucai's old camp was such a smoky scene, and he
How could it be possible? I would have to have a broken brain to get together with Lao Luo."
If Lao Luo heard this comment, he might shout "Long live understanding". This is not because Cao Ying is too bad, but because your camp is better among the peasant armies.
The coalition troops and horses in the distance had already crossed the river at this time. There were waving flags and flying battle dust everywhere, and countless horns and conch sounds sounded.
Li Laiheng couldn't help chanting: "The flags at the foot of the mountain are in sight, and the drums and horns on the top of the mountain are heard. The enemy is surrounded by thousands of troops, but I remain unmoved."
Guo Junzhen is a person who has read some books, but he has never heard of such a half Que Xi Jiang Yue, so he asked: "The rhymes of this half Que Xi Jiang Yue are weird. It sounds like it has a bit of Huguang."
What’s the accent of the people over there?”
"Hahaha! This is a line I heard sung by a Hunan businessman when we were in Yiling... It's very suitable for the current situation!"
This Xijiang Moon was indeed written by a Huguang native, who was best at mobile warfare in the midst of numerous enemy sieges.