This war is a crucial decisive battle for both sides.
Both sides are making preparations in full swing.
Liu Bei set out from Luoyang at the beginning of November and walked more than 100 kilometers westward to Shaanxi County.
Then based on Shaanxi County, we marched towards Hangu Pass and Hongnong County. Within one day, we conquered every pass and every county, and our advance was extremely fast.
At this time, because the section from Shaan County to Gucheng already belonged to the Qinling Mountains, Mianchi County in later generations was surrounded by the Qinling Mountains and was deeply embedded in the mountains.
So in fact, when Liu Bei arrived in Shaanxi County, the remaining grain and grass carried by the army was indeed only ten days' use, and the subsequent grain and grass could not keep up.
There is no way, the transportation conditions were just like this in ancient times. No matter how much food you have, you can't fly across the mountains, you can only transport it slowly.
The reason why Zhuge Liang invented Wooden Cows and Flooded Horses was not because the terrain in Sichuan was not good for transporting food.
Therefore, under the correct circumstances, after Liu Bei captured Hangu Pass and Hongnong County, he should station troops in Hongnong County and wait for the mountains of grain and grass from Luoyang to be delivered.
As the saying goes, the meal must be eaten one bite at a time, and the road must be walked step by step.
If Liu Bei's army can march at a speed of fifty or sixty miles a day, then the time it takes to transport food and grass is about ten miles a day.
Anyone with a little knowledge of mathematics should be able to calculate how long Liu Bei would have to wait each time he conquered a county.
But time did not wait for Liu Caosun. The three of them all felt that once winter passed and spring arrived, their advantage in cotton-padded clothes would be severely damaged, so they simply chose to push it all the way.
On the fifth day after setting off from Shaanxi County, Guan Yu and Sun Jian's forward troops had already approached Huayin County. In fact, Huayin County was only 200 miles away from Hangu Pass.
If Hu Zhen and Duan Xuan hadn't been delayed for a day between Hu County and Tonghe, they would have landed in Huayin County.
From the west bank of Tonghe River and continuing westward along the Yellow River, everyone saw a plain.
Huayin County can be said to be part of the Guanzhong Plain.
In ancient times, the Qinling Mountains were called Nanshan, and the Guanzhong Plain, located between the Qinling Mountains and the Qiaoshan Mountains, was a vast land known as the Eight Hundred Miles of Qinchuan.
So when the coalition forces passed through the Qinling Mountains, they had already seen the towering city at the foot of Taihua Mountain, and the endless flat land behind the county seat.
"Finally arrived in Huayin County."
Looking at the county and the plains, Cheng Pu breathed a sigh of relief. Since entering Xin'an County from Gucheng, he has been wandering around the mountains every day for more than ten days. He almost vomited.
Han Dang put his hands on his hips and said to Sun Jian: "General, now that we have entered the plains, should our army be stationed on the spot and wait for the army behind?"
In mountainous areas, the army must form a long formation and march separately.
Once on the plain, you can assemble your army and prepare to attack the city.
Sun Jian looked back at the soldiers and asked, "How is the morale of the army?"
"In full swing."
Huang Gai replied.
Along the way, we have fought and won continuously, and we have not lost a battle yet. This is not a good time.
"In that case, why not do it all together?"
Sun Jian pulled out the ancient ingot sword and shouted to the soldiers around him: "Give me the order to rest where you are for two hours, and then attack the city!"
For a stupid, reckless, iron-headed kid, rest? It doesn’t exist.
Along the way, the vanguard army defeated Hangu Pass, Hongnong County, Hu County, Nuxiang and Tonghe. They fought and won consecutive battles, and their morale was extremely strong. Naturally, Sun Jian wanted to continue to break through the passes and seize the city and achieve unparalleled achievements.
Soon, Sun Jian's soldiers ran to the rear to report to Guan Yu, who was still walking this way.
Hearing that Sun Jian was about to attack, Colonel Gao Shun said: "Second General, Huayin County is a high city and the terrain is dangerous, so it may not be easy to capture it. It is better to persuade Grand Administrator Sun to set up camp on the spot and wait for the arrival of the army before discussing."
But Guan Yu shook his head and said: "Our army went out in the vanguard with great momentum. We defeated Dong Yue at Hangu Pass, Hu Zhen at Hu County, and defeated Duan Xuan at Tonghe. How could a small Huayin County do that?"
If Sun Wentai wants to fight those who block our steps, then he will fight."
"However, we still don't know the reality of the enemy. If Thief Dong deploys a large number of troops and horses here, and we have few soldiers, it may be difficult to win."
Gao Shun is quite smart and thinks a lot.
But Guan Yu also learned a lot about his command ability from Chen Mu. He smiled and said: "Zhongda, let me ask you. If you were Dong Zhuo and heard that the Kwantung Army was attacking Chang'an, would you deploy heavy troops in Huayin County or
Heavy troops deployed along Nanshan?"
Gao Shun recalled the hardships of traveling through mountains and rivers, and said without hesitation: "Of course we set up an ambush in the Nanshan Mountains. At least if I were Dong Zhuo, I would never let us cross the Tonghe River in Nu Township, Hu County easily.
Waiting for danger."
"good."
Guan Yu nodded and said, "Tell me, why didn't Dong Zhuo do this?"
Gao Shun thought for a while and shook his head: "I can't think of it. What does the general think?"
Guan Yu stroked his beard and smiled and said: "I think Dong Zhuo is scared out of his wits. His army must be gathered in Chang'an and he dare not send it out at all. There will never be too many troops in Huayin County."
"I see."
Gao Shun felt that Guan Yu was right and nodded in agreement.
This is the problem of poor information.
The Kwantung Army didn't know that Zhu Jun was also attacking Chang'an, so they didn't know that it wasn't that Dong Zhuo didn't want to fortify the Qinling area, but that he didn't have enough troops.
In addition to the lack of troops, the sudden attack by the Kwantung Army in winter was indeed something Dong Zhuo could not have imagined.
Even Xu Rong only knew that the Kwantung Army was coming after Hu County was defeated.
So there is a huge information gap on both sides.
However, the information gap on Xu Rong's side has been made up with the defeat of Hu County. However, the information gap on the coalition's side has always existed.
Therefore, when Guan Yu and Sun Jian's forward troops discovered that there were so few troops along the route and the guards were so lax, they took it for granted that Dong Zhuo was afraid and huddled his troops in Chang'an. They never thought that Zhu Jun was helping them attract firepower.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Under such circumstances, if Sun Jian wanted to continue attacking, Guan Yu would naturally think there was no problem.
So, after two hours of rest, in mid-November, amidst the severe cold blown by the new wind, the vanguard army launched a fierce attack towards Huayin County.
Under the leadership of Sun Jian and Guan Yu, the soldiers' morale was high and they fought bravely.
The Kwantung Army's clothes were all cotton-padded, which were extremely warm. In addition, they marched for a long time, so their blood energy remained strong and their hands and feet were extremely flexible.
On the other hand, the defenders were wearing ordinary linen clothes, which were much worse than cotton clothes. They were shivering in the cold wind, and they fought back with cold weapons. Their hands were covered with frostbite, and their morale was extremely low.
On rows of ladders, coalition soldiers bravely climbed the city wall and almost rushed to the tower several times.
Duan Xuan personally directed the battle, and the rolling stones, wood, and lime kept falling down.
"Kill, kill, kill!"
Sun Jian and Guan Yu took the lead, rushed to the bottom of the city, set up ladders and began to climb up.
Arrows rained down from the city.
After ordinary soldiers were hit by arrows, they immediately fell down, bleeding profusely, and wailing all over the field. But soon new soldiers rushed over, stepped over the previous corpses, and continued to climb up.
Sun Jian and Guan Yu were surrounded by swords and shields, and their hands held up shields to help block the arrows. The arrow clusters hit the shields and made a clanging sound.
"Pour the lime, pour the lime, prepare the wood, one, two, three, throw it!"
Duan Xuan shouted loudly.
The lime poured down, and even a shield could not stop it. Sun Jian was forced to jump off the ladder.
Guan Yu had his ladder broken by a piece of wood and had no choice but to retreat.
But then the two men continued to attack without stopping for a moment.
Although Duan Xuan fought tooth and nail to resist, he was still under great pressure.
Under the leadership of Sun Jian and Guan Yu, the morale of the coalition forces was as high as ants, and they climbed up like ants.
With no other choice, Duan Yan had no choice but to mobilize all his troops, use all his trump cards, and put all the forces in the city on the city wall, and then he could barely withstand the coalition's offensive.
The battle lasted for more than an hour, and Duan Yan repelled the coalition forces three times and climbed onto the city wall before disintegrating this wave of attacks.
Seeing the coalition forces abandoning hundreds of corpses and receding like a tide, Duan Yan was panting and his eyes were full of worry.
Although Xu Rong asked him to conserve his strength as much as possible and just resist symbolically.
However, Duan Xuan felt that the whole show must be completed. If he did not resist at all and just abandoned the city and fled, it might make the enemy suspicious, which would be a bad thing.
Unexpectedly, the enemy's attack was so fierce that it almost destroyed the city.
If it weren't for Sun Jian and Guan Yu being the vanguard, lightly armed and carrying only a few dozen ladders, Huayin County might have been wiped out.
"General, we can't fight anymore. We have few soldiers and the weather is cold. If we continue to fight, the city will be destroyed."
The captains on the left and right gave Duan Xuan hard advice.
Currently on the eastern battlefield, Dong's army has only 30,000 troops deployed. Hangu Pass and Hongnong County are stationed by Dong Yue, with a total strength of only 5,000. The entire army has been wiped out.
Hu Zhen's troops in Hu County also suffered heavy losses, with 5,000 troops, so Duan Xuan and Xu Rong did not have many troops left.
Moreover, most of the troops were in the hands of Xu Rong, while Duan Yan only had 8,000 men in total. He had fought Sun Jian and Guan Yu in Tonghe before and lost more than 1,000 men, but now he only had 7,000 men.
Although in the famous Battle of Suiyang in history, Zhang Xun relied on 7,000 men to resist Yin Ziqi's army of more than 100,000 for a year.
But the problem is that Suiyang is an important town in the Jianghuai River Basin. It has a high city and thick walls, so it has the conditions to resist the army.
Huayin County is an ordinary small county town in the Han Dynasty. The city is only two or three feet high, almost four or five meters high. It cannot be compared with such an important town as Suiyang. Therefore, if we continue to fight like this, the city will be destroyed sooner or later.
matter.
Duan Xuan smiled bitterly and said: "I don't want to fight either. I just want to try to resist. Who knew the opponent was so ferocious."
Zuo Zuo asked: "In that case, what should we do now?"
"The forward troops of the Kwantung Army are already so fierce. When their army presses in, I'm afraid we will all be buried in the city."
Duan Xuan said without hesitation: "Give me the order to withdraw our troops tonight and go to Zheng County."
"only!"
The captains on the left and right were overjoyed and hurriedly went to deliver the order.
The sky has darkened, and the coalition forces in the distance are cutting down trees and preparing to set up camp.
Duan Xuan quietly took his troops and evacuated from the west gate.
Before leaving, all Duan Yan's troops stood in front of the Huayin County Granary, each holding a torch in their hands.
Following Duan Xuan's order, countless torches were thrown into the granary.
The firelight soared into the sky, shining on Duan Yan's serious and frowning face, which was clearly cloudy and sunny.
Even if we want to withdraw our troops, we must not leave food and grass to the coalition forces.
That night, Sun Jian and Guan Yu saw a fire in the city and knew that something had changed, so they sent scouts to investigate the situation.
After learning that the defenders in the city had withdrawn, the two men immediately mobilized their entire army to capture Huayin County.
Two days later, Liu Bei's army arrived and settled in Huayin County.
The 70,000-strong army passed through the most dangerous Qinling Mountains, and this time only took about seven or eight days. If you include the time from Luoyang to Shaanxi County, it only took half a month.
It is now late November, and there is still more than a month of winter left. The climate is extremely bitter and cold. At least this weather is extremely favorable for Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Sun Jian and other allied forces.
The most important thing is.
After passing the Qinling Mountains, we are very close to Chang'an.
The distance from Huayin County to Chang'an is less than 300 miles. The whole road is flat and there is no danger to defend!