After Zhang Xun received Yuan Shu's order to return to defense, he decided to withdraw his troops without hesitation.
Cao Bao naturally disagreed. After all, in his opinion, it was obviously unwise to retreat when the entire Yanzhou was about to be captured.
But whether he agrees or disagrees, he has nothing to do. His hometown is almost gone, and he has already occupied most of Yanzhou for him. There is nothing to blame for withdrawing at this time.
It’s just that you have to persuade, and it’s good to buy a little more time. Unfortunately, Zhang Xun made up his mind to leave tonight. The two had some disputes and broke up unhappy. Zhang Xun led an army of 30,000 to withdraw overnight.
Yanzhou swaggered through Jiyin County and went south to attack Liang State.
As soon as Zhang Xun left, Cao Cao's pressure dropped sharply. At this time, Cao Bao only had 40,000 men left. Although it was still twice as many as Cao Cao's men, facing the cunning and cunning Cao Cao, Cao Bao's intelligence and extra troops could not defeat him.
Seems so insignificant.
On the south bank of the Yellow River, the March spring breeze blew gently, and willows were floating on the river bank. Between the undulating mountains on both sides, dozens of small boats floated down the river, arriving at the bank of the Yellow River about 20 kilometers north of Juancheng, 200 miles away from Puyang.
Puyang in later generations was on the north bank of the Yellow River, and Juancheng was on the south bank of the Yellow River. However, the Yellow River in the Han Dynasty did not change its course, and its geographical location almost ran through the urban area of Puyang in later generations. Therefore, Puyang and Juancheng at this time were both on the south bank of the Yellow River, with reeds on the river banks.
The waves were rippling, and dozens of small boats slowly docked.
The Yellow River has huge waves, and the river surface can reach several kilometers at its longest point. Although the river surface in the Dongjun section is not as far as the Mengjin section, which can reach more than ten kilometers, and the distance between the two banks is more than 20 kilometers wide, it is not far different. Looking from the south bank
The North Shore is endless as far as the eye can see.
Especially in the middle of the river, the waves are turbulent, rolling like sea waves. The waves can reach more than ten meters at their highest. An ordinary boat walking on it, like a small boat in the sea, is in danger of capsizing at any time.
The name of Cao Cao's boat is Lulu, also known as walking boat. It is a kind of troop transport ship in the Han Dynasty. Because of its light body and flying speed, it did not dare to go in the middle of the river. It could only go to the bank of the river and follow the current to ripple eastward. Even if
In this way, two ships were capsized by the waves, and people died and the ship was destroyed.
These northern soldiers obviously suffered a lot in the boats. After they docked, a large number of soldiers started to have weak legs and vomited when they came ashore.
But there is no way. Soldiers are very fast. If you want to be invisible, you have to use transportation. It is not impossible to walk along the river, but in that case, you will have to walk two hundred miles for three or four days, and you will not be able to make up for it in time.
Cao Bao never dreamed that Cao Cao had personally led an army of five thousand to come behind him. There were no troops deployed along the Yellow River for defense. His main force was all east of Puyang, and he was completely unaware that Puyang was now an empty city.
As a result, Cao Cao easily landed from the north of Juancheng and sent out scouts while stationed on the spot to rest.
There were many checkpoints and soldiers guarding the area near Juancheng, but these checkpoints were of no use to Cao Cao and could hardly serve as any early warning.
Because Cao Cao was originally a herdsman in Yanzhou and had been operating in Dongjun for more than a year. He could not be considered deeply rooted, but he still had a good mass base. These checkpoints had already been clearly checked by Cao Jun's scouts disguised as villagers.
After hiding for a day on the south bank of the Yellow River and waiting for the soldiers to regain their strength, Cao Cao received news that a new batch of grain and grass for Cao Bao's army had set off from Linqiu and was on its way to Juancheng.
There were not many escort soldiers in this batch of food transporters. It seemed like there were ten or twenty thousand soldiers. In fact, most of them were auxiliary soldiers and civilians, with little combat effectiveness.
When Cao Cao learned the information, he was overjoyed and immediately decided to prepare for an attack.
His current location is on the south bank of the Yellow River, near Qinting by the river. This place is located on the bank of the Yellow River, about thirty kilometers to the southeast is Linqiu, and more than twenty kilometers to the southwest is Juancheng. The three places form a triangle.
And if you transport grain and grass from Linqiu to Juancheng, it is actually equivalent to traveling from the right bottom corner of the triangle to the left bottom corner, while Cao Cao's position is from the top corner south, directly inserting into the center of the bottom edge of the triangle, intercepting
Live the grain and grass transported to Juancheng.
A simple triangle diagram can clearly summarize the current situation.
Cao Cao personally led the army, and the former army was led by his younger brother Cao Chun. Of course, Cao Cao now does not have tigers and leopards, but the 23-year-old Cao Chun already has the style of a general. His army is neat and well-trained. He almost goes rampant along the way.
Destroy a large number of enemy checkpoints and fortresses to open up a path for the rear army.
In just over 20 kilometers, it took only half a day to arrive under the urgent march. This speed was fatal to the defenders of Linqiu and Juancheng, because Cao Cao's army had already entered the Jishan area between the two places.
.
The sun was shining brightly in late March, and it would be the beginning of summer in a month. Cao Cao was riding a horse, surrounded by lush mountains and trees on both sides. The sunlight was shining down, reflecting his mottled reflection.
A big battle was taking place on the official road not far away.
Cao Chun's former army successfully intercepted the grain and grass baggage shipped from Xuzhou to the front line. Horse-drawn carriages and ox-carts carried the goods, stretching for miles with no end in sight.
Almost just after noon, the grain transport team was preparing to take a rest in Jishan before setting off again in the afternoon. Cao Jun, who was ambushing in the nearby mountains and forests, suddenly came out. Cao Chun took the lead, followed by Li Qian, Yu Jin, Lu Qian and other generals, leading the army.
With his soldiers under his command, he fought with the enemy's grain transport soldiers.
The grain transport convoy was caught off guard and had no idea that Cao Jun would attack at this time.
But the only good news is that the generals who will lead the troops and transport food this time are the Taishan thief Sun Guan, whom Tao Qian recruited from Mount Tai.
Sun Guan and Zang Ba were old acquaintances from the same hometown. Zang Ba originally planned to invite him to come to Qingzhou after he established a foothold in Qingzhou, but Chen Mu stopped him.
Chen Mu asked Sun Guan to accept Tao Qian's recruitment. The reason was very simple. When Chen Mu passed by Mount Tai, Sun Guan robbed him. He had a grudge against Chen Mu and was afraid of being killed by the No. 2 man in Qingzhou.
I dare not invest in Qingzhou.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! However, in fact, Sun Guan was beaten away by Wang Lang when he came up, which did not threaten Chen Mu's safety at all. The two sides naturally did not have much grudges, and
Sun Guan is also willing to join the Military Intelligence Department.
So the reason why Sun Guan appeared in Tao Qian's army is naturally worth pondering.
But now at least he is still under Tao Qian's command, and he is not at war with Qingzhou. If Sun Guan wants to climb to a higher position, he has to work hard, so facing this situation now, he will naturally not think about escaping.
While calling the soldiers to gather towards him, he ordered the archers to get ready.
Under the command of Sun Guan, many soldiers soon surrounded the convoy. The more than 300 Xuzhou soldiers at the front and the more than 2,000 people from Cao Chun's front army started a desperate battle.
Hundreds of Xuzhou soldiers formed a defensive formation near the front of the vehicle, followed by rows of archers; more Xuzhou soldiers were greeted by the officers, carrying ring-shou knives and howling like wolves, giving orders.
The auxiliary soldiers pushed the carriages and ox-carts to the front, and then filed up alongside the carriages, using the carriages as obstacles to fight to the death.
These soldiers were all elite personal guards brought by Sun Guan from Mount Tai. They were extremely loyal. After contact with Cao Chun's former army, there were roars, echoes, weapons blocking, and miserable howls on the battlefield in front of the carriage.
The humming almost never stopped.
From noon to late afternoon, for more than an hour, the convoy was undergoing a severe test, and there was no end in sight to the fierce fight.
A steady stream of reinforcements are coming from the rear of the convoy, and the fighting at the front of the convoy has reached a fever pitch. The food and grass transported this time is the baggage of Cao Bao's 40,000 troops for three months. It is crucial to the Xuzhou Army, so in addition to more than 10,000 auxiliary troops,
Together with the civilian husband and four thousand soldiers, under the command of Sun Guan, all the soldiers bravely fought against Cao Cao's army.
The sound of weapons handing over, wailing, and crying can be heard endlessly. The breeze blows over the hills. The air seems to be filled with the smell of blood. The blood of soldiers from both sides is splashed everywhere on the vehicles and the ground. In many places, the yellow-brown rammed earth is completely covered with blood.
It was soaked and turned into a dark red color.
Scattered grain and grass and blood-stained weapons can be seen everywhere, bald tailed arrows and broken weapons are scattered all over the place. Starting from the hill to the north where Cao Chun attacked, all the way to the head of the endless grain transport convoy,
The corpses of soldiers from both sides who died in battle were piled randomly along the way. The blood was so thick that it seemed to stick to your feet when you stepped on the ground.
"withdraw!"
With a shrill cry, the Xuzhou soldiers finally couldn't bear the heavy casualties. Sun Guan led his guards to fight a bloody road, fought and retreated with the remaining soldiers, and evacuated along the official road slowly towards Linqiu.
.
Their casualties were too great. Even though these soldiers transporting food were elite soldiers from Xuzhou, after more than two hours and an afternoon of fighting, their number was reduced by half.
Many people say that armies in ancient wars would collapse with extremely low casualty rates, which were often around 10%-30%.
However, this is obviously a fallacy. In fact, part of the reason why cold weapon armies are prone to collapse is because they suffer low casualty rates.
But what's more, the existence of "battlefield smoke" and the improvement of communication capabilities cannot keep up with the expansion of the battlefield. Therefore, battles with a scale of 10,000 to 20,000 people are often more brutal, while battles with more than 100,000 people will cause the battle line to break through even one point.
's collapsed.
To put it simply, the smaller the number of people, the easier it is for them to die in a small-scale battle involving thousands or 10,000 or 20,000 people if they meet a good general. Such a war will be more brutal and the casualty rate will be greater.
The larger the number of people, the limited communication capabilities. Once one army is frustrated, it will easily cause a chain reaction. If the army is defeated like a mountain, other armies will also collapse together.
The most typical examples are the Battle of Kunyang and the Battle of Feishui.
How many people can be killed by a meteorite?
As a result, due to various reasons, the 420,000-strong army was attacked from the flank by Liu Xiu with 3,000 death squads, resulting in a complete rout of the entire army.
The same was true in the Battle of Feishui. Liu Laozhi's 5,000 Beifu elite crossed the river to attack, and Fu Jian's front army moved back. This move caused everyone to think that the front line was defeated. The central army and the rear army instantly became extremely chaotic, and even the enemy was in contact with them.
There was no contact, and it directly evolved into a battle royale.
Sun Guan's army was not on the verge of collapse until 50% of it was reached. This was not because of how elite these soldiers were, but because they were small in number and easier to command. In addition, Sun Guan's elite guards were in front of them at the beginning, so they were able to support them.
Until now.
It is definitely not comparable to the Qi's army and the Baigan soldiers who were wiped out and fought to the last man. But reaching this level is already very remarkable. Even Cao Cao praised this general as a very good one.
But the top priority now is not to appreciate talents, but to destroy food and grass. At that moment, all Cao's troops took out the prepared fish paste, lit torches, and began to burn.
The sky-wide fire burned instantly and soon spread all the way to the rear of the grain transport convoy. However, because the convoy was too long, the official road was densely packed with carriages, and Cao Cao also wanted to take away all the cattle, horses and mules transporting grain, resulting in
The ignition speed was very slow, and it took more than an hour to ignite half of the food and grass.
"Ming Gong, enemy reinforcements are coming."
General Li Qian hurriedly came to report. This place is located in the middle area between Linqiu and Juancheng. The people who reported the message were deserters from the sentry posts that Cao Chun defeated before. It would take at least an hour or two for these people to run back to Linqiu or Juancheng to report.
In addition, the enemy still had to come, giving Cao Cao enough time.
It is a pity that Cao Cao did not calculate that the generals who were transporting food could resist him for more than an hour. Otherwise, all the food would have been burned clean. Thinking of this, Cao Cao felt regretful, but fortunately most of the food and grass had been disposed of.
Even if the enemy could rescue them, the number would definitely not be large, and Cao Bao would still be unable to avoid the fate of food shortage in the end.
"Withdraw troops!"
Cao Cao stood on the hill and gave the order. His army also lost nearly a thousand people, but the results were obvious. Almost two-thirds of Tao Qian's army's grain and grass were burned, and they also obtained thousands of horses to transport grain and grass.
Horses, cattle and mules, even if these animals are not used for work, are brought back to Puyang and the cattle and sheep are killed, which should be used as a reward for the three armies.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! After they left, the reinforcements from the direction of Juancheng and Linqiu arrived belatedly. They were too late to catch up with Cao Cao's army who had fled away, so they could only put out the fire on the spot.
After several hours of fighting, the reinforcements finally succeeded in rescuing about 100,000 stones of food and grass, recovering one-third of the losses.
It's just that this amount of food and grass is too small compared to the number of Cao Bao's troops who are now alone. They can only feed Cao Bao's troops for about 20 days, because in addition to the soldiers, the army also has a large number of auxiliary soldiers and craftsmen. The actual number is more than the soldiers.
Number of people.
Tao Qian had just raised a batch of grain, and it was very difficult to raise a second batch in a short period of time. The original plan was that after this batch of grain, the next batch would be available two months later.
In addition, Cao Bao still had some surplus food in his army, so he had enough time. Therefore, the destruction of food and grass this time severely affected Tao Qian's plan.
Two days later, upon hearing the news that the grain and grass had been destroyed, Tao Qian, who was always known for his kindness in Xuzhou, broke his most beloved jade pendant.
Five days later, Cao Bao launched a fierce attack on Xiancheng. This time the momentum was unprecedented, and both sides tried their best.
Especially during the battle at the top of the city, Cao Bao's army rushed to the top of the city several times. The two sides launched fierce hand-to-hand combat, and the fighting was extremely brutal. The pressure on the defenders such as Xiahou Dun, Xia Houyuan, Cao Ren, and Cao Hong in the city was extremely high. Under their desperate fight,
He led the death squads to charge several times, and the city changed hands several times, and finally managed to defend it.
In the next few days, Cao Bao continued to attack as if he was crazy. The corpses of soldiers from both sides were piled randomly in the corners on both sides of the city. Some of the corpses had severed limbs that were too late to be moved, so they were kicked around under people's feet.
The fighting was so intense that no one could spare the manpower to clear the battlefield.
However, even though Xiancheng looked crumbling several times, it was not captured after all. Everyone knew that this was Cao Bao's last attempt. If he could not defeat Xiancheng and capture Puyang in a short time, he would be under pressure from food and grass.
, he would have to withdraw his troops.
Some people may say that the battle has reached this point. The reinforcements were transferred away by the enemy in a plan to encircle Wei and rescue Zhao, and most of their own food and grass were burned. Maybe it is time to withdraw the troops. Why must we continue to fight?
But the problem is that for Tao Qian, this attack on Yanzhou is to achieve his strategic goal. If Yanzhou cannot be captured, his dream of dominating Henan will never be realized.
Regarding the difficult situation of Qingzhou to the east and Jizhou to the north, as the place of the Fourth War, if Xuzhou does not find a way out, it will be a dead end.
But things in this world are 90% unsatisfactory. Even though Tao Qian tried his best, he could not win Yanzhou after all.
By early April, Cao Bao finally withdrew his troops.
This battle has almost reached its limit for both sides.
Cao Cao's troops reached their limit, and suffered huge losses in the battle. Of the 20,000 men, only seven or eight thousand were left intact. Nearly four or five thousand men were killed, and there were seven or eight thousand wounded.
Cao Bao, on the other hand, really couldn't sustain the food supply. If he continued to fight, he wouldn't even have enough food to withdraw to Xuzhou.
With the destruction of grain and grass this time, Cao Bao failed to capture Xiancheng and Puyang in a short period of time. Tao Qian's dream of occupying the two states and claiming the Central Plains together with Liu Bei, Wang Fen and Yuan Shu was also shattered.