Chapter 74 A pot of porridge in troubled times (2)
Before dark, Cao Jun launched the first round of offensive.
From morning to evening, the soldiers worked hard to make a large number of ladders. Cao Cao also arranged for the soldiers of the three armies to work in shifts. Some people rested first, some pretended to attack the city, and others made siege equipment.
Although Yuan Shu was also working in three shifts, his soldiers had not slept for two days and one night. From fighting during the day yesterday, to being killed and dispersed by the ambushed Cao army in the afternoon, and then running away all night, today was already the second night, almost eighteen
Hours, thirty-six hours without sleep, no one is an iron man.
Fortunately, the first round of attacks was not too fierce. It was just a tentative attack and was quickly repulsed.
But in the second round of attack, Cao Cao had already found the weak point and launched a fierce attack. First, he pretended to rush in from the west gate of the front, and then suddenly attacked the north gate from the flank. He attacked from the gap in the wall in the northwest corner. Yuan Shu's army was caught off guard.
He was quickly killed by Cao Jun on the top of the city.
The two sides started a fierce battle on the city wall. Seeing that the city was about to be breached, Yuan Shu immediately pulled the resting reserves onto the battlefield. After desperate resistance, he barely managed to push Cao's army back.
However, Cao Jun's offensive was like a tidal wave, one wave after another. Anyone with a discerning eye could see that if the attack continued like this, Yuan Shu would not be able to hold on for long.
At this moment, on a hilly hillside to the west, Cao Cao was riding on his horse, looking into the distance.
Although his command did not capture Xia Cai, he was not discouraged because he knew that Yuan Shu was at the end of his strength. Although he still had twice as many troops as his, his morale had dropped to the bottom. It would have been nice if there was no mutiny on the spot.
With constant attacks, I believe that by tomorrow at the latest, he will be able to break through the city gate and capture Yuan Shu.
"Ming Gong, it seems that Yuan Shu can't hold on much longer."
Guo Jia said softly from the side.
Cao Cao nodded and said, "Well, as long as we defeat Yuan Shu and then return to attack Lu Bu, the entire Huainan can be secured."
Guo Jia pondered: "Lü Bu fled from Chenliu to Runan, but did not join forces with Yuan Shu. He only had one way to go to Xuzhou. Ming Gong put his hope in Liu Bei, but I am afraid he is trusting someone who is not so kind. Liu Bei is not so kind.
Help you drive away Lu Bu."
"Why don't I know?"
Cao Cao narrowed his eyes, looked at Cai Chengchi from a distance, shook his head and said: "But this battle is the key to whether we can expand our strength. If we can capture Jiujiang and take all the land in Huainan, it will be crucial for us.
ah."
Cao Cao was not a fool. Lu Bu was on the edge of the battlefield and just watched from a distance. After Yuan Shu was defeated, he ran away without a trace. Naturally, he could not have returned to Chenliu.
Chen Liu was already a dead end, Xi Zhicai was guarding Jiyin, guarding him to the death. But Sun Ce defeated Yuan Shu, and Lu Bu in Runan had no chance to take advantage of him. So in such a vast world, where could he find a refuge?
Only the area around Peiguo could be Lu Bu's target.
Although Cao Cao was forced to come here by Lu Bu before, his main force is still in Yanzhou. Now that Yanzhou has been captured, whether it is the deployment of troops or personnel arrangements, Yanzhou is the main force and Xuzhou is the second.
What's more, Yuan Shu still exists. If Cao Cao only wants to compete with Lu Bu in Xuzhou, then Yuan Shu may still attack him after licking his wounds and regaining his strength. Therefore, if you don't take advantage of Yuan Shu's defeat now and beat him up in the future,
Maybe it will be counterattacked by Yuan Shu.
After all, compared to Lu Bu's few troops, Yuan Shu still has overall strength. For Cao Cao, who is currently aiming for hegemony in the south, he is a greater threat than Lu Bu.
However, Cao Cao would naturally be on guard against Lü Bu. In addition to sending a message to Cao Ren and Xiahou Dun, asking them to guard and not attack easily, he also asked Liu Bei for help, saying that Lü Bu might attack Xuzhou and asked him to send troops to help.
It's just that Liu Bei hasn't replied to Cao Cao yet, so I don't know if Liu Bei will help.
But no matter what, now is an opportunity for Cao Cao.
Opportunity to annex Huainan.
If he can capture Jiujiang, he will own most of Henan except Runan. With his greatly increased strength and another year or two of training, it is not impossible to compete with Yuan Shao and Liu Bei for the world in the future.
So he had to take a gamble, whether he was betting that Liu Bei would come to help or that Cao Ren and Xiahou Dun could withstand Lu Bu's pressure, he had to give it a try.
Thinking of this, Cao Cao's eyes were as bright as fire, and when he looked down at Caicheng Pool, he was already full of fire.
One day, he will soar into the sky!
.......
.......
The current situation on the battlefield in Yuzhou is very complicated.
Liu Bei led his army northward, crossed Liang State, entered Jiyin County, and headed towards Jizhou.
He originally came to guard against Yuan Shao's army moving south, but Yuan Shao's troops and horses just entered the territory of Dongjun and stopped moving. For a while, he couldn't figure out where the opponent was coming from, and the two sides were in a stalemate and wait-and-see stage.
In December, when Yuan Shao launched an attack on Gongsun Zan, Xun Yu quickly sent him a message. Only then did he realize that Yuan Shao was just a feint.
Shan County, Liu Bei's army was stationed here. After hearing the news, he immediately summoned everyone to discuss the next move.
In the mansion, generals and counselors from all walks of life gathered together, but Xu Chu was not here. He had just joined Liu Bei's army. Although he had brought thousands of villagers with him, his starting point was relatively low. He was currently only serving as a military commander of Liu Bei's army. It was impossible.
Participate in high-level military meetings.
But he still stood in the hall as an attendant.
Guan Yu, Zhang Fei Ju, Tian Feng, Zhang Liao, Gao Shun, Qian Zhao and others sat down one after another. Liu Bei looked around and said to everyone: "Everyone, two major things have happened in today's discussion."
"What's wrong, Ming Gong?"
Jushou asked curiously, "I have nothing to do these days. They mainly train their troops. They often send small groups of troops to suppress bandits and clear out bandits. The big army soon falls ill."
Liu Bei said seriously: "A letter came from Pingyuan. Yuan Shao took action against Bogui, and Lu Bu wanted to attack Xuzhou."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "What?"
Jushou was quite surprised and said: "Yuan Shao actually has the courage to attack Gongsun Bogui?"
Tian Feng pondered: "It must be because we were transferred away from the plains and plunged into the battlefield in the south, which gave him the idea of not missing the opportunity."
"I think so too."
Liu Bei said: "The most urgent task now is to return to Qingzhou and rescue Gongsun Bogui."
Guan Yu immediately said: "Brother, why don't we gather all the elite troops from Luoyang and attack Wei County together?"
"Surround Wei and rescue Zhao."
Jushou and Tian Feng looked at each other, this was a solution.
However, Yuan Shao made a sudden move at this pass, and it is impossible that he did not take precautions against Wei County. I am afraid that the success rate of this strategy should not be high.
really.
Liu Bei shook his head and said: "Wen Ruo wrote a letter saying that Yuan Shao has deployed heavy troops in Wei County, with more than 100,000 troops on defense. He is afraid that it will be difficult to attack. He suggested that we go north immediately and pretend to attack Qinghe State first. My second brother, you should return to Luoyang.
, bluffing and pretending to attack Wei County."
Jushou said: "This is the safest way, and it should be so. But after all, we are in Henan at this time, seven or eight hundred miles away from the plains. When we return, it will be half a month later, and we don't know what the situation will be by then.
What will happen?”
This is the advantage of moving the tiger away from the mountain. Yuan Shao joined forces with Yuan Shu and Lu Bu to cause rebellion in the south. Chen Mu deliberately turned a blind eye and instead pushed Liu Bei to go south to quell the rebellion. This was to move Liu Bei away from the north, making it easier to move.
Gongsun Zan's role in the north has done more harm than good. Although he is a force that can be united, after the event is completed, with his strong character, he will definitely not surrender to Liu Bei.
Once the two sides fell out over the issue of Jizhou's ownership, and Liu Bei's character was nostalgic for his old friendship, and he couldn't bear to kill him because of "brotherhood" and showed mercy on the battlefield, then Gongsun Zan would cause greater destructive power than Yuan Shao.
Therefore, Chen Mu must plot against him and drive him back to Youzhou.
Although this is not in line with the best strategy to unite allies and deal with enemies together, there is no way around it, because this has happened to Liu Bei.
According to the records of "Three Kingdoms", when Liu Bei passed through Xiangyang City in history, he clearly had the opportunity to deal with Liu Cong and seize the entire Jingzhou. However, he was concerned about the "same clan friendship" and could not bear to take it away, so he missed the great opportunity.
You must know that at that time, everyone around Liu Cong was willing to join Liu Bei, and the people in the city went out to join him. To kill Liu Cong, it was just a matter of his words. Even Zhuge Liang thought it would work, but in the end, he missed it.
It can be seen that he does have some concerns and cannot be hard-hearted.
Although he later learned this lesson and made up his mind when dealing with Liu Zhang, no matter what, this was a hidden danger, so Chen Mu felt that it was better to plot Gongsun Zan away in advance and at the same time hit Yuan Shao again, killing two birds with one stone.
.
In fact, Tian Feng and Jushu had vaguely guessed Chen Mu's plan, so they chose to remain silent. They also behaved stupidly in dealing with the matter and did not delve into some of Yuan Shao's strange actions.
But now that the situation has become like this, they can only choose to believe in Chen Mu and believe that he can handle all problems.
After hearing Jushu's words, Liu Bei frowned deeply, and after a while, he said: "No matter what, let's go back first. Here in Xuzhou, since Cao Cao is asking for help, he still has to be cautious and not let Lu Bu gain momentum. In this way,
Third brother and Yuan Hao, it will be up to you to take a trip, plus Liang Bi, it should be enough to handle it."
When Zhang Fei heard that he could finally lead the army to fight alone, he was overjoyed. He immediately patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, brother, I will kill Lu Bu without leaving any trace behind."
"Third brother, when you lead the army this time, please don't act on your own. Please listen to Yuan Hao's opinion. Do you understand?"
Liu Bei's frown deepened.
He was afraid that Zhang Fei would act without authorization, but he also knew that Zhang Fei still listened to Tian Feng's words, so he was not too worried.
"Do not worry!"
Zhang Fei promised steadfastly.
After making military arrangements, Liu Bei decided to set off immediately.
Zhang Fei and Tian Feng led 5,000 troops to support Dian Wei and deal with the affairs in Xuzhou.
There is no need for many men and horses, because there are ten thousand men and horses on the Dianwei side, and Cai Yang has thousands of men and horses on the East China Sea side.
Liu Bei felt that everything was safe, so he led his troops northward.
.......
.......
The vast land was filled with loneliness.
Pengcheng was the former capital of Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu. The city was three feet high and quite strong.
At this moment, everything is quiet and the Sishui River flows slowly.
The city is located on the south bank of the river. The Bin River comes from the Langdang Canal in the northwest, joins the Sishui River in Pengcheng, and extends to the southeast.
The two rivers met in the north of Pengcheng and went around the river. The city diverted water to form a moat. Coupled with the already strong city, this place was easy to defend but difficult to attack, as strong as a fortress.
South of the city is an endless plain area with lakes, forests and a few hills. In history, Xiang Yu once returned to Pengcheng and defeated Liu Bang's Han army here, killing hundreds of thousands of people, which shocked the world.
On the south bank of Surabaya, about four miles away from the city, there are large forests. As spring approaches, the grass grows and the orioles fly. The originally withered and yellow world gradually becomes green, dotting the mountains and rivers.
Ji Ling's 20,000-strong army is now stationed here. After moving north from Huainan, he first entered Guangling County, defeated Xiahou Dun and Cheng Yu's troops, and was forced to flee north.
Immediately afterwards, Liu Xun's troops attacked Pei State and defeated Cao Ren and Chen Gong's troops in Xiang County. Cao Ren defeated Wu County and withdrew into Pengcheng, where he joined Xiahou Dun and Cheng Yu and defended tenaciously.
certainly.
This is what Liu Xun and Ji Ling wrote in their progress report to Yuan Shu, bragging a lot.
In fact, this is just a plan by Chen Gong and Cheng Yu to lure the enemy deeper.
After all, their combined troops are less than ten thousand, only eight or nine thousand, so it would be unwise to confront the enemy head-on.
Therefore, they deliberately abandoned the city and fled, and under the arrangement of the two men, Cao Ren and Xiahou Dun fought several ambushes on the way, successfully blocking the forward troops pursued by Liu Xun and Ji Ling, killing and wounding two to three thousand people.
But in Yuan Shu's view, he thought that the troops on the east route were advancing rapidly and would soon capture the entire Huainan area, so he held firm in Runan until the war in the east stabilized and reinforcements arrived as soon as possible.
Who knew that after Liu Xun and Ji Ling entered the Pengcheng Kingdom, they suffered a defeat in Pengcheng. At the same time, Dian Wei led the army into Xiao County to the west of Pengcheng.
Defeat the enemy who will attack in the future.
As a result, Liu Xun and Ji Ling's tribe were in a stalemate with Cao Ren, Xia Houdun and Dian Wei's tribe. The two sides had several conflicts in Pengcheng, Xiaoxian, Wuxian, Luxian and other areas, in various townships, in the wild, and near the city.
battle.
Xiahou Dun, Cao Rendian and Wei's tribe were victorious because they took the initiative and used the city as a stronghold to attack in all directions, constantly harassing the enemy's rear and cutting off their food routes. Liu Xun's Ji Ling tribe, on the other hand, had a large number of people. After all, it had an army of 40,000 and had won consecutive battles.
The morale was like a rainbow, so in a short period of time, both sides were very anxious, with each other winning or losing.
At this pass, the messenger sent by Yuan Shu arrived at the camp of Ji Ling and Liu Xun, asking them to return immediately for rescue. This happened on the third day after Yuan Shu sent the messenger. Huainan and Pei State were close at hand, and they rode on horseback.
Galloping, protecting a little bit of horsepower in the middle, it only takes two days to get there.
When they learned that Yuan Shu was besieged by Cao Cao, they were both shocked and immediately packed their bags and prepared to withdraw.
The two of them were not stationed in the same place. Liu Xun was in Wu County, fighting against Dian Wei's army. Ji Ling was outside Pengcheng, attacking Cao Ren and Xiahou Dun. Since Liu Xun was closer, he received the news first, so he started immediately
Preparing to withdraw troops.
It was also the first time for Dian Wei to lead an army on an expedition. When Tian Feng was there, he still knew how to fight. After Tian Feng was gone, he felt very uncomfortable, so he stayed on the defensive during this period and did not dare to take the initiative to attack.
But the scouts detected that Liu Xun's troops were preparing to evacuate, had already packed their bags, and started heading south, which immediately made him tangled.