Many counselors gathered in Wei County, Yecheng, and Yuan Shao's mansion.
Xu Youxunchen, Liu Huishen, Shenpei and others all looked at that point on the map almost at the same time.
This point is located in the middle reaches of Qinghe River, at the intersection of Julu County and Qinghe Country, and the bridge boundary bridge on the Qingshui River to the west of Guangzong County in Julu County!
Why did Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao fight at Jieqiao in history?
It is because Jieqiao is an important traffic artery. If you want to cross the Qinghe River, you must pass here before attacking Wei County.
Of course, you can also go along the south bank of Qinghe River to the upstream direction of Huanshui, but that would be too far.
What's more, whether it was Gongsun Zan in history or Liu Bei in Qingzhou today, the direction of attack was from the northeast to the southwest, that is, from Dezhou, Shandong in later generations to Anyang, Hebei.
The geographical environment may be very different in later generations, but in the Han Dynasty, the northwest of Wei County was basically an endless flat plain area with almost no danger to defend.
The entire Qinghe Kingdom and Bohai Kingdom are the best grain-producing areas in Jizhou. The terrain here is flat and the population is large. During the period of Emperor He, the population of Bohai County alone reached more than 1.2 million, and Qinghe Kingdom also had 7.8 million people.
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Therefore, these two counties can be said to be the best battlefields for cavalry. The wars between Yuan Shao and Gongsun Zan either took place at Jieqiao by the Qinghe River, or at Longcuo by the Yellow River, or at the Battle of Juma River.
, until the attack and defense of Yijing, it was not by the river.
From this point of view, Yuan Shao's idea of confronting the enemy is still very clear. He knows that the function of cavalry can be effectively restricted near rivers, so he chooses the decisive battle location near the river every time to prevent Gongsun Zan from taking advantage of the cavalry.
Now that the Qingzhou Army is attacking, although Yuan Shao still has nearly 200,000 troops, all his cavalry have been wiped out, leaving only a large number of infantry. As a result, he has lost the ability to engage in large-scale decisive battles with Liu Bei in the wild.
Because with the invention of the stirrup, mounted archery is no longer the exclusive preserve of those with superb equestrian skills. Ordinary cavalry can also shoot arrows while riding a horse, and this tactic itself was invented by Qingzhou.
In this way, when infantry and cavalry are fighting on the plains, they are basically living targets and can easily be kited.
Therefore, Yuan Jun could only fight positional warfare.
This is the conclusion drawn from the configuration of the arms of both sides, and for Yuan Jun, fighting positional warfare can better bring out the advantages of infantry group formations.
After all, the Qingzhou Army's trapped camp is one of the most powerful forces in the world. If they charge into the formation, they will be unfavorable. If they fight in the wild, the heavy armored infantry will be too lethal, and Yuan's army will have no chance of victory.
Therefore, they could only choose to stay by the river. The riverside was silted up and the land was relatively soft, which not only restricted the performance of the cavalry, but also restricted the heavy infantry. It could be said to kill two birds with one stone.
After hearing the analysis of the counselors, Yuan Shao also believed that the decisive battle could only be fought with the enemy by the river, but they had not yet discussed the specific location.
Guo Tu and Xin Pi believed that Ganling City should be the first line of defense. The main reason was that Ganling City was the seat of the Qinghe State. The city had high walls and thick walls. After many years of operation, it had become the front line against Qingzhou. It would be a pity to give up, even if it could not be done.
In a decisive battle, some troops should be left behind.
Xu You, Liu Hui and others believed that they should concentrate their forces and complete the victory in one battle. The army was stationed in the Jieqiao area. This was the only way for the Qingzhou Army to pass. It was enough to fight the Qingzhou Army here. There was no need to disperse the troops.
enemy.
Because the two sides had differences, they argued for several days. Everyone had their own reasons. Yuan Shao hesitated for a while and couldn't make up his mind. They argued for several days without any result.
"Ganling City has high walls and thick walls. It is the administrative seat of the Qinghe State. It only needs to send 20,000 to 30,000 people to withstand an army of 100,000 people. Moreover, the city is wide and it is not a problem to store 20,000 to 30,000 people for one or two years. This place must not be like this.
Give up, Mr. Ming, you have to think clearly."
Guo Tu urged: "If Ganling is handed over to the Qingzhou Army like this, Liu Bei will definitely use Ganling as the hub for frontline grain and grass operations. Even if we defeat Liu Bei at Jieqiao, he can retreat to Ganling and regroup.
If we attack again, Ming Gong, then we will always be passive and unable to fight back, which may be detrimental to our army."
Xin Pi also agreed: "Ming Gong, Gongze is right. In a war of this scale, if it is not about food and grass, the outcome cannot be determined by one or two battles. If Ganling is in Liu Bei's hands, it can be attacked."
, you can retreat and defend, you can attack again at any time, please think twice, Ganling must not be lost."
"It's a joke, your reasons are simply nonsense."
Shen Pei and Guo Tuxin were at odds with the Xunchen and Yingchuan factions. He sneered and said, "If Ganling is assigned troops, the city will be left alone. When the time comes, Liu Bei will surround Ganling. Should we save him or not? What are you saying?"
Not only are we going to send Ganlingbai out, we also need tens of thousands of defenders!"
"Shen Zhengnan, what do you mean?"
Guo Tu was not happy at that time, and glared at him and said: "Ganling and Jieqiao are very close. If Liu Bei attacks the city, he will be in an invincible position. Do you think we can defend him at Jieqiao?"
To attack, his food and fodder are all in Ganling, and Ganling must be heavily guarded. Can we still attack Ganling?"
Shen Pei immediately retorted: "Since it was you Guo Gongze who proposed to keep Ganling, why not let you serve as the guard of Ganling. When Liu Bei's 100,000 troops come to the city, I only hope that you Guo Gongze can hold on.
City, don’t be afraid to open the city gate and surrender.”
"Jian Zhengnan, you!"
Guo Tu opened his eyes angrily and looked at him fiercely.
Feng Ji and Xu You stood silently on the sidelines, watching with cold eyes as they quarreled.
Historically, Fengji was at odds with Shenpei at the beginning. After the Battle of Guandu, because Fengji and Shenpei both had a clear distinction between public and private matters, they became good friends and formed a faction.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! But now their factions are still different. Fengji Xu You is the Nanyang faction, Liu Huishen is the Jizhou faction, Guo Tuxin is the Yingchuan faction, and Xun Chen is the Yingchuan faction.
The factions are still fighting endlessly and are hostile to each other, so Feng Ji will naturally not speak up for Shen Pei.
The current situation has changed a lot. Originally, the Yingchuan faction was the first to lose power, because Guo Tu and Chunyu Qiong were defeated by the Qingzhou Army in succession, resulting in a severe decline in status and almost fading out of the center of power.
But later, the Shenpei failed in Dahegudu, which caused Yuan Shao a lot of losses. In addition, Liu Hui never provided any good ideas to Yuan Shao, which caused the Jizhou faction to decline slightly.
Then Xu You's attack on Jinan was frustrated again. The strategy he proposed to attack Yanzhou with a partial division did not work, and many troops were lost. Fengji also guarded Yecheng, and suffered several attacks from the Luoyang army, causing Wei County to lose troops and generals.
Even the generals Yan Liang and Wen Chou died in the battle, so the Nanyang faction naturally lost face.
As a result, the Yingchuan faction slowly came to power and entered Yuan Shao's field of vision again.
Now the three parties are fighting endlessly, and their opinions cannot be unified, which makes Yuan Shao's brain almost explode. He was originally in a bad mood due to the setback of the attack and the heavy losses on Wei Jun's side, and his health was also deteriorating. He watched several counselors again
Getting into a quarrel made Yuan Shao furious and his face became increasingly ugly.
Just when Shen Pei and Guo Tu were facing each other tit for tat, and Yuan Shao could no longer hide his anger and was about to get angry, Liu Hui, the mainstay of the Jizhou faction, finally spoke. He said to the two of them: "Stop arguing now, now is not the time to argue.
.”
Although Liu Hui is from the Jizhou faction, he is relatively upright and has always been prestigious among the officials of Jizhou. Therefore, when he saw him talking, the judge immediately snorted and said, "I can't even understand the current situation. I'm too lazy to argue with him."
"A frog at the bottom of a well can see only a short distance. With narrow eyesight, he can only see the bottom. I don't even bother to talk to you."
Guo Tu also responded immediately.
"Okay, actually what you both said makes sense. The location of Ganling is very important. If Liu Bei uses Qingzhou to attack, we must also use Jizhou to fight back."
Shen Pei wanted to continue to ridicule each other, but Liu Hui interrupted them and said: "The combined armies of both sides can move hundreds of thousands of troops, and a defeat will be like a mountain. Liu Bei at least still has a city to retreat to, but we have no rear behind us."
Way, but have you ever thought about it, maybe there is a better way."
"A better way?"
Everyone looked at each other. Ganling City was very close to the boundary bridge. If it couldn't be occupied, it would have to be handed over to others. Is there any other way?
"good."
Liu Hui nodded: "Since the city is extremely important, why not destroy Ganling City?"
"Self-destroying city walls?"
Everyone's eyes widened, no one thought of this.
You must know that Ganling City, as the largest city on the front line with Qingzhou, was originally the Qinghe State Administration. It is taller and thicker than ordinary county cities. Coupled with many years of operation, it has become an important frontline town, with a maximum capacity of 50,000 to 60,000 troops. The city can
Stock up on food and grass for a year or two.
This is also the reason why Guo Tuhui suggested that some people should stay in the city. Firstly, its location is important, and secondly, it is indeed easy to defend and difficult to attack. It is a very strong fortress, not much worse than Pingyuan City in Qingzhou.
The current situation is the same as Liu Bei's defense of Pingyuan City. If he cannot stop the enemy in Ganling, he might as well abandon the city and send the huge Ganling City away.
As a result, just when everyone was discussing whether to stay or leave, Liu Hui told everyone another way of thinking.
That is, since it cannot be defended, then destroy it.
At least not for the enemy.
"If you think about it carefully, what Zi Hui said does make sense. Since we can't send troops to defend it, let's destroy the city."
The judge thinks this method seems to be good.
Guo Tu said quickly: "No, absolutely not. Ganling has been in business for many years, how can it be destroyed easily? If it is destroyed, wouldn't all the previous efforts be wasted? Ming Gong, Liu Bei has been running Pingyuan for many years, and he also wants to use Pingyuan City to stop our army. Ming Gong can see
To Liu Bei to destroy the city?"
"This time, that time."
Liu Hui explained: "Qingzhou is coming now and wants to fight us to the death. There are not many dangerous places that we can use. Unlike Qingzhou, which can stick to the river and stop us north of the river. So sometimes, we should
A strong man has to make up his mind to cut off his wrist. It is best to destroy the shell hill and Tobu City together, so that we can stretch the Qingzhou Army's supply line and find a way to cut off their food route."
Destroy the shell mound and Tobu Castle together?
Everyone was shocked by Liu Hui's idea. This was not a strong man's attempt to cut off his wrist, it was clearly an attempt to wipe out the entire Qinghe Kingdom.
Guo Tu immediately objected: "Ming Gong, this method will never work. It is clear that Ganling can garrison troops, why should we destroy the city? Originally, Ganling was far away from Qian County, and it could be used as an outpost to block the enemy's attack.
In order to vent the enemy's momentum, why do you need to destroy the city wall? Don't you know that when "the three capitals fell", Qi State stationed troops on the border of Lu State? "
"this......."
Yuan Shao was shocked, shook his head and said: "Gongze is right, there is no reason in this world to destroy the city wall, Zi Huimo don't say it anymore."
Liu Hui sighed and said, "I know Duke Ming, but it's up to Duke Ming to make his own decision."
Everyone put the matter aside and continued to discuss.
no way.
After all, Ganling had worked hard for many years. It was obviously impossible for Yuan Shao to demolish such a large city at his request. He did not have the courage to directly demolish a large city.
So even though what Liu Hui said seemed to make some sense, Yuan Shao still didn't dare to make such a decision.
In the end, no charter was produced.
However, Yuan Shao still planned to mobilize the army first to prepare for the war with Qingzhou.
In fact, in the past two years, although the Qingzhou Army and Luoyang Army also lost a lot of people, Yuan Army suffered even greater losses.
Including the Luoyang side, about 40,000 to 50,000 people were lost, killed and captured. In the attack on Qingzhou, tens of thousands were also lost. Seriously calculated, Yuan's army's strength was reduced by almost one-third.
However, Jizhou has a strong foundation. It does not cost one million to carry armor. It still has two to three hundred thousand to carry. In addition, it has been training reserve troops. It is not a problem to recruit two hundred thousand troops.
In addition, when attacking Qingzhou, Yuan Shao's foundation was not destroyed. His basic strength and strength were still there, so it was not impossible for him to fight to the death with the Qingzhou army.
However, without the cavalry, Yuan's army is much inferior in terms of mobility and formation. Therefore, it can only take a defensive stance at present.
The boundary bridge must be the first line of defense, it's a no-brainer.
Liu Bei's counselors could analyze that it wasn't because they were very smart, because even a person with a little knowledge of military knowledge should understand what the only way to go is.
Therefore, the boundary bridge must be defended. How to defend it specifically, and whether to abandon Ganling City or not, these are all decisions Yuan Shao must make before the battle.
At present, he believes that it is better to start mobilizing for war first and wait until the army is stationed in Jieqiao before making a decision.
The meeting lasted for a day and was not broken up until it got dark.
Liu Hui got on the carriage and went home slowly.
As soon as we arrived at the door of the house, the housekeeper came up and said, "The master of the house has guests visiting."
"have a guest?"
Liu Hui was a little unhappy because Yuan Shao had not adopted his strategy during the day. When he heard that there was a guest, he wondered: "Who is it?"
"I."
Xun He walked out of the mansion and looked at him calmly: "Zi Hui, let's talk about the future of Jizhou."
When Liu Hui saw that it was Xun He, he was not surprised. He stretched out his hand and pointed to the house and said: "Please!"
"please."
The two entered the house and began their discussion.