At this time, Chen Mu did not know that Liu Bei had successfully conquered Gongsun Zan, but he was not worried about whether Liu Bei could conquer him.
Chen Mu knows Gongsun Zan's character clearly. As long as you treat him sincerely, he will also be willing to get along with you sincerely.
And Liu Bei is also a person who can figure out other people's personalities. If you go up to him and act like an emperor, it will be easy for Gongsun Zan to fight you to the death because of his strong personality.
If he had just played the emotional card when he went up, Gongsun Zan would have fallen for this trick instead, and he was really manipulated by Liu Bei.
According to Chen Muce's speculation, it was only a matter of time before Liu Bei persuaded Gongsun Zan. After Gongsun Zan surrendered, the eastern Xianbei, Wuhuannanlou, Pufulu and other tribes also successfully surrendered.
The only remaining ones are minor troubles such as Tadun Gongsundu.
With Liu Bei's army of more than 100,000, plus Gongsun Zan's troops, Xu Rong, and local people Tian Chou, Tian Yu and others planning, it should be possible to pacify Youzhou within this year.
Chen Mu was not worried at all about this.
There is only one problem he has to face now - Liu Biao has sent his general Wenpin to kill him.
A few days ago, Liu Biao announced to all parties that Liu Bei did not ascend the throne as emperor after Guangwu, but must have coerced Liu Yu. Therefore, he called on all the princes in the world to attack Liu Bei, depose Liu Bei from the throne, and return the emperor to Emperor Zhang.
After this official document was circulated, it immediately stirred up waves.
There was a turmoil in Jingzhou.
People living in seclusion in Xianshan and other places have criticized the current situation and explored the consequences of this incident on Jingzhou.
But the entire Han Dynasty was in a strange situation.
That is, except for Liu Biao's announcement, almost no one from the princes responded, even Liu Zhang and Yuan Shu said nothing.
The reason is relatively simple. Only Liu Zhang, Cao Cao, Sun Jian, Yuan Shu and other princes who are nearby know about this announcement. The princes in Youzhou and Bingzhou in Guanzhong are far away and have not yet heard about it.
And Liu Zhang himself is a false emperor. Isn't he a slap in the face by responding to this call?
As for Sun Cao, his response was to seek death.
Yuan Shu has too much time to take care of himself and is now seriously ill. Sun Cao is eyeing Yangzhou. How can he have time to take care of this?
Therefore, almost no one around the princes paid attention to him.
However, Liu Biao had no choice but to fire his arrow. After sending people to spread the notice, he immediately sent troops north to support Zhang Xiu.
Wenpin led an army of 20,000, known as 50,000. The troops left Deng County, passed through Chaoyang County, and entered Xinye. Then they entered Yuyang County in a mighty force, which was less than thirty miles away from Jiyang occupied by Chen Mu.
The current situation between the enemy and ourselves is that Chen Mu is occupying Western Hubei, occupying Bowang, taking the south, guarding Xiyang, and capturing Jiyang. Three of these five places are county towns and two are countryside.
Among them, the most important strongholds are Xiyang Township and Nanjiu Township. These two townships are located to the north and east of Wancheng. If you occupy Xiyang Township, you can attack Wancheng from the front. If you occupy Nanjiu, you can support it from the east. If you occupy Jiyang, you can guard Liu Biao's northward approach.
Reinforcement route.
Except for Xi'e and Bowang, the three places are important strategic locations. Xi'e and Bowang are arranged as rear strongholds. Chen Mu's command post is in Bowang, where he can have an overview of the overall situation.
At this time, it was midsummer and the southeast wind was blowing from Jingzhou. After Wenpin's army entered Yuyang County, they immediately arranged for manpower to contact Zhang Xiu in Wancheng.
The two discussed that they would wait for Wenpin to rest for a day, and on the third night they would raise a fire as a signal, and agreed to attack Nanjiuxiang together.
Over there, Chen Mu, Zhuge Liang, Chen Qun and others were arranging troops in the mansion.
"Jingzhou reinforcements are coming."
Zhuge Liang, Chen Qun and others all looked very serious.
Although the enemy claims to be fifty thousand, any fool knows there is water in it.
Zhang Xian raised an army against Liu in Changsha. It was impossible for Liu Biao not to send troops to suppress it. How could he get 50,000 men?
However, although we know that Liu Biao's army does not have that many people, Zhang Xiu has 20,000 people, so the number of enemies is at least 40,000.
There are only 20,000 reinforcements on their side and the 5,000 reinforcements arranged by Zhao Yun in Ye County. The gap in strength between the two sides is very large. It is indeed a tough battle.
Chen Mu, the old god was there, looked at the students below with a smile, and asked aloud: "Report carefully, Liu Biao's army passed through Xinye yesterday and entered Yuyang City today. What do you think?"
There are students from the School of Geography in the army, and they have already drawn a map of the surrounding areas of Wancheng. Everyone is leaning on the table and looking at the drawings. Chen Qun points to Nanjiuxiang and says: "Master, I expect the enemy will attack directly to the south."
If we are at home, it is better to withdraw our troops first, lure the enemy deeper, and cooperate with General Zhao to annihilate the enemy in one fell swoop."
Zhuge Liang said: "The city of Jiyang is not high, but it has a city wall at least, and Nanjiuxiang is just a rural camp. Taking Nanjiu first will cut off the road for our army to go south to support Jiyang. We should attack here first. But if we withdraw our troops,
, what if the enemy stops pursuing? This battle is to capture Nanyang. If you retreat, you will be defeated all the way, and it will be difficult to win."
Chen Mu saw that Zhuge Liang seemed to have something on his mind, so he said, "What good idea does Kong Ming have?"
Zhuge Liang thought for a while and said: "Jingzhou has not had large-scale wars for many years and is quite stable. Liu Biao's army may not be as good as ours in terms of morale, morale and eliteness. I think we can withdraw from Jiyang and deploy our main force in Nanjiu.
Let’s attack Liu Biao’s army head-on here.”
"What about Zhang Xiu who attacked my rear?"
Chen Qun expressed his doubts, and there was no problem in attacking them head-on, but Nan was located southeast of Wancheng. Zhang Xiu sent troops across the Feishui River and went straight to their rear. If they attacked from both front and rear, our army would be defeated.
Zhuge Liang pointed to the direction of the river north of Nanjiu Township on the map and said: "We can set up an ambush at Wanqiao to intercept Zhang Xiu's reinforcements."
Chen Qun shook his head: "There is not only one bridge in Feishui, there is also one in Xiyang Township, one in Xi'e, and another in Yuyang in the south. Even if all the bridges in the rear are destroyed, they can still come through the bridge in the south."
Feishui is actually the Baihe River in Nanyang City in later generations. It is a medium-sized river. The river surface is still very wide, but there are also narrow places. Because the water flow is relatively gentle, it is not a fast-flowing river that is difficult to build bridges. Therefore, the river surface in the towns and counties along the river is relatively narrow.
There are bridges in the narrow places to accommodate the passage of large armies.
Zhuge Liang said calmly: "So this requires the main force of our army to defeat Liu Biao's army as soon as possible. We can burn the bridges in Xiyang Township and Xi'e, leave Wan Bridge behind, and send the defenders of Ye County south to crouch on the other side of the bridge. The enemy will definitely doubt our army."
To set up an ambush here, we can only go south and cross the river from Yuyang, which will take a long way and give us time to defeat Liu Biao's army."
Chen Mu touched the goat's beard under his chin and said softly: "Has Kong Ming ever thought about what he would do if Liu Biao's army defended Yuyang, controlled the Yuyang bridge, supported Zhang Xiu's army to cross the river, and waited for the combined army to go north to fight us.
?”
"Master, I have thought about this problem. We have detective horses outside Wancheng. Once we detect Zhang Xiu going south, we will attack with a large army, surround Yuyang, cut off the bridges, and prevent Zhang Xiu from crossing the river!"
Zhuge Liang cupped his hands and said, "This way, even if Liu Biao holds Yuyang City and we cannot attack it, we can retreat calmly."
"Um."
Chen Mu nodded approvingly: "It's good to have both offense and defense, so just follow Kong Ming's plan!"
The Nishui River flows from the Funiu Mountains and flows from north to south, almost dividing the entire Nanyang Basin.
Wancheng was on the west bank of the Feishui River, and Chen Mu sent Wu Anguo to station 10,000 elite troops in Xi'e, which was also on the west bank of the Feishui River and north of Wancheng.
At the same time, 6,000 people were stationed in Nanjiuxiang, while Jiyang only had 2,000 vanguard troops. They were not used to defend the city, but only to occupy strategic locations.
If Zhang Xiu came to attack, Wu'an's 10,000 troops would be more than enough to defend Xi'e, and the troops from the south on the east bank could attack Wancheng from the side, achieving the purpose of a flanking attack.
If Zhang Xiu chooses to defend, Chen Mu will advance step by step. It will still be a two-sided attack. His army will cross the river from Wanqiao and cooperate with Zhang Hejun in Xiyang Township and Wu'an State in Western Hubei to jointly attack Wancheng.
Chen Mu's army is not afraid of fighting in the wild. Not to mention that most of the soldiers under his command are elites who have fought in hundreds of battles. Just say that each side has an army of 20,000 people facing each other. Two thousand Xuanjia heavy cavalry under the leadership of Xu Chu can defeat them with a single charge from the flanks.
Zhang Xiu's army was defeated.
Therefore, the purpose of attacking from both sides was to surround Wancheng. No matter whether Zhang Xiu was attacking or defending, it would be difficult for him to escape Chen Mu's encirclement.
But there are variables.
This variable was naturally the reinforcements sent by Liu Biao.
With the intervention of third-party forces, the tactics will naturally change accordingly.
Chen Qun's intention was to withdraw his troops to lure the enemy deeper, and then ask Zhao Yun to come for reinforcements. After his troops were strengthened, he would defeat the enemy in one fell swoop.
But the disadvantage of this strategy is that the enemy may not be stupid enough to follow you all the way to Yingchuan.
If you don't chase after people outside Nanyang, then your strategy will look very embarrassing.
Zhuge Liang believed that Liu Biao's reinforcements came to rescue Wancheng and went north along the Feishui River. It was better to attack the reinforcements head-on on the banks of the Feishui River and wipe out Liu Biao's army in one fell swoop.
In order to delay the time for Zhang Xiu to come to support, the bridges in the rear were burned down, leaving only a Wan Bridge, which made Zhang Xiu suspect that there was an ambush on the other side of the bridge and did not dare to come over.
At this time, if Zhang Xiu wanted to cross the river, he had to take the Yuyang Bridge in the south, taking a long detour so that the imperial army could easily defeat Liu Biao.
I have to say that this tactic is feasible.
Because if Liu Biao's troops wanted to go north to support Zhang Xiu as soon as possible, they had no choice but to go through Feishui.
Otherwise, if you take a long way from Rangxian to Anzhong and then from Niyang to Wancheng, you will have to pass through more than ten large and small rivers in addition to the Feishui River.
Not only was this route long, there was also the risk of being ambushed by imperial troops on the other side of the river.
Therefore, marching north along the Feishui River is the fastest and there are not many obstacles. Even if it is intercepted midway, it is convenient for Zhang Xiu to come to help.
Zhuge Liang's tactic was that although it was convenient for Zhang Xiu to come to the rescue, the bridges in the rear were all broken. If he wanted to support Liu Biao, he would have to take a long way over, and it might take him several hours to join the battlefield.
It was these few hours that became an important time point. They could quickly capture Liu Biao's army before Zhang Xiu came over, and then attack Zhang Xiu again.
This is also the reason why Wanqiao is left behind.
Otherwise, if you don't have a bridge to cross the river and Zhang Xiu's troops leave the city, you won't be able to take the opportunity to capture Wancheng.
When the time comes when people go back and run into the city to hide, it will be another war of attrition.
Judging from the entire layout, Zhuge Liang's plan is remarkable. It can be said that it is both offensive and defensive, and even the retreat has been thought out.
The only problem is that if Zhang Xiu finds out that there is no ambush on the other side of the bridge and only a few people are there to spread suspicion, then the situation will be very bad.
So to a certain extent, it can be considered a risky plan.
However, Zhuge Liang was a cautious man and naturally could not reveal such a big flaw, so he asked Chen Mu to transfer the 5,000 reserve troops stationed by Zhao Yun in Ye County to fill the hole.
In this way, even if Liu Biao's army cannot be captured in a short time, they can retreat safely without worrying about defeat as long as there are supporting troops in the rear.
Chen Mu actually didn't think about any tactics, he just tested his students. Seeing that Zhuge Liang's tactics were steady but with a sharpness, he immediately felt that it was good. After thinking about it carefully, there were no big problems, so he agreed directly.
Got this plan.
At that moment, various orders were quickly transmitted to the armies. After Wu Anguo received the order, he asked Zhang He to withdraw from Xiyang Township, and then burned the bridges between the two places. The fire and smoke soaring into the sky could be seen from miles away as long as one was not blind.
See.
Zhang Xiujun's scout Tan Ma quickly reported the situation to Zhang Xiu, who quickly called Jia Xu to inquire about the situation.
Jia Xu entered the hall and saw that Zhang Xiu was not sitting at the chairperson's seat, but was walking back and forth in the hall, looking like an ant on a hot pot and at a loss.
Seeing him come in, Zhang Xiu immediately rushed forward anxiously and said, "Sir, something is wrong. The imperial army is about to withdraw. Our surrender plan has failed."
"Who told you that the imperial court is going to withdraw its troops?"
Jia Xu looked surprised. Although he had not had much dealings with Chen Mu, based on his analysis of the Shaofu Jun's behavior over the years, he was not a person who liked to give up halfway.
Zhang Xiu then said: "The scouts just came to report that the imperial troops from Xiyang Township and Xi'e County had withdrawn and burned the bridges. Isn't this a withdrawal? They must know that Liu Biao sent troops here and they dare not fight with us.
We fought and chose to withdraw our troops."
"Burn bridges?"
Jia Xu stroked his beard, thought for a moment, looked east, and asked, "Is Wan Bridge also burned?"
"No."
Zhang Xiu answered affirmatively that Wan Bridge is just outside Wancheng City. It is only a mile away from the east gate. You can see the bridge from the top of the east city wall. If someone sets a fire, the defenders in the city will get there.
It's impossible not to know.
Jia Xu suddenly laughed: "The imperial army didn't leave at all. General, think about it, if they wanted to burn the bridges to delay the pursuing troops, then why did they only burn the bridges in Xiyang Township and Xi'e County, leaving Wanwan behind?
Where is the bridge? This shows that they want to delay time and prepare to go south to preemptively attack Liu Biao's army."
"ah?"
Zhang Xiu thought that Jia Xu's words made sense and quickly asked: "Sir, what should we do?"
Jia Xu pondered and said: "This matter is easy to handle. You immediately send someone to inform Wenpin that the imperial army burned the bridges between the two places and planned to attack him south. There is an ambush from the imperial army on the other side of Wanqiao Bridge. We dare not cross the river through Wanqiao Bridge."
, we can only go south and cross the river from Yuyang, and let him attack Nanjiuxiang during the day tomorrow to hold back the imperial army's troops. After we cross the river from Yuyang, we will surprise the imperial army's flank."
Zhang Xiu thought for a while and said, "What if Wenpin doesn't agree to send troops first to hold back the court? He can just say that he is defending Yuyang City and waiting for our reinforcements."
Jia Xu smiled and said: "He is guarding the city, but the bridge is outside the city. They have surrounded Yuyang and blocked the bridge. We will be blocked on the other side of the river immediately. Wenpin came in a hurry, and he will not be able to bring much food and grass.
There is no food in Yuyang City, and the imperial soldiers and horses surround him. He will starve to death in less than half a month. If he wants to defend the city, it is tantamount to death. The only way is to hold off the imperial soldiers and horses first, and wait for our reinforcements.
Only then can we do something.”
"Um."
Zhang Xiu thought about it, nodded and said: "Okay, I will send someone to inform Wenpin."