The summer sun is scorching, the north wind is blowing on the distant hills, and the leaves of the forest trees in the mountains are whirling and rustling.
Guandu River is a very small river, and it is actually very easy to cross it.
Including this place, it is a ferry in itself, named Guandu, with bridges and docks. There used to be a large number of market towns nearby, but they have now become deserted due to the war.
The reason Liu Bei wanted to go around it was because the surrounding terrain was too complex, with many rivers and lakes.
Honggou Water is less than two miles north of Guandu Water. To the east is Gutter Water, commonly known as Langdang Channel. Further north are Pu River and Jishui. These rivers form a huge Yellow River system nearby.
In addition to these super large rivers, there are countless small and medium-sized rivers, and Guandu River is one of them.
Just like Liu Bei used the Jiuhe water system in the lower reaches of the Yellow River to hold back Yuan Shao, Cao Cao also used the water systems in the middle reaches of the Yellow River and the upper reaches of Jishui to hold back Liu Bei.
Therefore, Liu Bei did not want to deal with the enemy in this position and let the enemy choose the location of the decisive battle. He would be led by others. Many of his counselors had already discussed it and believed that the best strategy was to bypass Guandu.
However, the ancients' information acquisition channels were very narrow, their cognitive methods were limited, they did not have a big map to survey the whole situation, and they could not see the opponent's trust information, so how to circumvent, how to circumvent, and where to circumvent was a problem.
Guandu is the only way to cross Honggou Shui and enter Chenliu. If the army does not go through Guandu, it must go north to bypass Guandu, cross the river from the upper reaches of Honggou Shui, and then enter Fengqiu through Yingou Shui.
Either go south for more than a hundred miles, then go east across Langdang Canal and enter Chenliu County.
But no matter how you go, you have to cross the river.
According to the records of "Three Kingdoms" and "Shui Jing Zhu", in history, Cao Cao's position was Liu Bei's current position, Yuan Shao was on the other side of the river, Zhang He and Gao Lan crossed the river from the south, and then attacked Cao Cao's Guandu camp from south to north.
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Yuan Shao, on the other hand, placed the location of grain and grass at the junction of Yingou Water and Pu River, located in Wuchao Ze, southeast of Suanzao County.
In addition to the two vast rivers of Seigoushui and Pushui, there are also a large number of lakes and swamps.
The largest lake among them is Wuchaoze. After crossing the Yinggou River, you will reach Fengqiu County. Then, walking about forty or fifty miles to the southwest, you will find the current Cao Jun camp.
Therefore, during the Battle of Guandu in history, Cao Cao led his Qingqi to the north, bypassed Guandu, crossed the river from Honggou Water, and then entered Fengqiu from Yingou Water, raided Wuchao, and set fire to the food.
Now Cao Cao is using Fengqiu as the second line of defense, so once Liu Bei's army breaks through the Guandu camp, he will withdraw to the northeast and use the two crisscrossing rivers of Pu River and Yingou River as barriers to continue to delay Liu Bei's advance.
pace of.
It sounds complicated, and the actual situation is indeed complicated. To put it simply, there are too many rivers around, resulting in many lakes, swamps, and water bodies. The rivers crisscross the area, making the soil here soft and easy to fall.
The surrounding terrain alone destroyed Liu Bei's army's cavalry. You must know the composition of the Central South Army and the North Army. The cavalry is also a large part. In addition to the black armor heavy cavalry, there are nearly 10,000 light cavalry.
Now let alone the heavy cavalry of black armor, even the light cavalry cannot participate in the battle.
For the attacker, this is obviously not a favorable terrain. Therefore, it is normal for Liu Bei to plan to go around it.
It's just that it's not that easy to bypass it. The purpose of the battle is to eliminate the enemy's main force. The actual meaning of bypassing it is to trap Cao's army in Guandu.
The main force of Liu Bei's army went to the rear of Cao's army and took advantage of its large numbers to cut off Cao's army's food and grass, thereby completely surrounding Cao's army.
But when it comes to tactics, you can think of it this way, but to actually implement it, you still need to survey the terrain on the spot and understand the surrounding landforms.
This would take a long time, so Liu Bei naturally had to be stationed here to execute this tactic.
The two armies faced each other across the river.
However, everyone knew that the scouts from both sides spread out like a tide.
They fought, watched, and searched everywhere in the wilderness, by the river, at the foot of the mountain, and in the forest. The silent struggle had begun very early.
Scout teams disappear every day, and some scout teams come back to report the results of the battle. Even if the survivors can survive, they often suffer heavy losses. However, with the twenty-level military merit system, Liu Beijun's scouts are more effective in combat.
As long as an enemy can be killed, he will be immediately promoted to a public official and given a reward of 10,000 yuan. This reward is more reasonable. When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty conquered Dayuan, each soldier was rewarded with 40,000 yuan, which was a one-time purchase of the soldier's life.
After a soldier is promoted to a sergeant, the reward of 10,000 yuan is considered as salary. Because according to the twentieth-level military merit and title system, becoming a sergeant will receive an annual salary of 50 dan. Calculated at 220 qian per stone and grain, it is almost 10,000 yuan.
In addition to the annual stones converted into 10,000 coins and rewarded to the soldiers, the title rewards included a hectare of land, a house, a servant, and part of the bonus, all of which were converted into copper coins.
Calculated in this way, a soldier who kills an enemy can get a reward of about 40,000 to 50,000 yuan. The more he kills, the greater the reward and the higher the bounty.
The Qin Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty would only give a small amount of coins as rewards, and most of the bounties were substantial items such as grain, land, slaves, and houses.
After all, there was a shortage of money at the time. Where could the court come up with so many copper coins to reward soldiers? Therefore, they often used physical rewards instead.
Now Liu Bei has changed most of the physical rewards into copper coins. If you kill an enemy, you will be rewarded tens of thousands of coins.
There are 60,000 Cao Cao's troops. If they are all killed, Liu Bei will reward them with 3 billion yuan.
And it's not just about killing the enemy, there are rewards for winning battles. If the twenty-level military merit title system of the Qin Dynasty and the Western Han Dynasty is completely copied, there will be a first-level reward for a small victory and a third-level reward for a big victory.
As long as you participate in the war, you will not only upgrade the soldiers' titles, but also give them a lot of rewards. Even if you don't kill the enemy, you will still get money and things.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! In addition, the expenses for food, weapons, horses, pensions and other various materials have not been taken into account.
Pensions are also a big part of this.
When an ordinary soldier dies, the pension is about 50 dan, and there are also fields, houses and other rewards, which is equivalent to 30,000 to 40,000 dan.
When a civil servant dies, the pension will be about 10,000 yuan more.
By analogy, with every higher level of title, the pension will increase significantly. If a prince dies in battle, the pension and reward may add up to hundreds of millions.
Therefore, in fact, the total destruction of Cao Cao's 60,000 troops would cost far more than 3 billion yuan, and may be more than 5 billion yuan, with no upper limit.
The Qiang of the Eastern Han Dynasty fought indiscriminately for more than a hundred years, with a total cost of more than 20 billion, and they brought down the Han Dynasty.
Liu Bei now only controls a broken man with one-third of the territory, and he is already very poor. Let alone 5 billion, it is difficult to come up with 500 million.
Don't think that 5 billion is not much. Some people in later generations estimated that the money circulating in the country during the Han Dynasty was about 20 billion.
In the Eastern Han Dynasty, after excluding all expenses, the remaining money was 8.3 billion.
That's the data from the first year of Emperor Yuanxing's reign. It can be said to be a relatively high annual income in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Normally, the annual income is less than 5 billion.
Even if there is income, the most fearful thing is that the finances will be negative all year round. During the Qiang Rebellion, the court had to repay money every year to fight wars. The tens of billions accumulated in the national treasury were almost emptied, and the court almost collapsed.
By the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, when Emperor Huan and Emperor Han Ling reigned, the situation was even worse. Their annual income had dropped to rock bottom, and the two emperors had to find ways to make money.
In other words, for Liu Bei to fight Cao Cao, the Eastern Han Dynasty would have to go without food and drink for a year when the annual income of the Eastern Han Empire was at its highest, and save all expenses to be able to afford the fight.
If it were a normal year and you would have to put money in, you can see how expensive it would be to activate the twenty-level military merit system.
This is why Cao Cao dared to fight and tried to kill Liu Bei.
The scouts from both sides started fighting, and the battle lasted for more than ten days. Cao's army lost more than a hundred scouts, and Liu Bei's army lost more than forty.
It seemed that Liu Bei had the upper hand, but Liu Bei spent millions of money on various rewards and pensions, and the real money was flowing like water.
And the expenses are far more than that. Tens of thousands of people have food, weapons, and horses. A steady stream of supplies is being transported to the front line. People eat and horses chew every day, and the money spent is an astronomical figure.
The war with Yuan Shao didn't even cost that much, because Liu Beijun's weapons and equipment became more and more sophisticated, and the price naturally became more and more expensive.
It was not until more than ten days later that Liu Bei's army established a firm foothold on the southwest bank, gathered in the sand and formed a camp, and the fortress was strong.
His granary was still placed in the cunning rabbit's three caves style. Some were transported to the military camp, some were placed in Quyuju to the west of the camp, which is where Liu Bang defeated Qin general Yang Xiong, and some were placed in Zhongmou to the southwest.
county.
If Cao Cao wants to burn Wuchao again, it is probably not realistic.
Both sides transport countless amounts of food and grass every day, and secret scouts go out everywhere to get information, trying to find out the enemy's detailed information. Unfortunately, both sides are well-defended and there are no loopholes.
In mid-July, a counselor suggested to Liu Bei that Cao Jun's army had many sentries on the other side of the river and was heavily fortified. It would be very difficult for the scouts to sneak past and detect Cao Jun's grain transportation route. It would be better to go directly with the army, pretend to attack Cao Jun's camp, and force the coastal fortresses to evacuate.
, allowing the scouts to take action.
This suggestion was approved by Liu Bei, so he wrote a letter of war in his own hand, saying that he had planned to cross the river tomorrow and lead an army to attack Cao Jun's camp.
"Liu Xuande came down with a letter of challenge and asked me to wait for the decisive battle tomorrow. How to deal with the enemy?"
In the middle of Cao Jun's camp.
The letter of war was sent in the morning, and Cao Cao held a meeting of counselors at noon.
Xi Zhicai was in charge of the overall grain and grass situation in the rear, and Cheng Yu was on the Pushui defense line in the north to resist the Jizhou army. Therefore, only Chen Gong and Guo Jia were accompanying him here.
Before Chen Gong could think of anything, Guo Jia said, "This must be Liu Bei who wants to cross the river to find out what is true about us."
Cao Cao nodded and said: "I think so too. The Guandu River is just a small river. What I value is the complex terrain here. But it is still very simple for Liu Bei to cross the river. He must have wanted to press the border with a large army and pretend to attack my camp. In fact,
They sent scouts to investigate my rear areas."
"Our army is anxious, and Liu Bei is even more anxious. A few days ago, I saw the enemy holding a swearing-in ceremony on the other side of the river. In front of our army, they rewarded the scouts who killed the enemy. A large amount of coins were given as rewards. Firstly, it disturbed the morale of our army. Secondly,
Those who reward morale.”
Guo Jia laughed and said: "But it is impossible to last long with such a large-scale reward of coins. At that time, Han Wu could spend more than 10 billion yuan on wars a year, which Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing spent seventy years helping Emperor Wu win.
Basically, Liu Bei just took over a dilapidated court. Let alone spending more than 10 billion, I think spending one billion can collapse the court."
Cao Cao said: "However, the morale of our army has declined a lot because of this. The officers and soldiers in the army may have some complaints. I have been inspecting the camp in the past few days and found that many soldiers have low morale and their fighting will is far less than that of Liu Bei's army."
"This is a matter of course. After all, Liu Bei spent so much money, it must have the desired effect."
Chen Gong thought for a long time and finally came up with some ideas. He pondered: "Ming Gong, I think the reason for the low morale is not only that the enemy rewarded heavily but our army received no reward, but more importantly, our army suffered a lot of casualties during the scout war in the past few days.
Small. So the easiest way to boost morale is a victory."
Cao Cao quickly said: "What's the clever plan in Gongtai?"
Chen Gong thought: "A big victory is impossible, but there is no way to win a small victory. If we can win, we can publicize it and call it a big victory. Since Liu Bei wants to test the details of our army, it is better to use his plan to lure the enemy deeper.
, annihilate their scouts and cut off Liu Beijun’s claws."
Guo Jia frowned and said: "You mean to use our army's food road as bait? Does Gongtai know that our army is now at a disadvantage and the food road must be escorted thoroughly? Once the enemy notices it and sends a partial division to attack Junyi County, we
There is no way to even retreat."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Chen Gong said with a smile: "I have this idea, but I am also thinking about another issue. That is the accumulation of food and grass that we originally planned to retreat.
In Junyi County, why not move to Fengqiu or Xiaohuang County?"
"oh?"
Cao Cao thought about it and pondered: "Is Gongtai planning to use Junyi County as a fake grain storage area to lure Liu Jun to attack, but our army's actual grain storage points are placed in Fengqiu and Xiaohuang?"
"Exactly."
Chen Gong nodded.
Junyi County was located in their rear and very close to Guandu, so it was selected by Cao Jun as a grain garrison.
In fact, this county town is already dilapidated. Just as Yuan Shao did not choose to store grain in Fengqiu, but chose to store grain in Wuchao a little to the north. This is because many county towns in the Eastern Han Dynasty have been dilapidated since the Yellow Turban Rebellion and Dong Zhuo Rebellion.
The entire city may have suffered massacres, disasters, plagues, military disasters, and natural disasters. Not to mention villages and towns, even counties could not survive. Many county towns with named names on the Eastern Han Dynasty had their walls collapsed, and bones piled up like mountains, and trees
Vegetation grew luxuriantly in the city, turning it into deserted ghost towns.
Therefore, these places no longer have any defensive value. If you want to store food in them, the city walls have collapsed, and repairs require a lot of money. It is difficult to maintain the expenses of war, let alone repairing the city. Therefore, many places have county seats on the territory.
, but in fact the city can no longer be used.
The same is true for Junyi County, but Cao Cao knew that this place would become the front line of confrontation with the imperial court in the future, so he repaired it a little and added to the original dilapidated city wall. Only then could he barely store grain and grass as Cao Cao's army garrisoned in Guandu.
The rear granary.
Chen Gong used a strategy to lure Liu Bei's army to attack Junyi County. Some of their troops stayed behind to guard the camp, while the other part set up an ambush outside Junyi County to cooperate with the defenders in the city. All Liu Bei's scouts who would investigate the situation in the future were wiped out.
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It doesn't matter if someone slips through the net and goes back to report Cao's army's grain storage area. Chen Gong feels that Junyi County is not reliable. It is better to transport part of the grain and grass to the military camp for consumption, part to Fengqiu in the north, and the last part to Xiaohuang in the east.
County, so that even if Liu Bei gathers troops and raids Junyi in the future, they will not suffer any losses.
Chen Gong's plan sounded very reliable, and Cao Cao agreed: "Shan, this plan is very good, just follow Gongtai's words."
At that moment, Cao Cao immediately made arrangements. Xiahou Dun had 3,000 men to guard Junyi, and he sent Cao Ren to lead 5,000 men there. Since there were still thousands of men scattered out and garrisoned in fortresses along the river, Guandu main village only had
Less than 20,000 people remain.
This still puts a lot of pressure on Cao Cao's defense, but he is confident that he can withstand Liu Bei's attack, so even if he divides his troops to stage an ambush, he is not afraid at all.
After all, ambushing the enemy and winning a small victory will not only improve the morale of Cao's army, but also kill Liu Bei's scouts. Liu Bei will have to spend a lot of money on his beard, which will further increase his financial burden and prepare to bring down Liu Bei.
However, what Cao Cao didn't know was that there were actually many spies from the Military Intelligence Department hidden in his army.
There are people from the bottom to the middle level. Although there are no high-level people, how can such a marching formation be hidden from those middle-level generals.
Among them was a general named Dong Fang, who was originally Zhang Miao's general. After Zhang Miao's army was annexed by Cao Cao, he has been under Cao Cao's account. But what many people don't know is that he is Dong Zhao's younger brother.
Due to the limited means of communication between the two parties, although Dong Fang knew that Cao Cao had a plan, he did not know what the plan was and could not pass on the information. He could only raise a fire warning.
The so-called hanging fire warning is that at night, Dong Fanghui hangs a torch on a high oar tower in the camp where he is stationed.
The meaning of the content is that Cao Cao has mobilized his troops. I don’t know what he is doing, but it is very likely that he is going to launch a sneak attack.
Every day, people use telescopes to observe the tower.
After seeing it suddenly today, the soldiers who had been observing immediately went to report it to Liu Bei.
Liu Bei was very nervous for a while, thinking that Cao Cao was going to attack him at night, so he quickly mobilized his troops to prepare to resist Cao Cao's sneak attack.
As a result, they waited all night without waiting, which made the soldiers quite tired.
Fortunately, Liu Bei did not put all the soldiers on guard, but only sent the soldiers who were on guard at the time. The large army was still fully rested and could send troops to fight.
After a beautiful misunderstanding, on the second day, Liu Bei's camp gathered tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and built a pontoon bridge in the south to prepare to cross the river.
The Guandu River is just a small river. The widest point is only more than ten feet. The deepest point is only two or three feet. The shallowest point is over a person's waist. This means that this is the upper reaches of the Guandu River. If it is the lower reaches, the water flow will probably be even smaller.
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The army easily crossed the river, began to form troops, and headed towards Cao Jun's camp.