At this time, news came from Ying Zheng. As expected, just as Shen Bing thought, the response to Anling City was:
"Anling City is not available, we should find another way."
Yang Duanhe couldn't help but frowned when he saw the news, and then immediately summoned Shen Bing to discuss...
Shen Bing had foreseen this, but he still pretended to be embarrassed and said:
"Since Anling City is unavailable... we have no choice but to capture Chen City and use Chen City as our base.
Yang Duanhe frowned and hesitated:
"But this Chen Cheng..."
Shen Bing knew what Yang Duanhe was worried about.
Chencheng was the original capital of the Chu State. Not only was its city wall thick, it also stored a large amount of grain and was garrisoned by 100,000 Chu troops.
Although the Qin army has 200,000 troops, plus Shen Bing's Liang army, there are 270,000 troops.
But these troops are enough to attack Chen City. How can they also attack the city and seize the Huaihe River to divide and surround the Chu army.
And this is only the strength of the Chu army in Chencheng. Caozhou also has 150,000 troops led by Xiang Yan himself.
If these two cities support each other... it will not be easy to capture Chen City.
Shen Bing did not take it seriously and said:
"Don't worry, General, it's not difficult to capture Chen Cheng!"
Yang Duanhe couldn't help but wonder:
"Why is the lieutenant so sure?"
Of course Shen Bing was sure, and Shen Bing even knew that Xiang Yan would give up the entire Huaibei.
Xiang Yan can't give up Huaibei. The land along the Yellow River in Huaibei is fertile and conducive to irrigation. This land is all the land where the king of Chu carries the cud.
If Xiang Yan fought a decisive battle with the Qin army here, he would only consume the troops of Chu King.
Xiang Yan would not do this, nor would King Chu of Chu.
Shen Bing didn't know much about the inside story, but he did know that Xiang Yan would use the strategy of "luring the enemy deep" in this battle.
Since it is "lubing the enemy deep", even if the city is a fortified city in the outer city, the Chu army will not deploy too many troops or be unwilling to defend it.
For example, the Chu army had 100,000 soldiers in Chencheng.
Once these 100,000 soldiers are stationed in Chencheng, they will be surrounded.
Once surrounded, the Chu army would inevitably use more troops to come to the rescue.
With this kind of back and forth, all the Chu army's troops will be "sticked" near Chencheng. How can they "lure the enemy deeper"?
In fact, not to mention one hundred thousand, even the Chu army with ten thousand troops was not willing to put it in Chencheng.
Therefore, Shen Bing concluded from this result that the strength of the Chu army in Chencheng was just a cover, and its function was to frighten the Qin army from taking Chencheng too easily.
Once the Qin army launches an attack... the Chu army retreats with a false shot, leaving Chencheng empty.
Of course, Shen Bing couldn't explain it to Yang Duanhe like this.
Shen Bing replied:
"General, our army's strength now reaches more than 200,000."
"The Chu army has only 250,000 troops."
"Once our army besieges the Chu army in Chencheng, the Chu army will inevitably have a showdown with our army outside Chencheng."
"The flat terrain of Chencheng is conducive to Qin's operations, but it is not what the Chu army wanted."
"That's why I thought the Chu army would abandon Chencheng."
Meng Wu couldn't help laughing "haha" after hearing this:
"Lieutenant general, you may not know that the Chu army has a saying: 'Resistance to the enemy must be based on the important town of Chencheng in Huaibei'!"
"Chen City is an important place in the Chu Kingdom. It guards the upper reaches of the river in the Chu Kingdom. It has been a battleground for the Chu army since ancient times. How could it be abandoned?"
"The deputy general underestimates the Chu army."
In fact, it was Meng Wu who underestimated the Chu army. He only thought that the Chu army would defend one city and one pond as usual, so he still insisted on the previous strategy of attacking Caozhou first and then Chencheng.
Shen Bing cannot refute this, because his analysis is based on "guessing."
In fact, from a military perspective, Shen Bing's approach is not worth advocating, because one cannot rely on one's plan to abandon the defense or fail.
So even Yang Duanhe was a little partial to Meng Wu's style of play, which was to do it step by step.
However, just at this moment, a spy came into the tent and reported:
"General, we have found out that tens of thousands of Chu troops in Caozhou are secretly retreating southward..."
Yang Duanhe was surprised and asked:
"But retreat to Chencheng?"
The spy replied:
"Back to General, it seems that we are retreating to Shouchun."
The reason why the spy answered "it seems" is because no one can be sure where these troops will end up, but they can roughly judge from the direction they are walking.
Yang Duanhe frowned and looked at the map, then looked at Shen Bing in surprise:
"I'm afraid that the deputy general's words have been correct this time, and the Chu army may abandon Chencheng."
The answer is obvious. Caozhou is the flank of Chen City. If the Chu army wants to hold on to Chen City, it must hold on to Caozhou. This was the purpose before Xiang Yan transferred 50,000 troops from Shouchun to Caozhou.
But now, Xiang Yan has sent tens of thousands of troops back to Shouchun and even kept his whereabouts secret...
This means giving up the defense of Chencheng.
Meng Wu still doesn’t believe it:
"Why didn't the Chu army defend this fortified city?"
"And if the Chu army wanted to abandon Chencheng, why did they still build fortifications in Chencheng to block the river?"
Shen Bing replied:
"This time, that time."
"Previously, the Chu army thought that they could occupy Qian City and delay our army's attack on the city, so Chen City could be defended."
"But since the Battle of Qiancheng, if the Chu army wants to defend Chencheng and Caozhou, they must set up defenses along the river."
"This will take hundreds of thousands of troops to operate for several years."
"Especially since our army also has the Black Armored Army and has the advantage of water conservancy, it is even more dangerous to deploy defenses along the river."
"then……"
This is actually the theory that Shen Bing said before that offense is greater than defense.
On the surface, it seems that the Chu army has taken advantage of it. This defense line has Chencheng in the south and Caozhou in the north. There are dozens of large and small cities along the way. In addition, it can also run along the natural dangers of the Yellow River...
Beach landing battles are difficult even in the modern era of hot weapons, let alone the Qin Dynasty.
It seems that the Chu army only needs to set up catapults and deploy archers by the Yellow River to kill half of the enemies on the beach. Even if the other half can rush up, they will soon be surrounded by Chu soldiers and driven back into the river.
The problem is that this line of defense is nearly 500 miles long. The Qin army can attack from any point, while the Chu army must disperse its limited troops to this 500-mile long area.
For example, now, the Qin army has concentrated more than 200,000 troops in Daliang.
Although the strength of the Chu army was not less than that of the Qin army, if the Qin army wanted to attack Chencheng, the Chu army would have to face the Qin army of 270,000 soldiers with one hundred thousand soldiers.
In other words, the Qin army, as the attacker, had the advantage of being flexible and concentrating its forces.
If the Chu army wants to effectively defend the Qin army... it must either have several times more troops than the Qin army and continue to operate for a few more years, or it must shrink its defense line.
Obviously, the Chu army chose the latter, which was to shrink its troops to the Shouchun area to form another line of defense.
This will not only shorten its supply lines but also gain reinforcements and support from nobles on all sides.
Shen Bing guessed that those who went ahead should be the slow infantry, while the fast cavalry still seemed to be resisting in the city.