The stronghold of sour jujubes, Xiao Yuandong really picked it up.

In addition to this battle report, another detailed report was sent back to the Huting camp to tell the process of Xiao Yuandong taking the sour dates.

When the Huainan army surrounded the pavilion, Xiao Yuandong led the people to the east to approach the sour jujube, encountered several ways of the number of two or three hundred sour jujube enemy army, Xiao Yuandong's department was full of cavalry, and the number of people occupied an absolute advantage, in the open terrain on the south bank of the Yellow River was naturally fearless, it was easy to annihilate these enemy troops, and from this it was learned that the direction of the sour jujube did not know the northward movement of the Huainan army.

However, then he noticed that a large number of scouts were sent in the direction of the sour jujube, and when such a situation occurred, it must have been alert in the direction of the sour jujube, especially after capturing a few enemy scouts, he found out the matter of Hu Ting's urgent request for help. Originally, Xiao Yuandong's mission was to block the communication between the two places, but now he was known in advance by the enemy army of Sour Jujube, and it is likely that he will rush to the aid next.

After all, the sour jujube is the concentration of this section of the ferry in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, once the slave army is alert, a large number of troops can be put into the south in a short time, so even if the strength of the enemy army is judged, it must not be based on this to deal with.

After learning that the news had been leaked, in fact, it was meaningless for Xiao Yuandong's cavalry to intercept it again, but he didn't know whether it was clever or simply stupid and bold, so instead of retreating, he decided to ambush the sour jujube reinforcements on the way. The rest of the matter was logical, he led his troops to bypass the main passage between the two places, approached the sour jujube from the flank, and then wandered all the way to the sour jujube, and then took over a large empty camp.

In the face of this result, not to mention that Hurun and other generals were surprised, and even Shen Zhezi couldn't believe it for a while, would it be fraudulent to subconsciously react to this matter in his mind? However, even if Xuan denied this speculation, judging from the information sent back by Xiao Yuandong, the enemy army had clearly not grasped the specific movements of the Huainan Army.

The Huainan Army assembled in March, and by May the main army had completely entered Chenliu, and the enemy had not yet been able to grasp the specific whereabouts of the Huainan Army, which seemed a little incredible, but in military terms it was a normal thing. For example, the strong Han army went out to attack the Xiongnu, and it was frequent to find a huge target tribe, of course, this is also related to the sparse population.

Tens of thousands of troops, a terrific company camp of more than ten miles, if it is completely spread out, it is even more impossible to judge where the main force is, and the means of confusing the enemy, such as increasing and decreasing the stove, and setting up false camps, are tactics that have been played to perfection since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Unless Shi Kan's army had a deep popular base on the south bank of the Yellow River, or dealt with a well-established land-sitting household like Chen Guang, it would not be easy to accurately grasp the movements of the Huainan army by relying solely on the ranger scouts.

In fact, not only did the enemy army not have enough information about the Huainan army, but the Huainan army was also unclear about the layout of the Shikan army on the south bank of the Yellow River. There must be, either too small or undiscovered. Therefore, the Huainan army's attack also had spare strength, Shen Zhezi led more than 10,000 people to the north, Guandu still had more than 7,000 troops as reinforcements, and Lu Yong's army was also continuing to move north along this marching route.

The Huainan army is near the Yellow River, naturally to lay a Yellow River crossing, Huting is a choice, but the main intention is to sour jujube, no matter from which aspect, sour jujube is a better choice than Huting.

Now Xiao Yuandong has no trouble picking up such an important thing as sour dates, which is indeed an unexpected joy for the Huainan Army. But the people of the sour jujube took the initiative to retreat, why is it so Shen Zhezi still can't figure it out at the moment, he ordered the retreat of the troops before the front line, and originally planned to leave the river island in Huting as a bait to seduce the enemy army to rescue the encirclement point and send reinforcements, but seeing that there was a breakthrough in the battle array in an instant, he simply changed his mind and took this place directly.

In this way, the situation of the Huainan army on the south bank of the Yellow River can be described as a great advantage, first of all, the enemy of Heluo was blocked by Guo Yu to the west of the Chenggao Tiger Prison City, and secondly, the two known strongholds of the Shikan army on the south bank of the Yellow River have been taken by the Huainan army, and the Yellow River can be initially used as a line of defense.

But the problem is that this situation is too easy, except for the Huting side, there are almost no decent battles in other directions, and it is completely caused by accidents. The consequence of this was that the Huainan Army was ill-prepared.

Yes, the Huainan Army is very ill-prepared, and although it has the advantage at the moment, it does not have enough strength for how to use this advantage next.

In fact, the Huainan army's northward march was a series of accidents, the first was that the Chenliu war was not going well, the original plan was to completely solve Chen Guang in June, open up the connection with Xuzhou, and then the armies of all roads continued to go north, and at the latest in August to start a battle with Shikan's army.

There was an accident in the war in Chenliu, so Shen Zhezi decided to march to Xingyang in advance, and then Guo Yu made a threat, blocking the passage for Taobao to interfere in the war in Henan in advance. Then Shen Zhezi took advantage of this advantage, and also went north from Guandu in advance, and won Huting with lightning speed, and then Xiao Yuandong's accident occurred, and he won the sour jujube at a faster speed, which can be said to have achieved this advantage one month in advance.

The consequence of this for the Huainan Army was that there was a disconnect between the forward and the successor army. At the very least, the logistics line has been sharply lengthened, and the supply cannot catch up. This is a very fatal point, even if the information is so developed in later generations and there are many financing channels, there is still no shortage of seemingly behemoths of enterprises that collapse because of the rupture of the capital chain. As for the era of cold weapons, there are countless wars that have been lost because of logistical supply problems.

When Shen Zhezi decided to enter Xingyang in advance, the logistics were under a lot of pressure, so he did not completely bring the people of Xuchang to the north, but only led more than 20,000 people, in order to reduce the logistical pressure. At the same time, the navy went north, squeezing part of the logistics capacity.

Although the Huainan Army is numbered at 100,000, it is currently only concentrating more than 10,000 troops on the south bank of the Yellow River, and the number of men and horses in Guandu can only reach 20,000. The follow-up Lu Yong and Mao Bao are still leading their own troops on the road, at least until mid-July, to reach the scheduled 60,000 horses, which is still without considering the logistical pressure.

Therefore, Shen Zhezi's vanguard troops occupied the advantage of the south bank of the Yellow River one step in advance, and could not be blindly optimistic, and it was very likely that they would have to meet the counterattack of Shikan in Hebei alone.

The reason for such a predicament is not that the Huainan Army is completely mere talk on paper and underestimates the variables, but because of the constraints of real objective conditions. Huainan's organizational and mobilization power can be said to be the strongest in this world, and in early March, it officially ordered mobilization, and in April, it had already collected 500,000 grains in Xuchang, gathering tens of thousands, of which nearly 20,000 men and horses left the country to fight.

In the early years, Shen Zhezi also lamented the mobilization power of the heyday of the Qi Kingdom, but compared with today's Huainan, it is still lagging behind. At least the Huainan army went all the way north, although there were some obstacles, but there were no major battles along the way, even if there were variables, most of them were still beneficial to Huainan.

Moreover, whether it is the mobilization of grain and grass or the recruitment of soldiers, these must be carried out in conjunction with the stage of the war. For example, before the state of Qian, it took nearly half a year to overwhelm Jiangdong by forcing the general trend to overwhelm and destroy Jiangdong, and it was true that it gathered a huge army that was unparalleled in this world. But it also left Huainan with half a year to stabilize the Huai line, fully prepare for the war, and even complete the feat of sneak attack on Qiaocheng, and accumulate advantages little by little.

If logistical stability is required to fully meet the maximum mobilization intensity of this battle, the Huainan Army will have to send it at least one month late. This month is enough time for Shi Kan to mobilize enough forces to stabilize the Yellow River defense line, and the intensity of the war that needs to be faced at that time is not at all comparable to the present.

And the dilemma that Shen Zhezi is facing now is that he has already won the first battle and should take advantage of the victory to pursue, but the follow-up chips have not been fully redeemed.

In the current situation, Shen Zhezi is really a little hesitant, even if he has ideas about what to do next, he can't make up his mind. It's not that he can't afford to lose, it's that he doesn't know how to maximize his benefits. When it comes to war, apart from the few basic elements that everyone can talk about, the greatest charm lies in the variables, the control of the variables, and the use of variables. If these two points can be done well, then it is the real choice of the famous general.

Shen Zhezi is not a famous general, to be honest, although he single-handedly built the important town of Huainan, but in terms of military affairs, he is only on paper. Whether it was returning to King Qin, or opening up Huainan and facing Shihu, most of the real decisive factors were not on the battlefield. This is the first time he has led a large army to leave the country to fight, so he is also apprehensive in his heart, and he is also fully aware of the direction of variables for war.

Even if there are more big aspects, just attacking Hezhou just now, because Mo Zhong did not withdraw his troops according to the drum order, but chose to continue the strong attack, he ended this battle ahead of schedule. And Xiao Yuandong's effortless victory over the sour jujube is a bigger variable, a variable that is enough to affect the entire war. Whether or not to use this variable, and how to use it, will most likely determine the final outcome of this war.

"What do you think about this? Let's talk about it all. ”

The beauty of variables is that they are unpredictable and unavoidable, and there is no single choice or answer.

This battle is different from the battle in Huaishang a few years ago, Shen Zhezi was sure that Shi Le would die as a big variable, and he could unswervingly choose to resist, but it turned out that his insistence was right, but the reason was wrong, if a small difference occurred, Shi Le might not die, and his insistence could hardly be said to be right or wrong.

This time is different, most of his knowledge and judgment of the enemy comes from speculation, his judgment may be right or wrong, it is related to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of lives, and it is related to the general trend in the next few years or even more than ten years, so he is under great pressure in his heart, even if he already has a relatively clear idea, he can't help but want to hear the opinions of others.

Hearing the governor's question, the generals were also silent, it was really a bit strange in front of them, and many of them couldn't see clearly, if they talked about it in ordinary times, but at the moment, once they made a mistake and misled, then they were guilty.

"We are all under the orders of the governor, but we are sent, although we die, there is no retreat!"

Hurun clenched his fists in the middle of the table and said, his tone was not lacking in passion.

Shen Zhezi glanced at him after hearing this, and he was quite angry in his heart, he was asking for advice, not listening to people. However, it is not to blame Hurun and others at all, one is that Shen Zhezi has been in Huainan for many years, and he has formed a personality cult, and the other is that the generals of Huainan do not have much autonomy, and it is difficult to grasp the somewhat unpredictable situation in a hurry.

After another moment of silence, Shen Zhezi suddenly found that Xie Ai was in a commotion at the table, and seemed to be about to speak, so he said with a smile: "If the master book sees something, you might as well speak up." ”

Hearing Shen Zhezi say this, Xie Ai straightened his chest and said, "My subordinates feel that it is right for the troops to enter Hebei at this time!" ”

When Shen Zhezi heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up, his body subconsciously leaned forward, and then asked: "At present, our army is only ten thousand on the riverside, and the successor has not yet arrived, and it is still reluctant. What's more, Wang Shi has been extinct in Hebei for more than ten years, and Shikan has hundreds of thousands of people, and the geographical location is advantageous, and there is a huge disparity between strength and weakness. Crossing the river lightly, dangerous and unpredictable, why did the master book say this? ”