Chapter 9 Chasing the Central Plains 44th Festival in May, Yingchuan County, Yuzhou, Xuchang. News from various battlefields quickly spread to Xuchang.

The tidal offensive of the Northern Xinjiang Army made the atmosphere in Xuchang more and more tense. However, the success of Cao Cao and Liu Bei's evacuation of Dingtao and Zhang Fei and Yang Ping's sneak attack on Changyi eased this suffocating atmosphere a little, and even vaguely felt a glimmer of hope and joy from it.

In the Shangshutai of the palace, Yuan Shao sat around with Fu Zhu, Jianji, Yuan Zhong, Wang Lang, Hua Xin and others to discuss the current situation.

Since Cao Cao and Liu Bei withdrew to the battlefield in the north of the Central Plains, the number of troops on the front line of Yancheng has increased greatly, and it is more and more likely that we will stick to Yancheng and counterattack Baima.

Xun Yu and Zhang Fei blocked the Northern Xinjiang Army on the front line of Bocheng and Kaocheng, and the blocking battle on the battlefield in the south of the Central Plains had begun.

On the battlefield in the middle of the Central Plains, because of Yuan Xi's indecisiveness, tens of thousands of troops were once stranded in Zhongmu and Junyi and did not determine the direction of their main attack, he neither went north to support Xin Ping of Yancheng, nor did he go south to support Xu Yu of Chen Liu, let alone go east to meet Cao Cao and Liu Bei's retreat, but it was a blessing in disguise, but when the Northern Xinjiang Army killed Jiyang and the East Dusk line approached Chen Liu, he was able to quickly gather troops to meet the main force of the Northern Xinjiang Army.

At present, the battle situation in the Central Plains is developing in the direction we predetermined, and although Chen Liu was accidentally lost, the second line of defense was successfully established in the shortest possible time, and its blocking force was far greater than our initial assumptions.

This unexpected result came entirely from the unexpected retreat direction of the Yanzhou army. Who would have thought that Cao Cao and Liu Bei would lead their troops to risk retreating north?

As a result, the battlefield in the north of the Central Plains was given more troops, and they just happened to block the stormy attack of the Northern Frontier Army.

Otherwise, with the strength of Xin Ping and Gao Gan, I am afraid that Yancheng has been lost, and Henan is about to be threatened by the Northern Xinjiang Army.

At this moment, the two sides are about to enter a difficult confrontation and a war of attrition, and if we can grit our teeth and survive this most difficult and painful period, we can quickly gain the battlefield advantage and then launch an overwhelming counteroffensive.

The top priority at the moment is to establish a third line of defense on the line of Xingyang and Zhongmu, so that after the Northern Xinjiang Army breaks through the second line of defense, it can continue to block the enemy.

The establishment of the third line of defense will deepen the depth of our defenses, and will ensure that we have ample time to accumulate supplies, recruit soldiers, and accumulate sufficient money, food, ordnance, and strong forces for the upcoming confrontation, war of attrition, and the ensuing counteroffensive.

It will take some time to establish a third line of defense, so that after the Northern Xinjiang Army breaks through the second line of defense, it can still block the Northern Xinjiang Army in the area of Xingyang and Zhongmu.

But now the Northern Xinjiang Army is like a rainbow and invincible, but its morale is low and it has been defeated repeatedly. In order to regain this precious time, the coalition forces need to fight tenaciously, unite as one, and have the right offensive and defensive strategies.

Whether it is planning to defend by attacking instead of defending, or planning to defend on the basis of a fortified city, it is necessary to immediately give clear, accurate, and decisive orders to the three battlefields in the north, south, and central areas.

Yuan Shao, Fu Zhu and others carefully analyzed the situation, and unanimously agreed that the only way to block and delay the attack speed of the Northern Xinjiang Army was to defend the city to the death, fight for every inch of land, and fight a war of attrition against the Northern Xinjiang Army.

At present, the follow-up men and horses of the Jingzhou Army, under the command of Kuai Yue, Deng Yi, Liu Pan and others, have entered the territory of Yingzhou, and will soon reach the front line of Zhongmu and Kaifeng.

Xu Xuan of Runan also led his army to Chen, and his army would directly reach the line of Xiangyi and Yongqiu in Chenliu County, so as to cut off the connection between the southern battlefield and the central battlefield of the Central Plains, and strike at the flank of the Northern Xinjiang Army on the central battlefield.

Guan Yu of Xuzhou and Ji Ling of Yangzhou are on the way to support Bocheng and Kaocheng, and it is estimated that they will be able to meet Xun Yu and Zhang Fei in the next few days.

Sun Ce and Zhou Yu of Jiangdong have replied, clearly stating that they will obey the will of the imperial court and are willing to lead the army north to support, but the Jianghuai war has just stopped, and the armies in Jiangdong need time to rest and raise grain and grass, and ask the imperial court for a forbearance.

In addition, considering the feud between Jiangdong and Jingzhou, the two expressed concern for the safety of Yuzhang County in the letter.

What if Huang Zu of Jiangxia took advantage of the opportunity of the Jiangdong Army to go north and waved his army to attack Chaisang and Peng Ze?

The implication was to hope that Yuan Shao would come forward to persuade Liu Biao and cut off the Jingzhou army's attempt to attack Yuzhang County.

In fact, Liu Biao was also worried that Sun Ce and Zhou Yu would take the opportunity to join forces to attack Jiang Xia, but if Zhou Yu didn't leave, Sun Ce certainly didn't dare to leave, he was worried that Zhou Yu would not be good for him.

Yuan Shao then decided to discuss this matter with Liu Biao, and asked Liu Biao to personally write to Sun Ce and Zhou Yu that as long as the two sides joined forces to resist Hebei, the Jingzhou army would never attack Jiangdong.

With Liu Biao's promise, I believe that Sun Ce and Zhou Yu's Jiangdong Army will soon be seen on the battlefield in the Central Plains.

With the second line of defense already in place and reinforcements from all walks of life continuing to move north, the coalition forces have strong cities, sufficient troops, and grain and grass that can still support them for a period of time, and they can completely fight confrontation and war of attrition with the northern Xinjiang army.

On the other hand, the Northern Xinjiang Army, as the combat time grows, the closer it gets to the hinterland of the Central Plains, its advantages are being lost, and its disadvantages are constantly expanding.

For more than a month, the Northern Xinjiang Army attacked the city and uprooted the village, leaped thousands of miles, and paid a great price. In order to seize the opportunity, the army marched day and night, and there was not a day of rest, so the foot knights were exhausted and their physical strength had reached the limit.

Especially Yan Liang on the battlefield in the north, they went south to open up the Henan battlefield a month in advance, and they were already exhausted from fighting, and now the fatigue of the soldiers can be imagined.

As the battlefield continued to advance, the grain routes of the Northern Xinjiang Army became longer and longer, more and more people poured into Yanzhou, and the consumption of grain, grass and ordnance also increased.

The number of iron cavalry used by the Northern Xinjiang Army this time was more than we estimated, especially the Huns, who accounted for almost half of the number of cavalry.

With such a large army of iron cavalry, its consumption is far greater than that of its infantry army. This is the Central Plains, not the northern Xinjiang, the food of the Hu people, the forage of the war horses, the amount of local financing is very limited, a large part of which needs to be transported from the northern Xinjiang thousands of miles.

Not to mention the consumption of the iron cavalry itself on the battlefield of the Central Plains, that is, the consumption of the people on the road to transport cattle and sheep and other livestock and war horses and forage to the Central Plains, which is an astonishing amount.

Just look at the burning, killing, and plundering of the Northern Xinjiang Iron Cavalry in Chenliu to know the difficulties faced by the Northern Xinjiang Army. It was Zhao Yun who attacked Chen Liu, who had an excellent reputation, and the iron cavalry was also the elite of the Northern Frontier Army, what did they do when there was a shortage of food and grass?

From this, it can be imagined that the Huns, who came to the Central Plains far away from the border fortress, were already unaccustomed to the water and soil, and if there was a problem with food and horse feed, it was difficult to continue, what would they do?

Will they be more disciplined than the elite iron cavalry of the Northern Frontier Army? No way. Li Hong will have to pay the price for this bloody killing.

He made great achievements because of Hu Qi's bravery, and he will also be defeated because of Hu Qi's ferocity. We can assert that Li Hong will lose this battle, and he will die.

In addition to the above two irreparable disadvantages, the Northern Frontier Army also has a more important disadvantage, that is, their fear.

Hebei hastily launched a major war in the Central Plains under insufficient conditions, and had no confidence in victory at all. They are afraid of failure, and they cannot afford to fail.

Once the Northern Xinjiang Army loses in China and suffers a heavy blow, Hebei may lose the opportunity to conquer the world and may be defeated.

Li Hong and the Northern Xinjiang generals' fear of defeat caused the Northern Xinjiang Army to attack at a terrifying speed.

Now, the officers and men of the Northern Xinjiang Army can no longer move, and the money and food of the Northern Xinjiang Army have gradually become tight.

In order to occupy and stabilize the entire territory of Yanzhou, the strength of the Northern Xinjiang Army was no longer enough. The Northern Xinjiang Army, from Li Hong to the general of the unified army, knew their danger, so they exerted the power of the Northern Xinjiang Army to the extreme.

Their primary goal is to seize the entire territory of Yanzhou before the coalition forces form a strong counterattack force, and then form a favorable situation for the decisive battle in the Central Plains, so as to give us a fatal blow when we are not firmly established and uncertain.

It is precisely because of the above reasons that Cao Cao and Liu Bei's adventure to retreat north, and Zhang Fei and Yang Ping's sneak attack on Changyi, all miraculously succeeded.

In addition to the subtlety and boldness of their own strategies, there was also the psychology of the Northern Xinjiang Army's blind pursuit of attack speed in order to quickly occupy Yanzhou and form a decisive battle as soon as possible.

Li Hong and many of the generals in the Northern Xinjiang Army were afraid of losing the war and suffered from gains and losses, which directly led to many mistakes in combat command.

"It's a sign, a sign of failure." In his analysis, he said,

"Judging from the current development of the war situation, it is inferred that Li Hong made a serious mistake in the strategy of the war, and the reason for this mistake was that he did not have confidence in winning the Central Plains War and was afraid of defeat."

"Because Hebei does not have the strength to capture the Central Plains now, when Li Hong makes a decision, the first thing he thinks of is what to do if he fails? If it fails, how to minimize the losses, how to make Hebei recover in the shortest possible time, and how to enable Hebei to continue to launch the second major war of southward conquest. Li Hong's decision-making in this mentality is obviously very conservative. The cursed hand pointed at Dingtao and Changyi on the map,

"At the beginning of the war, the Northern Xinjiang Army was divided into two routes, each taking Dingtao and Changyi, and then ......" His hand then pointed to Chen Liu,

"The two armies merged into one and rushed into Chenliu, with the same purpose, to take the city first, occupy Yanzhou, and find a place to advance and retreat in the Central Plains. In other words, even if the Northern Frontier Army is defeated, it can ensure that its army retreats to Hebei unharmed because it still has a city to hinder it and a depth of more than 1,000 miles. ”

"Therefore, so far, the first priority of the Northern Xinjiang Army is speed and time, it doesn't care whether to annihilate our coalition army at all, but is bent on taking Yanzhou and taking the place of advance and retreat before our coalition army supports Yanzhou. Then it will soon face a counterattack from our coalition forces, and it needs enough troops to block our counterattack, stabilize the battle line, and wait for an opportunity to fight a decisive battle. From this point of view, it is even more reluctant to encircle and annihilate the opponent in Yanzhou, which will take time and consume troops, once we are allowed to kill Dingtao and Changyi in advance, the Northern Xinjiang Army will inevitably not be able to fight for a long time, and will have to withdraw to Hebei. ”

"Rushing for time and speed is to occupy Yanzhou. The occupation of Yanzhou is to have no worries about advance and retreat, and to cope with the defeat of the war. Frustration said,

"For more than a month, Li Hong has achieved his first goal at the beginning of the war, and we have also achieved the goal of establishing a second line of defense to block the attack of the Northern Xinjiang Army. Now, Li Hong has to pay the price for this ultra-conservative attack strategy. ”

"Li Hong missed the opportunity to inflict heavy damage on Cao Cao and Liu Bei in Dingtao, and missed the opportunity to encircle and annihilate Zhang Fei and Yang Ping in Changyi, and as a result, we were able to gain troops and quickly complete the construction of the second line of defense. On the contrary, his two flanks were in a difficult situation, and their advance was greatly slowed, and they distanced themselves from the army in the center. Since these three armies could not get close to form protection and support in a short period of time, the main army of the middle route, which had already advanced to the front line of Chenliu, immediately became the target of our attack. Frustrated hands smashed into Chen Liucheng on the map,

"This is where our counterattack begins." Yuan Shao and the others looked excited, chatting around the map.

From time to time, there was laughter in the council hall of Shangshutai that had not been heard for a long time.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with Li Hong's attack strategy, after all, his strength is not enough, and he doesn't have an absolute advantage in terms of troops. He wants to occupy Yanzhou, to block our counteroffensive, and to fight a decisive battle with us, with his current strength, of course, he has to count them one by one on his fingers. It's rare that he can fight to this point. Yuan Shao smiled and said to Fu Zhu,

"If you and I are replaced, do you have the courage to fight this battle?"

"If Li Hong loses too much of his main force in the area of Dingtao and Changyi, especially the army of foot soldiers, he will not be able to fight in the areas of Junyi, Kaifeng, and Chenliu." Feng Ji pointed to the large and small rivers in the area of Chenliu on the map and said,

"There are six big rivers and canals here, the Bishui River, the Suishui River, the Langtang Canal, the Gap Water, the Yin Ditch Water, the Vortex River, and then to the Zhongmu area and the Jialu River, Putianze. If there was no infantry army that was not much different from ours, after he hit the Bishui River, he could only stop and wait for us to fight him, so Li Hong would lose the initiative on the battlefield. His choice of such a conservative attack seems to be a helpless move. Then he shook his head with a sigh,

"This leopard is unstoppable in the desert, but he can't do it in the Central Plains. Today on the frontal battlefield, we have an army of 60,000. If Brother Yidu (Kuai Yue) and Brother Meng Yu (Xu Xuan) can arrive, we will have nearly 100,000 troops on the front line of Junyi, Kaifeng, and Yongqiu. Where can the leopard stand in the way? ”

"We don't need to beat him now, just keep him out of Henan and drag him in Yanzhou." Yuan Shao said,

"In view of the lessons of the Jizhou War the year before last, it is better for us to be conservative, so as not to lose our troops." He pointed his finger and said to the people,

"Just now he said the disadvantages of the Northern Frontier, and what we have to do now is to make the disadvantages of the Northern Frontier Army bigger and bigger. Surrendering without a fight is the best policy. ”

"Don't you want to take advantage of the favorable situation in front of you to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Northern Frontier Army?" Wang Lang asked strangely,

"After the Jingzhou Army and the Runan Army arrived on the battlefield, we had the advantage in troops. Now on the frontal battlefield, the main force of the Northern Xinjiang Army is attacking Junyi and Kaifeng. If we use a force to contain and block the Northern Xinjiang Army under Junyi City, and surround Chenliu from the two directions of Kaifeng and Yongqiu with the main force, we should be able to inflict heavy damage on Li Hong and recapture Chenliu. ”

"Chen Liu's stay doesn't have much effect on us anymore." Yuan Shao said with a smile,

"Before the second line of defense is established, we hope to use Chen Liucheng's strong and sluggish Northern Frontier Army's attack speed to buy time for us to deploy troops in Henan. However, due to the rapid formation of the two flank battlefields in the north and south, the second line of defense has been firmly established, and Chen Liucheng's role is no longer obvious. As for the attack, as I said just now, the best strategy is to surrender without a fight, and the time for our counterattack has not yet come. Now it's dragging, dragging Li Hong to death, dragging the Northern Xinjiang Army to death. ”

"If we want to counterattack, we must be deadly, and we must defeat the Northern Xinjiang Army to a slump, so that we can conquer Hebei in the shortest possible time and pacify the world." Frustrated, he sighed,

"If we continue to fight like this, even if the world is calm, Sheji will be in ruins. So no matter what, we have to solve Li Hong completely. "On the battlefield in the middle, due to the proximity of the forces of the two sides and the terrain is very unfavorable to the northern Xinjiang iron cavalry, neither side can break the deadlock in the short term, and a situation of confrontation has been formed.

The coalition forces wanted to drag on the war all the time, but the Northern Frontier Army would not agree, and they were eager to break the stalemate and force the coalition forces to fight a decisive battle as soon as possible.

In order to form a decisive battle situation as soon as possible, the Northern Xinjiang Army could not open up the situation in the center, and the focus of the attack would immediately shift to the two flank battlefields.

In order to move closer to the main army in the middle and to cooperate with the main army to open the stalemate situation, the Northern Xinjiang Army on these two battlefields was bound to launch a fierce attack.

Judging from the current battlefield situation and the deployment of troops on both sides, the focus of the Northern Xinjiang Army's attack will definitely be on the flank battlefield in the north.

If Yan Liang's army breaks through Yancheng and kills in the area of Yanjin and Suojube, it will directly threaten Henan. In order to block Yan Liang's attack, Yuan Shao had to draw troops from the second line of defense to garrison the third line of defense, so that the stalemate on the battlefield was broken.

The coalition forces may retreat on this line and hold the line of Xingyang and Zhongmu. At present, there are 40,000 horses of Cao Cao and Liu Bei on the battlefield on the north side, 10,000 soldiers of Xin Ping Gaogan, and a total of 50,000 troops, so it should not be a problem to block Yan Liang's army.

But what they were most worried about was not the fierce Yan Liang, but Cao Cao, who had just withdrawn from Dingtao. Cao Cao and Liu Bei lost their troops on the battlefield of Yanzhou, but Liu Bei still had Xuzhou and could make a comeback, while Cao Cao had nothing but the tens of thousands of horses in his hands.

In the face of Yan Liang's attack, Cao Cao's attitude towards the battle can be imagined. No one is willing to completely wipe out their old books at this time.

Cao Cao is the prime minister, after he arrived in Yancheng, his officials were the largest, the army was the most, Liu Beixin commented that the senior cadres had to listen to his command, he said to retreat, and the others had no way at all.

"Do we still have the strength to go north to support Yancheng?" Yuan Shao asked worriedly.

"Nope." Feng Ji said,

"There are still more than 10,000 people in Hanoi Gaorou Zhu Ling, and they have to protect Gyeonggi and can't move. Luoyang also has 5,000 people from Zhao Rui and Lu Hong, who have just returned from Hanoi. The capital is so little army, and it can't be moved. There are nearly 10,000 people in Guanxi, and there are more than 20,000 people in Guanzhong's Xiansi (Yuan Tan), all of whom can't move. The troops we can mobilize are now all in the Central Plains battlefield, with more than 50,000 people, 10,000 people in Yancheng, and 40,000 people in the areas of Zhongmu, Junyi, and Kaifeng. Feng Ji looked at Yuan Shao and said with a wry smile,

"Now Meng Qian (Yuan Wei) is recruiting troops in Luoyang, and Youruo (Xun Chen) is recruiting troops in Yuzhou, and these recruits will not be fully recruited until at least the end of this month. So......" he shook his head,

"We can only warn Cao Aman and tell him not to go too far." Yuan Shao sneered,

"At this time, if he still dares to fight against me, I will kill him." Frustrated professor hurriedly dissuaded. This time, due to the lack of strength of the states and counties, the Northern Xinjiang Army could only form an alliance to fight against Hebei, which was the best time to rebuild the prestige of the Son of Heaven and the imperial court.

As the great general of the imperial court and the leader of the alliance this time, you should learn the lessons of the failure of the imperial court, use the supreme authority of the Son of Heaven and the imperial court, properly handle the relationship between the imperial court and the officials of various states and counties, gather everyone's strength together, defeat the Hebei rebellion, and then pacify the world and revitalize Sheji.

"My lord orders the world by the Son of Heaven, and he needs the ministers' obedience and obedience, and to do this, it is necessary for everyone to not only not lose vested power interests in the process of defeating Hebei and pacifying the world, but also get greater power interests." Frustrated and said,

"In the matter of Prime Minister Cao, adults should think twice, don't lose a big one because of a small loss, and bury the opportunity to defeat Hebei in vain." Yuan Shao looked at the frustrated and thoughtful.

In May, Handan, the general marched. Zhang Yan received the general's order and immediately rushed to the Central Plains battlefield.

Although Zhang Yan felt very strange, at this moment, the attack on the Central Plains battlefield had entered a critical moment, and the decisive battle situation was about to take shape.

Before leaving, he and Jia Xu, Fu Gan and others who stayed behind in the line once again carefully discussed the current battle situation.

At present, the attack of the three-way army did not go as smoothly as expected, and the distance between the two flanks and the middle army was too large, which was easy to give the rebels an opportunity to inflict heavy damage on the main force in the center.

"We must quickly make a breakthrough on the flank battlefield and break the deadlock as soon as possible," Zhang Yan said to Jia Xu.

Judging from Yan Rou's letters, the rebels on the southern front have not yet formed an advantage in terms of strength. You immediately wrote to Yan Rou and asked him to command the iron cavalry to quickly insert into the Bishui River, cut off the connection between Bocheng, Kaocheng and Xiangyi, and force the rebels to the south bank of the Bishui River. Once the rebels retreated south, his army had to cross the Bishui River and the Suishui River as fast as possible, occupy Huating and Gaoyang Pavilion, and cut off the connection between Yongqiu and Xiangyi. In this way, Yongqiu, with the cooperation of the main army, can go down overnight, and then Yan Rou can concentrate on attacking Xiangyi and threatening Yuzhou. ”

"On the battlefield on the northern front, the forces of the two sides are close, but Cao Cao and Liu Bei may not dare to attack us, so you tell Yan Liang to attack at all costs." Zhang Yan frowned and said worriedly,

"It is not easy for Cao Cao to successfully withdraw from Dingtao. If Yan Liang is careless, I'm afraid something will happen. Jia Xu thought for a moment and proposed, "I'll go to Baima in person." ”

"Without further ado, leave immediately." Zhang Yan didn't think about it, and agreed,

"Junyan (Fu Gan) is in charge." Jump to