Xu Shu looked at Chang Yuchun and Jia Xu, and said with a wry smile: "The lord has the heart to let Cao Cao and Liu Bei go, then, when the armies of the two sides face off in the area of Zhongmu and Chenliu, we will not only lose the advantage in troops, but also lose the initiative on the battlefield. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo”

Jia Xu's expression was solemn, and he lowered his head in contemplation.

Chang Yuchun looked at Xu Shu and asked thoughtfully: "The attack strategy of the Central Plains War was formulated by the lord and you together, and you should be very clear about the lord's specific thoughts on this war." ”

"Boren, formulating an attack strategy and applying this strategy to a specific battlefield are fundamentally two different things." Xu Shu shook his head and said, "Originally, our idea was that the army would use the speed advantage to quickly advance to the front line of Dingtao and Changyi, and force the army of Cao Cao and Liu Bei to the line of Fengqiu and Chenliu, so as to form a decisive battle with the main force of the rebels in the hinterland of the Central Plains. ”

Xu Shu's hand pointed to Chen Liu on the map, and said: "This kind of decisive battle is for both sides, no one can afford to lose, and whoever loses will lose the strength to pacify the world, so whether it is the lord or us, there is an instinctive fear of the decisive battle." The decisive battle first required a huge superiority in troops, but we did not have it, so in the early stages of the war, the use of superior forces to annihilate the rebels as much as possible became a prerequisite for the decisive battle. ”

"Obviously, on the battlefield of Dingtao, we do not have an absolute advantage in troops, which is probably the direct reason why the lord decided to give up encircling and annihilating the two rebel armies of Cao Cao and Liu Bei." Xu Shu pointed to his chest, "Fear, the lord is afraid." The encirclement and annihilation on the battlefield of Dingtao may cause heavy casualties to the main force of the army, and then cause the army to completely lose the number of troops needed for the decisive battle in the later stage. The lord tried to decide the battle because of fear, and because of the fear of Armageddon, he preferred to give up the opportunity to encircle and annihilate Cao Cao. ”

"90,000 to 100,000, even if it is the elite of our army, it will not work." Jia Xu coughed a few times and said in a low voice, "The front line of Changyi needs to be protected by troops, and the encirclement and annihilation of Cao Cao needs to cut off his retreat, which requires troops, but we don't have enough troops, and there is no advantage on the battlefield at all." I don't think there's anything wrong with the lord forcing Cao Cao and Liu Bei to withdraw their troops now. Jia Xu then sighed, pointed to the Jishui River on the map, and continued, "Even if the lord orders Mrs. Li E to attack and prevent Liu Bei from crossing the Jishui River, Cao Cao's army on the Dingtao battlefield is about 100,000 people, and we still don't have the superior forces to encircle and annihilate Cao Cao. ”

"Wenhe, according to what you said, when the armies of the two sides face off at the front line of Fengqiu and Chenliu, how can we fight a decisive battle? Where did we get twice or five times as many troops to attack and fight? Xu Shu retorted very dissatisfied.

"For more than ten years, the lord has dominated the world and won a hundred battles, relying on cavalry." Jia Xu paused, looked at Chang Yuchun, who had a serious expression, and said slowly, "In the past, the lord always defeated the strong with the weak, and he relied on the cavalry. In this decisive battle in the Central Plains, the lord's lethal weapon was still cavalry. Today, when it comes to the use of cavalry attack techniques, the lord should be the first to be recommended. Look at this battle, the lord is not in Handan to command the overall situation, but he personally commands the cavalry army, why? Can't you see something in that? ”

Xu Shu thought of the lord's past achievements and couldn't help but think deeply.

Once Cao Cao and Liu Bei's army retreated, the Northern Xinjiang Army would pursue at full speed.

Cao Cao and Liu Bei are all fierce generals in a hundred battles, although the army under his command has expanded very much in the past two years, but many of the soldiers of its elite troops are fierce soldiers who have fought for more than ten years, and the Northern Xinjiang Army wants to rely on the advantages of cavalry in the process of retreat to outflank, divide, and encircle and annihilate, which is very difficult, especially in the case of Yuan Shao and Liu Biao sending troops to receive support, the Northern Xinjiang Army cannot get enough time to attack.

When Cao Cao and Liu Bei withdrew to Fengqiu and Chenliu line, the attack of the main force of the Northern Xinjiang Army would become a lone army going deep, and it was likely to be cut off by the rebels' two wings and surrounded by the rebels.

Therefore, opening up the battlefield on both flanks and ensuring the smooth advance of the main force of the army has become the top priority at present.

After careful deliberation by Chang Yuchun, Jia Xu, Xu Shu and others, they immediately sent a message to Zhang Fei on the battlefield in Henan, immediately led the army to withdraw from Henan, rushed to Liyang, crossed the river to attack Baima City, and together with Li Jing's army, advanced from the right flank of the Yanzhou battlefield to Chenliu.

Chang Yuchun flew pigeons at the same time to pass on Gao Shun and Wei Yan, immediately rendezvous with Lu Wenlong, take Rencheng, and then rushed to Changyi City, where he met with the cavalry of Li E and Lu Bu, and under the command of Li E, the general's wife, advanced from the left flank of the Yanzhou battlefield along the line of Fangdong, Jishi, and Bocheng to Chenliu.

Chang Yuchun said in his letter to Zhang Fei and others that the right flank of the Yanzhou battlefield was the army of Yan Liang and Gao Gan, and the left flank was Cao Cao's army of Renchengguo, Liu Bei's army of Pengcheng, and Yuan Shao's army of Liang, Peiguo, and Runan.

According to the time calculation, the army that the rebels are ready to put into the left flank battlefield should be on the way, and Yan Liang and Gao Gan only need to leave an army to garrison Baima, and the rest of the army can rush into Yanzhou, especially when Zhang Fei withdraws from Henan, Yuan Shao and Liu Biao's army will rush to Fengqiu and Chen Liu's front line to rescue Cao Cao and Liu Bei at the fastest speed, so the opening of the battlefield on both wings should be fast, and the advance speed of the armies should be fast, without the slightest delay.

Chang Yuchun mentioned a possibility in the letter.

If the rebels could not judge in time that the situation on the Yanzhou battlefield was not advancing fast, the reinforcements of Yuan Shao and Liu Biao were blocked by the cavalry besieging Chen Liu, and Cao Cao and Liu Bei were dragged by the main force of our army on the Dingtao battlefield, and the speed of our left and right flanks was fast enough, then it is very likely that we will encircle Cao Cao and Liu Bei somewhere on the south bank of the Jishui River, and use the advantage of troops to encircle and annihilate them, so that we can gain the first chance of victory in the Central Plains War.

Considering that the rebels suffered from the outflanking and siege of the cavalry in the northern Xinjiang cavalry in the Jizhou Battle the year before last, it is difficult to say whether Cao Cao and Liu Bei will give us this opportunity.

At the same time, Chang Yuchun flew pigeons to pass on the general Li Yi and Guan Yu, the general of Zhengdong, to do everything possible to surround the rebels in Dingtao City, and drag Cao Cao and Liu Bei's army on the north bank of the Jishui River, so as to buy time for the rapid advance of the two wings of the army, outflanking and encircling and annihilating.

The recital to the imperial court was also sent to Jicheng at the same time.

………………

Soon in late April, Zhang Fei of Xingyang, Lu Yi of Chenggao, and Yu Ban of Ao Cang received orders to withdraw their troops, and all units of the Northern Xinjiang Army immediately crossed the Yellow River and returned to Hanoi.

Three days later, the divisions assembled in Huai Thanh, Hanoi. Tai Shici led the army to hold Huaicheng, and the rest of the troops under the command of Zhang Fei rushed to Liyang, Jizhou.

At the same time, Gao Shun, Xun Di, Wei Yan, Guan Hai and others led their troops to kill Ren Chengguo and joined Lu Wenlong. Yang Ping, the minister of the city, abandoned the city and fled.

Gao Shun ordered Wu Ba to lead the army to garrison Renchengguo, and together with Wei Yan, Lu Wenlong and others, he led an army of 50,000 foot cavalry to Changyi to prepare to join the main army.

Yang Ping, the minister of Rencheng, fled to Peiguo and joined the armies of Zhoucang and Jian Yong in Xuzhou, and there were 3,000 Yuan Shao's troops who arrived in Peiguo at the same time.

Zhou Cang was ordered to lead these tens of thousands of troops and hurried towards the east.

………………

Sixty miles west of Dingtao City, Ming Pavilion.

Cao Cao commanded his army to launch an attack on the Northern Frontier Army stationed in Mingting.

Taking advantage of the terrain, the Northern Xinjiang Army dug many trenches on the battlefield, dispensed heavy deer and horses between the trenches, and then erected 500 crossbow carts, more than 30 catapults and 5,000 strong archers behind them.

If the Cao army wanted to kill in front of the battle formation of the Northern Xinjiang Army, they needed to fill in the trenches and move away from the deer and reject the horses, but under the stormy shooting of the Northern Xinjiang Army, their losses were too great, and the attack was forced to stop for a while.

The cavalry army of Northern Xinjiang was on the north side of the battlefield, and they attacked from time to time, causing great trouble to Cao's army. Cao Cao needed troops to defend the flanks of the army, and did not dare to devote all his forces to the frontal battlefield, so the fierce offensive gradually weakened.

Three days later, Liu Bei led his army to the battlefield. The two armies merged into one, and their strength and morale were greatly boosted. The offensive and defensive battles between the two sides suddenly became fierce.

Cao Cao and Liu Bei personally went to the front line to supervise the battle, and in the face of the tragic battlefield and their own heavy casualties, Cao Cao was worried, and repeatedly urged to speed up the attack and tear apart the defense line of the Northern Xinjiang Army as soon as possible.

"Big brother, the arrow array of the Northern Xinjiang Army is too powerful, every time we take a step forward, we have to pay a huge price, if we continue to fight like this, our soldiers will be completely overwhelmed by the long arrows of the Northern Xinjiang Army." Cao Hong stood on a high slope, pointed to the battlefield in the distance, and said breathlessly, "The Northern Frontier Army's blocking technique this time is completely different from the past. They had a lot of people, and they were digging trenches and arranging deer bars to keep horses out on the galloping roads behind the battlefield. Every step back of their soldiers was able to rely on these obstacles to resist stubbornly. ”

"The soldiers of the Northern Xinjiang Army still don't want to fight us head-on?" Cao Cao asked angrily.

Cao Hong said helplessly: "Yes, big brother." They used trenches, deer barricades, and horses to set up obstacles between the two armies, and used dense arrays of arrows to shoot at our soldiers who attacked the obstacles. When we rushed very close to the battle formation of the Northern Frontier Army, they withdrew into the next obstacle, and there was not the slightest sign of coming out to fight us head-on. ”

"The Northern Xinjiang Army must preserve its strength." Liu Bei's thick eyebrows tightened, and he said worriedly, "The terrain here in Mingting is not good, and the galloping road starts from here and goes up, winding forward along the hillside woods, about ten miles long. If we continue to fight, our losses are indeed too great. ”

Cao Cao was furious, waved his hand and said loudly: "What if you don't fight?" Although the terrain here is conducive to the blocking of the infantry in the northern frontier, it is not conducive to the charging and killing of the cavalry in the northern frontier. In my opinion, it is better to draw more men from the flanks to participate in the attack. ”

"Brother Mengde, this is absolutely impossible." Liu Bei hurriedly stopped, "Once the Northern Frontier cavalry is allowed to rush through the blockade, we may not only be cut off by Li Yi, but also lose our grain and grass." (To be continued.) )