"Pengju, who will we fight in the next battle?" Gongsun Yue exclaimed excitedly, "This battle is too enjoyable. ”

"Zhang Jiao has suffered serious damage this time, and the siege of the city will probably be delayed." Gongsun Chan said with a smile, "Pengju, why don't we fight Sun Qin again?" ”

Yue Fei shook his head.

"Why? Now that the Yellow Turbans have suffered heavy losses, it is time for us to launch a counteroffensive. Gongsun Chan asked puzzled.

"The Yellow Turbans have suffered heavy losses, the defense will be tighter, and they will not give us another chance at all." Yue Fei explained, "And our goal has basically been achieved, and there is no better opportunity now." The army marched and fought continuously, and they were all running for hundreds of miles, they were already very tired and needed to rest, and supplies were now difficult and needed to be replenished. ”

What Pengju said is very true. Before I left the city, my eldest brother also told me that the Yellow Turban Army had been hit in a short period of time and suffered serious damage, and that it would not have the ability to attack the city in a large amount of time, so let's stop taking risks. Although the Yellow Turban Army in the Hebei battlefield still has a great advantage in terms of troops, they no longer have the ability to decide in a war. In order to take Yecheng as soon as possible, they must increase their forces. Zhao Yun lightly patted the horsewhip in his hand a few times, and said worriedly, "So the eldest brother estimates that their reinforcements will arrive soon." Sun Qin's stay in the ancient city of Ping'en is estimated to be related to this batch of reinforcements. If the reinforcements arrive and rush to Yecheng with Sun Qin's convoy, we will not have a chance to attack on the way. ”

"The lord's concerns are very reasonable. In the Hebei battlefield, our army has always been at a disadvantage, even if it won two battles. On the battlefield in Hebei, there was still a big gap between the forces of the two sides. As you can see, the Yellow Turban Army is not easy to fight. Although they lacked training and were poorly equipped, they had a very tenacious will to fight, especially the Yellow Turban Army, which was personally commanded by Zhang Jiao. Yue Fei took over and said, "Once their reinforcements arrive in Yecheng, the situation will be quite unfavorable to us. Let's wait and see what happens. He was ordered to observe carefully in the vicinity of the old city of Ping'en, and to look as far east as possible for news of enemy reinforcements. ”

………………

Zhang Jiao's 150,000-strong army in Yecheng was left with just over 60,000 people after the casualties of the previous siege battle and the night attack launched by Yue Fei.

The Yellow Turban Army suffered a fatal blow to its morale because of repeated setbacks, and it collapsed. Coupled with the fact that there was not much grain and grass left, and there was a serious shortage of siege equipment, Zhang Jiao decided to comprehensively shrink his forces, abandoned the Beida Camp and the West Battalion, and concentrated all the troops in the East Camp of Pingyang City to stop the attack on Yecheng.

Zhang Jiao wrote three books a day, urging Chu Yan's army to advance westward quickly.

Sun Qin was stunned when he received the news from Yecheng.

………………

The news of the defeat of Zhang Jiao by the cavalry general Li Yi in Yecheng spread as quickly as possible.

So far, the Yellow Turban Army has lost 90,000 troops in Yecheng, plus the defeat at Guduting, and scattered losses in the rest of the country, in the last half month, the Yellow Turban Army has lost 120,000 troops.

120,000 people, in order to attack Yecheng, the Yellow Turban Army lost 120,000 people in half a month, and they were all the main force, which is really incredible.

Jizhou Thorn Shi Wang Fen was very excited. In his opinion, Li Yi is really reincarnated in vain, Han Xin is resurrected, and he can eliminate the 120,000 Yellow Turban Army in just half a month, so it is estimated that it will be fast to eliminate Zhang Jiao or drive Zhang Jiao out of Wei County.

He came to Jizhou last autumn to be an assassin, but less than half a year after taking office, he encountered the Yellow Turban Army making trouble, in just one month, Jizhou lost eight of the eleven counties, and then in the following months, two and a half counties were lost one after another, leaving only Wei County and half a county, and even Yecheng was besieged.

Originally, Wang Fen thought that he was very lucky, but he didn't expect things to change drastically all of a sudden. wiped out the 400,000 Yellow Turban Army in Youzhou, and killed Zhang Bao, the second person in the Yellow Turban Army, and the famous Xiao cavalry general Li Yi led the army south and entered the Jizhou battlefield.

Li Yi, the cavalry general, is indeed worthy of his reputation, and since he led his army south, he has won many victories in a row. The Yellow Turban Army on the Jizhou battlefield has been defeated in successive battles, and it seems that the situation is difficult to support.

If the Yellow Turban Army in Jizhou is exterminated, even if the first credit goes to the cavalry general Li Yi, as the assassin of Jizhou, the credit will definitely not be small, and promotion will definitely not be a problem.

But he also saw very clearly that the Youzhou Army of the cavalry general Li Yi alone could not defeat the Yellow Turban Army. Li Yi has done his best to be what he is now. Therefore, he once again ordered the fast cavalry to rush to Yangping and inform the good news to the thief Zhonglang general Huangfu Song, hoping that he would send troops as soon as possible to attack Guangzong, the rear road of the Yellow Turban Army. At the same time, he also sent a letter to Cao Cao, the captain of the Xiao Cavalry Commander of the garrison in Liyang, asking him to lead his men and horses to the Yecheng battlefield as soon as possible to start a decisive battle with the main force of the Yellow Turban Army.

This time, Wang Fen asked Xu You to go to Liyang. Xu You and Cao Cao have been friends for a long time, and they have a very good relationship with Yuan Shao, another son of another family. Wang Fen believed that Xu You would be able to persuade Cao Cao to go north as soon as possible.

………………

Chu Yan and Xiao Yan were shocked when they received the news of Zhang Jiao's defeat in Yecheng.

The army attacking Wei County lost more than half, and it was difficult to continue this battle. The two immediately had a fierce dispute over whether to increase the troops in Yecheng.

Of course, Xiao Yan asked Chu Yan to lead the army to continue advancing, but Chu Yan was unwilling.

As early as March, when Zhang Jiao attacked Yecheng for the first time, he was opposed. He thought that Zhang Jiao was too anxious, and there was no need to risk attacking Yecheng, which was strong in the city and strong in defense, without a stable foundation.

In February, although Taiping Dao rebelled in eight of the eleven counties of Jizhou almost at the same time, and quickly captured most of these eight counties, and captured the royal family of King Anping, King Ganling and other big figures, the powerful men who were killed were even more unknown, and the Yellow Turban Army achieved great wealth. However, there are still many powerful fortresses built by themselves, as well as a large number of private soldiers raised by each of them to resist.

A group of young generals of the Yellow Turban Army, led by Chu Yan and Zhang Niujiao, thought that Zhang Jiao had despised the private soldiers of these powerful lords, and at the same time, the defenders of Yecheng who were wrong were as vulnerable as the county soldiers of other counties, and they could be easily defeated. Overestimating their own strength, they did not correctly recognize the real strength of the current Yellow Turban Army and the problems that need to be solved.

They believed that this year, the Yellow Turban Army was still laying the foundation, and its strength was fragile, and it was not appropriate to expend its strength to attack a strong city. Although the number of troops is large, there are very few elite soldiers who can actually fight; Many of the counties conquered did not have a government office, there was no one to govern, and it was a chaos; Because the war has created millions of displaced people, these people need to be arranged, they need food.

This year's grain is all grabbed, what will happen next year? Next year's grain must be solved by itself, and if we rob it again, the people in the territory will have to rebel against the Yellow Turban Army.

Especially the millions of displaced people, they believe that the Yellow Turban Army is their own army, an army that can bring them food and clothing, if this problem cannot be solved for a long time, the displaced people will make trouble, they will go crazy to plunder, the people rob the people, and finally the Yellow Turban Army does not want the official army to fight, and they will fail.

Therefore, Chu Yan and other leaders insisted that for a long period of time, the Yellow Turban Army should still strategically use several counties with a deep mass foundation, such as Julu County, Anping State, and Qinghe State, and firmly grasp the counties and states of Hejian State, Boling State, Zhongshan State, Changshan State, Zhao State, Hejian State, Bohai County, etc., to appease the people in the territory, restore agricultural and manual production, improve the combat effectiveness of the army, accumulate sufficient strength, lay a solid foundation, and then do other things.

With the current strength of the Yellow Turban Army, even if it can't defeat the army of the imperial court, it can still retreat to Taihang Mountain and preserve its strength. And to storm Yecheng, once the troops are trapped on the battlefield of Wei County and cannot achieve victory for a long time, a large number of troops must be continuously invested.

As a result, the counties of Julu County, Qinghe Kingdom, Anping Kingdom and other counties in the rear did not have enough defensive strength. If the imperial army took the opportunity to attack, the troops would fall into the dilemma of fighting on both sides, and defeat would be inevitable.