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. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

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 Yingchuan, and will soon reach the front line of Zhongmu and Kaifeng.

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

Zhu Ling of Xuzhou and Ji Ling of Yangzhou are on their way to support Bocheng and Kaocheng, and it is estimated that they will be able to meet Cheng Yu and Zhou Cang 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.

Under the condition that the second line of defense has been formed and reinforcements from all walks of life are constantly heading north, the coalition army has a strong city, sufficient troops, and a grain and grass that can still support it for a period of time, and it is completely possible to fight a confrontation war and a 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 Zhang Fei 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 cavalry used by the Northern Xinjiang Army this time was more than estimated by Yuan Shao and others, especially the Hu people, who accounted for almost half of the number of cavalry. With such a large cavalry army, its consumption far exceeded 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, and a large part of it needs to be transported from the northern Xinjiang thousands of miles.

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

Looking at the burning, killing, and plundering of the Northern Xinjiang cavalry in Chenliu, you can see the difficulties faced by the Northern Xinjiang Army. It was Zhao Yun who attacked Chen Liu, who had an excellent reputation, and that cavalry was also the elite of the Northern Xinjiang Army, what did they do when there was a shortage of food and grass?

From this, it can be imagined that the Hu people, who came to the Central Plains far away from the border area, were already unaccustomed to 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 cavalry of the Northern Army? No way.

Li Yi 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. Yuan Shao and others asserted that Li Yi would lose this battle, and he was doomed.

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 Yi 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 fight, the money and food of the Northern Xinjiang Army have gradually become tight, and in order to occupy and stabilize the entire territory of Yanzhou, the strength of the Northern Xinjiang Army is no longer enough. The Northern Xinjiang Army, from Li Yi to the general of the unified army, knew their danger, so they gave full play to the power of the Northern Xinjiang Army, and their primary goal was to seize the entire territory of Yanzhou before the coalition army formed a strong counterattack force, and then form a favorable situation for the decisive battle in the Central Plains, so as to give the coalition army a fatal blow when the coalition army was not stable and frightened.

It is precisely because of the above reasons that Cao Cao and Liu Bei's adventure to retreat north, and Zhou Cang, Xiahou Shang and Yang Ping's sneak attack on Changyi were all miraculously successful. In addition to the subtlety and boldness of their own strategies, 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, and the psychology of Li Yi and many generals in the Northern Xinjiang Army who were afraid of gains and losses because they feared the defeat of the major war directly led to many mistakes in combat command.

"It's a sign, a sign of failure." In his analysis, he said, "From the current development of the war situation, it is inferred that Li Yi made serious mistakes 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 Yi 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 Yi's decision-making under this mentality is obviously very conservative. The frustrated hand pointed at Dingtao and Changyi on the map, and continued to say to everyone, "At the beginning of the war, the Northern Xinjiang Army divided its troops into two routes, each taking Dingtao and Changyi, and then ......."

His hand then pointed to Chen Liu, and said: "The two armies are combined into one, and they are rushing into Chen Liu, 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, because it still has a city to block and a depth of more than 1,000 miles, it can ensure that its army retreats back to Hebei unharmed. ”

"Therefore, so far, the first priority of the Northern Xinjiang Army is speed, it is time, it does not care at all whether to annihilate our coalition army, but is bent on taking Yanzhou before our coalition army supports Yanzhou, taking the place of advance and retreat, and then it is about to face the counterattack of our coalition army, it needs enough troops to block our counterattack, stabilize the battle line, and wait for the 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. "For more than a month, Li Yi 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 Frontier Army. Now, Li Yi has to pay the price for his ultra-conservative attack strategy. ”

"Li Yi missed the opportunity to inflict heavy losses on Cao Cao and Liu Bei in Dingtao, and missed the opportunity to encircle and annihilate Zhou Cang, Xiahou Shang 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, but on the contrary, his two flanks of the army were in a difficult situation, and the speed of advance was greatly slowed, and the army in the middle was distanced. 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 with his hand smashed into Chen Liucheng on the map, and said categorically: "Our counterattack starts here." ”

Yuan Shao and the others looked excited, chatting around the map, and laughter that had not been heard for a long time came from time to time in the meeting hall of Shangshutai.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with Li Yi'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 Yi loses his main force too much 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 the Jialu River and the Putianze in the Zhongmu area." If there was no infantry army that was not much different from us, after he hit the Bishui River, he could only stop and wait for us to fight him, so Li Yi would lose the initiative on the battlefield. His choice of such a conservative attack seems to be a helpless move. (To be continued.) )