My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 537 The Great Defeat at Lixian
The unexpected situation in Shangyong was used by Liu Feng to test the attitude of the powerful clans under his command.

Leasing land to displaced civilians and disaster victims was a common practice since the Qin and Han dynasties, and it was also one of the core ideas of Liu Feng's governance in Jiangdong.

Regardless of whether it was land confiscated in Wu Commandery or northern Kuaiji, land redeemed by the treasury, or land donated by powerful clans, Liu Feng leased it at a fair price to the gathered refugees, former tenant farmers of powerful clans, and other common people for cultivation.

After all, land itself isn't valuable; its value lies in its output. Land without output is worthless, and Liu Feng isn't Scrooge, foolish enough to cling to land and refuse to let it go.

The reason for this unexpected situation in Shangyong was mainly because Pang Tong was not deeply involved in the reforms and governance of Jiangdong; at that time, he was still studying in Jiangling. As for Xu Chu, he was not very proficient in these matters, not to mention that his close proximity to Liu Feng carried a certain political signal, and given his political and business acumen, he would certainly not dare to act rashly.

This is the root cause of the unexpected situation in Shangyong that escalated to the point where it had to be delivered to Liu Fengqian before his decision.

When Liu Feng saw this situation, he had a plan in mind, and so a test with a fishing element was set up.

The results of this assessment undoubtedly pleased Liu Feng the most with Xu Shu and Chen Tai, but that does not mean their opinions were the most acceptable.

On the contrary, the most cunning Sun Quan's proposed redemption was the method Liu Feng preferred.

The reason for choosing to buy rather than lease was due to the special circumstances of Shangyong and the purpose of taking action.

Liu Feng wanted to sever the connection between the Shen family and their retainers, which couldn't be achieved through leasing alone, or rather, it would take too long and lack stability. Buying, on the other hand, would be quick and effective.

Moreover, the land in Shangyong is not very good, only of average to below average quality. Shangyong's value lies in its role as a forward base, flank protection, and mineral smelting workshops.

It's worth sacrificing some of the benefits of the land to preserve these.

Sun Quan must have seen this and guessed some of Liu Feng's thoughts, which is why he came up with the method of redemption.

As for Zhong Yu and Gu Shao, although they are also very capable, they are limited by the mindset of the powerful clans and have almost no regard for the lower classes.

Although he knew that this was the most likely outcome, Liu Feng was still somewhat disappointed.

It seems that the idea of ​​subtly influencing the younger generation by bringing them along is not a panacea; other methods are needed to assist in this process.

Thinking of this, Liu Feng took out a piece of paper and wrote a new edict.

The imperial edict appointed Zhong Yu and Gu Shao as officials in charge of the ransom purchase, sending them to Shangyong to assist Pang Tong in this matter. At the same time, a letter was written to Pang Tong, instructing him to ensure that Zhong Yu and Gu Shao were deployed to frontline positions and to personally oversee the work.

After dealing with these matters, Liu Feng picked up another military report.

I've already opened this military report and read it several times.

The military report came from Qingzhou. Following Xun You's advice, Guan Yu selected 5,000 elite troops, led by Zhang Fei as the main general, and detoured northward from Shouguang. They marched swiftly along the coast, crossed the Zi River north of Juding, and launched a surprise attack under cover of night, successfully capturing the poorly defended Lixian.

Lixian was located behind Yuan's army's front line, providing cover to the northeast. If it fell, Zhang Fei's troops could threaten many counties and towns such as Le'an, Bochang, Xi'an, Dong'anping, and Linzi, throwing Yuan's army's rear into chaos.

According to Xun You's strategy, after Zhang Fei captured Li County, the best strategy was to hold back and make a show of threatening other counties, but not actually send troops.

Because Zhang Fei only had five thousand elite troops under his command.

His role was to threaten the flanks and rear of Yuan's army and undermine the morale of Yuan's main force on the front lines.

Once Yuan's main force retreats, it is likely to collapse on the plains. Even if Yuan's army can maintain morale and retreat effectively, under Guan Yu's relentless pressure, it is likely to retreat again and again and lose its footing.

But if Zhang Fei really attacks, even if he manages to capture a few cities, aside from slightly disrupting the morale of Yuan's army, all other effects will be negative.

First, his own forces would be dispersed, making them easy targets for individual attacks.

Secondly, capturing a city requires expending military strength, thus losing the last bit of field combat capability.

Finally, the reinforcements from the north by Yuan's army would not only fail to hinder or delay them, but they would probably not even be able to escape unscathed.

Therefore, before setting out, Xun You repeatedly emphasized that after capturing Li County, it was imperative to defend the city carefully. If they could hold out for half a month, Zhang Fei would be the one to make the greatest contribution in this battle.

It must be said that Xun You's strategy was truly remarkable, and he had first-rate strategic vision. He was neither greedy nor cowardly, and always put interests first.

In fact, when Xun You first made his suggestion, he proposed that Guan Ping lead the army, not Zhang Fei.

This was not only because of Zhang Fei's personality, but also because of his status.

Given the choice, such a surprise force should generally not be assigned to a general like Zhang Fei.

Cao Ren and Xiahou Dun, whose status was equivalent to that of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, were Cao family generals who often served as commanders of detachments, while the command of surprise attacks was usually given to people like Yu Jin, Yue Jin, Han Hao, and Shi Huan. Moreover, Zhang Fei was prone to impulsiveness and had considerable seniority; once he lost his temper, who around him could stop him?
It was only because Uncle Guan couldn't persuade Uncle Zhang that Uncle Zhang took over the battle.

As Xun You predicted, a problem arose.

It wasn't that Uncle Zhang was really acting on his own. In practice, Zhang Fei did obediently follow Xun You's advice at the beginning. Apart from sending a small number of troops out of the city to collect grain to replenish the county granary, he did not take any other unreasonable measures.

Unfortunately, Zhang Fei happened to run into Ju Shou.

Yuan Shao was also deeply worried about the war in Qingzhou. The stalemate in Qingzhou prevented him from making a decision to open a new front. Although he vehemently disliked the alliance between Cao Cao and Liu Bei, he feared that if the fighting became increasingly intense, it would only strengthen the alliance between the two.

After much hesitation, Yuan Shao simply sent Ju Shou out.

For the past year, Ju Shou has been constantly nagging Yuan Shao, urging him to withdraw his troops from Qingzhou back north of the Yellow River, then recuperate and watch Cao Cao and Liu Bei turn against each other.

Ju Shou and Tian Feng believed that the Cao-Liu alliance was fragile because the disparity in strength between the two sides was too great. Moreover, Cao Cao needed Liu Bei's help in many ways, but gave back to Liu Bei in very few ways.

Aside from using the name of the imperial court, almost everything else was about extortion.

Judging from Ju Shou and Tian Feng, Liu Bei and his sons could not sustain an annual grain supply of one million shi (a unit of dry measure).

Over time, gaps will inevitably form.

Yuan Shao's opportunity will only come if Cao Cao and Liu Bei turn against each other.

Yuan Shao was thoroughly annoyed by him, so he simply sent him to the east under the pretext of supporting the war in Qingzhou. Ju Shou's position by Yuan Shao's side should have been second only to the emperor, as he was in charge of all of Yuan's troops.

However, under Guo Tu's instigation, Yuan Shao himself became somewhat afraid and simply divided military power into three parts. During the reorganization of the army that began last year, Yuan Shao once again took away part of Ju Shou's troops under the guise of selecting elite soldiers.

When Yuan Shao sent Ju Shou to Qingzhou this time, he only gave Ju Shou 20,000 troops, and apart from the 6,000 troops under Ju Shou's own command, the rest were soldiers from Jizhou County who had been eliminated.

Ju Shou arrived in the east just as Zhang Fei had captured Li County.

Ju Shou reacted immediately, first stopping his advance and concealing his presence, while at the same time riding south to warn Yuan Tan and Chunyu Qiong.

Subsequently, Ju Shouxian ordered the three thousand soldiers of the prefecture to be divided into four or five forces of varying sizes, and to launch a counterattack on Lixian from different times and directions. Even though they were defeated by Zhang Fei and forced to flee in panic, they did not care at all.

After the battle, Zhang Fei interrogated the prisoners and learned that they were all garrison soldiers from surrounding cities. He then recounted the situation of these cities.

Upon learning of the crushing defeat and rout of the surrounding city garrisons, Zhang Fei was overjoyed and could no longer suppress his excitement, so he immediately led his troops out.

Even at this point, Zhang Fei remained vigilant and did not blindly divide his forces, but instead set his sights on Bochang.

This is the confluence of the Shi River and the Zi River, and also the starting point of a rare east-west river in Qingzhou, connecting Xi'an, Linzi and Dong'anping, which relieved more than half of the logistical pressure on Yuan's army.

Once Bochang is cut off, Yuan's army will only have another land transport and supply route left, and the route will be much longer than the current supply line.

From both a strategic and tactical perspective, Zhang Fei's choice was not wrong. He didn't even try to gain merit by dividing his troops between Xi'an and Linzi, two empty cities that were very close to each other.

However, this time Zhang Fei encountered Ju Shou instead.

Ju Shou had long anticipated that Zhang Fei would either not send troops, or if he did, he would definitely seize Bochang; even if he divided his forces, the main force would only be to Bochang.

Therefore, Ju Shou set up an ambush in Bochang City, using the promise of surrendering the city as bait to encircle and annihilate Zhang Fei's forces from both inside and outside.

Four thousand elite troops who launched a night raid on Bochang were killed in action, with 40% losing their lives. The remaining troops, under Zhang Fei's command, fought bravely and managed to break through the encirclement, only to be surrounded again by Yuan's army in Lixian.

Lixian County was small and short of food, making it difficult to hold. Zhang Fei had no choice but to break out of the city overnight while Yuan's army was not yet fully encircling it.

As it turned out, Ju Shou had anticipated this, and after another setback, Zhang Fei managed to break through the encirclement with his own strength and courage, leading more than 1,300 remaining soldiers. Those who did not manage to break through were either killed in battle or captured.

Of these 1,300-plus men, only 700-800 ultimately managed to return to the Allied front.

Five thousand elite troops went on the expedition, but were ultimately defeated and only seven or eight hundred returned. The heavy losses in this battle completely broke the backbone of Zhang Fei's troops.

What's even more lamentable is that Ju Shou actually took advantage of the inside line operation, and after defeating Zhang Fei, he directly ordered Yuan Tan and Chunyu Qiong to withdraw their troops, creating the illusion that they were short of supplies and their retreat was cut off by Zhang Fei, forcing them to retreat first.

If Xun You hadn't foreseen that Yuan Tan and Chunyu Qiong's forces would retreat in a state of orderly disarray and not disperse, and hadn't strongly advised Guan Yu to postpone the pursuit, the allied forces would have suffered another great loss if they had encountered Ju Shou's well-rested troops during the pursuit.

Zhang Fei's elite troops suffered heavy losses, with at least 70-80% of the fighting strength of his 20,000 men gone.

Although Zhang Fei's force still numbered nearly 16,000, the loss of his most elite 5,000 men drastically reduced their fighting strength and morale, leaving them on the verge of collapse. Even Guan Yu's forces, which had not suffered any losses, and other units of the allied forces also experienced a blow to their morale.

If it weren't for the internal problems within Yuan Jun's army, the allied forces would have been in an even greater crisis. Even abandoning the Jumei River defense line would have been futile; they would have needed to at least rendezvous with Chen Deng's troops, who were rapidly approaching.

While the situation was dire for the defeated allied forces, Yuan Shao's victorious army was in no better shape.

At the highest level of military council, Yuan Tan and Ju Shou had an extremely heated argument. Yuan Tan even nearly drew his sword, but was fortunately restrained in time by Chunyu Qiong.

The reason is not surprising; it's the same old problem: to fight or to retreat.

The retreat of Yuan Tan and Chunyu Qiong did not attract the pursuit of the allied forces, so the planned ambush failed.

Following Ju Shou's advice, now that they had won a small victory, it was time to take the opportunity to retreat and abandon the Jumei River defense line, instead choosing to defend the Zi River line.

This would not only help shorten the logistics supply line, but also help shorten the defense line.

To the northeast lies the Juding Lake, the largest lake in Qingzhou, into which several rivers, including the Jumei River, Zi River, and Zhuo River, converge, making it a very large lake.

Liu Bei's army bypassed Juding when they launched a surprise attack on Lixian. However, their first attack failed, and now that Yuan's army is well-equipped and on guard, it's even less likely they will succeed.

Retreating to the Zishui River defense line, there are still the fortified cities of Linzi and Dong'anping, which are separated by the Zishui River and echo each other. Linzi is a transportation hub in Shandong Province and is backed by counties such as Bochang, Xi'an, and Changguo, making it much easier than the Jumei River line.

Ju Shou's strategy was undoubtedly correct: shortening Yuan Shao's army's supply lines conversely lengthened the allied forces' supply lines.

Most rivers in Qingzhou run north-south, with only a few, like the Shishui River, running east-west in sections.

Therefore, in the battles fought between the east and west in Qingzhou, rivers not only did not help at all, but also became obstacles, making them an extremely effective means of stretching the enemy's supply lines.

But Yuan Tan couldn't accept it.

As the governor of Qingzhou, Yuan Tan was already dissatisfied with not having a complete Qingzhou. Now, he was even more ashamed that a group of miscellaneous soldiers and generals had come to attack him.

If they had been defeated, that would have been one thing, but now that they have won a battle, instead of thinking about how to press their advantage, cross the river, and even unify Qingzhou, they are thinking about retreating.

If word gets out, wouldn't outsiders think that Yuan Tan has suffered another defeat?

Therefore, Yuan Tan suspected that Ju Shou was trying to harm him by speaking ill of him to his father and secretly supporting the young Yuan Shang.

With this preconceived notion, everything Ju Shou said naturally became unbelievable.

Ju Shou himself was not a good-tempered person, and it was already very polite of him to patiently persuade Yuan Tan a few words.

After all, Ju Shou came here this time because he had criticized Yuan Tan's father.

If you dare to criticize your own father, why would you be afraid to criticize your own son?
This is a perfect match, a direct confrontation.

(End of this chapter)