My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 336: Attack the Zhuge Family's Lair

Liu Bei and Cao Cao were both aware of the impending conflict.

Just over ten days after Liu Bei deployed his troops, as the two armies gathered, the situation became increasingly clear - Cao's army did not immediately gather heavy troops in Chen, Qiao and other places along the Huaibei line, but instead gathered more and more troops in Pengcheng, Donghai and Langya.

This kind of mobilization of tens of thousands of people would certainly not be hidden from the enemy's spies. Therefore, the closer it got to the final moment, the easier it was for both sides to accurately judge the other side's main attack direction, and there was no room for deception.

Guan Yu, who was in charge of the defense of the entire Xuzhou, after predicting the direction of the enemy's attack, further fine-tuned the deployment of troops in various counties within Xuzhou and added more troops to the two counties of Langya.

The garrison in Langya has increased from more than 6,000 people when they were just received from Yuan Tan last year to more than 15,000 people. In terms of the garrison commanders, there are Lu Su and Zhuge Jun, Gao Shun and Zhou Tai to guard the city, and Zhou Yu can patrol the coast to provide support.

This defensive force is also the maximum that Guan Yu can draw out. After all, Guan Yu cannot bet that Cao Cao will only attack Langya. He also has to divide his troops to guard the borders of Xia Pi and Donghai counties that border the enemy without leaving any loopholes.

The combat capability and size of Liu Bei's army have also made great progress in the past two years.

Before the campaign to destroy Sun last year, the total size of Liu Bei's army was more than 90,000 soldiers. At that time, in order to fight Jingnan and destroy Sun at the same time, the manpower for fighting on two fronts was still quite stretched. In the end, he had to take advantage of the time difference and destroy Jingnan first and then destroy the Sun family.

However, as Jingnan and Wuhui were pacified one after another, Liu Bei's strength also experienced a surge. Although the cumulative casualties of the two wars and non-combat casualties due to illness added up to more than 10,000 casualties, the gains after the war were much greater than the losses.

After defeating Sun, Liu Bei's army directly incorporated more than 30,000 prisoners of war and surrendered soldiers from the Sun family. Zhang Xian of the four counties in southern Jing was relatively weak, and the number of people who could be incorporated to expand the army was only a few thousand, at least less than 20,000.

Therefore, after the war ended last year, the total number of soldiers in Liu Bei's camp increased to 130,000. This year, after another year of recuperation, the total number of soldiers can be expanded to 140,000 or 150,000 after rectifying the local area, investigating hidden households, and naturalizing Shanyue.

As a vassal with two entire states, it is reasonable for him to be able to put up such a strong force. In history, before Sun Quan took Jingzhou, he could gather an army of 100,000 just by relying on the entire territory of Yangzhou and the three eastern counties of Jingzhou.

Since Liu Bei had 140,000 or 150,000 combat troops, it was necessary for him to leave 30,000 troops in Jingnan and Jiangxia for defense. If there were fewer troops, Cao Cao might take the risk of crossing the Tongbai Mountains, and Liu Biao and Liu Zhang might also make unusual moves.

There are about 100,000 troops left. Even if there are no enemies in Yangzhou in the rear, the place is so large after all, so at least 10,000 main combat soldiers must be deployed to avoid accidents.

Therefore, the total strength of the Huainan and Xuzhou defense lines was only about 80,000. Guan Yu's side was the main force, with 50,000 soldiers, and Zhao Yun's side was the second, with more than 30,000 soldiers.

Of Guan Yu's 50,000 troops, 20,000 were stationed in Xia Pi, 10,000 in Donghai County, and 15,000 in Langya County. The remaining several thousand were stationed in Guangling in the rear as a support point and reserve force.

At the same time, after the three battles of Guandu, Dong'a and Cangting against Yuan, although the occupied land of Yuan was not much, and the four counties of Hejian were once occupied and later given up, the expansion of Cao's army's manpower was very astonishing.

In the Battle of Guandu alone, Zhang He and Gao Lan surrendered with their troops, which brought him tens of thousands of people. Later, in Dong'a and Cangting, at least 30,000 to 40,000 Yuan soldiers were captured each time. During the six months when he occupied the four counties of Hejian, Cao Cao also forced a large number of young and strong people from Jizhou to move south.

Therefore, in the past two years, the number of Cao's soldiers has increased to more than 100,000, double the number before Guandu, and the total number of soldiers has reached more than 300,000. This does not include the troops of the vassal puppet forces.

For example, Ma Teng of Xiliang is now nominally subject to the Xudu court and will occasionally cooperate with Cao Cao in battles, but Ma Teng's troops are obviously not counted here.

Before Cao Cao destroyed Lu, Zang Ba, Sun Guan, and the Taishan bandit Chang Xi, who had surrendered to Cao in Langya and other places, were not counted in Cao Cao's army. Before the Battle of Guandu, they only obeyed orders and not declarations. Now that Yuan Shao is dead, Zang Ba, Sun Guan and Chang Xi have to work hard for Cao Cao.

As the Battle of Xuzhou approached, Cao Cao left about 40% of his troops on the northern front, left tens of thousands of them in key areas, and then transferred 150,000 main combat troops to the southern front.

Among these 150,000 men, 70,000 were led by Cao Ren, who was responsible for the entire Huaibei region. His force was more than twice that of Zhao Yun on the opposite side.

There were another 80,000 troops, led by Xiahou Yuan, who were mainly gathered in Cao's area in Xuzhou, facing Guan Yu's 50,000 troops.

However, although Xiahou Yuan's military strength was not overwhelming that of Guan Yu, he still had some other semi-independent vassal armies on the borders of Yan and Xu that he could mobilize. These included the thousands of private soldiers of the Li Dian family in Shanyang County, as well as Chang Xi of Taishan, Zang Ba of Langya, and Sun Guan. Adding up all these various forces, Xiahou Yuan could mobilize more than 100,000 soldiers.

Cao Cao could ensure that he had more than twice the number of troops over Liu Bei in every direction.

…The seventh year of Jian’an, the sixth day of the sixth month.

In the counties of Langya, after making all the necessary preparations, Lu Su and Zhuge Jun finally received the news of Cao's invasion.

Gao Shun from Ju County in the south sent a messenger to deliver an urgent report, informing of this urgent military situation:
"Report! Xiahou Yuan, with Li Dian and Sun Guan as the vanguard, led an army of 20,000, under the banner of attacking Yuan Tan, and marched eastward from Kaiyang County, the capital of Langya Prefecture, into our defense zone, crossed the Yishui River and Shushui River from the southern suburbs of Ju County, crossed the hills and headed straight for Rizhao Town.

General Gao guarded the city of Ju County and did not go into battle. General Gao judged that Xiahou Yuan's goal should be to occupy the seaport of Rizhao and cut off the communication between Donghai County in the south and us, and then slowly encircle and annihilate our army. "

Zhuge Jun had never fought in a war before, and when he heard that the neighboring county was under heavy enemy attack, he was a little nervous and quickly asked Lu Su what to do.

Lu Su was very calm. He immediately walked to the map and gestured to Zhuge Jun:
"Xiahou Yuan is fighting under the pretext of attacking Yuan Tan. It is clear that Cao's army still wants to play dumb and avoid a full-scale war with our army. They just want to test our strength first.

In this case, there is no need to worry too much about Xiahou Yuan immediately dividing his troops and turning south to enter Donghai County. Of course, even if he wants to destroy the eastern half of Donghai County, General Guan will also divide his troops to defend it, so that defense area is not something we need to worry about.

Xiahou Yuan bypassed the city and headed straight for the coast, thinking that he could cut our army into two sections at the weakest point in our army's depth, so that the north and south could not take care of each other, and then slowly clean up the army in the north.

But we were well prepared. General Gao had sufficient food stored in Ju County and 6,000 soldiers guarding the city. Moreover, we spent several months strengthening the city defenses before the war. Even if Xiahou Yuan surrounded and attacked us fiercely, it would not be easy to take us down.

Ju County blocks the valleys of Yishui and Shushui. If Xiahou Yuan doesn't take Ju County, he won't be a threat to us. We have other seaports to use, so there will be no shortage of supplies. After Xiahou Yuan's old soldiers are tired and have lost a few teeth, General Guan will naturally launch a counterattack. "

Zhuge Jun felt relieved after hearing Lu Su's consolation, but he was still a little unwilling and asked doubtfully: "Before I came to Langya, I asked my elder brother. He once said that before Lu Bu was defeated, it was Brother Zijing who advised the lord to lure Yuan Tan into the game and occupy the eastern part of Langya.

The purpose is to ensure that the Yishui and Mengshan defense lines are intact, and the hinterland of Xuzhou will not be broken by Cao's roundabout attack. In this case, now that Xiahou Yuan has invaded, why don't we deploy heavy troops along the Yishui and Shushui rivers to directly block the enemy at the beachhead and simply prevent the enemy from crossing the river?
Li Dian and Sun Guan successfully crossed the river, didn't they break through our Yishui defense line?"

After listening to Zhuge Jun's dogmatic view, Lu Su also tested Zhuge Jun's depth and explained with a smile: "The beauty of military strategy lies in being able to adapt to changing circumstances. It was certainly right for us to try to ensure the integrity of the Yishui and Mengshan defense lines.

The decision to allow Xiahou Yuan to temporarily break through now was also a choice made in accordance with the circumstances. After all, the Yishui and Shushui rivers were shallow and narrow, far from being comparable to those large rivers. Not only were they much narrower than the Huaihe River, but even the Sishui River was much wider than them. It was impossible to completely prevent the enemy from crossing such a small river.

However, the middle and upper reaches of the Yishui River can still be defended because it passes through the Mengshan Mountain area, where the mountains are relatively steep and the water flows rapidly, and it can also prevent enemy infiltration.

The middle and lower reaches of the Yishui River, especially near the border between Langya County and Donghai County, are about to flow out of the Mengshan Mountain area and into the Donghai Plain. Xiahou Yuan chose this place specifically to cross the river and break through. The river here is not wide enough, and there is no danger like Mengshan. If we block it forcefully, the casualties will surely be huge.

But after Xiahou Yuan successfully crosses the river, if he fails to break through any strong city, he will face difficulties in supplying his troops. Although we cannot stop him from crossing the Yishui and Shushui rivers, we can send boats from upstream to harass his food supply route - by then, Xiahou Yuan himself will definitely be the first to collapse. "

Lu Su's analysis may be difficult to understand for those who don't look at the map.
The attack route chosen by Xiahou Yuan was to cross the river from Kaiyang County, the seat of Langya County, to the east and eventually reach Rizhao.

Kaiyang County is the urban area of Linyi in later generations, so Xiahou Yuan’s attack route is equal to Linyi City-Junan District-Rizhao City Lanshan District.

If you look at the Baidu map, you will know that this route is within the territory of Langya County, but it just bypasses the southern edge of the Yimeng Mountains and passes through the junction of the Yimeng Mountains and the northern Jiangsu Plain, making it suitable for the movement of large troops.

This road is relatively easy to travel, but the terrain is only a narrow strip. If Xiahou Yuan cannot deal with Ju County and other counties upstream, then his food supply route across Yi and Shu will be easily cut off, and he will not be able to continue, so he will have to follow the steps and slowly remove the nails on the flank one by one.

What Lu Su wanted was to give Xiahou Yuan an illusion first, and Xiahou Yuan did have this illusion.

A few days later, when Xiahou Yuan learned that Li Dian and Sun Guan had bypassed the fortified city without bloodshed, almost broke through the eastern half of Langya, pushed all the way to the sea, and even captured a major seaport in the Langya area in a roundabout way, Xiahou Yuan was very proud.

Who says that in order to deal with a party with a strong navy, you must fight a naval battle with the enemy in order to cut off its supplies?

Directly penetrate the land, divide the north and south, and then occupy the main ports along the coast of the cut territory. Are you afraid that they will not collapse? Even if you have the advantage of sea vessels, where will you get supplies if you lose the seaport?

(End of this chapter)