My younger brother Zhuge Liang
Chapter 371: Kill Lu Xiang to Establish Authority
Chapter 371: Kill Lu Xiang to Establish Authority
After hearing the rumors about Yuan Shang's military mobilization from the Bohai direction, Cao Cao had no choice but to order an immediate attack in advance. This was also a helpless move.
For Cao Cao, it doesn't matter whether he attacks early or late. If he attacks later, it will only make the two Yuans continue to consume each other and weaken their strength. If this goal cannot be achieved, of course he will attack immediately as a second choice.
As for whether the timing of the war becoming more sudden would make Cao Cao's reputation for betrayal even worse, Cao Cao no longer cared.
A person with too much debt is not a worry, and a person with too many lice is not an itch. It is a matter of finding a pretext to accuse someone of a crime. What is there to be entangled about? Is there any difference between killing someone with a stick and a blade?
While Cao Cao was sending his troops to fight, he also gave a death order to Cao Hong and Xiahou Yuan, who were in charge of the main attack mission on the front line: they must speed up the advance in the early stages and absolutely must not let Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang's troops withdraw to Weijun.
As for the specific means of achieving this goal, he allowed Cao Hong and Xiahou Yuan to adapt to the situation.
Whether it is to advance quickly after crossing the river, to surround Yecheng as soon as possible, or to fight a siege and reinforcement battle.
You can also send more scouts to infiltrate and investigate, or split up the troops halfway to actively intercept Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang.
The means don’t matter; all Cao Cao wants is the result.
Xiahou Yuan, who had just been pulled back to Bai Ma from Pengcheng, immediately accepted the order and expressed that he would definitely wash away the shame of last year's failure in the Donghai-Langya campaign and regain the lost glory from Yuan Shang. He then launched an offensive to cross the Yellow River to the north.
Before the battle against Yuan Shang, Cao Cao secretly transferred Xiahou Yuan back to strengthen the offensive on the northern front to ensure that the victory could be achieved quickly. All of this happened in the past few days, and the pace was very fast.
Cao Cao knew very well that in order to completely annihilate Yuan Shang, he had to use heavy troops and strike with thunder and lightning. The faster he fought, the safer the direction of Xuzhou would be.
The four main trusted generals from the royal family under his command now have their own tasks.
Xiahou Dun was in charge of Yingchuan and Nanyang, mainly to prevent Liu Biao from continuing northward from Wancheng to Bowang and Yexian to threaten Xudu. At the same time, he had to take into account the Ruying direction to ensure that Runan would not be attacked by Liu Bei crossing the Tongbai Mountains.
Cao Ren was originally stationed between Chen and Qiao, responsible for the middle section of the Huaibei defense line to fight against Zhao Yun.
Xiahou Yuan was originally in Pengcheng, fighting against Guan Yu.
Previously, there was only one Cao Hong stationed along the Hebei line, ready to launch an attack on Yuan Shang. Before the battle, Cao Cao also knew that Cao Hong alone was not strong enough, and he still had to rely on Xiahou Yuan for a quick offensive campaign.
But in order to prevent Guan Yu from immediately discovering the flaws in Pengcheng, Cao Cao's move to mobilize Xiahou Yuan was very low-key. The lower-level officers of Cao's army in Pengcheng County did not know that Xiahou Yuan had left, and Xiahou Yuan's flag was still standing on the top of Pengcheng City.
Before leaving, Xiahou Yuan found an excuse to pretend to be temporarily unwell and asked Zhang He to help him manage the generals. All the generals reported to Zhang He alone, and Zhang He reported to him.
With such a layout, only a very few people in Xuzhou, such as Zhang He, knew that Xiahou Yuan had left, and the news would not leak out.
After Xiahou Yuan arrived in Hebei and reinforced Cao Hong's offensive forces, he still did not raise his own banner, so there was no Xiahou in the Hebei army.
This tactic is exactly the same as the one used by Cao Cao in history before the Battle of Guandu, when he personally led an expedition to Xuzhou to attack Liu Bei and drove away Liu Bei who had just killed Che Zhou.
At that time, Cao Cao came in person to deal with Liu Bei, but there was no Cao Cao's flag in front of the Xuzhou army. There was no Cao Cao in the Liyang army, but there was a Cao Cao flag.
In this life, this trick was not used in the Battle of Guandu, but by chance it is used now, which can be regarded as "the conclusion of the world line and the recycling of famous memes."
Of course, if Xiahou Yuan was going to reinforce the Hebei battlefield, he certainly couldn't go alone, as that would be meaningless. He must take an army with him to go north.
In order to conceal its true identity, this army must have a nominal commander, so when Cao Cao was making his plans, he chose Gao Lan as the nominal "reinforcement commander" and sent him to Hebei with 10,000 to 20,000 troops.
In other words, in Xuzhou's Pengcheng County defense zone, there was only one general, Zhang He, left to hold the fort. A large number of soldiers and generals were withdrawn, and there was nothing that could be done about it.
Fortunately, Cao Cao also had a backup plan. He asked Cao Ren, who was stationed in Qiao, to slightly adjust his defense zone and move his station north to the Fuli area. Fuli County was roughly equivalent to Suzhou City in Anhui Province in later generations, and was just on the line between Shouchun and Pengcheng.
In this way, Fuli is not too far from Zhao Yun in Shouchun and Guan Yu in Xia Pi. This can also temporarily make Cao Ren suffer, allowing him to shoulder two lines of defense at the same time and hold out until Cao's army in Hebei breaks through Yecheng.
Moreover, Cao Ren only played the role of commander-in-chief of Cao’s Huai-Si-Yi defense line.
In Longkang and Ruyin on the Huaihe River defense line, there were other frontline generals such as Li Tong and Cai Yang who directly defended Zhao Yun. In Pengcheng on the Yisi section of the defense line, there was a frontline general Zhang He who specifically dealt with Guan Yu.
Cao Ren only needed to control the situation and take charge of the overall situation, without being responsible for specific tasks, so the pressure was lighter. If any of Li Tong, Cai Yang, or Zhang He could not hold on, they would call on Cao Ren to send out the "Huai-Si Defense Zone General Reserve Team" for reinforcement.
Cao Cao's deployment was also to bring out the talents of the important clan generals under his command to the fullest.
He knew that Xiahou Yuan was good at attacking, swift as the wind and aggressive as fire, so he let him take charge of the attack. Cao Ren was good at defending, slow as a forest and immovable as a mountain, so he let him take charge of the defense.
As for the rest, we can only do our best and leave the rest to fate.
……
Two flowers bloom, one branch each.
Cao Cao ordered Xiahou Yuan and Cao Hong to cross the Yellow River to attack Liyang. Naturally, the news was delivered to Yecheng by horseback within two days. Yuan Shang was shocked and angry after hearing the news. Even though Yuan Shang was mentally prepared, even though he had expected this day to come when Gao Gan was defeated by Cao Cao and Ma Teng in the spring of this year. But as long as it was not imminent, he always fantasized that this day would come later, until he could take Nanpi, completely occupy Bohai, and recover the entire Jizhou, and then free up his hands to deal with Cao Cao with all his strength.
It seems that Cao Ze, this bastard, is too cautious in playing the balance game after all! He won't give him the chance to drive his eldest brother out of Jizhou completely!
Although Cao's army's offensive was swift, the Liyang fortress could still hold out for a while and would not be breached within seven or eight days.
After Liyang, there are still Neihuang and Anyang, which can hold out for a few days on the road of more than 100 miles. Therefore, no matter how fast Cao's army fights or how strong its army is, it is impossible for them to reach the city of Ye within half a month.
Taking advantage of this time difference, Yuan Shang would of course immediately gather troops from all over the country to support Yecheng and defend the city. Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang, who were in Nanpi, were naturally also within the scope of Yuan Shang's recall.
Finally, on May 16, the eighth year of Jian'an, Cao's army crossed the Yellow River from Yanjin and Baima, and on May 18, they surrounded Liyang.
On May 19, Yuan Shang received sufficient information from the front and spent a day or two making a decision. On the 21st, he sent an order to Lu Kuang to withdraw his troops and return to provide support.
On the 23rd, the courier delivered the order to Lü Kuang while running hundreds of miles a day. Because it was already afternoon, Lü Kuang needed time and preparation to get his troops moving.
Finally, after consultation, Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang decided to send some of their elite troops to sneak back to Dongguang County by boat that night, and then retreat by land. The fleet would then return to Nanpi to pick up the follow-up troops, thus preventing Taishi Ci on the shore from sending troops to intercept them.
Yuan Shang's army made such a retreat arrangement because they did not have enough ships.
These ships were originally used to transport food supplies to the army. If they were used to transport people, it would be impossible to transport most of them at once.
Water transportation on northern rivers was originally underdeveloped, and the upper limit of transportation capacity that could be mobilized during wartime was very low.
There was nothing wrong with Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang's decision, and there was no better choice.
But their mistake was that their enemies were Taishi Ci and Zhou Yu.
Lü Kuang led the first batch of veteran infantrymen and successfully sailed away in the dark, thinking that he could do it without anyone noticing.
The flags continued to be raised in the Nanpi siege camp, and the smoke from cooking was still burning before dinner time the next day.
However, all of this was planned by Zhou Yu. It was Zhou Yu who facilitated Cao's army to invade north ahead of schedule and forced Yuan Shang's army to leave. How could Zhou Yu not pay attention and conduct careful surveillance?
Zhou Yu had already made plans, estimating that Lu Kuang and Lu Xiang's unusual movements would occur in the next few days, so during the day the next day, he discovered Lu Kuang's withdrawal.
Zhou Yu immediately found Taishi Ci to report and discuss: "Lü Kuang should know that there are not enough ships, so he retreated with a part of the main elite infantry, and he is probably going back to the battlefield of Yecheng to defend the city.
There will definitely be a boat coming back tonight to pick up the second batch of troops to retreat. Yuan Jun felt that Dongguang County upstream was in their hands, and our army would definitely not cross Dongguang County to pursue the retreating troops, so they would most likely use boats to ferry the section from Nanpi to Dongguang to prevent being intercepted by cavalry.
We can take advantage of the enemy's mentality and do the opposite. We will launch a surprise attack on Yuan's camp in the second half of the night. I have calculated the itinerary and speed of Yuan's grain ships before. I estimate that in the first half of the night, Lu Kuang's ships will return to Nanpi camp, and then the enemy will board the ships in batches and return in the second half of the night.
We will attack the enemy camp while some of them are waiting to board the ship. Since the enemy soldiers have no intention of fighting and want to escape first, we will surely be able to strike them halfway across the river and kill them from behind, forcing the enemy to flee and collapse.
Taishi Ci agreed with this and immediately ordered the entire army to prepare to attack Yuan’s camp tonight.
Zhou Yu also changed his previous posture of only letting his troops move on the surface of the Zhang River, and instead ordered the navy to go ashore and line up, preparing to participate in the land raid on the camp tonight.
The Yuan army on the opposite side had been in a stalemate with Taishi Ci and Zhou Yu for nearly half a month. Before that, Taishi Ci and Zhou Yu had never attempted to raid the camp at night, so they must have become numb.
In addition, Zhou Yu had never sent his navy ashore to fight a land battle before, so Lü Kuang and Lü Xiang also had a stereotype that Zhou Yu was blind. When guarding against land-based enemies, they often only thought of guarding against Taishi Ci's troops, and never thought that Zhou Yu, such a cowardly naval commander, would dare to go ashore to fight.
Zhou Yu suddenly abandoned his ship and went ashore, attacking by land, which was definitely a surprise move.
……
Everything went smoothly. At midnight, the Nanpi siege camp, which was originally said to have 50,000 to 60,000 people, now only had about 40,000 people left. Some of Yuan Shang's veterans and elite soldiers had been evacuated, and the second batch was evacuated tonight.
Halfway through the second watch, thousands of Yuan Shang's veteran infantrymen and a number of cavalrymen lined up in the camp, ready to board the ship. The weak, old, and forced civilian auxiliary soldiers were left outside to fill the defense line.
Yuan Shang knew that when defending Yecheng, the key was to have veterans and elite soldiers, so that they could withstand the fierce attack of Cao's army and defend for a long time. If he brought back all the weak cannon fodder, it would not only be difficult to march quickly on the road, but also consume a lot of food when returning to Yecheng, which was not conducive to long-term defense.
Therefore, Yuan Jun's withdrawal this time was originally a plan to prioritize preserving elite veterans and let the weak cannon fodder cover their retreat. It is not surprising that such a situation occurred.
Just as Lu Xiang was supervising the veterans in the army lining up to board the ship, earth-shaking shouts of killing suddenly came from afar.
Taishi Ci and Zhou Yu joined forces and, just at this critical juncture, launched a raid on Yuan Shang's Nanpi siege camp.
(End of this chapter)
You'll Also Like
-
Hunter x Hunter Rise Meteor Street.
Chapter 92 4 hours ago -
Rebirth: I Have a Fortune Pavilion
Chapter 375 4 hours ago -
After the evil concubine was reborn, she only wanted to abuse the scumbag
Chapter 645 4 hours ago -
Douluo Dalu: My Martial Soul is a Contract
Chapter 13 4 hours ago -
Death Knight of the Secret World
Chapter 80 4 hours ago -
Zongman: Start playing from the battle
Chapter 74 4 hours ago -
I can't be this powerful after traveling through Panlong
Chapter 171 4 hours ago -
Simulation: Leading the World to Survive
Chapter 107 4 hours ago -
Fights Break Sphere: Uchiha Yunyun
Chapter 25 4 hours ago -
Genshin Impact: Shark Across the World
Chapter 92 4 hours ago