My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 454 If we don't attack Zhao Yun, we won't be able to defeat him.

Gongsun Du dominated Haidong and had a population of more than 2 million Hu and Han people, so naturally the military force under his command was also strong.

Thirty years later in history, when Sima Yi attacked Gongsun Du's grandson Gongsun Yuan, Sima Yi sent out 40,000 troops, but encountered Gongsun Yuan's troops of nearly 200,000 fighting on the inner line of his homeland. With Sima Yi's ability, he could only besiege the enemy with caution and take steady steps, not daring to attack with a heavy casualty.

This is not to say that Cao Wei was not strong in history and could not mobilize more troops. Rather, it was too difficult to maintain logistics for a long expedition of thousands of miles in ancient times. Sima Yi's advance through the Liaoxi Corridor required much more losses in logistics and auxiliary troops than the frontline soldiers. It is not surprising that he could eventually maintain 40,000 soldiers on the front line.

Now that Zhao Yun is attacking Gongsun Du, the number of troops he can mobilize is naturally far less than that of Gongsun Du - this also does not mean that Liu Bei's camp is not strong enough, but the gap in mobilization capabilities between the expeditionary army and the internal combat side is a world of difference.

Gongsun Du was fighting on his own soil, and it was a life-and-death battle to defend his homeland. With a little mobilization, he could mobilize all the young men in the community who were idle during the winter.

Finally, Gongsun Du mobilized 150,000 soldiers. However, Gongsun's Lelang County on the Korean Peninsula and Daifang County in the newly occupied Hanye area must occupy at least 20,000 soldiers to garrison. It cannot be less, otherwise the newly subdued Three Han tribes will rise up again to resist.

In addition, two or three thousand people should be left to guard the vicinity of the newly conquered capital of Goguryeo, otherwise Goguryeo might make a comeback and threaten Xiangping.

Finally, we must leave troops to defend Xiangping and other strategic locations, and then consider the time required to assemble the troops.

After deducting all these factors, Gongsun Du could only mobilize 50,000 to 60,000 reinforcements to the Liaosui-Changli line in a short period of time. If the war could be dragged on until the twelfth lunar month, Gongsun Du might be able to dispatch another 20,000, bringing the number of frontline troops to 70,000 to 80,000.

Unfortunately, Gongsun Du could not wait that long. He received the urgent report on the fourth day of November and made a decision on the fifth day. It took him only four or five days to urgently assemble the troops. On the tenth day, he led the first batch of 40,000 reinforcements down the Liaohe River.

The fleet sailed for six days and arrived at the mouth of the Liaohe River on the 16th. They immediately sent out scouts to learn about the latest situation on the Changli front. At the same time, they steadily strengthened the camp and expanded the station, waiting for the arrival of follow-up troops.

It is estimated that by the end of November, the Liaosui Camp at the mouth of the Liao River will have 50,000 troops. By the beginning of December, it will have 60,000 troops. Subsequently, it will be possible to increase the number of troops by 10,000 every ten days, and continue to increase the number of troops for about a month.

……

Gongsun Du's main reinforcements were finally mobilized. Zhao Yun, who had been camping under the siege of Changli City for the past ten days, of course, was also keeping an eye on the movements of the enemy reinforcements.

Therefore, he grasped the enemy situation at the first moment, and could even roughly estimate the number of Gongsun Du's reinforcements.

The Changli city that Zhao Yun besieged is roughly equivalent to the later Jinzhou, but it is not in the urban area of Jinzhou, but in the area of Yixian County in the northern suburbs of the later Jinzhou. There is another county town Tuhe in the south of Changli, which is located in the south of the later Jinzhou and is just stuck at the mouth of the Xiaoling River and the Xiaoling River.

The Liaosui Camp where Gongsun Du’s army arrived was at the mouth of the Liao River, but that place was a little further north than the mouth of the Liao River in later generations.

This is mainly because in the next two thousand years, the large amount of silt brought by the Liaohe River caused the Liaohe River estuary to continue to extend southward, turning part of the land on the northern shore of the Bohai Bay into land.

During the Han Dynasty, these places had not yet been filled into land, so the coastline naturally retreated dozens of miles to the north. The mouth of the Liaohe River in later generations was located in Yingkou, while the mouth of the Liaohe River in the Han Dynasty was located in the northern suburbs of Panjin in later generations.

Therefore, Gongsun Du's Liaosui camp was less than a hundred miles away from Zhao Yun's siege camp outside Changli City, and the cavalry could arrive there in one day.

Upon learning that Gongsun Du had advanced to within a hundred miles of him and then switched to a defensive wait-and-see stance, Zhao Yun summoned his main generals and staff to discuss countermeasures:

"Gongsun Du has personally led reinforcements to Liaosui, but he still doesn't dare to cross the Liao River to attack our army. He probably wants to observe our army closely to see if Changli is in danger. If our army is unable to break through Changli and the defenders are not in danger of being destroyed, Gongsun Du will continue to wait and see and consume us.

Only when Changli is in danger will he really make up his mind to cross the Liaohe River to fight us. But our army is now composed of cavalry, and the number of people does not reach the level of "attack five times" as mentioned in the Art of War. A strong attack on Changli will inevitably result in heavy casualties.

In this situation, do you have any clever ideas to lure Gongsun Du to stop waiting and directly cross the Liao River to engage in a decisive battle with our army?"

Faced with the difficult problem raised by Zhao Yun, Zhang Zhuo, Tian Chou and other civil and military subordinates naturally looked at each other in bewilderment.

How could this be another impossible task? Gongsun Du knew that our army was mainly composed of cavalry. He could use the strong city to consume the cavalry first, so why would he start a decisive battle in the field?

Even Tian Chou was at a loss. The two Wuhuan cavalry generals Wusu and others who were sent by Tadun and Louban to help in the battle were even more confused and could not offer any suggestions.

After the atmosphere was silent for a while, Tian Chou reminded in an inquiring tone: "Before we sent out the troops, the princes said that this battle would require the coordination of land and sea forces. We only need to rush thousands of miles, pull the cavalry troops to the front line, and then besiege several enemy strongholds first to block the subsequent enemy reinforcements.

As for attacking the enemy, it is impossible for a small number of cavalry to complete it. We need to wait for the main force of the infantry to arrive by sea, and our army's subsequent food and fodder also need to be transported by sea. We can't always rely on cattle and sheep on the grassland. I wonder where Zhou Zhonglang's navy is now? Has the news of our army's arrival in Changli been sent back in time? "

Zhao Yun then remembered that he had not informed his subordinates of this important news in order to maintain a better level of confidentiality. Now that the matter had come to an end, there was no need to conceal it any longer, so he quickly told his generals:
"Don't worry about this. When our army destroyed Su Puyan and continued to march eastward, I sent a messenger back to the rear to inform Gongjin that he could send troops. Calculating the date, Gongjin should have received it shortly after our army arrived in Changli.

Even if his fleet still needs two or three days to make final preparations before setting sail, it has already been sailing for more than five days and will soon reach the mouth of the Yushui River."

Tian Chou thought for a moment and suggested, "In that case, why don't we stop hiding the news of the reinforcements coming and instead spread the news deliberately. This way, Gongsun Du will get nervous and think, 'In the current decisive battle, we can only fight the enemy's cavalry alone. If we delay any further, by the time the sea reinforcements arrive, we won't have the chance to defeat them one by one.'"

Zhao Yun was now influenced by the Zhuge family, and his military tactics had improved significantly. He understood what Tian Chou said instantly, but he felt that there were still some flaws:
"I have thought about this, but I still need to consider how to spread the news to the enemy. What if Gongsun Du thinks this is our strategy to lure the enemy?"

Zhao Yun had obviously thought deeply about this issue. Spreading information is not something that the enemy will believe just because you ask them to. It must be accompanied by some actions to coordinate with the words in order to enhance the persuasiveness. It requires a suitable opportunity to "leak" the information.

The enemy will also "listen to what you say and watch what you do". Only when your words and actions are consistent will the enemy fall into your trap.

Tian Chou and Zhao Yun continued brainstorming along this line of thought, and finally they came up with a plan.

Zhao Yun was discussing with his opponent when he suddenly slapped his thigh and said, "Eh? Why not give it a try? Our army was panicked because Gongsun Du's reinforcements arrived too quickly. We had to adjust our deployment. We continued to besiege Changli County with part of our forces, while sending our troops south to prepare to attack Tuhe County."

At least we must seize the Yushuihekou port area outside Tuhe County and pretend to provide a good port for Gongjin's seaborne reinforcements to land and unload. As long as this gesture is put forward, Gongsun Du will not believe it! At that time, he will definitely want to race against time and prevent us from joining forces with Gongjin!

Zitai, you have been in Liaoxi for a long time. Do you know if there are other anchorages along the 400-mile Liaoxi Corridor? If I pretend to want to seize Tuhe County, this good port, can I be sure to deceive Gongsun Du?"

Tian Chou was also enlightened by Zhao Yun's idea. His eyes lit up and he stroked his beard and recalled carefully: "So, this excuse is really good at fooling people. The coastal areas of Liaoxi Corridor are either muddy flats or steep islands.

There are good deepwater ports that can be docked. For example, the water depths at Bijiashan and Juhua Island are sufficient.

However, the roads around Bijia Mountain are difficult to travel, and after landing, one has to cross the Liaoze, which is nearly a hundred miles long, to reach the front line. Now in winter, the Liaoze has all frozen into permafrost, but there is still no road.

Juhua Island is closer to Tuhe River, but after the sea ships unload people and goods there, they still need to use small boats to ferry to the beach in summer and autumn. Now that winter has arrived, the few miles of sea between Juhua Island and the shore are completely frozen, but this has only added to the trouble.

Firstly, ships may not be able to sail directly to the south coast of the island, as they may be blocked by floating ice. Even if they reach the island, they will have to use ice sleds to push the cargo ashore. In short, except for Tuhe County, there is almost no possibility of large-scale unloading of cargo ashore in other places.

Tian Chou was familiar with the geography of the surrounding counties. He listed all the possible landing points and anchorages along the coast of the Liaoxi Corridor, and finally proved Zhao Yun's point of view.

In the Liaoxi Corridor, anchorage is extremely precious!
The Juhua Island he mentioned was the Juehua Island of the later Ming Dynasty. Together with Bijia Mountain, it was a key port in Liaoxi that the Ming and Qing dynasties fought over. Wu Sangui, Yuan Chonghuan, Hong Chengchou and others had fought repeatedly with the Qing troops.

It is only the Han Dynasty now, so these places are naturally much more dilapidated than they will be a thousand years later. There are no port facilities at all, only a few natural anchorages, and the conditions are extremely harsh.

Such harsh conditions are compounded by the freezing weather of this season, making it completely unusable.

Therefore, if Zhou Yu wants to land now, he can only choose Tuhe County at the mouth of Yu Shui River. Because of the impact of the river water, the flow is relatively large and it has not frozen yet in November.

If it is delayed until the middle of the twelfth lunar month, even the mouth of the Liaohe River will be frozen.

From the perspective of timing and terrain, Zhao Yun and Zhou Yu's attack at this time were both violating major taboos in military strategy.

But there is no way. Compared with the disadvantages of time and place, the benefits of attacking at this time of "snatching Gongsun Du when he is about to die" can far outweigh those unfavorable factors.

Therefore, Zhuge Jin insisted that they attack at this time, and all the preparations they had made after going north to Youzhou this year could only be completed at this time, and it would be impossible to do it earlier.

In this case, we can only be more flexible in the application of military tactics, strive to turn disadvantages into advantages, and survive from the brink of death.

At the same time, use this desperate and resuscitative attitude to lure the enemy.

(End of this chapter)