My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 765: A Thousand Miles of Collapse, Where to Go
Zhuge Jin fought on the battlefield in Hebei Province for half a year, from the counterattack in Bohai to the complete annihilation of Zhang He and Gao Lan, and then to the swallowing up of the three counties of Julu and Qinghe.

The whole process lasted about half a year, from the twelfth month of the sixteenth year of Jian'an to the fifth month of the seventeenth year of Jian'an.

After the initial stage of annihilation warfare, the central counties of Jizhou were basically quickly penetrated, surrounded, divided and forced to land. The same tactics were used over and over again, and they worked every time.

However, some people may wonder: Cao Cao's camp may have been caught off guard by the surprise attack in the first one or two months. But the subsequent process of Liu Bei's side's expansion of territory and victories took almost half a year. Didn't Cao Cao try to save them?

Have you ever thought about urgently drawing reinforcements from other war zones to reinforce and counterattack?

In fact, Cao Cao certainly thought about it, but the problem was that he had no spare energy to save him.

Cao Cao's absolute main force was stuck in Henan Yin, Yingchuan County, and Chenqiao area due to the offensive of Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, and was unable to move away.

Cao Cao's camp had only more than 400,000 fresh troops, and at least 200,000 of them were held back by the offensive led by the three brothers Liu, Guan and Zhang.

Liu Bei personally showed his intention to advance into Luoyang, and trapped Xu Huang's tens of thousands of troops between Wan and Luo.

In Yingchuan, Zhang Fei repeatedly fought with Cao's army around Xu County, and defeated Cao Ren, Cao Zhen and Sun Quan. The troops, military supplies and materials were simply poured into a bottomless pit.

Guan Yu, in Huaibei, joined forces with the Xuzhou army to attack Qiao, Liang and other counties controlled by Cao Cao, which also made Cao Cao miserable.

Moreover, on these three fronts, Liu Bei's army did not only weaken Cao Cao's manpower, they also gradually eroded the territory controlled by Cao Cao.

It was just that the armies of both sides were densely packed and the battle lines were relatively full, making it difficult to fight a large-scale annihilation war of penetration, division and encirclement. Therefore, it was not as great and leapfrog as the huge results in the Hebei battlefield.

But in general, these three groups of people have more or less made progress in advancing the front line.

Relatively speaking, Guan Yu's route was farthest from Cao Cao's core territory, the resistance he encountered was relatively weaker, and his advance was faster.

Liu Bei's side was the slowest in advancing, because the terrain became more complex and mountainous as the front line moved westward, giving the attacker less room to operate.

Guan Yu was able to take over at least half of Cao Cao's county every month. Zhang Fei steadily took over one or two counties every month, while Liu Bei could only slowly erode Cao Cao's peripheral lands south of the Funiu and Songshan mountains.

For example, Cao Cao tried his best to pull Xu Huang to the south of Funiu Mountain in order to protect Liang County and Yangcheng area and prove that he was stronger than Dong Zhuo in military terms.

Dong Zhuo relied on Xu Rong to defeat Sun Jian in Yangcheng. If Cao Cao couldn't even do this, he would lose points politically very seriously.

However, after half a year of tug of war, Yangcheng and other places were finally saved, and Liu Bei and Huang Zhong finally cleared every inch of land south of Funiu Mountain and Song Mountain.

Xu Huang also suffered successive defeats and finally retreated to the three passes south of Luo, namely Yique, Huanyuan and Taigu, where he fought to the death.

Zhang Fei, within a few months, had taken Kunyang, Dingling, Yancheng and other counties, and had already reached Xu County. However, for the time being, he could not completely encircle Xu County, but only approached the city from the south and began to fight a tough battle.

Cao Ren himself held Xu County to the death, while letting Cao Zhen and Sun Quan take charge of his wings and rear. As for the land of Yingchuan County further south of Xu County, of course, it all fell into Zhang Fei's hands.

As for Guan Yu, he had captured the area around Fuli in Qiao County at the end of last year. He took a break during the Chinese New Year, but started attacking again in February. It took him more than two months to capture the entire Qiao County.

At the end of April, Guan Yu further entered the territories of Chen and Liang, and in May he began to besiege Chen County, the capital of Chen County, and Sui Yang, the capital of Liang County.

Chen County is also a strategic location. Fifteen years ago, when Cao Cao and Yuan Shu were fighting for the ownership of Chen County, they fought back and forth.

At that time, Yuan Shu first relied on assassins to kill Chen Wang Liu Chong and Chen State Prime Minister Luo Jun and seized Chen territory. Then Cao Cao counterattacked and a war broke out with Yuan Shu. In the Battle of Chen County, he killed Yuan Shu's general Qiao Rui and repelled Ji Ling. This reversed the situation of Cao being weak and Yuan being strong.

In the past, Yuan Shu and Cao Cao fought to the death here, so Cao Cao certainly couldn't just give it up now, so he was still dividing his troops to defend it.

As for Sui Yang in Liang County, although it did not appear much in the war history of the late Han Dynasty, originally in history, no major war broke out in Sui Yang during the late Han Dynasty.

In this life, because of Zhuge Jin's butterfly effect, Liu Bei and Lu Bu reconciled in advance, and Lu Bu also expanded westward. Before Yuan Shu became emperor, when he and Lu Bu attacked Cao Cao together, Lu Bu fought fiercely with Cao's army in Suiyang and even captured Suiyang City. Later, Yuan Shu became emperor, and Lu Bu, who had joined forces with Yuan Shu, was dragged down and smeared, so he had to give up.

But the place Suiyang is very famous in later history. After all, during the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Xun defended Suiyang for two years and saved the Jianghuai region of the Tang Dynasty from being harmed by the Anshi rebels.

It can be seen that Suiyang is the key to the waterway between the Yellow River and the Huai River, and a water transport hub. If Guan Yu wants to attack Henan from Huaibei, he must take Suiyang to ensure that Xu Yang's supplies can continue to flow into the Henan Plain. Therefore, it is acceptable to waste a few months in this strong city.

……

Finally, when the first half of the seventeenth year of Jian'an passed, the actual control line between Liu Bei's camp and Cao Cao's camp was established.

It was pushed to the border along Funiu Mountain-Songshan Mountain-Xu County-Chen County-Suiyang-Mangdang Mountain-Taishan Mountain-Yellow River. North of the Yellow River, it was pushed to the area between Qinghe County, Julu County, Zhao County, Guangping County, and Yangping County.

Zhao Yun had advanced to the foothills of Taihang Mountains between Changshan County and Bingzhou in the northwest of Jizhou, which were separated by Julu Lake. Further south of Julu Lake was the outer defense line of Yecheng.

(Note: There will be an Easter egg chapter map at the end of this chapter. Because the map has changed dramatically recently, I will post the map after a while of deduction. It would be too cumbersome to post the map every time there is a slight change.)
In just half a year, Cao Cao's 60,000 to 70,000 active forces were annihilated in Hebei, and he also lost at least 20,000 to 30,000 on the battlefield in Henan. In total, he lost nearly 100,000 soldiers, not to mention the militiamen who were temporarily recruited to defend the city and occupy the land.

Cao Cao's total combat force also dropped sharply from about 470,000 before the Northern Expedition to 370,000 or 380,000, which was below the 400,000 mark.

Even though he was recruiting soldiers while fighting, the combat quality of the newly recruited troops plummeted and they could not hold the red line of 400,000 people.

……

For months on end, they have been dealing with those trivial matters of robbing Peter to pay Paul, squeezing out military strength and doing their best to plug the leaks.

Cao Cao had only had a few good nights of sleep in the first half of the 17th year of Jian'an. The extreme mental stress obviously made him more and more neurasthenic, and his headache naturally worsened.

Although doctors in the Han Dynasty did not invent the professional medical term "neurasthenia".

The person who treated Cao Cao's headache was still the imperial physician Ji Ping.

A few years ago, when Cao Cao tried to move the capital from Xu County back to Luoyang, Ji Ping colluded with Geng Ji, Wei Huang and others, and gradually became increasingly dissatisfied with Cao Cao. This is similar to the original history, and there is no need to elaborate on the specific process and mental journey.

Anyway, given Cao Cao's arrogance and his deceitful attitude towards the emperor, there were always people in the court who were dissatisfied with him. It was nothing to be surprised about.

However, to this day, Geng Ji, Wei Huang and Ji Ping have not yet made up their minds to take direct action against Cao Cao.

They also colluded with each other privately from time to time, but they all felt that it was too dangerous to directly oppose Cao Cao at the moment. Even if they succeeded, their own people would most likely be attacked in the counterattack of the remnants of the traitors, just like when Wang Yun used a trick to kill Dong Zhuo, he was inevitably liquidated by the remnants of Li Jue and Guo Si.

It would be better to wait for the right time and cooperate with external forces to act together, which would make it easier to achieve the goal and protect oneself. At present, those people in the Luoyang court who were secretly against Cao were obviously waiting for Liu Bei to attack further and create better external conditions, so they were increasingly reluctant to act too quickly.

Only when Liu Bei can no longer advance quickly on the front line and the battle line becomes stable, and the anti-Cao elements in the Luoyang court see that "if they wait any longer, they will not get better and more favorable external conditions in a short period of time", will they have the motivation to make substantial progress.

This is human nature. Let's put aside these hidden dangers and time bombs around Cao Cao for now.

As for Cao Cao himself, he has become a little dazed recently under increasing mental pressure. He has to start thinking again about what to do next.

Because every time when it was late at night and everyone was asleep, Cao Cao would calm down and ask himself, he had to admit that it seemed that no matter what choice he made now, it would be wrong, and he could no longer see any chance of turning the situation around.

During the Battle of Guandu, he was also desperate, but he felt that there would be a chance of turning the tide. Although the burning of Wuchao was an accidental event, Cao Cao had sincerely believed that shrinking his forces, waiting for a strategic decisive battle, shortening his own food supply route and lengthening Yuan Shao's food supply route would create a chance for a comeback.

But what about this time? Fighting a strategic decisive battle on the great plains, Cao Cao felt that he had no hope.

The decisive battle hasn't even started yet, but in half a year, nearly 100,000 troops have been weakened, and tens of thousands of Yuan Shao's old soldiers have directly surrendered to the opposite side.

Now he has less than 400,000 combat forces, while Liu Bei still has at least 600,000. The difference in total military strength has widened to two to three, and Liu Bei is at least half as many as him.

Under such circumstances, if we go east through Hulao Pass and actively seek a decisive battle on the vast plains of Henan and Hebei, we will be courting death.

If we cannot actively seek field battles or strategic decisive battles, we can only continue to rely on favorable terrain to hold our ground.

This is a very easy choice to think of, because in history, the princes who were at a disadvantage in terms of military strength often relied on this tactic and took advantage of the rugged terrain to maintain their rule for a long time.

Wouldn't that be the original script that Liu Bei and Sun Quan had in history?
Liu Bei's side should have relied on the strategic locations of Qinling Mountains and Funiu Mountains to make it difficult for Cao's army to attack Shu.

Now, Cao Cao had to rely on the dangerous Qinling Mountains, Funiu Mountains, Songshan Mountains and Taihang Mountains to stop Liu Bei from attacking Heluo, Hedong and the Northwest.

However, Cao Cao's camp still had a large territory in the Guandong region. Could they just watch it all go away? Should they insist on "saving people but losing territory" and keep the main force?
These thoughts lingered in Cao Cao's mind for a long time, and he didn't know how to deal with them. His hair turned completely white, and his health deteriorated.

Historically, Cao Cao lived until the year after Guan Yu's Northern Expedition, but it was not because Cao Cao's lifespan was really that long. A considerable part of the reason was that he was frightened by the pressure of Guan Yu's offensive, and his daily worries damaged his health.

To put it bluntly, at least half of Cao Cao in history was killed by Guan Yu's "Terrible Power of China".

That day was around June 15th. Cao Cao couldn't sleep again. At midnight, the oil lamp was still lit in the bedroom. He leaned on the couch, leaning on a table, and looked at the documents he had read long ago.

There was nothing new in those documents, but Cao Cao needed to read them over and over again to divert his attention and stop himself from thinking about those trivial things.

At this moment, there was a rustling sound outside the door. Cao Cao was suspicious by nature, so he quickly took down the scabbard hanging on the wall and asked vigilantly what was going on.

Seeing that he could not escape, the attendant came over quietly with bated breath and explained carefully: "It was Envoy Cheng of Yanzhou who wrote another letter, requesting to voluntarily withdraw from some undefensible places... The express messenger arrived in Luoyang after dark, but it was not a very urgent military information. We were afraid that the Prime Minister would be exhausted at night, so we did not dare to report it immediately."

Cao Cao was shocked when he heard this: "Did Liu Bei send troops to open up the Yanzhou front again? Where did he attack?"

The attendant was afraid that he could not explain it clearly, so he just asked for instructions in a tactful way. Cao Cao also waved his hand and asked them to quickly present the memorial that Cheng Yu had asked someone to bring.

After a while, Cheng Yu's letter was delivered to Cao Cao, who read it quickly and skillfully.

The above mainly mentioned one thing: Before, Liu Bei's army never took action against Yanzhou. It should be because Liu Bei's side did not have enough mobile forces, so they could only launch four battles against Cao Cao at the same time, so Yanzhou was always safe.

But now, Zhuge Jin has made a rapid breakthrough in Hebei. With the deaths of Zhang He and Gao Lan, Zhuge Jin was busy grabbing land and picking up weak targets in the next three months. Now, most of the weak targets have been picked, and the remaining main forces of Cao Cao's army have shrunk and leveled the front line.

In the south, Cao's army held the defense line along the three passes of Luonan, Xu County, Chen County, and Sui Yang. The offensive of Liu, Guan and Zhang could be temporarily contained or at least slowed down.

In this situation, Cheng Yu felt that once Liu Bei's army ran out of soft persimmons to exploit on the current main battlefield, they would most likely turn their guns around and look for other targets in the next stage.

In Yanzhou, where Cheng Yu was in charge of guarding, there was at least one Lu County, which Cheng Yu believed could no longer be defended. There were also some other places that were very dangerous because of the formation of salients.

After reading the letter, Cao Cao didn't even need to look at the map. He just briefly went over it in his mind and realized that what Cheng Yu said was right.

After all, Cao Cao started his career in Yanzhou, and he was very familiar with the terrain and geography of Yanzhou.

The place of Lu County is a basin in the valley of Mount Tai, half-surrounded by Mount Tai and Mount Yimeng on three sides.

When Cao was strong and Liu was weak, Liu Bei's side needed to rely on the dangerous geography of the mountains to avoid being forced into a battle and consumed by Cao's army, so it was Liu Bei's army's turn to occupy the mountainous areas, while Cao's army occupied the plains.

The northwesternmost part of Liu Bei's defense zone in Xuzhou, which was part of Langya County, just covered the Yimeng Mountain area. Taishan County covered the Taishan Mountain area. Taishan and Yimeng Mountains, one in the south and one in the north, half surrounded the Lu Basin.

Now it is Liu's turn to be strong and Cao's turn to be weak. Liu Bei is not afraid of fighting a war of attrition with Cao's army. As long as Liu Bei can react and free up more troops, places like Lu County will be directly cut off and killed instantly, right?

Moreover, Cao Cao noticed that Zhuge Jin had already occupied Qinghe County to the north of the Yellow River and had advanced to the border of Yangping County. In other words, Liu Bei's offensive to the north of the Yellow River was advancing much faster and deeper than that to the south of the Yellow River.

If Liu Bei's army had fought so fast in Hebei and suddenly turned their guns around and crossed the river to the south again because they could not make a breakthrough on the northern front, they could definitely cut off the land route that communicated with the rear of Lu County and Yanzhou.

Not only could they cut off Lu County, but they could also cut off Jibei County, which was located to the north of Lu County and just bordered the south bank of the Yellow River.

By then, an encirclement pocket with an area equivalent to two counties will be firmly established, and the troops inside will once again face the tragic situation of Leling County in Jizhou before.

In February, Leling County was cut off by the enemy. Liu Bei's army relied on Ma Chao to move south from Hejian and Taishi Ci to move north from Pingyuan to cut off the easternmost part of Cao Cao's occupied area in Jizhou.

Later, because Leling County was surrounded and had no hope of reinforcements, Yuan Tan sent Wang Xiu and Cui Yan to persuade it to surrender without bloodshed.

If Zhuge Jin does the same thing again this time, will the long and narrow Yanzhou also be cut off from the two protruding counties on the east side?

Perhaps Cao Cao could count on the fact that Yanzhou was his birthplace and the local soldiers and civilians were more loyal to him, so even if they were cut off and surrounded by the enemy and had no reinforcements, they would not be shaken and surrender. Perhaps he could also expect them to fight to the death.

But the problem is that it was Liu Bei who attacked this time, not Lu Bu from more than a decade ago. Liu Bei's reputation was much better than Lu Bu's, and his power was much greater. Would the Yanzhou army and people still risk their lives to support Cao Cao?
Moreover, although Yanzhou was the place where Cao Cao started his career, the repeated tug-of-war in the past also made Cao Cao lose a considerable number of people's hearts in Yanzhou. Cheng Yu used special dried meat as military rations, and was already scolded by his fellow villagers behind his back.

This time, Cheng Yu wrote a letter to the prime minister, earnestly asking him to allow him to give up the protruding parts of one or two counties at an appropriate time.

Withdraw the troops, young and strong civilians, and supplies in advance.

All this was probably related to Cheng Yu's discovery that the local military and people's morale was unstable. Perhaps Cheng Yu also knew that this time the folks would no longer fight to the death for the prime minister.

"Retreat! Retreat! Those who want to retreat, please retreat! I approve of it all!" Cao Cao understood all the cause and effect logic and deductions, and he couldn't help but feel more and more annoyed.

But he knew he had to make a calm decision and not let the bad situation drag him down and make him act rashly.

Therefore, he allowed Cheng Yu to give up one or two easternmost counties step by step in the critical moment, after an orderly resistance, so as to preserve as much of the army's manpower and population as possible.

As for the rest, let's take it one step at a time.
(End of this chapter)