Tiger Guards

Chapter 747 A Wise General's Deep Schemes
Jundu Fortress, Xu Huang's central army.

With a near-monopoly on cavalry, our side should have been on the offensive and harassing side, and the Hebei troops should have been filled with fear and anxiety over Xu Huang's surprise attack.

However, Xu Huang remained cautious and vigilant during his march, keeping the scouts' reconnaissance range within 250 li!
He would rather have more horses die from exhaustion than encounter the extremely low probability event of being attacked by a runaway horse, which is one in a thousand or one in ten thousand.

To prevent the scout teams from slacking off, Xu Huang specially arranged for the scouts in each area to move in a circular pattern. It wasn't a simple ring, but rather an outer ring within a ring, with the inner ring surrounding the central army forming a reconnaissance radius of thirty li.

Aside from the mutiny of his own troops, Xu Huang did not believe that anyone could sneak up near his central command.

His central army was not particularly strong, consisting of only three thousand cavalry, four thousand chariot soldiers, and about thirteen thousand grain transport wagons.

Most of the grain wagons were empty, and the remaining wagons could supply the front-line troops for more than a month.

Upon arriving in Youzhou, the first step was not to seek out the Hebei troops for a decisive battle, but to do everything possible to fill all the grain carts and establish a front-line headquarters in Ji County, where a granary for storing grain and an armory would be set up.

This arsenal not only needs to store weapons, armor, food carts, chariots, and transport vehicles, but also needs to have the capacity to manufacture and repair them.

The support from the people of Youzhou was actually quite unstable.

It presents a special state of change: when your army is strong and your food reserves are plentiful, no matter how much you exploit them, the people of Youzhou will still happily supply you; conversely, when the army is exhausted and food reserves are insufficient, the people of Youzhou will not think about providing timely help, but most of them will think about kicking someone when they are down, killing the goose that lays the golden eggs and securing their own safety.

This was unavoidable. Amidst the conflicts between the Han and the Xianbei and Wuhuan, the powerful Han and Hu tribes in Youzhou wavered back and forth, and had long since developed this special ability to endure, as well as the precise killing skills to suddenly bite your neck.

After all, the number of registered households in Youzhou is decreasing, while the number of Han and Hu chieftains is increasing.

The words of the prefect are not enough; the real decision-makers are the Han and Hu chieftains scattered throughout the land.

This group is too large, and the competition among them is fierce. After resources are divided equally, it is impossible to cultivate a sense of the big picture or long-term strategy.

Therefore, in order to seize the registered households, this group would instinctively resist the even more greedy and tyrannical Gongsun Zan.

Ostensibly to avenge Liu Yu, they actually took the opportunity to attack and kill the prefects and magistrates who supported Gongsun Zan. Amid the turmoil, they plundered and annexed people and land, and many small powerful families completed their primitive capital accumulation.

Therefore, Ju Shou concluded that Youzhou would eventually turn against Zhao Ji, but they were afraid of Zhao Ji's power and dared not resist. They also harbored delusions, wanting to follow Zhao Ji and repeat the old story of Emperor Guangwu, thereby legitimizing the people and land they had seized.

Even Ju Shou could understand this, so Xu Huang, as a senior official in the shogunate, naturally knew very well what the position of the Youzhou people was in this battle.

The last time Zhao Ji led troops eastward to pursue and annihilate the remnants of the Xianbei, he originally intended to take the opportunity to bleed the Han and Hu chieftains of Youzhou dry and rescue the people they had plundered.

However, Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shao had a falling out, and Gongsun Zan preferred to surrender to Zhao Ji, who later rose to power, rather than reconcile with Yuan Shao.

Gongsun Zan led the surrender, and his faction naturally followed suit; Xianyu Fu's faction, which opposed Gongsun Zan, had no choice but to submit to the Luoyang court led by Zhao Ji and Lü Bu, as they already had some ties with Zhao Ji.

Therefore, Gongsun Zan must be saved. If Gongsun Zan lives, his faction of Han and Hu leaders can unite and become the collaborators of Youzhou in Zhao Ji's eyes, thus suppressing Xianyu Fu's faction.

This relatively simple system of checks and balances made it very convenient for the shogunate to extract resources from Youzhou.

It was naturally impossible to arrange for Youzhou to transport grain to Jinyang.

When the shogunate's army came to the vicinity of Youzhou on official business and ate some of Youzhou's food, Youzhou naturally welcomed them with open arms.

The situation is quite simple, and there are many powerful figures in Youzhou who can see this.

Some chose to serve Zhao Ji in a more humble manner, while others could only go with the flow and wait for an opportunity.

Under such circumstances, how could Xu Huang possibly trust the powerful leaders of Youzhou? Therefore, after leaving the territory of Dai County, Xu Huang proceeded cautiously, guarding against not only the troops from Jizhou but also those from Youzhou.

Inside the Jundu Fortress, Xu Huang was enjoying the cool air under a shed, carefully examining a heavy cowhide map. This was a new type of map created under Pei Xiu's leadership, characterized by its accurate orientation, allowing for rough estimation of distances using the map's scale.

Of course, due to the limited manpower available for surveying, only the distances between roads and cities are relatively accurate; the terrain of mountains and the winding course of rivers can only provide a rough reference.

It is virtually impossible to set up camp or deploy troops at a distance using this new type of map.

To develop tactics tailored to local conditions, it is necessary to observe the terrain on-site, rather than relying on maps.

Xu Huang, on the other hand, had no intention of engaging in a decisive battle with the Hebei troops or annihilating the enemy. He could naturally use a map to plan his future camp area... for example, advancing step by step, gradually pushing forward.

Not only were the Hebei soldiers helpless against him, but the people of Youzhou were also helpless against Xu Huang, who was trapped in layers of fortifications.

The Liangzhou people who died last year haven't even completely rotted away yet, so the Youzhou people won't rashly raise an army unless they have the opportunity to swallow Xu Huang's main force whole.

Faced with Xu Huang's order to demand grain, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and obey.

Otherwise, if we rashly raise an army and fail to defeat Xu Huang, the situation of last year's Liangzhou battle will repeat itself.

Zhao Ji once again led a light cavalry force straight to Youzhou, gathering various armies along the way. When he arrived in Youzhou, he would kill the people of Youzhou in the same way he had killed the people of Liangzhou last year.

During the Liangzhou campaign last year, there were still armies of Yuan Shao, Sun Ce, Dong Cheng, Liu Bei, and Liu Biao on the east side, but none of them attacked Lü Bu, so they could not force Zhao Ji to mobilize the troops stationed in the Pingyang camp.

The situation in Youzhou is even worse this year. If Zhao Ji were to openly launch a major offensive in Youzhou, no one would threaten his western front or his heartland.

Therefore, this was a rare opportunity, and Xu Huang wanted to take advantage of it to slowly consume the grain reserves of the powerful clans in Youzhou, forcing them to turn against him and rebel.

As long as Zhao Ji stays in Jinyang, Xu Huang is certain that the people of Youzhou will not dare to rebel.

However, Xu Huang also knew that Zhao Ji needed to support the new and old people of Langya. As long as the war broke out in Langya, Zhao Ji would definitely take action. At that time, Xu Huang's troops, located at the border of You and Ji provinces, would be subjected to a joint attack by the two provinces!

Even the Xianbei and the Wuhuan of the three commanderies in the east would join in the fun.

The war's trajectory was not optimistic, so Xu Huang needed to collect as much food as possible.

If Gongsun Zan could hold out against Yuan Shao to the point of vomiting blood with the isolated city of Yijing, then Xu Huang, defending Jixian, should be able to hold out until Zhao Ji comes to the rescue.

Even without Zhao Ji, the armies of Zhao Yun, Zhang Liao, and Gan Ning arrived in Youzhou one after another, enough to cooperate with Xu Huang and turn the place upside down.

As Xu Huang looked at the map and rested in the cool air, he began to mentally simulate the situation of various armies during winter warfare.

This battle is said to be about attacking Liaodong, so it must be about attacking Liaodong.

What reason is there to send troops to fight the various barbarian tribes in the summer?

In Liaodong, it is only after heavy snow has covered the area that one's own chariot and cavalry troops are able to maneuver.

During the Liangzhou campaign last year, the snowfall in Longyou came too late and was not heavy, which delayed Zhao Ji by a lot of time.

Snowfall in Liaodong has always been very consistent.

(End of this chapter)