Cao Cao's words were just a small trick, a small test.
More importantly, he showed enough respect for the judge. This kind of respect for the powerful general is also trust in his ability.
This is an embryo who is capable of training and commanding troops, and his intelligence and foresight are not inferior to those of a first-rate commander.
After everyone sat down, the military discussion officially began.
The first person to speak was Qi Zhou, the commander of the Pingyuan Army System.
From the conflict to the present, Qi Zhou has almost been responsible for the situation in Pingyuanjin. Now as the host, he naturally takes the initiative to explain the current conflict situation.
He stood up and said to Cao Cao respectfully:
"Ten days ago, reinforcements arrived from the Taishan Army in Pingyuanjin. Their leader will be Ding Sheng, the five major commanders of the Taishan Army. He is an old thief of the Taishan Army and is quite brave. As soon as he arrived, he strengthened the river defense and launched a counterattack. Our army suffered a slight setback.
.”
After speaking, Qi Zhou did not hesitate and told Cao Cao about the war situation in the past few days.
It turned out that since June 20th, the former army marshal Ding Sheng stationed in Guangzong received an edict from Yecheng and ordered ten thousand people from his command to go south to Pingyuanjin area to rush for reinforcements.
Previously, Zhang Chong combined Ding Sheng's battle report and Fei Jun's own reconnaissance intelligence to determine that the Han army in Qingzhou might try to use the Pingyuanjin area as a battlefield to test the Taishan army.
Therefore, after Zhang Chong discussed with Yang Mao, Tian Jun and others from the Privy Council, they decided to let Ding Sheng effectively counterattack the opponent.
Even though this stage was an important stage for the development of the Taishan Army's internal affairs, Zhang Chong still decided to fight.
Because if you can hit him with one punch, you can save hundreds of punches.
So, after receiving the edict, Ding Sheng led his troops of ten thousand people and suddenly rode two thousand people south to Pingyuanjin.
This strategic maneuver directly heated up the intensity of the conflict on the Pingyuanjin battlefield.
It turns out that the actual intention of the party on this side of the plain was not to fight. After all, every one of these people was defeated by the Taishan Army.
They are naturally very aware of the strength of the Taishan Army.
Although Shen Pei and others had absorbed a large number of remnants of Han soldiers who had moved south from Fuhe, Hebei Province in the plain area, and they were considered strong, they were still timid in a head-on confrontation with the Taishan Army.
Previously, they said this was more of a political conflict than achieving their military goals.
It was a "small conflict" created to make Cao Cao's northern division famous. But who knew that the Taishan Army was like a tiger's butt, untouchable.
I didn't even fight, so you sent an army? This is too bullying.
But now that the matter has come to this, Shen Pei and others cannot retreat.
In the words of Shen Pei’s letter to Liu Yu:
"Pingyuanjin is the gateway to Pingyuan, and Pingyuan is the gateway to Qingzhou. The thieves occupy Qingzhou, extending in all directions, and they are at risk everywhere."
So, while Shen Pei and Liu Yu continued to ask for reinforcements, they also began to take the war at hand seriously.
Shen Pei still knows Ding Sheng very well.
This is his old rival. He was previously stationed in Guangzong and responsible for the battlefield on the Qinghe side. But it was precisely because of his understanding that Shen Pei had a normal mind towards Ding Sheng.
In Shen Pei's view, Ding Sheng was just a middle-aged man who succeeded because of his talents. He was able to join the five commanders of the Taishan Army, either because he had some great achievements or because he was Zhang Chong's confidant.
Although in the end Shenpei and his Qinghe Army were driven across the river by Ding Sheng, Shenpei still believed that this was not a mistake in the battle, but a last resort due to the overall situation in Hebei at that time.
Therefore, Shen Pei was full of confidence and began to attack Ding Sheng.
On June 22, the day Ding Sheng first arrived in Pingyuanjin, Shenpei took the initiative to launch an attack on Pingyuanjin.
But on the day Shenpei launched the war, he received a slap in the face.
It turned out that when Ding Sheng set out, he ordered Ma Bao to lead the Tiande Army's assault cavalry from the lower reaches of the river to the Li Kingdom area.
At that time, Lieutenant Cai Yingzheng of the State of Li and his troops rushed to the battlefield of Pingyuanjin on the orders of Liu Yu.
He never expected that there would be an enemy cavalry attack behind him, so he was caught off guard. His main force was gathered and wiped out, and his men were also beheaded.
The current strength of the Taishan Army's assault cavalry is even stronger. In the past, the scale of 500 cavalry was not enough to cope with large regiment operations. However, as the Taishan Army penetrated deep into Hebei and absorbed good horses from Saibei and knights from the North, the entire organization expanded.
Doubled.
Each army has a size of thousands of cavalry, which can meet the needs of any level of battlefield.
And this time was the first war after the military expansion, and it really achieved results.
Cai Yingbu, whom Ma Bao annihilated, was half one of his own. He was originally one of the Xiaoqu commanders who gathered in the Yellow Turbans in Pingyuan, and was called Cai Motian during the uprising.
But later the uprising fell into a trough, and Cai Ying led his troops to surrender to the Han soldiers in Pingyuan County. Later, he participated in many battles to suppress his fellow soldiers. It can be said that his hands were stained with the blood of his fellow soldiers.
There are many people like Cai Ying. After all, Taipingdao is not an organization based on ideals. It is full of people with different ideas.
The news of Cai Ying's annihilation reached Shen Pei, who was very sad. After all, this kind of rebel soldiers are the most reliable to use.
But what made the judge even more uneasy was that the enemy assault cavalry that had annihilated Cai Ying's tribe disappeared again, and no one knew where they had moved.
In this case, Shen Pei could only ask Gai Tong to lead the Youzhou Cavalry to find this Cavalry and make sure to annihilate it south of the river.
After that, Shenpei launched an attack on Pingyuanjin according to the original plan.
At that time, Pingyuanjin had been enlarged into a Jiahe defense line with one main camp and ten outer docks under the garrison of Colonel Jinquan.
At the beginning, Shen Pei ordered the battalion general Jiao Min to lead thousands of armored soldiers to attack Dongpo Mountain on the outer defense line of Pingyuanjin, and then ordered Zhao Rui and Shen Rong to attack from the left and right.
The Taishan Army in Dongpo Mountain is a garrison force in Qinghe. Although it has been trained for a long time, it is still not as good as the elite armored soldiers assigned by Shen. The battle is at a disadvantage. The camp leader is injured and breaks out of the encirclement, preparing to retreat to the wall behind the camp.
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But on the way, the remnants of his troops encountered an ambush by Zhao Rui and Shen Rong, and were eventually defeated and overthrown.
After Jiao Min invaded the Dongpo wall, he did not stop. He reported victory to Shen Pei and fought again.
But in the subsequent attack, Jiao Min, Shen Rong, and Zhao Rui combined their forces but failed to achieve any results.
It is because when they attack the barrier behind, there is always a wave of cavalry cruising around their periphery, acting as a deterrent to them.
After discussion, Jiao Min and the others decided to stop as soon as possible and maintain the current results.
Unfortunately, they overestimated the order of their retreat. During their retreat, the three troops planned to retreat alternately, but the cooperation of the three troops was not so close. The Taishan Army's sudden cavalry seized the opportunity and launched a surprise attack.
In the end, the three troops lost more than 300 soldiers and retreated safely to the east slope wall.
The war reached a stalemate that day, but the war officer in the camp received a letter from Ander asking for help from Liu Yu.
Ande is the current residence of Liu Yu. The previous county seat of Pingyuan County was in Pingyuan, but this county was too close to the river and was too dangerous.
Therefore, the new army assigned by the judge was stationed in the plain and responsible for the river defense of the plain. Liu Yu and other civil and military forces retreated to Ande, two hundred miles east.
Liu Yu said in the letter that traces of Taishan Army cavalry could be seen outside the city, and the city was falling into panic, so he asked Shenpei to quickly send reinforcements to drive away the cavalry.
In the letter, Liu Yu didn’t know who he had heard from, saying that it was very dangerous for him to be judged because he was under the threat of a pincer offensive from the Taishan Army inside and outside the river, and he was asked to give up the river defense and return to Ande. .
In this way, you can not only escape the siege, but also relieve Ender's danger.
But after reading this letter, the judge was very disappointed with Liu Yu. Because the current situation did not require reinforcements? How many cavalry could break through the river defense? How could the cavalry attack the city?
On the contrary, once he abandons the river defense and returns to support the rear, regardless of the loss of the river, the plains and even Qingzhou will not be safe in the future, let alone if he encounters an enemy ambush on the road, it will be in danger.
No, it's not possible, but the enemy will definitely ambush him.
The judge has finally figured it out, and now he has unknowingly lost the initiative on the battlefield. This is the consequence of the lack of cavalry maneuver.
But there is no shortage of reviewers. Youzhou's sudden cavalry is full of three thousand cavalry, which is more than the opposite.
But it's one thing to have it, and it's another thing to be able to use it.
This Youzhou sudden cavalry is difficult to mobilize.
Therefore, under the current situation, Shenpei can only bite the bullet and continue to attack the Taishan Army.
Moreover, he doesn't have high requirements for Gaitong's Youzhou assault cavalry. He doesn't want you to pull a net to check the enemy's assault cavalry, as long as you can protect our supply line.
Once the trial partner made up his mind not to return, Liu Yu from behind stopped urging him. But in the days that followed, the trial partner became more and more anxious day by day.
Anyone in the camp who sees the river full of enemy boats sailing down will feel anxious.
The Taishan Army's Dazhai was built on the permanent bridge of Pingyuanjin. There were ten walls on the east bank of the river, and another wall on the west bank to store grain.
So in other words, the Taishan Army completely controls the traffic of the river.
As a result, boats from Weijun, Puyang and other places in the upper reaches of the river continued to transport grain and fodder supplies to Pingyuanjin Camp.
There are also armed boatmen cruising nearby, and no one knows where the other side will suddenly land.
As for Shenpei? Just look at the black smoke that rises from time to time, and you will know what kind of blow his supply line is facing.
In such a situation, how can we not let Shenpei think day and night and lose sleep and food?
You must know that Shendu's current strength is about 20,000, and such a huge force requires a huge amount of food and fodder.
But it was under this situation that Cao Cao's support came.
Supplies transported from the direction of Jinan continued to arrive from the rear. Cao Cao used the clumsiest method to accomplish the most effective thing.
With the supplies sent by Cao Cao, the Shendai army was able to regain its confidence in fighting.
But now Shenpei is no longer eager to attack Ding Sheng's camp wall on the east bank, because he knows that it will have no effect.
After seeing the endless stream of boats on the river, Shenpei quickly realized that if he did not seize the traffic on the river, he would still lose this battle.
Because people can replenish food in the most efficient way and can maneuver anywhere.
He had never understood how the other side sent the cavalry to the rear, but now it seemed that they used boats.
This taught the trial team a lesson. It turns out that the navy can still use it like this.
But where was the naval force? So he set his sights on Le'an next door. There was no other place, because this was the only county in Qingzhou that had canals and naval divisions.
Le'an is a large river, the mouth of the Jishui River, and a real thoroughfare between lakes and seas. It not only has ships that can pass through the Bohai Sea, but also connects the river to the Jishui River. There are many businesses and travelers, and it is the first-class boat country in the North. .
So if you want to get the navy, only Le'an can get it.
But Shen Pei is somewhat famous in the North, but he doesn't know anyone in Le'an, and there is no way he can raise a fleet on his own.
So he wrote to Liu Yu in the rear and asked him to help. He said in the letter:
"There is no place above Dongjun and below the plains that does not look up to the great river. Nowadays, thieves' ships rely on the great river and travel to and from the plains. If we want to break through Pingyuanjin, we must defend the navy to intercept the thieves' boatmen. This will require the help of the navy. I hope that you will be able to write a letter to Le'an urgently and organize a naval force, so that it will be easier to suppress the thieves in Pingyuanjin."
But Liu Yu seemed helpless, and finally handed it over to Cao Cao, asking him to think of a solution.
Cao Cao did have a navy, and it was received from Le'an Chengdu. He has also been using Jishui to transport grain and fodder to Jinan to support this war.
But Cao Cao kept suppressing this navy so that he could wait until his army reached Pingyuanjin before letting it join the battle.
In this way, without the help of the navy, Shenpei could only use his energy to encircle and suppress the Taishan Army's assault cavalry.
With Gai Tong as the chief general, he led two thousand cavalry from Youzhou, his headquarters. In order to draw a large enough net, Shenpei also allocated another five thousand infantry to cooperate with Gai Tong.
In this way, Gai Tong used a huge force of two thousand on horseback and five thousand on foot to spread an overwhelming force of thousands of Tiande troops to search for Ma Bao.
The scale of Qianqi was actually impossible to hide, and Gai Tong quickly caught the traces.
The two sides encountered each other in the wilderness fifty miles northwest of Ande. During the second period of the fierce battle, Ma Baojun was at a disadvantage and could only break out to the north.
Because the Tiande army was equipped with many troops and horses, its army broke out quickly.
Gai Tong, who failed to completely annihilate the Tiande forces, stopped pursuing them and instead left some troops to garrison several dock walls along the Majia River to prevent the Tiande troops from moving south again.
Afterwards Gai Tong returned to Junpingjin again, waiting for Cao Cao's arrival.
In the following days, several small-scale battles broke out between the two sides. The Han army lost more and won less, but it still maintained its defense line until Cao Cao joined Pingyuanjin with an army of 20,000.
…
After listening to Qi Zhou's narration of these days' war, Cao Cao was still smiling.
Qi Zhou couldn't figure out whether Cao Cao was confident or just making fun of the Pingyuan Army. He frowned and talked about the Taishan Army's defense in Pingyuanjin.
After Ding Sheng led his army to arrive, the Taishan Army's strength here was about 14,000 troops. Among them, the former army marshal's department had 8,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry, and 5,000 local garrison troops.
And the strength of these 14,000 troops has been almost figured out after many days of investigation.
Among them, eight thousand are on the east bank, and six thousand are on the west bank. The two sides are connected by Pingyuanjin Bridge. There are ten fortresses on the east bank, including five in Dazhai, each with thousands of soldiers, and five in small villages, with five soldiers in each.
There are hundreds of people.
Then, Qi Zhou introduced the generals of each camp one after another.
This statement refers to the nightfall, and Liu's jaw is still open after he wakes up.
Looking at the camp, which was still brightly lit, Liu Zhan saw that there was no one around, and couldn't help but muttered:
"It's your destiny to be my slave, why are you playing with your destiny?"
After muttering, he drank himself another drink and was drunk until dawn.