After the Battle of Huoshibu, Liu Bei and Chen Chong rested in Pengcheng, and finally restored their organizational structure, and thus counted the post-war losses. The losses were extremely shocking. In just one day, the 140,000 troops brought from Guanzhong
There are nearly 30,000 people killed in battle, missing and captured, and those whose families are seriously injured and can no longer fight. Among them, the Bingzhou army is particularly tragic. Dingxiang, Taiyuan, Shangdang and other counties have lost more than half of their elite troops, while Nan
The Xiongnu king Liu Xuan was also defeated in the battle, which was almost unacceptable to the Bafu.
Liu Xuan was in his thirties, but he had a gentle temperament, was courteous to others, and had extensive knowledge. He was always known as a wise king among the Southern Huns. After Liu Bei took over the Southern Huns, Liu Xuan served as Liu Bei's right-hand man, often coordinating the affairs of the country and the Overlord.
He was Liu Bei's brother-in-law and was very famous in the army. He was regarded by the generals as the best candidate to control the northern border. Unexpectedly, he died on the battlefield of Xuzhou. When the generals heard about it,
I feel so sad.
Especially the Southern Xiongnu Zuoxian King Liu Bao. When he was young, he went out to study at the same time as Liu Xuan, and worshiped Sun Yan at the same time. After he returned from school, he was in charge of everything in the country together. Although they were called uncles and nephews, they were more affectionate than brothers.
Knowing that Liu Xuan could not even save his body, he was extremely sad and grieved all night long, to the point of weeping blood. Liu Bei also felt sad. He comforted Liu Bao and said: "A warrior always dies on the battlefield in his life, but As Xuan died for me, I will never forget it in this life."
, a tower must be built for him to appease the heroic spirits.”
Over the years, Buddhism has become popular among the Huns, and Liu Xuan has always been very fond of it. In Buddhism, there is a theory of erecting pagodas to achieve merit, so Liu Bei promised to build a pagoda to worship him, hoping that Liu Xuan would have spirits underground and be reborn in the Pure Land.
Right.
In addition, there are many corpses in the army that have been lost on the other side. Judging from the current situation, it is difficult to recover them temporarily. Therefore, some people suggested that it is better to have all the soldiers plant willow branches here. When they see the willows here in the future,
It can be regarded as a kind of commemoration of the dead martyrs.
The entire army fell into a gloomy and pessimistic atmosphere. After Zhou Yu saw the Western Army lieutenants wailing all over the place with wounds, he couldn't help but lamented in a letter to Sun Ce: "The battle at Huoshi Port made the world dark and the rivers and mountains eclipsed.
, the Westerners were almost frightened, thinking that the Easterners were gods and ghosts, Cao Cao had received Tianzhao, and no longer wanted to fight, but he was afraid that the Easterners would take advantage of the opportunity to come in, so he had to listen. The Han Dynasty cannot suddenly rise, we can know from this." These words can be said to hit home the key point of the Western Army. The Western Army had a small number of people, but it suffered more serious losses than the Eastern Army. The blow to the morale and morale of the army was almost devastating. But at this time, it must not
Be the first to retreat, otherwise once the last breath is released, the same situation as the Bohai War will be formed, causing the overall situation to collapse, retreating to Guanzhong in one breath, and never leaving the east.
Fortunately, the Eastern Army's losses in this battle were not small. For more than ten days in a row, the scouts came back with news of the Eastern Army's mourning and collection of corpses. Obviously, the Eastern Army could not reorganize its army in a short time and fight again. This gave
The Western Army had no time to regroup, and the two sides were preparing for the next war in this silent tacit understanding.
Today, there are still about 100,000 combat-ready personnel in the Western Army, and the infantry losses are extremely serious. Fortunately, the cavalry losses are still acceptable. There are still about 30,000 cavalry in the army, which is not inferior to the Eastern Army and is sufficient.
Launching another joint battle led by the Western Army. However, after discussing with Liu Bei, Chen Chong believed that this was obviously an unwise move.
In the aftermath, everyone believed that the most critical battle to seize the bridge failed because the subsequent infantry did not catch up with Qu Yi's cavalry in time, making it impossible to stop Cao Cao's main advance, and then easily led to a rout.
.In the previous battle at Yuwang Mountain, the Eastern infantry also caused great trouble to the Western Army. Now that the infantry losses are so serious, even if they join forces again, the probability of victory will probably be even slimmer.
Therefore, Chen Chong suggested to Liu Bei: "The current plan is to confront the enemy with deep ditches and high fortresses to wear down their energy. Then we can lure the enemy into surprise, and our army can strike later."
So the Western Army moved north along the Jishui River and officially moved to Lu County. They cut down trees for a fence under the city, took earth and piled rocks to build a camp. The Western Camp stretched for nearly 20 miles along the Jishui River, with hundreds of towers scattered in the middle.
There was also a banner of the Emperor, which was very spectacular for a while. When Cao Cao saw the Western Army moving camp, he also led his troops into the base and camped for thirty miles on the east bank of Zu River. At the same time, he sent people to bring beautiful women and jewelry to the Western Army.
On the pretext of paying tribute to the emperor, he then took the opportunity to send letters to the generals of the Western Army. The words in the letter were still the same, saying: "The emperor is in trouble, and the loyal ministers of Jiuzhou are heartbroken. If there are righteous men, they can change their evil ways and reaffirm their righteousness throughout the world."
, Cao Cao must treat him as a national scholar."
When Chen Chong saw this, he did not collect the letters from the generals. Instead, he asked someone to write back and asked: "What about the Yuan clan's unknown disciples?" After Yuan Shao's death, Cao Cao's method of dividing the Yuan clan in Runan was known to everyone. Now, everyone knows
Yuan Shang has died again, and Yuan Xi cannot be reused. The Yuan family in Runan, which was once prominent in the past, has declined greatly. Chen Chong used this to warn the generals not to take Cao's words as truth.
After Cao Cao got the reply, he immediately understood Chen Chong's intentions. His alarm was ringing in his heart, but his face was quite smiley. He circulated the letter among the generals, and then said with a smile: "Thanks to Chen Chong for reminding me, otherwise I would have forgotten this."
." Then the Commander-in-Chief issued an order to promote Yuan Xi to be the General of Kaiwu and the Governor of Xuzhou.
After both sides' camps were completed, Cao Cao began to send cavalry to challenge in front of the Western Army Camp every day. At first, it was a dozen cavalry, and then more than a hundred cavalry. After more than ten days, the number of knights who came to call for formation reached a thousand cavalry. He was
They wanted to use these knights as bait to lure the Western Army out of the camp to fight. But the Western Army turned a deaf ear. No matter how obscene the Eastern knights said, as long as they did not enter within the arrow range of the camp, they would ignore it as if they were seeing a bird or a rabbit. Seeing that the challenge failed, Cao Cao decided to attack at night. He selected tens of thousands of soldiers and set out at midnight. At Yinshi, he arrived five miles east of the West Camp. He saw that the lights in the West Camp were brightly lit and the soldiers were arrayed in order. It was obvious that they were
Having already discovered the Easterners' night attack plan, Cao Cao had no choice but to withdraw his troops. However, he was unwilling to do so, so he tried again and again, but the Western troops saw through them all. Every time he arrived, he could see the Westerners standing ready and fighting like a forest of soldiers.
, and could never find a good opportunity to break the camp, which made him extremely helpless. He sighed to Shen Pei and others: "Longshou is cautious in using his troops. I know it today."
This time dragged on until October, when the autumn wind blew, everything withered, and the weather gradually turned colder. The soldiers of the two armies also put on cotton-padded jackets and leather hats, lit braziers in the army, and their food expenses also greatly increased.
This has little impact on the Western Army, which has fewer troops, but on the Eastern Army, which has nearly 170,000 troops, the pressure is increasing day by day.
Cao Cao urgently needed to open up the situation. For this reason, he discussed with Shen Pei, Ju Shu and others many times, thinking that since it was impossible to attack the Western Army camp by force at the moment, the only option left was to divide the troops. However, after dividing the troops, the direction of attack was also quite different.
It is controversial. The original plan of the Eastern Army was to go straight to Xuzhou, but now Xuzhou is occupied by Sun Ce, and Zhou Yu who is defending the city is also a good warrior. He divides his troops to attack. The chance of winning in a short period of time is not high, and it is easy to have variables. After Cao Cao made many plans,
In the end, they decided to give up the attack on Xuzhou. Instead of attacking the Wu people as planned, it was better to side attack the Western Army's baggage from the direction of Yanzhou. If they could be forced to retreat without a fight, Xuzhou would naturally be unable to survive alone.
I don’t know if it was God’s blessing. Less than seven days after making this decision, the scouts in Yanzhou sent news that they had caught tongues in the Suishui area of Suiyang. They learned that the Western Army’s food baggage was now stored in Pei.
Guoxiang County.
The credibility of this news is quite high. After all, the Suishui River is the main artery of the Western Army's water transportation. You can often see grain ships passing by in an endless stream. The prisoners captured are also the commanders of the Western Army from Hongnong. They have been transporting grain back and forth.
He had done this three times, and he was very familiar with the routes for transporting grain and the deployment of troops.
Even so, Cao Cao was still very cautious. After all, Xiangxian County and Pengcheng were hundreds of miles apart, and the risks were extremely high. Although the benefits were extremely high, once the attack failed, it would be difficult for the entire army to return. Therefore, before sending troops, he sent the ban rate
More than a hundred people disguised themselves as bandits and went to Pei State to find out the news.
Yu Jin set out at dusk and darkness, secretly crossed the Jishui River from the upper reaches of Pengcheng, and headed southwest. About dawn the next day, he saw a Westerners' grain team resting by the roadside. They did not hesitate.
They immediately pursued the cavalry and approached, grabbed a few bags of rice and grain, and then left. The Western Army guarding the grain saw them walking away again before they had time to mobilize their troops to react.
Yu Jin brought these bags of rice and noodles back to the camp and opened them in front of Cao Cao. Cao Cao took a look and saw that there were soybeans, wheat, and corn inside. The yellow color was very attractive. After hearing Yu Jin's report, Cao Cao grabbed another handful.
He put the corn in his hand and looked at it, and said with a hum: "This is corn grown on the plains of Guanzhong. It is most suitable for making porridge."
At this point, Cao Cao had no hesitation in his heart and turned to the Shen Pei who was surrounding him. Cao Ren and others joked: "It seems that there is indeed food in Xiang County. Let's burn him clean first and see if Liu Bei can hold on!" He turned to Xia Houyuan and said: "I will leave Fenwu to guard the camp with you. If there is a change in the Western Camp, you should discuss it with the generals and deal with it as appropriate. If there is no news about me coming back in one day, you should also lead the army to attack for the sake of peace."
I contain the enemy."
The tone of Cao Cao's words was calm, but the content shocked everyone. The implication of Cao Cao's words was that he was going to lead the army personally, but everyone thought before that he would leave the matter to generals like Cao Ren or Li Zheng.
Do it.
Cao Cao then said to Cao Ang: "When Liu Bei and I were discussing matters in the capital, we thought we were going to build extraordinary honors and shine on our lintel. Now he is in charge of Guanxi and I am in charge of Guandong. It is the time to show off. Now, more and more,
You must never sacrifice your life when doing great things, otherwise how can you convince the soldiers?" After that, he patted Cao Ang on the shoulder and asked him, "Zixiu, are you willing to go with me?"
Upon hearing this, Cao Ang immediately responded: "I will live and die with you!"
Cao Cao immediately ordered the elite of the army and personally led 2,000 tiger and leopard cavalry, 10,000 Yuyang elite cavalry, and 20,000 Jizhou light cavalry. They crossed Jishui that night and headed straight for Xiangxian County.