Seeing that Cao Ren and others did not leave the city to fight, Huang Zhong was at a loss for a while when faced with the aura-filled Chaoge City.
A forceful attack will definitely not work. The city's commander is Cao Ren, not a loser like Xin Pi, and the people's support is quite good. Our losses will be heavy, and we cannot break the city.
Moreover, Huang Zhong's 10,000 troops were not enough to attack the city.
"Withdraw the troops!" Although he was unwilling to do so, Huang Zhong could only order the withdrawal of troops at this moment, and returned to the camp to discuss countermeasures with Xu Huang. However, facing a city like Chaoge, the two of them thought about it for a long time, and all they came up with was to cut off the water.
At this time, they don't have enough troops to do these things, so they can only send people to survey the terrain and wait for Chu Nan's army to come over before thinking of a solution.
The next day, Chu Nan's army arrived at Chaoge. Chu Nan was not surprised when he heard this.
"Cao Ren is a general of the Cao family. Cao Cao relies heavily on him. He is good at war and has a strong city to rely on. It is really difficult to defeat him in one battle." Chu Nan motioned Huang Zhong to sit down and looked at the generals and said with a smile.
: "There is no need to worry now. Although the battle on the front line is not going well, we are fighting the best prince in the world now. It is rare to force Yuan Shao to go on the defensive and not dare to take the lead. Moreover, the longer this battle drags on, the greater the impact on our army will be."
The more advantageous it is, so General Han Sheng doesn’t have to care about the length of this moment. As long as we don’t make big mistakes, the final winner of this battle will be our army!”
What Chu Nan said was not just to comfort people. Unless the enemy could be taken away in one wave, it would be like destroying the Chen family. Although the fight was fierce, it actually only lasted more than two months.
The one we are fighting now is Yuan Shao, who dominates the Four Provinces. Before the war started, some people, including those in Chu Nan, were not very confident, thinking that they could not defeat Yuan Shao. Such a behemoth could not be taken away in one wave.
The victory cannot be decided in a short time. When the two armies are fighting, they are not only fighting for the frontline soldiers, but also the logistics. At this point, the first season of food in the Central Plains has been harvested, and there will be a second and third season.
Season 4!
Not to mention grain storage, normal taxation alone is enough to supply the army for combat.
Of course, the war also had a big impact on Chunan. When marching and fighting, civilians were still required to transport grain and grass. In this battle, Chunan mobilized 110,000 troops on the front battlefield, but the civilian laborers responsible for transporting grain and grass were only
Nearly 300,000. This is because Liu Ye dug the canal and saved a lot of manpower. Otherwise, the number of civilians would have been as high as 500,000.
These 500,000 are important laborers. They should be farming in the countryside, but now they are used to transport grain and grass. It still has an impact on grain in various places.
Now when I go to various counties in the Central Plains, I see that many of the people working in the fields are women, old people and young children.
However, with the promotion of the concept law, private productivity has been on the rise since last year. This year's war has only delayed the outbreak. However, according to the estimates of Chu Nan and others, grain output should not be worse than last year.
It’s just that the consumption of food and grass is a bit higher.
However, the Central Plains produces grain, and the taxes alone are enough for the 110,000 soldiers on the front line and Lu Bu's side troops, as well as the grain and grass accumulated in the treasury in the past two years. The situation on Chunan's side is even worse than that of Yuan Shao.
He can afford it even if it takes ten years.
But can Yuan Shao afford it?
Yes, Yuan Shao is indeed rich in money and food now, and he definitely has more grain than Chu Nan, but the impact of the war on Hebei is definitely greater than Chu Nan, and Yuan Shao's side, even with heavy taxes, collects less grain every year
It may not be as good as Chu Nan's side.
Not talking about the outcome of the frontline war, just talking about the food and grass, Yuan Shao was left with nothing. The new food and grass harvested by Chu Nan every year is enough to supply the army and there may be some leftover. The longer it takes, the more the balance of victory will tilt towards Chu Nan's side.
.
Of course, the premise of all this is that other princes do not interfere. Sun Quan and Liu Biao may intervene in the battle in the Central Plains at any time. There are also countless people in Xuchang City who are waiting for news of Chu Nan's defeat.
But Chu Nan has a back-up, so he doesn’t have to worry about this for the time being. As long as other princes don’t interfere, the longer time goes by, the greater the advantage Chu Nan will have.
Now Chu Nan is extremely lucky to have killed Sun Ce in Guangling. If Sun Ce was now in charge of Jiangdong instead of Sun Quan, then Jiangdong would have been preparing to attack Chu Nan's rear at this moment.
And the current situation is good. According to what Chu Nan and Liu Ye thought before, they have nothing to do with Cao Ren, and Yuan Shao can free up his hands to fight Lu Bu in the rear.
Of course, the city still needs to be attacked. Not only must it be attacked, but it must be attacked with all its strength. If Yuan Shao is not allowed to see hope, how can Yuan Shao easily lead his elite to leave Ye City?
After discussing the situation with the generals, Chu Nan spent a day repairing in the camp, and then launched an aggressive attack on Chaoge City the next day.
A large number of siege equipment were continuously sent to the battlefield from the rear to attack Chaoge.
Cao Ren was said to have defended to the death, and with the help of the green energy protecting the city, he blocked Chu Nan's tidal attacks again and again. The two sides fought in Chaoge City for half a month, but Chu Nan was never able to take Chaoge City.
This was a rare situation in Chu Nan's military career. Cao Ren's defense was too stable, and Chu Nan had no chance to shake the hearts of the people of Chaoge City.
Jizhou, Yecheng!
Yuan Shao's eyes were a little swollen, and the circles under his eyes had turned completely blue-black. Looking at the battle report from the front line, Yuan Shao was not satisfied. Although Cao Ren defended Chaoge, he had always adopted a strategy of only defending but not attacking. What Yuan Shao wanted was
Can defeat Chu Nan.
Li Yang is in a similar situation, but Xiahou Yuan and Zhang Liao are both defensive and offensive here. Cao Xiu and Cao Ang also made a lot of contributions on the battlefield. Even if Zhang Liao is a fighting general, it will be difficult for Cao Xiu and Cao Zhang to defeat Xia Houyuan. This
Bian Xia Houyuan took the offensive, while Zhang Liao tried his best to protect the three cities of Lihu.
On Gao Shun's side, because there were not enough powerful generals to match Gao Shun, nearly the entire plain was captured by Gao Shun.
"Peng~" The bamboo slips were slapped heavily on the table by Yuan Shao. Looking at the civil and military people in the tent, Yuan Shao took a deep breath and said: "Chaoge, the battle of Liyang was not bad, but the entire plain was lost. Jizhou and
The road to Qingzhou is almost cut off! If things continue like this, won’t Gao Shun have to drive straight in to Yecheng?”
"Also, Lu Bu is now in Bingzhou, Zuozhi, Gao Gan, and Guo Yuan have all died in battle. You have been discussing for half a month, have you thought about how to defeat the enemy?"
No one in Gao Shun's side can rule, and the trapped camp is extremely brave. Ji Ling is also a rare general. When the two of them cooperate, the plain defenders have no power to fight back. Now that the entire plain has been captured, no matter how high the situation is in the next step.
Whether he goes south to attack Qingzhou, goes north to attack Hejian, Bohai and other places, or directly attacks Yecheng, it is difficult for Yuan Shao to accept it.
It's not that Yuan Shao didn't have powerful generals in his hands who could resist him, he just kept waiting for Lu Bu to appear and didn't dare to move lightly.
Now that Lu Bu has appeared, he went to Bingzhou and killed his nephew and counselor Xin Pi. How can this make Yuan Shao feel better?
What made him even more worried was that it had been half a month since Lu Bu appeared in Bingzhou, but his group of civil and military officials had yet to come up with a countermeasure!
"My lord, Lu Bu appeared in Bingzhou. It was unexpected by us. It is not difficult to defeat Lu Bu. But if our elite army goes to deal with Lu Bu, this frontline battle will be left unattended! Once there is a change, it will be difficult for our army to make a timely response.
Deal with it!" Tian Feng said with a bitter smile.
Chu Nan's arrangement was indeed what everyone expected.
It's not just as simple as using Lu Bu as a side force instead of their expected main force.
Yuan Shao's entire strategy revolves around Lu Bu on the frontal battlefield. He first kills Lu Bu to demoralize the enemy army, and then gathers elite troops to deal with Chu Nan.
However, Lu Bu did not appear on the frontal battlefield, but appeared in Bingzhou. Even if he led a mixed army, Bingzhou was not their prepared home ground. It would be difficult to kill Lu Bu if they were deployed there.
Surrounding and killing Lu Bu is not an easy task. Not only is Lu Bu the most brave in the world, but he also has red rabbits and horses. Even if he cannot defeat him, it will be difficult to stop Lu Bu if he wants to leave. Therefore, if you want to surround and kill Lu Bu, you must have a careful plan.
And the burial places they arranged for Lu Bu were all in Jizhou. Now Lu Bu has gone to Bingzhou, and it seems that he intends to fight from Youzhou. This makes the whole plan prepared by Yuan Shao come to nothing, and he has to improvise.
Change deployment.
However, any change in the arrangement may cause loopholes, and it will be difficult for Chu Nan to deal with it.
Even if Lu Bu can be killed, Chu Nan may directly annex Jizhou. How can this be changed at any time?
The biggest impact of the loss of Bingzhou on Yuan Shao was not the territory nor the population. Bingzhou suffered from wars all year round, so how many people could there be? The real difficulty was the geographical location.
Once Bingzhou is lost, Yuan Shao will no longer have geographical advantage. Don't forget, the Black Mountain Army is still in the hands of Chu Nan.
Chu Nan obviously anticipated their plan, so he took the wrong approach and transferred Lu Bu to Bingzhou, which resulted in the current situation.
Now Yuan Shao's army is in a dilemma. Should he concentrate on dealing with Lu Bu? Or should he ignore Bingzhou and concentrate on defeating Chunan? Ignore Bingzhou and directly attack the Central Plains?
This is what Yuan Shao is arguing about now.
Tian Feng, Jushu and others felt that the road to Bingzhou was difficult to navigate and there was not enough food and grass, so if Lu Bu went to Bingzhou, it would be like trapping the tiger. As long as they implemented the strategy of strengthening the walls and clearing the wilderness in Youzhou and holding on to the city, Lu Bu's road would be abandoned.
They took this opportunity to concentrate all their efforts on attacking Chu Nan, defeating Chu Nan and seizing the Central Plains. By then, it would be too late for Lu Bu to return, and they could concentrate all their strength to deal with Lu Bu.
Xu You, Guo Tu and others felt that now that Lu Bu was alone, it was the best time to deal with Lu Bu.
The grain road to Bingzhou is difficult. As long as Lu Bu dares to send troops to Youzhou, that is when they work together to capture Lu Bu. As long as Lu Bu is killed, not only can Bingzhou be recovered, Chunan's biggest support will be gone. It will be easier to attack Chunan again.
a lot of.
The two sides have been struggling on this issue for many days and have never been able to reach an agreement. Yuan Shao felt that both sides were reasonable, and it was difficult to decide which strategy to use.
"My lord, I have recently received a piece of news that may be useful to our army!" Xu You saluted Yuan Shao confidently.