The Cao, Liu and Song families violently attacked the city for three days, causing a total of nearly 1,500 casualties to the Liang army.
Although the coalition forces suffered more casualties, the three-day fierce attack showed the coalition's majesty, and now it has completely overwhelmed the Liang army in terms of momentum.
It was naturally impossible for the coalition forces to continue such a high-intensity siege after that. After all, the cost of such a death attack without any technical content was too great, and even if the coalition forces were strong, they still could not withstand it.
Three days later, the coalition forces changed their previous strategy of losing both sides and adopted a conservative and steady siege method. While consuming the materials used by the Liang Army to defend the city, they also chipped away at the strength of the Liang Army.
This method of attack does greatly reduce casualties, but the disadvantage is that it is more time-consuming and laborious. If the attack continues at this trend, it may take the coalition forces a year to completely capture Hulao Pass, and this is without the support of Luoyang reinforcements.
Under the premise.
At the same time, the 100,000-strong army led by Yuan Shao on the southeast road had also successfully arrived at Xuanyuan Pass.
After Yuan Shao arrived, after several days of exploration, he finally figured out the details of Xuanyuan Pass.
There are 20,000 defenders in Xuanyuan Pass, and the defender is Yuwen Chengdu's father, Yu Wenhuaji. Although the defense of the pass is considered tight, there is still a gap compared with Hulao Pass.
After understanding this, Yuan Shao immediately convened a meeting of princes and made a decision to go all out to break the barrier.
During this period, Liu Xiu raised objections and pointed out that as long as Hulao Pass was breached, the three passes of Xuanyuan Guangcheng and Yique would be destroyed without attack, so there was no need to attack by force on his own.
Liu Xiu's opinion went straight to the core, but Yuan Shao couldn't listen at all because he needed fame and prestige.
When he was under Qin Hao's command, no matter how well Yuan Shao behaved, the limelight would still belong to Qin Hao. Now that he was finally away from Qin Hao, how could Yuan Shao continue to remain silent?
Thinking of the fact that the fourth and third sons of the Yuan family have old officials all over the world, and Yuan Shao is the eldest son of the Yuan family, how can he serve as a foil for a hotshot like Qin Hao?
Therefore, Yuan Shao wanted to attack Luoyang before Qin Hao, not only to make a name for himself and prove himself, but also to slap Qin Hao and the princes in the face, so that they would understand that it was wrong not to choose him as the leader of the alliance.
I, Yuan Shao, can lead the partial army to Luoyang before the main force. If I serve as the leader of the alliance, I will definitely do better than Qin Hao, so you idiots chose Qin Hao instead of me!
Yuan Shao didn't show it on the surface, but in his heart he was still very unhappy about Qin Hao stepping on him to become the leader of the alliance.
Qin Hao knew this very well, so he let Yuan Shao lead the army alone, because Yuan Shao would try his best to break Xuanyuan Pass when the tiger came out of the cage.
In this way, the battle at Xuanyuan Pass also started, and the coalition forces divided into three groups had already started fighting in two groups, leaving only Guangcheng Pass where there was no movement.
Guangcheng Pass is located in the south of Sizhou, at the junction of Yanzhou and Jingzhou. There is a road of several hundred miles from Yanzhou.
Sun Jian led his army from Suanzao. In addition to having to take a detour, he also had to pass through the Yingchuan and Runan counties of Yuzhou. It would be impossible to reach them without more than a month's march.
At this time, the Baiqi tribe outside Guangcheng Pass also received news of reinforcements.
"The 100,000 coalition troops coming to support this time will arrive in half a month. The main general is Sun Jian, the governor of Wu County, and the deputy general is Qin Siye, the father of General Qin Wu. In addition, there are five princes accompanying him."
Bai Qi put down the information scroll in his hand, then looked at the generals in the hall and said calmly: "The specific strength of our army is a secret, and it is not appropriate to expose it to the princes at the moment. Where is Zhou Yu?"
Zhou Yu, who joined Bai Qi's subordinates as he wished, stood up immediately when he heard Bai Qi calling him, clasped his fists respectfully and said: "The general will be here."
"You are now ordered to lead an army of 50,000 and withdraw to the Northern Army camp."
The Northern Army Camp is a camp in Nanyang specifically designed to guard against threats from Sizhou in the north.
Before Zhou Yu had time to respond, Qin Wu stood up at this moment and said with an unhappy face: "General Bai, our army of 60,000 elite troops has surrounded Guangcheng Pass for nearly two months, but there has not been a single attack.
If we didn't even shoot an arrow and returned without success, wouldn't the food and grass we consumed have been wasted?"
Since Qin Hao led his army to join the alliance, Bai Qi has led 60,000 elite troops to Guangcheng. However, they have been practicing during the past two months and have not conducted any military operations.
What was most difficult for Qin Wu to understand was that even if Han Qinhu, the guard general of Guangcheng Pass, took the initiative to lead his troops out of the pass to challenge him, Bai Qi would still avoid fighting with him.
The 60,000 elite Qin army is not a small number. The number of soldiers and horses that the Lord brought to the alliance was only 60,000.
Bai Qi had such a huge fighting force, and if he didn't use it properly, he would just sit around and waste military supplies. This naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of some generals led by Qin Wu.
In the past, Qin Wu would not have dared to question Bai Qi, but now he was Bai Qi's lieutenant. In addition, Bai Qi had done nothing for two whole months. Qin Wu couldn't hold it in any longer, so he said something cheerful.
.
Seeing this, Zhou Yu said: "General Qin, if you don't withdraw now, the secret of our army's strength will be exposed to the princes, which will probably bring unnecessary trouble to the lord."
"This...is true."
Qin Wu was immediately discouraged, and then he put his head in his hands and said with a frantic expression: "General Bai, if you really have any plans, it doesn't matter even if you can't tell everyone clearly, but do you have it or not?"
At this moment, two handsome young men, one black and one white, broke in. They officially hired Mo Ya and his younger brother Bai Feng, who were seconded from Qin Hao.
"Greetings to the general." The two of them saluted in unison.
Then Bai Feng stepped forward and whispered something in Bai Qi's ear, but a glimmer of excitement flashed in Bai Qi's plain eyes.
"Everyone, you will know your merits and demerits in half a month."
Bai Qi still didn't say it clearly, but there was a profound meaning behind this sentence, which made everyone present feel refreshed.
Bai Qi is a famous general in the world, and like his lord, he has not lost a battle yet. Such inaction is not his style at all.
Including Qin Wu and many generals, they actually thought that Bai Qi had a secret plan, but they couldn't tell it yet before the time came. Now that they heard Bai Qi finally said it, they could let go of their worries.
After enduring it for more than two months, I can finally have a big fight. Qin Wu thought excitedly.
Fifty thousand troops were withdrawn in one fell swoop. Naturally, such a huge movement could not be concealed from Liang's army.
This move also shocked Han Qinhu, who thought that Bai Qi was finally going to attack the city, but later he realized that it was the Qin army that had withdrawn.