Chapter 79: The world is full of hustle and bustle, all for the benefit of others
On Liu Yu's side, he mobilized 20,000 Qingzhou soldiers from Qingzhou, appointed his general Tai Shici as the Zhonglang general, Guan Hai and Guan Cheng as the school captains, and personally led the army from Pingyuan County to attack Qinghe State.
The person guarding Liu Yu's troops in the direction of Qinghe State was Yuan Shao's general Wen Chou. Wen Chou commanded more than 10,000 troops to deal with Liu Yu's attack of more than 20,000 troops. There was no strong city or fortress to defend, so it was quite difficult.
After several battles, although Wen Chou fought very bravely, he did not gain any advantage.
Limited by the gap in military strength, Wen Chou gradually retreated under Tai Shici's fierce offensive. When Liu Bei went north from Yecheng, Liu Yu had already led his troops to advance to Ganling County, suppressing Wen Chou.
Wen Chou had no choice but to retreat into the city for defense and abandon the field battle, in order to contain Liu Yu's troops and buy time for the main force.
On the other side, in Yanzhou, Qiao Mao also mobilized more than 20,000 troops, with Bao Xin, the prefect of Dongjun, as the Zhonglang general, and Bao Xin's capable subordinate Yu Jin as the school captain, to launch an attack on Guantao County.
The one who was defending Guantao County was Yuan Shao's general Jiang Qi. Jiang Qi led more than 10,000 troops to set up defenses in Guantao County and fight against Bao Xin and Yu Ban.
The two sides fought several times and won each other's battles. However, Qiao Mao had many soldiers and stable logistics, while Jiang Qi had few soldiers and dangerous logistics. He gradually lost the enemy, so he retreated to Guantao County. However, due to lack of food and fodder, he could not hold on for too long, so he went to the rear to review
Call for help.
But at this time, Shenpei could no longer provide him with assistance, and Shenpei himself could not protect himself.
On the front line of Wei County and Qinghe State, due to the all-out attack by Liu Bei's group, Yuan Shao's forces with only a small number of soldiers are already at an absolute disadvantage. It only takes a little time to collapse.
On the northern line, where Yuan Shao's power is stronger, will Yuan Shao's progress be better?
the answer is negative.
During the golden window period when Gongsun Zan retreated hastily and all counties in Youzhou were looted by the Xianbei and Wuhuan people and almost collapsed, Yuan Shao did not seize the opportunity to defeat Gongsun Zan in one go.
Of course, it's not that he didn't work hard enough, he tried his best, but Gongsun Zan also tried his best.
Strategically, Gongsun Zan has been suppressed by Yuan Shao and is in an absolute disadvantage, unable to protect Youzhou at all.
But after that, Gongsun Zan had given up strategy and concentrated on tactics. The contest between the two sides changed from a strategic contest to a tactical contest. Under the county seat of Zhuoxian, there was no longer any strategy.
This is Gongsun Zan's strength.
Yuan Shao divided his troops to surround Fanyang City and Zhuoxian City. He surrounded Fanyang City on all sides and attacked with all his strength. The troops took turns in battle, day and night, and the offensive was very fierce.
Gongsun Zan and his subordinates also knew that this was a near-death situation, and they also knew that this was their only chance to make a comeback.
There is still a glimmer of hope to save the county seat.
If we can't save the county seat, let's just kill ourselves!
Together they had a strong desire to survive, and their attitude towards defending the city was very resolute.
Yuan Shao surrounded Zhuoxian City with twice the force of Gongsun Zan, cut off transportation inside and outside Zhuoxian City, wiped out all military facilities, filled in the moat, and then launched a strong offensive.
Then, he built an earth wall outside the city, which was higher than the city wall. He fired arrows from a high position inside, and once suppressed Gongsun Zan's crossbowmen.
But then, Gongsun Zan led his troops out of the city to fight many times, and he was unstoppable. He defeated Yuan Shao's defensive troops many times and destroyed the earthen walls outside the city, which caused a lot of trouble to Yuan Shao and made Yuan Shao very angry.
Despite this, on the whole, Gongsun Zan's defenders were still suppressed. Yuan Shao's offensive was very fierce, and it seemed that he did not care about the attack with all his strength.
At this moment, Yuan Shao no longer cares about the rear.
He knew that Liu Bei would definitely attack after he sent troops, and he also knew that the defense he set up on the southern front would be difficult to withstand the joint attack of Liu Bei and the three states, but as long as Yecheng could delay Liu Bei's progress, he would gain some points for him.
In time, he would be sure to eliminate Gongsun Zan.
After annihilating Gongsun Zan, massacring Fanyang County and Zhuoxian County, and taking revenge, he then united with the cavalry of the Xianbei and Wuhuan people to go south to decisively fight against Liu Bei. This was Yuan Shao's last tactic of risking death and surviving.
If you win, the sea and the sky will be brighter.
You can't win, but you'll die.
For this reason, he didn't care about anything. It didn't matter that the logistics couldn't keep up. He directly supported war with war. He did everything from plundering, burning, killing and looting. He even sent people to other counties to burn, kill, loot and obtain war supplies.
Relying on such brutal actions, Yuan Shao accumulated a relatively large amount of supplies, which could continue to support the battle and continue to launch strong attacks on Gongsun Zan's army.
Gongsun Zan's side had more troops and horses, so he could still hold on more or less, but Fanyang County, which was defended by Tian Kai and Yan Gang, was not so rich in troops, and unfortunately, an epidemic broke out. Many soldiers in the city fell ill, so they had to
When he arrived for treatment, his condition was very critical.
At the critical moment, Dong Zhuo's reinforcements arrived.
On the second day of December in the sixth year of Zhongping, Dong Zhuo's reinforcements of 10,000 men crossed Changshan State and Zhongshan State, arrived at Zhuojun, and approached Fanyang County.
At that time, the situation in Fanyang County was relatively dangerous. Qu Yi and Yan Liang focused on attacking the county seat. The arrival of Dong Zhuo's troops suddenly disrupted their arrangements.
After Dong Zhuo arrived with his troops, he immediately sent his fierce generals Li Jue and Guo Si to lead a sudden attack on Qu Yi and Yan Liang's troops.
A fierce battle broke out between the two sides on the plain west of Fanyang County. In the end, Qu Yi and Yan Liang could not resist Li Jue and Guo Si's fierce attack and had to retreat.
However, although they retreated, the army retreated in an orderly manner under the command of Qu Yi and maintained the fighting posture. Li Jue and Guo Si tried to further destroy this army, but failed.
In the first round of the confrontation, the two sides barely managed a draw, but Qu Yi realized that Dong Zhuo's reinforcements were a major variable. Once they attacked at the same time as the army in the city, the situation would be very bad.
So Qu Yi decided to split up with Yan Liang. He led troops to fight against Dong Zhuo. Yan Liang led troops to continue to besiege Fanyang County, preventing the troops in the city from easily going into battle. At the same time, he notified Yuan Shao of the matter in order to obtain Yuan Shao's military support and try to stop Dong Zhuo in Fanyang County.
, looking for an opportunity to defeat it.
Dong Zhuo was also anxious. He wanted to defeat Qu Yi and Yan Liang as soon as possible, save Fanyang County, and then go to Zhuo County to join forces with Gongsun Zan to deal with Yuan Shao. Therefore, Li Jue and Guo Si failed to successfully defeat Yuan Shao's army, which made Dong Zhuo dissatisfied, so
Decided to take action personally.
This time, Dong Zhuo attacked with all his strength, using all his assault cavalry and personally leading the attack to boost morale.
Faced with Dong Zhuo's all-out attack, Qu Yi did not mess up his position. Instead, he used his private army as the backbone and set up a defensive and counterattack formation. He set up a large number of powerful crossbows in the formation, so that the entire army could use them.
He used the crossbow.
Dong Zhuo's cavalry rushed forward. He gave an order and arrows rained down, launching a fierce counterattack against Dong Zhuo's cavalry. At the same time, the spearmen in the military formation also decisively attacked the cavalry that was close at hand.
It has to be said that this blow did bring some trouble to Dong Zhuo, but Dong Zhuo's sudden cavalry was not easy to deal with. It was also a very brave existence. After a shower of arrows, although there were great losses,
But he still fought to the death in front of the battle.
Li Jue and Guo Si were both very brave generals. They led their troops to attack Qu Yi's army, fought hard and bloody battles, and never retreated, which put great pressure on Qu Yi.
Qu Yi devoted almost all his private troops to fight against Dong Zhuo's sudden cavalry. Dong Zhuo also suffered heavy losses, but he refused to retreat and must defeat Qu Yi. Qu Yi held on for a long time, and finally could no longer resist and ordered the rear
The crossbowmen continued to fire arrows to cover the withdrawal of the main force.
The last time Qu Yi successfully retreated, this time Dong Zhuo learned the lesson and ordered the front army to cling to Qu Yi to prevent them from escaping. Even if they had to pay for their lives, they must persist in fighting and never retreat.
This move can be regarded as entangling Qu Yi. He did not expect that Dong Zhuo would be so fierce and fearless in fighting, and his army would be so crazy. If the battle continued like this, he would definitely be the first to be overwhelmed, because Dong Zhuo's military strength was higher than that of others.
He has many.
In desperation, he could only ask Yan Liang for help and asked Yan Liang to quickly lead troops to help him retreat. As a result, Yan Liang was now being entangled by Tian Kai and Yan Gang's troops who were madly attacking in the city. The fighting was so fierce that he could not move away to support him.
Quyi.
Yuan Shao's reinforcements were still nowhere to be seen, and Qu Yi finally couldn't hold on any longer. Under the repeated attacks of Bingzhou's sudden cavalry, the army formation collapsed. Qu Yi could only escape under the protection of a few personal guards. He had no time to respond to Yan Liang, and went directly to Yan Liang.
He fled in the direction of Zhuoxian County.
After Qu Yi fled, his army fought for a while and then collapsed.
Dong Zhuo spent a lot of money to defeat Qu Yi's army and almost annihilated them all. Then he led his troops to Fanyang County and attacked Yan Liang, who had not yet understood the situation here, from both front and back, and defeated them directly.
Yan Liang himself was in a dazed state and was besieged from two sides by Li Jue and Guo Si. Both of them attacked Yan Liang's formation with personal guards. Yan Liang and his guards fought desperately, rushing left and right, but could never break out of the encirclement.
In the end, all the soldiers around Yan Liang died in the battle. Yan Liang himself stabbed Li Jue and was killed by Guo Si behind him.
Yan Liang's entire army was wiped out, and the siege of Fanyang County was lifted.