Xuzhou has a lot of fertile farmland. In addition to the saline-alkali land on the seaside, the vast plains are connected by roads and acres of land, supporting a population of nearly 2.8 million.
The two large-scale Yellow Turban uprisings, compared to other states and counties, Xuzhou was less affected. The subsequent warlord battles were not the main battlefield here. Yanzhou and Yuzhou had a large number of nobles. The people fled into the country and the population did not decline.
increase.
Unfortunately, at the end of the dynasty, order collapsed, and they did not escape the ravages of war.
The Xuzhou Yellow Turban Army, which was originally driven into Qingzhou, fled back again.
Taking advantage of the fact that Yuan Shao's army had no time to suppress the bandits, it developed rapidly and attracted more than 200,000 people like a snowball. The other four counties except Langya were affected. Donghai and Xiapi suffered the greatest losses, and many counties were destroyed.
capture.
This is the situation that senior officials faced when they returned to Xuzhou.
The exhausted 30,000 troops who had been rushing all the way were recuperating in Pengcheng County, which was the royal capital of Pengcheng Kingdom and the seat of Yuan Shao's county seat.
Since Liu Yu was granted the title of Marquis of Tan, Tan County was originally governed by the county. The more he stayed there, the more awkward he became. Later, when he attacked Yuan Shu, the Pei Kingdom of Yuzhou and the eastern part of Runan were occupied, so he simply moved his seat to the far west of Xuzhou.
of Pengcheng.
The one who stayed behind in Xuzhou was Zhizhong Chen Si. Seeing the arrival of the reinforcements, he finally felt relieved. The enemy troops in the north were invading the border and he was secretly worried about the Yellow Turbans. These days, he was very anxious. The arrival of the reinforcements finally solved his urgent need.
All the military information in various places was reported to senior officials.
Gao Gan is Yuan Shao's nephew. He is in his twenties, young and energetic, and does not take the Yellow Turban seriously at all.
"Chen Zhizhong is at ease. Let me rest for a day and lead the army to defeat the Yellow Turbans. Then go north and kill Liu Xiang. Xuzhou will be at peace."
Chen Deng, who went out with his father to welcome him, curled his lips with disdain and boasted nonsense. Let's get rid of the yellow scarf first and then talk about it.
The high-ranking cadres reorganized their headquarters for a day, divided their troops into four groups, and wiped out the small group of Yellow Turbans in Pengcheng Kingdom. This made him more and more proud, and his deputy general Yan Liang was also impulsive.
The two of them combined their forces and simply divided the army into two groups. Gao Gan led the troops to the Xiapi Kingdom in the southeast, and Yan Liang led the troops into the Donghai County due east, hoping to quickly wipe out the Yellow Turbans, and then join forces to march north to attack Liu Xiang.
.
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
There were more than 200,000 Yellow Turban troops in the East China Sea and Xiapi, and there were many bandits with many years of experience. Their combat power was not comparable to that of the newly revolted civilians. The two armies underestimated the enemy and rushed forward. They collided with each other and suffered bloody injuries. When they retreated to Pengcheng in defeat,
, the casualties were not small, and even more took advantage of the chaos to escape.
The 30,000-strong army suffered heavy losses and their morale collapsed.
Gao Gan was extremely irritable. This was the first time he had to stand alone. It would be a shame if he couldn't defeat the Yellow Turban bandits.
After gathering more than 20,000 defeated troops, they marched into Donghai County again, but the morale of the army had not been restored, and the soldiers were tired of fighting, making it difficult to achieve results.
Unable to wipe out even the Yellow Turbans in one county, he became more and more impatient. Regardless of Chen Si's persuasion, he was determined to mobilize Langya troops to assist in the battle.
"Chen Zhizhong doesn't need to persuade me anymore. Two armies attack the Yellow Turbans in the East China Sea. They will win quickly. After destroying the thieves, they will immediately return to reinforce. There are more than 60,000 soldiers and horses here. What can Liu Tie do to me?"
Chen Si and his son could not stop them. Gao Gan took advantage of his own army to attract the attention of the Yellow Turban Army of Donghai County, and mobilized Langya's 20,000 troops to attack southward.
This strategy is not a mistake if it targets the Yellow Turbans alone, but there are more powerful enemies to the north.
When Liu Xiang received the news that Langya was sending troops south, his first thought was that the enemy wanted to trick him.
This time, Chen Bing wanted to involve Xuzhou's troops first, so that Yuan Shu could relax and not be wiped out in one battle. Then Yuan Shao would be too strong, and he would be able to occupy most of Yuzhou and Yangzhou and become a hegemon.
A great prince spanning three states.
This is not possible.
Yuan Shu must be given a life extension so that they can fight more intensely and consume him more severely. This is in Liu Xiang's interests.
Although he wanted to capture Langya, he would not fight against Yuan Shao's army and was prepared for a long-term stalemate, waiting for an opportunity.
If we really want to fight now, how could Zhang Liao still be stabilizing in Mount Tai, and Zhou Cang is still killing the remaining bandits?
Qingzhou is becoming more and more stable, and the spring plowing has not been delayed. The autumn harvest will be available in the next month, and the army's supplies do not need to be transported long distances from Jizhou. He is not afraid of a stalemate.
When Qingzhou is on the right track and Yuan Shao is exhausted, that will be a good opportunity to go south to fight.
But luck was not in luck, fighter planes appeared out of nowhere, the scouts chased them for hundreds of miles, and most of the troops stationed on the border were actually gone.
Have you gone to exterminate the Yellow Turbans?
Do you underestimate yourself so much?
If I don’t beat you up, you won’t be able to think clearly!
"The navy was ordered to go south to harass Ganyu, Quxian and other places along the coast of Donghai County to contain Xuzhou's troops."
"He ordered Zhang Liao to leave 5,000 men to garrison Mount Tai, and lead 10,000 men to go south along the Yishui River to attack Dong'an and Juxian, cut off the back roads of the three border cities, and block Xuzhou's reinforcements."
"Instruct Zhou Cang to leave 20,000 troops to continue to suppress the bandits, and to mobilize 20,000 soldiers to support the Langya battlefield."
He led the Chinese army and pushed the siege equipment built in the past few months to the south to attack Gumu.
Yan Gang was ordered to lead the Yue Cavalry and lay in ambush ten miles southeast of Gumu County, waiting for reinforcements from the counties and Dongwu.
Guan Yu was ordered to lead the front army, detour eastward, and lurk near Dongwu. If there was an opportunity, he would sneak attack on the city.
All ministries acted as ordered, and 35,000 troops entered the northern part of Langya. Later, Le Jin led 20,000 Qingzhou soldiers and was hurrying on, approaching quickly.
Gumu County is located on the north bank of Wu River. The other three sides are plain areas. There are no dangerous terrains. It is a small town with a circumference of four miles.
The city is not high and the ground is not dangerous, so we can only rely on the three-city coordinated defensive strategy.
When 40,000 troops were stationed, it was indeed terrifying, but now that the number of troops and horses is reduced by half, the threat is greatly reduced.
At this time, the former governor of Qingzhou, Jiao He, was stationed at Gumu. He had more than 10,000 troops under his command, all of whom were descendants of Qingzhou. Now that Qingzhou is allocating land to the people, these people must not have high fighting spirit. Once the Xuzhou defenders left, the biggest flaw was
It was exposed.
Liu Xiang was not in a hurry to besiege the city. He built a camp five miles north of the city and sent people to persuade him to surrender.
Most of the defenders on the city wall had family members in Qingzhou, and they used to be very concerned about information about their hometown. Now they heard the persuasion to surrender by dividing their fields and farming, and living a stable life, and their originally low fighting spirit became even lower.
Jiao He was worried and hurriedly ordered people to shoot arrows at the city to drive away the surrender troops.
Unfortunately it's of no use.
The Anping Army's tactics of persuading them to surrender have always been effective. They have specially selected people with loud voices, and each one is equipped with a loudspeaker. Even if they are far away, they can still clearly say that they divide the fields and farm and go home to live.
spread to the city wall.
The expressions of his subordinates were changing, they were whispering to each other, and more and more people were moving. Jiao He was irritated. If this continued, his morale would definitely be weakened, and he would lose without fighting.
He ordered a group of people who were talking together to be arrested and beheaded in public. Pointing at the headless corpses, he threatened his soldiers: "You cannot believe the enemy's lies and deceit. If there are those who confuse the people and disturb the morale of the army, this is what they are doing."
End!"
Hundreds of heads fell to the ground, and all the soldiers in the army bowed their heads and dared not speak.