The reinforcement Cao Cao was waiting for was Liu Biao, who killed tens of thousands of troops and captured half of Nanyang.
The opponents who were originally fighting each other in battle became the hope to break the predicament.
He felt guilty.
Troops were divided outside the city to return reinforcements, and the remaining soldiers were reinforcing the camp. Yuan Shu in the city immediately understood that it must be Liu Xiang who sent troops. He had experienced this kind of thing twice, and he breathed a sigh of relief. His allies were too reliable.
, he was very pleased.
The news that Cao Cao would no longer attack the city was quickly brought back to Lin County by spies.
Liu Xiang was annoyed that he could not wait until the enemy was tired and couldn't take advantage. As for Lao Cao's decision to divide his troops and return to Nanyang to aid, he was naturally brought back, but he didn't care.
There are 60,000 troops in Nanyang. Guan Yu, Guo Dian, and Le Jin are not easy to deal with. Chen Gong and Zhang Miao, who sent troops with the front army, are not easy to deal with either. He does not need to worry about the war there.
What bothered him was that Cao Cao realized that he was nearby so quickly and decisively strengthened his defenses.
Two hundred and ninety miles is a long distance for the southern princes who have few cavalry and are accustomed to infantry fighting. But for the Chinese cavalry, they can arrive in three days. With a heavy attack, they can arrive in two days.
Almost gone.
This time difference caused by the speed difference can mislead enemy generals and make their judgments wrong. Unfortunately, Lao Cao was not fooled.
"Mistake." Liu Xiang muttered in annoyance, forgetting that Cao Cao had once been his subordinate and fought with him in Longmen and Danhan Mountains. He knew him very well and could not be generalized from other Henan princes.
We need to adjust our tactics. As soon as Liu Biao arrives, the two armies will join together with at least 60,000 to 70,000 troops. If we fight them head-on, the losses will be huge. He will not block Yuan Shu's knife.
I took out the map and prepared to discuss it with Guo Jia and Xi Zhicai.
Now the battlefield is divided into three places, Lujiang, Ruyin and Pingyu.
The two armies on the Lujiang River each have 30,000 troops. In terms of combat strength, Yuan Shu's army has the advantage. The leader is Ji Ling, who is slowly retreating. He wants to return to rescue Pingyu, but it will be difficult to escape for a while.
Ruyin has Yuan Shao's army of 30,000, which has superior combat power and military strength. It has entangled Zhang Xun's 25,000 men, but it is extremely difficult to destroy the enemy's army in a short period of time.
Needless to say, Pingyu had less than 10,000 defenders in the city, but nearly 20,000 young men were forcibly recruited. Outside the city was Cao Cao's army, which originally numbered 50,000. After dividing the troops and returning to Nanyang to aid Nanyang, the number was uncertain, but it was about 20,000 or 30,000.
.
Now the fighting has stopped, waiting for Liu Biao's arrival.
It's estimated that we'll be there in a few days.
"Pingyu has no more fat to eat. We have to change our goals. Fengxiao and Zhicai, where do you think we should go?" Liu Xiang now has military advisors, so he wants to hear their opinions.
Raid Yuan Shao, ambush Liu Biao, join Ji Ling, or they can come up with other strategies.
"Yuan Shao!" The two men almost said in unison that they wanted to fight Yuan Shao without even thinking about it.
"Yuan Shao has been entangled by Zhang Xun. It is a good opportunity for a surprise attack. The lord must not miss the opportunity!" Xi Zhicai explained.
Guo Jia added: "King Chen has marched south to Pei State and can cut off Yuan Shao's return at any time. My lord leads the cavalry to make a surprise attack, defeating his army first and then killing his men. This is the right time!"
This one was even more ruthless. He wanted to defeat Ru Yin's army first, then pursue the cavalry for two hundred miles, and use Liu Chong's interception to kill them all.
In this battle of Runan, Yuan Shao and the others made a desperate attempt to completely defeat Yuan Shu, taking great risks.
The greater the risk, the greater the benefits, and the greater the flaws. This truth is self-evident.
Yuan Shao entangled the main force of Runan in Ruyin, making it impossible for them to return for reinforcements, but entangling the enemy army was equivalent to being entangled by the enemy.
It is four hundred and seventy miles from Yan County to Ruyin, and the cavalry will arrive in five days. They can raid Ruyin and catch Yuan Shao by surprise.
The cavalry under Liu Xiang's command all have one man and two horses. With pack horses, they can do one man and three horses. They are not the same type as the cavalry of the southern princes. They equip each cavalry with a war horse, and some even ride pack horses.
Fighting.
Moreover, the number was also small. Yuan Shao and Cao Cao combined had less than two thousand cavalry.
With their method of raising cavalry, Liu Xiang could raise 20,000 cavalry.
Therefore, the cavalry of the southern princes cannot make long-distance and rapid detours, and they have no such concept, at least not yet. The way they use cavalry now is to use infantry as a trump card to disrupt the enemy's formation, and then the cavalry attacks and breaks through.
Defeat the enemy.
It wasn't until Lao Cao came up with the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry that the Leopard Cavalry among them had the ability to run long distances.
Of course, in this life, Cao Cao, because he fought two wars with Liu Xiang, had a better understanding of cavalry and was more eager for fine cavalry.
It's a pity that he has no money and no horses, so he can only be greedy.
In the final analysis, it is a matter of cost. If you really have to go all out, Lao Cao can also build cavalry, but it is not cost-effective. The cost of getting horses is too high and he cannot afford to raise them. Infantry is his foundation.
This principle also applies to Liu Xiang. The Chinese army only has more than 8,000 cavalry. He has men and horses. Hundreds of thousands of people are grazing outside the Great Wall. There are pastures all over Youzhou, and there are many merging states. It is still possible to pull up tens of thousands of cavalry.
, but the burden of raising cavalry is too heavy.
The cost of raising a cavalry is equivalent to raising six soldiers, and I really can't afford to raise tens of thousands.
Just like he can prepare black powder, but has never mass-produced it.
Now that he has a mine, he can boil saltpeter and mine sulfur. However, if the technology of protective measures is not up to the mark, a number of people will die in a few years. It is too cruel and he cannot be cruel. He controls a lot of wasteland.
There is a shortage of people, so how can we waste human resources like this?
Even if you put aside the issue of population, the cost of black gunpowder is too high. Even if there are mines, mining, transportation, and storage costs are not small. To prepare a pound of gunpowder, the cost is nearly half a pound of gold, which is already cheaper than buying the finished product directly.
Half of it, not counting the storage issues after the black powder is configured.
What is this concept?
One pound of gold can be exchanged for five thousand dan. The average price of grain under his rule was about 35 dan per stone. If a firecracker with a pound of powder went off, 4,800 kilograms of grain would be gone.
Who can afford this thing?
In this era when we are trying our best to offend so many powerful families just to be able to feed the people under our rule, how can we use this thing to fight a war?
He has a population of nearly 15 million under his rule, which can support an army of 150,000 in combat, but the wealth he creates every year is not enough for modern people to spend a few minutes with fireworks during the Spring Festival.
It is unrealistic to use gunpowder to fight wars. The basic technologies cannot be reached and the cost cannot be reduced. For the Han Dynasty, black gunpowder was like the cutting-edge technologies in modern laboratories. It was too expensive and the upstream and downstream supporting technologies could not keep up.
, cannot be promoted.
"My lord, what are you thinking about?" Guo Jia stared at Liu Xiang curiously. My lord was distracted when he was discussing the attack on Yuan Shao. I don't know what he was thinking about?
"I'm distracted, Fengxiao, and I have great talent. I have a way to defeat any enemy, but I can't use it. It's a pity." Liu Xiang replied, and couldn't help but sigh: "I don't have the ability to slay dragons!