Chapter 535: Battle of Huainan Three Cities: Layout
When Liu Xiang woke up, it was already three o'clock in the morning. Zhao Yun was in charge of the people's relief and disaster relief in the city, Dian Wei was in charge of arresting the Lei family members outside the city, Cao Xing controlled the city defense, and each battalion of soldiers had their own commanders.
He doesn't need to worry.
Shi A and Zhao Jing, who were in charge of personal protection, did not wake him up.
Ordinarily, after defeating Liu'an, we should speed up our journey north, and before the news spreads, we can reach safety and expand our victory.
This indeed goes along with the military strategy of rapid soldiers, but he has a lot of new soldiers under his command, who can be scattered if he accelerates the march, and there is also a lot of baggage that needs to be protected, so he cannot attack quickly.
Moreover, Lei Xu had been defeated for more than ten days, and the enemy had already been prepared, so there was no need to force the soldiers to speed up.
The most important thing is that Liu Xiang doesn't like to fight stupid wars. The method of pushing city by city is high sacrifice, low efficiency and not cost-effective.
What is before him now is Anfeng County, Yangquan County and Liao County. These three counties are like a right triangle, supporting the Huai River defense line within the Lujiang River.
Liu Xun has shrunk all his strength here, and his defensive posture is obvious.
Based on the intelligence from the scouts, Liu Xiang judged that the enemy's strength should not exceed 20,000, and there were still 60,000 to 70,000 young men available. There was no shortage of food and grass for the time being, so it would be difficult to fight a siege.
Then you have to change your thinking.
His ultimate goal in going north was to destroy the Huai River defense line and let Guan Yu's troops on the north bank cross the river.
Capturing the enemy's city is just a means and cannot be exploited.
If he could occupy an area on the south bank that was convenient for crossing the river, Liu Xun would definitely send troops to grab it. Then he could move the enemy out of the city, attack them separately, or attack the city by surprise, thus taking the initiative in the war.
"Come here and issue a notice to recruit guides who are familiar with the Huaihe River."
Although Liu Xiang has read maps many times, he has never been to the South Bank and does not understand the actual topography.
We only have a rough idea that the upper reaches of Liao County are in the remnants of the Dabie Mountains and are not suitable for large army operations, and the lower reaches of Yangquan are the defense areas of Jiujiang.
Liu Miao, the prefect of Jiujiang, was no worse than Liu Xun in terms of military strength. On the other side, Liu Chong, the king of Chen on the other side, had an advantage in strength with 30,000 troops, but his combat power was only that much, and the morale of his subordinates was not high. Old Liu Chong was already over seventy years old.
Not moving anymore.
Jiujiang cannot be touched for the time being.
Further downstream is Lu Bu's defense area. He is the strongest prince on the entire south bank of the Huai River. He defeated the 50,000 Yellow Turban Army in Guangling, reorganized more than 20,000 young men, and now has more than 30,000 troops.
Coupled with the fact that Zuo Rong, a great deceiver who had gathered tens of thousands of followers and was revered as a Bodhisattva by later generations of Buddhism, and thousands of monks and soldiers, Guangling was very powerful.
What troubles Liu Xiang the most is not those soldiers and horses, but Buddhism, which has a tendency to develop and grow. No, there was no word Buddhism in the Han Dynasty. It would still be called Buddha Sect, because the first Buddhist scripture introduced to China was translated as
"Buddha Sutra", so the Han people have always called Buddhism the Buddha Sect.
Later generations of Buddhists translated "Buddha" as "Buddha", and only then did the name Buddhism come into being.
Buddhism was introduced to China during the Western Han Dynasty, but its popularity was not high. During the period of Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty, Emperor Ming advocated Buddhism, and it was officially recognized. However, because there were not many scriptures translated, the methods of preaching were not very good.
There are not many believers among the people.
Until Zuo Rong came out.
Zuo Rong was greedy, murderous, and despicable, but he was a devout Buddhist believer.
He was Tao Qian's Danyang fellow, so he served as an official in Xuzhou and embezzled a lot of money. Later, Yuan Shao took control of Xuzhou, and wars continued. He led his monk soldiers to take the opportunity to kill and rob, and accumulated a lot of money, and he also attracted more and more believers.
more.
Later, while taking advantage of the banquet, he assassinated Zhao Yu, the prefect of Guangling, and then welcomed Lu Bu, thus gaining territory.
Then he spent a lot of money to build a pagoda temple with gold plates on top and a heavy tower on the bottom, which could accommodate 3,000 people. A nine-mirror pagoda was built in the temple, and there were nearly 500 pagoda statues outside the pagoda, all decorated with gold and brocade clothes.
Based on this, the teachings were spread widely, and all Buddhist believers were exempted from taxes and labor, and Guangling Buddha Sect flourished.
Liu Xiang was very vigilant about this. The Buddha Sect, which did not engage in production or pay taxes, but also robbed people at every turn, must not be spread under his rule.
He has no good impression at all of current Buddhist Buddhism or future Buddhism.
Therefore, the main force of the Yunfan Battalion was involved in Guangling. It not only had to assist Zhang Liao in suppressing Lu Bu, but also blocked the lower reaches of the Yangtze River to prevent the Futu Sect from going south. It was no longer able to divide its forces to break through the blockade and support the Lujiang and Jiujiang war zones.
The navy was unable to support Guan Yu and Liu Chong, and it was difficult for Guan Yu and Liu Chong to break through the Huai River. This is why Liu Xiang broke into the Lujiang River from Jiangxia.
In the current situation, the weakest link in the entire Huaihe River defense line is Liu Xun.
Kill him and the entire Huai River War Zone can be revitalized.
According to Liu Xiang's idea, he would first eliminate the enemy's effective forces, and then send troops to seize the city. Anyway, he didn't want to fight one city after another. How much time would be wasted in a stupid battle like a hard attack? How many people would die? How much effort would it take?
How much pension?
After the fight, do you still have the strength to continue fighting?
It's all unknown.
The army stayed in Lu'an for seven days, sorting out the relief matters in the city, arresting more than 20,000 Lei family members, and confiscated more than 10,000 gold, more than 400,000 dan of grain, and countless other assets.
Before they could be counted and stored in the treasury, the scouts reported that a large army was approaching Anfeng, carrying the flag of Jiujiang County, numbering no less than 20,000.
At the same time, the guide's exploration of the terrain on the south bank also yielded results. He reported two areas where the terrain was flat and the army could deploy, and the river was gentle, making it easy to build bridges to cross the river.
Both places are located between Liao County and Yangquan.
What Liu Xiang valued was a place called Taolindu, ten miles east of Liao County and thirty miles west of Yangquan.
So the question is, how should we deploy it? How should we deal with this reinforcements?
"Your Majesty, please do not let the reinforcements enter the city. Our troops are willing to be the vanguard to raid the Jiujiang reinforcements and annihilate them in the wild."
Sun Ce was still the most active one and suggested that the armored cavalry should make a surprise attack.
"What Lieutenant Sun said is very true. I agree with you. We can eliminate the reinforcements first, and then return to the army to besiege the city and attack Anfeng." Zhao Yun affirmed Sun Ce and put forward his own suggestions.
Dian Wei'an sat calmly behind the desk. He didn't interfere with the military discussion. Anyway, His Majesty gave the order, and he only needed to carry it out. There was no need to think about those conspiracies. He was only good at killing people, not good at plotting.
.
Liu Xiang was silent for a moment, annihilating the enemy in the wild was of course a good choice. The soldiers of the Forbidden Army had a great advantage in the field. As for returning to attack Anfeng County, he was not willing to do so.
"According to the order, Yulin Right Prison each sent a thousand light cavalry to harass Liao County and Yangquan, intercept and kill the scouts and messengers, and obscure the view of the city.
Following Cao Xing, he led the crossbowmen of Shesheng Battalion and 2,000 soldiers of Jinwu Guard, along with 2,000 carriages loaded with camping materials, and rushed to Taolin Ferry to seize the advantageous terrain and set up camp. Reinforcements would arrive soon after.
Zhao Yun led the auxiliary troops, escorted the criminal camp, besieged Anfeng, and pretended to attack the city.
Dian Wei and Sun Ce followed me to raid Jiujiang reinforcements.
Send a message to Guan Yu and prepare to build a pontoon bridge to cross the river."