Liu Cong took the people to the barracks and built a temporary platform in the middle of a fairly spacious house with many wooden blocks. The top is edged, boxy, and the middle is full of sediment. What's even more peculiar is that these sediments are not a plate of loose sand, but are made into hills, and the middle path is fresh and visible, needless to say that this is the sand table that Liu Cong made himself to deduce from the later generations.

This thing can be seen everywhere in the future generations of harmony, and now the slightly more high-end real estate will make a mock plate in the marketing office. And the sand table in the barracks is indispensable for the confrontation between red and blue.

Liu Cong did not explain the role of this sand table to the generals, but planted a few small flags on it.

"You see, the green ones are the credit banner (Sheqi County) and Huyangyi (now Tanghe County), which will be the main battlefield of our decisive battle with Cao's army. The credit flag can be given to Cao Cao, but this Huyang cannot be easily obtained by Cao Cao, once Cao Cao's army passes Huyang, it will definitely face Xinye. And this blue one, on the left is Deng County (now Dengzhou City), and on the right is Biyang (now Miyang), these two places are like the left and right arms of Xinye. It can't be easily ceded to Cao Cao.

、

The red ones represent Wancheng and Xinye respectively, and Cao Cao's hundreds of thousands of troops cannot all camp, so this Wancheng will definitely become a temporary camp for Cao's army. The front from Xuchang to Xiangyang showed a tendency to slope from northeast to southwest. Fortunately, our southwest is Yizhou, which is our own territory, and the southeast is Jiangxia. Zhengzheng is south of Xiangyang. Therefore, choosing the decisive battle in Huyang is the best place.

Of course, if Cao's army is fierce, we can temporarily retreat into Xinye. But in order to be proactive, we must act. So ......"

Liu Cong held a small wooden stick and pointed on the sand table, while explaining to everyone from time to time where there is a river and where there is a mountain. The crowd even applauded the dots. Even though they were all battlefield veterans, they were shocked by Liu Cong again.

They can never understand how profound their lord is, it seems that there will always be something new, and this sneak attack on Xuchang turned out to be confident.

"The generals will obey!"

Everyone straightened up and stepped aside.

"Gan Ning, you lead 20,000 elite soldiers to Wancheng day and night!"

"My lord?" Rao is Liu Cong said the importance of various places to the sand table just now, but Gan Ning still didn't understand that he had just withdrawn from Wancheng. This is going again? The lord clearly said that this would be Cao Cao's base camp?

"Your task is to take the initiative and make a feint attack on Wancheng, so that Cao Cao can disrupt the marching plan, so that he may give up resting on credit and go directly to Wancheng. You only need to hold on for more than ten days to Wancheng before you can see the opportunity to withdraw the army, and then withdraw into Deng County. No matter how many men Cao Cao came to attack Deng County, you must defend Deng County to the death! ”

"The last general commands!"

"Liu Pan, you lead 20,000 troops to Biyang, be sure to go to Biyang as quickly as possible, and then strengthen the city defense and make a decisive battle with Cao's army. If Cao's army comes to attack, you will retreat into Biyang and hold out. If Cao's army does not come, you can lead one of them to attack Langling County (now Queshan, belonging to Runan County) and continue to threaten Runan. If you encounter the onslaught of Cao's army, you can also choose the opportunity to retreat into Fuyang (now Tongbai).

Fuyang can not be retreated, the city is in the people! In case the Cao army divided his troops to take Jiangxia and attack Xiangyang! ”

"The last will understand! The city is in the people! "Liu Pan has seen Liu Cong talk to him so seriously since Liu Cong went to Youxian to invite him and Huang Zhong out, and naturally knows the importance of Biyang and Fuyang.

In the process of Liu Cong's explanation, Liu Pan secretly made up his mind that since Liu Cong went to Biyang exclusively, he naturally had to stick to Biyang and not let Cao Jun break through! Liu Cong said that he could choose the opportunity to retreat to Fuyang, which was to relieve pressure on himself. It is easy to see from this sand table placed by Liu Cong that Biyang is as important as Dengzhou. It is the two wings of Gongwei Xinye, since Liu Cong's order to Gan Ning is to defend Deng County, when did he Liu Pan lose to Gan Ning?

"Wen Ping, Guan Yu, the two of you led 30,000 troops and set off on the same day. Strive to enter Huyang before Cao Cao arrives at the credit banner. If he can catch up with Cao Cao before he can, he will rely on Huyang to start a maneuver with Cao Cao, and try to delay Cao Cao's march. And then stand by in place! ”

"The last general commands!" Wen Ping and Guan Yu responded in unison.

"Well, in this battle with Cao Cao, Huyang is a key. The two of you, Zhongye is the main commander, but each has its own division of labor. If we can successfully hold off Cao Jun for more than a month, our chances of winning will be eighty percent! ”

Liu Cong is not talking about this, Wei Yan is on the way to come, and it is expected that he will arrive in Xiangyang in half a month, and after arrival, he will make a slight adjustment in Xiangyang, and then he can use all the strength of the Xiangyang battalion to go to Xinye. In this way, including Gan Ning and Liu Pan on the two wings, Wen Ping and Guan Yu in the middle, plus the Xinye defenders and Wei Yan's reinforcements, could reach 130,000.

Liu Cong deliberately chose to attack Xuchang in winter, in fact, he also summed up the experience over the years. The last time Cao Cao lost to the weather. And Cao Cao mobilized the army this time and mobilized troops and horses from all over the country. However, the ability of soldiers to protect themselves from the cold varies from place to place. Liu Cong had the advantage of being close to the capital, and the supply of various military facilities and food and weapons in Fancheng was also very abundant, so there were casualties in the war, and the supply was relatively fast.

Based on the experience of Liu Cong's later generations, in fact, in winter, northerners are even less tolerant of frost. Although it is not necessary that there will be a large-scale plague in Cao Jun again. But as long as a few generals under Liu Cong occupied the key county towns he said and closed their doors, Cao Cao had to camp if he wanted to attack. If he didn't attack, why did he move the crowd so much?

The three counties of Huyang, Deng County and Bi County are connected in a line, but the distance is very close, forming a good barrier to protect Xinye. If Cao Cao did not divide his troops to go to Dengxian and Biyang, then it would be necessary to break through Huyang with heavy troops to attack Xinye. But Guan Yu and Wen Ping are not good at stubble. led 30,000 troops to garrison a county seat, and Cao Cao wanted to take it, but he was afraid that he would have to pay double the price.

One of the most critical factors in this battle is that Liu Cong always takes the initiative. Although inferior to Cao Cao in terms of troops. However, Xinye can only travel a day and a half to Biyang, the farthest of these three counties, while Huyang and Deng County can be reached on the same day, so if there is something to do, reinforcements from Xinye are very fast. It invisibly offset the disadvantage of troops.

Now that Liu Cong has successfully defeated Cao Pi's 20,000 tiger and leopard cavalry with a battle array, Cao Cao's army will definitely be deterred after Cao Pi returns. And Cao Cao is also a cautious person, and he will definitely take a proper rest before continuing to march. In this way, when Cao's army besieged Huyang, Wei Yan might have arrived in Xinye. Under this encouragement, the morale of the Jingzhou soldiers must have increased greatly.

It's winter, and snow can fall at any time. Liu Cong is the defender, and he only needs to keep a close eye on Cao Cao's movements. Therefore, Liu Cong has carefully analyzed, no matter the time, place, and people, he will not lose to Cao Cao! Next, it depends on the performance of the generals, especially Wen Ping and Guan Yu. Presumably, as long as Cao Cao learned that his first opponents were Wen Ping and Guan Yu, he would be careful.

"General Huang, they are stationed in various places, and the support task in the middle will be handed over to you! You and your cavalry are resting in Shinno these days, and you may be called into battle at any time. ”

"No!" This time against Cao Pi's tiger and leopard cavalry, although Huang Zhong's cavalry was only outflanked by two wings, but the harvest was not small, and after a battle, the war horses did not decrease, but increased by more than 1,000. Except for Liu Cong, who transferred a part of it to the personal guards of several generals. Huang Zhong's 5,000 men and horses are still very neat.

"My lord, we are fighting with Cao Cao here, and Jiangdong Sun Quan has to guard against it." After the generals were ordered to go down, Fa Zheng expressed his worries.

"Well, in the last battle of Fancheng, Zhou Yu wanted to take the opportunity to pick up the cheap. That Lu Zijing is kinder than Zhou Yu. I have sent someone to prepare a generous gift to meet Lu Zijing and Zhuge Ziyu, hoping that the two of them can influence Sun Quan.

Even if you don't wave your army north, don't make trouble. However, Jiangxia and Changsha counties had to be guarded. However, Xiliang Ma Chao may take the opportunity to make trouble for Cao Cao, so that it can be regarded as a countervail. Let's do our own thing, the so-called plan is in people, and success is in heaven! Let's go, it's time to go for the ride! ”

"Your Majesty already has news?"

"Yes, it has entered Xinye, and all the brocade guards have been dispatched. I believe that as soon as the news of His Majesty's arrival comes out, the soldiers of Jingzhou will be doubly encouraged! ”

"Congratulations, congratulations!"

"Filial piety, many people think that I put a hoop on my head, and I may be tied in the future, what do you think?"

"Lord, that Xun Yu is Cao Cao's right-hand man, even if he can't be used by the lord, being able to no longer be used by Cao Cao is a winning move!" Liu Cong obviously asked the emperor, but Fa Zheng replied to Xun Yu, which shows how sharp Fa Zheng's vision is!

"Really? I want to hear about it! ”

"The lord actually has a plan in his heart for a long time, this is the time, and the separation between Cao Cao and Xun Yu is true. Those fierce generals who assisted Cao Cao in achieving today's hegemony were indispensable, but there were only three people who really played a decisive role, that is, Guo Fengxiao, Jia Wenhe and Xun Wenruo. God bless the lord, Guo Fengxiao conspired to defeat Yuan Shao, Dinghebei can be described as Cao Cao's first strategist and hero, but he died young, so that Cao Cao broke an arm.

Before that, the lord went to Xuchang to kill Jia Wenhe and cut off his other arm, perhaps Cao Cao had not yet noticed that his think tank had begun to run out of wisdom, so that there would be the defeat of Fancheng and the disturbance of Guanzhong by Ma Chao. Of course, he will be attacked by the lord. And Cao Cao did not hesitate to sacrifice Xun Yu in order to usurp the throne. Just thought that even if Xun Yu refused to serve the lord, as long as he left Cao Cao with an iron heart, Cao Cao would lose another right-hand man.

Xun Yu is comparable to Cao Cao as Zhang Zifang and Gao Zu, and even surpassed. Cao Cao couldn't wait to abandon Xun Yu for his own selfish interests, and the chances of winning this battle were naturally even better. So the lord is mainly to stabilize Xun Yu in order to welcome him, right? ”

"Hey, I don't think I can hide it from you. I'll talk about this later, and you can go with me! ”