Handan City. The 1st Infantry Brigade has arrived here, and Xu Dou has already planned it. After the end of the Battle of Handan, they had to quickly change their name to the 1st Infantry Division.

The city of Handan has now become an isolated city. The militia could not take down the larger city, but it was enough to besiege it. There are only more than 1,000 defenders in the city, and the militia that surrounded it was only 6,000 at most, and now there are only more than 2,500 people surrounding here, but most of them are militiamen, and their combat effectiveness is still relatively weak.

In order to encircle Handan to the greatest extent, Lijiazhuang also spared no effort to transport all kinds of materials, and transported more than 900 ** and more than 200 miles of barbed wire here. Almost most of the barbed wire produced in Lijiazhuang was transported here.

So, when Xu Dou came here, it was almost like a moat from the First World War. Because these peasant militia were not idle, digging pits, digging tunnels, and building all kinds of fortifications seemed to be their daily business. They even built five encirclements. The first three encirclements are inside. There are a lot of barbed wire fences laid out in front. If the officers and troops want to break through, it is simply impossible. That is, by the defensiveness of barbed wire. They nailed the defenders of Handan City to the death.

"How's the defenders doing?" Xu Dou asked one of his staff officers with a telescope.

"Sir. Basically, if the defenders don't come out, we can't scratch our tongues, and we don't know what the situation is in the city. But judging from some of the people who were blasted out before, it is estimated that there is not much food in the city. However, it can still last for a while, and most importantly, their bow and arrow defense weapons have not decreased, and the city wall of Handan also has it. It's five feet. If they had forced themselves to attack, the brothers' losses would have been somewhat large. The staff officer said in embarrassment.

"Is there any way you can take Handan City?" Xu Dou asked his staff officer.

"Sir, we discussed it and thought it would be better to use the old method, which was to use artillery bombardment to put a huge pressure on them. In addition to that, digging tunnels and blasting through a section of the city wall. The defense was weak there. Other than that, it's an attack on the city gates. The staff officer said.

"That. Sir, no. We've dug tunnels before, and the officers and soldiers in the city noticed it. We almost lost some people too. At this time, the militia captain standing in the back said.

"Hmm. Then try to dig a few more. The location of the defense of the walls could be a weak point, just be prepared. Xu Dou said. He doesn't know if he will fight in the end. If you can get them not to fight, that's for the best.

"Does the city know anything outside the city?" Xu Dou thought for a while and asked.

"I don't know, we've been locked down for a long time. There's no way they're going to know the news from the outside. Moreover, the people inside can come out, but we have checked it, and the people outside can't get in. The militia captain replied.

"That's good. The chief said. This siege operation is to attack the heart for the top and the city for the bottom, what is the attack on the heart, is to take out the advantages of our propaganda and tell them what is happening outside. Let them lose the determination to defend the city, the will to fight, understand these things? Xu Dou asked.

"Sir, I understand, these things, we will arrange them immediately." The staff officer said.

"Good. That's it. Xu Dou waved his arm and signaled the staff to ponder how to attack Handan City, while Xu Dou carefully pondered some situations, it is the same thing to reorganize and take Handan City, and it is the best thing to attack without spending a greater cost.

The defense of Handan City is still relatively perfect, at least in terms of the current ability of the Red Turban Army, even if it is defeated, it will cost a lot of money, and this price is an important result that they are not willing to bear, so in such a situation, the best way is to wait. Don't act rashly.

It will take some time for the artillery units of the 1st Infantry Brigade to get here, and they are the most threatening weapons to attack.

Huangfu Song's Chinese military camp tent.

"General, according to the recent observations of our army. The two main forces of the Red Turban Army seem to have evacuated here. Defending on our side was supposed to be the 2nd Infantry Brigade of the Red Turban Army. Cao Cao introduced.

"Second Infantry Brigade?" Huangfu Song looked at the map and nodded.

"This infantry brigade doesn't seem to be very famous, they haven't done much before. But according to our observations, their numbers are between 15,000 and 20,000. The combat effectiveness is not clear, but it feels slightly lower than the 1st and 3rd Infantry Brigades of the Red Turban Army. The momentum between the two is completely different. Cao Cao said.

"What kind of momentum is different?" Huangfu Song asked Cao Cao.

"The first and third, it feels like a wild wolf, everything has to show a momentum, as long as you are afraid, they will pounce like a wolf, if you confront them, you will find out. They will slowly observe you and then find ways to attack your weaknesses. And the Red Turban Army in front of him did not have such momentum. It seems to have paused in momentum, and it doesn't feel very scared. Cao Cao said. Huangfu Song nodded in agreement.

"So where do you think the 1st and 3rd Infantry Brigades of the Red Turban Army on the opposite side have gone?" Huangfu Song asked Cao Cao.

"This. Ignorance. Cao Cao shook his head. He hadn't matured yet, but he thought about it.

"It should be here." Cao Cao immediately reacted. pointed to the location of Handan on the map.

"It should be here, this is an important point in the cause of all actions, and it is the encirclement of this place that causes a chain reaction, in the words of the Red Turban Army, it is to encircle the point and send reinforcements. It was also the encirclement of Handan. I transferred all the situation here. Cao Cao said.

"Now, the two armies of the imperial court are basically unable to fight. Then this point is not very significant. If the Red Turban Army needs to fight in the south, Handan must be a key point to be solved. Cao Cao said.

"If the Red Turban Army doesn't go south, where do you think the Red Turban Army will develop from?" Huangfu Song suddenly asked.

"General." Cao Cao looked at Huang Fu Song puzzled, he didn't understand what Huang Fu Song thought, or rather, he didn't understand what it meant.

"I watched the Red Turban Army advance and retreat to a certain extent, and the person who commanded such a large army was a person who advanced and retreated to a certain extent, he knew how capable the Red Turban Army was, and naturally knew what the Red Turban Army would do. If my guess is not wrong, in the next step, he will definitely not have too much head-on conflict with the imperial court, and even, I hope that the imperial court will not pay too much attention to them, and they may make a series of deals with the imperial court, in short, this army. I can't see through it. Huang Fu Song said.

"Going south to Handan is just to force the imperial court to make concessions in the negotiations, but what is the real purpose? We can see for ourselves. No, in the north, there is the Youzhou Army, they belong to the border army, and their combat effectiveness is strong, judging from the combat style of the Red Turban Army, they will avoid the real and will not fight. Huang Fu Song said.

"At the same time, considering that they will operate their own so-called base areas, they will inevitably rely on the favorable terrain of Taihang Mountain to operate, so that they can occupy Jizhou, and then they can go north to Youzhou, or south to the Central Plains. It can be done. And retreat can occupy Taihang, although it becomes a defensive position. But they can also protect themselves, so they will definitely go west, but after they go west? Huangfu Song looked at the map and said.

"What will they do?" Huangfu Song fell into deep thought. The development of the Red Turban Army has clearly expanded westward. Huangfu Song had already seen this, but he couldn't understand where the Red Turban Army was going to develop westward. It may take further observation of the Red Turbans to see some of the situation.

"General." Cao Cao felt that thinking about these things now was a bit too far. It's not realistic, they should focus on some of the things they should be focusing on, for example, they should be looking at the current situation, or they should make their situation better. For example, how should they defend, now the Red Turban Army is obviously not attacking, they delay for a day, and they will be weakened by one point, this is what Cao Cao is most anxious about. If the delay continues, it will do them a lot of damage. Cao Cao didn't want that to happen. But Huangfu Song didn't seem to care about that at all.

Lijiazhuang, Shang Wu moved the headquarters back here.

"The army is being reorganized, and I think we should also do some reshuffling of the government departments so that we can make our situation better, and we should also see that the areas under our control have expanded a lot, and we need to manage them, and this requires many, many officials. How to manage this is a difficult question. Jia Xu said to Shang Wu.

"In addition, our government agencies should enter the county so that we can develop more reasonably. However, the current control and management of the county seat is not very good, and the big households in the county are only cooperating on the surface, and the residents in the city are very uncooperative with us. This makes us very embarrassed. Jia Xu said.

"It's a big problem. And it's a very big problem. This will put our situation in a bad state all the time. Shang Wu said.

"Therefore, management must keep up in time." Shang Wu said.