The Pengcheng area is a plain, and money and grain are relatively rich. The strategic location is too important

Xu Youdao: Lord, Pengcheng should not give up now, Zhang Jie and the lord are in Baima, Guandu, and the battle for days has long been thought to be the end of the people and horses, and the crossbow. Now the number of people coming to Xuzhou must not be too much, Pengcheng is a strong city, Zhang Jie is unbreakable for a while, as long as the lord holds Pengcheng, he can buy more time for the rear.

The eldest prince and senior cadres are expanding the army to train soldiers. If Pengcheng is abandoned, Zhang Jie will use Xuzhou to rest on the spot after taking half of Xuzhou. By next year, after the rest is completed, we will be surrounded from Jizhou, Yanzhou, and Xuzhou on three sides, and we will be more passive at that time.

In the end, Xu You's words moved Yuan Shao, and he couldn't give up Xuzhou so easily. Otherwise, Zhang Jie will have a foothold in Xuzhou, and he will only be more passive at that time.

When Zhang Jie's army arrived in Pengcheng, Yuan Shao had already gathered 30,000 horses to guard Pengcheng. Although most of them are recruits, defending the city is no better than field warfare, and recruits can also do it.

The city wall of Pengcheng is tall, Cao Cao last time took Zhang Jie's method of breaking Jixian to dig down the city wall, after the city wall collapsed, Cao Cao attacked the city at night, and finally the two sides fought into a tactic of adding oil, and the casualties were heavy.

Yuan Shao had already repaired the city wall, and the moat was also very spacious, and Zhang Jie frowned when he saw the city wall of Pengcheng. It's hard to get down this Pengcheng! If you don't attack and die, it will be difficult to take it.

Wei Yandao: This Pengcheng city wall is not much worse than Yecheng! I'm afraid it's hard to take it! If you attack strongly, you will definitely suffer casualties.

Zhang Jie said: A hard attack will definitely not work, the brothers came from Hebei to occupy Xuzhou, not to send them to death, we have to be responsible for them.

Wenhe, is there anything you can do?

Jia Xu said: Yuan Shao now thinks that he is a frightened bird, and it is impossible to let him go out of the city for a decisive battle.

The only way to reduce casualties is to force him to retreat. It seems that this Xuzhou is still difficult to win for a while.

The lord might as well take the rest of the cities in Pengchengguo (county) first. Pengcheng has eight counties, and the remaining seven counties were taken first, isolating Pengcheng and cutting off its connection with Xiapi, Donghai and other counties.

Pengcheng has been fighting for many years, and there should not be much food in the city, so the lord only needs to send a small number of cavalry to swim outside the city and cut off its grain route. After a long time, Yuan Shao will definitely withdraw his troops, otherwise he will starve to death.

Zhang Jiedao: Wenhe's plan is feasible, but it's too slow. We still have 60,000 horses here, and the consumption of grain and grass is also huge! I don't think there's much food in these counties, so we can't rob the people, right? Can you think of a way to decide Xuzhou in a war?

Jia Xu said: If you want to take Xuzhou quickly, it's not impossible, it's just a bit risky. Perhaps significant losses.

Oh! What kind of method does Wen He say? Zhang Jie said.

The lord can give up Pengcheng and go straight to Xiapi, there should not be many Xiapi defenders at present, if he can quickly take Xiapi, then Yuan Shao will have little point in Pengcheng.

It's just that Xiapi is also a strong city, and it's not easy to attack! It's just that last time the lord said that Xiapi could pour out Surabaya, which is a method.

I heard that Yuan Shao moved the state pastoral mansion from Tancheng to Xiapi, then Yuan Shao's family may also be all in Xiapi, if Yuan Shao saw that we were besieging Xiapi, he was afraid that his family would fall into our hands for a while, so he sent troops from Pengcheng to help Xiapi. At that time, the lord can come to besiege the city and send reinforcements, and eat this support army in one fell swoop.

However, if Xiapi can't take it for a while, Yuan Shao transferred Qingzhou, Langya Donghai and other reinforcements to surround us in Xiapi, and sent troops to cut off our army's food and grass, and then we will be in danger. Now the tens of thousands of horses of the lord are alone! A little careless. There is a possibility of food and aid. So it's quite risky!

Wei Yan listened to Jia Xu's analysis, and said: My lord, Yan thinks that Mr. Wenhe's plan is feasible, according to a certain opinion, we should surround Xiapi, and we should not capture Xiapi quickly, but slowly, and let Yuan Shao transfer the armies of Langya, Donghai, Pengcheng, and other places to Xiapi to besiege us. Let's eat his main force in one fell swoop. Wouldn't it be nice for us to look for them everywhere and let them gather together and annihilate them in one fell swoop? The First World War decided on Xuzhou.

Jia Xu said: Chief Wen, do you know how many soldiers and horses Yuan Shao gathered?

Wei Yan said confidently: It doesn't matter how many people he has? There is a shortage of horses in the Central Plains, and we have 30,000 cavalry out of 60,000 people. As long as you don't get hit, let the enemy resist the horse and surround it. Yan dared to guarantee that even if Yuan Shao had an army of 200,000, we would be able to defeat him.

What's more, how many soldiers and horses can Yuan Shao have? They are all old and weak who have captured Ding, and it would be good to see the cavalry rushing and killing without pulling the mud, so what is there to be afraid of?

Zhang Jie listened to Wei Yan so confident. The heart is ruthless, and he says: Good! According to Wen Chang's words, let's take a gamble, and there is a complete certainty of fighting? Besides, it doesn't matter if we lose. It's a big deal to come back next year, and in just one or two years, we can raise an army of 300,000 troops to the south. In the face of absolute strength, no one can withstand it. In a word, we have a lot of money and can afford to accompany us!

Everyone thinks this is the same way.

Lord, I plan to give up attacking Pengcheng, but let's leave some people to watch Yuan Jun, after we leave, maybe we can catch some other spies, so that we can understand the situation. Frustrated.

Well, Pei Yuanshao, you take a thousand brothers to stay in Pengcheng to see the opportunity. Don't let the other party calculate, it's best not to leave the war horse.

If Yuan Shao sends a small group of people out of the city, you can give him a look, and if it is a large group of people, you can run! Five days later, no matter what the situation, they will go to Xiapi to meet us!

Promise!

Then the army went around the city, went east, and went to Xiapi! Yuan Shao saw Zhang Jie's army heading east, and he was also a little puzzled.

Called a few military advisors to discuss, Yuan Shao said: Zhang Jie is going east, will he go to Xiapi?

Xu Youdao: Nine times out of ten, he went to Xiapi, it seems that Zhang Jie also knows that Pengcheng is difficult to attack, so he wants to take Pi first and cut off the connection between Pengcheng and Xuzhou.

So what do we do? There are only 10,000 defenders in Xiapi, and our families are all in Xiapi! Yuan Shao said urgently.

Guo Tudao: The city wall of Xiapi is tall, even if there are only 10,000 defenders, Zhang Jie will be difficult to capture for a while, Gao Gan is the nephew of the lord, and he will never surrender. It's just that Xiapi is in danger of Surabaya, and he is afraid that Zhang Jie will flood the city. However, Zhang Jie has always regarded himself as caring for the common people, and he will not do flooding.

In this way, why don't we also withdraw our troops back to Xiapi, and at the same time transfer the defenders of Qingzhou, Langya and other places to attack Zhang Jie under Xiapi City?

I watched Zhang Jie's people go to Xiapi and there were only 50,000 or 60,000 people. If he attacks the city internally, we are still very sure to drive Zhang Jie out of Xuzhou.

Yuan Shao was a little moved.

Dao: Ziyuan, do you think the public rule plan is feasible?

Xu Youdao: The plan of the public rule, whimsically draw cakes to satisfy hunger! Lord, Zhang Jie has an army of 200,000, why only 50,000 or 60,000 come to Xuzhou? This must be Zhang Jie's order to reduce the pressure on grain and grass to bring so many people.