The "main army" that Zhang Mad personally commanded at this time was actually an empty shelf. When Cao Cao found that most of the arrogant main forces were people, he could freely mobilize his own main forces. The main army of the arrogant army was nothing to fear, and if it had not relied on the county town of Baima to defend it, Cao Cao believed that he was fully capable of breaking through the camp of the arrogant army.

However, a city wall has narrowed the gap between the people and the soldiers. No matter how confident Cao Cao is, it is impossible for him to storm the insolent main force that has the advantage in numbers and the city wall to rely on.

After removing the threat of the arrogant impostor main force, Cao Cao suddenly had an army of 10,000 in his hands, which could be drawn out and used freely. So is this army of 10,000 people used to repel Zang Ba's attack to the east, or is it better to go south to recover Chen Liu?

After a good discussion with Xun You, Cao Cao found that these two paths did not work.

Zang Babu is just a partial division of Zhao Guo's [] army. Even if it can be completely annihilated, it will not be considered a break for the huge Zhao State [] army. Moreover, it is not difficult to defeat Zang Ba, but the difficult thing is to eliminate this wingman. With Zang Ba's experience in guerrilla warfare for more than 10 years, this wingman's ability to escape can be called the world's first-rate. Zang Ba only needs to hide in a certain mountainous area, and Cao Cao's men may not be able to catch him if there are 10,000 more men.

As for the reconquest of Chen?

The offer could almost be taken as a joke.

Before Sun Jian's strong attack of more than 10,000 troops, they were all forced back by Zhao's army from Chen Liucheng. If Cao Cao decided to attack Chenliu, even if the 10,000 people brought out by Cao Ren before, the total number of troops available would only be about 20,000. Facing the enemy's tens of thousands of cavalry and thousands of elite infantry, they were ready to fight. I'm afraid that the difficulty of the attack is still above the main camp of the insolence.

What Cao Cao needs to face now is such a situation where he needs military support everywhere, but it is difficult to turn back the battle situation in one fell swoop.

It's in this situation where it's so helpless. Feng Ji, a strategist who escaped from Yuan Tan, offered Cao Cao a bold plan.

To say that Feng Ji is also depressed. He is quite respected under Yuan Shao, and he can be said to be like a fish in water. But a surprise attack by arrogance drove Yuan Shao to the brink of defeat. When Yuan Shao was seriously injured and died, the authority was all vested in Tian Feng, and Feng Ji, an outsider from the Yingchuan family, was naturally pushed aside.

Fortunately, Feng Ji was disappointed. After all, Zhiluo is still there. When Zhang Qi defeated Yuan Tan, Feng Ji saw that the opportunity was not good, and decisively fled from Zibo, Qingzhou. defected to Cao Cao. And Cao Cao happened to need a lot of helpers, and when he saw Feng Ji coming to vote, he was very happy to accept his investment and appointed him as the magistrate of a county. Feng Ji also got the opportunity to make contributions again. In the county, the wind and water are dry.

Feng Ji has a bitter hatred for insolence. His own development depends on the rise and fall of Cao Cao, and to deal with arrogance, of course, he will do his best. As a well-known intellectual person at home, after some meditation, he really came up with a risky plan for Feng Ji to turn the tables.

As Zhao Guojun's military song sang, the so-called "capture the thief first capture the king". Zhang has fought for many years, has not tasted defeat, and is the spiritual leader of the Zhao State's [] army. It is necessary to deal with the [] army of Zhao State. As long as he can defeat Zhao Gong's arrogance, he can severely frustrate the opponent's spirit.

Insolent guards the county seat of Baima. Let Cao Cao have elite soldiers and horses, but he can't beat them, but it doesn't mean that he doesn't have weaknesses. Even if the "main army" under the command of Zhang Qiang is mostly filled with people, after all, the number of people is there. More than 50,000 people consume food and grass every day, which is quite a huge number.

In order to supply 50,000 troops, there must be a reliable grain storage area. Otherwise, it would be too risky to transport grain from the far rear to the front every day.

White Horse City is a frontline and is not suitable for stockpiling grain. According to the meticulous work that had lurked in the arrogant territory before, and the information sent by risking death, Cao Cao knew that the grain needed by the arrogant army came from Liyang, which was more than a hundred miles away from Baima. Liyang is located north of the Yellow River, and as long as the Yellow River is crossed, it is easy to transport military grain to the area around White Horse City.

Probably because Liyang is separated from the battlefield by a Yellow River, the number of troops stationed here to supervise grain is only more than 4,000, and most of them are new soldiers. If you can burn the grain and grass in Liyang with one fire, then more than 50,000 people in Baima will run out of food. The army without food had no combat effectiveness, and Cao Cao seized the opportunity to defeat the camp and drive the arrogance back to Hebei.

Next, if you are lucky enough to be able to directly capture the insolence himself, of course, it is the best result. Even if this is difficult to do, the arrogance that has always had an undefeated reputation and fled after being beaten by his own side can greatly affect the morale of the entire Zhao State's [] army.

If this strategy is successful, it is clear that the strategy will work well. After breaking through the arrogant camp, Cao Cao's main force could be pulled out and flanked by Sun Jian's Zhao army, which had penetrated deep into the south, in order to regain the strategic disadvantage. Therefore, after careful consideration, Cao Cao and Xun Yu both affirmed the feasibility of this plan, even if the risk was a little large.

However, there is one conundrum that stumps everyone. That is, how can we quickly cross the Yellow River and attack Liyang from the flank?

Obviously, if he hadn't figured out a way to cross the river, Feng Ji would not have rashly offered a plan for Cao Cao. He has traveled back and forth between the banks of the Yellow River many times for more than ten years, and has studied the river engineering of the Yellow River, so he is well aware of the hydrological changes of the Yellow River. As for the means of crossing the river proposed by Feng Ji, it is actually not new. That kind of means is called "pontoon".

The history of the use of pontoon bridges in China can be traced back to the time of King Wen of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The Book of Songs. Daya. The Ming Dynasty recorded: "Greet in Wei, build a boat for the beam", which describes that King Wen of Zhou erected a pontoon bridge on the Weishui River in order to welcome his relatives. However, the speed of erection of the pontoon bridge usually takes a considerable period of time, which Cao Cao cannot delay at present. After careful consideration, Feng Ji proposed a "one-day pontoon" plan.

According to careful calculations, Feng Ji planned to build four 100-zhang long iron cables for the fixation of the pontoon. Then, 100 boats, which can only accommodate two or three people, and 1,000 planks with a length of two zhang and a width of half a foot, were prepared in advance for the laying of the pontoon bridge.

At this time, the spring flood of the Yellow River has passed, but it has not yet entered the summer news. It is the day of the year when the water level is lowest. At the narrowest part of the river, the width of the river is about 100 zhang. As long as you act fast enough, connect the iron rope in twos first. The boat was sent to the other side of the river to be fixed, and then the processed boat was quickly hooked to the iron cable, and then nailed to the plank, which became a temporary pontoon.

Although the pontoon bridge built in this way could not last, it was enough for Cao Cao's army as long as it could support the army to cross the river back and forth twice.

Complete this pontoon. In fact, there is another precondition, that is, there must be no interference from the enemy's naval army. Fortunately, the hydrological conditions of the lower reaches of the Yellow River cannot accommodate the movement of large ships. If it is just against those who can only take a few dozen people at most. Then a burst of bows and arrows passed, and the enemy did not dare to approach.

Cao Cao and his advisers carefully examined Feng Ji's strategy, found that the feasibility was very high, and finally made up their minds. Carry out this strategy. For this. Cao Cao immediately asked the craftsmen in the army to prepare the materials needed to make the pontoon bridge, and also sent people to the occupied areas in the lower reaches of the Yellow River to collect small boats.

The gist of this plan is in the word "fast". As long as Cao Cao's movements were fast enough, there was almost no chance for him to be stopped.

Well, after ten days of careful planning, the day before the rainy season came, Cao Cao finally launched a surprise attack on Liyang.

The 8,000 elite army of Yanzhou, which was ready to stop, made a detour of 100 miles from the east side of White Horse City. Come to the bank of the Yellow River. According to the prior planning, Cao Jun's work to build the pontoon bridge went extremely smoothly. Just as the first summer rain fell. Cao Cao took the lead and stepped on the temporary pontoon bridge that had just been repaired.

Fortunately, the first rain of the summer was not too heavy and did not last long. After crossing the Yellow River, Cao Cao commanded his subordinates to march forcibly despite the fact that his clothes and armor were wet, and went straight to the grain field of Liyangtun. He knew very well that if it rained again, the Yellow River would rise in a few days. The improvised pontoon bridge may not have to wait for the enemy to dismantle it, and it will be washed away by the Yellow River first.

So, this battle is a race against time!

In the city of Liyang, to which Zhao belongs, the defender of the city is a young general with a small reputation, surnamed Sun, Mingli, the word Deda, and a native of Rongcheng, Zhuo County. In fact, if the defender of Liyang City was a famous general, such as Yu Ban, Guan Yu, etc., Cao Cao might not dare to come to intercept the grain.

As for Sun Li?

Who knows which onion he is?

Of course, Cao Cao will not underestimate Sun Li because he is unknown. Everyone in the world knows that Zhang Qiang is known for being good at recognizing people and being able to point out military generals. Sun Li was able to be appointed as a grain supervisor by insolence, which was obviously not an ordinary person. However, in any case, an unknown Sun Li is not as deterrent as those generals who have been famous for a long time.

But is Sun Li really an easy one to deal with?

After insolently igniting Sun Li, he was surprised to find that Sun Li's force was not under Yin Gang. Even against the "10,000 enemies", Sun Li is afraid that he will be able to hold on for one or twenty rounds.

Moreover, what Cao Cao didn't know was that in addition to Sun Li as Liyang's guard, Zhang Yan also equipped Liyang with a deputy general. This deputy general is also very famous in history, and he once thwarted the offensive of Zhuge Liang, who had superior troops, and guarded the city of Chencang.

That lieutenant general is Hao Zhao, a master of defense.

Hao Zhaozi Bodao, a native of Taiyuan, is only twenty-one years old this year, one year younger than Sun Li. "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms" records that in 228, Hao Zhao guarded Chen Cang, Zhuge Liang led the army to the north, but Hao Zhao was blocked, persuaded to surrender, and was forced to retreat after attacking day and night for more than 20 days. Emperor Wei Ming therefore made him a liehou.

Zhang Qi's impression of Hao Zhao is deeper than that of Sun Li. Therefore, after seeing these two people in the list of martial arts candidates the year before last, he used the technique of ignition on the two of them and promoted them to the pro-guard army.

And the performance of the two in the personal guard is also quite good, and in many assessments, both of them have obtained excellent results far beyond their colleagues. Zhang Mad was greatly satisfied, and soon sent the two to the army, starting from Bai Chang. There are people above the two, their own talents are quite good, and they have been promoted very quickly all the way, and before Zhang Qiang sent troops to the south this year, he actually became the youngest commander in the army. In time, maybe the two of them will become the youngest lieutenants again.

It is precisely because he knows the skills of Sun Li and Hao Zhao that Zhang Qiang will rest assured that he will hand over the responsibility of supervising grain to the two. And the two of them are grateful for the arrogant promotion and trust, and they are determined to do the errand well. Even though the enemy was on the other side of the Yellow River, Sun Li still insisted on putting the scouts within twenty-five miles of each other. Therefore, Cao Cao's rapid march failed to achieve the effect of a surprise attack, and was discovered by the scouts of Liyang City from afar.

When the scouts reported that the news of the Yanzhou army appeared twenty miles east of the city, Sun Li and Hao Zhao's faces were not worried, but excited.

"Good time!"

After hearing the news of the enemy's attack, Hao Zhao clapped his arms and Huo Ran stood up. He looked at Sun Li and said loudly:

"Sun Qianchang, this front battle can be handed over!"

For the deputy's initiative to ask for battle, Sun Li naturally couldn't refuse. And Hao Zhao does have a unique talent in defense. With him guarding the front formation, he formed an angle with the county seat, which was very in line with the method of defending the city.

So, when the vanguard army sent by Cao Cao, Xiahou Yuan, came to the outside of Liyang City, he was a little surprised to find that the Liyang Zhao State [] army not only did not panic because of the attack, but took the initiative to go out of the city to meet the attack! (To be continued......)

PS: Book friend flowwind has a reward, thank you!