Just when Xiahou Yuan, as the vanguard of Cao's army, led his headquarters to meet Hao Zhao's troops, Chen Liucheng, who was thousands of miles away, ignited a fierce battle again. This time, what Xu Huang needs to face is a coalition of more than 40,000 Sun Jian and Liu Biao!

Liu Biao's evaluation in later history is not high, and he is recognized as a "household dog". But in fact, this Han clan who has successfully controlled Jingzhou for more than ten years with just one person, and the rebellion of Zhang Xian in the south and the invasion of Yuan Shu in the north, will it really be so unbearable?

Maybe Liu Biao's courage is a little smaller, not as belligerent as Sun Jian and Cao Cao and others. However, on strategic issues that have a bearing on the overall situation, Liu Biao has not made any wrong judgments.

In later generations, many people took Liu Biao's inaction in the battle of Guandu to argue the essence of Liu Biao's "household dog". But in the battle of Guandu, should Liu Biao really send troops to destroy Cao Cao's lair?

You must know that in the battle of Guandu in history, Cao Cao was on the disadvantaged side. At that time, Yuan Shao had the largest army and the most sufficient financial resources in the world, and was regarded by the people of the world as the hero who was most likely to end this troubled era. Even many of Cao Cao's officials were pessimistic about their own side, and they believed that Yuan Shao would be able to achieve the final victory.

At that time, Cao Cao was able to turn the tables and win a victory over Yuan Shao, but it was a big surprise to the world. Cao Cao, who is already obviously at a disadvantage, if he is stabbed in the back by Liu Biao again, there will only be one result.

Yuan Shao is already the strongest prince in the world, and if he can easily defeat Cao Cao, his strength will definitely rise again. At that time, Yuan Shao, whose strength had expanded, could continue to move south and annex other princes. Without Cao Cao as a barrier, Liu Biao had to directly face Yuan Shao's army, which was completely irresistible.

This kind of result. Is it really good for Liu Biao?

Moreover, do not forget that in the lower reaches of Jingzhou, there is also a Sun faction. At the time of the Battle of Guandu, although Sun Ce had died, Sun Quan was able to successfully take power. And after Sun Quan came to power, out of various considerations. and did not give up the continuous offensive on Jingzhou. This makes Liu Biao have to consider carefully on the issue of sending troops.

Under the premise of the existence of a vicious neighbor who is eyeing him, Liu Biao rashly sent troops to the Central Plains, which is a stupid act.

Besides, one more thing to note is that Cao Cao at that time had the orthodoxy of the emperor and the imperial court!

Since Yuan Shao started his rebellion against Dong, he has openly denied the legitimacy of today's sub-legal system. He could not care about the Son of Heaven and brazenly sent troops to attack Cao Cao. But Liu Biao is a member of the Han family. Just sending troops to attack the capital of the Son of Heaven of the Han Dynasty is located, is that a blatant rebellion?

Combined with the above points, for Liu Biao at that time, the most ideal result should be that Yuan Shao and Cao Cao fought to defeat each other and could not hold each other. In this way, the Central Plains still maintains a balanced situation, and no one can help anyone. And Jingzhou can continue to be safe.

So. Liu Biao's most favorable choice for himself at that time should be to support Cao Cao against Yuan Shao. Instead of stabbing Cao Cao in the back.

Well, the overall attributes of Liu Biao have been explained. To get back to the point, when Zhang Biao was now sharp and invincible, endangering the life and death of the princes in the world, Liu Biao decisively made a correct strategic judgment. That was to raise three armies in Jingzhou to fully support Sun Jian and Cao Cao's resistance to the invasion of Zhao.

If Liu Biao sits idly by, he doesn't care. Allowing Sun Jian and Cao Cao to lose the battle against Zhang Yan meant that Jingzhou might need to face the terrifying southbound army under Zhang Yan alone. And that kind of result is completely irresistible to Liu Biao!

With a clear understanding of the future development of the situation, Liu Biao's actions appear to be urgent and costless.

This time, Jingzhou sent troops north to support Sun Jian and Cao Cao. Liu Biao has made a lot of money. Not to mention that he personally served as the chief general of the army, he also brought out almost all the elite soldiers and strong generals in Jingzhou. These generals who are deeply relied on by Liu Biao are:

Zhang Ji, the "leopard" lieutenant among the four captains of "Dragon, Tiger, Leopard and Bear" under Dong Zhuo that year, was as famous as Li Dao, Guo Yan and others. His nephew Zhang Xiu is even better than the blue, and his force is still above his uncle Zhang Ji. and Jia Xu, a "poisoner" who was not famous in the world but was very famous in later generations, was also attached to Zhang Ji at this time.

Liu Pan, Liu Biao's nephew, is the representative of the Liu clan in the Jingzhou army. In the "Zhang Xian Rebellion" that pacified the four counties of Jingnan, Liu Pan, as the chief general of the whole army, made great achievements, and could be said to be Liu Biao's most trusted person and one of Liu Biao's most relied on generals.

Huang Zhong, Liu Biao's old subordinate, bravely crowned the three armies, known as the first shooter in Jingzhou, and even when Sun Jian attacked Jingzhou, he was injured by an arrow and almost died. In the Jingzhou army, although Huang Zhong's status is not the highest, he is a military god-like existence.

Wen Ping, a powerful family in Nanyang, Jingzhou, is well-trained and brave. When Liu Pan and Huang Zhong were transferred to the south to quell Zhang Xian's rebellion, it was Wen Ping who replaced the two of them, guarded the Fancheng area, repeatedly defeated Yuan Shu's generals, and curbed Yuan Shu's covetousness for Jingzhou.

Gan Ning, known as the "Jinfan Army" and an invincible general on the Yangtze River known as the "Jinfan Thief", was born in the Bashu clan and was a new member of the Jingzhou Army "Ten Thousand Enemies" fierce general. Although Gan Ning's strength will decline to a certain extent when fighting on land, he has also maintained the strength of "10,000 enemies", and no one can underestimate him.

In addition to the first batch of troops of more than 20,000 under his personal command, Liu Biao also ordered Cai Mao and Huang Zu to send troops in the rear one after another for follow-up support. In addition, a large amount of assets taken from Jingzhou were also transported to the north in a steady stream under the transportation of tens of thousands of requisitioned people. For Sun Jian, who has been war-torn for a long time and lacks money and food, these assets are even more pleasing than Liu Biao's reinforcements.

As a guest soldier, Liu Biao had more than 20,000 elite soldiers as soon as he shot. As Sun Jian, who is fighting at home, it is not easy to be compared to Liu Biao. This time to attack Chen Liucheng again, Sun Jian not only gathered Sun Ben, Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, Song Qian, and the newly joined "10,000 enemies" fierce general Xu Chu and others, but also gathered more than 20,000 troops, marched with Liu Biao, and surrounded Chen Liucheng again.

Let's talk about Xu Chu. This strongman, who is eight feet tall and has a waist of ten girths, actually took refuge in Cao Cao's forces in the original history of the Three Kingdoms. However, in the insolent plane. Yuzhou Musun Jian is brave and martial arts, and his prestige is far and wide, and he is even more attractive to a martial artist like Xu Chu who was born in a poor family than Cao Cao. Therefore, after Cao Cao was poached by the arrogant poaching of many generals, he unfortunately lost Xu Chu again.

Faced with more than 40,000. Approaching the siege of 50,000 troops, Xu Huang, who was stationed in Chen Liucheng, was also a little weak in his heart.

It is true that Xu Huang himself is the enemy of ten thousand people. But he had heard Zhang Qiang's evaluation of the world's well-known military generals, and knew that Sun Jian, Huang Zhong, Xu Chu, and Gan Ning were all genuine enemies, not Chun Yuqiong and the like who were touted. As soon as he thought that he was going to fight four with one, Xu Huang had a feeling of weakness and shortness of breath.

Especially Huang Zhong's house, according to the information from the spy report. This person's divine shooting kung fu is definitely not under Tai Shici and Lu Bu. Whether it is attacking the city or defending the city, encountering a marksman like Huang Zhong who can penetrate Yang in a hundred steps is the most headache.

At this time, Tai Shi Ci took Yin Gang's subordinates and went south to Chen Guo to receive the newly captured territory of the motorized cavalry. Chen Liucheng's foot soldiers only had more than 4,000 people under Xu Huang and Gao Shun. Other than that. Xu Huang also requisitioned more than 3,000 residents of Chen Liucheng, Ding Zhuang, to assist in defending the city. However, these Ding Zhuang should not be of great use. On the battlefield, you can only do chores.

Of course, after Tai Shici went south, Guo Jia deployed a new cavalry for Chen Liu as a supplement. It's just that this cavalry led by Li Dao's nephew Hu Feng has a big gap compared to Tai Shi Ci in terms of strength.

Fortunately, Chen Liucheng is high and deep, and his defense ability is good. Xu Huang was worried. But it was not that he was worried that he would not be able to hold the city, but that he was worried that his troops would suffer too many casualties.

His fears were clearly justified. In the face of the "Shooting Army" trained by Huang Zhong, even if the Zhao State [] army occupied the advantage of the tall city walls, it still barely maintained a one-to-one casualty exchange ratio. There is an important factor in this. That is: Huang Zhong alone, at the end of a day, shot forty or fifty defenders, so that whenever Zhao Guo's army found that Huang Zhong's general flag was outside the city, they didn't dare to stick out their heads to check the enemy's situation!

However, although Huang Zhong's shooting army had the most results among the siege teams, it was not what Xu Huang feared the most. What worries Xu Huang the most is the dozens of counterweight stone throwers lined up on the west and south city walls.

This type of stone thrower was first used by Zhang Qiang, but because the principle was not complicated, the Zhao State [] army only used it on a large scale in public a few times, and it was finally learned by other princes. With this epoch-making siege weapon, the world's well-known generals have sighed that it is difficult to find a fortified city in the world that can survive under the power of this kind of stone thrower.

Faced with the onslaught of the counterweight stone thrower, Xu Huang finally understood the difficulty of defending the city. If Liu Biao and Sun Jian's combined forces were given enough time to let them attack strongly, Xu Huang didn't think that Chen Liucheng would be able to hold it for too long. But he understands one thing better, and that is:

Your own reinforcements will arrive soon!

When insolent operations, Zhang Qiang paid the most attention to espionage work. For this reason, Zhang Dong did not hesitate to pay hundreds of millions of dollars every year to spend on spy personnel. With the cooperation and organization of Wei Xiao, Guo Jia, and Chen Gong, the spy network in the hands of Zhang Qiang is undoubtedly the most advanced and efficient espionage system in this era.

Therefore, how could the news of Liu Biao's army going north not be known to Zhao Guojun?

Just before Chen Liu was besieged, Li Dao's headquarters, who had occupied Chen Guo in the south, sent a small group of personal cavalry to send a brief battle plan to Xu Huang of Chen Liu.

This plan was very simple, that is, to let Xu Huang hold on to Chenliucheng for at least ten days in order to attract the enemy's main force to attack the city. And during this time, the army of Zhao going south will be assembled and carry out a counter-encirclement of the enemy, in order to annihilate the enemy's main force in one fell swoop!

Xu Huang roughly understood that the Zhao State [] army, which had successfully moved south, numbered about 20,000. With these forces, it is a bit inconceivable to annihilate the enemy's main force of 40,000 or 50,000 in one fell swoop.

But when he thought that it was Guo Jia who commanded this battle, and Guo Jia performed magically in the previous Qingzhou Raiders and Xuzhou Raiders, and repeatedly made strange plans to turn the tide of the battle, Xu Huang felt that this matter was somewhat possible.

Of course, Xu Huang, who has the potential to be a famous general, will not fully believe in Guo Jia's strategy. At any time, there is a chance that a strategy will fail. Therefore, while Xu Huang held on to Chen Liu, he did not forget to leave an elite army for use in case of a breakthrough situation. (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the monthly pass of "Fengqi Wutong 626". In addition, the book friend "focused on reading books for eight years" suddenly became a fan of the forefront, could it be that he had all booked the book?