Chapter 272: Overcoming Thorns (3)

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The rumbling sound of horses' hooves interrupted the siege in full swing, and many soldiers followed the prestige, but saw the dust flying over the south gate of Yangzhai, and the birds swept the air, screaming and circling.

"It's not good, Zhou Yu's cavalry has come to reinforce it!" Outside the north gate, Cao Ren, who was commanding the army to attack the city, heard the sound and looked, and when he saw such a scene, he was immediately shocked, and ordered to stop the siege without hesitation.

When the siege soldiers and horses withdrew to the north bank of the moat one after another, Cao Ren's scouts came to report, and Zhou Yu personally led more than 35,000 cavalry to break through the siege Cao army outside the south gate, and then bypassed the south gate and went straight to the east gate. In addition, the scouts also brought bad news that the Jingzhou army that had originally attacked Ximen had quietly withdrawn and left in the early morning.

Blessings are incomparable, and disasters are not singular. Just when Cao Ren learned that Zhou Yu led the army to Yangzhai for reinforcements, Le Jin, who stayed in Zhongmu City, sent his own soldiers to report the news at night, and the Guandu camp was attacked, and the commander of the army, Ren Jun, and Ren Xian, the cavalry captain, were killed by the Jin Emperor Li Li himself, and all 10,000 defenders were killed, the camp was burned, and hundreds of thousands of stones, grains, grass, ordnance and baggage were reduced to ashes. Not only that, at the same time that Emperor Li Li personally led a large army to attack the granary of Guandu, Gao Shun, the main general of the trapped camp stationed in Luoyang, and Huan Fei, the main general of the Flying Bear Battalion, led 70,000 foot cavalry and suddenly sent troops to attack Zhongmu City at night. The west gate and the north gate of Zhongmu City were attacked at the same time, but fortunately, Le Jin, who stayed in the rear city, was also a battle-hardened general, always on guard against the sneak attack of the Xiliang army, and successfully thwarted the night attack plan of Gao Shun and Huan Fei, making it a head-on setback.

However, the Western Jin army, which failed to sneak attack, did not withdraw its troops, and after a short rest, it began to attack the city at noon the next day. In the first round of attacks, he climbed to the top of the city and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the defenders under Lejin's tent. By the time the soldiers went out of the city to deliver the message, Le Jin led the army and the heavy armored battalion under the enemy general Gao Shun's account had been fighting bloody battles on the north gate and west gate towers for half a day. The defenders suffered heavy casualties.

According to Le Jin's personal soldiers, the soldiers in the camp are strong. From the moment he attacked the city, he was firmly nailed to the city, fighting to the death with the defenders under Lejin's tent, and fighting to the death. After half a day of fierce fighting, the casualties of the defenders were twice as many as those of the trapped camp, and if it were not for the 50,000 defenders who stayed in Zhongmu City, they were afraid that they would be captured by the trapped camp within a day.

When the soldiers explained in detail the attack on Zhongmu City and the Guandu camp, Cao Ren was stunned and looked sluggish. His eyes were distracted, and he sat on the steps of the handsome tent in a daze, like a mourner. It has been two days since the emergency military situation mentioned by the soldiers under Le Jin's account, that is to say, the Guandu camp had been burned by the army led by Li Li in the middle of the night three days ago, and the time when the enemy generals Gao Shun and Huan Fei led the army to sneak attack Zhongmu was also that night. Two days have passed, and now whether Zhongmu City has been captured by the Xiliang army, and whether the 50,000 soldiers and horses under Le Jin's account can hold the city, it is still unknown.

As the commander in chief of the three armed forces. And after fighting with the Xiliang Army for many years, Cao Ren was well aware of the combat effectiveness of more than 20 main battalions under Li Li's command. The Flying Bear Battalion is the cavalry with the strongest combat effectiveness among the fourteen cavalry battalions under Li Li's command, and has been the first of the five major cavalry battalions in Xiliang for many years, and its main general Huan Fei has the prestige of "the first general in Xiliang". The combat style is extremely fierce and tenacious, and it is ferocious and fierce. Except for nearly half of the casualties in the Battle of Jizhou six years ago, the Flying Bear Battalion followed Li Li to the east and west. Dominate the world, and have not tasted defeat for more than ten years.

If the Flying Bear Battalion is the most powerful cavalry battalion under Li Li. The trapped camp is the strongest infantry army in the Xiliang army. Back then, Li Li led the Wuwei Army and the Xiliang Army led by Li Dao and Guo Yan to fight a decisive battle in the southern suburbs of Chang'an. The 800 trapped camp stubbornly guarded the banner of Shuai, and stubbornly withstood the frontal siege of the 40,000 infantry army, and finally fulfilled the mission, prompting Li Li to seize the control of the Xiliang army in one fell swoop. Ten years ago, in the Sili War, Gao Shun led 20,000 trapped camps to garrison Hangu Pass, and fought against the allies for a year, but he was always solid and stable as Mount Tai, making nearly one million allied troops stationed outside Hangu Pass unable to advance an inch and discouraged.

Cao Ren never expected that after many years, the strongest cavalry battalion and infantry battalion under Li Li would join forces to attack Zhongmu City. It should be known that Zhongmu City is just a county seat under the jurisdiction of Henan County, the city is not big, the city wall is about two zhang five high, one zhang thick, although there is a moat, but it is like a small river ditch, it can not stop the strong attack of the Xiliang army at all. Although Cao Ren led his army into Zhongmu City, he immediately began to repair the city, dredge the river, and strengthen the city walls; But Zhongmu is a small city after all, and no matter how much it is repaired and strengthened in a hurry, it cannot become a strong city.

Therefore, after Cao Ren heard the report of his own soldiers, he suddenly became in a trance, his eyes were dull, and his face was depressed and defeated. And this is just a superficial demeanor, in fact, Cao Ren's deep worries and fears are the root cause of his stunned distraction. Although Zhongmu City had not yet fallen when his soldiers went out of the city to deliver the letter, Cao Ren was almost certain that with the super combat power of the trapped camp, he would definitely break through the city within two days, so he was sure that Zhongmu City must have fallen into the hands of the Xiliang army at this moment. After the fall of the city, the 50,000 soldiers and horses under Le Jin's account must have been wiped out, and it was impossible to escape the interception and pursuit of the Flying Bear Battalion.

Compared with the fall of Zhongmu City, Cao Ren was more concerned about the safety of the Guandu granary. Because the Guandu camp hoarded all the grain and grass of the 170,000 Cao army in the south, which was related to the life and death of the entire army, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is the lifeblood of Cao Ren. It's a pity that the Guandu camp has been robbed by Li Liqin's army, and a drum went down, burning the granary clean.

The Guandu camp was burned down, and Zhongmu City fell, directly cutting off the retreat of the 100,000 troops under Cao Ren's account, which is also called the back road. The back road was blocked, and all Cao Ren could do was to continue to lead the army south to Yuzhou, and then turn to Xuzhou, passing through Langya County into Yanzhou Taishan County. This was the only way out for him and his army. But now, Zhou Yu led the Yuzhou army to reinforce Yingchuan, and its vanguard former army Shuofeng Battalion Iron Cavalry had arrived at the foot of Yangzhai City, and at first glance cut off the road for Cao Ren to lead the army south, which was equivalent to blocking his front road again.

Cao Ren was not afraid of the 30,000 Shuofeng battalion iron cavalry led by Zhou Yu, with the existing soldiers and horses in his hands, it was enough to defeat the Shuofeng battalion, what he was really worried about was the follow-up soldiers and horses in Yuzhou. According to the detailed report, Zhou Yu, the governor of Yuzhou, had 100,000 male soldiers, and in addition to the Shuofeng battalion, he also had 50,000 infantry troops, that is, county soldiers. In addition, Li Li's general Zhang Liao also has 30,000 Wuwei battalion iron cavalry and 30,000 county government soldiers in his hands, and these 60,000 foot cavalry are currently stationed in Hefei; If Zhang Liao waved his army north, he would be able to lead his army to Yingchuan in as few as four days or as many as five days.

If this is the case, it means that after Zhou Yu, Zhang Liao will lead his army to arrive within two days, when at least 150,000 Western Jin troops will gather in Yingchuan and besiege the 100,000 soldiers and horses led by Cao Ren. If it was limited to this, Cao Ren would not be so decadent and depressed, because he firmly believed that the 100,000 army under his command and the 150,000 army led by Zhou Yu and Zhang Liao could still fight, and the victory or defeat was still five or five, and he still had the hope of winning or leading the army back to Yanzhou.

However, what really made Cao Ren feel desperate was that he knew the combat style of Emperor Li Li of the Jin Dynasty very well, and knew that Li Li had always planned and then moved, and if he didn't make a move, he would be thunderous. Therefore, for a long time, the impression left by Li Li on Cao Ren can be described in four words: not a drop of water.

Because of this, when Cao Ren learned that Li Li personally led an army to attack the Guandu camp, he immediately thought that the granary was burned, so the next step was to capture Zhongmu City and cut off the grain route, and then wave the army south, forming a north-south attack with Zhou Yu's army, and encircling and annihilating the 100,000 army under his Cao Ren. Once the Western Jin Dynasty army attacked from north to south, Cao Ren would no longer face an army of 150,000, but an army of more than 200,000 Western Jin Dynasty twice as many as himself.

If Yiqiē is really as Cao Ren expected, then the 100,000 troops under his command will be in a desperate situation at this time, and it will be impossible to fly, and the whole army will be wiped out overnight, and Yingchuan County is afraid that it is the place where his bones are buried.

"Xu Yuan spoke bluntly but did not believe it, reversed his word, and quietly withdrew his troops, so that my 100,000 Wei army fell into a desperate situation, which is extremely hateful!" After being silent for a long time, Cao Ren scolded Xu Shu for being a treacherous villain, and then pushed all the predicament in front of him onto Xu Shu, as if only in this way could he feel better. In addition, putting all the blame on the Jingzhou army can make the generals under his account share the same hatred of the enemy, which is conducive to stabilizing the morale of the army, and also well covering up his gaffe behavior that has just lost his soul.

scolded Xu Shu, Cao Ren did not intend to tell the generals about his speculation, and decided to hide it, and he would never reveal half a sentence until he had to do so. Immediately, he made a quick decision, ordered the withdrawal of troops without hesitation, and sent his own soldiers to the east gate to give an order, and ordered Cao Chun and Le Jin, who were attacking the east gate, to lead the army to resist the Shuofeng camp under Zhou Yu's tent, so as to win time for the army to withdraw from Yangzhai City.

The retreat direction chosen by Cao Ren was still Henan County, that is, he led his army to recapture Zhongmu City, and then went east to Guandu and returned to Yanzhou. This is a shortcut, and it is also the only choice after the army under his command loses the supply of grain, grass and baggage, and must be quickly resolved and return to Yanzhou as soon as possible. In this way, he will next have to compete with Zhou Yu's army for time, speed, avoid its edge, and evacuate Yingchuan before Zhou Yu's army chases; Then he fought with the 70,000 cavalry under the tent of Gao Shun and Huan Fei, broke through the interception defense line they had built, fought a bloody way, and fled back to Yanzhou.

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Nanyang County, Xiping Ao, thirty miles outside the south gate of Wancheng, Jingzhou military camp.

Tomorrow will be the day of the decisive battle between the Jingzhou army led by Pang Tong and the Western Jin army under the command of Zhuge Liang. In the past few days, Pang Tong would stand on the tower of Yuanmen City every day and look at the east, except for Huang Zu, an insider, no one knew what he was looking at or waiting for. The sergeants who don't know why still think that their military advisors are studying astronomy and astronomy, because they all know that the military advisor Pang Tong knows astronomy and geography, can pinch and calculate, and has a strategy of war that ordinary people can't imagine.

Only Huang Zu knew that Pang Tong was not checking the weather changes at all, but waiting for Xu Shu's triumphant return.

Fortunately, Xu Shu did not disappoint Pang Tong, and finally led the army back to the camp last night, with more than 10,000 war horses. At that time, the thousands of soldiers guarding the gate were pleasantly surprised, and Pang Tong, who rushed to hear the news, saw Xu Shu's expression changed greatly in an instant, and his face was full of horror and grief.

———————— To be Continued ———————————————— (To be Continued......