For three days, Zhang He stubbornly held on for three days, until the torches in the city were almost burned, and Zhang He organized his soldiers to break through from Luoyang and retreat to the direction of Shangqi.

In order to quickly open up the passage from Lüyang to Shangti, Zhang Xi did not completely encircle Lüyang to death, and adopted the tactics of encircling three queyi, so Zhang He's retreat did not suffer too much loss, and the Mabu army that retreated to Shangqi was more than 15,000 people.

It was not a serious injury to Cao Jun, but it was a good way to open up the passage to Shangqi, and Liu Bei was finally able to break through Lüyang and lead his troops to join Zhang Fei.

It's a little miserable, the houses in the city are basically burned down, and the people in the winter are all homeless, and sometimes Zhang Xi feels that this is completely his own sin.

But there is no way, this is the troubled times, the only thing Zhang Xi can do is to ask Liu Bei to send some soldiers into the mountains to cut down trees, and try to help the people of Luoyang City rebuild their houses.

Liu Bei has no objection to this at all, after all, the troops on both sides are a little surplus now, and they can't put too many troops out for a while, and it is appropriate to leave some soldiers in the rear.

As for the people of Luoyang City, when they heard that Liu Beijun was willing to help rebuild the house, they all immediately expressed their gratitude to Liu Bei, and the old families of the township also praised Liu Bei's benevolence and righteousness. It's quite ironic, it's clear that the fire in Luoyang City was set by Liu Beijun.

But in everything you are afraid to compare.

It is true that Liu Beijun set the fire, but Liu Beijun finally asked the soldiers to help rebuild his home. Zhang He, the original ruler of Luoyang, was afraid that someone would secretly communicate with Liu Bei in the fire, so he took advantage of the fire to rob, and did not allow the people to go out to fight the fire spontaneously, causing many people to watch their houses being burned down.

Well, such a comparison, it suddenly seems that Liu Bei is much more "benevolent and righteous".

In the final analysis, this is the troubled times, and there is no real benevolence and righteousness in the troubled times, that is, Liu Bei's "benevolence and righteousness" is just more conscience and bottom line than other princes.

It has been fifteen years since he traveled to this troubled world, and Zhang Xi has somewhat accepted some reality.

In the past, although I knew that the people in troubled times would be very bitter, I still felt that this era was a magnificent era, and I was full of yearning for making contributions in this era.

But for now. In the face of the sins he created, Zhang Xi was still a little unacceptable.

Now Zhang Xi has never had the urgent hope that this world should end the war as soon as possible.

So that at least the people will not suffer like this again.

So. The soldiers are on the line.

Hurry up and break the Cao army in Shangtai and realize the break, so that the northern part of Yongzhou, which has been fighting for almost three months, can temporarily settle down.

Of course, Liu Bei also wanted to do this, but Cao Hong, who was in a hostile position, obviously wouldn't think so.

Cao Hong is not a battle maniac, but Liu Bei has Liu Bei's position, and Cao Hong also has Cao Hong's position.

Liu Bei wanted to support the Han family and restore the glory of the Han Dynasty, but Cao Hong felt that the root cause of the turmoil in the world was a careerist like Liu Bei.

If there were a few careerists like Liu Bei and Sun Quan, the world would have been calmed down a long time ago.

Besides, what has become of the world by those sons of heaven in the Han family, if it weren't for their Cao family's efforts to clean up the old rivers and mountains, this world may not have been harmed by the old Liu family.

Now Liu Bei wants to embezzle the fruits of their Cao family and infringe on the future of his Cao family. Cao Hong definitely won't do it.

Therefore, Cao Hong gathered his troops and horses and stuck to Shangqi.

Thanks to Guo Huai's efforts, he defeated Zhang Fei and Wei Yan several times, and although he did not completely defeat the army led by these two men, he still pushed the defensive line to a distance of forty miles from Shangqi.

In this way, Cao Hong would not need to shrink his army of more than 70,000 troops in Shangqi City, and he would have enough time to expand the defensive line.

Cao Hong himself led more than 30,000 soldiers to defend Shangtai City, while Guo Huai and Zhang He led 20,000 troops respectively and set up two camps in the north and northwest of Shangqi City to support each other and establish a triangular defense system.

If Liu Bei wants to attack Shangtai City, he must first find a way to break through the camps of Zhang He and Guo Huai, but as long as Liu Bei attacks either of these two camps, then the defenders of Shangqi City and Cao Hong and the other camp will send troops to rescue.

Even if Liu Bei divided his troops and surrounded the two camps outside the city and cut off the connection between the two camps, Cao Hong in Shangtai City could still send troops to rescue.

In the case of circulating rescue and echoing each other, it is not so easy for Liu Bei to break through the camp.

Zhang Xi wanted to repeat the old trick and use a counterweight catapult to throw burning coal for a fire attack, but soon Zhang Xi found that if he could not break through the two camps in front of Shangtai City, he would not be able to get close to Shangtai City at all.

Throwing coal at the enemy's camp could certainly burn down the camp, but soon Cao's army would be able to retreat and build a new one. From the first camp of Zhang He to Shangtai City, there are more than 40 miles of road, and the distance on this road can at least build three more camps.

Again, Cao Jun still has nearly 20,000 cavalry in his hands, and the logistics supply of the camp can completely rely on Shangtai City, and there is no need for special grain, so Zhang He does not need to consider the problem of grain and grass at all, this time there is no need to arrange soldiers to fight the fire, as long as Zhang Xi's catapult appears, Zhang He can directly lead the cavalry to attack Liu Bei's army and burn these catapults.

After all, in terms of the number of cavalry and the quality of individual soldiers, the Qianghu cavalry led by Ma Chao was inferior to the Cao Wei cavalry opposite.

In the face of such a situation, not to mention Liu Bei, even Fazheng, Pang Tong, and Zhang Xi are all a little embarrassed.

There are no ways to break the game, but some of the gains outweigh the losses.

If you want to break the game, you can only follow the conventional way of playing, send soldiers to attack the camp, and strive to pull out the two camps at the same time, a large number of killing and injuring Cao Jun's living force, as long as you kill the city of Shangtai, then Cao Hong can only do one way to trap and defend Shangtai.

At that time, catapults will be able to exert their maximum power.

But there are also many hidden dangers in doing so.

To pull out the two camps guarded by famous generals, Liu Beifang's losses will definitely not be small, you must know that Cao Jun still has 40,000 troops not coming, and Liu Beijun, all the troops are here.

If the losses in the process of attacking Shangqi are too large, then Cao Ren will come with reinforcements, but it will form a two-sided attack on Liu Beijun, which is a taboo for soldiers.

Therefore, Pang Tong, Fa Zheng, and Zhang Xi discussed for a long time and suggested that Liu Bei should postpone the attack a little.

Wait a little, and wait until Cao Ren personally leads the troops to Shangqi, and Cao Jun will not have reinforcements for the time being, so he will make plans.

In this way, although the Cao army will occupy a certain advantage in terms of strength, but Shangtai is such a large place, and the grain and grass that can be hoarded is also limited, so many Cao troops are crowded in Shangtai, and the logistical pressure of the Cao army will definitely be great.

Now it is winter again, Weishui is still frozen, even after thawing, Weishui will face the spring flood first, and it will be more difficult to transport grain and grass from Weishui upstream. At least until March next year, Cao Jun can only live on the grain and grass hoarded in Shangtai City.

But the problem is that there are still nearly three months to go until March, and if Cao Ren comes to help in January, a Shangtai City will have to fit 100,000 Cao troops Shangtai City is stuffed with grain and grass, and it is impossible to put down 100,000 troops for two months' grain and grass.

There will definitely be problems with Cao Jun's logistics.

And when the logistical pressure of the Cao army reached a certain level, there was no need for Liu Bei to take the initiative to attack the Cao army, and the Cao army would even give up the city defense and take the initiative to go out of the city to seek a decisive battle with Liu Beijun. At that point, things will be much easier.

An army of 100,000 held a city, and it was too difficult to break it.

However, the field battle of 100,000 troops and 60,000 troops is still on the mountainous terrain where the battle formation cannot be fully developed, so Liu Beijun's chances of victory are very great.

After all, there is not much strategic depth behind Cao Jun, there is only one Shangtai City, and there is no way to retreat.

But Liu Bei has already conquered Tianshui County and Guangwei County, and there is a retreat behind him, and he is completely free to advance and retreat.

Therefore, after formulating the strategy, Liu Bei immediately asked Gao Xiang to lead the troops to rescue Zhang Fei's troops, and at the same time conveyed his latest order - to rearrange the formation along the line of Shangqi and Luoyang, and confront Cao's army, but besiege but not attack.

It is consumption, consuming the grain and grass of the Cao army, and waiting until the Cao army can no longer hold up the logistical pressure to take the initiative to fight, and then wait for the opportunity to break the enemy at that time.

And this trick is very disgusting, but it is very effective.

Cao Hong had no choice but to write a quick letter to Cao Ren, and when he asked his eldest brother to come over to support, he would either bring less troops or more grain and grass. In short, don't be stupid and only bring 40,000 people here to eat food.

But the problem is that when Cao Ren received Cao Hong's letter, he had already entered Guangwei County with 40,000 Chinese soldiers, and it was only more than a hundred miles away from Shangqi. This letter came a little late.

After Cao Ren received Cao Hong's report, he was also a little numb. You can't bring back troops now, can you?!

(End of chapter)