After separating from Zhang Xiu, Shen Chen immediately rushed to Biyang.

Gan Ning garrisoned here.

He now has 7,000 men under his command.

If it weren't for the fear of being suspicious of Liu Biao, this force could even break through to twenty or thirty thousand.

The number of soldiers and horses that can be raised depends on how much arable land and how many people you have on your territory.

During the Qin and Han dynasties, it often took 20 to 30 farmers to support a soldier.

Now Shen Chen actually controls two counties, one Xinye and one Biyang.

On the eve of the Battle of Guandu, when Liu Bei went south, more than 100,000 people in Xinye voluntarily followed, which shows that the actual number of people in Xinye was much higher than 100,000.

Coupled with Biyang, as well as the Yellow Turban Tunhu assigned to Xinye and Biyang when the Yellow Turban population of Runan and Nanyang was captured, the combined population of the two counties has long exceeded 300,000.

More importantly, with a population of 30,000, 200,000 acres of land have been cultivated in Huangmenting alone, and the output has been greatly increased through manure technology.

At that time, corn and wheat were planted alternately, with an average annual yield of six or seven stones per mu, an increase of 20-30%, and then removing the needs of the people, the annual output of 30,000 people in Huangmenting could reach seven or eight hundred thousand stones, which was not less than Cao Cao's tens of thousands of yellow turbans in Runan.

Therefore, at present, whether it is Gan Ning or Shen Chen, the grain stock is extremely abundant, if a large number of troops are recruited, with the existing grain stock of about 6 million stones, it is enough to recruit 50,000 troops for three and a half years.

It's just that Shen Chen knows that although Liu Biao seems to be kind-hearted, he is actually extremely suspicious.

The reason why he didn't suspect Shen Chen was that he was tied up with Deng Hong, Deng Hong married Cai, and he regarded him as his own, so he let Shen Chen toss.

Replaced by Liu Bei in history, after arriving in Xinye, a large number of heroes came to cling to him, which aroused Liu Biao's suspicion. Later, Cai Mao Yueyue conspiracy planned to assassinate Liu Bei at the banquet, and it cannot be ruled out that Liu Biao signaled behind his back.

Therefore, it is impossible for Shen Chen to expand the soldiers and horses in large quantities, not to mention that the expansion of soldiers and horses is not only as simple as food and grass, but also weapons and equipment, tent materials, soldier training, and discipline rectification.

Therefore, now Shen Chen is mainly based on a small number of elites, and the soldiers of Huangmen Pavilion are training in the direction of the most elite special forces, paying attention to the cooperation of the squad, the quality of the soldiers must be high, the discipline must be strong, and the soldiers are fine but not many.

After arriving in Biyang, the two joined forces and marched north.

In the fifth year of Jian'an, that is, in the spring of the first month of 200 AD, the armies of Shen Chen and Gan Ning had already arrived in Duyang, and the troops were directed at the hinterland of Yingchuan such as Yexian and Kunyang.

At this time, Cao Cao was actually not in Guandu, and on the eve of the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao had too many things to deal with.

First of all, the edict incident that broke out at the end of last year, although it has subsided, but it has caused a lot of political repercussions for him, Kong Rong and a large number of royalists realized Cao Cao's true face and began to drag him back.

The second is that Liu Bei attacked and killed the chariot with the edict of the cloth, and the soldiers were small, and a large number of heroes came to attach. Cao Cao had to personally go east to defeat Liu Bei, forcing him to flee north to Yuan Shao.

Yuan Shao didn't know the news of the edict at this time, but he was ready to go to war, and sent the vanguard Yan Liangwen Chou to attack Baima and Yanjin respectively.

After Cao Cao broke Liu Bei, he went north non-stop to rescue, and at present, people are still along the Yellow River, confronting Yan Liangwen Chou at the crossing of the Yellow River.

That is to say, Shen Chen set out from the end of the fourth year of Jian'an, and when the first lunar army entered Nanyang, Cao Cao's people were still dealing with Liu Bei, who had just escaped because of the edict, Yan Liangwen was not dead, and was attacking Baima and Yanjin.

But at this time, Shen Chen couldn't do anything else, because he was blocked and couldn't get by.

Cao Hong occupied Yexian and defended the city, and it was impossible for him to pass through the Nanyang Basin to Yuzhou, so the two sides were currently in a state of confrontation.

The confrontation lasted for more than a month.

By February, Cao Cao had already defeated Liu Bei and rushed to the Yellow River for the Battle of the White Horse.

It was probably in March and April that Guan Yu was used to behead Yan Liang to relieve the siege of Baima, and Xun Yu began to retreat to Guandu.

And Shen Chen was still blocking the sun and couldn't move forward.

At this time in history, Zhang Xiu surrendered, and Cao Cao sent Cao Hong to garrison Wancheng to guard against Liu Biao.

But now Zhang Xiu has not surrendered, so Cao Hong has been stationed in Yexian, and behind him are Man Chong and Li Tong, who are stationed in Yuzhou.

In the Han Dynasty, the blocking of Yang is the later generation of Nanyang Fangcheng County, just look at the terrain to know, between Fangcheng and Ye County, there is a huge canyon, both sides of the canyon belong to the Funiu Mountain Range.

The geographical location of Ye County in later generations is different from that of Ye County in the Han Dynasty, Ye County in the Han Dynasty is just stuck in the middle of this canyon, and the approximate location is the Fangcheng Dushu Town in later generations, although this canyon is extremely wide, 20 kilometers wide from north to south, but Ye County is a hurdle that must be overcome.

If you bypass Yexian and go straight to Yuzhou, Cao Hong attacks from the back, Li Tong and Manzhong defend head-on, plus the reinforcements of Li Dian, Xiahou Yuan, and Xun Yu who guard Xudu, it is very likely that this army will be buried directly in Runan or Yingchuan.

So from a strategic point of view, Shen Chen must pull out the nail embedded in the Nanyang portal in Ye County!

It's just that there are no hot weapons in the era of cold weapons, and it is extremely difficult to attack the city, like Lu Bu besieging Liu Bei's Xiaopei for more than half a year, Yuan Shao besieging Zang Hong for a year, and Cao Cao attacking Xiapi for three or four months, if it weren't for Lu Bu's general rebellion, it would be possible to fight for another half a year.

Therefore, from a certain point of view, it is not easy for Shen Chen's current strength to break through Ye County, which is guarded by the famous general Cao Hong, unless they mutiniate internally, it is really possible to fight for a long time.

From the first month to the present, Ye County has been surrounded, but the grain and grass in the north cannot be transported in, and Shen Chen does not know how much grain there is in the city.

At present, he can only prepare for a protracted war.

In the middle of March, it was the spring season of Meng, and it was about to enter summer, and the weather was getting hotter and hotter.

In the past two months, he organized several attacks on Yexian, all of which were repelled by Cao Hong.

According to a large number of military books and cases he had read before, Shen Chen used tactics including digging tunnels, attacking the east and attacking the west, and encircling three missing one, all of which were recognized by Cao Hong.

This made Shen Chen very emotional, Mencius was right, "It is better to believe in a book than to have no book."

Except for the legendary experience of the great man who used more than 100 students and 20 guns to force down 3,000 warlord troops when he came out of the mountain, no one was born to fight, including Cao Cao's early days, which was accumulated in countless defeats.

Although the knowledge in the book is certainly correct, it also depends on the actual situation.

For example, if you make a feint attack from the east and attack the west, you actually attack from the side, and some vulgar generals did not expect it, so they were broken by you, which became a positive case.

But the problem is that Cao Hong has followed Cao Cao in the south and the north for many years, and he is also a veteran of a hundred battles, so he will definitely not make such a low-level mistake.

You can't deal with him in some superficial way.

Just like Lian Po, it is true to confront the Qin army head-on, and the only problem is food and grass.

Therefore, fighting in real life does not mean that you can study a few military books, but you have to treat them differently according to different situations.

For example, Yuan Shao's fight against Zang Hong was purely based on consumption, and Cao Cao's fight against Lu Bu was a plan to flood the heart, plus Lu Bu's own internal problems, Shen Chen had to come up with countermeasures.

"During this time, we have been collecting intelligence, and we can learn that Cao Hong currently has 5,000 soldiers and horses, and last year Yuzhou transported a large amount of grain, I am afraid that there are thousands of trucks, which can last for a year."

"Judging from the current situation, it is definitely not possible to encircle the point to send reinforcements and empty consumption, Cao Hong has enough grain and grass, Man Chong and Li Tong are not fools, it is impossible to come to the rescue when Cao Hong has enough food and grass, and someone will definitely be arranged to pay close attention."

"But the battle of Guandu will end this year, and when Cao Hong has not been broken on my side, the battle on the Guandu side will be over, and it will not be good for Cao Cao to come to the rescue in person."

"So what can I do to break the city?"

Shen Chen pondered silently in his heart.

It wasn't so troublesome when they beat Cao Ren and Le Jin, they sent them to the door by themselves, and now it's really not easy to fight Cao Hong, who is sticking to the city.

In other words, after removing the two battles of Cao Ren and Lejin, this war will be the first battle he commanded head-on, and it is also a siege battle, if you want to complete the first victory, you must take all aspects into account.

"Ah Chen."

At this time, Gan Ning got into the tent shirtless, grabbed the kettle on the table as soon as he came in, poured two sips, and then said: "Then Cao Hong is determined to die in the city, no matter how he screams and scolds, what can I do?" ”

No matter how much you scold, you can't come out?

Shen Chen suddenly had a flash of inspiration and said, "Uncle Xingba, if you are Cao Hong, you are in the city, what will happen to you to go out of the city to fight?" ”

Gan Ning said without hesitation: "Then you don't have to think about it, if our army is defeated, he will chase him out." ”

"Anything else?"

Shen Chen asked.

"Something else?"

Gan Ning scratched his head: "Either Xu was attacked." ”

Shen Chen's eyes lit up and said, "If I pretend to be the main force with a partial division and go north to attack Xudu, do you think Cao Hong will come out?" ”

Gan Ning thought for a while and said, "Unless he thinks that we are really the main force going north." ”

Shen Chen muttered, "It's not impossible to do this. ”

"What's the solution?"

"March at night and camp during the day."

"What kind of solution is this?"

"Uncle Xingba, you think, when marching at night, we let the soldiers hold more torches, and the other party's scouts can't see the specific number of people, so it will inevitably be calculated by the number of torches. During the day, the enemy did not dare to come close to count the men and horses, at most they would look at the stove fire to judge, and we could build more stove fires. ”

"The problem is that the strength of the partial division is insufficient, I heard that Cao Cao still has a large number of soldiers and horses left in the hinterland of Yingchuan in Runan, and the partial division is in danger alone, isn't it self-defeating?"

Ganning asked the deadliest question.

This strategy is a desperate gamble, the division enters the hinterland of Runan alone, there are Cao troops everywhere, once the battle is head-on, not only is it easy to expose the true strength, but also very dangerous.

For example, during our army's Long March, many partial divisions that pretended to be the main force and shared the pressure for the main force faced the encirclement and suppression of the enemy's large forces, and finally fell on the Long March.

So this plan may be effective, but it is also very dangerous, and it eats the command ability of the leader of the division.

Shen Chen said: "Fighting is actually psychology, I must guess Cao Hong's psychology, he must want to defend Ye County now, if I want to defeat him, I must mobilize him, this is also a matter of no choice." ”

"Then who will lead this detachment?"

Gan Ning asked again.

Shen Chen said without hesitation: "We will start to pack up the camp today, and at night all the troops will bypass Yexian and go north, Uncle Xingba, you will lead the army into Lushan, and I will lead 3,000 people from Huangmen Pavilion to feint and attack Xudu." ”

Gan Ning said in surprise: "Ah Chen, you have thought about it, this plan is too dangerous, I still don't recommend you to do it." ”

"Actually, it's not that dangerous, and I really won't attack Xudu."

Shen Chen pointed to the map and said: "Uncle Xingba, look, the Cao army arrangements we have found out now are in Yexian, Kunyang, Wuyang and other places, and the rest of the Cao army, I expect them to be in Sili, Xudu, Runan, and Shandong. ”

"Why is that?"

Gan Ning asked.

"Cao Cao was attacked on all sides, Sun Ce defeated Huang Zu at the end of the year, and it is very likely that he will organize his troops and horses to attack Xudu."

Shen Chen said: "Yuan Shao based in Hebei, with a three-way army from Sili, Yanzhou, Shandong to attack Cao Cao, Cao Cao can not divide the army to defend. Although there is Liu Yuanjun in the south, Liu Yuanjun is restrained by Zhang Xian. The only ones who can pose a threat to him are us and Zhang Xiu, so it is impossible for him to send too many soldiers and horses in Nanyang. ”

This analysis is correct, Cao Cao's real enemy at present is Yuan Shao, and now Yuan Shao's main force has begun to cross the river and is about to march to Guandu. Then Cao Cao must place the center of gravity of his forces on Yuan Shao.

In history, Cao Cao only brought 30,000 or 40,000 people in Guandu and Yuan Shao.

But that doesn't mean he's just that.

Cao Hong was placed in Wancheng, with few troops, about four or five thousand people, just to prevent Liu Biao.

Li Tong and Man Chong were not in Runan to guard against Liu Biao, but to guard against Sun Ce.

Zang Ba was in Qingzhou, and Yu Ban and Le Jin led 5,000 foot riders in Sili.

There is also a part of Liu Xie who guards (guards) Liu Xie in Xudu.

So it seems that Cao Cao allocated a large number of men and horses to guard against Sun Ce and Liu Biao, but in fact, the other two roads were also to guard against Yuan Shao's soldiers and horses, respectively in Qingzhou, Xuzhou and Sili.

The same is true now.

At present, Cao Cao's troop distribution has been regarded as an additional part of Nanyang, and Cao Hong's 5,000 men and horses are in Ye County.

Behind him, Kunyang, Wuyang and other places add up to three or four thousand people.

Then he was on guard against Sun Ce's full favor and Li Tong in Runan, and the two of them also had seven or eight thousand people.

Xudu has nearly 10,000 people.

Most of the rest of the forces were in the north.

If the soldiers and horses in Sili and Shandong are counted, Cao Cao's troops to defend against Yuan Shao are actually more than 60,000.

Shen Chen pointed to Yutu and continued: "There are not many troops in Kunyang and Wuyang, I lead the partial division to the north, so what I have to face is probably the soldiers and horses of Xudu and the reinforcements of Runan, as long as I can not fight them head-on, I can retreat at any time." ”

Ye County is in the middle of the canyon, Kunyang and Wuyang are on the left and right sides of the canyon exit, the north and south of Ye County in later generations, these three counties are in the corner, but as long as you bypass the Ye County of the Han Dynasty and intersperse it from the middle of Kunyang and Wuyang, then the back is the entire Yingchuan hinterland, and the only defender of the Cao army is Xu Du.

That is to say, if Kunyang and Wuyang are compared to a mouth, after these two counties, it will be like a monkey getting into the stomach of his sister-in-law, which can turn Cao Cao's hinterland upside down.

"Hmm......"

Gan Ning pondered for a long time and asked, "Ah Chen, are you sure?" ”

Shen Chen nodded: "You have to give it a try." ”

"Okay."

Gan Ning said: "Then listen to you." ”

The two of them did not hesitate at the moment, and Shen Chen immediately ordered the whole army to clean up and salute, and at the same time make a large number of three-pointed torches.

These three-pointed torches are about one meter apart from front to back, and there is an average of three meters of one soldier on the march, and there are three torches within these three meters, and it looks like there are three soldiers at night.

In this way, the three thousand people of Huangmen Pavilion can be disguised as nine thousand, and the number of scouts will naturally be confused, which greatly increases the number of soldiers.

However, when bypassing Ye County, these torches were not used, and tens of thousands of people marched at the same time in the middle of the night, and marched north.

Soon, they traveled dozens of miles in one night, passing through Wuyang and Kunyang, and approaching Xiangcheng.

For a while, Xu Du was shaken!

"Brother Shen!"

"Hmm!"

Shen Changqing walked on the road, and when he met someone he knew well, he would say hello to each other or nod his head.

But it doesn't matter who it is.

There was no superfluous expression on everyone's face, as if they were very indifferent to everything.

on this.

Shen Changqing is used to it.

Because this is the Demon Suppression Division, it is an institution that maintains the stability of Great Qin, and its main responsibility is to kill demons and monsters, and of course there are some other side jobs.

Arguably.

In the Demon Suppression Division, everyone has a lot of blood on their hands.

When a person is accustomed to seeing life and death, then he will become indifferent to many things.

When he first came to this world, Shen Changqing was a little uncomfortable, but over time he got used to it.

The Demon Suppression Division is huge.

The people who can stay in the Demon Suppression Division are all powerful masters, or people who have the potential to become masters.

Shen Changqing belongs to the latter.

Among them, the Demon Suppression Division is divided into two professions, one is the town guard and the other is the demon exterminator.

Anyone who enters the Demon Suppression Division starts with the lowest level of demon slayer.

Then step by step, he is expected to become a town guard.

Shen Changqing's predecessor was a trainee demon slayer in the Demon Suppression Division, and he was also the lowest level of the demon slayer envoys.

Have memories of the predecessor.

He is also very familiar with the environment of the Demon Suppression Division.

It didn't take long for Shen Changqing to stop in front of an attic.

Unlike other places full of slaughter, the attic here seems to stand out from the crowd, and in the bloody Demon Suppression Division, it presents a different tranquility.

At this time, the attic door is open, and there are occasional people entering and exiting.

Shen Changqing only hesitated for a moment, and then stepped in.

Access to the attic.

The environment has changed in vain.

A burst of ink fragrance mixed with the faint smell of blood came to his face, making his brow furrow instinctively, but quickly stretched.

The smell of blood on everyone's body in the Demon Suppression Division is almost impossible to clean.