In June of the ninth year of Jian'an, when Liu Biao launched an offensive and sent Shen Chen and Liu Bei to attack Liu Zhang, Cao Cao and Yuan Shao had also begun pre-war preparations.

A large number of weapons and equipment of all kinds were removed from the warehouses of various military camps and once again maintained for maintenance.

Countless grains, grasses, baggage, and tents were sent to Yecheng and Chendu.

In July, after nearly half a year of preparation, Yuan Shao's soldiers and horses moved first, he sent Jiang Yiqu as the vanguard, his third son Yuan Shang as the commander of the front army, and about 30,000 troops were stationed in Liyang.

This time, Yuan Shao's total strength was still 80,000, but with the addition of auxiliary soldiers, people, and craftsmen, the total number reached 150,000, known as 200,000, and marched towards Yanzhou.

In addition, the eldest son, Qingzhou Assassin Yuan Tan, led an army of 20,000 to the south from the Plains Kingdom, entered the Jibei Kingdom and the Dongping Kingdom, and threatened Cao Cao's right flank.

His nephew Gao Gan borrowed soldiers and horses from the Southern Huns in Bingzhou, invaded the east of the Koluo River, and then attacked Sili Hanoi.

Cao Cao also made timely deployments, if you count Zang Ba's troops, his total strength is now as much as 110,000, but there are still a certain number of troops left behind in the rear, and the number of people that can be used is about 90,000.

And this number is not without change, because the southern princes are in a big war, Liu Biao and Liu Zhang and Sun Quan are fighting at the same time, and even Liu Beijun has been transferred, so Cao Cao does not need to think about the rear defense, and the only thing he has to face is Han Sui Ma Teng, who colluded with Yuan Shao.

Therefore, he asked Zang Ba to march from Xuzhou, go north from the southeast, and stationed in Taishan County, Lu State and other places, and sent Cheng Yu as the governor to lead 5,000 people to garrison Juancheng. Shi Jian led 3,000 people in Jinxiang to deal with Zang Ba to contain Yuan Tan.

There are about 10,000 troops in the east, and much more in the west. Because Yuan Shao invited foreign aid, Han Sui Ma Teng rebelled, and let Hu Chuquan and Guo Yuan drive away Zhong Xuan and occupy Guanzhong.

Now the generals of Guanzhong are united, in response to Yuan Shao's call, they have gathered an army of seventy or eighty thousand, marched towards Hongnong, and began to threaten Duan Xuan of Huayin.

Duan Xuan's army was only seven or eight thousand, and Cao Cao ordered him to retreat to Shaanxi County, which was later known as Sanmenxia City.

At that time, the terrain south of the Yellow River was narrow, with the dense Qinling Mountains in the south and the mighty Yellow River in the north. It is easy to defend and difficult to attack from Kanto, but it is not easy to attack Kanto from Kanto.

Like Tongguan, which is backed by the Qinling Plateau and bordered by the Yellow River in the north, there are actually many ideal defense points.

It's just that the construction of Tongguan lies in the entrance from the eastern part of the Guanzhong Pass, which can provide defense at the same time, and can also enter the Guanzhong at any time, which has offensive strategic significance.

The same is true of Hanyaseki.

The roads between Tongguan and Hangu Pass belong to the dangerous place of Qinling Mountains in the south and the Yellow River in the north, but Tongguan is at the entrance of Guanzhong, which is convenient for Guandong to attack Guanzhong. Hangu Pass was at the entrance to Kanto, which made it convenient for Guanzhong to attack Kanto.

It's just that Hangu Pass in the Han Dynasty lost its strategic significance due to the changes of the Yellow River, and Cao Cao considered that he could not attack Guanzhong for the time being, so he focused his defense on the Kwantung region.

In this way, even if Han Sui, Ma Teng and other generals of Guanzhong attacked together, the supply line on the south bank of the Yellow River, which was more than 200 kilometers long, would seriously delay the pace of their attack.

Cao Cao arranged about 20,000 horses near Chendu, more than 10,000 on the eastern front, and personally led an army of 50,000 to the north to meet Yuan Shao.

At the same time, he ordered Yu Ban to lead more than 20,000 people to garrison the Yin area of Henan Province to protect the security of Cao's army on the western front.

In this way, the deployment of both sides is complete.

Yuan Shao's main force of about 80,000 people moved south from Yecheng, continued to cross the river from Liyang, and entered Dongjun to attack Chenliu.

On the right flank, Yuan Tan had about 20,000 people, and Lin Lin scattered thousands of harassing troops.

The left-wing Han Sui and Ma Teng allied forces numbered tens of thousands, plus Huchuquan, Guo Yuan and other units in Bingzhou, adding up to more than 50,000 people.

In addition, he sent his nephew Gao Gan and Jianyi Zhonglang to lead Tao Sheng with more than 20,000 people, detoured through Hanoi County, attacked the direction of Luoyang from the north, and met with Han Sui Ma Teng and other coalition forces to flank Yanzhou together.

If you don't count foreign aid, the total number of troops Yuan Shao used this time is about 120,000. If you count foreign aid, it looks like about 1780,000.

The situation on Cao Cao's side was relatively poor, the left flank was about seven or eight thousand Duan Xuan, plus 20,000 Yu Ban, 50,000 or 60,000 against the Shangguanzhong coalition army and 20,000 Gao Gan Taosheng. On the right flank are thousands of Zang Ba plus 8,000 Cheng Yu and Shi Lian, and more than 20,000 people against Yuan Tan.

His own main force is 50,000 against Yuan Shao 80,000, and the overall situation is slightly better than the battle of Guandu, at least this time there is no need to worry about the rear Xu being attacked by Shen Chen, but it is not much better.

In September, Yuan Shang's main force began to cross the river at Liyang. But this time, Cao Cao couldn't do the same as last time, and broke Yuan Shang first.

Because Yuan Shao learned the lesson of Yan Liangwen and the ugly pioneer crossing the river in the battle of Guandu, he was defeated by Cao Cao. While he asked Yuan Shang to cross the river, he also personally led the army from the Yanjin ferry in Hanoi County.

In this way, no matter which direction Cao Cao attacked, Yuan's army in the other direction would cross the river smoothly, and then attack the main force of Cao's army on both sides, so that Cao Cao would fall into the dilemma of being attacked by the enemy on his back.

Therefore, Cao Cao's choice was to station troops along the lines of Yucheng, Yanxian, Wating, and Weixiang, and arrange defenses around the perimeter. The main force was stationed in Kuangcheng on the south bank of Pushui.

In October, Yuan Shao's army crossed the Yellow River, and Jiang Yiqu led 8,000 pioneers to attack the city, but was repelled by the defender Xu Huang. By the middle of October, Yuan Shang came to attack, Xu Huang was defeated and retreated to the area of Sujube Fengqiu, and Yuan Shang settled in Yucheng.

More than a month later, Yuan Shao's main force crossed the Yellow River, and Cao's army's defense lines in Yanxian, Wating, and Weixiang were lost one after another, and they began to retreat to the areas of Pucheng and Changyuan, defending the front line of Kuangcheng.

However, God still favored Cao Cao this winter, and after entering early November, heavy snow fell in the north, and the weather took a sharp turn, causing the Yuan army's offensive to gradually slow down.

The two sides confronted each other in the area of Kuangcheng, and the extremely bad weather during the Xiaoice River period made both sides have extremely low desire to attack, and fell into a calm.

It's the spring of the following year.

In February of the tenth year of Jian'an, after more than three months of confrontation, Yuan Shao finally launched a tentative attack.

He sent people to make a detour to Jiyin and went south to take Chen Du by light horse.

However, the topography of Chendu is that there are too many rivers around, and it is at the angle between the ditch water and the Suishui, with the Langtang Canal in the west, the chasm water in the northwest, and the Bianshui in the northeast.

Cao Hong, Xiahou Yuan, Xun Yu and others who stayed behind in the rear arranged tactics and defended along the line with multiple rivers to repel the invading cavalry.

After this plan failed, Yuan Shao personally led the army in March and officially launched an all-out attack on Cao's army in Kuangcheng.

It's just that Fu Zhu once said that Cao Cao's army was more elite than Yuan's army, and the main force of the two sides seemed to be 80,000 against 50,000, but in fact, there was not much difference in combat effectiveness.

In history, the battle of Guandu was not that Cao Cao was weaker than Yuan Shao, but that he had to guard against too many directions, and he was restrained by Liu Biao and Sun Ce.

Yuan Shao attacked for more than ten days, lost his troops, and had to retreat back to Yan County.

At least for now, even if it is a confrontation in the field, the Cao army is not necessarily worse than the Yuan army, let alone the Yuan army is still attacking the Cao camp?

At the beginning of April of the tenth year of Jian'an.

At this time, Liu Biao in the south had just defeated Liu Zhang's army, and Huang Zu in the direction of Yuzhang in the east was still entrenched in the area of Peng Lize, fighting with Sun Quan's soldiers and horses.

The war in the south was almost over, and Liu was building momentum for the emperor, but the war in the north had just begun.

In Cao Ying, Xun You, Guo Jia, Dong Zhao Mao Jue and other strategists were all there, Cao Cao looked at the official document in his hand, and the solemnity on his face showed his extremely uncalm heart.

The content of this official document is not a report that Liu Biao was seeking political independence and proclaiming the emperor in the south after defeating Liu Zhang's Sun Quan.

Rather, it is a letter from which the war situation on the Western Front is eroded and on the verge of collapse.

After Duan Xuan retreated to Shaanxi County, after winter, the Guanzhong coalition army began to storm Shaanxi County.

Shaanxi County has extremely superior defense advantages, its south is the Qinling Plateau, there is a large altitude difference, and the east is the transition zone between the Qinling Mountains and the Taihang Mountains, which is the Daimei Mountain Mountains.

But it also had a disadvantage, that is, in order to defend this place, it was necessary to have enough troops stationed in Dayang County to the north of the Yellow River to block the Zhongtiao Mountain and prevent the enemy from crossing the river north of the Yellow River to the rear of Shaanxi County.

Duan Xuan's lack of manpower led to the Guanzhong Coalition Army's Hu Chuquan and Guo Yuanbu directly from Zhongtiao Mountain to Dayang County, that is, Pinglu County, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province in later generations, crossed the river from Maojin Ferry, and attacked Duan Xuan from the west and north at the same time with Han Sui Ma Teng and others.

Under these circumstances, Duan Xuan barely held out for several months, but the huge disparity in strength led to Duan Xuan's final defeat, and the remnants of the army retreated to Xin'an County, probably in the area of Yima City, which was located in the east of Mianchi County in later generations.

After passing Xin'an County, it will go to Luoyang, from the Luoyang Basin to Yingchuan in the south, and to Henan County in the east, when it is an unobstructed plain area, which will seriously threaten Cao Cao's western defense line and southwest defense line, and give Cao Cao a major blow.

Therefore, Luoyang must not be lost, at least to ensure that the Kwantung coalition army is blocked out of Hangu Pass!

"Duan Xuan's army is defeated, and Luoyang is already in danger."

Cao Cao passed the official document in his hand to many strategists, and after they all read it, he said, "What do you think about this matter? ”

Mao Jue was a strategic talent, and immediately realized that this matter was a great threat to Cao's army in a strategic sense, so he immediately said: "Ming Gong, Luoyang must not be lost, once Luoyang is lost, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses will pour in, and there are many cavalry, I am afraid that Yingchuan Chenliu will be attacked!" ”

"yes."

Cao Cao sighed, nodded and said: "Lone also thinks like this, but although Lone no longer has to worry about Liu Cousin Sun Quan in the south, there are many soldiers and horses in the north, and Lone can't take out the manpower to go to Henan." ”

Now he is not short of food and grass, but he is short of troops.

After cooperating with the Yanzhou family, the grain and grass piled up, plus the grain accumulated by the exploitation of the people in Tuntian in the past few years, it was enough for him and Yuan Shao to confront each other for four or five years.

The problem is that Henan is very dilapidated, with a serious population loss, and there is enough grain and grass but a lack of young and strong soldiers, so that there are not enough soldiers and horses.

Therefore, in the face of Yuan Shao's army pressing, Cao Cao could basically only defend, and could not attack.

And Yuan Shao allied with Han Sui, Ma Teng and others, and also borrowed soldiers and horses from the Southern Xiongnu, and even Wuhuan Bandun in the north supported Yuan and sent a part of the cavalry to participate in the battle, making Cao Cao's troops already stretched.

Xun You said: "Yu Ban still has more than 20,000 soldiers and horses in Henan, if he can break through Gao Gan and Tao Sheng's troops, these people can go to support Duan Xuan." ”

"However, Gao Gan and Tao Sheng did not take the initiative to attack, but stationed troops in Wude, Huaixian and other places, how difficult it is to break through."

Cao Cao groaned, and suddenly noticed an imperceptible smile on Guo Jia's face on the side, so he asked, "Feng Xiao seems to have a plan?" ”

"There's no plan."

Guo Jia said with a smile: "It's just that there are some old friends in Yingchuan in Yuan Yingying, and when they wrote to each other, they told me that Yuan Shao's health was very bad, and he had an illness last winter, and I expected him not to survive this year, so the great cause of Ming Gong will be accomplished, and I am happy in my heart." ”

"Huh."

Cao Cao smiled reluctantly, shook his head and said: "Even if Yuan Shao dies this year, but right now, Han Sui, Ma Teng and others can attack Luoyang at any time, and in less than a month, Lone will die, which is not worth being happy about." ”

Guo Jia thought for a while and said: "Duke Ming, I remember that in the official document sent by the former captain Si Li, it was said that Han Sui and Ma Teng attacked each other, and Han Sui also killed Ma Teng's wife, it can be seen that the two are not compatible. ”

"What do you mean?"

Cao Cao touched his beard, he was very envious of Guan Yu's long beard, but unfortunately his beard was not so long.

Guo Jia said with a smile: "Han Sui killed Ma Teng's wife, Ma Teng must hate it deeply, but because of the lack of troops, he can't defeat Han Sui, so he can only make peace first, if he can persuade Ma Teng and other generals, then Han Sui will be able to break it." ”

"Hmm."

Cao Cao nodded, unless Ma Teng was a ruthless man and didn't even take revenge on his wife and children, then he would admire him.

Dong Zhao said: "However, even if this plan can be successful, it needs to be promoted first. ”

"That's just as well."

Cao Cao groaned: "Who do you think can go to Henan and defeat Gao Gan Tao Sheng?" ”

"Amount"

The crowd looked at each other, hesitating for a moment.

Among the Cao army, the most powerful of the four major clans in terms of military ability is naturally Cao Ren.

But Cao Ren died.

The other three can also be on their own, but they are no different from Yu Ban.

If you can't even break the ban, who can break it?

Among the generals with foreign surnames, Le Jin is also dead, Xu Chu is just a general, and Xu Huang and Li Dian can't be alone.

Zhang Liao is a bit handsome, but firstly, he is a demoted general, and secondly, he is actually not as good as the ban.

Historically, he was the head of the five good generals, but that was because of the stain of Yu Ban's surrender.

If there is no stain on this, Zhang Liaoyuan cannot be compared with Yu Ban.

Therefore, to say that he can lead 20,000 troops, defeat more troops than Cao's army, and do not take the initiative to attack, and passively defend the high-ranking cadre Tao Sheng, except for Cao Cao, he really can't find anyone else.

"Go alone."

Seeing that everyone was like this, Cao Cao also knew the situation, so he said in a deep voice: "Lone with a thousand cavalry to Henan, Gongda will go with me, and you will wait for Yuan to let the town guard the camp and hold on, it may be done?" ”

"Yui."

Everyone should give it up.

Although it is risky to let Xiahoudun be the coach.

But at this time, there is no other way but this.

At that moment, Cao Cao summoned Xiahoudun and ordered him to obey the words of Guo Jia, Dong Zhao, Mao Jue and others, stick to the camp and not go out, and he rushed to Luoyang overnight.

Some friends said that the protagonist group has few appearances, and the protagonist Liu Bei Zhuge Liang does not have many scenes. But everyone has to consider that this is the Three Kingdoms, a group portrait. You can't just write about the main character. In the era of bright stars, everyone is a hero, Cao Cao's eloquence, Yuan Shao's unwillingness to fail, Sun Quan's courage (doubtful), Liu Biao's ambition, Liu Zhang's ideas, and all kinds of heroes and fierce generals, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun's roles are not easy for me to arrange, so in terms of character building, I prefer to be comprehensive, Cao Cao and Liu Bei have more protagonist group scenes, and others will arrange it, which is no way to do it.

(End of chapter)