Liu Bei and Cao Cao were well aware of the impending conflict.

Just a dozen days after Liu Bei transferred his troops, as the two armies assembled separately, the situation became clearer and clearer-Cao's army did not gather heavy troops at the first time along the Huaibei line such as Chen and Qiao, but gathered more and more troops in Pengcheng, Donghai and Langya.

Such a mobilization of tens of thousands of people will certainly not be able to conceal the enemy's meticulous reconnaissance. Therefore, the more the kick is reached, the easier it is for both sides to accurately judge the direction of the opponent's main attack, and there is no room for deception.

Guan Yu, who was in charge of the defense of the whole territory of Xuzhou, after predicting the direction of the enemy's attack, also fine-tuned the deployment of troops in the counties within Xuzhou again, and increased the number of troops in the two counties of Langya.

The defenders in Langya have skyrocketed from more than 6,000 when they were just received from Yuan Tan last year to more than 15,000. In terms of guards, there are Lu Su and Zhuge Jun in the text, Gao Shun and Zhou Tai in the martial arts to defend the city, and Zhou Yu can patrol and respond along the coast.

This garrison force is also the maximum that Guan Yu can draw out, after all, Guan Yu can't bet that Cao Cao will only attack Langya, and he will also divide his troops to guard the borders of Xiapi and Donghai two counties bordering the enemy, leaving no flaws.

Liu Beijun's combat power and army size have also made great strides in the past two years.

Before last year's extermination of Sun, Liu Beijun's total size of soldiers was more than 90,000 people, and at that time, in order to fight Jingnan and destroy Sun at the same time, the combat strength of the two fronts was still quite stretched, and finally had to fight a time difference, first destroy Jingnan and then destroy Sun's family.

However, with the pacification of Jingnan and Wu Hui successively, Liu Bei's strength also skyrocketed. Although the cumulative battle losses of the two wars, as well as the non-combat attrition of diseases, add up to more than 10,000 losses, the gains after the war are much greater than the losses.

After the destruction of Sun, Liu Beijun directly incorporated more than 30,000 prisoners of war and surrendered troops from the Sun family, but Zhang Xian of the four counties of Jingnan was weaker, and only 10,000 or a few thousand could eventually be incorporated and expanded, and less than 20,000 anyway.

Therefore, after the end of the war last year, the total number of soldiers in Liu Bei's camp increased to 130,000. This year, after another year of recuperation and recuperation, it is also possible to rectify the localities, check the hidden households, naturalize Shanyue, and expand the total number of soldiers to 1450,000.

As a prince with the population of two entire states, it is also very reasonable to be able to show such combat power. In history, before Sun Quan took Jingzhou, he could raise an army of 100,000 just by relying on the entire territory of Yangzhou and the three eastern counties of Jingzhou.

In the case that Liu Bei has 1450,000 combat strength, he left 30,000 people in Jingnan and Jiangxia to defend, which is still necessary, no matter how little, Cao Cao may also climb over Tongbai Mountain to adventure, and Liu Biao and Liu Zhang may also have abnormal movements.

There are about 100,000 troops left, and even if there is no enemy in Yangzhou in the rear, after all, the place is so big, it is always necessary to divide at least 10,000 main soldiers to avoid accidents.

Therefore, the Huainan defense line and the Xuzhou defense line have a total strength of more than 80,000 people. Guan Yu's side is the heavyest, with 50,000 troops, followed by Zhao Yun's side, with more than 30,000 people.

Of the 50,000 Guan Yu, 20,000 were stationed in Xiapi, 10,000 in Donghai County, 15,000 in Langya County, and the remaining several thousand people were placed in Guangling in the rear as a support point and reserve.

At the same time, after the Cao army fought against Yuan's Guandu, Dong'e and Cangting, although the land occupied by the Yuan family is not much, and it once occupied the four counties of Hejian and later spit it out, the expansion of Cao's army's vital strength is very amazing.

In the battle of Guandu alone, Zhang He Gao Lancheng led the army to surrender, which brought him tens of thousands of people, and later Dong'e and Cangting, each time at least 30,000 or 40,000 Yuan army prisoners. During the half year of occupying the four counties of Hejian, Cao Cao coerced a large number of people from Jizhou to go south.

Therefore, in the past two years, the expansion of Cao's soldiers has reached more than 100,000, which is double that before the official crossing, and the total number of soldiers has reached more than 300,000. And that's not even counting the forces of the vassal puppet forces—

For example, Xiliang Ma Teng, who is now nominally subordinate to the Xudu court, will occasionally cooperate with Cao Cao to fight, but Ma Teng's soldiers will obviously not be counted here.

Previously, when Cao Cao destroyed Lu, Zang Ba, Sun Guan, and Taishan thief Chang Feng who voted for Cao in Langya and other places, these people can not be counted in Cao Cao's army size, before the battle of Guandu, they also listened to the tune and did not listen to the announcement, and now that Yuan Shao is dead, Zang Ba, Sun Guan and Chang Feng have to obediently contribute to Cao Cao.

As the Battle of Xuzhou approached, Cao Cao left about forty percent of his troops on the northern front, and tens of thousands of troops in the heart of the heart, and then transferred 150,000 main troops to the southern front.

Of these 150,000 people, 70,000 were led by Cao Ren, who was in charge of the entire Huaibei, more than twice the number of Zhao Yun's troops on the opposite side.

There were also 80,000, led by Xiahou Yuan, mainly gathered in the Cao Zhan District of Xuzhou, facing Guan Yu's 50,000 men.

However, don't look at Xiahou Yuan's strength compared to Guan Yu, he has some other semi-independent servant armies on the Yan and Xu borders that can be deployed. Including thousands of private soldiers of the Li Dian family in Shanyang County, as well as Taishan Changfeng, Langya Zangba, and Sun Guan. These seventy-seven-eighty-eight forces are all combined, and Xiahou Yuan can dispatch more than 100,000 soldiers.

Cao Cao could ensure that in every direction, he had more than twice the numerical advantage over Liu Bei.

……

In the seventh year of Jian'an, the sixth day of June.

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In the county town of Langya, Lu Su and Zhuge finally waited for the news of Cao's invasion after making all preparations.

Gao Shun sent a messenger from Ju County in the south to send an urgent report informing him of this urgent military situation:

"Report! Xiahou Yuan took Li Dian and Sun Guan as the vanguard, led an army of 20,000, and under the banner of crusading against Yuan Tan, marched eastward from Kaiyang County, Langya County, entered our army's defense area, crossed Yishui and Shushui from the southern suburbs of Ju County, and crossed the hills to Rizhao Town.

General Gao guarded the city of Juxian and did not fight. General Gao judged that Xiahou Yuan's goal should be to occupy the seaport of Rizhao and cut off the communication between Donghai County in the south and us, and then slowly encircle and annihilate our army. ”

Zhuge Jun had never fought before, and when he heard that the neighboring county was attacked by heavy enemy troops, he was still a little nervous, so he hurriedly asked Lu Su what to do.

Lu Su was very calm, and immediately walked to the edge of the map, and gestured to Zhuge Jun:

"Xiahou Yuan is fighting under the banner of crusading against Yuan Tan, it can be seen that Cao Jun still wants to pretend to be deaf and dumb and avoid a direct all-out war with our army, and only wants to test the depth of our army first.

Since this is the case, there is no need to worry too much about Xiahou Yuan dividing his troops to turn south and enter Donghai County as soon as possible - of course, even if he wants to destroy the eastern half of Donghai County, General Guan will divide his troops to defend it, and that defense area is not something we have to worry about.

Xiahou Yuan bypassed the city and plunged straight into the coast, thinking that he could cut our army into two sections in the weakest position in the depth of our army, and the north and south could not care about each other. Then slowly pack up the army from the north.

But we are already very well prepared, General Gao has sufficient food in Ju County, there are 6,000 soldiers to defend the city, and before the war, he also spent several months to strengthen the city defense, and Xiahou Yuan will encircle and attack again, and it will not be so easy to gnaw down.

Ju County blocked the Heyi River and Shushui River Valley, and Xiahou Yuan did not take Ju County, and it would not be too threatening to get us. And we have other seaports to use, and there will be absolutely no shortage of supplies. After the veterans of Xiahou Yuan's division were tired and knocked out a few teeth, General Guan would naturally launch a counterattack. ”

Zhuge Jun listened to Lu Su's comfort, but he also put his heart down, but he was still a little unwilling, and asked suspiciously: "Before I came to Langya, I also asked my eldest brother." The eldest brother once said that before the fall of Lu Bu, it was Brother Zijing's idea to persuade the lord to lure Yuan Tan into the game and occupy the eastern part of Langya Yi.

In order to ensure the integrity of the Yishui and Mengshan defense lines, the hinterland of Xuzhou will not be broken by Cao thieves. In this case, now that Xiahou Yuan has entered the Kou, why don't we deploy heavy troops along Yishui and Shushui, directly block the enemy on the beachhead, and simply not let the enemy cross the river?

Li Diansun Guan successfully crossed the river, didn't he already break our Yishui defense line? ”

Lu Su listened to Zhuge Jun's dogma, and also tried out the depth of Zhuge Jun, and explained with a smile: "The magic of the art of war lies in improvisation. We were right to try to ensure the integrity of the Yishui and Mengshan defense lines.

Choosing to let Xiahou Yuan break through temporarily now is also a timely choice. After all, Yishui and Shushui are shallow and narrow, far from being comparable with those big rivers, not only are they far narrower than the Huai River, but even Surabaya is much wider than it. With such a small river, it is impossible to count on completely preventing the enemy from crossing it.

However, the middle and upper reaches of Yishui, because of the shuttle in the Mengshan Mountains, are relatively steep and turbulent, so they can still be defended and can also avoid the infiltration of the enemy.

The lower reaches of Yishui, especially near the border of Langya County and Donghai County, are about to flow out of the Mengshan Mountains and enter the East China Sea Plain - Xiahou Yuan specially picked this place to cross the river to break through, the river here is not wide enough, and there is no danger of Mengshan, we are hard to block, and the casualties and losses will definitely not be small.

But after Xiahou Yuan successfully crossed the river, once he could not open the situation and break through any fortified cities, he himself would face the difficulty of supplying the troops in depth. Although we can't stop him from crossing the Yishui River, we can send boats down the river from upstream to harass his crossing of the river and grain route—when the time comes, Xiahou Yuan himself will definitely not be able to hold it first. ”

Lu Su's analysis may be difficult for people who don't look at the map to understand.

The offensive route chosen by Xiahou Yuan was to cross the river from Kaiyang County, Langya County, to the east, and finally hit Rizhao.

Kaiyang County is the urban area of Linyi in later generations, so Xiahou Yuan's offensive route is equal to Linyi City-Junan District-Lanshan District, Rizhao City.

If you look at the Baidu map, you will know that this route is not only in the territory of Langya County, but it also just bypasses the southern edge of the Yimeng Mountains, and walks at the junction of the Yimeng Mountains and the Northern Jiangsu Plain, which is suitable for the march of large corps.

This road is relatively easy to walk, but the easy terrain is so narrow and narrow. If Xiahou Yuan can't solve the upstream Ju County and Zhu County, then the grain road he crosses Yi and Shu will be easily cut off, and in the end, he can't consume it, so he still has to slowly pull out the nails on the flanks one by one.

What Lu Su wanted was to give Xiahou Yuan an illusion first, and Xiahou Yuan did have this fantasy.

A few days later, when Xiahou Yuan learned that Li Dian and Sun Guan had bypassed the fortified city almost without bloodshed, almost chiseled through the eastern half of Langya, pushed all the way to the sea, and occupied a major seaport in the Langya region in a roundabout way, Xiahou Yuan was very proud.

Who said that against a strong side in the navy, you must fight a naval battle with the other side in order to cut off its supplies?

Directly interspersed by land, the north and the south are divided, and then the main ports along the coast of the cut territory are occupied, are you afraid that they will not collapse? Even if you have the advantage of a sea ship, the harbor is gone, where will you supply from it?

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