The World of Yellow Sky

Chapter 858
In the fourth year of the Ming Dynasty (197), September [-]th.

To the east of Gaotang City, a group of about a thousand cavalrymen in ochre-yellow war robes galloped past it.

The cavalry in ocher-yellow shirts and yellow flags were the vanguard cavalry of the Ming army.

Gaotang City is not far from the south of Pingyuan City, facing each other across the river. The city south of the Yellow River was originally controlled by the Han court.

However, due to the dry season, the Qingzhou Han army had already evacuated Gaotang City, and today's Gaotang City has been burned.

Gaotang City is too close to Pingyuan City, and everyone knows that the Yellow River will never stop the Ming army.

This place is usually just an observation point. As early as a few months ago, Qu Yi had already sent troops to Gaotang City.

Gaotang City, which was burned by the Han army, has now become the frontier stronghold of the Ming army. A large number of food, grass and soldiers are now stationed here.

This time the Ming army marched south, the vanguard general was not Zhang Liao or Xu Huang, but Qu Yi.

Originally, Xu An wanted to appoint Zhang Liao as the vanguard.

The position of the vanguard of the army is particularly important. The vanguard must undertake the task of exploring the path of the entire army, scouting the enemy's situation, checking the geography; reconnaissance, tentative attack, and disrupting the deployment of the enemy.

Moreover, the vanguard's victory will greatly boost the morale of one's own side, and then suppress the opponent in one go.

In the original time and space, during the Battle of Guandu, the vanguard of Yuan Shao's army was Yan Liang, who was famous for his bravery and victory over the three armies.

In order to win the vanguard battle, Cao Cao did not hesitate to personally lead the cavalry to attack the white horse.

Zhang Liao was appointed as the vanguard, but Xu An didn't think anyone could stop him just because of Cao Cao's generals.

However, after Qu Yi heard about the arrangement, he volunteered to be a pioneer.

When Qu Yi was in Wei Ting, he had led the Wei army south to aid Qingzhou, so he was more familiar with Qingzhou's geographical environment.

Moreover, Qu Yi took the initiative to ask for Ying in front of the generals, so Xu An couldn't help taking Qu Yi's face directly.

After weighing things up, Xu An finally appointed Qu Yi as the vanguard.

Although there is a gap between Qu Yi and Zhang Liao, they are still famous generals.

In many battles such as Jieqiao and Longcou, at least half of the credit for defeating Gongsun Zan should be credited to Qu Yi.

As a foreign general in Liangzhou, how could someone who became a general under Yuan Shao's hands just by relying on his military exploits be an idler.

In fact, the reason why Qu Yi took the initiative to invite Ying was actually stimulated by the generals under Xu An's command, especially Lu Bu who was in Donglai County at the moment.

At the same time, Xu An made it clear that after the Southern Expedition destroyed the Han court and unified the world, all the generals who have made great achievements will be awarded titles.

Qu Yi was gearing up to win the first achievement of the Southern Expedition.

Now there are only two people in the entire Ming court, one is Lu Bu, and the other is Gongsun Du.

The achievements of the two can be described as unworldly achievements. Lu Bu pacified Xianbei, and Gongsun Du wiped out the four kingdoms.

It is absolutely false to say that he does not want to fight for the reward of the Marquis.

I heard that the doctors who are currently in Shiqu and Tianlu National Colleges have been summoned together by the Ministry of Road and Administration, and officials from the Ministry of Rites have also been recruited together. It seems that preparations for the compilation of history books have already begun.

If he can be named a Marquis, he will probably make a separate biography in the history books. Who wouldn't want to fight for such an honor.

Even if he can't be a Marquis, no matter how bad it is, at least he should be a high-ranking Earl.

Don't be a low-level earl, or even just a viscount, then when the time comes, what face will he have to stand above the court.

The vanguard is the best position to make meritorious service. If you follow Xu An's side, I am afraid that after the war is over, you will not get any meritorious service.

After all, there are too many generals following Xu An now. Those generals joined the Taiping Dao very early on. When the time comes, they will be rewarded for their merits and their past achievements can be discussed, but he has no merits at all. Fifty thousand soldiers surrendered.

Against the wind, the horses gallop,
Qu Yi pulled the reins, recalling the content of the previous military discussion.

Attacking Qingzhou from the north of the Yellow River requires crossing three rivers.
The first is the Yellow River, the second is Luoshui, and the third is Jishui.

From north to south, three rivers separate Qingzhou and Jizhou.

The Qingzhou line of defense run by the Han court is not simply based on the Yellow River.

The Han court used these three rivers to set up three lines of defense.

The Yellow River is now in the dry season and ice flood season, and the first line of defense set up by the Han court has also disappeared.

During the dry season and ice flood season of the Yellow River, the Han army would retreat to the city near Luoshui.

The Luoshui line of defense is mainly composed of the four cities of Dongchaoyang, Jianxian, Zouping, and Qiancheng.

Luoshui is shallow, and pontoon bridges can be quickly built to cross the river in many places, so the effect of obstacles is extremely limited.

This line of defense is actually just a buffer line of defense, and Han Ting does not pin its hopes on it.

The Han court reinforced the four cities of Dongchaoyang, Jianxian, Zouping, and Qiancheng many times.

Among the cities of Qingzhou, the defenses of these four cities are the strictest.

There are four thousand defenders in each city, and at the same time there are seven or eight thousand townsmen in the city to help defend.

The generals of the Han court knew very well that the army alone would never be able to defeat the Ming army.

After the reform, the powerful families from all over the country once again untied a shackle, allowing them to train village bravery and give them military positions.

If you count these so-called country bravery and count these country brave people into the ranks of soldiers, then the Han army in Qingzhou now has more than [-] people.

Of course, it is not known how much water these so-called [-] people have and how much combat power they have.

In the era of hot weapons, recruits with firearms are indeed considered a combat power, but in the era of cold weapons, recruits sometimes become more of a burden.

Only on specific occasions, such as when defending a city, can recruits and so-called village warriors be of any use.

And the purpose of the Han court is exactly that, these so-called village braves are actually civilian husbands who were forcibly conscripted.

They were summoned, trained briefly, issued weapons, and then dragged into the battlefield.

The meaning of their being pulled onto the battlefield is to serve as cannon fodder for defense, consuming the physical strength of the attacking Ming army.

Of course, in addition to this, it is to let the children of those powerful families have a military position, so that they can become the pillars of the country in a legitimate way.

The role of the four cities of Luoshui is to become nails, nailed to Luoshui in this way, so that the Ming army had to break through these four cities and continue southward, otherwise it would be in danger of being cut off and threatening the grain road.

The [-] to [-] people who were placed in Luoshui were just abandoned children.

Hanting mainly operates the third line of defense, the Jishui line of defense.

Compared with the Yellow River, which has worrying water flow during the dry season and the freezing period, Jishui is a river that is really suitable for defense.

There are six main cities that constitute the Jishui defense line, all of which were built near Jishui, namely: Zhu'a, Licheng, Taixian, Liangzhou, Linji, and Le'an.

The six cities were guarded by the six generals Han Hao, Li Gan, Xiahou Dun, Xiahouyuan, Lejin, and Cao Hong respectively.

Relying on Jishui, the six cities are connected into a line and provide mutual aid.

Cao Cao led the main force to Linzi, ready to support the Jishui line at any time, and Zhu Zhi led his troops to Dongpingling, the county government of Jinan, as a backup.

Dongping Mausoleum and Linzi, one south and one north, one west and one east, correspond to the three west cities and the three east cities respectively.

The arrangement of the Qingzhou Han army is indeed very tricky.

The reform of the Han court is not without effect.

Qu Yi has experienced many battles, he knows very well that the person who laid out such a strategy is definitely not an idle person.

It's just that there is no definite news from the Eagle Wolf Guard. It is still unknown who made this strategy.

But even so, Qu Yi didn't think there would be any problems in the battle of Qingzhou.

The defeat of the Han army is inevitable, just because of the so-called bravery who have only been trained for more than half a year and have not seen much blood?
There used to be a lot of so-called country braves in Jizhou, but those country braves had no effect at all after being pulled into the battlefield. They were disorganized and difficult to follow orders.

As the vanguard, Qu Yi took the two thousand soldiers under his command to the camp first.

The backbone of the first battalion under his command was the family soldiers of his own family, and then he was composed of elite soldiers selected by the original Jizhou Army.

The first camp is actually infantry, with bows and spears and shields as the main equipment.

But because Qu Yi was born in Liangzhou, in fact, all the soldiers under his command would ride horses, and the elite soldiers of the Jizhou Army would basically also ride horses.

It's just that Wei Ting didn't control any horse farms before, and there were few horses, so there was no way to train too many cavalry.

In addition to going to the camp first, there were three thousand cavalry from the Xiliang camp following him as the vanguard.

The general in command of the Xiliang Camp is General Wuwei Guan Hai.

Guan Hai was the chief officer of the Xiliang Camp before, but he was dismissed because of his dereliction of duty in the Battle of Yuanguan.

Until now, Guan Hai still has not been reinstated. This time, because the vanguard has become Qu Yi, Xu An dispatched Guan Hai to Qu Yi's command, and let him serve as the deputy general to lead the Three Thousand Xiliang Camp to follow Qu Yi's orders.

Now Qu Yi has five thousand elite cavalry under his command, which is already an almost invincible force on the Qingzhou battlefield.

After all, adding up all the war horses in the Qingzhou Han Army, I am afraid that they can only make up one or two thousand war horses.

It is undoubtedly a dream for two-legged infantry to catch up with four-legged cavalry.

In the fourth year of the Ming Dynasty (197), September [-]th.

Qu Yi led the cavalry across Luoshui and arrived in the west of Luoyin City at dusk.

Zhuxian County to the north of Luoshui was also included in Quyi's pocket, and these two cities had already been abandoned by the Han army at this time and burned to the ground.

Then Qu Yi took the south route and led the cavalry under his command all the way south, marching in the direction of Zhu'a and Licheng in the south.

Zhu'a is the place Yanzhou must pass through if it wants to go to Qingzhou. There are mountains on both sides. Only through Zhu'a can it go north to Qingzhou.

At this time, a considerable part of the Yanzhou army was stationed in Taishan County, in order to wait until the battle of Qingzhou and go north to assist Qingzhou.

Therefore, Xu An decided to take Zhu'a and Licheng first to cut off the way for Yanzhou's reinforcements to come.

Then Zhu'a and Licheng marched all the way to the northeast, all the way to Linzi, directly bypassing the Luoshui defense line set up by the Han court.

Although Zhu'a and Licheng were the most well-prepared in the Eagle Wolf Guard's report, with relatively more guards.

But after these two cities, it will have a great influence on the subsequent war.

Only after capturing these two cities, can the Ming army truly have peace of mind in the subsequent battles. It can put all its strength on the Qingzhou Han army, isolate Yanzhou and Qingzhou, and further isolate Qingzhou.

Qingzhou is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Historically, Qingzhou has been independent many times in the five chaos, because of its unique geographical environment.

In the fourth year of the Ming Dynasty (197), September [-]th.

Qu Yi led the army to the north of Licheng, facing him across Jishui.

Originally, Qu Yi's plan was to cross Jishui directly, establish a stronghold for crossing the river, and wait for the follow-up siege equipment to arrive before attacking Licheng.

However, the unusual situation in the south of Jishui stopped Qu Yi in his tracks.

Along the line between Licheng and Zhu'a, a large number of military fortresses were built, and there were one or two of those military fortresses at intervals. Although they were not connected to each other, they were not far apart...

　The normal update will resume tomorrow, and I have already recovered, and my spirit is much better.

　　The foreshadowing of the past few days, readers should be a little annoyed.

　　But Qingzhou Mu is now Cao Cao, so naturally there are more pens and inks.

　　The next chapter goes directly to the topic.

　　In order to make everyone more comfortable to watch, Xiao Ming will try his best to speed up the update.

　　The problem of typos is an old problem. I will be more careful. If you readers see typos, you can remind me and I will correct them immediately.

　　Because there are a lot of people commenting, and there are problems with the writer's assistant, I can't see some comments, so I can't change them.

　　After many typos have been changed, because the cached chapters are still old, it shows that the typos have not been changed. Please don't scold me for not correcting them.

　　By the way, it is Li Gan who guards Licheng. Some people may not have heard his name. He is Li Dian's uncle.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)