I am not an ant thief in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 439, their own predicament
After Yuan Shao vented, he asked the crowd: "The situation is so critical now, how should our army break out of the predicament?"

Xu You, Guo Tu, Feng Ji, Xin Ping, Xin Pi and others were at a loss.

Tian Feng said firmly: "Master, the Wubao we built is not completely useless. If there were no such Wubao, I am afraid that Dingtao would have become the first line against Lei Gong! It is precisely because we built the Wubao in Yanzhou. A large number of fortresses prevented the large cavalry from rampaging in Yanzhou!"

"What we have to do now is to find a way to repel Lei Gong's cavalry and open up the connection with the front line. If we don't contact the front line guards, I'm afraid they will surrender to Lei Gong out of fear!"

Xu You asked: "Now Yanzhou has Lei Gong's 10 cavalry, how can we get in touch with Dongjun?"

Tian Feng thought for a while and said: "The cavalry of our coalition army adds up to 3, although the number is less than one-third of Dagan's, but now Lei Gong has scattered his 10 cavalry on the entire territory of Yanzhou. Let's concentrate our forces. It may not be impossible to annihilate a part of the cavalry and open up the connection with the front line!"

There were not many cavalry in the allied forces of the princes in the Han Dynasty. Yuan Shao collected the Sanhe knights before the Han Dynasty, plus the thousands of cavalry remnants he collected in Jizhou, and the war horses he bought from Xiliang. Together, Yuan Shao formed 2 cavalry.These 5000 cavalry followed Zhang Yun to garrison Chang'an City, the first battalion was in Luoyang City, and the remaining 1.5 people were in Yanzhou!The cavalry of Luoyang City followed Yuan Shao to Dingtao, so Yuan Shao had [-] cavalry in Dingtao.

And Liu Bei also has a lot of cavalry in his hands. He recruited 5000 cavalry from Xiliang, and later opened up a way to buy war horses in Xiliang, trying to expand the cavalry to 5000. Other generals such as Lu Bu also have 1.5 cavalry. So in total, there are now [-] cavalry on Liu Bei's side, and these cavalry basically followed Liu Bei to Yanzhou!
And this time, in order to deal with Lei Gong, a powerful enemy, Liu Bei brought all the most capable generals of the Han court to the front line, such as Lu Bu, Zhang Liao, Gao Shun, Hao Meng, Cao Xing, Cheng Lian, Wei Xu, Song Xianhe Hou Cheng.Jiangdong generals Cheng Pu, Huang Gai, Han Dang, Jiang Qin, Zhou Tai, Chen Wu, Dong Xi who followed Guan Yu, Shuzhong generals who followed Liu Bei to Xiangyang, Zhang Ren, Yan Yan, Gan Ning, Yang Huai, Gao Pei, Deng Xian, Leng Bao, it can be said that this time Liu Bei brought most of the generals from the entire Wu and Shu camp!

Cao Cao has the fewest cavalry among them, but he also has 3000 cavalry, but these cavalry are still stationed in Qingzhou under Xia Houyuan's men!But there are many fierce generals who followed Cao Cao to Dingtao. Dian Wei, Xu Zhu, Yu Jin, Li Dian, Le Jin, if you add Xia Houdun, Xia Houyuan, Cao Ren who were on the front line, most of the generals from Cao Cao's camp came.

Although the allied forces of the princes of Dingtao Dahan have not yet been fully assembled, there are already 3 cavalry stationed here.

Moreover, there is no shortage of capable generals in the Han's coalition of princes. If under the command of these fierce generals, the coalition of princes in the Han Dynasty may not fail to achieve results if they take the initiative to attack!
"Actively attack?" Yuan Shao and the others were a little hesitant.

The cavalry in their hands is no better than Lei Gong. Lei Gong occupies the grassland and the three states in northern Xinjiang. It can be said that all the horse breeding land in the world is occupied by Lei Gong. Thousands of cavalry, and the Han coalition army's war horses are really one less than one horse. These cavalry in their hands died in battle, and there is no need to replenish them at all!

Tian Feng nodded solemnly and said: "Although we don't know the situation in Dongjun, there are already a large number of Leigong cavalry in Juyang and Chengyang. These cavalry are attacking our Wubao in Yanzhou scattered. Yang, after the Dagan cavalry pull out all these Wubao, they will definitely rush to Dingtao! If we take the initiative to attack, Lei Gong must allocate more than 5 cavalry to guard against us! This will definitely delay The progress of Lei Gong's attack on Yanzhou, and at the same time buy time for our army to gather!"

Then Tian Feng pointed to the line between Chenliu County and Taishan County and said: "Lei Gong has plenty of troops in Yanzhou now, and there are cavalry to help block the reinforcements, so we can't deal with the two armies in the middle of Lei Gong, but Yang Feng and Li Gang's armies are attacking separately. Luoyang City and Qingzhou line, this saves us a lot of time in gathering soldiers!"

"In these two directions, we can gather 20 troops. If we can annihilate these two troops of Lei Gong, the main army will lose both arms, and Lei Gong's plan to attack the Central Plains will go bankrupt for the first time!"

After hearing this, Jian Yong shook his head and said: "This is not realistic at all. Lei Gong's artillery is so powerful that we have no way to deal with it alone. We have the advantage of cavalry. Even if we have the advantage of troops, it is difficult to wipe out Yang Feng and Li Gang. His subordinates, not to mention that they are in danger, Lei Gong will definitely send cavalry to support the two of them, although the Central Plains battlefield is huge, it is only a few days for the cavalry!"

Tian Feng smiled and said: "It would be the best if Lei Gong really did this, but the cavalry hindered us, so we can send soldiers to open up the connection with Dongjun!"

"As for the artillery!" This Tian Feng really has no good solution.

It has only been a few years since this new type of weapon appeared on the battlefield, and everyone is not familiar with it. If Lei Gong hadn’t produced too many cannons this time, and the quantitative change caused a qualitative change, the big man really wouldn’t pay much attention to the power of the cannon. He regards it as a siege weapon like a trebuchet!Unfamiliar with weapons, it is naturally difficult to find its flaws.

At this time Zhang Fei said: "What's there to think about, this artillery is just an enhanced version of the trebuchet, if you want to prevent the artillery from exerting its power, everyone should rush together and fight hand-to-hand. It is impossible for Lei Gong to kill his soldiers. Kill them too! We are the defensive side, we can build some low walls, dig some trenches to block the attack of the artillery, and wait for the big army to rush up, and we will fight them again. Now Lei Gong has only entered Yanzhou with only about 20 people. We have With 80 people, how can we still win if four fight against one? As long as 10 troops fight to the death, we will win this war! Not to mention that on the left and right wings, our strength is as high as 8 times. How can 8 people still win? You can't fight Lei Gong alone!"

Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and Liu Bei suddenly realized what Zhang Fei said.

Yes!It is impossible to defeat Leigong with light defense, as long as a large number of Leigong's soldiers are consumed and Leigong suffers heavy losses, that is the right way to defeat Leigong!
So Yuan Shao and Liu Bei gathered the cavalry in their hands, and appointed Lu Bu as the commander of this army, and Yuan Tan as the deputy commander, leading an army of 3 to open up the connection with Dongjun!
At the same time, they ordered the front-line generals in Luoyang and Qingzhou to find a way to annihilate the armies on the left and right wings of Dagan.

Early July of the second year of Xingping in the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 195)
Wei Commandery, Ye City, Southern Expedition Headquarters!
Xu Wei, Wang Ge, Jia Xu and others sat together, discussing the latest battle situation!

"It has been 10 days since we crossed the river and now our southern expedition army." Jia Xuhui reported: "The results of the battle are gratifying. The four armies have successfully completed the task of crossing the river and occupied the entire ferry of the Yellow River. The 30 troops are complete. Cross the Yellow River!"

"Under the command of General Yang Feng, the army of the West Road is advancing rapidly towards Luoyang City. According to the latest information, General Yang Feng has already begun to attack Suanzao City, and will soon enter the range of Sili. However, General Yang Feng The obstacles are getting stronger and stronger, and the armies of Sili and Yuzhou have begun to gather in the direction of General Yang Feng. When these armies are all assembled, General Yang Feng will face the enemy's nearly 5 troops. The general only has [-] soldiers, and the difference in strength between the two sides is too great! The subordinates are a little worried about the danger of the army on the West Road!"

In less than ten days, Yang Feng went deep into Yanzhou for 300 miles, and now he is almost hitting Henan Yin. Seeing Yang Feng's appearance, he really wants to capture Luoyang City in one go.

Xu Wei thought for a while and said: "Let Yang Feng attack Chenliu County, pay attention to cooperate with Huanglong, don't go too deep into Sili, Luoyang City is not the target of our attack this time!"

Wang Ge wrote down Xu Wei's order, and then asked the messenger to convey Xu Wei's order to the East Army!

Jia Xu continued: "Huanglong and Wangyong in the middle road have encountered greater obstacles. The capitals of Puyang and Dong'a are Gaochishen, and the guards Gao Lan and Xiahoudun are also experienced. Although our army has the upper hand, we can These two cities have not yet been conquered! However, General Huanglong has already broken through the outer city of Puyang, and now the two sides are fighting for the inner city of Puyang! Moreover, General Huanglong requested support of 10 catties of gunpowder!"

Of course Gao Lan and Xiahou Dun and Xu Wei knew these two names, and they were considered famous generals of the Three Kingdoms. It is not bad that Huang Long and Wang Yongnei had the upper hand, but Xu Wei also frowned when Huang Long asked for support of 10 catties of gunpowder. The production of gunpowder in this era is not only unsafe, but also the quantity is extremely limited. Even though Xu Wei had hoarded it for several years, he only prepared 200 million catties for this battle.

The front four armies each prepared 20 catties of gunpowder, which means that half of the storage has been used up.Now that the battle has been fought for less than half a month, the World Yellow Dragon has asked for gunpowder support. I am afraid that the other roads are almost in this state.If he really wanted to use it like this, the gunpowder in his hand might not be used for even a month, so when the decisive battle came, the artillery in his hand would become a decoration!
Xu Wei thought for a while and said: "Let the logistics battalion give Huanglong 10 catties of gunpowder, but tell him that's all there is. After all the gunpowder is used up, let him build a trebuchet to attack the city later!"

Xu Wei secretly sighed, the technology tree is still not climbing fast enough, 200 million catties of gunpowder looks like a lot, but it is only equivalent to 500 tons of gunpowder, this is nothing more than a bombing of the modern hopeful country, he wants the big army to reproduce The tactics of fire coverage still have a long way to go, and there is not much gunpowder to support his subordinates!
Thinking of this, Xu Wei ordered: "Let the gunpowder factory speed up the production of gunpowder, and the artillery on the front line must not be turned off!"

Xu Wei didn't want to display a cannon that cost more than [-] yuan!

Wang Ge took down Xu Wei's order!
"The army on the east road is progressing smoothly. General Li Gang approached Chiping City with ships, and then directly covered the walls of Chiping City with artillery and flying thunder cannons. The guard Jiang Ji and the supporting Cao Ren were frightened by the artillery and flying thunder cannons. They didn’t dare to continue to garrison Chiping City at all, but fled to Lu County in Jibei Kingdom with a large army. Now General Li Gang is leading an army to pursue Jiang Ji and Cao Ren’s two tribes, and wants to wipe them out in Jibei County!”

Xu Wei thought for a while and said: "Order Duan Yun to send [-] cavalry to support Li Gang. If Jiang Ji and Cao Ren can be wiped out in Jibei County, it will be considered a big victory!"

Then Jia Xu continued: "The two generals Duan Peng and Duan Yun will be said to have not encountered the Han allied forces in the field of Yanzhou. Yuan Shao and the others gathered the army in Dingtao. Now the two generals are leading the cavalry to pull out Dongjun and Jiyin. They also asked for the support of artillery in Wubao in the county. Although the thunder cannon can attack the city, it is difficult to destroy the city wall. The gunpowder in the hands of the two generals has been used up!"

Xu Wei thought for a while and said, "Let the two of them completely surround Dongjun, cut off the combat missions supported by the Han army, pull out Wubao, etc. to conquer Puyang and Dong'e. Besides, attacking the city with cavalry is completely mindless behavior!"

Wang Ge wrote down Xu Wei's order, and then asked the messenger to convey Xu Wei's order to Duan Peng and Duan Yun!
Jia Xu continued: "In addition to these, the armies of the Four Routes all asked us to recruit more civilians! Yuan Shao's work in Yanzhou was very clean, and we could not find many civilians in Yanzhou, which made the transportation of food, grass, and luggage even slower. Go to the army. Now the West Road Army has been affected!"

Hearing this, Xu Wei frowned and asked, "You can't find people in the countryside of Yanzhou?"

According to Xu Wei's plan, after occupying Yanzhou, in order to reduce the food relief, they directly recruited the victims of the disasters as husbands, so that the victims could support themselves!
Jia Xu smiled wryly and said: "Yanzhou has been suffering from drought for three years in a row. Although Yuan Shao also provided relief, it was still a drop in the bucket. A large number of people in Yanzhou fled to our land in Hebei, and then you were moved to Liaodong for resettlement by you in power! So There are not many people in Yanzhou now, and most of them were placed near Wubao and the city by Yuan Shao.

After Yuan Shao discovered that we had a tendency to attack Yanzhou, Yuan Shao immediately cleared the walls of Yanzhou, and all the people were forcibly taken to Dacheng and Wubao by him. Although we occupied some cities in Yanzhou, there were very few people, and the large Some of them are old and weak, which is far from satisfying the logistics tasks of our hundreds of thousands of troops! "

Xu Wei asked: "How many civilians do we need to recruit to ensure the logistical support of the 30 troops on the front line!"

After calculating for a long time, Jia Xu said: "Now with the help of the transport team, only 10 can solve the logistics problem of the 4th Army, but as our army goes deeper into Yanzhou, more and more civilians will be needed. To capture the entire Yanzhou, I'm afraid a million is not too much!"

Xu Wei thought for a while and said immediately: "Send an order to Zhang Baiqi to recruit another 30 civilians in Jizhou. We must guarantee our four-way army on the front line."

Then Xu Wei said to Jia Xu: "It is up to you and Zhang Baiqi to discuss how many civilians are needed in the future. The soldiers on the front line must not be short of food and grass!"

Jia Xu bowed and said, "No!"

(End of this chapter)