Overlord!

Chapter 289 Expanding the Territory and Counties
This battle between Sun Ce, Cao Cao, and Yuan Shao truly demonstrated what it means to have a dangerous and unpredictable army.

Especially under the intervention of the imperial court, the decisive battle between the three parties is all about racing against time to defeat the enemy!
Whoever makes a breakthrough first will make the war situation take a different direction.

Therefore, Sun Ce also attacked the city and persuaded him to surrender, while paying attention to the war between Yuan and Cao.

As the commander-in-chief, it is necessary for him to keep an eye on the overall situation.

But the more he watched this battle, the more angry he became. He wanted to kill all the generals under Yuan Shao and lend dozens of Jiangdong's fierce generals to Yuan Shao.

At this moment, Sun Ce finally understood why Xun Yu, a great man in the world, looked down upon Yuan Shao very much, saying that Yuan Shao was "a man of commoners who can gather people but cannot use them".Guo Jia also scolded him for "wanting to imitate Zhou Gong's subordinates, but he didn't know how to employ people."

In Sun Ce's opinion, these generals and commanders in Yuan Ying are all idiots!

Cao Cao even personally wrote a letter "Hidden Song and Jin Sheng Biao" and sent it to the court to cheer up the court and encourage the determination of the emperor and officials to send troops.It was also sent to Sun Ce to ridicule Sun Ce's unclear alliance and undermine Jiangdong's military morale.

And his behavior was also a great success. When the soldiers on the entire southern battlefield heard about Yuan Shao's defeat, they were all demoralized!
It is true that Yuan Shao's defeat was so bizarre that people could not imagine that this was something that a prince who wanted to wipe out the world could do.

It also made countless officials doubt that if they formed an alliance with a prince like Yuan Shao, could they really fulfill their oath and wipe out Cao Cao?
The main reason is that "Hiding Song Jinsheng Biao" made Cao Cao's writing vivid and expressive. It not only shows Cao Cao's usual talent and outstanding literary talent, but also his humorous language and funny talent!

"I sent forward to attack Xucheng and got a chance to speak. I said: There is a god named Song Jinsheng in Hanoi. He ordered all the villages to say: There is no need to guard the antlers. I will send dogs to guard you. Anyone who does not follow his words will hear that there is an army at night. The sound of soldiers. Tomorrow I will look down at the camp, but I will see traces of tigers. The commander of the army, Lieutenant General Lü Na, is so fierce that he will cover up his troops to survive, and he will march according to the military law.

That is to say, there was a god named Song Jinsheng in Yuan Shao's army. As the chief general, he ordered the garrison of each camp to say, "You don't need to send people to guard the antlers. I will send dogs to help you guard them."Some people didn't believe what he said and thought Song Jinsheng was bragging, but at night they heard the sound of patrols by sergeants coming from Song Jinsheng's camp. Looking back the next day, there were actually tiger tracks on the ground near the military camp.

This Song Jinsheng had obviously been playing tricks in the army before, but he could fool the friendly troops, but he could not fool the enemy!
So Cao Cao sent his subordinate Wumeng Duwei Lü Na to send troops, captured Song Jinsheng alive, and then immediately beheaded him, sending this well-known great god and dog lover to see the God of Ming.

Sun Ce was so angry that he could hardly maintain his composure when he heard that Yuan Shao had appointed this man as a general to take charge of the left-wing war effort.

What is the difference between this and the eve of the Jingkang disaster, when Song Qinzong used magic sticks to defend the city and relied on six Ding and Liujia magic soldiers to fight against the Jinren cavalry?
This Song Jinsheng should be the Commander-in-Chief of the Black Mountain Army who surrendered in Hanoi and Wei County and attached himself to Yuan Shao. There were many in the Black Mountain Army who took refuge with Yuan Shao.

As a result, Yuan Shao actually gave him a heavy responsibility. However, there were not many gods like Song Jinsheng in the Yuan Army, and they were usually in high positions. For example, the more famous Yuan Army general Shao Cui Juye was an astronomical magician who could read astronomy and had the power of astrology. technique.

As a result, he was defeated by Gongsun Zan with an army of 8000 in the Battle of Jumashui. He returned with a great defeat, and [-] to [-] people were killed by the formation!

The formation killed seven or eight thousand people!Sun Ce's Northern Expedition has been going on for so long, and even now, the rabble against Cao Cao has not been able to kill 8000 or 8000 people in total.

Yuan Shao's advantage since the Battle of Jiehe was almost lost in one battle, so it took Yuan Jun six or seven years to wipe out Gongsun Zan.This was the case when Gongsun Zan made a mistake on his own and killed Liu Yu, causing the entire Youzhou to rebel. Liu Yu's subordinates Xian Yufu and Wuhuan and Xianbei cavalry sent more than [-] troops to besiege Gongsun Zan.

Even Gongsun Zan ridiculed Yuan Shao's servants, saying that he "made Cui Juye look at the stars, bribed his legacy, shared food and drinks, met in Keqi, and attacked Chao counties. Is this what a minister should do?"

Cao Cao was obviously very aware of Yuan Shao's shortcomings in this regard. Yuan and Cao's armies of nearly 20 troops faced each other on the southern line of the Yellow River. In the spring, Cao Cao first led his troops in Lihu and Juyang, beheading Yuan's generals Wen Chou and Chunyu Qiong respectively.The battlefield here is on the eastern front of the confrontation, which is within Jiyin County.

In the summer, he sent generals Dian Wei and Le Jin and other generals with five thousand troops to cross the Jishui River and attack Yuan Shao's camp. From the southwest edge of Pu River to Kuangcheng and Pucheng, they burned and beheaded more than thirty villages in Baoju. Thousands of people each were born, and more than [-] generals from Yuan Shao's tribe, including He Mao and Wang Mo, were surrendered.

This is already the front line of Chenliu and Dongjun. Cao Cao saw that the left wing was opening up, so he sent General Shi Huan to camp on the Pingqiu line, attack Yuan Shao's camp in Hejin, and break it again!

This resulted in that although Cao Cao's main camp, which was confronting Yuan Shao in the middle, had "less than ten thousand soldiers and twelve or three wounded", on the battlefield on both wings, Cao Cao was victorious in repeated battles!
In terms of commanding an army of [-] men across the world, Cao Cao may not be as good as Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, but beating Yuan Shao is definitely not a problem.

He, Yuan Shao, simply could not command such a huge front. A confrontation of 10 men would take months to decide. The battle line stretched for hundreds of miles. Except for Yuan Shao who could suppress Cao Cao, the other generals in the Yuan camp were no match for Cao Cao's army.

It's no wonder that Yuan Shao didn't dare to use Xu You's strategy and let his generals lead tens of thousands of people to confront Cao Cao. He personally led his army and doubled the advance to Xu County.We must personally surround Cao Cao in the Jishui area.

It is not that Yuan Ying did not have generals who were good at conquering and fighting, such as Qu Yi, Ju Shou, Zhang He, Qian Zhao, Yan Rou, etc. However, due to Yuan Shao's unclear knowledge of people, the most capable general, Qu Yi, was beheaded by him, and Ju Shou was killed. He was suspicious of him, so the military power was given to Guo Tu and Chun Yuqiong. Zhang He, Qian Zhao, Yan Rou, etc. were not reused and were middle and low-level generals.How could he defeat Cao Cao if he left these famous generals unused and led the army with Guo Tu and Chunyu Qiong?
Sun Ce couldn't imagine how someone like Guo Tu could lead an army to compete with generals like Le Jin and Dian Wei!

Although at present, there is no separation between civil and military families, but the son of a scholar like Guo Tu has limited experience in commanding troops. In such a critical battle, commanding a large number of troops and confronting Cao Ying fiercely can only prove that Yuan Shao is ignorant of his personnel.

Compare the generals Zhou Yu, Lu Meng, Zhang Liao, Xu Huang, Taishi Ci, Zhang Fei, Gan Ning, and He Qi used by Sun Ce, and then compare the generals Guo Tu, Chunyu Qiong, Song Jinsheng, and Cui Juye of Yuan Ying, it is enough to understand why Yuan Shao is there. A hundred thousand troops were raised, but the left and right were depleted.

Faced with this situation, Sun Ce could only urge his generals to march with all their strength and advance with all their might.

Fortunately, here in Xu County, although the army failed to attack for several days, Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang lived up to their reputation as famous generals in the martial arts temple.

Zhuge Liang's division of troops in the direction of Rencheng was a great success. Cao Chun's troops were not the main force of Cao's army. They lacked mules and horses, and their maneuverability was completely inferior to Zhuge Liang's. Therefore, Zhuge Liang's Wei Yan army had conquered Changyi, and the troops were directed to Tao.

The front line of the battle with Yuan Cao here in Dingtao is only a thin line apart. The battlefield where Cao Jun beheaded Chun Yuqiong in Juyang was probably more than a hundred miles north of Dingtao!
It's not that Zhuge Liang doesn't know how to divide his troops. If you give him a large army with sufficient logistics supplies, he is also very good at dividing his troops.

This battle was very similar to the Battle of Chencang. Cao Zhen concluded that Zhuge Liang would attack Chencang.

Zhuge Liang also knew that Cao Zhen would judge this way, so he followed his plan.

He personally led his troops to attack Chencang in early 229, attracting the main force of Cao's army to come to the rescue.Shu general Chen Shi led his army to march westward. In the spring of 229, the Shu army won a complete victory and captured the two counties of Cao Wei Wudu and Yinping in one fell swoop.

Two counties!And they were two counties captured from a big country like Cao Wei that was fully engaged in defense, Yongliang did not disarm, China did not release saddles, and had 15 troops stationed!

In the Battle of Chencang, Zhuge Liang only fought for more than 20 days before he retreated due to lack of food!

How could a commander, especially one commanding an army of tens of thousands, bring only twenty days of food and fodder and launch an attack without laying out food channels?

Only a reckless man like Wang Shuang would believe it, so he led his army to attack and gave Zhuge Liang a head and military exploits in his feint attack.

If Yuan Shao had Zhuge Liang's talent, he could capture two counties in one spring, and the current situation in the world would not be so dangerous that it would be difficult for everyone in the world to decide the outcome of the two sides.

Yuan's army began to gather in the twelfth lunar month of last year and fought until midsummer this year. Although there were mutual victories and defeats with Cao's army, especially the joint battles between Yuan Shao himself and Cao Cao, they all ended in unfavorable results for Cao Cao. Hujun, Chenliu and Jiyin were partly guarded near Guandu by Cao Jun. In terms of territory, it was less than a large county.

You must know that this is Cao Jun's strategy. If you save the land and lose the people, you will lose both the people and the land.People and land are saved, and people and land are saved.

Cao's army used a slow retreat as a strategy to open up Yuan Shao's defense line, and forced Yuan's army to divide his troops to defend the rear, reducing the size of the frontline troops. Only then did Cao's army win a series of battles, and the strength of the two armies continued to wax and wane.

On the contrary, Zhuge Liang, as the commander-in-chief of Jiangdong, had a remarkable record.

He took advantage of Cao Chun's belief that he would attack Kang Fu Dao, and used his tactics to confront him with only a small number of troops. Wei Yan, on the other hand, led his army to advance wildly. Since the beginning of the war, he has captured the entire territory of Pei State, as well as Shanyang County and Jiyin County. The southern part of the county covers an area of ​​no less than two counties.

On the left, Zhou Yu sent troops from Xu County and captured Fugou, Cao's army's important granary on the water line of the gutter. It was this waterway that Cao's army used to transport grain from the headquarters to the front line.

Capturing this place will mean that Cao Jun's supplies are actually cut off. Cao Jun's front line can only sustain food for half a decade to a month at most.

But Zhou Yu still did not slow down his advance, and went up the sewer water to attack the county seat of Chenliu. If the red flag of Jiangdong flew over this city, Cao Cao would no longer be able to hide the situation in the rear.

If the officers and soldiers of Cao's army knew that their wives and daughters were captured by Jiangdong, Cao Cao's defeat might be as fast as Guan Yu's defeat in Maicheng!
(End of this chapter)