Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 812 Passive Counterattack

Yuan Tan has led his army back to Linzi, the seat of Qingzhou, and summoned all the counselors and generals under his command.

The reason for this was because he suddenly discovered that Yuan Xi was serious this time. He sent two groups of naval forces and four groups of infantry to break through the Qingzhou defense line at extremely fast speeds and enter the counties of Qingzhou.

The water routes included Tian Yu on the north route, who was blocking and harassing the coast of Le'an County's harbor, and Lu Xun and Tai Shici on the south route, who was conquering the Donglai coast.

On the land route, Yan Rouxianyu's auxiliary cavalry entered Pingyuan County from Bohai County in the north, and Yuan Xi took charge of the Chinese army in the south.

When Yuan Xi started to attack Langya, the urgent message reached the ears of Yuan Tan, who was attacking Qinghe in Jizhou. After learning about it, Yuan Tan made the worst plan on the advice of Guo Tuxinping and retreated to Pingyuan County as quickly as possible. response.

But Yuan Xi moved so fast that when Yuan Tan completely transferred his army back to the plains, he learned that Langya had completely fallen and Yuan Xi had fully invaded Qingzhou.

At the same time, Yuan Tan also learned the news that the Taishan thieves had fully rebelled against him. He was so angry that he kicked over the table in front of him and roared: "Thieves are thieves, and the ambition of a wolf is not trustworthy at all!"

He turned to Guo Tu and said: "Now my second brother has completely broken with me. With such an offensive, he is obviously preparing to fight me to death. Is this the result of your suppressing him in the past few years?"

"Originally, I could join forces with him, but in the end, I was forced to suppress him and ended up like this!"

Guo Tu hurriedly leaned over to plead guilty and said: "This official is guilty and is willing to be punished. But now that the evil tiger has become a threat, I hope you can take measures early."

Yuan Tan waved his hands irritably and said: "Forget it, what's the use of talking about it now!"

"Since my second brother is so aggressive, I will naturally have a fight with him!"

"I think it has violated the taboo of dividing its troops. I am going to take advantage of its unstable footing to defeat several of its armies. Can I?"

Before Guo Tu could answer, Xin Ping said: "Please be careful, I'm afraid this is a flaw deliberately exposed by the fierce tiger."

Yuan Tan's eyes narrowed, "Tell me about it."

After hearing this, Xin Ping walked to the Azabu map, pointed at the location of Qingzhou, and said: "The fierce tigers seem to be scattered, but in fact they are quite difficult to deal with."

He pointed at Donglai and said: "Lu Xun, the fierce tiger supervisor, led more than 500 Jianghuai fleets. He went north from Donghai County in Xuzhou and gradually encroached on the coast of Donglai via Langya. The Qingzhou navy went to war twice and suffered a disastrous defeat."

"And it also has the cooperation of Taishi Ci's cavalry army on land. Taishi Ci is the general who is best at water warfare under Fierce Tiger. He is also from Donglai. He is familiar with the terrain and cooperates tacitly with Lu Xun's navy. The Donglai defenders can only close the city to defend. , there is no way to fight back.”

"The most important thing is that after capturing Langya, its supplies are extremely convenient. You can advance, attack, retreat or defend. We are always looking for flaws in the cities along the Donglai coast of Qingzhou."

He then pointed at Le'an Road and said: "This is Tian Yu's naval force. He came from Yuyang, Youzhou. It is convenient to supply more than 200 miles away. Along the way, Jizhou and the Bohai Sea can provide support at any time. The Qingzhou navy fought fiercely with it several times. , was also suppressed, and the situation was not much better than facing Tai Shi Ci."

"The two counties of Le'an and Donglai are the only two counties in Qingzhou that are connected to the sea. The current situation shows that Qingzhou can no longer mobilize troops to support through the sea. The navy has become ineffective and can only rely on land for decisive battles."

After hearing this, Yuan Tan's face became even more ugly, "Why are his generals so fierce? It's just that there is a gap between my generals and the Four Court Pillars. Why are they so unbearable against the second brother general!"

Xin Ping sighed: "The generals under Fierce Tiger may not be worse than Four Court Pillars."

"This is without Zhao Yun."

Yuan Tan snorted coldly: "If that's the case, then I'll fight them one by one!"

Xin Ping pointed at the map, "This is the place I mentioned."

"The fierce tiger seems to have divided its forces, but in fact the main attack is still on the south route. The Yan Rou cavalry on the north route is just a cover-up."

"Although the Youzhou cavalry led by him come and go like the wind and pose a great threat on flat terrain like Pingyuan County, they are still a cavalry army and can only mainly harass, and it is impossible to attack the city."

"If we look at the small number of them and launch a large army to pursue them, we may not be able to catch them, and it will also waste precious defensive time. The ferocious tiger will take the opportunity to occupy Beihai and compress our territory. At that time, the situation will change. It’s very difficult to turn around.”

Yuan Tan's eyes flashed, "Zhongzhi is saying that you want me to ignore Yan Rou and go directly from the plains to Beihai to defeat the second brother's southern route army?"

Xin Ping sighed, pointed at the map and said, "Fierce Tiger's military use is not to be said to be leak-proof, but this time he is very particular."

"He sent the Taishan bandit Zangba Changxi to invade Qi from Taishan County, echoing the fierce tiger invasion of the Chinese army in Beihai."

"It has also left a way to retreat. As long as the war is unfavorable, it may retreat into Mount Taishan and Ni at any time. How will our army be able to pursue it deep into the mountains?"

"The same is true for Fierce Tiger's Chinese army in Beihai. Behind him is the newly captured Langya County. I heard that Langya County is descending in the wind. I am afraid that it has done a lot of work before, so its logistics and supplies will be much easier and there will be no worries. .”

"Not to mention Tai Shici's army in Donglai. It can be supported by sea supplies alone." "And the distance between the three parties is not far. It seems that they are the three infantry armies of Qi, Beihai, and Donglai. , the distance between them is only two hundred miles, and if we support each other, we can reach them in just a few days."

"What's even more troublesome is that these three armies have reserved escape routes to ensure the supply of food, grass and baggage. Even if the battle with Shijun is unfavorable, they can retreat quickly and lure Shijun's army to penetrate deeper."

"Of course you can press forward with a large army and look for the main force for a decisive battle, but have you discovered that from the plain to Beihai, you have to pass through Jinan County and Qi State, and you have to face the flank and rear harassment of Qi Guotai bandits before you can reach Beihai? Moreover, the food roads are extremely long and land transportation is inconvenient, even more inconvenient than the ferocious tigers who labored on expeditions!”

After hearing this, Yuan Tan and others had to admit that Xin Ping's words were right. Yuan Xi had been planning this raid for a long time. Compared with Yuan Tan's army, which was poorly prepared, it had a slight advantage in momentum. It came to attack Qingzhou. The food and grass supplies are better than those guaranteed by Yuan Tan, so how can we fight?

A thought came to everyone's mind, is this a dead end?

Yuan Xi has become very famous on the battlefield in recent years. Some things that he may not have considered before have been figured out by Yuan Tan's counselors. The more they think about it, the more they feel that their side's chances of winning this battle in Qingzhou are really slim. !

Yuan Tan turned to the crowd, saw them without saying a word, and said angrily: "When the war is going smoothly, you usually have so many ideas, why are you all mute at this time?"

"Everyone will come up with ideas when fighting with an advantage, but when you are at a disadvantage, you just have to surrender?"

Several counselors were shocked, because they had indeed thought about persuading Yuan Tan to negotiate peace with Yuan Xi, but hearing Yuan Tan's current tone, if they said anything about asking for peace, their lives would be in danger!

The reason why everyone was so passive this time was that almost no one thought that Yuan Xi, who had been fighting against Cao Cao at all costs and spared no effort, would actually use all his troops and trump cards to deal with Cao Cao who had not previously been able to do so. Yuan Tan, who was completely upset, simply made all the Qingzhou counselors come together and gave them a hard slap on the face!

Xin Ping sighed: "The fierce tiger's counselor is very extraordinary."

At this time, someone spoke up, "I think Fierce Tiger has a premeditated plan, mainly to plot against Qingzhou, and the envoy just blocked his way."

"He previously served as the governor of Youzhou. He did not want to conquer Liaodong and merge the prefectures, but sent him to Xuzhou to occupy the enclave of Guangling. Later, he tricked the envoy into carving up Xuzhou, thus paralyzing the envoy."

"But from the moment he occupied Shouchun, he showed his ambition. Everything he did at the beginning was to annex Qingzhou and connect the territories together!"

"In other words, even if the envoy makes good friends with him, sooner or later he will find an excuse to start a war with the envoy!"

After hearing this, Yuan Tan suppressed his anger and said, "It's useless to say anything now. I'm asking you how to deal with it. As for what the second brother thinks, I don't care at all!"

Xin Ping said solemnly: "The biggest problem now is that the commander's military strength is not superior this time."

"The envoy previously only mobilized the troops from the two counties of Jinan and Pingyuan. Donglai and Beihai were unable to mobilize due to the invasion. Now the ferocious tigers are fully prepared. The total number of troops will not exceed 40,000, but the envoy only has 50,000 or 60,000."

"In the case of unfavorable supplies, this number is somewhat dangerous when facing fierce tigers."

People's hearts are not only filled with danger, the soldiers in Fierce Tiger are replaced by one for three, or even for four or five. If the fight starts like this, Yuan Tan's troops will not be enough to replace him!

Seeing this, Yang Di quickly said: "How about asking Cao Shijun to send troops and jointly attack the fierce tiger?"

"As long as he sends out 20,000 to 30,000 men led by his general, he can attack the ferocious tiger from both sides and destroy it!"

Guo Tu nodded and said: "This is indeed a way. You can try it, but you can't place your hopes on it."

"After all, without our restraint in Qinghe, Yuan Shang is likely to turn around and attack Guandu again. It is hard to say whether Cao Ying can divide his troops to rescue us by then."

Everyone is upset. The situation in all directions is too complicated now. Every move can affect the whole body. Fierce Tiger found this opportunity very well!

Yuan Tan snorted coldly: "If I want to defeat my second brother, I need help from outsiders. In this way, even if I seize Jizhou and take back the position of the head of the Yuan family, I will be ridiculed by the world!"

"I have decided now to start an all-out war with my second brother!"

"He divides his troops, and I divide my troops too!"

"Fight generals, soldiers against soldiers!"

When all the counselors heard this, they were all shocked. Is Yuan Tan going crazy after gaining something?

Xin Ping thought for a moment, then his eyes lit up and he said, "Maybe this plan will work!"

"Turn the big ones into small ones, set up defenses in various towns, and at the same time strengthen the walls and clear the fields. Use a small force to hold back the fierce tiger army and consume its food and grass. Sooner or later, the fierce tigers will be unable to hold on and retreat!"

Yuan Tan heard this and smiled: "Zhongzhi still understands me, that's what I mean!"

"Since he's attacking in a big way, I won't let him fight to the death. I'll do the opposite and drag him to death!"

"Although Xuzhou is rich, the food and grass are not endless. The day he gets tired will be the time for me to fight back!"

(End of this chapter)