People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 273 Changes in Situation
The situation on the Changshan battlefield affected the situation on the entire battlefield. After the war had lasted for a month, Yuan Shao's army, which had been blocking Xu Chen's main force of the Yellow Turbans, finally chose to divide its troops again. It was to first take down Wang Dang's reinforcements, and then continue to besiege Xu Chen to death.

Then, another 30,000-strong army was divided into two groups and marched out to join forces with Zhang He, Gao Lan and Zang Hong of Qingzhou to kill the enemy.

Of course, after the troops were divided again, the pressure faced by the remaining main army became greater. If the troops left in Chengping were not enough, not to mention blocking the main Yellow Turbans led by Xu Chen, the Yellow Turbans could even turn around and attack Yuan's army.

After all, if the Yellow Turbans cannot gain enough advantage in military strength, their combat effectiveness will become increasingly powerful.

After this division of troops, only 60,000 troops were left in Yuan's main force. Fortunately, this part of the force was the most elite force led by Yuan Shao himself. It not only included 20,000 armored troops, but also some Hun cavalry.

The battle has come to this point, Yuan Shao will not be greedy at all. He stays here with no intention of fighting a big battle with Xu Chen. He just wants to keep an eye on Cheng Ping and not give Xu Chen any room to move.

With my current strength, I don't have any delusion of defeating Xu Chen. It should be no problem for me to just protect myself and hold the opponent back.

This is indeed the case. After Yuan's army divided its forces again, Xu Chen and Lu Ping no longer had to defend the city to the death. Instead, they chose to go out of the city to fight. If they could defeat Yuan Shao's headquarters, the entire situation would be reversed in an instant.

But at this time, Yuan Jun understood this better and made full preparations for the Yellow Turbans' attack.

For a long time afterwards, both sides fought each other. The Yellow Turbans relied on their strong combat effectiveness to make Yuan's army breathless, but they were still unable to defeat Yuan's army's camp. Those who remained here were the most capable troops under Yuan Shao, and even if the Yellow Turbans fought hard, they still had a hard time.

However, in doing so, the pressure was instantly transmitted to Wang Dang. When subsequent troops were sent there again, Wang Dang was suddenly faced with an army of more than 100,000. He could only resist with his own 30,000 troops and saw almost no hope of victory.

The only thing that could make Wang Dang feel a little relieved was that the combat effectiveness of these more than 100,000 troops was relatively average, so it wouldn't be too difficult to fight them.

Wang Dang can currently rely on the fighting power of the Yellow Turbans to barely maintain his position, but if time continues to drag on, he will sooner or later be crushed by the pressure.

It was also when the two sides were confronting each other that Huang Long, in the rear of Xuanxia, ​​had arrived at the battlefield with the supplies he had previously raised by borrowing government debts, and successfully reunited with Wang Dang. However, the battle situation on the front line also made Huang Long worried.

"General Wang, there is not much time left. It's time to fight." Huang Long was handing over the supplies and looking at the mighty enemy formation, he was worried.

Wang Dang took a deep breath. He knew that the time had come to make a decision.

Fighting desperately means that the court will have to borrow money again, and even have to accept donations from the people, and will have to recruit more soldiers in addition to the military households. All agricultural and industrial production in Xuanxia will also suffer losses, and all the people will have to follow the arrangements of the government.

This is a war mechanism developed by Xuan Xia. The highest level is the first-level war situation. Once it reaches this point, all resources will be poured into the war.

All factories will devote their full efforts to the production of war materials, money and grain from the people will be raised through various means, and the imperial court will begin to recruit soldiers without setting an upper limit.

Once it comes to this, there will be no crisis that cannot be overcome. Xuan Xia can effectively gather all internal resources and strength. Once released, it will definitely be an earth-shaking move.

However, the damage to Xuan Xia would be too great, and recovery after the war would be extremely difficult and long.

The prosperous situation that Xuan Xia had worked so hard to build up would also regress by several years.

Xuan Xia had already deduced the impact of initiating a level one war situation. Even Wang Dang, a rough warrior, understood the importance of it. If there was no choice, there would be no need for Xuan Xia to do so.

And now, it seems that there is no choice. If no decision is made, the situation may really collapse.

"In that case, then"

Wang Dang's eyes gradually became determined. If he hesitated to make a decision, he would suffer the consequences. If he couldn't win the current war, everything would be over. He could find ways to solve other problems, but at least he had to rescue the leader.

He had already given the order, and was about to activate the first-level war situation and fight to the death with Yuan's army.

But at this moment, the soldiers on the watchtower of the camp cried out in surprise: "General, the enemy is making unusual movements!"

Wang Dang and Huang Long were both stunned, and then they also climbed up the watchtower, took out their telescopes and looked around. Sure enough, they saw changes in the enemy's camp. Tens of thousands of troops began to retreat from the camp! What happened?
Wang Dang was somewhat puzzled: "The enemy clearly had the upper hand, why did they suddenly withdraw?"

Huang Long was also confused. He looked at it for a long time before he said uncertainly, "Could it be that they are trying to trick us into taking the initiative to attack?"

Wang Dang frowned and said, "No way. We are not stupid. How can we be fooled so easily?"

Huang Long put down the telescope, pondered for a moment and said: "It is always a good thing for us that the enemy has left. Don't rush to react. Let's find out what happened first."

Wang Dang nodded: "That's the only way. I hope it's a good thing."

While Wang Dang and Huang Long were guessing, the enemy camp was already in chaos. Zhang He and Gao Lan looked at Zang Hong with grim expressions. Although they wanted Zang Hong to stay and continue fighting, it was impossible.

However, as the war situation was gradually becoming clearer, Zang Hong led his army to retreat at this time, and I am afraid that the good situation ahead will disappear overnight.

No one expected that at this critical juncture, Tao Qian of Xuzhou suddenly sent troops to attack Qingzhou. Naturally, this made Zang Hong unable to sit still. Compared with continuing to fight with Yuan's army, it was more important to defend his hometown.

At this time, he didn't care what Yuan Shao would think and immediately assembled a large army to return to Qingzhou for support.

"You can report my crime to the governor of Yuanzhou. I had no choice but to withdraw my troops this time. Tao Qian threatened me, so I had no choice."

Zang Hong climbed onto his horse and before leaving, he sighed to Zhang He and Gao Lan. No one could do anything about something like this, which was very frustrating.

Of course, he also understood that once he led his 60,000 troops to withdraw, the Yuan army, which was originally able to suppress the Yellow Turbans, would be doomed.

"After I lead the army to leave, you don't have to confront the Yellow Turbans here. If you can't defeat them, go back and cooperate with Yuanzhou Muhui. With the Yellow Turbans' fighting power, the few troops you have left are simply not enough."

After giving his final warning, Zang Hong said nothing more and rode away on his horse.

Zhang He and Gao Lan watched the Qingzhou army leave and both sighed. Then they looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

The question facing them now is whether they should continue to fight against the Yellow Turbans?

In fact, even if the Qingzhou army left, they still have the advantage in military strength. Yuan Shao has been continuously investing troops here, and there are still nearly 70,000 troops here.

But the problem is that these 70,000 troops are not the strongest fighting force in Yuan Shao's hands. They are still the ordinary troops without weapons and armor and lack training. Even if this kind of army has more than twice the strength, it is still difficult to deal with the Yellow Turbans.

If Zang Hong didn't leave, they would have a certain military advantage, and they would be able to suppress the Yellow Turbans, but now.
"Should we retreat?" Gao Lan looked hesitant.

Zhang He sighed, "After the Qingzhou army left, our army was no longer able to compete with the Yellow Turbans, let alone stop them. We may even be defeated by them. Retreat is inevitable."

Gao Lan said helplessly: "This is the only way, but we have to move faster. The Yellow Turbans don't know their true strength in a short time and will not dare to take the risk of pursuing us. Our army will then arrange to evacuate."

Zhang He looked into the distance, the worry on his face difficult to erase.

Even if the current battle is unfavorable, it doesn’t matter much. Overall, the Jizhou army still has a chance to fight and may be able to defeat the Yellow Turbans.

But what worries him is that the variables may not only occur in Qingzhou. If Tao Qian can suddenly attack, will other places also be in danger? After all, Jizhou has more enemies than just Xuan Xia.
"Let's do it this way. Retreat as soon as possible. I hope there won't be any more complications."

As they made the decision to retreat, shortly after the Qingzhou army withdrew, they also led their troops to retreat, with no intention of continuing to confront the Yellow Turbans, because they knew very well that the existing forces were not enough to compete with Wang Dang.

When Wang Dang Huanglong saw them evacuate so quickly, he did not dare to act rashly as they had expected, and let them withdraw safely.

(End of this chapter)