People in the Three Kingdoms: Starting from Preaching

Chapter 414 It Happened to Be Him
"The enemy is attacking from three directions, each with several times more troops than ours. Our army seems to be defending all three directions, but in fact, we have lost all three directions. Rather than being defeated one by one by the enemy, it is better to gather our forces and destroy one of them first.

With Bingzhou's fall imminent, the most important thing for our army to do now is to destroy as many of the enemy's manpower as possible in preparation for a subsequent counterattack!"

Today, Wuli has long since grown from a Wuhuan slave into a qualified general among the Yellow Turbans. In the current unfavorable situation, he accurately realizes the correct combat strategy.

After he finished speaking, he looked at the other generals in the military tent.

Whether to fight according to this plan and the subsequent specific combat details need to be determined in the meeting.

Other generals in the military tent also nodded and expressed their opinions.

"I think this plan is feasible. In such an unfavorable situation, our army must make a choice. Bingzhou has to be given up, but it cannot be lost in vain. At least we have to achieve some results. Our army can form a local balance of forces or even an advantage by gathering its forces."

"It will take time for Jizhou's reinforcements to arrive, but once they do, it will be the time for our army to counterattack. If we want to do something before then, this seems to be the only way."

"There is great potential for this. Their three coalition forces seem to be working together, but according to military intelligence, Xiliang Ma Teng and Han Sui actually have a deep grudge against each other. This may be something we can take advantage of."

Hearing this, Wu Li smiled and pointed the stick at a spot on the map on the table: "That's exactly what I was thinking. Given the bad relationship between Han Sui and Ma Teng, if we join forces to attack one of them, the other party will surely be happy to watch. Only in this way can this plan be realized!"

Everyone looked in the direction where Wu Li's stick was pointing, and saw that he was pointing at Gao Shi.

There were three battlefields. Shangdang was the battlefield between Zhao Yun and the Wei army, Gaonu was the battlefield between Wuli's troops and Ma Teng, and as for Gaoshi, it was a battlefield between Zhang Baiqi and Han Sui.

Seeing where the wooden stick was pointing, they understood that Wu Li was aiming at the enemy troops led by Gao Shi and Han Sui.

This is as it should be. This kind of plan requires at least two armies to cooperate in order to proceed as planned. If Zhang Baiqi is mobilized to attack Ma Teng, it will take a lot of time just to communicate back and forth.

If they attack Han Sui, after evacuating here, they can go directly to Gaoshi to meet up with Zhang Baiqi, thus saving the time for communication back and forth.

"If our army attacks Han Sui together, Ma Teng is indeed unlikely to provide support, but the same cannot be said for Cao Cao." At this time, someone pondered and looked at the Shangdang area on the map and raised a question.

Someone else echoed, "This is indeed a problem. Judging from the old grudges between Ma Teng and Han Sui, it is unlikely that the coalition's attack was led by them. Instead, it should be something that Wei State has promoted. Ma Teng may ignore Han Sui, but Cao Cao will definitely do his best to rescue him. Even if Wei State lobby hard, it is not impossible for Ma Teng to change his mind."

As they were talking, everyone turned their eyes to Wuli. This is the purpose of a military meeting, to propose and improve plans.

Wu Li had already thought about this: "We will leave part of Cao Cao's enemy forces to Zilong. Shangdang can be lost, but we must hold Cao's army back here. Once the meeting finalizes the plan, we will immediately send a messenger to Shangdang to inform Zilong of the combat mission."

Everyone had different expressions when they heard this. Doing so is certainly a solution, but the prerequisite is that it can really be done.

Someone was worried and asked, "General Zhao doesn't have enough troops. Can he really hold back the Wei army? Isn't this asking too much?"

Wu Li smiled and said, "The mission is indeed difficult. If it were someone else, I would definitely not arrange it this way, but I trust Zilong's ability. We can be completely assured in leaving Shangdang to him."

Since that was said, the other generals nodded. Saying more would be questioning Zhao Yun's ability.

It has to be said that among the generals of the Yellow Turban Army, there are a few people who are respected by everyone in the army, and this naturally includes Zhao Yun. Although this task is arduous, it does not seem so impossible when it is handed over to Zhao Yun.

After all, among the military missions Zhao Yun had carried out in the past, there were many that were more difficult than this.

After the general plan was finalized, the generals discussed many specific details in detail. After a long time, when the meeting ended, they had a detailed strategy, and the subsequent operations of the army would also revolve around this plan.

When the subsequent plan was clear and the two armies fought again, Ma Teng and Ma Chao immediately noticed the changes in the Yellow Turbans.

In the following days of fighting, the Yellow Turbans reduced the intensity of the fighting as much as possible, and their fighting style changed from the previous tough stance of tit-for-tat to a conservative and defensive stance.

This is also a part of the Yellow Turbans' plan. Even if they want to evacuate here, they have to defend for as long as possible to buy more time for the joint defense in the rear. When the time is almost up, the Yellow Turbans can take the initiative to retreat.

Giving up the land will definitely result in huge losses, but war is no joke, and the Yellow Turbans have to make a choice at this time. Although Ma Teng and Ma Chao noticed something was wrong, they did not need to pay too much attention to the Yellow Turbans' reaction. As long as they maintained the current offensive rhythm, they would be able to defeat the Yellow Turbans with their superior military strength in the near future.

Although the subsequent fighting was not as intense as at the beginning, the tenacity of the Yellow Turbans still put Ma Teng and Ma Chao under tremendous pressure.

The combat effectiveness of the Xiliang soldiers was actually quite considerable. The Qiang people in the Xiliang area had been in chaos for many years, and the Qiang people themselves were known for their ferocity. The Xiliang soldiers were trained in this iron and bloody environment, and their combat effectiveness was much better than that of the Central Plains soldiers.

But even these soldiers from Xiliang were defeated by the Yellow Turbans.

This was also something that Ma Chao could not understand. Although life in the Central Plains was not easy, the environment in Xiliang was even worse. The combat effectiveness of the Yellow Turbans was very unreasonable in his opinion.

However, he did not understand that the combat effectiveness of a semi-professional army built with firm beliefs and abundant resources was no longer comparable to that of the Xiliang Army, an army that pursued the extreme combat effectiveness of individual soldiers.

If the troops were of equal strength, Ma Chao would not have enough confidence to fight against the Yellow Turbans.

Fortunately, after two or three days of fighting, they finally won the final victory.

When they saw the Yellow Turbans withdrawing from the camp from afar, Ma Teng and Ma Chao both breathed a sigh of relief at the same time. However, after they breathed a sigh of relief, they were both stunned.

After defeating the enemy with an absolute advantage in military strength, I actually felt relieved.

The father and son looked at each other and shook their heads helplessly.

Although we have generally had the upper hand in the battles these days, the fighting process can only be described as difficult. The pressure of fighting with such an opponent is too great. Even if we can defeat the opponent, we have to grit our teeth and use all our strength to do it.

But no matter what, the final result is still gratifying.

The Yellow Turbans retreated, but they, still in fear, did not choose to pursue them.

They also knew that the Yellow Turbans' reinforcements would arrive sooner or later, and before that the top priority was to gain as much benefit as possible. Since the other party had already given up the land, they could march straight in and enjoy the fruits of victory. As long as they could get actual benefits, there was no need to fight the enemy to the death.

However, Ma Teng felt uneasy because his opponent was too powerful. Therefore, after the Yellow Turbans retreated, he still sent scouts to follow closely behind the Yellow Turbans to investigate the military situation.

This arrangement did work. When the scouts returned two days later, they brought back the exact movements of the Yellow Turban Army.

However, what they did not expect was that the Yellow Turbans did not retreat to the rear of Bingzhou, but went directly to Gaoshi.

"They want to join forces to kill Han Sui first!"

"Is it better to cut off one finger than to hurt all ten?"

Both father and son were veterans of the battlefield. They understood what was going on after just a moment's thought and gave the correct answer in unison. Then they looked at each other and became a little hesitant.

It is not difficult to realize the intentions of the Yellow Turbans. What is difficult is the choice now before them.

"Father, should we send troops to rescue them?" Ma Chao looked uncertain and simply threw the question to Ma Teng.

Ma Teng was decisive. He only hesitated for a moment, then sneered and shook his head: "I have done my utmost not to add insult to injury. If Han Sui dies, it won't be a bad thing for us. Even if the coalition fails this time, we can at least inherit Han Sui's legacy!"

"The Yellow Turbans are really cunning. They must have calculated that we would not come to their rescue, so they decisively moved to Gaoshi. I'm afraid Han Sui is in great danger this time." Ma Chao thought about it and nodded silently.

If anyone is to blame, the only person to blame is Han Sui, his mortal enemy. Even if it were anyone else, his father and son would have taken action out of consideration for the overall situation and out of moral obligation.

(End of this chapter)