Chapter 746: Troops Enter Puyang
Since someone has already escaped, Puyang will definitely be prepared. According to the information obtained by Shadow, Puyang is the garrison of Xiahou Dun, the governor of Dongjun, and is usually garrisoned by about 20,000 troops.
He has led his troops to the battle this time, but the soldiers left behind should be at least 10,000, and his own army is only 40,000 now, so it is too risky to attack a large city with 10,000 soldiers. Instead of doing so, it is better to transfer the army and make plans.
After discussing with Pang Tong and Huang Zhong, the three decided that the army would temporarily rest in Baima for two days, and then attack Puyang after the reinforcements from Chenliu arrived.
According to Huangfu Chaobo's arrangement, after the army set off, another 20,000 follow-up soldiers will rush to join. At the same time, Zhang Miao, the governor of Chenliu, will also send a part of the army to come together, and the number of soldiers should be about 20,000. At this time, the army should have almost reached Pingqiu.
After arranging the army to enter the city, Huangfu Chaobo began to make arrangements. The Sizhou Army suffered almost no casualties in the battle of Baima City, but nearly two thousand prisoners were added to the army. Together with the three thousand prisoners at the beginning, the number of prisoners of the Sizhou Army has now reached five thousand. These five thousand people must be used well.
Two thousand of them will be transferred back to Baima Port to strengthen the defense of the port, and the remaining three thousand will be used to dredge the moat of Baima City and reinforce the city. Since the port and the county have been occupied, Huangfu Chaobo is not going to give them up again. The Sizhou Army is fully capable of defending the port city near the river.
Hu Yandu's five thousand cavalry were sent out as scouts. The area around Baima from Puyang in the east to Yan County in the west and Changyuan in the south was within his exploration range. Huang Zhong's Hu Ben cavalry was sent back to meet the 40,000 troops.
At this time, Xiahou Dun was already leading 10,000 troops on his way back to Puyang. As early as yesterday morning, he had received news that Huang Zhong's army had left Pingqiu, and soon after, news came from Yan County that tens of thousands of cavalry passed through Yan County and went east.
Xiahou Dun immediately realized that Huangfu Chaobo was going to attack Bai Ma, so he immediately ordered the army to withdraw to Changyuan. Sure enough, that night, the scouts sent back news that there had been no news from the direction of Bai Ma for a day.
Xiahou Dun, who had experienced many battles, knew that Bai Ma had most likely been captured by the Sizhou Army, and even if it had not been captured, it was estimated that it would not last long. What he was worried about was the county city Puyang. Now there were only 10,000 county soldiers in Puyang City, and the other elite soldiers had been brought by himself to attack Chenliu.
With this in mind, Xiahou Dun immediately summoned the generals in the army to discuss matters. After discussion, Xiahou Dun decided to lead the troops back to defend Puyang, leaving 10,000 soldiers to Le Jin to guard Changyuan and contain the Chenliu Army. Xiahou Dun led 5,000 Qingzhou soldiers and Cao Chali's 5,000 Tiger Guards to return to Puyang as soon as possible.
As Xiahou Dun expected, when he led 10,000 troops to Lihu, he received an urgent report from Puyang that Baima City had been lost, and the Puyang garrison asked him to rush back as soon as possible to preside over military affairs.
The war was about to break out. Many people were waiting to see this war, not only the various princes, but almost all the players were watching to see how strong the No. 1 player was, and the first collision between him and Cao Cao, the No. 1 overlord of the Three Kingdoms, who was still in the growth stage.
As for the previous Luoyang defense battles, everyone knew that defending a city was much easier than attacking it, and few players had heard of Jiang Pei, who had been sent to Hedong twice, so no one cared.
Three days later, on October 13, under the city of Puyang, 80,000 troops were waiting for it, and on the city wall, Xiahou Dun's army was also ready.
"General, it has been confirmed that Xiahou Dun has led 10,000 troops back to Puyang last night, which means that there are 20,000 Cao Cao troops in Puyang now." Shi A stepped forward and said to Huangfu Chaobo;
At this time, Huangfu Chaobo was leading his generals to inspect the situation of the city one mile away from the city. Puyang is the capital of Dongjun County and one of the largest cities in Yanzhou. Puyang, as the name suggests, is located on the south of the Pu River. The city of Puyang is about four feet high.
Fortunately, Huangfu Chaobo used the navy to transport a lot of siege equipment from Luoyang, and during the period of rest and recuperation of the army, he arranged for craftsmen to make a batch.
Now under the city of Puyang, Huangfu Chaobo has gathered 80,000 troops, including Huangfu Chaobo's own 10,000 guards, Huang Zhong's Tiger Guard Camp 15,000, Henan County Guards 30,000, and Zhang Miao's 20,000 soldiers, plus about 10,000 captured civilians and craftsmen.
As for Baima Port and Baima City, they were simply handed over to Zhou Tai's navy for defense.
After a careful observation under Puyang City, Huangfu Chaobo handed over the command of the army to Huang Zhong.
After some discussion, Huang Zhong divided the army into three parts, with 10,000 guards staying in the main camp, Huang Zhong led 10,000 soldiers from the Huben Camp and 15,000 guards to attack the west gate of Puyang City, and 20,000 Chenliu troops attacked the north gate of Puyang, led by Dong Zhao's younger brother Dong Fang; Wang Ran, deputy general of the Huben Camp, led 5,000 soldiers from the Huben Camp and 15,000 guards to attack from the east gate of Puyang.
As for the south gate of Puyang, because the Pu River was less than two miles outside the south gate, it was impossible to deploy a large army to attack the city, so it was simply left for the Puyang army as a retreat. You know, Huang Zhong had 5,000 Huben cavalry and 5,000 cavalry.
After the army was arranged properly, with the order of the central army, the three armies set out together and began to attack the city.
Of course, the first thing to do before attacking the city was to fill the river. The five thousand captives were divided into three groups by Huang Zhong, with two thousand at the west gate, and fifteen hundred each at the east gate and the north gate.
For these prisoners of the Yanzhou Army, Huangfu Chaobo had already explained to them that as long as they performed well in the Puyang War, Huangfu Chaobo would cancel their prisoner status and promised to include them in the Sizhou Army. Of course, those who are sneaky and slippery will definitely not end well.
The first to act were Huang Zhong's troops outside the West Gate. Under the cover of nearly a hundred well-locked cars and catapults, thousands of shield soldiers escorted the prisoners and carried cloth bags that had been filled with earthwork towards the moat.
Because Puyang City is close to the Pu River, except for the south side that directly uses the Pu River as a moat, the other three sides are excavated, and then live water is directly introduced from the Pu River. Therefore, the water flow in the moat is much more rapid than that of the Baima City moat, and the difficulty of filling the river is much greater.
However, Huangfu Chaobo invested far more troops and other siege equipment than when attacking Baima City.
When Huang Zhong's troops began to fill the river, the two troops at the North Gate and the East Gate were also moving rapidly towards their goals. At this time, Huangfu Chaobo's personal guard camp and Huyan Du's cavalry had spread to more than ten miles around Puyang City, providing vigilance for the army's siege.