Chapter 750: Fighting in Puyang (Part 2)

After lunch, Huangfu Chaobo ordered the army to rest for another half an hour, and then the army launched another attack on the city head. This time the attacking soldiers were still defenders.

After the two armies fought fiercely for two hours, the sky began to darken, and Huang Zhong ordered the troops to retreat without hesitation. The siege army withdrew in an orderly manner under the cover of siege equipment such as wells and catapults, and then returned to the camp to rest, leaving only a mess on the entire battlefield.

Among Huangfu Chaobo's Sizhou Army, Huang Zhong is currently the only real battlefield veteran. Ever since Huangfu Chaobo participated in the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Huang Zhong has basically been commanding the army in his hands, except for Zhao Yun. After arriving, Huang Zhong basically stayed behind, and basically left all the fighting matters to Zhao Yun.

In fact, to a certain extent, both of them are talented generals who are capable of attacking and defending, but in fact, Huang Zhong is better at using infantry, while Zhao Yun is better at cavalry warfare.

For this battle in Yanzhou, due to several considerations, Huangfu Chaobo led Huang Zhong to fight while Zhao Yun stayed behind.

One is that Huang Zhong's Huben Battalion has stayed in Luoyang most of the time since it formed an army, and rarely had the opportunity to go to war. Both generals and soldiers had some complaints. The two battles in Hedong were dominated by Longxiang camp. Although the army suffered a lot of losses, the rewards for the soldiers after the war were many.

The Huben camp has been staying behind, and it is safer. However, the soldiers and generals have lost these promotion opportunities and financial rewards, which is detrimental to morale in the long run. After several battles with Longxiang Camp, they really needed to rest and recuperate, so this time Huangfu Chaobo arranged for Huben Camp to go into battle.

The second is that for an army like Cao Cao's army that has many generals, Huangfu Chaobo thought again and again and decided that it would be better to use Huang Zhong, an experienced general. Moreover, Huang Zhong's experience in large battles was not a bit better than Zhao Yun's.

After the battle that day, after settling down the army, Huang Zhong ordered the generals to be summoned for discussion.

Half an hour later, all the generals in Huangfu Chaobo's central army tent had arrived to discuss matters. In the tent, Huangfu Chaobo and Zhang Miao were sitting together on the main throne. Below them were Huang Zhong and Huang Zhong. Sizhou Chenliu generals.

The two people on the throne did not say much, but watched Huang Zhong carefully inquire about the war situation of the two armies in the east and north, and then combined them with the war situation in the west to think about the war situation carefully.

The generals below also recounted the gains from the day's battle and analyzed the gains and losses of the army's attack on the city. This is also a major tradition of the Sizhou Army. Since the beginning of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, although Huang Zhong was the pillar, Huangfu Chaobo also knew the principle of three gangs of heroes.

Moreover, the entire army cannot rely on Huang Zhong alone, so every time after a war, Huangfu Chaobo recruits generals who have reached a certain level among the generals to carefully summarize and analyze the gains and losses in the war. In this way, the generals will also get a good result. growth.

After several years of war between the princes against Dong and Luoyang, the grassroots generals in Huangfu Chaobo's army have been well trained and trained. Although there are not many generals who are in charge of their own affairs, they are all very stable mid-level and low-level generals.

You know, the previous time Guo Daxian's 5,000-strong army was wiped out in a single battle, but not many people were captured. Basically, they all died in battle, and only a few were captured because of injuries.

After discussing for nearly an hour, Huang Zhong made arrangements for tomorrow's battle, and then ordered everyone to return to their own troops to prepare for tomorrow's battle.

After all the generals retreated, Huangfu Chaobo, Pang Tong, and Huang Zhongsan continued to discuss the war in the tent.

"According to Shi Yuan, how long will it take for Cao Cao's army to return to Yanzhou?" Huangfu Chaobo looked at the two of them with a worried look on his face and asked;

After thinking for a moment, Pang Tong said: "According to the news from General Meng, Cao Cao should have captured Tan County on the 10th. If Cao Cao moves quickly, he will need a day or two to arrange the government affairs of several counties in Xuzhou, so the fastest is in We were able to lead the army back yesterday. It is nearly 800 miles from Tan County to Puyang. At the speed of Cao Cao's army, traveling lightly, it will take about six days, which means we still have five days.

"

"We don't have five days left," Huang Zhong said: "We still have to leave one to two days to control the city, reinforce the city defenses, and prepare for Cao Cao's army's counterattack. So we only have three days at most."

"Is it possible that Cao Cao would send troops from other cities to support him?" Huangfu Chaobo asked;

"It is possible, but my siege army is all Sizhou's elite. Cao Cao generally does not send the garrison of each city to come. Too few troops are useless, and too many troops will lead to empty defenses in each city. You must know that we are not only 10,000 The cavalry and two schools of soldiers from the Huben Camp are confronting Cao Cao's army. Once they find that Cao Cao's city is empty, the two schools of soldiers can penetrate into the hinterland of Yanzhou and turn Yanzhou upside down. Cao Cao does not dare to take this risk." Pang Tong. He shook his head and said;

Huang Zhong next to him also nodded in agreement.

Seeing that both of them thought so, Huangfu Chaobo stopped saying anything and said: "Then, brother, I will give you three more days to capture Puyang. You can use the 80,000 troops including the guard camp at your disposal." "

Huang Zhong stood up and took the order.

Huangfu Chaobo also ordered He Ruolong to have the golden eagle closely monitor the area of ​​​​100 miles around Puyang starting from tomorrow. He must discover the whereabouts of the army and report it immediately. He also ordered five thousand cavalry from Huyandu to spread out twenty miles around Puyang to guard.

At this time, in Puyang City, Xiahou Dun was also gathering people to discuss matters. They had also received the 800-li urgent message sent back from Xuzhou. The battle of Xuzhou was over. Although Xuzhou was not completely taken, Tan County was captured in one fell swoop, and the most prosperous Donghai Kingdom and Pengcheng Kingdom in Xuzhou were obtained, which made Cao Ying very happy.

Nearly half of the wealth of the counties in Xuzhou was concentrated in Donghai Kingdom. Now Cao Gong captured Donghai Kingdom, although it was only one county, it was equivalent to occupying half of Xuzhou. In addition to the Pengcheng Kingdom that was occupied by chance, it can be said that most of Xuzhou has fallen into his hands. Now Xuzhou only has three counties and kingdoms that are not connected to the north and the south.

As long as the troops return to stabilize Yanzhou, the land of Xuzhou can be taken into the pocket at any time. At that time, Cao Gong will become the world's largest prince with two counties. Since the death of Dong Zhuo, no prince in the world can sit on the land of two states. Although the strength is far inferior to Yuan Shao in Hebei and Yuan Shu in Huainan, it is a real land of two states.

The news of Xuzhou's victory boosted the morale of the Puyang defenders. Xuzhou's victory also meant that their lord could return to Puyang with a victorious army, so Puyang only needed to hold the city for ten days and the Sizhou army would retreat without a fight.