Chapter 768: Preparing for War
In this way, Tianjing Pass has 3,000 guards and 3,000 combat soldiers; and Mengmen Pass has 3,000 guards and 2,000 combat soldiers. Just guard the pass tightly, and the danger of the two passes is enough to resist Lv Bu's 30,000 to 50,000 troops for half a year. Huangfu Chaobo believes that it is impossible for several princes to attack Sizhou in half a year, and three months is the limit for each family.
The road from Shangdang to the south of Lv Bu's army should be basically blocked, so they can only attack Hedong from Queshu Valley to the south.
But now Hedong is initially settled, and so far, many cities have only been temporarily taken over, and have not been fully controlled at all, such as Yong'an, Yangxian, Xiangling and other cities in the upper reaches of Fenshui. Now that Zhang Chao took over Hedong from Lou Gui, almost most of his energy has been focused on these cities in the Yuncheng Basin. As for other cities, there is no time to fully control them. However, Pi's County and Hejin Port have been firmly controlled.
Taiyuan was originally an important town in Bingzhou. No matter who controls Bingzhou, Taiyuan County is the top priority of management. After Lu Bu entered Bingzhou, Chen Gong put most of his energy on internal affairs in Taiyuan County. Not only did he let Lu Bu arrange the governor's mansion of Bingzhou in Jinyang, but he also vigorously arranged for military farming in Jinyang.
The Taiyuan Commander is Wei Xu, Lu Bu's brother-in-law, but the news from the shadow said that he has not appeared in Jinyang for several days. Now the rumor in Jinyang is that Wei Xu has gone to various counties to inspect military farming, but according to Pang Tong and Xu Shu's speculation, he should have led the elite to the south to control the passage of Queshu Valley.
Unfortunately, the Hedong Army at the southern end of Queshu Valley is not heavily defended. The main reason is that the elite troops in Hedong are really insufficient. Although Tian Yu's Yingyang Camp has been established for some time, it only has three schools of infantry and one school of cavalry, and it is far from the level of elite troops.
For Hedong, Huangfu Chaobo's minimum goal is to defend the cities south of Pi and Fenshui. As for other cities, if they cannot be defended, they can only be abandoned and temporarily controlled by Lu Bu's army.
In fact, the key to this war is still here with Cao Cao and Yuan Shao.
Yuan Shao is the most powerful among the princes in the world. Jizhou has nearly one million households and a population of nearly six million, of which nearly 70% is in the hands of Yuan Shao. In addition, the Jizhou family basically supports Yuan Shao, so whether Yuan Shao can be stopped is the most critical point this time.
In order to resist Yuan Shao, Huangfu Chaobo decided to let Huang Zhong lead the Huben Cavalry to Hebei and command the Huben Cavalry to defend Yuan Shao together with Hua Xiong's Leopard Camp. Han Fu's army is not short of infantry, but it lacks elite cavalry and strong generals.
Because Hua Xiong's Leopard Camp needs to defend the entire Henei, two passes will use one school of soldiers, and Huai County must arrange two schools, so Hua Xiong can only use one school of infantry and one school of cavalry to support Han Fu.
Another one is Cao Cao. After the battle in Xuzhou last year, Cao Cao's strength has increased greatly, especially since last year, he has formed 20,000 heavy infantry and 10,000 tiger and leopard cavalry, plus the original 30,000 Qingzhou soldiers. In terms of elite troops and horses, Cao Cao has become almost as powerful as Huangfu Chaobo's Sizhou.
Although the newly occupied Qingzhou counties this year will distract Cao Cao's energy and manpower, in Qingzhou, Huangfu Chaobo's strength is not enough to counterattack Cao Cao, so the two families can only stalemate there.
Cao Cao's defense can only be entrusted to Zhao Yun and Dong Zhao. However, considering that Cao Cao has many advisers and none of them can be underestimated, Huangfu Chaobo sent Xu Shu to Chenliu to assist Zhao Yun and others in resisting Cao Cao. As for Henei, Han Fu has another general, Ju Su, under his command. Huangfu Chaobo believes that with him, together with Huang Zhong, Zhang He, and Hua Xiong, they should be able to cope with it.
As for Huang Zhong's Huben Camp, except for the Huben cavalry sent to Henei, one of the other four schools of soldiers will be transferred to Hangu Pass west of Gucheng, and another school will be transferred to Hulao Pass. The remaining two schools will be led by Wang Ran, the deputy general of the Huben Camp, to stay in Luoyang.
As for Yuzhou,
Huangfu Chaobo had no choice but to remind Kong Ju and Zongheng Tianxia to strengthen their defense.
Of course, Huangfu Chaobo was not completely powerless. For example, behind Yuan Shao was Gongsun Zan's army. Although he could not persuade him to attack Jizhou with all his strength, he could still send cavalry to harass and contain Jizhou's troops. As long as Gongsun Zan sent out 10,000 cavalry, plus Huangfu Chaobo's nearly 10,000 cavalry in Longhua, 20,000 cavalry could do a lot if they poured into the Jizhou plain.
In addition, in the direction of Yongzhou, Huangfu Chaobo still has a hidden chess piece. If things reach a critical moment, Huangfu Chaobo still has 20,000 troops to use. At that time, if the 20,000 troops pretend to attack Chang'an, I believe Guo and Li should have some concerns. It's just a pity to use this hidden chess piece now. Once it is used, Huangfu Chaobo must consider using the navy to open the Weishui channel and then pick them up.
After everyone spent another day to confirm the details again and again, Huangfu Chaobo ordered the army to start preparing, and only wait for the war to break out, and then act according to the agreed strategy. As for how the war will develop after the outbreak, no one can be sure.
Afterwards, Huangfu Chaobo sent people to report the intelligence he had obtained to Han Fu, Kong Ju, Zongheng Tianxia and other allies, reminding them to be prepared. As for the response of his own Sizhou army, Huangfu Chaobo just mentioned it briefly.
When Huangfu Chaobo spread the news, all the allies were in an uproar. Zongheng Tianxia immediately summoned his subordinates to discuss the matter. Huangfu Chaobo's news did not mention Zhang Ji from Nanyang, but Zongheng Tianxia had to guard against Nanyang's sudden military action. Because there was an old poisonous man from the Three Kingdoms in Nanyang City. As one of the top military advisors in the late Han Dynasty, he would definitely not miss this opportunity.
In Yingchuan, in the Yuzhou Governor's Mansion, Kong Jun was frightened when he received the news from Luoyang and immediately summoned everyone to discuss the matter. Unfortunately, among the civil and military officials in Yuzhou, except for He Man, the general with two knives, the rest were civil officials. Facing the upcoming Yuan Shu army, everyone was at a loss like Kong Jun.
After discussing for a long time, they still couldn't come up with a reason. In the end, it was Kong Xin who quietly proposed that Kong Jun decided to quietly transfer the elite troops and the money and food of the southern cities of Runan to Yingchuan for various reasons, just like Han Fu dealt with Yuan Shao's army.
Afterwards, Kong Zhu ordered the governor of Runan to mobilize heavy troops to defend Pingyu, at least to stop Yuan Shu's army south of Pingyu to ensure the safety of Yingchuan. The same was true for the State of Chen, which deployed heavy troops to defend Chen County.