Chapter 804: Troop Arrangements

Faced with Huangfu Chaobo's question, after pondering for a moment, Xu Shu spoke first: "My Lord, when we send troops to Huainan this time, we also need to guard against the surrounding princes attacking our An Dong army while our army is away. Therefore, we need to be cautious in sending troops. Too many troops will lead to a lack of manpower in the territory, and too few may fail to achieve the purpose of sending troops."

Everyone present nodded in approval.

"In order to minimize the threats from the surrounding areas, I suggest that you write to Chang'an and ask His Majesty to order Cao Cao of Yanzhou, Zhang Ji of Nanyang, and Kong Zhu of Yuzhou to send troops. In this way, at least the threat of Cao Cao and Zhang Ji can be removed."

"As for Lu Bu of Bingzhou and Yuan Shao of Jizhou, you can also order them to send troops. Even if they cannot send troops due to the long distance, they cannot send troops to our Andong Army openly."

Huangfu Chaobo nodded and said, "I will write to the court immediately about this matter, and the eunuch who announces the decree will take it back to Chang'an. But how many troops should be sent? Which troops can be mobilized to participate in the war? Do you have any strategies?"

Xu Shu paused for a moment and said, "As for the arrangement of troops, I have considered it again and again, and have some immature suggestions. I will throw them out here for your reference."

As he said, Xu Shu walked to the map and pointed at the map to explain to everyone one by one.

According to Xu Shu's idea, the Guards, Huben, Longxiang and Qianniu armies under the Andong Army can go to war with Huangfu Chaobo. But for the other three armies, the Longxiang Army is responsible for guarding Henei, Hedong and Weijun. Because Bingzhou Lu Bu and Hebei Yuan Shao are unlikely to send troops to Huainan this time, the Longxiang Army must not be used. He must defend these two princes to prevent them from attacking the Andong Army.

Qianniu Army is responsible for the two counties of Qingzhou, but firstly, the army has not been formed for a long time, and secondly, Qingzhou is not peaceful, so it is not advisable to move lightly.

In this way, apart from these two armies, the only one that can go out together is the Huben Army, but the Huben Army is also under great pressure. Although Cao Cao in the east is likely to send troops to Huainan, there is no guarantee that he will not take advantage of the opportunity to attack Chenliu, so Chenliu must have sufficient troops.

In Guanzhong to the west, although Li Jue and Guo Si had been beaten to a pulp, no one was sure whether they would suddenly go crazy and march eastward, so the troops of Hongnong could not be moved lightly.

In this way, in addition to the guards, the troops that the An Dong Army could mobilize were only the Huben Camp under the Huben Army. Huang Zhong's Huben Camp was a five-camp camp with four infantry and one cavalry. In addition to leaving one infantry and one cavalry to guard Luoyang, the remaining three infantry camps could go to Huainan together.

After listening to Xu Shu's words, Huangfu Chaobo also felt that his arrangements were still very comprehensive, but even if the guards plus the three schools of the Huben Camp had a total of only 33,000 soldiers, the number seemed a little too small. After thinking about it, Huangfu Chaobo decided to increase the number of troops.

First of all, the Baotao Camp of Henei Huaxiong was a five-camp organization, so it was decided to draw one school of infantry from it to go south together.

There is also Zhang He's Shenwu Camp in Chenliu. When the Jizhou Army was reorganized at the beginning, it was organized into five schools with four infantry and one cavalry. But later when it was transferred to Chenliu, Huangfu Chaobo transferred one of the infantry schools to Xu Rong's Qianniu Camp, so it became a three-infantry and one-cavalry organization.

This time, Huangfu Chaobo planned to restore it to a five-school organization, let Zhang He add one infantry school, and then let Zhang He transfer one infantry school from it to go south to participate in the war.

In this way, the troops of the Andong Army going south to participate in the war this time include Huangfu Chaobo's guards 18,000 people,

Huang Zhong's Huben Camp 15,000 people, Hua Xiong's Baotao Camp 5,000 people and Zhang He's Shenwu Camp 5,000 people, adding up to 43,000 combat soldiers.

Adding more than 15,000 auxiliary soldiers and craftsmen, the army has a total of nearly 60,000 people, which is enough to face any army of Yuan Shu alone.

You know, from the news sent back by the shadow, Yuan Shu now has nearly 300,000 troops. In addition to the troops defending the cities, the troops that can be dispatched should be around 150,000. However, he must face the attacks of Cao Cao, Sun Ce and Huangfu Chaobo's armies at the same time, so the troops that can be deployed in various aspects are only about 50,000.

Let alone 50,000 or 60,000 troops, although the number of troops Huangfu Chaobo sent this time is less than 50,000, they are all elite soldiers, so even if facing Yuan Shu's 60,000 to 80,000 troops, Huangfu Chaobo will not be afraid.

After the arrangement of the troops, Huangfu Chaobo also breathed a sigh of relief, but he did not let everyone leave, but threw out another question, that is, he has been discussing with Pang Tong for the past few months, the future strategic direction of the Andong Army.

Huangfu Chaobo's territory has been in an environment surrounded by wolves since he took over Luoyang. After several years of development, although the strength is far greater than before, the surrounding environment remains the same, and it can even be said that it is more dangerous than before.

You know, the end of the Han Dynasty was an era where big fish ate small fish and small fish ate shrimps. Huangfu Chaobo was developing, but the other princes around him did not stagnate.

Now around the Andong Army, all the princes have grown from small fish and shrimps to giant crocodiles. Whether it is Lu Bu in Bingzhou, Yuan Shao in Jizhou, Cao Cao in Yanzhou, Zhang Ji in Nanyang, Li Jue and Guo Si in Guanzhong, all of them have hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses. For example, Yuan Shao has 300,000 or 400,000 soldiers and horses. Excluding the soldiers and horses guarding the cities, there are more than 200,000 soldiers and horses that can be mobilized.

You know, although Huangfu Chaobo gritted his teeth and supported 200,000 soldiers, he needed to deploy them in all directions. Yuan Shao's troops were different. The south and the north were the key points. The east was close to the sea and did not need to be defended at all, so his situation was much better than that of the Andong Army.

There was also Cao Cao in the east. Although he tried to harm the Andong Army several times but failed, it is undeniable that Cao Cao's strength was still unquestionable.

Today, Cao Cao has Liang, Pei, and Lu in Yuzhou, Dongjun, Jiyang, Shanyang, Rencheng, Dongping and Jibei in Yanzhou, Jinan, Le'an, Qi and southern Pingyuan in Qingzhou, plus Pengcheng and Donghai in Xuzhou.

There were about 105 counties in the world at the end of the Han Dynasty, and Cao Cao alone had more than 10,000. It can be said that his territory was still quite sufficient.

Fortunately, both the counties of Yanzhou and Qingzhou were swept by the Yellow Turban Army several times, and the population was greatly reduced. Then Yanzhou was originally the largest in number, and the many battles between them also caused a sharp decline in population.

The population of the two newly occupied counties of Xuzhou was nearly half less than that during Tao Qian's reign because a large number of people fled to Yuan Shu's territory in the south and Tuberose's territory in the north.