Chapter 851: The Anton Army Dispatches
As Zhou Yu analyzed, last year's war actually caused a lot of losses to Yuan Shu's army, although it was far from being seriously injured. Apart from other things, Yuan Shu's army alone lost nearly 80,000 elite soldiers, including 30,000 Imperial Guards and 20,000 combat battalions in the Ru'nan battlefield, 10,000 combat soldiers in Guangling and 20,000 in Xia Pi on the Xuzhou battlefield.
However, despite this, Yuan Shu's army felt that they could still hold on. The defense on the south bank of the Huai River had already made the Yuzhou Army and the Andong Army sigh at the river last year, and on the Xia Pi battlefield, General Ji Ling firmly nailed Cao Cao's army there.
As for the little tiger in the south, he escaped only because of his good luck. It is estimated that he will not have three to five years to rest and recuperate, so don't think about raising troops to the north, and he attacked Wujun without knowing whether to live or die. Although he won, he will not have the spare strength to go north.
However, the Sun Ce army, which they thought had no spare strength to go north, slapped them hard in the face. In early March, Sun Ce's army suddenly sent troops to attack Guangling again. Guangling's prefect Yuan Si and the garrison commander Zhang Xun immediately sent people to Shouchun for help.
In fact, the garrison of Guangling at this time was far less than 20,000. Although the battle last year left Sun Ce's army with 26,000 to 7,000 people, the Yuan Shu army in Guangling also suffered heavy losses. First of all, the 10,000 combat soldiers brought by Zhang Xun lost nearly 2,000, and the 10,000 defenders of Yuan Si lost 4,000.
In addition, the 10,000 defenders in Yuguo and Jiangdu were all killed or captured. After Sun Ce's army retreated, Yuan Si sent people to take over the two cities, sending 2,000 defenders and 1,000 combat soldiers to each city. Although 3,000 soldiers were recruited later, there were only 5,000 defenders and 6,000 combat soldiers in Guangling City, a total of 11,000 soldiers, of which 3,000 were newly recruited soldiers, barely enough to defend the city.
When Yuan Shu of Shouchun got the news that Sun Ce's army attacked Guangling again, he was furious and ordered Liu Xun's 10,000 soldiers defending Liyang to quickly support Guangling. At the same time, he was about to order Shouchun to send troops to support. At that time, Yuan Shu found that all his 150,000 soldiers had been sent out. Now Shouchun City only had 70,000 imperial guards and 20,000 guards to defend.
There was no way, Yuan Shu had to order the crown prince Yuan Yao as the main general and Li Ling as the deputy general to lead 20,000 imperial guards to support Xiapi.
Now Yuan Shu really wanted to eat his useless son-in-law alive. If he hadn't underestimated the enemy and rashly went into battle, how could he have ruined his 30,000 elite imperial guards? If the 30,000 imperial guards were not lost, Le Jue and Li Feng's 20,000 soldiers would not have failed so easily. Maybe now the southern part of Runan is still in his hands.
Although Jiling and Xuzhou counties also lost 40,000 elite soldiers, they caused no fewer enemy casualties than themselves. On the battlefield of Runan, the loss of their own 50,000 troops only resulted in the loss of less than 10,000 elite soldiers on the other side, and the rest of the casualties were ordinary soldiers.
However, Yuan Shu no longer had the energy to care about his son-in-law. After Sun Ce's army went to battle on the battlefield of Xuzhou, Cao Cao's army once again dispatched 60,000 troops and 40,000 foreign soldiers to attack Xiapi again, and the war between the two counties of Xuzhou was ignited again.
However, what everyone found strange was that the Andong Army and the Yuzhou Army did not send troops immediately, but were still slowly mobilizing troops. It has been more than four months since Kong Jun announced the reorganization of the Yuzhou Army last year. The Yuzhou Army has just been organized and reorganized in various counties. It is estimated that it will take one to two months to be involved in the war. Therefore, when Sun Ce and Cao Cao's army started fighting with Yuan Shu's army, the Yuzhou Army began to mobilize troops to the south.
The troops dispatched by the Yuzhou Army this time include two battalions of soldiers from the Fenwu Camp in Yingchuan County, led by the commander Wang Ran, and four battalions of infantry and one battalion of cavalry from the Jianwu Camp in Runan County, led by Huang Zhong and Han Xian, while Li Le led two battalions of infantry and one battalion of cavalry to Ruyin. On the surface, it was to prevent Yuan Shu's army in Huainan, but in fact, another purpose was to defend against Cao Hong's army in Qiao County.
In addition to these 35,000 combat troops, Yuzhou also dispatched 30,000 guards, plus nearly 40,000 soldiers from the lord players under Yuzhou's jurisdiction,
This time, the number of troops dispatched by Yuzhou reached nearly 100,000.
At this time, Huangfu Chaobo had just arranged the affairs of the Andong Army and led his troops from Luoyang. After learning about the movements of Cao Cao's army, Huangfu Chaobo discussed with Guo Jia and his advisers and decided to increase the troops.
Now, among the various camps of the Andong Army, most of the camps are organized with four schools of infantry and one school of cavalry, but there are still Xiongqu Camp in Hongnong, Yingyang Camp in Hedong, Shenwu Camp in Chenliu and Canglang Camp in Donglai, which are organized with three plus one. Of course, Hekong Camp far away in Longhua is an exception.
After discussion, Huangfu Chaobo decided to expand the other three camps except Xiongqu Camp to four plus one, so as to better cope with the subsequent wars.
After the expansion of Tian Yu's Yingyang Camp, Deputy General Yang Feng will lead two schools of infantry soldiers to Yong'an to defend against Lu Bu in Bingzhou. Tian Yu will lead two schools of infantry and one school of cavalry to continue to guard Anyi.
This year, in addition to Huangfu Chaobo's guards, the Andong Army also drew two schools of infantry from the Huben Camp, one school of infantry from the Shenwu Camp, and one school of infantry from the Xiongqu Camp, a total of nearly 40,000 troops.
In addition to the generals of the Guards, the other generals who went on the expedition were the three main generals of the battalions, Huang Wudie, Wang Yong and Zhang He. Of course, the two military advisors of the Andong Army also went with the army.
On March 15, Liu Xun led 10,000 soldiers into Guangling, but the army stopped in Tangyi County. He planned to wait for Yuan Yao's 20,000 imperial guards to arrive before going to support the Guangling defenders. At this time, Yuan Yao's army had just passed Dongcheng County in Guangling County, and it would take at least several days to reach Tangyi.
At this time, the war in Guangling had entered the most severe period. Sun Ce's army had already attacked the city several times, and the time it could hold the city was getting longer and longer, and the defenders in the city had lost nearly half of their troops. In desperation, Zhang Xun and Yuan Si had to send messengers one after another to urge the reinforcements to arrive as soon as possible.
In desperation, Liu Xun had to lead the army to set off again, leaving Tangyi and carefully marching towards Yu State. Even so, less than ten miles away from Yuguo, they were ambushed by Sun Ce's army of nearly 20,000 troops. Nearly half of Liu Xun's troops were killed or captured. Liu Xun retreated to Tangyi in a panic under the protection of 3,000 defeated soldiers, and nearly 2,000 defeated soldiers fled into Yuguo County.
After defeating Liu Xun's troops, Sun Ce's army did not pursue the victory, but quickly returned to Guangling, using the captured soldiers of Liu Xun's army and the captured clothes and armor to disrupt the morale of the defenders in the city, and then attacked the city with all their strength. Finally, they successfully entered Guangling City on the morning of the 18th. Zhang Xun and Yuan Si fled to Yuguo in a panic under the protection of 2,000 remaining soldiers.