Chapter 858: Strategy
Now that he has figured this out, Huangfu Chaobo is relieved again. However, he still turned to look at Huang Zhong and said: "Fengxiao's words are very reasonable. If you don't defend, it is a war, and there will inevitably be casualties among the soldiers. However, Brother Han Sheng still needs to emphasize it to the generals, and try to minimize the trouble with them." Unnecessary casualties among soldiers."
"General, take your orders!" Huang Zhong quickly stood up and agreed.
Huangfu Chaobo waved his hand and motioned for him to sit down and talk. Then he looked at Pang and Guo and said, "What about the specific distribution and deployment of troops?"
"The four cities of Mingxian, Biguo, Xiyang and Geyang must be captured. Only in this way can the retreat of the army be guaranteed. After all four cities are captured, one general will be left to lead the troops to guard these four cities, and the other armies will Then they went southeast along the remaining mountains of the Dabie Mountains, and then attacked the two cities of Anfeng and Hulou."
Guo Jia walked to the map and talked in detail: "Then the army went south (to Rijiagu) County and Longshu. After arriving in the southeast of Lujiang County, it didn't matter how the army was arranged. The troops were divided into several groups. Separate strategies, whether to attack the county town first and then the county town, will all depend on the situation. "
"It's just..." At this point, Guo Jia pondered for a moment, then gently pointed his finger at a location on the map and said, "We still haven't reached an agreement about the city of Lu'an."
Huangfu Chaobo was stunned, looked up at the two of them, and said, "What happened to Lu'an?"
Guo Jia nodded towards Pang Tong. Pang Tong stood up and responded: "Liu'an is only two hundred miles away from Shouchun, and the cavalry can arrive overnight. If we capture this city, it will definitely make Yuan Shu restless. But if we don't capture this city, , the retreat of my army going south may be blocked by the Lu'an garrison. If the war goes unfavorably, it will be a serious threat to our army's retreat. "
"What do you two think?"
"The purpose of Fengxiao is to ignore Lu'an and go directly around the city, because there is still nearly fifty miles from Lu'an City to the foot of the remaining mountains of the Dabie Mountains. This distance is enough for my army to move. And my suggestion is to capture Liu'an. But we don’t need to station heavy troops for defense. We just need to prevent Yuan Shu’s army from taking the city with less than 10,000 troops.”
After hearing this, Huangfu Chaobo also fell into deep thought. The two people's plans were exactly the opposite. It can also be seen that Guo Jia prefers to use strange weapons, while Pang Tong is actually good at using strange weapons, but he has been with Huangfu Chaobo in these years. , became a little more cautious.
After much thought, Huangfu Chaobo decided to be on the safe side and capture Lu'an. However, in terms of garrison defense, he was not prepared to leave nearly ten thousand troops to defend like Geyang and Yucheng.
The preliminary strategy has been decided, and then all we have to do is wait until the main force of the army arrives. Huangfu Chaobo handed over 5,000 assault cavalry to Huang Zhong and asked him to be used as a scout. He used the few days waiting for the main force of the army to understand the surrounding situation.
Guo Jia was right. Just as they were discussing how to seize the Lujiang River, Emperor Zhong was bursting into thunderous rage in the Shouchun Palace hundreds of miles away. Leju's battle report of the pontoon's fall was used by him six hundred miles away. The urgent situation was sent to Shouchun. Less than two hours after Huangfu Chaobo got the news, Yuan Shu also got the news that Anton's army had crossed the Huai River.
So he immediately ordered to summon all the civil and military ministers to discuss the matter. Who knows, after more than an hour, nothing useful was discussed, and Yuan Shu was so angry that he became furious in the Jinluan Palace.
In the end, it was Shu Zhao who suggested that two thousand elite garrison soldiers be transferred from each city to Shouchun to form the Shouchun City Guard. Now there are twenty-eight cities in Lujiang and Jiujiang counties, so a total of fifty thousand soldiers can be gathered. Six thousand troops, even if there is no time to mobilize soldiers from some cities, at least a city guard of 40,000 people can be formed.
Then the general Ji Ling was transferred back and he was put in charge of the defense of Shouchun. As for Xuzhou, they could only hold on to the city for a day.
After the two thousand soldiers were transferred from the city, each county was ordered to recruit another three thousand infantry. In this way, the number of soldiers and horses in each city reached more than six thousand.
Half of them are veterans. The strength of these troops is enough to drag the Anton Army until the general returns.
Yuan Shu was very impressed by Shu Zhao's proposal, and soon his imperial edict was written on the side of the document, and then handed over to him for careful inspection. After confirming that it was correct, he put the jade seal on it. They were handed over to the eunuchs and distributed to the cities in the two counties.
After being prompted by Shu Zhao, someone quickly proposed that since the Anton Army had crossed the Huaihe River and Sun Ce's army was in Guangling, the 10,000-strong army led by General Qiao Rui in Chao City had lost the significance of defending Sun Ce's army. At that time, they were defeated by the Andong Army one by one. They did not enter Shu County and jointly defended the Anton Army with the 10,000 troops of Yuan Huan, the prefect of Lujiang.
His suggestion was also affirmed by Yuan Shu. In an instant, all the officials in the palace were inspired, and they blurted out suggestions one after another, regardless of whether they were effective or not. They said it first to win the emperor's approval.
Three days later, the Anton army finally arrived within the boundaries of Xinxi County. The hundreds of thousands of troops, plus their food, grass, baggage, pack horses, etc., formed a line that was more than ten miles long, like a giant red dragon. Creeping towards the floating bridge.
During the past few days, in addition to arranging the expansion of the camp, Huang Zhong also built several floating bridges on the Huai River with Zhou Tai's navy so that they could cross the river as soon as possible when the army arrived. Zhou Tai arranged the nearly 2,000 navy soldiers he brought with him on the captured warships of Yuan Shu's army, responsible for patrolling the waters within a range of dozens of miles upstream and downstream of the floating bridge.
Of course, the task of investigating the movements of Yuan Shu's army in the surrounding cities and collecting effective intelligence was entrusted to the two military advisors Guo Jia and Pang Tong. After careful investigation in the past few days, the Andong Army has basically figured out the deployment of Yuan Shu's army.
In addition to the Imperial Guards and War Barracks in Shouchun, Yuan Shu's army deployed 5,000 garrisons in each county town and 10,000 garrisons in the county town. And according to the intelligence collected in the past few days, as Guo Jia expected, Yuan Shu's army is adjusting its troops.
According to the scouts' report, they found out during their investigation in Geyang that although the gates of Geyang were closed and the defenders on the city were patrolling day and night as if they were facing a great enemy, they discovered that a 2,000-man army suddenly left Geyang late last night and headed east.
After receiving this news, Guo Jia keenly sensed the abnormality of this army, and then he ordered Shi A to pass on the order to the Shadow Guards to filter out all the intelligence collected in the cities of Huainan in recent days.