Chapter 932: Division of Forces

Lu Su's words made Huangfu Chaobo's eyes light up. If the situation of the defenders in other counties in Lujiang is really like living in a nest, then indeed for the left-behind army of the Anton Army, such a city strength will not put much pressure. It just so happened that most of the Anton Army's troops heading north also needed to rest and reorganize. They took advantage of this time to return to Lu'an and rest for a period of time before sending out troops to meet the requirements of synchronizing with the other two princes. Huangfu Chaobo did not want his army to rush first. Go to Shouchun City and fight to the death.

You must know that the Anfeng Yulou War caused the Anton Army to lose tens of thousands of troops. These tens of thousands of troops were soldiers of the Anton Army's war barracks. If the war had been like last year's war, the loss of these tens of thousands of soldiers of the war barracks would have been up to two 30%, and the remaining soldiers will become the real elites of the military camp.

The rest of the people also nodded, especially Pang Tong. The performance of the Juchao City garrison today really surprised them all, but thinking about it in reverse, it was also true. Now three thousand old soldiers have been transferred from the garrison in each city, and The three thousand newly recruited were not even available for two months, so how could they have much combat effectiveness? In fact, the war in Zhuxian and Longshu cities was like this as early as after setting off from Lu'an. Everyone in the Anton Army was still wondering why it was like this, but now they suddenly realized it after thinking about it again.

"Okay," Huangfu Chaobo decided immediately: "Then let's discuss the distribution of the two armies. My brother will lead most of the troops north to attack Shouchun, and Jun Yi will lead a small army to continue to attack the remaining cities in Lujiang."

As for the issue of troop distribution, we have to wait until Shu County is captured before making a decision.

Early the next morning, the siege battle continued. After more than a year of fighting and the experience of continuously attacking nearly twenty cities, the generals of the Anton Army already had rich experience in sieges. Huang Zhong and Zhang He What needs to be done is how to coordinate well between several soldiers and horses.

Throughout the whole day, Huangfu Chaobo and Pang Tong were watching the battle, observing the progress and performance of the soldiers and horses on both sides of the city wall during the siege. This also allowed Lu Su to more intuitively understand the Anton Army's large-scale battle. forces and generals.

It took the army nearly six days to finally capture Shu County. The county city defended by 20,000 troops was not that easy to capture. This was because Qiao Rui personally went to the city to direct the war, but was shot by Huang Zhong with an arrow and was seriously injured. coma. The prefect Yuan Huan was good at internal affairs but not good at military affairs. After taking over the command of the army, Zhang He's troops took the lead in breaking the city in only two days.

The final result was that Yuan Shu's 20,000-strong army suffered nearly 10,000 casualties, and none of the remaining generals escaped and were all captured. The Anton Army suffered more than 20,000 casualties, including more than 9,000 killed, 4,000 seriously injured, and 8,000 slightly injured.

After capturing Shu County, Huangfu Chaobo once again convened everyone to discuss the matter of dividing the troops. After careful discussion, on July 13, the Anton army was divided into two groups. Zhang He, the commander of the Shenwu Camp, led 4,000 Euphorbia soldiers from his headquarters and 4,000 soldiers from Wang Yong, the commander of the Fenwu Camp, stayed in Shu County, plus 10,000 garrison troops and 12,000 wounded soldiers who were injured in the attack on Shu County. and eight thousand prisoners.

Zhang He's task was to attack the remaining cities in Lujiang while waiting for Lujiang Governor Zuo Chengzu and Xuanwu Camp Commander Kong Xin to lead their troops to Shu County. Then help them stabilize the situation in the cities of Lujiang. Huang Zhong led most of his troops back to Lu'an to rest and recuperate, with a total of 80,000 troops, 20,000 civilians, and 10,000 prisoners, and then waited for the opportunity to attack Jiujiang.

A few days later, most of the Anton army returned to Lu'an. Not long after arriving in Lu'an, Huangfu Chaobo received news from the other two armies of the princes. Sun Ce originally wanted to mobilize 50,000 reinforcements from Jiangdong, but after receiving news of the Yuzhang army's movements, he reduced the number of reinforcements to 20,000. After Sun Ce gathered 20,000 reinforcements, he left 30,000 troops with Yuan Yao and Li Ling's Fuling two The army in the city faced a confrontation, and he personally led an army of more than 60,000 people to detour north and attack Junqiu County.

Cao Cao's army has also captured Zhongli County, which was heavily defended by Lei Bo. Lei Bo led more than 10,000 elite troops to retreat to Yinling, Jiudong County with the support of most of Ji Ling's troops, while Dangtu only had 5,000 troops left to defend. It is said that Ji Ling has completely given up on being a Tu,

Let it fend for itself.

Since the start of the war this year, Yuan Shu's army has been losing troops and territory, and has been retreating all the way. Although Ji Ling led the generals back and forth, they still could not save Yuan Shu's army from defeat.

Now the three armies besieging Yuan Shu's army have all approached less than 200 miles away from Shouchun. At this speed, nearly 300,000 soldiers and horses of the three armies will be able to reach Shouchun City in less than a month. , dealt the final fatal blow to Yuan Shu's Zhong dynasty.

On July 20, the Anton Army captured Chengde County. On the same day, Sun Ce also captured Hefei City south of Chengde. At this time, Cao Cao's 120,000 troops had arrived at Yinling City, and were preparing to capture Yinling as soon as possible, and then quickly approach Shouchun. After Ji Ling received the news that Chengde had been lost, he had no choice but to abandon Yinling, burned all the food and grass in the city, and then led his troops to retreat westward.

A few days later, Ji Ling led nearly 70,000 troops and the grain and grass supplies from Yinling and Xiquyang cities withdrew to Shouchun, preparing for a desperate battle with the allied forces of the princes in Shouchun City. There were originally 40,000 imperial troops, 30,000 war barracks, 20,000 city guards, and 20,000 defenders in Shouchun City, a total of 110,000 troops. With Ji Ling's 70,000 troops, a total of 110,000 troops had gathered in Shouchun City. Yuan Shu's army numbered as many as 180,000. Among them, there are 40,000 forest guards, 25,000 heavy infantry, 45,000 military camps, 20,000 city guards, and 50,000 garrison troops.

On the 28th, after Huangfu Chaobo reunited with Sun Ce's 60,000-strong army in Chengde, the two armies of nearly 200,000 troops marched north all the way to Shouchun City.

Two days later, the three armies arrived in Shouchun almost at the same time, and then set up camps in the southeast and west of Shouchun, and then prepared to discuss the arrangements for attacking Shouchun and how to distribute the spoils after entering the city. The three camps were the coalition forces of Andong Army and Yuzhou Army stationed outside the west gate, Sun Ce Army stationed outside the south gate, and Cao Cao Army stationed outside the east gate. As for the north gate of Shouchun, it was not suitable for the army to camp and attack because it was close to Feishui.

Shou County began to build a city when Chu moved its capital to Shouchun. According to later archaeological calculations, its area is about 25 square kilometers. It is the second largest city in the Warring States period after Yan State’s capital Yanxiadu. After the Han Dynasty, the city site was reduced to the northeast corner of the old city, which is now the area of ​​Shou County Chengguan, and later generations mostly followed its site.

In the game, the reason why Yuan Shu set the capital in Shouchun instead of Yinling, the seat of Jiujiang County, is partly because Shouchun is in a very good location and is an ancient capital.