Chapter 933: Meeting of Three Parties
According to the information sent to Huangfu Chaobo by the shadow guards in Shouchun City, Shouchun City is slightly square in shape, equipped with urns and towers, multiple gates and pheasants, and a strict system. There are protective gates on the southeast and west sides of the city. It is surrounded by Feishui River in the north, rivers on all four corners, and a water pass in the northeast and northwest corners. There are four gates in the city, namely Binyang Gate in the east, Dinghu Gate in the west, Tongfei Gate in the south and Jinghuai Gate in the north.
The perimeter of the city wall of Shouchun City is about thirty miles. The wall under the battlements is two feet six feet high, seven feet wide at the bottom, and two to three feet wide at the top. The wall is made of rammed earth, with bricks on the outside. The lower part of the outer wall is built with strips of stone to build a wall foundation several feet high. The outer wall of the city wall is covered with bricks and stones, and the spaces between the bricks and stones of the city wall are filled with glutinous rice juice mixed with lime, which is very strong. It used to be known as "the iron-clad Shouzhou City".
The four gates of Shouchun City are all equipped with urns outside the city wall, and the inner and outer door openings are all masonry roof structures. The four urn gates in Shouchun are not on the same central axis as the city gates. The East Urn City faces south, the West Urn City Gate faces north, the South Urn City faces west, and the North Urn City Gate faces east. They are all at 90-degree right angles to the city gates on the plane. If you look down from the sky, the central axis of the four gates and the four-sided Urn City An inverted "swastika" pattern is formed between the city gates. This ingenious setting is based on military defense considerations: after the enemy breaks through the urn city, they need to change direction before attacking the city gate. The defenders can take the opportunity to close the door and beat the dogs to eliminate the enemies in the urn city.
In addition to the outer city, Shouchun City also has an inner city and an imperial city. Each wall of the outer city is about eight miles long, the inner city is about four miles long, and the imperial city is only more than two miles long. Compared with the ten miles, seven miles and four miles of Luoyang City, the difference is not even a little bit.
Huangfu Chaobo believed that not only himself, but also Cao Cao and Sun Ce knew this information.
After the three armies arrived at Shouchun City, they did not attack the city immediately. Instead, they set up camp first, and then the three families exchanged envoys to prepare for a meeting before attacking the city, so that the three families could better attack the city together, and After entering the city, you can better collect property without causing conflicts. Of course, don't think that the three soldiers and horses will strictly abide by the agreement after entering the city, but at least they can draw a general area.
As a result, under the tense gaze of hundreds of thousands of troops in the city, cavalry rushed back and forth between the troops outside the city, and messengers kept coming and going. The soldiers of Yuan Shu's army in the city were very nervous. In fact, there were nearly 178,000 troops in Shouchun City, while the three-way coalition forces outside the city only had a total of 300,000 troops. Logically speaking, Yuan Shu's army should have a good chance of winning.
For example, Huangfu Chaobo's Anton Army, oh, it should have been called Luoyang Army at that time, with an army of less than 100,000, withstood the attack of Lu Bu, Zhang Yang and Yuan Shu with an army of 200,000, and in the end not only defeated the three armies The princes on the road captured tens of thousands of troops instead.
Considering that Yuan Shu's army and the invading coalition troops currently have an advantage over the Luoyang army, it stands to reason that Yuan Shu's army has a good chance of winning. Unfortunately, things on the battlefield are never as simple as 1+1=2.
At present, the army outside the city includes Huangfu Chaobo's 100,000 troops (in addition to the 80,000 troops that initially marched north from Shu County, Huangfu Chaobo also ordered 20,000 garrison troops to be transferred from each city that has been occupied, making up a total of 100,000 troops. army.). Cao Cao's army headquarters plus Cao Hong's army totaled 120,000 troops. Sun Ce had an army of 60,000. If we add the tens of thousands of civilians and captives from each of the three families, there will be more than 40 people.
Although Yuan Shu's army has 178,000 troops, including nearly 100,000 elites, since Yuan Shu became emperor last year, Yuan Shu's army has been defeated in every battle, and then lost troops and generals along the way, losing Runan, Guangling, and The territory of the three counties of Xiapi was even lost this year, including Lujiang, which had been in business for several years.
Now, less than a year and a half later, the enemy has already arrived at the gates of the capital, and the emperor is already haggard, far less energetic than when he first became emperor. Not only that, the hundreds of thousands of troops when he proclaimed himself emperor now number less than 200,000. The morale of the army was low. The army of hundreds of thousands had lost all courage when facing the 300,000 enemy troops outside the city.
Among the ten generals of Yuan Shu's army, Chen Ji, Yuan Yin, Liu Xun, Yuan Huan, and Qiao Rui were either dead or captured.
Now there is no news. Among the other generals, Prince Yuan Yao and generals Yuan Si, Li Ling and Chen Lan also have no news at all, and their lives and deaths are unknown. All that could be known was that Li Feng was still in Qisi, but because of the eager gaze of Anton's army, he had to guard the city tightly and did not dare to move lightly.
In Shouchun City now, only General Ji Ling led Lei Bo and two others back to defend Shouchun. Oh, by the way, there is another person who can lead the army, and that is the consort Huang Yi, but Ji Ling is no longer willing to use him as a general.
These are not the most important. The important thing is that the three princes who came to besiege Shouchun are not easy to deal with, and the three princes are surrounded by people with great wisdom. Therefore, the relationship between the three princes that Yuan Shujun expected Coaxing is basically impossible. Whether it is Cao Cao, Sun Ce or Huangfu Chaobo, their goal is very clear - to completely destroy Yuan Shu.
Of course, it's not exactly the same. Sun Ce also has a must-get item, and Cao Cao is probably eyeing that thing, while Huangfu Chaobo is determined to reap the benefits. Another purpose is to build a relationship with Sun Ce and prepare to jointly get it next year. Turn over Cao Ahao.
It is precisely because of this that after the envoys from the Three Families ran back and forth for several times, the time and place where the three families were to meet finally came down.
That is a hilltop called Gaojiagang two miles south of Sun Ce's army camp. There is an unobstructed wilderness on all sides. The three families agreed that each of the three families would lead a thousand people to the meeting place, and then each of the three families would lead one thousand people. A counselor and a general came to meet.
The most important thing is that neither Cao Cao nor Huangfu Chaobo is willing to go to the other's territory. Cao Cao's suspicion is definitely not to put himself in danger. Huangfu Chaobo himself has no problem, but he is unwilling to take risks with his subordinates. However, it is impossible for the three-party negotiations to be held without his own military advisor. So in the end, both families had to suggest that the meeting place be placed in the area controlled by Sun Ce's army.
At the beginning of the afternoon, the troops of the three families escorted their lords to the meeting place. Sun Ce's army was in the north, Huangfu Chaobo was in the west, and Cao Cao's army was in the east.
The troops of the three families stopped about one mile away from Gaojiagang. The meeting place of Gaojiagang was jointly arranged by the soldiers of the three families, so there was no trap or killing trick arranged in advance by any of them.
After the three troops stopped, Huangfu Chaobo and his two subordinates rode towards the meeting place at Gaogang.