Chapter 981: Determine the Strategy for Sending Troops

"Otherwise," as soon as Pang Tong finished speaking, Guo Jia stood up and retorted: "The attack is divided into two lines, each with an army of more than 100,000 troops, which is too bloated. Moreover, the land adjacent to Cao Cao's army and our army is quite wide, so it is not as good as Simply divide the troops into four groups, each with an army of about 50,000. Each battalion of our army is equipped with a large number of cavalry, so that the two groups of armies can respond to each other. This can not only disperse Cao Cao's forces, but also better pose a threat to Cao Cao's army. "

Guo Jia's words aroused Lu Su's opposition. After staying in the Eastern Expedition Army for nearly half a year, Lu Su had completely adapted to Huangfu Chaobo's deliberation style, so he immediately stood up in response to Guo Jia's suggestion. refute. In Lu Su's view, the more than 200,000 troops were divided into four groups, each with only about 50,000 troops. The force was too thin and too risky.

The rest of the people also talked about their thoughts one by one. They all discussed how to send troops and how to deploy the troops.

After nearly a day of deliberation, it was finally decided to divide the troops into two groups. One group was the Guards, the Huben Camp and the Tiger Bu Camp, totaling 60,000 to 70,000 soldiers, plus tens of thousands of garrison soldiers recruited from various cities, and The civilian craftsmen, with a total of more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, attacked Liang from two directions.

The second army consisted of 70,000 soldiers from the three counties of Yuzhou, plus 30,000 defenders, and about 20,000 civilian craftsmen, attacking Qiao County from Chen Guo and Runan respectively.

In this way, each army has more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, but the troops are also divided into two groups, and the two groups echo each other. In addition, there is a school of cavalry in each battle camp, so there are at least two to three in each army. If the cavalry of the school is present, once it is discovered that Cao Cao's army is encircling and annihilating a certain army, the other army will quickly approach for rescue.

Later, Huangfu Chaobo announced the candidates for the generals of the two armies. The North Army was led by Zhang He and Huang Wudie was the deputy general. As for the candidates for military advisors, General Huangfu Chaobo and Guo Jia would accompany the army, so they were not directly designated. military adviser.

However, Zhang He and Huang Wudie sent troops separately, so Huangfu Chaobo temporarily sent Lu Su to Zhang He's army to temporarily advise him. In addition, Tian Feng's eldest son Tian Zheng accompanied the army as military counselor, and Huangfu Chaobo sent Lejiu to Zhang He's army to assist in the battle.

According to the plan, Zhang He's army will set out from Puyang, march southward, and invade the Liang Kingdom. The troops under his command will be 25,000 soldiers from the Hubu Camp, plus 20,000 defenders and 20,000 auxiliary soldiers, for a total of 60,000 An army of five thousand is known as an army of one hundred thousand. The defense of Puyang City will be taken over by Li Li, the deputy general of Xiongquying, who will lead a school of troops. In addition to the 10,000 garrison troops already in Puyang City, a total of 15,000 troops will be defended.

The Guards and Huang Wudie troops set off from the direction of Chenliu. The remaining 15,000 Huben battalions led by Huang Wudie and 17,000 Guards troops from Huangfu Chaobo, plus 20,000 defenders and There were 20,000 auxiliary soldiers and civilians, and a total of more than 70,000 troops, known as a 100,000-strong army, went out.

The southern army was led by Huang Zhong as the chief general, Wang Ran and Huangfu Li as deputy generals, and Dong Zhao as military advisor.

Like the North Route Army, the South Route Army will also be divided into two groups. One of them will be led by Huang Zhong himself. He will send troops from Runan and lead the seven schools of Shenwuying, totaling 35,000 soldiers, plus 20,000 defenders. There were 20,000 craftsmen, making a total of 75,000 troops.

On the other side, Huangfu Li and Wang Ran led 25,000 troops from the five schools of Zhenwuying, plus 10,000 troops from the two schools of Fenwuying, as well as 20,000 guards and 20,000 civilian craftsmen. The same number was 75,000. Army.

At the same time, Lu Ling, the second son of Lu Zhi, Huangfu Chaobo, was sent to Huangfu Li's army to accompany the army as military counselor. Both Li Feng and Ji Bao from Yuan Shu's army were sent to serve in the South Army.

Not only that, for this war, Huangfu Chaobo also deliberately used another one of his trump cards, which was the Dugu brothers' special unit - the Dizi Army, because he knew how big a city Yanzhou was. In particular, several counties and cities are not so easy to capture.

The Dugu brothers' five thousand army was divided into two. Dugu Xiong led two thousand soldiers and horses to Huang Zhong's army, while Dugu Ba and Dugu Tian led three thousand soldiers and horses to accompany Huangfu Chaobo.

These two soldiers and horses will be Huangfu Chaobo's trump card in this battle. According to Shadow's intelligence, at least two cities under Cao Cao's rule will need to consider using digging troops to dig tunnels to attack. One of them is where Cao Cao first started. The county seat of Qiao County, and the other city is Changyi City, the seat of Yanzhou.

Of course, there are several other cities that are also extremely strong, such as Linzi City, where Qingzhou is governed, and Tan County, where Xuzhou is governed. It's just that these two cities are probably not something that the Eastern Expeditionary Army can reach within a short period of time.

After determining the strategy of dispatching troops, the route of attack, and the arrangement of the generals' troops, the next step was to discuss the time for dispatching troops. After repeated discussions, Huangfu Chaobo decided to set the time for dispatching troops on March 12th. The reason for this arrangement is, This is because spring plowing has ended on the 10th. If we send troops at this time, it will not affect the sowing of summer grain in various parts of Yanzhou. After all, these places will be the territory of the Eastern Expedition Army in the future. Moreover, before the summer grain harvest, the territory is also in the most short supply of food. At this time, if the war is delayed, we can still solve the food problem.

Although Huangfu Chaobo also wanted to deal with Cao Cao as soon as possible, he did not dare to have the extravagant hope of a quick war. After all, the strength of Cao Cao's army was there. If he could deal with Cao Cao's army within one to two years, it would already be an invitation. What a blessing. You know, it took nearly two years for Yuan Shu's army, which only had four counties, to be finally destroyed.

In addition, Huangfu Chaobo ordered Lujiang County to restore normal order as soon as possible, and the tens of thousands of Yuan Shu army prisoners also needed to be transformed and absorbed as soon as possible. Not only that, all the counties under his jurisdiction were ready again, ready to draw elite troops to support the war at any time.

Fortunately, after several years of development, the Eastern Expedition Army has a complete army training procedure. The battle camp is supplemented by drawing elite veterans from the guard camps in various places, and the vacant guard camps recruit new troops locally, and so on. Now there are 220 city-level territories under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Expedition Army. If 500 elite guards are drawn from each of them, a battle camp of 110,000 can be formed, which will be a huge support for the war.

And drawing 500 soldiers from each city does not have much impact on the defensive power in the city. It only needs the garrison to recruit 500 new soldiers to join. The 500 new soldiers will join the guard camp, and the old will bring the new, and they will soon form combat effectiveness.

Of course, this is just an emergency measure just in case. The number of troops in the Eastern Expedition Army has reached a relatively high level. If there are more, it will be very detrimental to the continued development of the Eastern Expedition Army. This is just a contingency plan for an emergency.