Chapter 990: Attacking Cao From Three Directions
At the same time when Huangfu Chaobo was marching from Chenliu to Jiyin, Zhang He's army in Puyang City also began to march south. Zhang He's army had five schools of Shenwu Camp with 25,000 combat soldiers, plus 20,000 guards and 10,000 civilian workers and craftsmen, totaling 55,000 troops, known as 80,000 troops, heading for Lihu County, Jiyin County.
In addition to Zhang He, the main general of Shenwu Camp, and Min Chun, the deputy general, there was also Le Jiu, the surrendered general, and Huangfu Chaobo sent Tian Feng's eldest son Tian Zheng as a military officer.
Luoyang was left to the deputy general of Huben Camp with two schools of infantry, while Chenliu City had only 20,000 guards from Chenliu Duwei Zhou Cang. As for Puyang City, it was handed over to the deputy general of Xiongqu Camp who came from Hongnong and one school of combat soldiers and 10,000 guards from Puyang City.
The news of the expedition to Jiyin was sent to Changyi by Cao Cao's spies lurking in Chenliu that night in an expedited manner of 800 miles. Seeing the news from Chenliu, Cao Cao was stunned at first, then laughed and said that heroes think alike. He was still thinking about sending troops to attack Chenliu, and the expedition to the east had already sent troops.
The expedition to the east was exactly what Cao Cao wanted. In this way, he could use the cities of Jiyin to contain the main force of the expedition to the east and buy time for Xiahou Yuan's war in Qingzhou.
Afterwards, Cao Cao did not order the army to go to Dingtao. He had already deployed 30,000 troops in Dingtao, including 10,000 elite troops from the central army in Jiyin and Shanyang counties, 10,000 elite troops from Cao Cao's headquarters, and Dingtao already had 10,000 county soldiers. In the plan of Cao Cao and his men, Dingtao could at least hold out for a few months. When the soldiers of the expedition to the east were tired, Cao Cao would send more troops to attack them from the front and back.
Originally, Cao Cao and his men agreed that the number of troops to be sent to the Eastern Expedition should be around 100,000, but they did not expect that the troops sent to Chenliu alone had reached 100,000. According to the news from the spies, the troops in Chenliu should be the main force of the Eastern Expedition. In addition to the flags of the generals of Huangfu Chaobo's guards, the flag of Huang Zhong, the number one general under Huangfu Chaobo, also appeared in it.
In addition, the flags of the other generals were also among them, from which it can be judged that the elite army of Henan County of the Eastern Expedition has been fully dispatched.
In Puyang in the north, the army of Zhang He dispatched also had nearly 100,000 troops. According to the news from the spies, in addition to the army of Zhang He in Chenliu and Puyang, there were also flags of several generals from various counties in Hebei. So many generals appeared in the two armies, which made everyone in Cao Cao's army secretly smack their tongues.
However, it was precisely because of this that everyone in Cao Cao's army believed that the Eastern Expedition Army had almost gone out in full force to attack them. Unfortunately, now, neither Yuan Shao in Hebei nor Lu Bu in Bingzhou are willing to send troops to attack the Eastern Expedition Army. In their view, the Eastern Expedition Army is a tortoise, and no matter how they fight, they will not be able to attack. Instead of wasting time on this, it is better to take advantage of the lack of time and energy here to concentrate on doing things that you are more confident of.
After receiving the news that the Eastern Expedition Army was dispatched, Cao Cao immediately sent people to the river to check the situation of the flood, and also notified Xiahou Yuan's army to prepare for the dispatch.
Two days later, Zhang He's army arrived at Lihu City. At this time, Cao Cao's army in Lihu had received the news and had already closed the city gate. However, Lihu originally had 3,000 defenders as an early warning to the north of Jiyin Dingtao City. Therefore, neither Cao Cao in Changyi nor Ren Jun, the governor of Dingtao City, had any plans to send troops to rescue. The 3,000 defenders of Lihu City were attacked by Zhang He's army and only lasted for two days before the city was broken.
Of the three thousand soldiers from the prefectures and states, one thousand died, hundreds were injured, and the remaining one thousand were all captured. The county magistrate and the county lieutenant were killed while defending the city. The casualties suffered by Zhang He's army were only the hundreds of civilians who died and were injured when filling the trenches on the first day, and the hundreds of elite soldiers who were killed and injured when attacking the city on the second day. Among them, only three hundred civilians and more than a hundred halberd soldiers and ordinary soldiers died, and more than five hundred people were injured, of which more than half were civilians.
This was the decision made by Zhang He and Tian Zheng after they discussed it. Both of them agreed that as the first battle of the Zhengdong Army against Cao Cao's army,
they should give the opponent a fatal blow with thunder and lightning. If they could win in one go, it would have a great shocking effect on Cao Cao's army.
On the first day of the attack, Zhang He only sent people to fill the moat of Lihu City, and then launched only a tentative attack and hastily withdrew his troops. In the second day's attack, Zhang He ordered Min Chun and Le Ju to lead a school of soldiers to attack from the east and west walls, while Zhang He himself led 5,000 halberd soldiers to launch a fierce attack from the north city.
The Lihu defenders never thought that Zhang He would play so unconventionally and send out the most elite three schools of soldiers in the second round of attack. Caught off guard, the Eastern Expedition Army attacked the Lihu City in the first wave of attack. The Lihu County Lieutenant died on the spot on the city wall, and the county magistrate also died in the chaos.
Afterwards, the defenders were in chaos. After more than a thousand people were killed and injured, the soldiers who reacted put down their weapons and surrendered one after another. The whole battle lasted less than an hour.
Afterwards, Zhang He's army did not enter Lihu, but only arranged a thousand guards to enter Lihu to take over the city, and then arranged all the wounded to enter the city. The army camped outside the city for a day of rest, and began to move south again the next day.
On the day when Zhang He's army began to attack Lihu, Yuzhou Governor Kong Rong and Prisoner-breaking General Sun Ce also announced that they would send troops to attack Cao Cao.
On that day, the Yuzhou Army was divided into two groups, each with 60,000 to 70,000 troops, and began to march towards Qiao County and Liang State respectively. Unlike the two armies of Huangfu Chaobo and Zhang He, the two armies of the Yuzhou Army were obviously much more low-key. Not only were the numbers announced to the outside less than the actual number, but the flags in the army were also the flags of some unknown generals. Not only that, the speed of the Yuzhou Army's march was much slower than that of the Zhengdong Army in the north.
The Sun Ce Army in Huainan was different. On the day of announcing the dispatch of troops, Sun Ce personally led 50,000 troops to attack Xiquyang County occupied by Cao Cao's army, and Sun Jing's army in Guangling also sent troops to Huaiyin, preparing to cross the river and attack Huaipu.
As for the behavior of the Sun Ce Army of the Yuzhou Army, the people of the Cao Cao Army thought they were in control. In their view, although Yuzhou had a close relationship with the Zhengdong Army, it was not willing to be the vanguard of attacking them, because although the Yuzhou Army had been trained by the Zhengdong Army for more than a year, they still did not have the confidence to fight with them.
Therefore, the Yuzhou Army believed that once the Eastern Expedition Army gained the upper hand on the northern front, Cao Cao's army would certainly dispatch troops to the north to provide support. At that time, Qiao County would be left with little manpower, and the Yuzhou Army would have an opportunity to take advantage.