Chapter 2185: Battle of Xiangyang
"My lord, when we dispatch an army of 210,000 to attack the Tang Dynasty, the grain reserves in Luoyang are definitely not enough. There is not much left in the grain stores in Hetao and Bingzhou. Even if the granaries in the two places are emptied, I am afraid that there will only be enough for the army to fight for two days. Yue." Han Fei said worriedly.
Li Tang was not a weak country, with a total force of 300,000 in the country. If he wanted to seize Guanzhong within two months with an army of 210,000, this task would be too difficult.
"Don't worry, the food and grass for two months will be provided in my mind again."
With that said, Qin Hao pointed to Xiangyang on the map and said: "Yue Fei and Han Xin have reversed the decline after joining forces. Now the battle situation in Jingbei is very beneficial to our side. The winner will be determined soon. By then, we can transport troops from Jingbei." Food to support the front line.”
If the Battle of Jingbei is won, not only food and grass, but also troops will be able to be supported.
In other words, Qin Hao actually used three armies in his plan to seize the pass, Li Jing's 140,000 troops, Huo Qubing's 70,000 cavalry, and the troops withdrawn from the battlefield in Jingbei.
Only when these three parties join forces can Qin Hao be confident enough to seize food from the powerful Li Tang and seize the guarantee in Guanzhong.
Of course, there are three prerequisites for doing this:
First, the Qin army must win the battle in Jingbei. If it loses, it will naturally be impossible to support Guanzhong;
Second, after defeating the Shu-Chu coalition, the Qin army should not suffer too many casualties;
Third, the Jingbei War must end within a month, otherwise, I am afraid it will be too late to participate in the Guanzhong War.
All three are indispensable.
When it comes to the Battle of Jingbei, it is definitely the most intense and anxious front. It is also the only battlefield where the Qin army has lost cities and territory and has been losing battles.
Before Han Xin and Zhao Yun's reinforcements arrived in Jingbei, the Qin army lost another important town, Jiangling City, the seat of Nanjun.
There are only 8,000 defenders in Jiangling City. Even if Meng Gong is good at guarding the city, even if Meng Gong mobilizes the people in the city to help defend the city, and even if Meng Gong and Huo Jun activate the combo skill 'Copper Wall and Iron Wall', Jiangling City still cannot be defended.
Although Meng Gong failed to defend Jiangling, he overfulfilled his task. Yue Fei only asked him to defend Jiangling for one month, but he defended it for two full months.
This directly caused countless casualties among the people in the city, but it also cost the Shu-Chu coalition forces a great price. A full 30,000 troops died in the siege.
In the end, Jiangling was defeated by the coalition forces after they ran out of ammunition and food.
After the city was broken, Meng Gong and other generals led a remnant army of 600 to break through, but were pursued and intercepted by the Shu-Chu coalition forces.
After Meng Gong personally broke off the attack, he was captured alive by Chu general Chong Heihu, while Han Shizhong and Huo Jun were rescued by Yue Fei who came to rescue him.
The order to capture Meng Gong alive was given by Liu Xiu. Liu Xiu loved talents and saw that Meng Gong could no longer escape, so he had the idea of subduing him for his own use.
When Meng Gong saw that he could not escape, he immediately prepared to kill himself to avoid the humiliation. However, facing the Chongheihu who was a god of war, he was captured alive without even being able to kill himself.
The fall of Jiangling is of great significance. It means that the entire Nanjun has fallen. The Shu-Chu coalition has completely established a foothold in Jingbei. It will be difficult to expel them in the future.
After the Shu-Chu coalition captured Jiangling, if they just defended the city, digested the results of the battle, and did not continue to march, even if Yue Fei and Han Xin joined forces, they would still be able to help Liu Ji and Liu Xiu.
But Liu Ji's heart was as high as the sky. When he saw Qin Hao unifying Hebei, he felt envious and jealous in his heart.
Under the persuasion of his confidant Gao Yao, Liu Jisheng had the idea of completely occupying Jingbei and weakening the Qin army while growing stronger. So he and Liu Xiu continued northward to attack Jingbei with 260,000 Shu and Chu allied troops, while blocking the Qin army. The biggest obstacle in front of him is Yue Fei of Xiangyang.
At this time, 100,000 reinforcements from Han Xin and Zhao Yun had arrived, and the total strength of the Qin army in Jingbei rose to 210,000.
It is obviously not an easy task for the 260,000 Shu-Chu coalition forces to defeat the 210,000 Qin troops, then break through Xiangyang and occupy Jingbei.
Stimulated by a series of victories, Liu Ji became a little swollen.
Counselor Gao Yao also said: Most of the Qin army reinforcements who came to support were recruited from Yanzhao prisoners of war. Their combat strength was weak and their morale was low. They were no match for the elite Shu and Chu troops in frontal combat.
What Gao Yao said is true. The 70,000 troops under Han Xin were indeed surrendered.
After learning this, Liu Ji was secretly relieved. After all, the combat power of these Hebei surrender troops was definitely not as strong as the main force of the Qin army, and it would be easier to defeat them.
Liu Ji secretly analyzed the wave of Qin troops in northern Jing, but found that the Qin troops he faced had nothing to fear.
There are at least 30,000 new recruits in Yue Fei's 110,000 old and new mixed army, while Han Xin's 70,000 army has an advantage in surrendering. The only main force of the Qin army that can really fight is 70,000 Jingbei veterans and Zhao Yun's 30,000 Hetao cavalry. .
In other words, of the Qin army faced by the 260,000 Shu-Chu coalition, only 100,000 were the main force, and the remaining 110,000 were weak troops.
If he couldn't win even this, what qualifications did Liu Ji have to compete with Qin Hao?
Liu Ji made up his mind to defeat the Qin army and seize Jingbei, but he had a big problem in front of him, which was how to provoke Yue Fei to fight.
Although the combat power of the Qin army was not strong, the total number was 210,000 after all. In addition, Xiangyang's defense was stronger than Jiangling. If Yue Fei insisted on defending, the Shu-Chu coalition would not be able to capture Jiangling even if they defeated them all. .
The only way to defeat the Qin army is to fight outside the city, but how can we get Yue Fei to fight outside the city?
Just when Liu Ji was thinking hard to no avail, counselor Gao Yao came up with another plan, sending women's clothes to humiliate Yue Fei, forcing Yue Fei to leave the city for a decisive battle.
Wang Mang used the strategy of giving away women's clothes to humiliate Su Dingfang, but it was used by Su Dingfang to boost the morale of the Qin army. In the end, it was self-defeating and defeated by Su Dingfang.
With Wang Mang's example in mind, Liu Ji naturally didn't think Gao Yao's gift of women's clothes would work, but Gao Yao said sending women's clothes was obviously a humiliation, but in fact it gave Yue Fei an opportunity to take advantage of his scheme.
Only if Yue Fei thinks that the decisive battle with the coalition forces can be won, will he lead the army to fight in the decisive battle with the coalition forces, and giving him women's clothes will give him a reason to fight.
Gao Yao's rhetoric not only convinced Liu Ji, but also Liu Xiu and Chen Ping.
Liu Xiu had the most dealings with Yue Fei and understood Yue Fei best. He knew that Yue Fei was not a person who cared about personal honor and disgrace.
Yue Fei never did anything he was unsure of. If he didn't want to fight, no matter how humiliated he was, it would be impossible to provoke him to fight. If he was sure of winning, he would take the initiative to go out of the city to fight without provocation.
I have to say that Gao Yao's acting skills are really good. Not only did he deceive Liu Ji and Liu Xiu, but even Chen Ping didn't notice his disguise.
Of course, the premise of not being discovered is that Gao Yao's strategies are indeed helpful to Shu, so he can deceive so many old foxes.
But if Yue Fei and Gao Yao did all this intentionally, the situation would be completely different.
What followed was that Gao Yao entered the Qin camp alone, humiliated Yue Fei in women's clothing, and brought Yue Fei back to use his plan, but he didn't know that he had fallen into the coalition's plan. This excited both Liu Ji and Liu Xiu.
With Gao Yao's planning and Yue Fei's cooperation, a decisive battle soon broke out between the three kingdoms of Qin, Shu and Chu.
Yue Fei personally visited the 210,000 Qin army to confront Liu Ji and Liu Xiu's 260,000 Shu and Chu coalition forces. This battle was called the Battle of Xiangyang in later generations.
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