After the exploratory attack, Liu Bei discussed with everyone the difficulty of attacking the city. Everyone thought that the enemy had been entrenched for a long time and might not be able to easily break through the siege, so they all said they could only think of other strategies, but what strategy should be used to respond? Everyone was at a loss.
When it comes to the reason why the Han army cannot conquer quickly, everyone knows it. The main reason was that the enemy attacked preemptively and occupied the gap before the army arrived. If the Han army wanted to defeat the enemy, it had to cross the gap first.
At that time, Xiang Yu defeated Emperor Gaozu's 560,000-strong army in Pengcheng and marched into Henan with a complete victory. He thought that the world was peaceful. As a result, it was blocked in front of the chasm and could not break through for two years, which shows the danger of the chasm. But now the Gengcang army is about three times the size of the Han army, making it even more difficult to break through the defenses.
Just when everyone thought that the year's war was about to end with no results. It was General Duan Xuan who came up with the suggestion. He had experienced wars in Liangzhou for a long time and had encountered this kind of situation many times. He said:
"General, don't be anxious. Autumn has arrived, and it's a good time to fatten up your horses. We've been waiting here for half a year, so why worry about waiting another two months?
In October, the winter ice and snow will fall, and the river and the chasm will be frozen. Our army, with more than 10,000 large horses on horseback, can tramp across the river ice and storm the siege. But the bandit soldiers are wearing thin cold clothes and their limbs are stiff and unable to move. How can they cope with this? Once the gap is broken, the false emperor is captured and the false dynasty is destroyed, all like a backhand. "
When Liu Bei heard this, he praised Duan Xuan and said: "Ting Jian often said to me, if you don't plan for the whole world, you can't plan for a moment; if you don't plan for the overall situation, you can't plan for a region. He is loyal to this plan and has a deep understanding of the time and place. He can be said to be a famous general. .”
So he ordered the general's war horses to be gathered in one place, and Duan Yan was responsible for feeding the horses and training the troops in preparation for the subsequent war. But at this time, Cao Cao raised another objection. He said: "In the past year, I have suffered a lot from the moth thieves in Yanzhou. I know that they are not very brave in fighting, but their tactics are extremely cunning. General Duan's strategy is certainly reasonable, but if In winter, if the enemy sends people to cut ice along the water, what should our army do?"
This is indeed a problem, but Xun You on the side replied: "This is not difficult. As long as we can mobilize the bandits' heavy troops elsewhere, no one will have time to dig ice."
Zhang Fei was surprised when he heard this and asked: "Since our army cannot break through the gap, how can we divide our troops and mobilize the thieves? Isn't it too risky to allow His Highness Chen Wang to enter Yan?"
Xun You said with a smile: "That's not the case, but Ming Gong had previously asked General Guan to raft into Yan from the river. I'm afraid he already has a suspicion in his heart."
Everyone turned their attention to Liu Bei. Liu Bei held his sword, nodded, and said with a smile: "I knew I couldn't hide it from Gongda. It's not that I have any clues. This is all Yuan Zhi's design."
Xu Shu was in Chenggao at this time and was not here. Liu Bei still thanked him in public and explained in detail: "Yuan Zhi had a discussion with me earlier and said that although the enemy's force was huge, it seemed to be unscrupulous navy soldiers. This is what we What an opportunity!”
Everyone suddenly realized and thought: It turns out that at the beginning of the month, General Guan came across the river, seemingly to rescue the two generals Xiahou Dun and Cao Ren, but more importantly, he was looking at the reality of the Geng Cang navy!
As the commander-in-chief of the navy, Guan Yu said of the enemy: "I took a boat eastward last month. The enemy's fleet was so large that I couldn't say it was skillful to pilot it. It can only be said that it can be transported by water."
Cao Cao then said overjoyed: "In that case, why not go out on a boat to flank and attack the enemy's rear? As a herdsman in Yanzhou, Cao Cao is willing to be the vanguard of the army!"
But Liu Bei waved his hand and said: "Zhongming has just mentioned the countermeasures, and there is no need to take such risks. What the army needs now is someone who can build a camp behind the enemy to mobilize the enemy's heavy troops, and then hold on until winter. Meng De, your army Since I have no experience in boating, I think Deming should be responsible for this move."
The Deming he spoke of was none other than Zhang Xian, the former governor of Changsha and current general of Anton. After all, Zhang Xian had been in Jingzhou for a long time, and his subordinates often practiced naval warfare in Yunmengze. Most of them were skilled in naval warfare. Zhang Xian was often worried that his subordinates were not familiar with horse warfare. At this time, he was greatly relieved after hearing Liu Bei's arrangement. He stood up and promised, "Since it is the general's order, I will obey it."
The plan has been decided, and the next step is preparation. Xu Shu was stationed in Chenggao at this time to be responsible for rebuilding ships. In half a month, he built 245 stern ships, each of which could accommodate 70 people. The sides and planks of the ships were all wrapped in cowhide. Another large hole was opened and equipped with iron pile heads for ramming through enemy troops. Zhang Xian was very satisfied with the situation and led his men to get familiar with it for two days before setting off from the river bridge by boat on August 14th.
Just at this time, there was another light autumn rain, and the yellow leaves on both sides of the bank were knocked down by the raindrops, making the turbid current even more turbid. The river was full of yellow, but the people on the bank seeing off were extremely excited. Everyone knows that the last autumn tide is here, and this is the best time to take a boat eastward.
Before leaving, Liu Bei held Zhang Xian's hand and said: "The success or failure of one hundred thousand soldiers is entirely in your hands." After that, he said to the Jing people who got on the boat: "As long as you can hold on until The river is frozen, no matter whether you are demoted or not, you can be awarded two ranks!" The morale of the whole army was greatly boosted, and they all expressed their intention to stick to Liu Bei. Zhang Xian was also very moved and promised Liu Bei: "If this matter fails, General But it’s just to see my head.”
So the fleet weighed anchor and sailed eastward, following the autumn tide. It took only half a day to sail down three hundred miles. When passing by Juan County where Gengcang was stationed, Gengcang's army was well prepared after last month's battle, and they fired rockets with pine trees at the cows one after another. However, under the autumn rain, none of them could penetrate the cowhide, and naturally they could not light it.艨艟. The Han troops on the stern responded with arrows that hit the south bank like fallen leaves, leaving many corpses behind and even captured three small boats carrying food.
Since then, no one has stopped on the shore. Zhang Xian was able to reach the north of Puyang City that night. According to the original plan, they planned to camp ten miles east of Puyang City, but one mile further east, Zhang Xian discovered that the Gengcang Army had three iron ropes here and could not break through in a short time. But if we stay here for too long, enemy troops will come to encircle us, and the encampment will be impossible.
Zhang Xian made a prompt decision and chose to turn the ship around and return to the place twenty miles north of Baima City. With the river at his back, he disembarked and built a fort. It was already midnight, and Zhang Xian knew that time was running out, so he first asked some people to go ashore and build several small camps with a capacity of a thousand people on the river bank. After the camps were completed, he planned to dig trenches around the camps and then divert water from the river. Enter the trench to ensure initial defense.
Two hours later, soldiers from the Geng Cang Army indeed appeared in the south. They were different from the ordinary soldiers on the front line. They actually rode brown horses and wore thick leather armor. The long silkworms in their hands still shone coldly in the autumn rain. They were obviously elite soldiers of the Geng Cang Army. What is even more eye-catching is that these people have a small yellow-colored cloud-patterned flag tied to their backs, which looks like rocks rolling in the air in the wind and rain.
There are about a thousand of these people. They are elite soldiers composed of Gengcang Situ Guancheng and his followers. They are famous for the yellow flags on their backs. They are called the "horse flag army" within the Gengcang army. They are led by their general Wu Juqi. . After Dongmin relieved the siege, they moved their troops to Baima, preparing to rest here and then go to Yuanyang to change defenses. At this time, they encountered the Han army's attack. They volunteered to join the army, intending to destroy all the Han army's fortresses.
Zhang Xian saw them coming and saw that none of his forts had been repaired yet. He was very anxious, so he called all the officers under his command over and asked them: "When I was in Changsha, I defeated the bandits, and the ones I defeated were all bandits and barbarians. A hundred horses would be considered a great thing, but the thieves I encountered today were extraordinary, with thousands of horses charging into the formation. When it comes to water and foot combat, I am actually not afraid of it, but when facing these knights on flat ground, I But there is nothing I can do. Now that the matter has come to this, I would like to ask you all for help. Who can stop them? I am willing to express my merits in front of the general!"
"I Have a Picture Book of Ghosts and Gods"
Everyone in his tent looked at each other in shock, not daring to speak for a moment. It's no wonder that Zhang Xian is not good at riding and fighting. Could it be that they are good at it?
Just when Zhang Xian was disappointed, a middle-aged man suddenly came forward and said, "This is not a difficult task. When I usually train troops, I often think about how to fight the enemy in the north of the Yangtze River. I have also learned a little bit about how to control cavalry. If you don't If you don't like it, just let me go and fight the enemy!"
Zhang Xian was overjoyed when he heard this and thanked the man: "Unexpectedly, today there is a strong man like Han Sheng! Okay! I will send my best nine hundred soldiers to you, do you think you can do it?"
"Nine hundred is too much. You only need to give me 600 soldiers and 800 crossbows, and I will definitely win!"
"Okay! Good! Han Sheng is a true warrior!"
The Han Sheng he was talking about was one of the officers donated by Liu Biao. His name was Huang Zhong, who was from Nanyang and was sent by Liu Bei to Zhang Xian's army. Zhang Xian was originally at odds with Liu Biao and had no intention of re-employing Huang Zhong, but at this critical moment, he did not care much and hurriedly ordered 600 soldiers to be handed over to Huang Zhong to see how he would fight against the enemy.
At this time, the Ma Banner Army had already rushed in from the gap in the camp. Some Han soldiers tried to assassinate the enemy, but they were no match for the Ma Banner Army's fast horses. After a few charges, the Han troops in the camp were broken into pieces, and it was difficult to defeat them. After organizing an effective resistance, some Han troops prepared to flee to the river bank, but not many escaped, and the exit was blocked. They were driven to the wall and stabbed to death by Gengcang troops.
Their leader, Wu Juqi, was getting ready to kill when he suddenly heard from his subordinates that someone was coming from the north. He looked north, and then he saw hundreds of dazzling soldiers stepping over. They were holding large wooden poles and walking so slowly that they seemed to be squirming, but their goal was obvious, they wanted to ride them. The army was interrupted.
When Wu Juqi saw this, he was very disdainful and said to his subordinates: "I think the enemy army has lost its head." Then he became excited again: "These are all soldiers, they must be the enemy's elite. Wait for us to kill them." Shoot them dead, and the enemy will be helpless!" After saying that, he immediately gathered his knights and surrounded Huang Zhong and the others.
But Huang Zhong was calm and commanded the soldiers to form a circular formation, and still walked slowly towards Geng Cang's army.
Knowing that they might not win in a head-on fight, the Ma Banner Army spread out, drew a large rolling circle around the circle, and kept shooting arrows at the Han Army. The Han Army did not resist at first, but kept shrinking their formation. The banner army also shrank its formation, and before they knew it, most of the knights were within the range of the infantry's arrows.
At this moment, Huang Zhong suddenly shouted loudly, and the Han soldiers dropped their wooden poles one after another, revealing the powerful crossbows under the wooden poles. In the enemy's flying arrows, a dense rain of arrows was reflected, and fell into the air. The guarding horse flag army immediately killed and injured more than two hundred people. Then they all shouted loudly and struggled to chase the injured knights.
In a hurry, Wu Juqi suffered a big loss. After fighting for two moments, he found that he could not gain the upper hand. For the sake of the overall situation, he abandoned more than a hundred corpses and hurriedly defeated the white horse.
The Jing people didn't care about these private individuals. They seized the time and continued to build the fort on the same spot.
