Lu Xun also didn't expect that Cao Xiu would lead more than 20,000 people to pursue Quan Cong, causing Quan Cong to retreat to Yin Ling.
According to Lu Xun's original plan, Quan Cong was to lead his army back to aid Shouchun after his attack on Dangtu County "failed."
In order to attract Cao Xiu to take the initiative to send troops to Shouchun, there are currently only 5,000 soldiers stationed in Shouchun. If Quan Cong can safely withdraw to Shouchun, there will be about 10,000 soldiers stationed in Shouchun, which will at least ensure that Cao Xiu cannot attack Shouchun in a short time. , to buy time for your follow-up plans.
However, war is like this, and it is impossible for everything to develop exactly as expected.
At this time, it is the time when the coach's layout and commanding ability are tested. Whether it is a plan arranged in advance or a decision made on the fly, it is very important.
As for Lu Xun, although he has been overshadowed by Zhou Yu these years, Lu Xun is also a very outstanding military commander.
There was no need to make a last-minute decision. Before the war, Lu Xun had considered the dangers that might be encountered after taking time off to defend Shouchun City. He had already considered a plan for this - he ordered Lu Shu, who was stationed in Quyang, to lead five thousand troops and rush to the rescue of Shouchun City. spring.
Give Shouchun 10,000 troops to defend the city.
At the same time, Lu Xun asked Sun Shao to take 3,000 people and rush from Chengde to Shouchun with great fanfare.
After all, Sun Shao was the nominal commander-in-chief of the Soochow Army in the Huainan region. His rush to Shouchun with great fanfare basically meant that he and Cao Xiu were going to continue the Shouchun defense battle.
In this way, on the one hand, it can continue to attract Cao Xiu to Shouchun City, on the other hand, it can also disintegrate Cao Xiu's defenses in other directions, making it easier for Lu Xun to start using troops later.
Only at this time did Lu Xun's plan take shape.
On the one hand, Lu Xun ordered the troops to set off immediately, detouring to Yinling, and informing Xu Sheng who was stationed in Guangling that he could move. On the other hand, Lu Xun left Ding Feng in Chengde to command the Shouchun offensive and defensive battle, while he himself personally He led the Soochow Navy to enter the Yingshui River from Shaopi, go upstream, and directly attack Ruyin, an important town in Runan.
At this time, Cao Xiu was setting up camp under Shouchun City, building siege equipment, and waiting for his three reinforcements to arrive before starting to attack the city.
Just as Man Chong in history once said in admonishment, Huainan is a place with "a lake on its back and a river on its side, making it easy to advance but difficult to retreat." Although there are no major rivers flowing through the Huainan area, there are various small lakes, tributaries of large rivers, and even artificial There are countless channels.
For example, the Shaopei area that Lu Xun planned to cross was a large artificial lake built under the leadership of Sun Shuao of Chu State during the Spring and Autumn Period.
Although this place has gone through the changes of the times and has not been repaired for a long time, which has caused the area of the artificial lake to shrink significantly and cannot be used for fighting at all, it is still not a problem to build a naval dock for transporting troops.
And Shaopi is just connected to the lower reaches of Yingshui River. Going upstream along Yingshui River, you can directly reach Ruyin in Runan County, which is the base where Cao Xiu stationed troops to attack Jiujiang County.
Lu Xun also chose the timing of sending troops very well. Huainan was in late July and early August. Autumn had just begun, but it was still very hot. The most important thing was that at this time, there was very little rainfall in Huainan, so there was no need to worry about Yingnan. The water surge made it impossible to swim upstream.
Therefore, Lu Xun personally led 20,000 Dongwu navy troops from Shaopi into Yingshui, preparing to attack Ruyin.
At this time, after Cao Xiu's main force went out to defend Ruyin, there were only 2,000 people guarding it. With Lu Xun's ability and the advantage of a sneak attack, he could easily succeed.
Once Ruyin is occupied, it will be equivalent to cutting off Cao Xiu's retreat.
Of course, at this time, Cao Xiu could also choose to withdraw his troops from Shouchun City and counterattack Ruyin with more than 50,000 troops. As Cao Xiu considered, Shouchun is not Shiting after all. It is not far from Runan. If he wants to completely trap him, It's not that easy.
Of course Lu Xun also knew this, so he notified Xu Sheng stationed in Guangling to take action at the same time.
In fact, Xu Sheng was no longer in Guangling at this time.
Nominally, in order to deal with the threat from Jia Kui's troops stationed in Pengcheng at the border, Xu Sheng led his troops northward and had already reached Xuyi.
But in fact, Xu Sheng's arrival at Xuyi with his troops had been arranged long ago, but Jia Kui's activities in Pengcheng gave Xu Sheng a legitimate excuse.
Next, Xu Sheng will go down the Huaihe River at Xuyi, penetrate into Yicheng behind Cao Xiu, and cover the two counties, trapping Cao Xiu under Shouchun City.
In other words, in order to block Cao Xiu this time, Lu Xun set up three encirclement nets.
The first line is the first encirclement network with Shouchun as the core and including Shouchun, Quyang and Chengde.
This encirclement network was not so much about blocking Cao Xiu as it was about guarding Shouchun, attracting Cao Xiu under Shouchun City, and trying his best to kill and injure the effective Wei army.
The second line of defense was the 10,000 Guangling Army led by Xu Sheng, which combined with the defenders in the four counties of Dangtu where Zhou Li was located, to intercept Cao Xiu's retreat.
And even if Cao Xiu broke through the siege network organized by Xu Sheng in the four counties and returned to Runan, there was still the last siege network, and Lu Xun led his troops to block Ruyin.
Even if Cao Xiu could really break out, he would probably have to shed a layer of skin.
And even if Cao Xiu was lucky enough to break out, Lu Xun would not let him go easily. Next, Lu Xun would join Xu Sheng's troops and directly launch an attack on Runan, which was seriously under-strength.
The lowest goal is to occupy Yingyang, Xincai and other places to expand the strategic space for Shouchun's defense. The highest goal is to directly capture Runan County and open the passage to Yanzhou in the Central Plains.
This is Lu Xun's overall strategic plan.
At this moment, Cao Xiu did not notice anything strange and was still attacking Shouchun with all his strength.
Thinking about the problem from Cao Xiu's point of view, he really didn't expect that Lu Xun would go around in such a big circle, sending troops from Chengde, south of Shouchun City, to block his retreat, and even recruit Xu Sheng's Guangling troops to help in the battle. This would rather leave Guangling County's defense open.
Behind Cao Xiu, the four counties including Dangtu have been captured by the Wei army, and the entire back road has been connected. Cao Xiu really never thought that in this case, he would be attacked without any warning. Surrounded by Shouchun City.
Lu Xun sent troops to attack Ruyin. It was unlikely that Cao Xiu would receive the news immediately. However, when Xu Sheng led his troops down the Huaihe River and occupied Dangtu County, Cao Xiu did receive the news immediately. warning.
But it was too late. The person who sent the warning was the defeated Wei army he had placed in Dangtu County. When they came to Shouchun to warn Cao Xiu, Xu Sheng had already occupied Dangtu County.
What made Cao Xiu the most angry was that the reason why Xu Sheng was able to occupy Dangtu County quietly was entirely because of Zhou Li, a bastard.
After all, Cao Xiu fell into Zhou Li's trap. As expected, Zhou Li still pretended to surrender.
Yes, Cao Xiu did take a defensive stance against Zhou Li. He transferred Zhou Li's troops and horses, leaving three thousand Wei troops to guard Dangtu. In Cao Xiu's view, even if Zhou Li pretended to surrender, there were still three thousand Wei troops. Looking at it, he couldn't make any noise.
But Cao Xiu underestimated Zhou Li after all.
After all, Zhou Li is also the defender of the city. At least when there is no actual threat, he is still the highest commander in the city and can't command the Wei army. It doesn't matter. Zhou Li has other ways.
Zhou Li used the excuse of inspecting the city defense to mobilize the city gate guards and arranged some of his hidden bodyguards to guard the city gate. After nightfall, Zhou Li led these bodyguards to suddenly attack. He controlled and opened the city gate, and received Xu Sheng's vanguard troops who arrived in advance to enter the city.
At this time, Wei Jun, who sensed something was wrong and wanted to resist, was already too late.
After a fierce battle, the three thousand Wei army, without anyone under unified command, could not possibly be the opponent of the prepared Soochow army. They quickly broke up and fled Dangtu. Some of the defeated Wei army fled to the outskirts of Shouchun. Report to Cao Xiu.
Immediately afterwards, bad news that caused Cao Xiu a headache came one after another.
The three counties of Xiacai, Ping'a, and Yicheng, which had been captured by Zhang Te, Zhang Pu, and Xue Qiao, also directly chose to defect again after Xu Sheng took control of Dangtu County.
For a time, Cao Xiu's escape was blocked.
This is also Cao Xiu's fault.
Although Zhang Te, Zhang Pu, and Xue Qiao captured three counties, in fact, these three men almost pushed them all the way without bloodshed, and forced the surrender of the three counties with their superior strength.
If they were given a little more time to adjust the defense of the three counties and leave their own people to defend the city, the three counties would not be so easy to defect again, and Cao Xiu would still have room to retreat.
But in just a few days, Cao Xiu issued an order to the three of them, asking them to immediately lead their troops eastward and join him to attack Shouchun. The three of them had no choice but to let the generals who surrendered to Soochow continue to garrison. In the three counties, these three people did not even have the slightest warning from Cao Xiu, and even let the generals from Soochow stay behind with their own troops.
Originally, the Soochow generals in the three counties surrendered, partly because they were really unable to defeat them, and partly because of Lu Xun's arrangement. Now that Xu Sheng's troops arrived and easily captured Dangtu, the other three counties' generals would of course choose to "follow the plan" immediately Anyway.
The continuous bad news made Cao Xiu's head hurt, but Cao Xiu still did not panic.
After all, even if the way back is blocked, Cao Xiu still has a chance to break out.
After all, the military strength of the two sides is very different.
Even if Dangtu and other four counties rebelled again, their total strength would be less than 10,000, and they would still be distributed among the four counties. According to the description of the defeated troops, the number of Guangling soldiers brought by Xu Sheng was only about 10,000.
In other words, the Soochow army blocking their retreat is probably about 20,000 people, and they still need to disperse and defend four counties.
But Cao Xiu had nearly 50,000 people in his hands.
In Cao Xiu's eyes, it is not difficult for the 50,000 Wei troops to break through the interception of the 20,000 Soochow troops scattered across various places. He only needs to find key points to attack and break through.
And again, Shouchun is not too far away from Runan. As long as he breaks through Xu Sheng's blocking circle, Cao Xiu can retreat directly to Runan.
Moreover, Xu Sheng led the Guangling army to leave Guangling. To a certain extent, Guangling County's defense was severely weakened. Although Cao Xiu and Jia Kui did not get along, Cao Xiu would not question Jia Kui's ability.
Faced with such a good opportunity, if Jia Kui didn't even move, he would really be looked down upon by Cao Xiu! ! !
Shouchun may not be able to attack it on his own, but Guangling and Jia Kui may not be able to attack it.
It’s really hard to say who takes advantage in the end! ! !
(End of chapter)
