Following the probing information brought back by Zhu Ju, Lu Xun thought about the map for a while and probably understood the purpose of Wei Jun's appearance in Yingyang.
Eighty percent of them are Cao Xiu's back-up men, preparing to take over his retreating troops.
Otherwise, I really can’t figure out why thousands of Wei troops suddenly appeared in Yingyang, a place that is not considered a strategic location, and what is the strategic significance of holding on and refusing to retreat? !
But there is another point. Lu Xun couldn't figure out why the Wei army was not stationed directly at the key node of Ruyin, but at Yingyang, northwest of Ruyin. Could it be that the Wei army knew in advance that it would attack Ruyin, so it deliberately retreated. , preserve strength? !
If this is the case, why not directly inform Cao Xiu that the road ahead is in danger and ask Cao Xiu to retreat? !
At this time, Lu Xun was somewhat like Zhang Xi. He was thinking too much and did not consider that Xu Zhi arrived in Yingyang by accident. After discovering that the Soochow Army had occupied Ruyin, he was afraid that We lost our last troop dispatching point, so we didn't dare to leave.
Lu Xun couldn't believe such a coincidence. As the coach of this battle, he had to consider the worst.
Go attack Yingyang and eliminate this hidden danger in advance? !
It's not impossible, but a city garrisoned by three to five thousand people is difficult to capture in a short period of time if less than ten thousand people attack the city. Today's Lu Xun does not have so much time to prepare for these things.
No one knows how long Xu Sheng can hold off Cao Xiu. Lu Xun must be prepared for Cao Xiu to break through Dangtu's first blocking line at any time and run to Ruyin.
At this time, the troops were divided to attack Yingyang, which was more or less worth the loss.
But if left alone, once the original plan is followed, the Wei army in Yingyang will be a threat on the flanks.
If Yingyang only has the three to five thousand troops, this threat is not a big deal, but if reinforcements arrive in Yingyang and can gather up to 10,000 troops, no one can underestimate the threat of 10,000 enemy troops on the flanks. .
After Lu Xun thought carefully for a while, he decided to be more conservative and revise the battle plan.
According to the original battle plan, after Lu Xun occupied Ruyin, he could order Xu Sheng and others who were stationed in the four counties of Dangtu to withdraw their troops and move to the west of Ruyin.
In this case, if Cao Xiu wanted to withdraw to Runan, he would have to face Ru Yin's interception in the front, Xu Sheng and others on the flanks, and the Shouchun army behind him. This would be a perfect encirclement. It would not be that easy for Cao Xiu to break out. .
But now a large Wei army appeared on the west side of Ruyin where Xu Sheng was supposed to intercept. Lu Xun had to consider the possibility that once this Wei army took the initiative to launch an attack behind Xu Sheng, Cao Xiu would withdraw his troops.
There will be a weak point in this encirclement, and if Cao Xiu had made preparations to break out to the northwest in advance, the dumpling wrapper would have been broken.
At that time, it will be a trivial matter to be unable to stop the Wei army, and the losses to our own army will probably not be trivial either.
Since the current situation does have the possibility that the encirclement network will not be able to contain the Wei army, let's modify it slightly.
Lu Xun called for envoys from the army and asked them to go to Dangtu, Xiacai and Ping'a counties to deliver orders.
Orders were sent to the defenders in Cai and Ping'a counties to abandon their defense and immediately lead troops to support Xu Sheng in Dangtu County. After receiving the reinforcements, Xu Sheng should not move to the west of Ruyin, but directly join Shou. Together with the Chun army, they followed the Wei army to pursue them.
In other words, Lu Xun chose to let go of the defense and took the initiative to let Cao Xiu break through.
Now Lu Xun's strategic goal is no longer to completely annihilate Cao Xiu's 50,000-strong army, but to weaken the effective strength of the Wei army as much as possible to prepare for the subsequent attack on Runan.
In this way, although it is not a complete victory, the loss itself will not be too great, and in this way, it can also achieve the purpose of disintegrating the Wei army's fighting spirit to a certain extent.
When you surround the enemy so tightly that the enemy has no way out, you will have to withstand the enemy's most violent counterattack before they become completely desperate.
After all, no one wants to just wait to die.
But if a way out suddenly appears in front of you when the battle is at its fiercest, then who would fight tooth and nail to find a way out? They must be fleeing along this way out.
This is the correct usage of "encircling three towers and one tower" in the art of war.
Now, Lu Xun arranged such a "Surrounding Three Ques" to give Cao Xiu an escape route.
As for how many Wei soldiers could escape with Cao Xiu during this escape, it is hard to say.
After all, when running for their lives, everyone only looks forward and doesn't pay attention to what's going on behind them.
When Lu Xun's military order was conveyed to Xu Sheng in Dangtu County, Xu Sheng finally breathed a sigh of relief.
His defense these days is really difficult.
Although he did not have enough troops, he had to defend Dangtu to buy Lu Xun time to sneak attack Ruyin. However, the Shouchun army, which was supposed to launch an attack behind the Wei army, was late and only appeared behind the Wei army in the past few days, forcing him to Cao Xiu had to divide his troops to defend.
In this way, Xu Sheng was given a little breathing space, so that he would not be constantly pressured by Cao Xiu to attack.
But even so, Xu Sheng now only has about 6,000 defenders left, and the battle damage is close to 40%. If he continues to defend like this, there is a possibility of collapse at any time.
Lu Xun's military order not only sent reinforcements from Ping'a and Xiacai counties to Xu Sheng to supplement the lack of troops defending the city, but also opened a passage on the southwest side of Dangtu, allowing Cao Xiu to leave.
Xu Sheng was not worried that Cao Xiu would just slip away from the defense network of the four counties of Dangtu. As the general who had been partnered with Lu Xun for the longest time, Xu Sheng actually knew Lu Xun's abilities very well. If Cao Xiu dared to leave Ping'a and Cai counties If he breaks through in the right direction, what awaits him will definitely not be a good result.
In fact, Cao Xiu is also very hesitant now.
Cao Xiu received detailed information about Ping'a and Xiacai County's Dongwu Army abandoning city defense and supporting the defense of Dangtu County in only two days.
In fact, Cao Xiu has been paying close attention to the military trends of the Soochow Army in Ping'a, Xiacai, and Yicheng counties.
In fact, in terms of force distribution, the number of defenders in these three counties is smaller. If Cao Xiu divides his troops to attack these three counties, he might be able to open a breakthrough.
But Cao Xiu couldn't do this.
With the retreat route cut off and the morale of the army unstable, if we rashly divide our troops to break out, I'm afraid it would be easy to divide our troops, but it would not be so easy to reunite these troops.
Moreover, Dangtu County is in front of the three counties. If Cao Xiu leads the main force to attack the three counties behind Dangtu, it is very likely that the Soochow Army in Dangtu County will cooperate with the pursuing Shouchun Army to intercept his troops. Cao Xiu couldn't accept this.
Cao Xiu didn't need to escape alone. He still wanted to use the troops at hand to create an invincible and undefeated situation with Soochow! ! !
But the terrible thing is that Cao Xiu violently attacked Dangtu County for about ten days, but failed to capture this dilapidated city that had experienced three siege battles in a short period of time, and forced the Shouchun pursuers behind him to catch up.
At this time, Cao Xiu received news that Soochow had withdrawn its defenses from Ping'a and Xiacai counties.
In fact, Cao Xiu also knew that Soochow deliberately withdrew its defenses from these two counties. The purpose was to allow himself to see a glimmer of hope in the desperate situation of being besieged, so he could choose to break out from the direction of these two counties.
If we break out from the direction of these two counties, we can indeed retreat directly to Ruyin along the main road. But since the Soochow Army dares to let go of the defense in this direction and let Cao Xiu break out, can Ruyin still be in the hands of our own people? ? !
Cao Xiu no longer doubted that Ruyin had been occupied by the Soochow Army.
The Huainan area is densely covered with water networks, and Soochow's navy is a strong point. It is not impossible to take a detour and sneak attack on Ruyin.
Therefore, the current situation is equivalent to Soochow taking the initiative to let go of its defenses and leading Cao Xiu into a deeper trap. Cao Xiu has had enough of feeling like he was being led by the enemy the whole time.
Cao Xiu still wanted to open up the passage from Yicheng to Runan by conquering Dangtu.
Although it is still inevitable to lead to Ruyin in this way, at least it is not following the enemy's train of thought, and then cooperates with the supporting troops left in Runan. As long as Xu Zhi can detect the fall of Ruyin in time and arrive in advance As for Yingyang, it is still possible for him to withdraw from the encirclement with a large force.
Therefore, in essence, Cao Xiu really did not want to retreat in the direction of Xia Cai and Ping'a.
But ideas are ideas, reality is reality.
The enemy took the initiative to let go of their defense, revealing a way out. This was an irresistible temptation for ordinary soldiers.
Military discipline is just like that these days. Don't expect any strict confidentiality regulations. If Cao Xiu knows some things, the soldiers below will also know them, but it will take time to spread them privately.
Cao Xiu had to consider strategy, how to get everyone out of the encirclement as much as possible, and how to defend Runan after withdrawing. For the soldiers, there was only one thing they had to consider - how to survive.
Now the chance to survive is right in front of him. If Cao Xiu continues to besiege Dangtu, ordinary soldiers really don't have the patience.
This is bound to affect the morale of today's military.
In the past, everyone had no choice but to attack Dangtu County desperately, trying to capture Dangtu and open a gap to find a chance to survive.
This is also the reason why Xu Shengshou's life was so difficult before. He faced a group of soldiers who were eager to escape for their lives.
But now, everyone clearly has a choice, but the coach insists on pretending not to see it. The morale of Wei's soldiers who are eager to escape suddenly dropped, and it is difficult to raise it again.
Cao Xiu is also a veteran of the army and has extremely rich military experience. As an army commander, he is very sensitive to changes in the morale and morale of his troops. He can easily detect the spread of this idea in the army.
This is not something Cao Xiu can stop.
And if this idea is allowed to spread, it will not be easy for Cao Xiu, let alone capturing Dangtu County, or even keeping the army intact.
Therefore, Cao Xiu must seriously consider breaking out of the encirclement from Ping'a and Xiacai.
Another practical problem that Cao Xiu had to face was that the Wei army did not have much food and grass left.
From the time Xu Sheng blocked Cao Xiu's retreat until Cao Xiu returned to counterattack, it had been about ten days of fighting. Cao Xiu's army had already consumed more than half of its food and grass. If it continued like this and the food and grass were exhausted, Cao Xiu would not be able to escape even if he wanted to. .
What's even more terrible is that according to the reconnaissance cavalry reports, when the Soochow Army evacuated Ping'a and Xiacai counties, they chose to burn the grain, grass and ordnance that they could not take away.
In other words, it was impossible for Cao Xiu to obtain supplies on the spot by conquering the county seat.
The lack of food and grass was also an important factor that forced Cao Xiu to make a choice.
Insufficient food and grass, unstable military morale, and unstable morale were three major factors that restricted Cao Xiu's strategy of conquering Dangtu County and re-selecting a breakout route.
Cao Xiu had no choice but to order the entire army to retreat toward Xia Cai and Ping'a.
If we don't withdraw, we will be dead if we can't capture Dangtu County.
If you withdraw, you may fall into the enemy's trap, but at least you can still fight for a chance of survival.
There is no other choice but to take a gamble.
Lu Xun made a similar choice during the Battle of Shiting in history. At that time, Zhu Huan proposed that he take the initiative to block Cao Xiu's retreat with rocks, but Lu Xun refused Zhu Huan on the grounds that the Wei army must be on guard. In fact, Jia Kui, who went to rescue Cao Xiu, did see the importance of the stone. Lu Xun was not wrong about this, and it can be regarded that Cao Wei was prepared for it. But in order to rescue Jia Shi, Jia Kui also advanced with light troops and bluffed all the way. If Zhu Huan really captured Jia Shi before Jia Kui and defended it in the face of two sides, buying time for Lu Xun to encircle and annihilate Cao Xiu's main army, then what would have happened to Cao Xiu? How it is, it's really hard to say.
(End of chapter)
