Chapter 113 Chapter XV

The north and south of Guandu are in a stalemate. On the day Cao Mengde went to Guandu base camp, he got bad news. Liu Bei had joined forces with Liu Pi in Runan. The situation in Yuzhou was very critical. Cao Mengde decisively sent Cao Ren to lead two thousand light cavalry straight to Runan. He knew that Liu Bei's purpose in going to Runan was to get rid of himself and Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao continued to increase his troops. With 70,000 people against 700,000 people, it is really necessary to use one against ten. Cao Mengde is still repeatedly verifying the correctness of choosing Guandu as the main battlefield.

The Yellow River repeats that monotonous song in the swaddle of the night, and the castles on both sides of the Yellow River are lit up like stars in the sky accidentally falling. Cao Mengde was reading a book under the dim light, and under the guidance of the wisdom of his predecessors, he reviewed his strategy of using troops. "Every warrior wins by combining right and surprise. Therefore, those who are good at making surprises are as endless as heaven and earth, as inexhaustible as rivers and rivers, and end and start again, the sun and the moon are the same; death and resurrection are the four seasons."

Cao Mengde repeatedly chewed on the details of each word, he affirmed the correctness of his choice of Guandu, and the current situation is that the food supply is difficult, and the number of people is much weaker than that of Yuan Shao. Thinking of this, he focused his attention on the word "odd". . Unconsciously, the east is already white, and the summer morning breeze makes the "handsome" flag flutter gently.Cao Mengde was really tired, and beside his bamboo pillow lay the worn-out "The Art of War by Sun Tzu". The sound of killing woke up the sleeping Cao Mengde.

Yuan Shao challenged himself with a large army. Just after the three drums passed, Yuan Shao, wearing a golden helmet and armor, wearing a brand-new brocade robe and a gleaming jade belt, immediately stood in front of the battle.On Yuan Shao's left and right rows stood Zhang He, Gao Lan, Han Meng, Chun Yuqiong and other generals, very majestic and dignified. Cao Mengde first let Zhang Liao fight, and Zhang Liao jumped on his horse to meet him. Xu Chu swung his sword and rode his horse shirtless to help, but Gao Lan caught it with his gun. Cao Mengde ordered Xiahou Dun and Cao Hong to lead thousands of troops and horses to the enemy's position.Seeing Cao's army rushing into the formation, the judge ordered the cannons to be fired. Thousands of crossbows were fired from both sides. Cao's army suffered too many casualties and retreated to the south.

Yuan Shao pursued closely and approached Guandu and Xiazhai.The judge said: "You can send 100,000 soldiers to guard Guandu, build a mountain of earth in front of Cao Cao's stronghold, condescending, and shoot Cao Jun with arrows." Within a few days, dozens of high villages were built, with tall oars set up on them, and bowmen were sent to shoot arrows into Cao Cao's camp.Cao Jun suffered a lot of unexplained casualties, and he was terrified when he went out to fetch water. Cao Jun didn't have enough to eat, and he might encounter cold arrows from Yuan Jun's Gaozhai everywhere, so he seemed very flustered.Cao Mengde was restless in the camp, and his mind was full of the word "odd". At this time, how can he win by surprise? Cao Mengde hurriedly summoned counselors.

Liu Ye said: "We can build a stone chariot to destroy the enemy's Gaozhai." Cao Mengde immediately asked Liu Ye to draw a sketch of the stone chariot, and asked everyone to study how to make it.Therefore, Cao Mengde waited overnight for soldiers who knew carpentry in the army to build hundreds of stone carts and put them in the camp wall, facing the ladder on the earth mountain, waiting for the enemy archers to climb the ladder. Then they pulled the stone carts together, and the cannon stones flew into the air, hitting Gaozhai indiscriminately, and the archers no longer dared to climb the ladder and shoot arrows.

The judge offered another trick to Yuan Shao: let the soldiers secretly dig a tunnel to Cao Ying, and Cao Bing found out that Yuan Jun was digging a hole behind the mountain, so he reported to Cao Mengde.Cao Mengde said: "This time I can't help me. The law of war says, 'If the enemy attacks me by digging a road, he will dig a long trench to repel him. It is useless for the enemy to cover the road'." Cao Mengde ordered the soldiers to surround the camp outside the camp overnight. The wall excavated long and deep ravines.The tunnels that Yuan Jun spent so much effort to dig were useless.

In the twinkling of an eye, it was midsummer, and the two sides had been fighting each other for more than a hundred days. Yanzhou and Yuzhou were already relatively poor. Although they improved a lot after farming, it was still difficult to meet the long-term demand for military resources. .Therefore, the counties and counties in the south of the Yellow River were overwhelmed by the disturbance, and they rose up against Cao Mengde one after another, especially in the Runan area and the southwest of Yuzhou. Cao Mengde never dared to underestimate Liu Bei's ability.This big-eared man is an expert in psychological warfare, and he is not an idler in using troops. Who can take on this task to destroy Liu Bei's prestige? Cao Mengde is thinking about the right candidate: First, this person must be loyal, otherwise he may be killed. Liu Bei pulled over.Second, the ability to fight independently is strong. After careful consideration, Cao Mengde decided to send Cao Ren and Xu Huang to lead the troops to fight in Runan.

Yuan Shao's scouts soon discovered that Cao Ren led the army southward, and the left wing of Cao's army was empty. He immediately sent Han Xun to lead an army to take advantage of the vacancy, trying to cut off the connection between Cao's army at Guandu base camp and Guanzhong, so that it might be possible to attack Cao Cao from the west. But I didn't expect Cao Ren to defeat Liu Bei soon, and soon arrived at the front line with Xu Huang's army. Han Xun's army unexpectedly encountered Cao Ren's army going north at Xiluo Mountain, 200 miles southwest of Guandu.Han Xun was obviously not Cao Ren's opponent, and he lost after only an hour of fighting.In this way, the strength of Cao Jun's left wing was restored, and Yuan Shao's strategy fell through again.

Time passed day by day, and Cao Jun's supply became more and more difficult. Although Xun Yu, who stayed behind in Xudu and was responsible for supplying food and fodder, did not complain.Jia Xu, who was in charge of battlefield logistics, also tried his best, but Cao Mengde already felt the difficulties in supply from the dispatch of food and fodder and the increase in the number and frequency of transportation.What's more serious is the long-term use of the few to fight against the crowd, without being able to rest, which will inevitably lead to mental fatigue. "In more than ten days, Yuan Shao will definitely be able to drive away. Everyone must persevere!" Cao Mengde went to the camps to cheer every day, just like the story of "Wang Mei Quen Thirst" back then.

Although Cao Mengde couldn't believe his casual words of encouragement, the words from a coach did boost morale to a certain extent. Cao Mengde warned himself that in this extraordinary period, he must calm down.But emotional instability also exists objectively.So, this kind of psychology prompted him to pick up a pen and write a letter to Xun Yu of Xudu.In the letter, Cao Mengde first expressed his uneasiness, and then expressed his intention to abandon Guandu and retreat to Xudu. In a few days, Cao Mengde received a reply from Xun Yu, in which he wrote: Although we have many difficulties in terms of military supplies, it is still not as difficult as Liu Bang's army in Xingyang and Chenggao.We are sad, and the enemy must not be easy. At that time, neither Liu Bang nor Xiang Yu was willing to admit defeat and retreat, because it was the decisive moment, any retreat would lose momentum, and it would definitely fall into a disadvantageous position in the future.Although the number of our troops on the Guandu battlefield is only one-tenth of Yuan Shao's, our deployment and fortifications are better, which is equivalent to strangling Yuan Shao's neck, preventing them from advancing or retreating.At this critical moment, there will be major changes at any time. This is the best moment to use surprise soldiers to win. Please never give up. Cao Mengde seemed to have taken a reassurance.Xun Yu, who was in charge of the logistics, was confident. How could the commander-in-chief at the front line admit defeat and retreat? Guo Jia also joked: "The chef is not in a hurry, but those of us who eat are worried." "Adversary soldiers win," Cao Mengde focused his thoughts on the extra large "odd" character again. "That's right, isn't it said in the military book that the enemy is trapped in food?" Use it, the wealth of glue paint, the service of the car armor, the daily cost of thousands of gold, and then a hundred thousand teachers will be raised!'” "Don't I just have a master of 100,000?" Cao Mengde finally figured out the reason for the word "odd". Cao Mengde further analyzed the current situation: Yuan Jun pulled from the north of the Yellow River all the way to Guandu, and the battle line was very long, which undoubtedly increased the difficulty and danger of supply.In addition, if there is no progress on the Qingzhou battlefield on the eastern front, Cheng Yu is still guarding Zhencheng on the south bank of the Yellow River, and there is a guerrilla army composed of Yujin and Lejin in the Yanjin area, Yuan Jun’s left wing is easy to be attacked, so the supply work may be done by Han Meng served in the Reserve Corps, mostly sent along the western front on the right. Guo Jia suggested: "The autumn harvest in North China has just been completed, and Yuan Shao's grain truck must leave soon. The general responsible for transporting grain is probably Han Xun. It is lighter than defense. Therefore, as long as five light cavalry troops are dispatched to search and attack, Yuan Shao's supply system will definitely be destroyed." Cao Mengde asked: "Who can take on this great task?" Xun You thought for a while, and said, "Xu Huang was the chief general of Yang Feng's army, and he is very familiar with the terrain of the western battlefield. In addition, Xu Huang is superb in martial arts and has a sense of responsibility. He will definitely complete important tasks." In fact, the importance of food to war is not only realized by Cao Mengde.Yuan Shao handed over the task of escaping food to his confidant general Han Meng, and kept the military supplies secretly in Wuchao, which shows that his understanding in this area is not much inferior to Cao Mengde. However, the Tao is one foot tall and the devil is one foot tall. Yuan Shao never expected that Cao Mengde would strike first. Xu Huang's light cavalry troops quickly found Han Meng's transportation troops, and with the assistance of Cao Ren's army, they successfully attacked the grain transportation troops in the Wuyang area not far northwest of Guandu, and burned all Yuan Shao's grain transportation equipment. . When the news reached the base camp, Yuan Shao only said, "Cao thief is really ruthless", without showing too much panic, "I have Wuchao, and the four northern states are rich in products, so they can be shipped in again." This is how Yuan Shao comforted himself. . However, Cao Mengde's robbing of grain also sounded the alarm for Yuan Shao. He immediately ordered the judge to go to the north to supervise the grain and grass, and sent his trusted general Chunyu Qiong to lead the army to guard Wuchao.