Chapter 154 Xiahou Yuan conquered Huguan, Shangdang

As mentioned earlier, the reason why Yuan Shao stopped his troops was because he used too frequently last year, which resulted in insufficient military rations. Therefore, he wanted to wait until the food was collected in July this year before entering the Central Plains.

The reason why Cao Cao stopped was that he lost many troops during the process of dominating the Central Plains, and he had just pacified Xuzhou and the soldiers were exhausted. As for military rations, although Cao's army was not particularly abundant, it was still enough to provide marches and wars.

Especially the two cities of Luoyang and Hanoi under the jurisdiction of Wu Fan's Second Legion, through the purchase of military rations from Liu Biao and Zhang Lu of Jingzhou, the military rations in the two cities were already quite full. After several months of rest and rest, recruiting soldiers, the Second Legion was already full of fighting spirit and sharpening his knife, and he could fight again at any time.

So, on February 20, 192, Wu Fan officially wrote to Cao Cao, saying that Yuan Shao's army was trying to store grain, and our army took advantage of this opportunity to take the initiative to fight. After Cao Cao received the letter, he immediately summoned Jia Xu, Cheng Yu and other advisers to discuss. Jia Xu and Cheng Yu both agreed with Wu Fan's theory of fighting: Although Cao's army was weak, they had no worries about soldiers and food, and they had a lot of elite troops; although Yuan's army was strong, they were not good for soldiers and food. Once Yuan's army stored enough soldiers and food, they would be more than ten times more difficult to imagine than at this time.

Therefore, Cao Cao ordered civil servants to come to Luoyang with letters and issued a new legion policy to Wu Fan's Second Corps: the Bingzhou strategy lasted for three years

At the same time, Cao Cao was also dispatching the First Legion troops to gather in Puyang, ready to cross the Hebei region at any time, with the troops aiming directly at the central city of Hebei, Yecheng

Yuan Shao has four prefectures in Hebei, namely Youzhou, Jizhou, Bingzhou and Qingzhou. Among them, Bingzhou is located at the westernmost end of Hebei, with two county towns under its jurisdiction: Shangdang and Jinyang. The prefect is the high-ranking official Hetianchou. These two county towns are lined up in the north and south, Shangdang in the south and Jinyang in the north; the distance between the two cities is about three days in terms of the normal speed of infantry travel.

Shangdang borders Hanoi ruled by Tian Feng, and is also lined up north and south. The distance is seven days apart. There is also a relevant pass on the border road, called Huguan, with about 7,000 troops stationed. If an enemy army attacks, Shangdang can quickly dispatch troops to increase defense. It takes only one day to reach it, and it is difficult to capture it in a hurry.

However, this is compared with conventional tactics, that is, if the siege party does not have siege weapons. Currently, three troops of Wu Fan's Second Corps are equipped with siege weapons, namely 35,000 Qingzhou fighters and 10,000 bowmen equipped with siege vehicles.

After receiving the new legion policy, Wu Fan immediately ruled with Tian Feng, and replaced all the generals from Luoyang and Hanoi, including the troops. However, all the court officials of the emperor were taken to Hanoi by Wu Fan. At the same time, Huangfu Song and Zhu Ye were also stayed in Hanoi and did not return to Luoyang with Tian Feng.

On the day he arrived in Hanoi, Wu Fan sent seven people, Xiahou Yuan, Cao Ren, Zhou Tai, Wen Pin, Zang Ba, Xun Yu, and Lu Zhi, to command 40,000 troops, equipped with a Jinglan and a siege carriage to seize Huguan.

At the same time, he ordered people to go to Luoyang and ordered Tian Feng to send troops to cooperate with Xiahou Yuan's army. After Tian Feng received the order, he immediately sent Zhang Ren and Lu Dai to lead 20,000 troops to assist Xiahou Yuan's army.

As for the city of Hanoi, Wu Fan personally stayed in charge, leaving 40,000 people to defend, of which 35,000 were Qingzhou fighters, and another team of 5,000 archers. The defense target was the northeast direction, with a 150,000 troops stationed by Yuan Shao.

Although Huguan is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is difficult to leverage its advantages in the face of siege weapons. In particular, Xiahou Yuan and others sent by Wu Fan were all famous historical generals. Everyone worked together to capture Huguan in just half a day and captured more than 10,000 surrendered soldiers. Then Xiahou Yuan drove his victorious army and joined Luoyang reinforcements to take over Shangdang.

At the same time, after receiving a request for help from Shangdang, Yuan Shao from Yecheng sent 50,000 troops and Tianchou from Jinyang from Jindang to Shangdang at the same time. However, the Xiahou Yuan army's offensive was extremely rapid. Before these two troops arrived at Shangdang, they had already captured Shangdang and became another city under the rule of Wu Fan's Second Corps. The enemy captive Tian Kai and Chen Zhen surrendered, and the other captives were released by Xiahou Yuan.

When they learned that Shangdang had fallen, the two armies who came to reinforce had to return to their original city. Yuan Shao, Yecheng, was to guard against the First Corps of Cao's Army gathered in Puyang City; while Tianchou of Jinyang was short of military and food, and at the same time, he knew that it was impossible for his own troops to take down Shangdang, so he had to withdraw the troops.

Xiahou Yuan then sent a letter to Wu Fan, asking for the candidates to appoint the prefect of Shangdang. Wu Fan immediately replied: Appoint Xiahou Yuan as the prefect of Shangdang, Liu Wenpin, Zang Ba, Lu Zhi, and Xun You and Yang Biao who were dispatched from Hanoi, plus surrendered generals Tian Kai and Chen Zhen as his generals; Cao Ren, Zhou Tai and Xun Yu were withdrawn from Hanoi. The common rule of the Chongdang and Luoyang: the time limit for the strategy of Jinyang was one year.

At this point, Wu Fan's Second Corps has a total of three county cities, and the situation of military generals in office is:

Luoyang - Prefect: Tian Feng. Generals: Zhang Ren, Lu Dai, Zhang Zhao, Zhuge Jin, Kong Yichang. Frontline City: No.

Shangdang - Prefect: Xiahou Yuan. Generals: Wen Pin, Zang Ba, Lu Zhi, Xun You, Yang Biao, Tian Kai, Chen Zhen. Frontline City: Yes.

He Prefect: Wu Fan. Generals: Hua Xiong, Zhang Liao, Cao Ren, Zhou Tai, Lv Lingqi, Guo Jia, Xun Yu, Chen Qun, Huangfu Song, Zhu Jun, Wang Yun. Frontline City: Yes.

In addition: Lu Bu, Qiu Liju and Xi Zhicai, who were stationed in Hongnong County, belonged to Luoyang.

In this way, the two forces of Yuan and Cao entered a short-term stalemate again. Due to insufficient military and food, Yuan Shao took the defensive position. Wu Fan needed to guard against Yecheng in Henoi and could not act rashly; while Shangdang Xiahou Yuan had just captured this city, and the soldiers were still waiting for rest and could not immediately send troops to attack Jinyang.

Only Cao Cao, who had assembled 150,000 troops in Puyang, had the initiative to break the stalemate. In fact, Cao Cao was waiting for the soldiers and grains transported by the three cities of Runan, Xuchang and Wan at this time. Once the soldiers and grains arrived in Puyang, he immediately rushed his troops north to cross the Yellow River and attacked Yecheng.

...

The Yuan and Cao families were first stalemate and then detained, but they said that more than 200 miles north of Xuzhou, Donglai County, under the rule of Beihai, Qingzhou, was an ordinary small village.

It is now March, the weather is warming up and everything is reviving. There is a large courtyard in the village. At this time, the door of the house was pushed open and a person walked out of it. However, he was one of Liu Bei's civil servants, Sun Qian.

Raising his hand over his forehead and looking into the wilderness where he had just begun to show his vitality for a while, Sun Qian turned around and shouted into the house:

"Lord, the weather is right at this time, and the sun shines on your body and feels warm. You might as well come out and bask in the sun, which is also good for your body."

After the words came to an end, Liu Bei appeared at the door of the house wrapped in a quilt.

This village is where Sun Gan’s hometown is, and this courtyard is naturally Sun Gan’s home.

Since the Cao army was attacked by the night of Xia Pi City at the end of last year, Liu Bei's civil and military officials fled. After Sun Gan fled all the way back to his hometown, he spent a lot of money and asked someone to go to Xuzhou to inquire about the whereabouts of Liu Bei and his civil and military officials. However, it happened that he learned from the fishermen in the lower reaches of the Sishui River that Liu Bei and Zhao Yun were rescued by them, so Sun Gan secretly took them here.

After both Liu Bei and Zhao Yun fell into the water that day, Liu Bei was already unconscious and sank to the bottom of the water. It was all due to Zhao Yun who was seriously injured and endured the coldness of his muscles and bones. He searched Liu Bei at the bottom of the water. After swimming out more than a hundred meters in the rapids, he surfaced and landed on the other side.

Although it was late at night, it was still dark and it was snowing heavily, making it extremely difficult to see. Of course, Wu Fan, who was standing on the opposite river bank, could not see them.

After the dawn was light, the two were discovered by early fishermen and carried the two home with all their might. Therefore, these two, or Liu Bei, finally saved their lives.

However, although he saved his life, Liu Bei was extremely weak at that time and was soaked in ice water twice, so he could not get seriously ill. He drank soup every day at Sun Gan's house and used several layers of quilts for a winter, and then he recovered.

Liu Bei, who recovered from the urgency, only seemed to be fine on the surface, but in fact the root cause could not be removed, which was manifested as extreme fear of coldness. When encountering yin and damp weather, his joints were also abnormally sore; basically, it was equivalent to an enhanced version of rheumatism.

Even so, he finally came to life, and nothing is better than living. While gritting his teeth and hating Wu Fan, Liu Bei burned incense and prayed every day, and thanked his ancestors for saving his life. Little did he know that this had nothing to do with his so-called ancestors and ancestors, and it was entirely due to Zhao Yun's sacrifice of his life to save his life.

Although Zhao Yun was also very frozen by ice water, his physical strength was there, so after more than a month of recuperation at Sun Gan's family, he had completely recovered.

Besides, Liu Bei walked out of the door wrapped in a quilt. He was so stinging that he couldn't open his eyes when he hadn't left the house for a long time that he couldn't open his eyes. He took a long time to get used to it. He looked into the distance with his brows, his face was thin as he had just recovered from a serious illness, and his expression was even more sad.

After watching for a while, Liu Bei sighed and shook his head without saying a word.

When Sun Gan saw this, he hurriedly asked:

"Why did the lord shake his head and sigh?"

Liu Bei had a bitter face, tears flowed down his face, and said:

"The second and third brothers do not know life and death. Most of the civil and military officials in the past were separated. I left my sick and disabled body and could not repay the emperor and the lower ones. What's the use of living in this world? Why not follow the late emperor?"

After saying that, he was about to hit the door frame. Sun Gan, who had been moved to tears, hurriedly pulled him and said:

"Lord, lord, lord, lord, lord, lord, Yun Chang, Yide is brave enough to be defeated by ten thousand people. Although it was a chaotic army that day, he did not necessarily die. Besides, lord, have you forgotten? A few days ago, Long heard that a group of official troops went to the northwest to gather in the mountains and forests, blocking the road and robbing. According to the description of the leader by the locals, it was quite similar to Yide, so Zilong rushed to check the truth. According to the distance, it was almost time to come back. The lord has been worrying about Zilong these days, so how could he suddenly have the idea of ​​suicide?"

When Liu Bei heard this, he nodded blankly and murmured:

"Yes, why did I forget this? Zilong is here for a few days and it's time to come back."

As he was talking, there was a loud voice outside the yard gate. Liu Bei and Sun Gan looked at each other, but they saw Zhao Yun and his men riding horses side by side into the yard. After a closer look, it was Zhang Fei who was walking with Zhao Yun.

The tears that Liu Bei had just taken back flowed down again. He quickly threw the quilt and ran down the steps, hugging Zhang Fei who was dismounting from the saddle...

The next moment, Liu Bei, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and Sun Gan sat together in the room to discuss their next plan.

Zhang Fei brought more than 200 soldiers, raised his hands, and proposed to take down a county town nearby. The base area raised an army, but was directly rejected by Liu Bei. Zhao Yun had no idea, Sun Gan thought for a while and said:
Chapter completed!