Chapter 2189: Battle of Xiangyang
Chapter 2189 Battle of Xiangyang
Chapter 2185: Battle of Xiangyang
"My lord, when we dispatch an army of 210,000 to attack the Tang Dynasty, the grain reserves in Luoyang are definitely not enough. There is not much left in the grain stores in Hetao and Bingzhou. Even if the granaries in the two places are emptied, I am afraid that there will only be enough for the army to fight for two days. "Moon." Han Fei said worriedly.
Li Tang is not a weak country, with a total of 300,000 troops in the country. If he wants to seize Guanzhong within two months with an army of 210,000, this task is a bit too difficult.
“Don’t worry, I have already secured the food and grass for two months.”
With that said, Qin Hao pointed to Xiangyang on the map and said: "Yue Fei and Han Xin have reversed the decline after joining forces. Now the battle situation in Jingbei is very beneficial to our side. The winner will be determined soon. By then, we can transport troops from Jingbei." Food to support the front line.”
If the Battle of Jingbei is won, then not only food and grass, but also troops will be able to be supported.
In other words, Qin Hao actually used three armies in his plan to seize Guanzhong, Li Jing's 140,000 troops, Huo Qubing's 70,000 cavalry, and the troops withdrawn from the battlefield in Jingbei.
Only when these three parties join forces, can Qin Hao be confident enough to seize food from the powerful Li Tang and seize the guarantee in Guanzhong.
Of course, there are three prerequisites for doing this:
First, the Qin army must win the battle in Jingbei. If it loses, it will be impossible to support Guanzhong;
Second, after defeating the Shu-Chu coalition, the Qin army should not suffer too many casualties;
Three, the Jingbei War must end within a month, otherwise, I am afraid it will be too late to participate in the Guanzhong War.
Three are indispensable.
Speaking of the Battle of Jingbei, it was definitely the most intense and anxious battle front. It was also the only battlefield where the Qin army lost cities and territory and was constantly defeated.
Even before the reinforcements of Han Xin and Zhao Yun reached Jingbei, the Qin army lost another important town, Jiangling City, the seat of Nanjun.
There were only 8,000 defenders in Jiangling City. Even if Meng Gong was good at guarding the city, even if Meng Gong mobilized the people in the city to help defend the city, and even if Meng Gong and Huo Jun activated the combo skill "Copper Wall and Iron Wall", Jiangling City still could not be defended.
Although Meng Gong failed to defend Jiangling, he overfulfilled his task and made the Shu-Chu coalition forces pay a heavy price.
After the city of Jiangling was broken, Meng Gong, Han Shizhong, Huo Jun and other generals led 3,000 remaining troops to break through and fled to Jiangdong for refuge.
The fall of Jiangling is of great significance. It means that the entire Nanjun has fallen. The land south of Xiangyang is no longer owned by the Qin army. The Shu-Chu coalition has completely established a foothold in northern Jing. It will be difficult to expel it in the future.
After the Shu-Chu coalition captured Jiangling, if they just defended the city, digested the results of the battle, and did not continue to march, even if Yue Fei and Han Xin joined forces, they would still be unable to stop Liu Ji and Liu Xiu.
However, Liu Ji's heart was higher than the sky. Seeing Qin Hao unified Hebei, he felt envious and jealous in his heart.
Under the persuasion of his confidant Gao Yao, Liu Jisheng had the idea of completely occupying Jingbei and weakening the Qin army while growing stronger. So he and Liu Xiu continued northward to attack Jingbei with 230,000 Shu and Chu allied troops, while blocking the Qin army. The biggest obstacle in front of him is Yue Fei of Xiangyang.
By this time, 100,000 reinforcements from Han Xin and Zhao Yun had arrived, and the total strength of the Qin army in Jingbei rose to 210,000.
It is obviously not an easy task for the 230,000 Shu-Chu coalition forces to defeat the 210,000 Qin troops, then attack Xiangyang and occupy Jingbei.
Spurred by a series of victories, Liu Ji became a little swollen.
Counselor Gao Yao also said: Most of the reinforcements from the Qin army that came to support were captured by prisoners of war from Yan and Zhao. Their combat strength was weak and their morale was low. They were no match for the elite Shu and Chu troops in frontal combat.
What Gao Yao said is true. The 70,000 troops under Han Xin were indeed surrendered. After learning this, Liu Ji was secretly relieved. After all, the combat power of these Hebei troops was definitely not as strong as the main force of the Qin army, and it would be easier to defeat them.
Liu Ji secretly analyzed the wave of Qin troops in northern Jing, but found that the Qin army he faced had nothing to fear.
There are at least 30,000 new recruits in Yue Fei's 110,000 old and new mixed army, while Han Xin's 70,000 army has an advantage in surrendering. The only main force of the Qin army that can really fight is 70,000 Jingbei veterans and Zhao Yun's 30,000 Hetao cavalry. .
In other words, of the Qin army faced by the 230,000 Shu-Chu coalition, only 100,000 were the main force, and the remaining 110,000 were weak troops.
If he can't win even this, what qualifications does Liu Ji have to compete with Qin Hao?
Liu Ji made up his mind to defeat the Qin army and seize Jingbei, but he had a big problem in front of him, which was how to provoke Yue Fei to fight.
Although the combat power of the Qin army was not strong, the total number was 210,000 after all. In addition, Xiangyang's defense was stronger than Jiangling. If Yue Fei insisted on defending, the Shu-Chu coalition would not be able to capture Jiangling even if they defeated them all. .
The only way to defeat the Qin army is to fight outside the city, but how can we get Yue Fei to fight outside the city?
Just when Liu Ji was thinking hard to no avail, counselor Gao Yao came up with another plan, sending women's clothes to humiliate Yue Fei and force Yue Fei to leave the city for a decisive battle.
The strategy of giving away women's clothing was used by Wang Mang to humiliate Su Dingfang before, but it was used by Su Dingfang to boost the morale of the Qin army. In the end, it was self-defeating and defeated by Su Dingfang.
With the example of Wang Mang, Liu Ji naturally did not think that Gao Yao's gift of women's clothes would work, but Gao Yao said that sending women's clothes was obviously a humiliation, but in fact it gave Yue Fei an opportunity to use his plan.
Only if Yue Fei thinks that the decisive battle with the coalition forces can be won, he will lead the army to fight in the decisive battle with the coalition forces, and giving women's clothes is a reason for him to fight.
Gao Yao's rhetoric not only convinced Liu Ji, but also Liu Xiu and Chen Ping.
Liu Xiu had the most dealings with Yue Fei and knew Yue Fei best. He knew that Yue Fei was not a person who cared about personal honor and disgrace.
Yue Fei never did anything he was unsure of. If he didn't want to fight, no matter how humiliated he was, it would be impossible to provoke him to fight. If he was sure of winning, he would take the initiative to go out of the city to fight without provocation.
I have to say that Gao Yao's acting skills are really good. Not only did he deceive Liu Ji and Liu Xiu, but even Chen Ping didn't notice his disguise.
Of course, the premise of not being discovered is that Gao Yao's strategies are indeed helpful to Shu, so he can deceive so many old foxes.
But if Yue Fei and Gao Yao had done all this intentionally, the situation would be completely different.
What followed was that Gao Yao entered the Qin camp alone, humiliated Yue Fei in women's clothing, and brought Yue Fei back to use the plan, but he did not know that he had fallen into the coalition's plan. This excited both Liu Ji and Liu Xiu.
With Gao Yao's plan and Yue Fei's cooperation, a decisive battle soon broke out between the three kingdoms of Qin, Shu and Chu.
Yue Fei personally visited the 210,000 Qin army to confront Liu Ji and Liu Xiu's 230,000 Shu and Chu allied forces. This battle was called the Battle of Xiangyang in later generations.
(End of this chapter)
