Overlord!

Gan Ning was full of doubts about the current stalemate in the war situation.

Especially when he wanted to attack a big city like Yuanju City, he just felt that he couldn't understand it, so he asked Lu Meng: "Earlier, Yuan Shao never believed that we would go to the Northern Expedition, so we were not prepared enough. The army had no fighting spirit, and the city was unprepared. I If a large army attacks quickly and attaches itself to the city, it may not be able to defeat it with one blow."

"But Song Gong decided to swear an oath in Chenliu and gather the three armies, so that Yuan Shao was well prepared. Shen sent tens of thousands of elite soldiers to guard this strong city, and the city was high and the pond was deep. The most difficult thing in the world to fight is this kind of fully prepared defense The city. Even if Bai Qi's talents were to attack the Dang's territory, the Qin army would suffer heavy losses and would not be able to pull out for months."

"How difficult is it for us to break this city? How could Duke Song's soldiers do such an unwise thing? Could it be that they are also... carnivores?"

In fact, Gan Ning wanted to ask whether Wu Hou suffered from the common problem of princes after he ascended the throne of Song Dynasty and became headstrong. Some wars were clearly forbidden, but for the sake of political interests, the three armies were forced to fight to the death, regardless of the casualties of the soldiers.

But even with Gan Ning's boldness, he did not dare to speak out in the end.

After all, at this moment, everyone under Song Gong's command is in danger. It would be good if this war is won. Duke Song can directly ascend the throne due to his great victory. All civil and military officials will be happy and wait for the title of marquis and general, such as the story of the elders of Peixian County.

But if you lose the fight!

That would probably inevitably cause a bloody storm. Any slightly disloyal remarks may be liquidated. Use killing to re-establish the power of Song Gong.

Victory is always the best motivation, and it is by no means an empty lie.

When Lu Meng heard this, his expression suddenly changed and he shouted angrily: "Shuzi! What arrogant words! As a fighting general, you should only think about how to charge into the battle and how to break the battle to kill the enemy! Instead of questioning the orders of the king and general!"

"The Duke of Song regards you as a general, so he transfers you to the general of the Song Dynasty. You don't want to be grateful for the kindness of the emperor, but you talk behind your back, complain a lot, and anger the general! Later, go out and get sixty military sticks. .”

"You don't even think about it. With Bai Qi's talents, he faced off against Zhao Kuo on the Changping front line. He still suffered heavy casualties, wasted a lot of money, and emptied the national treasury. How can you defeat Shen Zhengnan's 130,000 elite troops head-on? ?”

Now is a special occasion. With Zhang Zhao's great authority and the trust of the Duke of Song, he has received a letter from the north, but he has made too much progress and retreats. He wants to hide it, but he is afraid that if it gets out in the future, he will be suspected of having selfish motives.

How could he, Lu Meng, hide what he said for Gan Ning? Walls have ears. If Gan Ning's words spread in the future and Lü Meng hides, he will be even more suspicious as a general with a heavy army.

Therefore, Lu Mengcai admired Song Gong's courage even more and said: "In the current situation, we must fight with iron horses and sweep across thousands of miles. If we are ordered to deploy hundreds of thousands of troops to block the front lines of Yanzhou and Qingzhou, the situation may change. Those who fight will be upright. When facing an enemy, those who are miraculous will hit them unprepared. Therefore, those who are good at making miraculous things are as endless as the heaven and the earth, and as endless as the rivers and seas."

"We are waiting for this to attract the main force of the enemy's army in a legitimate way."

After all, the Jiangdong army already numbered hundreds of thousands and was spread across both sides of the Yangtze and Huaihe Rivers. Many generals on the front lines along the Yellow River were unknown to the naval drills on the Yangtze River.

Gan Ning's expression also changed, knowing that he had done something stupid.

He quickly bowed his head to show respect, and then asked: "Hebei's army has more than 100,000 troops, stretching for hundreds of miles. The defense line is so airtight that Song Gong can also send out surprise troops?"

Lu Meng snorted coldly and said: "If you can see Wu Hou's deployment clearly with your talent, how can you use surprise troops? You have only one goal in this battle, which is to severely damage the enemy's army and put it in danger of being overrun."

Gan Ning immediately straightened his chest and said proudly, "If the enemy dares to go out of the city to fight, I will definitely send them back with a huge defeat!"

As if to comply with Gan Ning's words, the scouts who were fighting fiercely outside soon returned to the camp and reported to Lu Meng: "General, the rangers have discovered that Zhao's army has formed out of the east city and their numbers are increasing. They seem to want to fight with our army. !”

Gan Ning, who had been pulled down before and was about to be executed with a stick, was now stripped of his clothes and armor, and a military stick was about to be added to his body.

The place of execution was outside the Chinese army's tent. Hearing this, he immediately shouted: "General, I am willing to make meritorious service for my crime. If I fail to defeat the enemy, please double the punishment."

Lu Meng walked out of the camp, glanced at him, and said lightly: "Good luck to you, put on your armor immediately and prepare to counterattack the enemy!"

As Gan Ning put on his armor, more scouts returned to the camp one after another, reporting military information one after another.

"General, the enemy's cavalry is advancing fiercely. They have reached several miles outside our camp to detect our army's intelligence. Only the scout rangers cannot withstand the enemy's large group of cavalry."

Lu Meng immediately replied: "Let the brave cavalry general Chen Wu lead the cavalry to counterattack the enemy's army, sweep away the enemy's cavalry, and clear the battlefield for our army to move out of camp and form array."

"General, scouts have detected the enemy's situation. There are no less than 20,000 soldiers, and the number is still increasing."

"Reward this team of scouts generously and continue exploring."

"General, the enemy's official letter is Jiang, the general who conquered the south."

……

As the scouts fought back and forth to explore the enemy's situation, more and more intelligence came to Lu Meng.

Yuan Jun's reaction surprised him slightly. He was used to fighting sieges before, and he rarely expected that the enemy would dare to take the initiative to go out of the city to counterattack.

Especially in the last Northern Expedition, Jiangdong's army fought against Cao Cao's partial divisions and weak brigades. They were almost invincible and the enemy did not dare to fight in the wild.

But this time it was different. The Yuan and Sun armies were fighting against each other here. They were the elites of both sides.

Moreover, Yuan Jun had already realized that although the Northern Army was large, it was not as effective as the Southern Army. Therefore, the Hebei general spent this year reorganizing his troops, deploying generals, and accumulating grain to train troops.

Therefore, Yuan's army did not number hundreds of thousands as they claimed.

With hundreds of thousands of people like that, to be honest, apart from building momentum, a frontal confrontation is almost useless. Even if they don't run away, they will collapse at the first touch.

However, Hebei reduced the army to only a few hundred thousand elites, and provided them with generous salaries and a lot of money to support them. They have been training in Jigu for more than a year, and the combat power of this army is already very impressive.

At least for now, the Hebei elite soldiers in Yuanju City are not afraid of fighting in the field with the Song army.

Lu Meng just couldn't remember for a moment, who was Jiang, the general who conquered the south of Hebei?

Liu Ye, the counselor who accompanied the army, said to Lu Meng: "Now that our army's camp has not been established, General Yuan's army is about to leave the city with 20,000 troops and form a formation near the valley. If our army is defeated, it may lose its footing and suffer heavy losses. Those who are good at fighting must act first. To win, wait for the enemy to win. Does the general have a good strategy to win first and then fight?"

Lu Meng thought for a while and said: "The victory of this battle lies in the fact that the enemy does not know the true strength of our army. I intend to keep half of the best cavalry and form an array under Dongqing Qiu, and use Gan Ning to lead five thousand infantry across the water. Attack it. When the troops are handed over, smoke will be released. I will personally lead the iron cavalry to the west, and the infantry and cavalry will attack it together." Yanzhou was actually already in the territory of Shandong in later generations, and the fierce battle between the two armies is now in Heze.

Although the mountains here are not high, only a few hundred meters high, they are mostly hilly. Qingqiu is the most famous hill here.

Before Lü Meng besieged the city, he personally led his knights to survey the battlefield in this area, and he knew the geographical situation of the fighting place well.

Although Lü Meng's plan was simple, it was actually very well thought out. Gan Ning led 5,000 troops across the river to attack him, which was an active attack.

Even if Gan Ning was defeated and his camp was in Henan, the enemy army would not be able to cross the moat and directly cover and kill the main force of the army in the camp.

The moat of Yuanju City is not just surrounding the city. It is living water, which must be diverted and drained from Jishui. Therefore, the east line of the moat of several tens of feet is actually a river some distance away. It's just that it's not as wide as the moat here, and there are bridges on it for traffic. After Lu Meng's army came, they quickly set up several pontoon bridges. Otherwise, so many scouts would not be able to cross the river to fight with each other and detect intelligence.

After Gan Ning led his army across the river, he took the initiative to attack. The enemy suddenly faced the attack and it was difficult to make complete preparations. At this time, the fine cavalry attacked the enemy's side fiercely, and the enemy's army was unable to deploy even if it had the advantage of scale.

On the flank battlefield, it will be our own side that uses more to defeat the smaller ones. The odds of winning are extremely high. Once the enemy's right wing on the east side collapses, it will spread to the center and left wing. Lü Meng's army fought hard both internally and externally, with a high probability of victory.

Liu Ye shook his head and said, "I'm afraid that even if we win the battle, our troops will also suffer heavy losses. From my point of view, although Yuan Yuan has many soldiers, his brave generals and sharp soldiers are still not enough compared to our Jiangdong. Generals can make fierce generals." I led my cavalry with dozens of banners to break into the enemy's formation, protruded directly behind their formation, and raised my flag. The Yuan army relied on a large number of soldiers, and the generals had no worries about their backs. The general attacked the right with his elite cavalry, but the flag was hoisted behind him. The mind will be in confusion!”

Lu Meng thought for a while and adopted this plan without any hesitation. What Liu Ye said is true. Compared with Yuan Shao's army and Jiangdong's, the biggest gap is in the fierce generals who are brave enough to win the three armies.

Among Yuan's troops, the fierce generals like Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and Gan Ning who dared to break into the midst of thousands of troops, as if they were entering an uninhabited territory, were really lackluster.

In particular, the fierce generals Yan Liang and Wen Chou died in the previous confrontation with Cao Jun. At this time, Yuan Jun was relatively short of generals.

It is true that strong generals are sent to the army, but it is impossible for Yuan Jun to select a large number of strong generals so quickly and assign them important tasks.

Strong generals like Yan Liang and Wen Chou only emerged after many years of war with Gongsun Zan.

Lu Meng immediately invited Zhang Fei to the camp and said: "General Yide, the military advisor wants to use a brave general to break into the enemy's rear and raise our flag. I have looked at the fierce generals in the army, and there is no one who is braver than a general. General, I am willing to take on this important task." ?”

Zhang Fei was overjoyed when he heard this, and replied boldly: "I will live up to the general's trust. I will personally choose the warriors to break into the bandits."

Lu Meng nodded with satisfaction and said: "A certain general will ask Huang Zhong, Han Dang, Zang Ba and other generals to shoulder this important task with you."

As Lü Meng mobilized troops and generals, preparations were quickly completed. Gan Ning's five thousand men took the lead in crossing the river to thin the enemy's army first.

Zhang Fei, Huang Zhong, Han Dang and others also selected more than forty soldiers who were brave and good at fighting and capable of galloping left and right. They were all wearing heavy armor, with two bows on their waists, and two horses to follow Lu Meng's troops. The fine cavalry arrayed under Qingqiu.

Although Lu Meng left behind 20,000 main troops and still set up camp in Henan, he took all the 5,000 fine cavalry in the camp with him.

In particular, a thousand elite dragon and bird cavalry were guarding him, in front of the entire army.

Because Lu Meng often commanded heavy troops, many people regarded him as a refined and handsome man like Zhou Yu.

But in fact, Lu Meng was by no means a majestic and heroic Confucian general like Zhou Yu. On the contrary, he was the most like Sun Ce among the Jiangdong generals.

Wen Neng commanded the three armies, and Wu Neng was able to get into battle and kill the enemy. He could thrust straight with his long spear at close range, and he could bend his bow and shoot at a distance.

His shooting skills may be better than those of Sun Ce. After all, Sun Ce rarely leads his troops to the front line in person.

However, Lu Meng always led the troops to fight at the front line. In order to observe the battlefield, he often led several of his cavalry to go out first to check the terrain of the battlefield.

He didn't have any good shooting skills, and he only fought close to the body. He may have suffered countless injuries.

This time, he personally led the elite cavalry into the formation and went all out.

His cavalry arrived at Qingqiu first, but Gan Ning was the first to fight on the battlefield.

He led his troops across the river, then personally led the troops ahead to check the situation. Lü Meng ordered him to release smoke as soon as the battle began, and attack the enemy with the cavalry both inside and outside.

But Gan Ning had always had his own thoughts. Although the size of his five thousand troops was more than four times that of the enemy's, they were actually arrayed in horizontal formations, and it was impossible to tell whether they were real or not.

Especially when he patrolled in front of the formation and found that the enemy generals were mediocre.

They formed an array of more than seven miles in front and behind, with Hu riding strong horses in the front and heavy troops and arrows behind.

Although this front and rear arrangement is in line with the orthodoxy of military strategists, the problem is that this arrangement is too orthodox!

You know, the Yuan Army's general who conquered the south took the initiative to go out of the city to fight against the enemy. They lined up first and made late preparations. Why did they need to use Hu Qi in front to block the enemy?

Now that the arrow formation is complete, the Song army will never rush head-on with their iron cavalry.

At this time, it is more prudent to place Hu Qi behind the formation for counterattack. Otherwise, it is not good to place Hu Qi on both wings to cover the flanks!

Is it possible that he plans to use his powerful horse to harass the Jiangdong infantry phalanx? There is a high probability of repeating the mistakes of the Battle of the Boundary River.

So Gan Ning turned to his deputy general Quan Cong and said: "In my opinion, the enemy's general does not seem to be a veteran on the battlefield. He only knows formations and then fights. The art of war is normal. He does not understand the ingenuity of using it because he is single-minded."

"His 20,000 elite troops are arrayed here. It is in line with his intention for me to attack them with my troops. I will pick them up with my light cavalry first. You will lead the army to follow. After the battle, you will immediately let out smoke to notify General Lu."

Quan Cong is also a veteran general of Jiangdong. Although he is young, he has been in the army for six or seven years.

Moreover, he did not start his career as a soldier. As soon as he joined Sun Ce's command, he began to lead troops to fight.

After all, when Sun Ce's army first arrived in Yuhang, he and his father led the troops to join Sun Ce.

Although he is younger than Sun Ce, he may have far more experience in commanding troops than the other general.

He also knew very well that what Gan Ning said was a good plan to decide the fate between the two formations, but he had to ask worriedly: "The main force of the elite cavalry in the camp has been transferred by General Lu, and you only have more than ten personal guards." If a man has a war horse, but he is outnumbered and trapped in a tight siege, what should he do?"

Gan Ning's tone was solemn: "If I am trapped in a tight siege, I am not as brave as others, so I should die in battle. You will succeed me and lead the army to fight again!" (End of this chapter)