Weird Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3621: Rain erodes the armor, the government neglects the border
The temporary camp set up by Liao Hua during his second relocation was attacked by Cao's army.

Because the camp was set up temporarily, it could not compare with a formal field camp in any aspect.

The walls of the camp could not be built firmly on the ground due to heavy rain. The wooden stakes driven into the ground were either too soft or easily soaked by the rain.

As for trenches and traps, forget about it in such rain.

However, the wealth of the Hussars still played a certain role in these temporary camps.

The fake grain cart sent by Li Dian has now become the wall of Liao Hua's temporary camp.

Two or three people propped up a shed with tarpaulin, and then people squeezed into the baggage cart to sleep. Although it was not spacious enough, it was at least much better than lying in the mud. However, the number of baggage carts was still limited, so they could only sleep in shifts.

Although some ditches were dug for drainage during the heavy rain, there was still a lot of water in the potholes on the ground, which exposed Cao Ren's soldiers who came to launch a surprise attack very early.

However, on rainy days, any long-range weapons and gunpowder firearms were ineffective, so even if both sides discovered each other from a distance, they would only engage in hand-to-hand combat after getting close.

The hussars under Liao Hua would not be afraid of face-to-face combat, but fighting in the rain still posed a severe challenge to them.

Unlike Cao's army, the great advantage of the Hussars was based on long-range weapons and gunpowder weapons. Rainy days not only made the bowstrings damp and loose, causing the range to decrease, but also made the arrows lose their flight stability after absorbing water. It also made gunpowder weapons completely unusable, which made Cao's soldiers more confident and bold in attacking and fighting.

At the same time, although steel is the defensive equipment that gives the Hussars an advantage, it is extremely difficult to remove rust under the conditions of the Han Dynasty. Especially when the iron armor encounters a mixture of mud and water, the speed at which it rusts is beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

If a piece of armor is not worn all the time, the armor plates at the joints will rust and stick together within two or three days. If it is worn, although some of the rust will be worn off during activities, preventing the armor plates from sticking together, rainy days will accelerate the loss of heat, causing the soldiers to lose their physical strength and endurance faster and become exhausted.

The bronze weapons used by Cao's army were specially designed for this kind of rainy environment. Although bronze also rusts, it does not rust as fast as iron in rainy days!

Another thing is that Cao's soldiers didn't wear shoes...

When fighting in mud and water, shoes become an inconspicuous burden that greatly affects the combat effectiveness.

Although the hussar soldiers and military school sergeants soon discovered this and ordered the soldiers to take off their shoes before fighting, they still suffered a loss during the initial contact and fighting.

This brings us to the second more serious problem...

Wounded soldiers.

On rainy days, even if there were occasional sunny breaks, it was not enough time for doctors to prepare all the medicines and clean all the wounds. What soaked into the wounds with the rain was not just sand and gravel, but also more bacteria and fungi. This caused many wounded soldiers to become inflamed and fall into a coma on the second or third day.

The doctors were so overwhelmed that they had no choice but to invent a method of using lime to prevent moisture and stop bleeding, but there were still limited conditions for its use, and the wounds of the wounded could not be flooded again...

In comparison, the Cao army's model of discarding their soldiers after use saved them from this "trouble".

Although Liao Hua knew that after the mutual fighting, Cao Ren would not have much strength left after consuming all of Cao Ren's death squads, he still had to retreat in the face of the sudden increase in casualties on his side, especially the casualties after the injuries. He gave up some of the results he had achieved and retreated to a safer military camp to rest.

The attacks of Liao Hua and Li Dian were successfully contained by Cao Ren.

Everyone knows that this is only temporary.

……

……

Jizhou.

Wuyi County.

Governing a country does not mean that having a few big cities, such as Chang'an and Luoyang, represents a dynasty empire. That can only represent the upper limit of the country. As for the lower limit, it depends on the conditions of more remote counties and prefectures like Wuyi County.

Only when the upper and lower limits are high can the country's overall level be considered high. Unfortunately, the current upper limit of the Han Dynasty is average, but the lower limit is very low.

There used to be a military camp outside Wuyi County, but it is now in ruins.

The same was true for the city defenses, with the battlements collapsing in places and not repaired in time, leaving them in a state of disarray.

The document requesting funding for repairing the city wall was submitted a long time ago, but it has never been approved, so people from top to bottom in Wuyi County just watched and did nothing.

After all, repairing the city wall is like spending money on the public. Who is willing to pay out of their own pocket? It is already very good if it can avoid damaging the public and enriching themselves. However, according to common practice, even if the upper level allocated funds for repairs, Wuyi County would probably only split it 30% and 70%, or even 20% and 80%. It is already good to be able to use 30% of the funds to repair the public.

After all, if corrupt officials don’t have enough to eat, how can they have the energy to work?
Therefore, on the city wall of Wuyi County, even though they knew that the Cavalry Army was heading south, they were still lazy, wandering around like lonely ghosts, just waiting to get off work, have a meal, and then sleep, which would mean they would waste another day.

At dusk, a group of people suddenly came outside the city.

At first, it caused panic among the soldiers on the wall of Wuyi County, but soon after they saw the flag of "Xiahou", they became lazy again.

Xiahou Ru was in the queue.

Although he was wearing armor, he did not have a sword at his waist.

A trip to northern Ji also changed Xiahou Ru's mentality.

The butt determines a person's position.

When I was young, I had diapers on my butt, so my main concerns were eating, drinking, defecating, urinating, and sleeping.

The corpse of adolescence has hair on its butt, and suddenly I have a lot of thoughts...

Now Xiahou Ru follows Wei Yan, and his thinking starts to become more like that of a cavalry general.

Wei Yan poked Xiahou Ru in the back with his scabbard, "Go up and knock on the door!"

Xiahou Ru hesitated for a moment, but after being poked in the back by Wei Yan, he moved forward a little shyly. But for some reason, after he shouted, he became more relaxed...

The military school on the city gate was familiar with Xiahou, but not with Xiahou Ru. Therefore, they did not treat Xiahou well at first and refused to open the city gate.

This time, Xiahou Ru didn't need Wei Yan's reminder, he immediately raised his head and started cursing, threatening the military school guarding the city.

But what's interesting is that the military school guarding the city sneered on the top of the city wall and even argued with Xiahou. He pointed at the dilapidated camp outside the city and asked Xiahou Ru to take his men there to rest. Anyway, he insisted that the city gate would not be opened again after being locked at dusk.

Seeing this, Wei Yan glanced at his guards.

With the cover of the soldiers in front, the guard loaded the bow and arrow, and when he found an opportunity, he raised his hand and shot!
The arrow shot out like lightning and hit the military academy on the top of the city wall in the face!

Amid the shouts of the defenders, Wei Yan slapped Xia Houru aside and said, "Useless! You can't even open the door! Someone, come! Rescue the city for me!"

…………

To be fair, the situation in Jizhou is not too bad.

No matter what, the war between Cao Cao and Fei Qian was still a civil war.

It cannot even be considered a national war during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it can only be considered a civil war among the princes.

On the one hand, Cao Cao had already made corresponding arrangements. Yecheng was the core of Jizhou. As long as the core was not lost, Cao Cao would not have much time to take care of other areas, so it didn't matter much whether they were lost or not.

On the other hand, Jizhou is too large. Compared with Youzhou, the number of counties has increased. If the Hussars want to occupy it completely, it will inevitably lead to the dispersion of troops. If they do not occupy it, but just change the flag on the city wall, then it does not matter whether the Hussars occupy it or not.

War is the continuation of politics, but it is also the final solution to political conflicts...

If we win the battle, everything will be easy.

If Cao Cao won, then even if these counties in Jizhou were occupied for a time, it would only take a word to regain them. But if he was defeated, even if these counties clung to the Cao family's banner, it would not have any results that would be beneficial to the Cao family.

However, those who are familiar with Cao Pi know that even now, Cao Pi is trying his best to maintain a stable aura, but he is still extremely angry...

Because this might be the first time in his life that he encountered such direct and clean betrayal.

If Xiahou Ru had surrendered under siege or in some difficult circumstances, Cao Pi would have been angry, but not to this extent.

Just imagine, if it weren't for the relationship between the Cao and Xiahou families, why would Cao Cao send Xiahou Ru to Cao Pi's side and let Ren Xian be Chen Qun's deputy?
This itself has a difference between closeness and distance.

Or to put it the other way around, the Xiahou family also made great contributions to the status of the Cao family today, so they should share the same fate. For a long time, the Cao family and the Xiahou family have been two sides of the same coin. Cao Pi also knew this, so he would unconsciously have higher expectations for the Xiahou family.

It's like when you see other people's naughty kids get 50 out of 100 in an exam. Most of the time, you would choose to laugh and say that grades don't mean everything. But when your own naughty kid only got 50, you feel like the blood is rushing to your head and your brain is about to burst when you see it.

Although they are both fifty, the effects are completely different.

In other words, Cao Pi still cannot understand what the "relative harshness phenomenon" is. After all, many people are accustomed to taking off their social masks in front of people they are close to and expressing their emotions more freely, including but not limited to dissatisfaction or high demands, because they subconsciously believe that intimate relationships have a higher tolerance.

Nor is there much demand for being polite to people outside of the kinship group.

This is also because the Cao and Xiahou families themselves enjoyed more benefits during the rise of Cao Cao, so Cao Pi naturally hoped to get higher returns from the Cao and Xiahou families. However, Cao Pi forgot that Xiahou Ru was just an ordinary person. If he was not surnamed Xiahou, he would not have the talent to be around Cao Pi.

Cao Pi obviously didn't understand this, so he became dissatisfied because his psychological account was unbalanced, which was probably "I have paid so much for you, why can't you do better?"

This kind of "harshness" towards relatives comes from excessive expectations, and Xiahou Ru's personal ability obviously cannot support this expectation, so it is easy to form a vicious circle. As for Cao Pi's identity, it is impossible to tell Xiahou Ru that he has too much expectations. After all, he still has to maintain the face of the "Prince". As a result, from Xiahou Ru's point of view, it seems like Cao Pi is putting on airs as the "Prince"...

Anyway, Cao Pi felt that he was sincere to Xia Houru and even gave him the mission that was easiest to gain military merit. On the other hand, Xia Houru felt that he was just a slave or hunting dog raised by Cao Pi, and he would scold and insult him at any time, without any dignity at all...

Originally, this misunderstanding and contradiction would have erupted violently because of Cao Pi's treatment of Xiahou Ru's family, but at the last moment, Cao Pi instead let Xiahou Ru's family go, which also temporarily calmed down the thunder that was originally going to erupt within the Cao and Xiahou families.

However, no one knows whether this mine has been dismantled or turned into a time bomb.

……

……

If someone had asked Cao Cao in history, "Why did you think you could win when Yuan Shao had the upper hand and you had fewer troops?" Cao Cao would probably have just smiled disdainfully.

Yuan Shao had a much larger army than Cao Cao at the time, most likely more than 100,000, while Cao Cao only had about 30,000. The Battle of Wuchao was a surprise attack by Cao Cao on Yuan Shao's granary, which led to the collapse of Yuan Shao's army and thus reversed the situation. So if there was no Wuchao, would Cao Cao have won?
Cao Cao still felt that he would win.

Although Yuan Shao had more troops, he may have had some internal problems, such as discord among his advisers. Xu You's rebellion may have been because Yuan Shao did not listen to his advice. On Cao Cao's side, although he had fewer people, his command was more unified, and his generals such as Xun Yu and Guo Jia were capable advisers. The Qingzhou soldiers were more willing to die than Yuan Shao's Jizhou soldiers.

In the confrontation at Guandu, Yuan Shao may have more resources to fight a war of attrition, but it will also bring more internal conflicts. Cao Cao's supply line is relatively short. Xuchang is closer to Guandu, and Yuan Shao needs to transport grain from Hebei. The transportation line is long and easy to be harassed. Even if there is no Wuchao, Cao Cao may find other opportunities to attack the grain route.

In addition, Yuan Shao's character weaknesses, such as indecision and inability to accept suggestions, may lead to wrong decisions. Cao Cao, on the other hand, is decisive and good at seizing opportunities. Of course, the victories at Bai Ma and Yanjin also boosted the morale of Cao's army, giving Cao Cao the confidence to continue the confrontation.

Cao Cao's confidence may come from his trust in his own command ability and his understanding of his opponent's weaknesses. He knew Yuan Shao's weaknesses, such as internal conflicts and logistical problems, so even if he was short of troops, he had a chance to turn the situation around through tactical victory.

Moreover, Cao Cao may have been thinking about how to attack Yuan Shao's food supply route for a long time. Wuchao was only the location determined because of Xu You's arrival. If there had not been this Wuchao raid, there might have been other similar attempts.

Therefore, even without Wuchao, Yuan Shao might have gradually fallen into a passive position due to logistical problems and internal conflicts, while Cao Cao could have found other breakthroughs through flexible tactics and efficient command. However, the outcome might depend on who can hold out longer and the intervention of external forces. Although Yuan Shao has a higher chance of winning, Cao Cao still has a chance of survival.

But now, when facing Fei Qian, Cao Cao felt like he was possessed by Yuan Shao.

And the key point is that Yuan Shao was not only possessed, but also brought the curse of the Yuan family.

At that time, Yuan Shao was fighting against Cao Cao, with an army of 100,000 and occupied Jizhou, Youzhou, Qingzhou and other places. Now Cao Cao also occupied Jizhou, Yuzhou, Xuzhou and other places. The territory was as vast as Yuan Shao's at that time, and he also faced local conflicts brought about by a long period of war.

Of course, if Cao Cao and Fei Qian were to engage in a protracted war of attrition, the advantages of manpower and material resources in the densely populated Shandong Central Plains would become more obvious.

But the problem is that Cao Cao is now even weaker than Yuan Shao.

The reason lies not only in the counselors and generals, but also in the cavalry of the Hussars!
Cao Cao inherited Yuan Shao's legacy, and also inherited the mess left by Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao's group had a serious split among advisers, and now Cao Cao's ruling group also had discord among generals and ministers.

Yuan Shao relied on frontal assaults for a long time, lacked strategic planning, and had many loopholes in the defense of the flanks and rear. Although Cao Cao is slightly stronger than Yuan Shao in terms of strategy, he is also lacking in the defense of the flanks and rear...

Before marching into Guanzhong, Cao Cao felt that the battle between him and Fei Qian was evenly matched.

So he took the gamble.

In military operations, there is no way to guarantee a win most of the time, so a 50% chance of victory is already very high.

Although Sun Tzu's Art of War emphasizes that "victorious troops win first and then seek battle," theoretically requiring that actions be taken only when the chance of winning is greater than 70%, this is often difficult to achieve in reality.

But Cao Cao forgot one thing. In the actual war process, the 50% winning rate is in the critical range of "tactics can be tried, battles need to be cautious, and strategies should be avoided". Its value depends on whether it can form a decision-making advantage, whether there is a risk hedging mechanism, and the controllability of the expected consequences of failure.

In these three aspects, because of Guo Jia's death, after the failure of the Battle of Guanzhong and Hedong, both risk hedging and consequence control were not done well.

However, Cao Cao believed that he still had a chance.

Cao Cao also knew that this chance was much smaller than the chance he had when he fought against Yuan Shao.

If the odds between him and Yuan Shao back then were 30:70 or 20:80, then Cao Cao's chance of winning the battle against Fei Qian now is not even 10%.

Cao Cao refuses to accept his fate!

He is going to struggle in this life-and-death situation!
(End of this chapter)