Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2608 Ren Gui Raises an Army to Take Tongxian, the Military Genius Cuts Off the Road and Ends His Life
Qi Jiguang had previously taken Yuyang and Youbeiping counties, and after Han Xin's troops withdrew, Li Mu took over Zhuo County.

It can be said that Qin Zheng now only has the three commanderies of Guangyin, Dai, and Shanggu left in his hands.

However, after the Manchu Qing dynasty pulled this stunt, all that is truly under Qin Zheng's control now is the Guangyin prefecture.

In fact, if Qi Jiguang hadn't blocked the two prefectures of Yuyang and Youbeiping, Li Shimin would definitely have intervened at this time as well.

Although Qin Zheng was furious, what could he do?

Now, their military strength in Youzhou is reduced to just over 50,000, less than 60,000.

Even if they committed all their troops, they might not be able to repel the Manchu army after it had already invaded.

After all, Youzhou today is no longer what it used to be.

Many officials in Youzhou even suggested that they should pretend they hadn't seen these things and concentrate all their troops to continue resisting the Jin army.

Ultimately, the Manchus were only there to plunder.

However, the Jin army was different; they came to take their lives.

However, Qin Zheng was still unwilling to give up and mobilized 15,000 troops, with Zhang Han in command. He did not expect Zhang Han to be able to defeat the Manchus, but he hoped to save as many civilians as possible.

Moreover, in order to alleviate the problems in these two prefectures, Qin Zheng completely disregarded everything and directly relinquished power, openly granting local officials and powerful families the right to form their own armies.

Previously, some powerful clans had formed their own armies, but these armies were not recognized by the imperial court and were merely righteous troops.

However, after Qin Zheng issued this order, the troops formed thereafter were completely recognized by Qin Zheng. Moreover, if you had the ability, you could form tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of troops without Qin Zheng saying anything.

Although this method may have endless future troubles, for Youzhou, only by surviving this calamity can it be qualified to investigate any future troubles. If it fails to survive this calamity, dust to dust, ashes to ashes, this matter naturally doesn't matter.

Twenty days later, Xue Rengui's 100,000 troops landed in Youzhou with the support of Qi Jiguang's navy.

A month later, Lian Po led a full 150,000 troops and officially joined forces with Li Mu.

For a time, a total of 400,000 Jin troops were concentrated in the entire Youzhou region.

Even though Qi Jiguang's troops were stationed in Yuyang and Youbeiping counties, the number of Jin troops available to participate in the battle was still as high as 350,000.

The only troops that Youzhou could mobilize in Guangyin were a paltry 40,000.

Half a month later, Xue Rengui officially sent troops to besiege Anci, where Han Xin had 20,000 troops, while Li Mu had 100,000 troops to take Jiyang, and Lian Po had 150,000 troops to move north into Shanggu and Daijun.

After all, the Jin army could not allow the Manchu troops to run rampant in these two places.

At this time, many of the generals of the Jin army already regarded these two places as their own territory.

Two hundred thousand troops are more than enough to deal with the forty thousand troops from Youzhou in Guangyin. The remaining troops can be used to force back the Manchu troops.

Han Xin, who was originally stationed in Anci to defend against Xue Rengui, did not stay put and prepared to fight a defensive battle.

Under the current circumstances, fighting a defensive battle would only delay the inevitable defeat, not guarantee victory. He once again abandoned the main force, leading two thousand cavalry to bypass Xue Rengui's main army and prepare to seize Xue Rengui's supplies directly.

However, Han Xin's real goal was not actually to burn Xue Rengui's grain supplies.

The Jin army had several supply depots. Even if he burned one of them, it would cause some trouble for the Jin army, but it would not be enough to bring them a fundamental crisis.

When the Jin army marched on large scale, they rarely concentrated all their provisions in one granary, but rather spread them out across several granaries as much as possible. Therefore, even if one granary were burned down, it would still not be enough to create a fundamental food crisis for the Jin army.

With a few granaries remaining, we can hold out until the next batch of grain arrives.

Therefore, it is unrealistic to expect a single fire to turn the tide, as depicted in the Battle of Guandu in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

On the surface, he burned Xue Rengui's grain and fodder, but in reality, he was trying to lure Xue Rengui's army back, and then use the water of the Pan River to annihilate Xue Rengui's army in one fell swoop.

Given such a huge disparity in troop strength, apart from using water and fire tactics, there was virtually no chance of victory with any other methods.

Han Xin's plan can be considered a desperate gamble.

Even he himself believed that his chances of winning were limited, but he had no other choice.

When there is a huge disparity in strength, there is no chance of winning by using conventional military tactics, so the only option is to resort to risky strategies.

The greater the gap between the two sides, the more dangerous the strategies must be to win.

However, the riskier the plan, the greater the underlying risk and the smaller the chance of success.

To put it bluntly, risky strategies, in a sense, are actually a form of gamble.

If you win the gamble, you'll make a fortune. If you lose, you're simply heading towards a losing situation you were destined to face anyway.

With no other options available, even if his chances of winning were slim, he had no choice but to give it his all.

Upon learning that the grain supplies had been attacked, Xue Rengui had absolutely no intention of sending any rescue efforts.

Instead, following Zhang Liang's advice, they dispatched one force to capture Tongxian, which was sparsely defended, while the remaining 10,000 troops and 40,000 troops surrounded Anci as originally planned, and the remaining cavalry patrolled around these two counties.

Centered on Anci and Tongxian, the infantry and cavalry, and even Qi Jiguang led a small naval force into the Pan River, together trapping Han Xin east of the Pan River.

Xue Rengui was naturally reluctant to let Han Xin burn some of their grain supplies, but he knew that you can't catch a wolf without risking your cub. If he didn't give up this part of the grain supplies, how could he trap Han Xin east of the Pan River?
The grain supplies there consisted only of Xue Rengui's portion, not to mention that in addition to Xue Rengui's grain supplies, there were also Li Mu's grain supplies.

Therefore, it's impossible to say that this portion of grain was unimportant to Xue Rengui. However, it wasn't so crucial that he couldn't do without it.

Han Xin, as the undisputed number one general in the north, was capable of launching a counterattack against Li Mu with inferior forces. If he were trapped outside the battlefield, the difficulty of both the Anci defense battle and the Jixian siege would be reduced by several levels.

Xue Rengui was unwilling to engage in a city siege with Han Xin present.

In the Battle of Jiangxia back then, Bai Qi attacked Xu Da, but lost a full 100,000 troops under the walls of Jiangxia.

Therefore, he was willing to pay a price. The cost of some provisions was better than losing tens of thousands of troops in the end.