My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 804: When the enemy thinks you don’t need to fight another landing battle, you can fight another landing battle
No outsider knew what specific strategy Zhuge Liang finally offered to Liu Bei, but in the next two or three days, all the deployments and movements of Liu Bei's army were very consistent with the general public's conventional speculation.

Liu Bei's army, located near Wen County in Hanoi, retreated with great fanfare, crossed the Yellow River to the south of Huai County, landed at Chenggao, and then turned back west and rushed towards Luoyang.

The number of Liu Bei's troops in the Heluo Basin also increased, basically increasing at a rate of at least 20,000 people a day - this crossing speed was already very fast, because the number of ferries was not unlimited, and there was originally no proper port terminal near Chenggao. The largest ferry crossings around Luoyang were in Mengjin and Xiaopingjin.

Actual combat is not a game. You have to consider the port throughput, transportation capacity, and the difficulty of navigation on the Yellow River. When Zhou Yu and Zhao Yun crossed to Chenggao to attack Cao Zhen's rear a while ago, Zhou Yu and Zhao Yun only had 20,000 people on the first day.

It's just that their fighting power was off the charts. After 20,000 of them landed, they attacked Cao Zhen's retreat and directly defeated Cao Zhen's army of 50,000 to 60,000 people.

After learning that Liu Bei had indeed started to change the route to cross the river, the news reached Cao Ren who was stationed in Luoyang. He quickly made a judgment and estimated that Liu Bei might cut off his outer wings and intersperse and surround the defenders of other passes and ferry crossings in Luoyang in an attempt to defeat them one by one.

Therefore, Cao Ren immediately sent instructions to Li Dian in the north and Xu Huang in the south, asking them to be more careful and send their scouts farther away. If they detected that Liu Bei's army was approaching, they should find a dangerous place along the way to stop and delay them if possible, but they must not fight to the end. If there was a risk of their retreat being cut off, they should immediately retreat to Luoyang.

If the defenders are located further west of Luoyang, they should retreat towards Henan County and Gucheng County.

As mentioned earlier, these two counties are located on the important road between Luoyang and Hangu Pass. They are key to whether Cao's army can safely retreat to Hangu Pass if they cannot hold Luoyang in the future.

However, Cao Ren's instructions did not require Li Dian and Xu Huang to abandon their positions and retreat with their entire army regardless of the consequences.

Firstly, these two generals had been guarding the local area for quite some time, their camps and passes were strong, and they were well prepared for a protracted war and had stockpiled a considerable amount of supplies.

If we retreat too decisively and too quickly, many supplies and military equipment will not be transported to the rear in time and will have to be burned or even aid the enemy.

Cao Cao no longer has any wealthy territories, and he cannot afford to abandon military supplies and retreat in disorder.

Secondly, Cao Ren also needed these two troops to buy more time to strengthen the city defense, adjust the deployment, and stabilize the retreat.

Even if the army is defeated and has to retreat, it must be done in an orderly manner, with a first come first served basis. The outer positions in all directions cannot be abandoned at once, as that would absolutely cause chaos.

Moreover, if Li Dian withdrew early, there would be no one at Mengjin Ferry, and Liu Bei would not have to take a detour back to Huai County and then cross Chenggao. He could come directly to Mengjin from Wen County, which could save Liu Bei three days of round trip time and allow Liu Bei to use a regular port with better facilities and much larger throughput.

Similarly, if Xu Huang retreated too early, Huang Zhong would immediately charge into Yique Pass. In that case, Henan County and Gucheng County, the retreat route of Luoyang, would most likely be cut off by Huang Zhong. Xu Huang could only leave after Henan and Gucheng counties had made adequate defense deployments.

Cao Ren's principle is: if Liu Bei approaches to within one or two days' distance of you, or if you find cavalry quickly infiltrating, then divide your troops to block and delay him while speeding up the main force to withdraw resolutely.

As for supplies, only as much as possible will be transported away before that. When the warning line or red line is reached where they have to be abandoned, the remaining supplies that cannot be transported will have to be burned or distributed to the people.

After Xu Huang and Li Dian received Cao Ren's instructions, they thought about it and felt that there was no problem and they could follow them completely.

Anyway, His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin (when Cao Cao appointed Cao Ren as king a few days ago, his title was Prince of Jin) did not forbid them to retreat, he just asked them to be more vigilant and smart.

Xu Huang and Li Dian thought that they could send out scouts over a hundred miles away to monitor the movements of Liu Bei's army at all times. If they found that Liu Bei's army was approaching or the outer counties or passes were defeated, they would still have time to leave.

……

Thus, these three days passed in a flash, and in the blink of an eye it was August 17th.

Cao's army did use these three days to withdraw a lot of supplies, transfer some soldiers and civilians, and strengthen the defense of Gucheng County and Henan County.

On Liu Bei's side, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun used these three days to capture Gong County and approach Yanshi, which was one county closer to Luoyang City. After passing Yanshi, the main city of Luoyang was in front of them. Yanshi was already the last gateway to Luoyang.

The speed of taking over a county in three days was not slow. Cao's army had left troops to guard these places carefully, so they were not taken for nothing.

While Zhang Fei was planning to attack Yanshi, Zhao Yun and Ma Chao finally started the encirclement operation planned by Liu Bei's army. They bypassed Yanshi from the south and rushed to Huanyuan Pass, one of the three passes in charge of Xu Huang.

The three passes south of Luo, from east to west, are Huanyuan, Taigu and Yique, so the first place Liu Bei's army arrived at was Huanyuan.

This is a valley road that crosses Mount Song, which is roughly within the territory of Dengfeng City in later generations. The Shaolin Temple of later generations is located on the mountain next to the valley road.

As Liu Bei's army approached Huanyuan Pass, part of Xu Huang's main force had already retreated, but he still left behind a small number of mountain soldiers who were good at climbing mountains and lightly equipped to delay and harass the enemy. This meant that Liu Bei's army would have to spend several more days to completely capture Huanyuan Pass.

Most of the soldiers in Cao's army were not good at walking on mountain roads. If the main roads were cut off, they could only wait to be surrounded and annihilated. However, there were all kinds of talented people in any army. Cao Cao had fought the Battle of Hanzhong with Liu Bei in the past, and he also plundered some local mountain tribes in the Qinling war zone.

Now it has come to a critical moment. In order to buy time for the main force, these mountain soldiers are willing to perform some dangerous tasks by feeding them with money and rewarding their family members in the rear.

And even if they didn't have time to escape over the mountains, they could just surrender to Liu Bei. In Cao Ren's plan, these soldiers could die at any time, so even if they couldn't go back, they wouldn't be wrongly conscripted or their families would be punished.

Cao Ren was trying his best to consume Liu Bei by clearing the countryside and doing his best within his ability. He also wanted to end the last battle of his life as heroically as possible.

Everyone has their own pursuits. When facing certain death, many heroes hope to die more gloriously and leave a good name in history books. Regardless of whether the history books have a good or bad evaluation of him, Cao Ren hopes that the history books will say that he is a famous general who is good at fighting. This is enough.

Xu Huang was delayed at Huanyuan Pass for a while, and Zhao Yun finally captured the pass. But thanks to the delay at Huanyuan Pass, Zhao Yun did not dare to advance too deep alone - or perhaps Zhao Yun knew that even if he took the risk of advancing alone, it would be useless, and Xu Huang could still escape, so there was no need to advance alone and increase losses.

Xu Huang finally relied on this time difference to successfully withdraw the troops from Taigu and Yique. The Cao army on Yique was the last to leave because the road to Yique was relatively easy to travel, as it was where the Yishui River, a tributary of the Luoshui River, passed through the canyon of the Funiushan Mountains.

If Liu Bei's army lost the other two passes, Huanyuan and Taigu, at most they would gain a land route through the mountains. But if Yique Pass was lost, Liu Bei's army could directly open up the Yishui waterway.

If Liu Bei's army went down the Yi River and then merged into the Luo River, the water would flow directly outside the city wall of Luoyang, which would be fatal.

Yique was so important that Cao Ren and Xu Huang focused their energy on the issue of "delaying the loss of Yique while ensuring that the defenders of Yique could withdraw", hoping to achieve the best of both worlds.

In the end, they seemed to have really done it. After fighting several blocking and attrition battles with Liu Bei, Xu Huang retreated in an orderly manner.

When Cao Ren heard about the result, he was also very satisfied. He felt that no matter what the final outcome of the battle would be, based on his operation, future history books would certainly give him a praise for his good command and ability to control the army.

"Even if Brother Zhuge is on the opposite side, as long as our army flees upon hearing the news and cooperates with small-scale delaying harassment, we can retreat in an orderly manner and consume the enemy as much as possible. Anyway, Xu Huang is smart and will not give Zhao Yun the opportunity to cut off his retreat. As soon as Zhao Yun's main force shows signs of approaching, he will get the news and run away in advance, but not too far in advance."

This is what Cao Ren thought in his heart, and it is also his evaluation of Xu Huang.

However, just when Cao Ren was feeling complacent about his own micromanagement, something happened to Li Dian in the north, in a direction he least expected.

……

While Xu Huang was resisting step by step from Huanyuan to Yique and retreating in an orderly manner, not giving Liu Bei's army a chance to outflank and cut off their rear, Li Dian's troops at Mengjin Ferry and Xiaopingjin Ferry should have had a relatively easy time these days.

Because he had received Cao Ren's latest battle report, Liu Bei's army should have realized that "it is relatively easy to outflank Xu Huang on the southern line, while it is impossible to outflank Li Dian on the northern line", so the focus of the attack in the past few days was on Xu Huang. Li Dian thought it was reasonable, because the north was flat and close to the Yellow River, with only a little obstruction from the mountainous area of Beimang Mountain. But in general, the north was much more open than the south, and the troops could not hide quickly.

As long as Liu Bei's army crossed the Yanshi line, Li Dian could immediately run away, which he could definitely do.

At the same time, he couldn't run away too early. If he did, Liu Bei's army would cross the river directly at Mengjin, which would make things convenient for Liu Bei.

Before leaving, Li Dian also transported as much supplies as possible from the dock. After emptying a section of warehouses and shops, he set fire to the area and the dock facilities. This was also an order given to him by Cao Ren.
This is because when Liu Bei occupies this place in the future, there will be no ready-made port construction facilities available, and Liu Bei’s water transportation capacity around Luoyang will be greatly damaged.

On August 18, Li Dian had almost transported the supplies and young men from the two ports and Xiaoping County. Early that morning, he heard that Liu Bei's army seemed to have broken through Yanshi County, and then divided its troops to the north, along the Beimang Mountain and the bank of the Yellow River, and was about to attack him.

However, the distance was still about 100 miles, so he would definitely have time to run. On the other side, Li Dian had also discovered that he could no longer see the flags of Liu Bei's army stationed along the river since yesterday. It should be that Liu Bei's army in Wen County had all retreated to Huai County, and then crossed the river from Huai County.

In other words, the significance of Cao's army guarding Mengjin and Xiaopingjin has been fully realized. They forced Liu Bei's main force to take a detour to cross the river. Now that the enemy has bypassed them, there is no need to defend these two docks.

"Immediately set fire to everything left at the two ferry crossings, then follow me to withdraw to Xiaoping County first, and then divide the troops as appropriate. Some will go to Gucheng County according to the general's order, and some will follow me back to Luoyang to help defend the city. The King of Jin has already ordered me to go to Luoyang in person to help him defend the city."

Li Dian finally issued a military order to the generals guarding the two crossings, and then Cao's army set fire and prepared to retreat.

Zhang Fei was at least seventy or eighty miles away from him. What was there for him to be afraid of?

Could it be that since Zhang Fei’s name contains the word “fei”, can he really fly over here?
However, just as Li Dian was preparing to withdraw his troops, something unexpected happened.

His army had just set fire to the Xiaopingjin Ferry and had not walked two miles away from the dock when suddenly, thousands of Liu Bei's elite soldiers forced their way across the Yellow River on the south bank of the Yellow River in the northwest, a section of the river where there was originally no ferry.

The troops had just landed and gained a foothold, and without even having time to form a battle line, they hurriedly sent cavalry to chase the retreating Li Dian.

Because it was still early in the morning, Li Dian left early in the morning, and Liu Bei's army went back upstream to cross the river in advance. All these preparations were made before daybreak.

In addition, Li Dian had relaxed his mentality in the past few days. He felt that Zhao Yun was mainly targeting Xu Huang in the south, and Zhang Fei was far away, so he didn't take it too seriously.

Liu Bei's main force had gone to Huaixian to cross the river to Chenggao. How many troops could be left in Wenxian on the other side? Why did Liu Bei continue to fight this battle of forced crossing and beach landing?

This was a way of fighting that Li Dian had never expected.

Because under normal circumstances, after the enemy on the north bank has established a bridgehead on the south bank and captured a beachhead to cross the river and land, it will rarely risk another landing battle.

Landing is risky, especially if you choose to land not too far from the enemy's strong defensive position. Once you are discovered, the enemy will attack you while you are still unstable and it is very likely that you will be pushed into the Yellow River.

It is like the US military after the Normandy landings, it is impossible to go to Cherbourg or Calais to fight another landing battle. Why not just go overland from Normandy to capture the port cities of Calais and Cherbourg, and then use the ports for normal transportation? Why do we have to go through this trouble and take this risk?

Unfortunately, there are still many things that Li Dian can't figure out.

Just when he thought it was impossible, Zhuge Liang made it possible. Today's plan was exactly what Zhuge Liang had planned for Liu Bei that day.

"When Li Dian knew that Yide's main force was approaching Yanshi, or even breaking through Yanshi, he would definitely retreat immediately and would never dare to wait until Yide's main force approached him. If we chased Li Dian from land, we would definitely not be able to cut off his retreat. He would have plenty of time to escape. After all, the warning distance and warning time on land are too sufficient.

However, if our army did the opposite and launched another unexpected landing battle when there was clearly no need for a forced landing, and suddenly went ashore a few miles near Li Dian's dock, still using cavalry as the vanguard to pursue and outflank Li Dian, Li Dian would certainly be caught off guard and would definitely not have enough time to react.

Although the cavalry that hastily landed would not be too large in number, Li Dian's troops were being pursued while retreating, and their morale would inevitably be low. It was also unknown how many troops were in pursuit, so even if only a few thousand people were used, it was possible to defeat tens of thousands of people in Xiaopingjin, Mengjin and other places.

Moreover, our army does not even need to count on this cavalry to completely defeat Li Dian. As long as this cavalry can cut off his return route to Luoyang or Hangu Pass, preventing him from retreating and delaying his actions, Yide's main force can force a march and speed up to arrive, and we will be able to annihilate him completely!"

At that time, when Liu Bei heard Zhuge Liang's unexpected strategy that turned the impossible into possible, he was immediately amazed.

Of course, this was not the first or second time that Liu Bei was amazed by Zhuge Liang, and he was used to it.

He approved the plan immediately, which led to its implementation today.

That's right, Zhang Fei himself is still in Yanshi, and Zhao Yun has just broken Huanyuan and is still in the process of recovering Taigu and Yique. It seems that the main force of Liu Bei's army is focused on the south, and there is not much spare energy to waste on Li Dian on the northern front.

However, the one crossing the river at this moment was Ma Chao, who was good at cavalry, and the one cooperating with him to help him cross the river was still Zhou Yu.

The banners of Ma Chao and Zhou Yu have also appeared in Zhang Fei's group in the past few days, but they have never actually appeared in person on the front line.

Liu Bei did arrange some substitutes and spread some rumors, which made Cao's army firmly believe that Ma Chao and Zhou Yu were also there, but in fact they were all false news.

At this moment, when Ma Chao finally got ashore and was only a few miles away from Li Dian, leaving him no time to react, Li Dian's army finally fell into chaos.

Everyone had been thinking well, thinking it would be an easy retreat march like a picnic, but how come they were charged from behind by cavalry after only walking two miles?

The mentality of Cao's army under Li Dian was almost the same as that of the soldiers of the Former Qin Dynasty during the Battle of Feishui, who "retreat a little and make way for a piece of land for the Eastern Jin army to cross the Feishui River and fight a decisive battle with them."

Everything was going well at first, just a march, but with a change of tactics, suddenly "Our army is defeated! Our army is defeated!"

Who the hell are you talking to to reason with?

"Li Dian, prepare to die! Ma Chao has landed here with 30,000 cavalry! Don't even think about escaping back to Luoyang City!"

Ma Chao personally led thousands of cavalry to charge, and what he shouted was full of boasting. He said that the place called Xiaopingjin was open for you to cross the river, and it would be good if you could land 30,000 people in a whole day. Where did 30,000 people come from in one wave?

But the ordinary soldiers of Cao's army were uneducated, so how could they know that Ma Chao was lying?

All they knew was that while they were retreating, they were crushed by countless cavalry from behind.

"Don't panic! Form your battle array immediately! Liu Bei can't possibly land so many people at once! They are just a small force coming to launch a surprise attack and harass!"

Li Dian was smart and knew where the problem lay, so in the critical moment he tried to expose the enemy's lies and stabilize the morale of the army.

Unfortunately, just like the situation before Cao Zhen’s death, no one listened to him.

(End of this chapter)