Liu Biao's procrastination and ostrich mentality certainly greatly improved Li Su's coercion and inducement.

With Yi Ji obtaining the ironclad evidence of Yuan Shu killing the lord and Yuan Shu's secret letter to support the puppet Liu Biao, Li Su has basically concluded that after the world forms a pattern of two emperors in the east and west in the future, Liu Biao will choose to recognize Liu Bei as orthodox.

However, while Li Su was not at all paying the price while gaining these gains.

In order to do this game, Li Su lost some time difference for the entire army to quickly attack Wancheng, which led to the main force of Yuan Shu's army having more time to return to defense on the southern line. He also maintained his garrison in Jiangjin and Hanjin and other major transportation routes in Nanjun behind Liubiao, and dispersed the combat power of tens of thousands of people.

These layouts can be regarded as using military cards for political cards and diplomatic cards. It was even more smooth to persuade Liu Biao to surrender, but the front battlefield of Yuan Shu became more difficult.

From the end of February to the fifth day of March, Li Su stayed around Deng County and Fancheng during the period when Yuan Shujun realized the danger of the southern line and assigned Liang Gang under Ji Ling, and Le led tens of thousands of troops back to defense.

Some people may wonder: Li Sujun brought Zhao Yungaoshun and Zhou Taiganning, and the momentum was so great. Why did Yuan Shu only send Liang Gangle, under Ji Ling, back to defend? Why didn’t Ji Ling himself come? Why didn’t Liu Xun come?

There was no way, because Liu Xun was originally the Eastern Army responsible for Yuan Shu, and he attacked Zhuyuan Pass from Yingchuan to Luoyang. After Yuan Shao and Cao Cao broke up with Yuan Shu, Liu Xun had to return to Xu County to defend Xu County and be responsible for the defense area of ​​Yingchuan County and even Chen County to the east.

Zhang He, Gao Lan and others of Yuan Shao's army attacked the direction of Xu County from the Yin area of ​​Henan east of Xingyang and even Chenliu County. Cao Cao attacked Liang County and Chen County from Xiaopei and Jiyin.

Liu Xun and his subordinates will take over Yuan Shao's partial army and Cao Cao's main force. Can you expect him to do more?

Ji Ling himself was unable to escape and go to the southern line for the time being because he wanted to station in Luoyang and coordinate the defense of Hangu Pass in the west and Hulao Pass in the east to prevent Liu Bei from breaking Hangu Pass and Yan Liangwen Chou, under Yuan Shao, from breaking Hulao Pass.

Ji Ling also scored a small number of troops to defend the Mengjin Ferry and Xiaoping Jin Ferry of the Yellow River in the Luoyang section to prevent Guan Yu from crossing the river to Xiaoping Jin and attacking Luoyang from the northwest. He also had to guard against Lu Bu and Zhang Yang crossing the Yellow River from Henoi to Mengjin and attacking Luoyang from the opposite bank of the northeast.

Fortunately, Guan Yu's troops have insufficient ships, and the threat in this regard is not very large yet. The ship resources of Liu Bei's army in Guanzhong and Hedong are concentrated in the Yellow River, Wei River and the waters, and the ships cannot cross the mountains and reach blocked waters.

Those ships were blocked by Sanmenxia and could not reach the Yellow River Basin in Luoyang.

The only point in Hedong County that can build ships to reach the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River is Dongyuan County below Sanmenxia. Dongyuan County is located on the Qing River, a tributary on the north bank of the Yellow River. It can build ships in the Qing River and then flow downstream into the Yellow River.

Unfortunately, until Yuan Shu killed the lord, it was still in the hands of the original Baibo thief Han Xian. How could a person like Han Xian, who had no ambitions, build a large number of ships in advance to cross the Yellow River? It costs a lot of money to build a ship!

Therefore, in just a few days after Yuan Shu killed the lord, Guan Yu could only conquer Han Xian first, and incorporate Dongyuan County and other lands south of Zhongtiao Mountain in Hedong and north of the Yellow River, and then slowly build ships to accumulate the power to advance east and south to fight.

At the same time, Guan Yu’s main task at this stage is to prevent Yuan Shao’s army from directly beating the alliance. After all, Guan Yu is in charge of the only area in Liu Bei’s camp that directly borders Yuan Shao’s camp.

The peaceful state of Liu Bei and Yuan Shao would break down at any time when Yuan Shu was divided up, so Guan Yu could not go too aggressively, otherwise there would be a danger of rushing to fight Xiangyang during the Battle of Jingzhou in history, which resulted in the stolen nest of Jiangling in Jiangling. Of course, even if this life happened, the place name had to be changed to "busy attacking Luoyang, but as a result, the stolen nest of Anyi was stolen by Lu Bu."

Guan Yu was unable to attack Luoyang through Xiaopingjin because of the shortage of ships. On the other side, Lu Bu from Bingzhou to Hanoi was delayed by the way southward, but Lu Bu obviously did not lack of ships, because Yuan Shao was all in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and all the ships by the river could be used.

Lu Bu chased Bu Dugen and Tuoba Li too far last winter, and basically it was not until the first month of this year that the battle in the Yunzhong area was completely over. In addition, the troops needed to be renovated and dispatched, and returned to Bingzhou in February and supplemented it in March. Basically, it was not until April that they could start fighting against the Central Plains.

After all, if it weren't for seeing Lu Bu and Ma Chao's troops trapped in the northern grasslands, Yuan Shu wouldn't have been so brave to take action directly. These were important bargaining chips for Yuan Shu to show weakness at that time.

...

It is not in vain that Li Su understands the enemy situation, so after he finds out the situation, he will share it with his generals as soon as possible and understand it uniformly.

On the day when we continued north from Deng County, before the departure, Li Su mentioned all the above situations and encouraged him:

"…This is the situation now, so although we have been delaying some time, causing Yuan Shu to return from the northern line to defend, everyone still needs to maintain confidence. Liang Gang's number of people will not be much higher than ours.

Ji Ling had to face Yan Liang and Wen Chou, and also face Yun Chang and Lu Bu who were sitting in a quiet position. Liu Xun had to face Zhang He, Gao Lan, Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Xiahou Yuan, Xiahou Dun, Qiao Rui had to face the king's attack on Yuguan and Wuguan. As long as we face Liang Gangle, it was already very relaxed, and it was less resistance than the resistance encountered by other princes.

Yuan Shu first attacked Luoyang, gathered 130,000 troops, and after taking Luoyang, he incorporated 30,000 troops left by Dong Cheng and Zhu Ye. But he also suffered losses, so the total number of Yuan Shu's mobile troops would not exceed 150,000. Ji Ling, Liu Xun and Liang Gangle were divided equally, while Liang Gangle had only 50,000 people at most.

But we should not underestimate the enemy. Although Liang Gangle was not a famous general, the soldiers they led were still elite. Yuan Shu's army had the elite team of the imperial court's northern army at the time, and Zhu Yan's new imperial court's northern army, which was comparable to ordinary peasants. Our army did not have the advantage of equipment in this battle, so we should be mentally prepared for a fair battle."

Li Su is also to be honest. Because Liu Bei's army is not only more popular with iron armor than Yuan Shu's army, but also has more high-quality horse-slaying sword equipment, and spearmen also use high-quality cone guns that consume more steel, but the weapons and equipment of both sides are exactly the same in other aspects.

The technological generation gap in the Xiliang Army or the nomadic grasslands was now invisible, and the Yuan Shujun, who had other low-cost military technology improvements, all imitated them like this.

However, in the face of Li Su's mobilization, the generals were all full of morale, and Zhao Yun took the lead in expressing his opinion: "I followed the king to fight the thieves in all directions. Even if the enemy was strong and we were weak, I had fought countless times. What's more, today is just a fair battle? Don't worry, the right general, I, Zhao Zilong, have not fallen to the point where I forget how to fight even a fair battle!"

Li Su smiled: "It's better if you know what you know in your heart, and I'll tell the truth. I know the destiny of heaven, have a vision, and have a broad mind in the world. I have my strengths, and I will respond easily and have my shortcomings. At that time, you can do your own things.

Yesterday, Yi Biejia, sent by Liu Jingzhou, also agreed with us, saying that the Jingzhou army would cooperate with us. However, because of the haste, Liu Jingzhou could not immediately dispatch troops. But Yi Biejia would go to Xinye first, bring Liu Jingzhou's transfer order and the military talisman of the Captain Wen, so that the Xinye County defenders allowed us to enter the city and stationed in the Xinye County treasury, and also allowed our army to use the food stored in the Xinye County treasury."

Li Su's tactical command ability basically relies on copying historical answers. However, there seems to be no reference in the battle examples of Xiangyang's attack on Wancheng in history, and no one took this road and went so far in the history of the Three Kingdoms in the late Han Dynasty.

So much so that Li Su wanted to copy Liu Bei in history, but Guan Yu couldn't copy Liu Bei's answer. Liu Bei attacked from Xinye to Xuchang in Yingchuan County, and defeated Xiahou Dun in Bowang, Ye County and other places. Guan Yu wanted to fight Wancheng that time, but was stolen by Lu Meng.

Fortunately, the strength of his own generals is not weak, and Li Su can also gain the merits of a leader by relying on his own performance.

This time I will take advantage of Zhao Yun, Gao Shun, Gan Ning and Zhuge Liang, just like playing game commissioning.

All of them were arranged, so there was nothing to say. On that day, Li Su and Zhao Yun's 40,000 people drove one after another, and continued north from Fancheng by boat. They marched 120 miles in two days and arrived in Xinye County. They are also the forefront of the confrontation between Liu Biao and Yuan Shu.

After the Jingshui reaches Xinye County, it will fork into three strands, namely the Jingshui main stream, Baihe and Tanghe. One leads to Rangcheng, the other passes through Jingyang, Jiyang to Wancheng, and the Tanghe in the east is deep into Yingchuan County near Wuyin.

Therefore, whether the troops in the north come from Nanyang or Yingchuan, they must first converge to the main stream of Qingshui in Xinye to use this as the food channel.

This is also why in history, Liu Biao used Xinye as the gateway to defend against the north and threw Liu Bei into this place to defend Cao Cao. Because as long as Xinye was not lost, the water of the purified water would not be available, and the northern army could not enter the Han River along the water of the purified water.

Li Su came this time and said that he was taking advantage of Liu Biao's military rations to seek rebellion. Indirectly, he helped Liu Biao deal with Yuan Shu who is now in a crazy state, so as not to have Yuan Shu's emotional instability that harmed Liu Biao's territory. So Liu Biao was so generous. After hearing Yi Ji's return, he said directly that you can eat the food in Xinye City as you like.

After Li Su and his party arrived, they looked at the transfer order and military talisman for the former Shinye Guard. The other party obediently opened the city gate and handed over to Li Su's people.

Li Su's 40,000 people stayed for one night, and at the same time, they sent Gan Ning's sentry scouts to go upstream along the Qingshui River and investigated in the enemy-occupied area. The next morning, Gan Ning reported that the troops that had been found to have been found that Yuan Shu was heading south to defend were in place, and it seemed that they had come earlier than Li Su.

However, Yuan Shu was already besieged from all sides, so even if his troops arrived, they only took the defensive stance and did not take the initiative to attack Xinye. After all, Xinye had just become the stronghold of Li Su's Northern Expedition Army, and the day before was Liu Biao. Yuan Shu didn't want to start a war with Liu Biao rashly anymore.

Gan Ning explained the enemy situation in detail: "Liang Gang was stationed in Rangcheng, sixty miles northwest of our army; Leju was stationed in Qingyang, fifty miles northeast of our army. The two units each had about 20,000 to 30,000 troops, and the specific details were not clear. Night reconnaissance could only roughly see the size of the camp, and it might have more troops. This was not counted as Yuan Shu had originally stayed in various counties in Nanyang."

After hearing this, Li Su took out the map and looked at it, and smiled and said, "Yuan Shu is not decisive when it should be decisive. Just because Liu Biao had not yet attacked him openly, he would not dare to attack Xinye. If he captured Xinye, he would be able to join forces to defend Xinye. Unlike now, the fork of the Qingshui River is in the hands of our army, he could only station troops in the county towns along the coast of each tributary of the Qingshui River."

When Li Su heard Gan Ning's report, Zhao Yun, Gao Shun, Zhuge Liang and others were also beside him. Seeing this, he asked: "Since the enemy's division of troops is not conducive to gathering troops, our army must try to defeat each one? Should we fight Liang Gang in Rangcheng first or Qingyang first?"
Chapter completed!