Chapter 650: Marching Into Nanyang
The final result of the discussion among the counselors was to defend the city. In the end, Yuan Shu decided to concentrate the most elite soldiers in Wancheng to defend the county city with all their strength, and the other less powerful soldiers and horses guarded the county cities around Wancheng, such as Zhixian, Bowang, Nieyang, and Jiyang. At least the soldiers recruited by himself defended their own county cities.
In this way, Wan County had 10,000 heavy infantry, 20,000 heavy infantry that had not yet been trained, and the remaining 50,000 elite soldiers and horses. Among them, only the 10,000 heavy infantry reached the eighth level or above, and the others did not reach the eighth level. The soldiers and horses of the cities in Zhixian were about the sixth level, and the rest of the county cities were not even at the fourth level.
On July 1, the third year of the Han Dynasty, the Sizhou Mu Pingdong General Huangfu Chaobo offered sacrifices to the sky in Luoyang, and then led a cavalry and infantry army of 50,000, plus more than 20% of auxiliary soldiers and civilians, claiming to be a 100,000-man army to march to Nanyang.
Five days later, the army arrived at Luyang County. After joining the 12,000 troops from Changsha City who had already arrived, plus the 5,000 troops from Luyang, the total number of troops reached more than 100,000.
Afterwards, the army was divided into two, with Huangfu Chaobo leading the personal guard battalion and a school of soldiers, and heading south with the Changsha army that was all over the world, directly to Yixian County, first conquering Xian County, then Ye County and Duyang. On the other side, Huang Zhong led the remaining troops and horses with the Luyang army through the Changxigou Pass in Luyang, and went straight to Zhi County along the Changxigou. Finally, the two armies joined at Bowang, and after conquering Bowang and Xi'e counties, they went straight to the city of Wan County.
Two days later, Huangfu Chaobo's army arrived at Xian County. Facing 20,000 elite troops, the city wall of Xian County was conquered in less than a day. The siege was mainly carried out by the battle battalion and the white-waste soldiers who were all over the world, and Huangfu Chaobo's nearly 10,000 troops were basically just watching the battle. Of course, there is another reason why it went so smoothly, that is, Yuan Shu transferred all the slightly elite soldiers away, leaving only 3,000 newly recruited ordinary soldiers to defend the city.
After capturing Zhi County, the army stayed in Zhi County for one day. Zongheng Tianxia appointed Jipin Wudaogang as the county magistrate, left 1,000 Changsha City guards to guard the city, and integrated the captured soldiers in Zhi County. Afterwards, the army set out again and marched towards Ye County. A day later, the army easily captured Ye County again. This time, Zongheng Tianxia took the position of county magistrate himself, and then asked Jiang Bocai to lead 3,000 soldiers to defend Ye County, so as to control Ye County as quickly as possible. According to the original plan, this battle was to prepare to occupy the two cities of Xu County and Ye County.
Originally, Zongheng Tianxia wanted to capture Duyang, but Pang Tong and Huan Jie both expressed opposition, so they had to give up in the end. The main reason is that Duyang is too close to Wancheng, only more than 100 miles away. The troops of Wancheng can reach the city in two days, and Duyang is about the same distance from Ye County. Once Ye County does not react quickly enough, it is not impossible for Yuan Shu to capture Duyang in one or two days.
So in the end, Zongheng Tianxia had to give up, but he would not easily give up Duyang. After capturing Duyang, the city will be swept away. At that time, all the personnel and materials inside will be moved to Ye County and Xun County for resettlement, leaving only an empty city for Yuan Shu. In this way, if Ye County is not lost, Xun County will be safe.
Two days later, Huangfu Chaobo's army arrived at the city of Duyang. At this time, Huang Zhong had led his troops to capture Zhi County and was marching towards Bowang. After occupying Zhi County, Huang Zhong's troops also resolutely implemented the empty city policy.
Because the heavy infantry battalion in the Huben Camp is basically all from Nanyang, their families have already settled in Luoyang, and with their personal experience, the relocation of the people in Zhi County went very smoothly. Of course, some of the population and property were distributed to Shacuolang and settled in Luyang.
Luyang can be said to be very safe now, because it has Luoyang and Yingchuan behind it, and the south is now occupied by Zongheng Tianxia. The only road connecting the cities of Nanyang is Changxigou. He has long followed Huangfu Chaobo's advice and built a small pass near the valley where he started his business, named Changxigou Pass, to block the passage of the Nanyang army to the north.
This time, the troops followed the army mainly for the population and property of Nanyang. Shacuolang is very self-aware and knows that it is impossible for him to control a county city in his current situation.
Instead of biting off more than he can chew, it is better to develop Luyang with peace of mind. When the time comes and he has the ability to control another county city, there will naturally be opportunities.
On July 10, the army launched an attack on Duyang. This time, it was not as easy as the previous two cities. Although the elite had been recalled to Wancheng, Yuan Shu also arranged 6,000 troops in Ducheng, which was the total number of the previous two cities.
However, although the troops increased, the combat effectiveness was still not strong. It took the two men a day to finally capture the city. After arranging 2,000 soldiers to guard the army's retreat, the two led the remaining troops to Bowang, ready to join Huang Zhong's troops to attack Bowang together.
However, when the two led their troops to Bowang, Huang Zhong had already captured Bowang and was waiting for the two troops to arrive. Not only did they capture it, but the losses were even smaller than when Huangfu Chaobo and the others captured Duyang. You know, the garrison in Bowang was stronger than Duyang in terms of both strength and eliteness.
Such a result made Zongheng Tianxia envious. As both were famous historical generals, Chen Dao and Huang Zhong still had a big gap. However, he soon let it go. Although Chen Dao was somewhat inferior to Huang Zhong, he was still a top-level figure in the entire Three Kingdoms. Moreover, he had something that Huang Zhong did not have, which was a special type of soldier.
After the army rested in Bowang for a day, 3,000 soldiers were left to defend the city, while the rest of the soldiers marched westward, crossed the Yu River, and headed straight for Xi'e County.
Like Bowang, although Xi'e County was also defended by 6,000 troops, it was soon captured in less than a day in the face of Huang Zhong and tens of thousands of troops. In this way, Nanyang no longer had any barriers in front of the army.
After the army captured Xi'e, it rested for another day to prepare for the final attack on Wan County. To be honest, Huangfu Chaobo has not thought of taking anything back from Yuan Shu until now. Because it is impossible to occupy Nanyang now. You know, Dong Zhuo's army to the west of Nanyang and Liu Biao's army to the south will not allow it, so all he can do is to extort something from Yuan Shu.
What everyone didn't expect was that as soon as the army settled down, various news came one after another.
The first news was that Wudang County was captured by Duoqingjian, and then Duoqingjian sent people to Xiangyang to express his submission to Liu Biao. Liu Biao also accepted Duoqingjian very generously, and also appointed him as the magistrate and lieutenant of Wudang County.
Not long after the news from Wudang arrived, Zhang Ji's army suddenly sent troops to Wuguan and captured it within a day. Then news came that tens of thousands of troops were heading straight for Danshui County.