Chapter 935: Battle of Shouchun (1)

Neither Cao Cao nor Sun Ce made any comment on the division between the Yuzhou Army and the Andong Army. As for Cao and Sun, their territory in Xuzhou had been tacitly divided by the Huai River. However, the two families advanced from two routes in Jiujiang, one in the south and one in the north. Now, the cities north of Xiquyang and Yinling, along the Huai River, are controlled by Cao Cao, while the cities south of Xiquyang are basically occupied or surrounded by Sun Ce's army.

After several discussions, the two families decided to divide the territory according to the existing territory, so Jiujiang was divided into two. With the efforts of Huangfu Chaobo, the two counties of Xiacai and Ping'a north of the Huai River were also included in the territory of Dangrunan. It's not that Cao Cao didn't want to come, but that these two counties were really not easy to manage. The two cities are located north of the Huai River and west of the Wo River, and they are really not easy to manage, so they had to give up.

Another point is that Cao Cao felt that it would not be a big problem to put these two counties in Kong Jun's hands first. When he drove Huangfu Chaobo's army to the west of Hulao Pass, wouldn't several counties in Yuzhou be at his disposal? So Cao Cao did not dwell on this.

After the territories outside Shouchun were discussed, several people turned their attention to Shouchun City. Shouchun City is divided into four areas. The east is dominated by ordinary officials, the south is dominated by merchants and civilians, the west is dominated by craftsmen and civilians, and the north is the inner city and the imperial city, which are the senior officials and generals of the Zhong Dynasty and the imperial city of Yuan Shu.

After discussing for a while, everyone marked the area near their own city gates and ended the discussion. As for the inner city and the imperial city, the three parties unanimously decided to use the three families' respective military exploits as the basis for distribution of all the materials, and the three armies would attack and distribute them fairly. However, the three parties consciously ignored the most important item owned by Yuan Shu.

The three parties discussed the attack strategy again, and then left and returned to their own camps to prepare. Everyone decided to rest for a day before starting the siege.

In 197 AD, the second year of Jian'an in the Han Dynasty, the second year of Zhongjia, on August 2, General Huangfu Chaobo of Andong, Kong Zhu, the governor of Yuzhou, Cao Cao, the general of Fenwei, and Sun Ce, the general of Po Capture, a total of nearly 300,000 troops from four lords launched an attack on Shouchun City, the capital of the Zhongjia Dynasty. For a time, the top of Shouchun City was filled with smoke, and this ancient city that stood on the Huainan Plain for more than 600 years was once again caught in the flames of war.

The four lords were divided into three groups, and launched fierce attacks on Shouchun City in the east, south, and west.

After two days of preparation, each group had prepared a large number of siege equipment, and Shouchun City had also prepared countless city defense equipment. The two sides fought up and down the nearly three-foot-high city wall.

On the first day of the war, the three armies cut off the moat of Shouchun City regardless of casualties. The casualties of the three armies reached thousands. Of course, most of them were captured soldiers of Yuan Shu's army, who were the main force to fill the river.

Starting from the second day, the three armies began to launch a tentative attack on the city wall.

Huangfu Chaobo's Andong Army was responsible for the west wall. There was an urn outside the west wall. The gate of the urn was open to the north, and the height of the urn wall was the same as the wall. If the Andong Army wanted to attack the west gate of Shouchun, that is, inside the Dinghu Gate, then two gates must be opened before the army could enter the city.

And for a tightly defended city like Shouchun City, with tens of thousands of troops defending in the city, it is very difficult to attack the city wall and open the gate from the inside. This is not only the case for the west gate, but also the south gate and the east gate.

In order to successfully capture the West City, Huang Zhong divided the 14 schools of soldiers into seven groups, each with 10,000 soldiers, and then the four main generals took turns to lead a group of soldiers to attack the city, so that the generals could be trained while the soldiers were trained. For this reason, after the meeting, Huangfu Chaobo also specially ordered Runan and Lujiang counties to recruit tens of thousands of soldiers to Shouchun so that there would be enough soldiers for him to train.

Huangfu Chaobo believed that as long as the generals could control the casualties, after this battle, the combat power of the battle camps of various departments in Yuzhou would be raised to a higher level.

Although it could not reach the level of the elite troops of the An Dong army, it was definitely much stronger than the elite troops of the Yuzhou army at that time. By then, it should be able to fight against Cao Cao next year.

The battle in Shouchun was going on like a raging fire. The three armies of the princes were attacking Yuan Shu's army in the city. Although the battle was not fierce, the armies of the princes under the three walls did keep strong pressure on Yuan Shu's army on the walls. Once Yuan Shu's army was a little relaxed, the elite of the princes' army suddenly attacked the walls.

Under such pressure of war, the army attacking the three walls attacked the walls several times in the next few days. Although they were eventually repelled by Yuan Shu's army, as time went by, the morale of the defenders in the city became lower and lower. Although there was no shortage of money and food in the city, there was no reinforcement outside, and the army had lost troops and land one after another for more than a year. There were still many soldiers in the city who were transferred or withdrawn from other places. Their families and relatives were not in the city, and they had no idea about the situation outside the city, which also made these soldiers uneasy.

In Shouchun City, in the imperial palace, Yuan Shu, who looked haggard, summoned his ministers to discuss matters again, taking advantage of the fact that the armies of the princes needed to stop fighting and rest after a few days of attack. Although the ministers gathered in the hall, they were no longer as high-spirited as before.

"What do you think, ministers, how to repel the enemy in the current situation?" The Emperor of the Zhong family sat high on the dragon throne and asked the ministers in the hall;

Everyone was silent.

In desperation, Yuan Shu looked at the general Huan Ling and said, "General, how is the army doing?"

"Reporting to your majesty, after days of fighting, my army has only suffered thousands of casualties, while the casualties of the three vassal armies are several times more than mine. However, after days of fighting, the morale of the army has become increasingly low. I ask your majesty to reward the three armies!" Ji Ling bowed and replied;

Yuan Shu frowned when he heard this. Since he became emperor, he has spent a lot of money just on building the imperial palace. In order to deal with the attacks of the vassal states, he has emptied his treasury by nearly 30%, and now only Shouchun is left. The grain taxes of the other cities can no longer be transported into the city. Just maintaining the food and wages of these hundreds of thousands of troops is a considerable expense. The three armies have to be rewarded within the first few days of the war. What should be done later?

"In your opinion, how much reward should be appropriate?" Despite this, Yuan Shu finally asked Ji Ling;

"In your opinion, at least one month's salary."