At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

As originally planned, 3 soldiers marched from Chenliu County, with Cao Ren as the chief general, Guan Yu as the deputy general, and Chen Gong as the Sima Counselor's military plane. They marched southwest from Chenliu County and entered Yingchuan County. The goal was to capture Yingchuan County. The troops were divided into two groups to take Chen Guo and Runan County.

Marching from Jiyin County was the elite main force led by Guo Peng himself. Originally, he only planned to dispatch 5 people, but after Guo Peng thought about it, he felt that this war could also be used for training, so he added [-] people to Jizhou The army of Daying went south, gathered [-] troops and went south to attack Liang Guo.

Guo Lie's troops stationed in Lu State will go south from Lu State, attack the northern part of Pei State, and then join Guo Peng in Pei Guogong.

Therefore, in this battle, Guo Peng mobilized a full 20 soldiers and added another [-] civilians. A total of [-] logistics troops ensured the transportation of food, ordnance, etc., to ensure that this battle can go smoothly without being dragged down by logistics.

The sufficient food, animal power, and manpower accumulated in Qingyan Erzhou for many years burst out in an instant, and an extremely powerful war mobilization force broke out.

In order to maintain and erupt this mobilization force, the general's mansion issued an order, ordering the cavalry to scatter in all directions, and fully mobilized the township and village chiefs from the chief executive to the grassroots.

They went down to every household, recruited the young men of each household, registered them, issued name tags, and then led the team to set off.

This kind of experience is not uncommon before. Guo Peng had similar mobilizations in the battle against Yuan Shao, the crusade against the Yellow Turban, the occupation of Yanzhou, and the battle against Lu Bu.

After a long period of experience, grassroots officials in various places under Guo Peng's jurisdiction have been fully experienced.

So Guo Peng formally broke with Yuan Shu, and with the power of Ji Qingyou and Yan Wuzhou, sent [-] troops to the south to attack the false Chen emperor Yuan Shu.

At the same time, the Yuan Calligraphy spread out in all directions, and the world was shaken by it.

The land of the Central Plains is fighting again.

For this, those who hated Yuan Shu were overjoyed.

People who were still hesitating and waiting to see have also strengthened their minds, knowing that they have made the right choice, and this correct choice will inevitably bring more benefits to them.

At least, people will not find an excuse to kill him because of Yuan Shu.

Few people think that Guo Peng will not win, and almost no one thinks that Yuan Shu will not be abandoned by the world.

The Pseudo-Chen Empire was doomed to perish soon from the very beginning, even though it had already established a successor.

Therefore, when Guo Peng marched into Yingchuan County and Liang State, he encountered almost no resistance.

These disgraceful places that were devastated by Yuan Shu, the Yellow Turban Army, and the Liangzhou Army were almost large areas of ruins and no-man's land, as well as deserted land and dilapidated houses with long grass.

At this moment, there is no prefect in Yingchuan County.

A few years ago, after the last prefect Li Min was killed by Dong Zhuo, Yingchuan County was plundered by Liangzhou cavalry several times. After the Liangzhou people retreated, it was symbolically occupied by Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shu saw that there were no private households here, let alone any powerful families, everyone who should have escaped had fled, and those who were dead were running away, what else was there?

So it is a symbolic occupation, and there is no establishment of rule here, let alone the intention to resume production.

After Cao Ren's army entered Yingchuan, it was as if there was no one in the land. There were almost no soldiers and resisters in the counties and counties, but there were many bandits and a small number of Yellow Turbans who gathered together. They became Cao Ren's greatest enemies.

But are they really qualified to be Cao Ren's enemies?

Obviously, it can't.

After five or six leaders were beheaded by Guan Yu in a row, the bandits and the Yellow Turbans retreated faster than anyone else. Cao Ren swung his troops to cover them up, defeated tens of thousands of bandits and Yellow Turbans, and captured tens of thousands of people.

Afterwards, Cao Ren resettled them in Yingchuan County on the spot, ordered them to work in agriculture, incorporated them into civil registers, and registered them.

Later, the administrative team and reconstruction team from Chenliu County to Yingchuan County arrived and began to restore rule and production in Yingchuan County.

This is also a mature one-stop industry under Guo Peng's command. The frontier of the army expands the territory, and the officials and production and construction teams move in behind, start to build villages, restore rule, and actually turn this land into Guo Peng's.

Yingchuan County was completely taken by Cao Ren in mid-September, and then Cao Ren and Guan Yu divided their troops and advanced. Cao Ren and Chen Gong led [-] troops to Runan County, and Guan Yu led [-] troops to march into Chen Guo alone.

Chen Guo was very prosperous a few years ago. Under the leadership of Chen Wang Liu Chong and Prime Minister Luo Jun at that time, many people went to Chen Guo to attach themselves, making Chen Wang Liu Chong lead [-] soldiers and have a great reputation.

As a result, Yuan Shu sent an assassin to the state of Chen to assassinate Liu Chong and Luo Jun. The state of Chen was in chaos, and hundreds of thousands of songs were scattered.

After that, Yuan Shu sent Yuan Si, a member of his own family, to serve as Minister of Chen Guo to rule Chen Guo again.

Knowing that Guo Peng issued a call to action against Yuan and broke with Yuan Shu, and wanted to attack Yuan Shu in the name of the Great Han Conquering the Peking University, Guan Yu's army of [-] rushed towards Chen Guo, and Yuan Si was very frightened.

Yuan Si had no more than [-] soldiers in his hands. Facing the fierce Guo Jun's menacing southward march, Yuan Si decided to resist a little to test the waters.

So he sent a 2000-man vanguard to test Guan Yu's vanguard strength.

Then this vanguard was defeated by Guan Yu's vanguard Gao Lan. Only two or 300 people escaped, more than 1000 people were killed, and the rest were all captured. The leader of the army was beheaded and sent back to Yuan Si.

Yuan Si was terrified. After thinking about it, he felt that it was unreliable for Yuan Shu to proclaim himself emperor. Yuan Shao died and was wiped out by Yuan Shu's regiment. Now Yuan Shu himself is going to die again. Don't take it seriously?

In fact, there were many objections to Yuan Shu's proclaiming emperor in the Yuan family, but Yuan Shu couldn't hold back, and all those who objected were put under house arrest by Yuan Shu, which was tantamount to Yuan Shu's traditional skill.

Yuan Si pretended to support, but in fact he was very worried about the future of the Yuan family. He felt that the Yuan family in Runan, which had been in the family for more than a hundred years, might soon be in Yuan Shu's hands, so he stopped fighting altogether.

He sent someone to inform Guan Yu that he had surrendered, and then opened the gate of Chenxian County. The troops were disarmed and sat on the ground, while he himself took the lead and sat on the ground, waiting for Guan Yu to come and take prisoners.

When Guan Yu came, Yuan Si surrendered very simply, not procrastinating at all, very simply.

As Chen Guoxiang, he notified other officials to surrender on the spot and not to resist, so Guan Yu took control of all the counties in Chen Guo very smoothly, ending the history of Chen Guo belonging to Yuan Shu.

In the last ten days of September, Guan Yu turned around and headed south to Runan County.

In the vast Runan County, there are many bandits and remnants of the Yellow Turbans, and it is the base camp of the Runan Yellow Turbans who cooperated with Yuan Shu.

Yuan Shu proclaimed himself emperor, and appointed Liu Pi, Gong Du, Huang Shao, He Man, He Yi, the leaders of Runan Yellow Turban, etc. as generals. The leader Liu Pi was appointed as the prefect of Runan.

This is tantamount to recruiting the Runan Yellow Turban Army, which has hundreds of thousands of people and tens of thousands of troops.

This allowed the Runan Yellow Turban Army to be officially recognized and recognized by the puppet Chen Empire, which was tantamount to being "whitewashed", although the whitewashing of them was itself a dark empire.

But this is also a whitewash.

From a thief to a general, the Runan Yellow Turban Army has become a loyal supporter of the puppet Chen Empire. After the news of Yuan Xiwen and Guo Peng's army going south came, the Runan Yellow Turban Army was very nervous.

When He Yi, who was active in Yingchuan, sent the news of her defeat and the robbing of Yingchuan County, they all tensed up and gathered troops to prepare for battle.

Chapter 399 .390 Ba Cao Ren's Heart Has No Waves

Compared with other counties, Runan County is indeed a very difficult bone to crack, so after Cao Ren led his army into Runan County, he encountered resistance from the Runan Yellow Turban Army in Dingying County.

Liu Pi, He Man and He Yi led [-] elite Yellow Turban troops to resist the crusade army led by Cao Ren.

Chen Gong observed the situation of the Yellow Turban Army before the battle, and found that many of them were using standard weapons.

Wearing armor, helmets, cavalry, and the banner of "Chen", it seems that they regard themselves as the army of the puppet Chen Empire.

"It seems that there is nothing wrong with what the intelligence said. The Runan Yellow Turbans responded to Yuan Gonggong, and were named generals by Yuan Gonggong, and they were all incorporated. Now this Yellow Turban bandit is already Yuan Gonggong's army. Compared with other Yellow Turbans in terms of military equipment The army is much better, Cao Yangwu cannot underestimate the enemy."

Chen Gong carefully assessed the strength of the Yellow Turban Army.

Cao Ren also carefully observed the formation of the army, and felt that the army was not weak and its morale was not weak, so he retreated several miles and set up camp on the spot.

Then he sent his general Yan Liang to lead a feint attack to test the strength of the Yellow Turban Army.

Yan Liang led the army to feint to attack the Yellow Turban Camp The Yellow Turban Camp was built in Dingying County, and its defense was quite strong. Yan Liang didn't dare to get too close, so he sent someone to challenge.

At the beginning, the Yellow Turbans refused to fight, so Yan Liang sent people to scold them according to what Chen Gong said. The worse the scolding, the better.

Sure enough, the Yellow Turban Army couldn't bear it any longer. He Yi led an army of [-] soldiers to fight, and the two fought face to face.

After Yan Liang returned to the camp, he told Chen Gong and Cao Ren about the situation. Chen Gong and Cao Ren knew what was going on, so they were not impatient, and waited here for the arrival of large ordnance such as trebuchets.

Then send Yan Liang to challenge and scold each other every day.

The Yellow Turban Army did not respond.

After being defeated by Yan Liang once, he seemed to realize that Cao Ren's army was stronger, so he didn't dare to fight rashly, and wanted to consume Cao Ren's army rations by defending.

Cao Ren was not worried at all, there was no fluctuation in his heart, and he even wanted to laugh.

We won't be able to fight if we drag you for a few days, then all the grain guards should be beheaded.

I just took this opportunity to rest for a few days for the army that had forced their way through Yingchuan before, eat something good, recharge their batteries, and prepare to defeat the enemy in the next battle.

It is said that after the implementation of the farming system, Qingyan and Yanzhou have been operating very maturely.

Except for the grain left by the farmers themselves, the grain turned in has basically met the needs of the army. Guo Peng's army is probably the only one among all the warlord's armies that is not plagued by food shortages.

In this context, Guo Peng began to seek to improve the treatment of the army, increase some military pay, and then improve the content and taste of the military rations.

The military rations in ancient China paid the most attention to filling the stomach and the least attention to the taste, or it can be said that the military rations of all countries in the world are like this.

There is no doubt that only crops that are widely planted and have a large storage space can be used as military rations. On the premise of achieving sufficient military rations, Guo Peng began to consider increasing nutrition for the army and training more elite soldiers. .

The strategy of raising ducks to control locusts was proposed under this background.

Ducks can control locusts, so that there have been no locust plagues in the area of ​​Qingyan and Yanzhou in recent years that are enough for Guo Peng to warn. put out.

After the ducks grow up, they are bought from farmers with military expenses, used as meat for the army, and can also give farmers some spare money. An army that gets its meat on time.

In addition to this, Guo Peng will also pay attention to other nutrition of the army, and will pay attention to providing fish, vegetables and fruits to the army.

Not all farms are planted with food, there are places where vegetables and fruits are grown on a concentrated scale, and there are also organized coastal fishermen to concentrate on fishing. These two things are also supplied to the army by Guo Peng on time and in quantity.

In addition, in order to ensure that the army can eat enough salt and have enough strength, Guo Peng organized people to make special salt, and then made easy-to-storage pickles for the army.

So while other armies were going up the mountain to pick fruits and go down the river to catch fish in order to fill their stomachs, the 20 troops under Guo Peng's command had already stepped into a new field.

Although the cost is not small, it is very important to organize an army that is strong enough and loyal to fight.

If the army is not fed well, it will not be able to lead soldiers well, and if the army is not fed well, the combat effectiveness and loyalty of the army cannot be improved.

The Kuomintang army is far richer than the communist army, but in terms of the real treatment of grassroots soldiers, it has never surpassed the treatment of grassroots soldiers of the communist army.

Guo Peng is well aware of this, so he has never slackened in the treatment of the army.

Part of the taxes collected and the profits from the war horse trade are always used to ensure the supply of the army, and he is the only warlord who attaches great importance to the treatment of the army.

Therefore, at any time, Guo Peng's army can always maintain relatively strong morale and combat effectiveness, and more importantly, dare to fight, which is unmatched by most other warlord armies.

Therefore, the Yellow Turban Army is the Yellow Turban Army. Although they have obtained slightly more regular equipment, they cannot compare with Guo Peng's regular army in terms of training and tactics. The Yellow Turban Army is still not out of the bandit army.

Therefore, in Chen Gong's entire plan, the Yellow Turban Army is just a small trouble, and it is not difficult to occupy the entire Runan County.

In addition to the Yellow Turban Army, there are also quite a lot of banditry in Runan, one hill after another, and there are many bandits. If you don't suppress the bandits, you won't be able to successfully occupy Runan County, and you won't be able to restore rule and production smoothly, let alone go south to Jingzhou. Strategy ready.

However, Guo Peng decided to plan to farm in the entire Runan County, mobilizing the power of at least 30 households to farm in order to make food reserves for the subsequent expedition to Jingzhou.

In any case, food must be the first priority. No matter where he seized, Guo Peng first had to see if he could farm the land, establish administrative villages and townships, implement his own policies, and condense a certain amount of land. of mobilization.

This is the most important, everything else is secondary.

In particular, Runan County, where almost all normal order was destroyed by banditry and the Yellow Turban Army, is of greater significance to Guo Peng.

On September 27, the second year of Xingping, all the ordnance Cao Ren needed was delivered, and the powerful suppressive firepower brought by fifty catapults was delivered. Cao Ren laughed, and Chen Gong also laughed.

On the 28th, Cao Ren commanded the army on the spot to form a complete army formation to attack Dingying County. The Yellow Turban defenders saw that Cao Ren had launched a general offensive, and immediately defended with all their strength. .

The trebuchet was in front, and thirty of the fifty trebuchet units were dispatched, lined up, and aimed at the camp of the Yellow Turban Army.

Chapter 400 Nine Fleeing Yellow Turbans

Liu Pi, the prefect of Runan appointed by Yuan Shu, had never seen a trebuchet before, so he didn't know what it was, so he asked his subordinates everywhere.

None of his subordinates knew about it, but looking at the huge stones one by one, Liu Pi didn't feel very good.

"They don't plan to throw such a big rock over here, do they?"

"Just use that thing? How is such a long distance possible?"

"Then why did they make such a big battle?"

The generals said Liu Pi was upset and didn't know what was going on, so he had to wait and see what happened. When the trebuchet unit was ready and Cao Ren gave the order to throw the trebuchet, Liu Picai realized that he had made a mistake.

The huge stone soared into the sky, flew towards where they were, drew a beautiful arc like that, rushed over with an indomitable momentum, and fell steadily on the tower.

"what!"

"No!"

"Help!"

The shrill howling sounded everywhere in an instant, and the subordinates protected Liu Pi and retreated desperately to the bottom of the city tower, but the city wall was already in chaos.

The stones not only fell on the city wall, but also in the camp. Huge stones fell from the sky, smashing the camp to pieces. The defensive facilities that were finally built were smashed to pieces by the falling stones. The stones created a deep sense of fear.

Worried that the stone would fall again, the Yellow Turban soldiers backed away screaming.

The defensive facilities in front of the camp were all abandoned, and the soldiers retreated recklessly. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Cao Ren ordered the drums to be beaten, and the army marched forward.