At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

First of all, it must be tampered with the grain and grass. After tampering with the grain and grass, what should be done?

How to weaken Pang Xi's military power?

Liu Zhang asked Wang Shang for advice.

Wang Shang showed an inscrutable smile, and slowly told Liu Zhang his countermeasures.

Liu Zhang listened and gradually smiled.

When these two armies are fighting, logistics is of course the most important thing. For the Shu army who traveled across thousands of mountains and rivers to Liangzhou, this food and grass is of course even more important.

Basically, food and grass are the lifeline of the Shu army. On the battlefield, even if the generals of Liangzhou can unite, they are in a state of disunity. Unified orders cannot save the disunity of combat habits. defend the city.

But the defense didn't last long.

In mid-to-late August, Fazheng offered advice to Pang Xi to lure the Liangzhou army to attack by pretending that food and grass were not enough to retreat.

The Liangzhou army was eager to defeat the enemy and fell for the trick. Under the leadership of Ma Chao, Cheng Yi and Li Kan went out of the city to pursue them.

Ma Chao was eager to prove himself, eager to reverse the negative impact of his loss to Guo Peng, but was defeated again, and was ambushed by Pang Xi outside the city.

The Shu army fired all arrows, and the Liangzhou cavalry suffered heavy losses. Cheng Yi and Li Kan were pierced by thousands of arrows and died on the spot. Ma Chao got an arrow in the arm and fled in embarrassment.

Ji County was subsequently captured by Pang Xi, the Liangzhou coalition forces retreated, and Hanyang County was in jeopardy.

The Shu army obtained some important strategic materials, such as war horses. Pang Xi was overjoyed and divided his troops to attack the counties in Hanyang County. The counties in Hanyang County were unable to stop the advance of the Shu army and surrendered one after another. occupy.

Having won this big victory, Pang Xi was immediately full of confidence, and the generals of the Shu army were also full of confidence. They felt that the battle was not good enough, and they were planning to take advantage of the victory to pursue and occupy Longyou, but at the beginning of September, they were really short of food.

It's not Fazheng's counterfeiting, it's the truth.

"What's the matter? Why hasn't the food and grass been delivered yet?"

Pang Xi asked the officials in charge of food and the escort with a gloomy face.

"General, it's not our problem. It is said that a landslide suddenly appeared on the grain transportation road, and a huge boulder rolled down the road, blocking the main grain transportation road. The grain transportation team couldn't keep up, and that's why something went wrong."

The escort officer quickly explained.

Pang Xi's face turned black immediately.

"The road is blocked? Marching and fighting is a national event! Everything must make way for this! Why don't the road blockage be cleared as soon as possible? Can't the tens of thousands of people transporting food be able to deal with even a small road collapse?"

Pang Xi stretched out his hand and grabbed the escort officer's collar, his face full of murderous intent.

"General, spare your life! General, spare your life! The villain doesn't even know!"

Fazheng couldn't see it, so he stepped forward to dissuade Pang Xi.

"General, it's not this person's fault. The general should immediately send someone to find out what the problem is. Right now, the food and fodder can last for at most half a month. If the problem can't be solved after half a month, it will be really serious. Right now, There is still time."

Pang Xi looked at Fazheng, snorted coldly, and let go of his hand.

"Just do as Koichi tells you."

When marching and fighting, the problem of food and grass is too important. There is no room for Pang Xi and Fazheng to be cautious and cautious. But the more they are like this, the more likely problems will occur. The road to transport food is difficult and dangerous. Now this problem occurs again. , is even more difficult.

The vanguard of the Shu army has already attacked Hanyang County and began to attack other counties. The Liangzhou army was defeated many times. When food is needed.

At this time, there is a problem with the logistics, isn't it a fatal thing?

Pang Xi was getting angry, and although Fazheng was a little calm, he was almost as angry.

In addition to the frontline battle situation, they are more concerned about the supply of logistics and food. If they don't get any news, they can't eat well or sleep well. The man-eating expression stared at the ration officer.

"The three-day deadline, where is the food?"

Pang Xi was about to pull out his waist knife impatiently to show his anger.

"The road collapsed very badly, not in one place, but in several places. The civilians and auxiliary soldiers in the rear tried their best, but they couldn't catch up... General! Please, General!"

The food transport officer knelt on the ground pale and begged for mercy.

Pang Xi was so angry that he pulled out his waist knife and killed the grain transport officer with a single stroke. The grain transport officer screamed and fell to the ground dead, bleeding everywhere.

Fazheng looked sadly at this grain transport officer who was doomed to die, and sighed deeply.

"General, the food and fodder can no longer support the army to continue attacking. I suggest that the army stop attacking and stick to the spot."

Fazheng had no choice but to make a suggestion that he was least willing to make.

Pang Xi took a few deep breaths to calm down his agitated emotions, looked at Fa Zheng, and then nodded helplessly.

"Just do what Xiaozhi said, but we still have to continue to urge the grain, and we have to arrange the army to go to the subsidence for construction. No matter how bad it is, even if we rely on people's backs, we have to carry a batch of grain back. It has already reached this point. Food must not be a problem!"

Pang Xi clenched his teeth and gave the order.

Even so, even though Pang Xi's determination has reached this point, it still cannot solve natural disasters and man-made disasters, especially man-made disasters.

A few days later, although Pang Xi arranged for soldiers and horses to bring back part of the food, compared with the daily consumption of the army, it was really beyond their means. Reducing military ration expenditures still cannot solve the problem.

Not only that, but it also caused dissatisfaction and panic among the frontline troops.

Insufficient food is definitely a dead end in the process of marching and fighting. If it really hits, the army will collapse if it says it will collapse.

The frontline army generals came again and again to inquire about food issues and food reserves. The morale of the army was shaken and it was difficult to continue.

Realizing the tendency of the Shu army to advance, Ma Teng and Han Sui analyzed it and felt that the situation was different from before.

They suffered a loss before and were more careful, but this time they didn't dare to try it at first.

Then one day, Ma Chao, who was even more eager to atone for his sins, took a group of cavalry guards out of the city and grabbed a few tongues from the Shu army. In doubt, suspecting that there is a problem with the food, the army's morale is in chaos, and the army has no fighting spirit.

This time Ma Chao really made a contribution. Ma Teng didn't want his eldest son to really sink like this, so he gave Ma Chao one last chance and asked him to lead an army of [-] to attack a camp of the Shu army. , Ma Chao won.

The Shu army had no fighting spirit, and the battle was limp and weak. It was completely different from the previous march. Ma Chao led the army to fight more and more bravely, sweeping away the decline, smashing a barracks of more than [-] people in the Shu army, and winning a complete victory.

From the mouths of the soldiers of the Shu army captured in this barracks, Ma Teng and Han Sui finally confirmed that the Shu army was really short of food.

What kind of battle is there for an army short of food?

Chapter 579. 580 Eight Pang Xi retreats

After receiving Ma Chao's report, Ma Teng and Han Sui were overjoyed and informed all Liangzhou troops of the news.

They called on everyone to attack the Shu army immediately, each led their troops to attack the Shu army, broke through all the camps and villages of the Shu army distributed in various places, counterattacked Hanyang County, regained the lost land, and expelled the Shu people.

The news of the Liangzhou army's full-scale counterattack quickly reached the ears of Pang Xi and Fazheng, and the situation in various places was reversed almost instantly.

The Shu army's morale was in turmoil, and they couldn't persist in fighting. They were successfully counterattacked by the Liangzhou people, and the conquered territories were taken back one after another.

Fazheng and Pang Xi were in a state of desperation, they had lost their sense of proportion, and they didn't know how to save the crisis.

Under such circumstances, many generals lost confidence and actively spoke to Pang Xi, hoping that Pang Xi would retreat.

We can't fight any more. We still have some food, so we can withdraw our troops. If we continue to fight, once we run out of food and the army is hungry, how can we withdraw our troops?

If we retreat now, we can still save the main force. If Liangzhou soldiers chase us up, we don't know how many casualties we will have to pay to retreat successfully.

Now is the time to retreat.

Pang Xi didn't want to withdraw, and Fazheng didn't want to withdraw either, but the situation had to be withdrawn.

Because the food just can't be delivered, it means that the frontline Shu army has run out of food.

Pang Xi was silent for a day in the barracks, and Fazheng was also silent for a day.

When the two met again, they both understood that there was nothing to be done.

Desperately crossing thousands of mountains and rivers to come to the Northern Expedition, but ended up like this.

So unwilling, really so unwilling!

"Going all the way here, Hanyang County has already been taken by us, as long as there is enough food! As long as there is enough food! We can occupy Longyou! We can conquer Liangzhou! Why! Why did we end up like this! Why!!"

Fazheng slammed his fist on the table, his face full of despair.

Pang Xi was relatively calm, watching Fazheng weeping silently, and sighed deeply.

"Time? Fate? The heavens are not willing to allow Pang to make meritorious deeds?"

Pang Xi closed his eyes and made a decision.

If the fight continues, there will be a danger of losing the main force, and the cost of another Northern Expedition will be lost. If we retreat now, there will be room for us to continue the Northern Expedition.

People, people must be kept, people must be alive.

Pang Xi decided to retreat.

Like most of the generals of the Shu army, everyone has lost confidence and feels that the war is over, they have failed, and occupying a Hanyang County, they can no longer do anything.

Pang Xi and Fazheng began to arrange the retreat separately.

Among all military operations, the most difficult thing is to retreat. Excellent generals can not only gain an advantage in the attack, but also maintain a relatively complete formation when the operation fails to retreat, ensuring the safety of the retreat to the greatest extent.

With Fazheng's help, Pang Xi also arranged the evacuation in an orderly manner, such as who came to the rear, who was the first to retreat, the order of march, and so on.

At the same time, in order to vent his dissatisfaction and create trouble for the people of Liangzhou, Pang Xi ordered all the households that could be found in Hanyang County to be forcibly relocated, as many as he could take away.

Then burn down houses, cut down trees, destroy cities, fill wells, destroy bridges and roads.

In this way, the arrival of Liangzhou pursuers can also be prevented to a considerable extent.

After all this was arranged, in late September, the Shu army began to retreat.

Households in Hanyang County, men, women and children were forced into their houses by the Shu army and forced to move away. Those who refused to leave were killed on the spot. The soldiers of the Shu army clamped steel knives around their necks and forced them to leave. They leave their hometown.

For a while, the whole Hanyang County was flying like dogs and dogs, crying could be heard everywhere, and people who were beheaded because they didn't want to leave could be seen everywhere.

There are also many people who united to resist in order not to leave their homeland, or fled to the deep mountains and old forests to avoid the pursuit of the Shu army.

Hanyang County was in chaos.

However, the retreat of the Shu army went very smoothly. In early October, the main force of the Shu army had already completed its retreat.

Ma Chao led Liangzhou soldiers to the forefront, trying to intercept the retreat of the Shu army. Although he was preparing to retreat, he still failed to catch up with the Shu army.

Ma Chao was overwhelmed by the various problems left by the Shu army. Facing the destroyed cities, houses, roads, wells, and bridges, he had no choice but to slow down.

Then Ma Chao discovered that the Shu army plundered local households and could not escape, took away a lot of people, and killed many people, almost destroying the entire Hanyang County.

Afterwards, what was left to the Liangzhou coalition forces was no longer what could be called a complete victory.

Of course, for the Shu army, it is not a victory, but a failure, and it is not a disastrous defeat.

The 7000 Shu army entered Longyou and retreated with about [-] troops. About [-] died in battle or died of injuries, and the main force still remained.

From August to October, in two months, the Shu army got nothing except some war horses and a group of people. Longyou didn't get anything, and the Liangzhou strategy failed completely.

But in the past two months, not everyone has gained nothing.

Guo Peng gained a lot.

The summer and autumn grain harvests were once again bumper, and the treasuries of various places were greatly filled, which gave a shot in the arm to the Kansai reconstruction strategy.

On the battlefield, Guo Peng also gained a lot.

This is not only from the joint resistance of the Liangzhou coalition forces that defeated the Shu army and cut off the possibility of the Shu army seizing Longyou to relieve the trapped dragon, but also from the gains from Jingxiang and the southeast.

In mid-to-late August, when the Shu army and the Liangzhou coalition army were fighting fiercely, Zhang Yun led [-] Jingzhou soldiers to attack Runan County on Liu Biao's side, and ordered a partial division to attack Yingchuan County. Fight against each other.

Both Li Gan and Guo Lie received orders from Le Jin before the battle. Le Jin ordered that Guo Peng's orders were to only fight defensively and counterattack, not to attack.

No matter how the Jingzhou soldiers retreated, they were not allowed to pursue them, and those who disobeyed the order would not be counted as victories, but would be counted as defeats and punished.

Li Qian and Guo Lie were puzzled and didn't understand what Guo Peng meant by doing this, but since Guo Peng gave the order, they must obey it, and they felt quite aggrieved when they fought against Jingzhou soldiers.

Jingzhou soldiers attacked forward, they could only defend and counterattack, they could not pursue, let alone attack actively, so Jingzhou soldiers rushed to fight for a while, rest for a while, fight for a while, and rest for a while.

Both Li Gan and Guo Lie felt that this battle was fought very strangely, and felt that this battle was completely wrong.

Of course, there are not generals in the Jingzhou army who don't feel this way. For example, Liu Pan feels that something is wrong.

"General, why don't our troops attack with all their strength?"

Liu Pan could see that Zhang Yun's attack was weak and weak, and it felt like he was greeting and communicating with the other party in a friendly manner. In war, one must bleed and sacrifice to move forward bravely. Why does it feel that this is completely wrong?

Chapter 580 Death of Nine Liu Pan