The war on the Eastern Front fell into a confrontation stage, and the development of the situation gradually deviated from Zhao Xing's original idea and moved forward in a direction that no one could predict.

Zhang He stood in Taocheng, directly dragging the Xiongwu Army toward the south, causing the Xiongju Army and the Dragon Cavalry to face Yuan Shao on the front battlefield, Zhu Jun and Xiahou Dun to counterattack a total of 90,000 troops. Although the Xiongju Army and the Dragon Cavalry had higher combat power than the opponent, the Jizhou coalition's intention this time was to defend and counterattack. They could rely on the city to guard the death, causing great trouble and casualties to the Xiongju Army and the Dragon Cavalry. Moreover, Yuan Shao has now mastered the method of making gunpowder.

Information detected by the Shadow Team members showed that Yuan Shu, Liu Yan, and Liu Biao of Yangzhou, had responded to the call of the court and sent a total of 80,000 troops to reinforce Jizhou. Once this unit crossed the Yellow River and entered the Jizhou plain, the advantage that Jin State had in Jizhou would no longer exist. At that time, the Xiongwu Army, Xiong Ju Army and Dragon Cavalry Army would face a total of 190,000 coalition counterattacks of a total of 190,000 coalition forces would face a total of 190,000 coalition forces.

The serious problem is that the defense in Jin State is now empty, with only 20,000 people from the Crouching Tiger Army and 10,000 Han military advisors from the Dingyuan Army. Once Lu Zhi leads the Northern Army to Hedong County, the Dragon Cavalry Army will probably return to Shangdang urgently to ensure the local security of Jin State.

The war on the Liang Kingdom on the Western Front was also extremely unfavorable. The two armies of Sima Yi and Zhang Ren from Yizhou Army had a total of 50,000 troops to siege Xiabian City. Although there were 10,000 Xiliang cavalry with horses to reinforce, they could not contact Han Wei's Chongjian Division in Xiabian City. Now they can only fight on their own.

The 10,000 infantry led by Gao Shun had arrived in Gaoping City. The arrival of this army undoubtedly alleviated the problem of insufficient troops in Liang Kingdom. As long as Guan Yu and Jia Xu could quickly solve the hidden danger of Han Sui, Liang Kingdom could free up at least 30,000 troops to go south to Wudu and drive Sima Yi and Zhang Ren away. The problem is, will Huangfu Song, who led his army to guard Chang'an City, sit still and watch Liang Kingdom take action against Han Sui without any hesitation?

The main reason why Jin State was able to win was that more than 400,000 coalition forces besieged Bingzhou at that time was less than one-third of the current territory, and occupied two major fortresses, Jiguan and Huguan. They were engaged in defensive operations. Now, Jin State, Youzhou and Liang State combined actual troops have exceeded 240,000, but after the average of three places, there are only 80,000 people in one state, so the troops are still short of strength and not abundant

If it weren't for the nomadic peoples in the north, the Yansheng army and Yao Xing's troops alone would not be able to control the situation, but the Flying Tiger Army had considerable combat power, but it had to be guarded against Gongsun Du in Liaodong and foreign nations in northern Liaoning. Ten thousand cavalry could not go south at all.

After all, Zhao Xing is currently short of about 50,000 troops and opens up the situation. As long as there is a battlefield on the East or West Front to make a breakthrough, the next battle will become much easier.

In the combat command room, Zhao Xing seemed to have made up some decision after looking at the military map for a long time.

Zhao Xing held the command pole in his hand and drew a straight line from west to east on the hinterland of the Jizhou map. In addition to the Taocheng, the rest have been occupied by the Jin team. In the south of the straight line, three places have now been heavily marked with red signs with words such as "Yuan", "Zhu", and "Xiahou".

Zhao Xing said in a deep voice: "The situation is now critical. Before the 80,000 coalition forces in the south arrive in Jizhou, we must at least take Huguan to Lin County and Ping Township, and completely occupy all the territories north of the county, remove the nail Zhang He in Taocheng, and leave only the area in the south of Yuan Shao's coalition forces in Wei County, Qinghe Kingdom, and Julu."

Pang Tong reminded Zhao Xing: "The Dragon Cavalry and Xiong Ju Army cannot return to the Xiongwu Army to help. If the Xiongwu Army's 30,000 troops are used alone to attack Taocheng, I am afraid that the casualties and losses will be too huge."

"I am going to ask Zhang Yan to lead the Heishan army out of the mountain, let Taishi Ci lead the navy to the shore, gather 40,000 troops to assist the Xiongwu army in attacking Taocheng, and mobilize about 100,000 migrant workers to build fortifications in Nanhe, Pingxiang, Jingxian and other cities. The next step is to withdraw the Xiongju Army and the Longqi Army to the north and will not expand south for the time being, mainly occupying the northern part of Jizhou. After the situation in Xiliang is stable in the next step, we will do our best to attack Yuan Shao." Zhao Xing expressed his considerations, which was already very different from the initial combat plan.

"If 70,000 people work together to attack Taocheng, they will receive miraculous effects, but this will reveal our trump card and no mobile troops will be available in the future." Guo Jia put forward his own different opinions

Guo Jia continued expressionlessly: "I suggest not to use the navy for the time being. The original arrangement to eliminate 20,000 from the 50,000 Black Mountain Army and return to the local area can be temporarily suspended. You might as well let these 50,000 people go into battle together. I believe that after the battle of Tao, what remains are available are available soldiers."

After hearing Guo Jia's suggestion, Zhao Xing felt a little hesitant and felt that doing so was a bit cruel, but reason told him that Guo Jia's suggestion was correct. Now if even the Jin Navy was dispatched, Zhao Xing would no longer have a card to fight. This is not a good thing. Although the Black Mountain Army has nearly 50,000 people, some of them were low in combat and weak, and they had to be eliminated. If Guo Jia's suggestion was adopted, the battle became a means to streamline the troops. Although it was a bit cruel, there would be no doubt that the soldiers with real combat power would be selected.

"Okay, let's suspend the adaptation of the Heishan Army as Fengxiao's suggestion, and order Zhang Yan to lead the army to go to Tao and meet Li Jinwu immediately. This time, Tao Youwu was in charge of the besiege. Zhao Xing finally adopted Guo Jia's suggestion with difficulty and decided to go to the battlefield to command himself, trying to avoid unnecessary casualties of the Heishan Army as much as possible.

Not long after, Zhang Yan, who was busy training his subordinates, and Jia Mu, received a secret letter from Zhao Xing, asking Zhang Yan to lead his army out of the mountain immediately and take on the task of attacking Taocheng with the Xiongwu Army.

Zhang Yan asked Jia Mu with some confusion: "Military advisor, why did the Grand Tutor give such a strange order? The Xiongwu Army has 30,000 soldiers. Now, with my 50,000 brothers in Heishan, Is it a bit of a big deal to attack a Taocheng in the turret?"

Jia Mu didn't think so. He calmly analyzed: "The lord suddenly exposed the Black Mountain Army to the world in advance, which shows that the battlefield situation in Jizhou has undergone major changes, and Taocheng must have a very strong defense, otherwise how could it be sieged with an army of 80,000? This battle is probably not as easy as imagined."

Seeing Jia Mu's cautiousness, Zhang Yan put away his contempt and pondered for a moment and said, "Since the Heishan Army returned to Jin State, Cun Gong has not made any contribution to attack Taocheng this time. Even if it is a sword and a sea of ​​fire, no matter how many brothers are killed or injured, we must take them down."

Jia Mu nodded and said decisively: "It is precisely this principle that the reputation of the Heishan Army is established by Taocheng and Zhang He."


Chapter completed!