lcionline Chapter 248 Stirring a hornet's nest
Chapter 248 Stirring a hornet's nest
This really stirred up a hornet's nest for Yuan Shao. Yuan Shao, who originally did not intend to immediately clash with the Xiliang organization, was enraged by Li Jue's actions. How could you do such a thing? This is simply a slap in the face! They just surrendered to me, and the next second they were attacked. You are clearly looking down on me!
Yuan Shao was furious. Ignoring the potential threat from Liu Bei in the south, he only sent two thousand new recruits to garrison the Ziwu Valley. Instead, he gathered over sixty thousand men in Xianyang, plus the remaining fifteen thousand under Wang Lang, for a total of seventy-five thousand men, and marched towards Fufeng. The two sides then engaged in a decisive battle around Xianyang and Fufeng.
The fighting was back and forth, with the Xiliang forces occasionally crossing the river from the north bank to the south bank to launch attacks from behind Yuan Shao. Lacking cavalry, Yuan Shao's forces were constantly on the move.
Although they had more troops, their mobility was no match for Li Jue's more than 10,000 cavalry. During the time Liu Bei attacked Hanzhong, Yuan Shao and Li Jue fought more than 20 battles, large and small.
Basically, the story ended with the Xiliang organization successfully launching a surprise attack, while Yuan's soldiers could only watch helplessly as the enemy who had just ambushed them fled far away. It was incredibly frustrating!
Yuan Shao suddenly had a premonition that he seemed to be stuck in a quagmire.
Yuan Shao was determined to get out of this quagmire. After realizing that he was likely to be caught in a two-front war in the future, he immediately withdrew his troops and stopped confronting Li Jue and Li Jue head-on, temporarily abandoning the attack on Fufeng.
He lacked cavalry to counter the Xiliang cavalry, and his infantry was too slow and easily divided and destroyed by the elite Xiliang cavalry. His troops on the south bank of the Wei River were frequently attacked by small groups of Xiliang cavalry.
With supplies running low, Yuan Shao decisively withdrew his troops after several defeats.
Yuan's organization had a numerical advantage, but a larger force does not guarantee victory in war. Yuan's organization's logistical supplies were all transferred from Chang'an, and supplying the frontline units required crossing the Wei River. The existence of the Wei River greatly affected Yuan's organization's communication between the north and south.
When the troops on the south bank were attacked, it was difficult to get help from the north bank. In the end, Yuan Shao had to transfer a division from the front line back to the south bank to be responsible for the security of the logistics line. However, the effect of doing so was also very limited, since the Xiliang organization consisted of cavalry, which could come and go without a trace.
"My lord, I believe it's impossible for all the Xiliang cavalry to have crossed the river from the north bank. A significant portion of them must have come from the direction of Wuzhangyuan," Xu You said, pointing to a spot on the map.
Following Xu You's finger, Yuan Shao had to admit that Xu You was right. Some of the Xiliang cavalry must have come from Wuzhangyuan. Moreover, their supply line was also in the direction of Wuzhangyuan. The cavalry crossing the river south of Fufeng was just a cover-up!
Looking at the location of Wuzhangyuan on the map, Yuan Shao gradually realized that Xu You's meaning was not as simple as what he had just proposed, but also contained a deeper suggestion.
He asked Xu You, "Wen Yuan, do you mean that my organization should first capture Wuzhang Plain?"
“That’s right, my lord. Wuzhangyuan and Xiegu are two important passes in the west. Now, Sanguang is controlled by the Xiliang organization and is heavily guarded. Even if our organization takes them, we will suffer huge casualties.”
However, as long as my organization takes Wuzhangyuan and Xiegu and controls the Chencang Mountains to the Wei River, we can cut off the Xiliang cavalry's harassment route on the south bank of the Wei River. Although we can't completely eliminate them, we can at least reduce their numbers by more than half.
Moreover, this would ensure the safety of the south bank, allowing me to concentrate my superior forces to attack Fufeng. —Xu
You addressed Yuan Shao and the generals in the main tent, saying, "The Xiliang organization has the advantage of cavalry, so our organization can only temporarily avoid their sharp edge. However, this does not mean that our organization is powerless to fight back. As long as we control the Chencang Mountains and solve the logistical supply problem on the south bank, our organization can free up its resources to advance step by step towards Fufeng."
“Taking it one step at a time is a viable but not ideal solution, but the situation in Hanzhong is already very clear. According to the latest intelligence from our scouts, it’s only a matter of time before Liu Bei takes over Hanzhong. His next move will definitely be to move into Yongzhou. We must be on guard as soon as possible,” Li Hua said.
"That's right. This is another reason why someone suggested occupying Wuzhangyuan, Xiegu, and other places in the Chencang Mountains. As long as Xiegu Pass, Ziwu Valley, and other places are under the control of my organization, Liu Bei will not be able to have any impact on my organization."
"Wen Yuan, which general do you think would be most suitable to send?" Yuan Shao asked.
“Of course, it’s Wang Lang who will organize it,” Xu You said loudly.
Wang Lang's heart skipped a beat when Xu You pointed at him. The inevitable had finally arrived. Wang Lang stood up and said to Yuan Shao, "My lord, this humble general requests permission to lead the organization to occupy Wuzhang Plain."
Yuan Shao nodded slightly. Wang Lang was indeed a good choice. Not only could Wang Lang be transferred away from his base, but it would also weaken some of Wang Lang's strength so that he could have better control over him.
Of course, Yuan Shao couldn't be so obvious. He said to Wang Lang, "I am very pleased that General Wang has volunteered. In that case, Wang Lang, obey my command!"
"The general is here!"
"I order you to lead your troops to march into the Chencang Mountains immediately and take control of Wuzhangyuan, Xiegu Pass, and other places. At the same time, you can also mobilize a division that returned to the south bank earlier to support your troops if necessary. In addition, to strengthen your troops' attack capabilities, I will provide you with ten artillery pieces. Are you confident in completing the mission?"
"This humble general is willing to sign a pledge to the organization!" Hearing that Yuan Shao's offer was not bad, Wang Lang did not have much resistance.
Yuan Shao waved his hand and said, "Ah, forget about the organizational order. Your Excellency's determination is enough." "Thank you for your trust, my lord. This humble general guarantees to complete the mission!"
"Then I'll be waiting to drink the victory celebration wine organized by General Wang!"
Yuan Shao finally made the right move.
While the war in the west was raging, Chen Er was not idle either. The infantry fighting force heading to the Western Regions was being organized. In order to facilitate command, Chen Er finally decided to give the force that would be stationed in the Western Regions the organization of an independent division.
This was a severely overstaffed division-level unit, named the Anxi Independent Division. At the same time, it marked the first time that a brigade-level unit appeared in the self-governing district's organizational structure.
The Independent Division comprises four infantry brigades. Each infantry brigade is essentially a division in a conventional combat force, except that it lacks some directly subordinate units and artillery units.
In this way, the Anxi Independent Division had a total of twelve infantry regiments, a divisional guard regiment, an engineer regiment, and other directly subordinate combat units, with a total strength of nearly 30,000 men, almost an entire organization.
The Anzai Independent Division became the most powerful division in the autonomous region's land forces as soon as it was established, not only because of its large number of soldiers, but more importantly because of the extremely high quality of its personnel, as all of them were soldiers and officers directly drawn from active-duty combat units.