Chapter 291 Guanzhong Strategy Chang'an City. This city, once second only to Luoyang in size, now shows no trace of its former glory. The streets were empty except for a few thieves. Robberies occurred frequently in broad daylight, with no officials or soldiers trying to stop them. Many soldiers even robbed food in the streets. Li Jue, Guo Si and Fan Chou divided Chang'an City into three parts, each guarding their own area, but they were still unable to control it. The military discipline of the Xiliang soldiers was too poor and they had been indulged for too long. Without the guidance of wise men like Li Ru and the suppression of Dong Zhuo, China has now completely fallen into depravity. If Tian Ze had not intervened, people would have been cannibalizing each other, bones would have piled up, and the streets would have been filled with filth. But even if no one starved to death, of the millions of people who once lived in Guanzhong, only one in ten is left, and the rest have been captured by soldiers and sold for money. Li Jue, Guo Si and others also knew that this was not a solution. Although there were a lot of money and grain left by Dong Zhuo piled up in Mei County and Chang'an City, nearly half of it had been spent due to their wanton squandering. They wanted to go east to plunder and make profits, but the current situation...
Because of the chain reaction brought about by the appearance of Tian Ze, Cao Cao's current development speed is far greater than his power in the original historical trajectory. With a large number of civil and military officials, sufficient food and fodder, and an army of 300,000, Li Jue and Guo Si would definitely not return if they set out to the east. Cao Cao is now worried about the lack of cavalry, and he is hoping that they will rush out so that he can take them in. There is no way out to the east, with Liu Bei to the south and Gongsun Zan to the west. Now that the emperor has lost his sense of righteousness, Li Jue, Guo Si and other brave but foolish warlords of Xiliang can only hide in Sili, waiting to be "recruited". But given what they have done, who would be willing to recruit this group of people? Would anyone still be willing to keep a dog that has eaten human flesh? It's not that they didn't think of this, but having been born in Xiliang, they have become accustomed to enjoying the present and living from day to day, and will deal with the future as the time goes by. As long as they had money and food, and still had slaves and beautiful maids, they could continue to enjoy themselves. However, that day is not long. After the Hundred Schools' Dispute ended, Tian Ze began to plan a strategy to march south to Guanzhong. "It is not difficult to defeat Li Jue and Guo Si and take Guanzhong. The key lies in how to resist the invasion and harassment from Cao Mengde, Yuan Benchu, and even Liu Xuande." Tian Feng said in a deep voice as he looked at the situation map. "Cao Mengde has assembled an army of 100,000 in Luoyang. Once we send out our troops, we will rush to capture Hangu Pass as quickly as possible and seize the advantageous position." "Yuan Benchu has also gathered a large force in Dongping Mausoleum, ready to cross the Yellow River to the north at any time. But I'm afraid his intention is more to contain our army, so he dare not act rashly." "The initiative in this battle lies with us. We have an army of more than 400,000 in Jizhou and southern Bingzhou. Apart from the defending forces, we can at least withdraw three legions of nearly 100,000 each." Guo Jia said calmly. "Yuan Benchu and Cao Mengde are eager to rest and recuperate at this time, and they can't spare too many troops to fight us." "And according to Jia's understanding, although Cao Yuan's troops have recovered now, the battle in Hebei almost emptied out all their assets and destroyed a lot of their war horses and equipment." "Let's not talk about the war horses for now. Most of the weapons were left over from the former Han states and border troops. They were acquired by them. But now most of them have been destroyed. It will be difficult to replenish them in a short time." The previous battle in Hebei was as thorough as it was, and now Yuan Shao and Cao Cao are having a headache. Their capital has been emptied, and in the current chaotic situation, they don't have much energy to develop weapons manufacturing. Relying on the small workshops under their rule, they can only produce 20,000 to 30,000 armored soldiers in a year. Adding the remaining capital, I'm afraid they can't even get 100,000 armored soldiers.
In ordinary combat, perhaps a lower armor rate might be acceptable, but they were facing the fully armed Tian Ze army. Not only were their swords and spears sharp and their armor excellent, but the quality of their individual soldiers was also very high. Soldiers without armor, even with talent bonuses, have no ability to fight at all. In fact, in Guo Jia's opinion, if the problem of population loss is not taken into consideration, large-scale battles can be reduced and the tactics of long-term small-scale harassment can be adopted. In this case, not to mention food and fodder, the loss of weapons and armor alone would be enough to bring down Cao Cao and Yuan Shao. "From the perspective of geographical advantages, we are both fighting away from home in this battle, and Cao and Yuan have no geographical advantages to rely on. With the assistance of Xingba's navy, we can attack Qingzhou and Yanzhou at will." Although the Yellow River was not very suitable for naval warfare before, Tian Ze made a lot of preparations for the transformation and widening of the Yellow River after taking Bingzhou and Jizhou. Although it was just the beginning, the opening of some key nodes was enough to allow Gan Ning's navy to move freely. "In this battle, the advantage lies in..." Tian Ze nodded repeatedly while listening to the previous words, but when he heard Guo Jia say the last sentence, he quickly interrupted him. "Ahem, Fengxiao, your analysis is very good. But don't say the last sentence. It's not auspicious." Tian Ze pointed to the Central Plains and said in a deep voice, "We do have a big advantage in this battle, but we still can't take it lightly." "As I said before, stability comes first. The garrison of troops along the Bingzhou and Jizhou lines must be done well, and there must not be any omissions. In this way, even if the battle on the front line is not going well, it will not be a big loss for us." Tian Ze was not afraid of losing the battle, but he was afraid that after the defeat, Yuan Shao, Cao Cao and others would take the opportunity to plunder his population resources. As long as the opponent doesn't use the war to support the war, it will be a gain for Tian Ze even if he loses. Strategically, this mode of combat is a sure win. Regardless of victory or defeat, Cao, Yuan and others will be the ones who suffer, because their foundation is too weak and they cannot afford to fight at all. Tian Ze did not think that he was in a state of complacency just because he had the upper hand. Before the fire at Chibi, Boss Cao's advantage was not much smaller than his. These were all lessons from the past. Upon hearing this, Guo Jia and others all nodded in agreement, but sighed in their hearts. Although this style of play is a sure win, it is a huge waste of one's own advantages. Half of our troops were defending, while the enemy was attacking with almost all their strength. As the force increased and decreased, the gap in actual combat strength was narrowed. "My lord, you are right. Since we have adopted a relatively conservative approach, let's be more cautious," said Cheng Yu. "Xu Huang led a 100,000-man army to garrison in Jizhou, and Zang Ba led a 50,000-man army to garrison in the southern part of Bingzhou, with Xing Ba's 50,000 naval forces assisting." "With 200,000 troops defending the city, and General Xu Rong in charge of Youzhou, we can be sure that nothing will go wrong." According to the old rules, after deploying the defensive forces first, Cheng Yu began to take stock of the remaining troops. "This leaves Guan Yu's army in Jizhou, Zhang Liao's army and Zhang He's army in Bingzhou, as well as the troops of Le Jin, Ma Teng, Zilong, etc." (End of this chapter)