The Three Kingdoms began with island farming

Chapter 527: Beacon Fire Warning
Now both sides almost have their cards open.

Cao Cao knew the concerns of Xu Rong and Guan Yu, and Xu Rong and Guan Yu also knew Cao Cao's tricks.

The two sides have been in a standoff around Chenliu County.

Cao Cao had been well prepared. He had already renovated the city wall of Chenliu County and built many urn cities outside the city wall, and set up camps to form a pincer attack.

Xu Rong and Guan Yu looked at the situation and knew that it would be difficult to take it down at once, so they did not force an attack.

Both sides focused their main battles on the Qi army's food routes.

Although Cao Cao needs to stay in place and cannot act rashly, the many elite soldiers and generals under his command can still execute Cao Cao's strategies well.

Relying on their familiarity with the terrain and their own flexibility, groups of light cavalry lurked behind the armies of Xu Rong and Guan Yu.

Cao Cao even pointed out the technology of fire arrows. Whenever he discovered the logistics and baggage troops of the Qi army, he would launch a surprise attack if there were few of them, and harass them with fire arrows if there were many of them.

This caused considerable trouble to Xu Rong and Guan Yu.

Although Xu Rong and Guan Yu had anticipated Cao Cao's harassment, they still found it quite difficult to deal with.

Cao Cao's talent for sneak attacks is too great.

Even though they knew that there were not many enemies, they would always be able to find their weak points and attack them.

Every time they set a trap, it would be avoided by the other side.

One baggage train after another was attacked, and the fluctuation in food and fodder supply forced them to gather all their generals together to discuss the matter.

"Cao's army is good at surprise attacks, and they come and go like the wind. Our army's food supply routes have been repeatedly disturbed. If this continues, the morale of the army will be in chaos. Do you have any good ideas?" Xu Rong spoke first.

Liao Hua, who had just been recruited by Xu Rong, said, "General, how about I lead a group of elite cavalry to take the initiative to attack, find the enemy's tracks and destroy them?"

Xu Rong nodded slightly: "This is a good strategy, but it still has the same problem."

"How many troops should be sent?"

"If we have more troops, Cao's army will flee in advance. If we have fewer troops, they will be easily attacked by Cao's army. In this case, what is the difference between this and the troops sent to guard the baggage?"

Guarding the food supply is a science.

Even though Xu Rong and Guan Yu had more available troops than Cao Cao and were more powerful.

However, the former has to take into account the entire grain route and it is impossible to station heavy troops at every point, while the latter can choose any point at will.

Moreover, Cao Cao was now on the defensive and had already stored up a large amount of food and fodder in Chenliu County, so he did not have to worry about logistics and food supply issues at all.

With this increase and decrease, the strength of both sides was quickly narrowed.

This is also the reason why the defense has always had the advantage.

Unless the attacking side can find the defender's weak spot and force the defender to move.

Otherwise, if a strong attack is launched, the defender will definitely have the advantage and can lead the attacker by the nose.

Cao Cao once served under Huangfu Song and had experienced many battles. He was not like Yuan Shu who was not good at fighting.

He chose Chenliu County as the place for the decisive battle, but did not blindly defend Chenliu City. Instead, he deployed many troops around it to form a pincer attack.

He ensured that he could defend when retreating and attack when advancing, and had already made preparations for his strategy of attacking the grain route.

After hearing what Xu Rong said, Liao Hua retreated with a little disappointment.

At this moment, he deeply felt the gap between fighting in the Central Plains and fighting against the barbarians on the grasslands.

If it was on the grassland, where both sides were fighting fast, he wouldn't have to think so much.

Because the logistics of the Hu people are also a big problem, and they are very easy to counter.

The most important thing is that the Hu people's fighting power is not as good as Cao's army. If he wants to lead the elite cavalry to counterattack, he still needs to worry about the danger of being surrounded. Although he is young, Liao Hua has always been mature and prudent. He did not show off that he can defeat the enemy with fewer people.

There are many heroes in the Central Plains, and he is not qualified to say this. None of the many good generals under Cao Cao are easy to deal with.

Guo Jia looked at Liao Hua with a smile.

He was quite optimistic about this newcomer in the army.

Although he does not have the brilliant talents of Ma Chao and others, and seems not so outstanding, he has perseverance and is a late bloomer.

He is somewhat similar to Zhang He. If he is trained well, his future achievements will not be inferior to others.

Xu Rong looked at Guo Jia and asked, "Military Advisor, do you have any good ideas?"

Although Xu Rong also has a way to resolve this situation, it will cost a lot of troops and is not the best strategy, so he wants to hear Guo Jia's advice.

Guo Jia smiled and said, "Cao Mengde is good at the art of deception and reality. He can succeed in attacking the grain route repeatedly. The key lies in his understanding of the surrounding terrain and his use of tactics."

"What General Liao Hua said just now is a good way to deal with it, but it needs to be supplemented with good tactics."

"What technique?" Xu Rong asked.

"Beacon tower." Guo Jia said.

When Liao Hua heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up.

"In the past, when the Han Dynasty was defending against the invasion of the barbarians at the border, they often used beacon towers to quickly transmit information so that they could take timely countermeasures and solve the problem of the barbarians coming and going as fast as the wind."

"Cao Cao is using this strategy today, so we can adopt this tactic as well," Guo Jia said.

However, at this moment Guo Jia actually missed Tian Ze's talent very much.

If it weren't for the need to quickly deal with the barbarians in the southeast and leave the talent to Liu Fan, they wouldn't have to worry about this problem at all.

"We have thousands of artisan soldiers in our army. If used well, they can defeat a hundred thousand soldiers." Guo Jia reminded.

The performance of the artisan soldiers in the Battle of Yizhou has now spread throughout the world. Not only the civil and military officials under Tian Ze, but even Cao Cao and Yuan Shao have begun to consciously imitate and train this type of soldier.

It’s a pity that in this era, there are not many craftsmen who have this kind of skills and are willing to join the army and fight.

Although they also organized some craftsmen, their role could not be compared with those under Tian Ze's command.

But it still brought huge benefits to them.

There are also medics.

Tian Ze was making progress, and other princes were also learning and imitating him.

Today's various princes have made great progress in military system, types of troops, coordination, etc. It can be said that they are getting stronger and stronger, and are constantly moving closer to the regular soldiers under Tian Ze.

"Cavalry is not good at attacking strongholds. With some cement from the rear, we can build some small forts along the way and spread out beacon towers."

"In this way, the food supply problem can be solved naturally."

After hearing what Guo Jia said, everyone's eyes suddenly brightened.

Cao Cao’s talent cannot be countered by strange strategies, so we have to use technology.

They have seen the capabilities of the artisan soldiers. It is entirely possible for a few hundred people to build a simple fortress in five days.

Anyway, there are enough supplies, and ordinary soldiers can be arranged to collect them nearby. All you need to do is build an outer wall, arrow tower and beacon tower.

It was impossible for Cao Cao to use his cavalry to attack the city walls. If he gave up his war horses, he would become meat on the chopping board.

It would take less than a month to destroy dozens of Wu castles, so Xu Rong could definitely afford to wait.

(End of this chapter)