Chapter 379: Temporary truce

On the shore of Sishui, Liu Bei's army defeated Yuan Shu's army with 50,000 troops. Cao Bao turned against him at the last minute, which became a key factor on the battlefield. Therefore, the success of this battle exceeded Liu Bei's prior expectations.

After the battle, Zhang Xun led all the troops to fight to the death and retreated to Xia Pi City. After the results of the war statistics came out, Liu Bei was very happy to learn that 5,000 beheaded in this battle and captured more than 10,000 enemies. Zhang Xun gathered the remaining soldiers and found that all the generals' personnel together were no more than 50,000, because many soldiers took the opportunity to escape during the battle.

As for the reason why the soldiers escaped from the army, it was very simple, in one word - grain! Since ancient times, food is the most important thing for people to join the army. The main purpose of many people to join the army is to make a round stomach and eat one person to keep their whole family hungry. Although Yuan Shu had a lot of food in stock, this year's drought and locust plague followed one after another, and the fields were basically unrecovered. Yuan Shu felt sorry for his food and reduced the supply to the army. Only his direct troops would supply food according to normal standards.

Zhang Xun and Ji Ling were Yuan Shu's confidant generals, and the food they received was very tight. For example, Lei Bu, Chen Lan, and Le were unable to do so. The food they had was only half of the usual ones. Even if they did not deduct it and all of them were distributed, the soldiers could only eat half full.

There was no way, the soldiers could only cut some wild vegetables and go down the river to catch some fish and shrimp to fill their stomachs. Before the war today, the soldiers finally had their stomachs full, but they heard that there was not much food in stock, which means that they would continue to starve in the days to come. The soldiers naturally stopped doing it. They heard that there was no drought in the Jiangdong area, and they had harvested a lot of food and lived a wealthy life. If they were in the Jiangdong army, their military pay was twice as high as they are now, so many people contacted each other and looked for an opportunity to escape.

Today's fierce battle happened to be a god-given opportunity. Many soldiers who were originally lined up behind and on the side saw that their army was defeated and the generals ran away, so they took the opportunity to escape. They later crossed the river to Jiangdong and joined Zhou Yu's army. Because of this reason, Zhou Yu's army expanded by more than 20,000 people, which could be considered an unexpected gain by Zhou Yu.

After Liu Bei won a great victory, he took the opportunity to surround Xia Pi City. However, Xia Pi City was high and thick, and it was very difficult to attack the city. After Liu Bei attacked for several days, he failed to break through the city, but lost thousands of troops, which made him heartbroken.

At this time, Yuan Shu sent reinforcements, which were the former Bai Bo commander Yang Feng and Han Xian's troops, with about 20,000 people. Seeing that it was difficult to win in a short period of time, Liu Bei retreated ten miles to set up camp, and used the method of division of troops to send Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to lead their troops to capture Xiaopei, Xiaqiu and other counties.

Liu Bei's move was originally intended to lure Zhang Xun to lead his troops out of the city and join forces to defeat them. Unexpectedly, Zhang Xun discovered this plan and just defended Xia Pi City without leaving. Liu Bei had no choice but to continue confronting Zhang Xun.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei took the opportunity to join Xiaopei, Xiaqiu, Suiling, Quyang and other counties. After the army entered the city, they issued a notice to comfort the country and safeguard the people, and acted as if they had lived here for a long time.

At this time, Yuan Shu began to realize that he had no better way to deal with Liu Bei, but he attributed the reason to the shortage of food in the army. This year's severe drought did make him feel very troubled. Until this time, Yuan Shufang accepted the suggestions of the chief clerk Yan Xiang, and prepared to learn the methods of the six counties in Yangzhou and increase investment in water conservancy facilities to facilitate next year's grain production.

Yuan Shu also adopted another suggestion from Yan Xiang, which was to temporarily truce Liu Bei. In fact, in Yuan Shu's mind, he never looked down on Liu Bei, thinking that he was just a woven child who was under the royal family. He had no real skills except to take advantage of opportunities? However, at this time he had to suspend the war with Liu Bei, because Zhang Xiu fought, and with the strong combat power of the Western Liang Iron Cavalry, Zhang Xiu defeated Qiao Rui three times in a row. Not only did he capture Rangcheng, but he also surrounded Wancheng tightly and attacked day and night. The situation in Wancheng was in danger.

Yuan Shu sent Li Feng to Liu Bei's military camp to persuade Liu Bei to quit the battle. Liu Bei had a clear understanding of the current situation. At this time, he was not strong and his strength was still weak. Now he defeated Zhang Xun, forcing him to dare not leave Xia Pi City, and occupied several county towns such as Xiaopei. It was time to stop when he saw the opportunity. Otherwise, if Yuan Shu had all his strength to attack him, he might not be his opponent. Even if he barely defended it, it would be a situation where both sides suffered losses. Whether it was Cao Cao, Yuan Shao or Zhou Yu, sending a team of elite troops to occupy Xuzhou.

So Liu Bei agreed to Yuan Shu's proposal, and the two armies ceased to fight, using the territory they currently possessed as the border. A few days later, Liu Bei led 10,000 troops to guard Xiaopei with Guan Yu, Cao Bao led 15,000 troops to guard Xiaqiu, and Zhang Fei and himself led the troops back to the East China Sea.

The prefect of Guangling, Chen Deng, did not send troops to participate in the battle this time. Of course, his reasons were very sufficient, and the army was short of food. He heard that Liu Bei won a great victory, Chen Gui, and Chen Deng were overjoyed and hurriedly sent his subordinates to send a lot of fine wine, jerky meat and grain to Liu Bei's army for reward.

Liu Bei knew that Chen Gui and his son had just joined the new, and their ambitions were not strong. In this battle, they were clearly watching the tiger fight, trying to see how strong they were. Now that they were victorious, the father and son should be active. So Liu Bei deliberately won over and sent someone to take out some of the seized spoils, guns, arrows, jewelry and other spoils, and gave them to the Chen father and son.

Chen Gui, a shrewd man as smart as a fox, didn’t he know Liu Bei’s intention? His move also meant to throw a stone to ask for directions. He wanted to see what Liu Bei’s mind was, and would he be arrogant and blame himself when he won a big battle? Now seeing Liu Bei’s actions, Chen Gui couldn’t help but secretly praised him. In the end, he did not misjudgment. With Liu Bei’s broad mind, if he had excellent talents, his future prospects were indeed limitless.

In order to show his attitude, after discussion with Chen Deng, Chen Gui asked Chen Deng to send his general Zhang Kai to lead 8,000 troops to Gaoyou, and echoed with Guan Yu of Xiaopei and Cao Bao's troops in Xiaqiu. Once the situation changes, they can jointly attack the enemy.

After Yuan Shu hurriedly ceased the war with Liu Bei, he quickly pulled back his troops, leaving only Zhang Xun and Ji Ling led 30,000 people to station Xia Pi, and all the rest of the troops returned to defense. After the battle of Sishui, Yuan Shu's troops lost 50,000 people and were seriously injured. Although Yuan Shu issued an emergency conscription order, facing the strong pressure of Cao Cao, Zhou Yu, and Liu Bei, he had to fight against Liu Bei and Zhang Xiu again, and Yuan Shu was temporarily unable to take the initiative to attack.

However, Wancheng is Yuan Shu's old nest. Although his family moved to Shouchun, he still stored a large amount of gold, silver, silk and other property there. There were weapons and grain warehouses in the city. The weapons and food were piled up like mountains. Yuan Shu was reluctant to give up so many supplies. He risked that Shouchun was attacked by Zhou Yu and ordered Zhang Yan to lead 10,000 cavalry and 20,000 infantry quickly to rescue the defenders of Wancheng.

I know what happens next, and listen to the next chapter to explain it.
Chapter completed!