Chapter 302: Throw out a huge bait, add some waste, and give him the illusion of achieving his goal in one go!

Destroyed Yuan Shao’s cavalry!

These eight words lifted the spirits of Liu Bei and everyone present.

Everyone couldn't help but recall the scene of the battle of Xuzhou.

In that battle, Yuan Tan relied on the advantage of the Yuan family's cavalry and attempted to defeat their 70,000-strong army in one battle.

Xiao Fang used his crossbow as his weapon and annihilated five thousand cavalrymen, laying the foundation for defeating Yuan Tan's 70,000-strong army.

Today, Xiao Fang once again made a bold statement that he would destroy Yuan's cavalry again!

This is just like a repetition of an old trick.

"Jinglue, do you want to imitate the battle of Sishui and set up an ambush with crossbows to defeat the Wei cavalry?"

Liu Bei's eyes lit up and he immediately guessed the intention of Xiao Fang's plan.

After all, the Chu army's cavalry was its weak point, although after several additions and expansions, the number of cavalry had barely reached 4,000.

But this number is still a bit shabby compared with the 10,000 cavalry of Yuan’s army.

Apart from relying on the crossbow, he could not think of any other winning strategy to defeat the Wei cavalry.

Xiao Fang smiled slightly and nodded in agreement.

Pang Tong's eyes turned a few times, but he said:
"Using the crossbow to defeat the enemy cavalry can indeed solve the problem once and for all, and it is a good strategy to break the Wei army's plan to rob our food supply route."

"But according to intelligence, Yuan Shao ordered two generals, Wen Chou and Gao Lan, to lead 5,000 cavalrymen each. The two generals divided their 5,000 cavalrymen into two teams each and attacked our grain train separately."

"That is to say, the Wei army has a total of four cavalry units active along the Yingshui River."

"Even if we use the crossbows, we can only catch them by surprise and wipe out one of the squadrons, but we cannot wipe out all 10,000 Yuan army cavalry."

"In this way, the remaining main forces of Wei cavalry will surely be alert, and it may not be easy for us to catch them by surprise with our crossbows."

Liu Bei agreed with this and looked at Xiao Fang.

There was no questioning in his eyes, only expectation.

He knew Xiao Fang too well. Since Xiao Fang had proposed the strategy of annihilating Yuan's cavalry, he must have already considered what Pang Tong was worried about.

Next, we just need to listen to how Xiao Fang will come up with corresponding countermeasures.

"Shi Yuan hit the nail on the head. In this battle, we must annihilate... or at least severely damage Yuan Shao's 10,000 cavalrymen, making them unable to rob our military food supply team."

"So, our goal is not to destroy one cavalry unit, but to annihilate all four cavalry units at once."

"Then we should throw out a big enough bait to lure the Wei army to gather all the cavalry. Then we can catch them all in one fell swoop, right?"

Xiao Fang gave a countermeasure.

Pang Tong paused for a moment, then immediately realized:

"What the Prime Minister meant was to gather our grain and send a larger grain escort team to escort it."

"In this case, the enemy army will have no chance of defeating our grain train with only one cavalry unit. They can only gather four cavalry units and concentrate all their forces to rob our grain train?"

"This way, we have a chance to wipe out Yuan Shao's 10,000 cavalry in one battle!"

Feng Chu is Feng Chu after all. He was the first to understand Xiao Fang’s hint before anyone else.

Xiao Fang smiled slightly and looked at Liu Bei.

After hesitating for a moment, Liu Bei's eyes suddenly lit up, and he understood the intention of Xiao Fang's plan.

The food and fodder previously transported from various states were all transported northward from Shouchun along the Ying River and delivered to the Xiangcheng front line.

The weight of grain transported at one time could be as much as 30,000 or 40,000 hu, or as little as 10,000 or 20,000 hu. The escorting grain transport team would consist of no more than 2,000 people.

The grain transport team had limited manpower, which naturally gave the enemy an opportunity to take advantage. Two thousand Wei cavalry were enough to defeat any grain transport team.

Xiao Fang's intention was to gather together more than 100,000 hu of grain and fodder at a time, and assign nearly 10,000 grain protection teams to transport the grain.

It would be extremely difficult for two thousand enemy cavalry to defeat tens of thousands of soldiers and horses guarding grain.

In order to prevent these hundreds of thousands of hu of grain from being transported to the Xiangcheng front line, Yuan Shao would have to concentrate all his cavalry and attack together to have an absolute chance of winning.

Then he could deploy enough crossbowmen among the more than 10,000 grain-escorting troops, and imitate the battle of Si Shui to deal a fatal blow to the enemy cavalry.

"I understand. Jinglue, your plan is to lure the snake out of its hole!"

"Okay, okay, this plan is the best of both worlds."

"If Yuan Shao concentrates all his cavalry to attack, I can defeat them with my crossbows. If he doesn't dare to attack, we can successfully transport hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain to Xiangcheng!"

"Okay, let's do it."

Liu Bei came to his senses and all the gloom on his face disappeared. He made a decision.

"Your Majesty, please wait!"

Pang Tong stopped Liu Bei, with a hint of worry in his eyes.

"Although there are many people who seek fame and reputation under Yuan Shao, there are still people like Ju Su who have extraordinary plans."

"If we make such a big show and transport hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain and grass to the north at once, I am afraid that Ju Su will be alerted and guess our intentions, and he will guess that we have equipped our grain-protecting troops with crossbows."

"If the enemy had been alert, they would not have rashly launched an attack with all their cavalry like Yuan Tan did in the past."

"If the enemy cavalry changes their tactics, our crossbows may be useless. Isn't it possible that the Prime Minister's plan has failed?"

Liu Bei's heart trembled slightly, and a layer of dark clouds covered his face, which had been clear of clouds.

Pang Tong was right. Yuan’s army suffered a loss at Si Shui, and the existence of the repeating crossbow had become known to the world.

With Ju Su's wisdom, would he let Yuan's cavalry suffer two setbacks in the same place?

"Jinglue, we must be on guard against what Shiyuan said." "If he really takes it seriously, not only will we fail to annihilate the main force of the Wei cavalry, but we may even be defeated by them. Not only will we lose hundreds of thousands of hu of food and fodder, but tens of thousands of soldiers will also be in danger of being severely injured."

Liu Bei frowned and turned his vigilant gaze to Xiao Fang.

Everyone's eyes were once again focused on Xiao Fang, eager to know how their wise Prime Minister Xiao solved this difficult problem.

Under the gaze of everyone, Xiao Fang's face flashed with a bit of weirdness.

"So, we can't just use a large army to transport hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain and grass. We have to put on a show that Ju Su can't see through, so that Yuan Shao's cavalry can attack with confidence!"

Act out a play?

Liu Bei became very interested and asked hurriedly: "How do we perform a play?"

"Your Majesty, you should still remember the secret report from Kong Ming just now, saying that there are many powerful families in Runan County who are secretly flirting with Yuan Shao?"

"I have already found a military commander from Runan, and also Yuan Shao's nephew Gao Gan, who was captured by the king in his early years and has been imprisoned ever since..."

Xiao Fang took his time and slowly explained his plan.

Liu Bei smiled.

...

Wei camp, inside the king’s tent.

Yuan Shao sat high on the throne, half leaning on a cane, and was also listening to Ju Su's report on the battle.

Within 20 days, they succeeded in robbing grain four times, burning a total of 150,000 hu of grain for the Chu army and killing more than 3,000 enemies.

The results are rich.

The more Yuan Shao listened, the happier he became. He stroked his half-white beard, and the curve of his mouth became wider and wider.

"Gong Yu, it seems your plan worked."

"If this continues, in two months at most, the Big Ear Bandits' food supply will be cut off!"

"Good, good, very good!"

Yuan Shao nodded with satisfaction and praised Ju Su highly.

Seeing that Ju Su was highly praised by Yuan Shao, Guo Tu, Xin Pi and other Ruying scholars felt unhappy.

Even Feng Ji, who was from Hebei, secretly rolled his eyes, with a hint of barely perceptible jealousy flashing in his eyes.

At this time, a personal guard entered the tent and handed a piece of information written on silk to Feng Ji Shen Pei.

After reading it, Feng Ji's eyes rolled a few times and a hint of joy flashed in his eyes.

"My lord, we don't have to wait another two months. This month we can cut off the supply route of the big-eared thieves!"

Feng Ji jumped up and shouted excitedly.

Yuan Shao was cheered up and looked at Feng Ji with surprise.

"This is a secret report from our spies in Shouchun, which just came back, claiming that Liu Bei has mobilized nearly 150,000 hu of grain and fodder in one go, and is loading them onto ships in Shouchun."

"In addition, Liu Bei also sent 5,000 soldiers from the Xiangcheng front to the south, and transferred 5,000 soldiers from Shouchun, gathering about 10,000 soldiers in total."

"The big-eared thieves are obviously scared by our grain robbery, so they have gathered more than 10,000 soldiers and plan to escort 150,000 hu of grain and grass north to Xiangcheng at one time!"

Feng Ji said as he presented the silk book in his hand, then sneered:
"Then we can gather all the cavalry together, and seize the opportunity to defeat the 10,000 Chu troops along the Yingshui River, and burn all the 150,000 bushels of grain and grass of the big-eared thieves in one go!"

"This is equivalent to Liu Bei losing nearly 300,000 bushels of grain in one month. With only three states, how could he afford such a heavy loss?"

"The Chu army's food supply will be cut off!"

After hearing what Feng Ji said, all the Wei ministers in the big tent were excited and surprised.

Yuan Shao took the secret report anxiously, and could not wait to carefully examine every word, with a look of ecstasy gradually appearing on his face.

"God helps me, this is really God helping me!"

"Feng Yuantu, if this plan of yours succeeds, it will be a winning strategy that will accomplish everything in one fell swoop!"

"If we win this battle, you will be the chief contributor!"

Yuan Shao laughed heartily and pointed at Feng Ji and praised him.

Feng Ji smiled without saying anything, with the corners of his mouth raised to the sky. He glanced at Guo Tu and Xin Pi with a smug look, and then glanced at Ju Su.

Ju Shou frowned, and after a moment's silence, he clasped his hands and said:
"Your Majesty, if Feng Yuantu's plan succeeds, it will indeed cut off the Chu army's food supply in one fell swoop."

"But I am also worried that these 150,000 hu of grain and grass are Xiao Fang's trick to lure the enemy!"

"I'm afraid he wants to use so much food to trick us into gathering all our cavalry to rob the food, but the Chu army is secretly equipped with crossbows, a powerful weapon to defeat cavalry."

"If our army neglects its defenses and attacks blindly, won't we repeat the same mistake as in the Sishui battle, where five thousand Youyan cavalry were annihilated by the crossbows?"

Ju Su poured a bucket of cold water, instantly extinguishing the boiling and exciting atmosphere in the tent.

Yuan Shao's smile suddenly stopped and his brows furrowed:
"What Gong Yu reminded me of is also reasonable. Xiao Fang is very cunning and this might be his trick."

"The big-eared thief's crossbow must be guarded against."

As Yuan Shao spoke, he looked at Feng Ji, wanting to see how he would respond next.

Feng Ji scratched his forehead, looking embarrassed for a moment, but unable to speak.

The atmosphere in the big tent suddenly became quiet.

"Uncle, uncle——"

A crying voice broke the silence, and a man stumbled into the tent and fell at Yuan Shao's feet.

(End of this chapter)