Chapter 540

In the Allied camp, the atmosphere was not very good.

Yuan Shao frowned.

"Everyone, Liu Bei avoids fighting and intends to fight a protracted war with our army."

Xu You cupped his hands.

"My lord, Liu Bei is treacherous; this place is very close to Hedong and Jingzhao; his supply is continuous; our army needs to transport grain from Jizhou, a long journey, and there are Black Mountain bandits and Liu Bei's water army harassing in the middle; only five out of ten grains arrive."

Guo Tu laughed.

"My lord, my Jizhou has many fields and is well-cultivated, and has the abundance of mulberries and dates; the people are prosperous, and the military grain is sufficient; there is no problem in persisting until Liu Bei is defeated!"

Cao Cao was jealous; every time he fought a war, he had problems because of a lack of grain; Yuan Shao only had five out of ten grains arrive, yet he could still hold on for a long time.

"If I take Jizhou, would I still be afraid of fighting a war of attrition with the eared thief?"

Xu You, however, didn't think so.

"My lord, although Jizhou has a lot of grain, it can't withstand such consumption; besides, there are hundreds of thousands of civilian laborers; these all need grain to eat."

Yuan Shao also didn't want to drag it out with Liu Bei like this.

After all, winter was coming soon, and supplies would be even more difficult then.

Everyone shook their heads in distress.

Shen Pei cupped his hands.

"My lord, since Liu Bei won't come out, our army will build towers and pile earth into mountains, looking down from a high position, and shoot at Liu Bei's army with bows and crossbows!"

Yuan Shao's eyes lit up.

"Good! Let's do it!"

In the following days,

Liu Bei was surprised to find that Yuan Shao's army had piled up earth mountains outside the camp and was actually shooting at the soldiers in the camp from a high position with bows and crossbows.

The soldiers guarding the camp walls were miserable; in the time it took to go to the bathroom, they could be shot by an arrow.

Liu Bei was not without a way.

Liu Ye commanded the thunderbolt carts to smash fiercely at the Allied forces' earth mountains.

The Allied soldiers who were still wantonly shooting arrows from the high towers a moment ago were instantly panicked.

The giant stones whistling over smashed into the high towers, smashing the wooden pillars; the high towers collapsed, and the soldiers on them fell to their deaths or were crippled!

The Allied forces' earth mountain plan failed!

Afterward,

the Allied forces began to dig tunnels, intending to have a tunnel war to raid Liu Bei.

Pang Tong and the others had long since had a countermeasure, digging long trenches in the camp and pouring smoke into the tunnels!

Just like this, back and forth, they stalemated for three months; neither side made any progress, just dragging it out!

At this time, it was already close to winter.

Cold air had already affected the Bingzhou area, and the temperature in Hedong dropped sharply in just a few days.

Sun Ce and Zhou Yu fought several battles with Zhang He and Xu Rong in the mountains, and each had their own victories and defeats, but there was no good progress.

Zhou Yu wanted to use fire tactics, but found that Xu Rong had cut down all the trees around the camp, and it simply couldn't be set on fire.

He used the tactic of feigned defeat again, but unfortunately, Zhang He and Xu Rong were not moved at all, still fighting steadily.

Liu Bei's task for them was that holding the main road was victory.

Even though Zhou Yu was full of wisdom, he had no way.

He looked at the soldiers who were stomping their feet from the cold, his brows furrowed.

"My lord, Yuan Shao's winter clothes haven't been sent yet; my southern soldiers find it difficult to resist the cold."

Sun Ce also frowned.

"Zhou Gongjin, then what should we do?"

"Send a few rounds of messengers to Yuan Shao; if they aren't sent again, our army will retreat back to the Allied camp!"

"Good, let's do it."

In the Allied camp,

in the center army camp, the furnace fire was prosperous,

but there were no smiles on the faces of Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.

Liu Bei's camp was like a turtle shell, simply unbreakable!

Even though they were full of wisdom, they were still helpless.

Yuan Shao cursed loudly.

"The eared thief is shameless! Actually avoiding battle to such an extent!"

Liu Bei could be considered to have truly achieved lying flat in the camp for a hundred days this time; he felt he could lie flat for another hundred days; it just depended on whether Yuan Shao and Cao Cao could hold on.

Yuan Shao frowned.

"What is the situation over at Tongguan?"

Guo Tu cupped his hands.

"My lord, Gao Gan and Jiang Yiqu have been attacking continuously for over three months, still without making any progress; Lu Xun defends well, Xu Sheng is brave, and the two cooperate tacitly..."

Yuan Shao was angry.

"This Gao Gan, sixty thousand against ten thousand, and after fighting for so long, there is still no result!"

He turned his head to look at Cao Cao.

"Meng De, how is the situation at Wuguan?"

Cao Cao shook his head.

"Xia Hou Yuan has also been attacking continuously for over three months, but Wuguan is too dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and after suffering losses of men and generals, he still cannot break the pass; Huo Jun is also a great defensive general, and his arrangements for guarding the pass are orderly; I underestimated him."

Everyone was a bit helpless; Liu Bei used the terrain to guard the passes, blocking the Allied forces tightly; they had strength but nowhere to use it!

Now, they were in a dilemma; retreating would inevitably lead to being pursued by Liu Bei, which might lead to the collapse of the entire army!

Tongguan,

Gao Gan and Jiang Yiqu were very depressed; they originally thought that sixty thousand against ten thousand, this time would definitely be a great victory.

Even if not, they would break Tongguan even if they suffered losses of men and generals, and approach Chang'an.

However,

after three months of attacking,

Tongguan still stood tall, and their side had suffered losses of nearly twenty thousand!

Moreover, the soldiers seemed to have despaired; now when they heard they were going to attack the pass, they all had faces of fear!

Other soldiers were also just passing the days.

Jiang Yiqu cupped his hands.

"Main general, the main lord's side also hasn't made any progress; seeing that winter is coming, our army is in urgent need of winter clothes and grain."

Gao Gan waved his hand, a bit irritable.

"I have already sent people to urge them."

He dismissed Jiang Yiqu and crawled into his warm quilt.

"This damn weather!"

Gao Gan cursed and fell into a deep sleep; in his dream, he seemed to have returned to Outside Yecheng and had also taken Zhen Jiang,

and was just planning to have something happen,

when the screams outside the tent woke him from his dream.

The guard ran in stumbling.

"General, it's not good; Liu Bei's army is raiding the camp!"

Gao Gan sat up abruptly, not caring to consider how Lu Xun, with only ten thousand men, could raid the camp.

"Didn't I tell you to pay close attention to the direction of Tongguan!"

"General, Liu Bei's army is raiding from behind us!"

Gao Gan shouted.

"Quick, organize the soldiers to defend!"

At this time, the Yuan army's camp had already become a sea of fire; in the cold weather, everyone was sleeping soundly, and Liu Bei's army actually came to raid the camp!

Many people were killed in their sleep, and more people didn't even wear armor, rushing out of the burning tents; as soon as they came out, they were shot to death!

Gan Ning and Zhang Ren led the water soldiers to raid the camp at night, and sure enough, they hit the target in one strike!