Mi Han

Chapter 258
Among the tens of thousands of troops that Cao Pi led this time, there are more than ten thousand cavalry troops in the Luoyang Central Army.

The composition of the northern and southern arms is very different.

First of all, the infantry is the main arm of both sides, there is no doubt about this.

However, because Cao Wei is almost entirely based in the north, the difference between their troops and the south is that the proportion of cavalry is very high.

Just like in the south, the infantry went on board as sailors, and many of the infantry in the north were from the common people of the border counties. The Wei army, who had lived in the border of the north since childhood, was not bad at riding.

When Cao Cao was alive, he had already subdued the northern aliens. With the tribute from the northern aliens and Cao Wei's own horse breeding land, Cao Wei's war horses were not lacking, or it can be said that there was a steady stream.

The only thing that limited the size of Cao Wei's cavalry army was the output of corn.

Corn is the concentrated feed eaten by war horses in the Northland.

The tens of thousands of cavalry troops Cao Pi brought this time were originally intended to deal with Mi Yang.

Because judging from Sima Yi's previous report, the Han army is all infantry, and there is nothing they can do about the cavalry on the plain.

Therefore, the cavalry was initially regarded by Cao Pi as a magic weapon to deal with Mi Yang.

But from Jia Xu's remonstrance, Cao Pi knew that Fancheng is the place he should be most worried about now.

So he decisively sent tens of thousands of cavalry troops he brought from Luoyang to support Fancheng.

Cao Pi's dispatch of cavalry to support Cao Xiu was also carefully considered.

The first reason is that the cavalry is fast enough, and with one man and two horses, the cavalry doesn't have to worry about logistics in a short period of time.

Under such circumstances, even if Guan Yu launched an attack on Fancheng early, with the advantage of the cavalry, they could rush to support Cao Xiu outside Fancheng in time.

The second reason is that Cao Pi and the ministers of Cao Wei were afraid of Guan Yu's field combat ability.

In the impression of Cao Wei ministers, there are roughly two battles that Guan Yu made them fear. One is the Battle of Xiangfan, needless to say, and the other is the Battle of Juebei Road that Guan Yu was in charge of when Zhou Yu besieged Cao Ren in Jiangling.

The Battle of Jiangling lasted for a year. During that year, Cao Ren, who was besieged by Zhou Yu's army, received very few reinforcements.

This is not because Cao Cao did not send reinforcements, nor is it because the guards in Xiangyang, Jiangxia, Runan and other places refused to save Cao Ren, but that a large number of reinforcements from the north were stopped by Guan Yu's lone army.

In the battle that was praised by later generations as the "Juebei Dao", according to limited historical records, most of Guan Yu was the one who was defeated.

But no matter how Guan Yu was "defeated", the reinforcements of Wenpin, Li Tong, Le Jin and other famous generals were still unable to enter the border of Jiangling to support Cao Ren. This created excellent conditions for Zhou Yu to finally take Jiangling.

And in the Battle of Jiangling, Liu Bei not only sent Guan Yu as the general to intercept the northern reinforcements, he also sent Zhang Fei to follow Zhou Yu to help him resist the assault of Cao Cao's fierce general.

It can be said that Liu Bei's side contributed a lot to Zhou Yu's siege of Jiangling.

In a way, Liu Bei's contribution is no less than that of Zhou Yu.

This is the direct reason why Zhou Yu would allocate part of the land to Liu Bei after he took over Nanjun.

Zhou Yu was not a charity, but a recognition of Liu Bei's contribution, and that part of the land was originally what Liu Bei deserved.

Compared with Sun Quan, Zhou Lang is still very moral.

Different from the "historical facts" recorded in historical materials, as the people of the world, the ministers of Cao Wei knew very well what the real record of Guan Yu's more than ten thousand side troops was in the battle of Juebei Road that lasted for nearly a year.

Jiangling is located in the hinterland of Jingzhou, with convenient transportation, and most of Cao Wei's reinforcements were intercepted by Guan Yu's more than ten thousand side troops for a whole year!
Cao Pi and all the ministers of Cao Wei knew how amazing Guan Yu's field combat ability was at that time.

A single flood of the Seventh Army was not enough to trigger the effect of "Megatron China", and Guan Yu's military exploits were not limited to that battle.

Long before the battle of Xiangfan, in the battle of Juebei Road, Guan Yu's performance had surprised many famous Cao Wei generals.

Therefore, after the flooding of the Seventh Army, the glorious results of the battle completely aroused the fear and even fear of Guan Yu, which had been deeply hidden in the heart of Cao Wei's generals before, so that Guan Yu achieved the effect of Megatron China.

Because of the jealousy and fear in his heart, when Cao Xiu set off from Luoyang to Fancheng, he brought an army of [-] recruited from various counties in the Central Plains.

If it is only about defending the city, or even facing a famous general like Mi Yang, the soldiers in Cao Xiu's hands are completely sufficient.

But facing Guan Yu is not enough.

What Cao Pi and the ministers of Cao Wei are worried about now is that Guan Yu will use tricks to lure Cao Xiu's army out of the city to fight in the field.

Worried about this, Cao Pi sent all the more than ten thousand cavalry he brought with him to Fancheng to support Cao Xiu.

In this way, even if Cao Xiu wanted to go out of the city to fight Guan Yu in the field, with the support of more than ten thousand cavalry, Cao Xiu's chances of winning would be greatly increased.

If Cao Xiu did not go out of the city to fight Guan Yu in the field, then these ten thousand cavalry troops could also be turned into a sharp knife, reaching the heart of tens of thousands of Han troops at all times, making it impossible for Guan Yu to attack the city with all his strength.

But what Cao Tai, who led the more than ten thousand cavalry, did not expect was that when he led the cavalry to the outside of Fancheng, what he saw was the most helpless scene.

Guan Yu seemed to be a prophet, and he built many barriers in a short period of time.

This made him not know what to do for a while.

In desperation, Cao Tai could only lead more than ten thousand cavalry troops to station on high ground.

Yu Jin and Pang De's lessons were too tragic. Outside Fancheng and in front of Guan Yu, even a fool would know not to garrison troops in low-lying areas.

But when Cao Tai arrived at a high ground in Fanbei, Sun Li, who was stationed in Yancheng, noticed that the reinforcements had arrived, and immediately sent a letter to Cao Tai.

In this letter, Sun Li informed Cao Tai of the strategy he offered to Cao Xiu that day and that Cao Xiu had agreed to.

When Cao Tai received this letter and knew Cao Xiu's plan, he immediately summoned Sima Yi and Jiang Ji on the high ground to ask their opinions.

The enemy is Guan Yu, so naturally Cao Pi would not just send Cao Tai to rescue Cao Xiu.

When Cao Pi handed over more than ten thousand cavalry troops to Cao Tai, he specially sent two think tanks, Sima Yi and Jiang Ji, to Cao Tai, and asked them to plan military plans for Cao Tai.

In terms of personal ability, Cao Tai may not be as good as his father Cao Ren.

But Cao Tai's personality is much better than Cao Ren's. He is good at listening to advice.

After Sima Yi and Jiang Ji knew about Cao Xiu's plan, after a little thought, they realized that this method was feasible.

Now that Fancheng has been surrounded by the Han army with barriers, if the Han army hides in the barriers, they will not easily come out to fight with them. In this case, it is better to follow Cao Xiu's plan.

Besides, Cao Tai is only General Annan, while Cao Xiu is General Zhennan. In terms of military position, Cao Tai must obey Cao Xiu's orders.

Seeing that Sima Yi and Jiang Ji had no objections, Cao Tai led more than ten thousand cavalry troops towards the lower reaches of the Han River on the second day after arriving in Fancheng.

After Sun Li in Yancheng heard the news, he heaved a sigh of relief in his heart.

It seems that the siege of Fancheng will be lifted soon.

Because of the high mobility of the cavalry, as long as the tens of thousands of cavalry do not attack the Han army's barriers, the Han army cannot stop their actions.

As early as the moment when more than ten thousand Wei cavalry troops arrived outside Fancheng, Guan Yu already knew the news.

After knowing the news, Guan Yu just ordered the entire army to be martial law. After issuing this order, Guan Yu didn't even appear outside the main tent.

Because in Guan Yu's mind, he had already guessed that the Wei army would send a large number of cavalry to aid.

The battle of Juebei Road that year made Guan Yu very familiar with the fighting methods of the Wei army.

Just as Guan Yu likes to use the water army, Wei Jun likes to use cavalry and cavalry in every battle.

When supporting, Wei Jun will decisively send cavalry to rescue.

The high mobility of the cavalry has always been favored by many famous Cao Wei generals.

Because of understanding, Guan Yu stepped up to build barriers to prevent this before.

Because of understanding, Guan Yu seemed very indifferent to the arrival of more than ten thousand cavalry troops from the Wei army.

Since the days when the Han army built the fortress, Guan Yu has been staying in the main tent.

Except for convening the generals to discuss matters daily, he rarely appeared in front of the generals.

This is very different from Guan Yu in the past.

In the past, because of Guan Yu's character of loving soldiers like a son, whenever there was a war, Guan Yu would patrol the camps to appease people's hearts.

None of the generals knew why Guan Yu had such a change. Maybe Ma Liang guessed some reasons, but in order not to affect the morale of the army, Ma Liang did not show any worry in front of everyone.

He just came to Guan Yu's main tent in the way of reporting military information.

What Ma Liang reported was exactly what happened to the cavalry of more than ten thousand Wei troops who suddenly went downstream.

When Ma Liang entered Guan Yu's main tent, Ma Liang saw Guan Yu sitting on the main seat, concentrating on a painting on the table.

Ma Liang couldn't see what was painted on that painting for the time being.

But the coughing sound from Guan Yu's mouth from time to time, like a pair of big hands, grabbed Ma Liang's heart fiercely.

When Ma Liang first followed Guan Yu, it can be traced back to the 16th year of Jian'an.

I think it has been ten years since that year.

In Ma Liang's impression, the former Guan Yu, let alone coughing, could recover quickly even from severe trauma.

But ten years have passed, Guan Yu, who is already sixty years old, has more and more gray hairs on his head, and his body is gradually showing many reactions of the elderly.

When Ma Liang came in, Guan Yu, who was immersed in something, didn't realize Ma Liang's arrival.

Hearing Guan Yu's coughing sound from time to time, Ma Liang hurried forward with a worried face, came to Guan Yu's body and bowed to Guan Yu:

"General, please take care of yourself!"

Guan Yu, who heard Ma Liang's caring voice, just put his thoughts away from the table, and then he looked at Ma Liang with a pair of tired eyes.

Ma Liang's caring voice brought a smile to Guan Yu's face, he waved his hand at Ma Liang and said, "It's okay."

And when Guan Yu raised his head, Ma Liang noticed Guan Yu's face at this moment.

tired.

Ma Liang remembered that when he passed by Guan Yu's main tent a few nights ago, he saw that even in the middle of the night, Guan Yu's main tent was still brightly lit.

And after asking Guan Yu's personal guards outside his tent, he knew that this situation had been going on for several days.

After learning of this incident, Ma Liang's worries became deeper and deeper.

Everyone knows that Guan Yu's military style advocates kingship, but what the world doesn't know is that this style of military use is the most exhausting.

The kingly way is the right way.

Often before a battle, Guan Yu has to spend countless minds to consider all possible things and make all preparations, so as to ensure the chance of winning in a head-to-head confrontation.

Guan Yu's character is that even if there is one more chance of winning in a head-to-head confrontation, Guan Yu is willing to spend twelve points of his mind for this one-point chance of winning.

When the Seventh Army was flooded, everyone in the world focused on Guan Yu's glory after completing this feat.

But what the world didn't expect was how much effort Guan Yu put in before flooding the Seventh Army.

Survey the terrain, plan the amount of water, supervise the construction of weirs, and consider the retreat of the enemy.
All kinds of meticulous preparations, careful planning everywhere, and with the blessing of many days, can finally gather a great victory that can shake the world.

But such pre-war preparations are too heavy a burden for an old man.

In addition, since Guan Yu has been in the army for many years, he has suffered countless injuries.

Just like the bone scraping and healing, although the doctor's superb medical skills removed the toxins in Guan Yu's bones, Guan Yu bled a lot during that operation.

But after the operation, Guan Yu did not let his body rest well.

Even the reason why he performed that operation in the first place was to not delay his going into battle to kill the enemy.

Under such circumstances, how could there be no other root causes of disease in Guan Yu's body?
In the past, under Guan Yu's dazzling star light, Ma Liang might have ignored these things.

How can a god-man be the same as a mortal?

However, after Ma Liang saw that Guan Yu was starting to feel unwell recently, the things he had neglected in the past suddenly came to his mind, making him more and more worried.

No matter how admirable the great general is, his body is still in the category of mortal flesh.

Because of the worries in his heart, Ma Liang didn't feel relieved after hearing Guan Yu's words "no problem".

Ma Liang said to Guan Yu in a more worried tone: "Jingzhou's millions of holy creatures are entrusted to the general, and I hope the general will not be too tired!"

Regarding Ma Liang's second remonstrance, Guan Yu still had a look of disapproval on his face.

Just a little cough, nothing serious.

Guan Yu looked at Ma Liang, he guessed that Ma Liang must have something important to report when he suddenly came to him, so he asked Ma Liang, "What does Ji Chang have to report?"

Faced with Guan Yu's questioning, although Ma Liang wanted to persuade him again, he still had to report the military situation.

So Ma Liang informed Guan Yu that more than ten thousand Wei cavalry troops had gone downstream.

After Guan Yu knew this, he pondered for a while and then understood Wei Jun's intention.

He let out a chuckle, and smiled at Ma Liang:

"Thief, I want to plan to cut off food."

Now that he had guessed the enemy's intentions, Guan Yu thought of countermeasures almost instantly.

Guan Yu said to Ma Liang:
"Release the news, I will repair the weir again!"

　There will be another chapter in a while.

　　Just recovered, typing slowly.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)