Mi Han

Chapter 259
Last year, after Cao Cao personally led an army of [-] to Fancheng, facing Guan Yu's defense system built according to the Han River, he was unable to break through the defense for a long time.

Later Cao Cao's general Zhang Liao came up with a way to let Cao Wei's army cross the Han River.

That method is to use the high mobility of the cavalry to cross the Han River in search of dry places in winter when the water in the lower reaches of the Han River is scarce.

Although at that time Zhang Liao's plan was unsuccessful because of the obstruction of the Bai Wu soldiers led by Zhao Yun.

But everyone with a discerning eye knew at that time that Zhang Liao's plan was completely feasible as time went by.

Because the Han River is too long, no legion can send heavy troops to guard every part of the Han River.

The lower reaches of the Han River, which is long and nearly exhausted, is a natural place for highly mobile cavalry to give full play to their strengths.

Soldiers are impermanent, and water is impermanent. When the time changes, the Han River, which was originally regarded as the life line of defense by Guan Yu's army, may also become an accomplice in taking the lives of the Han army.

Guan Yu also personally experienced Zhang Liao's surprise battle back then.

So when he knew that more than ten thousand Wei cavalry troops were heading downstream, he immediately guessed the purpose of those ten thousand cavalry troops.

It is now October, and there are at most two months before the flow of Hanshui will be greatly reduced.

In these two months, even though Guan Yu had an army of tens of thousands in his hands, it was still very difficult to take down Fancheng.

After Guan Yu guessed the purpose of the more than ten thousand cavalry troops, he also deduced what they wanted to do next.

The current situation is different from the original one. Behind the tens of thousands of cavalry troops, there are not tens of thousands of Wei army infantry.

Therefore, the more than ten thousand cavalry troops of the Wei army wanted to cross the Han River, certainly not to help the Wei army infantry behind them open the way, let alone to attack Xiangyang City.

The greatest utility of the cavalry is always in the wild.

After ruling out these two possibilities in a row, the true purpose of the Ten Thousand Cavalry Army is self-evident.

That is to use the cavalry's field combat capabilities to cut off the Han army's food roads.

Although Xiangyang is on the south bank of the Han River, there is still a distance between Xiangyang and the Han River.

That distance is the grain road in Xiangyang City that transports grain and grass to the port.

Even because the Northern Expedition was launched immediately after the autumn harvest, the grain and grass in the counties of Jingzhou were still on the way to Xiangyang.

After the Han River, there are a large number of vast plains.

Once these more than ten thousand cavalry troops crossed the Han River and entered the back of the Han army, most of the escorts were auxiliary soldiers or civilian husbands with little combat power.

They couldn't stop the charge of the Wei army's iron cavalry, and the Han army's grain road would be very dangerous.

The instability of food roads, let alone whether the food and grass are safe, is a major blow to the morale of the army.

But after realizing this, Guan Yu didn't panic.

It has to be said that since the day he started his army, all the arrangements of Wei Jun have been very proper.

Avoiding and not fighting, and dividing troops to defend, this prevented Guan Yu's army from encircling Fancheng as it did back then, and then marching directly towards the hinterland of Nanyang.

And the actions of the Han army were predicted in advance, so that more than [-] cavalry troops were sent to Fancheng in time for support.

When the more than [-] cavalry troops arrived in Fancheng, they did not feel helpless because of the barriers built by the Han army. Instead, they thought about repeating the old tricks to find a breakthrough from the downstream.

Wei Jun's various arrangements can be described as well-organized and interlocking.

This is the performance that Dawei should have.

Cao Wei regards the big Han as the number one enemy, and the same big Han also regards Cao Wei as the enemy of life and death.

Cao Wei can be regarded as a great enemy by the big men, so of course what they rely on is not only a strong national power, but also a talent pool that is superior to the world.

Now Cao Wei's performance is in line with their true level.

Perhaps before Cao Wei had contempt for Liu Bei and Sun Quan because of his own strong national power.

This is normal. Before the Tang and Song Dynasties, any force that could completely occupy the north had the confidence to be proud of the world.

But this contempt, it seems, has gradually disappeared because of Cao Ren's death.

The battle in Xicheng woke up everyone in Cao Wei.

The forces that can be dubbed the title of "Han" are always worthy of their attention.

When Cao Wei began to face up to his opponents, then it was time for their power to slowly manifest terror.

Cao Wei has never been short of talents, food, and troops.

But Guan Yu is Yi Yi's generation?
Since Cao Wei's talents will continue to make appropriate responses according to the current situation, since Guan Yu will also make corresponding countermeasures.

What he told Ma Liang to do was his countermeasure.

Guan Yu asked Ma Liang to release the news that the Han army was going to build the weir in order to confuse the more than ten thousand cavalry troops of the Wei army downstream.

A weir is a water conservancy project built on an inland river that can store water and drain water.

When the Seventh Army was flooded, there were many speculations about how Guan Yu did this.

Many people believe that Guan Yu planned very early on, spent a lot of manpower and material resources to build barrages and dams to store water deliberately, and then carried out a water attack by breaking the embankment.

But the real situation is that that year happened to encounter a rare heavy rain, which led to the natural flood of "the Han River overflowed and harmed the people".

Under that circumstance, Guan Yu, who was good at using the weather, took the opportunity to start building barrages and dams to guide the flood that was about to spread everywhere to the residence of Yu Jin and others.

This caused Yu Jin and others to be trapped by the flood, and he took the opportunity to attack by boat, which finally caused Yu Jin and others to surrender helplessly.

At the beginning, Guan Yu did order people to build barrages and dams, but in the face of natural disasters, the barrages and dams built by Guan Yu only played the role of guiding the enemy to attack.

It was originally an excellent battle example achieved by a famous general who was good at taking advantage of the right time and place, but it was rumored by many people that Guan Yu did it deliberately from the beginning.

This is actually a way for some people in the north to discredit Guan Yu.

Because the flood also hurt many people, the officials in the north who were not angry with Guan Yu's great victory planted all the natural disasters on Guan Yu's head.

This kind of rumor is widely spread in the north, and it has almost been regarded as the truth.

But fortunately, it was the rumors of those people that Guan Yu had the means to counter the more than ten thousand cavalry troops of the Wei army today.

Because in the rumors, those who slandered Guan Yu undoubtedly exaggerated the role of the barrage. In this case, don't blame Guan Yu for using his tricks.

It's not Zhang Liao's time now, but now there is a Han army on the north bank of the Han River!
After Ma Liang listened to Guan Yu's order, he also understood Guan Yu's deep meaning, so he stepped back to convey Guan Yu's order.

Before Ma Liang stepped back, he accidentally caught a glimpse of the picture on Guan Yu's desk.

He saw that the thing painted on that picture was very strange, it looked like a formation, but when he looked closely, it didn't quite look like it.

This made Ma Liang doubts appear in his mind.

Is this what the general has been studying these days?
He has read so much about military books, but he has never seen it before.

But although Ma Liang had doubts in his mind, his body did not hesitate at all, and he had already reached the door of the big tent.

But at the moment when Ma Liang was about to step out of the big tent, Guan Yu's cough, which seemed to be suppressed deliberately, sounded beside him.

The cough made the doubts in Ma Liang's mind disappear immediately, leaving only worry and a trace of uneasiness about the future.

So after returning to his main account, Ma Liang first summoned a group of officials in Jingzhou to order the tasks assigned by Guan Yu, and then he summoned another member of his tribe.

Ma Liang quickly wrote a secret letter on the desk case, asking this confidant to take a boat up to Wudang.

After the confidant left, Ma Liang looked at the back of his confidant with a worried expression, and thought to himself:
I hope it's all because of his unfounded worries!
After Ma Liang left, Guan Yu, who just stopped coughing, continued to study the picture on the table.

Looking at the big formation that was constantly being transformed by him, Guan Yu gradually showed joy on his face.

In Guan Yu's mind, a scene of a battle between the two armies has already appeared.

Then Guan Yu set his sights on the distance between the Hanshui port and the Han army camp.

His eyes slowly turned cold.

Seeing the tricks and dismantling them, so as to guide the enemy to progress in the direction he wants, this is his exclusive combat art.

Guan Yu is no less familiar with the combat methods of the cavalry than any general in the world.

But in order to be as foolproof as possible, Guan Yu immediately immersed himself in his thoughts and began to deduce the Japanese war.

How dare you relax for a moment when you are responsible for the fate of the country?

But what he didn't know was that as his mind continued to be consumed, the expression on his face became paler and paler.

Guan Yu's order to Ma Liang was: "Release the news and build the weir again."

Who do you send the message to?Of course, it was for the more than ten thousand cavalry troops of the Wei army who were gearing up to cross the river downstream.

It can be seen from this order that Guan Yu's real purpose is definitely not to repair the weir, but to confuse the Wei army.

But if you want to confuse the more than [-] Wei cavalry troops, you still need to do some necessary actions.

After all, it was impossible for Ma Liang to directly send someone to tell the more than ten thousand cavalry troops of the Wei army that they were going to start repairing the barrage next.

As the governor of Jingzhou, Ma Liang's order was quickly transmitted to Xiangyang City on the south bank of the Han River, and soon a large number of civilians began to gather on the south bank of the Han River.

Even on the north bank of the Han River, many auxiliary soldiers began to go upstream somewhere upstream of the Han River under the summoning of the governor of Jingzhou and his subordinates.

And when a large number of people and materials began to gather somewhere in the upper reaches of the Han River, the news was quickly discovered by more than [-] spies from the cavalry army of the Wei army.

Although the cavalry of the Wei army arrived at the lower reaches of the Han River soon, because the water volume in the lower reaches of the Han River is still quite turbulent, they can only wait for the time to come.

During this period of time, Cao Tai sent many spies to inquire about the actions of the Han army.

It turned out that it was okay not to inquire, but after inquiring, the latest move of the Han army shocked Cao Tai.

The Han army actually wanted to build a barrage upstream!

At this time, the purpose of the Han army building barrages and dams is self-evident, but to store water.

So why did the Han army store water?

After learning the news, Cao Tai immediately summoned Sima Yi and Jiang Ji, two think tanks.

After Sima Yi and Jiang Ji learned of the latest move of the Han army, they both had heavy expressions on their faces.

Because of the rumors circulating in the north, in the hearts of all Cao Wei ministers, Guan Yu's intention to build a barrage makes it difficult not to associate it with the water attack.

And most importantly, under Sima Yi and Jiang Ji's speculation, Guan Yu's current construction of the barrage is not for Fancheng, but for them who want to cross the Han River downstream.

It is now October and the rainy season is over.

In addition, although the construction of barrages and dams is a specialty of the southerners, it is a time-consuming task after all.

After the Han army's barrages and dams were repaired, the water volume of the Han River had already been reduced, and it was no longer a threat to Fancheng.

So Guan Yu is building the barrage now, for the sake of them downstream.

In the dry season of the Han River, it may not be difficult for tens of thousands of cavalry to take the opportunity to cross the Han River.

But they crossed the Han River to go deep into the enemy's territory, and at the same time it was a very risky thing.

Once they were crossing the Han River, the Han army upstream suddenly destroyed the barrage and released the Han River that had been accumulated for a long time.

So even if all the tens of thousands of cavalry were buried under the water when they were not crossing the Han River, the morale of the tens of thousands of cavalry would definitely collapse when they saw that the back road was cut off.

What's the point of crossing the river with tens of thousands of cavalry troops with no way out, their morale broken?
If at that time Guan Yu took part of his army to cross the river to counterattack the tens of thousands of cavalry, then their tens of thousands of cavalry would be in danger.

Didn't Bing Xian Han Xin use similar tricks during the Battle of Weishui?
Because the painful lesson of flooding the Seventh Army was not long ago, when Sima Yi and Jiang Ji realized this, they both informed Cao Tai of their guesses.

And when Cao Tai knew Guan Yu's real purpose, his expression was not as calm as Sima Yi and Jiang Ji.

When the Seventh Army was flooded, he followed Cao Ren, but he had seen the flood everywhere with his own eyes.

Compared with fire, for Cao Tai, who is from the north, water is what makes him more afraid.

So under the threat of Guan Yu's water attack, Cao Tai immediately gave up his plan to cross the Han River in the future.

After all, today is different. At that time, Zhang Liao dared to lead thousands of tigers and leopards to the opposite bank because there were [-] Wei troops guarding his back on the north bank.

But now Cao Tai didn't have such a strong backing, and under the threat of Guan Yu's construction of the barrage, he certainly didn't dare to act rashly.

Now who in the world doesn't know that Mi Yang is good at fire and Guan Yu is good at water?
It can be said that the Weng and son-in-law played the two natural nuclear bombs of water and fire clearly.

It can be said that Guan Yu's move completely hit the seven inches of Wei Jun who lacked warships.

It's just that although he gave up his plan to find an opportunity to cross the river and disturb the south bank of the Han River, Cao Tai still felt a little unwilling.

Tens of thousands of cavalry troops came outside Fancheng, they couldn't be like they were outside Wudang City, and ended up just wandering.

Seeing the unwillingness on Cao Tai's face, Jiang Ji made a plan for him:
"Since you can't cross the river to attack the bandits' grain road, why not attack along the river?"

Hearing Jiang Ji's plan, Cao Tai's eyes lit up.

Yes, although Fancheng is close to the Han River, it is not directly built on the Han River like Wudang.

The nearest port on the Han River is more than ten miles away from the camp of the Han Army.

And this distance of more than ten miles is the passage for the Han army to transport grain on the north bank.

He can take advantage of the high mobility of the cavalry and send troops to patrol the banks of the Han River. Once he sees the grain troops of the Han army on the shore, he can harass or even burn them.

This method may not be as effective as directly crossing the Han River, but in the long run, the Han army will definitely not be able to stand it.

Cao Tai felt that this plan was very good, so he followed Jiang Ji's plan.

　Oh, it's so refreshing to recover~

　　With everyone's support.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)