I will be the master of Xuande

Chapter 743 Guan Yu Ping Huai
Liu Jian surrendered Ma Teng and Han Sui.

The war in Liangzhou was stabilized and everything was on track.

Liu Biao, the governor of Jingzhou, also submitted a memorial, assuring Liu Jian that he would manage Liangzhou well during this period, so that the Liangzhou area, which is now free of war, would implement the same system as the Central Plains.

Liu Jian was very happy after learning the news.

He still believed in Liu Biao's ability to govern. After all, Liu Biao's performance in Jingzhou was remarkable in history.

Of course, Liu Biao also had his shortcomings in Jingzhou.

However, in this era, there are Zhang Fei, Zhang He and others who complement him in Liangzhou.

Therefore, Liu Jian believed that the combination he set could completely change the situation in Liangzhou.

From this moment on, Liangzhou was no longer special. It, along with other states and counties, would become an inseparable part of the Han Dynasty.

Things in Liangzhou have come to an end for the time being, and news has also come from Hanzhou.

But what he never expected was that Liu Jian's order to Liu Bei and Guan Yu was to delay sending troops until summer.

Liu Bei was doubtful about Liu Jian's strategic instructions, so he immediately called Zhuge Liang and Lu Su to discuss the matter with them.

Since Liu Jian wanted to deal with Cao Cao, he needed to use his elite soldiers and generals.

However, Liu Jian thought about it and felt that it was still not enough, so he arranged Zhang Yan, Gongsun Zan and others in the Central Plains to join forces with Guan Yu and form cooperation with Liu Bei in Xuzhou.

It turned out that Cao Cao had just started shipping trade with the north, so Liu Jian did not kill Cao Cao.

The new governor of Hanzhou has arrived in Xiangping and handed over to Guan Yu.

Subsequently, Cao Cao began to recruit a large number of people and soldiers, civilian husbands, cattle and horses to Jiujiang County, and ordered people to build powerful fortifications in Jiujiang County, with the intention of blocking Guan Yu's future southward march.

Naturally, Cao Cao's movements could not be hidden from Guan Yu and Liu Bei, so Liu Bei and Guan Yu jointly submitted a report and sent people to Chang'an to meet with Liu Jian, requesting that before Cao Cao could make sufficient preparations, Xuzhou Army and Guan Yu, who were stationed in Chen State, would attack Jiujiang. Launch an attack and catch your opponent by surprise.

Liu Jian's order to Guan Yu was to let him go to Yanzhou to camp!

After all, it’s not about the number of soldiers, it’s about the quality.

It can be said that this can be regarded as a strong force in Liu Jian's hands to fight against the south in the future.

The reason why Liu Jian asked Guan Yu and others to join forces in Yanzhou was because he hoped that Guan Yu would then start to attack Huainan as the commander-in-chief of the army.

Guan Yu's troops are not all Han Chinese. Most of them are Liaodong warriors, Xianbei people, and Wuhuan people. Their fighting methods are also wild and very powerful, which is different from most of the troops in the Central Plains.

"Your Majesty, the Prime Minister is considering something far-reaching. Please don't have any doubts. Just follow the Prime Minister's orders."

But now, the trade and shipping between Jiangdong and the north have gradually got on the right track and formed a scale, and the two sides have reached a consensus that the bilateral trade relations will not be affected by the war.

With the land of Huainan in Cao Cao's hands, Cao Cao can form a deterrent to the Central Plains.

"But in fact, if we fight with the Jiangdong army, the most advantageous battlefield is actually in Huainan!"

Of course, Cao Cao is now in charge of Jiangdong and Huainan, and his strength is relatively strong.

After hearing Zhuge Liang's words, Liu Bei immediately said curiously: "As the saying goes, soldiers are valuable and quick. In order to fight against the imperial court, Cao Cao has begun to assemble heavy troops in Jianghuai. Since his troops have not been fully assembled, we take the opportunity to send troops. The best strategy is to attack them when they are unprepared, but now we have postponed it until summer, when Cao Cao's troops and horses have been prepared and the fortifications have been built, so it will be of no use to us."

As the saying goes, to defend the Jiangdong, you must defend the Huaihe River. Cao Cao is now stationing troops in Shouchun. For him, the key to the offensive and defensive relationship between Jiangdong and the Central Plains lies in who controls the Huaihe River.

But even so, the Liaodong elite he led was extremely powerful compared with the elite troops in the Han Dynasty.

Zhuge Liang said: "On the surface, this is indeed the case."

With such a luxurious lineup and so many elite soldiers and generals, it can be said that Liu Jian really gave Cao Cao extremely high standards of treatment.

The number of Liaodong soldiers under Guan Yu was not too large, because he also wanted to leave enough troops for Hanzhou to deal with any sudden war in the north.

These three armies were all handed over to Guan Yu's command and joined together to form one army.

In addition, Cheng Pu, Taishi Ci, Han Dang and others are all under Liu Bei's command, as well as big bosses like Lu Su and Zhuge Liang, and the Xuzhou Army is strong.

But if the land of Huainan is in Liu Jian's hands, then Liu Jian can suppress the Jiangdong side, and Xuzhou can also send troops to form a pincer attack along the Jiangdong coast.

The fact that Guan Yu led his troops to Yanzhou was not a secret in the entire Han Dynasty. On the contrary, the matter spread quickly among the states and counties.

Guan Yu, the former Hanzhou Mu, led the elite soldiers from Liaodong to the hinterland of Hebei on a large ship.

……

At the same time, Liu Jian asked Zhang Yan to lead the main force of his Montenegrin Army to Yanzhou, and ordered Gongsun Zan, who was already in Yanzhou, to join Guan Yu.

"The feathers are coming from the north, and I have no peace!"

So, in this case, Liu Jian decided to start killing Cao Cao.

At the same time, he also retained strong generals such as Zhao Jun and Zhou Cang who had been fighting outside the Northeast all year round to lead his troops.

This was really unexpected by the two of them.

After Guan Yu's army arrived in Jizhou, they immediately set up camp under the arrangement of the local Bohai prefect!
While Guan Yu was setting up camp, he sent flying cavalry to ask Liu Jian for instructions on where he should turn the battle.

The Han Dynasty, who has always been powerful to Hulu, will return to the Central Plains in the first battle and join forces with Gongsun Zan, Zhang Yan and others. Anyone who is not a fool can guess what he is going to do.

Zhuge Liang immediately laughed after listening to Liu Jian's order.

After Cao Cao learned that Guan Yu was stationed in Yanzhou, he immediately said to his subordinates:

First of all, Liu Bei has been raising troops in Xuzhou for a long time. When it comes to combat experience, Liu Bei can be said to be much stronger than he was at the same time in history. After all, he was also influenced by Liu Jian.

"The Prime Minister has now placed General Guan in the State of Chen. In addition to using troops against Cao Cao in the future, the key is also to allow Cao Cao to mobilize all the main troops under his jurisdiction to the Jianghuai River. After all, although our Northern Army is good at fighting, it is not good at it. Water fight!”

"Even if Jianghuai is won, if you want to march east of the Yangtze River and cross the Yangtze River in the future, you have to rely on water warfare!"

"But the soldiers in Jiangdong are better at water warfare. Once the two armies meet in water warfare, I am afraid that our army may not be able to win."

"Therefore, the top priority is that if we can get Cao Cao's main force to gather in the Jianghuai River and damage his vitality in the battle of the Jianghuai River, and then cross the river to the east of Pingtung and Jiangdong in the future, the resistance to our Northern Army will be greatly reduced."

"In addition, Nanyang, Runan, and Yingchuan have not been stable for a long time. They still need time to consolidate. At least they have to wait for the government order to be clear before they can use troops. This is also the prime minister's true intention of delaying the dispatch of troops."

After hearing this, Liu Bei suddenly realized.

While stroking his beard, he smiled and said: "Although Kong Ming and the Prime Minister are thousands of miles apart, they can know the Prime Minister's thoughts. It seems that the Prime Minister is indeed right!"

……

……

Therefore, under Zhuge Liang's advice, Liu Bei began to recruit troops, build weapons, and hoard grain and grass in Xuzhou, while Guan Yu did the same in Chen State. In the blink of an eye, it was already June of the fourth year of Jian'an, and midsummer was approaching. After eight months of preparation, Liu Jian finally decided to use troops again.

In Jingzhou, Yizhou, and Jiangdong, Liu Jian spent half a year formulating countless strategies to deal with these enemies.

In his opinion, the focus of using troops against the three states cannot be distinguished. The point is to mobilize the strength of the whole country to fight against them!

Otherwise, once too much emphasis is placed on one area, other states and counties will raise troops as foreign aid to attack one's own side, creating a diversion between the east and the west and disrupting one's own combat deployment.

After so many years of development and accumulation, Liu Jian was confident that the current Han Dynasty had enough military power to directly use troops against the three states at the same time.

However, there still has to be a starting point.

On the eighth day of the sixth lunar month in the fourth year of Jian'an, Guan Yu suddenly raised troops in Chen State!

With Gongsun Zan as the vanguard, he led his troops directly to Pei State, and took less than ten days to completely occupy Pei State.

The State of Pei was originally in the hands of Yuan Zhong, Prime Minister of Pei, but now that Yuan Zhong is dead, the State of Pei has always been a buffer zone between the north and the south. No one directly sent troops to occupy this place, but now Guan Yu directly sends troops to occupy the State of Pei, and his intention is self-evident. .

To the south of Peiguo is Jiujiang County, and to the east are Pengcheng and Xiapi Kingdom.

Half of Xiapi State now belongs to Cao Cao, but since Guan Yu arrived in Chen State, Cao Cao wisely withdrew all his elite troops in Guangling and Xiapi State back to Jianghuai. In his opinion, once the two sides start a war, he will be If Xiapi and Guangling cannot be defended at all, a lot of troops will be lost here.

The promises Liu Bei and Liu Jian made to themselves back then were all nonsense. When we were in peace talks, we ceded the land willingly, but once it was taken back, no one could stop it.

Cao Cao also understood this very well.

However, Cao Cao withdrew the troops from Guangling and Xiapi, which had the advantage of not delaying the border trade between the north and the south.

Of course, it is impossible to say that there is no impact at all, but the impact is not that big.

After Guan Yu gained a foothold in Pei State, he did not hesitate and immediately sent Gongsun Zan as the vanguard, leading his Baima Yi to send troops first and head straight to Jianghuai.

At the same time, Liu Bei also took action. He commanded his elite troops to go south and settled directly in Xiapi and Guangling.

In the southeast, fighting breaks out!
Under the command of Guan Yu, Gongsun Zan went south along the Huishui River, connecting Kegu County and Zhongli County, and approached Shouchun.

At the same time, Cheng Pu, under the command of Liu Bei, swept through the Suibei areas and captured the important area of ​​Huaiyin in one fell swoop.

Cao Cao's soldiers and horses, on the other hand, kept shrinking back, showing their invincibility.

In the concept of the northern generals, Cao Cao's Jiangdong army was never an opponent of his own northern army. It is common sense that they are now defeated again and again.

But Zhuge Liang and Lu Su keenly saw that something was wrong.

Zhuge Liang hurriedly advised Liu Bei to restrain Cheng Pu's actions and not to attack too deeply, so as not to be arrogant and regret it later.

Liu Bei respected Zhuge Liang's opinion very much, and immediately sent three express envoys as Xuzhou Mu to force Cheng Pu to slow down his advance.

But the situation on Gongsun Zan's side was a bit uncontrollable.

Gongsun Zan fought consecutive battles and conquered large areas of territory along the way. He was proud and proud, especially since he was originally from Youzhou. He was good at driving and could use troops very quickly.

But because of this, he also suffered a big blow.

In fact, there was always a heavy army near Yin Ling, waiting to ambush Gongsun Zan, and the leader of this army was none other than Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu has a very vicious vision. The area from Qiao County to Zhongli County is hundreds of miles deep. Once the Northern Army is invincible and penetrates deep into the hinterland of Jiujiang, it will inevitably become arrogant. Especially since Guan Yu is a famous general of the Han Dynasty, he may not think highly of his own side.

However, in fact, Zhou Yu really thought wrong.

Guan Yu was indeed very arrogant at first, but in recent years, Liu Jian responded to his arrogance by always quelling his rebellion and giving him a profound education.

Therefore, although Guan Yu's temperament has not changed much now, he will pay special attention to his own weaknesses when using troops.

And precisely because of this, he has benefited a lot and avoided many crises during the battles with Fuyu in Liaodong over the years.

Whenever he becomes arrogant, he will pay special attention to it.

This also enables him to reflect on his behavior and stay calm at critical moments.

This time, Gongsun Zan forced his troops to march hundreds of miles and win every battle. Although the battle reports made Guan Yu happy, it also made him wary.

He felt that Gongsun Zan was fighting a little too smoothly!

It's just that Gongsun Zan's advance was too fast, which made it seem a little late for Guan Yu to restrain him.

Therefore, Guan Yu had no other choice, so he immediately sent his troops to meet Gongsun Zan.

As for Gongsun Zan, he has also sent his troops to the vicinity of Yin Ling.

Yinling, like Shouchun, is an important town in Huainan, one is in the west and the other is in the east.

As a general, Gongsun Zan knew that Yinling was an important point connecting Shouchun and Jiangdong from east to west. If Yinling was captured, more than 50% of the connection between Shouchun, Jiangdong and Guangling would be cut off, causing Cao Cao's army in Shouchun Huge loss.

After thinking about this, Gongsun Zan was secretly happy. He didn't even tell his coach Guan Yu about his thoughts, but decided to do this without permission.

Because he felt that if he made his intention to attack Yin Ling clear to Guan Yu, then if Cao Cao noticed it and sent more troops to Yin Ling, his plan would be in vain. Since he wanted to attack, he would do it by surprise. .

The problem is that what Gongsun Zan is thinking about now is all designed by Zhou Yu for him.

From the beginning, Zhou Yu wanted to use Yin Ling as bait, and then use the arrogant soldier strategy to defeat Guan Yu in one fell swoop.

However, Guan Yu did not arrive, but Gongsun Zan was waiting for him, which made Zhou Yu feel quite depressed.

But then I thought about it carefully. I couldn't defeat Guan Yu. If I could defeat Gongsun Zan, it would be a huge boost to Zhou Yu's reputation.

Whoever wins is not a fight.

Jiangdong, like Yuan Shao, has been vigorously developing naval forces and strong bows and crossbows in recent years. Therefore, the heavy troops deployed by Zhou Yu in Yinling are mainly based on bows and crossbows, specifically to restrain Gongsun Zan's white horse followers.

He believed that with his own formation, he would be able to defeat Gongsun Zan.

In addition, this time he was surrounded by three generals: Yu Jin, Yue Jin, and Dong Xi.

These three generals have followed Zhou Yu to pacify Shanyue over the years, making Zhou Yu deeply aware of their abilities.

With the help of these three people, Zhou Yu believed that even if Gongsun Zan was famous in Northern Xinjiang, he could completely defeat him this time.

But although Gongsun Zan was reckless this time, Guan Yu was no ordinary person. While leading his troops to rescue Gongsun Zan, he thought carefully and felt that the opponent had the greatest chance of using the Yin Tomb as bait to ambush Gongsun Zan.

So Guan Yu also led his elite troops and generals and hurried towards Yin Ling.

(End of this chapter)