Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1297 Fighting
When the State of Jin launched a war of annihilation against the State of Wu, the State of Wei, as Wu's long-time ally, naturally did not sit idly by. It sent out two large armies to try to contain Wu from the two directions of Yecheng and Xiangyang.

However, although it is called a large army, in fact each team has only more than 10,000 real soldiers, and the other tens of thousands of people are laborers who follow the front line to cultivate the land. Of course, these laborers may also become soldiers in the near future.

The western route was led by Xiahou Shang and Ma Chao, who went to meet with Han Sui's army near Sili, hoping to join forces to harass the border of Jizhou. Zhuge Liang in Yecheng would naturally not wait for the two sides to meet, and immediately sent a number of generals to launch a surprise attack on Han Sui's army. At the same time, senior officials in Huaicheng also sent troops to cooperate, catching Han Sui off guard and forcing him to retreat to Henei.

This gave Ma Chao and others who were about to arrive a great shock. Seeing that Han Sui had been defeated, they were afraid of being surrounded by the Jin army and hurriedly retreated, but they were still ambushed by the Jin army.

When Ma Chao saw that the opposing side not only had his old rival Zhao Yun, but also Zhang Xiu, whose whereabouts were unknown after being captured, he was furious. No wonder the other side knew his marching route so well. Not only was Zhang Xiu from Xiliang, he also knew the marching habits of Cao's army. With him on the opposite side, how could his thoughts not be guessed?

He held his spear high and shouted angrily, "Zhang Xiu!"

"You ungrateful bastard! My Lord appreciates you so much, yet you turn against the enemy and join the rebels!"

"Aren't you afraid that Xu Du's family will be implicated?"

"When I return to Xudu, I will report this to the king and have all your family members killed!"

Zhang Xiu heard this and sneered, "What do you think I don't know?"

"My son in Xudu has been killed, right?"

"Let's not talk about how the Lord treated me. After Cao Pi ascended the throne, he immediately killed all my family members. How did I let him down?"

After Zhang Xiu was captured, he refused to surrender. Yuan Xi was in a hurry to fight the Xianbei and had no time to care about him, so he imprisoned him in Yecheng. Before leaving, Yuan Xi said to Zhang Xiu: "I will not comment on whether Wei is worthy of your loyalty."

"I will give you time to decide whether the Wei Kingdom after Cao Cao is still worth your life."

Zhang Xiu said at the time: "I have made the wrong move several times. It is you who gave me my current position. I will not rebel."

"Your Majesty, you have no intention of killing me, and I have no intention of leaving. Just let me die in prison."

However, Zhang Xiu's confidence was shattered by the news coming from Xudu a year later. After Cao Pi ascended the throne as King of Wei, he took the opportunity to carry out a large-scale purge of court officials, and Zhang Xiu's family was among them, especially his son Zhang Quan, who was also implicated in the Wei Feng case and was executed.

Ma Chao must have known this, so all his words just now were lies to Zhang Xiu, which naturally made Zhang Xiu angry, "Ma Chao, my son has been killed, and you still lied to me!"

"As a Liangzhou native, aren't you ashamed to be full of lies?"

Zhang Xiu was extremely angry. He had never done anything wrong to the Cao family from the beginning to the end. He had fought dozens of battles, big and small, and had made considerable contributions. However, he did not expect that Cao Pi would abandon him as soon as Cao Cao died. He then found an excuse to get rid of all his family members.

When Zhuge Liang told him the news, Zhang Xiu still couldn't believe it, but as definite evidence came, Zhang Xiu realized that he had been abandoned.

Only then did Zhang Xiu give up. Since Cao Pi did not remember their old friendship, there was no need for him to remain loyal to him. Although he still had several concubines and family members in Xu Du, Zhang Xiu no longer wanted to accept any demands. He immediately asked to surrender to the Jin State and join the attack on Xu Du in an attempt to rescue the remaining family members. This was considered a last-ditch effort.

Seeing his lie exposed, Ma Chao had no choice but to argue, "Zhang Xiu, your son is secretly having an affair with Wei Feng. His crime is unforgivable and he deserves death!"

"But you have many female relatives in your family. Do you want to kill them too?"

"If you join me in killing Zhao Yun now and come back to Xudu with me, the king will certainly forgive you for what happened and pretend that nothing ever happened!"

"Bullshit!" Zhang Xiu roared, "My son is only seven or eight years old, and he is secretly communicating with Wei Feng. He is in Xudu, and I am at the front line in Yecheng. Use your pig brain to think, is it possible that he will betray me?"

"And Ma Chao, you are really good at deceiving yourself. Who killed your father, Ma Teng?"

"You, an adopted son, would be embarrassed enough to be left in Liangzhou. Where is your other adopted father, Han Sui?"

Ma Chao was so angry that his face turned red. He gritted his teeth and rushed forward, but was held back by Zhao Yun and Zhang Xiu. He knew the situation was not good after only three moves. Not to mention Zhao Yun, Zhang Xiu was fighting with him in anger, and he could not withstand the attack from both of them!

He made a prompt decision and asked his soldiers to cover his escape. Ma Chao's skills in battle had improved over the years and he knew that the Jin army liked to cut off an enemy's retreat. If he was entangled, he would not be able to escape today if he was not careful.

Thinking of this, Ma Chao retreated immediately. However, his running almost sold out Xiahou Shang who was holding the line behind him. Seeing the Jin army coming like a tide and his own army collapsing, Xiahou Shang had no choice but to retreat in a hurry.

This retreat was equivalent to abandoning tens of thousands of civilians in the rear army. These people fled in all directions. After Zhao Yun and others killed them for a while, the Wei army civilians had nowhere to go and had to surrender. Zhao Yun called a few people to question them, but found that most of them were civilians captured by Jingyi. He thought that Cao Pi, like Cao Cao, had also begun to suck blood from the territories under his rule. This situation would not last long. I am afraid that within a few years, Jingyi would be sucked dry.

And it is still unknown how much they can absorb. After all, in Jingzhou, Cao's army is facing Guan Yu who is attacking Xiangyang.

Zhao Yun subconsciously looked to the south. At that time, no news from the Jianghuai battlefield had come yet. Zhao Yun wondered in his heart whether Yuan Xi was joining forces with Liu Bei to wipe out the Wu Kingdom and the Wei army in Jingzhou?
However, he did not expect that Liu Bei and Wu would fight so fiercely, nor did he know that Guan Yu was now attacking Xiangyang with all his strength. The fierceness of the battle between the two sides was no less than that of the Battle of Chaisang.

At that time, when Liu Bei learned of Zhang Fei's death, he returned to Changsha to attack the State of Wu to avenge Zhang Fei, while Guan Yu stayed to continue attacking Xiangyang. Guan Yu was already heartbroken by Zhang Fei's death, so he mobilized the surrendered soldiers in Jingzhou to attack Xiangyang day and night, venting all his anger on the Wei army.

Xiangyang was also in danger. When it was about to fall, the reinforcements from Wei finally arrived in time.

It was led by Cao Ren, with Yu Jin as the vanguard. This army was obviously much stronger than the one led by Xiahou Shang and Ma Chao, because Xiahou Shang's mission was to contain the Jin army, while Cao Ren's army was tasked with repelling Guan Yu, retaking Jingnan, bordering the State of Wu, and dividing the territories of Yuan Xi and Liu Bei.

At this time, the Wei army did not know that the Wu Kingdom would be destroyed so quickly, so their morale was quite high at the beginning. Cao Ren and Yu Jin were stationed in the secondary cities on the east and west sides of Xiangyang respectively, serving as horns to contain Guan Yu who was attacking the city.

After all, these two were the two most powerful generals of the Wei State. With their cooperation, Guan Yu was under great pressure and had to retreat to the river and use the navy to fight against Cao's army. Now he was sitting in the tent, waiting for Zhou Cang who had rushed back from Chaisang.

Zhou Cang, with his arm wrapped, narrated the process of the Battle of Chaisang. When Guan Yu heard that the fighting was so brutal, his expression changed slightly. What worried him even more was that Liu Bei was also seriously injured!

He stood up, paced back and forth on the ground, looked up to the sky and sighed: "Before my elder brother left, he entrusted me with the important task of conquering Xiangyang, but I have made no progress. I have failed my elder brother's trust!"

"My eldest brother has avenged my third brother, but the revenge on Cao Jun's side has been delayed for too long because of me!"

He thought to himself, Liu Bei was hit by an arrow, and the injury was extremely dangerous for him at his age. He had originally planned to take Xiangyang and then take advantage of the situation to attack Xu Du and welcome the emperor, but he didn't expect to be stopped here!

No, we must capture Xiangyang in the shortest time possible!
Guan Yu subconsciously turned around and wanted to talk to Liu Bei, but suddenly realized that Liu Bei was no longer there.

Guan Yu was stunned for a while, and found that he had fought in all these years without any hesitation, but now he felt a little sad. Was it because he had not yet gotten over the death of his third brother, or was it because he was getting old?
He couldn't help but sighed again. Zhou Cang beside him didn't understand why and asked, "General, is there anything bothering you?"

Guan Yu shook his head and said, "Go for a walk with me."

The two of them left the tent, and outside was the dock and the water fort. Looking at the surging river outside, Guan said, "Zhou Cang, I remember when I went to Jiangling to defeat Lu Meng, how many brothers did you have?"

"Have you ever been in touch?"

Zhou Cang said, "Yes, all three of them went to Jin State and fought under the King of Jin."

"A few days ago, Ah Er sent me a letter saying that Ah San and Ah Si were both killed in the battle of Yecheng last year."

Guan Yu was stunned and silent for a long time before he said, "It is difficult for anyone on the battlefield to avoid this kind of fate, from generals to soldiers."

"I just figured it out. Although I am heartbroken about losing my third brother, you are actually the same way."

"If I allow some avoidable deaths to befall soldiers for my own sake, I would be putting public interests above private ones."

"How to attack Xiangyang? I will think about it carefully. I was too eager to succeed before, and there were many casualties. It's my fault. I have lost my brothers, and so have the soldiers."

"Send out soldiers to call all the local people and natives along the river. I want to know the weather and water flow conditions in the next few months."

Across the river, in the secondary city east of Xiangyang, Yu Jin was on the dock, personally supervising the craftsmen to build warships. Although they were called warships, they were actually just simple large boats. The Jingzhou navy that Guan Yu conquered was far more efficient than the Cao Wei navy, and their ships were more sophisticated, so Cao Wei had no chance of winning in a head-on confrontation.

So after much thought, Yu Jin decided to give up a head-on naval battle and instead build large ships that could quickly travel across the river. In order to be light, these large ships had almost abandoned all protections and were only designed to carry people for rapid raids, to forcibly land on the opposite water fort and decide the outcome in a land battle.

Yu Jin knew that he could not hide the news of shipbuilding from Guan Yu, and he did not try to cover it up. He just wanted to restrain Guan Yu and make him cautious so that he could defend Xiangyang.

Yu Jin was also under a lot of pressure. In the last battle of Yecheng, the Jin army broke through from his side. He was responsible for the loss of Yecheng and was demoted two levels. If he couldn't stop Guan Yu now, he would basically be finished.

(End of this chapter)