A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 431: Anticipate the enemy’s thoughts and win two battles first. Wu Gong’s hundred thousand men and women are in danger.

March 5
Guan Yu, the governor of Qingzhou and the general of Zhendong, was not responsible for leading the army. He led 60,000 Qingzhou soldiers, which was known to the outside world as a hundred thousand troops. They came out from Gaotang and attacked Lu County of Jibei Kingdom. Shi Huan stationed in Lu County only had 10,000 soldiers. The soldiers and horses had to work hard to deliver military reports to Xinzheng and request reinforcements.

Since Cao Cao was granted the title of Duke, the political center has shifted from Xudu to Xinzheng. All matters, big or small, are handled in Xinzheng. Xudu has been reduced to an official office where Cao Cao affixes seals and ribbons when he needs court documents.

In order to get rid of Cao Cao's control, many Han Dynasty veterans in Xu Du made efforts, but they were all put down by Cao Cao. In the past few years, Xu Du had three rebellions to assassinate Cao Cao and seize military power.

One was when he rebelled in Liangzhou and Cao Cao suffered a minor defeat in Xinye. Another was when Liu Bei took control of Hebei and Cao Cao was almost surrounded in Hedong. The other was when Cao Cao moved into Xinzheng.

Each rebellion once again weakened the power of the Han Dynasty, making the Han Dynasty completely reduced to Cao Cao's puppet.

Liu Xie's original queen was Empress Fu, but she was deposed and killed because she was involved in the rebellion. The current queen is Cao Cao's daughter, and she is Empress Cao.

It can be said that Liu Xie was under Cao Cao's all-round and round-the-clock supervision from inside to outside.

In the palace of Han Gong in Xinzheng, Cao Cao received the military report from Shi Huan and handed it over to his counselors for discussion.

"My lord, Liu Bei has not mobilized troops for three years. Now that Guan Yu invades, he must have received Liu Bei's order, which means Liu Bei has regained his strength.

According to reports from Zhao's internal spies, Liu Bei's current military strength is no less than 200,000. To only use Guan Yu's 60,000 to 70,000 men would be to underestimate the lord. Could it be that with only 100,000 men, he could take advantage of the lord? .

According to Liu Bei's temperament, he would not do such a thankless thing, and he must have a plan. I think he will definitely compete in other directions. "

Since Cao Cao's number one adviser Guo Jia passed away five years ago, Cao Cao now relies heavily on Xun You and Cheng Yu.

Xun You was originally a counselor under Yuan Shu, but was eventually acquired by Cao Cao. Of course, this does not mean that Cao Cao only has these two people, it just means that these two are Cao Cao's most valued and relatively high-status counselors. There were no less than a dozen counselors present.

"What Xun You said is true. Liu Bei is a powerful hero in the world, and he will never do anything thankless. In the world today, the only ones who can compete for the final position are Gu and Liu Bei.

In three years, he and Gu Du had recuperated and were able to compete again for the final winner. Still the same, where do you think he will choose the second direction? "

"Lord" Cheng Yu came out and said: "I think Liu Bei has chosen the Hedong and Hanoi areas. If one of them captures the two rivers, my lord will have no bridge to invade Hebei, and Liu Bei can also threaten the Guanzhong area at any time and cut off the Lord, one arm.

Without the horse farms in Liangzhou and Yongzhou, the strength of our army will be greatly reduced.

With both of them, with Hanoi, Liu Bei can cross the Yellow River south at any time, threaten our Sizhou, and then take the capital Xinzheng directly. Liu Bei would never let go of killing three birds with one stone.

Therefore, I believe that the second location chosen by Liu Bei must be the Lianghe area. "

Cheng Yu's analysis was approved by everyone present, and Cao Cao also believed that Liu Bei would not give up such a big plan.

But what they didn't expect was that Liu Bei was no longer the Liu Bei he was in Xiapi, and his appetite was unimaginably big.

In order to cope with Liu Bei's offensive, Cao Cao sent 40,000 people to support Shi Huan. With these 50,000 people, even if he could not defeat Guan Yu, he could barely defend Jibei.

Then Cao Cao secretly mobilized Xiahou Yuan to lead 30,000 elite troops from Guanzhong into Hedong to support the Yujin Department stationed in Jiangyi and prepare for the incoming Liu Bei army.

He also sent general Cao Hong to lead 20,000 troops to garrison at Chenggao in Sizhou, ready to cross the river to support Xu Huang, the wild king in Hanoi.

These are all defensive measures. Cao Cao doesn't want to just take a beating without fighting back. He plans to wait until Liu Bei's offensive in Hedong starts, then lead an army of 50,000 to attack Xuzhou and let Liu Bei reap the consequences.

After doing all this, in order to be sure, Cao Cao also sent envoys to Jiangdong to encourage Sun Quan to take advantage of Liu Bei's empty Xuzhou to attack Liu Bei's Jiujiang and Guangling.

March 18

Cao Cao received the information from Hanoi. As expected, Liu Bei mobilized heavy troops in Taiyuan. With the information in hand, Cao Cao was excited and proud. He said to Cheng Yu and others:

"Liu Bei is still a young man. Although he occupies five states, he is still slightly inferior to me, Cao Mengde. He sent an order to the whole army. Three days later, the army set off to attack Xuzhou. This time, he was determined to take Xuzhou into his pocket and wash the front with blood. shame."

March

Lu Bu, the general of Zhenxi, was awarded the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Guards Army by Liu Bei. He led the troops with 50,000 cavalry. The Guardsmen of Bai Xing, Zhang Yan, Xiahou Bo, Zhang He and other armies, known to the outside world as one hundred thousand, surged out from Jinyang. Attack Jiangyi in the east of Hedong.

Although Yu Jin was stationed in Jiangyi with only 5,000 men, he had already received the news and calmly ruled Xia Houyuan, who was secretly stationed in Puban in the rear, to come to support.

Following Lü Bu, there was also Zhang Yan, the governor of Gaodu and General Fenwu, who led 20,000 troops. Following Lü Bu's orders, they attacked Jiangyi from the east.

March 25
Just when Lu Bu was constantly supervising the army to attack Jiangyi, he saw a large group of troops appearing behind Jiangyi. He felt happy in his heart: "Send the order and increase the intensity of the attack. General Fenwu's reinforcements have arrived. The morale of Jiangyi's army will be greatly reduced. Take this opportunity." , let me attack this city."

Just when Lu Bu's army was concentrating on attacking Jiangyi, the "reinforcements" actually rushed directly into the siege troops and came towards Lu Bu's main formation.

"What's going on? Did Zhang Yan rebel?"

Due to a sudden attack, Lü Bu's army was defeated. Seeing the rout of his troops, Lü Bu thought that Zhang Yan had surrendered to the enemy. "General, retreat quickly. This is not General Zhang's Gaodu Army, but Cao Cao's army!"

Finally, a general with good eyesight saw the fluttering "Xiahou" flag and quickly came to Lu Bu to report.

"How could Cao Jun appear here?" Lu Bu couldn't believe it.

But the war is impatient, and if a decision is not made, the entire army will be annihilated. Lu Bu forcibly stabilized his formation, but was shaken by the impact of the defeated army. He was sweating profusely and shouted to the general:
"Immediately lead another 10,000 people six hundred meters behind, straighten out military discipline, set up a formation, and prepare to resist Cao's pursuit."

"Yes"

The general immediately retreated quickly with 10,000 soldiers. The 10,000 soldiers were mobilized, and the formation immediately collapsed. Lu Bu immediately summoned the 5,000 organic cavalry that could still be commanded and fought towards the east.

They made a big circle and then rushed straight into Cao Jun's line to block Cao Jun's pursuit.

When Xia Houyuan saw Lu Bu charging into the formation, he also led more than ten thousand cavalry under his command to rush into Lu Bu's rear from where Lu Bu came from, hoping to use his cavalry to keep Lu Bu in the formation.

If Lu Bu cannot be retained, he can at least prevent Lu Bu from killing or injuring his own infantry, so that the infantry can continue to pursue Lu Bu's defeated army and expand the results of the battle.

However, Lu Bu's bravery was not something that Xia Houyuan could oppose. After only thirty rounds of fighting, Xia Houyuan was defeated. He only dared to cruise in the distance and did not dare to fight directly.

Seeing that he was trapped in the enemy's formation, Lu Bu cleared away the enemy troops around him, and then shouted to the soldiers behind him: "Soldiers, follow me and break the formation!"

Then one man and one horse fought a bloody path. Seeing this, the soldiers under his command became highly morale. Following the gap opened by Lu Bu, Cao's army continued to pour out of the heavy siege.

When Cao Jun was thrown away by them, only two thousand of the five thousand cavalry led by Lu Bu were left.

Fortunately, the generals sent by Lu Bu set up an array and blocked the pursuing Cao army, allowing the rest of Lu Bu's defeated troops to have time to reorganize. As more and more people returned to their formation, more and more people returned.

Xiahou Yuan knew that he could not achieve greater results, and when he received news that a large number of Liu Bei's troops appeared in the east of Jiangyi, he ordered the entire army to withdraw to Jiangyi.

Seeing that Cao's army had withdrawn, Lu Bu also breathed a sigh of relief and counted the remaining number of people, which was 50,000. In the past few days, plus this defeat, there were only 30,000 left.

It seems that the strategy of capturing Hedong failed.

Zhang Yan, who had just arrived, saw the mess on the ground, most of which were soldiers and flags under Lu Bu's command. Knowing that Lu Bu had suffered a major defeat, he immediately ordered the army to retreat ten miles, and sent scouts to investigate the situation and search for the whereabouts of Lu Bu's army.

Zhang Yan, who finally received the scout's report, was sure that Lu Bu had suffered a major defeat. He was at a loss and had to camp where he was and wait for the next instruction.

At the same time that Lu Bu's army suffered a defeat, the army led by Cao Cao had arrived in the Liang Kingdom.

This time he no longer went directly from Rencheng to Xuzhou to attack Xia Pi. Instead, he prepared to attack Pei County from Liang State. When Xuzhou's attention was drawn by Sun Quan, he then attacked Pengcheng from Pei County and then captured Pi County in one fell swoop. Capture Xuzhou.

March 29
Cao Cao's 50,000-strong army successfully captured Xiao County in Pei County. Then the army stopped in Xiao County and sent General Cao Zhang to lead 20,000 troops north to attack the counties in the northern part of Xiao County in Pei County.

At the same time, Sun Quan led dozens of generals, including Gan Ning, Huang Gai, and Cheng Pu, as well as 100,000 navy and land forces, to personally attack Jiujiang, vowing to gain a foothold on the north bank of the Yangtze River and break through Wu's predicament.

As for why the governor Zhou Yu was not brought along, it was because Zhou Yu suddenly fell seriously ill this year and was bedridden, and he also had to defend Cao Ren in Jiangling in Changsha County.

Zhang Liao of Hefei knew that Sun Quan would attack, but he did not expect that he would use all his resources to attack. He was a little nervous. While tightening the city defense, he quickly requested reinforcements from Xiapi.

At this time, the pressure came to Gao Shun in Xiapi. Although he had 30,000 troops in his hands, Cao Cao had already invaded Peijun and occupied Xiaoxian. The next step was to break through Pengcheng and march directly into Xiapi.

And Zhang Liao came to report that Sun Quan had 100,000 people to attack, and Jiujiang should not be lost. Jiujiang and Guangling were important lines of defense to curb Sun Quan's development. If they were lost, Sun Quan would become Liu Bei's biggest constraint in attacking Cao Cao.

Thinking of this, Gao Shun couldn't help but have a splitting headache.

Finally, Taishi Ci from Guangling came to report, saying that Sun Quan seemed to have invested all his troops in Jiujiang and ignored Guangling. The number of troops stationed in Wu County on the other side of Guangling had also been reduced a lot recently.

"Great!" Gao Shun suddenly opened his mind. Compared with Jiujiang and Xuzhou, Xuzhou is more important.

If Jiujiang is lost, it is lost. As long as Xuzhou is not lost, it can be regained sooner or later. If Xuzhou is lost, even if Jiujiang is defended, it will be nothing more than an enclave.

Thinking of this, he immediately sent a letter to Zhang Liao. Xuzhou was under threat from Cao's army and could only send 5,000 reinforcements. However, there was no Wu army in Guangling, so Taishi Ci and the Guangling navy could obey your orders.

Because Gao Shun's position was the Governor of Xuzhou, the highest official in Xuzhou, according to regulations, Zhang Liao, Taishi Ci and Chen Jie were all under Gao Shun's temporary control during the war.

Now Gao Shun has handed over 3,000 people from Guangling and 8,000 people from Guangling Navy to Zhang Liao, which can be regarded as support for Zhang Liao.

(End of this chapter)