My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 824 Xiahou Dun dies, Bingzhou changes hands

To be honest, if Xiahou Dun had decisively given up everything in Bingzhou when he first received the warning from Sun Quan,
And when choosing an escape route, don’t suffer from decision-making difficulties and don’t think “choose the optimal solution if you can, and if the optimal solution is blocked and you can’t choose it, then choose the suboptimal solution.”

Instead, they immediately went for the option with the lowest risk, the highest success rate, but also the greatest loss, and they went all in and decided not to give in.

Then, it is very likely that Xiahou Dun escaped and returned to Guanzhong.

For Xiahou Dun, the most likely route to retreat was to go directly north through Yanmen Pass and escape around Yinshan Mountain with only the cavalry. He would leave everything else behind, including the infantry, military supplies, population, and food, all of which would be thrown to Guan Yu and Zhang Fei as fat meat.

If he chooses this route, Xiahou Dun himself will be 100% sure to survive, and the cavalry will also be able to escape.

As for the rest, they are destined to be completely lost, and the flesh will be cut directly at the knee.

The second best option was to abandon the entire Shangdang territory and the troops within it, and escape via Taiyuan and along the Fen River.

At the beginning, don't even think about whether the soldiers, population, money and food in the Yushui River Basin can be saved. Just don't save them. This tactic is like surrendering and losing half, cutting the meat in half, but there is at least a 50% to 60% chance of survival and keeping the fire.

But he chose none of them.

Xiahou Dun is like a stock investor who has suffered three consecutive limit downs and has lost all his money.

Clearly, the market maker lifted the skirt of the limit price a little bit on the fourth trading day, giving him the opportunity to cut his losses. However, he looked at the three limit prices he had already lost, and felt reluctant and hesitated.

Then, naturally, he had no chance to cut his losses.

It can only be blocked all the way until it is liquidated and delisted.

……

If you make the wrong choice, no matter how hard you try, you will only go further and further down the wrong path.

Xiahou Dun was reluctant to leave those few spoils, so after returning to Shangdang, in order to speed up the process, he took the 20,000 to 30,000 people he had hastily gathered and planned to enter Hedong County from the mountain pass between Wangwu Mountain and Zhongtiao Mountain in the southwest of Shangdang County, and then retreat.

Since Sun Quan was dead and Anyi had surrendered, the consequence of Xiahou Dun's decision was very obvious.

When he was crossing the Wangwu Pass, the vanguard cavalry had not gone far when they encountered ambushes on the hillsides on both sides, which were blocking Cao's army along the valley.

"Xiahou Dun, you old villain, don't run away! Sun Quan is dead! I have taken Hedong for many days! Those who surrender will not be killed! Kill!"

The shouts from the hillsides on both sides were like thunder, which frightened Cao's army so much that they dared not move forward.

Of course, this ambush force was led by Guan Ping, because Guan Yu himself was still fighting in Linfen, on another road.

If Guan Yu had set up the ambush himself, he would never have launched it so early. He would have had to wait until at least one third of Xiahou Yuan's main force had arrived, and then attack from the middle to completely annihilate Xiahou Dun.

But Guan Yu is too busy to handle everything, so he can only rely on Guan Ping here.

Guan Ping's troops were not as numerous as those of his father. Apart from the cavalry assigned to him, he only had a part of the infantry that Gao Shun later reinforced. The total number of troops was still less than that of Xiahou Dun.

Guan Ping was young and was afraid that his appetite would be too big and he would not be able to digest too much, so he charged out as soon as Xiahou Dun's army had just passed a little.

While fighting, Guan Ping used his old tricks as usual and had people use the name of his father.

Xiahou Dun's troops were caught off guard and ambushed. They were unable to tell the number of the enemy troops and thought that Guan Yu was really there, so they became even less motivated to fight.

Xiahou Dun personally ordered the troops to turn back and retreat quickly. However, Guan Ping had already cut off a small part of the vanguard cavalry, and it was obvious that the remaining troops were going to be wiped out.

Guan Ping killed Xiahou Dun's vanguard and pursued him for nearly twenty miles, killing an additional one or two thousand and taking more prisoners.

Xiahou Dun accomplished nothing, made a wasted trip, and lost 20% to 30% of his total troops.

The route of breaking out by crossing Wangwu Mountain and taking the Hedong Weishui River failed, so Xiahou Dun could now choose the second route.

He returned north to Taiyuan County and wanted to go south via the Fen River waterway. The subsequent results were very obvious.

Returning north, preparing ships, and sailing downstream, each of these steps will take at least two or three days, and some steps will even take longer.

When he broke out via the Fen River, seven or eight days had passed since his first breakout.

So this time, it was no surprise that the attempt was blocked by the army of the real Guan Yu in Pingyang County, upstream of Linfen.

Because Xiahou Dun was too slow to act, Guan Yu was too impatient to wait for him in Linfen, and continued to attack upstream along the Fen River. When Xiahou Yuan arrived, Guan Yu had already captured Pingyang County.

As an aside, Pingyang County in the Eastern Han Dynasty was actually the urban area of Linfen in later generations, and Linfen County in the Eastern Han Dynasty was actually just Houma County under the jurisdiction of Linfen City in later generations.

Guan Yu's advance could be regarded as an advance from the suburban counties in the south of Linfen to the main urban area in later generations.

He and Xiahou Dun were running towards the same destination.

The two sides fought another head-on battle in Pingyang County. The process is naturally not worth elaborating on, and Xiahou Dun was defeated again.

This time it was not just a matter of leaving behind 20% of his troops. Nearly half of his troops were wiped out, and he had to flee back in defeat. This was because Bingzhou was mountainous and the Fen River Valley was located in the Luliang Mountains, which was narrow and cramped. Guan Yu had no way to take a detour and could only chase and beat him, so he couldn't cut off Xiahou Dun's retreat.

If the battlefield terrain was changed to a more open one, Guan Yu could encircle Xiahou Dun and not even half of his men would be able to escape.

After two failed breakout and transfer attempts, Xiahou Dun had no choice but to flee back to Taiyuan County in despair and return to the county seat of Jinyang County, which was the main urban area of Taiyuan City in later generations.

After returning to Jinyang, Xiahou Dun began to question his life.

After resting for a day, he racked his brains to think of a way to survive and finally thought of a third way, which was to abandon all the infantry and baggage, money and food supplies, and only take his personal cavalry out of the pass and walk through the grassland.

Unfortunately, the two failed attempts before had already wasted too much time. Now it was no longer possible to take the safe route.

Therefore, there is not much to elaborate on the process of this last attempt.

It was nothing more than Xiahou Dun sending out his last cavalry, out of Yanmen Pass, trying to take a detour.

Then, he ran into Zhao Yun, who had been waiting for several days.

All the cavalrymen who tried to leave the pass were intercepted, suffered heavy casualties, and the rest all surrendered to Zhao Yun.

Going back and forth three times, and failing to break out three times, it took more than half a month in total.

This amount of time was enough for Liu Bei's army to gradually tighten the noose around Xiahou Dun's neck.

Zhang Fei took advantage of this period of time to advance steadily, captured Shangdang County, pacified all the counties, and then attacked Qi County in Taiyuan County from the south.

Guan Yu took advantage of this time to go upstream along the Fen River, first conquering Pingyang, then Jiexiu, and also entering from the southwest corner of Taiyuan County. Zhao Yun in the north, after annihilating all the cavalry sent by Xiahou Dun, took advantage of the victory and the enemy's fear, and half-intimidated and half-forced the demoralized Yanmen Pass defenders to surrender directly. Then Zhao Yun successfully captured Yanmen, swept across Yunzhong and Jiuyuan from north to south, and also approached Taiyuan.

Guan, Zhang and Zhao, the three top generals, attacked Xiahou Dun who had retreated to Jinyang from the southwest, south and north respectively along the upstream and downstream of the Fen River.

At this point in the battle, there is actually no suspense at all.

Xiahou Dun only had Taiyuan County left in his hands, and the remaining soldiers of less than 20,000 were surrounded and beaten by more than 150,000 enemy troops.

Apart from defending the city of Jinyang to buy time, Xiahou Dun could not do anything else.

When things got to this point, many people around him had been shaken and wanted to persuade Xiahou Dun to surrender, but they did not dare to do so.

Xiahou Dun actually knew what everyone was thinking.

But he knew that he could not surrender, as Liu Bei had a deep feud with the Cao and Xiahou families. Even if the Xiahou family was not as sensitive as the Cao family, at most only the younger generations of the side branches might survive.

Xiahou Dun himself was already old and had enjoyed a life of wealth and glory. It was impossible for him to ruin his integrity in his later years just to linger on for a few more years.

Moreover, Xiahou Yuan also died at the hands of Liu Bei's army, and Xiahou Dun was unwilling to surrender for both emotional and logical reasons.

However, he was very clear that it was meaningless to drag more people into the battle after the war had reached this point, and it might even backfire.

So he secretly observed the situation and sent out those generals who had not followed him long enough and were not very loyal to him to guard the various counties in Taiyuan County. He only left some of his most loyal generals and troops, about 10,000 people, to defend Jinyang City.

In fact, not all of the more than 20,000 people he had lost before were killed by Liu Bei's army on the battlefield. Only a small number of them died in battle.

Most of them gradually became deserters after running back and forth for more than half a month.

Therefore, those who were able to follow him so many times and insisted on returning to Jinyang were basically those who were loyal to Cao Cao and Xiahou Dun personally. It was reasonable that in the end there were only 10,000 people left to defend Jinyang.

There are still three pounds of nails on the rotten boat. The situation today is the same as last year when Cao Ren defended Luoyang to the death before his death.

The three senior generals of Liu Bei's army also realized this. When they saw Xiahou Dun retreating and defending, they knew that he had given up the will to survive and only wanted to make a final, spectacular move to delay a little longer.

Guan, Zhang and Zhao no longer had any illusions and were not in a hurry to advance recklessly. They slowly swept through the counties and prefectures of Bingzhou.

Bingzhou is vast and has many mountainous areas. It would take at least two months just to visit every county.

During the hottest time of summer, the troops also need to take a short break and take turns on duty, and they cannot be pushed to death.

Throughout June to August, Guan, Zhang and Zhao cleared out all the places in Bingzhou except Jinyang.

By mid-August, the siege camps and siege weapons under the city of Jinyang were completed, and Liu Bei's army finally began to storm the city.

The summer and autumn grains of the entire Bingzhou fell into the hands of Guan Yu and others, so Guan Yu could use the food from the enemy and fight Xiahou Dun slowly.

It would take less than 100,000 men to attack such a strong city, so some troops even withdrew in advance to get food in the rear where there was sufficient food and grass. Or they simply turned the place into a military settlement to help the people of Bingzhou harvest the autumn harvest and reduce the damage to Bingzhou's agricultural production this year.

Before the formal siege, Guan Yu symbolically sent an envoy to persuade Xiahou Dun to surrender.

Xiahou Dun did not kill the messenger, but he did not say anything good to Guan Yu either. He took a very tough attitude and told Guan Yu to attack as much as he could. If he was afraid of death, he would not be a hero.

Guan Yu gave his opponent full respect. Since his opponent did not appreciate it, he gave an order and announced a general attack.

Tens of thousands of archers, including more than 5,000 crossbowmen, under the cover of large vine shields, approached the city and shot arrows to suppress the firepower on the city walls.

Ge Gongche and ladders were concentrated outside the north and south gates of Jinyang City. They were pushed to the foot of the city through the river crossing passage filled by the army's auxiliary soldiers over many days. Every step was slow, difficult and firm.

Jinyang is the Taiyuan city in later generations. It is very strong. Many warlords and princes in all dynasties were able to defend for many years relying on this strong city.

Especially during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, many warlords in the position of "Hedong Jiedushi" resisted the repeated attacks of the Central Plains court, and finally even pushed back to Bianliang to become emperor. By the end of the Five Dynasties, the Northern Han Dynasty still held the Zhao Song Dynasty for more than 20 years.

The city of Jinyang is bordered by the Fen River on the east side and high mountains on the east and west sides, making it impossible to deploy troops. Only the south gate and the north gate can be attacked.

Because the attackable front is too narrow, the defender does not need too many troops.

Xiahou Dun only needs a few thousand men to ensure that the north and south towers are well defended, and more than half of them can be used as reserves to fill in the gaps after there are casualties on the front line.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei indeed attacked from the south and the north very swiftly and fiercely. Relying on their superior siege weapons and powerful bows and crossbows and stone-crushing fire cover, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei's soldiers were always able to climb the ladders to the city and engage in hand-to-hand combat with Xiahou Dun's troops.

But Xiahou Dun used spearmen and halberd soldiers on the city walls, coordinated with some elite soldiers using blunt and heavy weapons, to fill the battle line tightly, refusing to give an inch, and fighting to the death with Guan and Zhang.

After a group of soldiers were killed or wounded, they were replaced by another group. By the end of the fighting, the Cao army soldiers became numb.

"These must be veterans who have followed Cao for at least a dozen years, and have been fed by Cao's promises and money from looting. When encountering such a daredevil, we must not be careless."

Guan Yu couldn't help but ponder in his heart, and secretly raised his evaluation of the enemy.

Regardless of their stance, these people are at least loyal to their master.

Guan Yu didn't want his troops to suffer heavy casualties, nor did he want to lose his life, so he fought a little more conservatively.

Before each climb, they would first use a small group of soldiers to pretend to climb, but in fact they would use the crossbows and catapults to prepare more firepower for a while, relying on the long-range firepower to kill more Cao soldiers.

After several rounds of false and real operations, the morale of Xiahou Dun's army finally weakened. Guan Yu seized the opportunity and let Gao Shun, who had rested and was fully refreshed, go on the battlefield again, leading the new formation to take charge of the final general attack.

It was a day in mid-September. After more than a month of intermittent and fierce attacks, Xiahou Dun's final moment finally arrived.

Early that morning, Gao Shun led his elite troops and pushed more than a dozen Ge Gong carts. The soldiers were all covered with tattered robes to prevent Xiahou Dun from seeing that the soldiers coming to attack today were particularly elite.

After the battle started, everything went on as usual. When the ants climbed up the city wall, Gao Shun suddenly sped up, wantonly exposing the true strength of the Xianzhen Camp.

Teams of horse-slaying swordsmen wearing sophisticated steel-filled breastplates rushed to the top of the city walls like mad tigers, chopping down Cao's troops who had been exhausted for many days like chopping melons and vegetables.

The Han army's long-spear soldiers also swarmed forward, launching wave after wave of charges, squeezing Xiahou Dun's soldiers into the last corner.

After an hour of brief and fierce fighting, the Han army's flag was finally re-raised on the Jinyang South Gate Tower.

In the chaos of the battle, Xiahou Dun was hacked to death by Gao Shun's soldiers. When Gao Shun found his body, it had been hacked so many times by the sword that it was difficult to tell the fatal wound.

A few quarters of an hour later, all the gates of Jinyang city fell into the hands of Guan and Zhang one after another, and the battle of Bingzhou came to an end.

(End of this chapter)