Shu Han Confucian General of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 312 The beginning is always smooth

Didao County is a small county in Longxi. Although the land in Longxi is fertile, wars have been frequent in recent years. In just ten years, Longxi County has changed hands several times.From Ma Teng to Han Sui, then from Han Sui to Xiahouyuan, and from Xiahouyuan to Liu Bei, and was later occupied by Sima Yi.When Zhao Feng pacified Guanzhong last year, Longxi was also taken back by Ma Chao.In ten years, Longxi changed hands as many as five times.Didao is on an important traffic road, and if there is a war, he will definitely suffer twists and turns.Therefore, most of the people in the city have either moved away or died in the war over the years.In the entire city, more than half of the houses are actually empty.

"I didn't expect that the people's livelihood in Longxi would be so miserable!" Zhao Feng sighed as he walked on the somewhat empty Didao Street.This is already the third day after he came to Longxi, first wait for Zhao Yun, Ma Chao and Zhang Fei to join the army and horses, and then wait for the main force of Cao's army to withdraw from Hebei, and then he will draw his salary from the bottom of the pot.The army agreed to gather at Didao, and now Zhao Feng and others have arrived one after another, only Zhang Fei arrived a few days late because the Guanzhong soldiers and horses had to hand over the defense.

"My lord, for so many years, is still concerned about the country and the people as always!" The one who sighed was Zhao Yun who came together. Hearing Zhao Yun's words, Zhao Feng frowned unexpectedly, and finally said: "Zilong, you and I We're old friends, so why be so clichéd?" To say that Zhao Yun is good at everything, is that sometimes he is too rigid, and he is so meticulous in addressing everything.

"Hehe, general, you are still so free and easy!" Zhao Yun smiled, and at this moment, a horse galloped over, and a female knight was none other than Zhao Yun's little wife Ma Yunlu.

"Hehe, Prince Zhao, it's been a long time!" Ma Yunlu said something strangely in a high-pitched voice when he saw Zhao Feng, which made the two big men smile wryly.She is almost 30 years old, and she is still as lively as a little girl, almost becoming Zhao Yun's youngest daughter.Of course, Zhao Feng also knew that Zhao Yun had always been extremely fond of this little wife, so now she is becoming more and more lawless.

"How about Yunlu, where's your elder brother?" Zhao Yun didn't want Zhao Feng to be too embarrassed, so he quickly changed the topic and asked.Ma Yunlu curled his lips when he heard the words, and then said: "Yesterday, some tribal leaders came from Wudu, and they took him to drink."

To say that this Ma Chao's reputation is really not built, after arriving in Didao, the leaders of these minority tribes came to visit him in an endless stream.Finally, there is Ma Dai who doesn't drink at all, who can gather the army after Pound and Ma Chao are drunk. Otherwise, when the war starts, Zhao Feng is not sure how many Xiliang iron cavalry will be able to go into battle. up.

In a few days, Zhang Fei will also arrive.In addition to Guan Yu and Huang Zhong, three of the Five Tiger Generals of the Shu Han in history were deployed in this raid on Hebei, plus Zhao Feng, Zhang Ren, Pang De, and Ma Dai. The luxurious lineup is simply eye-catching.

According to Zhang Fei, when he came, Guan Yu and the others had almost moved their troops.Naturally, such frequent troop mobilizations cannot be concealed from the careful work of Cao Jun.At present, Liu Bei's hundreds of thousands of troops are gathering in the land of Qingxu, and Cao Pi in Yecheng soon got the news.

"My lords, as you expected, Liu Bei secretly mobilized troops and horses in Qingxu. If we rashly send troops to attack Shanyang and other places, we will be divided and surrounded by Liu Bei, and we will be defeated miserably." After passing it on to everyone, Cao Pi was also a little proud of himself.

"Your Majesty, since that's the case, we will follow the previous plan and gather our troops to cross the river and fight towards the land of Henan, taking advantage of the situation to capture Jingxiang!" Cao Hong asked Ying immediately after seeing it.Cao Pi nodded, and then he said: "According to reports from the scouts, the defense of Jingxiang is very lax, and the garrison of Wancheng is only a few thousand people, and most of Xuchang's troops have been transferred to Shanyang and other places by Li Yan. , if you march quickly and seize these places before Liu Bei, you will be able to lay the foundation for future marches into the Central Plains!"

"That's right!" Cao Pi nodded, and Cao Pi already knew the meaning of this battle.Thinking about his father's failure to take down the world's furnace in Jingzhou, if he can take it down, it will naturally greatly boost morale and people's hearts.

A few days later, 30 troops from Hebei gathered in Yecheng, and then went south to the Yellow River Ferry, claiming to cross the Yellow River from Yanjin.Before setting off, Cao Pi, Emperor Wen of Wei, also swore an oath in person to honor Cao Hong and other generals who went on this expedition.

"Uncle Emperor, drink this cup to the brim, and it's all up to Uncle Emperor to send troops this time!" After filling a glass of wine and handing it to Cao Hong, Cao Pi's hands trembled unexpectedly.Even though he had a calm temperament since he was a child, he couldn't help being a little nervous at this time.After all, the relationship between this battle is too important.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, the old minister will live up to His Majesty's entrustment and capture Jingxiang and Xuchang in order to repay Your Majesty and the late Emperor's kindness!" Cao Hong took the wine glass tremblingly and drank it down, but there was a trace of tears in the corner of his eyes: Meng De , Zixiao, Yuan Rang, and Miaocai are all gone, but brothers, even if I am the only one left, I will do my best for your country.

This army with Cao Hong as the commander and Cheng Yu as the counselor, after going south to the Yellow River ferry, suddenly turned west and rushed along the river to Hanoi County.Henan Yin Caotai had already prepared boats for the army to cross the river.Due to the sufficient space for ships, more than half of the 30 troops crossed the river in one day, including all cavalry, except for [-] tiger and leopard cavalry and [-] Hu cavalry, in addition to [-] Youyan iron cavalry .More than [-] cavalry troops descended to Nanyang, this momentum is definitely leveraged.

"General Gongming, the key to the success or failure of this battle depends on whether you can take Nanyang as soon as possible!" After joining Xu Huang from Hongnong, Cao Hong said in a dignified tone.Since Xia Houyuan's death in battle, Xu Huang has been recognized as the No. 1 Cao Jun's surprise attack, and even Cao Hong knows that he is not as good as Xu Huang.

"Don't worry, general, I will take Wancheng for the general and point directly at Xiangyang!" Xu Huang promised with a loud voice.Tanma has already found out that most of Jingzhou's army horses have been transferred by Guan Yu to ambush in the Central Plains, and there are only a few thousand defenders in Xiangyang and other places.If you are lucky, not to mention Wancheng, even Jingbei can be decided in one battle.

The military situation was urgent. After the two parted, Xu Huang immediately led [-] infantry to the south, and the soldiers pointed directly at the land of Wancheng.At the same time, Cao Zhang led his men to attack Xuchang, and Cao Hong himself took charge of Hanoi County as a countermeasure.This time Cao Hong learned his lesson, and he didn't dare to send out the whole army easily, he just waited to win these important cities before making a decision.

The story was divided into two parts, Xu Huang's march was very fast, and the land of Nanyang was a plain, and it didn't take long for Xu Huang to appear under Wancheng.Meng Da, the prefect of Wancheng, was shocked when he saw Xu Huang leading an army of [-] troops to come here suddenly.

"General, what should I do?" Seeing that Meng Da was also at a loss, several staff members under him hurriedly asked him.Meng Da looked at the endless army below the city, as the saying goes, there is no border when there are thousands of soldiers, and there is no border when there are more than ten thousand soldiers.On the plains, the scene of tens of thousands of troops covering the sky and the sun is indeed shocking enough.Especially in Wancheng, the defenders are no more than 6000 old, weak, sick and disabled.

"The king of Xiangyang refused to listen to our honest advice, and forced himself to mobilize the Jingxiang army. They all went to Xuzhou to set up an ambush. There are only 3 horses in the whole Jingzhou, and they are all stationed in Xiangyang and other places. I only have more than 6000 people here. What can I do?" Fight with Xu Huang!" Meng Da felt chills when he thought of the past.

In order to ensure the confidentiality of the plan, only a few high-level people knew about the whole plan. A small prefect like Meng Da naturally didn't know why Guan Yu and the others moved all the troops away.In fact, since Cao Hong, Xu Huang and others are veteran generals who have experienced many battles, if it is a fake defeat, no matter how pretending you are, you will still be seen through.Therefore, Meng Da and the more than 6000 defenders were all used as bargaining chips to lure the enemy, and if they were not done well, they would all be killed.

This is also a matter of no choice. In order to deceive Cao Pi, this capital still needs to be paid.However, what even Zhuge Liang didn't expect was that just because Meng Da was greedy for life and afraid of death, the fake show was actually done, and in the end it made the effect more realistic.After Xu Huang besieged the city, he did not directly attack the city, but sent people to persuade him to surrender.He clearly told Meng Da that his strength was almost ten times that of Meng Da.If you want to resist, you can break through Wancheng in a day at most.At that time, there will be no one left in the whole city.

Faced with such an aggressive ultimatum, as well as his previous resentment against Guan Yu's troop transfer plan, and the fact that he was a cowardly boy who was greedy for life and afraid of death, Meng Da didn't need to bear any psychological pressure, and soon agreed to surrender.

"Congratulations to General Meng for abandoning the dark and turning to the bright!" Although he despised Meng Da's character extremely, Xu Huang still had to say something about these scenes.Meng Da was the same as the previous one. Immediately after he surrendered, he played the role of counterattack and reckoning: "General Xu, there are only about 3 infantry in Jingzhou, and the rest are county soldiers. Even Xiangyang, which is important, has only There are [-] defenders, and Fancheng has only [-]. The general will send his troops south as soon as possible, and Jingbei will be settled in one fell swoop!"

"Thank you, General Meng!" Xu Huang actually already knew the distribution of the Jingzhou Army from Xizuo. The defenders stayed in Wancheng to guard against the enemy from Guanzhong. Xu Huang led his army to continue southward, attacking Anzhong, going down to Jiadeng County, and even Xiangyang, Fancheng and Xinye.

At the same time, Cao Zhang's 5 horses came to Xuchang, and the guard of Xuchang was Zhang Da, who was left behind by Li Yan.Like Meng Da, when this guy saw Cao Zhen's soldiers pressing down on the border, he didn't resist at all, and immediately surrendered in Kaesong.After Cao Zhen entered the city to appease the hearts of the people, at the same time he ordered someone to report to Cao Hong, who was sitting in Hulao Pass, so that he could make a decision as soon as possible.

"Okay, King Zhongshan and Gongming are indeed great generals. In just two days, they have penetrated more than 200 miles into the enemy's territory. It can be said that they are making rapid progress!" Cao Hong said happily when he saw the military report sent by the two.I knew that Guan Yu's lair was empty, but I didn't expect it to go so smoothly.The defenders of Wancheng and Xuchang Kaesong surrendered. Although several small counties resisted along the way, they were all quickly wiped out.Now Xu Huang has conquered Nanxiang and Xinye, and the soldiers are pointing directly at Fancheng.

"The defender of Fancheng is Guan Yu's eldest son, Guan Ping. If he can be captured or beheaded, his morale will be greatly boosted, and Jing Xiang will be settled at one stroke. But hurry, Guan Yu and others get the news of Jingzhou's attack. After the news, we will definitely return to help. If we don't capture Fancheng as soon as possible, I'm afraid I won't be able to gain a foothold in Nanyang!" Cheng Yu also remonstrated.Naturally, Cao Hong knew the key point, and immediately ordered someone to send thunderbolt chariots to the front line overnight to help attack the city, and also sent someone to inform Cao Pi of the battle situation here as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)