The war in Henan quickly developed into unexpected situations.
After the Yanzhou Army crossed the chasm, although the Han Army reorganized its army, it did not take a counterattack posture. Instead, it repaired the city and barracks on the west bank and camped for nearly 200 miles from Xingyang to Kaifeng. Geng Cang Army also followed on the east bank. The company's camp stretches from Hucheng to Chenliu, about three hundred miles. Both sides have high bases and deep ditches, and they are not fighting.
At this moment of confrontation between the two armies, General Liu Bei issued two guilt orders to Hanoi and Yuzhou.
The first criminal order was to order Wang Kuang, the governor of Hanoi, to come to Xingyang to report on his duties and explain why he could not stop the Black Mountain Army. After Wang Kuang arrived in Xingyang, Liu Bei immediately ordered Jingzhao Yin Sima Fang to go to Hanoi to practice martial arts, take over Wang Kuang's army alone, and temporarily serve as the prefect of Hanoi.
The second crime order was to disparage the later general Yuan Shu. Chen Chong had previously made a special presentation to the emperor in court, telling the story of Yuan Shu's right and wrong in conquering Dong: Although he was successful in conquering Dong, he withdrew his troops without authorization when he was about to conquer Dong Chui. During this period, he privately occupied Yuzhou and Jingzhou, and privately carved seals. . If the merits and demerits of these arrogant acts can be balanced, then now he has sent troops to Yangzhou, privately killed the governor of a state, attacked the country's county guards, and detained the imperial envoys. His crimes are horrifying and have reached the point of being unforgivable. Therefore, the imperial court called on all the prefectures and states under Yuan Shu's rule to guard each other, abandon the dark side and surrender to the bright side, and welcome Zhengshuo. If he succeeds in defeating Yuan Shu, he can also be promoted to a high rank and receive great rewards.
Later, Liu Bei sent Guo Kai to the counties in Yuzhou to publicize the matter. Liu Deran was sent to lead two thousand soldiers and horses to Yingchuan and took over the defense of Yingchuan in the name of general. Qiao Yun, the prefect of Yingchuan appointed by Yuan Shu, saw that there was a large army approaching from the north and did not dare to resist. Yingchuan County also fell into the hands of the Han army. .
After Chen Wang Liu Chong learned the news, he also sent a letter to Xingyang in Chen County, saying that he also had more than 10,000 soldiers under his command and was willing to raise troops in Chen State to respond. Liu Bei happily replied and gave him the power to recruit troops and control the counties in Yuzhou.
Most of these measures were planned by military advisors to offer wine to Xu Shu. When Cao Cao abandoned the city and came to surrender, he analyzed the situation and said that since he knew that Yanzhou's fortified city was completely in the hands of the enemy, and that he was unwilling to join the battle with our army, it was obvious that he wanted to defend the city until I attacked. If the army fails to attack the city, its morale is exhausted, and the enemy's army waits for work, the offensive and defensive momentum will be reversed in an instant. The current plan is to lengthen the front and contain all the enemy's main forces here, consuming food and resources, unable to advance, unable to retreat, then the morale of the army will be easily disordered, and it will be broken but it can be achieved.
Therefore, the Han army took the initiative to extend the front line and opened additional battlefields in Hanoi and Yingchuan outside Henan. The front line of both sides further expanded to more than 400 miles. On this long front, the Han army on the west bank has integrated troops and horses from the three states of You, Yan and Jing, and its number has reached 100,000. The Gengcang side on the east coast is even more exaggerated. Guan Hai, Zhang Yan, and Wu Ba have all rushed to the front line of Honggou. Together with Guan Cheng, who is still guarding Xiahou Dun and Cao Ren, the number of troops at the front and rear is close to 300,000. It is said that it is overwhelming. The army of the country is not an exaggeration.
The accumulation of troops on both sides reached an alarming level, but the battle line was extremely peaceful. Except for Chen Wang and Liu Chong who led their troops into Yanzhou from time to time to harass, the two sides remained in a stalemate on the east and west sides of the divide. At least the soldiers were firing arrows back and forth on the shore. There were not many casualties, and soldiers from both sides even began to cultivate fields on the defensive ground. The war continued until the summer wheat harvest season, and there was no sign of ending.
By the eighth day of June, Chen Chong waited for the summer harvest to be on track and began to clean up the domestic economy.
Since Dong Zhuo came to power, Dong Zhuo has been collecting bronzes from all over the country and casting them into small coins. Even the twelve bronze figures left by the First Emperor were not spared. In the end, only one bronze figure was left. The small coins made were small and thin, not only light in weight, but also the writing on them was blurred, and it was unknown how many impurities were mixed in. However, Dong Zhuo forced him to do so by force, and asked his subordinates to buy and sell goods for small amounts of money, and to collect supplies for military supplies.
Three years later, Dong Zhuo's camp was magnificent and magnificent, but the people suffered greatly. Everyone knows that small money is cheap, so they either buy it at a discount or simply throw it away. As a result, prices across the country have skyrocketed, and rice, grain, silk and cloth are a hundred times more expensive than usual. Today, the five baht is almost no longer used in various places in Kansai, and rice grains are used as currency for transactions.
Prior to this, Chen Chong resettled all subordinate officials in Chang'an. He first transferred the gold and silver of the Shaofu to Taicang, and then transferred the gold and silver of the Xiongnu royal court to Taicang. Then in March, he sent people to all the counties in Guandong to convey orders. It was said that before June, if merchants came to Chang'an to buy or sell goods, the state would buy them with gold and silver, and no customs duties would be collected by the counties along the way. Merchants from various states were outraged when they heard this, and traveled thousands of miles to come to the west city of Chang'an, even if they were affiliated to Some of the more prosperous Xuzhou merchants went to Chang'an to sell cloth and brocade.
In March, all officials sold official paper, official brocade, and official salt, and purchased goods with Taicang gold and silver. They obtained 140,000 pieces of cloth, more than 30,000 horses, and 2 million shi of corn and other grains.
Now, Chen Chong felt that everything was ready, so he ordered all the officials from Chang'an to go to various places in Sanfu and issue the money exchange order. That is, exchange new money for small coins, and exchange a hundred Dong Zhuo five bahts for one Yanxing five baht.
As soon as this order came out, the big families everywhere were in an uproar. Although the new five baht issued by the imperial court were exquisite in style and sufficient in weight, Dong Zhuo's five baht was indeed despicable, but how could one new money be worth a hundred? Although the head of Guizhou suffered the most from petty money, he had little savings, and those with the most petty money were the rich and powerful. For a time, there were many petitions from all over the country asking Chen Chong to cancel the money exchange order.
So when the officials were buying grain in various places in Sanfu, the wealthy families in various places were hoarding grain and raising the price of food, and at the same time they sent people to exchange money for the grain at the officials. They hoped that by doing so, the officials would have no food to exchange, and the money exchange order would naturally That's all.
Unexpectedly, all the officials in each county had more than 200,000 dendrobium in grain reserves. No matter how much the wealthy families in the three auxiliaries hoarded grain, the county government always had grain to exchange, so that the local grain prices did not rise but fell. By the beginning of July, the autumn harvest had begun. While collecting taxes from various counties, the imperial court also used new money to purchase surplus grain from farmers. The wealthy families in various places were afraid that grain prices would continue to fall, so they could only exchange all the small money in their hands for new money.
By this time, the market price of grain had stabilized at more than 20 new qian a dou, and all the officials bought grain from wealthy families in various places at a price of 30 new qian a dou, and all of them sold it. By the end of August, the money exchange orders in various places in Sanfu were basically implemented. Chen Chong recovered nearly 4 billion Dong Zhuo's five bahts, and issued only about 300 million Yanxing five bahts. The small money from various places was recycled, and hundreds of millions of new money could be obtained.
Taking this opportunity, Chen Chong established uprising warehouses in Guanzhong and Bingzhou counties. The charity warehouse is under the control of Junshu officials. According to regulations, if there is a good harvest, all counties can buy grain and store it in the warehouse. If there is a famine, all counties can sell grain to provide relief. In this way, disasters can be prevented and people can be saved. urgency.
Within half a year, the scenery in Guanzhong was greatly improved, and the people all rejoiced and sang: "The Han family is prosperous, and there is a strong courtyard. I wonder when the Yellow River will clear, and the defeated Chanjuan will also be in peace." This is to praise the scene in the first year of Yanxing. In the past, Those local powerful and famous people who opposed the money exchange order had to admit: "Guan Zhong's governance in Qi State is nothing more than this."
In contrast, there was still no major progress in the war in Kanto. It was not until the end of July that the situation on the battlefield finally changed.
After Cao Cao arrived in Henan, he often talked to Liu Bei. Xiahou Dun, Cao Ren and other 20,000 soldiers were still besieged in Shanyang. If they sit idly by and do nothing to save them, they will hurt the morale of the army and lose the strength of the troops. Send troops immediately to relieve the siege. Liu Bei kept saying that the time had not come yet and refused to send troops. He also built more than a hundred boats at the river bridge.
Until June and July, there were heavy rains in Henan and the rivers swelled. Liu Bei sent Guan Yu and more than 6,000 men to take a boat and suddenly went down the river. Geng Cang's army was not good at water warfare and did not expect such a strange move. Guan Yu succeeded in breaking out of the encirclement and was unable to catch up.
After Guan Yu re-entered Yanzhou, he boated from Puyang south to Juyeze, then detoured from Juyeze to the southwest, entered Jishui from Heze, and headed straight to the city of Changyi. Changyi City was built on the water, and Guan Chengbu could only surround the city on three sides. At this time, he suddenly saw a large ship riding the waves from the water, as if there was no one to stop the giant water beast. The soldiers along the coast were shot with arrows by the archers on the ship, but they were unable to fight back. In the end, they had no choice but to break the siege and watched helplessly as the Yanzhou soldiers, who had been besieged for nearly three months, left with the ship.
After the rendezvous, Guan Yu immediately marched eastward, repeated his old tricks to relieve Dongmin, and rescued Cao Ren's tribe. Then he went south to Pei County, and grandly abandoned his ship ashore from Pei State, which was ruled by Yuan Shu.
During the Battle of Guangcheng, Sun Xiang Xu Kun, who stayed in Peixian County, had a good relationship with Guan Yu. When they met again, they naturally drank and talked happily. After all, after the guilt order was issued, Sun Jian's old men were doubtful about following Yuan Shu, but Yuan Shu was really generous to his subordinates. No fewer than six people in Sun Jian's old men were promoted to county guards, which made them unable to make up their minds anyway. When they met Guan Yu at this time, they wanted to sell it on both sides. How could they treat Guan Yu badly?
So Guan Yu led nearly 30,000 people to stay overnight in Peixian County for two days. After a hearty meal on the third day, Shi Shiran left Peixian County and detoured from Linsui and Qiao County to Chen State to talk with Liu Chong, the king of Chen. After some time, they rested in Chen Guo for five days before returning to Henan from Yingchuan.
The two sides had been confronting each other for nearly half a year, and both sides were actually a little tired. However, Guan Yu's trip to Yanzhou at this time prompted both sides to make changes. Although Guan Yu did not defeat the enemy, he traveled freely between the two states and rescued 20,000 people who were about to die. This greatly increased the morale of the Han army and depressed the morale of the Gengcang army. There were vague requests from various departments to withdraw their troops.
Guan Hai, the leader of the army, could not suppress the internal opinions, so he had to send troops to Linzi and asked General Zhang Rao to come and take charge of the overall situation.
After Zhang Rao thought deeply, he led the shogunate to move to Dingtao and inspected the situation of the front army. After Liu Ye saw that the garrisons on both sides were solid and could not be easily overcome by soldiers, he agreed to let the sergeants of each department take turns to rest in Yanzhou, leaving only 100,000 people on the east bank of the divide. In addition, he also suggested that Zhang Rao set up iron cables in the north of Puyang City to cross the river to prevent the Han army from breaking through the river defenses here again, and Zhang Rao followed suit.
Seeing that a large army was withdrawing from the chasm, the Han army tentatively launched a pursuit. However, the Gengcang camp was heavily defended and the Han army failed to make any gains, so they had to withdraw along the original road.
The two sides seemed to be in a stalemate.
