In November of the 17th year of Yanxing, the Dongfu Army received news from Hebei, saying that the Eastern Dynasty had begun to move to various counties, claiming to crusade against Liu Bei's unfaithful act of usurpation. Then there was a large-scale military mobilization in Hebei. The armies of Youzhou and Jizhou began to gather in Xindu, making a gesture of going south to regain Yanzhou. Various places also stepped up preparations to supply food and supplies in preparation for a long war.
This information made Yuan Tan, the governor of Xingyang, quite nervous. While he was organizing his army to guard the eastern border, he also asked Liu Bei to come out and take charge of the overall situation. But it was obviously impossible for Liu Bei to agree. He was busy with various matters concerning the kingship at this time, and it was difficult to get away. At the same time, he also considered that the Dongfu Army had basically occupied the important town of Yanzhou, and his 60,000 troops were quite strong and should be able to resist. The Eastern Dynasty after the great loss.
Therefore, Liu Bei arranged for Feixin to say: If the Eastern Dynasty really wants to mobilize its entire country to attack Yanzhou, he can first concentrate his forces, with Huang Zhong guarding Puyang, Qianzhao guarding Dong'a, Wang Lang guarding Lu County, and he will put the main force in Dongping to suppress the battle. Cao Cao will not dare to risk going deep. . When the spring floods come again next year, if he does not retreat, Liu Bei will lead his army to attack the heart of Hebei. It is impossible to say that he will be successful in one battle. But now that the country was at odds with Sun Ce, he had to keep troops in Ruyin and Longkang at all times to prevent the Huainan army from taking advantage of the situation.
However, these arrangements were of no use. By the time Liu Bei's letter reached Yuan Tan, Hebei's intention had become very obvious: going south to Yanzhou was just a cover. Just when the Henan area was under strong security and faced a formidable enemy, the 70,000 troops gathered in Xindu suddenly rushed north. They did not go to Juyongguan to try to take back the upper valley, but suddenly headed eastward, under the guidance of the Wuhuan people. , their troops left Lulongsai, crossed the Songling Mountains, and entered Liaodong from Liucheng.
At this time, it had been about twenty years since Gongsun Du, the governor of Liaodong, occupied Liaodong, and nearly ten years since the confrontation between the East and West. Although there were successive wars between the East and West in the past ten years, which affected large areas of land in Kansai and Kanto, they had nothing to do with the land of ice and snow in Liaodong.
Gongsun Du saw that the Central Plains was in chaos and it was difficult to reach the northern lands, so he wanted to separatist rule again. He cultivated the land deeply, expanded the east coast, and conquered foreign barbarians, such as Fuyu, Goguryeo, Samhan and other countries. Also protected by it. This made him so satisfied that he named himself Pingzhou Mu and became the third largest country north of the Huaihe River.
In the twelfth year of Yanxing's reign, Gongsun Du fell seriously ill and died, and his son Gongsun Kang succeeded to the throne. Gongsun Kang was also talented. He adhered to his father's strategy during his lifetime and continued to attack Goguryeo and the three Han Dynasties. Finally, in the fifteenth year of Yanxing, he broke through the capital of Goguryeo and recruited more than 100,000 soldiers. At this point, the Liaodong Gongsun clan occupied the five counties of Liaodong, Xuantu, Changli, Lelang and Daifang, with no less than 50,000 armored soldiers under their command, which could be said to be a prosperous period.
However, the world is unpredictable and fate is difficult to predict. At the end of the 16th year, the Xiangping regime began to wither like a begonia after autumn. The reason is also very simple. Pingzhou Mu Gongsun Kang contracted roaring disease, and then his condition worsened rapidly, and he finally died suddenly in May of the 17th year. Although his younger brother Gongsun Gong chose to keep the funeral secret after he succeeded the governor of Liaodong, the political situation in Liaodong was not something that the Ming Dynasty could not suppress. Gongsun Gong was frail and sick, and was born an eunuch, so it was difficult to convince the public. Goguryeo and other countries soon guessed the reason, and each set up their own borders to attack Xiangping.
However, no one expected that the first one to take action was Dongchao who was in danger. Cao Cao followed Xun Yu's last words and changed his strategy to a long-term separatist regime. When he learned that Gongsun Kang was seriously ill, he was overjoyed and lied to the outside world that he was going south to regain lost territory. In fact, he had completely abandoned Yanzhou and made preparations for plotting in Liaodong.
Cao Cao's plan was not unreasonable. As the Dong people appeared at the gate of Liucheng like heavenly soldiers and generals, the Liao people were completely frightened and surrendered to Kaicheng without any resistance. Then Cao Cao was able to occupy important towns such as Changli and Bindu, cross Yiwulu Mountain, and enter the coast of Liaoze.
It was the first month of the year, and the ice on Liaoze was as hard as stone. When Xiangping received the news, the Eastern Dynasty army had already paved the road with withered grass and successfully crossed the river on the ice. The soldiers stationed in the Liao Army could already see Cao Cao's flag from the wall.
At this time, the Western Dynasty finally figured out the movements of the Eastern Dynasty. Faced with this situation where the main force of Kanto was exhausted, both governments clearly realized that this was a rare opportunity to attack. The king's minister ordered Xun You to suggest that we should march eastward immediately, saying: "Today the east is broken and people's hearts are in confusion. Since they want to live in the bitter cold land of Liao and Yan, and it is difficult to return to the west in a hurry, we should let Hebei belong to our country! The country has already captured Yanzhou, and can start from Hanoi , Puyang took advantage of the situation, surrounded Yecheng, and gradually turned away from the guests, then the most beautiful land in Hebei can be easily obtained!"
Chen Chong also strongly agreed with this strategy. He said to Liu Bei: "The situation has changed. The time to attack Hebei has come. We only worry about Yecheng being a strong city in the world, so we can't attack it in a hurry. You can try to attack it. If the city's defenses are formidable, then You can also reap real benefits by moving the people from Guangzhou to Yanzhou. Over time, other people's hearts will be turbulent. If you continue to lure them with benefits, Yecheng will come sooner or later!"
Liu Bei was convinced that it was only a matter of time before Cao Cao captured Liaodong. Without further delay, he immediately sent an order to the Central Army, Beifu and Dongfu, ordering the three armies to assemble at the North Pass of Heqiao, intending to attack eastward with 120,000 troops. Ye, then Qingqi left the city and went straight to Luoyang with Guan Yu and his staff. At the same time, the Sili Mansion also began to intensively prepare relevant supplies and coordinate with civil affairs and civil servants. Time is very tight, but fortunately, last year's war went very smoothly, which saved a considerable amount of soldiers, armor and food in Luoyang's treasury, so it is expected to launch the cross-river offensive within one month.
When the time came to Renshen in February, Liu Bei, the acting king, led his army across the Qinshui River, deployed on the north bank of the river, and began to besiege the Eastern Dynasty strongholds. The Easterners were obviously well prepared to deal with the siege. All the cities had deep ditches and high fortifications, and towers were erected to resist the siege, which made Liu Bei quite troublesome. After all, siege is a hard job. Even if the Western Army has an overwhelming strength advantage, it still takes time to eliminate them one by one.
After the first spring flood, Liu Bei took a preliminary warning and successfully captured the two cities of Shanyang and Xiuwu, and advanced to Ji County. The good news reached Chang'an, and the whole court was excited. Ji County was the biggest barrier south of Yecheng. If it was breached, there would be no obstacle in front of the imperial army and they could go straight to the military capital of the East.
However, just two days later, public opinion in North Korea and China changed again.
The reason was that Wei Yan of Nanyang sent a battle report and told the court that after the water rose sharply, the Shu army suddenly raised the flag and sailed into the Han River with a stern boat, then stationed at Yuliangzhou, and used it to cross the river and cross the north bank. They marched by land and water to completely block Fancheng. The scouts looked at the strength of the troops and feared that the number of people who came was not less than 70,000.
After the incident spread, both the civil and military classes became nervous. After Wu and Shu jointly attacked Jingzhou last year, the Westerners carefully collected the details before and after the battle and submitted them to the two governments for reference in preparation for future wars. After tasting it, all the generals marveled at the sophistication of the Shu army's march, the boldness of their arrangements, and the determination of the battle. They all praised it as a classic battle example that can be studied repeatedly. As the mastermind, Liu Fan himself was regarded by the court as a major problem second only to Cao Cao. Therefore, seeing how fierce Liu Fan's attack was this time, the DPRK quickly proposed a petition, hoping that Chen Chong would go to Wancheng to take charge of the overall situation as he did last year.
But Chen Chong had his own judgment. He believed that he had made sufficient arrangements in Nanyang for half a year last year. He had already reinforced Fancheng and Deng County, which were on the front line of the Shu army. The people of Shu have also been relocated to Xi'e and Bowang areas by him. It is difficult for the Shu army to recruit civilians for food on the spot, and the siege of the city will be difficult. In addition, although the Shu army had many buildings and ships, it was bound to lack horses, so Chen Chong also equipped Nanfu with 20,000 Longshang horses, which was enough to enable Wei Yan to gallop across the Yangtze River and Han Dynasty and establish an advantage in field battles. As long as this is delayed until August and the dry season arrives, the Shu army will have no choice but to retreat.
However, there are always accidents in everything, especially in wars involving life and death. Such accidents are especially common. Therefore, although Chen Chong politely rejected the proposal to stay in Wancheng, he still made preparations just in case. He sent an order to Duan Xuan, ordering him to send Ma Chao and Yan Xing to lead eight thousand cavalry to Chang'an. If there were any adverse signs in the war, Chen Chong would lead them to Nanyang for reinforcements. In addition, Chen Chong also attached a letter to Duan Xuan saying: "It is certain that the Shu army launched a major war in Jianghan, but Liu Fan Su was surprised. Since Chencang is adjacent to Hanzhong, you should also take strict precautions."
However, Chen Chong's judgment was wrong this time. By the end of March, the spring tide broke out, and even the upper reaches of the Han River began to rise continuously. This caused a fleet to set out from Nanzheng and follow the tide down the river. Chenggu, Xicheng, Xixian, and then appeared under Wudang City in Nanyang.
At this time, Wudang was unprepared, and there were only 800 defenders in the city. Under sudden siege, even an alarm could not be sent. Then the Shu people's arrows flew like rain, crushing the guards so hard that they could not lift their heads. The Shu army attacked forcefully and entered the inner city in two days. Although the soldiers were bloody and unyielding, all of them died in the battle.
After occupying Wudang, the Shu army did not join the Fancheng army. Instead, they disembarked and headed north. Under the guidance of Pan Jun, they headed straight for Nanxiang. Nanxiang did not receive the warning and saw thousands of people coming from the south of the city. They thought it was Fancheng army. Defeated, the guard general Kou Gang abandoned the city and fled. The rest of the guards also lost their fighting spirit. They publicly recommended Rangxian military commander Liu Tai to open the door and surrender.
Once the city of Nanxiang was captured, all the 100,000 hu of military supplies in the city fell into the hands of the Shu people. However, the greater danger was strategic. The fall of Nanxiang not only meant that the western shield of Wancheng was gone, but also meant that the Shu army could occupy Danshui and cut off the connection between Nanyang and Guanzhong.
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Fortunately, Kou Gang escaped quickly enough. He rode two hundred miles in one night, from Nanxiang to Shang County. On the way, he was discovered by the chief of Changqiu Pavilion, who arrested him on the spot and kidnapped him and sent him to the county magistrate, who interrogated his identity. , after learning about it, I realized that the military situation in Nanyang was in serious danger, so I reported to Chang'an overnight.
When the Sili Mansion heard that Nanxiang had been lost, Chen Chong almost immediately began to prepare for reinforcements. However, only four days later, Shangluo continued to report, saying that the Shu army had taken advantage of the opportunity to break through Wuguan due to their consecutive victories, and the troops were far away from Shang. The county is less than a hundred miles away. This news made Chen Chong suddenly change his color. He sent a rare message to Pei Jun, the magistrate of the book merchant, and ordered him to behead Kou Gang on the spot. He also sent a message to all counties in Guanzhong to show the public.
