Lu Meng led his troops out of Hefei, probably on the twelfth lunar month of the second year of Zhangwu.
It was snowy and freezing in the middle of winter, and the Wu people had no horses, so they had to wear winter clothes and walk in thigh-deep snow, so they walked very slowly. In addition, after entering Xuzhou, the people's livelihood was extremely poor along the way. Many people from the East went to Muling Pass to guard, and no one came to provide food and grass for Lu Meng's men. As a result, Lu Meng had to rest halfway and contact various cities in Xuzhou with Cao Cao's handwritten letters. Such a delay A lot of time. So when the Wu people arrived at Langya Jiqiu, it was already the end of February Yi.
Lu Meng discovered the situation at this time and learned that Linzi had been heavily surrounded by a hundred thousand troops from the Western Dynasty. Donglai County had fallen, and only Muling Pass was still holding on. He couldn't help but be shocked. He said to his deputy Zhu Ran: "Short of this In just three months, unexpectedly, the situation has deteriorated to this point. If we fail to win this battle, I am afraid that the people of the world will be determined." For this reason, he decided to disobey Sun Quan's instructions before leaving, and led his troops to attack the Western Army, first defeating Yuan Tan, and then relieving the siege of Linzi City. .
It's just that the Western Army has many cavalry and heavy armor. If they fight in the field, they may not be able to win. Lu Meng thought for a long time and planned to win outwitness.
He heard that Yuan Tan, in addition to the confrontation at Mulinguan, also sent envoys to various counties in Xuzhou to recruit surrender, and he immediately began to think of fake surrender. He mobilized the Xuzhou soldiers under his command and combined them into a battalion, led by Pan Zhang. They then put on the Eastern clothes and Eastern army flags obtained from various cities in Xuzhou, and then sent envoys to Yuan Tan's tribe through the path. They falsely claimed that they were from Xue Feng, the governor of the East China Sea, and were stationed near Jiqiu. There were about 3,000 men under them. At this time, they were all willing to surrender to the court.
Although Yuan Tan didn't know the news about Lu Meng's reinforcements, he was also quite unfamiliar with this surrender. He and the envoy asked about Xuzhou's geography and customs in detail as a test. But the envoy was originally from Xuzhou. He had participated in the Battle of Xiapi with Zhou Yu in his early years, and he knew the geography of Xuzhou well. However, when he asked questions, he always answered them fluently, which made Yuan Tan put aside his doubts. Yuan Tan was overjoyed and immediately came up with a plan to send these surrender troops to Muling Pass to try to deceive the gates of Guancheng. The two sides agreed to raise three white flags on the city as a signal. Once the city gate is opened, the Han army will take advantage of the opportunity to invade the pass, and Muling will be within easy reach.
After receiving the reply, Lu Meng immediately smiled and said: "I originally expected General Pan to attack on the battlefield, but Yuan Tan didn't think it was enough and actually wanted to trap himself in a desperate situation." So he contacted Yuan Xi in Muling Pass. On the Gengzi Day in February, Yuan Xi lit up three white flags on Guancheng and then opened the city gates. Yuan Tan was overjoyed when he saw this and immediately led his troops to attack the city.
Unexpectedly, as they were leading the crowd into the city, drums suddenly sounded loudly on the city wall, and arrows rained down from both sides of the Guan ultimatum. The Western Army soldiers were caught off guard, and while they were in panic, countless Eastern Army sergeants emerged from the houses, holding long swords and bows. The swords clashed with the Western Army. The Western Army's formation was scattered and they could only retreat hurriedly outside Guancheng. However, Lu Meng also led 5,000 elites and walked around the north side of Guancheng via a small path. He joined forces with Yuan Xili in the city and defeated the thousands of Han who entered the city. The legions surrounded him and captured all of them, including Yuan Tan, the governor of Puyang of the Western Army.
Yuan Xi and Yuan Tan, as flesh and blood brothers, finally met again after many years. Although one was a prisoner, the other was also in a difficult situation. Both of them were lamenting for a while. Yuan Tan asked Yuan Xi: "Now Cao Cao is in a state of poverty. Why should Xian Yong be buried with the Eastern Dynasty? I have discussed with Your Majesty that as long as Xian Yong surrenders, he will be safe. Wouldn't it be a good thing for you and me to reunite as brothers?"
Then he persuaded Lu Meng: "You are from Wu. You should know that the Sun family has been friendly with the imperial court for many years and has no enmity. Why should you be stubborn? You are very talented. I can speak to your majesty on your behalf, reward your merits and make you a marquis. In the future, the three princes will be Who it is, I don’t know.”
Lu Meng was speechless for a moment, but Yuan Xi was furious when he heard this. He drew his knife and cursed: "Liu Bei killed your own father, and also Xianfu (Yuan Shang), and had a blood feud with your family, but you spoke for him. You are really heartless and heartless." You are a righteous man! I think you are my brother, so I spared your life just now. If you say that again, I will cut out your tongue!"
Yuan Tan smiled bitterly and said: "When you are here, you want my family to be prosperous. If you cause my family to be exterminated, how can I see you?" After hearing this, Yuan Xi stopped talking and said Yuan Tan detained the city and planned with Lu Meng how to go to Linzi to relieve the siege. Lu Meng thought that since the Western Army had many cavalry, field battles on the plains would be unfavorable, and there were many mountains in the southeast of Linzi. It was better to march along the mountains, build forts along the mountains, and camp step by step, forcing Liu Bei to lead his troops up the mountains to fight and delay the siege. Waiting for Sun Quan to lead troops to invade Yuzhou, maybe he can make the Western Army withdraw.
Yuan Xi agreed with Lu Meng's idea and left two thousand soldiers and horses to guard Yuan Tan and Muling Pass. He led the remaining troops to merge with Lu Meng, and the two armies totaled 30,000 troops and marched towards Linzi. It was mid-spring, the breeze was blowing, the twigs were green, and the scent of warblers and flowers was heard all the way. However, as he got closer to Linzi, Lu Meng noticed something was wrong. The smoke from people's cooking stoves along the road became less and less. As he got closer to Linzi, For about twenty-five miles, the surrounding area was deserted and there was no one around. It was really strange.
When the scouts from the front came back to report, Lu Meng figured out the whole story: It turned out that the reason why the Western Army relocated the people was to imitate the tactics used to quell Gengcang in the sixth year of Yanxing, build a dam on the lower reaches of the Zi River, and conduct another flood. Linzi!
This suddenly made Lu Meng realize, and then he felt embarrassed. Once the Han army starts a water attack, the area around Linzi will be reduced to a swamp, and no one except the boat master will be able to enter or exit at all. In this case, the Han army could calmly shrink its defense line and just stick its troops around the embankment, which would be enough to besiege the city. The original plan to contain the Western army step by step might be scrapped because of this.
Forced into desperation, Lu Meng and Yuan Xi decided to launch a storm before the Western Army completed the dam construction. The location of the attack was chosen on King Yao Mountain in the southwest of Linzi. The terrain here was complex. Once the attack was unfavorable, the Wu army could retreat into the mountains. It would be difficult for the Westerners on horseback to catch up. But Lu Meng thought with some self-deprecation: If he had not had the idea of a big victory from the beginning, the final result would have been nothing more than harassment.
Around that night, the moon occasionally appeared through the sparse gaps in the clouds, adding a gloomy and miserable light to the earth, as if it was not shining on the human world. At midnight, the Wu people moved forward in a winding column through the mountain roads, and no other orders were passed down. Although they had rested once before, people mostly walked on their own feet and could not help but feel a little tired at this time, even the sharpest scouts.
The scout who left the group couldn't keep up his energy in the hazy white. In order to prevent himself from falling asleep, he could only keep pinching the back of his hand. At this time, they finally walked out of the foothills and saw masses of orange-red light and shadow in front of them. Only then did he realize that the army was already less than three miles away from the Western Army.
Lu Meng immediately cheered up and led 2,000 Danyang elite soldiers with Pan Zhang to lurk in a hillock about half a mile in front of the camp. After the follow-up troops gathered a little, they suddenly launched a fierce attack into the west camp and soon penetrated it. The sentry guards formed a temporary defense line and rushed straight into the Western Army's tents. Then they roared and set fire among the staff in an attempt to disrupt the morale of the Western Army.
The person guarding this place happened to be the general Guan Yu. He happened to be completely sleepless that night, so he lit up the lamp in front of the table and read the "Book of Han". At this time, he heard that there was a chaos outside the camp, and saw the fire roaring through the curtain, so he immediately mentioned Yanyue Dao came out of the camp to see. At this time, many soldiers around were at a loss and could not tell how many people were coming to camp. When they saw someone running to the north, they ran north like avalanches of snow and rushed past Guan Yu's main tent like a tide. When Guan Yu saw this, he did not use military law. Instead, he forcibly gathered some soldiers and asked, "How many people are coming to the camp?" Everyone was in a panic and couldn't tell, but they only said that there were many people. Guan Yu then said: "They are just little thieves who want to take advantage of the darkness to bluff people. What is there to be afraid of? You follow me and wait until I kill them. If I am defeated, it will not be too late to retreat."
After saying that, Guan Yu called the names of a few of his confidants, formed a small circle and walked forward. The soldiers passing by saw that the general was in the light of the fire, but he was as calm as walking on the ground. They couldn't help but feel admiration, and encouraged each other: "The general is the best warrior in the world. With him in charge, the thieves are just asking for trouble!" So he gathered his thoughts and called on his colleagues around him to form a formation and follow him.
In the night when darkness and firelight danced wildly, Westerners could not actually see the direction of the battlefield clearly. They could only instinctively judge the brutality of the fighting based on the speed of travel ahead. But the Western soldiers at the rear were surprised to find that they had followed the general for two moments without stopping. It seemed as if there had never been an enemy in front of them, but they could clearly hear the sound of gold and iron clashing in front of them. and cruel wails. It turned out that the Wu people who came to camp could not stop Guan Yu in the slightest.
The Wu army did not expect to encounter such a strong counterattack after the camp was closed. The generals were short of breath and at a loss. Lü Meng quickly shouted to the surroundings, so that the soldiers could only retreat while firing arrows, trying to retreat into the mountains as planned. However, the camp was cramped and the soldiers were physically and mentally exhausted. Many Wu people could no longer fight after firing their bows several times.
Wu Jun tried to escape to the mountains again. It was easier to go down the mountain than it was to go up the mountain. The soldiers could not outrun the Westerners who had just had a good sleep. As soon as the two sides came into contact, they were instantly defeated. If it weren't for the fact that Guan Yu only had more than 3,000 troops around him, most of Wu's army would have been killed here. But even so, Pan Zhang and more than 2,000 Wu troops died in the battle, and more than 4,000 Wu troops were captured by the Han army. Seeing this, Lu Meng had to lead his remaining troops to retreat to Muling Pass.
As a result, halfway through the journey, Yuan Xi received another news, saying that the soldiers who stayed in Guancheng had been persuaded by Yuan Tan and had agreed to surrender to the Western Army, and asked Yuan Xi to join him anyway. Yuan Xi was filled with anger when he heard this. Killed the messenger who came to say surrender. But it was of no use. Since Guancheng had fallen into the hands of the Western Army, they had no choice but to lead the Wu Army along the Haiqu Trail and quickly leave the Qingzhou battlefield before Guan Yu's army launched a pursuit. The transcoding has been serious recently, which makes us more motivated and updates faster. Please use your little hands to exit the reading mode. Thanks
