Back to the Han army, the day after Sima Yi unexpectedly attacked Xiang Xiang, Guan Yu had led his army to Xiangshan, fifty miles southwest of Pengcheng. The 160,000-strong army formed a snake shape and circled the mountain three times, camping with its back to the water. Its army was huge, and its flags spread all over the mountains and fields, covering the trees. At the foot of the mountain, there are groups of troops and horses, piles of carriages, and a company camp covering more than twenty miles. The Wu scouts had never seen such a large army, and they did not dare to approach when they saw it from a distance. They hurriedly reported to Pengcheng guard Jiao Chu. At this time, Yuan Xi had already gone to Xiapi. Jiao Chu did not dare to make any decisions, so he ordered the general to cage the city. Stay high and avoid the battle.
Guan Yu was not impatient about this. He knew very well that with a superior force, the most important thing for the superior side was to be slow and slow and not let the enemy see any flaws. The chance of winning was 80-90%, not to mention that he had already sent Sima Yi, a surprise force. Therefore, while inspecting the various ministries in the camp, he wrote to inquire about the emperor's itinerary, intending to make a decision after receiving news from the south.
The news of Sima Yi arrived one day later than expected, mainly because the envoy took a small path and misjudged the direction for a while, traveling an extra eighty miles. By the time he felt that Xiang Xiang's camp was under way, it was already the third day after the city was broken.
When the news spread to the army, the generals felt a bit happy when they first heard that the news had been revealed. But what is strange is that when Marshal Guan Yu read the battle report carefully, there was a slight cloud on his face.
Guan Yu summoned the envoy and asked him: "Is everything stated in the battle report true?"
The envoy did not dare to conceal it, and immediately replied: "This is written in General Sima's own handwriting, and there is absolutely no falsehood."
Guan Yu suddenly felt angry. He stood up from his bed, standing like a mountain, and then reprimanded the envoy: "Since the late emperor took power for decades, although he has not made mistakes, he has never committed any killings. Sima Zhongda killed Capturing and plundering the people, even watching the capital, has caused great harm to our king's army, and what will happen to our military law?" Only then did the generals realize that Sima Yi was acting alone, and there was no one alive in the city except the Han army.
But the matter has come to this, Sima Yi is two hundred miles away, no one can control him, and he is at a crucial point in the war, so he absolutely cannot handle it. Yang Qiu saw Guan Yu's worried look on his face and was worried that he would cause a conflict. He immediately remonstrated in a low voice: "Your Majesty is the leader of this war, and Sima Zhongda is your Majesty's celebrity. He has made meritorious deeds now. The marshal can take him." What do you think? It’s better to report this matter to Your Majesty and focus on the war at hand first!” Guan Yu could only sigh for a long time when his words touched upon Guan Yu’s pain, and reported the matter to Suiyang overnight, and requested that Sima Yi be replaced by Guo Huai.
On the second day, the battle report that Sima Yi beheaded Yuan Xi came on time. Yuan Xi was the country's great enemy and had occupied Xuzhou for more than ten years. Now he was defeated by Sima Yi with more than 6,000 men. The whole army was jubilant. Many generals praised him and said: "Sima Zhongda is really a genius in the world. He uses troops and plans as he pleases. He is really like Han Xin." And that night, the emperor of Suiyang sent another edict: "The world is not at peace, and the country wants good generals." . Although Sima Yi violated military discipline, his behavior was selfless and loyal. His punishment chilled the hearts of the three armies. I hope my uncle can concentrate on the war and don’t mention this matter again!"
Liu Xie's opinion was so firm that Guan Yu had no choice but to do anything. But on the other hand, he also had to admit Sima Yi's talent. As he occupied the lower minister and beheaded Yuan Xi, the connection between the Si River and the Huai River had been cut off by the Han army. Huainan and Huaibei could not communicate by water. The death of the Xuzhou general in battle will also greatly affect the morale of the Wu people, which makes the situation in Xuzhou fully tilt towards the Han army. At this time, only more than ten days had passed since the entire army was dispatched. According to the scouts' reports, there are often people coming and going between Xiapi and Pengcheng, and it is obvious that major decision-making adjustments are being made. This is all due to Sima Yi.
Pang Tong said to Guan Yu: "Marshal, Xuzhou is not the land of the Wu people. It was captured by Sun Quan helplessly when Cao Cao's thieves were destroyed. Over the years, he has come to Huaibei several times, but he has not fought a single battle, which shows that he has no intention of defending it. At present, there are 100,000 Wu troops gathered in Huainan, but they dare not take half a step into Huaibei. This is a clear proof of Sun Quan's cowardice. Since he does not dare to come to rescue, he has no choice but to retreat! That is to say, let all the Wu thieves in Huaibei return to Huainan. I The army can set up an ambush in the Huai River area in advance, and there will be gains!"
Guan Yu felt that he saw something similar. He stroked his beard and said with a smile, "As Shi Yuan said, Xuzhou has been captured by me!"
After Pang Tong gave a rough idea, Guan Yu quickly had Zhou Xiang's plan in mind. In the afternoon of that day, he held a military meeting and first proposed three strategies to Sima Yi's envoys, namely setting up pontoon bridges, suspending iron cables, and driving wooden piles, aiming to completely paralyze the Wu waterway. Then 40,000 troops were mobilized from the army, divided into three teams, led by Zhao Yun, Wu Ban, and Huang Quan, and ordered to rush to Quyang, Haixi, and Lingxian areas to block the Wu army's southward retreat in advance. Finally, Yang Fu, Guo Huai, and Liao Hua were ordered to lead an army to attack Pengcheng from the southwest and open up a retreat from the northeast, forcing the Wu people to surrender their determination to withdraw. Most of the remaining troops monitored Huainan to prevent Sun Quan from making a desperate attempt.
After this arrangement was written down, it was handed over to Liu Xie the next day. Liu Xie looked at it for a long time and couldn't help laughing with Zhou Buyi: "My uncle, the marshal, was famous for his military bravery in the past. Who would have thought that he could use troops like Sun Wu?" Ah." Zhou Buyi took a closer look and couldn't find any flaws, so he praised it and said, "Marshal has both political integrity and talent, and I am ashamed of himself."
Liu Xie heard that he was sarcastically admonishing Sima Yi, smiled slightly, waved his hand and said: "There is no need to persuade Zhongda about this matter. We cannot use common sense to deal with wars, not to mention that the late emperor had shown the utmost benevolence to Jiang Zuo, but the Sun family If you are stubborn, you have to do it." After that, he sent a letter to Xiangshan camp, saying that this strategy is very good and hopes to implement it immediately.
In fact, Guan Yu did not wait for Liu Xie's handwritten letter. On the same day the document was handed in, Yang Fu and others began to formally besiege Pengcheng.
The weather was gloomy and gray that day, with mist filling the air. The Han troops had already gone into battle at Yinshi, and were busy transporting rams, ladders and other attacking equipment under the city. Due to poor visibility, many Han troops had lit torches, which seemed to be surrounded by fluorescent lights in the early morning. However, due to the large number of people, it was difficult to see from a distance. Even in one piece, it seems that even the mist is flame-colored. The Wu soldiers on the city had seen this scene very early, and were naturally frightened. They immediately went to inform their general Jiao Chu, and Jiao Chu's first reaction was to send an envoy to Xiapi for help.
But the Han army would not wait for reinforcements from the Wu people. After the fog dissipated and the open scene between the sky and the earth was revealed, the rumble of drums sounded from the riverside, and thousands of Han soldiers were like black ants, one step at a time. Pressing towards Pengcheng with one step. Since the Wu people had few horses and could not leave the city for a surprise attack, the Han army did not even attack the mountains first as usual. Instead, they directly led dozens of stone carts to stop in front of the city. As long as the heavily armored infantry formed a formation, The stone-throwing cart behind them followed up casually, intending to throw stones into the city.
Seeing this, the Wu soldiers threw arrows downward one after another. In an instant, arrows rained down, making people breathless. However, after a company of Wu people fired continuously for less than half an hour, although many of the Han soldiers arrayed under the city were covered with arrows, like hedgehogs, only one or two out of ten died as a result. The rest of the people still pushed the stone cart forward and rolled in dozens of polished boulders to use to break up the city. Thirty stone-producing carts in the south of the city were parked dozens of steps in front of the door. They fired at the same time, and the boulders broke through the air and collided with the sound. On this day, the Han army did not show any intention of restraint, and actually threw all the two thousand rolling stones they had prepared, with a loud roar, like a roaring tide, turning the world upside down. However, in just three hours, a large number of gaps appeared in Pengcheng's south wall. Some parts were so damaged that they looked like they were collapsing.
The Han army withdrew its troops that night and counted the day's losses in detail. Although there were many soldiers injured by arrows, about two thousand, most of them were external injuries and not serious. The deceased who was shot in the face, Ye Cai, could not survive Just a hundred.
The people of Wu were also well aware of this. That night Jiao Chu held a military meeting and asked the generals how to defend the city, but many could not answer. Someone whispered to Jiao Hu: "Now that Yuan Shijun is dead and Huaibei is alone, what can we do if we stick to it? I don't think Sun Shijun has any intention of holding on. It's better to withdraw his troops as soon as possible and retreat to the south!" Jiao Hu said After hearing this, he immediately objected: "If I go to the south, I will definitely become a lackey. Where will there be freedom in the future? This is impossible." But the man retorted: "But if your life is gone, what is the use of freedom?" Jiao Chu was silent.
In the early morning of the next day, Liu Ye from Xiapi sent an envoy to reply. The letter only said one sentence: "I will wait for you to go to Pi within three days. If you don't leave for three days, I will go south." Jiao Chu did not expect that Liu Ye would do this. Decisive and speechless for a moment, he finally agreed to withdraw south.
In order to confuse the Han army, the Wu people defended all day long, and even made a rare move out of the city to counterattack, intending to destroy the stone chariot. Guan Yu saw this clearly and immediately mobilized his cavalry to attack. The Wu people who came out were no match at all and could only retreat in a hurry, leaving hundreds of corpses behind. That night, they mobilized all the ships in the city and transferred them to the Surabaya River. After hastily loading some food and arrows, they didn't care about anything else. The nearly 10,000 defenders took advantage of the night to row south. . Early the next morning, the Han army looked at Pengcheng again and saw that under the broken city wall, although there were still more than a thousand flags, the soldiers inside were completely missing.
But this completely fell into Guan Yu's trap. He divided his troops into two thousand and occupied Pengcheng, with Yang Fu and Guo Huai leading most of them. He himself led the cavalry to quickly pursue Jiao Chu's navy. Less than an hour after Jiao Chu arrived at Xiapi, The defenders in Xiapi saw the Han army flag from a distance.
At this time, Liu Ye had basically guessed the layout of the Han army, but what could he do? If you don't leave, you will die. If you leave, there is still a chance of survival. Let's go south quickly! On the night when Jiao Chu led the crowd to arrive, Liu Ye did not even give anyone time to rest, and evacuated Xiapi City overnight. Before leaving, he burned the city to the ground, and then ran southeast along the Zu River without looking back. .
The war has reached this point, Xuzhou's ownership has been determined, and the only suspense is whether the Han army can intercept Wu's Huaibei Corps in advance.
