Zhang Xi no longer needs to be embarrassed.
Li Dian finally took the initiative to withdraw his troops and did not launch this last attack.
It wasn't that Li Dian didn't want to save people anymore, but it was too late.
Just when Li Dian was organizing his formation and preparing to launch the final attack, he saw reinforcements from Liu Bei's army suddenly appeared in the mountain road, and Li Dian knew the man leading the reinforcements.
Guan Yu, Guan Yunchang.
Well, Guan Yu has already appeared, so don't ask, Xiahou Dun is in danger.
At this point, if Li Dian continues to take the initiative to attack, then he will be in trouble.
Yes, Li Dian still has more than 8,000 soldiers, which is nearly three times more than the entire Liu Bei army. But military affairs is not an arithmetic problem, it is not about who has more soldiers and who has less soldiers.
There are still more than 8,000 soldiers on our side, but not to mention the loss of the front army and the general, our side has been repelled three consecutive attacks, and the opponent only has 800 people.
The morale of the army was already low, but before our side could attack, the other side came with reinforcements. How could we fight this battle?
This is just the thought of ordinary soldiers, but from the perspective of generals, this is a more serious matter.
Guan Yu appeared at the mountain pass. He was not only here to assist the defenders. He must have finished cleaning up the front army led by Xiahou Dun and now came to encircle the rear army.
Li Dian didn't want to be eaten like a dumpling like Xiahou Dun, so the most sensible way was to withdraw his troops.
But in fact, Li Dian was too cautious.
Although Guan Yu appeared, Guan Yu's soldiers actually lost a lot of money. After all, Xiahou Dun really wanted to run for his life, and his soldiers were really desperate.
Even though they occupied a favorable location and used fire attacks, the soldiers under Guan Yu's tent still suffered heavy casualties.
If Zhang Fei hadn't suddenly led the bandits into the mountain road, causing Xiahou Dun to mistakenly believe that Li Dian, who was on the retreat, had been defeated and he had no reinforcements, Guan Yu himself would not have known how the battle would turn out.
Therefore, it was impossible for Guan Yu to have the troops to surround and kill Li Dian. His appearance was to shock Li Dian. Now that Li Dian had retreated obediently, Guan Yu breathed a sigh of relief.
As for Xiahou Dun, Guan Yu didn't catch him, and Zhang Fei didn't catch him either.
Xiahou Dun finally escaped into Anlin under the desperate protection of his personal guards.
Once in the woods, it would be too difficult to chase down a few people who were determined to escape. Zhang Fei took Kou Feng into the forest to search for a while, but finally withdrew because he did not dare to go too deep.
Xiahou Dun ran away, but it was not without gain. He captured the enemy's deputy general Jin.
Well, it was Yu Jin who caught this unlucky guy with the Second Master's own hands. After all, he could not escape from the Second Master's hands.
But being caught in Yu Jin this time is really not a coward.
In order to cover Xiahou Dun's escape, Yu Jin exchanged helmets with Xiahou Dun, but the second master thought that Yu Jin was Xiahou Dun, and then chased Yu Jin along the route of Yu Jin's escape, and finally captured Yu Jin alive with the help of soldiers.
Therefore, the second master still respected Yu Jin who was captured this time. After all, what Yu Jin did was really embarrassing.
Even Liu Bei treated Yu Jin with courtesy. The first time he saw Yu Jin, he loosened his bonds and offered him a seat, and then personally persuaded him to surrender.
The Yu Jin at this time was not the Yu Jin who would be more than ten years later. He had received great favor from Cao Cao and was still alive, so of course it was impossible for him to surrender.
Of course Liu Bei would not kill him. After all, Yu Jin was arrested to cover Xiahou Dun's escape. He was arrested with the intention of protecting the Lord and the Savior. Only if he killed Yu Jin would he be criticized.
Therefore, Liu Bei entertained Yu Jin with delicious food and drinks, and then put him under house arrest in General Zuo's Mansion in disguise. As for the future, it depends on the methods of Liu Bei and Cao Cao.
In these days, anyone who cares about face will abide by some rules in this regard, so apart from having little freedom, Yu Jin lived a pretty good life.
After repelling Xiahou Dun's 20,000-strong army, Liu Bei was quite happy at first, but this time Zhuge Liang directly poured cold water on Liu Bei.
Wancheng sent troops to Xinye for two consecutive years, once by Cao Ren and once by Xiahou Dun, both of whom were Cao Cao's confidants. What does this mean? !
It shows that Cao Cao has never given up on the south and Liu Bei.
Previously, Cao Cao's main focus was on pacifying Hebei, but he still used troops against the south for two consecutive years. If Cao Cao pacified Hebei and freed up his hands, what would he do? !
Liu Bei was no novice either. After Zhuge Liang reminded him, he immediately came to his senses.
According to the current intelligence, Cao Cao has already pacified Hebei. The reason why he did not go south was just to solve the northern border troubles once and for all - to conquer Wuhuan.
But Wuhuan's gang couldn't even do it to Gongsun Zan. Yuan Shao was working as a lackey for Yuan Shao at that time, so how could they do it better than Cao Cao.
Sooner or later, Cao Cao would go south.
However, Liu Bei was not too nervous. As an old soldier, he had seen many crisis scenes and knew what he should do now.
On the one hand, they began to recruit and expand the army to make up for the losses after the war. They strived to expand the number of soldiers to 5,000, but the supply of food and grass could not keep up.
On the other hand, I went to Xiangyang with Zhuge Liang and explained to Liu Biao face to face his judgment that Cao Cao might go south, so that Liu Biao could prepare in advance.
Liu Biao was not a vegetarian either. Although his ears were a little soft, he knew the priorities to some extent and immediately ordered to start expanding the army and preparing for war, trying to train the Jingzhou army that had not been practicing for a long time before Cao Cao went south.
It's just that Liu Biao, the shepherd of Jingzhou, feels aggrieved. Things in Jingzhou are not entirely decided by him alone. The troops he can directly command and control are also limited. Many things require the cooperation of Cai and Kuai to proceed.
Liu Biao himself didn't know when the training of Jingzhou soldiers would be completed, so he still hoped that Liu Bei could resist Cao's army in Xinye and Fancheng as much as possible, giving him enough time to prepare for war.
Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang were also a little worried when they saw Liu Biao this time.
Normal people can see that Liu Biao's health is really not as good as before.
This time last year, Liu Bei defeated Cao Ren and came to Xiangyang to see Liu Biao. Liu Biao was still in good spirits and sat talking to Liu Bei in the main hall. The two chatted for an hour or two.
But now, Liu Biao already needed someone to support him before he could come out to see Liu Bei. Moreover, the meeting lasted for less than half an hour, and Liu Biao was already mentally exhausted.
Liu Biao's condition made Liu Bei lament and made Zhuge Liang worried.
If this had been the case in the past, Zhuge Liang would not have been worried seeing Liu Biao in such a state that he would not live long. If Liu Biao had continued to live, there would have been no possibility of Liu Bei taking over Jingzhou.
But Liu Biao was in bad health at this time, and Zhuge Liang would think of Zhang Xi and the hypothesis that this guy said.
If Cao's army goes south and happens to catch up with Liu Biao's death, Jingzhou will be turbulent and Zhuge Liang will have a headache just thinking about it.
It doesn't matter if Liu Biao dies earlier or later.
Earlier, give Liu Bei enough time. As long as he can initially control Jingzhou, under the pressure of Cao Cao, the aristocratic families in Jingzhou may really unite to support Liu Bei. As long as Cao Cao is defeated, Liu Bei can officially establish a foothold in Jingzhou. .
Later, let Liu Biao lead the Jingzhou family to defeat Cao Cao, and then Liu Biao dies of illness. Zhuge Liang can also persuade the Jingzhou family to support Liu Bei through lobbying. The big deal is to support a puppet to take power first, whether it is Liu Qi or Liu Cong.
But if it is true as Zhang Xi said, Liu Biao happened to die of illness when Cao Cao went south sooner rather than later. Zhuge Liang really had no choice now, not enough time, and had no time to prepare for many things.
It has been more than half a year since he decided to assist Liu Bei. In these more than half a year, the most important thing Zhuge Liang has done is to help Liu Bei sort out the intricate interest relationships within the Jingzhou aristocratic families, and then let Liu Bei take appropriate measures to tie up these aristocratic families.
Within half a year, the effect was somewhat noticeable. Liu Bei had already won the support of the Huang family, and the Pang family also expressed their acquiescence to Liu Bei's interests. Only the Cai and Kuai families were still relatively cold, but this was also expected.
The Cai Kuai family had vested interests in supporting Liu Biao's rise to power. When Liu Biao was still in power, it was impossible for them to give up their vested interests and participate in the redistribution of Liu Bei Group's interests.
As for Jiangxia County, Zhuge Liang is still making plans. He needs to have a suitable reason for Liu Bei to intervene in Jiangxia affairs openly.
However, this opportunity has not yet appeared, and Zhuge Liang still needs to think carefully about how to create this opportunity.
Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei stayed in Xiangyang for more than half a month this time. Unlike last year when Xu Shu accompanied them, this time with Zhuge Liang as the leader, the relationship between Liu Bei and the representatives of the Jingxiang family progressed more smoothly. A sufficient trust relationship has also been established between the young master Liu Qi.
It's not that Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei have identified the young master Liu Qi, it's mainly that they can't get in touch with Liu Cong.
Liu Cong is less than ten years old this year, and everything is in the hands of the Cai family and Cai Mao. The Cai family is very kind to Zhuge Liang. After all, the two families are related, but they just don't like Liu Bei. How can they let Liu Cong and Liu Bei do it? Meet.
The next best thing was Liu Qi, who lacked the support of connections in Jingzhou and urgently needed to make friends with others to consolidate his position. It was a cooperation between the two parties that hit it off.
Some small things happened in the middle. For example, Liu Bei gave Liu Qi an idea and asked him to invite Zhuge Liang to dinner and then "go up to the house and take out the ladder."
Zhang Xi also heard about this later. It is estimated that only Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang knew the whole story, and not even Liu Qi.
But Zhang Xi always felt that this matter was actually a conspiracy between Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang. This not only made Liu Qi a good friend, but also made Liu Qi feel grateful to Liu Bei.
As for Liu Qi asking Liu Biao to agree to serve as the governor of Jiangxia, Liu Biao was very happy, but Huang Zu was not willing to do anything.
Before Huang Zu was killed, Liu Biao had no way of appointing anyone as the governor of Jiangxia.
As for Huang Zu, hehe, he has been having a very difficult time recently.
(End of chapter)
