The siege commanded by Zhang Fei and Wei Yan shocked Cao Ren.
It wasn't that the army led by Wei Yan was incredibly powerful, it was mainly that Cao Ren saw Zhang Fei's flag, and then Wei Yan's flag, and even saw the five thousand men and horses under the banner of these two generals.
Cao Ren knew Zhang Fei and had already learned from Xi Zuo that Zhang Fei only brought a thousand people.
In the last decisive battle, Zhang Feijun left an indelible impression on Cao Ren, but at the same time, Zhang Feijun's loss also happened directly in front of Cao Ren.
Therefore, Cao Ren judged that although Zhang Feijun's combat power was terrifying, after that battle, Zhang Feijun should have suffered heavy casualties and was unable to fight anymore.
But now Zhang Feijun not only went to war again, but also had an unfamiliar general and more than 5,000 people. Does this mean Liu Bei sent reinforcements? !
Zhou Yu's army was originally easy to fight, but now Cao Ren no longer dared to go out of the city to fight in the field.
Now, Liu Bei has sent reinforcements. If they have the same fighting power as Zhang Feijun's gang of killers, is it still necessary to defend Jiangling City? !
Cao Ren was so worried that for a moment, Cao Ren wanted to withdraw his troops and return to Xiangyang, abandon Jiangling and protect Xiangyang.
But fortunately, Cao Ren is also a general. You can't think that he is a relative just because his surname is Cao. In the end, Cao Ren decided to stick to it for the time being and try out the qualities of the newly arrived Zhang Feijun.
In the end, Cao Ren really made the right bet.
After a day of attacking and defending, Cao Ren discovered that there was a huge gap in combat power between Zhang Fei's reinforcements and the thousand soldiers Zhang Fei personally led. The new soldiers, who were surprisingly similar to the soldiers from Jiangdong, finally allowed themselves to hold on to the city wall.
Well, after all, they are troops just collected from the four counties in Jingnan, and they haven't had time to practice properly yet.
But no matter what, Liu Bei sent reinforcements and personally participated in the siege. This was not good news for Cao Ren after all.
After withstanding Zhang Fei's army's three consecutive attacks on the city, Cao Ren finally decided to write a letter to Cao Cao explaining the situation in Jiangling City.
Today's Jiangling City is surrounded by more than 30,000 grandsons and Liu coalition forces outside, and the wealthy families inside are not stable. The most important thing is that Xiangyang's grain and grass supplies have been intercepted by Guan Yu and they can't get through. Jiangling has become an isolated city.
If Cao Ren is allowed to hold on, Cao Ren will still have the confidence to continue to hold on. However, if he continues to hold on like this, there will be no benefit at all except a waste of troops and materials.
The current Sun-Liu coalition is constantly increasing its troops, and there is no problem of food supply.
As for Cao Ren, he would lose some troops every time he defended the city, and he had no supplies or reinforcements. He could only rely on the money and food accumulated in Jiangling City for several years, and he could not last long.
Cao Ren wrote a letter to Cao Cao about all these situations, and it was up to Cao Cao to decide what to do about this matter, whether to continue to hold on or give up on Nanjun.
After doing all this, before new orders arrive, Cao Ren still has to defend carefully and not give any opportunity to the Sun and Liu coalition forces.
After Zhang Fei and Wei Yan led their troops to attack the city three times, they finally asked Zhou Yu to temporarily withdraw to rest due to casualties.
Zhou Yu is not the kind of unreasonable person. Even if he uses Liu Beijun as cannon fodder, he will not do it so obviously, so he agrees to the request and rearranges the rested Jiangdong Army to replace Liu Beijun and continue to maintain pressure.
Time has come to the end of August before we know it.
After more than a month of training, Zhou Yu's arrow wound finally improved. The wound has scabbed over and does not affect normal movement.
Therefore, Zhou Yu held a military meeting again to discuss whether to concentrate all his efforts on attacking the city again and then take Cao Ren away in one wave.
Zhang Xi is opposed to this matter anyway.
It's not that he doesn't want to contribute, Zhang Xi's opinion is that Guan Yu's Juebei Road is now going very smoothly, and Xu Huang Manchong's joint encirclement and suppression has never been successful, which not only restrained the defense of other places in Nanjun, but also cut off Jiangling's supply line.
If Zhou Yu wanted to take a detour north from Yiling and go to the north of Nanjun to attack Linju and other places to help Guan Yu reduce the pressure, then Zhang Xi would naturally agree.
If we simply want to capture Jiangling and then send a message to determine Nanjun, then now is not the time.
The damage caused by the siege was very great. Jiangdong's army was reduced from about 40,000 at the beginning to 27,000 now, at least half of whom were killed or injured in the siege.
Of the 5,000 soldiers Wei Yan brought with him, after three sieges, only 3,800 are still able to fight, with more than 1,000 casualties.
It's not that we can't attack the city, it's just that it's completely unnecessary.
After waiting for another two months, Cao Ren will probably take the initiative to evacuate Nanjun. Why risk people's lives at this time? !
I have to say that Zhang Xi's suggestion was correct, but Zhou Yu said - reject it.
Wait another two months? !
The autumn harvest will be over in another two months.
Your lord has more reason to stay at the mouth of Youjiang River, and the four counties in Jingnan will be completely digested by your lord.
Zhou Yu had already learned about some of Liu Bei's administrative measures in the four counties of Jingnan through letters sent by Lu Su in Chaisang.
That Zhuge Liang, I originally thought he was a rare military wizard, but I didn't expect that his real ability was political management.
One person controlled three counties, and managed Jingnan in an orderly manner in half a year. He also used various means to oust the original prefects and promoted a group of people from local aristocratic families or poor families to serve as officials. Now, except for the original three prefects, there are no People felt that Liu Bei did not manage Jingnan well.
Even this Zhuge Liang shamelessly acted as a matchmaker himself, allowing Zhao Yun, the prefect of Guiyang, to marry the widowed sister-in-law of Zhao Fan, the former prefect of Guiyang, and also made Zhao Yun and Zhao Fan become sworn brothers. This was good. Originally, Jiangdong was still thinking The method was to instigate Zhao Fan to rebel, but in the end, he hugged Liu Beijun's lap and ignored the people sent by Jiangdong at all.
A series of small actions Jiang Dong made in Jingnan were completely destroyed by Zhuge Liang. If Zhou Yu could not capture Nanjun again, then Jiangdong would be nothing but a joke.
By the way, Sun Quan's attack on Hefei was already a joke.
Sun Quan led his troops to attack Hefei, but before the battle began, Sun Quan's army intercepted a letter sent to Jiang Ji, the general of Cao's army in Hefei. The letter said that Cao Cao had sent a large army to support Hefei, allowing Jiang Ji to hold on with peace of mind.
Sun Quan thought that since reinforcements from Cao's army had arrived, it would be meaningless to fight in Hefei, so he ordered the withdrawal at that time.
But later I learned that this letter was actually forged by Jiang Ji. Cao Cao did not send reinforcements at all, and Sun Quan was deceived into retreating by a fake letter.
This is the whole process of Emperor Wu and Sun Shiwan's attack on Hefei. It is simply a joke.
The lord on the Eastern Front battlefield really doesn't give Jiang Dong any face. On this Western Front battlefield, Zhou Yu must let the world know that Jiang Dong is not easy to mess with.
Therefore, Zhou Yu decided to attack with force.
It took nearly a month for Zhou Yu to rebuild the siege equipment, accumulating seventy or eighty of various siege equipment, divided into three gates, and launched a siege on Jiangling where Cao Ren's army was stationed.
This siege doesn't matter, Cao Ren in the city suddenly doubled his pressure.
During this month, Cao Ren was not idle. On the one hand, he wrote to Cao Cao, and on the other hand, he ordered Man Chong, who was in Linju, to prepare for the response. Man Chong was angry.
I only have a total of three or four thousand soldiers and horses, and I have to cooperate with Xu Huang to encircle and suppress Guan Yu, and I have to support you all, Cao Ren. Why don't you go to heaven? !
But Man Chong was under Cao Ren in terms of official position and status. Cao Ren also had the same surname as Cao Cao. What do you think Man Chong would do if this happened? !
Man Chong also knew that he was a cruel official and his popularity was really not good, so he would not offend either party and would do whatever anyone asked him to do.
Let's divide our forces. If Xu Huang fails to take the blame when encircling Guan Yu in the future, at least he will have Cao Ren standing in front of him.
Man Chong allocated a thousand troops and horses and quickly headed to Jiangling City, and it was these one thousand troops that helped Cao Ren a lot.
Zhou Yu's army attacked the city with all its strength, which caused a sharp increase in pressure on Cao Ren.
First of all, in terms of offensive efficiency, Zhou Yu no longer fired two arrows to attack the city as before, but launched a variety of siege equipment, pressed the entire army, and attacked all three city gates, making Cao Ren even the reserve team. Not daring to stay, they all piled up on the city wall to block the Jiangdong Army's attack.
Then in terms of attack frequency, Zhou Yu attacked directly from dawn to dusk. Zhou Yu would never withdraw his troops unless they were completely invisible.
On several occasions, Zhou Yu even arranged night attacks. Although Cao Ren defused them one by one, this also made all Cao's troops, including Cao Ren, unable to sleep well.
Cao Ren also tried to counterattack. He often sent his remaining cavalry troops of less than 600 people to try to leave the city to attack Jiangdong's army and burn the siege weapons.
But this time Jiangdong Army had too many siege equipment, and after more than half a year of fighting, Jiangdong Army also had some countermeasures against the cavalry. Jiangdong Army's arrows and crossbows were not vegetarian.
When Cao Ren's cavalry was reduced to only 400 men, Cao Ren no longer dared to send these cavalry out to fight.
In this way, Cao Ren could only huddle in Jiangling City, holding on tightly while waiting for Cao Cao's order.
During the ten days that Jiangdong's army was attacking the city, when Cao Ren was forced to retreat to Wengcheng, Cao Cao's new order finally arrived.
Cao Cao ordered Cao Ren to gather his troops, abandon Jiangling, and retreat to Xiangyang.
Cao Cao also made arrangements for the possible pursuers he might encounter on the way back, as well as the possible obstructions by Guan Yu.
He ordered Li Tong, the governor of Runan, to lead Cao's army in Runan and go south along the Han River to meet Cao Ren's army.
Cao Ren immediately organized an army. On one side, he suppressed the wealthy families in Jiangling City and pretended to hold on to the city. On the other side, he contacted the troops sent by Man Chong to prepare to abandon Jiangling and withdraw northward at any time.
Of course, before leaving, Cao Ren took away all the gold and silver in Jiangling's treasury, and burned what could not be taken away, and would never leave it to Zhou Yu.
Later, Man Chong's supporting soldiers were in place, and Cao Ren ordered the north gate to be opened. Under the assault of 400 cavalry, he personally led the remaining thousands of Cao's soldiers to break through the restraining troops and horses of the north gate of the Sun and Liu coalition forces and retreat to Xiangyang.
At the same time, Li Tong, the governor of Runan, also led his soldiers. Facing Guan Yu's layers of defenses, he dismounted and pulled out his antlers to enter the camp. He marched forward to meet Cao Ren. Unfortunately, Li Tong had not yet reached Cao Ren, and he was there. He died of illness on the way.
In this way, the Battle of Nanjun ended in September of the 14th year of Jian'an, when the coalition forces of Sun and Liu captured Jiangling and Cao Ren retreated to Xiangyang.
It ended three months earlier than the historical Battle of Nanjun.
(End of chapter)
