Of course, Man Chong cannot be allowed to leave. If he leaves, who will guard Fancheng? !
Without Fancheng, how can we attract Cao Cao to continue to send troops to support, how can we divide Cao Cao's troops and support the battle of Hanzhong.
If Fancheng is lost like this, then if we want to attract Cao Cao's troops, we won't have to attack Wancheng or Xudu.
If that's the case, well, although the vision is wonderful, I really don't have the ability.
After several battles, and the troops were divided to garrison Linju and Yicheng, Guan Yu now only had about 35,000 troops in total.
It has been two months since we sent out troops in June. We have consumed a lot of food and grass, and we cannot withstand another war.
Once Fancheng is captured at this time, Guan Yu's army may be in a situation of insufficient offense and sufficient defense, and will not dare to move north or east on a large scale again.
It would be better to continue to use Fancheng as bait to lure Cao Cao to continue dividing his troops. This old strategy is better.
But Guan Yu obviously disagrees with this view.
After a day of dividing the troops between the two groups, Guan Yu also gathered a lot of Cao Jun's surrendered soldiers, and by the way, with some effort, he also captured Xu Chu.
As soon as he heard that Zhang Xi was besieging Fancheng with naval warships, he rushed over to help.
But soon, Guan Yu discovered that Zhang Xi was only besieging and not attacking. Guan Yu was dissatisfied, so he directly took over the command and launched an attack on Fancheng.
At this moment, Man Chong was almost caught off guard. At that time, Man Chong was leading his white horse to the top of the city, preparing to kill the white horse and swear an oath in front of many soldiers to boost the morale of the soldiers defending the city.
As a result, the white horse was directly shot into a hedgehog. Man Chong escaped because he hid behind the white horse and used the white horse as a human shield.
Hmm. These days, Baima's life is really not good.
Man Chong, who escaped with his white horse, saw the enemy attack and immediately organized his soldiers to defend and fight back with arrows.
After all, the city had just experienced a flood, the military rations were insufficient, and the morale of the soldiers was low. Man Chong had no confidence in whether he could hold on.
But fortunately, the sky has slowly darkened now. Although Guan Yu attacked Fancheng, he only fought for less than half an hour. As the sky darkened, Guan Yu did not dare to continue the attack, but commanded the ships to stay on the spot. Drop anchor and wait for tomorrow morning before attacking again.
Then. Zhang Xi and Guan Yu had a second exchange of opinions on whether to revise their strategic intentions.
It’s really just communication, not even conflict.
The current situation is very similar to the historical situation, but it is also different.
Although the seven armies were flooded, they were forced to surrender and captured Xu Chu alive. However, the defender of Fancheng was not Cao Ren, but Man Chong.
Cao Ren had a reason to hold on and not retreat, but Man Chong actually didn't.
Another thing is that Fancheng is not as difficult to defeat as it was in history.
Regardless of whether there is a flood of help or not, it is not difficult for Guan Yu to capture Fancheng now.
This was the decisive factor why Guan Yu wanted to change his strategy and take full control of Xiangfan.
The previous formulation of a series of strategic goals, including surrounding Xiangfan and forcing Cao Cao to send troops to rescue in response to the Battle of Hanzhong, was actually based on the fact that Xiangfan was difficult to fight.
But now Guan Yu discovered that Fancheng was actually not difficult to defeat.
Yu Jin's Seventh Army was flooded, there were no reinforcements outside Fancheng, and there was no food and grass inside. Under such circumstances, if we did not try to attack Fancheng and force Xiangyang to surrender, we would be really sorry for such good conditions.
If Xiangfan is completely occupied and Jingbei is targeted, then Cao Cao will not dare to fully support Hanzhong and must strengthen defenses in Wancheng and Xudu. Generally speaking, the purpose of supporting Hanzhong is achieved.
On the contrary, if Fancheng is left alone and the flood recedes, and Cao Cao personally leads the army to support, then the situation will really become complicated.
After all, Guan Yu only had an army of more than 30,000 people. If Cao Cao abandoned Hanzhong and ordered Xia Houyuan to garrison Chang'an, and he personally led an army of 100,000 people south, it's really hard to say whether Guan Yu could stop Cao Cao.
But if you have Fancheng and Xiangyang in hand, and rely on the power of Nanjun and Xiangyang, Cao Cao is forced to fight a siege, the result is really hard to say.
In the current situation, if we don't capture Fancheng, there will be more harm than if we capture Fancheng.
This is the reason why Guan Yu insisted on capturing Fancheng.
Now Zhang Xi finally understands why Guan Yu in history suddenly changed his response strategy and turned into a fierce attack on Fancheng. He also sealed officials and made wishes all over Jingbei to delay the arrival of Cao Cao's reinforcements.
Indeed, after the Seventh Army was flooded, Fancheng seemed too easy to break.
Even Zhang Xi is no longer making meaningless objections, but is considering whether it is feasible to conquer Fancheng.
Even Zhang Xi is still considering Jiangdong's situation - if Guan Yu has captured Xiangfan before Jiangdong launches a backstab, will Jiang Dong launch a backstab again? !
Zhang Xi is really hard to judge in this regard.
If you stand in Sun Quan's shoes, there is a high probability that he will launch a backstab. After all, Sun Quan misses Jingzhou for more than a day or two. If Guan Yu captures Xiangfan again, he will feel even more uneasy about Guan Yu and will still choose to backstab him. .
But it's different now. Isn't Zhou Yu still alive? From Zhou Yu's point of view, can't he see that now is not the best time to stab Jingzhou in the back. Instead, he should take advantage of this moment to go north to Hefei and occupy the land of Huainan. Is it in the best interest of Jiangdong?
In addition, the heavy rain that flooded the Seventh Army also gave Zhang Xi some bad premonitions, and Zhang Xi was also shaken.
The heavy rain that should have occurred in the 24th year of Jian'an was moved to the 22nd year of Jian'an. Does this mean that this era must follow the original script, even with slight changes? !
So what does this god want to do by letting him travel through time again? !
Zhang Xi doesn't believe this evil.
Zhang Xi traveled through twelve years, and it's not like he didn't do anything. He just didn't make many changes at the strategic level.
The ten years since the Thirteenth Year of Jian'an have been the ten years of rapid development and growth of the Liu Bei Group. During these ten years, Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang and others have done their best at the strategic level. Even if Zhang Xi wants to intervene, it is impossible to do better. Both of them are better.
Therefore, what Zhang Xi can do is to start from the basic level and try to do things that can help Liu Bei consolidate the foundation of his rule.
And these things will not be effective for a while.
When entering Sichuan, Zhang Xi tried his best to help Liu Bei shorten the war and help Liu Bei gain enough time to recuperate before the Battle of Hanzhong.
During the Battle of Jingnan, facing Cao Cao's early attack on Hanzhong, negotiating peace with Sun Quan was the most correct choice. All Zhang Xi could do was to lay some chess pieces in Jingnan, and at the same time keep inoculating Guan Yu, so that He should not underestimate Jiangdong's ambition.
In Badong County for two years, Zhang Xi developed paper and engraving printing because Liu Bei already had a stable territory and needed to develop internal affairs.
During the three years in Nanjun, Zhang Xi continued to engage in internal infrastructure construction, recruit talents, and establish academies, all in order to win over the local people's hearts and prevent these people from happily surrendering to Kaicheng when Lu Meng stabbed him in the back.
All this seems trivial and meaningless at the moment.
But if we keep doing it for a long time, in another five or ten years, sufficient results will be shown.
Because of the spread of paper and the prevalence of engraving and printing, the number of scholars in Sichuan will definitely increase by an order of magnitude. Although it is impossible to achieve a qualitative change, it can greatly increase the probability of talents coming out of Sichuan.
What Pan Jun did in Jingnan can greatly strengthen the Liu Bei Group's control over Jingnan. Xu Shu's presence in Wuling can prevent Jiangdong from backstabbing in the short term. In the long run, it can win over the barbarians in Wuling and increase the population and taxes.
The establishment of an academy in Nanjun will help increase the centripetal force of the Jingzhou gentry towards Liu Bei. Even if Liu Bei is in Chengdu, he will still be kind to Jingzhou. And if the Yuelu Academy can really last for a long time and become the cultural center of Jingzhou and even the south, Then Liu Bei's rule in Jingzhou will be quite stable.
Zhang Xi really didn't do nothing and just sit back and watch the development of history. He was just using his own way to help Liu Bei take a longer road in the future.
But now, a heavy rain in the 22nd year of Jian'an made Zhang Xi begin to doubt whether the things he did were effective.
If Guan Yu attacks Xiangfan, it is destined that a heavy rain will help him flood the Seventh Army. Then when Lu Meng stabs Jingzhou in the future, is it destined that the public security guard Wenpin and the Jiangling guard Wang Ji will also open the city and surrender? !
Zhang Xi didn't believe it and didn't dare to bet.
Therefore, Zhang Xi planned to test it first.
And this temptation is to capture Fancheng.
Historically, Guan Yu has never captured Fancheng, but this time, if Guan Yu can capture Fancheng and defend Fancheng when Cao Cao launches a large-scale attack in the future, it means that this world has no set script and can be changed.
Therefore, Zhang Xi no longer insisted on preventing Guan Yu from revising his strategic goal this time, but instead agreed to take the capture of Xiangfan as a new strategic goal.
As a result, Guan Yu and Zhang Xi's purpose of sending troops this time has changed.
It was no longer just a feint attack to respond to the Hanzhong battlefield, but a second battlefield was officially opened in northern Jingzhou to realize Zhuge Liang's strategic concept of occupying Hanmian in the north in "Longzhong Du".
Guan Yu and Zhang Xi communicated all night, and the two sides reached an agreement.
The next day, Guan Yu began to command the navy ships to attack the city.
Yes, something that sounds funny has become possible at this time - naval ships can also be used to attack cities.
The heavy rain is still falling, and the water level outside Fancheng is still rising. If it rains for another two or three days, Guan Yu can even let the naval warships approach the city wall, and directly let the soldiers land on the city wall from the ship to launch an siege.
Even siege equipment such as ladders were omitted.
It is also very difficult for Man Chong to defend now. After all, the height difference has been reduced a lot, and the advantage of the city wall is slowly being weakened. If the heavy rain continues, then Man Chong should really consider escaping.
But in the afternoon when Guan Yu launched the siege, the weather that was originally pouring rain slowly turned into light rain. In the end, the weather even began to clear up.
Man Chong was simply ecstatic, but Guan Yu suddenly frowned.
Zhang Xi's face also began to become more and more ugly.
(End of chapter)
