Seeing Guan Ping and Zhang Yi attack the top of Fancheng, Cao Cao's soldiers were defeated and chose to surrender when they had nowhere to escape. Guan Yu and Zhang Xi were relieved.
Guan Yu breathed a sigh of relief because he finally captured Fancheng before the water level dropped.
To be honest, if Man Chong could hold on for two more days and wait until the water level dropped to only four or five feet deep, then Guan Yu would have no choice but to retreat in order to avoid the ship running aground, and then attack Fancheng after the water receded.
This will give Man Chong at least half a month of rest time, and also allow Man Chong to urgently ask for help from Cao Cao in the north and buy time to wait for reinforcements.
But now that Fan City has been destroyed, Guan Yu no longer has to worry about this problem.
Now he only needs to leave some soldiers and enough food and grass to guard Fancheng. He will temporarily lead the navy to retreat. After the flood recedes, the entire army will go ashore and garrison Fancheng.
Anyway, Cao Cao couldn't launch an attack on Fancheng before the flood receded. After all, Cao Cao had no navy to use.
Zhang Xi was relieved because he had won more than half of his bet with "God".
Fancheng has been captured, and Fancheng's city defense has not been greatly damaged.
Although it was flooded for several days and some buildings in the city were damaged to some extent, the city wall did not suffer much damage.
These days, the construction of military fortresses is still very particular, and the rammed earth and masonry are squeezed very tightly.
It's hard to say whether it lasted for several months or half a year, but if there were problems with the city wall in just a few days, then Cao Cao should really investigate and find out who was responsible for this crappy project.
With Fancheng in hand, although Xiangyang behind him has not yet been completely defeated, he already has the capital to hold on on the north bank of the Han River.
Zhang Xi didn't believe it. Without the support of the navy, Xiangyang Cao's army could break through the obstruction of Guan Yu's navy on the Han River and cooperate with Cao Cao to attack Fancheng from both sides.
Therefore, the key point of attack and defense between Xiangfan and Xiangfan is the navy. The one who wins the navy wins Xiangfan.
However, just in case, Zhang Xi still suggested to Guan Yu that he should lead Zhang Yi and other 5,000 men to hold on in Fancheng, while Guan Yu himself would lead the remaining army to land on the south bank of the Han River and contact the prefectures in Yicheng. Tai, attacking from both sides, threatened Xiangyang.
Guan Yu also felt that he could not leave the defenders of Xiangyang City alone. There were still more than 20,000 guards there, so it would be better to deal with them as soon as possible.
Of course, Guan Yu also felt that with the abilities of Hu Xiu and Lu Chang in Xiangyang City, it was impossible to cause too big a stir.
To be honest, if these two had some strategy, they should have sent troops to attack Yicheng when Guan Yu and Yu Jin were confronting each other.
As long as Yicheng is captured, Guan Yu will have to divide his troops to defend the water village outside Yicheng, and the Xiangyang defenders can even send troops to threaten Dangyang or even march into Nanjun.
But Hu Xiu and Lu Chang just stayed motionless in Xiangyang City.
Well now, Guan Yu flooded the Seventh Army. This happened under the eyes of everyone in Xiangyang City. Both Hu Xiu and Lu Chang were a little frightened.
Hu Xiu and Lu Chang never imagined that Guan Yu had the ability to borrow the time of day.
In fact, Hu Xiu and Lu Chang cannot be blamed for this matter. These two people are not the kind of people who kill decisively in troubled times. They are the kind of scholars who are more common in this era.
Of course, this does not mean that they are powerless. Scholars these days generally have a fairly low level of force. It is not that difficult to kill a bandit with a sword.
Hu Xiu and Lu Chang were frightened, mainly at the level of cognition and values.
In the Han Dynasty, Huang-Lao theory was believed in in the early days. Although Confucianism later became the mainstream, the market for Huang-Lao theory still existed.
Especially metaphysics, many scholars these days have dabbled in it.
The war at the end of the Han Dynasty caused the people to be displaced. To use Cao Cao's poem to describe it, it is "the bones are exposed in the wild, and there are no roosters crowing for thousands of miles." Then Cao Cao put down his pen and ink, turned around and slaughtered Xuzhou.
All in all, years of war have left people in dire straits. Many scholars have also been affected by the troubled times and have fled everywhere to avoid military disasters.
Some of the more pessimistic people began to get tired of escaping from the world. The study of metaphysics became more obvious in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Metaphysics that sat around and talked empty words once occupied the mainstream position.
Most of the famous "Seven Sages in the Bamboo Grove" in history were people who avoided the world and talked about metaphysics to comfort themselves. However, they were still respected by the people of the world. This shows what the atmosphere was like among scholars at that time.
Therefore, scholars these days have a certain understanding of metaphysics, and some even specialize in studying the branch of metaphysics, the much talked about "prophecy".
For example, Qiao Zhou's lifelong knowledge, at best, was in the study of astrology, but at worst, it was all about "prophecy".
The saying "Those who came to Han Dynasty should be high-ranking" has been interpreted by countless self-righteous scholars in the past two or three hundred years. It has been interpreted by countless self-righteous scholars, ranging from Gongsun Shu and Liu Xiu two hundred years ago to as recent as Gongsun Shu and Liu Xiu a few years ago. Yuan Shu believed in this kind of "prophecy".
Hu Xiu and Lu Chang both studied these metaphysics very well, and Hu Xiu was even very superstitious about this stuff.
However, the fact that Guan Yu flooded the Seventh Army is too metaphysical.
Hu Xiu and Lu Chang did not know much about military affairs and could only analyze the battle situation on the north bank of the Han River from some detailed works or battle reports.
Judging from the battle report, Yu Jin won consecutively in the early stage and even captured Guan Yu's camp. He was about to repel Guan Yu and force him back to Nanjun.
But suddenly, there was a heavy rain and the Han River burst its banks, drowning the seven armies brought by Yu Jin, totaling more than 30,000 soldiers.
Guan Yu almost effortlessly defeated Yu Jin, surrendered tens of thousands of Cao's troops, and conquered Fancheng in one go.
Isn't it obvious that destiny lies with Guan Yu.
When God saw that Guan Yu was about to lose, it rained heavily for more than ten days to help Guan Yu turn defeat into victory. How can ordinary people like us still hope to fight against God? !
Therefore, when Hu Xiu and Lu Chang saw Guan Yu leading the navy to land on the south bank of the Han River, the two discussed briefly and felt that it was impossible for them to confront Guan Yu, who had destiny, and directly chose Kaicheng to surrender.
Guan Yu didn't expect that these two cowards would surrender to a fortified city like Xiangyang without even defending it.
Guan Yu was a little hesitant when he entered the city to surrender, fearing that there was some trap. Why did he surrender? !
There are more than 20,000 soldiers, and there is no shortage of rice and food in the city. There are also private soldiers from aristocratic families. If we squeeze together, we can gather 50,000 people. Even if we are completely surrounded, with the confidence of Xiangyang City, it should not be a problem to hold on for half a year.
But Hu Xiu and Lu Chang really surrendered like this, and most of the aristocratic families in the city did not resist Guan Yu's entry into the city.
Even the Kuai family, a wealthy family in Xiangyang, sent their heirs to take the lead in meeting Guan Yu, greeting each other and establishing a good relationship.
As for the Cai family, the Cai family has long moved its focus to the north for development. They know very well that based on what Cai Mao did after Liu Biao's death, if the Cai family falls into the hands of Liu Bei, there will definitely be no good fruit to eat, so they might as well go The north continues to develop the family.
As for the Kuai family, although Kuai Liang died and Kuai Yue became an official and Cao Cao went to Yecheng, the Kuai family is a big family after all. Is it a big deal that big families make separate bets? !
What's more, the Kuai family is also an agent for paper sales from Xiangyang to Nanyang, and they also have a close relationship with Liu Bei.
With the help of the Kuai family, Guan Yu's takeover of Xiangyang became extremely smooth.
By the way, Guan Yu also officially took office as the governor of Xiangyang, which he had been thinking about for a long time, in the prefect's mansion in Xiangyang City, and wrote a letter to report his victory to his elder brother Liu Bei.
After doing these things, Guan Yu began to deal with some aftermath matters.
The first thing is the arrangement of the prisoners.
Zhang Xi and Guan Ping went north and captured about 13,000 captives. In addition, Guan Yu himself went east and captured 2,000 captives from Xu Chu's army. The total number of prisoners was 15,000. .
When Fancheng was captured, the defenders of Fancheng also took 5,000 prisoners, making a total of 20,000 prisoners of Cao's army.
And these prisoners definitely cannot stay in Xiangyang City, there are too many variables.
Therefore, after Guan Yu entered Xiangyang, the first thing he did was to send Zhou Tai to lead 5,000 men and escort 20,000 prisoners to Nanjun, where they were handed over to Wang Ji and Ma Liang of Nanjun.
By the way, Ma Liang was asked to hand over the next batch of grain, grass and weapons to Zhou Tai and then transport them back.
Although Guan Yu has captured Xiangyang City, the food and grass in Xiangyang City itself has to bear the daily consumption of the people and soldiers in Xiangyang City. Although there is a lot of food and grass stored in the city, the number of people and soldiers is also large, and it is a newly conquered city. Guan Yu really doesn't dare to mobilize too much food and grass to cope with his current shortage of food and grass.
So I still have to ask Ma Liang to adjust the grain.
As for the ordnance, this is purely because the second master is used to seeing all kinds of high-quality ordnance forged by the steel filling method, and he doesn't like the ordnance in Xiangyang arsenal.
In the eyes of the second master, all the ordnance in Xiangyang's arsenal should be remade. They are all substandard ordnance.
After finishing these things, the second master took some time to meet Yu Jin and Xu Chu.
Although these two people were both defeated, they are now in completely different situations.
Yu Jin had already been demoted, but as a surrendered general, neither Guan Ping nor Zhang Xi knew how to arrange him. It happened that the second master was also familiar with Yu Jin, so they left it to the second master to deal with him.
As for Xu Chu, when Guan Yu saw this unfortunate guy, he had been hungry for two days and couldn't use any brute strength.
Seeing Guan Yu, Xu Chu wanted to step forward for a close fight, but he felt dizzy, his legs went weak, and he fell to the ground. He was tied up by two soldiers and escorted in front of the second master.
The second master really didn’t know what to say. He was such a dignified tiger idiot, but he was actually caught by two soldiers.
He arranged for people to feed Xu Chu some food to let him recover, and then Xu Chu became Guan Yu's prisoner.
Now, the second master began to think about how to arrange the two of them.
As for Yu Jin, although he surrendered, the second master was not sure whether Yu Jin could be trusted.
After all, Cao Cao did treat Jin very well, and Yu Jin's surrender was conditional on Guan Ping rescuing Cao's soldiers and surrendering them. At least in the short term, it was not suitable to assign him actual duties.
Therefore, Guan Yu's idea is to first arrange for Yu Jin to be placed in Nanjun, find a place for him to be placed under house arrest, and then wait until the war is over to send Yu Jin to Chengdu and let his eldest brother be responsible for arranging Yu Jin's next specific duties.
As for Xu Chu, he is a character who will not surrender.
Indeed, Guan Yu once went to chat with Xu Chu after Xu Chu regained some strength.
In Xu Chu's words, he was so greatly favored by Cao Cao that he would rather die than betray him. Therefore, Xu Chu hoped that Guan Yu would kill him for the sake of his past friendship and take full advantage of his name.
Guan Yu sighed for a long time and finally stopped trying to persuade him.
Thinking about it, Cao Cao may have always been wary of generals with foreign surnames, but for Xu Chu, the guard, Cao Cao really trusted him wholeheartedly.
If even Xu Chu chooses to surrender, then Cao Cao will be a failure as a person.
Therefore, Guan Yu accomplished Xu Chu's death. After beheading Xu Chu, he collected the body and prepared to wait for the flood to recede. Then he sent someone to Xu Du and handed it over to Cao Cao for burial.
The tiger lord Xu Chu died.
(End of chapter)
