Go back in time and come to fifteen days ago.
Fancheng, the land in the north of Jing Dynasty.
After losing 10,000 troops, Cao Ren gathered with Xiahou Shang and set up camp on the way to wait for reinforcements from Xuzhou.
At the same time, Cao Ren received a letter from Cao Cao. From the letter, Cao Ren learned that Cao Cao had marched into Hanzhong to confront Liu Bei.
At the same time, Cao Cao also ordered Cao Ren in his letter to find a way to leak the news to Guan Yu that Jiangdong was about to attack Nanjun.
Cao Ren didn't understand why Cao Cao did this. Wasn't this letting Guan Yu take advantage for nothing? !
But Cao Cao understood Cao Ren after all, so he gave a special explanation in the letter.
This was done to allow Guan Yu to divide his forces to rescue Nanjun, and to allow Jiangdong to fight Liu Bei's group and reap the benefits.
Even if Guan Yu did not divide his troops to rescue Nanjun, he would be distracted when using his troops and would not dare to deal with Cao Ren with all his strength. He would always be aware of what was behind him.
No matter what Guan Yu chooses, it will be beneficial to Cao Jun.
Cao Ren thought about it and felt that what Cao Cao said made sense. He wrote this on Mudu and sent people to shoot arrows into Guan Yu's camp.
After Guan Yu received the news, he was indeed dubious.
Historically, Guan Yu thought it was Cao Cao's plan and chose to ignore it and continued to lead his troops to attack Fancheng.
But now Guan Yu is thinking that he must have a serious discussion with a certain boy.
Therefore, Guan Yu sent someone to find Zhang Xi, and the two met to discuss it.
Now that Cao Jun has not arrived, there is no need for Zhang Xi to stay in Fancheng. Besides, Zhang Ni is still in the city. If Zhang Xi is not here for a while, there is no need to worry about the city's defense.
So Zhang Xi rode quickly to Guan Yu's camp to discuss countermeasures.
Guan Yu showed Zhang Xi the letter sent by Cao Ren, and Zhang Xi immediately became solemn.
"Jun Hou, this matter is most likely true and we have to guard against it!" Zhang Xi immediately made a judgment.
Originally, Zhang Xi was worried about Jiangdong's 120,000 men. Now, as in history, Cao Cao notified Guan Yu in advance of Jiangdong's backstabbing. How could this be false? !
But Guan Yu said that there was something fishy about this!
"Although Jiangdong's villain is not trustworthy, now we have restrained most of Cao's army and made careful preparations to retaliate. Zhang Wenyuan also led the Xuzhou army to help. This is a good opportunity for Jiangdong to attack Huaibei and advance to Qingxu. Why did he betray his alliance and sneak attack on Nanjun? !" Guan Yu frowned and asked in confusion.
Well, God knows what those people in Jiangdong are thinking? !
Please, the current situation is different from that in history.
Historically, Guan Yu attacked Fancheng in order to coordinate the Battle of Hanzhong and help Liu Bei reduce pressure.
In fact, Guan Yu basically did it. He went ashore by the Han River and beat Cao Ren so violently that Cao Ren could only hide in Fancheng and dare not come forward.
But who knew that Cao Cao actually gave in and led his troops to withdraw from Hanzhong after less than three months of confrontation. At the same time, he sent Yu Jin and Pang De to lead seven armies and more than 30,000 people to rescue Fancheng. .
Originally, at this time, Guan Yu should have retreated after receiving the news. After all, the strategic purpose had been achieved.
But the weather was too cooperative. In August, Guan Yu flooded his seven armies, shocking China.
In this case, Fancheng may be breached at any time, and once Fancheng is breached, Xiangyang can be conquered without a fight. In fact, as the news that Guan Yu flooded the Seventh Army reached Xiangyang, Jingzhou Governor Hu Xiu had already written to Guan Yu, choosing Surrender.
In this case, Guan Yu felt that he had the advantage, so he refused to leave Fancheng. In the end, he was defeated by his old friend Xu Huang and his army. Coupled with Jiangdong's back stabbing, he had to defeat Maicheng.
But now history has changed.
Xiangyang and Fancheng are already in Guan Yu's hands. Now it is not Guan Yu who is anxious to capture Xiangfan, but Cao Cao who is worried that Guan Yu will go north and enter the hinterland of the Central Plains, so he has to mobilize troops to attack Xiangfan and try to recapture Xiangfan.
As for Guan Yu, what he has to do now is to rely on Xiangfan's defense system to hold Xiangfan's defense line and delay Cao Jun.
Moreover, Xu Huang was still following Cao Cao in Hanzhong to confront Liu Bei's army. Cao Cao could not send Xu Huang to lead the army, so Cao Cao could only transfer Zhang Liao who was guarding Hefei.
As for Jiangdong, because of Zhou Yu's efforts, although Sun Quan was humiliated by Zhang Babai in Hefei, he was not hurt. Now that Zhang Liao is no longer in Hefei, don't you Sun Quan want to grab such a good opportunity? Do you have to come and attack Jingzhou? !
Anyway, Zhang Xi really couldn't understand why Jiang Dong was so persistent in stabbing Jingzhou in the back.
Now Cao Cao still wrote a letter to remind him that although Zhang Xi could not tell the reason why Jiang Dong insisted on backstabbing, Zhang Xi could still analyze it for Guan Yu.
"Cao Cao submitted the letter, firstly, to weaken the strength of our Xiangfan garrison, and secondly, to cause our army to fight to the death with Jiangdong. If the letter is false, then this plan can be broken overnight, so why do it?!" Zhang Xi said to Guan Yu.
This matter is just a matter of a fast horse running back and forth. There is no point in cheating, and Cao Cao cannot do such a heartless thing.
"Furthermore, Jiangdong has been trying to seize Jingzhou for a long time. Even if this matter is false, he must be on guard!" Zhang Xi continued, "Of course we will stick to this place, but we can have Zhou Tai's army in Xiangyang City on standby. If Jiangdong is serious If we make a sneak attack on Nanjun, we can return to the army at any time."
Guan Yu thought for a while and decided that it would be a good idea to do this. At least he would be prepared for any trouble!
It's okay if it turns out to be a false alarm. If it's true, then we can respond in time.
Therefore, Guan Yu wrote a letter to Ma Liang, who was stationed in Xiangyang City, asking him to inform Zhou Taixian to gather his soldiers and be on standby at any time.
A few days after this incident, Guan Yu received two pieces of news at the same time.
One is the news brought back by the scouts, saying that Cao Ren has gathered 50,000 reinforcements from Xuzhou, plus his own remaining 10,000 soldiers, a total of 60,000, and is marching towards Fancheng.
The other was a letter asking for help sent by King Ji of Jiangling. Tens of thousands of troops had been raised in Jiangdong, cutting off the waterway of the Yangtze River. They were attacking the police and might arrive at Jiangling City at any time.
Guan Yu's face was solemn, and before Cao Ren's army arrived, he called Zhang Xi out of Fancheng again, and the two discussed countermeasures.
After Zhang Xi read the two military reports, his face was equally solemn.
One, Cao Ren from the north led an army of 60,000 people to the south, while Guan Yu and Zhang Xi's defenders in Fancheng only had 27,000 people, less than half the number of the other party.
With Xiangfan's integrated defense system, Guan Yu and Zhang Xi are in the same city, and the other is outside the city. There is still a chance of winning in a defensive battle. To defeat the enemy, the troops are definitely not enough.
But at this time, Jiangdong raised troops to attack Jingzhou.
The information in Wang Ji's letter is relatively vague. His assessment of Jiangdong's military strength and current situation are not detailed enough, nor is his assessment of whether it is possible to hold Jiangling. How can two people five hundred miles away make an accurate decision? judgment? !
The current situation is like this. Cao Cao's troops are pressing down on the border. Xiangfan's troops can only be said to be just enough to defend Cao Ren's army. If more troops are mobilized to rescue Jiangling, Xiangfan may not have enough troops.
But Zhang Xi's intention was to send reinforcements to Jiangling.
At first, 10,000 people were deployed to Xiangyang to defend and absorb the surrendered troops in Xiangyang City. Although it has not been completely digested now, at least part of the work of integrating the surrendered troops in Xiangyang City has been carried out.
Zhang Xi's suggestion was to let Zhou Tai lead 3,000 Nanjun soldiers and 7,000 Xiangyang troops to rescue Jiangling first.
If these surrendered soldiers are allowed to fight in the field, their combat effectiveness may be low and they may easily collapse in battle due to lack of support.
But in the battle to defend the city, we were facing Jiangdong's soldiers, so we couldn't be so stretched, right? !
Besides, after entering Xiangyang, the 7,000 surrendered troops only accounted for about one-third of the soldiers defending the city. Even if they caused trouble, they would not cause a big mess.
But Guan Yu disagreed that Jiangling's defenders were insufficient. If the seven thousand surrendered troops really caused a stir, even though it would not necessarily lead to the loss of Jiangling, it would also affect the morale and combat effectiveness of the Jiangling defenders.
After all, you cannot place too high demands on the organization and discipline of the soldiers of this era.
Therefore, what Guan Yu meant was that even if he wanted to send reinforcements, he would have to send his own people. He would rather take the risk of letting these newly reorganized soldiers stay in Xiangyang City than let them go to the front line to cause trouble.
But in this case, Zhang Xi was worried that when Cao Ren's army pressed the border, the poor families in Xiangyang would incite troops to surrender and cause turmoil.
The two of them found it difficult to deal with this matter.
In the final analysis, it is still a problem of insufficient troops. As long as there are 10,000 mobile troops that can be used with confidence, the two people will not be in all kinds of difficulties.
Both of them were thinking of ways to dig out these ten thousand people. Guan Yu glanced at the map and saw a place.
Yidu County.
I always think about deploying troops for rescue from my own hands, but I forget that the closest place to Nanjun is actually not Xiangyang, but Yidu County.
Guan Yu thought for a moment and said to Zhang Xi, "Mencius is stationed in Yidu, why not ask him to send troops to rescue Nanjun?!"
What Guan Yu was thinking about was actually not unreasonable.
Mengda is the governor of Yidu. Although Yidu County is a newly established county cut off from Nanjun, the area is not large, but the total military strength of the entire county is more than 10,000. Deploying 10,000 to support Nanjun can save a lot. things.
But Zhang Xi glanced at the location of Yidu County, curled his lips and said, "This person will definitely not send troops to assist Nan County."
Guan Yu was immediately puzzled and asked, "Why did Yuan Chang say this?!"
No need to ask why, that person is Meng Da.
Zhang Xi sneered and said, "Mencius wanted to save this man because he wanted to get something, but he relied on his talents and skills and could not be grateful and righteous. He is useful, but not trustworthy."
Guan Yu frowned, and his sense of Meng Da suddenly dropped a notch. After all, Guan Yu was obviously more willing to believe Zhang Xi than Meng Da who didn't understand him.
"Even so, this is a national matter. Mengda sent troops to assist Nanjun to serve the country. How can he refuse?" Guan Yu still asked in disbelief.
Zhang Xi thought for a while and decided to explain clearly to the second master to save him any unnecessary expectations.
Not to mention that in history, Meng Da not only did not send troops to rescue the second master, but also persuaded Liu Feng not to send troops to rescue him, and incidentally drove a wedge between Guan Yu and Liu Feng.
Let’s just say it’s in reality.
"Mengda guards Yidu County. There are only a few soldiers there. There are no more than 10,000 soldiers in the whole county, and they are distributed in various counties. It is difficult to assemble them at the same time. This is the reason for rejecting it. Yidu is the gateway to Shu, and now my lord is in the north. In Hanzhong, Baidi is empty, and Yizhou is also empty. If the troops from Yidu are raised to rescue Nanjun, the troops from Jiangdong will take advantage of the weakness and move in. Yizhou will be difficult to protect. This is the reason for rejection. The land of Yidu is in a remote place. , adjacent to Dongsanjun to the north. Now that the war in Nanjun is going on, Dongsanjun will not sit idly by and ignore it. Therefore, the Yidu area is also unstable, and the army dare not move lightly. This is why there are three reasons for rejecting it. All these three types can be Is there any reason to refuse?!”
"."
(End of chapter)
