Hanzhong is really far away from Jingzhou. It was already mid-December when Liu Bei received the first military report from Xu Shu, saying that Jiangdong had betrayed the alliance and launched a surprise attack on Jingzhou.
When he first received the military report, Liu Bei was furious.
But what's the use of being angry? Hanzhong is too far away from Jingzhou, and he can't fly in the clouds. He immediately leads his troops and appears in Jingzhou to fight to the death with the rats from Jiangdong.
Besides, even with this method, Liu Bei can't leave now. In front of him is an army of more than 100,000 led by Cao Cao, and under his feet is the land of Hanzhong and the barrier of Yizhou.
If this place is not conquered, Liu Bei will feel very insecure even if he stays in Chengdu.
Therefore, when Liu Bei received the first urgent letter from Xu Shu, although he was anxious, he had no good solution. He quickly called Fazheng and Pang Tong to discuss countermeasures.
Fazheng and Pang Tong were also surprised and suspicious after reading the letter.
Especially Pang Tong, as a native of Jingzhou, whether the Liu Bei Group can occupy Jingzhou is very important to people like them who are born locally.
No one wants to think that their hometown is within the scope of the enemy's country. If they do things like this, they will inevitably be a little constrained.
But the reality is that the two counselors knew very well that if they did not deal with Cao Cao on the opposite side and let Cao Cao regain control of Hanzhong, Yizhou would always be in danger.
It is difficult to say which one is more strategically important, Jingzhou or Hanzhong, at this time.
Hanzhong was the bottom line for Liu Bei to maintain his family business, while Jingzhou was Liu Bei's capital for competing for the world.
Therefore, Fazheng handed over Liu Bei and said, "My lord must not retreat. Hanzhong is the land of my lord's foundation. It is extraordinary and must be taken. Please think twice, my lord."
Although Fazheng is not from Yizhou, all his interests are now in Yizhou. Therefore, it is difficult to say that Jingzhou is not important. Such words can only emphasize that Yizhou is the foundation of Liu Bei, and the barrier of Hanzhong is related to Liu Bei. The foundation cannot be given up easily.
As for Pang Tong, although he wants to say that Jingzhou is important, a counselor at Pang Tong's level will not make wrong judgments for his lord because of the gains and losses of his hometown. Jingzhou is important, but Hanzhong is equally important.
Therefore, Pang Tong also handed over his hand and said to Liu Bei, "My lord, although Jiangdong betrays the alliance, Yuan Zhi is in charge in the south of Jing, and there are related princes and Yuan Chang in the north of Jing. Even if Jiangdong succeeds in a sneak attack, it will be difficult to defend the lord for a long time." Just wait patiently and make plans after the letters from Yuan Chang and Guan Junhou arrive."
After listening to what Pang Tong and Fazheng said, Liu Bei reluctantly calmed down and continued to confront Cao Cao.
Within a few days, Guan Yu's letter arrived.
At the same time as Guan Yu's letter, there was also a letter from Zhuge Liang in Chengdu.
Guan Yu said in the letter that he and Zhang Xi had long been prepared for a sneak attack in Jiangdong and had made corresponding arrangements in Nanjun. It should not be a big problem. However, Cao's army was powerful and he and Zhang Xi could not escape from Xiangfan for the time being. However, 10,000 reinforcements have been dispatched from Xiangyang to Jiangling for rescue, so there should be no big problem.
Zhuge Liang's letter also comforted Liu Bei.
Zhuge Liang didn't say much. He only said that with Xu Shu in Jingnan, Wenpin in the police, and Wang Ji in Jiangling, there would be no big problem in dealing with Jiangdong's sneak attack.
At the same time, just in case, Zhuge Liang has ordered Fu Kuang of Badong County and Meng Da of Yidu County to quickly rescue Jiangling. In the short term, Jiangdong will not be able to capture Jiangling.
After receiving so many reassuring letters, Liu Bei felt a little more relieved.
It happened that at this time Cao Cao personally led his troops to the foot of Dingjun Mountain to challenge.
The two armies had been facing off for such a long time, and Cao Cao couldn't bear it anymore. After all, his logistics pressure was really great. In winter, it snowed from Chang'an to Hanzhong, and the pressure on logistics supplies was even greater.
At this time, Liu Bei was still a little worried about the situation in Jingzhou, so he couldn't bear it anymore. If a quick victory could be achieved, it would be in Liu Bei's interests.
Therefore, the two armies launched a head-on confrontation on the land of Hanzhong.
As a result, there is a story to tell. Due to the disadvantage of numbers, Liu Bei still fought more passively. Liu Bei even got a little carried away at one point and went to the front line to personally direct the battle. He also braved the rain of arrows and refused to retreat.
If Fazheng hadn't been dragging him, and when he couldn't be persuaded, he still stood in front of Liu Bei and said, "My father-in-law is a target, how can I be a villain?" Liu Bei would still be fighting Cao Jun on the front line to death.
But in the end, Liu Bei still took advantage of the convenience of supply. Really, this is really funny. Considering the difficulty of supply on the mountain road from Yizhou to Hanzhong, Liu Bei actually took advantage of the convenience of supply.
One is that Chengdu is very close to Hanzhong after all, while Chang'an is too far away from Hanzhong.
The other one is that Zhuge Liang was in Hanzhong and was very effective in preparing food and grass planning. However, Cao Cao. Cao Cao's "Xiao He" and the loyal minister Xun Lingjun of the Han Dynasty had died five years ago. Cao Cao sent him an empty food box and forced him to death. .
After all, Cao Cao was unable to continue to create pressure on Liu Bei despite the unfavorable supply situation. The two sides fought intermittently for more than a month, but in the end the decisive battle was hastily ended, and the two sides returned to a state of confrontation.
At this time, Liu Bei received the second battle report from Xu Shu - Jiangdong failed to attack Jingzhou and retreated to Lukou for defense. At the same time, Zhou Yu led his army out of Baqiu again to threaten Jingnan.
This news made Liu Bei happy and surprised.
Fortunately, Jiangdong Xiaoer failed to break through his own Jingzhou defense line.
Surprisingly, Zhou Yu came back to lead the army. Does this mean that Jiangdong still refuses to give up his plot in Jingzhou? !
Now it's just a temporary retreat, is there still a possibility of attacking Jingzhou later? !
After all, that was Zhou Yu, a genius military commander who defeated 400,000 with 30,000 men in Chibi.
The intimidating power of Zhou Yu's troops was such that even Liu Bei in Hanzhong did not dare to be careless.
At this time, Liu Bei really had plans to suspend the Battle of Hanzhong, return to Chengdu, and then quickly send troops to rescue Jingzhou.
Fortunately, Liu Bei now has two reliable advisers, Fazheng and Pang Tong, and a god-level strategic master like Zhuge Liang sitting in the rear, who have dissuaded Liu Bei's ideas.
We have already fought to this level, and we are gritting our teeth. If we just hold on a little longer, we will capture Hanzhong. How can we give up halfway? !
Moreover, Zhuge Liang also knew what Liu Bei was thinking, so he compiled the defense information of Jingzhou as quickly as possible and sent it to Liu Bei in Hanzhong. At the same time, he wrote a letter analyzing the situation to reassure Liu Bei.
We have more than 10,000 people guarding Jingnan, about 4,000 people in the public security department, and about 20,000 people in Jiangling. The total force is more than 40,000 people, including Xu Shu, Wenpin, Zhang Ren, Pan Jun, and Wang Ji. When there are smart and brave people on guard, there is no need to worry about Zhou Yu's strong attack.
As for Jiangdong, the sneak attack failed and the troops retreated to Lukou with lost troops. This is the time when the morale of the army is at its lowest. If we don't attack them at this time, they will be laughing. How can they still have the strength to counterattack.
No matter how powerful Zhou Yu is, he still has to learn some tactics. In this case, Zhou Yu will most likely be stationed in Baqiu to regain the morale of the army and will never attack easily.
Of course, these are what Zhuge Liang said to comfort Liu Bei. After sending this letter to Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang quickly wrote another letter and asked someone to rush it to Xiangyang and give it to Zhang Xi.
The letter just told Zhang Xi that the road ahead was still dangerous, and hoped that Zhang Xi would persuade Guan Junhou not to be too promiscuous. If it is really difficult to control Cao's army, then it is acceptable to temporarily retreat to Nanjun to ensure that Nanjun is not lost.
Don't forget, your goal is to provide support after all. Now Cao Cao has at least divided his troops into Xiangfan with more than 50,000 men, and the two of them have completed the task brilliantly.
It’s best to keep the extra things, but don’t be greedy if you can’t.
Zhuge Liang did not dare to write such a letter to Guan Yu, for fear that the prince would be arrogant again, and even read it and pretended not to hear it.
But it is okay to write to Zhang Xi. After all, Zhang Xi is famous for being cautious, even more cautious than Zhuge Liang. It is best to let him judge whether the way back is safe and persuade Guan Yu to advance or retreat.
As for Zhang Xi, after receiving Zhuge Liang's letter, his expression was indeed serious.
Zhang Xi really doesn't know much about himself, and he doesn't know how he is evaluated in Zhuge Liang's mind now. Zhang Xi thinks that if even Zhuge Liang thinks that his future is in danger, then maybe it is really very serious. It's dangerous.
After all, Zhuge Liang is all about caution. Zhuge Liang never takes risks.
Since he has written a letter to remind him, maybe there are risks in Jingzhou that he cannot see.
Therefore, Zhang Xi also wrote a letter to Guan Yu, expressing his concerns about the way out, and persuaded Guan Yu that if it didn't work, let Guan Yu lead the troops back to rescue him, and would he continue to block it in Fancheng? !
Although Fancheng did not have many troops, that was because Fancheng itself could not put down too many troops, not because Zhang Xi's troops were insufficient.
And with the strength of Fancheng and the support of Xiangyang behind him, even without Guan Yu's support, Zhang Xi felt that he should have no problem if he could hold on for a month or two.
Even if Cao Ren opposite him has 60,000 soldiers, Zhang Xi still has this confidence.
But Guan Yu was a little confused. He looked at the military report from Wang Ji that Jiangling was safe, and then looked at the letter from Zhang Xi. Could it be that the military reports he read and Zhang Xi's were different? !
I feel so confused when writing anything because I have a cold. I don’t even know what I wrote. Please forgive me if there are any mistakes.
(End of chapter)
