At this point in the battle, it all depends on Cao Ren's decision.
Cao Ren was very unwilling. After all, the importance of this battle was self-evident to Cao Jun and he could not lose easily.
Therefore, although Guan Yu used Pu Daobing to effectively improve his disadvantage in attack distance, Cao Ren felt that he had no chance of winning.
After all, Guan Yu has already used his three thousand reserves in advance, which means that Guan Yu has shown his trump card in advance.
And Cao Ren still has 3,000 reserve troops in his hand that have not been used.
Therefore, Cao Ren gritted his teeth and used his trump card.
Three thousand reserves were sent out, but instead of supporting the frontal battlefield, they began to take a roundabout way and attack the flanks of Guan Yu's army.
However, Guan Yu was not moved at all by this. Instead, he allowed the soldiers on the flanks to resist while fiercely attacking Cao Jun in the front.
As long as they break through the frontal defense of Cao Ren and approach Cao Ren's main formation, Cao Ren's roundabout troops will not be able to exert much advantage.
Furthermore, where is Guan Yu's personal force value? Even if Cao Ren's roundabout troops really break through the flank, Guan Yu's 500 men are confident that they can close this gap.
As for Cao Ren, Cao Ren actually thought the same way.
If that doesn't work, then lead five hundred soldiers to rush forward in person, block the gap in the frontal battlefield, and buy time for your outflanking troops.
This battle has reached the traditional level of seeing who can defeat whom.
It's just that this time, Cao Ren didn't have good luck at Nanjun City. After all, the soldiers of Liu Bei's group were not the Jiangdong navy who were "not good at land warfare." Cao Ren's frontal troops and the defense line collapsed faster than Cao Ren expected.
Cao Ren's roundabout troops were still struggling with Guan Yu's flank defense troops, and Cao Ren's frontal troops could no longer hold it.
Even if Cao Ren personally led 500 soldiers to support him, he could only barely hold on to the defense line and failed to repel Liu Bei's army's attack.
At this time, what Cao Ren needs to consider is not whether he can persist.
Cao Ren now has no hope of his outflanking troops breaking through the flanks of Guan Yu's army. If he persists like this, once the frontal troops are defeated, Cao Ren will not only be greeted by a defeat, but may even be a heavy loss. defeat.
Defeat is decided.
At this time, as a qualified commander, he can no longer insist on some so-called face issues. Perseverance when there is hope, and struggling when defeat has been determined are completely different things.
The lives of soldiers cannot be sacrificed for some pointless struggle.
Therefore, Cao Ren temporarily retreated to the central army and rang the golden bell.
The moment the gold was sold, it was equivalent to Cao Ren voluntarily admitting his defeat. Under the conditions of this kind of battle, if one side admits defeat, the other side will not take advantage of the situation to pursue.
Therefore, Guan Yu also slowly gathered his infantry and retreated slowly.
The battle between the two sides ended, and Guan Yu paid more than a thousand casualties in exchange for Cao's nearly 2,000 casualties.
Although judging from the casualty ratio, it seems that both sides are about the same, but that is because Cao Ren paid the gold and surrendered first. Otherwise, if the fight continued, Cao Ren would definitely face the collapse of the entire army, and the casualties would be huge.
Moreover, Cao Ren's admission of defeat had a huge impact on the morale of Cao's army. It was equivalent to his own commander being defeated by the enemy on the frontal battlefield. It did not cause moral turmoil in the army. It can be considered that Cao Ren, Zhang Liao and Zang Ba led the army well. .
But now these three people were gathered in Cao Ren's tent, all of them frowning.
"The King of Wei has entrusted me with a great event, but now I am in a dilemma under Fan City. What should I do?!"
Cao Ren paced back and forth in the camp, anxiously asking the two lieutenants for their opinions.
Zhang Liao and Zang Ba were both stunned, and then continued to remain silent.
You are the commander-in-chief, you ask us? !
Besides, it’s not like you can’t see it.
There are two people on the opposite side, one is a tortoise, and he can't get out of the city if he is beaten to death. You have to attack the city. He has many methods. For a while, he really can't break the city that he is holding on to.
As for the other one, although he is a hedgehog, he still gave you face and agreed to fight with you, but you lost the fight yourself. Who is to blame? !
When Cao Ren saw that the two of them were silent, he couldn't help but feel a little annoyed, and said, "Wen Yuan, Xuan Gao, you two are also good generals in the world, but in the current situation, you have no way to defeat the enemy?!"
Zhang Liao thought for a while and felt that it was impossible not to speak at this time, so he thought for a moment and said, "General, don't be impatient. Now that our army has suffered a new defeat and its morale is unstable, it is better to stand still for the time being and make plans after the morale of the army recovers." "
Zang Baxin said that Zhang Wenyuan is not kind. You have finished talking nonsense. What should I say? !
But soon, Zang Ba thought of another nonsense and hurriedly said, "What General Zhang said is absolutely true. Now Xiangfan is in dire straits, so we might as well surround it temporarily and report the current situation to the King of Wei, who will make a decision. how?!"
Zhang Liaoxin said yes, this Zang Ba went to the King of Wei with one pole. This back and forth lasted for at least more than a month, right? !
In fact, everyone among the three people present knew that what the other said was nonsense, but they had no choice. None of the three people wanted to take this responsibility.
Actually, there is a way to solve the current situation.
Guan Yu can ignore him for the time being. As long as Fancheng is captured, the entire situation in Xiangfan will undergo earth-shaking changes.
But Fancheng belongs to one of Xiangfan's defense systems. Xiangyang can provide Fancheng with food, grass, weapons, and even soldier supplies at any time. To conquer this place, there is no better way now except to use human lives.
Originally, Cao Ren's Thunderbolt Chariot was a good idea, but the catapult on the opposite side seemed to be sharper. Now there is no other way. If there is no need to pile up lives, we can only remain in this stalemate.
But if we use human lives to pile up, let alone the question of how many lives will be piled up, can Cao Cao bear this loss? !
In Xiangfan, Cao Cao has already invested nearly 100,000 troops, including soldiers from Xuzhou. Cao Cao cannot afford to lose more lives if more people are killed.
Cao Ren actually knew this very well, so he repeatedly asked Zhang Liao and Zang Ba about their plans. In fact, it was the old fox who wanted to pass the blame.
But neither Zhang Liao nor Zang Ba was born as an old fox.
Zhang Liao was quite kind and advised Cao Ren not to attack for the time being due to the unstable morale of the army, and to wait for Cao Cao's progress in Hanzhong before making any plans.
Zang Ba, on the other hand, was more evil and just pointed the matter out to Cao Cao and let Cao Cao make the decision. Then wouldn't we no longer have to shoulder the blame? !
There is a saying that it is not without reason that Zang Ba would be deprived of military power by Cao Pi later. This idea seems good, but from Cao Cao's standpoint, there is a high probability that he will scold his mother.
Cao Cao has to decide everything. What do you do to feed generals like you? !
Of course, Cao Ren knew that this matter could not be brought to Cao Cao's side, otherwise Cao Ren would inevitably be scolded by Cao Cao. Therefore, Cao Ren decided to adopt Zhang Liao's strategy to appease the morale of the army and wait and see what would happen.
In this way, the Xiangfan battlefield in the second half of the first month fell into an eerie silence.
At the same time, in Hanzhong.
Cao Cao now indeed intends to withdraw his troops from Hanzhong.
It's snowing heavily in Hanzhong, making it increasingly difficult to supply supplies from Chang'an to Hanzhong. Liu Bei is like a weakling who can't be killed. No matter how you fight him, he will just hold you back until you can't be killed or defeated. , but he can drag you down.
This made Cao Cao think of some bad things such as the Battle of Chibi.
Sometimes, Cao Cao also wonders, if he had listened to Liu Ye, taken Jingzhou and retreated as soon as it was good, and led his troops back north, he would not have to face the battle of Chibi, and would he have unified the world now.
When he was in Chibi, Cao Cao actually knew that his army had been fighting for years and was at the end of its strength. However, Cao Cao chose to take it hard and suffered a huge defeat in Chibi.
However, his old rival Liu Bei, who was already fleeing in embarrassment and had almost no place to stay, has risen all the way because of this, and now he has the ability to fight with him head-on for Hanzhong's capital.
Cao's army now is actually similar to that of Chibi, and it has reached the end of its strength.
The Battle of Hanzhong has been fought for more than a year now. The soldiers are very tired. Hanzhong is almost crippled.
The local supplies of grain and grass have long been exhausted, and now all the grain and grass must be transferred from Chang'an. Not only the distance is long, but the heavy snow and road closures make the supply extremely difficult.
The only good news now is that Cao Hong fought tooth and nail to fend off the joint siege of Zhang Fei and Ma Chao on Chencang Road. Coupled with the bad weather, Liu Bei's army could not bypass the Qiang territory to attack Chang'an, so he could barely guarantee his victory. Supply lines are not threatened.
But after the beginning of spring, the snow melted, and even if Cao Hong could still defend Chencang Road, if Ma Chao led the Qiang soldiers to detour and cut off his supply line, Cao Cao would really be trapped and die in Hanzhong.
So Cao Cao wanted to retreat, but Cao Cao also knew that once he retreated, Hanzhong would no longer be his.
Although Hanzhong now has little economic value.
Most of the population of Hanzhong has been moved to Guanzhong by Cao Cao, enriching the population of Guanzhong after being decimated by the Xiliang Corps.
The land in Hanzhong has also become barren due to years of war. It will not take a year or two to resume production.
When Cao Cao lost Hanzhong, the economic loss was actually not great, but the political loss would be great. This was the first time that Cao Cao chose to give in in a head-to-head confrontation with Liu Bei.
At the beginning, it was said that "the only heroes in the world are the envoys and cao'er." That was because Liu Bei was under his control and he was not worried about Liu Bei becoming powerful.
But now, Liu Bei, the hero of the world, finally spreads his wings and soars into the sky.
It's strange that Cao Cao is in a good mood.
Therefore, during this period of time, it is not surprising that Cao Cao often talked about "the people who weave mats and sell shoes", and would curse the opponents he once praised.
When a person has potential but is not a threat to you, you will always praise him without hesitation, because praising him is actually promoting yourself to a certain extent.
But when this person can really threaten your status, scolding him is considered polite. Stumbling behind his back or even suppressing him from the front is normal.
Under such circumstances, Cao Cao wanted to retreat but was unwilling to do so. He wanted to advance but was unable to defeat him. He always had to worry about the supply routes in the rear and was hesitant. Finally one day, he gave the famous military command passed down to future generations—— "Tasteless".
Then, a certain smart guy named Yang Xiu thought he was really smart.
(End of chapter)
