As Xu Shu expected, even if troops were sent to Huainan and Qingxu, the Jiangdong area would not be left without troops.
But as Guan Yu expected, although there were soldiers left to guard Jiangdong, they were only to guard the place. The total number of these troops did not exceed 30,000. They were more than enough to defend the place and were unable to attack Jingzhou.
After all, the leader of this trip north is Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu's overall view is not comparable to that of Lu Meng. Zhou Yu can see the current situation very clearly.
The threat from Cao Wei is still too great. The combined economic size and population of Hebei and the Central Plains are larger than those of Jiangdong and Liu Bei Group combined.
The current main enemy is still Cao Wei. Without a strategy to conquer Huainan and Qingxu, Zhou Yu will not rashly choose to fall out with Liu Bei again before these areas are digested.
Therefore, although Guan Yu moved his troops north this time, it was a bit risky, but at least Zhou Yu really had no intention of giving up Huainan and leading his troops westward to capture Jingzhou.
As for Sun Quan, now is the time when he needs face the most.
Sun Quan made peace with Cao Pi just for the title of the great Han King of Wu. Sun Quan did not want to cause trouble before he officially got the title of the great Han King of Wu.
The other one is going to be king, so Sun Quan has to take into account some political influence. It's not easy to fall out with his allies. Although the whole world knows that the alliance between the two families is only an empty name, but falling out The time is not at this time.
If he betrays his alliance just after becoming king, it will appear that he, the King of Wu, is very unvirtuous.
Therefore, although Guan Yu's troop deployment seemed risky, in fact, no one in Jiangdong at this time had the intention to carry out a sneak attack.
After receiving reinforcements from Wang Ji and Shi Bao, Guan Yu once again launched a large-scale attack on Wancheng at the end of January in the 26th year of Jian'an.
Zhang Liao's pressure suddenly increased.
Guan Yu can have reinforcements, but Zhang Liao will not be able to find reinforcements for a while. Once the balance of forces on the battlefield is broken, Zhang Liao's only choice is to rely on city defense to defend this road.
Therefore, Zhang Liao and Guan Yu fought fiercely in the Deng County area of Nanyang. Guan Yu temporarily gained the upper hand due to his superior strength, and Deng County was in danger.
Guan Yu's sudden force made Cao Pi unable to sit still in Chang'an.
Once Guan Yu breaks through the defenses of Deng County and marches into Wancheng, Zhang Liao has no choice but to defend.
Once Wancheng falls, Chang'an's flanks will be threatened, and Cao Pi, who is in charge of Chang'an, will no longer be safe. This is what Cao Pi does not want to see.
For this reason, Cao Pi once again summoned Xiahou Shang and others to discuss military affairs and made some responses.
First of all, he ordered Sima Yi of Xudu to speed up his march to Xinye, and strive to launch an attack in Xinye as soon as possible to contain Guan Yu who was attacking in Deng County.
Secondly, Cao Pi gritted his teeth and sent his last 10,000 Chinese troops to support Zhang Liao, betting that Zhang Liao could hold the line of defense and defend Chang'an.
Third, an order was given to Xu Huang, asking him to suspend the attack on Kou Feng on the front, turn to the defensive, and then allocate part of his troops to send troops from Zuo Fengyi to threaten Guan Yu's flank and support Zhang Liao in Wancheng.
In a nutshell, Cao Pi wanted to defend Wancheng.
As long as he defends Wancheng, Cao Pi will naturally be safe and sound, but once he cannot defend Wancheng and Chang'an is threatened, Cao Pi will really have no choice but to abandon northern Yongzhou and Liangzhou, summon Cao Ren to withdraw his troops from Shanggui, return to Chang'an, and attack Chang'an. The guards fought.
To a certain extent, although Cao Pi did not have the talent and strategy of his father, he was not too cowardly. When it was time to risk everything, he did not think about escaping Chang'an.
However, the sudden change in the situation on the battlefield this time has slowly begun to tilt the balance towards Liu Bei. There is really not much that Cao Pi can do to deal with it.
Western battlefield, under the city of Shanggui. Cao Ren led the army to reinforce Shanggui, which also increased the logistical pressure in the direction of Shanggui. Now Cao Ren's life is not easy.
Knowing that Liu Bei's army on the opposite side was just trying to consume his own supplies, Cao Ren had no choice but to lead troops to Shanggui for support.
After all, Liu Bei's main offensive direction is here, and Shanggui must not be lost. Once Shanggui is lost, Liu Bei can cut off Long, and the two states of Yongliang, except Guanzhong Chang'an, will not belong to Cao Wei at all.
Cao Ren had no choice but to come, but after he came, facing the pressure of food and grass logistics, Cao Ren had to take the initiative to seek opportunities to defeat the enemy and personally lead the army to challenge Liu Bei's army camp.
Now, Cao Ren is the one who is anxious. Fazheng and Pang Tong will not choose to fight Cao Ren at this time.
It can be delayed for a while. Try to delay as much time as possible. With the size of Cao's army, every extra day of delay will increase the pressure on logistics and food.
The idea of Fazheng and Pang Tong was to increase the logistical pressure on Cao Jun. It would be best to make Cao Jun's food shortage before the Wei River thawed, so that Cao Jun's combat effectiveness could be greatly weakened. .
Obviously, Cao Ren also knew Liu Bei's plan, so although he had no choice but to take the initiative to attack Liu Bei's camp before the food and grass were exhausted.
Continuing to delay will only benefit Liu Bei's army. It is better to take the initiative to attack and rely on the superiority of troops. Maybe we can defeat Liu Bei's army, open up the passage to Guangwei County and Tianshui County, and lead the army into the Yongliang area. In this way, maybe we can still It was a direct comeback.
Well, in fact, Cao Ren also knew that with Liu Bei's ability to fight for half a lifetime, and with the help of counselors like Fazheng and Pang Tong, it was almost impossible to suppress his opponent with the advantage of military strength.
But Cao Ren has no better way now. Apart from taking the initiative to attack, he can only watch his own food and grass being consumed day by day. Just fight. Fighting will be the most beneficial to him.
At least, Cao Ren could not afford to lose these troops.
Therefore, following the sudden opening of the Southern Front battlefield, the Western Front battlefield, which had been silent for a month, also resumed fighting.
It's just that the situation on the Western Front battlefield is exactly the opposite of that on the Southern Front battlefield.
On the southern battlefield, Liu Bei's army was attacking with all its strength, and Cao's army was defending with all its strength. On the western front, Cao's army was attacking with all its strength, and Liu Bei's army was defending with all its strength.
Zhang Xi has also returned to the front-line troops again, commanding the soldiers to defend. Now Liu Bei uses Zhang Xi more and more like a general rather than a counselor. Besides Zhang Fei, he is Liu Bei's second most trusted leading general. , with a higher status than Ma Chao and Wei Yan.
Zhang Fei was responsible for the overall defense of the Shanggui front line, and Liu Bei personally commanded the Chinese army. As for the overall defense of the Lueyang front line, Liu Bei gave it to Zhang Xi to command. Unknowingly, Zhang Xi also became a general guarding one side. .
Zhang Xi's opponent is still his old rival Zhang He. The two sides have played against each other several times in Longshan, and they have a good understanding of each other. They barely know each other's basics.
Both of them knew that the other was difficult to deal with, so no one wanted to give their opponent a flaw to deal a fatal blow. Both of them were cautious, testing each other's offense and defense.
This resulted in the Lueyang front line being the place with the lowest frequency of fighting and the lowest intensity of fighting on the entire Western Front battlefield.
But Liu Bei had no objection to Zhang Xi's attack, but Cao Ren had a big objection to Zhang He's attack.
Liu Bei is eager to continue stalling for time. What do you, Zhang He, want to do by being so cooperative with others and being so cautious in every battle? !
Cao Ren directly sent a messenger, repeatedly urging Zhang He to advance quickly. Even if he had to save lives, he had to defeat Zhang Xi as soon as possible and open a gap for himself to attack Liu Bei's central army from the side.
Zhang He was so angry. Now you know why I like fishing so much, right? !
Many times, Zhang He felt that his approach was clearly the right one and most in line with the current battlefield situation, but there were always some idiotic bosses who liked to point fingers and insisted on making the situation more complicated and causing greater losses. It's okay if you don't fish. If you don't fish, the responsibility will be on him, the person responsible for the specific implementation.
Sometimes Zhang He really doesn't want to mess up. When he encounters such a boss, he can't rebel just because of such a trivial matter. Is there any other choice besides taking advantage of the situation? !
At Cao Ren's strong request, Zhang He finally launched a full-scale attack on Zhang Xi's camp, but Zhang He only ordered the attack. He had no control over how to attack, where to focus the attack, and how to command the army to win.
Yes, Zhang He started fishing again.
If Zhang He still had the ambition to make great achievements and succeed in the first battle when he led the army to rescue Longxi alone, now with the arrival of the Cao brothers, Zhang He's status in the army has plummeted, and he has a brainless boss above his head to give blind orders. In this case, Zhang He naturally returned to the old path he was familiar with.
I'll do whatever you ask me to do, but if you expect me to take the initiative to find a way to defeat the enemy, then forget it. I'll do it.
As soon as Zhang He fished, Zhang Xi suddenly felt that the battle in front of him was baffling.
Some time ago, when playing against Zhang He, Zhang Xi did not dare to relax for a moment. He was always prepared for the offensive methods Zhang He might use, and always considered where Zhang He would seek a breakthrough. But now, in this battle, don't take it too easy.
The Cao army on the opposite side only rushed over in a group of people. When they attacked, they attacked almost across the board. There was no focus at all. When they retreated, they were sparse. Some teams retreated early, and some retreated slowly. It didn't look like anyone was serious at all. A commanding look.
At first, Zhang Xi thought this was another conspiracy by Zhang He, but after testing it several times, he found that it seemed that Zhang He had not arranged any back-up plan at all. Once, Zhang Xi even arranged a counterattack when Cao Jun retreated, and almost killed him directly. After attacking Zhang He's camp, Zhang He was finally forced to take action, and Zhang Xi's attack was repelled.
Although they failed to really break into Zhang He's central army, Cao Jun's losses in these attacks were not small at all.
Zhang Xi is wondering. What is going on? !
In the next few days, Zhang He continued his shabby command, which made Zhang Xi more and more courageous. Sometimes Zhang Xi even wondered whether he should launch a full-scale counterattack.
With the current offensive situation of Cao's army, once Liu Bei's army counterattacks across the board, they might be able to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop.
But Zhang Xi was always worried. After all, the organization and offensive capabilities of the Cao army in front of him were so low that it was really not something that a famous general like Zhang He could command.
For this reason, the cautious Zhang Xi specifically sought advice from military advisor Pang Tong.
Pang Tong's response to this was just one - there would be no big loss if you try, what if you succeed? !
Well, this answer is very confusing.
In the end, Pang Tong was still the adventurous guy.
But if Zhang Xi thinks about it carefully, considering the combat effectiveness that Cao Jun has shown so far, it is not impossible to take the risk and give it a try.
(End of chapter)
