On the Lueyang battlefield, after two consecutive battles, the battle line briefly fell into calm.
Cao Hong, who almost died in the Lueyang battlefield, did not rush to attack again this time. Even Cao Ren could not blame his own brother for the defeat.
Furthermore, the Cao army on the Lueyang battlefield lost more than 10,000 troops during their offensive and defensive operations during this period, and was temporarily unable to launch a new round of attack, so they could only passively transition into a confrontation.
On the other two fronts, Guo Huai's attack on Zhang Fei and Wei Yan did not make much progress. On the contrary, Zhang Fei and Wei Yan joined forces and were almost pinned to the ground and rubbed.
Zhang Fei was defeated by Guo Huai many times before. It was not because of how strong Guo Huai was, but simply because of the lack of troops in Zhang Fei's hands.
Now that Zhang Fei has received reinforcements, he faces Guo Huai with about the same strength and is on the defensive side. Guo Huai has no way to defeat Zhang Fei's defense line.
Coupled with Zhang Fei's combat characteristics, he will definitely not stick to one place quietly. He will go out to fight from time to time, and Wei Yan, an adventurous guy, will help him. This battle line is not so much a duel between offense and defense. It is said that the two sides won the battle in the field.
Guo Huai faced two famous generals from the other side, so it was surprising that he could get a favor.
One Wei Yan is enough to stop Guo Huai, not to mention the veteran general Zhang Fei!
Zhang Fei is really different from ordinary famous generals.
For other generals, as they grow older, their force value may weaken. The older they get, the more they will subconsciously reduce the number of times they go into battle to kill the enemy in person. Even Guan Yu has been commanding most of the battles in recent years and is not very good at killing enemies in person. Enemy.
But Zhang Fei doesn't seem to conform to this rule. He still likes to go into battle and kill the enemy in person as before. The most terrible thing is that this Mr. Zhang is still the unstoppable enemy of ten thousand people.
As long as it's just like this, Guo Huai is not unable to deal with Zhang Fei as a reckless man. The most terrifying thing is that as he grows older, Zhang Fei's intelligence seems to be in a stage of continuous growth.
From time to time, a strange idea comes up, which makes Guo Huai sometimes fall for it. If Guo Huai's own ability is not low, and he is more cautious after being fooled once, he might suffer more losses.
But no matter what, on Zhang Fei's side, Guo Huai had the most difficult time facing two famous generals alone.
As for the center line troops commanded by Cao Ren personally, they faced the Chinese army commanded by Liu Bei personally. The two sides fought back and forth.
On the one hand, Cao Ren is not bad in ability and can be considered a famous general.
On the other hand, Liu Bei has too many worries. As the backbone of the entire army, Liu Bei must not lose. Therefore, even with the help of Fazheng and Pang Tong, Liu Bei's fight is relatively constrained. He does not seek a big victory, but only wants to win. Undefeated.
Under such circumstances, it was Cao Ren in the middle who played fairly smoothly. The two sides went back and forth, attacking and defending each other.
As time goes by, it comes to February. The Weishui River next to Shanggui has finally completely thawed. As long as the spring floods are over, the grain and grass transported from Chang'an to Shanggui can be transported by the Weishui waterway.
Cao Ren will no longer be restricted by logistical pressure. He does not need to limit the consumption of food and grass every day, nor does he need to rush to defeat Liu Bei's army in front of him.
It's hard to say whether Cao Ren was so eager to launch an attack on Liu Bei because he really wanted to defeat Liu Bei's army, or whether he wanted to consume some of his own soldiers and reduce logistical pressure. But no matter what, Cao Ren also temporarily survived his most difficult moment. As long as we insist on early March, Chang'an should be able to transport a large amount of grain to Shanggui via waterway, and there will no longer be a need to transport grain through rugged mountain roads.
Now that there is not much pressure on the logistics, there is no great need for Cao Ren to seek an opportunity for a decisive battle with Liu Bei. Although Cao Ren did not retreat and defend, Cao Ren's offensive on the western front has indeed temporarily slowed down.
On the current battlefield on the Western Front, Cao's army still has about 80,000 defenders, while Liu Bei's army, including Ma Chao's Qiang and Hu cavalry, has a total of about 60,000.
If no one takes the initiative to launch a large-scale offensive, the Western Front battlefield will once again fall into a strategic stalemate.
In this regard, neither Pang Tong nor Fazheng had a good solution.
The place is too small, and the layout of forces on both sides is very clear and clear, so there is no possibility of surprise troops.
In addition, due to terrain restrictions, there are only a few mountain roads in Longshan. If you want to take a detour to attack the enemy's rear and cut off the enemy's food routes, there is no chance. Even with the resourcefulness of Pang Tong and Fazheng, they can actually take over Gui in a short time. Cao Ren had no choice.
Just when both sides believed that this war would become a protracted war of attrition, unexpected changes occurred on the southern battlefield.
On the southern battlefield, Guan Yu originally received reinforcements and stormed Zhang Liao. In early February, he captured Deng County, which had not been completely captured for three months, forcing Zhang Liao to retreat to Wancheng.
Just when Guan Yu was about to advance with great success and continue to attack Wancheng, Xu Huang led the armies of Zuo Fengyi and You Fufeng to go south in time, threatening Guan Yu's flanks.
In order to ensure the safety of his flanks, Guan Yu had to suspend his march north and rest in Deng County. At the same time, he assigned his troops to Wang Ji to stop Xu Huang and ensure the safety of his flanks.
As for Xinye, the Xinye garrison commanded by Deng Ai finally waited for the Xudu army led by Sima Yi. Deng Ai carefully defended Xinye and did not give Sima Yi too many opportunities. At the same time, Zhang Yi, who was in Fancheng, also took the initiative to send troops. Threatening Sima Yi's flanks, Sima Yi also made some slow progress under Xinye City.
At first, everyone thought that the war on the southern front would enter a new stalemate, but Kou Feng, who was in the Shangyong direction, suddenly showed his power.
No one expected that Kou Feng, who was heading towards Shangyong, was beaten violently by Xu Huang and almost retreated to Shangyong, but he suddenly showed his power and changed the situation of the battle.
Kou Feng's existence was really inconspicuous in the southern battlefield where famous generals gathered.
Although Kou Feng is also famous for his martial arts and has become somewhat famous after so many years of fighting, there is no shortage of brave men who are good at martial arts these days. Compared with Xu Huang, Guan Yu, Zhang Liao and other famous generals, Kou Feng is completely inconspicuous. Role.
Kou Feng was caught and beaten by Xu Huang before, which illustrates the problem.
Now, in order to support Zhang Liao, Xu Huang had to lead his troops south, so he handed over the task of defending You Fufeng to Wang Jing.
To put it bluntly, this is not a strategic mistake.
First, those who Kou Feng asked Xu Huang to beat were almost beaten back to Shangyong. Not to mention staying far away from the Youfufeng area, the morale of the soldiers was almost destroyed, so there was no need to worry about it.
Second, Wang Jing had previously used several thousand troops to block the attack of Kou Feng's 20,000-strong army. Wang Jing was left to defend Kou Feng, which was more than enough.
Therefore, neither Xu Huang nor Cao Pi, who was in Chang'an, regarded the Youfufeng area as a threatening place.
But it happened that a fatal sneak attack happened in this place where there was no sense of existence.
No one knows why, Meng Da, the prefect of Yidu of Liu Bei's army, suddenly led 10,000 county troops to the north. Without Wang Jing noticing, he detoured behind Wang Jing and cooperated with Kou Feng who was in front of Wang Jing. At the same time, they attacked from two sides and defeated Wang Jing's defensive army in Shangyong.
After that, Meng Da joined forces with Kou Feng and marched to the Youfufeng area again, threatening Chang'an.
After the defeat, Wang Jing tried hard to gather the remaining troops, but after all, he was a newly defeated army with a serious shortage of troops. There were only more than 3,000 men. Facing the more than 20,000 troops of Meng Da and Kou Feng, he was unable to stop them. After three battles were defeated, Kou Feng Mengda's army was only two hundred miles away from Chang'an.
Cao Pi was immediately shocked and ordered Wang Jing to continue to defend, while urgently recruiting Xu Huang to return to the defense. At the same time, he ordered Cao Zhen, who was at the entrance of Baoxie Road, to abandon the defense of Baoxie Road and quickly retreat to Chang'an.
The situation on the battlefield suddenly changed dramatically, catching everyone on the southern front by surprise.
Not only the people on Cao Wei's side were caught off guard, but also Guan Yu. How did Meng Da appear near Shangyong? !
Guan Yu didn't remember that he had dispatched the troops from Yidu County to go north. After all, Yidu County was an important road connecting Jingzhou and Shu, and it was also an important force in the defense of Jiangling. Guan Yu could guard against Jiangdong, and did not let Meng Meng do it at all. It means leading the troops northward.
Guan Yu, the commander-in-chief of the Southern Front and Northern Expedition, did not mobilize Meng Da, let alone Liu Bei, who was far away on Longshan Road, issued such an order.
In fact, no one was mobilized for Meng Da's dispatch of troops. It was entirely Meng Da's own initiative.
Meng Da has never been a peaceful person. Seeing guys like Lian Wang Ji and Shi Bao appear out of nowhere, they all hold high positions in the state and county. His former friend Li Yan became a senior official of Governor Jiangzhou, and Fa Zheng became Liu Bei's mastermind, Meng Da, is worried.
He was the one who helped Liu Bei enter Sichuan. Several others were highly used by Liu Bei. He was the only one trapped in Jingzhou with no room for development.
In fact, Meng Da originally had a chance, but when Jiangdong attacked Jingzhou, he did not send troops to rescue Jiangling in order to ensure his position. As a result, after the defense of Jiangling, unknown people like Wang Ji and Shi Bao were promoted to high positions in the prefectures and counties. , he is still a governor of Yidu.
Although Liu Bei didn't blame himself for anything, Meng Da was the most restless person in his heart.
He was not afraid of Liu Bei blaming him, and blaming him also showed that Liu Bei had expectations for him. Meng Da was most afraid that Liu Bei would be like Guan Yu and completely forget about him.
This time when Guan Yu mobilized troops for rescue, he would rather mobilize troops from Jiangling to go north than to think of himself as the prefect of Yidu. Meng Da could not bear such treatment.
Meng Da wants to make a change, but at this time, Meng Da will definitely not choose to vote for Wei. He is in the hinterland of Jingzhou. If he decides to vote for Wei, he will not die quickly enough.
Meng Da was at the rear, carefully studying the situation ahead, and found that the battle situation was now in a stalemate, whether it was Longshan Road or Nanyang, and the only place that could break this stalemate and give him a place to be useful was There is only a mediocre direction that no one cares about.
There is one thing to say, Meng Da's ability is no problem, he also has strategic vision, and he is not lacking in courage. After spotting the enemy's weaknesses, Meng Da launched his own troops without hesitation.
(End of chapter)
