Guan Yu is arrogant, but Guan Yu's arrogance is arrogance, and it is also arrogance for people who eat corpses, but it is definitely not brainless pretentious arrogance.
He would not be such an idiot that he would take the entire Northern Expedition as a bet to show off, nor would he take his elder brother's life as a trifling matter.
Guan Yu knew that now was not the time for him to show off his strength and save face. If he clearly could not capture Wancheng, but told Liu Bei that he could capture it because of face issues, then when Liu Bei led his troops into Guanzhong, the problems he would encounter were not those of Wancheng. It’s a matter of gain and loss.
Therefore, after receiving Liu Bei's letter, Guan Yu thought for a long time and called Wang Ji and Shi Bao for a meeting.
Xu Shu went to Jiangling to take charge, and there was no decent counselor around Guan Yu. Fortunately, Wang Ji and Shi Bao were both capable, and they were both civil and military figures. With them staying by Guan Yu's side, Xu Shu could rest assured. Go down to Jiangling to guard.
Wang Ji and Shi Bao were also very surprised.
Guan Junhou, who had always been aloof and arrogant, actually asked Wang Ji and Shi Bao for the first time, considering the current situation, if there was any plan to conquer Wancheng before the end of April.
This is obviously not normal, and it is not like something Guan Junhou could ask.
Guan Junhou has always had the final say in the Nanyang battlefield of the Northern Expedition. Wang Ji and Shi Bao mostly took orders to fight. If Wang Ji and Shi Bao had any ideas about the battle situation, they usually It was the first time that Guan Junhou took the initiative to offer advice and suggestions.
Moreover, when asked, this kind of extremely difficult strategy, which requires a final decision, is really difficult for the two of them.
Wang Ji and Shi Bao looked at each other and saw the surprise in each other's eyes, but they had to think hard about Guan Junhou's plan.
The current situation in Nanyang is 60,000 vs. 50,000. Cao Jun still has the fortified city Wancheng in hand. How to fight this? !
In more than half a month, 60,000 people were required to break through the city guarded by 50,000 people. Unless Cao Ren was stupid and chose to go out of the city to fight with Guan Junhou, there would be a glimmer of hope to break the city.
But the problem is, after all, Cao Ren is also a famous general in Cao Wei, a veteran who has been fighting for more than 30 years. How could he make such a childish mistake? !
Wang Ji and Shi Bao thought for a long time, and finally they could only shake their heads at Guan Yu in embarrassment, saying that their subordinates were really incompetent and could not think of such a plan.
Let alone conquering Wancheng within a month, even conquering Wancheng within the first half of the year seems a bit unrealistic.
Cao Wei's overall strength is too strong. If Cao Wei is forced to launch a general mobilization in the hinterland of the Central Plains, he will not have no troops to support Wancheng. Although the combat power cannot be guaranteed, he is still qualified to be cannon fodder.
So Guan Yu also sighed, and after dismissing the two men, he sat alone in the camp for a long time, and finally picked up a pen and wrote a reply to Liu Bei.
Guan Yu said that he was really not sure that he would be able to break through Wancheng before the end of the month. With the current situation, it was better to follow his elder brother's idea and let it go as soon as possible.
I will choose to withdraw the troops at the end of April and return to Xiangfan to defend. At that time, I will also ask my eldest brother to withdraw the troops from Longshan Road. Do not hesitate to avoid ruining the good situation.
After writing this letter, Guan Yu quickly sent someone to deliver it. According to the communication efficiency of this era, it would be the end of April when this letter was delivered to Liu Bei.
Therefore, it is better to maintain the offensive for the time being and not let Cao Ren of Wancheng notice his intention to retreat.
At the same time, Deng Ai was asked to hold the new field defense line, at least until the end of April, to provide flank cover for the retreat of the army.
Guan Yu was also a veteran, and he didn't want his retreat to end in defeat, which would be too embarrassing.
At this time, inside Wancheng, neither Cao Ren nor Zhang Liao was aware of Guan Yu's decision. After all, Liu Bei's army had not stopped attacking during this period, and he would not stop until Wancheng was captured.
But as a few days passed, although Liu Beijun's offensive momentum was still fierce, the frequency of attacks dropped a lot.
In the past, Liu Bei's army would retreat and recuperate when the attack was unfavorable, but it would basically launch a second attack in less than an hour. But now, if the attack is unfavorable in the morning, he would rest and recuperate until the afternoon before launching the second attack.
This frequency made Zhang Liao a little suspicious.
After all, they are old friends, and they understand each other's fighting styles very well. Zhang Liao believes that with Guan Yu's character and temper, if he is really determined to break through Wancheng, there will be no such frequency of fighting.
Actually, Cao Ren also knew it, and he even directly recognized Zhang Liao's judgment.
But Cao Ren flatly rejected Zhang Liao's suggestion to send troops out of the city to test.
Cao Ren and Zhang Liao still have a good relationship, so Cao Ren explained to Zhang Liao the reason why he rejected the suggestion - Guan Yu does not have this fighting style, but Guan Yu's army is not without capable people. How do you know that Guan Yu did this and did not accept it? He ignored the advice of his subordinates and deliberately showed weakness to lure us out of the city to fight in the field? !
Originally, there was not much difference in the strength of the two sides. If we held on to the city, we would win. Why risk losing troops and generals by leaving the city to fight in the field? !
This rhetoric, at best, means that Cao Ren is cautious, but at worst, it means that Cao Ren is afraid of Guan Yu and just wants to hold on to the city without making any mistakes.
Zhang Liao didn't quite agree with Cao Ren's approach. After all, Zhang Liao's suggestion was not to send a large army out of the city, but to give him a few thousand troops to go out of the city to test it out.
Even if he were defeated, it would only be a loss of thousands of soldiers and horses, which would not affect the defense of the city at all. And then again, could Zhang Liao be defeated by Guan Yu and annihilate his entire army? !
But Cao Ren still refused.
There was something that Cao Ren couldn't tell Zhang Liaoming.
Our Lord is no longer the original King of Wei. The current King of Wei only wants to keep the final bottom line of Chang'an. Whether our fight in Wancheng is good or bad, in fact, the new King of Wei does not care.
Whether Guan Yu can be defeated or not is not important to the current King of Wei. Defending Wancheng and defending Chang'an is the most important thing.
No matter what kind of lord we face, let's just do whatever we can to defend Wancheng. Preserving the foundation of the Cao family can be regarded as worthy of the old Wei King.
Cao Ren was somewhat hurt by Cao Pi's reluctance to fight Liu Bei in Sanfu. Now that he was sent to guard Wancheng, Cao Ren only had the mentality of not seeking merit but seeking no faults, as long as he was worthy of Cao Cao and the foundation of the Cao family. , did not have the ambition to defeat Guan Yu at all.
Besides, Cao Ren didn't think he had the ability to defeat Guan Yu head-on. It would be better to do less than to do more.
After all, Cao Ren is the chief general. Although Zhang Liao is the only general among the five good generals who is responsible for his own role, Zhang Liao has no good way to face Cao Ren, a general of the Cao clan.
This has been the rule over the years. If there are generals from Cao Wei's clan present, and there is not a big gap in status between the two sides, then it must be Cao Wei's clan generals who have the final say.
Seeing that Cao Ren remained unmoved, Zhang Liao did not insist on his suggestion. Indeed, their purpose was just to defend Wancheng.
The war in Nanyang fell into a delicate balance amid Guan Yu's attacks from time to time.
As for the battlefield on the western front, Liu Bei was stationed in Longshan and Zhang Xi led his troops to confront the Weishui River. No major war broke out for the time being.
On the Liangzhou side, there was a little accident.
Zhao Yun and Pang De led their troops to march into Liangzhou. After entering Liangzhou, Zhao Yun chose to divide his troops.
This is not Zhao Yun's fault. After all, both Pang Tong and Fazheng believed that there would be no large-scale resistance in the counties of Liangzhou, so they told Zhao Yun to fight quickly after entering Liangzhou and divide their troops to attack each county.
Zhao Yun also acted according to the plan. After entering Liangzhou, he divided his troops into two groups. One group was led by himself and took Wuwei County to govern Guzang County. The other group was led by Pang De and took Jincheng County to govern Yuzhong County.
But there was resistance on both sides.
In Wuwei County, Su Ze, the captain appointed by Cao Wei to protect the Qiang, led 7,000 troops to defend Guzang, while in Jincheng County, Jincheng Prefect Xu Miao led 5,000 troops to defend Yuzhong.
In terms of military strength, Liu Bei's army did have the advantage. Whether it was Zhao Yun or Pang De's army, they had more troops than Cao Wei's defenders.
But after all, one is to attack the city, and the other is to defend the city. The number of troops has not yet played a decisive role.
Needless to say about Jincheng County, although Xu Miao is more literary and is mainly responsible for governing the local area in Jincheng County, it does not mean that Xu Miao is a weak scholar. This guy's force value and military ability are not low.
This was the governor of Liangzhou in Cao Wei during Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition in history. After guarding Liangzhou, he could also send troops to attack Nan'an County and threaten the flanks of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition. He was both civil and military.
Although Pang De was not bad in ability, Pang De mainly led Qiang and Hu cavalry in this expedition, and there were not many infantry. It was not that easy for him to break through Yuzhong County where Xu Miao was stationed.
The Cao Wei Qiang Guard Captain Su Ze that Zhao Yun faced was not bad in ability, but compared with a famous general like Zhao Yun, he was still a level below him. But he couldn't stand up to the fact that he had a general under him who was extremely good at defending the city.
Zhao Yun's various offensive methods against Guzang County were all resolved one by one by this unknown general.
What's even worse is that the siege equipment that Zhao Yun spent so much time and effort building was also burned by the unknown general.
In fact, the general did not follow the conventional method of sending troops out of the city to burn the siege equipment. He simply fired arrows on the tower and burned most of the siege equipment sent by Zhao Yun.
Well, using rockets.
And this unknown general is called Hao Zhao, also known as Bo Dao.
(End of chapter)
