The revival of the Han Dynasty must start with Dong Zhuo

Chapter 235 Volume Jingzhou Split
"go!"

Cao Cao had arrived at Fancheng three days ago.

But it was just an arrival.

After three days of intelligence gathering, Cao Cao did not hesitate at all.

"retreat!"

Xiahou Dun heard Cao Cao's order and hurried over on horseback: "Meng De, why are you retreating?"

Cao Cao was dressed in a red robe, and the armor on his body should have been shining brightly in the sun, but now it was blocked by a huge shadow, appearing dim.

"Yuan let me see this city."

Cao Cao raised his whip and pointed at the terrifying fortifications on the wall of Fancheng.

"This kind of strong city can only be filled with human lives."

If we want to take Fancheng by head-on attack, we will probably suffer thousands of casualties.

Xiahou Dun was not afraid: "Then use human lives to fill the void!"

"General Le Jin under Meng De is fierce in battle, so we can use him as the vanguard!"

Cao Cao raised his chin and said nothing.

"After we take over Fancheng, what will Yuan Rang do?"

"Xiangyang is surrounded by water on three sides and mountains on one side, and there is also the support of the navy of Jingzhou. How can we take it?"

"Even if we take Fancheng, as long as the other side burns the floating bridge, we can only sigh and look at the city, without any way to do anything!"

Same as Sima Yi.

After observing the defensive fortifications in Xiangyang, Cao Cao decisively gave up the idea of ​​attacking there.

Moreover, through his trials over the past few days, he discovered that the defender of Fancheng was also a powerful figure. He managed the fortress, which had no weaknesses to begin with, so tightly that there was no chance for the enemy to take advantage of it.

Cao Cao's attack along the way was just a feint, and it would not be worthwhile to get beaten to a bloody pulp under the city of Xiangyang.

"Is that the end of it?"

Xiahou Dun originally thought that with Xu You's strategy, he could get Jingzhou for free, but he didn't expect it to turn out like this.

War is not a game.

The daily military supplies and fodder have always been an astronomical figure.

Every time you return empty-handed, it means you have suffered a great loss.

Now, a trip to Jingzhou only allowed him to see the magnificence of Xiangfan, which was obviously not a good deal for Cao Cao.

Seeing Xiahou Dun's gloomy expression, Cao Cao burst into laughter instead.

"Yuan Rang is greedy, isn't he?"

"Even if we can't capture all of Jingzhou, we've picked up Nanyang County for free!"

"Nanyang is the southern capital of the Han Dynasty after all. Even if it is in ruins, it is still a county after all! Yuan Rang is really greedy!"

Cao Cao simply did not rush to withdraw his troops. He directly ordered the army's chefs to cook sheep and cattle, and boil them into a fragrant broth, and then began to celebrate!
"Today we have recovered Nanyang and cut off the land connection between Guanzhong and Jingzhou. This is a great achievement! What's not great about it?"

That night, the Cao army camp was filled with sounds of joy. The noise was so loud that even in Xiangyang City, which was separated from Cao's camp by Fancheng and the Mianyang River, the sounds of Cao's army celebrating their victory could be heard!
Some soldiers in Cao's camp got drunk and even walked out of the camp directly, cursing at Fan Cheng. The noise was endless and annoying.

It was not until the sky was slightly light that Cao Cao, who had been celebrating with his soldiers, showed a look of disappointment. He stared at Fancheng and muttered to himself, "Didn't you get fooled?"

Feeling somewhat bored, Cao Cao waved his hand and said, "Tell Wen Ze (Yu Jin's courtesy name) and Wen Qian (Le Jin's courtesy name) to stop the ambush and prepare to retreat."

In fact, Cao Cao was also unwilling in his heart.

The words said in front of Xiahou Dun sounded easy, and Nanyang was indeed once the southern capital of the Han Dynasty and the richest county in the world... but that was all in the past.

After being harassed by that old fellow Yuan Shu, Nanyang was already deserted and was no different from other counties.

Moreover, Cao Cao was well aware that the terrain of Nanyang was flat, and fighting against the imperial court with its Western Liang cavalry there would be tantamount to seeking death.

Even if Nanyang was a piece of chicken ribs, Cao Cao would probably have to give it up.

The failure of this war was already a foregone conclusion.

That was why Cao Cao wanted to pretend a celebration scene to lure the defenders of Fancheng out to raid the camp out of greed for merit.

Only in this way, we might be able to take advantage of the enemy's confusion and attack Xiangyang.

But the opposing defender had no intention of being fooled. He was just like an old turtle, hiding in the city and refusing to come out even if he was beaten to death...

Cao Cao took a last look at the wall of Fancheng and vaguely saw two figures standing on the wall, but he could not see their specific appearance clearly.

At the same time, Sima Yi and Yang Xiu on the city wall also breathed a sigh of relief after seeing Cao Cao leading his troops away.

Yang Xiu wiped his forehead exaggeratedly: "Zhongda! I'm not saying anything bad about you! Why do you insist on taking on the job of guarding Fancheng yourself? Do you know that if Cao Cao really attacks the city, we won't be able to defend it at all!"

Cao Cao's arrival was too sudden. Wen Pin, a general under Liu Biao, was still in Jiangling reorganizing the navy of Jingzhou. They were all terrified for a moment.

Upon seeing this, Sima Yi decisively asked for three thousand soldiers for Liu Biao and went to Fancheng to guard it personally, claiming that he was the one who instigated the incident.

If Cao Cao attacked the city at this time, he would find that Fancheng only had 3,000 defenders, there were no Jingzhou navy on the river, and Xiangyang City was even more empty...

Sima Yi was still a teenager after all, and when he saw Cao Cao retreating, he relaxed and sat back. "Grandpa De, we are both officials around the emperor. When the emperor was fiddling with those sand tables in the North Palace and analyzing the situation in the world, you should have heard how the emperor evaluated those Han thieves."

"Yuan Shao is cautious at heart but lenient on the outside. On the surface, he seems to be the leader of all four factions, but in fact, he doesn't trust anyone... The emperor's original words: Yuan Shao himself is from an aristocratic family, so how could he possibly believe that those aristocratic families are good people."

"The emperor spoke highly of Cao Cao, but he also said that Cao Mengde was too suspicious, so I made this arrangement."

Sima Yi pointed at the fortifications on the wall and said, "Even if there are few soldiers in the city, we should still be on high alert and not panic. This will make Cao Cao worry that even if he captures Fancheng, he will not be able to take Xiangyang, and his troops will be wasted."

"On the contrary, if we are timid, I am afraid Cao Cao will become suspicious of us and try to find out the weakness of Xiangfan!"

Yang Xiu crossed his arms towards Sima Yi and praised him: "Great!"

"Zhongda! You got this title of top scholar. I have completely lost my temper now."

"But why are you so sure that Cao Cao was trying to lure us out of the city last night? Why didn't he let his soldiers go out to rob the camp?"

Sima Yi laughed and said, "It's because the emperor always mentions Cao Cao as a traitor."

"Since he is a treacherous hero, he is destined to be judged by common sense. If he wants to celebrate, then he can celebrate. Anyway, our duty is to defend Fancheng, not to defeat Cao Cao. Why should we put so much pressure on ourselves?"

Yang Xiu took another deep breath: "How does the emperor know everything? As far as I can remember, the emperor has never met Cao Cao. How come he is so familiar with Cao Cao?"

Afterwards, Yang Xiu could not help but tease Sima Yi: "Zhongda, with your personality, you will definitely live a long life!"

You should worry about what you should worry about, and never worry about what you shouldn’t worry about!

If you are so leisurely and free from depression, how can you not live to be a hundred years old?
At this moment, Cao Cao's army had almost retreated.

Yang Xiu simply took off his helmet and yawned as he was about to go downstairs: "I've been exhausted these past few days. I'll go back and take a bath first, and I'll leave the rest to you!"

"When General Wenpin returns, or Guanzhong sends a large army over, our hard times will be over!"

Sima Yi wanted to dissuade him, but thinking that Yang Xiu came from a wealthy family and really could not endure such suffering, he let him go.

"Ouch!"

As soon as Yang Xiu walked down the stairs, he screamed, causing Sima Yi to quickly come over to check: "What's wrong, Dezu?"

It turned out that Yang Xiu was too relaxed when he was going downstairs, and he didn't notice that a soldier was rushing upstairs, and they bumped into each other.

"Don't worry, Zhongda, nothing will happen!"

Yang Xiu rubbed his butt and was about to scold the other person, but his face changed.

Sima Yi, who came to visit, was also shocked and stared at the soldier who collided with Yang Xiu.

Because this soldier had a flag on his body and a red feather on his head.

Anyone in the army who is dressed like this must be a soldier coming to convey urgent military information!

But Jingzhou... where does the urgent military information come from now?!

When the soldier saw Sima Yi, he took out the letter from his arms and handed him the news he had brought.

"Han envoy, Jingnan... has rebelled!"

Sima Yi's face turned pale and he quickly opened the letter. Yang Xiu also came over with a serious face and read the contents.

The letter was written by Liu Biao himself.

Previously, in order to take control of all the military and political power in Jingzhou, Liu Biao sent Liu Pan and Huang Zhong who were stationed in Changsha to take over Jiangxia.

But just as Liu Pan and Huang Zhong left, Zhang Xian, a scholar from southern Jing, raised an army in Changsha, Lingling, and Guiyang counties and rebelled against Liu Biao. (Note 1)

Zhang Xian was a man of great prestige in southern Jingzhou. In addition, Liu Biao had been trying hard to maintain relations with the gentry in Jingzhou. Therefore, even though Liu Biao knew that Zhang Xian was not on good terms with him, he never took action against him.

It was thought that Zhang Xian would accept his fate and submit to the court like other Jingzhou scholars such as Qian Liang, Qian Yue, and Cai Mao, but unexpectedly, he stabbed Liu Biao in the back at this time.

The purpose of Liu Biao's letter was to inform Sima Yi that

"Dezu, I'm afraid we will have to face Cao Cao alone."

Sima Yi felt a little bitter.

Due to the rebellion in southern Jing, Wen Pin had no choice but to station his troops in Jiangling to prevent Zhang Xian from crossing the river and launching a surprise attack, which would have exposed Xiangyang to attacks from both sides.

This news will inevitably spread at a very fast speed, and Zhang Xian himself will also actively contact Cao Cao and ask Cao Cao, who has just retreated, to lead his troops to attack...

"Zhongda, what should we do?"

Yang Xiu was a little flustered, while Sima Yi gritted his teeth.

"Liu Jingzhou was too soft-hearted towards these people!"

"In fact, when Liu Jingzhou decided to surrender to the imperial court, I guessed that the Jingzhou nobles would take action."

"But at that time, I saw that Liu Jingzhou handled the three counties of Jingbei decisively, so I didn't warn him."

"I didn't expect that I would suffer such a huge setback in Jingnan!"

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Note 1:

In the third year, Zhang Xian, the governor of Changsha, led the three counties of Lingling and Guiyang to rebel against Biao, who sent troops to attack and besiege them. ——"The Biography of Yuan Shao and Liu Biao, Volume 74, Book of the Later Han"

(End of this chapter)