My younger brother Zhuge Liang
Chapter 387 Don’t leave once you’re here
Chapter 387 Don’t leave once you’re here
Seeing that Zhang He was so eager to seek advice, Guo Jia sighed helplessly.
He could also understand that even if a surrendered general like Zhang He really had some ability, he would definitely not be trusted by Cao Gong as much as other veteran generals.
Therefore, before Zhang He made any decision, in addition to considering whether it was beneficial to the battle situation, he must first consider his personal responsibility.
If Zhang He was defeated in the battle because he was following orders, and he did not compromise when executing the orders and his personal performance was not a problem, then it would be fine.
If he had acted on his own, felt that the commander's orders were wrong, and chose to carry out military orders flexibly, but still ended up being defeated, Zhang He's future would certainly have been very bleak.
In this situation, Guo Jia was merely a role providing advice. Even though he was highly trusted by Cao Cao, far more than Zhang He, he could not openly persuade Zhang He to resist Cao Ren's orders.
After quickly weighing the pros and cons and feasibility in his mind, Guo Jia finally sighed and gave a relatively brief answer:
"It is the duty of a general to execute military orders. It is right for the general to obey orders and rush to help. However, Pengcheng is also an important place, and Guan Yu is by his side. I always feel that with Zhuge Jin's wisdom, he will not be unaware of priorities.
Even if they are already working hard to attack Fuli, I don't believe their purpose is to gain a firm foothold in Fuli! At most, they want to eliminate more of General Cao's direct troops, and then if they want to occupy the land, they will definitely take Pengcheng first! Therefore, the defense here must not be relaxed!
If the general wants to reinforce Fuli, he can only do so secretly, without raising a flag, and try to delay the time for the enemy to learn that "Pengcheng is empty". At the same time, I will also write an urgent letter to the Minister of Works, requesting reinforcements from the Li family of Shanyang County and Chang Xi of Taishan County to strengthen the defense of Pengcheng.
I hope that Sikong can speed up the destruction of Yuan in Hebei, and our army can drag out this period of weakness. "
Zhang He frowned and asked Guo Jia, "Sir, do you still think that Guan Yu's main target is not Fuli, but our Pengcheng? Why do you insist so much?"
Guo Jia analyzed with a sullen face: "It's very simple. Pengcheng is backed by Mount Tai and Mount Meng, bordered by Mangdang in the west and Yisi in the south. There is also the Shanyang Lake to rely on. Xiang Yu made it his capital because of its geographical advantages.
Fuli was near Gaixia, where Liu Bang and Xiang Yu fought their final battle. If it was a good place, why was Xiang Yu forced to go there for his final battle? Han Xin chose Gaixia to defeat Xiang Yu because he saw that the more troops there were, the better. Hundreds of thousands of troops could be piled up on the large plain.
The situation in Huaibei where Liu is strong and Cao is weak is only temporary. Once Yecheng is broken, Cao will be strong and Liu will be weak sooner or later. If Zhuge Jin really dares to persuade Guan Yu to take Fuli and defend it to the death, it will be exactly what our army wants. At that time, Sikong will probably laugh at Zhuge Jin for being unwise and Zhuge Liang for being unwise. "
Zhang He felt heavy-hearted after hearing this, but he also supported Guo Jia in reporting his views to Cao Cao. This would help Cao Cao pay more attention to the defense of Pengcheng, and it would be great if he could send more troops to him.
However, Zhang He did not dare to disobey orders, and he finally made preparations to advance both ways at the same time.
At the same time, he quietly assigned two generals, Lu Zhao and Feng Kai, to lead 10,000 reinforcements to reinforce Cao Ren.
At the same time, he sent a fast messenger to help Guo Jia deliver the memorial he had just written to the front line in Yecheng and hand it over to Cao Cao personally.
……
Two days later, on the third day of August, in Jizhou, the siege of Yecheng took place.
The straight-line distance between Pengcheng and Yecheng is 800 miles. In fact, one has to take a detour to avoid Mount Mangdang and Mount Tai. However, for the most urgent express messenger, it would only take two days to reach the destination.
Cao Cao, who had turned Yecheng into a swamp, did not feel happy for long because, within the same day, he received Cao Ren's letter of apology and Guo Jia's letter of advice.
Cao Cao combined the information provided by Cao Ren and Guo Jia, and quickly outlined the situation on the Xuhuai battlefield in his mind, and his face looked a little ugly.
Last month, he spent a lot of effort to repel Tian Feng's resistance and destroy the several death squads sent by the defenders of Yecheng to destroy the dikes and ditches. Finally, in late July, he completely realized the feat of flooding Yecheng.
However, from the successful flooding to the final capture of the city, it was inevitable to wait for two or three months. At this critical juncture, the situation in Xu Huai deteriorated, which made him feel unacceptable.
Since ancient times, when flooding a city, people never expected to completely destroy the city walls. At least, most river water cannot do that.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Zhi Bo Yao joined forces with Han and Wei to destroy Zhao and flooded Jinyang with the Fen River. The battle lasted for three years, and in the end the people of Zhao had to "exchange their children for food and hang their pots to cook" before they could hardly hold on.
It can be seen that the main harm of flooding is that the defenders' food cannot be stored for a long time, which makes it easy for it to get damp and spoil, and then leads to the spread of plague, and finally the city is broken by hunger and disease.
In the Battle of Yecheng in history, Cao Cao flooded the city for three months, and the defenders finally broke the city after "more than half of the people in the city starved to death", which is also a clear proof of this point. Later, Guan Yu's flooding of seven armies against Cao Ren also had a similar effect.
The only time a city wall was actually collapsed by water attack was during the Qin Dynasty's 21st year of Emperor Zheng's reign when the wall of Daliang collapsed after being soaked in water for three months. But that was only possible due to the huge amount of water in the main stream of the Yellow River.
Small rivers like the Zhangshui, Hanshui and Fenshui cannot reach this scale and are not worthy of being compared with the Yellow River.
"This Zixiao just can't stand humiliation and doesn't suffer too much loss! You don't care whether Zhao Yun underestimates the enemy or not, whether he is alone in deep penetration or not, if you just hold on and don't fight, there won't be so many defeats!
Alas, Miaocai looked down on Yunchang and suffered a loss once, and Zixiao looked down on Zhao Yun and suffered a loss again. No matter how many troops there are in the world, they are not enough to defeat them!"
Cao Cao became angrier and angrier, and finally threw both memorials onto the table, rubbing his head to relieve the headache. Xun You, who was standing by, quietly took the letter, read it carefully, and consoled him, "Your Excellency, don't worry too much and hurt yourself. Although General Zixiao was also defeated, it can be seen that he has learned from last year's lesson.
This time, the enemy was really cunning, or maybe it was just good luck. Zhao Yun had clearly gone deep into the enemy's territory alone, and should have arrived at the Fuli battlefield a long time later than Guan Yu.
But Guan Yu suddenly broke through the obstruction of Pengcheng and took Lu County, speeding up to rush to Fuli, which led to General Zixiao's failure - if Guan Yu came a day or two later, Zhao Yun might have been defeated. "
When Xun You said this, he didn't completely believe it in his heart. But he knew that Cao Cao had no other important officials of the royal family that he could trust. If Xiahou Yuan lost, he could only rely on Cao Ren. If Cao Ren couldn't be relied on, it would be bad for the morale of the three armies.
At this time, the only way was to find ways to excuse Cao Ren and comfort and encourage Cao Cao.
Cao Cao felt better, and pointed to Guo Jia's letter and asked Xun You, "Feng Xiao also advised me to send troops back as soon as possible. He is worried that Zhuge Jin has other plans and will definitely attack Pengcheng County. What do you think, Gongda?"
Xun You: "The offensive on Yecheng must not be slowed down. Otherwise, if we cannot achieve our goal in one battle, we will have to endure being attacked from both sides again in the future. A short pain is worse than a long pain. Even if some counties are lost in the south, we can slowly fight back after the northern line is completely cleared.
However, Fengxiao hoped to squeeze in more reinforcements from other places, which was a feasible idea. He said that he hoped the court would reward Taishan Changxi with a generous promotion, recognize him as the governor of Taishan, and confer him the title of general, all of which could be agreed to.
Didn't the court treat Zang Ba the same way last year? It's just that Chang Xi's power is not as strong as Zang Ba's, and he is not as submissive to the court as Zang Ba. He has always been in a state of de facto independence, but now he has to take the initiative and can't care about it.
In addition, it is also feasible to give Mancheng an additional official position and let the Shanyang Li family send more men to join the army to help. If these two troops arrive as reinforcements, the Pengcheng garrison can be expanded by nearly 10,000 people, which is enough to make up for the number of Pengcheng garrison troops that were transferred to Fuli. "
Cao Cao nodded, he thought so too.
Cao Ren had already caused such a big disaster that he could no longer choose the option of "abandoning Fuli and Zhuyi and retreating to flexible defense when forced to do so." Otherwise, if the 20,000 people in Qi County were weak-willed and heard that their friendly forces had fled and they were isolated, they would surrender directly to Liu Bei. The gap in strength between them was 30,000 and 40,000, and Cao Cao could not afford to lose.
If the Qixian defenders were willing to fight to the death, "all died for their country", and killed or wounded Zhao Yun and took away 10,000 or 20,000 people, Cao Cao would definitely not care. The problem was that he knew that the local defenders were not so steadfast.
Cao Cao just asked reluctantly: "Is there any way to speed up the battle of Yecheng?"
Xun You racked his brains and finally ventured to say, "Yecheng has already been flooded. Before the water level subsides, we can't speed up the capture of the city. However, we can prevent the troops from being idle. Then, while the defenders cannot go out, we can first completely defeat Yin Kui and other troops in Changshan and Zhongshan counties in the north.
Yin Kui and other prefects were the last loyalists of Yuan Shang. Even when Yecheng was surrounded, they still served the Yuan family. We could let the surrendered general Lu Kuang be the vanguard, and let General Miaocai also send a small army to follow, and together we could kill Yin Kui.
Then, when Jiao Chu of Dai County and Shanggu in Youzhou sees that the situation is not good, he will certainly surrender to our army without a fight. I have always known that this person is of low character, flatters the powerful, has no backbone, and is far worse than Lu Kuang.
In this way, although the capture of Yecheng cannot be accelerated, our army can at least ensure that after Yecheng is captured, the rest of Jizhou will be completely conquered within a month, and in another month, Shanggu, the westernmost part of Youzhou, can also fall into our pocket. In this way, the army can move south one after another within a month after Yecheng is captured. "
Cao Cao thought about it and found no better choice. There was no way to speed up the capture of Yecheng, so the current situation was considered fast.
The best situation would be if we could complete the tasks after the fall of Yecheng a little earlier, ensure that we can withdraw our troops as soon as possible after the fall of Yecheng, and avoid any other unexpected events.
In total, in three months, I will be able to lead the main force to reinforce Zixiao. If it is faster, maybe two and a half months?
I hope that the generals at Xu and Huai will work hard to overcome the difficulties and make it through these three months without any major problems.
……
Cao Cao's reply was delivered to Cao Ren, Zhang He and Guo Jia a few days later.
After reading the letter, Zhang He was relieved to see that his lord had promised to send the Taishan bandit Chang Xi to reinforce him, and also allowed Li Dian's family to squeeze out some people nearby.
Unfortunately, he didn't know that Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin would not wait for his replacement army to arrive in Pengcheng.
Almost at the same time, seeing Cao's reinforcements entering the battlefields of Fuli and Zhuyi, Guan Yu and Zhao Yun had already secretly withdrawn their troops, moving the main force back, preparing to attack the two wings.
At the same time, Guan Yu and Gan Ning's navy prepared their troops to the best of their ability and were ready for battle.
Be ready at any time like two sharp knives to cut off the Woshui River, Yingchuan River, Suishui River and Sishui River.
Make sure that Cao's army has crossed the river to reinforce Fuli. It is easy to go out but difficult to return home.
(End of this chapter)
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