My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 697: Conquer Xinye and Approach Wancheng

Ever since Liu Bei's territory grew larger and larger, the Zhuge brothers have rarely been seen for many years.

Now, we have the opportunity to sit down and discuss the issues, and through the collision of ideas, we have indeed gained a lot.

They actually figured out several laws of historical development that they had never noticed before, and also concluded that "under what circumstances, after the outcome of a struggle in the world is clear, the weaker side will collapse as quickly as possible and give up unnecessary resistance."

Whether the inevitable truth of history is completely consistent with this inference is no longer important. What is important is how Liu Bei's camp can learn and apply it as soon as possible.

Within the next two or three days, the two brothers discussed it and quickly came up with a clear division of labor and knew what to worry about next.

Zhuge Liang was better at writing arguments. After all, he had written the "The Memorial to the Emperor on Leaving the Capital" and "The Theory of Leaving the Capital" in history, and he also wrote "On Leaving the Capital" in this life, in which he argued the legitimacy of Liu Bei's annexation of Liu Zhang's foundation and how it was virtuous for the overall situation of the world.

With these experiences in expounding political theories, Zhuge Liang was able to write similar articles in person, so the specific writing work this time was handed over to him.

As usual, Zhuge Jin provided the original source of thought or brainwave, inspiring Zhuge Liang to pay attention to this angle of looking at the problem.

And in the subsequent creative process of the second brother, he can also help steer the ship, grasp the direction of the explanation, and ensure that it does not go astray.

In addition, Zhuge Jin can also personally preside over the subsequent specific publicity and dissemination - after all, Zhuge Jin has nearly 2,000 years of media operation experience more than the ancients. Even if Zhuge Liang's wisdom is amazing, he certainly doesn't know as much as his elder brother about how to publicize and hype.

In this way, the two brothers had a clear division of labor, and each of them had their own specialties, so they just took care of the matter.

It is expected that within one or two months at the earliest, Zhuge Liang will be able to come up with complete historical materials, and then his elder brother can start to promote them.

Don’t complain that Zhuge Liang wrote this article slowly. After all, it is a famous piece that is intended to be passed down through the ages, so the text must be solid and every word and sentence must be carefully polished.

……

After Zhuge Liang found this new and brain-teasing task, he quickly began to concentrate on his creative work.

At most, he would ask his eldest brother to borrow an aide such as a secretary to help him, such as Wang Can.

Time soon came to April of the 14th year of Jian'an, and the busy spring farming season had finally passed. According to Liu Bei's army's original plan, the mopping-up offensive against the entire Nanyang County was about to begin again.

After all, it was a rare opportunity for Zhuge Liang to come to Xiangyang, and when his side encountered a major battle, he must have helped to come up with ideas and fill in the gaps.

When Liu Bei originally thought of this, he couldn't help but sigh for Cao Ren, Xu Huang and Jia Xu on the opposite side.

How many times have we fought a battle with such a surplus of counselors?

The Zhuge brothers and Xu Shu were all in the same place, helping each other to plot against the enemy.

The three people on the opposite side should be thankful that they have such a big reputation that they were actually plotted against by the Zhuge brothers. Even if they lost their troops and territory, they should be proud of it.

Unfortunately, the sudden task took up a lot of Zhuge Liang's energy. The battles of Xinye and Wancheng could only be arranged by Zhuge Jin and Xu Shu.

Fortunately, the enemy was not strong, which was enough. Before the battle, Liu Bei, Zhuge Jin, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei roughly deduced it again and decided to implement it according to the plan.

On the third day of April, Liu Bei's army took the lead in troop deployment.

In Xiangyang, Guan Yu was still not ready to launch an attack, while Zhang Fei and Wei Yan, with tens of thousands of veterans brought back from Yizhou, were ready to set off across the Tongbai Mountains to the Ru'nan battlefield.

To travel from Xiangyang to Runan, one must first pass through a tributary on the north bank of the Han River to Zhangling County, then disembark from the boat upstream of Zhangling and take the Xinyang Valley Road to cross the Tongbai Mountains.

This section of the waterway takes about four or five days, and the subsequent crossing of Tongbai Mountain takes even longer. After arriving in Runan, the troops need to rest for three to five days to adapt to the local climate and soil, and then gradually move to the front line where the Huaihe River and the Rushui River meet.

All in all, it would take Zhang Fei's troops more than half a month to reach the front line, so they had to set out a few days in advance.

On the day of departure, Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhuge brothers all went to Xiangyang Wharf to see him off.

Liu Bei patted Zhang Fei's hand and said earnestly, "The route to Runan is entirely up to you, my third brother. You don't have to rush in when the time comes. Just follow the Ru River, stop when necessary, and mobilize the enemy.

It doesn't matter how many counties you can capture. If Cao Cao withdraws all the main forces in Nanyang to the north of Tongbai Mountain, you can withdraw at any time. Yuan Zhi has nothing to do recently, so let him go with you so that you can deal with any changes in time."

After Liu Bei finished speaking, he gestured to Xu Shu who was standing beside him, and Xu Shu stepped forward and gave Zhang Fei a military salute. Zhang Fei also returned the salute, saying that they would learn from each other when the time came.

After Liu Bei finished his instructions, Zhang Fei was a little worried, so he asked his eldest brother: "Second brother's injury will soon recover, but he can't go to the front in person. Zhongda's injury is more serious. For the route to Xinye and Wancheng, you should also choose another deputy general to lead the vanguard."

As Zhang Fei spoke, he also tried to probe indirectly, wanting to know whether his elder brother trusted his nephew Guan Ping too much and planned to let Guan Ping be the commander of the vanguard army.

After all, Guan Ping is not yet thirty years old and is a little younger.

Even though he had performed well in the two previous battles of Lumen Mountain and Yuliangzhou, and had made great achievements by following Gao Shun, Zhang Fei still felt that it was too fast to let Guan Ping take charge of things on his own right away, and that his nephew still needed some training.

Liu Bei had already made plans, so he signaled Zhang Fei not to worry, saying casually, "I have already thought about this matter. Zhongda's leg injury has not healed yet, so let General Huang be the vanguard.

Since Xiangyang fell and Yu Jin surrendered, General Huang has rested enough. Last winter, he saw you guys making great achievements in Hanbei, but he could only sit there and besiege Yu Jin. He was holding his breath, wanting to make more achievements and win a victory like the Battle of Dangyang. "

Huang Zhong is so eager to fight and his morale is high, so how could Liu Bei stop him?
By the way, Huang Zhong can also lead more surrendered troops from Jingzhou to try his hand with weak enemy forces like the Nanyang enemy, to improve his combat experience and hone his command system.

Zhang Fei saw that his elder brother had arranged everything clearly, so he had nothing to say. He boarded the ship calmly and said goodbye to everyone. The fleet cut the anchor and set sail, sailing down the Han River towards Zhangling.

……

Only four or five days had passed since Zhang Fei and his troops set sail.

In Xiangyang, Guan Yu was about to lead his troops across the Han River and head north again.

Zhuge Liang had other things to do, such as writing historical essays and doing subsequent propaganda and psychological warfare work, so Guan Yu's military planning mainly relied on Zhuge Jin's help.

Zhuge Jin's status is high, so he usually doesn't accompany the army, but Xinye and Wancheng are not far from Xiangyang, so there's nothing wrong with him going out for some exercise. Anyway, he's such a coward, he definitely won't go to the front line.

Moreover, it was only a hundred days after Guan Yu's arrow wound was scraped and the bone was scraped. Having someone of Zhuge Jin's status to suppress him would prevent Guan Yu from getting angry when things happened. If any other civil servants were to accompany the army, they would not be able to suppress Guan Yu.

On the eighth day of the fourth lunar month, at the dock north of Xiangyang City, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang came to see them off again. After a round of wine and meat, Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin stood at the bow of the boat, bowed and said goodbye, and crossed the river to the north.

In just half a day, they successfully arrived in Fancheng and continued northward along the dredged Baihe River estuary.

After two days of marching, the fleet arrived 30 miles south of Xinye City and set up a camp. In the next two days, they set up camps one after another and moved northward.

Xinye City is located on the east bank of the confluence of Baihe River and Yushui River, so Guan Yu's troops could bypass the city from the east and easily surround Xinye from the south, east and north.

Only the west side could not be surrounded for the time being, and the river west of the city was a three-way intersection. Except for the southward route blocked by Guan Yu's navy, Cao Ren could choose any of the other two river routes going upstream to escape.

It just depends on whether he wants to run and how long he wants to delay before running. Even if he might be caught up by the enemy's navy by taking these water routes, Cao Ren can choose to cross to the west bank of the Baihe River, land and continue northward by land.

Because of the obstruction of the tributary Yushui River, Guan Yu's army could not pursue the enemy northward along the west bank of the Baihe River. If Guan Yu marched northward along the west bank of the Baihe River, he would have to cross the Yushui River first, which would delay the enemy's advance.

Cao Ren had been stationed in Xinye for a long time. He also set up a fairly solid camp on the north side of the angle between Baihe River and Yushui River, facing Xinye City across the river. These defense systems could ensure that he could hold Guan Yu back long enough.

These deployments are obvious to both sides.

No one is stupid and they have been preparing for war for many days in advance. Especially since Cao Ren also has Jia Xu on his side, he must know how to plug the obvious loopholes on his side and not give the enemy any chance to take advantage.

Therefore, Guan Yu did not have any expectations of performing any fancy moves at the beginning. After finally besieging the city, he made a rough inspection and found that there was indeed no room for performing any fancy moves, so he did not feel disappointed.

"Cao Ren has set up camp on both sides of the Baihe River, and there is a tributary, Yushui River, blocking the way in front. The fortifications are rigorous, and it seems impossible to divide and surround the enemy. Ziyu, do you have any good ideas for breaking the city?" After returning to the camp, Guan Yu immediately found Zhuge Jin and discussed with him.

Zhuge Jin was calm, gently waving his folding fan with one hand, and said calmly: "How can there be so many opportunities to take advantage of? Since there are no loopholes, we should prepare for the siege step by step, mainly to deter the enemy and force them to retreat.

Anyway, in half a month at most, there will be some movement from Yide. Cao thieves will give up Nanyang sooner or later. They don’t have enough troops to defend everywhere. There is no strategic location inside the Nanyang Basin that can be defended for a long time.”

Guan Yu was just asking as a routine matter, and when he heard that Ziyu had no brilliant ideas, he just followed the original plan and proceeded step by step.

Over the next two or three days, Guan Yu organized his men to assemble siege equipment and destroy the enemy's outer city defense facilities.

Xinye is a small county, and in terms of solidity, it is far inferior to Fancheng, let alone Xiangyang.

Originally, Xinye in history was assigned by Liu Biao as the base of Liu Bei's army after Liu Bei surrendered to Liu Biao, and was well built for several years. But in this life, Liu Bei never surrendered to Liu Biao, and the importance of Xinye was greatly reduced compared with the same period in history.

There is not even a decent moat here, only a ditch three or four feet wide. There are no sheep and horse walls or pits on the inside of the ditch, only some antler barricades randomly deployed.

It only took Guan Yu three or four days to destroy the outer defensive fortifications in the south and east of Xinye City.

During the whole process, both sides just exchanged bows and crossbows, and occasionally Cao Ren would have people throw some rolling logs and stones to force back the enemies who dug and destroyed the barricades near the city wall. The intensity of the confrontation was completely incomparable to the Battle of Fancheng, and the number of casualties was not high.

Cao Ren didn't even have any trebuchets to use, and couldn't counter Guan Yu's heavily armored large siege weapons. It was estimated that when Ge Gongche arrived at the city, he would be able to break through the wall in less than three days.

……

The war dragged on until the middle of April, and just twelve days after Guan Yu led his troops north, Xinye City was already in danger.

At the end of the battle that day, Cao Ren himself realized that the city was difficult to defend, so he discussed with Jia Xu about withdrawing his troops.

"Xinye is a small county that is not strong enough. We are delaying here to wear down Guan Yu and buy more time for the Prime Minister to withdraw the military and civilian supplies from Nanyang. We have done our best by delaying until now. I want to withdraw the troops steadily tomorrow and retreat to Wancheng one by one. What do you think?"

Jia Xu also agreed to withdraw the troops, and he had thought about it many times during this period. Since Cao Ren asked, he also helped to plan the details:

“Retreat is inevitable, but when we retreated from Fancheng, we suffered heavy casualties. This time, the general must learn from the lesson.

Fortunately, there were several counties along the way between Xinye and Wancheng where they could stay, so they could reach the destination within a day by forcing the retreat without baggage, thus avoiding the danger of being pursued by the enemy.

To be safe, our army can retreat in several days, with the infantry retreating first and the cavalry following behind. In this way, when the cavalry finally withdraws, Guan Yu will not be able to catch up. "

Jia Xu explained while pointing on the map.

When they retreated from Fancheng to Xinye, they had to walk along the Baihe River for more than 100 miles, and there was no county town to stay in. That was why Cao Ren was chased by Zhang Fei so badly that time, and both sides suffered losses in the end.

However, from Xinye to Wancheng further north, although the total distance is a little farther than from Fancheng to Xinye, about 130 to 140 miles, there are two county towns, Yuyang and Jiyang, in the middle, so each section of the journey is only more than 50 miles at most. If you sneak away and take advantage of the time difference, you can evacuate safely.

Cao Ren's army was also prepared to lose territory in advance, so there were not many reserve supplies left in Xinye City. If Guan Yu did not attack, Cao Ren would not be able to eat the food left in the city until the summer harvest.

Now that they had fled ahead of time, there wasn't much food left in the city, and basically each soldier could carry a bag with them. If there was still a little more, it would be easy to deal with, after all, it was impossible to calculate the consumption of war so accurately.

Having made up his mind, on April 16, Cao Ren ordered a part of his infantry to cross the river by boat overnight and assemble at Xu Huang's camp on the west bank of Baihe River, north of Yushui River. Then he retreated northward with Xu Huang's infantry.

This time, because of the obstruction of two rivers, Guan Yu was unable to discover Cao's retreat in the first time. He did not discover the situation until dawn. His reaction speed was even slower than during the Battle of Fancheng.

But this was not a big deal, because Guan Yu knew that the enemy's subsequent strongholds were densely populated and had many support points, and it was impossible to encircle and annihilate the enemy.

Being able to force back the enemy and quickly capture the city is considered a good victory.

After discovering that part of the enemy troops had retreated, Guan Yu immediately discussed the matter with Zhuge Jin. Zhuge Jin suggested that Guan Yu launch a tentative siege on the city, but then he discovered that Cao's army was still defending firmly, and Cao Ren himself was actually supervising the battle on the city wall.

After finding that he could not break through the city that day, Guan Yu decisively withdrew his troops and did not immediately risk his life at all costs.

After returning, he discussed with Zhuge Jin again. Zhuge Jin combined the latest actual combat intelligence and finally made an accurate judgment:

"Cao Ren must have withdrawn his troops in batches, leaving his elite troops as the rear guard, and personally supervised the battle. I guess he must have let the slow-moving heavy infantry withdraw first, followed by the light infantry and cavalry. He hoped to use the cavalry's speed advantage to ensure that when he completely abandoned the city, our army would not be able to pursue him."

Guan Yu: "Then is there any way to counter Cao Ren's moves, or a plan to withdraw troops specifically for Cao Ren?"

Zhuge Jin thought for a while and said, "There is no good solution. Why don't we divide our troops and march north lightly, pretending to threaten Yuyang County, so that the enemy will lose their foothold in Yuyang and have to retreat faster. As for their retreat, we will catch up and kill them if we can, but there is nothing we can do if we can't catch up."

Guan Yu thought about this idea and decided that it was indeed the safest way.

Before, he did not dare to let his troops ignore logistical supplies and go deep into the enemy's rear alone, for he was also afraid that the enemy still had sufficient manpower and could launch a resolute counterattack against his own scattered troops.

But now the situation has changed. A considerable number of defenders in Xinye City have already retreated. The remaining troops may not have the strength to pose a threat to Guan Yu's entourage.

On the battlefield, the local troop strength comparisons between the two sides are constantly changing and adjusting. When an opportunity comes, we must seize it firmly.

"What Zi Yu said is exactly what I want. Let's do it this way. Tomorrow, we will send out cavalry from the army to threaten Yuyang County from behind. We must also let Cao Ren know the news. It would be best if we could kill a few of the enemy's messengers and force Cao Ren to retreat more hastily."

Guan Yu did what he said and deployed according to the plan the next day. His troops quickly made a detour, forcing Cao Ren to speed up the process and withdraw all the cavalry in the city that night, without even enough time to fully destroy Xinye City before leaving.

In order to prevent Guan Yu from biting him too hard, Cao Ren did not even dare to set fire when the last group of soldiers retreated, because he knew that as long as the fire started in the city, Guan Yu would stick to it in an instant, and then he would have to pay a greater price.

If they didn't set the fire, it meant that the last batch of food reserves, which was about enough to feed the army for more than half a month, could not be burned completely, and some of it was bound to fall into the hands of the enemy, and there would be no time to burn the houses in the city.

Before leaving, Cao Ren distributed as much food as possible to the remaining people in the city.

This certainly did not mean that Cao Ren had a change of heart, but if Guan Yu wanted to raise food supplies for Cao's army, he would have to plunder the people, which would make him lose the support of the people.

Finally, less than half an hour after Cao Ren withdrew, Guan Yu discovered the unusual movement and launched another tentative night attack, seizing Xinye, which was already undefended. Fearing a fraud, Guan Yu searched for half the night and completely controlled the entire city.

After discovering that Cao's surplus food had been distributed by Cao Ren, Guan Yu did not make things difficult for the poor Xinye people. Most of the people in the city had been evacuated in advance, and those who remained were captured by Cao's army as auxiliary soldiers and hard laborers, helping to build the city walls and transport, and were abandoned as decoys at the last minute.

Guan Yu's army did not lack these few bites of food, so the distributed food belonged to the people.

In the following days, Guan Yu continued to advance steadily and step by step.

Even Xinye could not stop Guan Yu's army, let alone small counties like Yuyang and Jiyang. Guan Yu could basically advance rapidly at the speed of conquering one county every three to five days.

He even had enough strength to divide his troops and go upstream along the Yu River to capture Rangcheng - Rangcheng was a place second only to Wancheng in importance within Nanyang County.

Back then, Zhang Xiu's uncle Zhang Ji fought his way out of Wuguan Road and tried to seize Liu Biao's territory, but was shot dead by Huang Zu in Rangcheng. Then Zhang Xiu surrendered and served as a guest general to Liu Biao.

After Guan Yu surrounded Rangcheng, if he could successfully capture this place, it would be equivalent to blocking Cao's army in the direction of Guanzhong, and the possibility of threatening Nanyang from Wuguan Road in the future, which would also reduce the defensive pressure on the west side of Liu Bei's army.

After more than ten days of mobile warfare, by the end of April, Guan Yu successfully divided his troops into two routes, following the Baihe River and the Yushui River respectively. The eastern route approached Wancheng, while the western route surrounded Rangcheng.

Throughout the entire process, Cao Ren failed to organize any resolute and lasting resistance.

-

PS: There is nothing worth writing about these places, and there is no need to go into detail about attacking each city one by one. So I will just write a brief account and directly promote the map.

(End of this chapter)