My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 781 Before I could grieve for Jizhou, it was Yanzhou’s turn again

When Liu Bei's order and Zhuge Liang's private letter were delivered to Guan Yu at the Suiyang front line, Guan Yu took a quick look and felt that they were very much to his liking.

"Brother really understands me, and Kong Ming really knows how to make use of my talents. This plan suits my needs very well! Ping'er, mobilize our troops immediately, and tomorrow morning we will leave Suiyang and head directly north, bypass Heze to the west, and head straight for Dingtao, the capital of Jiyin County! The siege of Suiyang will be taken over by friendly forces.

The mission that Kong Ming gave us was to go northwards to Dingtao, then through Juyang and Juancheng, and directly to the bank of the Yellow River. Now Situ and Zilong were in Hebei, and had advanced to Guantao. From Guantao to the south, through Yangping and Cangting, they could see Juancheng across the Yellow River.

If our army advances to Juancheng on the south bank, we can cooperate with Situ to cut off all the land of Cao's army south of the Yellow River and east of Juancheng. By then, the three counties in the middle of Yanzhou will be within easy reach."

As soon as he finished reading the letter, Guan Yu did not hesitate at all and immediately ordered Guan Ping to make preparations and execute the order immediately.

Seeing his father act so vigorously, Guan Ping did not hesitate. He passed on the order and asked the troops to pack up and prepare to march. Then he reminded Guan Yu with a little concern:

"Please think twice, father! Uncle and Lord Ling ordered our army to suddenly march north and cut off the retreat of the three counties of Yanzhou, ignoring the fact that Suiyang has not yet been captured. How can we guarantee our army's food supply? Wouldn't it be too far for us to advance alone?
Our army went north to cut off the connection between the three counties of Yanzhou and the Cao bandits in the west. Isn't this equivalent to our own retreat, which can also be cut off by the enemy troops of the three counties of Yanzhou at any time? If Suiyang is not taken, we will have no waterway for food, and we can only rely on the food carried by the army. "

After listening to Guan Ping's advice, Guan Yu was not annoyed, but nodded with satisfaction.

Obviously, although he was not worried that the situation his son described would occur, he still encouraged his son to develop the habit of careful thinking.

Guan Yu lovingly analyzed and taught him, "Although you have read some military books and fought some battles, you are still too rigid. You will understand after more experience. Our army's march north this time may seem to be more focused on the front and less focused on the rear, which may be a little dangerous, but in fact it will be as safe as a mountain.

With the war having come to this point, the people in the counties and prefectures ruled by Cao must be in a panic. As long as their connections with the rear are cut off, they will surrender in no time. Are we still worried that we will have no place to raise food?
More importantly, I estimate that Situ will definitely win a great victory in Hebei! He will be able to repel Cao's main force alone! When the time comes, we will take advantage of the situation to expand the victory, and all places will inevitably be shaken and have no intention of fighting.

Your uncle and Zhuge Lingjun commanded like this, not only because they trusted me, but also because they trusted Situ. This kind of war that determines the fate of the world, once there is an avalanche, the places under the rule of the defeated party will collapse in succession. "

When Guan Yu said this, his tone and expression seemed even more confident than Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang. Especially when he talked about his final judgment that "Zhuge Jin will definitely be able to defeat Cao Cao in Hebei", Guan Yu seemed very calm and determined.

Perhaps it was because in this life, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang had been cooperating on the battlefield in Guanxi for many years, while Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin were left in Guandong, one civil and one military, in charge of half of the country for several years.

Guan Yu and Zhuge Jin had cooperated for too long, and his confidence in Zhuge Jin was stronger than that of his elder brother and Zhuge Jin's own second brother. He firmly believed that he could decisively seize the avalanche of Cao's bandits this time and expand the results of the battle as soon as possible.

There are not many opportunities left for the generals in Liu Bei's camp to achieve success, and the battle against Cao Cao will soon enter the harvest stage.

Guan Yu is so confident.

……

After Guan Yu gave the order, the troops were ready to set off within just one day.

The next morning, before it was fully light, Guan Yu led about 40,000 troops on the Suiyang front and moved north, bypassing Meng County and heading towards Jiyin County in the north.

Following Guan Yu in a hurry to the north was Lu Su, the head of the civilian officials in the Xuhuai war zone and temporary chief military advisor to Guan Yu.

Before making the decision to attack yesterday, Guan Yu did not even have time to notify Lu Su immediately, so he asked Guan Ping to prepare first.

Lu Su did not receive the news until later, but considering that the order was given directly by Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang also gave instructions, Lu Su had nothing to object to.

Lu Su only needs to take care of the subsequent counter-attacks and specific implementation during the advance. Things at the strategic level have already been decided and there is no need for dispute.

At this moment, Lu Su was still a little sleepy. He leaned forward on his horse, trying to lean on the horse's neck to avoid sitting unsteadily.

Guan Yu was really in a hurry. He received the news yesterday and was about to set off today.

After dozing off on horseback for more than an hour, the sky finally brightened and it was estimated to be the end of the morning hour. Lu Su, who had been drowsy all the way, finally sorted out his thoughts and discussed some tactical details of the battle with Guan Yu.

"The decision made by my lord and the commander is of course fine. With Yun Chang's power, we will definitely be able to take over the three counties of Yanzhou this time. However, we still cannot underestimate the enemy tactically.

Although Yanzhou is now empty, most of the famous generals of Cao's army originally stationed there should have been transferred to Hebei. Cao thief does not expect that our army will suddenly attack Yanzhou.

However, Cheng Yu, Cao's trusted minister, had stayed in Yanzhou to take charge of the overall situation. Although Cheng Yu was only a civil servant and had no generals available, he was always good at conspiracy and intelligence. If he was really determined to hold on, he might be able to inspire people's morale and stabilize the situation.

Eighteen years ago, when Lu Bu attacked Yanzhou, Cao Cao only had Juancheng, Dong'e and Fanxian left, and they were saved thanks to the plots of Xun Yu and Cheng Yu. When Yun Chang leads his troops this time, all the generals of Cao's army need not be feared, but we need to be careful of Cheng Yu. "

After hearing this, Guan Yu was not nervous at all. He took out Zhuge Liang's private letter and showed it to Lu Su, while casually explaining:

"Zi Jing has not considered Cheng Yu as his rival in recent years, and his understanding of him may still be superficial. Back then, Cheng Yu was able to unite the elders of Yanzhou to fight against Lu Bu because he still had trust and old friendship among the elders of Yanzhou.

But when Cao Cao and Lu Bu fought the most fiercely in Yanzhou, both sides ran out of food and needed meat to replenish their military supplies. Since then, what friendship did Cheng Yu have with the elders? This time, our army will not only intimidate the powerful people in the three counties of Yanzhou, but also... incite the powerful people in the three counties to turn against them and swing their swords at Cheng Yu! "

Lu Su was also slightly stunned when he heard this. The opponent he had to worry about before was indeed not Cheng Yu. He had not been assigned the task of advancing into Yanzhou over the years. After all, Yanzhou was too far away from Liu Bei's attack direction.

If it weren't for the sudden and rapid advance this time and the dramatic change in the situation, no one would have thought that Liu Bei's army would attack Yanzhou, where Cao Cao first rose to power. It's no wonder that Lu Su hadn't studied the opponents here before.

However, it is not too late to make up for the lessons now. After listening to Guan Yu's explanation and roughly reading the detailed inventory of the enemy's strengths and weaknesses in Zhuge Liang's letter, Lu Su quickly had an idea in his mind and quietly readjusted the details of the plan.

……

Over the next three or four days, Lu Su assisted Guan Yu, mainly using infantry to advance steadily.

Passing through Mengxian, Jishi and Chengwu, they gradually approached Dingtao.

Cao's army did resist along the way, but most of them were in panic and could not form an effective line of defense to stop Guan Yu's advance.

Obviously, Cao's army did not expect that Liu Bei's army would attack the three central counties of Yanzhou at this critical juncture, and the local military force was very weak.

After all, on the battlefield in Yanzhou, Liu Bei's camp originally let Taishi Ci, Zhang Liao and Gao Shun be in charge of military affairs, and Zhuge Jin in Hebei had just called for emergency, so Taishi Ci and Zhang Liao were urgently transferred to Jizhou for reinforcement.

Who could have thought that when Taishi Ci and Zhang Liao were gone and Liu Bei's army in Yanzhou was at its weakest, the enemy would do the opposite and dispatch other troops to launch an attack on Yanzhou?
This really caught Cao's army off guard.

Most of the main cavalry forces on the Xuhuai battlefield had been taken away by Zhang Liao to the northern battlefield. Therefore, Guan Yu could only rely on infantry in this battle, and the advancement speed was naturally not fast.

But Guan Yu's ability in commanding the army was extraordinary. Even though his troops were mainly infantry and had no water routes, he still made steady progress and proceeded very smoothly by relying on the advantage of surprise.

When the army passed through Meng County, the local garrison was forced to surrender by Guan Yu.

Although Yishi County did not surrender directly, the county was too small and dilapidated, with very few troops and not even a moat. There was only a shallow and narrow dry trench as an outer defense. At the bottom of the trench were at most some bitter bamboo sticks to provide lethality for the pit.

When Guan Yu passed by, the local county magistrate and a military commander stationed there relied on the city to rely on, while Guan Yu's infantry came by land and had no ships to carry supplies and siege weapons.

So they thought that Guan Yu should not be able to attack the city, and there was no need to waste too much time on such a small county, so they chose to stay behind closed doors and not go out.

Of course, the local defenders had no intention of deliberately provoking Guan Yu. They just hoped that Guan Yu would see that the city was defending with its gates closed and would simply bypass it.

This kind of chicken ribs has no meat and it hurts your teeth, so just let it go.

But Guan Yu was unwilling to do so. He felt that he must establish his authority as soon as possible so that he could turn the situation around. He would also let the enemy troops and local tyrants in the three central counties of Yanzhou know that he, Guan Yu, had come and was very determined.

This is a warning to others.

So Guan Yu ordered an all-out attack on Yishi County, without stopping to slowly build siege weapons. Instead, he relied on the simple bamboo ladders that the army carried with them, and the battering rams that could be temporarily deployed within a day, to launch a direct attack.

Since ancient times, when attacking a city, one can either rely on high morale and attack at once, or slowly besiege and build weapons. Both ways are possible to win. Guan Yu's choice this time is obviously the former.

Relying on a large number of heavy infantry wearing well-forged steel-filled armor, and a batch of bamboo ladders tied together in pairs for reinforcement and increased load-bearing capacity, Guan Yu's troops quickly engaged in a life-and-death battle.

Naturally, there were initial casualties. Most soldiers wearing heavy armor could withstand the arrow attacks from the defenders, but when they were hit by heavy blunt objects such as rolling logs and stones, they could not withstand the huge force and would still fall and be seriously injured.

Fortunately, the defenders did not have ash bottles and golden juice, nor did they have time to boil too much water to splash on the enemy to scald them. Guan Yu's troops managed to attack the top of the wall fiercely even after more than a hundred of them were killed or injured by rolling logs and rocks.

The whole process took less than an hour.

By the time Guan Yu's elite troops had gained a foothold on the city wall, everything was actually over.

The two sides then engaged in a bloody tug-of-war, and the Cao army soldiers fled one after another, and even the guards protecting the county magistrate and the military commander fled. Guan Yu's soldiers rushed forward and killed the enemy generals and civil officials, and quickly pacified the situation in the county.

In order to establish his authority, he ordered the enemy generals and families of civil servants who held their ground, and severely punished them as "traitors", but the rest were not questioned.

Afterwards, Guan Yu widely spread the news that the city of Jishi County had been broken in half a day. He also had people exaggerate the fierceness of his offensive, the severity of the punishment of the officials who had colluded with the rebellion, and the leniency of the soldiers and civilians who welcomed the royal army. As expected, Cao's troops in various places were frightened and their resistance became increasingly shaky.

While Guan Yu was arranging all this, Lu Su, who was with the army, also gave Guan Yu an extra suggestion, advising Guan Yu:
"Why don't you consider bluffing and publicizing that the purpose of our advance this time is not to take Yanzhou, but to pass through Yanzhou as quickly as possible and head straight to Juancheng, then cross the Yellow River from Juancheng to the north, and go to Guantao from Cangting to reinforce the decisive battle between Situ and Cao Cao.

At the same time, our army can also hint that we do not have the spare strength to keep soldiers in the counties where our army was forced to land, but will let the original officials and generals keep their original positions and continue to be employed. Our own main force needs to concentrate all its efforts on the north.

In this way, the officials and generals along the way will certainly become more shaken and more likely to surrender to us. When they find out that something is wrong in the future, it will be too late to regret it, and we can only go with the flow. "

Upon hearing this, Guan Yu raised his eyebrows slightly and nodded with great satisfaction, feeling that Lu Su's method was indeed reliable.

Although he had great confidence in Ziyu, knowing that Ziyu would definitely be invincible relying solely on the strength of himself, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao and Zhou Yu, he was not afraid of Cao Cao.

But the rest of the world doesn’t know his confidence in Tzuyu.

If Guan Yu showed concern and was eager to go north to rescue, the civil and military officials in Cao Cao's camp should have understood.

By then, when they saw that Guan Yu valued the front power but neglected the rear, and was charging forward without caring about his head, who would dare to confront him lightly, block his way and seek death?
It would be better to just pretend to be nice to him and let him pass through first, and then slowly take action after he becomes top-heavy and his food supply is cut off...

In short, as long as some of the local Cao army's civil and military officers have such thoughts, their determination to resist will be undermined to a considerable extent.

Guan Yu immediately accepted Lu Su's proposal, added some information to the publicity, and handled it according to the latest propaganda line.

After Guan Yu captured Jishi County, Chengwu County, the next step, did not receive any news for a while and still chose to resist. However, Chengwu County was not on the straight line between Jishi and Dingtao, nor was it a vital throat, so it could be bypassed directly, and Guan Yu did not bother with them.

However, from Chengwu County further north, several small counties in a row were shocked by Guan Yu's propaganda. Whenever there was a place that could not be bypassed, Guan Yu would show a posture of attack to intimidate.

Under the heavy pressure from Guan Yu, some local officials chose to surrender directly.

One of the most shocking incidents in Yanzhou occurred in Dingtao County, the seat of Jiyin County.

Dingtao County is one of the top three important cities that Guan Yu wanted to capture during his march, and it can even be said to be second only to Juancheng.

Dingtao is indeed a difficult place to attack militarily. It is surrounded by dense rivers and numerous water obstacles, and there are also large swamps like Heze that hinder the advance.

Not to mention the distant past, let’s just talk about the time when the Han Dynasty was established and the chaotic war at the end of the Qin Dynasty. Xiang Yu’s uncle Xiang Liang was defeated and seriously injured and died by the defending general Zhang Han when he was attacking Dingtao.

In a sense, it was the difficulty of attacking Dingtao that led to the establishment of the Han Dynasty. Otherwise, if Xiang Liang had not died in Dingtao, with Xiang Liang's prestige and control over King Huai, Liu Bang would have had no chance at all.

Liu Bang was definitely inferior to Xiang Yu in military affairs, and could only rely on political points to fight for the world. However, with Xiang Liang's high political structure and the military strength of his nephew Xiang Yu, there was simply no solution.

When Guan Yu first arrived in Dingtao, the person responsible for defending Dingtao was Xue Ti, the prefect of Jiyin.

Xue Ti was from Dongjun, Yanzhou. He was a fellow villager of Cheng Yu and a close confidant of Cao Cao. He had been entrusted with many important and secret tasks by Cao Cao. Therefore, it was impossible to expect Xue Ti to surrender himself.

This man's diehardness was second only to Cheng Yu in Yanzhou - otherwise, if Cheng Yu was in charge of the situation in Yanzhou, he would not have placed Xue Ti in Dingtao, because he valued his loyalty to Cao Cao.

When Guan Yu arrived in Dingtao, he was mentally prepared to fight a tough battle.

Before the battle, Guan Yu encouraged his soldiers, saying: "Grit your teeth and fight hard. To conquer Yanzhou this time, we only need to fight two bloody battles in Dingtao and Juancheng. If we can successfully defeat the enemy, the rest will not be a problem. We will be able to conquer Yanzhou with just one order!"

Dingtao was guarded by Xue Ti, while Juancheng was guarded by Cheng Yu himself. Generals like Li Dian had been transferred away, and Guan Yu believed that among the three central counties of Yanzhou, the most intense resistance was expected to be in Dingtao and Juancheng, and this guess was completely correct.

The officers and soldiers below heard this and agreed with it, and no one raised any objection.

After unifying the thoughts of the army, Guan Yu deployed his troops and prepared to attack Dingtao.

In order to save time, he did not prepare too many complicated and heavy engineering equipment. He just spent two or three days to build the simplest ladder and several battering rams with battering rams, and immediately launched a strong attack.

Neither the Ge Gong cart nor the wooden donkey for digging the city were prepared. There were many swamps around Dingtao City, and the soil was soft. If you dug a little deeper, it would easily seep water and was not suitable for excavation. Too heavy equipment would easily sink into the ground.

Guan Yu thought that he would be in for a tough fight because he could not use heavy siege weapons. The first one or two days of the assault were indeed quite difficult.

Xue Ti personally patrolled the city to supervise the battle and encouraged the morale of Cao's army. The Cao's army in Dingtao was indeed relatively elite, and many of them were veteran soldiers who had followed Cao Cao for many years and were relatively loyal and reliable.

Guan Yu attacked fiercely day and night, but made little progress at the beginning and his casualties increased day by day.

Xue Ti was quite scared at first, but when he saw that he had actually withstood Guan Yu's fierce attacks for two or three days, his morale improved.

On the morning of the third day after Guan Yu launched his fierce attack, Xue Ti was inspecting the defense on the top of Dingtao City again. From afar, he saw Guan Yu's flag and formation on the opposite side, as if Guan Yu was also supervising the battle in person. Xue Ti then sent people to talk to Guan Yu and undermine the morale of Guan Yu's troops.

"Guan Yu, you traitor! Back then, the Prime Minister recommended you for a high position and honor, but you didn't know how to repay the favor. Now that Liu Bei is rebelling against the court, you are the first to charge in!

This Dingtao County was the place where Xiang Liang was buried! Xiang Yu was also in Xiang Liang's army at that time, but he also failed to capture it! Although you have such a great reputation, do you dare to compare with Xiang Liang and Xiang Yu? Today, I will make you fail here!

Soldiers on the opposite side, listen up! Xiang Liang and Xiang Yu failed to capture Dingtao City, so don't risk your lives for Guan Yu's military merits and titles in vain! "

Xue Ti's ridicule made Guan Yu very angry. He immediately intensified the offensive and was determined to cut Xue Ti into pieces after breaking the city.

Fortunately, Lu Su on the side was calm and quickly helped Guan Yu to vent his feelings, telling him not to take such things to heart.

"Don't be angry, Yunchang! Don't worry, the three counties of Yanzhou can't all be like Xue Ti. There will definitely be changes within a few days! Our army should still follow the original plan and attack both the heart and the city!"

Guan Yu then suppressed his anger and continued attacking at the original rhythm.

As a result, everything happened just as Lu Su had expected. In the next two or three days, although there was not much progress on the front battlefield, two important changes occurred one after another, and both were very beneficial to Guan Yu.

The first unexpected event came from the north on the fourth day after the siege of Dingtao began.

On the battlefields of Guantao and Cangting in Hebei, Zhuge Jin finally led Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, Zhou Yu, Taishi Ci and Zhang Liao to defeat Cao Cao's main force!
Moreover, it was the beasts that broke into and disrupted Cao's camp, and then the cavalry followed up and defeated them in a field battle.

After Guan Yu's army received this news, their morale was greatly boosted and their fighting power was further enhanced.

The morale of Cao's soldiers along the way was naturally low, and they had no desire to fight.

Of course, Guan Yu also knew how to take advantage of this favorable factor, so he immediately publicized the latest situation of the Hebei battlefield to the Dingtao defenders.

After hearing Guan Yu's call, Xue Ti, who was guarding the city, hurriedly ordered his soldiers not to listen or believe it, but he still could not stop the growing panic among the people in Dingtao City.

Just one day later, the situation in Dingtao City was out of control.

Some local powerful people in Jiyin, who had been forced to move back to Dingtao City to help defend the city by Xue Ti, tried every means to send people out of the city to contact Guan Yu, expressing their willingness to serve as internal support.

After a little screening and some inquiries, Guan Yu determined that these people were truly loyal.

Then, Guan Yu trusted the people he employed and did not doubt them. He accepted the support from these people and sneaked into the city as agreed.

At midnight the next day, the northwest gate of Dingtao City was opened by an internal rebel in front of the battlefield, and a melee broke out on the city wall.

Guan Yu's subordinates, who had made preparations in advance outside the city, also rushed in at the first opportunity and dealt a fatal blow to the defenders in the melee.

By the time Xue Ti reacted, Dingtao City was already completely beyond saving.

Xue Ti also wanted to lead a small number of cavalry guards to break out, but ultimately failed and was directly overwhelmed by Guan Yu's siege troops.

With the death of Xue Ti and the fall of Dingtao, the counties in the three central prefectures of Yanzhou were also shaken even more.

In addition, the bad news that Cao Cao was defeated by Zhuge Jin in Hebei spread, and the "bandits" and powerful people in Yanzhou began to defect like an avalanche.

Many powerful people sent messengers to express their submission and willingness to serve as internal supporters to Guan Yu. Guan Yu accepted their surrender one by one and swept across the country.

In just over half a month, Guan Yu fought his way all the way to Juancheng.

All the counties and prefectures in Yanzhou east of Dingtao and Juancheng surrendered, and were received and presented to Guan Yu by local powerful people who responded in unison.

(End of this chapter)