The Three Kingdoms: Hindsight is 20/20, and the Three Revivals of the Han Dynasty

In the first month of the tenth year of Jian'an (205 AD).

Having acquired a large amount of money, grain, and manpower from the land survey last year, and having also formed an alliance with Gongsun Kang of Liaodong, Liu Bei decided to launch a counterattack against Cao Cao.

He then dispatched troops from Shangdang Commandery, Changshan Commandery, Zhongshan State, Hejian State, and Bohai Commandery to attack Wei Commandery, Zhao State, Julu Commandery, Anping State, and Pingyuan State, which were controlled by Cao Cao.

At the same time, Liu Bei sent envoys to Liaodong and Guanzhong to invite Gongsun Kang and Ma Chao to send troops.

It is impolite not to reciprocate. Last year, Cao Cao launched a five-pronged northern expedition, and this year Liu Bei launched a seven-pronged southern expedition.

Liu Bei personally commanded the attack on Anping Kingdom. The overwhelming force of his southern expedition greatly surprised Xiahou Dun, Cao Ren, and others left behind by Cao Cao in Hebei: the military order for the spring offensive had not yet been officially issued, but Liu Bei had already taken the lead in the southern expedition.
What Xiahou Dun, Cao Ren, and others did not know was that Liu Bei launched a counterattack in the first month of the year to counter Cao Cao's spring offensive and prevent Cao Cao from drawing the war into his territory. By choosing Cao Cao's territory as the battlefield, Cao Cao would be unable to plunder the money and food of Liu Bei's people. Without food from the enemy, Cao Cao's logistics would suffer, which would be an opportunity for Liu Bei to counterattack and win.

If the soldiers and horses are not moving, the grain and grass will go first.

The reason Cao Cao was able to launch wars year after year was that he hardly ever had to procure supplies.

When food supplies ran out, they directly plundered the supplies of soldiers and civilians in enemy territory, euphemistically calling it: "Those who help the enemy are also thieves and should be slaughtered."

Therefore, Cao Cao was almost always engaged in campaigns before the Battle of Guandu, and had no worries about a lack of supplies.

One reason why Cao Cao was overwhelmed by Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu was that he was on the defensive and could not follow the usual tactic of supplying the enemy with provisions, so he had to transfer supplies from the rear.

By supplying the enemy with provisions, one can achieve the effect of swift and unexpected attacks, while transferring money and provisions from the rear will hinder all kinds of military operations due to the lack of supplies.

At present, Liu Bei has six advisors under his command: Zhuge Liang, Xu Shu, Tian Feng, Ju Shou, Guo Tu, and Xin Ping. These six men have a good understanding of Cao Cao, so it is not difficult for them to suppress Cao Cao's advantages in a targeted manner.

Liu Bei's sudden southern expedition did indeed disrupt Cao Cao's plans.

Cao Cao originally planned to repeat his previous tactic of launching another northern expedition in February. By launching northern expeditions every spring, he could maximize the damage to Liu Bei's infrastructure and food production.

As one side gains at the expense of the other, when famine struck Liu Bei's territory, he was unable to withstand Cao Cao's northern expedition.

In particular, Liu Bei often touted benevolence and righteousness, and it was impossible for him not to open the granaries to distribute grain in the event of a famine. However, once the granaries were opened, the army would not have enough food and supplies. If Cao Cao came again at that time, Liu Bei would surely be defeated.

Now, Liu Bei has chosen to take the initiative and has set the battlefield in Wei Commandery, Zhao State, Julu Commandery, Anping State, and Pingyuan State.

Although Liu Bei would not follow Cao Cao's example of plundering the grain and fodder of the people in various counties by taking grain from the enemy, Liu Bei was able to use benevolence and righteousness to get the people in various counties to donate grain and fodder voluntarily.

The people of Hebei already harbored old grudges against Cao Cao, and were forced to continue to remain under Cao Cao's rule after weighing the pros and cons. Now that Liu Bei has blocked Cao Cao's five northern expeditions last year, his prestige is far greater than before, and the people of Hebei under Cao Cao's rule will naturally re-evaluate the pros and cons.

Overall, even if Liu Bei had implemented land surveying regulations, it would still have been better than following Cao Cao; at least Liu Bei adhered to laws and regulations, while Cao Cao simply robbed people.

Anping and Pingyuan were the first to be affected.

Both regions suffered defeats last year, resulting in low morale and significantly reduced military strength. When Wei Commandery, Zhao State, Julu Commandery, Anping State, and Pingyuan State were simultaneously attacked by Liu Bei's army, Anping State was isolated and without support. Moreover, Liu Bei himself led the attack, leaving Li Dian with no choice but to defend Xindu to the death.

Liu Bei also led his elite troops on the campaign to attack Xindu.

In addition to Qian Zhao, Xu Shu, Tian Feng, Guo Tu, Xin Ping, Chen Dao, Yang Qun, Ding Li, Liu Deran, Liu He and others, it also included generals such as Liu Wu, Yan Shuo, Lu Zhen, Gongsun Jie, Qi Huan, Cheng Duan, Zhang Luan, Kou Pan, Wang Chi, and Geng Ling from the Wuhuan cavalry.

Although Liu Bei did not have Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, and Huang Zhong, four generals capable of defeating ten thousand men, the fact that he had four generals attacking Wei Commandery, Zhao State, Julu Commandery, and Pingyuan State to contain Cao Cao's forces was enough to allow Liu Bei to focus on conquering Anping State without any distractions.

Faced with Liu Bei's massive army, all the civil and military officials of Xindu, including Li Dian, were filled with fear.

There were only three thousand soldiers in Xindu City, while Liu Bei brought ten thousand infantry and cavalry, all of whom were his most elite troops.

This time, Liu Bei didn't need to distribute his elite troops to different places as he had done before when rescuing Lecheng and Bohai. Instead, he was able to unite them into one force to attack Xindu.

Although Xindu City was fortified, the morale of the army was unstable and the people were in disarray, making it difficult to resist.

In just ten days, Xindu City was captured by Liu Bei's strong attack. Li Dian broke through the siege after the city fell and fled to Julu. Liu Bei did not stay in Xindu and directly joined forces with Zhang Fei's 5,000 infantry and cavalry from the Zhongshan direction to besiege Julu.

Meanwhile, in the Zhao state, Guan Yu led 10,000 infantry and cavalry, including Yan Liang, Wen Chou, Guan Ping, Zhang Yan, Lei Gong, Fu Yun, Da Mu, Bai Que, and Wu Lu, to confront 10,000 infantry and cavalry under Yue Jin, Gao Lan, and Han Hao. Although both sides had their share of victories and defeats, the battle line was pushed back to Xiangguo City in the central part of Zhao, which was only a hundred li away from Julu City, where Cao Ren and Cao Hong were located.

Zhao Yun of Shangdang, along with Xun Chen, Jiao Chu, Zhang Nan, Yuan Chen, Xiahou Bo, and three thousand infantry and cavalry, pushed the battle line west of Wei Commandery. Because Zhao Yun had few troops, he only set up camps in dangerous mountainous areas and did not attack Wei Commandery.

This move greatly surprised Xiahou Dun, who hurriedly ordered Zhang He to lead 5,000 troops to the west of Wei Commandery to confront Zhao Yun.

Huang Zhong of Bohai led Ju Shou, Zhao Du, Huo Nu and three thousand soldiers to besiege Pingyuan. Lü Qian, also suffering from a defeat last year, had few troops and dared only to hide in Pingyuan to defend the city when faced with Huang Zhong's blatant taunts.

Within just half a month, Liu Bei's army advanced with unstoppable momentum, with 30,000 infantry and cavalry pressing forward step by step, gradually suppressing Cao Cao's battle line. Although Cao Cao's army also had more than 30,000 infantry and cavalry, they were caught off guard and Cao Cao was not in Ye City, so they could not find an opportunity to counterattack for a while.

Faced with Liu Bei's powerful and fierce attack, Cao Cao in Xuchang was also astonished: "How dare that big-eared thief do this?"

It was always Cao Cao who took the initiative to attack Liu Bei, but now it was Liu Bei who took the initiative to provoke Cao Cao, and even made Xiahou Dun, Cao Ren and other generals unable to breathe in Hebei, which made Cao Cao lose face.

Although Liu Bei's southern expedition was smaller in scale and had different strategic objectives than Yuan Shao's, Cao Cao did not dare to be careless. After leaving Xun Yu in Xuchang to oversee important matters, Cao Cao, along with his civil and military officials Xun You, Jia Xu, Guo Jia, Liu Ye, Xu Chu, Xiahou Yuan, Cao Xiu, Yu Jin, Zhang Liao, and Xu Huang, hurriedly headed to Ye City.

Cao Cao knew very well that if he did not go to Ye City in person, Xiahou Dun, Cao Ren and others would not be able to withstand Liu Bei's full-scale counterattack. In order to prevent Gongsun Kang from attacking Qingzhou again, Cao Cao sent people to order Cheng Yu of Qi and Zang Ba of Langya to be on high alert.

In Guanzhong.

Ma Chao and Ma Teng argued over whether to support Liu Bei or Cao Cao. (End of Chapter)