Chapter 259: Sending a message to Wudang
Last year, after Cao Cao personally led an army of 100,000 to Fancheng, he was unable to break through the defense system established by Guan Yu based on the Han River.
Later, Cao Cao's general Zhang Liao came up with a way to allow Cao Wei's army to cross the Han River.
That method was to use the high mobility of the cavalry to find dry places to cross the Han River in winter when the water downstream of the Han River was scarce.
Although Zhang Liao's plan failed because of the obstruction of the Baijie soldiers led by Zhao Yun.
But everyone with a discerning eye at the time knew that as time went by, Zhang Liao's plan was completely feasible.
Because the Han River is too long, no army can send heavy troops to guard every part of the Han River.
The long and nearly depleted lower reaches of the Han River are a natural place for highly mobile cavalry to take advantage of their strengths.
Soldiers are impermanent, and water is impermanent. When the weather changes, the Han River, which was originally regarded as the line of defense for Guan Yu's army, may also become an accomplice in taking the lives of the Han army.
Guan Yu also experienced Zhang Liao's surprise battle personally.
So when he learned that more than ten thousand Wei cavalry troops were heading downstream, he immediately guessed the purpose of those more than ten thousand cavalry troops.
It's already October, and in at most two months, the flow of the Han River will decrease significantly.
In these two months, even though Guan Yu had tens of thousands of troops, it was still very difficult to capture Fancheng.
After Guan Yu guessed the purpose of the more than 10,000 cavalry troops, he also deduced what they wanted to do next.
The current situation is different from the original. Behind the more than 10,000 cavalry troops, there are no tens of thousands of Wei army infantry.
Therefore, when the more than 10,000 Wei cavalry troops wanted to cross the Han River, they were definitely not trying to clear the way for the Wei infantry behind them, let alone attack Xiangyang City.
The greatest effectiveness of the cavalry is always in the wild.
After continuously ruling out these two possibilities, the true purpose of the more than 10,000 cavalry troops is self-evident.
That is to use the cavalry's field combat capabilities to cut off the Han army's food routes.
Although Xiangyang is on the south bank of the Han River, it is still some distance away from the Han River.
That distance is the grain road in Xiangyang City that transports grain and grass to the port.
Even because the Northern Expedition was launched just after the autumn harvest, grain and grass from various counties in Jingzhou were still being transported to Xiangyang.
After the Han River, there are a large number of vast plains.
Once these more than 10,000 cavalry troops crossed the Han River and entered behind the Han army, most of the people escorting the grain and grass were auxiliary soldiers or civilians with little combat power.
They were unable to stop the charge of the Wei army's cavalry, so the Han army's food route would be in great danger.
Unstable food routes, let alone whether the food and grass are safe, will be a major blow to military morale.
But after realizing this, Guan Yu did not panic.
It has to be said that from the day he started his army, all the arrangements of the Wei army were in place.
Avoiding fighting and dividing his troops to defend, Guan Yu's army was unable to surround Fancheng as before and then march directly towards the hinterland of Nanyang.
The Han army's actions were predicted in advance, and more than 10,000 cavalry troops were dispatched to Fancheng in time to support them.
When the more than 10,000 cavalry troops arrived at Fancheng, they did not feel helpless because of the barriers built by the Han army. Instead, they tried to repeat their old tricks and find a breakthrough from the downstream.
The various arrangements of the Wei army can be said to be well organized and interconnected.
This is how Wei should behave.
Cao Wei regarded the Han Dynasty as his number one enemy, and the Han Dynasty also regarded Cao Wei as his life and death enemy.
If Cao Wei can be regarded as a great enemy by the Han Dynasty, then of course they rely on not only strong national power, but also a talent reserve that is proud of the world.
Now Cao Wei's performance is considered to be in line with their true level.
Perhaps Cao Wei had despised Liu Bei and Sun Quan because of its strong national power.
This is normal. Before the Tang and Song Dynasties, any force that could completely occupy the north would have the confidence to be proud of the world.
But this contempt seems to have begun to disappear because of Cao Ren's death.
The battle in Xicheng awakened everyone in Cao Wei.
Forces that can be called "Han" are always worthy of their serious attention.
When Cao Wei began to face his opponents, that was when their power gradually became terrifying.
Cao Wei has never lacked talent, food, and troops.
But how could Guan Yu be like Yi?
Since Cao Wei's talents will continue to make appropriate responses according to the current situation, then Guan Yu will also counterattack accordingly.
What he told Ma Liang to do was his countermeasure.
Guan Yu asked Ma Liang to release the news that the Han army was going to build the weir, in order to confuse the more than 10,000 Wei cavalrymen downstream.
A weir refers to a water conservancy project built on an inland river that can both store and drain water.
When the Seventh Army was flooded, there were many speculations about how Guan Yu could do this.
Many people believe that Guan Yu had planned very early at that time and spent a lot of manpower and material resources to build weirs and dams to store water, and then carried out a flood attack by breaking the embankments.
But the real situation is that a rare heavy rain happened that year, which caused a natural flood that "the Han River overflowed and harmed the people."
Guan Yu, who was good at taking advantage of the situation, took the opportunity to build weirs and dams to guide the floods that were about to spread to where Yu Jin and others were stationed.
This caused Yu Jin and others to be trapped by the flood, and he took the opportunity to attack by boat. Finally, Yu Jin and others had no choice but to surrender.
At the beginning, Guan Yu indeed ordered people to build weirs and dams, but in the face of natural disasters, the weirs and dams built by Guan Yu only served to guide the enemy's attacks.
It was originally an excellent example of a famous general who was good at taking advantage of the right time and place, but it was rumored by many that it was Guan Yu who did it deliberately from the beginning.
This was actually a way for some people in the north to discredit Guan Yu.
Because the flood that year also hurt many people, the northern officials who were unhappy with Guan Yu's victory blamed all this natural disaster on Guan Yu.
This rumor has been widely circulated in the north and has almost been regarded as the truth.
But thanks to those people's rumors, Guan Yu had the means to counterattack the more than 10,000 Wei cavalry today.
Because in the rumors, those who slandered Guan Yu undoubtedly exaggerated the role of the dam. In this case, don't blame Guan Yu for taking advantage of his plan.
This is not the time of Zhang Liao. There are Han troops on the north bank of the Han River now!
After Ma Liang listened to Guan Yu's instructions, he also understood Guan Yu's intentions, so he stepped down and conveyed Guan Yu's orders.
Before Ma Liang left, he accidentally glanced at the picture on Guan Yu's desk.
He saw something very strange painted on the picture, like a formation, but if he looked carefully, it didn't look like it.
This made doubts arise in Ma Liang's mind.
Is this what the general has been studying these days?
How come he, who has read so much about military affairs, has never seen it before?
But although Ma Liang had doubts in his mind, his body did not hesitate at all and he had already reached the door of the tent.
But just when Ma Liang was about to walk out of the big tent, Guan Yu's coughing sound that seemed to be deliberately suppressed sounded next to him.
The sound of coughing made the doubts in Ma Liang's mind disappear immediately, leaving only worry and a trace of uneasiness about the future.
So after returning to his main tent, Ma Liang first summoned a group of subordinates from Jingzhou to complete the tasks assigned by Guan Yu, and then he summoned another tribesman.
Ma Liang quickly wrote a secret letter on the desk and asked his confidant to quickly take a boat to Wudang.
After the confidant left, Ma Liang looked at the departing figure of his confidant with a worried expression, and thought to himself:
I hope his worries are all unfounded!
After Ma Liang left, Guan Yu, who had just stopped coughing, continued to study the picture on the desk.
Looking at the large formation above that was constantly being transformed by him, Guan Yu's face gradually showed joy.
In Guan Yu's mind, a scene of a battle between the two armies had already appeared.
Guan Yu then set his sights on the distance between the Han River port and the Han army camp.
His eyes slowly turned cold.
He uses his tactics to guide the enemy in the direction he wants. This is his unique combat art.
Guan Yu was as familiar with the cavalry's combat methods as any general in the world.
However, in order to be as foolproof as possible, Guan Yu immediately immersed himself in his thoughts and began to deduce the upcoming battle.
How can you dare to relax for a moment when you are responsible for the destiny of the country?
But what he didn't know was that as his mind continued to be consumed, the look on his face became paler.
Guan Yu's order to Ma Liang was: "Spread the news and build the weir again."
Who should the news be released to? Of course, to the more than 10,000 Wei cavalry troops downstream who were gearing up to cross the river.
It can be seen from this order that Guan Yu's real purpose was definitely not to build the weir, but to confuse the Wei army.
But if you want to confuse the more than 10,000 Wei cavalry, some necessary actions must be taken.
After all, it was impossible for Ma Liang to directly send someone to tell the more than 10,000 Wei cavalry that they would start building weirs and dams next.
As the governor of Jingzhou, Ma Liang's order was quickly passed to Xiangyang City on the south bank of the Han River. Soon, a large number of civilians began to gather on the south bank of the Han River.
Even on the north bank of the Han River, many auxiliary soldiers, summoned by the officials of the Jingzhou governor, began to move towards a certain point upstream of the Han River.
When a large number of people and supplies began to gather somewhere on the upper reaches of the Han River, the news was quickly discovered by more than ten thousand Wei cavalry spies.
Although the cavalry of the Wei army quickly reached the lower reaches of the Han River, because the water in the lower reaches of the Han River was still quite turbulent, they could only wait for the opportunity to come.
During this period, Cao Tai sent many spies to inquire about the Han army's movements.
It turned out that it was better not to inquire, but when he inquired, the latest move of the Han army shocked Cao Tai.
The Han army actually wanted to build a dam upstream!
At this time, it is self-evident that the purpose of the Han army building weirs and dams was to store water.
So why did the Han army store water?
After learning the news, Cao Tai immediately summoned two other think-tanks, Sima Yi and Jiang Ji.
After Sima Yi and Jiang Ji learned about the Han army's latest move, they both had heavy looks on their faces.
Because of the rumors circulating in the north, it is difficult not to associate Guan Yu's intention to build weirs and dams with the water attack in the minds of all Cao Wei ministers.
And the most important thing is, based on the speculation of Sima Yi and Jiang Ji, Guan Yu is not building the dam for Fancheng, but for them who want to cross the Han River downstream.
It is now October and the rainy season has passed.
In addition, although building weirs and dams is a specialty of southerners, it is a time-consuming task after all.
After the Han army's weirs and dams were repaired, the water volume of the Han River had long been reduced, and it no longer posed a threat to Fancheng.
Therefore, Guan Yu is building weirs and dams for those downstream.
During the dry season of the Han River, it might not be difficult for tens of thousands of cavalry to take the opportunity to cross the Han River.
But their crossing of the Han River meant going deep into enemy territory, which was also very risky.
Once when they were crossing the Han River, the Han army upstream suddenly destroyed the dam and released the Han River that had accumulated for a long time.
So even if all the tens of thousands of cavalry troops were not buried under the water when they crossed the Han River, the morale of the tens of thousands of cavalry troops would definitely collapse when they saw that their way back was cut off.
Even if the tens of thousands of cavalry troops were defeated and had no way out, even if they could barely cross the river, what would be the use?
If Guan Yu sends part of his army across the river to counterattack these tens of thousands of cavalry, then their tens of thousands of cavalry will be in danger.
During the Battle of Weishui, didn't the soldier Han Xin use similar tricks?
Because the painful lesson of flooding the Seventh Army happened not long ago, when Sima Yi and Jiang Ji realized this, they both informed Cao Tai of their suspicions.
But when Cao Tai knew Guan Yu's true purpose, his expression was not as calm as that of Sima Yi and Jiang Ji.
When the water flooded the Seventh Army, he followed Cao Ren and saw the flood all over the place with his own eyes.
Compared to fire, for Cao Tai, who is from the north, water is what scares him more.
Therefore, under the threat of Guan Yu's water attack, Cao Tai immediately gave up his plan to cross the Han River in the future.
After all, today is different from the past. At that time, Zhang Liao dared to lead thousands of tigers and leopards to the opposite bank because there were 100,000 Wei troops on the north bank guarding his back.
But now Cao Tai does not have such a strong backing, and under the threat of Guan Yu's construction of weirs and dams, he certainly does not dare to act rashly.
Who in the world doesn't know that Mi Yang is good at fire and Guan Yu is good at water?
This pair of father-in-law and son-in-law can be said to play clearly with the two natural nuclear bombs of water and fire.
It can be said that Guan Yu's move completely hit the Wei army who lacked warships.
However, although he gave up his plan to cross the river and harass the south bank of Han River, Cao Tai still felt a little unwilling to do so.
When tens of thousands of cavalry troops arrive outside Fan City, they cannot be like they did outside Wudang City and end up just wandering around.
Seeing the unwillingness on Cao Tai's face, Jiang Ji came up with a plan for him:
"Since we can't cross the river to raid the enemy's food route, why not raid along the river?"
Upon hearing Jiang Ji's plan, Cao Tai's eyes lit up.
Yes, although Fancheng is close to the Han River, it is not built directly on the Han River like Wudang.
The nearest port on the Han River is more than ten miles away from the Han army camp.
This distance of more than ten miles was the grain transportation channel for the Han army on the north bank.
He could make full use of the high mobility of the cavalry and send troops to patrol along the Han River. Once they saw the Han army's grain team on the bank, they could harass or even burn them.
This method may not be as effective as crossing the Han River directly, but if things continue like this, the Han army will definitely not be able to stand it.
Cao Tai thought this plan was very good, so he followed Jiang Ji's plan.
Oh, it feels so good to be refreshed~
Everyone supports me.
(End of chapter)
This chapter has been completed!