Chapter 265 Cao Xiu’s expectations and Cao Pi’s questioning
Cao Xiu, who was wearing fine armor, while refuting Zhao Yan's report, simultaneously waved his right hand to show his resistance to accept the matter.
Because of the disbelief in Cao Xiu's heart, he moved his right hand a little too much.
This strong movement caused the armor on Cao Xiu's body to whistle.
Zhao Yan saw Cao Xiu reacting so strongly after learning about this incident. He had never commanded a cavalry army before, so of course he couldn't understand Cao Xiu's reaction.
But as Cao Pi personally appointed Cao Xiu's military advisor, Zhao Yan had the obligation to let Cao Xiu accept the reality.
Zhao Yan bowed to Cao Xiu again and said, "General, if you don't believe it, just go to the city and take a look."
After hearing what Zhao Yan said, a trace of resistance appeared on Cao Xiu's suspicious face.
But after he saw Zhao Yan's sworn look, he finally took Zhao Yan towards the city wall.
Cao Xiu had commanded the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry for many years. Among the generals of Cao Wei, he knew the cavalry as well as anyone.
Maybe Zhao Yan would be deceived by Guan Yu's deception, but as long as Cao Xiu, a general who knew the reality of his cavalry army, went to the city to take a look.
So there is naturally a conclusion about the authenticity of what Zhao Yan reported.
Because he was eager to expose Guan Yu's tricks, Cao Xiu immediately mounted his horse and rushed towards the city after leaving the general's mansion.
Under the galloping of horses, Cao Xiu and Zhao Yan arrived at the north city of Fancheng in a short time.
After arriving at the city, Cao Xiu took three steps and two steps at a time, and quickly walked towards the city wall.
When Cao Xiu arrived at the north city of Fancheng, he found that although the Wei troops on the wall were standing at their respective posts, many of them had panic on their faces.
Perhaps during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the importance of cavalry had not yet been fully realized.
But since Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty attacked the Xiongnu, under the leadership of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, the imperial twins, the cavalry has become the new ace unit in the Han army.
In those wars that attracted countless praises from later generations, it was the Han cavalry established with the strong support of Emperor Xiaowu that defeated the Xiongnu who dominated the world.
Since then and hundreds of years later, the cavalry has used countless glorious battles to establish its status as an irreplaceable ace unit among the Chinese arms.
Of course, because the current equipment of the cavalry is not perfect, the Wei soldiers who can become cavalry can almost be regarded as the elite soldiers in the entire Wei army.
This point is a consensus among the people in the Wei Dynasty.
Cao Xiu knew that if everything Zhao Yan said was true, then thousands of his colleagues who were praised as elite soldiers in the past would now be displayed as corpses under Fancheng.
This tragic fact must have had a great impact on the Wei army in Fancheng.
After the impact, the morale of the Wei army in Fancheng will definitely be greatly affected.
Because he understood this, Cao Xiu rushed to the city wall to expose "Guan Yu's lies."
But when he went to the city and saw this scene, an uneasy feeling of speculation instantly filled his heart.
When tens of thousands of Wei troops unexpectedly appeared outside the city, it was a pressure for the Han troops, but it was an encouragement for the Wei troops defending the city.
Almost all the infantry of the Wei army on the city walls that day saw the uniforms of the cavalry of the Wei army.
Although we may not be able to see clearly due to the distance, we still know the general appearance.
So it is self-evident what the current behavior of Wei soldiers on the city wall represents.
However, Cao Xiu was not a shrinking character. Although he had bad suspicions in his mind, he still strode forward.
When the Wei troops on the city wall noticed Cao Xiu's arrival, their panic eased.
However, the Wei troops near Cao Xiu subconsciously looked towards Cao Xiu.
As the backbone of the tens of thousands of Wei troops currently in Fan City, Cao Xiu's reaction will greatly affect the morale of the Wei troops on the city wall.
When Cao Xiu quickly came to the city wall and looked down, the scene in front of him almost made him unsteady.
Below Fancheng, there are thousands of corpses of Wei soldiers wearing fine armor, being displayed there in an orderly manner.
Because of the condescending angle, Cao Xiu, who had excellent eyesight, could even see the wounds on the corpses of Wei soldiers.
Dried but covered in blood.
The thousands of corpses of the Wei army's cavalry had turned into bloody corpses.
This extremely impactful scene was a bit unacceptable even for a veteran general like Cao Xiu.
When Cao Xiu, who was proficient in cavalry tactics, saw the wounds on the Wei cavalry, he almost immediately judged what kind of tragedy these thousands of Wei cavalry had experienced during their lifetimes.
And at this glance, Cao Xiu judged that the thousands of corpses displayed under the city wall were undoubtedly the cavalry of the Wei Dynasty.
Because the fine armor worn on those corpses and the horse armor arranged together are enough to prove this.
Those fine armors and horse armors were all the same as what Cao Xiu remembered in terms of specifications and styles.
And these are the things that Guan Yu’s army cannot fake.
With the load-bearing capacity of southern war horses, it is even more impossible for Liu Bei or Sun Quan to waste a lot of manpower and material resources to build horse armor specifically for war horses.
Although the numerous horse armors currently appearing in the city are incomparable to the heavy armor worn by tiger and leopard riders, the styles are also very different.
But despite this, it is one of the serious cavalry horse armors.
With the current smelting technology in the south, it is absolutely impossible to forge it.
So when he saw these horse armors that he was very familiar with and even participated in the design of them, Cao Xiu was filled with sadness.
The cavalry that can be worn through horse armor must be the elite of our own side.
But now these elite cavalry have turned into miserable corpses laid out by the enemy at the foot of the city.
This sad scene made Cao Xiu couldn't help but close his eyes.
The scene before him deeply hurt his eyes.
Cao Xiu's hands that were pressing on the city head unconsciously clenched tightly. Because of the force, the veins in Cao Xiu's hands slowly began to show.
From this we can see how deep the sadness and anger in Cao Xiu's heart was at this time.
At this time, Zhao Yan had also arrived behind Cao Xiu. Because he was close, Cao Xiu's behavior was seen by him.
Just when Zhao Yan thought that Cao Xiu would burst out the sadness and anger in his heart, just a moment later, Cao Xiu slowly opened his eyes.
He forced a smile on his face, looked at Zhao Yan behind him and said, "Boran, Guan Yu is so helpless that he actually set up this scam to deceive our army."
"Our army has not yet fought against the bandit army. Moreover, our cavalry army is elite and can come and go like the wind. How could they lose so much under the attack of the infantry?"
"I guess it was Guan Yu who wanted to disturb the morale of our army, so he resorted to this explosive strategy."
Cao Xiu's voice was very loud, as if he was deliberately ensuring that his words could be heard by the surrounding Wei troops.
After Zhao Yan heard Cao Xiu's words, although there was some surprise on his face subconsciously, as Cao Xiu's military advisor, he naturally had quick wits.
So Zhao Yan immediately reacted and responded loudly to Cao Xiu: "The general is wise and saw through the tricks of Guan Yu at a glance."
Under the chorus of Cao Xiu and Zhao Yan, most of the Wei troops on the city wall who were unaware of what was going on had a look of surprise on their faces.
They are not Cao Xiu, and they don't know much about their own side and the enemy's side.
Even though they were originally from peasant families, they didn't know the importance of horse armor in their hearts.
They didn't even know that with the current national strength of the south, it was impossible to use so many horse armors and fine armors to deceive.
As for where the corpses under the city came from, that's easy to understand.
Just kill Liang.
This kind of thing has not been done by the Wei army in the past. It is reasonable for them to infer that the Han army would do this.
At present, what Cao Xiu said seems to make sense on the surface.
As for the generals of the Wei army on the city wall who knew a lot of inside stories, after they saw Cao Xiu's reaction, even if some of them could not guess the meaning of Cao Xiu's actions, no one was stupid enough to expose Cao Xiu's words in person.
Therefore, the morale of the Wei soldiers who had begun to decline due to the thousands of corpses of Wei cavalry under the city began to slowly recover.
After saying that to Zhao Yan, Cao Xiu pretended not to care and walked towards the top of the city.
He looked a little happy at this time, as if he had seen through Guan Yu's trick.
But Zhao Yan knew very well what he was actually thinking in his heart.
So when Cao Xiu came down from the tower, Zhao Yan quickly followed behind Cao Xiu.
After Cao Xiu walked down the city wall to a remote place, he realized that Zhao Yan was following behind him and immediately turned around and grabbed Zhao Yan's arm.
At this time, there was no joy on Cao Xiu's face, but only overwhelming anger.
He couldn't figure out who Cao Pi sent as the commander of the cavalry, but Guan Yu killed and injured thousands of people with his infantry.
Is it possible that you won’t run away if you can’t beat him?
But what Cao Xiu didn't know was that it was because one of his relatives wanted to run away that he indirectly caused this tragedy that he couldn't accept.
But now is not the time to hold people responsible. The most important thing now is how to minimize the impact of this matter on Fancheng.
Cao Xiu held Zhao Yan's arm and solemnly commanded:
"Next, if there are any soldiers on the city wall who dare to whisper to each other, they will all be killed!"
Cao Xiu knew that his behavior just now might temporarily appease the emotions of most of the Wei army.
But the soldiers on the city wall are neither fools nor blind.
Although many of the Wei troops on the city wall were infantry, they did not have a detailed understanding of the cavalry attire of the army.
But it was not long ago that tens of thousands of our own cavalry troops appeared outside the city.
Cao Xiu could use his prestige and the ignorance of most Wei soldiers to briefly weave a lie like "looking at plum blossoms to quench thirst", but this kind of lie could not last long.
As long as Guan Yu does not remove the corpses of the Wei cavalry for one day, then as time goes by, more and more Wei troops on the city wall will realize the truth of the matter.
By that time, the decline in military morale in the city will no longer be avoided.
All Cao Xiu can do now is to let this result come as late as possible.
After hearing Cao Xiu's instructions, Zhao Yan also realized the seriousness of the matter, so he nodded to Cao Xiu, indicating that he would focus on this point next.
After giving this order, Cao Xiu finally said in a heavy tone:
"I hope your majesty can send someone good at fighting to rescue Fancheng this time, otherwise."
Cao Xiu didn't say the second half of his words, but Zhao Yan understood what Cao Xiu meant.
It can be seen from the thousands of corpses of Wei cavalry that they must be part of the tens of thousands of reinforcements that appeared outside the city.
Tens of thousands of cavalrymen suffered thousands casualties, so this supporting army could no longer play a role in supporting Fancheng.
And when the news reached Cao Pi in Wancheng, even if Cao Pi knew nothing about soldiers, he would know how much of a blow this news would have to the morale of the Wei army in Fancheng.
When an isolated city is trapped, the worst thing to do is not see reinforcements and lose hope.
At that time, Cao Ren was besieged by Zhou Yu's army in Jiangling City. Judging from the situation that he was able to lead the army to break out later, he must have had many Wei troops under his command at that time.
But the reason why Cao Ren chose to abandon the city and flee in the end was because Guan Yu was too ruthless in his battle to the north, so that the Wei army in Jiangling City could not see the reinforcements, which caused the morale to become even more sluggish?
Because of this lesson, during the Battle of Xiangfan last year, even if he was mobilizing new troops, Cao Cao would first send some reinforcements to appear outside Fan City. This was what he prevented.
With all these past events, Cao Pi would definitely send reinforcements if he wanted not to lose Fancheng.
Cao Xiu knew this very well, and now he only hoped that the reinforcement general sent by Cao Pi would be an exciting general.
This will at least ensure that Wei's reinforcements will not be defeated by Guan Yu again.
But until now, Cao Xiu still couldn't understand how tens of thousands of Wei cavalry could be defeated like this.
Is this Guan Yu's ability?
Make the impossible possible.
Just as Cao Xiu expected, when a group of Wei generals who were defeated by the Han army on the banks of the Han River fled back to Wancheng, Cao Pi was so angry that he wanted to kill someone after learning the news.
At this moment, Cao Pi put all the cultivation of a Confucian emperor and the demeanor of a Wei emperor out of his mind.
At this moment, he was just like the disbelief and anger he showed when he learned that Cao Cao was going to make Cao Zhi the crown prince.
In the Chariot General's Mansion in Wancheng, Cao Pi looked at Cao Tai and others who had just escaped, kneeling in front of him with anger in his eyes.
Unable to suppress the anger in his heart, Cao Pi suddenly stood up from his throne.
"Twenty thousand fine cavalry of the Wei Dynasty faced two thousand infantry of the Imperial Army. Thousands were killed and injured, and countless people escaped. Cao Tai, are you kidding me?"
On the surface, Cao Pi's words were asking, but from his current tone, you can tell how angry he is now.
He was so angry that he no longer wanted to show any brotherly affection and called Cao Tai by his cousin, but called him by his first name.
When Cao Pi finished saying this, he had already arrived in front of Cao Tai, and then he leaned down and looked at Cao Tai with dangerous eyes.
Now Cao Pi really needs Cao Tai to give him an explanation that can keep him rational.
Also, I will update it all night tonight.
Under the vigil, day and night have turned upside down.
Maybe I am about to enter the circle, but before that, I have to be brave.
Readers, please read the remaining chapters the next morning. Don’t stay up late!
(End of chapter)
This chapter has been completed!