Chapter 270 Zhang Liao’s Thoughts Three Greetings
According to the account of Wang Fu, who had just been in charge of intelligence gathering, Zhang Liao had led his army to leave Wancheng a few days ago.
In the past few days, in order to obtain first-hand information on the enemy's movements, Wang Fu sent out the few light cavalry in the army to detect the whereabouts of Zhang Liao's army.
Although due to the backward transportation and communication methods at that time, the Han generals outside Fancheng were unable to know the movements of Zhang Liao's army hundreds of miles away in real time.
But this also allowed the Han generals to know quite clearly the recent movements of Zhang Liao's army.
Under Wang Fu's report, the Han generals in the big tent learned that Zhang Liao had led the army to leave Wancheng. To everyone's surprise, Zhang Liao did not lead his army southward in a hurry.
On the contrary, Zhang Liao's army stopped and stopped along the way, as if he was leading tens of thousands of Wei troops on an outing.
Zhang Liao's behavior is very suspicious.
The reason why Cao Pi sent Zhang Liao to lead the Chinese army south was because the 20,000 Wei cavalry sent by Cao Pi had been defeated.
Twenty thousand Wei army cavalry were severely damaged, which means that there are currently no reinforcements outside Fancheng that can assist Cao Xiu.
Under such circumstances, it was only a matter of time before the Wei army in Fancheng was disintegrated.
Cao Pi was worried that Fancheng would be captured by Guan Yu due to the collapse of the army, so he decisively sent Zhang Liao as a general to lead tens of thousands of reinforcements south to support Cao Xiu.
If we compare the current situation, the situation Cao Xiu is facing now is very similar to Cao Ren last year.
Guan Yu defeated 20,000 Wei cavalry with Queyue Formation. Just like last year when the Seventh Army was flooded, he also defeated the first support army sent from the north to support Fancheng.
After Guan Yu flooded the Seventh Army last year, Fancheng's city defenses were damaged in many places by the flood, but Fancheng's basic defense measures still exist.
At least Fancheng's city defense was not vulnerable at that time.
Therefore, after Guan Yu flooded the Seventh Army, he was unable to break through Fancheng for a while, so he could only lead his army to surround Fancheng.
After being besieged by Guan Yu's army, the biggest danger Cao Ren faced was not the damage to the city defenses, but the morale of the defending Wei troops in Fan City began to plummet after they witnessed Yu Jin's Seventh Army being flooded.
At that time, the morale of the Wei army was so low that many generals persuaded Cao Ren to abandon Fancheng and break out. If Man Chong had not killed the White Horse Alliance and vowed to boost morale, Fancheng would have been captured by Guan Yu after the seven armies were flooded.
And how did Xu Huang, who was the second support army sent by Cao Cao at that time, do it?
Even though most of his subordinates were new soldiers, Xu Huang chose to rush south quickly and drove straight in, finally stabilizing Fancheng's military morale to a certain extent.
As the saying goes, remembering the past is the teacher of the future.
It is impossible for Cao Pi and Zhang Liao not to know such lessons and experiences.
So as Zhang Liao, another five-son general who is as famous as Xu Huang, his current behavior is very strange.
Because judging from his performance, he seemed not to care about Fancheng's life or death at all. Not only was he not in a hurry to march south, but he was deliberately delaying the march.
This surprised the Han generals, who wondered what kind of medicine Zhang Liao was selling in his gourd.
But the Han generals didn't know, but Guan Yu figured out what Zhang Liao's plan was after thinking about it.
Guan Yu stood up and turned his back to the Han generals in the tent. When he came to the map hanging in front of him, his eyes kept wandering over the map from Wancheng to Fancheng.
Nanyang has a vast territory, so although Nanyang County is mostly plains, there are also many valleys and mountains and forests.
Wancheng is almost in the northernmost part of Nanyang, and Fancheng is located in the southernmost part of Nanyang.
Therefore, Zhang Liao's army had to cover a long distance all the way south.
In this long journey, there are of course many valleys, mountains and forests, and these are the best places for ambush.
As a general in charge of the army for many years, Guan Yu's sensitivity to key military information has already reached the level of proficiency.
Guan Yu took off the sword from his waist, raised the long sword in his hand and pointed at Wancheng on the map.
Then, based on the information he had received in his memory about the march of Zhang Liao's army in the past few days, he slid the tip of his sword all the way down Wancheng on the map, roughly outlining the march route of Zhang Liao's army with no traces of it.
And when Guan Yu copied the seemingly unorganized marching route of Zhang Liao's army in the past few days one by one on the map, some keen Han generals in the big tent seemed to have noticed something.
Just like Mi Yang.
Mi Yang looked at the Wei army's march route map outlined by Guan Yu on the map, with a thoughtful look on his face.
After Guan Yu finished sketching the marching route of Zhang Liao's army, a smile began to appear on his face when he saw Mi Yang's reaction.
In fact, according to Guan Yu's style of deliberation in the past, he would not have done what he did today because of his vigorous and resolute temperament.
Often when facing an enemy, after Guan Yu analyzed something, he would directly order the task.
Even if the generals didn't understand Guan Yu's intention at first, Guan Yu would never explain it.
Rather than wasting time explaining to the generals, Guan Yu preferred to spend time thinking about strategies to defeat the enemy.
But it's different now. Guan Yu's behavior today obviously means that he will not only be a coach, but also an "instructor" today.
Due to his own actions, Guan Yu discovered that Mi Yang was the first to react among the generals present.
Not long after, some thoughts appeared on the faces of generals such as Fu Xu and Liao Hua.
After realizing this, Guan Yu felt satisfied and began to speak to the generals present: "He who knows the terrain is the help of soldiers. There is no such thing as those who don't know the battlefield and seek victory.
"Zhang Liao has a close personal relationship with me, and I know that he is a wise general. He must know the truth here."
"The road from Wancheng to Fan is long, and there are many places where the terrain is easy to set up ambushes."
"The reason why Zhang Liao wasted time and marched slowly with his army was not because he didn't know the urgency of Fancheng, but because he knew what I was thinking."
"Although the defeat of the 20,000 thieves' cavalry will destabilize Fancheng's army, the defenses of Fancheng have not been destroyed and the city is strong and well-armed, so there will be no danger of overthrowing for at least a month."
"Zhang Liaoding guessed that I wanted to encircle the point and call for reinforcements, so he marched like this."
"Although his march is slow, he always avoids dangerous areas. Although his march is slow, he does not become a labor force. In this way, it is impossible for me to besiege the city and bring reinforcements."
After Guan Yu said this, the faces of the Han generals in the big tent showed expressions of surprise.
As Guan Yu said, Zhang Liao is a man who knows the art of war well, so it is not surprising that he guessed that Guan Yu wanted to besiege the city for reinforcements.
Siege and reinforcements are a general term for a tactic. To complete this tactic perfectly, two elements are required in most cases.
One is waiting for work, and the other is setting up an ambush.
Because generally speaking, the side that sends troops to rescue is mostly eager to march because of its eagerness to rescue.
In this case, the army that comes to the rescue will definitely be the labor army.
And because they are eager to rescue, the general who leads the rescue will often enter some terrain that is not conducive to his own side.
This will provide those who want to besiege the city with reinforcements with a favorable opportunity to defeat them.
But now Zhang Liao did the opposite. He led his army slowly southward, undoubtedly to prevent his own army from becoming a labor force.
And his slow marching speed also gave him enough time to avoid dangerous places on the road.
If there are some dangerous places that cannot be avoided, he will have enough time to explore those dangerous places.
Under Zhang Liao's actions, the advantage of the side that wants to support will be gone.
When the advantages are gone, it will naturally eliminate the possibility of implementing such combat methods as siege and reinforcements.
As expected of Zhang Liao.
Not only can he accurately judge the tactics Guan Yu wants to adopt, but he can also quickly take countermeasures.
It can only be said that the talents of the five good generals who rose to power solely with real swords and real guns should not be underestimated.
After listening to Guan Yu's analysis, the faces of all the generals in the tent showed sorrow.
Guan Yu had previously revealed his idea of using encirclement and reinforcement tactics, but now with Zhang Liao's countermeasures, this tactic seems to be no longer applicable to the current battle situation.
And if this tactic was not adopted, how would the Han army face the tens of thousands of enemy troops led by Zhang Liao?
With this idea in mind, the generals in the tent subconsciously looked at the upright Guan Yu.
At this time, after Guan Yu told the generals Zhang Liao's purpose, he turned around again and looked at the map hanging behind him attentively.
After seeing this, all the generals in the main army turned their attention to Ma Liang.
When Ma Liang saw that Guan Yu was already immersed in his own world, he directed the generals inside the tent to retreat outside the tent.
Many of the Han generals in the big tent are Guan Yu's old subordinates. After getting along for a long time, they are well aware of some of Guan Yu's habits.
For example, when Guan Yu stares at the map and is silent, it is when he is meditating. At this time, Guan Yu doesn't like anyone disturbing him the most.
Therefore, under Ma Liang's command, the generals in the tent immediately left the tent one after another with understanding.
In the end, only Guan Yu and Mi Yang were left in the big tent.
When Ma Liang asked the generals to retreat just now, he did not ask Mi Yang to let him leave, and Mi Yang also knew the reason why Ma Liang asked him to stay alone.
So after all the generals left, Mi Yang sat upright in his original position and waited for Guan Yu to come back from his meditation.
When Mi Yang looked at Guan Yu standing in front of the map, with a look of contemplation on his face, the worry in Mi Yang's heart became stronger and stronger.
After a long time, Guan Yu, who seemed to have thought about a certain key point, came back from his thoughts, and then he saw that the big tent was empty.
Guan Yu has long been used to this.
But what is different from the past is that there is still one person left in the big tent today.
Seeing Guan Yu come back from his deep thoughts, Mi Yang quickly bowed to Guan Yu and said to Guan Yu, "How is your health lately?"
During the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, there were many ways for a son-in-law to address his wife's father, including uncle or husband.
Hearing Mi Yang call himself a woman instead of a general, Guan Yu's eyes flashed with warmth.
This shows that Mi Yang is now greeting him as his son-in-law.
Although Guan Yu was very majestic in front of ordinary people, Mi Yang was the only one left in the tent now, and Mi Yang was his son-in-law, so Guan Yu looked a little relaxed at this time.
Guan Yu sat down next to Mi Yang, and then responded to Mi Yang pretending not to care: "It doesn't matter, I can still hunt tigers now."
After hearing Guan Yu's response, Mi Yang knew that Guan Yu must be hiding something from her.
After everyone left, without the obstruction of everyone's body odor, Mi Yang, who was sitting next to Guan Yu, could smell the medicinal smell on the tip of her nose.
Supported by this kind of evidence, Guan Yu's words were not enough to dispel Mi Yang's doubts.
Mi Yang bowed to Guan Yu again, this time his tone was much heavier.
"Has the woman's headache gotten better?"
Upon hearing Mi Yang's question, Guan Yu's face darkened instantly.
If Mi Yang's first words were a normal greeting from a son-in-law to his father-in-law, then Mi Yang's directly referring words made Guan Yu understand that Mi Yang must have known something.
Because he was afraid that his head illness would affect his military morale, not many people knew about it. Apart from him and Fan A, only Ma Liang was probably the only one who could see some clues.
The dark-faced Guan Yu was still very dignified. He looked at Mi Yang with a pair of tiger eyes and asked, "Did Ji Chang tell you about this?"
Guan Yu's words already contained some reproach.
But Mi Yang knew that if he wanted to truly understand Guan Yu's condition at this time, he could not back down.
Fortunately, Mi Yang is not what he used to be. He has seen many big battles before, so he can still withstand Guan Yu's pressure.
"The governor of Jingzhou is worried about the health of the woman and the future of Jingzhou."
When Mi Yang said these words, Guan Yu couldn't help but snorted coldly: "Ji Chang's temperament is really more and more like Kong Ming. He is too cautious. I have to inform you about such small things.
I just feel a little bit cold since the beginning of winter, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
Although Guan Yu's words were superficially blaming Ma Liang, he was actually blaming Ma Liang to soothe Mi Yang's heart.
After all, Ma Liang was the governor of Jingzhou and his old subordinate, so he was right to pay attention to his condition both in public and in private.
Even because Ma Liang believed what Guan Yu said before, he just reported the matter to Mi Yang in advance, thinking of using Mi Yang's relationship with Guan Yu to find out.
Otherwise, Ma Liang, as the governor of Jingzhou, has the right to directly report the secret to Liu Bei.
But Mi Yang is so easy to fool.
Occasionally, when you feel cold, do you keep drinking medicine until the smell of medicine is left on your body?
If the wind-chill was severe to this extent, it would be a very serious disease in this world.
After caressing Mi Yang, Guan Yu wanted to change the topic, but Mi Yang who cared about Guan Yu would not let Guan Yu do so easily.
Mi Yang took the initiative to express his judgment to Guan Yu. Finally, he bowed to Guan Yu again and said:
"Yu Gongfuweng is a general of the country and has important responsibilities."
"Weng, an illegitimate wife, is both his wife, father and old master to Yang, so he has great kindness to Yang.
I can't help but investigate the woman's physical condition."
"I also ask the old woman to take care of Nian Yang's filial piety and tell Yang the truth."
After finishing speaking, Mi Yang looked at Guan Yu with a worried expression.
Most of the greetings that younger generations pay to their elders are ceremonial greetings.
But today Mi Yang's greetings to Guan Yu were like a gesture of "please go to the end".
Facing Mi Yang's stubborn behavior, Guan Yu's face already showed anger.
Since he took charge of Jingzhou, no one has dared to disobey him again and again.
But Guan Yu's anger went away just as quickly as it came.
The man in front of him is his most valued descendant and his most beloved son-in-law.
What's wrong with a son-in-law asking his wife if she's in good health?
Just one chapter today. Go to bed early tonight and resume your normal schedule.
The family has generally recovered. Thank you for your continued concern.
I just don’t know if I will be tricked next.
(End of chapter)
This chapter has been completed!