: If you take a big step, it is easy to pull the single

The day after Cao Chun's death, Wuyang County, downstream of Ye County, was besieged by Gao Shun's army of more than 100,000.

There is not a lot of grain reserves in Wuyang County, about 100,000. The 30,000 Lejin troops who had besieged Ye County, had just retreated and passed by here the day before. There was a supply wave, and even fewer left.

Faced with Gao Shun's sudden bluffing counterattack, Wuyang, a small city with no fortifications, was of course abandoned directly. What Cao's army in the city was afraid of being defeated by each one, so it would be better to retreat to Yancheng.

When leaving, try to take away those who can take away, and set off the fire if you can't take away, and wait for Zhuge Liang to take over and save him slowly.

Everything is very similar to when Guan Yu took down Xiangcheng. The only difference is that some civil servants who are willing to abandon darkness and turn to light take the initiative to put out the fire in advance.

The contraction of Cao's army has become increasingly strong in Zhuge Liang's confidence. He suggested to Gao Shun: "Now the Cao army does not know the size of our army, and after more than a month of stalemate, our army is at ease. Now Cao Cao may feel that our army was deliberately showing weakness before.

Therefore, no matter how many army we show, Cao Cao would probably believe it. We even took the opportunity to boast that the Nanyang Canal has actually been almost completed and that people would believe it in the chaos.

It would be better to pretend that the general was 300,000 troops and attacked Yancheng together with Yide, and wanted to cut off the retreat of Cao Cao's waterway, forcing Cao Cao to be mobilized and retreat from Dingling to Yancheng."

Anyway, it doesn’t cost much to take the banner of Zhang Fei or other generals, so Gao Shun did as he did.

Sure enough, within a day or two, Cao's army was shocked overnight. Cao Cao tried his best to gather Dingling's materials, military supplies and troops downstream to Yancheng, fearing that he would lose his mistake in entering this place.

Zhuge Liang actually drove the amphibious caravan he brought from the north bank of the Lishui River as planned, walked dozens of miles into the military water, and then followed the military water to Dingling. He also bluffed along the way, claiming to be more than 100,000 troops, and came in separate routes.

However, Cao Cao also confirmed Cao Chun's death at this time. He also heard that Guan Yu had an army of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands along the way, perhaps from Luyang, where Rushui was the source.

Cao Cao was shocked and sad. He was suspicious and did not dare to be arrogant, but only sought the most stable way of playing. After some confusion, he decided to transport Dingling's supplies as much as possible. If there was a risk of being surrounded and forced to fight, he would give up and use his main force to shrink his defense to Yancheng with all his strength.

Cao Cao was brewing, and it was late December. But another urgent news came, forcing him to make this decision immediately and no longer worry.

...

It turned out that Yuan Shao had died nearly ten days ago (Yuan Shao was completely paralyzed by an angry stroke for the second time, and he was delayed for more than a month, as mentioned in the previous article). However, Cao Cao did not know the information, so Yuan Shang blocked the news.

However, recently, the situation has changed again. Three days ago, on December 18, Yuan Tan, located in Linzi County, Qi County, the prefecture of Qingzhou, suddenly received a secret order sent in the name of his father Yuan Shao, saying that Yuan Shao felt that he was about to lose his life and wanted to meet his eldest son for the last time.

After Yuan Tan received the order from his family, he was stunned. He also knew that his father favored his younger brother, and his father should have been unable to move at all, and he could not even make a will. Letters at this time may not be what his father meant.

As for the seals and handwriting of letters, let alone. Yuan Shao hasn't picked up a pen and written in person for more than a year. Yuan Tan knew his father's font, so of course he knew that this time it was not written by his father.

So Yuan Tan had to doubt whether his third brother wanted to trick his father into Yecheng before his death, and then took power out of his father's order and put it under house arrest.

Even more viciously speculating, it may not be that my father is seriously ill, but he has died. However, Yuan Shang secretly wanted to fight a little time difference.

But Yuan Tan had to go with the great righteousness of his father's decree, and if Yuan Shao changed his mind at the death, he would waste a god-given opportunity if he didn't go.

After thinking about it, Yuan Tan wanted to take over and was afraid of being killed, so he thought of leading his troops to Yecheng to visit the hospital/attend the funeral.

But Qingzhou is too far from Yecheng. If he walks all the way along the north bank of the Yellow River, he is afraid that Yuan Shang had already obtained the power of Jizhou's governor before and had a huge influence in Jizhou, and would obstruct him halfway.

So Yuan Tan planned to lead his troops to Henan, pass through Cao Cao's jurisdiction, and then cross the Yellow River northward after arriving in Yanjin, land in Liyang, and head straight to Yecheng.

To implement this plan, Yuan Tan had to communicate with Cao Cao first, and hoped that Cao Cao would help provide military supplies and support along the way for his father's sake.

After all, Yuan Tan had to hurry up. If he led the army and transported his own food, it would be too slow. Since he was marching within his own and allied areas, he would eat Cao Cao's if he could.

So, Yuan Tan's request was sent to Cao Cao in this situation.

After receiving this news, Cao Cao did not hesitate about the gains and losses of each city and land and the calculation of food and grass.

Of course, he took out the attitude a good uncle should have, patting Yuan Tan's messenger's chest and said that there is no problem. I will have my uncle to preside over you in everything.

My brother and I are as close as brothers and brothers, and I love relatives and friends. My eldest nephew's affairs are similar to my own son's affairs. Not only can we provide food and grass for Yuan Tan's troops who visited his father's condition, we can also send some troops to cooperate with Yuan Tan.

After sending Yuan Tan's men away, Cao Cao ordered: "Easy to move the remaining grain and grass in Dingling as soon as possible, and transport as much as you can, and transfer from Rushui to Yanjin to support Yuan Tan!

No matter how many troops Guan Yu, Gao Shun and Zhuge Liang had, where is the emptiness and where is the real, whether it is Dingling or Yancheng, our army has all its strength to shrink to Yancheng and stand firm!

For Dingling, there were enough people to withdraw food and grass, and all the ships were left to them, including all the ships currently in Yancheng, to Dingling to ensure that the ships could carry all the people in Dingling at one time.

Once Dingling's land directions tend to be completely surrounded by Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang, the remaining guards responsible for transporting food and grass will all be on board at one time and break through the encirclement by water.

Guan Yu crossed Tongbai Mountain and came from Pingding Mountain. There were only Zhuge Liang's strange dual-purpose vehicle and ship. That thing was OK to transport things, and it was impossible to defeat the water battle, so there was no need to worry that the Dingling defenders could not break through the river. If they were really not enough to transport them, they would burn the rest of Dingling with a torch."

Cao Cao did not care about the opponent's weakness and reality, and made a single cut and two breaks, which was very straightforward.

Guo Jia did not question his judgment. This is indeed possible to increase material losses, but it is undoubtedly the safest and safest way to preserve the living forces of the troops.

This is also the point where Cao Cao is better than Yuan Shao and other princes. It is also a defensive counterattack after luring the enemy to show weakness. Yuan Shao was in Hanoi and couldn't bear to leave this and that, and lost a total of 190,000 troops.

Although Cao Cao has lost more than 50,000 troops to this day, nearly 60,000 troops, and only 140,000 troops remain. However, at least 70% of the main force is left.

There were many civil and military officials within Liu Bei's army, and they were not very satisfied with the results of this battle. The main reason was that Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang had fought with Yuan Shao in a battle of siege and annihilation, but now they felt that they had lost money if they made less money.

But to be honest, this is also Cao Cao's strength. With Cao Cao's cunning, he can only do this. The Han army has few vitality to destroy, and there are still a lot of materials that the captured enemies have not had time to retreat.

When you meet a slick opponent of Fatty Qiu, you cannot ensure that you can wipe out too many of his people, so you can only settle for the second best to seize more.

Similarly, Guo Jia, the military advisor who was in the army under Cao Cao, was not lacking in intelligence. But in the face of the drastic changes in the absolute power balance, Guo Jia could be helpless. What could he do?

He could only help Cao Cao check for the missing and do his acting work during the retreat, such as asking Cao Cao not to dismantle the catapult and run directly, and even let the catapult continue to prepare for fire on the day of running, which was Guo Jia's idea. It was Guo Jia's idea to ensure that the withdrawal suddenly became unexpected and not caught up by Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang. Guo Jia could not do anything else.

(Note: Don't criticize the Kunyang Battle, which is not pleasant enough, I don't want to repeat myself. If Cao Cao is the same as Yuan Shao, it will be cool, but it does not conform to history and repeat. I hope to write that although Cao Cao was defeated, he will recognize the situation and stop loss in time, know that victory or defeat is common in military affairs, have a good mentality, can take it and let go, and are not afraid of "small losses but pure losses".)

...

On December 24th, Yuan Tan raised his troops from Linzi and began to travel westward. After reaching the south bank of the Yellow River, he marched along the Yellow River, and was reluctant to cross the river to the north bank and enter the jurisdiction of his third brother.

Cao Cao heard about Yuan Tan's departure news at the 26th. He left Yancheng on the 27th day, so that the Xiahou brothers and Li Dianlejin could defend well and not neglect.

It is definitely impossible to transport the food and grass in Dingling in less than half a month. After all, it was the starting point that besieged Kunyang. At the beginning, nearly one million stones of food and grass were stored. After eating so much, a batch was transported away, leaving 700,000 to 800,000.

After burning, I was reluctant to let go of food and retreat, and the tasks of transporting grain and retreat were handed over to Lejin, and Lejin set a tone:

The lord's guiding ideology must be implemented, but the specific timing of the surplus food retreat depends on the situation of the war. If the Han army does not cut off the threat of the Rushui River, it will not burn for the time being and drag it down for a while.

Unfortunately, Le Jin's stinginess was soon seized by Zhuge Liang on the opposite side. After Zhuge Liang arrived in Dingling, he confirmed that the main force of the enemy did not dare to fight back at all. It seemed that something happened in the rear, and the frightened bird could not defend it, so he wanted to preserve his strength.

Zhuge Liang had a plan and ordered him to quickly dig a wide canal only a few miles long north of Dingling to direct the Rushui River to the new canal. He even surveyed the terrain and found the low-lying areas around him, hoping to breach the Rushui River from the upstream into the lowlands to form a lake.

At the same time, Zhuge Liang also asked people to shake flags and shout and spread plans, emphasizing that he brought more than 100,000 elite soldiers who had dug the canal in Nanyang for a long time. The progress was a thousand miles a day. Dingling had already reached the Ruying Plain, with loose soil and rapid construction.

In less than four or five days, Le Jin's fleet sent to the rear to transport grain had just fought back and forth, and suddenly found that the water level of Rushui had temporarily dropped. If it lowered a few feet, it might have stopped flowing.

After all, the Rushui section is upstream and has just flowed out between Tongbai Mountain and Funiu Mountain, and the amount of water is not large.

Moreover, it is cold in winter, mainly snow under precipitation. Late December is the coldest time. If the snow does not melt, there will be no source of river water to replenish. Every year, it will be the end of the second and early March of the lunar calendar, and after the snow melts, it will be the flood season.

Le Jin didn't know that Zhuge Liang had done something, so he pretended to dig a canal and divert it to Rushui, but in fact he only dug a little bit, and lured part of the water in Rushui to the low-lying area to accumulate. After all, Le Jin has no strength to go out of the city to investigate. He was so dark that he had lost his eyes to the place that he could not see for more than ten miles outside the city.

Le Jin really thought that Zhuge Liang had been holding his ultimate move in Nanyang for two years and dug the canal for so long, and summed up other secret methods for rapid construction. He could really change the route of Rushui in a few days.

If it was really time to change the route and his ship was all stranded, how could he retreat from the Water Gate Wharf at the North City Gate to Dingling?

Le Jin panicked and knew that he could not wait, so he set off a fire and took the troops away while the river was not dry. He gave up Dingling and went to Yancheng to meet Xiahou Yuan and Li Dian.

This is not because Le Jin is timid, mainly because Dingling lacks military counselors to see through those small moves. Guo Jia was left in Yancheng by Cao Cao in charge of the overall situation and did not understand the first-hand situation on the Dingling front.

Moreover, even if Guo Jia is here and has a specialty in his profession, he does not know about engineering technology. Zhuge Liang dug a canal for several years and raised the speed of earthwork to how strong he has increased. Even if he misjudged that "Zhuge Liang is really capable of letting Rushui change the route within a few days and not flow through the North Gate of Dingling", it is not impossible.

In short, Cao's army was fooled and lost another stronghold.

Gao Shun and Zhuge Liang hurriedly led troops into the city, and as soon as they entered the city, they were prepared to organize the fire extinguishing, minimizing the losses of Lejin's burned materials.

Facing the victory, Zhuge Liang and Gao Shun also talked and laughed:

"After taking down Dingling, we finally brought Xiangcheng and other Rushui upstream, and went deep into the two counties of Funiu Mountain. The waterways were connected together, and the materials from all over the place could be gathered in Kunyang in the rear.

Although Cao Cao only lost less than 60,000 people to survive, he lost such a large amount of supplies and could not organize a counterattack of hundreds of thousands in Yuzhou within one or two years. It took time for him to re-raise the army, so Nanyang and Kunyang would be worry-free.

There are 600,000 shi of food and fodder in Xiangcheng, Wuyang and Dingling, which means that Cao Cao will help us get the food for the canal in Kunyang for more than half a year next year.

Cao Cao walked so fast, maybe it might have something to do with Hebei. I guess something happened. We have been here to restrain the main force of the enemy for so long, and the general of the chariot and cavalry can also make more achievements in the Yan Dynasty after the beginning of spring."

In the front of Yancheng, since there were more than 100,000 troops defending and camping, Guan Yu had no appetite for the time being. They all knew the enemy's determination, and it was impossible for him to give up the place of Yancheng.

After all, Guan Yu and Gao Shun Zhuge Liang had already fought to the point where they were close to the peak of Yue Fei's northern expedition in the later generations, and they were only one Yancheng. If Yancheng lost the troops in the Ruying River Basin, they could easily take Xuchang, and then take Chenliu and Daliang through Xuchang, and the entire Wei land was over.

Of course, it is not the time. After all, Gao Shun's troops are still mainly flirting with airs. The five counties were mainly captured by scares. The real elite Han army is still in Zhang Fei, Hebei.

Moreover, it is the coldest time in winter, and there is no problem of small short flat and fast advancement. If an in-depth expedition of more than three or five hundred miles in depth is launched, the severe cold in winter will give the attacking party a serious negative bonus.

Guan Yu and Zhang Fei both had to stop and wait for the weather to warm up. Fortunately, there was nothing to do in winter. Although they could not fight, they could do some gentle cultural governance.

Calculate the days, the wheel of history will soon roll to the fourth year of Zhangwu (200), because of the New Year. Li Su, Sikong and Sili, and the governor of Jingzhou, also returned to Chang'an before the New Year. This should be the last year the imperial court spent in Chang'an.

The reason why Li Su was in a hurry to go back was because his 30th birthday was coming soon, and the day he was awarded the title of Prime Minister for his merits was approaching.
Chapter completed!