If it weren't for the continuous mincing of Cao Cao and Liu Bei on the Yingchuan front line, Cao Cao had to draw troops from other defense areas to replenish them.

Then, when facing Guan Yu's invasion, the guard forces that Chenliu's defense zone should have would be far more than 20,000.

But the situation cannot be assumed. The current situation is just like this mess. Chenliu prefect Liu Yan had to focus on defense and shrink to Yanjin and the county governor Junyi, which is a completely reasonable operation.

There is almost no danger to defend in the entire Chenliu County. It is a fertile plain after leaving Hulao Pass east, and it is also the base where Cao Cao first started his army.

From the perspective of military tactics, the main purpose of Cao's defense against Chenliu was to defend the main traffic routes, including the Honggou Canal and the Yellow River.

This will force Guan Yu to move forward. If Guan Yu is eager to advance and bypass the strong city, he will have to give up the benefits of water transportation and carry food with the army by land. When Guan Yu goes too far and becomes tired, Cao Cao will be able to fight back.

At the same time, Guan Yu sent troops in mid-June after all, and it was still a while before the local autumn harvest could be harvested, and it would take at least one and a half months to harvest autumn grain.

If Guan Yu sent troops a month later, like Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun in Youzhou later, then Liu Yan's contraction of key defense today would be meaningless, because Guan Yu could immediately harvest Chenliu's local food as military rations, and there was no need for food channels at all.

But because Guan Yu came too early, Liu Yan's current tricks can be used for one and a half months. I hope that Prime Minister Cao can find reinforcements for him in the next month and a half.

Although Prime Minister Cao seems to be a little insecurity, no matter what, Liu Yan's deployment has done his best to his lord.

If there is no turning point in a month and a half, if Liu Yan is still alive then, then surrender to Guan Yu. He has resisted and has no psychological burden.

Faced with Liu Yan's deployment, the two generals under him had nothing to say and strictly implemented his orders. Only one staff member around him raised some different opinions.

Liu Yan was just a civil servant and was not good at leading troops to charge, so Cao Cao also appointed military generals to Chenliu's defense zone. Originally, considering that outside Hulao Pass was also the focus of defense, the military generals deployed before were Cao Cao's direct line.

But recently, because Cao Cao's front line was tight, and Cao Cao was worried that Yuan and Sun's surrendered generals would not be stable, so those people could not be allowed to stay in the defense zone of his original origin. Therefore, Chenliu's direct guards were removed from Yingchuan and Runan, and several surrendered generals from Yuan Shang were pulled to Chenliu.

At this moment, Chen Liu's two generals were Ma Yan and Zhang Kai, both of whom followed Yuan Shang during the Battle of Yecheng last year, but they were not loyal. Originally, in history, these two men also surrendered to Cao in the battle of Yuan Shang trying to rescue Yecheng.

Now in this life, they have hidden themselves very deeply and have never shown any disloyalty or wavering to Yuan Shang. Finally, when Shen Pei arranged for Yang Xiu to surrender, they successfully washed away the whitewash with Yang Xiu.

However, Cao Cao was definitely not at ease with them, so he could not continue to be placed in Yecheng and transferred to Chenliu to Liu Yan's jurisdiction. When Liu Yan retreated temporarily, he asked Ma Yan to guard Junyi and Chenliu County, and asked Zhang Kai to go to Yanjin to block the Yellow River.

Liu Yan also has a chief historian named Wang Si, who is from Jiyin County, Gobi and is a grassroots leader of Cao Cao's mansion.

(Note: Wang Bi and Xue Ti, who were captured and killed by Liu Bei's camp many years ago, are all from Lingshi around Cao Cao. Wang Si and them are colleagues. They are minor officials with low status but very close to Cao Cao, similar to clerks in the General Office of the Grand Leader)

Although Wang Si's official position is lower than that of Liu Yan, he is more loyal to Cao Cao. After all, he is a humble person who is promoted by talent. Faced with Liu Yan's deployment, Wang Si reminded:

"Mr. Guan Yu's troops are several times more than us for the time being, but they should be less than twice our troops. The military strategy is that if there are ten, they will surround them, if there are five, they will attack them, and if there are multiples, they will divide them.

If our army gathers together, we will not be afraid of Guan Yu forcibly attacking the city for the time being. However, after guarding Junyi and Yanjin, the two places are separated by two hundred miles from north to south, especially Yanjin is far away from the county seat, and there is no main force behind it, so it is very easy to divide and surround Guan Yu.

Our soldiers are not elite, and there is definitely no hope in field battles. Even if they attack the few with the masses, they are not Guan Yu's opponent. Guan Yu also knows this, so he may use a small amount of troops to restrain one of them, and the main force will besiege another with all his strength.

In this way, wouldn’t Guan Yu be able to achieve the benefit of “double the difference” in military tactics, and formed “five attacks” in the direction of his key siege. The besieged troops will probably be wiped out soon!”

Liu Yan felt that Wang Si’s reminder was also reasonable, but he felt that there was no better choice, so he could only deal with the main contradictions that had been exposed on the surface, so he refuted and finally made the decision:

"What you said makes sense. Yanjin is indeed more likely to be surrounded. Moreover, as a county town in the Yellow River Ferry, Yanjin's urban defense is also weaker.

But Yanjin had to be guarded, which was the narrow mouth of the Yellow River. The imperial court was in Juancheng, which is now in Dongjun, which is on the south bank of the Yellow River. The capital of Dongjun County is also on the south bank of the Yellow River.

Although Guan Yu's army was sharp, he lacked large ships when he sent troops. After all, it was blocked by Shaanxi Gorge. Large ships in Guanzhong and Hedong areas in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River could not sail to Luoyang.

The enemy troops in the Sili area still had to rely on building new ships on the spot in Mengjin, north of Luoyang. Liu Bei only had two years to control Luoyang and would have to build large-scale construction of palaces and cities. He should not have much energy to build any ships, which were all protracted projects.

So at present, the benefits of the Yellow River war should still be with me. I will leave all the Yellow River ships in Chenliu County to Zhang Kai and stationed in Yanjin Port.

In this way, even though Guan Yu surrounded Yanjin from three sides, east and south, and attacked fiercely, as long as the waterway near the Yellow River on the north side of Yanjin is still in my hands, even if Zhang Kai cannot withstand the attack, he can still withdraw from the waterway and jump out of the encirclement.

The morale of his soldiers would not collapse soon and he could defend as much as possible. In this way, no matter how long Yanjin could defend, at least he could hold Guan Yu, and gain reaction time for the Prime Minister and Xun Lingjun of Dongjun, and deploy defenses to help."

Unfortunately, Wang Si was obviously closer to the central intelligence source than Liu Yan. After listening to Liu Yan's analysis, he eagerly revealed:

"Your Majesty is not! If you want to teach the world and help the people and encourage workers and peasants, Zhuge Liang can be regarded as a genius in the world. Liu Bei appointed Zhuge Liang as the Yin of Henan for two years. How could we expect the construction around Luoyang?

Last year, many scouts and soldiers found a large amount of wood debris floating upstream. When Xun Lingjun reported to the Prime Minister, he speculated that it might be a large-scale shipbuilding. How could the Duke insist on treating it as the consumption of building palaces and cities?"

Liu Yan was impatient and turned his face straight: "What do you want? Shrink all of them to Junyi? Only block the gap, not asking about the Yellow River waterway? If Guan Yu had a naval army, just let him go to Puyang? Go straight to our army's confidant?

My intention is decided! The Prime Minister ordered me to be the Huzhu. I should block all the enemies of the Yellow River. I will not give up any of them. General Ma Yan and Zhang Kai will execute my orders. You are not here anymore!"

Wang Si was helpless and sighed: "I will rush to report the enemy situation here to the Prime Minister and Xun Lingjun from Dongjun."

...

Under Liu Yan's command, Ma Yan and Zhang Kai divided their troops into two places, each bringing more than 10,000 people to defend the key points of the waterway. On the other hand, Wang Si's private message for advice was sent to Juancheng in Dongjun within two days, and the imperial court's temporary journey was there.

Shangshu Ling Xun Yu took the time to read Wang Si's request, and was shocked and regretful:

"Why is Liu Yan so uncautious? The court never dared to assert that Guan Yu had no naval warships along the way. He dared to make a prediction by Guan Yu's sending troops this time, and the defense of Yanjin will be suspended!

Hurry up, send someone to summon Captain Lu and ask him to send troops to meet Zhang Kai immediately! At least we must use shipwrecks to block the Yellow River channel in Yanjin with an emergency!"

Xun Yu now has no other generals available, so he thought of Lu Xun.

Lu Xun is at least nineteen years old this year and can bring some troops, but Cao's navy's navy was cut off by Zhao Yun and Taishi Ci in the Battle of Yishui last year, and all the big ships were lost. Now they can only fight with inland boats in the Yellow River.

Cao Cao also entrusted the defense of Yanzhou and even Qingzhou affairs to Xun Yu, so Xun Yu did have the authority to directly dispatch troops without asking for instructions.

After Lu Xun came, he listened to Xun Yu's orders, but did not question it, but just added a question:

"Lingjun, Yanjin is the key to communication between the north and the south. The water is shallow and slow. It is possible to cut off this route, but it will also increase the difficulty of communication between the north and the south. In the future, the transportation of troops, horses, food and fodder in Jizhou will be more difficult than now. Do you really need to do this?"

Xun Yu: "If you are in a hurry to follow the power, you can only take the minority of the two evils!"

Lu Xun immediately took the order and left, preparing ships and manpower on the same day, ready to support Zhang Kai who was in Yanjin.

...

Unfortunately, no matter how fast Xun Yu reacted, no matter how fast Lu Xun rectified it, it was still too late.

Because Liu Yan had just divided Ma Yan and Zhang Kai into defense, an accident suddenly arose just the third day after he was deployed.

Guan Yu’s journey was not just 30,000 troops. The initial 30,000 attacked by land from Hulao Pass.

There were 30,000 people behind him, who were led by Xu Huang, and Chen Gong was taken to join the army. From Chenggao, Henan and Pinggao, Henoi, he also set off on the anchor and took the Yellow River waterway, downstream, and arrived at the battlefield earlier than Lu Xun.

Guan Yu had just surrounded Yanjin from three sides of land, east and south, and continued to threaten the white horse in depth, and Xu Huang also arrived from the north.

Xu Huang directly cut off the surface of the Yellow River, and even divided a portion of the warships to land on the north bank of the Yellow River, threatening Yanjin and Liyang on the other side of the White Horse. Liyang already belongs to Wei County, Jizhou and is an important ferry on the north bank of the Yellow River.

"Yuan Zhi, your strategy is good, and the time difference between Gongming and me is quite accurate. Liu Yan just misjudged the mistake and made a mistake, and our army caught the flaw!"

When Guan Yu saw that the encirclement was completed, he was also in the besieged camp south of Yanjin. He laughed loudly and was full of energy. He praised Xu Shu who followed the army for his proper strategy.

Two days later, Lu Xun's army arrived, but Yanjin and Liyang were already in danger.

Lu Xun was very angry and was very shocked when he saw that the Han army had large fighting ships, and even a few warships similar to tower ships. After a little test, he found that he could not attack with fire or drill a ship and collided with a reef trap. Lu Xun himself also lost one or two thousand navy soldiers, so he had to retreat decisively.

On the other hand, Chen Gong, who joined the army, was not a vegetarian, and he resolved some of Lu Xun's tricks one after another. With the crushing of absolute strength, Lu Xun's slight intellectual gap against Chen Gong could not turn the tables at all. He could only reduce his strength by ten times.

When the war reached this point, Yanjin and Liyang were basically over. Moreover, as the battle deepened, the advantages of the Han army on the other hand gradually became prominent.

That is, Chen Gong, Xu Huang, joined the army. He was the prefect of Chenliu for several years and had a close relationship with Zhang Miao, who once had a deep foundation in Chenliu.

In history, Chen Gong was able to rely on Chenliu and the local connections in Dongjun to encourage the local people to abandon Cao Cao and surrender to Lu Bu. Lu Bu never came to Yanzhou in this life. As a result, Chen Gong's relationship was used this time.

Less than ten days after the attack, the remaining defenders in Yanjin mutiny occurred. Some soldiers killed Zhang Kai and surrendered with their heads. Yanjin and Liyang were pacified. The total losses of Cao's army exceeded 13,000 people, and more than half of them surrendered.

Then, Guan Yu regrouped the main force, and attacked and deterred the attacks and battles, and went south to surround Jun Yi and Chen Liu. Liu Yan only supported until late June.

At the beginning, he tried to break through, but his general Ma Yan was blocked by Guan Yu during the breakout battle and was killed. Ma Yan's death made Liu Yan completely coward and chose to open the city to surrender.

The entire Chenliu County basically fell into Guan Yu's hands, and there were only a few corners left, and it took ten days and half a month to clean up and occupy it.

At the same time, Li Yang on the north bank of the Yellow River changed hands, which also caused many lurking ministers in Yecheng who were dissatisfied with Cao Cao to start to think about surrendering to the enemy.
Chapter completed!