Chapter 257: Getting more worried about the plan to cut off food
Among the tens of thousands of troops Cao Pi led in this personal expedition, there were more than ten thousand cavalry from the Luoyang Central Army.
The composition of the military services in the north and south is very different.
First of all, infantry is the main force of both sides. There is no doubt about this.
However, because Cao Wei controlled almost all of the north, their military units, unlike those in the south, had a high proportion of cavalry.
Just like in the south, infantry troops boarded ships and became navy troops. Many of the infantry troops in the north were from common people in border counties. The Wei troops who had lived in the border areas of the north since childhood were not bad in their riding skills.
When Cao Cao was still alive, he had already beaten the northern foreigners into submission. With the tribute from the northern foreigners and Cao Wei's own horse breeding land, Cao Wei had no shortage of war horses, or it could be said that there was an endless supply of them.
The only thing that limited the size of Cao Wei's cavalry army was the production of corn.
Corn is the concentrated feed eaten by war horses in the North.
The tens of thousands of cavalry troops brought by Cao Pi this time were originally intended to deal with Mi Yang.
Because judging from Sima Yi's previous report, the Han army, which was all infantry, had no way to deal with the cavalry on the plains.
Therefore, the cavalry was initially regarded by Cao Pi as a magic weapon to use against Mi Yang.
But from Jia Xu's advice, Cao Pi knew that Fancheng was the place he should be most worried about now.
So he immediately sent tens of thousands of cavalry troops he brought from Luoyang to support Fancheng.
Cao Pi sent cavalry to support Cao Xiu after careful consideration.
The first reason is that the cavalry is fast enough, and with one person and two horses, the cavalry does not have to worry about logistical problems in a short period of time.
Under such circumstances, even if Guan Yu launched an attack on Fancheng early, with the advantage of the cavalry, they could arrive outside Fancheng in time to support Cao Xiu.
The second reason is that Cao Pi and the ministers of Cao Wei were afraid of Guan Yu's ability in field combat.
In the impression of Cao Wei's ministers, there were roughly two battles that Guan Yu feared. Needless to say, one was the Battle of Xiangfan, and the other was the Battle of Juebei Road that Guan Yu was responsible for when Zhou Yu besieged Cao Ren in Jiangling.
The Battle of Jiangling lasted for a year. During that year, Cao Ren, who was besieged by Zhou Yu's army, received very few reinforcements.
This is not because Cao Cao did not send reinforcements, nor is it because the defenders in Xiangyang, Jiangxia, Runan and other places refused to save Cao Ren, but that a large number of northern reinforcements were stopped by Guan Yu and his lone army.
In that battle that was praised by later generations as the "Jue North Road", according to limited historical data, Guan Yu was mostly the defeated side.
However, no matter how Guan Yu was "defeated", reinforcements from famous generals such as Wenpin, Li Tong, and Le Jin were never able to enter Jiangling territory to support Cao Ren. This created excellent conditions for Zhou Yu to finally capture Jiangling.
And in the Battle of Jiangling, Liu Bei not only sent Guan Yu as the general to intercept the northern reinforcements, he also sent Zhang Fei to follow Zhou Yu to help him resist the attack of Cao Cao's fierce general.
It can be said that Liu Bei's side played a great role in Zhou Yu's siege of Jiangling.
In some respects, Liu Bei's contribution is no less than that of Zhou Yu.
This is the direct reason why Zhou Yu later gave part of the territory to Liu Bei after he captured Nanjun.
Zhou Yu was not giving alms, but recognizing Liu Bei's efforts. That part of the territory was what Liu Bei deserved.
Compared to Sun Quan, Zhou Lang was still very moral.
Different from the "historical facts" recorded in historical materials, the ministers of Cao and Wei, who were contemporary people, knew very well the actual performance of Guan Yu's more than 10,000 partial troops in the Juebidao Battle that lasted for nearly a year.
Jiangling is located in the hinterland of Jingzhou, with transportation extending in all directions, but most of Cao Wei's reinforcements were intercepted by Guan Yu's more than 10,000 partial troops for a whole year!
Cao Pi and the ministers of Cao Wei all knew how amazing Guan Yu's field combat ability was at that time.
Flooding the Seventh Army alone in one battle was not enough to trigger the "powerful China" effect, and Guan Yu's military exploits did not extend beyond that battle.
Long before the Battle of Xiangfan, in the battle of Juebei Road, Guan Yu's performance had already surprised many famous Cao Wei generals.
Therefore, after the Flood of the Seventh Army occurred, the glorious results of that battle completely aroused the fear and even fear of Guan Yu in many famous generals of Cao Wei, which allowed Guan Yu to achieve the effect of shocking China.
Because of the fear and fear in his heart, when Cao Xiu set out from Luoyang to Fancheng, he brought 20,000 troops recruited from various border counties in the Central Plains.
If we only talk about defending the city, or even facing a famous general like Mi Yang, the soldiers in Cao Xiu's hands are completely sufficient.
But facing Guan Yu is not enough.
Now what Cao Pi and other ministers of Cao and Wei are worried about is that Guan Yu will use his tricks to lure Cao Xiu's army out of the city to fight in the field.
Because he was worried about this, Cao Pi sent all the more than 10,000 cavalry he brought to Fancheng to support Cao Xiu.
In this way, even if Cao Xiu wanted to go out and fight Guan Yu in the field, with the help of more than ten thousand cavalry, Cao Xiu's chances of winning would be greatly increased.
If Cao Xiu did not leave the city to fight with Guan Yu in the field, then the more than ten thousand cavalry troops could be turned into a sharp knife, always at the heart of the tens of thousands of Han troops, making it impossible for Guan Yu to attack the city with all his strength.
But what Cao Tai, who led the more than 10,000 cavalry troops, did not expect was that when he led the cavalry troops to the outside of Fan City, what he saw was the most helpless scene.
Guan Yu seemed to be a prophet, and he actually built many barriers in a short period of time.
This made him not know what to do for a while.
In desperation, Cao Tai could only lead more than 10,000 cavalry troops to garrison in the highlands.
The lessons Yu Jin and Pang De learned were too harsh. Outside Fancheng and in front of Guan Yu, even a fool knew not to garrison troops in low-lying areas.
But when Cao Tai arrived at a high ground in Fanbei, Sun Li, who was stationed at Yancheng, noticed that the reinforcements had arrived, and immediately sent a letter to Cao Tai.
In this letter, Sun Li informed Cao Tai of the strategy he proposed to Cao Xiu that day and that Cao Xiu had agreed to.
When Cao Tai received this letter and learned about Cao Xiu's plan, he immediately summoned Sima Yi and Jiang Ji on the high ground and asked them for their opinions.
The enemy is Guan Yu, so Cao Pi will naturally not only send Cao Tai as the chief general to rescue Cao Xiu.
When Cao Pi handed over ten thousand cavalry troops to Cao Tai, he specially sent two think tanks, Sima Yi and Jiang Ji, to Cao Tai to plan military plans for Cao Tai.
In terms of personal ability, Cao Tai may not be as good as his father Cao Ren.
But Cao Tai's character is much better than Cao Ren. He is good at listening to advice.
After Sima Yi and Jiang Ji learned about Cao Xiu's plan, they thought about it for a while and felt that this method was feasible.
Now that Fancheng has been surrounded by barriers by the Han army, the Han army will not easily come out to fight with them if they are hiding in the barriers. In this case, it is better to act according to Cao Xiu's plan.
Moreover, Cao Tai was only General Annan, while Cao Xiu was General Zhennan. In terms of military position, Cao Tai had to obey Cao Xiu's orders.
Seeing that Sima Yi and Jiang Ji had no objections, Cao Tai led more than 10,000 cavalry troops towards the lower reaches of the Han River on the second day after arriving at Fancheng.
When Sun Li in Yancheng learned the news, he breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
It seems that the siege of Fancheng will be lifted soon.
...
Because of the high mobility of the cavalry, as long as the more than ten thousand cavalry did not attack the Han army's barriers, the Han army could not stop their actions.
As early as the moment more than ten thousand Wei cavalry troops arrived outside Fancheng, Guan Yu already knew the news.
After knowing the news, Guan Yu just ordered the entire army to be under martial law. After issuing this order, Guan Yu did not even appear outside the main tent.
Because in Guan Yu's mind, he had already guessed that the Wei army would send a large number of cavalry to help.
The Battle of Juebei Road that year gave Guan Yu a good understanding of the Wei army's fighting methods.
Just as Guan Yu likes to use water troops when using his troops, the Wei army likes to use infantry and cavalry together in every battle.
When providing support, the Wei army would decisively send cavalry troops to rescue.
The high mobility of the cavalry has always been favored by many famous Cao and Wei generals.
Because he understood this, Guan Yu stepped up efforts to build barriers to prevent this.
Because of his understanding, Guan Yu seemed very indifferent to the arrival of the Wei army's tens of thousands of cavalry.
During the period when the Han army was building the fortress, Guan Yu had always stayed in the main tent.
Apart from convening the generals for daily discussions, he rarely appeared in front of them.
This is very different from Guan Yu in the past.
In the past, because Guan Yu loved his soldiers like his own son, whenever there was a war, Guan Yu would patrol the camps to appease people's hearts.
None of the generals knew why Guan Yu had such a change. Perhaps Ma Liang guessed some reasons, but in order not to affect the morale of the army, Ma Liang did not show any worry in front of everyone.
He only came to Guan Yu's main tent to report military information.
What Ma Liang reported was that more than ten thousand Wei cavalry suddenly went downstream.
When Ma Liang entered Guan Yu's main tent, Ma Liang saw Guan Yu sitting on the main seat, looking attentively at a picture on the table.
Ma Liang couldn't see what was painted on that painting for the time being.
But the coughing sounds that came from Guan Yu's mouth from time to time were like a pair of big hands, tightly grabbing Ma Liang's heart.
The earliest time Ma Liang followed Guan Yu can be traced back to the 16th year of Jian'an.
I think it's been ten years since that year.
In Ma Liang's impression, Guan Yu in the past could recover quickly even from severe trauma, let alone coughing.
But ten years have passed, and Guan Yu, who is already sixty years old, has more and more gray hair on his head, and his body is gradually showing symptoms of many elderly people.
When Ma Liang came in, Guan Yu, who was immersed in something, did not realize Ma Liang's arrival.
Listening to Guan Yu's coughs from time to time, Ma Liang walked forward quickly with a worried look on his face, came to Guan Yu and bowed to Guan Yu:
"General, please take care of yourself!"
Guan Yu, who heard Ma Liang's caring voice, just put his thoughts away from the desk, and then looked at Ma Liang with a pair of tired eyes.
Ma Liang's caring voice brought a smile to Guan Yu's face. He waved his hand to Ma Liang and said, "It's okay."
When Guan Yu raised his head, Ma Liang noticed Guan Yu's expression.
Tired.
Ma Liang remembered that when he passed by Guan Yu's main tent a few nights ago, he saw that Guan Yu's main tent was still brightly lit even late at night.
After asking the guards outside Guan Yu's tent, he learned that this situation had been going on for several days.
After learning about this incident, Ma Liang became more and more worried.
Everyone knows that Guan Yu's military style advocates the royal way, but what the world doesn't know is that this style of military use is the most consuming.
The royal way is the right way.
Often before fighting a battle, Guan Yu had to spend countless thoughts to consider everything that might happen and make all preparations, so as to ensure the chance of winning in a head-on confrontation.
Guan Yu's character is that even if he has an extra chance of winning in a head-to-head confrontation, Guan Yu is willing to expend twelve percent of his energy for this chance of winning.
When the water flooded the Seventh Army, everyone's eyes were fixed on Guan Yu's glory after completing this feat.
But what the world didn't expect was how much effort Guan Yu put in before the Seventh Army was flooded.
Survey the terrain, plan the water volume, supervise the construction of weirs, consider the enemy's retreat...
All kinds of meticulous preparations, careful planning at every turn, and with the blessing of many days, can finally converge into a great victory that can shock the world.
But such pre-war preparations are too heavy a burden for an old man.
In addition, Guan Yu has suffered countless injuries during his many years in the army.
Just like the bone scraping treatment, although the doctor's superb medical skills removed the toxins from Guan Yu's bones, Guan Yu lost a lot of blood during that operation.
After the operation, Guan Yu did not let his body rest well.
Even the reason why he had the surgery in the first place was so that it would not delay him from going into battle to kill the enemy.
Under such circumstances, how could Guan Yu not leave other root causes of disease in his body?
In the past, Ma Liang might have ignored these things under the dazzling light of Guan Yu.
How can gods be the same as mortals?
But recently, after Ma Liang saw that Guan Yu began to feel unwell, all the things he had ignored in the past suddenly came to his mind, making him increasingly worried.
No matter how much the general attracts people to worship, his body is still in the realm of mortal flesh.
Because of the worries in his heart, Ma Liang did not feel relieved after hearing the word "no problem" from Guan Yu.
Ma Liang said to Guan Yu in a more worried tone: "The millions of holy beings in Jingzhou have been entrusted to the general. I hope the general will not be too tired!"
Regarding Ma Liang's second advice, Guan Yu still had a look of disdain on his face.
It's just a slight cough, nothing serious.
Guan Yu looked at Ma Liang. He guessed that Ma Liang suddenly came to him to report something important, so he asked Ma Liang: "What does Ji Chang have to report?"
Facing Guan Yu's inquiry, Ma Liang still wanted to persuade him, but the military information still had to be reported.
So Ma Liang informed Guan Yu about the more than 10,000 Wei cavalry troops heading downstream.
After Guan Yu learned about this, he thought about it for a while and then understood Wei Jun's intention.
He let out a chuckle and smiled at Ma Liang:
"Thief, you want to cut off the food supply."
Now that he had guessed the enemy's intentions, Guan Yu thought of a countermeasure almost instantly.