Back to the Han army, on the day after Sima Yi made a surprise attack on the prime minister, Guan Yu had led his army to Xiangshan, fifty miles southwest of Pengcheng. The 160,000-strong army formed a snake shape and circled the mountain three times, camping with its back to the water. Its army was huge, and its flags were all over the mountains and fields.
, covering the trees. There were groups of troops and horses at the foot of the mountain, piles of carriages, and the camp was more than twenty miles away. The Wu scouts had never seen such a large army, and they did not dare to approach when they saw it from a distance, and then hurriedly reported to Pengcheng guard Jiao Chu
, Yuan Xi had already gone to Xiapi at this time, and Jiao Chu did not dare to make any decisions, so he ordered his soldiers to guard the city high and avoid the battle.
Guan Yu was not impatient about this. He knew very well that with the superiority of troops, the most important thing for the superior side was to be slow and slow and not let the enemy see the flaws. The chance of winning was 80-90%, not to mention that he had already sent Sima Yi.
Qi Bing. Therefore, while inspecting the various departments in the camp, he wrote to inquire about the emperor's itinerary, intending to make a decision after receiving news from the south.
Sima Yi's news came one day later than expected, mainly because the envoy took a small path and misjudged the direction for a moment, walking an extra eighty miles. By the time he felt that the Prime Minister's camp was under way, it was already the third day after the city was broken.
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The news spread to the army, and when the generals first heard that the situation had been revealed, they felt a bit happy unexpectedly. But what is strange is that when Marshal Guan Yu read the battle report carefully, a little cloud appeared on his face. p>
Guan Yu summoned the envoy and asked him: "Is everything stated in the battle report true?"
The envoy did not dare to conceal it, and immediately replied: "This is written in General Sima's own handwriting, and there is absolutely no falsehood."
Guan Yu suddenly felt angry. He stood up from his bed, standing like a mountain, and then rebuked the envoy: "Since the late emperor took power for decades, although he has not made mistakes, he has never committed any killings. Sima Zhongda killed
Capturing and plundering the people, even watching the capital, has greatly damaged our army, and what will happen to our military law?" Only then did the generals realize that Sima Yi was acting alone, and there was no one alive in the city except the Han army. p>
But the matter has come to this, Sima Yi is two hundred miles away, no one can control it, and he is at a crucial point in the war, so he absolutely cannot handle it. Yang Qiu saw Guan Yu's expression of concern and was worried that he would cause a conflict.
, immediately advised in a low voice: "Your Majesty is the leader of this war, and Sima Zhongda is your Majesty's celebrity, and he has made meritorious service now, what can the marshal do to him? It is better to report this matter to your Majesty, and focus on the war at hand first.
!" The words touched upon Guan Yu's pain, and he could only sigh for a long time, report the matter to Suiyang overnight, and request Guo Huai to replace Sima Yi.
On the second day, the battle report came on time that Sima Yi beheaded Yuan Xi. Yuan Xi was the country's great enemy and had occupied Xuzhou for more than ten years. Now he was defeated by Sima Yi with more than 6,000 men. The whole army was jubilant. Many generals praised him.
He said: "Sima Zhongda is really a genius in the world. He uses troops and plans as he pleases. He is really like Han Xin." And that night, the emperor of Suiyang sent another edict: "The world is not at peace, and the country wants good generals. Although Sima Yi violated the law,
Military discipline, but selfless behavior and commendable loyalty, punishment will chill the hearts of the three armies. I hope my uncle can concentrate on the war and don’t mention this matter again!"
Liu Xie's opinion was so firm that Guan Yu had no choice but to do anything about it. But on the other hand, he had to admit Sima Yi's talent. As he occupied the lower minister and beheaded Yuan Xi, the connection between the Sishui River and the Huaihe River had been eliminated by the Han Dynasty.
The army was cut off, and Huainan and Huaibei were unable to communicate by water. The death of Xuzhou's general in battle would also greatly affect the morale of the Wu people. This made the situation in Xuzhou completely tilted towards the Han army. At this time, it was only a short time before the entire army was dispatched.
It has only been more than ten days. According to the scouts' reports, there are often people and horses traveling between Xiapi and Pengcheng. It is obvious that major decision-making and adjustments are being made. This is all due to Sima Yi.
Pang Tong said to Guan Yu: "Marshal, Xuzhou is not the land of the Wu people. It was captured by Sun Quan helplessly when Cao Cao's thieves were destroyed. Over the years, he has come to Huaibei several times, but he has not even fought. This shows that he has no intention of defending it.
At present, there are 100,000 Wu troops gathered in Huainan, but they dare not take even half a step into Huaibei. This is a clear proof of Sun Quan's cowardice. Since he does not dare to come to the rescue, he has no choice but to retreat! That is to say, let all the Wu thieves in Huaibei return to Huainan. I
The army can set up an ambush near the Huai River in advance, and there will be gains!"
Guan Yu felt that he saw something similar. He stroked his beard and said with a smile: "As Shi Yuan said, Xuzhou is in my pocket!"
After Pang Tong made a rough plan, Guan Yu quickly had a plan for Zhou Xiang in his mind. In the afternoon of that day, he held a military meeting and first proposed three strategies to Sima Yi's envoys, namely setting up pontoon bridges, suspending iron cables, and driving wooden piles.
The purpose was to completely paralyze the Wu waterway. Then 40,000 troops were mobilized from the army, divided into three teams, led by Zhao Yun, Wu Ban, and Huang Quan, and ordered them to rush to Quyang, Haixi, and Lingxian areas to block them in advance.
The official route for the Wu army to withdraw southward. Finally, Yang Fu, Guo Huai, and Liao Hua were ordered to lead the troops to attack Pengcheng from the southwest and open the retreat from the northeast, forcing the Wu people to withdraw their troops. Most of the remaining troops were to monitor Huainan and prevent
Sun Quan had the possibility to fight to the death.
After this arrangement was written down, it was handed over to Liu Xie the next day. Liu Xie looked at it for a long time and couldn't help laughing with Zhou Buyi: "My uncle, the marshal, was famous for his military bravery in the past. Who would have thought that he could use troops like Sun Wu?"
Ah." Zhou Buyi took a closer look and couldn't find any flaws, so he praised him and said: "The Marshal has both political integrity and talent, and I am ashamed of myself."
Liu Xie heard that he was sarcastically admonishing Sima Yi, so he smiled slightly, waved his hand and said: "There is no need to persuade Zhongda about this matter. We cannot use common sense to deal with wars, not to mention that the late emperor has shown the utmost benevolence and justice to Jiang Zuo, but the Sun family
If you don't realize it, then you have to do it." After that, he sent a letter to Xiangshan camp, saying that this strategy is very good and hopes to implement it immediately.
In fact, Guan Yu did not wait for Liu Xie's handwritten letter. On the same day the document was handed in, Yang Fu and others began to formally besiege Pengcheng.
The weather that day was gloomy and gray, with mist filling the air. The Han troops had already gone out in battle at Yinshi, and were busy transporting rams, ladders and other attacking equipment under the city. Due to poor visibility, many Han troops had lit torches, which seemed to be dotted in the early morning.
There were fluorescent lights all around, but because there were so many people, from a distance they seemed to be connected together, as if even the mist was the color of flames. The Wu soldiers on the city had seen this scene very early, and they were naturally frightened and went immediately
Notified the general Jiao Chu, and Jiao Chu's first reaction was to send an envoy to Xiapi to ask for help.
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But the Han army would not wait for reinforcements from the Wu people. After the fog dissipated and the open scene between heaven and earth was revealed, the rumble of drums sounded by the river, and thousands of Han soldiers were like black ants, one step at a time.
They pressed towards Pengcheng in one step. Since the Wu people had few horses and could not leave the city for a surprise attack, the Han army did not even attack the mountains first as usual. Instead, they directly led dozens of stone-launching carts to stop in front of the city. As long as the heavily armored infantry
The soldiers formed a formation, and the stone-throwing cart behind them followed up, intending to throw stones into the city.
When the Wu soldiers saw this, they threw arrows downward one after another. In an instant, arrows rained down, making people breathless. However, after the Wu soldiers fired for half an hour, many of the Han soldiers arrayed under the city were stabbed.
It was full of arrows, like hedgehogs, but only one or two out of ten people died. The remaining people still pushed the stone cart forward, and rolled dozens of polished round stones to use to break the city. Thirty people in the south of the city
A stone cart stopped dozens of steps in front of the door. With the sound of the hammer, the big rocks broke through the air and crashed. Within this day, the Han army showed no intention of restraint and actually used the two thousand rolling stones prepared.
They were all thrown out, with a loud roar, like a roaring tide, turning the world upside down. However, in just three hours, a large number of gaps appeared in the south wall of Pengcheng, and some parts were so damaged that they looked like they were collapsing.
The Han army retreated that night and counted the day's losses. Although there were many soldiers injured by arrows, about two thousand, most of them were external injuries and not serious. The deceased who was shot in the face, Ye Cai, could not survive
Just a hundred.
The people of Wu were also well aware of this. That night Jiao Chu held a military meeting and asked the generals how to defend the city, but many of them could not answer. Someone whispered to Jiao Chu: "Now that Yuan Shijun is dead, Huaibei has become a lonely army.
So what can I do? I don’t think Sun Shijun has any intention of defending, so why not withdraw your troops as soon as possible and retreat to the south!" Jiao Chu heard this and immediately objected: "When I go to the south, I will definitely become a lackey. Where will the future be?
Is there still freedom? This is impossible." But the man retorted: "But if your life is gone, what's the use of freedom?" Jiao Chu was silent.
In the early morning of the next day, Liu Ye from Xiapi sent an envoy to reply. The letter only said one sentence: "I will wait for you to go to Pi within three days. If you don't leave for three days, I will go from the south." Jiao Chu did not expect that Liu Ye would do this.
Decisive, speechless for a moment, and finally agreed to withdraw south.
In order to confuse the Han army, the Wu people defended the whole day and even made a rare counterattack out of the city, intending to destroy the stone chariot. Guan Yu saw this clearly and immediately dispatched his cavalry to attack. The Wu people who came out were no match at all and could only
Leaving hundreds of corpses behind, they hurriedly retreated. That night, they mobilized all the ships in the city and transferred them to Surabaya. After hastily loading some food and arrows, they didn't care about anything else.
The defenders took advantage of the darkness and rowed south. Early the next morning, the Han army looked at Pengcheng again and saw that although there were still more than a thousand flags under the broken city wall, the soldiers inside were completely missing.
But this completely fell into Guan Yu's trap. He divided his troops into two thousand and occupied Pengcheng, with Yang Fu and Guo Huai leading most of them. He himself led the cavalry to quickly pursue Jiao Chushui's army. Less than an hour after Jiao Chu arrived at Xiapi,
The defenders of Xiapi saw the Han army flag from a distance.
At this time, Liu Ye basically guessed the layout of the Han army, but what could he do? If you don't leave, you will die. If you leave, there is still a chance of survival, so you should go south quickly! On the night when Jiao Chu and his troops arrived, Liu Ye continued
Without giving anyone any time to rest, he withdrew from Xiapi City overnight. Before leaving, he burned the city to the ground, and then ran southeast along the Zu River without looking back.
The war has reached this point, Xuzhou's ownership has been determined, and the only suspense is whether the Han army can intercept Wu's Huaibei Corps in advance.