In the Battle of Junyi, Cao Cao lost Cao Ren and Chen Gong, and was at an absolute disadvantage strategically. To a certain extent, his chances of winning this war were extremely slim.
Chen Mu would not make the mistake of Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu and let Cao Cao burn their vital supplies.
But it doesn't matter even if the food and grass are burned.
Because when the imperial court marched, they did not gather all their forces to attack together like Yuan Shao did. Instead, the troops were divided into three groups. Each group had food and grass hoarded. One group was burned, and the other two groups were burned.
Therefore, unless Cao Cao is unlucky and allows him to burn all the food and grass in the three routes, he will not be able to escape defeat if this battle continues.
And just when the imperial army was launching a battle to eliminate Cao Cao, other things were also happening all over the world.
Guanzhong Chang'an, Han Sui and Ma Chao joined forces and contacted some powerful people in Guanzhong who were dissatisfied with the imperial policy, as well as Zhang Lu in Hanzhong, and launched a war against the imperial court.
Like his father, Ma Chao was full of warlord ideas and believed that the imperial court wanted to annex them. Therefore, after Ma Teng went to Luoyang and took charge of the army, he gradually began to disobey Guan Yu's orders and often disobeyed them.
This incident made Guan Yu very unhappy, but Chen Mu had long known that Ma Chaonao was rebellious. Historically, he abandoned Ma Chao and joined forces with Han Sui to resist Cao Cao. After being defeated, he first defected to Zhang Lu and then to Liu Bei.
It is a last resort.
Even Liu Bei later knew who Ma Chao was, so the so-called Five Tiger Generals actually didn't trust Ma Chao at all.
Except for the Battle of Xiabian, when Ma Chao needed to mobilize the Di tribe, he was allowed to lead troops once, and he was basically not given military power at other times. This shows that Liu Bei also understood that Ma Chao was a rebel and was on guard at all times.
Now that Ma Chao has not reached the end of his rope, it is naturally impossible for him to follow the court honestly now.
Therefore, Chen Mu had already greeted Guan Yu Jushou and told them that Ma Chao might rebel, so even if Ma Chao repeatedly disobeyed orders, Guan Yu was aware of it.
However, because Ma Teng had already surrendered to the court, he was forced to deal with Ma Chao for fear that Ma Teng would not cooperate and ruin Chen Mu's plan to conquer Xiliang in the future. Therefore, Guan Yu repeatedly tolerated and did not take advantage of Ma Chao.
Express your unhappiness.
Now that Ma Chao himself rebelled and sought death, he could finally be dealt with in a fair and justifiable way.
After learning the news, Guan Yu was very happy and immediately began to rectify his troops. He sent Xu Huang to garrison Zuo Fengyi, and ordered Duan Xuan to march to Chencang and control Zhang Lu's exit from Hanzhong.
Everyone knows that there are only four roads from Bashu to Guanzhong, namely Chencang Road, Baoxie Road, Tangluo Road and Ziwu Road.
Among them, the last three are very difficult to walk. There are cliffs along the way and the road is rugged. If you are not careful, you may fall into the abyss. That's why Wu Hou rejected Wei Yan's strategy of Ziwu Valley.
However, saying that Chencang Road is easy to walk can only be said to be relatively easy to walk. In fact, Chencang Road is also very dangerous, but it is slightly safer than the other three.
Therefore, in order to ensure that the army can leave Hanzhong smoothly, the Chencang Road is basically the only relatively safe route. Otherwise, it can only enter Xiliang via the Qishan Ancient Road.
Ma Chao's previous station was located in Hedong. After his rebellion, he led his army from Qi County in Guanzhong into the Linjing area of Anding County. He took the Xiaoguan Ancient Road, which was from the northwest of Tongchuan City in Shaanxi Province to Qingyang City in Gansu Province.
To the Pingliang City area.
Xiaoguan has been established since the Qin Dynasty, usually to guard against ethnic minorities in the northwest. Now it is controlled by Ma Chao, who recruits Qiang and Di people in Anding County and Beidi County, and uses the money his father has accumulated from doing business in the past few years to own
There were tens of thousands of people, and the momentum was huge.
It is currently inconvenient for Guan Yu to take the initiative to attack. Firstly, the focus of the imperial court is now on Henan, and there is no condition to support Guan Yu in entering Xiliang to fight. Secondly, Ma Chao, Han Sui, Zhang Lu all control the pass fortresses, and it is not easy to take the initiative to attack these passes.
Therefore, although the troops and horses were reorganized, they did not attack, but adopted a defensive attitude.
The troops were arranged as follows: Duan Yan occupied Chencang County and guarded Sanguan, the exit of the Chencang Ancient Road. Xu Huang stationed at Zuofengyi to prevent Ma Chao from going south from Xiaoguan. His main army went to Yongxian County to control the Longguan Road.
The ancients paid great attention to the right time, place, and people, but had little application of the time, place, and people. Therefore, guarding the geographical location of the pass and fortress became one of the most important war histories of Chinese civilization.
Chencang Road is extremely important. The second time Zhuge Liang left Qishan, he marched out of Chencang from Hanzhong. As a result, Hao Zhao occupied Chencang County, guarded the pass, and used rockets to burn Zhuge Liang's ladder, causing Zhuge Liang to be forced to retreat.
In addition, the Longyou area is also very important. The ancients said that Long looks to Shu, because in addition to entering Bashu through the four Guanzhong roads, there is also the Qishan Road in Longyou that connects Xiliang and Yizhou.
Therefore, in history, after Cao Cao eliminated Han Sui and Ma Chao's Guanzhong coalition forces in the Battle of Tongguan and the Battle of Weinan, he basically drove the two forces out of Guanzhong. At the same time, he conducted a strategy of Guanlong and pacified Anding County, Hanyang County, Wudu County and other places.
, which laid a solid foundation for Liu Bei's Jihan regime to be unable to go north to seize Guanzhong and to destroy Shu in the future.
It can be said that to a certain extent, Cao Cao's foresight before and after the Battle of Hanzhong has deeply affected the demise of the Shu Han decades later. Even though the Battle of Hanzhong failed, strategically, Cao Cao gained a lot.
A great victory, but the only pity is that the Sima family picked the peach.
The current situation is that although Guan Yu has driven Han Sui out of Xiliang in the last battle of Chang'an, his strength is still there, and Ma Chao has returned and rebelled, making the enemy's strength not to be underestimated. Each side occupies half of
There was a confrontation at the pass, and no one was sure of defeating the other.
At the end of July, when Han Sui, Ma Chao and others learned that the imperial court was annihilating the princes of Henan, Cao Cao and Sun Ce, they realized that there might be an opportunity, so they immediately assembled their troops and used their prestige to summon tens of thousands of Qiang and Di people to invade.
Guanlong.
It is worth mentioning that among the eight people who were supposed to follow Han Sui and Ma Chao to cause rebellion this time, including Liang Xing, Hou Xuan, Cheng Yin, Li Kan, Zhang Heng, Cheng Yi, Ma Wan, and Yang Qiu, only Cheng Yi and Yang Qiu
The people followed Ma Chao in rebellion, but the others all refused.
When Han Sui and Ma Teng were fighting among themselves, these eight people were not all watching the show. They were all united to participate in the internal fight. As a result, Guan Yu sat on the mountain and watched the tiger fight, and drove Han Sui and others out in one battle.
To Liangzhou.
Han Sui had his base in Xiliang, but among the eight Guanzhong warlords, except Cheng Yiliang, Xing, Zhang Heng and Yang Qiu, the other four were all from Sili Hedong, and their base was in the Guanzhong area.
Being driven out of Guanzhong means losing one's own territory, sources of recruitment, as well as the fields, slaves, influence, etc. that he had when he was a powerful man.
Therefore, it was impossible for Hou Xuan, Cheng Yin, Li Kan, and Ma Wan to leave Sili. After the Battle of Chang'an, they surrendered to Guan Yu.
After weighing the pros and cons, the other two people, Liang Xing and Zhang Heng, ultimately did not follow Ma Chao into rebellion.
Although they are from Xiliang, they happen to be from Guzang, Wuwei. At present, the imperial group has accepted many of Dong Zhuo's old subordinates, such as the earliest Yan Zhong, and later Duan Xuan, Zhang Xiu, Jia Xu, etc., resulting in Wuwei
There are many people in Guzang.
As mentioned before, the Han people from the same hometown gathered together seriously, and the Wuwei Guzang people gathered together to keep warm. Therefore, under this situation, after Duan Xuan's persuasion, the two decided to sincerely surrender to the imperial court and never rebel again.
In contrast, Yang Qiu and Cheng Yi don't have so many reasons. They are both from Linjing, and their base is not in Guanzhong, and they have no support from their fellow villagers in DPRK.
Therefore, after careful consideration, he finally chose to follow Ma Chao and Han Sui to continue the rebellion.
With the help of Qiang and Di people, Han Sui, Ma Teng and Yang Qiucheng gathered more than 100,000 people in Xiliang and marched southward from Guanlong Road to Guanzhong. The two sides started a confrontation in Yong County.
Guan Yu has stationed tens of thousands of troops in Yong County, and his total number of troops has actually exceeded one hundred thousand, initially 80,000, and later many Guanzhong warlords joined.
Hou Xuan, Cheng Yin, Li Kan, Ma Wan, Liang Xing, and Zhang Heng defected to the imperial court, each bringing some troops with them, so the number of troops reached 120,000 to 30,000.
Naturally, there were some rabble among them, but Guan Yu originally didn't expect them to accomplish anything, and he was also afraid that they would sit in the rear and serve as Han Sui and Ma Chao's internal support, so he ordered a few of his tribe to serve as vanguards, but in reality they were used as cannon fodder, and the euphemistic name was to let them make contributions.
.
In addition to the tens of thousands of elites in their headquarters, Xu Huang and Duan Xuan each controlled the other pass fortresses. It was considered a war with a more defensive nature than an offensive nature.
By the beginning of August, the Han-Sui-Ma-Chao coalition had crossed the Guanlong Road and had arrived at the foot of Yongxian County.
More than 100,000 people set up tents and camps on the vast plains outside Yongxian City. There were also continuous camps near the city. After all, Yongxian County was not a big city and could not accommodate so many people.
The camp can be at arm's length with the city.
After waiting for almost half a month, the allied forces of Han, Sui, Ma and Chao were finally ready and summoned tens of thousands of elite soldiers to assemble outside the city. Guan Yu learned the news and gave an order to personally lead the troops to go out and assemble the troops outside the city.
On top of Yongxian City, Jushou looked with a telescope, and saw in the distance the rolling Guanlong Qi Mountains. Under the Qi Mountains, countless tents covered the sky and the sun, as if they were endless, with no end in sight.
It is more than ten miles away from the city. Because Yong County is located on the Guanzhong Plain, it is as endless as a prairie, so it can be seen clearly.
Densely packed, countless people were moving slowly towards the city like a dark cloud.
Guan Yu was not afraid and personally led his army out of the city to fight.
In addition to the generals such as Guan Hai, Guan Ping, Yang Feng, Han Xian, Li Le, and Hu Cai who have always been with them, there are also new recruits such as Hou Xuan, Cheng Yin, Li Kan, Ma Wan, Liang Xing, and Zhang Heng.
The imperial court's Guanzhong warlords have a total strength of 70,000 to 80,000. In order to prevent these newly defected warlords from acting as internal collaborators, their troops are at the front, arranged in many square formations. If you stand on the tower and watch, you will see a
An extremely spectacular sight.
That is, the soldiers and horses of the imperial court are all arranged in neat formations. Thousands of people gather into a square formation. One square formation alone occupies an area the size of two playgrounds, and there are as many as seven or eight such square formations.
After they were separated and lined up, they continued for three or four miles to the left and right, and one or two miles to the front and back.
Countless heads gathered into black spots, and when they shouted at the same time, they were like mountains and tsunamis. And this was only Guan Yu who led about 40,000 to 50,000 people to fight. If it were a war like the Battle of Changping, where the total number of enemies and ourselves reached millions.
, I’m afraid the vast ocean is nothing more than this.
In comparison, the discipline of the Xiliang Army is much worse. Because most of them are cavalry, it is difficult to formulate a complete formation. Therefore, the number of people seems to be large, but they are quite scattered and gathered together. They are not in the same formation as the Imperial Army.
Neat and disciplined.
During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the imperial court was able to penetrate deep into Mobei and pursue them all the way to Lake Baikal, where they planted the flag of the Han Dynasty. In fact, this was largely due to the fact that the cavalry at that time did not have hard saddles and stirrups.
King Wuling of Zhao was riding and shooting in Hufu. The saddle at that time was in the form of a mat, which was not hard and would not help the cavalry save effort. There were no stirrups, only a piece of cloth to help mount the horse.
Therefore, the actual combat effectiveness of the cavalry is not strong, and it is often used only for mobility. After arriving at a place, the Huns will often dismount and fight on foot.
In terms of starting a battle, the Huns were of course no match for the Han, so they were defeated by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
But now that hard saddles and stirrups have appeared, they have greatly enhanced the combat effectiveness of the nomads. Therefore, facing the massive coalition forces of Han, Sui, Ma and Chao, Guan Yu did not dare to underestimate him. He despised the enemy strategically and paid attention to the enemy tactically.
His front row was composed of spear and shield soldiers, all of whom had large iron shields and long spears as sharp as grass. In the center of the battle formation, a large number of wells and high ladders were built, which were filled with archers, commanding them from a high position.
In addition, there are arrow towers, bed crossbows, tripping ropes, iron caltrops and other equipment, all ready and ready, waiting for the enemy to attack.
Now the imperial court's productivity is sufficient, there is no shortage of food, grass, baggage, ordnance, and it is very prosperous for the war.
And it's not just these things.
Among the military supplies of the Guanzhong Army, there is a proportion of oil.
Petroleum distillation technology has appeared since the Tang and Song Dynasties, and has been used as a material reserve and used in wars.
The Tang Dynasty called it Shizhishui, and the Song Dynasty called it Fierce Fire Oil.
Gaonu County is very close to Hedong County, and the oil used for research in Qingzhou is obtained from Gaonu. Therefore, although it cannot be transported to Guandong on a large scale, Guan Yu's army still has quite a lot of reserves in the Guanzhong area.
It was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the autumn wind blew through Qishan Mountain, across the vast plains, and fell on Guan Yu's face.
He was riding Huang Feidian with a claw, holding a Qinglong Yanyue Sword in his hand. He wore a pair of crystal glasses on his face, his beard was pricked up, and his eyes were like lightning as he looked at the Xiliang cavalry coming slowly from the distance.
Guan Hai followed him and said to him: "General, the enemy is coming, and I am willing to be the vanguard!"
Guan Yu waved his hand: "Don't worry. Before the military advisor came out, he repeatedly said that if the enemy attacks first, our army will win. If our army attacks first, the victory or defeat will only be 50-50. There are so many ordnance in the rear, why use infantry to catch up?"
Where are the cavalry?”
"yes!"
Guan Hai stepped aside.
Guan Yu did not order the attack, he just watched from a distance.
Soon Han Sui's Ma Chao army was approaching, approaching the range of the bed crossbow.
Since the two of them didn't know how powerful the Qingzhou bed crossbow was, they still approached the formation out of habit and were about a mile away.
At a distance of four hundred meters, the crossbows on the high oars at the rear were all aimed at the armored men in front of the formation. As long as Guan Yu gave the order, they could be shot directly into a sieve.
However, Guan Yu did not give the order. What he wanted to fight was a battle of annihilation rather than a battle of beheading. Therefore, the correct approach was to attack after the two sides came into contact.
However, what people didn't expect was that Ma Chao, who had long been resentful of Guan Yu's reputation, couldn't hold himself back and actually rode out into the battle alone, shouting: "Guan Yu, I've long disliked you, but you dare to fight me to the death!"
Now Ma Chao is twenty-seven years old, and his martial arts skills have become more and more powerful. In the past few years, he has often led troops to attack bandits from all directions, quelled some Qiang rebellions, and even occasionally went north to attack Han Sui. He also fought with Yan Xing several times to hone his martial arts.
Not much worse than Yan Xing.
In fact, many people think that Yan Xing's force value is low, but in fact, according to the records of "Three Kingdoms", he almost beat Ma Chao alive with a wooden stick when Ma Teng and Han Sui were at odds between the first year of Jian'an and the fourth year of Jian'an.
die.
At that time, Ma Chao was between 21 and 24 years old. At this age, Sun Ce had already occupied Jiangdong and was named the Marquis of Wu. Ma Chao's force value was generally recognized as stronger than Sun Ce in later generations, and so on.
, it can be seen that Yan Xing’s strength is definitely not weak.
It is now the third year of Zhang Wu, that is, 203 AD. Compared with the last battle of Chang'an, Ma Chao has grown up for three more years and is full of confidence. He has long been dissatisfied with Guan Yu's often claiming to be world-famous and treating the world's heroes as heroes.
The grass bandits saw that everyone was trying to be the leader, so they angrily came out to provoke.
Guan Yu was furious. He took off his glasses and gave them to his soldiers for safekeeping. He patted his horse and went out into battle, shouting: "Shuzi, even your father doesn't dare to show off his power in front of me. How come you want to tease the tiger's beard? I thought it was for your father's sake."
I'll spare your life, and I'll let you know the power of Guan's sword today!"
Ma Chao cursed loudly: "Old leather thief, don't be so arrogant. You think you are invincible in Guandong. You were beaten by Lu Bu until you ran away with your head covered. You are just a deceiver and a thief. I will kill you today!"
After that, he patted the horse and came.
"Damn it!"
Guan Yu was even more angry. The three brothers worked together to beat Lu Bu until he vomited blood.
But later when Lu Bu was guarding Dangyin, the two had many confrontations, but Guan Yu did not take advantage. He even made a mistake once and was in danger, but it was Zhao Yun who came to save him.
Although in history, after Lu Bu's death, Guan Yu would be the first to bid for anyone. But now that Lu Bu is not dead, it still makes him feel a little uncomfortable, with a big mountain weighing on his head.
But forget it, Lu Bu, after all, he does have strength. You, Ma Chao, are just a little brat, how dare you mock me?
At that moment, Guan Yu's heart was filled with murderous intent, and he headed straight for Ma Chao with the Qinglong Sword in his hand.
I won’t beat you until you have teeth all over the floor today.