Mi Han

Chapter 275 Calling the tiger has reached a bad premonition
In December of the first year of Zhangwu in the Han Dynasty, Zhang Liao led the [-] Cao Wei Zhongjun, and finally reached outside Yancheng.

Zhang Liao's army set off from Wancheng in mid-November. Originally, according to the normal schedule, Zhang Liao could lead his army to reach outside Yancheng before December.

But because Zhang Liao saw through Guan Yu's intentions, he adopted the strategy of marching slowly.

Although this strategy largely guaranteed that Zhang Liao's army would not be ambushed by the enemy, it undoubtedly greatly affected his marching speed.

It took Zhang Liao and his army almost double the time it took Xu Huang to reach beyond Yancheng.

At the beginning, many people in the army did not understand Zhang Liao's arrangement.

Although Zhang Liao was the chief general of the [-] Cao Wei Central Army, no matter how reassured Cao Pi was of such an important and huge army, it was impossible for him to let Zhang Liao take charge of it alone.

Therefore, when Zhang Liao went out to fight, Cao Pi sent many famous officials to assist him in the army.

For example, Du Xi, a famous minister of Cao Wei, was one of them.

Du Xi, courtesy name Zixu, was born in Dingling County, Yingchuan County.

When Du Xi was young, he was praised as one of the "Four Famous Scholars" in Yingchuan. Yingchuan was the gathering place of countless outstanding scholars in the early years of Jian'an. Du Xi can stand out among them, which shows his excellence.

Of course, the reason why Du Xi enjoys this honor is inseparable from his background.

Du Xi's great-grandfather Du'an and grandfather Dugan are very famous. They were famous scholars during the period of Emperor Huanling and both ranked two thousand stones.

In terms of origin, Du Xi is a gentleman with a crown and a red root.

Later, the world was in chaos, and Du Xi went to Jingzhou to avoid the chaos. Liu Biao received him according to the etiquette of a guest, but Du Xi looked down on Liu Biao.

Even because a friend recommended him to Liu Biao, he was so angry that he wanted to break up with that friend.

The reason why Du Xi is like this is not that he has much foresight to see that Liu Biao is not the master.

He was born in the Central Plains, and his political stage should be in the north.

This kind of obsession is the common thought of most scholars in the world.

Because of this obsession, Du Xi fled Jingzhou through untold hardships and defected to Cao Cao in the early years of Jian'an.

After Du Xi defected to Cao Cao, Cao Cao appointed him as the chief of Xi'e.

At that time, Xi'e County belonged to Nanyang County, adjacent to Liubiao in the south, and banditry was very rampant.

After Du Xi took office, he first showed favor to the people. He sent the old and weak people to work in the fields in their hometowns, leaving the strong men to defend the county.

In the sixth year of Jian'an, Mu Liubiao of Jingzhou sent 1 cavalry to attack Xi'e. In this case, Du Xi personally led more than [-] officials and people, fighting with them with bows, arrows and stones.

In such a situation that was almost death, Du Xi killed hundreds of Liu Biao's army in front of the battle with more than 30 casualties.

Although Liu Biao's [-] troops were able to enter the city later, Du Xi was able to break out.

This battle made Du Xi famous.

So Zhong Yao, the school captain of Sili, represented him as Yilang to join the military.Later, he was recommended by Xun Yu and appointed as the prime minister's military sacrificial wine.

When Cao Cao was alive, he considered that Du Xi was a military and political genius, so he was repeatedly assigned by Cao Cao to stay in the town, such as staying in Hanzhong back then and staying in Guanzhong not long ago.

The reason why Cao Pi asked Du Xi to follow Zhang Liao was because of Du Xi's experience in fighting the southern army, and on the other hand because of Du Xi's impressive resume.

And now Du Xi is in charge of the general guard.

Cao Wei and Ji Han have different positions of guarding the army, because Cao Cao was betrayed by many people in his early years, so he was very worried about generals with different surnames.

Whenever a general with a different surname leads the army alone, he will send a guard to follow the general with a different surname.

Because the purpose of Cao Cao's first establishment of the post of guard was not simple, so Du Xi's guard was analogous to Fa Miao's guard, and the power was much greater.

The main duty of Fa Miao's guards is to report the crimes of the generals, and some have the power of supervision. If he wants to punish some criminal generals, he needs to report them to Mi Yang.

However, under special circumstances, Du Xi's guards can directly seize the military power of the chief general.

Before Du Xi saw that Zhang Liao led the army to march slowly, this obviously violated Cao Pi's order to let Zhang Liao rescue Fancheng quickly, so Du Xi, who was the guard of the army, asked Zhang Liao directly:
"When General Wei defeated Sun Quan, he only led a few hundred tigers, and marched forward with loyalty and light armor, so he was able to catch the enemy by surprise, smashing the enemy's fortress, and defeating the enemy army.

At the beginning, our army was on the side defending the city. General Wei chose to take the initiative to attack. Now Fancheng is in urgent need of rescue, but General Wei makes the army move so slowly. What is the reason for this? "

If others asked Zhang Liao, he would definitely be too lazy to answer, but Du Xi has a special status. He knew that Du Xi's question was probably Cao Pi's question, so he patiently explained to Du Xi:
"Back then, Sun Quan's army came from afar, and our army lived in the city for a long time to recharge its batteries. In addition, in terms of the battlefield situation at that time, the location was favorable for our army.

Therefore, our army can take the initiative to attack by surprise.

But now Fancheng is besieged by bandits, and the soldiers of Fancheng cannot go out, and the geographical advantage outside Fancheng is no longer in the hands of our army.

Now our army is strong, food and grass are plentiful, but Jingzhou is barren, so at this time it is the bandit army who want to fight quickly.

From the moment I dispatched troops, I was not worried that the enemy would attack Fancheng, because Fancheng could not be captured by the enemy in a short time.

What I worry about is that they will use the tactics of encircling the spot and attacking the reinforcements, waiting for work at leisure, and laying an ambush halfway to invite our army.

Now the morale of the enemy army is high, and our army has not yet established a tent to hold on to it. If our army advances faster, the enemy army will have an opportunity to take advantage of it.

Soldiers are deceitful, and they are good at changing events, which is exactly the reason. "

After Zhang Liao explained this to Du Xi, a look of approval appeared on Du Xi's face.

Du Xi, who has been entrusted with important tasks by Cao Cao many times, is of course a man who knows how to fight.

Maybe he can't be as far-sighted as Zhang Liao, and he can take precautions before they happen, but he knows that there must be a reason why Zhang Liao marched slowly on purpose.

It's just that he knows that he knows, and he still needs to ask about some things, so that the emperor Cao Pi in the rear can know.

When the emperor did not personally conquer, the guards may have some discretionary powers on the fly.

But now that the emperor is in Wancheng, his biggest task as a guard is to serve as the link of communication between the emperor and Zhang Liao.

Now the Son of Heaven and the Sangong Jiuqing in Wancheng are all focusing their attention on this battle.

After appeasing "Du Xi", Zhang Liao was able to smoothly let the [-] Cao Wei Zhongjun go according to his plan.

After arriving outside Yancheng, everything was as Liu Bei and Guan Yu expected, and Zhang Liao began to let the army camp at the old site where Xu Huang had camped.

Sun Li in Yancheng saw that the second batch of reinforcements he had been waiting for finally arrived, and the big stone that had been accumulated in his heart for the past few days finally fell to the ground.

Unlike Fancheng, Yancheng was not surrounded by the Han army.

Therefore, a small number of Wei army cavalry who were defeated by the Han army on the banks of the Han River fled to Yancheng.

And under the narration of those Wei Jun cavalrymen who escaped from birth, Sun Li knew better than Cao Xiu what happened on the Hanshui River that day.

After understanding, when Sun Li's mind was shaken, he only hoped that the emperor would send a second wave of reinforcements as soon as possible.

Otherwise, if Fancheng fell due to turmoil in the army, then the fall of his Yancheng would only happen in an instant.

Now, after Sun Li had been waiting for more than a month, he finally saw the arrival of reinforcements, and it was a general like Zhang Liao, which made Sun Li feel even more relaxed.

Zhang Liao personally leading the army may not guarantee that he can defeat Guan Yu, but at least he can guarantee that he will not make some low-level mistakes.

After Zhang Liao's army set up camp outside Yancheng, Sun Li led a group of subordinates out of the city to meet Zhang Liao in the camp.

Zhang Liao has not yet been entrusted by Cao Pi to take the responsibility of the governor.

But after Cao Xiu was trapped in Fancheng, Zhang Liao, the general of the guard who was much higher than Sun Li in military rank, of course had the power to command Sun Li in Yancheng.

In the big tent, Sun Li saw Zhang Liao.

After seeing Zhang Liao, Sun Li reported to Zhang Liao one by one the news he had detected so far.

After listening to the news reported by Sun Li, Zhang Liao nodded to Sun Li.

Because of the defeat of the [-] cavalry of Cao Wei, Sun Li did not tell Zhang Liao of his original strategy for Cao Xiu as he had explained to Cao Tai before.

However, when Cao Tai retreated back to Wancheng in defeat, he talked about Sun Li's offer of advice to Cao Pi and his ministers.

I don't know what the other ministers thought after learning about Sun Li's suggestion, anyway, Zhang Liao was very satisfied with Sun Li's suggestion.

From Zhang Liao's point of view, if Sun Li's suggestion was implemented properly, there was every chance that he could repel Guan Yu's attack without too much effort.

But it is a pity that no matter how good Sun Li's strategy is, if there is a mistake in the implementation link, then the best strategy will be useless.

It's just that although Sun Li's strategy could no longer be implemented after the defeat of the [-] cavalry army, it did not affect Zhang Liao's appreciation for Sun Li in the slightest.

Zhang Liao himself is a general with a different surname, and he is a surrendered general.

Back then when he was under Lu Bu's command, he defeated the Cao family and Xiahou's clan several times.

So after he surrendered to Cao Cao, he was actually suspected at the beginning.

It's just that Cao Cao is the hero after all, so a little suspicion will not affect his appointment of Zhang Liao.

Zhang Liao was also keenly aware of Cao Cao's suspicion of him, so after surrendering to Cao Cao, he kept fighting hard, thinking of making meritorious service for Cao Cao to dispel Cao Cao's suspicion of him.

But despite this, until the eve of the Battle of Hefei, Cao Cao was never really relieved of Zhang Liao.

Before Cao Cao went west, he left three generals, Le Jin, Zhang Liao, and Li Dian, to guard Hefei.

But what is strange is that Cao Cao did not appoint Zhang Liao, who was already a holiday at that time, as the chief general of Hefei. He just asked these three people to "co-consult" when encountering major events. This is undoubtedly a taboo for military strategists.

The reason why Cao Cao did this was because he had suspicions about Zhang Liao in his heart.

Because of Cao Cao's suspicion, Cao Cao's award to Zhang Liao when he was alive was biased.

Under such circumstances, it is impossible for Zhang Liao to have no opinion in his mind.

It's just that he is a person who cares about the overall situation, and he will not turn this opinion into a rebellious heart. He just has a natural affection for Sun Li, who is also a general with a different surname.

As early as in Wancheng, Cao Pi revealed to him that if he could win this battle, he would be the governor of a town in Jingzhou.

Under such circumstances, Zhang Liao had already made up his mind to promote Sun Li in the future.

From Zhang Liao's point of view, as the first generation of clan members left one after another, and most of the second generation clan members were still growing up, the current Cao Wei's world still had to be guarded by these generals with different surnames.

It's just that this kind of thinking was temporarily suppressed by Zhang Liao.

Because he got a very important message from Sun Li's report.

That is, Liu Bei, the pseudo-Han emperor, has arrived outside Fancheng.

Sun Li only found out this news recently, and he has already sent the news to Wancheng.

Sun Li was able to know the news because the scouts he had sent before came back to inform him that the Imperial Banner of the Puppet Han Emperor had already been planted in the camp of the Han army.

The imperial flag of the emperor is very different from the general military flag.

And because the boundary between the emperor and the ministers is quite clear, if Liu Bei hadn't come to the camp of the Han army in person, it would be impossible for Guan Yu to erect the imperial flag.

After learning the news, heavy expressions appeared on the faces of the generals of the Wei army present.

There was a heavy look on their faces, not because they were afraid of Liu Bei's arrival.

In the minds of Cao Wei and other ministers, although Liu Bei defeated the first emperor in the first battle of Hanzhong, it was mostly due to the strategy of rectification.

Therefore, the ministers of Cao Wei still didn't pay much attention to Liu Bei's ability to lead troops.

The reason why they feel heavy is because they feel that Liu Bei, as the false son of Han, will now go outside Fancheng.

That is to say, the bandit army has the feeling that they will win Fancheng this time.

And this judgment is very different from the previous court discussions among the ministers in Wancheng.

For Guan Yu's Northern Expedition, Cao Pi convened many court meetings with officials.

In those court meetings, although the ministers had various speculations about the purpose of Guan Yu's Northern Expedition, there was a consensus on one thing, that is, Guan Yu's army could not fight a protracted war.

Because of this consensus, Cao Pi turned a blind eye to Zhang Liao's slow march after receiving Du Xi's message.

But now that Liu Bei appeared outside Fancheng in person, he overturned the conclusions of the previous ministers from the "facts".

The general's personal conquest and the monarch's personal conquest are completely different things.

The latter means that as long as there is a need, the monarch can use his own power and the national strength of the whole country to support him in a protracted war to win Fancheng.

And Zhang Liao knew that this was exactly what Cao Pi didn't want to see.

Before he led the army to set off, regarding the Battle of Fancheng, Cao Pi told Zhang Liao that he only accepted two outcomes in his heart.

One is that Zhang Liao was able to defeat Guan Yu's army quickly.

One is that, as inferred by many ministers, as long as they hold on for a period of time, Guan Yu's army will naturally retreat due to insufficient food and grass.

No matter what the result is, the most unacceptable thing for Cao Pi is that the Battle of Fancheng has turned into a protracted battle like the Battle of Hanzhong.

The reason is simple, Cao Pi is a monarch who pays great attention to personal prestige or face.

The defeat in Xicheng had already dealt a blow to his prestige. If the Battle of Fancheng turned into a protracted war, the longer it took, the more unfavorable it would be for him.

Zhang Liao's political wisdom is not low. After realizing Liu Bei's arrival, a bad premonition emerged in his heart.

But before Zhang Liao began to ponder over his premonition, there was a report from the army outside the account:

Han chariot general Zhang Fei led his army to challenge the camp.

　Today's chapter.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)