Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 315 Cao Cao set Guanzhong in the west, Sun Quan went north to Hefei

At the end of the 19th year of Jian'an, it was obviously an uneasy year for the world.

At the beginning of the year, Cao Cao was rectifying his army and horses and laying out the overall situation.

His defensive forces are scattered in all directions, mainly concentrated in the south, and there are also troops in Youzhou, but the overall focus is on the south.

Shen Chen's position in Nanyang still put a lot of pressure on him, so when the total strength of Liu Bei's army in Nanyang reached [-], Cao Cao deployed more than [-] troops in Runan, Yingchuan.

In addition to the garrisons in Chendu, Huainan, Xuzhou and other places, the total force exceeded 20, which greatly restricted the main force that Cao Cao could use.

But even so, he still mobilized some of his troops and began to plan for the acquisition of Guanzhong Xiliang.

In the middle of the year, he led tens of thousands of Qingqi to the south, and at the same time mobilized the troops of Chendu, Xuzhou, Huainan and part of Runan, a total of 15, and marched to Ruxukou to confront Sun Quan in late autumn and September at the end of the year.

For Cao Cao, this battle was not just a simple show, but a real battle with real guns and swords.

First of all, Liu Bei must be convinced that he is not joking, but really intends to attack Jiangdong. Only when he has an actual battle with Sun Quan, will Liu Bei feel that Cao Cao and Sun Quan are unlikely to collude with him, thus creating opportunities for Sun Quan.

Secondly, beating Sun Quan is not acting. Several attacks have tentative purposes. If Sun Quan is weak and unable to resist, and is wiped out like this, it will be a surprise.

He can occupy Jiangdong by the way, plan Jingzhou, and rearrange new plans.

You must know that when this trip to the south arrived in Shouchun in September, there were countless powerful families who sent people from Jiangdong to deliver letters. Zhang Zhao and Zhang Zibu, one of Sun Quan's top advisors, even wrote letters to persuade Sun Quan to surrender. It can be seen that Jiangdong's internal affairs Not safe.

So if Sun Quan had some strength and could withstand his attack, Cao Cao planned to act according to Guo Jia's original plan, withdraw his troops immediately if he couldn't attack, and then quickly moved to Guanzhong Xiliang.

If Sun Quan didn't have any strength, it would be even better, just destroy it easily, and then change the plan, first break Jiangdong and then take Guanzhong.

After all, he didn't trust Sun Quan himself very much, Cao Cao was really dissatisfied with the performance of the Battle of Hongkou.

So going south this time is a strategy as well as a test.

But judging from the results, Sun Quan's resistance this time was still very tenacious. Seeing that Jiangdong could not be taken down, Cao Cao withdrew his troops along the way and turned his head to Guanzhong.

Almost at the same time when Cao Cao went south, Zhong Yao, Xia Houdun, Yu Jin and others had already dispatched an army and went straight to Guanzhong.

All this was noticed by Ma Chao.

Ma'er is also a ruthless person. After thinking that Cao Cao was planning to attack Guo in a false way, he immediately contacted the generals in Guanzhong and went to lobby Han Sui, hoping that he could resist Cao Cao's attack together.

Han Sui had already sent his children to Yecheng as hostages at that time, and he hesitated for a while when he heard Ma Chao's suggestion.

Ma Chao saw his hesitation, and immediately said, "Now, Ma Chao abandons his father and takes General Han as his father. General Han should also abandon his son and take Ma Chao as his son." He filially killed Ma Teng who was far away in Yecheng.

It was also this sentence that made Han Sui make up his mind. Together with Ma Chao and other generals in Guanzhong, he gathered an army of [-], expelled Zhong Yao from Chang'an, and marched to Tongguan.

In fact, at this time, if Han Sui and Ma Chao contact Liu Bei immediately, and then open Wuguan, there is a chance to lure Shen Chen's army into Guanzhong.

But they were guarding against Cao Cao, why didn't they guard against Liu Bei?

Although they traded with Liu Bei and exchanged war horses for a lot of strategic materials, they seemed to have a good relationship.

However, Han Sui and Ma Chao are all people who want to separate one side and rule on their own. It is impossible to allow other princes to get involved in Guanzhong and Xiliang.

In history, after Ma Chao's rebellion, facing Cao Cao's offensive like a rainbow, he did not choose to surrender, but wanted to cede land for peace, but Cao Cao refused and retreated to Xiliang.

Later, Cao Cao saw that Ma Chao was stubborn and there was no possibility of surrendering, so he killed Ma Teng's family and sent Xia Houyuan to continue chasing him. It was not until the spring of Jian'an 19th year three years later that he finally defeated him again.

At this time, Ma Chao was at the end of his life, lost his territory in Liangzhou, his family was killed, and had nowhere to go. Finally, he surrendered to Zhang Lu, and then went to Bashu to become Liu Bei's subordinate.

From this point, it can be known that Ma Chao is not a general of the Five Tigers at all, but a prince who has always wanted to establish himself as a king.In the three things of capriciousness, betraying his father for glory, and being unkind, he is actually no different from Lu Bu.

If it weren't for Liu Bei's need for his prestige among the Qiang people and he chose to accept him, it would probably be because of "repeating his hatred and sitting back and watching his destruction".

Therefore, although Cao Cao attacked Xiliang Pass, Han Sui and Ma Chao had no intention of asking Liu Bei for help. Instead, after expelling Zhong Yao, he immediately sent someone to take over Wuguan, as if to block Liu Bei's army in Nanyang.

However, Liu Bei was still in Huainan at this time, and Shen Chen also knew that Han Sui's horse was super unreliable, so the soldiers and horses in the south hadn't been dispatched to rescue at all.

After Cao Cao withdrew his troops from Huainan at the end of October, he personally led tens of thousands of horses from Luoyang to Guanzhong.

By the end of November, Han Sui, Ma Chao's allied forces were stationed in Tongguan, and Xiahou Dun Yujin's army had arrived in Puban, which is located in Hedong, which is the area of ​​Yongji County, Yuncheng City, Shanxi Province.

Pubanjin is an important ferry in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, connecting the east and the west of the river. If you cross the river from here, you can directly attack the rear of the Han Sui Ma Chao army stationed in Tongguan.

Cao Cao himself came from the direction of Hangu Pass and arrived at Shan County, which is Sanmenxia City, Henan Province in later generations, not far from Tongguan.

Apparently Cao Cao planned to divide his forces into two groups. One would cross the river from the east and attack from the rear of Tongguan, and the other would attack Tongguan from the front.

When Ma Chao heard the news, he immediately suggested to Han Sui that he should immediately station troops on the north bank of the Weihe River and the west bank of the Yellow River, and confront Cao Jun across the Yellow River. .

However, Han Sui believed that Cao's army was well prepared, and it was impossible for them to have only 20 days of food and grass. If they confronted each other for a long time, they would be at a disadvantage.What's more, it doesn't make sense even if Cao Cao withdraws his troops because of food and grass, because Cao Cao is so powerful that he may make a comeback at any time, and he must be defeated.

Therefore, Han Sui planned to adopt the strategy of attacking at half-cross, instead of setting up camp on the opposite bank, he deployed a large number of scouts on the north bank. soldiers and horses.

So the two sides stalemate for more than half a month. After Cao Cao was fully prepared, one night in early December, Cao Cao sent Xu Huang, Zhu Ling and others led 4000 people to cross Pubanjin at night. After Ma Chao knew about it, he sent Liang Xing to lead [-] people The soldiers attacked Xu Huang, but were repelled by Xu Huang. Xu Huang occupied Hexi and set up a camp.

After having the former camp fortress, Cao Cao, who was in Tongguan, began to lead the main force to officially cross the river.He planned to join Xu Huang and Zhu Ling who had already crossed the Yellow River, and at the same time meet Xiahou Dun Yujin's rear troops.

But just after the Cao army's front team passed, after Cao Cao, Xu Chu and more than a hundred tiger soldiers broke up, Ma Chao suddenly led more than [-] cavalry to kill them. The more than a hundred people around Cao Cao were at a loss under Ma Chao's arrows. It was a mess.

Xu Chu, Zhang He and other generals, seeing the emergency, took Cao Cao out of the boat and hurried across the river. Ma Chao led the cavalry to chase and shoot at the back. Arrows rained down, and Cao Cao almost died.

Fortunately, while punting the boat, Xu Chu used his shield to resist the bow and arrow, protecting Cao Cao, and the surrounding soldiers tried their best to cover his retreat.

At the same time, Cao Cao's lieutenant Ding Fei released a large number of cattle and horses on the river bank. Ma Chao's soldiers rushed to catch the cattle and horses, but Ma Chao couldn't control them, so Cao Cao was able to successfully cross the river.

At this moment, General Cao Jun saw the defeat at the south bank and did not know where Cao Cao was, so he was very frightened. When he saw Cao Cao later, he felt sad, surprised, and cried in fright.Cao Cao laughed and said, "I was almost trapped by a thief today!"

In September, Cao Cao crossed the Weihe River and made a tunnel to Weinan.

The Ma-Korean allied forces lost their strategic location and had to retreat, refusing to garrison at Weikou, but Cao Cao set up suspicious soldiers many times, sneaked into the Wei River with boats and carried troops, and made them into pontoon bridges. All over the banks of the Weihe River.

The Guanzhong coalition forces attacked the barracks at night, and Cao Cao set up an ambush to defeat the Ma-Korean coalition forces' sneak attack.So Ma Chao and others stationed troops in Weinan and sent letters, requesting peace talks in the west of the river, but Cao Cao refused.

Under Lou Gui's strategy of splashing water and building an ice city, Cao Cao's army was able to cross the Wei River in batches. The Ma-Korean coalition challenged several times, but Cao Cao refused to fight and waited for the follow-up troops to cross the river. .

Cao Cao adopted Guo Jia's strategy, pretended to agree, and then talked and laughed with Han Sui before the battle.

During Ma Chao's face-to-face negotiations with Cao Cao, he wanted to secretly attack and capture Cao Cao, but he gave up this idea when he saw Xu Chu, who was guarding Xu Chu around Cao Cao, glaring at him angrily.

When Cao Cao found out soon, he was terrified and said, "I was almost bullied by a cunning thief."

Later, in order to make the coalition forces suspect Han Sui, Cao Cao wrote another doctored letter to Han Sui, which alienated the Guanzhong coalition forces and caused the warlords of the Guanzhong coalition forces to become suspicious of each other.

Cao Cao took this opportunity to launch an attack and launched a decisive battle in the Weinan area. The coalition forces were defeated, Cheng Yi, Li Kan and others were killed in battle, and Han Sui and Ma Chao were defeated and fled to Xiliang.

From then on to the end of December in the 19th year of Jian'an, after two months of hard work, Cao Cao won the battle of Tongguan and marched into Guanzhong.

At the same time, it was only in early November that Liu Bei began to slowly transfer some troops from Jingzhou to Bashu.

In Nanyang, because Han Sui and Ma Chao were afraid of Liu Bei and did not dare to let Liu Bei come from Wuguan, they guarded Wuguan, so Shen Chen's army could not go to Wuguan to rescue.

After Han Sui and Ma Chao fled at the end of December, Cao Cao's army took over the defense of Wuguan, and Shen Chen was even more unable to enter Guanzhong.

However, Shen Chen was not completely useless. He ordered Wenpin to garrison Wancheng, and he led the Gan Ning Army, Huangmen soldiers, and Zhang Xiu Army, a total of 2 people, to Sanhuting, Danshui County, and began to threaten Wuguan.

And Liu Bei was still in Jiangzhou at this time, so he ordered Yan Yan and Zhang Ren, the generals of Shuzhong, to lead 3 people to take the Mi Cang Road to Hanzhong.

In recent years, roads have been built everywhere in Bashu.

The roads in ancient times were muddy roads, which were not only difficult to walk, but also prone to overgrown weeds. Once it rained and the roads were muddy, it would be difficult to walk.

After Zhuge Liangpang ruled Shu, several years later, the center of Shu became more and more prosperous, and every family had surplus food. Even many impoverished ethnic minorities came to defect, resulting in a lot of idle labor.

So Zhuge Liang followed Shen Chen's suggestion. During the slack season, the county government paid for recruiting farmers to dig stones, dig lime, mix clay and water, and renovate the roads.

There must be no money for large-scale road construction in Bashu, but only two roads were built, one Jinniu Road and one Micang Road, and the main official roads in other counties were also slightly repaired.

Although it is not a concrete road asphalt road, and in ancient times, especially in the Bashu area, even such a small project in later generations was the biggest thing for the counties, and it required a lot of manpower and material resources to build it.

But compared to the Great Wall, building bridges and paving roads is much simpler.Therefore, over the past few years, the roads in Bashu have improved a lot, only the Qinling Mountains from Bashu to Hanzhong are really no way.

Because many of the roads there are cliffside trails, and some roads are even built with wood on the cliffs, and there is no way to rest.Even in later generations, if you want to build a provincial road or expressway on a mountain like this, you must use explosives or machines to dig the mountain.

Therefore, although the road in front of Micang Road is relatively easy to walk, it is extremely difficult after entering the Bazhong area.When Liu Bei attacked Hanzhong, it took more than a month to walk a mere 100 kilometers of road.

This made it until the end of the 19th year of Jian'an that Liu Bei's soldiers and horses had not yet left the warehouse.

In the first month of the 20th year of Jian'an, after Han Sui and Ma Chao were defeated, they fled to Xiliang. At this time, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei led an army of [-] troops out of Baoxie Road, and confronted Cao Jun at Wuzhangyuan.

Wuzhangyuan is just at the exit of Baoxie Road, which is a vast plain area in Qishan County, Baoji City, Shaanxi Province in later generations.

Cao Jun occupied the east of Wuzhang Plain and the north of Weihe River.

The two sides formed camps against each other.

However, Ma Chao did not send troops to help. While he sent people to form an alliance with Liu Bei, he quickly annexed the counties and counties in Longshang, gathering a total of more than [-] people, and besieged Wei Kang, the governor of Liangzhou, in Jicheng, the governor of Liangzhou.

Obviously, Ma Chao still didn't intend to go to Liu Bei, and his idea was to develop troops in Xiliang first, and then sit back and watch the tigers fight.

In March of the 20th year of Jian'an, Wei Kang sent Liangzhou Biejia Yanwen out of the city to ask for help, but was caught and killed by Ma Chao.In May, Cao Cao sent Xia Houyuan from Longguan Road to aid Wei Kang, and at the same time sent an order to return to Yecheng, slaughtered Ma Chao's family, and killed Han Sui's descendants.

And during this period of time, Shen Chen was not idle, he led the army to Wuguan in Shang County, and the [-] troops confronted the [-] Xu Huang's troops stationed in Wuguan at that time.

He actually has a way to break through Wuguan.

Wuguan is located between the mountains of Qinling Mountains, but the terrain is far less steep than Qinling Mountains in Bashu. The mountains on both sides of the road are mostly hills, and there are trails between the mountains that can be interspersed.

There are Wuxi barbarians under Shen Chen's command, who are good at climbing mountains and mountains. Over the years, he has already figured out the terrain around Wuguan. If the main force feigns a frontal attack, send Wuxi barbarians to detour to the rear of Wuguan to launch an attack, and they may be able to break through the pass.

But he did not choose to break through, because it is not yet time for a decisive battle with Cao Cao, and the two sides still need to see each other for a while.

During this process, Cao Cao chose Wuguan as the main defense, and the main attack direction was Guan Yu's army in Wuzhangyuan. The number of soldiers and horses on both sides was not proportional. With Ma Chao's support, Guan Yu was forced to retreat into Baoxie Road and stationed at Xieyuguan.

In August of the 20th year of Jian'an, after repelling Guan Yu's army, Cao Cao sent Xiahou Dun to garrison Mei County, and Yu Jin to garrison Chencang to guard against Guan Yu's Zhang Fei Department at Baoxie Road and Zhang Ren Department at Sanguan. In September, he personally led the army out of Longguan Daoxi attacked Han Sui and Ma Chao.

Due to the delay in the arrival of Xiahouyuan's reinforcements, there was no food in Jicheng, so Wei Kang was forced to surrender to Ma Chao.Ma Chao murdered Wei Kang, separated Longshang, claimed to be General Zhengxi, led Bingzhou Mu, and supervised Liangzhou's military.

At the same time, Han Sui also retreated to Xianqin County in the north of Jicheng, where he and Ma Chao jointly ruled Longshang, developed troops and horses, and jointly resisted Cao's army.

But when Cao Cao came in person, Yan Xing rebelled, and Wei Kang's old subordinates Yang Fu, Jiang Xu, Jiang Yin, Zhao Ang, Yin Feng, Yao Qiong, Kong Xin, Li Jun, Wang Ling and others rose up at the same time to respond to Cao's army.

Han Sui and Ma Chao were defeated, and Han Sui fled to Jincheng County. Ma Chao lost ground and was forced to flee to Hanzhong to join Liu Bei.

Since then, Cao Cao has pacified Guanzhong and Xiliang in just one year, rewarded local officials in Liangzhou, gathered Yang Fu, Jiang Xu and other Xiliang troops who defected to him, and guarded Liangzhou. Liu Beijun launched a confrontation.

In August of the same year, Sun Quan personally led [-] troops to attack Hefei when Cao Cao sent troops to Guanzhong Xiliang.

In this battle, Sun Quan can be said to have played all his cards.

In this period of history, Sun Quan already had good strength, with more than [-] soldiers and horses, but he needed to be stationed in various places in Jiangdong, and there were still a large number of troops in the rear to suppress the rebellion and suppress the Shanyue Uprising.

But now his strength has been severely damaged. Relying on plundering Jiaozhou and recuperating for many years, his total strength is only [-] to [-].

Most of them are county soldiers, second-line troops, and counter-insurgency troops in the rear. The real main front-line troops are probably the [-] soldiers and horses he stationed on the front line of the Jianghuai River in Ruxukou to confront Cao Jun.

In order to make Liu Bei feel completely at ease with him, Sun Quan gritted his teeth and mobilized 10 second-line troops and peace rebel troops from the rear, and gathered [-] people, so that Jiangdong was actually very empty.

Because of his 8 or [-] people, of which [-] to [-] are in Guiyang and Jiaozhou, the troops he deployed in Danyang County, Wu County, Kuaiji County, Yuzhang County and other places are seriously insufficient. Thousands of people, once a large-scale rebellion occurs in Shanyue, his rear will be very uncomfortable.

But at this time, he didn't care about these things, and led Lu Meng, Chen Wu, Ling Tong, Pan Zhang, Song Qian, Xu Sheng, Ding Feng, Jiang Qin, He Qi, Sun Jiao, Zhou Tai, Zhu Ran, Zhu Huan, Quan Cong, etc. Waiting for dozens of generals, they went straight to Hefei City.

In the city of Hefei, only Zhang Liao and Li Dian were stationed at this time, with a total of 8000 soldiers and horses, and the two had never been at odds with each other, and there were internal conflicts.

For external reinforcements, the garrison of Yingchuan in Runan must guard against the Shen Chen army in Nanyang, and the garrison of Chen Du is not easy to move, because they want to suppress the royalists of the emperor Liu Xie. , Si Zhi Wei Huang and other royalists had launched a rebellion, and it was thanks to this part of the soldiers that they suppressed it.

Therefore, the only Cao army that can quickly assist Hefei at present is Shouchun with thousands of troops, and the Cao army in Huainan is already in a situation of isolation and helplessness.

(End of this chapter)