Silver Fox of the Three Kingdoms

The loss of Guanzhong was a huge blow to Cao Wei.

Because now Cao Pi has moved his capital to Luoyang, and there is only Tongguan as the line of defense from Chang'an to Luoyang.

During the Warring States period, Hangu Pass could no longer be used due to the diversion of the Yellow River. This means that once Shen Chen breaks through the defense line of Tongguan, he can directly take the capital of Cao Wei.

This feeling that the enemy is close at hand made Cao Pi feel deep fear. He even wanted to give up Luoyang and move the capital back to Yecheng, Hebei again, but was finally stopped by Sima Yi and Chen Qun.

But strategically, they were already at an absolute disadvantage. The Liu Bei Group's national strength was weak and they still took the initiative to attack. Cao Pi originally wanted to rely on his huge national power to drag down the Liu Bei Group, and use cities, camps, and terrain to block Liu Bei's Northern Expedition from outside the line of defense.

But now with the fall of the western front, they have fallen into a passive position in terms of overall strategy.Although it is still possible to rely on Tongguan to resist, once Tongguan falls, it means that Cao Wei's capital is under attack and the empire is in danger of being wiped out.

So the most urgent task now is to think about what to do.

The advisers believed that the current situation was very unfavorable to them, so they had to seek a quick solution. If they could defeat Liu Bei on the frontal battlefield in Henan, they might be able to change this declining situation.

So Cao Pi changed his previous momentum of avoiding the battle, and ordered Xia Houyuan, Zhang He and others on the front line to send troops to seek a decisive battle with the main force of the Liu Bei Group on the front line.

However, the advisers of the Liu Bei Group had already expected this, so they also changed their previous strategy of constantly provoking and seeking war. Liu Bei asked Zhang Fei to hang up the free card, and Pang Tong, Fazheng and others stood firm, but did not confront Cao Jun.

Everyone knows that it is Cao Pi who is anxious now.

After the fall of the western front, no matter whether Shen Chen continues to attack Tongguan or takes Bingzhou, Cao Wei will be under great pressure. Cao Pi wants to repel Liu Bei as soon as possible and return to Defense Pass. How could Liu Bei give him this opportunity.

Therefore, the situation in Henan was reversed for a while. Before the Liu Bei Group was eager to fight, the Cao Wei Group avoided the war.Now it has become that the Cao Wei Group is eager to fight, and the Liu Bei Group has avoided the war.

And just when the situation in Guanzhong changed drastically, and the situation in Henan also changed, the situation in Huainan also suddenly changed dramatically.

In the sixth year of Zhangwu of Han Dynasty and the seventh year of Wei Huangchu, in the first ten days of May, it rained for more than ten days in Jiujiang area.

It was not until late May, near the beginning of June, that the rain was much less.

On June [-], at the beginning of the last eclipse of the sunrise, the clouds were dark and the sun was hazy, and the rain that had been raining for many days suddenly stopped. on the land.

During this period, the Huaihe River and the Yangtze River were in the rainy season, and the water flow in the lower reaches surged, causing the water flow of the fertile water and watering rivers to increase sharply, and there were swamps and lakes all over the wilderness.

However, this is only a normal phenomenon during the rainy season in Huainan, and the rain was not so exaggerated that when Shen Chen flooded Xiangfan, the river surged five or six feet high, submerging the city of Xiangfan.

So if Guan Yu wants to recreate the flooded Hefei, it is obviously impossible.

More importantly, even if the rainwater is as large as the flooding of Xiangfan in those years, the flood discharge capacity of Huainan is not comparable to that of Xiangfan. Xiangfan has only one Han River. If the water volume exceeds the flood discharge capacity of Han River, it is normal to submerge Xiangfan on the edge of Han River. things.

However, there are three super-large lakes in Huainan: Shaopi, Chaohu, and Penglize. There are hundreds of rivers that can be used to divert and discharge floods. It is impossible for any flood to submerge the entire Huainan.

Therefore, this heavy rain will not bring much help to Guan Yu's attack on Hefei.

But it is convenient for him to attack Chengde.

Cao Xiu's camp in Chengde was on a higher ground, and it was not flooded and suffered no losses.

But his cavalry was useless.

After the heavy rain, the entire Chengde field was covered with swamps, and the roads were extremely muddy. This kind of road is difficult for people to run, not to mention horse racing.

At this time, Wating was more than 20 miles away from Chengde County and more than 100 miles away from Hefei.

When the morning sun fell on the earth and brought light to the earth, the watchman above the high oar in Wating Caoxiu camp had already seen the mighty fleet on the fat water to the west from a distance.

"Ohh Ohh ohh!"

The desolate horns awakened the entire camp at once, and Cao Jun seemed to wake up from the dead silence. The sounds of various horns, war drums, and bone whistles continued.

The fleet in the distance quickly stopped on the fertile water, and then countless small boats launched and docked. The densely packed boats covered the entire river surface, and with the help of the criss-crossing waterway network, they sailed into the group of lakes southwest of Wating.

The later generation here is Wabu Lake in Anhui. The west side is hundreds of miles away at this time. The waterway network is extremely developed. Because of the heavy rain, Cao Jun is now trapped on the high slope. It is difficult for the cavalry to walk a few steps, let alone come out to meet the enemy.

However, Guan Yu, who owned a fleet, successfully surrounded this camp in the southwest of Cao Ying by using the interlaced water network. Cao Xiu's tens of thousands of military camps stretched for more than ten miles, and this was just one of the camps.

Fan Ling, general of Cao Xiu's department in the camp, was shocked when he learned of Guan Yu's attack. He hurriedly went to the camp to command the camp, and at the same time asked the rest of Cao's camp in the east and north for help.

Guan Yu stood at the bow with an old and resolute face. He was still wearing the brocade green gown. His gray and white beard swayed gently in the wind. Even Zhou Cang and Pei Yuanshao on the left and right were old and could no longer stand for him. Resist the knife and lead the horse.

But his tall and straight body looked at the distant camp with the help of the tall hull. Even though his white hair was gray, he did not change his true character. When he saw the flying boats driven by the soldiers in the distance approaching Wating, he waved his hand.

"Woooooooooo!"

"Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!"

The sound of continuous horns and drums suddenly became extremely fast.

After receiving this signal, the soldiers who had surrounded Cao Ying immediately began to dock, and then rushed towards Cao Ying from all directions, carrying ladders.

"Let the arrows, let the arrows, let the arrows!"

Fan Ling let out a heart-piercing cry. He has a hideous face now, because there are too many Han troops.

The camps are distributed scattered, and each camp often has only a few thousand people.

His soldiers are only over 3000 in total. Although the nearest few camps are normally able to rush to help at any time, the road has been flooded by heavy rain recently. It is very difficult to wait for reinforcements in a short time.

So the current situation is that his more than 3000 soldiers have to rely on the weak camp to defend against the attack of tens of thousands of Han troops. Is this something that humans can do?

Following Fan Ling's order, arrows rained down like rain, and were thrown towards the Han army outside the camp.

Most of the arrows were shot on the front shield, and then the Han army launched a fierce attack on Gao Po, howling like a wild wolf, rushed to the slope, hooked the barb on the ladder to the wall of the village, and stared at Gao Po. Rain of arrows began to climb up.

Especially in the direction of the Zhaimen, a large number of Han troops swarmed in. One Cao Jun often had to deal with the attack of seven or eight or even more than a dozen Han troops, even if he was condescending and stabbed randomly with a long spear.

When a large number of soldiers of Cao Jun stabbed down with their long spears, they were grabbed by the barrel of the gun, and several people helped to pull them, and they were able to bring people under the wall in one fell swoop.

There were all kinds of screams, clashes of knives and guns, shouts of killing, and howling.

Immediately after that, there was a burst of chaotic sounds like houses collapsing in the direction of the gate of the village, and then someone shouted like ghosts and wolves, "The camp is broken!" near time.

The Han army poured in like a tide along the breach cut by the axe. Many Cao soldiers either fled northward from the north gate to other Cao camps, or surrendered where they stood, and were killed soon after stubbornly resisting.

Fan Ling was beheaded by Guan Ping in the rebellious army. Under Guan Ping's leadership, the entire camp was quickly captured by the Han army.

But soon a large number of Cao soldiers from the nearby Cao camps from the north and east began to gather and rushed towards this side.

When Cao Xiu learned that Guan Yu was attacking Wating, he rushed to rectify his soldiers and gathered tens of thousands of horses. Under the advice of his staff officer Sun Li, he chose to take the initiative to attack and gathered troops outside the camp, preparing to fight Guan Yu to the death.

It won't work without a decisive battle.

Because although Cao Xiu's camp was not flooded, a large number of lakes and swamps appeared in the original wilderness plain due to the rising water flow.

This meant that his camp was divided by criss-crossing water currents, and seven or eight camps stretching for more than ten miles have now become lake areas.

It turns out that the camps are the horns of each other. Under the scattered distribution, once any camp is attacked, the other camps can immediately rush to help, thus forming the role of alternate cover.

But now that the roads are flooded, even if the places that are not flooded are muddy, it is difficult for the camps to respond as quickly as before.

If they continue to stay in the camp, they will be defeated one by one by Guan Yu.

So we can only choose to go out to fight against each other.

He chose the location of the decisive battle in the northeast area of ​​Wating, which has more flat areas, and abandoned several camps, sticking to the northeast corner.

It is a little farther away from the lake area in the south, and there is a plain area of ​​three to four square kilometers. Although the land is still wet and muddy due to rain, it is at least much better than fighting in the crisscross lake area.

In the distance, Guan Yu had already led the army deep into the lake area. On the battleship, he saw the enemy gathering on the plain four or five miles to the northeast from a distance. ?”

"The end is here!"

Wei Yan has been following Guan Yu in Jiangdong for the past few years, and he seems to have become the number one general under Guan Yu's account.

Guan Yu pointed to the east and said, "Take 4000 men and take a boat through the waterway to the east. When we engage with them, raid their flanks."

"only!"

Wei Yan was ordered to disembark immediately, with the flag fluttering, and soon hundreds of ships followed him to the east.

"Where is Zhou Cang?"

"The end is here."

"You lead 3000 people, go around, wait for Wei Yan to attack from the east, and then attack from the west."

"only!"

"The rest of the generals, follow me to attack head-on!"

"only!"

Many generals under the account responded one after another.

At the moment, all the main forces of Guan Yu went ashore, assembled at Wating, and then drenched towards Cao Xiu's army in the distance.

The two sides approached quickly, and the Han army outnumbered Cao's army.

Because Cao Xiu's army in Runan was only 3, and the combined troops of Lu Qian and Zang Ba were less than [-].

Guan Yu's main force was 3, of which [-] surrounded Hefei City, and he personally led an army of [-] to go north to meet Cao Xiu, so his troops were more than Cao Xiu's troops.

It's not that Cao Wei has few troops.

The main reason is that Cao Wei's idea is to delay attrition tactics, and use as few soldiers and horses as possible to achieve the purpose of defense on the front line.

Therefore, Cao Xiu's original mission should be in the Ruyin area to the east of Runan, and then use Zhang Liao in Hefei, Lu Qian in Shouchun, and Zang Ba in Guangling to form four lines of defense to block Guan Yu layer by layer.

In this way, Liu Bei's long-distance attack will consume more than twice that of Cao's army. After a year or so, Liu Bei's group may retreat due to lack of food.

At this time, if Cao Wei pursues again, he may be able to win a big victory.Good luck, as Jiang Ji said, if Liu Bei is dragged to death, he can really rule the world.

But Guan Yu and Zhang Liao communicated too frequently, which made Xue Ti vigilant and reported to Cao Xiu.As a result, Cao Xiu was also worried about the situation in Hefei, so he had to come here in person as a last resort.

Unexpectedly, it coincided with the rainy season in Huainan, and the wilderness was full of swamps, which made his cavalry unable to exert their power.

The two sides confronted each other head-on, and Cao Xiu had at least 1 cavalry on horses. Even if Guan Yu's army waded ashore, he did not dare to directly order an attack. Without horseshoes, the muddy and slippery ground had too much impact.

When all the main forces of the Han army reached the plain area and assembled their positions, they began to move forward. With Guan Yu's order, the Han army launched a charge.

"kill!"

Cao Xiu raised his sword high.

"kill!"

Cao Jun also let out a terrifying roar.

Immediately afterwards, the rain of arrows covering the sky and the sun swayed, and the two sides collided like a torrent.

The infantry stood up at the front, and the cao army had far fewer infantry than the Han army's infantry, so they fell into a disadvantage from the beginning.

But soon Cao Xiu ordered the cavalry to outflank the left and right, and quickly cut the battlefield, trying to restore the situation.

Little did he know that Guan Yu had already made preparations. In the swampy lake on the east side, on the surface of the lake covered by countless aquatic plants and reeds, hundreds of boats appeared at some point.

They bypassed the frontal battlefield and came to the east flank of Cao Jun, and then began to disembark and land ashore one after another, launching a surprise attack from Cao Jun's left flank.

Cao Jun was caught off guard, and the situation was on the verge of collapse in an instant.

Immediately afterwards, Zhou Cang launched an attack from the right wing of Cao Jun from the west, causing chaos on both the left and right wings of Cao Jun.

Seeing this situation, Guan Yu immediately launched an order for the whole army to attack Cao Jun's front.

The front and the left and right sides gradually couldn't support it. In an instant, it was like a mountain collapsed, and the army was defeated like a mountain. Countless Cao troops dropped their weapons and retreated to the rear.

Cao Xiu himself was also injured in the chaos. If the guards hadn't tried their best to snatch him out, he would have died by the blade.

The Han army chased them all the way, and drove tens of thousands of Cao's troops out of Baili. They chased and killed them for a whole day and night, until they fled back to Shouchun in embarrassment, and then they stopped and went back.

In this battle, Guan Yu beheaded thousands of Cao Jun and captured nearly ten thousand prisoners. It can be said that he won a complete victory and shocked Huainan.

For a while, the Han army captured Chang'an on the west front, defeated Cao Xiu on the east front, and surrounded Hefei. The situation on the entire east and west fronts was already very unfavorable to Cao Wei.