Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1472 Missing Calculation
The news of Guan Yu's defeat soon reached the Jin State, including Lu Xun who was marching along Micang Road.

Lu Xun has been having a bad time recently. Previously, he assisted Zhuge Liang in conquering Hanzhong with great force, mostly relying on the help of warships on the Han River. The Jianghuai soldiers under his command advanced both by land and sea, and fought quite successfully.

But once they arrived at Micang Mountain, they exposed the weakness of the Jianghuai soldiers who were not good at conquering strong cities and dangerous passes. Moreover, without the support of large-scale siege equipment, even if they were replaced by elite soldiers from the north, it would be difficult for them to advance smoothly on the steep mountain roads of Yizhou.

Moreover, as the battle line lengthened, supply became a big problem. Along the hundreds of miles of mountain roads, the food loss reached an astonishing 30%, not to mention the increase in food as the fighting continued.

Only then did Lu Xun understand why the Micang Road leading to Bazhong was so difficult to attack. No wonder the Jinniu Road at Jiameng Pass was even more difficult to attack, but the Wei State still chose this road to attack Chengdu directly, simply because the latter's terrain was easier to travel.

Just when Lu Xun was in a dilemma, news came from Shangyong Fangling that the Wei army had broken through the Baidi City Zigui line and was attacking Yiling and Gong'an along the waterway, while the Hannan army had retreated to Jiangling and was dispatching naval reinforcements from Dongting Lake in the rear.

After hearing this, Lu Xun felt uneasy, because Jiangling passed through the Yangtze River, and 200 miles to the north was Nanjun via the Han River. The section from Nanjun to Jiangxia, 300 miles downstream, belonged to the defense line of Jin State, and was originally the scope of Lu Xun's defense in Jianghuai.

Originally, Lu Xun thought that this section of the defense line was very safe, so in order to attack Hanzhong with all his strength from Shangyong, he transferred the defending generals Wen Pin, Xu Sheng and others here and brought them all to Hanzhong. However, who knew that Guan Yu in the direction of Baidi City was defeated and retreated to Jiangling, which was equivalent to exposing the almost unprepared rear defense line of Jin State.

Since the Wei army on the opposite side was able to defeat Guan Yu, they would naturally notice the weakness of the Jin State's Nanjun Jiangxia defense line and would inevitably launch a tentative attack against it.

Although the Hannan Army in the direction of Jiangling could assist in the defense, they were not their own people after all. If they were suppressed by the Wei Army, the Wei Army could take the opportunity to break through. If they broke through Nanjun and reached the north bank of the Han River where the Jin Army's defense was empty, that was the flat Jianghuai Plain. If a war was started here, the destructive power caused by the Wei Army would not be able to be stopped by conscripting tens of thousands of people!
Thinking of this, Lu Xun became anxious. He asked Wen Pin and Jiang Qin to continue attacking Micang Road, and took Xu Sheng directly to Hanzhong, intending to take a boat down the Han River and rush to Nanjun for rescue along the Han River.

However, when he arrived in Hanzhong a few days later, he found that hundreds of warships were ready to go at the dock, and soldiers were taking turns to board the ships carrying weapons and supplies. And in Hanzhong City was Zhao Yun, who had previously led his troops to attack Jinniu Road.

Lu Xun went up to see him and asked in confusion, "Why did the general come back to Hanzhong?"

Zhao Yun smiled and said, "The Prime Minister learned that the Hannan Army had retreated to Jiangling and knew that the Governor-General would lead his troops back from the Han River to defend Nanjun. However, most of the Jianghuai soldiers are good at infantry combat. If the Wei Army breaks through the Han River when they arrive, they will need cavalry to contain them. So after discussing with me, he asked me to help the Governor-General."

"When I came here, the Prime Minister asked me to wait for the governor for three days. I arrived two days earlier and prepared the troops to wait. If the governor had not arrived, I would have set out tomorrow."

After hearing this, Lu Xun was amazed at Zhuge Liang's brilliant plan, but at the same time he said with shame: "It was my lack of consideration that caused the gap in the defense line. Before Your Majesty issues an order to punish me, I can only make up for it."

Zhao Yun consoled him, "The defeat of the Hannan army is not the fault of the commander-in-chief. Besides, it will only take seven or eight days to reach the destination by boat. I have already sent a letter to the cities in Jianghuai, asking them to fortify their walls and clear the fields. Even if Wei enters the Jianghuai plain to plunder, it will not cause too much damage."

After hearing this, Lu Xun felt a little relieved and immediately took Xu Sheng and Zhao Yun on board. More than a hundred warships hoisted sails at the same time and sped downstream.

It was the summer flood season and the river was turbulent, so they reached Nanjun in less than five or six days.

When they arrived, they heard two pieces of news, one good and one bad. The good news was that Nanjun was not lost. The bad news was that after the Wei army repelled the Hannan army, they did not attack Jiangling with all their strength, but sent part of their troops to contain the enemy from upstream, and at the same time sent several generals to attack Maicheng in the north from Yiling.

Maicheng is located on the south bank of the Han River. When it was attacked, it had to hold on with great effort. As the Wei army's offensive intensified, the situation in Maicheng became increasingly critical. The Hannan army in Jiangling was unable to fight because Guan Yu was injured, so they were forcibly separated by the Wei army into two parts that could not support each other.

Upon hearing the situation, Guan Ping, who was upstream, hurriedly came to the rescue with Hao Zhao. After paying a huge price, they finally broke into Maicheng and defended the precarious city.

However, this was exactly what Sima Yi wanted. He immediately deployed all his reserve forces to surround Maicheng. At the same time, he sent people to cross the Han River to cut off Maicheng's supply lines both by land and water.

The Wei army that entered the Jianghuai Plain began to plunder supplies and fight to support the war. Although they had received Zhuge Liang's previous order to fortify the city and clear the fields, many cities that did not have time to mobilize still suffered considerable losses.

From Jingshan to Dangyang, from Maicheng to Changbanpo, this area of ​​more than 200 miles has become a huge battlefield. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been affected, and many of them have been captured by the Wei army and forced to join the battle.

At this time, Lu Xun and Zhao Yun arrived. After hearing the military intelligence, Lu Xun felt dizzy. He had miscalculated this time!

Zhao Yun's face was not looking good either. The two of them had tried their best to hurry on their way, but the Wei army still spread out on the battlefield. The situation was getting out of control! The only consolation was that Jin had sent a message all the way to recruit all the cavalry and war horses from Shangyong, Fangling and Fancheng along the way. When Zhao Yun's fleet passed by, they took all the thousands of cavalry on board. Now they wanted to cut off the Wei army that was dividing the battlefield for hundreds of miles, so these cavalry were very useful.

At this moment, Lu Xun and Zhao Yun split their troops into two groups. Lu Xun took Xu Sheng to Maicheng to relieve the siege, while Zhao Yun disembarked at Changbanpo upstream of Maicheng with thousands of cavalry in advance and began to launch harassment and raids on the Wei army's flank.

The Wei army generals Wang Shuang and Niu Jin were stationed and attacking near Changbanpo at that time. They did not expect that the Jin army would mobilize a group of cavalry so quickly, and they were caught off guard by Zhao Yun's sudden attack. Niu Jin was killed on the spot.

Wang Shuang fought desperately and retreated all the way until he retreated to Dangyang City, where he finally managed to stabilize his position. He immediately sent an urgent letter to ask for help from Yiling, more than a hundred miles to the south.

Sima Yi was in Yiling at the time. After receiving the news, he said to Du Xi: "Although I expected the Jin army to return to defend, I didn't expect them to come so quickly. The most important thing is that they were able to gather a cavalry in such a short time. I miscalculated."

At the beginning of the war, Sima Yi knew that if he wanted to open up the Hannan route, he must eliminate the influence of the Jin army to the greatest extent possible, and to achieve this, he had to transfer the main force of the Jin army.

The current attack by the Jin army on Chengdu is the best opportunity. Even the troops on the Jianghuai defense line have been mobilized to Hanzhong. It will take at least half a month to a month for them to return from Micang Road. By then, the area near Maicheng has been completely destroyed by the Wei army.

At the beginning, everything went according to Sima Yi's plan. Guan Yu was besieged and injured by several Wei generals and could no longer withstand the Wei army's all-out offensive. After besieging Maicheng, the Hannan Army was divided into two parts. At that time, as long as the Jin army did not intervene, the Wei army could defeat them one by one, attack Maicheng, and thus control the Han River.

But the first miscalculation was that Guan Ping and Hao Zhao defended the city at all costs, which resulted in the delay in taking Maicheng. In the end, they held out until Lu Xun led his fleet to arrive. Now the Wei army upstream of Maicheng was being attacked by Lu Xun's fleet, and it seemed that Maicheng would not be able to be surrounded.

The second miscalculation was that the Jin army had stationed cavalry units in the cities upstream of the Han River. Although there were only a few hundred cavalry in a city, they had gathered nearly two thousand cavalry along the way. This number of cavalry was enough to suppress the Wei army on land without the help of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, thus changing the situation of the battle!
What was even more terrible was that the opposing army was led by the Jin general Zhao Yun. The Wei army generals of Cao Cao's generation all had a natural fear of Zhao Yun. And as expected, Niu Jin died in the cavalry chaos. Fortunately, Wang Shuang responded properly and prevented the entire route from completely collapsing.

Sima Yi thought to himself that he had finally suppressed Guan Yu, but then Zhao Yun showed up. If time went on for too long, the enemy would definitely send troops from Luoyang and Nanyang. By then, the generals of the Jin army would bring cavalry reinforcements, and the Wei army would be completely defeated!

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Du Xi said, "The Jin army must have made preparations in advance. The military advisor there is Zhuge Liang, who is very difficult to deal with."

"Fortunately, he should still be in Jinniu Road, otherwise the battle would be even more difficult to deal with."

"The most troublesome thing now is that the Jin army is very fast at delivering messages. It takes them less than half the time to deliver an urgent letter that would take ten days. Therefore, the time left for us to move the battle line is too short."

"The biggest threat now is Zhao Yun's cavalry. We must find ways to restrict his movements, otherwise we will be blocked here."

"If you ask me, I shouldn't have given up the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry back then. Although it cost a lot, if we want to conquer Yizhou, we can't just rely on infantry. Now we are in a passive position."

Sima Yi said, "I have already dealt with this. Yizhou also produces horses. Although they are not as good as the Youzhou horses of the Jin army, it is not a problem to gather a few hundred cavalry."

"I sent Wen Qin to Baidi City to wait for support. According to the time, the fleet should be here soon. We can only stabilize the defense line in the next few days. Otherwise, the infantry will be restrained by the cavalry, which is too passive."

Two days later, the Wei fleet finally arrived. Wen Qin disembarked with seven or eight hundred cavalrymen to report to Sima Yi.

Sima Yi was delighted and said to Wen Qin, "You and Niu Jin each lead 400 cavalry to contain Zhao Yun from two directions."

"We don't seek to defeat him, as long as we can tie up Zhao Yun, I will order Wei Ping and Fei Yao to block his retreat, and then kill him, and this way we can open up the situation!"

"This battle is extremely crucial. Remember to stop Zhao Yun at all costs, even if all the cavalry is wiped out!"

Wen Qin clasped his fists and said, "Don't worry, General. I will definitely sacrifice my life to complete your orders!"

(End of this chapter)