Chapter 731: Virtual and Real
Not to mention that Zhao Yun narrowly escaped death and Zhang Fei was wounded and unconscious.
It can only be said that the war suddenly accelerated because of this unexpected encounter.
If the Konghe Army had defeated Iron Gate and Yima in the past, the army was still a little arrogant, and even Zhao Yun felt that the Kansai Army was no more than this.
But after this encounter, Zhao Yun clearly realized that the enemy had tens of thousands of enemies like Zhang Fei, and it would not be easy to win anymore.
Therefore, Zhao Yun did not move his troops forward, but camped to the west of Yima.
In the Xiaohan passage, the section from Yima to the west to Mianchi is a rare stretch of flat land.
Therefore, Zhao Yun lined up his camp in the north of Jianshui. Four thousand troops lined up the camp, intending to prepare for a while before attacking the city.
Zhao Yun's consciousness was clear, and he understood that he had penetrated deep into Weihan, alone. Previously, the attack on the city must be defeated. Although the momentum was like a rainbow, it also violated the taboo of military strategists.
At this time, the strength of the troops has been blunted, and the best strategy is to hold on to the barriers and wait for the follow-up.
But Zhao Yun wanted to take a break, but the opposite was not the case for the Kansai Army. Even Guo Si's troops, who were supposed to be stationed in Shaanxian County, came with their entire army.
He joined forces with Liu Bei in Mianchi, and gathered 30,000 troops to move towards Zhao Yun.
In this case, thirty thousand versus four thousand, the crisis of the situation cannot be overemphasized.
Sure enough, Zhao Yun's side responded quickly. They did not get dizzy and fight in the Kansai field where the soldiers gathered, but hurriedly retreated to the east.
Not only did they directly abandon Yima, they even retreated to Iron Gate in one breath, and then relied on the solid barriers of Iron Gate to plan a protracted struggle.
On the opposite side, Guo Si sent out troops and faced a stubborn enemy without fighting. Naturally, he was full of arrogance.
He had selfish motives for expanding the war with Taishan's army, and was eager to make military exploits, so he led his army to pursue Zhao Yun without any hesitation.
After recapturing Yima, Liu Bei once persuaded Guo Si, saying:
"Originally, our army's front, middle and rear armies stood side by side, just like snakes in the Changshan Mountains. But now that the enemy has retreated, the general is still pursuing me. I am afraid that Shaanxi County is empty and the enemy can take advantage of it."
But Guo Si smiled contemptuously:
"Outside of Shaanxi County is the danger of Tianzhu. The water in this section is very fast and cannot be crossed by boat. How can the enemy come? Besides, the other side of Shaanxi County is Hedong. We have tens of thousands of troops. What kind of enemy army can fly across? ?”
Then, Guo Si also mocked Liu Bei:
"Liu Gong, the land you lost was supposed to be taken back to you. Why don't you donate the land to the Taishan bandits instead of thanking you?"
Guo Si has said this, what can Liu Bei do?
He could only take ten thousand people from the Northern Expedition Army and go out with Guo Bang to the outside of the iron gate.
As mentioned before, Tiemenbi is a large gateway on the ground in the Jianshui River Valley. It has been an important pass since Guandong. It was not easy for Guo Bin to conquer Tiemenbi.
When Guo Si and Liu Bei joined forces outside the garrison, he was stationed in the northwest and Liu Bei was stationed in the southwest.
As soon as they settled in camp, they were threatened by Zhao Yun.
More than two thousand people rushed out from the four barriers at the foot of Qinglong Mountain and Phoenix Mountain, and took advantage of the Guanxi Army's unsteady foothold to attack head-on.
The Guo and Liu armies were unprepared and could not erect the camp walls. They had to gather their troops to repel the attack of the He Controlling Army.
By late night, the Guo and Liu armies were tired and exhausted, and finally built the barrier.
It was also at this time that Liu Bei went to Guoying again to persuade Guo Si:
"General, don't you think this is too strange? After some advance and retreat, our troops were mobilized to Tiemeng garrison. Didn't this greatly change the grand master's plan?"
It turned out that before they sent troops to Kyoto, Dong Zhuo had already told the three of them the key to this battle, that is, they could only wait until the Taishan Army and Yuan Shao were at odds with each other before they could take the initiative to attack.
In other words, Yuan Shao was fully expecting to attack the Taishan Army with the Guanxi Army, but it was actually impossible from the beginning.
Dong Zhuo just wants Yuan Shao to pull chestnuts from the fire for him, so that he can calmly take control of Kyoto when both sides are hurt.
Originally Liu Bei thought that when he said these words, Guo Si should listen. After all, Guo Si didn't listen when it came to military matters, but you violated Dong Zhuo's military strategy, so why didn't you listen?
But Liu Bei didn't know that Guo Si wanted to make Dong Zhuo come to the front line at this time. How could he care about Liu Bei's words? He objected to Liu Bei and said:
"If Liu Gong is cowardly, he can return to the army. I, Guo Aduo, can still capture this iron gate."
Liu Bei had no choice but to return to the camp and never joined Guo Si's army again. Of course, he did not lead his troops back to Mianchi as Guo Si said.
So, the next day, the Guo and Liu armies made some preparations and launched an attack on Tiemenshu.
In the third year of Taiwu, on May 15th, the fighting at Tiemenbi resumed, but this time the offensive and defensive sides traded hands.
In the morning, Guo Si's army went out to attack the Taishan Army at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain.
Ge Han and Sun Wang, the generals of the Konghe Army, came out of the wall to counterattack, but were defeated by the thieves and retreated into the wall. After three hours of fighting, Ge Han and Sun Wang were defeated, so they abandoned the fortress at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain and retreated to Iron Gate garrison.
Guo Si's army took advantage of the victory to pursue, but was unexpectedly ambushed by Zhao Yun.
It turned out that when the double walls at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain were attacked, Zhao Yun from Tiemen garrison secretly led his main force up Fenghuang Mountain and lurked at the foot of the mountain.
When Guo Bin's troops were chasing generals Ge Han and Sun Wang, Zhao Yun led two battalions of the Crane Control Army to circle out from behind Fenghuang Mountain and directly attack the wall of Guo Bin's camp.
At the same time, Han Dang from the Iron Gate garrison also came out from the front with a thousand elite troops to counterattack Guo Bang's troops.
For a time, Guo Si was attacked one after another and was in a critical situation.
But at this time, Liu Bei's cavalry general Zhang Fei arrived with thousands of cavalry troops. He not only defeated Han Dang in the front, but also killed the cavalry general Yu Wengui.
Han Dang was no match for Zhang Fei's thousands of cavalry, so he hurriedly withdrew. If Hu Lun'en on the top of the city had not led hundreds of archers to gather Zhang Fei's troops, Han Dang might have died under Zhang Fei's hand.
Who would have thought that a few days ago Zhang Fei was injured by Zhao Yun and fell into coma, but a few days later he could lead his troops on the battlefield again?
I can only say that people are really different.
Over there, Zhao Yun's troops were cut off from their way back to the city, and had no choice but to retreat back to the Phoenix Mountain barrier.
In this way, the two sides fought for a while, except for the casualties each gained, and achieved nothing.
That night, Guo Si went to Liu Bei's army in person to thank him and invited Liu Bei to fight with him in the future.
Liu Bei was impartial, so the two sides agreed to attack one side each, and finally attack the Iron Gate garrison together.
In the third year of Taiwu, on May 16th, the morning light was dim.
The Guanxi Army launched a massive attack, with Guo Si leading the army to attack Phoenix Mountain and Liu Bei leading the army to attack Qinglong Mountain.
In this battle, Guo Bin personally led the main force to fight fiercely on the front line, galloping between the double walls of Phoenix Mountain. The governor supervised the morale and promised the entire army a great reward after the war. As a result, the morale of Guo Bin's army was greatly boosted and they fought for half a day.
Starting from the early morning, they attacked fiercely and broke through both walls of Phoenix Mountain.
Zhao Yun was not willing to fight, so he retreated one after another with his main force of two thousand, and finally retreated all the way to the Iron Gate garrison.
At the same time, Liu Bei's side also successively captured the double walls at the foot of Qinglong Mountain, but also failed to inflict serious damage to the He Controlling Army. At this time, Liu Bei was already a little unconscious, but at this point in the battle, he could only continue to fight.
Sure enough, that night, Guo Bang continued to attack the Iron Gate garrison at night, and around the third watch, Zhao Yun led the army to withdraw from the back gate, leaving the Iron Gate garrison to Guo Bang, and then retreated eastward.
After capturing the iron gate wall, Guo Bang fulfilled his wartime promise and ordered his soldiers to plunder.
You must know that the Tiemenshu area was still within the territory of Kansai before, but now it was regarded as enemy territory by Guo Si and looted wantonly. Liu Bei was furious.
This time, he found Guo Bang again, and he said angrily to Guo Bang:
"Guo Si, you have launched an army to plunder and bring disaster to the countryside, but do you think this is the land of the Han Dynasty? Besides, although the enemy army has retreated, its strength has not been lost. If you drive the officials and seize it privately, who will still have the fighting spirit? ”
With Liu Bei's help before, it was easy for Guo Si to win, so this time he apologized to Liu Bei:
"What Liu Gong said about gold and jade, A Duo will change it now, he will change it."
But just like that, Guo Bang's army continued to plunder until the second day before they divided their troops and returned to the camp. By this time, there was already a piece of leftover soil in the surrounding areas of Tiemenbi.
But the next day, Liu Bei got up and saw Guo Si's army heading east again.
He didn't understand whether Guo Aduo was really stupid. He had already explained it so clearly. Could it be that he still couldn't hear it?
This time, he did not follow Guo Bangdong again, but stayed at Tiemenbi.
At this moment, Liu Bei vaguely understood that there was a dead end ahead.
……
Liu Bei was aware of the lurking crisis and no longer tried to venture deep into the hinterland of Kyoto. However, in fact, since he left Mianchi, or in other words, Guo Si left Shaanxi County, major events had become impossible.
Haven't they ever thought about why Zhao Yun's army was no more than one army, with no more than five thousand soldiers, but he dared to go straight to Weihan and march into Mianchi?
Does Zhao Yun really think that he can capture Weihan with this small force?
What if Xiaohan Road was so easy to fight? Then isn’t it true that Kanto is full of people with nothing to lose, and they can’t enter after three years of fighting?
In fact, Liu Bei also thought about this problem at first, but he simply attributed it to inviting him to join the army, but he did not expect that Zhang Chong had already planned this battle.
As for Guo Si, his mind is full of his support, how can he have the brain capacity to think about this?
However, this is also due to the fact that Guo Bang was promoted to a local tycoon in Guanxi, and there was no wise man in the background to sponsor him.
After all, military warfare also depends on strategy.
That is to say, when Guo Si and Liu Bei joined forces to pursue Zhao Yun, beacon fires were already burning in Dayang City, which stood across the river from Shaanxi County.
Just because from their east, that is, from the platform at the southern foot of Wangwu Mountain, endless yellow-clad armored riders suddenly came over the wall.
This army composed entirely of cavalry was the ten battalions of assault cavalry led by Zhang Chong, with a strength of eight thousand.
They quietly traveled from Heluo to Mengjin to the north bank of the river, and then went directly westward along the river, passing through Zhiguan and Qiziling.
These two passes had long been occupied by Pan Zhang of the Taishan Army. Originally, Pan Zhang was ordered to go west from here along the Wangwu Road to attack the area south of Wangwu Mountain and Zhongtiao Mountain in the east of Hedong, and wait for an opportunity to cross the river from Dayang. , invaded Hongnong and blocked the Kwantung Army's westward escape.
But later, the Taishan army was so powerful, and Guandong had no intention of escaping, so the plan was shelved. After all, it was really dangerous for Pan Zhang to invade Hongnong with one army.
Because once you enter Hongnong, you will be surrounded on all sides. Needless to say, it goes without saying about the east and west sides. The Hedong Army in the north knew that after Pan Zhang crossed the river, he would inevitably go south and enter the south of Zhongtiao Mountain to cut off Pan Zhang's return route.
But now, Zhang Chong took eight thousand sudden riders on this royal road. There was a natural reason why he had to take such a risk.
In fact, after Guan Yu's Yuqi entered Luo that day, Zhang Chong felt a little dizzy after reading Guan Yu's letter.
It turned out that Guan Yu was defeated at Dongpingling City and was pursued by Cao Jun. Not only did he lose a large area in central and southern Shandong, but even the southeastern part of Yanzhou was not protected.
When Guan Yu reported this situation to Zhang Chong, he was retreating to the Yimeng Tailu Mountains with the remnants of the former guard army.
Zhang Chong was confused at first. He didn't understand why Guan Yu, who was originally thought to be the pillar of the East, was suddenly defeated.
It wasn't until he read Guan Yu's account of the battle later that he understood what was going on.
It all started because the Taishan Army attacked Kyoto. At that time, Zhang Chong sent letters to Guan Yu in the east and Heifu in Heji, asking them to pay attention to containing the enemies in the east.
The order given to Guan Yu emphatically reminded him to pay attention to the possibility that Cao Cao in Qingzhou might cross the river north, so he was asked to cooperate with Ding Sheng in Pingyuan Jin and always pay attention to Cao Cao's movements.
In fact, in Zhang Chong's heart, he had never underestimated Wei Wu. He knew that if he didn't look at this man, he would give him a big blow.
But Zhang Chong did not expect that it was his military order that caused the former guard to suffer heavy losses.
According to Guan Yu's description, since receiving the military order, he has been riding around, especially in the areas of Jinan and Qi north of Mount Tai.
From the information received from Guan Yu, it is indeed certain that Cao Cao in Qingzhou is organizing a large-scale war, but the direction of Cao Cao's attack is still unclear.
He may attack Pingyuanjin again as the king expected, or he may go south to Huaisi again to completely finish off the already broken Xuzhou.
It is even possible to attack the Taishan area and the central and southern Shandong area where Guan Yu is located.
So Guan Yu did not dare to neglect, sent out his cavalry again, and at the same time asked people to cross the river to get in touch with Ding Sheng in the north.
It can be seen from the intelligence sent back by Ding Sheng that the Qingzhou Army was indeed mobilizing troops in the plain area and seemed to have the intention of crossing the river and going north.
At this time, Guan Yu's sentries in the Yanzhou area intercepted some intelligence sent by Yuan Shao to Cao Cao. The intelligence also showed that Cao Cao was about to send troops northward, intending to attack Yecheng northward when Taishan Army soldiers gathered in Heluo.
At this time, Guan Yu was actually still not too sure about Cao Cao's northward movement. It was not until the Taishan area reported later that several groups of Cao Cao's troops were gathering in Qi and Jinan, and were about to enter the mountains to attack the farming areas in the mountains.
Until then, Guan Yu was finally sure that Cao Cao was going north, and the troops gathered around Qi were just a feint to confuse him.
So Guan Yu also took advantage of his plan. On the one hand, he sent many rangers to appear frequently in the Liang Kingdom of Yuzhou, showing that he wanted to cooperate with the main force in Kyoto to attack Yuan Shao's rear. On the other hand, he gathered the main force in the Taimeng Mountains and waited for opportunities.
Guan Yu has been operating in Mount Tai for three years. Due to the mature field distribution system in central and southern Shandong, the former guard army has now expanded to six armies, with 30,000 armored soldiers, and tens of thousands of field guard soldiers. It can be said to be the Pillar of the East.
Precisely because of his strong strength, Guan Yu led 20,000 troops to lurk in Mount Tai. Finally, after three years in Mount Tai, on April 26, he learned that Cao's army was heading north.
Therefore, Guan Yu planned to use his old plan again and prepared to lead his troops to attack Dongpingling in a surprise attack to cut off Cao's army's retreat.
But this time, he was ambushed by Cao Jun.
In order to ambush Guan Yu, Cao Cao deployed his most elite troops, a total of 50,000 fine armor, around Dongping Mausoleum. When Guan Yu's troops appeared at Dongping Mausoleum, they would ambush from all sides and surround Guan Yu.
In the end, the two sides fought a decisive battle in the fields of Licheng. In this battle, Guan Yu's troops were severely defeated. Three military flags were discarded, more than 16 generals of the camp were lost, and half of the entire army retreated to Mount Tai.
Afterwards, Cao's army attacked across the board from Jinan and Qi, and defeated several Taishan Army's field-protecting and garrison troops.
After all, the field guards and garrison soldiers were second-line soldiers. Although they were determined to fight, they still failed to guard Changshao and other mountain passes, so Cao Jun successfully entered the central and southern Shandong area.
The central and southern Shandong area has become rich after several years of reclamation and cultivation, so once Cao Jun entered here, he immediately divided his forces to plunder, and could no longer form a joint force.
Also taking advantage of this opportunity, Guan Yu was able to gather the main forces from various places and at the same time ask for help from Heifu in the northwest direction of Heji to prepare for the subsequent counterattack.
It was also after the military letter was sent to Zhang Chong that Heifu from Heji also reported to Zhang Chong the situation of his dispatch of troops to the Lutai area.