Since I have long known that the key to whether or not I can hold Jingzhou is not to defend Wuling, even with a guy like Xie Xian, who is good at defending cities, I did not use him to build additional city walls, but began to recruit troops and horses, train the army, and let him replace the previous role of Gong Zhi in Wuling as my auxiliary. Xie Xian is indeed a talent in governance, I only need to set a direction for many things, and he can arrange them in an orderly manner, plus those old officials from Lingling are also very hardworking, and the development of armaments in Wuling City has exceeded my expectations every day.

On the other hand, after Dongwu ate Jiangxia, Changsha and Guiyang, in addition to leaving a small number of troops to garrison, the main force began to assemble at the mouth of the Yangtze River in the north of the Yangtze River. Liu Bei also gradually transferred his troops back to Shuzhong, but the distance was far away, and he still had to repair for a few days when he returned to Chengdu, and he could not reinforce Hanzhong in a hurry.

At this time, although Zhang Lu had previously sent horses beyond the battle and lost more than 10,000 men and horses, his younger brother Zhang Wei had previously led the generals Yang Ang, Yang Ren and tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, relying on the dangerous terrain between the north and south mountains of Yangping Pass, and built more than ten miles of fortifications, which were not given in vain. During the period when Liu Bei and Sun Quan were in Jingzhou, Cao's army continued to send troops to storm these fortifications. But after a few days of attacking, due to the dangerous terrain and strong defense, Cao's army still made no progress despite heavy casualties.

Cao Cao then wrote to Xiahou Yuan on the one hand and told him to pretend to retreat, and on the other hand, he made a big noise in the Shangyong area, and the army had completed all preparations and began to advance by land and water, marching towards Hanzhong at a rate of thirty miles a day. Xiahou Yuan stormed the Zhanglu army camp several times at any cost before retreating, and then pretended to retreat to Chencang after heavy losses. Seeing Xiahou Yuan retreating, Zhang Lu thought that he had repelled the enemy in the north, so he only left his younger brother Zhang Wei to lead 10,000 people to guard the camp outside Yangping Pass, Yang Song led 10,000 people to guard Yangping Pass, and he took the rest of the generals and 30,000 troops to the west of Hanzhong, intending to find a favorable defensive terrain in front of Cao Cao to build fortifications for defense. Huang Zhong's 3,000 reinforcements from Jiameng Pass also followed him and marched westward.

To march from Hanzhong to the east, that is, in the direction of Shangyong, it is necessary to go down the Han River through Chenggu, and can reach Shangyong from the gap between Qinling and Bashan to the east, that is to say, if Zhang Lu wants to block Cao Cao's army, he must reach the gap between Qinling and Bashan before Cao Cao's main force, and build fortifications to prevent Cao's army from entering the Hanzhong Basin.

Therefore, Zhang Lu can be said to be a leg of Xiahou Yuan in the north, so he was anxious to lead people to the east, in addition to the main force day and night rapid march, but also sent 3,000 cavalry to the gap between Qinling and Bashan to help the hundreds of soldiers originally stationed there to defend.

I am actually very much in favor of this kind of fighting attitude of the brave winning and the positive action of the narrow road. But the key is that Cao Cao's 300,000 troops stationed in Shangyong marched towards Hanzhong, but the speed was only thirty miles a day, you must know that if Cao Cao's army first opened the gap between Qinling and Bashan, Hanzhong would not be so easy for Zhang Lu to defend.

Judging from the results later, because the gap between Qinling and Bashan is close to Hanzhong and far away from Shangyong, Cao Cao made it clear that he knew that even if he robbed, he couldn't grab it, so he simply didn't rob it. So when Cao Cao's vanguard Xu Huang arrived outside the gap with 20,000 men, Zhang Lu's army of 30,000 and Huang Zhong's men and horses had already arrived three days early, and they had built very strong fortifications.

Xu Huang did not attack, but camped outside the gap, while stabilizing the camp, he packed up catapults and other equipment that could attack the work, while waiting for Cao Cao's Chinese army to arrive.

After that, the plot was very smooth, after Cao Cao's army arrived, he tried to attack Zhang Lu several times a day, Zhang Lu relied on the dangerous terrain to hold it every day, and the casualties on both sides were slowly rising every day. But what Zhang Lu didn't know was that not long after he led the army to leave the Yangping Pass line, Xiahou Yuan's troops drove back from Chencang to take a night march and conceal during the day, until Zhang Lu arrived at the eastern front to hold Cao Cao, but Xiahou Yuan's troops took advantage of the night to carry out a night attack on Zhang Wei's camp, and it happened that thousands of wild millet rushed into Zhang Wei's camp halfway, resulting in the destruction of its fortifications, and as a result, Cao's army took advantage of the weakness to enter and occupied many of Zhang Wei's camps, and at the same time, the drums and horns sounded in unison, giving Zhang Wei the illusion that the main force of Cao's army broke through the whole line. Zhang Wei was in a hurry, and it was difficult to discern the situation, so he had to abandon his position and flee to Yangping Pass.

What Zhang Wei never expected was that this Yang Song had already been bought by Cao Cao's people, and Zhang Wei's remnants arrived at Yangping Pass but encountered random arrows shot down from the pass, Xiahou Yuan took advantage of the situation to cover up, Zhang Wei had no way out, and could only choose to surrender with thousands of soldiers. Yang Song opened the city and put Xiahou Yuan, and Yangping Pass fell.

When Zhang Lu learned the news of the fall of Yangping Pass, Xiahou Yuan had already left Cao Hong to guard Yangping Pass, Zhang He led the army to surrender various fortresses in Hanzhong, and personally led an army of 50,000 from Hanzhong to the gap between Qinling and Bashan, where Zhang Lu was at this time.

Although Zhang Lu's place is dangerous, it is not even a city, and after Xiahou Yuan cut off the supply in the direction of Hanzhong, he could not support the army with food and grass for half a month. He planned to surrender to Cao Cao, but it was impossible for Ma Chao and Huang Zhong to do it with him, Ma Chao's Xiliang soldiers were left after attacking the ambush from Yangping Pass before, and Zhang Lujun was now panicked and difficult to rely on, so he went to Huang Zhong to discuss. Although Huang Zhong had 3,000 troops he could control, it was still a bit of a fool's dream to say that he could defeat Xiahou Yuan's 50,000 troops with this, so the two went to Zhang Lu together to persuade him to hold on for another half a month, and when Liu Bei's reinforcements arrived, it was likely that there would be a turnaround. But Zhang Lu saw that the situation was sinister, and many of his subordinates wanted to surrender, although they verbally promised Ma Chao and Huang Zhong, but Ma Chao and Huang Zhong could already see from his expression that Zhang Lu's insistence was just perfunctory, so he led the army out of Zhang Lu's camp overnight, trying to retreat to Hanzhong before Xiahou Yuan completely blocked the road, and returned to Shu.

Fortunately, many small cities between Hanzhong and Qinling and Bashan gaps have not yet received Zhang Lu's surrender order, and some of Xiahou Yuan's marching speed has been delayed, and Xiahou Yuan's army has just arrived in Hanzhong, although Yang Song also sent people to guide him, but the guide is only to guide a road to him, Xiahou Yuan only cares about marching as soon as possible to attack Zhang Lu, and does not block all the roads leading to Hanzhong.

Therefore, although Ma Chao and Huang Zhong's army could not avoid encountering Xiahou Yuan's troops on the way back to the army, because their current purpose was not to fight Xiahou Yuan and repel him, they chose to take as many small roads as possible, avoid the main force of Xiahou Yuan's army, and rush back to Hanzhong where Xiahou Yuan's army was few.

Although Xiahou Yuan sent people to chase after learning about it, because Huang Zhong and Ma Chao's troops were only 3,000 people, and Cao Hong and Zhang He, who were left behind in Yangping Pass, also had 50,000 people, they would definitely not lose, so his mind was still more on Zhang Lu's 30,000 people, and he just sent a letter to Cao Hong to order him to exterminate him, and he still marched to Zhang Lu's location with the main force, and did not turn back and pursue with all his might.

Similarly, because Zhang Lu had not yet surrendered, and many of the generals of the Zhang Lu army, who were mainly disciples of the Wudou Mi Sect, only listened to Zhang Lu, so thanks to the fact that Zhang He's surrender had little effect, Ma Chao and Huang Zhong were able to retreat to Shu through the part of the danger controlled by Zhang Lujun as allies under the banner.

Because Zhang Lu's army was defeated too quickly, after Huang Zhong withdrew to Jiamengguan with Ma Chao and Ma Dai, he withdrew from Jingzhou to Shudi, and planned to rush to Hanzhong to rescue Liu Bei, who had not returned to Chengdu at this time.