At the beginning, Liu Bei accepted Ge Liang's suggestion, personally led the army to Jingzhou, and Guan Yu marched together by land and water, and drove to the front line of Xiangyang and Fancheng, and did take advantage of the convenience of the waterway, plus the last time Guan Yu conquered Fancheng, although he returned because of Lü Meng's sneak attack, but gave Cao Wei's army a heavy blow, and now it is back, and the soldiers are full of energy and confidence.

Xu Huang had previously been ordered to garrison Xiangyang, and as soon as he heard that Liu Bei was coming to attack, he immediately suggested to Cao Ren that he take the initiative to abandon Xiangyang and retreat to Fancheng.

Cao Ren suffered a big loss last time, and he fully realized the ability of the Jingzhou Navy, so he naturally did not dare to let the lone army hang on the south bank of the Han River, and hurriedly sent a letter to Cao Pi, suggesting that all the people and materials on the south bank of the Han River should be withdrawn to the north, leaving Liu Bei with an empty city.

Cao Pi just forced the Han Emperor to take the throne and sat in the position of the emperor, and before he had time to enjoy the pleasure of being the only one in the world, he wanted him to give up Xiangyang, which was really a nest of fire, I want to disagree, even if he is as powerful as his father, he was forced by Guan Yu to move the capital back then, so forget it.

This damn Liu Bei, I just forced the Emperor of the Han Dynasty to give way, and the emperor's throne is still hot, you call yourself the Emperor of the Han Dynasty in Chengdu, saying that the Han family is immortal, and you still come to challenge me with great fanfare, I won't let you succeed!

Give up for the time being in Xiangyang, give up for the time being, I'll let the army wait for you on the north bank!

So he summoned heavy troops, in addition to Cao Ren, Xiahou Shang, Xu Huang, Zhang Liao and others who had been stationed in Xiang, Fan and Nanyang, and then transferred Manzhong, Zang Ba and other troops, and for a time more than 200,000 troops gathered, and decided to start a decisive battle with Liu Bei, looking forward to annihilating Liu Bei's main force in one fell swoop and pacifying the world.

Liu Bei and Guan Yu faced more than twice as many enemy troops as they were, but they did not give up the attack, and the army advanced by land and water, stationed in Xiangyang, and then crossed the river to engage the enemy.

The two sides won and lost each other, and the battle situation was stalemate.

Fa Zheng suggested to Liu Bei, saying that the enemy army has a large number of troops and horses, and it is difficult to make progress for a while, but the enemy has a large number of people, and the need for grain, grass and equipment is also large, and we have convenient waterways on the front line of Xiangyang and Fancheng, and if we continue to fight for a long time, we will eventually win, but if the confrontation is too long and the national strength is consumed, it is better to send another elite to go deeper, harass the enemy's rear grain route, and accelerate the enemy's defeat.

Liu Bei thought so, so he sent Zhang Fei and Liu Feng to lead the army to attack from the upper reaches of the Han River.

Zhang Fei and Liu Feng lived up to their trust, crossed the mountains and dangers, and successfully flanked the enemy's rear many times.

Xiahou Shang immediately counterattacked, and also led his army deep into the mountains to the west, blocking the dangerous pass, and looking for the enemy for a decisive battle.

The two sides went back and forth, and once again reached a stalemate.

However, the stalemate was quickly broken, because the war on the Western Front changed too quickly.

With Cao Xiu's defeat at Longyou, and then when the Wei army and Sima Yi in Guanzhong went to Longyou to seek a decisive battle with Ge Liang, Zhang Wei and Wei Yan entered Guanzhong from Chencang Road and Meridian Valley respectively.

Wei Yan rode to Tongguan, and Zhang Wei only led more than 2,000 Wudangfei troops, according to Ge Liang's instructions, rushed to the southeast, took Wuguan, and killed it in the direction of Wancheng.

Compared with Tongguan, there were fewer Wei defenders in Wuguan, and they were all guarded by local county soldiers.

Compared with Tongguan and Hangu Road, Wuguan Road is also difficult and difficult, and it is more long and remote. In these years, the war is in chaos, thieves are everywhere, and they go to the Hangu Road and say that they will go to the capital to seek fame or do business or something, how many people will have nothing to do and run thousands of miles from Guanzhong to the front line of the Nanyang War.

Unlike Wei Yan who sent cavalry to rush to the line, Zhang Wei's men were all veritable foot soldiers, because when they came from the Meridian Valley, the plank road was destroyed, and everyone had to climb the cliff, so they couldn't carry a horse on their backs, right?

In order to achieve the suddenness of the battle, he had some of the sergeants disguise themselves as ordinary people and march east in several groups at the front. At each checkpoint, the army that followed from the rear attacked, and then a group of sergeants who had already mixed in front of them turned back to flank them, while the other advance detachments, some of which continued on their way, and some of which were dedicated to intercepting any pedestrians, chariots and horses from west to east, to ensure that no one could reach the front checkpoint before them to report the news.

In this way, they traveled quickly eastward, until they reached Nanxiang Xi County, and the Wei army received the news that they had left Wuguan.

Xiahou Shang was shocked when he heard that someone had successfully inserted into their rear flank, and the army did not dare to go deeper into the mountains, so he hurriedly sent Zhang Liao to lead the army to intercept it.

Zhang Wei arrived at Xi County, and after taking advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness to take the county seat, he no longer continued to go deep alone, and the front was about to enter the basin, and his Wudang Flying Army had no advantage.

After all, he only had 2,000 men and horses, and he had already divided 500 soldiers to guard Wuguan, so he led more than 1,000 soldiers to hold on to the city, waiting for reinforcements, and sent people to sneak to report to Liu Bei and Ge Liang respectively, and at the same time spread news everywhere, saying that Guanlong Cao Zhen had been defeated, and the army of Shu Han West Road was about to take advantage of the situation to go east and capture Luoyang.

As early as two years ago, when Guan Yu besieged Fancheng, there were many officials and strong responses, and now Liu Bei is back, and the west road is already about to hit Luoyang, and they are greatly encouraged, and they have responded one after another. For a while, all the officers and men of Cao's army could not figure out how many enemy troops were moving behind and on their flanks.

Cao Ren and the others were in a hurry, seeing that all the troops were in a panic, they hurriedly sent people around to stop the rumors, shrink their forces to hold the important places everywhere, and scolded Cao Zhen and others for being useless, and on the other hand, they urgently asked Cao Pi for the news, asking if they wanted to send the army back to Beijing to help defend it.

At this time, Cao Pi was busy letting Jia Kui lead his army westward to prevent Wei Yan from advancing from Hangu, was he worried about Luoyang being attacked? He also really asked Cao Ren to urgently dispatch 20,000 horses back to Luoyang, and at the same time began to urgently mobilize troops from Jizhou, Yanzhou, Xuzhou and other places to help.

Zhang Liao led his army to besiege the county of Xixian that Zhang Wei was defending, and failed to capture it for a while, but found that the enemy had really sent a large number of reinforcements from the direction of Wuguan.

It was Wu Yi and Ma Dai, who led more than 5,000 soldiers to leave the Guanzhong battlefield and went south to Wuguan to support Zhang Wei.

They were huge, under the banner of Ge Liang, and said all the way, saying that Guanlong had been pacified by the Shu Han army, and the Han army had already attacked Luoyang in five ways, and at the same time personally led 50,000 troops to the south, coming to cut off the back road of the Wei army on the southern front.

At this time, all the generals of the Wei army couldn't bear it, and even Cao Ren and Xiahou Shang had to worry about the back road being cut off, so they urgently reduced their forces and retreated to the front line of Wancheng to defend.

Liu Bei and Zhang Fei and others took advantage of the situation to go north, recovering Fancheng, Xinye, Qicheng and other places all the way, and successfully joined forces with Zhang Su and Wu Yi, and approached Wancheng.

Seeing Zhang Wei, Wu Yi, Ma Dai and others, Liu Bei was overjoyed, and it was hard to believe that Ge Liang had taken the land of Yongliang and Liangzhou so quickly, and pulled them to praise them while carefully inquiring about the war process over there.

Zhang Wei: Of course they didn't dare to talk nonsense this time. Wu Yi just said that Cao Zhen and the others had indeed retreated to Chang'an, the Great Sima and the Hanzhong army had indeed fully entered Guanzhong, and Wei Yan and Ma Chao had indeed seized Tongguan and coerced Luoyang.

Immediately afterwards, Ge Liang sent someone to deliver a letter, saying that all parts of Guanzhong also admired the emperor's benevolent name, and responded positively, the Wei army had been defeated and retreated, and the capture of Chang'an was just around the corner.

Liu Bei was greatly encouraged and commanded the army to launch a full-scale attack on the Wei army on the front line of Wancheng, and wanted to join Ge Liang in Luoyang.

Soon, Ge Liang sent a letter again, saying that the army of Cao Zhen and Sima Yi, as well as the troops sent by Cao Pi to Pusaka to respond, had all been defeated and almost completely annihilated, leaving only the main generals to flee to Hedong, and Wei Yan had been sent to pursue, and now Yongliang had been decided, and asked the emperor to appoint officials to manage and reward the generals, and also pointed out that Hangu was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and Luoyang was an important place in Beijing, and it was already God's blessing to quickly take Yongliang, the emperor Hongfu, an unexpected joy, and then wanted to further take Luoyang, but I was afraid that it would be difficult to succeed between eagerness, Therefore, I hope to discuss the follow-up with His Majesty the Emperor and other officials carefully.

"Chang'an was taken down by Da Sima so quickly? Da Sima said that he would discuss the follow-up with everyone. You say, should I go to Chang'an to comfort the soldiers over there? Liu Bei was full of joy, and still had an expression of disbelief on his face.

Fa Zheng and the others congratulated Liu Bei on the one hand, and dissuaded them on the other: "The war in Nanyang is also at a critical juncture, and people from all over the country are responding to Your Majesty's call and waiting for Your Majesty to receive and appoint." Since Da Sima said that Hangu was difficult to capture for a while, and he wanted to come over to discuss with everyone, it was better to let him come over. ”

In fact, they felt that Liu Bei was very old, and the road from here to Chang'an was far away, and the road was not completely peaceful, so it was really not good if he was tired or frightened along the way.

And if a large army is sent to escort it, the troops on the southern front are much smaller than the enemy, and then they will storm Wancheng and pacify all places, and it will be really inconvenient to divide the army.

Liu Bei thought about it, it was really inappropriate to go to Chang'an at this time, so he said to Fa Zheng: "Or, you will take a trip on my behalf?" It just so happens that you are a person from Fufeng Yiguo, so you can go back to your hometown to have a look. ”

Fa Zhengcai didn't go, he didn't fight down when he accompanied Liu Bei to attack Guanzhong two years ago, and now it's all the credit of Ge Liang, how interesting can it be to go back to his hometown like this? At the moment, he excused himself: "The war on the southern front is tight, Fa Zheng has been away from his hometown for many years, and he is not in a hurry, I heard that General Guan is a person from Hedong, isn't the big Sima a decent Wei Yan to attack Hedong?" Why don't you ask the general to come over and command the war on the Western Front for Da Sima. ”

Guan Yu didn't go either, Ge Liang pacified the land of the two states so quickly, and he accompanied the emperor to conquer in person, but he hadn't even beaten down Nanyang County until now, what was the point of running to his hometown in Hedong? Hurry up and take Wancheng and enter Luoyang is the top priority.

And Liu Bei also came back to his senses, yes, he led the army to conquer Guanlong in person, but he returned in vain, and now he is attacking from Jingzhou, no matter how he has to wait to take Wancheng.

However, who will be sent to temporarily replace the Great Sima General to lead the army of the Western Road? Guan Yu and Fa Zheng didn't want to go, so they had no choice but to say to Zhang Fei: "Or, please go for a trip?" ”

After all, there is still a hussar general Ma Chao over there, and sending other officials to be in charge is really too faceless for Ma Chao.

Fortunately, Zhang Fei didn't think as much as Guan Yu and Fa Zheng, so he agreed immediately.

(End of chapter)