In a way, the rhythm of the battlefield is the essence of tactics.

Cao Cao's strategy in Nanxiang did make rhythmic mistakes, of course, this is also inseparable from Guan Yu's series of defeats, the so-called blessings and misfortunes depend, disasters and blessings, as long as they are not defeated by their own failures, every failure is actually a step towards success.

Guan Yu stood up again through the beautiful battle in Shunyang, so that all those who were a little unimpressed with Guan Yu were brightened in their eyes and their hearts were terrified, it turned out that Guan Yu was really underestimated!

It is a pity that Liu Bei's overall strategy does not support Guan Yu to continue to take advantage of the victory to attack, which is also due to the rhythm, Liu Bei's current rhythm must be mainly concentrated in Yizhou, the pacification of the local people and clans in Yizhou, the resettlement and management of a large number of immigrants from Jingzhou and the Central Plains, the adjustment and balance of military officials, so that Liu Bei can not be distracted at all, as for a large number of conscripts to attack Jingzhou in the east, it is even more unrealistic ideas.

Although Liu Bei also knew that he was missing a great opportunity, what could he do? Reality never changes because of people's will, and Liu Bei can only comfort himself with more opportunities.

But Cao Cao definitely didn't want to give Liu Bei this kind of opportunity, so Cao Cao gathered a large army this time and cautiously marched towards Nanxiang again along the road from the champion to Shunyang.

Cao Cao's marching law is rigorous, the front and rear scout cavalry are interspersed with a huge range, the straight road is surrounded by cavalry galloping back and forth, the heavy infantry on the road is slowly marching on both sides, and in the middle is the loaded carriage and heavy crossbowmen, the carriage is covered tightly, I don't know what it is loaded, every time I walk a section, the heavy infantry will take shifts. The tired heavy infantry unloaded their heavy armor and boarded the carriage to rest.

Behind Cao Cao's troops, there were a large number of Inhuman troops, although they were slightly scattered, but they also seemed to be organized, at least distributed according to the types of troops.

A mighty army of 200,000 troops. The so-called 500,000-strong army is like a rolling iron stream, coming towards Shunyang, and Guan Yu, who is stationed in Shunyang, is faced with a choice, whether to stick to Shunyang or withdraw to the west of Xishui.

The advantage of sticking to Shunyang is that there is a strong city to defend, and there is even a chance to flood the three armies again, the disadvantage. Naturally, it is possible that Cao Cao divided his troops and copied the back road; The advantage of choosing to garrison on the west bank of Xixi is that there is a river barrier, and Cao Cao's army will not be able to find a suitable way to cross the river for a while and a half, and the disadvantage is that the Xishui is so long, Guan Yu may not be able to hold it, and Cao Cao occupies Shunyang. It means that with a suitable forward base, the whole tactic is more flexible.

After thinking about it, Guan Yu still chose to stick to Shunyang, Cao Cao arrived in Shunyang, and was not in a hurry to attack the city, and sure enough, he first sent a partial division to bypass Shunyang to seize the upstream riverbank, and cut off Guan Yu's back road first. At the same time, Guan Yu's intention to break the embankment again and release water was extinguished.

Guan Yu personally took 30,000 soldiers to garrison in Shunyang, Guan Ping led 10,000 cavalry to roam outside, originally hoping to attack the back road of the Cao army, but Cao Cao's cavalry was more than Guan Ping, and Yan Xing was a stronger cavalry general than Guan Ping. He was not Yan Xing's opponent.

Cao Cao controlled the upper reaches of Xishui, tried to attack, and found that the defenders were quite capable of fighting, especially under the command of Guan Yu, if he did not pay a huge price. I'm afraid I can't take Shunyang. However, Cao Cao never thought of fighting hard, the fact that Shunyang was flooded last time shows that the terrain of Shunyang is very low, since Guan Yu can flood Shunyang, Cao Cao can do the same!

Seeing Cao Jun building an earthen fortress outside the city, Guan Yu immediately understood Cao Cao's plan, he didn't want to just wait for the big water to trap himself in the city, that night, Guan Yu led the army to break through and go to the upper reaches of Xishui.

Cao Cao seemed to have expected it, and immediately waved his troops to block and chase after him, trying to surround and kill Guan Yu's army on the bank of Xishui, but Guan Yu, as a top general, can not be insulted, although there are only 30,000 infantry, but under the leadership of Guan Yu, this group of killing gods tore a bloody road, all the way to break through the Cao army's interception, Cao Cao's heavy cavalry because of the terrain is difficult to put into the ravines, soft soil on the river beach.

Cao Cao simply gave way to the west flank, focusing on the north side, and then squeezed it with heavy infantry and heavy crossbows on the southeast side, while the cavalry was on standby on the perimeter, and by the way, he also blocked Guan Ping, who tried to rush in to rescue.

Soon Cao Jun pressed Guan Yu on the bank of the river, Guan Yu could only fight against the water, just when Cao Cao thought that Guan Yu could be smothered on the edge of the river this time, countless lights suddenly appeared on the river, but it turned out that Guan Yu had already hidden a large number of boats on the upper reaches of the river, the battle began, these boats took advantage of the darkness to dive into the river, and when Guan Yu arrived at the river, they lit the lights together and leaned on the riverbank, and connected Guan Yu who was fighting against the water to the boat.

Cao Cao hated it and immediately ordered a strong attack, but he could only catch one of Guan Yujun's tails, but Guan Yu had already crossed the river by boat, and Cao Cao could only look at the river and sigh.

Two days later, Cao Jun first sent a cavalry to cross the river from upstream, and then cleared a position on the other side of the river, Cao Cao cut wood and built a raft, and soon built a pontoon bridge, crossing the Xishui with a large army, Guan Yu could only retreat to Nanxiang City, trying to rely on Nanxiang City to hold on.

Cao Cao divided his troops again, so that Ji Ling went south to attack Wudang, this time it hit Guan Yu's sore spot, the small city of Wudang is the only way to the Yangxian fortress, and it is also the transit place to connect the new city to the south, if this place is lost, Guan Yu's logistics will be completely broken, and Nanxiang will really become a lonely city.

Although Guan Yu had expected this result, but when it really came to this situation, Cao Cao only had to besiege but not attack, and Guan Yu would sooner or later be a failure.

Liu Bei, who got the battle report, adopted the opinions of Zhuge Jin and Pang Yuan this time, and directly gave Guan Yu the order to retreat to the Yangxian fortress, and at the same time issued Zhang Fei to retreat to Shangyong and Yan Yan to retreat to Wuxian.

Although Guan Yu was unwilling, he did not dare to disobey Liu Bei's order, so he could only lead the army south to Wudang first, and then, the Yangxian fortress was handed over to Guan Ping to garrison, Guan Yu was transferred to Wuling to serve as Taishou, and together with Fan Chou, Li Yan, and Liao Li, he tried to counterattack Jiangling.

At the end of September of the twelfth year of Guangxi, Cao Cao occupied Xincheng and Nanxiang, merged the two counties into one county, called Xincheng County, and handed it over to the acting director of Fu, and the Ministry of Discipline returned to Nanyang County and stationed in Wan County.

As for Shangyong and Yangxian fortresses, Cao Cao carefully looked at the terrain, and decided to temporarily give up the attack, fighting in this kind of place, it is no longer a competition for combat effectiveness, but a competition for whose terrain is better, the long and rugged mountain road is also an extreme test of logistics support capabilities, in the case of the disadvantage of the number of aliens, Cao Cao does not want to touch this stone for the time being.

On the contrary, Wuling in the south seemed to be relatively better, and Wuling County could get less support from Yizhou, so the three corps of the Xiahou brothers and Xun You were transferred to Jiangling and attacked Wuling County from the two directions of Lingyang and Chongxian.

Cao Cao himself returned to Xiangyang and commanded the dispatch in the center.

Liu Bei's swift retreat disappointed Yuan Shao.

The Youzhou army has long had no intention of continuing to fight, Lu Bu was repairing in Xiping, and was searching everywhere to prepare for packing and retreating, Fang Zhiwen was in Wenqiang, and had just handed over Wenqiang to Gao Gan, and he himself returned to Ruyang, and he was also preparing to withdraw the army with a large bag, Xu Huang was more active, and was haunting Lujiang and Geyang, but his goal was also to loot, Yuan Shao was afraid that Xu Huang would go too far, so he hurriedly asked Jiang Yiqu to rush to Geyang with a cavalry, and let Lu Xiang rush to Lujiang, but it is estimated that there will be nothing left. I hope Xu Huang doesn't tear down the house.

The Youzhou army did this, Yuan Shao had nothing to say, this was a clear thing written in the previous military agreement, Yuan Shao was surprised to find that the original battle plan was perfectly realized by Fang Zhiwen, saying that there were only Dingling and Runan left, and there were really these two cities left, and the others had fallen into Yuan Shao's hands.

Fang Zhiwen put out the fire, Yuan Shao originally pinned his hopes on Liu Bei, and even urgently sent envoys to Yizhou and Chang'an, wanting to unite Liu Bei and Sima Fang to attack Cao Cao, but Sima Fang directly refused, and although Liu Bei promised well, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei ran faster than rabbits, and the slightly better one was Wuling, but it didn't affect the overall situation at all.

As for Yuan Shao himself, he fought around Dingling for half a month, Cao Hong, Li Jin, and Li Dian each guarded one city of the three cities of Dingling, and the trial and Zhang Jaw and Lu Yi tried their best to make no progress, and there were many casualties on both sides. The same is true of Runan, Runan City was originally the fortress of the Yellow Turban Army, but now it is even taller and stronger, Yan Liang and Wen Chou joined forces, and there was no way to take Chen Deng and Li Tong in Runan.

The war has come to this point, in fact, everyone knows that they can't fight anymore, Liu Bei and Yuan Shao are both more than capable but not enough, plus there are a lot of bad things behind the buttocks, and they won't be able to spare their energy to deal with Cao Cao for a while, and Cao Cao just broke out a round, not only was he cut by Fang Zhiwen and was injured, but he also had internal injuries because of the explosion, although he oppressed Liu Bei violently, in fact, it was already the end of the strong crossbow.

Although the local war is still going on, the war should actually be over!

Yuan Shao set his place of residence in Qian County, not only because this is already a giant city, not only because this is Cao Cao's lair, he has a sense of accomplishment when he stays here, but also because this is the center of Yuzhou, Yanzhou, and Xuzhou. Although the governance office is ready-made, saving Yuan Shao a lot of money and food, he also has to face a huge mess after his victory, a blank, devastated Central Plains, the so-called waste to be rebuilt, is the best description of Yuan Shao at this moment.

Outside Ruyang City, Fang Zhiwen watched the last convoy slowly move towards the east along the straight road, looked back at the bare flagpole on Ruyang City, an inexplicable smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, Taishi Zhaorong asked curiously: "Husband, what are you laughing at?" ”

"Well, I'm wondering, when will we be back in the city, and will this day be out of reach?"

Taishi Zhaorong, Jialan, Huang Xu, He Qi and others looked at Ruyang City together, and in the rising sun, Ruyang City looked particularly bright, as if it had been reborn from the fire. To be continued...