In December of the first year of Zhangwu of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Liao led 30,000 Cao Wei troops and finally arrived outside Yancheng.

Zhang Liao's army set out from Wancheng around mid-November, and according to the normal schedule, Zhang Liao could lead his army outside Yancheng by December.

But because Zhang Liao saw through Guan Yu's intentions, he adopted the strategy of marching on a slow road.

Although this strategy ensured to a large extent that Zhang Liao's army would not be ambushed by the enemy, it undoubtedly greatly affected the speed of his march.

Zhang Liao led his army to reach the outside of Yancheng, which took almost twice as long as Xu Huang had taken at the beginning.

At the beginning, many people in the army did not understand Zhang Liao's arrangement.

Although Zhang Liao was the chief general of the 30,000 Cao Wei Chinese army, no matter how relieved Cao Pi was of such an important and huge army, it was impossible for him to let Zhang Liao be in charge alone.

Therefore, when Zhang Liao set out on the expedition, Cao Pi sent many famous ministers to assist the left in the army.

For example, Cao Wei's famous minister Du Xi is one of them.

Du Xian, the word Zixu, is a native of Dingling County, Yingchuan County.

When Du Raid was young, he was praised by the people of the time as one of the "Four Famous Scholars" of Yingchuan, and Yingchuan was a gathering place for countless outstanding scholars in the early years of Jian'an, and Du Raid was able to stand out among them to show his excellence.

Of course, the reason why Du Xi enjoys this honor is inseparable from his background.

Du Xun's great-grandfather Du An and grandfather Du Gen were very famous, and they were great celebrities during the period of Emperor Huan Ling, and they both held two thousand stones.

In terms of origin, Du Xun is a crown and belt clan with red roots.

Later, the world was in turmoil, Du Biao avoided the chaos and went to Jingzhou, Liu Biao received him according to the etiquette of the guests, but Du Biao looked down on Liu Biao very much.

Even because a friend recommended him to Liu Biao, he was so angry that he wanted to break off friendship with that friend.

The reason why Du Raid is like this is not that he has much foresight to see that Liu Biao is not the master.

He was born in the Central Plains Crown Belt Clan, and his political arena should be in the north.

This kind of obsession is the common idea of the vast majority of scholars in the world.

Because of this obsession, Du Xi fled Jingzhou after many hardships and defected to Cao Cao in the early years of Jian'an.

After Du Xi defected to Cao Cao, Cao Cao appointed him as the governor of Western Hubei.

At that time, Xi'e County belonged to Nanyang County, adjacent to Liu Biao in the south, and bandit activities were very rampant.

After Du Xi took office, he first showed favors to the people, and he sent the old and weak people to disperse to their hometowns to work in the fields, leaving strong men to defend the county seat.

In the sixth year of Jian'an, Jingzhou Mu Liu Biao sent 10,000 foot cavalry to attack Western Hubei, in this case, Du Xi personally led more than 50 officials and people, armed with bows, arrows and stones to fight with them.

In this situation, which was almost sent to death, Du Zhen killed hundreds of Liu Biaojun in the battle with more than 30 casualties.

Although Liu Biao's 10,000 troops were later able to attack the city, Du Xun was able to break through.

This battle made Du Xian famous.

So Si Li's lieutenant Zhong Xuan asked him to join the military as a councilor. Later, he was recommended by Xun or was appointed as the prime minister's military sacrifice wine.

When Cao Cao was alive, he considered that Du Xi was a genius of both military and political affairs, so he was repeatedly entrusted by Cao Cao with the important task of staying in the town, such as staying in Hanzhong and Guanzhong not long ago.

The reason why Cao Pi asked Du Raid to follow Zhang Liao was because Du Raid had experience in fighting with the southern army, and on the other hand, because of Du Raid's dazzling resume.

And now Du Xi is holding the position of General Wei's protector.

Cao Wei's position as a protector was different from Ji Han's, because Cao Cao had been betrayed by many people in his early years, so he was very uneasy about generals with different surnames.

Whenever a general with a different surname commanded an army alone, he would send a guard to follow the general with the different surname.

Because Cao Cao's purpose in setting up the post of protector at the earliest time was not simple, Du Xi's protector was analogous to Fa Miao's protector, and his power was much greater.

The main duty of the Fa Miao Protector is to inspect the illegal affairs of the generals, and some have the power of supervision, and if he wants to punish some criminal generals, he also needs to report to Mi Yang.

However, under special circumstances, Du Xi's protectors can directly seize the military power of the main general.

Du Raid saw Zhang Liao leading the army to march slowly before, which was obviously in violation of Cao Pi's order to let Zhang Liao quickly rescue Fancheng, so Du Raid, as a protector, asked Zhang Liao directly:

"General Wei defeated Sun Quan back then, and only led more than 100 tigers, relying on loyalty and light armor to move forward, so he was able to surprise and break the thief base and defeat the thief army.

At the beginning, our army was on the side defending the city, and General Wei chose to take the initiative to attack, and now Fancheng is in urgent need of rescue, but General Wei has let the army move so slowly, what is the reason for this?"

If others asked Zhang Liao, he would definitely be too lazy to deal with it, but Du Xi's identity was special, and he knew that Du Xi's question was likely to be Cao Pi's, so he patiently explained to Du Xi:

"At that time, Sun Quan's army came from afar, and our army lived in the city for a long time to recuperate, and in terms of the battlefield situation at that time, the location was advantageous to our army.

So our army can take the initiative by surprise.

But now Fancheng is besieged by the thief army, and the soldiers of Fancheng cannot go out, and the location outside Fancheng is no longer in the hands of our army.

Nowadays, our army is strong, grain and grass are abundant, and Jingzhou is barren, so it is the thief army that wants to fight quickly at this time.

From the beginning of the army, I was not worried that the enemy would attack Fancheng, because Fancheng could not be taken by the enemy in a short time.

What worries me is that they will use the tactics of encircling the point to send reinforcements, so as to wait for the rest of the work, and set up an ambush to invite our troops along the way.

Now that the morale of the enemy is high, our army has not yet set up a camp to hold on, and if our army accelerates its advance, it will give the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of it.

The soldier is treacherous, and the good cause of the incident is right."

When Zhang Liao finished explaining Du Raid like this, a look of approval appeared on Du Raid's face.

Du Xi, who has been entrusted with important tasks by Cao Cao many times, is of course a person who knows the soldiers.

Maybe he can't be as far-sighted as Zhang Liao and take precautions, but he knows that Zhang Liao must have deliberately marched slowly for a reason.

It's just that he knows that he knows, and he still has to ask about some things, so that Cao Pi, the son of heaven in the rear, knows.

When the Son of Heaven is not personally conscripted, the Protector may have some arbitrary power.

But now that the Son of Heaven is in Wancheng, the biggest task of his protector is to inherit the communication link between the Son of Heaven and Zhang Liao.

Now the Son of Heaven and the Three Princes and Nine Emperors in Wancheng are all focusing on this battle.

After pacifying the "Du Raid", Zhang Liao was able to smoothly let the 30,000 Cao Wei Zhongjun go according to his plan.

After arriving outside Yancheng, everything was as Liu Bei and Guan Yu expected, and Zhang Liao began to camp the army on the site where Xu Huang had originally camped.

Sun Li in Yancheng saw that the second group of reinforcements he had been waiting for finally arrived, and the big stone that had been piling up in his heart for days finally landed.

Unlike Fancheng, Yancheng was not surrounded by Han troops.

Therefore, the Wei army's iron cavalry, which was defeated by the Han army on the bank of the Hanshui River, fled to Yancheng in small numbers.

And under the narration of the Wei cavalry who escaped, Sun Li knew better than Cao Xiu what happened on the banks of the Hanshui River that day.

Under the understanding, when Sun Li's heart was shaken, he only hoped that the Son of Heaven could send a second wave of reinforcements as soon as possible.

Otherwise, if Fancheng fell because of the turmoil in the army's heart, then the fall of his Yancheng would only be a matter of time.

Now after Sun Li has been waiting for more than a month, he finally sees the arrival of reinforcements, and they are still generals like Zhang Liao, which makes Sun Li's heart even more relaxed.

Zhang Liao's personal leadership may not be guaranteed to defeat Guan Yu, but at least he can guarantee that he will not make some low-level mistakes.

After Zhang Liao's army set up camp outside Yancheng, Sun Li led a group of his subordinates out of the city to meet Zhang Liao in the camp.

Zhang Liao has not yet been entrusted with the responsibility of the governor by Cao Pi and the Ming edict.

But after Cao Xiu was trapped in Fancheng, Zhang Liao, a Wei general who was much higher in military rank than Sun Li, certainly had the power to command Sun Li in Yancheng.

[In other words, it is best to read aloud and listen to books at present.]

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In the big tent, Sun Li met Zhang Liao.

After meeting Zhang Liao, Sun Li reported the news he had detected to Zhang Liao one by one.

After listening to the news reported by Sun Li, Zhang Liao nodded at Sun Li.

Because of the defeat of 20,000 Cao Wei iron cavalry, Sun Li did not inform Zhang Liao of the plan he had originally offered to Cao Xiu as he had explained to Cao Tai before.

However, when Cao Tai retreated to Wancheng in defeat, he talked to Cao Pi and his ministers about Sun Li's advice.

I don't know what the other ministers thought after learning about Sun Li's advice, anyway, Zhang Liao was very satisfied with Sun Li's advice.

In Zhang Liao's view, if Sun Li's proposal was implemented well, there was every chance to repel Guan Yu's attack without spending too much effort.

But it's a pity that no matter how good Sun Li's strategy is, once there is a mistake in the implementation process, then no matter how good the strategy is, it will be in vain.

It's just that although Sun Li's strategy can no longer be implemented after the defeat of the 20,000 cavalry army, this does not affect Zhang Liao's appreciation of Sun Li at all.

Zhang Liao himself is a general with a different surname, and he is a general.

When he was under Lu Bu, he defeated the Cao clan and Xiahou clan several times.

So after he surrendered to Cao Cao, he was actually suspicious at the beginning.

It's just that Cao Cao is the male lord after all, so a little suspicion will not affect his appointment of Zhang Liao.

Zhang Liao was also keenly aware of Cao Cao's suspicion of him, so after he surrendered to Cao Cao, he had been working hard to fight, thinking of making meritorious contributions to Cao Cao to eliminate Cao Cao's suspicion of him.

But despite this, until the eve of the Battle of Hefei, Cao Cao was never really at ease with Zhang Liao.

Before Cao Cao's expedition to the west, he left three generals, Le Jin, Zhang Liao, and Li Dian, to guard Hefei.

But the strange thing is that Cao Cao did not appoint Zhang Liao, who was already on vacation at that time, as the chief general of Hefei, he only let these three people "consult" together when they encountered major events, which is undoubtedly a taboo in soldiers.

And the reason why Cao Cao made this was nothing more than because he had suspicions about Zhang Liao in his heart.

Because of Cao Cao's suspicions, Cao Cao's reward for Zhang Liao when he was alive was biased.

In this case, it is impossible for Zhang Liao to have no opinion in his heart.

It's just that he is a person who takes the overall situation into a person, he will not turn this opinion into a rebellious heart, he will just have some good feelings for Sun Li, who is also a general with a different surname.

As early as when he was in Wancheng, Cao Pi had revealed to him that if he could win this battle, then he would be the governor of a town in Jingzhou.

In this case, Zhang Liao has already moved his mind to promote Sun Li in the future.

In Zhang Liao's view, with the departure of the first generation of clan relatives one after another, and most of the second generation of clan relatives are still growing, so now Cao Wei's world still depends on them to protect the generals with different surnames.

It's just that this kind of thought was temporarily suppressed in Zhang Liao's heart.

Because he got a very important message from Sun Li's report.

That is, Liu Bei, the puppet emperor of the Han Dynasty, has arrived outside Fancheng.

Sun Li only found out about this news recently, and he had already sent the news to Wancheng.

Sun Li was able to learn the news because the scouts he had sent before came back to inform him that the imperial flag of the pseudo-Han Emperor had been planted in the Han army camp.

The imperial flag of the Son of Heaven is very different from the ordinary military flag.

And because the boundary between the Son of Heaven and the ministers is quite clear, if Liu Bei hadn't been in the Han army camp in person, then Guan Yu would not have been able to erect the imperial flag.

After learning the news, a heavy look appeared on the faces of the generals of the Wei army who were present.

A heavy look appeared on their faces, not because they were afraid of Liu Bei's arrival.

In the hearts of Cao Wei and his ministers, although Liu Bei defeated the first emperor in the first battle of Hanzhong, it was mostly because of Fazheng's strategy.

Therefore, the ministers of Cao Wei still did not pay attention to Liu Bei's ability to lead troops.

The reason why they felt heavy was because they felt that Liu Bei was a hypocrite

The Son of Heaven will now go outside Fancheng.

That is to say, the thief army has the mood of winning the capture of Fancheng this time.

And this judgment is very different from the previous discussions of the Zhuqing Dynasty in Wancheng.

For Guan Yu's Northern Expedition, Cao Pi held many court meetings of the ministers.

Although the ministers had various speculations about the purpose of Guan Yu's Northern Expedition, there was one thing that was the consensus, that is, Guan Yu's army could not fight a protracted war.

Because of this consensus, Cao Pi turned a blind eye to Zhang Liao's slow march after receiving the information from Du Xi.

But now that Liu Bei has personally appeared outside Fancheng, he has overturned the judgments of the previous ministers from the "facts".

The general's personal expedition and the monarch's personal expedition are completely different things.

The latter means that as long as there is a need, the monarch can use his power and use the national strength of the whole country to support him to fight a protracted war to take Fancheng.

And Zhang Liao knew that this was exactly what Cao Pi didn't want to see.

Before he set off with his army, for the battle of Fancheng, Cao Pi had told Zhang Liao that he only accepted two outcomes in his heart.

One is that Zhang Liao was able to defeat Guan Yu's army in a quick battle.

One is that, as many ministers have inferred, as long as they hold out for a period of time, Guan Yu's army will naturally retreat due to lack of food and grass.

Whatever the outcome, the most unacceptable thing for Cao Pi was that the Battle of Fancheng turned into a protracted battle like the Battle of Hanzhong.

The reason is simple, Cao Pi is a monarch who pays attention to personal prestige or face.

The defeat of Xicheng had already taken a toll on his prestige, and if the Battle of Fancheng turned into a protracted war, the longer it would last, the more unfavorable it would be for him.

Zhang Liao's political wisdom was not low, and after realizing Liu Bei's arrival, a bad premonition appeared in his heart.

But before Zhang Liao began to think about his hunch, a pro-army came to report from outside the tent:

Zhang Fei, the general of the Han chariot cavalry, led the army to challenge in front of the camp.