Yang Xiu's death is not so simple and clever but mistaken by cleverness, there are very complex reasons behind it.

It involves the factional struggle between the Northland families, the struggle for heirs within Cao Wei, and Cao Cao's own choice of the Cao family's future path. But in the final analysis, the fuse is indeed the "chicken ribs".

But is Yang Xiu really unjustly dead?!

The boss himself did not say that the subordinates made the decision for the boss on their behalf, or in such a sensitive place in the army. Yang Xiu's death was not unjust at all.

This time, you Yang Xiu guessed correctly that the password of "chicken ribs" is a hint of retreating, so what about next time?!

Is there a password for "Duck Zhen" next time, and you Yang Xiu analyzed that this is Cao Cao's authorization for everyone to clear the king's side, and everyone has to follow you into the Chinese military tent? !

This kind of thing, Cao Cao may still laugh it off in other places, but in such a sensitive place in the army, Yang Xiu has only one way to die.

And after killing Yang Xiu, Cao Cao retreated.

Cao Cao first ordered Cao Zhen and Cao Xiu to lead the troops to garrison Chen Cangdao and continue to block the attack of Zhang Fei and Ma Chao, but called back Cao Hong.

Then, Cao Cao led the army, led by Xu Huang, Guo Huai, Du Xian and others, and slowly withdrew his troops, completely withdrew from Hanzhong in mid-February and withdrew to Chang'an.

The battle of Hanzhong ended completely.

In March of the 23rd year of Jian'an, after Cao Cao returned to Chang'an, he arranged for Cao Hong to guard Chang'an, led the Yongliang soldiers and horses, and appointed Guo Huai as the assassin of Liangzhou to prevent Liu Bei's group from attacking Liangzhou.

After doing this, Cao Cao led his troops from Wuguan into the Central Plains and stationed troops in Wancheng.

On the Hanzhong side, Liu Bei's group frantically celebrated the defeat of Cao Cao, and occupied Hanzhong Fazheng to make Liu Bei establish himself as the king of Hanzhong.

But on Xiangfan's side, the pressure suddenly became greater.

In the land of Xiangfan, in the face of Cao Ren's 60,000 troops seemed to be insufficient, this Cao Cao led nearly 100,000 soldiers who had just experienced the battle of Hanzhong to Wancheng for a stop. The enemies that Xiangfan had to face were at least 150,000.

And the entire Xiangfan combined, but more than 40,000 defenders.

In this comparison of troops, even if there is a defensive system like Xiangfan and a famous general like Guan Yu, he is very panicked.

Guan Yu didn't even dare to continue to garrison his troops outside, for fear of being divided and surrounded by Cao Cao and eaten one by one. Hurriedly led a part of the soldiers into Fancheng, ordered other soldiers to get on the boat and return to Xiangyang, take Xiangyang as the base camp, cruise along the Han River, and be ready to support Fancheng at any time.

Cao Ren and other generals outside Fancheng learned that Cao Cao had come to Wancheng in person, and they immediately did not dare to slack off, Cao Ren went to Wancheng in person to explain the current battle situation, and the Fancheng soldiers were temporarily handed over to Commander Zhang Liao.

When Cao Ren arrived in Wancheng, he complained for a while - it's not that he really doesn't want to fight, but he really can't afford to lose. There is no guarantee that it will be able to fight.

Cao Cao knew very well about the defense system of Xiangfan, after all, this set of things, with his share of credit, was originally intended to fight against Guan Yu, but now it has been reduced to the defense line that he has to deal with with his own design.

This gave Cao Cao an even bigger headache. It's a real headache, Cao Cao's head stroke is committed again.

Since the retreat from Hanzhong, Cao Cao's head stroke has been flared up from time to time, and when he arrived in Wancheng, it became more and more serious.

But the current situation can't be ignored. Hanzhong has already retreated, which means that Liu Bei has a barrier to defend Yizhou, and it is impossible to defeat Liu Bei in the short term.

If Xiangfan backs down again. Cao Cao didn't dare to think about it.

In the future, Liu Bei will basically beat him wherever he wants, and Cao Cao, who sits in the hinterland of Hebei and the Central Plains, has to be beaten passively everywhere, what is this called? !

Cao Cao held his body and decided to conquer Xiangfan in person. But it didn't hold up after all.

Cao Cao, who was tossed by a head wind and had difficulty even getting out of bed, had to temporarily give up the idea of personally leading the troops to the battle, and ordered Cao Ren to regain control of Xiangfan no matter what the price was.

With this order, Cao Ren hurriedly returned to the front line of Fancheng and began to attack the city regardless of casualties.

At the same time, Cao Ren strictly ordered the craftsmen in the army to make every effort to build the thunderbolt car, our thunderbolt car is not as good as the catapult on the opposite side, but at least it is still useful for the city wall.

If we can't do it with quality, then we will win by quantity.

If you can destroy my twenty thunderbolts, then I will build forty, eighty, or even a hundred that will hit your walls.

As soon as Cao Ren was ruthless, the pressure on Zhang Xi's side was great.

You must know that Cao Ren has the advantage of troops after all, there are 60,000 people in front of him, and there are 80,000 or 90,000 reinforcements behind him, and Zhang Xi is really worried about whether he can hold it.

In addition, Cao Ren's thunderbolt cars built in large quantities, although they were made in a hurry and were a little rough, the range and accuracy were extremely unstable, but in the end, there were many of them, even if Zhang Xi piled up catapults on the city wall to fight against the other party, there would always be a place to miss, and there would be times when the thunderbolt would throw stones onto the city wall.

It's been a long time, and it's really hard to say how long this wall will last.

Now Zhang Xi's only consolation is that Guan Yu has now retreated to the city, which makes Zhang Xi guard and has a lot of confidence.

At least so far, there has been no situation where Cao's army has attacked the city wall, and the defense line is basically stable.

Moreover, with Guan Yu in command in the city, Zhang Xi only needs to pay attention to the battle situation on the city wall, for some siege equipment outside the city, and when he needs to go out of the city to fight, these are all controlled by Guan Yu.

With Guan Yu's sensitivity and ability to control the battlefield, the time he chose to leave the city would only be better than Zhang Xi's choice.

Although the two people did not say it explicitly, they roughly divided labor according to this tacit understanding, one was responsible for the wall, and the other was responsible for the field.

But Cao Ren's side is not easy to deal with.

Cao Ren personally commanded the soldiers to press the attack, and he even went to the front line to supervise the battle, personally raised a shield, and stood on the front line to command the battle under the threat of stones, inspiring morale.

Zang Ba, on the other hand, was responsible for the unified dispatch of the Xuzhou soldiers, arranging siege batches, and paying attention to the protection of the flanks.

Zhang Liao didn't have to do anything, leading the remaining more than 10,000 cavalry in Cao Ren's army to cruise around the periphery of the battlefield, as long as he saw Guan Yu out of the city to fight, then quickly assault and surround it, not seeking to kill Guan Yu, but also try to kill and injure the living force of Fancheng's army and reduce Fancheng's defense capability.

For a time, the two armies of Cao and Liu launched a protracted tug-of-war under Fancheng.

A battle was fought for half a month, and the attack on Cao Ren's side was a little weak, and Guan Yu's side had already dropped two groups of reinforcements from Xiangyang, so it slowly stopped.

The losses on both sides are not small, and now under the city of Fancheng, there are corpses everywhere, and some corpses are even completely damaged. The attack was so tragic that both sides did not even have time to collect the bodies.

In the siege of more than ten days, Cao Ren's army suffered more than 14,000 casualties, but the only thing that made Cao Ren happy was that the number of dead was only more than 6,000, and the remaining more than 8,000 were wounded, and most of them were arrow wounds.

There is no way, Cao Jun was suppressed by the rain of arrows from the defenders during the attack, and it is very normal for arrow wounds to be most, and most of these injuries will not be fatal.

In Fancheng, Liu Beijun also suffered more than 4,000 casualties, of which more than 2,000 were killed and nearly 2,000 were injured, and the casualty ratio was half.

But the injuries of the defenders are basically caused during the battle for the city wall, and they are generally knife wounds, and there are few minor injuries.

This is also the reason why Fan Cheng obviously only had more than 4,000 people injured, but Guan Yu had to transfer reinforcements from Xiangyang twice. Wounded soldiers cannot continue to fight in the defense of the city, they must first retreat to the rear to rest, and the possibility of rejoining the battle in the future is not too great.

The battle situation under Fancheng has temporarily entered a stalemate.

Cao Ren wanted to attack, but now he is also a little weak in attack, although there are more lightly wounded soldiers in the army, but these soldiers also need to rest well before they can fight again, and after a long time of attacking, the morale of the army is also a little low.

One more. After Cao Cao's condition improved a little, he went to the front line of Fancheng in person.

Cao Cao's arrival, Cao Ren didn't expect it at all, and what Cao Ren didn't expect was that Cao Cao came with dozens of cavalry guards this time, and he didn't bring a large army.

What does this mean, in fact, Cao Ren already knows it in his heart, but Cao Ren is not very smart, even if he guesses, he will not take the initiative to say it.

And after Cao Cao led dozens of horsemen to the front line of Xiangfan, he didn't say anything, and immediately sent an envoy to Fancheng City, saying that he wanted to talk to Guan Yu in front of the battle.

To be honest, Guan Yu really didn't expect Cao Cao to come in person, let alone Cao Cao, and he actually invited himself to go to the front of the battle. This can be done, but not done.

can be done because Guan Yu is frank, even if he Cao Cao uses villain tricks, Guan Yu is not afraid.

can not do it, because Guan Yu is now guarding one side, and he can't live up to the trust of the eldest brother, there are some things that the eldest brother can not blame, but he Guan Yu can't help but pay attention.

Again. If it was Cao Cao, the prime minister of the Han Dynasty, who invited him Guan Yu to talk about it, maybe Guan Yu would have gone, but now this is the King of Wei.

Since the White Horse Oath, there has been no king with a different surname, and all kings with a different surname are rebellious and thieves.

Seriously, Guan Yu's senses for Cao Cao are very complicated, there is a grateful side, but at the same time, there is also a hateful side. Especially when Cao Cao broke through the boundaries of the prime minister of the Han Dynasty and established himself as the Duke of Wei, Guan Yu's favorability towards Cao Cao basically returned to zero.

Now, Guan Yu bears the trust of his eldest brother Liu Bei, sticks to Xiangfan, and guards Jingzhou, you Cao Cao, a national thief, actually proposed to meet, are you really not afraid that I will cut you with a knife? !

Well, even if you really let the second master cut it, it is estimated that the second master will not be able to go to the knife. But to meet, it's really not a suitable offer.

Especially. Guan Yu subconsciously looked at Zhang Xi, and at the same time, he also handed over Cao Cao's letter to Zhang Xi openly.

Zhang Xi looked at Guan Yu inexplicably, not understanding what Guan Yu was hesitating about, but after reading the letter, he understood. What's this?!

If Guan Yu had descended, he would have fallen a long time ago, how could he still be at this point today?!

Thinking about it carefully, Cao Cao came to the front line in person, but he didn't even bring any reinforcements, so it is conceivable that this person is definitely not here to persuade Guan Yu to surrender.

Chances are, I'm here to meet an old friend.

After all, with their position and their current age, the opportunity to see each other again is very rare.

What is there to hesitate about.

Zhang Xi didn't wait for Guan Yu's reaction, and said directly to the envoy, "Please report to your lord, just say that at noon on the day, outside the north gate of Fancheng, between the two armies, Xi and Guan Junhou will prepare a banquet to invite Cao Gong." ”

When the messenger heard this, he took the promise and departed.

Guan Yu looked confused, I haven't said that I promised to meet?!

(End of chapter)