In December of the 25th year of Jian'an, Zhou Yu defeated Cao Xiu at Shiting and defeated the 50,000 Chinese reinforcements led by Cao Xiu.

And Cao Xiu, in the end, under the leadership of Jia Kui, barely escaped, and the two retreated to Runan County together.

Because Jia Kui led his troops out of Hefei City to meet Cao Xiu, Hefei City was empty and unprepared, and it was easily captured by Jiangdong General Sun Shao.

Hefei was lost.

After the fall of Hefei, it triggered a considerable chain reaction.

The first is the Runan Shake.

Originally, the strength of the Runan defenders was not much, otherwise Deng Ai would not have used Runan's brains and thought of a sneak attack. It's just that by mistake, I met with Sima Yi, who also wanted to sneak attack Xinye, and both sides were found out that the other party had the intention of sneak attacking, and finally had to give up.

Although Cao Pi wrote a letter to Runan Juncheng and demanded that the defense of Runan be strengthened, the current situation is no longer a question of whether or not to strengthen defense.

At this time, Runan's troops were seriously insufficient, and as soon as Hefei was lost, Runan would first face the army of Jiangdong, which was much more serious than Deng Ai leading thousands of soldiers to sneak attack.

Runan Juncheng had to hurry up with Xu Duling Sima Yi for help, and Sima Yi also knew the severity, so he immediately divided 5,000 people, led by Wang Shuang, to support Cao Xiu and Jia Kui, who retreated to Runan, to strengthen the defense of Runan.

At the same time, Sima Yi hurriedly asked Cao Pi in Chang'an for help.

Sima Yi's strategic vision is beyond doubt, and he is well aware of the dangers that Runan is encountering now.

If the Jiangdong Army broke through Huainan and directly entered Runan, it would not necessarily be able to hold on to the local county soldiers in Runan, the more than 10,000 defeated troops of Cao Xiu and others, and the 5,000 people brought by Wang Shuang.

After all, the opponent is Zhou Yu, and after the Jiangdong Army defeated Hefei, the morale was high, if it was to pursue the victory, it was really hard to say whether it could conquer Runan County in one fell swoop.

And the most important thing is that once the Jiangdong Army conquers Runan, it will echo Guan Yu who fought in Nanyang. Zhang Liao's side may be better, but Xu Du, who is guarded by Sima Yi, is really facing the trouble of being attacked from both sides.

Secondly, it was the Xuzhou earthquake.

According to Zang Ba, who guarded Picheng, after learning that Hefei was lost, he had a headache to death.

The loss of Hefei means that the fall of Huainan is a matter of time before it is a matter of time, so in addition to the Jiangdong Army can march into Runan, there is a more practical direction of march - to attack Xuzhou in the north.

Originally, now Zang Ba took more than 10,000 Xuzhou soldiers to hold on to Xiapi, and with the city defense of Xiapi and the supply of grain and grass from Yanzhou behind him, it should be no problem to hold on for a few months.

But now that Huainan is lost, Zhou Yu can directly lead the army to the north, form a front and rear attack with Sun Quan, or cut off his connection with Yanzhou, and let Xiapi become an isolated city, God knows how long he can defend it.

Zang Ba had no choice, so he hurriedly told Cao Pi in Chang'an again, if there were not enough reinforcements to arrive to prevent the Jiangdong Army in the Huainan region, then Zang Ba had only to withdraw from Xuzhou and lead the troops to retreat to Yanzhou.

At this time, what made Zang Ba a little more relieved was that Jiang Ji led 10,000 Chinese reinforcements to finally arrive, which could solve Zang Ba's urgent need a little.

But even so, the battle situation in the eastern part of the Central Plains was still very unfavorable to Cao Wei.

At the same time, in the land of Yongliang, a major war related to the belonging of Yongliang Prefecture in the northwest of Cao Wei has also reached a critical time.

Time needs to go back a little to the time when Sun Quan crossed the river to attack Guangling. At this time, it was when Liu Bei officially began to march east to attack Guangwei County.

And Zhang Xi and Zhang Fei partnered again, and the two were ordered to lead 20,000 troops, quickly march east to Shangqi, and besiege Guo Huai, who was holding here.

Guo Huai of Shangtai, when he retreated from Liangzhou, brought more than 3,000 cavalry and more than 1,000 foot soldiers, joined the original 5,000 defenders in Shangtai City, and gathered nearly 10,000 soldiers to stick to Shangtai.

And Zhang Fei and Zhang Xi, although the marching speed is already very fast, but after all, they are transferred back from Ji County, and then march east after a short rest in Xixian County, and they are mainly infantry, so in terms of marching speed, they really can't compare with Guo Huai.

By the time Zhang Xi and Zhang Fei led their troops to arrive at the foot of Shangtai City, Guo Huai had already gained a firm foothold in Shangtai City, and at the same time had begun to strengthen the city defense facilities in Shangtai and prepare to defend the city.

Before this eastward advance, when Zhang Xi and Zhang Fei rested for a day in Xixian, Fa Zheng and Pang Tong had already told the two of them all about the next strategic ideas, and the two of them knew that if they wanted to break off Long now, then Shangtai was the key, and they must find a way to conquer Shangtai City.

Of course, it doesn't matter if Shangqi City can't be broken in a short time, but it must besiege Shangqi, and after Liu Bei leads the army to conquer Guangwei County, he will lead the main army to the east, and Shangqi will not be a problem at all.

As for the meaning of the street pavilion Fa Zheng and Pang Tong, if you can quickly conquer Guangwei County and Shangqi, then the street pavilion is actually not important.

But if it is impossible to conquer Guangwei County and Shangtai in the short term, then the street pavilion must be guarded by people.

It is enough not to seek to break the enemy, as long as the layers of fortifications are carried out, delay time, and buy enough time for the army to break through Guangwei and Shangti.

In the place of the street pavilion, Fa Zheng and Pang Tong both looked at the map, and they didn't think it was a difficult thing.

The topography of the street pavilion is surrounded by mountains on both sides and an avenue in the middle. This kind of terrain is really unsafe.

But the problem is that the street guard pavilion is not for you to break the enemy, as long as you delay time, it is not impossible to do it.

As long as there are layers of villages on the avenue and layers of resistance, no matter how much Cao Wei's army comes, it should not be a problem to delay for a month.

What's more, Fa Zheng and Pang Tong didn't believe that Cao Wei's army could come so quickly.

So in this regard, Fa Zheng and Pang Tong were handed over to Zhang Xi and Zhang Fei. To be precise, it is judged by Zhang Xi to come to the battlefield when to go to the street guarding pavilion.

And Zhang Xi's judgment on this is. If you want to defend it, go early, who said that Cao Jun couldn't come so fast?!

Ma Tan in history didn't just suffer this loss, thinking that Zhang He couldn't come so quickly, and he was slowly armed, and as a result, Zhang He was caught off guard, and finally lost the water source and trapped on the mountain.

Therefore, soon after arriving at Shangtai City, Zhang Xi made a request to Zhang Fei to divide his troops and went to Shoujie Pavilion in person.

Zhang Fei is happy, after all, he is an old partner, Zhang Fei can be said to be the person who knows Zhang Xi best, and knows that this guy will not be untargeted.

Since Yuan Chang values the street pavilion so much, and the street pavilion is behind him, Zhang Fei naturally has no intention of blocking it, and happily divides 10,000 troops to Zhang Xi.

Zhang Xi didn't want to bring so many soldiers. There are a total of 20,000 people, and 10,000 troops are divided, and Zhang Fei has 10,000 soldiers left in his hands.

And Guo Huai in Shangtai, counting the cavalry, has nearly 10,000 people.

With 10,000 against 10,000, Zhang Fei is still the besieging party. This Shangtai will be very difficult to fight, and it does not meet the strategic requirements of quickly attacking Shangtai.

But Zhang Fei said that there was no problem. The counterweight catapult is really a good thing.

In Liu Bei's army, there are still not too many generals who know how to build and use counterweight catapults, after all, this is a siege weapon of Liu Bei's group, it is a secret, and not everyone is qualified to know how to build and use it.

But among these people, Zhang Fei is definitely not included. At the beginning, Guo Huai smashed Zhang Xi with a thunderbolt in Ji County, and now it is Zhang Fei's turn to smash Guo Huai with a counterweight catapult.

With a counterweight catapult in hand, Zhang Fei really didn't think he would be able to take a small Shangtai City. The only time it takes is to build the catapult and the time it takes for the catapult to smash down the walls.

When Zhang Xi heard this, he was immediately relieved.

However, out of prudence, Zhang Xi repeatedly warned Zhang Fei - Guo Huai is a famous general, and he also has cavalry in his hands, so he is not so easy to mess with.

You must be cautious, don't give Guo Huai any chance, don't turn back and attack the city, and let Guo Huai sneak attack again.

Zhang Fei smiled and patted Zhang Xi on the shoulder, reassuring Zhang Xi.

Lao Zhang has been fighting for most of his life, although he is old now, but he is not yet old and confused, and a Guo Huai will not make Lao Zhang nervous.

It's really not a light enemy, it's Zhang Fei who has this self-confidence, which belongs to the self-confidence of the world's famous generals.

But Zhang Xi was still not at ease, and left Jiang Xu, who came to Shangtai with the army, to Zhang Fei.

Although Jiang Xu can't compare to his nephew Jiang Wei's future achievements, Zhang Xi has also found that Jiang Xu's ability is actually not bad, and he is also a wise and brave general.

As for going to the street guard pavilion by himself, Zhang Xi is not worried about the lack of generals.

On the day of his stay in Xixian, Zhang Xi specially applied to Liu Bei to let Wang Ping lead 3,000 Wudang Fei troops to go out with the army.

Really, as long as he doesn't make Ma Yan's stupid mistakes, and Wang Ping leads the Wudang Flying Army to help Zhang Xi, I don't believe it, and this time the street pavilion can be lost again!!

(End of chapter)