On March 11, Cao Cao's main army moved south, and Zhang Yun learned the news and hurriedly withdrew his troops.

But the army was bloated, and the soldiers were still caught up by Cao Cao when they arrived in Xiangcheng.

Zhang Yun immediately sent someone to contact Wen Ping and Liu Bei to meet Cao Cao in the area of Xiangcheng.

Because the city could not accommodate more than 80,000 people, except for the city, which had more than 20,000 people, the rest were camped in the wilderness.

Cao Cao led the main infantry to defeat Zhang Yun's front soldiers placed outside the city, and ordered the left and right cavalry to outflank and kill, breaking Zhang Yun's front army of 30,000 and killing countless Jingzhou troops.

However, Wen Ping and Liu Bei were not stationed in Xiangcheng with Zhang Yun, but one was in the rear of Xiangcheng, and the other was in Nanru Township, north of Xiangcheng.

Taking advantage of the fact that Cao Cao's main force was attacking Zhang Yun, Wen Ping and Liu Bei attacked decisively, took advantage of the situation to cover up and kill, and defeated Cao Cao's left and right divisions.

The battle is obviously stalemate, and it is impossible to tell the winner in a short time.

However, Zhang Yun's decline is fully revealed.

The main reason is that Zhang Yun fights the water very fiercely, which has made Zhou Yu jealous.

But land warfare and water warfare are two concepts, and his opponent is still Cao Cao, a military genius in land warfare.

If Cao Cao and Zhang Yun were allowed to fight in the water, Zhang Yun would be able to beat Cao Cao out of the.

However, the Southern War was very different from the Northern War, and the generals of the Jingzhou Army were accustomed to wars dominated by ships, and it was difficult for them to adapt to this way of fighting with bows and arrows, horses, and battle formations.

This resulted in Zhang Yun not being Cao Cao's opponent at all.

Fortunately, although he couldn't, Liu Bei and Wen Ping could barely top it, and the two of them did not join his soldiers at all, but stationed troops more than ten miles away from Xiangcheng.

Taking advantage of Cao Cao's main force to attack Zhang Yun, Wen Ping and Liu Bei attacked Cao Cao's partial division, and finally recovered some of the declining momentum.

Later, Liu Bei used Xu Shu's plan to set up eight golden locks and defeated Cao Hong, who came to rescue the partial division.

After two or three days of fighting, Cao Cao withdrew his troops and returned to Yingyang.

Zhang Yun immediately gathered the defeated Cao army soldiers and horses outside the city and withdrew in the direction of Kunyang.

Unexpectedly, Cao Cao retreated as an advance and killed halfway in the area of Ziyun Mountain. If it weren't for Wen Ping and Liu Bei to come to the rescue, I'm afraid the army would be on the verge of collapse.

By 15 March, under the cover of Wen Ping and Liu Bei, Zhang Yun's remaining 60,000 or 70,000 soldiers and horses withdrew to Kunyang County.

Cao Cao raised troops to attack Wenpin, defeated Wenpin in Wating, and went south to defeat Liu Bei in Jianche.

The three parties retreated to Kunyang Wuyang, Liu Bei had Xu Shu's help, and he had been in the army for many years, and he was calm and orderly when he retired.

The clerk is a little scattered, but he is also quite well directed. Only Zhang Yun was almost defeated, and the entire wilderness was full of fleeing Jingzhou soldiers, and there was no order at all.

Cao Cao judged the situation and thought that Liu Biao's main force should be annihilated, so he personally led the army to Kunyang to pursue Zhang Yun.

He also sent Yu Ban to pursue Wen Ping, and sent Xiahou Dun to pursue Liu Bei.

Zhang Yun was defeated, and the 70,000-strong army lost more than 10,000 soldiers and horses. Wen Ping reluctantly repelled the ban and withdrew to Nanyang.

Liu Bei set up an ambush in Lujian in the north of Ye County, defeated Xiahoudun, and withdrew to Duyang City, where he blocked Cao's army for half a moon and covered the retreat of his teammates, and then retreated to Nanyang.

At the end of March, Cao Cao personally went to Duyang and chased him to Bowangpo. Liu Bei withdrew to Bowang County and defended the city, while Cao Jun was far away.

On the slope of Bowang, Cao Cao rode a horse to overlook the southern city, the head of the city was unfurled, Liu Bei was stationed in Bowang, and Wen was stationed in Wuyin, blocking the road for Cao Cao to attack Nanyang, and the grain, grass, soldiers and horses were also difficult to cross.

"Ming Gong."

Guo Jiaxun and Cheng Yu slowly urged the horses to come and came behind Cao Cao.

Next to Cao Cao, there is also Cao Hong Xiahou Dun.

At this moment, there are Cao Jun all around Bowang Slope, who seem to be waiting for an order to trample the distant city into powder.

"What about the losses in the rear?"

Cao Cao asked.

Cheng Yu smiled bitterly: "Liu Biaojun's discipline is unbearable, he wantonly trampled on the wheat field, and destroyed more than 200,000 mu of my fields along the way. ”

"Humph!"

Cao Cao said coldly: "In May, I will go south to Pingnanyang and take all the new wheat from Liu Biao Nanyang as compensation." ”

Cheng Yu and Guo Jia looked at each other, and Guo Jia said to Cao Cao: "Ming Gong, yesterday we discussed all night, and there is a plan for Ming Gong. ”

"What's the strategy?"

Cao Cao asked.

Guo Jia said: "First the north and then the south." ”

"First north and then south?"

Cao Cao frowned.

Guo Jia nodded and said, "Yes, although Liu Biao is hateful, it is like a needle pricking us in the back, it just hurts, but it won't hurt our lives." However, Yuan Shao is like a knife, which is already aimed at our chest, so we must first break Yuan Shao, seize the entire north, and then go south to Jingzhou. ”

"But just like today, even if we choose to attack the north, Liu Biao will still attack us from the rear."

Cao Cao was distressed.

This is his biggest headache, being caught between both sides, and it is very uncomfortable.

Guo Jia said: "We can borrow a knife to kill people, Liu Biao sacrificed heaven and earth in Jingzhou, traveled to the Son of Heaven and took advantage of public opinion, there are many trespasses, I expect him to have a bad heart, what he wants is nothing more than to be the emperor, we are satisfied with him." ”

"What do you mean?"

"Whatever he wants, we give him."

"Can I still canonize him as emperor?"

Cao Cao laughed dumbly, Guo Jia's words amused him.

Guo Jia shook his head and said: "This is naturally not possible, but we can move the capital to the north and crown him king." If he is king, he will provoke Liu Zhang's Sun Quan to be dissatisfied, and then the two of them can be entangled with him, and we will move the capital to the north, a little farther away from Nanyang, and get out of the scope of his attack, and concentrate on the north, so as to avoid the danger of today. ”

Some people think that Liu Biao's rash move to the north this time is a derelict move, but they can't see Liu Biao's timing and his troop strategy.

Jia Xu once told him that the emperor should not be in a hurry, and should ascend step by step.

Sending troops to Cao Cao, if there is no Yuan Shao's constraints, he cannot rush to a decisive battle with Cao Cao, but occupy various cities around the entrance of Nanyang in Yingchuan, or set up camps to hold on and fight a protracted battle with Cao Cao.

If the stalemate lasts for a long time, Cao Cao will expose the weakness of insufficient food and grass, and he will inevitably withdraw his troops. Or Yuan Shao was invited to attack, and Cao Cao could only choose to leave.

When they have withdrawn, they can declare victory. So as an excuse for this big victory, he took advantage of the situation and established himself as king.

To put it simply, Liu Biao's battle is to play majestic.

Just like Liu Bei fought the battle of Hanzhong, it is a reason that he immediately established himself as the king of Hanzhong.

But things didn't go as Jia Xu expected.

Because Yuan Shao sent troops before Liu Biao, Cao Cao's main force went north.

However, although the situation is not as Jia Xu expected, this is not a good thing.

At this time, Cao Cao's rear was empty, and Liu Biao could take advantage of the weakness and threaten Xu Du, which was much more influential than simply repelling Cao Cao.

What's more, in case Cao Cao's rear is really ridiculously empty, Liu Biao even thought longingly.

His army defeated Cao Cao's remaining army, entered the city of Xu, assassinated the Son of Heaven, and occupied the entire Henan, so that he could cross the throne and claim the title of emperor directly.

Don't think that Liu Biao will lose his mind to this extent.

A person who wants to be the emperor, who is over sixty years old, sees that the opportunity is coming, like a life-saving straw encountered by a drowning person, and everyone wants to fight.

But unfortunately, things will never go as smoothly as people think, but will have twists and turns.

Zhang Yun's ability to successfully hit the vicinity of Xu Du is not how strong he is.

He is a general of the naval army, and fighting water battles can make Zhou Yu feel threatened, but he is not very good at land warfare.

When the fight really started, Zhang Yun led an army of 80,000 to set up a formation and fight with the 30,000 rear men of Cao's army, and it was not certain who would lose or win.

Therefore, Zhang Yun himself is not good at land warfare, and the people who can command more than 100,000 large-scale corps at the same time in the entire Three Kingdoms are only Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi, Zhou Yu and Du Yu in the later period of Cao Wei.

Even Cao Cao can't do it, because the wars commanded by Cao Cao in the Three Kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty were basically less than 100,000, and the only time he lost more than 100,000, let alone Zhang Yun.

Therefore, this shows that Zhang Yun belongs to the kind of person who lacks land combat ability.

As a result, Liu Biao learned that Cao's army had shrunk its forces, and thought that the pressure they gave was too much, so he hurriedly urged Zhang Yun to surround Xu Du as soon as possible.

So in this situation of his own lack of ability and urging by Liu Biao, Zhang Yuncang promoted the army, the army was bloated, and the command and dispatch were unbalanced, which led to him outside Yingyin City, and he was almost defeated by Xiahoudun's surprise attack.

Zhang Yun didn't dare to tell Liu Biao about this, but told him that he had successfully reached Yingyin, less than seventy miles away from Xudu.

Then Liu Biao was happy.

But Yuan Shao was successfully deceived and fell into Cao Cao's evil deeds, and was defeated and forced to retreat.

Therefore, it is not so much that Liu Biao lost his mind, but that Cao Cao was eloquent and strategic, and dared to win in the bloody risk.

Later generations felt that Liu Biao had a problem from the perspective of God, but they didn't know that in addition to the choice of the main general, and the fact that they didn't expect Yuan Shao to lose so quickly, people may have achieved their strategic goals now, threatening Xu Du, threatening the world, and becoming the king of Chu.

And even if it is the only problem, choosing Zhang Yun as the main general is the best choice.

There are only a handful of capable generals in Jingzhou, and only Huang Zu and Zhang Yun can still see it.

Zhang Yun was able to make Zhou Yu feel threatened, which shows that he has a certain ability to command the army.

It's a pity that he is good at water warfare but not land warfare, and he can't help it after suffering this hard loss.

And although Huang Zu Wenpin has the ability, one of them can't move lightly to guard Jiangxia, and the other is not a close confidant of Liu's cousin.

Although Liu Pan is a nephew, he is young and cannot convince the public. Second, he has a brave personality and belongs to the general rather than the handsome man who commands the army.

The rest of Huang Zhong and Huo Du are only middle- and lower-level officers, and it is almost impossible for them to be quickly promoted by Liu Biao to the commander of more than 100,000 troops, so Zhang Yun is the most suitable choice as the commander.

Under normal circumstances, if Cao Cao hadn't defeated Yuan Shao, Zhang Yun would have been the commander, and Liu Bei would have been hired as a strategy, and they would have been able to defeat the defenders in the rear of Xu Du.

It's just that Cao Cao made a strange move, so naturally there is no way.

And Guo Jia has always been good at controlling people's hearts, and he knows exactly what Liu Biao wants.

Liu Biao seems to have a crowd of nearly 200,000, blocking Liu Zhang in the west and Sun Quan in the east, and attacking Cao Cao in the north.

But the strength of the Southern Army in land warfare was much inferior to that of the Northern Army.

Therefore, Guo Jia thought that Yuan Shao's threat was far greater than Liu Biao's, so in order to be able to free up his hands, he simply obeyed Liu Biao's wishes, let him be the king in the south, and let Sun Quan and Liu Zhang go to eat dog with him.

When Cao Cao was born and died with Yuan Shao in the north, it was not too late to go south to destroy Jingzhou.

Hearing the strategy discussed by Guo Jiaxun and Cheng Yu, Cao Cao's eyes were long, and he nodded slightly: "Well, in the spirit of filial piety, Gu understands, and it is indeed reasonable." First north and then south, the right way. It's just that I went to Sui Tuntian to recuperate for a year, and I barely had some surplus food. ”

Guo Jia smiled bitterly: "This is also a matter of no choice, Yingchuan is too close to Nanyang, unless we occupy Nanyang." But if he goes south, Yuan Shao will not let go of this opportunity, he is in the north, his family is thick, and we can't afford to spend it with him. ”

"Hmm."

Cao Cao also said bitterly: "Okay, after returning to Xudu, I will discuss with Wen Ruo about moving the capital." ”

Although Cao Cao won the battle of Guandu the year before last, he also lost a lot. Fortunately, Shen Chen didn't destroy his farmland in a frenzy, so that he didn't run out of ammunition and food.

Last year, Cao Cao paid attention to agricultural affairs for a whole year, did not send troops to fight, most of his soldiers and horses were stationed in the fields, and a large number of people were moved to the surrounding areas of Yingchuan to farm, accumulating grain and grass, making the current treasury a little surplus.

But after moving the capital, not only did he have to spend a lot of money to repair the city, but he also had to relocate the people and reclaim the land, and when the time came, he might even delay farming, which made him feel very troubled.

It's just that Guo Jia's strategy discussed by them is not unreasonable, continue to stay in Xudu, Yingchuan is too close to Nanyang, he attacks Nanyang, and Yuan Shao attacks. He rejected Yuan Shao in the north, and was afraid that Liu Biao would harass the rear like this time.

This time, it was his bloody investment and good luck that he barely won. Yuan Shao will not necessarily be fooled next time, so moving the capital to the north is also a helpless move.

Thinking that he was forced to move the capital by a vain person like Liu Biao, Cao Cao felt very bad.

However, thinking that moving the capital is indeed beneficial, my mood is slightly better.

His gaze looked at the north calmly, and said leisurely: "After moving the capital, I'm afraid I will have to recuperate for another year or two before I can use the sword with Yuan Shao again." However, Yuan Benchu's losses were greater than mine, Guandu lost 70,000 or 80,000 people, and Cangting lost 20,000 yuan. At that time, if I attack and defend him, he will perish! ”

"Ming Gong Shenwu!"

Guo Jiaxun and Cheng Yu bowed their hands together, and their hearts were full of admiration for Cao Cao's eloquent strategy.

I explained too much in the previous book, so I tried to write as little explanation as possible in this book. But I'm sorry that most of this chapter is explaining why Liu Biao dared to attack north, and I really saw my brain congestion when I read everyone's comments recently, did everyone read the book seriously? In the book, it is said why Liu Biao dared to go north. Liu Biao wants to be called the emperor, this is recorded in history. He didn't want to be the emperor when he wasn't so strong in history, but now he is so much stronger than in history, don't you want to be the emperor? He also listened to Jia Xu's persuasion and planned to come step by step, and Cao Cao's main force was fighting with Yuan Shao Cangting, why didn't he dare to go north to surround Xu Du and shock the world, so as to achieve the strategic goal of becoming the king?

From God's point of view, everyone thinks that Liu Biao dares to go north is mentally retarded, but if you think about it carefully, does this logic make sense? Could it be that there is a problem with Liu Biao's deployment? Could it be that Cao Cao's heroic talent was played well so that Liu Biao did not succeed? Everyone never considers whether Cao Cao is strong or not, only considers whether Liu Biao is weak or not, I am really speechless, I don't want to explain, I was really forced by you to explain, and I was angry with myself early in the morning.

(End of chapter)