In August and September of the 24th year of Jian'an, in just half a month, the situation in Jingzhou was reversed in an instant.

Huang Zhong's army marched south, broke through Jiangling in one day, and killed Lü Meng.

Shen Chen immediately divided the main force into two routes.

There were about 130,000 people along the way, respectively encircling and suppressing Sun Jiao in Yiling Yidao, Cheng Pu in Zhouling, Sun Quan in Shaxian, and the remnants of the three Jiangdong.

More than 70,000 people along the other road went north along the river, surrounded Xiangfan, and attacked 100,000 Cao troops.

The news quickly spread to the rear, and Guo Jia, who was located in Xinye, was shocked when he heard this, and immediately sent letters to Cao Cao in Guanzhong and Cao Pi in Yecheng, asking for reinforcements.

Not only Guo Jia, but also Xiahoudun and Yu Ban also sent their letters and official documents to the north like raindrops every day, telling Cao Cao the current situation.

At present, the second city of Xiangfan is in danger of overturning under Shen Chen's Meng, so I hope that Cao Cao will come to help as soon as possible.

September 7 was the third day of Shen Chen's siege of Xiangfan.

Shen Chen arrived in Xiangfan on September 5 and began to land and surround the two cities on September 6.

Xiahoudun and Yu Ban's scouts ran almost at the speed of a dead horse, running from Xiangfan to Xinye and Wuguan, then from Wuguan to Shangluo, and finally to Cao Cao's hands.

In the county government of Juxian County, Cao Cao confronted Liu Bei in the Ganting area for more than a month, and in terms of grain and grass, Liu Bei came from afar, and he took the lead.

Although at first he wanted to defeat Liu Bei as soon as possible, and then quickly went south to cooperate with Sun Quan to destroy Shen Chen.

But Liu Bei's side was also steady and steady, and he never gave him a chance to cut off the grain route, so he could only take the lead and be steady, and did not choose to forcibly send troops, but only fought several fierce battles in the field, and there was no winner or loser.

At this time, just after the morning meal, official documents from all over the country had been placed on his table, and Cao Cao was most concerned about the official documents piled up on one side of Xiangyang.

These messages were sent a few days ago.

The content in it is still ten days ago Shen Chen abandoned Xiangfan, the main force went south and went straight to Jiangling, Sun Quan asked Xiahoudun and Yu Ban to send troops to help as soon as possible, Guo Jia dissuaded, put forward a proposal to let Sun Quan and Liu Bei fight.

This suggestion was approved by Cao Cao, who believed that Guo Jia was right, although he also hated Shen Chen, but Guo Jia was right.

Killing Shen Chen will only unite the two weak ones Liu Bei and Sun Quan, and only by making Shen Chen retain his strength and return to Xichuan can the two of them fight for Jingzhou.

Therefore, he asked people to send a letter back to Xiahoudun and Yu Ban from Wuguan, and let them follow Guo Jia's strategy.

This is the reason why from late August to early September, for almost more than ten days, Xiahoudun and Yu Ban did not send troops for a long time.

In the county hall several clerks are processing official documents.

Cao Cao had just eaten breakfast and walked into the hall, asked if there was any official document from Nanyang, and was told that there was no at present, so he sat on his desk and looked at some official business reported by other places.

At this time, Xu Chu suddenly hurried in outside, knelt down on one knee and said, "King Wei, Nanyang is urgent." ”

"Oh?"

Cao Cao immediately put down the official document and said, "Submit it." ”

"Yui."

Xu Chu presented the official document with both hands.

After Cao Cao opened it, he only glanced at it twice, and his whole face changed greatly, and he shouted: "Let Sima Yi, Jiang Ji, Dong Zhao, and Huan Jie, come over immediately." ”

"Yes."

Seeing that his face was not good-looking, Xu Chu knew that something had happened, so he hurriedly withdrew from the hall and ordered the guards to summon the four advisors who were currently following Cao Cao.

When the four of them got the news, they didn't dare to slack off, and they all put down their official duties one after another and hurriedly ran to the palace hall.

After the others arrived, Dong Zhao went up and asked, "King Wei, what happened." ”

Cao Cao's face was very ugly and said: "The widow underestimated Liu Bei, he didn't know where the soldiers and horses came from, Shen Chen personally led tens of thousands of troops north to Xiangfan and surrounded the two cities. ”

"How is this possible?"

The crowd was shocked.

Jiang Ji even said: "Sun Quan only started in June, Liu Bei was still in Wudu at that time, and it would take at least a month for the news to spread, even if he immediately transferred troops from Hanzhong to the south at that time, it would take three or four months, where is it so fast?" ”

"Could it be from the Fang Ling? It's impossible, Fangling Shangyong is really close to Jingzhou, but the road is difficult to travel, even if you send troops from Hanzhong, it will take a long time to reach Shangyong. ”

Sima Yi pondered: "King Wei, can you figure out where the enemy's army came from, and what is the situation on Sun Quan's side?" ”

"I don't know yet."

Cao Cao shook his head: "Yu Ban's letter only said that it had been raining heavily in Xiangfan in the past few days, and Shen Chen's fleet was suddenly going up from the Shuojiang River in the south of the river, and the situation on Sun Quan's side was not yet clear. ”

Sima Yi pondered: "Then you can only plan for the worst, Liu Bei gathered a group of troops in a short period of time, and suddenly went east along the Great River, and raided Sun Quan's army in Yiling, Yidao and Jiangling, but it may also be just a siege, because Shen Chen did not use his main force." ”

"Hmm."

Cao Cao muttered: "The widow also thinks so, if he has already annihilated Sun Quan, it will not be tens of thousands, but more than 100,000 horses." Now it is not a question of figuring out where the enemy's army came from, but to solve the siege of Xiangfan. ”

"You can make Xiahou Yuan and Xu Huang rush to help immediately."

Dong Zhao immediately said.

Xiahou Yuan and Xu Huang 40,000 troops stationed in Shangluo, here is located in the middle of Wuguan, the north can gallop to aid Chang'an, the south can go to Nanyang, arrange them here, is to do the credit of the two sides to help.

Cao Cao said with a sad face: "Shen Chen's fang is extremely fierce, if it just makes Xiahou Yuan sway away, I am afraid that he will not be able to win, and he will have to send people from Yecheng." ”

"And who can lead the troops?"

Huan Jie asked.

Cao Cao was asked suddenly, his brows furrowed.

Now the situation in Jingzhou is unknown, but they judged that Sun Quan was still alive by Shen Chen by only bringing tens of thousands of people north to besiege Xiangfan, instead of exhausting the main force, and the Jiangdong Army should have only been besieged and not destroyed, so there was still hope for the war in the south.

The problem is that Cao Cao knew that Shen Chen was strong with his troops, and Xiahou Yuan and Xu Huang might not be able to solve the siege of Xiangfan with 40,000 people, but if he wanted to continue to reinforce Nanyang, he had to be an experienced general.

However, Cao Cao, who is now fighting on two fronts, is facing the dilemma of having no generals to send.

Because they are brave and strategic, can fight tough battles, and can barely fight with Shen Chen, there are only a few commander-level generals.

Cao Ren died early, Cao Hong was beheaded, Xiahou was in Xiangfan, and Xiahou Yuan was a reinforcement. Clan members Cao Xiu, Cao Zhen, and Xiahou are still unqualified.

The first general of the sect was also in Xiangfan, and Xu Huang followed Xiahou Yuan, Zhang Liao, and Xue Yi to besiege Su Fei and Chen Shengbu, the other part of the Jiangxia sailors, in Hefei, on the eastern front.

The rest of Le Jin was killed, Li Dian, Shi Lian, Han Hao and others died of illness, Zang Ba and Zhang He have qualifications, but they belong to the third-line generals all the year round, either follow the main general, or guard in the local town, it is difficult to lead the troops alone, not to mention that they must not be Shen Chen's opponents.

After thinking about it for a long time, Cao Cao even rushed to the hospital when he was ill, and said whimsically: "Zijian is talented, if he is allowed to lead the army, what do you think?" ”

"Forehead ......"

The people looked at each other, but they did not speak.

Only Sima Yi arched his hand and said: "Your Highness is young and promising, maybe you can do it." ”

"Hmm."

Cao Cao stroked his beard, tapped his chin and said, "Then let Cao Zhi serve as the general of Nanzhonglang, go to capture the general, and lead the troops to rescue Xiangfan." Then let Xiahou Yuan and Xu Huang go south to Fancheng to relieve the siege. ”

"Yes."

The crowd should go down.

"Report!"

At this time, another official document arrived.

This time it was a letter from Xiahoudun.

Because Xiahoudun was in Xiangyang, the messenger wanted to cross the river, but it was one step slower than Yu Ban's official document.

The content of the letter is similar to that of Yu Ban's side, it is now raining heavily in Xiangfan, and Shen Chen's army is heading north and surrounding Xiangfan, hoping that Cao Cao can send reinforcements as soon as possible.

After Cao Cao's instructions, after a while, Guo Jia's letter was also delivered.

After that, the battle reports were one after another, and in the evening, there were more than ten consecutive war reports on Cao Cao's table.

After Cao Cao read all these letters one by one, he also responded immediately.

An order was sent from Cao Cao's mansion and transferred to Nanyang, Yecheng, Chendu and other places, and his orders were conveyed to the garrisons in various places.

In this battle, he sent a total of three reinforcements.

One route was led by Xiahou Yuan Xu Huang, supervising eight departments, each with 5,000 people, and commanding the generals Yin Bureau, Zhu Gai, Zhang Shun, etc., a total of 40,000 people from Shangluo to Nanyang.

On the second day, the road was planned to be led by Cao Zhi and march south from Yecheng.

The last road was led by Zang Ba, from Xuzhou to Zhangliaobu on the eastern line, and headed for Nanyang.

It wasn't until after all the arrangements and orders were issued that Cao Cao finally had time to discuss and analyze the situation with the strategists.

Guo Jia said in the letter that although he did not know what was happening on Sun Quan's side, judging by the number of enemy troops, the Jiangdong army should not have been destroyed.

This view coincides with the group of strategists around Cao Cao.

Because now the Cao Wei group doesn't know what happened in Nanjun, their only information is only one - that is, Shen Chen suddenly led tens of thousands of troops and surrounded Xiangfan.

As for how he highlighted Sun Quan's encirclement, and where a large number of ships suddenly appeared in Xiangfan, no one knows.

In the known information, more than half a month ago, Shen Chen was still tens of thousands of lone soldiers, surrounded by Sun Quan and Cao Cao, of which the total number of Jingzhou troops was about 120,000, and only 30,000 of the 50,000 Yellow Shooting Division were in Xiakou and 20,000 in Wancheng.

Shen Chen's army of 70,000 people, the main force of more than 30,000 people in Jiangling, Wen Ping Zhou Budo 15,000 people just gave up Xiangfan and retreated to the south, Zhao Yun and Shamoke 20,000 people attacked Yiling in Zhijiang.

The 100,000 Cao troops were distributed in Xiangfan, Xinye and other places.

More than 40,000 people of Sun Quanjun's Sun Jiao Department are distributed in Yiling and Yidao, about 60,000 people of Lümeng's department are in Jiangling, about 50,000 people of Sun Quan's headquarters are in the area of Zhouling and Shaxian, and there are 10,000 or 20,000 defenders in the area of Jiangxia Xiling.

In other words, the frontal battlefield of Nanjun was less than 100,000 Shen Chen's army, and 270,000 against the Cao-Sun coalition army, which can be described as a real enemy and outnumbered, with one enemy and three enemies.

It stands to reason that such a situation of big headwinds is still sandwiched between the east, west, north and south, and it is impossible for Shen Chen to turn the tables around.

But now that this situation has arisen, there are naturally other situations that have occurred.

Therefore, everyone combined all kinds of things, combined with Guo Jia's speculation, they thought that Liu Bei should have prepared a naval army in Yizhou, which was killed at a critical moment, and cooperated with Shen Chen to surround Sun Quan's army, and then went north to destroy Xiangfan Cao's army.

Cao Cao also recognized everyone's inference, and in the end, he looked around and sighed and said: "It's unpredictable, he actually ambushed a naval army early, killed the widow and Sun Quan by surprise, and the widow had to suspect that Sun Quan's plan to attack Jingzhou was already known." ”

"No matter what happens, the top priority now is to rescue Xiangfan."

Jiang Ji pondered: "It would be better if we could help Sun Quan relieve him of the predicament of being besieged. Why didn't the King of Wei transfer troops in Henan, let Yanzhou assassin Shi Pei Qian recruit new troops, and then let Xue Yi and Wen Hui of Huainan go south from Lujiang to Xiakou to relieve the siege? ”

"Recruit new soldiers?"

Cao Cao pointed to the official documents stacked on the other side, and said with a wry smile: "You don't know, the rear rebellion is not stopped, the front line and Liu Bei have been in constant war over the years, the forced labor is serious, and the people are miserable, from last year to this year alone, there have been no less than 20 rebellions in various places, and if new soldiers are recruited, the whole of Henan will be reversed." ”

Historically, Cao Cao's rear has been unstable, and there have been several records this year, such as Geng Ji, Wei Huang, Wei Wei and others rebelled, Sun Wolf, Hou Yin and others rebelled, especially after the flooding of the Seventh Army, Liang, Jia, and Lu Hun were robbers and thieves were sent to the feather seal, and they supported the party, and Yu Wei shocked China.

The main reason is that Cao Cao has been fighting in those years, attacking Guanzhong, fighting Ma Chao, Ping Hansui, and conquering Zhanglu, and then the Battle of Hanzhong broke out, transporting grain from Guandong and other places to Guanzhong, and transferring a large number of people.

Not only Cao Cao, but Liu Bei's battle in Hanzhong was also very difficult. Shu County and Ba County transported grain to Hanzhong, and the logistical pressure was huge, and a large number of people were requisitioned, so that the forced labor continued, and the cultivation was delayed, which made the people of Bashu miserable.

For this reason, he made an extremely important strategic mistake at that time, that is, after repelling Cao Cao, he immediately withdrew his troops back to Shu County to appease the people and reduce the conscription to deal with internal affairs.

As a result, after Liu Bei left Hanzhong, Cao Cao's pressure was greatly reduced, so he began to deal with Guan Yu wholeheartedly, sending troops and horses from all walks of life to aid Cao Ren, and finally repelled Guan Yu, relieved the siege of Xiangfan, and indirectly helped Sun Quan get Jingzhou.

The same is true now.

Cao Cao's expedition to Guanzhong, a long journey, great logistical pressure, and heavy forced labor by the people, made the rear rebellion more than once.

Although Liu Bei's situation is similar, the battle of Wudu has been fought for more than half a year, Liu Bei is also facing logistical supply difficulties, Shu County and Ba County have transferred a large number of people, and Qianshou is in a difficult dilemma.

But Liu Bei did one thing better than Cao Cao, that is, he suppressed the wealthy families, liberated a large number of people, and at the same time promoted Champa rice, which greatly increased productivity.

Through these measures, Liu Bei was barely able to support, and now he is also traveling a long way to attack Guanzhong, but he is not on the verge of collapse.

Therefore, Cao Cao and Liu Bei are actually holding bowstrings now, and they are beginning to grit their teeth to fight for national strength.

If Cao Cao now transfers the people and recruits new soldiers, it will be like the last straw that crushes the camel, and it is very likely to trigger a large-scale rebellion in Henan, then the Nanyang Cao army will have no way to rescue it at all.

Therefore, unless it is already a time when the country is about to die, it must not shake the foundation of the country.

In the end, Cao Cao stood up from the seat, slowly walked to the entrance of the hall, covered his forehead that was getting more and more painful, and said with a long sigh: "I hope Yuan will let them be safe and sound." ”

Bang.

I don't know when.

There was also a light rain in Guanzhong.

This struggle between Liu Bei and Cao Cao.

Although I am not in Jingzhou, Jingzhou has become a key place for their survival!