The army went straight up along the Han River, and in the cabin, Guan Yu, Xu Shu, Pang Tong and others changed their original plans according to the news that Cao Pi was proclaimed emperor.

Xu Shu introduced: "Luoyang is quite far away from Xiangyang, but there is no danger to defend, if we ignore the cities along the way, we can directly kill Luoyang City."

Cao Pi should know this, at the beginning of the blockade of all the news before we became emperor, we had no knowledge in advance, and we were very vigilant. I am afraid that in the name of welcoming the Han Emperor, we will attract those remnants of the Han family to defect to the king.

With them, they can liaise with the anti-Cao forces in the north and cooperate with each other, which is a big trouble for Cao Pi. Cao Pi has now been proclaimed emperor, and the next thing to do is to drag the Kaichun army to conquer the king, show the world who is strong and who is weak, and suppress the Han remnants in the north. ”

Guan Yu said: "It's really a pity, now we still get the news from Sun Quan, I'm afraid Cao Pi didn't expect Sun Quan to leak it out immediately!" ”

Xu Shu shook his head and said: "Not necessarily, maybe this is Cao Pi's calculation, normally speaking, now we know that Cao Pi usurped the Han, two reactions." The first is to play the slogan of reviving the Han dynasty and crusading against Cao thieves to go north to conquer.

It takes at least more than a month to prepare for the expedition of the army, recruit the army for deployment, raise grain and grass to have people's husbands, etc., but the time is not good. It cannot and is easy to breed dissatisfaction among the people and soldiers.

The second is that there is no action, silence, and self-defense, so that the loyal people of the northern Han family will inevitably be disappointed, which is equivalent to acquiescing in Cao Pi's orthodox status.

Taking a step back, we are ready to start the Northern Expedition, he Cao Pi is not stupid, he is already ready to deal with this time, and we will not take advantage of it.

If we don't do it, when the spring ploughing is completed, he Cao Pi will do it, and take advantage of the situation to establish the authority of his new court, and the initiative is in his Cao Pi's hands!

Now, without that troublesome month, we will soon be able to go on a northern expedition, a godsend. Cao Pi was called the emperor for less than a month, and our army hit Luoyang City at this time, no matter whether we really fight or fake, this momentum drives people's hearts, enough for Cao Pi! ”

Guan Yu said: "Yuan Zhi means that according to the original plan, regardless of the counties along the way, it will be directly inserted into Xuchang, no, it will be directly inserted into Luoyang." ”

Pang Tong said: "Yes, the previous attack on Xuchang was because the Son of Heaven was there, but now that the Son of Heaven is no more, it will naturally be changed to Luoyang, the capital of Wei."

Cao Pi is a character! He Laozi regarded Yecheng as the capital of Wei, but Cao Pi claimed to be the emperor in Luoyang, and his ambition to unify the Central Plains was exposed!

Yun Chang, this time to advance, it is best to fight a battle under Luoyang City, not to win, it is enough to win or lose, but unfortunately I don't know how many soldiers and horses there are in Luoyang! ”

Changshi Yang Yi pointed to Ye County and suggested: "Cao Pi has set the capital of Luoyang, then we can't take Xuchang as the primary target."

Ye County is not the primary target, now should be between Luoyang and Xuchang Yangzhai, Yangcheng, Xinzheng as the primary goal, if you can take the three cities, attack Luoyang in the north, and surround Xuchang in the south, it only takes three days to disrupt Qingyanzhou. ”

Guan Yu looked at the map and said, "Having said that, Guan doesn't dare to do it!" Xuchang and Luoyang are both important places, and the number of troops nearby is not clear, we can't fight hard, and the risk is not worth it.

If Guan Mou said that the location of Yangzhai, Yangcheng, and Xinzheng counties is not good, and they are just sandwiched between Luoyang and Xuchang, and if Cao's army has sufficient troops, then we will inevitably be surrounded.

Our original goal was to disperse the military pressure in the direction of Yizhou, which meant that the longer we held on to Cao's army, the better. Guan Mou was inclined to Lu Hun in the southwest of Luoyang as a temporary garrison, Lu Hun was close to Luoyang and could threaten Luoyang.

It is far away from Xuchang, and the surrounding area is open, and we can detect and respond in time when there are troops and horses. And Lu Hun's people are towards me, which is more conducive to the troops! ”

Pang Tong stared at the map and suddenly said: "There is no need to discuss it anymore, any plan designed in advance cannot be perfect, the key is to rely on the prince, Yuan Zhi and the generals to respond to the enemy, and talk on paper to tie up the troops!" Everyone nodded.

Pang Tong thought of something, looked at Yang Yi and said, "Gongwei, can you contact Lu Hun Sun Wolf and Luyang Li Kuan?" ”

Yang Yi was embarrassed: "I'm afraid not, what was determined before was that our army was Ming, Sun Wolf and they secretly cooperated, and the camera did something!" ”

Pang Tong said: "Forget it, I planned to let Sun Wolf cooperate to take Lu Hun as soon as possible!" ”

It was completely dark that day, the army was assembled at the ferry, Guan Yu ordered a night march, Pang De led the troops and horses of the headquarters by Liao Hua temporarily, and Pang De joined the cavalry led by Guan Ping.

Guan Yu made good use of cavalry with Pang De, although he personally guided the method of Guan Ping's cavalry, after all, he was deficient in actual combat, so he was reappointed Pang De as the main general, and Guan Ping was the deputy general and led 5,000 cavalry to attack Luyang and Liangxian at the fastest speed, and then attacked Lu Hun together, clearing the obstacles for the army to then go north.

In addition, Zhao Lei was selected to lead 500 cavalry to block the large and small paths leading from Nanyang to Luoyang and Xuchang.

Guan Yu appointed Gan Ning as the main general, led Liao Hua and Yang Yi to lead 40,000 soldiers and horses to attack Jianyang County, captured Jianyang County, protected the army to the north, and suppressed Nanyang. Deng Ai led his troops to attack Xinye and pulled out the beacon fortress set up between Xinye and Nanyang.

Guan Yu and Xu Shu led 15,000 soldiers and horses to carry grain and grass to the north overnight and went straight to Luyang.

The sky was getting brighter, Nanyang Xiahou Shang had already gotten up and finished combing, and his subordinates hurried over, and they were bumping into Xiahou Shang who was about to go out, Xiahou Shang asked, "What are you doing in a hurry early in the morning?" ”

The subordinates took a breath and said, "General, it's not good-looking, Thorn Yang was attacked by thieves!" ”

Xiahou Shang exclaimed: "Today is New Year's Day, Guan Yu attacked at this time, he really picked the time, and didn't let people live in peace!" ”

The subordinates hurriedly said: "Yes, Your Majesty ascended the throne, the general has already distributed the rewards to the counties and camps and armies, so that they can celebrate together, but at this time the thieves attacked, I am afraid that our army will be caught off guard and will suffer losses, it is really strange, so the thieves are only New Year's Day, they really want to open!" ”

Xiahou Shang said: "No matter what, who leads the troops, and how much strength is known?" ”

The subordinate said: "According to the soldiers who came out to report the news from Jianyang, there are as many as 10,000 people, and the thieves led by the thieves will hold iron chains, carry long knives on their backs, and cross the short blades on their waists to go into battle in person, and the thieves have already landed in the city when he broke out of the siege!" ”

Xiahou Shang said: "This person can kill it seems that the thief soldiers deliberately opened their mouths to lure me to rescue, and they may want to ambush my Nanyang soldiers and horses." ”

After thinking about it, Xiahou Shang said: "You can't show weakness, you have to send troops to make a show, go gather soldiers and horses, and go out of the city with this general to see!" The subordinate hurriedly agreed.

Xiahou Shang gathered 6,000 soldiers and horses, and instructed his subordinates to guard Nanyang, and if he did not show up, no one was allowed to open the city gate, and then Wangjianyang came.

After marching for several miles, dozens of defeated troops were encountered. Xiahou Shanglema asked, and he knew that Gan Ning personally led his troops and horses to break through Jianyang.

Xiahou Shang sighed: "It seems that the strongholds south of Thorn Yang and north of Xinye are all going to be abandoned!" ”

The adjutant general hurriedly said: "Why did the general say this? ”

Xiahou Shang said: "There are thousands of troops in Jianyang, and it is close to Nanyang, so it is worth saving." Xinye is different, it has long been an empty city, and the beacon fortresses set up along the way are actually used as warnings to prevent Guan Yu's army from sneaking up on Nanyang, and the total number of defenders is less than five hundred, and Thorn Yang can't stop it, not to mention these small strongholds! ”

Looking at the defeated army that fled back, Xiahou Shangqi said: "How did you escape from the siege of more than 10,000 soldiers and horses!" ”

The defeated army said: "It was the thief army who released us, hundreds of people were arrested, and a few of us were released, and we also wondered!" ”

Xiahou Shang scolded in his heart: "What the hell is Gan Ning doing here? Could it be that attacking our Nanyang and letting these defeated troops surround the hearts of our army. Uprooting a few beacon fortresses and two county towns, mobilizing the army, and mobilizing tens of thousands of people at a time, what is there to boast about, this cost is too worthless!

Nanyang soldiers and horses add up to 15,000, and 100,000 people may not be able to take Nanyang, besides, I still have reinforcements, Guan Yu will not be stupid enough to do such a thing! ”

Thinking about it, Xiahou Shang said: "Send an order, send more scouts to inquire about the news, go to Shangyong Sancheng in the west, Runan in the east, and Xiangfan in the south." Some cavalry was sent to meet the fleeing soldiers, and the other outlying camps were all abandoned.

There is also a report to Luoyang to His Majesty, although this stall is a bit unsuccessful, but there is no way! ”

At noon that day, Gan Ning led 40,000 soldiers and horses to Nanyang and surrounded Nanyang City. Xiahou Shang rectified the city defense and prepared equipment to defend the city.

Gan Ning set up camps at the north and east gates of Nanyang, built fortifications, and dug trenches. He ordered everyone to cut down cypress trees outside the south gate and west gate to build a small grass hut, and picked up the branches with lush branches and leaves to build, densely covered with flags, surrounded by canes, and showed Xiahou Shang that he would stay for a long time and besiege Nanyang.

When Xiahou Shang saw Gan Ning's arrangement outside the city, he didn't dare to hold it up, wrote down the situation in detail, and sent someone to report it to Cao Pi. Gan Ning took advantage of the advantage of his strength to blockade the city, captured two groups of messengers from Xiahou Shang alive, and tied them to the pillar. Seeing this situation, Xiahou Shang was even more sure that the person who came was not good.

At the time of the third watch, Xiahou Shang selected more than 1,000 elite soldiers to stand by, and he went out of the city to attack the camp first. Gan Ning had long been prepared to prevent the enemy from attacking the camp, but Xiahou had not yet bargained, and hundreds of people were lost and retreated to the city.

As soon as Xiahou Shang withdrew and saw that the Han camp had stopped, he immediately ordered more than a thousand elite soldiers to protect the messenger and kill him out of the north gate.

Xiahou Shang attacked the camp first, but was repelled by Gan Ning, and the Han army had already slackened slightly, thinking that Cao's army would not make any more moves. For Xiahou Shang to attack the camp again, he was really caught off guard.

The messenger took advantage of the chaos to get out of the battle, Xiahou Shang saw the success of the second attack camp in the city, opened the city gate, led the soldiers and horses to kill, the two armies fought a melee, and the other Han troops sent soldiers and horses to support, Xiahou Shang then withdrew his army back to the city and continued to hold on.

As soon as Cao's army withdrew, Gan Ning quickly gathered 20,000 soldiers and horses and went directly north, and the grass huts built at the south gate and west gate played a role.

The north gate and the west gate are built with tents, although they are far away from the city, the shadow is enough but they can guess the strength of the troops, Xiahou Shang is not incompetent, in order to prevent Xiahou Shang from seeing through, for the sake of prudence, Zhao Lei and Deng Ai led 20,000 soldiers and horses to station.

Two days later, Feng Xi, Zong Yu and other generals led 15,000 soldiers and horses to Nanyang City, and Xiahou Shang roughly estimated that there were at least 50,000 people in the city.

Guan Yu has not yet appeared, Xiahou Shang is even more sure that this time the Han army will not give up easily, if you want to say that Guan Yu is joking, no one will believe it, but Xiahou Shang's judgment is biased, Guan Yu's goal is not Nanyang but Luoyang, and the siege of Nanyang is just to prevent Nanyang's soldiers and horses from shortening their back roads and hindering grain and grass.

After Feng Xi and the others arrived, Deng Ai immediately led 20,000 soldiers and horses to the north at night to meet Guan Yu.