Jingzhou battlefield.

Cao Cao listened to Jia Xu's words and only sent 20,000 soldiers to reinforce Luoyang, and made up his mind to break Guan Yu first.

Although it is an exaggeration for Cao Jun to claim that he is one million, counting Cao Ren's soldiers and horses in Fancheng, the total number of Cao troops in Nanyang exceeds 250,000, which is a huge challenge for Guan Yu.

In particular, the dispatch of Wancheng's newly built warships greatly limited Guan Yu's previous tactics.

Cao Cao's warship was launched and he regained control of the Jingzhou waterway, and Guan Yu's navy was difficult to contain, so it could only be used to delay the ban negotiations.

However, Cao Cao is different from Liu Bei's affection, and he is a ruthless character of 'I'd rather be my wife than someone to bear me', so he directly entered the county during the negotiation period, and didn't care about the life or death of the ban at all.

Due to the disparity in troops, defending the county is equivalent to digging one's own grave.

Fortunately, Xu Shu and Guan Yu have a plan.

Long before Cao Cao marched into the county, Xu Shu led all his infantry to retreat to Nanxiang.

The thousands of cavalry that Wei Yan brought with him from Guanzhong, as well as the cavalry that Guan Yu had assembled in Nanyang, remained in the county to deal with Cao Cao and delay.

Cao Ren invaded Nanyang last year, Guan Yu implemented Xu Shu's plan to clear the wilderness, and moved all the people from all counties to Nanxiang for resettlement.

Xu Shu left Yuxian County in advance to go to Nanxiang, mainly to transfer these people, but he led heavy troops not only to move the people, but also to contain Cao's army in Nanxiang.

Nanxiang is located in the northwest corner of Nanyang County, on the bank of Danshui, the main tributary of the Han River, and Guan Yu also plans to use the waterway to make a fuss.

A small number of naval troops can achieve twice the result with half the effort when they deploy defenses in Danshui, while Cao Cao's naval army needs to detour around a super-large U-shaped route from Shuishui to the south, and it has to pass through Xiangyang, Juxian and other riverside defense areas.

Due to the long length of the water and the rapid flow of the Han River, this route was not friendly to the inexperienced Cao family's water army, and it was risky to advance troops and transport supplies.

If the infantry cavalry takes Nanxiang by land, the Cao army, which has an absolute superiority in troops, can completely cross the Danshui with effort.

However, almost all the large and small rivers in Nanyang County run longitudinally from north to south, and several large rivers have to be crossed from Wancheng to Nanxiang, and the difficulty of replenishment in the later period has increased exponentially.

What's more, Nanxiang is close to Wuguan, so it is really dangerous to retreat into Guanzhong, and if Cao Jun crosses the river without the assistance of the navy, he will put himself in danger, after all, the cavalry with Guan Yu is not an ornament.

Those broken cavalry were less than 7,000, and most of them were brought by Wei Yan and Ma Dai from Liangzhou, and their combat effectiveness may not be as good as the tiger and leopard cavalry, and the Wuhuan cavalry incorporated by Cao Cao also had a gap of several times in number.

But Guan Yu has the blessing of the clairvoyant mirror, and he is able to contain, harass, and retreat with ease.

After making a simple resistance in Sui County, Guan Yu led his troops to retreat to Champion County in the northwest empty city.

attracted the main force of Cao's army, and immediately withdrew to the southwest non-stop, intending to lead Cao Cao to Yin and Juan counties, where Liu Ye was stationed.

Guan Yu wanted to rely on the high mobility of the cavalry to continue to buy time for Liu Bei.

Cao Ren was very cautious during his march into the county and the championship, and he ordered the soldiers and horses of each battalion to keep a distance, so as to facilitate mutual care and joint attacks, and strictly ordered that they were not allowed to break away from the brigade and attack privately.

Guan Yu abandoned the county and lost the championship, Cao Cao also saw that he deliberately delayed, and thought that in Runan, Liu Bei also played tens of thousands of Cao troops like a dog.

Liu Ye is also in Jingzhou, could it be a repeat of the old trick?

Cao Cao is different from the past, he relied on his own military superiority, as well as the warships and sailors that had just been launched, so he let down his guard and boldly attacked, and at the same time sent several cavalry to surround Guan Yu.

Guan Yu took advantage of his vision to divide several squads to lure the pursuers, take the opponent around the field, and then pass through obstacles such as groves and small grassy hills, attacking the lone squad like a ghost.

In less than a day, Cao Jun folded more than 2,000 horses, Wei Yan and Ma Dai each had a record of beheading, and Guan Yu even captured the famous general Gao Lan with his own hands.

Cao Cao's jaw almost dropped in shock, and Zhang Liao once again showed his expression on the white horse, as if to say, 'General Guan is a true god'.

Cao Cao did not care about face and continued to send cavalry to chase, and immediately changed his hexagram back to his previous conservative state, saying Guan Yunchang, you can run casually, as long as you run out of Jingzhou, I will not chase.

Through the information brought back by the sentinels, Cao Cao learned that Xu Shu led the main force of Jingzhou to Nanxiang.

Cao Cao was sure that Guan Yu would also go to Nanxiang, and finally resisted a little and escaped into Guanzhong through Wuguan, so he sent Xiahou Yuanxi to Danshui to intercept it, and deployed in advance to cut off Guan Yu's retreat, while he himself led the main force to continue to pursue.

However, Guan Yu evacuated to Yin and Juan counties, which made Cao Cao puzzled, and said in his heart that there were few soldiers, shouldn't he concentrate his forces? Is Yun Chang going back alive now that he divides his troops?

Doubts are doubts, Cao Cao used soldiers unceremoniously.

Cao Cao ordered Cao Ren to send troops from Fancheng to join the siege on the way to Yin and Juan counties on the way to Yin and Juan counties.

The strategic situation of the entire Nanyang has formed a situation in which Cao Cao is in the center, Cao Ren is on the left, and Xiahou Yuan is on the right, which is completely crushing.

Cao had more than 200,000 troops, dealing with a small number of defenders of Guan Yu and Liu Ye, which was Cao Cao's respect and recognition of Guan Yu and Liu Ye.

However, just when the three parties were encircling Yin and Yan two counties, Cao Cao's new group of sailors in Wancheng had an accident.

Tens of thousands of soldiers became fish feed in Hanshui, the main general Mao Jue fled to Fancheng with the remnants, Cai Mao shot Gan Ning when he commanded, and the thousands of newly built warships in Wancheng were not hot, so they changed their hands so quickly.

Xu Shu and Guan Yu wanted to transfer the battle line from Huashui to fight near Hanshui, and extend the supply line of Cao's army with strategic depth, and Gan Ning handed over half of the naval army to Liu Ye in order to cooperate.

Due to the lack of troops and the number of warships, Gan Ning could not stop Mao Jue and Cai Mao in Shuishui, so he could only fight and retreat towards Hanshui, intending to continue the battle with his back to Xiangyang.

Cao Cao was very relieved to receive Mao Jue's battle report, and said in his heart that the reason why Cai Mao and Zhang Yun failed before was that the number of warships and sailors was not enough, and everything was vain in the face of absolute power.

Guan Yu can't stop his true appearance, what can little Gan Ning do?

Not long after Cao Ren sent troops to Fancheng, Mao Jue and Cai Mao also chased Gan Ning to the waters of Xiangyang.

The two were about to drive each other to the upstream battlefield and stew Guan Yu's people with Cao Cao, but Lu Su led the warships to arrive as agreed.

Lu Su and Gan Ning went one after the other, and Guan Ping ordered Jiang Qin to go out of Xiangyang at the same time.

Mao Jue has not been in charge of the army for a long time, where has he ever seen such a battle? Even Cai Mao was surrounded on three sides on the water for the first time, and suddenly felt that the sky had fallen.

The war report was sent to Cao Cao's camp, Cao Cao was so angry that he had a recurrence of head stroke and fell into a coma, and after waking up, he urgently ordered all his troops to speed up the march, intending to slaughter the city after the victory to vent his anger.

Gan Ning left a naval army in Yin and Yan, and won a great victory in Xiangyang with Lu Su and Jiang Qin, and thousands of warships went up the river after the victory.

Guan Yu originally planned to evacuate directly, but he didn't expect the reinforcements from the waterway to come so quickly, and the troops made a qualitative leap at once, so he confronted Cao Cao in Yin and Hu.

After Mao Jue was defeated, Cao Cao was worried that Guan Yu would use the navy to harass his own grain route as he did with Cao Ren, so he was distracted during the confrontation.

The two sides confronted each other for seven or eight days, and the stocks of Yin and Jufu were exhausted.

Guan Yu and Liu Ye took advantage of the waterway to transfer the battlefield to another place again.

(End of chapter)