The beginning of the Three Kingdoms Cheng Yuanzhi

Chapter 278
Sima Yi smiled and said, "That's the reason, but I can't just keep defending."

Hao Zhao was stunned when he heard this, and said in his heart, "You are the general who wants to defend and not fight, and you are the general who says you can't just defend. So what should we do?"

Then he asked: "General, why is this?"

Sima Yi looked down the city, and said in a deep voice, "Wei Wei is strong today, and Liu Han is weak. Therefore, if we don't fight today, the country's prestige will be damaged. The king of Wei blames it, and it's hard to explain."

Hao Zhao said: "So, what should I do?"

Sima Yi smiled slightly: "I also have no good strategy. I can only wait for the enemy with the whole army and adapt to the situation. It's just that Guan Yu's sudden surprise, this way of attacking a stone with an egg, knowing that it can't be done but forced to do it, really puzzles me."

Hao Zhao nodded and said, "Okay, General, then this general will go down to prepare the army for war."

After all, Hao Zhao withdrew.

At this time, the general Wang Shuang cupped his hands and said: "If the general wants to adapt to the situation, he must first play Ming Wei Wang, so as not to incur crimes later."

Sima Yi nodded his head and said: "The words are reasonable, take the pen and ink."

The soldiers took the order and left. After a while, they moved a wooden table, took out pens, inkstones and other items and placed them on it. They stood by and studied ink for Sima Yi.

Sima Yi picked up his pen, pondered for a moment, and wrote: "Today Guan Yu invades our territory and his troops are approaching Xiangyang. Whether or not to fight depends on the opportunity. I should take strict precautions to resist his first attack, and then wait for opportunities to defeat him. I hereby bow to you to inform you. My king."

After writing, Sima Yi picked up the silk book, dried the ink on it, and read it carefully, then packed the letter, handed it to the soldiers and said, "Send it to Yecheng immediately."


The soldiers took the silk book, put it in their sleeves, clapped their hands and said "yes", and went down to the city.

Under the city, Guan Yu's camp.

Guan Yu did not choose to attack Xiangyang at all, because Xiangyang had [-] defenders, and he had no desire to attack just by looking at the heavily guarded city.

At this time, Guan Yu also suffered from being unable to break through the city for a while, so he discussed with Guan Ping, Zhou Cang and others in the big tent of the Chinese army.

At this time, a soldier came to report and said, "Report! A horse galloped out of Xiangyang City, crossed the river and headed north.

"Cross the river to the north..."

Guan Yu suddenly had a flash of inspiration, waved his big hand and said, "Okay! I have a plan to break the city."

Guan Ping and Zhou Cang hurriedly asked, "Father (General), what is the plan?"

Guan Yu stroked his long beard and said: "Cross the river to take Fancheng, lure the Xiangyang defenders to come to help, and attack them halfway!"

Guan Ping was shocked when he heard this: "Father, if you go to take Fancheng now, if it is difficult to conquer for a while, Xiangyang soldiers and horses will leave the city again and cut off my return. Our army will be in danger!"

Guan Yu laughed and said, "How can I not guard against Xiangyang's soldiers? Ping'er, you lead [-] troops to garrison the west gate of Xiangyang and the south bank of the Han River to support our army. Zhou Cang followed me into Fancheng."

Hearing this, Guan Ping felt relieved, and quickly bowed his hands to accept the order.

After a while, Guan Yu's soldiers and horses were divided into two groups, one of which was stationed in place and the other was crossing the river.

The next day, Sima Yi found out about this military situation, and immediately fell silent.

He still didn't want to understand why Guan Yu attacked Xiangyang and even Fancheng.

Why?
Is it only with [-] soldiers and horses?

You know, there are 3000 troops stationed in Xiangyang alone, while Fancheng and Xinye are slightly less, and each has 8 troops.Further north, [-] horses were also stationed in Wancheng.

If Guan Yu's move is not crazy, then he has other deep meanings.

But where is the deep meaning?
Sima Yi couldn't understand it.

While I was thinking, suddenly a soldier came to report, and a young man from the cows begged to see him.

Sima Yi was very surprised, thinking that there was nothing wrong with him, and it would be no harm to see him, so he ordered someone to lead him to the city.

After a while, the young man came to the city, and saw hundreds of burly soldiers standing neatly on the left and right sides of Sima Yi, all of them armed with spears, all of them looked fierce.

The young man's heart trembled, he quickly lowered his eyes, bowed his hands and saluted, "Caomin has seen the general."

Sima Yi looked at him and asked, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

The young man said loudly: "Caomin Yiyang Deng Ai, I have some important military affairs to discuss with the general."

Hearing this, Wang Shuang drew his sword out of its sheath, and shouted in a cold voice: "You are a cowherd boy, and you dare to speak nonsense about important military affairs!"

"Don't be reckless, back down!"

Sima Yi raised his hand to stop Wang Shuang, and said to Deng Ai kindly:

"Tell me, what's the big deal about military aircraft?"

Hearing this, Wang Shuang glared at Deng Ai, put the knife back into its sheath, and stepped aside.

Deng Ai said: "Now Guan Yu divides his troops to take Fancheng. The opportunity to fight is right in front of us. Please make a decision early."

Sima Yi smiled slightly, instead of discussing this topic with Deng Ai, he asked instead: "How old are you?"

Deng Ai replied truthfully: "Caomin is 17 years old this year."

Sima Yi asked again: "Have you ever been able to read and write?"

Deng Ai said: "I have heard some books and know some characters."

I have read some books, children from poor families... Sima Yi waved his hands and said softly, "You go back first, and I will call you to see me later."

Deng Ai answered "Yes", turned around and retreated.

Wang Shuang looked at Deng Ai's back and said to Sima Yi: "Why does the general treat this man kindly?"

Sima Yi smiled and said: "This Deng Ai is young, he will join the army without panic, he will not be confused when he is asked by superiors, he will not feel inferior because of his low background, and he will be sensitive to military opportunities. He is a good young man to join the army. Send someone to inquire. Let me know his address, and after I defeat Guan Yu, I will recommend this person to study in the state school, so as to discover talents for the Great Wei!"

Wang Shuang nodded, waved his hand to order a soldier to follow him, looked sideways at Deng Ai who was slowly leading the oxen away under the city, thoughtfully.

After a long time, he asked again: "How does the general plan to deal with the enemy?"

Sima Yi was silent and walked down to the city with his hands behind his back.

In the next day, Fancheng fell, and the news of Li Dian's retreat to Xinye spread to Xiangyang.

Sima Yi clapped his hands and smiled when he heard the news, "Good!"

Hao Zhao asked suspiciously, "This is obviously bad news, why did the general say it was good?"

Wang Shuang also echoed: "After Guan Yu captured Fancheng, the next step must be to capture Xinye. Our army sits in Xiangyang and does not move. What should we do if the king of Wei blames us?"

Sima Yi looked around the two of them and said, "Don't worry, wait and see. I always feel that something is wrong with the current situation, but I don't know what is wrong. Since I don't know, the only thing I can do is to secure the defense first, and defeat the enemy second."

After all, he ordered the scouts to continue to inquire about the movements of Guan Yu's army and horses.

The second general didn't know, so he waited patiently for several days.

Unexpectedly, the good news did not arrive, but when Xinye fell, Xu Huang, the prefect of Wancheng, was furious, and sent someone to question Sima Yi, "Why did you stand still and watch the city fall?"

At the same time, Xu Huang sent [-] troops to kill Fancheng, and fought several fierce battles with Guan Yu's soldiers in the wild.

Until now, seeing that Sima Yi was still standing still, Generals Hao Zhao and Wang Shuang panicked and couldn't hold back any longer. They pleaded for orders, "General, hurry up and send troops! Once Guan Yu is defeated by Xu Huang, I will blame him for his crimes." escape!"

The implication is that once Xu Huang defeats Guan Yu, there will be nothing wrong with us. Just for the crime of "fearing to fight and losing territory and city", the heads of three people are not enough.

Sima Yi also felt that the time had come and he couldn't wait any longer, so he said immediately:

"Hao Zhao, I order you to lead 1 troops to guard the south bank of the Han River and cut off Guan Yu's way back!"

"Wang Shuang, I order you to lead 1 troops to guard the north bank of the Yangtze River and cut off the escape route of Zhou Cang's army outside the city!"

Hao Zhao and Wang Shuang responded in unison: "Yes!"

Sima Yi continued: "The rest of the generals, follow me out of the city, capture Guan Ping alive, and wipe out all the invading soldiers outside the city!"

Tens of thousands of soldiers in Xiangyang City waited for a month, just for today's battle, they heard the news, all of them were excited, screamed to kill out of the city, and went straight to the Guanping Army camp twenty miles away.

At that time, Guan Ping was patrolling the river outside the camp, looking north, when he suddenly saw the Wei army from Xiangyang approaching like a mountain, he was terrified, and hurriedly led the army to fight.

But the enemy is outnumbered, and the fighting spirit of the two sides is very different. One side goes down the mountain like a tiger, and the other side is not sharp.

How can the [-] troops under Guan Ping's command be the opponents of the [-] Wei troops?

Guan Ping led the army to fight and retreat. After a short retreat, he came to the south bank of the Han River. Looking into his eyes, the densely packed boats disappeared, and there was no way to retreat.

Guan Ping had no choice but to raise his arms in the formation and shout: "Soldiers, there is no way forward, there are pursuers behind, turn around and fight to the death to take away my life!"

It was said that in order to survive, all the soldiers in the army breathed fire with their eyes, fearless of death, and fought desperately. All of them were like iron men who knew no pain.

In the face of such momentum, Wei Jun could only feel inferior to himself, made way for a passage, followed behind and chased and killed.

Guan Ping led the remnant army to make a way out and head south.

After fleeing in panic all the way, when they reached the north bank of the Yangtze River (the Han River is in the north, the Yangtze River is in the south, and Xiangyang is in the middle), roughly speaking, there were only a thousand people and horses left.

Guan Ping was covered in blood, and panicked even more, he managed to calm down, and said to the crowd: "Quickly find a boat to cross the river, and turn back to Wuling!"

As soon as the words fell, before he could act, the sky-shattering shouts of killing came from behind again.

In the dusty atmosphere, it was hard to see how many troops there were, but the Wei army was approaching menacingly, as if they had been waiting for a long time.

"My life is over!"

Guan Ping looked up to the sky and yelled loudly, summoned up his courage, and was about to turn around to fight to the death, but he saw that there were only a few followers, less than ten.

Turning around and looking, I saw that the rest of the soldiers had already collapsed to the ground, terribly exhausted, without any fighting strength.

……

When Sima Yi led the crowd to the riverside, Guan Ping and his soldiers had all been captured, and none of them escaped.

This great victory wiped out Guan Yu's [-] men left here, and captured Guan Ping alive, but Sima Yi was not happy at all, but looked at the south bank of the Yangtze River and sighed.

He finally realized what was wrong.

Wuling is in danger!

Thinking that Sima Yi was good at calculating all his life, he never expected to make a wedding dress for someone else in the end!
(End of this chapter)