On that day, the remaining troops from Yidu County came out in full swing, heading to the old road of the Bingshui River in Lexiang, met with the main force of the Jingzhou naval army, and then launched a fierce attack on the Cao army around Jiangling.
After the defeat of the Battle of Chibi, Cao's army occupied Xiangyang and Fancheng, and used Han River and the rivers further north such as Pure Water and Tuo Water to train troops to adapt to the combat in the water network area. Although due to the rapid and high water banks and high rivers, it was impossible to train the fleet, most of the soldiers had the experience of fighting on rafts and building turrets in the water and zodiac areas. Cao Ren brought these soldiers when he went south this time.
In addition, Cao Gong also trained more than 10,000 elite soldiers who could fight on boats in the Xuanwu Lake in Yecheng, and worked with Yecheng craftsmen to develop some methods to quickly build water fortresses. Zhang He dared to go deep into Jiangxinzhou in the river, so he used these soldiers as a basis.
Cao Gong's cavalry advantage was that he had no room for implementation between the water towns, dense forests and rugged mountains in the south. If he wanted to achieve great things, he had to take the initiative to make up for his weaknesses and strive to win first and then fight. Therefore, over the past few years, his research on the southern terrain and combat in the southern water network area has never stopped.
It is precisely because of this that he dared to go south to capture Jiangling in spring and summer... After all, with so much time and energy being devoted, even if he couldn't compete with the Jiangdong Navy, would he still be unable to control the people of Jingzhou?
As it turns out, it is completely uncontrollable.
Guan Yu moved his troops through the vast water force and defeated the enemy with the water surface. With only a small amount of troops, he defeated the 50,000 army that Cao Gong had joined for several years in one battle.
After Cao Ren, the general of the Southern Expedition who was ordered by Cao Gong to be fully responsible for the war in Jingzhou, committed suicide under Jiangling City, his troops were attacked by both sides of the Jingzhou army, and the dead and wounded were lying on their backs for several miles. Only Cao Zhang and Cao Xiu led a small number of elite troops to escape.
General Pingdi Zhang He was trapped on Jiangxinzhou with his 10,000 elite troops and defended by the camp he had built before. The Jingzhou navy ignored them and was expected to wait until the camp had eaten up all the food and fodder. If they did not want to starve to death on the surging river, they would always make a decision.
After that, the Jingzhou army made a little move to advance north. Jingling, Jingcheng, Dangyang, Linju and other cities in northern Jingzhou that were captured by Cao Ren a month ago changed hands one after another. Cao Gong urgently dispatched heavy troops to Zhengxian and Zhengxian, which was to block Guan Yu's fierce momentum.
At this time, the battle under Jiangling City gradually spread, and Jingzhou was filled with joy. It was said that General Guan was really a god, and countless families who lost their father and son in this war were inevitably mourned.
Guan Yu immediately wrote two articles, one went to Yizhou to report the results of the battle to Xuande Gong, and asked not to worry about Jingxiang; the other was sent to Jiangdong, which roughly means that Wu Hou might as well attack Hefei slowly. Whether it succeeds or not, there is no need to worry about Cao's army having large-scale reinforcements.
In order to slightly save face, Cao's army launched several counterattacks because of its military advantage.
Although the Jingzhou army won the victory and suffered a lot of losses before, it was so urgently that the county soldiers from all over Jingnan had to urgently transfer the troops from various parts of Jingnan to assist in the war. If Cao's army had the determination and attacked at any cost, it would be difficult to kill Jiangling again. However, because Cao Ren died in battle, the elite troops he invested in were seriously injured, and the morale of the rest of the troops was very low. Some generals and officers were even afraid of Guan Yu and were about to retreat with the enemy, so these counterattacks did not play much role.
On the contrary, there were once defeated soldiers roaring late at night. Legend has it that "Guan Yu is here to kill", which caused the soldiers to trample on each other and more casualties. Cao Gong ordered Xu Chu to lead the tiger soldiers in the Suwei Army to severely punish them, killing thousands of people before controlling the chaos.
This battle was once again after Cao Gong was in the south after the Red Cliff. Xuande Gong was in Hanzhong, and only Jingzhou's left-behind troops were good at fighting, causing the death of Cao Ren, the general of the Southern Expedition, to lose tens of thousands of people. This shocked both the lower-level soldiers and the scholars from the northern world with a higher status.
Not to mention, the troops of Lei Yuan, who was sent to Jianghuai to assist in the war, defeated the army of Xiahou Dun in one fell swoop. Previously, Cao Gong could explain, either the enemy's treacherous army, or Xiahou Yuanrang was neglected in the army and was unprepared, but at this time, all failures were difficult to explain.
So in a very wide area, many things have subtle differences.
In Xudu, Yecheng and other places, those undercurrents that were once suppressed by Cao Gong with Xun Wenruo's death surging again uncontrollably. In the front-line battle situations between Hanzhong and Hefei, when the generals and generals confirmed that Prime Minister Cao's strategy of attacking the enemy was unsuccessful, and when reinforcements were hopeless in the short term, many people's mentality gradually changed.
In Hanzhong, Duke Xuande led the main force to force the Dingjun Mountain, which had already caused the Xiahou Yuan and Xu Huang's troops to advance and retreat. The Sima Guo Huai of Xiahou Yuan originally led Lu Zhao and the two generals of Yin to station in Niutouling south of the county town, trying to prevent the Brazilian prefect Zhang Fei from passing through the Micang Road and prevent the enemy from attacking Xiahou Yuan from the side. As a result, his family fell into a tragic situation of being attacked by Liu Bei's headquarters and Zhang Fei's troops on both sides.
Because he was forced by Zhang Fei, Guo Huai and others' troops had been retreating northward. At first, they set up camp in the deep mountains at the end of the Dangqu River, relying on the so-called "single clouds and one hand to get to the sky" to stop Zhang Fei's attack.
Later, Zhang Fei was supported by local wealthy families and many Baba and Zhu leaders in Brazil, and was able to freely cross the continuous valley passes among the mountains, and instead divided and annihilated the Cao army scattered in many dangerous places. Zhao Yan in Nanzheng gradually found it difficult to ensure long-distance food and fodder transportation in the deep mountains. So Guo Huai had to lead the army and gradually retreated to the northern section of Micang Road and Niutouling in the southeast corner of Micang Mountain.
Although the terrain north of Niutouling is high, it is roughly flat and has no danger to defend. Standing on the ridge, you can directly overlook Nanzheng. Previously, the cavalry troops left in Nanzheng mainly supported the front and back to fill the gap in defense. Since a month ago, Xiahou Yuan led his troops here to confront the army of Xuande Gong headquarter located high in Micang Mountain.
This did not make Guo Huai happy at all, because if Duke Xuande planned to meet with Zhang Fei, the first thing he had to defeat would become Guo Huai's troops.
And Xiahou Miaocai actually had no ability to stop him.
Guo Huai looked at the large stone slab in front of him, and the simple terrain was drawn with chalk soil on the stone slab, and also used large and small stones to represent the two armies of Cao and Liu who were intertwined at this moment.
The one who put the stone slab was Sima Yi, the counselor who had come to Hanzhong as an envoy before, but was involved here and never escaped.
At this moment, Sima Yi frowned and continued: "At this moment, General Hengye, General Xixi and us, the three forces are roughly arranged from west to east. General Hengye faces the Shu army, and we face Zhang Fei's troops in Brazil, all of them are shaking. No matter which direction the General Xixi rescues, the other direction will inevitably fail. So... ahem, so..."
He "so" for a while, but couldn't continue.
After a long time, he whispered: "Boji, we have no reinforcements!"
Guo Huai stepped on the stream under his feet anxiously, making a whirring sound.
Chapter completed!