Chapter 256: The Cao family has traveled thousands of miles and has more than ten thousand cavalry
Faced with Guan Yu's behavior, even Ma Liang was puzzled.
As the governor of Jingzhou who Liu Bei left behind to assist and advise Guan Yu, Ma Liang admonished Guan Yu: "Today it is appropriate to lead the three armies with the strength of the generals and attack Fancheng in a hurry.
We must be able to evacuate it when Wei Wei comes to rescue us, but we have to work hard to build a siege, fearing that the strength of the soldiers and the people will be compromised."
Ma Liang was not ignorant of military affairs. On the contrary, from the time he first followed Liu Bei, his position was as a staff officer.
In Ma Liang's opinion, Cao Xiu must have sent the message asking for help.
In this case, the enemy's reinforcements will arrive soon. At this time, the best way they can adopt is to fight quickly.
Ma Liang's advice expressed the sentiments of most of the generals present.
Guan Yu looked at Ma Liang and the generals with doubts. He stroked his beard and explained: "Ji Chang only knows one but not the other."
"The defenses of Fancheng are strong, the grain and grain are abundant, and all the defensive equipment is not missing. Now I attack it and cannot rush it.
If the Northern troops arrive unprepared, they will suffer externally and internally, so how can we defend them?"
How could Guan Yu not know what Ma Liang said?
But just because he knew it, he did it.
In terms of understanding of Fancheng, Guan Yu is still superior to Cao Xiu, the defender of Fancheng.
Because of Cao Ren's previous lesson, Cao Xiu would definitely not lead his army out of the city to fight.
From Guan Yu's point of view, under such circumstances, even if his troops were doubled, it would not be easy to take down Fancheng in a hurry when he was well prepared.
Compared with the generals' judgment that Wei's reinforcements would arrive soon, Guan Yu felt that Wei's reinforcements might appear at any time.
Ni Wei still has many talents. Although his dispatch of troops is a sudden move, there is no guarantee that someone will not see through everything and make arrangements in advance.
So at this time, his vision cannot be limited to Fancheng.
Seeing what Guan Yu said, although the generals still had doubts in their minds, Guan Yu's prestige was profound, so in the end the generals still followed Guan Yu's orders.
Under Guan Yu's order, tens of thousands of Han troops began to move out of camp.
They abandoned the tent they had just built and came to Fancheng's moat to set up camp again.
Although it is said that the main task of the Han army is to surround Fancheng as soon as possible, Guan Yu did not take the Wei army in the city lightly.
He ordered his deputy general Ji Zhang to lead a Han army and observe the Wei army in Fancheng.
Once the Wei army in the city makes any changes while the Han army is camping, Ji Zhang's Han army can play a role in blocking the Wei army in the city, thus ensuring the safety of the army.
The unusual movements of tens of thousands of Han troops were quickly reported to Cao Xiu by Wei army spies.
After Cao Xiu learned of this situation, he came to the top of the city to inspect it in person.
Cao Xiu, also known as Wenlie, is a descendant of Cao Cao and a nephew of Cao Hong.
When Cao Cao raised his army, the young Cao Xiu changed his name and returned to the Central Plains from Wu, thousands of miles away, via Jingzhou to join Cao Cao.
Cao Cao said to the people around him at that time: "This is my family's thousand-mile horse."
After Cao Xiu defected to Cao Cao, Cao Cao allowed him to live and eat together with Cao Pi and treat him like his own son.
In the last years of Jian'an, Cao Cao felt that his health was getting worse, and most of the generals who had followed him in battles in the past years were old.
So Cao Cao consciously began to promote and train some second-generation clan members he valued.
Among the second generation clan members, Cao Zhen, Xia Houshang and Cao Xiu were the most valued by Cao Cao.
In order to cultivate the next generation of successors to the clan, Cao Cao has spared no effort in cultivating Cao Xiu and others in the past few years. Cao Xiu followed Cao Cao around in battles and held important positions.
Under Cao Cao's training, the talented Cao Xiu and others made rapid progress.
After Cao Pi succeeded to the throne this year, great changes have taken place in the history of this world.
Among the southern princes, it was Liu Bei who occupied Jingzhou and Yizhou, so Cao Pi deployed most of Cao Wei's military forces in Jingzhou and Guanzhong.
In the Jingzhou area alone, Cao Pi initially retained three clan generals: Cao Ren, Cao Xiu, and Xia Houshang.
After Cao Pi became emperor this year, Cao Pi tracked down Cao Xiu's achievements, worshiped Cao Xiu as General Zhennan, named Dongyang Tinghou, and led troops to garrison Fancheng.
Before Cao Xiu took office, Cao Pi personally saw him off. He also got off Luan Yu and held hands with Cao Xiu to say goodbye. He hoped that Cao Xiu would be optimistic about Fancheng, the southern gateway for the Wei Dynasty.
Judging from the current situation, Cao Xiu's instructions to Cao Pi have been fulfilled well.
This year, because Fancheng's city defenses were severely damaged in last year's war, many ministers suggested to Cao Pi to abandon Fancheng and shrink the troops to Yiyang and Xinye counties for defense.
But when Cao Xiu learned about this, he urged Cao Pi: "It is easy to escape Jingchu, but it is difficult to be safe. Guan Yu's new victory will hide and wait for the evildoers in the country."
If we abandon Fancheng to protect ourselves now, it will not only damage our morale, but also make the traitors secretly harbor evil intentions. Moreover, Fancheng is surrounded by water and land, and is in vital danger to the invaders, so we cannot abandon it."
Because of Cao Xiu's strong advice, Cao Pi did not issue an edict to abandon Fancheng at that time.
Judging from the outcome of the Battle of Xicheng, Cao Xiu's judgment was undoubtedly accurate.
If the Wei army had abandoned Fancheng at that time, after Cao Ren's defeat, the south of Wancheng in Nanyang County would have been owned by Guan Yu.
After Cao Xiu took office, he not only continued to strengthen the city defense of Fancheng, but also repaired the city defense of Yancheng, a small city not far from Fancheng, in advance.
Yancheng was the city where Xu Huang led his army to stationed when he was supporting Cao Ren.
Although Yancheng is a city, in terms of scale, it is more like a military camp with city walls.
Yancheng is not far from Fancheng. If there are Wei troops in Yancheng, they can echo the Wei troops in Fancheng and form horns with each other.
The most important thing is that Yancheng is on the flank of Fancheng, and it and Fancheng are like two nails tightly nailed to Guan Yu's northward path.
If these two nails were not removed first, the Han army's front line could only move along the Han River and would not be able to penetrate very deep into Nanyang County.
Because of the importance of Fancheng and Yancheng, even if he knew the outcome of the Battle of Xicheng before, even if Mi Yang released the news that he would take advantage of the situation to attack Wancheng, and even if many generals advised Cao Xiu to withdraw his troops and return to Wancheng to defend, Cao Xiu still would not do anything.
Regardless of the situation, he always stayed in Fancheng.
When Cao Xiu came to the city wall, the sky was slowly getting dark.
But even so, the Han army outside the city was still working hard.
Cao Xiu frowned deeply as he looked at the many Han soldiers working hard to build forts.
Cao Xiu, who is over 40 this year, has been in the military camp for at least more than 20 years.
Cao Xiu, who had rich military experience, saw that the sky had turned dark and the Han army outside the city had not stopped yet, so Cao Xiu came to a conclusion.
Guan Yu wanted to build the fortress day and night.
And why is he so eager?
For most of the soldiers, visibility was poor at night, and it was a time when people tended to get sleepy, so Cao Xiu found it a little puzzling that Guan Yu wanted to build the fort all night long.
How did they manage to become the most powerful enemy?
Moreover, the scene in front of him made Cao Xiu feel familiar.
At the beginning, his uncle Cao Ren was trapped in the city by Guan Yu's method and could not move, and then watched helplessly as 30,000 Wei troops were dispersed by the flood.
It's just that although he vaguely guessed Guan Yu's purpose, the lessons learned by Cao Ren and Xu Huang made Cao Xiu not want to act rashly.
If it is not necessary, try not to fight with Guan Yu in the wild.
Anyway, there is currently no shortage of food and soldiers in Fancheng, so Guan Yu's repeated use of his old tricks will not pose any threat to Fancheng.
In this mentality, Cao Xiu chose to sit back and watch the actions of the Han army outside the city.
When it got completely dark, Cao Xiu asked the captains on the city wall to be more vigilant, and then he went down to the general's palace in the city.
If you want to encircle, just encircle. Anyway, he just needs to defend Fancheng.
...
Compared to Cao Xiu's decision, after several days of intense work, the generals and commanders at all levels in the Han army were complaining endlessly.
Although Fancheng is not very big, if you want to repair the barriers surrounding Fancheng in a short period of time, it is already a huge workload.
In addition, Guan Yu kept sending people to build a siege, as if a large number of Wei Jun's enemy troops had already arrived, which put great psychological pressure on the generals.
However, despite this, because of Guan Yu's prestige in the hearts of the generals, the generals still followed Guan Yu's request and worked hard to command their soldiers to build barriers.
In order to complete the mission within the specified time and to maintain the combat effectiveness of the Han army under his command, Guan Yu asked Ma Liang to transfer many civilians from Xiangyang City a few days later to join the siege of Fancheng.
With the participation of many civilians, tens of thousands of Han troops breathed a sigh of relief.
In order to complete the task of besieging the city with barriers, in the past few days, except for some Han troops responsible for guarding, the remaining Han troops, both regular and auxiliary troops, participated in the siege.
Moreover, they often work for a whole day, which consumes much more energy than fighting.
During this period, some generals privately advised Guan Yu to "take it easy".
Those generals believed that even if enemy reinforcements were to come, they would not arrive so quickly.
After all, it would take time for Cao Xiu to deliver the news.
But there was obviously no persuasion.
Although it was tiring, Guan Yu was a master builder in the world, so under his arrangement, the Han army's progress in building the barrier was not slow.
After the Han army built the most important fortress to the north of Fan City, something unexpected happened.
As scouts from all sides quickly rushed into the camp, the generals at all levels in the camp learned the news of the arrival of reinforcements from the Wei army.
But why so fast?
Judging from the time, the Wei army's reinforcements should have just set off from Wancheng!
The Han generals in the Jingzhou camp were not surprised for a long time when they heard a sound of the earth shaking.
Affected by the sound of the earth shaking, generals at all levels of the Han army came to the ramparts outside the camp to observe.
After many Han generals arrived at the barrier, a torrent soon appeared in their sights, rushing across the earth.
Although the Han generals saw a vast expanse of land in front of them, what fell in their eyes was really a torrent carrying dust all over the sky.
Only this description can reflect the speed of the dust in front of them.
As the smoke and dust in the sky continued to approach, the generals at all levels and the Han army standing in the barrier could clearly see the Wei army hidden in the smoke and dust in the sky.
What came before us were tens of thousands of Wei cavalry!
Tens of thousands of Wei army cavalry gradually emerged from the smoke and dust, and then gradually approached Fancheng.
Different from the two thousand Wei cavalry outside Wudang City, the number of Wei cavalry now appearing outside Fan City seemed to be tens of thousands.
Moreover, the Wei army's cavalry was composed of one man and two horses, and the tens of thousands of Wei army's cavalrymen brought at least 20,000 horses.
No wonder the Han army in the camp just now felt a slight vibration on the ground. No wonder the first thing that appeared in front of the Han army was smoke and dust.
When they saw the 20,000 fast-running war horses, the eyes of the Han army hidden in the barrier were shocked.
Most of the Han soldiers were men born and raised in Jingchu. In their impression, the horses were short and thin.
But each of the 20,000 war horses that appeared in their eyes was very tall.
Moreover, the dark hair on the tall horses shines with a breathtaking brilliance under the sunlight.
When 20,000 strong and energetic northern war horses galloped toward Fancheng with hoofs that seemed capable of crushing everything, the spectacular scene was enough to make any bloody man feel excited.
This is the unique charm of the Cavalry Corps!
Under the surging mood, a trace of worry began to appear in the hearts of tens of thousands of Han soldiers, and a trace of nervousness began to emerge.
People will naturally have this feeling when facing something they have never seen before and cannot control.
Even some infantry units with poor discipline will be frightened to the point of collapse when facing an organized cavalry regiment for the first time.
There was a very important reason why Lu Bu was able to defeat Cao Cao several times during the Battle of Yanzhou.
But when worry and tension emerged in the hearts of tens of thousands of Han soldiers, their eyes unconsciously looked towards the main tent behind them.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Their general is sitting in the main tent.
Looking at the approaching tens of thousands of Wei cavalry, tens of thousands of Han troops began to feel fear in their hearts.
If the general had followed the generals' advice and started to attack the city, if tens of thousands of Wei cavalry unexpectedly attacked them while they were attacking the city, they would be in danger.
Fortunately, the general had foresight.
Thinking of this, tens of thousands of Han soldiers looked at the main tent with admiration in their eyes.
Unlike the tens of thousands of Han troops who felt at peace, when the tens of thousands of Wei cavalry were about to rush outside Fancheng, Cao Tai, who was running at the front among the tens of thousands of Wei cavalry, suddenly issued an order.
He immediately ordered the Wei cavalry behind him to stop the attack.
After Cao Tai's order was issued, there were loud "oo" sounds from tens of thousands of Wei army cavalry.
As the sound of "xu" sounded, driven by tens of thousands of Wei army knights, the Wei army's horses, which had been arrogant just now, came to a stop a hundred steps away from the Han army.
Because the horses were suddenly stopped, the bodies of the tens of thousands of Wei army knights were shaken tremendously.
And when the tens of thousands of Wei army knights barely stopped, the dust in the sky caused by what happened to them gradually disappeared, and the tens of thousands of Wei army knights gradually saw clearly, and the scene in front of them made them dumbfounded.
A wide trench seemed to divide Fancheng and them into two boundaries.
And behind that layer of trenches, there were layer after layer of antlers that resisted the horse.
The trenches and countless antlers of the resisting horses made the tens of thousands of Wei army's cavalry, who were confident of victory, suddenly fall into hesitation.
Cavalry: They are as fast as the wind and move like thunder.
But the scene in front of them made them so angry and moved.
At this time, Cao Tai's face became extremely gloomy.
As Cao Ren's son, he was very familiar with Guan Yu's numerous fortifications.
Under the gloom, Cao Tai subconsciously glanced at the valley in the north of Fancheng. Seeing that there was no chance to take advantage of it, he decisively ordered:
"The entire army is stationed on the high ground!"