He Jingxiang has been in poor health in the past few years after giving birth to Cao Ang. Unexpectedly, when she learned that her husband's career was damaged and countless subordinates died in the war, she became depressed and fell ill again. However, when Cao Zhi rushed back to Wanling, he was unable to
When He Jingxiang met him one time, he finally left due to the impact of internal illness and external joy.
He Jingxiang's death caused Cao Zhi to collapse. He rushed home, hugged He Jingxiang's body, and howled for three days and three nights, crying tears of blood from his eyes. But he did not allow anyone to touch He Jingxiang's body, so he restrained himself.
The time had to be put off again and again.
At this time, Cao Zhi was completely immersed in self-blame and grief. He could not forgive himself. He felt extremely ashamed of He Jingxiang. Cao Zhi recalled the long and twists and turns of his and He Jingxiang's relationship in these three days of poverty.
The road, from their meeting in Changning Palace in Luoyang to meeting again in Wancheng in Lujiang River, during that period
Although it was full of wars, coups, betrayals, and even deaths, the two met again and again, full of sweetness and beautiful memories. But in the following few years, Cao Zhi has not been able to have a good relationship due to the prosperity of his career.
Concerned about He Jingxiang's physical condition, Cao Zhi blamed himself, deeply and deeply.
A woman who was once the most beloved mother in the world followed Cao Zhi wholeheartedly and gave birth to a son for him. Cao Zhi failed to give her the greatest care and happiness. As a responsible man, he should blame himself.
Although He Jingxiang did not live under the weight and shadow of her identity in the last few years of her life. Cao Zhi once thought that He Jingxiang's amnesia might be a good thing, but at this time because she failed to tell He Jingxiang the truth at the last moment of her life,
Telling her her true identity made Cao Zhi fall into deep self-blame again.
Standing on the warship that followed the footsteps of the Han River and the Xiangjiang River, Cao Zhi, who was either laughing or crying, gradually turned his gaze away from the clouds.
At this time, several people were walking on the embankment in the distance, all dressed in white mourning clothes. Walking on the river bank, they saw Cao Zhi's boat and waved to him.
Cao Zhi, who had lost a lot of weight, also saw Guo Jia on the embankment. After Jia Xu put on the cloak to cover him in his filial piety, with a slight shake, he showed a hunting sound.
Majesty.
Here Cao Zhi wanted to abandon the ship and go ashore, and instead go to Fancheng by land to meet with Cao Ren who was advancing from Xinye. He would sit there and attack Liu Biao and force him to form an alliance with him.
The territory along Jiangxia cannot be conquered, and important towns such as Xiakou must remain in the hands of Liu Biao's people. Their goal is not to really go to war with Liu Biao, but to force him.
But Liu Biao would not give in without capturing one or two important cities in Jingzhou. Undoubtedly, knocking heavily on the northwest gate of Jingzhou was the most deterrent.
The idea of sending troops to intimidate Liu Biao in Jingzhou instead of attacking Sun Ce, who was entrenched in Jiangdong, was extremely bold and could also be said to be extremely arrogant. It had some heroic adventurism and some faint romanticism, and it also reflected Guo Jiaqi's superiority.
strategic vision and courage.
In fact, it has been proven that Guo Jia is right so far. Sun Ce used the weapons obtained from them to march into Jiangxia with great success, which is the best proof. Otherwise, these things should be used on Cao's soldiers to effectively consume these weapons.
Those objections gradually became silent, and the eyes of Cao Jun's officers and soldiers who had been corrected for three months now only showed a wild look. They needed bloodthirsty, fighting, and revenge.
Why can't we give the enemy a thrill first?
With this purpose, Cao Zhi marched west from the Huaihe River, looking at the new fields. The army marched day and night, and hurriedly headed for Fancheng. He was going to join Cao Ren and lead an army of 100,000 people there to attack Fancheng, which shocked Liu Biao.
return.
Jingzhou is a big state, and the 200,000 troops that Cao Zhi can mobilize cannot be captured in a short period of time. So Cao Zhi once again accepted Guo Jiabing's deceitful approach and lied that the 300,000 troops were approaching in three ways.
Jingzhou, but the real preparations for the attack are only on the northernmost Xinye road. The other roads will become a kind of decoration, or it should be called a shock in Guo Jia's words, and it is also his plan to deal with Sun Ce after Liu Biao accepts the alliance.
trick.
It was the first time for many of the Cao Jun soldiers who followed Cao Zhi to see such a big river and such a high mountain. These people grew up in the north and were full of curiosity about the landforms of Jianghan.
At this time, I don't know where the woodcutter's song came from. It was long and sad, slowly drifting into the eardrums, mixed with the green mountains that could not be seen at a glance, and it was indescribably high-pitched and loud.
Along with the noise, there were crisp sounds of hoofbeats, faintly accompanied by the sweet ringing of horse bells. Looking around, there were endless black armored cavalry walking in the distance, and their figures were endless.
.
The army climbed over a ridge with light carriages. Cao Zhi, who was sitting on the red rabbit horse, couldn't help but his eyes shone. He stared at the wilderness on the east bank of Fancheng far away from the mountain. He said in a deep voice: "We must notify Cao Ren within twelve hours."
Monitor the movements on the north bank of the Han River, especially the ferries and fortresses. The main force of Fancheng will stay on the north bank of the Ju River. Our goal is to fight a land battle with the Jingzhou Army on the other side of the river!"
When Xu Zhu on the side heard that a battle was about to be fought, he became energetic and hurriedly asked for orders: "The last general is willing to lead this army and fight this first battle for my elder brother."
After hearing this, Cao Zhi shook his head and said: "I want you and Jiang Qin and others to lead the navy to cut off their waterway traffic after the Jingzhou army crosses the Ju River, cut off their food routes, and force them to join us on land before the time is ripe.
All-out confrontation. Cao Ren and most of our army
The sergeants are not used to it or have no experience in water battles, so they cannot fight with Liu Biao in water battles. But we have our advantage, which is the cavalry infantry. In terms of agility, Liu Biao's cavalry infantry is far inferior to us, so I will call
Liu Biao suffered the most from our cavalry and infantry."
Guo Jia and Jia Xu on the side listened to Cao Zhi's analysis of Xu Zhu and nodded in agreement. Guo Jia continued to follow Cao Zhi's words: "Always, northerners are good at horse fighting, and southerners are good at water.
Fight. In battles on rivers, the northerners never fail to suffer from the southerners!"
Cao Zhi also nodded in agreement with Guo Jia's analysis. He knew better that his move to invade the South at this time was actually a precursor to Cao Cao's defeat at Chibi a few years later. The famous Battle of Chibi was the result of this.
Cao Cao sent his navy, which was not good at fighting, to deal with the combined navy of Sun Quan and Liu Bei. In the end, the warships were burned down, and they suffered from unfavorable conditions such as plague, and finally returned in defeat.
As for Zhou Yu, the navy team that played the biggest role in the battle that made Zhuge Liang famous was actually the Jingzhou navy and warships captured and captured by Sun Ce when he invaded Jiangxia and Jingzhou a few years ago.
Today's Cao Zhi is not as powerful as Cao Cao's army ten years later, and his military strength is not many times that of Liu Biao. In terms of naval strength, he is still at a disadvantage.
In terms of ship handling technology and the quality of warships and equipment, the south far surpasses the north, and Jingzhou is the most famous shipbuilding town in the world. Liu Biao's generals are mostly skilled in water warfare. With them controlling the water, Cao Jun can never imagine that he can transport ships through the waterways at will.
soldiers, especially under the watchful eye of Jingzhou's elite navy, so Cao Zhi would not let this kind of failure happen to him again.
Cao Zhi looked at the plain where three rivers converged at the foot of the mountain, and said: "Cao Chun's forward should be on the way here. Xu Chu sent my general an order to pick up five thousand elites, leave the team and sneak into a secret place near the east side of Fancheng. Gong.
Waiting for the arrival of the enemy's vanguard. As long as the enemy appears, it is up to him to decide on his own, watch the right moment, attack with all his strength, and make no mistakes. But he must not be reluctant to fight, nor must he bite the enemy to death, let alone pursue him across the river!
"
Xu Chu responded with a bang and took the order.
Climbing to the top of the mountain here, accompanied by Guo Jia and Jia Xu, Cao Zhi climbed up to observe the terrain where the two armies would fight in the future. Cao Zhi observed the east bank of Jushui. At the end of the river beach was a sparse forest at the foot of the mountain, followed by
The mountains that stretched upward were majestic and lush with trees. He immediately ordered the cavalry of the "Hubao Battalion" led by Cao Hong to determine the final entry point there.
Then Cao Zhi led Guo Jia, Jia Xu and more than a dozen soldiers to cross a small tributary river from the west bank of the Han River. This section of the river was lined with spacious beaches. The water was slow and shallow, and the deepest part only reached the horse's belly.
It’s also Cao Zhi’s default
On the main battlefield, he wanted to lure the Fancheng defenders and the soldiers and horses gathered here from Jingzhou, give up the naval advantage, and engage in a land battle with him first. He would definitely devour the Jingzhou army that wanted to stop him, and achieve a shock
purpose.
Before Cao Zhiren arrived, the northern area from Xinye to Fancheng seemed to have turned into a huge trap, and this network seemed to be gradually tightening.
Cao Ren was the commander-in-chief of Cao's army. Although he was initially surprised by Cao Zhi's strategy of invading Jingzhou southward, they were a family after all. At this time, Cao Ren did not hesitate at all and brazenly organized a large army to assemble, no matter how powerful Jingzhou was.
The resistance forces actually led their troops to attack south.
Coming out of Wancheng, Cao Ren encountered little effective obstruction along the way. Cao's tiger and leopard cavalry advanced rapidly at a speed of three hundred miles a day.
The vanguard of Cao's army, Cao Hong and Cao Chun, successively defeated the Jingzhou army in Wuyin, Bowang and other places. The battle was neither big nor fierce. The leading troops of Cao's army had already entered Xinye. It was obvious that Jingzhou was not well prepared to prevent Cao's army from going south.
But Cao Ren knew that Jingzhou's main force of hundreds of thousands of troops and horses had not yet been truly encountered.
Although Liu Biao was surrounded by them from three directions and Sun Ce was attacking him in Jiangxia, Jingzhou's elite troops were not lost.
Cao Ren was still prepared for a tough battle. He knew that Liu Biao would not just leave hundreds of thousands of armor unused and lead his troops to surrender or form an alliance with Cao Zhi.
, Liu Biao always had to refute. The highlight of the two sides would still be staged here in Fancheng, but the offensive route and orders Cao Zhi gave him were really strange.