In January of the first year of Xingping (AD 194), Cao Cao ordered his uncles Xun Yu and Xun You to sit in Xuchang and handle affairs in the city on their behalf, while he himself led an army of 50,000 to attack Xuzhou.
Wherever the army passed, it was overwhelming and unstoppable. Soon, Cao's army had already reached outside Pengcheng.
Pengcheng is said to be the place where the Yellow Emperor established his capital in ancient times. Later, during the conflict between Chu and Han, this place was also where Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, established his capital.
In 205 BC, Liu Bang led an alliance of 560,000 princes and captured Pengcheng while Xiang Yu was on an expedition. When Xiang Yu learned about it, he was furious and led only 30,000 elite soldiers back at night, and defeated the 56 soldiers with a thunderous force.
The army of ten thousand was defeated in one fell swoop. In this battle, the Chu army killed tens of thousands of allied soldiers, causing the Sui River to be blocked. In the end, Liu Bang only led more than ten cavalry to break through the encirclement. His father, wives, concubines, etc.
All the family members were captured by Xiang Yu. This was the famous Battle of Pengcheng in history.
Liu Bei's general Guan Yu was standing on the tower of Pengcheng, looking back at this legendary city. Guan Yu had a very strong and fierce temperament. Although he faced Cao Cao's 50,000 troops, he did not feel timid at all.
The heroic spirit is dry and cloudy.
Although there are only 10,000 defenders in the city, Guan Yu is still full of confidence. In the past, Xiang Yu defeated enemies with less than ten times his own here. He can also do what he can do. This is how Guan Yu has expanded to the extreme.
confidence.
"Although there are many soldiers in Cao's army, they are all traitors, so why should we be afraid?" Looking at the slightly nervous soldiers around him, Guan Yu smiled and said loudly.
Looking into the distance from the top of the city tower, I saw a faint black line floating in the sky. As time passed, this black line became clearer and clearer, and gradually evolved into neat military formations.
Cao Jun...is finally here!
——————————————————————————————Cao Cao led the army to a place five miles outside Pengcheng, and all stopped.
Waiting for Cao Cao's next order. A strong murderous spirit permeated the battle formation. Even the defenders on the wall of Pengcheng could fully feel it and were quite frightened by it.
After all, not everyone is Guan Yu, and most soldiers do not have his heroic spirit of treating enemy troops like dirt.
When Guan Yu saw the slightly frightened expressions of the soldiers, he could only "hum" to get rid of the problem. Although Guan Yu was arrogant, he despised scholar-bureaucrats and valued soldiers. He would look down on literati and despise them.
Those generals were timid in the face of battle, but although Guan Yu was unhappy with the timidity shown by ordinary soldiers under such an absolute gap in strength, he would not discriminate against those soldiers because of this.
Of course, there must be a limit to fear. If the soldiers are really afraid of fighting, or even retreat and run away, then no matter how much Guan Yu values the soldiers, he will never mind letting the supervising team raise their weapons.
Cut down the deserters.
However, if a war were to begin, the morale of his own army would not be of much use now. Guan Yu thought to himself that he must find a way to boost morale.
Just when Cao Cao was about to issue the order to attack the city, he suddenly saw the gate of Pengcheng slowly opening.
Cao Cao couldn't help being surprised. Could it be that the Pengcheng guard knew that there was no hope of defending the city, so he decided to open the city and surrender?
What slowly emerged from the city gate was the figure of a man riding alone. He was nine feet tall, with a face as thick as a jujube, a long beard and a beautiful beard, and an extraordinary bearing. Who could he be if he wasn't Guan Yu himself?
Unexpectedly, the person guarding Pengcheng turned out to be Liu Bei's sworn brother Guan Yu, but what was his purpose of going out of the city alone? No matter how arrogant Guan Yu was, he would never be so confident that he could challenge an army of 50,000 men alone.
Seeing Guan Yu getting closer and closer to his army, Cao Cao resisted the urge to let the army come forward to capture him, waiting to see what Guan Yu's purpose was.
When Guan Yu arrived one mile in front of Cao Cao's army, he reined in his horses and shouted loudly to Cao Cao: "Guan heard that Cao Sikong's men were all tiger and wolf troops, so he came to invite a battle. I wonder if Cao Sikong dares to fight.
?”
Inviting a battle? Why, does Guan Yu still want to rely on the defenders in Pengcheng to fight to the death with him?
"May I ask, general, how do you want to fight? Do you want to fight alone against the 50,000 troops behind me?" To be honest, Cao Cao admired Guan Yu quite a lot. Ever since the opponent killed Hua Xiong at Sishui Pass while warming wine
, Cao Cao has always dreamed of taking him under his command.
"One fights the formation, the other fights the generals." Guan Yu said unambiguously, "To fight the formation, you and I each send out a thousand men to fight. To fight the generals, Cao Sikong can send any of his generals to fight with Guan.
I will fight."
Cao Cao was slightly startled. He didn't expect Guan Yu to have such an idea. Of course he knew the purpose of Guan Yu's actions. With the army pressing down on the border, the morale of the defenders in the city would naturally not be high. Guan Yu wanted to fight through these two battles.
, if he first wins a small victory in a battle between a thousand soldiers, and then goes out to kill one of his generals, I am afraid that the morale of the defenders in Pengcheng will immediately increase several times.
"Okay, I agree!" However, Cao Cao had no reason to refuse Guan Yu's invitation to fight. Although his army was strong, there were still 10,000 people in Pengcheng. If he attacked by force, he would inevitably suffer losses.
The principle that Cao Cao believed in was to do everything possible to minimize losses. Guan Yu's request to fight in battle formations with generals was exactly what he wanted. When it came to battle formations, Cao Cao believed that with a force of a thousand soldiers, he was probably the most powerful person in the world.
There are few opponents who are trapped in the camp. In terms of fighting generals, although Guan Yu is brave, his own Zhao Yun, Xu Chu, Dian Wei and others are by no means ordinary. Although there is no guarantee of defeating the opponent, there is no problem in drawing a draw. You must know
, Guan Yu is like a god in Liu Bei's army. If there is a general in his army who is as powerful as him, it will definitely make the Pengcheng defenders feel uneasy. In this way, one will win and the other will be a draw in these two battles.
The result can lower the morale of the Pengcheng defenders to another level, allowing them to capture Pengcheng more easily. Why not?
Of course, if Guan Yu was not still one mile away from his own army and he might not be able to catch up with him if he fled, Cao Cao would have ordered Guan Yu to be captured and put an end to it, thus saving him trouble.
Now that the agreement was made, the first battle began soon. Gao Shun had already made preparations since Cao Cao agreed to the fight. He knew very well that in a battle involving a thousand people, the troops sent by Cao Cao would inevitably
It was his own trapped camp. At this time, when Cao Cao gave the order, he immediately led a thousand soldiers from the trapped camp to line up in front of Cao's army, waiting for the enemy to appear.
Soon, 1,000 enemy troops were already out. Surprisingly, the enemy commander was not Guan Yu, but a young general about the same age as Gao Shun, who was also around 25 years old.
"The last general, Chen, has arrived. Following the orders of General Guan, he will lead the white men into battle!"
Perhaps the name Chen Dao is just an unknown guy to others in Cao Ying. But when Gao Shun heard the word "Chen Dao", his heart was filled with fear. Gao Shun, who was familiar with the original history, was shocked.
It is clear that the talent of Chen Dao in front of us must not be underestimated. He eventually served as a high-ranking general in the Shu Kingdom, and his reputation was comparable to that of Zhao Yun. As for the elite white soldiers under Chen Dao's command, they were the most powerful in the entire Shu Kingdom.
The number one elite unit.
Zhuge Liang once mentioned this in a letter to his brother Zhuge Jin: "When you arrive at the governor's office, the late emperor will have white men under his tent, and troops will be sent from the west."
Translated into vernacular, this sentence means: "The men led by Chen Dao are the white soldiers under the late emperor's tent. They are the most elite troops in the West (Shu Kingdom)."