Chapter 614: Watching on the wall, boiling Cao Cao to death
(My thoughts are a little blocked. There are only two updates today. I will try to rationalize my thoughts. Please forgive me.)
Yangping Pass.
The news that Cao Cao led his army to Xiegu reached Yangping Pass as soon as possible.
When they heard that Cao Cao was coming, all the generals generously requested a battle, intending to take advantage of the remaining power of the victory to completely destroy Cao Cao, who had narrowly escaped death last time.
The generals were eager to fight again and kill Cao Cao, but Yan Liang was not in a hurry.
If Yan Liang was eager to take advantage of the situation to capture Nanzheng and capture all of Hanzhong, he would not have held his troops at Yangping Pass for many days. He would have mobilized all his troops to defeat Cao Cao's army at Xiegukou, and would not even have given Cao Cao a chance to enter Hanzhong.
Now that the important town of Yangping is in hand, the initiative is in Yan Liang's hands. What he wants is to let Cao Cao enter Hanzhong again and let him have a taste of passivity.
Xu Huang of Wuxing was so frightened by the fall of Yangping that his army abandoned Wuxing and retreated to Chencang.
Cao Zhen's troops in Wudu also had to give up Xiabian and retreat to Qishan.
This means that Cao Cao's two smooth roads into Hanzhong, Longyou and Chencang, have been completely cut off. Cao Cao can only enter Hanzhong through the most "flat" sloping valley among the three valley roads east of Yangping Pass.
Now Cao Cao has moved all the people in Hanzhong to Guanzhong. This means that Cao Cao's 40,000 to 50,000 troops cannot collect grain locally. All grain and grass can only be transported from Chang'an to Hanzhong via the sloping valley plank road.
This means that Cao Cao had to use at least more than 100,000 civilians to transport grain to the front line purely on dry roads and through hundreds of miles of difficult and dangerous sloping valleys. However, five to six tenths of the grain transported had to be transported by those soldiers.
The husband was wasted on the way.
With Cao Cao's current economic ability, he simply cannot afford such a huge loss.
It was because of this that Yan Liang and his advisers took Cao Cao into Hanzhong.
Therefore, Yan Liang suppressed the generals' desire for war, allocated elite troops to defend Dingjun Mountain and other key dangers, and thought that his army was stationed at Yangping Pass and refused to go to war.
Yan Liang's purpose is very simple. Hold on to the dangerous position without fighting until Cao Cao runs out of supplies and retreat without fighting. Then, you can take over Hanzhong without spending a single soldier.
Yan Liang was unable to make any tactics, and Cao Cao soon tasted the bitter consequences.
Cao Cao originally thought that Yan Liang, who had captured Yangping Pass, would be dazzled by the victory and would leave the pass without hesitation to engage in a decisive battle with him.
In order to defeat Yan Liang in a decisive battle in the wilderness, Cao Cao specially mobilized 7,000 elite cavalry from Liangzhou. These 7,000 cavalry were exactly what he dared to fight with Yan Liang in a decisive battle.
After Cao Cao captured Liangzhou, he obtained the strong horses from Liangzhou, and the number of cavalry under his command increased dramatically.
If purely talking about the number of troops, Cao Cao does not have an advantage among the major princes, but he has a huge advantage in the quantity and quality of cavalry.
However, the land of Yizhou has steep mountains and rivers and is not suitable for cavalry warfare. Therefore, Cao Cao did not bring many cavalry into Sichuan when he conquered Hanzhong.
But things are different now. After passing Yangping Pass and going east, the Mianshui Plain is much more open than in central Sichuan, so the cavalry has a place to use it.
Because of this, Cao Cao dared to lead his army into Hanzhong, hoping to use his cavalry advantage to defeat Yan Liang in one fell swoop and regain Yangping Pass and other lost lands.
It's a pity that Cao Cao's beautiful blueprint was shattered.
Yan Liang did not, as he thought, be dazzled by the victory and blindly attack the battle. Instead, he closed the door tightly and could not get out.
In desperation, Cao Cao could only send several generals in succession to Yangping Pass to challenge Yan Liang, but Yan Liang turned a blind eye to them.
This confrontation and stalemate lasted for nearly a month without realizing it.
Autumn was deep, the rain was constant, and mudflows occurred frequently in the sloping valleys. The already difficult valley road became even more difficult to navigate. Cao Jun's grain road was often in an unfavorable state of being open and disconnected.
Due to lack of food and grass, the tens of thousands of Cao's troops in Hanzhong could only reduce their sergeants and manpower day by day. Within a few days, the lower ranks of Cao's army were complaining and their morale was gradually declining.
Cao Cao, who had been full of confidence when he came, now lost all his energy and fell into melancholy.
The atmosphere in the Chinese military tent was gloomy.
"Tell me, how can I defeat Yan's thieves and recapture Yangping Pass?" Cao Cao asked the civil and military officials with a straight face.
Everyone was silent, even Guo Jia was silent at this time.
After all, he was the one who suggested to Cao Cao to send the Xiliang cavalry south to Hanzhong to fight Yan Liang to the death. However, now that Yan Liang refuses to send troops, Cao Cao is completely passive. Guo Jia feels that he has lost face. Even if he has a plan in his heart, he can't do it for a while.
Not easy to export.
In the midst of silence, someone came out and said with cupped hands: "To inform you, Prime Minister, now the food roads are not smooth, the morale of the three armies is low, Yangping Pass, Dingjun Mountain dangerous fortifications have been occupied by Yan thieves, Hanzhong is in a difficult situation."
Defending, the general believes that at this time, it is best to abandon Hanzhong decisively and withdraw our troops back to Guanzhong."
Cao Cao raised his eyes and glanced away, only to see that the person who spoke was none other than Guo Huai.
Guo Jia and other counselors secretly agreed, and almost stood up to express their agreement.
However, Cao Cao's brows condensed and he said displeasedly: "The soldiers of the three armies worked hard to capture Hanzhong, but now you persuade me to hand over Hanzhong to that thief. You are embarrassing me and the soldiers."
heart?"
Such a question immediately left Guo Huai speechless and embarrassed, so he had no choice but to retreat.
Guo Jia was about to respond, but when the words came to his lips, he swallowed them back.
Guo Jia knew that Cao Cao was afraid that abandoning Hanzhong and withdrawing to Chang'an in despair would hurt his face and destroy his prestige.
As the prime minister of a dynasty, if his prestige is lost, how can he subdue his ministers? Cao Cao has no choice.
Even though Cao Cao himself knew that Hanzhong was undefendable, for a moment he just couldn't turn this corner and couldn't let go of the face he would lose sooner or later.
Guo Jia, who knew Cao Cao's intentions well, could only sigh secretly in his heart.
This military meeting ended in this unharmonious atmosphere with nothing to gain.
The morale of Cao's army became increasingly depressed.
…
Yangping Pass.
When Cao Cao was in trouble, Yan Liang was having a drink and party, and the soldiers of the three armies were not idle, eating three meals a day until they were full.
Yangping Pass was originally the place where Cao's army garrisoned grain. After Yan Liang broke through the pass, the fleeing Cao army had no time to destroy the grain garrison. All the hundreds of thousands of dendrobium's grain and grass fell into Yan Liang's hands.
With the food from Yangpingguan and the food and grass gathered by Liu Zhang in Chengdu, Yan Liang can be said to be a truly big family.
So while Cao Jun at Xiegukou was living a miserable life with a limited daily supply, Yan Liang's soldiers at Yangpingguan had already gone straight to a well-off society.
Any glory, any belief, all the beautiful slogans are far less beneficial than having a full meal.
Tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of Yan's army were well fed and drunk. They were grateful for Yan Liang's kindness and had nowhere to vent their high morale. They generously asked for battle one after another, intending to use all their strength to kill Cao's army to repay Yan Liang's kindness to them.
Yan Liang was well aware of the predicament of Cao's army in Xiegu, the high morale of his own army, and all the pros and cons.
Yan Liang and his counselors all felt that the time had come to deal a fatal blow to Cao Cao.
On the same day, Yan Liang, Pang Tong, and Fazheng had reached a consensus, so they personally wrote a letter of war and sent it to Cao Cao in Xiegu.
That was a very arrogant and extremely provocative letter of war against Cao Cao.
In Yan Liang's letter of war, he satirized Cao Cao in the name of Han Prime Minister, but was actually a traitor to the Han Dynasty. He scorned Cao Cao from beginning to end, including all the fights between the two from Runan and Cao Cao's repeated defeats.
.
Finally, Yan Liang directly used an imperative tone, telling Cao Cao to get out of Hanzhong as soon as possible, otherwise Yan Liang would defeat Cao Cao's army and cut off Cao Cao's head with his own hands.
The most "vulgar and rude" thing is that Yan Liang also vowed to kill Cao Cao and take all his wives and concubines, including his wife Bian, as his own after conquering Chang'an.
After reading this book, Cao Cao was so angry that he almost burst his lungs.
After ruling the world for many years, Cao Cao was never scolded by any opponent. Even Yuan Shao once called him a "castrated and ugly man".
However, this was the first time that Yan Liang openly claimed that he wanted to seize all Cao Cao's wives and concubines.
Cao Cao, who loved to rob other people's wives and concubines most in his life, now faced the threat of his own wives and concubines being robbed. Such humiliation made Cao Cao even more resentful than calling him an eunuch.
"How dare the thief Yan Liang be so embarrassed? Send the order. All three armies will come out tomorrow. I will fight to the death with this scumbag!"
In a rage, Cao Cao tore Yan Liang's letter of challenge to pieces and ordered a decisive battle.
All civil and military officials were shocked by Cao Cao's rage. They had followed Cao Cao for so many years and had never seen him so angry. At this time, no one dared to say anything.
"Prime Minister, Yan Liang refused to defend for a month without fighting. Now he challenges our army when the morale of our army is low. The general will think that if Prime Minister accepts the challenge, he is playing into Yan Liang's hands." Guo Huai did not know Cao Cao's temperament, so he sang at this time.
Countermeasure.
Cao Cao glared at him and said angrily: "I have been stationed in Xiegu for many days in order to induce Yan Thief to fight. Now he takes the initiative to send him to the door. It is in line with my intention. If you don't fight now, when will you wait?"
.”
"Prime Minister——"
Guo Huai wanted to persuade him again, but Cao Cao suddenly changed his expression. He waved his hand and shouted: "Guo Huai, you have repeatedly shaken the morale of the army. How can I tolerate you anymore? Come on, please take Guo Huai to the prison car and wait for me to kill you."
I'll deal with you later if you lose your appearance."
Cao Cao, who was stimulated by Yan Liang, was already a little angry and dizzy. Guo Huai, who was not good at grasping the leader's thoughts, happened to be hit by the muzzle of the gun.
The soldiers on the left and right swarmed up and dragged Guo Huai out in a few strokes.
"Guo Huai's words are reasonable. Yan Liang knew that our army's morale was low, so he took the initiative to call for war. With the current situation, even if our army has the advantage of cavalry, it has little chance of winning..."
Guo Jia sighed in his heart and wanted to speak out words of advice, but seeing Cao Cao's face full of anger and killing, he had no choice but to swallow his words.
Guo Jia didn't dare to say anything, let alone the civil and military officials in front of the tent. Everyone was afraid of offending Cao Cao. Although they felt that Guo Huai was a little unjust, no one dared to intercede for him.
Looking coldly at Guo Huai being dragged away, Cao Cao said angrily: "The truth is that I have decided to fight. I will not stop fighting until I defeat the traitor. Whoever among you dares to make false statements about retreating or shake the morale of the army will be punished with the same military law as Guo Huai."
.”
Under the power, everyone was terrified.
Suppressing the intention of all his ministers to retreat, Cao Cao immediately ordered that all 50,000 troops be mobilized tomorrow to fight Yan Liang to the death. (To be continued. Please search Piao Tian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster!)
