Guan Yu, who had been burned without his beard, had been running wildly looking north since he escaped from Tancheng.
A few days later, Guan Yu successfully escaped to Kaiyang City, the administrative center of Langye State, located on the banks of the Yishui River.
At this time, Guan Yu only had less than 3,000 remnant soldiers left around him, and with the gathering of some county soldiers from the Langxie Kingdom, he could barely manage to collect 5,000 troops.
The frightened Guan Yu sent his men on flying horses to ask for help from Liu Bei, and at the same time worked day and night to build the city to resist the attack of Yan Liang's army.
Not long after, the scouts reported that Yan Liang's army had not taken advantage of the victory to pursue them.
Yan Liang's purpose in this battle was only to cover the actions of Lu Meng's expeditionary force, and he had no intention of fighting Liu Bei to the death. It was an unexpected surprise that he was able to kill Guan Yu and escape.
Now that Lu Su has not conquered Tancheng, and Liu Bei's army is about to rush to Langxie Kingdom, Yan Liang will certainly not rush to attack Kaiyang again without Tancheng being conquered.
Knowing that Yan Liang was chasing after him, Guan Yu finally breathed a sigh of relief, but he rode northward several times a day to urge Liu Bei to come to the rescue.
Three days later, the more than 70,000 troops led by Liu Bei finally arrived at Kaiyang City exhausted.
Guan Yu, who was relieved, heard that Liu Bei's reinforcements were coming, and hurriedly led his troops out of the city to greet them.
As the setting sun set, Guan Yu stood on the north road, staring into the distance, gazing at the mighty army approaching from the distance.
Liu Bei's royal flag finally came into view. Guan Yu breathed a sigh of relief. His nerves, which had been tense for many days, finally relaxed.
Guan Yu's mood improved, and a look of pride gradually appeared in his eyebrows. As usual, he reached out to stroke his beard.
Wherever the five fingers passed, there was nothing. Not even a hair on it.
Only then did Guan Yu remember that his beautiful beard had been completely burned by that bitch Yan Liang.
The arrogance he had just ignited suddenly disappeared. A bit of shame immediately appeared on his face, and his expression became uncomfortable.
At this time, Guan Yu really didn't know how he would react when Liu Bei saw him like this later.
In anxiety, the large army of soldiers and horses approached. Liu Bei's royal flag was already in front of him.
Guan Yu took a deep breath and rode his horse forward to greet him. When he saw Liu Bei from a distance, he turned over and dismounted. He cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, Guan Yu, pay homage to your Majesty."
"Excuse me." Liu Bei, who was on horseback, did not dismount and help him personally as he did in the past, but only used his whip.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that Liu Bei is dissatisfied with Guan Yu.
Guan Yu also sensed Liu Bei's dissatisfaction, but he just forced himself to be calm and straightened up pretending to be calm.
When he raised his head, Liu Bei saw at a glance that Guan Yu's beautiful beard had disappeared and turned into a bare, charred black mess.
"Yun Chang, where has your beautiful beard gone?" Liu Bei asked in surprise.
"This" Guan Yu became more and more embarrassed, like a light on his back, but he hurriedly whispered: "I will explain this to the king later. The king has had a hard journey, so why not go to the city to rest first."
Although Liu Bei understood Guan Yu's temperament, when he saw Guan Yu talking about him, he guessed that Guan Yu must have hidden secrets that were difficult to shame, and he was too embarrassed to tell them to his face.
Although Liu Bei was annoyed that Guan Yu was defeated again, he still cared about his dignity, so he suppressed his curiosity and entered the city first with Guan Yu.
When the army entered the city, Guan Yu invited Liu Bei into the military mansion.
After entering the lobby, Liu Bei waved his hands to exclude everyone on the left and right. Only his two brothers were left in the lobby.
"Yun Chang, there are no outsiders here. Tell me honestly, why did you do this? What happened in Tancheng?" Liu Bei asked impatiently.
Guan Yu knew that he could no longer shirk the situation, so he told Liu Bei that Tan City had fallen into Yan Liang's plan to burn the city.
However, Guan Yu concealed the reason why Yan Liang "humiliated" Guan Feng before the battle. He took the initiative because he was angered and took it away with a stroke.
After saying this, Guan Yu cupped his hands and said: "I wanted to kill Yan Liang, so I took the initiative to attack, but fell into the Yan thief's trick. However, I clearly had the opportunity to return with all my troops, but Lu Zijing was good at making his own decisions and refused to attack.
The city surrendered and the ministers retreated, but in the end they were forced to break out with their troops and lost six to seven thousand soldiers."
After explaining, Guan Yu added something more, which indirectly relieved most of the responsibility for the defeat on Lu Su.
Hearing this, Liu Bei couldn't help frowning and said in a deep voice: "How dare this Lu Zijing do this? What about the other generals in the city? Did they all listen to Lu Su's words?"
Guan Yu's heart was shaken, and a trace of embarrassment flashed across his eyes.
He knew very well that Lu Su actually did not have much military power. The reason why the generals in Tancheng obeyed Lu Su's orders and refused to open the city to let him in was because he was always arrogant and did not put his generals in Tancheng.
In his eyes, this reason made these generals dissatisfied, which eventually led to the battle of Tancheng, and they did not obey his orders.
"I was also surprised. It was probably because Lu Su used some means to threaten the generals in the city, so they had to be coerced by Lu Su." Guan Yu made up an excuse casually.
"I really didn't expect that I, the king, always thought that Na Lu Su was a loyal and loyal elder, but I didn't expect that he would dare to do this. Could it be that he wanted to betray me?" Liu Bei, who didn't know the inside story, said bitterly.
"Well, it seems that Lu Su did not betray the king, because the scouts I sent in the past few days reported that Lu Su was still guarding Tancheng. So I estimate that Lu Su was just confused for a moment, and that's why he did the wrong thing that day.
"
It is an undeniable fact that Lu Su did not surrender to Yan Liang. Guan Yu could not throw all the dirty water on Lu Su, but at least he said a few good words for Lu Su.
Liu Bei felt relieved and nodded: "As long as Lu Zijing has no treason and can hold on to Tan City, then my army will go south and attack both internally and externally, and we will be able to defeat the Yan bandits in one fell swoop."
Liu Bei's heavy mood immediately improved a lot, and his confidence was gradually rekindled.
"Now that the king personally leads the army south, he will definitely defeat Yan Liang and regain the lost territory of Xuzhou in one fell swoop." Guan Yu also agreed.
Liu Bei stroked his beard slightly, and a somewhat sinister sneer appeared in his eyebrows.
…
Tancheng.
In the great victory that day, seven thousand enemies were killed and Guan Yu was defeated. The initiative on the Tancheng battlefield was completely in Yan Liang's hands.
Yan Liang issued a royal order, and 90,000 troops worked day and night, digging three trenches around Tancheng and building a two-foot-high earth wall, completely surrounding Tancheng and completely cutting off Tancheng's contact with the outside world.
Lu Su only had 20,000 troops left in the city, and he did not dare to leave the city. He could only sit back and watch as the Chu army successfully repaired the earth wall and completed the isolation of Tan City.
It was afternoon, and the king of Chu army was in the camp.
Yan Liangna took the latest information from Liaodong, excitement surging on his sharp face.
On the east side of Liaodong, Gongsun Kang withdrew all his troops from Liao River after Liu Bei moved his troops south, and ordered General Bei Yan to lead 10,000 cavalry to march eastward, fighting all the way to Xi'anping City.
As a result, Bei Yan, who lacked resourcefulness, was ambushed by Lü Meng in the Qianshan area. Ten thousand cavalry were shot dead by Lü Meng's Yuanrong crossbows. General Pang De even killed Bei Yan on the spot.
In the Battle of Qianshan, the Liaodong Army suffered heavy losses, and its overall strength was already smaller than Lü Meng's expedition to Chu.
Lü Meng, who was victorious, took advantage of the remaining power of his victory and took advantage of the situation to advance westward, killing all the way to Xiangping.
Gongsun Kang's Liaodong Army was retreating steadily and retreated step by step back to Xiangping. When Lu Meng issued this victory report, his forward Pang De Army was no more than a hundred miles away from Xiangyang.
This means that when Yan Liang saw the good news, his expeditionary army had probably reached the gates of Xiangping City.
"I didn't expect that the generals of the expeditionary force, Lu Ziming and Pang Lingming, would be so good. The king's servants are indeed extraordinary." Even Pang Tong couldn't help but admire.
Yan Liang was slightly proud and said happily: "Liaodong is a vast territory. Lu Ziming said that 30,000 troops are not enough. In order to pacify Liaodong as soon as possible, I have sent an order from the king to ship another 10,000 elite troops to Liaodong as soon as possible."
After seeing the good news about Liaodong, the atmosphere in the big tent quickly became lively.
Seeing the achievements of Lü Meng's expeditionary force, the generals present were not to be outdone, and were eager to make achievements. They all rushed to send troops to attack Tan City and break the city to achieve success.
Of course Yan Liang hoped to capture Tan City in one fell swoop, but he knew very well that Lu Su had considerable military talent. With him commanding the 20,000 Yan troops in the city, he was not necessarily sure if he wanted to capture Tan City in an instant.
But the key problem is that at this time, the scouts have sent back information to the north. The 70,000-strong army led by Liu Bei had marched south from Kaiyang City towards Tan City yesterday.
If Tancheng cannot be captured as soon as possible, then Yan Liang will face a combined internal and external attack from Liu Bei and Lu Su.
"Military advisor, what do you think about whether to attack Tancheng first or defeat Liu Bei first?" Yan Liang turned his attention to Pang Tong.
Pang Tong stroked his beard and said: "Liu Bei suffered several losses in the past. This time, he will not make the mistake of underestimating the enemy again. It is not easy to defeat Liu Bei first. I think we can make a fuss about Tancheng first."
, if we are lucky, maybe Tancheng will fall without a fight."
Tancheng, surrender without a fight?
Yan Liang's head shook, and when he saw Pang Tong's weird smile, he was as resourceful as Yan Liang, and he quickly guessed it.
"Could it be that the military advisor wants to make a fuss about Lu Su's refusal to let Guan Yu enter the city?" Yan Liang's lips also turned a bit cryptic.
Pang Tong smiled and said slowly: "As a general under Guan Yu, Lu Su dared not to let Guan Yu enter the city. From the surface, it seems that he put the overall situation first, which is not unreasonable. However, Lu Su was in a hurry, so he probably
Forgetting the relationship between Guan Yu and Liu Bei, and Tancheng being completely surrounded, Lu Su probably doesn’t know whether Guan Yu is alive or dead. In this case, we can start from here."
Pang Tong is worthy of being Pang Tong, and he clearly sees the difficulties faced by Lu Su.
With Yan Liang's wisdom, he already understood the profound meaning of Pang Tong's strategy without Pang Tong having to point it out.
After pondering for a moment, Yan Liang nodded and told Pang Tong to act quickly according to the plan.
"Lu Su, Lu Su, you immortal little strongman has been against me since the time of Sun Quan. Now, it's time for you to finish the job." Yan Liangzhong sneered. (To be continued...)
