amaotonovel Chapter 473 Troops March Out of the Three Eastern Counties
Chapter 473 Troops March Out of the Three Eastern Counties
Guan Xing quickly released his hands, gently patted Dong Hui's shoulder, and said with a smile, "Sorry, I didn't notice. Please don't mind."
After calming Dong Hui down, he immediately put away his smile and said solemnly, "Since he is the commander of Yu Jin's personal guards, what he heard from Yu Jin should be true. Gentlemen, the opportunity to annihilate Xu Huang has arrived."
"Everyone knows the terrain of the three eastern prefectures. Now that His Majesty is blocking Xicheng, if we can recapture Fangling and Shangyong and join forces with His Majesty at Xicheng, we will surely be able to annihilate Xu Huang under the walls of Xicheng. This is the best opportunity to wipe out Xu Huang's army. Are you all interested?"
Upon hearing this, all the generals became excited, exchanged glances, and eagerly bowed, saying, "We are ready to obey your orders, General."
The temptation to annihilate Xu Huang's army was too great, so great that they simply couldn't resist it.
Who is Xu Huang? He was one of the Five Elite Generals of Cao Wei. He followed Cao Cao in his campaigns for decades and was praised by Cao Cao as the Zhou Yafu of his time. If they had killed Xu Huang like they did Yu Jin, they would have become famous overnight.
Guan Xing said with a serious expression, "Thank you all for your support. In that case, I will give the order directly. Dong Hui, you must immediately lead your men across the Daba Mountains to Hanzhong to find the King, report our battle plan to the King, and request the King to send troops to cooperate."
Dong Hui accepted the order and bowed, saying, "Yes..."
Guan Xing continued, "Huang Zhe, Jiangling is currently in dire need of reconstruction and lacks both manpower and soldiers. It urgently needs a large army to garrison it. You will lead your main force to escort the Wei prisoners back to Jiangling and await the orders of Ambassador Fei Yi."
"The others will select the wounded, the old, the weak, the sick and disabled from their respective armies and hand them over to Huang Zhe to take back. Then they will go with me to Dangyang to rest and reorganize. We will set out to attack Fangling at Linju early tomorrow morning."
The army is too diverse in composition to be all allowed to rush over; some selection is necessary.
In addition, it is already late afternoon and the soldiers are exhausted from a day of fierce fighting. They need to rest briefly.
As for why Huang Zhe was allowed to return instead of the Wu generals, the reason is simple: Huang Zhe's aristocratic private army did not listen to Sun Quan, but if the Wu army returned, Sun Quan's courage would be emboldened, and who knows if he would do something rash in a moment of impulse.
Therefore, Guan Xing wanted to take all of Wu's troops away and leave none for Sun Quan. Without troops, Sun Quan naturally couldn't cause any major trouble.
Even now, Guan Xing is still wary of his father-in-law.
All the generals bowed in unison and said, "Yes..."
After the discussion, the generals dispersed to begin selecting soldiers.
In this battle, Guan Xing mainly relied on the tens of thousands of Huang family private soldiers who had surrendered from the banks of the Nanzhang River. Guan Xing had already screened this private army before the battle, dividing it into elite and logistics units. However, when dealing with Yu Jin, he had pulled out both units. Now that Yu Jin was dead, there was no need to do so. He handed over all five thousand logistics soldiers to Huang Zhe to take back, and also picked out the wounded soldiers from the five thousand elite soldiers and handed them over to Huang Zhe as well.
In the end, Guan Xing selected four thousand from his private army, and together with the two thousand elite troops he brought from Jiangdong, he had a total of six thousand.
Why did Guan Xing bring only 2,000 men out of the 3,000 he brought from Jiangdong? The reason is simple: Jiangdong's elite troops also suffered casualties. More than 200 men were killed in the night raid on the barbican with Wang Hong.
Subsequently, Hu Zong, Xu Xiang, Zhou Shao, and Zhou Cheng selected 7,000 men from the Wu army they brought with them, Zhu Ran and Sun Huan selected another 5,000 men, and Pan Zhu selected another 2,000 men from his private army, bringing the total to 20,000 men.
Twenty thousand troops might be a bit too much for dealing with Xu Huang, but don't forget about Liu Bei. All you need to do is capture Shangyong and get to Xicheng to block Xu Huang's retreat. Leave the rest to Liu Bei.
After the selection process was completed, the army split into two groups. Huang Zhe led the old, weak, sick, disabled, and Wei prisoners back to Jiangling, while Guan Xing led an army of 20,000 to Dangyang.
Dangyang is currently occupied by the Wei army. Jiang Ji and Yu Jin will definitely want to occupy all the counties along the way when they march south to Jiangling to prevent their retreat from being cut off.
Zhu Ran and Sun Huan attacked the supply lines and remained outside the city without attacking it, so Dangyang County is still in the hands of the Wei army.
However, Dangyang was just a small county town with less than a thousand soldiers stationed in it. How could it withstand Guan Xing's 20,000-strong army? When the defending officer saw the Han army's battle flag, he decisively surrendered and opened the city gates as quickly as possible.
Guan Xing easily took over the county town and took control of the city's grain supplies. Combined with the grain supplies that Zhu Ran and Sun Huan had previously intercepted, the army's grain supplies were now enough for their 20,000 troops for ten days.
As for the rest, Fei Yi can only allocate them from the rear.
After resting for a night, at dawn Guan Xing led an army of 20,000 straight to Linju, intending to head north from Linju, first to Fangling, then to Shangyong, and finally to Xicheng.
Walking on the official road to Linju, Guan Xing's feelings were more complicated than ever before. On the day of the defeat at Maicheng, he had held onto Guan Yu's horse reins tightly to stop Guan Yu from going to Linju, but now he had to go to Linju himself. How strange things are!
It wasn't that he insisted on going, but Linju was located between Yidao City and Fangling, making it a necessary stop on his journey.
From Linju, one can head south to Zigui, then follow the Yangtze River into Shu (Sichuan), or head north to Fangling, then follow the three eastern prefectures into Hanzhong.
Historically, it is true that Guan Yu was defeated at Maicheng and fled to Linju. Once he reached Linju, he could have returned to Shu no matter which road he took. Unfortunately, Lü Meng, that old bastard, laid an ambush in Linju and captured Guan Yu. Poor Guan Yu, he could have returned to Shu with just a little more effort, but he never did.
But this time is different. As long as Guan Xing breaks through the three eastern counties and successfully joins forces with Liu Bei, no one in the world will be able to stop the rise of the Han Dynasty.
Thinking of this, Guan Xing was so excited that he wished he could sprout wings and fly to Xicheng.
……
After Liu Bei annihilated Zhang He and Sima Yi in Ji County and successfully recaptured Jieting, he led his army back to Hanzhong.
Unwilling to accept defeat, Cao Cao immediately led a large army to counterattack. Several armies marched south simultaneously, attempting to seize Hanzhong and cut off the connection between Bashu and Longxi, and then launch a westward expedition to reclaim Longxi.
Therefore, during this period, Liu Bei and Cao Cao once again engaged in a major battle in Hanzhong.
It is worth mentioning that Liu Bei made a fortune from this Northern Expedition and no longer wanted to attack. He only wanted to maintain his gains and consolidate his victory. Therefore, after returning to Hanzhong, Liu Bei launched a full-scale defense, holding all the road intersections and preventing the Wei army from advancing an inch.
The roads from Guanzhong to Hanzhong are all nestled among mountains and are extremely difficult to traverse. The strategic passes are easy to defend and difficult to attack, so Liu Bei defended them with great ease. After many days of fierce fighting, he managed to prevent the Wei army from advancing an inch.
The only variable was that Cao Zhen and Deng Ai led three thousand elite troops down the Ziwu Road to launch a surprise attack on Xicheng. However, Liu Feng, who was guarding Xicheng, was not a good person, but he was quite capable. He managed to withstand Xu Huang's fierce attack and Cao Zhen's surprise attack.
Nevertheless, Xicheng was still in grave danger. Upon receiving Liu Feng's plea for help, Liu Bei quickly dispatched troops to Xicheng. He arrived just in time to stabilize the city as it was about to fall. Subsequently, Liu Bei took over military power from Liu Feng and personally took charge of Xicheng.
Then he ordered Zhang Fei to guard Yangping Pass to block the Wei army coming from Chencang, and ordered Wei Yan to guard Baoxie Road and Tangluo Road to block the main force of the Wei army.
As the Prefect and Commander-in-Chief of Hanzhong, Wei Yan had long been familiar with the terrain of Hanzhong and had established a comprehensive defense system, so Liu Bei was very confident in letting him hold off the main force of the Wei army.
Besides, there's Zhuge Liang stationed in Nanzheng City, commanding mobile troops ready to support various places at any time. What does Liu Bei have to fear?
Let's see who can outlast whom.
Liu Bei is no longer afraid of playing a war of attrition with Cao Cao, because the benefits of the Northern Expedition are too great. In addition to the territory, the biggest gain is the hearts and minds of the people.
Previously, the gentry of Yizhou were mostly dissatisfied with him, and when he confronted them about supplying them with provisions, it was as if he were asking for their lives. However, after the news of the victory in the Northern Expedition reached them, the gentry of Yizhou changed their minds and actually offered provisions to Liu Bei to curry favor.
While trying to curry favor, he also subtly expressed his desire to serve in the government. Longxi is such a large territory that it must need a lot of officials, and the Yizhou gentry should rightfully get a share of the pie.
Therefore, Liu Bei did not need to worry about food supplies for the time being. In addition, since the battle was fought on his home turf, the distance was short and the consumption was low, so he was not afraid of dragging things out with Cao Cao.
On the western city wall, the Han army once again repelled Xu Huang's attack. Liu Bei went up to the city wall but did not comfort his soldiers. Instead, he spat down and cursed, "Pah! That damned Xu Huang doesn't get tired at all."
These words caused the soldiers guarding the city to burst into laughter. Before they could finish laughing, a soldier came running from the south gate, panting and shouting at Liu Bei's back: "Your Majesty, General Zhou Cang has returned."