Learn skills from the world of film and television.

Chapter 2725 No Way Out!

The fake Wenpin, also known as Wang Yue, said with a smile, "Of course it's a person. But what does General Wenpin plan to do now? The whole of Sui County has seen that General Wenpin tricked his way into opening the city gate. Even if you have 1 mouths, you still can't explain it clearly."

Wen Ping wasn't stupid; he immediately understood his predicament and realized that he had no other choice but to surrender.

Therefore, Wen Ping dejectedly bowed to Wang Yue and Guan Yinping and said, "Wen Ping is willing to surrender!"

Guan Yinping was delighted to hear this and said with a smile, "It is certainly a good thing that General Wen is willing to surrender, but we still need your help to subdue the cities in Jiangxia that have not yet surrendered."

Wen Ping, being quite perceptive, knew this was a pledge of loyalty and immediately bowed respectfully, saying, "Yes!"

……

With Wen Ping's help, the important towns south of Sui County were easily captured, and even the mountain passes between Tongbai Mountain and Dabie Mountain were not resisted.

This is understandable, since the people stationed here are all from Jingzhou, and Wen Ping is now the representative of Jingzhou. As long as Wen Ping surrenders, Jiangxia will be settled!
Meanwhile, Eastern Wu prepared another 80,000 troops, including 30,000 elite soldiers and 80,000 auxiliary soldiers. After learning that Jiangxia had made a move, they headed towards Hefei again.

Unfortunately, the generals Zhang Liao, Li Dian, and Yue Jin, who were jointly defending Hefei, were no ordinary men. Although they did not achieve the feat of defeating 100,000 with only 800 men, the war once again reached a stalemate.

After hearing the news, Wang Yue knew that the people of Jiangdong were only on the receiving end of attacks against Shu Han and Cao Wei. So he sent Wei Chi with two thousand soldiers to cross the mountains and harass the people of Runan County.

Wei Chi had been a bandit for several years, so this kind of fighting style was very familiar to him. Therefore, although he only had two thousand men under his command, he made the ordinary people of Runan feel uneasy.

Runan was the stronghold of the Yuan family, who were already dissatisfied with Cao Cao and often engaged in peasant uprisings. Now, with a dedicated leader in charge, this situation was even more serious.

Therefore, although Wei Chi only brought two thousand men into Runan, his army quickly expanded to ten thousand, like a snowball rolling downhill. This caused the soldiers in Runan to be afraid to leave the city, and the impact quickly spread to the entire southern Henan region!

Zhang Liao and his men soon learned of this news. Fearing being attacked from both sides, they immediately sent people to Xuchang to seek help.

……

After Cao Pi became the King of Wei, he was never able to completely win over the hearts of the people. Fortunately, he was also a decisive person. He knew that those who supported Cao Zhi were only after their own interests. Therefore, he accelerated his plan to make Emperor Xian of Han abdicate.

Cao Pi's intentions were obvious to everyone, let alone Emperor Xian of Han. So, in order to survive, he wisely abdicated the throne.

Those aristocratic families that originally supported Cao Zhi indeed changed their allegiance after Cao Pi became emperor, wanting to claim credit for his role in the rise of the new emperor. They accepted Cao Pi's titles and rewards, and of course, sent their descendants to serve in government.

What Cao Pi didn't expect was that his joy was short-lived, as he soon received a message from Zhang Liao and others requesting reinforcements. In his anger, he chose to personally lead the expedition.

In fact, Cao Pi did this on purpose. He took away those who originally did not support him, wanting them to make a statement in this war.

Cao Pi's southward campaign this time involved three routes of troops, with Cao Xiu serving as the General Who Conquers the East in the first route.

The second route, led by Cao Ren, went to Hefei to provide relief and, incidentally, to quell the unrest in Runan.

The third route, led by Cao Zhen as commander-in-chief and Xu Huang and Zhang He as deputies, was tasked with capturing Sui County, thereby taking control of the entire Jiangxia region, and then attacking Chaisang from Jiangxia. Yang Xiu's younger brother, Yang Jun, currently the governor of Nanyang, was also required to join the army to provide Cao Zhen with supplies and logistics.

This request was actually quite excessive. After all, Yang Jun was just a civil official, and sending him along would be tantamount to sending him to his death if they were defeated.

In fact, the same was true for the other routes; officials were also arranged to accompany them.

Wang Yue has just occupied Sui County and is preparing to seize Zaoyang, so that he can coordinate with Xiangfan and completely defend against Cao Wei.

Meanwhile, Jiangxia, where Wang Yue is located, is now also well-equipped with troops, including generals such as Zhao Yun, Wen Pin, Xiahou Shang, Wei Chi, and Wang Nian. Their army has grown to 30,000 men that can be mobilized.

However, Wei Chi is currently conducting guerrilla warfare in the Runan mountain area, harassing Runan while also leading various supplies and people back to Jiangxia.

Therefore, Wang Yue left Wang Nianguan, Hu Guanbao, and his troops to strengthen the defenses of Xiakou, Lukou, Fankou, and other places to prevent the Jiangdong navy from attacking Jiangxia by going upstream.

Wang Yue and Guan Yinping, along with Zhao Yun, Xiahou Shang, and Xu Huang, led more than 20,000 men toward Zaoyang. Just as they arrived at the city of Zaoyang, they learned that Cao Pi was going to personally lead an expedition.

Wang Yue immediately arranged for someone to pass the message to Guan Yu, but this time Guan Yu did not dare to go all in. He arranged for Guan Ping to lead three thousand soldiers to Changsha, and then took Fu Shiren and five thousand men to Baqiu.

Fu Shiren had a heavy task: if Jiangxia had a problem, he would go to support Jiangxia; if Changsha had a problem, he would go to support Changsha.

Guan Yu once again led 3 troops back to Xiangfan.

However, in order to gain the upper hand, Guan Yu sent someone to inform Liao Hua to lead 5,000 infantry and cavalry to cut off Zaoyang's rear. Wu Ban, the new commander of the Jingzhou Navy, led the Jingzhou Navy to delay Cao Wei's attack.

Just as Hu Zhi, the garrison commander of Zaoyang, saw a large army approaching from the south and sent out scouts to Nanyang for reinforcements, he discovered that Liao Hua was leading 5000 infantry and cavalry to surround them.

Zaoyang was no match for Xiangfan. Under the siege of nearly 30,000 troops, it was impossible to hold on. So he did not hesitate to burn the supplies and then fled northeast with 2,000 soldiers.

The mountainous areas in the northwest can reach Yecheng. Although large armies cannot pass through, 2000 people can.

Hu Zhi's thinking was very simple: the court was in dire need of manpower, and he had the opportunity to redeem himself by leading 2000 people to escape.

If they had stayed in Zaoyang, facing an attack by nearly 30,000 troops, they would probably have been defeated in one fell swoop.

In this situation, Cao Zhen had just arrived in Nanyang with his army when he faced Guan Yu, who was stationed in Xiangfan, as well as Wang Yue and Guan Yinping, who were stationed in Zaoyang.

Cao Zhen led 30,000 elite troops and 50,000 auxiliary troops this time, plus 20,000 troops from Dongguan, for a total of 100,000 soldiers.

On Guan Yu's side, there were nearly 40,000 troops in Xiangfan and 30,000 troops in Zaoyang, not including the more than 10,000 men that Hou Yin had developed.

The ratio of soldiers was basically one to one, so neither side had much of an advantage in this respect.

(End of this chapter)