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Chapter 2726 The Battle of Xuchang!
In terms of military generals, Jingzhou had fierce generals such as Guan Yu, Zhao Yun, and Wen Pin, while Nanyang had Cao Zhen, Xu Huang, Zhang He, and others.

Cao Zhen's initial plan was to defend against Guan Yu to the west and launch a rapid southward attack on Jiangxia, so that he could capture Jiangxia as soon as possible and threaten Chaisang from upstream.

However, after the loss of Zaoyang, Cao Zhen was worried that the retreat route would be cut off, and he asked Xu Huang with some hesitation, "General Xu, you are more familiar with this place. I wonder which direction you think we should attack from?"

Cao Zhen asked Xu Huang because Xu Huang had survived Guan Yu's attack in the field the last time, which showed that Xu Huang had some skill in military strategy.

In fact, Xu Huang felt somewhat lucky last time, which is why he didn't suffer the same misfortune as Yu Jin. Now, facing the even more powerful Guan Yu, he was really unsure of himself.

After bowing to Cao Zhen, Xu Huang said, "General, I think the enemy is too strong. We should consider how to defend our existing towns and then launch an attack once we find a weakness."

Seeing that Xu Huang had already said this, Cao Zhen was clearly unsure of himself, so he could only look at Zhang He and ask, "General Zhang, what do you think?"

Zhang He had never suffered a loss before; he only knew that Guan Yu had passed five passes and killed six generals, and had directly captured Yu Jin alive, so he knew that Guan Yu was not someone to be trifled with.

Therefore, he said to Cao Zhen, "General, if we defend the place without fighting, I'm afraid we won't be able to explain it to His Majesty."

Guan Yu is incredibly powerful, so we should focus on defense. However, the troops under the Commandant of the Expeditionary Army are mostly new recruits, so we might have a chance.

Even if we win once or twice, or take back Zaoyang, we'll have a way to explain ourselves to His Majesty.

Cao Zhen found this reasonable and immediately ordered Xu Huang to lead 10,000 elite troops to Xinye, while he led 60,000 troops to provide support from the center, and Zhang He led 30,000 troops to Zaoyang.

Hu Zhigang had just fled to Ye County with 2000 men when he learned that Cao Zhen was leading a large army to Nanyang. He rushed to Cao Zhen's place and now returned with Zhang He to atone for his crimes.

However, their army had barely crossed the Tang River with less than 10,000 soldiers when Wu Ban's naval forces cut off Zhang He's army.

When Zhang He saw this scene while supervising the rear guard, he immediately knew something was wrong. He quickly ordered the archers to suppress the Jingzhou navy and at the same time ordered people to build a pontoon bridge to prepare to bring Hu Zhi back.

Zhang He's idea was good. Although the Jingzhou navy was powerful, the Tang River was not particularly wide, so even though the ships were at a high position in the water, they were not helpless against it.

What Zhang He didn't expect was that Zhao Yun, Wen Ping, and Liao Hua each led two thousand men to surround Hu Zhi's soldiers crossing the river from three directions.

With their retreat cut off, their ships constantly under fire from archers, and large numbers of troops appearing from all directions...

Hu Zhi had no control over his soldiers and could only try to escape with his troops once again.

This time, however, Hu Zhi was not so lucky. Wen Ping was eager to make a name for himself, and since he knew Hu Zhi, he kept pestering him. In the end, Hu Zhi was unable to escape and fell off his horse in a panic, where he was captured alive by Wen Ping.

Of the several thousand Wei soldiers who scattered and fled, only a little over two thousand managed to swim back to the other side of the river amidst the chaos; the rest were all left behind.

When Zhang He realized that the situation was beyond saving, he immediately began to withdraw his troops and fled towards Xinye. Unfortunately, Zhao Yun's 3000 men were all cavalry, and after crossing the river, they relentlessly pursued Zhang He's army, preventing him from advancing quickly.

If Cao Zhen's scouts hadn't noticed the situation was bad and immediately sent cavalry to their aid, Zhang He's men would probably have been caught up again.

However, Zhang He also knew at this time that Xu Huang's condition in the Xinye direction was not good either.

Xinye City was where Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei lived for a long time. Guan Yu was very familiar with the city, so he knew its defensive weaknesses perfectly well. Xu Huang's 10,000 men couldn't even deploy properly in the county town, let alone find food and lodging there.

Therefore, Guan Yu directly adopted a posture of besieging the city, and Xu Huang immediately wisely chose to withdraw from the city.

Fortunately, Guan Yu knew that it was unrealistic to keep Xu Huang's 10,000 men alive under Cao Zhen's threat, so he only pursued them symbolically before letting Xu Huang go.

From then on, Guan Yu captured Xinye, a key town guarding Xiangfan, and his army headed directly towards Guancheng.

Knowing that such a large-scale war could not make any progress in a short time, Cao Zhen immediately sent an envoy to Shouchun to inform Cao Pi, who was personally leading the expedition.

The central and eastern armies, personally supervised by Cao Pi, also failed to advance smoothly. Although the eastern army had previously achieved some victories, when they reached the Yangtze River, they were blocked by the Jiangdong navy and were unable to make any further advances.

Although the siege of Hefei was lifted, Sun Quan immediately withdrew to the other side of the river, leaving Cao Pi only able to sigh at the sight of the river.

At this point, it was pointless for the Eastern Route Army and the Central Route Army to continue, but they were unwilling to simply withdraw.

Just then, Cao Zhen's message arrived.

Cao Pi simply assigned Zhang Liao and others to guard Hefei, and then led his army to retreat immediately.

Seeing that Cao Pi had already retreated, the Eastern Route Army naturally had no intention of stopping and hastily ended this southern expedition.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Sun Quan sent men to retake some checkpoints on the other side of the river, using them as a forward line for harassing Hefei.

Zhang Liao and other generals were only guarding Hefei to block the Wu army from advancing north, so they didn't care about the small towns along the river at all.

After a major battle, although Jiangdong was the first to launch an attack, it ended up being a fruitless exercise, much like a training exercise.

However, when Cao Pi returned with his army, he discovered that the southern expedition had turned into a battle to defend the capital.

So it was the Battle of Wancheng because when Guan Yu led his army to within 30 li of Wancheng, Wang Yue did not join the fray at all. Instead, he led 20,000 troops with Guan Yinping, accompanied by generals Zhao Yun, Wen Pin, and Liao Hua, towards Ye County, the gateway to Nanyang.

When passing through Fangcheng, Wang Yue deliberately did not attack, seemingly intending to head straight for Xuchang.

When the magistrate of Fangcheng saw the massive army, which he estimated to be fifty or sixty thousand strong, he sent someone to inform Xuchang while simultaneously sending someone to Wancheng to request reinforcements.

Cao Zhen originally intended to hold the position, but Guan Yu would not be able to hold out and would have to retreat sooner or later.

After all, Wancheng's city walls were high, making a siege simply impossible.

However, when Cao Zhen learned that fifty to sixty thousand troops were heading towards Xuchang, although he knew that the number was definitely inaccurate and that the actual number of troops was probably only half of that, he still couldn't sit still any longer.

(End of this chapter)