My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 672 Cao Cao's Anger

Two flowers bloom, one branch each.

The timeline also goes back more than half a month, back to the time when Cao Cao had completed the entire process of proclaiming himself Duke of Wei, stabilized the situation in Xu Du, and had just returned to Wancheng.

This day is about the sixth day of September. If you don't have any idea about this day, you can compare it with the timeline of the southern line. It is roughly the critical moment when Zhang Fei was about to reach Yicheng but had not yet arrived, while Guan Yu had already flooded and defeated Cao Ren and Yu Jin.

Cao Cao was quite exhausted from the drama of repeatedly declining the title of Duke of Wei, which had lasted for many days, but fortunately, everything was over.

Because of this matter, a few reckless troublemakers did emerge in the Xudu court, but they were soon eliminated by Cao Cao with thundering means.

After this incident, although Cao Cao's reputation for evil became even worse, his control over the court in Xudu also rose to a higher level. There were fewer people in the court who dared to speak out and criticize him.

Those who survived basically recognized the situation and knew that Cao Cao was determined to take the route of strict defense and would kill anyone who dared to speak out. In this case, before they had the strength to resist, they should just shut up.

Cao Cao also knew that many people actually feared his power but did not cherish his virtue, were respectful in appearance but not submissive in their hearts, and were completely frightened by his knife.

But he had no choice. During this special period, if he didn't lure the troublemakers out to kill them, the situation might get worse.

In times of war, the court can only have one voice, otherwise the soldiers fighting on the front lines will not feel at ease.

"Those who were ready to make a move in the court have finally been lured out and shocked. I hope that from now on, all the officials in Xudu can recognize the situation and stop hindering me..."

It was already nightfall when Cao Cao returned to Wancheng. He had been exhausted for days, so when he returned to the shogunate, he told his attendants not to disturb him and let him take a nap alone.

In a daze, Cao Cao was thinking about this and hoping that the officials in Xudu in the rear would not cause him any trouble from now on.

I dozed off like this for an unknown amount of time, and it was already late at night.

Suddenly, a messenger rushed in from outside the palace gate, looking panicked, and presented an urgent military intelligence that had just been sent from the front, asking the eunuch of the shogunate to inform the prime minister immediately.

The eunuchs around Cao Cao immediately looked embarrassed. They knew too well that the prime minister's mood was unpredictable. If they disturbed him after such a long journey, they would most likely be severely punished.

Fortunately, Cao Cao had not yet performed the "killing in a dream" drama. Even if the attendants were afraid, they were not afraid to that extent. After drawing lots, they picked out an unlucky person and reported it.

The chosen person walked into Cao Cao's house trembling with fear. As soon as he crossed the threshold, he stopped far away and called out in a low voice:

"Prime Minister... urgent news from Fancheng: General Zhennan was badly defeated by Guan Yu..."

Cao Cao was in a daze and vaguely heard the words "General Zhennan defeated Guan Yu", but he missed the word "Yu", and for a moment he didn't understand the relationship between "把" and "被".

He was slightly happy in his heart, and finally suppressed the irritability caused by being woken up. He relaxed for a while and stretched his body:

"Zixiao is indeed the pillar of the country. He actually defeated Yunchang... How rare, how rare."

The attendant felt miserable, but could only continue to clarify from a distance: "Prime Minister, it's not a victory, it's a great defeat for our army..."

"What?" Cao Cao hesitated for a while and almost woke up. His blood pressure suddenly surged and his head felt dizzy again. He almost fell back onto the bed.

He subconsciously reached for his sword, but then he changed his mind and realized that he was already awake, so it was inconvenient to use the excuse of getting up to kill someone. He could only lie there for a while, angrily cursing, "He can't even speak clearly. How can he let this kind of rubbish get the upper hand? Give him fifty strokes of the cane and expel him from the mansion!"

The attendant begged for mercy but was still beaten and expelled. Others did not dare to plead for mercy either, after all, for an attendant in charge of conveying messages, it would be a sin to be unclear in speech.

Moreover, if he had spoken clearly just now, what he might have lost was not his job, but his life.

After Cao Cao calmed down from his anger, he summoned the messenger sent by Cao Ren to see him directly, opened and read Cao Ren's defeat report in person, and verbally asked him several key points.

"Zixiao was negligent and Wenze was incompetent! They let the situation deteriorate to this point! Zhang Fei's Yizhou reinforcements haven't arrived yet, and they are fighting like this just against Yunchang!

Don't you know how much you are capable of? If you can't win, won't you withdraw your forces and defend the city or take a dangerous position? Trash! I told you that they are not as good as Yunchang, but they still don't accept it! This is what led to the disaster today!"

After learning the causes and consequences of the defeat, Cao Cao couldn't help but get furious for a while.

He first used the scabbard in his hand to sweep fiercely, sweeping all the furnishings on the table in front of him to the ground. The ceramic objects were all smashed to pieces, and the bronze cups and glasses were also smashed and clanged.

Fortunately, it was not dinner time yet, so there was no soup or water to spill when the things on the table fell off.

After venting his anger, Cao Cao sat back on the couch, panting, and reflected and reviewed the situation calmly.

Originally, he thought that in order to "quit while he was ahead, take over Nanyang and Xiangyang and quickly realize the title of duke", he needed to delay for a month or so.

During this month or so, the enemy's attack should not be too fierce.

Cao Cao knew that Liu Bei's reinforcements were slow to arrive, and that Liu Bei's total strength was not at an advantage for the time being. Guan Yu had already arrived, but Zhang Fei would probably arrive a month later than Guan Yu.

Time seemed to be on Liu Bei's side, so he should not rush to attack. As long as his side did not attack, Liu Bei would probably wait until Zhang Fei arrived, and then march north in a big way.

Who would have known that Liu Bei was so insidious and stubborn that he took advantage of the critical moment when Guan Yu had arrived but Zhang Fei had not yet arrived to come up with so many fancy things.

Cao Ren and Yu Jin at the front line were unaware of the enemy's cunning. When the enemy seemed to underestimate them and make a rash advance, they actually launched a counterattack!
Don’t Cao Ren and the others know that when they don’t understand the situation, they just defend themselves and respond to changes by remaining unchanged?
They had to go into battle, but ended up being flooded, halfway across the river, and being chased and attacked. They were defeated so badly by a series of dazzling attacks from Guan Yu and lost so many soldiers!
In the three battles at Lumen Mountain and Yuliangzhou, an additional 50,000 to 60,000 imperial troops and 30,000 surrendered soldiers from Jingzhou were lost! In total, the loss was more than 80,000 people!

More than 80,000 people! In one month, Yunchang defeated more than 80,000 people! For the Jingbei Campaign, the court sent only 200,000 troops, and there were 60,000 to 70,000 surrendered troops from Liu Biao's old army that Cai Mao had brought with him.

A total of 260,000 to 270,000 people were lost in one month. What a huge impact this has on the total strength of both sides!

With just a simple mental calculation, Cao Cao determined that his total military strength on the battlefield in Jingzhou no longer had an advantage over Liu Bei.

After a while, when Zhang Fei's reinforcements from Yizhou arrive, Liu Bei's military strength will even surpass his own by 10% or 20%!

"I was just concentrating on the Duke of Wei, and neglected to pay attention to the frontline. In just one month, Zixiao caused such a big disaster! If I had known earlier, I should have watched it myself, and why was I still thinking about the Duke of Wei!"

After cursing Cao Ren and Yu Jin for their incompetence in his heart, Cao Cao quickly blamed himself.

He knew very well that he was also at fault for losing more than 80,000 people in less than a month. It was mainly because he had devoted too much energy to other things and inevitably neglected the control of the front line.

In addition, the energy of the Xun uncle and nephew and Sima Yi was greatly diverted in order to be granted the title of Duke, which resulted in an unprecedentedly weak team of counselors concerned with the war on the front line. The accumulation of various factors eventually led to such a huge bitter result.

However, whenever he thought of this, Cao Cao couldn't help but complain about Jia Xu and Guo Jia in front of him.

He had placed senior advisers on the front lines of Xiang and Fan to handle military affairs on his behalf. Cao Ren and Yu Jin could not see through the enemy's tricks, so could Jia Xu and Guo Jia not see through it?
Thinking of this, Cao Cao called back the messenger who had already been scolded and sent away, and asked him a few more questions, mainly asking what Jia Xu and Guo Jia were doing recently.

The messenger did not dare to hide it. On the one hand, he said that Jia Xu and Guo Jia had indeed reminded Cao Ren from different angles, or they had hurriedly reminded Cao Ren when they found out something was wrong halfway through the battle, but in the end they were unable to save the situation.

Jia Xu's reminder was before the war. At that time, he felt that the strategy of "decisive battle at Yuliangzhou" was unreliable, but Cao Ren insisted on fighting a decisive battle at Yuliangzhou.

Guo Jia's reminder was to temporarily help Cao Ren with advice on how to retreat after the crisis had already occurred so that more troops could escape the danger safely. This remedial suggestion did work, otherwise Cao Ren might have lost more troops.

As for why Guo Jia failed to come up with any preventive and constructive suggestions at the beginning, it might be because Guo Jia was seriously ill and had little energy.

Cao Cao was not an unreasonable person. After reviewing the details of the offensive and defensive strategies of both sides, he found that Jia Xu and Guo Jia's responsibilities were not too great, so he had no choice but to stop pursuing them.

"Alas, Wenhe was too cautious and did not dare to argue with Zixiao. He was unwilling to break up with Zixiao over some minor danger, which resulted in a disaster!
Fengxiao is already so weak, it is not easy for him, and it is already very good that he can achieve this step... It’s all because Zhuge Jin and Xu Shu are too vicious, despicable and shameless, and they can calculate to such an extent!
Heaven, since the Han Dynasty could not be revived, why did you send down Zhuge Jin and Zhuge Liang to stir up trouble! If it weren't for these two people, the world would have ended the war long ago, and the people would not have to suffer from the pain of war! Liu Bei, why are you struggling? ! "

Cao Cao sighed angrily, and finally attributed the failure of this series of battles to the enemy's cunning rather than the incompetence of our army's advisers.

……

Things have already happened, and Cao Cao also knows that a subsequent turnaround will not be possible overnight.

So that night, although he was angry, after giving birth, he did not bother other counselors in Wancheng.

Cao Cao had experienced many ups and downs, and he knew that he had to look forward to the future. It would only be a waste of energy to regret the past.

If he is entangled in it and cannot extricate himself, then what is the difference between him and Yuan Shao? The Yuan brothers are typical examples of people who cannot accept reality and cannot get out of it once they suffer a great loss.

Of course, Cao must learn from the failures of his peers!

After calming down for a night, Cao Cao washed up, had breakfast and adjusted his mood the next morning before he ordered a summons for Sima Lang and Sima Yi.

Guo Jia and Jia Xu are both on the front lines, and Cao Cao no longer has any confidants with whom he can discuss military strategies and tactics. He can only reuse Sima Yi and give this young man more opportunities to show his abilities.

As for Sima Lang, he had been Cao Cao's Cao Yuan in the past few years. Now his two younger brothers were also Cao Yuans, and Sima Lang was even promoted to Zhubu.

Although this person was just a bystander in terms of military strategy, as a confidant, Cao Cao was used to having him come to discuss matters. Before Sima Lang and Sima Yi came, they also heard the defeat report from last night. So when they entered the room, they were very cautious, not wanting to touch Cao Cao's reverse scale.

Cao Cao didn't care about these details and allowed the two men to sit down and discuss the matter.

After everyone was seated, Cao Cao paused for a moment and wiped the table in front of him with the sleeves of his robe, as if there was something dirty on the table that could not be wiped clean.

After a long pause, Cao Cao sighed, "Zixiao and Wen Ze suffered such a great defeat. The imperial army has suffered such heavy losses. I am afraid that we are no longer able to make further progress. The most urgent task now is how to keep Xiang and Fan. Boda, Zhongda, do you have any good ideas?"

Sima Lang and Sima Yi looked at each other for a few seconds, and then Sima Lang said two clichés as if he was forced to do business:

"Since Liu Bei's military strength has surpassed that of the imperial army, the only thing we can do now is to defend the city and buy time to wait for changes.

Liu Bei's troops will be stationed in a strong city for a long time, and their old soldiers will be tired. Then the imperial army will find an opportunity to counterattack, which may help to resolve this crisis.

Xiangyang and Fancheng are both exceptionally strong, and they have sufficient manpower and military supplies, so they will have no problem holding out for half a year."

Cao Cao did not expect Sima Lang to come up with a profound strategy. After listening, he just stroked his beard without commenting, and then asked Sima Yi to add to his elder brother's words: "Zhongda, do you think what your brother said makes sense?"

Sima Yi thought carefully and commented pertinently: "Although what my brother said is a cliché, it is also the right way of military strategy. As long as General Cao and General Yu fight hard, Xiang and Fan can indeed be defended for a long time.

However, there are some variables that must be observed. First, Liu Bei now has the advantage of the Han River navy, and the support between the north and south banks of our army may be cut off.

Even if there were food reserves in Xiangyang, the army's morale might be shaken if it was surrounded for a long time. After all, General Yu's troops were the remnants of a defeated army, and they were already frightened birds, so we had to guard against this.

I foolishly believe that after General Cao was defeated, he did not decisively abandon Xiangyang and let the troops, horses, money and food in Xiangyang retreat back to the north bank as soon as possible... perhaps it was a mistake.

Since ancient times, southerners have sailed boats, and northerners have ridden horses. After the navy was severely damaged, the court continued to leave soldiers on the south bank to defend the fortified city. This may become a weak point of our army. If they are in danger, we will have to rescue them. "

When Cao Cao heard this, he immediately felt unhappy.

From a military perspective, Sima Yi's statement is indeed prudent.

But the implication of shirking responsibility is... even more obvious than that of Jia Xu!
After Cao Cao calmed down and made some calculations, he realized that it was risky to maintain a fortified city with a large garrison south of the Han River for a long time when his navy had been severely damaged and unable to fight again and the main force was only the army.

We can definitely hold Xiangyang City for three months. Half a year is probably fine, but it’s hard to say how long it will take.

However, could he let Cao Ren decisively give up Xiangyang just because defending Xiangyang for a long time would easily lead to accidents? This was impossible!
Xiangyang was once the seat of Liu Biao's government and the original core of his rule.

It was by virtue of his achievement in forcing the surrender of Liu Biao's successor that Cao Cao successfully proclaimed himself Duke of Wei!
Therefore, Xiangyang has great symbolic significance in politics, at least in the past two years.

If he had just obtained the throne and was named Duke of Wei, and immediately fled without a fight and abandoned Xiangyang, how would people in the world view him? Where would the prestige of the court be?

Therefore, even if giving up Xiangyang was indeed the safest militarily approach at the time, Cao Cao could not choose this path. He had to consider the political aspects as well.

"Sima Zhongda is indeed too young to be of great use! Although he has some vision in military strategy, it's a pity that he doesn't know the big picture. It was he who advised me to take advantage of the situation to be granted the title of Duke. How inconsiderate of him!"

In Cao Cao's mind, he assessed Sima Yi as "lacking a sense of the overall situation", and then he became a little bored and didn't want to listen to his nonsense anymore.

How to defend Xiang and Fan still depends on the planning of Guo Jia and Jia Xu on the front line.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. In the end, Cao Cao made the final decision himself:
"I have made up my mind! Yu Wenzhe has already retreated to Xiangyang, the imperial army cannot retreat another step! I demand that Xiangyang and Fanyang cities must be defended to the end! At least until the end of the cold winter!
As long as we wait until the weather turns cold and the Han River dries up, Liu Bei's navy will not be able to take advantage, and the soldiers attacking the enemy will suffer. Then the situation will definitely change!"

The Sima brothers were of low status and their influence was not strong enough to persuade Cao Cao to revoke his order, so this reply was quickly sent back to the front.

In order to reassure Cao Ren, Cao Cao also promised in his reply that he would strengthen the reserve forces stationed in Wancheng and Xinye and provide Cao Ren with more military supplies, and make sure that Cao Ren firmly defended and never allowed to retreat.

This is an order!

……

Cao Cao's order was delivered to the Fancheng front within a few days.

After seeing this, Cao Ren could only smile bitterly and resolutely carry out the order. At that time, he also ordered Cai Mao to send a ship to copy the order to Yu Jin in Xiangyang.

This copy should have been delivered in the end, but Yu Jin was unable to reply to Cao Ren - because when he wanted to reply, Liu Bei's Zhang Fei's Yizhou reinforcements had arrived and immediately launched a siege on Xiangyang.

During the chaos and war, Yu Jin was unable to send more people to cross the Han River to the north, so he just "read it but didn't reply".

After Cao Ren sorted out the latest situation on the front line, he reported to Cao Cao again, saying that the enemy was too powerful and he was no longer able to cooperate with Yu Jin. The subsequent defensive battles could only be fought by Xiang and Fan cities separately.

This latest information was sent to Cao Cao, but he did not change his mind. He only replied "I understand" and the military order remained the same. He also told Cao Ren that the rear army of the court was gathering, and the troops in Wancheng and Xinye were heading south, ready to cooperate with Cao Ren to defend the city.

After all, up to this moment, Cao's army still had 110,000 direct troops in the Jingbei battlefield, plus 30,000 surrendered troops from Jingzhou. Even if more than 30,000 people were besieged in Xiangyang, there were at least 100,000 troops north of the Han River.

These 100,000 people will gradually gather at Cao Ren's place and be commanded by him and Xu Huang, and other powerful generals will also be present to supplement them.

Five or six days later, Cao Ren sent another urgent message, which finally moved Cao Cao again.

"Prime Minister! General Cao has an urgent report! Liu Bei's army failed to storm Xiangyang, so they chose to surround it without attacking and force their way across the Han River! This morning, they have established a firm foothold in the north of Han River and are heading straight for Deng County west of Fancheng!
General Cao believes that if the imperial army does not fight back, the enemy will surround Fancheng from land within a few days! By then, Fancheng will no longer be able to communicate with the outside world except through the Baihe River! Prime Minister, please decide whether to allow General Cao to fight back and attack Liu Bei's army halfway across the river? "

Obviously, Cao Ren sent this urgent report to Cao Cao for instructions right after Liu Bei's army made the decision to cross the Han River to the north.

It can be seen that Cao Ren was already a frightened bird. Even when faced with something like this that he should have made the decision and responded to on his own, he still had to ask for instructions.

Of course, Cao Ren asked for instructions because he really had a lot of difficulties. He had tried to let Cai Mao intercept before, but Cai Mao was defeated by Lu Yi and Han Dang, and lost 4,000 Jingzhou sailors.

With Liu Bei's army having absolute naval superiority and warship superiority, it was extremely difficult for Cao Ren to attack the enemy halfway across the river. He was afraid of further trouble, so he asked for instructions as soon as he suffered a small setback. He was also frightened by Cao Cao's criticism.

When Cao Cao saw the request, he was even more furious: "He has the nerve to send people from Fancheng to Wancheng for instructions even for such a fleeting opportunity as attacking halfway across the river?
Even if the envoy could travel 600 miles a day, it would take most of the day to go back and forth, and the opportunity to fight would have been missed! Even if Liu Bei had not yet established a firm foothold, tens of thousands of people would have landed by now! What opportunity would there be for fighting!"

Cao Cao angrily threw Cao Ren's request, calmed down, looked at the map again, thought calmly for a while, and then gave the order:
"The opportunity to fight has been lost. Do not go to war! Do not send troops to rescue Deng County! In the future, you are only allowed to station heavy troops in the counties along the Baihe River to support each other!"

Cao Cao's deployment idea was also because he was frightened by Liu Bei's army's various interspersed encirclements and besieging points to attack reinforcements. He was afraid that if he went to rescue Deng County, not only would Deng County not be saved, but the reinforcements would also be severely damaged by Liu Bei's army in the field battle.

At present, Cao's army can only fight a battle to defend the city, and all unnecessary peripheral branches have to be abandoned.

He felt that the counties along the Tangbai River were able to be defended because although Cai Mao had lost control of the Han River, he should still be able to control the Tang and Bai Rivers, which were tributaries of the Han River.

Fancheng is located at the mouth of the Baihe River where it merges into the Han River. The Baihe River is much narrower than the Han River. As long as Fancheng is built there, no matter how good Lu Yi is at navy, he will not be able to prevent Liu Bei's warships from penetrating into the Baihe River.

In this way, no matter how Liu Bei's army wreaked havoc on the land outside Hanbei, Cao's army could still ensure control of the communication between the Tang and Baihe waterways. As long as the county town was close to these two rivers, Cao's army could still support and dispatch each other and avoid being surrounded and killed.

Along the Baihe River, Fancheng is located at the river mouth, Xinye is in the middle reaches, and Wancheng is in the upper reaches. These three fortresses are connected by the river and can be moved forward and backward freely.

"However, I am afraid that Liu Bei will come up with some vicious method to allow the navy's warships to sneak across the Fancheng River estuary. If the enemy enters the Baihe River, Nanyang will never have peace..."

Cao Cao pondered this question and couldn't help but murmur aloud.

Sima Yi, who was serving documents beside Cao Cao, thought about it and came up with a plan for Cao Cao: "If the Prime Minister is worried that the enemy has a clever plan, they can sneak their warships across the mouth of the Fancheng River and infiltrate the Baihe River.

It would be better to ask General Zhennan to sink more iron spikes and large rocks as reefs at the mouth of the Fancheng River, or even sink some warships to completely block the waterway. However, this method also has a price, that is, the warships of the imperial navy will no longer be able to enter the Han River, and can only fight in the Baihe River. "

If the estuary waterway is blocked, the effect will naturally be a double-edged sword. The enemy will not be able to go north, and Cao's army will not be able to go south.

After hearing this, Cao Cao hesitated for a moment.

He knew that after issuing this order, Cao Ren could ensure that the waterway behind would be unobstructed. However, Yu Jin on the south bank of the Han River would have difficulty being supported by Cao's army on the north bank.

Unless one day Liu Bei's army suffered a heavy loss on the north bank and the balance of power between the enemy and us in northern Han was completely reversed, Cao's army would be able to free up its hands and slowly clear away the sunken ships and reefs blocking the channel and reopen the river mouth.

But this is obviously a very distant thing, and Cao Cao doesn't even dare to think about it at the moment.

After weighing the pros and cons again and again, Cao Cao finally decided to choose the lesser of two evils.

Anyway, with Cai Mao's strength, there is no possibility for him to support Yu Jin at the moment. If he has to attack, he will probably be defeated again by Lu Yi and Han Dang.

In this case, why should we give up the actual benefits at hand for a tiny bit of support opportunity that only exists in theory?
Just follow this plan.

(End of this chapter)