My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 831 The Final Battle against Cao Cao

"Your Majesty! Liu Bei's troops have arrived at the city and surrounded the gates of Chang'an! Judging from the flags, they are Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun's cavalry! There are probably tens of thousands of them!"

Early in the morning on the tenth day of May, Cao Cao was awakened by bad news in the imperial palace in Chang'an City.

"What? Didn't we just get an urgent report yesterday saying that the enemy had just crossed the river? The counties of Zuofengyi are over a hundred miles deep, so it's possible that they couldn't stop the enemy at all?"

Cao Cao was so shocked that he almost rolled off the imperial couch. The shock to his blood pressure and emotions seemed to have aggravated the sequelae of his headache. His left hand, which was already paralyzed and out of control, was shaking so much that he couldn't even support his body.

Cao Cao has been suffering from the sequelae of migraine for several years. When Liu Bei first launched the Northern Expedition, he suffered from headaches many times due to bad news, and some small blood vessels at the ends of his hands and feet burst, so one of his hands was not very obedient.

In the past two years, due to anxiety and stress, my condition has become more serious, and gradually I can't even walk steadily.

It is still four or five years away from the time Cao Cao died of illness in history. But a person's mental state and stress will obviously seriously affect their health. Cao Cao's condition in recent years is similar to Yuan Shao's condition after the Battle of Guandu.

So it was not surprising that he entered old age four years earlier than expected. After all, his actual age was already 62 years old.

Fortunately, he won't have to worry about his health any more soon because it will all be over.

The attendants on both sides, as well as the generals who came to report the emergency, all dared not utter a word, and did not explain Cao Cao's doubts, for fear that Cao Cao would be furious, and just waited quietly for his instructions.

Cao Cao glanced at the crowd sadly and closed his eyes in pain: "Forget it, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun, they are here, and now, what's the point of investigating how they came and why they came so quickly?
Until now, all the responsibilities are on me alone. You don't have to be afraid, just do your part. Come, help me go to the tower and take a look!"

Cao Cao no longer pursued the reasons and process, and the people around him finally breathed a sigh of relief. They immediately helped Cao Cao onto the sedan chair and sent him to the north gate tower of Chang'an City to watch the battle situation.

Chang'an City is located south of the Wei River, so the North Gate is close to the Wei River and is not far away.

It is the most difficult place to attack and is very safe, while at the same time it does not hinder observation of the enemy situation across the river.

When Cao Cao reached the top of the city wall, he saw a series of hastily built simple camps on the other side of the Wei River. In the camp stood a flag with the Chinese character Zhao on it, and some of the flags had the title of General Wei written on them, which was obviously Zhao Yun.

Zhao Yun did not directly approach the south bank of the Wei River and block the gate of the camp.

But no one would doubt that with Zhao Yun's ability and the mobility of his cavalry, even if such a small gap was left, it would be absolutely impossible for Cao's reinforcements to return through this narrow gap and sneak into Chang'an City.

As long as Cao's "loyalist army" approached Chang'an from the north, even if they marched quickly along the Wei River, they would definitely be intercepted and annihilated by Zhao Yun.

As for the situation in the south of the city, there is no Wei River blocking the way, only a moat, and with Zhang Fei's blockade, there is definitely no hope.

The moment he saw this scene clearly, Cao Cao knew that he had been isolated.

This Chang'an city is where he will be buried. This day has finally come.

Although he could still defend the city, delay for a few more days, or at least fight a battle of dignity, he could not change the final outcome.

"Let's first let the soldiers at each gate defend themselves and avoid fighting. The enemy is all cavalry, and it is impossible for them to attack the city at once. Let the soldiers prepare more logs and stones to roll up the wall, and then recruit civilians to help defend. With such a big battle, I estimate that Liu Bei will come in person soon."

After reading it, Cao Cao calmed down and gave some instructions in a calm tone.
"What I am most worried about now is whether the soldiers from other cities will be lured by Liu Bei to Chang'an to defend the king. If the garrisons in various places can hold on and wait for reinforcements, they will not die in vain, and they can also threaten Liu Bei's food supply.

At worst, we can find an opportunity to flee westwards and join forces with Zihuan at Chencang. At worst, we can have more people flee to the Western Regions in the future, which is better than being annihilated by the enemy on the way to save Chang'an City."

Excluding the cavalry that Cao Zhang had taken with him to the west, Cao Cao's camp only had 80,000 soldiers left in Guanzhong and Longxi. A portion of them were lost in the landing battle two days ago, and now there are only 70,000 soldiers left at most. There are more than 30,000 soldiers in Chang'an, accounting for half of the total.

The rest are distributed in Zuofengyi, Youfufeng, Longxi, and Tongguan.

These numbers do not include the newly recruited militiamen who are unable to fight in a mobile manner and can only defend the city on the spot.

Even if Cao's troops in Chencang and Longxi knew that Chang'an was under siege, they would not come to rescue. Cao Cao had privately informed Cao Pi of this in advance. Therefore, the troops in Zuofengyi and Tongguan were likely to be mobilized by the enemy to rescue.

Cao Cao really wanted them not to come to rescue him now. It was not because Cao Cao was merciful and did not want to commit more murders, but because he felt that even if they came to rescue him, they would die in vain and would not cause many casualties to Liu Bei's army. At the same time, if they could escape to the west and preserve more fire, it would also be helpful for the Cao family to expand to the Western Regions.

Unfortunately, Cao Cao felt that it was unlikely that he could send the messenger, so he told the defenders of Zuo Fengyi and Tongguan not to return to rescue.

But even though the hope was slim, he had to try, so he sent out a hundred or so reconnaissance cavalrymen that day, divided into several teams, and sneaked out of the city at night.

He didn't have high expectations in his heart.

……

Cao Cao was right not to have any hope, because none of the messengers he sent out to tell the surrounding troops to hold their ground and not to come to rescue them escaped.

They were all intercepted and killed by Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun who were almost blocking the door, and the letters containing the imperial edict were also seized.

The next morning, Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei delivered the letters to the rear.

At this time, Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhuge brothers had already crossed the Yellow River and entered the territory of Zuo Fengyi, so that night they received the intercepted letter sent back by Zhao Yun in Heyang County.

Liu Bei showed the letter to Zhuge Liang with a relaxed look, and asked casually, "Cao has given up calling for help. How should our army use this information?"

Zhuge Liang didn't even think about it and suggested directly: "Since Chang'an City has been besieged, it will definitely take time to prepare for the siege. We have nothing to do during this period of time, so why not force the surrounding counties to surrender directly?

If you encounter someone who might refuse to surrender, don't try to persuade them, so as not to alert them. You can release false military intelligence to lure them to rescue Chang'an, and then annihilate them in a field battle. With the current morale of Cao's army, they can't hold out in a field battle for long, so you don't need to kill too many people to force them to surrender. "

Liu Bei also agreed with this. Before, Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei were busy blocking Chang'an and had no time to annihilate all the Cao troops outside. This ultimately laid hidden dangers for Liu Bei's army's long-term siege, and the food routes were easily disturbed.

Now that the time-saving work has been completed, it would be beneficial to have nothing else to do, and it would be beneficial to kill more of the remaining enemies.

Moreover, as long as we annihilate more peripheral enemy troops, capture their generals, or get their heads, we can go to Chang'an City and shout to let the defenders of Chang'an know that they have no external aid. This will make the final siege easier.

The Zhuge brothers were very clear about one thing: judging from Cao Cao's letter, Cao Cao himself really did not put any hope on his own troops in the surrounding areas to come back for rescue, and did not want them to die in vain.

But just because Cao Cao himself thought so doesn't mean that his subordinates didn't care.

In order to maintain the morale of the troops defending Chang'an City, Cao Cao must have kept the news that "I will not allow friendly troops around to return to rescue the king" a secret from his own people, because as soon as this news was leaked, the ordinary soldiers in Chang'an City would immediately become uneasy.

Even the false emperor doesn't care whether anyone comes to rescue him or not, so why should these low-level soldiers fight to the death?

After Liu Bei figured it out, he immediately approved Zhuge Liang's plan, and the whole army carried it out step by step. In the following days, Liu Bei ordered Zhang Fei to continue to consolidate the camp outside Chang'an, build blockades and siege weapons, and prepare for the siege. At the same time, he divided his troops to intimidate and force the counties to surrender.

More than half of the counties in Zuo Fengyi surrendered immediately.

These counties originally had only a few hundred to thousands of defenders. Now that they know Cao Cao has lost confidence in defending Chang'an and have been told not to rescue it, why are they still insisting on opposing Liu Bei?
As for Cao Cao's expectation that they "do not go to Chang'an to die, but go to Chencang and Longxi, and continue to work for the Cao family outside the encirclement", at least eight out of ten normal people would not respond.

As a result, Liu Bei forced the surrender of more than 10,000 Cao troops without bloodshed, further greatly weakening Cao Cao.

In the end, only Linjin, which had served as Sima Yi and Le Jin's base from the beginning, and Tongguan in Huayin in the south were still being defended.

However, Le Jin had no intention of leaving the city to stop Liu Bei, nor did he want to surrender voluntarily. He seemed to be watching the war in Chang'an, and wanted to decide his future after the outcome of the war in Chang'an.

Liu Bei immediately noticed Le Jin's gesture. Liu Bei asked Zhuge Liang to interpret it, and Zhuge Liang speculated:

"Le Jin was probably worried about his reputation and didn't want to be the one who surrendered voluntarily, so he was waiting for Cao Cao to die. After Cao Cao died, he had no one to be loyal to. Even if Cao Pi was the fake emperor now, he could surrender to our army.

In Le Jin's view, what he adhered to was not loyalty to the pseudo-dynasty, but loyalty to Cao Cao for thirty years. With Cao Cao's death, this private loyalty no longer existed. "

Liu Bei nodded and said, "That's easy. Sir, do you have a way to lure Le Jin back to rescue Chang'an, or give Le Jin an order to move his troops to Chencang to join Cao Pi? Then, our army can intercept him halfway."

Zhuge Liang thought for a moment and said, "Actually, this is both easy and difficult. It is very difficult to deceive Le Jin perfectly, but in the current situation, Le Jin may just be doing it for the sake of face, so it depends on whether he is willing to believe it."

Liu Bei also thought that this was most likely the case, so he continued to execute the plan.

Another day later, Le Jin in Linjin City received a letter for help from a messenger. The handwriting was similar to Cao Cao's own, but the seal and other items were obviously not forged perfectly.

If you look carefully, you can see it.

But after Le Jin looked at it, he didn't see it. As to whether it was because of poor eyesight or he deliberately didn't see it, only God knows.

After reading it, Le Jin decided to obey the order, so he took more than 10,000 people out of the city at night, intending to return to the west as required.

In the middle of the night, he was very worried about encountering an enemy ambush on the way.

But in the end, nothing happened, and we kept marching until almost dawn.

"Is it really His Majesty's will that I go to Chencang to pledge my loyalty to the young master? But even if so, how could Liu Bei's army be so lax in their defense? Even if they had not had time to divide their troops and surround Linjin in the past few days, it would not be possible that they did not notice anything until I left the city in the middle of the night." Le Jin couldn't help but think to himself,
Until this moment, he still believed in his heart that Cao Cao was "Your Majesty" and Cao Pi was just "Young Master", even though Cao Pi had already succeeded to the throne.

However, just when Le Jin was confused and puzzled, the second shoe finally dropped, and he no longer had to worry.

On the way ahead, a large number of Liu Bei's cavalry suddenly appeared, led by Zhao Yun, who formed a wing-like shape and half-surrounded Le Jin's front.

"Why didn't you surrender earlier? You have been surrounded by my army in Chang'an. You can only send someone to deliver a letter to you with the permission of my Minister of the Interior and Lord Ling. You have no hope!"

Le Jin sighed. He still had to save his face, so he could only hope that Zhao Yun would play in harmony.

So he rode out of the crowd and challenged Zhao Yun to a duel: "Zhao Yun! You are also a big shot. I heard that you never bully the weak. Our army is only over 10,000 people and is already exhausted. I can't bear to let them lose more lives.

Although you have many soldiers today, if you insist on forcing our army into a corner, it will only lead to more killings and you will inevitably suffer heavy casualties - are you willing to fight me alone? If I win, you will let us go back!"

Zhao Yun was not worried that Le Jin was trying to cheat, and he saw that Le Jin had already stepped out of the crowd and was hundreds of steps ahead of his own army. Zhao Yun thought to himself: This guy must be just as Kong Ming expected, looking for a way out. I just need to be careful and it won't hurt to fight him a little. If he really has other intentions, our army is all cavalry, and the enemy is just infantry. Wouldn't it be easy to kill him with all our strength?
Thinking of this, Zhao Yun agreed.

At that moment, the two of them moved far away from the main camp, and in full view of the soldiers of both armies, they began to confront each other politely.

Lian Doujiang's fighting style was also to cross horses and fight each other for a while, then immediately pull away, turn around and charge again, without even any continuous fighting.

This kind of scene can even make onlookers wonder if they have traveled back to the classical era when etiquette and laws still existed.

"Dang~Dang~Dang~" After three rounds of weapons collision, when Zhao Yun and Le Jin collided again in the fourth round, Zhao Yun finally increased his strength, and Le Jin was knocked off his horse. He rolled away the force and was not seriously injured.

Apparently, he had prepared to remove his feet from the metal stirrups before falling off the horse.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have rolled down so smoothly, and it wouldn't have even been able to dissipate the force to protect itself like a professional football player who fakes a fall.

"Le Jin has been captured by me! Why don't you surrender quickly!" Zhao Yun shouted loudly, and with a wave of his spear, the cavalry guards behind him immediately came over and politely tied up Le Jin.

For opponents who play with tacit understanding just for the sake of face, we still need to give them full face and treatment. If we continue to beat, scold, and kill them, we will lose our credibility.

Cao's army was indeed in chaos, and Zhao Yun took advantage of the situation and rushed forward. Except for a very few stubborn officers who did not understand the situation, the rest of Cao's army surrendered one after another.

Zhao Yun killed and wounded only a few hundred people, but captured more than 10,000 enemy troops.

In the following days, Liu Bei's army followed the same pattern in the direction of Tongguan.

Regardless of whether the enemy believes it or not, we should pretend to deceive them first and give them a way out. We will make them feel that they were "captured after a fierce battle" rather than surrendering, which will also ensure our reputation in history books.

There was nothing to be desired in "loyalty", as they were officials of the pseudo-dynasty. Cao Cao was a thief who usurped the Han Dynasty and was killed by the Han. So all these people could ask for was a reputation of "righteousness", emphasizing that they would not betray their old friends and old leaders.

This trick really worked. Following the opportunity offered by Zhuge Liang, the commander of Tongguan also took the opportunity to go down the stairs and pretended to send troops to rescue Chang'an. Then he was intercepted halfway and was "captured after a fierce battle". No one died in the whole process.

Huang Zhong's army also successfully entered the Guanzhong Plain through Tongguan, joined forces with Liu, Guan and Zhang, and opened up an alternative passage.

In less than ten days, Cao's army lost a total of 20,000 to 30,000 people, and most of them were forced to surrender, with only one-tenth being killed.

During these ten days, Zhang Fei also made some siege equipment, especially a large number of bulldozers, and filled some gaps in the moat of Chang'an, so he could soon start the assault.

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PS: The siege battle will not take long to write, it will be resolved in the first update tomorrow.

Cao Cao's death and its impact will be discussed in another chapter. I think it can be regarded as the end of the treacherous hero and cannot be shrugged off too hastily.

(End of this chapter)