Volume 5: Overlord of the Sea Chapter 614: Terrifying the Three Qins
It is said that Guan Yu had just learned that something had happened in Chang'an, but before the news of Liu Bei's death had spread, he had already ordered his troops to march eastward.
After all, if Liu Bei was unfortunately killed, Guan Yu would definitely take revenge, and if Liu Bei was temporarily safe, he could move eastward to make the rebels in Chang'an afraid to act rashly.
While Guan Yu thought he had "persuaded" Liu Ji in a very straightforward manner, he led his troops eastward, aiming at Chang'an!
Zhuge Liang tried to persuade them but to no avail, so he had to follow the army. The 30,000 Qi troops and tens of thousands of Qiang cavalry marched down the Wei River in a mighty force...
That is, the troops sent by the Western Liang Army when they had "cooperated" with Ma Chao before.
Originally, what Zhuge Liang and Ma Chao discussed was that Ma Chao would nominally submit to the Marquis of Qi and occupy Hanzhong together with the Qi army. After that, the Qi army would advance eastward into Guanzhong with Hanzhong as a backup, while Ma Chao would attack Hetao. During this period, Hanzhong would also serve as Ma Chao's backup granary.
If Ma Chao takes Hetao first, the Marquis of Qi and Ma Chao will claim the throne against each other. If the Marquis of Qi takes Guanzhong first, he will cooperate with Ma Chao in conquering Hetao, and Ma Chao will also be the King of Liang of the Han Dynasty in the future!
Of course, it is not as simple as "persuasion". In fact, Zhuge Liang also analyzed the pros and cons for Ma Chao, and made a bet between Guan Yu and Ma Chao on a battle, which was considered to temporarily "conquer" Ma Chao.
However, although Ma Chao has the heart of a warrior, he is also an ambitious person. Even though he does not have the thick skin and black heart of the first-line princes, he is by no means upright.
After learning that something had happened to the Marquis of Qi, Ma Chao naturally returned to his hometown to prepare to completely subdue Longyou, and most of the previous agreements were invalidated.
But it was still reasonable. Besides, Liu Bei was not necessarily in danger, so Ma Chao still allocated tens of thousands of Qiang cavalry to the Qi army.
Of course, this is the kind that has no "after-sales" service. Whether restrained depends on Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang themselves!
One is one of the Ten Sages of the Temple of Martial Arts, and the other is the Martial Saint. Even though the Qi army itself does not have an advantage, it is enough to show its style and momentum.
However, within a few days, news of the death of the Duke of Qi spread. The morale of the Qi army was inevitably affected, and the Qiang cavalry also showed signs of instability.
At first, Zhuge Liang naturally wanted to withdraw to Chencang immediately, but Guan Yu naturally refused.
At the same time, Zhuge Liang also discovered that as long as he did not ask Guan Yu to retreat, Guan Yu would generally be able to listen to his advice.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang did not go against Guan Yu, so as not to anger Guan Yu, who was already trying his best to suppress his anger. If Guan Yu completely ignored his advice and acted on his own, this isolated army would only be in greater danger!
A group of 30,000 mournful soldiers and 10,000 Qiang cavalrymen who were not loyal to the cause, but it was Zhuge Liang's strategy and Guan Yu's military tactics...
At this time, Guan Yu also applied the principle of "accumulating momentum" in martial arts to the use of troops. Relying on the rhythm of several moderate victories and minor defeats, he pushed the originally scattered morale of the army towards the direction of "crying for the soldiers".
However, a few days later, news came that Chencang had been lost...
After Liu Ji forcefully declared himself the heir to the throne of Duke of Qi, the army's morale was shaken again upon learning that their retreat was cut off!
In fact, Zhuge Liang was also helpless at the time - before the expedition, Zhuge Liang suggested that Guan Yu be given a title, or recognized as Liu Ji's successor, as a way of appeasement.
Although it was not known at that time whether Liu Bei had encountered any danger, on the one hand, Liu Ji was needed to guard the rear while people were in turmoil, and on the other hand...if Liu Bei really had an accident, Liu Ji would either kill him quickly or make him the successor!
Who knew that Guan Yu would be so confident, thinking that "we have communicated in a manly way" and Liu Ji must have understood... But Liu Ji did not accept it at all and just thought that Guan Yu was being arrogant.
Well, if it were Zhuge Liang, he would actually think that Guan Yu’s way of communication was problematic!
However, even though his retreat was cut off, Guan Yu still did not give up advancing eastward. Through the military strategy of "accumulating momentum", he forced his way back again.
Although there is still an impact, it will not lead to a complete collapse.
Zhuge Liang's strategies were all linked together. Even if there were some minor setbacks and failures, the damage was not serious and there was still room for improvement.
Especially after Guan Yu successfully "built up his strength" and formed the momentum of a desperate army, he fought three battles and won three victories in Wugong, Huaili, Pingling... even though his retreat was cut off and his lord was dead, and he killed his way to Chang'an!
It can be said that if Guan Yu was willing to "turn back" and had this kind of performance, he would have recaptured Chencang long ago ...
From the time the court officially announced Liu Bei's death and even specially notified Chen Cang, to the time when the State of Chu met Liu Bei in Hanzhong and then persuaded Liu Ji in Chen Cang, the period was only seven days.
However, it took twelve days for Liu Ji to send an urgent letter to Guan Yu until Guan Yu received it...
On the one hand, although the Han emperor left Xudu and moved west, the court re-managed Guanzhong, but the traces of the ravages by the Western Liang army were still there, and the official roads were inevitably neglected, especially Guan Yu's journey was full of swords and sabers...
On the other hand, it was also because Guan Yu fought too fast!
Although he was delivering a letter, he chased the soldiers all the way, and finally delivered the urgent letter to Guan Yu in Pingling City.
…
On the other hand, when Guan Yu reached Wugong County, Pengcheng had nominally surrendered to Chu, and the Chu army had already begun to move north to station there - because they had to guard against Cao Cao's southward advance, the Chu State had no time to "show trust and postpone troop movements", and instead directly took over Xuzhou!
At the same time, Zhang Fei also led his troops westward...
In fact, purely from the perspective of the State of Chu, the first priority at this time should be to use the strength of Xuzhou to support Qingzhou as soon as possible and guard against Cao Cao going south to seize the Central Plains.
However, for Zhang Fei, the most important thing was to attack westwards and capture Xu County and deploy troops at Hulao Pass - it was easy to imagine that his second brother must have already led his troops to Chang'an!
In this case, for Guan Yu's safety, Zhang Fei had to prepare for a pincer attack first.
It can be said that the reason why Zhang Fei was able to return to Chu smoothly was because of Liu Bei's presence in Chu and the brotherhood between Zhang Fei and Liu Bei.
If Zhang Fei was stopped from rescuing Guan Yu at this time, even if Zhang Fei did not rebel, he would definitely harbor resentment and would most likely use force on his own.
Therefore, Bai Tu did not argue with him and directly gave Zhang Fei the military order to march west to Xu County.
When Guan Yu reached Pingling and received Liu Ji's urgent letter, Zhang Fei had already pushed forward to Hulao Pass.
During this period, the Marquis of Zheng was obviously withdrawing his troops, which made Zhang Fei increasingly uneasy.
As for Yang Feng, Marquis of Sai, he had already withdrawn from Xu County and joined Marquis of Zheng in Guanzhong... In fact, his troops had almost been swallowed up by Sima Yi!
Thanks to his personal relationship with Zhang Yan, he was not abandoned.
At Hulao Pass, Zhang Fei not only had to face the danger and strength of the pass, but the State of Wei also sent troops from Henei to try to share the pressure.
Bai Tu then basically confirmed that Sima Yi should have informed Cao Cao of the action in Chang'an in advance, rather than contacting Cao Cao after the success.
However... it shouldn't be too early, otherwise Cao Cao would have been more unrestrained. It is very likely that it was controlled during the New Year and Cao Cao just happened to know about it!
At the same time, Sima Yi also watched step by step, Guan Yu and Zhuge Liang had already "entered the pocket"...
