In July 218, after Liu Bei ascended the throne of Hanzhong, Guan Yu became the head of Liu Bei's former generals and military generals.
Not long after becoming the head of the military generals, Guan Yu left Nan Commandery Taishou Mi Fang to guard Jiangling, sent the general Fu Shiren to guard the public security, and personally led the main force of the Jingzhou army north to attack Lü Chang in Xiangyang and Cao Ren in Fancheng.
The siege battle was not smooth at first, but the rain of more than ten days in a row finally allowed Guan Yu to seize the opportunity.
Guan Yu took advantage of the surge in the Han River to first flood the Seventh Army to disperse the main force of the Cao Army, and then attacked it by boat, forcing Yu Ban to surrender and capturing Pound.
(Guan Yu flooded the Seventh Army)
In October of the same year, Countless people, including Sun Wolf, of Lu Hunmin, who was controlled by Cao Wei, began to rebel and echo Guan Yu.
For a time, countless mountain thieves south of Xu Du accepted Guan Yu's seal and became Guan Yu's henchmen. Even Hu Xiu of Jingzhou and Fu Fang of Nanxiang, who were sent by Cao Wei, defected to Guan Yu.
All this made Guan Yu wei shock Huaxia.
So was Guan Yu wei just because he fought a victorious battle against the flooded Seventh Army? The answer is right, but not comprehensive.
Before Guan Yu's Northern Expedition, Cao Cao had just experienced the tug-of-war of the Battle of Hanzhong, and the battle was not won, not to mention, it also made Cao Wei's army demoralized and suffered heavy losses.
In the Battle of Hanzhong, Cao Cao lost his left and right arms, Xiahou Yuan, and tens of thousands of elite divisions.
The follow-up Cao Cao did not succeed Liu Bei, and when he withdrew from Hanzhong, he was chased and beaten by Liu Bei, so that many people surrendered to Liu Bei. For example, Wang Ping, who was famous for Liu Bei's forces in the later period, was Liu Bei who surrendered at that time.
A series of defeats at the Battle of Hanzhong, as well as the loss of military generals, demoralized Cao Cao's army.
(Decisive Battle of Hanzhong)
Subsequently, Guan Yu's Northern Expedition began, and the Cao army, which was fought at the Battle of Xiangfan, once again lost its troops.
According to records, during the Battle of Xiangfan, the Cao army on the front line had about 30,000 people in the Seventh Army of the Forbidden Army, and these 30,000 people were flooded by Guan Yu's water, plus the troops of Pound De who were killed.
In total, the Battle of Hanzhong lost 40,000 to 50,000 elite people, the Battle of Xiangfan lost more than 40,000 people, and Cao Cao's army lost at least 80,000 or more.
Because the real history is not like the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, there are hundreds of thousands of troops easily.
After experiencing the wars and turmoil of the three kingdoms at the end of the Han Dynasty, the human resources at that time were already scarce resources, and it was very likely that the force would lose 70,000 or 80,000 soldiers and horses at once.
In addition, the strategic pattern of Cao Cao's forces also made his troops scattered and his strength was not captured.
(Cao Cao needed to lay out multiple defensive lines)
As the biggest force at that time, he also had the most enemies.
To the northeast, there was Gongsun of Liaodong, a local force with 80,000 or 90,000 troops.
To the southeast, there was Sun Quan of Eastern Wu, a separatist force with an army of more than 100,000.
In the direction of Hanzhong, there is an old enemy Liu Bei, who has just finished a battle and is committed to finding opportunities to strike a fatal blow.
Throughout the north, there were countless foreign races, and this group of people were watching Cao Cao's moves, and if there was any sign of weakness, they would take the opportunity to attack.
Being attacked on all sides is the current situation of Cao Cao, and these places also need to be garrisoned with troops, so that Cao Cao, who seems to have a big family, also loses sight of one or the other.
This is also why the soldiers and horses led by Xu Huang, the veteran general who rescued Fancheng, were actually the reason for the new army that had just been formed. The mobile troops were insufficient, and the local garrison troops could not move, so they could only let the newly formed new army come out.
Huang Suo will be a new pawn, with Yu Nan and the battle, and then go to Yangling Pi tun. - "Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Biography of Xu Huang"
After Xu Huang led his troops to Fancheng, although he blocked Guan Yu's attack, it had little impact on the overall situation, because Guan Yu's water superiority made Xu Huang completely unable to cope, and could only continue to hold on, unable to counterattack.
(Cao Cao's boldness is no longer)
You know, when Cao Cao was only a few months away from his death.
A dying person has long lost the vigor and courage he once had.
Leading the army to march in person was no longer the choice of Cao Cao, who was about to die, so Cao Cao could only choose a conservative strategy.
How to be a conservative law? There are two ways.
First, the capital was moved to avoid Guan Yu's soldiers.
Second, unite with Eastern Wu Sun Quan to attack Guan Yu.
The first way is to avoid its sharp edge and exchange space for time, but the loss is huge.
The second way is a conspiracy and trickery, exchanging Liu Bei's territory for temporary peace.
In fact, these two ways are helpless actions for Cao Cao, who is interested in unifying the world, but cao Cao is dying at any time, and he can't afford to toss it.
What he wanted most was not the world, but how to smoothly hand over power to his son.
In other words, if Cao Cao's health was not so bad, or a few years younger, he would not have chosen so.
On the contrary, just like when he was young, he would pick up the soldiers and horses to go to the front line to confront Guan Yu.
If this is the case, it is unknown whether Guan Yu can still threaten Huaxia.
Unfortunately, history has no ifs, and Sun Quan obediently sneaked up on Guan Yu behind his back, allowing Cao Cao to survive the biggest crisis in his life.
(Surviving the Crisis)
According to records, Guan Yu's forward forces had already attacked as far as Yingchuan County.
During the Three Kingdoms period, the county was roughly the county under the jurisdiction of today's Pingdingshan City in Henan, and the distance from Xudu (present-day Xuchang City) at that time was 76.3 kilometers.
According to the ancient marching speed, in about half a day, Guan Yu's soldiers and horses could reach Xuchang.
It's a very close distance.
(Distance from Yuxian to Xuchang)
Because of this, when Cao Ren proposed to retreat from Fancheng, the reason for Man's resolute opposition appeared, according to Man's statement, if we could no longer resist Guan Yu in Fancheng, all the places south of the Huai River would be lost.
Ren Yue: Today's danger is not supported by force. Can reach the feather fence is not closed, take a light boat night walk, although the city is lost, can still be full body. Favor: Wen Yu sent generals who were already under the command of Yu, south of Xu, and the people were disturbed, so Yu did not dare to enter, for fear that our army would attack his back ear. If you go away now, south of the Honghe River, the non-restored countries will also have it; it is advisable to treat it. - Romance of the Three Kingdoms
If Guan Yu had not been secretly attacked by Sun Quan, but had successfully taken the south of the Huai River from the north of Yu County, what would have happened to the Three Kingdoms?
If such a thing really happened, then Cao Cao's choice must be to retreat to the Henan region and lay out a defensive line to protect the core area of northern Hebei.
And Sun Quan and Liu Bei, if the alliance relationship is not broken, Liu Bei will smoothly occupy guanzhong and Huainan regions,
Subsequently, Sun Liu and Liu would compete for spheres of influence in the four prefectures of Yu, Yan, Qing, and Xu, and then begin to fight for it.
If things really develop like this, then the once-strong Cao Cao forces will become similar to Sun Quan's Liu Bei forces, and the original pattern of one super and two strong forces of the three parties will become a real three-legged stand.
(Wu Guo decided on the trend of the Three Kingdoms)
First, Cao Cao was conservative to the end and took the initiative to withdraw.
Second, Sun Quan did not sneak attack and cooperated with the attack.
Third, Guan Yu continued to win, and Liu Bei cooperated.
After the above analysis, looking at Guan Yu's Northern Expedition, his mighty Earthquake Huaxia is absolutely full of gold content, not boasting.