Wang Fang, with bloodstains on his face and thousands of remnants who had successfully retreated, retreated back to the town of Mei County, gasping for breath. Faced with Li Bie's anxious question about the enemy situation, he could only choose to complain and ask questions or simply exaggerate the enemy situation.

"Major General Li! It would be nice if I could come back alive! Who knows how Lei Xu is doing? It's probably a lot of danger. Anyway, when I retreated, the Beiyuan Wei Bridge had been burned by Guan Yu. What can I do? I'm also very desperate.

You are really anxious, and you know everything just by dawn. I can save these seven or eight thousand people and retreat to the city. I have fought to the death with bloody battles. The enemy's night attack troops are at least 50,000, and even more. I was killed by Guan Yu's army several times more than me on the north bank. I killed dozens of enemy soldiers and fought with Guan Yu several times. You looked at several sword wounds."

Wang Fang was crying, making Li Bei embarrassed to pursue his abandoned army and escape. Besides, Wang Fang's 10,000 troops in Beiyuan Beizhai had escaped more than two-thirds of them. The damage to the war and the captive surrender were only two or three thousand, which was considered a hard work.

If Wang Fang hadn't been smart and sold his teammates decisively, and would have turned around to deal with him after Guan Yu broke through Lei Xu's fortifications in Weinan, he would not have escaped.

As for the blood on Wang Fang's face, it was actually not dry when he entered the city. It was because he had some bloody makeup before seeing Li Bei that he had been sorely he had some bloody makeup before.

The knife wound was real. There were indeed two wounds that were neither deep nor shallow, but Guan Yu did not cut it. They were both injured when Wang Fang was fighting with soldiers in the camp. After being cut through the iron armor by the Mass Sword, the remaining force was not weakened. From beginning to end, Wang Fang was not approached by Guan Yu to less than ten steps, otherwise he would have been unable to come back tonight.

Li Bian could no longer ask anything, so he had to sigh sadly: "Oh, how could the enemy army think of this kind of vicious plan, taking a boat from the Wei River to attack Beiyuanqiao Village, and directly hit our army's emptiness?

No, a few days ago, you sent someone to Chen Cang to investigate and arrested a few prisoners. Didn’t the torture say that Liu Bei’s army lacked boats and rafts? Although the Western Han Dynasty waters were diverted, the flow was very small, which was far from the Wei River. Even the water volume was smaller than that of Wugong water, making it difficult to mobilize ships. How could Liu Bei transport tens of thousands of people at one time in just a few days and transported Guan Yu’s entire army to attack?”

Wang Fang's face turned red, and he realized that he had exaggerated the enemy's situation and shirked responsibility. He quickly diverted his attention with the mud: "Hi, how can you see clearly in the dark fire? Even if there is no 50,000, there will definitely be 30,000 to 40,000. The Major General is now the time to retreat to the enemy together, so why should he take credit for the rewards and make those who fight to the death feel disappointed?"

Li Bie also realized that his major general's signature was used to being used to it, and it was indeed out of place: "Forget it, try to find a way to gather the defeated soldiers, send elite cavalry teams, and search along Weibei. Maybe there are soldiers who are swimming north, and if they can, they can save some.

It would be too bad that Guan Yu and Zhao Yun would take the opportunity to land on the shore to attack the city, so as to block it from half the crossing. General Wang has worked hard and is still injured. I will take on the heavy responsibility of patrolling the river personally."

Wang Fang was completely relieved.

Li Bie brought more than 3,000 cavalrymen in the town of Mei County. He did not dare to slack off in the entire Fourth and Fifth Centenniums, so he tied up a rope to patrol and guard the north bank of the Wei River. It was not until dawn that he found that the Han army on the south bank focused on slaughtering Lei Xu and had no intention of crossing north and advancing together, so he breathed a sigh of relief.

He also received one or two thousand swim-fighting soldiers overnight. After returning to the city, he counted the troops. The total number of 35,000 defenders of the Youfufeng Xiliang army was left, with only 18,000 people left, and half of the troops were destroyed in the middle of the night.

There are four camps in Weinan and Weibei, and Ma Chao's camps were all destroyed and taken away. Liu Bei's army's sphere of influence south of the Wei River further expanded to the east of the Wugong Water. It is estimated that from Wugong County, south of Meiyang County, to the location where Luogu Water was injected into the Wei River, the entire Weinan to the west was Liu Bei's controlled area.

There are also fertile plains between Wugong Water and Luogu Water, about twenty miles wide from north to south and nearly a hundred miles long from east to east. They are all fields that were not affected by the war and fully plowed on time. Now they are all controlled by Liu Bei. If they can be held until autumn, the harvested food will be enough to completely feed Liu Bei's army, and there will be no need to use Western Han water grain from Chencang Road to transport grain from the Western Han Dynasty.

Of course, all this is based on the premise of normal year and scenery. Li Bei is not a prophet. He would not know that there will be a severe drought and a major locust plague and earthquake in Guanzhong this year. At most, it only happened that it had not rained continuously since the recent days. In fact, the rain that started in late February was cut off for four months in history, and it was only half a month before the autumn harvest ended, and there were only a few heavy rains.

In other words, the crops in Guanzhong area had a growth period of more than five months. In 194, only a few rains fell in just over half a month after they had just been sown. Finally, a few rains fell before the autumn harvest, and nothing was in between.

Li Bei only knew that Liu Bei had gained a foothold and advanced a big step forward. Moreover, Zhang Ji's direct troops had already been packaged with two dumplings, leaving only ten thousand people who were far away from Wuwei's nephew Zhang Xiu, and nothing else was left.

At this moment of the war, it was avenged that Zhang Ji had pursued Liu Bei in Wuzhangyuan two years ago. Except for Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu, the generals under Zhang Ji had no longer had a living.

Li Bo spent a day anxiously gathering the remaining troops and sorting out the situation. Then, on the evening of the 23rd, he sent scouts out of the city overnight and went north to inform Li Jue of the battle situation on the southern front.

The reason why he left the city at night was that he was afraid that Liu Bei would act quickly and surrounded Mei County, so that he could not even break through during the day.

Fortunately, this situation did not happen in fact, because Liu Bei was not in a hurry to let Zhao Yun surround and intercept him. Instead, Ma Chao and his cavalry took the fertile land along Weinan to protect the people and safeguard the people, spread rumors to Chang'an and launch propaganda offensives. At the same time, it also further investigated the scale and reaction of the troops in Mei County.

Li's envoy ran north because his uncle Li Jue had now left Chang'an and took him and Duan Wei's main force upstream along the Jing River, marched from the Loess Plateau, and went back to Linjing County, Anding County.

According to the original plan, the nearly 100,000 troops sent by Chang'an would arrive in Jingyang and Huating in early March, and then launch a fierce attack on Jieting. Cooperate with Guo Si who was fighting back from Tianshui and Longxi to open Jieting, and then cross the river to the river in Longshan Valley. Then, follow the river in the Longshan Valley and go straight to Chencang, gathering superior forces to fight against Liu Bei.

It is February 23rd, and it will take a day or two for the messenger to arrive, so according to February 25th, Li Jue should have arrived in Linjing.

...

Li Bie was not wrong. His messenger walked to the north for a day and a half and rushed two hundred miles. When he arrived in Linjing County, Li Jue's troops happened to be stationed in Linjing County. He stayed overnight and was about to set off again and march slowly to Jingyang.

Before the departure in the morning, Li Jue received a messenger from his nephew and attached great importance to it. He checked the sealing wax and then opened it immediately to take a closer look.

"Liu Bei actually defeated the four villages in Weinan and Weibei in the middle of the night and annihilated half of our army's defenders in Youfufeng? Now only 18,000 people remain to defend Ji County. When the messenger set off, Ji County had not been surrounded, so I don't know now?"

Li Jue was as if he was poured on a basin of ice water on his head, and his whole body trembled. He immediately called Li Ru, a counselor, to discuss together.

"Wenyou, look, you said that our army and Guo Aduo agreed on a date, attack Jieting, fight the passage and road together, and then gain the advantage of the upstream, and fight Liu Bei along the river along the river. But now, Liu Bei has already taken action first to deal with the partial army that we restrained him. Should we go and rescue him?

Even if our army takes back Guo Adu and Zhang Xiu, there are only 80,000 troops, but if all 35,000 people in Ji County are destroyed, it will be a major blow. The more we gather our troops, the weaker we will be."

Li Ru didn't react for a moment. After listening to it, he ordered to take the map and carefully gesture. After planning, he said worriedly:

"This time we go to Ji County, we have to turn to the south and go down the Loess Plateau. The journey is 200 miles. It takes three days for the army to go faster, and four days if it is slower. This time we go to Jieting, we are only 200 miles west, and we can reach it in three to four days.

Since that's the case, how can our army turn back? And the accounts cannot be settled like this. Li Bie's letter said that the 17,000 people in the four villages in Weibei and Weinan have been destroyed, and now there are only 18,000 people in the city of Ji County. Even if we go, we will only save this 18,000 people, how can we compare with Guo Si and Zhang Xiu's 80,000 people."

The horse entered the trench and could not turn back.

Li Jue made a decision: "Since this is the case, don't hesitate and speed up the march. Be sure to arrive at Huating for three days. If you take a break, let the entire army resist Fengxian and attack Jieting. You can also send cavalry forward and test it first. If the defense is strong, wait for the infantry brigade to arrive and take action together."

Li Ru reminded: "You can't be impatient. We agreed with Guo Aduo that five days later, we will accelerate the march, but we cannot notify them to accelerate. At that time, the first day of attacking Jieting will only have the offensive in the east. If we can't attack forward and back, we may only increase casualties and cannot break them.

I am worried now that Liu Bei will continue to advance along Weinan and threaten Chang'an. I am not afraid of attacking Chang'an directly in military terms. After all, I still have martial arts, including Meiyang, Huaili, and Xiliu. The fortress must be broken through before I can reach Chang'an, two hundred and sixty miles away.

I am afraid that the Chang'an court will be unstable. What if the ministers and ministers heard that Liu Bei was in Chencang and Ji County won a lot of victory, and the soldiers forced Wugong, Huaili, and Chang'an City were in chaos, and then they colluded with the remaining old subordinates of the Five Northern Army Clans, what should I do?"

When Li Jue heard this question, he showed a grim smile: "I'm not worried about this! Since I dared to lead the army in person, I was certainly prepared. I insisted on forcing Duan Zhongming to bring his more than 30,000 troops to come with me, but I was worried that he would stay in Chang'an with the Han Dynasty.

Now there is no prestigious veteran in Chang'an City to raise his arms and shout. I left more than 10,000 direct troops to defend the city, and there were also new recruits who were forcibly recruited after the spring plowing ended. And let Li Ying take the palace guards himself, so he would not give the chance to the ministers. If those people were seeking death, I would like to see if their tablets could fight against our swords and guns!

Even if Liu Bei really ignored it and attacked Chang'an with force, I also told Li Ying a final plan to remove the firewood from the cauldron: at worst, let him hold the emperor hostage and put his sword on the emperor's neck and escort the city tower to see if Liu Bei dares to attack the city! Let's just say clearly that as long as Liu Bei dares to attack the city, he will kill the emperor with his own hands!"

Li Ru was shocked when he heard this, but he calmed down immediately, thinking that it was no big deal - he personally urged the deposed emperor to kill King Hongnong, and he didn't blink if he killed the deposed emperor, let alone just threatening the emperor hostage.

It has to be said that history is influenced by the butterfly effect here again. Originally, after the internal strife between Li and Guo Si in 194, Li and Guo Si kidnapped the emperor, and Guo Si kidnapped all officials and attacked and killed each other, and countless officials died. Emperor Xian designed to lure Li and Guo Si to promise him to move eastward, Li and Guo Si also repent and came to chase him.

In fact, during the entire Li Guo Rebellion, Li Jue and Guo Si had the intention to kill the emperor and wanted to kill the lord more than once. However, Jia Xu in history was not completely in the same way as Li Jue and Guo Si. He saw that Li Jue and Guo Si's sins were a big deal, and he was afraid that he would be a good person and peacemaker, and advised them several times to not massacre all officials or even kill the lord. In this way, Jia Xu could also use his "protective skills" to whitewash himself, and later he successfully defected to Cao Cao.

Otherwise, if Jia Xu had not had the credit of "secretly protecting the emperor when he wanted to move eastward", even if Cao Cao was so generous, he would not dare to take in the rebel Jia Xu.

But the problem is that what Jia Xu should beware of in this life is Liu Bei. He knew that Liu Bei would definitely not spare him, so he just wanted to either leave a way out to find a base, or find a way to join other princes who opposed Han and Liu. From beginning to end, he no longer cared about protecting the emperor, because he knew that false benevolence and righteousness could not atone for the emperor.

Without Jia Xu, a wise man who could stop him, Li Jue and Guo Si completely let go of the court and abuse the monarch and ministers, of course, they could do anything. They put a knife on Liu Xie's neck and threaten Liu Bei not to attack the city, and they could do it.

Li Ru didn't think this was wrong, so he just added a suggestion: "Since that's the case, Chang'an doesn't have to worry for the time being, so why not do this? After capturing Jieting and meeting Guo Aduo and Zhang Xiu, check if Wenhe has any military counselors.

If Wenhe comes back, he doesn't need to follow the army too many advisers, so he will go back to Chang'an and stay in the palace to help Li Ying monitor the court officials. I am afraid that Li Ying, a rough man, will be deceived by those cunning people, and will reveal his flaws."

Li Jue stroked his beard and nodded: "It makes sense. After taking down Jieting and joining Wenhe, I will send a fast ship to send you back to Chang'an along the Jing River."

...

Three days after that, there was nothing to say about the northern line. Li Jue and Liu Bei were like two hour hands that were six o'clock apart, and at the same time were circling the other side's back counterclockwise. Li Jue was in the north, west, and Liu Bei was in the south, east, and besieged Mei County at the same time.

However, the three days were very short, and the temporary construction of siege weapons was not so fast, so there was no risk of breaking through Mei County. Mei County did not have much food to be stored and Liu Bei did not want to fill in his life to attack.

For Liu Bei, as long as he surrounds Mei County, or at least with the help of the original external defense fortifications, the risk of occasionally leaving the city and harassing the Wei River transport channel is blocked, the risk of the capture of Mei County will not have much impact on whether Mei County will be captured.

The key is the smooth flow of the Wei River grain channel.

During these three days, Liu Bei was busy enclosing land and blocking it, and Li Su was not idle either. He asked many prisoners left by Lei Xu and confirmed how many troops each camp was before it was captured. Li Su also inspected the camps recaptured from the ruins and judged whether the enemy had any tricks of reducing troops and increasing stoves and setting up flags.

All observations and comparisons showed that Li Juejun had obvious bluffing.

Li Su immediately reported the result to Liu Bei: "King, Li Jue claimed that there were 50,000 defenders in Youfufeng in mid-February, and now there are 60,000 to 70,000, which is obviously a lie.

According to my review, there should be only 40,000 soldiers here, and the extra ones are bluffing. Now there should be less than 20,000 left in the city of Mei County. Seeing the large number of soldiers guarding the city walls, the extra ones are probably asking the people to stand up in the city to make up the numbers."

Liu Bei did not doubt this conclusion, but he was concerned about what it meant: "Li Jie bluffed, what is the plan?"

Li Su didn't answer for a moment, but Xun You next to him thought for a moment and interrupted: "Will it be another roundabout gathering and want to cut off our army's food route? In short, Li Jue would not sit idly by. He must be gathering troops and trying to attack the weak troops in the rear of our army.

Anyway, our army is not in a hurry to attack Ji County now, so it is better to be lighter in front and heavier in the back. The main force of General Guan gradually retreats back to Chencang, responding to changes in the same situation and is ready to support everywhere at any time. When Li Jue's main force appears, the truth will be revealed. It is not bad to let the soldiers run around for a hundred miles, and safety is the priority."

——

This update is more than 4,500... It's not an exaggeration to count as the fourth update today, and it's a total of 13,400 words.
Chapter completed!