This time, Guan Yu sent Zhuge Liang back to Chang'an to report his work and ask for credit, and asked the court to decide the next strategy.

Zhuge Liang was very careful in doing this: he was afraid that the subsequent discussion would be too long and the differences in group opinions would be difficult to decide, which would delay the fighter opportunity ahead.

Therefore, while he was returning to Chang'an from the Yewang front line, he asked Guan Yu to send troops and envoys to go south at the same time to inform Li Su, who was far away 1,500 miles away, hoping that Li Su could also react as soon as possible and report to Liu Bei's opinions secretly.

After all, Zhuge Liang was already very clear about how serious the Emperor trusted Li Shi. If he hadn't asked Li Su's opinion, Liu Bei would probably not be used to relying on Xun You, Zhong Yao and Zhuge Liang's opinions alone, and he would directly decide on such a major event.

Moreover, Zhuge Liang estimated that it was mid-September now, and the last battle between Li Su on the southern front against Sun Quan was probably already obvious. It was just that the journey was long and there was Yuan Shao's territory partition in the middle, and the news was not clear, so the generals of Liu Bei's army on the battlefield in Hebei did not know.

According to the current traffic conditions at that time, it was normal for Li Su to destroy Sun Quan on the first day of September and Guan Yu didn't know about it on September fifteenth.

At this time, I went to join Li Sutong. Maybe Li Su's army in the south would free up his hands to cooperate.

Guan Yu also deeply agreed with Zhuge Liang's request and felt it was very reasonable, so he spared no time and effort to send Li Su Kuaima a message at the same time.

Don’t underestimate the action of sending messengers to send messages. It’s also very expensive. It’s not just to send a few capable warriors, some fast horses.

Because if you follow the old path, Guan Yu's letter will be delivered to Li Su, at least it will be almost the end of September. You have to go back to Chang'an first, then go to Wuguan Road to Wancheng, Nanyang, and then to Jing in the south, Yang's hinterland.

In that case, what timeliness is there? It is equivalent to Zhuge Liang's arrival in Chang'an and the letter was sent south from Chang'an.

Therefore, Zhuge Liang suggested that Guan Yu take advantage of the restoration of Yewang, Huai County, Wen County, Pinggao and other places in Hanoi, and immediately divide his troops from Pinggao to Chenggao, the gateway east of Luoyang on the south bank of the Yellow River opposite.

At the same time, the troops were divided from Wen County to cross south, controlling the important Yellow River Ferry Crossing in Mengjin and Xiaopingjin on the north side of Luoyang on the other side.

In this way, the Han army could take advantage of the momentum of the revival of Hanoi to capture all three passes on the Yellow River in the north of the Eight Passes of Luoyang.

These passes may seem steep or important, but they are only aimed at the enemies attacking on the east and west sides. For the troops crossing the Yellow River from the north, these three passes have no defense.

Luoyang's troops had to defend against the enemy from the north, and could only hope to defeat the opponent's heavy troops in the field. This is why, in the early days of the Kanto princes in history, Dong Zhuo immediately took the initiative to send a large army to cross the Yellow River to kill Hanoi Wang Kuang after hearing that the Hanoi prefect Wang Kuang obeyed Yuan Shao's orders.

Because Dong Zhuo also knew that there was no danger between Hanoi and Luoyang. Only by killing Wang Kuang and swallowing Hanoi, pushing the defense line to the area of ​​Jixian Huixian (Xinxiang, Weihui) between Hanoi and Jizhou, and relying on the Heishan (Taihang Mountain) to defend the narrowest opening north of the Yellow River, can Luoyang's defense circle be stabilized.

Therefore, places like Hanoi and Hedong belong to Sili, not to foreign states. These places are all beautiful places around Luoyang, and an important part of the defense circle. When Hedong and Henoi belong to the enemy, the north side of Luoyang is in a state of opening the door.

Guan Yu now has 70,000 or 80,000 troops enclosing land in Hanoi. It may be difficult for them to continue to advance east from Huixian to Jizhou, but it is not difficult to divide 30,000 troops to cross the Yellow River south and occupy the three passes on the north side of Luoyang.

After missing these 30,000 people, Yuan Shao's main force who fled to Jizhou still did not dare to counterattack.

If Yuan Shao was willing to counterattack, then Guan Yu would be relieved. Maybe he would wake up in his dreams. He would not have to launch an offensive battle to annihilate the more than 200,000 remaining enemies, and send them to the door for free.

At the same time, the little force that Yuan Shao left in Luoyang to defend was not enough to threaten the 30,000 Guan Yu army that had crossed the river.

Even the Guan Yu army could continue to penetrate south in a big way. The 10,000 people who crossed the river from Xiaopingjin to the west could arrogantly penetrate the Hangu Pass and attack Hongnong's Liu Bei's army, and completely open Hangu Pass.

With the remaining 20,000 people, they can pass through Henan Yin as if they were in an uninhabited state, and go to any or several places in Yique Pass, Zhuyuan Pass, and Taigu Pass to the south. Together with the troops heading north from Gaoshun, Wancheng, they can also break through the pass through the inside and outside.

At that time, at least five passes around Luoyang will be captured by Liu Bei's army (all three passes in the north, three passes in the south, and at least one of the three passes in the south)

A strong city of Luoyang may not be able to be taken for a month or two, mainly because the troops that can temporarily free up their hands to enclose land are not more people than those of the defending troops. Even if a catapult smashes the city wall, it may not be able to be defeated.

However, the Yin area in Henan Province has become a turtle in the urn that is divided and surrounded. It is likely that it is two-thirds of the western part of Yin in Henan Province.

Because Liu Bei's army and Yuan and Cao's camp will be the natural dividing line in the Central Plains region within the next one or two years.

Liu Bei could not take over the quarter of the land outside Hulao Pass in the eastern part of Yin, Henan, even if Liu Bei swallowed it, even if he swallowed it, he would not be able to take over the counties east of Xingyang, including Jingxian, Juanxian, Yuanwu, Zhongmu, Sourju, Kaifeng, Wanling, and Xinzheng. These eight counties would definitely be occupied by the princes who owned Chenliu County.

Similarly, the three counties in the southeast corner of Yin in Henan, the three counties of Yangcheng, Yangdi and Mi County outside Songshan will be located at the source of the Yingshui River and are naturally close to Yingchuan County and are difficult to occupy.

The rest of the entire heart-shaped land wrapped in the Eight Passes of Luoyang can be pursued safely.

...

In order to open up the military information transmission channel of Guan Yu, he spent a lot of money. He sent a letter and brought an army of 30,000. Moreover, Guan Yu himself personally led his army to cross the Yellow River from Pinggao south, occupied Chenggao, and threatened Luoyang.

The Yellow River, which was crossing September 16th, took two days to completely carve a passage on the Yiluo Plain and arrive at Yique Pass. The troops left by Yuan Shao's army around Luoyang did not dare to fight at all, but just shrank and guarded the cities everywhere.

There were no famous generals in the local defenders. Except for Hangu Pass and Luoyang City, which were still quite strong and had Yuan Shao’s loyal and direct troops, many other places were the surrendered generals from Yuan Shu’s camp who came to Yuan Shao’s place. The combat effectiveness was vulnerable and his morale was depressed.

After Guan Yu arrived at Yique Pass, he first asked Wang Ping's small number of elite soldiers to cross the mountains and cliffs, and used tools such as hanging baskets and nooses to cross Funiu Mountain and Songshan to establish contact with Gao Shunjun opposite him.

Although Gao Shun is theoretically stationed in Wancheng, he actually often goes north and stations troops in Luyang, Liang County and other places to confront Yuan Shao's army.

Luyang and Liang County are not unfamiliar with these places. In history, Sun Jian took this path to fight against Dong in the Northern Expedition. In this life, Guan Yu and Zhao Yun personally led his troops to fight against Dong, and later he was supported by Zhu Jun.

So Gao Shun's deployment is very stable, and this is the third time that Liu Bei's camp has taken this path.

After Guan Yu sent Wang Ping over Songshan, he met Gao Shun's team within a day. He was also sent to Liang County with a fast horse and was received by Gao Shun himself.

Gao Shun learned that Guan Yu had defeated Yuan Shao's main force in Hebei and wiped out nearly 200,000 enemies this year. Yuan Shao was powerless to look west and allowed Guan Yu to cross the Yellow River south, and to come and go freely on the Yiluo Plain.

Gao Shun was naturally overjoyed and expressed his immediate urge to supervise the front army to enter the offensive and launch a full-scale attack on Yique Pass.

It took some time for tens of thousands of troops to move from stalemate to the general attack. Gao Shun had already moved very quickly and had only prepared for one day to launch the general attack on September 20th.

After only one day of battle, Yique Pass was blocked by the enemy from both sides and the defenders were blocked in the twenty-mile long valley where the Longmen Grottoes were born in later generations. Although the pass was still steep, anyone could see that there was no future to continue defending, and his morale collapsed and surrendered.

In fact, Guan Yu had a better way, which was to release Ju Su and Qu Yi directly, and then surrounded the city and let these high-ranking officials of the former Yuan camp come forward to persuade them to surrender, dismantle the will of the guardian generals, and make them realize that the situation with Yuan Shao was gone.

Don’t underestimate the power of this approach. After all, Ju Su was the chief strategist of Yuan Shao and had been a military supervisor for many years, which still had a great influence on the generals. Even if Ju Su lost his power, his attitude could affect the morale of the people of Yuan’s army, and when the perseverance would be severely shaken.

Unfortunately, it was a bit early to use this trick when attacking Yique Pass. Ju Su disagreed. Based on the information he found, Guan Yu learned that Ju Su's family had not been rescued by Xin Ping at that time. Ju Su insisted on continuing to pretend to die for his country because he was afraid of revenge. Guan Yu had no choice.

Fortunately, it is not very urgent. After siege Luoyang City to death in the future, it will be too late to play Ju Zuo this card again.

It was not that Guan Yu could not defeat Luoyang, he just felt that Luoyang had changed hands three times, including the most serious fire of Dong Zhuo eight years ago. It is not easy to restore to this population and productivity.

If this fourth time is, I hope it will be the last time I can change hands and be able to open the city without blood, it will be more or less a merit. So Guan Yu also made a statement to Ju Su in private:

If you can let Luoyang open the city without blood and peacefully restore the Eastern Capital of the Han Dynasty, you will definitely recommend you as the Minister in front of His Majesty. This is also for the people of the world and the overall interests of the Han Dynasty.

If you refuse to make this contribution, then you will be at most nine ministers.

In addition, because Guan Yu just wanted to send the emergency military information from Hebei to the south, in fact, before the official breakthrough of Yique Pass, when Wang Ping's Wudang Flying Army's elite troops crossed Songshan and contacted Gao Shun, Gao Shun had already sent someone to relay the information to Li Su.

The messenger rushed back to Wancheng on the 19th, which was at least six or seven days faster than Guan Yu sending people to Chang'an and then on Wuguan Road.

Then he arrived in Xiangyang on the 20th and in Jiangxia on the 22nd, he happened to meet Li Su who was returning to the army.

It turned out that Li Su from the southern line had made significant progress in the decisive battle with Sun Quan and Zhou Yu during August and September. He had returned to his army to take charge of Wuchang.

It’s just that because of the isolation of intelligence from the north and the south, Li Su’s progress was not allowed to be known to the generals in Hebei in a timely manner.
Chapter completed!