: Riding the tiger away from the mountain to seize Langling

Author: Ximen Yangzhou

: Riding the tiger away from the mountain to seize Langling

The Tongbai Mountain Range starts from the eastern edge of the Nanyang Basin, which is where Runan and Jingzhou meet. The two counties of Yang'an and Langling controlled by Li Tong guard the three main roads to Nanyang in the west.

If Liu Bei did not take the three main roads, he would have to lead his army on a thorny path. In that way, crossing Tongbai Mountain would easily lead to loss of water and food. This is why Cao Cao and others are assured of the Western Front.

Li Tong has tens of thousands of troops and the city serves as a barrier. It is difficult for Liu Bei to lead his army around it. However, Liu Ye has been planning for a long time.

When Cao Cao's army appeared in Yan County, Liu Bei followed Liu Ye's plan and ordered Gong Du, Pei Yuanshao, Zhou Cang and other Yellow Turban generals to contact the bandits in the Ru River Basin to cooperate with Guan Yu to attack Yang'an.

After Li Tong mobilized the defensive force in the direction of Yang'an, Liu Bei led the main force to attack Langling again, and then crossed Tongbai Mountain via the main road.

Guan Yu became famous after killing Yan Liang, and his personal charm reached its peak. Zhou Cang and Pei Yuanshao all admired his reputation and joined Liu Bei's army.

Under the influence of Guan Yu's strong appeal, he contacted Qu Gong, Jiang Gong, Shen Cheng, Zhang Chi and other bandit commanders, and nearly 20,000 bandits gathered in each village, cooperating with Guan Yu's 5,000 men, and marched to Yang'an to fight in a mighty manner.

These bandits are not all the remnants of the Yellow Turbans, some are small tyrants in the name of the Yellow Turbans. They originally relied on Yuan Shao and Yuan Shu brothers in Runan, but with the death of Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao's defeat and other reasons, the two Yuans gradually lost their influence in Runan. The small tycoons neither wanted to join the foreign Liu Bei nor wanted to be annexed by the big tycoon Li Tong, so they took advantage of the chaos and occupied the hills in an attempt to gain power.

As the saying goes, all things are born when a whale falls, and the little powerful men have been coveting Li Tong's land and wealth for a long time, so they hit it off with Liu Bei.

Except for a few people in any era who can strive for their ideals, most people make choices based on interests.

Especially in the troubled times like the Three Kingdoms, when Cao Cao controlled the emperor and threatened to represent the court, Yuan Shao and Liu Bei all said they would obey the imperial edict and punish thieves. No one of these small powerful men cared about who was the righteous party and embraced whoever could bring them benefits.

Working together to destroy Li Tong and divide the wealth is the inner need of the small tycoons. Guan Yu's appeal is just a superficial slogan, but the fighting power of the second master can give them the courage to "fight the local tyrants".

A group of bandits besieged Yang'an County, and their leader was the famous Guan Yu.

Li Tong had no idea that it was Liu Ye's plan. On the one hand, he mobilized the troops garrisoned in Langling County in the south to come to help, and on the other hand, he sent fast horses to ask for help from Cao Cao.

Not long after the Langling garrison was transferred, small forces scattered on the hills gradually arrived around the county to gather. Liu Bei also brought Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, etc. to escort his family members to gather.

Liu Bei was shocked by the combined forces. There were many more soldiers than originally counted. It was like Li Yunlong attacking Ping'an and gathering troops, and many more soldiers appeared inexplicably.

There were nearly 20,000 capable soldiers outside Langling City, including 50,000 military and family members. The dense crowd made the defenders frightened. Before the battle began, Liu Bei abandoned the city with 500 people and fled, so Liu Bei captured Langling without any blood.

Liu Bei had never fought such an easy battle before, and he couldn't help lamenting that in the days before he had no mastermind, he would have stepped on the corpses of his comrades with swords and guns to climb the tower first.

"If it weren't for Ziyang's clever plan and let Bei withdraw from Runan by himself, half of the soldiers would have been lost." Liu Bei grabbed Liu Ye's hand, and his surging mood lingered for a long time.

Liu Ye immediately reminded: "We haven't left Tongbai Mountain yet, so you must not be careless. When Cao Cao catches up, Cai Dingran notices that the reinforcements Li Tong requested will arrive at any time. We should escort his family across the mountains as soon as possible."

"Zi Yang is absolutely right."

Liu Bei gently nodded in affirmation, then waved his hand to call Zhang Fei to his eyes, and said sternly: "Third brother, please hurry up and escort all the family members of the army to go first."

Zhang Fei looked puzzled: "Leaving so soon? Don't you wait for the second brother to come with you?"

Liu Bei shook his head: "Let's stay and wait for Yun Chang. Third brother can go ahead and wait in Biyang County."

"Am I going alone?"

Zhang Fei pointed at himself and looked around, implying that he didn't want me to fight?

Liu Bei understood instantly when he saw his expression, and then said seriously: "We may not fight each other after we are separated. The third brother escorts the sister-in-law, and the younger brother and sister go first. Only then can the soldiers fight with peace of mind, and the eldest brother can feel at ease."

"All right."

While holding his fists, Zhang Fei muttered and added: "My second brother also escorted my sister-in-law last time, and this time it's my turn."

Looking at Zhang Fei's leaving figure, Liu Ye stroked his beard and sighed: "The three generals are really straightforward generals. No wonder they agree with General Long so much. If Mrs. Xiahou and Mrs. Qiao hadn't gotten pregnant, they might have gotten pregnant in Hefei."

Getting married."

"The younger siblings are still young, and Yun Qi's marriage was short-lived. It's normal for her not to be pregnant with children, just like Bei."

Liu Bei's words came to an abrupt end. He lamented that he was over forty and there was no man or woman under his knees.

Because Liu Bei spent the first half of his life wandering around, all the wives he married died early. He was considered very lucky to be alive. The two of them lived in Xuzhou Nagant and Mi for several years, but there was no movement in their stomachs.

Seeing Liu Bei's gloomy expression, Liu Ye realized that he had taken the wrong topic, and immediately led it in another direction: "Ahem. If you don't have a place to settle down, your children will also suffer when they are born. So when you come to Jingzhou this time, you must act according to my plan.

, can no longer be as humble as before.”

"I was just about to discuss it with you. When Gongyou went to Xiangyang as an envoy before, he only said that I had more than 10,000 troops, and now there are more than 50,000 soldiers and their families. This is inconsistent. How could Liu Jingsheng not be suspicious when he saw it? What if he used this as an excuse?

What can I do if I refuse to take him in?" Liu Bei had a sad face.

Liu Ye thought for a moment, stroked his beard and replied: "At that time, we will only have 10,000 soldiers, and the rest will be family members accompanying the army. The people are the foundation of a country. How can Liu Jingsheng refuse? If he insists on refusing to stay, he will retreat.

I would like to ask him to borrow a place to settle down. We are all members of the Han clan, and the emperor has clothes and edicts. I don't think he will go too far."

"That's fine."

Liu Bei calmed down for a moment, and then added: "If Bei is not good at changes, Ziyang will go with me."

"It's all up to your envoy's arrangements."

Although Liu Ye readily agreed, he secretly thought that your Majesty is too modest. I have also heard about the affair between you and Cao Cao in Huainan, so how can you say that you are not good at adapting to changes?"

Two days after Zhang Fei set out, Liu Bei immediately ordered Guan Yu to go south to Langling to meet up, intending to slowly withdraw from Runan.

As for the agreement with Qu Gong, Jiang Gong and others, Liu Bei gave up the newly acquired Langling to everyone. Anyway, Yang'an and Langling were both counties under Li Tong's jurisdiction. At this time, Guan Yu's abandonment of Yang'an would not be considered a broken promise.

Qu Gong, Jiang Gong and others responded to Guan Yu's call and wanted to use his prestige to directly force Yang'an to surrender. As a result, Li Tong organized the army and the people to actively fortify the city. Although the besieging bandits were large, none of them worked hard to attack the city.

Guan Yu told Liu Bei's arrangement, and all the powerful men followed him and moved to Langling.

Li Tong knew that he had fallen into the trap of diverting the tiger away from the mountain, but he did not dare to pursue it because Yang'an had few soldiers. After all, Liu Bei led "50,000 people" to attack Langling.

Cao Hong brought reinforcements from Pingyu, and was dumbfounded by Liu Bei's praise of his military strength. He said to himself that he led 50,000 troops to attack Langling, and asked Guan Yu to lead more than 20,000 troops to capture Yang'an. The total military strength exceeded 70,000.

Li Tong and Cao Hong only had more than 20,000 troops in total, so they could only slowly move towards Langling, waiting for Cao Cao's main force to arrive before they dared to pursue them.
Chapter completed!