Chapter 19 4. Go to Maicheng

More than four years after Liu Bei and Sun Quan shook hands and made peace, a group of merchant ships sailed from Xunyang to Jiangling.No one knew that the ships were actually carrying not cargo but soldiers.One morning in October, when the Jiangling defenders understood, their only option was to surrender. The chief director of this good show is Lu Meng. Lu Meng took over the military power after Lu Su's death. This is Sun Quan's third commander-in-chief of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.Unlike Lu Su who advocated "union with Liu", Lu Meng, like Zhou Yu, advocated "swallow Liu".It's just that Zhou Yu is ambitious and vigorous, and Lu Meng is resourceful in judging the situation.Although he had proposed to Sun Quan to seize Jingzhou by force, he knew that he had to wait for the opportunity.

The opportunity presented itself after five years.In May of the twenty-fourth year of Jian'an (AD 219), Liu Bei captured Hanzhong from Cao Cao.In July, he proclaimed himself King of Hanzhong and returned to Chengdu. He appointed Guan Yu as the former general, Zhang Fei as the right general, Ma Chao as the left general, and Huang Zhong as the rear general.Encouraged by Guan Yu's high spirits, he resolutely launched the Xiangfan War to capture Xiangyang and Fancheng. This battle was fought with thrilling and arduous hardships.In August, it rained heavily, the Han River surged and overflowed the embankment, Fancheng was surrounded by floods, and the seven armies supervised by General Cao Fang were all submerged.Guan Yu took advantage of this natural disaster to launch an offensive, Yu Jin was captured and surrendered, and Pang De was captured and died.When the news came back, Cao Cao burst into tears.

Yu Jin surrendered, Pang De died, Cao Ren, the commander of the garrison, lost his arm, and the walls of Fancheng were also soaked in floods and continued to collapse. The defenders in the city were in panic.Fortunately, Xu Huang's reinforcements arrived at this time, and Guan Yu had to withdraw from the battlefield. In fact, Guan Yu, who won the first battle, was also unable to do what he wanted.He knew very well that to deal with Cao Ren and Xu Huang, and take Xiangyang and Fancheng, it was absolutely impossible without enough troops.But if troops are deployed from the rear, Nanjun will be weak; if troops are not deployed, the front will be tight again.Guan Yu was in a dilemma.

Lu Meng's chance came. Just when Guan Yu was hesitating, Lu Meng, who was not in good health, began to pretend to be sick.Sun Quan also deliberately used unsealed official documents to recruit Lu Meng back to Jianye for treatment, and appointed Lu Xun as partial general and right governor to replace Lu Meng. As soon as Lu Xun arrived in Lukou, he pretended to be his grandson according to the strategy set by Lu Meng.He wrote a brilliant letter to Guan Yu, saying that the general's battle was unprecedented, and everyone in Jiangdong cheered and clapped their hands.As a scholar, Lu Xun is not qualified for a military position at all, and I hope the general can give me some advice.In the end, he did not forget to pretend to remind Guan Yu: Cao Cao is cunning, the general should be careful!

Guan Yu was really fooled. He felt that Soochow was getting worse and worse: Zhou Yu was a short-lived ghost, Lu Su was a peacemaker, Lu Meng was a sick child, and Lu Xun was a bookworm.It seemed that Sun Quan had nothing to worry about, so he gradually transferred his troops to Fancheng. As soon as the troops were withdrawn here, troops began to be transferred there, while Guan Yu was completely kept in the dark.Guan Yu didn't expect that the sweet-talking allies on the surface were the enemies who were sharpening their knives.He certainly didn't expect that this past ally had colluded with the current enemy and was preparing to unite to take his head.

That's right, Cao Cao extended an olive branch to Sun Quan. The suggestion of uniting Sun Quan was put forward by Sima Yi and Jiang Ji.Their judgment is also not bad: as a local separatist regime in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Jiangdong Group will never watch Liu Bei and Guan Yu grow bigger and bigger in the upper reaches.As long as Sun Quan is persuaded to attack Guan Yu, the siege of Fancheng will be resolved. Cao Cao adopted this suggestion.Sun Quan also responded immediately, saying that conquering Guan Yu was serving the court, but he hoped that Cao Cao would keep this secret in case Guan Yu was prepared.Cao Cao asked for opinions, and everyone said it was a matter of course.

The wily Dong Zhao advocated leaking the secret. Dong Zhao believes that keeping secrets is beneficial to Sun Quan, and leaking secrets is beneficial to Cao Cao.Because Guan Yu has always been domineering and domineering, he may not withdraw his troops immediately when he gets the news.At this time, if the defenders in the city are still ignorant, it is not good for us. Therefore, one should verbally agree to keep secrets, but actually leak them on purpose. Cao Cao fully agreed with this suggestion and ordered Xu Huang to copy multiple copies of Sun Quan's letter, shoot arrows into Fancheng and Guan Yu's barracks, and announce the news that Sun Quan was about to attack Jiangling and Public Security.

Dong Zhao's prediction was good.The morale of the defenders in Fancheng doubled, but Guan Yu hesitated.Perhaps in his view, Jiangling and Tangchi, the golden city of Gongan, are not something that Sun Quan can destroy overnight; Fancheng, surrounded by floods and armies, is the fat of the mouth, how can all previous efforts be wasted? As soon as Guan Yu hesitated, Xu Huang's opportunity came.Just at this time Cao Cao sent him another twelve battalions, so Xu Huang attacked aggressively, while Guan Yu was defeated and had to withdraw from Fancheng.Cao Cao did not take advantage of the victory to pursue.Because he believed that Sun Quan, who had already sharpened his sword, would not withdraw his hand.

Cao Cao's prediction was completely correct.Guan Yu hesitated, but Sun Quan did not.In fact, Lu Mengjun, who pretended to be a businessman all the way, had already entered Jiangling and Public Security.Lu Meng restrained the troops, strictly enforced military discipline, kept sympathy for the common people, sealed the treasury, treated Guan Yu's soldiers' families generously, and did a lot of appeasement work, and soon stabilized the situation. Therefore, when Guan Yu hurried back to Nanjun, the people of Nanjun had already surrendered to Lu Meng, and no one would work for Guan Yu.

Lu Xun also triumphed all the way.After Lu Meng succeeded, he took advantage of the victory and advanced, while Liu Bei's defenders ran, lost and surrendered.The three counties of Yidu, Fangling, and Nanxiang were all in his hands, and Jingzhou no longer had the surname Liu. Guan Yu had no choice but to go to Maicheng. In fact, it didn't take long before Guan Yu's head was delivered to Cao Cao.Cao Cao buried his old friend and rival generously, while Lu Meng died of illness in Sun Quan's inner palace at the age of forty-two before he even had time to attend the celebration party.

However, Lu Meng finally realized his long-cherished wish, and he can rest in peace. Liu Bei wanted to cry but had no tears.He lost both Jingzhou and Guan Yu.Guan Yu is not only his brother, but also his love general and arm.Liu Bei fought in the South and the North for so many years, and if there was a need to divide the army into two groups, Guan Yu was always in charge every time.He sent Guan Yu governor of Jingzhou, it seems that it cannot be said that it was improper employment. However, Guan Yu's character is problematic. When Liu Bei attacked Chengdu, Ma Chao came to join him.Guan Yu wrote to Zhuge Liang, asking who Ma Chao could compare with.Zhuge Liang replied: Ma Mengqi (Ma Chao) can be called "the outstanding man of his life", and he can keep pace with Zhang Yide (Zhang Fei).However, the beautiful bearded man (Guan Yu) is the "peerless group"! Seeing the letter, Guan Yu proudly handed it to the guests one by one. This is too childlike, still spoiled, self-willed and naive.Because of his willfulness, he launched the Xiangfan War; because of his innocence, he was deceived by Lu Meng and Lu Xun; Yes, Guan Yu doesn't understand politics, and he doesn't know that in multilateral political relations, there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies.He also doesn't understand public relations.Sun Quan proposed to become in-laws, so it's fine if he disagrees, so why bother to insult him?He will not treat his subordinates well.One of the reasons why the Jiangling and Gongan guards surrendered was resentment and fear of Guan Yu, so they simply surrendered. Therefore, it is actually inappropriate for Guan Yu to guard Jingzhou and deal with Cao Cao and Sun Quan in both political and military aspects. It's a pity that one beauty covers up all ugliness.Guan Yu's bravery and skill in battle and his repeated achievements in battle, especially when he defeated Cao's army in Fancheng, which shocked the world and almost forced Cao Cao to move his capital, made him a figure like a god of war. "God of War" cannot be doubted, nor can it be criticized, and can only be let him go to the abyss. However, Guan Yu was defeated so quickly, but it was beyond everyone's expectation, even Cao Cao and Sun Quan had never expected it.This is why Liu Bei and the others let Guan Yu fight alone, but did not go to the rescue for a long time.Of course, Liu Bei did not expect that Sun Quan and Cao Cao had secretly colluded, and that Lu Meng and Lu Xun would send troops to attack Nanjun in two directions, and it was too fast to hide their ears. However, in any case, Liu Bei could not accept all this.Although he did not avenge Guan Yu immediately, nor did he give Guan Yu a title, but he will never forget the stab in the back by Sun Quan.