Chapter 135: Eastward to Dingling, Hunting with Man Chong

After arriving in Runan, Liu Bei did not immediately contact Shen Chen, but instead headed straight for Pingyu County, the seat of Runan Commandery. This place was also known as Runan County, which was the ancient city featured in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The reason for coming to Pingyu was to contact and coordinate the forces within Runan Commandery that supported Yuan Shao.

As the ancestral homeland of the Yuan clan, the prestige of the Yuan family in Runan Commandery was exceptionally high. Their former subordinates, officials, and retainers were distributed across various counties, scattered everywhere to hold their ground with armed forces and harass Cao Cao from the rear.

Later generations looking back at the Battle of Guandu often simplistically assumed that Yuan Shao amassed over one hundred thousand troops at Guandu, only to be heavily defeated simply because Cao Cao set fire to his provisions and supplies.

In reality, Cao Cao's predicament was far more difficult than anyone could have imagined. At this time, the region around Yingchuan was swarming with Yuan Shao's forces. His rear was continuously harassed, and Yuan Shao's cavalry on the front lines had even broken through the blockade and reached the vicinity of Xuchang.

His supply routes were attacked, and officials in various counties across Yanzhou, Xuzhou, and Yuzhou responded to Yuan Shao's call. Virtually the entire Runan Commandery, with the exception of Li Tong and Man Chong, had rebelled and surrendered to Yuan Shao.

It would be no exaggeration to say that Cao Cao was currently surrounded by enemies on all sides.

However, due to delays in the transmission of information, Liu Bei arrived in Runan a little late. By the time he reached his destination, he learned that Man Chong had already struck first to gain the initiative, annihilating most of the Yuan clan's former subordinates and officials who had responded to the call.

Upon learning of this, Liu Bei had no alternative, so he began recruiting soldiers locally. As he still held the titles of Governor of Yuzhou, General of the Left, and Marquis of Yicheng Pavilion, it was entirely reasonable and proper for him to raise troops upon arriving in Yuzhou.

Immediately, quite a few people came to pledge their allegiance. Combined with the remaining forces of the Yuan clan's former retainers, Liu Bei managed to gather a force of over ten thousand men in a very short period.

Before long, Cao Cao also heard about this development. However, having no available personnel to spare, he dispatched Cai Yang to lead a punitive expedition.

Yet, before Cai Yang even set out, Guan Yu simultaneously received news of Liu Bei's presence in Runan. Consequently, he took his leave of Cao Cao, returned first to Xuchang to pick up Lady Mi and Lady Gan, and then traveled south to Runan to rendezvous with Liu Bei.

By late June in the fifth year of Jian'an, inside the magistrate's office of Kunyang County in Runan, Shen Chen sat cross-legged at a desk in his residence, holding a bamboo official document. It was a letter written by Liu Bei.

Aside from polite greetings, the letter also expressed gratitude to Shen Chen. Liu Bei stated that he had already arrived in Pingyu, Runan, where he was currently recruiting troops. He intended to take advantage of the standoff between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao at Guandu to march north and launch a surprise attack on Xuchang, and he hoped Shen Chen could offer some advice.

"Lord Xuande has just arrived in Runan, and his hastily recruited soldiers have not undergone training. Their morale and discipline are likely unstable, so I actually advise against him launching a military campaign immediately."

Shen Chen placed the letter on the desk and spoke to Taishi Ci, who was sitting nearby.

Taishi Ci was continuing his role as a courier—who else could it be, given that he had done this sort of work in his early years? Therefore, whenever there was short-distance communication, he was always the one who delivered messages to Shen Chen.

Hearing Shen Chen's words, Taishi Ci smiled bitterly and said, "Our lord has no choice. Lord Yuan is still at Yangwu, and Cao Cao is holding his ground at Guandu without budging, leaving no option but to order our lord to take command of troops in Runan and covertly raid Xuchang."

Shen Chen pondered and said, "Indeed, this is a measure born of necessity. Uncle Ziyi, please return and inform Lord Xuande that if he wishes to march north from Runan to attack Xuchang, he must first defeat Li Tong and Man Chong. Since Li Tong has more troops and Man Chong has fewer, we can first launch a joint attack on Dingying, and then defeat Xiping. Only by doing this can we march straight north to seize Linying."

Taishi Ci was overjoyed and said, "Splendid! I shall return immediately to inform our lord. Ah Chen, when shall we agree to advance together?"

Shen Chen replied, "July the first."

"Then I shall return at once to report."

Unwilling to delay, Taishi Ci prepared to leave immediately.

Shen Chen said, "There is no need to rush for a moment. Kunyang is still three hundred lis away from Pingyu; even on horseback, it will take two days. Have a meal before you go."

Taishi Ci, however, insisted, "Precisely because this matter admits no delay, I must report to our lord immediately."

"Very well."

Shen Chen nodded. "Please tell Lord Xuande to be extremely cautious."

"I understand."

Taishi Ci offered his farewells and departed in a hurry.

Shen Chen escorted him all the way to the entrance, then returned inside his residence and fell into deep thought once more.

Presently, Cao Cao's defenses against him were extremely rigorous. A large number of Cao's troops were deployed in the counties to the north, northeast, east, southeast, and south of Kunyang.

Xiahou Yuan was in Xiangcheng, Li Dian in Linying, Li Tong in Xiping, and Man Chong in Dingying, practically sealing off the exit of Nanyang.

Therefore, it was virtually impossible for Liu Bei to come and rendezvous with him directly at this moment; the only way was to break out of the encirclement.

To break out of the encirclement, one had to find the weakest point.

Where would that be?

Dingying, which was guarded by Man Chong.

Over these past few days, he had also dispatched a large number of spies into Yingchuan to scout the enemy's situation.

The feedback from the intelligence reports indicated that Xiahou Yuan and Li Dian guarded nearly ten thousand soldiers around Xuchang. Furthermore, to prevent Shen Chen from repeating his previous stratagem of launching a feigned attack on Xuchang from the southwest, Cao Cao had specifically withdrawn two to three thousand elite core troops from the front lines to garrison the area.

Li Tong himself commanded nearly ten thousand men. Although the previous battles had cost him the bulk of his forces, five or six thousand men still entrenched themselves in Xiping.

Man Chong's forces were far fewer.

Historically, when Man Chong pacified Runan, he recruited five hundred men, captured over twenty fortified strongholds, engineered the assassination of more than ten chieftains through ruses, and took two thousand prisoners of war. To this day, his total force remained under three thousand men.

Consequently, seeking a breakthrough through him was evidently much easier.

Had not the great leader once stated?

One must learn to tackle the easy tasks before the difficult ones; if a bone is hard to chew, do not chew it first—eat the meat before gnawing on the bone.

Coincidentally, Pingyu County, where Liu Bei was stationed, was located right in the rear of Dingying.

Shen Chen leading his army out of Kunyang could precisely coordinate a pincer attack from the front and rear with him, assaulting Man Chong's force of mere two to three thousand men together. From there, they could break out of the encirclement and march north from Zhaoling toward Xuchang.

Since you, Cao Cao, only defend against me along the southwestern line, then I shall not attack from the southwest; I will attack from the southeast.

With this thought, Shen Chen felt the overall plan was feasible and summoned his generals to discuss strategy. July the first was only a few days away, and various surrounding cities were closely monitoring his movements, so he had to make other preparations.

Soon, Gan Ning, Lou Fa, Shen Mi, Deng Zhao, Shen Zhen, and other key generals currently in Shen Chen's army assembled inside the hall.

They entered one by one and bowed to Shen Chen.

Only Shen Zhen remained silent, stealthily following behind the others and taking a seat at the very back.

It was not that he disliked talking, but rather that when meeting Shen Chen on formal occasions, he could neither bow nor offer formal greetings.

To a certain extent, he was in a somewhat awkward position.

The commanding general of the army was his own son. If he did not address him as "General" within the military camp, it would undermine Shen Chen's majesty; yet if he did address him as "General," it would compromise a father's dignity.

At the same time, the troops of Huangmenting Pavilion were forged and led by him and Deng Zhao, and both men held high prestige within the army. Therefore, for campaigns to be led, Shen Zhen and Deng Zhao had to be present.

Consequently, he simply chose not to speak or bow, maintaining their father-son relationship in private.

These, however, were merely trivial matters.

After everyone was seated, Deng Zhao asked first, "General, what is the purpose of summoning us here?"

Shen Chen said in a deep voice, "Lord Xuande has already arrived in Runan, where he has rallied troops and intends to covertly raid Xuchang. I plan to join forces with him to launch a secondary strike against Xuchang, which makes proper deployments essential."

"Please speak, General!"

Gan Ning said with a serious expression, "Cao Cao has already reached Guandu to fight Yuan Shao, which presents an excellent opportunity for us to dispatch our troops."

He understood this logic well.

Shen Chen explained, "Our army's movements are currently under strict surveillance, and all the surrounding counties are filled with Cao's soldiers. Any slight disturbance will inevitably draw their combined assault upon us. Therefore, we must on no account march east to rendezvous with Lord Xuande in the initial phase. Instead, we must mobilize enemy forces to make them mistakenly believe we are continuing our march northward, while our actual direction is eastward."

Lou Fa puzzledly asked, "Is it another feigned attack on Xuchang? But the entire line toward Xuchang is guarded by heavy forces. I fear that not long after we set out, we will be surrounded by them."

"Correct."

Shen Chen nodded and said, "That is why we cannot advance northward; we can only head east."

"Head east?"

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.

Shen Chen beckoned them over and, pointing to the map on the desk, said, "Look here, the main forces of Cao's army are currently distributed around Xiangcheng, Linying, Xiping, and Dingying. Why is Dingling to the east left undefended?"

Gan Ning was no illiterate; he had read widely in his youth and blurted out immediately, "Because Dingling lies right in the center. Wouldn't going to Dingling mean being surrounded on all four sides?"

"Precisely."

Shen Chen nodded. "Dingling is situated amidst these four locations. If we go there, we will be attacked by Cao's forces from all directions, which is why they have not stationed troops in Dingling. But what if, after arriving in Dingling, we proceed further east to Yancheng?"

Yancheng?

The group hurriedly leaned in to take a look.

They saw that the location of Yancheng was extremely unique: it lay east of Dingling, south of Linying, north of Dingying, northeast of Xiping, and southeast of Xiangcheng.

From there, advancing further east to Zhaoling, and then marching north from Zhaoling to Yanqiang—north of Yanqiang lay Xuchang.

In other words, according to Shen Chen's plan, they could completely bypass the northeastern defense line of Xiangcheng and Linying along this route, circle around to the rear of this defense line from the east, and strike Xuchang.

By that time, the defending garrisons of Xiangcheng and Linying would inevitably rush to garrison Xuchang or Yanqiang, and Li Tong in Xiping would also, in all probability, march north. At that moment, they could turn south again, coordinate a pincer attack on Dingying from the north and south with Liu Bei, and successfully rendezvous in Dingying.

However, Gan Ning still raised a dissenting view: "The enemy will not simply sit by and watch us. If we set out immediately for Dingling, I fear we will be surrounded before we even reach Yancheng."

Shen Chen nodded. "That is why I intend to divide our forces once more. One detachment will march north to Fucheng to stage a feigned attack on Yangzhai. The other detachment, as soon as Xiahou Yuan is drawn away, will head east immediately. Since Fucheng, Yangzhai, and Yingyin lead directly to Xuchang, Li Dian and Xiahou Yuan will definitely not head south. Consequently, the only ones we will have to face are Man Chong and Li Tong."

"Divide our forces again? During the previous pursuit of Cao's army, our forces lost over a thousand men."

Gan Ning frowned. The prior engagements had already cost them a massive number of troops, leaving them with fewer than seven thousand men on hand. Dividing their forces further would make their strength far too weak.

Shen Chen sighed. "There is no help for it. Every single soldier under our command is extremely precious in my eyes. Pursuing Cao Cao earlier was also a matter of compelling necessity. If we had not fought a life-and-death battle with Cao Cao, the defensive strength on the southern front would have been even more formidable, leaving us in an even more passive position."

Through the operations of the previous few battles, their kill-to-loss ratio against Cao's army had reached one to three—one of Shen Chen's soldiers for three of Cao's. Among them were some elite troops, but the majority were second-line forces, which, to Shen Chen, was not worthwhile.

Yet, even if it was not worthwhile, they had no choice but to fight this war of attrition. If they did not fight, they would face an additional ten thousand of Cao's troops; by the time thirty to forty thousand of Cao's troops defended Xuchang, the difficulty would simply be too immense.

As things stood, there were only slightly over twenty thousand enemy troops. After joining forces with Liu Bei, their own strength would at least reach seventeen or eighteen thousand, meaning they would not fall far behind Cao's forces in terms of troop numbers.

"Very well."

In the end, Gan Ning could only compromise helplessly and agree with Shen Chen's strategy.

Immediately, Shen Chen ordered his father, Shen Zhen, to lead one thousand men to garrison Kunyang. Most of their supplies and grain were stored here, and Kunyang could not afford to be lost.

He further ordered Lou Fa to lead fifteen hundred men north from Fucheng to launch a surprise attack on Yangzhai. Historically, this route essentially led north from Yexian to Pingdingshan, then through Jiaxian to Yuzhou, all of which was flat terrain.

Because Fucheng and Xiangcheng were separated by the Ziyun Mountain range, and there were no Cao troops in Fucheng either, by the time Xiahou Yuan and Li Dian received the news, Lou Fa would likely have already reached Yangzhai. Since Yangzhai was far too close to Xuchang, they certainly would not take it lightly.

Therefore, by the time Xiahou Yuan and Li Dian dispatched forces, Lou Fa could also retreat back to Kunyang along the path he had taken. This would achieve the strategic objective of drawing away Cao's army, allowing Shen Chen and Gan Ning to march east into Dingling and hunt down Man Chong together with Liu Bei!