Sima Zhao took advantage of the momentum of breaking Shu and wanted to dominate the world, so he raised troops on a large scale and fought with Eastern Wu in Xiling. Sima Zhao's game of chess was very big, just to take advantage of the opportunity of the main force of the Wu army to enter Shu and destroy Wu in one fell swoop.

However, the Yangtze River defense line that Dongwu has painstakingly operated for many years, how can it be so easy to be broken through, Dongwu has taken the initiative to attack foreign operations, lackluster, but in defensive operations, it has always been brilliant, from the early battle of Chibi, to the later battle of Yiling, Cao Pi's three-way attack on Wu, Dongwu has achieved a complete victory.

The importance of Xiling to Eastern Wu is self-evident, once lost, not only is it possible for the Wei army to break through the Yangtze River defense line, but also the logistics supply line of the land resistance corps entering Shu will also be cut off, and more than 100,000 Wu troops entering Shu are likely to be wiped out. It was precisely because of this that the Wei side would send Yanghu Du to lead 100,000 troops to besiege Xiling.

Wu did not dare to despise it, and sent Lu Kai, the general of Zhenxi, to lead troops to resist, and the two sides launched the most arduous tug-of-war in Xiling.

The terrain of Xiling is complex, the road is dangerous and narrow, the west is only more than 20 miles away from the mouth of Xiling Gorge, the river is turbulent, regardless of the dry road and waterway, it is not easy to march, the 100,000 army of Wei State attacks Xiling, it is impossible to carry out at all. In addition, the Xiling fortress Wu has been painstakingly operated for many years, the city defense is strong, and the defense is complete, and in the year-long battle, the Wei army has never been able to make substantial progress.

It stands to reason that if the attack is blocked, Sima Zhao should adjust the deployment, but Sima Zhao has been stubborn and has not withdrawn his troops, and it is obvious that taking Xiling will play a vital role in the overall situation. At this point, Sima Zhao is very patient, if he can't do it for a year, he will fight for two years. If two years doesn't work, then play for three years. He was ready to use crowd tactics. Consume Xiling.

If it weren't for the loss of Guanzhong, the Battle of Xiling would have been delayed indefinitely.

However, the loss of Guanzhong forced Sima Zhao to make major adjustments to the established strategy, of which the withdrawal of Xiling was the most important step.

Yang Hu led 50,000 troops to retreat to Xiangyang to deal with the counterattack of Eastern Wu, with Sima Zhao's understanding of Eastern Wu, after this withdrawal, Eastern Wu will send troops to pursue 100%. And their target is Xiangyang, an important city in Jingzhou, which is also the city that the Wu people have dreamed of conquering for decades.

Du Pre's 50,000 horses were transferred to Nanxiang to prepare for an attack on Wuguan, which was occupied by the Shu army.

Du Pre previously served as the commander of the Zhenxi General's Mansion and the post of Changshi, and as a staff member of Zhonghui, he participated in the Battle of Shu. When Jia Chong withdrew his troops from Langzhong, he was recalled to Luoyang by Sima Zhao and took over from Jia Chong in commanding this army. It was Du Pre that Sima Zhao named Du Pre as General Annan. Commanding 50,000 horses, he moved to Shangyong and quickly threw himself into the Xiling front.

Du Yu was born in a family of eunuchs, his grandfather Du Yi was a scholar and a servant, and his father Du Shu lived in Youzhou, with a family background of 2,000 stones, which can be called a high-ranking family. It's just that his father Du Shu was upright and had many disagreements with the powerful in the DPRK, and was later framed by the villain, exiled for thousands of miles, and finally died of anger. Influenced by his father, Du Yu has not been reused in his early years. Although Du Yu grew up in an official family, he is not the kind of gentleman who only knows pleasure. He was well-read and diligent in writing from an early age, and studied economics, politics, calendars, law, mathematics, history, and engineering. People at the time once gave him the nickname "Du Wuku", praising him for his erudition and versatility, like an arsenal of weapons, all-encompassing. He especially likes to read "Zuo Chuan" and claims to have a "Zuo Chuan" fetish.

After the Gao Pingling Incident, Sima Shi has become the actual ruler of the Cao Wei regime, in order to win the hearts of the people and consolidate the rule, Sima Zhao began to recruit talents, appoint virtuous talents, such as Yanghu, Shantao, Du Pre such talents, is exactly what the Sima regime system is in short supply. In this context, Du pre-married Sima Zhao's sister Princess Gao Lu and became a core member of Sima Group, so he began to make steady progress in his official career.

For Du Pre, who led the army for the first time, he was extremely eager to make contributions and make a name for himself, because of the in-law relationship with the Sima family, Du Pre was considered to be on the stage on the nepotistic route, which made the talented Du Pre depressed.

Du Pre originally expected to have an outstanding performance in the Battle of Xiling, but after a year-long confrontation, the Wei and Wu sides fell into a stalemate in Xiling.

This time, after receiving the withdrawal order issued by Sima Zhao, Du Yu discussed the plan of retreating with Yanghu. With the urine nature of the Wu people, after the Wei army retreated, they would definitely come to pursue, if it weren't for the task assigned by Sima Zhao to attack Wuguan, Du Zhen would have wanted to set up an ambush halfway and teach the Wu people a lesson.

But Du Yu didn't dare to delay, he knew very well that the reason why Sima Zhao was determined to withdraw the army was because of the loss of Guanzhong, the loss of Guanzhong, and the shaking of Cao Wei's foundation, even the capital Luoyang, was already under the direct threat of the Shu army.

Of course, Du Pre's army alone was not enough to recover Guanzhong, and Sima Zhao sent Du Pre to attack Wuguan, the main purpose was to aid the Zhonghui army trapped in Shu. used the attack on Wuguan as a bait to attract Liu Yin, who was in Hanzhong, to return to the rescue and create conditions for Zhonghui's breakthrough to save himself. To put it more colloquially, that is, to save Zhao from Wei and Wei , Sima Zhao did not expect to take Wuguan lightly, but only hoped that Du Yu's actions could save the Zhonghui army.

Saving troops is like fighting fires, and the timetable for Du Pre to withdraw the army is very urgent, so Du Pre and Yanghu discussed, Du Pre led the army to withdraw first, and after Yanghu came to break off, he would deal with the pursuit of the Wu army.

After determining the withdrawal plan, Du Pre set up camp overnight and went north to Nanxiang. And Yanghu was waiting for the battle, slowly retreating, looking in the direction of Xiangyang.

As soon as the Wei army withdrew, the Wu army would definitely send troops to pursue, but Lu Kai was cautious, and only led the troops to chase for a short distance, and had a little contact with the Wei army's rearguard troops. For more than a year, Wei attacked Wu Shou, and launched a protracted tug-of-war in the Xiling area, both sides were already exhausted, and now the defenders of Xiling were also attritional, Lu Kai did not dare to go deeper and probe, and ventured forward, so he collected the men and horses, and retreated back to Xiling.

Yanghu retreated calmly, but Du Yu almost ran all the way, Xiaoxing stayed overnight, doubled the road, along the way, almost non-stop, it took less than five days to rush from Xiling to Nanxiang. (To be continued.) )