Chapter 123: Taking Ruyin by Strategy, Guan Yu's Military Strategy But when Liu Bei was returning to his army, Guan Yu had already arrived in Xincai. As for why Guan Yu acted so quickly, it all started from the day he sent troops to Ruyin. However, it is said that Guan Yu was inspired by Qin Zhen and wanted to prove his ability, so he led his troops along the waterway towards Ruyin. Along the way, in order not to arouse the vigilance of Lu Mian, the defender of Ruyin, Guan Yu and Qiao Rui hid during the day and moved out at night. All the way to the city of Ruyin, he was not discovered by Lu Mian. If you ask the reason, it is actually simple. Although so many things happened in the middle, when Guan Yu sent out his troops, it was less than ten days since the fall of Shouchun. Also, because Ji Ling's Shouchun defenders were almost wiped out, no one sent a message to the west. Therefore, from Ruyin's perspective, this city is not the front line, so there is naturally no need for wartime alert. When Guan Yu and Qiao Rui arrived at the city of Ruyin, they saw that it was not large, but also not small.

The city wall is nearly two meters high and is surrounded by plains, making it difficult to hide. Without siege equipment, it is also difficult to attack by force. He also knew that Lu Mian had more than 3,000 soldiers and horses in the city, enough to hold the city. After reading it, Qiao Rui came to Guan Yu and said: "We came here in a hurry and did not bring any siege equipment, so it is difficult for us to launch a surprise attack." "General, since you have a method to capture the city, why don't you tell me?" He remembered that Guan Yu had made a solemn promise before he came, and now that he saw the city was well-fortified, he asked for advice. But Guan Yu, hearing this, stroked his beard and smiled: "Why worry about Le Bin? If we can't attack him by force, we should lure him out of the city!" "Just follow my instructions, and this city will surely fall!" He then whispered to Qiao Rui for a while. Qiao Rui was overjoyed after hearing the arrangement. He led more than a thousand soldiers and quietly marched towards the edge of Ruyin City. The soldiers did not attack the city, but harvested crops from the farmlands near the city. It is also said that Lu Mian was a famous scholar in the late Han Dynasty, and he joined Yuan Shu in his early years. However, although he had more seniority, he was not as valued as Zhang Xun, Ji Ling and others. Since the war between Cao and Yuan broke out, he was stationed in Ruyin. He spent every day here, thinking of making great achievements, but was troubled by the lack of soldiers and horses. He wanted to fight on the front line, but Yuan Shu did not agree because the terrain of Ruyin was too important. This made Lu Mian even more anxious. Hearing about the defeat at the front, he secretly cursed Ji Ling, Zhang Xun and others for being good-for-nothings. One day, I was drinking in the mansion when I heard the gatekeeper come to report: "Report, General, a large group of troops are coming from somewhere outside the city, and they are collecting food outside the city!" When Lu Mian heard this, he was shocked. He thought that Ruyin was the heartland of Yuan Shu's army, so how could a large group of troops appear there for no reason?

Subconsciously, he thought that either Cao Cao had defeated Yuan Shu, or the eastern coalition forces had captured Shouchun. In fear and trepidation, he hurriedly asked: "What's the enemy's banner? How many soldiers are there?" But the soldier just shook his head and said: "The enemy has no flags and is about a thousand strong!" When Lu Mian heard this, he was stunned. If the two families came, there would be at least tens of thousands of people. How could there be only a thousand soldiers and horses! He had no idea what was going on, so he had to walk all the way from the mansion to the city. But in the distance I saw a large number of soldiers pulling up crops. Although the crops have already borne fruit, it is not yet time to harvest. Seeing this situation, Lu Mian immediately cursed: "It must be the remnants of the Yellow Turbans who are here to take our army's food!" You must know that there is a severe drought in Huainan now, and it is only because Ruyin is close to the Yingshui River that the crops outside the city have been preserved. Most other places have suffered a total crop failure and have no more food. When he saw this, he knew that these bandits must be starving and mad as they were trying to steal food from him in broad daylight! Lu Mian did not hesitate and rushed out of the city with his troops. As soon as Lu Mian left the city, Qiao Rui received the news and immediately gave the order: "The whole army retreats!" Lian Zhan didn't respond, but just ran away into the distant forest. Seeing this, Lu Mian was furious and chased all the way into the forest. When he got outside the forest, he heard people on the left and right say: "General, don't chase me, I'm afraid it's a trap!" Upon hearing this, Lu Mian also ordered his troops to stop and sent his spies out to investigate while he returned to the outside of the city to collect food. Seeing the crops being abandoned on the ground, he became furious. He immediately sent people out of the city to find out where this army was coming from. From then until the afternoon, I only heard the scout report: "The enemy has about a thousand men, and they are gathering in the woods outside the city, but they haven't set up camp yet!" After hearing this letter, Lu Mian became more certain that this was a group of bandits. Although he didn't know where they came from, their number was small. I wanted to leave the city and annihilate them, but I heard the people around me say: "The enemy's arrival is suspicious, we cannot leave the city easily!" Lu Mian also knew that they had a heavy responsibility, so he had to suppress his anger and once again increase the scope of the spies' investigation. As a result, at night, just as he was about to fall asleep, he heard the spy report back: "General, the soldiers outside the city are harvesting grain again!" Hearing this, Lu Mian almost exploded on the spot and ordered: "Pass the order down, follow me out of the city and annihilate them!" At the order, he led his troops out of the city.

But this time, the bandits did not fight with them at all. As soon as they left the city, each of them carried a bundle of food and walked towards the forest. Once again, they chased him out of the forest, and the people around him said: "It's dark and dense today. The enemy may have set up an ambush. General, don't chase them any further!" But when Lu Mian heard this, he became furious and said: "The enemy has only a thousand men, where did the ambush come from?" He was confident that he had found out the enemy's details. With only a thousand bandits, he did not take them seriously at all and simply led his troops to chase them into the forest. After chasing for about half an hour, they saw a group of people resting in the forest. Seeing this, Lu Mian thought he had a good plan and gave the order: "Follow me and kill them! Don't let the bandits escape!" He immediately led his troops to charge forward. Qiao Rui saw that they were tricked and did not engage in a fight. Instead, he ordered his soldiers to flee in all directions, all the way towards the forest. When Lu Mian saw them scattering, he was furious. He also saw Qiao Rui riding a horse and running away. He knew that this was the leader of the bandits, so he shouted angrily: "Catch up with me, this thief must not escape!" In fact, Lu Mian and Qiao Rui knew each other. If you see Qiao Rui in the daytime, you will definitely be able to recognize him. But it was night time, and the path was in the woods, so he naturally didn't know where to go. He chased after it all the way, and suddenly saw a hole opened up in front of him. Lu Mian was overjoyed and said: "There's no forest ahead, so we can catch it!" With a loud shout, he rode his horse towards Qiao Rui with sword in hand. Unexpectedly, just as the troops arrived here, they heard a loud shout: "Where is the enemy going?" As soon as the words were spoken, an army was seen deployed here. As the enemy general shouted, he rushed towards them. In an instant, shouts of killing were heard everywhere, and a man stood on his horse with a knife in hand, rushing straight towards Lu Mian. When Lu Mian saw this, he was terrified. He immediately thought he had fallen into a trap and rode away. However, when he turned around, he saw that the soldiers who had been scattered just now had gathered again without him knowing when, and were attacking him from behind again. Qiao Rui also turned around and shouted while galloping: "Where are you going, little Lu Mian?" Hearing this, Lu Mian reacted immediately, squinted his eyes and looked over, and suddenly became furious: "How dare a traitor to his master harm me?" Amidst the anger, he realized that he was no match for Qiao Rui, so he turned his horse and fled again.

It turned out that the figure he just saw was Guan Yu himself. When he turned around, he bumped into Guan Yu. When Guan Yu saw this, he wasted no time talking to Lu Mian. He drew his sword, rode forward, and chopped Lu Mian off his horse with one blow. As he had just heard that this person was Lu Mian, Guan Yu raised his head and shouted: "I have already killed General Lu Mian. You are innocent. Surrender and you will be spared!" Seeing this, the generals and soldiers under his command dared not fight and surrendered one after another. After getting everyone's surrender, Guan Yu led his army and came to the outside of the city with the heads of the people to persuade them to surrender. Seeing that Guan Yu had killed Lu Mian, the people in the city had no intention of fighting and had to open the city walls and surrender. After Guan Yu conquered Ruyin and entered the palace, Qiao Rui praised him: "If the general is indeed brave and strategic, then we cannot enter the city unless it is his plan!" Although he was a surrendered general, he had often interacted with Guan Yu for many days and knew that Guan Yu was loyal and righteous, and he had long admired him in his heart. Now seeing Guan Yu's strategy again, he naturally admired it. I thought that Liu Bei's subordinates were indeed full of talented people. Qin Zhen and Zhang Fei, one a civil official and the other a military official, could accomplish things. Moreover, Guan Yu was so brave and resourceful, so there was no need to worry about not achieving great things! Hearing this praise, Guan Yu stroked his beard and smiled: "It's just a small town, why should we give it a sneer? We should take Xincai again to complete our mission this time!" Seeing Guan Yu like this, Qiao Rui smiled and said: "But I wonder how the general will capture Xincai?" Then Guan Yu was seen holding a long sword, pacing and stroking his beard, saying: "Because I heard Le Bin say that day that Yuan Yin was a coward, and we couldn't hide our capture of the city from him, so we just used this to provoke Yuan Yin to leave the city!" "Now you can send Lu Mian's head to us and tell him that Shouchun and Ruyin are in our hands. Let Yuan Yin be afraid of our army's power." "When our army reaches Xincai, we will send a trusted confidant to pretend that Yuan Shu's army has been defeated, and say that Cao Cao has defeated Yuan Shu and is heading towards Xincai!" "In this case, Yuan Yin will surely be frightened. Seeing that I am attacking him from two directions, he may abandon the city and flee!" "We only need to split our troops into two groups and ambush Yuan Yin on the westward and southward routes. We will definitely be able to defeat Yuan Yin!" When Qiao Rui heard Guan Yu's plan, he could not help but marvel at it, thinking that Guan Yu had a unique way of employing troops, which was not comparable to ordinary generals. He immediately nodded in agreement, followed Guan Yu's instructions, and led his troops towards Xincai. While on the way, he also arranged the things that Guan Yu had instructed him to do. They sent people pretending to be messengers and envoys and headed towards Xincai City. It is said that Yuan Yin was originally Yuan Shu's younger brother and had little talent, but because of their kinship, he was highly valued by Yuan Shu. He has been feeling under tremendous pressure since the capital was moved. Unlike Lu Mian of Ruyin who was wholeheartedly devoted to building his own career, he was terrified when faced with attacks from all sides by Cao Cao and a group of princes, fearing to hear the news that Yuan Shu had been defeated by Cao Cao. Fortunately, in addition to him guarding the city, there was also a general named Huang Yi.

Huang Yi was Yuan Shu's son-in-law. He was a descendant of the Huang family, a prominent family in Jingzhou. Because of his good looks, Yuan Shu valued him and took him as his son-in-law. But although this person came from a prominent family, he didn't have much ability. The only good thing about it is that it is a silver-plated spear head, useless, but good-looking. It patrols the city every day, looking like a man who is loyal to his duty. Thanks to this person's help, Yuan Yin was able to hold on. But one day, he was sitting in the mansion when he saw Huang Yi walking into the city in a panic and saying: "General, something terrible has happened. Shouchun has been captured by Liu Bei and his men!" "The enemy general Guan Yu raided Ruyin and killed Lu Mian. Now the army is heading towards Xincai!" When Yuan Yin heard this, he almost fell off his seat. He finally calmed down and asked: "Where did this news come from? How many troops did Guan Yu lead?" Huang Yi heard this and said with a look of grief and indignation: "Because it was Guan Yu who sent an envoy to persuade us to surrender and sent us Lu Mian's head, I just learned about it." As he spoke, he ordered the soldiers behind him to bring a box. Yuan Yin took a look into the box and was so frightened that his whole body turned cold. He saw a head in the box. Who else could it be but Lu Mian! Seeing this, he realized that Shouchun had been captured. He then heard Guan Yu leading his troops to approach, and he stood up and sighed: "Now that the enemy is strong, what should we do?" Huang Yi saw his expression change suddenly and said in a deep voice: "Given the current situation, our army is short of troops. We can quickly send a letter to His Majesty asking for help and ask His Majesty to send troops to help us as soon as possible!" When Yuan Yin heard this, he knew that Shouchun had fallen and the city was difficult to defend, so he had to order a message for help. But he had just sent out a messenger for help when a spy came to report: "The enemy general Guan Yu has led his troops here!" Upon hearing this, Yuan Yin hurriedly gave the order: "Close the city gates and do not let the enemy enter the city." But before he finished speaking, Huang Yi stepped forward and said: "The enemy army has come from afar, and they must be exhausted after taking the first city. We still have soldiers in the city, so why not find an opportunity to fight and dampen the enemy's spirit?" While talking, he asked the spy: "Can you find out how many troops the enemy has?" The spy hastily reported the intelligence he had gathered, saying that the enemy had only three to four thousand men, and who the enemy general was unknown. Huang Yi didn't know that Guan Yu had already divided his troops, and thought that this was the vanguard troops, so he smiled and said to Yuan Yin: "This army is most likely not led by Guan Yu. We can probably go out of the city and fight. If we can kill the general, we can defeat the enemy's morale!" Because of his noble status, he had never experienced a major war, and he was confident of his martial arts skills, so he asked for a fight directly. Seeing this, Yuan Yin thought that he would not know the details before fighting, so he should go and test it out. So he ordered Huang Yi to lead 2,000 soldiers out of the city to fight. (End of this chapter)