Northward 2

There is a tactic called the revolving door maneuver among military tactics.

Like a revolving door turning, it’s a strategy where two forces switch positions without meeting each other, which was concretized by Schlieffen, who was leading the German army just before the outbreak of World War I.

Schlieffen’s revolving door tactic was as follows: While the French army pursuing the German left wing advances on the offensive, the German right wing bypasses to the rear they’ve left vacant, isolating and annihilating the French army.

The annihilation here didn’t mean literal extermination, but the loss of combat power. In short, the revolving door tactic was a kind of encirclement operation.

Of course, this was extremely difficult and had unrealistic aspects, but the idea itself was certainly worth noting. And Schlieffen’s plan proposing the revolving door tactic was implemented in reality after modifications by Moltke the Younger.

The digression was long, but the core of the revolving door tactic was simple. To occupy the empty rear by bypassing while the opponent is attacking.

This is exactly what Guan Yu was trying to do now.

While Sima Yi moves south from Luoyang to attack Guan Yu, whom he judges to be trapped in Wancheng, Guan Yu in turn occupies Luoyang that Sima Yi has left vacant.

It was a radical tactic of switching each other’s positions, but that too was within the range of consideration for Sima Yi.

“So Guan Yu has abandoned Wancheng and come out. I went to the trouble of making his burial place for him. He’s ignoring the sincerity of a host trying to welcome a guest.”

Having seen through Guan Yu’s aim, Sima Yi clicked his tongue and disparaged that decision.

Certainly, the Wei army led by Sima Yi was very tired. They had made a forced march from Luoyang to Nanyang, so it would be impossible to catch up with the speed of Guan Yu’s army running desperately with determination.

But so what? For the revolving door tactic mentioned earlier to succeed, many prerequisites must be supported.

There needs to be something to hold back Sima Yi’s army trying to switch positions with Guan Yu, and Guan Yu needs to succeed in a flanking maneuver while solving supply issues in a situation cut off from Han territory.

However, both of these conditions were virtually impossible.

Guan Yu might have thought it would be fine without factors to hold Sima Yi back, as Sima Yi would sit down due to physical fatigue, but the Wei army led by Sima Yi was not in such an exhausted state.

This is Sima Yi. How could he allow his troops to fall into an exhausted state and lose their fighting power? Doesn’t even the Art of War say: The principle of marching is to maintain the rules of advancing and stopping, and to recover strength through regular meals while not exhausting horses and men.

Sima Yi’s skill in maximizing speed while managing reserve strength for battle was exquisite.

Unless they had thrown a desperate gamble after arriving right in front of Wancheng, how could their strength already be at the bottom when Sima Yi had just entered Nanyang?

However, the bigger problem was in the second condition.

Flanking maneuver. Between Jingbei and Luoyang, that term didn’t even make sense in the first place.

Jingbei and Nanyang are surrounded by mountain ranges. There are counties belonging to Nanyang outside the mountains too, but they were villages connected by paths between the mountains.

Excluding the west and south cut off by Xu Huang and Cao Biao, there aren’t many main roads leaving Nanyang. At most, they barely fill one hand.

The direction of Pingdi County where Cao Biao entered, the direction of Biyang County that Guan Yu was concerned about, and the direction of Daoyang County, which is the northernmost and was used by Sima Yi as the path to enter the center of Nanyang.

Currently, Sima Yi was stationed in this Daoyang County.

If Guan Yu wanted to bypass Sima Yi and go to Luoyang, it’s no exaggeration to say there was no other way but to go through Biyang County mentioned earlier, but in this case the route becomes too long.

This would give Sima Yi time to recover his army and block Guan Yu’s path.

“In my view, Guan Yu is most likely planning to pass through here, Daoyang County where we are.”

He probably doesn’t know yet that we’ve preemptively occupied Daoyang County, the northern passage of Nanyang, although he’s heard that Sima Yi has entered Nanyang.

Even if the best plan of trapping and killing him in Wancheng has gone awry, the overall strategy is still valid.

“Yes, if Wancheng is too small a grave, I’ll make all of Nanyang his grave.”

While Sima Yi blocks Guan Yu at Daoyang County, if Xu Huang and Cao Biao tighten the encirclement to surround Guan Yu, what strategy could Guan Yu have no matter how great he is?

Reinforcements from Shu Han will not come.

Messengers sent to Wuguan and Shangyong would have all been cut off by Xu Huang, and the path to Fancheng was also blocked by Cao Biao.

There would be messengers sent before Cao Biao entered Nanyang, but how could they gather and send troops from where they are fighting Wu?

Unless they use the crazy move of completely emptying Fancheng and Jiangling, there was no way out. How far is it to bring reinforcements from Yizhou?

‘Guan Yu’s isolation remains unchanged.’

However, the report from a scout who came to Sima Yi a short while later shocked Sima Yi.

“What? You say they’re going towards Xixian?”

When they went towards Xixian rather than Bofeng County which could shorten the route more, he thought, ‘Ah, Guan Yu must be trying to squeeze out the use of his navy somehow.’

Because Xixian right next to the Yu River is better for moving together with the navy traveling along the Yu River than Bofeng County which is somewhat distant from it.

But to not even turn east from Xixian, and continue advancing north.

Even if they keep going that way, they’ll just be blocked by the Zhin Ling Mountains.

‘Could it be, he’s thinking of crossing the Zhin Ling Mountains?’

What kind of mountain range was the Zhin Ling?

It’s no exaggeration to say it divides the continent into south and north, truly the spine of the continent.

Isn’t it the natural boundary that separates Guanzhong and Hanzhong, and the greatest worst mountain range?

Even if it’s the end of the Zhin Ling Mountains extending to Jingbei, its ruggedness lived up to the name Zhin Ling Mountains.

To climb that. For a moment, Sima Yi even thought Guan Yu had gone mad from enduring the extreme situation.

But thinking carefully, it didn’t seem completely impossible.

‘There is… a path, though barely.’

It’s at a level that makes one wonder if it can even be called a path compared to Daoyang County, but there was a path that people could travel on even in the Zhin Ling Mountains stretching between Henan and Nanyang.

The path from Xixian to Luoyang County was a mountain path at the very end of the end of what was somewhat embarrassing to call the Zhin Ling Mountains.

Still, it remained mountainous terrain. The reason Sima Yi didn’t choose that path was because it was too narrow for a large army to pass, and there was unnecessarily too much water near Xixian which would be the exit, making it inconvenient.

But for Guan Yu, who was operating a navy, it would rather act as an advantage.

‘But how did Guan Yu know about this? Did he luckily find a guide?’

The person who informed Guan Yu that there was a path through the Zhin Ling Mountains.

The answer to that was none other than Cao Pi. More precisely, Cao Pi who allowed Zhang Ran to pay condolences, giving her the opportunity to spy on the geography around Luoyang.

Zhang Ran, who had grasped in detail the inland geography, village locations, and fortress levels through the condolence visit, transferred that into books and delivered them to key figures.

There were other reasons why Guan Yu put into practice the idea of crossing the Zhin Ling Mountains based on such information.

It was Guan Yu’s own experience of having actually visited Luoyang twice, if not Chang’an, and the presence of soldiers from Yizhou who were among the best in the world at mountain climbing.

If they cross the Zhin Ling Mountains, there was nothing particularly to worry about behind it except Luoyang County.

There were things like Guangcheng Pass or Yijue Pass blocking the south of Luoyang, but with Sima Yi’s main force down there, how could they stop Guan Yu?

If Hangu Pass, which had reinforced troops wary of Zhang Fei and Pang Tong coiled up in Guanzhong, was blocking the way, Guan Yu would have had trouble too, but the other passes were insufficient. They would only serve their role in transferring the story of the Five Passes and Six Generals in the Romance to actual history.

Sima Yi, who had watched with his own eyes as Guan Yu left them behind, muttered in frustration:

“He pretended to come up along the Yu River to deceive our gaze, then went straight into the mountains. Guan Yu, I thought you were just an old tiger, but you’ve become quite the fox.”

As Sima Yi was admiring Guan Yu, who had managed to find the only gap in the encirclement he had thought was nearly perfect and escape, someone approached his side.

“Sh-sh-shouldn’t we, ch-chase?”

“Hmm, yes. We should chase.”

Despite the stuttering, Sima Yi answered calmly as if it were natural. The man, who seemed to be slightly over 30 years old, bowed deeply to Sima Yi and began preparing to march again without even waiting for separate orders.

While the man was organizing the camp with other officers, Sima Yi looked north, where Guan Yu, like a chicken chased by a dog onto a roof, had begun approaching Luoyang avoiding them.

“If you disliked Jingbei, you should have said so. Then I would have made Luoyang your burial place from the start. We’ve just wasted effort.”

Even in this critical moment with Guan Yu rushing towards Luoyang, Sima Yi muttered as if he wasn’t worried at all.

And in fact, he really wasn’t worried about Luoyang at all.

Those in Luoyang were people who had aspects superior even to Sima Yi.

They would surely protect Luoyang Castle until Sima Yi returns.

“The Shu bandits from Guanzhong will be blocked by Cao Zhen in Hongnong, and hmm, it’s a shame. Guan Yu’s face when blocked by Liu Ye in Luoyang would have been quite a sight to see.”

The one Sima Yi entrusted Luoyang Castle to was none other than a member of the Han imperial family, Liu Ye.