In October of the first year of Qianyou, the Shehu Army arrived in Baoji. Baoji, also called Chencang, is the starting point of the Chencang Road connecting Guanzhong and Hanzhong. It has always been an important town guarding Guanzhong. Fengxiang is very close to Baoji, and all the Shehu Army arrived in less than half a day.
The person guarding this place is Li Yancong, the general of Zhao Hui's army and the supervisor of both soldiers and horses. Baoji City has not been repaired for a long time and the city walls are in ruins. After Li Yan arrived here, he built another military stronghold in the south of Baoji, closer to the Wei River.
Guo Xin led his army to come to the rescue. He had a thousand soldiers from the Shehu Army and two additional commanders from Zhao Yanjin. Li Yan had 2,000 defenders, for a total of more than 4,000 people, including 800 horsemen and grain levies from nearby counties. Civilian husbands are not included among them.
Zhao Yanjin became Guo Xin's deputy general, and the three met first in the stronghold.
Among the three people present, Li Yancong had the highest position, but it would be difficult for him to put on airs when faced with second-generation people like Guo Xin and Zhao Yanjin. He smiled and said first: "The Shu army is coming with force. They left Fengzhou yesterday. We went to spy. Tanqi came to report that there were countless civilians transporting food in the valley behind him... The two of them arrived quickly, but the Shu army has not yet arrived at Sanguan. In this way, we know the general details of the Shu army, and what kind of strength the Shu army has against our forces. I don’t know yet. How to defend it now, do you two have any ideas?”
The relationship between Zhao Yanjin and Guo Xin is now that of brothers. After looking at Guo Xin, Guo Xin nodded and let Zhao Yanjin speak first.
Zhao Yanjin then said: "The Shu army is powerful. The governor has made a surprise attack on Sanguan once before. Now he is afraid that the other side will be prepared if he attacks again. Therefore, the general thinks that it is best for our army to rely on the Wei River to defend this stronghold and interact with the city." Support and wait until father captures Fengxiang before making a decision."
Li Yancong nodded slightly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, and then said: "By the way, in addition, there is a military stronghold called Mobi thirty miles away from here, which is built on the mountain and is even closer. The way out is at Sanguan. If there is an army there, the Shu army will not be able to get out of the pass in large numbers. They have to pull out Mobi Stronghold first."
It's the Weihe River and what kind of Mobi Village is it? Guo Xin doesn't know the details of this place. He sounds completely clueless and can't help but interject: "I wonder if the governor has a map of this place?"
Li Yan immediately ordered someone to find a map and spread it on the table. Guo Xin stepped forward and looked at it. He saw that the map was not even simple. It was simply scrawled. It simply used lines to briefly depict the locations of mountains, rivers and cities, and the map above There is a lot of smearing, so it must not be accurate and can only be used hastily.
But at least he still understood the situation. Sanguan was not built at the Qinling Mountain Pass, but in the valley road. After leaving the pass, it was still twenty or thirty miles away from the mountain pass, which was exactly a day's journey for the army. After leaving the Qinling Mountains, there is only less than ten miles away from Baoji Village - but between these ten miles there is the Wei River. The Weihe River is naturally not a small river like the Donggou River. It is not possible to swim directly across the river, and it is not easy to build a pontoon bridge.
Guo Xin raised his head and found that Li Yancong and Zhao Yanjin were silent and looked at him seriously. They seemed to have misunderstood that he wanted the map because he had some clever plan.
Seeing that both of them were waiting to hear his opinion, Guo Xin naturally couldn't say anything, so he pondered slightly and gave it a try: "The Shu army is coming with a lot of force, but I think it has three disadvantages at the moment."
After the two men nodded, Guo Xin continued: "First of all, the Shu army came from afar, and it was undoubtedly the time when the division was tired. Moreover, the governor had previously defeated the front army of the Shu army. It is estimated that he has many concerns about our army for the time being. We will not attack rashly; secondly, the Shu army sent troops earlier than we expected, but this also shows that it hastily went to war and must be poorly prepared; thirdly, we have heard that the road to Shu is difficult and it is extremely inconvenient to station troops and transport food. And with so many people, it’s unclear whether we can fight for a long time.”
Li Yancong asked: "What General Guo said is absolutely true, but he doesn't know how to deploy our army?"
Guo Xin asked in return: "I wonder what the size of the Mobi stronghold that the governor mentioned earlier is? Is there food and grass in it? How many people are stationed now?"
Li Yancong paused and said: "The scale of Mobi is far smaller than that of a stronghold. It can only accommodate a thousand soldiers at most. At present, our army only has one commander in it, but the food supply is enough."
Hearing this, Guo Xin said: "If this is the case, I will think that defending Mobi is worse than not defending it. Although its location is dangerous, it is a small village after all. If the Shu army wants to seize the stronghold, Mobi will not be able to resist it, but it will be destroyed in vain. We have lost our combat power. After all, we have few soldiers, so it is best to stick to our stronghold."
Zhao Yanjin also said: "What Guo Lang said agrees with me. Our army still defends our stronghold. Even if the Shu army comes to attack in large numbers, we are not afraid of him."
Seeing that Zhao Yanjin had no objection but Li Yancong looked hesitant, Guo Xin smiled and clasped his fists and said, "It's embarrassing to say that I have been beating people since I was in the army, but I have never been beaten. What I just said is nothing. It's just a talk on paper, just for reference. It's up to Director Li to decide how to deploy it, so don't miss the chance to start the war."
Li Yancong obviously still had some opinions on Guo Xin's words. After pondering for a moment, he said: "There are still a few days before the Shu army comes. The three points that General Guo said earlier are very reasonable. I think it is better to prepare with both hands and build a bridge along the river. Boats are needed to prevent the enemy from crossing the river. On the one hand, it is better to send additional troops and horses to Mobi to support and fight before the Shu army has a stable foothold. If you can defeat the enemy at Mobi, it is best. If not, retreat early and come back. , and don’t waste your time.”
After hearing this, Guo Xin did not insist on his opinion, but secretly said in his heart: Zhao Hui led his troops to be more prepared and cautious, but Li Yancong's style of using troops was completely different from that of his commander.
The three of them finalized the details of the battle and decided that Li Yancong would lead a thousand troops to Mobi for support, while Zhao Yanjin's troops would provide support from behind and Guo Xin would stay in the stronghold.
Early the next morning, Li Yan had just ordered his troops and horses. When Guo Xin and Zhao Yanjin were seeing him off in front of the village gate, a scout suddenly reported the enemy's situation. The three of them boarded the gate of the village and saw hundreds of Shu troops and horses. The army is facing here across the river.
Guo Xin frowned: "The Shu army is already here?"
"No." Li Yancong asserted his objection, "The reports from the forward scouts are correct. This unit must be just the front troops of the Shu army. They want to find out the true strength of our army."
After Li Yancong said this, he snorted coldly, then took the bag from the soldier and put it on: "It's better to come sooner than later. Since our army is ready, there is no reason to let him go back. You two are here to watch the formation. Let me defeat the enemy first!"
Guo Xin and Zhao Yanjin looked at each other. After all, they both obeyed Li Yan's command in name. Moreover, the enemy troops on the other side were indeed few in number, so neither of them spoke against it.
After saying this, Li Yan descended from the gate of the stronghold and ordered his troops to come out of the stronghold to meet the enemy.
Not long after, he saw the enemy troops on the other side turning and running away. Li Yancong led his troops to continue the pursuit. Soon he sent back a soldier to report to Guo Xin that Li Yancong had sent an order to Mobi Village to leave soldiers and horses to guard the mountain pass and prepare. Destroy the enemy troops in front of the mountain.
The two of them waited in the village for any news, but no news came for a long time.
It was not until dusk that dozens of people came from the other side. Guo Xin saw that they were Han soldiers wearing armor, and immediately felt something was wrong. When he got closer, he found that the soldiers' armor was incomplete, and some were injured and carried on horses. .
After they were let in, a group of people would cry bitterly in front of the village gate and report that Shu general Shengui had set up an ambush in the bamboo forest near Mobi. Li Yancong led his troops in an ambush, and Mobi village was subsequently lost. Although Li Yancong was seriously injured, he was escorted by his own soldiers to fight his way out of the siege, but most of his troops had been lost.
Guo Xin and Zhao Yanjin hurriedly went to see Li Yancong who was being supported on his horse by his own soldiers. They saw that Li Yancong was unconscious, the arrow in his right chest had not been removed, his helmet was missing, and his armor was stained with blood. , the skin on his forehead was scratched, and the blood mixed with the soil even dried on his face. It was obvious that he had lost miserably in front of the mountain pass.
