The next morning, on the precipitous Jiange Pass wall, two men in official robes stood watching the departure of a group of people below.
Of these two men, one has a gold seal with a purple ribbon, and the other has a bronze seal with a black ribbon, representing their respective official ranks.
The man with the bronze seal and the black ribbon is Yang Yi, the Prime Minister's Chief Registrar. And besides Zhuge Liang, the current Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty, who else can be in front of him?
Yang Yi stared at Yu Fan and his party who were gradually moving away. He asked hesitantly: "Does the Prime Minister think Sun Quan will follow the advice of Yu Fan and Sun Huan to send troops to Huainan?"
Even though Zhuge Liang followed Mi Yang's wishes yesterday and used two fatal moves against Yu Fan and Sun Huan, making them surrender, the military and political power in Jiangdong was still firmly in the hands of Sun Quan.
The fear of Yu Fan and Sun Huan does not mean that Sun Quan will be afraid.
If Sun Quan insists on sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight, I am afraid that no one in the world can force Sun Quan to send troops.
Yang Yi's worries seemed to Zhuge Liang to be unnecessary.
"meeting.
Because he is the Lord of Jiangdong who is good at checks and balances and self-preservation. "
Zhuge Liang's tone was quite determined.
The certainty in his heart stems from his understanding of Sun Quan.
For Sun Quan, the fundamental reason why he has been recuperating is to use Jiangdong's power to ensure his own interests.
Although Mi Yang's two killing moves have various explanations in name, the information actually revealed is:
Maybe the Han Dynasty will lose Liangzhou, but after the Han Dynasty loses Liangzhou, he will definitely fight against Jiangdong. By then, among the three strongest people in the world, who will perish first?
This deep meaning may be a bit rogue, but when dealing with a duplicitous villain like Sun Quan, sometimes rogue methods can be miraculous.
After Yu Fan and Sun Huan returned to Jiangdong, it was impossible for Sun Quan to remain indifferent after learning everything.
Even considering that this was Mi Yang's plan to kill with a borrowed knife, Sun Quan would be happy to be the knife in Mi Yang's hand.
"Sun Quan will not only send troops, but according to my expectations, he will also use his greatest strength to send troops for the Northern Expedition."
Yang Yi was even more surprised when he heard Zhuge Liang's judgment.
"What's the explanation?"
Yang Yi believed that it was still unknown whether Sun Quan would send troops for the Northern Expedition, and even if Sun Quan did send troops for the Northern Expedition, with his style, he would probably send out old, weak and remnant troops to show off.
Seeing that Yang Yi still couldn't understand the reason, Zhuge Liang couldn't help but look a little disappointed.
Being appointed by Zhuge Liang as his chief secretary shows that he values Yang Yi's talents very much.
Perhaps Yang Yi is only good at planning and managing politics, but still has many shortcomings in terms of national strategy and people's hearts.
This is really incomparable with Mi Yang.
When he thought of Mi Yang, Zhuge Liang couldn't help but smile.
Whether it was the joint idea of a surprise attack on Dingjun Mountain before, or the current double act to jointly intimidate Sun Quan, it can be fully proved that Mi Yang and him have a natural fit in many things.
This is a very happy thing for Zhuge Liang.
Although the phoenix chick has passed away, there is still a white deer, and a close friend is always hard to find.
However, Zhuge Liang did not reveal his inner thoughts in front of Yang Yi. He just explained lightly:
"Because Sun Quan is greedy."
After saying this, Zhuge Liang walked down the city wall.
Yang Yi, who stayed on the city wall, carefully pondered Zhuge Liang's words. After a long time, a knowing smile appeared on Yang Yi's face.
Yes, Sun Quan is an extremely greedy person.
For a greedy person, since the only choice is the Northern Expedition, he will definitely do his best to gain the greatest benefits for himself on the Northern Expedition.
After understanding Zhuge Liang's profound meaning, Yang Yi couldn't help but look to the east.
The war in the northwest has not stopped, and there is about to be another attack on the southeast. Fighting from two sides, can Cao Wei stop it?
At the end of May in the fourth year of Zhangwu of Han Dynasty.
As the rainy season was approaching, Zhuge Liang finally completed all the preparations for the surprise attack on Dingjun Mountain in the Jiange.
This also heralds that a great tactic once performed by the Han army will soon appear again among the stretching mountains.
But before ordering the army to set off, Zhuge Liang ordered tens of thousands of Han troops to leave the Jiange and set up camp a few miles away from Cao Hong's camp.
When Cao Hong learned the news from the scouts, he couldn't believe the information he got for a while.
After Cao Hong summoned the generals, he angrily slapped the military report in his hand on the desk in front of him, and then roared:
"Where did Yizhou get tens of thousands of troops in just one year?"
There is a reason why Cao Hong lost his temper.
The military information he had received before was that Zhuge Liang only brought more than 10,000 soldiers during his southern expedition. Even if Zhuge Liang succeeded in pacifying Nanzhong, doesn't Zhuge Liang need to divide his troops to stay in Nanzhong?
Well, even if Zhuge Liang didn't take this into consideration, in less than a year, where did Zhuge Liang pull tens of thousands of troops from and just call him directly?
Yang Fu sat at the top of the list. Looking at Cao Hong who was losing his temper, he knew the answer in his heart.
Ji Han and Cao Wei were mortal enemies. As early as Cao Cao's time, Cao Cao spent a lot of energy exploring the reality of Yizhou.
After inquiring into the truth, Cao Cao once informed Cao Zhen, who was guarding Guanzhong, in a secret letter about the level of Yizhou's national power.
According to the information we have gathered, if an army from Yizhou rises to overthrow the country, the total number of troops will be around 80,000 at most.
During the Battle of Hanzhong, the total force Liu Bei mobilized was around this number.
It's just that this is the largest military force that Yizhou can unleash, and it is not a conventional military force, because Yizhou's national strength cannot support the logistics expenditure of such a large army.
Even though Liu Bei won the Battle of Hanzhong, that battle also almost depleted the national power reserves accumulated by Liu Yan and Liu Zhang for more than ten years. Otherwise, when Guan Yu flooded the Seventh Army later, Yizhou would not have remained silent.
Apart from the influence of national power, the reason why Yizhou rarely devotes all its troops is that Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang's policy of governing Shu is to conduct wars without affecting people's livelihood as much as possible.
This is fundamentally different from Cao Wei's national policy - Ji Han emphasized sustainable development.
Of course, it is precisely because of this national policy that the people of Yizhou belong to Liu Bei.
Last year, Yizhou gave people the feeling that its military strength was out of control, mainly due to the above two reasons.
But as a year passed, Ji Han's treasury regained savings, and the Han army ended the dangerous two-front fighting situation. Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang had the confidence to make a desperate move just like they did in the Battle of Hanzhong.
Yang Fu stood up and told Cao Hong and the generals present what he had inferred.
After making these inferences, Yang Fu also came to a conclusion:
"Tens of thousands of bandit troops are approaching, and although it looks majestic, Yizhou only has the national power of one state, so how can it sustain the supply of food, grass and military supplies for tens of thousands of troops for a long time?
This is why the enemy jumps over the wall in a hurry.
Our army does not need to panic. As long as our army strictly guards the camp and does not allow the rebel army to take advantage of it, even though the enemy army is large, they will collapse within a few months. "
Yang Fu's judgment instantly aroused the approval of all the generals present.
Even Cao Hong felt that Yang Fu's words made sense after hearing it.
In fact, long before he officially sent out troops for the southern expedition, Cao Zhen had also considered that the Han army might ignore Nanzhong and devote all its strength to support the northern border.
Regarding this approach, Cao Zhen also had a corresponding countermeasure - procrastination and competing with the Han army for national strength.
A year ago, if the Han army wanted to use Yizhou's troops to confront the Wei army, the huge logistical pressure would probably cause the Han army to collapse within three months.
Now even though the Han army had the foresight to pacify Nanzhong first and accumulate national strength for a year before choosing this approach, the Han army's essential disadvantages have not changed.
It's nothing more than turning three months into six months or seven months.
In that case, what's there to panic about?
After appeasing everyone's military morale, Yang Fu suggested to Cao Hong:
"General Hussar can write to the general and inform him that tens of thousands of reinforcements from Yizhou have been dragged outside Yangping Pass by our army. I hope the general will not worry."
Yang Fu's suggestion touched Cao Hong's heart again. He had just been severely reprimanded by Cao Pi and Cao Zhen in a series of letters because of his defeat by Liu Feng. Now it was time for him to redeem his merits.
So not long after, a hundred-mile rush was sent out from Cao Hong's military camp.
Where are the Yizhou reinforcements?
They are "confronting" my army outside Yangping Pass.
General, please rest assured.
I’ll work overtime tonight and start with a short chapter.
Two big chapters will be posted tomorrow.
(End of chapter)
