The winter of the 21st year of Jian'an came quietly.
This winter, there was a heavy snowfall in the south. Even if Sun Quan wanted to, he would not be able to invade Hefei.
There is a lot of snow in Jingzhou, and the atmosphere in winter is extremely peaceful. Officials and people basically don't go out. Except for Guan Yu who still arranges for soldiers to drill regularly, it is probably the grain merchants from other places who are still willing to go to Jingzhou.
As far away as Yizhou and Chengdu, Liu Bei adopted Fazheng's three Hanzhong strategies and decided to launch an attack on Hanzhong.
Liu Bei began to mobilize his troops from the autumn harvest, and called back Zhang Fei, the governor of Brazil, and Ma Chao, who was guarding Judao, to appease the armies in northern Yizhou. In mid-November, he officially raised his troops, with Ma Chao, Zhang Fei, and Wu Lan as the partial division, and attacked. debate.
Soon, Ma Chao and Zhang Fei went north from Jiameng Pass, successfully defeated Xia Bian Cao's army, and stationed troops in Xia Bian.
At the same time, Ma Chao personally led some soldiers to the Di tribe, and using his reputation among the Di tribe, he successfully instigated the rebellion of seven tribes of Di tribes and opened the passage to Longyou.
So far, Liu Bei's partial division group occupies the junction of Wudu and Hanzhong. If it goes north and west, it can attack Longyou and threaten Liangzhou. If it goes east, it can directly take the Guanzhong area.
After Cao Cao received the news, he hurriedly dispatched General Cao Hong, Cavalry Commander Cao Xiu, and Military Commandant Cao Zhen to lead troops along Chencang Road and march to Hechi to occupy the enemy.
It can be said that Liu Bei's first move was very smooth.
After dispatching the vanguard army, Liu Bei personally led an army of more than 50,000 people, leading general Zhao Yun of the Yi Army, general Huang Zhong of the rebel army, Huang Quan, the partial general, Fa Zheng, the prefect of Shu County, and Pang Tong, the military advisor general, to attack Yangping Pass.
Of course, these are time-honored generals who are named by their names, and there are also many small generals left, such as Wei Yan, Kou Feng, Gao Xiang, Chen Shi, Lei Tong, etc., who all participated in the Battle of Hanzhong.
At this time, Xia Houyuan, the guard general of Hanzhong, had about 30,000 troops and horses, and he also had many famous generals.
Xu Huang, Zhang He, Guo Huai, Du Xi and others were all obeying orders from Xia Houyuan, not to mention Cao Hong, Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen who were confronting Zhang Fei and Ma Chao in Hechi. They were not famous generals but also people with the qualifications of famous generals.
When Xiahou Yuan heard that Liu Bei had sent troops to attack Yangping Pass, he immediately ordered his troops to rush to Yangping Pass. Taking advantage of the geographical location and Yangping Pass, he blocked Liu Bei's advance and quickly asked Cao Cao for help.
Once Zhang Fei and others defeat Cao Hong and march into Guanzhong, Xiahou Yuan may be cut off from Guanzhong. At that time, Xiahou Yuan will be alone and will inevitably repeat the mistakes of Cao Ren during the Battle of Nanjun.
In addition, Liu Bei's military strength was almost twice that of Xiahou Yuan's, so Xiahou Yuan had to quickly ask for help from Cao Cao, hoping that Cao Cao could send people to guard Chang'an, protect Guanzhong, and ensure the safety of his retreat.
But at this time, Zhang Feijun, who was stationed in defense, encountered his first crisis.
Although Zhang Fei and others occupied the place of Xiabian, because the back mountain road from the north of Jiameng Pass was difficult, Zhang Fei and Ma Chao only led thousands of people to seize the place of Xiabian, and the rear army had not yet fully caught up.
In this case, if Ma Chao wants to instigate the Seventh Division of the Di people, he has to take away a group of soldiers, otherwise there will be no deterrent effect. The Di people may not buy it just based on Ma Chao's appeal.
Therefore, Zhang Fei gave half of his troops to Ma Chao and asked Ma Chao to go to the Di tribe to instigate rebellion against the Seven Di tribes. He then gave Wu Lan a thousand troops to garrison in Xia Bian, while he led the remaining soldiers to garrison troops in Xia Bian outside the city. Hold the mountain and follow it like a horn to stop the more than 10,000 troops led by Cao Hong.
When Cao Hong arrived at Hechi, it happened that Ma Chao had finished inciting the seven tribes of the Di people to rebel and led the Di people's troops to support Zhang Fei, but he had not yet reached Xiabian.
At this time, Zhang Fei's army was very scattered and had not yet gathered together. Facing the 10,000 Cao troops led by Cao Hong, Zhang Fei was actually at a disadvantage in terms of actual strength.
In order to prevent Cao Hong from attacking Bian City directly and cutting off the return route for himself and Ma Chao, Zhang Fei tried his best to attract Cao Hong's firepower.
Zhang Fei's first thought was to spread rumors among the army, saying with great fanfare that the purpose of stationing troops in the mountains was not to defend the city, but to cross the mountain roads and rivers to cut off Cao Hong's army's food routes.
In this way, in order to avoid cutting off his retreat, Cao Hong would definitely choose to attack Zhang Fei on Gushan Mountain first.
After all, Zhang Fei was camping on the mountain. If Cao Hong wanted to attack, he would attack from above. Moreover, Zhang Fei's troops were more powerful than Wu Lan in Xiabian City. Zhang Fei was still confident that he could stop Cao Hong for a while.
As long as Cao Hong is held back in Gushan for a period of time, Wu Lan in Xiabian City receives support from the rear army, or Ma Chao leads the Di people to come. In that case, not only to defend Xiabian, but also to defeat Cao Hong is not impossible.
Just when Zhang Fei was about to send people to spread similar rumors in the army, he suddenly realized that something seemed wrong.
That Cao Hong, although he is not a famous general, he is still a person whom Cao Cao trusts. Will such a simple strategy not be hidden from him? !
It used to be. Zhang Fei can't remember the specific time, but he probably remembers that it was such a winter.
At that time, Zhang Fei and Zhang Xi hid in the military tent drinking and chatting because of the cold weather. Zhang Xi had nothing to do. When he talked to Zhang Fei about the plan to secretly assassinate Chencang, he first told Zhang Fei about Han Xin's plot to secretly assassinate Chencang, and then talked to Zhang Fei about it. Fei told a counterexample of a certain general named Jiang, and through comparison, Zhang Fei could deepen his understanding of the strategy of "secretly infiltrating Chencang".
Zhang Fei understood the positive example of Han Xin's secret plot against Chen Cang. Zhang Xi also emphasized that Qimou should be hidden within the main battle, so that Qimou could not be noticed and increase the chance of success.
As for the counterexample, Zhang Xi said that in the pre-Qin period, there was a general named Jiang who was facing an old enemy named Deng from a certain country across the river. He sent people to set up camp and pretended to confront them.
When the enemy general named Deng saw this situation, he told his subordinates that we had fewer soldiers and the opponent had more soldiers. According to common sense, he should cross the river and attack us as soon as possible. How could he suddenly set up camp? This is not in line with military common sense. .
He must have used the camp as a cover to attack other places.
After the enemy general surnamed Deng made his judgment, he quickly led his troops to another key city and found that General Jiang had indeed led his troops to attack. The enemy general surnamed Deng had made a correct judgment in advance and relied on the city defense to defeat General Jiang. attack and defended the key points.
Based on this, Zhang Xi warned Zhang Fei that this was the consequence of being found out if he was not good at using Chen Cang's strategy. Whenever Jiang made people look like they were going to cross the river to attack, they would not be seen through so quickly.
Now Zhang Fei is also thinking, can Cao Hong believe that he is spreading rumors with such great fanfare that he wants to cut off Cao Hong's food route? !
Things like cutting off people's food routes have always been done in secret, for fear that others would know about it. Talking about it in a big way is not in line with military common sense.
After thinking about it for a while, Zhang Fei called Lei Tong and told him that he should lead 500 people tomorrow and bring more flags. He should not go too far from the mountain path to Chencang, but he would quickly retreat after walking thirty miles.
After Lei Tong set off, Zhang Fei thought about it again and felt that it was still not safe, so he ordered the entire army to venture out of the already built camp, retreat to the mountainside, and set up another camp. The original camp was still filled with flags.
Then Zhang Fei could only wait.
To be honest, this time is really a very risky thing.
The camp location Zhang Fei chose for the first time was actually a very good defensive position. Depending on the height and terrain of the camp, as long as the water source was effectively protected, Cao Jun's attack could be effectively blocked.
Although the camp we chose to camp for the second time was closer to Shimoben Castle, the terrain was relatively flat. Apart from being obscured by mountains and making it difficult to be discovered, it didn't have much defensive advantage.
But Zhang Fei had no choice but to delay.
On the opposite side, Cao Hong has not seen anyone from Liu Bei's group come to challenge him since he led his army out of Chencang and marched into Hechi.
Cao Hong did not dare to be too careless. After all, the two leaders on the opposite side were a fierce man who beat Zhang He violently at Wakou Pass, and the other was a ruthless man who cut off his beard and discarded his robes after Cao Cao was killed at Tongguan Pass. It's hard to deal with them, let alone both of them.
Therefore, Cao Hong has always been very cautious when advancing troops. Even if Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen kept asking for a battle, Cao Hong would not dare to advance easily. Instead, he sent people to find out the situation on the opposite side before making a decision.
Then, through careful research, Cao Hong learned two pieces of information.
First, there are not many defenders in Xiabian City opposite, only more than a thousand people. Although the defender Wu Lan is a famous general in Sichuan, Cao Hong said that he had never heard of it.
Second, there was no movement in Zhang Fei's camp. On the contrary, on the mountain road, he saw a group of Shu soldiers climbing over the mountains and heading towards Chencang Road.
Chen Cang said, "It's right behind him."
After thinking about it for a while, Cao Hong felt that something was wrong.
Don't let this guy Zhang Fei play some tricks on me by building a plank road and secretly spending time in Chencang, right? !
But when Cao Hong thought about it, Zhang Fei was faster with his hands than with his brains. Could he come up with such a high-end strategy? !
Ma Chao? !
Ma Chao's brain is not as good as Zhang Fei's! ! !
If it were anyone else, Cao Hong might still believe it, but if the opponent is Ma Chao and Zhang Fei, two foolhardy people, there really is no need to worry so much.
After finding out that there were not many enemy troops heading towards Chencang Road, Cao Hong didn't care at all and judged that the troops were probably just a small group sent by Zhang Fei to survey the terrain.
Cao Hong decided to take advantage of the small number of troops in Xiabian City to defeat Xiabian first, and then turn around and besiege Zhang Fei on Gushan Mountain.
However, Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen quickly persuaded Cao Hong.
Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen, the more they thought about it, the more they felt something was wrong.
Zhang Fei sent troops to investigate the terrain. What was going to Chencang Road to investigate? !
Now Zhang Fei, shouldn't he be trying to find a way to defeat the army led by himself and others? !
Then he released false news, claiming that there were insufficient troops in Xiabian City, attracting himself and others to besiege Xiabian. Zhang Fei himself selected elite troops to march from the mountain trails to Chencang Road, occupy Chencang, and cut off his and others' escape routes and food routes. , no need to fight, just stick to Xiabian and Chencangdao for half a month, and half of the more than 10,000 people will starve to death.
This is simply a deadly plan.
Food supply is a big deal, and there must be no room for error.
Therefore, Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen quickly persuaded Cao Hong that even if he did not return to Chencang Road now, he must send people to Chencang to strengthen the defense to prevent Zhang Fei from leading troops to sneak attack.
Cao Hong was so embarrassed.
Cao Hong knew his ability in leading troops, and he had no problem acting as the commander and guarding the troops. However, if he was allowed to lead troops alone in battle, Cao Hong would never win.
Cao Cao also knew this, so Cao Hong led the army this time. Although Cao Hong was the leader, he sent two Cao Family Thousand Mile Horses to Cao Hong in the army to help Cao Hong.
The two leaders may still lack some experience and are a bit immature, but their understanding of military strategy is definitely above their own.
One of the two said this, and Cao Hong could hold on for a while, but both of them thought Zhang Fei was going to attack Chen Cangdao, which made Cao Hong confused.
However, is it too childish to just do nothing and retreat because we suspect that our retreat is cut off? !
(End of chapter)
