I don't know if Wei Yan is lucky or unlucky.
In the early days, Wei Yan was just a subordinate of Liu Bei, just a leading soldier. In this era where origin and family background were valued, it was actually difficult for Wei Yan to get ahead.
But the master he met was Liu Bei, a talented man who judged people very accurately.
Liu Bei saw Wei Yan's potential to become a general at a glance, promoted him from an ordinary soldier to a general, and once gave Wei Yan his own soldiers, Baijie soldiers, to command.
This was Wei Yan's luck. After all, the only monarchs who were willing to promote generals from among the soldiers at the end of the Han Dynasty were Liu Bei and Sun Quan.
Wei Yan was to Liu Bei what Lü Meng was to Sun Quan.
It's just that Liu Bei himself stayed under the shelter of others in the early days. Xinye County was lent to Liu Bei by Liu Biao in order to fight against Cao Cao. Therefore, Wei Yan has always stayed with Liu Bei as Liu Bei's personal soldier, without much opportunity for training.
Later, Zhang Xi went to Jiangxia to serve, and Liu Bei put Wei Yan into the escort team. Zhang Xi also understood Liu Bei's intentions. After the battle of E County defense, in the name of Wei Yan's meritorious service, he got Wei Yan a school captain in Jiangxia. official title.
From here on, Wei Yan had a formal military attache establishment. He was no longer a top soldier, but a formal low-level general.
After that, Liu Bei entered Sichuan, and Wei Yan began to have bad luck.
Originally, following Zhang Xi as the vanguard general to capture Yizhou, Wei Yan thought it would be a good opportunity to make contributions. However, he encountered people who surrendered along the way, so he fought a battle outside Luocheng, and most of the credit was given to him. The old man Huang Zhong took it.
There was no way. In the battle of Luocheng, Huang Zhong was the first to ascend the north gate, and the people who captured Liu Xun were also Huang Zhong's soldiers. Wei Yan failed to capture the old man.
In the end, in terms of rewards for meritorious service, Wei Yan only received the official title of General Yamen, which was the position left behind after Zhao Yun was promoted to General Yijun.
The official position of General Yamen may not be high, but after all, he is a general of some rank. Even if it is low, it is not much lower.
After all, Liu Bei's banner was to support the Han Dynasty. Official positions had to follow the Han system and be reported to the court. Liu Bei could create original official positions, but he could not modify the official system.
For example, Liu Bei can create the official positions of General Yamen, General Yijun, and General Military Advisor, but these positions are still miscellaneous generals and temporary positions. These positions cannot be fixed like the generals of the Four Directions. This is against the rules. Made in China.
Of course, Cao Cao and Sun Quan did not have so many worries. Cao Cao regarded the General of the Four Expeditions as a fixed official position, which was still above the General of the Four Directions, while Sun Quan directly fixed the temporary position of the Governor.
Well, we can’t finish the official positions and official system in a short while. Let’s leave it to later. Let’s go back to Wei Yan.
In fact, Wei Yan was not dissatisfied with the official position of General Yamen. What he was dissatisfied with was that this official position was retained by Zhao Yun after his promotion. As a result, when everyone heard about Wei Yan's official position, they subconsciously felt that Wei Yan was inferior to Zhao Yun.
Wei Yan was unconvinced.
In terms of martial arts, the two have competed, and it is difficult to tell the winner in a short period of time. In terms of command, Wei Yan is good at commanding infantry, and Zhao Yun is good at commanding cavalry. It is difficult to compare, in terms of qualifications. This Wei Yan did join Liu Bei a few years later than Zhao Yun, but The time difference before and after is not big.
Wei Yan was at a disadvantage because he had no experience in leading an army alone. However, when Zhao Yun entered Sichuan, he led an army alone and conquered Jiangyang and Qianwei counties, making great achievements.
Therefore, this time Liu Bei planned to destroy the Maming Pavilion. There were originally many famous generals in front of the account, and Wei Yan was not as good as Wei Yan in terms of official position and qualifications. However, Wei Yan was eager to make a contribution and took the initiative to ask Liu Bei for orders to go to the Maming Pavilion.
Of course, this may or may not mean that Wei Yan wants to imitate his idol Guan Yu.
At the beginning, Guan Yu conquered the northern route and made great achievements in helping Zhou Yu capture Nanjun.
Now, if Wei Yan can also decide the Maming Pavilion Road, he can also make great achievements for Liu Bei in capturing Yangping Pass. In this way, when people talk about Wei Yan, they will compare him with Guan Junhou instead of treating him as Zhao Yun's spare tire.
Liu Bei didn't have any objections.
The situation Liu Bei is facing now is different from the situation Zhou Yu faced in Nanjun. Liu Bei has many people on his side.
I sent people to cut off the Maming Pavilion Road. On the one hand, I wanted to eliminate the threat posed by Zhang He's departure from Guangshi. On the other hand, I also wanted to prompt Xiahou Yuan to rescue Zhang He and divide the garrison at Yangping Pass. In the art of war, "double equals division." " purpose.
Therefore, Liu Bei's original idea was to let the new generation generals lead the troops to exercise. It would be better if they could eliminate Zhang He in Guangshi. If not, just harass Zhang He from time to time so that he would not dare to leave Guangshi.
Therefore, since Wei Yan asked for war, Liu Bei simply agreed and appointed Wei Yan as the general and Chen Shi as the deputy general. He led 10,000 troops and went to Maming Pavilion Road.
After Xia Houyuan noticed that Liu Bei sent people to attack Zhang He in Guangshi, he responded quickly and sent Xu Huang to lead 5,000 elite soldiers to protect Maming Pavilion Road and assist Zhang He.
Wei Yan and Chen Shi officially played against Zhang He and Xu Huang.
From the perspective of later generations, the combination of Wei Yan and Chen Shi was a little weaker, but Wei Yan was also a famous general after all, and maybe he could still fight. But the reality was very skinny. Wei Yan and Chen Shi were defeated by Zhang He and Xu Huang. We had to pick up the remaining troops and garrison them on the mountain.
This really cannot be blamed on Wei Yan and Chen Shi. The main reason is that the Maming Pavilion Road and Guan Yu's Juebei Road are different.
Guan Yu's Juebei Road is just a concept, it just requires cutting off supplies from the north as much as possible, and north of Nanjun is a large area where Guan Yu can completely engage in guerrilla warfare.
But Mamingge Road is really just a mountain road, with mountains on both sides, so there is no possibility of guerrillas at all.
To cut off the Maming Pavilion, Wei Yan and Chen Shi must choose to defeat Xu Huang and Zhang He head-on. Zhang He and Xu Huang have the advantage of attacking from both front and rear.
Chen Shi was still more cautious and suggested that Wei Yan adopt the method of encirclement and reinforcements. First besiege Zhang He in Guangshi and surround the city. Then Chen Shi himself would lead his troops to ambush the grain transport teams sent to Guangshi. The wait would take a long time. , Zhang He's army in Guangshi City ran out of food and grass, then Guangshi would be defeated.
Wei Yan did adopt this suggestion, besieged the city himself, and asked Chen Shi to ambush the grain transport convoy. Then Chen Shi ran into the arms of Xu Huang's army who came to rescue.
Chen Shi's adaptability and command ability were completely suppressed by Xu Huang, and he was easily defeated by Xu Huang. Finally, he returned to the outside of Guangshi City with his remaining soldiers to repay Wei Yan.
When Wei Yan heard that Xu Huang had led troops to rescue, he quickly calculated the pros and cons and felt that it was impossible to risk siege Guangshi City, so he simply retreated with Chen Shi into the mountain road outside Guangshi City and camped on the spot.
After repelling Wei Yan and Chen Shi, Zhang He and Xu Huang reunited. Faced with Wei Yan's strategy of retreating but not retreating, they were both in a dilemma.
Guangshi City is too small. Zhang He led 3,000 troops to garrison here. If Xu Huang's 5,000 men were added to the garrison, the city could not be garrisoned, and they had to camp outside the city.
Moreover, food and grass are also a big problem.
If Xu Huang stays in Guangshi City, then the grain road on Mamingge Road will still be unguarded. Now Wei Yan refuses to retreat. Once Xu Huang stays in Guangshi City, Wei Yan will definitely continue to attack the grain transport team on Mamingge Road, which will only worsen the situation. Hanzhong was responsible for providing grain and grass support to Guangshi.
As for the option of completely repelling Wei Yan, Xu Huang also tried it. He once led 5,000 people he brought out of the city to attack Wei Yan's camp.
However, Wei Yan set up camp at the mountain pass, and the mountain pass was narrow. If Xu Huang attacked head-on, his troops would not be able to spread out. He could only attack along the path at the mountain pass. For a while, there was really nothing he could do against Wei Yan.
After all, Wei Yan was also a famous general. After setting up camp, the first thing he did was to cut down all the trees on the mountains near the camp, not giving Xu Huang a chance to attack with fire. If he wanted to break the camp, he must use human lives. Come and pile.
Although Chen Shi was defeated by Xu Huang for a while, Wei Yan still had more troops than Xu Huang. Wei Yan was not afraid of risking his life.
After Xu Huang attacked Wei Yan several times and found that he could not shake Wei Yan's camp, he did not continue to attack. Instead, he withdrew his troops and returned to the city to discuss the strategy of defending the city with Zhang He.
Xu Huang and Zhang He discussed it and decided that they could not continue to spend time with Wei Yan here. After all, Xia Houyuan had few soldiers, with a total of more than 30,000 people. It was definitely not possible to have 8,000 people restrained here.
Anyway, Guangshi City is small and can only garrison 3,000 people at most. It is better for Zhang He to hold on and Xu Huang to retreat to Hanzhong for supplies, while also guarding the Maming Pavilion Road to prevent Liu Bei's army from losing its way.
The two decided on their plan, and the next day, Xu Huang led the reinforcements he brought back to the army and returned to Hanzhong along the Maming Pavilion Road.
Wei Yan also quickly noticed Zhang He and Xu Huang's plan to divide their troops, and he also divided his troops, sending Chen Shi again to pursue Xu Huang, while he tried to continue attacking Guangshi.
On the one hand, Wei Yan wanted to hold back Zhang He and not give Zhang He the opportunity to advance eastward to attack Liu Bei's army supply road. On the other hand, Wei Yan still hoped to delay Xu Huang's return and reduce the pressure on Yangping Pass. If possible, he would To defeat Ma Mingge Road.
Zhang He hated Wei Yan very much.
When he and Xu Huang were both there, Wei Yan couldn't retreat and was on guard.
Now that Xu Huang has left, this Wei Yan dares to divide his troops? !
This is a clear sign of contempt for Zhang He.
But Zhang He is a little different from other generals with a foreign surname from Cao Wei. Zhang He will never risk his life for Cao Wei.
The last time Xia Houyuan sent him deep into Ba County to plunder the common people, he was held down by Zhang Fei and beaten violently at Wakou Pass, which almost made Zhang He unable to come back. Now he only has 3,000 men in hand. Once the field battle is defeated, this Guangshi City really cannot be defended.
As long as there is a legitimate reason, Zhang He doesn't mind showing off. After all, Zhang He sees clearly that in Cao Wei, generals with the surname Cao or Xiahou are more promising, and other generals with foreign surnames are basically given the surname Cao or Xiahou. The general was appointed as the deputy general, that is to say, Zhang Liao was more powerful. Relying on his achievements in the Battle of Bailang Mountain and Jiangdong Sun Shiwan's threat, he just became the governor of Hefei.
Zhang He lost Guangshi City and would inevitably be reprimanded by Xia Houyuan when he returned, and he might even be demoted. However, as long as Zhang He could defend Guangshi City, then Zhang He would have done a great job.
Therefore, Zhang He didn't care about Wei Yan's siege. Wei Yan didn't have many troops anyway. If he wanted to attack the city with a few thousand men, Zhang He was not afraid of him.
As for Xu Huang, Zhang He was not even worried.
Could that unknown general named Chen Shi still be a threat to Xu Gongming?
(End of chapter)
