There are some things that cannot be said on the table, but when said in private, his son-in-law objects again. Guan Yu has no excuse to oppose Deng Ai's plan.
In addition, Xu Shu also felt that it was a good idea to give it a try, so Deng Ai finally got permission to send troops.
Guan Yu personally allocated 3,000 soldiers, plus the 2,000 soldiers from Deng Ai's headquarters, a total of 5,000 men were gathered for Deng Ai to carry out the mission of sneak attack on Runan.
The plan was a bit dangerous, so all Guan Yu assigned to Deng Ai were elite soldiers, and they had more or less experience in mountain warfare. It can be said that he already cared for Deng Ai very much.
After Deng Aixing rushed back to the camp, he quickly began to gather his soldiers and prepare for the expedition. He had to rush out before his wives got the news. When it was too late, they had to get together again.
But... still couldn't escape.
Guan Yinping and Hua Wanke were in the army. When they heard that there was something strange in Deng Ai's camp, they immediately came over to check on the situation.
Hua Wan was so stupid that she didn't know what was going on, but after all, Guan Yinping had served as a vanguard officer for a period of time during the southern expedition, and she could still tell that the army was about to set out for the expedition.
Guan Yinping found Deng Ai immediately and asked where Deng Ai was going.
Deng Aizhen didn't want Guan Yinping and Huawan to get involved in this dangerous operation, so he planned to make some excuses and send Guan Yinping to Guan Yu, so that Guan Yu would watch and avoid causing trouble.
Therefore, Deng Ai said that he was ordered by Guan Junhou and had a mission.
In this way, even if Guan Yinping wanted to go into battle again, he would have to go to Guan Yu to ask for an appointment before they could go together. It was not that easy for a woman to join the army.
But the problem is that Guan Yinping not only understands his father, but also understands his husband.
So, Guan Yinping did not go to Guan Yu at all, but took Hua Wan and the two of them to change clothes directly in Deng Ai's tent into the clothes of Deng Ai's soldiers.
We will not be the generals this time, but your personal guards. We shouldn’t ask Guan Junhou to appoint us, right? !
Deng Ai was speechless. What about the two ladies at home? !
Especially Huawan, you just gave birth not long ago and the baby has not been weaned yet. Huawan said it’s okay, there is a wet nurse at home to take care of you.
This time Deng Ai was completely at his wits end.
It’s not the first time anyway, so let’s go together.
After only three days of preparation, Deng Ai led 5,000 troops. They did not take the main road, but only took the small road, trying to avoid the detection of Cao Wei's detective horses, and marched cautiously towards Runan.
It’s just that war is like this. No matter how good your plan is, in the end it depends on the emergency response and the battle is carried out completely according to the plan. There is almost no battle.
When Deng Ai led his troops to the junction of Jingzhou and Yuzhou, and was about to enter Yuzhou, Deng Ai ordered that the entire army change their uniforms and flags, from Liu Beijun's flag to Cao Wei's flag, and all military uniforms were also changed.
We are about to enter the enemy's territory. It is safer to change our clothes like this. If we are unfortunate enough to encounter some Cao Jun scouts, we might be fooled.
After doing this, Deng Ai continued to march along the small road according to the predetermined plan, preparing to pass Huyang and then go south into Jiangxia.
But at this moment, an accident occurred.
One day, Deng Ai led his troops as usual, avoiding the Wei army's scouting horses, and while marching along the path, he suddenly discovered that an army appeared on his flank.
Well, it's the army under the banner of Liu Bei's group, which is moving towards Xinye on its flank.
Deng Ai was confused at that time. Do we still have troops in Yuzhou? !
Are those local powerful troops responding to this Northern Expedition? !
That's not right. Even if the powerful people in these places respond to the Northern Expedition, they can only make a few flags, but this army even has uniforms.
There were not many in number, only a few thousand people, but they were indeed dressed like regular troops, with complete weapons and equipment, and they did not look like a powerful local team.
And Sima Yi on the opposite side was also wondering. Is there still my own army on the border of Yuzhou that Xu Duling doesn't know about? !
Could it be the army from Runan? !
But if it's Runan County soldiers, why are they here if they don't guard the Runan border well? !
Immediately afterwards, the coaches of both sides realized that this was not one of their own at all, but the enemy pretending to be one.
Next, it’s time to react first.
After Sima Yi quickly weighed the pros and cons, he immediately ordered the entire army to adjust their marching formation and switch to an offensive formation on the spot. Before the enemy could react, he attacked the Shu army that broke into Yuzhou's boundary.
Deng Ai's reaction was not slow, but he was influenced by Zhang Xi. When Deng Ai encountered this situation, his first reaction was to organize a defense on the spot, not giving the enemy a chance to defeat it quickly.
The formations of the armies on both sides suddenly changed, and they happened to form a formation in which one side attacked and the other defended.
Then, go straight to war.
Because they met halfway, no one expected that a big battle would break out here, so there were no tactics to speak of. It all depended on the on-the-spot command of the two coaches.
Deng Ai had not been in the army for a long time, and had only two experiences of leading troops. One was in the Battle of Jiangling, when he led the army to burn Lu Meng's grain and grass, and designed an ambush for Quan Cong. Half of this was Shi Bao's credit, and the other was when he replaced himself. His wife is in charge of the 3,000 Southern Expedition forward battalion. Although there is no name this time, Deng Ai is actually leading the troops.
But no matter what, Deng Ai's experience in leading troops is indeed not very rich, and his experience in commanding on the battlefield is not very sufficient.
On the other hand, Tsukatora on the opposite side...well, the future King Sima Xuan actually has no experience of leading an army alone until now.
Sima Yi was forced out of office by Cao Cao in his early years, and he had always worked in civilian or internal affairs. It was not until Cao Cao conquered Zhang Lu that he went out with the army for the first time to plan military affairs.
In the following years, Sima Yi went on several expeditions with the army, but he basically served as a staff officer and never had the experience of leading an army alone.
It wasn't until Guan Yu became powerful in China and conquered Xiangfan that in order to prevent Guan Yu from taking advantage of the situation to attack Xudu, Cao Cao had no choice but to give him a Xudu order and lead 20,000 troops to guard Xudu.
At that time, Cao Cao really had no one available, so he had to do it.
Originally, Cao Cao planned to take back Sima Yi's military power afterwards, but shortly after the Battle of Hanzhong ended, Cao Cao stayed in Luoyang for a period of time. Within a year, he died of illness in Luoyang.
When Cao Pi came to power, Cao Pi, who had always valued Sima Yi, naturally would not take back Sima Yi's military power.
Therefore, it was actually the first time that Sima Yi truly guarded a side and led troops.
The coaches of both sides are actually about the same in terms of experience, but in terms of talent, Sima Yi is definitely better than Deng Ai.
After all, even though King Sima Xuan "feared Shu as much as a tiger", the target was still at the level of Prime Minister Zhuge, and the current Deng Ai had obviously not grown to that level yet.
It was because of Deng Ai that he made the choice that was most beneficial to him at the beginning and chose to defend first, so that he was not at a disadvantage immediately.
After all, as long as the defensive side makes no mistakes, it will always take less effort than the attacking side, and they can use their tactics as they see fit.
Although Sima Yi's several subsequent commands made Deng Ai a little tired of parrying, the overall battle situation was still barely equal.
But as time went by, Sima Yi was unable to defeat the defensive formation organized by Deng Ai, and he began to feel anxious.
The fighting quality of this Shu army is extremely high, and the command level of the opponent's coach is also good. If you continue to fight like this, even if you can defeat this Shu army, you should not be able to achieve the effect of rout or encirclement and annihilation. Once you are defeated by this Shu army, If the commander leads the remaining soldiers back to the new wilderness, his plan will be completely ruined.
In fact, Sima Yi was already thinking about how to defeat the enemy when Guan Yu started his Northern Expedition.
Sima Yi judged through analysis that the focus of Guan Yu's Northern Expedition should be Nanyang, and it was unlikely that he would attack Xudu in a roundabout way. Therefore, theoretically speaking, he actually had a chance and enough troops to do something beneficial to the current situation. things.
So Sima Yi has been waiting, waiting for Guan Yu to march, waiting for Guan Yu and Zhang Liao to stalemate, waiting for Guan Yu to transport grain and grass to the transfer station to stock up.
Sima Yi analyzed the possible grain harvesting areas along the route of Guan Yu's Northern Expedition. After much deliberation, Xinye was the most likely location.
This is not something difficult to guess. Even if it were not Sima Yi, a slightly smarter person would have guessed that, after all, from Fancheng to the north, Xinye County had enough space to support the transfer of food and weapons, and there were also city walls as protection.
Although Sima Yi judged that Xinye was a grain garrison for Guan Yu's army, he did not immediately attack with troops, because Sima Yi also knew that it was impossible for a famous general like Guan Yu not to strengthen the protection of his grain garrison.
If you attack Shinno from the beginning, you're just hitting the gun.
So Sima Yi has been waiting. He deliberately kept his troops stationary in Xudu and acted as if he only wanted to protect himself. As time goes by, Guan Yu will definitely gradually relax his protection against Xinye.
And now is what Sima Yi thinks is a good time.
Guan Yu's energy was completely tied up in Deng County, confronting Zhang Liao. Almost all the generals and counselors were there, and Xinye's defenses were slowly relaxing.
Therefore, Sima Yi decided to seize this opportunity to send troops, dressed as Shu troops, not taking the main road but taking the small road, sneaking close to Xinye City, and finally making a surprise attack to occupy Xinye and cut off the food route of Guan Yu's Northern Expedition army.
After that, as long as Zhang Liao is not stupid and entangles Guan Yu on the front line, it won't take long. It only takes more than ten days. Guan Yu's army will fall into chaos due to lack of food. By then, it will be easy to defeat Guan Yu.
Sima Yi thought his plan was very good, but why did he encounter the enemy on the mountain trail not long after he went out? !
And this enemy is still very difficult to deal with. Even if you can defeat the opponent, if you can't completely annihilate it and let the enemy run back to the new field, then your plan to sneak attack on the new field will definitely be exposed, and you will no longer have the chance to make a sneak attack. .
As for the storm, don't be ridiculous. How can the few thousand people you brought out by yourself confront the tens of thousands of Shu troops who were prepared? !
Sima Yi is worried, a very good opportunity to make a meritorious service is just gone.
(End of chapter)
