Before Zhao Yun formally formed the Liangzhou Cavalry Corps, even if he captured Guanzhong Chang'an, Zhang Xi would not be able to get rid of horseshoes.
Once Cao Wei has horseshoes, the combat effectiveness of the cavalry legion will be even higher. Zhang Xi does not want to see such a bad situation.
Therefore, Zhang Xi finally accepted all the three reasons Liu Yin gave for not being able to build mountain roads for the time being.
The problem now is that the Baoxie Mountain Road is still steep, but Liu Bei's second Northern Expedition is coming soon. We must find a way to increase the transportation capacity.
Since we can't think of a way on the mountain road, we can only think of a way on the grain transport vehicle.
Well, after returning to Hanzhong, go force the Zhuge villager and ask him to quickly get the wooden cow and the horse out. Zhang Xite is curious about what this thing is like.
The Wooden Cow and the Flowing Horse actually existed in history and were originally recorded in the "Collected Works of Zhuge Liang" specially collected by Chen Shou for Sima Yan.
This book not only records Zhuge Liang's various policies for governing the country, but also marching operations, military theories, and manufacturing methods of military products. It is very comprehensive.
As Sima Yi's grandson, Sima Yan recognized Zhuge Liang's military and political abilities, but it is quite speechless for people more than 1,700 years later to still doubt the prime minister's abilities.
The book "The Collection of Zhuge Liang" is really a treasure book, but due to various reasons, most of this book had disappeared during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. After all, even the Jin Dynasty could not save it at that time, let alone Forget about a book.
In later generations, many copying errors occurred during the transmission and copying process in the past dynasties, resulting in various versions being different. Coupled with various poor preservation, no one can completely restore the original recorded content. .
Even during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, not far from the Three Kingdoms period, Zu Chongzhi tried to restore the wooden cow and flowing horse, but he also did not leave any record. It is most likely that he failed to imitate it successfully. Probably at the time of Zu Chongzhi, the wooden cow and flowing horse had been completely lost. .
Although some archaeologists in later generations believe that wooden cows and flowing horses are single-wheeled wheelbarrows and two-wheeled carts, there are also many people who hold objections. Zhang Xi is curious.
Now that I have the opportunity, why don't I take a closer look at it and see what the wooden cow and flowing horse that Zhuge Liang personally built looks like? !
It doesn't matter whether Zhuge Liang hasn't created this yet.
Even if Zhuge Liang hasn't built a wooden ox and a flowing horse, Zhang Xi at least knows the structure of a single-wheeled wheelbarrow and a two-wheeled cart. If it doesn't work, just use this thing instead.
Both of these are the kind of transportation vehicles that can afford transportation without animal power and only human power. Especially the wheelbarrow, which made great contributions in the Liberation War.
With the temporary solution in place, the transportation capacity problem of Baoxie Mountain Road can be put aside for the time being. Zhang Xi began to ask Chen Dao about the movements of Cao's army in Guanzhong.
Especially after Cao Zhen replaced Cao Ren as the governor of Yongliang, did he make any military changes?
The original Guanzhong defense strategy formulated by Cao Ren was still biased towards offense, especially the Baoxie Pass, which Cao Ren wanted to recapture more than once.
After all, the Baoxie Pass poses a great threat to Guanzhong. Liu Bei can pass through the Baoxie Pass directly into Guanzhong from Hanzhong. In this case, the military supply line will be much shorter than sending troops from northern Yongzhou or Liangzhou.
If Baoxie Pass is recaptured and Liu Bei is forced to leave Longshan Road and transport grain from Yongzhou, then Cao Ren only needs to defend Chang'an for a while, and Liu Bei may retreat because the supply line is too long and the logistical pressure is too great, just like in the Northern Expedition.
Therefore, Cao Ren's military deployment was divided into two.
More than 50,000 Cao troops stayed in Guanzhong, 20,000 were stationed in Chang'an, 10,000 were stationed in Youfufeng to guard against the Shangyong invaders Feng Mengda, and the remaining 20,000 were all scattered along the Baoxie crossing, forming a new border with the Baoxie crossing. A siege network was built, some walls were built as a place to garrison troops, and the Baoxie crossing was besieged.
If the opportunity is right, Guo Huai will be ordered to lead the troops to try to recapture Baoxie Road like last time. If the opportunity is not right, the pressure on Baoxie Road can still be maintained.
With such a distribution of military strength, once Liu Bei leads his troops out of Baoxie Road for the second Northern Expedition, he will first have to find a way to deal with Cao's troops scattered around, which is obviously very difficult.
As long as the Han army cannot solve these surrounding cities and towns at the same time, then Cao Jun will definitely get the news, so that he can shrink his troops and deploy defenses in time, providing Cao Ren in Chang'an with enough reaction time.
However, attacking these cities one by one would be time-consuming and labor-intensive, and would not be able to achieve a surprise victory.
After all, Guanzhong is an important place that Cao Jun cannot give up easily, and Chang'an is a strong city. If it enters into a strategic stalemate and fights for attrition, the Han army will not be able to consume Cao Wei's army.
After all, Cao Ren is a famous general. The strategy he formulated may not be the best and has some flaws, but it is the most suitable method he can choose to hold on to Guanzhong at the moment.
But now that Cao Ren has died of illness, Cao Pi, who is most likely to continue Cao Ren's strategy, has been transferred back to Yecheng by Cao Pi. The new governor of Yongliang is Cao Zhen.
Cao Zhen is the second generation clan general of the Cao family. Perhaps in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", people feel that his IQ is only a little higher than Xia Houmao's, but in fact, this man's mind and ability are the same as those of the second generation of the Cao family. , the top existence.
At least he was much better than Cao Xiu, the guy who even blamed his savior after losing the battle.
This was recognized by Chen Dao.
The Cao army's defense line at Baoxie Pass did not change much. Cao Zhen did not completely deny Cao Ren's defensive strategy just because the new officer took office.
On the contrary, Cao Zhen not only accepted Cao Ren's defensive arrangement, but also transferred 10,000 soldiers from Luoyang to specifically strengthen the defense in the direction of Longshan Road.
If there was a flaw in Cao Ren's defensive measures, it was that the defense line was placed too close to the Baoxie Road entrance, and the defense force in the direction of Longshan Road was insufficient.
Once Liu Bei did not leave Baoxie Road and instead led his army out of Longshan Road, as long as he defeated Cao Jun on the front of Longshan Road and detoured to the east bank of the Wei River to threaten Chang'an, Cao Jun who besieged the entrance of Baoxie Road would be cut off from Chang'an and become a lone army.
But this is not to say that Cao Ren couldn't see these flaws. Cao Ren actually knew them all, but rather than Liu Bei going out of the Baoxian Road and entering Guanzhong, Cao Ren wanted Liu Bei to go out of the Longshan Road.
Still the same problem, in this case, Liu Bei's army's supply line is too long, which is conducive to Cao Ren's persistence.
Furthermore, Cao Ren had no better way. He only had so many defenders at hand, so he could only tear down the east wall to repair the west wall. At this stage, he would focus on where the danger was greatest.
Cao Pi was not Cao Cao. Although he left more than 50,000 garrison troops with Cao Ren when he evacuated Chang'an, he did not give Cao Ren any other authority. Therefore, Cao Ren had no right to mobilize troops from other places.
But Cao Zhen is different.
First, the relationship between Cao Zhen and Cao Pi is obviously much closer than that of Cao Ren, their uncle.
After all, the two grew up together and knew each other very well. Compared to Cao Ren, his elder uncle, Cao Pi was obviously closer and trusted Cao Zhen, his brother.
Second, Cao Zhen is not an ordinary person. He has long studied Cao Ren's defense layout in Guanzhong and knows where the weaknesses of Cao Ren's defense line are.
Although he understood Cao Ren's purpose, Cao Zhen felt that if he had the ability to block the loopholes in the defense, it would be better to block them. What if Liu Bei was not short of food? !
Therefore, after replacing Cao Ren as the new governor of Yongliang, Cao Zhen immediately asked Cao Pi to allow him to move troops from Luoyang to the west to support Chang'an.
Cao Pi originally didn't want to agree. After all, he was almost ready at this time. He was planning to send troops from Yanzhou to attack Soochow and take back Qingxu Province.
But Cao Zhen repeatedly persuaded His Majesty Cao Pi not to think that Liu Bei would stand idly by when Qing Xu started fighting, right? !
That was an old fox. If he didn't take the opportunity to take action, I would really be sorry for him to live such a long life.
Cao Pi thought it right. Although he was a little reluctant, he still transferred 10,000 troops from Luoyang to Chang'an for Cao Zhen to guard against the Shu army.
In this way, Cao Zhen filled in the hole and strengthened the defense of Longshan Road.
Although the number of troops is not large, only 10,000, at least there is a chance to plug the loopholes in Longshan Road, and at worst, it can serve as a warning, buying time for Cao Zhen to readjust his deployment.
Cao Zhen even sent Xiahou Mao, a second-generation clan general and Cao Pi's brother-in-law, to lead five thousand troops to guard Chencang Road, cutting off the possibility of Liu Bei sending troops to Chencang Road.
Just the adjustment of these two fronts made Chen Dao understand that although this Cao Zhen is young, he is really not the kind of person who can only talk on paper. He has real materials.
Although he may not be as good as the old fox Cao Ren, he is also not easy to deal with.
Zhang Xi actually knew this, but Zhang Xi didn't care too much.
Cao Zhen's adjustment was indeed timely, making the Guanzhong defense line more perfect. But Cao Zhen is not Cao Ren after all. The current Cao Zhen is still a little immature compared with Cao Ren, who has been in battle for a long time.
Yes, Cao Zhen did let Luo Guanzhong fall into the trap. He was actually very capable. In history, the governor of Yongliang defeated the Qiang and Hu, and pacified Hexi. When Cao Pi went south to conquer Jingzhou, he even defeated Sun Sheng. He was indeed very successful in battle.
But this guy has actually done a lot of stupid things, the most stupid of which was leading tens of thousands of troops along the Ziwu Valley trail in an attempt to sneak attack Hanzhong. As a result, he led the army and was soaked in the rain for a month in Ziwu Valley, and many of the soldiers died of illness. , and finally had to retreat without even touching the edge of Hanzhong.
This is simply the behavior of a fool. It is probably because of this that Luo Guanzhong wrote that Cao Zhen's intelligence was not much higher than that of Xia Houmao.
This guy's brain circuit is sometimes worse than that of old man Wei.
After all, Old Man Wei knew that a sneak attack on Chang'an through the Ziwu Valley could only lead a small number of elite troops, and Zhuge Liang needed timely support to do so. Cao Zhen, on the other hand, led tens of thousands of people through the Ziwu Valley mountain road, which was purely careless.
Zhang Xi did not underestimate Cao Zhen. He recognized Cao Zhen's ability and recognized Cao Zhen's reinforcement of the Guanzhong defense line. But compared to Cao Ren, Zhang Xizhen did not take Cao Zhen seriously.
One is that although Cao Zhen's line of defense has been adjusted, it is not foolproof. To break through this line of defense, Zhang Xi alone can think of at least two ways to break through this line of defense.
The other is: Today's big men don't just rely on Zhuge Liang and Wei Yan to support the situation. Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, Fazheng, Huang Quan, plus myself, can we still beat you and Cao Zhen? !
(End of chapter)
