Guo Huai frowned after hearing Guanqiu Jian's question.
To some extent, Guo Huai was a little dissatisfied with Guanqiu Jian.
Ever since he gave Guan Qiu Jian face in Mei County and didn't expose his little intentions, Guan Qiu Jian had been calm for a few days and had given himself a lot of ideas. But why do you ask this now? !
The news about Sanguan and Chencangdao, as a counselor in the army, is basically what I, the general, let you read after reading it. You ask me this? !
When Guanqiu Jian saw that Guo Huai's face was not good-looking, he immediately knew that Guo Huai had misunderstood. He quickly explained and said, "General, please don't misunderstand. What Jian asked was the military report recently. He was in the military report, maybe three days ago, or On the fifth day, there was the latest military report from Kesanguan and Chencangdao. It has been ten days since now. Is there any change now?!"
Only then did Guo Huai understand what Guan Qiu Jian meant and understood Guan Qiu Jian's worries.
But that's it. Guo Huai could only deal with it with a wry smile.
After all, Guanqiu Jian was young, had never been an official, and it was his first time in battle. He really didn't understand many things.
Guo Huai's responsibility for sending troops this time is to rush to the aid of Wuzhangyuan. Most of the battle reports from the army are related to Chang'an, Mei County, and Wuzhangyuan. The military reports from these places basically arrive once every three days, or once every five days. .If the military situation is delayed, Guo Huai can be dealt with directly according to military law.
But the military reports from Sanguan and Wuzhangyuan were not sent to Guo Huai so quickly.
On the one hand, although Guo Huai is the governor of Yongzhou, he also has Cao Zhen, the governor of Yongliang.
The military reports from Sanguan and Chencangdao must be sent to Cao Zhen for review as soon as possible, and then Cao Zhen forwards them to Guo Huai. This back and forth takes a long time.
On the other hand, Sun Li is Cao Zhen's confidant, and Xia Houmao is a general of Cao Wei's clan. Although they are guarding Yongzhou, they can completely ignore Guo Huai, the governor of Yongzhou. Even if they don't send a battle report to Guo Huai, Guo Huai can't say anything. What comes.
One is due to battlefield conventions, and the other is the unspoken rules of officialdom. It is difficult to explain these two things to a young man like Guanqiu Jian.
But after Guanqiu Jian reminded him, Guo Huai also felt that this was not a big deal.
What I am now undertaking is the task of blocking Liu Bei's main army. Chen Cangdao is on his flank, and although Sanguan is some distance away, once the Shu army breaks through Sanguan, it will threaten Mei County behind me. I have to tell the governor. , if there is a military report, you must tell yourself as soon as possible.
For this reason, Guo Huai specially wrote such a letter and quickly sent it to Cao Zhen.
After that, Guo Huai continued to lead his troops and marched quickly to Wuzhangyuan.
Along the way, Guo Huai thought a lot about the battle situation in Wuzhangyuan.
Wuzhangyuan is actually less than a hundred miles away from the entrance of Baoxie Road. It is a large piece of highland raised against the mountain. Because it is five feet high, it is called Wuzhangyuan.
Now when we look at Wuzhangyuan, we will find that the area around Wuzhangyuan is all plain terrain, either large-scale farmland or residential villages. But in the late Han Dynasty, it was not like this.
Wuzhangyuan protrudes on one side of the road, but on the other side is a dense forest. No one knows what is going on inside. Even the local hunters dare not go too deep, let alone march.
There is only one road for the army to pass, and it is just below Wuzhangyuan. Cao's army occupying Wuzhangyuan is equivalent to standing on a wall that can be garrisoned by the army, threatening Liu Bei's Northern Expedition army from a high position.
Even if he was just shooting arrows on the top of the Wuzhangyuan slope, Liu Bei would not dare to lead his troops through the Wuzhangyuan easily. Not to mention the rain of arrows above his head, even if he managed to pass, he would still have to worry about being outflanked at any time.
Therefore, if Liu Bei wants to make the Northern Expedition and enter Guanzhong, he must first break through the Wuzhangyuan where Cao's army is stationed.
Guo Huai took advantage of the special terrain of Wuzhangyuan and set up camps and bunkers on the top of the slope and on the east and west sides of Wuzhangyuan for defense to prevent Liu Bei's army from breaking through Wuzhangyuan.
Now Liu Bei led the main army out of Baoxie Road and camped on the west side of Wuzhangyuan. At the same time, he sent three armies to attack Cao Jun's west camp position at the foot of Wuzhangyuan slope, trying to open up the road to the top of Wuzhangyuan slope and occupy Wuzhangyuan.
Judging from the current battle situation, some of the camps and fortresses below Wuzhangyuan have been attacked by Liu Bei's army from three directions, but they are basically only the camps on the west side.
In other words, Liu Bei's army is currently unable to form a joint force to attack Wuzhangyuan. As long as he can arrive before the top of Wuzhangyuan is breached, Wuzhangyuan will be easier to defend.
Of course, if he arrived, the top of Wuzhangyuan Slope would have been lost. Even so, it was not impossible to defend.
Guo Huai only needs to lead his troops to garrison on both sides of the lower avenue of Wuzhangyuan, and cooperate with the fortresses and camps on the east side of Wuzhangyuan. Although it will be difficult to defend, it is not impossible to hold it.
For Guo Huai, as long as all the camps and highlands on the east and west sides of Wuzhangyuan were not lost when he arrived at Wuzhangyuan, then Guo Huai still had hope of blocking Liu Bei's army from entering Guanzhong, but the price he paid was different.
As for Liu Bei, he would not actually conquer all Wuzhangyuan before Guo Huai arrived.
Even if you have the ability, you can't do this.
After all, the strategy is to attract the Chang'an garrison to Wuzhangyuan as much as possible, creating an opportunity for Wei Yan to break through Chencang Road and attack Mei County. If he really wants to completely capture Wuzhangyuan, Guo Huai will retreat to Mei County and completely destroy it. Strategy.
However, for Liu Bei's side, if they want to force Cao Jun to increase his troops in Wuzhangyuan again, the best result is to attack the top of Wuzhangyuan slope.
Only by occupying the geographical advantage of Wuzhangyuan, Guo Huai would feel the pressure and seek reinforcements from Cao Zhen in Chang'an again.
This is actually not easy. After all, the defense line of Wuzhangyuan was built by Guo Huai. The camps are interconnected and echo each other. If you attack one area, there will be at least two camps to support it, which makes it difficult to attack.
Faced with such a line of defense, even if the person in charge of this line of defense was just an unknown general Xue Ze, Liu Bei would not dare to be careless.
But after all, Liu Bei was an emperor who was experienced in battle formations. Although he was incomparable to Cao Cao in terms of military strategy, he had been fighting for decades and had extremely rich experience in battle formations.
You don't even need to ask Zhuge Liang. Liu Bei himself had his own countermeasures after observing the Wuzhangyuan defense line.
Isn't your defense line interlocking with each other? It doesn't matter. We will divide our troops into three groups and directly remove your defense line to see what you do.
Of course, this is not too safe. After all, the Xiying defense line not only has horizontal defenses, but also deep defenses. As long as the commander of the defense line is stable enough and can command calmly, the threat of a three-way attack will not be very serious. big.
Therefore, Liu Bei first sent Chen Dao's white soldiers to conduct a tentative attack.
As a result, Chen Dao's attack took five days and directly broke through three camps in depth. Liu Bei was a little confused and seriously doubted whether Xue Ze's brain was flooded. How did he manage the defense line? !
But no matter what the reason is, such a good opportunity cannot be wasted.
Upon seeing this, Liu Bei immediately sent Zhang Xi to attack the left side of the western camp, and Zhang Fei to attack the right side of the camp, trying to advance in three directions, completely clearing the western camp at the foot of Wuzhangyuan slope, and opening up the mountain road up to Wuzhangyuan.
The progress was smooth at the beginning. Under the siege of the Third Route Army, many defensive camps in the western area were breached. In addition, Cao Jun's general Xue Ze stationed at the top of the mountain did make mistakes due to lack of ability, causing chaos among the camps at the bottom of the mountain. , let alone supporting each other, it is not easy for each to hold on to the camp.
This scene lasted for less than two days, and Liu Bei's three-pronged army completed the encirclement. The entire western defense line of Cao's army in Wuzhangyuan was completely broken through, leaving only the three pin-shaped camps in front of the mountain road still holding on.
When the attack reached this point, Liu Bei had only one choice, which was to storm these three camps and open up the road to Wuzhangyuan.
Xue Ze, who had been making mistakes in command and response, finally knew what he should do at this time - hold on to the mountain road and prevent Liu Bei's army from attacking Wuzhangyuan.
Xue Ze actually has some background. He is a descendant of the Xue family in Hedong.
But Xue Ze did not become a military commander solely based on his family background. When he was a county captain in Hedong in his early years, he also followed Xiahou Dun to quell the Hedong rebellion. He had military exploits and qualifications.
Otherwise, Guo Huai would not have handed over the defense line of Wuzhangyuan to Xue Ze to take charge after returning to Chang'an.
However, Guo Huai somewhat looked up to Xue Ze. Xue Ze had the ability, but it was limited to charging into battle. If you asked him to command the entire Wuzhangyuan defense line, he really didn't have the commanding ability. The decisions he made were often based on one thing and the other. Sometimes Even contradictory.
But the current battle situation is different from when it first started.
At the beginning, the Shu army advanced in three directions. Xue Ze really didn't know how to coordinate the joint defense of the battalions, so he focused on one and lost the other, and was at a loss.
But now Xue Ze no longer needs to make decisions and coordinate.
There are only three camps left in the western defense line. If Liu Bei's army breaks through these three camps, they can directly attack Wuzhangyuan along the mountain road.
Xue Ze now has only one choice, which is to go to the front line to supervise the battle and defend the mountain road.
Besides, Xue Ze also knew that now was the time for him to fight. If he didn't fight, Guo Huai would be able to kill him even if he ran back.
Therefore, Xue Ze also became ruthless and no longer stayed on the top of the original slope of Wuzhang. Instead, he stationed himself directly at the entrance of the mountain road, behind the three camps at the foot of the mountain road, setting an example to inspire Cao Jun's courage to persevere.
However, this decision was somewhat too late.
If Xue Ze did this at the beginning of the Western District Defense War, there is a high probability that it would really boost morale. Even if Xue Ze's response was wrong, the defenders would be able to defend for a few more days and would not be occupied by Liu Bei's army in less than ten days. Most of the West End defense.
But now, there are only three camps left in the entire Western District defense line, and you, Xue Ze, rushed behind you. Your morale has almost been destroyed. You came not to rescue but to supervise the battle. What do you want the soldiers to think? !
In addition to the three armies of Liu Bei's army on the opposite side, there are nearly 30,000 troops. Cao's army can hold 2,000 people at this mountain pass, including Cao's army still stationed on Wuzhangyuan Mountain. How can we fight this battle with only 10,000 people? !
The army has no fighting spirit and the general has no strategy. The battle at the mountain pass is over before it even starts.
(End of chapter)
