This Northern Expedition went so smoothly that even Zhangxi felt unreal.
Recalling the history in Zhang Xi's memory, Prime Minister Zhuge made several Northern Expeditions, and each time he worked hard and was extremely miserable.
Although Cao Wei was also beaten, "Yongliang did not remove his armor, and the Central Plains did not release his saddle", except for the first Northern Expedition when he left the Qishan Road, which had the effect of "shaking the three counties", the other times were blocked in the Qishan Mountains. Don't go any further than the road entrance.
But now, the second Northern Expedition led by Liu Bei, facing the unlucky place of Wuzhangyuan, actually took only ten days to defeat two lines of defense and station troops on Wuzhangyuan.
As for the third line of defense in Wuzhangyuan, the defensive belt of Cao's army on the east side, it is not that it cannot be defeated, it is just that the attack has been postponed due to the strategic plan.
In fact, this is somewhat unreasonable.
Zhang Xi accidentally captured Xue Ze, the guard of Wuzhangyuan, and used Xue Ze to deceive him into opening the gate of the Wuzhangyuan highland camp. After surrendering most of Cao's troops in the camp, he occupied Wuzhangyuan highland.
At this time, there was actually no general on the east side of the Wuzhangyuan defense line. Zhang Xi could completely control it according to the law. Whether it was to falsely open the village gate or persuade him to surrender, he could take advantage of the situation and regain the entire Wuzhangyuan in one fell swoop.
However, Zhang Xi considered that his own strategic purpose was to attract Cao's troops to the Wei River front line. Therefore, after occupying Wuzhangyuan, Zhang Xi did not lead the troops to attack. At the same time, he also sent military liaison messengers to contact Chen Dao and Zhang Fei asked them to postpone their advance and station themselves at the Wuzhangyuan highland camp first. At the same time, he informed Liu Bei and asked Liu Bei to make a decision.
This was done to maintain the strategy of the Northern Expedition and to provide a cover for Wei Yan to leave Chencang Road and attack Mei County. However, in the eyes of outsiders, Zhang Xi was wasting his opportunity.
The delay of one or two days is reasonable. It can be attributed to the fact that the Han army was a little carried away after their victory, but the delay was too long. Such a move that was not consistent with military common sense was bound to arouse suspicion from others.
Especially Guo Huai, he is not a brainless commander. Zhang Xi is really worried about what Guo Huai will see.
But the day after Zhang Xi was worried about this, Cao Jun's reinforcements forward, led by Wen Qin, rushed to the camp on the east side of Wuzhangyuan and reorganized the defensive line.
This made Zhang Xi breathe a huge sigh of relief.
This is why Zhang Xi lamented that after the troops were dispatched in the Northern Expedition, everything went so smoothly that it was unbelievable.
Liu Bei had just left the Baoxie Pass and was about to attack Wuzhangyuan. It turned out that Xue Ze, the defender of Wuzhangyuan, was a foolhardy and selfish guy. Not only did he waste Guo Huai's careful defense line, he was also led by Zhang Xi The soldiers captured him.
And when Zhang Xi was worried that not attacking the east camp for a long time would make Guo Huai suspicious, the reinforcements led by Wen Qin happened to arrive at Wuzhangyuan the next day, and Guo Huai's main army was only three days away from Wuzhangyuan. distance.
There really is a sense of God helping, closing all the loopholes in the battle that might allow people to see through the strategy.
Although Zhang Xi was also very surprised as to why Wen Qin, who should be staying in Yecheng at this time, appeared on the Guanzhong front line and was still qualified to lead troops in combat, at least Zhang Xi had rested on the spot and would not attack for the time being. The reason for Cao Wei's eastern defense line.
Three days later, Guo Huai finally led his army to Wuzhangyuan.
Seeing the current situation, Guo Huai's brows did not relax.
Really, if Xue Ze stood in front of Guo Huai now, Guo Huai could really kill him with one knife! ! !
Damn it, the Xue family of Hedong, a family that has been passed down for hundreds of years, taught such a deceptive thing? ! !
Guo Huai himself came from a wealthy family, and he cared a lot about people who came from a wealthy family. Moreover, the probability of talents coming out of poor families was too low these days, and it was often the wealthy families that really produced talents.
Therefore, Guo Huai handed over the defense work of Wuzhangyuan to Xue Ze when he returned to Chang'an. In the end, this guy ended up like this? !
Three lines of defense!
Before Guo Huai left, he set up three lines of defense in Wuzhangyuan, and they were arranged at high and low levels.
In Guo Huai's view, as long as he is not stupid, relying on these three lines of defense, even if Liu Bei brings an army of 100,000 to attack, it will definitely not be a problem to stop him for a month.
As a result, Xue Ze lost two lines of defense in half a month, giving up the geographical advantage of the Wuzhangyuan Highland Camp, leaving himself with the last line of defense.
Guo Huai was really angry. After arriving at Wuzhangyuan, he immediately wanted to kill Xue Ze to vent his anger.
But Xue Ze had already surrendered to the Shu army, which made Guo Huai angry and had nowhere to vent his anger. In addition, Guan Qiu Jian persuaded him from the side for a while, and Guo Huai finally calmed down.
Yes, the situation is now like this. No matter how angry you are, you can't change it. You can only find a way to reorganize the defensive front to prevent Liu Bei's army from breaking through Wuzhangyuan.
In fact, it is not that Guo Huai has not expected this situation to happen, and it is not impossible to defend the line of defense now. But if he continues to defend like this, the cost may be very high.
But no matter what, Guo Huai still adjusted the defense line of Wuzhangyuan according to his own ideas.
First, he led his troops to camp on both sides of the avenue and set up defenses along the road to prevent Liu Bei's army from advancing from the avenue under Wuzhangyuan.
Secondly, it is to re-adjust the deployment of troops in the defense camp on the east side, focusing on defending the mountain road on the east side of Wuzhangyuan to prevent the Shu soldiers on Wuzhangyuan from descending from a high position.
After making these defense arrangements, Guo Huai immediately discovered that there was a big problem with his defense.
The biggest problem is that there are too few troops, there are too many places that need to be defended, and the defense line is not deep enough. If the enemy breaks through one area with a point-breaking attack, it is likely to cause the entire army to collapse.
But Guo Huai has no choice now. He only brings so many troops. Guo Huai also knows that it is unrealistic to go back to Cao Zhen for reinforcements.
As a senior general guarding the Guanzhong area, Guo Huai actually knew very well how many mobile troops Cao Zhen still had.
There were originally more than 50,000 garrison troops in Guanzhong, but these garrison troops had to be dispersed to guard various parts of Guanzhong.
For example, places such as Sanguan, Xiaoguan, Meixian, Zuofengyi, and Youfufeng all require permanent troops. In order to deal with Chen Dajun's army at Baoxie Road, Wuzhangyuan also needs to station at least 10,000 soldiers all year round.
Therefore, out of the 50,000 troops in Guanzhong, there will not be much left after such a split.
Even Chang'an, which Cao Zhen personally guarded, was guarded by less than 10,000 soldiers.
As for the Chinese reinforcements sent by the Emperor of Wei, Cao Zhen was not stingy at all. All he could send had been sent out, and the rest was the reserve force that Cao Zhen kept in hand in order to deal with Liu Bei's Northern Expedition.
There are really not many people left, only a reserve team of 20,000 people. If Guo Huai asks Chang'an for reinforcements again, Cao Zhen's reserve team will only become smaller and smaller.
This war has just begun, and God knows how the situation will develop in the future.
If he can really block Liu Bei's army at Wuzhangyuan, and Sun Li on the other side of Sanguan can also block the Shu army coming out of Longshan Road, then it doesn't matter whether Cao Zhen has a reserve team in his hands, after all, Chang'an is safe.
But if an unexpected factor occurs again like last time, if Cao Zhen doesn't have a reserve team, how can he plug the loophole?
Therefore, on the one hand, Guo Huai wrote to Cao Zhen to explain the current situation of Wuzhangyuan, and on the other hand, he was also prepared to stick to Wuzhangyuan for a while.
Although the defense line is relatively weak and lacks depth, Guo Huai feels that there is no hope of holding on.
After all, the Shu thieves on the opposite side don't have many troops. Even if they surrender and accept rebels, they will only number about 50,000 people. The reinforcements they brought plus the original remaining army of Wuzhang, there will be about 40,000 people.
There is no hope of attacking and defeating the enemy, but there is still a chance to wait for the enemy to run out of food and retreat by holding on and stalling for time.
Guo Huai made up his mind. As long as the defense line is established, he will station troops to hold on and be a coward. No one wants me to take the initiative to fight.
At the same time, on the high ground of Wuzhangyuan, Zhang Xi was taking Zhuge Liang to inspect the camps, and at the same time he was filled with emotions.
For Zhuge Liang, the place Wuzhangyuan has a special meaning that only Zhang Xi can understand. Well, at least in this time and space, Zhuge Liang is still alive and well.
Zhuge Liang couldn't quite understand Zhang Xi's inner drama. He just followed His Majesty's order and came to Wuzhangyuan to assist Zhang Fei and others in advising military aircraft.
This is a very normal thing.
This time Liu Bei went on the Northern Expedition, and Fazheng happened to be unwell and fell ill.
Although Fa Zheng felt that his problem was a minor problem and would not affect his expedition with the army, Liu Bei did not want Fa Zheng to take this risk.
Liu Bei was getting older, so he inevitably cared about things like life and death. In addition, Fa Zheng's health had not been very good over the years, and he suffered from minor illnesses such as wind and cold from time to time. Just in case, Liu Bei forced Fa Zheng to He stayed in Hanzhong and assisted Liu Ba in handling Hanzhong government affairs and managing logistics.
As for Zhuge Liang, this time he followed Liu Bei to advise the military aircraft.
No one regards Zhuge Liang as an internal affairs official who only handles government affairs. At least within the Han Dynasty, everyone knows that Zhuge Liang's strategy is no worse than Fa Zheng, Pang Tong and others.
Zhuge Liang has always been in charge of internal affairs and logistics in recent years, just because there are too few people under Liu Bei who are proficient in these matters, and Liu Bei has great trust in Zhuge Liang. For such important matters as logistics, internal affairs, and guarding his hometown, Liu Bei can only leave it to Zhuge Liang. Only then can we go out to fight with complete confidence.
But this time, since Zhuge Liang went on an expedition with Pang Tong and accompanied the army as counselor and military aircraft, Zhuge Liang also had to shoulder the responsibility of being a counselor.
Liu Bei is still stationed not far from the entrance of Baoxie Road, which is still a little far away from Wuzhangyuan. He is guarded by Wu Yi, Huang Quan, Chen Shi, Deng Zhi and others, and Pang Tong is by his side to provide advice at any time. Big danger.
Therefore, Liu Bei asked Zhuge Liang to lead Feng Xi, Zhang Nan, Gao Xiang and others to the front line of Wuzhangyuan to help Zhang Fei and others make plans and counsel military aircraft.
After all, in Liu Bei's view, he was at the rear, and it would be a waste for Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong to stay with him. It would be better to send Zhuge Liang to the front line, where there was no room for loss.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang came to the Wuzhangyuan Highland Camp. First, he inspected the military camp on behalf of Liu Bei, rewarded the troops with condolences, and boosted military morale.
After doing these things, Zhuge Liang proposed to go to the high ground of Wuzhangyuan to peek at Cao Jun's camp.
When fighting, you must know yourself and the enemy before you can win a hundred battles.
(End of chapter)
