Sun Li was very hesitant now.
As one of the generals on the front line, Sun Li knew very well what a terrible situation would happen to the Shu army once Chencang Road was broken through and Linmei County was invaded - all the Wei troops along the Weishui River would lose their logistical supply bases. Even the way back will be cut off.
Xia Houmao, the young master, did not understand the consequences of this, but Sun Li, a fierce general in the army who had been in the army for almost ten years, knew it very well.
The Shu army occupied Mei County and cut off the Wei army's logistical supply line. All Wei armies stationed along the Wei River, except for passes such as Sanguan that had stored grain in advance, would lose their army's grain and grass supplies in just ten days.
Especially Guo Huai's army, which is confronting the main force of the Shu army in Wuzhangyuan, will be the first to be affected.
Of course, if General Guo Huai could immediately lead his troops to retreat eastward to Wugong County after learning that Mei County had been captured, relying on the supplies from Wugong County for support, and then detouring back to Chang'an from Fufeng County, it would not be impossible to escape.
But the risks are still considerable.
First of all, the efficiency of information transmission these days is not high. When Mei County is attacked or fell, it is unpredictable whether the battle situation can be conveyed to Guo Huai in time.
Secondly, even if the news was delivered in time, Guo Huai led his troops to withdraw to Wugong County without any hesitation. However, Wugong County was not large in scale. Even if there was food in the county, it was unlikely to support the supply of more than 40,000 troops led by Guo Huai.
Finally, and the most fatal problem - the Shu army would not just watch Guo Huai lead his troops to retreat, they would definitely follow and pursue him.
The Wei army is short of food, and the morale of the army will inevitably be shaken, and the soldiers will have no fighting spirit. If the Shu army continues to pursue them, it will not be a retreat, and it will easily turn into a rout. How much can Guo Huai's army survive, and even whether Guo Huai himself can Survival is something that cannot be determined.
Therefore, Mei County really cannot be lost.
With Mei County present, even if the Wei army loses to the Shu army and is forced to retreat, it will at least have a place where they can retreat and recuperate. However, if Mei County is lost, even if the Wei army wants to retreat, it will have to face the threat of being hunted down at any time without food and grass supplies.
But the problem now is that Xiahou Mao lost Chencang Road, which opened a key passage for the Shu army to enter Guanzhong and attack Mei County.
Now that Guo Huai is still confronting the Shu army in Wuzhangyuan, it is impossible to know the news. And Cao Zhen in Chang'an, even if Sun Li noticed that Chen Cangdao had issued a warning and rushed to deliver military reports, it would have to be five or six days before Chen Cang knew about it. There is news of a sudden change in the Tao. Looking at the entire Guanzhong, only Sun Li still has the ability to quickly rescue Mei County.
Sanguan itself is not too far from Mei County, and the defenders of Sanguan are fully 10,000 people. As for the Shu army attacking outside the pass, except for the Qiang and Hu cavalry, the number of people who can actually attack Sanguan is less than 10,000. Just ten thousand people.
There is still room left for Sanguan.
The only problem that troubles Sun Li now is that he is just the guard of Sanguan, and his duty is to guard Sanguan. Mei County, which is more than 150 miles away from Sanguan, is not within Sun Li's guarding range.
In other words, Sun Li had no right to send troops to rescue Mei County without Cao Zhen's order.
Although there is also a saying that "when generals are outside, the emperor's orders will be compromised", but the problem is that this "general" must be of a certain level. In the entire Guanzhong, only three people, Cao Zhen, Zhang He and Guo Huai, can reach this level. Sun Li level, not qualified enough.
If Wang Sheng, the guard of Mei County, encountered a crisis and Sun Li led his troops to reinforce Mei County in time, then Sun Li would be considered to have made a contribution and could barely be held accountable for Sun Li's unauthorized sending of troops.
But if Mei County does not need reinforcements at all, and the Shu army did not attack Mei County as Sun Li judged, but turned around and attacked Sanguan from both sides, because Sun Li sent troops without authorization, Sanguan lacked the troops and fell. Sun Li Ten heads are not enough to chop off.
Therefore, Sun Li was somewhat hesitant now.
But, this hesitation did not last long.
Sun Li is a very upright and decisive person, and the fact that he was recruited by Cao Cao as military secretary in his early years also shows that he has good strategic vision.
After carefully analyzing the battle situation, Sun Li concluded that it was impossible for the Shu army to leave such an important place as Mei County and come to compete with Sanguan. If the decision-making level of Shu was at this level, then it would not be a big deal even if Sanguan was lost. of.
Although it was a bit risky, Sun Li felt that he should still send soldiers to support Mei County, at least so that Mei County could hold on longer and give General Guo Huai enough time to react.
Therefore, Sun Li quickly made a judgment - he led more than 4,000 troops to continue to defend Sanguan, and asked his deputy general Zhu Zan to lead 5,000 people from the Central Forbidden Army to rescue Mei County.
After Zhu Zan led the army, he immediately organized the army, distributed food, grass and weapons, and led the army to leave Sanguan early the next morning.
Zhao Yun, who was outside Sanguan, discovered that the number of guardsmen at Sanguan was significantly reduced and the strength of the defense dropped significantly when he attacked the city on the third day. He immediately guessed the arrangement made by Sun Li.
However, at this time, Zhao Yun had no other option except to increase the intensity of his attack on Sanguan.
What should be done has been done in advance. Now, it depends on whether Wang Ping can get behind Sanguan in time and stop the reinforcements sent by Sun Li.
As for Wang Ping, Wang Ping's current mood is not very good.
It's not that Wang Ping is still wandering around in the mountains. In fact, at this time, Wang Ping has led more than two thousand Wudang flying troops over the mountains and ridges to the back of Sanguan.
There are two reasons why Wang Ping is in a bad mood.
The first is that the mountain roads in the Qinling Mountains are not easy to walk, and the local guides do not know much about the conditions in the depths of the Qinling Mountains. Wang Ping is eager to march on the road, wanting to climb behind Sanguan within the scheduled five days at the expense of, That is, more than 400 useless soldiers were either injured or missing.
If you are missing in such a mountain, even a soldier who is not a flying army will never be able to get out of the mountain by his own ability.
The second thing is that Wang Ping discovered that there was silence behind Sanguan.
This is not normal.
According to the inferences of Wang Ping and Zhao Yun, Wei Yanjun should start attacking Chencang Road in mid-November, so Wang Ping also started to lead the army at that time. After wandering around the Qinling Mountains for five days, Wang Ping took a detour. Arriving behind Sanguan, at this time, Wei Yanjun should still be attacking Chencang Road.
Chencang Road was attacked. Even if General Chencang was sure that he could hold Chencang Road, shouldn't he be able to see none of the messengers, horses and convoys transporting grain and supplies along the way? !
Now Wang Ping is quite suspicious that General Wei has been delayed by some accident and has not launched an attack on Chencang Road until now.
From Wang Ping's point of view, this is a very reasonable thing. After all, there are many situations on the battlefield where the leader of a battle encounters an unexpected delay. If it happens within a day or two sooner or later, it is unlikely to affect the entire battle process.
Yes, even when Wang Ping was killed, he didn't expect that Xiahou Mao guarded Chencang Road. He only guarded it for a long time before ordering a retreat. At this time, he was being chased by Wei Yan and his troops and fled towards Mei County.
Even the 10,000 rear troops led by Wu Ban passed through this place one day ago.
Now Wang Ping is still wondering whether Wei Yan has not launched the attack yet and whether he arrived a little early.
This made Wang Ping more difficult.
Although the individual load-bearing capacity of Wudang Fei soldiers is much stronger than that of ordinary soldiers, the interception was unexpectedly successful. Wu Dang Fei army did not carry a large amount of food and grass supplies, but relied on their personal load-bearing capacity. When setting off, each person I brought ten days' worth of dry food, but no spare weapons at all.
According to the original plan, Wudang Feijun should penetrate behind Sanguan and occupy some fortresses and camps behind Sanguan unexpectedly. They should rely on the defense facilities and military food supplies of these fortresses and camps to hold on as much as possible.
But if Wei Yan had not launched an attack on Chencang Dao at this time, but Wang Ping took the lead in launching an attack behind Sanguan, it would probably have alerted the enemy and put Chencang Dao's defenders on guard.
Wang Ping hesitated for a while. Attacking might cause trouble for Wei Yan in attacking Chencang Road, but if he didn't attack, the sergeants he brought would only have five days of rations left.
Although Wang Ping cannot read a word, he is still a bold and careful person.
Since you don't know the current situation, think of a way to find out first.
Wang Ping ordered the entire army to suspend rest and recuperation, and at the same time sent out scouts to walk as far as possible on mountain roads to avoid the eyes of the Wei army's scouts and to investigate the nearby situation, especially in the direction of Chencang Road.
And in just one day, Wang Ping got a lot of information.
First of all, twenty miles east of where Wang Ping’s soldiers were, there are traces of the battle between the two armies. Judging from the flags scattered on the battlefield, they are basically the flags of the Wei army. Among the corpses of the soldiers who have not had time to clean up on the battlefield, there are also many Some of them are the corpses of Wei Jun.
Secondly, in the direction of Chencang Road, the scouts sent by Wang Ping found traces of the march of the army near the exit of Chencang Road into Guanzhong. Judging from the number of earth stoves left behind, the number of people should be about 8,000 to 10,000. .
These two pieces of information easily allowed Wang Ping to conclude that Wei Yan's army had broken through Chencang Road and led its troops into Guanzhong.
If there is a possibility that Cao Zhen, with an army of 10,000 people, could take precautions in advance and send 10,000 soldiers to support Chencang Road, then the traces of the battlefield twenty miles away are enough to prove that it was General Wei Yan who led the army to break through Chencang Road.
If Wei Yan has not broken through Chencang Road, then it is impossible for the two armies to fight at the exit of Chencang Road, near Guanzhong. It is even less likely that there will only be Wei army flags and no Han army flags on the battlefield, and it is impossible for only Wei army to be on the battlefield. There was no one to collect the corpses of the soldiers.
Once the two pieces of information were combined, Wang Ping came to a correct judgment.
On the one hand, Wang Ping also lamented how General Wei was able to defeat Chencang Road in such a short period of time.
On the other hand, Wang Ping sent a messenger to Chen Cangdao to inform him of his current situation, and at the same time, he also began to prepare for an attack on the camp behind Sanguan.
Chen Cangdao's defeated troops no longer need to be intercepted. Wang Ping's most important task now is to intercept the reinforcements that Sanguan may send.
(End of chapter)
