Guo Huai made a decision and then ordered the entire army to prepare for retreat.
However, it does not mean that he will withdraw immediately. Guo Huai is not stupid. The Wuzhangyuan side still needs to do a good job in defense and not let the Shu army see the clues. In this case, he cannot withdraw with peace of mind.
Therefore, Guo Huai was still in charge of the defense line in the camp under the mountain road on the east side of Wuzhangyuan. He just asked Wen Qin to go to each battalion with his military orders to organize, first mobilize the soldiers scattered in each defense line camp, and wait until the actual retreat. , so you won’t be in a hurry.
This was all Guo Huai could do, but it was impossible even to think about using these small tricks to hide from the group of people occupying the high ground of Wuzhangyuan.
Regardless of others, Zhuge Liang has been staying in the Wuzhangyuan highland camp and likes to observe Wei Jun's camp when he has nothing to do. How could he not observe the strange movements in Wei Jun's camp.
After discovering that there were small-scale troop mobilizations in many camps of the Wei army, Zhuge Liang pondered for a while and personally rushed to the camp at Zhangxi on the front line to check the strength of the Wei army.
"Yuan Chang, have there been any changes in the rebel army recently?!" Zhuge Liang asked directly without being polite to Zhang Xi.
As for Zhang Xi, as soon as he heard what Zhuge Liang said, he knew there must be a problem and quickly asked why.
Zhuge Liang did not hide it, but said directly, "Liang recently observed the enemy camp and found that there were many soldiers and horses mobilizing in the enemy camp, so he came to the front line to take a look. Did Yuan Chang find anything strange?!"
Well, when Zhuge Liang said this, Zhang Xi immediately understood and began to think seriously.
"If there is any abnormal movement, there is nothing." Zhang Xi carefully recalled the defense situation of the Wei army in the past few days and said, "The rebel army is still heavily guarded, and there are not many opportunities to take advantage of it."
When Zhuge Liang heard what Zhang Xi said, he frowned slightly. Could it be that he was overthinking it? !
But Zhuge Liang thinks so, Zhang Xi wouldn't think so. Just kidding, how much more can Zhuge Liang think? !
Whenever Zhuge Liang thinks there is a problem, there must be a problem - Zhang Xi, who has a strong fan filter, thinks so.
Zhang Xiyi thought this, and then carefully recalled it, and he really found a place that made him feel something was not right.
"When it comes to unusual movements, there is one thing that I don't know whether to count or not!" Zhang Xi thought for a while and said, "In the past, the bandit army defended the stronghold. If the damage was too serious, Guo Huai would send some reinforcements. However, now there are only a few defenders in the bandit camp. There are more than 600 troops, but no reinforcements have arrived in the past few days."
As for this phenomenon, you can say it is unusual, but it is not unusual if you say it is ordinary. Six hundred people guarding the stronghold is indeed a bit stretched, but it is not that they will not be able to hold on for a few days.
But since Zhang Xi said so, Zhuge Liang still chose the attitude of preferring to believe what he has, not what he doesn't.
"Could it be that the bandit army is about to withdraw?!"
Zhuge Liang still expressed his guess.
Regarding this speculation, Zhang Xi's expression also changed, and then he quickly asked, "Mr. Wei, um, is there any battle report from General Wei?!"
No wonder Zhang Xi asked this.
The more than 50,000 soldiers in Wuzhangyuan were actually covering for Wei Yan's raid on Chencang Road. The purpose was to hold back the main force of Guo Huai's army so that Guo Huai would not quickly return to Mei County to aid Mei County after realizing that Chencang Road was in danger.
If Wei Yan's attack goes smoothly, breaks through Chencang Road and takes Mei County, then it doesn't matter whether Guo Huai wants to withdraw his troops. In other words, everyone is looking forward to Guo Huai withdrawing his troops so that they can follow and pursue him.
But if Wei Yan's attack on Chencang Road fails, or if Chencang Road is conquered but fails to occupy Mei County in time, then Guo Huai must not be allowed to withdraw like this.
Therefore, the essence of Zhang Xi's question is that he wants to know the status of Wei Yan's advance.
But in response to this question, Zhuge Liang just shook his head and said, "Ten days ago, a document came from Hanzhong. It was written by Fa Xiaozhi. The book said that Chief Wen sent troops from Hanzhong at the end of October. It would take more than ten days to march to Chencang. Even if he attacked the city, It will take ten days to go smoothly. Now I may have just left Chencang Daoer."
Wei Yan's battle report document will not arrive at Wuzhangyuan for a while. Even if it does, it will have a high lag and cannot be used as a reference.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang can only analyze it based on conventional reasoning.
When the strategy was formulated, everyone agreed that Wei Yan would set off from Hanzhong at the end of October. It would take more than ten days of march to reach Chencang Road. However, given the danger and strength of Chencang City, even if Wei Yan had help from within, It would take about ten days to capture Chencang City.
Therefore, according to common sense, in late November, if Wei Yan's advance went smoothly, he should have just broken through Chencang Road. If his advance did not go smoothly, he should still be attacking Chencang City.
Yes, Zhuge Liang didn't expect Xia Houmao to be such a waste, and he didn't expect his family to surrender so simply. Chen Cang didn't even hold on for a day, and now Wei Yan is already sitting in Mei County, thinking about his next move. A step-by-step action plan.
Therefore, at this time, Guo Huai's army made some changes and was suspected of retreating. In Zhuge Liang's view, it was probably Guo Huai's move to divide his troops and retreat to Meixian just in case.
He can't succeed with this.
But Zhang Xi had a different view on Zhuge Liang's judgment.
"Now that the two armies are facing each other, Guo Huai has insufficient troops, so how dare he divide his troops easily?!" Zhang Xi thought for a while and said, "Chang'an is not without soldiers and generals, so why should Guo Huai take the risk to rescue Mei County?!"
Zhuge Liang also felt that this statement could not be said to be unreasonable.
It is true that the distance from Chang'an to Mei County is not as close as the distance from Wuzhangyuan to Mei County, but it is not too far apart.
Let's analyze it according to conventional logic. If Xia Houmao had issued a warning to Chang'an in mid-November, saying that Chencang Road was under attack, it would take about ten days to go from Chencang Road to Chang'an. By this time, Chang'an should have sent out We received reinforcements and went to support Chen Cangdao.
Even if they learned of the fall of Chencang Road halfway, as long as Cao Zhen or the leader of the reinforcements were not fools, they would have known that Mei County was in danger and would have diverted their efforts to rescue Mei County.
If Wei Yan only breaks through Chencang Road at this time, there is no reason for the Wei army to dispatch Guo Huai's troops to rescue Mei County. After all, it is hard to say which one of Guo Huai's troops or Chang'an's reinforcements is closer to Mei County at this time.
So, it can’t be analyzed using conventional reasoning? !
Zhuge Liang realized this, and although Zhang Xi was a little confused, he seemed to have grasped some concepts.
"Could it be that Wen Chang has broken through Chencang Road and is now attacking Linmei County?!" Zhuge Liang said suddenly.
But then, Zhuge Liang overturned his idea and continued, "No, if this is the case, Meixian is just holding on and waiting for help. Unless it is absolutely necessary, Guo Huai does not need to return to the army to rescue him."
"Unless Mei County is in emergency and the Chang'an reinforcements are unable to rescue Mei County for some reason!" Zhang Xi followed.
Yes, Zhang Xi still doesn't quite believe that Wei Yan has already conquered Mei County. After all, this time is too short, and siege has always been a time-consuming matter in this era.
But Zhuge Liang nodded first, then shook his head and said, "Why can't it be that Wen Chang has already conquered Mei County?!"
When he thought of this possibility, Zhuge Liang felt that his whole mind was opened up.
If Wei Yan has occupied Mei County, then Guo Huai's retreat this time is not just to rescue Mei County, but to counterattack Mei County, or to seize martial arts and retreat to Chang'an.
There are both possibilities.
Zhuge Liang suddenly stopped talking and began to carefully observe and think about the map hanging on the wall.
As for Zhang Xi, he was also thinking along Zhuge Liang's train of thought, but he still didn't quite believe that Wei Yan had already captured Mei County.
In Zhang Xi's view, it is more likely that Wei Yan used the strategy of encirclement and reinforcements, first besieged Mei County, and then set up an ambush halfway to ambush the Chang'an reinforcements who were eager to rescue Mei County.
In this way, in order to ensure that Mei County is not lost, Guo Huai will inevitably divide his troops and send reinforcements. This is also consistent with Zhuge Liang's observation that there are troops and horses mobilizing in the Wei army camp, but the Wei army on his side is still closely guarding the actual situation.
It's just that there seems to be something difficult to explain. The time is still too fast. If Wei Yan had the time to ambush the Wei army, why didn't he attack the city directly?
You must know that there are only two thousand defenders in Mei County. Although Mei County has a city, Wei Yan can attack Mei County with 20,000 people and attack 2,000 people. It should take only four or five days at most to defeat Mei County. And to ambush Chang'an's reinforcements, No matter what, it would take four or five days to wait for someone to come over.
If we fail to ambush, wouldn't we lose the best opportunity to attack the city in vain? !
Although Wei Yan is a common man, he is not a fool. Zhang Xi feels that the Wei Yan he knows is not that stupid.
However, if it is as Zhuge Liang guessed, Wei Yan has really occupied Mei County. In terms of time, it is even more unbelievable.
"No matter what the situation is, we must have a way to deal with it!" Zhuge Liang looked at the map for a long time, and finally turned around and said to Zhang Xi, "Please Yuan Chang, please send someone to invite the three generals and General Chen to come. I When a charter needs to be discussed, it will be decided by the three generals."
Zhang Xi immediately did not dare to neglect and quickly sent someone to invite someone.
Zhang Fei and Chen Dao were actually not far from the front line in Zhang Xi. They came to the front line to hang out if they had nothing to do. As long as they looked nearby, they could easily find the two of them.
When everyone arrived, Zhuge Liang began to describe the actual situation he saw and his judgment on these situations.
After Zhang Fei and Chen Dao heard this, they had the same reaction as Zhang Xi. They thought it was incredible that Wei Yan would conquer Mei County now.
They are all generals who lead troops to fight, and everyone has a say in the matter of siege.
If Wei Yan could not only break through Chencang Road but also capture Mei County within ten days. If nothing else, just for this achievement, Wei Yan would be called a "famous general in the world".
But Zhuge Liang would not consider the problem from this perspective.
As a counselor, he always considers problems from multiple angles and aspects.
Now that the changes in the Wei army camp are a fact, if the Wei army really divides its troops or simply withdraws, how will we respond? !
Wei Yan did not capture Mei County, so he had to come up with a set of response strategies. If Wei Yan occupied Mei County, he also had to come up with a set of response strategies.
Only in this way will you not be in a hurry and be at a loss when things actually happen.
Although this Northern Expedition was not launched at the best time, it was the most beneficial Northern Expedition to the Han Dynasty so far.
This opportunity cannot be let go so easily.
(End of chapter)
