Guanqiu Jian chose to return to the army and look for Zhu Zan's imperial infantry.
If the distance is close, Guanqiu Jian feels that there is still a possibility of catching the retreating Shu army. Even if the Shu army retreats with torches all night, the marching speed will definitely not be comparable to that during the day. Moreover, marching with torches in the middle of the night, the target It's pretty obvious that it's not that hard to keep up.
As long as they harass the Shu army's retreat from time to time, there will be no chance of fighting again after dawn.
However, it took Guanqiu Jian a long time to find Zhu Zanjun who was resting and replenishing supplies in a small village. However, this small village had already deviated from the main battlefield by nearly ten miles.
It is already quite difficult to set off from this place again to capture and retreat the Shu army.
What's more, Zhu Zan did not agree to pursue the Shu army again.
Judging from the status of the two people, Zhu Zan actually did not have to obey Guan Qiu Jian's orders and command.
Although Guanqiu Jian is a member of the Guo Huai Army, the position of a member of the Army is a temporary position. He has certain authority and deterrence within Guo Huai's army. But outside the scope of Guo Huai's army, he can be transferred to another system. In fact, Qiu Jian did not have a very high substantive military position.
Guan Qiu Jian's qualifications are still too low. He has never made any contribution in the military before. Even if Guo Huai wants to promote him, there is no suitable reason. Therefore, Guan Qiu Jian's real military position now is just a cavalry captain.
Zhu Zan was, after all, a lieutenant general. In terms of military rank, Zhu Zan was actually two ranks higher than Guanqiu Jian.
Moreover, Zhu Zan belongs to the system of Sun Li, the Sanguan guard, and Sun Li is actually Cao Zhen. Although Guo Huai and Cao Zhen also have a superior-subordinate relationship, their superior-subordinate relationship is actually comparative. There is a vague superior-subordinate relationship.
Therefore, Guan Qiu Jian could use Guo Huai's name to command Zhu Zan in battles without Zhu Zan's objection. However, when Zhu Zan questioned or objected to Guan Qiu Jian's command, Guan Qiu Jian had no objection. Zhuzan is required to obey orders unconditionally for any reason.
Furthermore, Zhu Zan is not without his own reasons.
Zhu Zan led five thousand forbidden troops and came to support Mei County under the orders of Sun Li, the guard general of Sanguan and the partial general. Theoretically, after the fall of Mei County, he should lead his troops back to Sanguan and report the news to Sun Li. , and at the same time assisted Sun Li in continuing to defend Sanguan.
However, because Guanqiu Jian recruited Zhu Zan to fight in the name of Guo Huai, and Zhu Zan did not want to go out for such a trip, except for one lost soldier and general, no results were achieved, so the two of them joined forces.
At that time, although Zhu Zan struggled back and forth with the Wudang Feijun led by Wang Ping along the way, he still had more than 3,500 people under his command, so he was not without the strength to fight.
But after these days of fighting, Zhu Zan's imperial army suffered continuous blows, and its number dropped sharply from 3,500 to only 2,300. Zhu Zan no longer had the confidence to continue fighting.
Even if he, Zhu Zan, was willing to sacrifice his life for his country, the soldiers under his command would not agree.
They came out with 5,000 men, but now there are only 2,300 left. The battle damage has exceeded 50%. It is very difficult to ensure that the morale of the soldiers has not completely collapsed and there has been no large-scale desertion at this stage. Easy thing now.
This means that this is the Central Forbidden Army of Cao Wei, and the families of these soldiers are all in Yecheng. The consequences of deserting are much more serious than staying in the army. Otherwise, with Zhu Zan's ability, it is absolutely impossible to maintain it until now. Organized by his own soldiers.
But even so, Zhu Zan also knew very well what the soldiers under his command were thinking. If these people were forced to fight at night and pursue the pursuit at this time, Zhu Zan himself would not know what would happen next.
Zhu Zan didn't have any bad feelings towards Guan Qiu Jian, so Zhu Zan told the truth about some things and did not hide them from Guan Qiu Jian.
After Guanqiu Jian listened to Zhu Zan's words, he thought about it again and again, but could only sigh.
At this time, Guan Qiu Jian was just a newcomer who had just joined the Wei Dynasty and was ready to make contributions. He had not yet reached the stage of "receiving the favor of the country". If you were Guan Qiu Jian during the Three Rebellions in Huainan, he would never be so easy. If he gave up, he might still be able to kill Zhu Zan and seize military power.
But now, after Zhu Zan clearly opposed sending troops, Guanqiu Jian could only sigh, "The time is not up to me," and then discussed with Zhu Zan whether to stay together and wait for Governor Guo's return army, or to go their separate ways. Zhu Zan returned to Sanguan and led his army to meet Guo Huai.
Regarding this, Zhu Zan also hesitated for a while, but finally decided to lead the remaining army to turn back and disperse.
As for Guan Qiu Jian, after several days of fighting side by side, Zhu Zan recognized this person's character and morality, but he was really unfamiliar with Guo Huai and Zhu Zan.
Don't look back. The powerful governor of Yongzhou put all the blame for delaying the main force of the Shu army on himself. So if he stayed here, wouldn't he die unjustly? !
As a precaution, Zhu Zan decided to lead his army back to reinforce Sanguan on the grounds that Sanguan's troops were insufficient.
Guanqiu Jian didn't say anything, left enough food and grass supplies for Zhu Zan, and respectfully sent Zhu Zan off.
Now that the main forces of the Shu army have joined forces, if nothing unexpected happens, they should be able to withdraw to Mei County tomorrow. Whether there is one more Zhuzan will not have much impact on the next war.
After saying goodbye to Zhu Zan, Guanqiu Jian also returned to his army, sorted out his cavalry troops, and prepared to retreat to the direction of Wuzhangyuan, looking for General Guo Huai's main force and informing him of what was happening in Mei County now.
Guanqiu Jian felt that he needed to discuss what happened next with Governor Guo. Now that the Shu army had joined forces in Mei County, the number of Mei County defenders instantly increased from five to six thousand to more than 10,000.
Mei County is not easy to fight.
At this time, Wei Yan, after a night of rapid march, finally protected Wu Ban's troops and safely withdrew to Mei County.
After Wei Yan returned to Mei County, the first thing he did was to send people to reinforce the city defense. Wei Yan had somewhat predicted what would happen next.
As well as Wang Ping's troops, Wei Yan also sent scouts to search for them and guide them to retreat to Mei County as soon as possible. Such a surprise force must ensure their safe retreat. It may be of great use when defending the city in the future.
After doing this, Wei Yancai met Wu Ban and made an inventory of the withdrawn Han troops.
Then both of them had snacks.
This response seemed to be a perfect success, but in fact the losses were not small.
Wu Ban originally led about 10,000 people into Mei County, but met Wang Ping on the way. The total force was about 11,000 people.
But the people who returned to Mei County, not counting Wang Ping's troops, were only about 6,500.
Wei Yan, on the other hand, led 4,000 people out of the city to meet Wu Ban, but only 3,000 people were finally able to retreat to Mei County.
Most of them were casualties in the battle with the Wei army, and a small number were lost during the overnight march. The quality of the soldiers these days is not high, and many of them fight just to earn a living. When it comes to eating, I will never go to great lengths.
Now that the battle in Mei County is imminent, it is probably impossible for these scattered soldiers to return to Jian at this time.
In other words, if Guanqiu Jian hadn't missed him on the way, there should have been more than 16,000 people stationed in Mei County. But now, not counting Wang Ping's more than 1,000 Wudang flying troops, the Mei County defenders , with less than 10,000 people.
In just two or three days, more than 5,000 soldiers were lost.
This loss is enough for Wei Yan and Wu Ban to apologize. But the matter is not over yet.
The appearance of Guanqiu Jian means that the Wei army in the direction of Wuzhangyuan has noticed the problem in Mei County. So it is hard to say whether the main force of the Wei army in Wuzhangyuan will counterattack Mei County.
In addition to Wuzhangyuan, Cao Zhen from Chang'an calculated the time. The troops sent by Cao Zhen to rescue Mei County should be almost there, right? !
Unless Cao Zhen was a fool and sent the rescue force back immediately after learning that Mei County was lost, otherwise, it should not have been more than three days since this force appeared outside Mei County.
Wei Yan really didn't have much time to think about other things. What he had to do now was to quickly strengthen the defense of Mei County, calm the hearts of the people in Mei County, and fight a defensive battle in Mei County.
To be honest, Wei Yan's confidence in this is not very high.
If this was such a defensive battle in Hanzhong, or in other Han territories, Wei Yan didn't think there was any problem.
Even if 100,000 enemies came to attack the city guarded by 10,000 soldiers, Wei Yan was confident that he could defend it for a month.
But the problem is that in Wei Yan's hands, this Meixian County will not last more than ten days.
In a city defense battle, in addition to the desperate efforts of the city defenders, whether the people in the city support it or to put it more bluntly, whether the aristocratic families in the city support it, is also a key factor.
When Mei County defenders are sufficient, these aristocratic families will not act rashly no matter what they think in their hearts, and will even express support for Wei Yan on the surface. But once Mei County holds on to a critical moment and the loss of troops is too large, these aristocratic families will No one knows what they will do.
But now, Wei Yan doesn't have much time to appease these aristocratic families in the city. Even now, Wei Yan has not seriously dealt with Wang Shuang's problem. This unfortunate child has been locked up in the Mei County government prison!
Wei Yan has to do this. Although Wei Yan is really not good at these things, Wei Yan knows that doing it is better than doing nothing.
After all, he was also the governor of Hanzhong. Wei Yan is really not a reckless man who doesn't understand anything. He summoned the representatives of the famous families in the city to persuade you and put forward some profit temptations. I don't ask you to completely fall over to the Han Dynasty, but at least don't cause trouble. That's it. .
This is not too high a requirement. Although Wei Yan's emotional intelligence is a bit low, his years as Hanzhong prefect are not in vain. At least he has experience.
At this time, if you want these aristocratic families to support the Han Dynasty with a lot of blood, you may directly force these aristocratic families to Cao Wei's side.
But by not causing trouble, it is a choice that no one needs to offend, and no matter who Mei County eventually belongs to in the future, these aristocratic families can continue to survive in Mei County.
The wealthy families in Mei County expressed their opposition to this request! ! !
How can we not cause trouble? Uh, no, how can we not do anything? !
The country is hanging upside down and the country is in ruins. As a Han people, seeing the king's Northern Expedition, is there any reason why we should not welcome it with food and drink? !
Cao Wei usurped the Han Dynasty and rebelled against the traitor. As a Han citizen, how could he open his eyes to the traitor? !
The aristocratic families in Mei County expressed their willingness to help Wang Shi defend the city. These aristocratic families gathered a thousand servants, some food, grass, gold and silk, and said that if General Wei needed it, they could give it to General Wei to command.
The people of Wei Yan were all dumbfounded. Why did this family from Mei County have such a strange painting style? !
(End of chapter)
