Wuzhangyuan, within the Wei army's defense line on the east side.
Guo Huai was already ready to withdraw his troops, but before leaving, Guo Huai called Wen Qin and made the final arrangements.
"This time the returning army counterattacks Mei County, the defense of Wuzhangyuan depends entirely on Zhong Ruo!" Guo Huai took Wen Qin's hand and said, "Zhong Ruo and I will attack 7,000 soldiers with 5,000 soldiers and 2,000 elite cavalry. Troops and horses, Zhong Ruo must hold on to Wuzhangyuan for ten days. If the ten days are up, Zhong Ruo can retreat to Wugong County. Old General Zhang will be there to support him, so there should be no serious problems."
Well, there are some things that Guo Huai can only say, but what he says is somewhat lacking in confidence.
Five thousand infantry plus two thousand cavalry required Wen Qin to hold off more than 50,000 Shu troops for ten days. Even with the support of the camp defense line, it was an extremely difficult task.
Not to mention, the food and grass in the army can only last for twelve days at most. If Wen Qin really holds on to the tenth day and then retreats to Wugong County, Wen Qin's troops will probably run out of food halfway.
This is why Guo Huai doesn't have the confidence to speak.
But Guo Huai must say this.
He returned to the army to counterattack Mei County. Even if he marched in a hurry, it would take four or five days to reach Mei County. The army was short of food and grass, which would not leave much time for Guo Huai to build siege equipment. Therefore, once Guo Huai After returning to Mei County, we must use the method of relying on siege to launch an attack on Mei County.
The efficiency of this kind of attack is very low, so Guo Huai must let Wen Qin buy himself enough time to attack. Ten days is the limit.
If Wen Qin can really buy himself ten days to attack, then he still has a glimmer of hope to conquer Mei County. If he can't, then Guo Huai is likely to face a situation of being surrounded. Can he escape? It’s hard to say along the Wei River.
Therefore, there is no room for bargaining with Guo Huai's order, and Wen Qin must accept it even if he doesn't accept it.
And if there are still generals in Guo Huai's army who can command such a small number of people to hold on, then apart from Wen Qin, no one else can be found.
Therefore, Wen Qin must take the order.
To be honest, Wen Qin was dissatisfied with this.
But Wen Qin knew the current situation very clearly and had no choice but to accept this military order.
If he does it, then the Wen family will be completely turned over and will no longer be implicated in the "Wei Xi Case". Even whether he can go back or not, Cao Wei will take good care of his widow and children.
If you can't do it, well, then the only option is to die in battle.
Wen Qin's father was Cao Cao's valet, and the Wen family had been branded as Cao Wei from the beginning. There was no possibility of Wen Qin surrendering to Shu. Doing so would only lead to the destruction of his family in Yecheng. disaster.
Wen Qin is not the little Lu Bu from Xiliang who doesn't even care about his father. There are some things that Wen Qin really can't do.
Therefore, Wen Qin finally accepted the order.
but.
"If you can hold on within five days, you will be loyal to the country. If you cannot hold on for five days, you can quickly send someone to inform Yu. You can just retreat. Don't force it!"
This is what Guo Huai said to Wen Qin in private before leaving the tent.
To be honest, Wen Qin really didn't expect that Guo Huai would say such things to him.
But after calming down and looking carefully, Wen Qin felt that this was a very reasonable thing.
If he could hold out for more than five days at Wuzhangyuan, then Guo Huai would have already launched an attack on Mei County by then. Regardless of whether he could continue to hold on, he must hold on and fight Guo Huai for enough time to attack, even if he died on the battlefield. No matter what.
But if he cannot hold on for five days at Wuzhangyuan, then Guo Huai has no chance of capturing Mei County. It is better to notify him early and let Guo Huai choose other directions to break out and cross the enemy before arriving at Mei County. Weishui, joined Cao Zhen's troops and retreated to Chang'an.
As for whether there is enough food and grass, and how many soldiers will be defeated in the end, this is beyond Guo Huai's control.
Logically speaking, Guo Huai shouldn't have said this to Wen Qin. Don't look back. As soon as Wen Qin heard about the option of taking a step back, he didn't even defend the defensive line. As soon as Guo Huai left on the front foot, Wen Qin followed him on the back foot. Slip away.
But Guo Huai finally understood Wen Qin's character and knew that Wen Qin's current situation was not something he could just leave if he wanted to.
If Wen Qin wants to keep his family's hope in the Wei Dynasty, he must fight bravely, otherwise the Wen family will not be able to get ahead in the Wei Dynasty.
Another thing, when Guo Huai gave Wen Qin such a military order that was obviously life-threatening, Wen Qin didn't say a word and directly accepted the order.
Of course, the last and most important thing is that Guo Huai said this in private without any certification, and Wen Qin will not be given any warrant. Once he is investigated afterwards, Guo Huai has no need to admit his guilt.
Wen Qin obviously understood this, but he was still very grateful to Guo Huai for giving him a second option even though he really didn't want to use it.
After explaining these things, Guo Huai immediately organized his army in the early morning of the next day before dawn, and then took advantage of the dawn to lead his army to set off.
After leaving Wen Qin with 5,000 infantry and the remaining 2,000 cavalry, Guo Huai led 38,000 people towards Mei County.
At about the same time, Wen Qin also began to gather the troops who had stayed behind to stabilize the morale of the army, and at the same time made his own arrangements.
On the east side of the defense line of Wuzhangyuan, Guo Huai led more than 40,000 troops to garrison and felt that the troops were insufficient. Now that he had retreated, only 5,000 infantry were left, which was not enough to arrange for every position on the defense line, and there was no mutual coordination between the various camps. .Most of the camps are now empty.
Therefore, Wen Qin must find a way to concentrate his troops and hold on to some key passes, so as to maximize the utilization of his troops.
There is no need to think about two thousand cavalry. This is a mobile force and Wen Qin's greatest reliance on holding the line of defense.
After all, the Shu army on the opposite side were all infantry, and they were quite impressive in Wuzhangyuan. After all, Wuzhangyuan was a mountainous terrain, and there was no place for cavalry here.
But if you retreat a certain distance and leave the Wuzhangyuan, there will be an open and flat land. Here, the role that two thousand cavalry can play is very large.
Based on this consideration and in order to concentrate his troops, Wen Qin decided to abandon the mountain road camp on the east side of Wuzhangyuan, draw the Shu army out, and lead a battle to the road at the exit of Wuzhangyuan.
After making the decision, Wen Qin took his remaining soldiers to the roadside below Wuzhangyuan, where there was a ready-made camp where five thousand soldiers could be stationed.
The purpose of this camp from the beginning was to prevent Liu Bei from leading his army from rushing out from the Wuzhangyuan Road. Therefore, there were enough various kinds of wood and antlers arranged one mile outside the camp.
If the Shu army wants to pass along the road, they must first move away these Jumu antlers and then conquer the camp.
As for the Shu army coming down the mountain road on the east side, Wen Qin really didn't have a good idea. He couldn't take care of both ends.
Therefore, Wen Qin's decision was to let the two thousand cavalry under his command roam back and forth to harass the Shu army coming down the mountain road on the east side, forcing them not to dare to rush in with light troops to pursue General Guo Huai's army.
After all, if the garrison camp beside the road is not conquered, although the Shu army can pursue it with light troops, it will not be able to transport food and grass. In this way, even if there are pursuers, with the ability of General Guo Huai, it should not be a big problem to deal with it. .
In the final analysis, Wen Qin's decision was exactly that - to go to the stronghold and stop the enemy.
On the high ground of Wuzhangyuan, Zhuge Liang was looking down at the Wei army camp.
Guo Huai's little move was not hidden from Zhuge Liang and others. As early as three days ago, Zhuge Liang guessed that Guo Huai would organize a withdrawal. The only uncertainty was whether Wei Yanjun occupied Mei County.
There are two possibilities, and in both cases, the focus of response is somewhat different, and a suitable response plan must be made as soon as possible.
For this reason, Zhuge Liang took Zhang Xi back to Liu Bei's camp and discussed with Pang Tong, Huang Quan and others how to formulate the next strategy.
Well, there was some controversy, but in the end a suitable plan was worked out.
But no matter what the plan is, the current first level is to quickly defeat the Wei army who stayed in the camp on the east side of Wuzhangyuan and quickly pass through Wuzhangyuan.
Now the generals of the Wei army are guarding the road! ! !
"There are many capable generals in Wei. There are many capable guards in this village. Who are they?!"
Zhuge Liang sighed and asked Zhang Xi beside him.
Zhang Xi briefly looked at the generals' flags in the camp, and then replied to Zhuge Liang, "It should be Wei General Wen Qin. He is indeed a difficult character."
To be honest, Zhang Xi was not very impressed by Wen Qin.
This is really not Zhang Xi's fault. After all, when I first watched "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", whether it was the Golden Batch version, the Mao Batch version, or the CCTV version of the TV series, after seeing the autumn wind star falling on Wuzhangyuan, I basically didn't watch much. The motivation to go down is gone.
Regarding Wen Qin, Zhang Xi's impression still remains on the three rebels in Huainan, and that he had a good son Wen Yang who was truly "single-handed" and "three in and three out" in history.
But anyway, since Wen Qin and Guanqiu Jian could start a rebellion together in Huainan, and force Sima Division to personally lead the conquest, how could it be possible?
Well, at least he is much better than the guy who is still being held down by Zhang Xi in Yuexun County and is serving as the governor honestly.
Look at other people, what kind of choices they make when faced with such an extreme situation where they need to block the enemy and buy time for the friendly forces - go to the stronghold.
Looking back at you, some shameless dead fish head gave you the answer and asked you to take a test, and you failed the exam. If you are not a waste, who is a waste? !
"Ah sneeze!!!"
At this time, someone who was still in Yuexun County sneezed loudly.
(End of chapter)
