Guo Huai is also a veteran on the battlefield. He actually has an account of the changes in the battlefield situation.
It's not that Guo Huai didn't know that his retreat would most likely cause the morale of the entire army to further decline. But he really had no choice.
Guo Huai understood that he had fallen into Wei Yan's plan and forced Wei Yan to retreat into the Chinese army to defend on the spot. This also resulted in Guo Huai being unable to lead a large army to the coast of the Wei River without defeating Wei Yan's troops. march.
To put it bluntly, Guo Huai's 30,000-strong army was held back by Wei Yan's tactics.
But even so, Guo Huai still didn't think he would fail.
Yes, the Wei army's current desire to fight is not high, and its morale is somewhat scattered, but Guo Huai still believes in the organization and combat effectiveness of the Forbidden Army.
As long as the Wei Imperial Army, as the main force, does not completely lose its combat capability, then the entire army will not suffer a large-scale rout.
Another one. According to Guo Huai's summary of the current battle situation, the scale of the Shu army's attack was not large, and only more than 10,000 people were killed.
This small amount of troops was used separately by Wei Yan, and more than 3,000 men were assigned to attack the front army, resulting in the dispersion of the offensive forces.
Therefore, Guo Huai retreated into the central army and immediately took over the command of the central army. On the one hand, he sent people to block Wu Yi and Wang Ping's troops who followed from the front army. On the other hand, Guo Huai concentrated his troops. Started to launch an encirclement and suppression campaign against Wei Yan.
In Guo Huai's view, as long as he takes the first step and surrounds and kills Wei Yan, the entire battle will be completely won. The more than 3,000 people in the front army will not be able to stop the main force of the Wei army that has freed up its hands.
What Guo Huai thought was not wrong. If it were in a normal combat atmosphere, this kind of response would undoubtedly directly hit Wei Yan's weakness.
But in the end, Guo Huai still overestimated the current morale and fighting will of the Wei army.
Your generals have been forced to retreat into the central army, and now the central army is being fiercely attacked by the Shu army, and the main force of the Shu army may come from behind to attack at any time. What should you do, and can you still escape? !
This is the thought of most soldiers, not just ordinary soldiers, but also many people in the Wei Imperial Army who have such thoughts.
Therefore, when Guo Huai wanted to organize an encirclement and suppression campaign against Wei Yan, he was shocked to find that the offensive efficiency of his soldiers was really not very high.
When Guo Huai saw that his soldiers under his command were still attacking stagnantly and were unable to establish an effective attack, he knew that there was a big problem.
But at this time, Guo Huai still held on to a glimmer of hope.
Even if the offensive efficiency is relatively low, he can still kill Wei Yan with his large number of people.
Moreover, as long as Wei Yan can be completely surrounded and the encirclement is reduced bit by bit, then Wei's soldiers will be able to gain some fighting desire and courage if the attack goes smoothly.
However, this time must not be too long. Guo Huai is also worried that the main force of the Shu army has arrived not far away.
Therefore, in order to encircle and kill Wei Yan as soon as possible, Guo Huai asked his horse to go to Wen Qin in the rear army and order him to stop defending the rear army, and took all the soldiers and horses in the rear army to join in the battle to encircle and kill Wei Yan.
Guo Huai's idea was very simple. He wanted to let his withdrawn former army block the attack of Wu Yi and Wang Ping's coalition forces for a period of time. He would use 30,000 troops to completely encircle and suppress Wei Yan's 7,000 troops, and strive to end the battle within today. In this case , the delay is not long, maybe there is still a chance to catch up with Governor Cao Zhen.
I have to say that Guo Huai's response was correct.
Now Wei Yan is trapped in the middle army, and there are two thousand cavalry led by Guan Qiujian in the rear to cut off the retreat. Although Wu Yi forced Guo Huai to withdraw into the middle army, the front army did not have the chaos that Wei Yan expected. Cao Wei's imperial army The organization level is really high, and they are still blocking Wu Yi's attack. Wei Yan is really trapped in a tight siege this time.
Today, Wei Yan's only choice is to give up the attack on the Chinese army's baggage troops, and instead break out in the direction of the front army, trying to open up contact with Wu Yi as soon as possible.
But this direction is also the area that Guo Huai focuses on guarding against, and the key point of the entire encirclement.
Wei Yanneng has been able to support him until now. In addition to his own command ability, Wang Shuang's bravery, and Zhuge Qian's hard fighting, the low morale of Wei's soldiers and the dispersion of morale are also very big reasons.
But this situation cannot last long.
Once a breakthrough cannot be made for a long time, the morale of the Wei army will get higher and higher, while the morale of the Han army soldiers will become lower and lower when they see that there is no hope of breaking through. At that time, it will be the most troublesome time. .
Just when Wei Yan was getting more and more anxious and Guo Huai was slowly calming down, Wen Qin from Guo Huai's rear army sent Guo Huai bad news.
The envoy sent by Guo Huai to inform Wen Qin to lead troops to surround and kill Wei Yan had returned, but what he brought back was not the reply that Wen Qin had followed the order.
On the contrary, Wen Qin rejected Guo Huai's military order and did not agree to go to besiege Wei Yan.
It was really not Wen Qin who was distracted and dared to disobey military orders, but Wen Qin reported that twenty miles southwest of the rear army, the scouts discovered that the Shu army was approaching quickly, with no less than 10,000 troops.
The main force of the Shu army is already behind him.
Wen Qin's method of sending scouts twenty miles behind him finally paid off. It gave Guo Huai time to respond.
Similarly, Wen Qin also asked the military envoy to reply to Guo Huai. He would lead five thousand soldiers and try his best to stop the main force of the Shu army from advancing. The rest depends entirely on Guo Huai's own decision.
What kind of decision could Guo Huai have? He didn't black out and faint on the spot, so he was considered to be mentally strong.
Twenty miles, more than ten thousand troops, a normal march may take half a day, but in a forced march, it only takes about two hours.
At this time, Guo Huai might be able to forcefully capture the 7,000 men under Wei Yan's command, but by that time, he would be completely unable to escape.
Even if Wen Qin can buy himself a certain amount of time to escape with his five thousand soldiers, it is really hard to determine how long this time will be.
Last time Wen Qin was able to hold off the main force of the Shu army in Wuzhangyuan for five days with 5,000 men. That was because Wuzhangyuan had the defensive fort left by him to rely on. But now it was a field battle, and the soldiers were still weak in military morale. If he retreats and escapes, not to mention Guo Huai, even Wen Qin himself doesn't know how long he can hold back.
Moreover, this was information that Wen Qin sent out scouts to actively detect. What about the information that could not be detected? !
Is it only the Shu army behind Wen Qin that is pursuing him? Are there other Shu army units that have taken a detour and are preparing to intercept his way ahead? !
This Guo Huai is really not sure.
It is not that there are no talented people in the Shu army. Let alone Zhang Xi, apart from using his troops cautiously, what he is best at is running quickly. When he was in Ji County, he just entered Ji County ahead of him. , forcing themselves to only lead cavalry in siege battles.
That battle was fought, and I feel aggrieved just thinking about it.
If the Shu army had sent Zhang Fei to pursue them all the way behind, and then sent Zhang Xi to lead the troops in a detour to block their way forward, Guo Huai would not dare to think of the consequences.
And Guo Huai felt that he was not just guessing.
So far, Guo Huai has been wary of the sudden appearance of Wu Yi's army. This army is obviously not the county soldiers who originally belonged to Wei Yan, but must have been separated from other Shu army units.
If this was Zhang Xi's vanguard force sent out to intercept him in order to buy time to complete the detour, then it would make perfect sense.
It's not that Guo Huai is suspicious, it's just that the communication efficiency of this era is such that Guo Huai has no way of knowing that Zhang Xi has gone to Wugong County to stop Zhang He at this time. He always thought that Zhang Xi was still following Liu Bei's main army.
Based on this understanding, Guo Huai suddenly felt more and more that his thoughts were probably true.
The Shu army has sufficient troops. After occupying Wuzhangyuan, the morale of the army will be greatly shaken. There is no need for the entire army to get together to pursue them. It is completely normal to divide the troops.
In the Shu army formation, there are many generals who can lead troops alone. They are all used to chase themselves, which seems a bit wasteful. Another thing, you ask Zhang Fei, Zhang Xi, Chen Dao, Huang Quan, who will be the leader? , who should be the deputy general is a problem that is not easy to deal with.
Instead of overlapping the roles of the generals in the pursuit army, it would be more efficient to use the generals' respective advantages and divide the forces for pursuit.
Yes, that's what Guo Huai thinks, so now it's Guo Huai's turn to be anxious.
The main force of the Shu army is catching up behind him, and there may be Shu army on the flanks that are taking detours, trying to cut off their march route. If he continues to struggle with Wei Yan's 7,000 soldiers here, he will really be asking for death.
After considering it for less than a cup of tea, Guo Huai immediately made his second decision.
He immediately informed Guanqiu Jian and gave him 5,000 soldiers to coordinate with his 2,000 cavalry. The purpose was to slow down the attack speed of Wei Yanjun.
The remaining soldiers abandoned their baggage, and the entire army adjusted its attack direction, broke through the interception of Wu Yi's army directly in front, and marched towards the coast of the Wei River with all its strength.
In short, Guo Huai wants to run and escape at all costs.
(End of chapter)
