From Man Chong's perspective, it was very reasonable for him to ask Cao Zhen for these twenty days.
200,000 people, not 200,000 pigs. Once you drive them away, it will take a certain amount of time to mobilize so many people to migrate, right? !
Not to mention that a considerable number of these 200,000 people are from the aristocratic families of Chang'an. You have no idea what kind of treacherous thoughts these people have now.
Compared with Tongguan Road, which is only more than 300 miles away, Wuguan Road is much further away from Chang'an. It is at least more than 500 miles. Such a long road, even if the army marches normally, it will take more than ten days to complete. Arrival, let alone the people with their families.
Now the snow has not yet melted, and the enemy troops are approaching Chang'an again. If there were no soldiers to escort them, these people would be fleeing in minutes. Do you believe it? !
All of these are factors that seriously slow down the migration speed of the people. What Manchong needs most now is time.
These twenty days are the limit time determined by Man Chong after repeated calculations.
Even so, Man Chong has not yet considered the possibility that Liu Bei's group may send cavalry to make a detour and attack Wuguan Road directly, cutting off the migrating team.
It's not that Man Chong couldn't think of it, it's that Man Chong didn't dare to think of it.
At the time of Changbanpo, Man Chongke was at the scene. He and Xu Huang sent troops to attack Hanjinkou to block Liu Bei's retreat.
Although he returned in defeat in the end, Man Chong had seen with his own eyes what it was like for the people to flee in all directions after being chased by cavalry.
It can be said that once it reaches that point, you cannot resist it with just a few soldiers.
But now, the position is the opposite. He is full of favor and wants to "bring the people into the customs", and these "people" are not willing to follow.
Now Man Chong can only hope that Cao Zhen and Guo Huai can block it for as long as possible, or hope that Liu Bei is really a benevolent and righteous king, and hope that he will not send cavalry to attack him for the sake of the innocent people. .
It's quite ironic, Man Chong thinks so himself.
What's even more ironic is that Cao Zhen wrote back a letter to Man Chong, telling Man Chong that it would take as much as fifteen days to withdraw. If the army suffered heavy losses due to Man Chong's relocation, Cao Zhen would directly use the right of holiday to withdraw. Ask Man Chong for guilt.
Cao Zhen's letter clearly stated that your people are not important at all. If you are defeated and lose a lot of soldiers because of your relocation, I will kill you directly.
What do you think Man Chong can do? !
Blame Cao Zhen? !
Indeed, Man Chong could think this way and reprimand Cao Zhen for being a martial artist who did not understand the importance of ordinary people.
But Cao Zhen also has his own reasons. How could you, a civil servant sitting at the rear, know how bad the current situation is? !
Twenty more days? !
If we really have to hold on for twenty days and then retreat, none of me and the 20,000 troops will be able to go back, okay? ! !
On the day Man Chong asked Cao Zhen for time, the snow that had been falling intermittently for almost a month finally stopped, and what was even more terrible was that the next day, the entire Guanzhong area cleared up.
Although in today's weather, even if the weather is clear, the snow will not melt for a while due to the strong northwest wind. But Cao Zhen cannot just think about today.
There is no weather forecaster these days, and no one knows what the weather will be like tomorrow. Even if he is as knowledgeable as Zhuge Liang, he is still a human being. He cannot be like in the novel, and he can know what the weather will be tomorrow by just counting.
Therefore, Cao Zhen must prepare for the worst—what will he do if Guanzhong is sunny for half a month? !
Based on the climate records of Guanzhong over the years, once spring officially clears up, under Guanzhong's climate conditions, it will take half a month for the ice and snow to thaw. By then, the spring floods will really come.
In the past years, the spring floods in Guanzhong have basically been in mid-to-late February. If it warms up a little earlier this year, it is not impossible that the spring floods will come in mid-to-early February.
As soon as the spring floods arrive, the Shu thieves will open the floodgates and release the water for you. Then you will be completely ruined.
As for going out of the city to attack the Shu thieves who were harassing the water and building dams. Speaking of this matter, Cao Zhen and Guo Huai were both furious.
Really, if I could have ten thousand more soldiers on hand, why would I still watch these Shu thieves rebel like this? !
These Shu thieves are really hateful.
Just three thousand soldiers! ! !
The Shu thieves sent only three thousand soldiers to block the water and build the dam.
Among them, there are still a thousand people who are in a defensive posture. The Shu army that actually blocks the water and builds a dam actually only has two thousand people. It feels like just relying on these one thousand people can defend against the enemy who came out of Huaili. Cao Wei banned his army.
Facing this kind of Shu thieves who had "Come and beat me" written on their faces, Cao Zhen and Guo Huai were so angry that they really didn't dare to take the initiative and didn't even think of harassing these soldiers.
The reason is still not enough troops.
There are more than 50,000 people on the opposite side. Mao estimated that it can be said to be close to 60,000 people. However, on our own side, by all calculations, there are only more than 24,000 people.
Cao Zhen is really not afraid of these troops stationed in Huaili City and relying on the city's defense advantages to fight defensive battles. After all, the means of siege are limited these days. The Shu thieves came through the snow. It is already a miracle that they can reach Huaili City. It will definitely not be possible. Maybe it would be really beneficial for Cao Zhen to carry heavy siege equipment and fight in defensive battles.
But what Cao Zhen didn't expect was that the Shu thieves were so wicked that they actually blocked the water and built a dam to flood Huaili City.
If you send troops out of the city to attack the dam-building troops and interfere with the Shu thieves' plan to block the water and build the dam, you will fall into the Shu thieves' plan to divide the troops. If you want to say whether it is a bait, it will only be Cao Zhen and Xiahou Mao. Exchanged identities.
Abandoning solid city defenses, taking the initiative to attack, and fighting in the snow. Under such extreme conditions, the gap in combat power between the two sides can easily be narrowed. Although the Forbidden Army has excellent combat power, the combat power of the Shu thieves is not much worse.
Not to mention, there are still a lot of Qiang and Hu cavalry cruising around the periphery, and they may launch a cavalry attack at any time. Wouldn’t it be easy to kill as many as they go out? !
The Shu thieves' 60,000-strong army is very expensive. If they suffer 5,000 casualties on their side, this battle will be difficult to fight. If they suffer 10,000 casualties, the entire army will collapse.
Therefore, Cao Zhen and Guo Huai really had no choice but to watch the dam-building team of three thousand people wandering in front of them, blatantly blocking the water and building dams, and they did not dare to attack easily.
Even a fool can tell that the Shu thieves must be deceitful and are just waiting for you to attack so that they can surround you.
But if you don't go to war, you will watch the Shu thieves build the dam, and when the spring flood comes, the city of Huaili will not be able to defend it.
Therefore, Cao Zhen rejected Man Chong's suggestion that Cao Zhen stick to it for twenty days without even thinking about it.
Fifteen days at most.
It is already late January, and fifteen days is the limit. The troops must be withdrawn before mid-February. Otherwise, if the spring flood comes early, none of the more than 20,000 elite Wei soldiers under Cao Zhen will be able to escape.
At that time, it will no longer be a matter of losing people, but a matter of Chang'an being unable to be defended, Wuguan being unable to be defended, and even Nanyang being unable to be defended.
Once that time comes, the door to the Central Plains will be wide open, and the emperor's strategy of "abandoning the three assistants and staying in seclusion to wait for changes" will be completely bankrupt.
From Cao Zhen's point of view, although the people are important, the implementation of the strategy is more important. If he had to choose between the people and the strategy, Cao Zhen would definitely choose the strategy.
This is his last duty as the governor of Yongliang.
Fifteen days were already the last chance for Cao Zhen to take a big risk and stay with Man Chong.
And Man Chong, after receiving such a military order, naturally knew that there was no room for bargaining.
What can be done? !
Be cruel and shorten your time.
Man Chong did not force the people too much. After all, Man Chong also knew that the people did not need to be forced at all. In order to survive, they could give up a lot of things.
But to those loose-minded aristocratic families, Man Chong was not so easy to talk to.
Anyway, he was destined to be notorious, so it would be better to do things right and his reputation would not be in vain.
Although Zhang Tang, Zhidu, and Du Zhou were all cruel officials, they were still remembered in the annals of history. They were not unjust.
Therefore, Man Chong became ruthless and issued an order in Chang'an City - within three days, all the people should move out of the city. Anyone involved who refused to leave would be killed without mercy.
At this moment, everyone in Chang'an City was jumping up and down.
For ordinary people, three days to pack up their belongings is indeed enough, but for aristocratic families, how can such a large family property and so many property be dealt with in three days? !
There are always some people who are willing to risk their lives for the sake of money, especially some so-called celebrities who always feel that they are not so clear-headed after becoming a member of a famous family. They feel that no matter how arrogant and domineering Man Chong is, they dare not do anything to them.
Man Chong was not polite at all to these people.
Or, you keep things secret and don't let Man Chong get the hang of it. If Man Chong gets the hang of it, it proves that you really have second thoughts, then Man Chong won't be polite to you.
In the past, Man Chong would also play some little tricks of killing chickens to scare monkeys, killing some small aristocratic families, and beating the big ones. But now, as long as the offender falls into Man Chong's hands, regardless of the size of the family, he will kill everyone without leaving a single person behind.
In less than three days, Man Chong had killed more than 2,000 people in Chang'an City, all of whom were members of aristocratic families, showing no mercy.
Man Chong's ruthlessness severely shocked some aristocratic families in Chang'an City, and at the same time made the entire migration work more efficient.
Three days later, Man Chong gathered 200,000 people and officially set out for Wuguan under the escort of 7,000 county soldiers.
Originally, Man Chong had hesitated whether to use fire to completely burn the city of Chang'an and leave Liu Bei with a ruined Chang'an, but Man Chong did not do that after all.
After all, even if Man Chong was forced to do anything, he just wanted to be Zhang Tang and Zhidu. He didn't want to be Dong Zhuo.
If you kill someone from an aristocratic family, you will have an excuse for not following the law or having second thoughts afterwards, but if you burn Chang'an, the old capital of the Han Dynasty, Man Chong is not that crazy.
(End of chapter)
