The more Liu Ye and Jiang Ji thought about it, the more they felt it was possible.
Although Hedong belongs to Sili and the Central Plains, it is actually separated from Guanzhong by the Yellow River.
In these days, it is indeed not an easy task to cross the Yellow River. If there is no specially built ferry terminal, it is really risky to rely on a small boat to cross the Yellow River.
Another point is that military operations do not mean that you just cross the river and that's it. Logistics, food and fodder supplies, retreat arrangements, and ferry garrisoning all need to be prepared in advance.
Therefore, marches and battles in this era generally chose land routes that were more convenient for food transportation. Even in water battles, food supply lines were rarely set up on the water.
Unless you have absolute confidence in your navy.
So, before Cao Pi, Sima Yi, Jiang Ji, and Liu Ye, when considering the defensive posture of Guanzhong, they basically thought and deployed defenses around the two main roads of Wuguan and Tongguan. Consider less the waterways along the Yellow River.
For the banks of the Yellow River, Cao Wei only needed to defend a few large ferries.
But now Cao Zhen's words suddenly made Liu Ye and Jiang Ji a little confused.
Yes, it is not suitable to carry out large-scale combat without controlling the Yellow River crossing, but it does not mean that Shu thieves cannot send small-scale combat troops to the Hedong area by boat.
There are also many fishermen who make a living on the Yellow River. They requisition fishing boats and other things to cross the Yellow River, and send out combat troops of about a thousand people at a time. They attack and harass and then retreat, or they simply use war to support war and cause destruction. Shu thieves are not Can't do it.
Another one is that the Yellow River basin is too long. The two major tributaries of the Yellow River, the Jing River and the Wei River, are both in Guanzhong. Especially the Jing River, which is in the Zuofengyi area. The Shu thieves can enter the Yellow River through the Jing River and then log in on the other side of the Yellow River. , penetrated into the Hedong area.
What's even worse is that the upper reaches of Luoshui are also in Zuofengyi area.
If the Shu thieves harassed the Hedong area, diverted Luoyang troops to Hedong for encirclement and suppression, and then sent the navy down the Luoshui River to surprise Luoyang, then the problem would be huge.
This kind of thing is not impossible to happen.
There are too many aristocratic families in the Hedong area, and because Cao Cao's base was in Hedong and Luoyang in his early years, the aristocratic families here have a very large say in the court.
Once Hedong is attacked, the voices in the Cao Wei court asking for troops to be dispatched to annihilate the Shu thieves in Hedong will inevitably be loud. At that time, even Cao Pi may not be able to suppress such voices.
And once troops are sent to Hedong to encircle and suppress the Shu bandits, they will definitely not be able to come back for a while. The Shu bandits are fighting guerrilla warfare, and it is difficult to find people. How can they be surrounded and annihilated in one fell swoop? !
At that time, Luoyang's military strength will inevitably be insufficient for a certain period of time.
At that time, if the Shu thieves have really trained their naval forces in advance and go down the Luo River, Luoyang will be in danger.
If Luoyang was only in danger, it wouldn't matter. Although Luoyang was burned down during Dong Zhuo's rebellion, it has been nearly thirty years since it was rebuilt. Today's Luoyang can be said to be a fortified city.
The only problem is that Cao Pi is still staying in Luoyang.
Once the Shu thieves approach the city and Cao Pi is besieged in Luoyang, the situation will become extremely complicated.
We can't just watch Cao Pi being surrounded. Should Cao's troops from Wancheng, Xuchang, Yanzhou, and even Tongguan and Wuguan send troops to serve the king? !
It doesn't make sense not to send troops. If Luoyang is attacked, it will be a big problem.
But send troops, the Shu thieves will definitely not sit idly by. When the Jingzhou Army moves north, the Yongzhou Army will take advantage of the opportunity to attack Wuguan and Tongguan. If you are not careful, the Central Plains will be wide open. Even if the siege of Luoyang is solved this time, they will be attacked at any time. Will face the next siege by Shu thieves.
In this case, it is really hard to say whether the Wei Dynasty can defend the Central Plains.
But now, because of Cao Zhen's words, Liu Ye and Jiang Ji were inspired to worry about the defense of the Hedong area, especially Zhang Xi's sudden disintegration of the Northern Army into pieces. No matter how you look at it, it looks like he is going to use a small force to cross the Yellow River. , a precursor to harassment in the Hedong area.
Maybe by this time, Zhang Xi is already arranging for people to train specialized naval forces.
Therefore, Jiang Ji and Liu Ye quickly told Cao Pi their guesses, and asked Cao Pi to immediately strengthen the defense of the Hedong area, especially along the Yellow River. Sufficient sentries must be set up to conduct inspections along the coast. No one should be allowed to Shu thieves infiltrated.
Only if there is no chaos in Hedong can Luoyang be safe.
The words of Liu Ye and Jiang Ji successfully made the sweat on Cao Pi's back break out. If he continues to think this way, he may be in danger at any time.
Therefore, Cao Pi immediately discussed with everyone how to deploy defenses along the Yellow River and even the Luoshui River.
Setting up defenses along the river would require a lot of soldiers. With the number of troops the Wei Dynasty currently has in the Central Plains, they are not enough.
In this regard, Cao Zhen gave a reasonable idea - to recruit farmers to join the army.
Originally, the farming system left by Cao Cao for Cao Pi, in addition to solving the problem of refugees, was also designed to allow the Wei Dynasty to use its troops at critical moments.
When the war was tense the year before last, Cao Pi originally wanted to send troops, but after checking the number of people in the field, he found that all the wealthy families had put their hands in their pockets. In order to avoid causing greater turmoil, Cao Pi did not Continue to recruit rural residents into the army.
But last year, as a large number of people in Guanzhong were favored by the Manchus and moved into Guanzhong, most of these people, except for a few well-connected families and poor families, were incorporated into the ranks of farmers by Cao Pi.
Nowadays, Cao Pi no longer needs to worry about the loss of the former campers with the aristocratic families. The increase of hundreds of thousands of campers also gives Cao Pi the possibility of breaking out his troops.
Furthermore, Cao Zhen did not really suggest that Cao Pi mobilize all the farmers. If they did so, although the number of people would be enough, the logistics would also be a big burden.
Therefore, Cao Zhen suggested that the imperial court should first come forward to build a certain number of guard posts along Luoshui and the Yellow River, and then arrange for these farmers to serve in the guard posts in rotation and act as guard soldiers.
In this way, the requirements for soldiers will not be too high, and there will be no need for special training for the farming people. At the same time, the rotation method will not have a big impact on the harvest of the farming station.
There was no way, Cao Pi really had too many people this time.
When Cao Pi heard Cao Zhen's suggestion, he immediately felt that it was reliable, while Jiang Ji and Liu Ye also felt that there was no big problem.
Although the imperial court needed to spend a lot of money and food to build a large number of security posts along the Yellow River and Luoshui River, the expenditure of these money and food was really nothing compared to the rebound of the Hedong family after the attack on Hedong.
Another one is the security post. It doesn’t need to be very luxurious. Just build a shed with tall grass to protect it from wind and rain. How much can it cost? !
Compared with the loss of money and food, defending Hedong is now the top priority.
In this way, Cao Wei's court, with its own brainstorming and improvement, began to deploy defenses along the Hedong area.
As for the harassment of Guanzhong after the beginning of spring, this matter will be put on hold for the time being.
On the one hand, Cao Pi really didn't want to make wedding clothes for Soochow. He was waiting for Soochow to make the first move and then send troops himself, so as to maximize his benefits.
On the other hand, Cao Pi currently does not have the time or energy to launch a war against Guanzhong.
The most important thing now is to plug the defense loopholes in the Hedong area and ensure the safety of Luoyang. The rest can be discussed later.
For this reason, Cao Pi specially sent his general Xiahou Shang to Hedong to preside over the recruitment and construction of security posts.
Oh, by the way, in order to prevent Zhang Xi from threatening Hangu Pass by bypassing Tongguan from Pujin Ferry, Cao Pi also asked Cao Zhen to lead 10,000 troops to Hangu Pass, take over the defense of Hangu Pass, and at the same time coordinate the defense of Hangu Pass. The overall defense for the two to three hundred miles between Hangu Pass and Tongguan.
After doing these things, Cao Pi could finally relax.
After that, they were waiting for the Soochow rats to launch a sneak attack on Jingzhou from Jingnan.
But they waited, waited, and waited until the spring plowing in March was about to end. There was no movement at all in Jiangdong.
Cao Pi was murmuring in his heart that this Jiangdong was just taking the benefits and not doing anything, right? !
Just as he was thinking about this, secret news came from Soochow through Jia Kui, who was stationed in Pengcheng.
Soochow hopes that Cao Wei can create pressure in the northern part of Jingzhou and attract the attention of the Jingzhou army in Xiangyang. It is best to attract them to go north and create favorable conditions for Soochow to launch an attack.
As soon as this condition was mentioned, Cao Pi suddenly felt unhappy again.
You know that these Jiangdong rats are not a good thing. They are so fussy about even fighting a war, and they only dare to play sneak attacks, right? !
But... there was no way. After all, it was Cao Pi who sent people to contact Jiangdong. The strategy was set by him. No matter how troublesome it was, he had to find a way to solve the matter.
For this reason, Cao Pi once again summoned Liu Ye and Jiang Ji to discuss countermeasures.
(End of chapter)
