Soochow attacked Jingzhou in the back, and when the news reached Chengdu, Zhuge Liang suddenly became gloomy.
There was no news in the first three months of spring. Zhuge Liang thought that Soochow had given up its plan to fall out with the Han Dynasty and was preparing to continue to maintain the alliance. At that time, Zhuge Liang even thought about whether to send another envoy to strengthen contact with Jiangdong.
Unexpectedly, Soochow suddenly took action in April, and indeed chose to backstab.
Zhuge Liang received an urgent report from Jingzhou in early May, but Zhuge Liang was not worried about it.
This urgent report was from Jingzhou taking the route from Yong'an to Chengdu, and Zhuge Liang had already explained it to Chen Dao, the governor of Yong'an. Once he received the urgent report that Soochow was attacking Jingzhou, Chen Dao could directly lead Yong'an without asking the court. The 10,000 Northern troops immediately went down the river to support Xi Hong and Li Qiu in Wuling and unified the command of the Jingnan operations.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang is not worried about whether Jiangdong's backstab can succeed this time. He is more concerned about how to develop diplomatic relations with Soochow under the current situation.
In today's world, there are three pillars.
The Han Dynasty and Cao Wei are feuding, and the foundation of the two countries' foundings destined that the two sides cannot reconcile, and must fight for life and death.
Therefore, if you want to find external support, Soochow is the only option.
Zhuge Liang himself also said in "Longzhong Dui" that he "can provide assistance" to Soochow. But now, it is obvious that the foreign policy towards Soochow needs to be adjusted.
If possible, Zhuge Liang doesn't want to completely fall out with Soochow, so it would be best to form an alliance.
But it is obvious that Soochow now no longer wants to form an alliance with the Han Dynasty. They have their own interests.
But no matter what, the top priority for Zhuge Liang now is to return to the fight this time, what attitude should be used to end the fight, and how to avoid forcing Soochow to fall to Cao Wei.
The big man did not have the confidence to deal with the dual pressure of Cao Wei and Soochow at the same time.
Moreover, Zhuge Liang is worried that if the war starts in the east, Cao Wei will not miss such a good opportunity in the Guanzhong area in the north.
The Battle of Guanzhong is probably the biggest war.
Zhuge Liang had been worried about this and was always waiting for urgent reports from Guanzhong. He was even prepared for an emergency in Guanzhong and secretly told Zhang Fei to be ready to go north to fight in Guanzhong at any time.
But, wait, wait, wait until June, Zhuge Liang has not received any battle report from Guanzhong.
What does Zhuge Liang mean by the confused Cao Wei? !
If you don't attack Guanzhong and wait for Liangzhou to free up their hands, you won't have a chance!
The Liangzhou war is now coming to an end.
King Hu Zhiyuanduo of Liangzhou led his troops to invade the border in December last year. After a two-month stalemate with the Liangzhou Army, he was still unable to invade Liangzhou and obtain the grain and grass supplies he needed. Since the beginning of spring, many troops have been The alien tribesmen left and went to seek survival elsewhere.
The pressure on Liangzhou suddenly decreased a lot.
As Ma Dai led Qinzhou County soldiers to provide support, Liangzhou had a head-on confrontation with Zhiyuan Duo in early March.
Zhao Yun took command of the Chinese army and defeated more than 40,000 people from Zhiyuanduo's command in the first battle, breaking the siege of Wuwei and Guzang counties.
During the retreat, Zhiyuanduo's troops were intercepted and killed by 3,000 Liangzhou cavalry led by Pangde. Pangde killed two Hu generals and pursued Zhiyuanduo all the way, leaving Zhiyuanduo in a state of embarrassment. A lucky escape.
Zhiyuan Duo, who barely managed to survive, after gathering the remaining soldiers, although he was still wandering around Liangzhou, it was obvious that he had the intention of retreating.
But after Zhiyuan Duo retreated, Liangzhou was freed up, and Yongzhou had backup, so Cao Wei would not attack Yongzhou again, but it would not have much practical significance.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang really couldn't understand what Cao Wei was doing. Why did only two groups take action when the three armies were besieging the Shu Han? How come the most critical Guanzhong army had not moved yet? !
Zhang Xi is actually very curious about this question.
Preparations for the war in Guanzhong have been carried out since the beginning of January. The five war zones have been demarcated, and preparations are being made one after another. Even after the spring plowing is over, the top priority for the entire Yongzhou is to prepare for war and defense.
But from April to June, when they were preparing for war, the Wei troops in Wuguan and Tongguan were stunned to see no movement at all.
Zhang Xi also couldn't figure out what Cao Wei was thinking.
What can you think of? Cao Pi was busy increasing defensive forces in the east of the river, recruiting farmers to join the army, and building warning posts along the river.
Zhang Xi was guarding the Wei army from leaving Tongguan and Wuguan, and Cao Pi was also guarding Zhang Xi from crossing the river to attack Hedong.
This mistake caused Cao Pi to temporarily stop his plan to attack Guanzhong.
However, a temporary pause does not mean that the plan has been completely terminated. By July, when Cao Pi saw that his "defensive loopholes" were almost repaired, he turned around and remembered the harassment again.
It's already July. If we don't send troops to harass us, Guanzhong's food for a year will be ready by August or September.
Once winter comes, it's a waste of time.
Therefore, after consulting Liu Ye and Jiang Ji, Cao Pi directly gave orders to Guo Huai of Wuguan and Cao Zhen of Hangu Pass, asking them to choose an opportunity to leave Guanzhong, harass Sanfu, and burn the crops in Guanzhong.
After Guo Huai and Cao Zhen received the edict, they did not hesitate and immediately sent troops to harass Guanzhong.
But...it didn't go well.
Things didn't go smoothly for Guo Huai, which is understandable.
If troops were sent out in early March, there would only be a dozen or so Wubao at Wuguan Road. It would be very difficult to completely block Wuguan Road and prevent the Wei army from coming in and out.
Even if Liu Yin and Jufu are good at defending, and Zhuge Qian can respond back and forth, it is still somewhat difficult to stop the Wei army, which is divided into several small groups, from entering Youfufeng.
But the problem is that it took Cao Wei almost half a year to launch the offensive. During these six months, Liu Yin was not idle. He built Wu forts whenever he had nothing to do. Now there are more than thirty Wu forts at Wuguan Pass, and the depth is even deeper. It is directly expanded to within forty or fifty miles from Wuguan Road.
As soon as Guo Huai led his troops out of Wuguan Road, they ran into a large group of Wubao. Even if he divided his troops to infiltrate, there would be Wubao for forty or fifty miles around, and it would be impossible to continue deep into Youfufeng. He just wanted to fight to support the war. There is no such basic condition.
If we don't solve these Wu Forts and go deep alone, it's just a matter of how fast we die.
Guo Huai also tried to attack these Wu forts, but these Wu forts were just like the ones Guo Huai had seen when he confronted Chen Dao at Baoxie Pass. Not to mention they were extremely strong. A large number of people could be arranged in one Wu fort. With the ordnance and two to three hundred soldiers, it would be impossible to conquer such a Wubao without more than a thousand people attacking.
Not to mention that these Wu forts are almost only five to ten miles apart. If one place is attacked, it will not take half a day for Shu thieves from other places to come to help.
Guo Huai did not have that many troops on hand to fight against these Wubao groups. After attacking Wubao several times to no avail, Guo Huai weighed the pros and cons and finally chose to retreat, returned to Wuguan, and then directly wrote a letter to plead guilty and admit himself. Unfavorable in combat.
The progress on Guo Huai's side was unfavorable, while on Wang Chang's side, although the attack was smoother than Guo Huai's, it was not much better.
After Cao Zhen accepted the order, he continued to defend Hangu Pass just in case. At the same time, he appointed Wang Chang as the frontline commander of Tongguan. According to the previously agreed strategy, he divided his troops into seven groups with 7,000 soldiers to launch an attack on Zuofengyi area. Wang Chang led a rear team of 3,000 people to garrison at Tongguan to provide support.
The seven-thousand-man team took the order and set off, leaving Tongguan and heading towards Zuofeng Yi.
Then Wang Chang discovered that it was not easy for these seven thousand-man troops to guerrilla and harass Zuofeng Yi.
As soon as the county soldiers from all over the country saw the Wei army appearing, they all immediately retreated to the county town to defend themselves.
This is nothing new. The county soldiers are small in number and lack combat effectiveness. They will definitely not choose to confront a thousand Wei troops head-on. It is a routine operation to retreat to the county town for defense.
But after this group of county soldiers retreated, they actually lit the smoke immediately. Then, in less than half a morning, an elite group of more than a thousand Shu thieves appeared.
This speed, as if these elite Shu thieves were stationed nearby, caught several thousand-man troops off guard.
A group of Wei soldiers were busy setting fire to the crops in the fields, but soon the Shu thieves came and killed them. Those who were able to react and retreat in time were all because the captain of the Thousand-man Corps led the army well and responded appropriately.
The most terrible thing is that the thousand-man troops sent by Wang Chang were almost completely defeated in the battle with these Shu thieves, and none of them could complete the mission.
Although his own casualties were not large, and the Shu thieves did not pursue them with all their strength, they did not complete many strategic tasks.
It was true that some crops in fertile fields were burned, but that loss was not a big loss to a county, let alone an entire county.
Wang Chang led his troops to fight back and forth in the Zuofengyi area for nearly a month. In total, he did not even burn dozens of hectares of fields, but he lost nearly 2,000 soldiers. It was almost a large-scale battle. .
It was such a commotion that Wang Chang had to suspend the harassment, and then rushed to Hangu Pass in person to meet Cao Zhen and tell the details.
And Cao Zhen was not a brainless person. When he heard Wang Chang's return, he immediately realized the problem - where did the Shu thieves get so many powerful soldiers? !
Then he thought of the military report he had carefully compiled before, saying that Zhang Xi had reduced the 10,000 Northern troops to pieces. Now Cao Zhen finally understood where the 10,000 Northern troops had gone.
But this matter, it was really hard to report directly to Cao Pi. After all, a group of people in the court thought that these ten thousand Shu thieves were broken into pieces to sneak across the Yellow River and harass the Hedong area.
But looking at it now, it seems that they just stayed with Zuo Fengyi and strengthened Zuo Fengyi's defense, and didn't think much about it at all.
Who should take the blame for this misjudgment? !
Cao Zhen thought about it and finally decided to follow Guo Huai's example and write a letter to apologize. Whether he should take the blame or not was not his decision, it was Cao Pi's decision.
As a minister, I must at least have the consciousness to take the blame.
(End of chapter)
