When Zhuge Liang led the main force of Hebei County to Jiudao County, Zhang Xi had already followed Midang's strategy to ambush the remaining three Qiang and Hu tribes and achieved certain results.
The remaining three tribes of Qiang and Hu were completely unprepared and were ambushed by Zhang Xi and Pang De. Not only did they lose a large amount of money and food, but the main force of their own tribe was also severely damaged. In total, they lost nearly 100,000 yuan. Thousands of people had to retreat temporarily to the county where they were originally stationed.
Today, the three tribes of Qiang and Hu are completely blocked to the east of Bi Dao by Zhang Xi, and their morale has plummeted.
When Zhuge Liang led the main force to arrive and understood the situation, he immediately cooperated with Zhang Xi to launch a counterattack, dividing his troops to besiege the county where the three Qiang and Hu tribes stationed troops, and surrounded the three Qiang and Hu tribes by dividing and encircling them and defeating them one by one.
The Qiang people of the three tribes, Qiang and Hu, were not good at defending the city. In addition, they lost more than half of their money and food, and their morale was low. They could not defend the city for long. In less than half a month, each county was defeated one after another.
Three tribes of Qiang people suffered heavy losses, the leader of the second tribe was captured, and the leader of one tribe broke through with only hundreds of followers, and his whereabouts are unknown.
After the decisive victory in Nan'an County, Zhuge Liang did not give the Qiang people any chance to breathe. He immediately sent Jiang Xu to lead the army to recover Longxi County, and Ma Dai led the army to recover Jincheng County and drive away the Qiang stragglers entrenched in these two counties. .
So far, the Qiang rebellion in Qinzhou has been put down at the military level.
The only thing left is to appease the Qiang people at the political level and win over the people on the border.
For this reason, Zhuge Liang needed to stay in Tianshui County for a while. By the way, the Northern Army, which was no longer fighting, also stayed in Qinzhou temporarily.
This decision is somewhat inappropriate.
Just imagine, after the counter-insurgency was completed, the counter-insurgency army actually stayed in the border area without returning. No matter from which angle you look at it, this is something that everyone taboos.
Today's Zhuge Liang is not the Prime Minister Ji Han who "in the palace and in the government are all integrated into one" in history. In theory, he has the ability to make decisions in government affairs, but in terms of military power, he promised not to interfere at the beginning.
In order to avoid trouble, Zhang Xi took the initiative to find Zhuge Liang and asked why he did not return to Chengdu.
And Zhuge Liang, precisely because of this matter, came to discuss with Zhang Xi.
"This quelling of the Qiang rebellion was too smooth. I intend to take advantage of the situation and march north to the Central Plains. I wonder what Yuan Chang intends to do?!"
This is the real reason why Zhuge Liang did not choose to return to his army.
Zhang Fei was keeping an eye on the matter of the Northern Expedition. He had agreed to choose an opportunity for the Northern Expedition in the fifth year of Jianxing. Zhuge Liang would definitely not break his promise to Zhang Fei.
Zhuge Liang originally thought that if the Qiang rebellion in Qinzhou broke out so seriously that all three counties would be lost within one month, it would definitely affect the national policy of recuperation and recuperation.
To quell this Qiang rebellion, it will take at least about half a year, and it will take one to two years to completely stabilize the place.
But Zhuge Liang did not expect that the Qiang people would go so smoothly this time. Except for a month or so when it snowed in winter, the Qiang people were defeated again and again. The troops sent from Chengdu in mid-October had already defeated the Qiang people in February of the following year. Chaos, regaining the homeland.
Moreover, in the process of quelling the Qiang rebellion this time, it can be said that the main force of the Qiang people, led by the five Qiang tribes, was severely damaged, and the alliance between the five Qiang tribes was broken up. At the same time, most of the food and property stolen by the Qiang people was basically lost. In the short period of time after the two battles in Xi County and Biedao County, the Qiang people could not catch their breath so easily.
The time taken to counter the rebellion was nearly half less than Zhuge Liang expected, and the money and food spent to counter the rebellion was also one-third less than Zhuge Liang expected. In this case, it is not impossible to take advantage of the situation with a little squeeze. Northern Expedition.
Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong discussed this issue. The two calculated the imperial family's wealth and found that launching the Northern Expedition at this time was not without its benefits.
First, it was unexpected.
In late September last year, the Qiang people launched a rebellion. Even if Cao Wei's intelligence system was useless, he should have learned the news by this time, and knew that the Han Dynasty's Northern Army had gone north to put down the rebellion.
With such a large-scale war in the northwest region, a normal person would judge that even if Ji Han could put down the rebellion in time, the money and food spent would definitely be large, and it would be impossible to start another war in a short period of time.
After all, since the Han Dynasty occupied Guanzhong in the fifth year of Zhangwu, it has been in a passive defensive position. It has not used troops for five or six consecutive years. In the past three years, it has clearly shown an attitude of recuperation.
Of course, Cao Wei understood the purpose of the Han Dynasty to recuperate, so it has been constantly intruding on Yongzhou, at least not allowing Guanzhong to develop.
But now the Qiang chaos will obviously interrupt the Han Dynasty's rhythm of recuperation, mobilize the Han Dynasty's military deployment, consume the Han Dynasty's money and food, and Cao Wei will breathe a sigh of relief.
For this reason, it is unlikely that Cao Wei expected that the Han Dynasty would suddenly launch the Northern Expedition in less than half a year after pacifying the Qiang rebellion.
Secondly, it is convenient to mobilize troops.
Now that the Northern Army has arrived in Qinzhou, the purpose is also to quell the Qiang rebellion. This is an obvious matter. Therefore, Cao Wei's detailed operations in Shu will not be suspicious of the mobilization of the Northern Army.
If the Northern Army is immediately transferred back to Chengdu after the counter-insurgency is over, it will be another waste of military rations to send troops from Chengdu again during the next Northern Expedition.
It is better to rest in Qinzhou directly, and when the time is right, directly enter Yongzhou and attack the Central Plains.
Third, the Han Dynasty suppressed the Qiang rebellion, and the main force was concentrated in the northwest region. Even if Cao Wei did not relax his vigilance, the defense direction would be concentrated on the three passes of Yongzhou, north and south, and the defense against Jingzhou would inevitably be weakened.
This created the conditions for the Jingzhou Army to secretly prepare and move north to attack Wancheng.
This time, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition did not focus on the northwest.
To enter Guanzhong from Yongzhou, you need to pass three passes - Wuguan, Tongguan and Hangu Pass.
These three checkpoints are all set up in places that are easy to defend and difficult to attack. Along the Yellow River, Cao Wei's inspections have been very strict in the past two years. It is unrealistic to sneak across the river and gather troops to attack the east of the river.
On the contrary, as for Wancheng, Dengxian, Xinye and other places are still in the hands of the Jingzhou Army. If they want to attack north, they can attack directly near Wancheng.
As long as Wancheng is captured, Wuguan on the west side of Wancheng will face the enemy from both sides and will not be able to defend it for a long time.
Once Wuguan was broken, the Northern Expeditionary Corps stationed in Yongzhou had a channel to enter the hinterland of the Central Plains. At the same time, they could bypass Tongguan and Hangu Pass and approach Luoyang.
Therefore, during this Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang thought about it many times and felt that the Jingzhou Army should be the main attack, while the Han Dynasty Northern Army and Yongzhou Army would provide auxiliary containment.
And doing so has an unexpected benefit - from the Battle of Hanzhong to the first two Northern Expeditions, the Jingzhou Army has always been in a auxiliary position. This time it suddenly became the main attack direction, and Cao Wei may not be able to react.
The only trouble is that the general guarding Wancheng is Sima Yi. This person is not easy to mess with.
This is not something Zhuge Liang said.
In the novel, before Zhuge Liang set out for the Northern Expedition, when he heard that Sima Yi was stationed in Chang'an, he was immediately shocked and said something like "I only care about this person."
Then Ma Su gave him a divorce plan, spreading rumors that caused Sima Yi to be suspected by Cao Rui and deposed him from military power. But in fact, this was pure nonsense from Luo Guanzhong.
Not to mention that Xia Houmao was in charge of Chang'an at that time, and Sima Yi had nothing to do with him. Just talking about Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi, there was no intersection before. With the intelligence gathering capabilities of this era, how could Zhuge Liang regard Sima Yi as his lifelong enemy from the very beginning? ? !
This is purely a plot that Luo Guanzhong came up with from God's perspective.
However, in this time and space, Zhuge Liang still knows a little bit about Sima Yi's abilities.
But it's not that Zhuge Liang has any foresight ability. It's just from the perspective of Sima Yi being ordered to defend Wancheng during the last Northern Expedition that he was ordered to defend Wancheng. From the analysis, we know that Sima Yi has good abilities.
Not everyone can turn the tide in the face of the Jingzhou Army led by Guan Yu himself in such a situation of overwhelming defeat.
Although there was some help from the weather, Sima Yi was able to gather the troops' morale and revive their morale in a short period of time, which showed the qualities of an excellent general.
But one thing is that Zhuge Liang's understanding of Sima Yi is still incomplete. Zhuge Liang analyzed that Sima Yi's ability is probably similar to that of Guo Huai or Zhang He of Cao Wei.
The person who truly confirmed that Sima Yi was "not easy to mess with" was Zhang Xi.
There is no way, Zhang Xi, like Luo Guanzhong, are both people with God's perspective.
Don't look at Sima Yi who was later ridiculed as "fearing Shu as much as a tiger", but really speaking, throughout the middle and late period of the Three Kingdoms, he also suffered a loss from Zhuge Liang in the Battle of Lucheng, and was beaten to the level of "three thousand". But from a strategic point of view, Sima Yi was right to stick to the strategy of avoiding war. He finally achieved his goal and defended Guanzhong without giving Zhuge Liang any chance to enter Guanzhong.
This man's character is indeed not very good. He is an old fox who is good at forbearing and is not trustworthy. But his military skills are no worse than any famous general in the world.
Even if Guan Yu leads the Jingzhou Army, if he does not have a large enough local advantage, he may not be able to break through Sima Yi's defense and occupy Wancheng.
Not to mention that Guan Yu's current physical condition has deteriorated to a certain extent, and it is not sure whether he can lead the army in person.
As for the remaining members of the Jingzhou Army, although Xu Shu is resourceful, he lacks the ability to lead troops. Although Wang Ji is both civil and military, he does not have enough prestige. The remaining Guan Ping, Deng Ai, Kou Feng and others are facing Sima Yi. When I was an old fox, I didn’t have much chance of winning.
So, Zhang Xi suggested to Zhuge Liang that if possible, it would be best to find a way to trick Sima Yi away, or send a suitable general to lead the Jingzhou Army on his behalf.
(End of chapter)
