Wei Yan led 10,000 troops. After a day of preparation, he immediately set off and headed straight for Dali County.
The ensuing development was somewhat beyond Zhang Xi's expectation - Cao Zhen left 5,000 men to garrison Linjin County, and personally led an army of 35,000 to leave Linjin County and arrive at Dali County. He made a posture of wanting a decisive battle.
Zhang Xi, who was in charge of Chongquan County, was immediately shocked and immediately called the remaining four generals to make war arrangements.
"Tanma came to report that Cao Zhen personally led the main force of more than 30,000 people to support Dali County. Wei Lao. The old general may be in danger, so I will personally lead the army and horses to respond." Zhang Xi said.
Before he finished speaking, Zhang Yi asked strangely, "Why didn't the governor ask General Wei to return to the army and defend it, and why did he have to go and respond in person?!"
Zhang Xi shook his head and said, "Firstly, General Wei may not retreat, and secondly, Cao Zhen's advance may not be without a conspiracy. If there is no one to respond, I'm afraid General Wei may not be able to come back."
Xiang Chong immediately stood up and said, "In this case, there is no need for the governor to come to meet him personally. I am willing to lead 3,000 troops and horses to meet General Wei."
Zhang Xi still shook his head and said, "For an army of more than 40,000, three thousand people are really nothing to worry about. Adding fuel to the fire is a taboo for military strategists. Furthermore, I personally lead the army to respond, which may be able to frighten Cao Zhen. I have made up my mind."
After speaking, Zhang Xi no longer listened to the advice of his subordinates and directly made military arrangements.
Five thousand people were left with Hao Zhao, and Hao Zhao was appointed as the general of Chongquan and asked to guard the city.
Unless Zhang Xi or Wei Yan leads troops back in person, anyone who wants to lead troops into Chongquan County, whether they are people from Chang'an or self-defeated troops returning from the front, will not be allowed to enter the city.
Regarding this matter, Zhang Xi believed Hao Zhao and could only keep Hao Zhao. After all, Hao Zhao relied on thousands of people to block Zhuge Yutou's attack of tens of thousands of people.
But compared to the so-called famous general Cao Ren who was boasted by later generations, he was much more worthy of his name.
Cao Ren is indeed a famous general, but being good at defense is really not Cao Ren's fighting style and Hao Zhaocai.
Zhang Xi personally took the remaining two, and at the same time took all the remaining 15,000 troops, and tried his best to go outside Dali County to support Wei Yan there.
Zhang Xi was really worried about Wei Yan.
There is one thing to say, Zhang Xi still recognizes Wei Yan's ability. With the same force, or even twice the force, Cao Zhen may not be able to do anything to Wei Yan. But this time the difference in force is nearly five times.
Even if Zhang Xi recognized Wei Yan's ability, with such a huge difference in troops, it was basically impossible for Wei Yan to win. It was just a question of whether Wei Yan could hold on for a few days until he could lead his troops to respond.
Our own troops are insufficient. If Wei Yan suffers too many losses, it will have a considerable impact on subsequent defensive strategies.
Furthermore, the original intention of Zhang Xi and Zhuge Liang in discussing this Guanzhong defensive battle was to fight it as an outpost of the Northern Expedition. If the losses were too large, or Wei Yan was directly damaged, this would be a very big blow to the Northern Expedition itself.
Therefore, Wei Yan must not make any mistakes.
Zhang Xi really led the troops to support Wei Yan in a hurry. The march originally took about five days, but Zhang Xi took one day out of his hands.
But when Zhang Xi led his troops to the outside of Dali City, he did not find any camp of Wei Yan, the defeated army led by Wei Yan. They were still standing well outside Dali City, and there seemed to be no trace of the siege.
What's even more outrageous is that when Zhang Xi led his troops to join forces with Wei Yan, Wei Yan's first words when he saw Zhang Xi were - "This must be a scam!!!"
Listen, even Wei Yan said this, which shows how weird things are.
Zhang Xi quickly asked what Wei Yan had experienced in the past few days.
When Wei Yan talked about these things, his tone was full of confusion and fear.
When Wei Yan led his troops to Dali County, everything was still normal.
Dai Ling, the defender of Dali County, saw Wei Yan leading troops to attack, and immediately led 5,000 troops out of the city, trying to take advantage of the fact that Wei Yan had just arrived and was not yet established, and had a field battle with Wei Yan.
After losing more than a thousand men, Dai Ling realized that he might not be able to consume Wei Yan's offensive forces in the field, so he immediately and decisively withdrew into the city, relying on the city's defense advantages to fight defensive battles.
These operations are considered routine operations and are not anything worthy of suspicion.
But what happened next completely made Wei Yan doubt his life.
It was okay for Dai Ling to withdraw his troops into the city for defense. Wei Yan was not in a hurry to attack the city. He set up camp outside the city and built siege equipment while continuing to send people to challenge Dai Ling. If possible, it was better not to fight a siege. good.
Furthermore, Wei Yan's main purpose was to test the Wei army's reaction, and he was not in a hurry to attack the city. He just took this opportunity to delay for a while and wait for Cao Zhen's reaction in Linjin County.
Then Cao Zhen's reaction shocked Wei Yan.
He just led 10,000 soldiers to attack Dali County, which is more than 80 miles west of Linjin County. It was not an attack on any important strategic location. Cao Zhen came here in person with 35,000 soldiers. Did you work hard on your own? !
Is this Cao Zhen out of his mind? !
Ten thousand people faced the Wei army with a total of 45,000 people. No matter how powerful Wei Yan was, he didn't think he had much chance of winning.
If that Xia Houmao was leading the army, then Wei Yan would probably want to give it a try. Cao Zhen was not that kind of waste.
Therefore, Wei Yan was actually thinking about when and how to withdraw his troops at that time, avoiding the interception of the Wei army as much as possible, and returned to Chongquan County.
However, Wei Yan is Wei Yan after all. Even though he has been with Zhang Xi for a long time over the years and has been infected by Zhang Xi's "cautious" factor, he will never be like Zhang Xi, who is cautious when encountering the slightest disturbance.
Wei Yan always remembered his mission, which was to test Wei Jun's movements and reaction.
Now the Wei army is only marching from Linjin County to Dali County. This reaction is not enough to determine the real purpose of the Wei army, and the geographical location of Dali County is not enough to allow the Wei army to launch such a large-scale war. Without understanding this Before the attack, Wei Yan continued to camp outside Dali County without any intention of retreating.
Wei Yan originally thought that he would be ready at any time. As soon as Cao Zhen led his troops to Dali County and was ready to attack him, it would be a bit risky for him to retreat and risk being surrounded by the enemy at that time. However, Wei Yan was confident about himself He was confident. He believed that with Cao Zhen's few moves and this small strength, although Wei Yan could not win, he would not be surrounded by Cao Zhen.
Furthermore, if Cao Zhen's pursuit troops could be dragged back all the way to Chongquan County, Wei Yan believed that with Zhang Xi's ability as a little fox, if Cao Zhen really dared to pursue him, at least half of them would never want to go back.
But Wei Yan waited and waited. When the Wei army led by Cao Zhen arrived in Dali County, he did not wait until Cao Zhen tried to leave the city and launch an attack on his camp.
Let alone attacking, Cao Zhen didn't even make preparations to set up a camp outside the city to confront Wei Yan's camp and cooperate with the defenders in the city to launch a two-sided attack on Wei Yan.
Cao Zhen led his troops directly into the city. Not a single camp was set up outside the city. He completely assumed a posture of being passively beaten, as if he was just waiting for Wei Yan to lead his troops to attack the city.
Such an abnormal behavior almost made Wei Yan confused by Cao Zhen.
It’s a lot of pressure! ! !
During the day, we should be on guard against the possible sudden attack by the Wei army from the city, and at night, we should be on guard against the possible arrival of the Wei army to attack the camp. In the past few days, not only Wei Yan but also the 10,000 Han soldiers could not sleep well.
But Cao Zhen, he actually didn't do anything! ! ! !
It's a waste of brains. Really, Wei Yan still doesn't understand what Cao Zhen wants to do? !
The only possibility that came to mind was that Cao Zhen was deliberately waiting for Wei Yan's reinforcements to arrive, intending to fight a decisive battle to decide Zuo Fengyi's ownership.
But the question is, where did Cao Zhen get this confidence? !
Wei Yan has about 10,000 soldiers. If Zhang Xi leads his army to help, there will be about 20,000 to 30,000 troops. In Dali County, there are only about 45,000 Wei troops. .
If Cao really had this confidence, he would have led his troops out of Linjin County and attacked Chongquan County long ago. Why did he stop in Linjin County for ten days without moving? !
Afraid of the advantage of city defense and don’t want to fight a siege? !
This may be a reason, but the question is, do you have full confidence in the field battle? !
Wei Yan found it ridiculous just thinking about it. Is it because you, Cao Zhen, have lost his temper, or because Wei Yan can no longer hold the knife, or because Zhang Yuanchang, that little fox, can no longer trick people? !
Even if there is no need for strategy, just in terms of command ability, no matter who Zhang Xi or Wei Yan takes action, even Guo Huai will not be able to get a favor, let alone you, Cao Zhen, a general of the Cao Wei clan.
Therefore, the more Wei Yan thought about it, the less he understood it, and he did not think that Cao Zhen, a general like Cao Zhen, was ignorant of the sky and the earth. After much deliberation, Wei Yan thought that Cao Zhen must have some conspiracy, but he did not understand it.
By this time, Wei Yan was already a little worried and wanted to retreat, but Zhang Xi had already arrived with reinforcements.
Okay, there's no need to retreat now, let's work together to figure out what this Cao Zhen is doing.
Now, Wei Yan had no doubt at all that Wei Jun must be up to something. This was all so abnormal.
The key is, what conspiracy is Wei Jun playing? !
This time, Wei Yan no longer disagreed with Zhang Xi. The two of them thought about it together but still couldn't figure it out.
Just when Zhang Xi felt conservative and wanted to return to Chongquan first, and Wei Yan no longer objected, Cao Zhen sent someone to send a letter of war.
Make an appointment with Zhang Xi tomorrow to see him on the battlefield.
To put it nicely, it's a meeting, but in reality, it's just a date.
This time, I can't retreat.
(End of chapter)
