Guo Huai finally arrived at the outskirts of the Youfufeng Fortress Group, but the information he could obtain was limited.
After all, it was a defeated army. He could not send out reconnaissance cavalry and scouts as usual, and he could not contact the detailed work arranged in Youfufeng in a short period of time. Therefore, Guo Huai could only learn the intelligence in front of him through the scouts' exploration, but he had no way of knowing. There was news that the main force of the Northern Army would arrive on the battlefield in one day.
In order to avoid alerting the enemy, Guo Huaijun's scouts and reconnaissance cavalry could not be sent out so far. It was not easy to know the situation in front of them.
Of course, Guo Huai was not unprepared for the main force of the Northern Army. After all, when he was in Huaili City, Guo Huai learned through reconnaissance that the Northern Army of the Han Dynasty had a total size of about 30,000 people.
But Guo Huai really never thought that these 30,000 Northern troops would pursue him from Huaili to the fortress group.
After all, his total strength of infantry and cavalry was less than 20,000. When he attacked Huaili, he lost 3,000. After that, he experienced a big defeat. He left about 7,000 people under the city of Huaili and retreated overnight. There will definitely be a loss of some troops, and there will definitely not be many remaining soldiers, and their morale will not be high. These Shu thieves generals must have been able to predict this.
On Zuo Fengyi's side, the main force of nearly 30,000 Yongzhou soldiers led by Shu thief Zhang Xi was completely besieged by General Cao Zhen for almost half a month.
Guo Huai thought for a moment and felt that if he were Zhuge Liang commanding the entire battle in Chang'an City, he would definitely not use all the 30,000 northern troops to encircle and suppress a group of defeated soldiers. He would definitely send most of his troops north to relieve Zuofeng Yi's siege. of.
Therefore, in Guo Huai's opinion, the number of Shu thieves who could pursue and suppress the remnant soldiers he led was only about 20,000 at most, and this included those Shu soldiers who later joined the battlefield.
If we also include the defensive forces needed to regain the county along the way, the actual number of troops at the fortress group is only about 15,000 at most.
Although the Shu thieves in front of him deployed only 8,000 troops in front of the Youfufeng fortress group, half of them were for containment and half were as reserves, preparing to intercept their defeated troops. This seemed normal to Guo Huai and was not considered an outlier. beyond his expectation.
Therefore, Guo Huai really never thought that Wu Yi would have a main army of more than 20,000 people that would arrive a day later.
Really, if Guo Huai knew that such an army was coming, then the decision he would make now would be to break through the Shu thieves' defense line as soon as possible and then lead his troops to retreat from Wuguan. But unfortunately, Guo Huai's decision now is to break through Shu as soon as possible. The thieves were surrounded by defensive lines and entered the fortress group to command the soldiers to defend.
Relying on the defensive advantages of the fortress group and the cavalry support, in Guo Huai's opinion, it is not impossible to hold on to this final springboard for You Fufeng.
But no matter what, the defense line arranged by the Shu thieves outside the fortress group in front of them must be broken through.
In Guo Huai's view, it is not impossible to break through this line of defense.
The number of Shu thieves who besieged the fortress group was only about 8,000. In order to better encircle the entire fortress group, the Shu generals had to disperse their forces. This resulted in the entire containment defense line being deployed very long, but The depth is a bit lacking.
Guo Huai still has a cavalry team of 2,000 people available.
There is no need for any troublesome tactics. You just need to use the cavalry as the vanguard, choose the weak points of the defense line to break through, and then lead the infantry to quickly pass through the gap and retreat into the fortress before the Shu thieves' reserve team discovers them and rushes to encircle and annihilate them. group, your strategic goals will be achieved.
And this is not difficult for Guo Huai's commanding ability.
Therefore, Guo Huai did not hesitate. After a brief reorganization of his soldiers, he personally directed the cavalry assault. Qin Lang led the infantry to follow and began the battle.
And Wu Yi. Wu Yi was really careless.
On the one hand, Wu Yi believed that his main army was about to arrive, so he relaxed his vigilance against the Wei army.
On the other hand, the scouts Wu Yi sent around did not notice Guo Huai's arrival at the first time. Guo Huai was discovered by the scouts only ten miles away from the flank of the defense line. When Wu Yi received the report from the scouts, At that time, it was already too late to respond.
Therefore, although Wu Yi had already tried his best to respond, he still asked Guo Huai to dig a passage in the defense line and retreat into Youfufeng with two thousand soldiers.
Wu Yi's only result was to kill the 300 cavalrymen Guo Huai used to cut off his rear, but he also suffered nearly 500 casualties.
This result made Wu Yi so angry that he almost ordered an attack on the fortress group. Fortunately, Jiang Wan was still very calm and dissuaded Wu Yi in time.
It's just a small setback for a moment. If you use anger to build an army, you will really commit a big taboo.
Besides, what if Guo Huai is allowed to retreat into the Youfufeng Fortress Group? Everyone has seen the situation on the battlefield today. How many people did Guo Huai bring back? !
The total number does not exceed 5,000 people.
Even if they are allowed to withdraw into the fortress group and hold on, so what. The main force of the Northern Army will arrive at the earliest tonight, and at the latest early tomorrow morning.
At that time, 35,000 Han troops will face 7,000 Wei troops, and these 7,000 Wei troops are all Wei troops who have just experienced a rout and are weak in military morale.
If you want to fight, you can wait until the main force is gathered before fighting.
If you take the initiative to launch an attack now, if the attack fails and the Wei army holds the fortress group, wouldn't this give Guo Huai a chance to boost the morale of the army?
Therefore, there is no need to rush and it is not a problem to wait until tomorrow to attack.
As for Guo Huai, it doesn't matter if he is proud for a while.
In fact, as Jiang Wan said, Guo Huai was indeed relieved after breaking through the direction of the Han army and entering the fortress group.
After entering the fortress group, the biggest advantage is that you don't have to worry about being completely cut off by the Shu thieves. They finally evacuated.
But at the same time, Guo Huai did not relax immediately after entering the fortress group. On the contrary, he immediately ordered the entire army to enter the fortress group to set up defenses, and he commanded the cavalry to respond.
This is in response to the possible attack by the Shu thieves next.
Guo Huai's battle experience was very rich, and he would not think that it would be safe if he retreated to the fortress group. He was prepared for the Han army to launch an attack immediately.
However, Guo Huai was on guard from the time he broke into the fortress group until nightfall, only to find that the Shu thieves had not launched an attack at all.
This made Guo Huai's heart relax again.
He retreated to the Youfufeng Fortress Group. Even if he led the remnant soldiers who had just experienced a defeat, the defense strength of the fortress group was always increased, and he still had 1,700 cavalry in his hands. With the cavalry to assist in defense, It is completely possible to improve the defense of the fortress group by more than one level.
If the Shu thieves want to capture the fortress group, the best way is to launch an attack quickly when they have just retreated into the fortress group, their footing is not stable, and the command system is not smooth yet, otherwise they will wait until they have fully mastered the defense of the fortress group. Army, if we want to launch a frontal attack again, it will not be that easy.
However, the Shu thieves did not take advantage of the situation to launch an attack, but continued to stand still.
When this happens, either the leader of the Shu thieves is a fool who doesn't understand military affairs, or the Shu thieves have other sources of support.
No matter how he thought, Guo Huai would never think that the leader of the Shu thieves was a fool. After all, the two sides had already fought once. Although he lost in the end, the defeat could not be regarded as because his command was not as good as that of the other party. To be honest, how did the people in Huaili City lose? Guo Huai is still a little confused now and has not had time to seriously reflect on the review.
But no matter what, Guo Huai does not think that the leader of the Shu thieves is a military idiot, so the only explanation is that the Shu thieves have nothing else to rely on.
And Guo Huai quickly saw this reliance.
Early the next morning, Guo Huai discovered to his dismay that the number of Shu thieves outside the fortress group suddenly increased, from the original eight thousand to tens of thousands. This joke was really big.
These Shu thieves sent all the reinforcements here. Do they really not care about the outcome of Zuo Fengyi's side? !
Or is it Zuo Fengyi's side, the Shu thieves have already arranged their backup plan? !
Well, Guo Huai has no time to think about this now. If he had known that the reinforcements from the Shu thieves would come so quickly and have so many troops, then Guo Huai would definitely not have chosen to stay in the fortress group. Instead, after entering the fortress group that day, Withdraw troops directly and retreat to Wuguan.
It's better now. I can't retreat even if I want to. I will definitely be followed and hunted by the Shu thieves.
Even if they manage to escape back to Wuguan in the end, they may be chased by Shu thieves, causing Wuguan to fall.
Now Guo Huai has only one way, which is to stay in the fortress group and quickly ask for help from Sima Yi who is in Wancheng.
Except for Sima Yi, no one has the chance to respond to him.
Even if Guo Huai wants to wait for Sima Yi's reinforcements, he must stay in the fortress group for at least half a month. Otherwise, Sima Yi will not have enough time to mobilize his troops and generals to come and meet him.
Although Guo Huai didn't know the specific battle situation in Wancheng, he still knew that the Jingzhou Legion of Shu thieves had gone north to attack Wancheng.
Although judging from the previous intelligence, Sima Yi's defense was still very easy, but it may not be that easy for Sima Yi to block the Jingzhou Army of Shu thieves while deploying troops to support him.
Things are really in trouble now.
(End of chapter)
