Zhang Xi and Wei Yan agreed on the reason for the Wei army's retreat - it should be that the Liangzhou Army led by Zhao Yun had arrived near Chongquan, and Cao Zhen was worried that his flanks would be threatened, so he chose to withdraw.
However, whether Cao really withdrew his troops, whether to retreat temporarily to avoid the edge, or whether to give up attacking Guanzhong and retreat to Tongguan, both of them were a little unsure.
If he withdraws to Linjin, then Zhang Xi may really do what Cao Zhen expected. After joining the Liangzhou Army in Chongquan, he will send his troops to Linjin and take the initiative to attack Cao Zhen.
Cao Zhen hopes to pin the Yongzhou Army and Liangzhou Army to Zuo Fengyi. Zhang Xi actually also hopes that Cao Zhen will continue to stay here with the main force of the Wei Army to reduce the pressure for the Jingzhou Army to attack Wancheng.
But if Cao Zhen directly withdraws to Tongguan, he will continue to stay in Chongquan County and rearrange the direction of Zuo Fengyi.
With the remaining strength of the Yongzhou Army, even if the Liangzhou Army comes to help, it is basically a no-brainer to attack Tongguan, which is guarded by more than 40,000 soldiers.
Not to mention beating them down, even threats can't threaten others.
After all, Tongguan will be the first pass in the world in the future. Although it was born not long ago, under Cao Wei's many years of construction, it is also a powerful pass, which is not so easy to defeat.
Therefore, where Cao Zhen retreats will directly affect the development of the entire Guanzhong war, and may even affect the arrangement of the subsequent Northern Expedition strategy.
In fact, both Zhang Xi and Wei Yan felt that given Cao Zhen's character, the possibility of him withdrawing his troops and approaching Jin was very high.
Judging from Cao Zhen's previous battles in Guanzhong, he is not a decisive person. He is a bit procrastinating in making decisions at some critical moments. It is impossible for him to give up all of a sudden on Zuo Feng Yi's hard-earned establishment. The advantage is that we can return directly to Tongguan.
Even if he wanted to withdraw to Tongguan, he would probably stop in Linjin to see the reaction of the Han army. If he saw the opportunity, he would still stay in Linjin and not leave.
Once Cao Zhen really just retreated to Linjin, Tongguan would become a fatal node for the Wei army.
Therefore, based on this conjecture, Wei Yan proposed a combat plan to Zhang Xi on the spot, and wanted to "meet Tongguan with different religions" with Zhang Xi.
In fact, to put it bluntly, Wei Yan plans to take a big gamble and lead 3,000 troops now to attack Tongguan in a detour in front of the Wei army and cut off the Wei army's retreat, while Zhang Xi continues to hold on to Chongquan County and waits until the Liangzhou Army After all the reinforcements were in place, they sent troops to Jin to restrain Cao Zhen's main force and prevent him from returning to rescue Tongguan.
In history, Wei Yan actually proposed the strategy of "Meeting the Heretic at Tongguan", and it was a follow-up to the famous "Ziwu Valley Plot".
Wei Yan advocated that when attacking Guanzhong after leaving Ziwu Valley, he should ignore Chang'an and directly attack Tongguan behind Chang'an, cut off the backup of the Wei army in Guanzhong, and completely block the Wei army in Guanzhong, so that he could enter Guanzhong without a fight.
In fact, this strategy is even more unreliable than the strategy of attacking Chang'an out of Ziwu Valley - Tongguan is nearly three hundred miles behind Chang'an.
Even if Zhuge Liang adopted Wei Yan's plan and sent troops from Xiegu, he would still have to go all the way from Fufeng on the right to attack Chang'an on the left to Fengyi on the left, and join forces with Wei Yan at Tongguan. If a big man has this ability, wouldn't it be better to attack Chang'an honestly? ? !
Zhuge Liang didn't even agree to go to Ziwu Valley, so of course it was impossible for him to agree to this even more whimsical strategy of "different paths meeting Tongguan".
But now, when Zhangxi is in Chongquan County of Zuo Fengyi and Tongguan is more than a hundred miles southeast, Wei Yan's plan suddenly becomes very tempting.
Don't tell me, Zhang Xi was indeed tempted at that moment.
I don’t know if Zhang Xi has been partnered with Wei Yan for a long time, but Zhang Xi has also been influenced by Wei Yan. With a little risk factor, when he heard Wei Yan’s plan for the first time, he actually thought it made sense.
However, after calming down and thinking about it carefully, Zhang Xi felt that the plan was a good one, but he really couldn't bear to scrutinize it. There was too much gambling in Wei Yan's plan.
The first bet in Wei Yan's strategy was that Cao Zhen was betting that Cao Zhen would retreat to Linjin instead of directly retreating to Tongguan.
If Cao Zhen had retreated directly to Tongguan, and Wei Yan foolishly led 3,000 soldiers and horses to attack Tongguan, as long as there was a slight delay, Wei Yan would have been attacked by a joint attack of 50,000 infantry and cavalry. It would be a miracle that Wei Yan could come back alive.
Secondly, even if Wei Yan was right in his bet and Cao Zhen did retreat to Linjin and did not return directly to Tongguan, with Cao Zhen's ability, he cannot be the kind of fool who cares about his head and body. After he shortened his own food supply line, he would definitely The defense of Tongguan will be strengthened.
Wei Yan was leading infantry, and he had to take a detour to avoid the scouts and eyes of the Wei army along the way. By the time he arrived at Tongguan, perhaps the reinforcements sent by Cao Zhen to Tongguan had already arrived in advance.
Finally, taking a step back, even if Cao Zhen was really stupid, he never thought about the importance of Tongguan. According to the information obtained before the war, Tongguan was also garrisoned by Cao Tai and led 3,000 Wei troops.
There are three thousand troops stationed in a majestic pass. No matter how capable Wei Yan is, no matter how useless Cao Tai is, if there are three thousand against three thousand, the one guarding the pass will definitely take advantage.
These days, it is not that easy to meet someone like Xia Houzhen. This is not the first time that Cao Tai has gone to the battlefield. Even if he is not capable, as long as he cannot come out of seclusion, I will give you Wei Yan half a year. You may not be able to win Tongguan.
The final result is actually the same, that is, you Wei Yan died together with three thousand infantry.
Therefore, after thinking calmly, Zhang Xi decided to reject Wei Yan's suggestion.
Wei Yan was worried about this bastard on the spot, and started to be timid again, wasting a good opportunity.
But this is not the first time that Zhang Xi has partnered with Wei Yan. He knows this guy's bad temper. In addition, this is not the first time that Wei Yan has partnered with Zhang Xi. He also knows that Zhang Xi will not simply say "This plan is not feasible." Just ignore it. The two started arguing on the tower.
Now Zhang Yi can't stand it, right? Two generals, the Wei army is still gathering outside the east gate, and our own soldiers are also watching from the tower. Will this have a bad impact? !
Zhang Yi is not unaware of the relationship between Zhang Xi and Wei Yan.
Let's say there is a conflict between the two. As for Wei Yan's temper, compared to the way Wei Yan gets along with other colleagues, he is already very friendly when getting along with Zhang Xi.
But you have to say that these two appreciate each other. As they are now, no matter how you look at them, they don't look like they like each other.
But no matter what, Zhang Yi knew very well that as long as Zhang Xi was there, he could indeed suppress Wei Yan. Wei Yan would naturally curse and complain afterwards, but Wei Yan did not dare to disobey Zhang Xi's military orders.
In fact, this is also the case. When Zhang Xi threw his three reasons at Wei Yan, Wei Yan, in addition to still being stubborn, did not necessarily stick to his battle plan of "the aliens will meet at Tongguan".
After all, after working with Zhang Xi for so many years, Wei Yan has changed a lot. After listening to Zhang Xi’s reasons, Wei Yan actually felt in his heart that there were too many uncertainties in his plan, and he was not confident enough to seduce Zhang Xi. The Tongguan guard will take the initiative to fight.
If the general guarding Tongguan really cannot hold on, even if Wei Yan uses a sneak attack, it is difficult to be sure that he can conquer Tongguan in one battle.
Once there is a stalemate, Wei Yan doesn't care whether he dies or not, but if his death is in vain and does not help the war, then Wei Yan is not willing to do it.
Therefore, Wei Yan still murmured the words "how can everything go as expected when making decisions before battle" to support himself, but after Zhang Xi repeatedly rejected his battle plan, Wei Yan just stood aside and sulked. That’s all.
Even if this old man expresses compromise, he is still so awkward. Zhang Xi has long been used to it.
Therefore, Zhang Xi did not say anything and continued to stand on the tower and watch, checking the movements of Wei Jun.
As for the Wei army, after gathering troops all morning, they began to withdraw from camp in the afternoon.
This withdrawal was not a conspiracy, and Cao Zhen did not want to play any stratagem before leaving, but everything was laid out clearly.
First, Han De led 5,000 infantry out of the camp and formed a formation to prepare for a break in case the Han army in Chongquan County left the city for a sneak attack. Then, 5,000 cavalry led by Wang Chang appeared on the flank of the east gate to respond.
Cao Zhen personally led the remaining infantry and cavalry to attack 38,000 people, and began to break camp and retreat, walking slowly, keeping vigilance to the surrounding situation from beginning to end.
When Zhang Xi saw this posture, he immediately stopped thinking about taking the opportunity to make a sneak attack. After all, Cao Zhen is a truly capable person and will not give you this opportunity at all.
In addition, Zhang Xi was not sure when the Liangzhou soldiers led by Zhao Yun would arrive in Chongquan County, so he did not dare to move without permission. He continued to defend the city and watched the Wei army retreat to the southeast.
In the evening, a large amount of smoke and dust suddenly appeared in the northeast of Chongquan County. Zhang Xi was afraid that the Wei army had left and returned, so he climbed up the tower to check again.
This time, it was not the Wei army but Zhao Yun who led the Liangzhou soldiers to Chongquan County.
Zhao Yun originally came here to prepare for a sneak attack on Cao Zhen's retreat and relieve Chongquan County from the siege. However, when Zhao Yun led his troops to arrive twenty miles northeast of Chongquan County, the scouts reported that no Wei troops were found around Chongquan County.
Zhao Yun immediately understood that this Cao Zhen really had two brushes and could run really fast.
When Zhao Yun came this time, he only brought 3,000 heavy cavalry and 3,000 rangers, with the remaining 2,000 cavalry slowly marching behind him. In the battle outside Dali County, Zhao Yun won a complete victory and surrendered about three thousand cavalry. There are more than a thousand cavalrymen of the Wei army. These cavalrymen must be watched over by someone.
Therefore, Zhao Yun did not dare to pursue Cao Zhen's large army easily. He could only rush to Chongquan County first, meet up with Zhang Xi, and then discuss the next step.
In this way, Zhao Yun led his troops to Chongquan County. Under the welcome of Zhang Xi, he entered Chongquan and met Zhang Xi, Wei Yan, Zhang Yi and others who were stationed here.
At the same time, after seeing the cavalry brought by Zhao Yun, Wei Yan, who was unwilling to give up, his eyes brightened, and once again proposed his battle plan of "the aliens will meet at Tongguan".
What's even more terrible is that after listening to Wei Yan's battle plan of "the aliens will meet at Tongguan", Zhao Yun, as a general of the Han Wei and a veteran general, actually chose to support Wei Yan.
The reason is simple. If it is cavalry, then this battle is possible.
(End of chapter)
