While Wang Ling was busy summoning the Yingchuan aristocratic families and preparing to get some troops, money and food from these Yingchuan aristocratic families, in Wancheng, Sima Yi received a letter from Wang Ling of Xuchang.
In the letter, Wang Ling asked Sima Yi about the actual battle situation in Wancheng. At the same time, he emphasized that if there were any changes in Wancheng, he must be notified in advance so as not to catch him off guard.
Under the current situation, with Sima Yi's strategic vision, he certainly understood what Wang Ling meant. As the last barrier to Luoyang's frontier, Sima Yi was very pleased that Wang Ling could write such a letter to himself.
However, what Wang Ling can do is to prepare in advance if "there is a change in Wancheng". He cannot lead troops to support Wancheng.
To be honest, Sima Yi actually hoped that Wang Ling could do this, but Sima Yi also knew that this was simply impossible.
Not to mention Wang Ling's own responsibility to defend the territory, Yingchuan County itself is also a gateway to the Central Plains and must be defended with all his strength. Regarding the issue of military strength, Wang Ling also told Sima Yi the truth in his letter.
Nowadays, Xuchang cannot mobilize troops. Wang Ling also needs time to find a way to raise troops as soon as possible. Otherwise, it will be difficult to deal with Wancheng's defeat.
Therefore, Wang Lingneng was already loyal to his country by thinking ahead of time and taking measures to respond to Sima Yi's retreat after Wancheng fell.
Cao Xiu can only be blamed for suddenly deploying Yingchuan soldiers and horses. As a result, when Nanyang is in a tight situation, Sima Yi is stunned to have no reinforcements at all.
In fact, it is not true that there are no reinforcements at all. According to Sima Yi's estimation, the emperor should have 10,000 imperial guards. With the emperor's courage today, he should not be stingy with this small number of troops. As long as he can have this If reinforcements from the Royal Guards came to support Wancheng, Sima Yi would feel much better.
As for the emperor, he can completely mobilize troops from Chenliu County to Luoyang to protect the emperor's safety.
After all, Chenliu was the place where Cao Wei started his career, and the aristocratic families and county soldiers there were still worthy of trust.
However, Sima Yi waited for a long time and sent several letters asking for help, but still there was no sign that the emperor even sent a single soldier to Wancheng to support him.
Although after the incident, Sima Yi received an urgent document from Chen Qun and learned that the cause of the incident was that Tongguan was lost, and the emperor had to send Xia Houshang to lead the Imperial Guard to counterattack Tongguan, but what about Wancheng? !
You can't just ignore it, right? !
Sima Yi is really under a lot of pressure nowadays.
On the opposite side, 90,000 Shu thieves came to lay siege to Wancheng. The coach was no longer the ineffective son of a so-called famous general, but the famous general Guan Yu himself. The tactics used were really ordinary, but extremely royal - - Frontal attack.
But like Guan Ping and Deng Ai, who were unwilling to lose troops and played any conspiracies, Sima Yi was really not afraid.
With the little strategy of this group of juniors, it was still almost impossible to get Sima Yi to be fooled, and Sima Yi really didn't mind accompanying these juniors to continue to spend so much time. Anyway, the longer it took, the better it would be for Wei.
But facing Guan Yu, he will not play tricks with you.
My troops are three times yours, so why should I try to strategize with you? I can just attack by force.
Once the enemy began to ignore strategies to reduce casualties, it would be useless to attack Sima Yi purely by heaping human lives.
He has few soldiers.
Although from the perspective of the art of war, attacking a city by force is the worst strategy in the art of war. But sometimes, you really can't do it in full compliance with the requirements of the art of war, otherwise you will just be talking about Zhao Kuo on paper.
Yes, the efficiency of antfu siege is very low, and the attackers often suffer much greater casualties than the defenders.
But in the current situation, the Shu thieves have much more troops than the Wei army defending Wancheng.
The Shu thieves suffered 20,000 casualties as a result of attacking the city, and Guan Yu could not afford the loss, but the Wei army suffered 10,000 casualties as a result of defending the city, and Sima Yi could not afford the loss.
The Jingzhou Army led by Guan Yu lost 20,000 people, which at most affected morale and combat effectiveness. But Sima Yi lost 10,000 people, and the battle damage reached more than 30%. It was already so damaged that the army's morale could collapse at any time.
And the most terrible thing is that if the fighting continues like this and no reinforcements arrive from Wancheng, the morale of the defending Wei army, which has no hope, will only decline faster than that of the Shu thieves attacking the city.
Sima Yi couldn't help but sigh, Guan Yu was worthy of being a famous general after all. He was extremely experienced on the battlefield. Although it was not the best siege method, he chose the most suitable siege method for the current situation.
Sima Yi sighed, but at the same time, he also launched his own response.
In the face of a strong attack, the response is actually relatively simple. Just, simply, defend the city.
Sima Yi also directly chose to abandon the camp outside the city and gathered his troops to defend the city.
Facing an enemy attack of 30,000 to 40,000 people, the camps outside the city can play a very good role in containing and protecting Wancheng. At least Guan Ping and Deng Ai have nothing to do with these camps.
But against an enemy force of 90,000 people, the camp garrisoned by thousands of people has completely lost its combat significance. If we continue to divide our troops and hold on, we will only be surrounded by the enemy and defeated one by one, and we will lose our troops in vain.
It would be better to simply give up and shrink his troops to defend the city. After all, Sima Yi is extremely short of combat troops now. It is better not to divide his troops if possible.
After gathering his troops and entering the city, Sima Yi also sent his eldest son, Sima Shi, to hold his own military talisman and rush to Wuguan day and night to take charge of the defense of Wuguan.
Then, Sima Yi sent military orders to Guo Huai, who had been guarding the Youfufeng fortress group for almost half a month, allowing him to choose an opportunity to retreat, evacuate Youfufeng, and retreat to Wuguan Road.
There is no need to worry about the pursuit of soldiers. After entering Wuguan Road, someone will naturally pick him up.
After returning to Wuguan, Guo Huai must stick to Wuguan. He must ensure the safety of Wancheng's flanks and not give the Shu thieves a chance to attack Wancheng from both sides.
The unlucky Guo Huai had been holding on at the Youfufeng Fortress Group for almost half a month. Finally, someone remembered that he had been here for half a month, and no reinforcements or military orders to retreat had arrived. Guo Huai almost doubted whether he was there. It has been abandoned by Wei Dynasty.
At the beginning, Guo Huai relied on the cooperation of 5,000 infantry and the remaining 2,000 cavalry to occupy the right Fufeng fortress group, and was able to block the combined attack of Wu Yi and Jiang Wan.
Guo Huai ordered five thousand soldiers to guard several adjacent fortress groups, and then used cavalry to respond back and forth to maintain contact with each other. For a while, Wu Yi and Jiang Wan really had nothing to do against Guo Huai.
The defense of the fortress group is actually effective. Cao Wei was able to break through this line of defense. One was the crushing advantage of his troops, and the other was the sudden appearance of the cavalry, which made Liu Yin less defensive. But now, Guo Huai used infantry and cavalry to cooperate with each other. The tactics completely raised the defense of the fortress group to a higher level.
Guo Huai's initial defense was undoubtedly successful.
However, as Generals Feng Xi and Zhang Nan led the remaining 20,000 troops of the Northern Army to the front line of the fortress group, and the Han army gained a clear strength advantage, Guo Huai's defense began to become difficult.
On the one hand, the Han army has enough troops to divide and surround some peripheral fortresses and defeat them one by one.
Although it is somewhat difficult to completely block Guo Huai's cavalry from responding, Guo Huai's cavalry has lost one by one and has not been replenished. As time goes by, with the loss of cavalry, Guo Huai is bound to fall into full passivity.
On the other hand, the coverage area of the Youfufeng Fortress Group is really too large.
In the previous coalition forces of Wu Yi and Jiang Wan, one was short of troops and the other underestimated Guo Huai and wanted to defeat the remnant army led by Guo Huai head-on, so they did not choose to outflank and take a detour to break through.
But now, it was difficult to attack Guo Huai from the front, and the Han army had been replenished and began to make a detour, bypassing the area defended by Guo Huai's army, and began to outflank Guo Huai's retreat.
Guo Huai suddenly became anxious.
He was already a defeated army, but now it is no longer easy to block the attack of the Shu thieves. With no way to retreat, most of his soldiers will no longer have the courage to continue.
Furthermore, Guo Huai's supply of food and grass at this time depends entirely on the food and grass stored in the fortress group. Once the escape route is cut off, these food and grass will inevitably be consumed one day.
In addition, the signal for help had been sent out for so long, and the military order given by Sima Yi was to hold on and wait for reinforcements, but he was holding on, but the reinforcements were not even seen.
Under this situation, even Guo Huai had a strange mentality, let alone his soldiers.
Therefore, Guo Huai had no choice but to retreat to several fortress groups at the Wuguan Pass, where he continued to stay and hold on to ensure that his retreat was not lost.
No matter how capable the Shu thieves are, they can't go around the mountains of Wuguan Road and penetrate into Wuguan Road to cut off their own retreat, right? !
Just when Guo Huai thought so, Zhang Fei, who had marched hastily from Hanzhong, finally led 30,000 Yizhou soldiers and arrived at the front line of Youfufeng Fortress Group.
Among the 30,000 Yizhou soldiers, 5,000 were the unworthy flying army led by Wang Ping.
After Zhuge Liang's reorganization and training, the upgraded version of the Wudang Flying Army was perfectly suitable for operations in mountains and behind enemy lines.
For ordinary soldiers, it is an almost impossible task to climb through mountains and forests to penetrate behind enemy lines and cut off the enemy's retreat.
But for Wudang Feijun, this is their strength.
In fact, after understanding the specific battle conditions on the front line, Zhang Fei approached Wang Ping and asked him about the possibility of crossing the mountains and setting up a defense line at Wuguan Road to block Guo Huai's withdrawal.
After Wang Ping carefully understood the information about Guo Huai's army's arms and combat strength, he made a careful calculation and felt that it was completely feasible.
After all, in Wuguan Road, the performance of cavalry will be greatly restricted, and if only infantry is used, Wang Ping feels that even if they face Cao Wei's Central Forbidden Army now, Wudang Feijun will no longer be at a disadvantage.
Since Wang Ping, the commander of the Wudang Fei Army, said so, Zhang Fei immediately ordered the Wudang Fei Army to attack. At this moment, a battle report came from the front.
Guo Huai withdrew his troops.
Withdrew to Wuguan Road and retreated to Wuguan.
(End of chapter)
