The most nervous person during the Han Dynasty's Northern Expedition was not Sima Yi, but Wang Ling, the prefect of Yingchuan.
Sima Yi had long been prepared for the Han Dynasty's Northern Expedition and had made strategic predictions.
Therefore, when Zhuge Liang led his troops into Wuguan, Sima Yi also sent Chen Tai, the son of Chen Qun, and led 20,000 soldiers from Sili County adapted from the field troops to rush to Yingchuan County.
Sima Yi also made some considerations when selecting Chen Tai to lead the army.
Chen Tai is the son of Chen Qun and is naturally from Yingchuan. If Chen Tai is asked to lead the troops to rescue Yingchuan, he will definitely do his best.
And Chen Tai was a person that Sima Yi admired very much. Unlike his civil servant father, Chen Tai was not only skilled in government affairs, but also quite knowledgeable in strategy and military use. During his time as an official in Hanoi, he had wiped out bandits many times and had extraordinary characteristics. A small military achievement.
It is most appropriate for such a person to go to Yingchuan and assist Wang Ling, the prefect of Yingchuan, in the defense of Yingchuan.
But Wang Ling's current mood cannot be said to be very good.
As for Yingchuan, a poor place, there is no dangerous place. Xuchang, the only strong city, is not on the strategic point leading to Henan. In other words, to stop the Shu bandits from advancing to Henan County, we can only rely on some small mountains and small towns. With only 20,000 county soldiers in his hands.
Is this something a normal person can do? !
If you look at the opposite side, let’s not talk about the 70,000-strong army, but just take one of their commanders and generals. Which one of them is not a veteran on the battlefield, a man who has fought in hundreds of battles? !
On our side, we need soldiers but no soldiers, and we need generals but no generals.
In this regard, the Yingchuan family could not help Wang Ling.
Most of the Yingchuan aristocratic families are mainly heirlooms of poems and books, and have talents in governing and managing the people. You can find a lot of them in these aristocratic families, but the art of war and strategy. Maybe some aristocratic families really have these books, for example, the Xun family of Yingchuan definitely has this A collection of books, but having books does not mean having generals.
You have to find a suitable family member to lead the army at once. There really is no one in this Yingchuan family.
The Yingchuan family recommended some members of the family who were said to have read military books to Wang Ling, but Wang Ling inspected them one by one and found that these were just a bunch of bombastic people.
Even Zhao Kuo is not as good as him. Zhao Kuo can at least memorize military documents backwards and forwards.
Sometimes, Wang Ling also laments that Yingchuan County is really in decline.
Yingchuan County produced so many talents at that time, Xun Yu, Xun You, Xun Chen, Guo Tu, Guo Jia, Xin Ping, Xin Pi, Chen Qun, Zhong Yao, Du Xi and even the opposite Zhang Xi and Xu Shu were all He was born in Yingchuan, and all of them were talented in literature and martial arts.
Not everyone may be able to lead troops, but there is certainly no shortage of strategies.
But what are these things that these aristocratic families recommend to me now? !
Now, he has to bring such a bunch of gadgets to face the 70,000-strong army of Shu thieves. Can Wang Ling not be anxious?
To be honest, if it weren't for his own reputation and family interests, Wang Ling would have thought of giving up directly.
After all, his uncle Wang Yun was recognized by the world as a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty. Now that the Han Dynasty is coming, and the nephew of a loyal minister of the Han Dynasty chooses to submit to the Han Dynasty, is there any problem? !
It's a pity that I can only think about it this way, but I can't do it.
Wang Ling's hometown is in Taiyuan, which is within the control area of Cao Wei. Moreover, the Wang family in Taiyuan is no longer a small family, but a large family that spans the counties of Taiyuan.
Although Wang Chang, the prefect of Hongnong County who guarded Tongguan, was not from the same clan as Wang Ling, his ancestors were from the same family, and they were brothers from the branch clan.
It doesn't matter if his side surrenders. The entire Taiyuan Wang family may be facing annihilation.
At this time, the Taiyuan Wang family was not yet the powerful family that it was in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. At this time, the Taiyuan Wang family had just started, and its influence was far less than that of the Langya Wang family. It was just a rising star.
Therefore, we can only bite the bullet and resist.
Fortunately, Sima Yi, who stayed behind in Luoyang, was not a mediocre person after all. The Shu thieves here had just made some changes. The main army had not yet left the boundaries of Wancheng. Chen Tai, sent by Sima Yi, had already led troops to help.
With Chen Tai as a local snake and the commander of the army, Wang Ling's pressure was suddenly reduced by half.
Not only does he have someone available, but he also doesn't have to be an outsider to grind out money and support from the Yingchuan family. Chen Tai can help him solve these problems.
With the arrival of Chen Tai, Sima Yi also brought Sima Yi's latest instructions for this battle - Wang Lingtun stationed heavy troops to defend Kunyang, and Chen Tai divided his troops to defend Luyang. Both of them could only defend the city and were not allowed to fight without permission.
Wang Ling and Chen Tai both understand Sima Yi's order. In fact, they just can't stand it. Defending and dragging it out. Anyway, we are fighting at home. Not only do we have the support of the local aristocratic families, reinforcements will arrive from Hebei at any time. There is no need to take the initiative to fight. , to fight head-on with the Shu thieves.
Both Wang Ling and Chen Tai understood Sima Yi's strategic intentions, and they both recognized this way of dealing with it, so they just followed it.
Sima Yi felt a little relieved now. He was afraid that these two young and energetic men would take the initiative to fight against the Shu thieves.
Now it seems that these two people are both smart people, and Sima Yi likes to deal with smart people, which can save a lot of trouble.
Next, Sima Yi had to look at the advancing route of the Shu thieves to decide which direction to stick to.
It is possible for the Shu thieves to attack Kunyang and Luyang, and both have strategic value. However, with the strength of the Shu thieves, they will definitely choose to focus on attacking one rather than splitting their forces to attack both.
There are only 70,000 soldiers in total. If the troops are divided evenly, the threat will be much smaller.
Sima Yi believed that it was impossible for Shu thieves to make such a stupid choice.
In fact, Zhuge Liang would not make such a mistake. Zhuge Liang and Zhang Xi also had a serious discussion on whether to attack Luyang or Kunyang.
The highway behind Luyang can lead directly to Henan County and is the fastest marching channel to attack Luoyang.
The road behind Kunyang can directly enter Yingchuan County, completely occupying Yingchuan, and can also lead to Chenliu County, capture Yanzhou, and of course lead to Luoyang, which means it will make a big circle.
Both of these places actually have strategic value for attacking.
Attacking Luyang can quickly lead to Luoyang, while attacking Kunyang can clear out flank threats. At the same time, occupying Chenliu can block the reinforcements from the Wei army in Hebei.
Finally, the two people discussed it carefully and decided to attack Luyang first based on the existing strategy.
As long as Luyang is captured and marched to Henan, they can cooperate with Wei Yan and the others' partial division operations to the greatest extent, close the distance with Hongnong County as soon as possible, and attack Luoyang together.
As for Luoyang, Yingchuan County will destroy itself without attacking. This is the most realistic approach.
On the contrary, if you attack Kunyang, you need to go around in a big circle, which is not conducive to a quick march into Luoyang.
Once there is any problem in Hongnong County, whether it is an offensive failure or being surrounded by enemy troops, not only will they not be able to effectively respond to Wei Yan and others, they may even be defeated by Sima Yi of Luoyang.
Out of such considerations, Zhang Xi and Zhuge Liang reached an agreement. An army of 60,000 troops marched into Luyang, and Wu Yi was sent to lead a partial force of 10,000 troops to contain Kunyang.
The person stationed in Luyang was Chen Tai. According to the reports from the scouts, after learning that the main force of Shu thieves was heading towards Luyang, he immediately sent a request for help to Wang Ling and Sima Yi of Luoyang.
After Wang Ling, who was in Kunyang, received Chen Tai's letter asking for help, he immediately sent 10,000 reinforcements to support Luyang. He did not dare to send more troops, for fear that this was a trick of the Shu thieves to hide the truth and attack the west. Wang Ling still stayed in Kunyang. Twenty thousand soldiers were deployed for defense.
Chen Tai was not in a hurry either.
It is indeed critical for an army of 60,000 to attack Luyang, where an army of 10,000 is stationed. However, the distance between Kunyang and Luyang is not too far. Reinforcements will only arrive in four or five days. Even if the army of 10,000 cannot defend it anymore, It can be held for four or five days.
As for Luoyang, even if the round trip time for asking for help is taken into account, Sima Yi's Luoyang army should be able to arrive within fifteen days. In this time, Chen Tai is still confident that he can hold on.
Luyang is indeed not a strong city, but in the battle to defend the city, the defenders still have the advantage.
The reality was similar to what Chen Tai expected.
Three days later, Zhuge Liang led an army of 60,000 troops to the city, and sent Deng Ai as the vanguard to fight at Luyang City.
Obviously, Zhuge Liang doesn't want to fight a siege if he can. If General Lu Yang is an idiot who doesn't understand military affairs and chooses to take the initiative to fight, wouldn't that save a lot of things? !
But unfortunately, Chen Tai was not moved at all and could not avoid the battle.
When Zhuge Liang saw this posture, he did not hesitate and directly ordered the attack on the city.
After a day of fruitless siege, Zhuge Liang temporarily withdrew his troops back to camp and began to build large-scale siege equipment. At the same time, he did not forget to monitor and harass Luyang City.
There is a saying that Chen Tai was a little confused at this time. This Zhuge Liang actually thought of building siege equipment only after a day of siege. Could it be that he really didn't know how to lead troops? !
But the question is, if this is the case, what is Zhang Xi, a veteran on the battlefield, doing? !
It doesn’t matter if Zhuge Liang doesn’t understand this, how can Zhang Xi understand it? !
Or, is there some problem between Zhuge Liang and Zhang Xi, and the current coach of the Shu thieves, Zhuge Liang, has completely suppressed Zhang Xi's chance to speak out? !
Is this an opportunity? !
(End of chapter)
