Sima Yi also knew about Soochow's attack on Jingzhou, only two days later than Zhuge Liang's military report.
Cao Wei also had his own intelligence system. Whether it was in Jingzhou or Jiangdong, Sima Yi could receive relatively accurate intelligence.
Just because of the loss of the Huainan area, the timeliness of Soochow's information was slightly less timely. After all, it was not faster than Zhuge Liang knew it. Well, there was no reason for Zhuge Liang to "add fuel to the flames".
In short, now the last doubt in Sima Yi's heart has been solved.
It now seems that Zhuge Liang may have received the news of the changes in Soochow in advance, and speculated that Soochow might launch an attack on Jingzhou, so he was so anxious to gather his troops before, and even gave up effective guarding of the grain road, hoping to seize the opportunity in Dongwu. Before Wu launched his attack, he captured Luoyang.
A series of Zhuge Liang's previous actions that made Sima Yi feel strange now have reasonable explanations.
But Sima Yi always felt that there was something wrong with this matter.
This is an intuition, but this intuition cannot be used as an effective basis for action. At least in Luoyang now, Sima Yi cannot do this.
In Luoyang, Sima Yi is not the only one who has the final say, there is also Xin Pi.
Moreover, Xinpi also has the right to control the armies with restraint.
Before, Sima Yi's doubts were not solved. He also used this to persuade Xinpi to be calm and not to take the initiative easily, so as to avoid falling into Zhuge Liang's trap. Zhuge Liang's behavior at that time was indeed a bit strange. Before a reasonable explanation, Xinpi also felt that it was right to stick to Luoyang.
But now, Zhuge Liang is obviously facing a loss of ground on the Luoyang front line because of the tight situation at the rear, and fighter planes have already appeared.
In addition, during this period of time, the Heluo family saw that they could not persuade Sima Yi, so they all came to persuade Xinpi and asked Xinpi to create pressure on Sima Yi and expel the Shu thieves as soon as possible. Xinpi was also under great pressure.
Xin Pi is not as calm as Sima Yi, and he has a closer relationship with the aristocratic family. The Xin family does not have the same say in Yingchuan as the Sima family does in Hedong. This is why Xin Pi is not as calm as Sima Yi. As a result, Xin Pi could not withstand the pressure, so he could only take the initiative to find Sima Yi, hoping that Sima Yi would find an opportunity to defeat the Shu thieves as soon as possible.
If they just sit and guard Luoyang City and wait until the Shu thieves retreat on their own because of the tight war in the rear, then the next time the Shu thieves march into Heluo, they will still come and leave whenever they want.
They must be beaten painfully to let these Shu thieves know that the Heluo family is not easy to mess with. Then even if they attack Heluo next time, they will most likely not dare to torture the local families and ask for food and grass. .
This is what the Heluo family, represented by Xinpi, hopes most for now.
In this case, if Sima Yi said to Xinpi, my intuition tells me that there is something fishy about Zhuge Liang. It would be strange for Xinpi to believe you.
If Xinpichijie really wanted to take over the Luoyang garrison and leave Sima Yi aside and take the initiative to fight, it would be a direct betrayal. This is not a situation Sima Yi wants to see.
Therefore, theoretically speaking, Sima Yi couldn't figure out what conspiracy Zhuge Liang was hiding, so he should take the initiative to attack.
However, it is possible to attack. What strategy to use and how to attack requires Sima Yi to think carefully.
This does not mean that Sima Yi and the Luoyang defenders rushed out and fought for a while to solve the problem.
Sima Yi also needs to make a battle plan.
Now the Shu bandits are divided into two groups, one is stationed in Yique Pass, and the other is stationed in Dagong Pass.
In the direction of Yiqueguan, it was Zhuge Liang, the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition, and in the direction of Dagonguan, it was the famous general Zhang Xi.
No one is an easy opponent to deal with.
According to the available intelligence, Zhang Xi led about 15,000 troops at Dagu Pass, while Zhuge Liang led about 20,000 troops at Yique Pass. In Sima Yi's hands, he only had a total of 25,000 defenders, even if he went into battle. A certain amount of defending troops must also be left behind. In other words, even if Sima Yi takes the initiative to attack, he will only have about 20,000 troops to call upon.
If possible, Sima Yi now of course wants to divide his troops into two groups and attack across the board to defeat the two main forces of the Shu thieves. But from the perspective of the number of troops, it seems that this is not realistic.
After all, Sima Yi couldn't risk everything on just one battle. Meng Jin's side had to bear the role of containing the Shu bandits' partial troops. Hulao Pass was the last retreat, and the troops on both sides could not be easily mobilized.
Therefore, now Sima Yi must choose to attack all the way, defeat one group of Shu thieves as soon as possible, and then cut off the supply channel of the other group of Shu thieves before they can react, and then chase and break them. This is the best strategy.
But the question is, which road should be focused on?
Theoretically speaking, since Zhuge Liang is the head coach of the Northern Expedition, then Zhuge Liang's side must be the focus of the attack. But the question is, does Zhuge Liang know such a simple truth? !
Therefore, despite the difficulties, Sima Yi now hopes to find a suitable breakthrough from the direction of Dagonguan.
But if he had to face Zhang Yuanchang, even if he had the advantage in military strength, Sima Yi was not sure of victory, let alone the ideal quick victory.
But no matter what, it is definitely not possible to continue to stay in Chang'an City. Sima Yi needs to send troops.
Then let’s test it out first.
See what is true and false.
Sima Yi personally led 10,000 troops, marched out from the south gate of Luoyang and headed towards Dagu Pass.
The purpose was not to use 10,000 soldiers to attack the 15,000 Zhang Xi army at Dagu Pass. Sima Yi just wanted to test Zhang Xi's reaction and see how Zhang Xi would respond.
Zhang Xi's response was indeed not as expected by Sima Yi. After detecting that he led his troops to leave Luoyang City, there was no movement and he could not leave Luoyang City.
After all, it was the legendary Zhang Yuanchang who was extremely cautious in using his troops. Before Sima Yi understood the true purpose of sending troops, he remained unmoved and remained unchanged in response to all changes.
Sima Yi did not dare to go too deep. When he was still fifty miles away from Dagong Pass, he immediately turned around and returned to Luoyang.
Going forward, I am afraid that the two armies will really fall into a battle. No matter how cautious Zhang Yuanchang is, the enemy troops are already in front of him. There are not many troops, so he will not fail to take the initiative to attack and explore the reality.
Sima Yi didn't want to be entangled by Zhang Xi, so he had no choice but to retreat immediately.
After returning to Chang'an, Sima Yi was not too anxious. He was waiting for the spy sent to investigate the movements of Zhuge Liang's army to come back.
Sima Yi must know how Zhuge Liang responded when he took the initiative to send troops to attack Dagong Pass.
Within two days, the team sent to Yique Pass returned to Chang'an, bringing Zhuge Liang's movements - four days after Sima Yi took the initiative to send troops to Luoyang, Zhuge Liang immediately assembled the entire army and took the initiative to march towards Luoyang.
This reaction seemed reasonable, but Sima Yi was stunned.
After repeatedly asking Zhuge Liang about the time, number and direction of sending troops, Sima Yi immediately realized the problem.
Zhuge Liang's time to send troops was four days after Sima Yi took the initiative to go to war. Considering the distance from Yique Pass to Luoyang, this time seemed a bit too tight.
There is a high probability that as soon as Zhuge Liang received the news that Sima Yi took the initiative to send troops, he immediately ordered all his troops to rush to Luoyang.
Isn't Zhuge Liang afraid that this is a trap he designed to lure him into attacking? !
Another thing is that Xizuo was not able to completely determine the scale of Zhuge Liang's troops. After all, he was weak and it was difficult to observe closely. Sima Yi was pressing hard. Xizuo had to rush back to report the news before Zhuge Liang's army attacked Luoyang, so he only I can get a rough idea.
Anyway, according to Xizuo, there should be no less than ten thousand people. Sima Yi was skeptical about Xizuo's return.
Zhuge Liang's response was so fast, and the strength of the assembled troops was uncertain. It was even impossible to determine whether he was really going to Luoyang.
Yes, from a normal perspective, it is a normal phenomenon that Sima Yi took the initiative to send troops to attack Dagu Pass, and Zhuge Liang took advantage of the emptiness of Luoyang to send troops to attack.
But the problem is, Zhuge Liang reacted too quickly. Shouldn't the normal military strategy be to wait until Sima Yi is entangled by Zhang Xi and unable to escape, and then Zhuge Liang marches into Luoyang? !
Now Sima Yi strongly doubted whether Zhuge Liang's purpose of reacting so quickly was to attack Luoyang, or if he had other purposes.
For example, Zhuge Liang himself is no longer in Yique Pass? !
Sima Yi was horrified when he thought of this possibility. This was not impossible.
Now that the war in Jingzhou is critical, it is impossible for the Shu thieves to stay in the Luoyang area for a long time and they will have to withdraw their troops sooner or later.
However, if we withdraw our troops rashly, we will inevitably be chased and intercepted by the Wei army in Luoyang, Yingchuan and other places. Withdrawing our troops is not a problem. The real problem is how far we can withdraw.
After all, the Shu thieves withdrew their troops back to Jingzhou to relieve the siege of Jingzhou. It was not a routine withdrawal, so if they could lose as little as possible, they should lose as little as possible.
Perhaps, Zhuge Liang's army at Yique Pass is just a bluff. In fact, Zhuge Liang has already taken the initiative to withdraw his troops to Wancheng.
This can explain why Zhuge Liang's army rushed to Luoyang impatiently as soon as he received the battle report of his troops. This was to cause Sima Yi to misjudge and make Sima Yi think that there were sufficient troops in the direction of Yique Pass and that he would launch an attack at any time, thereby preventing him from attacking at any time. Dare to march towards Yique Pass.
This is a false and true strategy, and it is also the most commonly used strategy by Zhuge Liang in intelligence data.
When he thought of this, Sima Yi was immediately confused.
To pursue or not to pursue? !
If we chase now, we may catch up with Zhuge Liang's retreating army. Taking advantage of the fact that the Shu thieves are unprepared to retreat, we will definitely be able to defeat Zhuge Liang's troops in one battle. At the same time, we can join Chen Tai in Xiangcheng and cut off the Shu thieves' food supply. Dao, trapped Zhang Xi's troops to death in Henan County.
If you don't chase, the risk will be smaller. Anyway, the Shu thieves are about to retreat, and Sima Yi can be regarded as holding Luoyang and achieving his strategic goal.
Both options are actually fine.
But Sima Yi took into account the reputation problems he might face after the war, as well as the requirements of the wealthy families in the Heluo area. Since the fighter opportunity was right in front of him, he still pursued it.
It doesn't sound good to talk about such things as defending and retreating the enemy! ! !
(End of chapter)
