Zhang Xi poured all his thoughts and worries on Zhuge Liang, and hoped that Zhuge Liang could give some instructions or judgments to help him better defend Jingzhou.
But Zhuge Liang actually has no good solution.
After all, Zhang Xi still had 100,000 troops at his disposal, and the situation Zhuge Liang faced was much worse than Zhang Xi's.
Qin Lang led 30,000 soldiers from Bingzhou County and stationed them in Hedong County. There was Sima Division in Hanoi County. The two brothers Sima Zhao retreated from Luoyang and guarded 15,000 soldiers from Luoyang County across the river. The total number was 45,000. Expanding the army to 50,000 people at any time is not a problem at all.
The Han army's defense at Mengjin Crossing was only 14,000 land and sea troops, with Huang Quan as the main general and Xiang Chong as the deputy general.
Although there is a natural danger in the Yellow River, there are only 4,000 naval troops. If Cao Wei wants to forcefully cross the river to attack, the 4,000 naval troops will most likely not be able to stop too many Wei troops. In the end, they will have to rely on 10,000 land troops to fight at Mengjin Crossing. The defensive strength ratio is more than three to one.
In addition, in terms of Hulao Pass, after Sima Yi received the reinforcements led by Xiahou Ba, his military strength also recovered to about 30,000 people. If the county soldiers transferred from Yanzhou are added to support Hulao Pass, Sima Yi's soldiers There is a high probability that it will double to more than 60,000 people.
The combined strength of the two sides has exceeded 100,000. If Cao Rui deploys Hebei County soldiers from other places to help, Cao Wei will have enough capabilities to counterattack Luoyang.
The Han Dynasty is in the Sili area. The entire Henan County and Hongnong County combined have only 45,000 defenders. The only good news for Zhuge Liang is that among the 45,000 people, 30,000 are Han Dynasty. The most elite troops.
Twenty thousand Northern Han troops and ten thousand Wudang flying troops remained in Luoyang.
After Wang Ping followed Zhang Xi southward and found that the fighting in Jiangling had stopped, he went north again, returned to Luoyang, and re-commanded the Wudang Fei Army, stationed at the border of Yingchuan County and Henan County.
On the one hand, it prevents the Wei army in Yingchuan County from going north; on the other hand, it is not far from Luoyang and can rush to help Luoyang defenders at any time.
It's not that Zhuge Liang doesn't want to keep Wudang Feijun in Luoyang City, it's really hard to say.
Although the Wudang Feijun has outstanding achievements and strong combat power, most of them are from Nanzhong Yi people, and a small number of them are from Bajun people. No matter from which perspective, in the mainstream concept of this era, They are all alien armies.
In Luoyang, not only are there many aristocratic families, but even the people of Luoyang do not look down upon the foreigners. The record of the Han Dynasty against the foreigners gave the Han people a natural sense of superiority when facing the foreigners.
By the way, in order to win over the wealthy families in Luoyang, Zhuge Liang was looking for a marriage partner. However, Wang Ping's son Wang Xun, a daughter of a family who had never expressed interest in poetry and calligraphy, could marry a barbarian who didn't know etiquette? !
Under such circumstances, Wudang Feijun stationed in Luoyang City was obviously asking for trouble.
The Luoyang family and the people can look down on the Wudang Feijun, but Zhuge Liang can't. This army will be the backbone of his defense of Luoyang in the future. Everyone can look down on the Wudang Feijun as a foreign race, but Zhuge Liang can't.
Therefore, in order to avoid causing unnecessary trouble, Zhuge Liang could only send the Wudang Feijun to station in other places to avoid direct contact with the wealthy families and people in Luoyang City.
In this way, after excluding the 10,000 Wudang flying troops stationed on the border of Yingchuan and the 10,000 Northern Han troops stationed in Gong County to guard Hulao Pass against Sima Yi, there are now only 10,000 Northern Han troops left in the entire city of Luoyang, and Ten thousand Luoyang County soldiers were temporarily recruited and had been trained for less than a year.
As for the remaining five thousand people, they were not the Han army in the first place, but the reorganized army that surrendered from Cao Wei. Moreover, they were not stationed in Luoyang, but in Hongnong County.
The general leading this group of people was an old acquaintance of Zhang Xi - Wang Chang, the original prefect of Hongnong County in Cao Wei and the general of Tongguan.
When Zhuge Liang led the army to attack Luoyang, Sima Yi retreated to Hulao Pass. After Sima Shi and Sima Zhao crossed the river and retreated to Henei County, after Zhuge Liang settled Luoyang, he immediately sent a message to all the officials and officials. Anyone who was willing to surrender would be forgiven.
Wang Chang, who was in Tongguan at the time, naturally received this message.
With the fall of Luoyang, the counterattack Wang Chang had hoped for would be impossible. He retreated to Tongguan alone and would definitely not be able to wait for reinforcements from the Wei Dynasty.
At this time, even if Wang Chang wants to be loyal to the Wei Dynasty, his soldiers may not be willing.
Accepting what the imperial edict said and surrendering to the big man would be regarded as voluntary submission. Regardless of everyone's life, Wang Chang could still receive preferential treatment from the big man.
If you refuse the appeal, you may face an encirclement and suppression by the Han army.
In ordinary times, relying on Tongguan city defense and having about 4,000 troops on hand would not be impossible to defend. But the problem is that now Tongguan is surrounded by enemies on all sides, with no backup support, and the soldiers have no fighting spirit.
How can this be maintained?
Therefore, after repeated considerations, Wang Chang finally decided to accept the appeal and voluntarily surrender to the Han army in Hongnong County.
As soon as Zhuge Liang heard that Tongguan guard Wang Chang had surrendered, he immediately sent someone to invite Wang Chang to Luoyang to meet him in person.
On the one hand, Wang Chang was the highest-ranking official in the entire Sili region who surrendered to the Han Dynasty. Although Yang Bing was the head of the Yang family of the Fourth and Third Dukes, his official position in Cao Wei was that of a counselor. Compared with Wang Chang, the prefect of Hongnong, The political significance is too great.
On the other hand, Zhuge Liang still values Wang Chang's ability.
When Zhang Xi was the governor of Yongzhou, he often dealt with Wang Chang. Naturally, Zhuge Liang also heard Zhang Xi mention this Wang Chang.
In addition, during the Battle of Tongguan, although Zhuge Liang was the last to arrive at the front line, Zhang Xi, Wei Yan, and Zhao Yun all described the previous battle process to Zhuge Liang in detail.
It can be said that if Wang Chang hadn't wiped Cao Zhen's butt repeatedly at critical moments and turned the tide, how would Cao Zhen have the chance to lead his troops to withdraw into the pass! ! !
Later, when Zhuge Liang was in charge of Chang'an, he also launched a series of tentative attacks on Tongguan, but they were all resolved by Wang Chang in the end. Therefore, Zhuge Liang had a very deep understanding of Wang Chang's abilities.
Now that Wang Chang has surrendered, Zhuge Liang must meet Wang Chang in person, regardless of political significance or talent reserve.
After the conversation between the two, Zhuge Liang was more convinced of Wang Chang's ability and asked him to serve as the prefect of Hongnong, and stationed him in Hongnong County with his original troops.
Although Zhuge Liang had political considerations in doing this, he was still a little uneasy about Wang Chang.
Wang Chang surrendered, but Wang Chang was forced to surrender due to the situation. Wang Chang also took the initiative to mention this during his meeting with Zhuge Liang.
If given the choice, Wang Chang would certainly hope to return to the Wei Dynasty. After all, his hometown is in Taiyuan and his family members are all in the territory of the Wei Dynasty.
But now he has no choice, so Wang Chang can only surrender to the Han, but Wang Chang also hopes that he can stay in the place or let him continue to guard Tongguan.
Wang Chang was telling Zhuge Liang both inside and outside his words that he did not really mean to surrender to the Han, but had to surrender. For this reason, Zhuge Liang could only let him stay in Hongnong and guard the place, and did not dare to send him to the front line.
After all, Wang Chang is the prefect of Hongnong.
At the time, it might not have been a big problem for Zhuge Liang to do this, but as the situation changed, Zhuge Liang still felt that something was wrong when he thought about it now.
As Qin Lang led his troops into Hedong County, Hongnong County, which was only separated from Hedong County by the Yellow River, was bound to be threatened.
No matter how awesome Huang Quan's navy is, it is impossible for him to control all the crossings of the entire Yellow River, not to mention that Huang Quan's navy now only has 7,000 people left in total, with 3,000 stationed at Pubanjin and 4,000 stationed at Mengjin Ferry.
Therefore, Hongnong County may be attacked across the river by Hedong County. At this time, if the general stationed in Hongnong County is still a surrendered general from Wei, the risk is a bit high.
Zhuge Liang admired Wang Chang's ability, but he was still unsure about Wang Chang's current mentality, so he was also considering whether to send others to replace Wang Chang to garrison Hongnong County.
Regarding this point, Zhang Xi gave Zhuge Liang a suggestion.
Hongnong County currently has only 5,000 people defending it. The troops are insufficient to begin with, so it is inevitable to send reinforcements.
As for changing the general, Zhang Xi thinks it is unnecessary.
First of all, it is easy to hurt the hearts of the people who surrendered to the Han and Wei Dynasties, and they felt that the Han Dynasty was trying to cross the river and burn the bridge.
Secondly, Zhang Xi felt that given Wang Chang's character, since he had chosen to surrender to the Han, he would not easily surrender and then rebel again.
If you ask Wang Chang to lead troops to fight against his former Paoze brothers, Wang Chang may not be able to bear it, but if the Wei army takes the initiative to cross the river to attack Hongnong, given Wang Chang's character, even if he is unwilling, he will shoulder the responsibility Responsibility for defending the land.
Wang Chang still has this kind of character.
Therefore, Zhang Xi suggested that Zhuge Liang could just send reinforcements to Hongnong, but there was no need to send more generals there.
Besides, you, Zhuge Liang, don’t have enough independent generals to dispatch.
Once Luoyang faces a war, Deng Ai will be on the front line to stop Sima Yi's advance, and Huang Quan will be responsible for guarding the Yellow River ferry. They will not be able to leave. And you, Zhuge Liang, must leave a few generals to drive him.
Among the generals who are now staying in Luoyang, Zhang Fei is in such a bad state that it is obviously impossible for him to go into battle again. Then only Wei Yan and Wang Ping are left, and Zhang Yi and Hu Fen still lack some sense. One more person is left. When people go to defend Hongnong, Zhuge Liang has even fewer leading generals at hand.
It's better to use people without doubting them and not using them at all.
With Zhang Xi's words as a guarantee, and Zhuge Liang indeed facing the dilemma of not having enough generals, he could only adopt Zhang Xi's advice and send reinforcements to Hongnong.
The main armies of the Han Dynasty such as the Northern Army of the Han Dynasty and the Wudang Fei Army cannot be sent out. They are the main force guarding Luoyang.
Moreover, these two armies were sent out and handed over to Wang Chang's command. It is estimated that Wang Chang would not be able to command these people even if he was demoted.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang could only send out 10,000 newly recruited Luoyang County soldiers.
But as a result, there were only 10,000 Northern Han troops stationed in Luoyang City, which was a serious shortage of troops.
For this reason, Zhuge Liang planned to discuss with Zhang Xi and let Xu Shu lead Nanyang County soldiers to Luoyang to assist in defense.
This is it.
(End of chapter)
