You can't blame Sima Yi for being so ungrateful. It's true. The affairs of Soochow were handled. It really made the monarchs and ministers of Cao Wei full of resentment.
Now that both sides have made an alliance and the protons from both sides have gone their separate ways, theoretically speaking, the military confrontation on the Huainan front line should be over, right? !
At that time, Jia Kui, the governor of Yanzhou, also thought so. He even told Sima Yi that he would mobilize Yanzhou County soldiers as soon as possible and enter the eastern part of Henan County and hand them over to Sima Yi for control.
But the problem is that from September when the alliance was officially announced until November, the military confrontation between the Wei and Wu armies in the Huainan region showed no signs of ending.
Soochow will not withdraw its troops.
Yanzhou's defense strength was already tight, and its total military strength was at a disadvantage. Soochow did not withdraw its troops. How could Cao Wei dare to transfer its troops without authorization without thinking about Soochow's past "history"? Who dares to believe that they will fulfill their covenant normally? !
For this reason, Jia Kui once sent an envoy to negotiate with Soochow. As a result, Lu Xun, who was in Shouchun, said that since the two sides had signed an alliance, it was okay for Cao Wei to withdraw first. Why bother about who should withdraw first? !
Jia Kui was so angry at this sentence.
Don’t you guys have any idea why we don’t dare to withdraw our troops first? !
But in order to mobilize Yanzhou County troops for Sima Yi as soon as possible and not delay the emperor's plan to counterattack Luoyang, Jia Kui could only tentatively mobilize Liang County troops to gather in Chenliu County.
Unexpectedly, as soon as Jia Kui mobilized his troops, Soochow immediately increased its troop investment in Runan and stationed troops at the junction of Qiao County and Runan County.
Why is Jia Kui going crazy? What on earth are you going to do in Soochow? !
Liang State is the neighboring county to the north of Qiao County. If Qiao County is attacked, Liang State is the place that can support Qiao County the fastest. Now that I have just transferred some of Liang State's soldiers, you Soochow will immediately send troops to Qiao County. Boundary, what do you want to do? !
Jia Kui immediately sent someone to negotiate with Lu Xun of Shouchun, but Lu Xun said that he was also withdrawing his troops, concentrating his troops in Runan County, and then leading his troops south along the Ru River to Lujiang County. Isn't it very convenient? !
Jia Kuixin said, I believe you, you are a ghost! ! !
If you really want to withdraw your troops to Lujiang County, why don't you take the land route and gather troops in Shouchun, but why do you choose to take the water route and gather all the troops in Runan? !
Anyway, Jia Kui didn't believe that Soochow could have such good intentions, but Lu Xun's words couldn't be said to be unreasonable. Soochow soldiers liked to go south by boat, how could you say they were wrong? !
On the surface, there is no big problem with Soochow's rhetoric, but Jia Kui does not dare to take risks now. He now does not dare to mobilize any county soldiers in the southeast of Yanzhou. To continue to maintain such a confrontation, he only dares to attack in Taishan County. Wait for the northern counties and counties near the Yellow River to mobilize troops and concentrate them in Chenliu County.
As for the military strength of the southern counties, we should wait until Soochow withdraws its troops and then find a way to mobilize them.
In this way, after nearly a month of procrastination, Soochow had no intention of withdrawing its troops. As a result, Chenliu County only gathered more than 17,000 Yanzhou County soldiers.
Jia Kui would not send these troops to Hulao Pass now. Not only were they not strong enough to form an advantage, they might also have exposed their strategic intentions in advance.
Therefore, Jia Kui could only write to Sima Yi, explaining the reasons, and asking Sima Yi to wait for a while. After Soochow withdraws his troops, he would gather all the soldiers from Yanzhou County and send them to Sima Yi together.
Of course, Sima Yi couldn't blame Jia Kui for his incompetence, and in this matter, even if Sima Yi was in Jia Kui's position, he would not dare to easily mobilize troops from the south of Yanzhou. To blame, he can only blame those Wu dogs with evil intentions. .
But now, as Zhang Xi arrived in Gong County and aroused Sima Yi's alert, Sima Yi felt that he could not continue to delay like this.
Zhang Xi has already arrived in Gong County. Who knows how many Jingzhou troops he brought north when he came? !
Although the detailed reports of the Wei army in Jingzhou did not give any information about the Jingzhou army's movements, Sima Yi believed that Zhang Xi could not appear in Gongxian for no reason and must have his own purpose.
Maybe Zhang Xi and Zhuge Liang really found a way to avoid the spying eyes and mobilized a group of elite Jingzhou troops to go north.
With Sima Yi's current strength, there is no need to worry too much about guarding Hulao Pass. However, for the sake of future strategic considerations for counterattacking Luoyang, Sima Yi cannot take the initiative to start a war with the Shu thieves in Gong County, so as not to alert the enemy and undermine the implementation of the entire strategy.
Under the premise that he could not take the initiative and at the same time needed to find out the true identity of the Shu thieves, Sima Yi thought of a way.
He ordered people to write the news of the Eastern Wu Army's attack on Jingzhou on silk cloth, and ordered the scouts to shoot arrows and hand them to the scouts of the Shu thieves when they went out to inquire about the situation.
If Zhang Xi chooses to take the initiative to withdraw his troops after learning this news, it means that the Shu thieves are not ready for a preemptive strike now, and the Wei Dynasty still has time to gather troops and carry out a counterattack strategy in Luoyang.
If Zhang Xi not only did not withdraw his troops after learning the news, but instead took the initiative to attack Hulang Pass, it means that the Shu thieves already have a set of preemptive strategies. Zhang Xi must also have brought a large number of Jingzhou troops to help. We must break through Hulao Pass as soon as possible before returning to Jingzhou to aid.
In this case, Sima Yi could only take the risk and ask Jia Kui to gather troops from Yanzhou as soon as possible and come over to support him. Any strategy for counterattacking Luoyang would have to wait until the Shu thieves' attack was repelled.
As for whether doing this would expose the Soochow Army's action plan? What does this have to do with Sima Yi? !
Sima Yi leaked the Soochow Army's battle plan in advance, with the hope of using this news to force Zhang Xi to return to defend Jingzhou. Wouldn't it be better if it succeeded? !
And this letter did finally reach Zhang Xi's hands.
Zhang Xi has no doubts about the authenticity of this letter. With Soochow's virtue, it would be strange if he did not take Jingzhou's idea after forming an alliance with Cao Wei.
The greatest significance of this letter is to tell Zhang Xi that the Soochow army is still in the process of withdrawing from Huainan, which means that it will take at least one to two months for Soochow to attack Jingzhou.
As for why Cao Wei told Zhang Xi these things, it is actually not surprising.
In the historical Battle of Xiangfan, after Cao Cao sent people to form an alliance with Soochow, he turned around and sent people to shoot into Guan Yu's camp when Soochow was about to attack Jingzhou.
The purpose of this was not only mixed with Cao Cao's selfish motives, but more importantly, it was to spread unrest among Guan Yu's army, causing confusion among the troops, thus forcing Guan Yu to withdraw his troops and return to Jiangling.
At this time and space, because Guan Yu fought too fast, when Guan Yu flooded the Seventh Army, Cao Cao had just withdrawn his troops from Hanzhong, and when Cao Cao sent people to form an alliance with Soochow, Guan Yu had already attacked Soochow before he sent troops to sneak attack. After landing in Fancheng, the entire defense system of Xiangfan was occupied.
Cao Cao had no time to pull off such a trick.
Now, Sima Yi made up for Cao Cao's plan.
But the problem is that Zhang Xi really came to visit relatives, not to lead troops to attack Hulao Pass, so Sima Yi's plan had no effect at all.
The Han army confronting Hulao Pass was the elite of the Han Dynasty's Northern Army, not Jingzhou soldiers at all. Apart from making Zhang Xi think about it, it would not affect any military morale at all, and it was impossible to withdraw the troops directly.
At the same time, Sima Yi's actions also made Zhang Xi discover a problem, that is, at this time, Cao Wei was not fully prepared to counterattack Luoyang.
If all preparations were made, Sima Yi could just wait for the time and look for opportunities to launch an attack. There is no need to deliberately reveal the rhythm of the Soochow Army's actions.
In other words, Sima Yi not only misjudged his purpose of coming, but at the same time, this old fox also had no psychological confidence.
There is a saying that if Zhang Xi really brought the elite Jingzhou army to Gongxian for support, he would immediately launch an attack and storm Hulao Pass.
Even if Hulao Pass cannot be captured, it is still good to destroy the Wei army's strategic layout.
But unfortunately, Zhang Xi did not bring troops to Gong County. In fact, the Han Dynasty also needed time to mobilize troops from various places to support Luoyang's defense.
Therefore, Zhang Xi thought about it for a while, and immediately ordered his people to make his own big banner and hand it to Deng Ai. He stood in the camp and bluffed, but he did not take the initiative to launch an attack and continued the stalemate on the spot.
Neither advance nor retreat, but let the old Sima fox guess his bluff and see if he can guess the purpose of coming to Gong County.
As for Deng Ai's proposal, whether to let his soldiers leave the city at night and enter the city under the banner of Jingzhou Army tomorrow morning, Zhang Xi thought about it as a bluff and decided to forget it.
Although doing so can disrupt Cao Wei's strategic deployment, the problem is that it may also cause Cao Wei to hastily raise troops and counterattack Luoyang in advance. Now that Luoyang is not ready to fight, it is better not to overly stimulate the old fox.
After Zhang Xi finished doing this, he immediately set off and returned to Luoyang with his son and daughter-in-law. He did not wait for the letter and gave it directly to Deng Ai to read. After all, the war is still important now.
After returning to Luoyang, when Zhang Xi told Sima Yi about shooting arrows and throwing letters, Zhuge Liang frowned.
"Yuan Chang is wrong. Setting up a false flag is indeed a good plan, but if it is supplemented by an active attack, Sima Yi will definitely fall into the trap and defend Hulao Pass with all his strength. He will not dare to leave easily." Zhuge Liang shook his head slightly and said, "But now, the army is empty. Yuan Chang's flag was raised, but the troops remained motionless. Although it may be possible to hide it from Sima Yi for a while, it may not be possible for more than a few days."
When Zhang Xi heard this, he was stunned for a moment, then shook his head and smiled bitterly, and said, "Even so, Luoyang is empty, so Xi doesn't dare to take such a risk."
After Zhuge Liang listened to Zhang Xi's explanation, he thought for a moment and nodded.
Such use of strategy is in line with Zhang Xi's military style.
However, there is a high probability that Sima Yi will not be able to hide it for a few days. It is hard to say whether Sima Yi will make some tentative attacks next.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang thought for a while and said to Zhang Xi, "In this case, Yuan Chang returns to Jingzhou quickly and transfers Nanyang troops to Luo. I'm afraid there will be a delay."
Be completely prepared.
(End of chapter)
