The Jiangling and Xiangyang fronts fought fiercely on their own, but relatively speaking, the battle between Han and Wei in the Heluo area was somewhat louder than rain.
Sima Yi led his troops out of Hulao Pass, and 30,000 people besieged Gong County. They were blocked by Deng Ai at the first opportunity.
Deng Ai only had 10,000 people in his hands, but these 10,000 people were all members of the Northern Han Army, which had been fully tempered after four Northern Expeditions and was at its peak combat effectiveness.
And Deng Ai himself was not bad. Regardless of his political acumen, just speaking of military ability, Sima Yi's upright method of using troops was not enough to break through the Gongxian defense set up by Deng Ai.
In addition, Wang Ping led the Wudang Fei Army to retreat. Zhuge Liang did not ask Wang Ping to withdraw directly to Luoyang and deploy defenses. Instead, he asked Wang Ping to take the initiative to advance eastward to the flank of Gong County. On the one hand, he expanded the defensive front to prevent Sima Yi from detouring to attack Luoyang. On the other hand, it can also effectively cover Gongxian's flanks and assist Deng Ai in defense.
In reality, Sima Yi now used 30,000 troops to fight against Deng Ai and Wang Ping's 20,000 troops.
The initiative on the battlefield situation is indeed still in Sima Yi's hands, but if he wants to create a breakthrough near Gong County, Sima Yi has not yet found a suitable way.
In Yingchuan County on the southern front, Chen Tai took the initiative and tried to intercept Wang Ping's retreat but failed, and immediately retreated to Xuchang and continued to maintain a defensive posture.
On the one hand, there were insufficient troops to go north to support Sima Yi. On the other hand, Chen Tai's actual needs were just to ensure that Yingchuan County was not lost.
Therefore, although the Soochow army in Huainan is slowly retreating, as long as the Zhu army in Runan does not withdraw its troops from Ruyin County, Chen Tai will not recruit Guo Huai's army to go north.
He was afraid that after Guo Huai went north, Soochow would take advantage of the chaos and occupy Runan. In this way, Yingchuan County would be faced with enemies on three sides and only one retreat on the east side.
Obviously, neither Chen Tai nor the aristocratic families in Yingchuan County wanted to see this.
But this has also resulted in fierce fighting in the eastern part of Heluo, but the southern part of Heluo is now calm and there is no movement at all.
It's not like Sima Yi never wrote letters to urge Chen Tai to gather troops and go north as soon as possible, directly threatening Luoyang, forcing the Shu thieves to retreat to protect themselves, and reduce the pressure on his side. However, Chen Tai always responded with a sincere attitude, but he always excused the lack of troops. , Ordnance, food and grass were not fully prepared, and they did not dare to send troops easily.
What can Sima Yi do? !
As someone from a wealthy family, how could Sima Yi not know what these Yingchuan guys were thinking? It was because Sima Yi knew everything, so he had nothing to say.
The Yingchuan faction not only has big bosses like Chen Qun in the court, but there are also many officials from Yingchuan in the middle and lower levels. These people want to protect their hometown and safeguard their core interests. What's the problem? !
If the Shu thieves had not occupied Luoyang and Mengjin Ferry, they could cross the river at any time and threaten the two counties of Hedong and Hanoi. In this war, the aristocratic families in Hedong and Hanoi counties may not really side with the Wei Dynasty and fight for Cao Zhen. Provide so much help.
Impeachment is of no use in this kind of matter, and can only be based on persuasion, while waiting for the situation to change. As long as the Wei Dynasty is able to find a breakthrough near Luoyang, then Chen Tai will naturally take the initiative to send troops northward without urging him.
But now, Sima Yi has no choice for the time being. At least until Jia Kui leads the Yanzhou County troops to help, Sima Yi has no better way to break through Deng Ai and Wang Ping's defense line.
Therefore, Sima Yi could only hope that Cao Zhen, who was on the northern battlefield of Heluo, could make a breakthrough at Mengjin Ferry.
At this time, at Mengjindu on the north side of Luoyang, Cao Zhen and his two brothers from the Sima family were also trying hard to cross the river and attack.
However, due to the limitations of Huang Quan's Yellow River navy, it was never possible to cross a large number of Wei troops across the Yellow River in a short period of time. However, after a small number of Wei soldiers crossed the river, they could only It was difficult to maintain the landing point, and it was impossible to advance in the direction of Mengjin Ferry.
Huang Quan, a famous general in Sichuan, finally showed his ability that had been underestimated.
With both water and land open to fighting, Huang Quan did not choose to defend Mengjindu. Instead, he chose to take the initiative and directly blocked the possible landing point of the Wei army, without giving the Wei army time and space to cross the river.
Cao Zhen and the Sima brothers may not be worse than Huang Quan in terms of land combat ability, but when it comes to water combat, the level of these three is really about the same, and they are close to the level of ignorance.
The three of them together could not do anything to defeat Huang Quan in a water battle.
Ferries are inherently inferior to warships, and Cao Zhen and the others have almost no experience in commanding water battles. Each time they sent more than a hundred ferries to carry soldiers across the river, but each time they were harassed and even harassed by four thousand naval troops led by Huang Quan. Cutting, casualties are always not a small number.
This led to the fact that although Cao Zhen could cross some of his soldiers across the Yellow River and establish some landing points, the troops were always insufficient. If Xiang Chong led the troops again, most of the landing points would be lost.
Now that a landing point can be saved, Cao Zhen is now a little doubtful whether the Shu thieves really can't attack it, or whether the Shu thieves deliberately kept it to lure Cao Zhen to continue transporting troops across the river near Mengjin Ferry.
After fighting for more than half a month, Cao Zhen finally understood that it was a bit of a dream to have him lead his troops across the Yellow River relying on a group of ferries under the harassment and threat of Huang Quan, a professional navy general.
Therefore, Cao Zhen is now thinking about how to avoid Huang Quan's troops and find another place to cross the river.
After all, Huang Quan only had 4,000 naval troops in his hands. What he could defend was a water area near Mengjin Ferry. As long as he avoided this water area and crossed the river, he would not have to face the passive situation like now.
For this reason, Cao Zhen set his sights on Hongnong County, the neighbor of Henan County.
However, Cao Zhen knew that with Zhuge Liang's ability, it was impossible for him not to notice the danger of Hongnong County when setting up defenses, and he would definitely station troops here for defense.
But... this is not a navy without Huang Quan.
Another thing, the current prefect of Hongnong County is still the old subordinate of Wang Chang! ! !
As long as Wang Chang can be persuaded to surrender again, Hongnong County might be able to surrender without a fight. What a great thing.
Therefore, Cao Zhen called the two brothers Sima Shi and Sima Zhao, and asked them to continue to confront Huang Quan at Mengjin Ferry, and conduct trial crossings from time to time to attract Huang Quan's attention.
As for himself, he left Hanoi County with 30,000 soldiers from Bingzhou County and returned to Hedong County, seeking the possibility of crossing the river in Hedong County and entering Hongnong County directly.
The deployment of troops is not a big problem. There are two real problems.
One is how to collect enough ferries to cross the Yellow River.
The ferries on the other side of Mengjin Ferry cannot be transferred over. After all, Huang Quan has naval forces at hand and can inspect the defenses on both sides of the Yellow River at any time. If it is discovered that the ferries are transferred on a large scale, it will directly alert the Shu thieves.
Therefore, after Cao Zhen returned to Hedong County, he could only ask the Hedong families again to provide him with enough ferries in the shortest possible time.
Everyone in the Hedong family wanted to scold their mother, but on the surface they didn't dare to reveal that this was Cao Zhen, not Qin Lang's easy-to-fool master.
Therefore, the Hedong family complained privately while trying to find a way to mobilize a ferry for Cao Zhen, but this would take time, and Cao Zhen also knew it, so this aspect was not too demanding.
Fortunately, you can also take advantage of this period to send people across the river to deliver a message to Wang Chang and try to persuade Wang Chang to surrender again.
And this is the second problem Cao Zhen faces.
In the letter, Cao Zhen first expressed sympathy for Wang Chang's experience, and at the same time expressed his understanding for his helpless surrender to the enemy, and then expressed his sincere hope that he would abandon the dark side, turn to the bright side, and return to the embrace of the Wei Dynasty.
In the battle where Wang Chang had no choice but to surrender, the person guarding Luoyang was not Cao Zhen, and the person who caused Wang Chang to be isolated and helpless in Tongguan was not Cao Zhen. This was Sima Yi's problem.
Therefore, Cao Zhen believes that based on the relationship between him and Wang Chang, as long as he can make a promise and forgive Wang Chang for having no choice but to surrender to the enemy, Wang Chang, who has no worries about his future, will inevitably return to the embrace of Wei.
Soon, Wang Chang's reply came.
In his reply, Wang Chang first reviewed his friendship with Cao Zhen when they fought together, and thanked Cao Zhen for his continued support. Seeing this, Cao Zhen had an ominous premonition.
If Wang Chang is willing to surrender, there is no need to talk nonsense. Wouldn't it be more practical to directly agree on a surrender plan with Cao Zhen? !
Sure enough, Wang Chang later told Cao Zhen in a letter that although he was forced to surrender, he had surrendered to the Shu Han. If he continued to disregard his integrity and responsibility and surrendered to the Wei Dynasty again, it would be inconsistent with Wang Chang's character. Principles of life.
If he were defeated on the battlefield, Wang Chang would naturally have nothing to say, but now that he was asked to surrender without a fight, he could only thank the general for his kindness, but he had to refuse.
After Cao Zhen read this letter, he didn't know what to say for a while.
Indeed, from the perspective of character and dealing with things, Cao Zhen had to say with emotion that Wang Wenshu was a trustworthy person.
But considering this matter from the perspective of Wei, Cao Zhen felt uncomfortable no matter how he thought about it.
You, Wang Chang, became an official and served in the army. These were all opportunities given to you by the Wei Dynasty, and it was Cao Zhen who promoted you. When you surrendered to the Shu Han, why didn't you think of dying for justice? !
Good guy, surrender to the past, you are so particular about right and wrong. What do you mean? !
But no matter what, Wang Chang had clearly replied to the letter and rejected Cao Zhen's persuasion to surrender. At the same time, Cao Zhen's plan to cross the river to attack Hongnong County was also exposed.
The tactical plan has been finalized, and Bingzhou County soldiers have been transferred back to Hedong from Hanoi. The aristocratic families are also re-raising ferries. The war is about to break out. It is impossible that Cao Zhen will not fight just because Wang Chang does not surrender.
On the contrary, now Cao Zhen must urge the wealthy families in Hedong to prepare the ferry as soon as possible, and immediately launch an attack to attack Hongnong County before Wang Chang can fully prepare.
I still don’t believe it. Without you Wang Wenshu, Cao Zhen, the great general of Wei, would not be able to capture Hongnong County.
(End of chapter)
