After carefully checking the march map, Wu Yi discovered that Jiang Wei's proposal was actually feasible to a certain extent.
The current military distribution of the Han and Wei armies in Yingchuan County is as follows: Chen Tai and Guo Huai led the troops to the east of Ru River and west of Ying River, about thirty miles away from Xiangcheng.
At this distance, if we wanted to attack Xiangcheng, it would only take half a day to reach under Xiangcheng. However, at this time, Chen Tai suspended his march.
Wu Yi actually didn't know the reason why Chen Tai did this, but in Wu Yi's opinion, it might have something to do with Wang Ping's Wudang Feijun who went south from Jiaxian County.
After all, Chen Tai is not far behind Yingshui River. If the safety of the retreat cannot be guaranteed and Wang Ping is allowed to lead troops to intercept along the Yingshui River, then the 20,000 people in Chen Tai's hands will also be in danger.
It actually makes sense for Chen Tai to be cautious.
As for the Han army, Zhang Ni led his troops to garrison Xiangcheng to prevent the Wei army from directly attacking. Wang Ping, however, was cruising around eighty miles north of Xiangcheng and did not immediately choose to support Xiangcheng. Obviously, he was restrained and looked for opportunities to insert himself into the Wei army. meaning behind.
The 30,000 Han troops led by Wu Yi have just arrived in Kunyang. They are still nearly a hundred miles away from Xiangcheng. If they want to divide their troops, now is indeed the best time. There is no need to worry about being tricked or detected by the Wei army. The cavalry investigation revealed the truth and falsehood.
Wuyang, which Jiang Wei proposed to pass through by detour, is at the southernmost end of Yingchuan County, only eighty miles away from Kunyang.
Because the Han Dynasty occupied Kunyang, Luyang, and Xiangcheng, it was equivalent to cutting off a piece of the southwest corner of Runan County.
This resulted in the fact that although Wuyang County, the southernmost part of Yingchuan County, was still under the control of Cao Wei, its symbolic significance was greater than its practical significance. The connection between Wuyang County and Xuchang was already very fragile.
The Han army did not take advantage of the situation to occupy Wuyang because Wuyang was close to Runan County. Once Wuyang was occupied, the city defenders would face the threat of Guo Huai of Runan County. At the same time, it would also objectively give the Soochow Zhu stronghold stationed troops in the southern part of Runan County Reduced stress.
Anyway, the geographical location of Wuyang is not important. If it is not occupied, the Wei army will not have the energy to launch a counterattack from here to attack Kunyang. As for occupying Wuyang, it is a troublesome and thankless task that requires dividing troops for garrisoning, so just don't do it.
But now, Guo Huai's soldiers from Runan County have been transferred to Chen Tai's command, and Runan's defense is empty. Jiang Wei proposed to occupy Wuyang County first, and then enter Zhaoling County in the north of Runan County through Wuyang County, and then go northward by detour, directly Take Xuchang.
All in all, this is indeed a very strategic idea.
Along the way, not only were the Wei army defenses empty, but they could also directly avoid the attention of Chen Tai and other Wei troops and penetrate directly into the base camp of Yingchuan County. Once successful, the 20,000 Wei troops under Chen Tai would be completely fooled. .
The strategy is a good strategy, but it is not without its shortcomings.
"The march route is too long, and Wei troops are guarding everything they pass. If there is any disharmony, Chen Tai and others will retreat to Xuchang after hearing the news. In this case, Xuchang may not be able to leave." After Wu Yi thought carefully for a while, he said this said.
The biggest flaw in Jiang Wei's strategy is here.
This detour passed through Wuyang, Linxian, Zhaoling, Linying, and Xuchang counties, all of which were under Cao Wei's control, and it also spanned two counties.
If something unexpected happened in the meantime, such as the march not going smoothly or the news leaking out, with Cao Wei's intelligence network, Chen Tai and Guo Huai on the front line would be able to get the news quickly.
After all, they are serious about playing at home, and Chen Tai and his family are local gangsters in Yingchuan. They must be more supported by local families and people than you, Jiang Wei.
Moreover, if Cao Wei chooses to return to the army, the route will be very short, crossing Yingshui River and passing through Yingyin, which is about two hundred miles. Four or five days will be enough to return to Xuchang.
This is not in line with the strategic purpose of Wu Yi's expedition.
If Wu Yi's strategic purpose is to simply relieve Xiangcheng and then go north to support Luoyang, then Jiang Wei's strategy is actually a very good one.
By using a partial force to attract Chen Tai to shrink back to defend Xuchang, and removing the threat from Yingchuan County, Wu Yi could confidently and boldly lead the remaining 20,000 soldiers to support Luoyang, and even directly launch an attack on the Wei army at the south gate of Luoyang from the rear. Attack is not impossible.
But unfortunately, the military order Wu Yi received from Zhuge Liang was for him to lead troops to attack Yingchuan County, and then send troops directly through Yingchuan County and enter Chenliu County in Yanzhou to threaten Sima Yi's rear base camp.
In other words, in this Luoyang defense battle, Zhuge Liang did not want to simply fight a defensive battle. Defending Luoyang would be considered a victory. Zhuge Liang also wanted to launch a defensive counterattack to see if he could push back and extend his tentacles into Yanzhou. .
Such a strategic goal means that Wu Yi must find a way to deal with Chen Tai's troops stationed in Yingchuan. Now that Chen Tai has rarely come out of Xuchang City, he cannot be allowed to shrink back.
If the problem can be solved through field battles, try not to engage in siege warfare.
Out of this consideration, Wu Yi felt that although Jiang Wei's strategy was good, the risks were not small. Even if Chen Tai's ability was not as famous as his reputation, there was still Guo Huai. .
Wu Yi is still very familiar with the abilities of the veteran general Guo Huai.
In the several battles between Han and Wei for Guanzhong, the most difficult person in the Wei army was not Cao Ren, Zhang He, let alone Cao Zhen. It was Guo Huai.
It's not that Wu Yi is definitely unwilling to take this risk. But, can it be modified to make this strategy less risky and more feasible? !
After hearing what Wu Yi said, Jiang Wei was not surprised. The advantages and disadvantages of his own strategy were indeed quite obvious. It was understandable that General Wu did not dare to take risks.
But if I modify it... Well, Jiang Wei is thinking about countermeasures.
At this time, Wen Qin started to speak.
"We can send an order to General Wang Ping to lead his troops directly into Xiangcheng to eliminate the threat from the Wei army's flanks. In this way, Chen Tai will have no worries and attack Xiangcheng with all his strength."
What Wen Qin meant was to change Wang Ping's flank containment to stick to Xiangcheng, so that without the flank threat, Chen Tai could attack boldly without worrying about being outflanked.
At the same time, he also took advantage of Wang Ping's changes in military strength and his arrogance towards the enemy to make Chen Tai mistakenly believe that the strategic purpose of the Han army was to hold on to Xiangcheng, so he did not consider changes in military strength in other directions and created conditions for Jiang Wei's sneak attack.
If you just do this, you may be able to hide it from Chen Tai, but it is probably impossible to hide it from Guo Huai.
This alone was not enough to convince Wu Yi to agree to Jiang Wei's division of troops.
At this time, Jiang Wei thought of a more compromise method.
"We can occupy Wuyang first, then Lin County, and then go directly north to attack Yingyin and cut off the enemy's retreat!" Jiang Wei said.
This revised strategy directly changed its tactical purpose.
Jiang Wei's original tactic was to complete his victory in one battle, and directly lead his troops to sneak attack Xuchang. With Xuchang, the entire Yingchuan County was completely captured, and at the same time, the passage to Chenliu County in Yanzhou was opened.
But the disadvantage of this tactic is that the sneak attack is too far away. In the middle, it has to pass through Runan County from Yingchuan County, and then return to Yingchuan County, which is too easy to be discovered by the enemy.
Now Jiang Wei's revised tactics set the target of the sneak attack at Yingyang, not far to the northwest of Xuchang.
Yingyin, as soon as you hear the name of this place, you will know that it is south of Yingshui. In other words, occupying this place will block Chen Taijun's retreat.
This means that they gave up the sneak attack on Xuchang and planned to encircle Chen Tai's army in a detour and eliminate the effective strength of the Wei army through field battles.
The most important thing is that this modified sneak attack road not only shortened the distance by half, but also spent most of the entire march route wandering around the southern part of Yingchuan County.
The risk of being noticed by Chen Tai suddenly decreased a lot.
But in this way, it is impossible to capture Xuchang directly in one step, but if we can block Chen Tai's army, cooperate with Zhang Ni, Wang Ping, and even Wu Yi's army to encircle Chen Tai and kill Wei soldiers. In fact, the results are not much different.
Even if Guo Huai and Chen Tai were extremely capable, they would not be able to defend Xuchang without sufficient troops.
At least Wu Yi felt that this plan was more reliable than Jiang Wei's previous plan.
The rest is to discuss and adjust some details. This does not require Jiang Wei to come up with ideas. Wu Yi and Chen Shi are both veterans who have led armies for many years, so they still have this ability.
In this way, after discussing with each other for a while, Wu Yi sent people across the Lu River to contact Wang Ping and asked him to lead the Wudang Fei Army to abandon the threat on the flanks and reinforce Xiangcheng as soon as possible.
Wu Yi himself temporarily stationed in Kunyang with 20,000 Hanzhong soldiers and did not continue to march, lest he mobilize his troops too frequently and be carefully detected by the Wei army, thus alerting the enemy.
However, Jiang Wei and Wen Qin set out from Kunyang on the second day after Wu Yi stopped his army. They led 10,000 Southern troops and went straight to Wuyang County south of Kunyang to implement this detour and sneak attack strategy.
(End of chapter)
