Sima Yi is really depressed.
You are leading the troops to fight against the Shu thieves at the front, while Wu Gou is behind you and seizing the city at an advantage, under the guise of "fulfilling the covenant". Where can you reason? !
But no matter what, if there is a fire in Yanzhou's backyard, Sima Yi's Yanzhou County soldiers will definitely not be able to continue fighting with peace of mind. Jia Kui has also come to him to discuss whether he can divide his troops into 10,000 and let him return to rescue Yanzhou first.
At least stop the Shu bandits raging in the southeast of Yanzhou and prevent the Soochow army from continuing to shamelessly invade the Wei city, right? !
The place that has been occupied will not come back for the time being, but we must at least stop the loss in time.
Here, Jia Kui also specifically mentioned one point: Now two county towns in Qiao County have been captured by Shu thieves, and then occupied by the Soochow Army. Fortunately, Qiao County is fine.
Sima Yi understood the implication - if something happened to Qiao County, Sima Yi might not be able to withstand the consequences.
Qiao County is one of the five capitals of the Wei Dynasty. Although its status is not on the same level as the other four capitals, it is the hometown of the Emperor of the Wei Dynasty.
If Soochow were to take advantage of it in such an inexplicable way, the emperor would lose all face.
Now that it’s all said and done, what can Sima Yi say? !
Jia Kui left the Luoyang battlefield with 10,000 Yanzhou County soldiers, quickly returned to defend Yanzhou, went to Chen State, and Qiao County area, while guarding against another invasion of Shu thieves, while preventing Soochow from continuing to take advantage of the situation.
When things developed to this point, Sima Yi had already begun to consider whether the counterattack on Luoyang should be stopped.
Cao Zhen, the general on the western front, led 30,000 Bingzhou County soldiers, but Zhao Yun blocked him in Hongnong County and was unable to move, unable to complete the siege of Luoyang City from the west.
In Yingchuan County in the south, the latest battle report Sima Yi received was that Chen Tai and Guo Huai had gathered their forces and retreated to Xuchang. They were now being besieged by more than 40,000 Shu bandits.
Although this is not beyond Sima Yi's expectation, if the fight continues like this, it seems that it will be of no benefit to himself and Wei.
Sima Yi really had no choice this time. He needed enough troops to besiege Luoyang, so he had to betray the Yingchuan family and Chen Tai once. But he couldn't really refuse to save him, and he couldn't offend the Yingchuan family too much. .
If they are really annoyed and they vote directly, the consequences will be very sour.
Speaking of the siege of Luoyang, Sima Yi could only siege the city from April to October, from early summer to early winter, but could not break it.
Even now, even the city wall of Luoyang outer city has not been climbed a few times.
The efficiency of the siege by Ant Fu was so low, and the special status of Luoyang severely restricted the use of Sima Yi's strategy. The Shu thieves were determined to defend Luoyang, and Sima Yi could not completely prevent the Shu thieves from transporting reinforcements to Luoyang. , can't even trap the opponent and force him to surrender.
This battle is really unwinnable.
It's better to take advantage of now, when everyone's military losses are not much, to withdraw temporarily, accumulate strength, and prepare for the next counterattack.
From a purely military perspective, Sima Yi's idea is correct.
But Sima Yi knew how big an uproar his idea would cause if it were sent to the court.
First of all, the emperor of Wei Dynasty, Cao Rui, would definitely not be willing to just give up.
You, Sima Yi, have more than 70,000 troops in your hands. General Cao Zhen and Chen Tai of Yingchuan have helped you contain the reinforcements of Shu thieves. Now you need to face only more than 30,000 Shu thieves in Luoyang City. You and Did I say retreat? !
No matter how open-minded Cao Rui is, he probably won't agree with Sima Yi's idea so easily.
Another thing, the political significance of Luoyang City is well known to the world.
If the Wei Dynasty can raise troops to retake Luoyang this time, it at least shows that the Wei Dynasty still has the strength to fight. The ownership of this world is still unknown.
But if Luoyang cannot be recaptured and the Shu thieves are allowed to hold it, the people of the world will change.
Apart from anything else, it would be strange if the aristocratic families in the Heluo area did not make two preparations.
Before, the Wei Dynasty could still afford to maintain this counterattack because the aristocratic families in the Heluo area basically still sided with the Wei Dynasty. They did not want the Shu Han to rule Heluo. After all, this would affect their actual interests.
But if the counterattack on Luoyang fails this time, these wealthy families in the Heluo area will not see the possibility of the Wei coming back. In fact, the rule of the Shu Han is not completely unacceptable to them.
Once it reaches that point, it will really damage the foundation of the Wei Dynasty.
As an old fox who was proficient in both military and political affairs, Sima Yi actually knew all these things.
But it is precisely because he understands that he is hesitant now.
From a military perspective, there is no practical significance in continuing to waste it. If the existing defense line can be defended, even if the counterattack does not fail.
From a political point of view, as a minister of the Wei Dynasty, Sima Yi also understood the political implications of this counterattack and could not retreat lightly.
But to be honest, the emperor of Wei Dynasty was named Cao, and the Sima family in Hanoi was named Sima.
Of course, the old fox didn't have any disobedience at this time. He just had a thought that all the great families of this era had - to put family first and then country.
Sima Yi did not attach much importance to whether the Wei Dynasty could unify the world, but whether the Sima family could continue to be glorious in this world was Sima Yi's priority.
To put it harshly, what does it have to do with the Sima clan and my family if people in the Wei Dynasty change their minds? !
For this reason, Sima Yi decided to write to the court, requesting a withdrawal of troops and ending the war in Luoyang.
The old fox here had selfish motives and wrote a letter requesting a ceasefire, while Zhou Yu in the south was also considering whether to withdraw his troops.
Zhou Yu is not an insidious old fox like Sima Yi. His idea of retreating is completely based on the current development of the war and is the result of considering national affairs.
There is no way, this battle has been fought so far, except for Lu Xun's journey, which has been relatively smooth, the other soldiers and horses can be said to have been a complete mess.
Lu Xun led 10,000 Dongwu soldiers to attack Yidu County. Although Yidu County has not been completely captured, he has at least occupied three counties on the east side of Yidu County. Yidu County has only five counties in total.
In other words, even if Lu Xun cannot conquer the last two counties of Yidu County, he can establish a road defense line on the east side of Yidu County to prevent the Shu Han from sending reinforcements from Badong County to rescue Jiangling.
This is the only good news Zhou Yu has received in the past few months.
The rest of the news is all bad news.
Quan Cong and Zhu Huan, with the support of 5,000 soldiers, barely managed to hold off the soldiers of Dongsan County for ten more days. Finally, Kou Feng was able to break through Hulukou.
Quan Cong and Zhu Huan retreated with all their strength, saying that they would continue to block along the line, but in fact Zhou Yu knew very well that they did not block it in the advantageous terrain like Hulukou, and it would be even more impossible to block it later.
However, Lu Dai led the troops to encircle and suppress Shi Bao, who was raging in Wuling County, but the progress was not smooth. Shi Bao's whereabouts were elusive. When encountering an unfavorable situation, he immediately retreated into Wuling Mountain.
Lu Dai had set up ambushes several times to lure Shi Bao into taking the initiative, but Shi Bao found out every time and could not stop anyone.
Once Shi Bao withdrew into the mountains of Wuling County, Lu Dai was constrained by the unfamiliar geographical situation and did not dare to rush into the mountains. On the other hand, because the weather turned cold, entering the mountains was too risky and he had to give up.
In this way, although Wuling County was still able to transport some grain and grass to Jiangling City, the intervals were getting longer and longer. In the end, Zhou Yu had no choice but to order Zhu Ran's navy to take on the responsibility of the grain transport team and transport grain from Jiangdong. to make up for the shortage of military rations.
However, doing this will not last long. If we continue to fight, the logistical pressure will only become greater and greater.
Of course, the biggest problem is that Zhou Yu himself has no way to completely threaten Jiangling city defense.
The Jiangling City built by Guan Yu was so difficult to defeat. This was something Zhou Yu never expected. When Cao Ren was guarding Jiangling, Zhou Yu did not think that Jiangling City was so difficult to defeat.
Of course, it also has something to do with the opponent. Zhang Xi, a bastard, is much better at defending the city than Cao Ren, the famous city defender who was blown out by Cao Wei.
In short, Zhou Yu sent troops for five months and besieged Jiangling for three and a half months. Except for the first one and a half months of preparation and crossbow shooting, in the remaining two months, Zhou Yu tried his best to attack with all his strength. Although the effect was still there, There is still a big gap between the city and the city.
Now Zhou Yu still has less than 60,000 soldiers in his hands, and in Jiangling City, according to Zhou Yu's estimation, there should be only about 25,000 soldiers left. But the problem is, Zhang Xi will soon have soldiers from Dongsan County reinforcements.
If there are only reinforcements from the three eastern counties, then that's it.
If Xiangyang frees up its hands in the next time and gradually sends reinforcements south, that will be the most troublesome thing.
Even if the Heluo War in the north ends with the victory of the Shu thieves and a large number of Shu troops from the Central Plains go south to Jingzhou, then it will not be a question of whether Soochow can capture Jiangling, but a question of whether Zhou Yu can escape unscathed.
This is not impossible. According to the news from Soochow's agents sent to the north, although Wei is still besieging Luoyang, the fighting between the two sides is basically incessant. It doesn't look like there is going to be a decisive battle. look. According to the news from the Huainan area conveyed by the Supreme, the counterattack forces of Shu Han have now penetrated deep into Qiao County and Chen State.
This is to copy Sima Yi's retreat.
Therefore, Zhou Yu judged that the Heluo War would probably end soon. Even if it did not end, there would probably be no more wars.
In this way, the Heluo area can be freed up. Not to mention going south in a big way, at least there will be no problem in supporting Jiangling.
Therefore, Jiangling should be impossible to defeat.
(End of chapter)
