Sima Yi ultimately failed to capture Xiangcheng.
On the one hand, Wu Yi, Jiang Wei and others used various methods to hold on and delayed for a period of time.
On the other hand, Zhuge Liang in Luoyang also started to take action.
Since Sima Yi could abandon the siege and divide his troops and go south, Zhuge Liang would naturally not remain trapped in Luoyang without any response.
Before Sima Yi led 30,000 soldiers southward, he made some corresponding adjustments.
The east gate where Sima Yi mainly attacked lost more than 7,000 men due to a battle with Zhuge Liang. In addition, Jia Kui had to take 10,000 men back to rescue Yanzhou. Therefore, Sima Yi, who originally had 40,000 troops, now There are only 23,000 troops.
With this small force, it is impossible to complete the two tasks of going south to rescue Yingchuan and containing the Shu bandits in Luoyang at the same time.
Therefore, Sima Yi had to transfer 10,000 people from Sima Division and Sima Zhao brothers at the north gate, and one person from Wang Ling at the south gate to gather the troops he needed to go south.
Then, Sima Yi left Xia Houba to lead a bluff of 13,000 soldiers at the east gate, while he led the 30,000 troops to quickly go south, trying to defeat the Yingchuan Shu thieves and break the siege of Yingchuan before Zhuge Liang saw through his containment strategy.
In this way, the situation near Luoyang actually became that the Wei army used 33,000 troops to contain the 35,000-strong Luoyang defenders and buy time for Sima Yi to relieve Yingchuan.
In fact, Sima Yi also knew that this was very risky. With Zhuge Liang's strategic vision, his bluffing plan could be hidden for a while, but not for long. Going south, Sima Yi marched in a hurry, except for the time he set up an ambush at Yingshui, which took a little time. In addition, at other times, Sima Yi did show his superb tactical command ability, and he was devastating.
However, the only thing Sima Yi failed to calculate was that his plan could not even be concealed from Zhuge Liang for a while.
Xiahou Ba does have the qualifications to be a famous general, but he is still too young now. The most important thing is that he has a serious lack of experience in leading troops. He does not know the difference between leading 10,000 people and leading 40,000 people.
If you ask him to use 10,000 troops to create a momentum of 40,000 troops, he really can't do it.
It only took Zhuge Liang one day to discover that there was something fishy about the Wei army outside the East Gate. The next day, he asked Deng Ai to send troops to test the situation. He immediately understood that Sima Yi had led his troops to leave the East Gate.
As for the entire Heluo battlefield, there was only one place worth saving, Yingchuan County, where Sima Yi led his army.
To be honest, Zhuge Liang was not in a hurry at this time, because there were not only Wu Yi's 20,000 Hanzhong County soldiers in Yingchuan County, but also Wang Ping's 10,000 Wudang Feijun and 10,000 Han men led by Jiang Wei and Wen Qin. The Southern Army is not at a disadvantage in terms of military strength. It should be said that its combat strength is higher than that of ordinary Cao Wei County soldiers, so it is not a big problem.
Well, yes, Zhuge Liang also didn't expect that Sima Yi would hit so fast and so hard, and Wu Yi's response completely lost the level that a famous Sichuan general should have.
At this moment, Zhuge Liang was thinking about taking advantage of the opportunity when Sima Yi led his troops to leave, and solved the siege of Luoyang in one fell swoop.
After thinking for a moment, Zhuge Liang made his decision.
Wei Yan led 20,000 people to attack Wang Ling's troops outside the south gate, hoping to defeat Wang Ling quickly in a short time.
Deng Ai led 10,000 troops out of the east gate to contain the Wei army outside the east gate, delaying time, waiting for Wei Yan to defeat Wang Ling, and then attack with Wei Yan from two directions. After defeating the Wei army at the east gate, he could counterattack Gong County. If possible, look See if there is a chance and attack Hulao Pass directly.
If Hulao Pass can be captured directly, then the battle to defend Luoyang will be completely successful.
As for Zhuge Liang himself, he led five thousand soldiers to guard the north gate to prevent the two Sima brothers at the north gate from taking the opportunity to cause trouble.
In this way, Zhuge Liang formulated his own battle plan and executed it very smoothly.
Although Wang Ling was also very capable, if he faced Wei Yan, Wang Ling really couldn't handle it with 10,000 soldiers against the 20,000 Northern Han army led by Wei Yan.
At the beginning, he saw Wei Yan taking the initiative to lead his troops out of the city. In order not to expose the strength of the South Gate troops, Wang Ling still took the initiative to attack and set up a formation, trying to make Wei Yan's troops have some scruples.
But soon, Wang Ling discovered that Wei Yan did not come out of the city for a tentative attack at all, but came to completely defeat him, and his troops were twice his own.
Wang Ling, who was very knowledgeable about current affairs, immediately retreated and retreated to the camp for defense. At the same time, he immediately sent a military envoy to deliver a message to Sima Yi, requesting Sima Yi to return reinforcements as soon as possible.
Before Sima Yi returned to rescue, Wang Ling held on to the camp and delayed until Sima Yi could come back for rescue.
There is nothing wrong with Wang Ling's response, but the problem is that Wang Ling does not have an advantage in terms of troop strength, soldiers' combat power, and the morale of both sides. As for commanding the battle, it is not that he looks down on Wang Ling, he is really not Wei Yan's opponent.
Wang Ling tried his best. He relied on the defense of the camp and delayed it for a full twenty days. In the end, Wei Yan broke through the camp.
Wang Ling could only take the defeated troops of less than 4,000 people and fled all the way to the east gate to join Xiahou Ba.
As for Xiahou Ba, life is actually not easy now.
If Wei Yan still needs some time to attack Wang Ling, Deng Ai's attempt to contain Xiahou Ba is simply a one-sided bullying.
Deng Aina has been in the army for more than ten years, while Xiahou Ba has only been on the battlefield since last year. The difference in combat experience between the two sides is not even a little bit.
Of course, just because this is Xiahou Ba, he still has some abilities, and at least his mental quality is quite good. In addition, Deng Ai was only ordered to contain him and did not attack with all his strength. This allowed Xiahou Ba to barely hold on. Twenty days.
But even so, Xiahou Ba had exhausted all his energy in dealing with Deng Ai's restraint. Even though he knew that Wang Ling was being attacked by Wei Yan at the south gate, he did not dare to make any move to rescue him at the south gate. .
Relying on the camp outside the east gate, Xiahou Badu was working very hard. If he went to rescue Wang Ling, he would not die fast enough.
Therefore, during this period of time, Xiahou Ba only did one thing besides guarding the camp - sending a message to Sima Yi and asking Sima Yi to quickly return reinforcements.
Although he lacks experience in the military formation, Xiahou Ba has no problem with his brain and strategy. He knows very well that once Wang Ling of the South Gate cannot defend himself and the Shu thieves from the South Gate come to attack him, even if he can escape unscathed, Gongxian behind him will , and even Hulao Pass will encounter direct threats from Shu thieves.
It doesn't matter if Gong County is lost, but if Hulao Pass is lost, the problem will be big.
Therefore, Xiahou Ba could only ask Sima Yi to immediately return reinforcements in the name of protecting the army. Whether or not Yingchuan could be rescued was secondary. Hulao Pass, the gateway to Yanzhou, really could not be lost.
But what Xiahou Ba didn't expect was that in just twenty days, the Shu thieves defeated the ten thousand restraining troops led by Wang Ling outside the south gate.
What's even more terrible is that Wang Ling from the south gate retreated to the east gate, followed by about 15,000 elite Shu thieves led by Wei Yan.
At the same time, Deng Ai, who was in front of Xiahou Ba, suddenly exerted his strength and launched a fierce attack on the Dongmen camp hosted by Xiahou Ba.
After the two armies of Shu thieves joined together, Xiahou Ba only lasted three days in the face of a strong attack by 25,000 Shu thieves, before the Dongmen camp was breached by Shu thieves.
In desperation, Xiahou Ba had to retreat with Wang Ling and about 8,000 remaining troops to defend Gong County.
Gong County must be defended, otherwise Hulao Pass will be in danger.
After Wei Yan and Deng Ai joined forces, they actually launched an attack on Gong County at the beginning.
After the two armies joined together, they had more than 20,000 troops. Their morale was high after successive great victories. However, the enemy army only had 8,000 defeated troops and their soldiers were low. Gong County was not a strong city and fortress. If it really wanted to besieged, it would be difficult. It's not impossible to capture it.
However, the two men only stayed in Gong County for less than five days before they received Zhuge Liang's order and quickly withdrew to Luoyang.
Sima Yi returned to the army, and very quickly. In order to prevent Sima Yi from being cruel and directly attacking Luoyang regardless of the life and death of Xiahou Ba and Wang Ling, Zhuge Liang decided to think it over safely and it would be better to let Wei Yan and Deng Ai return to the army to defend first.
With Sima Yi's return to the army, the situation in Luoyang once again entered a state of calm confrontation.
Near Luoyang, Sima Yi did not besiege Luoyang again, but returned to Gong County and joined Xiahou Ba and Wang Ling, with a total force of about 35,000.
The two Sima brothers at the north gate of Luoyang only had 10,000 soldiers in their hands. If they continued to stay at the north gate, they might be surrounded by the Luoyang defenders at any time, so they retreated all the way to Mengjindu to defend themselves.
As for Cao Zhen of Shaanxian County, Hongnong County, after learning that Luoyang was withdrawing from the siege, he was even considering the possibility of giving up the defense of Shaanxian County and withdrawing to Hedong County.
Finally, there is Yingchuan.
The coalition forces of Sima Yi, Guo Huai, and Chen Tai failed to capture Xiangcheng in the end. As Sima Yi led troops to return for reinforcements, Chen Tai and Guo Huai discussed with each other and felt that there was no point in continuing the siege.
Therefore, the two also chose to withdraw their troops. After retreating through Yingshui River, Chen Tai gave Guo Huai five thousand troops to garrison Yingyin as a barrier to Xuchang. He led the last ten thousand Yingchuan County troops to defend Xuchang.
In this way, the war situation seemed to have returned to before the war between the two sides began.
(End of chapter)
