Xiangyang originally had only 40,000 troops, 20,000 infantry soldiers and 20,000 naval troops.
Once all 20,000 infantrymen are mobilized to go north, Xiangyang will only be defended by the navy. If the Soochow side comes to land on the north bank of the Han River again, the Xiangfan defense line will be ineffective.
And this time, the reinforcements from Dongsan County have also been eliminated. I am afraid that there will not be any reinforcements in Xiangyang.
There was no other way, Zhang Xi could only demolish the east wall to repair the west wall, and transfer 10,000 people from Jiangling to go north.
If you do this, although Jiangling's defense will be weakened, at least you will have the troops to maintain the Xiangfan defense line. With Wenpin and Wang Ji in charge, there shouldn't be any big problems.
Well, as long as Soochow no longer raises 200,000 troops to invade like last time, the basic problem is not big.
Zhuge Liang actually knew Zhang Xi's concerns, but he had nothing to do. Cao Wei had concentrated too many troops this time. Without enough strength, it would be really difficult to capture Heluo and Yanzhou.
That's all we can do for now.
After receiving Zhang Xi's guarantee, Zhuge Liang silently calculated in his mind that he had 70,000 troops. Qinzhou and Jingzhou would mobilize 100,000 troops, Yongzhou's 50,000 county soldiers plus 20,000 Southern troops, Liangzhou's 20,000 cavalry, and Dongzhou's cavalry. There are 30,000 soldiers and horses in the three counties, plus 10,000 Zhang Yi's troops stationed in Xiangcheng, the total is exactly 300,000.
With so many troops, it should be enough. However, to be on the safe side, Zhuge Liang turned to Pang Tong and asked Pang Tong if the 30,000 troops and horses under Wu Yi in Hanzhong could be mobilized? !
Pang Tong thought about this question for a while and said, "The Hanzhong County troops have been newly built. It would be inappropriate to rush into battle rashly. I am also afraid that the Yizhou family will be dissatisfied and transferred to guard Chang'an. It is appropriate."
There is no way. Who told Zhuge Liang to divide Yizhou and put Hanzhong County under the jurisdiction of Yizhou in order to compensate for the losses in southern Yizhou, instead of being an independent state and county.
Just a few days ago, we just agreed to Qiao Zhou. The people of Yizhou will provide money and food, but they will not send troops. Now if you suddenly send troops from Hanzhong County for the Northern Expedition, people will have some disagreements.
Although Hanzhong is still controlled by Wu Yi, it is still within the jurisdiction of Yizhou County and it is difficult to go back on his words.
Furthermore, in the last battle, Wu Yilang was so powerful that he lost 70% of the main force of the Hanzhong County soldiers. The current Hanzhong County soldiers are newly recruited. Although the training time is not short, they are not as good as the elite soldiers. Compared with the county soldiers, they are indeed new soldiers who have never been on the battlefield.
It would be foolish to expect them to be of much help.
It is better to transfer troops to Chang'an to fill the vacancy after Yongzhou transferred troops. This is more practical.
As for doing this, will the Yizhou family be dissatisfied? I'm kidding, it's not like sending Hanzhong soldiers to the Heluo front line as local county soldiers to defend the capital. Who dares to say that? !
When Zhuge Liang thought about it, it seemed that he could only do this. Of course, Zhuge Liang thought further than Pang Tong.
If the war ahead really gets serious, then these 30,000 Hanzhong County soldiers will be the general reserve force. If it really comes to a critical moment, Zhuge Liang will not discuss the issue of commitment or non-commitment with those Yizhou aristocratic families.
Everything comes first.
After gathering enough troops, the next step is how to march and the strategic deployment of the enemy.
Since Zhuge Liang said that he would take advantage of the fact that the Wei army was divided and communication was inconvenient to concentrate his forces and defeat it in one battle, then where to focus the attack was a very critical issue.
It is definitely impossible to use Hulao Pass as the main direction of attack. This place is a powerful pass and extremely strong. Even with 300,000 troops, it is impossible to attack and break through easily.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang placed the place of attack in Yingchuan.
"Yingchuan?!"
Zhang Xi was thoughtful when he heard Zhuge Liang's choice.
The geographical location of Yingchuan is very important, as it is the main road connecting Huainan, the Central Plains and Jingzhou.
Precisely because of the importance of Yingchuan, Cao Wei never really gave up on Yingchuan, even though this place was actually surrounded by enemies on three sides, and only the east side was his family's territory.
In several previous battles, the Han Dynasty had led troops to attack this place, but the Wei army in Yingchuan always held on and was never completely broken by the Han Dynasty.
This shows the importance of this place.
However, there are actually many difficulties for the Han Dynasty to attack Yingchuan.
The first difficulty is that Yingchuan is backed by Chenliu County and Runan County. These two places now belong to the Wei and Wu families respectively, and both families have a large number of troops deployed nearby.
Cao Wei's Yanzhou County soldiers basically hoarded heavy troops in Chenliu County. Once Yanzhou really encountered a threat, the Yanzhou County soldiers in Chenliu County could go to support Yanzhou at any time.
Soochow's troops in Runan are not many, only about 20,000, but around Shouchun, Soochow has gathered about 70,000 or 80,000 troops.
Attacking Yingchuan County will easily cause the Dongwu County soldiers in Huainan to rebound and cause unnecessary misunderstandings.
The second difficulty is still the commonplace issue - the attitude of the Yingchuan family.
In the past hundred years, the Yingchuan family has become famous all over the world and has a very high reputation. If they cannot find a way to properly appease the Yingchuan family, the Han Dynasty will even use its military superiority to capture Yingchuan and want to establish a new family in Yingchuan. Stable rule is also quite difficult.
After all, in these days, aristocratic families control public opinion and popular prestige, and the imperial court wants to govern the place. If these aristocratic families do not cooperate, I am afraid that good things will spread to the lower levels and turn into bad things.
The most terrible thing is that the people of this era are more willing to trust the nearby famous families instead of the government.
Therefore, it is not that the Han Dynasty is not confident enough to attack Yingchuan, but it is that he does not want to attack Yingchuan without complete preparations.
But now, has Zhuge Liang already reached an agreement with the wealthy families in Yingchuan? !
Although the things were similar to what Zhang Xi thought, they were still somewhat different.
In the past five years, Zhang Xi was busy recovering and governing Jingnan, and Zhuge Liang was not idle either. He had some contacts with most of the aristocratic families in the Heluo area and Yingchuan.
This is due to the failure of Cao Wei's last counterattack on Luoyang, which led to changes in people's minds in Heluo and Yingchuan.
The Wei Dynasty seems to be no longer as powerful as before, and the Shu Han Dynasty is no longer the partial power it once was.
Luoyang has been defended. Is it really true that "the sky will never stop the burning people"? !
This idea, especially within the Yingchuan family, has a considerable market.
After all, the rise of the Yingchuan family was basically related to Liu Xiu, who started the army in Nanyang and then swept the world.
Many of the achievements of the Later Han Dynasty are related to the ancestors of the Yingchuan family, so it is easier for them to leave the psychological implication that "the sky will never stop the Yan Han" in their hearts.
Compared with the Heluo Family, the communication between the Yingchuan Family and Zhuge Liang can be said to be very smooth.
In the past five years, Zhuge Liang even established a relationship with Xun and maintained a certain degree of correspondence.
But the problem is, among the wealthy families of this era, none of them are old foxes. Especially after nearly fifty years of war, none of them will easily fall to one side before the situation is determined.
The lessons of the Battle of Guandu are still vivid in my mind.
Yuan Shao sent more than 200,000 troops south, but was defeated by Cao Cao at Guandu with about 50,000 troops. Who could have imagined this? !
In other words, Cao Cao still has a bit of a heroic temperament and does not have the Qiu Queen to settle accounts. Otherwise, it is really hard to say how much the Yingchuan family can survive in the hands of this butcher.
For this reason, most of the Yingchuan family later chose to cooperate with Cao Cao because you don't know whether this person has read the content before burning the letter, and whether he will settle accounts with you in the future.
Judging from Cao Cao's experience in raising troops in the first half of his life, it was not impossible for him to do such a thing and become famous as Bian Rang, a famous scholar in Yanzhou. He would kill as soon as he was told, without any hesitation.
Therefore, even though there is now a saying among the Yingchuan family that "Heaven will never stop the Yan Han", some wealthy families do have certain correspondence with Zhuge Liang, but this time, they have learned the lesson. No matter how Zhuge Liang tries, this group of people will People just won’t let go.
It's okay to reminisce about old times and chat, but if you want me to switch sides, don't talk about it.
However, Zhuge Liang was not without gains. After such a long period of communication, Zhuge Liang still found many "friends" within the Yingchuan family, and Zhuge Liang tentatively invited them to come to Luoyang to serve as officials. Most of these "friends" He expressed his "longing", but had to "decline" due to "trivial matters at home".
Among these Zhuge Liang's "good friends" are Xun Zuo, Chen Zuo, and Zhong Hui. With these three surnames, they all know everything.
You can say that this is the normal operation of the Yingchuan family, hedging their bets, but it can also reflect the current attitude of the Yingchuan family towards big men.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang believes that now is the time to launch an attack on Yingchuan.
Zhang Xi had no doubts about Zhuge Liang's judgment. He just asked about another aspect.
What about the Heluo Family? !
If the Heluo family had the same attitude, or even if it was slightly worse, they could attack Heluo and go straight to the north bank of the Yellow River. Wouldn't it be of greater strategic value than attacking Yingchuan? !
Regarding this point, Zhuge Liang just sighed slightly, then took out a letter and motioned for everyone to open it and read it.
Everyone who read this letter frowned thoughtfully.
This is a very important letter, but it is not very important to the people present. This is a piece of information sent back from the North with the highest level of confidentiality.
The information with the highest level of confidentiality is naturally very important, but each of the six people present has the right to access this information.
This letter of information recorded in detail the distribution of some Wei troops in the Heluo and Yanzhou areas, as well as the Wei army's reinforcement dispatch in the coming period.
The time of signing was in February of the third year of Yanxi, that is, half a year ago.
What made Zhang Xi even more concerned was that the signature of this information did not have the detailed number it should have, but only had the word "Liu".
This seems to be the second time I’ve seen it, right? !
(End of chapter)
