Wei Yan led his troops north from Chengshi County, and 45,000 troops came to Zhencheng, the great county of Dongjun. The grand governor of Dongjun was almost leaving an afterimage in circles in the governor's mansion in Puyang.
Zhencheng is in a hurry, and Xiahouhe is now in a hurry. The most critical issue is that Xiahouhe really can't make up his mind whether he should send troops to rescue.
Puyang is the county seat of Dongjun and cannot be lost easily, but Zhencheng cannot be lost easily either.
When Emperor Taizu Wu conquered Xuzhou in the early years, Chen Gong and Zhang Miao united to rebel against Lu Bu. The entire Yanzhou was almost completely lost. Only Zhencheng in Dongjun, Dong'e and other places were still holding on. Since then, the aristocratic families in Zhencheng have The wealthy clan is Cao Wei's most die-hard supporters.
They are more hardcore than the aristocratic families in Chenliu County.
This place is under attack. If Xiahouhe dares not to save him, I am afraid that Xiahouhe will face countless impeachments in the court, and even Cao Rui may not be able to save him.
But if he went to rescue Xia Houhe, he knew how much he weighed, and how many soldiers and horses the rebel army had.
Even if he tried his best to save Zhencheng, he might not be able to save Zhencheng. Even if he was ambushed by Shu thieves on the way, not only Zhencheng but also Puyang would be lost.
At that time, it will no longer be a question of his Xia Hou and being impeached, but a question of his own head.
Therefore, Xia Houhe was really going back and forth in circles, and he was really undecided.
As for Zhencheng, it should be said that it is indeed the most hardcore support area for Cao Wei.
Even though there were only 500 soldiers stationed in Zhencheng, the aristocratic families in Zhencheng arbitrarily gathered 3,000 private soldiers to defend Zhencheng under the attack of 45,000 Shu thieves, and sent a letter to Puyang every day. Send a distress letter.
You said that if Zhen City could not hold out for even a few days before being breached, then Xiahou He would not have to hesitate so much. But it was surrounded like this and could not be broken. It would be even harder for Xia Houhe to judge whether this was Zhen City. Did the city defenders work together to fight against the Shu thieves, or did the Shu thieves deliberately encircle and not attack, instead encircling and attacking for reinforcements.
The commotion made Xia Houhe even more hesitant.
Jia Kui, who was in Chenliu County, was shocked when he learned that Wei Yan was going north to attack Zhencheng.
Jia Kui's strategic vision was farther than Xia Houhe's. He knew that when the Shu thieves attacked Zhen City, on the one hand, they wanted to conquer Zhen City and seek supplies. On the other hand, they did not necessarily mean to encircle the city for reinforcements.
Therefore, Jia Kui immediately led his troops to leave Waihuang County, enter Jiyin County, and then prepare to follow Jiyin County to Puyang.
At the same time, Jia Kui was afraid that Xia Houhe would fall into his trap, so he immediately wrote a letter to Xia Houhe, telling him that he must wait until he leads his troops to arrive in Puyang, or after the cavalry regiment led by Cao Zhao arrives in Puyang, before sending out troops to rescue Zhencheng together. If Zhencheng If you can really hold on until then.
But when Jia Kui had just led his troops into Dingtao County in Jiyin County and was about to continue going north, news suddenly came from the south.
Cao Zhao was defeated in Pei State and retreated with his remaining troops into Jiyin County, heading towards Dingtao.
When Jia Kui heard the news, his eyes suddenly darkened. When he finally recovered, he quickly asked why Cao Zhao was defeated.
In fact, there is no reason, it is just that the skills are not as good as others.
Cao Zhao's ability was not strong enough to compete with Pound in the first place. He was still a little confused after winning for a while, so he chose to fight Pound head-on instead of fighting. It was not surprising that he lost.
In fact, Cao Zhao's mentality and situation at the time were very similar to Zhuge Zhan's during the Battle of Mianzhu.
It is said that Deng Ai sneaked into Yinping, so he fought with less and defeated more. In fact, this is not the case.
When Deng Ai smuggled into Yinping, historical records recorded that there were about 20,000 people, but not only 2,000 people recorded in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". After successfully smuggling into Yinping, he not only obtained food supplies in Jiangyou, but also recruited surrounding counties The Shu Han garrison expanded the size of the army, and even Zhong Hui sent a reinforcement force led by Tian Zhang to Deng Ai.
As for Chengdu at that time, Liu Chan had mobilized troops from Chengdu several times and sent them to the front line to be commanded by Jiang Wei. At that time, the troops given to Deng Ai, who was led by Zhuge Zhan to fight against Mianzhu, could not have been as strong as those written in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" There are as many as 100,000 people.
At least during the battle at Mianzhu Pass, the gap in military strength between the two sides was actually not large, and it was even possible that they were evenly matched.
Just like when Cao Zhao faced Pound now, everyone had 20,000 cavalry.
But when Cao Zhao faced Pound, he made the same mistake as Zhuge Zhan. After a small victory, he got carried away and gave up the most beneficial way of playing.
Zhuge Zhan gave up the defense of Mianzhu Pass and gave up the tactic of delaying time to wait for Jiang Wei's return reinforcements. He actually chose to go out of the city to fight Deng Ai in the field. Then he was completely defeated. Both his father and son died in the battle at Mianzhu.
As for Cao Zhao, Cao Wei's cavalry was more familiar with Yanzhou's geographical advantages. He did not take the initiative to choose a battlefield that was conducive to his fighting, nor did he use the speed of the cavalry to fight. Instead, he ran into him with a reckless look. , a decisive battle with Pound in a head-on field battle.
Cao Zhao probably forgot how Niu Jin was defeated by Liangzhou's heavy cavalry seven years ago.
Then the Liangzhou cavalry led by Pang De used the old tactics from seven years ago, a combination of light cavalry and heavy cavalry, and defeated them in one fell swoop.
However, Cao Zhao's luck was better than Zhuge Zhan's, and he successfully escaped.
On the one hand, it was Pound who made reforms to the Liangzhou cavalry, reducing the proportion of heavy cavalry among the 20,000 Liangzhou cavalry, leaving only 5,000 heavy cavalry in the army.
Therefore, although the impact of the heavy cavalry can easily defeat the Wei army's cavalry formation, the heavy cavalry cannot be used in pursuit, and can only rely on the light cavalry to encircle and suppress the Wei army's cavalry. The result is not very great, and Cao Zhao gains A chance to escape.
But this matter, although it is partly Pound's responsibility, it is not entirely Pound's fault.
After all, Pang De has lived in Xiliang for a long time, and his opponents are all a group of Qiang and Hu riders from Liangzhou. Once this group is defeated, they will be completely in chaos. Not many people can even escape, and they will surrender directly.
After all, the Han Dynasty's policy towards foreigners was relatively mild, and Xu Miao also advocated appeasing the Liangzhou governor more than encircling and suppressing them. Therefore, for the foreigners around Xiliang, it was actually easier to survive by surrendering than by escaping.
Therefore, Pound would increase the number of light cavalry and reduce the proportion of heavy cavalry. Besides, the cost of raising heavy cavalry is also high. Reducing the number also reduces the burden.
But now, due to the unreasonable allocation of arms in the army, Pang De was unable to further expand his results, which gave Cao Zhaoneng the opportunity to withdraw from the battlefield.
On the other hand, Cao Zhao and Zhuge Zhan are different.
Zhuge Zhan is the son of Zhuge Liang, and he has always been trusted by Liu Chan and was entrusted with important tasks at the last moment. Whether it is due to reputation considerations or practical considerations, Zhuge Zhan is impossible to surrender to Cao Wei. He can only die in battle until Last minute.
But Cao Zhao is different. At least in Cao Zhao's view, his defeat this time will not have much impact on the overall war situation, nor will it have much impact on his family's status.
Therefore, Cao Zhao saw that the situation of the battle was unfavorable. His side was attacked by the enemy's heavy cavalry and he could no longer maintain his formation. Cao Zhao directly ordered the entire army to retreat.
After giving this order, Cao Zhao retreated directly and escaped under the protection of his personal guards.
But with Cao Zhao running away like this, the remaining cavalry still had no fighting will. A rout was formed.
If Pound hadn't been afraid of pursuing too much and missing the opportunity to encircle and defeat the scattered cavalry, Cao Zhao might not have been able to withdraw.
Although he withdrew, after this battle, of the 20,000 Jizhou cavalry he led, only less than 4,000 were left to retreat to Dingtao County.
After Cao Zhao withdrew to Dingtao County, Jia Kui looked at how this prodigal thing came to anger southern Yanzhou, and he probably couldn't hold it anymore.
Obviously, Cao Zhao's strategic vision was not enough for him to see clearly the importance of his cavalry unit.
Cao Zhao's cavalry is absolutely unbeatable at this time.
Once there are no more Cao Zhao's cavalry to contain Pound's cavalry, Pound can coordinate Wei Yan's troops to the north to attack Dongjun and Taishan counties, and to the west, he can enter Chenliu County and harass the food routes of Sima Yi's army.
This is equivalent to letting the Shu thief free up a hand, and this hand may pinch Sima Yi's neck at any time.
If Sima Yi did not want Yanling to be trapped or entangled to death, he must shrink his defense line, return to Chenliu County, and send the Shu thieves into Yanzhou to fight.
And this is also the reason why Jia Kui stays in Dingtao and no longer goes north - once Sima Yi withdraws his troops into Chenliu County, someone must stick to Jiyin County and cover Sima Yi's flanks.
Otherwise, with the combined strength of the Shu thieves in Yanzhou reaching nearly 200,000, they could use a combination of internal and external pincer attacks to trap Sima Yi to death in Yanzhou.
Cao Zhao's defeat was tantamount to ruining the already unsatisfactory Yanzhou war situation.
(End of chapter)
