Sima Yi would not wait until Pound led a counterattack into Chenliu County before retreating hastily. After Cao Zhao was defeated by Pound in Pei State, Sima Yi learned the news and immediately realized how passive the next situation would be.
Sima Yi immediately ordered Chen Tai to abandon the defense of Yanling first, retreat slowly, and lead his troops to cut off his rear. Then he ordered Guo Huai to go to Fugou County and command the 20,000 soldiers who had been sent out to assist Fugou County in the defense. Withdrew eastward into Jiyin County to support Jia Kui.
As Sima Yi led his troops to retreat to Yongqiu County in Chenliu County, he chose to lead 40,000 soldiers to station on the spot. The remaining 20,000 soldiers were handed over to Chen Tai, asking him to rush to Jujube as soon as possible to help defend Henan. The flank of Jun Hulao Pass, on the other hand, focuses on the Yanjin Ferry near Suanzao and retains the last channel for the army to retreat northward to Hebei.
In this way, Sima Yi adjusted his strategic deployment in a very short period of time and formed a defensive circle extending from Chenliu County to the south, Jiyin County to the east, and Dongjun to the north.
As for the counties in the southern part of Yanzhou, there is no other way. Sima Yi said that he is incapable of defending them. Whoever has the ability? Sima Yi can allocate 10,000 troops to him and let him defend them. After saying this, Cao Shuang immediately shut up. .
Cao Shuang is not really a fool. Even if Sima Yi really dared to allocate troops to him, he would not dare to go.
In fact, being on the main front line of Yanling, Cao Shuang can still receive more intelligence and have enough understanding of the battle situation. Even if he is limited by his ability and cannot fully see clearly, the impact of Cao Zhao's defeat will not be affected by Cao Shuang. I didn’t understand it the first time, but after thinking about it for two more days, I finally understood it.
Therefore, although Cao Shuang was beeping all the way, he was mostly venting some emotions and expressing his dissatisfaction with the idiot Cao Zhao. In fact, Cao Shuang could understand Sima Yi's retreat to Yongqiu County.
If we don't withdraw, we may really be blocked in the southwest of Yanzhou.
But there was one thing that Cao Shuang didn't understand.
Yes, it is true that Cao Shuang often caused trouble for Sima Yi and declared his presence. But to put it bluntly, even if it is Cao Shuang, he is just too selfish, which does not mean that he really has no judgment at all.
Actually, Cao Shuang could understand that Sima Yi was still very capable. So he really couldn't understand why, with Sima Yi's ability, the battle of Yanzhou ended in such a virtuous manner.
The whole process was passive and there was no opportunity to turn the situation around.
If the previous attack on Luoyang can be said to be an order that cannot be violated. The Yanzhou war was all under the full command of Sima Yi, how could it still be fought like this?
Moreover, one of the things that Cao Shuang couldn't understand the most was - since the cavalry unit commanded by Cao Zhao was so important, why didn't Sima Yi even send a warning to Cao Zhao? !
Just let Cao Zhao go to face Pound head-on, so that after Cao Zhao was defeated, he had to abandon the entire army to defend the southern part of Yanzhou, and could only establish a defense line in the four northeastern counties of Yanzhou? !
Cao Shuang did not suspect that Sima Yi had second thoughts, but now Cao Shuang seriously doubted that Sima Yi had selfish motives.
Well, second-mindedness and selfishness are different in nature.
Cao Shuang still recognized Sima Yi's character and did not believe that he would betray the Wei Dynasty and switch to the Shu bandits. If he wanted to vote, he would have done so. If he had done so a year earlier, he would have given him a Yanzhou.
Such a big gift, when it comes to the Shu thieves, it is at least like a three-gong treatment. Why do you stay in Yanzhou until now? !
Therefore, Cao Shuang did not believe that Sima Yi would betray Wei.
But it's hard to say whether Sima Yi, an old boy, has selfish motives.
After all, that boy Cao Zhao is Cao Xiu's son, and the relationship between Cao Xiu and Sima Yi is probably known to the whole Wei Dynasty. The relationship between the two is extremely bad.
In the early years, there were reports of Cao Xiu impeaching Sima Yi almost every year. If it weren't for the fact that both Cao Pi and Cao Rui didn't like Cao Xiu very much, and Cao Xiu himself had lost his popularity, Sima Yi would have been impeached by a clan general. Can there be a good one? !
Therefore, Cao Shuang had to wonder whether Sima Yi was avenging his personal revenge by not emphasizing the importance of cavalry combat to Cao Zhao this time, or was deliberately targeting Cao Zhao.
After all, as the commander-in-chief of a party, it is certainly impossible for Sima Yi to do everything personally. As the actual commander of the cavalry regiment, Cao Zhao has direct decision-making and command authority over the march and battle of the cavalry regiment. This defeat, Even if the responsibility is investigated, Sima Yi should not bear the main responsibility. Cao Zhao must be held accountable first.
What Sima Yi did was just not remind Cao Zhao of his importance. In fact, Sima Yi could have reminded him of this matter, and no one could accuse him if he didn't.
Another thing is that Sima Yi did not agree with launching a counterattack against Luoyang from the beginning. Instead, he wanted to strengthen the defense of Chenliu County. Just as Sima Yi expected a year ago, he would concentrate his forces and deploy defenses in the four northeastern counties of Yanzhou.
So, can it be interpreted that Sima Yi deliberately sent cavalry troops to confront the Shu thieves' cavalry regiment?
In victory, the credit goes not only to Cao Zhao, but also to him, Sima Yi.
If he failed, the responsibility was Cao Zhao's. How could Sima Yi use this to shrink his troops and deploy defenses to achieve the strategic results he wanted? !
Really, the more Cao Shuang thinks about it now, the more he feels that this is not impossible.
The reason that supports Cao Shuang's thinking is that if he were in Sima Yi's position, he would definitely do this.
Really, that is, Cao Shuang was just suspicious and did not question Sima Yi, otherwise Sima Yi could spray Cao Shuang to death with spittle.
How can there be any commander in the world who would take the initiative to destroy 20,000 cavalry troops just for personal grudges? !
If he could do such a heartless thing, could Sima Yi still be Sima Yi? !
The reason why the Yanzhou battle did not go smoothly was because from the beginning to the end, Sima Yi did not have the initiative on the battlefield for any quarter of an hour.
He opposed the attack on Luoyang from the beginning, believing that defenses should be deployed on the spot to prevent the Shu thieves from launching another Northern Expedition.
But the emperor refused to listen to him and forced him to launch the Northern Expedition first. As a result, all of Sima Yi's strategic ideas centered on how to attack Luoyang.
As a result, Sima Yi's strategic arrangement failed, resulting in the loss of the first move.
Then, Yingchuan County surrendered a little too quickly, causing Sima Yi to retreat all the way. He was just one step away from blocking the 150,000 Xu Shu army in Yanling. It was lucky to catch up. How did Sima Yi defend the layout? , and just started thinking about it.
Then, Sima Yi took into account the weak defense of Dongjun and just sent Jia Kui to plug this loophole. As a result, within two days, Wei Yan landed in Dongjun and news of the attack on Puyang came.
Sima Yi was slow one step at a time, and he was completely exhausted from dealing with it.
He had to face Xu Shu's army, which was nearly twice as powerful as him, and was unable to quickly contact the county soldiers in Hedong, nor could he make quick adjustments to the war in Hedong. In the end, he withdrew to Yanzhou, and he had to find a way to clean up behind him. With so many troublesome things for Sima Yi to consider, how could he have time to tell Cao Zhao to be careful? !
Besides, Cao Zhao, as a clan general and in charge of 20,000 Jizhou cavalry, was a powerful general. Even if Sima Yi reminded Cao Zhao, would Cao Zhao really listen? !
After all, everyone knows that Cao Zhao's father has a bad relationship with Sima Yi. If Sima Yi specifically told Cao Zhao to be careful when dealing with Pound, could it possibly arouse Cao Zhao's rebellious mentality and think that Sima Yi is looking down on him? !
Therefore, Sima Yi believed that when it came to Cao Zhao, it would be better to be quiet than to move, and it would be a good thing not to give special instructions.
But Sima Yi really didn't expect that Cao Zhao would lose so miserably.
In Sima Yi's view, even though Cao Zhao is not as capable as Cao Xiu, he is at least a good person and not as impatient as his father. Moreover, as far as the current clan generals are concerned, Cao Zhao is relatively capable.
At least he is much stronger than his own army guard general.
In addition, the Jizhou cavalry is also Cao Wei's elite cavalry. Their overall combat effectiveness has not been bad in recent years. They also made great contributions when they followed General Cao Zhen to put down Gongsun Yuan's rebellion five years ago. Even if Cao Zhao is not Pound's opponent, as long as Cao Zhao does not Lang, calmly respond, in terms of overall combat strength, the 20,000 Liangzhou cavalry should be able to hold Pound back.
But who knew that Cao Zhao actually chose to confront Pound head-on, and actually lost so miserably. Only 4,000 of the 20,000 cavalry returned to Dingtao, and almost the entire army was wiped out.
At this moment, Sima Yi had no other plans. He was completely forced and had no choice but to protect the four northeastern counties of Yanzhou as much as possible while guarding his own retreat.
Even so, Sima Yi was still uneasy because there was only one Xiahouhe guarding Puyang in the direction of Dongjun, with only 12,000 troops.
At this time, Wei Yan had 45,000 elite imperial troops under his command. After Pang De defeated Cao Zhao, Wei Yan no longer needed to consider the issue of being surrounded and suppressed by cavalry. He could completely defeat Zhen City first, then turn around and attack Puyang, and finally attack Lin Jujube and Yanjin line cut off the Wei army's retreat in Yanzhou.
Therefore, Sima Yi had to give an order to Sima Shi and Xiahou Ba in Hanoi County to give up the encirclement and suppression of the Shu bandits entering Hedong and come to support Yanzhou first.
However, considering that the communication between the two places is really inconvenient, if the military order is not delivered in time, Sima Shi and Xiahou Ba will not be able to come to the rescue immediately. For the sake of caution, Sima Yi still wrote to the court to explain the current predicament of Yanzhou, hoping that the court could respond in time. Send reinforcements to Yanzhou.
Well, I admit it, I'm lazy. I've recently become addicted to a TV series called "I Have a Friend" and I can't stop watching it. By the way, take advantage of it.
(End of chapter)
