Needless to say, the only army that could appear south of Puyang at this time was the 10,000 troops led by Guo Huai who came to Dongjun to support them.
Along the way, Guo Huai actually thought about the current situation seriously. The best way to defend Dongjun was to rush to Puyang to join Xiahouhe, gather more than 20,000 soldiers, and hold on to Puyang.
Wei Yan has more than 40,000 elite forbidden troops in his hands. In a field battle, even Guo Huai does not think he can defeat Wei Yan with 20,000 soldiers. It is not just the difference in the combat power of the soldiers. Wei Yan, Guo Huai also knows, is not a good person. provoke.
Only in the city defense battle that could weaken the enemy's combat power to the greatest extent, could Guo Huai have the greatest confidence to hold off Wei Yan's army and buy time for Sima Division to lead the army to come for reinforcements.
Therefore, after Guo Huai sent troops from Jiyin County, he headed north without any hesitation, hoping to enter Puyang and defend it in the shortest possible time before Wei Yan attacked Puyang City.
But unfortunately, God failed. When Guo Huai led his troops to Lihu County, he received a report from the scouts ahead, saying that Puyang County had been surrounded by Shu thieves.
This is not good news, but for Guo Huai, it is not a surprise.
After all, Wei Yan was also a famous general, and he seized the opportunity again. Now he has attacked Puyang City, which did not exceed Guo Huai's expectations.
For Guo Huai, it was best to enter Puyang before Wei Yan attacked the city, but Guo Huai did not have his own plan for arriving late.
First, Guo Huai wrote a secret letter, sealed it with his official seal, and asked the scouts to find a way to deliver it to Puyang City.
Then Guo Huai continued to lead his troops towards the direction of Puyang City. However, shortly after dispatching the troops, Guo Huai detached 5,000 soldiers and marched to the south of Puyang City with great fanfare under his own banner. He led 5,000 soldiers Take a detour and head to the west of Puyang City.
According to Guo Huai's plan, the Shu thieves would definitely discover his team of suspected soldiers marching with great fanfare to the south of Puyang City, and then they would definitely send people to intercept them.
At that time, this team can retreat directly to Lihu County.
As for himself, he led five thousand soldiers. After the Shu bandits divided their troops and went south, they suddenly appeared in the west of Puyang City. Then, with the support of Xia Houhe, they successfully entered the city and strengthened Puyang's defense.
After he entered Puyang City, he ordered the 5,000 soldiers who had returned to Lihu County to go north again. This time, Xiahou and the defenders were left behind. He led 10,000 soldiers to break through the siege of Shu thieves and go to meet Guo Huai. He was confident that he would receive the most troops. The most powerful soldiers entered Puyang and continued to defend.
The plan was actually very good, but there was a slight problem with this plan from the very beginning.
After receiving the secret letter from Guo Huai, Xia Hou and his friends hesitated for a long time, still unable to make up their mind whether to go out of the city to meet him.
Xia Houhe was so "self-aware" that he had no confidence in his military command level.
He was asked to hold on to the city and rely on the city's defense advantages to stop the Shu thieves. He fought so mysteriously that he was almost defeated by the enemy several times. Now that Guo Huai asked him to go out of the city to meet the rescue troops, Xiahouhe really didn't have the confidence.
If you want to go out of the city to provide support, you will definitely face the risk of fighting in the field.
Puyang City is now surrounded by Shu thieves.
The main direction of the Shu thieves' attack was the east gate, but the Shu thieves also arranged about two thousand troops at the other three gates for containment.
The troop strength is indeed not large, but the problem is that Xiahouhe does not have enough confidence to break through the interception of these soldiers and go to meet Guo Huai.
If we need to send troops to respond, how many troops should we bring? How to defeat Ximen's defensive forces as quickly as possible? If we can't defeat them quickly and the Shu thieves react quickly, what should we do if reinforcements are in place? Xiahou He is really unsure. .
But then again, the purpose of Guo Huai sending this secret letter was not to discuss with Xia Houhe whether to do this, but to inform Xia Houhe that he would do so.
In this era when communication was extremely inconvenient, Guo Huai's letter was to inform him of his battle plan, which required Xia Houhe's cooperation. Regardless of whether Xia Houhe sent troops to respond or not, Guo Huai would send troops according to this plan.
If Xiahouhe sends troops to respond, Guo Huai's plan will have a higher success rate. If he does not send troops to respond, Guo Huai will still kill the west gate of Puyang City.
Therefore, Xia Houhe had no choice but to bite the bullet and start gathering troops. He gathered five thousand soldiers and prepared to go out of the city to meet Guo Huai.
The problem on his own family's side can be said to be a near miss, but on his opponent's side, Guo Huai somewhat missed someone.
Tianshui Qilin'er, Jiang Wei.
Currently, Jiang Wei is not very famous and has few opportunities to fight. In addition, Guo Huai has been away from the center of the imperial court for too long and lacks sufficient intelligence knowledge about Jiang Wei.
At least in Guo Huai's eyes, Jiang Wei was just a young Shu thieves general.
As for young people, it’s hard to say whether they can grow up.
When he was fighting in Liangzhou and Yongzhou, it was not like Guo Huai had never encountered such young generals as Shu thieves. Chen Shi, Gao Xiang and the like were said to be the talents Liu Da'er valued back then.
It is difficult to evaluate Liu Daer and Guo Huai, but he still has a good eye for judging people. People who can be valued and cultivated by him must be people with temporary talents.
But whether Chen Shi or Gao Xiang, Guo Huai could easily suppress them at that time. After so many years, I haven't heard of any outstanding achievements from them. It's hard to say whether they are still alive now.
Therefore, in Guo Huai's heart, Jiang Wei, the young general of the Shu thieves, is Chen Shi, Gao Xiang and the like. His real opponent is Wei Yan.
As the commander-in-chief of the army, Wei Yan must attack the east gate of Puyang, so Guo Huai set the breakthrough point at the west gate of Puyang, in order to avoid Wei Yan and prevent Wei Yan from quickly coming for reinforcements.
As for the south gate, Guo Huai sent out a bluff of five thousand soldiers, just to contain Jiang Wei. In Guo Huai's opinion, with Jiang Wei's ability and experience, as well as his military experience, his bluff of five thousand soldiers was enough to bluff Jiang Wei. Jiang Wei made him dare not use troops easily.
Then Guo Huai was in trouble.
First, Guo Huai miscalculated the number of troops Jiang Wei would lead to the south gate.
Guo Huai predicted that Wei Yan would mainly attack the west gate of Puyang, so it was impossible for him to go south to intercept the reinforcements. At most, he would send Jiang Wei to intercept.
If Jiang Wei can repel, then Wei Yan will not divide his troops. If Jiang Wei cannot repel, but as long as it can be delayed for a while and Guo Huai is not allowed to enter Puyang, the mission has been completed.
Therefore, Wei Yan cannot give too much of this force. Too much force will affect the attack on Puyang. Considering Jiang Wei's ability, he may not be able to control it, but he cannot bring too few troops. Too few forces will not be able to stop him.
Therefore, Guo Huai judged that Jiang Wei would only lead 10,000 soldiers to the south gate to intercept him and prevent him from entering Puyangcheng.
But Jiang Wei led a full 20,000 soldiers to the south to set up defenses.
Guo Huai didn't believe in Jiang Wei's ability, but Wei Yan did. Wei Yan even believed that Jiang Wei could defeat the reinforcements brought by Guo Huai with just 20,000 troops.
The second point is that Guo Huai misjudged Xia Houhe's ability to respond and command on the battlefield.
Guo Huai is a general who has dealt with the Northern and Southern armies of the Han Dynasty. He knows that the combat effectiveness of this army is second only to the Wei Forbidden Army in its most elite period.
But now, neither Guo Huai nor Xia Houhe led the imperial army of the Wei Dynasty, but ordinary county soldiers. In terms of the combat strength of the soldiers, Guo Huai admitted that there was a gap between the two.
To put it bluntly, if it weren't for the disparity in combat power between the soldiers, Guo Huai wouldn't have to use this bluff method to imprison Puyang. With his ability, he could just attack Puyang directly.
Therefore, Guo Huai understood that there was a gap in combat power between the two sides, so he chose Ximen as the breakthrough point to create a local situation of more and less.
Guo Huai brought 5,000 soldiers, so as long as Xiahouhe can lead 5,000 soldiers to respond, and 10,000 soldiers at the front and back face two thousand Shu bandits, it will still be a two-sided attack. Guo Huai has no chance of losing no matter how hard he thinks.
But the reality is that Guo Huai led his soldiers to the west gate and began to besiege the elite Shu thieves besieging the west gate, but for a long time he did not see Xiahouhe sending troops to respond to him.
A quarter of an hour later, Guo Huai finally saw Xiahouhe leading his troops to fight. However, Xiahouhe's soldiers were in scattered formations and had low offensive efficiency. They were unable to form an effective front and rear pincer attack. As a result, the Shu thief Ximen garrison was still able to persist.
The third point is that Guo Huai misjudged Jiang Wei's strategy and response speed.
When Jiang Wei led his troops to the south gate, instead of setting up defenses in place to block his suspected soldiers as Guo Huai expected, Jiang Wei confidently chose to take the initiative.
There is no way not to take the initiative. There are 20,000 soldiers in hand, and the opponent only has 10,000 soldiers at full strength. If he is still holding on, it will not be Jiang Wei.
Therefore, Jiang Wei had to meet the suspected soldiers in the south earlier than Guo Huai expected, and Jiang Wei's subsequent response was extremely quick.
Jiang Wei was full of doubts from the very beginning when he encountered the team of suspected soldiers.
The number of people in this army does not seem small, but it is certainly less than 10,000. There are an unusually large number of flags in the army, especially the flags of Guo Huai himself. They appear so openly in the front army, and it is hard to see them. It is in line with the marching style of a general who leads the army.
But regardless of whether this army is a suspect or not, Guo Huai is really that stupid to walk at the front. He has 20,000 people in his hands. If he doesn't fight, he will really miss such a good opportunity.
Therefore, when the two armies were about to meet, Jiang Wei immediately ordered his front army to launch an attack, aiming directly at the enemy's front army.
If Guo Huai is really in the front army, that is the best chance to capture Guo Huai alive. But if Guo Huai is not in the front army, then Jiang Wei can probably guess what tricks Guo Huai is playing.
After this fight, as expected, Jiang Wei discovered that the Wei army did not dare to join the battle at all, but put up a defensive posture on the spot. Then some of the soldiers broke off and some began to prepare to retreat.
When Jiang Wei saw this posture, he immediately understood.
Directly recall the former troops who were preparing to pursue the enemy, abandon the enemy, and turn the entire army towards the west gate of Puyang City.
There is General Wei Yan at the east gate, and he has just arrived at the south gate. Guo Huai wants to hide the truth, and the only way to go is the west gate of Puyang. It depends on whether he can catch up.
(End of chapter)
