A reinforcement that was concealed from the outside world turned into an encounter under various variables.
Fortunately, Guo Huai has extremely rich experience in battle and is also very quick to respond.
After seeing a large amount of smoke suddenly appearing to his south, Guo Huai immediately concluded that the Shu thieves had seen through his plan and were rushing towards the west gate.
If I don't give it a try at this time, I'm afraid I will end up outside the west gate of Puyang City.
Therefore, Guo Huai personally led his troops to fight forward to boost morale, and fought head-on regardless of casualties. He defeated the Han army's diversionary forces outside the west gate, joined Xia Houhe, and grabbed the opportunity before Jiang Wei could close up and encircle them. Withdrew into Puyang City.
But the price Guo Huai paid for doing this was still very high.
After a tough battle, there were only more than 3,400 reinforcements who followed Guo Huai to reinforce Puyang City. The rest were surrounded by Jiang Wei's troops outside the city, dying and surrendering.
This small amount of troops really doesn't have much practical significance for sticking to Puyang. It's just a drop in the bucket.
In fact, Guo Huai is now considering whether he should break out directly with the defenders in Puyang City and simply retreat to Suanzao and Yanjin.
However, considering the city defense of Zizao and the special nature of Yanjin Ferry, Guo Huai finally decided to hold on to Puyang City for the time being.
After all, Puyang is a big city with strong defenses and complete defense facilities. It still has more than 10,000 troops. It can still hold on for a while.
If we retreat to Suanzao and Yanjin, we will not only have to divide our troops to defend the two places, the troops will be dispersed, but also in terms of city defense facilities, it may be difficult to defend them.
Well, unless Xia Houhe can be replaced by Liu Yan, Guo Huai really doesn't have the confidence.
As for the five thousand soldiers who had retreated to Lihu, Guo Huai could no longer count on them to continue to come for reinforcements.
The current situation is completely different from what Guo Huai thought.
Wei Yan's 20,000 men besieged the east gate of Puyang, and Jiang Wei's 20,000 men besieged the west gate of Puyang. The south gate was free, but if Guo Huai's remaining 5,000 men dared to move to the south gate of Puyang, then Wei Yan and Jiang Wei would definitely divide their forces. flanked.
In this case, even if Guo Huai personally led his troops out of the city to respond, he would probably be surrounded by enemy troops from two directions, and he would eventually suffer heavy losses.
In addition, Guo Huai really didn't understand how Xiahouhe defended Puyang. With such a good city defense, how did he achieve higher battle losses than the Shu thieves outside the city? !
Originally Guo Huai thought that even if Puyang City was attacked by Shu thieves, Xiahouhe had 12,000 men and was besieged for more than ten days. Even if 2,000 people were lost in the battle, there should be about 10,000 people. But now Guo Huai discovered , plus the more than 3,400 soldiers who entered the city, the Puyang garrison totaled only 11,000 people in more than ten days, and nearly 5,000 people were lost in the battle. How did this happen? !
Who is the one defending the city? !
There are only so many troops left on hand. If Guo Huai divides his troops out of the city to welcome his suspected soldiers into the city, and if something goes wrong, not only will the reinforcements not be able to come in, but Puyang City will also be unable to be defended.
Therefore, Guo Huai could only take advantage of the lack of defense forces of the Shu thieves outside the south gate and let his personal guards carry his letters out of the city again to inform Lihu's five thousand suspected soldiers and retreat to Dingtao County on his own, obeying Jia Kui. command.
At the same time, Guo Huai sent another letter to Sima Yi, asking him to send additional people to reinforce Suizao and Yanjin. What he can do now is to try his best to delay Wei Yan in Puyang.
When Sima Yi received this secret letter from Guo Huai, he frowned again.
To be honest, Guo Huai arrived in Puyang and blocked Wei Yan. To a certain extent, he had ensured the safety of Suanzao and Yanjin. From this perspective, Sima Yi's purpose of adjusting the deployment of troops and stabilizing the defense line had been achieved.
However, Guo Huai currently only has more than 11,000 men guarding Puyang, but he has to face nearly 40,000 elite Shu bandit siege troops. The ratio is close to one to four, which is really uneasy.
At this time, Sima Yi actually has two choices.
One is to make a more cautious choice and continue to send reinforcements to Suanzao and Yanjin to establish a second line of defense.
In this way, even if Guo Huai is defeated in the front, he can continue to resist the Shu thieves by retreating to Suanzao and Yanjin and preserve the Wei army's retreat in Yanzhou.
But if he chooses this plan, not only will Sima Yi's troops be further reduced, but he will also have to send out Chen Tai, the last general he has available. Good guy, he really has no one left at hand.
You can't use Cao Shuang to go into battle to kill the enemy, right? !
To be honest, it's not as reliable as Sima Yi going into battle himself to fight.
Another option is to be more adventurous. Sima Yi chose to believe that Guo Huai could stop Wei Yan, and no longer sent people to reinforce Suanzao and Yanjin. Instead, he concentrated his forces and defeated the main force of Xu Shu's Northern Expeditionary Army of Shu thieves in front of Yongqiu.
But Xu Shu didn’t get it for free.
Maybe Xu Shu lacks some experience in leading troops and his ability to control large army operations is insufficient, but his strategy is still very good.
In addition, the Shu thieves' Northern Expedition had more than 100,000 troops. Even though some of the troops were now divided to go to Liang and Chen, the total strength of the Shu thieves in the southern part of Chen Dynasty was still around 120,000. The strength advantage was so obvious that Sima Yi really couldn't Dare to easily engage in a duel with Xu Shu about commanding a large army regiment.
Xu Shu just lacks experience in commanding large corps, which does not mean that he is an idiot in commanding troops.
Moreover, even if Xu Shu cannot command 120,000 people smoothly, he still has the ability to command 50,000 to 60,000 people.
They used 50,000 to 60,000 men to hold back the main force of their own army, and the remaining soldiers, under the leadership of their respective generals, were free to unleash their power, just like Sima Yi could not stop him.
After all, Sima Yi's current total force in Yongqiu is only 70,000.
Therefore, if Sima Yi wants to defeat the main army of Shu thieves head-on, he still needs to wait for the fighter planes to appear. At least in a short period of time, this is impossible.
If he really chose to believe Guo Huai's words, Sima Yi himself didn't know the idea.
As for believing that Sima Division can provide timely support, it is better to believe that Guo Huai can hold on in Puyang.
After all, Master Sima's opponent was Zhang Yuanchang. Sima Yi knew very well what level his son was. Even if he said it from his father's perspective, it could only be "a promising future."
At least at this time, Sima Yi did not believe that Sima Division could deceive Zhang Xi and easily lead troops back to Yanzhou for reinforcements.
It’s not that we can’t return support, but it also takes time.
For this reason, Sima Yi thought about it and felt that Guo Huai could not be completely expected to hold on to the direction of Suanzao and Yanjin, but he could not send not a single soldier. Sima Yi could only ask Wang Ling, who was stationed at Hulao Pass, to divide five thousand troops and go Increase Yanjin's defensive strength.
Although doing this is just demolishing the east wall to make up for the west wall, there is no way. This is the best decision that Sima Yi can make now.
Wang Ling's place at Hulao Pass was originally garrisoned by 10,000 people. At that time, Sima Yi was afraid that Zhuge Liang would lead his troops to pursue Hulao Pass, so he made this arrangement.
But now it seems that the side of Hulao Pass is the easiest.
The main force of Shu thieves has broken through Yingchuan County and entered Yanzhou, while a partial division is also attacking Puyang City in Dongjun in the north of Yanzhou. Zhuge Liang in Luoyang should not have more than 20,000 troops in total.
More than enough defense, not enough offense.
Therefore, it is of little significance to have another 10,000 people guarding Hulao Pass. It would be better to divide 5,000 troops to defend Yanjin, just in case.
As for the guard general Sima Yi, there is really no one available.
Chen Tai was the last general capable of commanding troops. Sima Yi could not let him go. Otherwise, he, as the commander-in-chief, would have to be on the front line in the battle to defend Chen Liu.
Not to mention the danger, there is also a lack of changes to meet the enemy, so it really becomes impossible to defend the city.
Just when Sima Yi was worried about this, Chen Tai recommended someone.
Jiang Ji was in Jiyang coordinating grain and grass logistics.
Jiang Ji also had experience in leading an army in his early years, and was not a simple strategist who could only show off his words when sending envoys to Jiangdong.
During the first battle of Hefei, Jiang Ji was the defender of Hefei, and he scared off Sun Quan with just one letter. This shows that this man not only has strategy, but also considerable courage.
But Sima Yi still had his own doubts.
First of all, during the Battle of Hefei, Sun Quan went to attack Hefei, but he was just pretending, and anyone with knowledge could understand it. The focus of Soochow's attack at that time was Jiangling.
Therefore, it is still unclear whether Sun Quan was intimidated by Jiang Ji to retreat, or whether he took advantage of the situation and took advantage of the situation.
But now he is stationed in Yanjin and needs to protect the army's retreat at a critical moment. Does Jiang Ji have the ability to do it?
Secondly, if Jiang Ji went to Yanjin to garrison, who would go to Jiyang to coordinate the logistics and food supplies for the nearly 100,000-strong army in Yanzhou? !
Regarding the first question, Chen Tai had nothing to say. He could only tell Sima Yi that there were only so many people on hand now. If Jiang Ji didn't go, he couldn't let Cao Shuang go, right? !
As for the second question, Chen Tai once again recommended a talent-Gao Tanglong.
Gao Tanglong's military skills are scum, even Cao Shuang is better than him. But when it comes to handling government affairs and overall planning of grain and grass supplies, this is Gao Tanglong's strength.
In fact, if the person who came to Yanling to support was not Gao Tanglong but Jiang Ji, I am afraid that Chen Tai would not have suffered such huge losses when he retreated to Yanling.
But it's hard to say too much about this. After all, it was Sima Yi who chose to leave Jiang Ji in Jiyang to coordinate food and grass, and let Gao Tanglong lead the troops to aid Yanling.
And Sima Yi, Sima Yi is such a smart person. After listening to Chen Tai's recommendation, he knew that he had hired the wrong person.
But forget it, there is no point in pursuing this matter now, not to mention that the fault is indeed his own.
In this case, it is not too late to make amends.
Sima Yi ordered Gao Tanglong to rush back to Jiyang as soon as possible to take over Jiang Ji's position, and then let Jiang Ji rush to Yanjin as soon as possible to establish a second line of defense.
(End of chapter)
