Qin Lang was still looking for a breakthrough in Hedong, but at this time, Sima Yi was already starting to feel a little anxious.
Although the situation in Yongqiu was still within Sima Yi's control, the situation was slowly becoming unfavorable to Wei.
In the final analysis, Sima Yi is now at a disadvantage in terms of the size of his troops and the strategic situation. To be able to maintain his current status under the attack of an enemy twice his size, Sima Yi has done his best.
The biggest headache for Sima Yi was that he had too few reliable generals under his command.
What kind of general is opposite the Shu thief? !
Xu Shu sits in the middle army and controls the overall situation. In the direction of Yongqiu City, Guan Ping, Guan Xing, Guan Suo, Zhang Yi and others are the generals. Outside the city, Kou Feng, Deng Ai, Guanqiu Jian and Wang Ping are the generals in the camp. , even a no-good guy like Cao Shuang had to be sent out as a support envoy.
How can this compare?
In these days, the emphasis is on "courage in general". A good general has a great influence on the battle situation.
But the current situation is that there are many famous generals on the opposite side. On Wei's side, plus Cao Shuang's guy who makes up the numbers, there are only three generals who can be named.
In the direction of Yongqiu City, because he was defending the city and Sima Yi was personally in charge, facing several junior members of the Guan family and Xu Shu, Sima Yi could still guard the city and not be at a disadvantage. But Chen Tai, who was camping outside the city, But that's bad luck.
Chen Tai is really working hard now.
This kind of hard work is not physical hard work, but psychological torture.
Chen Tai's opponents are Kou Feng, Deng Ai, Guanqiu Jian, Wang Ping and others. Which of these people is not a famous general? !
Especially Deng Ai. After several battles, Chen Tai discovered that Deng Ai was really capable of commanding an army. He could coordinate other generals in the Shu bandit army very well and make good attack arrangements. This is the commander-in-chief. capital.
If Kou Feng and others were just fighting on their own, without reporting under each other or cooperating with each other, then Chen Tai would be a little more relaxed in defending. But now, Chen Tai finally understood why Sima Yi had always admired Deng Ai.
Deng Ai is probably another great commander-in-chief among the Shu thieves after Zhang Xi, Wei Yan and others.
On the other hand, on our own side. Can any of Hu Tai, Zhang Ge, Wang Yi, and Xu Gai be considered a famous general? !
Oh, there is a son of a famous general.
Xu Gai is the son of Xu Huang, a famous general in the Wei Dynasty.
But Xu Gai's ability is considered to be relatively poor among the second generation of famous generals. Zhang Hu and Le Wei who stayed in Yecheng are both much better than him.
Now Chen Tai wants to lead such a bunch of guys to fight against a random lineup of famous generals from the Shu thieves.
Chen Tai really doesn't want to use it, but he still can't use it.
Sima Yi gave Chen Tai 30,000 troops and horses, and asked him to go out of the city to set up a defensive line of defense and divide his troops to occupy the enemy.
Thirty thousand people. If Chen Tai had the ability to build a large camp outside the city and then trap 30,000 people inside for defense, Chen Tai might as well just build a new city.
For the defense of 30,000 people, it is necessary to establish at least four or five large camps and a dozen small camps. By connecting these large and small camps in series, a camp defense line is established.
The large camp can accommodate thousands of people, and the small camp can accommodate hundreds of people. The small camp can be commanded by a general or a lieutenant, but in the large camp, Chen Tai must arrange a chief general to be responsible for commanding several nearby small camps.
Therefore, no matter how useless these four gadgets are, Chen Tai has to use them. He must maintain the operation of the entire camp's defense line by commanding them.
It is necessary to use it, but the effect of using it is the reason why Chen Tai feels tired now.
This method of defense is supposed to involve me among you, and you among me. When one party is attacked, the other three parties can support each other in time, so as to protect each other and maintain the defense line.
But the abilities of the four unknown generals on our side are really not good, especially compared with the four Shu generals on the opposite side, they are simply miserable.
If one side is attacked, it may not be possible to successfully repel the enemy with the support of three parties. If two sides are attacked at the same time, Chen Tai will have to personally lead the troops to rescue them.
This battle has been going on for almost a month, and Chen Tai can't figure out when exactly it became normal to lead his own troops to put out fires everywhere.
In this case, it's strange that Chen Tai's pressure can be light.
Just five days ago, the large camp located in the northwest corner, stationed by Hu Tai, and the three surrounding small camps were unable to defend it because Chen Tai was unable to rescue them in time.
A gap appeared in the entire defense line, which forced Chen Tai to readjust his strategic deployment and retreat to establish a new line of defense. During this period, Chen Tai was under greater pressure.
For this reason, Chen Tai had to ask for help from Sima Yi in Yongqiu County and inform him of the current defense situation outside the city. On the other hand, he asked Cao Shuang for help at the rear, hoping that reinforcements could be in place at the critical moment to help him defend.
Sima Yi's side was fine. After receiving Chen Tai's military report, Sima Yi was indeed thinking of ways to adjust his strategic deployment.
But Cao Shuang, on his side, saw Chen Tai's request for help and pretended not to have seen it.
You, Chen Tai, have 30,000 soldiers and horses in your hands. You are fighting like this and struggling in such a mess. In less than a month, you have to ask for help from the rear. I have 10,000 soldiers in my hands. If I go there, won't I be sending myself to death? !
Besides, Cao Shuang also had valid reasons for not sending troops.
Although he was clearly behind Yongqiu, he could often find Shu thieves' cavalry scouts near his camp. If he rashly sent out troops to respond to Chen Tai, he might be targeted by Shu thieves' cavalry at any time.
Even Cao Shuang knew clearly what would happen to infantry when they encountered cavalry in the wild plains.
Therefore, in this case, Cao Shuang had a legitimate reason not to attack.
If you want to hold people accountable afterwards, then let's hold Cao Zhao accountable. If he hadn't wasted the cavalry, why would we be in this situation now? !
Anyway, Cao Shuang pretended that he didn't see Chen Tai's request for reinforcements and continued to huddle in the camp at the rear and stand still.
In terms of official position, Cao Shuang is higher than Chen Tai. In terms of military status, Cao Shuang is Sima Yi's guard. His military status is second only to Sima Yi and Chen Tai is not qualified to command Cao Shuang.
Therefore, Cao Shuang ignored Chen Tai's military report, and Chen Tai could not say anything afterwards.
But when Sima Yi's military order was passed to Cao Shuang's army, asking Cao Shuang to do his best to advance forward and coordinate Chen Tai's defense, Cao Shuang really could no longer pretend not to see it.
Yes, Cao Shuang is Sima Yi's guard and can replace Sima Yi when necessary. But this necessary moment is definitely not the current situation.
It was wartime, and the military orders given by Sima Yi were, at least on the surface, without any problems. Chen Tai had also requested reinforcements in advance.
If Cao Shuang did not send troops, it would be disobedience on the battlefield. In this case, Sima Yi killed Cao Shuang on the spot, and Cao Rui would not have any objections.
Therefore, Cao Shuang had no choice but to bite the bullet and personally lead the army to march towards Chen Tai's camp in the south.
Actually, Cao Shuang is not really that incompetent, and his judgment is also correct. There are indeed Liangzhou cavalry led by Pang De coveting him around him.
If Cao Shuang really has enough ability, the distance from Fang Yingzhai to Chentai Yingzhai will not be impossible if Cao Shuang really wants to use some tricks, such as attacking from the east and attacking from the west, to deceive Pound's cavalry and get reinforcements in time.
However, our General Cao, on the one hand, does not have this ability, and on the other hand, he is actually afraid of death.
Cao Shuang's biggest shortcoming has always been his strategic vision.
Cao Shuang could see that once Chen Tai's camp outside the city was lost, Yongqiu City would inevitably be besieged by Shu thieves. Sooner or later, Yongqiu City would not be able to defend itself.
But in Cao Shuang's eyes, it doesn't matter if Yongqiu City cannot be defended. There are Jiyang, Fengqiu, Pingqiu and other places behind him, which can be defended one by one. If the Shu thieves gnaw their way through like this, sooner or later they will run out of food and retreat.
He had never considered what the consequences would be if Yongqiu could no longer hold and retreated to Jiyang, and the entire Wei army's defense line would be severely compressed in a small area from Jiyang to Suanzao.
I am afraid that even if Cao Shuang wants to defend by then, his soldiers will not be willing to defend anymore.
Not to mention a crushing defeat, at least it was an ending in which morale collapsed and they were unable to fight anymore.
Unfortunately, with Cao Shuang's strategic vision, he could not see these consequences.
This is a shortcoming in Cao Shuang's ability, and on the other hand, Cao Shuang is indeed afraid of death.
If the Shu thieves were also restrained by infantry, then Cao Shuang would not be so procrastinating in not sending troops. But this time the opponent is cavalry.
The odds of victory between infantry and cavalry are not high, and once defeated, the results of the infantry pursuit and the cavalry pursuit are different.
The infantry pursued, and Cao Shuang himself had horses, so the survival rate was still very high, but the cavalry was different.
The combination of these two factors led to Cao Shuang's position as a support envoy, but he always remained stationary in his own camp.
But now, Cao Shuang had to lead his troops to go on an expedition. Military orders cannot be violated.
However, Cao Shuang was still limited by his own abilities. He did not play any tricks of attacking in the east and attacking in the west. Instead, he led his troops straight away from the camp and headed south.
However, it also benefited from Cao Shuang's fear of death. Cao Shuang's journey was called slow and cautious.
This led to the fact that although Pang De discovered the traces of Cao Shuang leaving the camp, when Pang De led the cavalry troops to prepare to launch a surprise attack on Cao Shuang, he was surprised to find that Cao Shuang had just discovered the enemy situation in front of the cavalry. Without any tentative moves, he decisively ordered the withdrawal of troops.
He was such a fast runner that Pang De led his cavalry to catch up, but failed to catch up, allowing Cao Shuang to escape all the way back to his original camp.
Cao Shuang, who withdrew to the camp, immediately wrote to Sima Yi to inform him of the situation.
It's not that I don't follow orders, it's that I can't do anything! ! !
(End of chapter)
