As the saying goes, if you are going to be outside, you will not accept your orders.
Sima Yi finally decided to adopt his own back-up strategy without consulting the court.
On the one hand, with the current situation, Sima Yi really couldn't afford to wait for the court's back-and-forth wrangling and the emperor's edict.
On the other hand, as the supreme commander of the Battle of Yanzhou, Sima Yi believed that he had this responsibility and the responsibility to make strategic changes that best suited the frontline battle conditions.
Sima Yi is an old fox and has ambitions, but to be honest, he is also a responsible person. At least at this stage, Sima Yi's ambitions have no room to ferment, and he is still a loyal minister of Wei.
Therefore, although Sima Yi knew that even if he finally defended the Yanzhou area on the south bank of the Yellow River, he would be held accountable after returning to the court, and the responsibility was not small, he still made such a decision.
Because this is the strategy that Sima Yi can think of, to ensure that the main army is not lost to the greatest extent, and at the same time to be able to defend part of Yanzhou with the greatest certainty.
After making a decision, Sima Yi would not think about other things, but would only make commands and arrangements around this strategy.
For example, Cao Shuang came to press him again, but was directly pushed back by Sima Yi.
Of course, Cao Shuang would not agree with Sima Yi's unauthorized change of strategy, and this time, Cao Shuang really did not do it out of selfish motives. He really felt that Sima Yi's choice to abandon Chenliu and retreat to Dongjun was too conservative.
Yes, the battle at Yongqiu is a bit tense, but it is not that it cannot be defended. It would be too hasty to abandon the defense of Chenliu under such circumstances.
If they continue to retreat like this, the Wei Dynasty may lose the entire Yanzhou.
Furthermore, Cao Shuang also knew very well that the court did not know what Sima Yi did, and even if he knew, he would not easily agree.
Therefore, at this time, Cao Shuang, the guard, had to stand up and oppose. Not only was he opposed to this strategy, it was also his duty.
But Sima Yi told Cao Shuang that this was a decision he made as the frontline coach.
Either Cao Shuang reported to the court and asked for an edict to deprive him of his military power and command power, or he just obeyed orders.
After all, this is wartime, and there can only be one voice in the military.
In the end, Cao Shuang did not have the confidence and courage to deprive Sima Yi of his military power on the spot. He could only choose to shut up temporarily, but returned to his room to write a memorial, report the matter to the emperor, and ask the emperor for a decision.
Sima Yi had no time to argue with Cao Shuang now. He began to make tactical adjustments around his new strategy.
First, Sima Yi sent someone to deliver a message to Jia Kui of Dingtao, asking him to abandon Dingtao and lead his army northward to attack Puyang, the governor of Dongjun.
According to the description in the military report sent by Guo Huai, the Shu thieves gathered more than 30,000 troops from Yanjin to Suanzao. Comparing the early Dongjun battle reports, Sima Yi keenly discovered that the Shu thieves basically did not attack Puyang. And how many troops are left in Dong'a to defend.
The combined total strength of these two places should not exceed 5,000.
Therefore, Sima Yi needed Jia Kui to lead 15,000 men north to attack Puyang after abandoning Dingtao, regain this important town in Dongjun, and connect Dong'a and Taishan counties to establish a defense line on the spot.
Secondly, on the side of Yanjin and Suanzao, Sima Yi ordered people to send an order to Jiang Ji in Yanjin, ordering him to send troops to support Suanzao at all costs, firstly to prevent the real loss of Suanzao, and secondly, to keep the Shu thieves at bay in Suanzao. Go to Yanjin line.
Of course Sima Yi could see that what the Shu thieves were doing on the front line of Suanzao and Yanjin was to encircle and provide reinforcements, and Sima Yi also needed to let the Shu thieves stay on the front line of Suanzao and Yanjin, so let Jiang Ji cooperate with the Shu thieves and let them surround them. Click to call for help.
After the two military orders from the field were issued, Sima Yi sent people out of the city to contact Chen Tai and asked Chen Tai to cooperate with him to launch a counterattack against the Shu bandits' camp five days later.
This counterattack not only requires Chen Tai to take the initiative to send troops to counterattack, but Sima Yi himself will also come out from Yongqiu City to effectively kill the Shu thieves.
Only in this way can the Shu thieves not dare to besiege Yongqiu City too harshly, and Sima Yi can have the opportunity to deceive Xu Shu and withdraw his troops to besiege Wei Yan of Suzhou.
Sima Yi made all tactical adjustments and preparations. Five days later, the Wei army inside and outside Yongqiu City suddenly launched a full-scale counterattack against the Shu thieves.
This counterattack indeed caught Xu Shu off guard.
There is no way, Sima Yi, an old turtle, has been unable to retreat in nearly three months of offensive and defensive battles since he retreated to Chenliu. Who would have thought that this guy who has always been a turtle would suddenly be able to rely on the city defense to hold on. launched a counterattack.
Therefore, this counterattack caused considerable losses to the Han army.
Guan Ping and Guan Xing in front of Yongqiu City were caught off guard and were directly attacked by Sima Yi. They had to lead the defeated troops back. Together with Zhang Yi behind them, the three of them managed to hold off Sima Yi's attack. .
Sima Yi was also very cunning. After breaking through the two camps, he did not attack Zhang Yi's camp. After finding that the attack was blocked, he hurried back to Yongqiu City before Xu Shu led the main force of the Chinese army to come for reinforcements.
But this raid also caused about 4,000 casualties to the Han army.
On Chen Tai's side, although his raid was effective, the results were not as great as Sima Yi's.
After all, the opponents are different.
It is not difficult for Sima Yi to bully Guan Ping and Guan Xing, but if Chen Tai wants to crush Deng Ai, he is simply overthinking.
Of course, Chen Tai's surprise attack did catch Deng Ai off guard, but Deng Ai responded very quickly. After he discovered that Chen Tai had taken the initiative, he immediately contacted Kou Feng and Guan Qiu Jian, and the three of them cooperated with each other. , quickly formed a joint force. Although they suffered more than 2,000 casualties, the camp was not breached by Chen Tai. Chen Tai also suffered more than 1,000 casualties.
But overall, this wave of raids by the Wei army was still very effective, which directly led Xu Shu to order all battalions to suspend the attack and strengthen their alert to deal with Cao Wei's possible raids again.
After all, if Sima Yi wanted to counterattack to replace defense with offense and disrupt the Han army's offensive rhythm, he would not attack just once.
In the next two or three days, Sima Yi will definitely attack again.
As for Sima Yi, what he wanted was Xu Shu's reaction. Although there was not much time, the time difference of two to three days was enough for Sima Yi to take advantage of.
The next day, Sima Yi started to repeat his old tricks, setting up more flags and ordering his soldiers to increase the frequency of patrols on the city wall. At the same time, there was a lot of commotion in the city, making Xu Shu outside the city think that Sima Yi was preparing for the next attack. However, In fact, Sima Yi had already begun to order his troops to retreat.
It can be said that although Sima Yi's approach may not be new, it does work. At least Xu Shu was indeed fooled.
In the Han army camp, the only person who saw the flaw was Deng Ai.
It's not that Deng Ai is smarter than Xu Shu, it's just that Deng Ai's opponent Chen Tai is not as good at acting as Sima Yi.
Sima Yi's withdrawal from Yongqiu City, even if it was placed in front of Deng Ai, Deng Ai would still be fooled. However, Chen Tai's withdrawal from the camp outside the city seemed a bit not rigorous enough.
Chen Tai also followed the routine taught by Sima Yi and sent out military envoys to pretend to strengthen the connection between the camps. Then he concentrated his troops and pretended to prepare for a second attack. But in fact, he was gathering soldiers and packing things. Prepare to run away.
Originally, Deng Ai didn't see any flaws and was discussing with Kou Feng and others how to defend next time, but Chen Tai forgot one important thing - the smoke.
Sima Yi arranged to withdraw his troops inside the city. Blocked by the city wall, the Han army could not see what was inside the city. They could only judge the number of enemy troops by the changes in the military flags on the city head and the number of patrols on the city wall.
It's hard to judge accurately.
But Chen Tai was camping in the wild, and there were too many ways to judge the number of troops in these camps.
Cooking smoke is a good way to do this.
Soldiers camping in the wild can only obtain cooked food through picnics, and the amount of smoke often determines the number of troops in the camp to a certain extent.
Deng Ai soon discovered that as Chen Tai gathered troops, the amount of cooking smoke in several camps near Chen Tai's main camp not only did not increase, but actually decreased. The Wei army couldn't just eat, right? !
During the march and fighting, the soldiers can still have the understanding that the counterattack is about to start a decisive battle when they eat cold food. If you don't give the soldiers some hot food and meat, you, Chen Tai, are really not afraid that when you fight in a few days, the soldiers will not work hard for you. , or simply mutiny? !
Anyway, Deng Ai felt that Chen Tai would not be so stupid as to be so virtuous. Therefore, I am afraid that there are not as many soldiers in the camp as they appear on the surface.
In other words, the Wei army is likely to withdraw! !
After realizing this possibility, Deng Ai sent someone to contact Xu Shu in the main camp, and at the same time called Kou Feng and Guan Qiujian to discuss whether to launch a tentative attack on the Wei army's camp? !
And this point obviously appealed to Kou Feng and Guan Qiujian, both of whom were fearless masters.
And this fight immediately made Chen Tai further slip into the trap.
It's not that Chen Tai's main camp was easy to attack. On the contrary, the raiding force led by Kou Feng encountered a fierce counterattack from the Wei army, which made Kou Feng afraid to attack by force. After a test, he led his troops to retreat.
However, the Wei army did not leave the camp to pursue them.
As an army that plans to launch a counterattack within a day or two, it suddenly encounters a tentative attack by the enemy. If it refuses to pursue it, isn't it afraid of damaging the morale of the army? !
There must be something fishy here.
(End of chapter)
