When they reach the level of strategists like Sima Yi, Xu Shu, and Zhuge Liang, they are really like foxes on the mountain, and no one should play nonsense with anyone.
Sima Yi's strategic purpose has actually been analyzed through the guess work of Xu Shu and others.
Yes, Sima Yi's main concern at the beginning was the threat posed by Wei Yan in the rear. But when Sima Yi thought about the feasibility of retreating, he also discovered that this was a clever move to drag Soochow into the water.
And the most important thing is that this move may not be able to hide from wise men like Xu Shu and Lu Xun, but as soon as he retreats, Xu Shu cannot not chase, and Lu Xun cannot let such a good opportunity not take advantage of it. Go and seize the counties in Yanzhou.
This is mutual benefit and demand, and it is not something that can be tolerated by anyone.
This is an almost unsolvable conspiracy.
Now that the Shu thieves are powerful and the rear of the Wei army is unstable, Sima Yi needs to gather his troops, compress the defense line, and deal with the threat from the rear, so he must retreat.
As soon as Sima Yi retreats, Xu Shu cannot let Sima Yi preserve his strength and leave, so he must keep up. At the same time, he can also cooperate with Wei Yan's troops to attack front and back to gain a chance to defeat the enemy in one battle.
As for Soochow, although the Shu thieves are powerful, Soochow has sufficient troops in Huainan and Xuzhou and is not afraid of the Shu thieves. Coupled with Soochow's unique attribute of taking advantage, even if Lu Xun can endure it, Sun Quan may not be able to. The temptation is to live in such a large area.
Therefore, Sima Yi was at least 70% sure about dragging Soochow into trouble.
As for Yanzhou, there was nothing he could do. Of course, Sima Yi had to bear the main responsibility for the war to reach this point.
However, if Yanzhou can be used as a shield to block the Shu thieves from continuing their march north without losing much of their original strength and strength, it is not unacceptable in Sima Yi's opinion.
Of course, the court may not be too accepting of this situation. Therefore, Sima Yi still needs to find a way to destroy Wei Yan's troops and further weaken the strength of the Shu thieves so that he can reluctantly explain the matter.
Therefore, Sima Yi began to gradually withdraw his troops according to his original plan.
Regarding his withdrawal action, Sima Yi also knew that with Xu Shu's resourcefulness, he would probably see the flaw sooner or later. In order to delay as much time as possible, Sima Yi decided to take a risk.
He asked Cao Shuang to lead the first group of soldiers to withdraw to Jiyang and join Gao Tanglong, while he stayed in Yongqiu and the last group to withdraw.
On the one hand, when the Shu thief discovers something fishy, he can use his identity to continue to confuse the Shu thief. On the other hand, no one can be as relieved as cutting off the queen himself.
However, Sima Yi did not expect that just the day after he arranged to withdraw his troops, the Shu thieves discovered the trick, and Chen Tai's camp outside the city suffered a tentative attack.
Fortunately, the withdrawal had just begun at this time. Chen Tai was still in the camp and was not the first batch to evacuate. Under the command of Chen Tai, the Wei army repelled the attack of the Shu thieves without any danger.
Chen Tai also quickly sent someone to report to Sima Yi in the city and ask for instructions on the next step.
Sima Yi knew that things were going to be troublesome when he learned that Chen Tai did not go out of the city to pursue him after repelling the Shu thieves.
On the one hand, Sima Yi asked Chen Tai to speed up the withdrawal of troops and complete the withdrawal outside the city as soon as possible. On the other hand, Sima Yi directly boarded the tower the next day and personally directed the battle.
Well, originally Sima Yi was not in a hurry to do this.
At first, Sima Yi did not plan to show up immediately. He wanted to let the remaining soldiers of Yongqiu City guard for a day. When Xu Shu outside the court became suspicious, he would take the initiative to show up. This would have a greater effect.
After all, strategy is about people's hearts.
At first, Sima Yi chose not to show up, just to lead Xu Shu to guess whether he had withdrawn his troops. But when Xu Shu thought that he had evacuated Yongqiu, he suddenly showed up, which directly overturned all Xu Shu's previous guesses.
At that time, Xu Shu would only think that Sima Yi's failure to show up before was a deliberate attempt to mislead him into withdrawing his troops. The actual purpose was to hold on to Yongqiu City. Xu Shu would deny all his previous speculations and firmly believe that Sima Yi and the army were in Yongqiu. Inside the city.
Even if Sima Yi really evacuated Yongqiu later, Xu Shu would not doubt it for a while.
This was Sima Yi's original plan. But this plan became unavailable because Chen Tai was exposed in advance.
Xu Shu had already begun to suspect that the Wei army was retreating. If Sima Yi did not show up as originally planned, Xu Shu would immediately make up his mind to attack Yongqiu and would not give Sima Yi a chance to show up to act.
By that time, Chen Tai's troops were retreating, and two-thirds of Yongqiu's troops had been taken away by Cao Shuang. Sima Yi did not have enough troops to deal with the full-scale attack by the Shu thieves.
If there was a real fight, Sima Yi might really fall into an accident, and then everything would really be over.
Therefore, Sima Yi could only show up immediately when Zhang Yi made a tentative attack, frighten Xu Shu for a while, and then wait for the Shu thieves' tentative attack to be withdrawn, and immediately arrange for his personal guards to lead the remaining defenders to withdraw from Yongqiu. , headed to Jiyang.
Sima Yi had tried his best, but Xu Shu never overturned his judgment and still doubted the strategic purpose and possibility of the Wei army's retreat. The next day, Zhang Yi once again led more than 10,000 soldiers to conduct a tentative attack.
But this time, Zhang Yi defeated Yongqiu in one battle. Although Yongqiu was actually just an empty city.
In other words, Sima Yi only bought himself one day to evacuate, and gave the former army led by Cao Shuang three days to evacuate.
It was much more urgent than Sima Yi originally expected.
As for Xu Shu, he did not immediately lead his troops to catch up.
As the Northern Expedition continued to deepen, the Northern Expedition was not only a military war, but also a political war.
During the first and second expeditions, the Yongliang and Guanzhong areas were attacked, and Liu Bei personally led the troops, so there were basically only military issues along the way, and there were no political issues.
The Yongliang area has experienced wars for a long time, especially the northern Yongzhou and Liangzhou areas. Although there are some aristocratic families here, it is located in the northwest, and most people still pay attention to "subduing people with force." As long as sufficient force is shown to deter, Regardless of the aristocratic families or the people here, there will not be much resistance to the new "conquerors".
Not to mention Liu Bei. The existence in the game with a charm value of 99 is not a joke.
With Liu Bei's long-standing good reputation and personal charm, there is no need to consider the attitude of a wealthy family.
At that time, the Northern Expeditionary Army only needed to conquer and govern the place. There were not many other aspects that needed to be considered.
But now, the situation is different.
The closer to the hinterland of the Central Plains, the stronger the power of the aristocratic families. And the aristocratic families in the Central Plains and Hebei areas are generally more exclusive and relatively strong, so as a new force to replace the old force, there are more things to pay attention to. This group of Central Plains people The aristocratic families are not easy to serve.
It took Zhuge Liang five years of continuous infiltration to open up a situation in a county in Yingchuan. The progress in Hedong has not been much, which shows how these Central Plains aristocratic families have not seen the rabbits but not the hawks.
And as Sima Yi led his troops to retreat, Xu Shu could naturally occupy the entire Chenliu County, and even Jiyin County and Shanyang County. How to appease the aristocratic families here is also a science.
For this reason, the first thing Xu Shu had to do after occupying Yongqiu was to appease the aristocratic families here, and through the aristocratic families in Yongqiu, release a relatively benevolent message to the aristocratic families in Yanzhou, and give a message to the next To lay the foundation for marching into other counties.
Therefore, it was impossible for Xu Shu to lead his troops to pursue Sima Yi in the first place.
However, it was impossible not to pursue. Sima Yi could not be allowed to retreat so easily and Xu Shu stayed in Yongqiu to appease the local aristocratic families. The responsibility for the pursuit was handed over to Guan Ping, Deng Ai, and Pang De.
Guan Ping was responsible for leading 20,000 troops towards Jiyang. After capturing Jiyang, he led the troops into Jiyin County and joined Hu Zun who was attacking from the north from Liang State. Together they captured Jiyin County.
Deng Ai was responsible for leading 50,000 soldiers north to Fengqiu, to the line from Jujube to Yanjin, and continued to create pressure on Sima Yi's troops. At the same time, he supported Wei Yan's troops, striving to conquer Suanzao and Yanjin, and break Sima Yi's strategy of retreating to Dongjun.
Pound, on the other hand, was responsible for leading the cavalry, using the speed of the cavalry to support the attack back and forth from Fengqiu to Jiyang, preventing the Wei army from killing a returning carbine and sneaking back to counterattack Yongqiu.
Of the 120,000 troops, 90,000 were divided, and Xu Shu left 30,000.
Xu Shu originally wanted to keep these 30,000 men in Yongqiu as a precaution. But after thinking about it carefully, Xu Shu once again divided out 10,000 men and gave them to Guanqiu Jian, asking him to lead troops to Liang.
Hu Zun led his troops to attack Jiyin County, so Liang Guo's defense must be empty. Can Lu Xun really be so honest? !
Sima Yi's strategy, whether active or passive, or whether Lu Xun could see through Sima Yi's sinister intentions. Since Xu Shu had already thought of it, he had to be on guard.
(End of chapter)
