Jiang Wei gave Wei Yan a reminder - instead of worrying about guessing Wei Jun's strategic intentions, it is better to think about our current practical problems.
Time is not very friendly to Wei Yan and the other three.
Wei Yan reacted immediately after being reminded by Jiang Wei.
The information at hand is insufficient, and it is meaningless to speculate on the success or failure of Xu Shu's war. Based on reality, what Wei Yan should do now is the most important thing.
Obviously, the Wei army has now occupied Puyang. If Jiang Ji from Yanjin takes the initiative to send troops to Suanzao, it is basically certain that the Wei army will definitely come from Fengqiu.
This is a siege network targeting the Han imperial army led by Wei Yan.
Now Wei Yan needs to consider how to withdraw his troops.
Of course, Wei Yan could also choose to attack the wild jujube before Jiang Ji in Yanjin led his troops to support the wild jujube, and then defended it after capturing the wild jujube. But the risk of doing so was too high.
First, Yanjin is too close to Jujube, and it is only two or three days' journey to bring reinforcements. Even if the Han Forbidden Army has strong combat effectiveness, it is impossible to attack the city while completely blocking the reinforcements brought by Jiang Ji.
As long as Jiang Ji finds a way to send 5,000 people into Suanzao City, with Guo Huai's ability, it won't be a problem for him to hold on for another ten days and a half.
And if Sima Yi really led his troops to Fengqiu and came from Fengqiu to surround and surround them, it would not take ten days.
In other words, as long as Wei Yan can't break through Suanzao within three days, what awaits him is the end of being surrounded by the Wei army.
Second, the actual situation does not allow Wei Yan to gamble on this kind of strategy.
If the war on Xu Shu's side went smoothly and forced Sima Yi to retreat to Dongjun, then Wei Yan's strategy of storming the jujube defenders could be said to be a centrally-flowering tactic, cooperating with Xu Shu's pursuing army to encircle and annihilate Sima Yi.
But if Xu Shu's side was repelled by Sima Yi because the war was not going well, then Wei Yan would attack Suanzao by force or be trapped on the spot, which would be nothing more than a turtle in a urn with no place to escape.
It was impossible for Wei Yan to bet on this 50-50 possibility, but the price was that he and his 30,000 soldiers were wiped out.
Therefore, Wei Yan had no choice but to give up his plan of holding on or storming the jujube, and instead had to choose a breakout plan.
After all, relatively speaking, although a breakout may lead to the failure of this lone in-depth battle, at least it can preserve its own strength and the risk of the entire army being annihilated is lower.
But, which direction is more appropriate to break through? !
The simplest and most direct way is to retreat back to where you came from and towards the White Horse Ferry.
But the problem is that Baima Ferry is just northwest of Puyang. After the Wei army succeeds in counterattacking Puyang, they may not march to Baima Ferry and occupy it.
At the White Horse Ferry, Huang Quan's navy only had more than 3,000 soldiers and only forty warships. Not to mention whether Huang Quan could hold the White Horse Ferry, even if he could, with the current capacity of Huang Quan's navy, he would have to transport 30,000 people. It will take at least ten days to return to Mengjin Ferry.
When he arrived, the main force of Sima Yi was in the southwest of Yanzhou. Wei Yan had enough time to wait for Huang Quan to slowly transport his troops to assemble, but now that he was retreating, he would die within ten days.
With Sima Yi and Jia Kui's military capabilities, they would not give Wei Yan so much time.
Therefore, unless there was really no other way, Wei Yan would not choose to retreat to Baima Ferry.
The retreat route that Wei Yan favored was to go east from Suanzao to Changyuan County in Chenliu County, then go south from Changyuan County into Jiyin County, and then detour from Jiyin County to retreat to Yingchuan.
No matter who wins the Battle of Chenliu, Wei Yan's retreat route can perfectly avoid most of Chenliu County's control. Although the detour is a bit far, it is at least safe.
In terms of grain and grass supplies, it is hard to say whether Changyuan County can get enough grain and grass supplies, but as long as you enter Jiyin County, especially the important town of Dingtao in Jiyin County, there will definitely be a large amount of grain and grass supplies.
Dingtao was the place where Jia Kui's troops were stationed before, and it was also an important node to prevent Hu Zun and others from invading Jiyin County. In this place, it was impossible for Jia Kui not to hoard a large amount of food and grass in case of emergency.
Now that Jia Kui is going north to attack Puyang, it is impossible to evacuate all the grain and grass at once. Moreover, as Jia Kui leads his troops north, Dingtao's defense force will inevitably be empty. This place can be captured by surprise.
As long as he occupied Dingtao, obtained enough supplies, and then reached Liang State, Wei Yan estimated that he would be able to get specific battle reports and know the specific location of the Han army.
In this way, it would be considered as a complete escape from the Wei army's encirclement.
This was the withdrawal plan Wei Yan thought of. But Wenqin put forward an objection tactfully.
Retreating to Jiyin County is indeed a good move, but Wen Qin feels that Changyuan may not be a good direction for retreat.
It is true that judging from the available intelligence, there are indeed not many Wei troops in Changyuan County. However, Wen Qin believes that because of this, this road is the most dangerous.
Sima Yi was a seasoned soldier and very good at thinking from others' perspective. If he thought about it from the perspective of the Han army's commander, his first reaction would definitely be to withdraw troops from Changyuan County.
Therefore, Sima Yi will inevitably lead an army to intercept Changyuan County. Therefore, Wen Qin's suggestion is to immediately go south to Fengqiu, seize it before the Wei army divides its forces, and then continue southward, whether it is going south along Chenliu County, It is actually okay to take a detour from Jiyang County into Jiyin County and take the old road of Weiyan.
In Wen Qin's opinion, such a withdrawal is safer.
Wei Yan was a little unsure about Wen Qin's suggestion.
To be honest, Wen Qin's statement makes sense, but only to the extent that it makes sense.
Because Wen Qin's suggestion was based on Sima Yi's prediction that Wei Yan would march to Changyuan County. If Sima Yi did not predict this, but marched regularly and appeared directly in Fengqiu with the main force of the Wei army, then according to Wen Qin's The Han Imperial Guards who suggested marching were probably just throwing themselves into a trap.
The only difference is whether they are surrounded by Suanzao City or Fengqiu City.
But Wei Yan also had to admit that Sima Yi was really not easy to mess with. If he withdrew his troops according to his plan, the possibility of being blocked by Sima Yi at Changyuan was very high.
Even Sima Yi didn't need to defeat the enemy head-on. He only needed to delay the confrontation to create time for Jiang Ji, Guo Huai and others to encircle him, or simply delay it until the Han Dynasty's forbidden army ran out of food, and he could easily win.
Therefore, both withdrawal routes are risky, and Wei Yan must choose one of the two withdrawal routes.
Wei Yan didn't want to make this choice, so he looked at Jiang Wei.
After this light attack, Wei Yan had to admit that although this boy was young, he did have a lot of ideas and was very resourceful. Maybe he could find a way to break the situation.
As for Jiang Wei, Jiang Wei really has a withdrawal plan that is different from the first two, but this plan is a bit dangerous.
Originally, Jiang Wei didn't want to say it. After all, if his withdrawal method is done well, not only can the troops withdraw safely, but it may even open up an attack on Cao Wei again. But if it doesn't work well, the whole army may be annihilated. the result of.
The risk is so high that it is higher than the main force of the Wei army led by Sima Yi.
Jiang Wei really didn't want to say it, but Wei Yan couldn't help but couldn't make a decision, so he asked himself. Jiang Wei thought about it and said it best.
This is like mixing a bad idea into two good ideas. Instead, it will make Wei Yan choose one of the two good ideas to implement and will not hesitate any longer.
Therefore, Jiang Wei said.
His method of withdrawing troops was to directly abandon the jujube and march westward into the eastern part of Henan County. The ultimate goal was to attack Hulao Pass.
Once we can break through Hulao Pass and connect Henan County into one, we will be able to gain direct access to Yanzhou. Even if this Northern Expedition is unfavorable and we have to return to Yingchuan, in the next Northern Expedition, we can send troops directly from Hulao Pass. .
However, there are only 5,000 people guarding Hulao Pass now, and Wei Yan's troops still have 30,000 people attacking Hulao Pass. It is not without a chance of victory.
Another one, Cao Wei's encirclement network includes cutting off the retreat from the east, and attacking from the north and south. However, Henan County in the west currently does not have many troops to defend, and only Guo Huai, a jujube man, blocks it. in front of myself.
Now if Wei Yan leads his troops north, do you think Guo Huai will lead his troops to attack on his own initiative to intercept Wei Yan's retreat? !
Unless he doesn't want to live anymore! ! !
This is Jiang Wei's idea. To be honest, when they first heard about this plan, both Wei Yan and Wen Qin's eyes lit up.
But you really can’t think about this plan in detail. The more you think about it, you will find that this plan is not very reliable.
First of all, there are basically few county towns along the way from Suanzao to Hulao Pass, and Wei Yan did not dare to gamble on whether there were enough 30,000 soldiers in these few counties to support the temporary supply of food and grass.
If there is not enough food and grass to support them, even if they advance westward to Hulao Pass, they will not be able to last a few days.
Secondly, Hulao Pass is a powerful pass. Even if the military strength is reduced now, relying on the high city wall and defensive facilities to guard the pass, it can still be delayed for a while.
Although Wei Yan had enough troops, the dilemma caused by unstable logistics was that he could not fight for a long time, and he did not have siege equipment that could be carried with the army to attack Hulao Pass. Without enough food, grass, ordnance support, and not enough siege equipment, how could he still fight? !
You can't climb the seven or eight-foot-high wall even if you take a lot of lives! ! !
Therefore, Wei Yan looked at Jiang Wei with doubts in his eyes.
No matter how you think about it, it's a recipe for suicide. With Jiang Wei's resourcefulness, it's impossible for him to come up with such a bad idea, right? !
Jiang Wei quickly explained that this plan was just a little riskier, and it was not simply about letting people die. There was still a possibility of success.
The key to the success of this plan is to conquer Hulao Pass. The Han imperial army led by Wei Yan did not have the conditions to conquer Hulao Pass in a short period of time, but it attracted the attention of the Hulao Pass defenders and distracted the Hulao Pass. Defensive pressure can still be achieved.
The real trump card for conquering Hulao Pass was the 10,000 county soldiers led by Zhuge Liang himself in front of Hulao Pass.
Yes, the Han army led by Wei Yan did not have enough food and siege equipment. But Zhuge Liang did! ! !
For Jiang Wei, the only shortcoming of this combat plan, and also the biggest risk, was how to communicate with Zhuge Liang in time and coordinate the attack on Hulao Pass.
After all, time is very unfavorable to Wei Yan and others.
(End of chapter)
