After Zhuge Liang received Hu Fen's urgent report, he thought about it carefully and immediately realized something was wrong. He hurried to the front line of Hulao Pass.
There is a saying that Zhuge Liang is not omnipotent after all. He could not have predicted in advance that Wei Yan would lead troops to attack Hulao Pass. There was no plan to attack Hulao Pass in the pre-war strategic deployment. At this time, Zhuge Liang was indeed beaten. I was surprised by this sudden turn of events.
But Zhuge Liang is Zhuge Liang after all. Through his own thinking, he can easily predict that the only person who will attack Hulao Pass at this stage is probably Wei Yan.
The Yanzhou War was a war between the north and the south. Xu Shu attacked from south to north, and Wei Yan penetrated into the hinterland of Yanzhou to cut off the Wei army's retreat. Obviously, the military report transmission and communication between Zhuge Liang and Xu Shu had always been smooth. Zhuge Liang was fully aware that Xu Shu was now The advance position did not reach Hulao Pass at all.
Then, only Wei Yan, who was active in Dongjun, could move west along Dongjun to Henan County and attack Hulao Pass.
Now that the war on the southern front is going smoothly, Xu Shu is advancing north, but Wei Yan is doing the opposite at this time, suddenly attacking Hulao Pass from the west. This can only show that Wei Yan's army suffered a very big change, which forced Wei Yan to seek help. Breakthrough from Hulao Pass.
And this change is probably due to the fact that no matter how much Wei Yan likes to use surprise troops, he still has the basic concept of using troops, and he will not take risks easily unless it is absolutely necessary.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang predicted that Wei Yan's situation might be very critical now.
Therefore, after receiving Hu Fen's urgent report, Zhuge Liang reacted quickly, dropped all official duties at hand, and immediately rushed to Hulao Pass with his personal guards to fight in person.
Zhuge Liang didn't know how many men Wei Yan still had, how much food and grass was left in Wei Yan's army, let alone whether Wei Yan had enough ordnance and siege equipment. When everything was unclear, Zhuge Liang was most unsure. of.
The only thing Zhuge Liang can do is to launch a frontal offensive at Hulao Pass as soon as possible, cooperate with Wei Yan to attack from the front and back, and break through Hulao, so that Wei Yan and others can have a chance of survival. Otherwise, I am afraid that the elite Han Forbidden Army will be lost in Yanzhou.
What's even more troublesome is that Zhuge Liang actually has no military preparations to attack Hulao Pass.
Strategically, there was no need for Zhuge Liang to attack Hulao Pass. Therefore, the 10,000 soldiers left behind by Zhuge Liang in Gongxian were more prepared for a defensive battle than an siege. The Gongxian defenders not only did not take the initiative to attack. The war mobilization also did not have enough siege equipment.
If Zhuge Liang waited until Zhuge Liang arrived in Gong County and started preparing these things one by one, Zhuge Liang would be really worried that Wei Yan, who was fighting behind Hulao Pass, would not be able to last that long.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang is really unsure.
Zhuge Liang once again set off on horseback. He hurriedly traveled all the way. It only took him three days to finally reach Hulao Pass.
Then Zhuge Liang could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
When Zhuge Liang rushed to Hulao Pass, he not only saw that Hu Fen had personally led the troops to attack Hulao Pass, but also saw dozens of various siege equipment that Hu Fen had prepared in advance.
If you can think in front of others and think that others are not as good as you, you will have great talent.
Zhuge Liang really never thought that one day he would need to attack Hulao Pass. According to the entire strategic plan, the soldiers of Gong County were to contain Wang Ling and did not need to take the initiative to attack, so Zhuge Liang did not prepare in advance.
But Hu Fen actually thought of this, which immediately raised Zhuge Liang's expectations for Hu Fen to a higher level.
But next, Zhuge Liang was somewhat disappointed again.
Zhuge Liang originally thought that Hu Fen's advance preparations were due to the possibility that Wei Yan would retreat to Hulao Pass. But in fact, after Zhuge Liang asked Hu Fen personally, he found out that this kid just thought that he might have a chance to make contributions. , these preparations were made.
Well, even so, Zhuge Liang still feels that Hu Fen's approach of thinking ahead when encountering difficulties is a good thing and is also the quality that a famous general should have. However, Hu Fen's tactical command ability still forced Zhuge Liang to lower his attitude towards Hu Fen again. Fen's evaluation.
It's not that Hu Fen's tactical command level is poor, it's just that he still lacks some experience.
Since they are cooperating with Wei Yan's troops to attack Gong County from both front and rear, they must master the rhythm of the attack and observe the movements of the defenders on the wall to determine the timing of attack and retreat. However, Hu Fen seems a bit immature when it comes to grasping this timing.
With good luck, we can form a joint force with Wei Yan's troops behind Hulao Pass. The fight made Wang Ling, who was guarding the pass, exhausted and unable to cope. But with bad luck, the two sides did not cooperate. It was just you who beat you, and I Hit me.
Zhuge Liang had no intention of personally commanding the battle. After all, in Zhuge Liang's view, since Hu Fen had prepared in advance, he would naturally have his own battle plan. If he took over the command rashly, he might interrupt Hu Fen's plan and cause Offensive sluggishness.
But now it seems that Hu Fen actually has no plan.
He just thought about the opportunity to make achievements, and never thought about how to cooperate with Wei Yan behind the pass to attack Hulao Pass. In this case, Zhuge Liang would have to take over the command.
After all, no one knows how long Wei Yan can sustain it.
In fact, Wei Yan, who was behind Hulao Pass, was anxious even if he said he was in a hurry. He said he was not in a hurry, but in fact he was not very anxious.
The factors here are actually very complicated.
The first factor is that Wei Yan's approach of leading his troops to the west to break out of the encirclement was indeed beyond everyone's expectations.
Not only did Sima Yi not think of it, but Guo Huai, who was so close, didn't think of it either.
After all, to the west of Suanzao is Henan County, which is blocking Hulao Pass. At that time, the eighteen princes joined forces and fought against Hulao Pass for a year without breaking through.
Who would think that place could be used for the withdrawal route? !
According to Sima Yi's prediction, if Shu general Wei Yan chooses to withdraw his troops, he should choose to break out from the direction of Changyuan County and withdraw into Jiyin County to join the main force of Shu thieves.
Therefore, after Sima Yi left Jiyang, he assigned 10,000 troops to Chen Tai and asked him to go to Fengqiu to deploy defenses as soon as possible. He personally led an army of 40,000 to Changyuan to set up an ambush, preparing to block Wei Yan.
But who knew that Wei Yan would actually go west and hit Sima Yi directly.
Changyuan is to the east of Suanzao, and Hulao Pass is to the west of Suanzao. After Sima Yi got the accurate information, he really couldn't pursue Wei Yan's troops for a while.
At this time, even Sima Yi couldn't help it and complained privately that Guo Huai was heading west right under your nose. How come you, Guo Huai, as a famous general in the world, didn't give any warning or reminder at all? !
As for Guo Huai, in fact, Guo Huai was also wronged.
Guo Huai thought about the problem from Wei Yan's point of view. Why would he not choose to break out to the west? What's the merit there? !
Guo Huai did see Wei Yan going west, but based on Guo Huai's judgment, he believed that Wei Yan was pretending to go west, but in the end he would definitely turn around and go south to attack Fengqiu. Therefore, the military envoys sent by Guo Huai , to tell Sima Yi that Fengqiu must be captured first, as Wei Yan's main force may have gone there.
After receiving Guo Huai's warning, Chen Tai hurried all the way, and finally entered Fengqiu before the Shu thieves. However, he waited and waited, but did not see the Shu thieves arriving.
It was not until this time that all the Wei generals, including Sima Yi, realized that Wei Yan might have really gone to Hulao Pass in the west.
The second factor is that Wei Jun's current situation is not particularly good.
Sima Yi used some bluffing tactics to gain two to three days of withdrawal time, but this time was not enough time for a large army with a total strength of more than 50,000 people.
Behind the Wei army, the main force of the Shu thieves was always hanging at a position not far or near. As long as the Wei army stayed for a moment, the Shu thieves might catch up and bite their tail.
Therefore, Sima Yi not only had to consider how to divide his troops to encircle and suppress Wei Yan, but also needed to consider the pursuing troops led by Deng Ai and Pang De in the rear.
Deng Ai's main force was infantry, and Sima Yi could barely cope with it. After all, the two sides were marching at about the same speed.
But the cavalry led by Pound was not only faster than the infantry, but also defeated the infantry on plain terrain.
Therefore, even if Sima Yi learned that Wei Yan's true destination was Henan County in the west, he did not dare to act rashly.
For one thing, Sima Yi has now arrived in Changyuan County. It is too far away from Henan County in the west and will not be able to cross for a while.
Secondly, the army led by Deng Ai behind him had already occupied Jiyang and was about to catch up. Sima Yi did not dare to leave Changyuan County easily, otherwise Jujube's flanks would be exposed and he might be surrounded again.
The same trouble also appeared on Chen Tai. He did not dare to act rashly in Fengqiu. He could only stick to Fengqiu and did not dare to leave the pursuit without permission.
Therefore, the only person who could go west to pursue Wei Yan's troops was Guo Huai.
As Jiang Ji brought 30,000 soldiers to support Suanzao, Guo Huai had no shortage of soldiers. But the problem was that if he was asked to lead troops to pursue Wei Yan, this small number of troops was still a bit insufficient.
Sima Yi had never seen the combat power of the Han Forbidden Army, but Guo Huai and Jiang Ji had seen it.
Apart from anything else, under normal conditions, if Guo Huai and his army were to lead a one-on-one duel with Wei Yan, the army of Wei's army would not be able to defeat the Shu thieves' forbidden army.
As for the strength of Wei Yan's retreat to the west, Guo Huai estimated that he would be at least about 30,000 men. Now the total strength of Jujube is only 37,000 men. They are just chasing them. They are just going to die! ! !
Therefore, Guo Huai and Jiang Ji discussed it and decided that it would be better to stay put for the time being.
If we catch up now, although the Shu thieves are retreating, their military morale has not been greatly affected, and their combat power is inferior to others. If they catch up, they will be beaten.
It would be better to wait a few days until the Shu thieves' food and grass consumption reaches a certain level, there will be a food shortage, and the morale of the army will be turbulent. At that time, pursuing them will have the effect of getting twice the result with half the effort.
Anyway, in the counties in the eastern part of Henan County, due to the adjustment of war zones, the food and grass in the city have been evacuated, and it is impossible for the Shu thieves to obtain supplies.
As for Hulao Pass, Hulao Pass is not so easy to break.
(End of chapter)
