Guo Huai is almost sixty years old. It can be said that he has experienced people for a long time, but his heart is actually the same as Ming Jing.
As the commander of the first army, Sima Yi took the initiative to propose two plans to seek Guo Huai's opinion. However, he insisted on using his dignity as a commander and threatened to open the way for the army. Instead, he let Guo Huai lead the relatively safe Chinese army. The meaning of this still needs to be known. Any more speculation? !
Sima Yi is the commander-in-chief of the first army, and now the military heart of the Wei army in Yanzhou lies.
In the current Yanzhou war situation, no one can let Sima Yi take risks. Once Sima Yi makes a mistake, the army may collapse at any time due to the loss of its commander in the current severe situation.
Therefore, Guo Huai saw very clearly the letter Sima Yi sent to Guo Huai. It actually asked Guo Huai to take the responsibility of clearing the way for the army and blocking the Shu thieves' cavalry attack.
However, this task was extremely risky, and Sima Yi was only willing to gather 5,000 pikemen to clear the way. If 5,000 pikemen went against nearly 20,000 Liangzhou cavalry, it would end in a narrow escape no matter how you thought about it.
But Guo Huai had to agree.
On the one hand, it is his own life and death, and on the other hand, it is the life and death of the main force of the 100,000 Wei army.
Guo Huai is a veteran of the three dynasties of the Wei Dynasty. He is deeply favored by the Wei Dynasty. At this critical moment, Guo Huai knows what to choose.
However, Sima Yi's behavior still made Guo Huai feel very unhappy.
Yes, you, Sima Yi, are important. As the commander of an army, you cannot make mistakes or take risks easily. Guo Huai understands this.
If you, Sima Yi, honestly say that you hope that Guo Huai will take the responsibility of clearing the way, Guo Huai will not disagree with Guo Huai's character and temperament, as well as his loyalty to the Wei Dynasty. But it is really chilling for you, Sima Yi, to play this trick. .
But no matter how disappointed he was, Guo Huai would still not evade what he had to do. It was not for Sima Yi, but just to be worthy of Wei.
Therefore, he wrote back to Sima Yi and took the initiative to assume this responsibility.
In the next three days, Guo Huai still held the camp on the western front of Suanzao. This was also Sima Yi's plan.
According to Sima Yi's plan, the three defense lines will still hold for three days, and on the fourth day, Sima Yi's eastern defense line will assume a posture of being unable to withstand the offensive and having to withdraw to defend the city of Jujube.
This is actually not surprising. Sima Yi has always maintained the eastern defense with the minimum number of troops, always facing an enemy force twice his own. If there is a three-day defense line that is easier to break through, it must be the eastern defense line that Sima Yi is responsible for.
It is normal for Sima Yi to retreat into the city, and as Sima Yi retreats into the city, Deng Ai will inevitably choose to join forces with Guan Ping and Kou Feng in front of Suanzao City to attack Suanzao, and Zhuge Liang will not He would only stare at the Wei military camp in front of him in the west, and he would also focus on Suizao City.
After all, if Suanzao City is captured, the defenders of the western camp will have no way of retreat and will quickly collapse.
At this time, Guo Huai would hand over military affairs to Xia Houhe and return to Suanzao City in advance to prepare for the retreat of the army.
After making these preparations, Sima Yi will order Xiahou He to withdraw his troops into the city. In this case, Zhuge Liang, the Shu thief, will definitely be on guard because he doubts Xiahou He's withdrawal. Taking advantage of Zhuge Liang's hesitation, Sima Yi can immediately launch an attack. Operation withdrawal.
This is the first step for the success of this withdrawal. If this step fails, then the subsequent withdrawal cannot be carried out effectively.
The key to this step is, on the one hand, to arouse alertness and hesitation among the Shu thieves, and on the other hand, for Sima Yi to act quickly enough.
There won't be much time and opportunity left for Sima Yi, after all, his opponent is Zhuge Liang.
As for the Han army, when Sima Yi suddenly led his troops to retreat to Suanzao City, not only Zhuge Liang, but also Deng Ai felt that this was a bit strange.
After all, it is indeed strange for Sima Yi to retreat before he was at the end of his rope.
Of course, thinking at the best, it may be that Sima Yi did not want to make unnecessary sacrifices, and the pressure on the jujube defenders was too great, so Sima Yi retreated early to help the jujube defense.
Thinking about the worst, this old thief Sima Yi might be harboring some bad ideas.
Actually, Deng Ai and Zhuge Liang both thought about whether Sima Yi had other plans. However, considering that Sima Yi did have a reason to withdraw his troops, and his "ulterior motives", neither of them thought of it for a while, so they were just suspicious. , instead of seeing through Sima Yi's tricks.
But when Xiahou and his troops retreated to Suanzao, both Deng Ai and Zhuge Liang realized something was wrong.
When Sima Yi retreated, it could be said that the defenders on the eastern front were insufficient and there was little point in continuing to consume them. However, there were nearly 30,000 people defending on the western front. Even if they were somewhat damaged, they were not beyond consumption.
Thinking about the current three-line recovery of the Wei army, it is obvious that Sima Yi cannot resist the Han army's attack with only one jujube city. Therefore, both Zhuge Liang and Deng Ai came to the conclusion that the old thief Sima was going to run away.
The conclusions were all correct. Zhuge Liang and Deng Ai also began to make preparations in advance and mobilized their available reserves to form a pursuit force to prepare for Sima Yi's possible withdrawal.
However, Sima Yi didn't give it in vain. His reaction speed and withdrawal speed also exceeded Zhuge Liang and Deng Ai's expectations.
Xiahou Hecai had just led his troops back to Suanzao City. Sima Yi didn't even give him a chance to rest. He directly asked him to enter through the west gate and exit through the north gate, and immediately withdrew his troops.
Guo Huai had already set off with five thousand spearmen.
As Xiahou and his soldiers left the north gate, Sima Yi also led the remaining 20,000 soldiers, along with Cao Yu, Du Shu and others, to evacuate Suanzao.
Only Chen Tai was left, leading 5,000 soldiers to guard the jujubes.
Before and after the withdrawal of 50,000 troops, Sima Yi had to do it in just half a day. When Zhuge Liang and Deng Ai reacted, they had just organized the pursuit troops, and Sima Yi had already led the main force and left Suanzao City.
Zhuge Liang's side was better off. He had the cavalry led by Pang De. Zhuge Liang immediately ordered Pang De to lead the Liangzhou cavalry to bypass Suanzao City and go north to pursue Sima Yi.
The Han imperial army led by Wei Yan took a short rest, replenished their weapons, and then immediately followed.
Deng Ai's reaction speed was actually about the same as Zhuge Liang's, but unfortunately, Deng Ai didn't have cavalry, so he could only gather 20,000 infantry as quickly as possible, also bypassing Jujube City and go north to pursue.
As for the task of conquering Jujube City, it still has to be left to Guan Ping and Kou Feng.
On the one hand, it was a planned withdrawal operation, and on the other hand, it was an improvised pursuit of Sima Yi. In the end, he still managed to save about half a day.
What's more important is that the normal march from Jujube to Yanjin only takes three days. If the troops are withdrawn urgently, it may take two days to reach Yanjin Ferry. As long as they reach Yanjin Ferry, the withdrawal will be more than half successful. .
This is why Sima Yi is not worried about the pursuit of the Shu bandit infantry, but only the Shu bandit cavalry.
Two days of marching and half a day's reaction time difference. In such a short distance, the Shu thieves' infantry could not catch up. Only the cavalry could pose a threat.
The threat from the cavalry was left to the pikemen led by Guo Huai to deal with it.
As long as Guo Huai can withstand the temporary cavalry attack and buy the main force of the army led by Sima Yi another half day, then Sima Yi can retreat to Yanjin and rely on the defense facilities at Yanjin Ferry to defend while cooperating with Hebei's ferry to withdraw troops.
It can be said that Sima Yi's withdrawal strategy went very smoothly in all aspects.
Chen Tai, who stayed behind in Suanzao, not only still defended the walled city and delayed part of the Han army's siege troops, he even took the initiative to divide his troops and attack, harassing the Han army's pursuing infantry and trying to slow down the Han army's pursuit.
Guo Huai also set up an ambush sixty miles away from the official road outside Yanjin City, blocking Pound's cavalry pursuit regiment and buying enough time for Sima Yi to lead the main force of the army to quickly complete the last forty or fifty miles.
Chen Tai and Guo Huai both accomplished their strategic goals outstandingly, but their endings were not very good.
Chen Tai held on to Suanzao City, but due to the huge disparity in strength, Chen Tai was unable to hold on until the night of the third day. On the early morning of the third day, due to Kou Feng's hard fight, the Han army captured the city wall. The city gates were opened. Suizao fell and Chen Tai himself was captured.
As for Guo Huai, his whereabouts are unknown.
Guo Huai led five thousand pikemen to ambush Pound's cavalry regiment, which caught Pound off guard at first. Pound was eager to pursue, but he did not expect that a general of Guo Huai's level would personally lead the pikemen to break off the rear and direct the response. Somewhat underestimated the enemy.
Therefore, the Liangzhou cavalry did not only delay Guo Huai's pursuit at the beginning, but also suffered considerable damage from the spear formation led by Guo Huai.
However, when Pound realized that he might not be able to pursue Guo Huai's troops with peace of mind if he didn't deal with it, the rest became much simpler.
If the pikemen want to stop the cavalry regiment, they must form their formation in advance, seize favorable terrain, and base themselves on defense, so as to pose a certain threat to the cavalry.
If in an open area, pikemen do not occupy the terrain advantage and face cavalry, they are actually not much different from ordinary infantry.
After all, the cavalry of the Han Dynasty has never been a cavalry that mainly charges and kills in groups. Even if it is a heavy cavalry, the cavalry of the Han Dynasty will be equipped with certain bows and crossbows.
When the battle field is wide open and the cavalry has room to maneuver, the cavalry of the Han Dynasty will not stupidly hit the muzzle of the spear by themselves, but will inevitably choose to mount and shoot at the enemy.
As long as you pay attention to maintaining a good distance from the spearmen phalanx and prevent the spearmen from changing formations to approach the cavalry, then the spearmen phalanx will be a living target.
Therefore, when Pound adjusted his tactics and used cavalry shooting to consume the phalanx of spearmen led by Guo Huai, Guo Huai no longer posed any threat to Pound's cavalry.
However, Guo Huai's goal was achieved. He contained Pound's main cavalry force.
The price was. When the spearmen's phalanx collapsed due to excessive casualties, Guo Huai was unable to restrain the troops and could only break out of the encirclement under the escort of his personal guards.
In the end, his whereabouts remain unknown.
When the infantry regiment was defeated, it was pursued by the cavalry regiment. This missing person basically meant a narrow escape.
(End of chapter)
