Things are different now.
In the past, Ji Han was limited by his lack of strength, and it was understandable that it would take time to recover the country.
But now, the Han Dynasty has occupied half of the world, and the strength of one family is the only one. If it drags on like this, it will indeed be of no benefit to the great cause of unifying the world.
To dominate the world, sometimes it is just one breath, and once this breath is broken, it is very likely that generations of people will not be able to renew it.
Cao Cao pacified the Central Plains and unified Hebei in just a few years. At that time, most people thought that Cao Cao was the one who would finally pacify the world. However, Cao Cao was interrupted in the Battle of Chibi, which later led to The three generations of Cao and Wei have not been able to regain this tone, and now they are so depressed that they can only retreat to Hebei.
Now, the Han Dynasty has also reached this critical juncture. Therefore, no matter what method Zhuge Liang uses, he must promote this Northern Expedition.
This tone really cannot be broken.
Although it is somewhat risky, Zhuge Liang knows that some things must be done.
This time, the Northern Expedition was reluctantly decided after Zhuge Liang showed off his old face and took advantage of the kindness of the late emperor.
But the issue of how to fight needs to continue to be discussed. But we can't rush it.
The Northern Expedition is no small matter. It involves the life and death of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and the fate of the Han Dynasty, so we must be cautious.
No one, including Zhang Xi, had ever thought about fighting this battle before, so the strategic direction of the Northern Expedition was relatively simple to consider. If we really wanted to fight, we couldn't just rely on temporary feelings to formulate a strategy.
It still needs to be thought about carefully.
For this reason, Zhang Xi and others temporarily stayed in Chang'an, each thinking about the strategy of the Northern Expedition. Ten days later, they gathered again at the Prime Minister's Mansion to discuss the specific strategy of the Northern Expedition.
Actually, if we consider the problem purely from a military perspective, there are only two ready-made routes that the Han Dynasty can take when sending troops to the Northern Expedition.
One is to imitate Cao Cao's strategy of pacifying Hebei, sending troops from Yanzhou and crossing the Yellow River. But on this road, they have to face the 100,000 Wei troops guarding the river led by Guo Huai.
This is a path in reverse of the Battle of Guandu. Massive troops are gathered to attack Hebei, and a decisive battle is fought along the Yellow River. After defeating the main force of the Wei army in one battle, they can take advantage of the situation and sweep across Hebei.
But, this road is not easy to walk, and there are many taboos for military strategists.
The most important one is the issue of food and grass supply.
How did Yuan Shao lose in the Battle of Guandu? !
Because Wuchao was attacked, the army was short of food.
And why did Yuan Shao place his important grain harvesting area in Wuchao on the south bank of the Yellow River? !
Because the supply line from Yecheng, Hebei to the south bank of the Yellow River was too long, it was far less close than Cao Cao's transport from Xuchang to Dongjun, so he had to find a place to store grain.
But now the situation is reversed. If the Han Dynasty wants to attack Hebei, even if it transports grain from Luoyang, it will be inconvenient because of the obstruction of the Yellow River.
Therefore, if we want to attack Hebei, we must first build a bridgehead on the north bank of the Yellow River, then transport grain across the river to hoard it, and lengthen the supply line.
On the contrary, for Cao Wei, the supply line from Yecheng to the front line was much shorter than that of the Han Dynasty.
This is tantamount to a replica of the Battle of Guandu, and Cao Wei has the precedent of his ancestors to rely on, and there is a famous general like Guo Huai in charge. Even if there is no Xu You in the Han army, Guo Huai will look for opportunities to find the Han camp on the north bank of the Yellow River. Grain land, strive to defeat it in one battle. In this case, the Han Dynasty will be unable to continue attacking Hebei and can only retreat to Henan to defend itself.
Crossing the river from Dongjun to go north requires facing this relatively real problem and the risk is high.
The other way is to send troops from the north bank of Mengjindu, first attack Hanoi County, and then go north from Hanoi County to directly attack Yecheng.
But this path also has a flaw, that is, the goal is too obvious.
Although landing the army from Hanoi County can shorten the supply distance from Luoyang to Mengjin Ferry, it also needs to face the pincer attack by the Wei army from Bingzhou and Hedong County at the same time.
Let’s not talk about whether we can defeat Qin Lang and Xiahou Ba in Hanoi. Even if we can, we must always worry about the flanking attacks from the cavalry from Bingzhou and the troops from Hedong County.
Well, even if we can block the Bingzhou cavalry and the Hedong County soldiers at the same time, and then divide our troops to advance eastward and attack Yecheng Guo Huai, we can also return to rescue the army, block Chaoge, and block the Northern Expedition's advance.
In this case, Cao Wei would gather his troops and besiege Hanoi County in three directions, blocking the Northern Expedition from advancing in Hanoi County.
This is also a very difficult route, but there are too few changes, and there are almost only straight-forward tactical options. Even if Cao Wei's three-pronged army encirclement and suppression is defeated, they will definitely not be able to attack Yecheng in the end.
Each of these two routes has its shortcomings, and neither is easy to fight. This is the most practical problem that needs to be faced in this Northern Expedition.
To avoid the shortcomings of these two routes, there is actually a very simple strategy of advancing both routes simultaneously.
In other words, the two groups advanced at the same time to create a partial breakthrough, causing the Wei army's defense to focus on one thing and lose another.
This plan is actually not difficult to think of. Everyone who participated in the military discussion has thought about this idea.
It's just that the focus of the idea is different.
Xu Shu and Zhang Xi advocated concentrating the main force to cross the river in the Dongjun area, colliding head-on with Guo Huai's river guarding troops, attracting the main force of Cao Wei to concentrate on Jizhou for a decisive battle, and then sending a surprise force to raid Yecheng, which would be decided in a battle.
There are several advantages to doing this.
First of all, all the Wei troops in Bingzhou and Youzhou can be concentrated in Jizhou and the north of Qingzhou, reducing the defensive pressure in other places. This way, the main force of the partial division in Hanoi County can break through, and only needs to deal with the threats of Hanoi County and Hedong County soldiers. .
With such a two-line breakthrough, if both lines have a chance to break through, Cao Wei will be destroyed. If only one line has a chance to break through, it can also attract the Wei army to retreat to Yecheng and complete the siege of Yecheng.
In this way, even if Yecheng cannot be captured this time, they can still occupy a foothold on the north bank of the Yellow River and further reduce Cao Wei's territory.
However, Li Yan and Jiang Xu believed that concentrating their forces in Hanoi County would create a sense of urgency for the army to suppress the border in Hanoi County.
Because Hanoi County has a ready-made North Crossing stronghold, and the use of troops is simple, Cao Wei can basically focus on defense when defending, which can underestimate Cao Wei's determination to defend.
Once the Han army lands in large numbers on the north bank of Mengjindu, the only factor limiting the Wei army's defense is probably the lack of troops. The Wei army will definitely dispatch the Guo Huai regiment closest to Hanoi to Hanoi County to assist in the defense.
As a result, Cao Wei's military strength on the Yellow River defense line is bound to be weakened.
At this time, it would be much easier to send partial troops to cross the river in Hedong County and directly break through Cao Wei's already weak Yellow River defense line.
Once the Yellow River defense line is broken through, the partial army can march directly to attack Yecheng. This is much more effective than breaking through the defenses of Xiahou Ba and Qin Lang in Hanoi County to barely threaten Yecheng.
At that time, the battle in Hanoi was not about the Cao Wei army encircling the Han army, but the Han army trying to delay the Wei army from returning to aid Yecheng.
Moreover, there are not many troops in the partial division, and the grain and grass that needs to be transported does not need to be too much. With Luoyang's transportation capacity, even across the Yellow River, this transportation capacity can still be achieved, so there is no need to build an additional military grain storage point. There are no hidden dangers of logistical supply.
Both options have their own merits. For a moment, Zhuge Liang really didn’t know how to decide.
In other words, in fact, both options are a bit too conspicuous, and Zhuge Liang does not want to choose either.
The difference between these two plans is actually the deployment of key forces. The difference is only whether to attack Hanoi by force or sneak across the Yellow River. The strategic vision of Guo Huai, Sima Yi and others will not be able to see this.
In other words, no matter what kind of combat strategy Zhuge Liang adopts in the end, Guo Huai and Sima Yi will be prepared in advance. Once the war officially begins, as long as there are some clues on the battlefield, they will immediately be able to understand the focus of the entire strategy and accordingly make decisions. Make effective adjustments.
Cao Wei is really not at the end of his rope yet. Once the Northern Expedition allows Cao Wei to hold on, then even if Cao Wei can breathe a sigh of relief, what the situation will develop next is really beyond Zhuge Liang's control. .
Therefore, Zhuge Liang instinctively looked for some clever strategies this time, looking for some possibility that could avoid Sima Yi and Guo Huai's expectations and attack Yecheng directly.
But this is a war to destroy the country.
Since ancient times, there have been basically no clever strategies used in wars to destroy a country.
That’s not to say that you can’t use clever strategies in a war to destroy a country, but it’s just that clever strategies are often accompanied by high risks. The focus is on high risks, not on the clever strategies themselves.
The war to annihilate the country cannot be defeated easily. Once it fails and the war to annihilate the country becomes a defeat, the political risk will become very great. In terms of the current situation in the world, Cao Wei can really relax and still be able to Cao Wei, who occupies three and a half states, is really likely to regain power, which is not good for pacifying the world.
The most obvious example is when Li Xin destroyed Chu and the entire 200,000-strong army was destroyed. It was because the First Emperor was a remnant of the sixth generation of Fen. He had a really strong foundation, and he gave Wang Jian six soldiers in a short period of time. An army of 100,000, otherwise, Chu State would really recover.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang was also hesitating in his heart whether to use such an obvious but relatively more stable strategy to fight this war of annihilation.
(End of chapter)
