When Cao Shuang thought about it, he immediately thought of the first year of Zhengshi.
This is the first official year after Cao Fang ascended the throne.
After thinking about it for nearly half a year, Cao Shuang did only one thing besides sending a man Chong to the Hedong area to act as a central guard to coordinate Qin Lang and Xiahou Ba to fight together - to send another 30,000 commanders to Hedong. soldiers.
They are all temporary recruits.
Although this approach brought more than 100,000 troops to the Hedong area, Cao Shuang still couldn't come up with an accurate idea as to what strategic method should be used to defend the Hedong area.
At the same time, the Han Dynasty has completed the preparation of food, grass and weapons through nearly half a year of accumulation. Now it only needs to wait for the soldiers from various states to be in place before launching the Northern Expedition immediately.
In Yanzhou, Jiang Wei and Wen Qin have led 50,000 Han forbidden troops to Puyang, and Wei Yan has also led 50,000 Yanzhou county troops to Suanzao, ready to carry out cross-river operations at any time.
In the southern region, Guanqiu Jian stationed 20,000 troops in Chenliu, Hu Zun stationed 20,000 troops in Jiyin County, and cooperated with Chen Tai's 20,000 troops in Yingchuan County to jointly defend Dongwu Lu Xun.
In Jingzhou, Zhang Xi has led the first batch of 50,000 county soldiers to Luoyang, and the second batch of 30,000 soldiers will arrive one after another under the leadership of Kou Feng.
As for Qinzhou, 40,000 Qinzhou County soldiers led by Jiang Xu have also entered Guanzhong and will arrive in Chang'an soon.
As for Yongzhou, 30,000 county soldiers from Yongzhou have arrived in Luoyang under the leadership of Pang Tong, and the remaining 20,000 county soldiers, plus 20,000 Liangzhou cavalry, and 10,000 Wudang flying troops have also arrived in Zuo Fengyi The area is assembled and ready to go to war at any time.
The time of the Northern Expedition is basically determined to be after the end of the spring plowing in the ninth year of Yanxi of the Han Dynasty.
Before the Northern Expedition, Zhang Xi, Pang Tong, Deng Ai, Wei Yan, Zhuge Liang, and Xu Shu once again held a pre-war military meeting in Luoyang to determine each other's combat deployments.
The grand strategy has been laid out, but the specific march route and timing still need to be determined by meeting with each other to avoid inconvenient back-and-forth communications and the loss of fighter planes.
Especially the Third Route Army needs to land in Hedong from Pubanjin. It is separated from the Hanoi battlefield by Wangwu Mountain, so communication is inconvenient, so coordination must be done in advance.
This is also the reason why both Deng Ai and Pang Tong will appear at the Luoyang military meeting. Jiang Xu is still on the way with his troops, so only deputy commander Deng Ai and strategist Pang Tong can come to attend the meeting.
"In this Northern Expedition, I will lead 180,000 troops to cross the river at the end of March and station on the north bank of Mengjin Crossing. Then the troops will be divided into two groups, one to attack Wen County and the other to attack Heyang."
"In the fifth month, Yuan Chang and Wen Chang each led 50,000 troops. They left Yanjin and Baima. They arrived in Hebei and jointly attacked Liyang to contain Guo Huai."
"In June, Shi Zai must, together with Jiang Boyi, lead 80,000 troops to cross the river from Pubanjin and attack Hedong. These three routes advance together, which is the general strategy of the Northern Expedition. You must keep it in mind."
"If something unexpected happens, as long as it does not violate the general rule, the generals and soldiers can act expeditiously. If it does not violate the general rule, they must be careful and order people to deliver the message to Hanoi without making any mistakes."
After the meeting began, Zhuge Liang first emphasized the overall strategy of the Northern Expedition, and at the same time agreed with various armies on their respective dispatch times.
The remaining thing is to see if there are any problems between the military commanders of various departments.
Zhuge Liang naturally had nothing to say. Zhuge Liang would personally take command and take Xu Shu and more than 30 generals from the Luoyang area to the expedition.
Therefore, according to usual practice, it is time for Zhang Xi and Wei Yan to express their respective opinions.
However, the person who stood up to report the situation this time was not Zhang Xi, but Wei Yan.
After all, Zhang Xi had just arrived in Luoyang from Jingzhou and had not yet arrived in Yanzhou to take up his post. The person who truly understood the combat readiness of the entire Yanzhou County army was actually Wei Yan.
The previous report, in fact, is not a big deal. It is a normal report on the army gathering, military rations, and ordnance reserves.
However, something started to go wrong from the beginning. If nothing happened, it would not be Wei Yan.
After completing the report normally, Wei Yan suddenly walked up to the military map, pointed at Chaoge, and asked, "The general has one more question. Prime Minister, why did our Yanzhou County soldiers not go north to attack Chaoge after crossing the river at Yanjin?" Song, instead of leaving the near for the far, go to jointly attack Liyang?!"
This was a bit of a question. Zhuge Liang even frowned.
Actually, Zhuge Liang really didn't like Wei Yan's practice of suddenly presenting his strategy before the war started. This would add unnecessary risks to the already formulated offensive strategy.
But, Zhuge Liang has to explain this issue.
After all, Wei Yan is now considered the second person in the military, and after decades of getting along with him, everyone knows that this guy has a stubborn character. As long as what you say makes sense, he will listen.
"If the purpose of sending troops in this Northern Expedition is just to capture Hanoi or Jizhou, Wen Chang's strategy may not be impossible!" Zhuge Liang frowned and said to Wei Yan, "It's just that this battle is a battle to destroy the country if Ruo Yanjin." The troops crossed north and immediately went north to attack Chaoge, fearing that they might scare off the enemy and cause Cao Wei to shrink across the board. In this case, all the efforts would be in vain."
This explanation has actually been made very clear.
However, Wei Yan is also a veteran in the army, and he is not the kind of reckless man who lacks strategic vision. Of course, he knows that this time he is fighting a war to destroy the country, and he needs to be careful and timing.
Therefore, Wei Yan's real problem is not why he sacrificed the near and sought the far away to attack Liyang, but
"Yan also knows this, but if we cross the river from Yanjin and attack Liyang instead of attacking Chaoge, we will sacrifice the near for the far, and with Guo Huai's ability, we will inevitably raise suspicions, wouldn't it be just to scare the grass and scare the snake?!"
If all the troops are heading north from Baima Ferry, then there is no problem in attacking Liyang. After all, it is the first important town after crossing the Yellow River from Baima Ferry. It is also the center of gravity of the Yellow River defense line established by Guo Huai. One hundred thousand soldiers and horses took the initiative to attack Liyang. ,not a problem.
But since they all divided their forces to attack, Zhang Xi took the Baima Ferry and Wei Yan took the Yanjin Ferry. After crossing the river at Yanjin Ferry, Wei Yan did not go to fight the closer Chaoge, but went east to attack Liyang. This is unreasonable no matter how you look at it, right? !
Zhuge Liang didn't know how to explain this.
As for Wei Yan, he has been guarding the outside all year round. When the Northern Expedition was decided several times, Wei Yan was basically not involved, so he actually didn't know about some things.
For example, the Han Dynasty had a high-level internal response within Cao Wei.
Therefore, Wei Yan actually did not know that Zhuge Liang had a complete distribution map of Cao Wei's defense forces on the Yellow River defense line in Jizhou.
The total number of troops attacking Hebei from Dongjun was only 100,000. Zhuge Liang also instructed Zhang Xi's troops to divide into two groups and cross the river at the same time from Yanjin and Baima ferries. This was actually a tactical choice after turning on the "map hanging".
According to this military distribution map of Cao Wei's Yellow River defense line, Guo Huai had about 20,000 troops stationed in each of the four counties including Liyang on a line from Yanjin Ferry to Baima Ferry.
Obviously, with this way of deploying defensive forces, the troops are too scattered and there is no defense focus. It gives people the feeling that defenses are everywhere but cannot be defended everywhere.
With Guo Huai's ability, he would definitely not make such a rigid strategic plan. What he did must have deep meaning.
According to Zhuge Liang's prediction, Guo Huai's purpose in doing this was probably to divide his troops to lure the enemy deeper, disrupt the Han army's ability to attack fortresses, and defeat them one by one.
The supporting evidence is that Guo Huai arranged for Xia Houxuan to lead 10,000 troops to garrison here in Chaoge.
Ten thousand soldiers and horses is not too much, but it is still too little. If we cooperate with the 20,000 Wei troops on the north bank of Yanjin who actively retreated. Wei Yan only brought 50,000 soldiers and horses, and it would be difficult for him to go north to capture Chaoge. Instead, they might be trapped under Chaoge City, unable to advance or retreat, and be outflanked by other garrison troops led by Guo Huai.
And this is probably Guo Huai's real defensive strategy.
As for Zhuge Liang, he deliberately asked Zhang Xi and Wei Yan to take the initiative to divide their troops, cross the river from Yanjin and Baima, and make a posture of attacking the two places. This was actually deliberately misleading Guo Huai, making him think that his strategic plan had succeeded. Choose to take the initiative to retreat, vacate the frontline battlefield along the Yellow River, and then let Wei Yan suddenly advance eastward. Along the battlefield channel vacated by Guo Huai, join forces with Zhang Xi as soon as possible to attack Liyang. Only in this way can the effect of surprise be achieved.
As for Chaoge, it also occupies a very important position in Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition plan, and it certainly cannot be captured in advance. So the only option is to jointly attack Liyang.
This is a strategic arrangement made by Zhuge Liang based on detailed intelligence. However, these detailed intelligence and ordinary detailed operations cannot obtain such detailed information.
At least the defense situation from Yanjin to Chaoge cannot be inquired into in detail.
To explain to Wei Yan, he must first explain Liu Fang's matter, and Zhuge Liang really didn't dare to talk to Wei Yan about Liu Fang.
Wei Yan is a martial artist after all, and he is also quite straightforward. If this secret is told to him, it is really hard to say whether he can keep it.
But, it wouldn't be a problem if he kept silent. After all, Wei Yan was also the second person in Han's military and held a high position. He was actually qualified to know about this matter.
Of course, the most important thing is Wei Yan's temper. He is a donkey. If you don't explain it clearly to him now, he may really act without authorization and go north to attack Chaoge.
In that case, you would really fall into Guo Huai's trap.
I came back late today, typing for too long.
(End of chapter)
