In July of the ninth year of Yanxi.
Two armies and horses of the Han Dynasty fought fiercely all the way in Mengjin, and all the way in Ji County. The last army and horses finally completed the final assembly. Under the leadership of Jiang Xu and Deng Ai, the art of war was at Pubanjin.
The battle process of the other two armies was almost the same. The Wei army in the east of the river did not choose to defend the ferry. Without the help of the Yellow River navy, the Wei army could not defend the ferry at all.
Therefore, Sima Division also adopted the combat idea of avoiding the enemy's sharp edge and luring the enemy deep, retreating to Yishi and setting up defenses in the Jie County area.
By the way, this Jie County is the hometown of the old Han Dynasty general, Han Shoutinghou, and Guan Yu Guan Yunchang.
Although there is such a connection, the second master's family was not really a well-known family in Jie County in his early years, otherwise he would not have fled for more than ten years after killing people and dared not go home. So, the big man In this attack on Jiexian County in Hedong, the second master's reputation will not play a big role.
What's more, now that Master Sima personally leads 10,000 soldiers to garrison Xie County, it is not that easy to persuade the wealthy families in Xie County to open the city gate.
If you can't outwit them, then you can only attack them head-on.
After crossing Pubanjin, Jiang Xu and Deng Ai led the troops straight to Jie County.
At this time, Master Sima was actually under great pressure.
During the Northern Expedition of the Shu bandits, nearly 200,000 troops were gathered in Hanoi County, and another 100,000 troops were invested in the southern Hebei battlefield at one time. This was basically the highest number of troops invested by the Shu bandits in the previous Northern Expedition.
Therefore, neither the imperial court nor the Sima division guarding Hedong thought that the Shu thieves would still have the strength to gather a large army and send troops from Chang'an across Pubanjin to attack Hedong County.
Moreover, the number of Shu thieves attacking Hedong County was completely beyond Sima Division's imagination.
According to reports from sentinels, there were at least 70,000 to 80,000 Shu bandits who crossed the river from Pubanjin, and there were only 30,000 county soldiers in the entire Hedong County.
What's even more terrible is that there are currently no reinforcements in Hedong County.
The war in Hanoi was tense. Zhuge Liang personally led an army of 180,000 across the river and besieged Heyang and Wen County. As a result, the Liangzhou Cavalry Corps led by Bi Gui had entered Hanoi County a month ago to assist in defense.
Now that Hedong was attacked by Shu bandits, even if Sima Division called for help in time, Bi Gui would not be able to rush to Hedong County in a short period of time, and Bingzhou would not be able to organize a second cavalry team for the time being.
Therefore, Sima Division could only rely on 30,000 county soldiers to resist for a while and delay.
The current situation is like this. Although it is very difficult for Sima Division, it is not impossible.
To defend Hedong County, Sima Division knew that it would be difficult to do so with only 30,000 soldiers. But fortunately, Hedong County was really large in depth from north to south, with more than 20 counties.
Although the Shu bandits have a large number of troops, every time they capture a county, some soldiers must be left to guard. Some important grain transportation nodes even need to be left with more soldiers to guard. Therefore, Sima Division's decision is to use Hedong County The conditions were relatively deep, so they resisted step by step and retreated while fighting, buying time for Bi Gui or Bingzhou's second batch of cavalry reinforcements.
In short, the tactics adopted by the Sima Division were to exchange space for time. Counties along the direction of Pubanjin resisted layer by layer, but each county would not fight hard and retreat all the way, which could not only stretch Shu The thieves' supply line for soldiers and food can also buy time for their own reinforcements.
This was originally a pretty good method, but the Hedong families didn't want to do it.
If Sima Shi's plan is followed, about a dozen counties along the west side of Hedong County Official Road, such as Pubanjin, Jie County, Yishi County, Anyi County, Wenxi County, etc., will be abandoned one by one, leaving only Hedong County. The counties in the northern part of the county and the official road from Bingzhou into Hedong County.
But if this is done, Hedong Wei and Hedong Pei will be the first to stand up and oppose.
The hometown of the Wei family in Hedong is in Anyi County, and the hometown of the Pei family in Hedong is in Wenxi County.
The Hedong Wei family was a first-class family in the late Han Dynasty. Although the Hedong Wei family members were old and young in recent years, and seemed to have little influence in the court, their disciples and old friends were all over the world.
Not only in Hedong, but also in the entire Central Plains, and even within the Hebei aristocratic families, there are in-laws of the Wei family.
Not to mention the Pei family. He is now the spiritual leader of a large family in Hedong. Not only is he famous in the Hedong area, but their family leader Pei Qian has just entered the court and became the minister. How could he give up Wenxi County so easily? , then the old man is not allowed to cause trouble in the court.
Now Sima Yi's situation is difficult enough. If he wants to come back to power, he must rely on the support of the Hedong families. If Sima Shi offends the Hedong Wei family and the Hedong Pei family one after another, then Sima Yi will have a chance to come back again in this life.
Therefore, under the successive objections of Pei and Wei, Sima Division was frustrated and could only modify his strategy, from layer-by-layer defense to gathering heavy troops in Jie County and Yi County to focus on defense. Keep the Shu thieves in the east and west of the river.
But in this way, there is not much strategic depth left for Sima Division. There is only three counties. If it cannot be defended, I am afraid that Sima Division will not be able to bear the chain reaction that will follow.
But this matter, can you blame Master Sima? !
Master Sima is not Sima Yi, he is just a junior. In the Hedong area, he does not have enough prestige at all, and he cannot effectively connect with the wealthy families in the entire Hedong area.
As for the imperial court, Cao Shuang is now in power, and the defense against the Sima clan is extremely tight. If Cao Shuang had not been able to find an excuse for the time being, and the timing of the Northern Expedition of the Shu thieves was coincidental, Cao Shuang had no chance to take action. Otherwise, what would happen to the general guarding Hedong County? Maybe it's Master Sima.
Now, although Cao Shuang has not found the opportunity to deprive Sima Division of its military power, he has done a lot to add some sand to the Hedong County soldiers, especially some of the partial generals and deputy generals, who are all Cao Shuang's people. If Sima Division wants to control the military power, it is not that difficult. easy.
As for what the Hedong families are thinking now, not even Sima Shi himself can guess or figure it out, let alone Cao Shuang who is immobile in Yecheng.
In fact, the internal problems in the Hedong region are far more complicated than most people imagine. Even if Sima Division has a complete strategy, he still has to compromise with these gangsters of the Hedong aristocratic families.
After all, someone can silence you with just one sentence - Xiahou Ba can hold on to Wen County in the face of 200,000 Shu thieves, your Sima Division will give up Anyi in the face of 780,000 or 80,000 Shu thieves, and Wenxi County , why? !
The hometown of the Sima family is Jinwowo. Our hometown is not valuable, right? !
If Master Sima dares to say something nonsense again, it's hard to say what these wealthy Hedong families will do in order to preserve and continue their family's interests.
Therefore, Sima Division could only personally lead troops to Jie County to set up defenses, and handed over Yishi County, which was slightly behind, to Dai Ling for guarding. Finally, he left 5,000 soldiers in Anyi County as the final reserve.
However, this way of deploying defenses is equivalent to concentrating all the own forces. Head-to-head confrontation with the Shu thieves should be the fighting method that the Shu thieves are most willing to see.
But, after fighting for about a month, Sima Division actually defended Jie County.
Yes, Sima Division defended Jie County with 10,000 soldiers and horses. Faced with a strong attack by Jiang Xu with at least five or six times the strength, he actually defended it!
This made Master Sima feel a little incredible.
It is understandable that the army did not fall in the first half of the month. After all, Jiang Xu had just completed crossing the river, and the army did not carry many siege equipment. It needed to be built with local materials, which also took time.
But he actually managed to hold on for the second half of the month. Was it Sima Shi who was too good at guarding, or was Jiang Xu too incapable of attacking? !
According to Sima Division's estimation, he could only hold on to Jie County for twenty days at most. After that, in order to avoid excessive casualties, he would give up Jie County, retreat to Yishi County, join Dai Ling's troops, and continue to hold on.
But according to the current battle situation, if he defends for another ten days and a half, there will be no problem at all! ! !
This thing is strange.
After all, Jiang Xu was also the Qinzhou governor of the Shu thieves. He was a big shot guarding one side. He also had generals like Wang Ping and Deng Ai as assistants under his command. How could he be beaten to such a pulp? Huh? ! etc? !
Master Sima suddenly thought of something strange - Wang Ping and Deng Ai, except for following Jiang Xu on the first day of the siege, were not seen leading troops in the second half of the siege. .
It was always an unknown general named Xiang Chong who led the troops to attack the city.
Logically speaking, when the Shu thieves attack Hedong, they definitely hope that the war will proceed as quickly as possible. Even if Jiang Xu, as the commander-in-chief, is inconvenient to personally command the siege, the person who personally directs the battle on the front line should be deputy commander Deng Ai or the vanguard. Is it plausible that an unknown general led an army to attack a city by Guan Wangping? !
So, where did these two people go? !
When Master Sima thought that the whereabouts of these two people were unknown, his heart began to pound. He stared at the map of Hedong County in front of him and studied it carefully.
There is only one official road from Pubanjin to the northeast, which can only lead to Jie County. Even if the Shu bandits divide their forces to besiege Jie County and attack Yishi County in a detour, Dai Ling will be guarding there, and Dai Ling has not reported any encounters yet. Report of the attack by the Shu thieves.
Further south, there is Ruicheng County, but this county is at the southernmost end of Hedong County. Further south is the Yellow River, and to the east is Zhongtiao Mountain. How can ordinary people wait.
Zhongtiao Mountain? ! ! !
(End of chapter)
