Dai Ling is not Xu Gai. As a general who has been on the battlefield for more than 20 years, although he cannot be called a famous general due to his talent and ability, he is an experienced veteran general.
Sima Division asked Dai Ling to defend Yishi County for five days with 5,000 soldiers and horses. Although Dai Ling held it very hard, he still managed to hold on until the fifth day. Then he led the remaining 2,000 soldiers to break through the encirclement north and retreated to Fen. Yin County.
As for why he didn't withdraw to Anyi County to join Sima Division, it's not that Dai Ling didn't want to, but that he couldn't.
Dai Ling only had 5,000 soldiers and needed to face the siege of Jiang Xu's 60,000 troops. He could defend for five days, which was already an extraordinary performance.
Therefore, when guarding Yishi County, Dai Ling suffered a lot of casualties. By the time of the final breakout, there were only more than 2,000 soldiers left in the entire army.
Yishi County was surrounded on all sides, with the main siege force of Shu thieves on the west and south sides, and the official road leading to Anyi County on the east side. Dai Ling figured it out with his heels. Jiang Xu must have arranged an ambush with heavy troops. , therefore, Dai Ling could only choose the relatively weak northern side of the siege of Shu thieves to break out of the siege, and retreat to Fenyin County for temporary refuge.
As for Sima Shi, his luck was much better than that of Guo Huai. Dai Ling bought him enough time to retreat, so he retreated to Anyi first.
After Sima Division withdrew to Anyi, he immediately ordered the entire city to be under martial law. No one except county soldiers was allowed to move around the city. Violators would be killed without mercy.
At the same time, Sima Division ordered his own soldiers to take over the defense of the four gates of Anyi County, changed the city patrol order, cut off all contact inside and outside the city, and prevented the Anyi family and the Shu thieves from cooperating with each other.
After some emergency response and deployment, Sima Shi breathed a sigh of relief when no Shu thieves appeared at Anyi City.
But just when Sima Division was ready to defend Anyi and wait for reinforcements, an urgent military report came from Wenxi County. Shu thieves besieged Wenxi County, and the Wenxi County magistrate was in emergency.
Yes, after Deng Ai emerged from Zhongtiao Mountain, he did not choose to attack Anyi County, but went to Wenxi County.
In Deng Ai's opinion, Anyi's location is not too far from Jie County and Yishi County, which are closer to the front. If Sima Division responds quickly, it is possible to return reinforcements in time.
Moreover, according to the information provided by Anyi Wei, Sima Division was not without any defense against Anyi. He also left five thousand soldiers to guard Anyi. Deng Ai and Wang Ping only brought a total of 20,000 soldiers into Zhongtiao Mountain. , marching in the harsh environment of the mountains is impossible without losses, and the soldiers will be somewhat sick or injured. With just the few people on hand, it may be difficult to conquer Anyi in a short time.
Even if the Wei family cooperates internally and externally, the difficulty is not small.
Therefore, Deng Ai and Wang Ping discussed it and chose Wenxi County, a hundred miles east of Anyi City, which was more rearward for Sima Division.
Although the attack on Wenxi County will not involve the cooperation of the internal aristocratic families and cannot be coordinated internally and externally, there are only about a thousand defenders in Wenxi County.
After comparing back and forth, both Deng Ai and Wang Ping felt that the risk of attacking Wenxi County was smaller.
In this way, Wang Ping imitated the tactics used in the sneak attack on Wancheng. He selected 500 Wudang flying troops to launch a sneak attack in the early morning. He climbed up the Wenxi County city building with hooks and claws, occupied a foothold, and then joined Deng Ai's leadership. The main force followed up, succeeded in a sneak attack, opened the city gate, and breached Wenxi County.
After occupying Wenxi County, Deng Ai quickly came out to pacify the people. On the other hand, Deng Ai personally visited the Pei family's house in Wenxi County.
The purpose of publishing the list to appease the people is to stabilize people's hearts, but the visit to the Pei family in Wenxi County is just for show.
Deng Ai was not sure of Pei's current attitude towards the Han Dynasty. After all, Pei Qian had only gone to Yecheng to serve as the minister of Cao Wei at the beginning of the year.
However, Deng Ai also knew very well that the Hedong Pei family was the leader of the Hedong family and had captured Wenxi County. No matter what the Hedong Pei family's true attitude was, even if it was just a pretense, Deng Ai had to pay a visit in person.
In fact, the two parties did not talk about anything too in-depth. We are both smart people, and each other knows some things well.
Deng Ai needed the Pei family to stabilize the situation of the family in the city, and the Pei family also needed to save the lives of the whole family. They cooperated with each other and talked a lot of nonsense. It took half a day to let the outside world see that the Han Dynasty valued the Hedong family. That's it.
Then Deng Ai pleaded guilty and left, and the old lady of the Pei family personally escorted him out of the house, which was enough to give Deng Ai face. In the blink of an eye, Deng Ai ordered his personal guards to send more people to "protect" the Pei family, and the Pei family also had a tacit understanding. All family members were ordered to stay behind closed doors.
In this way, the channel for information exchange between the Pei family and the outside world can be cut off in a short period of time. Even if the Pei family still loves Wei, it can at least buy Deng Ai about ten days of response time.
After doing this, Deng Ai had no intention of leading his troops to leave Wenxi County, nor did he let Wang Ping lead his troops to attack Zuoyi County, which was forty miles to the west of Wenxi County. He would counterattack Anyi and let Wang Ping lead the army. The soldiers continued to attack along the official road east of Hedong to the east of Wenxi County, trying to capture Jiang County as soon as possible and then hold it there! ! !
The location of Jiangxian County is very important. Following the official road to the east, you can enter Hanoi County, and to the north, you can cross the Taihang Mountains and enter Bingzhou. It is the next strategic focus of the Third Route Army of the Northern Expedition.
As for Sima Division in Anyi. As long as Sima Division is not mentally retarded, when he learns that Wenxi County has been lost, he will definitely not stay in Anyi and wait to die. He will definitely break out immediately, and the only way to break out is on the north bank of Fen River Changxiu County.
Naturally, Jiang Xu was there, and Master Sima would definitely not be able to withdraw so easily.
At this time, Sima Division was indeed in a bit of a panic. With Wenxi County falling, his entire retreat began to become precarious.
Just as Deng Ai had predicted, the first thing Sima Division thought after learning that its retreat was cut off was to retreat north, cross the Fen River, and retreat to Changxiu. But soon, Sima Division realized that This matter may not be that easy.
The current battlefield situation can be said to be clear at a glance. The retreat route on the battlefield that his Sima division can see, why can't Deng Ai and Jiang Xu see it? !
Moreover, the retreat from the north of Anyi County across the Fen River is a long way. The road is mostly mountainous, and the marching speed cannot be increased. Once the Shu thieves follow and pursue them, the Wei army will inevitably suffer heavy losses.
Therefore, you can retreat if you want, but you cannot retreat in such a hurry. Otherwise, I am afraid that you will not be able to retreat to the shore of Fenshui River, and there will not be many soldiers left.
Master Sima's talent is quite good, and he has gained a lot of experience in Hedong over the years. Therefore, Master Sima's current ability has been greatly improved compared to when he was in Wancheng.
Master Sima knew very well that he definitely could not fight on the battlefield that the enemy had set for him. This would be too passive.
Therefore, Sima Shi thought for a while and decided to continue marching eastward and march into Zuoyi County.
Zuoyi County is fifty miles northeast of Anyi County. After Zuoyi County, Wenxi County is located.
Judging from the direction of travel, Sima Division led the main force of Anyi to retreat to Zuoyi before Jiang Xu besieged the city. It can be seen that he wanted to counterattack Wenxi County and reopen the back route.
But in fact, Sima Shi jumped out of the Anyi County encirclement set by the Shu thieves, retreated to Zuoyi, then went north from Zuoyi, crossed the Fen River, and retreated to Changxiu. This way, not only could the retreat be shortened, The distance on the north bank of Fenshui can also lengthen the distance from Jiang Xu's main force. There is no need to worry that Jiang Xu can catch up in a short time.
The only risk he had to take was that Sima Division needed to bet that Deng Ai would not advance westward so quickly to attack Zuoyi County, which would leave him enough time to retreat.
But this time, Master Sima still made the right bet and Deng Ai did not dare to leave Wenxi County easily. At the same time, compared to Zuoyi County, Deng Ai valued Jiang County more.
Sima Division really evacuated to Changxiu on the north bank of Fen River without any danger.
But in contrast, almost all of the counties on the south bank of the Fen River fell under the control of the Han Dynasty.
Actually, if it were just these county towns, Sima Division wouldn't feel too distressed. After all, in Sima Division's first batch of plans, these places were supposed to be lost one by one. This time, they were lost too quickly and failed to win. Just enough time.
The real problem is Jiangxian! ! !
Jiang County was not within the scope of Sima Shi's expectations.
Jiang County is occupied by Shu thieves. If the Shu thieves advance, they can enter Hanoi and cooperate with Zhuge Liang's troops to attack the Wei army from the north and south in Hanoi. If they retreat, they can prevent the Bingzhou cavalry reinforcements from entering Hedong County to support. This place is blocked, so for the Wei army in Hedong County In other words, it is equivalent to being trapped in the northern part of Hedong County. If the war goes unfavorably and they want to retreat, the only way to go is to cross the Taihang Mountains and retreat into Bingzhou.
Sima Division really didn't want to lose this place, but he still couldn't outrun Deng Ai's plan, and he didn't have enough troops on hand to counterattack Jiangxian.
Wang Ping took the lead and captured Jiangxian County, and led eight thousand Wudang flying troops to defend Sima Division on the spot. To retake this place, it was impossible without fifty thousand soldiers and horses.
As the Sima Division was defeated and retreated to the north bank of the Fen River, the Han troops on the south bank of the Fen River joined forces and began to attack from south to north. The Sima Division's defense of the counties in the northern part of Hedong County became increasingly stretched.
The entire war situation in Hedong is in danger of collapse for Cao Wei.
(End of chapter)
