Sima Yi sent out troops, and he did so very quickly.
At the court meeting, Cao Shuang gave Sima Yi the military talisman, which represented that the emperor granted Sima Yi the right to "take action in times of crisis." Three days later, Sima Yi assembled 20,000 troops, said goodbye to the emperor, and led the army to go on an expedition.
As for the people who followed Sima Yi on the expedition, in addition to Sima Yi's second son Sima Zhao, there were also the Central Guards Jiang Ji, the governor of Yanzhou Jia Kui, etc. Basically, Sima Yi took away all the capable generals in Yecheng. .
After leading the troops and leaving Yecheng, Sima Yi handed over the main force to Jia Kui, led by Jiang Ji. He took five thousand soldiers and went ahead with Sima Zhao to rush to Wei County.
The purpose, of course, is to catch the Shu thieves off guard before they know they are coming.
Sima Yi had his own purpose in doing this.
Now Guo Huai has retreated to Wei County. Although he has temporarily stabilized the situation with the advantage of Wei County's city defense, there are not enough soldiers to defend the city. The army is newly defeated and the morale of the army is low. Even if Sima Yi can arrive in time with his troops, morale is still a big problem. .
This matter, even with Sima Yi's prestige, could not be easily accomplished.
Therefore, Sima Yi's idea was to win a moderate victory in front of the Wei County defenders. This would not only effectively boost the morale of the army, but also suppress the arrogance of the Shu thieves.
And to do this, the most appropriate way is a surprise attack.
Of course, Sima Yi also knew that it would be very difficult to surprise Zhang Xi, an old turtle, so Sima Yi had to be fast.
Assemble troops as quickly as possible, dispatch troops as quickly as possible, and immediately divide the troops to attack. Before Zhang Xi learns about Yecheng's movement, he rushes to Wei County and launches an attack without giving Zhang Xi any time to prepare.
Sima Yi didn't expect to be able to defeat the Shu thieves in one go with such a surprise attack. After all, he only brought out 5,000 people.
However, it is still possible to achieve small local victories.
And Sima Yi did it.
However, the price is not small.
Sima Yi and Sima Zhao rushed to attack Wei County, constantly adjusting their marching direction to avoid the scouts of Shu thieves, and indeed found traces of the Han army ten miles south of Wei County.
Sima Yi did not waste any time. He seized the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on the Han army. He indeed broke through the Han army's camp and caused certain damage to the Han army.
But the problem is that Sima Yi was not very lucky. What he encountered was the Northern Han Army led by Jiang Wei.
The sudden attack of five thousand Wei troops did cause a lot of trouble to Jiang Wei. At least at the beginning of the raid, the Han imperial army was indeed a little panicked, but Sima Yi seized the opportunity and rushed into the camp.
But then, things began to change and things were different from what Sima Yi had expected.
Judging from the regular experience against the enemy in these years, when one army encounters a surprise attack and is attacked and the camp is breached, there is a high probability that they will flee for their lives, which will eventually lead to chaos within the camp, killing each other, or being killed. The enemy was easily killed.
But what happened was that what Sima Yi encountered was not ordinary Han soldiers, but Han imperial guards.
The escape from the camp did indeed happen.
But the phenomenon of scattering and escaping did not happen.
The Northern Army of the Han Dynasty had a response plan and conducted similar drills when faced with the extreme situation of enemy troops hijacking the camp.
It is not required that the Northern Army of the Han Dynasty can immediately form a formation to meet the enemy when it is suddenly attacked by the enemy, but it must at least regroup and regroup as soon as possible after retreating for a certain distance.
How can an army that cannot do this be called the elite division of the Han Dynasty? !
Therefore, while Sima Yi was still trying to create more chaos and cause more casualties in the camp, the Northern Han army that had fled outside the camp had already begun to regroup under the organization of the lower-level commanders and captains of the army.
When Sima Yi realized that something seemed a little wrong, nearly two thousand people had gathered outside the camp.
Sima Yi's decision-making ability can not be said to be unpleasant. After he discovered something strange, he immediately ordered the entire army to retreat. But at this time, the second unfortunate event also came.
Jiang Wei, who was in the camp, also rushed to the front line with his soldiers and began to take over the combat command inside the camp.
Although Jiang Wei was caught off guard by Sima Yi, his reaction was still very fast. He made a judgment in the shortest time, quickly set up his own banner, stabilized the morale of the army, and at the same time led the soldiers to quickly gather those closest to him. The chaotic soldiers, after gathering a certain strength, immediately pressed forward, trying to surround the Wei army who was still setting fire to the camp to create chaos.
Sima Yi wanted to take advantage of the chaos to retreat, but after Jiang Wei stabilized the situation a little, he immediately ordered his own guards to counterattack, driving Sima Yi to the area outside the camp where the largest number of troops had been gathered, forcing Sima Yi into a state of pincer attack from both front and rear.
Jiang Wei's reaction was not slow, but in the end it was Sima Yi, an old fox, who was faster in his insight and decision-making abilities. After understanding Jiang Wei's intentions, Sima Yi himself led his troops to block Jiang Wei's attack, allowing Sima Zhao to take advantage of the situation outside the camp. The Shu thieves did not complete their formation, so they immediately counterattacked to open the escape route, and finally withdrew before Jiang Wei encircled them.
But even so, of Sima Yi's 5,000 men, only about 3,200 people finally retreated into Wei County.
As for how many enemies he killed, Sima Yi himself didn't know. But a conservative estimate is that there were at least two thousand people.
From this perspective, Sima Yi still achieved his goal. Entering Wei County with this small victory can also greatly improve the morale of the Wei army.
However, when Sima Yi retreated into Wei County with Guo Huai's support, he found that the morale of the defenders in Wei County was not too low.
So.what happened? !
After asking, Sima Yi found out what had happened in Wei County in the past month.
When Guo Huai gave up defending Li Yang and retreated all the way to Wei County, the situation was actually the most dangerous. At that time, Guo Huai felt that if Zhang Xi caught up directly, he might really be defending. Don't live in Wei County.
For this reason, Guo Huai sent an urgent battle report for help to Yecheng.
But after that, Guo Huai waited in Wei County for almost ten days, but did not see a Shu thief arrive.
At first, Guo Huai was still wondering whether the Shu thieves were playing some tricks to attack the east and attack the west again. It was not until the scouts he sent to find out the specific information that Guo Huai breathed a sigh of relief.
It's not that Zhang Xi doesn't want to take advantage of the victory and attack Wei County, but Zhang Xi can't.
He was held back by Zhang Hu from Jixian County.
Liyang fell. In theory, Jixian was surrounded by the Han army's sphere of influence at this time, and there was no way out. To put it bluntly, Jixian was abandoned by Guo Huai.
In this case, even if Zhang Hu chose to surrender, others would only say that it was Guo Huai's poor command that caused Zhang Hu to surrender.
But Zhang Hu unexpectedly did not surrender.
Not only did he not surrender, but he still held on to fight to the death in Ji County. With this, Zhang Xi really did not dare to lead his troops north easily.
If Ji County is not taken down, there will always be a nail stuck in the waist of the Northern Expeditionary Army in Dong County. If it is not pulled out, there will be hidden dangers at any time.
Zhang Xi would not make the same mistake as Yuan Shao, ignoring the threat behind him and exposing the grain and grass supply line to the threat of the Wei army.
Therefore, Zhang Xi ordered Wei Yan to return to the army and attack Jixian from front to back. It took him half a month to finally conquer Jixian and capture Zhang Hu alive.
As for Zhang Hu, Zhang Xi didn't have any difficulties and just locked him up temporarily. After all, Zhang Hu's father was Zhang Liao.
When Zhang Liao and Guan Yu had a conversation before the battle in Nanyang, Deng Ai had already told Zhang Xi the content of their conversation. The Guan and Zhang families agreed to take care of each other's heirs.
Therefore, even for the sake of the Guan family, Zhang Hu could not kill him.
Furthermore, on the battlefield, everyone is their own master. If Zhang Hu refuses to surrender, it is just loyalty to the country, and Zhang Xi can't say anything.
However, because of Zhang Hu's delay, Zhang Xi arrived in Wei County half a month late.
But, even at this time, Wei County, which Guo Huai was guarding, was still in danger.
On the one hand, it was because Cao Shuang was still hesitating back and forth in Yecheng at this time and still refused to make up his mind to ask Sima Yi to come out.
On the other hand, the arrows suppressed by the Shu thieves were so fierce that the archers of the Wei army only dared to hide under the female wall of the city wall and throw them casually, not daring to take the lead easily.
Under this situation, Guo Huai had to temporarily give up shooting at the city wall, withdraw his archers, let the Shu thieves' siege equipment get closer to the city wall, and then launch a counterattack when they entered the battle for the city wall.
Only when the soldiers of both sides are fighting together will the Shu thieves' bow and crossbow suppression be useless.
However, if he continues to defend like this, no matter how high Guo Huai's command and insight are, there will always be times when he cannot take care of him. Wei County will be breached sooner or later.
Just when Guo Huai was anxious to get angry but was unable to do anything, a descendant of a family named Ma Long in Wei County said that he had a way to deal with the arrow suppression of the Shu thieves.
At that time, Guo Huai really had no choice. He really believed in this Ma Long with the attitude of treating a dead horse as a living horse doctor.
Then, Ma Long used three folded wooden boards to easily resolve the Shu thieves' arrow suppression.
(End of chapter)
