Xiahou Ba finally chose to abandon Wen County, but on his way to retreat to Chaoge, he was ambushed by the Northern Expeditionary Army.
Pang Tongtong's frequent deployment of troops at the beginning was indeed to confuse Xiahou Ba so that he could not figure out his troop deployment in the first place, but the ultimate goal was not to mobilize troops to sneak attack Chaoge.
Pang Tong's real purpose had always been to ambush Xiahou Ba.
In fact, Pang Tong also knew that even if he sent the so-called elite troops to sneak attack Chaoge, success or failure would still be a dead end.
Limited by logistics, there are not many soldiers that can be dispatched, and they do not have the ability to fight for a long time. Once Chaoge is prepared, it is not necessarily possible to conquer Chaoge in a short time.
And if the sneak attack on Chaoge falls into a tug-of-war, then the sneak attack force will inevitably return without success due to lack of food and grass supplies, which will be a waste of force.
Therefore, what Pang Tong wanted to do was to pretend to attack Chaoge by surprise, and to lure Xiahou Ba to think this way through constant mobilization of troops. Then Xiahou Ba would definitely be worried about Chaoge's failure even if he did not return the entire army to defend. , and will also send reinforcements to Chaoge.
Pang Tong's purpose was to destroy this army returning to support Chaoge.
To put it bluntly, it is still the "double and divide" strategy in the art of war.
All of this was Pang Tong's plan, and Pang Tong successfully implemented the plan.
However, the results were somewhat different from what Pang Tong expected.
This is still because of Xiahou Ba's contribution.
Since Xiahou Ba chose to voluntarily abandon Wen County, with his ability, he would definitely make some necessary preparations for retreat, including being intercepted by the enemy on the way.
Therefore, Xiahou Ba was actually prepared.
However, Pang Tong did not expect that Xiahou Ba was so brave and quick enough to adapt to the situation. He was able to calmly respond to the ambush and was forced to break out by Xiahou Ba.
Xiahou Ba didn't expect that Pang Tong's entire plan was designed for him to abandon Wen County. During his retreat, he actually encountered a triple interception net arranged by Pang Tong. Although he finally led his troops to rush out, he still Still suffered heavy losses.
The soldiers who followed Xiahou Ba retreated to Chaoge. In the end, there were only more than 13,000 soldiers left, with nearly half of the casualties. It can be said to be a great defeat.
Of course, looking at the overall situation, Wen County fell and Xiahou Ba suffered a huge defeat and retreated to Chaoge, which basically shows that Cao Wei's war in Hanoi County has been completely corrupted.
As Xiahou Ba retreated to Chaoge, including the soldiers who retreated with Xiahou Ba, there were still 16,000 people guarding Chaoge, but morale was very low.
At this time, after capturing Wen County without any blood, Pang Tong did not hesitate and immediately asked Ma Dai and Liu Yin to lead 20,000 men each to follow him eastwards and march towards Chaoge.
As for the remaining 30,000 soldiers and Pang Tong himself, Pang Tong temporarily stayed in Wen County.
After all, Wen County is where Hanoi County's wealthy families live, and it is also the home of the Sima family. Pang Tong did not dare to take it lightly. Don't look back and move his army eastward. The Sima family encouraged the Hanoi family to rebel collectively, cutting off his own food supply. , that’s the real trouble.
Therefore, Pang Tong still needs to stay in Wen County, on the one hand to appease the aristocratic families in Hanoi County, and on the other hand, he must divide his troops to capture several counties near Wen County to stabilize the situation and stabilize the place.
Especially for the Sima family, Pang Tong had to work hard to appease him.
Now Sima Yi and Sima Master, father and son, one is guarding the northern part of Hedong County, and the other is guarding Wei County. If they can appease the Sima family and persuade them to surrender, it will have a great impact on the entire Northern Expedition.
This is why Pang Tong wanted to stay temporarily in Wen County and let Ma Dai and Liu Yin lead the troops eastward to Chaoge.
Pang Tong temporarily needs to take care of Wen County, but Zhuge Liang has no worries.
After receiving the news that Pang Tong had captured Wen County and sent troops to attack Chaoge, Zhuge Liang immediately launched an attack on Zhi County with all his strength.
Zhuge Liang didn't attack Zhi County before, not because he couldn't capture it, but because he wanted to hold back the defenders of Zhi County and Yewang County. Just bet that Qin Lang didn't have the courage to give up the 40,000 infantry and cavalry coalition forces.
But now that Wen County has been conquered and Chaoge is facing a direct threat, it is useless for Zhuge Liang to hang on to these people. If the defenders of Zhi County do not withdraw, Qin Lang of Yewang County will not hesitate any longer and Chaoge will fall. , Yecheng is in danger.
At this time, Zhuge Liang did not want to hold people up and prevent them from leaving. Instead, he wanted to defeat the defenders of Zhi County as quickly as possible, and then rush to Yewang County as soon as possible to seize Qin Lang's retreat and give Pang Tong the opportunity to retreat. Over there, they conquer Chaoge to buy time.
Even if you still can't hold off in the end, chasing and killing Wei soldiers along the way is still a good choice.
Therefore, after receiving the summons from Pang Tong, Zhuge Liang immediately launched an attack on Zhi County and defeated Zhi County three days later.
On the one hand, Zhuge Liang is really experienced in using troops. He used siege warfare and psychological warfare in conjunction. While continuously attacking, he successfully instigated the east gate defender of Zhi County to rebel.
On the other side, the Wei army in Zhi County was unable to hold on any longer.
Nearly ten days have passed since the last time Man Chong failed to lead his troops to break through. During this period, the morale of the Wei army was extremely low. Man Chong tried his best, but he could only delay it for a while and barely maintained his position. The soldiers did not mutiny.
Another thing, as Qin Lang led his troops to retreat, Qin Lang took away most of the food reserves in Zhi County, which was not too much. The food and grass became less and less, but he was surrounded by water. Which soldier has the faith to hold on? !
Before, Zhuge Liang did not attack the siege, and the Wei soldiers could still manage to hold on. However, once the Han army really attacked the city with intensity, the Wei army had no confidence to hold on.
Therefore, it only lasted three days before the city was broken.
When the city was breached, Man Chong did not flee under the protection of his own soldiers. He knew that with the morale of the troops inside the city weakened and the troops outside the city pressing down, he would not be able to escape at all.
At the same time, Man Chong also knew that no matter what considerations Zhuge Liang had, he would not accept the surrender of such a cruel official.
Even if he died in Zhi County, Cao Wei would still treat his children and clansmen well, but if he chose to surrender, even if he failed, the good life of his children and clansmen would be over.
Therefore, after the city was broken, Man Chong chose to launch a charge towards Zhuge Liang's Chinese army camp outside the south gate.
In the end, he was shot to death by random arrows on the way to the charge.
Zhuge Liang also admired Man Chong's final choice, but the battlefield was like this, and all Zhuge Liang could do was to order Man Chong to be buried. No matter how many people Man Chong had offended before him, how many loyal ministers he had killed, or how bad his reputation was, Once a person dies, the dead person is the most important.
This is the value of this era.
After sending people to restrain Man Chong, Zhuge Liang immediately led his troops northward and approached Yewang County. It took him five days to get to Yewang from Zhi County. As Zhuge Liang expected, Yewang County had been abandoned by Qin Lang. .
Although the distance from Wen County to Zhi County is much closer than the distance from Chaoge to Yewang County, Zhuge Liang wanted to attack the city and march, and the time difference was basically smoothed out along the way. Shortly after Zhuge Liang captured Zhi County, Qin Lang received news of the fall of Wen County.
Qin Lang really didn't expect that Xiahou Ba would fall so quickly. Once Wen County fell, there were only 3,000 people guarding Chaoge behind him. How could it be possible to defend it.
Now Qin Lang is extremely lucky. Just ten days ago, he asked Xia Houxuan to lead 10,000 soldiers to help Chaoge first. Calculating the time, there are probably five days at most before Xia Houxuan can return the reinforcements in time.
In this case, Chaoge still has the possibility to stick to it.
However, Qin Lang also knows that if Xia Houba really experienced a great defeat before escaping back to Chaoge, as the military newspaper said, I am afraid he can only rely on the 10,000 people Xia Houxuan brought back. Emergency, cannot play a key role.
After a disastrous defeat, although ten thousand people escaped, the morale of the army must have been severely damaged.
If the Shu bandits approach Chaoge at this time, given the current morale of Chaoge's defenders, it is impossible for them to defend Chaoge for a long time. Even with Xia Houxuan's reinforcements, they can only maintain it for a while.
At this time, Chaoge needs to have enough troops to come back to boost morale and strengthen the soldiers' belief in defense. Qin Lang can no longer stay in Yewang County.
The reason why Qin Lang stayed in Yewang County was that Xiahou Ba would not lose Wen County so easily. He still had time to see if he could take over Man Chong from Zhi County and the more than 40,000 infantry and cavalry coalition troops.
But now, all Qin Lang's delusions have come to nothing. If he does not withdraw, Yecheng will be in danger.
Comparing the foundation of the Wei Dynasty with Man Chong's 40,000 infantry and cavalry coalition, Qin Lang still knows who is lighter and who is heavier.
Therefore, after receiving the military report from Xiahou Ba from Chaoge, Qin Lang immediately chose to retreat and could no longer take into account Man Chong in Zhi County.
However, Qin Lang still did not expect that Manchong of Zhe County did not buy him much time to retreat. Zhe County only held on for three days before being breached. Zhuge Liang then led the army to follow and kill him.
There is only about two days of journey difference between the two.
As for Zhuge Liang, how could he allow his prey to escape easily when the situation was under his control.
After Zhuge Liang occupied Yewang County, he immediately moved eastward and followed the official road in the direction of Chaoge without any rest or rest stop.
At the same time, in order to balance the pursuit speed, Zhuge Liang sent Hu Fen as the vanguard, leading 10,000 troops, and pursued them with forced marches day and night. He must bite the tail of Qin Lang's withdrawal and buy himself enough time.
And Hu Fen did not disappoint Zhuge Liang. After three days and three nights of continuous pursuit, Hu Fen finally caught up with Qin Lang's rear army in Xiuwu County and bit him without hesitation.
(End of chapter)
