The reason why Zhuge Liang made such tactical arrangements was not just what he told Li Yan.
The Yi king of Yueqi was Gaoding. He refused to accept the enlightenment and raised troops many times. His influence was deeply rooted in Yueqi.
Moreover, this person had led his troops to fight many times with the Han army under their command, and all suffered casualties. He was defeated by Li Yan last time, and also suffered many casualties.
Gaoding and his tribe have become in conflict with the Bashu Han people. Even if they show kindness and power, they may not be able to make them sincerely surrender.
Even if you surrender for a moment, you will rebel after the army leaves.
They were fundamentally different from the Yi people who did not want to rebel before breakfast. After being incited by Meng Huo, they were afraid that the Han army would destroy their way of life and only raised troops.
Before the Southern Expedition, Zhuge Liang had several discussions with Prince Liu Chan, and they both felt that this person, like the Yong family, was a force that needed to be eradicated with heavy efforts.
If they are left in Nanzhong, chaos will return sooner or later.
Therefore, he defended the southern route and blocked the enemy. He personally led an army on the northern route, whether it was strong or soft, depending on his own considerations.
Only the people from the West Road Gaoding Headquarters planned this heavy move to destroy them in one fell swoop.
…
"Your Majesty, the people of Shu all say that Zhuge Kongming is very resourceful and resourceful. Now he comes here with great fanfare... I'm afraid there may be fraud."
There are also people among the Gaoding tribe who travel to Bashu and sell goods. How can they just do business and rob them?
In addition, these people never get any advantage when trading with Bashu merchants, and occasionally suffer losses, so their status in the clan is not very high.
But after all, they are well-informed and more thoughtful than ordinary tribesmen.
The person who spoke had led a team to Qianwei and other counties, and heard many rumors about Zhuge Liang and Liu Chan at that time.
"Hmph." Gao Ding sneered, disapproving, "Then tell me, where is the lie?"
"Ah this..."
The man's heart said that if I had known, I would have led an army to capture Zhuge Liang long ago. What nonsense are you still talking about?
"I told you earlier, don't deal with those profiteers. Instead of becoming more resourceful, you become more foresight!" Gao Ding said angrily, "Now I have three armies surrounding Zhuge Liang, and his ingenuity can still come out of his heart. Can’t you kill someone?”
"yes……"
Gao Ding clamped his horse's belly and accelerated forward: "Zhuge Liang came here alone. This battle will be defeated. You should think more about how to compete with the Yong family for territory after defeating Zhuge Liang!"
In the heart of King Gaoding, he never took Zhuge Liang's 10,000 troops seriously. After all, he had never heard of this man's impressive achievements.
If Li Yan, the Shu general who defeated him two years ago, led his army, it might be worth paying more attention to.
Zhuge Liang is already thinking about how to conquer the people here and control the overall situation after the victory, and even the development plan of enriching the people and strengthening the army in Nanzhong.
And Gao Ding was already thinking about how to take over the Yong family, subdue Meng Huo, and unify Nanzhong in one fell swoop after the victory.
In a sense, this King of Couture has the same long-term vision as Zhuge Kongming...
The army marched for another day and finally arrived at the resting place he had decided in advance.
"When Zhuge Liang first arrived, he didn't know the geography of the mountains and rivers here. He didn't know where the water sources were. There were poisonous springs along the way, so what's so strange about the slow march?" Gao Ding, who felt that everything was under control, was in a good mood and patiently explained to his subordinates. .
Having learned the lesson from the last time, the man dared to sing the opposite tune. He immediately put his right hand on his chest, leaned forward and said, "What the king said is absolutely true."
"Yes." Gao Ding nodded and pointed to the ground, "He said that there can be such a hidden treasure land in this valley and among the mountains, which can be used for the army to rest and recuperate. Then Zhuge Liang has never been to Nanzhong, how could he know... Um?"
He bent down and grabbed a handful of hay from the ground, and looked around carefully, feeling a little confused.
Just now, I was only busy analyzing Zhuge Liang's intention of marching like this to his subordinates, but I didn't pay attention to my steps. It was not autumn at this time. How could there be so much hay on the ground?
And it doesn't look like it's the accumulation of withered vegetation, it looks like... it's used to feed livestock.
"Fire the arrow—!"
Woo——!
Only a desolate and distant horn sound was heard, and a large number of Han soldiers suddenly appeared on all sides of the valley, like divine soldiers descending from the sky, followed closely by a burst of fire arrows.
It rains fire from the sky.
It has been nearly half a month since water has fallen here, and the air is very dry. It is noon again, and the sun is blazing in the sky.
A large number of fire arrows fell into the valley and shot on the dry grass. Soon there were fires and black smoke everywhere!
The Gaoding army was suddenly attacked, causing chaos.
"There is an ambush, run quickly——! Get out of the valley quickly!"
"The fire has not yet started, so quickly put out the flames! Fight back against the Shu army!"
"Kill back to the west!"
"Kill to the east!"
All of a sudden, there were people shouting and screaming in the valley. You go west, and I will kill you east. You are holding the flames with your front legs, and you are knocked down by yourself on the back legs...
Gao Ding was so anxious that he mounted his horse and ordered two hundred elite soldiers of his clan to shout in unison, and only then gathered less than a thousand people nearby.
"Fight west!"
In the current situation, it is impossible to advance eastward, so Zhuge Liang must still have an ambush.
We can only withdraw to Qiongdu first and then make plans.
Gao Ding made a prompt decision and led the gathered soldiers to cover their mouths and noses. While raising their shields to avoid arrows, they chose a place that was not yet on fire and rushed to the entrance of the west valley.
Along the way, the line of sight was blocked, the smoke choked the nose, and the heat wave scorched the skin of the people. There were more dead and injured before reaching the entrance of the west valley.
"The Taniguchi is in front of you!" Gao Ding, who was lying on the horse, squinted his eyes and looked ahead, saying excitedly.
But soon he noticed something strange again.
The closer we got to the entrance of the west valley, the more corpses there were on the ground, but we didn't see the crowded scene we thought we would see.
After getting away from the fire and getting closer, the vision gradually became clearer, and the air around the body became cooler... Of course, what also became colder was Gaoding's heart.
Outside the mouth of the valley, there were all Han soldiers in neat formations, many armed with powerful crossbows... which gave the most direct explanation for the corpses on the ground just now.
A Xuankai general sat on his horse and stood in the military formation. At this time, he was riding his horse out of the crowd. It was Li Yan.
In Li Yan's eyes, Gao Ding and others who rushed out of the fire on horseback were also very conspicuous among the mostly walking Yi soldiers.
"Haute Couture! Do you still recognize Jianwei Li Zhengfang?" Li Yan twirled his beard on the horse and smiled.
The tribesman next to Gaoding who had been to Jianwei immediately translated. After hearing this, he pointed the big ax at Li Yan: "The Han people are cunning and insidious. They only do tricks like this! If you are a warrior, come forward and fight with me." !”
"Haha, Gaoding, every move you make is under the control of my military advisor. Now that the defeat is certain, why not surrender early?"
"Bah!" Gao Ding raised his big ax and shouted loudly, "My sons, follow me to kill the enemy. There is still a chance of capturing the Shu general! Come on!"
After he said this, he clamped his legs tightly on the horse's belly, and led the remaining soldiers towards Li Yan's army, howling and screaming.
Li Yan was not a soft-hearted person who was indecisive. He waved his hand with a cold face and said: "Fire the arrow!"
Whoosh whoosh whoosh...!
The crossbows were fired in rows, and the crossbow arrows were fired flatly. Waves of gleaming iron cluster arrows hit Gao Ding and others, shooting them into sieves with both men and horses.
The shouting almost stopped suddenly, and only a few guys who were lucky or unlucky were still moaning and wailing.
Gao Ding was hit by more than a dozen arrows, and there were still a few blood holes where the crossbow arrows were missing, and he was bleeding gurglingly. His eyes were wide open, and he died in a very miserable state.
The soil at the mouth of the valley has long been dyed red with blood. Presumably the plants here will grow extremely lush in the future...
…
Gao Xiang himself led 3,000 soldiers to guard Beishui Nanshan. His army occupied the high ground and guarded the east and west paths. Neither the Qingqiang cavalry nor the Yi soldiers on the south road dared to cross.
Several attempts were made, but the upward attack was unsuccessful, the cavalry advantage was completely lost, and they were unable to advance even an inch.
Zhuge Liang led 3,000 troops north out of Beishui, deployed in an open area, and faced the more than 10,000 coalition troops heading south.
Facing an enemy force that was three times more numerous, Zhuge Liang, who rarely led troops in person, commanded with determination. As the formation flags were waved, various units of the Han army moved in and out and cooperated with each other.
The front army retreats and the flanks press up. If the formation is opened, one part of the enemy will be lured deep into the formation. If the formation is closed, all the troops will attack the enemy in the formation together.
The coalition forces, which were far from cooperating, were immediately stunned. What kind of thing is this? We have never seen it before? !
The enemy army clearly only had a few thousand troops when they arrived, so why did it seem as if they were surrounded by Shu troops from all directions when they started fighting? !
Magic! This damn thing must be a witchcraft!
(End of chapter)
