Three Kingdoms: Ancestors of the Han Dynasty

Chapter 534 Cao Wei Strategy

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Facing Sima Yi's question, Man Chong held a thin stick and said with a smile: "Shouchun is a land of prosperity, with hundreds of thousands of people around. From the capital to Shouchun, there are fertile fields all over the fields, the sound of chickens and dogs, and rice paddies belong to each other. Shouchun How could Sun Quan not be coveted when he is so rich? So if Sun Quan goes to Hefei, he will send his master to the north to take Shouchun."

"As for how to lure Sun Quan to go north, the minister thought it would be better to follow the example of the Battle of Shiting. Zhou Bing stopped sending letters to pretend to surrender Cao Wenlie. He ordered the important ministers of Yangzhou to secretly vote for Sun Quan as foreign aid. At that time, Hefei sent [-] soldiers to guard, ordered Wu to defeat him, and lure Cao Wenlie. It went north. Our army set out from Anfeng and Qiaojun, and circled left and right to encircle Sun Quan's army."

Cao Rui pondered for a while, and asked: "The battle is unknown, if Sun Quan doesn't follow my plan. My Great Wei loses Hefei, how can we regain it after the war?"

For Cao Rui, his primary concern is whether Da Wei will shoot himself in the foot if the strategy fails.

Man Chong moved the thin rod to Hefei New City on the map, and said: "Hefei New City is far away from the waterway, which benefits us and harms the enemy. Wu people are good at boats, but not good at walking. After the war, our country can send generals to lead the army south to attack Hefei. If there is Wu People come to help, attack their reinforcements, and cut off their food and grass. Hefei New City can return to my big Wei's hands again."

After a pause, Man Chong sensed Cao Rui's worry, and further analyzed: "There are no common people in the land of Hefei. For our great Wei, it is just a place that consumes Sun Quan's northern expedition. For the people of Wu, it is difficult to defend because it is far away from waterways. Guarding is like chicken ribs. If our Great Wei can abandon a fortress and have a good opportunity to destroy Wu's army, the gains and losses of Hefei will not hurt, and our Great Wei will take it very easily!"

Hefei New City was built [-] miles west of the old city, and its role as a transportation hub was significantly weakened, but it was far away from the river. For the Wu army, which relied on water troops to fight, the difficulty of attacking the city was greatly increased, and Hefei became the best pawn to consume its energy.

This year, Sun Quan raised his troops to attack Hefei, lost his vigor under the new city, and was frightened away by eight thousand fake soldiers. This example coincides with what Man Chong said: Xincheng is currently only used as a place to consume the vigor of Sun Quan's Northern Expedition.

Man Chong's words are actually not surprising. Due to the rise of Shouchun's economic and military status, Hefei's role has declined. Up to now, it has only been used as Shouchun's bridgehead to resist the Wu people's attack.

Hefei is far away from the Central Plains, and the rescue of the army needs to run back and forth on the second line from east to west, which is far less convenient than Shouchun. Moreover, Shouchun is rich and easy to recruit soldiers, unlike the empty surroundings of Hefei.

In the later period of the Three Kingdoms in history, the competition between Wu and Wei was concentrated in the area of ​​Shouchun.

Zhuge Ke led an army of 200,000 to the Northern Expedition, which was the largest attack on Cao Wei by Soochow. This attack was not to occupy Hefei, but to lure the main force of the Wei army to fight.But the Wei army was not in a hurry to rescue, but gathered the army in Shouchun to wait for work, and waited for the Wu army to be exhausted before attacking.But Zhuge Ke was headstrong, and fell into the strategy of the defender of Hefei to delay his troops. Coupled with his illness, he withdrew his troops before he could not even attack Hefei.

At the same time, after Zhuge Ke's death, the Soochow army passed through Hefei several times in order to support the rebels of the Huainan Three Rebels or to withdraw to the country. There were many opportunities to occupy Hefei, but they never stationed troops in Hefei.

In 263 and 268 AD, the two Northern Expeditions organized by Ding Feng also ignored the existence of Hefei. The focus of competition between Wu and Wei changed from Hefei to Shouchun, and the wealthy Shouchun became the fat that Soochow Wu was eyeing.

From the three generals Zhang Liao, Li Dian, and Le Jin in Cao Cao's period to cooperate with tens of thousands of elite soldiers to guard Hefei, and then Cao Wei sent [-] soldiers to defend Hefei in the later period, and he didn't even care about Hefei's gains and losses.Even a few years later, when Quan Cong took office as the governor, he went deep into Shaopi to fight against Wei general Wang Ling.These series of stories have shown that the role of Hefei City has declined sharply, and it is far less important than in the early days.

That's why Man Chong, the supreme military officer guarding the southeast for nearly 20 years, is well aware of this. This time, he wants to use the land of Hefei to attract the army of Wu people to go north, cut off the scourge in the south, and let the Great Wei concentrate on To deal with Xishu.

Listening to Man Chong's explanation of Hefei, Cao Rui, Sima Yi, Jiang Ji and others, who are the core figures of Cao Wei, also have insight into the changes in Hefei's existence.

Cao Rui was still unsure about the depth, so he turned to Jiang Jidao, "What do Jiang Qing think of Man Qing's strategy?"

Jiang Ji is a native of Ping'a, Jiujiang County, Yangzhou (now Huaiyuan County, Anhui Province), and he is very familiar with Yangzhou's geography.During the battle of Shiting, Jiang Ji was in Luoyang. According to the battle report, he judged that Cao Xiu was in danger.

It can be said that Jiang Ji may not be able to deal with the attack of the Shu Han, but if he wants to deal with the Northern Expedition of the Eastern Wu, he can still handle it easily.The reason has a lot to do with his being a native of Yangzhou and his familiarity with geography.

Jiang Ji stroked his beard, and said: "Sun Quan is a shallow man who doesn't understand internal changes. He moves in search of profit, and he goes up to it despite great difficulties; when there is no benefit, his children are in danger, and they still don't move. Today If there is a plan to attract Sun Quan to go north, one must carefully consider the depth of the plan before he can be lured into the bait."

Cao Rui pondered for a while, and said: "I am not afraid of Sun Quan, but I am afraid of Lu Xun who knows this strategy."

Man Chong took the words and said with a smile: "Sun Quan crossed the sea to make an alliance with Liaodong, and the minister's advice was not accepted; the general's loyalty was not stopped when thousands of people crossed the ocean to find Yizhou to expand the territory. If it is profitable now, use Sun Quan's wisdom If your Majesty is worried about Lu Xun's conspiracy, it is better to send the general to attack Jiang Xia as a bait to restrain Lu Xun."

Sima Yi looked at the map of Huainan, and said with a smile, "Duke Man's words are very good, but Duke Man has lived in Huainan for a long time and defeated Sun Quan. If Manqing is to implement this strategy in Huainan himself, the people of Wu may not believe it."

"In the opinion of the general?" Man Chong asked.

Sima Yi bowed slightly towards Cao Rui and said, "Your Majesty, I thought it would be better for Manqing to be transferred to the imperial court as a Taiwei because he was older. Someone else was promoted to General Zhengdong and took charge of the war in Huainan, but Manqing was allowed to lurk in Shouchun and secretly To plan this matter. It is like Qin Baiqi acting as Wang He's move against Zhao Kuo."

Cao Rui nodded slightly, and said: "If you follow the plan of the ministers, this strategy may be feasible. I don't know who can replace Ren Manqing to succeed the southeast war."

Jiang Ji recommended: "I thought that Wang Ling, the governor of Yuzhou, could be the general of Zhengdong. Wang Ling is both civil and military. He has known Wu affairs for a long time, but he is not known to Wu people. You can let Wang Ling be promoted to general of Zhengdong, and secretly use Duke Man as the commander. Plan this strategy. And send Youzhou Tuqi to go south to the Central Plains, thinking it will cooperate."

Listening to everyone actively making suggestions, Cao Rui paced in front of the map, thinking about the risks involved, but still did not dare to make up his mind lightly.

Sima Yi hesitated for a while, and in order not to disappoint Cao Pi's kindness, he said: "Your Majesty, the people of Wu used Zhao Zhuo, a traitor, as the only way to win Jiangxia. Sun Quan will definitely feel arrogant because of this. Now if someone secretly attaches to Sun Quan, his You must think that my Great Wei lost the pass, and people's hearts are floating. Therefore, this is a good time to lure into the trap, but I missed it."

"If we carry out the strategy of conquering the east today and give Sun Quan a small benefit, he will go deep into our territory. For example, after Sun Quan seized Jiangxia from me, he attacked Xiangyang for a long time and did not retreat. If our army is prepared at that time, we will be able to defeat the Wu people a little. .If we lead to Shouchun today and let the iron cavalry go around for hundreds of miles, we will be able to encircle Sun Quan and defeat the Wu people. Renew our prestige in the Great Wei and warn those who are not ministers."

Hearing this, Cao Rui stopped in his tracks, quite touched by the words of revitalizing his prestige.

Since he succeeded to the throne, the Shu enemies have been difficult to retreat. If Cao Zhi hadn't died, there would have been a lot of discussions.Coupled with the loss of Guanzhong, people's hearts are fluctuating. If there is no more victorious war, domestic officials will definitely bad-mouth Cao Wei.When Guanzhong fell, many Guanzhong scholars returned to Shuhan, such as Lu Zhi, Du Shu, Yang Wei and others.

If Wei loses again next time, the consequences will be even more disastrous.Now there must be a victory over Wu Shu to bring hope to Great Wei. It is not impossible to exchange Hefei for the opportunity to defeat the Wu people!
Cao Rui took a deep breath, and said in a deep voice: "Since this is the case, take Wang Ling as the general who conquers the East, and Man Qing as the captain, and plot this matter secretly. This battle can only be won and not defeated!"

"No!" Everyone responded.

(Rest in peace, third master, have a good journey!)
(End of this chapter)