Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1377 March
Compared with Luoyang, Chang'an, as the core city of Guanzhong, has been a strategic location since ancient times. It has convenient transportation to Guandong, and the Guanzhong Plain where it is located is surrounded by mountains, so the gate can be guarded with a small number of troops.

To the east, it is separated from Yuzhou by the Qinling Mountains and Zhongtiao Mountains. To the northeast, it faces Bingzhou across the turbulent Yellow River. To the north, there is the Loess Plateau. To the south, the continuous Qinling Mountains lie between it and Sichuan. The narrow Qiaohan Pass formed by the north and south defenses is so powerful that once the pass is blocked, one man can block the passage of ten thousand.

But in this era, Chang'an has already had a precedent of being breached. The earliest one was Liu Bang who went from the Nanyang Basin to the northwest to capture Wuguan, and then eliminated the main force of the Qin army in the Guanzhong Plain. This battle is also an extremely classic example in later generations.

In addition to Liu Bang, Liu Xiu also captured Chang'an when he destroyed the Red Eyebrow Army, but he took the Luoyang Passage in the east. For Yuan Xi, there are more examples of this route that can be verified by later generations. Not to mention Liu Yu of the Eastern Jin Dynasty who destroyed the Later Qin Dynasty, in the Tang Dynasty alone, Chang'an changed hands seven times, from An Lushan to Huang Chao. Apart from the chaos in the Tang Dynasty and the weakness of the court, all these examples of conquering Chang'an were achieved by advancing through the Luoyang Passage in the east.

In addition to the Luoyang Pass, there is another route to Chang'an in the north, which is the Yuncheng Basin between Bingzhou Taiyuan and Chang'an. If you can cross the Yellow River, you can reach Chang'an directly. The one who did this was Emperor Gaozu of Tang, Li Yuan, who fought from Taiyuan to Chang'an and established the Tang Dynasty in one battle.

Yuan Xi had done this before, so he was naturally confident about capturing Chang'an. He had been planning and laying out his plans over the years, gradually controlling the key passages leading to Chang'an in preparation for the current situation.

Although the Wei State, which occupied Chang'an, did not know the history of the Tang Dynasty at that time, Cao Cao had keenly sensed the threat of this passage before. That's why he ordered Zhong Yao to lead a large force to station in Huaicheng to hold off Yuan Xi's army and prevent them from passing through the Bingzhou passage easily. Zhong Yao lived up to expectations and held off for several years, ensuring the stability of the Sili area.

But later, Cao Cao's army was gradually weakened by Yuan Xi's bloodletting tactics, and finally had to withdraw the garrison in Huaicheng to gamble on the Battle of Yecheng. After the failure, he not only lost Yecheng, but also lost the important checkpoint of Huaicheng, allowing Yuan Xi to occupy the key channel to capture Chang'an.

The last remaining route was the Liangzhou Passage, but it was a negative example. The Western Xia Emperor Li Yuanhao wanted to send a surprise attack to capture Chang'an, but his army of 100,000 was completely wiped out by the Northern Song Dynasty in today's Liangzhou Zhenyuan. This is why, although Yuan Xi attacked Bingzhou with great fanfare, the real focus of his advance was still on the Luoyang direction.

Now Yuan Xi and Zhuge Liang finished talking about their ideas on the map. Zhuge Liang began to plan the specific routes and key points of the march according to the general plan specified by Yuan Xi. Yuan Xi nodded continuously and sighed: "Kong Ming, Chang'an may seem to be the starting point for destroying Wei, but sometimes, it is also the end point that cannot be reached in the end."

Zhuge Liang didn't understand what he meant at first, and wondered what this meant.
At this time, Yuan Xi thought of Zhuge Liang's five northern expeditions in later generations. During the last expedition, he reached Wuzhangyuan, which was only 200 miles away from Chang'an, but he suddenly died of illness, leaving himself with a sigh and endless regrets for future generations.

The strategy of Wei State in later generations to deal with Shu State was to shrink the battle line to Chang'an, lengthen the supply line of Shu army in Hanzhong, and wear down Shu State from a logistical perspective. The distance from Chang'an to Hanzhong seemed to be only 600 miles, but it was actually an extremely steep and difficult Qinling mountain road. Horses and cattle were useless on most sections of the road, and people could only march and supply logistics on foot. Whoever took the initiative to attack on this line would face great logistical pressure.

Wei could delay because it had a large territory and strong foundation, but Shu, which only occupied Yizhou, could not delay. Therefore, Zhuge Liang was forced to send troops continuously. This was the strategic disadvantage, the fundamental reason why it could not be compensated by tactical victory.

But now the situation has completely reversed. Yuan Xi put pressure on Wei from three directions, which invisibly restricted the direction of Wei's counterattack. Although it has not completely retreated to Yizhou now, it is already as stretched as the Shu Kingdom in later generations.

Seeing Zhuge Liang was confused, Yuan Xi smiled and said, "Although Chang'an looks difficult to attack, as long as we enter Tongguan, Chang'an will lose its biggest barrier."

"Assaulting checkpoints is what our Jin State is good at. I will do my best to ensure any military supplies the Prime Minister wants."

"Now that we are rich, we have to act in a way that shows our wealth. It is better to have fewer deaths than to spend more money."

Zhuge Liang said solemnly: "I know what the lord is thinking. He will not let the soldiers make unnecessary sacrifices."

"Liang already has some ideas on how to take Chang'an."

"It will be no problem to capture Tongguan. The key lies in Chang'an. Fortunately, compared with other big cities, it has a huge weakness."

Yuan Xi asked with great interest: "What did the Prime Minister say?"

Zhuge Liang said: "Although Chang'an is large, it can accommodate more troops, even twice as many as Yecheng."

"But this is not a good thing, because it means that the city wall is extremely long, and it is difficult to evenly distribute troops. Liang has calculated that in order to resist the single-point breakthrough of the Jin army, the Wei army must deploy at least 150,000 troops on the city wall, which is obviously impossible."

"When the time comes, the Jin army can use mobile siege equipment to attack weak points in the city walls, making Cao's army exhausted, and eventually they will be exposed."

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "What the Prime Minister said is exactly what I want to say."

"This time I will stay in Luoyang and provide logistics support for the Prime Minister."

Zhuge Liang smiled and said, "Your Majesty will not lead the army in person?"

Yuan Xi smiled and said, "No, the Prime Minister is the head of all officials. This is a good opportunity to increase my prestige." Zhuge Liang suddenly wanted to ask Yuan Xi why he only trusted himself and not Ju Shou or Lu Xun, but he swallowed the words when they came to his lips. Sometimes the monarch and his ministers do not need to tell everything. On the contrary, sometimes not explaining can better reflect trust.

Just like now that Yuan Xi didn't say anything, Zhuge Liang understood that the matter had not reached the point where it needed to be said. In that case, he should just concentrate on doing what he should do.

Regarding the time to send troops, Yuan Xi and Zhuge Liang had some differences. Yuan Xi believed that they should wait until the beginning of next spring, while Zhuge Liang believed that they could try to attack Tongguan first to see if they could reach Chang'an before the New Year and then take action accordingly.

Yuan Xi said worriedly, "If we send troops to conquer Chang'an, we will need at least 30,000 men, which is not a small number. But if we fail to capture Chang'an before winter, the soldiers will have to spend the winter outside the city, which will be a huge destabilizing factor for morale."

"I doubt whether the soldiers will have enough energy to fight in the spring next year."

Zhuge Liang nodded and said, "Your Majesty's concerns are reasonable. Liang also thought so at the beginning, so he was hesitant to make up his mind."

"But Liang thought about it and felt that this might not be the case."

Zhuge Liang then began to explain. Yuan Xi listened and laughed, "So this is what the Prime Minister is thinking?"

"I just don't know what Wei will do. If it's Sima Yi, he should be able to guess what the prime minister is thinking, right?"

Zhuge Liang said, "It is indeed possible, but given Sima Yi's character, he will not take the risk."

"Because if he guesses wrong, Wei will have no way out. He has always been cautious and cautious, so I'm afraid he won't express his opinion. Instead, he will adopt the method of fighting with soldiers and covering water with earth, just to avoid mistakes."

The State of Jin immediately prepared its troops. A month later, Zhuge Liang took command and led generals including Zhang He and Xu Huang to march from Luoyang to Chang'an. Soon after, the news reached the State of Wei.

At this time, Xun You died of illness, and Xin Pi was the chief military advisor. After receiving the urgent news, he was overwhelmed. Why did Jin send troops at the turn of summer and autumn?

To be fair, the weather is cool and there is less rain at this time, which is suitable for marching and fighting. However, unlike the spring when there is a large time window for sending troops, winter is less than three months away. Does the Jin army have enough confidence to capture Chang'an?
What made Xin Pi even more uneasy was that, according to the intelligence he had obtained, although Zhuge Liang was the commander-in-chief of the Jin State at first, he handed over the command of the central army to Zhang He not long after the troops were dispatched. Zhuge Liang himself went south by water and led his troops to Jiangling to join forces with Wei Yan!
This made Xin Pi panic. Does this mean that the main attack direction of the Jin army will be Nanyang, Jingzhou, instead of Chang'an?
But if I make a wrong judgment and Chang'an is the real target of the Jin army, and Chang'an is in danger, I cannot take the responsibility!
So Xin Pi rushed to the palace to see Cao Pi and said that he could not judge the intentions of the Jin army. After hearing this, Cao Pi immediately ordered Sima Yi to enter the palace.

Sima Yi was drinking and chatting with Zhang Chunhua at that time. When he heard the eunuch coming to deliver the imperial edict, he hurried out to listen to the eunuch's explanation. Then he said, "Please go back first. I am inspecting the military camp today. I am afraid that the smell on my body will be disrespectful to Your Majesty. I want to wash and burn some incense first, and then I will come."

After the eunuch left, Zhang Chunhua from the back hall came out and said, "How can my husband usually burn incense?"

Sima Yi said: "It's just to delay time. Light the spices you bought last time. I need to think about it carefully."

Zhang Chunhua heard this and took out some spices from the box and lit them. "Is the matter very troublesome?"

Sima Yi sighed, "Not only that, His Majesty will definitely ask as soon as we enter the palace. If it were anyone else, it would be fine, but it happened that the person in front of me was Zhuge Liang."

"I don't know if the other party has taken my guess into account, so I am very confused."

"Last time I was ambushed and attacked by fire, and I almost died in the valley. It was only because of heavy rain that I was able to escape. But good luck may only come once in a lifetime, and I am worried that it has run out."

"Next time I face Zhuge Liang, I don't have the confidence to win, especially since the opponent has made it clear that he will take the Nanyang Passage. If I guess wrong and lose, even if I don't die on the battlefield, I will be held accountable when I return."

Zhang Chunhua frowned after hearing this, "My husband is determined to fight, why can't he retreat while the tide is still?"

Sima Yi listened and sighed, "Before the word retreat, there is the word courage."

"I really don't have the courage to do so now, because the outcome of retreating could be even more tragic."

(End of this chapter)