Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1392 Selfishness
Huang Zhong was surprised when he saw the location on the map: "The Wei army is going to cross the Yu River and take the passage between Lushan and Anle?"

"Wouldn't that mean they are advancing instead of retreating, and attacking us from behind?"

Zhuge Liang said, "Yes, this is exactly Sima Yi's style. He wants to force us to give up Wancheng by sending troops this time."

Huang Zhong was puzzled and said, "Although I don't know much about military tactics, this seems to go against common sense."

"As the saying goes, siege Wei to save Zhao, which means to attack the enemy and rescue them. Isn't he afraid that we will ignore the rear and directly connect to Luoshui, blocking it on the east bank of Yushui?"

"Also, last time he was ambushed by the Prime Minister and attacked by fire, he almost died in the valley. Now it's still the same direction and the same entry point. Doesn't he have any concerns?"

Zhuge Liang laughed and said, "General, you still say you don't know how to fight. In my opinion, you are much better than many strategists."

"Sima Yi is a suspicious person, especially since he was at a disadvantage in the past few battles, which made him even more suspicious."

"In order to prevent me from guessing his thoughts, he has changed his style of doing things. He is trying to influence my decision by sending troops, leaving me with loopholes in my troop movements."

"He is probably just sending troops this time to feint, just to make me leave Wancheng, and then he will immediately return and lead Guo Huai in Wancheng to launch a general attack on us, thus lifting the siege of Wancheng."

"The starting points of this battle are different. As long as we can drag down the Wei army here, even if we don't win, we'll have achieved our goal."

"But Sima Yi is different. He must weaken our strength and open up a way to Chang'an, so he must win. This means he has few choices."

"What he hopes to do now is to find my flaws in the troop movement. To achieve this goal, all he has to do is to trick me into moving."

"So now I will not change and will respond to any changes. If I want to trap Sima Yi, I will feint and take advantage of his gaps."

"So I will raise the army first, and then return within a day. At this time, Sima Yi's main force must be ambushing in Wancheng. I will take the opportunity to attack your rear army camp and defeat them one by one."

Huang Zhong's eyes flashed, "If that's the case."

Zhuge Liang said, "It will take more than a day to go there and back. You will have to rely on yourself to hold on during this period."

"And if I don't go far enough, the Wei army won't come out."

"Although I will leave as many firearms and crossbows as possible for the general, I cannot leave too many troops, otherwise the Wei army will not be fooled."

"So for more than a day, the general will not have any reinforcements to help him."

"Of course, if the general has any concerns, we can exchange flags. The general will make a feint attack, and I will stay behind to face the Wei army."

Huang Zhong heard this and said without hesitation: "Don't worry, Prime Minister. I will take care of it!"

"Now that the world is about to be settled, the chances to make achievements are getting fewer and fewer. I am also old and cannot fight for many more years. I will definitely seize this opportunity to stop the Wei army before the Prime Minister returns, or even defeat it!"

Zhuge Liang listened and nodded, "Okay, then I'll leave everything to you, General!"

"General, be careful in everything you do. Don't charge in too hard. Only by staying alive can you complete the military order."

At the same time, Sima Yi also led his troops to Wancheng and met with Guo Huai's combined forces.

Guo Huai said ashamedly: "The day before yesterday, Huai did not anticipate the movement of the Jin army, but sent an army to attack Wuguan. I hereby apologize to the general."

Sima Yi said: "It doesn't matter, your performance this time has far exceeded my expectations."

"We have no problems on this route, but we have big troubles on the other two routes."

"So we must retreat to Chang'an as soon as possible, otherwise in half a month, when the Jin army reinforces, we won't be able to leave."

Guo Huai said in embarrassment: "The enemy seems to have anticipated this, so they built a defense line in the north of Wancheng. If we retreat to Wuguan, they will definitely wait for an opportunity to attack us."

Sima Yi said: "That's right, and the Jin army is large and cannot be defeated by force, so we must mobilize some of their forces before we can retreat."

"I will pretend to advance eastward to Yushui, attack Lushan directly, invade Yuzhou, and threaten Shouchun and Yecheng, forcing them to return to defend."

"They will at least send half of their troops to retreat. At this time, I will rush back while crossing the river, and then attack the Jin army together to open up a gap in the return route to the west."

"Of course, because the Jin army has rockets to send messages, the time we have is very short, only one day or even half a day."

"So I will leave some of my elite soldiers to you. Regardless of whether I can get back in half a day or not, you must lead the troops to attack the Jin army's defense line and weaken its strength first."

"Zhuge Liang may leave a general to defend. You must defeat him to open a way out for us."

Guo Huai heard this and said, "Don't worry, General. I will definitely fulfill my mission!" Sima Yi said, "Okay!"

"I'll leave Liang Ji and Xu Miao here to help you. The three of you must work together to defeat the Jin army!"

Guo Huai opened his mouth but said nothing in the end. Among everyone else, his contribution this time far exceeded that of the other two. If he were to be rewarded, his contribution would probably far exceed that of Liang Ji and Xu Miao. Did the general want him to lead the two of them and share some of the credit?
But Guo Huai did not object to this. After all, he was promoted and appointed by Sima Yi. This was just a trivial matter at the moment and would not affect the overall situation at all.

The next evening, Sima Yi led his troops and marched fifty miles a day. When they arrived at the Yu River, they began to cut wood to cross the river. At that time, he was opposite the city of Lushan, which was located in the upper reaches of the Yu River. The water level in the riverbed was very shallow, so the Wei army easily built several simple bridges and the soldiers crossed the river one after another.

The Jin army in Lushan City had already noticed it and quickly set off fireworks to send a message. Sima Yi did not take it seriously and continued to urge his soldiers to cross the river and enter the dense forest south of Lushan City.

However, he did not continue to advance, but ambushed most of his troops and only sent a small number of vanguard troops to advance through the dense forest, pretending to attack the heartland of Jin State.

Sima Yi predicted that within a few hours, the Jin army camp would learn of his crossing of the river and would send troops to intercept him.

What Sima Yi had to do next was to lead his troops and wait in the dense forest, quietly waiting for dark. As soon as night fell, he would immediately cross the river in darkness and return to Wancheng immediately to break through the Jin army's defense line together with Guo Huai.

This kind of jumping left and right approach tests the soldiers' mobility. Although Sima Yi thinks that his means of reporting information are not as good as those of the Jin army, by catching the enemy by surprise, he only needs to create a window of opportunity of half a day to a day, which will be enough to find a chance of victory!

At the same time, Guo Huai also saw from the top of the city wall that the Jin army had indeed sent most of its troops to leave the camp and rush eastward. This should be because they had received news of Sima Yi's army's surprise attack on the rear and began to rush to support.

Guo Huai calculated the time. The Jin army left in the afternoon. So the time agreed upon to launch a surprise attack on the Jin army's defense line was probably late at night. Fighting in the dark meant too many variables, didn't it?

But if we launch a surprise attack at dawn, wouldn’t it be too late?

He couldn't make up his mind for a while, so he summoned Liang Ji and Xu Miao to discuss it, but he didn't expect that the two of them had a disagreement on this.

Liang Ji believed that the troops should be dispatched strictly in accordance with the previous agreement. Although fighting at dawn was dangerous, as long as the Wei army had rested well in advance, they would have a greater chance of winning against the exhausted Jin army. If they launched a surprise attack at dawn, the Jin army would have rested for a night and would be full of energy, so the chance of winning would be lower for the Wei army.

However, Xu Miao thought that there were too many variables at night. The Jin army was experienced and would definitely be prepared for an attack on the camp. The Wei army might be at a disadvantage. This would be using one's own weakness to defeat the enemy's strength. It would be safer to wait until dawn, when Sima Yi would have returned, and it would be more prudent for the two sides to join forces and attack.

As long as the remaining Jin troops were defeated within half a day, by the time the Jin troops that had left came back to support, it would be too late to change the situation, and they might even be defeated one by one by the Wei army.

Seeing the two people arguing, Guo Huai also felt a bit of a headache. If he had guessed correctly twice in a row and was full of confidence, he might not have asked Liang Ji and Xu Miao. However, he guessed wrong last time, which made Guo Huai unbalanced and worried.

People are like this. If they keep losing, they might just follow the plan honestly. But once they win, they will start to have a lucky mentality, which is also a gambler's mentality. It can be said that almost no general in a war can avoid this psychological temptation.

When Yuan Xi was young, he often made bets with others, but he always thought clearly that betting was just a means for the weaker party to turn the disadvantage around, and it was essentially speculation. If he continued to gamble like this, sooner or later he would lose everything.

So later on, Yuan Xi focused on using the strong to defeat the weak and put himself on the advantageous side, which was the correct way of military strategy.

But Guo Huai couldn't do that now. The Wei army was the weaker side. Without any unconventional strategies, there was no chance of winning. But if he used strategies, he had to prepare for the worst-case scenario that the other side would not be fooled.

Finally, Guo Huai thought again and again, and said: "We will send out the troops two hours later at three o'clock in the morning. This is when the Jin army is the most tired."

"When we reach the Jin army camp and fight for two hours, it will be almost dawn. If we still cannot defeat the Jin army, the general will arrive at this time and make the final decision."

"You two will stay in the rear, and I will personally lead the troops to attack. This battle is for the State of Wei. If I don't win, I will never retreat a single step!"

Liang Ji and Xu Miao looked at each other, then bowed and said, "Then I'll leave it to you, General!"

Both of them were civil servants, so it was normal for them not to charge into the battle at this time. However, at this moment, they had some thoughts in their minds. After they came back, they gathered together privately.

Liang Ji said: "If we win this battle, all the credit will go to Guo Huai."

“It would make us look incompetent.”

Xu Miao also had a bad look on his face. As a military advisor, he did not understand the movements of the Jin army as well as Guo Huai, which led to Sima Yi's reduced trust in him.

He thought for a moment and said, "We are stationed in Wancheng, so we may be able to send troops."

"If Guo Huai succeeds in attacking the camp, we can lead the troops out of the city in the name of helping him and get some credit. He won't have anything to say."

"Since Guo Huai has predicted the opponent twice, he is already at a loss. We can add icing on the cake this time, so there shouldn't be any problems."

Liang Ji was delighted when he heard this and said, "This is a great idea. How about you and me?"

Xu Miao said, "Everyone, go. Since the Jin army was ambushed, they naturally don't have the energy to attack Wancheng. We can just leave two generals to guard the city."

"If we're lucky, Guo Huai will defeat the enemy general, and we might be able to take advantage of the situation."

(End of this chapter)