Wei Ni

Chapter 66 Changes
When Huang Gai came to surrender, Chibi suffered a disastrous defeat; when Zhou Dory was sent back, Shiting suffered a disastrous defeat.

Among the many wars between Wei and Wu, the two worst defeats were because Wu sent people to feign surrender, so Wei was wary of Jiangdong's descendants.

Man Chong is no exception.

When I learned that a Zhonglang from Jiangdong sent Sun Bu a letter, claiming that he was forced by Sun Quan in Jiangdong, and that he was in danger of dying, so he wanted to lure the headquarters to abandon the dark and join the Ming Dynasty, and asked Wang Ling to send troops to support him. Man Chong, who was leisurely drinking in the office, fell into a long silence.

He thought it was funny.

After the battle between Chibi and Shiting, the thief Wu still sent people to feign surrender.

Or is it that the thief Wu has exhausted his plans to pursue Huainan, so he has to repeat his old tricks?
After sneering, there was another ray of resentment in his heart.

He felt that he was despised by Thief Wu!
The thief Wu Sunquan actually used such a cheap trick to lure the enemy again, isn't it clear that he looks down on him and deceives him that he is ignorant and foolish! ?
What made him even more speechless was that Wang Ling, who had participated in the Battle of Shiting, actually believed it!

He even asked for soldiers to meet Sun Bu.
Even though there are quite a few generals who defected from Jiangdong in these years, they were all before the Battle of Shiting~
After the Battle of Shiting, Wei State no longer had the power of Hengjiang, and there was no coup d'état or fighting in Wu State, so why Wang Ling was willing to believe that Sun Bu was sincere in surrendering?
Man Chong, who had been thinking alone for a long time but couldn't figure out the reason, simply stopped thinking about it.

Reply directly to Sun Bu instead of Wang Ling.

First, he praised Sun Bu's behavior of turning back from the wrong way and turning to the light, and then he changed the subject and directly talked about the difficulties of Wei Guo sending troops to meet them, such as the fact that there are too many soldiers to keep it secret, and it is difficult to protect Sun Bu with too few soldiers.Therefore, he asked Sun Bu to be patient for the time being, and wait for Wei Guo to think up a comprehensive plan before welcoming him into Wei.

It can be regarded as using a procrastination word to reveal the matter.

And before leaving for Luoyang, the capital, he specifically told Li Changshi that if Wang Ling came to ask for soldiers and horses to meet Sun Bu, he would refuse him on the grounds that he had no order.

Yes, Emperor Cao Rui called Man Chong back to Luoyang to report on his duties.

In the rainy autumn, when the thief Wu likes to invade Huainan the most, it seems very inappropriate to call the frontline commander back.

But Cao Rui was helpless.

Because the battle in Longyou ended with the defeat of Wei State, and the defeat was disastrous.

Cao Rui called Man Chong back because he wanted to hear his suggestions on the future strategic deployment of the whole country.

After all, among the many generals in Wei State who are in charge of soldiers and have the reputation of knowing soldiers, only Man Chong has almost no defeats and superior strategy.

Two flowers bloom, one branch each.

However, after Sima Yi arrived in Longyou, he called Zhang Yun to discuss how to defend against the invasion of Shu soldiers.

But the result of the discussion was very helpless.

In the defense system of Wei State in Tianshui County, Lucheng and Licheng in the west county in front of Qishan Mountain were used as outposts, heavy troops were stationed in Shanggu County as the rear town, and the rest of the troops were in Lueyang on the west side of Jieting. Anza.

In order to defend the road from Longyou to Guanzhong.

But there is a problem that Shu soldiers entered Longyou by more than Qishan (Maoyan Gorge).

There is also Dong Ting Road that Wei Yan walked through before.

Moreover, Dongting Road is forked, one road leads to Nan'an County, and the other leads directly to Luomenju in Tianshui.

Therefore, the Wei army could not block the Shu soldiers from Qishan Road.

Therefore, they can only stick to the city and let the main force wait for the day, and wait until it is clear which way the main force of the Shu soldiers will go, before rushing to support and guard the road.

There is also a little helplessness, because the soldiers and horses who came from Guanzhong and Luoyang, affected by the distance, could not reach Longyou before the Shu soldiers entered Tianshui County.

So far, Zhang Yun, who is stationed in Chang'an, has arrived earlier with the advantage of cavalry.

And Sima Yi, the governor, came here with only dozens of songs.

Therefore, when the Shu soldiers appeared in Tianshui County, Sima Yi and Zhang Yun did not have enough troops to stop them.

The only thing that is reassuring is that Zhang Yun learned the lessons of the first Northern Expedition of the Shu Kingdom, and when he came to Longyou, he directly guarded the Jieting Road (Guanlong Road) to prevent the Shu soldiers from strangling the Jieting again. , besieged Shangyu County, and took the lead on the battlefield with the momentum of encircling the point to fight for aid.

In fact, Zhang Yun deserves to be praised by Liu Bei.

Shu Prime Minister Zhuge Liang's advance was still very fast this time, but he sent out troops to guard Lucheng and Licheng, and then directly brought the main force to Shanggu City.

Its intention is also very obvious. It intends to occupy the farmland in Shangyu County first and then feed on the enemy, so as to get rid of the biggest disadvantages of difficult roads to Shu and inconvenient transportation of grain and fodder.

Just a pity.

Guo Huai, who was instructed by the emperor Cao Rui, took the first step and sent troops to camp on the road outside the city to gamble the road.

Moreover, this camp is in a corner with Shangyu City, and Zhang Xi has already led the cavalry to arrive. If the Shu army attacks by force, it will easily be attacked by the Wei army.

Of course, Guo Huai couldn't keep all the roads.

Moreover, many of the wheat fields in Tianshui County are planted with winter wheat, and the harvest time is in summer and April.

Therefore, the Shu soldiers successfully snatched up some.

This gave Sima Yi a headache.

There were few Li Shu in Longyou, so naturally they didn't have much food and fodder reserves, and it was too far to transfer from Guanzhong, and now some of them were snatched by Shu soldiers, which naturally made it difficult for the soldiers and horses who rushed from Guanzhong one after another to eat.

Fortunately, Guo Huai, who had guarded Longyou for many years, played a role at this time.

He sent people to collect food and grass from the Qianghu tribes that were dependent on Wei.

And pay special attention to the principle of "don't worry about the few but worry about the unevenness". The population of each tribe is collected and adjusted, so that all the Qiang and Hu tribes dare not violate it.

Those Qianghu tribes can't do anything~
In the early years, Xia Houyuan beat him to lose his temper, and later Guo Huai "killed chickens to scare monkeys" a lot. Now that all the ministries of Yong and Liang in Wei State are on their side, which tribe dares not to give out food?
In particular, they did not dare to vote in Shu.

Didn't you see that when the Shu army left Longyou for the first time, those tribes who raised troops to respond were finally invited by the Wei army to settle accounts and slaughter them all to add nutrients to the land?

At the end of April in Xia, after all the ministries of Yongliang and Luoyang of Wei State and the Central Army of Luoyang arrived, Zhuge Liang, Prime Minister of Shu, led his troops to retreat slowly.

Yes, retreat, not strike back.

In the case that harvesting other wheat fields could not be fulfilled, the Shu army had to choose a battlefield that was more suitable for them.

It was to change the front army into the rear army, step by step, and retreat to Lucheng in Xixian County.

In this regard, Sima Yi kept Fei Yao and the guard Dai Ling to lead [-] troops to garrison Shangyu City, and personally led Zhang He, Guo Huai and other generals to lead the tail southward.

Yes, not chasing, but going south.

When the Shu soldiers took a step back, he took a step forward, and every time Zhuge Liang, the Prime Minister of Shu, stopped and sent troops to form a formation, intending to fight a fierce battle with the Wei army, he strictly ordered all the ministries not to go out to fight.
It's as if he led his troops south to "send the Shu army out of the country".

This approach, the explanation he gave was to march to the two defensive points of Lucheng and Licheng, so that the besieged soldiers would see that the reinforcements had arrived, so that their morale was greatly shaken and they continued to hold on.

But it also attracted the opposition of most generals.

Zhang He is no exception.

He felt that it was right for Sima Yi not to fight fiercely with the Shu soldiers, but he shouldn't follow them like this.

The soldiers of Shu are guest troops, and the limited food and fodder transfer must be for a quick battle; while the Wei army, as the defending side, avoids fighting and slowly consumes their vigor and morale. This approach is well versed in the essence of the art of war.

But the Shu soldiers all retreated, why did Sima Yi follow?
The Kingdom of Shu has already occupied the two counties of Wudu and Yinping!

Judging from the supply distance of the subsequent grain and fodder, the supply line of Wei State in Lucheng has caught up with Shu State!

Isn't this offsetting his own advantages?

The rest of the generals retorted because they thought Sima Yi was too cowardly.

Now that they were all chased, why didn't they dare to fight when the Shu soldiers sent troops to challenge?

Could it be that Sima Yi took them south to let them see the Shu soldiers showing off their power and hear the Shu soldiers' insults and humiliations more clearly?

At this time, the disadvantage of Sima Yifu's lack of prestige when he came to Yongliang appeared.

Although Zhang Yun suppressed the other generals for him, but he insisted on leading his troops southward and rejected the invitations of the generals many times, finally some generals Jia Xu (also known as Jia Si) and Wei Ping couldn't hold back, and openly said: There is a famous saying through the ages: "The public is as afraid of Shu as a tiger, but why the world laugh!"

This embarrassed Sima Yi.

Almost crushed all the teeth in his mouth.

Because he didn't dare to fight, but felt that the time hadn't come——

In fact, he was imitating Lu Xun's practice in the battle of Yiling in the past.

During the Battle of Yiling, Lu Xun avoided the battle for six months, and decided to counterattack after the Shu soldiers lost their vigor and guarded.It was only by cutting off Liu Bei's retreat with an elite navy, and then arriving at the camp of the Shu army in an instant with boats and ships, that he was able to make a contribution in one fell swoop.

And he also has the opportunity to cut off the back of the Shu soldiers.

After Zhang He objected to him leading troops to the south to no avail, he also proposed another tactic.

It was the opposite of Wei Yan's defeat of Fei Yao and Guo Huai last year, and personally led the troops along Dongting Road to the rear of the Shu soldiers to attack the Shu soldiers' food roads.

It's just that Sima Yi is not Lu Xun, and Zhuge Liang, Prime Minister of Shu, is not Liu Bei.

Zhuge Liang, Prime Minister of Shu, had expected this a long time ago. After leading his troops back to Lucheng, he set up camp and built fortifications.

If Zhang Yun dared to go around, it is not known whether he was disturbing the grain road or throwing himself into a trap!

Furthermore, there is another point that Sima Yi miscalculated.

That is the undulating mountains and streams in the area around Lucheng, which is an excellent battlefield for the Shu soldiers who are good at fighting in the mountains, but for the Wei State, which is dominated by cavalry, the cavalry is useless.

In this way, how could Sima Yi succeed in re-enacting Lu Xun's approach to the Battle of Yiling?
How can there be two identical leaves in the world!
However, Sima Yi was stubborn and still insisted on his own ideas.

And when the two armies confronted each other until Xia Wuyue, he also imitated Lu Xun's method of attacking the Shu army's camp to see the truth before counterattacking, and planned to lead troops to try to fight.

In fact, he still wanted to wait a little longer and try again.

It's just that he didn't dare to wait any longer.

Because public anger is hard to offend.

After generals Jia Xu and Wei Ping openly questioned and humiliated him, other generals began to imitate the "fear of Shu like a tiger" spread in the army, and even the cook was catchy.

Moreover, Zhang Yun, who had helped him suppress the generals of various ministries, also began to have opinions on him after his suggestions were repeatedly rejected by him.

Instead, he brought out Cao Rui's letter, first praised Sima Yi's way of avoiding the war won the favor of the emperor, and then changed the subject and asked him to lead the troops back to Shangyu County.

The reason given is that the problem of too long grain roads should be shortened at a time when there is a shortage of crops.

And now that they go back early, they can also deploy their defenses, so that even if the Shu soldiers go north again, they will not be able to grab the wheat during the autumn harvest.

But Sima Yi knew it in his heart after hearing it.

This is Zhang Xi's cryptic notification, and he can hardly suppress the anger of many generals.

Yes, I can't hold back.

Zhang He is very experienced and has a high official position, but he is not a governor after all, and the other generals are not known as subordinates to him, so naturally they will not always listen to his persuasion.

Especially, now even the soldiers at the lowest level feel that Sima Yi is cowardly~
How could he suppress it!

If it weren't for Wei Guo's strict military laws, there might have been troubles to seize power.

Therefore, Sima Yi planned to try the reality of Shu soldiers.

If he wins, he will gain prestige, and he can appease the general's emotions, and everyone will be happy; if he loses, he will come back and continue to confront each other, waiting for the opportunity he imagined to come.

And before the battle, based on the consideration that the emperor asked Qin Lang and others to belong to Zhang Yun as soldiers, he also asked Zhang Yun if he could fight this battle.

Zhang He did not object to this.

Or rather, he couldn't object.

Sima Yi even rejected his proposal to withdraw the entire army to Shanggu County. If he opposed going to war, the accusation of "fearing Shu like a tiger" would be transferred to him~
Originating from the fact that Lucheng was built along the extension of the mountain on the south side, the camp of Zhuge Liang, Prime Minister of Shu, was also divided into two parts.

It was he who supervised the main force to camp on the road between the West Han River and Qishan Mountain. Don't send Wang Ping to lead Wudang's flying army to build fortifications on the south side of Qishan Mountain (known as Nanwei in history), so as to completely isolate the Wei army from going south by land and water. channel.

However, Sima Yi's deployment was to lead the main force to challenge Zhuge Liang's camp, Prime Minister of Shu, and let Zhang He lead a partial force to attack Wang Ping's Nanwei.

But the results were disastrous.

When the cavalry was useless, Zhang Xi was completely unable to shake Wang Ping's defense, and returned home in defeat.

It was even worse for Sima Yi.

Zhuge Liang, Prime Minister of Shu, didn't bother to stick to the camp, and directly sent Wei Yan, Gao Xiang, Wu Ban and other generals to lead troops out to fight in the field, defeating the Wei army.

There are three thousand levels for the first armor alone!
When searching the battlefield, a total of [-] black armors and [-] horned crossbows were obtained!

Jiashou is the main elite soldier with complete armor and armor, not a county soldier or a scholar of the Wei State.

And why the black armor has [-] collars, but the head is only [-]? That's because when the soldiers were defeated, in order to reduce the burden of fleeing the battlefield, the soldiers threw away their helmets and armors while fleeing.

After this battle, the generals of Yongliang and other ministries no longer called for battles.

But Sima Yi did not retreat, but continued to return to the camp to guard, and Zhang Xi did not advise him to withdraw his troops.

Because if you lose, you can't retreat.

Otherwise, once the Shu soldiers chased after them, the soldiers with low morale would flee regardless of the restraint of the general rate, which would cause the entire army to collapse for thousands of miles.

Shu soldiers did not come to attack the camp.

The reason is that Shu has a small population and cannot bear the heavy casualties of an attack.

After a month of confrontation between the two sides, a turning point appeared.

Li Yan, the Hussar General of Shu who led troops into Hanzhong County last year to assist in the defense, and is now in charge of supplying food and fodder to the frontline in Hanzhong County, wrote a letter to Zhuge Liang, the Prime Minister of Shu, claiming that due to the continuous heavy rain south of the Qinling Mountains, the supply of food and fodder was no longer available. Got it.

Yes, there are many coincidences in the world.

Last year, when Cao Zhen attacked Shu, he was drenched by more than 30 consecutive days of heavy rain.

But this year, when the Shu Kingdom was in a great advantage, there was continuous heavy rain, which made the Shu army unable to continue to supply food and fodder.

In desperation, Zhuge Liang, Prime Minister of Shu, who originally planned to wait until the end of July to lead troops northward to snatch away food from the farmland in Shangyu County of Wei State, decided to strike back and go back.

It was also at this time that Sima Yi felt that the opportunity he had been waiting for had arrived!
He's going to chase.

However, Zhang He felt that returning to his teacher should not be stopped, and he mentioned the letter of Emperor Cao Rui again, claiming that it should not be pursued.

Sima Yi couldn't hold on.

Because Zhang He respected him a lot during this battle, and he tried his best to suppress the arrogance of the generals for him, but he never took Zhang He's advice once.

If he was forcing him now, maybe Zhang Yun would become angry from embarrassment and directly ask "Did the governor not even follow His Majesty's edict?"

But he didn't give up either.

From Yushu to the present, he has been accused of "fearing Shu like a tiger", and also violated the strategic intention of the emperor to avoid fighting and not to fight. After paying so much to usher in the imaginary opportunity, how can he give up easily?
If he gave up, wouldn't that just confirm his statement that he was incapable of controlling Shu?
Going in pursuit, you don't need a big victory, you don't need to capture many heads, as long as you can search for some inconvenient transport luggage left by the Shu soldiers, you can also save some face~
So he first recruited Wei Ping, who was the fiercest in the previous battle, and asked him directly if he dared to pursue the Shu soldiers.

After getting an affirmative reply, he asked Zhang Yun if he would lead the cavalry to take Dongting Road to cut off the return route of the Shu army; .

It also gave Zhang Xi no reason to refuse.

Anyway, Sima Yi is the governor after all.

And they all asked in a discussion tone, and he was too unreasonable.

Therefore, the pursuit has become a conclusion.

Wei Ping, who generously agreed to go after him, had always been Cao Zhen's subordinate. He had been stationed in Yongliang for many years, and his achievements were no less than Fei Yao's. It's just that he didn't follow Zhang Yun to attack Jieting, so his official position was lower than Fei Yao's.

He was also very decisive, leading the headquarters to look at the wooden doorway where the Shu soldiers retreated, and chased after it bravely and fearlessly.

Then, he died.

He was shot dead by the crossbowmen set up in advance by Zhuge Liang, Prime Minister of Shu.

Sima Yi, who led the army behind, gave up the idea of ​​continuing to pursue, and sent someone to call back Zhang Yun who had already set off.

So far, the war is over.

And in the Luoyang temple, I also learned more shocking news——

If the soldiers of Shu strike and go back for seven or eight days, all ministries in Yongliang and Liang of Wei will be completely disabled, and Longyou will no longer be owned by Wei!
The reason is that Zhuge Liang, Prime Minister of Shu, also formed an alliance with Ke Bineng, an adult of the Xianbei tribe!

After several unsatisfactory Northern Expeditions, and knowing his ally Jiangdong, Shu Prime Minister Zhuge Liang sent someone to find Ke Bineng before sending troops in order to have a higher chance of winning this Northern Expedition.

Ke Bineng is now the most promising tribe leader to unify Xianbei.

However, in order to prevent the northern frontiers from becoming inflamed, the State of Wei obstructed the growth of the Ke Bineng tribe by means of division and favoritism, and correspondingly protected many other Xianbei tribe adults who had enmity with Ke Bineng.

It can be said that Ke Bi Neng was full of anger towards Wei Guo.

Therefore, when the envoy of Zhuge Liang, Prime Minister of Shu found him, he claimed that the Kingdom of Shu planned to form an alliance with him, and when the Northern Expedition of the Kingdom of Shu was attracting troops from the Yong and Liang tribes of the Kingdom of Wei, they asked him to launch an attack from the rear. When Liang's main force was gone, he agreed without saying a word.

And also very scheming, when summoning the soldiers and horses of the tribes under his command, he specially led his kindred people and Mr. Ding Ling to practice famous horses in Youzhou, so as to paralyze the state of Wei.

Wei Guo really did not suspect him.

Because in the past few years, Ke Bineng had proclaimed himself a minister to the State of Wei, and was named King Fuyi by Cao Rui.

Therefore, the emperor Cao Rui learned about Dayue, and on the grounds that there was no longer any border troubles in the northern border, he restored the protection of the Xiongnu Zhonglang, and focused the war in the northern border on the southern Huns who moved to Bingzhou and became stronger day by day.

Seeing this, Ke Bineng, who had a plan, immediately led all the tribes, large and small, across the entire Hetao Plain, bypassing Xiaoguan and entering the Shicheng in the upper reaches of Changli River in Longyou. At the time of the sword strike, the Shu army stopped and returned at this time because of the lack of food.

Of course Ke Bineng didn't dare to fight against the main force of Wei Guoyong and Liang alone.

He could only hold back the resentment of working in vain, and with contempt for the untrustworthy soldiers of Shu, he set off in despair before Wei Guo knew what he was doing.

But his whereabouts were eventually found out by Wei Guo.

After the spy was dispatched to bribe the little leader of the Xianbei tribe, the state of Wei found out about his alliance with the state of Shu.

After the emperor Cao Rui learned of the whole past, he was very grateful, and he was also very grateful to Li Yan, the Tuogu Minister of Shu.If Li Yan is willing to come to the Kingdom of Wei, he can be directly appointed as Hussar General, and he will be granted three thousand households as the Marquis of the county as a reward!

Because Wei Guo was able to keep Longyou without losing in this battle, the biggest hero was Li Yan who claimed that the supply of food and fodder was not enough, so that Zhuge Liang, the Prime Minister of Shu, had no choice but to stop his troops and return~
It was precisely because of the disastrous defeat in Longyou, and the fact that Ke Bi Neng would not be a minister in the future that there would be troubles in northern Xinjiang, that the emperor Cao Rui had the move to order Man Chong to return to the capital Luoyang for discussion.

But in Shouchun, Huainan, Xia Houhui, who learned about the result of the Longyou War from Li Changshi, was a little dazed.

Wei Ping is dead, but Zhang Yun is not dead!

Because the strategy of "Shu Ziwei" he advised was adopted by Emperor Cao Rui and put into practice, the trajectory of history began to change
The battle in Longyou deviated from the historical track, so will the Huainan battlefield also change?
Is the thief Wu Sunquan still as unarmed as in history?
There will be no accidents, right?
This is what Xia Houhui is thinking about now.

Because just now Li Changshi told him that Wang Ling had come to beg for soldiers and horses.

After being rejected by Li Changshi with the military law of not being able to transfer troops without full favors, Wang Ling mobilized a county soldier of about 700 people with the authority of Yangzhou governor, and he will go to welcome Sun Bu into Wei soon. up.

And Xia Houhui's conjectural merit is that the mantis caught the cicada and the oriole followed, and brought back the head of Sun Bu who had feigned surrender.

(End of this chapter)