Ji Han Da Sima

Chapter 584 I know Boyan
October, Wuhan.

From autumn to winter, the temperature in the south dropped sharply, and the people in the capital gradually put on thick clothes.

In the early morning, Huo Jun got up early. After washing and eating, he took a carriage to the Chancery to handle the important affairs of the Chancery.

The work functions of Lu Shangshu Shi and Shangshu Ling are different. Shangshu Ling can seem to be the secretary-general, responsible for the daily and trivial work content in the Shangshu desk. When it comes to key and important work content, the Shangshu Ling needs to report to the emperor or the person who records the Shangshu affairs.

Ping Shangshu Shi is different from Lu Shangshu Shi. He has the qualifications to participate in major affairs but not to decide on affairs.

In the Southern Han Dynasty today, Huo Jun and Zhuge Liang were responsible for recording the affairs of the ministers; Xu Shu and Zhang Fei were responsible for the affairs of the ordinary ministers. Therefore, after Zhuge Liang led some troops to march west of Taichung, Shang Shu reported major events in Taichung to Huo Jun.

When he arrived at the Shangshu Desk, Huo Jun went about his business and held a regular meeting with Sun Shao, the Shangshu Ling, and then read the letters sent from Zhuge Liang.

After Zhuge Liang entered Shu, the scattered Bashu prefecture seemed to be activated. First, Wang Ping killed Huang Yuan and put an end to the Hanjia Rebellion; then the Wenshan Qiang were defeated by Ma Zhong, and all the Qiang people surrendered.

During Zhuge Liang's stay in Chengdu, he communicated with Li Xian, Li Hui, Ma Zhong, Zhang Yi and other outstanding figures in Shu, and selected and recruited many outstanding talents to serve in the government or Taichung.

For example, Ma Zhong was promoted by Zhuge Liang because of his meritorious service in pacifying the barbarians, and was made the governor of Xianggao from afar; Wang Shi, the former governor of Jianwei, was unfortunately killed when barbarians invaded the border. He Zhi was valued by Zhuge Liang because of his outstanding talents, and he was promoted to the prefect of Qianwei.

Zhuge Liang stayed in Shuzhong for several months and learned about the reality of Nanzhong from Li Yan, Li Hui, Ma Zhong and others. At Li Hui's suggestion, Zhuge Liang prepared to take advantage of the cold weather and the reduction of miasma and poisons in Nanzhong to lead his troops to conquer the four counties of Nanzhong.

Zhuge Liang enlisted Li Hui and Ma Di to join the army, and led an army of more than 20,000 people to march southward to conquer Gaoding, the barbarian king of Yuexun County; Li Yan, the governor of the southern region, led an army of 10,000 people to march south from Zhuti, aiming for Yizhou County; Thousands of troops marched eastward, aiming at Xianggao County.

In order to completely wipe out the disobedient southern barbarians, Zhuge Liang also asked Lu Dai, the governor of Jiaozhou, to send soldiers from Jiaozhi County to the west along the Lingdao Road to deal with the evil barbarians entrenched in the southern part of Yizhou and Yuexi counties, and then join the army at Dian Lake.

Before the southern expedition was about to begin, Zhuge Liang did not forget the Jianghuai war and asked how the war was going and whether he wanted to change his plan and send Bashu troops out of the Three Gorges to participate in Wu Chu's war against Wei.

Huo Jun smiled knowingly when he saw that Zhuge Liang was still thinking about the Jianghuai war even after he went on an expedition.

Huo Jun picked up the brush, considered it a bit, and then stated in the letter that Zhuge Liang should rest assured about the southern expedition. Although the situation on the Jianghuai battlefield was not optimistic, at least it was within his expectations.

In the letter, Huo Jun asked Zhuge Liang to pay more attention to Yuexun County. He said that Yuexun County had been abandoned since the Han Dynasty and it was difficult for officials to take up their posts. It was different from Yizhou County. He suggested that Zhuge Liang send someone who was good at appeasing the barbarians to take office.

Huo Jun put the letter into a wooden box, sealed it with ink, and said, "Come here, take the letter to Yizhou and give it to Prime Minister Ge!"

"promise!"

Not long after the courier received the order and left, Shangshu servant Shefei Guan came over in a hurry and said: "Da Sima, there is an urgent letter from Jianghuai!"

"But the land chariot is riding on the road?" Huo Jun asked.

"In addition to letters from Lu Chariot and Cavalry, there are also letters from General Jiang Ji!" Fei Guan replied.

"Zitong's letter?"

Huo Jun muttered and frowned slightly.

Jiang Ji was responsible for coordinating the generals in Huaidong, and obeyed Lu Xun's deployment in the army, so he was not ordinary. Unless there is a difficult matter in the army that neither Lu Xun nor he can handle, or when Lu Xun's military plan goes against everyone else, Jiang Ji will assume the responsibility of supervising the army and report to him.

With a bad feeling, Huo Jun opened the letters from Lu Xun and Jiang Ji.

The first is Lu Xun's letter. In the letter, Lu Xun analyzed the current battlefield situation and said that the morale of the Wei army was strong and it was not easy to fight against it now. The strong city should be used to weaken the morale of the Wei army. When the Later Han Dynasty talked about Xiapi City, Lu Xun gave an explanation for his failure to station troops.

At the end of the letter, Lu Xun said that Xiapi and Zhongli could still hold on for a long time, and there was no need to take risks to rescue Xiapi. Therefore, he rejected Huo Du's request to send troops, hoping that Huo Jun would understand him. And if Huo Youzhi does not surrender, Xiapi City will definitely be able to hold on until spring.

After browsing Lu Xun's letters, Huo Jun already knew it in his heart. There must be a conflict between Huo Du and Lu Xun over whether to rescue Huo Youzhi. One is passionate about his son, and the other is military-oriented.

With a slight sigh, Huo Jun opened Jiang Ji's letter. Seeing that Jiang Ji told Huo Jun what happened from an objective perspective in his letter, he also said that Huo Du would not use troops without authorization under his comfort.

Seeing the change in Huo Jun's expression, Fei Guan asked, "May I ask Grand Sima, what happened to the Jianghuai army? But it is difficult to hold on to Xiapi and Zhongli cities?"

"No!"

Huo Jun handed the letter to Fei Guan and said lightly: "It's just because of the incident on the front line that there was a gap between Boyan and his subordinates. Now that Zitong has reconciled it, I think it will be fine!"

While Fei Guan was reading the letter, Huo Jun walked to the map and thought about what Lu Xun said in the letter.

The Wei army's goal was Huaidong, hoping to break through the two cities of Zhongli and Xiapi, and then the two armies would join forces to attack Huaiyin. Once Huaiyin is defeated, the Wei army can sweep across Huainan.

Although Xiapi City is flooded today, the inner city has been repaired before. With Huo You's men and horses, facing Xiahou Shang's siege, it is not a big problem to defend until spring. And once the main force of the Wei army is defeated, Xiapi City does not need to be rescued, and there is no need for rescue. As Lu Xun said, it will relieve itself from the siege.

In Zhongli, Cao Wei built a pontoon bridge based on Shaoyangzhou to connect the north and south of the Huai River. More than 100,000 soldiers and civilians traveled through the pontoon bridge. As for the layout of the Wei army, Cao Ren and Cao Xiu besieged Zhongli City, Xiahou Ru stationed troops in Shaoyangzhou, and Cao Hong was stationed in Huaibei. According to Huo Jun's previous thoughts, he wanted to learn from Wei Rui's method of defeating the Northern Wei Dynasty, by occupying Shaoyangzhou and then cutting the Wei army, defeating the Wei army that consumed Huainan, thereby achieving the effect of a war of annihilation.

Today, the Northern Wei of the Han Dynasty appears to be smarter than the Northern Wei of Xianbei. In other words, with the help of military advisors like Liu Ye who are good at the Jianghuai region, the Wei army is well aware of the importance of Shaoyangzhou, so it has a tight layout. In addition to deploying large armies, it also builds high platforms. Enter the Chen Gong crossbowman.

Judging from what Lu Xun said in his reply, it is probably impossible to replicate Wei Rui's move to settle in Shaoyangzhou to defeat the Northern Wei army. It is even said that once stationed in Shaoyangzhou, it will arouse the vigilance of the Wei army. The Huainan Wei army may abandon Zhongli and directly march westward to Shouchun.

The different situations between the enemy and ourselves meant that the Battle of Zhongli between Wei and Han was destined to be fought differently from the Battle of Zhongli between Wei and Liang. Although the situation was different, Huo Jun never gave up on the idea of ​​a war of annihilation.

The essence of the annihilation war is to use the mountains and rivers on the battlefield to cut off the enemy's army, and then use superior forces to surround the enemy's army, thereby achieving the purpose of annihilating the enemy's main force.

The key reason why the Qin army led by Bai Qi was able to surround Zhao Kuo's army lay in the existence of mountains and rivers in the Shangdang area. Bai Qi first feigned defeat to attract Zhao Kuo to pursue him, and then used his superior force to penetrate Zhao Kuo's back, thereby attacking Zhao Kuo's back. Zhao Kuo's main force surrounded him and destroyed him in one battle.

"Huaishui!"

Huo Jun pointed to the Huaihe River on the map and whispered to himself.

What has the most water in the Jianghuai region is water. Unless people have excellent water skills, most people will have difficulty crossing the river without using a boat. Obviously there are not many people in Cao Wei's army who have excellent water properties.

The most taboo thing about fighting across rivers is the lack of control over the river. For example, in modern warfare, there is a lack of air superiority.

How to use rivers to defeat the Wei army now is a difficult problem for Huo Jun.

Of course, the more difficult thing is how to defeat the Wei army and lay a good start for the subsequent Battle of Shouchun.

Historically, after Wei Rui defeated the Wei army at Zhongli, Nanliang did not conquer Shouchun, but it was not until twenty years later that Nanliang conquered Shouchun City.

Let alone twenty years from now, Huo Jun can't even wait for five or six years. If Cao Wei cannot seize the opportunity to pursue the victory and further expand the victory, Cao Wei's strength can be delayed for a few years, and by squeezing the people, he can draw out hundreds of thousands of mobile troops.

Don't think it's impossible. Historically, after the Shu Han Dynasty experienced the Yiling Battle, Zhuge Liang took five years to recuperate and then led a large army to the Northern Expedition from Shuzhong alone. The population of Cao Wei is higher than that of Shu Han, and because of its vast territory and twenty years of peace in the north, why not wait for a few years and then pull out dozens of armies.

Cao Wei has Hebei in hand and can never be underestimated. After Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao, he was also defeated by two Yuan. Based on Hebei, the Northern Wei Dynasty repeatedly launched southern expeditions, defeated the armies of the Southern Dynasties, and occupied the states in Henan.

Now, in order to quickly launch the Battle of Shouchun after defeating the Wei army, Huo Jun must use his troops carefully. Just like the Battle of Chrysostom more than ten years ago, after defeating Cao Cao, they quickly occupied Nanjun instead of falling into the protracted Battle of Jiangling.

"Da Sima!"

Seeing Huo Jun pondering over the map, Fei Guan cautiously said: "According to the letter, the Zhongli moat was filled up, and the Wei army attacked the city with rams and weapons. Now that the enemy is numerous and we are few, we are afraid that the two cities will be lost. It is better to send reinforcements and chariots. General, let him contain the bandit army until the great Sima soldiers arrive!"

Huo Jun shook his head and said: "Sima Yi led his troops to surround Fancheng, and in order to prevent bandits from raiding Xiakou, Jianghan soldiers and horses are not available. The soldiers and horses of the capital's forbidden army are temporarily unavailable until it is time to use force."

If we forcefully withdraw troops and horses now, Zhuge Liang can be asked to give up the southern expedition and lead his troops eastward to Huaiyin. However, it is tens of thousands of miles from Bashu to Huaiyin. It will take one to two months to assemble and travel, or even longer. time. By the time the Shu soldiers arrive at the front line, it will be spring.

Moreover, the soldiers and horses of Bashu were mobilized. Once the situation in South China deteriorates or there is another rebellion in Bashu, Bashu will have no troops available in the short term and will fall into chaos. To be on the safe side, Huo Jun did not plan to deploy Bashu soldiers and horses, but asked Zhuge Liang to march south normally.

"General Huo has been favoring the mountains for more than two years now. There are no less than a hundred thousand people who have come out of the mountains and surrendered in the far reaches of the mountains. Now it is better to order Huo Fuyue to lead the troops to surrender and go north, in order to strengthen the army."

Fei Guan pondered for a while and suggested: "Or let Governor Pang lead the Huaixi troops to march eastward!"

"The Huaixi troops and horses are not yet available for use!"

Huo Jun paced and said hesitantly: "As for returning to Shanyue?"

"It can't be used either!"

Huo Jun said in a firm tone: "The mountain people have just surrendered. How can we rush into the army? If we send the mountain people north now, if there is a disturbance, it will harm the army."

"Then what should we do if Zhongli and Xiapi are defeated because of the lack of troops?" Fei Guan said worriedly.

"I have no intention of begging for soldiers and horses, so why worry about this!"

Huo Jun put his hand on his belt and said in a deep voice: "Lu Boyan, I know he is capable!"

Compared with Fei Guan's doubts, Huo Jun believed more in the letter sent back by Lu Xun before the battle. He had the same view as Jia Xu, and Lu Xun knew the strength of the army.

What does it mean to know the military strength?
That is to say, Lu Xun's judgment of the situation between the enemy and ourselves can be said to be his strongest point!

(End of this chapter)