My younger brother Zhuge Liang
Chapter 472: This time it is the turn of the third brother and Xingba to make achievements
Chapter 472: This time it is the turn of the third brother and Xingba to make achievements
Liu Bei made up his mind to counterbalance Cao Cao's invasion of Shu by supporting Liu Zhang.
It was also a golden opportunity for him to infiltrate Shu with his own military strength while seizing the righteous reputation of supporting his allies, thus gaining both name and reality, "having both and more."
After the route direction is finalized, there is of course still a lot of tedious work to be done.
After all, in order to ensure both name and reality, Liu Bei had to use diplomacy first and wait. Liu Zhang had to take the initiative to invite him, or at least Liu Zhang had to agree to his entry into Sichuan. If he did not negotiate with Liu Zhang and sent troops directly, the reputation card would be wasted.
The road to Shu was difficult. Even if Liu Bei sent an envoy immediately, it would take at least three months to go back and forth. Who knew how far Cao Cao could advance in these three months, and whether the situation in Shu would deteriorate?
Thinking of this, Liu Bei made a prompt decision and urgently discussed with Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong: "Kong Ming, Shi Yuan, the road to Shu is long and dangerous. Even if Ziqiao is in Shu and runs for us, it may take several months for him to make a round trip.
If Liu Jiyu doesn't send Ziqiao, and we have to go and invite him, it will be even slower. I want to move the General of Chariots and Cavalry's headquarters back to Wuchang so that I can contact Liu Jiyu more quickly. What do you think?"
Pang Tong was a practical man. Hearing this, he immediately advised more radically: "Since we want to buy time, it is better to go directly to Changsha County than to Wuchang. Well, Changsha County is too far away. We have to go deep into Dongting Lake and Xiangjiang River. It's a detour. It's better to move to Baqiu (Yueyang)."
Zhuge Liang, however, was more concerned about legitimacy than Pang Tong. After thinking about it, he tactfully compromised and said, "It is better not to move the shogunate easily. The lord is in Wuchang and already has the Wuchang Marquisate. You can just go back to Wuchang under the pretext of a temporary inspection.
When we get to Wuchang, it will be a natural thing to do if we decide to inspect the counties and territories in southern Jing at the same time, and we can also adapt to the situation.”
Liu Bei thought about it and it made sense. Moving the shogunate was too big and too formal, and it would easily cost a lot of money and manpower. In this case, it would be better to keep the shogunate in Hefei and only take part of the army westward to wait at a place closer to the Jingyi border.
Liu Bei decided, "We will temporarily tour and leave Hefei. There is nothing wrong with that, but it will be more difficult to contact Ziyu later. I can only rely on you for the decision-making here. I can no longer discuss everything with Ziyu. Among all the generals under your command, which one would be better to take with the army to the west?"
Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong had an urgent discussion and finally came to similar conclusions:
In order to take into account the combat effectiveness of the mobilized troops, the defensive capabilities of the various lines of defense that were originally in a stalemate with Cao's army, and the convenience of personnel transfers, it is best to transfer most of the troops around the "Hefei War Zone" and follow Liu Bei directly to Jingnan.
At the same time, troops were transferred back from the Xu and Yang directions to fill the manpower in the Hefei Huainan defense zone.
Zhuge Liang explained to Liu Bei the reason for the deployment: "My Lord, the troops around Hefei can be mobilized immediately, and the notification is fast. There is no need for additional reorganization. We can set out as soon as the order is given.
Moreover, the generals of Huainan have been by the lord's side for the past two years, and the soldiers and generals know each other well, and they can use each other like an arm. Therefore, we can select the garrisons in the three counties of Runan, Huainan, and Lujiang, and draw more than half of them to follow the lord to the south and west.
Then, some rear troops were temporarily transferred from Guangling County, Wuhui and other places to urgently fill the Huainan defense line. Later, Yunchang was entrusted to temporarily control the Huainan generals and coordinate the eastern defense. Yunchang could also transfer Shuzhi (Chen Dao), Zhongda (Gao Shun) and other generals from Xuzhou to defend Runan and Shouchun respectively. "
Liu Bei immediately approved the arrangement and ordered Gan Ning, who was stationed in Shouchun, to reorganize the local troops and follow Liu Bei southward.
At the same time, he also sent people to Runan nearby to pass on the order, asking Wei Yan to lead part of the garrison to Wuchang first. Considering that Wei Yan's defense area was further west, he did not need to gather in Hefei first, so he was asked to go directly from Runan to the south, cross the Xinyang Valley Road of Tongbai Mountain, and go to Wuchang by land to wait.
Because the road conditions in the mountainous area were poor and it was difficult to carry food and supplies, Wei Yan's troops did not need to carry too much. They only had to carry ten days' worth of food with them, and someone would resupply them after they arrived in Wuchang.
After all, we are fighting on home ground and marching inland. We can eat wherever we go, so it doesn't matter if the road is a little difficult.
After issuing these orders, Liu Bei himself did not dare to delay any longer and boarded a ship in Hefei, went down the Fei River, Chaohu Lake, and Rushu River, turned into the Yangtze River and went upstream to Wuchang.
There are other unresolved matters that can be dealt with slowly during the march, and the most important thing right now is to save time.
If Liu Bei's army can successfully enter Sichuan in the future, the main combat power will be provided by Zhang Fei, Gan Ning, Wei Yan and others.
In this life, although Liu Bei had many generals in his camp, the territory they occupied was also larger, especially the eastern coastal line, which belonged to Liu Bei from south to north, and the pressure on the defense line was very high.
The middle section of the eastern front was entirely supported by Guan Yu. After Liu Bei left, the entire Huainan defense line and the Xuzhou defense zone had to be decided by Guan Yu on all major military affairs, and the task was already very heavy.
Zhao Yun went to the north to be responsible for coordinating the defense of You and Ji, and Taishi Ci had to help the puppet Yuan Tan defend Qingzhou.
After the Liaodong war is over, at most Zhou Yu will be released and Zhao Yun will take over the defense of Bohai County in Jizhou. Zhou Yu will return to the south and be transferred to Guan Yu to be in charge of certain sections of the Huaihe River defense line.
Since there will be no more environment and opportunities for naval warfare in the north in the future, Zhou Yu may not be able to use his skills in the north. In this case, the Huaihe River defense line is at least the most suitable for the navy to perform. Gan Ning left, and Zhou Yu was just the right choice to replace him.
Among the five generals in Liu Bei's camp in this time and space, Guan Yu, Zhao Yun and Taishi Ci were unable to participate in the battle to enter Shu, so only Zhang Fei and Gan Ning took the lead.
However, considering that Zhang Fei had been in Jingnan for many years, he had few opportunities to show his skills in recent years, so he went south to pacify Jiaozhou and made some military achievements. He also accumulated a lot of mountain warfare experience and adapted to the hot jungle environment when he crossed the Wuling Mountains and fought with Shi Xie's army.
Now, it is time for Zhang Fei to show his skills and make achievements. The experience he had accumulated in the previous battle in Lingnan has also come in handy. Zhang Fei is the leader, responsible for the land route into Sichuan and fighting in the mountains.
Gan Ning served as the assistant, responsible for the vanguard of the water route into Sichuan. In addition, Gan Ning was originally from Ba County, and this time he was returning home, so everything was arranged just right.
……
It was on June 28th that Liu Bei received the news that Zhuge Jin had pacified Liaodong and Cao Cao had entered Yangping Pass.
Just two days later, on June 30, Liu Bei led the first batch of 30,000 troops and urgently embarked on a march.
Thanks to the fact that they were marching on their own land, supplies and weapons did not have to be shipped from the beginning. Otherwise, the preparation time would have been so hasty, which was simply the style of the "God of War of Tumu Fort".
After being busy with complicated and trivial affairs for several days in a row, it was not until the first day of July when the vanguard fleet entered Chaohu Lake that Liu Bei finally had some free time to think about other less urgent issues.
Early that morning, Liu Bei, who had slept all night in the warship, took advantage of the cool morning to go to the deck to get some fresh air and practice swordplay to loosen up his muscles.
Pang Tong and Zhuge Liang were not lazy people either. They also knew some physical fitness tricks such as riding and shooting arrows. They came to the deck early in the morning to exercise.
Liu Bei performed a set of sword dances and was sweating slightly. When he saw Pang Tong, he remembered something and threw the sword to the guard. While taking the linen cloth to wipe his sweat, he chatted casually:
"I didn't ask him in detail that day, but how did Cao Cao manage to capture Yangping Pass so quickly? Calculating the time, it should have taken Cao Cao and Ma Teng more than a month to eliminate Han Sui's followers Yang Qiu and Ma Wan in Chencang, right?
Then they crossed the Qinling Mountains to the south and entered Chencang Road. It was not surprising that Wudu and Hechi along the Chencang Road could not be defended. But Yangping Pass was extremely dangerous, how could Zhang Lu not even be able to defend it? He only defended it for two months at most, right? "
When Pang Tong received the battle report that day, he actually wanted to report it in detail. But Liu Bei was in a hurry to think of a countermeasure, so he forgot about it. Now that the countermeasure has been thought of, and he has nothing to do while traveling by boat, he finally asked about the doubts in his heart.
Seeing that his lord was finally interested again, Pang Tong quickly took out the map and explained in detail: "My lord, please see, Cao's army, led by Xiahou Yuan, went deep into Chencang Road and was indeed blocked by Yangping Pass at the beginning. But later I heard that Jia Xu was also in Xiahou Yuan's army. In my opinion, it was most likely that Jia Xu helped Xiahou Yuan come up with this vicious plan.
At first, Xiahou Yuan pretended that he had little food on hand and ordered his troops to attack Yangping Pass regardless of casualties in order to achieve a quick victory. Zhang Lu also sent his brother Zhang Wei to defend the pass, killing Cao's troops with rolling logs, rocks, strong bows and crossbows.
Cao's army attacked fiercely for more than half a month, and thousands of people were killed and countless injured. They almost piled up their lives in Pingyang and Pingguan. But Zhang Lu was in Hanzhong, fighting on his home ground. In order to protect his home, he was able to mobilize tens of thousands of people to defend. Both sides fought desperately at the pass, and Zhang Wei had sufficient troops, so Xiahou Yuan could not break through.
Unexpectedly, after more than a month of attack, Xiahou Yuan urged the rear to transport food several times, but the rear always said that the Qinling Mountains were difficult to travel and the food was far beyond expectations, so they could not be transported in time. Xiahou Yuan even used a self-torture strategy, pretending that there were signs of mutiny in the army due to lack of food, and finally raised false flags in the camp outside the pass, pretending to reduce the number of soldiers and increase the number of stoves, and concealed the "retreat", and deliberately let some defeated soldiers leak the news.
Zhang Wei was a common man with little wisdom and strategy, and he immediately fell for the strategy designed by Jia Xu for Xiahou Yuan to lure the enemy. After thinking that Xiahou Yuan had retreated, he actually wanted to rush out of Yangping Pass and pursue Xiahou Yuan to expand the victory.
As a result, Zhang Wei was ambushed by Jia Xu just after he got out of Yangping Pass, and was killed by Xiahou Yuan. Zhang Wei himself died in the battle, and most of his troops were scattered. Xiahou Yuan took advantage of the situation to recapture Yangping Pass.
After hearing the intelligence about the Battle of Hanzhong gathered by the friendly forces in Jingzhou, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang sighed with regret. Liu Bei couldn't help but scold Zhang Wei for being an idiot.
However, there was nothing that could be done, because Zhang Wei in history was quite stupid. He had Yangping Pass to defend, but he insisted on chasing them out. Xiahou Yuan had clearly retreated, but he still "accidentally entered Zhang Wei's camp and frightened and routed his troops." Although the history books are vague about the details, the fall of Yangping Pass was definitely Zhang Wei's fault for actively seeking a fight, and there is absolutely no way to wash his hands of this.
If you meet an enemy who is mentally retarded, you can only sigh that Cao Cao is lucky.
Zhang Lu must have been responsible for letting Zhang Wei go out of Tongguan to fight, which shows that Zhang Lu's military IQ was not high - at most slightly higher than Li Longji who forced Geshu Han to go out of Tongguan to fight An Lushan.
"How did Zhang Lu and Zhang Wei manage to stay in Hanzhong for fifteen years when they were so ignorant of military affairs? Hanzhong was occupied by these two military idiots, and Liu Zhang couldn't even fight them back. It seems that they are both incompetent!"
Liu Bei sighed for a long time and couldn't help but spit into Chaohu Lake.
But all the past is in the past, and we still have to look forward and see what else we can do.
After spitting, Liu Bei sighed and said, "Gentlemen, besides sending more troops to Jingnan and being ready to reinforce Liu Zhang at any time, is there anything else we can do?
Anyway, we are free, so let's think about it together and fill in the gaps. Think of a little bit, and don't let small kindnesses go unrewarded."
(End of this chapter)
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