My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 525 Wu Yi Attacks Yangping Pass

Liu Zhang was determined to take a chance, what else could Huang Quan say? He could only sigh and retreat.

And since Huang Quan did not support this plan at all, it would be a bit unreasonable to expect Huang Quan to give Liu Zhang detailed advice, formulate tactics and personnel details.

First of all, it is difficult for a person to think deeply about things that he or she does not support.

Secondly, even if Huang Quan could be calm enough and think deeply, he would still have to weigh his own position and personal honor and disgrace.

If I was very dedicated, worked hard to help the lord perfect the details, and finally won the battle, what would the lord think? "I said that your original strategic vision was unreliable. You still dissuaded us from winning the battle."

If he lost the battle, he would be in trouble. "He must have wanted to prove that he had a good strategic vision, so he didn't really make any effort to make plans." This is similar to the situation of Tian Feng after the Battle of Guandu in history.

A wise man like Huang Quan would not wade into this muddy water that was destined to be a lose-lose situation, no matter how loyal he was to Liu Zhang. Moreover, he was really upset, tired, and gave up.

Once Huang Quan gave up, Liu Zhang would definitely need to find someone else to help him perfect the details.

But the time was very tight, and he had to make a decision within just one or two days. Otherwise, if it was delayed for too long, Xiahou Yuan would withdraw and he would not be able to steal Yangping Pass.

Time is tight and the task is heavy. Those staff members who really want to work for Liu Zhang for a long time will naturally feel afraid of difficulties. They are afraid that they will be blamed in the future for making hasty decisions and ruining their future. So they all use the same old things to evade Liu Zhang, which makes Liu Zhang very unhappy.

Finally, that night, Fa Zheng came to see him alone and offered his lord advice on tactical arrangements. When Liu Zhang heard that Fa Zheng had come, he naturally trusted Fa Zheng more.

"Today, all the ministers are afraid of taking responsibilities, but Xiaozhi is the only one who does not care about honor or disgrace. Only then can he prove that the strong wind reveals the strong grass!" As soon as he saw Fa Zheng, Liu Zhang excitedly shook Fa Zheng's hand a few times, feeling quite emotional.

If this scene was seen by those who have worked in state-owned enterprises in the future, they would probably be filled with emotion:

If there is a person in a state-owned enterprise who is very courageous in taking on responsibilities, is not afraid of making more mistakes by doing more, or making no mistakes by not doing more, and would rather be criticized by the leader after making mistakes than not improve his or her abilities - then this person probably does not intend to work in this state-owned enterprise for his or her entire life.

Only those who want to quit the system after learning the skills well will not hesitate to offend people and make mistakes, and will take on crazy jobs to hone their skills and gain experience.

The reason why Fa Zheng dared to take on such a big responsibility and offer advice to Liu Zhang tonight was, of course, because he didn't care about his long-term position in Liu Zhang's mind at all.

Unfortunately, Liu Zhang's knowledge in this regard was not as good as that of the experienced people in the later system and workplace, and he didn't even understand this point.

After Liu Zhang calmed down, Fa Zheng immediately offered his advice earnestly:

"I am not familiar with military affairs, so I may not be able to offer many good suggestions for specific tactics. But I believe that when Zhang Lu was not yet defeated, the armies of Zitong and Zhang Lu fought for nearly ten years and failed to break through Yangping Pass.

There are some things that should not be said, but the lord should have noticed that the generals on the front line are inevitably more or less willing to keep the enemy for themselves. This time, our army wants to attack quickly and forcefully, but I am afraid it will be difficult to implement quickly. It is better for the lord to select another general who is close to him and knows the military, and advance quickly with light cavalry, directly to Zitong and Jiameng Pass, and order the troops to advance quickly and not delay, so that we can seize the opportunity to fight. "

When Liu Zhang heard this, he found it very reasonable.

Whether it was Pang Xi or Zhao Wei, who was suppressed by him before, who wanted to be a local emperor when they arrived in Ba County, or wanted to raise the enemy to protect themselves when they arrived in Zitong? The difficulty of the Shu army in expanding its territory for so many years is closely related to this kind of internal friction and suspicion.

Therefore, if they want to successfully launch a surprise attack on Xiahou Yuan this time, the most important thing is not the planning of tactical details, nor how to improve the combat effectiveness of the troops in a short period of time - and that thing cannot be improved quickly.

The most important thing is to enhance the troops' fighting spirit and improve their strength and decisiveness in implementing military orders.

To ensure that Liu Zhang's order to attack is issued, the frontline can send troops immediately without any delay. This requires a small number of elite cavalry to escort a few trusted generals to temporarily supervise the army and replace the frontline generals.

Of course, doing so will also bring problems, such as discord between generals, or "soldiers not knowing their generals, and generals not knowing their soldiers."

But weighing the pros and cons of two evils, Liu Zhang felt that it would be more cost-effective to send his trusted military supervisor.

Thinking of this, Liu Zhang took the opportunity to ask Fa Zheng for advice on who could be the commander or supervisor of the army.

Fa Zheng also very selflessly helped Liu Zhang think of several candidates: Wu Yi, Wu Ban, or Fei Guan.

These people are all relatives of Liu Zhang.

Wu Yi and Wu Ban are the cousin and brother of Liu Zhang's sister-in-law Wu Xian.

Fei Guan was the nephew of Liu Zhang's mother, and therefore Liu Zhang's cousin - but Liu Zhang was a bit lenient in terms of human relations, and he actually married his daughter to Fei Guan, making his cousin also his son-in-law.

Historically, these three people helped Liu Zhang defend Fucheng and Mianzhu after Liu Bei and Liu Zhang fell out and went to war, and they were considered to be resolute resistance factions. However, they were eventually defeated by Liu Bei, and these people surrendered to Liu Bei one after another.

But no matter what, these people's loyalty to Liu Zhang is definitely much higher than Pang Xi and other important officials in charge of the army. Liu Zhang would never doubt Fa Zheng's motives for recommending these people to lead the army, but would think that Fa Zheng was selfless. Finally, Liu Zhang weighed the pros and cons and made a decision: leaving his sister-in-law's brother Wu Ban in Chengdu to be in charge of liaison, and then sending his sister-in-law's cousin Wu Yi and his cousin and son-in-law Fei Guan to the front line.

On the one hand, Liu Zhang was also afraid that if Wu Yi or Fei Guan went alone, they would fail to control frontline generals such as Pang Xi. So sending two of them was also an added insurance, and they could also support and contain each other.

Secondly, Liu Zhang was also worried that once the troops left Jiameng Pass, the defense of Ma Mingge Road itself would be in trouble.

By sending two people like this, we can ensure that the troops can be dispatched. One will supervise the army to capture Yangping Pass, and the other will stay behind to guard Jiameng Pass.

In terms of priorities, Liu Zhang tacitly let Wu Yi supervise the troops going to battle, and Fei Guan stayed in Jiameng. If Wu Yi got into trouble, Fei Guan would take over as the military supervisor.

In order to save time, these decisions were made overnight.

The next morning, Liu Zhang summoned Wu Yi and Fei Guan, handed them the order in person, and also reminded them of some precautions.

At the same time, he told the two that he had tried his best to raise a thousand cavalrymen, which he would hand over to them, and ask them to rush to Jiameng Pass day and night as soon as possible, and let Pang Xi, Yang Huai, Gao Pei and other generals lead the troops to seize Yangping Pass.

Wu Yi and Fei Guan were of course surprised to be given such an important task so suddenly, but they could not disobey the order. In the end, they hurriedly led the cavalry and set off at full speed.

On the other hand, after confirming that Wu Yi and Fei Guan were on their way, Fa Zheng hurried back to his house and wrote a secret letter to Liu Bei, in which he specifically told Liu Bei not to reply. Then he asked his confidant to send them off on horseback.

Although Wu Yi and Fei Guan rode fast, they were with a cavalry unit after all, so they couldn't run for twelve hours a day. Calculating the distance, from Chengdu to Jiameng Pass was more than 600 miles, and it would take three days to travel 200 miles a day.

This time was also enough for Fa Zheng's secret envoy to go to Jiangzhou to find Liu Bei - of course, Liu Bei was not in Jiangzhou now, he was personally leading the army to pursue Xiahou Yuan. Only Zhuge Liang stayed in Jiangbei New City in Jiangzhou, but it didn't matter, Zhuge Liang would find a way to contact the lord as soon as possible.

……

It was April 14th, and also the fifth day after Liu Zhang learned of Xiahou Yuan's defeat.

The defenders of Jiameng Pass already knew of Cao's defeat and had been on high alert in the past few days, ready to fight at any time.

Wu Yi and Fei Guan led the cavalry and attacked Zitong directly. They met Pang Xi first and issued Liu Zhang's order for the garrisons of Zitong County and Jiameng Pass to attack.

When Pang Xi saw the order, he was naturally shocked and was reluctant to underestimate the enemy and advance rashly.

"Why did the lord give such a hasty order? Although our army was prepared, we only thought that we would cooperate with the main force of the General of Chariots and Cavalry. Didn't expect that we would be asked to fight alone? And you also want us to take advantage of Cao's army's emptiness to attack Yangping Pass? It's too risky to give such a reckless order!"

Pang Xi felt that this was simply a joke with the lives of his soldiers.

It's not that he hadn't thought about fighting, but he always thought that even if he fought, he would just follow Liu Bei and wave flags and cheer for him, and help out. He never thought of being so radical and taking charge on his own.
But Wu Yi and Fei Guan had no choice. They had signed a military order before coming. If Pang Xi disobeyed, they would try to seize the army and forcibly execute Liu Zhang's orders.

Since he came prepared, Wu Yi was also quite courageous. He made some preparations in advance, and when he saw that Pang Xi refused to obey, he detained him.

Some officers under Pang Xi almost caused trouble, but fortunately Wu Yi and Fei Guan were quite tactful. They immediately summoned all the generals and announced: The lord has ordered our army to fully cooperate with the General of Chariots and Cavalry and fulfill the obligations of an ally. "Pang Xi refused the lord's order and was unwilling to fulfill the alliance between our army and the General of Chariots and Cavalry, so his military power was temporarily withheld."

Wu Yi also took out Liu Zhang's order and used all kinds of persuasion to divide and disintegrate Pang Xi's direct subordinates, including Yang Huai, Gao Pei and others.

These generals were also bullies who only bullied the weak and feared the strong. Although they dared to bully Liu Zhang, when they saw Liu Zhang bring up Liu Bei, they did not dare to disobey orders.

Otherwise, wouldn't it give Liu Bei an excuse and allow Liu Bei's army to help Liu Zhang suppress the rebellion? At this critical juncture, Liu Bei may appear outside Jiameng Pass at any time, so we can't be confused!

Wu Yi and Fei Guan hinted at these principles, allowing Pang Xi's former subordinates to think things over for themselves, and their dissatisfaction was temporarily suppressed.

Afterwards, Fei Guan brought Pang Xi to the front line of Jiameng Pass, where he personally placed Pang Xi under house arrest and treated him to good food and drink. At the same time, Fei Guan took over the defense of Jiameng Pass.

The original defender of Jiameng Pass, Yang Huai Gaopei, was transferred away by Wu Yi, and together with the garrisons in Zitong and other places, they suddenly broke out of Jiameng Pass.

Following the Ma Mingge Road and the Jinniu Road, they headed straight for Yangping Pass, 150 miles away.

Because it was located in the rear and its own front-line troops were very strong, the combat strength of Cao's army left in Yangping Pass was not very strong. There were only one or two thousand combat soldiers, and the rest were temporary militiamen.

However, even so, Cao's army reacted quickly enough. After detecting that Wu Yi's army was approaching, Cao's army immediately closed the pass and defended it, refusing to go into battle.

When Wu Yi arrived at the pass, there was no chance for him to take advantage of, so he could only organize the siege step by step.

(End of this chapter)