My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 535: War Clouds Approaching Yangping Pass

During the Langzhong breakout, the moon was dark and the wind was strong.

However, Wei Yan was afraid that blocking the road in advance would lead to the enemy becoming desperate and making a desperate attempt, so he chose to intercept the enemy in the middle as the second best option.

This kind of fighting style was destined to only annihilate a large part of Cao's army that broke out from Langzhong, but it was impossible to annihilate all of them. Especially the hundreds of cavalrymen in Cao's army, most of them broke out in the chaos.

Fortunately, Feng Kai was not considered a talented general, so he could just run away. It would not be a big deal to let him follow Xiahou Yuan for a few more months.

In the end, the entire battle of Langzhong was fought, and Cao's army lost about 4,000 soldiers, including those who were temporarily forced to join the army. About 700 to 800 people escaped.

Liu Bei's army spent a total of twenty days to capture Langzhong, which was a relatively slow progress.

But being slow also has its advantages, which is that it makes full use of the preparatory work and psychological warfare strategies to minimize the casualties of one's own side.

In the end, the total casualties suffered by Liu Bei's army in this battle were less than a thousand.

Considering that this was a siege war, even if Liu Bei's army had an advantage in equipment, it was very rare for the attacking side to suffer less than a quarter of the defending side's losses.

It can be said that Pang Tong's strategy of exerting psychological pressure and taking advantage of information asymmetry to trick the enemy into abandoning the city and fleeing played a decisive role.

Otherwise, if Feng Kai really held on to the end and fought to the last man, Liu Bei's army would have to suffer at least two to three thousand casualties before they could break the city and destroy the enemy.

……

The words are divided into two parts,

While Liu Bei, Pang Tong, Zhang Fei and Wei Yan were celebrating their success, Feng Kai, who had escaped in a desperate situation, was fleeing miserably with seven or eight hundred remaining soldiers.

It is 200 li from Langzhong to the outside of Jiameng Pass, and 150 li from the outside of Jiameng Pass to Jinniu Road to Yangping Pass.

The total distance was 350 miles, but Feng Kai arrived in just over two days. He was like a frightened bird, and even when he encountered scouts from Liu Zhang's military department, he did not dare to fight, but just ran away.

The journey was so chaotic and hasty that even one or two hundred war horses were paralyzed or died along the way, which was really a waste of resources.

As there were not enough horses to ride, they could only take off their armor and helmets to reduce the weight, and then let two unarmored cavalrymen ride on one horse and struggle to get to Yangping Pass.

The day we arrived at Yangping Pass was the fifth day of May, the Dragon Boat Festival.

Feng Kai was covered in dust and mud, and he hadn't even cleaned off the blood stains from the night before. He went straight to the central army camp to pay a visit to Xiahou Yuan.

When Xiahou Yuan saw Feng Kai, both of them couldn't help but be surprised.

Xiahou Yuan didn't expect Feng Kai to lose so badly, but he was still satisfied that Feng Kai had delayed Liu Bei for so long, so he couldn't say anything about him.

What Feng Kai didn't expect was that, even though it had been early May, when he arrived at Yangping Pass, he still didn't see General Xiahou's previously advertised promise of "the Prime Minister personally leading the army south to compete with Liu Bei"?

But the process had to be followed, and Feng Kai was the first to express his apology to Xiahou Yuan: "General! I really can't stand it anymore! Liu Bei and Zhang Fei's offensive was too swift and fierce. We could only hold out for half a month, and the soldiers were exhausted."

Xiahou Yuan quickly helped him up, and Jia Xu also spoke to comfort him: "Captain Feng, why do you say that! You are a meritorious minister. It is not easy for you to stop Liu Bei for so long. When the Prime Minister comes, he will definitely reward you greatly. I guess you will be promoted to General of the Central Army at least."

Feng Kai was too embarrassed to ask at first, but when Jia Xu mentioned the prime minister, he quickly wiped the blood and mud off his face and asked, "What about the prime minister? Didn't they say that if we delay Liu Bei, we can wait for the prime minister to come to our aid first?"

Xiahou Yuan and Jia Xu were both speechless for a moment: "The Prime Minister is at least half a month late. Even if Wu Yi blocked the Chencang Road, it would be difficult for the messenger to pass. But there is no news from the Baoxiade Road, which is really disturbing.

We are now isolated in Hanzhong, with no way to contact the outside world. We originally wanted to go down the Han River, out of Wudang, around Wuguan, around Wanbei, and contact Xu and Luo. But Liu Qi and Huang Zhong were firmly guarding Xicheng and Shangyong, and the road down the Han River was also blocked by the Shangyong soldiers of Jingzhou. "

Xiahou Yuan, Jia Xu and Feng Kai exchanged information with each other, and their moods became increasingly heavy.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any way out of the impasse for the time being, and I had no countermeasures. I could only wait for the situation to change further.

Feng Kai also asked Xiahou Yuan if there was a way to quickly swallow Wu Yi, and Jia Xu told him pessimistically:

Since Wu Yi gave up the old camp at the Yangping Pass and retreated to Chencang Road, Cao's army no longer had to fight desperately to escape, and the Yizhou army became the trapped beast. General Xiahou never got the upper hand over Wu Yi in the battle of attacking the camp.

The rise and fall of morale and fighting spirit had a huge impact. Wu Yi became more and more confident in defending the camp. Now there was almost no other way to destroy him. He could only wait for the prime minister to attack from both sides, or for Wu Yi to run out of food and collapse.

Especially the news that "if Wu Yi is besieged for a period of time, Wu Yi may run out of food", now even the Cao army soldiers under Xiahou Yuan know it.

The enemy might run out of food, which should have been good news. But in practice, it became a negative factor that prevented Cao's soldiers from fighting to the death - because Cao's soldiers began to think, "Since besieging and cutting off food can kill the enemy, why should we risk our lives?" After Feng Kai understood the logic, he was also very sad and sighed, "Why should we let the soldiers know that the enemy is running out of food? This kind of news should not be spread from the beginning. Isn't it enough for the generals to know it in their hearts?"

Jia Xu also spread his hands helplessly: "We didn't spread the rumor intentionally. After we found out that something was wrong, we tried to stop it. Recently, many soldiers from the Bantun Army came over the mountains and ridges to harass us. They shouted outside the camp in the dark and then quickly slipped away. It must be Pang Tong's trick! He sent those mountain people as scouts to disrupt our army's morale!"

Hearing that all this might be Pang Tong's trick to win over his opponent, Feng Kai shut up and dared not ask any more questions.

If it was Pang Tong, it wouldn't be surprising if he had this IQ.

It's so vicious.

……

So, after Feng Kai fled back to Yangping Pass, Xiahou Yuan was unable to make any effective response for three whole days. He just continued to defend the pass, hoping to solve the problem of Wu Yi by cutting off food supplies.

After all, they had been besieged for so long, and they would be unwilling to give up if Liu Bei didn't come.

The consequences of doing so are also obvious.

Three days later, on the eighth day of the fifth lunar month, there was still no news from Cao Cao. However, Zhang Fei and Wei Yan, who were under Liu Bei's command, followed Feng Kai's escape route with 30,000 troops and arrived outside Yangping Pass.

Liu Bei's army had a total of more than 50,000 people. Although they had suffered some casualties in previous battles, they were able to make up the number with the subsequent reinforcements.

However, after Gan Ning's 20,000 men entered Jinniu Road, they had to change boats and vehicles because there was no waterway along the Jialing River, so their movements were slow. Therefore, the first wave of troops to fight Xiahou Yuan was only Zhang Fei and Wei Yan's 30,000 men.

However, if all the troops of Xiahou Yuan on the opposite side were searched, there would only be 20,000 of them, which was less than Zhang Fei. It would be easy for Zhang Fei to destroy all the camps of Xiahou Yuan outside Yangping Pass and force Xiahou Yuan back to Yangping Pass.

Zhang Fei set up camp forty miles away from Xiahou Yuan. While strengthening the camp, he sent people over the mountain to keep in touch with Wu Yi.

Xiahou Yuan originally thought that Zhang Fei was coming with great force and would launch a general attack to rescue Wu Yi once he arrived outside Yangping Pass. Unexpectedly, Zhang Fei was more orderly and actually stayed there for another two days, taking steady steps, which surprised Xiahou Yuan and made him confused.

Xiahou Yuan then had someone draw the three-party situation on the map and analyzed it with Jia Xu.

As mentioned above, the terrain outside Yangping Pass is like a sideways “人” shape, with the tip of the “人” facing east, which is where Yangping Pass is located. Xiahou Yuan’s camping location is at the intersection of the left and right strokes of the “人” character, which just separated Zhang Fei and Wu Yi.

Zhang Fei's camp was located on the downward stroke of the character "人", and Wu Yi's camp was on the upward stroke of the character "人". Each of them was forty miles away from Xiahou Yuan, forming a three-way balance of power.

Once the anti-Cao coalition launched a counterattack, Wu Yi would attack Xiahou Yuan from northwest to southeast, and Zhang Fei would attack Xiahou Yuan from southwest to northeast.

Unfortunately, Xiahou Yuan had no good solution. At this point, he could only defend his camp and wait for the enemy to attack. Otherwise, he would abandon the camp blocking the road and retreat directly to the pass, allowing Wu Yi to escape with the help of Zhang Fei.

At this critical moment, how could it be Xiahou Yuan's style to retreat without fighting? Wouldn't that mean he was afraid of the enemy like a tiger and ran away when he saw Zhang Fei? His reputation would be ruined for the rest of his life.

So Xiahou Yuan decided to defend to the death and fight.

Early in the morning on the tenth day of May, Zhang Fei and Wu Yi, without any prior agreement (actually they had made an agreement, but Xiahou Yuan didn't know), cooked at the fourth watch and left the camp at the fifth watch, forming a strict battle array and pressing towards Xiahou Yuan's main camp in front of the pass.

Zhang Fei had 30,000 troops, but only 5,000 were left to guard the camp, while the rest went out in full force. Wu Yi also left 5,000 troops to guard the camp, and sent 15,000 to attack. Together, the two armies had 40,000 attacking troops.

Xiahou Yuan, including the pass, the camp, and the counties of Nanzheng and Mianyang in the rear, had a total of just over 20,000 troops. Considering that a few thousand people needed to be left at the pass and a few thousand more at Nanzheng, the actual number of troops in the camp outside the pass was only between 13,000 and 14,000.

Together with Zhang Fei and Wu Yi, their decisive battle force is three times that of Xiahou Yuan.

"Why hasn't the Prime Minister come yet? The date we agreed to meet is already at least half a month late! Do I really have to rely on myself to hold Liu Bei back today?"

When Xiahou Yuan saw Zhang Fei and Wu Yi's armies approaching from two different roads, he felt a rare chill in his heart and subconsciously couldn't help complaining about Cao Cao's mistakes.

But now that things have come to this, the only thing we can do is to forge ahead bravely and preserve our dignity.

"Soldiers! Fight hard to survive! The Prime Minister's reinforcements will arrive soon! We must defend the Chencang Road to prevent Liu Bei from blocking the road and trapping the Prime Minister's army in the Qinling Mountains!

Therefore, Wu Yi must not be released! We have surrounded him for 20 days, and he will soon run out of food! We cannot afford to lose at the last moment! We must hold on here! At most, we can hold on for another three to five days, and Wu Yi will collapse without a fight!"

Xiahou Yuan shouted at the top of his lungs to boost morale, and his direct officers also tried their best to encourage the soldiers to fight to the death, hoping to win the battle through willpower.

(End of this chapter)