My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 779 Swallowing Hebei, Today

Half a month after the Battle of Guantao, Zhuge Jin was in Hebei and basically did not make any major moves.

After the huge consumption of a series of bloody battles, the troops were in urgent need of rest and recovery. Most of the soldiers took a full half month to eat, drink and rest before they managed to eat more than 10,000 cows and 100,000 sheep. Those who were injured also received adequate treatment and recuperation, and all aspects of their spirit and energy had returned to their peak.

In the second half of October, only a small number of cavalry units were sent out to grab land, mainly to persuade the counties to the east and north of Guantao and Handan that had not yet been captured to surrender, so as to further strengthen the loopholes behind Zhuge Jin's troops.

When Zhuge Jin was pushing for the decisive battle, many counties behind him had not been completely cleared.

Because he did not want to attack the cities one by one, which would be too troublesome, and would only increase casualties on both sides and cause unnecessary killings. At that time, Zhuge Jin had thought that as long as he could win the decisive battle, the counties behind him, which were like "nail households", would naturally evaluate the situation and make wise choices.

The final facts also proved Zhuge Jin's guess that Zhao Yun and Ma Chao's land enclosure was very successful.

By November of the 17th year of Jian'an, there was not a single county town controlled by Cao's army left in the northeast along the line of Handan and Guantao. All the thorns had been eliminated and all the fence-sitters had surrendered.

After the troops recovered, Zhuge Jin began to advance. On the sixth day of November, the troops continued to march westward from Guantao and arrived at Wei County three days later.

Wei County is the easternmost county in Wei County, and Wei County is the county where Yecheng is located, so taking Wei County is equivalent to taking the eastern gateway of Yecheng.

At the end of the Battle of Guantao, Cao Cao retreated to Wei County. But now, after another half month of tug-of-war and rest, Cao Cao is no longer in Wei County. He has retreated to Yecheng in person and may continue to retreat southward at any time.

Therefore, the resistance Zhuge Jin encountered when attacking Wei County was not very great, and he was expected to take it quickly and continue advancing.

The reason why Cao Cao was so anxious was naturally because with the disastrous defeat in the Hebei War, Cao Cao's camp began to collapse on all fronts, and even in the court of Luoyang, someone might jump out to oppose Cao Cao at any time.

Cao Cao had to put out fires everywhere and it was impossible for him to stay in Hebei which was destined to be lost.

Now he is still temporarily stationed in Yecheng, simply wanting to gather more remnants of the defeated soldiers in the previous battle - after the Battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao retreated from Guandu, but did not immediately flee back to the hinterland of Hebei, but continued to stay in Liyang and Cangting for a period of time, in order to let the defeated soldiers of Guandu return to the team.

Today, Cao Cao's goal is the same as Yuan Shao's. He hopes to keep his flags in Yecheng and Weixian for a while longer. As long as the news spreads, the defeated soldiers will know that Duke Wei is still in Yecheng and may rush over.

On the day of the Battle of Guantao, the number of soldiers who fled, were defeated, and were wounded was at least 60,000 to 70,000.

Cao Cao estimated that if he stayed in Hebei for another half a month, perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 people would return to the team. If he delayed it for another half a month, the total number might increase to 30,000 to 40,000 people. Of course, this number was Cao Cao's own assessment and was an ideal situation.

In fact, Zhuge Jin would certainly interfere and intercept and capture the Cao army's defeated soldiers who were trying to return to the team. How many troops could be recovered in the end depended on Cao Cao's actual operation.

After entering the twelfth lunar month, there is no point in staying in Hebei any longer. Those who have not returned to the team for more than a month will basically never return. They are probably those who are determined to be deserters and never want to work for anyone again.

The battlefield in Henan and even the court in Luoyang certainly cannot afford to delay any longer.

……

Because Cao Cao himself was no longer in Wei County and had withdrawn a considerable portion of his troops, Zhuge Jin's advance was very smooth.

The defenders of Wei County put up a resolute resistance for a while, but to no avail.

Wei County is already close to the Baigou River. The army of Liu Bei's camp continued upstream from Guantao. Water transportation was relatively convenient, and many parts of heavy siege weapons could be transported directly to the outside of the city and then urgently assembled before being put into use.

With heavy siege weapons, and since there were no famous generals stationed in a place like Wei County, it could be taken in half a month at most. The thousands of defenders in the city were completely useless and could not even cause much casualties to Zhuge Jin.

So when Zhuge Jin completed the siege, Taishi Ci, who was attacking with the army, felt it was a little unbelievable. He couldn't understand why Cao's army continued to resist in Wei County with such a whimper.

"Has Cao gone mad after this disastrous defeat? What's the point of leaving troops to defend a place like Wei County? Without a famous general who can build an iron wall to guard it, won't these troops be handed over to Situ to be surrounded and annihilated in vain?"

Zhuge Jin looked at Taishi Ci standing beside him and said with a relaxed smile: "Ziyi's view of the problem is still biased towards tactics, not high-level enough. Gongjin should be able to see Cao Cao's intentions."

At present, the people who follow Zhuge Jin and continue to advance with him are mainly Taishi Ci and Zhou Yu.

Because Zhao Yun and Ma Chao's cavalry were deployed to outflanking and forcing the enemy to land in various counties, only Taishi Ci and Zhou Yu continued to lead the main infantry to advance steadily on the front battlefield. When Zhuge Jin wanted to discuss military affairs, he mainly discussed with these two people.

Zhou Yu on the other side really had a much more far-reaching plan. He immediately reacted and explained to Taishi Ci: "Cao the thief certainly knows that Wei County cannot be defended, but he is still willing to send these thousands of people to our army for nothing, just to delay time.

It is now almost mid-November. If he holds out for another half a month, on the one hand, he can buy time for Cao's army to gather the remaining troops. On the other hand, once the twelfth lunar month comes, the water level of the Baigou River will drop further and the freezing weather will become more serious in the cold winter.

By then, even if we take Wei County, it will be difficult to make any decisive progress due to the freezing weather in the twelfth and first months of the year. We can only wait until the spring in February of the following year to expand our victory by attacking again.”

Taishi Ci was also knowledgeable about military affairs, so he quickly understood Zhou Yu's concise explanation.

For Cao Cao, although delaying for an extra half month meant paying some price, the effect was actually equivalent to delaying through the entire cold winter.

The environment on the Hebei battlefield was colder than on any other front, and fighting in winter brought greater disadvantages and restrictions to the attacking side.

Cao Cao planned to drag out this period of time, and then he could withdraw part of his troops to the south, and focus on preventing further collapse in other war zones on the southern front throughout the winter.

Although the general direction of collapse is difficult to reverse, its trend and progress can be slowed down to buy more time for internal adjustments, so we must definitely try our best.

However, although Cao Cao's motives were guessed, Zhuge Jin had no better way to crack it for the time being, and could only attack him step by step.

It is impossible to always use strategies to defeat the enemy on the battlefield. Some of the enemy's steady and solid plans will always work sometimes.

In the following days, Zhuge Jin quickly commanded his troops to surround Wei County, set up ladders and Ge Gong carts on all sides, and bulldoze to fill the trenches.

Five days later, the attack path was opened, and heavy equipment could be pushed directly to the city. Then a full-scale general offensive was launched.

After several days of bloody battles with arrows and stones, the steel-armored heavy infantry under Taishi Ci finally climbed the city first. After the remaining enemies in the city were captured, they surrendered directly.

The entire Weixian Campaign wiped out more than 4,000 Cao troops, as well as a group of militiamen who were forced to defend the city. This was a not insignificant victory.

However, Wei County delayed Zhuge Jin for a long time. In the last few days of November and the first few days before the freezing of the twelfth lunar month, Zhuge Jin only managed to sweep away Feixiang, Fanyang, Yin'an, and Dunqiu counties.

Finally, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the Laba Festival, as the weather further deteriorated, the severe cold and the increasing difficulties in logistical transportation, Zhuge Jin announced that the offensive in the direction of Weijun this winter would be suspended, and the troops would withdraw to their cities to spend the winter until the beginning of next spring.

After all, Zhuge Jin failed to advance to Yecheng before the end of the year. The army under his command is now separated from Yecheng by a circle of outer counties such as Anyang, Neihuang, and Changle.

Honestly speaking, this distance is nothing. At most, if he advances two counties deeper, Zhuge Jin will be able to reach the city of Ye.

……

Zhuge Jin was advancing steadily towards Yecheng on the front line of Wei County.

Zhao Yun and Ma Chao, who outflanked and cut in from the north, also gained a lot.

In the entire Zhaojun and Guangping counties, except for Handan, all other cities that were not strong enough and did not have enough heavy troops to defend them were successively captured by Zhao Yun.

At this point, Cao Cao's territory in Jizhou had been reduced to the core of the two cities of Yecheng and Handan, plus one or two insignificant small counties to the east and south of Yecheng. There was no defensive depth to the north of Handan, so Handan was directly at the forefront.

Cao Cao's territory in Jizhou was reduced to two-thirds of Wei County. Outside of Wei County, there was only one isolated county, Handan County. Eleven of the twelve counties in Jizhou had fallen into the hands of Liu Bei's camp.

The situation in Hebei is basically settled at this point.

After finishing all this, Zhuge Jin also let his troops rest and prepare for a peaceful year, gathering their strength for another advance.

……

Zhuge Jin originally thought that this winter's progress would end here.

But perhaps it was because when the wall fell, everyone pushed it; when the tree fell, the monkeys scattered. As the news of Cao Cao's defeat in Weijun spread, a series of chain reactions throughout the north could no longer be stopped.

You readers may have forgotten that when Yuan Shang and Yuan Xi were destroyed, Liu Bei supported Yuan Tan and tried his best to take over Yuan Shao's legacy, but he only took over the entire Qingzhou, Bohai County of Jizhou, and most of Youzhou.

In fact, there are two counties in the westernmost part of Youzhou, Shanggu and Dai, which have always been in the hands of Cao Cao. Those two counties were offered by Jiao Chu, a former general of Yuan Shao in Youzhou, and given to Cao Cao for free. Cao Cao also gave Jiao Chu, a flatterer, a high official position for this.

Historically, Jiao Chu and Zhang Nan helped Yuan Shao guard Youzhou. In this life, Zhang Nan occupied the land east of Ji County and followed Yuan Tan to join Liu, while Jiao Chu took the two western counties to join Cao.

Geographically, these two counties are located outside Yanshan Mountain, in the northwest of Yanshan Mountain, and are separated from Liu Bei's control area by the Juyongguan Great Wall. In the past few years, both Cao and Liu have strengthened their defenses near Juyongguan, and each has built a pass camp at both ends of the valley.

In addition, the terrain near Juyongguan has been easy to defend and difficult to attack since ancient times, so everyone settled down and stopped making trouble, and tacitly accepted the boundaries of the local sphere of influence.

But now, with the collapse of Cao Cao's situation in Hebei, the civil and military officials of the two western counties of Youzhou have finally begun to waver.

Jiao Chu himself did not dare to surrender to Liu because his crime of betraying his master was too obvious, almost as serious as Zhang He's.

Zhang He was only guilty of defecting during the Battle of Guandu, which led to Yuan Shao's defeat. Jiao Chu was not guilty of this crime, but his other misdeeds were more active than Zhang He's. In summary, his guilt was equal to Zhang He's.

Since Zhang He was afraid of Yuan Tan's reckoning, Jiao Chu would certainly be afraid as well, so he was determined to stick with Cao Cao until the end.

Unfortunately, the generals under Jiao Chu's command and the civil servants who were temporarily forced to cooperate with him did not have so many concerns.

So one day in December, several local civil servants and generals in Shanggu who were in charge of pacifying the area secretly took the opportunity to collude with each other, and then found an opportunity when Jiao Chu returned to Dai County to inspect the defense, and directly raised the flag in Shanggu County to announce their allegiance to Liu, and announced that they would follow Liu Bei's cause of suppressing rebellion.

Moreover, before the flag was raised, those civil and military officials who wanted to surrender to Liu had already found an opportunity several days in advance to secretly send messengers to Zhao Yun, who was active in Changshan County and Zhao County opposite Yanshan Mountain. They sent letters expressing their willingness to surrender and requesting Zhao Yun's support.

So after the local officials of Shanggu rebelled, Jiao Chu had no time to react and send troops to suppress these "rebels", before Zhao Yun's small group of cavalry had secretly crossed the Yanshan Mountains through several mountain valley roads and entered the territory of Shanggu.

In order to ensure the suddenness and secrecy of the action, Zhao Yun did not dispatch many cavalry.

He was also afraid that if there were too many people, they would alert the enemy and leak the secret in advance, allowing Jiao Chu to react more quickly.

However, Zhao Yun's small number of cavalry had very strong execution and control capabilities, and they were swift and resolute. Within just a few days, they had taken control of the four counties of Juyong, Zhuolu, Juyang and Guangning in Shanggu.

Juyong County is the location of Juyongguan, a key point of the Great Wall in later generations, and Guangning County is Zhangjiakou in later generations, which is also the throat and key of the outer Great Wall in Hebei section.

As we all know, the Great Wall in Hebei has two sections since ancient times. The inner section relies on the Yanshan Mountains around Beijing, and the outer section follows the Taihang Mountains from Zhangjiakou to Daixian (the outermost section of the Taihang Mountains extending northward).
Zhao Yun's control of Juyong and Guangning meant that he also controlled the key pass between Yanshan Mountain and Taihang Mountain. If Jiao Chu wanted to counterattack Shanggu from Dai County, his army would have to cross the remnant of the northernmost section of Taihang Mountain.

After hearing about the "rebellion" in Shanggu, Jiao Chu was indeed anxious to quell the rebellion, wanting to nip everything in the bud.

At the end of December, he hurriedly led his own troops, that is, the former troops of Yuan Shao's Youzhou Army who had joined Cao with him, from Daijun across the remaining Taihang Mountains and headed eastward.

The scouts under his command had already discovered that some enemy cavalry had arrived at Taihang Pass west of Zhangjiakou in advance to block the enemy's advance, but their force was not large, only less than three thousand men.

Jiao Chu was in a hurry. Hearing that the enemy was not many, he continued to advance vigorously: "Hurry up and annihilate these two thousand enemy cavalrymen who came from afar before the main force of the enemy reinforcements can arrive! Take advantage of the opportunity when they are not yet firmly established! After annihilating this enemy cavalry, Shanggu can return to the hands of the court!"

The morale of his troops was not high to begin with, but when they heard that the enemy was weak and there was an easy target, they mustered up the courage to attack.

No matter how rabble-rousing an army is, it is still capable of fighting an advantageous battle and using its numbers to defeat a smaller force.

Then, Jiao Chu launched a fierce attack without caring about the enemy's strength, and had a head-on battle with Zhao Yun's two thousand elite cavalry at the Taihang Mountain Pass west of Zhangjiakou.

Zhao Yun had fewer men, and when he saw Jiao Chu rushing over, he resisted for a while, then pretended to be outnumbered and chose to retreat. The soldiers were equipped with double-sided metal stirrups and horse bows, and they ran and shot back, continuously harassing.

Jiao Chu was so angry after being shot that he lost his mind and chased wildly all the way - don't despise Jiao Chu for being stupid, he fell for such a simple and old-fashioned trick.

The truth is that the troops Zhao Yun sent out in this battle were indeed small, so Jiao Chu had the qualifications to underestimate the enemy.

On the other hand, Jiao Chu was not a wise general. He was reckless and brave by nature. He only got to his high position by surrendering to the enemy. Over the years, he had been guarding Daijun and Shanggu. He had never been pulled to the south to participate in any major war. His ability had long been out of touch with the times.

In the Central Plains battlefield, Cao and Liu competed and upgraded their skills and tactics with each other, a process that Jiao Chu had never experienced.

If Cao Cao had not been afraid that he would be suspicious and did not want to "reduce the power of the vassal states" and cause panic and disunity among the people, and if it had not been for the fact that Dai County and Shanggu, these bitter and cold places, had not been the focus of contention between Cao and Liu in recent years, and could have been defended by just anyone, Cao Cao would have replaced him long ago.

Jiao Chu recklessly pursued Zhao Yun for a full twenty or thirty miles. In the end, although Jiao Chu had much more troops than Zhao Yun, they also suffered great loss of physical strength and morale in this continuous running.

Zhao Yun seized the opportunity and lured Jiao Chu into a basin in the Taihang Mountain Valley near Zhangjiakou. He then turned around and rushed to kill him. At the same time, the ambushes lying on the hillsides on both sides of the basin also attacked from both sides.

The main cavalry under Zhao Yun's command suffered a great loss of physical strength during the escape, and the combat power they displayed in the final decisive battle was not very sharp.

However, the ambushes Zhao Yun had set up in advance were well-rested and waiting for the enemy to tire themselves out. Although they were few in number, their fighting power was amazing. They were all well-rested and in a state of gathering strength.
After a short and fierce fight, Jiao Chu's army obviously could not hold on any longer.

Zhao Yun personally led his cavalry to charge into the enemy formation, and knocked Jiao Chu off his horse with one spear in the chaos. The rest of the troops gradually dispersed, and the entire Shanggu County easily fell into Zhao Yun's hands.

After Zhao Yun spent a few days to deal with the situation in Shanggu County, he wanted to continue to advance to Dai County. However, Cao Cao's side was prepared and quickly sent reinforcements to block the hole in the Taihang Mountain defense line.

Coincidentally, during the two and a half years of peace truce between Cao and Liu, Cao Cao had rewarded his son Cao Zhang for his military merits by letting Cao Zhang participate in several battles against the Hu people, including the conquest of the Xianbei Kebineng tribe.

After the battle, Cao Zhang was also left in the Hebei war zone to continue leading the troops. In history, Cao Zhang was also a "powerful figure in Yan and Dai".

When Jiao Chu was killed, Cao Zhang's defense zone happened to be near Dai County, so Cao Cao urgently sent Cao Zhang to plug the leak.

Cao Zhang quickly controlled the remnants of Jiao Chu's troops, made emergency changes to make them obey his orders directly, and fought several small battles with Zhao Yun. He barely relied on the geographical advantage and divided the Taihang Mountains with Zhao Yun.

Zhao Yun saw that although Cao Zhang was young, his strength in cavalry was quite strong and was even better than Jiao Chu.

Zhao Yun also knew that the Taihang Mountains were steep and that it would be too disadvantageous to attack across the Taihang Mountains, so he decided to quit while he was ahead.

Anyway, Liu Bei's camp now has more soft persimmons and good territories to harvest, so why should he immediately set his sights on the land west of Taihang Mountains?

The spheres of influence of Cao and Liu along the Taihang Mountains finally stabilized.

Except for the majority of the counties around Yecheng, the rest of the counties in Hebei were strictly separated by the Taihang Mountains. The west of Taihang belonged to Cao Cao, and the east of Taihang belonged to Liu Bei.

(End of this chapter)