What Guo Huai didn't know was that while he sent scouts to investigate Ma Chao's movements, Ma Chao also learned about the arrival of his army from his own scouts.
Unlike Guo Huai, Ma Chao did not summon the generals to discuss the matter.
Well, the army of less than three thousand doesn't have many generals.
Apart from this reason, Ma Chao also did not want to cause the Liangzhou Army to panic because of this news.
Although the morale of the Liangzhou army is now high, after all, they were not the soldiers led by himself, and Ma Chao did not know how much pressure they could bear.
Ma Chao only called Ma Dai to discuss the matter.
When Ma Dai learned the news, even though he had been prepared for it, he still felt very troubled by the arrival of tens of thousands of troops led by Guo Huai.
According to the intelligence given by Mi Yang at the beginning, Cao Wei's West Route Army commanded by Guo Huai should have about 20,000 troops.
But from the information returned by the current scouts, it can be seen that Guo Huai's army is definitely more than 20,000.
It is likely that it has reached 30,000, or even more.
An army of 30,000 people was ten times as large as Liangzhou’s army today.
With such a huge gap in military strength, anyone facing the situation will feel a headache.
After Ma Dai carefully examined Ma Chao's expression, he made a suggestion:
"General, send someone to ask General Zuo for help."
Faced with such a huge disparity in military strength, a normal person's advice would be to retreat, but Ma Dai had learned before that Ma Chao would not be able to retreat at this time.
After eliminating the best option of retreating, the only option left was to ask for help.
Facing Ma Dai's suggestion, Ma Chao nodded in agreement.
He said calmly: "The messenger has been sent, and I think reinforcements will arrive soon."
Hearing what Ma Chao said, Ma Dai felt a little more at ease.
Maybe Mi Yang can't mobilize too many troops to help now, but a thousand reinforcements would be better than nothing.
After learning that reinforcements were coming, Ma Dai resigned from Ma Chao and continued to supervise the construction of the fortress.
After Ma Dai left, when no one was around, Ma Chao frowned slightly.
It can be seen from his behavior that his heart is not as peaceful as he appears on the surface.
However, Ma Chao was not only worried about the tens of thousands of Wei troops who were about to attack, but what he was even more worried about was that these tens of thousands of Wei troops were led by Guo Huai.
Guo Huai's reputation in the Central Plains is not that great, but in Yongliang, there is no general who has not heard of his reputation.
More importantly, Ma Chao once fought against Guo Huai on the banks of the Weishui River.
In that battle, he was much stronger than Guo Huai, but the result of the battle was not satisfactory.
It was this battle that made Ma Chao remember the Guo Huai who was still just Ling Shi.
Now that the situation has changed, it is Guo Huai's turn to attack him with a huge advantage. Under such circumstances, Ma Chao can't help but worry about the upcoming war.
Ma Chao is proud, but pride does not mean being arrogant. There are many talents in the world, who dares to say that he can defeat all the talents in the world?
But Ma Chao's insistence on defending Gushan was not an impulsive move.
On the surface, it would be more appropriate for him to lead the remaining Liangzhou army back to Yinping and defend it.
But Ma Chao, who has inspected the city defense of Yinping, knows that in terms of the degree of danger alone, Yinping may not be as good as Gushan.
After all, no matter how hard Yinping's city defense is strengthened, its foundation is still just a small city. With this foundation, Yinping's city defense can never be called impregnable.
Moreover, despite the current strength of Ma Chao if he gathers the Yinping garrison, it can reach 5,000 people. But as Zhang Ni is worried, part of the 5,000 garrison will have to guard other important roads.
With the division of troops, the number of troops that will be used to defend Yinping City in the future will only be 3,000 at most.
In this case, why not use these three thousand troops to defend the more dangerous Gushan?
Ma Chao had already considered the pros and cons very clearly in his mind.
With Ma Chao's character, if there is something he must do, he will definitely do it, no matter how difficult it is.
Now that all his arrangements have been made, it depends on Guo Huai's next move.
Ma Chao was not kept waiting for too long. A few days later, a mighty marching army of tens of thousands appeared outside the mountain road on the other side of Gu Mountain.
Guo Huai, who was in the middle of tens of thousands of troops, looked at Gushan who seemed to be very close to him. He not only praised him sincerely in his heart:
This Gushan Mountain is truly unique and extremely steep!
Guo Huai was not without worries when he thought that there was a difficult opponent who was leading an army at this moment and waiting for him in the Gushan Pass.
But after taking a condescending look at the tens of thousands of elite Wei troops surrounding him, as well as the endless grain transport team behind the army, some of Guo Huai's worries disappeared.
When the front troops of the army arrived at the foot of Gushan Mountain, Guo Huai immediately ordered the army to set up camp at the foot of Gushan Mountain.
Later, Guo Huai led a troop and personally entered the Gushan Pass to inspect the situation of the Han army's camp.
The scout must have investigated the Han army's camp, but the scout could only truthfully report everything he saw. He could not tell Guo Huai what he could not see with his eyes.
Under tight protection, Guo Huai approached the Han army camp step by step.
The main road in Gushan is not long. Not long after Guo Huai walked out, he vaguely saw a large camp standing in the main road in front of him.
Putting aside the gate of the Han army's camp for the time being, the dense crowd of horsemen in front of the camp was enough to frighten any general next to Guo Huai.
How many trees must be cut down to lay out so many horses?
Apart from the densely packed enemy horses that caught his eye first, Guo Huai then carefully looked at the Han army camp in his sight.
The gate of the Han army's camp was very wide and very high.
Like a solid city wall.
The height of several feet can ensure that the Han army's archers can take full advantage of their condescending position.
The sufficient width also allows Ma Chao to place more archers on the camp wall.
In this case, if one's own army attacks the camp, the Han archers on the camp wall can easily exchange arrows between two or even three groups.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Under this arrangement, coupled with the advantage of being at a commanding height, the casualties of the Wei army in the future will definitely be huge.
Guo Huai could not see the defense inside the Han army camp for the time being.
But it was this external defense facility that made Guo Huai realize one thing - Ma Chao was not just a general who was good at attacking.
But it’s natural to think about it.
Anyone who is good at attacking will not know anything about defense, and may even have some experience in defense.
This will allow them to find the defender's weaknesses as quickly as possible when launching an attack.
But this principle also applies to the good defender.
Only by having a good understanding of the attack can we find the right tactics and disrupt the enemy's attacks time and time again.
Guo Huai and Ma Chao are both famous people in Yongliang, but their fighting styles are very different in the eyes of Yongliang people.
Ma Chao is good at fast attacks and disintegrates the enemy in fast attacks again and again.
Guo Huai is good at defense, looking for the right moment in a tight defense to send troops to defeat the enemy.
Now when Ma Chao, who is good at attacking, meets Guo Huai, who is good at defense, the roles of the two have reversed.
The current situation is that Guo Huai is about to become the party launching a fierce attack.
Thinking of this, Guo Huai felt that sometimes things in the world are really strange.
But this kind of wonder also made Guo Huai's fighting spirit continue to rise.
Back then, on the banks of the Weishui River, in order to protect Cao Cao, he personally led the Tiger Guard to block Ma Chao's cavalry.
In that battle, Ma Chao was full of momentum and unstoppable. However, under the tight defense line organized by Guo Huai, Ma Chao was still unable to break through the defense line formed by the human wall. In the end, he could only retreat sadly after killing many Wei troops.
Judging from the casualties on both sides in that battle, it was Ma Chao who won that battle.
From the perspective of both sides' goals, Guo Huai defeated Ma Chao.
Generally speaking, the outcome of that battle between Ma Chao and Guo Huai can be regarded as a deadlock.
Now when the situation is reversed, what will be the outcome of the war?
Guo Huai cast his gaze on the high camp wall. On the densely populated camp wall, Guo Huai seemed to see that tiger-like gaze that he had not seen for many years.
When Guo Huai was looking at Ma Chao, Ma Chao was also standing on the camp wall, looking at Guo Huai below.
No names were exchanged, and there was no exact information, but at this moment both sides felt that they seemed to be watching each other.
Let the battle that was undecided back then be decided today.
It's just that today, I am the one with the advantage!
After this thought emerged in his mind, Guo Huai led the surrounding sergeants and slowly retreated towards the rear.
Seeing Guo Huai gradually moving away from his sight, Ma Chao's eyes darkened slightly.
A person who is about to die will naturally make up for all his regrets.
After Guo Huai returned to the camp, he summoned General Chang Diao.
Chang Diao was originally a general under Cao Ren. He was captured by Mi Yang after the battle in Xicheng, and was later returned to the Wei army by Mi Yang.
Since Chang Diao's surrender was ordered by Cao Ren before his death, Cao Pi did not embarrass Chang Diao after he returned to Wei.
Cao Pi felt that there would be a big battle in Guanzhong in the coming days, so he reinstated Chang Diaoguan and sent him to serve under Guo Huai.
Xia Houshang, Man Chong and others received similar arrangements as Chang Diao, but they were treated better and were sent to Shouchun by Cao Pi to assist Cao Xiu in guarding Huainan.
After Chang Diao arrived, Guo Huai immediately gave him a task.
"You will set off today and take a detour from the mountains to the enemy's rear to deliver my letter to some Qiang leaders."
After saying this, Guo Huai took out several letters from his arms.
Chang Diao's eyes narrowed when he saw these letters.
He was not a fool, of course he could see Guo Huai's intention.
Guo Huai wanted to contact the Qiang and Di troops behind Gushan and ask them to attack Ma Chao's army from behind.
If this goal is achieved, the defeat of Ma Chao's army is almost foreseeable.
Before Zhuge Liang fought the stunning Battle of Lucheng, in the hundreds of years of war history in China, there had never been any large army that could not collapse when being attacked from both front and rear.
Chang Diao, who realized the importance of this mission, immediately took the letters respectfully from Guo Huai's hands, and then, under Guo Huai's instructions, memorized several locations of this mission.
Soon after, Chang Diao walked out of Guo Huai's tent with the letter.
Looking at Chang Diao's leaving figure, Guo Huai's eyes were full of hope.
The Gushan Fortress was well occupied by the Han army, but this move of the Han army could only block the progress of the army. There was no way for the Han army to stop some sporadic activities.
This gave him the opportunity to contact the Qiang and Di leaders in Wudu County.
And Guo Huai believed that as long as his letters were delivered to the Qiang and Di leaders with whom he had made friends, then those Qiang and Di leaders would definitely raise troops to help him!
Perhaps in terms of prestige among the Qiang and Di, he is not as good as Ma Chao.
But what if we add the tens of thousands of troops he brought?
It is clear at a glance who is strong and who is weak, and many people will naturally make choices that are aware of current affairs.
After completing this decisive attack arrangement, Guo Huai immediately summoned the generals to discuss tomorrow's siege.
Even if he already had a decisive blow in hand, he still wanted to lead a large army to attack the Han army's camp. Firstly, he would test the strength of the Han army. Secondly, this would also attract Ma Chao's attention to the front.
Guo Huai, who was good at defense, was also quite good at setting up siege missions.
Under his arrangement, each general was soon assigned a corresponding task.
As soon as tomorrow arrives, tens of thousands of Wei troops can launch an attack on the Han army camp.
Early tomorrow morning, tens of thousands of troops will gather in the camp and stand ready under the command of their respective generals.
When the powerful drums sounded in the camp, a Wei army of thousands of people wearing tattered cloth armor marched towards the mountain road under the command of a general.
Moving forward with them, there were hundreds of other vehicles.
As the most common siege equipment in the world for clearing roadblocks, Guo Huai led his army on an expedition this time and prepared thousands of chrysanthemums in his army.
It was just the soldiers sent by the Wei army to clean up the Han army's resistance to horseback, but they were not their regular soldiers.
This can also be seen from the clothes of the soldiers.
In this southern expedition, Cao Zhen used one hundred thousand troops. These one hundred thousand troops were all regular soldiers who could go directly to the battlefield.
However, according to the current logistics standards in the army, a regular soldier usually has to arrange for three to five auxiliary soldiers to be responsible for their food, clothing, housing and transportation.
Auxiliary soldiers are logistics troops in the army and generally do not need to go to the battlefield. However, precisely because they do not need to go to the battlefield, in the eyes of many generals, their value is far less than that of the regular soldiers.
Today, the thousands of soldiers sent by Guo Huai to push Yun Ning to attack the Han army's camp are all such auxiliary troops.
Guo Huai knew that Ma Chao would definitely react to his side's actions to dismantle Ma Chao.
As for the city defenders, their initial reaction was definitely the most intense.
Guo Huai did not want his loyal soldier to die in vain.
For this purpose, it is most appropriate to send auxiliary soldiers to serve as scapegoats.
Although the auxiliary soldiers may not be able to use the cannon skillfully because they have not received training, in Guo Huai's opinion, this shortcoming is nothing compared to the lives of his main soldiers.
In order to prevent the auxiliary soldiers from escaping during the battle, Guo Huai specially arranged a supervising team behind them.
Thousands of Wei army auxiliary soldiers, under the command of the general, soon appeared in the sight of the Han army, transporting hundreds of chrysanthemums.
When they saw the enemy coming, many warning bells rang in the Han army camp.
The ringing also made Ma Chao, who was having breakfast, immediately put down his meal and rush towards the camp gate.
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This chapter has been completed!