Strike Out

As early as the Pre-Han Dynasty, in order to protect the long and narrow Hexi Corridor from being cut off in the middle, the imperial court successively set up Lingju, Yunjie and Zhiyang counties in the Wuting Nishui (Zhuanglang River) valley to connect Hexi and Jincheng County.

Strategic basis.

In addition, the Qiang Protector Colonel's station was set up in Lingju, and the entire Wuting water defense line was built into "Lingju Fortress".

But in a broad sense, the Lingjusai Defense Line also includes another place: the Haoqian River Valley.

The Haoqian River (downstream of the Datong River) spreads in from beyond the Great Wall and joins the Huangshui River to flow into a tributary of the river.

Sandwiched between Huangshui and Wuting Nishui, it is like an arrow pointing straight into the heart of Jincheng County.

In response, in 61 BC, the Han Dynasty established Haoqian (today's Haomen) County in the lower reaches of the valley to serve as the northeastern gateway to the Hehuang Valley to prevent the Qiang and Hu tribes from the upper reaches of the Haoqian Valley from invading Jincheng County.

There is no shortage of such things.

For example, during the reign of Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu, the famous three generals Ma Yuan, Ma Cheng, and Ma Wu all led their armies to attack the Qiang and Hu tribes that invaded Kou Haoqian.

Nowadays, Liangzhou is in great trouble again, and when the Han and Wei dynasties are fighting against each other, the Qiang and Hu tribes living in the upper reaches of the Datong River are once again eager to take advantage of the opportunity.

And it is more dangerous than before.

The Qiang tribe living in the mountains between Wuting Nishui and Haoqian River were persuaded by the two Huawai Hu tribes in the Datong River Basin to unite and attack Haoqian County from both inside and outside.

The two Huwai Hu tribes were both Xiongnu.

But it is no longer clear whether it is the Xiutu or Hunxie branch (in the early Han Dynasty, the Hexi Corridor was the territory of the Xiongnu Xiutu and Hunxie kings). The habitat spreads from Datong River to the north of the West Sea (Qinghai), and is often associated with Hua

There is an intersection between Qiang and Qiang.

Therefore, when Ma Dai and Qiang King Mangzhong took a detour to attack Zhangye County in the Hexi Corridor, plundering countless war horses and supplies and returning, they also became greedy.

He also wanted to take advantage of the weak defenses of the Wei army in the counties across the river in Wuting, and send troops to grab some military provisions and go back.

Anyway, they don't need to worry about retaliation from the Wei army.

Because the Wei army no longer had enough strength, the army came out to attack them.

After the leaders of the two tribes, Zhi Wudai and Bai Huwen, conspired, they sent envoys to the Qiang tribe with which they usually traded, and negotiated to plunder the two counties of Lingju and Yunjie in Wuting Nishui [Note 1

].

And he was quite scheming, playing tricks in the east and attacking in the west.

They pretended to attack Haoqian County from both inside and outside, and after attracting the Wei army guarding the Lingjusai defense line, they went directly from the upper reaches of the Datong River to the small tributary valley of Wuting upstream and entered Lingju County.

Lingju and Haoqian are hundreds of miles apart, and there are mountains in between. When the Wei army discovered that they had fallen into the trap, it was too late to return to defend themselves.

Also let Zhi Wudai and Bai Huwen return home with a full load.

Not only did they rob countless villages along the way, they even captured Lingju County, which was caught off guard.

They easily conquered the county town and obtained the grain, fodder and military equipment stored in the city, which also encouraged their wantonness.

I feel that the Wei army is no good.

Coincidentally, at this time, they heard that the powerful people in the Hexi Corridor had recalled their private soldiers, and they became even more unscrupulous, thinking that the Wei army, which was restrained by the Han Dynasty, would not be able to send troops to attack them.

Simply, they continued south to besiege Yunjie and Zhiyang counties.

The intention is to capture the entire Wuting Nishui River Valley and use it as a new habitat.

Because when the Xianling Qiang people west of Shitou Mountain in Lingju County saw their attack, they allied with them and plundered them together.

This is the reason why Xia Houru decided to abandon Xiping County.

Xiping County has given up, and Jincheng County can still resist the enemy.

But if the Wuting Nishui River Valley is occupied by the Qiang and Hu tribes, the return route of Jincheng County and the four counties of Hexi will be cut off!

These soldiers and horses will become isolated soldiers and be trapped to death by the Han army and the Qiang and Hu tribes from the north and south.

Not to mention, he also knew that Guo Huai, whose military strength was greatly reduced, would be unable to survive in Xiping County.

If we continue to work hard, once the various Qiang tribes in the Huangshui River Valley have different intentions and cooperate with the Han army internally and externally, then Guo Huai and other soldiers and horses will die without a burial place.

"Bo Ji, try your best to bring back all the soldiers and horses in good condition. This is also the intention of the Grand Sima. If the court has a responsibility after the war, I will shoulder the responsibility!"

This is after Xia Houru wrote to explain the incident in the Wuting Nishui River Valley, he also specially added a sentence at the end of the letter.

This left Guo Huai with no reason to argue.

The Great Sima Cao Zhen was very considerate of him, and he could not disobey his orders.

Especially after Xia Houru was willing to bear the consequences alone.

As for the sentence "try to bring all the troops and horses back intact", it is also easy to understand.

The first is that in Liangzhou, there are not many soldiers and horses that are truly completely obedient to the Wei army. If more are lost, Jincheng County may not be able to defend it.

On the other hand, it is a battlefield where the two armies are fighting fiercely. You cannot retreat if you want to.

Once noticed by the Han army, they will definitely pursue them!

It will also cause panic among the soldiers, causing them to flee during the march.

Furthermore, if the various Qiang tribes in the Huangshui River Valley knew that the Wei army had abandoned Xiping County, they would definitely unite their troops to attack the Wei state.

Whether it is to avenge the anger of being abandoned, or to take advantage of the opportunity to rob food and baggage and make a profit.

Or maybe it was to show favor to the Han army who was about to take over Xiping County.

However, Guo Huai finally lived up to the praise of a good general.

After he received Xia Houru's military order, he remained silent and did not even inform the generals.

First, he asked General Jia Xu, who was on guard at Siwang Gorge, to prepare a boat and quietly transport the grain, fodder and baggage of Xiping County away.

Immediately, they abandoned the large river valley west of Jishi Gorge on the grounds that they had too few troops to cover all fronts. They asked Yang Feng, who was attacking the Liaohua Department of the Han army, to lead the Huangzhong Yi Cong to Riyue Mountain with the general.

Hao Zhao guarded Jiang Wei's troops together.

As for whether the Han army will continue to march into the Huangshui River Valley after occupying the large river valley, there is no need to worry.

By the time the Han army had pacified the bottom of Yamahe Valley, he would have already led the army back to Jincheng County.

With the help of Yang Feng's troops, General Hao Zhao was able to carry out Guo Huai's secret order - on the charge of "internal communication to rebel against Shu", he sent troops to attack Shaodang Qiang King Zhuyi in the valley behind Riyue Mountain, and frequently communicated with him.

The Hungry He, Fa Tong, Mo Zhe Zha, Shao Ge and other Qiang tribe leaders.

Because of Pang Chuo's comfort, these Qiang tribes were all unprepared.

Moreover, General Hao Zhao has been stationed in the Huangshui River Valley all year round and is familiar with the terrain and Qiang fighting skills, so he succeeded in one attack.

The leaders Hung He, Fa Tong and Shao Ge were killed on the spot, while Zhu Yi and Mo Zhe Zhao escaped only by escaping into the mountains with more than a hundred tribes; their tribe's captives, cattle, sheep, war horses and other assets were all captured by the Wei army.

After the incident was over, General Hao Zhao took a boat with the captured goods and returned to Jincheng County along the Huangshui River.

Guo Huai personally led the army to cut off the rear.

By fighting and retreating, the Han army thought that they were luring the enemy into an ambush. They did not pursue a large-scale attack, but just moved forward step by step. After Li Yan got the news about other Qiang and Hu tribes, Guo Huai had already retreated to Zhouchuan.

At the pick-up point, we left by boat.

The Han army, which had no prepared boats, had no time to pursue them.

In response, Li Yan felt that he had been tricked and angrily cut off the table.

Even though his strategic goal of capturing Xiping County had been achieved, he could not calm down.

He also learned about the achievements of Wei Yan, Zheng Pu and Ma Dai through military reports.

All the other units that responded to the war achieved brilliant results, but he, the late emperor who entrusted a lonely and important minister to lead the main force of the army, was lucky enough to "acquire" military exploits by relying on the Qiang Hu rebellion in the Wuting Nishui River Valley.

Moreover, the opportunity was missed and there was no pursuit to expand the victory.

Whether it was for his own prestige or his self-esteem, he couldn't accept it.

Therefore, after leading the army into the Huangshui Valley, he asked his subordinates Chang Shi and Xing Xiangfu to join the army and General Jianyi to lead the army and Jiang Wei to pacify the many Qiang and Hu tribes in the Huangshui Valley; he asked Liao Hua to pacify the people at the bottom of the river valley.

; He led five thousand elite troops to Siwang Gorge and settled down in the camp, preparing to attack Jincheng County.

Naturally, this matter still needs to be discussed in letters with the Prime Minister.

Otherwise, he would not be able to mobilize the Gaoxiang troops stationed in Daxia County at the head of the river, as well as the Zheng Pu and Guanxing troops stationed in the Yuanchuan Valley to join forces to attack.

It's just a pity.

After Prime Minister Zhuge Liang received the letter, he politely declined his proposal.

Starting from autumn and August, this war has lasted for nearly four months!

This time the Han Dynasty mobilized nearly 100,000 troops, and had already consumed 7788% of the food.

Furthermore, farmers in various places who were conscripted into corvee labor began to complain about being unable to endure the hard work.

Moreover, a war is expensive to win, but a long-term battle is not expensive.

Having captured Xiping County, we have achieved our strategic goal, so why should we continue to take credit?

Aren’t you afraid that if you greed for too much, all your previous efforts will be wasted?

In his reply, the prime minister gave Li Yan a reason that he could not refute: "The army's food supply can only last for another month. In such a short time, can Zheng Fang be sure to capture Jincheng County?"
To be continued...