Chapter 478: The Oath of the Han River, take the initiative
How is Mi Yang doing now?
What a hammer.
Although he had just won a great victory not long ago, this great victory did not deal a devastating blow to the main force of the Wei army.
The great victory at Yangpingguan severely dampened the vigor of the Wei army, but at the same time, because Cao Zhen suffered unspeakable injuries, that great victory was regarded by Cao Zhen as a great shame and humiliation in his life.
When Cao Zhen returned to Xingshi under the escort of the army, on the one hand, Cao Zhen took good care of his injuries in the camp, and on the other hand, he strictly ordered the Wei army to continue attacking various cities in Hanzhong.
Since Cao Zhen does not intend to retreat, regardless of public or private interests, Cao Zhen's next battle strategy is only this.
The morale of the Wei army was greatly affected, but the strength gap between the Han and Wei armies did not change.
Due to the huge disparity in strength, coupled with Cao Zhen's almost inhumane urging to attack the city, more and more cities have fallen in the past two months.
What made Mi Yang feel most resentful was that after Cao Zhen captured Chenggu, in order to intimidate the people in Hanzhong County, he carried out a three-day massacre of Chenggu!
When Mi Yang learned the news, he was so angry that he overturned the table in front of him.
Massacre was a common method used by the Wei army, and Mi Yang's hometown of Xuzhou was once a victim of it.
"If hundreds of thousands of men and women were killed, no chickens or dogs would be left, and the Si River would not flow. He would be the protector of the five counties, and there would be no trace of him again."
This is a clear record of the methods used by the Wei army to massacre the city in history books.
From this record, we can see how outrageous Wei Jun's methods were.
Otherwise, when Cao Cao was marching south, why would hundreds of thousands of people be so frightened that they wanted to go south to Jiangling with Liu Bei?
According to the intelligence obtained by Mi Yang, Chenggu County also faced the tragedy of "no trace of chickens and dogs left" not long ago.
The Wei army was not the only one to massacre a city in this world, or in the history of China.
Historically, armies massacred cities, on the one hand, to frighten the enemy's people so that they would not dare to resist again, and on the other hand, to boost the morale of one's own side.
After all, during the massacre of the city, all military discipline was ineffective and the army could burn, kill and loot at will in the city, which could greatly satisfy the army's bestiality.
Since more than one army has done this in history, the method used by the Wei army to massacre the city was not without its supporters in the world.
Even in later generations, there are some evil-minded scholars who believe that the massacre of the city by the Wei army was a helpless act.
But Mi Yang is a time traveler. Whether it is the education he received in later generations or his conduct as a Jihan citizen in his current life, he is extremely indignant towards the Wei army's massacre!
It is not wrong for the three families to fight for their respective ideals. Kindness does not command troops. It is understandable that there will be many casualties in the war, but how can the unarmed people be blamed?
Moreover, the Wei army is also a Chinese people, so they actually swung the butcher knife at their own people, which is even more heartbreaking!
When she learned that the Wei army was massacring the city in Chenggu, Mi Yang gritted her teeth and uttered an oath in front of Fa Miao and others because of the indignation in her heart:
"I swear by the Han River that if I cannot repay blood with blood in this life and I order the Cao family to cut off their incense, I will not enter the Mi family's ancestral temple after my death."
After hearing Mi Yang's oath, Fa Miao and other courtiers showed surprise on their faces.
There is something sacred about swearing by a famous river in this world.
Once someone does this, he cannot break this oath for the rest of his life, otherwise he will be condemned by people for generations to come.
Even the emperor is not immune to this.
In particular, Mi Yang swore on the condition that he would not be able to enter the ancestral temple until he died. In a world with strong family values, such an oath left Mi Yang no room for change.
No one can accept the serious consequences of not having the memorial tablet entered into the ancestral temple after death.
And the most important thing is that there is another important concept in this world, and that is the discontinuity of life and death.
In other words, even if the Han Dynasty can defeat Cao Wei and regain the world in the end, according to the concept of life and death, the emperor of the Han family must leave a trace of blood for the Cao family to inherit the incense.
However, Mi Yang's oath obviously violated the unspoken rules of the world. It was undoubtedly a challenge to the values of the world, and would cause Mi Yang to be criticized by many scholars in the future.
Even in later generations, there will definitely be some scholars who have a saintly mentality and criticize Mi Yang's behavior.
But Mi Yang doesn't care.
To stand in this world, an eight-foot man must have a sense of right and wrong in his heart. If he disregards his inner sense of right and wrong because he is afraid of some public criticism, Mi Yang will not disdain such cowardly behavior.
If Cao Wei has the ability, he can kill him. Otherwise, if he succeeds in the future, the Cao Wei clan will definitely pay the price they deserve for the evil deeds they have done in the past.
Intermittent life and death is not impossible, but this should only belong to the warmth between humans. Why do those well-dressed beasts enjoy such political privileges?
Fa Miao and others saw from Mi Yang's oath how determined Mi Yang was, so they did not try to dissuade Mi Yang.
The oath has already been made, how can I dissuade him?
As Mi Yang's confidants, when Mi Yang made such a vow, all they could do was work together with Mi Yang to achieve the goal in his heart.
When they become members of Mi Yang's political faction, this is the best portrayal of their relationship with Mi Yang.
Of course, there is another problem with Mi Yang's oath, that is, even if the Han Dynasty can defeat Cao Wei and regain the mountains and rivers in the future, it seems that the issue of how to deal with Cao Wei's clan is not something that he, a minister, can decide.
This may have been a problem before, but after the arrival of Liu Bei's edict not long ago, this problem is no longer troubling.
That edict was Liu Bei's order to appoint Mi Yang as his general.
When this edict was sent to Yangping Pass, Mi Yang's subordinates were the most excited.
Even if he is just a general now, how can Liu Bei's intentions be concealed from heroes like Fa Miao?
As long as Mi Yang can win this battle, he will become the second general of the Han Dynasty.
This is a great general!
What is climbing the dragon and attaching the phoenix, honoring the ancestors, isn't this what it is?
Fa Miao and other direct subordinates of Mi Yang felt that their future was becoming more and more promising.
It was not just Fa Miao and others who had this idea. After Liu Bei's edict spread throughout Liangzhou, there were definitely not a few people who had the same idea as them.
The rank of a general of the left is not enough to add credibility to Mi Yang's oath, but the rank of a general is completely sufficient.
After all, everyone knows that Liu Bei is old, how many more years can he continue to be in charge of the Han Dynasty?
Once the young ruler comes to court, the political significance of the status of a general will be exciting enough.
Even if Liu Bei appoints Zhang Fei as the Grand Sima in the future to restrain Mi Yang, coupled with the presence of Zhuge Liang, Mi Yang will not be able to fully exert the power of the general.
But Mi Yang has a huge advantage that Zhang Fei and Zhuge Liang cannot compare with - he is only in his twenties this year.
Isn’t this advantage enough?
There are many things that don’t need to be pointed out.
Just an oath is an oath. The deterioration of the current war situation in Hanzhong is not only reflected in Chenggu City.
Although the way the Wei army slaughtered the city was deeply disgusting, it has to be said that the method of massacre was effective.
Cao Zhen did not just massacre the city just to vent his inner anger.
When the tragedy that Cheng Gu experienced spread throughout Hanzhong, some people were indignant and others were naturally afraid.
Out of fear in their hearts, many cities in Hanzhong surrendered directly to the Wei army in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Even Lecheng, which was extremely important to the Han army, was among these cities.
The loss of Lecheng directly caused the war situation in Hanzhong to take a turn for the worse.
Lecheng is an important town that protects and defends the rising power. Once Lecheng is lost, it is only a matter of time before the Wei army encircles the rising power.
Once the momentum is lost, Nanzheng will soon face the siege of the Wei army.
Not only was the war situation in Hanzhong becoming more and more dangerous, Mi Yang learned more and more bad news as Wang Hong reported.
As the Wei army's offensive continued to strengthen, Ma Chao in Wudu County had no choice but to lead the Han army to withdraw from Wudu County and return to Yinping to defend it due to the delay in receiving support.
The reason why Ma Chao led troops into Wudu County to stop the Wei army was essentially to delay the Wei army's entry into Yinping as much as possible.
After all, three thousand soldiers and horses were not enough to defeat Guo Huai's tens of thousands of troops.
From this tactical goal, Ma Chao has always done very well.
But Guo Huai is no ordinary general.
Seeing that it was difficult to defeat Ma Chao's troops with a fierce frontal attack, he sent Chang Diao to detour to Wudu to hook up with many Qiang and Di leaders. It must be said that this was a clever move.
Although due to Lu Yi's reminder, Ma Chao did not relax his vigilance towards the rear.
But there were too few soldiers in his hands. Under such circumstances, it was impossible for him to let his own effective forces fall into a situation of being attacked from both sides.
Thanks to Lu Yi's reminder, Ma Chao was able to lead his troops and safely exit Wudu County in time.
Under Guo Huai's plan, it can be said that it is inevitable for Ma Chao to lead his army to withdraw from Wudu County.
With the withdrawal of Ma Chao's army, Wudu County was soon occupied by the Wei army.
After capturing Wudu County, Guo Huai did not waste time. He led tens of thousands of troops all the way south to attack Yinping.
It can be seen from the latest intelligence sent that Yinping has been besieged by the Wei army, which has happened in the past few days.
In addition to the bad news in the west, Cao Wei's middle route army also made extraordinary moves.
Under Shi Bao's insistence, Qishan was not captured by Cao Hong's army.
But when Cao Hong saw that he could not attack Qishan for a long time, he immediately changed his tactics. He left part of the army to continue besieging Qishan, and then he led most of the remaining Wei troops towards Jiange.
Obviously, Cao Hong's sudden change in tactics must have been inspired by Cao Zhen.
Among Cao Wei's three armies, the East Route Army and the West Route Army both suffered a certain number of troop losses in previous battles.
Only the Central Army led by Cao Hong maintained the most complete structure and strength, which gave Cao Hong the confidence to divide his forces.
The biggest reason why Cao Wei's middle route army suddenly divided its forces was to coordinate with Guo Huai's west route army.
It is only a matter of time before Guo Huai's army encircles Yinping. The most important thing for the Wei army at the moment is to cut off any way for Yinping to get reinforcements.
This was originally the strategic goal of Cao Hongzhong's Route Army.
Once Cao Hong led his army to arrive outside the Jiange Pavilion, with the superior force in his hands, he could not say whether he could capture the Jiange Pavilion, but he could easily block the passage outside the Jiange Pavilion.
Not to mention that Yinping will not receive reinforcements at that time, even if Zhuge Liang leads his army northward for reinforcements after suppressing the Nanzhong rebellion, his army will probably be blocked by the Wei army in the Jiange and will not be able to enter Hanzhong County.
Listening to the bad news reported by Wang Hong, Mi Yang felt as if the Han army had suddenly fallen into a desperate situation.
Mi Yang knew that the actions of the three armies of the Wei army might not cause a fatal blow to the Han army in a short time.
But as time goes by, the Han army, which is at a disadvantage in terms of logistics and military strength, will fall into an irreversible situation.
Because the Han army could not afford to delay it.
At most half a year.
If Mi Yang fails to defeat Wei's three-pronged army within half a year, he may really die for his country in the end.
The three-way encirclement was a conspiracy devised by the Wei army relying on their strong national power.
Mi Yang could clearly see all Wei Jun's intentions, but he had no countermeasures in his hands.
At the beginning of this battle, Mi Yang had too few cards.
Now Mi Yang seems to feel the mood of Zhuge Liang during the Northern Expedition in history - he wanted to fight against thieves, but he was unable to do so!
Mi Yang's silence after hearing a series of information made Fa Miao and others in the tent feel uneasy.
Even Mi Yang feels that the situation is difficult, what can they do?
Even from the beginning, they put all their hopes on Mi Yang, just like everyone else in the Han Dynasty.
This battle was inherently difficult to fight, otherwise Cao Zhen would not have chosen this opportunity to attack Hanzhong, or Liu Bei would not have given a huge reward from the general to encourage people.
But if Mi Yang can't win this battle, if even he is helpless, who among the entire Han Dynasty can turn the tide?
After a long silence, Mi Yang looked up and saw the uneasiness and panic on the faces of Fa Miao and others.
Seeing this, Mi Yang suddenly laughed.
Yes, in today's dangerous situation, anyone can remain silent and hesitate, but only he cannot.
Because Liu Bei had already put the fate of the Han Dynasty on him, and the people who were loyal to the Han Dynasty in the whole world also put their hopes on him. In this case, how could he hesitate?
Anyway, the worst case scenario is death.
Mi Yang has no regrets about dying for the ideal in his heart.
Just when the hope in Fa Miao and others' hearts gradually disappeared, Mi Yang suddenly stood up.
"Send the order, our army will set off tomorrow and head to Nanzheng."
After hearing Mi Yang's order, Fa Miao and others suddenly raised their heads and looked at Mi Yang.
Fa Miao, Lu Yi, Wei Yan, Wu Yi...
They are all very powerful people in Liangzhou, but they now undoubtedly regard Mi Yang as the guiding light in their hearts.
Facing everyone's doubtful glances, Mi Yang smiled and said with relief:
"Gu is now the great general of the Han Dynasty."
Only this firm sentence made Fa Miao and others realize the fighting spirit in Mi Yang's heart again.
Since he is a general, how can he retreat?
And if Mi Yang doesn't back down, then as ministers, they will just fight to the death.
Fa Miao and others also had smiles on their faces and bowed heartily to their general.
No matter how difficult the battle is to fight, there is no reason not to fight it!