When Cao Rui, the leader of Wei, learned that Ma Su had captured Liangzhou in just ten days, he was shocked at first. He convened a meeting of officials to discuss countermeasures, and immediately made Xu Miao the Marquis of Guannei, and let his son inherit his title.
This posthumous title did not attract much attention, because at this time, the attention of the entire Wei State was attracted by another matter.
There was an emergency report from the border, and Zhuge Liang, the Prime Minister of the Shu Han Dynasty, suddenly launched an attack on the Longyou area. The scale was the largest since Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition, with a total of 100,000 troops.
The offensive and defensive battle between Shu and Wei in Longxi officially began.
The time of this Northern Expedition was the winter of the eighth year of Jianxing (230), two years and nine months had passed since the Battle of Jieting.
After nearly three years of development and more than two months of preparations by Zhuge Liang, the Shu Han led an army of 100,000 out of Qishan and at the same time sent envoys to Soochow, hoping that Sun Quan could attack Wei at the same time.
This was also Zhuge Liang's fifth Northern Expedition after Ma Di came to this era (the first three Northern Expeditions were combined into one).
The whole Wei State attached great importance to this war. Cao Rui personally went to Chang'an to supervise the war, and ordered Xiahou Ru and Xiahou, the four most powerful generals of the Wei State, Xiahou Xuan and Deng Yang to guard the surrounding areas of Chang'an. He also sent Xiahou Ba and Hao Zhao to lead 50,000 troops into Longyou to provide support. Cao Shuang.
At this point, the Wei army has invested more than 200,000 troops on the Western Front, which does not include the 50,000 Chang'an troops led by Cao Rui to the west.
On the Liangzhou side, Sima Yi commanded 80,000 troops to fight with Ma Di at the foot of Wuwei City; on the Longyou side, the generals commanded 120,000 troops on Longyou to fight against Zhuge Liang.
Among them, Cao Shuang led 30,000 soldiers and horses to guard Shanggui, You Chu led 20,000 soldiers and horses to guard Qishan Fort, Hao Zhao led 30,000 soldiers and horses to guard Ji County, and Xiahou Ba led 30,000 soldiers and horses to guard Longxi.
In mid-December, the Shu army arrived at Qishan Fort and set up camp on the plains. You Chu led the Wei army to build a camp on the mountain and built six strongholds in an attempt to consume the Shu army's food through a protracted battle and force the Shu army to retreat on its own.
You Chu thought that if the Shu army failed to attack Qishan, they would divide their forces to capture Shanggui and Ji counties, so he sent his own soldiers to inform Cao Shuang and Hao Zhao, and to remind the two generals to take precautions.
After hearing the news, Hao Zhao deeply agreed with this and ordered his soldiers to reinforce the defenses of Ji County overnight. Cao Shuang disagreed with this and believed that the weather was cold and the ground was freezing, and the Weishui River was about to enter the freezing period and the Shu army would not be able to cross the river.
Coupled with the fact that the Wei Dynasty has all its powerful generals and more than 200,000 troops on the western front, Zhuge Liang is nothing to worry about.
So no precautions were taken.
Sure enough, after the Shu army arrived at Qishan Fort, they immediately launched a tentative attack, but were repelled by You Chu.
Zhuge Liang considered that the previous Northern Expeditions had failed due to failure to transport food or problems at the rear, so he stored a lot of food in Xi County, and also built a large camp under Qishan Fort to prepare for a long and exciting war. .
As for Soochow, after Sun Quan learned that the Shu Han sent 200,000 troops to the Northern Expedition, he did not respond to Zhuge Liang. Instead, after discussing with the officials, he chose to wait and see.
The main concern of the kings and ministers of Soochow was not that the Wei State was empty of troops on the eastern front, but that the Shu Han Dynasty was actually able to devote 200,000 troops to the Northern Expedition!
If we include the soldiers and horses stationed in various places in central Sichuan, doesn't it mean that the Shu Han has at least 250,000 to 300,000 soldiers and horses?!
The truth of this speculation shocked Sun Quan.
In his old impression, after the Shu Han experienced the defeat of Yiling, its national strength was reduced by half, its prefectures and counties were reduced by half from twenty-three, and it was already in a state of survival.
Why did it suddenly rise in just two or three years?
You know, Soochow has three large states, but it can only hold 200,000 troops.
In other words, the Shu Han, with nearly 300,000 soldiers and horses, has now surpassed Wu in national power.
The Kingdom of Wu became the younger brother among the three countries.
How could Sun Quan endure this?!
So, he summoned General Lu Xun, who was stationed in Jiangling, overnight to discuss important matters.
The content of the discussion was only one multiple-choice question: Attack Wei? Attack Shu? Stand still and watch the fight between tigers and tigers?
When Lu Xun learned about the number of Shu Han soldiers and horses, he was also shocked. He thought for a long time and put an X on the two options of "attack Wei" and "attack Shu", and put a √ behind "stand still".
The king and his ministers looked at each other and laughed tacitly.
…
The news that Sun Quan was holding back his troops reached Liangzhou, which immediately aroused Ma Di's high vigilance.
In view of Sun Quan's dark history of sneak attacks on his ally Shu Han twice in a row, Ma Di quickly wrote a letter to remind Zhuge Liang to guard Jiangzhou and Yong'an to avoid being attacked by Sun Quan again.
Zhuge Liang quickly wrote back a letter with only six words: "Don't worry, control Yi, and take Long."
Ma Su felt relieved, settled in Wuwei City, continued to use the advantageous tower defense strategy, and started to fight with Sima Yi.
At this time, whoever is anxious will lose momentum.
As a victorious general, Ma Su was so steady that Sima Yi even cried when he saw it.
Of course, the prerequisite for being able to sit in the city without panic is to simulate battle situations every day and build fences.
Without a simulator to tell the truth, how could Ma Su dare to fight with Sima Yi?
He had long since fled away from the wind.
Longyou battlefield.
Zhuge Liang left Wang Ping to unite 10,000 troops and horses to contain Youchu, and sent Wei Yan to lead 20,000 troops to garrison on the south bank of the Wei River to contain Hao Zhao and Xia Houba so that they could not send reinforcements. He also sent Zhang Bao and Guan Xing to lead 5,000 troops to attack.
Go up to Gui, and then order Jiang Wei and Deng Zhi to ambush 30,000 troops and horses outside the city, while Zhuge Liang personally led 30,000 troops to respond in the center.
When Cao Shuang saw that Guan Xing and Zhang Bao dared to attack Shang Gui with only 5,000 soldiers and horses, he was immediately furious and personally raised a large army to fight. Unexpectedly, he fell into the trap and was led hundreds of miles away by his second general. When he recovered, he had already reached Shang Gui City.
Captured by Jiang Wei and Deng Zhi.
Cao Shuang had no choice but to retreat to Ji County to join Hao Zhao.
At the right time, heavy snow fell and the Weishui River froze, blocking Zhuge Liang and Wei Yan from contacting the generals north of the Weishui River. Hao Zhao, together with Xia Houba and Cao Shuang, took the opportunity to send troops to surround Guan Xing and Zhang Bao, and defeated the two generals.
Jiang Wei and Deng Zhi went out to the city to rescue, and the two sides fought fiercely. The Shu army was outnumbered and lost the battle. They fought and retreated to the north bank of the Weishui River. The city of Shanggui was gained and lost again.
Ninety thousand Wei troops surrounded 30,000 Shu troops on the north bank of the Wei River, and the army was about to be destroyed.
On the one hand, Zhuge Liang sent engineers to build a bridge on the ice, and on the other hand, he lined up light crossbowmen to lay wooden planks on the ice to cross the river. They fired arrows at Wei's troops wildly to support Jiang Wei and other generals.
General Hao Zhao and others saw that the bridge was about to be erected and more and more Shu soldiers were crossing the river on the ice. They were afraid that the counties would be lost after Zhuge Liang crossed the river, so they fought for a while and quickly retreated.
In this battle, the Shu army first won and then was defeated. More than 8,000 soldiers were killed. Zhang Bao was killed and Guan Xing was seriously injured.
On the Wei side, more than 6,000 people were killed in the battle, and the city of Shanggui was lost and recovered. The idiot Cao Shuang was immediately transferred from the Longyou battlefield, and Xiahou Ba took his place in guarding the city of Shanggui.
From then on, the armies of Wei and Shu were at each other's throats, and more than a hundred days passed in the blink of an eye.
During this period, Zhuge Liang sent people to challenge the Qishan fortress many times. After being instructed by Sima Yi, You Chu could not escape.
When the news reached Liangzhou, Ma Su sighed deeply as he supported the city.
I realized that Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition might be in vain again.
Qishan Fortress is located south of the Weishui River, the central throat of the entire Longyou region.
If Xixian County is the northwest gateway of the Shu Han Dynasty, then Qishan Fort is the southern gateway to the five Longyou counties of Cao Wei. If Qishan Fortress is in the hands of the Wei army, Zhuge Liang will risk his retreat no matter if he attacks any of the five Longyou counties.
If the Qishan Fortress is in the hands of the Shu Han, then the five counties of Longyou will be like women without clothes, and all their secrets will be exposed to the straight man Shu Han.
But unfortunately, Qishan Fortress is not in the hands of Shu Han.
Judging from the situation, Zhuge Liang won't be able to capture this place for a while.
Then the outcome of the war can be foreseen.
Although Shu Han will not fail, it is impossible to win.
The four Wei Guo cobblers really withstood Zhuge Liang's offensive.
In the wars of this era, there was no strategy of going around the city and attacking the enemy's rear. The combat method had to be to capture strongholds one by one to ensure that the rear food routes were unobstructed and not threatened, and then steadily advance forward.
With Zhuge Liang's cautious style, as long as the Qishan Fortress cannot be captured, he will not risk taking a step forward.
Looking at the battle situation, Ma Di suddenly felt particularly clear-headed, and secretly wondered if he and Zhuge Liang would be blocked by the Qishan Fortress if their positions were swapped.
After much thought, the final answer is, no!
He even came up with four or five good strategies in an instant to break through the Qishan Fortress.
But these strategies either rely on equipment advantages, or rely on system or talent advantages, and none of them are suitable for Zhuge Liang.
"well!"
Ma Su sighed, looking at the Wei army camp ten miles east of the city, and suddenly felt that the top commanders of this era were just like that.
When they encounter your own unwillingness to fight, they will be blinded and scolded loudly.
Therefore, Ma Su felt that he was actually very capable of commanding troops.
At least, you can be on a 50-50 basis with Sima Yi...
Thanks to: Nintendo Quixote for the 1500 coin reward.
