Chapter 819 It’s better to leave the remaining brave men to chase the poor bandits
Nowadays, it is nothing new to discuss whether Liu Bei is the orthodox Han Dynasty or Cao Cao is the orthodox Han Dynasty.
No matter how loyal the Han officials are, they still have the power to choose their future, just like Jiang Wan today - he has the ambition of becoming a champion just to kill the enemies in front of him.
Was he wrong?
He didn't.
But this kind of performance is tantamount to a complete blow to Zhuge Liang, who always claims to be the humerus of the Han Dynasty, and to Liu Bei, who claims to be a royal clan member.
Under the wheel, even with the leadership of Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun, Liu Bei's soldiers were as fragile as ants, being mercilessly crushed by the crazy wheel.
The resistance that was supposed to be formed quickly was destroyed in an instant.
Huang Zhong, Huo Jun and Chen Dao were in a completely helpless state, and it was difficult to express anything. They almost watched the massacre happen in front of their eyes, but there was no chance to stop it.
Defeated——
What was supposed to be a great victory turned into the most painful defeat since the Hanzhong War. It was clearly engraved on Zhuge Liang's face and in his bones.
In the end, it is unknown how Liu Bei's army gathered up his troops and retreated.
This battle, involving a total of more than 100,000 troops, ultimately resulted in 27,000 casualties of Liu Bei's army, and Liu Bei's main army was almost completely defeated.
The only advantage may be that due to the large reduction in the number of people, the rations that were originally only enough for seven or eight days can now be sustained for a few more days.
But...if you think about it, you will know that this is just a dream.
Next, if Cao Jun launches an offensive similar to today's, let alone a stalemate, Zhuge Liang will not even have the confidence to resist.
Since the withdrawal of the army, Zhuge Liang has not shown his face again for two days.
This was another heavy blow to Liu Beijun's already extremely low morale.
"Brother...strategist...strategist, is he okay?"
At noon on the third day, Cao Jun still did not attack - obviously, the opponent's attitude was quite obvious. The opponent was just waiting to eat Wei Yan's soldiers and horses, which had already separated from the group, and their goal had been achieved.
Therefore, Cao Jun will not easily expose any weaknesses to Liu Bei at the moment.
This is already an overestimation of Liu Beijun.
Without Zhuge Liang as the backbone, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun, together with Liu Bei, had no confidence in leading their army against Cao Jun.
——That day, Cao's army relied on the lost ancient cavalry tactics... The formation of chariots and hangings performed like a meat grinder, completely defeating everyone's confidence.
Coupled with the superior performance of the opponent's cavalry, no matter how brave Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun were, they had no intention of dying.
Not only that - bad news came one after another from the army.
In order to implement Zhuge Liang's plan, Huang Zhong spontaneously organized a so-called "self-rescue" operation, which was essentially the same as Wei Yan's attack, but Huang Zhong certainly had good intentions.
——Dingjun Mountain must not act rashly, but Huang Zhong, who is extremely good at forest and mountain battles, still wants to rely on his own ability to win back a victory for his side.
So with Liu Bei's permission, Huang Zhong once again personally led 10,000 troops and horses, crossed the mountainous terrain, and directly faced the rear of Cao's army - that is, traveled a long distance to make a surprise attack on the place behind Hanzhong called the ancient city.
Food shortage, the miracle of food shortage, will never go out of style.
Cao Cao was also in Guandu and stole Yuan Shao's granary before finally turning the tide of the war. Huang Zhong thought that if he could do it, he might be able to create a miracle?
But obviously——
This so-called calculation has long been clearly understood by Jiang Wan.
If Huang Zhong knew that the plan he came up with after fighting for more than half a month had been anticipated by Jiang Wan as early as half a month ago - and...if Huang Zhong knew, the so-called Cao army he attacked by surprise should
If Jiang Wan had not adopted the selected grain route: Baoshui-Hanshui route, Huang Zhong would probably have fainted from anger.
In short, Huang Zhong's surprise attack on the ancient city ended in complete failure due to Xu Huang's iron-clad performance.
He thought about it, but no one explained it to him. He didn't understand why he met a backbone general of Cao's army like Xu Huang in his old city until he died of illness. Of course... this is all a story for another day.
All fronts were declared failed, and this battle was basically won by Cao Cao.
Just bad...
——
There were only a few hundred soldiers sent by Huo Jun to follow Wei Yan's footsteps.
This is understandable. After all, for a frontal battlefield, even a few dozen men and horses are considerable and important combat effectiveness.
Being able to send a team of hundreds of people to Wei Yan is already a very high regard for him.
However, when hundreds of people and horses found Wei Yan, who had lost his soul, under the dangerous mountains somewhere in the middle of the remote Chencang Road, there was no one around him.
"Wei...General Wei Yan...you...you are here..."
One of the leading commanders got off his horse and went to invite Wei Yan.
But I saw a face that was hopeless.
Wei Yan... his eyes were dull and his face was muddy. He just hugged his knees and squatted on a big rock. There were not many scars on his body. There were dried blood stains everywhere——
This look is very much like that of a frustrated runaway.
He heard someone calling him. He nervously hugged his long knife, stared with dull eyes, and looked up at the commander blankly——
"General...general...we...we were sent by General Huo to pick you up - but I don't want to ask General...Where are the soldiers...?"
"Haha...hahahahaha...then...there!"
"They are all...all soldiers...hahahaha...all with arrows...hahaha...just like hedgehogs..."
He pointed in the direction of Xiabian. On the other side of the mountain was Xiabian City - the city walls were covered in blood, and the city walls were filled with Wei Yan's soldiers.
Wei Yan was crazy - when he was taken away, he just held his knife, giggled, and said something like "a lot of arrows" and "a lot of people", which was confusing.
…
Finally, in the Battle of Xiabian, the news that the young general Ma Dai led the Shenjian Battalion to annihilate Wei Yan's 10,000 elite soldiers reached the ears of Liu Bei and Cao Cao at the same time.
At this moment, the result of the Hanzhong battle was officially announced.
At the same time, the two Lords looked at the same sky and said in unison:
"Chase!" "Retreat..."
The Battle of Hanzhong ended with Cao Cao's complete victory.
In the end, Liu Bei's army of 100,000 came in force, leaving less than half of it. Cao's army not only suppressed the chaos in Hanzhong with less than 10,000 casualties, but also took full authority to accept the Hanzhong gift package left by Zhang Lu.
Liu Bei, whose development momentum was unstoppable, was dealt a heavy blow.
In the final pursuit, Cao Jun once again wiped out Liu Bei's remnant forces. Cao Cao understood the saying that it is better to use the remaining brave men to chase the poor bandits than to pretend to be an academic overlord.
To a certain extent, this victory also alleviated the impact of the defeat in the Battle of Chibi.
Similarly, Jiang Wan's position among the advisers around Cao Cao was established.
But... if it were only these, Cao Cao would not be able to fight such a fight with great fanfare under Yi Xiaotian's instigation.
Liu Bei, who left with the autistic Zhuge Liang, did not even realize that their biggest crisis was about to come.