Guo Huai's greatest reputation outside of the Chu State is that he once won the second place in the Military Science in the first imperial examination, second only to Fazheng who participated in the imperial examination in the same year.
However, there is obviously an essential difference between the second and the first, especially Fa Zheng's advice during the Chu State's Western Expedition, which has made him famous.
For this reason, Liu Zhang not only became angry, but even implicated Zhang Song, which made Liu Zhang feel that this guy with a deer head and a rat head was suspicious. At that time, Zhang Song was so angry that he fell ill for several days. Later, with the persuasion of Huang Quan, Zheng Du and others, Liu Zhang personally
I went to the mansion to visit Zhang Song, and then Zhang Song took office again.
Compared to Fazheng, Guo Huai is still mediocre...
In the State of Chu, being ranked second in military science, even in the first imperial examination, was already dazzling enough, and Guo Huai was also appreciated by many high-level generals in the Privy Council, especially the generals of the Bingzhou faction headed by Lu Bu——
After all, Guo Huai was also born in Bingzhou.
However, outside of the Chu State, everyone's attention to the "second" was obviously insufficient. If they didn't know that the person in charge of Badong was Guo Huai, Zhang Ren and Yan Yan would not have cared about such a person at all.
After all, in Chu State, there are too many people who deserve more attention than Guo Huai...
After learning about Guo Huai's arrangements in Badong County, Zhang Ren and Yan Yan didn't take it seriously, thinking that he was young and energetic and could talk on paper.
But there is one thing, Zhang Ren must have been wrong...
From the beginning, Zhao Yun had no intention of assigning tasks to Guo Huai!
Because Zhao Yun believed that Guo Huai could be trusted with his back - you must know that when the Wancheng 1st Division was half-retreating, Guo Huai was actually handling the military and political affairs of Badong County.
It's just that people may not even have the impression of second place, and naturally they won't remember that in addition to second place in military science, Guo Huai also got "A" in civil science and household science.
In history, Guo Huai was also a capable minister in managing the military and political affairs of a place. He sat in Guanzhong for more than 20 years. The army and the people were in submission, and he blocked Zhuge Liang and Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition several times...
Although there is no major victory that can be "conferred as a god", there has been no major mistake in more than 20 years.
In the middle period of the Wei Kingdom, when the Sima family began to embark on the path of becoming a powerful official, their foundation was in Guanzhong. In order to prepare for the Shu Kingdom, the Wei Kingdom had Sima Yi as governor of Guanzhong's military and political affairs for a long time. As a result, several Wei emperors were short-lived, and Sima Yi was ordered to serve in Guanzhong.
big.
And Guo Huaiji was in Guanzhong for a long time. Although he was a Wei minister, he was also Sima Yi's "little brother".
However, Guo Huai is different from the always ruthless Sima family, he is still very affectionate.
Historically, Master Sima poisoned his wife who was born in the Xiahou family because of his grudges with the Cao family and the Xiahou family, so he was always criticized.
And Guo Huai's wife was from the Wang family - Wang Yun's Wang family... His wife's brother Wang Ling was very loyal to the Cao family. After the Gaoping Ling Incident, Wang Ling was dissatisfied with Sima Yi's specialization in government affairs, so he raised troops to serve the king, but failed to become one of the three clans that were executed...
…
According to the rules of the Han Dynasty, a married daughter was still included in her mother's family, so Guo Huai's wife was also among them.
However, Guo Huai wrote a letter to Sima Yi, saying that if his five sons had no mother, they would be sad and unable to live alone. Without my five sons, I, Guo Huai, would be as good as dead...
After Sima Yi received the letter, he pardoned Guo Huai's wife. This also shows that Sima Yi was interested in Guo Huai - at that time, Guo Huai had been operating in Guanzhong for 20 years, and Sima was still only a "powerful official", and Sima Yi could not
Not fancy.
At this time, Zhang Ren and Yan Yan only thought that Guo Huai was a young and energetic general. After learning that he was setting up defenses in Zhi County, Zhang Ren took the lead and took the first step.
"Old General Yan, please stop taking credit from us young people! Hahaha..."
Zhang Ren said this, but Yan Yan understood that he did not want his flaw of being "good at defense but not good at offense" to be too exposed.
"Then you will work for justice."
…
On the way to Zhi County with his army, Zhang Ren received several reports, all of which said that the Chu army had "changed". However, the specific "change" methods were not explained very clearly by the scouts. They just said... It seemed that there was a big move.
Digging on a grand scale?
Zhang Ren didn't understand either - could he still be digging traps at this time? Isn't this young general from Chu State too full of ideas?
After getting really close to the Chu army's defense line, Zhang Ren discovered that the Chu army had dug a deep trench half a man's height in the plain area for some unknown purpose, and then placed the dug sand on top of it.
In front of the ditch.
You can vaguely see the defenders of Chu... hiding in the ditch, behind the earthen wall.
"General, could it be that... the Chu army wants to use this earth wall to block us?" Lieutenant General Zhang Li asked doubtfully.
"What a whim! Ali, you want to go meet that Guo Huai!" Zhang Ren said with a cold face.
If you really expect that the earth wall can block the enemy, it is indeed fanciful. After all, at this height, even the war horses "trained" by the Yunnan Horse, which are not capable of sprinting and bursting, can still jump over it, not to mention, even ordinary infantry
, it’s just a matter of holding on.
What advantage does the defender have if he hides behind?
However, Zhang Ren will soon know that he has completely gone astray...
"Thank you, General!" Zhang Li said excitedly.
In front of the formation of the two armies, a gilded general walked out from the Shu army. After entering within a hundred steps, someone from Chu State couldn't help but asked Guo Huai: "Commander! Are you angry?" -
It means "fire" equivalent to a musket.
Guo Huai shook his head and said: "We are teachers of benevolence and righteousness. Let's see what he says first and then shoot him!"
"Chu traitor, listen! I am Zhang Li, the vanguard of the former general of the Shuhou Mansion. Do you dare to step forward and fight? Wait until I capture you in front of the formation, so as not to hurt the manpower of my people in Ba County!" Zhang Li called to the formation.
Zhang Li specifically mentioned the people of Bajun, hoping to arouse the Badong people's common hatred towards the Chu people, but unfortunately... it had no effect.
As for whether he can win... Although I have never seen Guo Huai take action, what is certain is that there is no such person among the golden and jade generals of Chu State.
As long as it is still gold-plated, Zhang Li will dare to fight...
"Oh, the confrontation between the two armies is not a place for one person to show off his talents? Are all Xichuan warriors so brave and fierce? It's really disappointing!" After Guo Huai got armor, he jumped out of the bunker wall and said, and then jumped again
Went back.
Zhang Li and Zhang Ren behind him all had their heads twitching when they heard this.
It is true that calling the formation at this time seems a bit brave, but... isn't it because I guess that you, Guo Huai, are this kind of person, so you call it the formation like this?
How could you expect that Guo Huai, who was so reckless in strategy, would actually become a coward on the battlefield?
"Let's raise the flag...Fengya!" Zhang Ren said with a solemn face.
Looking at the strange earthen walls and ravines in front of him, Zhang Ren could probably guess that Chu State must be trying to fight a war of attrition with long-range attacks, but Zhang Ren was not worried.
Even if Chu's crossbows were a strong point, they would not be able to shoot anything under the cover of such a knee-high earth wall. If they couldn't stop the charge, how many times could they shoot along the way?