You have to grit your teeth and persevere in desperate situations before God has a chance to bring luck to you.
This is the case with Zheng Pubu.
With the decision to kill the entire army, the hope of survival finally came.
It also earned him Chen Shi's respect.
If we say that in the past when they fought side by side in Nanzhong County, Chen Shi's impression of Zheng Pu was that he was a good young man, but now he has transformed into a minister who will become the mainstay of our Han Dynasty.
Therefore, after all the Wei troops retreated to Xiao Pass, he took the initiative to take on the hard work of cleaning up the battlefield.
Such as collecting the weapons and armor of dead soldiers, burying the bodies of our own soldiers, and finding firewood to burn the filth on the battlefield, etc.
In a few days, it will be summer and April, and the weather will turn hotter and flies will become more common. If the flesh, blood, and filth on the battlefield are not dealt with as soon as possible, epidemics may occur.
As the highest-ranking military officer, he did his duty and sent Zheng Pu and Zhao Guang to the camp.
In fact, the camp is ready-made.
The retreat against Wei was too hasty. Not only did the camp have no time to destroy, but not much of the grain, fodder and baggage were even burned.
It was equivalent to Chen Shi's disguise and asked him to lead the army to rest.
In the middle, there is a small episode.
Ma Su took more than a thousand remnants of his troops to escort the food and supplies.
But he was feeling guilty and ashamed, so after handing over, he walked to the street pavilion without stopping.
Or perhaps it could be said that the few thousand soldiers left under Zheng Pu's command looked at him with vague anger, which made him unable to continue to exchange a few words.
In response, Zheng Pu chased Ma Su and said goodbye.
"Brother Youchang, actually I also have the heart to send troops out of Xiaoguan."
His eyes were very clear, and there was no joking look on his face, "However, the time for the troops to be sent out is after reporting to the Prime Minister and inviting reinforcements to garrison here."
After saying that, seeing that Ma Su still looked lonely, he added, "Moreover, our army has not lost this Xiaoguandao, and we have gained a lot from the battle."
After hearing this, Ma Su raised his eyebrows in surprise at first, and then fell silent.
After a long time, Fang let out a long sigh.
Regardless of his higher official position and older age, he bowed and bowed to Zheng Pu, "Thank you Zijin for your protective heart."
After saying this, he turned around and left.
Although his back is still depressed, it is slightly straighter and no longer gloomy.
Because Zheng Pu's words were a veiled claim that when reporting the war here to Zhuge Liang, he would try his best to downplay his guilt of disrespecting the general and leaving Xiaoguan without permission.
He was trapped into death by himself, but he still wanted to deal with himself regardless of past grudges.
Ma Su was deeply touched by such friendship.
It’s just that sometimes, any words seem pale, and it’s hard to show gratitude no matter how you move your face.
He could only bow deeply, keep this friendship in his heart, and hope that one day he could repay it.
Not long after he led his army to leave, Zhang Bao also arrived leading the army.
Everyone expressed their joy at being together.
Every time Zhang Bao looked at Zheng Pu, a hint of sadness would quietly flash through his eyes.
The generals such as Jufu, Wang Ping, Huo Yi and Zhang Yi, who fought to the death, were all more or less injured. But Zheng Pu, who was well protected by his retinue, Begging Tooth House, was in disgrace.
There was a scar several inches long on the left cheek.
It's not deep, it should have been scratched by the tip of a spear or the blade of a knife, but it will leave scars.
The great Han lieutenants have always valued appearance.
For example, Xiahou Dun, the former general who rebelled against the Wei Dynasty, was hit by a stray arrow during the campaign against Lu Bu, injuring his left eye, and was nicknamed "Blind Xiahou" by his sergeants. Xiahou Dun became so angry when he looked in the mirror that he often threw the mirror to the ground.
There is still Sun Ce, the rebellious general.
He was injured by Xu Gong's disciples, and the doctor said it could be cured. All he had to do was take good care of himself and not move for a hundred days.
However, he looked at himself in the mirror and said to his left and right, "Looking like this, can you still make achievements again?" He became so angry that his wounds were all split, and he died that night.
Zheng Pu's appearance had recently been damaged, and Zhang Bao, who had been designated by the emperor as his in-laws, would naturally be a little worried.
I am afraid that Zheng Pu, who has a very strong temperament, will lose his ambition and become confused due to other people's ridicule in the future, and will become withdrawn and unruly.
Naturally, he was worried in vain.
As far as Zheng Pu is concerned, it is just a scar.
How unreasonable!
Furthermore, how can a good man show his courage without any scars?
Especially since he has no courage.
cough!
A few days later, Zhao Guangbu, who had finished resting, rushed back to Pingxiang City with the horses captured along the way to continue to obey Wei Yan's orders.
Chen Shi and Zhang Bao's tribe took over from Zheng Pu and Ma Di's tribe to guard Xiaoguandao.
Well, Zheng Pu's army is disabled and there is no use staying here.
It would be better to take the prisoners and the armor, clothing and other items captured in the battle and return with them.
Longguan Road, street pavilion.
Prime Minister Zhuge Liang, who was informed by Chen Shi that he had sent people to report the military situation, relieved his worries after knowing that Xiao Guan's path was intact and Zheng Pu and others were safe.
The tired look between his brows and eyes cannot be concealed even when he makes a happy face.
Having personally been on the front line to supervise the battle for more than a month, and having to concentrate on dispatching various ministries, he was already much thinner than when he left Hanzhong.
However, it's all worth it.
Although many soldiers were lost and the loss of food and supplies was huge, Longyou was already in control!
I, a big man, finally broke out of the secluded cage of Bashu and ushered in the first ray of dawn to regain the old capital.
What a joy!
Yes, the Prime Minister can now claim to have won the battle of Longyou.
Because Cao Zhen, who rebelled against Wei, started yesterday, he no longer sent troops to attack Jieting.
At first, the prime minister was quite surprised.
After dispatching scouts to investigate, they discovered that Cao Zhen had retreated to Fanxukou Pass on the other side of Liupanshan-Longshan Mountains!
Although I don’t know why Cao Zhen is like this.
However, the Prime Minister did not investigate further.
Fighting requires courage!
Do it all at once, second time tired, third time exhausted.
Zhang He's previous attack was fruitless, and now Cao Zhen has returned in defeat. Even if the rebels against Wei send more troops, none of the soldiers will be brave enough to fight to the death.
What's the worry?
Therefore, the prime minister, who was temporarily free, read the map of Shao Shi and rearranged the responsibilities of various departments of the Han army.
He ordered the Wei Yan Department and the Wu Ban Department to maintain their duties and continue to guard the troops.
He ordered the Guanxing tribe, which had been sent to Chengji County to protect Wei Yan's retreat, to turn west and force You Chu, the governor of Longxi who rebelled against Wei, to surrender!
However, it is not necessary to occupy the entire territory of Longxi County, but to garrison troops as far as Didao.
Tang Fan, the leader of the Qiang and Hu, has already occupied the land at the head of the river. The prime minister does not plan to have a conflict with him for the time being until the Han Dynasty completely digests the land of Longyou.
Wu Yi's tribe, on the other hand, sent over Jieting Supervisor to build the pass, making this place the dividing line between the Wei Dynasty and the Han Dynasty.
He himself wanted to return to Ji County, Tianshui County, to establish the future center of Longyou, and to appease the common people of Li.
As for Deng Zhi's tribe, he led the army to Wudu County, and together with the Ma Dai tribe who guarded the grain road, they forced Cao's army and the Di tribe in Wudu County to surrender or wiped them out.
After Wudu County was pacified, Ma Dai turned to Chencang Road to repair the abandoned Dashan Pass, killing the possibility of an attack by the Wei Dynasty via Chencang. Deng Zhi's tribe turned to Yinping, and together with Liao Hua, the governor of Guangwu, raped the traitors.
Kill him!
Let the land of Bashu and Longyou be completely connected.
Naturally, he did not forget Zheng Pu and Ma Su.
He then sent a messenger to deliver the order, asking Ma and Zheng to lead their troops to Ji County immediately.
Cao Zhen, who stopped the fighting in Jieting and asked his generals to lead troops to guard Fanxukou, is now in Chencang City, Fufeng, You.
The reason why he retreated was because he learned that Xiao Guandao was defeated and Zhang He was killed.
After all, he was able to become the general of Wei not only because of his clan status and his good relationship with Cao Pi, but also because of his talent as a commander.
Therefore, we also know that continuing to attack the street pavilions will not help.
Especially, he met Guo Huai.
Guo Huai, disguised as a Li commoner, went down the Weishui River Valley. Taking advantage of the opportunity when Wang Shuang and Wu Ban stopped fighting, he crossed Longshan into Youfufeng and found a street pavilion to plead guilty.
In other words, the loss of Shanggui City allowed the Shu army to focus on guarding the Guanlong Passage, and the Wei State lost Longyou.
Taking the lead means taking the lead step by step.
The advantages and disadvantages of the offensive and defensive battles between Wei and Shu will only become greater and greater as time goes by.
However, giving up Longyou at this point was not something Cao Zhen could accept.
Therefore, he locked himself in the camp for a day and night, and then sent people to find Guo Huai.
"The loss of Longyou was not the fault of war. The loss of Shanggui was not the fault of Bo Ji."
First, he took the blame for the defeat from General Guo Huai. Cao Zhenfang told him, "Now that General Zuo is unfortunately injured, and the traitor Yang Tiao of Anding County has not been killed, Xiaoguandao may not be safe. Bo Jiqi went to Anding County to supervise the general.
Wei Ping and Dai Lingxiu reorganized their troops, killed the traitor Yang Tiao, and defended Xiao Pass without losing anything."
As soon as he said this, Guo Huai couldn't help but bow down to the ground with wet eyes.
Indeed, as Cao Zhen said, the loss of Longyou was not a fault of war.
If the three counties of Longyou do not surrender, it will disperse the strength of the Shu army and save it from being besieged day and night by tens of thousands of troops. It may not be possible to hold on to Shanggui City until Cao Zhen's army comes to help.
Moreover, as early as last year, he went to Luoyang and pointed out the signs that the Shu army might send troops.
It's just that the Luoyang Temple didn't take it seriously, and there were no reinforcements to prepare defenses in advance.
However, Zhang He, the mainstay of the Wei Dynasty, died in grief and anger, Longyou was all occupied by the Shu army, and tens of thousands of troops were killed or wounded. Someone had to bear the consequences of such a tragic war.
As the governor of Yongzhou, he cannot escape the blame!
Even if he was not deposed as a commoner due to the war and moved thousands of miles away, he would still be deposed and demoted.
After all, there is no right or wrong in matters related to the court's reputation.
Now Cao Zhen asked him to go to Anding County to supervise the war and destroy the rebel traitor Yang Tiao, because he was determined to exonerate him.
This was to quell the rebellion and reduce the criticism of the Dukes of Luoyang and Gungun.
How could he not shed tears of gratitude?
Naturally, men from the border areas who grew up in the land of Yan and Zhao rarely looked sad.
After bidding farewell, he hurried to Anding County, vowing in his heart that he would repay Cao Zhen's kindness with death one day.
After he left, Cao Zhen, who was sitting at the table, frowned, his eyes full of complexity. It wasn't that he had any other thoughts about Guo Huai, but he was thinking about the desperate strategy he had made half a month ago: using national power to drain the country.
Damn Bashu!
Of course!
He wants to personally lead tens of thousands of troops out of Wudu County!
Today, Dashan Pass in Wudu County has been abandoned for many years. Although the Chencang Road is rugged and difficult to transport grain and fodder, the Shu army did not send troops to guard it.
If he takes the Chencang Road and enters Hechi County, cutting off the connection between Hanzhong County and Longyou; and if he doesn't send partial troops into the East Wolf Valley, the birthplace of Jushui River, to intimidate Yang'ankou in Hanzhong, he can make the Shu army lose its footing!
The basis is the food and fodder of the Shu army!
The Bashu soldiers marched out of Longyou, and if they were able to catch the enemy unawares and attack secretly, they would not be able to carry enough food.
Even if all three counties of Longyou surrendered, they would still not be able to sustain the losses of the 70,000 to 80,000 troops for several months.
Moreover, due to the war this year, the spring plowing in Longyou has been delayed. The Shu army has newly acquired the land in Longyou. In order to win people's hearts and win over the counties, they must allocate grain to feed the people of Guizhou.
As long as he cuts off the Shu army's food route, he can force the Shu army to come to Wudu to fight.
This will make it impossible for the Shu army to defend Longyou.
The newly captured land was inherently unstable.
If the Shu army had more troops left in Longyou, it would be difficult to push back the Wei army in Hechi County and Donglang Valley.
On the contrary, if we mobilize all our troops to fight, we will not be able to defend Longyou when it is empty!
After all, the Wei army in Liangzhou has more cavalry, but the Shu army has less cavalry!
Just recruit 5,000 Qiang and Hu cavalry for profit, and send 3,000 Wei cavalry, and then they can be divided into ten teams and advance lightly, relying on their strong mobility to frequently harass and plunder the counties in Longyou.
The Shu army was exhausted and unable to take care of both the beginning and the end.
After one month, the great clans of Longyou and the Li people were suffering from turmoil, so they came to seek help from the Wei army and cooperated with others to drive the Shu army out of Longyou.
Moreover, there is no need to worry that the Shu army will do the opposite.
He can't attack the three passes of Guan and Long, but if he switches to holding the pass and defending it, Ni Shu won't even be able to attack Guanzhong.
Such a decision would drag Ni Shu into an endless war, making the Bashu land, which had long been in decline, unable to bear the pain of attrition and retreat on its own to Hanzhong!
Furthermore, there is no need to worry about not coming to fight.
This is a conspiracy, which is tantamount to taking the initiative on the battlefield in hand, making Ni Shu unable to avoid and retreat.
Naturally, if you want to break the boat, you also need to take risks.
Nearly half of the 80,000 troops awarded to him by Emperor Cao Rui have been lost. If he wants to cut off the food route to Nishu, he needs at least 40,000 to 50,000 troops to enter Wudu County before he can achieve success!
Deducting the troops guarding the three roads of Guan and Long, it will inevitably require the support of troops from all states in the country.
For example, troops were mobilized from Jizhou, troops were recruited from Guanzhong Sanfu, and troops were mobilized from Qingxu and Yangzhou thousands of miles away.
In addition, in order to contain the troops left behind in Hanzhong County against Shu, Sima Yi's troops guarding Jingzhou had to send more than 10,000 partial troops to march from the three eastern counties to the eastern gateway of Hanzhong to feint attack.
If Ni Shu falls into an unsustainable situation due to the difficulty of the road to Shu and the small number of soldiers in Yizhou, he will automatically abandon Longyou.
However, if the Wei Dynasty's thousands of miles of border areas, such as Youbin and the two states, cannot defend against the invaders of Xianbei and Kebineng, as well as the Southern Xiongnu and the Qianghu tribe in Shangjun who take advantage of the fire; if Jingzhou and Huainan cannot resist the invaders of Sun Wu, they will
Let the two powers of Wei and Dawei choose the lesser of each other and have to retreat.
It can be said that the entire country's mobile military force has been invested in this battle, fighting against Shu in a life-and-death game!
As a member of the Cao Wei clan, Cao Zhen was extremely cautious in making decisions related to the survival of the country. He considered every detail carefully before reporting it to the emperor Cao Rui who was in charge of Chang'an.
He sat alone in the military tent for a long time.
He waited until the first ray of sunlight appeared outside the skyline before writing.
The above table arrived in Chang'an at sunset and was spread out on Cao Rui's desk.
Cao Rui, who was twenty-four years old, was still undecided after reading it.
After thinking about it for a long time, he summoned Liu Ye, the attendant who had come to Chang'an, and ordered Sun Zi to come and ask for advice.
