Sima Yi, the governor of Yongliang in Wei Dynasty, put the pen down on the case, picked up the silk and gently blew the ink dry. Before putting it into the small tube, he read it carefully and read it correctly. Then he called the officer on duty outside the department and quickly turned it around. Go to Luoyang.
Emperor Cao Rui once again came to inquire about the status of the war and its arrangements.
It's not that Cao Rui doesn't trust Sima Yi's ability to coordinate, nor can he blame him for his eagerness.
Instead, all the Dukes of Luoyang and Gungun were preoccupied with the war in the northwest.
Recruiting the vassal Southern Xiongnu left and right tribes and the Xianbei Tuoba tribe, using the emperor's own army of tiger and leopard cavalry, and dispatching 20,000 soldiers from Youzhou, coupled with the 100,000 troops from Guanzhong, the number of soldiers and horses invested by the Wei State this time can be said to be the highest since the Han Dynasty The army attacked and captured the rear of Longyou. How could it not attract the attention of everyone in the Wei state?
In particular, Ni Shu's reaction is really unpredictable.
After the Southern Xiongnu and Xianbei entered Hexi, Nishu immediately dispatched troops and horses to strictly guard the counties. This reaction was still expected.
However, after Xia Houru, the general who conquered the north, was suddenly trapped in the fortress of Manyin City, Ni Shu's reaction was unexpected.
It was almost early summer and April. Ni Shu just ordered the general Zhao Guang to lead his cavalry to Hanpingchuan, which was about four or five miles away from the outside of the Fortress of Manyin City. He fired hundreds of warring weapons into the sky from different directions and then returned. went.
There was no attempt to find where the Wei army's food was stored, and there was no attempt to attack Xia Houru's troops in search of an opportunity to relieve the siege.
The intention is obvious: just to let the trapped soldiers of the Manyin garrison know that Zhuge Liang, the Prime Minister of Shu, has not given up on them, and to give the soldiers hope that they can continue to wait for rescue.
However, since then, Ni Shu has made no rescue move.
Moreover, according to the information obtained by the scouts, there are no signs of martial law or troop mobilization in Nishu, regardless of Hexi, Longyou and Hanzhong counties, but they are supervising spring plowing matters calmly.
Such a situation put Cao Rui under great pressure.
Although this battle was planned by Sima Yi, after Fei Yao, who was in charge of the military south of Helan Mountain, lost more than 3,000 Guanzhong elite cavalry in ambush, Sima Yi had already come forward to remonstrate, claiming that the opportunity to plan this plan was lost, and he gave up temporarily to wait for him. We will make further plans when the time comes.
However, Emperor Cao Rui actually transferred the tiger and leopard cavalry to Hexi, determined to carry out the battle again.
Tens of thousands of troops have been away for several months now, spending countless amounts of food and fodder. However, the original intention of forcing Ni Shu to fight has not been achieved. How can the Dukes of Gongun not be eager?
An Neng will not make Cao Rui anxious!
Therefore, when he wrote again this time, he wanted to ask if Sima Yi would march after the spring plowing in Guanzhong was completed.
I don't want to interfere with the dispatching power of the foreign governor, I just want to know the general strategy.
This is because Sima Yi had a plan in the above table - if Ni Shu cannot be rescued, he will use the Guanzhong army to attack Hanzhong or Longyou to contain the garrison troops and horses from various places in Ni Shu, and actually capture the Manyin Fortress in a fake show!
Therefore, Sima Yi took the trouble to write his reply.
Carefully record everything you think and rely on in the table, trying to ease Cao Rui's anxiety as much as possible.
Because his decision was to continue to hold troops in Guanzhong after the spring plowing.
There are four things to rely on.
First, he dared to confirm that Ni Shu would definitely come to save the Fortress of Manyin!
The strategic significance of Manyin to the Hexi Corridor almost determines the war initiative of both sides in the land of Yongliang. It is impossible for Zhuge Liang, the prime minister who rebelled against Shu, not to know about it.
So far, there is no sign of rescue, so it must have been delayed by other matters.
In this regard, Sima Yi also summoned his assistants and military veterans to analyze together, and then came up with a reason that made him laugh and laugh: Perhaps Nishu was worried about the food supply, so he had to wait until after spring plowing before sending troops to rescue.
Apart from this, no one can raise any other objections.
This inference made him feel regretful.
If he had known this, he would not have allowed Xia Houru to march into the trapped city too early and waste food and fodder.
At the beginning of the plan, he was only thinking about the convenience of the Wei army crossing the besieged city due to the frozen river, but he forgot the fact that Ni Shu had been exhausted for a long time and was short of food and fodder.
But there is nothing wrong with this.
Who could have expected that Ni Shu didn't even have the food reserves to supply 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers and horses!
However, since the matter is already settled, Sima Yi will not dwell too much on it. Anyway, with Guanzhong's grain supply, he can afford to spend a few more months.
This is also his second reliance.
It has been three years since he came to serve as the governor of Yongliang, but he has not made any achievements in the campaign.
However, in terms of expanding farmland and using it to finance the country, it has achieved fruitful results.
With his idea of "the soldiers are self-sufficient and the country is enriched", coupled with the sufficient labor previously recruited from Jizhou by granting land as an inducement, the fertile 800-mile Qinchuan River has once again been dubbed the "Land of Abundance". Even today The Luoyang area fell into famine at the beginning of spring. Emperor Cao Rui ordered him to transport millions of grains and fodder for relief, but the grains and fodder stored in Guanzhong were still sufficient to feed the army until after the autumn harvest.
With enough food and fodder, he could sit still and wait for a fighter plane to appear.
Third, he had already asked his troops to transfer a large amount of grain from Guanzhong to Xiahou Ru.
Due to the consideration of the speed of the troops and the limitation of the long distance, the Xiahou Confucian tribe who was transferred from Wuyuan County in Bingzhou to station in Dingxi City in the north of Anding County did not carry siege equipment, so they have been delayed in attacking the city.
However, the siege preparations such as raising earthen hills, digging tunnels, and building encirclements in the opposite direction were all completed.
Now even if they go against Shu and send troops to rescue them, when they attack the Xiahou Ru camp, the Han troops in the Fortress of Manyin will not be able to overcome the obstacles and leave the city to respond. Everything is ready.
Based on this, Sima Yi felt that now was not the time to attack the enemy regardless of casualties.
Built since the time of Emperor Xiaowu of the former Han Dynasty, Manyin has been used as an outpost to defend against nomadic tribes. It has undergone numerous repairs and reinforcements over hundreds of years and is considered impregnable!
The only time it was captured was when the former rebel general Jiang Wei made a surprise attack from behind.
Moreover, Wei Ping was unable to support him, and Scar Pu led the army to join forces, forcing the garrison to surrender in despair.
In other words, it will be difficult to be captured before the foreign aid to Shu is completely cut off and the soldiers are desperate.
Even though there are only 3,000 soldiers currently guarding the city of Anyin against Shu, Xiahou Ru used 20,000 troops to attack day and night, and they may not be able to achieve success within a few months. Rather than losing countless soldiers and making useless achievements, it is better to wait for the opportunity and attack the enemy day and night. After defeating the reinforcements against Shu and cutting off the hope of the defenders in the city, we then made plans to attack the city.
Finally, there was the support from the left and right tribes of the Southern Xiongnu and the Tuoba tribe of Xianbei.
Sima Yi did not expect them to sing a triumphant song, but with the nomadic tribe's thousands-mile attack, they contained the forces of Shu and made the defenses of the counties in Hexi exhausted, so they should have made some achievements.
Relying on these four, they can make the Wei State more at ease, which is enough to ease the hearts of Cao Rui and Gonggun in Luoyang.
On the contrary, at the end of the above table, Sima Yi added: "Now our country is attacking Shu. Due to the cunning and cunning attitude of the traitor Wu, we may come back and invade, but please your majesty to prepare for it first."
