Sima Yi's second letter did not give Deng Ai any additional instructions.
But he suddenly remembered that compared to the Han army in Hexi, Deng Ai's cavalry was weak and too few.
The desert and grasslands are places where cavalry dominates, and out of fear of Zheng Pu, he felt that it was difficult for Deng Ai to match him, so he thought of a way to make up for this disadvantage as much as possible.
In exchange for ordnance, the Liu Bao tribe of the Southern Huns was allowed to send out a thousand rangers to fight for Wei for a year.
There is no need to worry that Liu Bao will find excuses to reject this proposal.
After Kebi was killed, the strong members of the Xianbei tribes in the north fled to Mobei, and the weak surrendered to the Wei State or attached themselves to other tribes. There was a power vacuum in the grasslands from western Liaoning to Hetao. Even if the Wei State regained the northern part of Yanmen County, it would
Neither Yunzhong nor Wuyuan nor Shuofang County can fill this gap.
Without him, the Wei State did not station troops or relocate people to guard the borders on a large scale in these counties, and the influence of the county governments was very weak.
Therefore, any tribe with some strength or ambition is busy grabbing pastures, attacking the weak and ignorant.
The same is true for Liu Bao.
In other words, he had previously spared the lives of his tribe to help the Wei State conquer, just so that the Wei State could canonize him as a great chanyu. With the legitimacy of the name, not only the annexed tribes would be more obedient, but also the people of each county.
The government will always show partiality to him.
Moreover, his tribe lives in Tushenze, Shuofang County, which has always been the coveted pasture of the Mobei nomadic tribes. For his own safety, he will also actively rectify his armaments.
Furthermore, Sima Yi's approach will not bring about the problem of insufficient food and fodder for Deng Ai.
The nomadic tribes drove their cattle and sheep behind them in battle and grazed them on the spot to eat. Deng Ai only had to paint the pastures of the Zahu tribe he had slaughtered earlier for the Southern Huns to ride on!
Anyway, these thousand rangers were temporarily lent by Liu Bao to Deng Ai, and they did not become Wei's military members.
The worst thing is to give him some more weapons.
In addition, Sima Yi also included a few gossips at the end of the letter.
For example, due to the rebellion of three counties in Jiangdong last year, there will be no more troops to invade Huainan this year.
The Luoyang Temple was built because the heart of the Central Plains was flooded last year, so Emperor Cao Rui had no intention of raising troops to retake Hefei New City, so Deng Ai didn't have to worry about anything else.
These few casual sentences seemed to have nothing to do with the war in Helan Mountain, but Deng Ai understood the meaning after reading them.
Because of Sima Yi's last letter, he asked him to send people to Gaoping City to ask for Hu Zun's support if the war did not go well.
According to common sense, after receiving the letter, Deng Ai should first write to Hu Zun and roughly inform him of his defensive deployment and troop dispatch, so that in case of emergency, Hu Zun could make the final decision as soon as possible.
Proper deployment of reinforcements.
Instead of hastily opening the map and discussing with his subordinates to formulate a rescue plan after receiving a request for help.
But Deng Ai never wrote.
He felt that if he acted according to Sima Yi's words, he was afraid that Hu Zun would have different opinions on his plan.
Hu Zunai came from a famous family and entered the official career very early. He had previously joined the army to defeat the Gongsun family in Liaodong and was promoted to General Pingxi. He was also Sima Yi's favorite general and was no less important than Niu Jin.
If such a person made suggestions, Deng Ai would be in a dilemma of whether to listen or not.
If you don't listen and don't say much, you will give yourself a reputation of despising your superiors and being conceited.
But if you listen...
Putting aside whether Hu Zun's suggestion was appropriate or not, Deng Ai, who had been fighting for so long before being able to take sole control of the war, could not accept it.
Rather than being caught in a dilemma, it is better not to write a letter in the first place to avoid unnecessary complications.
But now that Sima Yi mentioned it in a subtle way again, he could no longer turn a blind eye.
Because in Sima Yi's gossip, he claimed that Wei will be fine on the Huainan and Jingxiang fronts this year, and that the Yongliang ministries in Guanzhong have the strength to support Helan Mountain.
Can turn the war in Hexi into a tug of war!
Yes, tug of war.
After the Battle of Qu Wushan last year, Sima Yi summoned his colleagues to discuss the matter and made a decision at that time.
If Ni Shu comes back to attack Helan Mountain, then Guanzhong will provide as much support as possible, turning the war into a protracted battle. In order to continue to consume Ni Shu's war heritage, we will implement the previous strategy Cao Zhen and Sima Yi insisted on to control Shu: fight for national strength and foundation, and wait for Ni Shu to defeat Shu.
When Shu was overwhelmed, it regained its lost territory and invaded Bashu.
Deng Aishang was not qualified to participate in this kind of decision-making military discussion, but he could vaguely guess Sima Yi's intentions.
But he felt that it would be difficult for Hu Zun to support Helan Mountain.
Zhao Guang, the cavalry general of Ni Shu, had five thousand cavalry, and he never slackened his vigilance over the Wushui River Valley. Even if he was really in danger by Scar Pu's attack, how could Hu Zun hide from the spying of Ni Shu cavalry and support him?
Maybe, as soon as Hu Zun sent his troops out of Gaoping City, Zhao Guang, who was against Shu, knew about it and used all his cavalry to intercept or set up an ambush along the way, so that the reinforcements were defeated and returned before they saw the river!
In the wild, infantry is inherently difficult to defeat cavalry.
For example, if Hu Zun came slowly in formation with steel chariots and baggage chariots, so that the Shu cavalry could not find an opportunity to break out of the formation, but with such a march, when would reinforcements arrive on the battlefield?
Maybe, by the time the reinforcements arrive at the mouth of Wushui River, he will have been defeated and returned to Dingxi City!
Since the Fortress of Manyin and Zuli County fell into the hands of Ni Shu, Guanzhong and Hexi have been cut off, and they have fallen into a dilemma where it is difficult to respond to the war.
Therefore, Deng Ai hesitated again and again, and finally just attached his defensive deployment at Mingsha Mountain and Quwu Mountain, then listed the difficulties of Gaoping City's support to Helan Mountain, and finally reiterated that he did not need reinforcements and only asked Hu
Just make a slight show of force so that Zhao Guang, who is against Shu, does not dare to send troops north to attack Zheng Pu.
As you can imagine, Hu Zunde was very angry after writing the letter.
Who can he follow?
He has made countless achievements in conquering the south and the north. Even Xue Ti, a veteran of three dynasties, would politely discuss with him every time when he was in Anding County!
Deng Ai, who could not match him in terms of resume, official position, military exploits, etc., a humble man with a humble background and few battles, actually treated him as a subordinate and ordered him to control the rebel Zhao Guangbu!
ordinary man!
Arrogant person!
After reading the letter, Hu Zun cursed in his heart.
However, coming from a wealthy family, he had good self-cultivation and did not resort to any actions such as knife-wielding attacks. He just wanted to make himself ready to go to Pengyang County, east of Linjing County.
Yes, he has ways to support Deng Ai.
Because he is originally from Linjing, his family has been based in Anding County for many years, and he can be called the county's leader.
Sima Yi used him to guard Gaoping City and also take charge of the military affairs of Anding County, not just for general considerations.
It's even more because there are some things that Sima Yi can't do, but the Hu family who has been rooted in Anding County for generations and has accumulated prestige can do it without any effort!
