However, if Ma Chao led his troops and cavalry to settle the rear and successfully held out for a month or two, constantly harassing the Wei army's grain transportation team, so that the Wei army's grain and grass supply could not be supplied, then the Longshan defense line could be broken before autumn.

After all, grain and grass are the most important things for marching and fighting, if there is no grain and grass, then the soldiers and horses will be defeated, if the Wei army is short of food for three days, even if it does not starve to death, it is also a great chaos in the army's heart, Liu Chan has a way to break through the Longshan defense line.

But if Ma Chao can't hold on and is defeated, then this Northern Expedition can only be a failure.

Zhuge Liang listened to Liu Chan's strategy, and said in a deep voice: "This strategy can be tried, after all, at present, all the soldiers and horses of the Wei State are in these three major battlefields, if you want to send troops to deal with Meng Qi, you can't beat it with fewer soldiers and horses, and if you mobilize a large army, you can't do it in a short time."

Now Wei has 20,000 soldiers and horses in Longshan, and these 20,000 soldiers and horses are just enough to defend Longshan. And Huating and Meixian can probably send 20,000 reinforcements over, if Meng Qi goes to cut off the Wei army's grain route, Wei can only use 20,000 soldiers and horses to deal with Meng Qi.

If Meng Qi leads 5,000 cavalry, he should be able to deal with it. ”

Liu Chan said: "Since this is the case, I will send a message to Liangzhou and let Meng Qi send troops." You go and ask Ziyu to come over. ”

Liu Chan said, sat down in his seat, and began to write a letter.

"Your Majesty, you called me?" Liu Chan wrote the letter, and Lin Yuan also happened to come over.

Liu Chan handed the letter to Lin Yuan and ordered: "Ziwei, ride on my horse, take this letter to Liangzhou to see Ma Chao, and listen to it under his command." Without further ado, go now! ”

"No!" Lin Yuan gave up his hand.

Anding is not far from Liangzhou, entering Wuwei to the west, turning to the southwest, with the speed of a light in a thousand miles, but in one day, Lin Yuan arrived at Yuzhong, the seat of Liangzhou.

Knowing that Lin Yuan came to ask for a meeting, Ma Chao rushed to the government from the camp.

"Ziwei, how is the battle on the front line?"

Lin Yuan sighed and said: "Hey, the Wei army has built three defense lines in Longshan, each defense line has dozens of camps, and it is dangerous to attack at all.

A few days ago, Da Sima used a strategy, although we took the first line of defense of the Wei army, but when we attacked the second line of defense later, General Ling Bao was unfortunately killed......"

Subsequently, Lin Yuan told Ma Chao how Ling Bao died in battle.

Xu Miao, the assassin of Liangzhou, was also in the palace, he used to be an important minister of Wei, and he explained the affairs of Wei quite well. Xu Miao said: "That Xiahou Rong is Xiahou Cheng's younger brother, he was known as a prodigy when he was young, and even Cao Cao liked him a lot, and he often sighed that Cao Chong died early, otherwise the Cao family has these two people, and they can ensure that three generations are strong."

After Xiahou Yuan's death, Xiahou Rong worked even harder, practicing martial arts without falling, but he didn't expect General Ling to die in his hands. ”

Ma Chao heard the words and said: "General Ling is the general of my Han Zhengnan, and now that General Ling has died in battle, our army's spirit will be lost, Your Majesty asked you to come over, is it for me to transfer troops to reinforcements." ”

Lin Yuan took out Liu Chan's letter and handed it to Ma Chao: "Your Majesty gave me a letter, general, read it yourself." ”

Ma Chao took the letter, opened it, and after seeing it, he handed it to Xu Miao and asked, "What do you think?" ”

"Go around to the rear of the Wei army and cut off the Wei army's grain route?" Xu Miao read the letter, and his brows suddenly furrowed.

Xu Miao muttered: "This method can also be tried, but it is too dangerous, because the lone army is deep, and it is not appropriate to bring too many soldiers and horses." The defenders of Longshan must have a lot of grain in stock, if you bring more men and horses, the Wei army will not transport grain for the time being, and Longshan will be able to hold out for a few days.

If the Wei army does not transport grain for a few days, your army will not be able to rob the Wei army of grain and grass to replenish it, and it will definitely die. There are few people, and they can still get food from the local powers. But if there are few people, the lone army will go deeper, and if there are no reinforcements, it may ......"

"I personally led the troops, what if there were few people?" Ma Chao interrupted Xu Miao's words and said, "Xu Tingshi, please help me prepare five thousand cavalry for ten days' food and grass, and I will go and select the cavalry now." ”

Xu Miao nodded and said, "Okay! ”

Seeing this, Lin Yuan arched his hand and said, "General, Your Majesty asked me to listen to your command." ”

"That's great!" Ma Chao smiled: "Then you can go with me to select cavalry." ”

Lin Yuan gave his hand to the order: "No! ”

When the two came to the barracks, Ma Chao said to Lin Yuan: "Your Majesty asked me to go around to Anding and cut off the Wei army's grain route, but the situation does not allow me to bring too many soldiers and horses.

All war horses must choose war horses with good speed and stamina, soldiers of light cavalry must be skilled in riding and archery, and soldiers of heavy cavalry must be brave in battle, so as to be invincible. Therefore I am ready to take four thousand light cavalry and one thousand heavy cavalry. ”

Lin Yuan nodded and said, "The last general is not good at horses, so the general chooses the war horse, and the last general helps the general choose the soldiers." ”

Ma Chao said: "In terms of combat bravery, I trained armored cavalry officers before, this trip is a difficult task, must be successful, I have to let the armored cavalry soldiers act as heavy cavalry, you help me choose good marksmans." ”

Unlike heavy cavalry, armored cavalry wears heavy armor and weapons are very heavy, so they are naturally the elite of the elite. The heavy cavalry only wore leather armor and used scimitars, and in order to ensure the success of the tactics, Ma Chao decided to treat the soldiers with armored cavalry as heavy cavalry.

Subsequently, Ma Chao ordered people to beat the drum of gathering troops, and asked Lin Yuan and Ma Dai to select the most elite light cavalry in the army, that is, soldiers who were good at riding and archery. And Ma Chao chooses a war horse with good endurance and speed.

At sunset, Lin Yuan and Ma Dai selected the soldiers, and Ma Chao also selected the war horses.

On the other hand, Xu Miao also helped Ma Chao prepare dry food, which could last for ten days.

In the evening, the people went to bed early.

The next day, early in the morning.

Ma Chao led the selected 5,000 cavalry, took Lin Yuan and Ma Dai, and headed to the northwest.

The cavalry did not carry grain and grass baggage, and the speed was very fast, and in one day, they could march two or three hundred miles.

In just two days, Ma Chao bypassed Liupan Mountain from the north and entered the stable northern boundary east of Liupan Mountain.

Next, as long as you go south, you can march into the hinterland of Anding, after entering the Wei army's Longshan defense line.

On the grassland, Ma Chao let the soldiers and horses rest and gathered together with Lin Yuan and Ma Dai.

"Brother, drink saliva!" Ma Dai handed the water bag to Ma Chao.

Ma Chao took the water bag, drank half a bag of water, took out a map and chewed a piece of dried mutton.

The dry food prepared by Xu Miao is not only bread and the like, but also a lot of jerky.

Ma Dai glanced at the map and said, "Now that we have reached the border of stability, we will go south to Gaoping." ”

"Gao Ping?" When Lin Yuan heard this, he said: "Gaoping is located behind the Wei army's defense line, and is one of the three fortresses behind the Wei army's Longshan defense line, providing support for the camp within nearly one hundred and fifty miles north of Longshan. ”

Ma Chao's eyes lit up: "So, the camps of more than 100 miles north of Longshan are all provided by Gaoping City?" ”

"Not bad!" Lin Yuan nodded and said: "Longshan is more than four hundred miles, behind the Wei army's Longshan defense line, there are three cities, this Gaoping is the northernmost one, responsible for the logistics of more than a hundred miles north of Longshan, support and dispatch.

The Wei army transported grain and grass from the rear of Chang'an, first to Linjing, the place of governance, and then to the three cities of Gaoping, Chaona, and Wushi from Linjing, and from these three cities, they were distributed to the Longshan Mountain, which was 400 miles away.

In other words, Gaoping here controls thirty percent of the grain and grass of the Wei army. ”