Chapter 0981: Western Expedition

The contradictions between Han Yi and Liu Bei and Wei Duan are getting bigger and bigger, and the conflict is becoming more and more intense. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The Xiliang general said to Han Yi: "Liu Bei doesn't give us food, nor does he help us attack the Qiang, and in turn he also points fingers at us, asking us to help him block the Northern Frontier Army." Why is he? The Son of Heaven and the imperial court in Xiangyang are not as good as a bag of grain in our eyes. ”

It was this bag of grain that detonated the contradictions between the two sides.

The amount of food that Chang'an gave to the Xiliang army was not much, only enough for the Xiliang army to make a living, but the armies of Yan Yan and Cao Bao were also hungry and barely supported, and this food naturally became the object of contention between the soldiers on both sides.

Yan Yan hoped that Han Yi could give him a little food, but Han Yi flatly refused, saying that if you take the army back to Wudu, the soldiers will be able to eat enough, so why stay in Hanyang and starve?

Yan Yan was helpless, and entrusted Wei Kang to persuade him. Han Yi was hesitant to save face, but Yang Qiu, Cheng Yi and the others couldn't stand it. They surrounded Wei Kang, pointed at his nose and scolded: "I listened to your words at the beginning, fell into your discordant scheme, and made our Xiliang people rebel in the nest and pushed the Xiliang people into the abyss." Now we are not only unable to recover the western frontier, but we are not even able to eat. We brazenly ran to Chang'an to beg for some food like begging for food, and you came to rob it again, are you human beings? Is there still a little bit of humanity? Liu Bei is your father, you want to die for him like this? ”

Han Yi stood up and dissuaded: "Everyone is from Xiliang, don't turn against outsiders for the sake of outsiders." ”

Yang Qiu pointed at his nose and scolded: "Who wanted to kill Ma Chao in the first place?" Who is it? Now if you listen to Wei Kang's words again, don't blame our brothers for being ruthless and unjust, turning their faces and denying people. ”

Speaking of this, Han Yi had no choice but to pull down his face and drive Wei Kang out.

Yan Yan was furious, determined that Han Yi was capricious, and took refuge in Chang'an, so he decided to attack the Xiliang army, but his troops were insufficient, and he asked Pang Tong for advice.

Pang Tong said: "Since Bian Zhang and Han Sui, there are no smart people in Xiliang, as long as we set up a small divisive plan, we can make Xiliang people kill each other and be defeated." ”

That night, Cao Bao led a team of men and horses to ambush on the mountain between Yicheng and Wangyuan City, and at noon the next day, under the banner of Weikang's Wudu Army, attacked the grain convoy of the Xiliang Army.

When Han Yi heard the news, he was furious, and rushed to Wangyuan City with a team of personal guards, intending to turn against Wei Kang and snatch the grain back.

Wudu's army was stationed in Wangyuan City, but before Han Yi could reach Wangyuan City, he was attacked by Cao Bao. This time, Cao Bao took a team of thugs dressed as homeless people, and took advantage of Han Yi's defenselessness to launch an attack. Han Yi was shot and killed on the spot.

Han Yi's death angered the Xiliang soldiers, and Yang Qiu, Cheng Yi and others ignored the dissuasion of Yang Fu and Zhang Ji and led the army to Wangyuan.

Yang Fu and Zhang both believed that Yan Yan had killed Han Yi, in order to make the Xiliang people kill each other, and then help Liu Beiquan take Liangzhou. They quickly strengthened the defense of Yicheng, and ordered Cheng Yin, Liang Xing, Liang Qing and others to assemble a large army and keep a close eye on Yan Yan's army to prevent them from taking the opportunity to attack and kill and profit from it.

Zhang Fei convened the generals and strategists in Chencang to discuss.

First of all, it is necessary to determine the truth of the matter, if Han Yi is really dead and Hanyang is in chaos, then the Western Expeditionary Army must attack immediately. One took the opportunity to recover Hanyang, the second was to keep the Xiliang army, and the third was to besiege and kill Liu Bei and Wei Duan's rebels. But if this matter is false, it is a trap set by the Xiliang people and the rebels, then the Western Expeditionary Army will be ambushed if it rashly attacks, and it will be defeated in the first battle, which will be too great a blow to morale.

Jia Xu believes that this matter is true, and troops should be dispatched quickly.

So far, because the imperial court has been using troops against the rebellion in the south, the rebels obviously did not pay enough attention to the attack of the northern army on the western frontier. In addition, this time the army gathered in Chencang, and the movements of various departments were very secret, and the rebels may not know that there were heavy troops in the area of Chencang. If they knew for sure that the Jicheng Imperial Court was going to attack the western frontier this year, they would definitely not dare to make such a risky plan, and this kind of plan to lure the enemy was too clumsy.

Sima Yi, Jiang Ji and others have a negative attitude towards this.

As early as the beginning of this year, Zhang Lu, the Taishou of Hanzhong, sent someone to Luoyang secretly, presented a list of crimes, asked to surrender the city to Shun, and made an appointment to attack Wudu County and kill Liu Bei.

At that time, Li Yi was not sure of Zhang Lu's sincerity, and sent people south to Hanzhong via the Meridian Valley to find out Zhang Lu's true purpose. Li Yi's envoy returned earlier this month to confirm that Zhang Lu's intention to surrender was genuine.

Li Yi immediately sent people south to Hanzhong to discuss with Zhang Lu about attacking Liu Bei. If all goes well, the envoy will return to Luoyang around mid-June and bring back Zhang Lu's east-west strategy.

Therefore, the time of the army's westward expedition was set by Li Yi in mid-June.

Sima Yi said: "If the Western Expeditionary Army attacks now, and in the case of the melee of the various armies in Hanyang, it is very likely that Yan Yan's army will escape our siege and withdraw to Wudu, so that the number of rebels in Wudu will reach more than 30,000. And the number of troops we attacked Wudu was 40,000, and there was no advantage at all in terms of troops. Once the army fails to conquer Hechi and Xiazhi, and cannot quickly cut off the rebels' retreat to the East Wolf Valley and Baogu Road, then the rebels can retreat to the Yangping Pass line at any time to ensure their retreat. ”

"At this time, we have no way of knowing Zhang Lu's offensive and defensive strategies, but one thing is certain, our early attack on the western frontier and the rapid withdrawal of Liu Bei's army to Wudu County will make the situation in Hanzhong suddenly tense. For the sake of Hanzhong's safety, Zhang Lu may categorically give up the idea of taking refuge in us, and instead concentrate on helping Liu Bei hold Wudu County and secure Hanzhong. ”

"In our opinion, Zhang Lu's defection to Northern Xinjiang is mainly to keep Hanzhong, but Hanzhong now has Zhang Ren's army, and he wants to cooperate with us to attack Liu Bei, so we must first solve Zhang Ren. Therefore, his plan may be to ask us to send an army to secretly enter Hanzhong from the Baochuan Road and the Meridian Road, and besiege Zhang Ren together with the Hanzhong army. solved Zhang Ren, and cut off Liu Bei's way back to Hanzhong, so that Liu Bei could be encircled and annihilated in Wudu County. ”

"Therefore, I don't think it is appropriate to dispatch the army at the moment and let all sides in Hanyang fight. If the Xiliang army is completely annihilated, the rebels of Yan Yan and Wei Kang will also be greatly damaged, and with their strength, they will not be able to stop our attack at all. In addition, even if they withdrew to Wudu County at that time, it would be useless, because we had already teamed up with Zhang Lu to solve Zhang Ren and cut off Liu Bei's retreat, and they were doomed. ”

Sima Yi's suggestion was approved by some generals, but Jia Xu, Huangfu Li, Pang De, Ma Chao, Hua Xiong and others, who were born in Xiliang, resolutely opposed it.

Sima Yi's suggestion has a fatal point, that is, will Zhang Lu let the Northern Xinjiang Army enter Hanzhong? If he was unwilling to let the Northern Xinjiang Army enter Hanzhong from the plank road, and the Western Liang Army was completely annihilated, then the battle of the Western Expedition would be greatly affected. In the imperial court's strategy of the western expedition, the Xiliang army was an important force to pacify the western frontier, and without the Xiliang army, the battle of Pingqiang would be even more difficult to fight.

In fact, Zhang Lu has more troops than Zhang Ren's army, and he can completely solve Zhang Ren alone.

In addition, once the Northern Xinjiang Army enters Wudu, Zhang Ren will not sit idly by, and will definitely unite with part of the Hanzhong army to quickly support. Therefore, Jia Xu and others believe that Sima Yi's speculation lacks sufficient basis.

If Zhang Lu's purpose is to defend his Hanzhong, then he may go back on his word and stick to the front line of Yangping Pass, neither will he join forces with us to implement the strategy of attacking Liu Bei from the east to the west, but may secretly support Liu Bei to defend Wudu, so that Liu Bei and us can fight to the death, and he himself will take the opportunity to fishermen to profit.

Hanzhong is not Liu Bei's only way to retreat, Liu Bei can also take the West Han River, Yinping Road and other dangerous roads to return to Bashu. Once Liu Bei is defeated, Bashu will also be in danger, and in this case, the importance of Hanzhong is self-evident. And Zhang Lu can take the opportunity to blackmail Xiangyang to get the seal, and he can't be the king of Hanzhong, at least he can be a prince of Hanzhong.

Jia Xu thinks that Zhang Lu is unreliable, since he can deceive Liu Bei, why can't he deceive Chang'an?

Huan Fang had a fierce argument, and the focus of the argument was whether to keep the Xiliang army.

Jia Xu slapped his palm on the desk and said loudly: "The main purpose of the Western Expedition is to stabilize Western Xinjiang, not to capture Wudu and Hanzhong, so there is no doubt that the Western Liang Army must be kept." Passing on my order, the three generals Zhang Liao, Ma Chao, and Pang De immediately led the cavalry westward to help the Xiliang army attack the rebels. If my decision is wrong, I am willing to bear all the blame. ”

Jia Xu, as the third-ranked military advisor in Northern Xinjiang, has a special status, and since he said so, Zhang Fei agreed.

On May 26, Zhang Liao, Ma Chao and Pang De led 10,000 cavalry and quickly killed Liangzhou.

On May 27, Li Yi ordered all units of the Western Expeditionary Army to immediately attack, and Li Yi personally led a heavy cavalry corps of the Personal Guard Corps to follow.

On May 28, Zhang Fei and Yu Ban led the rest of the 3rd Infantry Corps and the 7th Cavalry Corps to Liangzhou.

On May 29, the war drums of Yicheng, Wangyuan, and Shangqi were like thunder, and the three armies were entangled together and fought bloodily.

Yang Qiu completely lost his mind, and the overseers stormed Wangyuan City, and ordered Bian Yan and Zhou Yi, who were stationed in Shangqi, to lead troops to come to the aid and attack left and right. After Bian Yan led an army to the city, he got in touch with Wei Kang and Zhao Ang in the city as quickly as possible. But no matter how Wei Kang and Zhao Ang explained, no matter how Bian Yan dissuaded them, Yang Qiu and these Xiliang veterans couldn't listen to it. Xiliang people have lost their support, where is the way out?

After Yan Yan received Wei Kang's request for help, he didn't say a word and led his army to attack Yicheng. Yang Fu, Zhang Ji and others had already prepared, one held the city, and the other launched a blockade outside the city, and all their anger was poured out on the bloody battlefield.

Zhang Liao led the army to kill, and 10,000 cavalry crossed Shangqi, rushed through Wangyuan, and killed Yan Yan overwhelmingly with the momentum of thunder.

Yan Yan was shocked when he got the report, and ordered Cao Bao to stop the attack, and he led the army to retreat quickly into the Tiger Valley, and retreated to Wudu County from the path.

Cao Bao was outnumbered and killed by random arrows, and all 3,000 men and horses were annihilated.

Tens of thousands of troops surrounded Wangyuan Castle.

Under the persuasion of Zhang Liao and Ma Chao, Yang Qiu calmed down a little and led the army back to Yicheng. Wellcome led his army to surrender.

On May 29, the Northern Xinjiang Army, under the leadership of Zhao Yun, walked out of the Dasan Pass, crossed the Huangniuling to the Huanghua River, and collided head-on with the army of Zhoucang.