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The place where the troops of the Western Route Army is stationed is an open slope, with a river on both sides, a mountain on one side, and the Jianmen plank road in the distance, more than 30 miles away from the pass.

Nearly 100,000 troops were stationed here, and the camp tent stretched for several miles, filling the originally very open slopes and streams, completely blocking the passage plank road between Zhaohua and Jianmen Pass.

Fortunately, since the outbreak of civil strife in Yizhou, there have been no pedestrians on this plank road all day long, and there are no business travelers passing by.

In addition, after Zhao Yun's army camped here, the towering cliffs on both sides of the valley became natural barriers, and then blocked the exits at the north and south ends of the plank road, thus forming an impregnable heavenly camp.

However, there are pros and cons to such naturally occurring camps.

The advantage is that as long as the north and south exits are held, the enemy army has no choice but to look away and lament in vain, and there is nothing else to be done.

The disadvantage is that in the middle of the mountains, although Zhao Yun's army can block the incoming enemy, it also traps itself in it. In this way, the enemy could not attack it, but they themselves could not rush out. It can be said that it is a cocoon and a prison, with pros and cons, and it is not yet known whether it is a blessing or a curse.

When he chose this place to camp, Zhao Yun sent all his 2,000 scouts and 500 personal soldiers to climb the mountain peak to the west and garrison it on the peak, so as to prevent the Yizhou army from touching the mountain beam and waiting for an opportunity to ambush the army. Seeing that Zhao Yun was so careful, he acted extremely carefully. Ma Chao was very admirable, so without Zhao Yun opening his mouth, he also sent out the scouts and personal guards of the Longxiang battalion under his account. Garrisoned on the eastern hills.

Since then, there are more than 2,000 soldiers on the hills on both sides of the mountain day and night, which is enough to ensure that the army will not be ambushed by the Yizhou army, and the army can camp here with peace of mind and rest and recuperate.

It is worth mentioning that the situation of the Western Route Army, which was led by Zhao Yun as the main general and Ma Chao and Huang Zhong as deputy generals, was completely different from that of the Eastern Route Army led by Zhou Yu and Li Xian.

Although the two armies and horses did not make a noise before the expedition. There was no swearing-in ceremony, nor did they declare war on the Yizhou army openly, and they all adopted the method of rushing to attack with hidden whereabouts. But. Only the Eastern Route Army led by Zhou Yu and Li Xian was the only one who could really realize the surprise attack, because the Eastern Route Army took the shortcut of rice cang. The Western Route Army led by Zhao, Ma, and Huang completely exposed their whereabouts after successfully attacking Zhaohua City, making the battle plan of the surprise attack and capture the pass stillborn, and then turning from a sneak attack to a frontal attack. Raise the flag. Wave the army openly and advance into Shu Road, and attack thousands of miles of Shu Road in a dignified manner.

The reason for this is actually quite simple. Because the Golden Bull Road is the main plank road from Hanzhong to Chengdu, that is, the only way for pedestrians and business travelers in the north and south. It was Zhao, Ma, and Huang who led nearly 100,000 troops to advance into Shu Dao, and it was not easy to hide their whereabouts, it was tantamount to whimsical, and it was impossible to do it.

Therefore, when the Xiliang army led by Zhao Yun set out on the expedition, they did not think about hiding their whereabouts, but they did not make any noise. Rush all the way and attack the city. Regardless of whether the Yizhou army finds out their whereabouts or not. They will not stop, if they can surprise the attack, if they can't, they will wave the army to attack.

Because of this, relatively speaking, the speed of the Western Route Army's march was still very fast. At first, the army traveled 100 miles a day, but as the roads became narrower and more difficult to navigate, the march had to slow down, and it could not be as fast as it could. Even so, Zhao Yun's army could still travel fifty miles a day, occasionally hundreds of miles, and thirty miles a day when the marching speed was the slowest.

Along the way, the ruggedness and difficulty of the Shu Road was the direct cause of the sluggish marching speed, but the large amount of grain and grass carried by the army was also an important factor that could not be ignored to restrict the marching speed. After all, nearly 100,000 troops on an expedition carried a huge amount of grain and grass baggage, and at least they needed to carry enough food and grass for the army for a month and a half, that is, 150,000 stone of grain and grass and other necessary items, in addition to the ordnance and baggage required by the army. Otherwise, before the army can get out of Shu Road, it will run out of food. If this is the case, the army will return in vain, and it is still unknown whether it will even be able to retreat in its entirety.

Again, there are advantages and disadvantages in everything, and there are gains and losses in everything.

It was precisely because the Western Route Army led by Zhao Yun had no intention of hiding its whereabouts at all, so it did not need to drink cold water or eat dry food, and could make a fire to make food without any scruples, and feed the war horses in a grand manner. Therefore, compared with the Eastern Route Army led by Zhou Yu and Li Xian, the living conditions of Zhao Yun's army are still good. At least the officers and men of the Western Route Army did not have to go hungry and could eat enough, so as to ensure that their combat effectiveness would not decline and they would not be afraid of enemy ambushes and sneak attacks.

?????? In the evening of the next day, Huang Zhong, who had led his army to attack Jianmen Pass, returned.

Yesterday afternoon, Huang Zhong led 20,000 soldiers of the Qin Bow Battalion to Jianmen Pass, crossed the Jianmen plank road at night, and launched a strong attack on the pass early this morning, or a sneak attack on the pass. How can the Jianmen Pass camp village be dangerous, both sides are full of towering steep cliffs, and the pass is built at the intersection of the southern end of the cliffs on both sides.

Therefore, whether it is a frontal attack or a surprise sneak attack, it is the same in front of the Sword Gate; As long as it appears, it is a frontal attack. As long as the soldiers and soldiers of the defenders stationed at Jianmen Pass are not dead, they can be spotted without waiting for the soldiers and horses under the city to approach the pass, and then condescendingly and indiscriminately shoot the enemy who is trying to attack the attack.

At that time, Huang Zhong personally led a large army to attack the city, taking the lead, charging more than ten times, and fighting hard for half a day. After paying more than 3,000 soldiers for huge casualties, Huang Zhong finally led his own soldiers to rush to the city gate, but thousands of stones and rolling logs fell on the city, causing Huang Zhong and his personal soldiers to encounter a head-on attack, and once again lost hundreds of elite soldiers, and had to retreat and be completely defeated.

The strong attack in the five hours before and after caused Huang Zhong's soldiers and horses to lose 4,000 people, but fortunately, there were more than 1,000 wounded soldiers among them. Otherwise, after this battle, the Qin Gong battalion will lose thirty percent of the soldiers and horses, not to mention the great reduction in combat effectiveness, and it will also affect the morale of the whole army, which will undoubtedly be a heavy blow to the officers and men of the whole army, which will directly affect the next battle.

Seeing that Jianmen Pass was heavily defended and it was useless to fight again, Huang Zhong took the opportunity to make a decision and decisively withdrew his troops. Immediately, he led the army to retreat for several miles, but did not retreat to the camp, but chose to camp on the slope five miles away from Jianmen Pass, and confronted the defenders of Jianmen Pass. It was not until after the completion of the camp that Huang Zhong led his own soldiers to quietly return to the rear camp and discuss countermeasures with Zhao Yun, Ma Chao and other generals.

?????? In the big tent of the Chinese army, more than ten generals gathered together to discuss how to capture the Jianmen Pass.

The upper rank was vacant, and the main general Zhao Yun sat at the head of the left side of the hall, opposite Ma Chao, and Huang Zhong sat at the bottom of him, telling in detail the process of attacking the Sword Gate. In addition to the three of them, the remaining generals were: Ma Dai, Meng Da, Cao Xing, Ma Wan and Yang Fu.

After listening to Huang Zhong's statement, Zhao Yun frowned slightly, and after thinking about it for a while, his brows gradually relaxed, and he calmly comforted: "Brother Hansheng doesn't have to blame himself, this defeat is not the fault of the war, but that we don't pay enough attention to the defenders of Jianmen Pass, and we underestimate the enemy." As the saying goes, knowing oneself and knowing that the other side will not be defeated in a hundred battles, but now we do not know enough about the defenders of Jianmen, and we know very little about the strength of the enemy army and the defense situation. How can you be undefeated if you attack so rashly?

It is because of this defeat that the fault is not Brother Han Sheng, but that I underestimated the defenders of Jianmen Pass, and before I figured out the enemy's defense, I ordered to attack the fortifications. This qiē is because I am eager to win and have no way to use my troops, so that I have lost my troops and lost my generals, and more than 2,000 soldiers have been involved in spilling blood on the battlefield. Therefore, all the blame for this defeat is borne by me, and it has nothing to do with Brother Han Sheng and the generals. This is Zhao Yun's responsibility.

Zhao Yun is upright by nature, open-minded, heroic, open-minded, open-minded, never dodged in trouble, and had the courage to take responsibility. In this respect, he was very different from other generals. If others encounter this kind of thing, they must avoid it, and they will never take the responsibility on themselves; But he took the initiative to take the blame on himself and tried his best to exonerate others. This open-mindedness and bearing are really convincing and admirable.

And Huang Zhong, who had no intention of shirking his responsibility, was very moved when he heard these words, and said with a very excited expression: "General Zilong, don't be like this, this defeat is all the fault of the last general, what does it have to do with Zilong?" Although Huang is over fifty years old, he is not old, and at least he still has the courage to bear his due responsibility. ”

As he spoke, Huang Zhong paused in a tone, thanked Zhao Yun gratefully, and then without waiting for Zhao Yun to speak, he continued: "There is no need to discuss this matter anymore, it is so decided, and the responsibility for the crime is borne by me, Huang Zhong, and has nothing to do with General Zilong." The top priority at the moment is how to capture the pass, pass the guò Jianmen Pass as far as possible, and go south to Chengdu to join the East Route Army. ”

Seeing Huang Zhong's resolute attitude, Zhao Yun nodded lightly helplessly, and said, "At the moment of the great enemy, the matter of culpability will be put aside for the time being, and the lord will have his own decision in the future." At the moment, as Brother Han Sheng said, it is the most important thing to do everything possible to capture the Sword Gate Pass, and we must win this pass in the shortest possible time. After all, with nearly 100,000 troops under our account, how could we be stopped here by a mere pass.

What's more, the daily consumption of grain and grass by the army is huge, and staying for one more day will increase the pressure on the supply of grain and grass to our army; If we stay here for ten days and a half months, then we will run out of food before we get out of Shu Road. Time is pressing, and every day of delay adds a burden on our shoulders, so we have no choice but to delay and must fight quickly. Therefore, Brother Han Sheng explained the situation of the defenders, and then the generals expressed their opinions, as much as they could, without scruples. ”

―――――― To be Continued ―――――――――――― (To be Continued......

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