Zhuge Ke was not in a hurry to march. He knew very well that with Wang Ling's defensive ability and the solidity of Shouchun City, it would be no problem to stick to it for a while. Unless Wang Ling's army completely collapsed, there would be no situation that people were worried about.

Zhuge Ke did not rush to advance. In addition to the reason why his own army was not in a state of disguise, the main reason was the weather. Most of the territory of Wu was south of the Yangtze River. The climate here was relatively warm. Although it was not warm in winter, at least I had never seen snow or frozen.

But this year's coldness is different from the past. It is already the beginning of spring. The thick snow still covers the earth, and the weather is cold and the ground is frozen. The Wu army has never made any preparations to keep the cold. Many soldiers are still dressed in single clothes and can only rely on roasting fire in the military camp every day to keep warm. If they send troops to Shouchun at this time, it will definitely be worse.

Therefore, Zhuge Ke only canceled the military's rest and did not issue an emergency conscript order. This undoubtedly allowed this group of Wu troops who returned home to take advantage of it. At least until they returned to the barracks, Zhuge Ke would not take any action.

While preparing for war, Zhuge Ke paid attention to the changes in the weather. Due to heavy snowfall and cold weather, it was not appropriate for the Wu army, which lacked cold clothes to transport troops at this time. Zhuge Ke had to wait until the climate improved before marching.

Perhaps it was God's help, the temperature in Huainan rose relatively quickly, and the snow on the ground melted quickly. As the Spring Festival passed, this long-lost spring seemed to reveal a little spring smell.

It was not until the 15th day of the first lunar month that Zhuge Ke prepared his army and marched together on the same route, looking towards Shouchun.

After Sima Yi surrounded Shouchun, he did not rush to attack the city. Instead, he used the method of siege but not attacking Shouchun City, and divided half of the main force to go south to the area of ​​Hefei New City to block the reinforcements of the Wu army.

Zhuge Ke went north to Shouchun, and he could not avoid Hefei. Originally, under Wang Ling's rule, Hefei was the first line of defense to defend the Wu Kingdom. Over the years, the two sides had fought countless battles around Hefei. The people of Wu were always depressed and could not take over Hefei.

This time, Zhuge Ke sent troops to take advantage of the Wu naval army's advantages and transported infantry through Chaohu to Xiaoyaojin north of Chaohu directly landed, trying to pass through the new city and the old city in Hefei and go directly north to Shouchun.

But in Xiaoyaojin, the Wu army encountered strong obstacles from Sima's army. Sima Yi had long carried out strict defenses against the Wu army's northward route. As soon as Zhuge Ke landed in Xiaoyaojin, he was hit by the cavalry troops led by Sun Li.

The cavalry of Cao Wei has always had a kind of suppression of the Wu army. The Wu army is accustomed to water warfare, but it has always had shortcomings in cavalry. Although the water networks are densely populated in the Xiaoyaojin area, Sun Li, who is familiar with the terrain here, can always find a suitable path for cavalry to attack.

After the Wu army arrived in Xiaoyaojin, they advanced north according to the original marching route. Zhuge Ke appointed Zhang Zhen as the front and led his army through the gap between the old city and the new city of Hefei, and went straight north.

But the Wu army had not traveled more than ten miles, and suddenly, from the northeast and northwest directions, two cavalry of Sima army came out, forming a left-right attack.

The cavalry was already a nightmare for the Wu people. When they faced the head-on, the Wu army had almost no chance of winning. At this moment, the Sima cavalry even used two-way attacks, which made the Wu army's defense even more fragmented.

At first, Zhang Zhen tried to use the spear formation combined with the chariot formation to resist the attack of the Sima cavalry, but he soon discovered that the Wu army's defense line was full of holes and could not stop the powerful attack on the Sima army. The Sima cavalry's rapid impact easily tore the Wu army's defense line and rushed the Wu army's formation into pieces.

Zhang Zhen saw that this battle could not be fought. In front of the powerful cavalry of the Wei army, the Wu army's infantry was almost weak and had no power to fight back. If he did not retreat, the entire army would definitely be destroyed.

Zhang Zhen had no choice but to order the Wu army to retreat on its entire line, but the speed of the infantry was far inferior to that of the cavalry. If they wanted to escape at this moment, they had to ask Sun Li if they agreed.

Sun Li was too familiar with the terrain of Xiaoyaojin area. It was as simple as commanding wars here. The dense water network in this area was actually not conducive to cavalry warfare. Sun Li divided the cavalry into several parts, each part fighting independently, and surrounded and annihilated the Wu army that fled everywhere.

These cavalry units only fought in areas separated by water nets. However, after Sun Li's clever arrangement, there were countless cavalry in almost every area, so that no matter where the Wu army fled, there were always Sima cavalry sieges chasing each other forward and behind.

Even Zhang Zhen was trapped by the Sima Army's cavalry when he retreated. The Sima Army seemed to see that Zhang Zhen was a high-ranking official and wanted to capture him alive. He sent a large number of cavalry to surround him from all sides. Zhang Zhen led his troops to fight to the death, but he could not break out of the Sima Army's encirclement.

Just when he was desperate, Wu general Ding Feng led the army of support to kill, repelled the cavalry of Sima's army, and protected Zhang Zhen back to Chaohu.

However, in this battle, the Wu army suffered heavy losses. Not only did it not open up the road to Shouchun, but it also lost a lot of people in Xiaoyaojin and suffered heavy casualties.

Zhuge Ke's face looked extremely ugly. Xiaoyaojin was originally a place of shame for the people of Wu. Zhang Liao killed all over the world here, and even Sun Quan was almost captured alive. Zhuge Ke deliberately went north from Xiaoyaojin to make up for his previous shame. However, he did not expect that before he could succeed, not only did he not avenge his old grudges, but also added new hatred. The Wu army once again fell into a big fall in Xiaoyaojin.

This made Zhuge Ke wonder. The situation that the scout had previously discovered was not that the camps outside Shouchun City were dozens of miles away, and the waters surrounding Shouchun City was scattered. In theory, the main force of the Sima Army must be concentrated in Shouchun. Why did the Sima Army still have such a strong army in Xiaoyaojin that caused such a severe blow to the Wu army heading north?

Could it be that Sima Yi's besieging Shouchun was a pretext, and ambushing the Wu army in Xiaoyaojin was the target? But this does not explain the ten miles of the camp in Shouchun?

Sima Yi's purpose in this southern expedition was very clear, which was to quell Wang Ling's rebellion. As for fighting against Wu, it might not be in his plan.
Chapter completed!