"Report to the general, Shu Prime Minister Zhuge Liang personally leads an army of 20,000 people directly to Chang'an. Now that they have passed the martial arts, the Shu army will reach the city of Chang'an in four or five days."

When Cao Zhen heard this, his heart trembled and his eyebrows knitted together. Because he had already expected that Zhuge Liang would divide his troops and march eastward, there was not much surprise on his face. However, Zhuge Liang ignored Yicheng and the enemy troops rushed straight behind him.

Leaving Chang'an, such decisiveness still frightened him.

"Zhuge Liang had 30,000 troops under his command. He only led 20,000 troops eastward to Chang'an. Where are the remaining troops now?"

Tan Ma replied: "The remaining 10,000 Shu troops are led by the traitor general Zhao Yun, and they remain outside Chencang City to confront Guo Shijun."

"Fei Yao, how did Qin Ji and the others react?" Cao Zhen nodded and continued to ask.

Tan Ma replied: "General Fei and General Qin strictly abided by the general's military orders and did not dare to act rashly. They insisted on staying in the city and did not leave. They only sent sentries to follow the Shu army to closely monitor them. Then they sent envoys to report and asked the general to advise on countermeasures.

, the envoys of the two generals are waiting for military orders in Anling City."

Cao Zhen nodded, waved and said: "I understand, you go down and rest first."

"promise."

Dunn had been listening just now. Thinking of the importance of Chang'an, he asked eagerly: "General, there are less than 4,000 soldiers in Chang'an right now, but the Shu army has 20,000. They

Completely disregarding the safety behind them, they went straight forward with a fierce attack, seemingly determined to capture Chang'an. The general thought that our army had to quickly return reinforcements to prevent Chang'an from being lost."

"Um."

Cao Zhen did not agree to this, but nodded slightly. He walked along the river bank and thought, constantly thinking about the situation of the enemy and ourselves in the entire battle.

At present, the Wei army has about 15,000 troops stationed in Chencang, Yicheng, Wugong, and Chang'an. Cao Zhen has seven or eight thousand troops in his hands. Yan and Bianbao, who are returning to support, have nearly 10,000 troops under their command.

Therefore, the total strength of the Wei army in the southern part of Guanzhong is about 32,000.

The total strength of the Han army in this area is approximately more than 36,000. Specifically, Zhao Yun has nearly 10,000 troops outside Chencang City, Zhuge Liang has 20,000 troops, and Yang Qing has nearly 8,000 troops.

people.

Therefore, in terms of military strength, the Wei army has slightly fewer troops, but because Yang Qing has many newly recruited rebels, the two armies are basically close in terms of combat strength.

However, in the past ten days, Yang Qing had repeatedly crossed the two sides of the Jingshui River, advancing eastward, southward, westward, and northward, forcing the Wei army to follow his troops and mobilize them one after another, resulting in the loss of these thirty thousand troops.

Many Wei troops are now distributed in seven places, and the entire battle line is extremely long.

On the contrary, the strength of the Han army was relatively concentrated and was only divided into three groups. The three armies of Yang Qing, Zhuge Liang, and Zhao Yun responded to each other and separated the seven Wei armies, taking the initiative in the entire battle.

Cao Zhen was not unclear about the situation that his troops were too dispersed. It was just that the situation was prohibitive and he had to make corresponding adjustments and deployments as the battlefield situation changed. Moreover, although the Wei army's troops were dispersed, most of them were stationed in fortified cities, making it difficult for them to be defeated by the Han army.

Gather them together and annihilate them.

Therefore, Cao Zhen was not too worried about the problem of the dispersion of troops, and he was not so eager to lead his troops back to Chang'an to stop Zhuge Liang's army from invading.

Instead, he is now thinking about whether to seize this opportunity to gather an army and take the initiative to confront Zhuge Liang. If Zhuge Liang can be captured and killed in one fell swoop, what's the harm in temporarily abandoning Chang'an?

Although Zhuge Liang's army was coming with great force, the Han army marched straight to Chang'an, completely ignoring the fact that the Wei army behind them could cut off their retreat at any time. Wouldn't this expose their own shortcomings? Cao Zhen thought that if he could cut off the rear and the front, he would besiege Zhuge Liang's army under the city of Chang'an.

,How can we not inflict heavy losses on the Han army?

The more Cao Zhen thought about it, the more excited he became. He almost wanted to mobilize troops and horses to implement this plan immediately, but then he thought that his troops were scattered everywhere. There were only more than 10,000 troops near Chang'an, which was not enough to surround 20,000 Han troops, so he calmed down again.

.

Moreover, he also thought that Zhuge Liang was good at formations, and he was not sure of victory in a battle with the Han army in the wild, so the plan just now had to be planned slowly and not to be rushed.

"The key now is to urge Yan He and the others to return reinforcements as soon as possible. As long as these 10,000 soldiers and horses return, the capital in my hand will be enough to confront Zhuge Liang."

While Cao Zhen was still thinking hard about how to break the situation, several more exploring horses galloped from the east.

"Report to the general, General Bian has led the cavalry back first and will reach Chiyang in one day."

Cao Zhen was overjoyed when he heard this and said with a smile: "Haha, I'm so sleepy that I'm so sleepy. I'll get whatever I want. Bian Bao is about to lead his cavalry back, so I'll have nothing to worry about!" After a pause, he then asked: "What about Yan He?

Woolen cloth?"

"General Yan leads the infantry to stop the Shu cavalry from harassing them, and then slow down and follow," the head of Tanma replied.

Cao Zhen nodded and said: "Well, I know it. You can go and investigate again and report back."

"No." Chief Tanma accepted the order with his fists clasped, and headed back the way he came with his subordinates.

Cao Zhen turned to Dunn and said: "You lead the cavalry to Chiyang and attack Yang Qing with the Bianbao. If you can defeat the enemy, it is best. If you cannot defeat it, drive it northward to a hundred miles away, and then lead the army again."

return."

"It's an order."

Dunn quickly agreed, then asked: "What about you, General?"

"I will lead the infantry back to Chang'an to resist the invasion of Zhuge Liang's army. I will first rely on the fortified city to weaken his spirit and consume his food and fodder. After you and the Bian Bao lead the army back, I will mobilize all the troops and horses to fight Zhuge Liang to the death.

If we can annihilate them in one fell swoop, Western Shu will be destroyed. If we cannot, we must also severely damage them and completely repel the Shu army's invasion."

After hearing Cao Zhen's wonderful idea, Deng En was immediately excited. He patted his chest and promised: "General, don't worry, I will definitely defeat Yang Qing's defeated army as quickly as possible and quickly return to Chang'an with the border generals.

"

"Okay, with this determination, why worry about not defeating the Shu thieves?" Cao Zhen was also deeply affected and said excitedly.

So the Wei army, which had just crossed the Jing River, was immediately divided into two. The cavalry, led by Dunn, pursued Chiyang, while the infantry, led by Cao Zhen, returned to the west bank.

While the east and west banks of the Jing River are bustling with activity, the Wei River in the south is no less generous. Songjiadu is a secluded ferry in Huaili County, so named because it is adjacent to Songjia Village.

At this moment, this ferry, where few people usually cross the river, suddenly became noisy. Tens of thousands of sergeants were passing through the pontoon bridge to the north bank of the Wei River in an orderly manner. A middle-aged scribe wearing a crane cloak and holding a feather fan was standing on the bank.

While admiring the surrounding scenery.

This middle-aged scribe is naturally Zhuge Liang, the current Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty. Yesterday, based on the current situation, he finally made up his mind not to attack Chang'an, but to turn north and cross the Wei River to block Cao Zhen's army.

Of course, in order to confuse the enemy, he ordered Huang Xi, the general, to lead an army of 3,000 people with great fanfare and momentum, pretending to be the main army and continue marching towards Chang'an.

Now everything is ready, just waiting for Yang Qing to send news about Cao Zhen's exact location, but who would have expected that there was no news from him yesterday. This violates the agreement between the two armies to send messages every day.

"Prime Minister, there is finally news from Commander Yang." Yang Yi walked quickly from a distance and said.
Chapter completed!