Yang Yi replied: "According to the report from spies, the Anling city where Yang Shijun was stationed has been taken back by Cao Zhen's army. Now Yang Shijun and others have withdrawn from Anling, crossed the Jing River eastward, and settled in Chiyang City.

"

"Anling City, which Mingzhi personally guarded, was actually captured by Cao Zhen so quickly? Cao Zhen probably didn't attack it head-on, but used some trick, right?"

Zhuge Liang was extremely surprised when he heard this. He had never seen Yang Qing suffer a big loss in military affairs. He knew that even if Cao Zhen used his troops like a god and the Wei army was powerful, he would never be able to break through the defense of nearly ten thousand Han troops in one day.

The city must have been captured by clever tactics.

Sure enough, Yang Yi's answer confirmed his guess, but he saw Yang Yi nodded and said: "The prime minister really had a clever plan. Cao Zhen launched a surprise attack from the weak point of the east city overnight, and then broke through the city in one fell swoop. Yang Shijun saw that he could not do anything, so he made a decisive decision

Lead the army to evacuate Anling."

"It is clear that they underestimated the enemy and were careless. Of course, Cao Zhen was able to seize the flaw decisively and attack the city, which is indeed remarkable. Alas, we must also learn a lesson from this matter and warn the generals not to underestimate Cao Zhen and others."

Zhuge Liang sighed softly and asked, "How many casualties did Mingzhi and the others have?"

"According to the envoy, four to five thousand people were lost in this battle, which is a lot of casualties. However, most of them were new soldiers. The four thousand elite cavalry who followed Yang Shijun south did not suffer many casualties, so they still have the strength to fight."

Zhuge Liang breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this, and continued to ask: "Ming Zhi and the others crossed the Jing River eastward, will Cao Zhen lead the army to pursue them?"

"Cao Zhen has sent cavalry across the river to pursue him. His infantry also crossed to the east bank, but for some reason they suddenly turned back to the west bank and have now returned to Anling City to rest." Yang Yi said.

Zhuge Liang pondered for a moment, then figured out the reason and said with a smile: "Cao Zhen must have received the news that our army was marching to Chang'an, and he did not dare to stay away from Chang'an, so he led his army back."

"The Prime Minister is right. Since Cao Zhen did not go north to pursue Yang Shijun, what should we do?"

Zhuge Liang said: "Instruct all the troops to cross the river quickly. We will go straight to Anling to fight Cao Zhen."

"No." Yang Yi accepted the order and went to deliver the order.

In Anling City, after Cao Zhen led his army back, he retreated and was alone in the house thinking about a strategy to defeat the enemy. He held an oil lamp close to the map and repeatedly calculated the strength of the enemy and our troops, the distance and the dangerous terrain that needed to be passed along the way.

Now he leads his troops and is stationed in Anling. He can not only return to Chang'an in time to aid Chang'an, but he is also not far from the Jing River and can cross the river to support Dunn at any time. It can be said that there is a lot of room for maneuver.

Therefore, he planned to stay in Anling for the time being and wait until the situation becomes clearer before making a decision. At that time, he can choose whether to lead his army back to Chang'an and hold out until the Han army runs out of food and retreat, or to gather troops to encircle and fight Zhuge Liang head-on.

.

"Let's do it like this and observe it for two more days." Cao Zhen made up his mind and patted the desk excitedly.

But two days later, Cao Zhen's mood suddenly became depressed. Because he found that his planned strategy of sitting in the middle and depending on the situation not only failed to take the initiative in the entire battle situation, but also delayed the opportunity for fighting. With such a delay,

Bad news came from both directions, north and south.

First, one day ago, Deng En sent an envoy to report back, saying that while he was leading the troops in pursuit, he accidentally fell into an ambush by the Han army and lost more than a thousand people. Therefore, he did not dare to attack Chiyang again and had to stay in Jingshui.

Rest in place on the east coast.

It turned out that when Yang Qing learned that Cao Zhen had led his infantry back to the west bank of Jingshui River, he immediately decided to take advantage of the rare opportunity of reducing the enemy's strength to take the initiative to fight and first repel the Wei army pursuing from the south.

Otherwise, when the Bianbao troops from the north arrive, Yang Qing and the others will have to withstand the north-south attacks from the Wei army. If they can repel them first, the subsequent battle will be much easier.

So Yang Qing left Zhang Yi to lead the infantry to defend the city, while he, Liu Yin and other generals led the cavalry to go to the Wei army's only way to kill Chiyang overnight to set up an ambush.

The Wei army drove Yang Qing and others out of Anling City in the first battle. The whole army was filled with pride, and then they pursued them one after another. Naturally, they thought that the Han army did not dare to turn back and fight.

Because it was already dark and Dunn was in a hurry, he did not expect that the Han army would dare to turn back and set up an ambush halfway. He was caught off guard and was defeated by the Han army.

It was also because the Wei army was all cavalry and the strength of both sides was equal, which allowed Dunn to lead the troops to break out of the Han army's encirclement and avoid being completely annihilated in the valley.

But despite this, the cavalry in his hands also suffered heavy losses and were unable to fight anymore, so they had no choice but to retreat to a safe place to rest.

When the news came back to Anling, Cao Zhen scolded Dunn for his incompetence and admired Yang Qing's sense of fighter planes as well as his own. He secretly said: "I and others were discovered by Yang Qing as soon as the troops were divided, and they did not care about the fatigue of the soldiers all night long.

He returned and set up an ambush, thus inflicting heavy losses on the pursuers.

I just made a surprise attack on Yang Qing in Anling, but I didn't expect that just one day later, he would also ambush me with his backhand. Such a decisive and bold opponent is indeed difficult to deal with."

Angry, angry, but now that Zhuge Liang's army is pointing at Chang'an, he no longer has the extra energy to tangle too much with Yang Qing.

He had no choice but to order Deng En to guard the east bank of Jingshui River to prevent Yang Qing from leading his troops back to Zhuge Liang. At the same time, he ordered Bian Bao to quickly lead his troops to Chiyang, trapping Yang Qing and others in Chiyang City, waiting for Yan He to lead his troops.

After the soldiers arrived, they joined Dunn's troops to attack the city.

These remedial measures finally made Cao Zhen temporarily relieved. Unexpectedly, before he could feel relieved, a day later, another shocking bad news suddenly came from the south.

It turned out that Zhuge Liang did not lead the main force of the army to attack Chang'an. The Han army heading towards Chang'an was just a suspect. However, Zhuge Liang's main force quietly diverted north to the Wei River in Huaili and has now reached Anling to kill himself.

Come.

This news made Cao Zhen panic. Now there are only more than 4,000 infantry in Anling City. How can they resist Zhuge Liang's tens of thousands of troops?

He knew that Zhuge Liang abandoned Chang'an and went straight to Anling. He clearly had a premeditated plan and the purpose was to annihilate himself.

At present, Zhuge Liang's army is less than thirty miles away from Anling. Even if he wants to abandon the city, it is too late to evacuate. He can only rely on the city to deal with the Han army. As long as he holds on, he can wait for reinforcements.

However, the only reinforcements that can be mobilized at present are the seven or eight thousand people in Yicheng and Wugong. If all of them are mobilized, the Wei River defense line may completely collapse. You must know that there are nearly ten thousand troops of Zhao Yun outside Chencang City.

.

However, if he does not mobilize reinforcements, he really has little confidence that the small town of Anling can stop the attack of Zhuge Liang's army, so now he can only place his hope on Yan He and Bian Bao.

As long as they can rush back quickly, there is still hope for the entire battle. But how can Yang Qing, who is staying in Chiyang at the moment, let him easily get his wish?

"Come here, order Deng En, Yan He, and Bian Bao to stop seeking to destroy Yang Qing's army. After converging, some troops will be left to guard the east bank of the Jing River to prevent Yang Qing from returning to the west bank. The other troops will quickly come back for reinforcements.

."

Cao Zhen thought for a long time and finally decided to leave Yicheng temporarily. The soldiers and horses in Wugong and Wugong were still placed on Yan He's army to quickly come back for reinforcements. Therefore, he readjusted the deployment on the east bank of Jingshui River and gave up temporarily.

Completed the plan to annihilate Yang Qing's army.

"I hope Dunn and the others can return soon!"
Chapter completed!