The heavy rain in Ziwu Valley is still intermittent, the sky is covered with haze, and the bright sunshine that has not been seen for a long time penetrates the clouds and sprinkles on the earth.

Cao Zhen stood at the door of the coach's tent and looked up at the sky, with an indescribable loneliness and melancholy on his face. At this time, his mood was as gloomy as the dull weather, as if he could not see a trace of light.

The guards who were waiting on both sides did not dare to make any noise, for fear that they would touch the bad intentions of Sima at this time. Cao Zhen was the only one in the entire commander. At this time, he moved his feet and began to pace while thinking.

Cao Zhenfu seemed to be holding something in his hand behind him. A guard glanced inadvertently into the tent, and it happened to be clear that the withdrawal edict in his hand was the angel just sent.

"Grand Sima." Liu Ye entered the tent lightly and bowed to him.

Cao Zhen turned around and waved his hand to signal that he didn't need much politeness. He said with a wry smile: "Zi Yang Gong is here just right. I have made a decision. I will recall Zhongquan and the others first. After the two armies meet, I will be ordered to return to the court."

Half an hour ago, the Wei court envoy arrived at the army and read Cao Rui's withdrawal edict to Cao Zhen in public.

After hearing this, Cao Zhen was quite unwilling to accept it and wanted to submit a memorial to defend it. However, the Emperor of Wei had issued an imperial edict, so he did not dare to openly violate the edict. He hesitated and had to shut up Liu Ye and others first, and stayed in the tent alone to think about the army's stop.

Cao Zhen considered the entire battle situation and the situation in the middle of the country, and understood that under the current slow progress, it was indeed difficult for his side to break through the solid defense line of the Han army. It would be useless to drag on it any further, so he made up his mind to withdraw his troops by the imperial edict.

"State Marshal Yingming, withdrawing troops now is indeed the most favorable choice for our Wei Dynasty. Although it is a bit unfavorable, being able to save the lives of 100,000 soldiers is already minimizing the losses in this battle." Liu Ye said.

Cao Zhen smiled bitterly again and said, "Oh, it's a pity that I planned to attack Shu for more than a year, but in the end it became a farce with a start and a slash. After returning to China, it will definitely become a laughing stock for the government and the country."

"What did Grand Sima say? Our army retreated mainly because of heavy rain and difficulty in moving forward, not because of the defeat of the Shu army. All the dukes in the court were smart people. They would not even be able to understand this, and would not laugh at us with this." Liu Ye comforted.

Cao Zhen nodded slightly and said weakly: "I hope this is the case. Alas, my own reputation is actually a trivial matter. It is just a waste of national strength and damage to the court's face and national plans. The biggest mistake should be to waste the country's strength and destroy the face of the court and the national plan."

"Don't be discouraged and blame yourself. Our Great Wei has a strong national strength and can still bear this loss. As for the futility of the King's conquest, I think it's too early to say."

Cao Zhen asked in confusion: "What does Zi Yang Gong mean?"

"Sir, although His Majesty's edict asked us to withdraw our country, it did not explicitly end this expedition. Therefore, the army can retreat to Chang'an first to rest and wait for heavy rain and the weather will clear before attacking." Liu Ye said.

Cao Zhen's eyes, which were already dull when he heard this, lit up immediately, but after pondering for a moment, his eyes lost their spirit again. But he said helplessly: "After that being said, it's not easy to go on a long expedition, how can we do it again in a short time?

Besides, with this time, the defense of the Sichuan bandits will only be stronger, and it will be more difficult for our army to go south to attack Hanzhong."

"It is impossible to divide troops into two groups to attack Hanzhong according to the original strategy, but it is feasible to rush the troops westward to recover Wugong and other places. Wugong is only more than 200 miles away from Chang'an, and such a close distance can completely afford the transfer of food and grass for the army to attack again." Liu Ye said.

Cao Zhen slowly stroked his beard and realized something: "What the hell means is that our army no longer seeks to break through Hanzhong and destroy the pseudo-Shu, but instead changes its strategy to regain the lost territory of Yongliang?"

"Yes," Liu Ye said: "As long as we defeat Yang Qing's thief army and recover one or two cities, we can give an explanation to the subjects in the country. The military funds that were lost before will not be wasted, and His Majesty's face will also look better."

Cao Zhen laughed happily after hearing this: "Haha, it's still Ziyang Gong who can see it thoroughly. Why didn't you expect it? Yes, this battle has not ended completely."

"The Grand Sima takes charge of the overall situation, and cares about it will cause chaos. I just didn't expect this festival for a while."

With Liu Ye's guidance, Cao Zhen suddenly felt better and shouted excitedly to the guards outside the tent: "Come on, come and play drums and gather generals."

Almost at the same time, Sima Yi, who was far away in Shangyong, also received a letter of withdrawal from Cao Rui. Unlike Cao Zhen, Sima Yi was not confused about whether to withdraw his troops or not.

Li Yan pressed Shangyong closely and was difficult to break through. In addition, Niu Jin's troops who were around Nanxiang were also repelled by the Han army. The method of breaking the deadlock he had painstakingly designed was already vain. If he continued to confront him, it would be just a waste of food and food. It would be better to retreat to Jingzhou earlier to rest.

Sima Yi had made up his mind and immediately sent someone to Nanxiang to send an order to Niu Jin to lead his troops to withdraw, and then slowly retreated to Wancheng after the two armies met.

A few days later, Xiahou Ba, Le Chi and Liang Hong led their troops back from Tangluo Road. The Wei army in the middle line united with troops. Cao Zhen immediately changed the back team to the front team and the front team to the back team, and asked Zhang He to lead the army to open the way in the front and lead the 100,000 Wei troops to withdraw back to Chang'an.

The Wei army retreated so much that it could not hide the scouts of the Han army. Zhuge Liang soon received the news, and the civil and military officials in front of the general called him to the tent to deploy a counterattack.

Before the military discussion began, Hu Ji ran into the tent panting and reported to Zhuge Liang: "Prime Minister, just now the General of Cavalry sent the latest military report. Two days ago, Sima Yi and Niu Jin met successfully. Now that the Wei army on the east side had abandoned Fangling and threw themselves into Wancheng, the General of Cavalry followed him and had recovered Fangling and other places. He asked the Prime Minister if he wanted to pursue Sima Yi?"

"Don't hide the troops back, and do not chase the enemy in poverty." Zhuge Liang thought for a moment and replied: "Reply to General Cavalry, our army has few troops and there is not much chance of pursuing them. Just let Sima Yi leave."

"No." Hu Ji bowed his order and temporarily left the commander's tent to arrange for Li Yan's envoy to return to Fangling to report.

After dealing with this matter, Zhuge Liang looked at everyone in the tent and said, "The Wei army retreated and Hanzhong was in danger and safety. It all depends on the merits of the king and the soldiers on the front line. After that, I will report to the emperor to ask for me and others for me."

"Prime Minister, the reason why the Wei army retreated so quickly this time was not only because the soldiers were ready to fight bloody battles, but also because God helped us. If it weren't for this heavy rain that lasted for more than a month, our army would have to take some effort to defeat Cao Zhen and others." Liu Yan said with a smile.

Yang Yi nodded and agreed, "Mr. Weishuo said very much, my great Han is the orthodox world, and naturally he is favored by the will of heaven. It is also magical. The Wei army retreated for a few days and the rain became much smaller. It can be seen that God is really helping our great Han."

The superstitious sayings of ghosts and gods in the world are quite believed. After hearing this, everyone seemed to feel that God was helping him. Thinking of this, everyone's confidence in restoring the Han Dynasty was even more strong.

"God may be blessed, but more importantly, the result of our great man uniting and the soldiers of the three armies serving their lives to the death. Even without this heavy rain, I believe that the royal army can defeat the Wei army." Zhuge Liang shook his feather fan and said with a smile.

The weather factors were of course important to win this battle of defense in Hanzhong, but fundamentally speaking, it was the result of roughly equal national strength mobilization by the Han and Wei families on the Western Front. Although the three Wei troops had more than 100,000 troops, they did not form an absolute advantage in military strength over the Han army, so it was naturally difficult to break through the complete defense system of the Han army.
Chapter completed!