West of the Slope Valley, Yangping Pass. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

In the lobby of Guancheng, the fighting spirit of hunting like fire is burning wildly in the lobby, and the sound of fierce shouting of war fills the entire lobby.

The potter sat on the throne, looking at the information that had just been delivered by the Jinyi guard in his hand, which claimed that Cao Cao's army had left the mouth of the valley, entered the Hanzhong Plain, and joined Liu Zhang's two armies.

It was this piece of information that stirred the nerves of the generals of the Great Wei Dynasty, and the excited crowds shouted for war.

Just a day ago, the good news had been reported from the east, Xiang Yu had led an army of 30,000 forwards to break through Nanzheng, announcing the destruction of Shu.

This last merit of destroying Shu has been obtained by Xiang Yu, as for the three eastern counties such as Shangyong in the east, it is estimated that it can be passed on, and there is no credit to be made.

Merit means an increase in food and an increase in official positions, and these tiger and wolf generals are naturally "insatiable" and will not be enough.

Now I heard that Cao Cao led a large army into Sichuan again, how can this battle report sent to the door not make the generals excited again, shouting for battle, and wanting to make new contributions.

The potter put down the information in his hand and glanced at Zhang Liang and Han Xin, but the two remained calm, and both shook their heads secretly at the potter, obviously not in favor of forcing another battle.

The potter smiled slightly, the opinions of these two wise men were obviously in line with their own thoughts.

The potter now has an army of more than 100,000 troops, and the number of soldiers and horses is better than Cao Cao's, if he wants to fight Cao Cao, he will send troops to the mouth of the valley early in the morning to prevent Cao Cao's army from entering the flat land.

He didn't.

This is because Zhang Liang and Han Xin have already analyzed the situation for him, although the Qin army has few troops, its physical strength and energy are strong, although their army has experienced a big victory, it is already at the end of the strong crossbow, even if it wants to fight with Cao Cao, it will have to go through at least a month's rest.

Therefore, the pottery merchants did not send troops to defend the mouth of the valley, and decided to only hold the main city strongholds such as Nanzheng, Chenggu and Yangpingguan, and held on without a fight, allowing Cao Cao to lead the army into the Hanzhong Plain.

Because the potters knew that for Cao Cao, the most critical factor in this battle was the supply of grain and grass.

From Guanzhong to Hanzhong to transport grain and grass, there are two roads that are the most convenient and flat, one is from Longxi through Qishan, take Longxi Right Avenue, and the other is from Guanzhong, through Chencang, take Chencang Road.

Although these two roads are flat and conducive to the transfer of grain and grass, no matter which road you take, you must finally pass through Yangping Pass and go from west to east before you can transport them into Hanzhong.

However, Yangping Pass was in the hands of potters, which meant that Cao Cao could not transport grain and grass to Hanzhong through these two flat avenues, and could only transport grain and grass from the Xiegu Road, Luogu Road and Meridian Road east of Yangping Pass to the front line in Hanzhong.

These three roads are the closest to Guanzhong, although the road is small, but it is extremely rugged and difficult to walk, if it encounters rainy weather again, it is even more difficult to walk.

Therefore, since ancient times, the transportation lines between Guanzhong and Han rarely pass through these three valley roads.

According to Cao Cao's original plan, he wanted to lead the army to Hanzhong from the three valley roads in the east, which was relatively the best to take the Xiegu Road, when Yangping Pass was still in Liu Zhang's hands, and his grain and grass could be transported to the front line in Hanzhong smoothly through the two flat roads in the west of the Guanxi.

Cao Cao never expected that Liu Zhang would be so useless, and before his army arrived, he lost Yangpingguan's throat.

This meant that the grain and grass consumed by his 80,000-strong army every day could only be transported to Hanzhong through three rugged and difficult valley roads in the east.

To transport grain and grass for an army of 80,000, it would take at least 50,000 or 60,000 dingfu, and it would inevitably take longer to transport grain and grass from the three grain roads in the east, which meant that more grain and grass would have to be consumed on the road, and only a small part of the grain and grass could be transported to the front.

Such unimaginable consumption of grain and grass was naturally not a problem for the pottery merchants with a large population and strong national strength, but for Cao Cao, it became a huge burden.

Therefore, the strategy of the potter is also simple, Lao Tzu will not fight with you at all, just sit in the city and consume with you, depending on how long you consume energy.

Since I can kill you without damaging the lives of my soldiers, I can kill you just by competing for national strength, so why should I fight hard.

At that moment, the potters, with the authority of the king of the Great Wei, suppressed the frenzied fighting spirit of the generals, and passed the order, the armies only strictly guarded the city, no matter what the Qin army faced, they all turned a blind eye.

The stalemate began.

In the next ten days, more than 100,000 Wei troops strictly implemented the policy of avoiding war of the pottery merchants, held on to Yangping Pass and Nanzheng and other key cities, and no matter how the Qin army called for war, it would not fight.

In order to prevent Cao Cao from taking grain on the spot as much as possible, the potter also ordered that all the wild valleys outside the cities of Hanzhong and those that could be moved away were moved into the city, and those who did not have time to move away were burned even if they were burned down, and even a grain of rice was resolutely not left to Cao Cao.

Cao Cao's suffering has just begun.

According to Cao Cao's prediction, the pottery merchants won consecutive battles, and now even Hanzhong has also won, and must have been arrogant in successive victories, and after hearing that he Qin army arrived, he will lead a large army out of Yangping Pass and fight with him arrogantly.

He knew that although his strength was inferior to that of the potters, his advantage was that the soldiers had sufficient physical strength, and since he had collected the Qiang soldiers, the number of cavalry was higher than that of the potters.

Therefore, Cao Cao was very sure of defeating the potters and taking Hanzhong.

And Cao Cao also knew that his weakness was that the transportation of grain and grass was unfavorable, and he could not fight a protracted war, but must fight quickly.

Cao Cao's idea was beautiful, but he once again underestimated the potter's old rival, and he didn't expect that the potter would see his weakness clearly.

He didn't expect that although the pottery merchant had won consecutive victories, he was not carried away by the victory, and he was not so arrogant that he was eager to fight him, and even his 80,000 Qin troops were defeated.

The Wei army began to hold on without fighting, from Nanzheng to Chenggu, and then from Chenggu to Yangping Pass, no matter how arrogantly Cao Cao called for war, he never saw half a soldier go to war.

What's even more angry is that Cao Cao personally went to Yangping Pass to call for war that day, and the pottery merchant hung up the war-free card, but he was still above the Guancheng, drank a little wine in front of him, listened to a small song, and regarded him as an air-like existence.

Cao Cao was very annoyed, but very helpless, except for sulking in vain, all he could do was to do everything he could, and continue to use vicious scolding to call war on the potters.

In the blink of an eye, more than a month has passed since this confrontation.

Cao Cao's hard days have finally arrived.

At the end of summer, the rainfall in the Qinling Mountains began to increase, and sometimes it was a continuous rain on the Three Kings' Day.

The three valley roads in the eastern part of Yangping are rugged and difficult to travel, and now it is raining heavily, the roads are even more muddy, difficult and difficult to walk, and the difficulty of the Qin army in transporting grain and grass has doubled.

Soon, the three valley roads were blocked by mud and rocks, and the grain and grass that the Qin army could transport into Hanzhong decreased by about 30%.

The grain and grass needed by the 80,000 Qin troops was so huge that Cao Cao spent nearly a month of hard work to gather less than a month's worth of grain and grass, and most of the grain and grass still needed to be transported from Guanzhong in a steady stream.

At present, the valley road is difficult to travel, and the grain and grass transported to the front line every day are far less than the grain and grass consumed.

In order to prevent food shortages, Cao Cao had no choice but to order the daily rations of the soldiers to be reduced.

As soon as the rations were reduced, the morale of the Qin soldiers naturally suffered, and the army's grievances gradually rose, and the originally strong fighting spirit began to decline rapidly.

As for the so-called physical strength, only when you are full can you have physical strength, and as soon as the rations are reduced, those soldiers have to be hungry for a few hours every day, and their physical strength will naturally drop significantly.

On the other hand, on the potter's side, because of the backing of the big granary of Youzhou, coupled with the fact that Yangping is in their own hands, the avenue for transporting grain from the south to Hanzhong is unimpeded, and tens of thousands of grains and grass can be continuously transported to the front line, and there is no need to worry about grain and grass at all.

Therefore, when Cao Cao was worried about the grain and grass and had to drastically reduce the rations of the soldiers, the potters instead increased the rations for the soldiers, and gave the soldiers a meal of broth every once in a while, which was regarded as an additional reward.

Therefore, what more than 100,000 Wei soldiers have to do every day is to eat, drink, sleep, chat, and relax and rest behind the high city walls.

Under the rise of the other, the morale and physical strength of the Wei army soldiers are gradually recovering, while the Qin army is troubled by grain and grass and has fallen into a low ebb.

"The day before yesterday, a 1,000-strong grain transport team encountered a mudslide in the Luo Valley, and 20,000 grains and grass were destroyed......

"Heavy rain has fallen again in the valley, and the grain delivery team has been blocked in the middle of the road, and it is expected that it will be delayed for five days to reach the front line."

……

Looking at the snowflakes of bad news, Cao Cao's brows were tightly locked, and his scorched face was filled with melancholy.

In front of the tent, all the civil and military people also shook their heads and sighed one by one, and their fighting spirit was obviously quite low.

Syllable!

Cao Cao slapped those annoying reports on the case, took a deep breath, and tried his best to calm down his annoyance.

After calming down for a moment, Cao Cao glanced at the ministers and asked: "Our army's grain road is blocked, the soldiers' rations are decreasing, and the army's heart has been moved, but the pottery thief just refuses to fight, obviously wants to drag the king to the end of the grain and retreat, what can you do to lure the pottery thief to fight?" ”

In front of the tent, everyone was silent and bowed their heads.

Cao Cao's gaze shot at Tian Feng, who tilted his head to the side, stroked his beard, and frowned in deep thought.

He looked at Guo Jia again, but Guo Jia was coughing non-stop, and he couldn't face him.

These two advisors are both urging Cao Cao to continue to fight with the pottery merchants, but in the face of the current predicament, it seems that they can't think of any way to deal with it for a while.

Cao Cao frowned, a trace of annoyance burst out between his eyebrows, and his fists were clenched tightly, but it was not easy to attack.

After taking a deep breath, Cao Cao's gaze shot to Jia Xu in the corner again, and asked, "Jia Wenhe, what do you think of the situation in front of you?" ”

"Well...... this" Jia Xu coughed a few times, and then said slowly: "The minister thought that the pottery thief saw the unfavorable soft threat of our army's grain and grass transfer, so he deliberately avoided it without fighting." At present, Yangping Pass, Nanzheng and other cities are passes, all of which are based on pottery thieves, and my grain road is also intermittent, the morale of the soldiers has been frustrated, and it seems that it is not wise to continue to drag it out. ”

Jia Xu suggested withdrawing troops!

The generals on the left and right Wenchen mostly nodded secretly, and even Guo Jia and Tian Feng, looking at that expression, although they didn't speak, seemed to agree with Jia Xu's opinion.

Cao Cao's eyes moved slightly, and he seemed to be a little shaken.

Seeing that the monarchs and ministers of Qin State moved the heart of withdrawing troops, on the order of Liu Zhang, Fa Zheng, who came to act as the liaison between the two countries, was anxious on the spot, and hurriedly said: "The king, you must not be removed, if the king withdraws his troops at this time, it is equivalent to giving Yizhou to the pottery thief, I Dashu annihilation not to say, the so-called lips and teeth are cold, in the future, the pottery thief will use troops from the four states to Daqin at the same time, how should the king resist?" ”

Fa Zheng's urgent words instantly struck Cao Cao's already wavering mind firmly.

Cao Cao shuddered when he thought of the rampant arrogance of the potters getting Yizhou, and the terrible way in the future when the potters would march to him from the four states at the same time as Daqin.

"Fa Xiaozhi, since you oppose the withdrawal of this king's troops, do you have any good plan to solve the predicament in front of this king?" Cao Cao looked squarely at the Fa Zheng Dao.

Fa Zheng was speechless for a while, hesitated for a moment, but said: "Xia Guan can't think of any clever plan at the moment, but Xia Guan knows that it is not yet the last resort, if the king does not grit his teeth and hold on a little longer, I am afraid that he will regret it in the future." ”

Cao Cao was silent again.

Of course, he knew that Fa Zheng prevented him from withdrawing his troops, although it was first for the sake of his Shu State and Liu Zhang's sake, but what Fa Zheng said was very reasonable about the analysis involving his Qin State.

Not to mention the threat in the future, now he led the army into Sichuan with great momentum, but in the end he didn't fight a battle, and retreated to Guanzhong in a gray manner, which was also a disguised blow to the prestige of him, the king of Qin.

"King Rong Ben think again, think again......" Cao Cao couldn't make a decision, so he could only wave his hand weakly and retreat from the ministers.

This military discussion ended with no result, the ministers retreated, and only Cao Cao was left in the king's tent.

"Potter, potter, haven't you always been crazy, this time, why are you afraid of this king, you cunning boy......"

Cao Cao supported his forehead with his hand, his brows were tightly locked, and he scolded secretly in his mouth, annoyance and helplessness, all written on the old man's face.