On the tenth day of the fifth month of 272 AD, Ji Han's eastern crusade was launched.

Of course, such a big battle will definitely not be 230,000 people dispatched together. The first to be dispatched was only the 30,000 people led by Zhang Zun to attack Tongguan.

Zhang Zun, a former general of Ji Han, was thirty or eight years old at the Chinese New Year's Eve. In his early years, he was the first general under Guan Yi, and in Guan Yi's army, if he did not divide the troops, he must have let Zhang Zun lead the troops first. However, after Ji Han took Chang'an more than three years ago, for the safety of Chang'an, Guan Yi had no choice but to send Zhang Zun to Huayin, the most important Guancheng. This sitting is a full three years.

This time, Zhang Lingxing, who had been trapped for three years, could finally move his muscles and bones.

"Your mission along the way is a feint."

"Feints? Brother, you also underestimate me, right? Why can't you take Tongguan down? ”

"Hehehe, Ling Xing, you have been in Huayin for three years, Tongguan is under your nostrils, don't you know how Tongguan has been these years? As a brother, I will give you 30,000 people, where did you get the confidence to lay down Tongguan? ”

"Hehe, brother, it is precisely because I know the situation in Tongguan very well that my brother has the confidence to take it down. I can't say no, if the fighter plane appears, you have to support me. ”

"Huh? Hahahaha, good, then it's a word! ”

Huayin and Tongguan are only more than 40 miles apart, and the slow march of the large army is only a matter of one day. It is an exaggeration to say that the sound of chickens and dogs is a little exaggerated, but because the distance between the two places is too close, they are very familiar with each other, which is certain.

Zhang Zun has been sitting in Huayin for the past three years, and he has been working hard to find simple cement. Then continue to strengthen Huayin City. Now the whole Huayin City has slowly extended from the foot of Huashan Mountain to the edge of the Yellow River, the whole checkpoint to the Chang'an side has only one city wall, and the side facing Tongguan is three cement city walls up to ten meters. Not only that, but all kinds of strangely shaped fortresses also decorate the long city walls extremely strangely.

This is the case on his side, and Ma Long was not idle in Tongguan: the original Tongguan faced the three city walls in Guanzhong and was repeatedly reinforced, and a new fourth city wall was built in the direction of Luoyang. After that, Ma Long also tried to build the fifth city wall in the direction of Huayin. This Zhang Zun quit, and the two sides also fought a small-scale field battle for this reason.

After that, Zhang Zun and Ma Long tacitly quieted down with each other, because both of them were talented but had to go to prison in this checkpoint. So after being neighbors for a long time, they actually have a good impression of each other. Not to mention anything else, all kinds of alcohol, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soaps, candles, etc., all of them were given by Zhang Zun.

And Ma Long is also a wonderful person: Zhang Zun gave him personal things, accepted them in full, and generously wrote a letter to express his gratitude. But if the merchant wants to smuggle from the vicinity of Tongguan, sorry, he still collects all the orders: all the seizures are given to the soldiers. While making Zhang Zun hate itchy, Tongguan's military heart became closer and closer to Ma Long.

Therefore, Guan Yicai said, you don't know the situation in Tongguan, how can 30,000 people be able to take it.

Despite this, Guan Yi still gave Zhang Zun an order to send troops: make a feint, make the momentum bigger, and make the Jin monarchs and ministers misjudge the direction of our main attack as much as possible. Even if there is no miscalculation, as long as they are hesitant to drive the main force to the state, it will buy me time to gain a foothold in the state. Your mission is complete.

As Zhang Zun, who inherited the advantages of Zhang Sanye's thick and fine, in order to complete Guan Yi's order, he still spent a lot of effort to make the momentum as big as possible.

The 30,000 soldiers did not talk about him, taking advantage of the fact that Ji Han's other two armies had not yet been launched, and the entire people were still very abundant. Zhang Zun directly asked for 30,000 people: Recently, the troops have just completed a partial redress, and many of the original armor have been replaced and have not been disposed of for the time being. So Zhang Zun put on the old equipment for the 20,000 people: I'm not 30,000, it's 50,000!

"Report ~~ Qi Yu Governor. The Shu thieves moved, according to our observations, the Shu thieves who came out of Huayin this time were about 50,000 soldiers and 10,000 people. The banner of the forward is 'Former General Zhang', and the banner of the team behind is 'Da Sima Guan'".

Tongguan Huayin, the distance is too close, Zhang Zun's troops set off here, and in less than half a day, Ma Long in Tongguan City received a very detailed report.

"Fifty thousand? Shut down? Hmph~~~" After listening to the report, Ma Long sneered coldly: "Order, Team A will go to the city, and Team B and C will return to the battalion." ”

"No!"

Ma Long has been in Tongguan for three years, and he is already very familiar with all aspects of the entire level. The 30,000 people under his command are divided into three teams, A, B and C, with one round every ten days, one team on duty, one team for training, and one team on vacation. The team on vacation can have some soldiers out of the camp for entertainment every time they are on vacation - although trade is not prosperous because of the extremely heavy tariffs, but this is a transportation artery, and there is such a large heavy military group, so in Tongguan City, various service industries are very prosperous.

In doing so, morale was well maintained, and this unit changed from fighting at the words of General Ma three years ago to fighting for General Ma.

"Governor, the Shu thieves sent troops, do you want to report to Your Majesty?"

"Hehe, join the army, the report must be reported, but you can't report in a panic before the enemy comes under the city wall, right? Come, you and I will go to the west city wall to watch Zhang Lingxing's reckless procession. ”

"Good."

Ma Long's current military member is Wang Tao, a veteran who once followed Chen Tai to fight Jiang Wei in Guanzhong, and he was stationed in Tongguan much earlier than Ma Long. But after three years, he also admitted very convincingly that compared with Ma Long, he is really not suitable to be the master - because he has never had the calm when big things come.

After the two of them climbed to the westernmost city head of Tongguan, they raised their eyes and looked into the distance, and about half an hour later, Ji Han's forward troops had already appeared in the sight of the two.

After about a quarter of an hour, Zhang Zun's banner also appeared in the flag exhibition. Then, Ji Han's soldiers began to dig trenches and set up camp about three miles away from the Tongguan city wall.

"Well, the current military system of the Shu thieves seems to have improved again, after arriving at a place, they actually dug a trench first, and then directly used the soil in the trench to build a wall, yes, this is a good way. In this way, you can get close to the enemy at the bottom of the maximum distance. ”

"Governor, now is not the time to praise the enemy. The enemy army is encamping, should we take the opportunity to rush and kill? ”

"Hahaha, no. We can't rush out, and the enemy can't get in. So be it. ”

Ma Long said this is not without purpose, Tongguan is stuck at the junction of the Qinling Mountains and the Yellow River: the towering Qinling Mountains are close to the Yellow River, the flat land between the mountains and rivers, the width of the place is more than ten meters, and the narrowest place is less than ten meters. In such a place, a large-scale army could not be placed at all - Cao Cao chose to build Tongguan here to guard against the enemy in Guanxi. This vision is really worthy of a generation of masters in the art of war. (The Yellow River contains too much sediment, and as time goes on, sediment is deposited, and the flat area between mountains and rivers becomes larger and larger.) The location of the checkpoint in Tongguan also had to be shifted to the north. Of course, that's another story. ）

Therefore, Ma Long did not take Zhang Zun's army in his eyes: Even if you are tens of thousands of people, how can you deploy it in such a narrow place? If the troops can't be expanded, how can you give full play to the superiority of troops? If you don't have an advantage in troops, how can you attack the city? I have four walls here, three of which are to defend against the enemy from the west.

The only thing that makes Ma Long regret is that the time point for this Shu thief to launch the Eastern Crusade is too early: it is only May. It is when the winter wheat is about to ripen but is not ripe. At this time, Ji Han marched, whether it was a feint or not, the Jin State had to start a national mobilization. As a result, this season's harvest must have suffered greatly.

On the 11th, Zhang Zun's whole army arrived at the city of Tongguan. On the thirteenth, dozens of trebuchets lined up and began a projectile attack.

Such an attack was nothing for Tongguan: there were also many trebuchets on the head of Tongguan City, and due to the height advantage, their range was a little longer than Ji Han's. Therefore, after a battle, the losses of the Han army were slightly higher than those of the Jin army.

But that's all, although the Han army continued to suffer small losses, it still continued to attack. In such a situation, Malone must report to Luoyang.

"Your Majesty, the minister Ma Longton, on May 11, the Shu thieves were under the city of Lintong Pass, and on the 13th, the Shu thieves began to attack the city. After investigation, the chief of the Shu thieves on this road is the puppet former general Zhang Lingxing, although there is a puppet Sima Guan Zifeng banner in the ranks, but it is not certain whether it is here. The Shu thieves had a strength of about 30,000 to 50,000, and the two sides fought for two days, and the losses of each other were very small. In the humble opinion of the ministers, this place is a feint. Your Majesty has no worries. Only in the direction of the annex state, it is really a strategic place, the main force of the enemy has not been seen so far, and I hope that our emperor will order the division to step up the investigation and take precautions as soon as possible! ”