At the beginning of October in the first year of Wu Jianwu (227), that is, the fourth month of Deng Zhi's arrival in Hanzhong, the Shu Han Grand Sima Xu Shu, the Taiwei Li Yan, the General Zhang Fei, and the Hussar General Ma Chao jointly supervised more than 60,000 troops and went straight to Hanzhong.

Shu Han since the Zhaolie Emperor Liu Bei was defeated in the battle of Jingzhou after the vitality was greatly damaged, but after these years of recovery, the strength has improved somewhat, and after Liu Chan ascended the throne, Zhuge Liang and Xu Shu worked together to stabilize the government. Last year, Zhuge Liang went on a southern expedition to quell the chaos in the south of Shu and Han, and stockpiled the armor and materials needed for the Northern Expedition.

On the other hand, Cao Wei has always looked down on Shu Han since Cao Pi ascended the throne, and pointed the spearhead at Eastern Wu, raising an army of 200,000 in just two years after ascending the throne, and personally supervising the army in Wancheng in order to crusade against Eastern Wu. However, in Xiangyang, he was severely attacked by Sun Ce's plan, and the army lost more than 60,000. This year, Cao Rui succeeded to the throne, and Eastern Wu took the initiative to attack the three fronts of Xinye, Xuzhou, and Qiaojun, and annihilated a total of 80,000 Wei troops. Today's Wei State is in the weakest state after the Battle of Chibi, Luoyang has almost no soldiers to send, Cao Wei's western defense line is only 40,000 people under the command of Cao Zhen who is recuperating in Chang'an, and the county soldiers under Guo Huai, who have to guard against the Western Regions and the Qiang people, and now they have to face the army of Shu Han.

In fact, the news sent back by Sun Song was not wrong, there were indeed factions within Shu Han, but in the face of such a good situation, both Zhuge Liang and Xu Shu were reluctant to waste. And there is also the smell of conspiracy in this, this time Zhuge Liang of the Northern Expedition was left in Shuzhong to manage logistics, and Xu Shu, Li Yan of the Dongzhou Department, Ma Chao of the Guanlong Department, and Zhang Fei of the Veteran Department all led troops to fight.

It is their credit to fight the war well, and if the war is not fought well, there may be a problem with logistics, and Zhuge Liang's character will definitely not let this Northern Expedition fail. But for the Northern Expedition, someone had to stay behind, and not all four. Looking at it this way, it seems that only you Zhuge Liang does not have much experience in leading troops to fight, and the most important thing is that your subordinates are not only Zhao Yun, the Hanzhong army, but the Wudang Fei Army is still being formed, and Zhuge Liang will fight with the other three people.

Therefore, as soon as several factions put together, Zhuge Liang was left in Shu, and Zhuge Liang would not deliberately disrupt the battle situation, and there was a person comparable to Xiao He who would take care of the logistics for you, so it would be a pleasure to start a battle. Both Xu Shu and Li Yan thought that this battle was a must-win situation, after all, Wei State guarded Yongliang with Cao Zhen's 40,000 people, and Shu Han dispatched 80,000 troops to mobilize tens of thousands of Qiang cavalry after Ma Chao waited for the troops to enter Xiliang.

Xu Shu, Zhang Fei, and Ma Chao are all famous generals in the world. Xu Shu first burned Bowangpo in Xinye, beat Xiahou to find teeth all over the ground, and then played Cao Ren with a weak victory over the strong (the battle of Bowangpo took place in 202, and Zhuge Liang only came out of the mountain in 207, but Liu Bei's military advisor was Xu Shu); Zhang Fei Changbanpo retreated from the enemy on a single horse and lost Zhang Jaw in Brazil; Ma Chao once killed Cao Cao to cut off his robe and abandon his beard. Such a strong configuration, coupled with the fact that Zhang Fei and Ma Chao are now in the post-Three Kingdoms era, are the first generals in the world, plus several second-generation generals are all standing at the peak of the times. The decisive battle on the Guanlong Plain does not seem to have an advantage for the Wei army.

If it is said that when Xu Shu entered Hanzhong, Wei squeezed out some reinforcements and blocked the road out of Sichuan, there is still a little possibility of resisting the enemy, in fact, the ministers of Wei have discussions. It is believed that Xu Shu can be taken in Hanzhong. Sending troops to attack them in one fell swoop, Cao Rui also had this meaning, but Sun Zi thought that Hanzhong and Nanzheng were in danger, and a large number of troops would cause a commotion in the world, and the effort was huge, so he proposed to divide the generals according to the dangers. When Wei is strong, Shu and Wu will surrender themselves. It is said that the important ministers of the White Wei State are a little unconfident, and it is not good to attack Shu because of Wu Lian's defeat. In this way, the best opportunity is missed.

Just like history, Xu Shu sent Zhendong general Zhao Yun and Yangwu general Deng Zhi to lead 10,000 troops and horses as suspicious soldiers. The situation of attacking Yicheng from the north of the Xiegu Road was posed by Keigu to attract the Wei army. Emperor Cao Rui of Wei ordered Cao Zhen to come out of Chang'an to supervise the right army and go to defend against Zhao Yun. Xu Shu personally led the main force to take advantage of the situation to launch an attack on Qishan. Although the result is the same, the starting point is different, Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi are both descendants of Zhuge Liang, of course Xu Shu doesn't want them to make meritorious contributions, and although Zhao Yun's martial arts are strong, he is good at fighting and not good at attacking, so it is most suitable for him to be suspicious.

In the second month of Xu Shu and others arriving in Hanzhong Nanzheng, that is, the last few days of this year, it was night, Ma Chao suddenly ordered his 5,000 cavalry to take advantage of the cover of night, set off in the starry night to rush back, and when passing through Nanzheng and other important places in Hanzhong along the way, they did not stop, all the way to the convenience of Hanshui, and arrived at Yangping Pass in less than three days.

After passing the Yangping Pass, with the reputation of Ma Chao's Shenweitian general, he easily passed through the Wudu County controlled by the Di people, and also collected more than 5,000 Di soldiers along the way to help in the battle, and reconvened the Qiang cavalry when he entered Kou Yongzhou, and the army of nearly 40,000 people added up to kill Qishan day and night.

Naqi Mountain is located on the north side of the West Han River, starting from Beiqi in the west, reaching Lucheng in the east, stretching for more than 100 miles, connecting Linyou County in the north, Taibai County in the south, bordering Fufeng and Meixian in the east, and adjacent to Fengxiang and Chencang in the west. It is the place where Emperor Yan lived and the foundation of the Zhou room, and it is the birthplace of Zhou culture.

At this time, no one in the Wei State would have expected that Xu Shu's real attack direction was Longyou, and Cao Zhen's main force was on the front line of Chencang, Sanguan, and Shenling, and the Qishan camp at this time was guarded by less than 3,000 troops. Ma Chao led an army of 40,000 to kill suddenly, and in an instant, he broke through the enemy camp in Qishan, and completely annihilated the 3,000 Wei troops without any suspense.

After successfully capturing Qishan, Ma Chao left Chen Shi to lead 3,000 soldiers and horses to garrison Qishan according to the original plan, waiting for the follow-up baggage troops to follow, while Ma Chao took Ma Dai, Ma Qiu (Ma Chao's eldest son), Wu Ban and others, continued to go north out of Qishan, and went to Tianshui County to kill.

The Longshan Mountains divide Guanzhong and Longyou counties into two, among them, there are only two roads leading to Longyou from Guanzhong, one is to go west along Weishui, enter Longyou through the Longshan River Valley, and the other is to look north through the street pavilion to enter Longyou.

And these two key passes, just in Tianshui County, control Tianshui, it is equivalent to cutting off the connection between Guanzhong and Longyou, Longyou counties can easily go down, and after controlling the Longyou counties, it is equivalent to cutting off the connection between Liangzhou and Guanzhong, with Ma Chao's prestige in Liangzhou, it is natural to raise his arms and shout, you can respond in groups.

Therefore, the key after the troops leave Qishan is to quickly seize Tianshui County. Therefore, after capturing Qishan, Ma Chao divided his troops into two routes, one route was Ma Dai and Gao Xiang, and led 10,000 soldiers and horses to rush to Linwei County on the bank of the Weishui River to cut off the passage of the Weishui Longshan River Valley. And Ma Chao and Wu Ban and other generals personally led the main force to Jicheng, the seat of Tianshui County. And only by capturing Jicheng can we quickly suppress the counties of Tianshui, and can we quickly enter the street pavilion and seize the second passage to Guanzhong to open an unimpeded avenue.

In addition to Ma Chao's army, Xu Shu personally led the real main force of Shu Han with more than 40,000 people out of Sanguan to attack Chencang. Because Xu Shu's army was a long time later than Ma Chao and Zhao Yun, Cao Zhen, who was originally defending against Zhao Yun's suspicious soldiers, was already preparing to turn around and go west to deal with Ma Chao. Xu Shu successfully hit a time difference, making Cao Zhen mistakenly think that Shu Han was using the strategy of striking the east and attacking the west, Zhao Yun was the one who was attacking the west, but he didn't know that Xu Shu's real strategy had not been used.

When Cao Zhen ran wildly and didn't know all day, Xu Shu personally led the army out of the pass and cut off Cao Zhen's back road. Dasanguan is the only fortress in the southwest of Guanzhong. Since ancient times, from Bashu and Hanzhong to the throat of Guanzhong, "the customs control is steep", and the strategic position is very important. As contained in the "Historical Records": "The north must not be without the benefit of the Liang, and the south must not be without the consolidation of the Guanzhong", therefore, this has become the place valued and fought for by the soldiers of all dynasties. Behind Sanguan is Chencang, the birthplace of the allusion "Ming Xiu plank road, dark Chencang", and Sanguan across the river is an important military point, as long as Cao Zhen, who can occupy this place and go to Tianshui County to resist the enemy, will be trapped in Liangzhou, and then be surrounded and annihilated.

In addition, on the third day after Xu Shu left, an army of no more than 5,000 people quietly entered the Meridian Valley under the leadership of Shu generals Wang Ping and E Huan. Meridian Valley is a valley road in Guanzhong through Hanzhong, there are six ancient roads in Guanzhong and Hanzhong traffic, from west to east are Chencang Road, Bao Slope Road, Fu Luo Road, Meridian Road, Kugu Road, Wuguan Road. The Qinling Mountains are high and the valleys are deep, although these six avenues are all dangerous, but in the wars of the past and present, they are still many times or broken, or smuggled, among them, the Meridian Road in the Meridian Valley is the only one of these six ancient roads, the only one that has been smuggled many times, but has never succeeded.

This time, Wang Ping and E Huan's troops have been preparing for this for a long time, and these 5,000 soldiers and horses are almost all mountain people in Hanzhong and barbarian warriors in the south, it can be said that they are all elite mountain warfare, and the leader here is also Wang Ping, who is familiar with the terrain of Hanzhong. Wang Pingnai was a Brazilian who came out of Hanzhong to Chang'an to join Cao Cao, Wang Pingchu was a general under Xiahou Yuan's account, familiar with the geography of Hanzhong, and was appointed as Xu Huang's deputy general during the Battle of Hanzhong. After Dingjun Mountain, Liu Bei surrendered to reuse, but unfortunately, he really walked through this Meridian Valley when he went out of Sichuan to join Cao Cao in the past. This time, Wang Ping revisited his hometown, but his identity changed greatly, and he dealt with his old club Wei Guo as a Shu general.

And at this time, his partner, E Huan was also a great task, originally just a barbarian general under Gao Ding, but during the battle of Nanzhong, he fought with Guan Yu's son Guan Ping for more than 100 battles, which caused Zhang Fei's love for talent, so he was asked by Zhang Fei after the war, so there was no Fei in the army. (To be continued......)