In the Qishan camp, Liu Ze leisurely sipped tea, quietly listening to the report from the front line, his expression was calm, as if it was nothing to do. Zhuge Liang shook the feather fan lightly, and said with a hint of regret: "It's a pity, the battle of Shooting Tiger Valley was originally the best opportunity to capture Cao Cao. ”

Liu Ze smiled indifferently and said, "If Cao Cao is captured so lightly, then he is not Cao Cao." The success of this ambush also depends on Xiahou Yuan's merits, Cao Cao heard about Xiahou Yuan's death, such as losing his humerus, his mind was in turmoil, and he was eager to avenge Xiahou Yuan, otherwise with Cao Cao's treachery, I am afraid that only he calculates others' shares, and how can he fall into other people's calculations. was able to ambush Cao Cao twice in his life, and Xu Rong can be called the first person in the world. ”

Zhuge Liang said: "This time Cao Cao suffered a defeat, he will inevitably retreat and defend it, and he will not go out of the city to face the battle again." Although our army won a small victory, the labor division came from afar, the Shu road was difficult, and the grain and grass were scarce, which was not conducive to a long-term war, and the cold winter was approaching, and the shape was not optimistic. ”

Liu Ze also fell into deep thought, indeed, as Zhuge Liang said, the biggest difficulty of the Jing army now does not come from Cao Cao, but from its own grain and grass supply. After taking Hanzhong, Liu Ze attacked Guanzhong Longyou non-stop, in the eyes of most people are a little hasty, Zhuge Liang, who has always been cautious and calm, has put forward different opinions, thinking that the initial decision of Hanzhong should be to recuperate, gather grain and grass, and wait for the soldiers to be fully prepared and sufficient grain and straw before marching, so that the certainty of success is greater.

Although most of the ministers objected, Liu Ze still waved his army north without hesitation, pointing directly at Guanzhong, after all, Guanzhong Longxi Cao Ma was fighting, and Liu Ze marched at this time, thinking of being a fisherman and a yellow bird. But plans are always up to change. Ma Chao's sudden collapse in Longxi has changed dramatically, Cao Cao has controlled most of the counties in Guanzhong and Longxi, although he won a game by luck when Cao Cao was in turmoil, but Cao Cao only couldn't defend it after that, Liu Ze couldn't afford it, and the shortcomings of grain and grass were almost a problem that could not be solved in a short time.

Liu Ze controls the land of Jinghuai and the four states. There is no shortage of food, what really makes Liu Ze a headache is how these grains and grasses can be transported across the steep Qinling Ancient Road, this is the real problem, and the eating, drinking and Lazar of the 150,000 army is definitely not a small problem.

At this time, Xu Rong, Ma Chao, and Zhao Yun had already led the army back to Qishan Dazhai, killing countless enemies and capturing countless enemies. However, to their regret, Cao Cao, the duck that had been cooked, flew away. This made Xu Rong, who was ambushed in the Tiger Shooting Valley, depressed.

Liu Ze gave them a commendation, no matter what, this battle was still very beautiful.

Ma Chao stepped forward to report that this time he returned to Longxi, although he was not able to conquer Jicheng, but Ma Chao still recruited many lost troops in Longxi. After the defeat of Ma Chao, some of these tribes fled to the wilderness, and some occupied the king. However, when I heard that Ma Chao had returned to Xiliang, there was still a tide of responses. Although the cavalry under Ma Chao's command now cannot be compared with the 100,000 iron cavalry in its heyday, the scale of 30,000 or 40,000 is also gained.

Liu Zezheng was thinking about how to place Ma Chao, when Ma Chao was defeated in Qishan before, he only had more than 10,000 cavalry in his hands, and at most there was only one division of troops, if Ma Chao was appointed as the chief soldier. is somewhat condescending, Ma Chao is one of the famous Five Tiger Generals in the Three Kingdoms, and Guan Zhang Huang Zhao is as famous, the rank of this chief military officer, Liu Zesi thought about it. I also feel that I can't do it.

Now each of the nine corps has its own commander, Liu Ze wants to set up another army for Ma Chao, but only with Ma Chao's soldiers and horses, the formation of a new corps is a bit unsatisfactory, if Ma Chao's corps is added with some fresh blood, then the new corps of this army will not be able to form a joint force in a short period of time, now is the time to use troops, how to delay.

This time, Ma Chao recruited tens of thousands of old troops to return, which made Liu Ze secretly relieved, and the Tenth Army finally deserved its name this time. Liu Ze announced the establishment of the Tenth Army Corps, but this Tenth Army Corps is different from other corps, with four divisions under its jurisdiction, all of which are cavalry divisions, which is in stark contrast to the pure infantry division of the Ninth Army Corps, and is also very different from the Third Army Corps, which is all thunder cavalry, and the Tenth Army Corps is all light cavalry.

Ma Chao is naturally the best candidate for the governor of the 10th Legion, with the rank of general. Pang De is the deputy governor, with the rank of deputy general, and concurrently serves as the chief soldier of the 10th Cavalry Division, and the other three general soldiers are Ma Dai, Fu Tong, and Feng Xi. Fu Tong and Feng Xi were originally Shu generals, and Liu Zhang was a low-ranking officer in the army, and was later promoted by Liu Ze. All three of them were awarded the rank of partial general.

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The first snow of this winter shrouded the land of Guanlong, for the land of Guanlong, which had been dry for a long time and had no rain, this was simply a rain from heaven, but for the Jing army who lacked food and clothing, it was not stingy to make matters worse.

Heavy snow blocked the mountains, making it more difficult for the Jing army to supply grain and grass, and the sudden severe cold made the Jing soldiers in single clothes shiver from the cold. In addition to Liu Ze's First Guards Legion, most of the personnel came from Qingxu, the soldiers of the Eighth and Ninth Legions, but Jingyi accounted for the vast majority, accustomed to the warm and humid climate in the south, in the ice and snow in the north, they could not adapt to it no matter what, and the non-combat attrition of freezing to death and frostbite increased significantly, which cast a thick shadow on Liu Ze's first Northern Expedition.

Cao Cao completely adopted Sima Yi's Jianyì, the strong wall cleared the wilderness, stuck to the fortified city, and Liu Ze's protracted battle, the Jing army repeatedly went to the city of Jicheng to challenge, let them be insulted in every way, Cao Bing just did not fight, once the Jing army attacked the city, the strong crossbow bow and arrow rolling wood and stone had long been served, and the Jing army knew that it was well prepared, and did not dare to attack lightly.

Seeing that the weather was getting colder and colder, Liu Ze had to order the retreat, the First Army and the Tenth Army slowly retreated from the Xiegu, and the Eighth Army and the Ninth Army retreated from Chencang and Keigu respectively.

Hearing the news of the retreat of the Jing army, Xu Chu was excited, stayed in Ji County for many days, Cao Cao did not allow him to fight, he had already suffocated him, the news came, Xu Chu was the first to take the initiative to ask Ying, asking to lead the troops to pursue.

Sima Yi dissuaded: "Liu Ze has always used troops like a god, how can such a large-scale retreat be unprepared, General Zhongkang will lead his troops to chase at this time, or he may be ambushed by Liu Ze." ”

Cao Cao praised Sima Yi for his excellent performance in the Battle of Guanlong, and ordered the armies not to pursue.

Liu Ze led the army to retreat to Hanzhong without panic, and ordered Ma Chaotun to distinguish and hold the boundary of the Xiegu Valley, Wei Yantun Chenggu and the Jigu Boundary Pass, and the rest of the Zhulu army were stationed in Nanzheng, Chuyang and other places.

Separated by a Qinling Mountains, Guanzhong and Hanzhong are two heavens, Guanzhong Shuo wind blows strongly, heavy snow flies, but Hanzhong is full of greenery, warm as spring. Such a pleasant climate and environment did not make Liu Ze depressed, and retiring from Hanzhong does not mean that everything is fine, Liu Ze has already planned a plan to tackle the key problems again in the spring of next year.

Transporting grain from Shudi, far away from thousands of rivers and mountains, the transportation cost alone is a headache, but with Hanzhong alone, it is impossible to support the grain and grass of the 200,000 army.

So Liu Ze thought of the use of Han water to transport grain, the cost of water transportation is far more than the land to save more, after the capture of Hanzhong, Liu Ze sent troops to the east, attack the new city, as a coordinated action, stationed in Xiangyang Guan Yu's second army, also sent troops to attack Fangling Shangyong and other cities, compared with the important strategic position of Guanzhong, the three counties in the east of the Han Dynasty are completely equivalent to the undefended city, where the army goes, the three eastern counties have all become included in the sphere of influence of King Jing.

The capture of Shangyongfangling New Town was of no great significance to Liu Ze, but after taking the three eastern counties, the control of the entire Han River was firmly in the hands of the Jing army, and this significance was extraordinary. Starting from Nanzheng by boat, along the Han River downstream, you can go straight to Xiangyang Wuchang, even if you don't get off the boat, it is not difficult to get to Jiaozhou and Guangzhou, the huge water system in the south of the Yangtze River is the strong and powerful waterway transportation network of the Jing army, and the grain and grass transported from Wuchang Xiangyang will definitely be able to reach Nanzheng without hindrance. (To be continued......)