In late December of the fourteenth year of Jian'an, Xiahou Yuan finally gave up Longguan and withdrew into Guanzhong. The main force of Liu Bei and Chen Gong's more than 60,000 people soon entered the Huangshui River Valley and killed under the city of Wangxian, which was later known as Longxian. Cao Bing guarded the first line of defense of about 700 people, taking advantage of the terrain, arrows rained down, causing great damage to the enemy, but when the enemy was overwhelming, they could fight day and night, wheels, after holding on for three whole days, paying nearly 30% of the casualties, finally forced to abandon the city and retreat.

This part of the defeated troops did not retreat to the second line of defense line of Chongqing, but directly retreated to Yongxian, rested, trained, and fought again later.

The second line of defense was also held for three days, and the fourth line of defense was abandoned in less than two days because the Liang and Yi coalition forces had gradually become familiar with the Wei army's tactical style—and the coalition army officially entered the Guanzhong Plain.

To say that in this battle to open up the Huangshui River Valley, the coalition forces suffered a lot of losses, with more than 4,000 casualties before and after, more than five times that of the other side. This is because both Liu Bei and Chen Gong know very well that both Kelong Pass will inevitably greatly stimulate the nerves of Anyi, once Cao Cao ends or gives up the southern expedition and personally leads the army into Guanzhong, the advantages and disadvantages of the number of soldiers on both sides will be completely reversed - on this timeline, there is neither Puyang nor Chibi, and these two have no bottom in their hearts about defeating Cao Cao head-on with inferior forces.

Therefore, it is necessary to break into the Guanzhong Plain regardless of casualties, so as to facilitate the vertical and horizontal gallop of the Liangzhou iron cavalry, and only → convenient for the enemy to get food and fight a long-term battle with Cao Cao.

This time, the original intention was to respond to Jiangdong and avoid Sun Quan being destroyed. But if you can take the opportunity to ravage Guanzhong. Destroy Cao Weifang's productivity. Even if you gain a firm foothold in Guanzhong, you can say that you have really won the battle. In addition, Zhang Fei went out of Sanguan and Guan Yu followed the river, nearly 100,000 soldiers and horses, how could they move lightly without profit? Even if it is just a draw, the loss of resources on the coalition side will inevitably be extremely huge, and the gains outweigh the losses.

Therefore, after finally being able to enter the Guanzhong Plain, Liu Bei and Chen Gong were all greatly relieved - the strategic goal of the first stage was barely achieved. However, at this time, they did not know that the Sun clan had been surrendered and Jiangdong had been decided. And Jingzhou is about to change hands. So the two of them immediately gathered the generals to discuss the next stage of action plan.

Liu Bei first asked Chen Gong: "When will Lu Junhou come?" Chen Gong sighed secretly, feeling a little difficult to answer.

In recent years, Lu Bu attacked Han Sui in the west, and suppressed Qianghu, attacked Xianbei in the north, and Shuozhou; He even sent Zhang Liao to follow Jiuquan to Yumen, destroying the green onions, white horses, cattle and other departments, trying to advance into the Western Regions and rebuild the Western Regions Protectorate - it was really hearty, and Yixing flew away. Cao Cao also always wanted to continue to lead Lu Bu's forces westward. Once wrote a letter to him:

"The north and south of the Western Regions, the beginning of the country opened its way. There were thirty-six at the time, and then divided into more than fifty, since the establishment of the armed forces, they have been swallowed up by each other, and they have survived twenty now. Nandao Zhi, Xiaowan, Loulan, etc. belong to Shanshan, Ronglu, Qule, Pishan, etc., and belong to Ning; The middle way of the Wei Li, Wei Xu, and the King of the Mountains belong to Yanqi, Gumo, Wensu, and Weitou belong to Qiuzi, and Zhenzhong, Shache, and Qinguo belong to Shule; The north province east and west and Mi, Wu greed, etc., belong to the queen of the car division......

"Before the general's letter, please use Yanmen Zhang Liao as the protector of the Western Regions, and Longxi Lupan as the captain of Wuji, all of which can be allowed, and when the army goes out of the desert, the edict will be carried out. I privately thought that the general's imperial west should weaken the powers, rise and fall, and make the resumption of Loulan, Shache, etc., go to declare the grace of the imperial court, and show the prestige of China, and it will be ...... for a long time."

Therefore, Lu Bu has little interest in competing with Cao Cao for the world, and he lacks a sense of urgency to unite with Liu Bei to invade Guanzhong, at least to restrain Cao Cao's power to extend to the west. This time Chen Gong caused trouble again, but Lu Bu was attacking Jincheng Han Sui at a critical juncture, and when he heard the news, he kicked the table first, and said in his heart Cao Cao, you don't pick the time for your southern expedition, and Chen Gong doesn't pick the time for you to make trouble-isn't everyone trying to get along with me and want to pull my hind legs?!

He was reluctant to see the good situation in front of him, and Yang Fu and the others had been muttering bad things about Chen Gong in their ears, so Lu Fengxian finally decided: If you want to join forces with Liu Bei in Gongtai, go to the alliance, and if you want to fight in Guanzhong, you add up to 100,000 people, if you can't even win this battle, or can't get out of the way, I will punish you when you come back! Want me to send reinforcements? There are no doors!

But he didn't tell Chen Gong this openly, although Chen Gong guessed, he didn't dare to answer Liu Bei in person, so he had to say perfunctorily: "My lord surrounds Han Sui Yunwu, and when it is broken, he will come." "The implication is that before Lu Bu completely quells Han Sui's forces, don't think that he will come for reinforcements.

In fact, where was Han Sui so easy to be completely destroyed? Qiang chaos is a chronic disease in the late Han Dynasty, burning dang and other Qiang nomadic Xihai (Qinghai), Han Sui's military sources are mostly from him, even if the old man Han is cut off, those guys will not surrender lightly, Lu Bu and there are many battles to fight. And with his character, he may directly wave his army abroad, and he will go to the Tianshan Mountains and drink the Xihai Sea - unless the coalition forces can fight Cao Cao in the Guanzhong area for two or three years, they don't want to get large-scale reinforcements from Lu Bu.

Liu Bei glanced at Chen Gong and said in his heart, Gongtai, do you think I'm stupid? What did Lu Bu think in his heart, I have a secret agent in Buqi's army, and according to the reconnaissance results, I can also guess that it is not far from ten. It is estimated that if you want Lu Bu to come to help, unless you throw the Qianghu cavalry brought from Liangzhou first, Lu Fengxian will be in pain, and you will be able to turn your hatred to Cao Cao......

But there's no way around it. Yizhou is mostly foot soldiers, good at mountain warfare, if you really want to enter the Guanzhong Plain, you must have Liangzhou cavalry to cooperate, it is possible to win the battle. If Chen Gong's department really suffers heavy losses, it is estimated that he will not want to stay in Guanzhong anymore...... On the one hand, he could only put pressure on Chen Gong in person, and at the same time send Jian Yong and other debaters to lobby Lu Bu repeatedly.

Okay, let's just put this matter aside, first study how to destroy the enemy in front of us, and strive to basically eliminate Xiahou Yuan's main force before Cao Cao's army comes to help - if we can force Chang'an, it is equivalent to taking or ravaging the western half of Guanzhong, then even if Cao Cao leads the army to arrive, it will have the strength to hold on to it.

At the moment, he supported the table with both hands, looked at the map, frowned and asked, "Do you know where Xiahou Yuan is?" ”

The coalition army met Xiahou Yuan in Longguan, and although it was lucky to repel it, it still left a big shadow in the hearts of the generals - that guy's march was like thunder and fire, and he fought after battle, if it wasn't for the absolute superiority of the troops, it would be difficult to beat it, let alone put it in the vast plains? Since the Longguan was broken, there was no trace of Xiahou Yuan's main force, and he would inevitably ambush the troops in the pass, and he would want to fight his own unguarded at any time. If you can't find out where he is stationed, it will be difficult to make people feel at ease.

You must know that Xiahou Yuan's army contains more than 4,000 elite cavalry, many of which are still Xianbei and Karasuma cavalry, and the Liangzhou Qianghu cavalry can not have the upper hand against them. What's more, Lu Bu took almost all the elites to fight Han Sui, or handed them over to Zhang Liao to get Jiuquan and Dunhuang, and Chen Gong belonged to only the second-line remaining troops. If the more than 4,000 Youzhi and Hezhi cavalry suddenly rushed over from the flanks, it is estimated that Chen Gong would not be able to stop them at all, let alone his own foot soldiers......

Therefore, you have to find Xiahou Yuan first and try to limit his large-scale maneuver, and then you can talk about breaking the formation, or even encircling and annihilating him.

It's just that countless sentinels were scattered, and as far as a day away, they never found any trace of Xiahou Yuan's main force - there was no way, so I had to guess. Who can estimate the approximate direction?

Liu Bei couldn't help but set his eyes on the mastermind beside him - Fa Zheng and Fa Xiaozhi.

Fa Zheng smiled slightly: "I know where Xiahou is." ”

Liu Bei was overjoyed: "Filial piety teaches me!" ”

Fa Zheng took a step forward and stretched out his hand to point on the map: "Break the three pillars in front, but not see Xiahou, set up his troops to gather troops to hold on, and we will enter the pass?" "If Xiahou Yuan presses all the main forces up, and fights with us one defense line at a time, it is estimated that we will have another ten days and a half before it is possible to enter the Guanzhong Plain, and the loss will inevitably increase exponentially.

However, Xiahou Yuan could not do this, because his main cavalry was almost useless in the treacherous and narrow river valley, just like this time he broke through three lines of defense in a row, and the main ones who went up were our Yizhou soldiers, not to take care of the allies, but to take care of the allies, but the Chen Palace's department also had more cavalry, or the infantry who were used to fighting with the cavalry, used to attack the fortress, just like holding a jade sword to carve a stone seal, it was too uneasy and too wasteful.

Then Xiahou Yuan's main force is likely to be deployed outside the mouth of the river valley, in a vain attempt to suddenly launch a frontal or flank attack when we first enter the plain. The problem is that he didn't do it, we imported it safely, why is that?

"Therefore, when the minister observes his intentions, he knows his plans, and if he knows his plans, his location is also clear." The Yongxian city in front of it is well defended and well guarded, and it is not possible to fight it in a day or two, and there is a dangerous Chen Cang in the south across the water, Xiahou Yuan must want to use these two cities, plus where his base camp is located, they are horns of each other, forming a triangular defense area, no matter which place we attack, we will inevitably encounter the other two places.

The question is where we might attack. Even if we know where Xiahou Yuan's base camp is, it must be west of Yongxian, and it is impossible for us to abandon Yongxian in the rear, so that the long supply line is full of loopholes, and go around the city to the west under this premise. It was a clever plan to go south and attack Chen Cang with Zhang Fei, but the problem was that not only would the dangerous Yongxian be left behind, but the transportation line would be more likely to be attacked by Xiahou Yuanyou and cavalry. So, we only have one way to attack Yongxian.

"Calculate that Yongxian County was attacked, and the horse asked for help, Xiahou led his headquarters, not to fight against him, but to take Yu Elk directly after me, during which it should not be more than three days, otherwise Yongxian County is in danger. Then Xiahou is one day away from the west of me, Shanyin, Shuiyang (north of the landscape), Yitun guard, Ming. Stretching out his hand and pointing to two places: "Not in the east of Qishan, it must be in the north of Weishui." (To be continued......) R752