Chapter 129: Encircling the Point for Reinforcements

It is said that after Liu Hou heard Guo Youzhi say that there was a clever plan to break the current dull situation, he was very excited, and immediately returned to the palace with him, that is, the government of Maicheng, and was ready to discuss with him.

After arriving at the mansion, Guo Youzhi walked straight to the sand table and beckoned: "Your Majesty, please move." Hearing this, Liu Hou paced to the sand table, looking at this exquisite sand table, waiting for Guo Youzhi's explanation.

The sand table is actually not a rare thing, and it is not the product of Liu Hou's plagiarism from later generations, and the earliest recorded sand table in Chinese history may be the Eastern Han Dynasty. Ma Yuan, a famous general of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was once sent by Emperor Guangwu of the Han Dynasty Liu Xiu to reconnoiter Longxi, and after he returned, he used white rice to pile up the topography of mountains and rivers, and the distribution of roads, and told Liu Xiu about the shape of Longxi, which may be the earliest historical record of the use of sand table in China.

Some scholars even believe that perhaps in the Qin and Han dynasties, or even in the Warring States period, there were relatively accurate military maps and sand tables, but generally things related to military affairs are strictly secret, and may not be recorded in historical records because of this.

Liu Hou had long ago sent a detailed cadre to infiltrate Wei and Wu, and the "CIA" had a special department called the "Kanyu" Department. Here, Kanyu is not the meaning of "looking at feng shui" in later generations, Kan, the meaning of the earth, representing the word "terrain"; "Chengyu" means to study the topography and features, focusing on the description of landforms.

Therefore, the study of public opinion is geography, and those who study public opinion are geographers, and the people of the "Central Intelligence Bureau" are specially collecting information on various geographical mountains, rivers, and rivers, especially in some areas where troops may be used, and they are all the more taken care of.

After the information collected by these people has been compiled and organized, there are special personnel who are responsible for making accurate maps and sand tables based on this information.

It is said that it is a sand table, or a mud tray is more suitable, the mud is both plastic, and the shape is not as easy to change as the sand after molding, so most of these sand tables are kneaded with mud, and some of the more certain, impossible to change the place or even pottery, such as some famous mountains and rivers, is to use the mud to pinch the shape, put it in the kiln to make pottery, and then place it in the corresponding position in the sand table.

Because he planned to go north to attack Wei early in the morning, Liu Hou had already sent more people to do the geographical survey of the line of Xiangfan and Nanyang and the line of Qishan, Xiegu and Meridian Valley.

However, in this era, there is no aviation and aerospace technology, no satellite remote sensing, no aerial photography, and the accuracy of relying on manpower to climb mountains and mountains to survey is naturally much inferior to that of later generations. Although Liu Hou also taught some measurement techniques to the surveyors through Guò Zuoci, they were still far behind, and certain errors were inevitable.

However, even so, the maps and sand tables of the Shu system are more accurate and realistic than any country, any organization or individual system in this era. The sand table in front of Liu Hou simulates the geographical situation of the Xiangfan area, and the large and small cities, mountains, and rivers near Xiangyang are all vivid, and their relative positions and distances are clear at a glance.

"Your Majesty, please see," at this time, Guo Youzhi pointed to the city in the sand table and spoke, "Zhangling is on the east side of Xiangyang, and the distance between it and Xiangyang is similar to the distance between it and Maicheng, and the three form an equilateral triangle. And Zhangling can go directly north to Nanyang, so its geographical location is very important, this county, Wei is really not to be lost.

If our army sends a partial division to attack Zhangling, Sima Yi will inevitably send troops to the rescue, and our army will ambush a group of men and horses on the way through which the Wei army must reinforce them, and they will be able to annihilate them in one fell swoop. ”

In order not to lag behind this era, in order to have a common topic with the little emperor, he had to use his spare time to study some scientific and cultural knowledge taught in Longteng Academy.

Fortunately, there are many people in Liu Hou's army who have graduated from the college, and they have learned the mathematics, physics and chemistry knowledge taught by the college very well, and Guo Youzhi is not ashamed to ask if there is anything he does not understand in his studies, and often runs to ask these graduates for advice.

In this way, with his indomitable spirit of living and learning, within two years, he actually learned most of the college's mathematics, physics and chemistry knowledge, and because of this, he is very familiar with what equilateral triangles are, and can blurt out these professional terms.

Zhangling County is the Zaoyang of later generations, during the Zhou Dynasty, the Zaoyang area was the Tang State, and the Spring and Autumn Period was destroyed by the Chu State; During the Qin Dynasty, the county system was implemented, and Caiyang County was established in this area, which was under the jurisdiction of Nanyang County. During the reign of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty in the Western Han Dynasty, two townships of Baishui (now Wudian Town) and Shangtang (now Tangxian Town, Zengdu District, Suizhou City) of Caiyang County were divided, and the Marquis of Chungling (the ancient city in the north of Wudian Town) was set up.

During the reign of Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the establishment of Chungling Township was improved, and Chungling Township was changed to Zhangling County; Later, it was divided into the northeast of Xiangyang County to set up Xiangxiang County, and today's Zaoyang area was divided by the three counties of Caiyang, Zhangling and Xiangxiang at that time, all of which were under the jurisdiction of Nanyang County.

As soon as Liu Hou heard Guo Youzhi's words, he understood, isn't this just a siege point to send reinforcements? This trick was also used indiscriminately in later generations, whether it was ancient wars or modern wars, until the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation.

There are many classic cases of this strategy born from the siege of Wei to save Zhao, and the strange thing is that it has been used for more than 2,000 years, and they have all become idiom stories, but there are still people who often fall for it.

Liu Hougang was also a little excited when he heard Guo Youzhi's words, but after thinking about it carefully, he couldn't help but feel a little frustrated, others would be fooled, would a strategist of Sima Yi's level be fooled? He threw this question directly to Guo Youzhi, and Guo Youzhi replied: "We must save it if we attack it, and even if Sima Yi knows our plan, he has to send troops to rescue."

"Oh? Is the little Zhang Ling that important?"

"Yes!" Guo Youzhi said categorically, "Zhangling can reach Nanyang further north." If we occupy Nanyang County, it is equivalent to directly threatening Xuchang. Cao Pi would never allow him to do this. Even if he didn't want to send troops to rescue, it was estimated that Cao Pi would send an order for him to come to the rescue. ”

"What if the Wei State in Nanyang County also has heavy troops, and doesn't worry about us attacking at all?" Liu Hou raised a new question.

"Impossible, Sima Yi has invested at least more than 300,000 troops in Xiangyang, and Wei has only about 1 million soldiers and horses in the country. These soldiers and horses will also be divided into four directions.

In Hanzhong, there are at least 100,000 or 200,000 soldiers in the confrontation with the general Che Cai (Zhang Fei), and at least 100,000 or 200,000 Chen soldiers on the border of Eastern Wu, and the most important thing is that in the north of Wei, many nomadic tribes are always thinking about going south to plunder the Han people, and Wei needs at least 300,000 Chen soldiers on the long border in the north, otherwise, it is impossible to prevent the plundering of those barbarians. ”

"Oh." Liu Hou understood that the Wei State looked very strong, the army was very numerous, and the soldiers were also well-trained and elite, but in fact, there were not many men and horses who could draw out to fight. Sima Yi's 300,000 was almost the limit of the troops that Wei could mobilize.

"There may be 100,000 horses in Xuchang, after all, Xuchang is the capital of Wei, and there is still a need for heavy troops to be stationed, but Nanyang estimates that Wei does not have many soldiers and horses." Guo Youzhi added.

"This problem is not a big deal, our 'CIA' should have someone in Nanyang, just contact the people over there to understand the situation when the time comes." LIU Houdao,

"But I still have a question: what if Sima Yi doesn't go to rescue Zhang Ling, but also comes to besiege Wei to rescue Zhao, and when we send troops outside, take the opportunity to attack our Maicheng? You must know that once the troops are dispatched, Maicheng is our rear and our grain storage place, which is related to the safety of our grain route. We can't learn from Yuan Shao and burn people's nests. ”

"Therefore, this time we will send troops, we will divide our troops into three ways, all the way is empty, just to feint to attack Zhangling, the number of people can be smaller, as long as it can attract Sima Yi's attention. The second way is the troops lying in ambush on the road waiting to annihilate the Wei reinforcements, this force must be elite, the firepower must be fierce enough, and it must have the ability to defeat the Wei reinforcements in one fell swoop.

The third group of men and horses was to sit in Maicheng to prevent Sima Yiti's army from attacking the city. This army must be well defended, and has the ability to defend the city in the face of Sima Yi's 200,000 army attacking. ”

Hearing Guo Youzhi say this, Liu Hou was silent, the number of Shu troops was already small, and it was really hard to say whether such a division of troops would be a curse or a blessing.

Seeing that Liu Hou hesitated, Guo Youzhi said: "Your Majesty, the matter is important, it is better to gather the ministers to discuss whether this plan is feasible." ”

Liu Hou agreed to his suggestion and ordered his soldiers to immediately summon the generals above the # regimental level and all the strategists to the palace for a meeting to discuss things.

To Liu Hou's surprise, after Guo Youzhi explained his plan to encircle and send reinforcements in front of everyone, no one spoke out against it, even Deng Zhi, who had been against him before, did not express any objections this time.

Maybe this strategy is really good, maybe Guo Youzhi was good before, keenly aware of the coming danger and saved everyone's lives, so everyone was a little convinced of him.

The specific reason Liu Hou is not clear, but since no one objected, it proved that this strategy was indeed feasible, and then as it was, everyone began to work together, and you discussed the details of the plan word by word, in order to discuss a perfect plan.

In the end, it was decided that E Huan would lead 5,000 rattan armor soldiers to feint to attack Zhangling, this job no one wanted to do, there was no happy battle, and there was no chance to kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions, in fact, it was a very embarrassing errand, which can be said to be a thankless task.

The generals pushed back and forth, and finally fell on the head of the unlucky and sad Ehuan. For the sake of insurance, or in other words, in order to win the trust of the Wei army and make them believe that the Shu army was serious and really wanted to capture Zhangling instead of putting on a show, Liu Hou sent 5,000 rattan armor soldiers with a lot of thunderbolts and explosive# medicine packs to Ehuan.

After all, acting also requires a lot of money, and there are not so many people, so I am afraid that Wei Jun will see the conspiracy of the Shu army clearly and refuse to cooperate with the performance, then it will be troublesome.

According to Guo Youzhi's estimate, it is remarkable that Zhangling has 2,000 defenders, and if 5,000 rattan armor soldiers cooperate with some gun# to blow up the city gate or the city wall, even if the county seat of Zhangling is captured, it is easy to take it down.

Liu Hou can be said to have invested enough money for this feint attack, so Wei Jun can't believe it, and Wei Jun can't be nervous, but it's hard to say if Sima Yixiang doesn't believe it, after all, this kind of old fox's mind is not something that ordinary people can guess.

And the ambush is in the middle of the way, and it is more difficult to decide who will be responsible for annihilating the Wei army's reinforcements. This is a fragrant bun, and everyone wants to compete for this task. This is an opportunity to make a great contribution, and it can also kill the enemy with pleasure, and it is the most suitable position for the warmongers.

Needless to say, the vulture bone is the most fierce person to compete for, but such an important matter, how could Liu Hou hand it over to this person who has no corresponding chest muscles and brains, and the person who does this must understand the changes and be able to flexibly respond to emergencies at any time, that is to say, the main general who performs this task must be a person with a brain more developed than the chest muscles.