After reaching a troop dispatch strategy with Liu Chan and Jiang Wan, Jiang Wei began to work on the dispatch of troops.

Although there are only 10,000 troops sent this time, all the troops are elite, and the only regret for Jiang Wei is that the Han does not have a large-scale cavalry, and the horses are still only available at the level of generals or sentry horses.

In his plan, to compete with Cao Wei, it was necessary to build an elite cavalry of the Han Dynasty in order to have the ability to compete with Cao Wei's tiger and leopard cavalry.

Fortunately, the Qiang tribe had a large number of horses, and Jiang Wei looked forward to obtaining a large number of horses from the Qiang people if this move was successful, and building a strong cavalry for the Han people.

In this era, cavalry has begun to gradually become the ruler of the battlefield.

Cao Wei's tiger and leopard ride can attack Wuhuan in the north, and he can chase Liu Bei in Xinye and kill Liu Bei like a lost dog. Relying on the cavalry's super high mobility and strong impact power.

However, the cavalry of this era is still much worse than the cavalry of the Tang Dynasty and even the Jin soldiers of later generations.

Jiang Wei, as a traverser, knows very well what the key difference is.

It's just a seemingly very inconspicuous device:

Stirrup.

Before the appearance of the stirrup, the knight wanted to attack the enemy on the horse, whether it was wielding a knife or shooting an arrow, he needed to clamp the horse tightly with his legs, otherwise it would be easy to lose his balance and fall off the horse, which would consume a lot of physical strength.

With the stirrup, the knight only needs to step on the stirrup, and it is easy to find the balance, and there is almost no physical effort to control the balance, which greatly improves the combat ability of the horse.

Jiang Wei knew the key to this, but he didn't have enough horses.

Everything is difficult at the beginning, and the lack of cavalry in Shu Han is not a matter of one or two days, only step by step.

According to Jiang Wei's plan, this lone army will go north this time and will officially send troops at the end of March.

This time, Jiang Wei was going to take the generals who went north including Ma Dai, Liang Xu, Fu Yan, and Pan Ping.

In addition, his two wives Guan Yinping and Hua Wei also had to go with him.

Because this time he went north to pick up the king of Mi Dang, which was extremely risky, Jiang Wei originally did not plan to bring Zhuge Zhan.

However, Zhuge Zhan was very determined, he wanted to go to Yongzhou in person to see the place where his father Zhuge Kongming had fought, so Jiang Wei had to take him with him.

At the end of March, the armies were assembled, and Jiang Wei gave an order, and the army began to move north.

As the liaison between the Han army and the Qiang tribe, Ma Dai took the lead in the north with 300 soldiers and horses.

Jiang Wei personally led the army and followed slowly along the official road to the north.

From Chengdu to the north, the army marched for three days and arrived in Hanzhong.

Hanzhong is the land of Longxing of the Han Dynasty and the most important strategic fulcrum in the northern part of Shu Han.

Hanzhong is located in the northernmost part of Yizhou, belongs to the basin topography, because of the erosion of the Han River, and formed a four-step landform, of which the first and second steps because of the erosion of the river, the terrain is flat and open, and the quality of sand is high, so it has the reputation of "the land of fish and rice".

The third and fourth steps are all mountainous, so Hanzhong is a strategic place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Because of its important geographical location and superior geographical environment, it has always been a battleground for all generations of soldiers.

Zhuge Liang once pointed out when he visited the thatched cottage three times, "Yizhou is dangerous, fertile for thousands of miles, the land of Tianfu, and Gaozu became an emperor because of it." Liu Zhang is weak, Zhang Lu is in the north, the people are rich and the country is rich and does not know compassion, and the wise man Side Mingjun "persuaded Liu Bei to capture Yizhou."

After the establishment of Shu Han, Zhuge Liang made several northern expeditions, although he and Wei had victories and defeats, but always occupied the initiative in the war, the main reason is that Hanzhong is geographically superior, can attack in many directions, and use the strategy of attacking the east and the west to make the Wei defense invincible and exhausted.

When Jiang Wei led the army to Hanzhong, Wang Ping, the governor of Hanzhong, immediately came out to greet him.

Jiang Wei went north to patrol Yongliang on behalf of the Son of Heaven, and Jiang Wei was a general of Wei, and his position was higher than Wang Ping, so Wang Ping paid homage to Jiang Wei as an official.

After the two exchanged pleasantries, Wang Ping invited Jiang Wei into the Governor's Mansion in Hanzhong.

Wang Ping was very curious why Jiang Wei suddenly led another army north, so he asked Jiang Wei: "Boyo, could it be that our Han is going to go north again?" ”

Jiang Wei shook his head and said, "Now is not a good opportunity for the Northern Expedition, this time I led the army north to do something else." ”

Wang Ping hurriedly asked: "What's the matter, I have an army of 80,000 in Hanzhongtun, do you need my assistance?" ”

Jiang Wei said with a smile: "This time I went north, mainly to meet the Qiang people to become the king, when the division into Longxi is the top, if it is really necessary, I will ask you to send troops to help!" ”

Wang Ping said with a smile: "Don't worry, Boyo, you are patrolling Yongliang on behalf of the Son of Heaven, but if you are sent, the last general will definitely send troops to help." ”

In fact, in Jiang Wei's heart, this battle did not want to use Hanzhong soldiers and horses, because that might cause a strong reaction from Cao Wei, which would lead to a large-scale battle.

In Jiang Wei's memory, since Zhuge Liang died of illness in Wuzhangyuan, under the joint advocacy of Cao Rong and Sima Yi, Cao Wei has never raised troops on a large scale against Shu.

It was not until Cao Heng died and Cao Shuang came to power that he began to take the initiative to attack Shu Han.

Although Jiang Wei didn't know the reason behind Cao Wei's failure to use troops against Shu Han on a large scale, he also guessed that it was probably because Cao Wei seemed to be powerful, but in fact, there were still many places where he needed to use troops.

With Gongsun Yuan in the north, Shu Han in the southwest, and Sun Wu in the southeast, Cao Wei's overall strategy was still to first the north and then the south.

Although Cao Rong is not very old, he has been very stable since he ascended the throne and relies on Sima Yi very much. Sima Yi is as stable as an old dog and never fights recklessly.

In order to stimulate Sima Yi to fight, Zhuge Liang asked the soldiers to call for battle and insult in front of Sima Yi's camp, but no matter how Zhuge Liang provoked, Sima Yi should not fight.

Zhuge Liang also knew that such a stalemate would inevitably be detrimental to Shu Han.

So when the call had no effect, Zhuge Liang thought of a plan and sent someone to send Sima Yi a woman's clothes.

This is obviously an insult to Sima Yi, which means that Sima Yi is only worthy of being a girl, not a commander.

The generals of Cao Wei were deeply annoyed and asked for battle, but Sima Yi stopped the generals' request.

Cao Rong also supported Sima Yi's approach, and asked Sima Yi to directly consume Zhuge Liang to death.

Therefore, Jiang Wei's judgment is that Cao Wei's overall strategic focus is still the north, and the south will still be on the defensive, as long as Shu Han does not raise troops on a large scale, it will not attract a large-scale conflict with Cao Wei.

Hanzhong has an excellent strategic location, and there are many roads to choose from to the north, such as Qishan to threaten Longxi, Shangsanguan to threaten Tianshui, Xiegu Pass to threaten Chang'an, and even a meridian valley trail to choose from.

Therefore, Wei had to deploy heavy troops on these roads to defend against Shu Han's sneak attack, but Shu Han could concentrate his forces on one point and give Cao Wei a boost from time to time.

The focus of this rebellion was to capture Longxi, so the path Jiang Wei chose was to go out of Qishan, pass through the upper valley, and approach Longxi.

If you go out of Qishan, you will inevitably not be able to bypass Wudu.

Wudu is one of the important results of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, the most important military town in the north of Shu Han in addition to Hanzhong, garrisoned by Chen Shi, stationed with 10,000 troops, controlling Wudu and Yinping two counties.

The destination of Jiang Wei's trip was temporarily set in Wudu, as the main position, so as to plot the anti-Wei incident of the king in the middle.

When Jiang Wei's 10,000 troops arrived in Wudu, they quickly took over the command of Wudu, and Chen Shi expressed that his 10,000 Han troops were willing to accept Jiang Wei's dispatch.

Jiang Wei also took the lead, set up his main camp in Wudu, and waited for the latest news from the pioneer Ma Dai.

Less than five days after the army was stationed, Ma Dai led his troops to report back, saying that he had made contact with the king of Midang.

This time, the king of Midang gathered more than 100,000 Qiang people, preparing to capture Longxi, and then along the Weishui road to the east, capture Tianshui, Fufeng and other counties, and enter Chang'an.

After hearing this, Jiang Wei felt that the ambition of the king was quite big, and he still wanted to fight Chang'an with his 100,000 soldiers and horses. It's kind of whimsical.

Back then, Ma Chao gathered 100,000 Xiliang elites and couldn't break through Chang'an, how could the 100,000 Qiang soldiers who were the king of the gods be able to do it?

In Jiang Wei's heart, being able to lay down Longxi is already a great achievement!

So Jiang Wei said to Ma Dai: "General Ma, I bother you to bring a message to the king of the fans, just say that General Ben suggests that the ambition should not be too big, first capture Longxi, and stand firm!" As for the back, General Ben has his own clever plan! ”