Not only Liu Bei wants to buy time, but Cao Pi also wants to buy time.

Because of the lag in the transmission of information, Cao Pi did not receive the news of Liu Bei's Northern Expedition until mid-October, and when Cao Pi decided to go on the expedition in person, prepare for the expedition in Yecheng, and lead the 150,000 elite Central Army to the expedition, it was already early November.

But Cao Pi only left the gate of Yecheng with his front foot, and immediately received an urgent document from Guo Huai, the assassin of Liangzhou, saying that Liu Bei personally led the main force of the Shu army to attack Yongliang.

When Cao Pi learned of this, he immediately summoned Jiang Ji, Cao Ren, Xu Huang, Zhang He, Xiahou Shang and others who went out with the army to discuss.

After learning that Liu Bei's main force was in Yongliang, Cao Ren and the others were all taken aback, and realized that they had misjudged the strategic purpose of the Shu army before.

Although Cao Pi pretended to be calm and said that Liu Bei "didn't have much heart, and he gave up the pass to take Liangzhou, because of a small loss", but in fact, Cao Wei's generals all knew that there was an error in the judgment of the strategic direction this time, which led to a deviation in the key direction of the deployment of troops.

However, although the strategic direction was misjudged, now that Liu Bei has put his chess pieces in the light, Cao Pi can not continue to guess, but can deal with it.

Again, even if Liu Bei unexpectedly won the first move this time, Guo Huaike would stay in Tianshui County with the Liangzhou Corps.

Guo Huai's ability, Cao Pi still trusted, even in the face of Liu Bei's main army, as long as Guo Huai can give full play to the mobility of the Liangzhou Corps, contain Liu Bei, and create time for his own reinforcements, he should still be able to do it.

Liu Bei's group is basically dominated by infantry, and Guo Huai leads all cavalry.

Therefore, when Cao Pi learned the news, although he was surprised, he was not too worried. Until he led his troops across the Yellow River and almost arrived in Luoyang, bad news came one after another.

In three or four days, Cao Pi was connected to the loss of Tianshui County, Guo Huai led the Liangzhou Army to attack Ji County, the Liangzhou Army was defeated in Ji County, and Guo Huai led 3,000 soldiers to hold a series of news on Shangqi.

Among them, the Liangzhou Army was completely defeated in just half a month, which was definitely beyond Cao Pi's imagination.

So it's a big deal.

The problem now is that Guo Huai is delaying time, he Cao Pi went to the rescue and trapped Liu Bei to death in the north of Yongliang.

The question now is when Liu Bei will cross Longshan and attack Chang'an.

Cao Wei's army is also full of talents, not to mention that the battles have been fought to this point, as long as anyone with a little strategic vision can see that as long as Liu Bei occupies Longshan, he will really advance and retreat freely.

You can peek into Chang'an, Guanzhong, and retreat, you can break Longshan to recover Liangzhou.

This is also the reason why Guo Huai saw that the defeat was decided, and he desperately retreated east to run to Shangqi. Liu Bei can't be allowed to occupy Longshan so easily.

The only good news now is that Liu Bei seems to occupy only one Tianshui County, and among the five counties in the north of Yongzhou, there are still four counties in his own hands or the attitude is not clear.

Cao Pi actually didn't quite understand why Liu Bei didn't let these four counties go to raid. Isn't this a time bomb for your own back?!

But soon, Cao Pi learned Liu Bei's plan from the civil and military soldiers under his account - as long as he grabbed the time to break Long, so that these Taishou in Yongliang states and counties could not see the hope of Cao Wei coming to help, then these Taishou would choose to surrender sooner or later.

Even if they are unwilling to surrender, the clans in the city will surrender for them.

From a military point of view, Cao Pi may not understand why Liu Bei did not attack the four counties, but after saying through the military point of view, looking at this matter from a political point of view, Cao Pi immediately understood it at a glance.

To put it bluntly, if Cao Wei can let the various families in Yongliang see their strength and still have the will to rescue them, then you don't need to be able to defeat Liu Bei head-on, as long as you can gain the upper hand and block Liu Bei on Longshan Road, then these Yongliang families will also choose to raise troops to help you attack Liu Bei's back road.

But if your own strength is not good for Cao Wei and Liu Bei realizes the break, then these Yongliang families will not sell their lives for you Cao Wei, and Liangzhou naturally does not belong to you Cao Wei.

So, it's a top priority. There is no need to discuss, even Cao Pi, a military half-ass, can see it, do you need anyone's advice?!

"In this way, when a general is needed, lead part of the Chinese army to set off first, and rush to Longshan day and night to support General Guo Huai, guard Longshan, and defeat the enemy in front of you." Cao Pi made such an order.

But the question is, who to send ?!

This is a very critical question.

The first thing Cao Pi thought of was his only good brother in the Cao clan, Xiahou Shang.

But. At this time, Xiahou is still not young, but he has qualifications and leadership experience. Even Cao Pi was a little embarrassed to say it if he wanted to name him personally.

So.

"Uncle, I'm afraid I'll have to bother you to go to this matter!" Cao Pi smiled and said to Cao Ren.

In order to show his cordiality, Cao Pi did not even call Cao Ren an official position, but called him "uncle", which was enough to give Cao Ren face.

But Cao Ren hesitated slightly, and did not immediately take the order.

It's not that Cao Ren doesn't want to accept this military order, but in Cao Ren's opinion, he is not a good choice for this march.

His ability lies in dominating the town and defending the side, and the ugly point is to fight a defensive battle, and an offensive war can also be used, but it belongs to that kind of conventional offense, the two sides encounter, the field battle, then Cao Ren is also sure that he can win.

But this kind of life, which requires troops to lead thousands of miles to raid, and can still keep soldiers fighting after such a long march, has never been his Cao Ren's strong point.

This is Xiahou Yuan's strong point, but unfortunately, Xiahou Yuan.

Except for Xiahou Yuan, there are probably only people in the older generation of generals who can do it and are still in the army

"Back to King Wei, if it is not for the old minister to shirk, the old minister really has no such ability!" Cao Ren arched his hand and said to Cao Pi.

Cao Pi's face changed slightly, and he began to wonder what Cao Ren meant. This kind of critical moment related to the country, or will I personally order your general, and you won't make a move?!

Cao Ren continued, "The old minister Baoju two people may be able to take on this important responsibility. ”

Cao Pi's face looked better, and he hurriedly asked, "Uncle, please speak." ”

Cao Ren was not polite, and said directly, "One person is Zhang He, the general of the left, and the other is Cao Xiu, the leader of the Central Army." ”

Cao Pi heard this, nodded slightly, and realized.

There are some things that don't need to be said, everyone understands them.

Cao Ren gave two candidates, a general with a foreign surname and a son of the Cao clan, how to choose, it depends on you Cao Pi.

It's not a temptation or a test, it's tradition. In Cao Cao's era, the old Cao family has always worked as a general of the Cao clan and a general with a foreign surname, so Cao Ren actually gave an answer.

That is to let Cao Xiu be the main general, Zhang He as the deputy general, and the two of them together led the troops to quickly rescue Shangqi, occupy Longshan, and then rescue the four counties of Longyou.

But Cao Pi came out with a moth.

"That being the case, order General Zhang He, who commands 50,000 soldiers and horses of the Chinese army, to go first, and must quickly march west to rescue the counties of Longyou." Cao Pi gave his order.

Cao Ren paused for a moment, wanting to say something, but.

"Uncle, General Zhang is an old minister of the first king, and he has always been loyal, so I don't think there will be anything wrong with him." Cao Pi smiled and said to Cao Ren, "As for Wen Lie, being lonely is also of great use. ”

, isn't it because Cao Xiu and Cao Zhi were relatively close at the beginning, you kid was careful. Who can you hide from that little Jiujiu.

But. Cao Pi is now the king of Wei, and Cao Ren is not very easy to say even in private, so in the end he didn't say anything and retreated silently.

Zhang He In fact, Zhang He's ability is completely fine, and Cao Ren also believes it, so Cao Ren is not worried about the result of Zhang He leading his troops to rescue Longyou this time.

What Cao Ren was really worried about was whether Cao Pi was planning to overturn some of Cao Cao's tactics during his lifetime.

It doesn't matter if anything else, it doesn't matter what you're plotting with those big families, but this military power. If you don't grasp it in your own hands and hand it over to outsiders, can you really sleep?!

Outsiders with good relationships are just outsiders after all, and the Cao family is the real one of their own.

Cao Ren was a little worried, but soon, he didn't have to worry about these problems. Cao Pi aimed the spearhead at Cao Ren's younger brother, Cao Hong.

"Now that we have judged where the main force of the Shu army is, what is Cao Dudu of Chang'an doing now?!" Cao Pi suddenly asked, "Why hasn't a letter arrived yet?!" ”

When Cao Ren heard this, he immediately chuckled in his heart.

One thing to say, Cao Pi's question this time is indeed very reasonable.

You Cao Hong has 50,000 elites in the pass, and in the early days you said that you misjudged the main force of the Shu army and fought with Zhao Yun in the Bao Slope Road, which is also reasonable.

After all, everyone made mistakes at the time.

But now, Guo Huai's Liangzhou Corps has been defeated and retreated to Shangqi, are you Cao Hong still fighting with Zhao Yun on the slope of praise? !

Regarding this issue, in fact, Cao Ren knows the truth.

After Cao Hong received Guo Huai's report, he found that his strategic judgment was wrong, and he did not think about quickly solving Zhao Yun and Chen Dao on the opposite side, and then went west to support Guo Huai.

But Cao Hong had two things he couldn't think of.

The first one I didn't expect was that I couldn't imagine that Zhao Yun and Chen Zhi and the 10,000 Bai Yu soldiers they brought with them could fight so well.

With a five-to-one superiority in troops, Cao Hong still couldn't completely force these two people into the slope, and he couldn't use the advantage of the field battle to annihilate them.

These two chicken thieves were very close, so they shrank at the Bao slope crossing, and Cao Hong led the troops to attack, so he used the narrow terrain of the Bao slope crossing to fortify and hold on.

Cao Hong didn't think of a way, for example, pretending to be in a hurry to lead the troops westward, leaving some soldiers to guard the Bao Slope, and he himself took a large team of men and horses to temporarily retreat, as long as Zhao Yun and Chen Zhi came out, he immediately reflexively surrounded and killed the two.

But these two are as motionless as shrunken turtles. Cao Hong didn't dare to really leave like this, these two people, neither of them was easy to mess with, and the soldiers under his command were Liu Bei's personal guards Bai Yubing, if Cao Hong really left, God knows if they would directly send troops to praise the ramp crossing, defeat the guards they left behind, and then go straight to Chang'an.

Therefore, Cao Hong had no choice but to let Guo Huai hold on for a while, and wait until his side used the advantage of strength to solve Zhao Yun and Chen Zhi.

Then Cao Hong's second one came unexpectedly - he didn't expect that Guo Huai only supported it for less than half a month, and the entire Liangzhou army was left with 3,000 people trapped in Shangqi.

What do you want Cao Hong to do?!

(End of chapter)