After retreating all the way, Cao Zhen and Guo Huai retreated for seven or eight days, and finally led the remnants of the army to retreat into Wuguan Road.

Retreating into Wuguan Road, it is relatively safe.

Wuguan Road is surrounded by mountains, and the geographical location is relatively narrow, if he Shu thieves dare to chase in, Cao Zhen and Guo Huai really dare to set up an ambush and get out of the vicious spirit of the battle in Guanzhong.

It's a pity that the Shu thieves are very cunning, and it is difficult to commit this kind of military common sense.

No matter what, Cao Zhen and Guo Huai were finally able to calm down a little and discuss what to do next.

It's not that the two of them retreated to Wuguan with the remnants of the army, even if they completed all the tasks, Guo Huai needed to stick to Wuguan to prevent Shu thieves from attacking Kouguan, and Cao Zhen also had to lead troops to rescue Wancheng.

But now, the two of them have more than 8,000 troops, including the lightly wounded.

With this amount of troops, you have to defend the Wuguan Pass and support Wancheng, you can't kill Cao Zhen.

But the edict of the Son of Heaven cannot but be implemented, and the importance of Wancheng cannot be seen with the strategic vision of the two.

Jingzhou's gateway to the Central Plains, one is Nanyang County and the other is Yingchuan County. Wancheng and Xuchang are two places that have to be fortified.

Therefore, Wancheng must be saved.

Cao Zhen pondered for a long time and discussed with Guo Huai - leaving 3,000 forbidden troops for Guo Huai, plus the 3,000 county soldiers who were originally stationed in Wuguan, a total of 6,000 people guarding Wuguan. And Cao Zhen himself led 5,000 forbidden troops, and then recruited 15,000 new soldiers to gallop to Wancheng in the starry night.

The distribution of the forbidden army at hand is not a problem, but this fifteen thousand recruits. Where did it come from?!

Cao Zhen's brain turned really fast - isn't there still more than 100,000 people who retreated from Guanzhong to Guanzhong.

Local conscription was won.

When Man Pet heard Cao Zhen's decision, he almost turned his back on it.

The emigration of Lao Tzu has already fallen into such a big infamy, you Cao Zhen still think my reputation is not stinky enough, right?!

These migrants have just entered the pass, and they are already in decline, and you still have to recruit troops to the battlefield. Aren't you afraid of stirring up a popular uprising?!

But Cao Zhen also has his own reasons.

First, His Majesty's edict must be obeyed, and you are not unaware of the strategic importance of Wancheng, and it is definitely impossible to let the Shu thieves enter the Central Plains. I don't recruit troops on the spot, what do I rely on to support Wancheng?!

Second, it is precisely because these people who have entered the customs have not been settled for a while, and it will take a certain amount of time to wait for the officials sent by the imperial court to settle down, so it is better to enlist in the army, at least have a military salary and rations, not to mention that they are hungry, and they can also reduce the burden on their families.

Well, what Cao Zhen said, you can't say that it doesn't make sense, but Man Chong still quarreled with Cao Zhen.

The reason is very simple, if you recruit soldiers, what you take away must be strong labor, without strong labor, what do these people in Guanzhong rely on to farm, and what do they rely on to settle down in Guanzhong?!

Is it up to the family, the young, the old and the women?!

In the final analysis, although this person is a cool official, he is not a person without a moral bottom line.

Since he moved these Guanzhong people into the Guanzhong, he always has a responsibility, even if he can't let these Guanzhong people get properly resettled, at least they can't even lose the pillars of their families, and they can't see the hope of life at all.

For this reason, Man Chong and Cao Zhen really quarreled, and the quarrel was also very strong.

But it's a pity that Cao Zhen is the governor of Yongliang after all, and his position is not a cut higher than that of Man Chong, and although Man Chong is an old minister of the two dynasties, the full favor of this time and space only has qualifications but no merits, and the confidence to speak is not enough after all.

When Cao Zhen raised the right to fake the festival, all the objections of Man Chong were invalid.

In this way, Cao Zhen recruited troops among the people who entered the customs, and within fifteen days, 15,000 new soldiers were recruited semi-voluntarily and semi-compulsorily, with 5,000 forbidden troops as the backbone, and immediately set off to support Wancheng.

And Wancheng at this moment, in fact, Sima Yi thinks that it is much better for Cao Zhen to come to help than not to come.

The reason is very simple, Sima Yi is really confident that with the 20,000 soldiers in his hands, he can defend Wancheng.

It's not that Sima Yi's military command ability is a cut above Zhang Liao, but it's because Sima Yi's luck is not ordinarily good.

In fact, if it weren't for Cao Pi's blind command, Zhang Liao would have relied on the three defensive lines from Wancheng to Deng County, even if he couldn't repel the Jingzhou Army for a while, it would not be a problem to hold the defensive line.

But Cao Pi was anxious and had to force Zhang Liao to go to the field to win, so Zhang Liao had to make a plan and go out of the city to fight alone. In the end, the entire Wancheng defense line was leaderless, which was the most critical factor in Wancheng's emergency.

And now, Cao Pi himself knows that he has done something wrong, and there is an old fox like Jia Xu by his side, and the relationship between Cao Pi and Sima Yi is not bad, anyway, in a short period of time, Cao Pi is unlikely to directly intervene in the war in Wancheng.

In addition, God also helped, and it snowed heavily for more than ten days at the end of December, plus the Shu thieves were always in Deng County, giving Sima Yi enough time to control the army, restore the morale of the army, and strengthen the city defense of Wancheng.

Everything was almost ready, and the Shu thieves arrived belatedly and launched an attack on Wancheng.

Sima Yi is a person, although he has been blown a little too much by the Book of Jin, but I still have to be sure that this person is also a rare military wizard.

The most critical point is that Sima Yi sees the situation very clearly and knows what he should and shouldn't do. In the current situation, don't expect to be able to repel these Jingzhou Shu thieves, it is already a very remarkable thing to be able to hold the defense line and ensure that Wancheng is not lost.

Therefore, Sima Yi's tactical thinking is only one - to defend to the death.

In terms of the geographical location of Wancheng, there is no possibility of a complete blockade.

The west side of Wancheng is Wuguan, and the north side is the hinterland of the Central Plains, these two places can provide reinforcements and grain and grass supplies to Wancheng at any time, and it is impossible for Shu thieves to trap Wancheng by besieging but not attacking.

In this case, it is not impossible to hold on to 20,000 against 90,000.

Don't think about other superfluous things, just stick to Wancheng, and don't believe that the Shu thieves can continue to stalemate like this.

With the size of the Great Wei, even if Nanyang County has been in a state of war, it will not affect other places.

But your army of 90,000 thieves has been besieging Wancheng. Not to mention whether grain and grass can be supplied, this year's spring plowing in Jingzhou will inevitably be greatly affected.

Sima Yi didn't believe that the Shu thieves could continue to attack like this, according to Sima Yi's estimate, these Shu thieves would fight to the death until April, and they would inevitably retreat.

If we continue to delay, Jingzhou will definitely fail to harvest this whole year.

The Shu thief has a thin foundation and can't withstand such a toss.

In fact, this is indeed what Guan Yu is most worried about.

The problem of grain and grass has always been the biggest problem for Guan Yu to attack Fancheng in the north.

It is true that Jingzhou is a grain-producing area, but most of Jingzhou's grain-producing areas are concentrated in the Jianghan Plain, that is, the area of Nanjun and Xiangyang, and the four counties of Jingnan, because of the limited grain production, the population size has not been able to rise.

And the area of Nanjun and Xiangyang has not stopped much in recent years.

Since Cao Cao went south in the thirteenth year of Jian'an, Jingzhou, which had been quiet for a long time, fell into war, and in the past ten years, Jingzhou has not lived in peace.

After Cao Cao's defeat and retreat, Nanjun fought a battle for Jiangling that lasted for nearly a year, and Liu Bei's group only stopped for two years after entering Jiangling, with Liu Bei entering Sichuan, Guan Yu stationed in Jiangling, Cao Wei sent troops from Xiangyang from time to time to attack Nanjun, more than ten large and small battle formations, on average, it was enough twice a year.

Obviously, this is Cao Wei's purpose, not to give Nanjun a chance to recuperate.

This kind of thing came to an end until Guan Yu gritted his teeth and launched the Battle of Xiangfan, conquered Xiangfan, and grasped the strategic initiative to go north.

It's a pity that Guan Yu, who finally grasped the strategic initiative, did not let Jingzhou stop for two years, with Liu Bei's Northern Expedition, Jingzhou prepared two major battles in five years, and now it is indeed quite tired.

Jingzhou really can't last long, and with the number of registered households in Jingzhou, it is not enough to support the 90,000 army to fight abroad all the year round, and the preparation of grain and grass is also seriously insufficient, Sima Yi estimates that it can last until April, in fact, it is not wrong at all.

Therefore, Guan Yu was indeed in a hurry to capture Wancheng and end this expedition as soon as possible.

But it's a pity that today's Jingzhou Legion, Guan Yu said it doesn't count.

It's not that Guan Yu was hollowed out and lost his right to speak. Guan Yu is now suffering from a recurrence of his old injury, he is sober for a while, and he is confused for a while, and he really can't lead the army to fight.

Although Du Du has arrived in Deng County to help Guan Yu regulate his body and control his condition, Du Du's field of expertise is really not Jinchuang recuperation, and it does not help Guan Yu's injury much.

In addition, Guan Yu himself is old, and his physical fitness is not as good as when he was young, but this time he was injured and injured his internal organs. Du Du could only try his best to help Guan Yu control his injuries, but he couldn't completely cure them.

Guan Yu can't personally lead the troops to attack, so according to the previous rules, Guan Ping has to go into battle in person.

But Guan Ping's ability, against Zhang Hu, he has the upper hand, and it is a little bit inadequate to meet Sima Lao Thief.

Not to mention Guan Ping, even Deng Ai at this time, when he met Sima Yi, he had to scratch his head.

This old turtle is too tightly guarded, and there is no flaw at all.

After all, the weather in Nanyang County was much warmer than that in Guanzhong, so when Guo Huai and Cao Zhen were still confronting Liu Bei's main force of the Northern Expeditionary Army in Youfufeng at the end of January, the snow on Wancheng's side was almost melting.

At this time, Guan Ping led the army to set off and arrived at the city of Wancheng, and it had been almost twenty days since he attacked Wancheng in a row.

In the past 20 days, Guan Ping and others discussed together and thought of all the ideas they could think of.

From the conventional use of troops to suppress people and persuade them to surrender, to luring the enemy to divide the troops, and finally using tricks to open the city gates, all the methods that can be thought of have been used.

It's a pity that Sima Yi is an old turtle and is not fooled at all.

The army pressed the border and sent Sima Yi to persuade him to surrender, but the result was that Sima Yi put on a loyal and patriotic style, which not only showed his loyalty to Cao Pi, but also greatly improved the morale of the army. Pay for one's whistle.

Sent soldiers to pretend to be Wuguan guards, pretending that Shu thieves detoured westward to attack Wuguan, Wuguan was in a hurry, and wanted to lure Sima Yi to send troops to rescue, but Sima Yi just stood still and couldn't kill Wancheng.

In the end, Deng Ai came up with an idea, and personally led thousands of people, pretending to be reinforcements sent by Wang Ling of Xuchang, and wanted to deceive the gate of Wancheng, if it wasn't for Deng Ai's force value, he was also clever enough, and he saw the opportunity quickly, and it was very likely that he would be deceived by Sima Yi into the urn city and shot directly.

In the end, Deng Ai gritted his teeth, stomped his feet and said that it was really not good, so he gave him thousands of soldiers and horses, he learned from his father-in-law, went deep behind the enemy, and also came to the north of the road.

As soon as Xu Shu heard this, he hurriedly stopped your father-in-law, it was the North Road, you go, it would be pure death.

(End of chapter)