In order to prepare for this Northern Expedition, Yongzhou's troop adjustment and grain and grass reserves had begun as early as March, and by this time, it was already seventy-seven, eighty-eight, and eight years old.

According to Zhuge Liang's arrangement, Zhang Xi had transferred most of the soldiers who had been in the army for many years and were well-trained to the Zuo Fengyi area, preparing to merge Tongguan in two months later to create momentum.

In the Youfufeng area, in addition to the original 5,000 county soldiers, the remaining 15,000 people are all newly recruited and newly trained county soldiers.

Youfufeng has the Wu Fort Group to assist in the defense, and in the plan of the next Northern Expedition, it is mainly to play the role of feints, and it is understandable that there are more recruits.

Moreover, although the newly trained county soldiers are inexperienced in battle formations, it does not mean that they lack ordnance and weapons, and their combat effectiveness is still there.

Therefore, in terms of the comparison of troops, it happened to form a more tacit situation with the direction of Cao Wei's main force this time, all of which were more troops on the left Feng Yi and less on the right.

In other words, in accordance with the requirements of the Northern Expedition, it is feasible to launch an active offensive in terms of troops.

However, if it is simply a defense, it is unrealistic to want to launch the Northern Expedition immediately in the short term after the confrontation between troops and grain and grass is consumed.

This was the first reason why Zhang Xi advocated launching the Northern Expedition ahead of schedule.

And the second reason is also in the deployment of troops.

Now there are 20,000 county soldiers in Chang'an, more than 15,000 county soldiers are distributed in various parts of Zuo Fengyi, and more than 30,000 people face Cao Wei's 50,000 soldiers.

Cao Wei must have known this comparison of forces through detailed intelligence, if he lures the enemy into in-depth combat at this time. That is, I really look down on the IQ of Cao Zhen and Wang Chang.

Luring the enemy deep is to bear the risk of Zuo Fengyi's area being completely destroyed, and Zuo Fengyi's area is still full of soldiers and generals in Tuntian District, and such a risky strategy is still to be carried out, Cao Zhen can be fooled, that is really stupid.

Therefore, Zhang Xi felt that in this case, the success rate of luring the enemy into the depth was already very low, so it was better to directly send troops to entangle Cao Wei's main army, and then wait until the northern army entered Guanzhong, and then launch a comprehensive counterattack, take advantage of the northern expedition, and counterattack Tongguan.

Zhuge Liang thought about it and decided to agree to Zhang Xi's suggestion.

This was done in a hasty manner from the standpoint of preparing for the Northern Expedition, and it was not fully prepared, but from the standpoint of defending Yongzhou and ensuring the progress of the Northern Expedition, it was indeed a more prudent approach.

After Zhuge Liang made a decision, Zhang Xi immediately ordered Liu Yin, who was on the right side of the wind, to let him rely on the right side of the wind and the Wu Fort Group, stick to the top, and not rush forward without an order.

Immediately afterwards, Zhuge Liang and Zhang Xi made a division of labor.

Zhuge Liang led 5,000 soldiers to stay in Chang'an to prevent Cao Wei's division from attacking Chang'an, while waiting for the Northern Army led by Wu Yi to enter Guanzhong, and then commanded the entire Northern Expedition in a unified manner.

Zhang Xi personally led 15,000 soldiers to Zuo Fengyi to support Wei Yan and others, who had already set off first, and entangled the main force of Cao Wei led by Cao Zhen.

The whole strategy was to adopt the strategy of defending on the right and attacking on the left, and to attack the outposts of the Northern Expedition in advance.

In this way, Zhang Xi led his troops out of Chang'an, and after seven days of rapid marching, he finally arrived at Chongquan County in the middle of Zuo Fengyi.

Cao Wei's advance speed is indeed fast enough, from the army out of Tongguan, all the way to the west, Lianke Huayin, Ruixiang, Wangcheng, Linjin and other seven counties, straight to Chongquan.

It was also at this time that Wei Yan, who had arrived in Chongquan in advance, had already received Zhang Xi's military order, understood the combat intention, and immediately deployed defense on the spot, moved closer to Chongquan with the combat troops of the four districts, established a defensive line in Chongquan, and waited for Zhang Xi to lead troops to come to help.

But. Something seems to be wrong.

According to Cao Wei's menacing posture, Wei Yan was actually ready to resist the siege of Cao Wei's 50,000 troops in Chongquan County with more than 10,000 soldiers, and hold on for at least ten days.

After all, it will take a certain amount of time for Zhang Xi to lead the troops to arrive, and if there are some accidents on the way, Wei Yan may need to hold on for a longer time.

To be honest, although the gap in strength is a little bigger, in Wei Yan's opinion, it is not too big, but it is only about three times the gap in strength, and the field attack may be unfavorable, but it is still very big to hold the defensive line and not give Cao Wei's whole army a breakthrough.

Of course, an uphill battle is inevitable.

However, the development of reality seems to be a little different from Wei Yan's expectations.

First of all, it was Cao Wei who showed a hesitant appearance after occupying Linjin County, and did not have the same momentum as when he attacked at the beginning.

The Wei army first stayed in Linjin County for three days, I don't know whether it was to rest or deliberately stay, but in any case, it always gave Wei Yan time to gather the troops scattered in the four major theaters.

In the next five days, the Wei army's offensive also seemed very sluggish, and in five days, it only pushed the battle line forward for more than 50 miles, occupied Dali County on the west side of Linjin, and then once again showed a stagnant posture.

It seems that the Wei army did not show a posture of rushing to advance.

What the specific reason was, Wei Yan didn't know, but Cao Wei's march was so slow, which also made Wei Yan breathe a sigh of relief.

After all, more than 10,000 against more than 50,000 is a fierce battle after all, and Wei Yan can't wait for Cao Wei's advance to be slow, so he can create enough time for Zhang Xi to lead troops to support him.

Of course, Wei Yan is not a fool, he will relax his vigilance when he sees Cao Wei's slow march, and Wei Yan still did all the countermeasures.

Not only did you send enough scouts out to collect intelligence, find out the movements of Cao Wei's army, prevent the Wei army from playing any tricks on you, and send partial divisions to cut off your own back road.

At the same time, Wei Yan himself was also actively strengthening the city defense in Chongquan County, hoarding grain and grass, inspecting the defense, and preparing for a long-term defense.

has been defending like this, until Zhang Xi led 15,000 reinforcements into Chongquan County, Cao Zhen's 50,000 army of Cao Wei was still 10,000 forward stationed in Dali County, and the main force of 40,000 was in Linjin County, without any posture of attacking westward.

It's been seven or eight days since they stopped attacking.

This is obvious, it is not in line with military common sense, and if you don't use the advantage of the early raid, is the Wei army waiting for the Han army to assemble, and then fight the Han army?!

Cao Wei is so sure that he can defeat 30,000 Han troops with 50,000 Wei troops?!

Or is it that Cao Zhen attaches great importance to martial virtues, and does not plan to win by sneak attack, but wants to fight with the Han army in Zuo Fengyi in a dignified manner? !

Well, that's a joke.

This kind of martial arts combat method was basically extinct as early as after Song Xianggong, if Cao Zhen had this brain, he would be able to make such a big name in the northwest region?!

Therefore, Zhang Xi and Wei Yan jointly judged that Cao Wei must have a plan.

But the question is, what is Cao Wei's scheme?!

Could it be that Cao Wei's troops on the opposite side are deceitful, and there are no 50,000 people at all, so Cao Wei is afraid that the Han army will see through it, so he would rather stop the march and bluff? !

Regarding this point, don't talk about Zhang Xi, in fact, Wei Yan has long been suspicious.

After all, it was Wei Yan, who did not discuss strategy and government affairs, but only military command and battlefield strategy, Wei Yanke was no worse than Zhang Xi, he had long suspected this, and sent scouts to conduct a detailed investigation.

Perhaps because of the time, the information obtained is not very accurate, but it is enough to show from some indications that the Wei army stationed near Linjin is a real 50,000 people.

There may be some discrepancies, but the difference will definitely not be more than 5,000 people.

From this point of view, the Linjin Wei army is not playing any bluff, nor is it a strategy such as attacking the east and the west, secretly Chen Cang, etc., they are really stationed in Linjin and do not attack forward easily.

But that's weird.

The Wei army suddenly attacked this time, and the momentum was huge, and all of a sudden the seven counties of Zuo Feng Yi were connected, and the troops were directed at Chang'an, and the entire Zuo Feng Yi had been mobilized. Why did you suddenly stop attacking?!

It can't be that Cao Zhen is afraid of Zhang Xi, for fear that Zhang Xi will copy his back road, so he fights steadily, right? !

This is a joke, if Zhang Xi wants to copy the back road, he must send troops from the right side of Fufeng and make a detour to attack Huayin, so that it is possible to cut off Cao Zhen's back road.

But in doing so, let's not talk about whether we can hide the eyes of Guo Huai, who has already left Wuguan Dao, let's talk about Huayin. Less than forty miles east of Huayin County is Tongguan, if Zhang Xi really leads the troops to appear, who is surrounding whom? !

Didn't he take the initiative to drill into Cao Wei's advantageous area?

Zhang Xi felt that no matter how stupid he was, he would not do such a thing.

Therefore, this possibility was also ruled out by Zhang Xi.

After discussing with Wei Yan for a long time and continuing to rule out some obviously impossible options, Zhang Xi came to a conclusion that Cao Wei's grain and grass supplement gave a serious problem.

This is the conclusion that Zhang Xi can draw in the current situation, and it is most likely to explain why the Wei army has stagnated.

Only the Wei army led by Cao Zhen had a serious shortage of logistics and grass, which would cause Cao Zhen to attack extremely quickly in the early stage, but he did not dare to continue to move forward in the later stage. Cao Zhen had to wait until supplies were in place before he had the confidence to launch a second round of offensive.

After all, more than 40 miles west of Tongguan, Zhangxi has been designated as a buffer zone, and the people in this area are very few, and the land is basically uncultivated, so it is not surprising that Cao Zhen cannot obtain grain and grass supplements on the spot.

As for the two relatively large counties of Huayin and Linjin, Cao Zhen was able to obtain a certain amount of provisions, but these supplies had to be supplied to 50,000 people, which was indeed a drop in the bucket.

This can also be understood, why Cao Zhen hesitated after entering Linjin County Linjin County is about more than 100 miles away from Tongguan, just enough to supply grain and grass for a march, if you don't rest in Linjin and wait for the second batch of supplies, then Cao Wei may indeed face a situation where there is no food available.

Thinking of this, Wei Yan immediately suggested that he personally lead 10,000 people to rush to Dali County and try to attack the vanguard of Cao Wei's former army.

If it can be defeated, it means that Cao Wei is indeed short of provisions, and Zhang Xi can immediately lead the rear army to follow, converge with Wei Yan, break the Linjin Wei army in one fell swoop, and even counterattack Tongguan.

If you can't beat it, then don't ask, it must be Cao Wei has other unexpected tricks, then Wei Yan will also see the opportunity to retreat and retreat to Chongquan to hold on.

Either way, you have to give it a try.

One thing to say, Wei Yan was already much more cautious than before, he was at least prepared for the possibility of a trap for the Wei army, and just asked to try to attack.

However, Zhang Xi still rejected Wei Yan's suggestion.

One is out of an abundance of caution.

There are only less than 30,000 troops in total, and they are more than enough to hold onto, and they are not enterprising enough, and then divide the troops without authorization, if there is any mistake, the disadvantage will be more obvious, which is not conducive to the next hold.

Another. If Cao Wei hadn't stopped moving forward because of supply problems, then Wei Yan's initiative to attack Dali this time was likely to be a trap.

Zhang Xi was also afraid that Wei Yan would have an accident at that time, and what should he do if he couldn't come back.

After all, Wei Yan is now an important sharp knife in the Northern Expedition, and he is also the Zhenxi general of the Han Dynasty, and his prestige in the army is now second only to Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun and Zhang Xi, and the top five famous generals in the army cannot be lost.

(End of chapter)