Jiang Wan was ordered to lead 3,000 county soldiers out of the city, and his purpose was really not to go to Huaili County to encircle and suppress Guo Huai.

Zhuge Liang gave Jiang Wan the task of letting him choose an opportunity to sneak attack the Youfufeng fortress group occupied by the Wei army, cut off the logistics supply and retreat route of the Wei army, and block Guo Huai's withdrawal.

Zhuge Liang is not a god in the end, and he is not on the front line, he does not understand the actual situation on the front line, he really did not expect that because of the urging of his two letters, Wu Yi would only take 8,000 people to rescue Huaili, resulting in a time difference between Guo Huai outside the city of Huaili.

In Zhuge Liang's expectation, when Wu Yi led 30,000 northern troops to Huaili, he didn't even need Liu Yin to go out of the city to help in the battle, and Wu Yi himself could rely on the well-trained northern army over the years to completely defeat Guo Huai's troops.

Once Guo Huai's army is defeated, it will inevitably choose to retreat to Wuguan, and if you want to retreat to Wuguan, you must first pass through the fortress group of Youfufeng.

Therefore, Zhuge Liang fought for the risk of instability in Chang'an, gritted his teeth and gave Jiang Wan 3,000 people, asking him to block Guo Huaijun's back road.

Originally, Jiang Wan was indeed executed according to this army, and after he led 3,000 people to leave Chang'an, he went straight to the right Fufeng fortress group.

However, there is still a problem.

Today's east side of Chang'an, whether it is Zuo Feng Yi or Right Fufeng, nominally, it is already the territory of the Wei army, you can't expect the county commanders east of Chang'an to be Liu Yin, some of these people are still holding on, but most of the county seats, in the face of the Wei army's attack, most of them chose to surrender.

This is the law of life preservation in troubled times, and even Zhuge Liang can't blame these county orders.

What Jiang Wan had to do was to lead his troops through these county towns before he could reach the fortress group of Youfufeng.

An army of 3,000 people is much more flexible in command than an army of tens of thousands, and it is more suitable for infiltration and crossing operations, but . Three thousand, after all, is not a minority.

Jiang Wan is a sneak attack again, and it is necessary to pursue speed and secrecy, so it is impossible for him to carry a heavy grain and grass team, and it is impossible for him to make up for the county towns along the way.

Therefore, in this sneak attack, Jiang Wan asked the soldiers to carry fifteen days' rations each, set off from Chang'an City, and waited until the Youfufeng fortress group was laid, and then rested and replenished.

To tell the truth, this is a bit risky, after all, the distance between Chang'an and the Youfufeng fortress group is not close, and the normal march will take at least seven or eight days, not to mention that Jiang Wan sometimes has to take a detour away from some county towns in order to ensure the secrecy of the march, which takes longer.

And if the fortress group cannot be defeated in the remaining time, then Jiang Wan's 3,000 soldiers will be at risk of running out of food.

And the truth is much more serious than Jiang Wan expected.

Originally, Jiang Wan and Zhuge Liang had expected that this time they would encounter some difficulties and waste time by sending troops to cut off the enemy's rear route, and they would need to make a detour to waste time, so out of prudence, both of them felt that the soldiers could carry more rations to deal with the unexpected trouble.

But. Individual soldiers are limited in their loads, and the soldiers need to carry enough ordnance and armor and rations, the limit is fifteen days, and the rest can only be supplied on the spot or transported from Chang'an.

But Jiang Wan did not have this condition, he could only take these soldiers and set off with fifteen days of grain and grass.

Along the way, Jiang Wan was also trying to plan the march route, bypassing the county seats, shortening the distance to the fortress group as much as possible, if everything went according to Jiang Wan's expectations, then it would take seven to eight days at most, Jiang Wan would be able to reach the fortress group and launch a surprise attack.

Can. Things didn't go exactly as Jiang Wan expected.

Still close to Chang'an, Jiang Wan's march was going well, almost in a straight line towards the goal.

But the farther away from Chang'an, the less familiar Jiang Wan became with the place, and he couldn't determine how many of the counties he passed along the way had surrendered to the Wei army, or whether there were any scouts from the Wei army along the way.

Therefore, Jiang Wan had to be cautious, preferring to make more detours than let the Wei army notice his movements.

The march took a little longer, but Jiang Wan only took one more day, and he arrived safely near the county town closest to the fortress group.

And at this time, the biggest trouble appeared.

The Wei army's defense of the Youfufeng fortress group was not careless.

When Jiang Wan arrived at the fortress group, he did not launch a direct attack stupidly, but sent scout scouts to give priority to the defense focus and the number of defenders in the fortress group.

Anyway, he is also a general of Ji Han in history, although he is still immature and lacks experience in leading the army, but Jiang Wan still knows the basic military knowledge.

Then Jiang Wan learned that Guo Huai was in the fortress group, leaving 2,000 soldiers to defend.

What is even worse is that this 2,000-strong force is not evenly distributed in more than 50 fortress groups, and Guo Huai's use of defensive measures is to use heavy troops in the outer fortress groups, and only a small number of troops are stationed in the fortress groups near the direction of Wuguan, so as to ensure the smooth flow of logistics and supply channels.

This means that the fortress groups on Jiang Wan's side, each fortress has at least 100 Wei troops, and they can support each other and respond to each other.

Jiang Wan, who is engaged in this hand, is quite big.

Jiang Wan actually knows the best about the power of the fortress group, after all, when he planned to build this fortress group, it cost money to design it with Liu Yin, Jiang Wan, as the chief housekeeper, must see if the money is worth it.

It can be said that Jiang Wan actually knows a lot about the fortress group, but in the same way, Jiang Wan also knows that with the 3,000 people he has at hand, even if he can occupy individual fortress groups through sneak attacks, he may not be able to block the next Wei army's joint counterattack, let alone play a role in cutting off Guo Huai's back road.

At the beginning, in order to break through the defense of this fortress group, Guo Huai invested 20,000 cavalry at one time, used the mobility of the cavalry to cut off the connection of the fortress group, and then used infantry to break through each one. Jiang Wan had 3,000 people, not a single cavalryman, and he did not have the conditions to reproduce Guo Huai's tactics.

Therefore, Jiang Wan struggled and calculated in his heart for a long time, and finally came to the conclusion that the operation of sneak attack on the fortress group was basically impossible to achieve.

Well, in that case, let's go ahead with the second plan!!

Since Jiang Wan was sent out to sneak attack the rear and cut off Guo Huai's retreat, Zhuge Liang would definitely not prepare just one plan, nor would he not fail to take into account the situation that if Jiang Wan attacked the fortress group unfavorably, resulting in a lack of food or Guo Huai sending troops to help.

So, in fact, there is a side plan.

If Jiang Wan judged that he could not sneak attack and conquer the fortress group according to the actual situation, or if the attack was unfavorable, then he should not continue to entangle with the fortress group, and could choose to advance west and capture Lantian County.

Although this will not be able to completely block Guo Huaijun's back road, it can at least be regarded as burying a nail in Guo Huaijun's retreat road, if Guo Huai chooses to retreat on the official road, it will inevitably run into Lantian County.

Of course, if Guo Huai retreated by a small road, it would be meaningless even if he took Lantian County.

Guanzhong is a large plain, and Youfufeng is an area that was developed relatively early, although there are only one or two major roads, but there are too many small roads.

It is the safest to take the fortress group and block the passage to Wuguan Road, but if you can't take the fortress group, you can only retreat to seize Lantian County, and gamble that Guo Huai will retreat from the main road.

According to the scout's report, the Cao Wei garrison in Lantian County only had 500 people, and the county order of Lantian County was still the county order of Lantian County appointed by the original Han Dynasty, and Guo Huai did not have time to change the appointment.

This gave Jiang Wan the opportunity to fight in a fight.

Jiang Wan ordered the whole army to turn around and go straight to Lantian County, fifty miles behind him, and after a day and a half of marching, Jiang Wan arrived at the foot of Lantian City.

Without making any adjustments, Jiang Wan ordered the whole army to line up, led the troops to the city gate, personally called the battle, and invited the Lantian County guard, that is, the Lantian County Lingwangge, to talk.

Yes, Jiang Wan didn't want to attack directly by force.

Attacking a city defended by 500 men with 3,000 men, if the defenders are determined to defend it, 3,000 men may not be able to attack it in a short time.

Of course, the most important thing is that the 3,000 soldiers led by Jiang Wan have not much rations left, and they can't afford to delay the consumption of time.

Moreover, according to the Art of War, if you are really forced to fight a siege battle, that is the next step.

Jiang Wan obviously didn't want to adopt such a strategy, so he wanted to use his eloquence to persuade the defenders of Lantian County to surrender.

It is the best policy to surrender the army without a fight.

(End of chapter)