Wei Yan led three thousand rangers to set off to attack Tongguan.

The people who finally finalized this matter were Zhao Yun and Zhang Xi. There is no objection to it.

The reason is very simple, Wei Yan made such a promise, which means that he is going to defend Tongguan with his life. His will has been expressed, so what about Zhang Xi's will?!

How many days Tongguan can be defended does not depend entirely on Wei Yan's efforts alone.

Sneak attack to seize Tongguan and hold on for as long as possible is what to do, and Zhang Xi and Zhao Yun on the front must also make the same efforts to drag the main force of Cao Zhen's army near Linjin County as much as possible, and not give Cao Zhen the opportunity to divide his troops or even the whole army to return to Tongguan.

Now that Wei Yan has expressed his attitude, then you, Zhang Xi, as the assassin of Yongzhou and the vanguard general of the Third Northern Expedition, must also show your own attitude.

From the perspective of the operational deployment of the sneak attack on Tongguan, this is no longer the defense of Yongzhou, it can be said that it has officially entered the third Northern Expedition, and Zhang Xi needs to reflect his responsibility.

It was through this that Zhao Yun persuaded Zhang Xi to let Wei Yan take such a risk, of course, Zhao Yun did not forget to tell Wei Yan that if he can abide by the rules, if he can't keep it, don't force it, and if he can't do anything, he will evacuate Tongguan, and he must not be fatal.

There is no way, the big man is also short of talents, especially commander-type talents.

Among the Mesozoic generals of the Han Dynasty, only Zhang Xi and Wei Yan have the talent to command, and among the remaining generals, Guan Ping, Kou Feng, Wu Yi and others are already relatively outstanding, but they are more suitable as a general, rather than a commander.

By the way, for some reason, Li Yan and Meng Da were not in Zhao Yun's consideration.

As for the new generation, there are a few talents with commanderial talents, but they are all too young and still need actual combat experience, so here in the Mesozoic Generation, it still needs to last for a while.

Zhao Yun didn't want to lose a future military leader because of a single battle.

After sending Wei Yan away, Zhao Yun and Zhang Xi discussed it a little, and the two also began to send troops to attack Dali County.

Dali County is less than forty miles northeast of Chongquan County, and it is only about twenty miles away from Linjin.

Of course, at this time, Zhao Yun and Zhang Xi were not sure whether Cao Zhen would retreat to Linjin, but the risk of directly attacking Linjin was very high, so it was more secure to capture Dali County as a forward position first.

And there is another purpose for doing so.

Zhao Yun was waiting for the 20,000 Liangzhou army infantry led by Su Ze to arrive.

Just the few people at hand, if Cao Zhen really stayed in Linjin, then Zhang Xi and Zhao Yun would not dare to take the initiative to attack and provoke, and if they didn't do it, they might be beaten up.

But when the 20,000 Liangzhou troops led by Su Ze are in place, then the gap between the strength of the two sides will not be large, and at that time, they will have the confidence to stalemate and confront Cao Zhen's Sili army, and truly contain the main force of Cao Zhen's army.

According to the marching speed of the infantry, Zhao Yun estimated that the 20,000 infantry led by Su Ze would take about five days to reach the vicinity of Chongquan County, so even if he marched, Zhao Yun would not dare to run too far, and Dali County, northeast of Chongquan County, was a suitable place.

Again, Zhao Yun broke Niu Jin's cavalry outside Dali County, but did not take advantage of the situation to launch an attack on Dali County.

There is no way, the cavalry is really not good at attacking the city, and Zhao Yun is not to the point where he must let the cavalry dismount and attack the city, and Dali County is not a strategic place, so Zhao Yun has no intention of attacking Dali County, so he directly let Dali County go and went straight to Chongquan County.

When Cao Zhen retreated, the direction of retreat was also Linjin County in the southeast, not Dali County in the northeast. Today's Dali County may still be the same as before, with only a few hundred Wei army grain and grass transport teams stationed, and it is not difficult to attack.

Therefore, Zhang Xi left Zhang Yi behind and led 5,000 soldiers to continue to garrison Chongquan County to prevent Cao Zhen from killing a horse gun, and he himself led 10,000 foot soldiers, together with Zhao Yun's 5,000 cavalry, to capture Dali County.

This offense is just a formality.

Cao Zhen has basically given up Dali County, and the defenders in Dali County are only a few hundred people, how can they have the courage to continue to hold on in the face of a 15,000-foot cavalry coalition army.

Almost as soon as Zhang Xi led the troops to Dali County, Dali County opened the city and surrendered.

After that, Zhang Xi sent reconnaissance cavalry in the direction of Linjin County to reconnoiter the movements of Cao Zhen's main army, and he temporarily stationed in Dali County to wait for the arrival of the Liangzhou infantry.

What made Zhang Xi a little relieved was that Cao Zhen really chose to be stationed in Linjin and did not go all the way back to Tongguan.

What made Zhang Xi dare not be careless was that the marching speed of the Liangzhou infantry was a little slow, even if it was a rapid march, it was impossible to reach Dali County within three days, and Zhang Xi had to take a defensive position in Dali County with 15,000 cavalry troops, and did not dare to attack rashly.

As for Cao Zhen, on the one hand, Cao Zhen also needs to take a break from the retreating troops, on the other hand, Cao Zhen also thinks that Zhang Xi has made a plan, as long as Zhang Xi keeps up and is contained near Linjin by himself, he will be considered successful.

Therefore, Cao Zhen also chose to stand still for the time being.

In between, there was a short period of three to five days of calm.

Then, Cao Zhen couldn't sit still.

The rear reported urgently, Tongguan encountered a large number of Shu thieves and horses sneak attack, there is a possibility of losing at any time, Tongguan guards will ask Cao Zhen to quickly send troops to support.

When Cao Zhen received the news, he almost jumped out of his throat.

Immediately, Cao Zhen was nameless and annoyed!!

What did Cao Tai eat, what did Wang Chang eat, and what did the county commanders who occupied the county in the rear eat? !

How can a large number of Shu thieves touch Tongguan in their rear?!

What's even worse is that it will take at least two days for Cao Tai's urgent letter for help to be delivered to Linjin, that is to say, two days ago, the Shu thieves had already launched a sneak attack on Tongguan, and now Tongguan is still in his hands, Cao Zhen is not sure.

This made Cao Zhen not only annoyed, but also a little surprised.

First of all, according to Cao Tai's report for help, the strength of the Shu thieves to attack Tongguan was about 10,000 Cao Zhen really couldn't believe it, where did the Shu thieves get 10,000 people to attack Tongguan? !

Unless the Shu thief in Dali County is an empty shell, where can Zhang Xi draw so many people?!

Secondly, if it was really a 10,000-strong force to attack Tongguan, would the county commanders of the four counties in the rear be blind, and they wouldn't have noticed such a large-scale troop movement? !

Or are all these county orders collectively defecting?!

In the end, even if these county orders are all defected, what about Wang Chang?!

After retiring and returning to Linjin, Cao Zhen immediately gave Wang Chang 3,000 soldiers and asked him to lead the troops to guard Tongguan, calculate the time, Wang Chang should be almost near Tongguan, if the Shu thieves really have 10,000 troops, Wang Chang can't be unaware, and it is impossible for Cao Tai's letters for help to arrive, and he Wang Chang didn't even send back any information, right?!

Calming down a little, Cao Zhen combined Cao Tai's ability, personality, and his own reason, analyzed it a little, and came to a conclusion - it is impossible for the Shu thieves to have a force of 10,000 people, bypass such a large circle, and sneak attack Tongguan.

Therefore, the probability of Tongguan being attacked is true, but the strength of the troops, most likely Cao Tai, a fool, deliberately exaggerated in order to send reinforcements to save Tongguan as soon as possible.

Cao Zhen judged according to the information he learned about the Shu thieves, coupled with his own experience, that the Shu thieves who went to attack Tongguan were probably more than 5,000 people, and they couldn't hide the scouts and reconnaissance of the counties and Wang Chang in the rear, and the logistics supply would be quite difficult.

If it was only 5,000 people to attack Tongguan, Cao Zhen would be a little more relieved.

After all, there are still 3,000 soldiers guarding Tongguan, although Cao Tai's ability is a little worse, but Tongguan is such a strong pass, Cao Tai as long as he does not make stupid initiative to fight, with 3,000 people to resist the attack of 5,000 people, it is still more than enough.

And even if Cao Tai's ability is insufficient and his troops are not enough, Wang Chang has already brought 3,000 troops to support.

As long as Wang Chang can rush to Tongguan and smoothly enter Tongguan to preside over the defense, even if there are really 10,000 Shu thieves to sneak attack Tongguan, Tongguan will be safe and sound.

Thinking of this, Cao Zhen finally breathed a sigh of relief.

However, out of prudence, Cao Zhen still recruited Dai Ling and asked him to lead 5,000 troops to support Tongguan again.

After all, Tongguan is too important, not only related to the back road of the entire army, but also related to the safety of the Central Plains, which must not be easily lost.

Even if Cao Zhen felt that the Shu thieves did not have so many troops to attack Tongguan, from the perspective of cautious consideration, Cao Zhen would treat the Shu thieves as having 10,000 people to attack.

Let Dai Ling bring another 5,000 reinforcements over, and the total strength of Tongguan will be more than 10,000, if you can't hold it anymore, then really, don't come back, the three of them directly wiped their necks on the spot.

After making these arrangements, Cao Zhen relaxed a little and began to think about whether to attract the Shu thieves to take the initiative to attack from the front.

You guys have all made a detour to my rear to do something, if I don't react, how can I lure you to take the initiative to march to Linjin?!

Therefore, Cao Zhen thought about it for a while, ordered the whole army, and made the illusion that the whole army was assembled and was about to retreat.

At the same time, he asked Xizuo to spread rumors to Dali County, saying that Tongguan in the rear was in an emergency, and Cao Zhen planned to retreat with the whole army and return to defend Tongguan.

Then Zhang Xi really sent troops.

(End of chapter)