Cao Zhen had 30,000 soldiers in his hands, and according to the news transmitted by Cao Wei Xizuo of Hongnong County across the river, the Shu army under Wang Chang was probably only about 14,000 people, and he had to divide his troops to guard the various key cities leading to Luoyang.

At least in terms of crossing the river, Cao Zhen felt that he still had an absolute advantage.

Although it can also be expected that this is a bitter battle, Wang Chang will inevitably mobilize heavy troops to defend the ferry, but Cao Zhen feels that he has a military advantage in his hands, and the defense facilities of Hongnong Ferry are not too strong, and there is still hope for a hard fight.

Then Cao Zhen crossed the river successfully.

It's really not that Cao Zhen's command ability has reached the point of crushing Wang Chang, nor is it that Wang Chang is deliberately not contributing to his work. The real reason is that Wang Chang took the initiative to abandon the Hongnong Ferry and concentrated his troops in the area of Mianchi and Xin'an.

From Hongnong to Henan County, there is only one avenue, and if Cao Zhen wants to lead a large army to attack Luoyang, he must take this avenue, and there is no second choice at all.

Therefore, Wang Chang felt that instead of using inferior forces to fight a war of attrition with Cao Zhen at the ferry, it was better to take the initiative to retreat and take advantage of the city defense advantages of various counties on this avenue to fight a defensive battle with Cao Zhen.

In this way, with the strength at hand of Wang Chang, it is not impossible to contain Cao Zhen's 30,000 horses.

And the reason why he did not start to block Cao Zhen's army in Shaanxi County, which was closer to the Yellow River, was also deliberately done by Wang Chang.

In Shaanxi County, Cao Zhen's army was blocked, Cao Zhen was backed by the Yellow River, and the Yellow River waterway was used to transport logistics supplies and baggage, and Wang Chang had no way at all.

It is better to take the initiative to shrink the troops, fortify in Michi, and take the initiative to lengthen Cao Zhen's logistics supply line, so that there will be more things that can be done.

But no matter what, Cao Zhen finally led 30,000 soldiers from Bingzhou County to capture Shaanxi County, and won the first victory since this counterattack on Heluo.

But Cao really couldn't be happy.

Everyone is a general who has been leading the army for many years, what is Wang Chang calculating, it is impossible for a commander of Cao Zhen's level not to know.

And Cao Zhen was depressed that he still had to follow the strategic line set by Wang Chang, because he had no other choice.

The feeling that the initiative on the battlefield is not in your own hands is really unpleasant.

But the situation is like this, Cao Zhen can't stand still in Shaanxi County, he must march east as soon as possible, attack Luoyang, cooperate with Sima Yi east of Luoyang, and form a situation of encirclement of Luoyang.

It must also be on the head.

For this reason, Cao Zhen led his troops straight to Mianchi County, where he and Wang Chang fought an offensive and defensive battle.

Although Cao Zhen had the advantage of troops, Wang Chang also had the advantage of defending the city.

What the final outcome will be is unknown for the time being, but for a while, Cao Zhen's momentum of marching was also blocked by Wang Chang to the west of Mianchi.

At this time, Zhuge Liang, who was sitting in Luoyang, and Sima Yi, who was attacking Gongxian, had already noticed that the battle in Heluo had reached a stalemate, but both of them were also not too worried, because both of them had a backhand.

Sima Yi's followers were the Yanzhou County soldiers led by Jia Kui.

As long as Jia Kui's Yanzhou County soldiers can come to the aid in time and re-establish their military superiority in Gong County, Sima Yi believes that Deng Ai and Wang Ping in front of him will not be able to stop him for too long.

And Zhuge Liang's backhand is also a reinforcement, he is waiting for the Guanzhong soldiers led by Liu Yin and the Hanzhong soldiers led by Wu Yi to rush to Heluo.

As long as these two armies enter the pass and threaten Yingchuan County, or cooperate with Wang Chang to encircle and annihilate Cao Zhen's troops, once they break through, then the situation on the battlefield will inevitably be reversed, and Sima Yi has no second choice except to retreat to the Tiger Pass.

Both men were waiting, waiting for their backhand variables to arrive.

Relatively speaking, Sima Yi's backhand variable is closer, Yanzhou is next door to Henan County, and Jia Kui only needs to complete the assembly of troops, and the support route is much closer than Liu Yin, Wu Yi and others.

However, the Yanzhou soldiers also had a problem, that is, in order to prevent the Eastern Wu from rebelling, the speed of gathering troops had been very slow.

On the contrary, although Zhuge Liang's side needs to transfer troops through Chengdu, there are twists and turns endorsed by Zhuge Liang and Zhang Fei personally, and it is just a process within the Han court, and the speed of Zhuge Liang's transfer of troops is much faster than that of Yanzhou County soldiers.

This is also the reason why Sima Yi sent troops without authorization and took the initiative to attack - if he waits any longer, I am afraid that the reinforcements of his Shu thieves will arrive in Heluo one step ahead of the Yanzhou soldiers of Great Wei.

Sima Yi rushed to attack, the purpose was to interrupt Zhuge Liang's deployment to adjust the speed and buy time for himself.

And judging from the current situation, Sima Yi is still very effective in doing this.

As Sima Yi took the initiative to send troops and started the Heluo counteroffensive in advance, the withdrawal speed of the Eastern Wu side in the Huainan area immediately became much faster.

Obviously, Eastern Wu was waiting for Cao Wei to make the first move to attract the attention of the Shu thieves, so that they could safely transfer troops east to attack Jingzhou. Now that the goal has been achieved, the pace of the natural withdrawal of troops has also become faster.

And with the large number of troops transferred by Eastern Wu in Huainan to the east into Jiangxia County, Jia Kui on the Yanzhou side suddenly felt a lot less pressure, and now he can also send a large number of soldiers to assemble in Chenliu County, after gathering 30,000 reinforcements, Jia Kui did not wait for the follow-up troops to assemble, and personally led the army to help Sima Yi who fought in Gong County.

Cao Wei's reinforcements finally arrived at the Heluo battlefield earlier than the Han army's reinforcements.

Faced with such a change in the battlefield, Zhuge Liang sighed. Launch the second option.

Zhuge Liang immediately ordered Deng Ai not to continue to confront and entangle Sima Yi in Gongxian County, and the whole army retreated to Luoyang to hold on, not to give Sima Yi a chance to encircle and break through.

At the same time, Zhuge Liang ordered Wang Ping, who was on the flank, to take the initiative to develop south, assemble in the direction of Yingchuan County, without returning to Luoyang, and strive to enter the western area of Yingshui as soon as possible, and follow Zhang Wei in Xiangcheng to get logistics supplies from the direction of Nanyang, and stand by in place.

In terms of Mengjindu, Zhuge Liang also ordered Huang Quan to lead the navy ashore, converge more than 10,000 soldiers and horses of the Xiang Pet Department, abandon Mengjindu, return to Luoyang, and let the soldiers and horses of Cao Wei Hanoi County cross the river.

Only in Hongnong County, Zhuge Liang gave Wang Chang a certain degree of autonomy, and let him judge for himself whether he could hold Hongnong If he couldn't hold it, he could resist step by step, but the final bottom line was that he must defend Hangu Pass and prevent Cao Zhen's army from entering Henan County.

In other words, Zhuge Liang's strategy now is to shrink his defense and defend Luoyang with all his might.

And this cope. Sima Yi was a little confused.

It cannot be said that it is a wrong decision to shrink to guard Luoyang, but Zhuge Liang's contraction timing is inevitably too early, and the magnitude of this shrinkage of troops is inevitably too large.

This is equivalent to the two sides just trying to fight on the battlefield a little, Zhuge Liang will shrink the whole army, if Zhuge Liang has this ability, he should not have lost Luoyang so easily.

Therefore, Sima Yi was a little hesitant, and he couldn't make up his mind whether he should immediately march into the army and surround Luoyang.

The speed of the march was a bit slow, so slow that Xiahou Ba couldn't stand it.

"Now that the Shu thieves are invincible and retreating, and the whole army is shrinking back to defend Luoyang, why are the generals hesitating when we wait for the army to press the border?!"

Xiahou Ba directly questioned Sima Yi at the military meeting.

Xiahou Ba really can't understand it.

The Shu thieves in the front have fled all the way back to Luoyang, and the Shu thieves in the south have withdrawn into Yingchuan County, although they have increased the defensive burden of Yingchuan County, but they have also cut off the possibility of returning to Luoyang, and Mengjindu in the north also has a military report, the soldiers of Hanoi County have completed the assembly of crossing the river, and are advancing in the direction of Luoyang.

When you were about to take the initiative, you Sima Yi didn't say that to me, did you?!

Sima Yi was also embarrassed, he was really not easy to answer this question.

It was Wang Ling who stood up and said something for Sima Yi.

"The young general doesn't know that Zhuge Liang is resourceful, and now the situation of the thieves in Shu has not collapsed, but he withdrew his troops so easily to defend Luoyang, which may be deceitful."

Wang Ling is also a person who has experienced the four wars at the beginning, and he has a certain understanding of Zhuge Liang and Zhang Xi, not to mention Sima Yi, anyway, he Wang Ling is basically restrained by his nose all the way, and there is no choice at all.

Therefore, Wang Ling still approves of Sima Yi's current approach, Zhuge Liang retreated too quickly, if you want to say that there is nothing boring, Wang Ling is the first to believe it.

But this statement, although it can't be said to be unreasonable, is somewhat unconvincing in front of Xiahouba.

Xiahou Ba's ability is indeed the strongest in Xiahou Yuan's lineage, and if he exercises more in the future, he is also a candidate for a general. But not now.

The current Xiahou Ba has not experienced too much battlefield baptism, nor does he have too much experience in battle formations, and all his abilities come from the military books he reads and learns on weekdays, so he really can't understand where the reason for suspending the army is based on just a guess.

Even, Jia Kui, who doesn't know much about Zhuge Liang, doesn't understand this very well.

"Even though Zhuge Liang is resourceful, there is no place for Zhuge Liang to use it in this situation. If you hesitate, you may be in trouble. ”

Jia Kui also expressed his opinion.

Jia Kui does not lack strategy, nor does he lack battlefield experience, but judging from the current situation, Jia Kui really can't see that Zhuge Liang has that kind of room for manoeuvre.

Mengjindu, Gongxian is very close to Luoyang, retreating into Luoyang after withdrawing the army, it is the most normal choice, the Great Wei army is surrounded by Luoyang, and there is no risk of lengthening the supply line and increasing the logistical pressure.

On the Yingchuan County side, Chen Tai is not enterprising enough, but he has more than enough defense, and the Yingchuan family also has a practical need to protect their own interests.

In addition, Guo Huai's department in Runan County has not been mobilized, even if Wang Ping's department retreats into Yingchuan and joins forces with Zhang Wei in Xiangcheng to attack Xuchang, Guo Huai can also reinforce at any time.

This also cut off the possibility of Shu thieves entering the hinterland of Yanzhou by capturing Xuchang.

Judging from the current situation, Jia Kui really can't see any reason to hesitate.

In fact, Sima Yi couldn't see it, he just subconsciously felt that this thing was quite weird.

However, to fight with troops, you can't completely rely on your own feeling situation, the battlefield situation is now extremely favorable to Great Wei, plus the approval of Xiahou Ba, Jia Kui and others, then enter the army.

Besiege the city of Luoyang.

(End of chapter)