The Wei army in the direction of Mengjindu attacked with a strength of 70,000 or 80,000, while the Wei army in Gongxian was inferior in strength and had no need to hold on to help, which cannot but make people think more.

Zhuge Liang also once wondered if there was a problem with his prediction, the direction of the Wei army's attack was really not in the Tiger Pass, or Sima Yi really believed that his son had the ability to lead seventy or eighty thousand people to break through Mengjindu and attack Luoyang.

If that's the case, it's the right thing to do.

But. After Zhuge Liang seriously thought about it, he still felt that it was unlikely.

The first reason is still the old answer, Zhuge Liang doesn't think that Sima Yi will give the hope of a breakthrough to others, and he can make a feint for others with peace of mind.

Without him, it's just that Sima Yi is not at ease.

In recent years, Cao Wei's military talents have indeed withered very seriously, especially after the death of the older generation of famous generals, the generals of the young and middle-aged generations have not been able to rise in time.

And with Cao Zhen, after the few remaining talents of Cao Xiu's generation died of illness one after another, Cao Wei's military talents who could really take charge of themselves suddenly left two people.

One is Sima Yi, and the other is Guo Huai.

And Guo Huai's situation is very delicate, although he is capable, he is not favored by Cao Rong, so he has not been reused, and now he is only in Yingchuan County, responsible for assisting Chen Tai to guard Yingchuan.

On the Hedong side, there is only one Qin Lang, and one Sima Shi has some experience in battle formations, but you have to count on them to break through the defense of Mengjindu, and even break through Luoyang. Zhuge Liang could only say that if Sima Yi really thought so, he would underestimate himself too much.

On the other hand, in terms of strategic layout, although after breaking through Mengjindu, the Wei army could approach the north gate of Luoyang, but only a breakthrough along the way was not enough to form too much threat to Luoyang.

Luoyang is a fortified city after all, if Zhuge Liang directly called back the 30,000 people of Wei Yan's department after Mengjindu was broken through, and retreated to Luoyang with more than 40,000 troops, even if Sima Yi had 200,000 people besieged, Zhuge Liang was confident that he could hold Luoyang for a period of time and wait for the arrival of reinforcements.

Therefore, Zhuge Liang didn't think that Sima Yi would use such a straightforward and tough way to capture Luoyang, he should still want to disperse the Luoyang defenders as much as possible, and then personally lead the army to break through and take Luoyang directly.

And if it is for this purpose, it will not be of any benefit to Cao Wei to break through Mengjindu, on the contrary, it should be Sima Yi's ultimate goal to cause tension in Mengjindu and force him to divide his troops from Luoyang to rescue Mengjindu.

This can also explain why Sima Yi wants Wang Ling to stick to Gong County, as long as Gong County is not lost, he can still attract Wei Yan's troops and horses, if he gives up Gong County and retreats, Wei Yan's troops will definitely not be able to break forward to the Tiger Pass.

Therefore, Zhuge Liang judged that Sima Yi most likely wanted to use refueling tactics to support Gongxian, in exchange for Zhuge Liang using refueling tactics to send reinforcements to Mengjindu.

This is Zhuge Liang's judgment after thinking twice, but this judgment cannot help Zhuge Liang jump into the battle formation situation.

After all, he Sima Yi really added oil, and Zhuge Liang didn't have the strength to send enough reinforcements to Mengjindu.

Even if he knew that Mengjindu could not be easily lost, but if Yiyi and Huang Quan could not hold it and withdrew from Mengjindu, then the Wei army would obviously not let Mengjindu not occupy it. Mengjindu was lost, and many of the Northern Expedition strategies could not be carried out directly.

Therefore, Meng Jindu still has to be saved, but in the same way, he must also find a way to jump out of the battle formation situation created by Sima Yi and find a way to regain the initiative on the battlefield.

But, it's not easy.

After all, Cao Wei has been preparing for the plan to counterattack Luoyang for almost a year, and all the preset battlefields and strategic situations are planned around Luoyang, unless Zhuge Liang gives up Luoyang, or reopens the second battlefield, it is difficult to jump out of Sima Yi's strategic layout.

It is impossible to give up Luoyang, and to open up the second battlefield, Zhuge Liang does not have enough troops at hand.

After thinking about it, Zhuge Liang finally decided to send Wang Chang of Hongnong County to lead the troops to Mengjindu to rescue, and his own side divided Xiang Pet to lead 5,000 troops to Shouhan Guguan.

In view of the special terrain of Hangu Pass, before Xiang Pet left, Zhuge Liang repeatedly instructed Xiang Pet to pay attention to the river on the north side of Hangu Pass, and he must camp on the river as a precaution.

Doing so is actually tantamount to temporarily giving up the defense of Hongnong County and shrinking the troops to Luoyang.

As for Wei Yan, who was besieging Gongxian on the east side, Zhuge Liang ordered him to strengthen the attack, and be sure to continue to pose a threat to Gongxian, if he could, it was best to completely attack Gongxian before Sima Yi increased his troops in Gongxian.

Although Zhuge Liang also knew that this was unlikely, after all, the opponent was Sima Yi, and he should not give himself such a simple chance to break the game. But you always have to try.

Finally, Zhuge Liang sent a military envoy to Nanyang to inform Zhang Xi and Xu Shu Luoyang, who had gathered troops in Nanyang, of the current battle situation, if they could, Zhuge Liang hoped that they could complete the assembly as soon as possible and lead the troops to launch the Northern Expedition.

As long as the Northern Expedition officially began, after conquering Yingchuan County and entering Yanzhou, it was equivalent to opening up a second battlefield, and it was the second battlefield that forced Sima Yi to give up attacking Luoyang and return to the army to defend.

Zhuge Liang's thoughts, along with the military envoy's military report, were transmitted to Wancheng in Nanyang County.

Here, Zhang Xi and Xu Shu are gathering troops as soon as possible to prepare for various things in the Northern Expedition.

As soon as Zhuge Liang's military report arrived, Zhang Xi and Xu Shu quickly understood Zhuge Liang's strategic intentions after a brief discussion.

However, it is still somewhat difficult to launch the Northern Expedition immediately.

Today's Wancheng, only 120,000 soldiers and horses gathered.

The county soldiers of Xiangyang County and the three eastern counties of Jingzhou followed Zhang Xi to the north, and had arrived in Wancheng at this time, and the 50,000 county soldiers and 20,000 southern troops in Guanzhong also completed the assembly in Wancheng because they were not far away.

However, a total of 70,000 soldiers and horses in Qinzhou and Liangzhou were still on the way to assemble and did not arrive.

And the most important thing is that the soldiers who have now completed the assembly in Wancheng are all foot soldiers, and there is not a single cavalry.

If the Northern Expedition is launched in advance, this amount of troops may be enough to attack Yingchuan County, but if you want to enter Yanzhou or Hedong to fight, it is still very dangerous without cavalry.

Therefore, Zhang Xi and Xu Shu discussed whether to divide labor a little.

Xu Shu continued to wait in Wancheng for the large army to be assembled, especially the cavalry of Qinzhou and Liangzhou, and he must urge them to reach the front line as soon as possible.

Zhang Xi led 50,000 foot soldiers in advance to support Luoyang and avoid Luoyang from being in danger.

Zhang Xi pondered, he was going to divide his troops with Xu Shu anyway, Xu Shu's main attack direction was Yingchuan, and Zhang Xi was going to lead his troops to Hedong, and he would set off first, in fact, it would not affect the Northern Expedition.

Moreover, Zhang Xi led the infantry, the speed is slow, although the departure is a few days earlier, but the cavalry is fast, as long as you hurry up and follow, it may not take much time to come to Luoyang to converge. In this way, it can not only take into account the rescue of Luoyang, but also will not delay the Northern Expedition.

Xu Shu pondered for a while, and felt that at this stage, he could only use this method to deal with the emergency, so he agreed with Zhang Xi's approach.

In this way, Zhang Xi took 30,000 Dongjun soldiers and 20,000 southern troops to Luoyang in advance.

The commander of the unified army didn't need to ask, it must be Zhang Xi, and Zhang Xi, the general of the army, thought about it seriously and decided to bring Liu Yin, Meng Da, and Fu Wei.

The southern army has its own commander, Jiang Wei, Wen Qin, and Biqiu Jian are all in the army, and Zhang Xi does not need to worry about the problem of leading the generals, Zhang Xi is mainly responsible for the soldiers of the three eastern counties.

And the three eastern counties, in fact, the main commander is Kou Feng, Kou Feng is somewhat aggrieved and dissatisfied with Zhang Xi's choice of Meng Da for not choosing himself.

But, on the one hand, Kou Feng needs to stay and command the remaining 20,000 Xiangyang soldiers to fight with Xu Shu, on the other hand, if you really want to talk about it from a purely military point of view, Meng Da is much stronger than Kou Feng in terms of ability.

In addition, since Zhang Xi was entrusted by others and promised Li Yan, he would naturally fulfill his promise, so he brought Meng Da with him.

As for Liu Yin, there is nothing to say, he is not only Zhang Xi's old department, but also a general who is good at defending, and after the counterattack on Hanoi County, Zhang Xi also needs a good general to guard the Hanoi ferry and ensure his own back road.

And Fu Wei. Zhang Xi really didn't have any special intentions in choosing him, purely among the generals assembled in Nanyang now, Fu Wei came relatively early, and he was also the most capable one.

Compared with generals such as He Yangqun, Ding Li, and Li Fu, Zhang Xi must have chosen Fu Wei, who is more proficient in warfare.

In this way, after selecting the generals to lead the troops and reorganizing the military food and ordnance, Zhang Xi sent troops in advance and marched north to Luoyang five days after receiving Zhuge Liang's war report.

At about the same time, Sima Yi also gave up the practice of continuing to watch the battle at Tiger Wolf Pass, and led the troops to advance to support Gong County.

After all, Zhuge Liang's current defenders in Luoyang only have five thousand people. Fighters have already appeared.

(End of chapter)