Because Zhuge Liang divided 5,000 soldiers to Xiang Zhong and went to garrison Hangu Pass, now Zhuge Liang's defenders in Luoyang have indeed dropped a very dangerous 5,000 people.

Through the meticulous work of Great Wei in Luoyang, Sima Yi quickly learned the news, and at the same time, Sima Yi also realized that this may be his best opportunity to break through Luoyang in this counteroffensive.

Sima Yi knew that with Zhuge Liang's cautious style of using troops, he would definitely not give himself too much time and opportunity, and the defensive loopholes in Luoyang's insufficient troops would soon be filled by Zhuge Liang, so he must seize the opportunity and send troops immediately.

Moreover, in order to prevent Zhuge Liang from urgently recalling Wei Yan back to Luoyang, Sima Yi also had to make a posture of the main army going to Gongxian County to attract Wei Yan's attention.

At this time, in fact, Sima Yi had two choices.

One is to lead the 50,000 main forces to advance to Gongxian, break the 30,000 soldiers of Wei Yan's department head-on, and then march to Luoyang.

In this way, in the absence of other reinforcements in Luoyang, it is the safest and the most advantageous choice for yourself.

But alas, this is not possible.

In terms of Zhuge Liang's style of using troops, he dared to divide his troops, and he must have prepared enough reinforcements in advance, and from the geographical point of view, this reinforcement is either from Hongnong County or Nanyang County.

Sending troops from these two counties to Luoyang is only about ten to fifteen days.

Sima Yi felt that he probably didn't have time to go step by step, and then march slowly into Luoyang after defeating Wei Yan in Gongxian.

Therefore, after leading the troops less than forty miles away from the Tiger Prison Pass, Sima Yi immediately chose the second method of attacking Luoyang.

He divided 30,000 troops to Jia Kui, falsely flaunted his banner, and pretended to be 50,000 men to continue to advance to Gongxian to attract Wei Yan's attention.

He led 20,000 soldiers to bypass Gongxian, planning to surprise Luoyang and catch Zhuge Liang off guard.

Sima Yi's abacus played very well, and the route he chose was to first capture Guixian County in the south of Gongxian, and then directly attack the south gate of Luoyang through Yique Pass on the south side of Luoyang.

According to Sima Yi's prediction, no matter how careful Zhuge Liang is, his current attention should be on Gongxian on the east side and Mengjindu on the north side, and he will definitely not have too much defense against the south of Luoyang.

Bypassing Gongxian and attacking Guixian in the southeast of Luoyang and Yique Pass in the south, it should be very easy to capture.

This way, if the army goes smoothly, it may only take seven or eight days to reach Luoyang City, in order to be prepared for war, Sima Yi is at least sixty percent sure that he can rush to Luoyang before the arrival of Luoyang reinforcements.

In fact, this idea is not wrong, Zhuge Liang did not arrange too many troops to garrison in these two places, there are only 300 defenders in Guixian County, and there are only 500 guards in Yique Pass.

This led to Sima Yi's march into Guixian County very smoothly, and he won without a fight, and the county commander of Guixian County chose to surrender in the face of Sima Yi's siege of 20,000 soldiers.

But unfortunately, when Sima Yi led his troops to attack Yique Pass, he encountered trouble.

The Yique guard did not choose to surrender in such an obvious disadvantage, but warned Luoyang on the one hand, and prepared to defend to the death on the other.

Originally, this was nothing, a checkpoint built for tax collection, only 500 enemy guards, in front of Sima Yi, who had 20,000 soldiers, it was not worth mentioning at all, it only took three days at most, Sima Yi could break through this checkpoint and continue to march to Luoyang.

But it was in these three days that Sima Yi encountered an enemy he didn't expect at all.

Soldiers of the three eastern counties.

In other words, it was the soldiers of the three eastern counties led by Meng Da.

Yes, in a very short period of time, Meng Da sent timely reinforcements to Yique Pass, temporarily stabilizing the defense line south of Luoyang.

Historically, Meng Da, who was guarding the three eastern counties, did not expect the speed of Sima Yi's march at all, and was easily defeated by Sima Yi with insufficient preparation and lost his life.

But in this time and space, Sima Yi didn't expect Meng Da to come so quickly, causing him to be blocked in the south of Luoyang.

Meng Da actually led not many soldiers, only about 5,000 people, Sima Yi had 20,000 people, if he attacked hard, it was not impossible to break through Yique Pass.

Sima Yi didn't care about Meng Da at all, but Meng Da suddenly appeared on the periphery of Yique Pass at this time, which means that Luoyang's reinforcements are about to arrive, and it also means that his plan to attack Luoyang has completely failed.

Sima Yi is remorseful, he is really remorseful.

He knew that Zhuge Liang would not give him too much time, but how could it be so coincidental that he was blocked by someone when he attacked Yique Pass, and Sima Yi was really very unwilling.

How could this Mengda come so fast?!

From Nanyang County to Luoyang, it takes fifteen days to march normally, are these Shu thieves flying over with wings?!

Sima Yi couldn't figure it out, just like Meng Da couldn't figure out why Sima Yi could come so quickly in history.

In fact, Meng Da's quick arrival is actually the result of a combination of two reasons.

On the one hand, it is Sima Yi's own problem.

In his own detour to attack Luoyang, Sima Yi wanted to lead his troops around in a big circle to avoid the scout detection range of Wei Yan's army in Gongxian County, so it took a little more time.

In addition, the Yique Pass guard did not choose to surrender at the first time, but chose to defend to the death, and relied on a thousand defenders to hold it for a day, and also bought Meng Dalai an extra day for reinforcements.

On the other hand, in Mengda's own eagerness, at this special moment, instead of making a mistake, it played a key role.

From Wancheng to Luoyang, according to the normal marching speed, it will take about fifteen days. But it only took Meng Da seven days to lead 5,000 soldiers from the three eastern counties to Yique Pass.

Meng Da has been holding back for half his life, and finally with the help of his friend Li Yan, he got another chance to prove himself, so Meng Da has a very eager willingness to make meritorious contributions to this battle.

And this time Zhang Xi led the troops to support Luoyang, which was another opportunity to show his ability in front of Zhuge Liang, and Meng Da would not let it go.

Therefore, not long after Zhang Xi's army left Wancheng, Meng Da found Zhang Xi and put forward his own suggestions.

Meng Da thought that the battle ahead was tense, and after Luoyang was now divided, the defenders were seriously insufficient.

Although Meng Da also believes that with the ability of Prime Minister Zhuge and the courage of General Wei, Luoyang seems to be dangerous, but in fact it is as safe as Mount Tai. But there are some things, not afraid of 10,000, just in case.

What if Sima Yi bypasses Gongxian and chooses to attack Luoyang?!

What if Guo Huai and Chen Tai of Yingchuan County transferred troops north at this time and attacked Luoyang?!

At least judging from the current troop allocation, the defensive forces in the south of Luoyang are seriously insufficient.

Don't say anything else, let's just say that from Liangxian to Dagu, between the two passes of Yique, there are only a thousand old and weak remnants of soldiers guarding, this little force, really want to encounter the enemy's attack, can withstand a few days?!

Therefore, Meng Da suggested that the forward troops should be sent first, rushing to Yique and Dagu first, and increasing the defensive forces on the south side of Luoyang, just in case.

Meng Da's other words, Zhang Xi actually didn't care.

Let's not talk about whether Sima Yi will choose to make a detour to attack Luoyang, let's just say that Chen Tai and Guo Huai of Yingchuan will never be able to avoid the surveillance of Zhang Wei in Xiangcheng and Wang Ping in Jiaxian and lead their troops north to attack Luoyang.

But. The sentence "I'm not afraid of 10,000, I'm afraid of what if", can be regarded as Meng Da's accurate idea of using troops.

Zhang Xi pondered for a while, after all, the opponent was Sima Yi, and it was not impossible for the old boy to really choose to make a detour to attack Luoyang.

But the problem is that Zhang Xi took an army of 50,000 to the north to support Luoyang, and with such a large-scale troop deployment, even if he wanted to be fast, so many people couldn't get up quickly.

Therefore, we can only follow Meng Da's suggestion and send the vanguard troops first, at least to Dagu Pass and Yique Pass in advance, and strengthen the defense south of Luoyang.

It's just, who should be sent to this vanguard force?!

It stands to reason that it is best to hand over Meng Da's suggestion to Meng Da, but in view of Meng Da's criminal record, Zhang Xi is not very comfortable letting Meng Da do this now.

The opinion of this cargo is good, but if you want to say that this cargo leads the troops, it is impossible to say whether it will be a mistake all the way.

Therefore, Zhang Xi's first reaction was to ask Jiang Wei and the three of them if it was possible for the three of them to lead the southern army to take the first step and go to Dagu Pass and Yique Pass to set up defenses.

After all, the southern army is still guaranteed in terms of combat effectiveness, and after the battle of Yingchuan that year and the battle of Jingnan three years ago, the combat experience of the southern army has also been accumulated.

But. Meng Da repeatedly asked Ying, saying that he led 5,000 soldiers and horses from his headquarters to rush to Yique Pass to garrison within seven days.

Seven days said this, Jiang Wei and the three of them were a little dumbfounded.

Zhang Xi didn't believe it at first, from Nanyang County to Luoyang, it took about fifteen days to march normally, and it would be too child's play to arrive in seven days, even if it was just to Yique Pass.

But Meng Da and Zhang Xi repeatedly promised that if they couldn't do it, they could be punished as missed.

Failure to meet the deadline, in military law, is the most serious case of direct beheading.

This is equivalent to Meng Da personally making a "military order" in front of the generals in the army, and he will arrive at Yique Pass within seven days to set up defenses.

This kind of thing has been said, if Zhang Xi disagrees again, it will be a bit too embarrassing for Meng Da, and it is equivalent to directly denying Meng Da's ability in front of the generals in the army.

Since Zhang Xi decided to take Meng Da on the expedition, he naturally didn't bring this goods to mix up military merits, and when it was time for him to contribute, he still had to let him contribute.

Moreover, since you Meng Da have planted such a conspicuous banner, if you don't let it again, it will seem that you are too unkind.

Therefore, Zhang Xi could only agree to Meng Da's request and let him lead the 5,000 soldiers of the three eastern counties in his headquarters to rush to the aid of Yique Pass.

As for Dagu Pass, Zhang Xi handed it over to the Southern Army, and Wen Qin, the general of the Southern Army, led 5,000 people, also set off first to garrison Dagu Pass.

(End of chapter)