Sima Yi withdrew his troops from Luoyang, hurried all the way, and finally arrived at Yanling with 45,000 soldiers, successfully blocking the attacking troops led by Xu Shu.

And Xu Shu, after settling the pacification of Yingchuan County, also went to the front line of Yanling to direct the operation of attacking Yanling and opening the passage to Yanzhou.

The two sides set up a position under Yanling City.

This was a general battle, the Ji Han side with Xu Shu as the main commander, gathered about 150,000 troops to attack Yanling, and Sima Yi's side, including Chen Tai, Guo Huai and others who held in Yanling City, also had nearly 100,000 troops.

A large-scale battle of nearly 250,000 soldiers could not be a simple battle of attack and defense of the city.

Besides, there are not so many people in Yanling City.

This was actually a large-scale battle with Yanling City as the center and the surrounding counties as the peripheral battlefield.

Xu Shu took the lead in seeking change, and still used Jiang Xu and Kou Feng as the commanders of the two route armies, and divided the troops to attack.

Jiang Xu's soldiers and horses are still the old configuration, Wang Ping's 10,000 Wudang Fei Army is the front, supplemented by the Qinzhou County soldiers led by Jiang Xu, and the north attacks Wei County, which is located in Chenliu County, while Kou Feng uses 20,000 Xiangyang County soldiers, supplemented by 10,000 Guanzhong County soldiers led by Biqiu Jian, to attack Fugou County south of Yanling.

Seek a breakthrough on both flanks, then take a detour to outflank Yan Ling's back road and besiege Sima Yi.

And Xu Shu himself led the 80,000 Guanzhong and Nanyang coalition forces, with Zhang Wei as the vanguard of the front, and confronted the main force of Yanzhou County soldiers led by Sima Yi in Yanling.

Xu Shu's method of dividing troops is not a new or clever tactic, with Sima Yi's vision, he can naturally see through Xu Shu's purpose at a glance - to induce his own division of troops.

It's just that although this tactic is not clever, Sima Yi really can't ignore it.

Whether it is the loss of Weixian County or the loss of Fugou County, the Shu army can outflank Yan Ling and cut off the retreat of Sima Yi's army, so in these two places, even if Sima Yi knows Xu Shu's purpose, he has to follow Xu Shu's plan.

There is no way, this is the strength of the troops, and now Sima Yi's troops are not as good as Xu Shu, so he has to be led by Xu Shu.

Moreover, what is even worse is that in addition to these two conventional marches, Xu Shu also sent another killing move - sent 20,000 Liangzhou cavalry led by Pang De to enter from Chen State in the south, and along the line of Chen State, plundered the three southern counties of Yanzhou.

The purpose is to use the raiding of cavalry to create chaos in Yanzhou, and once the rear falls into chaos, the Yanzhou soldiers in front will also be demoralized and have no intention of fighting.

This hand is the most difficult and unavoidable for Sima Yi at present.

As we all know, the only thing that can contain the cavalry is the cavalry. In a plain area like Yanzhou, the infantry was powerless to compete with the cavalry.

Therefore, Sima Yi had no choice but to order the Jizhou Cavalry Regiment, which was originally stationed in Taishan County, to go south to intercept the Liangzhou cavalry led by Pang De. As for the infantry, Sima Yi didn't send one, after all, it was useless to send one, and he couldn't beat it at all.

In addition, although the cavalry is very destructive, it is not good at attacking cities. As long as the city is not broken, then Sima Yi can reluctantly explain the past in front of the Son of Heaven.

Cavalry, in the end, still have to be handed over to the cavalry to deal with.

It's just that it will take a certain amount of time for the Jizhou cavalry to go south, and the losses during this time. Sima Yi estimated that his own protector was afraid that he would come to talk to him again.

Hawkers, anyway, now that Sima Yi has gradually gotten used to people like Cao Shuang, you can't take care of him, the more you take him, the more he takes himself.

Just ignore him.

In this way, Sima Yi supported the defense of Weixian and Fugou County in time through his own adjustment, and personally led the troops to Yanling, blocking the front lines of both sides of Xu Shu, and was finally reluctantly maintained by Sima Yi.

Although on the whole, the Wei army is still at a disadvantage, but at least it is not as before, Yanling is in danger, and Yanzhou will not be protected at any time.

It's just that this situation didn't last too long.

Shortly after Sima Yi led his troops to Yanling, he suddenly received a military report from Wang Ling that Zhuge Liang, who was in Luoyang, suddenly led more than 10,000 Luoyang defenders to advance to Gongxian and join the Han army led by Wei Yan.

Then, Zhuge Liang stayed in Gongxian and did not leave.

Zhuge Liang's stay suddenly put a lot of pressure on Wang Ling. Wang Ling judged that Zhuge Liang suddenly led his troops forward, obviously to put pressure on the Tiger Prison Pass, contain the Wei army in the east of Yanzhou, and create conditions for the Shu thieves in Yingchuan County to break through Chenliu County.

And Sima Yi is here. At first, Sima Yi also thought so, after all, this is a very typical two-way strategy.

However, Sima Yi thought about it carefully, and always felt that it was not quite right.

Let's not say that the Tiger Prison Pass is a male pass, and it is not so easy to be attacked. Speaking of pressure alone, why didn't Zhuge Liang go straight to the Tiger Prison in one step, but chose to station troops in Gong County without any pain? !

Isn't there something greasy about this?!

In Sima Yi's heart, he always had doubts about this matter.

On the one hand, he told Wang Ling to defend the Tiger Prison Pass and not to lead the army to attack easily, but on the other hand, Sima Yi still felt that it was better not to transfer the defenders of Yanzhou East County, which was close to the eastern part of Henan County, for the time being.

As for whether to send the county soldiers from Dongjun to the south to assist in the battle, Sima Yi actually seriously considered it.

After all, near Yanling now, the Wei army is at a disadvantage in terms of troops.

To redeem this disadvantage, in addition to adjusting the use of troops by oneself, the simplest and most direct way is to find enough reinforcements for oneself to fight in Yanling.

And to draw reinforcements, in addition to the more than 10,000 county soldiers stationed in Dongjun, there are no mobile troops to be deployed in Yanzhou today.

But Sima Yi still hesitated and couldn't draw conclusions.

On the one hand, Sima Yi was worried that if Zhuge Liang really came to the Tiger Pass, Wang Ling might really not be able to hold it, then the more than 10,000 county soldiers in Dongjun would be the nearest military force to support the defense of the Tiger Pass.

On the other hand, Sima Yi was still a little worried about the direction of Mengjindu, in case there was any accident over there, it was not impossible for the Shu thieves to go down the Yellow River and directly attack the three counties in the north of Yanzhou.

Originally, Sima Yi, the defense officer of that place, didn't have to worry, not only did there be more than 13,000 county soldiers in Dongjun to defend, but there were also 20,000 cavalry troops in Taishan County. The main types of Shu thieves are infantry, and the result of infantry encountering cavalry can be imagined.

But now, in order to contain the cavalry troops of the Shu thieves, Sima Yi had to transfer the cavalry troops stationed in Taishan County, so there were only more than 10,000 foot soldiers left in the three northern counties of Yanzhou. This Sima Yi really didn't dare to be transferred.

And it was at this time that Sima Yi finally received a military report from Mengjindu, which was a beat late - the Shu thieves divided their troops to cross the river to threaten the east of the river, Sima Shi was forced to retreat to Wenxian County for defense, and Mengjindu was lost.

After Sima Yi received this military report, he was glad and had a headache.

Fortunately, after all, he didn't send the soldiers of Dongjun to the south because he was greedy for temporary convenience. In case the Shu thieves really went down the Yellow River, now Dongjun would not even have the basic defensive strength.

And the headache is also here.

In case the Shu thieves really went down the Yellow River and attacked the three counties in the north of Yanzhou, the more than 10,000 county soldiers in the eastern county could only hold on to the aid at most, and they could not base the enemy at all.

I always feel that the defense of the entire Yanzhou has begun to become flawed after being mobilized back and forth by Shu thieves.

However, there are only so many troops, and what Sima Yi can do is to try his best to adjust the deployment of troops at hand and make up for the weaknesses in defense as much as possible.

For this reason, Sima Yi forcibly took out 10,000 people from the Yanling defense force and handed it to Jia Kui, asking him to lead the troops north as soon as possible and go to Dongjun to deploy defenses, just in case.

In addition, Sima Yi also sent a military order to Cao Zhao, who led the Jizhou cavalry, asking him to find an opportunity to block Pang De's cavalry as soon as possible, and after defeating Pang De, he rushed to Yanling as soon as possible to help in the battle.

It's just that in the middle, there are many twists and turns.

First of all, it was Sima Yi who had just drawn out his troops and handed them over to Jia Kui, and asked Jia Kui to lead his troops north, and Xu Shu, who was keenly aware of the reduction of the Wei army in front, immediately led his troops to launch a strong attack on Yanling, causing Sima Yi to have to passively respond to the battle.

Secondly, after receiving Sima Yi's military order, Cao Zhao directly replied to Sima Yi that the whereabouts of the Shu thief cavalry were difficult to determine, although he also wanted to fight a decisive battle as soon as possible, but he couldn't help himself. In short, it was impossible to block Pound's cavalry in a short period of time.

The third and the biggest blow to Sima Yi was the news - just when Jia Kui had just walked to the junction of Chenliu County and Henan County, Xiahou He, the guard general of Dongjun, sent an urgent military report, saying that the Shu thieves were descending the river and landed on Baima, and the troops were approaching Puyang, the county of Dongjun.

(End of chapter)