Wei Yan led the troops from Chengshi County to the north, and 45,000 soldiers came to Zhencheng, the big county of Dong County, and the Taishou of Dong County, and they were all about to turn around in the Taishou Mansion in Puyang.

Zhen Cheng is in a hurry, Xiahou He is in a hurry now, and the most critical question is that Xiahou He really can't make up his mind, whether he should send troops to rescue.

Puyang is the county of Dongjun and cannot be easily lost, but Zhencheng also cannot be easily lost.

In the early years, when Emperor Taizuwu conquered Xuzhou, Chen Gong and Zhang Miao united to rebel against Lü Bu, and the entire Yanzhou was almost completely lost, only Zhencheng in Dongjun, Dong'e and other places are still holding on Since then, the family of Zhencheng is the most hardcore supporter of Cao Wei.

is more hardcore than the clans in Chenliu County.

This place has been attacked, if Xiahou He dares not to save it, I am afraid that in the court, Xiahou He will face countless impeachments, even Cao Rong may not be able to protect him.

But if you go to save. Xiahou He knew how many catties and taels he had, and he also knew how many soldiers and horses the thief army had.

Even if you try your best to save it, you may not be able to save Zhen Cheng, and even if you are ambushed by Shu thieves halfway, not only Zhen Cheng, but even Puyang will be lost.

At that time, it will not be a question of him Xiahou and being impeached, but a matter of his own head.

Therefore, Xiahou He is really going back and forth, and he really can't make up his mind.

And Zhen Cheng over there. It should be said that it really deserves to be Cao Wei's most hardcore support area.

Even though Zhencheng only had 500 soldiers stationed in Zhencheng, the clans of Zhencheng made up 3,000 private soldiers, and under the attack of 45,000 Shu thieves, they defended Zhencheng to the death, and sent a letter of help to Puyang every day.

You said that if this Zhen City couldn't hold out for a few days and was breached, then Xiahou He wouldn't have to hesitate so much. It's just that it was surrounded but not broken like this, and it was even more difficult for Xiahou He to judge whether this was the Zhencheng defenders working together to resist the Shu thieves, or the Shu thieves deliberately surrounded but did not fight, and carried out a plan to encircle the point and send reinforcements.

It made Xiahou He even more hesitant.

And Jia Kui, who was in Chenliu County, was shocked when he learned the news that Wei Yan was going north to attack Zhencheng.

Jia Kui's strategic vision is farther than Xiahou He's, he knows that the Shu thieves attack Zhencheng, on the one hand, to conquer Zhencheng to seek supplies, on the other hand, it may not mean that there is no intention to encircle the point and send reinforcements.

Therefore, Jia Kui immediately led his troops out of Waihuang County and entered Jiyin County, and then prepared to go to Puyang along Jiyin County.

At the same time, Jia Kui was afraid of Xiahou and Zhongji, so he immediately wrote a letter to Xiahou He, informing him that he must wait until he led his troops to Puyang, or after the cavalry corps led by Cao Zhao arrived in Puyang, and then send troops together to rescue Zhen Cheng If Zhen Cheng can really hold out until that time.

But when Jia Kui had just led his troops into Dingtao County in Jiyin County, preparing to continue north. Suddenly, news came from the south.

Cao Zhao was defeated in Peiguo, and led the remnants of the army to retreat all the way into Jiyin County, and was coming to Dingtao.

When Jia Kui heard the news, his eyes immediately darkened. When he finally recovered, he hurriedly asked why Cao Zhao was defeated.

In fact, there is no reason, it's just that the skills are not as good as others.

Cao Zhao's ability was not enough to compete with Pang De, and he was a little flustered after winning for a while, so he chose to fight Pang De head-on instead of fighting. It's no surprise that it's not at all surprising to lose.

In fact, Cao Zhao's mentality and situation at that time were very similar to Zhuge Zhan's in the Battle of Mianzhu.

It is said that Deng Ai smuggled into Yinping, but it is not the case that less fights more.

When Deng Ai smuggled into Yinping, the historical records recorded that there were about 20,000 people, but there were only 2,000 people recorded in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and after the successful smuggling of Yinping, he not only obtained food supplies in Jiangyou, but also incorporated the Shu Han garrisons in the surrounding counties, and increased the size of the army, and even Zhonghui sent Deng Ai a reinforcement led by Tian Zhang.

As for Chengdu at that time, Liu Chan had transferred troops from Chengdu several times and sent them to the front line to be commanded by Jiang Wei, and the troops given to Deng Ai, who was led by Zhuge Zhan to fight against Mianzhu, could not be as many as the 100,000 people written in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

At least during the first battle of Mianzhuguan, the difference between the forces of the two sides was not large, and it may even be a situation of equal strength.

Just like when Cao Zhao faced Pang De now, everyone was 20,000 cavalry.

But when Cao Zhao faced Pang De, he made the same mistake as Zhuge Zhan, and after a small victory, he got carried away and gave up the most beneficial style of play.

Zhuge Zhan gave up the defense of Mianzhu Pass, gave up the tactic of delaying time and waiting for Jiang Wei to come back, he actually chose to go out of the city to fight Deng Ai. Then the defeat was a mess, and both father and son died in Mianzhu.

As for Cao Zhao's side, let the Cao Wei cavalry be more familiar with the advantages of Yanzhou's geographical advantages, and did not take the initiative to choose the battlefield that was conducive to their own battles, nor did they use the speed advantage of the cavalry to fight, but instead collided directly with a reckless face, and fought a frontal field battle with Pang De to win.

Cao Zhao probably forgot how Niu Jin seven years ago was defeated by the heavy cavalry of Liangzhou.

Then the Liangzhou cavalry led by Pang De used the old tactics of seven years ago, the combination of light cavalry and heavy cavalry, and directly defeated them in one fell swoop.

However, Cao Zhao's luck was better than Zhuge Zhan's, and he successfully escaped.

On the one hand, it was Pang De who reformed the Liangzhou cavalry and reduced the proportion of heavy cavalry among the 20,000 Liangzhou cavalry, and there were only 5,000 heavy cavalry in the army.

Therefore, although relying on the impact of the heavy cavalry could easily defeat the cavalry formation of the Wei army, the heavy cavalry could not be used for pursuit, and could only rely on the light cavalry to encircle and suppress the cavalry of the Wei army.

But this matter, although part of it is Pound's responsibility, but in fact, Pound cannot be blamed entirely.

After all, Pang De has lived in Xiliang for a long time, and his opponents are a group of Qianghu horsemen from Liangzhou, once these things are defeated, they will be completely messed up, and there will not even be too many people who escape, so they will surrender directly.

After all, the Han Dynasty's policy towards foreign races is still relatively mild, and Xu Miao is also a strong advocate of pacifying the Liangzhou assassin history who is more than encirclement and suppression, so for the foreign races around Xiliang, it is actually easier to survive by surrendering than by escaping.

Therefore, Pound will increase the number of light cavalry and reduce the proportion of heavy cavalry, not to mention the high cost of raising heavy cavalry, reducing the number and reducing the burden.

But now, because of the unreasonable allocation of troops in the army, Pang De could not expand the results of the battle greatly, resulting in Cao Zhaoneng having the opportunity to withdraw from the battlefield.

On the other hand. Cao Zhao is different from Zhuge Zhan.

Zhuge Zhan is the son of Zhuge Liang, and he has always been trusted by Liu Chan and entrusted with important responsibilities at the last moment. Whether it was for reputation or practical reasons, it was impossible for Zhuge Zhan to surrender to Cao Wei, and he had to die in battle until the last moment.

And Cao Zhao is different, at least in Cao Zhao's opinion, his defeat this time will not have much impact on the overall battle situation, nor will it have any big impact on his family status.

Therefore, Cao Zhao saw that the battle situation was unfavorable, and his own side was charged by the enemy's heavy cavalry, and he couldn't even keep the formation, so Cao Zhao directly ordered the whole army to retreat.

After giving this order, Cao Zhao retreated directly under the protection of his personal guards and slipped away first.

And Cao Zhao slipped like this, and the rest of the cavalry could still have a fart will to fight. A rout was formed.

If it weren't for Pang De's fear that the pursuit would miss the opportunity to encircle and suppress the scattered cavalry, Cao Zhao might not have been able to withdraw.

But although he withdrew, the 20,000 Jizhou cavalry he led, after this battle, only less than 4,000 people were left to withdraw to Dingtao County.

After Cao Zhao withdrew to Dingtao County, Jia Kui looked at this loser, how did he see how he came to the south of Yanzhou, I am afraid that he really couldn't hold it.

Obviously, Cao Zhao's strategic vision was not enough for him to see the importance of his cavalry force.

Cao Zhao's cavalry was absolutely undefeated at this time.

Once there is no Cao Zhao's cavalry to contain Pang De's cavalry, then Pang De can go north to respond to Wei Yan's troops to attack Dongjun and Taishan County, and to the west, he can enter Chenliu County and attack the grain route of Sima Yi's army.

This is tantamount to freeing up a hand for the Shu thief, and this hand may choke Sima Yi's neck at any time.

If Sima Yi didn't want to be trapped or entangled in Yanling, he had to shrink the defensive line, return to Chenliu County, and put the Shu thieves into Yanzhou to fight.

And this is also the reason why Jia Kui is staying in Dingtao now and no longer going north - once Sima Yi withdraws his troops into Chenliu County, then someone must stick to Jiyin County and cover Sima Yi's flank.

Otherwise, with the combined strength of nearly 200,000 Shu thieves in Yanzhou, they can completely play an internal and external attack and trap Sima Yi to death in Yanzhou.

Cao Zhao's defeat was tantamount to burying the already not smooth Yanzhou war.

(End of chapter)