A reinforcement that crossed the sky and the sea, and under various variables, it turned into an encounter.

Fortunately, Guo Huai's experience in the battle is extremely rich, and at the same time, the response speed is also extremely fast.

After seeing a large amount of smoke and dust suddenly appear in his south, Guo Huai immediately judged that the Shu thieves had seen through his plan and were hurrying towards the west gate.

If you don't fight at this time, I'm afraid I will also explain to the west gate of this Puyang City.

Therefore, Guo Huai personally led the troops to fight in front of the attack, boosting morale, and regardless of the casualties, he fought hard and hard, and killed the Han army outside the West Gate to contain the troops, and joined Xiahou He, and retreated into Puyang City before Jiang Wei closed and encircled.

But Guo Huai did this, and the price he paid was still very high.

After a tough battle, the reinforcements who really followed Guo Huai to Puyang City were only more than 3,400 people. The rest of the people were surrounded outside the city by Jiang Wei's troops, and they died and surrendered.

This bit of strength really doesn't have much practical significance for sticking to Puyang, but it's just a drop in the bucket.

Even, Guo Huai is now thinking about whether he should break through directly with the defenders in Puyang City, and simply retreat to Sujube and Yanjin.

However, considering the particularity of the city defense of the sour jujube and the Yanjin ferry, Guo Huai finally decided to hold on to Puyang City for the time being.

After all, Puyang is a big city, with strong city defenses, complete defense facilities, and more than 10,000 soldiers. I can still hold on for a while.

If the troops retreat to Suozao and Yanjin, not only will they have to divide their troops to hold the two places and scatter their troops, but in terms of city defense facilities, I am afraid it will be difficult to hold on.

Well, unless Xia Houhe can be replaced by Liu Yan, Guo Huai really doesn't have this confidence.

As for the 5,000 soldiers who retreated to Lihu, it was impossible for Guo Huai to count on them to continue to come to help.

The current situation is completely different from what Guo Huai thought.

Wei Yan's 20,000 people besieged the east gate of Puyang, Jiang Wei's 20,000 people besieged the west gate of Puyang, and the south gate was empty, but if Guo Huai's remaining 5,000 people dared to move to the south gate of Puyang, then Wei Yan and Jiang Wei would definitely divide their troops and attack.

In this case, even if Guo Huai personally led his troops out of the city to respond, he was afraid that he would be surrounded and beaten back and forth by enemy troops from both directions, and eventually he suffered heavy losses.

Plus. Really, Guo Huai really doesn't understand how Xiahou He defended this Puyang, with such a good city defense, how did he manage his battle losses to be higher than the Shu thieves outside the city?!

Originally, Guo Huai thought that even if Puyang City was attacked by Shu thieves, but Xiahou He had 12,000 people in his hands, and he besieged it for more than ten days, even if he lost 2,000 people in the battle, there should be about 10,000 people, but now Guo Huai found out that with the more than 3,400 soldiers who entered the city, the Puyang defenders added up to only 11,000 people in more than ten days, and nearly 5,000 people were damaged in the battle, how did this happen? !

Who's on the side defending the city?!

There are so many troops left at hand, if Guo Huai divides his troops out of the city to meet his suspected soldiers into the city, if there is anything missing, not only will the reinforcements not be able to enter, but this Puyang City will not be able to hold it.

Therefore, Guo Huai could only take advantage of the lack of defensive strength of the Shu thieves outside the south gate to let his own guards carry his own letters out of the city again, to inform the 5,000 suspicious soldiers from Lihu, and retreat to Dingtao County on his own, obeying Jia Kui's command.

At the same time, Guo Huai sent another letter to Sima Yi, asking him to send another person to reinforce Sujube and Yanjin. What he can do now is to drag Wei Yan as much as possible in Puyang.

And when Sima Yi received this secret letter from Guo Huai, his brows furrowed again.

To tell the truth, Guo Huai arrived in Puyang and blocked Wei Yan, to a certain extent, it was already to ensure the safety of the jujube and Yanjin. From this point of view, in fact, Sima Yi's goal of adjusting the deployment of troops and stabilizing the defense line has been achieved.

But Guo Huai now has only more than 11,000 people guarding Puyang, but he has to face nearly 40,000 elite siege troops of Shu thieves, and the ratio of troops is close to 1 to 4, which is really unreassuring.

At this time, Sima Yi actually has two choices.

One is to make a cautious choice and continue to send reinforcements to Suozao and Yanjin to establish a second line of defense.

In this way, even if Guo Huai was defeated in the front, he could continue to resist the Shu thieves and keep the retreat of the Wei army in Yanzhou.

But if he chooses this plan, Sima Yi will not only further reduce the number of troops in his hands, but also have to send his last useful general, Chen Tai, out of the good guys, and he really has no one to use.

You can't use Cao Shuang to kill the enemy, right?!

To be honest, it is better for Sima Yi to go into battle in person to fight for reliability.

Another option was to take a risk, Sima Yi chose to believe that Guo Huai could stop Wei Yan, and no longer sent people to reinforce Suozao and Yanjin, but concentrated his forces to defeat the main force of Xu Shu's Shu Thieves' Northern Expeditionary Army in Yongqiu.

But. Xu Shu didn't give it for nothing.

Maybe Xu Shu will be a little lacking in experience in leading troops, and his ability to control the operations of a large army will be insufficient, but this person's strategy is still very good.

In addition, the Northern Expedition of Shu thieves is as high as more than 100,000 troops, even if some of the troops are now divided to Liang and Chen, the total strength of Shu thieves in the south of Chen is still about 120,000. The advantage of troops was too obvious, and Sima Yi really didn't dare to easily engage in a duel with Xu Shu for the operational command of a large corps.

Xu Shu just lacks experience in the combat command of a large corps, which does not mean that he is an idiot in commanding troops.

Moreover, even if Xu Shu can't command 120,000 people smoothly, Xu Shu still has the ability to command 50,000 or 60,000 people.

The family used 50,000 or 60,000 people to drag the main force of their own army, and the remaining soldiers could not be stopped by Sima Yi under the leadership of their own generals.

After all, Sima Yi's total strength in Yongqiu is only 70,000.

Therefore, if Sima Yi wants to defeat the main army of Shu thieves head-on, he needs to continue to wait for the appearance of fighters, at least for a short time, this is impossible.

If you really choose to believe Guo Huai's words and tell the truth, Sima Yi has no bottom in his heart for this idea.

As for believing that Sima Shi can support in time, it is better to believe that Guo Huai can hold in Puyang.

After all, Sima Shi's opponent is that Zhang Yuanchang. Sima Yi knows very well what level his son is, even if he says it from his father's point of view, it can only be "the future can be expected".

At least at this time, Sima Yi didn't believe that Sima Shi could deceive Zhang Xi and easily lead his troops back to Yanzhou.

It's not that you can't get back, it's that it takes time.

For this reason, Sima Yi thought about it and felt that in the direction of Sujube and Yanjin, Guo Huai could not be completely expected to stick to it, but he could not send a single soldier. Sima Yi could only let Wang Ling, who was guarding the Tiger Pass, divide his troops by 5,000 to increase the garrison of Yanjin.

Although this is just to tear down the east wall and make up the west wall, there is no way, this is the best decision that Sima Yi can do now.

There were originally 10,000 people stationed at Wang Ling in Tiger Prison Pass, but Sima Yi was afraid that Zhuge Liang would lead his troops to pursue him to Tiger Prison Pass, so he arranged it this way.

But now it seems that the Tiger Prison is the easiest.

The main force of the Shu thieves had broken through Yingchuan County and entered Yanzhou, while the partial division was also attacking Puyang City in Dongjun in the north of Yanzhou. Zhuge Liang on the Luoyang side, the total number of troops in his hands should not exceed 20,000.

There is more defense than enough, and there is not enough offense.

Therefore, it is actually of little significance to have another 10,000 guards on the side of the Tiger Prison Pass, it is better to divide 5,000 troops to stick to Yanjin, just in case.

As for the guard Sima Yi, there is really no one at hand.

Chen Tai is the last general with the ability to command troops, and it is impossible for Sima Yi to let him go, otherwise this Chen Liu's defense battle will have to be personally rushed to the front line as the commander.

Not to mention the danger, there is also a lack of change to meet the enemy, so it has really become a stronghold of the city, and it cannot be held at all.

Just when Sima Yi was worried about this, Chen Tai recommended a person.

Jiang Ji, who is in Jiyang to coordinate grain and grass logistics.

Jiang Ji also had experience in leading the army in his early years, and he was not the simple strategist who would only make Jiangdong play tricks.

At the time of the first Battle of Hefei, Jiang Ji was the defender of Hefei, and he scared Sun Quan away with only one letter, which shows that this person is not only strategic, but also quite courageous.

But Sima Yi still has his own doubts.

First of all, during the Battle of Hefei, Sun Quan went to attack Hefei, but he was just pretending, and anyone who understood could understand it, and the focus of Soochow's attack at that time was Jiangling.

Therefore, it is not known whether Sun Quan's retreat was frightened by Jiang Ji, or whether he borrowed the slope to get off the donkey and take advantage of the situation.

But now stationed in Yanjin, but to keep the retreat of the army at a critical moment, does he Jiang Ji have the ability to do it.

Secondly, if Jiang Ji goes to Yanjin to garrison, who will go to Jiyang to coordinate the logistics of Yanzhou's nearly 100,000 troops, grain and grass supply?!

For the first question, Chen Tai has nothing to say, he can only tell Sima Yi that there are only so many people who can be used now that Jiang Ji can't go, so he can't let Cao Shuang go, right?!

As for the second question, Chen Tai once again recommended a talent - Gao Tanglong.

Gao Tanglong, this person, his military level is a scumbag, and even Cao Shuang is stronger than him. It can be said that handling government affairs and planning the supply of grain and grass as a whole is Gao Tanglong's strength.

In fact, if the person who came to Yanling to support was not Gao Tanglong, but Jiang Ji, I am afraid that when Chen Tai withdrew to Yanling at that time, he would not have suffered such a big loss.

But. It's hard to say much, after all, the person who chose to leave Jiang Ji in Jiyang to coordinate grain and grass, and let Gao Tanglong lead the troops to aid Yanling, was Sima Yi.

And Sima Yi Sima Yi is a smart person, after listening to Chen Tai's recommendation, he knew that he had used the wrong person at the beginning.

Can. Forget it, there is no point in pursuing this matter now, not to mention that the fault is indeed oneself.

In this case, it is not too late to make amends.

Sima Yi ordered Gao Tanglong to rush back to Jiyang as soon as possible to take Jiang Ji's place, and then let Jiang Ji rush to Yanjin as soon as possible to establish a second line of defense.

(End of chapter)