The loss of Tiger Prison Pass was a fatal blow to Sima Yi's strategy of retreating to Dongjun.

The loss of the Tiger Prison Pass means that the Han army has an exit from Luoyang to directly send troops to Dongjun, and with the loss of most of Chenliu County, Jiyin County is isolated, and it is bound to be difficult to save the Shu thieves in these three places Once they are linked to each other, this is an extremely fatal gap for the defense of the Wei army.

At that time, Zhuge Liang led the troops out of the Tiger Prison and attacked the sour jujube, Deng Ai led the troops out of Jiyang and attacked Changyuan, and Hu Zun of the Liang State led the troops into Jiyin and went north to attack Puyang. The Wei army, which was deployed in Dongjun, had to face the attack of Shu thieves in the east and south directions.

The west side of East County is Taishan County, and the west side of Taishan County is Langya County of Xuzhou. What is the current attitude of Soochow, Sima Yi is not sure.

As for the north side, there is no need to mention it, it is the natural danger of the Yellow River.

In other words, now Sima Yi is leading an army of more than 100,000 and is trapped in a narrow area from Puyang to Sujuju. This situation may lead to the collapse of the entire army at any time.

The current Sima Yi is already a little exhausted.

Until now, Sima Yi has not had a smooth day in this Yanzhou defense battle, and what is even more aggrieved is that this unhappiness has nothing to do with Sima Yi's own ability.

From the very beginning, Sima Yi's strategic idea was to use Yingchuan County and Tiger Pass as the front line, forcing Shu thieves to fight a battle to defend Yanzhou in Tiger Pass or Yingchuan County.

In Sima Yi's conception, as long as they could make adequate preparations, the Shu thieves would have no chance to push the battle line to Yanzhou.

The best result is to consume a large amount of Shu thieves' vital force in Yingchuan County or in front of the Tiger Prison Pass to thwart their attack, and the worst result is only to pay the price of Yingchuan County and Chen State, using the threat and containment of Eastern Wu to hold the rest of Yanzhou.

However, this strategic concept has not yet begun to be implemented, and the edict of the Son of Heaven has arrived, asking Sima Yi to take the initiative to lead the troops to attack Luoyang.

The Son of Heaven's idea was to disrupt the deployment of the Northern Expedition of the Shu thieves, but the Son of Heaven never thought that such an initiative to send troops would also disrupt Sima Yi's strategic deployment.

After Sima Yi's sneak attack on Luoyang failed, the strategic concept of the Son of Heaven failed, and the Shu thieves took advantage of the situation to directly launch the Northern Expedition, causing Sima Yi to rush to the battle when his Yanzhou defense strategy was not completed.

This is the most critical factor in this battle of Yanzhou, and Sima Yi has never been able to occupy the strategic initiative.

In addition to the reasons for the failure of the strategic response, there are also many human factors in this battle of Yanzhou.

The first is the speed of surrender of Yingchuan County, which is really fast and completely beyond Sima Yi's imagination.

In Sima Yi's opinion, Yingchuan County, where Chen Tai, the son of Chen Qun and the representative of the Yingchuan family, sits in Yingchuan County, although it may not be able to block the attack of the Shu thieves, but at least it will not be defeated so quickly. But the result was that Yingchuan County was defeated even if it was defeated, and it couldn't wait for Sima Yi to withdraw his troops from the direction of Tiger Pass.

For this reason, Sima Yi had to let the soldiers who had originally stayed in Chenliu and Dongjun to quickly go south to support Chen Tai, who was fighting in Yanling, resulting in the emptiness of troops in the northern part of Yanzhou and giving Wei Yan the opportunity to cross the river and advance directly.

The second human factor that led to the accelerated collapse of the Yanzhou war was Cao Zhao's rashness.

Until now, Sima Yi didn't understand, why did Cao Zhao think about going to a head-on duel with the cavalry team of the Shu thieves?!

The situation in Yanzhou is that there are many Shu thieves and few Wei soldiers, and Cao Zhao's cavalry is the most effective team to contain the Shu thief infantry.

Even if it is a one-on-one exchange to exchange the cavalry of the Shu thieves, the infantry strength of the Shu thieves is still twice that of the Yanzhou Corps of the Great Wei, and the battle situation is still favorable to the Shu thieves, what is the practical significance of the strategic defense of the Great Wei?!

According to Sima Yi's strategic planning, the cavalry led by Cao Zhao should be shuttling back and forth between Jiyin County and Chenliu County, relying on the speed of the cavalry, avoiding the Shu thief cavalry, and specifically raiding the weak point of the Shu thief infantry's attack, and assisting himself or Jia Kui to hold Yongqiu and Dingtao, so that Sima Yi can be sure to block the Shu thieves in the south of Yanzhou, exhaust their food and grass supply, and force them to retreat.

As a result, Cao Zhao was good, and directly chose to fight Pound hard, but he didn't win the other side when it was over, so Pound played a falling flower. But when Sima Yi had 10,000 cavalry in his hands during the Battle of Yongqiu, he didn't have to retreat in the city to defend passively.

And now, even greater man-made troubles are coming. The Tiger Prison Pass was also lost.

Sima Yi also has to admit that he can't completely blame Wang Ling, after all, to that extent, it's normal for Wang Ling to be unable to hold the Tiger Prison Pass, and it's a surprise to hold it.

But the strategic position of Tiger Prison Pass is too important, even if Wang Ling is helpless to lose, the impact on the battle situation is still too great.

The direct door to the defense of the Eastern Front has been wide open.

In a battle, the strategic arrangement is not in place, and teammates stab themselves one after another. Sima Yi thinks that he really tried his best.

Now Sima Yi is already thinking about whether it is time to give up Yanzhou.

The terrain of Dongjun is narrow, there is not much strategic depth to be used, and the Yellow River is dangerous, even if you want to retreat, you need the assistance of the Wei army in the Hebei region, and you can't cross the river by legs.

If you want to retreat, you must prepare in advance, otherwise you will be crowded and jump into the river.

And if you want to keep it, it's actually not impossible.

Although Sima Yi was retreating all the way, from the south of Yanzhou all the way to the north of Yanzhou, in addition to the cavalry team led by Cao Zhao, in fact, the infantry team led by him did not suffer much loss, but also received 30,000 reinforcements.

Now, Sima Yi even has nearly 110,000 troops in his hands, if he only wants to hold the line of Fengqiu, Changyuan, Puyang, and Sujuo, the troops are completely sufficient.

It's just that this is the result of the tactical level that needs to be considered, and standing on the strategic level to consider Sima Yi feels that there is no need for Yanzhou to continue to defend.

If the Tiger Pass is still in hand, Luoyang cannot directly attack Yanzhou, then holding the two counties in the north of Yanzhou, even if the Shu thieves occupy the central part of Yanzhou, they will always face the persecution of the Eastern Wu forces in the south and the Great Wei army in the north.

It's just a rat in a bellows, a character who is angry at both ends, and can no longer concentrate and make a breakthrough.

But as soon as the tiger prison was lost, the Shu thieves occupied the entire Henan County, which was equivalent to linking the Heluo area and the central part of Yanzhou together, forming a joint force. In this case, not to mention whether Dongwu will come to this troubled water, even if it does, the Shu thieves have enough strength to fight on two fronts.

Rather than fighting against the Shu thieves in Dongjun, which is difficult to hold, and losing troops, it is better to save troops, retreat to Hebei, rely on the natural danger of the Yellow River, and fortify on the spot.

Moreover, once the army retreats to Hebei, the Shu thieves in the Hedong region will inevitably not dare to continue to go deeper, and the siege of Hedong will also be resolved.

Therefore, Sima Yi's current plan is to see if there is an opportunity to retreat from Hebei while preserving his strength as much as possible.

This is not easy, after all, it is impossible for the Shu thieves to watch the main force of the Wei army that was forced to the Yellow River to withdraw, and they will inevitably press on the whole line and force the Wei army.

Therefore, in order to retreat, Sima Yi must first hold the defensive line, otherwise, the retreat will only turn into a rout.

And in the same way, such a large-scale withdrawal of troops may not be possible without the central coordination of the imperial court. Before retreating, Sima Yi could decide on his own, but this time he retreated, Sima Yi had to report to the Son of Heaven and ask the Son of Heaven to send someone to collect a ferry to pick up.

To this end, Sima Yi once again began his own strategic adjustment.

First of all, Guo Huai's army was recalled, and he was asked to continue to lead the troops to guard the sour dates, and cooperate with Chen Tai of Fengqiu to block Zhuge Liang's army from the Tiger Pass.

Then, Sima Yi divided 10,000 troops to Puyang and handed them over to Jia Kui for command.

On the Puyang side, Sima Yi not only asked Jia Kui to hold Puyang when facing Hu Zunsuo's troops who were heading north from Jiyin County, but also hoped that Jia Kui could find a way to recapture the Baima Ferry as soon as possible, expel the Shu thief army stationed there, and create conditions for the future withdrawal.

In the end, it was Sima Yi himself who led 40,000 soldiers to confront the pursuers led by Deng Ai in Changyuan County and block Deng Ai's march.

Sujube, Changyuan, Puyang, these three places form a line of defense, and the Shu thieves must be blocked, waiting for the imperial court to send people to retreat.

After doing this, Sima Yi pondered it again and wrote a letter to Jiang Ji, who was assisting Guo Huai in the sour dates, and asked him to take his secret letter and make a detour to Taishan County to enter Langya County and find Zhuge Jin stationed in Langya County.

The purpose is to persuade Zhuge Jin, and then let Zhuge Dan send troops from Xiapi to march into Shanyang County and threaten the flank of the Shu thieves in Jiyin County.

As long as the Eastern Wu forces officially enter the scope of Yanzhou, Lu Xun, who stays in Peiguo, will definitely not sit idly by, and will definitely choose to send troops to the southern counties of Yanzhou, so that Xu Shu, who is in Yongqiu, will definitely not dare to increase his troops to the north.

In this way, Dawei's defense line is relatively reluctantly stable.

(End of chapter)