This is no longer the case.

In the past, Ji Han was limited by his lack of strength, and it took time to recover the rivers and mountains, and it was understandable.

But now, the Han Dynasty has occupied half of the world, and the strength is dominant, if it drags on like this, it will indeed not be beneficial to the great cause of dominating the world.

To dominate the world, sometimes it is just by breathing, and once this breath is broken, it is very likely that it will not be continued for several generations.

Cao Cao pacified the Central Plains and unified Hebei in just a few years, and most people thought that Cao Cao was the last person to pacify the world. But Cao Cao was interrupted in the Battle of Chibi, which led to the three generations of Cao Wei not being able to renew this breath, and now he is even more depressed that he can only retreat to Hebei.

And now, the Han has also reached this critical juncture, so no matter what method Zhuge Liang uses, he must promote this Northern Expedition.

This breath really can't be broken.

Although it is somewhat risky, Zhuge Liang knows that there are some things that must be done.

This Northern Expedition, after Zhuge Liang pulled down his old face and moved out of the favor of the first emperor, he was barely decided.

But the question of how to fight has to continue to be discussed. But not in a hurry.

The Northern Expedition is not a trivial matter, it is a matter of life and death for hundreds of thousands of soldiers and the national fortune of the Han Dynasty, so we cannot but be cautious.

Before, including Zhang Xizai, no one thought about fighting this battle, so the strategic direction of the Northern Expedition was relatively simple. If you really want to fight, you can't just rely on momentary feelings to make a strategy.

It still needs to be carefully and seriously considered.

For this reason, Zhang Xi and others temporarily stayed in Chang'an, each thinking about the strategy of the Northern Expedition, and ten days later, they gathered again in the Prime Minister's Mansion to discuss the specific strategy of the Northern Expedition.

In fact, if you consider the problem purely from a military point of view, there are only two ready-made routes that the Han can take when sending troops to the Northern Expedition.

One is to imitate Cao Cao's strategy of pacifying Hebei, sending troops from Yanzhou to cross the Yellow River. But on this road, what you have to face is the 100,000 Wei army guarding the river led by Guo Huai.

This is a road that reverses the battle of Guandu, gathering heavy troops to attack Hebei, and fighting a decisive battle along the Yellow River, and after defeating the main force of the Wei army in the first battle, you can sweep Hebei.

However, this road is not easy to follow, and there are many taboos in the military.

One of the most important is the issue of grain and grass supply.

How did Yuan Shao defeat in the Battle of Guandu back then?!

Because of the attack on Wuchao, the army ran out of food.

And why did Yuan Shao put the grain in the black nest on the south bank of the Yellow River?!

Because the supply line for transporting grain from Yecheng in Hebei Province to the south bank of the Yellow River was too long, far less close than Cao Cao's transportation of grain from Xuchang to Dongjun, and it was necessary to find a grain storage land.

And now the situation is the opposite, the Han wants to attack Hebei, even if it is to transport grain from Luoyang, because of the obstruction of the Yellow River, it is not convenient to transport grain.

Therefore, in order to attack Hebei, it is necessary to first build a bridgehead on the north bank of the Yellow River, and then transport grain across the river to hoard, and the supply line is lengthened.

On the contrary, Cao Wei's supply line from Yecheng to the front line was much shorter than that of the Han Dynasty.

This is equivalent to a copy of the battle of Guandu, and Cao Wei has the precedent of his ancestors to follow, and there are famous generals like Guo Huai in charge, even if there is no Xu Yu in the Han army, Guo Huai will also wait for the opportunity to find the Han Dynasty's grain land on the north bank of the Yellow River, and strive to break it in a battle. In this way, the Han would not be able to continue to attack Hebei, so they could only retreat to Henan to defend themselves.

Crossing the river from Dongjun to the north to the north will need to face this relatively real problem and the risk is very high.

The other way is to send troops from the north bank of Mengjindu, first attack Hanoi County, and then go north from Hanoi County to directly attack Yecheng.

But this road also has a flaw, that is, the goal is too obvious.

Although the landing of the army from Hanoi County could shorten the supply distance from Luoyang to Mengjindu, it also required to face the flanking attack of the Wei army in Bingzhou and Hedong County at the same time.

Let's not talk about whether we can defeat Qin Lang and Xiahou Ba in Hanoi. Even if you can, you must always worry about the cavalry from the state and the soldiers of Hedong County.

Well, even if you can block the Bingzhou cavalry and the Hedong county soldiers at the same time, and then divide the troops to the east, and attack Yecheng Guo Huai, you can also return to the army to rescue, block Chaoge, and block the advance of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

In this way, it will become Cao Wei gathering troops, besieging Hanoi County on three routes, and blocking the Northern Expeditionary Army in Hanoi County without an inch.

This is also a very difficult route, but there are too few changes, there are almost only direct tactical options, even if Cao Wei's three-way army is broken through the encirclement and suppression, in the end it will definitely not be able to attack Yecheng.

These two routes, each with its own shortcomings, are not easy to fight, and this is the most practical problem that needs to be faced in this Northern Expedition.

And the way to avoid the shortcomings of these two routes is actually a very simple strategy.

In other words, the two roads marched at the same time, creating a partial breakthrough, causing the Wei army to defend at the expense of one or the other.

In fact, it is not difficult to think about this plan, and everyone who participated in the military conference has thought about this idea.

It's just that the focus of the idea is different.

Xu Shu and Zhang Xi advocated concentrating the main forces in the Dongjun area to cross the river, colliding head-on with Guo Huai's river-guarding troops, attracting Cao Wei's main force to concentrate on Jizhou for a decisive battle, and then sending surprise troops to attack Yecheng, and the battle was decided.

There are several benefits to doing so.

First of all, it is possible to concentrate all the Wei troops in Bingzhou and Youzhou to the north of Jizhou and Qingzhou to reduce the defensive pressure in other places, so that the main force of the partial division can break through in Hanoi County, and only need to deal with the threat of the soldiers of Hanoi County and Hedong County.

If only one line has a chance to break through, it can also attract the Wei army to retreat to Yecheng and complete the encirclement of Yecheng.

In this way, even if Yecheng cannot be defeated this time, it can occupy a foothold on the north bank of the Yellow River and further compress Cao Wei's territory.

However, Li Yan and Jiang Xu believed that because of the concentration of troops in Hanoi County, they had a sense of urgency to create a large army in Hanoi County.

Because Hanoi County has a ready-made Beidu stronghold, coupled with the single means of using troops, Cao Wei can basically focus on defense when defending, which can slow down Cao Wei's defensive determination.

And once the Han army landed on the north bank of Mengjindu in large numbers, the only factor limiting the defense of the Wei army was probably the lack of troops, and the Wei army would definitely send the Guo Huai corps, which was closest to Hanoi, to Hanoi County to assist in the defense.

In this way, Cao Wei's forces in the Yellow River defense line will inevitably be weakened.

At this time, it would be much easier to send a partial division to cross the river in Hedong County and directly break through Cao Wei's already weak Yellow River defense line.

Once the Yellow River defense line is broken, the partial division can directly march to attack Yecheng, which is much more effective than breaking through the defenses of Xiahouba and Qin Lang in Hanoi County, so as to barely threaten Yecheng.

And at that time, the big battle in Hanoi was not that Cao Wei's army wanted to encircle the Han army, but that the Han army wanted to delay the Wei army's return to Yecheng.

Moreover, there are not many troops in the partial division, and there is not much grain and grass that needs to be transported, with Luoyang's transportation capacity, even if it is separated by a Yellow River, this transportation capacity can still be done, and there is no need to establish an additional military food hoarding point, and there is no hidden danger of logistics supply.

Two schemes, each with its own merits. Zhuge Liang really didn't know how to make a decision for a while.

In other words, in fact, both options are a little too conspicuous, and Zhuge Liang doesn't want to choose either.

In fact, the difference between these two plans is only the deployment of key forces, and the difference is only in whether to storm Hanoi or smuggle across the Yellow River with the strategic vision of Guo Huai, Sima Yi and others, so that they will not be able to see this thing.

In other words, no matter what kind of combat strategy Zhuge Liang adopted in the end, Guo Huai and Sima Yi would take precautions in advance, and once the official battle began, as long as there were some clues on the battlefield, they would immediately be able to understand the focus of the entire strategy, so as to make effective adjustments.

Cao Wei really hasn't reached the point of complete exhaustion, once this Northern Expedition allows Cao Wei to hold on, then Cao Wei can breathe a sigh of relief, and what the situation will develop next is really out of Zhuge Liang's control.

Therefore, this time, Zhuge Liang instinctively sought some strange strategies, seeking some possibilities that could avoid Sima Yi and Guo Huai's expectations, and directly attack Yecheng.

Can. This is a war of annihilation.

Since ancient times, there has been basically no miracle strategy used in the war of annihilation.

It's not that you can't use Qi Ce in the war of annihilation, it's just that Qi Ce is often accompanied by high risks. The focus is on the high risk, not on the Chitzer itself.

The war of annihilation of the country cannot be easily defeated, once it fails, the war of annihilation becomes a rout, and the political risk will become very large, in terms of the current situation in the world, it really makes Cao Wei relieve this breath, and Cao Wei, who still occupies the land of three and a half states, is really likely to regain momentum, which is not conducive to pacifying the world.

The most obvious example is that Li Xin destroyed Chu that year, and the 200,000 army was wiped out, and the first emperor was Yu Lie of Fen VI, his foundation was really thick, and he raised 600,000 troops for Wang Jian in a short period of time, otherwise, the state of Chu would really be relieved.

Therefore, Zhuge Liang was also hesitating in his heart, whether to use such an obvious, but relatively stable, strategy to fight this battle of annihilation.

(End of chapter)