On July 2, Shen Chen's army crossed the Tianjing Pass and headed north.

At this time, Sima Yi had just withdrawn his troops from Yingchuan.

His withdrawal route was to take the area of Yin and Chenliu County in Henan, that is, the area of the Battle of Guandu, and go north to cross the river at the Yanjin Ferry.

As Shen Chen expected, his so-called stubborn defense of Yingchuan was just a false move, but in fact he wanted to escape.

At that time, Shen Chen also sent someone to inform Zhuge Liang, but if he had to break through Sima Yi's camp blockade from Luoyang to the south, and then go to the Han army camp, it would definitely be too late in time.

Therefore, Shen Chen decided to strike first, and get rid of Wuqiu Jian before Sima Yi returned to Hebei.

The reason is simple.

If he didn't react so quickly, Sima Yi would sneak back to Hebei under his nose, and then garrison Hanoi County to control Taihang.

At this time, Sima Yi only needed to fortify in Hanoi County, and then the army rode north to attack Zhao Yunbu.

Although Zhao Yun's army was the 40,000 elite Han army he left behind, Sima Yi united with Wuqiu Jian, coupled with the wavering Huns, it was very likely that Zhao Yun's side would not be able to withstand the pressure and retreat back to Hedong County.

In this way, Sima Yi barely kept a basic plate of Cao Wei, that is, Hebei, Bingzhou, Youzhou and part of Qingzhou.

After that, Xiahou Yuan also withdrew his troops back, even if the Han army quickly went north to sweep away the leaves in the autumn wind and flatten the entire Henan region, but because Sima Yi and Xiahou Yuan's troops had returned to defense, they could not directly send troops to Hebei, so they could only choose to stabilize the territory of Henan.

At that time, it won Cao Wei a chance to breathe.

Therefore, the soldiers were very fast, and before Sima Yi returned to defend and merge with the state, he destroyed Wuqiu Jian first, and then the next momentum would become that the Han army launched an offensive against Cao Wei's Jizhou from the three roads of Bingzhou, Yanzhou, and Qingzhou.

These three places are the later Shanxi Province, Henan Province and Shandong Province, which surrounded Hebei Province, where Cao Wei was located, from three sides, and the fierceness of the offensive can be seen.

Sima Yi was on the way back from withdrawing his troops, and as he expected, although Zhuge Liang reacted immediately, because of the suddenness of the incident, the Han army could not catch up at the first time, not to mention that there were actually many cavalry in Sima Yi's army.

Tian Yu, Yan Rou and others were all in his troops, and Cao Rong had already mobilized them from Youzhou before, resulting in at least 50,000 cavalry in Sima Yi's 120,000 army.

Therefore, when retreating, Sima Yi ordered the infantry to leave first with grain and grass baggage, leaving the cavalry behind, and it was not until two days later that the cavalry came back to report the situation to him.

To Sima Yi's surprise, the cavalry reported that the Han army did not immediately chase after him, but after seeing him leave, they began to pack up the camp in full swing.

Obviously, at this point, even if Zhuge Liang had reacted quickly, the dispatch of more than 100,000 troops was still not so fast.

However, these were expected by Sima Yi, but what made him not understand was that the Han army had about 30,000 cavalry, and there was also a heavy armored cavalry of 5,000 people, which could be described as the ace force of the Han army, and its combat power was very brave.

According to Sima Yi's assumption, after he left, Zhuge Liang would definitely choose to send cavalry to harass him first, and at the same time contact Shen Chen to see if he could cooperate with Zhuge Liang's cavalry troops to intercept him.

Sima Yi thought about these things very clearly, and at the same time responded. For example, after leaving the cavalry broken, he also sent his subordinate Guo Huai to lead 30,000 troops to Xingyang to intercept Shen Chen, so that the main force could retreat to Yanjin smoothly, and then cover the evacuation of the cavalry and Guo Huai, and there was no big problem if they wanted to leave.

However, the enemy did not play according to the routine, Shen Chen went north directly, and Zhuge Liang did not send cavalry to chase after him, which made Sima Yi feel a little bad.

At this moment, the main army of Cao Wei's retreat passed through the Yuanling Forest Township Pavilion, and in the distance was the ancient system, a swampy lake formed by the tributaries of the Weishui. It was the height of summer in July, and the soldiers were thirsty and tired, so Sima Yi ordered the soldiers to rest on the Zebian.

There is also a lot of drought in Zhize, many places are exposed cracked mud land, the wilderness is uninhabited, the fields are overgrown with weeds, and the villages are only ruined and broken, telling the prosperous scene of the hinterland of Henan.

Sima Yi rode on horseback and slowly went to the pavilion of Lin Xiangting to hide from the scorching sun, and after he dismounted, a guard immediately brought him a kettle to drink.

After a few sips, several cavalrymen galloped over in the distance and reported to him: "Grand Duke." ”

"What's going on? Did Zhuge Liang chase after him? ”

Sima Yi asked.

The cavalry replied, "There is no pursuit, General Yan sent me to report to the Governor of the capital, and we will soon be able to keep up with the large team." ”

"You're back?"

Sima Yi was surprised: "Zhuge Liang didn't send cavalry to harass? ”

"Nope."

The Courier shook his head.

Jia Kui next to him frowned and said, "Zhuge Liang is not in vain?" ”

"That's not right."

Sima Yi said in a deep voice: "Even the mediocre generals should understand that if they don't delay our departure at this time, when we return to Hebei, it will be difficult for them to capture us within this year." When we have a respite, the vast land of Henan, do they really think they can hold it? ”

Over the years, although Cao Wei has been defeated and retreated, the main reason for this is that the Henan region is too difficult to defend, and there are almost no passes on a smooth road. Coupled with the ferocity of the Han army, they were naturally a little unbearable.

But returning to Hebei is different, even if the Yellow River is not as natural as the Yangtze River due to the fact that it is cut off during the dry season and turned into land during the ice period, it can buy Cao Wei a lot of time.

Therefore, if Zhuge Liang was smart, he would not have let them go back to Hebei, but would have tried his best to delay them.

So what is the reason why Zhuge Liang did not send cavalry to chase after him now?

Sima Yi thought for a while and said: "There are only two possibilities, one is that Zhuge Liang has other plans, hasn't Shen Chen already gone north to merge with the state?" He felt that Shen Chen was safe to go north and merge with the state, so he let us go back, so he could directly cross the river and attack us from the north and south to Shen Chen. ”

"Why is Shen Chen so sure? He gave up the Huns, and now all the powerful families of the Huns have been sent to Yecheng, Liu Bao and Liu Qubei They should know who to help no matter how stupid they are. ”

Jia Kui said: "With the help of the Huns, even if General Wuqiu is no match for Shen Chen, there is no problem in defending the city and waiting for us to arrive." ”

"Hmm"

Sima Yi frowned deeply, Shen Chen's going north to merge with the state was that he sent Guo Huai to stop Shen Chen's pursuers, but after Guo Huai went to Xingyang, he sent someone to investigate and learned about Shen Chen's northward trip.

Now combined with Zhuge Liang's failure to send cavalry to chase after him, he felt deeply uneasy, and suspected that there was probably something inside.

"The second possibility is that Zhuge Liang has no cavalry in his hands."

Sima Yi's brows furrowed even deeper.

Jia Kui was shocked: "This is impossible, he doesn't have tens of thousands of cavalry in his hands, or Shen Chen sent it from the Western Front, and now he is under the command of Ma Chao." ”

"Otherwise, why didn't he chase it? Just let us go back? ”

Sima Yi asked rhetorically.

Jia Kui hesitated: "Then if Zhuge Liang doesn't have cavalry in his hands, then where will this cavalry be?" ”

Sima Yi thought for a while, then suddenly opened his eyes and shouted, "It's not good, and the state." Quick, order the soldiers, hurry now, you must go back as soon as possible! ”

"But we've just been."

Jia Kui wanted to say something.

But Sima Yi glared at him angrily, almost word for word, and said from between his teeth: "Go and pass the order immediately, and those who violate the order will be beheaded!" ”

"Yui!"

Jia Kui had no choice but to swallow back what he wanted to say, and immediately went to convey the military order.

Soon, the surrounding area of Zhize became chickens and dogs jumping up, and the sound of horns and horns continued to be loud, urging the soldiers to immediately assemble and line up from their resting state.

The Wei army, who had just laid down to rest, or was drinking water, or eating dry food, or was lying down and wanted to squint for a while, had no choice but to drag his tired body and set off again, marching all the way north towards Yanjin.

Two days later.

On July 4, outside Gaodu County, Zhao Yunbu and Shen Chen's Han army finally converged and surrounded Gaodu County from the south and west.

At this moment, above the city, Wu Qiu Jian was looking in the direction outside the west city.

I saw the Huns who were originally stationed outside the northern city, and suddenly several horses rushed to the Han camp, and then the Han camp had people who looked like generals come out to greet them and brought them into the Han army camp.

Seeing this scene, Liang Xi, the assassin of Bingzhou, said with some concern: "General, the Huns went to defect with swagger during the day, will the Han army suspect that they are cheating?" ”

Wu Qiu Jian smiled bitterly: "If you don't go during the day, then the Han army will definitely let the Huns continue to be stationed in Beicheng, but it is not easy to get close to their camp, only let us know that they have gone to "defect", the Han army may let them get close to the past." ”

"Feeling."

Liang Xi scratched his head and said: "I feel that this is too obvious, Shen Chen is not incompetent, if he doesn't say it well, he may not trust the Huns, in case he falls short."

Wu Qiu Jian sighed: "We don't have anything to do, now we can only look at the will of heaven, I hope things go well." ”

The two of them here are worried, and over there Liu Bao and Liu Xuan have entered the Han camp.

Shen Chen sat on the main seat, and the rest of Zhao Yun, Gan Ning, Deng Ai, Jiang Wei and others sat separately, and now in the Han camp on the Western Front, two new senior generals have been added.

They are the later general Gan Ning, and the newly promoted Anbei general Deng Ai.

After the end of the Hedong War in April, Shen Chen wrote a chapter to express his merits to the imperial court, and Deng Ai was the first to be promoted, from the miscellaneous general to the general of Anbei.

You must know that he is only 32 years old now, and at this age, he has been promoted to a high and powerful position, second only to the general, the hussar general, the chariot general, the general Wei and the Sifang general, and officially stepped into the ranks of senior generals of the Han Empire.

At this moment, everyone was sitting in the camp, and after Liu Xuan and the Huns met Shen Chen, he said with some complaints: "General, when we said that it was good, why did you attack Luoyang when the east and west attacked the Wei army?" ”

Shen Chen said in a deep voice: "Some of you Huns have told Cao Wei about your plan to defect, if I come again, what if you are coerced by Cao Wei and rebel again?" It's not that I don't trust you, but since I have a great army in my hands, I should be cautious, and I hope you will understand. ”

"But if the general had sent troops immediately, we would not have been taken captive to Luoyang."

Liu Bao complained again.

At that time, Liu Xuan asked Shen Chen to send troops immediately, but Shen Chen temporarily stood still on the grounds that the troops needed to rest and recuperate.

He knew that first, the Han army had just finished a big battle and really needed to rest, and second, Shen Chen did not trust the Huns, so he never sent troops, and wanted to wait for the Huns to rebel before acting.

As a result, there were also internal disagreements among the Huns, and some tribal leaders did not want to surrender to the Han and did not want to continue to follow Cao Wei, so they chose to take the tribesmen north, but they were caught by Cao Wei's lieutenant and military Sima, and the Huns' plan to surrender to the Han Dynasty was stabbed, which made the Huns very passive.

However, Shen Chen said: "If you don't secret, you will lose your ministers, and if you don't keep secrets, you will be harmful." I believe you should have heard this sentence, since you want to do great things, you should keep it secret, how can you gather many leaders to discuss? What's more, at that time, our army had just finished the battle and hastily raised its troops, if you didn't stick to the city frugally, you might not be able to take it, you should understand these truths. ”

Liu Bao and Liu Qubei were speechless, this is indeed right, after they listened to Liu Xuan's words, they needed the support of the rest of the small tribal leaders, so they told them about the matter, which led to the leakage of the news, so it seems that they have no sense of secrecy.

Liu Xuan said: "Governor, now that the matter has come to this, let's think of a way." We really want to return to the Han Dynasty, but now our families have been arrested and sent to Yecheng. ”

"What are you going to do with it?"

Shen Chen asked rhetorically.

Liu Xuan told him Wuqiujian's plan one by one.

Although Gaodu County is the seat of Shangdang County, it is already the limit for the city to accommodate 50,000 Wei troops, so more than 30,000 Xiongnu troops are stationed outside the city.

Wuqiu Jian asked Liu Bao and them to defect to Shen Chen, and then let the Xiongnu army be stationed next to the Han army, the Han army would definitely not guard against its allies, and the Huns suddenly launched an attack at night, so that the Han army would inevitably be in chaos.

At this time, if the Wei army goes out of the city to launch a surprise attack, it can defeat the Han army in one fell swoop, drive the Han army back to Hedong, and even kill Shen Chen with good luck and kill a large number of Han troops on the western front, then Hedong and even Guanzhong may be recovered by the Wei army, which can be described as a poisonous plan.

This kind of strategy of sending people to deceive surrender has emerged in an endless stream in the Chinese dynasties, the most classic is the battle of Sanchuankou between the Northern Song Dynasty and the Western Xia.

Li Yuanhao wanted to establish a country, he had to take the Song army to establish his authority, he asked some tens of thousands of Tubo tribes to pretend to surrender to the Song army guard Li Shibin, Li Shibin smiled proudly, but Li Yuanhao suddenly sent troops, and the Tubo soldiers who surrendered by fraud turned back on the spot, killed Li Shibin and laid the foundation for the founding of the Western Xia.

Therefore, the plan of deception is a common strategy in Chinese history.

After Shen Chen heard this, he thought for a while, and then said: "You are sincere to the Han, and after the Han calms the world, he will definitely not treat you badly." You should know that Cao Wei is already in the wane, if I destroy Wuqiu Jian and send troops to Yecheng, your family will still be saved, I hope you can understand this. ”

Liu Xuan gritted his teeth and said: "We are already mentally prepared to lose our family. ”

"Hmm."

Shen Chen nodded and said, "Then I will make a plan, accept your defection, let your camp be close to the Han army camp, find a suitable time, pretend to attack the camp in the middle of the night, and lure the Wei army out!" ”

"Yui!"

Liu Xuan and the others looked at each other and bowed.

It's the only way to go.

(End of chapter)