October, Wuhan.

Since autumn and winter, the temperature in the south has plummeted a lot, and the people of Beijing have changed into thick clothes one after another.

Early in the morning, Huo Jun got up early, washed and eaten, and then took a carriage to Shangshutai to take care of the major affairs of Shangshutai.

There is a distinction between the work functions of the Records of the Scholar and the Decree of the Secretary, and the Decree of the Scholar may appear to be the Secretary-General, responsible for the day-to-day and trivial work within the Scholar's Desk. When it comes to key and important work, Shang Shuling needs to be reported to the emperor or the person who recorded Shang Shu's affairs.

Pingshang Shushi, unlike Lushu Shushi, has the qualification to participate in major affairs, but not the qualification to decide on affairs.

In the present Southern Han Dynasty, Huo Jun and Zhuge Liang recorded the scholars; Ping Shang scholar, Xu Shu and Zhang Fei. Therefore, since Zhuge Liang led part of the expedition to the west of Taiwan, the major events in Shangshu Taizhong should be reported to Huo Jun.

When he arrived at Shangshutai, Huo Jun had a routine meeting, held a regular meeting with Shangshu Ling Sun Shao, and then browsed the letters sent by Zhuge Liang.

After Zhuge Liang entered Shu, the scattered Bashu Prefecture County seemed to be activated, first Wang Ping beheaded Huang Yuan and quelled the Hanjia Rebellion; Later, Wenshan Qiang was broken by Ma Zhong, and all the Qiang people surrendered.

During Zhuge Liang's stay in Chengdu, Corporal Lixian successively communicated with Li Hui, Ma Zhong, Zhang Wei and other Shuzhong heroes, and selected and recruited many outstanding heroes to enter the public government, or serve in Shangshu Taizhong.

For example, because of Ma Zhong's meritorious contribution to the pacification and barbarian strategy, he was promoted by Zhuge Liang beyond the ranks, and he was too guarded by the remote leader; The old Qianwei Taishou Wang Shi was unfortunately killed because of the barbarian offense. He Yi was valued by Zhuge Liang because of his outstanding talents, and was promoted to Qianwei Taishou.

Zhuge Liang stayed in Shuzhong for several months, and learned about the reality of Nanzhong from Li Yan, Li Hui, Ma Zhong and others. At Li Hui's suggestion, Zhuge Liang prepared to take advantage of the cold weather and the reduction of miasma and poisons in Nanzhong, and led his troops to conquer the four counties of Nanzhong.

Zhuge Liang joined the army with Li Hui and Ma Tan, and led an army of more than 20,000 people to the south to conquer Gaoding, the barbarian king of Yueshan County; Li Yan, the governor of Nanzhong, led 10,000 people to march south from Zhuti, aiming at Yizhou County; Ma Zhong, who was too guarded by Qiqi, led thousands of troops to the east, targeting Qiqi County.

In order to completely sweep away the unobedience to the southern barbarians, Zhuge Liang also asked Jiaozhou Thorn Shi Lu Dai to send Jiaozhi County soldiers to the west against the ridge road, solve the evil Yi entrenched in the south of Yizhou and Yueshan County, and converge with the army in Dianchi.

In addition to the upcoming southern expedition, Zhuge Liang did not forget the Jianghuai war, and asked how the battle was going, whether he would change his plan and send Bashu soldiers and horses out of the Three Gorges to participate in Wu Chu's war against Wei.

Seeing that Zhuge Liang was still thinking about the Jianghuai war, Huo Jun smiled heartily.

Huo Jun picked up the brush, considered it for a while, and then said in the letter that let Zhuge Liang rest assured that although the situation on the Jianghuai battlefield was not optimistic, it was at least still in his expectations.

And in the letter, Huo Jun asked Zhuge Liang to pay more attention to Yueshan County, saying that since the Middle Han Dynasty, Yueshan County has been abandoned, and it is difficult for officials to take office, which is different from Yizhou County, and suggested that Zhuge Liang send people who are good at appeasing barbarians to take office.

Huo Jun put the letter into a wooden box, sealed it with a seal clay, and said: "Come on, send the letter to Yizhou and hand it over to Ge Xiang!" ”

"No!"

Not long after the messenger received the order to retreat, Shang Shufu shot Fei Guan and hurriedly came and said, "Da Sima, there is an urgent letter from Jianghuai!" ”

"But the land car is sparse?" Huo Jun asked.

"In addition to the letter of land chariot riding, there is also a letter from Jiang Ji, the general of the Zuo Army!" Fei Guan replied.

"Zitong letters?"

Huo Jun chattered, and his brows couldn't help frowning slightly.

Jiang Ji was responsible for coordinating the Huaidong generals and obeyed Lu Xun's deployment in the army, so he was usually not negligent. Unless there is a tricky matter in the army that Lu Xun and he can't handle, or when Lu Xun's plan to use troops violates everyone, Jiang Ji will take on the responsibility of overseeing the army and go up to him.

With a bad feeling, Huo Jun opened the letters of Lu Xun and Jiang Ji successively.

First of all, Lu Xun wrote a letter, in which Lu Xun analyzed the current battlefield situation, saying that the morale of the Wei army was flourishing, and it was not easy to fight with it now, and the strong city should be used to destroy the morale of the Wei army. Later, when Han talked about Xiapicheng, Lu Xun did not explain his troops.

At the end of the letter, Lu Xun said that Xiapi and Zhongli could still hold on for a long time, and there was no need to take risks to rescue Xiapi, so he refused Huo Du's request to send troops, hoping that Huo Jun would understand him. And to ensure that Huo Yuzhi does not surrender, Xiapicheng will definitely be able to hold out until spring.

After reading Lu Xun's letters, Huo Jun already knew it in his heart. It must be because of whether to rescue Huo Yuzhi, Huo Du and Lu Xun have contradictions. One loves his son, and the other is military-oriented.

With a slight sigh, Huo Jun opened Jiang Ji's letter. Seeing that Jiang Ji told Huo Jun what happened from an objective point of view in his letter, and said that Huo Du would not use troops without authorization under his appeasement.

Seeing that Huo Jun's expression changed, Fei Guan asked, "Dare to ask Da Sima, I don't know what happened in the Jianghuai army?" But Xiapi and Zhongli are difficult to hold onto? ”

"Definitely!"

Huo Jun handed the letter to Fei Guan, understated it, and said: "It's just that because of the changes in the war on the front line, Bo Yan and his subordinates have a gap, and now there is a harmony between Zitong, so it should be no big problem!" ”

While Fei Guan was browsing the letters, Huo Jun walked to the map and pondered what Lu Xun said in the letter.

The goal of the Wei army was Huaidong, and they wanted to break Zhongli and Xiapi Ercheng, and then the two armies joined forces to go down to Huaiyin. As soon as Huaiyin is broken, the Wei army can sweep Huainan.

Although the city of Picheng is flooded today, there is an inner city that was repaired before, and with the men and horses in the hands of Huo You, in the face of the siege of Xiahou Shang, it is not a big problem to defend until spring. And once the main force of the Wei army is broken, Xiapi City does not need to be rescued, and there is no need for rescue, as Lu Xun said, its siege will be self-relieved.

On the Zhongli side, Cao Wei built a pontoon bridge based on Shaoyangzhou to connect the north and south of Huaishui, and more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians traveled through the pontoon bridge. In terms of the arrangement of the Wei army, Cao Ren and Cao Xiu besieged Zhongli City, Xiahou Rutun troops Shaoyangzhou, and Cao Hong was stationed in Huaibei.

According to Huo Jun's previous thoughts, he wanted to learn from Wei Rui's method of breaking the Northern Wei Dynasty, by occupying Shaoyangzhou and then cutting the Wei army, defeating the Wei army that ate Huainan, so as to achieve the effect of annihilation.

Now the Northern Wei of the Han Dynasty is more intelligent than the Xianbei Northern Wei Dynasty, or there is Liu Ye, a military advisor who is good at knowing the Jianghuai region, and the Wei army knows the importance of Shaoyangzhou, so it is tightly arranged.

Now, according to Lu Xun's reply, if you want to replicate Wei Rui's move to settle in Shaoyangzhou, I am afraid that it will not be possible to break the Northern Wei army. It is even said that once it settles in Shaoyangzhou, it will arouse the vigilance of the Wei army, and the Huainan Wei army may abandon Zhongli and directly retreat westward to Shouchun.

The situation between the enemy and us is different, which is destined to be the battle of Zhongli between Wei and Han, and the battle of Zhongli between Wei and Liang is different. Although the situation was different, Huo Jun never gave up the idea of fighting a war of annihilation.

The essence of a war of annihilation is to use the landscape and terrain on the battlefield to cut the enemy's army, and then use superior forces to encircle the enemy's army, so as to achieve the goal of annihilating the enemy's main force.

The reason why the Qin army led by Bai Qi was able to surround Zhao Kuo's army was that there were mountains and rivers in the Shangdang area, and Bai Qi first feinted to attract Zhao Kuo to pursue, and then through superior forces, interspersed with Zhao Kuo's back, so as to surround Zhao Kuo's main force, and then annihilate it in a battle.

"Huaishui!"

Huo Jun pointed to the Huai River on the map and muttered to himself in a low voice.

The Jianghuai region has the most water. Unless the water is very good, the vast majority of people cannot cross the river without boating. Those with excellent water quality are obviously not many in Cao Wei's army.

The most taboo thing about fighting across rivers is the lack of control over the river. For example, in modern warfare, there is a lack of air supremacy.

How to use the river to defeat the Wei army now is a difficult problem for Huo Jun.

Of course, what is more difficult is how to defeat the Wei army and lay a good start for the battle of Shouchun that was launched later.

Historically, after Wei Rui defeated the Wei army in Zhongli, Southern Liang did not conquer Shouchun, but it was not until twenty years later that Southern Liang broke through Shouchun City.

Not to mention twenty years now, Huo Jun can't even wait for five or six years. If we can't take advantage of the victory to pursue and further expand the victory, we can use Cao Wei's strength to delay it for a few years, and by squeezing the people, we can pull out more than 100,000 mobile troops.

Don't think it's impossible, after Shu Han experienced the Battle of Yiling in history, Zhuge Liang recuperated for five years, and pulled out the Northern Expedition with Shuzhong alone. Cao Wei's population is above that of Shu Han, with a vast territory, and the north has been peaceful for 20 years, so why not delay it for a few years and pull out dozens of troops.

Cao Wei has Hebei in his hands and can never be underestimated. After Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao, he was also defeated by Er Yuan. The Northern Wei Dynasty relied on Hebei to repeatedly launch southern expeditions, defeated the Southern Dynasty army, and occupied Henan Prefectures.

In order to quickly launch the Battle of Shouchun after defeating the Wei army, Huo Jun must consider the use of troops. As in the Battle of Chrysostom more than a decade ago, after defeating Cao Cao, he quickly occupied Nanjun instead of falling into the protracted Battle of Jiangling.

"Da Sima!"

Seeing Huo Jun's deep thought in the map, Fei Guan was cautious and said: "According to the letter, Zhongli's moat was filled, and the Wei army attacked the city with rushing cars and equipment. Now the enemy is outnumbered, and I am afraid that the two cities will be lost. It's better to send reinforcements and cavalry generals, so that they can contain the thief army, so that they can wait for the arrival of the big Sima soldiers! ”

Huo Jun shook his head and said, "Sima Yi led his troops to surround Fancheng, and in order to prevent thieves from raiding Xiakou, Jianghan soldiers and horses are unavailable. The soldiers and horses of the forbidden army of the Beijing Division are temporarily unavailable, and it is not the time to use force. ”

Now, if you draw troops and horses, you can let Zhuge Liang give up the southern expedition and let him lead his troops east to Huaiyin, but there are tens of thousands of miles from Bashu to Huaiyin, and it will take one to two months just to assemble and hurry, or even longer. When the Shu soldiers arrived at the front line, it was spring.

And the Bashu soldiers and horses are withdrawn, once the situation in Nanzhong deteriorates, or if there is another rebellion in Bashu, Bashu will have no troops available in the short term, and it will fall into chaos. For the sake of insurance, Huo Jun did not plan to transfer Bashu soldiers and horses, but let Zhuge Liang go south normally.

"Today, General Huo has more than two more than two mountains to carry, and there are no less than 100,000 people who have returned to the deep mountains. Now it is better to order Huo Fuyue to return to the mountains and go north, for the benefit of the soldiers. ”

Fei Guan pondered for a while, and suggested: "Or let Pang Dudu lead the Huaixi soldiers and horses eastward!" ”

"Huaixi soldiers and horses can't be used yet!"

Huo Jun paced and said hesitantly: "As for returning to Shanyue? ”

"It doesn't work!"

Huo Jun said in a firm tone: "The mountain people have just descended, how can they be in a hurry. Now send the mountain people to the north, and if there is a riot, they will harm the army. ”

"Then if Zhongli and Xiapi are broken because of the lack of soldiers, what should I do?" Fei Guan said worriedly.

"Jin Boyan has no intention of begging for soldiers and horses, so why worry about this!"

Huo Jun put his hand on his belt and said in a deep voice: "Lu Boyan, I know that he can do it!" ”

Compared with Fei Guan's questioning, Huo Jun believed more in the letter sent back by Lu Xun on the spot. He has the same point of view as Jia Xu, and Lu Xun knows the situation of the troops.

What is knowing the situation?

That is, Lu Xun's judgment of the situation between the enemy and the enemy can be said to be his strongest point!

(End of chapter)