I am not an ant thief in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 618, Hanzhong is not guaranteed

Liu Bei led the army to support Zoumaling, which made Wei Yan and Liu Pan very happy. During this time, they sent Liu Bei a message for help. They don't need reinforcements. They just want artillery. The artillery will not come for a while, but there is Feilei Cannons are also available.

During this period of time, they were bombed miserably. If Liu Shi's gunpowder hadn't been bombed by Wei Yan in advance, they might not have been able to wait for Liu Bei's reinforcements in their camp on Zoumaling.

But now that Liu Bei is here, they want to fight back and bomb Liu Shi's camp with artillery, but it is difficult for Liu Bei to meet this request. Now he only has a batch of lightweight flying thunder cannons in his hands, which are his. The trump card is naturally impossible for Liu Pan and Wei Yan to vent their anger!
And Liu Shi knew that Liu Bei brought an army of 5 to support Wei Yan and the others, facing twice the enemy's strength, plus Liu Pan and Wei Yan's tenacious defense.Liu Shi was also worried that his army would be encircled and suppressed by Liu Bei, so he retreated to Yangping Pass, waiting for the arrival of reinforcements from his rear.

After Liu Shi retreated, Wei Yan and Liu Pan came to meet Liu Bei!

When Liu Bei saw the two of them, he immediately asked, "How many people did Liu Shi bring, and are there any reinforcements?"

Now that Liu Shi is guarding Yangping Pass, he is the one who is in trouble. If Yangping Pass is not taken back, Hanzhong will be in a state of wide open. Although Liu Bei does not want to admit it, he also knows that there is no geographical advantage, and he will fight head-on with the big army. Your army can't beat the big army!
Wei Yan immediately said: "Liu Shi brought an army of 3 troops, all of whom are the elite of the Xiliang Army, and about 1000 cavalry." Then he said a little ashamedly: "Although my subordinates brought a large army to fight Liu Shi for many days, but Liu Shi has the advantage of artillery, coupled with the low morale of the Hanzhong army, the weak combat power did not cause much casualties to Liu Shi's army!"

Liu Pan also said helplessly: "Now our army wants to recapture Yangping Pass and defeat Liu Shi. Without the support of artillery, it is extremely difficult!"

Liu Bei looked at Yangping Pass not far away and said helplessly: "No matter how difficult it is, we must take Yangping Pass back, otherwise Hanzhong will be very difficult to hold!"

The next day, Liu Bei brought 6 troops to Yangping Pass and set up camp. Liu Shi of Yangping Pass also took advantage of this time to repair Yangping Pass, and built a large number of fortifications around Yangping Pass. , [-] people were arranged to form an arc-shaped position. In the past, Liu Shi enjoyed the treatment of attacking from three sides. Now it is Liu Bei's turn to enjoy it.

After Liu Bei led his personal guards to patrol Yangping Pass, his face showed bitterness. The Dagan army has artillery. If he dares to attack Yangping Pass directly, he will be attacked by artillery from three sides. But if he wants to attack the camp outside Yangping Pass, the mountain situation will determine Their attack is as difficult as ever!
But no matter how difficult it is, Liu Bei still has to fight!
After the two sides rested for three days, Liu Bei led an army of 6 troops through Yangping Pass in an overwhelming force, and Liu Shi kept Yangping Pass airtight.The mortar battalion opened fire violently, and the Hanzhong army suffered heavy casualties. At this time, Liu Bei fought back with flying thunder cannons. Liu Shi didn't have much gunpowder in his hands. For a while, Liu Bei's side fired more fiercely on the battlefield. Liu Bei concentrated his forces I want to knock down the camp outside Yangping Pass.

But Liu Shi did not give Liu Bei this chance. Whenever there was a crisis in the camp on the mountain, Liu Shi would open the gate of Yangping Pass, and Ma Chao would lead 1000 cavalry to fight out. It is said that half of the soldiers in Liu Bei's army have been recruits in the army for less than 3 months, and the current offensive depends on the large number of people.

But in the face of the tide-like cavalry attack, these soldiers have no experience at all, and it is often Ma Chao who leads the cavalry to charge, and the morale of the soldiers of the Hanzhong Army directly collapses like this!

Wei Yan, who was so frustrated with the army, led the supervisory team and kept yelling in the rear: "Kill me back, you run back, kill faster, if you don't want to die, face the enemy head-on!"

But Wei Yan's yelling was useless. The army should collapse or collapse. Even if he killed people, he couldn't stop it. If it weren't for Liu Bei's large number of people, Liu Shi was worried that Ma Chao would be surrounded by the Han army, and he would kill the Han army every time. , Liu Shi asked Ma Chao to come back, fearing that under the leadership of these defeated troops, Liu Bei's main army was in danger of collapsing.

When Liu Shi saw the brave Ma Chao and Xiliang iron cavalry, Liu Shi regretted it: "If I knew Yangping Pass would be so easy to fall, I should have brought more cavalry, otherwise Liu Bei would have been killed by me! "

When Liu Shi led the army to attack Hanzhong, he knew that there were many mountains in Hanzhong, and the main force in the battle was infantry. He felt that the cavalry was not very useful, and one horse could eat more than ten people. After all, Xiliang was not a grain-producing area. It was extremely difficult to transport food and grass from Xiliang. In order to save food and grass, Liu Shi only brought 1000 cavalry to be used as vanguards and scouts, but he did not expect that it was his own idea that made him miss the opportunity to defeat Liu Bei!

But now I can only regret it like this. After fighting for half a month, the [-] troops from Yizhou finally came to Hanzhong. Zhang Ren brought Liu Bei not only the elite army from Yizhou, but also There are hundreds of artillery pieces, so that for the first time, the Han army has an artillery advantage over the Dagan army!
Naturally, Liu Bei couldn't let go of such an opportunity. He now has an army of 10, three times the strength advantage, and even long-range weapons are his advantage, so Liu Bei pushed the artillery to Yangping Pass, wanting to make Liu Shi also suffer. The taste of an artillery bombardment!

Liu Shi naturally knew that the artillery was powerful. After seeing Liu Bei launch the artillery, he immediately ordered Ma Chao to lead the cavalry to fight and destroy the artillery positions in Hanzhong.

On the battlefield, Ma Chao led thousands of cavalry, protruding left and right, unstoppable. Any army formation in front of Ma Chao would hardly be able to resist a stick of incense. I am afraid that thousands of cavalry like Ma Chao may really rush in front of the artillery battalion!

Even if Ma Chao failed to complete the task, the cavalry he led had greatly killed the Han army, making it difficult for Liu Bei's artillery to exert its power. The generals of the Han army were naturally unwilling to watch Ma Chao show off his prestige like this when they saw this scene.

Especially the generals who came from Yizhou. They originally joined Liu Bei. The generals of the Yizhou army in the Han army camp were excluded. It was the best time for them to make contributions, and Ma Chao became their biggest obstacle.

At this time, Lei Tong rushed out with his personal guards and shouted: "Ma Chao, you unfilial son, your father Ma Teng was beheaded by Lei Gong, and you still have the face to join the general army. You are selling your father for glory. How can people still have the nerve to live in this world, if I can't kill Lei Gong, I will kill myself!"

Hitting people is no longer slapping people in the face, and Lei Tong's words are stabbing Ma Chao's heart. How could he not know that Lei Gong is his enemy, and it was the first time he fought with Lei Gong back then with his father, but he didn't expect this The defeat in the battle was so tragic that his Ma family was almost wiped out by the big army.

If the difference in strength between the two sides is not too big, Ma Chao may still have the mentality of revenge, but the gap between the two sides is too big. His father Ma Teng did not dare to occupy a county when he was the strongest, but Lei Gong has already become the leader of the world. The number one vassals are now going to dominate the world.

With such a big gap, how could he regard Lei Gong as his enemy? This is not taking the Ma family to death. His mother told Ma Chao when Ma Chao was in the army, don’t want to take revenge, but make contributions in the hands of Lei Gong peacefully. , revive the Ma family, and Ma Chao is not ignorant of good and evil, knowing that Lei Gong did not kill him is already a great kindness to the Ma family, so naturally he will not have other ideas.

But this time Lei Tong's words not only stabbed the knife, but also easily made the generals of the big army doubt him and affect his future. This Ma Chao can bear it!He immediately led the cavalry in the direction of Thunder Copper!

Lei Tong was overjoyed when he saw Ma Chao approaching. If he could annihilate Dagan's cavalry, killing Ma Chao would be a great achievement!It's a pity that he underestimated Ma Chao's strength, and the Yizhou army had no experience in dealing with Xiliang iron cavalry. The Yizhou army led by Lei Tong was not much stronger than the Hanzhong army when facing Ma Chao and his own Xiliang iron cavalry.

In this way, Ma Chao led the cavalry all the way to the weak point of the Yizhou army like chopping waves and rushing in. Ma Chao went straight to Lei Tong and roared: "The enemy will die!"

Lei Tong panicked in the face of Ma Chao who suddenly appeared in front of him, and died under Ma Chao's knife without resisting for a round.

Ma Chao cut Lei Tong under his horse with a single knife, and Lei Tong's personal guards and Yizhou Army troops collapsed immediately after seeing their coach killed.

Seeing this scene, Liu Bei felt helpless and said, "If my second and third younger brothers were here, this Ma Chao wouldn't be so presumptuous." (Yuan Shao: Liu Xuande, you actually stole my lines!)
And this is also the true thought in Liu Bei's heart. Most of the generals who took the head of the Wanjun were done by their generals of the Han army, and there are several in Liu Bei's hands who can do this.

It is a fact that the fighting power of the big army has been strengthened, and the soldiers are elite, but Lei Gong does not have any famous generals in his hands. In war, he does not rely on the large number of people, or relies on the superiority of equipment, and in the end, he relies on artillery bombing. Unconvinced, as long as the Han army has the same conditions as the Dagan army, he has the confidence to defeat any general in the Dagan army except Lei Gong!

Of course, he is still very convinced of Lei Gong Liu Bei. After all, the three brothers were defeated by Lei Gong when they were fledglings. He knew that Lei Gong was the best in the world in terms of martial arts and commanding the army!
Liu Bei's words made Wei Yan beside him unhappy, he said: "At the end of the day, I will take Ma Chao's head and present it to the general!"

After finishing speaking, Wei Yan led his personal guards to surround and kill Ma Chao!

But at this time, Liu Shi, who was closed in Yangping, was worried about Ma Chao's comfort, and sent a battalion of troops to take Ma Chao back to Yangping, so Wei Yan could only watch Ma Chao leave in disappointment.

Time passed like this day by day. Although Liu Bei launched fierce attacks on Yangping Pass many times, Liu Shi kept it tight. Liu Bei's 10 troops only destroyed some camps outside Yangping Pass. The Han army didn't even climb the city wall once!
A month later, Han Sui led the 2 Xiliang Army to feel Yangping Pass to support Liu Shi. At this time, Liu Bei began to realize that it might be difficult for him to capture Yangping Pass!
Liu Bei decisively ordered to stop attacking Yangping Pass.But the army did not retreat, but tried to dig trenches, hoard food and grass, reorganize the army, and familiarize themselves with the terrain in order to accumulate strength.

Liu Bei was still unwilling to give up his plan to repel Liu Shi, but kept ordering Yizhou to send troops, and at the same time ordered Yang Song and others to keep transporting food and grass to the front line.

For Liu Bei, the transportation of grain may be his only advantage. It takes only more than 200 miles to transport grain from Hanzhong to his camp. However, no matter which front the main army wants to transport grain and grass to the front line, they have to go through a long journey. Thousands of miles of grain roads require hundreds of thousands of people to help transport grain!

At this time, Yuan Ji, Jian Yong, Huangfu Hong and others also came to Hanzhong. They took over the government affairs of Hanzhong, and at the same time helped Liu Bei make suggestions and find ways to deal with the enemies of the Dagan army.But these people came to help Liu Bei solve a lot of military problems, but they couldn't change the passive situation of the Han army on the battlefield!
Yangping Pass, the camp of the Han army!

Huangfu Hong hurriedly said to Liu Bei: "General, General Zilong came to report that Zhang Baiqi, who attacked from Chencang, was about to break through the entire Chencang Road and enter Hanzhong. General Zilong asked us for help! There is also General Huang Zhong from Ziwu Valley. , General Chen Dao and General Wenpin of Baoxie Road, they are almost unable to support them!"

In order to defeat Liu Shi, the main force of Liu Bei's army was on the front line of Yangping Pass, but facing the 10 troops in Guanzhong, he could only let Zhao Yun and others lead a battalion of troops to rely on the mountain to resist the attack of Zhang Baiqi and others , but the difference in military strength and combat effectiveness between the two sides is too large, and it cannot be offset by geographical advantage!After more than two months of fierce fighting, the Guanzhong 4th Route Army has almost entered Hanzhong from Guanzhong!
Liu Bei looked at Yang Song, and now the forces that can still send a large army can only count on the nobles in Hanzhong.

But at this time, Yang Song said with a bitter face: "General, it's not that we don't want to support you, but that Hanzhong really has no more troops now!"

Hanzhong only has a population of about 50. Of course, adding people from powerful families may increase it by 10%. The young and strong in Hanzhong were wiped out, and now Yang Song and the others have to find women to transport grain and grass to Liu Bei. From this, it can be seen that Hanzhong's human resources have been exhausted by this war.

At this time, Yuan Ji also persuaded: "General, with the current situation in Hanzhong, it is difficult for our army to maintain the offensive. It is better to let Zilong and the others retreat. We rely on the advantage of Micang Mountain to block the attack of the Dagan army. To stretch the grain roads of the Dagan Army, the Dagan Army would have to walk two thousand miles to transport grain and grass to Hanzhong, and they were all difficult mountain roads surrounded by mountains, but we only need a few hundred miles to transport Yizhou. The grain transported to Hanzhong, not to mention that Hanzhong itself has a large amount of grain, enough for us to eat for more than a year, we are fighting a war of attrition with the big army in Hanzhong, and the advantage is on our side!"

(End of this chapter)