Mi Han

Chapter 473
In October of the third year of Zhangwu in the Han Dynasty, outside Yelang County, Zangcang County.

I still remember that at the beginning of February, Deng Ai was ordered by Prime Minister Zhuge Liang to lead thousands of Liangzhou troops into Cang County to attack Zhu Bao.

But unfortunately, Deng Ai's army was infected with miasma as soon as it entered the range of Cang County.

Although the number of infected people was small, and even though Meng Huo, who was with the army, found a way to treat the miasma for the Liangzhou army in time, the combat effectiveness and morale of the Liangzhou army were still affected by this incident.

Under such unfavorable circumstances, Deng Ai's Five Thousand Liangzhou Army encountered a more difficult predicament.

Tens of thousands of Jiaozhou soldiers from Jiaozhou came to Zangcang County under the leadership of Shi Hui. Taking advantage of the unstable morale of Liangzhou army and declining combat effectiveness, relying on the advantages of numbers and geographical advantages, they gradually formed an encirclement trend against Liangzhou army.

The most important thing is Yu Fan who is beside Shi Hui, who proposed a strategy of "besieged on all sides" for Shi Hui.

Under the influence of this strategy, the morale of the Liangzhou army became even more depressed.

But fortunately, Liangzhou Army had two outstanding generals at that time——Deng Ai and Shi Bao.

After deliberation, Deng Ai and Shi Bao took a series of measures to stabilize people's hearts in a timely manner, and led the army to stick to the camp, which prevented the thousands of Liangzhou troops from falling into a desperate situation.

With the passage of time, the situation in Yelang County has undergone many changes.

The first change is that although Zhu Bao sent someone to block the road, fortunately Deng Ai sent a messenger in time, and a messenger finally broke through the encirclement and went to Yizhou County to ask Zhuge Liang for help.

After learning of the danger facing Deng Ai's army, Zhuge Liang was shocked.

He had thought that Sun Quan would secretly assist the Nanzhong rebels, but he did not expect that Sun Quan would dispatch so many troops and be so blatant!
After Zhuge Liang was shocked, Dang even changed his tactics.

Since Yong Kai had just suffered a big defeat, Zhuge Liang decided to give up attacking Yizhou County for the time being.

He immediately led nearly ten thousand Han troops who had just entered Yizhou County to Zangcai County to help Deng Ai.

Zhuge Liang knew very well that Deng Ai's army had to make mistakes, otherwise the entire Nanzhong counter-insurgency situation would be reversed.

But no matter how worried he was, the terrain in Nanzhong was steep and difficult, and the marching speed of Zhuge Liang's army was still greatly affected by it.

By the time Zhuge Liang led Yelang County, one month had passed since Deng Ai asked him for help.

In the past month, Deng Ai has been fighting hard almost every few days.

But thanks to the strict discipline of the Liangzhou Army and Deng Ai's good command, the thousands of Liangzhou Army did not suffer a fatal blow within this month.

And the news of Zhuge Liang's arrival of the army was quickly known by Shi Hui.

When he heard the news, Shi Hui asked Yu Fan for his plan. Yu Fan, who was well versed in the art of war, did not disappoint Shi Hui. Let go of the encirclement to the west.

This is the method of encircling three and missing one, which can not only reduce the fighting spirit of the Han army, but also prevent the Jiaozhou army in the west from being caught in a pincer situation.

Shi Hui had also read the Art of War, and Yu Fan's suggestion made him feel very suitable for the current war situation, so he followed Yu Fan's suggestion.

Because Shi Hui deliberately let go of the encirclement, Zhuge Liang's army was able to smoothly enter the heart of Yelang County and join Deng Ai's army.

And when the two Han armies join forces, it means that the Han army has the strength to fight the enemy.

However, Zhuge Liang was cautious by nature, or he had other plans in his mind. Facing the generals' invitation to fight, Zhuge Liang did not agree.

In the next few months, Zhuge Liang only did two things:

The first thing is to send Shi Bao back to Liangzhou to report a letter to Mi Yang.

If the first thing people don't think is strange, then the second thing Zhuge Liang did is just incomprehensible.

On the one hand, Zhuge Liang did not allow the generals to take the initiative to fight, and on the other hand, he did not lead the Han army to retreat slowly to Yuexi County.

He didn't seem to know that there were tens of thousands of enemy troops a few miles away, so he quietly led the Han army to station outside Yelang County, and spent his days just raising soldiers and teaching martial arts.

Not only the generals of the Han army couldn't understand the second thing Zhuge Liang did, but even Shi Hui and Yu Fan were puzzled.

Based on Zhuge Liang's previous achievements, he is not what the rumors say - he only knows about internal affairs.

Although Zhuge Liang's record is not as impressive as Mi Yang's, he is still a man who knows how to fight.

But it is precisely this kind of person who knows soldiers, but makes operations that other people who know soldiers can't understand at all.

There are only two possibilities in this situation: either Zhuge Liang's strategy exceeds them too much, or Zhuge Liang is just directing blindly.

At the beginning, Shi Hui and Yu Fan felt that Zhuge Liang might be cheating, so they also adopted the same tactic as Zhuge Liang, who did not move.

But as time went by, Shi Hui, who wanted to compare his patience with Zhuge Liang, couldn't hold back.

For several months, Zhuge Liang had been standing still and sent troops to challenge his camp. Zhuge Liang also refused to fight on the grounds that he could not understand the language and could not understand what the enemy was cursing.

Shi Hui cannot be said to be impulsive and impatient, but he is ambitious.

Shi Hui knew that his purpose of coming here was to defeat the Han army and become famous all over the world. How could he defeat the Han army that had never fought?
Do you want to continue to storm the Han army camp?

When this idea came to mind, Shi Hui naturally dismissed it without Yu Fan's dissuasion.

At the beginning, there were only a few thousand Liangzhou troops guarding the camp, but his tens of thousands of troops could not attack, and instead lost a lot of soldiers and horses.

Now that the Han army has tens of thousands of troops, it is even more impossible to take down the Han army camp by means of a fierce attack.

After getting rid of this idea in his mind, Shi Hui, who felt that he could not do anything to the Han army, would inevitably become restless.

So he thought of Yu Fan again.

There was nothing Yu Fan could do about the current situation, but under Shi Hui's urging, Yu Fan finally came up with a plan.

He came to the conclusion that Zhuge Liang might not have other plans, and it was precisely because Zhuge Liang had no plans that he had no choice but to adopt the tactic of standing still.

After judging this point, Yu Fan had a new strategy in mind.

He suggested to Shi Hui that since Zhuge Liang made up his mind to stand still, Shi Hui could take this opportunity to contact Zhu Bao and Yong Kai, and ask them to mobilize more soldiers and horses to besiege the Han army again.

If Zhuge Liang sensed the danger and retreated before several armies encircled him, then Shi Hui could use the favorable location to attack the retreating Han army.

If Zhuge Liang still sticks to the camp and is indifferent to external affairs, then after several armies surround Zhuge Liang's army, the morale of Zhuge Liang's army will definitely be shaken.

At that time, their fighters will come.

After Shi Hui thought about Yu Fan's strategy, he felt that Yu Fan's strategy did have merit.

Shi Hui was also a decisive person. After deciding to adopt Yu Fan's strategy, he quickly sent messengers to contact Zhu Bao and Yong Kai.

In the previous wars, due to the enthusiasm of Shi Hui, Zhu Bao has been preserving his strength.

After receiving Shi Hui's letter, Zhu Bao originally wanted to reject Shi Hui's request, but he thought that Shi Hui was his ally, and the current Zang Cang County cannot do without Shi Hui's help, not to mention that in Zhu Bao's view, Shi Hui The idea also has a high probability of success.

If he could use this battle to defeat the Han army, then Zhu Bao would be very happy.

As for Yong Kai, let alone, he had just lost to Zhuge Liang a few months ago, and he has been looking for opportunities to take revenge because of his sinister nature.

Now that the opportunity came, and with the backing of powerful allies, Yong Kai had no reason not to agree to Shi Hui's request.

So not long after, Zhu Bao and Yong Kai respectively led troops to outside Yelang County.

Among the two, because Zhu Bao has been preserving his strength, the army he brought has eight thousand people, which is his entire family property.

Compared with Zhu Bao, Yong Kai, who had just lost a big battle, really didn't have too many troops. This time he only led [-] troops to the outside of Yelang County.

Of course, although the number is not as large as Zhu Bao's, the three thousand army can be regarded as the last reliance in Yong Kai's hands.

It can be said that for this battle, Shi Hui, Zhu Bao, and Yong Kai all took out all the cards in their hands one after another.

Shi Hui was overjoyed when he learned that Zhu Bao and Yong Kai had led an army to help.

Even though the army brought by Yong Kai was not many, but now the three parties are working together, and the total force has exceeded [-].

It is still difficult for an army of more than [-] to break through the Han army camp, but it is not a big problem to use the geographical advantage to surround the Han army again.

So at the end of October in the third year of Zhangwu in the Han Dynasty, the Han army in Yelang County fell into the siege of the rebels again.

It seems that for a while, the besieged situation faced by the Han army half a year ago is about to be staged again.

In order to further attack the morale of the Han army, Shi Hui not only spread rumors outside Yelang County, but also spread the news that Zhuge Liang's army was surrounded by groups in several nearby counties loyal to the Han army.

Judging from the current situation, this news can be regarded as fact.

So when the news spread, it reached Liu Bei's ears soon after, arousing his anxiety and worry.

But no matter how eager Liu Bei is, what's the use of worrying?

At present, the big man has no generals to use, let alone soldiers to adjust. All Liu Bei can do is to believe in Zhuge Liang.

And when this situation, which seemed very dangerous to outsiders, happened, what was Zhuge Liang, the commander-in-chief of the South Central Han Army, doing?

He was staring at the map in the big tent.

Today's night is very dark, and the entire Han army camp is plunged into darkness except for the necessary locations that are illuminated by torches.

This thick darkness seemed to herald the future situation of the Han army, and tens of thousands of Han troops were a little breathless.

However, in this vast and dense darkness, there is a ray of light that always exists.

The bright light came from the candlelight in Zhuge Liang's big tent.

It is also this light that left a hope in the hearts of tens of thousands of Han soldiers.

How did Zhuge Liang never know that under the current situation, what kind of turmoil will the morale of the Han army face?
Or this situation was something he had anticipated in advance.

After all, the current situation facing the Han army has a direct relationship with him as the commander-in-chief of the army.

In the past days, it is not that no generals have made suggestions to Zhuge Liang. They hope that the Han army will either retreat to Yuexi County in time, or defeat Shihui's troops before the enemy's army encircles them.

But Zhuge Liang rejected all these pertinent suggestions in their view.

And Zhuge Liang's attitude of refusal was very firm.

Zhuge Liang never hoped that anyone could understand the plan in his heart. It is always hard to find a bosom friend in high mountains and flowing waters.

Due to his firm will, Zhuge Liang was not affected by the fact that the morale of the Han army had declined due to the doubts of the crowd.

During this period of time, he didn't even hold a meeting. He just quietly observed the terrain outside Yelang County in the big tent.

With Zhuge Liang's wise eyes, following the movement of the candle in his hand, he observed the past on the map of Yelang County bit by bit.

Yelang County has a special geographical location. It is just at the intersection of the main roads of Yuexi County, Yizhou County and Cang County.

This made Yelang County a battleground for military strategists in this Southern Expedition.

If not, the three rebels would not have thought about trying their best to wipe out the Han army outside Yelang County.

But even though Yelang County is very important to the three counties, the development of Yelang County for hundreds of years has not been good due to the economic backwardness of Nanzhong.

Yelang County is surrounded by dense mountains, and there are only three main roads connecting the three counties outside the county.

This is also the most important reason why the three-way rebels were able to encircle the Han army.

You don't need too many soldiers and horses, you only need to send heavy troops to guard these three main roads, and all the outlets of the Han army will be blocked.

Even today, Zhuge Liang already knows the terrain outside Yelang County like the palm of his hand.

The more he understands, the more confident Zhuge Liang is in the plan in his heart.

And at this moment, Yang Yi suddenly walked in from outside the tent.

When Yang Yi came in, he saw that Zhuge Liang was working late at night, looking at the map and working on state affairs, and a look of worry appeared on his face.

"Prime Minister, the night is getting dark, go to bed early!"

Zhuge Liang turned around after hearing Yang Yi's voice, facing Yang Yi's worry, Zhuge Liang just smiled lightly.

He didn't respond to Yang Yi's worry, but asked softly, "Has he left yet?"

When asking this sentence, Zhuge Liang was not idle, he returned to his seat and continued to deal with military affairs on the book case.

Seeing that Zhuge Liang didn't listen to his dissuasion, the worry on Yang Yi's face became more and more serious.

But he also knew that he couldn't persuade Zhuge Liang.

Yang Yi quickly answered Zhuge Liang's question: "Lieutenant Deng has been waiting since early morning and has never left."

Hearing what Yang Yi said, Zhuge Liang hummed noncommittally.

Deng Ai begged to see him early in the morning, and Zhuge Liang knew what Deng Ai's purpose was for begging to see him.

But because there were still some details in the plan in his mind that needed to be considered, Zhuge Liang did not meet him.

Originally, I thought that Deng Ai might leave in the near future, but what I didn't expect was that Deng Ai had been waiting until now.

A few hours ago, Zhuge Liang had told Yang Yi that if Deng Ai hadn't left at this time, he would come and tell him—even if he was already asleep.

Deng Ai's persistence made Zhuge Liang feel more and more that he is a talented person.

Zhuge Liang then raised his head and said to Yang Yi: "Call him in."

Zhuge Liang's words made Yang Yi walk out of the big tent after bowing.

After Yang Yi left, Zhuge Liang looked at the empty tent, and he couldn't help pulling on the cold cloak on his body.

He is also a human being, how could he not feel the cold and fatigue?

But he is the prime minister of the big man!
At this time Zhuge Liang thought of Shi Bao who had left a few months ago, and he thought that Shi Bao might have already brought his letter to Mi Yang.

In the letter he asked Shi Bao to bring to Mi Yang, in addition to asking about the situation in the northern border and his views on Wei Jun, he also said emphatically:

"At the end of the year at the latest, you must win as a teacher, just wait a little while, and let me help you."

Thinking of this, Zhuge Liang let out a long breath.

The end of the year has come, and it's time for the Nanzhong battle!

(End of this chapter)