Three Kingdoms: I am not Cao Rui

Man Chong sighed when he heard this: "Your Majesty is wise, and I think the same."

"Yangzhou and Jingzhou are no longer in danger from the current situation. Sun Quan has lost his offensive fulcrum, and Chen Situ has successfully built a city in Ruxu. From now on, we can rely on the city to fight against the Wu army."

"My only concern is Chencang."

Cao Rui raised his eyebrows slightly: "Food?"

Man Chong nodded: "Food and grass!"

Cao Rui, however, did not seem to be worried, and shook his head calmly: "Do your best and leave the rest to fate. This also applies to war."

"The food and grass situation of the Qinzhou armies is a foregone conclusion. It is too late to transport them from Henan, and we can no longer forcibly requisition food from the military farms and the people in Guanzhong. This is the Taihe period, not the Xingping period."

The corner of Man Chong's mouth twitched slightly, he swallowed, and forcibly suppressed the desire to speak.

A face of an old friend appeared in my mind: Cheng Yu, Cheng Zhongde.

Your Majesty, why are your words so sharp?
What else was there about grain and grass during the Xingping period? Man Chong could only think of the grain collection during the food shortage in Yanzhou. At that time, Man Chong was still a young official with the ambition to help the world. He had just been recruited by Cao Cao as an official, but when he learned that Cheng Yu had made meat jerky out of his fellow villagers, he almost vomited bile.

Cao Rui did not pay attention to Man Chong's facial expression, but continued:

"In terms of generals, the Wei Dynasty has four people in Guanxi: the general, Zhang Zhengxi, Guo Zhengshu, and Lu Huqiang. In terms of military strength, I have also sent 10,000 cavalrymen of the Yulin Right Army to the general. In terms of trust, I have also let Master Wei serve as the guard of Guanzhong."

Cao Rui finally turned around and said, "To be fair, General Man, I have done everything I should do. All that is left is to take all the central troops to Qinzhou. But the food and grass there cannot be fully supplied. If I go alone, can I command better than the general, Zhang Junyi, and Lu Boyan?"

Liu Ye said at this time: "Your Majesty is right. If Zhuge Liang returns without success this time, the decline of Wu and Shu will be unavoidable."

"Yes." Cao Rui sighed: "I also want to accumulate national strength and rest with the people. It's not that I want to fight, but Sun Quan and Zhuge Liang have invaded too much."

"I and you will just wait for the general's results in Guanxi."

"I will definitely report victory." Liu Ye said softly.

The few of them walked and talked like this until they entered the study. Cao Rui was writing or stopping behind the desk. Half an hour later, he finally drafted the letter to Sun Quan and then stamped it with his private seal.

"Mr. Liu, please come closer."

Liu Ye understood what he meant and stepped forward to help Cao Rui fold the letter and put it into the envelope.

Cao Rui said slowly: "The letter I asked Cao Tai to give to Sun Quan a few days ago contained words to persuade Sun Quan to surrender."

"According to the current situation in Xiangyang, if Sun Quan insisted on stationing troops outside Xiangyang, I could still respect his ambition. But he withdrew his troops to Jiangbei at night and found a position that couldn't be more secure. I have no choice but to look down on him."

Liu Ye put away the letter, held it in both hands and walked back to his seat. Seeing Man Chong and others staring at the letter in Liu Ye's hand, Cao Rui continued:
"This letter is the last one between me and Sun Quan. I will no longer write to him from now on. I have made it clear to him that he can do whatever he wants in Jiangdong and Wuchang. If he insists on usurping the throne, I will no longer stop him. I only hope that when the day comes for reckoning, he and the Fuchun Sun family will be able to bear the price."

"Liu Qing, please send it out."

"I obey your order." Liu Ye responded seriously.

……

Qinzhou, Wudu County.

As the distance between Wei Yan and Zhuge Liang's armies continued to shorten, the communication time was shortened to several hours. Compared with the current battlefield of Xiabian and the Wei army divided into two parts, it was like controlling one's own arm.

By the time Zhang He led his army to ten miles east of the narrow mountain, Wei Yan had been waiting there for several days.

Zhang He did not move forward, but instead found a place nearby with good mountains and water sources and set up camp there.

"Have the scouts already explored the area?" Zhang He asked calmly, sitting in the middle of the military tent. Chen Ping knew Zhang He's usual style of doing things, so he bowed and replied, "Mr. Zhang, we have already explored the area twice, and there is no danger."

Zhang He nodded and turned to look at Lu Xun and Li Yan: "I want to lead my troops to the front line to check the terrain. Boyan and Zhengfang should also go with me."

"Yes."

"As ordered."

Every detail on the battlefield could determine the life or death of tens of thousands of troops. For an excellent commander, personally checking the geographical terrain is a common basic skill.

A hundred knights guarded the three men and arrived three miles away from the Shu army camp.

Scouts had already found a high place for observation, and Zhang He and his party also walked slowly forward. It seems not quite right to say that they found it, because there are still some traces of battle on the ground here, and the weapons and armor have been brought back as trophies, but on the ground covered with a thin layer of snow, the bloodstains are always hard to hide, and this should be what the scouts snatched from the Shu army.

The three of them looked towards the west and saw the Shu army camp in the distance. They all stared at it in silence.

Li Yan was not as good, but he was also a man who knew military strategy. Zhang He and Lu Xun were even more skilled in military strategy, but faced with the defensive terrain of the Shu army, they were also in trouble for a while.

The name of Xiashan is narrow, and the terrain characteristics are self-evident. The main road from the west to Xiabian on the east side is a valley in the mountain, and the valley will pass through a ridge. The camp of the Shu army here is built on the mountain, located at the highest point of the ridge. With this as the center, it stretches to the mountains on both sides like two arms outstretched.

The most feared thing in a field battle is to attack from above. Attacking the Shu army's already built defense line from above in the mountains of Qinzhou is even more difficult. If the enemy is an ordinary third-rate general, the morale of the whole army can be used to push forward, and the enemy's morale may be defeated in one go.

But on the opposite side was Wei Yan, and the 8,000 soldiers under Wei Yan were the elite troops under Zhuge Liang.

If we force our soldiers to attack regardless of the situation, it would be tantamount to throwing away their lives for no reason.

Li Yan remained silent, Zhang He also did not speak, so Lu Xun had to cough lightly to break the silence.

"General Zhang," Lu Xun asked slowly, "Although I don't know all the geography of this place, I also know that it is not advisable to attack from above in winter. Can we bypass this narrow mountain and find another passage to attack Wei Yan from behind?"

Zhang He glanced at Lu Xun, confirmed that Lu Xun was not joking, and said the answer he had in mind:

"If we go too far, even if Wei Yan doesn't move, Zhuge Liang can dispatch troops to annihilate this group. If we go too close, the enemy will definitely find us, and it will be meaningless."

"Then we must attack by force." Lu Xun spread his hands and said, "The general issued a clear order yesterday, ordering us to capture the narrow mountain within ten days and advance eastward when the opportunity arises."

"How about setting fire? This mountain is densely forested. Although the fire is difficult to control, there is no better way."

Zhang He and Li Yan looked at Lu Xun at the same time.

Lu Xun was the most experienced of the three in this kind of attack in the mountains and forests. In the past, when Lu Xun was facing Liu Bei who had set up camp on the mountain, he used fire to disperse the exhausted Shu army. Lu Xun already had a very standard set of practical procedures for burning forests.

Determine the wind direction, prepare ignition materials, choose the right time to set fire, how to attack after setting fire, how to find the enemy in the chaos...

Lu Xun had the richest practical combat experience of this era.

But soon, this proposal was rejected by Zhang He.

"We can't set fire." Zhang He said in a deep voice: "Bo Yan, I know you are good at this, but setting fire depends on the weather and the terrain. It's easy to start a fire, but it's hard to say when it will go out. If the fire doesn't go out for many days, not only will it force the Shu army to retreat, but it will also cut off our path to the general. What will happen?"

"This is too risky. I can't do it."

Lu Xun said quietly, "Then we have no choice but to attack by force. General Zhang, why don't we send two thousand men to test the quality of the Shu army today? We can decide on the military strategy later."

"Okay, I'll go and give the order to Yin Jian." Zhang He replied. (End of this chapter)