The elite did not migrate south

Chapter 510: Strike first to gain the upper hand

The terrain of Shu Kingdom is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

The pass here, viewed from the north, is very steep, and some places are even a broken wall.

This brings great difficulties to the attacking side.

This is the case from Yangping Pass to Jiange, and the terrain of Jiange is the best among them.

This is truly an excellent defensive location.

But now the Wei State is using its absolute advantage to defeat the Shu State. Its main forces are in three directions. The Shu State cannot stop it with its weak military force even if it has strong checkpoints.

This strength is not only reflected in the number of troops, but also in the abilities of the generals.

The commanders of the various departments on Cao Mao's side were not ordinary people, and the commanders were full of talented people. People like Wen Yang and Ma Long were just ordinary generals, not even at the level of commanders.

The Wei State launched a fierce attack from three directions, stretching the battle line very quickly. The Shu State was defeated and its generals were killed in battle, captured, or surrendered.

Jiang Wei tried to put out fires everywhere, but it was of no use.

Zhuge Dan’s camp was now outside Yang’an Pass.

Although this commander had high aspirations but low skills, he had fought in many actual battles after all. Moreover, he had many talented people under his command, so his strategies could be executed very well.

Sitting next to Zhuge Dan were Zhong Hui and Chen Qian.

These two people were responsible for giving advice and formulating strategies to Zhuge Dan. If you had to say, they were both staff officers of the command center.

The morale of the Wei army is now high, and the generals are extremely excited.

The merit of destroying the country!
How many generals have pursued this throughout their lives?

The same is true for these three.

Zhong Hui was in charge of the main offensive routes and the deployment of generals. Zhuge Dan attached great importance to Zhong Hui. After all, Zhong Hui was the Shizhong and he came here on behalf of the emperor. Zhuge Dan could not respect anyone's opinions, but he could not ignore his ideas.

At this moment, Zhong Hui began his own analysis.

"General, Hu Ji is holding out at Yang'an Pass. Zhuge Xu's troops have bypassed him and are almost reaching the bridgehead."

Zhong Hui pointed at the map in front of him and said seriously, "Jiang Wei has already retreated to Jiange. After the bridgehead is lost, Baishui will definitely not be able to hold out."

"Deng Ai's forces are in Yinping, and Zhuge Xu's forces occupy Qiaotou and Baishui. This leaves Hu Ji isolated and cut off from Jiang Wei. Defeat is imminent."

"Although I have never seen the precipitousness of Jiange, I have often heard about it from the people of Shu. Now that Jiang Wei has withdrawn his troops from various places and is defending Jiange to the death, it will be impossible to break through in the short term, but there is no need to rush."

Zhong Hui said confidently, "This year's harvest is abundant, and we have no problem with food at all. We can continue to fight them. We can station our troops in front of Jiange, recuperate here, and pacify Wudu, Hanzhong and other counties."

Zhuge Dan looked at Zhong Hui's strategic diagram, pondered for a moment, and then said, "You have a point."

In a sense, Zhuge Dan and Zhong Hui are of the same type, both of whom are particularly fond of fame.

Zhuge Dan was not in a hurry anyway. As the highest, or second highest, commander of the army that destroyed Shu, his achievements were set in stone and no one could change his status.

With this achievement of destroying a country, you will be worthy of being enshrined in the Taimiao after your death.

Previously, Zhuge Dan was somewhat dissatisfied with Cao Mao, mainly because Cao Mao took power away from the three officials, formed his own team, and marginalized these old ministers.

This left Zhuge Dan with no chance.

At that time, Wang Su persuaded him that in the future when he attacked Shu, he would definitely let the general be the commander-in-chief.

Although Zhuge Dan was somewhat looking forward to it, he was not quite convinced in his heart. He didn't even know whether he could live to see that day.

But now, Zhuge Dan has finally waited for this day.

God knows how happy he was when Cao Mao said he would be the commander-in-chief.

He would not miss this good opportunity. Out of gratitude to the emperor, he could tolerate Zhong Hui, who always liked to interfere. What's more, Zhong Hui's attitude towards him was quite good.

After all, Zhuge Dan was a famous scholar and he was also good-looking.

But Zhuge Dan was a little cold towards Chen Qian.

After all, this Minister of War was the main culprit who caused him to lose power!
However, Chen Qian did not participate much in the planning of the war. In terms of strategy, Zhong Hui did a good enough job, and Chen Qian did not think of forcing his way forward. Anyway, as the first person to break through Hanzhong, he had already earned the credit.

No matter what, he was the actual commander of the central army, and he had a share of the credit for destroying the country.

At this moment, Zhuge Dan redeployed his troops according to Zhong Hui's strategy, ordering Zhuge Xu to lead his troops to seize areas such as Qiaotou, and take all areas except Jiange into his possession.

At the same time, he escorted the battle reports and the captured generals to Chang'an.

Changan.

Cao Mao's days are still very busy in the near future.

Letters of intelligence from the front line came one after another. This was Cao Mao's first time in Chang'an, but he had no free time to go out and see this capital of the former Han Dynasty.

Cao Mao always felt that he had to wait until at least the end of the fourth year of Zhengyuan, or the fifth year of Zhengyuan, before he could begin his plan to destroy Shu.

But things always happen suddenly, and many things do not develop as planned.

Jiang Wei took the initiative to attack Liang Province, leaving his back empty, so he had no choice but to attack.

This war seemed to be pushed by Deng Ai. If they did not attack, Jiang Wei would be able to gain a large number of Hu tribes in Liang Province. Whether he continued to cause chaos in Liang Province or brought them back, it seemed that it was not in the interests of the Wei State.

In order to maximize their interests, they could only make up for it in other ways, and the best way was to capture Hanzhong. In fact, the Wei State had been reorganizing its army for a long time, originally to intimidate and deter, but unexpectedly, a real fight broke out in the end.

Zhang Hua was standing beside Cao Mao, helping him sort through the numerous memorials.

The memorials about the war should of course be placed at the front, while the memorials sent from Luoyang, as long as they are not related to military or national affairs, can be put aside.

In order to deal with these memorials properly, Cao Mao brought many of his eunuchs to Chang'an.

These people were responsible for helping Cao Mao review these things.

"Your Majesty, this is the memorial from the Grand Marshal."

Zhang Hua specially picked out a few important ones and placed them in front of Cao Mao.

Cao Mao lowered his head and began to read. Zhuge Dan's attitude in the memorial was extremely respectful, and it was obvious that he was still very excited about his appointment.

The content of the memorial was to describe Zhong Hui's strategy and express that he had agreed to it.

Cao Mao smiled and said to Zhang Hua, "It's right to let the Grand Marshal take charge."

Cao Mao had no shortage of generals or commanders. Not to mention others, even Chen Tai and Du Yu could serve as commanders. They were currently working to pacify the recovered areas.

However, Cao Mao finally let Zhuge Dan take over as commander-in-chief, not only because of his official position, but most importantly, the benefits that everyone could gain from destroying Shu were too great.

People like Zhong Hui and Deng Ai were too hasty and extreme in their behavior, while Zhuge Dan was considered to be quite law-abiding. Moreover, Zhuge Dan was a relatively upright person. He would never allow his soldiers to seize credit and kill innocent people to take credit for their achievements.

If Deng Ai wanted to use the heads of his own people to build a Jingguan again, Zhuge Dan could just imprison him.

When in an absolute advantage, the commander does not need to be that strong, as long as he is stable.

"This is Wang Zhennan's memorial."

Zhang Hua took out another one.

Cao Mao took a look and was stunned. He smiled bitterly and handed the memorial to Zhang Hua.

"Look at this."

Zhang Hua lowered his head and quickly read through it, then was a little surprised.

Wang Ji's memorial was very simple. He first reported the current situation. Yong'an was too difficult to conquer and was still under siege. The soldiers in the city had begun to waver.

Then, he expressed his next idea. He wanted to attack Jingmen directly from Xiling, and then take Yidao and attack Lexiang from the land.

Well, Jingmen is currently under the rule of the Wu State.

Facing Xiling across the river.

Cao Mao rubbed his forehead.

"Why are the generals under my command more anxious than I am?"

"Are you planning to destroy the Wu Kingdom as well?!"

Zhang Hua said seriously, "General Wang is worried that he will be attacked by the Wu people when he attacks Yong'an. That's why he wants to send troops to Jingmen to repel Shi Ji and others so that they can't interfere in the affairs of Shu."

This logic made Cao Mao a little stunned.

To prevent you from hitting me, I'll hit you first?

But if you think about it carefully, it seems that the army stationed in Jiangbei is enough to beat Shi Ji's army.

The elite troops of two major corps gathered there, and their combat effectiveness is more than enough compared to Shi Ji.

Cao Mao hesitated for a moment, but decided to trust Wang Ji's judgment.

"Let him figure it out himself. He's in Jiangbei, so he must see things more clearly than us."

"only!"

Cao Mao's laissez-faire attitude is also a great encouragement to the generals, take the generals who are now attacking Shu as an example.

Zhong Hui did not have to worry too much about using too much force to destroy the Kingdom of Shu. After all, the emperor was younger than him. So what if he took credit for destroying the country?

With so many generals sharing the burden with him, and the emperor having a very good personal relationship with him, he was not the kind of person who would be afraid of his subordinates having too many achievements, Zhong Hui was not worried at all.

The other generals did the same, doing their best.

Moreover, this time the destruction of Shu was a consensus among everyone. The previous time in history, Sima Zhao was purely trying to cover up the evil act of regicide. He ignored the advice of his ministers and rushed to send troops. Although he destroyed Shu, a lot was lost in that battle.

It directly killed an important talent of the third-rank official level, and also killed a general who was capable of defending a region.

As for the generals and ministers who were killed because of them, their numbers are countless.

Many ministers who surrendered to the Shu Kingdom at that time were killed because of Zhong Hui, resulting in the loss of a large number of talents.

And this time, whether it was Deng Ai or Zhong Hui.

Cao Mao was confident that he could suppress them and prevent them from causing trouble again.

The last important memorial Zhang Hua took out came from Deng Ai.

(End of this chapter)