Chapter 97 Confrontation (Part 1)

Hearing the Shu army's yell, the chief general of the Wei army, Huangfu Kai, led the generals out of the camp to fight, preparing to defeat the might of the Shu Han people. The two armies set up a formation at the foot of Qishan Mountain. The Chinese tiger sword in the Shu army formation rushed out with a swing, and the general in the Wei formation, Ju An, raised his spear to greet him.

The two of them did not answer and killed each other fiercely. Wen Hu was a surrendered general of the Eastern Wu, and Juan was an old minister in Sichuan. Now they were their own masters and showed their own abilities. They saw a big sword like a tiger going down the mountain, with the sound of wind and the sound of the wind; the long spear was like a dragon coming out of the sea, and the style carried the power of destroying the enemy. The soldiers of the two armies watched with breath, but forgot to beat the drums and cheer for the moment.

When Li Xin saw Wenhu's bravery in the Wei formation, Ju An could not win, so he slapped Malun's sword and rushed into the battle group. When Shu general Jiang Shu saw it, he shouted: "I'm going to fight!" Zong Ma Yao shot him in front of the formation, but was stopped by Wei general Huangfu Kai. Five generals fought in front of the formation, and the soldiers on both sides shouted and cheered, and the drums shook the sky.

The generals fought fiercely, and suddenly the sound of Jin withdrawing troops came from the Wei army's Qishan camp. Huangfu Kai and other Wei generals were shocked. Although they were not sure why, the military orders should not be violated, so they had to withdraw their troops. Wenhu and Jiang Shuer led the troops to take advantage of the situation to pursue them. After a small victory, they withdrew their troops back to the camp.

When he retreated into the Qishan camp, Huangfu Kai was angry and asked why the generals guarding the camp why Mingjin withdrew their troops. It turned out that just as the two armies were fighting, the Shu general Liao Hua led thousands of troops out of the flank of the Qishan camp and took advantage of the situation to seize the camp. The generals guarding the camp saw that there were many Shu troops, but they were afraid that the camp would be lost, so they summoned Huangfu Kai and others to return to the army to support. Seeing the Wei army brigade withdrawing, Liao Hua led the Shu soldiers to retreat from the small road.

The Qishan Mountains were a place that the two countries must fight for in all wars, and Liao Hua was very familiar with it. Although Huangfu Kai used troops well, his geographical environment was not very familiar. Seeing that the Shu army was well versed in geography and was very cunning, Huangfu Kai decided to hang a high-level battle-free sign and concentrate on defending the Qishan camp.

A small victory is not a pleasure, so the Wei army did not dare to fight easily. In the following days, Wenhu, Jiang Shu and other Shu generals took turns to challenge and scold outside the Qishan camp of the Wei army. Liao Hua led Jiang Shu to set up many empty camps in the valley and planted flags, thinking that they were suspicious of soldiers. From the Qishan camp of the Wei army, there were more and more Shu camps, more than 30,000. Huangfu Kai was uneasy, so he sent someone to send orders to Chen Tai in Chang'an to request support from the army.

After the strategy was initially achieved, it was Liu Chan's turn to lead the imperial army to personally. Liu Chan used Guan Yi and Wen Yang as the pioneer generals, and led 50,000 troops to Luogu for the central army, and headed straight to Wugong. The Shu Lord personally led the imperial army to the expedition, and his power was naturally extraordinary. When the news reached Chang'an, Chen Tai and others were shocked and suspicious.

When did Liu Chan lead the troops? Since Liao Hua appeared in the Qishan camp, the actual commander of Liu Chan's troops was Jiang Wei, the Shu Han general. So Chen Tai did not dare to neglect and ordered Yongliang's troops to gather in Qishan to support Huangfu Kai, and the rest were cautious in defending. He led 50,000 Wei troops from Chang'an to fight against the troops of the Shu Lord Liu Chan.

The Western Region was mobilized frequently, and the war was spreading frequently, and the aura of the war was a bit before the war. The people of Wei were very uneasy when they heard the attack of Shu army. The 300,000 troops failed to attack Shu, and many generals including Anxi General Deng Ai and others were killed in battle, which can be said to be a crushing defeat. Now Shu Han still has the power to attack, and for a while, everyone couldn't figure out how strong the Shu Han's national strength had increased. Many Wei people who were optimistic about the attack on Shu were now confused.

The key to sending troops to the Northern Expedition is strategy, and more importantly, the national strength is invested. In the past, Jiang Wei's troops were limited, so he was always prepared for the Wei army. Now Liu Chan has led the whole country to support the Northern Expedition, and the situation has changed a lot. However, the suspicious soldiers from Qishan and Luo Gu have invested 60,000 to 70,000 people. This is tens of thousands more than the main force of Jiang Wei's Northern Expedition.

It is not enough to have troops alone. Manpower is also needed to transport and supply military supplies to last for a long time. Otherwise, the food and grass will be exhausted, and there will be only the result of retreating to Sichuan. In order to solve the problem of transportation difficulties in Sichuan, the Prime Minister Zhuge Liang invented the wooden ox and flowing horse. The so-called wooden ox, flowing horse, is a two-piece transport tool, which uses the principle of gears as a driving force. On the transportation route of mountains and ridges, you only need one person to operate it to transport a considerable amount of food and grass. It saves time and effort compared to conventional transport tools.

The same is the supply of food and grass for 100,000 troops, and the normal mode of transportation requires 200,000 or even more to solve the problem. After using wooden ox and horses, the transportation of 40,000 to 50,000 people can achieve the same effect, and it is more timely and quickly.

After entering Shu, Ma Jun carefully studied the wooden ox and flowing horses, and praised Zhuge Liang's ingenuity. Like Zhuge Liang, Ma Jun was also good at using gears as the driving force of machinery. In this era, this was already the most advanced scientific and technological knowledge. Based on Zhuge Liang's wooden ox and flowing horses, Ma Jun made performance improvements. Today's wooden ox and flowing horses are more convenient and labor-saving than the Zhuge Liang's period. Saving manpower, the impact of war on domestic agricultural production has been greatly reduced. This is also one of the reasons why the court and China did not oppose the Northern Expedition.

Without worries, the space for strategic implementation will increase. No longer need to fight quickly and decide quickly as before, the Shu army's strategy seems to be more relaxed. On the contrary, the Wei State faces pressure from the east and west sides, and instead hopes that the Shu State can fight quickly and decide quickly, but unfortunately it is difficult to achieve its wish.

Most of the Wei generals who stayed on the Western Front participated in the battle to attack Shu, and they had a deep understanding of the difficulties of the Sichuan Road and the suffering of transportation. Therefore, even if Liu Chan personally sent troops to the Northern Expedition, all Wei generals, including Chen Tai, believed that sticking to the ground was the most stable strategy, because the Shu army would be exhausted and retreat in just one or two months.

Liu Chan's army was stationed at Wugong City, and the Wei Wugong Guardian Ailiang stayed behind closed doors. Chen Tai's 50,000 army was stationed at the east side of Wugong, forming a horn with Wugong City, confronting the Shu army. Guan Yi and Wenyang took turns to call for war in front of the Wei army camp, but Chen Tai ignored it at all. He just kept strengthening his defense and spent time with the Shu army, waiting for the day when the Shu army was out of food and retreated.

Fundamentally speaking, Chen Tai's strategy is not wrong. The forces of both sides are roughly equal, and it is inevitable that they will die and suffer once they are in battle. The food and grass of the left and right Shu soldiers are limited, so why not wait for them to withdraw automatically? Saving military strength is also an urgent task. After all, there is no sign of improvement in the war in the East.

General Anhan Zhang Wei directed the Shu soldiers to search for the traces of Deng Ai and others. Although the Shu soldiers were familiar with the mountain roads, it was not easy to search dozens of people in the vast mountains in the river? There was no progress for several days. In desperation, Zhang Wei had to continue to expand the search scope. Although Deng Ai was killed, he wanted to see people and to see corpses in his majesty's will and should not be violated.

A few days later, Shu soldiers found the bodies of Wei soldiers in the mountains and rivers. The bodies were exposed with white bones. According to inferred, they were mostly caused by man. In the vast mountains, they dared not make fire to make rice, and they could not eat enough by relying on wild fruits and mountain vegetables. In this era, it was common for people to eat people, especially in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, even the phenomenon of eating by Yizi was common.

Zhang Wei knew that Deng Ai was cunning and did not dare to relax his vigilance. He still maintained the search strength and range in all directions. As expected, in the direction where the body of the Wei soldiers was found, he found nothing for several days. In the other direction, there was a new discovery, and more than a dozen Wei soldiers' bodies were found by the Shu soldiers.

Compared to the initial tragic phenomenon, the dozen or so corpses were relatively intact. Traces that someone had tried to hide were vaguely seen underground nearby, but the pit was not deep and not big enough. I thought that the Wei army no longer had the strength to bury their companions.

As his eyes lit up, Zhang Wei increased his search in this direction. The bodies of the Wei army were found one after another, and there were no less than thirty or forty, including many general-level figures. Unexpectedly, a team of Shu soldiers was attacked by the Wei people. Five or six Wei people suddenly jumped out of the woods, chopping down two or three Shu soldiers to rob the dry food of the Shu soldiers.

The nearby Shu soldiers rushed to surround the Wei people after hearing the sound. The Wei people were all unkempt, disheveled, and pale and thin, and worse than refugees. After a brief confrontation, one of the most ferocious Wei generals was killed, and the rest were captured alive. After interrogation, the killed Wei general was Shi Zong, Deng Ai's confidant general. Among the captured people were Tian Xu, the general who killed Dong Jue.

After learning about Deng Ai's information from the prisoners, Zhang Wei ordered people to send these prisoners and related information to the front line and handed them over to the Shu Han Emperor Liu Chan Falu.

After a month of continuous attacks and killing, Shouchun's situation was not optimistic. There were only more than 10,000 Wei troops in the city, and the Wu troops outside the city also lost more than 30,000. The war was extremely fierce. It was not until Sima Wang returned to the round of the Qingxu reinforcements of Hu Fen and others who went south to support it. Ding Feng left 20,000 Wu troops besieged Shouchun, and brought 50,000 troops north to welcome Sima Wang's Wei army.

Sima Wang arrived as soon as possible, but Shouchun had been besieged for more than a month. The Wu army had already arranged fortifications outside the city, and the various camps were linked together. If they wanted to get close to Shouchun, it would be a fierce battle. After observing the Wu army's positions several times, Sima Wang discussed with Xuzhou Governor Hu Fen and others. With the help of his men and horses, he would probably suffer heavy losses and a low winning rate. In desperation, he had to apply for a new army to Xuchang again.

Sima Zhao was worried about getting the news, so he recruited Pei Xiu and other advisers to make plans. Pei Xiu and others believed that Shouchun was an important town in the Huaihe Kingdom. Once it was given to the Wu Kingdom, it would be equivalent to losing a large area of ​​land in Huaihe River. The Wu Kingdom arranged heavy troops to defend the Lianghuai River, and resting for several years would be a big problem. The most urgent task is to first resolve the siege of Shouchun and repel the army of Wu general Ding Feng to open up the deadlock between the east and west fronts.

Considering that Zhong Hui's men were about to return to Xuchang, Sima Zhao ordered to go to reinforce Xinye, Wang Jing, the Shangshu of Wancheng, led the 40,000 Wei troops to reinforce Chen Qian to Runan, quickly supported Shouchun, and joined forces with Sima Wang to repel the Wu army.

When the general of Wu State in Xiangyang was informed by Shi Ji and Lu Kang, he was overjoyed. After some discussion, Lu Kang led more than 10,000 people to sail away, and Shi Ji began to organize a large army to continue north.
Chapter completed!