,!

After receiving the news about Sun Quan's intention to take Jingzhou, Cao Cao breathed a sigh of relief. In this way, at least his side had slowed down from a hellish three-front battle to a two-front battle.

If the Jiangdong Sun clan attacks Jingzhou and forces Guan Yu's army back to defend, the situation will be even more favorable.

As long as the two families fight in Jingzhou, Cao Cao can free up his energy to slowly deal with the invading Liu Bei army on the western front.

However, he would never have expected that before the main force of the Shu army arrived, Zhang A, who still had an absolute military advantage in Qishan, would be defeated by Zhang Fei and Zhao Tong.

Zhang A is a general who has been in Guanzhong for a long time in the army.

His defeat is bound to have a chain reaction, which will then affect the garrison officers and soldiers everywhere in Guanlong.

When he saw this report of defeat on the first day of the new year, Cao Cao's beautiful expression was indeed destroyed immediately. In an instant, it seemed as if a raging fire was gradually rising on his face, and he was extremely angry.

However, after getting angry, he still forced himself to regain his composure.

Now is the time when the Shu army is about to counterattack. At this critical moment, it is not the time to punish the generals wantonly.

After careful consideration, Cao Cao ordered Zhang A, who was stationed in the west city, to demote him two levels and command himself as general against the bandits.

However, he still led his troops and slowly reduced the defense line to Jicheng, the capital, to set up a defense line to resist the northern invasion of the Shu army in advance.

This punishment can be considered a common practice during wartime.

The military rank was reduced in order to give the soldiers a reason to explain after the battle was defeated.

At the same time, it leads the troops, so it is necessary to use it to defend against enemies in war.

After receiving the military information, Zhang A naturally understood the deep-seated intentions of his own king.

What's more, this time he was really defeated and returned home!

He has already burned high incense without receiving a more severe punishment.

What does it mean to be demoted to a mere general?

The worst thing is to continue to experience military exploits and get promoted back.

Zhang A did not have any complaints deep down in his heart, on the contrary, he was grateful to the King of Wei.

At the same time, Wang's orders also reached the Lintao front line.

This order was for Cao Cao to order Fei Yao and his troops to slowly withdraw to Longxi and rely on Xiangwu, Didao and other important towns in the territory to defend.

after all,

He knew very well that now that Zhang A had retreated under Qishan, his next offensive would be blocked, and it would be meaningless to continue the attack!

It would be better to shrink the Guanlong defense line in an all-round way, stop with silence, and wait for the arrival of the main force of the Shu army.

As Cao Cao took control of Chang'an, military reports from the front line continued to arrive every day, and he would quickly convey the king's orders.

Everything is proceeding in an orderly and steady manner.

Therefore, even if the news of Zhang A's Qishan defeat spreads, it will indeed have some impact on the morale of the surrounding garrison, but it is not harmful!

Even in the face of the large Shu army that wanted to counterattack, almost all the counties in Guanzhong and Longyou were still in a state of preparedness.

…

And this brief period of tranquility also changed after the suspect troops led by Zhao Yun and Deng Zhi first passed through the Xie Valley and approached the important town of Baocheng to the west of Chang'an.

Upon hearing that the Shu army was invading, Cao Zhen, a descendant of the clan who had already deployed troops on the west side of Guanzhong, quickly led his troops to come.

Due to the heavy defenses deployed at the entrance of Xiegu in advance, even a brave man like Zhao Yun would not be able to break through this line of defense in a short period of time.

In addition, Zhao Yun came here as a suspected soldier, and his military strength is limited!

What's more, the inclined valley road is not conducive to most of the traffic. Naturally, there are no conditions for carrying heavy supplies, so we can only travel with light troops.

Facing the already prepared Cao army this time, even if they were led by Zhao Yun, a victorious general with both wisdom and courage, they could not break through quickly.

The offensive at Xiegu was first contained by Cao Zhen's troops.

Of course, Zhao Yun was not anxious. Although the enemy troops were able to defend against his offensive, they could not defeat him.

His purpose was considered successful, as he distracted Cao Jun's attention and dragged some of the enemy's troops here for a confrontation.

Next, we have to watch the other armies on our side show their strength.

The speed of the Shu army's advance cannot be underestimated!

Not long after Zhao Yun led his troops to attack Xiegukou, he saw that changes occurred one after another on Chen Cang's side.

Cao Xiu, who was stationed in Chencang, also quickly received a report from the scouts who dispersed around to inquire about the military situation. They said, "A group of soldiers and horses of the Shu army have advanced along the Sanguan Road, and the troops are pointing directly at the Sanguan Pass."

Unsurprisingly, the people on this road were soldiers commanded by his relative Wu Yi.

However, both Cao Xiu and Cao Zhen are the "thousand-mile horses" among the generals of the Mesozoic generation of the Cao family, and their ability to lead troops should not be underestimated.

He had already arranged the defense line around Chencang.

In addition, the terrain near Dashanguan and Xiaosanguan is steep and the roads are narrow. The city is built between two mountains, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Even if Wu Yi led his troops to attack, he could not find any good strategy to break the situation for a while when faced with a dangerous situation that he had already prepared for.

Xiegu is located in the hinterland of Guanzhong, and Chencang is the hub between Sanfu and Longyou.

This time, with Cao's army deploying defenses in advance, Zhao Yun and Wu Yi could only form a confrontation to contain the other's military strength.

Until many days later,

The main force of the Han army galloped forward and then headed west along the Qishan Road to garrison at Qishan Fort.

Later, Liu Bei, the king of Hanzhong, and the civil and military people on the left and right also came personally with the central and rear troops, as well as the logistics and supplies.

It can be said that the march is very fast!

While marching in the mountains, even the officers and soldiers of Cao's army on guard were somewhat horrified when they heard this.

Huh? How did the Shu army march so fast?

Yes! Heading north from Hanzhong, there are rugged and uneven plank roads along the way. How could we approach the front line so quickly?

…

This is almost what most people in Cao's army think deep down.

They were all a little surprised by the speed of the Shu army.

However, the ability to march like this is naturally attributed to the fact that he was ordered to march south and used the offensive strategy of seven captures and seven surrenders of Meng Huo to completely overwhelm the Southern Barbarian King Meng Huo and stabilize the southern counties.

Because of Meng Huo's return, and with his prestige in the southern counties, he also assisted Li Hui, who was named the Fendao-level swordsman by Liu Bei to lead Jiaozhou governor Nanzhong and Jiaozhou affairs, to quickly stabilize the Nanzhong counties.

political situation.

Moreover, with Meng Huo's intervention, many Yi tribes living in seclusion in the mountains moved down the mountains and settled around the city.

Li Hui then also recruited barbarians into the army and transported soldiers to Chengdu.

The land of Nanzhong is filled with marsh gas, numerous poisonous springs, and mountains with endless ferocious beasts.

The barbarian people who live here have adapted to the complex climate in the mountains since childhood.

Mountain marching is what barbarian soldiers are very good at.

After Li Hui sent batches of soldiers back to the north, Liu Bei, the king of Hanzhong, also formed a mountain fighting force based on barbarian soldiers and named it "Wudang Feijun."

When he was about to launch a large-scale Northern Expedition, he was handed over to Wei Yan to lead it.

With the barbarians' familiarity with the mountains, Wei Yan led the Wudang Fei army as the vanguard and naturally took the lead in advancing to Qishan.

At this moment, Qishan Fort has almost no defenders.

Only Lu City in the north was defended by Zhang Yi with a force of troops and horses to prevent Cao's army from the west city from coming back.

As for Zhao Tong and Zhang Fei, after defeating Zhang A, they marched westward with their main force to the Lintao line to meet up with Ma Zhong and Ma Chao's troops.

As Fei Yao learned about the military report of the defeat of Zhang A's army, and the military information about the main reinforcements from Zhao Tong and Zhang Fei, he almost didn't make a decision. The king's order from Chang'an already ordered him to withdraw.

Longxi County stood firm.

After the king's order was passed down, Fei Yao had no reason to continue to attack Lintao, whether it was facing the enemy generals coming like bright stars or Cao Cao's restraint.

He then very decisively ordered all the troops to retreat slowly.

Dai Ling was ordered to take one of his troops to cut off the rear to prevent Ma Chao from leading the Xiliang cavalry to cover up the attack.

With the close cooperation of the battle formation, although Ma Chao led his troops in pursuit, he could not find a flaw.

In the end, the people in Longxi were able to retreat safely, but he had no choice but to give up!

Then he returned with the crowd.

At this moment, in the Lintao Army Mansion.

Zhang Fei and Ma Chao occupied the main and deputy seats respectively.

Commander Zhao led his generals to stand on both sides, discussing the next step in military affairs.

Among them, Zhao Tong looked serious and stood up first, cupping his hands and saying, "Now that Zhang A has been defeated, Fei Yao, Dai Ling and other Longxi generals also led their troops to retreat to Longxi County."

"I heard that Thief Cao has already led his main force back to Guanzhong."
To be continued...