Summary of the previous chapter: Ma Xiaoquan wrote another letter to Cao Cao. Except for Cao Cao, no other Cao general in the army knew what Ma Xiaoquan wrote... Of course, Mrs. Qingyi knew...
In early December of the 23rd year of Emperor Xian's reign of the Han Dynasty (AD 218), Liu Bei, who had been attacking Hanzhong for a long time, finally ushered in a strategic turning point.
When it comes to this matter, it still has something to do with Ma Xiaoquan.
It is said that after Liu Bei had an unsuccessful fight with Cao Cao last year, he was worried about food and wages. At this time, Ma Xiaoquan sent someone to bring Liu Bei a message. The content was very simple, with only a few words: Food and grass are about to come.
arrive.
Liu Bei was very surprised at that time. How could Master Shangxian know so well that he was short of food and grass when he was far away in Yecheng? You must know that our Shu army has done a good job of keeping secrets.
At this time, Sun Quan suddenly wrote a letter to Liu Bei, telling Liu Bei that I heard that Uncle Liu Huang was currently fighting with Cao Cao, and I, Sun Zhongmou, was deeply moved. No matter what, we are allies, so I am writing this to you.
When I wrote the letter, I had already delivered a batch of supplies to your army. I am so careless and disrespectful...
Liu Bei's army has never stopped for half his life. Sun Quan is young. With Liu Bei's experience, he naturally understands what Sun Quan, the purple-haired boy, has in mind. But if the land of Hanzhong is not taken, let alone Cao Cao, it will be Sun Quan's future.
If you fall out with yourself, you may take a detour to seize Hanzhong.
After thinking about it, Liu Bei decided to continue his fight with Cao Cao. As for Jingzhou, with Guan Yu there, there should be no problem.
Liu Bei was very curious, why did Master Shangxian and Sun Quan write letters one after another, and one said that the food and grass would be arriving soon, and the other said that a batch of supplies would be sent. Could it be that...the batch of supplies that Sun Quan mentioned was food and grass?
?
With a skeptical attitude, Liu Bei welcomed Sun Quan's envoy at the end of the 23rd year of Jian'an.
At first, he thought that Sun Quan's so-called "batch of supplies" was just a meaning. Unexpectedly, after seeing the supplies, Liu Bei was deeply shocked by Sun Quan's generosity.
The most lacking thing during the war was food, so Sun Quan took advantage of him and simply sent Liu Bei two months' rations.
At this time, the number of Liu Bei's troops has reached more than 50,000. Two months of rations? Good guy, Sun Quan is really courageous.
Liu Bei didn't have time to thank Sun Quan, so he simply wrote a letter and asked Wu Jun's envoy to take it back.
Liu Bei actually didn't know that when he received this batch of supplies from Sun Quan, Sun Quan, who was far away in Chaisang, was enjoying himself secretly with a wine pot in his arms.
Why? Because Ma Xiaoquan actually paid for Sun Quan's supplies to be bought from him, and then gave them to Liu Bei in his name, Sun Quan.
Of course, the reason why Ma Xiaoquan did this was entirely for the sake of the historical process.
Since the war between Cao and Liu, Ma Xiaoquan, although far away in Yecheng, has been paying attention to the movements of the two armies all the time.
Since there were no carrier pigeons at this time, only fast horses could deliver news, so Ma Xiaoquan specially hired a group of retired Cao soldiers to do his detailed work to find out information from both parties. Of course, he had to ensure the timeliness of the information. This group of inquiring information
The number of people must be at least 1,000.
After several months of research, Ma Xiaoquan was surprised to find that although Liu Bei seemed to have the advantage, in fact he had not been able to launch a strong offensive due to problems with food, grass and pay.
Ma Xiaoquan compared the timetable with the timetable in the internal data device, and after further calculation, he felt that the process was a little slow, so he sent people to Sun Quan day and night, and negotiated with Sun Quan to send military rations in his name.
transaction.
Although Sun Quan was younger than Liu Bei, he was not a fool. When he first heard the transaction conditions brought by the envoy Ma Xiaoquan, Sun Quan did not agree.
Although Sun and Liu have an alliance, Sun and Liu are already very unhappy because of the Jingzhou issue. Even if Sun Quan is stronger than Liu Bei now, he will not let down his guard against Liu Bei. I think Liu Bei was very generous when he had nothing.
He is both shameless and powerful. Now that Liu Bei has a foothold in Yizhou, we don't know whether he is strong or not, but I am afraid that his thickness of face will be even greater.
Ma Xiaoquan concluded that Sun Quan would not agree, so before his envoy set off, he specially prepared a letter for Sun Quan.
After the Ma family's envoy was rejected, the envoy immediately took out Ma Xiaoquan's letter and handed it to Sun Quan.
Sun Quan opened the letter and read it doubtfully, then he suddenly smiled.
No one knows what Ma Xiaoquan wrote to Sun Quan. However, after reading this letter from Lord Shangxian, Sun Quan immediately changed his mind and gave Ma Xiaoquan a large amount of supplies "on credit" despite everyone's dissuasion.
Half a month later, Ma Xiaoquan fulfilled his transaction promise and paid a batch of treasures to Sun Quan. Of course, the war was still continuing at this time...
...
With this batch of supplies from Sun Quan, Liu Bei instantly felt that his back was strengthened. After sending out spies one after another to investigate, Liu Bei got another piece of good news.
It was already the beginning of January in the 24th year of Jian'an. It was a severe winter. The weather was dry and there was no snow, and the north wind was blowing sharply.
Because Cao's army did not have enough numbers, they sprinkled a lot of anti-horse antlers on Liu Bei's army's road to Hanzhong.
Liu Bei immediately made a "winter fire" and burned the antlers on the ground into brittle wood.
With the "motivation of flames", Liu Bei began to invade Hanzhong on a large scale.
Cao Cao's army was not large in number. Not only was he retreating steadily, but he even had no chance to reorganize his army.
Liu Bei was high-spirited and extremely proud of himself. He ate the food sent by Sun Quan. Liu Bei seemed to have no cherishment at all. After three days of fighting, Liu Bei gnawed on the chicken legs for three days.
However... although the battle became more and more successful, there was a general in Cao's army who really made Liu Bei suffer.
"Damn it," Liu Bei spat out the chicken leg bone in his mouth and cursed bitterly, "one open jaw actually restrained my tens of thousands of troops. I'm really angry!"
Fazheng stepped forward and said: "My lord, please be patient. Although our army has conquered Yangping Pass, we have not sent anyone to garrison it. There are many mountainous areas in Hanzhong, and there are fewer open jaws than our soldiers. Attacking and retreating will naturally be more difficult than our army."
It's more advantageous, but...why should we keep fighting with it?"
Liu Bei nodded and motioned for Fa Zheng to continue speaking.
Fa Zhengdao: "My lord, you can lead your army to cross the Mianmian River, go straight to Dingjun Mountain, and then seize the favorable terrain..."
Liu Bei's eyes lit up, he nodded and praised: "This is a wonderful plan, good, just follow what Xiaozhi said."
...
Fa Zheng's surprise attack plan was very effective. Since Cao's army was not large in number, it could not effectively prevent the Shu army from crossing Mian River. After a slight resistance, Cao's army gave up Mian River and retreated to Dingjun Mountain.
Dingjun Mountain is a choke point leading to Hanzhong. If Dingjun Mountain is captured, it can be said that many important roads will be connected directly.
Liu Bei understood this, and Cao Cao naturally understood it, but... Cao Cao's army was now seriously short of manpower. Even if Cao Cao had come to Hanzhong in person to supervise the battle, he would not be able to send more troops to assist.
Cao Cao sent a letter to Xia Houyuan, the garrison of Dingjunshan, warning him not to act rashly and to stay calm. However, Xia Houyuan thought that his lord was old and had lost his courage, so he did not listen.
After encountering the Shu army, Xiahou Yuan personally went out to fight with the Shu army for a whole day. Although the Shu army had the numerical advantage, due to the unfavorable terrain, both Xia Houyuan and Xia Houyuan had their own victory or defeat.
At night, Liu Bei summoned his men to discuss the next strategy.
Fa Zhengdao: "Lord, our current food situation can be eased due to Sun Quan's assistance. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I think we should capture Dingjun Mountain as soon as possible!"
Liu Bei nodded and said, "How can we capture Dingjun Mountain?"
Fazheng smiled slightly, pointed at the sand table and said: "Dingjun Mountain is not the highest terrain in this area, but Xia Houyuan is stationed at Dingjun Mountain. In other words, we can definitely capture higher terrain than Dingjun Mountain.
Attack Xia Houyuan...Lord, please look..." Fazheng said, pointing to a mountain path on the sand table, "This mountain is called Pojun Mountain, and it is adjacent to Dingjun Mountain. Because
The terrain is relatively steep, and Xiahou Yuan did not send many people to guard it..."
Liu Bei kept nodding his head while listening: "Okay, then we will capture Pojun Mountain."
...
The next day, the Shu army attacked Junshan. This move caught Xiahou Yuan by surprise.
Xia Houyuan immediately sent Zhang Jaw to rescue him, but he himself ran down the mountain to repair the Juma deer antlers that had been destroyed by the Shu army.
After Liu Bei got the news, he immediately sent General Huang Zhong to attack Dingjun Mountain.
Seeing that the situation was not right, Xia Houyuan not only refused to retreat, but even ran to fight Huang Zhong.
Liu Bei was secretly overjoyed when he saw Xia Houyuan being so impulsive. He adopted Fa Zheng's strategy of "the enemy advances and we retreat, the enemy retreats and we pursue, and the enemy returns and we outflank". Not only did Xia Houyuan not gain any advantage in the battle, but he also gained more
The more I beat, the more I feel suffocated.
Facing the Shu army's successive provocations, Xia Houyuan couldn't sit still. However, there were more people on the other side than him, and he couldn't beat him hard. It was really...
...
That afternoon, the temperature rose slightly, and when Xia Houyuan was so angry that he was drinking water, a burst of gongs and drums suddenly came from not far away.
Xia Houyuan waved his hand and said: "Damn it, it's that old man Huang Zhong who's yelling again, don't pay attention to it." As he said that, Xia Houyuan sat on the ground and polished his spear.
But...Xia Houyuan made a mistake in judgment this time.
Huang Zhong indeed shouted at him, but after calling him several times in a row and seeing that Xia Houyuan had no reaction, Huang Zhong really had to lead his troops to charge over.
By the time the Shu army approached, it was too late to say anything.
Xia Houyuan had only finished half of his words before Huang Zhong chopped off his arm with a knife and left him with his braids. The general died, and Cao's army was in a state of confusion.
After Zhang Jia, who went to Pojun Mountain for rescue, received the news, he could no longer hold on and had to retreat to the north bank of Han River.