On July 15th, Taiwei Zhang Wen was recalled to Luoyang. He already felt that his official career was not good and his departure was quite miserable. Before leaving, he entrusted Liu Xiang: "We must recapture Sanguan, otherwise it will be difficult to defend Guanzhong and the three assistants will be restless."
Yuan Pang, who was in charge of Jinwu, succeeded Zhang Wen and was in charge of the third auxiliary war effort.
Bao Hong was transferred to Fufeng on the right and returned to Huaili County, where he was governed. Dong Zhuo was transferred to Longguan to set up a stronghold. Liu Xiang became the chief general stationed in Chencang.
Yuan Pang personally went to Chencang to labor the army and ordered Liu Xiang to recapture Sanguan.
The name of Sanguan comes from San Yisheng, who is the Western Zhou Dynasty official San Yisheng in "The Romance of the Gods". He is indeed a person in the official history. He was the founding hero of the Zhou Dynasty, one of the four friends of King Wen, and assisted King Zuo Wu to destroy the Shang Dynasty.
Later, he was sealed to the Jialing River area and established Sanguan. Sanguan was also built at that time, so it was called Sanguan.
The boundary between the western end of Qinling Mountains and Longshan Mountain, and the low valley area of the upper reaches of the Jialing River, is a natural passage between the north and the south. Sanguan stands at the northern end of the passage and is located at the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains. The mountains are steep and the passage is very difficult.
The pass is about 1,200 meters above sea level. There are cliffs confronting each other on both sides. It is known as the "line of sky". It is easy to defend but difficult to attack. One man can guard the pass and ten thousand men cannot open it. It guards the mountain road between Sichuan and Shaanxi. It can be called the throat of Sichuan and Shaanxi.
It was extremely difficult to conquer such dangerous passes head-on, so Liu Xiang recruited officers above Sima to discuss the matter.
When Sun Jian and others gathered together, he asked: "The hot summer is about to pass, and I have ordered us to recapture Sanguan. Do you have any good ideas?"
Liu Xiang respected Sun Jian's position, and he said: "Captain Zhang had made a plan to attack Wudu County from two directions. It was good, but the leader was useless, and the success was about to be defeated. Our army can imitate this plan."
Second, divide the enemy troops to take the Baoxian Road, then turn to the old road, and attack Sanguan from behind, and you will definitely succeed."
"We second the proposal." Cheng Pu, Han Dang was Sun Jian's family general, so he naturally supported it.
Liu Bei thought hard. He had little experience in leading troops, especially formulating strategies. He had never been exposed to it before, and he couldn't think of any solution for a while.
Zhang He didn't come up with any strategies. He knew in his heart that the general arranged for him to go to the rear camp just to guard the baggage and supplies, and he wouldn't be assigned tasks, so he didn't bother to waste time and thought too hard.
Liu Xiang was thinking about the terrain. The Baoxie Road is five hundred miles long, and then he takes the old route. The whole journey is more than a thousand miles. There are plank roads, valleys, and rivers all the way. It is difficult to move. This kind of roundabout way, half of the journey is in enemy-occupied territory.
, extremely difficult and very risky.
Sun Jian knew that his proposal was very risky. When Liu Xiang was silent, he cupped his hands and said, "General, the governor of Yizhou was defeated here in the spring. The enemy would not have thought that our army would dare to go the old way again. He would be able to surprise them and hit them."
Caught off guard, I am willing to lead a raid behind enemy lines."
Liu Xiang really didn't think of any other way to attack the dangerous pass, which would cause too many casualties. He didn't want to be a stubborn fool. Sun Jian had an outstanding military strategy and fought bravely. The four generals under his command were all sharp and he should be able to complete such a difficult task.
task.
"How many people do you need?"
"Two battalions are enough."
Two battalions of ten thousand infantrymen, Liu Xiang felt that it was not enough. He looked at Liu Bei and asked: "Xuande, are you willing to lend a helping hand to Wentai to accomplish such a feat?"
Liu Bei knew the danger, but the battlefield was a dangerous place. When he decided to fight on the battlefield, he had already made preparations. His eyes were firm and he said loudly: "I am willing to go out with Sun Changshi and go on this thousand-mile journey. General, please
Order."
"The marching commander, Shi Sunjian, led the front camp Liu Bei, the left camp Cheng Pu, and the right camp Han Dang to bypass the enemy's rear and cooperate with the Chinese army to attack Sanguan."
"General, I will obey the order." Sun Jian and the others accepted the order with their hands raised.
After saying the military order, Liu Xiang's tone softened: "Wentai, Xuande, this road has high mountains and dangerous waters. You must pay attention to safety. If something cannot be done, retreat back. Let's discuss it in the long run."
Liu Bei was very moved. He felt warm in his heart: "Thank you, General, for your concern."
Sun Jian laughed loudly: "Don't worry Yicheng, the small plank road can't stop me, and the Qiang and Hu are nothing to worry about. Let's go and celebrate."
This made Liu Xiang angry, and Liu Xiang replied boldly: "Okay, we will take Sanguan and have a big banquet for three days."
Sun Jian bowed his hand and resigned with a few people to prepare his troops and prepare for the expedition.
Liu Xiang rushed to Chang'an and went to Yuan Pang to seek military orders. He ordered Qie Jian, the governor of Yizhou, to provide supplies ordnance to Sun Jian's troops. He also collected 2,000 deer carts from various counties. Deer carts are wheelbarrows that can be driven on the plank road.
With flexible traffic, 2,000 deer carts can transport more than 10,000 stones of grain.
On July 20th, all supplies were ready. Sun Jian led one thousand cavalry, fifteen thousand infantry, and ten thousand civilians, and set out on the journey with a deer cart.
When Sun Jian's troops are gone, Liu Xiang will prepare to send troops. He also has 5,000 cavalry and 23,000 infantry. In recent days, he has begun to build siege equipment, mainly oars and crossbows. The location of the pass
The mountain road is steep and difficult to travel, and large equipment is difficult to transport. He plans to build it on the spot when he reaches the pass.
While thinking about the issue of attacking Sanguan, he began to patrol the camp. Before dispatching troops, he had to carefully check the status of the army's sergeants. The army he received had many new soldiers, including many Qiang and Hu, and their morale was easily affected, so he reorganized the training.
After a month, the fighting strength is actually not very high. Of course, it is better than the Qiang rebels guarding Sanguan.
There are only more than 10,000 garrison guards in Sanguan, and many Qiang and Di people have returned to their tribes. This is good news. The information was told to him by a Qiang man named Tan Mianmo. After many investigations, it was confirmed to be correct.
This man was the leader of a small tribe of Baima Qiang. He saw the bravery of the Anping Army on the south bank of the Weishui River, and said that Liu Xiang came riding a horse of fire and rode away astride the white horse. He was the legendary general Shenwei Tian of the Baima Qiang people, and vowed to defect to him.
But he did not dare to go through Longguan, so he took more than 300 tribesmen and took a detour to Qishan Road, the old road, and then passed through Sanguan on a small road, and ran for more than 900 miles before arriving at Chencang.
Liu Xiang was very concerned about the small road, but in the rugged area, the army could not pass, so he had to give up the plan of passing through the checkpoint through the small road.
He didn't dare to keep Tan Waifu by his side. According to his cautious character, such an unknown person had to be inspected first and then incorporated into the Chencang Camp. This man was indeed capable and participated in the military competition.
, skilled in bow and horse and performed well, he was promoted to military lord and commanded a group of Qiang cavalry.
As expected, the man couldn't help talking, and a strong man of eight feet and five inches came over from a distance. This man had a huge back and strong muscles, and was extremely strong. He could really stand on his fists, run a horse, and walk on his arms.
Suddenly, there was a loud earthquake. This person was Tan Munmo. He hurried a few steps and almost trotted to the front of the horse. He stroked his chest and bowed in salute: "Greetings to the general."
"Excuse me, how is your situation?"
"As long as the general gives the order, we can go to war at any time." Tan Mingfu replied confidently.
It seems the morale is pretty good.
Not only the Qiang cavalry, but also the morale of other troops was good. No fear or war weariness was seen, and Liu Xiang's mood improved a lot.
He was very worried about Sun Jian's route. Although the Baoxie Road was under the control of the Han Dynasty, the route was not easy to navigate. He hoped that there would not be too many non-combat attrition.
In the second half of the journey, the old path entered a place where the Qiang and Di tribes lived together. It has been in chaos for more than a year. News has been cut off and the specific situation is unclear.