Ten miles, what is the concept, means that in an average day, the Jin army can only move forward three hundred meters. Of course, the reason for this is that the Jin army often just moved forward to search an area, and then was forced back by the Hanzhong army. After going back and going back and forth, the team searching the mountain lost more than a thousand people, and many teams were even wiped out. Even Paoze's body fell into the hands of the enemy and could not be retrieved.
Faced with this passive situation, Yan Liang and Cao Ren were helpless. The two of them knew that unless they pulled out the nails on the mountains on both sides, they would not even think about attacking Yangping Pass. For this reason, they could only increase the amount of troops they invested in searching the mountains. In addition, the size of each mountain-searching team was expanded to a hundred people. In order to speed up the progress, the second general even went to the mountains on both sides to sit in person. Once the military scouting ahead heard a critical military situation, the two men immediately went to reinforce.
As a result, the Jin army advanced much faster than before. The Jin army team of 100 people relied on each other's cooperation to search together, and there was a general behind them to hold down the formation. Even if the Hanzhong army was good at mountain warfare, they could not easily win favor. go.
In addition, Yan Liang also received good news. After more than ten days of hard work by military doctors and craftsmen, they finally formulated an antidote that can detoxify curare. As long as the person hit by the arrow receives treatment in time, he will not die in front of his eyes. Yan Liangliang felt excited and urged the troops searching the mountain to advance towards Yangpingguan.
However, although the situation of the Jin army has improved slightly, as the front gradually advances towards Yangping Pass, Yan Liang encounters more and more resistance. The further forward, the denser the Hanzhong Army's troops, and the troops searching for the mountain have successively attacked at dangerous points. Several camps of the Hanzhong Army were found here and there, and the enemy soldiers defended them according to the danger. They were like nails stuck in the path of the Jin army's advance, forcing Yan Liang to forcefully remove these nails.
This is a new situation. Since it has been chosen as a camp base by the Hanzhong Army, the geographical advantage is unquestionable. Each mountain stronghold is stationed with at least a hundred or more enemy soldiers, and God knows where it is from here to dozens of miles away. How many such strongholds are there in Yangpingguan?
For this reason, the price paid by the Jin army was obviously heavy. The enemy soldiers occupied favorable terrain by forming strongholds and resisted the Jin army's attacks on high mountains. They were not far behind the defenders of the city. Yan Liang and Cao Ren attacked several strongholds in a row for more than ten days. , but as a result, they lost more than 3,000 men. For more than a month, five or six thousand of their brothers were killed. Although the Hanzhong Army also suffered some losses, compared with the two, it finally took a big advantage.
For this reason, Yan Liang and Cao Ren were upset, especially Yan Liang. He clearly remembered that since he became a general under his lord, there seemed to have never been such a casualty ratio in a head-on battle. Yangping Pass was indeed a tough nut to crack.
And just when Yan Liang was distressed at the loss of his soldiers, another problem fell on his head. Such a fierce attack continued, and the supply of food and grass in the rear began to be in crisis again.
It’s not that Yan Liang didn’t prepare enough food for this expedition, it’s that the tricky mountain road caused great difficulties in logistical supplies. In fact, this expedition to Wenyuan prepared enough food for the 50,000 soldiers of Yan Liang’s army for a year. The amount of grain and grass used was calculated after excluding the consumption along the way. The officials in charge of the logistics supply had calculated correctly, but their estimate of transporting grain and grass on the road north of Yangpingguan was a bit low.
This is because the Jin army began to use improved wagons to transport grain and grass since the Quyang period. This kind of wagon is larger and has a larger load capacity. This has always played a great role in the flat terrain of the Central Plains, but once it arrived in the Qinling Mountains In mountainous areas, this kind of heavy transport has no use. Once such a large vehicle sinks into a ditch, it is difficult to pull it up with manpower. The reason why grain and grass are delayed for several days is because a grain truck got stuck in the pit and blocked the vehicles behind it. progress.
After discovering this situation, although the grain transportation officer urgently changed his strategy and replaced the small transportation vehicle that was more suitable for mountain walking, there was a delay of ten days. Moreover, because he could not get enough grain trucks at the moment, it resulted in The temporary decrease in transportation volume also prevented Yan Liang's army, which was fighting in the front, from receiving adequate supplies of food and grass, and fell into a difficult situation.
In fact, this problem is not extremely difficult to solve. Seeing that the military rations arrived at the appointed time but were still late, Cao Ren urgently ordered to reduce the rations for the sergeants. It would be no problem to support them for a few more days. Moreover, it was the gathering of spring and summer, and everything was full of vitality. Bo Bo, the soldiers can hunt some wild food, dig some wild vegetables and so on in the mountains and forests, and they can persevere. Everyone knows that they are not here to enjoy the war these days. By the way, those who are soldiers are not from hard-working backgrounds. Even before, they were There are also people who go several days without eating after being hungry.
Although he will not be hungry for a while, the problem of food is really holding Yan Liang's hands and feet, preventing him from continuing to launch a clearing campaign on both sides of the mountains. Yan Liang can only control the existing results and temporarily confront the Hanzhong Army. , it was not until more than a month later that the increase in logistics transportation could finally ensure the supply of the soldiers of the front army, and Yan Liangcai couldn't wait to continue to attack the Hanzhong Army on both sides of Yangping Pass.
Just because of the delay of one month, the Yangping Pass defenders also built a stronger defense. More importantly, this month Yangping Pass received another 20,000 reinforcements brought by Zhang Wei from the south line of Xichuan. At this point, the Yangping Pass defenders The number of people reached 25,000, which was more than enough to defend Yangping Pass. Even if Yan Liang had twice as many men and horses, he might not be able to break through the defense of Yangping Pass head-on.
In the meantime, Zhang Wei, who was somewhat complacent after seeing that Yan Liang had failed to achieve success for several months, even led his troops out of the pass to engage in a head-on battle with the Jin army. As a result, Yan Liang vented his anger and personally went out and hacked him to death. Cheng Yin, who took refuge with Zhang Lu, frightened Zhang Wei so much that he fled back to the pass with his tail between his legs.
However, this was just a small setback for the Hanzhong Army. Generally speaking, it still held a favorable position. Yan Liang fought hard for several months and suffered more than 10,000 casualties. After repeated battles, he finally basically eliminated the threats on the mountains on both sides, and He divided his troops and horses to confront the Hanzhong Army above, so that he could not devote his energy to attack the Jin siege troops in the valley from three sides. At this point, Yan Liang was finally able to get into position and prepare to launch a frontal attack from Yangping Pass.
Of course, this is just a posture, because it is known that there are more than 20,000 soldiers and horses guarding the pass. Even Yan Liang does not dare to risk the lives of the soldiers in vain. He wants to attack Yangping Pass with only twice the troop advantage. This is obvious It was the rhythm of seeking death, so Yan Liang was pretending to do so while sending someone to deliver a message to his lord, because the previous back-and-forth lasted for several months, and at this time, it was already the autumn harvest time in July 208...