Three Kingdoms: Ancestors of the Han Dynasty

Chapter 413 Dragon Leaping Tiger Crouching ([-])

In the morning, the sun rises from the east, and the sun shines on the earth.The Weinan Plain, which was originally quiet and peaceful, fell into a state of horror.The farmers who worked at sunrise and rested at sunset had to suspend their work on the fields where the two armies faced each other, for fear that the war would affect them.

A troop of more than [-] people marched along the Luogu River, holding the flag high, and stretched the queue long.The word "Sima" is embroidered on the leading tooth flag, and the leader of the army is Sima Division.

Last night, Sima Yi asked his son Sima Shi to lead more than 6000 soldiers to take a boat out in the dark and arrive near Wugong County.The next day, after a short rest, Master Sima set up a banner and pretended to be [-] people, and led his soldiers to attack Wang Ping from the western fortress.

Soon, the movement of the Sima Normal Army was quickly learned by the scouts of the Han army, and reported to the chief general Wang Ping.

In the camp of the Chinese army, the personal guards hurriedly walked, lifted the curtain to enter the tent, and whispered to Wang Ping about this.

Wang Ping, who was arranging today's military affairs to everyone, changed his expression slightly at that moment, but he quickly adjusted, and only Liu Min, the right guard, noticed it.

Wang Ping waved his hand to signal his guards to retreat, and said nonchalantly, "Qin Lang, the general against the Wei Dynasty, has [-] cavalry on foot. If it comes to attack, shoot it with a bow and crossbow."

"promise!"

Everyone dispersed from the camp, Liu Min, the right guard, hesitated for a while, and when he didn't know how to speak, Wang Ping left him behind.

"Liu Hujun, wait a minute, I have something important to discuss!"

"promise!"

Liu Min stopped, walked a few steps towards Wang Ping, and asked in a low voice, "Captain, there was an emergency military arrival just now."

Liu Min, courtesy name Meng Gong, was born in Lingling County, Jingzhou (now Yongzhou, Hunan Province). When he was weak, he was promoted as Xiaolian along with his cousin Jiang Wan.When serving as a censor, he prosecuted and inspected the big Han officials, never implicated innocent people, and was widely respected in the court.

During Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, Liu Min was transferred to the right guard army and concurrently served as partial general, and was stationed in Hanzhong with Wang Ping.During the Northern Expedition to Guanzhong, as Wang Ping's deputy, he assisted Wang Ping in handling military affairs.

The high-ranking officials in Lingling, Jingzhou in the Han Dynasty were second only to Nanyang in Jingzhou.Represented by Jiang Wan and Liu Ba, Liu Yong, Liu Min, and Lai Gong were all from Lingling. Except for Lai Gong and Liu Ba who died of illness, the other three gradually became important officials.

Once Zhuge Liang passed away, Jiang Wan basically wanted to rise to power and become the top leader in the political arena of the Han Dynasty.That's why Zhuge Liang also consciously cultivated Jiang Wan's influence to prevent him from being difficult to convince the crowd after he came to power. He also promoted Jiang Wan's in-laws Pan Jun and Liu Min out of the idea of ​​reusing talents.

Zhuge Liang not only appointed Pan Jun as Yushi Zhongcheng and the Central Military Adviser to follow the army; he also appointed Liu Min as the right guard and partial general to assist Wang Ping in guarding Hanzhong.

Wang Ping supported his belt, nodded, and said in a deep voice, "To be honest with Meng Gong, just now the scouts delivered a message, and an army against Wei was found on the west side of the army. The number is about 6000 people."

"Huh?" Liu Min couldn't help but asked back in surprise: "According to the report from the Prime Minister's Army, Sima Yi's army was not restrained near Mei County, so how can there be a large army supporting here now?"

Wang Ping shook his head, put on his sword, and said, "I don't know, wait for someone to go and have a look."

As he spoke, Wang Ping looked up at Liu Min and asked, "Meng Gong wants to investigate with someone?"

"I would like to go with the governor!"

……

On the unknown hillside of the Qinling Mountains, Wang Ping and Liu Min led their personal guards and stood on a high place, looking into the distance.Looking at the Wei army in the distance with banners unfurling and repairing the barracks, Wang Ping frowned and asked, "Who is the name of this general?"

"Revert to Sima!" Qin Wei said.

"Sima?" Wang Ping muttered while holding the cold hilt of his sword.

There are not many people who have the surname Sima back in the Wei Kingdom. Apart from Sima Yi, there are also his son Sima Shi, and the brothers who are civil servants in the country.Sima Yiyuan confronted Shangcheng in Meixian County. The general with the surname Sima in front of him was obviously not Sima Yi, but his son Sima Shi was most likely.

"Master Sima?" Liu Min also thought of this and said.

"En!" Wang Ping replied flatly.

At this time, Wang Ping was a little confused. According to the previous plan, the prime minister's army encircled and wiped out Sima Yi's army, and he acted as a partial army to buy time for the army.Later, the prime minister said that he gave up his original plan and let himself go west to join the army, but unexpectedly, he was bitten by the [-] soldiers supported by Qin Lang, making it difficult to move.

Now there is still Sima Division's army coming to encircle and form a pincer attack with Qin Lang's army. His own army of ten thousand people is blocked at Luogukou, in a dilemma.

It was also the first time Liu Min encountered such a situation, and he didn't know what to do, so he asked, "Captain, what should our army do next?"

Wang Ping rubbed the hilt of his sword, and said slowly: "The Prime Minister said in a letter earlier that if it is difficult to meet westward, the army can withdraw and return to the division. Some people think that in such a situation, they should withdraw from Hanzhong and not stay for long!"

"Why? Isn't the Prime Minister going to send soldiers to support him?" Liu Min asked.

Wang Ping shook his head and said: "Although I don't know the size of the army in Guanzhong against Wei, from the perspective of Qin Lang's [-] troops, its strength is no less than [-] to [-]. Besides, the reinforcements from the Guandong against Wei have not yet arrived. If we don't withdraw at this time, When the reinforcements against the Wei Dynasty arrive, I'm afraid it will be even more difficult if I want to evacuate!"

"As for the Prime Minister sending a large army to support, it is difficult to dispatch the whole army. The large army needs to stick to the oblique grain road, and also needs to confront Sima Yi's army, and Xiangxiying and Huang Quan's army. Therefore, the number of troops sent is no more than [-]. The combined force of our army is no more than [-] people."

Wang Ping pondered for a while, analyzed the current situation clearly, and said.

"At present, there are more than [-] soldiers in Qin Lang's army and Sima Division. At that time, the Han and Wei armies will face off here, which will be very unfavorable for our army's supplies. If the Guandong reinforcements arrive at that time, it will disrupt the Prime Minister's Northern Expedition. planning deployment."

The primary goal of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was to capture Chencang City, connect Longxi, and pacify the central and western parts of Guanzhong. He did not want to continue to confront Cao Wei in the eastern part of Guanzhong.Because once confronted with Cao Wei in the eastern part of Guanzhong, the [-] troops of the Han Dynasty will start from Chencang in the west and reach Luogu in the east, spanning most of Guanzhong, and the front line of the [-] troops will be forced to be very long.

After all, the [-] army seems to be a lot, but it is really inconspicuous in Qinchuan, which is [-] miles away.Once the battle line is stretched, it will not only cause difficulties for the big Han to supply, but also easily cause the gap between the troops to be too large due to the distribution of troops, and it is easy for Cao Wei to take the opportunity to cut the battlefield and break them one by one.

Another point is that Wang Ping's troops are close to the eastern part of Guanzhong, and Cao Wei's troops supporting Sima Yi will arrive here first. At that time, Wang Ping will not face the nearly 30,000 people in front of him, but more Wei army Guandong soldiers who came to support him.In other words, if the troops are not withdrawn now, then Wang Ping will be thankful for not being defeated and killed!

Liu Min nodded slightly, and said in praise: "What the governor said is reasonable, he should be a famous general in the world!"

Wang Ping ran thousands of miles to kill Zhang He and pacified Liangzhou, and his low-key and rigorous character was deeply admired by everyone in the Han Dynasty.

As he said that, Liu Min thought a little bit, and asked another problem, "Commander, the enemy is eyeing our troops. If we withdraw now, it may not be easy, and we will easily be chased and killed by them!"

Hearing this, Wang Ping couldn't help being in a difficult situation. Facing the pressing forces of the Wei army, if he wanted to withdraw his troops at this time, it would be very difficult for him to retreat without sending elite soldiers to the rear to bleed a little.

For the first Northern Expedition in history, Zhao Yun's attack on Longyou failed. When the army retreated, Zhao Yun stayed behind to cut off the rear and burned down the plank road before the retreat was successful.Withdrawing troops under such circumstances is an extreme test of the general's ability.

After a while, it was rare for Wang Ping to come up, so he could only go down the mountain with the others to return to the camp, and arrange the withdrawal of the army first.

On the way downhill, Wang Ping was stepping on the bushes, thinking about withdrawing his troops, when he suddenly heard the guards in front shouting: "Be careful, there are snakes!"

Another guard picked up the 'snake' with a sword, and said with a smile: "It's just a snake's skin, your eyesight is not good!"

In the midst of everyone's jokes, Wang Ping stared at the snake skin with a flash of inspiration, and raised the corners of his mouth, he had a plan!

Holding the Han sword, Wang Ping approached Liu Min, and said in a low voice: "Meng Gong, after returning to the camp, order someone to tie up a dummy, put on our army's armor, and then order someone to catch a few live animals and hang them on the drum. Let him beat the drums and withdraw the troops tonight."

Liu Min's eyes lit up, and he said, "The governor is also a genius!"

Wang Ping smiled without saying a word.

After returning to the camp, Wang Ping ordered Xin Hong to lead dozens of people back to the Tangluo Road, and arranged torches and other lighting items along the way.He also selected ten scouts to report the news to Zhuge Liang along the Qinling Mountain Road.

Liu Min ordered people to catch a few goats from the Qinling Mountains, hang them in front of the drums, make their heels beat the drums, and set up dummies in front of the camp as a warning.Sima Shi and Qin Lang were so frightened that they thought Wang Ping was attacking at night and stayed up all night to prepare for Wang Ping's attack at night.

In this way, Wang Ping took advantage of the night and the sparse lights to return from the original road of Tangluo Road and withdraw his troops to Hanzhong.

It was night, when Ye Yang beat the night drum for a while, the dummy soldier stood there all night, scaring Sima Shi and Qin Lang up all night.

It wasn't until noon of the next day that according to the scouts dispatched that there were dummy people outside the camp of the Han army, and the army had already withdrawn, Sima Shi and Qin Lang realized that they had been deceived. When they entered Wang Ping's camp, they saw a few weak sheep. The face is blue and white!
(Historically, when Ma Di was defeated, Wang Ping beat Zhang Yun with thousands of soldiers and horses)

(End of this chapter)