Chapter 152: The plan for the Northern Expedition (III)

But Xue Bing pointed his fingers on the map and pointed at the two fingers. Everyone around him changed their faces. Pang Tong even said, "Zihan has such a big appetite..."

As soon as this statement was made, everyone in the lower head looked questioning, but it was Zhuge Liang's words that made these people understand why Liu Bei and others changed their faces, and Pang Tong even said that Xue Bing had a big appetite.

Zhuge Liang said to Xue Bing: "Zihan still doesn't think it's enough to seize Chang'an, so he actually wants to seize Tongguan and Qingni Pass? But he wants to use the steepness of the two passes to resist Cao Cao's army?"

Xue Bing said: "That's right." Then he pointed to two passes and explained in detail to Liu Bei: "Although Chang'an is strong, if Cao Cao surrounded Chang'an with a large army and sent another army to bypass the side and rescue Yongliang's troops, our army will be in danger."

Liu Bei nodded when he heard this, but he also understood that, in terms of Cao Cao's troops, even if he left behind some trapped Chang'an, the remaining army was enough to break the military balance on the Western Front battlefield, thus putting his army at a disadvantage.

Xue Bing continued: "Therefore, Tongguan and Qingni Pass must be taken down as soon as possible. If these two places are captured, only elite troops must be sent to guard them, even if Cao Cao's army is hundreds of thousands, it will not be allowed to enter."

Tongguan faces Luoyang directly. If this pass is taken, it can block the gateway to the east of Chang'an. As for the Qingni Pass, it is located in the southeast of Chang'an, but it leads directly to Wancheng. If Tongguan cannot enter, it is difficult to guarantee that Cao Cao will mobilize his troops to change to this path.

Therefore, this place is also a place that has to be seized.

Liu Bei just looked at the map and understood the importance of these two places.

It can be said that if these two places were occupied, Chang'an would not need to garrison the army. At that time, he seized Chang'an just to block Cao Cao's way to move westward. However, Xue Bing now placed his real target on Tongguan and Qingni Passes. In this way, Chang'an changed from a frontier position to a rear base in Tongguan to a rear base.

Moreover, passes are mostly built according to danger, which is better than cities. Not to mention the steepness of Tongguan, it is simply a benefit that Cao Cao could not get around even if he wanted to.

Therefore, as long as you occupy these two places, it is equivalent to completely closing the east gate of Yongzhou. The rest of the land is to steadily sweep the Cao soldiers in Yongzhou.

Although in terms of the situation, Liu Bei's main army was still located on the line from Tianshui to Jieting to confront Cao's army. However, because Chang'an was taken away, Cao's army lost its logistics support.

Moreover, on the one hand, Hanzhong can also go out to Xigu and attack Chen Cang with the main legion.

If Chen Cang seized it, the two armies of the Western Front and the South Road will go out together, and the east side will be occupied by our own side, the Cao soldiers in the entire Yongzhou will have no danger to rely on, and they can only face the Liu Bei army from all directions on the vast plain. The rest of the things to do will be very simple.

On the premise that Cao Bing completely lost the logistics support area, even if he was besieged, he could be surrounded to death.

However, there is a very important problem now, so Liu Bei hurriedly asked, "Although Zi Han's plan is wonderful, there is an important point that needs to be solved. I wonder if Zi Han has a decision?" After that.

Seeing Xue Bing standing respectfully waiting for him to ask, he continued, "I just heard Zihan's words and knew that the key point of this battle was above the strange soldiers of Ziwu Valley. This line of soldiers must not only pass through the steep road of Ziwu Valley in a short period of time.

Before Cao Bing found out, he had to fight to the city of Chang'an and cooperate with the earlier arrangements to seize Chang'an. Afterwards, he had to seize the two dangerous passes at Tongguan and Qingni Pass. I wonder how many soldiers Zi Han was planning to send out from here?"

Zhuge Liang nodded, but he also had the same question. After all, this army will be related to the success or failure of the entire battle situation. If it succeeds, the land of Yongliang will be in the hands of the King of Hanzhong. If there is one thing that is not achieved, the success or failure will be achieved.

Even if I took down several counties, I was afraid that I would not be able to defend them, and in the end I returned them all to the Cao family.

However, he was very impressed by Xue Bing's strategy, because if this plan was successful, Yong Liang would all be in the hands of Liu Bei, and it would be very safe. Because the East Gate fell into his own hands, he could completely confront Cao Cao by means of the gate.

But he was cautious by nature and could never agree to put the key to victory or defeat entirely on such a surprise attack full of variables.

Everyone in the hall was silent and silent. They all stared at Xue Bing in contemplation. Xue Bing just suddenly appeared in her mind like this. Therefore, she did not think too much about the details, and sometimes she needed to think about it temporarily.

At this time, Liu Bei asked how many soldiers were needed, and Xue Bing immediately estimated it in his mind.

"Ten thousand? This is the most safest thing. No matter what you do, the troops are enough. But the Ziwu Valley Road is too difficult to walk. If you bring ten thousand troops, you may not be able to reach Chang'an if you walk for the first half of the year.

Moreover, with more soldiers and horses, it is difficult to ensure that the wind will not be leaked, so we cannot bring so many." After careful consideration, Xue Bing's estimate was almost done, and then he said to Liu Bei: "In the opinion of Bing, three thousand soldiers should be sent out of the Ziwu Valley path.

When Liu Bei heard this, he gasped and asked in surprise: "Three thousand?" He was stunned for a while before saying: "After this army seized Chang'an, it will have to attack two places. Only these troops are enough?"

Xue Bing replied: "In fact, this army does not need to attack two places, it only needs to attack Chang'an and then capture Tongguan in the shortest time. The mission of this army is completed.

Then, taking advantage of the shock of the morale of the Cao army, General Wei Yan led Hanzhong troops out of Xigu. If the time is good, Chen Cang can be broken. Even if Chen Cang is not broken, he can still divide his troops from Xigu to east, sweep the land west of Chang'an, and send troops to Chang'an.

”

When Liu Bei heard this, he looked at the map again. Seeing that if Xiegu sent troops all the way, even if he could not take Chen Cang, he could still divide his troops to advance eastward.

It was said that if the troops left Xigu and attacked Chang'an was not feasible, it did not mean that the way out of Xigu was blocked by Chen Cang, but if it came from this place, Cao's army knew it.

This would have no effect of a surprise attack. As long as Chen Cang defenders came out and entangled the Hanzhong army out of Xigu, other Cao soldiers could adjust their defenses, thus turning Chang'an into a fortress for heavy troops to defend again.

Xue Bing also came here and fought a few battles in person before he understood this truth. In the past, when he played games, he could not go to the next place without fighting. In fact, it was not like that in the real world.

The real situation is that even if you don’t attack this city, you can go around and set a goal. But that will expose your rear and be easily devastating.

Like Chen Cang, his position is not to hold the exit of Xigu, but if the troops leave Xigu, no matter which direction you look for, they will be within the monitoring range of Chen Cang.

If you don't hit him, you will face the danger of being attacked by him at any time. Therefore, although he has not affected your progress geographically, in a military sense, he has to fight fortresses.

But in Xue Bing's plan, even if Chen Cang defenders discovered Xigu and sent troops, he could not react at all.

Because Wei Yan's army had to wait until Chang'an captured it before it appeared, and the anti-rebellion of Chen Cang Wangdong was blocked. In addition, Liu Bei's main force was eyeing him on the western front, which turned out that Chen Cang defenders could only watch as Wei Yan divided his troops under his nose, stepped west of Chang'an, and sent troops to reinforce Chang'an.

Liu Bei thought about this and already understood Xue Bingdi's strategic intention. He attacked Chang'an and seized Tongguan. Then he closed the gate of Yongzhou, and then turned around and slowly dealt with Cao Bing trapped in Yongzhou.

In fact, Xue Bing secretly gave this strategic plan a very appropriate name in his heart, "Close the Dog and Fight the Dog". Unfortunately, this name cannot be said on such an occasion...

However, there is still another problem that is that Xue Bing is determined to close the east gate of Yongzhou and prevent Cao Cao's army from entering.

So why did the troops responsible for the surprise attack abandon Qingni Pass after capturing Chang'an and attacked Tongguan?

Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, and even Fa Zheng all raised this question. That is, if the Qingni Pass was not captured while Cao's army was unprepared, they would have to be prepared when things were leaked. At that time, it would be even more difficult to win the pass.

If the Qingni Pass is not taken down, it is equivalent to leaving a door for Cao Cao. Cao's army can send troops to Wancheng, and then pass this pass to reinforce Yongzhou. That's the case.

Liu Bei's army, who thought that the gate was closed and prepared to sweep Cao's soldiers, would face the sweep of hundreds of thousands of Cao Cao's army.

Moreover, on the plain, as the war deepened, the two sides were entangled together, and it was not so easy to withdraw from the war at that time.

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Xue Bing breathed a sigh of relief and said, "The Qingni Pass is not unavailable. But the Sichuan Army has no strength left. The army goes out to Qishan. The Hanzhong troops cannot move yet, and are ready to leave the Xigu at any time.

In addition, some elite troops must be assigned to Ziwu Valley to attack Chang'an. It can be said that all the soldiers and horses in Sichuan have been sent to the battlefield, and each of them is the top priority, and there is no more effort to seize the Qingni Pass."

Liu Bei's face changed to look ugly. His eyes were patrolling back and forth on the map, but he found it difficult to squeeze out his troops to attack Qingni Pass.

And most importantly, if you want to easily seize this level, it is best to launch a raid before the news of the lost place in Chang'an has been leaked.

However, there were only 3,000 troops attacking Chang'an in total. After capturing Chang'an, at least more than a thousand troops would be left to guard it. The rest would be too few to attack Tongguan, so how could they divide their troops to attack Qingni Pass?

He looked up at Xue Bing, and was about to ask questions, but suddenly he saw Zhuge Liang smiling with a clear look, and then said, "What did the military advisor see?"

Zhuge Liang shook his fan and replied, "It seems that Zi Han said nothing wrong, but the strength of the army in Sichuan is useless!"

Liu Bei didn't expect that Zhuge Liang would look at it for a long time and actually wrote this sentence. However, he saw Zhuge Liang's confident attitude, and obviously thought of a way to solve this flaw. He had to smile bitterly in his heart and said, "If the military advisor has a clever plan, please tell me quickly."

”

Zhuge Liang said, "The King has forgotten that Zi Han said at the beginning that he had to go hand in hand and cooperate with each other to achieve success?"

Xue Bing looked around and suddenly heard Zhuge Liang say this, and he was slightly shocked and said to himself: "It seems that Zhuge Liang has already seen the focus of my strategy. After all, he is the person who is called the closest to a fairy. He guessed it so quickly."

Zhuge Liang smiled and said, "If what I guessed is right, Zi Han's strategy is not just the troops in the middle of Sichuan, but General Guan from Jingzhou and even the soldiers of Eastern Wu were all included.

But we use the three troops as one way, and really advance three groups and cooperate with each other to achieve success!”
Chapter completed!