Chapter 353: Camping at Wuzhangyuan

The river valley road in early spring is still a desolate scene.

With a "whoosh" sound, an arrow was shot off the bowstring, and a wild boar drinking water fell down.

Two scouts came out of their hiding place with crossbows. After confirming that there were no wild beasts around, they felt relieved to drag the body of the wild boar back.

"With this one, we can go back." One scout said to himself.

"It's a pity that they have lost weight after the winter." Another scout felt a little sorry.

They worked together to put the wild boar on the mount. There were already a lot of prey hanging on the two horses, so they could only lead the horses back.

But the two did not mind. Now that the war was temporarily over, compared to fighting with Cao's scouts, it was like going for an outing to lead the horses full of prey for a while.

"I think there's still some fat on the wild boar's leg, it should be good to roast."

"Don't think about it, yesterday we captured all of Cao's troops, there were 20,000 more mouths to feed, the cooks are all busy, how can they have time to roast wild boar's legs with you."

"I thought Cao's soldiers should eat very well..."

"Hey! All the wealth belongs to the generals, what does it have to do with us soldiers?"

"The emperor's uncle and General Zhang still eat and live with us."

"The emperor's uncle is different from Cao's thief..."

"Of course they are different!"

One of the two scouts is an old soldier from Xinye, Jingzhou, and the other is a new soldier from Yufu, Yizhou. The same sigh brings out different feelings.

After a moment of silence, the two changed the topic:

"I heard that the general of Cao's army had a special relationship with General Zhang!"

"Oh? Tell me?"

"We old men all know that General Zhang's wife's surname is Xiahou..."

"Wow! Is our battle a son-in-law fighting his father-in-law?"

"Shut up!"

"Hey, General Zhang only has a thunderous voice, not a wind-hearing ear, how can he hear it? Tell me, I see that the two generals did not hold back."

"Not only did they not hold back, I heard that if the emperor's uncle hadn't stopped him, the Xiahou man almost committed suicide on the spot."

"Ha! His temper is the same as General Zhang's."

"It's possible that General Zhang stole someone's daughter."

"No wonder General Cao is embarrassed."

"How miserable."

The two scouts walked together for a while and could already see the bustling camp from a distance, but at this time the young scout remembered something:

"Now that the Cao army has been destroyed, don't we have to attack Chang'an? ”

Participating in a siege, it is difficult to survive, which is one of the lingering nightmares of the soldiers.

Now the siege in Hanchun is even more so, which is no different from sending oneself to death, and it is also the crux of the rapid collapse of Cao's army.

After all, they have suffered in Linwei for almost a month, and everyone is waiting to return to Chencang to drink hot soup and sleep on the warm kang, but suddenly they know that they have to siege the city?

In this case, wouldn't it be better to surrender to Liu Huangshu than to struggle to death?

The old scout hesitated and said:

"I heard that attacking Chang'an has little to do with us."

"What do you mean?"

"Last night when the emperor's uncle was having dinner with us, he laughed and said... Let's see Zhuge Junshi."

The young scout blinked:

"Zhuge Junshi also wants to send Guizhi Decoction to the Chang'an defenders? "

Of course, Kong Ming didn't need this.

After Zhao Zilong and Ma Chao joined forces to capture Chencang, the first thing they did was to send troops to open the blockade of Chencang Road by Cao Jun.

After the news was sent to Hanzhong, Kong Ming knew that the situation in Yongliang was determined. The final difference was how Shi Yuan planned, how the lord made a decision, and how to get the greatest results at the lowest cost.

Then there was only one thing in front of him:

Chang'an.

Compared to the tepid battle situation on the river valley road, the changes in the situation in Guanzhong were as fast as thunder and fire.

As soon as Zhao Yun and Ma Chao captured Chencang, Ma Chao was assigned by Zhao Yun to focus on Zhang He, who still had troops in his hands.

This decision highlighted a close pursuit and relentless pursuit, aiming to allow Ma Chao to use his superiority in military strength to capture Zhang He. 's mobility was trapped.

Then he sent elite troops to the south to open the Chencang Road, and released Xi Zhen and more than a thousand defenders guarding the Chencang Road to the Guanzhong battlefield.

Xi Zhen had brought the chevaux de frise and other materials needed for building the checkpoints, and there were similar materials in Chencang City. Under Zhao Yun's order, Xi Zhen could use them.

And Xi Zhen's duty was just as Du Xi guessed. He did not defend Chencang, but set up a checkpoint at the exit west of the valley road to block the valley road to prevent Xiahou Yuan from killing him.

After everything was arranged properly, Zhao Yun did not stop and led his elite cavalry along the Weihe Valley all the way east, passing Chencang and Beiyuan, and killing all the way to Wuzhangyuan.

And he immediately attacked Zhu Ling who was defending here, and sent people to shout to disrupt Zhu Ling's army:

"Xiahou Yuan is dead! Zhang He surrendered! Cao's army was defeated! ”

After seeing the movement, Huo Jun, who was defending Xieyu Pass on Baoxiadao, did not hesitate to lead his troops in person, holding a strong crossbow and wading through the water to shoot indiscriminately in response.

Under the attack from both sides, Zhu Ling held out for half a day, and saw that the enemy had a steady stream of reinforcements joining the battlefield from Chencang and Xieyu Pass in the west, while there was no news of reinforcements on his side.

Looking at the soldiers who had no fighting spirit, Zhu Ling finally did not hesitate, and led more than 2,000 troops to break through, forming a formation to resist Zhao Yun's cavalry, and slowly retreated to Chang'an.

At this point, the Shu Road from Hanzhong to Guanzhong was reopened.

Fa Zheng was once again appointed by Kong Ming to sit in Hanzhong, and then he took Jiang Wei and the artisan army, crossed the Baoxiadao, and set foot in Guanzhong.

And at the Wuzhangyuan camp, which had been burned to ruins, Huo Jun was full of tension, carefully considering every word to tell Zhuge Military Advisor the ins and outs of this place:

"This Wuzhangyuan was originally just a wasteland. I followed the military advisor's advice to build a camp here and harass Cao's army for more than half a year."

"At the beginning of February, Cao's army sent troops to the west to attack Yongliang. The enemy was too powerful to resist, so they had to retreat to Xieyu Pass and burn this camp to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy."

There should be nothing to see on a piece of wasteland with some broken walls and ruins, but Kong Ming looked at it carefully and finally let out a long sigh.

"Zhong Miao, how far is this place from Chang'an?"

After several harassments, Huo Jun was already familiar with the geography of this place. Without thinking, he said:

"If you take the river valley road, you can drive straight in. It is more than 240 miles away from Chang'an."

"If you take the Huaili Maoling Road, it will take more than 50 miles."

"If you drive a good horse, you can go back and forth in half a day."

There is a small lookout made of mud in the Wuzhangyuan camp. Kong Ming climbed up and looked east:

"Half a day round trip..."

The words were lonely and lingering, and the words gradually became inaudible.

"Master, umbrella!"

Little Jiang Wei couldn't understand the master's worries, but he noticed that it was drizzling.

The rain was not heavy, but the first rain after the beginning of spring was like a needle, and it was cold on the face.

Jiang Wei ran to ask for an umbrella for the master and held it up.

But Kong Ming was too tall, and even if little Jiang Wei tried to tiptoe, he could only barely cover the master's shoulders.

Just when he was anxious, little Jiang Wei saw the master bending down, took the umbrella from his hand and held it up, and took Jiang Wei to his side to protect him from the wind and rain:

"You are too young, let me do it."

Little Jiang Wei said "ah" in a daze, and felt the hand around his shoulder retracted. Ma Jun, who had been standing behind him and kept silent, was also held up by the master with an umbrella.

Such an umbrella is not enough. Some parts of Kong Ming's body were wet by the rain. He looked down at Jiang Wei's worried eyes, smiled comfortingly, and stuffed the feather fan into Jiang Wei's hand.

Then he held Liu Bei's sword at his waist, and then shouted in a deep voice:

"Here is the sword letter from the lord, Zilong!"

"I am here!"

Kong Ming held an umbrella with one hand, and drew out the sword from his waist with the other hand and pointed:

"Tomorrow at 1:00 a.m., we will move our camp to Wuzhangyuan!"

"To fight against the traitors and revive the Han Dynasty, we will march to Chang'an!"

Little Jiang Wei held the feather fan with admiration on his face. He felt that this familiar yet unfamiliar master was extremely tall at this moment!

Huo Jun was surprised. The place where the army was stationed was strictly speaking Mei County. Wuzhangyuan was full of ruins. Where did the "moving camp to Wuzhangyuan" come from?

But Zhao Yun over there didn't notice it at all, and shouted:

"I have received the order!"

"To fight against the traitors and revive the Han Dynasty!"

"We will march to Chang'an!"

That night, Huo Jun hurriedly asked to see Kong Ming once.

But before Huo Jun could speak, Kong Ming said:

"I already know Zhong Miao's intention. Attacking Chang'an is not a sudden idea. Let's wait and see."

So Huo Jun could only leave again with suspicion.

In Huo Jun's view, the troops stationed in Mei County are very mixed.

There are more than 2,000 elite cavalry of Zhao Yun, more than 3,000 Qiang cavalry left by Ma Mengqi, and 2,000 infantry and more than 1,000 crossbowmen led by Huo Jun.

Zhuge Junshi only brought more than 1,000 people from Hanzhong, and the rest were thousands of civilians who were constantly transporting supplies and could not fight.

There were only more than 8,000 soldiers who could fight, and half of them were cavalry who suffered heavy losses in sieges. How could Chang'an be taken?

Seeing Huo Jun leave, Kong Ming continued to fiddle with the model in his hand with Jiang Wei and Ma Jun:

"Bo Yue, De Heng, let's continue to talk about the theory of weight in the counterweight trebuchet."

Ma Jun's face was full of interest. Although Jiang Wei had a hard time understanding it, he was eager to learn.

Because the master said in the afternoon that the method of breaking the city lies in the theory of weight.

In order to facilitate the demonstration, the master also brought a small model to demonstrate and called it a counterweight trebuchet.

The model demonstration, coupled with the explanation of the pictures prepared by the master, Jiang Wei quickly understood the principle, but soon ushered in more painful mathematics.

The reason is simple, how heavy the stone is, how long the pole is, how heavy the stone can be thrown, and how far it can be thrown.

All kinds of problems require understanding what is standard and what is weight. After learning the "Mohist Weighing Method" summarized by the master, rely on mathematics to answer.

Jiang Wei was sweating profusely after calculating all these, but Ma Jun was already discussing with his master over there with great interest:

If the two ends of this lever are twisted, folded, or bent, how should we calculate it?

Then the two drew a lot of levers on paper that Jiang Wei thought were outrageous, and discussed them with great interest.

Little Jiang Wei vaguely remembered that he had asked Master Pang Tong what he needed to know if he wanted to be a world-famous general.

Master Pang hesitated for a while and told him that he needed to "observe people's hearts."

He had also asked Master Zhuge in front of him this question, and then the master gave him a "Nine Nine Songs" without saying a word.

He was asked to memorize everything from "Nine Nines Eighty-One" to "Two and a Half and One", and now he had to study the more difficult "Theory of Weighing and Weighing".

Before going to bed, little Jiang Wei couldn't help but sigh: It's really hard to be a famous general.