The Three Kingdoms become stronger when they get treasures

Chapter 374
After a period of preparation, Cao Cao began to send a large army to attack Jiameng Pass.

The food and supplies left by Cao Cao’s new in-law Zhang Lu helped Cao Cao a lot, as well as the property confiscated after the Yang family was destroyed, which saved Cao Cao the manpower and material resources to transport food from Chang’an and saved a lot of time.

"Who is the general guarding Jiameng Pass? How many troops does he have?" Cao Cao asked.

"Returning to Duke Wei, according to the spies' report, the leader of Jiameng Pass is Zhang Wu's right army general Xu Shu, and the generals include Zhang Fei, Wei Yan, Zhang Ren, Li Yan and others. According to reports, Ma Chao has already joined Zhang Wu, and maybe he is also in Jiameng Pass. Within Meng Pass." Cheng Yu replied.

When Cao Cao heard this, he found it difficult to deal with him. Xu Shu was also from Yingchuan. Xun You, Cheng Yu and others had said at the beginning that Xu Shu's talents were no less than theirs, and he was truly both civil and military.With him guarding Jiameng Pass, basically don't think about using any strategy to easily defeat Jiameng Pass.

The two generals Zhang Fei and Wei Yan were no strangers to Cao Cao. They fought against Cao's army all year round and were both brave men. It is said that Zhang Ren and Li Yan were highly recognized by Zhang Wu. With Zhang Wu's ability to recognize people, These two people are definitely not simple either.

What depressed Cao Cao the most was that Ma Chao, who had cut his beard and discarded his robes, had taken refuge under Zhang Wu's command. Together with his subordinate Pound, Zhang Wu had two strong generals at once.

Cao Cao knew how brave Ma Chao was. Among his generals, only Xu Chu could match Ma Chao. This time he joined Zhang Wu, and he didn't know how much trouble it would cause him in the future.

Cao Cao couldn't help counting the fierce generals under Zhang Wu's command again, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Gan Ning, Huang Zhong, Ma Chao, Pang De, Wei Yan... I really don't know how many are counted. The fierce generals directly numb Cao Cao's scalp, more than his own fierce generals!

After counting the military generals, it is even more impossible to count the civil servants and advisers.Since the Yellow Turban Rebellion, due to frequent wars in the north, many talents went to Jingzhou, Yizhou, and Yangzhou to avoid the chaos, and now they are basically caught by Zhang Wu.

This didn't include Zhang Wu, the pervert. Cao Cao really couldn't figure out why Zhang Wu's power had grown so fast in just a few years, and how he had gathered so many elite soldiers.

I really regret that I didn't wipe him out first when he was weak.

But when Cao Cao was busy dealing with Yuan Shao, how could he have thought that a lieutenant general who was born as a thief in Jiangxia County would achieve such an achievement in the future.Counting it, since Zhang Wu occupied Jiangxia, he has already occupied half of Jiangxia in less than ten years, and his development is too smooth, it is like a god's help!
And what about myself?In the past, the crusade against the Yellow Turban was not counted, it was working for others, and it has been 21 years since the crusade against Dong Zhuo. During this period, many life and death hardships have been experienced, and several times they were almost wiped out!
No, Zhang Wu can't be allowed to develop like this anymore. If he is allowed to completely digest Jiangdong and Yizhou, and completely occupy Jiangnan, it's hard to say who will own the world in the future based on this person's ability.

We must break through Jiameng Pass, break into Yizhou, and take advantage of Zhang Wu's unstable foothold in Yizhou to take Yizhou back.If he wants to occupy the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Cao Cao is still confident that he can finally defeat Zhang Wu. After all, the overall strength of the north in this era is still stronger than that of the south.

This battle is related to the general trend of the world in the future, and it is related to the life and death of the two major groups.If Cao Cao can regain Yizhou, he can overcome the difficulty of not having a navy, or train a navy in Yizhou to go down the river, or use the power of the whole country to open a road in the Wuling Mountains, and the army will go down the Wujiang River and launch from the south of Jingzhou to the north attack.

If Zhang Wu loses Yizhou, he must put all his eggs in one basket and launch the Northern Expedition from Xiangfan or Jianye within ten years to wipe out Cao Cao's forces in one fell swoop. Otherwise, without the help of the natural danger of the Yangtze River, the south at this time really cannot beat the north.

Cao Cao asked Yan Pu, the former counselor of Zhang Lu who had just taken refuge: "Zi Mao has been in Hanzhong for a long time, so if he is familiar with the surrounding terrain, can there be a good plan to break Jiameng Pass?"

Although Yan Pu was not very conspicuous in the entire star-studded Three Kingdoms era, not as good as Zhuge Liang, Zhou Yu, Xun You, Jia Xu, etc., he still has some real skills in judging people and things. Lu reuses, and Zhang Lu's strength is not very strong, so his reputation is not obvious.

But Cao Cao appreciated Yan Pu quite a lot, because Cao Cao was indeed a person who was good at discovering and using talents. Every time Yan Pu put forward his advice, he was very practical, he had a strong overall view, and he had a very thorough understanding of human nature. Very similar to Jia Xu.

Yan Pu said: "Back to Wei Gong, Jiameng Pass is located at the junction of Jialing River and Bailong River. It is an important pass on the Jinniu Road. In addition, there is no danger to defend, the main battlefield is the Kansai River Dam and the Kanto Ferry. But the Niutou Mountain on the west side is steep and densely forested, with twists and turns, and it is difficult to attack by force. It is estimated that the mountain is already guarded by heavy troops."

"Is there any other way to bypass Jiameng Pass?"

Yan Pu pointed to the map and said: "There is a way to bypass Jiameng Pass, but not far away is the more dangerous Jiange. If you don't take Jiameng Pass first, once the army is blocked by Jiange, the back road will be blocked by Jiameng Pass." If the defenders in the pass are cut off, the whole army will be in danger!"

Cao Cao had a headache. He was used to fighting on the northern plains, but he was not used to Dongchuan and Xichuan where there are mountains everywhere.In the past, whether it was against Yuan Shu, against Lu Bu, or even against Yuan Shao, everyone would set up their troops and start fighting.

Although it is often necessary to use the terrain to march and deploy tactics, most of the battlefields are on open plains, and the most troublesome thing is the siege battle.

But there are mountains everywhere here, and the army can't spread out at all. Cao Cao suffered a lot when he attacked Yangping Pass not long ago. He didn't expect that the terrain of Xichuan was more dangerous than that of Dongchuan.

But there is no way, Yizhou is surrounded by mountains, if you want to attack, you can only take this relatively reasonable mountain road, otherwise you can only go over the mountain.

If three or five spies go to inquire about information, they can naturally go to other places to cross the mountain, but when an army of 30 to [-] marches, they must open a channel that can transport food and grass, otherwise they will be cut off and starve to death Among the mountains.

Cao Cao asked again: "Can the rice barn road in Bazhong be used by the army?"

Yan Pu said: "Micang Road is narrower and steeper than Jinniu Road, which is not conducive to the march of the army. It may be possible to send only three to five thousand soldiers to attack lightly."

Cheng Yu said: "Duke Wei, according to investigations, General Zhang Wuling Huang Zhong led an army of [-] to guard Basil County. I'm afraid the strategy of sneak attack will not succeed."

After all, Jiameng Pass had to be stormed in the end, otherwise the army would not be able to enter the hinterland of Yizhou. However, Cao Cao had fought many difficult and vicious battles in his life. In the past, when besieging the city, it often took a year or two to capture it. .

The matter has come to this point, no matter how difficult it is to fight, it must be fought. Trying to consume [-] soldiers, as long as they rush into Shuzhong, it will be easy.

Therefore, Cao Cao ordered Xia Houyuan and Zhang Yun to be the vanguards, and led an army of [-] to set up camp at Jiameng Pass first, to inquire about the military situation, and to test the situation of the guards at the pass.Cao Cao led an army of [-] in the center, left Xiahou Dun to guard Nanzheng, and Cao Ren was in charge of transporting grain and grass.

(End of this chapter)