Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3202 Mountain

Perhaps it was the strength of the Di people's guide, or perhaps it was Cao Zhen's luck. Although it was hard and difficult to cross the mountain road, Cao Zhen did not get lost in the vast remaining Qinling Mountains and found the right direction.

But the problem is that just crossing the mountain road does not mean a complete victory. Cao Zhen still needs to defeat Mulan Se to be considered complete. Tactically, once the insertion is successful, the effect will naturally be excellent, but the troops that can be inserted will also bear great risks.

Cao Zhen did not attack Mulan directly, but sent out scouts first.

 In the end, we really encountered a situation...

　　　　General! Enemy scouts spotted ahead! ” A Cao Jun scout came hurriedly, “We met on that mountain ridge! As soon as I climbed over the mountain, I saw a few of their heads popping up on the opposite mountain... We chased them for a while, but then they disappeared again! 』

 If it is a hunter, it is usually a small number of one or two people, and there is no armor.

 If they wear armor and have five to ten people, they can basically be identified as a scout team.

『No, see you? ” Cao Zhen stared, seeing that it was his own team, he didn’t scold him, he just asked, “What do you mean missing?” Heaven? Burrowed into the ground? 』

The Cao Jun scout carefully replied: "The mountain road is narrow and there are many trees. It turns three times and two times, and there is another mountain... By the time we climbed to the top of the opposite mountain, they had already run away... We didn't dare to spread too far apart. So...then he disappeared..."

The Cao Jun scout lowered his head.

Cao Zhen snorted, knowing that this was also true.

Hussars scouts have many tricks, and Cao Jun's scouts have learned them more than once or twice.

Those who are reckless may not come back alive.

Although Cao Zhen's troops are braver than ordinary Cao's soldiers, they are somewhat unable to deal with the hussar scouts in the mountains and forests.

Chasing, for fear of being ambushed, but not chasing, and not knowing the details of the opponent.

The Cao Jun scout whispered: "General, we are small... What if a few of us are captured, but we are asked about our strength... How about I bring more people next time?" 』

　　　　Bring more people? ” Cao Zhen snorted, “Do you want us to be exposed? 』

Cao Jun scout snorted and stopped talking.

With a small number of people, we can still be called scouts, but with a large number of people...

　　　　Have you checked clearly which part it is? ” Cao Zhen asked, “Is it the defenders at the rear, the sentry post, or the rebel scouts? 』

The scout hesitated and replied: "It's just that there are hussars recognizing the flag, but there is no general's flag..."

Cao Zhen frowned and waved his hand, "Check again!" 』

Hussars soldiers no longer used the method of identifying flags very early on, but used copper whistle signals and other methods to determine their affiliation. After all, flags have poor anti-counterfeiting properties, even if there are other tokens. To hand over and verify, the two sides were also close to a certain extent, and they were fighting together without even saying a charge.

Cao Jun also wanted to abandon the identification system of flags, but...

 It’s not possible yet.

 Therefore, Cao Zhen was unable to determine whether the hussar scout he met this time was from the local checkpoint or a scout sent by Li Dian.

As a result, the information is very vague.

According to the information collected previously, the scouts appearing on the opposite side may be general garrison troops, or scouts who came temporarily to investigate, or they may be Mulan Sai Li Dian's men.

 Of course, the worst result is the last one.

Cao Zhen also imagined passing through Li Dian's defense line quietly, but this situation was too idealistic. Normally, when a large army is stationed, there must be sentry posts and scouts patrolling. Unless the garrisoning generals are lax, generally speaking, The closer you are to the other party, the easier it is to be discovered by the other party.

After thinking for a long time, Cao Zhen had no idea, so he couldn't help but ask his confidant: "What do you think?" 』

 At some point, Cao Zhen’s confidants can be used as half generals.

The confidant thought for a moment and said: "We failed to find out about them, and they also don't know about us... I think they are more like ordinary checkpoints... they retreated when they saw our scouts, which shows that their fighting spirit is not high... If They are Li Thief's men. They want to check out our specific numbers without saying anything... So we might as well send more scouts to stop the enemy from detecting them, and then rush to attack the back of Mulan Fort. Under the attack from both front and rear, we will definitely be able to break it. 』

The other one shook his head and said, "That's not necessarily true. If they set up an ambush in front of us and we run into it, wouldn't we be playing into their own hands?" General, I think it is better to play it safe and investigate first before making a decision. 』

Cao Zhen looked at the surrounding mountains and gritted his teeth.

 Having come this far…

Having come here, no one can bear it when we go back empty-handed!

　　　Staying here is not an option. ” Cao Zhen looked around, “Although this place is hidden, there is only one exit. If someone blocks it, it will be difficult to get out... We can rest here for one night at most. We must leave tomorrow!” 』

　　　　General, where are you going? 』

Cao Zhen pondered and did not answer for a while.

Among the mountains and hills, it looks like you can climb any mountain, but in fact there are only a few ways you can walk, unlike in the plains where you have many directions to choose from.

Now that the enemy's situation is unknown, any path taken is full of risks.

　　　『Keep moving forward! ” Cao Zhen gritted his teeth and said, “Since we have already reached this point, if we just evacuate like this... No matter what, Mulansai must be defeated! If there is a trap ahead, send more scouts... If Thief Li is really lured out, we can also set a trap in turn..."

 …

 …

 The vast Qinling Mountains, with mountains like the sea.

There is some green on the mountain, which is eager to emerge.

 But there is still a lot of snow on the top of the mountain.

 As the winter snow lasts longer, these impatient greens will inevitably bear a greater blow.

 The road is flanked by steep mountain walls, as if cut by an axe in some places.

If you walk in this place for a long time, you will inevitably feel some pressure in your heart, as if the two mountain walls will move at the next moment, and then squeeze the entire group of people into a pulp.

　　　The whole army stops! 』

Cao Zhen suddenly trembled and shouted.

This kind of terrain…

Cao Zhen swallowed, turned his head, and glanced around, "Where are the scouts?" ! 』

The scouts who were originally scheduled to report back every two hours seem to have not returned yet?

 Is the time not up yet, or has something happened?

 These days, there are no watches.

Cao Zhen looked up at the sky.

 The sky was cut into a thin line by the stone wall.

Cao Zhen felt increasingly bad.

 In fact, sometimes human organs are very strange. Most people who have been engaged in dangerous occupations for a long time have more or less similar feelings. For example, I suddenly had a headache when I was riding in a dark car, or my legs suddenly cramped when I entered the elevator...

 Cao Zhen's ability to develop to the later stages was not entirely due to his recklessness.

　　　　Come here! Send more people to investigate! 』

The guard responded and went to deliver the order.

Cao Zhen looked at the stone walls on both sides, found the Di people's guide, and asked, "Is this the only way?" 』

The Di guide nodded and gestured, "This is the only way to Mulansai..."

Cao Zhen nodded.

 He actually saw that there was indeed only one way. There are stone walls on both sides, a winding mountain road in the middle, and a mountain stream below the mountain road. The mountain road is not very high, and falling may not necessarily lead to death, but it may not be possible to save arms and legs.

Looking up, the stone wall is steep. Although there are trees and layers of slabs and stones on it, it is almost impossible for people to climb on this stone wall that is almost 70 to 80 degrees.

　　Not everyone is Laura after all.

　　How long is this mountain road? ” Cao Zhen asked the Di guide again.

 The guide thought for a moment and stretched out a finger.

　　　　二里? Twenty miles? ” Cao Zhen said.

The Di guide shook his head and said, "Two days." 』

　　『Two...』Cao Zhen was speechless.

 When can time become a unit of measurement for distance?

But looking at Di Ren's clear eyes, Cao Zhen could only nod helplessly, and then ordered the dispatch of scouts to repeatedly detect the surrounding area. After confirming that there were no soldiers ambushing on the stone wall, Cao Zhen finally calmed down. With a tone of voice, he ordered the soldiers to continue moving forward.

 Although it took a little time, Cao Zhen felt it was worth it...

 But Cao Zhen did not expect that the time he delayed was exactly what Li Dian needed.

 In war, this is often the case.

 From the perspective of a single individual, sometimes doing the right thing may not lead to the right result. But if you look at it as a whole, from a probability perspective, those who do the right thing have a significantly greater chance of survival.

 At the other end of the Shibi Canyon, Li Dian and a group of soldiers were resting and eating.

 Li Dian and his soldiers came on the road and were exhausted.

If we encounter Cao Jun at this time, there is no guarantee who will lose and who will win.

It's a pity that Cao Zhen was investigating the dangerous Shibi Canyon area, so he gave Li Dian and others some time to rest and adjust.

Although most of the mountain soldiers are concentrated in Sichuan, Shu and Guanzhong, Hanzhong is where Fei Qian started training mountain soldiers. Therefore, when Li Dian resumed the training of mountain soldiers in Nanzheng, he could not be regarded as starting from scratch. .

Li Dian now deeply feels Fei Qian’s foresight.

  The Di people around Hanzhong provided Li Dian with a very high-quality source of troops.

 One of the strategies to divide the Di people is to gather their courage.

These Di people who usually spend their time either in the Qinling Mountains or in the Bashan Mountains seem to have no pressure at all to cross mountains and ridges as if they were walking on flat ground. The most important thing is that these Di people are hard-working and most of them have some experience in survival in the mountains and forests. When training, apart from having some difficulty in cultural disciplines and military regulations, they are unique in mountain and forest warfare.

In addition to being less educated and less able to give orders, these Di soldiers were almost full of hardships and hard work. Even if Cao Jun was not alerted and could not light a fire, they were only given some rough pancakes. It tastes delicious and there is no problem at all. If you are in an extreme environment, you can even go all day without eating and still keep walking and fighting...

Just like this time when he discovered signs that Cao Jun was taking a detour, Li Dian immediately thought of the mountain soldiers built by these Di people.

The Di soldiers who arrived here almost overnight did not lose their morale because of the continuous running and rough meals in the camping. They were still active and active. Even a single lack of food would not have much impact on the Diren mountain soldiers. Li Dian also saw some Diren mountain soldiers spontaneously searching for prey, collecting wild fruits, and replenishing their food supplies.

This is indeed a very good quality, but for some reason, Li Dian feels that something is wrong.

Standing on the hillside, Li Dian looked into the distance and thought for a moment. He couldn't figure out what the problem was, so he simply summoned several military academies to check the map and make the final pre-war arrangements.

Li Dian said, "To go to Mulansai from here, you must pass through the intersection here... We are here now, waiting for Cao Jun to arrive... But it is not clear where Cao Jun is exactly... Our scouts met the other side's scouts, because Afraid of alerting others, I didn’t get too close..."

　　　What if Cao Jun did not come to Mulan Village, but continued to circle to the rear? "A military academy asked, "There is a three-way intersection here. Why don't we go over there to block Cao's army? 』

"Cao Jun came faster than we expected..." Li Dian shook his head and said, "We just met Cao Jun's scouts yesterday, and we met them again today... This shows that Cao Jun is very close to us!" Although this time we intercepted and killed some Cao Jun scouts in order not to be exposed, which may have aroused the opponent's alert, but scout detection itself has unexpected risks... So as long as our troops are well hidden, there should be no big problem... 』

　　　　Then do you want us to send another scout to detect it? Determine the position of Cao Jun? ” asked another military academy.

Li Dian thought for a moment and shook his head, "That's inappropriate." We can roughly infer the location of Cao Jun based on the batches of his scouts, and similarly, Cao Jun can also infer our location based on the number of times our scouts appear... What's more, if the scouts accidentally fall into the hands of the enemy... we might as well wait here. The leader of Cao's army this time is Cao Zhen Cao Zidan, a very outstanding young general under the Cao family. If he can capture and kill this general, it will be a great achievement! 』

Who can guarantee that his soldiers will not be captured?

Who can ensure that the captured soldiers are unyielding and would rather die than be recruited?

 At least in the Han Dynasty, no one could do it.

 It is impossible for Fei Qian to do it.

 So rather than taking impossible risks, it is better to stick to the existing chips.

Li Dian's first priority was to seek stability, and in order to prevent his military academy from noticing his thoughts about the scouts, he specifically named his meritorious service at the end to divert the military academy's attention...

 Obviously, Li Dian’s strategy succeeded.

 The military academy heard that it was a big fish, and they were all very excited. They looked at each other and were a little geared up.

Li Dian pointed to the three-way intersection mentioned by the military officer just now, "This road must be guarded... In this way, Captain Li, lead a hundred people and go through the herb collection road. Bring more war drums." The flag should be well hidden. If Cao’s army really comes, they will make noise to create suspicion... And here..."

 After a while, Li Dian completed the assigned combat tasks, and each military academies took their troops and left separately.

 …

 …

 Several Cao Jun scouts left the main force, looked at the surrounding mountains and forests with some trepidation, and moved forward.

After Feiqian engaged in an arms race, Shandong was forced to follow suit.

 But no matter what, it is a step too late.

Originally, Cao Cao's military system was not refined at all. It still followed the original structure of the Han Dynasty. After being critically attacked by Fei Qian, he learned from the painful experience and began to reform the military system. Unfortunately, due to innate reasons, there were always some problems here. Something is wrong somewhere.

 Just like treating elites in the army, Fei Qian's approach is to train them, while Cao Cao's habit is to pull them away.

There are competitions every year in the Fei Qian Army. If you win the big competition, you can go to Beijing for further study. If you do well in the small competition, your salary will be improved. However, whether you go to Beijing to study for further study or if your salary is improved in the original army, you can freely choose your future direction. , or become a higher-level military academy, go to command troops in other areas, or become a skilled backbone locally, with a relatively high degree of freedom and focus on personal wishes.

 But the same cannot be said for Cao Cao...

 For some reasons, among the Cao family's army, the directly subordinate central leading army and the central guard army are on the first level, the other local soldiers under the control of the Xiahou family of the Cao family are on the second level, and the rest are on the third level. Lao Cao, who had a very high level of business intelligence, just pulled the **** into his pocket. When he wanted to use it, he was very sincere, but when he pulled the **** out, he was also quick and quick. This resulted in Cao's army not without talents, but it was very easy. There is a gap, and at the same time, a large number of talents are concentrated in the core area of ​​​​Cao Cao. The difficulty of promotion is serious, and there is a shortage of people in the surrounding areas.

 Historically, this problem has not been alleviated even after Cao Cao's death. For example, during Zhuge Liang's first Northern Expedition, the entire Guanzhong and even Longyou were weak, and Cao Jun's cavalry actually stayed in the central area of ​​the Central Plains. If Brother Zhu was lucky and his teammates were stronger, he would have won Longyou right then and there, and then advanced to Guanzhong...

Of course, in fact, even if Zhuge successfully took Longyou at that time, he might not be able to stand firmly in Guanzhong, because in fact, during the first Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang had not yet eliminated those who were holding back Sichuan and Shu, so he was destined to be a leader. A failed attack.

Zhuge Liang’s first Northern Expedition was doomed to fail. So what was Cao Zhen’s plan in mind when he first marched westward?

 After dispatching the scouts again, Cao Zhen's troops stopped to rest one after another.

  He looked back and saw the long queue on the mountain road, which gave him a bad premonition.

Jingzhou is not as prosperous as originally imagined. Even after capturing Wancheng, Cao's army may not have received much supplies and reinforcements. This is an embarrassing fact. The reason why Wancheng looked so prosperous before was entirely because of the relevant commercial goods. It was like a small supermarket in a residential area. It seemed very lively. After all, not everyone likes to travel long distances to go to large supermarkets. , but in fact once the external purchasing channel is broken, the stock will be out of stock in minutes!

Wancheng is such a small supermarket in Nanyang. Although the price is slightly higher than that in Guanzhong, it is close and convenient, so it was still very prosperous in the past. However, with the war between Cao Fei and his family, Wancheng's purchasing channels were closed. How much inventory can be held in the warehouse?

Hence, the Cao family's acquisition of Wancheng is not a loss, but it is definitely not an overnight success.

Cao's army marched westward, and its main purpose was not to capture Hanzhong in one go...

Of course, if we can really win Hanzhong, it will be great.

Just like Zhuge's Northern Expedition in history, it would be great if he could really capture Guanzhong, but in fact, Zhuge was prepared to fail on the first day of his march.

The same is true for Cao Zhen. He tried his best, but he didn't really want to crash to death on the Qinling Mountains and Daba Mountain.

Looking at the several scouts in the distance, they moved further and further away, then turned into small dots and disappeared from the field of vision. There was nothing unusual about them. Cao Zhen also felt a little dazed. Maybe it's just that I'm overthinking?

 He was about to order the troops to move forward when suddenly there was some commotion in the front.

Cao Zhen's pupils shrank instantly, and he looked toward the mountain forest ahead.

 The distance was a bit far and he couldn't see clearly. He could only see some small dots shaking.

 The scouts he sent out seemed to have encountered the sentries of the Hanzhong garrison, and the two sides fought in the forest...

 There is really an ambush? !