In fact, Cao Cao most likely knew.

Otherwise, how could he safely let Cao Pi lead the team to Chang'an to resist Li Qi's attack?

In fact, this is okay. Let Cao Pi lead the team independently, which can not only hone his military capabilities, but also see how he interacts with Sima Yi in actual work.

Sooner or later, he will let go, so why not take the opportunity to see how much Cao Pi relies on Sima Yi while he is still alive?

Facing Cao Pi's question, Sima Yi said: "Actually, it is a rare opportunity for Duke Wei to allow the eldest son to lead troops. Other things are not important. What is important is how we fight this battle. Some things

, I will discuss it with the eldest son first, and then the eldest son will issue orders in person, and try not to ask my opinion in front of the generals."

Cao Pi nodded to express his understanding.

As a general, you must have your own independent opinions on major matters.

It's just my first time to take charge of the army and I lack experience, so I hope to communicate more with Sima Yi to make sure nothing goes wrong. However, in front of everyone, a decision should be made independently as much as possible. This will help to establish oneself in the army.

authority. On the other hand, Sima Yi doesn't want to be too popular now and cause unnecessary suspicion.

Cao Cao's troops were divided into three groups, and he personally led an army of 100,000 to join Xun You, Xiahou Dun, Xu Chu and others at Hefei to join Zhang Liao and Lejin, preparing to move south from Ruxukou to attack Jiangdong;

Cao Ren, Cao Hong, Man Chong and other 50,000 troops were stationed to guard Wancheng to prevent Zhao Yun from Xinye Fortress or Liu Bei from Jiangxia County;

Cao Pi, Sima Yi, Xu Huang, Zhang He and Xia Houyuan of Chang'an joined forces with a total of 78,000 men to defend Li Qi, while Zhuge Liang attacked Yiwu and Chang'an.

When the news reached Jiangdong, Sun Quan thought that thanks to Li Qi's reminder, Cao Cao had indeed taken advantage of Zhou Yu's death to bully me into having no one in Jiangdong.

So Sun Quan also personally led an army of 100,000, and went to Ruxukou to meet the enemy with Cheng Pu, Ding Feng, Jiang Qin, Zhou Tai, Ling Tong and others.

Although Lu Su succeeded Zhou Yu and became the governor of Jiangdong, Sun Quan kept him in the rear to supervise the management of grain and fodder, and at the same time prevent Liu Bei from taking advantage of the situation.

Even so, the civil officials headed by Zhang Zhao still expressed doubts about Sun Quan's ability to fight against Cao Cao.

Although everyone knew that Li Qi would not miss this good opportunity to attack Chang'an, Cao Cao took precautions and could not defeat him in a short time.

If Li Qi fails to pose a threat to Chang'an in a short period of time, the so-called countermeasures of "making Cao Cao unable to care about each other" will be ineffective.

Therefore, Zhang Zhao suggested: "Why not write a book to make a good alliance with Liu Bei and order him to attack Xudu?"

Sun Quan said: "Liu Bei is a hero. He must have been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. Why should I fix the book so that he can get a favor?"

Sun Quan's judgment was correct. Liu Bei had indeed been waiting for this opportunity for a long time. Otherwise, Jiangxia alone would not have been able to develop.

Li Qi is his loyal and reliable ally. Whether it is out of benevolence, morality or interests, Liu Bei has no reason to attack Li Qi;

Although Sun Quan was a bit aggressive, Cao Cao went south to conquer Sun Quan, and Sun Quan became an important part of Liu Bei's anti-Cao alliance.

Therefore, Liu Bei's most ideal strategic plan now is to let Li Qi occupy the west, let Sun Quan occupy the east, capture the Wan and Luo lines by himself, strive to occupy the Central Plains, and squeeze Cao Cao to the north.

Suddenly it felt like people across the country were in motion, and Li Qi couldn't stay idle.

Li Qi ordered Ma Chao and Ma Dai to go north to Chencang Fortress and lead the Qiang cavalry to help Zhuge Liang attack Yiwu.

Pang Tong said: "Should we also leave for Xinye, join Zhao Yun's tribe, and attack Wancheng?"

Li Qi smiled and said: "Don't worry, let them fight for a while first."

Because he heard that Cao Pi personally led the army to station in Chang'an, and that Sima Yi was under his command.

Sima Yi has always been patient, and this is his first time using troops. Therefore, Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong and even Jia Xu may not be able to guess Sima Yi's personality in fighting.

But it doesn't matter. If others don't know, how can Li Qi not know?

Facing Zhuge Liang and his originally defensive strategic goal, Sima Yi could only make two tentative attacks at most. If the situation was unfavorable, he would 100% adopt a retreating tactic.

With the fortifications of Xiwu comparable to that of Chang'an City, it would be very difficult for Zhuge Liang to capture Xiwu.

If Li Qi were to attack Wancheng where Cao Ren was stationed at this time, he would also face an arduous battle with great difficulty. He might even be unable to defeat the enemy after suffering a lot of losses.

So what Li Qi wants now is to let Liu Bei attack Wancheng first.

It doesn't matter whether Liu Bei can capture Wancheng, as long as he can entangle Cao Ren's troops from getting away.

At that time, Li Qi will take Rang County and Wuguan, pass through Shang County and reach the rear of Chang'an.

The strategic goal this time is to just go all out to capture Chang'an. Don't overthink it.

At this time, Meng Huo had already led the Wudang Fei Army to Xinye Castle.

These barbarian troops received Zhuge Liang's short-term training when they were in Shu, and they have already demonstrated decent military discipline.

In addition, Zhuge Liang also formulated a series of standards for Wudang Feijun:

If you shoot, you will definitely hit, and if you hit, you will die. They gather into one group and are called "the galloping warriors";

There are those who ride and shoot like flying, with every shot hitting the target. They gather into a group and are called "those who compete for the edge."

In other words, not only must the arrows hit the ground with perfect accuracy, but also when riding a horse and galloping, the arrows must hit with perfect accuracy. Although this is just a standard or requirement, the warriors trained in this way have relatively strong capabilities in team or individual combat.

The current Nanman army is no longer the ragtag group it was during the Nanzhong rebellion. Meng Huo only needs to continue Zhuge Liang's standards and further strengthen the training of the flying army, so that one can fight ten.

Moreover, these flying troops have another characteristic that ordinary Han troops cannot compare with: they have lived in mountain streams and jungles for a long time, and have innate advantages for mountain warfare.

The most bizarre thing is that these guys fight in the wild and like to sing and dance, which makes the Han army look confused, but they themselves rely on this method to keep the morale of their own army in full swing.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! After more than a month, the war started between all parties. Li Qi and Pang Tong slowly arrived at Xinye Fortress, and when passing through Xiangyang, they took Huang Zhong and Ma Liang away, alone.

Fa Zheng stayed in Xiangyang, Ganning stayed in Ganning, and Jia Xu stayed in Jiangling.

Li Qi gathered Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong and Wudang Feijun at Xinye Fortress. Anyone with a discerning eye knew that something big was going on.

Cao Ren, who was stationed in Wancheng, was even more prepared.

But Cao Ren waited for a long time, but Li Qi did not come, but Liu Bei came.

Liu Bei left Guan Yu and Guan Ping to guard Jiangxia. Together with Zhang Fei, Liu Feng, Chen Dao, Huang She and others, they left Sui County, followed Pingshi and Jiyang, and reached Wancheng dozens of miles away.

During this period, in order to prevent Li Qi from sending troops from Xinye, Cao Ren stayed in Wancheng and did not dare to move without permission. This gave Liu Bei the opportunity to regain the counties in the eastern part of Nanyang County.

Now that Liu Bei's troops are approaching Wancheng, Cao Ren doesn't dare to move.

Therefore, Li Qi left Ma Liang behind, Chen Ying guarded the Xinye fortress, and led the army towards Rang County.

Jiao Bing, the general of Rangxian County, could not hold on - there was no way, neither his personal ability nor the number of soldiers could compare with Li Qi's troops. He would not open the city to fight unless he thought he would live longer.

Pang Tong suggested: "Rangxian County is dominated by plains, and the terrain is high in the northwest and low in the southeast. We are currently attacking from above, which is disadvantageous to our army. It is better to take Zhulian Mountain in the northwest first, so that we can overlook the entire territory of Rangxian County and make effective decisions.

It is beneficial to our army’s tactical planning.”

Li Qi nodded, but considering that Jiao Bing had lived in Rang County for a long time, he naturally knew the geographical environment of Rang County very well. In order to prevent Jiao Bing from setting up sentries and ambushes in Zhulian Mountain, Li Qi first asked spies to disguise themselves as hunters to investigate.

As a result, the spies were stopped before they even went up the mountain.

The defenders of Zhulian Mountain said that the war was urgent and no one was allowed to go up the mountain.

It seems that ordinary spies are still not as professional as Zhang San, but this also confirms that Zhu Lianshan is guarded by Cao Jun, but the specific number of them is unknown.

If a mountain is forcibly attacked and people's homes are high up, bows, arrows, rolling stones, etc. will inevitably cause heavy casualties to the Wudang Fei Army. Moreover, the Wudang Fei Army is good at archery, but if you shoot from the bottom up, there is no advantage.

You must know that the Wudang Fei Army currently only has a total of 10,000 people. Don't forget that it has changed from a Fei Army to a Gray Army before they even arrived in Chang'an.

Pang Tong said: "It seems that Jiao Bing also knows the importance of Zhulian Mountain. We can have an army conduct a feint attack at the eastern foot of Zhulian Mountain, and secretly have Meng Huo lead an incompetent flying army to sneak up the mountain from the southwest."

For things like crossing mountains and ridges, Wudang Feijun is perfect.

The entire Zhulian Mountain is about ten miles long and six miles wide, extending from northeast to southwest. There are not many defenders in the entire Rang County, and even fewer defenders are allocated to Zhulian Mountain.

Therefore, Pang Tong concluded that Zhulian Mountain's defensive force in the southwest was not generally weak, with only a few sentinels at most.

Pang Tong told Meng Huo: "The enemy's outposts are usually built on high places. When you are sneaking, you need to carefully observe the movements at high places. It is best to send a few people with superb archery skills to explore the way ahead. When you encounter the sentinels,

, shoot him first to prevent him from leaking information."

Meng Huo said carelessly: "I know, it's not the first day of the war!"

The subtext is that labor and management are now the commanders of the Wudang Feijun. Don't make me look like I don't understand anything. Am I shameless in front of these Nanman brothers?

Upon seeing this, Li Qi informed Meng Huo that he needed to issue a military order before he could send troops.

Meng Huo resolutely issued a military order and headed southwest of Zhulian Mountain with his Nanman brothers.

Li Qidao: "This boy Meng Huo is still too proud. We need to send him a political commissar to restrain him."

Pang Tong asked: "What is a political commissar?"

Li Qidao: "Specialized in restraining military appearance and discipline, and doing ideological work for everyone."

Pang Tong said: "This is the nature of civil servants. The Southern Barbarian generals are unruly and unruly. I'm afraid they won't accept it."

Li Qidao: "I already have a candidate in mind."

So Li Qi wrote a letter and called Wang Ping to come and join him.

Wang Ping is not the kind of person who is good at words, and sometimes he may not be able to say a word for a long time. However, Wang Ping is strict with himself and can share the joys and sorrows with the soldiers. Over time, he will surely convince the Southern Barbarian generals.

Of course, these are not Li Qi’s insights and foresight, but have been confirmed by history, and Li Qi can just copy them.

Pang Tong said: "Meng Huo led the unworthy flying army for the first time. From what he said just now, I gather that he is eager to achieve success. I'm afraid it won't work."

Li Qidao: "It doesn't matter. If the traces of Wudang Feijun are discovered by Cao Jun, Zhao Yun can be ordered to attack the mountain from the east. Anyway, the defenders in the entire Rang County are only three to four thousand people. I don't expect the defenders in Zhulian Mountain to be more than a thousand people. Even so.

Meng Huo's sneak attack failed, but at least the number of defenders was reduced. When the time comes, we can attack by force, and the casualties will not be huge."

But he said that Meng Huo had led the Wudang flying army to the foot of the southwest mountain and warned everyone: "It's time to show your true skills! You must capture Zhulian Mountain in the shortest possible time to boost the power of the army."
To be continued...