My younger brother Zhuge Liang

Chapter 817 The war resumes
On the other hand, from the twelfth month of the eighteenth year of Jian'an to the third month of the first year of Zhangwu, there was basically no military action by Liu Bei's camp.

Liu Bei's court was mostly busy digesting the Heluo Plain that had been seized in the autumn and winter of the previous year, rebuilding the ruling order in the Sili area, and restoring the people's stable production.

The second thing was to sort out the talent team. On the one hand, he carried out the reform of the imperial examination system to select fresh blood; on the other hand, he sorted out and eliminated the old team of court officials who had been running around many times and were taken over from Cao Cao.

It would take at least half a year to finish these personnel tasks. Just the mascots left by Cao Cao, which ones were truly "in Cao's camp but with their hearts in Han", which ones were opportunists, which ones were truly abandoning the dark and joining the light, and which ones were forced to join because the situation was not good. Liu Bei could only try to settle them down first and then slowly identify them, which was enough to give him a headache for a long time.

In addition, February and March every year are indeed the key farming seasons. The Heluo Plain was severely damaged last year, and this year's agricultural persuasion work must not fail again. Therefore, Cao Cao on the opposite side had a rare period of silence for more than four months.

From the middle of November in the 18th year of Jian'an to the end of March in the first year of Zhangwu, the two sides maintained a stable front. Of course, the two reign titles recognized by Liu Bei would be called "Huangchu 1" and "Huangchu 2" by Cao Cao. Don't think that the reign title Huangchu was used when Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty in history, so now that Cao Cao himself has usurped the throne, should it be changed?

In fact, given the atmosphere of public opinion at the time, the probability that whoever would usurp the Han Dynasty would be Huang Chu was very high. This was because since Yuan Shu began to plot to become emperor, or even earlier, around the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty, countless people had been hyping the phrase "whoever would replace the Han Dynasty must be Dang Tu Gao".

It is said that the Han Dynasty is the Fire Virtue, the Yan Han, so the people who inherit the Han virtue must have the "Earth Fate". Yuan Shu felt that he was successful because his name was Gonglu, and he felt that Gonglu was Dangtu Gao, so he had the Earth Fate.

Historically, when Cao Pi usurped the Han Dynasty, he named it Huangchu because the earth element in the Five Elements is yellow, and the beginning of yellow means "the beginning of the earth monarch inheriting the Mandate of Heaven." Since it was Cao Cao who usurped the Han Dynasty for his son in this life, Cao Cao naturally could not escape the fact that he called himself "the first earth monarch in China" and had to use "Huangchu."

During these four months, Liu Bei was dealing with internal affairs and rebuilding his strength, and Cao Cao was certainly not idle either. He was also busy with the transfer of power and paving the way for his sons to build prestige.

This work also required a great deal of energy from Cao Cao, who was nearly sixty years old and in poor health.

In any dynasty or country since ancient times, especially in times of war and turmoil, the inheritance of the throne and power has been extremely dangerous. Especially when the ruler is young and the country is in doubt, it may be necessary to lay the groundwork by killing and purging many old ministers before the young ruler can barely sit firmly on the position.

The situation was relatively good during the Han Dynasty. After all, it was difficult to find precedents for changing dynasties due to young rulers and unstable countries, and the chain of suspicion between the ruler and his subjects was relatively short.

After many dynasties changed in later generations, the chain of suspicion when the ruler was young and the country was in doubt was infinitely aggravated. So sometimes from a God's perspective, Zhao Kuangyin was bullying the orphan and the widow by wearing the yellow robe, but he didn't know whether the orphan and the widow wanted to deal with him, or whether there were people around the orphan and the widow who wanted to use the orphan and the widow to deal with him.

Cao Cao's current situation is so dangerous, his subordinates may rebel at any time. Even if they are not sure if they can rebel on their own, if they are asked to lead Liu Bei, then they are absolutely sure, and even sure to succeed. With so many dangers lurking around, how can Cao Cao dare to relax?
Cao Cao's first concrete step was to announce that Crown Prince Cao Pi would be regent.

As mentioned earlier, when he sent Cao Pi to Chang'an last year, he verbally said, "Within one or two months, there will be news that you will be able to regent as the crown prince."

This was said around November last year, and based on a two-month period, it should have been fulfilled in the first month of this year. Before Cao Pi became regent, Cao Cao gave Cao Pi a temporary official position in the last two months of last year, as Jingzhao Yin, who actually handled the government affairs of the three auxiliary provinces.

In theory, the prince was qualified for any position he wanted, so it was fine if he was not given one. However, Cao Cao took into account that Cao Pi had taken over power too quickly, so he decided to lay a few more steps for him, and let him serve as Jingzhao Yin for three months as a transition.

During the first month of this year, many affairs of Cao Cao's court were handled slowly, and drastic adjustments were not appropriate in the first month of the year. Finally, the decision was hastily announced only in early February.

It took more than half a month for the official document to be distributed everywhere and the notice to be conveyed and implemented. It was basically not until the end of February that all the counties under Cao Cao's rule generally received the news and knew that Crown Prince Cao Pi had begun to regulate the country.

The reason for the regent was that Cao Cao, as the emperor, had to lead the troops in person to resist Liu Bei, so he needed to hand over all court affairs to the prince.

After the regent's order was issued, no one dared to oppose or openly resist. However, it was inevitable that Cao Cao's camp was divided and officials and soldiers were afraid of the future.

Many people saw this as "Cao Cao was going to die" and "he probably knew he was going to die, so he was making arrangements for his funeral." In such a turbulent year, rumors spread particularly fast and fiercely, and then people under Cao Cao's rule, and even grassroots soldiers, began to abandon their homes or their troops and flee to the nearby area controlled by Liu Bei.

They couldn't resist, but they could run away. Most of those who ran away were soldiers or young men, and there were very few old, weak, women and children.

On the one hand, the elderly, the weak, women and children could not run away. On the other hand, those who wanted to escape were worried that "Cao Cao felt that he was dying and had to make arrangements for his funeral. He must be at a great disadvantage in the military confrontation on the front line and might start recruiting soldiers crazily again."

Young and strong men are easy to be conscripted, and new recruits who have already joined the army are also easy to be used as cannon fodder. When these two groups heard that Cao Cao was going to die, of course they ran the fastest.

Cao Cao was a shrewd man, and of course he had anticipated that this might happen, so before he officially announced that Cao Pi would be the regent, he had already strictly guarded the border.

He felt that the areas bordering him and Liu Bei were mostly mountainous and dangerous, so it should still be possible to control the refugees.

There is the Xiaohan Road between Guanzhong and Heluo, and Hangu Pass is in the hands of Cao Cao, so basically no one can escape via this road.

There are Taihang Mountains between Bingzhou and Jizhou, and there are only a few passes that can be crossed. As long as those passes are guarded, the refugees will not be able to escape.

Therefore, Cao Cao focused his defense on the area between Bingzhou, Hedong and Henei. The mountainous area between Henei County and Cao Cao's control area was relatively the least steep. Although the pass of Chenguan was difficult to pass, there were still many small paths in Changping. Cao Cao placed a part of his heavy troops there to guard and patrol.

Unfortunately, the final development of the matter was slightly different from his expectations. Although the route for the young and strong soldiers to escape to Hanoi was blocked, many loopholes occurred in other less important directions that he had not thought of before.

The first major mistake was in the northern part of Bingzhou, outside Yanmen Pass - because in this life, Liu Bei and Cao Cao both upgraded their armaments. In the midst of the mutual turmoil in the Central Plains, the combat effectiveness of the Han army had already reached a sky-high level compared to the same period in history.

In the civil wars between the Han regimes today, the cavalry are fully equipped with double-sided metal stirrups and high-bridge saddles, and the horseshoes are also improved. These are just basic operations. In addition, there are better quality cavalry bows, divine arm bows, steel-filled weapons and armor, and so on.

If the Han cavalry wanted to crush the Xianbei people on the grassland, it would be simply a matter of bullying. There was no suspense in the process and it is not worth elaborating on.

In the previous few years, when Cao Cao and Liu Bei were at peace, Cao Cao focused on annihilating the Xianbei, completely conquering them and moving them into exile, expanding his cavalry. At that time, Cao Zhang was still emerging, earning a reputation similar to "Xianbei Slaughterer" and boasting a lot of martial arts.

Therefore, there is a certain power vacuum on the grasslands just north of Bingzhou. The Xianbei people have been completely dispersed, and the organized tribes have been relocated or controlled. It is relatively safe for Han merchants to travel on the grasslands outside Yanmen Pass.

Now if the people of Bingzhou wanted to flee to Youzhou, the Taihang Mountains were blocked by Cao's army. As a result, many people headed northward and headed for the grassland.

Many people did not necessarily go to Liu Bei, because the Han people in the border areas already knew the production and living style of the Hu people, and knew how to herd cattle, horses and sheep. This job did not require much technical skills and was simpler than farming. Therefore, some young and strong people in the northern part of Bingzhou fled to Youzhou through the grasslands, or the Han people went to the grasslands to herd and live, develop settlements, and temporarily avoid the war.

After hearing about it, Cao Cao hurriedly strengthened the defense of Yanmen and other places, and no longer allowed the people to leave the pass to the grassland without reason. He did not strictly guard against this before, because he thought that even if the people left the pass, at most they would do some small business and buy some cattle and sheep, which would be beneficial to the country. Who would have thought that even the grassland could become a place to escape to.

But it can only be said that when it rains it pours. When the person is unlucky, even drinking cold water will get his teeth stuck. Cao Cao patched the situation at Yanmen like he was putting out a fire to put out a leak. The Qinling Shu Road in the west, which was originally the most difficult to travel, actually ran into problems again.

Cao Cao thought of many possibilities for the military and civilians under his rule to escape, but he never expected that there would be people who would cross the Qinling Mountains to flee to Hanzhong as they did during the reigns of Li Jue and Guo Si.

But this time, this situation happened. The situation in the core area of Guanzhong was relatively good, and such incidents did not occur often. This was because the Cao Cao regime had relatively strict control over the core areas of Guanzhong east of Longshan Mountain and east of Chencang, and the people's lives were relatively good, and agricultural production in those areas had recovered well.

But the situation in Longxi is completely different. The degree of agricultural recovery there is completely incomparable to that east of Chencang, and the water, soil and natural resources environment are also poor. The people in Longxi still rely on semi-agriculture to support themselves, and for the part that is insufficient for basic survival, they have to rely on grazing or even fishing and hunting to supplement some.

After Cao Cao proclaimed himself emperor last year, in order to stabilize the rear, he had to find a crime under the pretext of Pang Hui to kill Ma Teng.

Even though Ma Teng had been sidelined for many years, he still had a little prestige in Longxi, and people still remember his name.

Ma Teng was killed at the end of last year, but Cao Cao would definitely try to keep this matter as low-key as possible, so the time it took for the people to know about this situation was actually delayed.

This is completely opposite to the news that Cao Cao appointed Crown Prince Cao Pi as regent - Cao Cao killed Ma Teng for fear that people would notice it, and Cao Cao appointed Cao Pi as regent for fear that people would not notice it.

All of this ultimately resulted in a coincidence: Ma Teng's death was two months earlier than Cao Pi's becoming regent, but the news finally spread among the people at about the same time.

When these two pieces of news were combined, although there was no major impact in other ruling areas, they caused a large number of escapes in Longxi.

Many people in Longxi, with various ideas in mind, moved aimlessly to the south. They could not conveniently transfer to Hechi County through Wudu and Yinping, and then take the southern half of Chencang Road to Hanzhong.

However, they could easily go south along the Qishan Mountains, turn slightly west, and reach the Dazhong Basin.

Liu Bei's army also responded very quickly.

As early as the end of February, after Wang Ping in Hanzhong received the news that "the people under the rule of Cao's army in the north began to flee because of the news that Ma Teng was killed and Cao Pi was regent", it took Wang Ping less than ten days to notify Gan Ning in the rear in Ba County and the court in Heluo.

At the same time, Wang Ping did not wait for the reaction from the rear, but immediately organized his own people to pick up the people of Longxi who were fleeing south. As long as the people could escape to Dazhong, the subsequent resettlement and transfer, or other treatment, would be the responsibility of Liu Bei's court.

If Wang Ping did not have the authority to flexibly adapt to circumstances and take the initiative to launch a northern expedition, he would have considered directly attacking Ji County in Tianshui to give it a try.

In about half a month, Liu Bei's side accepted at least tens of thousands of people in Da Zhong, which caused a greater impact.

After Gan Ning received the news in Jiangzhou, he acted decisively and urgently mobilized the main elite troops stationed in Shu to head north along the Jialing River, preparing to assemble in Dazhong and Hanzhong first, so that he could participate in the Northern Expedition as soon as the emperor's order arrived.

Although there was definitely a time lag of a month or so from the time the people of Longxi fled south to the time Gan Ning officially launched the attack, this was because the roads in Shu were too difficult and the transportation was too slow.

But no matter what, even if Gan Ning failed to achieve any results, as long as he responded, it would inevitably greatly tie down Cao Cao's military strength, thus causing new loopholes in Cao Cao's already stretched defense.

From this perspective, as long as Gan Ning took action, he would have made a contribution.

And that is exactly what happened.

At the end of February, Wang Ping reported that more and more refugees were appearing in Longxi. In early March, Liu Bei urgently instructed Gan Ning to take a small number of elite troops to launch a feint attack on Cao Cao without affecting the spring ploughing in Shu. If Cao Cao was not prepared, the feint attack could be turned into the main attack, and several of his counties could be used as bridgeheads.

Liu Bei gave such instructions not because he did not want Gan Ning to make achievements, but he also took into account that the opportunity came suddenly, and it would take time to transmit information and assemble troops. It would definitely not be as fast as Cao Cao's dispatch and response when fighting on the interior, so he did not dare to expect too much.

In mid-March, Gan Ning finally took the lead in dispatching 2,000 quick-response cavalry troops, which marched from Dazhong to Ji County and wreaked havoc in the Tianshui area of Longxi, causing a great shock to Cao Cao.

Unfortunately, Gan Ning's rapid response force could only mobilize such a small number of people, and they were pure cavalry, without the ability to attack. They could only cause destruction to create momentum, but did not storm any large cities at the county level.
At least in Ji County, there was Pang Hui, a staunch supporter of Cao who had already pledged his allegiance to Liu Bei and would never surrender to Liu Bei, guarding the county, so Gan Ning could not take Ji County.

There were only some small counties in the periphery that did not require a strong attack and could be frightened into surrender as long as Gan Ning showed his might, and he successfully frightened a few of them.

Gan Ning's follow-up elite main force, about 20,000 people, will not arrive in Longxi and participate in the battle until at least the end of March or even early April. If more troops are expected to be deployed, further mobilization will be required, which will take longer.

Therefore, Gan Ning aroused Cao Pi's fear after only scaring a few small counties into surrender. Cao Pi sent a large number of Chang'an's reserve troops to Chencang to first block the gap in Longshan, and then sent troops to Ji County to help Pang Hui, and then report the emergency to Cao Cao.

When Cao Cao heard that Liu Bei's army had also appeared from the direction of Longxi, he was shocked.

How could he care about the heavy troops defending Zhongtiao Mountain and Chenguan Pass in Hedong and Henei? He quickly gave an order to Cao Pi, asking Cao Pi to use the troops in Chang'an to block Gan Ning at all costs. He himself would send part of the troops defending the Zhongtiao Mountain line in Hedong to support Chang'an and supplement the defense of the capital.

This was like suppressing one problem but causing another. Even if Cao Cao could stop Gan Ning, new loopholes would appear in his defense zone in the east.

It can only be said that at this point in the war, as long as there is a loophole in any position on Cao Cao's side, it is possible to use it to patch up the loopholes and cause a chain reaction.

(End of this chapter)