<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > preface:</h1>
After the failure of the first Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang summed up the lessons learned and resolved to go north again, and when Cao Wei and Eastern Wu fought a war on the Eastern Front, Zhuge Liang immediately seized the opportunity to go north for the second time.
However, during the Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang personally led tens of thousands of troops, but was stopped by a Chen Cang, who only had more than a thousand people stationed, resulting in a failure and forced to retreat.
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<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="159" > (I) The Second Northern Expedition was blocked by Chen Cang</h1>
Continued above: In the winter of the sixth year of Jianxing (228 AD), Zhuge Liang, upon learning that the Wei general Zhang Guo was leading an army to the east, took advantage of the emptiness in Cao Wei Pass and immediately led tens of thousands of troops to hold the Northern Expedition here!
This time, Zhuge Liang led a large army out of the old road, through the scattered passes, straight to its destination Chen Cang!
However, this time, when Zhuge Liang appeared outside Chen Cang City, he found that the originally intended Chen Cang was empty, and it could fall at any time, but now it had become a situation where the city was high and deep, and the troops were stationed!
Thinking of this, Zhuge Liang couldn't help but sigh, Cao Zhen is indeed a general.
Because, as early as when Zhuge Liang was retiring from Qishan, Cao Zhen expected that if Zhuge Liang were to raise an army again to cut down Wei, then his exit would definitely be in the area of Chen Cang.
Therefore, at that time, Cao Zhen elected a person to go to the town to guard Chen Cang, and guaranteed that this person would definitely be able to guard Chen Cang!
This person is called Hao Zhao. Hao Zhao, Zi Bodao, a native of Taiyuan, this man was a majestic man, a young man who joined the army, because of his repeated military achievements, his status in the army gradually rose, and he was a general who worked hard step by step.
Hao Zhao has basically been guarding the land of Hexi, so he has a considerable understanding of the local customs and customs, geographical landforms, and the living habits and combat habits of ethnic minorities.
When Cao Zhen was supervising the Western military, Hao Zhao also became Cao Zhen's subordinate, and Cao Zhen also learned about Hao Zhao's ability at that time.
In May of the first year of the reign of Cao Pi of Wei (220 CE), Xiping's Koji acted in collusion with several nearby counties to start doing things.
Zhang Jin of Zhangye County, seeing that the opportunity was coming, arrested Taishou Dutong, while Huang Hua of Jiuquan County refused to take up his post in the county, and they all claimed to be Taishou in response to Koji.
At the same time, the Hu people of the three tribes in Wuwei County also rebelled again.
The situation in the entire Liangzhou area began to be chaotic, and at that time, Wuwei Taishou Yuqiu was in a hurry and had to report to Jincheng Taishou and Qiang Colonel Su Ze.
Su ze listened, Grandma's this is still worth it, in this drag on, Jincheng County, is not this also abolished? Therefore, Su Ze also planned to immediately lead the troops to rescue each other.
However, the officials of Jincheng County believe that the rebel forces at this moment are very large, and if they want to rescue Wuwei, they must have a large number of troops, and now Jincheng County's two sons, one of them is not good, not only can not save Wuwei, but even put Jincheng County into it.
At this time, Hao Zhao happened to be stationed in Jincheng, which was a fresh force, but Hao Zhao did not directly belong to Jincheng Taishou, but obeyed Cao Zhen's orders, at that time, Hao Zhao received orders not to cross west.
At this time, the more anxious Su Ze also gathered the main officials of Jincheng County and Hao Zhao to start studying what to do, and Su said:
"Ladies and gentlemen, although the rebels are full of arrogance today, they have all just been pieced together, and some of them are coerced by the culprits, and they may not have the same heart as the thieves, so we should take advantage of the internal contradictions of the thieves and take the opportunity to attack."
"The good of them must break away from the rebels and come to us, so that we will strengthen and the rebels will weaken. We gain both the strength to increase the number of soldiers and the momentum to multiply. ”
"Leading the army into the discussion will certainly be able to crush the rebels." If you wait for the arrival of the army, it will take a long time, the good people in the enemy army have no destination, they will inevitably go with the evil people, and the good and evil people are mixed together, and it is difficult to separate in the short term. ”
"General Hao, although there is an order not to cross to the west, and for the sake of expediency, it is also okay to make a decision on your own."
After hearing Su Ze's words, Hao Zhao and the others agreed, so they called for the mobilization of troops to rescue Wuwei, and after the arrival of Cao Wei's regular army, the Hu people of the three tribes of Wuwei were easily pacified.
After this, Su, together with Hao Zhao and others, attacked Zhang Jin in Zhangye County together with Yu Qiuxing. After some fighting, the counties of Hexi were completely pacified.
In this battle, Hao Zhao also made great contributions, and since then, Hao Zhao has also been stationed in the local area and has been deeply supported by the people of all nationalities.
Therefore, when Cao Zhen saw Zhuge Liang retreating, he elected Hao Zhao to firmly defend Chen Cang, and after Hao Zhao arrived, he did not dare to slacken off at all, using the already strong Chen Cang city wall to once again increase the means of defense.
Along with Hao Zhao, there was also a Wang Sheng, who should be Wang Shuang, and with the efforts of the two, the defense of Chen Cang City was once again strengthened in a few months.
Therefore, when Zhuge Liang arrived, he also understood that this time the surprise attack of the Northern Expedition was impossible, and in the face of Chen Cang's strong city defense, the Han army could only launch a siege battle!
However, Zhuge Liang also knew that Hao Zhao was a brave general, and that Chen Cangcheng's defenses were too strong, and if he attacked hard head-on, it would inevitably cause greater casualties, so Zhuge Liang planned to persuade Hao Zhao to surrender, and if he could persuade hao Zhao to surrender, it would be the best policy.
Therefore, Hao Zhao's compatriot Jin Xiang received this task, but because Hao Zhao was very cautious and careful, Jin Xiang could not even enter the city, so he had to stand far outside the city and shout, while Hao Zhao responded from the city tower.
In the face of Jin Xiang's persuasion, Hao Zhao responded:
"Jin Xiang, I am familiar with the law of Great Wei, and you are familiar with my human beings. I am deeply blessed by the nation and the door is noble, you don't need to say more, there is only one death. You go back and tell Zhuge Liang, come and attack. ”
When Jin Xiang heard this, he had to tell Zhuge Liang what Hao Zhao had said, and Zhuge Liang not only lamented Hao Zhao's loyalty and did not change his mind to persuade Hao Zhao to surrender, so he asked Jin Xiang to advise Hao Zhao again, and Jin Xiang said:
"General Hao, the disparity between the soldiers and the masses cannot resist, so why should we destroy ourselves in vain?"
However, Hao Zhao was determined to defend to the end and would never surrender, so he said to Jin Xiang:
"As I said before, I know you, but the arrow doesn't know you."
In desperation, Jin Xiang had to return. If he didn't go back, he would become a hedgehog, and at this time, Zhuge Liang also understood that Hao Zhao, a person, could not be persuaded to surrender. However, what he didn't know was that his two persuasions had just helped Hao Zhao.
Why?
Because Jin Xiang did not enter the city at all, all the defenders of Chen Cang could hear the shouts of the two people, and if the two people negotiated secretly, even if Hao Zhao did not surrender in the end, this matter would definitely have an impact on Hao Zhao.
The soldiers guarding the city must have muttered in their hearts, have they been sold by the general?
However, this time, Jin Xiang persuaded him to surrender twice, and Hao Zhao was not moved, but while showing his determination, he inspired the fighting spirit of the soldiers in the city and radiated more combat effectiveness! Therefore, these two persuasions actually fulfilled Hao Zhao!
At this time, Zhuge Liang was also determined to attack the city, this time the Han army tens of thousands of people, fully packed, and Chen Cang's defenders were only more than a thousand people, and the reinforcements in the direction of Cao Wei could not come here in a short period of time, so they took this opportunity to attack Chen Cang!
Thus began the fierce siege!
The Han army first sent two soldiers to launch a siege of the city, on the one hand, the infantry who climbed the city and carried the ladder to launch a charge, on the other hand, a large charging vehicle, followed by a fierce attack on Chen Cang.
Due to the large number of Han troops, they quickly rushed to the bottom of the city wall, set up a ladder and began to climb the city.
However, Hao Zhao had already prepared for this, and it was this counterattack that Hao Zhao actually invented the earliest known record of the use of rockets in China's history, that is, the Wei army ignited the bow and arrow and shot at the Han army!
Suddenly, all the Han army's ladders caught fire, and all the people who climbed the city were burned to death or fell to death, and the infantry on the ladder to the city suffered heavy losses.
After that, Hao Zhao hao zhao ordered people to tie a stone millstone with a large rope and began to throw the charging car towards the Han army, and under such an attack, the Han army's rushing car was basically destroyed!
Seeing this scene, Zhuge Liang was also deeply impressed by Hao Zhao's way of defending the city, but Chen Cang must take it! Therefore, a kind of siege weapon appeared in the ranks of the Han army, that is, a 100-foot-high city-tac-tac-shaped wooden fence!
Soldiers standing on it can be level with or even far above the city wall, and use this advantage to shoot arrows at the city!
In addition, the Han army began to quickly carry the soil blocks, and when they moved to Chen Cangcheng, they filled the moat with the soil blocks, and then intended to climb directly!
Under such an attack, Hao Zhao had to abandon the outer city and build the wall of the Spirit Stone again in the inner city to resist.
Seeing this scene, Zhuge Liang once again sent people to dig tunnels, which were commonly used in the late Han Dynasty to attack the city, and since they were commonly used, naturally there was also a way to deal with them.
After learning that Zhuge Liang was digging tunnels, Hao Zhao also sent people to dig horizontal tunnels in the city to intercept them!
The reason is very simple, here the horizontal interception, as soon as the Han army appeared, it fell into the pit and was discovered, so the tunnel siege method also lost its meaning.
In this way, more than twenty days passed, and the Han army suffered heavy casualties, but Chen Cangcheng still did not take it! At this point, two major problems arose.
One was the problem of grain, and Zhuge Liang had never imagined that a small Chen Cangcheng would actually block his tens of thousands of troops for more than twenty days.
However, the use of military food this time, at most one month, is now running out of grain, but Chen Cang is difficult to advance here, is it necessary to retreat from the army again?
In addition, Cao Wei's reinforcements were slow, more than twenty days, and it was time to rush over!
Sure enough, Cao Zhen sent his subordinate Fei Yao to lead an army to support Hao Zhao, and the Wei Ming Emperor Cao Rui also urgently dispatched the left general Zhang Guo, the commander of the fire brigade who had just gone east, to fight Zhuge Liang again.
And he had full authority to command more than 30,000 northern and southern armies around Kyoto, and Cao Rui personally sent off the fire brigade leader Zhang Guo with wine!
At this time, Cao Rui asked Zhang Gao and said:
"General, when you arrive at Chen Cang, will Chen Cangcheng have already been taken by Zhuge Liang?"
Zhang Gao, on the other hand, said confidently about this:
It is estimated that Zhuge Liang had already withdrawn before he reached the front line. According to the calculations of the chancellor, Zhuge Liang's grain and grass could not support ten days. ”
Hearing Zhang Gao's words, Cao Rui was relieved, and the development of the matter was indeed the same as Zhang Gao expected.
When Captain Zhang Gao marched day and night to Chen Cang, Zhuge Liang did indeed retreat, and the food ran out, and the Wei army reinforcements arrived, and there was no better way to retreat.
After Zhuge Liang withdrew, the Wei general Wang Shuang did not know whether he was dead or alive, and led the cavalry to pursue and kill, which was angry with Zhuge Liang, I tens of thousands of troops to fight a small Chen Cangcheng, more than twenty days did not fight down, now you still dare to pursue and kill! Come on people, set up ambushes!
In this way, Wang Shuang was killed by the Han army ambush, which was also the only result of this Northern Expedition, but killing a small Wang Shuang was of little use to the overall situation.
Therefore, the Second Northern Expedition, a month before and after, failed again. In the blink of an eye, it was the Spring Festival of the seventh year of Jianxing (229 AD), but this time, where did Zhuge Liang and the generals of the whole army have the heart to celebrate the Spring Festival?
The Second Northern Expedition, in fact, was also a hasty dispatch of troops, not sufficient preparations, Cao Wei's side had just ended the eastern front in August, and Zhuge Liang sent troops again in less than four months.
For the defeat of a Northern Expedition, the more anxious you are to move back, but the results are often unsatisfactory, and you can't reach it quickly, which is the truth.
In addition, in this Northern Expedition, the problems exposed by the Han army were very big and serious, that is, the ability to attack the tough battles, and the Han army was really too weak.
A small Chen Cangcheng garrisoned by more than a thousand people has dragged on the Han army for more than twenty days, so how should the future county city and the future Chang'an City be fought?
It is impossible for an army to change its mode of operation in a short period of time, so it must give full play to its advantages as much as possible.
From the Battle of Yiling to the present, the Han army has basically not experienced a large-scale city attack and defense war for seven or eight years, so the combat ability and combat experience in this area are really pitiful.
Only in the process of field warfare can we fight a decisive battle with the Wei army, so this is also the experience and lesson of the Second Northern Expedition, Zhuge Liang also remembered them one by one, wanting the Northern Expedition, various factors, absolutely can not be ignored!
But in any case, the big New Year's Day, the little Chen Cang did not come down for more than twenty days, not only was Zhuge Liang's heart uncomfortable, but the heart of the Han army generals was also quite uncomfortable, what if it was uncomfortable? Don't go back to Chengdu, keep fighting!