Yesterday, I talked about The Cao Wei General who started the shooting. It is the Yongzhou thorn Guo Huai mentioned earlier. Yongzhou basically refers to the present Guanzhong Plain, and can also include all the way to Tianshui. Guo Huai's appointment as an envoy to Yongzhou shows that Cao Wei's upper echelons were still very sober. Because at this time, Yongzhou was the place where Cao Wei needed the most defense. More than 60% of Cao Wei's main forces were deployed in Yongzhou all year round. The main thing was to deal with Zhuge Liang and jiang Wei's frequent northern expeditions thereafter. Less than 40 percent of the remaining forces were deployed to the southeast against Eastern Wu. Cao Wei's main northern forces were generally under the direct control of the generals. Cao Zhen has always played this role, and sima Yi has been the commander since then. However, Cao Zhen and Sima Yi held the jun power and were not responsible for the specific affairs of the Yongzhou war zone. The appointment of Guo Huai as the envoy of Yongzhou shows that Guo Huai was already the administrative head of the entire Guanzhong Plain at this time; he was responsible for governing the people of Guanzhong and collecting taxes and other civil affairs. But Guo Huai also led the troops. His men were the aforementioned 40,000 or so Western Liang soldiers. Therefore, Guo Huai's role in dealing with Cao Wei, who had been attacking Zhuge Liang for many years,
He was first the deputy commander of Cao Zhen's or Sima Yi's army, and at the same time he was also the commander of the Western Army after Zhuge Liang left Qishan. He is also the local administrative S chief of the overall Guanzhong Plain Theater. Having a local position meant that Guo Huai had the obligation to provide grain and grass supplies to more than 100,000 Cao Wei troops all year round. At the same time, I am also very familiar with the specific situation of the place. Therefore, this role is quite important in cao wei's army. It was precisely because Guo Huai understood the specific situation, that is, the topography and landform of the Wuzhangyuan battlefield and the powerful relationship. Therefore, Sima Yi, the commander of Cao Wei, was in a state of temporary paralysis of strategic smell. It was immediately pointed out that once the Shu soldiers occupied both Wuzhangyuan and Beiyuan at the same time. Controlling the Wei River Valley again would be tantamount to completely cutting off the Wanli Official Road from Chang'an to the west and as far as the Western Regions. Hanhai Wolf Mountain (Xiongnu Wolf Mountain) to say, in fact, until today. Near Gojohara. The Longhai Railway and the highway from Chang'an to Baoji are also repeating the official road that has existed for thousands of years. It's just that in the past, it was all dirt roads, and at most it was paved with sand and gravel. Now it's just high-speed rail and highways. But the location of the subgrade has remained largely unchanged since 2000.
Gojohara and Kitahara are only a few kilometers from north to south. Moreover, the edges of these two loess mounds are more than a dozen cliffs. Once on these two loess mounds a large garrison. Then in the era of cold weapons, there is almost no possibility of bottom-up attack. Because the natural loess cliffs are more than ten times higher than the man-made cities. And the loess mound can be planted to herd sheep. Wells can also be dug for water. Once long-term garrison. Guarding for more than ten years is no problem. In the middle of the two loess mounds is the Wei River. The Wei River is shallow and cannot pass large ships all year round like the rivers in the south. Therefore, as long as the Wuzhangyuan in the south and the northern plains in the north were occupied by Shu soldiers, it was only necessary to dig some trenches or set up some obstacles in the river valley, and send thousands of people to garrison at the same time. Then the entire great passage to the west of Chang'an will be permanently cut off by the Shu soldiers! At that time, the Situation was that the Shu soldiers had already begun to build pontoon bridges on the Wei River, and if Sima Yi hesitated for 2 to 3 days, then the Shu soldiers after crossing the river would inevitably climb up to the Northern Plains in large numbers and could no longer drive away! Guo Huai pointed out at that time that we should not underestimate the occupation of the deserted and uninhabited Northern Plains. Once this happened, then the core areas of Cao Wei's rule, namely Luoyang and Chang'an, would completely lose contact with Longshang to the Western Regions, which were as far away as wanli. The pattern of silk and tea output for gold will become the patent of shu Han. Moreover, the counties and counties in the west originally supported Han unification in large proportions, and there were many people who secretly disobeyed the newborn Cao Wei Zheng Q. At this moment, it is inevitable that there will be a large-scale rebellion and they will defect to Zhuge Liang.
One more important point. Except for the western states and counties of the Han family. The Xiongnu and Western Qiang departments, who were also in the west, once they heard the news that the longxi artery was stuck. There will also be action. At that time, he and the Shu Han army marched eastward. Then the strength of the army is likely to exceed Sima Yi's main force of more than 100,000 Wei troops. Then it's really going to shake the world. So why is the Wanli Mountain River in the west stuck only two earth slopes of Wuzhangyuan and Beiyuan? How big is the impact? Actually go to Baoji and then further west to actually look at the terrain. You know what is called a husband and wife. Although the western region is large, the vast majority of places are simply unable to go. Because any loess mound is a huge obstacle. Moreover, in addition to the loess mound, there are countless loess beams and loess ditches. In this kind of terrain, even if you can see enemies on the opposite mountain beam, you may not be able to get around for 3 days. If you do not take the official road under wuzhangyuan, then to the south is the Qinling Mountains, and further west to the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, there is no way to go. To the north is the Loess Plateau, which is full of ravines. Further north is the desert of Ordos. At that time, it was still in the hands of the Southern Xiongnu, and there was no passage to the west. In this way, this gap between Wuzhangyuan and Beiyuan was the strategic throat of Cao Wei. Once stuck, it will inevitably be a systemic chaos! This is dozens of times more important than the street kiosk scramble of that year!