Chapter 238 There is trouble in Shu
"Prime Minister! Li Feng of Jiangzhou rebelled! Lead the soldiers of Jiangzhou to rebel!"
This urgent letter was rushed all the way from Baoxie Road to Zhuge Liang. The contents are very shocking and are likely to affect the entire Shu region.
Li Feng of Jiangzhou rebelled!
Although they have been victorious in recent years, the Shu army has successively attacked the Wuling counties in Longyou. Relying on the newly acquired population and resources, the Shu army expanded a lot of troops, but the total number was still not large.
The total strength is no more than 100,000, most of which are troops responsible for guarding the border. However, only 70,000 to 80,000 are actually used for mobile warfare.
This year, the Wei army dispatched the entire northwest army and launched an all-out attack on Shu. This forced the Shu Han side to mobilize all its troops to resist, and transferred all available troops from Shu to the north.
As a result, the land of Shu was empty, and the number of troops from Chengdu to Hanshou was less than 10,000.
At this time, the last potentially threatening bomb in Shu exploded.
Li Yan's son, Li Feng, rebelled.
Jiangzhou has been run by two generations, Li Yan and Li Feng, for more than ten years, and all the wealthy families in the city are aligned with the Li family. Although Zhuge Liang had been wary of him before heading north, he was not fully prepared because of his haste.
They suddenly rebelled and mobilized tens of thousands of people in Jiangzhou in a very short time. Because of the lack of military strength in Shu, Li Feng's rebels quickly wreaked havoc in Shu.
When the urgent letter was delivered to Zhuge Liang, Li Feng's rebels had already reached Guanghan County, not far from Mianzhu, the gateway to Chengdu.
The sudden emergency in the rear made Zhuge Liang, who had always been steady, a little nervous. But while he was nervous, Zhuge Liang also realized that something was wrong.
He knew that Li Feng was a idiot who had no ambition and was afraid of life and death. After Li Yan was killed, this was the reason why Zhuge Liang did not liquidate Li Feng.
A useless person with no ability or courage, he wouldn't dare to do anything if left there. In theory, even if he rebelled, he shouldn't have made such a big fuss.
What's more, even if Li Feng wants to rebel, shouldn't he do it when the local faction gives it a go and the bandits in Shu rise? As a result, all the opposition forces in Shu have been eliminated before the rebellion. What's the point?
Could it be that he still wants to conquer Chengdu with just the few people in Jiangzhou?
But the reality is that Li Feng rebelled at a time that was least in his interest. This abnormal behavior made Zhuge Liang think of something.
"Are you afraid that someone behind the scenes is planning to force my army back to defend?" Zhuge Liang squinted his eyes and quickly thought through all this.
What Li Feng is doing now has no other effect except forcing Zhuge Liang to withdraw his troops and return reinforcements.
Judging from this point, it is obvious that there must be people from Cao Wei behind it who are adding fuel to the fire.
"Prime Minister! What should we do? Continue fighting or..." Du Weiju stood aside and saw all this, and asked hesitantly.
"Of course we have to withdraw our troops. There is a rebellion in Shu. What reason do we have to continue the Northern Expedition? How does this put His Majesty's safety at risk?" Zhuge Liang shook his head gently and made a decision very quickly.
No matter what, he is a minister, and His Majesty must come first in everything. Even if it is basically impossible for Li Feng to threaten Chengdu now, he must withdraw his troops.
The political significance here is much higher than the military significance, and the planners obviously understood this before doing so.
And the most important thing is, what will the Soochow ally in the east who has always been in the same bed with them do at this time?
You must know that Soochow has amazing talent in backstabbing. Who knows if the Wuling defense line will be like Jiangling, being hooked by Soochow and then taking advantage of the situation to invade Shu.
The more I think about it, the more frightened I become. It is best to withdraw our troops immediately!
"But this does give me a reason to withdraw my troops. Liang is worried about withdrawing his troops without any reason." After making the decision, Zhuge Liang smiled slightly and did not regret anything.
This time the troops sent troops to Baoxie Road, there was no plan at all. It was one of the few Zhuge Liang sent troops to the Northern Expedition without a good plan. Not only did it not fail, but it also took such a huge advantage. I should have been satisfied long ago.
In particular, this battle basically crippled Cao Wei's Guanzhong War Zone, and the morale of hundreds of thousands of Wei troops collapsed. The army suffered serious losses, and countless grains and fodder were wasted. Cao Wei's Guanzhong area will not be able to use any strength for at least five years.
Waiting for the northern expedition to Liangzhou next year, there will be almost no threat to the entire Longyou side. Even after defeating Liangzhou, Zhuge Liang might still have enough food left to march eastward to Yongzhou.
Speaking of which, the Northern Expedition to Liangzhou...
Zhuge Liang's expression became a little more serious when he thought of the man who had been in charge of the military affairs of Cao Wei in Liangzhou in recent years.
Judging from various intelligence, Sima Yi is a great talent who is not weaker than him. Although Guanzhong was defeated, Liangzhou was no longer so easy to defeat.
Next year’s Northern Expedition may not end so easily!
"Send someone to find Youchang and tell him to withdraw the troops. We are going back to Shu to suppress the rebellion. By the way, tell him that if he still doesn't leave, he will be responsible for staying in Shuzhong during the Northern Expedition to Liangzhou next year!"
"only!"
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Three months after leading 20,000 troops to the north of Baoxie Road and achieving considerable gains, the Shu army officially began to withdraw.
Although this battle did not occupy an inch of land in Guanzhong, it had already ended Cao Zhen's several years of business. Although there are hundreds of thousands of soldiers, they will not be able to attack for several years.
Zhuge Liang sent someone to call Ma Su back, but Ma Di was not very happy at first. But after learning that the Shu army would march north to Liangzhou to fight Sima Yi in at most half a year, they immediately led their troops back.
When he came back, Ma Di introduced all the wealthy people from Guanzhong who had defected to Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang placed them all in Longyou and selected more than a hundred talented, filial and honest people. The treatment was extremely generous.
This not only provides an example to the wealthy people in Guanzhong, but the most important thing is that they bring the information from Guanzhong that is most lacking in Shu.
What is most lacking in Shu is the specific information about Guanzhong and their needs. Only with a clear understanding can Shu Han prescribe the right medicine.
Since then, this war, which can be recorded in history books as the Second Northern Expedition of the Shu Han Dynasty, has come to an end.
In this battle, the Wei army dispatched 200,000 troops and divided into four armies to attack the Shu Han. As a result, a large amount of food and grass was wasted and tens of thousands of soldiers were lost, but in exchange for the end, Guanzhong was broken and the northwest was centrifuged.
Even the Qiang and Hu people began to have less respect for Cao Wei and looked at the big brother with greedy eyes.
But when the news reached Luoyang, Cao Rui was surprisingly calm and seemed to be mentally prepared. Faced with the overall deterioration of the situation in the northwest, Cao Rui did not say much about the news that Cao Zhen had asked to be dismissed from his official position to apologize.
After all, Cao Rui has almost gotten used to it...
There may only be two chapters left, and Shuzhong started banging the hammer today...