Chapter 312 New Northern Expedition Blueprint
Although Ma Su and Zhuge Liang were responsible for the affairs of Liangzhou and Yongzhou respectively, they were very close to each other. But nearly a year after taking office, this was the first time that Prime Minister Zhuge summoned Ma Su to discuss matters.
However, according to Ma Su's understanding of the prime minister, he would not call him there unless there was an important matter. This sudden letter asking him to go to Ji County was most likely related to the Northern Expedition.
At this time, the war in Liangzhou was basically over, and there was nothing going on on Ma Di's side. So Ma Su left his troops in Beidi County and asked Jiang Wei and others to guard the north together, while he led his bodyguard south to Ji County.
The distance from Beidi County to Longyou was not close, so Ma Di hurriedly drove away for more than ten days before he arrived at Ji County. After the announcement, Ma Su immediately entered the Prefectural Mufu Mansion to meet the Prime Minister.
But as soon as he entered the prime minister's house, Ma Di was slapped on the head by Zhuge Liang with a feather fan.
"Ma Su, you are so brave. You dare to encourage the prince to go to such a dangerous northern territory to conquer the country! If anything happens to the prince, can you bear the responsibility?" Zhuge Liang looked very angry. This time, he even took the feather fan to himself. I'm going to beat Ma Su personally.
"Ah?" Ma Su was stunned by a feather fan. He looked confused and didn't know what was going on.
"When did I encourage the Crown Prince to go on a personal expedition? Didn't I tell Liao Hua to keep an eye on the Crown Prince and not let him run around?"
"Is this your order? Then tell me why the prince's order to borrow troops from Yongzhou is stamped with your stamp!" Zhuge Liang obviously didn't believe it, and directly handed the order from Liangzhou to Ma Di.
What is written above is that the prince wants to go north to conquer personally, and then Liangzhou has no soldiers and wants to borrow troops from Yongzhou. The big seal at the bottom is the seal of Ma Di's Liangzhou governor.
"Fortunately, this matter needs to be handled by me. If something happens to the prince in northern Xinjiang, you can go back to Chengdu to retire!" Zhuge Liang waved his feather fan and was a little angry at Ma Di.
It was definitely Ma Di who could instigate the prince to go on a personal expedition. Among all the big men, this boy has the most ideas. There is nothing he can't do.
However, Ma Su was extremely confused. He had always carried the sealing ribbon with him. Why didn't he remember sealing it?
But Ma Su confidently tested it, and it seemed that it was indeed no different from his seal. If this is a fake by the prince, it seems too realistic, right?
However, Ma Su repeatedly explained in the end that this was definitely not his doing. Zhuge Liang didn't intend to delve into the matter. Anyway, the prince did not go to Chengbei Xinjiang in the end, and the matter just passed.
After the prime minister's anger subsided, he began to talk to Ma Su about calling him here.
"Youchang, how long has it been since the first Northern Expedition in the fifth year of Jianxing?" Zhuge Liang touched his beard and asked calmly.
"Prime Minister, it's been five years." Ma Su replied.
"It's been five years, and the Northern Expedition of the Han Dynasty has been progressing well." Zhuge Liang turned his head and looked at a map hanging on the wall of the Prime Minister's Mansion in ecstasy, and said softly,
"Look at this map, You Chang, you should know why I came to find you, right?"
The map of the Prime Minister's Mansion is the latest, and it shows the current territory of the Han Dynasty.
At this time, the Han's territory had nearly doubled in size compared to five years ago. From a remote separatist force with only one state, it now basically occupies the entire northwest. The Han's sphere of influence is basically the same as that of the Qin Dynasty in the past, covering the northwest half.
The only gap was the Guanzhong Plain that stood in front of the big man!
So Ma Su immediately understood what the Prime Minister meant and subconsciously said,
"What the Prime Minister means...is there an eastern expedition to Guanzhong?"
"I have this idea, but it seems it's not appropriate now." Zhuge Liang shook his head and said calmly.
He is responsible for supervising Yongliang and is currently preparing supplies for the next Northern Expedition. This time Zhuge Liang is planning to use a big force to attack Guanzhong in the north with all his strength.
But so far, material preparations are still insufficient.
"I still need a year to prepare food, grass and money, but Sima Yi will not give us a year to prepare." Zhuge Liang finally looked away from the map, looked at Ma Su again, and said calmly.
"Now the puppet Wei has appointed Sima Yi as the general to supervise the military in Guanzhong. At the same time, at Sima Yi's suggestion, the puppet Wei moved more than 100,000 people from Guandong to farm in Guanzhong."
"If we do nothing for a year, Guanzhong will probably be made extremely difficult to conquer by Sima Yi!"
"So the Prime Minister plans to let me lead troops into Guanzhong again to disrupt Sima Yi's farming plan?" Ma Di thought of his special trick and asked immediately.
"No, that little fight can't affect Sima Yi." Zhuge Liang said meaningfully.
"However, His Majesty's edict for the establishment of a military town in the north has arrived. It will not be long before a military town is established. According to my calculations, one year is enough to store grain and grass in Yongliang."
"So there is no need to transport the grain and grass stored in Hanzhong to the north. The loss on the road is too great to be worth the loss. So I hope you go to Hanzhong and do something for the Northern Expedition there..."
Zhuge Liang did not make his words very clear this time, but Ma Di immediately understood what the prime minister meant after reading the map.
Yizhou has had bumper harvests every year in recent years, and the imperial treasury is quite full of grain. Most of the grain and grass were hoarded in Hanzhong in preparation for the subsequent Northern Expedition.
This time the Prime Minister said that the losses in the Northern Transport to Yongliang were too great and asked him to go to Hanzhong to do something. That could only be one direction...
"The Prime Minister plans to let me take charge of the conquest of Nanyang?" Ma Di said in disbelief. He became more confused after seeing Zhuge Liang smiling and nodding.
Prime Minister Zhuge said that this time is not a small fight like before. In other words, if he were to go to Nanyang this time, he would definitely have to command more than 10,000 troops.
Moreover, Nanyang is an extremely important strategic location for Cao Wei. Since he insists on conquering the city there, the number of troops must not be reduced. Ma Su made a rough calculation and found that if he wanted to attack Nanyang, he would need more than 30,000 troops!
With so many soldiers and horses, let him directly lead them?
"Now that Yongliang and Liang are connected together, the northern territory has a place for the Han Dynasty. At this moment, our Han Dynasty has encircled Guanzhong on both sides, and the strategic advantage is already great." At this time, Zhuge Liang nodded and said,
"But Cao Wei can still rush to support Guanzhong from two directions, Wuguan and Tongguan. When the Han army marches eastward to Guanzhong, the pseudo-Wei will definitely rush to support with all its strength. If we still allow it to support from both directions, it will be detrimental to the war situation."
"So your goal this time is to invade Nanyang. It is best to capture and defend Wancheng to cut off the connection from Wuguan to Guandong. In this battle, 50,000 troops will be sent to attack Nanyang County. You, Ma Su, will be fully responsible for it. I There is only one request: capture Wancheng!"
"At that time, General Xiang Chong of Jingzhou will cooperate with your actions and fight alongside you. If the troops are not enough, you can write a letter and send it to Chengdu, and Jiang Wan will give you additional troops to support you as soon as possible!"