Chapter 633 The Han Army goes south

Chapter 633 The Han Army goes south

According to reports from the Military Council, nearly 100,000 Wei troops from Huainan have gathered in Shouchun. Judging from the map alone, Ma Su could basically determine their retreat direction.

Now Yanzhou has been basically cut off by the Han army, and the entire south has been basically completely cut off. If the Wei army in Huainan wanted to retreat, they could only detour through Xuzhou and retreat to Hebei from the Langya line.

However, there is more than one way to retreat from Shouchun to Xuzhou and then return north. But now that the main force of the Han army has started fighting in Yanzhou, it naturally does not have the ability to cut off all roads.

Ma Di studied the map repeatedly, constantly drifting between Xuzhou and Huainan. After thinking over and over, Ma Su suddenly squinted his eyes and remembered something.

"Military Council! Go and find out which direction the old Sima thief retreated to after he retreated from Linqiu!"

Soon, the person in charge of the Military Affairs Department came back to report to Ma Su. As expected, Sima Yi did not retreat to Hebei as usual, but quickly retreated eastward with his troops, and had already reached the state of Lu.

"Run to the State of Lu? It seems that the Wei army in Huainan is planning to return from the East China Sea to the north!" Ma Di nodded slightly, and soon saw through the Wei army's deployment from Sima Yi's movements.

To the east from the State of Lu is the Xuzhou State of Donghai in the Central Plains. There is a waterway all the way from Donghai Kingdom to the north, so the troops can retreat quickly. It is indeed the most ideal route for the army to move.

This Sima Yi is indeed insidious. He plans to rely on the terrain of Yanzhou to delay him here and buy time for the Wei army in Huainan to retreat. If Ma Su hadn't launched a fierce offensive and completed the strategic mission ahead of schedule, I'm afraid Ma Su wouldn't have noticed that the Huainan Wei army was preparing to withdraw in advance.

You know, although the Han and Wei sides are now fighting in Yanzhou, it seems that Hebei is in danger. But the entire Xuyu state in the Central Plains still obeyed Cao Wei. It has a population of millions and is where Cao Wei started.

With such a large area, Cao Wei actually wanted to give up on his own initiative. Even if they withdraw too hastily, Hefei may take the initiative to give it to Soochow!

This was something Ma Su would never accept. Ma Su would feel uncomfortable whenever Sun Quan was allowed to expand his territory even an inch.

"Your Majesty, since we have discovered the Wei army's retreat route, why don't we quickly lead our troops eastward and capture Pengcheng first?" Jiang Wei also finished reading the map, scratched his head and said to Ma Su.

"It's not that easy. The main force is fighting in Yanzhou now. It's not easy to get out." Ma Di shook his head and looked at the deployment of Han and Wei on the map. He felt a headache for a while.

At first, he did not expect that the Wei army would be so courageous, and thousands of miles of land were directly surrendered. This made Ma Su send his main force to the Yanzhou front line, and it was basically impossible to withdraw eastward in a short time.

It was precisely because of this that Sima Yi took the initiative to withdraw to Linqiu. After all, as long as Ma Di occupies Linqiu, he must leave his tribe here to cut off the road to Yanzhou.

And this also dragged the only Han army tribe Ma Su had in Linqiu.

However, Ma Su quickly thought of a solution to this problem.

"Since the big troops can't get away, I will only lead my elite troops southward and try to delay the Wei army's actions as much as possible!" After Ma Di pondered for a while, he immediately thought of the forward selection camp where he had trained for many years.

At this time, the only ones we can count on are the forward selection battalions that have not yet entered the battlefield.

However, Jiang Wei raised objections at this time,

"Your Majesty, although the Selected Front Camp is good at fighting, it only has a total of 3,000 people. There are about 100,000 Wei troops returning to the north of Huainan. Is it really safe for you to lead this small number of people south... It would be safer to bring thousands more cavalry with you. a little."

"No! The purpose of my trip is to intercept the Wei army. In theory, the main battle is to fight an offensive and defensive battle in Pengcheng!"

Ma Su shook his head and rejected Jiang Wei's proposal without hesitation.

"It would be a waste to bring cavalry. These big men should shine on the battlefield where they are needed more!"

Afterwards, Ma Su immediately made his decision without giving Jiang Wei a chance to persuade him further.

"That's it. I will personally lead the elite troops of the Feng Battalion to go south, take the lead in attacking the East China Sea, and intercept the main force of the Wei army in Huainan. Bo Yue, you lead the troops south to attack the southern Yanzhou with Xiuran, and end the war in Yanzhou as soon as possible!"

"We must fight quickly. If the Wei army in Huainan is allowed to run back to Hebei, our Northern Expedition will become extremely difficult in the future!"

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Ma Su's response was timely enough, because at the same moment he made the decision, Shouchun's Wei army had already set off.

During this retreat, all the generals and soldiers of the Wei army looked at Shouchun City with nostalgia. Judging from the orders they received, they may never return to Shouchun again.

The main general returning to the north was changed from Sima Zhao to Guo Huai and Sima Shi. As for Zhennan General Zhuge Dan, he was left behind in an extremely strange way.

In this regard, the reason given by Sima Division was that they were going to Hebei to challenge the Shu army this time. As long as they win, the Shu army can be driven back to Luoyang, and Huainan will be able to turn the corner.

So Zhuge Dan was left to guard Huainan and wait for their return.

Of course, it's okay to deceive children with these nonsense words. As a meritorious dog, Zhuge Dan knows very well that this means treating him as an abandoned pawn. But he didn't say anything, he just accepted the order silently.

Before leaving, Guo Huai also saw Zhuge Dan's disappointment. So he gave a kind suggestion, saying that if something urgent happened, he could surrender to the south and the emperor would not blame him.

To this, Zhuge Dan’s reply was,

"I would rather give it to the Shu bandits than to the Wu thieves!"

Regarding Zhuge Dan's attitude, Guo Huai didn't say anything, but bowed his hands and said goodbye.

After bidding farewell to Zhuge Dan, Guo Huai and Sima Division led an army of 80,000 troops to retreat to Xiapi. Then he crossed Surabaya from Xiapi and retreated from the direction of Donghai Kingdom.

There were waterways all the way from Xiapi to Donghai Kingdom, so the marching speed of the army suddenly increased. Eighty thousand Wei troops entered the territory of Donghai Kingdom in just a few days.

Next, they only need to go all the way north quickly into Langya territory, then they can return to Hebei before the Han army arrives. When Ma Su wanted to pursue him, he would have to go over the mountains and ridges to Qingzhou.

However, when the main force of the Wei army continued to march towards Kaiyang, they suddenly received a messenger.

"General Zhengxi, General Zhengbei, King Donghai and his whole family are now in Licheng. In view of the approaching Shu army, I hope you can send someone to respond."

The envoy of the King of the East China Sea raised his hand and cautiously spoke to Master Sima.

"King of East China Sea? Didn't he already receive the order to retreat? I heard that the emperor has prepared a mansion for him in Luoyang." Master Sima couldn't help but be stunned for a moment when he heard the envoy's request, and then asked with a puzzled look. .