Chapter 452: Taking Hanzhong
The weather was pleasant in early May.
Zhang He took command, with Guo Jia as military advisor, and led an army of 200,000, quietly marching towards Yizhou.
Although Tian Ze tried his best to cover it up, such a large-scale deployment of troops still could not be hidden from the eyes of those who were interested.
Countless scouts from various princes began to quickly pass the news to the south.
Fortunately, it would take some time for the news to be passed on, especially if one had to avoid checkpoints along the way. By the time Cao Cao, Liu Bei and other princes learned about it, it was already June.
But this one month is extremely precious to Zhang He.
In order to ensure the success of this march, Tian Ze specially summoned his first logistics general Guan Hai back from the north to be responsible for ensuring Zhang He's logistics.
Zhang He led the army south along the Baoxiade Road, directly activating Guan Hai's talent. While ensuring the condition of the soldiers, he marched as fast as possible. In just about ten days, they arrived in Hanzhong.
Under Zhang Lu's advance arrangement, all the defenders along the way seemed to have rehearsed it. When they saw the flag of the Great Qi, they opened the city and surrendered without hesitation.
Zhang He had already prepared some troops to guard the pass, and then he marched south all the way to Nanzheng, the capital of Hanzhong County.
When Zhang He's army arrived at the city of Nanzheng, many of Zhang Lu's civil and military officials were stunned.
what's the situation?
Most of them were hidden chess pieces arranged by Jia Xu, Guo Jia and others.
These people were all surprised and delighted. As spies, they hadn't done anything yet, so how come the royal army had already arrived at the city of Nanzheng?
Why didn't the defenders along the way send any news? Did they all surrender?
The smarter ones among them had already figured out something, understood their own identities, and began to prepare to persuade Zhang Lu to surrender.
However, those who were loyal to Liu Fan and Liu Bei looked dejected.
The meaning of Zhang He's appearance here is self-evident. Hanzhong is bound to be lost!
Until now, they don’t even know when Da Qi will send troops. This is simply appalling.
The huge conspiracy smell in it made them feel a chill in their hearts.
At this time, Zhang Lu was sitting in the prefect's mansion in a good mood, waiting for these "loyal ministers" to report.
He knew that he had some loyal subjects, but they were rare. The vast majority were probably connected to various princes.
Therefore, he did not feel much pressure in hiding it from these people.
The reason why he waited for these people at the end was just to finally distinguish between "loyalty and treachery" and to clear the way for Tian Ze in advance, so as to facilitate the future rule of Da Qi.
In order to complete Tian Ze's task well, Zhang Lu put a lot of thought into it.
Before arriving in Nanzheng, Zhang He had already divided his troops and began to block the roads in the direction of Micang Road and Jinniu Road to prevent spies from leaking information.
What happens next is a matter of course.
Faced with Zhang He's nearly 200,000 troops approaching the border, Zhang Lu chose to open the city and surrender without hesitation after beheading a group of "treacherous ministers" who suggested seeking help from Liu Bei and Liu Fan, and eliminating their family forces in the city.
At this point, Hanzhong was easily captured by Zhang He.
To be more precise, it is taking over.
In full view of everyone, Zhang Lu happily handed over the seal of the Hanzhong prefect, and took the Taoist robe bestowed by Tian Ze from Guo Jia. The smile on his face was truly brilliant.
What's the use of imperial power and wealth? I want to become an immortal!
Although he had been prepared, Zhang He, who had just taken a short break after the whole army entered Nanzheng City, still felt that everything was going too smoothly. It seemed that he was just going through the motions.
"Military Advisor, what should we do next?"
After Guo Jia resolved the issue of how to deal with Zhang Lu's officials, generals, and followers, Zhang He immediately came up to him.
After taking a short breath, Guo Jia felt a little regretful that he had not persuaded His Majesty to bring Chen Gong over. It was indeed a bit troublesome to handle these trivial matters.
"Let the 20,000 troops you specially trained and those engineers have a good rest for a day to recuperate. The days ahead will be very hard." Guo Jia said in a deep voice.
"Military Advisor, what do you mean?" Zhang He seemed to have already noticed something.
As the general appointed by Tian Ze to attack Shu, Zhang He's greatest advantage is his knowledge of the terrain and his ability to take advantage of it.
When it comes to mountain warfare, Zhang He may be slightly inferior to Zang Ba, but he is undoubtedly the second best person under Tian Ze.
His talent can greatly reduce the difficulty and physical exertion of climbing mountains and crossing streams, making him most suitable for fighting in mountainous areas.
As early as when he learned of his mission and was asked to train a special troop for mountain marching, Zhang He had vaguely guessed the strategy he was about to implement in this attack on Shu.
Guo Jia's words undoubtedly confirmed his guess again.
Guo Jia saw that Zhang He had understood, and smiled: "Yes, we will sneak across Yinping and take Chengdu directly!"
"Normally, to go south from Hanzhong to Yizhou, one must take the Jinniu Road and Micang Road. But these two roads must have been heavily guarded by Liu Fan and Liu Bei."
"These two are both outstanding people. They know the strength of our Great Qi and have always doubted whether Hanzhong can be defended. They may even have doubts about Zhang Lu's surrender."
"The reason why we let Zhang Lu keep his troops on hold and sent troops from Chang'an to march all the way to Hanzhong is to seize the initiative before they can react, or at least stabilize Hanzhong." Guo Jia said in a deep voice.
Think about defeat before thinking about victory.
According to Tian Ze's plan, he hoped to take Yizhou in one battle, but if that was really impossible, he must at least ensure that Hanzhong could be safely taken and defended.
If Hanzhong was lost, it would probably take several years to conquer Shu in the future, and Tian Ze's strategy would be completely ruined.
"Liu Bei and Liu Fan must have built strong passes in Jinniu Road and Micang Road, and stationed a large number of troops there."
"In addition to preventing us from attacking Yizhou from Hanzhong, it is also to prevent Hanzhong from being lost, or to intervene immediately after something happens in Hanzhong and take Hanzhong back."
"So we must leave enough troops in Hanzhong to prepare for any eventuality."
Tian Ze was well aware of the news of the alliance of the Central Plains princes. He also deduced a rough idea of some of Liu Fan's arrangements through the information obtained by Jia Xu and Guo Jia's spies in Yizhou.
It was no secret to them that Liu Bei sent troops to Micang Road.
Zhang He nodded slightly when he heard this.
Attack and defense are always relative. He knew the importance of Hanzhong, and Liu Bei and Liu Fan knew it even better.
If he were these two people, he would also try his best to take back Hanzhong.
In this situation, it is necessary to station heavy troops for defense.
"But if that's the case, I'm afraid we won't have enough troops to go south to attack Yizhou," Zhang He said incisively.
(End of this chapter)
