Chapter 468 Worrying about gains and losses
Upon hearing the news that Pang De was attacked by Wei Yan at night under Baidi City, Guo Jia sighed deeply, his expression full of helplessness.
"Forget it, we still have to fight after all. Pass the order to retreat to Qunin County!"
Baidi City is located on the border between Yizhou and Jingzhou. Although it belongs to Yizhou, it is only a few dozen miles away from Jingzhou. Liu Fan had previously handed this place over to Liu Bei in order to prepare for any emergency and facilitate Liu Bei's dispatch of troops.
A few hundred miles west of Baidi City is Quren County.
This county is located on the bank of the Yangtze River and is also one of the important roads from Jingzhou to Yizhou. However, it is not as easy to defend as Baidi City.
Although it is also surrounded by mountains, there are some land transportation routes nearby, which makes it easy for the attacker to bypass it or launch an attack from the back or flank.
This shortcoming, coupled with the narrow strategic depth of Quren County and the weak city walls, made it quite difficult to defend.
After learning the intelligence, Guo Jia realized that Baidi City would be difficult to capture. Liu Bei's reinforcements would arrive soon. Continuing the attack would only increase casualties. The best strategy was to retreat to Qunin County as soon as possible and reorganize the defense.
At the same time, Zhang He stood in front of the huge Yizhou sand table with a frown and a focused expression.
According to the enemy and friendly situation on the "small map" in his mind, he carefully arranged the small models of the red and blue flags and the city checkpoints one by one, and then fell into deep thought.
"It is difficult to enter Yizhou, and it is even more difficult to control and defend Yizhou." Zhang He murmured to himself, with some emotion and worry in his voice.
Although they had successfully captured Yizhou and achieved their original goal, the current situation was still not optimistic if they wanted to completely defend Yizhou.
Originally, he thought that with Tian Ze's "small map" talent, it shouldn't take too much effort for his tens of thousands of troops to pacify Yizhou.
But when he actually started to implement it, he found it difficult.
Yizhou was relatively isolated and remote, and the local noble families and powerful people were more like a group of "country bumpkins" compared to the Central Plains. They were not only stubborn but also short-sighted, which really caused him a lot of trouble.
"Fengxiao, this is the current situation." Zhang He pointed to the densely packed red flags on the sand table and said with a sigh.
"Yizhou is a vast territory with twelve counties in total. Let's not talk about the six southwestern counties. They are too far away and surrounded by mountains. Even Liu Fan failed to control them. With our current strength and energy, we simply cannot take care of them in the short term."
"These places are poor and have bad waters. Most of the people living there are southern barbarians. They pose little threat to us for now, so it's okay to put them aside for now. After all, it's impossible for Liu Bei to attack Yizhou from these places."
"The six northern counties of Yizhou, Shu County, and Guanghan are located in the northwest border, surrounded by mountains. They can also be put aside for now."
"Among the remaining four counties, Guanghan County and Qianwei County are the essence of Yizhou. Almost the entire Yizhou Basin is within the scope of these two counties. However, the local tyrants are intertwined and extremely difficult to deal with."
"With the forces and progress we are currently mobilizing, it will take at least half a year to completely eliminate these forces."
"Most of Hanzhong County in the north is already in our hands. However, Shangyong and Fangling in the east of Hanzhong County, which are adjacent to Nanyang, are still under Liu Bei's control."
"But there is no need to worry too much. Hanzhong is strategically located and is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Liu Bei also has many concerns in Nanyang and does not dare to launch a large-scale attack on Hanzhong easily."
"The most difficult problem now is Ba County in the northwest. Almost all of this place was assigned to Liu Bei by Liu Fan." Zhang He couldn't help but feel a headache.
Ba County, a seemingly barren and worthless place, became a huge stone in Zhang He's heart because of its special geographical location.
It is located right between Hanzhong County and the most prosperous Qianwei County. Qianwei County is flat, like a huge basin, while Ba County is mostly mountainous, overlooking Qianwei County. Once Liu Bei sent troops from Ba County, Qianwei County would find it difficult to cope, especially when the troops were insufficient.
"The troops of Liu Bei's army that had been defending Micang Road have retreated to Ba County when they saw the situation was not good. In other words, there is now a strong army of at least 50,000 lurking in Ba County, which can pose a threat to Hanzhong and Chengdu at any time!"
"We are now facing threats from two large armies. One is the army from Ba County, and the other is Liu Bei's main force that will soon go up the Yangtze River from Jingzhou. The two combined may number nearly 200,000 people."
"And the number of troops we can mobilize is less than 50,000."
The more Zhang He calculated the account, the more headache he felt.
With such a huge difference in troop strength, it would be fine if their side was in a position that was easy to defend but difficult to attack, but the entire Ba County was not in their hands, making their defense line look full of loopholes.
The pit that Liu Fan dug at the beginning could be said to have trapped them completely.
Guo Jia listened to Zhang He's analysis quietly without any panic or frustration. Instead, he quickly adjusted his mindset and said calmly, "Junyi, why are you so pessimistic? We have already taken over Yizhou, haven't we?"
Most of people’s troubles come from greed.
At the beginning, Zhang He might have just wanted to enter Shu, and he was already very happy to be able to successfully capture Jiange.
But after actually capturing Chengdu, Zhang He wanted more.
He wanted to take Yizhou and keep it.
It is precisely because the goals are constantly raised that Zhang He becomes increasingly anxious and confused when facing the current complex situation.
Guo Jia's words immediately awakened Zhang He.
"The current situation is already a victory for us. Even if we lose a few more times, it will only mean less profit. Why should we worry about gains and losses?"
Zhang He nodded slightly, his expression gradually calmed down, the panic in his eyes slowly faded away, and he took a long breath and said, "Military Advisor is right, I was too anxious."
Guo Jia smiled slightly, then looked at the sand table in front of him.
"The current situation may seem unfavorable, but in fact, the general trend is still on my side. As long as the tens of thousands of troops under our command hold their ground, the crisis will be resolved when His Majesty leads his troops to arrive."
Guo Jia was not unaware of the urgency of the current situation, but he believed that Tian Ze could see the situation clearly and must be on his way to lead the army.
"There is no need to worry too much about Liu Bei's army in Ba County. All they need to do is to fortify the northeastern part of Qianwei County and station 30,000 troops to guard against one or two enemies. At most, they will lose some civilians. As long as the city is not lost, it will not be a big deal."
"As for the main force of Liu Bei's army in the east, they will not arrive so quickly. Moreover, we must trust Ling Ming. As long as Ling Ming can defend Quren County for a period of time, this situation will be resolved."
"But Quren County is in ruins and I'm afraid it can't withstand the siege of the large army!" Zhang He frowned.
"Don't we still have nearly 10,000 engineers under our command?" Guo Jia said.
(End of this chapter)
