Counterattack 2

Clack.

“Have you heard? Cao Zhi’s troops are gathering in Luoyang and Hedong.”

“They’re coming without rest.”

Thwack.

“Wasn’t it due to your efforts that the Northern Expedition ended in a short time beyond expectations? There should still be surplus in the stored supplies.”

“Will that act as an adverse condition?”

“Not at all. Rather, we should be grateful that we finished quickly and have surplus supplies left as well.”

Tap.

Pang Tong’s hand stopped. The position of the last black stone he placed caught my eye. A move disconnected from the flow of the Go game. A placement made in an isolated spot that didn’t greatly help the overall situation.

However, I could read the intention behind that single move.

“It’s Tong Pass.”

“That’s right. I saw that this defensive battle depends on whether we protect Tong Pass or not.”

“‘Saw’ implies you no longer think so. I wondered why you suddenly suggested Go, were you trying to unravel the new situation through the battlefield on the board?”

“Sometimes the abstract form of a Go board gives inspiration more than detailed maps.”

Saying that, Pang Tong placed a stone at another point disconnected from the progress of the game for his next move. I also began placing stones from the perspective of Cao Wei and Sun Wu, matching Pang Tong’s intention.

“Hey, Mingjing. Isn’t placing two at once against the rules?”

“Wei and Wu are in two places, so placing two is right.”

“But still, Go is…”

“Is the military affairs minister absent?”

“Urgh… When did you become so inelegant?”

Tap. Clack. Thwack.

We silently fill the Go board with black and white stones. When our hands stopped, the board had transformed into a military map of the Three Kingdoms.

The black stones in Pang Tong’s hand made a rattling sound as they rubbed together.

“Isn’t it strange?”

“Indeed. It is.”

So far, Wei’s troops were gathering centered on Luoyang and Hedong.

It was obvious which way the troops gathered in these two places would go. The army in Luoyang to Guanzhong, the army in Hedong to Yangfan.

However, what was strange was that the scale of troops gathering at the two points was nearly equal.

“A large army doesn’t need tricks. Because its scale itself becomes a strategy. But the movements shown by Wei and Wu so far are not utilizing their strengths.”

Numbers alone are a great violence in themselves.

It was an obvious principle that concentrating troops on one side to break through at once and then targeting the other was more efficient than aiming for both sides unnecessarily.

Especially given Wei’s position of having to cross the fortresses of Tong Pass and Yangfan, an ambiguously large number of troops wasn’t particularly advantageous.

It’s an established theory that the attacking side needs more than 3 times the defenders’ troops for a siege.

Though I once crossed Chang’an’s walls with just over twice the troops, that was an exceptional case because there was betrayal from inside.

Unless they had found traitors to respond from inside like that, their attack was highly likely to end up being a meaningless waste.

In summary, Wei’s troop deployment was noticeably inefficient.

But unless Cao Pi was being forceful, there’s no way Wei would make such a bad move. There must be another aim.

“Couldn’t the Luoyang army also go down to Yangfan?”

“Yangfan, huh. That might be so. But with General Zhang Yi stationed in Shangyong, would they make the reckless move of attacking Yangfan?”

To utilize the effectiveness of numbers, aiming for Yangfan is better than the narrow Tong Pass. But as Pang Tong said, being able to use the battlefield widely is not just their advantage.

As I did during the previous Battle for Jingzhou, reinforcements can be sent from Shangyong.

“Luoyang, Hedong, Wan. If they attack our country from these three places, there are three routes: attacking Tong Pass from Luoyang, attacking Wu Pass from Wan, or attacking Yangfan from Hedong and Wan.”

With only the information so far, it was difficult to judge which was the main attack.

“Aren’t they trying to hide which is the main attack?”

Maybe they intend to pay us back exactly what we did. Since they’ve suffered until now.

“That’s probably part of it. But how effective would that be? Our forces are already sufficiently dispersed. We’re making up for our numerical inferiority by relying on terrain and fortresses. How much benefit could they really gain by hiding their main attack to that extent?”

That’s true.

“Then are they trying to tie our hands and leave the rest to Sun Wu?”

“Not likely. They’ve already experienced how illusory that belief is, haven’t they?”

Cao Cao hoped Sun Quan would stir up Jingzhou while he checked me and Guan Yu at Yangfan, but failed spectacularly.

He brought troops from Hefei to incite Sun Quan and hold us down, but ended up losing Hefei due to Sun Quan’s betrayal.

Knowing this, the probability of Cao Wei entirely trusting Sun Quan and entrusting the direction of the war was extremely low.

“It was a foolish question. Then how do you see it, Military Advisor?”

“I see both of those as bait. No, bait might be too light a term. At that scale, they would be diversionary attacks.”

“You say they’re diversionary attacks, then where is the main attack?”

Not Yangfan, not Guanzhong, and not Sun Quan either.

Then what’s left is…

“Ah.”

“Seems you’ve thought of it. That there’s one more route.”

“Bingzhou…”

Bingzhou, the region later called Ordos, had fallen into a kind of abandoned land as the Later Han fell into extreme chaos.

It was already a region with low population, but due to forces beyond government control like the Black Mountain Bandits and ethnic minorities running rampant, the maintenance costs exceeded the tax revenue.

The reason I had forgotten about Bingzhou was due to these factors. Though I held the position of Governor of Bingzhou, the Bingzhou of the past Later Han had virtually disappeared.

Moreover, in 213 AD, Cao Cao abolished Bingzhou and merged it into Jizhou. And even then, he only merged the nearby parts of Jizhou and excluded the other regions.

The Ordos region, officially excluded from Han territory, passed to the Southern Xiongnu who had submitted to Wei.

Cao Cao gave up directly managing the Ordos land where the tail was bigger than the head, and sought indirect rule through the Southern Xiongnu.

“Tying down our main forces in Guanzhong and Jingzhou, then infiltrating Yongyang through Hetao (the Ordos region). I see that as their strategy.”

Pang Tong had seen through the intentions they were hiding just by their troop concentrations. He probably realized it from the first report.

The reason he called me out and even played Go while explaining was not to discuss and guess their strategy with me, but to convey this fact to me.

“Do you intend to send me, Grand Commandant?”

“That’s right.”

Wei probably won’t launch their attack immediately.

Though the Southern Xiongnu who came under Wei dominate the Hetao region, many other ethnic minorities who are at odds with them are also settled there.

The representative ethnic minority would be the Tuoba Xianbei who later establish Northern Wei. Though not as famous as the great man of the Xianbei, Kebineng, they were quite powerful.

They’ll move after negotiating with or subjugating them. They wouldn’t want to be attacked from both sides if those groups joined hands with us.

But we didn’t have all the time in the world either.

As always, the sooner preparations are made, the better.

“Have you reported this to His Majesty?”

“Not yet. You’re the first I’ve mentioned this to. It’s in the realm of speculation without definite evidence. I’m telling you so you can keep it in mind in advance, in preparation for when evidence comes to strengthen the conviction later.”

Pang Tong said he would inform Liu Bei directly when the time came. However, his mind was already filled with confidence that this was correct.

After meeting with Pang Tong, I began preparing for battle in Bingzhou. While learning in detail about the ethnic minorities settled in Hetao, I also made changes to military training.

“Is this the Eight Array Diagram? The one the Chancellor made?”

“Yes. From now on, train the infantry centered on this.”

“Understood.”

The battle in Bingzhou will inevitably be cavalry-centered. Though we secured a source of warhorses by taking Xiliang, it’s not like cavalry and warhorses are created overnight, and Wei’s cavalry forces are still overwhelming.

Especially in Bingzhou where we can’t rely on terrain, the inferiority in cavalry forces is fatal.

‘So we need to learn the Eight Array Diagram, which is an anti-cavalry tactic.’

How amazingly effective the Eight Array Diagram is against cavalry, especially nomadic cavalry, has already been historically proven.

In the original history, the famous general Ma Long of Jin, which unified the Three Kingdoms, perfectly defeated the Qiang and Xianbei by utilizing Zhuge Liang’s Eight Array Diagram.

The problem was time. The question was whether we could fully master the Eight Array Diagram before they began their attack.

‘Especially since the Eight Array Diagram is more complex than other tactics.’

But it’s not entirely hopeless, as the Luanling Army is already an elite of elites tempered by countless battle experiences. They’ve grown into a renowned strong army even beyond Han, throughout the Three Kingdoms.

If it weren’t for the new recruits we received this time, they would have quickly mastered the Eight Array Diagram.

Estimating it takes about a year to mold new recruits into elites, for the elite Luanling Army, half that time should be enough to learn the Eight Array Diagram.

Unfortunately, however, the given time was not that long.

Not long after, intelligence came in that Wei’s army, led by Cao Zhang, had entered the Hetao region.

Receiving Liu Bei’s summons, I sensed the impending battle. Before entering the palace in full dress, I said to Jiang Wei:

“Prepare for the expedition.”