Chapter 628: Making a Feint to the East and Attacking in the West

While the Han and Wei sides were engaged in a constant tug of war at the Baimajin line. In Puyang City, northeast of Baimajin, thousands of Wei soldiers were guarding the city carelessly.

They were only a hundred miles away from the front line, but for these soldiers, everything seemed to have nothing to do with them.

The reason was simple. As the seat of Yanzhou in the past, Puyang City’s strategic value was no longer great. Even if the Shu army came and occupied Puyang, it would not have much impact on Cao Wei.

The real seat of Yanzhou had been moved to Linqiu, east of the Jishui River. Puyang’s only role at the moment was to provide a shortcut for the Hebei army to go south.

So from the beginning, the Puyang defenders did not think that they would fight here.

However, this time they faced Ma Su, who never played according to the normal routine...

Just when the Wei army in Puyang was passively slacking off, smoke and dust suddenly rose from the Baima line. Countless Han cavalrymen appeared and disappeared in the smoke, rushing towards Puyang at a very fast speed.

The Puyang garrison commander was shocked when he saw this. Then he turned around and ran away without hesitation.

On the contrary, the local soldiers in Puyang spontaneously went to the top of the city wall and tried to resist while the regular army of Cao Wei fled. However, the command of these private soldiers of the wealthy families was not unified. Although their fighting will was good, they were still useless.

The Han army attacked Puyang and climbed to the top of Puyang City in just two hours.

"Envoy! Puyang has been basically conquered, and only some remnants are still resisting." Jiang Wei reported to Ma Su,

"Before dusk, our army can enter Puyang and continue to move eastward tomorrow morning."

"Huh? Why is it so slow?" Ma Su was not very satisfied with this speed. He frowned and looked at Puyang and asked puzzledly.

The Han army's persistent night attacks at Baimazin were intended to cover the transfer of the main force from the beginning. Ma Su's real goal was still Yanzhou in Henan!

Sima Yi was right before. Before Yanzhou was conquered, Ma Su's logistics and food routes would be threatened. Before Yanzhou south of the Jishui River was conquered, the northern expedition to Hebei was an option that Ma Su was destined not to choose.

Ma Su just liked adventure, but he was not stupid. He would not joke about the fate of tens of thousands of troops.

In Baimazin, the continuous night attacks of the Han army were to delay the main force of the Wei army. And relying on the time gained, what Ma Su needed to do was to advance eastward from Puyang, quickly cross the Pushui and Jishui rivers, and stop the Yanzhou government in Linqiu.

As long as Ma Su could go smoothly all the way, he could bypass the main force of the Wei army in Jiyin, diagonally insert into the heart of Yanzhou, and completely cut off the connection between Yanzhou and Hebei.

This is also a very risky move, but in Ma Su's opinion, it is even a bit conservative.

"Report to the envoy, the local tyrants in Puyang have a very bad attitude towards us. Even though the city has been broken, there are still local soldiers resisting stubbornly..." Jiang Wei smiled bitterly and reported to Ma Su helplessly.

"Then kill them all."

Ma Su raised his eyebrows, and then ordered expressionlessly.

"So many big families in Luoyang have been killed, and these local big families are not bad. Since they are still unwilling to cooperate, kill them all without mercy."

Now the political center of the court is definitely in Guanxi, so there is no need to be polite to the big families in Guandong. If they are unwilling to cooperate, they will all be dealt with, and by the way, they will be deterred from the remaining unclear situation.

Facing Ma Su's instructions, Jiang Wei did not dare to neglect it, and immediately rode to the front army to command.

Puyang City can only be regarded as a small city blocking Ma Su. Ma Su still has a long way to go. So after just one night of rest in the city, Ma Su led the Han army to continue eastward at dawn the next day, and the army went straight to Zhencheng on the banks of the Jishui River.

Because the road from Baimazin to the east, through Puyang to cross the Jishui River, is extremely difficult to travel, it is generally not the first choice for marching.

When Yuan Shao went south from Baimazin, he went straight to Guandu, without even looking at the direction of Yanzhou.

So at the beginning, the Wei army in the direction of Yanzhou did not expect that the Han army would stab from here. Especially the Wei army in Zhencheng, when they found that the Shu army suddenly came to the city, they even lacked the most basic psychological preparation!

"What's the situation? Isn't the Shu army still fighting with the Taiwei in Baimazin? Why did they suddenly come from Dongjun?" The defender of Zhencheng was eating at the time, and when he heard that the Shu army was coming to kill him, he was so scared that his chopsticks fell to the ground.

"Captain! The Shu army is about to attack the city. We have to defend the city as soon as possible..."

"What are you defending? Run!" The captain interrupted the general's advice without hesitation and ordered with a pale face.

"Ma Su likes to kill surrendered people. How can we stop such a terrifying butcher? For your own life, let's run!"

Ma Su's reputation for killing surrendered people is still there, and it has become more famous after the Heyin Incident. However, this is not entirely a bad thing. At least most officials have deepened their fear of Ma Su since then.

You can't fight, and surrendering means death. It's better to run away quickly!

The same is true for the defender of Zhencheng. He is not a native of Yanzhou, so he naturally doesn't care whether Ma Su massacres the gentry in the local area. So after a symbolic resistance, he immediately ran away with his personal guards.

Zhencheng was soon broken without a fight. The Han army's progress was incredibly fast.

And Zhencheng was not an exception. At this time, most of the cities in Yanzhou were in this situation. Ma Su led 20,000 Han troops and attacked from Baimajin, making rapid progress along the way.

It was not until Ma Su attacked Zhencheng that Xiahou Xuan, who was in Baimajin, heard the bad news. At this time, no matter how stupid Xiahou Xuan was, he could see clearly that he was being fooled!

"So the night attacks of the past ten days were just an illusion. Is Ma Su's plan still to make a feint to the east and attack in the west?" Xiahou Xuan's face was a little ugly, and there was a bit of despair in his eyes.

Through continuous night attacks, the Wei army was in low spirits during the day and had no energy to pay attention to any changes in the Shu army. As a result, Ma Su had already attacked Zhencheng, but he didn't notice it at all.

"General Xiahou, it's not too late for us to react now." Seeing Xiahou Xuan's attitude, the confidant next to him hurriedly comforted him,

"Now Ma Su has taken the main force of the Shu army away. There is no way that there will be more Wei and Shu troops in Baimajin. We can go south..."

"Why do you think I am desperate? Is it just that I was fooled by the Shu army?"

Xiahou Xuan glanced at this confidant, and a hint of bitterness appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"We can't even defeat the Shu army at Baimajin, so how can we talk about counterattack? I'm afraid we have no other options except to watch Ma Su eat us away step by step?"

"The Great Wei is really going to be finished!"