By cutting off the connection between the inside and outside of the city, cutting off water and food, the defenders inside were slowly exhausted.
Unfortunately, the war situation was urgent, and the best method turned out to be the least useful method. Chen Si's battle was tantamount to tying his own hands.
Less than two hours have passed since the siege began. According to reports from the front, rough statistics show that the number of casualties has exceeded 2,000!
Where is the battlefield? They are obviously grinding meat!
At this moment, Jing Peng rushed in covered in blood and shouted: "General, withdraw your troops quickly. We can no longer attack by force. The losses to the enemy and ourselves are not at the same level!"
"Our army suffered hundreds of casualties, and only one of the enemy defenders was injured."
"The enemy defenders were armed to the teeth and waiting for work. Our troops paid a lot of casualties, but it was all in vain."
Chen Si had long been hesitant about withdrawing his troops. Now that Jing Peng was back, Chen Si finally made up his mind and shouted in a low voice: "Give me the order to retreat in batches!"
Seeing that Chen Si finally gave the order, Jing Peng breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly sent out all his soldiers to notify the soldiers who were still fighting as soon as possible.
He sat down across the table, threw the bright sword in his hand on the ground, took off his helmet, threw it away, and breathed heavily.
"This city cannot be attacked forcefully!"
"General, we must change our tactics, otherwise..."
Before Jing Peng could finish speaking, Chen Si had already waved his hand and said helplessly: "I already know how difficult this battle will be."
"The enemy defenders are well-equipped, have solid morale, and are commanded by Qin Feng. In addition, they have accumulated a large amount of supplies, and have the advantage of catapults and heavy crossbows. Any forceful attack will be asking for trouble."
"Conservative estimates suggest that if you want to capture Changshui County by force, you will have to pay at least tens of thousands... or even tens of thousands of casualties. It will undoubtedly cost you one thousand enemies and ten thousand losses, which is not worth the gain."
"However, the enemy's operations on the southern front are rapid and fierce. If we cannot capture Changshui County and face the fierce offensive of the enemy on the southern front, I am afraid..."
Speaking of this, Chen Si stopped talking, feeling helpless.
He knew very well that Qin Feng had been planning for so long, and his true power and murderous intention had been fully demonstrated.
Chen Si concluded that Qin Feng spent an unimaginable amount of money on this winter war, and may have even emptied his entire family fortune, just to fight an extremely crushing war.
Not to mention that the Changshui County in front of them was impregnable, even the army attacking on the southern front was so wealthy that it made people gnash their teeth.
The main force of tens of thousands is equipped with horses beyond imagination, and its marching speed is no less than that of the cavalry. This... this... this is totally unreasonable!
Jing Peng, who originally planned to make great achievements, failed one after another in front of Changshui County. After paying a lot of casualties, Jing Peng has woken up.
At this moment, he no longer had any thoughts of attacking the city, he just wanted to preserve as much strength as possible.
"General, if we expend too much power in Changshui County, we may not be able to resist the enemy troops coming from the south."
"I'll see you soon. I hope the general will consider it."
"It is better to leave part of the army behind, continue to besiege Changshui County, and build a strong defense line around it."
"Who said that we must capture Qin Feng himself to achieve the strategic goal? If we can't capture Qin Feng, then we can simply take the entire Changshui County as a hostage. As long as our army can hold Changshui County, it is equivalent to incorporating Qin Feng into the In the bag.”
"At the same time, dispatch the remaining troops, mobilize troops and horses from local areas, and rush to Ezhou together to build defenses and fight to the death with the enemy's southern army. It is not yet known who will win by then."
It's not that Chen Si hasn't thought about this plan, but it's too risky.
You know, the army coming straight at them is not the trash of the opposition imperial party, but the elite divisions under Qin Feng, and even includes a carefully built expeditionary brigade.
These are powerful troops that can fight tough battles. If they are forced to fight, if they fail, they will not only lose the southern front, but also miss the best opportunity to capture Qin Feng.
On one side is Changshui County, which is harder to chew than a stone, and on the other side is the enemy army on the southern front that is marching rapidly. Even Chen Si can't help but fall into a dilemma.
After a long period of debate and deliberation, Chen Si finally compromised and decided to generally adopt Jingpeng's strategic arrangement, leaving a large number of troops to besiege Changshui County. At the same time, he sent troops and contacted local areas to build a defense line in Ezhou. Even if it cannot stop the enemy's march, it can slow down the enemy's march as much as possible.
Moreover, the faster the enemy's army is and the deeper it goes into the hinterland, the harder it will be for its logistics to keep up, so there is still a chance to fight.
It happened that at this time, another army of a thousand people entered Zhuozhou.
The general in charge of this army is none other than King Ming himself!
According to Li Zhang's deployment, he easily entered the hinterland of Zhuozhou under the escort of the left and right wing armies and the opposition imperialists, and specifically attacked small strongholds and towns along the marching route of the main force.
These small strongholds with less than a hundred defenders had almost no city defense at all. Facing the superior force of thousands of people, they quickly collapsed.
After taking the stronghold, King Ming immediately left a hundred people behind to consolidate the stronghold and continue to attack the next stronghold.
At the same time, a steady stream of strong men, under the protection of the army, entered Zhuozhou and entered the pre-captured strongholds to quickly build fortifications.
These temporarily built fortifications can be described as "crude", but they can still rely on defense in the face of siege by hundreds or even thousands of people.
The most critical thing is that although these fortifications are of poor quality, they are built very quickly.
When the first fortification was almost completed, these men, known as "engineers", under the protection of the soldiers, immediately advanced to the next stronghold and followed the same pattern, building all the way down.
Under normal circumstances, a fortification can be built in half a day. As the large army of engineers leaves, the twenty engineers who remain will continue to repair and strengthen the fortifications, and will temporarily stay at the stronghold with the 100 soldiers who stayed behind. inside.
This offensive line tore through the entire Zhuozhou, with a total of five brigades crushing it one after another.
The fastest light cavalry troops approached Daqi County with all their strength, followed closely by the main troops. King Ming led the attacking troops to attack and establish strongholds along the way. Although the attack went deeper and deeper, and every time a stronghold was established, hundreds of people were left to garrison. The number of attacking troops has not decreased.
Because during this period, there were mobile battalions of Tianji Battalion guards, as well as subsequent soldiers arriving to replenish the offensive force.
The fourth brigade is the engineers responsible for building fortifications.
The last one is composed of a large number of strong men and a small number of soldiers, pulling a large number of carriages, and a continuous supply of logistics troops entering the battlefield.
