Although Cao Hong did not capture Qishan, the Han army stationed in Qishan suffered heavy losses due to his fierce offensive.
The troops in Shi Bao's hands were not much to begin with, and after being continuously depleted, it became even more difficult for him to lead his troops out of the military camp to fight in the field.
It is precisely because of this that Cao Hong led most of the Wei army outside the Jiange after leaving thousands of soldiers and horses to cover the main road.
Cao Hong's self-confidence was not groundless. Being able to defeat the Han army in Qishan was unable to leave the military camp. In a sense, it was considered a victory.
Although Cao Hong was able to accomplish this, he mostly relied on his superior military strength and sharp siege weapons.
The reason why Cao Hong came up with the idea of suddenly taking Jiange was because he knew that there were not many defenders in Jiange.
Cao Hong naturally knew about the perfect city defense of Jiange.
But if Jiange's defenders don't have many troops, then he can't give it a try.
It's just that because of the previous lesson at Yangping Pass, Cao Hong was a little more careful.
Cao Hong found Yang Fu and told him what he was thinking.
Since Yang Fu learned that Cao Zhen was injured, he has been worried due to his sensitive nature, so after hearing Cao Hong's idea, after thinking about it, he agreed with Cao Hong's idea.
It is a fact that the garrison in Jiange is insufficient, and the garrison of Jiange is not a famous general in Ji Han's side. These two points are the basis for Yang Fu to agree with Cao Hong.
But the reason why Yang Fu agreed with Cao Hong was because of his self-doubt.
Even if Cao Zhen was angry with him because of the Yangping Pass incident, Yang Fu also understood Cao Zhen very well. In some respects, Cao Zhen was a very generous person.
When Cao Pi was the crown prince today, he had four friends, one of whom was named Wu Zhi.
Wu Zhi was aloof and arrogant. Because Cao Zhen was fat, Wu Zhi had humiliated Cao Zhen many times in the past.
Cao Zhen gritted his teeth in anger every time.
But Cao Zhen didn't do anything to Wu Zhi. This was not because Cao Zhen didn't want to do it, nor was it because Cao Zhen was incapable of doing such a thing.
The reason why Cao Zhen has never attacked Wu Zhi is because Wu Zhi can help Cao Pi win the throne. Cao Zhen has never been stingy with his warmth and tolerance for useful people.
And whether it is useful or not, isn’t it judged by meritorious deeds?
As long as he can help Cao Hong win Jiange, it will be a great achievement, and Cao Zhen will definitely forgive him.
And even if Cao Hong did not capture Jiange, with the strength of the Wei army, as long as they did not fall into the enemy's tricks, there would be no big losses.
In this case, why not give it a try?
Although Cao Hong didn't know why Yang Fu turned around and supported him, he was still very happy to get Yang Fu's support.
Although he was not happy with Yang Fu, Yang Fu was considered a wise man. He agreed with his plan to attack the city, which meant that the plan to capture Jiange had merit.
Cao Hong is not a procrastinator, he just does what he says.
On the day when the leading army arrived outside Jiange, Cao Hong ordered the construction and installation of corresponding siege equipment to be stepped up.
In order to make his army look more intimidating, and to completely block the Han army's channel from Jiange to support Hanzhong, Cao Hong ordered the entire army to camp along the mountain road for several miles.
When tens of thousands of Wei troops began to camp outside the Jiange Pavilion, their actions naturally could not be hidden from Liu Feng inside the Jiange Pavilion.
Liu Feng has not been idle these days.
After using thunderous means to remove the original guard of Jiange, Liu Feng completely took control of the entire Jiange.
Then Liu Feng immediately sent people to carefully examine how many soldiers there were in the Jiange.
It was okay if he didn't examine it carefully. After careful examination, Liu Feng was so angry that he really wanted to kill the original guard of Jiange again.
The register records that the number of Jiange defenders is five thousand, but the actual number finally reported by confidants, after excluding the old, weak and short-term quotas, is still less than four thousand!
Nearly one-fifth of the sergeants were falsely reported by the guards of Jiange!
How could this not make Liu Feng angry?
But anger was anger, and Liu Feng had no choice but to accept this fact.
There is good news though.
Although the original guard of Jiange falsely reported the existence of many sergeants because of his own desires, those real sergeants were all the elite soldiers Liu Bei left in Jiange.
This is normal, there are corrupt officials in any dynasty.
However, in the early days of a dynasty, it is impossible to say that corruption will cause the sergeants in a strategic location to be idlers.
This gave Liu Feng some comfort in his heart.
But just when Liu Feng's mood had just improved, he received news that Cao Hong had arrived with his army.
After learning the news, Liu Feng quickly put down the new book he had just sorted out, and followed the deputy general to the top of the Jiange city to observe the Wei army's movements.
After Liu Feng arrived at the city wall, the Wei army had already begun to build military camps along the mountain road under Cao Hong's order.
Nearly 100,000 people (plus auxiliary troops) cut down trees and set up camp on the mountain road, causing a storm of dust all over the sky.
And the dust in the sky stretches for miles at a glance, which reflects from the side how vast the Wei army's camp will be in the future.
After realizing this, not only the Han troops on the city wall, but also Liu Feng's face became very solemn.
He didn't expect Cao Hong to come so quickly.
Although Liu Feng knew from previous intelligence that Cao Hong only had 30,000 Wei troops at most, that was only the number of regular soldiers.
Liu Feng has often fought against the Wei army since he came of age, and he knows the structure of the Wei army very well.
According to Cao Cao's plan during his lifetime, a main soldier of the Wei army would usually be paired with about three auxiliary soldiers. However, if it was an elite Wei army, the number of auxiliary soldiers would reach five.
Therefore, the number of troops Cao Hong can use to attack the city in the future will be at least 100,000.
Throughout history, siege of a city could also be accomplished with auxiliary troops.
One hundred thousand versus four thousand, even though he had the strong city of Jiange as his support, and even though Liu Feng had fought many vicious battles, he still couldn't help but murmur in his heart.
Thinking of this, Liu Feng walked down the city wall with a solemn expression.
He did not speak out his inference, which would only cause further shock to the people in Guan.
After Liu Feng returned to the big tent in the pass, he began to think about countermeasures.
Although Liu Feng experienced many wars in the first half of his life, he became Liu Bei's stepson when Liu Bei was in Xinye.
The first time he truly led an army was when Liu Bei occupied Jiangxia.
That year was the period of the Battle of Chibi. From then on, Liu Feng either followed Liu Bei or led troops alone, and he has always been responsible for attacking combat tasks.
And to be honest, most of those combat missions were not too dangerous. They were more of a kind of experience for Liu Bei and Liu Feng.
As for the hard work of defending the city, which can lead to death if you are not careful, Liu Feng has never experienced it once in the past.
He really has no experience in defending a city.
But when he thought of Liu Bei's entrustment to him, Liu Feng never had any intention of retreating.
Liu Feng has been thinking about ways to defeat the enemy.
Although a large part of Liu Feng's military achievements in the first half of his life were due to Liu Bei's training, it has to be said that Liu Bei, who knew people well and was able to train Liu Feng, was able to make great efforts to train Liu Feng. This shows that Liu Feng did not have a talent for war. not bad.
And Liu Feng is also a person who is very good at learning.
When Liu Feng was thinking about strategies to defeat the enemy, he couldn't help but think of the most famous city defense battle in the world in recent years - the Battle of Public Security.
Not to mention in recent years, the Battle of Public Security was also an extremely successful and famous example of city defense and counterattack in a world that had been in constant war for decades, and this battle had an extremely important impact on the current situation.
The battle with the police severely damaged Jiangdong's vitality, and he would not be able to recover for several years.
The greatest significance of this battle is that it allowed Sun Quan from Jiangdong to claim vassalage and pay tribute to the Han Dynasty, which completely established the three-part pattern of the world and allowed the Han Dynasty to concentrate all its energy on dealing with the powerful enemy Cao Wei in the north.
It can be said that without this battle, the Han Dynasty would not have won the subsequent Xicheng Battle and Xiangfan Battle.
Since this battle, the generals in the world can't help but think of this battle and what they can learn from it whenever they defend a city.
Liu Feng is naturally no exception.
As Liu Bei's son, he is also better able to know the whole story before and after the police incident.
After recalling all the details of the Public Security War, Liu Feng quickly got inspiration from it.
How did Mi Yang fight against the police in the first place?
At that time, Lu Meng first sent Jiangdong general Sun Huan as a vanguard to the public security. At that time, Mi Yang decided to lead the army out of the city to attack Sun Huan's troops, against all opinions.
According to Guan Ping's later narration, it can be seen that Mi Yang's purpose at that time was to defend the city and defend the hearts of the people.
What happened later completely proved Mi Yang's judgment.
After defeating Sun Huan's troops, the military morale of the public security forces was greatly boosted, and it provided a solid foundation for resisting the Wu army for several consecutive months in the future.
Although the situation faced by Jiange now is different from what the police faced back then, one thing is the same.
After Cao Hong arrived with tens of thousands of Wei troops, Jiange's military morale was obviously greatly shaken.
If there is no way to boost the morale of the soldiers in the Jiange as soon as possible, then the Jiange cannot be defended for a long time.
And is it possible for Liu Feng to take the initiative to attack the Wei army and win?
It is possible.
Perhaps Cao Hong was a veteran general and would not make the fatal mistake of underestimating the enemy like the young Sun Huan, but now Cao Hong's army was in the process of setting up camp.
The Wei army was large in number, but the larger the number, it meant that it would take a lot of time for them to set up camp in the narrow mountain road.
During this period, most of the Wei army will be in a state of chaotic formation.
This is Liu Feng's opportunity.
Excellent generals will be good at learning excellent battle examples, but learning is by no means blind imitation!
After thinking of this, Liu Feng's spirit began to cheer up.
He is not good at defending, but his troops are unpredictable, so why must he insist on defending the city?
Liu Feng, who was in high spirits, summoned his trusted generals to discuss the next battle plan in detail.
Just when the battle situation in Hanzhong was showing a confrontation between the Han and Wei armies, Jiang Wei, who had just arrived outside Yinping County with the army, unexpectedly received two letters.
After many days of training, Jiang Wei's injury on his leg has healed, allowing him to once again join the army in battle and perform meritorious service.
But as soon as Jiang Wei arrived outside Yinping County, he received a letter from Yang Fu.
This was the first time Yang Fu took the initiative to contact Jiang Wei after setting off from Chencang.
Jiang Wei still attaches great importance to the letters from his benefactor.
When he opened Yang Fu's letter and read it, he found that there was nothing unusual in the letter. Yang Fu only asked him in the letter to follow Guo Huai and build meritorious deeds in order to win Guo Huai's appreciation.
The reason why Yang Fu wrote this letter was because of his self-doubt.
People with self-doubt will inevitably want to find allies, and Guo Huai is the best ally in Yang Fu's heart.
Yang Fu asked Jiang Wei to strive for meritorious service. On the one hand, it was for Jiang Wei's good, and on the other hand, it was to allow Guo Huai to continue to appreciate Jiang Wei. It would be best to make Jiang Wei his confidant.
In this way, even if Cao Zhen wants to punish him in the future, Guo Huai will still speak favorably for him in front of Cao Zhen by virtue of his close relationship with Jiang Wei.
Of course, Jiang Wei didn't know the reason why Yang Fu wrote this letter. He only thought that Yang Fu was simply telling him to make more contributions to the Wei Dynasty, so Jiang Wei deeply remembered Yang Fu's words in his mind.
If this letter from Yang Fu was unexpected and reasonable, the second letter Jiang Wei received surprised him.
This letter came from Yangpingguan and was written by Mi Yang personally to Jiang Wei.
Jiang Wei was confused when he learned that Mi Yang had sent him a letter.
Although the ambitious Jiang Wei secretly regarded Mi Yang as his rival, on the surface Mi Yang and his status and reputation were as different as clouds and mud. Jiang Wei really couldn't imagine why Mi Yang suddenly wrote this letter to he.
The moment he received Mi Yang's letter, Jiang Wei couldn't help but have a thought in his mind:
"Does the white deer actually know that there are young lins in the world?"
In addition to doubts and surprises, Jiang Wei was also filled with joy and excitement.
Mi Yang's status is so great. Isn't it a great honor to get a personal letter from such a person?
In a complicated mood, Jiang Wei opened Mi Yang's letter.
After reading the contents of the letter, Jiang Wei learned the reason why Mi Yang wrote this letter - it turned out that after the battle with Ma Chao, Ma Chao specifically informed Mi Yang of his existence because he appreciated him.
After Mi Yang learned that he could be appreciated by Ma Chao and that his father died fighting to protect the Han Dynasty, he thought about writing a letter to communicate with him.
Although Mi Yang's reason was not very tenable, Jiang Wei finally chose to believe it.
After all, the people in Ji Hanzhong are a group of ideal people. It is normal for them to have a good impression of the loyal ministers of the Han Dynasty.
Just like when Liu Bei chose Liu Feng as his stepson, a large part of the reason was that Liu Feng was valued after loyalty.
Otherwise, if there were so many Han clan members in the world, why would Liu Bei choose someone with a foreign surname as his stepson?
Liu Bei had such unexpected behavior. As his disciple, Mi Yang had similar behavior, which was extremely normal.
Besides, if it weren't for this reason, why would Mi Yang suddenly write to him?
Could it be that you want to do everything possible to win over him?
This is undoubtedly a joke.
Although Jiang Wei is proud, he is not arrogant.
The identity gap between him and Mi Yang was too big, and the person Mi Yang could win over should at least be on Guo Huai's level.
A talented person like him with some reputation could only have eight hundred in Yizhou, so Mi Yang had no reason to value him so much.
After getting rid of the doubts in his heart, Jiang Wei began to write a reply to Mi Yang.
Etiquette is highly valued in this world. If a big shot like Mi Yang suddenly received a letter, Jiang Wei had to reply with a letter to express his gratitude no matter what.
Observing etiquette is the most basic conduct for a child of a noble family.
But what Jiang Wei didn't know was that before his reply was sent, Guo Huai already knew about Mi Yang's letter to him.
Perhaps God favored the Han Dynasty. When Mi Yang's letter arrived, Yang Fu's letter also arrived in the past few days.
After learning that Yang Fu and Mi Yang both delivered letters to Jiang Wei in a short period of time, Guo Huai's eyes narrowed.
He never believed in coincidences.
