Although Yinping is not a big city, due to the lack of national power in the past, the city defense was not fully repaired in time.
However, in the few years after the Battle of Hanzhong, Wei Yan, as the governor of Hanzhong, still spent a lot of effort to repair Yinping's city defenses.
In Wei Yan's impression, after many renovations, Yinping's city defense is definitely not as good as that of a large city like Nanzheng, but it is still much stronger than the city defense of a fortress like Qiaotou.
At least Yinping's city wall is more than three feet high.
If Yinping did not have the conditions to hold on, Mi Yang would not let Ma Chao hold on.
But when he stood at the foot of Yinping City again a few years later, Wei Yan was shocked by the completely unfamiliar scene in front of him.
Outside the city gate of Yinping, there were several mountains of earth higher than the city wall. The mountains were densely covered with blood-stained arrows.
It can be seen from this scene that Guo Huai, like Cao Zhen, adopted the strategy of attacking the city with earth and mountains.
But compared to Mi Yang's alertness, Ma Chao chose to resist forcefully when faced with this earth-mountain siege strategy.
The color of the earth is yellow, but in Wei Yan's eyes at this moment, the several earth mountains seem to have red stripes all over the mountains.
Wei Yan knew that it was the result of using the blood of countless Wei soldiers as dye.
This is true for Tushandu, which serves as the offensive base of the Wei army, let alone the Yinping city wall used for defense?
From Wei Yan's gaze, he could see that the Yinping City Wall that originally stood on the ground was no longer as strong as it was.
Countless arrow marks and knife marks fell on the city wall, making the Yinping City Wall, which had only been repaired for a few years, look like an old man dying, silently telling Wei Yan the fact that he was about to die.
Unlike the Tushan Mountain, which seemed to be wrapped in red stripes, in Wei Yan's eyes, the Nanzheng city wall facing the Wei army looked like it was wearing a bright red wedding dress, with almost no trace of green.
This proves that in the past battles to defend Yinping, both the Han and Wei armies suffered heavy casualties.
Wei Yan's eyes did not stay on the city wall for long, because a hole in the city wall attracted Wei Yan's attention.
It seems that under the fierce offensive of the Wei army, they successfully opened the gap in the city wall.
For the Wei army, which had some powerful siege weapons, it was not a difficult task as long as they were willing to sacrifice their lives.
But the Han army flags are still flying on the city walls of Yinping.
This shows that with Ma Chao's efforts, Guo Huai did not capture Yinping through this gap after opening the gap in the city wall.
As for how Ma Chao did this?
Wei Yan looked through the city wall from the cave entrance and saw part of the scene in the city.
What caught Wei Yan's eyes was a fortress built on the basis of the surrounding residential buildings.
In front of that camp, countless corpses of the two armies were piled up.
Even because there were so many corpses from both armies, the pile of corpses had turned into a mountain of corpses. The mountain of corpses was almost as high as the city wall.
The scenes that fell into his eyes proved how fierce and fierce battles Ma Chao led the Han army and the Wei army in the past days.
It also reflects the price Ma Chao paid to maintain Yinping for Mi Yang to this day.
For a moment, Wei Yan's eyes turned solemn as he looked at Yinping City.
He was not only respecting Ma Chao, but also respecting his comrades who sacrificed their lives for the Han Dynasty.
When Wei Yan was observing Yinping, Ma Dai, who learned the news one step ahead, also came to Wei Yan from the city at this time.
Ma Dai had many wounds on his body, and some important wounds on his body were treated, but for those wounds that did not affect his movement, Ma Dai simply bandaged them with some rags.
On the one hand, before the Wei army retreated, fierce battles would break out in Yinping from time to time, and Ma Dai did not have enough time to deal with his wounds one by one.
On the other hand, Yinping was besieged by the Wei army for more than half a year. During such a long period of time, many military resources in the city were insufficient, especially trauma medicine.
When Ma Dai saw Wei Yan, tears flowed from his eyes.
Reinforcements have finally arrived!
People who have never participated in the Yinping city defense battle have no idea what kind of life he and Ma Chao had in the past.
Not only must high-intensity fighting be maintained at all times during the day, but the city defenses must also be patrolled from time to time at night, lest the Wei army make a sneak attack at night.
After half a year of arduous defense of the city, he finally waited for Mi Yang's reinforcements.
This feeling can no longer be described as joy, it can only be said to be the aftermath of a disaster!
But Ma Dai's first words when he saw Wei Yan were not complaints.
He just bowed to Wei Yan and said:
"Please tell Uncle Shepherd that we have secured Yinping!"
After hearing Ma Dai say these words with tears in his eyes, Wei Yan's emotions were also greatly affected.
He admired the Ma brothers even more.
It was rare for Wei Yan to take the initiative to help someone get up.
After helping Ma Dai up, Wei Yan wanted to say something to comfort Ma Dai, but looking at the blood sea of corpses inside and outside Yinping City, the stupid Wei Yan couldn't say such words.
He chose to directly give Ma Dai the promise he wanted to hear most.
"Yan will definitely report everything he saw today to the shepherd."
"When the imperial court asks for credit for everyone in the future, Yan Yi will definitely argue for it."
At first glance, Wei Yan's promise sounds like others may not understand the deeper meaning of Wei Yan's words.
But after listening to Wei Yan's promise, Ma Dai showed a happy smile on his face.
The present Han Dynasty had just been established, and many capable ministers were still in various important departments of the court, making the affairs of the court run smoothly.
Under such circumstances, no one would normally dare to cover up the contributions made by the Ma brothers.
But what if it's not someone who wants to cover up the Ma brothers' achievements, but the entire court wants to do so?
Some things cannot be judged right or wrong simply from the perspective of fairness.
Ever since the Ma brothers did what they outraged that day, it meant that they would have to face serious consequences for the rest of their lives.
This is what Ma Dai is worried about.
He is not a person who covets credit, but he wants the world to know that he has been working very hard to atone for his past sins.
Ma Dai knew that Ma Chao also thought so.
To do this, someone must speak out for him and Ma Chao.
Wei Yan may not have this weight, but Mi Yang behind him definitely does.
Wei Yan is Mi Yang's confidant, and Wei Yan's promise today may affect Mi Yang.
This is enough.
After Ma Dai showed joy on his face, Wei Yan noticed something unusual and asked, "Where is the hussar general?"
Wei Yan is currently the general of Zhenbei. Although he has a lower position than Ma Chao, Wei Yan is the general sent by Mi Yang to rescue Yinping. Due to emotions and reasons, Ma Chao should have gone out of the city to see Wei Yan.
Especially in recent years, Ma Chao has been frightened, and he will not allow himself to be negligent in this regard.
unless.
Wei Yan looked at Ma Dai with inquiring eyes, and after hearing Wei Yan's inquiry, Ma Dai's face showed sadness. He could no longer hold back the tears in his eyes and cried to Wei Yan:
"Hussar, General Hussar, he was seriously injured and has been bedridden for several days!"
Ma Dai's words made Wei Yan look shocked!
He made a decision almost subconsciously.
Wei Yan quickly summoned a personal guard and said to him: "Hurry back to Yangping Pass as quickly as possible and ask the general to come to Yinping quickly."
The personal guard heard the urgency in Wei Yan's tone, so after receiving the order, he immediately turned around and returned to Yangping Pass.
Seeing the guards leaving, Wei Yan sighed heavily.
A few days later, Mi Yang led his troops to the outside of Yinping City.
After arriving outside Yinping City, seeing Mi Yang's scene that was like a hell on earth, he couldn't help but take a deep breath in his heart.
There are many fierce and cruel city defense battles in the history books, but the records in the history books are always simple, so how could they have as much impact as what I saw with my own eyes?
Mi Yang did not stop outside the city. He walked directly towards Yinping City along the mountains of corpses on both sides.
In the past few days, due to the retreat of the Wei army, Ma Dai has been commanding the soldiers who can still move to clean up the corpses inside and outside Yinping City.
Otherwise, if Mi Yang entered the city today, he would probably have to step over corpses all over the ground to enter.
Yinping City is not big. Under the leadership of Ma Dai, Mi Yang quickly arrived outside Ma Chao's room.
Along the way, Ma Dai carefully reported to Mi Yang the process of defending the city.
After Ma Dai's report, Mi Yang learned that not only Ma Chao was seriously injured, but also his confidant general Zhang Yi.
Even though Zhang Yi was young and his recovery ability was much better than that of Ma Chao, at this time he could only linger on the bed and could not get up to see Mi Yang.
After hearing that Zhang Ni was also seriously injured, Mi Yang expressed his concern in a timely manner, but he did not choose to visit Zhang Ni first as Ma Dai expected - Mi Yang went straight towards Ma Chao along the way. Come to the dormitory.
Mi Yang's choice moved Ma Dai deeply.
After all, compared to the infamous Ma Chao, Zhang Yi was Mi Yang's confidant and one of the representatives of the emerging generals who attracted the attention of the imperial court.
After standing outside Ma Chao's room, Mi Yang asked Ma Dai to leave first, and he chose to step into Ma Chao's house alone.
After entering the house, Mi Yang's nose quickly smelled a strong medicinal smell.
The dim light in the house also made Mi Yang feel uncomfortable for a while.
After Mi Yang adjusted to the light in the house, he saw Ma Chao lying on the couch.
Mi Yang quickly stepped forward to the couch. From such a close distance, Mi Yang saw Ma Chao's figure and face.
In Mi Yang's impression, Ma Chao has a body like a bear and a tiger, and a face like a crown jewel. He is a very handsome man in the world.
But Ma Chao, who was lying on the couch now, didn't have half of his former energy.
With a thin body and a haggard face, it is really difficult to connect with the Jin Ma Chao in my impression.
As his eyes moved, Mi Yang also saw that Ma Chao's chest was wrapped in a large piece of blood-stained white cloth.
This is where Ma Chao suffered the most serious injury.
How did Ma Chao get injured?
It was received to stop the endless stream of Wei troops pouring into the city.
Thinking of this, Mi Yang's eyes showed an unbearable look.
Calculating carefully, Ma Chao has been guarding Yinping for more than half a year.
Even if the garrison at Qiaotou is transferred to Yinping, Ma Chao will only have 6,000 troops at most.
But how many Wei troops were led by Guo Huai?
The main force was about 20,000, but if you add in the auxiliary soldiers and the Qiang and Di soldiers who joined later, the total force Guo Huai could use to attack the city was about ten times the force in Ma Chao's hands.
With such a huge disparity in numbers and the fact that his own city was not strong, Ma Chao helped Mi Yang defend Yinping for half a year. This was undoubtedly a very successful example of defending the city.
And guarding Yinping is of extremely important strategic significance to the entire Liangzhou battle.
Perhaps due to some famous examples of city defense battles in history, many people subconsciously think that city defense battles are very easy.
But history books cherish pen and ink, and those cases of city defense will be recorded in history books because they are rare, not because they are common.
Moreover, for those defenders in the battle, if they had a choice, which one of them would want to fight this kind of battle?
Everything is out of necessity, just like Ma Chao in this world.
And similarly, because of this amazing Yinping defense battle, Ma Chao will definitely continue to make a colorful mark in the history books of this world in the future, attracting the admiration of countless people in later generations.
After hearing a noise in front of the couch, Ma Chao woke up from his half-asleep state, and then he saw Mi Yang standing in front of the couch.
For a moment, Mi Yang and Ma Chao looked at each other.
After looking at each other for a few moments, Ma Chao smiled and said:
"General, I'm glad to see you again.
Chao Yi was very lucky to have saved Yinping for the general. "
After the passage was opened, Ma Chao also learned about Mi Yang being appointed as a general by Liu Bei.
Ma Chao's two words reminded Mi Yang of the exchange between him and Ma Chao when he asked Ma Chao to come to guard Yinping.
"How long will it take?
After I die. "
Judging from the current situation, neither Mi Yang nor Ma Chao broke their promise.
This repartee actually only happened a year ago, but so many things happened in this year.
After many things had settled today, Mi Yang and Ma Chao felt a sense of sadness in their hearts when they thought of this exchange.
The feeling of sadness in her heart made Mi Yang look at Ma Chao softer.
Mi Yang was a person who read history books in his previous life. The Ma Chao he knew before was not the Jin Ma Chao who avenged his father as Luo Guanzhong glorified him.
But the murderer who killed his father and brothers and killed hundreds of clan members.
Under this fact, Mi Yang really couldn't have any good impression of Ma Chao.
In other words, in the entire Jihan court, from Liu Bei to the petty officials, who would have a good impression of Ma Chao?
Even when Mi Yang asked Ma Chao to defend Yinping, to be honest, it was essentially a case of each getting what he needed.
But Mi Yang is not a pedantic person. After all, Ma Chao has made great contributions to him this time. From this aspect, Mi Yang will not be stingy about showing goodwill to Ma Chao.
Mi Yang sat beside Ma Chao's couch and said with gratitude:
"Without a hussar general, Liangzhou is in danger."
Mi Yang spoke the truth.
If Ma Chao hadn't defended Yinping, Guo Huai's army would not have been dragged under Yinping City for so long.
And if Yinping falls into the hands of Guo Huai, even if Guo Huai does not sneak into Yinping, as long as Guo Huai leads his army to arrive outside Jiange, he can join forces with Cao Hong's army to completely block the passage outside Jiange.
In that case, even if Mi Yang came up with a strategy to surprise Dingjun Mountain, it would be useless.
From this point of view, Ma Chao not only saved Liangzhou, but also indirectly saved the Han Dynasty.
After listening to Mi Yang's praise, Ma Chao asked something unexpected by Mi Yang:
"So, can I be considered a real Hanchen today?"
Ma Chao's question was caught off guard but struck a chord, making Mi Yang ponder for a long time.
This sentence is not easy to answer.
In other words, the answer is very sensitive.
