The fourth day of the battle to defend E City.
After the first day of siege, Jiangdong rested for two days and finally launched another attack on E County.
The target of this attack was not the county seat of E County, but a camp in the northeast corner of E County, where Wei Yan's camp was stationed to support the defense of E City.
Of course Wei Yan knew that such a day would come, so he ordered his soldiers early to prepare for the attack.
But at this moment, Wei Yan himself was unsure.
First, the soldiers under his command are not the white soldiers he is used to commanding, but a group of Jiangxia naval forces who are better than the mob.
Secondly, Wei Yan really doubted whether Zhang Xi would respond to him from afar and even go out of the city to rescue him when necessary.
Wei Yan even thought that he and Zhang Xi had serious disagreements.
The battle of defending a city has always been like this, guard part of the city wall, and go out to support part.
As for Zhang Xi, he was the only general with sufficient experience in leading troops, so Wei Yan was sent out of the city to respond. This was a very correct military order, and even Wei Yan himself could not say anything about it.
But the most important thing in a city defense battle is to work together. Those who go out to support the city defenders must promptly assist the city defenders and help burn the city defense equipment. Once the soldiers who go out to support the soldiers are besieged, the city defenders must also go out to support them in time. Even if they cannot rescue the siege, they must It is necessary to respond to the troops going out to withdraw into the city.
On the first day of defending the city, Wei Yan had already done what he should do. Now, Wei Yan had some doubts about whether Zhang Xi would do what he should do.
One, it is indeed because the relationship between the two people is quite bad and they basically don't talk about anything.
On the other hand, Wei Yan doubted whether Zhang Xi could get out of the city even if he wanted to help him.
Wei Yan was very skeptical about Zhang Xi's military performance.
On the first day of defending the city, he had to support the troops to help those who burned the chariots. It was difficult to doubt how long he could hold on to the city.
Whether such a commander could break through Jiangdong Army's restraint and come to rescue him, Wei Yan had a big question mark in his heart.
But now Wei Yan could no longer think so much, because he had already seen the main force of Jiangdong Army moving in his direction, and following the army was Shuai Qi.
They were quite far away, so of course Wei Yan couldn't see Zhou Yu's face clearly, but the big "Zhou" character on the flag told Wei Yan that this was the Jiangdong Army's commander personally coming to cause trouble for him.
After appraising the distance and thinking about the army he was leading, Wei Yan sighed once again.
If he were leading the Baijie soldiers, with five hundred Baijie soldiers, Wei Yan would really dare to imitate his idol Guan Erye and take the risk to attack Zhou Yu's formation.
If the formation kills Zhou Yu, Jiangdong's army will naturally retreat, and he will become famous all over the world.
Really, Wei Yan has never lacked such an adventurous spirit.
But unfortunately, he led the Jiangxia navy.
These Jiangxia naval forces are really, Wei Yan can't describe them in words.
It's better not to think that these things are not available, arrange soldiers to guard the walled city and wait for reinforcements.
Facing the diversionary army led by Lu Meng for the first time, Wei Yan still dared to send troops outside and make pretense of attacking from the east to the west.
But this kind of thing can only be done once. No matter how stupid the commander is, it is impossible for him to fall down twice in a row in a pit. What's more, Wei Yan has also heard of Zhou Yu's reputation, and he is obviously not that stupid and mediocre.
So Wei Yan didn't play any tricks this time, he just strictly guarded the camp as usual.
When Zhou Yu arrived in front of Wei Yan's camp, he did not rush to attack. Instead, he first observed Wei Yan's camp layout.
I have to admit that the unknown guard in front of me is really a rare general.
The layout of the camp is quite reasonable, and there are no obvious loopholes in the defense on all sides. As for the real combat capability, you have to try it to find out.
Zhou Yu immediately sent an order to Lu Meng to conduct his first probing attack.
And this test made Zhou Yu see something.
After all, Wei Yan's soldiers were from the Jingzhou navy, and they basically had no problem with archery when defending the camp. They were quite decent and decent.
But when the Jiangdong Army approached the camp and needed to fight in close quarters, the Jingzhou Army's weaknesses were exposed.
Insufficient melee combat ability, no formation, each fighting alone.
On several occasions, it was Wei Yan who personally led his soldiers to rescue and repelled the Jiangdong Army's attack. As a result, Wei Yan was exhausted from running here and there.
Zhou Yu could see the weakness of the camp, but Zhou Yu didn't have any good ideas.
The reason is very simple. Wei Yan's soldiers lacked hand-to-hand combat ability and had no formation to coordinate with Jiangdong's army.
Most of the Jiangdong Army was also from the navy, so it was no problem for them to operate boats and form formations. However, once they engaged in hand-to-hand combat on the river, limited by the size of the ships, they basically fought independently without cooperation.
The more powerful elites may not be bad at hand-to-hand combat, but the hand-to-hand combat ability of most naval forces is really poor. After all, fighting on the ship relies more on skill rather than hard work.
Therefore, Zhou Yu could only watch Wei Yan running around, repelling Jiangdong's army's attacks again and again. Although he knew where the opponent's weaknesses were, Zhou Yu still had nothing to do with this camp.
Zhou Yu looked at such a battle scene of novices pecking each other, and secretly swore in his heart that after returning to Jiangdong this time, he must find a way to practice the Jiangdong army's hand-to-hand combat ability. Otherwise, he would be unable to conquer cities and territories in the future.
As for Wei Yan, with Wei Yan's help, after repelling Jiangdong Army's attacks several times in a row, the Jiangxia navy in the camp slowly gained confidence.
It turns out that Jiangdong's army was so powerful on the water, but when they got ashore, everyone was just the same!
If it weren't for the fact that there were so many people on the other side, the Jiangxia navy felt that they might be able to counterattack and kill a wave of Jiangdong troops.
But Wei Yan was not so optimistic. He began to seriously consider whether to let go of trouble and ask for help from Echeng.
Indeed, he repelled Jiangdong Army's attacks one after another and still defended the camp.
But Wei Yan knew in his heart that the gap in strength between the two sides was too great. Even if Jiangdong's army was wasted, it would be enough to kill him.
Before the war started, I had more than 800 soldiers. Now, after a morning of defense, I have reduced my number by more than 50. If we continue to defend like this, for up to three days, our side will mutiny, and then the sergeants will surrender to Jiangdong Army. .
In these days, when casualties exceed one-third of the soldiers, there are very few who do not mutiny.
Zhang Xi, who was watching from the top of the city, was also very nervous at the moment.
The city wall is high, and the overall situation will be more obvious. Now the main force of the Jiangdong Army is almost attacking Wei Yan's camp. There are thousands of people outside the west and south city gates, each watching eagerly.
Zhang Xi is anxious. If Wei Yan is allowed to defend like this, Wei Yan will be unable to defend him sooner or later.
Rescue must go out of the city.
But the problem is how to rescue.
Rescue is also a technical job, and it doesn't mean that you just have to fight your way through with bravery.
If it were Zhang Fei who was leading the army, and he had one thousand soldiers who had practiced the Yuanyang Formation, he might actually be able to get through. But Zhang Xi's current general is Kou Feng, and his sergeant is Chen Jiuliu. A thousand sailors came down.
It’s too late to learn the Yuanyang Formation now.
Therefore, it is obviously not possible to rush forward forcefully, and a way must be found.
Zhang Xi already had a way to support Wei Yan. When he arranged for Wei Yan to be stationed out of the city, Zhang Xi had already thought of a way to support Wei Yan. Otherwise, he would not have allowed Wei Yan to be stationed in the southeast corner of Hubei City.
There is water outside the east gate of Echeng, and five hundred meters ahead is the tidal flat along the river. This place is not suitable for camping and siege, so it is impossible for Jiangdong Army to choose this place to attack.
Therefore, Zhang Xi's original plan was that if Jiangdong's army was eager to attack Wei Yan, Zhang Xi would send troops to fight out from the east city gate and help Wei Yan return to the city through the east city gate.
But Zhang Xi's original plan did not include Zhou Yu personally leading the main force of the army to besiege Wei Yan.
After all, in Zhang Xi's view, Wei Yan was a support camp, and Zhou Yu's main focus should be on attacking the city. At most, he would arrange some diversionary troops to contain Wei Yan, so that if Wei Yan could not hold on, he would be able to stand out enough to encircle and retreat into the city.
Who knew that Wei Yan could be so fierce, facing an opponent twice his size, he actually dared to divide his troops to ambush, and even pretended to attack from the east to the west, actually killing the diversionary troops in Jiangdong.
This time, Zhou Yu's army was provoked, and it was surrounded by a tight crowd.
What to do with this thing? Zhang Xi really doesn't have any good ideas.
But Wei Yan had no choice but to save the enemy, even if it was inconsistent, the consequences of not saving the friendly forces would be very serious.
If he doesn't save Wei Yan today, there will definitely be a day when no one else will save him. Furthermore, Wei Yan, the future general who conquers the north and the prefect of Hanzhong, cannot be left here.
Zhang Xi walked back and forth on the city wall. After thinking for a long time, he finally came up with a way to deal with Wei Yan.
Although this method is a bit risky, there is no other way but to try it.
Zhang Xi quickly called Kou Feng and whispered to him.
(End of chapter)
