Xiling's reinforcements finally arrived by asking Zhang Xi to wait.
But not right away.
According to the news from Zhu County, the reinforcements from Xiling had been organized and set off three days ago. The leader was Chen Dao. There were about 3,000 people. It was estimated that it would take another five or six days to reach Hubei. county.
Now, Zhang Xi could still arrange for the number of soldiers on hand to guard the city wall. Including those who were slightly injured, the number had dropped to seven or eight hundred.
This is a very dangerous number.
No matter how small E city is, it still has four walls.
Although it is impossible for Jiangdong's army to attack the city at the north gate or east gate, Zhang Xi, the soldier of this faction, did not dare to send less troops at all.
The opponent is Zhou Yu, a genius commander with an intelligence of 97.
Even if Zhou Yu suddenly leads his troops out of the ground one day, Zhang Xi will not be surprised, let alone if he suddenly leads his troops to attack the North Gate or the East Gate.
But now, Zhang Xi only has more than 700 people on hand. Counting the soldiers who were slightly injured and recuperating in the past few days, there are more than 800 people. If the four gates are evenly arranged, a city wall can only be defended by about 200 people.
Two hundred people seemed like a lot, but if they were placed on the city wall and had to be defended, this line of defense would be too weak.
Once Jiangdong's army scales the city wall somewhere, I'm afraid Zhang Xi won't have enough troops on hand to organize a counterattack, let alone drive back the city wall. Otherwise, it may collapse quickly from point to point.
On the city walls in the south and west where Jiangdong Army mainly attacked, Zhang Xi had to arrange at least about 300 defensive troops, 200 people were responsible for regular defense, and 100 people were responsible for cruising. Wherever there was danger, go to where to support.
As a result, only one hundred people each were left at the east and north city gates.
One hundred people. It probably can only serve as a warning. If a large army actually attacks the city, it may collapse in less than half a day.
The current defenders of Hubei city have suffered large casualties and reinforcements have been delayed, and their morale is already very low. If one of them collapses and is lost, it will mean that everything is lost, and there is no possibility of street fighting. .
Zhang Xi was wondering whether to take the risk and arrange it like this, or to simply abandon the outer city, retreat to the inner city, and use the Wengcheng to continue to block the enemy.
Theoretically speaking, if you want to defend, this is the best option. But the problem is that once you give up the outer city, you will also give up the north gate and east gate. If the reinforcements from Xiling want to assist Hubei City, they must first do That is to first attack the Jiangdong Army that besieged the North Gate.
According to the report from the messenger, Chen Dao only brought reinforcements of 3,000 people. If Zhou Yu came to encircle the area to provide reinforcements or something, Chen Dao might not be able to escape.
At that time, Zhang Xi may really have no choice but to be trapped in E County and wait for death.
Zhang Xi did not dare to be careless about Zhou Yu's ability to command the army, but the practical problem still troubled Zhang Xi - how to send the soldiers defending the city.
Zhang Xi himself hesitated for a long time with no result, so he could only invite Wei Yan and Kou Feng to discuss it together.
Wei Yan thought for a long time and felt that instead of being so entangled, it would be better to take a risk and arrange fifty men each at the east gate and north gate, and the rest to support the west gate and south gate. Just bet that Zhou Yu would not send a small force across the river to attack the east gate. and the north gate.
Well, let me emphasize again, our General Wei has always been adventurous.
Zhang Xi didn't have a good idea for a while, but under Wei Yan's urging, he finally agreed to Wei Yan's plan.
But what Wei Yan didn't expect was that Zhang Xi, who usually seemed quite stable, would be crazier than him once he took risks.
Zhang Xi thinks, since we have taken risks, why bother to arrange manpower at the east gate and north gate? !
Simply transfer them all to the west gate and south gate, and make some scarecrows at the east and north gates to pretend to be in military uniforms. Anyway, as long as the Jiangdong Army does not get close to the city wall, it will be difficult to tell whether it is real or fake.
One more thing, if Jiangdong Army really starts to attack the east gate and north gate, then stop defending the city of Hubei and quickly let the guards attack to clear the way. Before Jiangdong Army completes the encirclement, Zhang Xi, Wei Yan and Kou seal three people. It would be better to rush out from the north gate and escape back to Zhu County to wait for Chen to arrive for reinforcements.
After this meal was arranged, Wei Yan was anxious. He really couldn't do this.
There are only so many soldiers in this city, and they have been guarding the city for so many days. Everyone knows it.
If all this is concentrated at the South Gate and West Gate, the guards are not fools. Seeing that everyone is here, wouldn't the East Gate and North Gate be unguarded? ! .
Isn't this clearly telling the group of city defenders that their escape route is wide open? Who would have the heart to defend the city?
You will break through the siege as soon as you attack the city. You are not afraid that once Jiangdong's army attacks the north gate, the defenders at the south gate will directly open the city and surrender. Where will you go then? !
Wei Yan repeatedly dissuaded Zhang Xi's thoughtless and taken-for-granted idea. The soldiers still had to be released, no matter how many, so that the soldiers could feel at ease and know that their own way out was still in their own hands.
As for the scarecrow Zhang Xi mentioned, it is not impossible to arrange it.
Arrange 50 guards each at the east gate and north gate, plus some scarecrows. If Jiangdong's army really breaks the river and bypasses the attack, they may really be fooled by the "number" of defenders.
But if they are all scarecrows, the Jiangdong soldiers are not stupid. How can any of the soldiers guarding the city stand motionless on the wall these days? ! Not even squatting down to take a rest? !
You will know this thing is fake after just one stick of incense.
Zhang Xi is not a headstrong person, and he knows that Wei Yan is definitely several times better than him in terms of military formation. Although he dislikes Wei Yan's way of speaking and his offensive tone, if it makes sense, Zhang Xi still adopts it.
As for taking risks, he still chose to continue taking risks, but Zhang Xi still arranged for fifty people each in the east gate and north gate, coupled with one hundred and fifty scarecrows, which at least looked quite intimidating at first glance.
The remaining soldiers were all arranged at the south gate and west gate to deal with the attack that Jiangdong Army might launch at any time.
But something very strange happened.
After Jiangdong's army attacked the city for five consecutive days, starting from the sixth day, there was no sign of siege for three consecutive days.
Not to mention the signs of siege, Jiangdong's army has been huddled in the camp for the past three days. Occasionally, some soldiers went out to roam, but it was more like a patrol than cutting down trees to make siege equipment.
Jiang Dongjun, what kind of trick are you trying to play? !
Zhang Xi couldn't understand.
When Jiangdong's army was silent on the first day, Zhang Xi was still worried that Jiangdong's army was pretending to attack from the east and attacking in the west, or that Zhou Yu really sent people across the river to take a detour and planned to attack the north and east gates. Now he was just confusing or paralyzing himself.
Therefore, Zhang Xi did not arrange for the sergeants to rest that night. Instead, he left one hundred men each on guard at the south gate and west gate. Zhang Xi dispersed the remaining 600 men to the east gate and north gate.
As a result, after waiting all night, there was no sneak attack from Jiangdong Army.
Now, let alone Zhang Xi, Wei Yan couldn't understand it either.
In fact, although Wei Yan didn't say anything, he still agreed with Zhang Xi's judgment in his heart. He also believed that Jiangdong's army was deliberately paralyzing the defenders and must have taken a detour to sneak attack on the east gate and north gate.
But the reality directly gave Wei Yan and Zhang Xi a big blow, causing serious "psychological harm" to these two people.
Jiangdong's army did not come, but the defenders of Echeng did not sleep all night. The next day, they had to work hard to go to the south gate and west gate to prepare for possible attacks by Jiangdong's army. As a result, Jiangdong's army still did not attack that day.
Zhang Xi felt numb.
Could it be that Jiang Dongjun just had an accident last night and failed to reach the attack position in time? !
So, in fact, the real sneak attack is tonight? !
Wei Yan also widened his bloodshot eyes and agreed with Zhang Xi's idea.
Then, 600 people squatted at the North Gate and East Gate all night, waiting for nothing.
On the third day, Zhang Xi felt that this was Jiangdong's army's plan to tire out their troops, and they might launch an siege at any time, so they still had to be careful during the day and night. Wei Yan quickly dissuaded Zhang Xi.
Good guy, the three of us can sleep in shifts, but the soldiers haven't slept for two days and two nights, and they can't bear it.
Wei Yan quickly took advantage of the fact that there was no movement from Jiangdong's army during the day, and arranged for the soldiers to start taking rest in shifts. He also personally led the soldiers and went out five miles outside the north gate and east gate to investigate the situation.
As a result, Wei Yanzhen did not find any traces of Jiangdong's invasion.
Wei Yan was wondering what Jiang Dongjun was doing.
Zhou Yu also had the same question. What on earth are these Echeng defenders doing? !
Zhang Xi and Wei Yan thought that crossing the river to attack the north and east gates was an act that would lead to death in Zhou Yu's eyes. He would not do such a heartless thing.
Now the Yangtze River waterway is blocked, and he can't get through at all.
If you collapse the Yangtze River and take a detour to the north bank of the Yangtze River, that side is all the territory of the Jiangxia Army. If you want to detour and attack the east or north gate of Hubei City without alerting the Jiangbei defenders, you cannot send too many soldiers there. At most It can only be a small force of a thousand people.
But there are too many uncontrollable risks here. If the troops that overthrow the river are discovered by the Jiangbei defenders, they will easily fall into the enemy's siege. Even if they can rely on the navy to withdraw, the losses will not be few.
Zhou Yu didn't want to lose his troops because of uncontrollable risks. After all, he was the dominant side now and there was no need to engage in such little tricks.
Zhou Yu couldn't afford to lose another one.
Jiangdong is a sparsely populated place, and the power structure in Jiangdong is different from other places. If the losses are too great, those aristocratic families will hesitate, and then there may be another round of chaos.
Therefore, when Zhou Yu did not attack the city during this period, he really did not intend to conduct a sneak attack. He felt that it was not cost-effective to attack the city because the losses would be too great, so he deliberately appeared sparse and unprepared in the camp to lure the E city defenders out of the city. Robbery the camp.
Unexpectedly, the city guard of E City was so cautious, and there was no movement at all.
If this is the case, Zhou Yu really needs to think carefully about how to fight this E County.
Some time ago, Zhou Yu sent a letter to Sun Quan asking for reinforcements, and Zhou Yu also received Sun Quan's reply.
It was just this letter that made Zhou Yu depressed for a long time.
In his reply, Sun Quan agreed to Zhou Yu's post-war supervision of naval and land warfare capabilities. At the same time, he also told Zhou Yu in the letter that he was still organizing follow-up reinforcements in Chaisang. Although there were some obstacles, Zhou Yu was asked not to worry. He would be there soon. They will bring troops to support.
The letter didn't say anything wrong, but Zhou Yu already understood the actual meaning.
There is no problem with Sun Quan's trust in him. The problem is that Sun Quan is still in Chaisang, and there are "some" obstacles in organizing reinforcements.
According to the battle plan discussed with Sun Quan before the war, Sun Quan should have led his troops from Chaisang by this time to assist him in defending Jiangxia.
But Sun Quan is still in Chaisang.
(End of chapter)
