In the winter of the 25th year of Jian'an, more than 100,000 troops from both Cao and Liu sides gathered in the mountain roads of the Longshan area, surrounding the two small cities of Shanggui and Lueyang.
Liu Bei led the main army and Qiang and Hu cavalry, totaling more than 70,000 people. Cao Wei also accumulated a total of 60,000 troops in the direction of Shanggui and Lueyang. Behind him, Cao Ren led an army of 40,000 people and was marching non-stop upwards. Reinforcements from the direction of Qiu.
The Longshan Mountain Road is actually not too narrow, and there is still room for tens of thousands of people to fight.
But now hundreds of thousands of troops have been crammed in, immediately making the Longshan Mountain Road, which originally seemed open, become narrower.
Fighting in such a terrain, both Liu Bei and Cao Hong felt a little numb because there were too many people crowded together.
The place is so big, and there cannot be too many troops that can fight. Otherwise, if both sides are crowded on the mountain road, it is not fighting, but attending the temple fair to watch the fun.
Once the battle situation is unfavorable, there is not even room for retreat and adjustment. Once there is a rout, it will really be a complete defeat.
Zhang He and Guo Huai were better off. They divided their troops in advance and occupied Lueyang and Shanggui, so the distribution of troops was not too crowded. However, on Liu Bei's side, the main force marched directly eastward into Jieting, resulting in The street pavilion is now crowded with more than 60,000 troops.
The small town of Jieting really cannot accommodate so many troops, and if Liu Beijun wants to divide his troops to support Zhang Fei, he must either choose to go over the mountains or conquer Lueyang first.
For things like crossing mountains and ridges, infiltration by a small group of troops is fine, but when a large army marches, the supply of food and grass is a big problem, so try not to do it unless it is absolutely necessary.
Therefore, Liu Bei, Pang Tong, Fazheng, and Zhang Xi all chose to attack Lueyang and open up the passage to Shanggui.
This gave Zhang He the opportunity to stick to Lueyang and contain the main force of Liu Bei's group.
The situation is now relatively clear.
With the arrival of the front army led by Cao Hong, Cao's army had an absolute advantage in strength in the direction of Shanggui.
Even if Zhang Fei's army received reinforcements from Wei Yan, the total number would only be about 15,000. In the direction of Shanggui, Cao Hong had nearly 50,000 soldiers at his disposal.
In the direction of Lueyang, Zhang He only had 20,000 troops including some of the reinforcements sent by Cao Hong, while Liu Bei's army, with more than 60,000 troops stationed in street pavilions, also had a strength advantage.
The strategic priorities of both parties are actually very obvious.
If Liu Beijun can quickly capture Lueyang, he will be able to take the absolute initiative in the next battle and attack Shanggui together with Zhang Fei.
And if Cao Hong can defeat Zhang Fei quickly, he can completely block Liu Bei in the Jieting area. If he does nothing after that, Liu Bei's army will collapse just by using logistics.
After understanding the situation of both sides, Liu Bei immediately ordered Zhang Xi as the vanguard, with Wu Ban and Wu Yi as deputy generals, to attack Lueyang. Cao Hong was not polite and immediately sent Guo Huai to continue the siege of Zhang Fei and Wei Yan.
Inevitably, there should be a big war next.
But... I really couldn't fight for a while.
It wasn't that both sides didn't want to fight, and it wasn't that either of them suddenly got cold feet. It was actually the end of December when a heavy snowstorm suddenly hit Longshan.
Not only did the snow fall three feet thick, but there were four or five consecutive days of heavy snowfall and strong winds. This kind of weather was really not suitable for going out to fight.
In fact, Cao Jun was happy to see such extremely bad weather.
After all, Cao's troops, whether Cao Hong's or Zhang He's, were all in the city, with enough shelter from the wind and snow. Liu Bei's troops were all stationed outside the city.
Liu Bei was a little better, at least there was an earthen city in the street pavilion, which could barely block the wind and snow, but Zhang Feijun and his entire army were in camps set up in the wild.
In such extreme bad weather, the number of soldiers who died of frostbite should be more than Liu Bei's army.
Thinking from this perspective, Cao Hong, Guo Huai and others actually felt that this snowstorm was helping them.
Considering things according to the conventional way of thinking, this is indeed true. But the Liu Bei Group has an internal affairs god who is in charge of the logistics supply of the entire army.
Zhuge Liang considered things that Pang Tong and Fazheng could consider, and Zhuge Liang still considered things that Pang Tong and Fazheng did not consider.
Although he was sitting in Hanzhong planning logistics and food supplies, it did not mean that Zhuge Liang had no thoughts about this Northern Expedition.
How could Zhuge Liang not take this extreme weather into account when he sent troops to fight in the middle of winter and attacked northwest regions like Yongliang? !
Starting from mid-November, in addition to adding a large amount of winter clothing to Liu Beijun's logistics supply, Zhuge Liang also sent a large amount of coal to the army.
Well, Zhuge Liang didn't even send a piece of the natural high-quality anthracite produced in Zangqi County to smelt copper and iron. He collected all of it into the army and sent it to the Northern Expedition army.
When they were in Jixian and Xixian before, this batch of coal had been of great help, effectively reducing the number of soldiers in Liu Bei's group who died of frostbite. Now that they are marching to Longshan, Liu Bei of course also brought this batch of coal with him.
Including Wei Yan, who directly supported Zhang Feijun from Xi County and brought a lot of coal. Therefore, although he was trapped in the wild, Liu Beijun was still unable to avoid frostbite due to the burning of coal for heating, but the number of people who froze to death was really very few.
Therefore, when the heavy snow stopped, the low morale of the Shu thieves that Cao Hong had expected did not appear at all. What was even most annoying was that Zhang Fei actually lit a coal fire outside the camp gate and roasted sheep with Wei Yan. While enjoying the snow scenery.
Cao Hong was so angry that beads of sweat almost flowed from the corners of his mouth.
The blizzard did not wipe out this group of Shu thieves, and Cao Hong also gave up his fantasy. After the heavy snow barely cleared, Cao Hong was unwilling to wait any longer and directly ordered Guo Huai to launch an attack on Zhang Fei's camp.
At the same time, Liu Bei didn't want to wait any longer. Not long after the sky cleared, Zhang Xi launched an attack on Lueyang.
A battle that had been delayed for four or five days due to heavy snow officially began.
The next battle was a pure offensive and defensive battle. In such a small area and with such a clear distribution of forces between the two sides, there was no need for any cunning tactics. They relied purely on the strength of the soldiers to win.
Zhang Fei and Zhang He are both holding on, and they are doing it very hard.
Zhang Fei mainly faced enemy attacks that were several times his own. He only relied on wooden walls for defense. His defensive efficiency was definitely not as good as Zhang He's with city walls.
But Zhang He also had his own troubles.
Zhang Fei's camp is more flexible. If you really can't hold it, you can retreat and set up another camp. As long as you are not defeated, you still have the capital to continue fighting.
But Zhang He was guarding Lueyang City and had no room to retreat. If he retreated, Lueyang City would really be lost.
Therefore, compared to Zhang Fei who could adopt flexible defensive strategies, Zhang He had no room to retreat and had to defend.
But this stubborn defense is really not that simple.
If he only uses the strength of his soldiers to defend the city and command, then Zhang He still has some confidence. Even if he faces the attack of the main force of Liu Bei's army, it is not impossible to hold on.
But the problem is that this offensive and defensive battle is not just a competition of soldiers' combat power from the beginning.
At the beginning, the vanguard army led by Zhang Xi attacked according to the ordinary siege warfare method, using cloud ladders and hook ladders to climb the city wall. Zhang He calmly commanded and did not give Zhang Xi too many opportunities.
There was just one problem that Zhang He couldn't quite understand. He always felt that Liu Beijun's performance in the initial siege operations was very awkward. Each attack did not officially enter hand-to-hand combat. He just ended the siege hastily and chose to retreat. There was no need at all. It means desperately.
This phenomenon makes Zhang He very incomprehensible. Both Liu Bei and Zhang Xi are good at using soldiers. How come they can fight so hard in siege battles? !
Although I don’t understand why Liu Beijun did this, is Zhang Xi not good at this kind of siege warfare? But since Liu Beijun’s siege was so difficult, Zhang He would not be stupid enough to remind the opponent that siege warfare should not be fought like this. .
This attack lasted for more than ten days, and then Zhang He understood why Liu Beijun's attack had been so slow during these ten days.
They are not attacking the city at all, they are just testing the key points of their city defense and consuming their own arrows.
The real trump card was the twenty catapults that Zhang Xi spent more than ten days building.
Only then did Zhang He realize that he had been fooled. Liu Beijun's crotch-pulling attack in the previous ten days was just to find out the key points of his defense. Now he could use a catapult to attack his defensive weak points.
But even so, Zhang He was not particularly worried.
Zhang He would not fail to consider things like siege equipment when defending the city. The reason why he brought nearly 10,000 cavalry to defend Lueyang City was also because of this consideration.
It doesn't matter if you have siege equipment. I have cavalry. With the cavalry's assault capability and speed, it's not difficult to go out of the city and burn these siege equipment.
Then, Zhang He saw Ma Chao, leading more than 10,000 Qiang and Hu cavalry, cruising around the battlefield.
This time, Zhang He's claws were numb.
It is not that Zhang He has no cavalry officers under his command. On the contrary, when he came to Lueyang to defend the city this time, Zhang He brought several cavalry officers with him. Therefore, when the cavalry left the city, they did not have to worry about being without cavalry officers to command them.
But the question is, can the two or three kittens and puppies under his command, leading the cavalry out of the city, really defeat Liangzhou's veteran cavalry general, the mighty general Ma Chao? !
The scene where Fei Yao was beheaded by Pound's formation, causing the cavalry to completely collapse, had only passed not long ago.
Obviously, Zhang He felt that unless he personally led the cavalry into battle, he might really have no chance of winning and the cavalry troops in his hands would be wasted.
But if he personally leads the cavalry into battle to burn down the catapults, what should the defenders do? !
Zhang He thought about it and decided to stand still for the time being. As a result, he was hit by a counterweight catapult commanded by Zhang Xi, and almost no one even dared to climb the city wall.
Okay, don't think about it now, you have to go out of the city to fight.
Fighting outside the city also has the possibility of burning the catapult. If you don't fight outside the city, it is basically a dead end.
(End of chapter)
