The bank of the Wei River, Mei County.
Wei Yan has occupied Mei County for almost ten days.
During these ten days, Wei Yan first successfully took back his own rear troops, and also accepted Wang Ping's Qian Wudang flying army who had withdrawn from other directions. By the way, he expedited time to repair Mei County. city defense.
But then, Cao Zhen arrived in Mei County two or three days earlier than Wei Yan expected, forcing Wei Yan to immediately engage in the defensive battle of Mei County.
Fortunately, these days, the city defenders have an advantage. When Cao Zhen first set out, his purpose was to support Mei County, so he did not bring siege equipment. If he wanted to launch an immediate attack on Mei County, he could only use the least efficient ant attack. city.
This may be very stressful for some people who are new to the battlefield, but for Wei Yan, an extremely experienced general, it is not a difficult thing to deal with.
After all, at this time, the difference in strength between the two sides was not big, almost one to one. Cao Zhen had no strength advantage and had to use this inefficient ant attack method to attack the city. Wei Yan really didn't think there was anything to fear.
In addition, Wei Yan had temporarily straightened out the attitudes of the aristocratic families in the city before, and there was no need to worry about the aristocratic families taking the opportunity to surrender in a short period of time. Therefore, Wei Yan's ability to hold on to Mei County was not actually tested too much.
However, two days later, when Guo Huai led nearly 40,000 troops to the south gate of Mei County, Wei Yan's pressure came.
Although Wei Yan knew that as long as the strategy went smoothly, Guo Huai's 40,000-strong army would be nothing more than a desperate force. As long as he could withstand the offensive for a few days, Guo Huai's army would become less and less effective.
But the desperate soldiers are really not easy to deal with.
There is a saying in the art of war: "Don't chase the enemy when you are poor." Soldiers who are eager to escape are often prone to fighting power that exceeds their own.
In addition, Guo Huai is not an idiot. He knows that what he lacks most now is time, and what he lacks most is troops. Therefore, as soon as Guo Huai arrived in Mei County, he did not even give his soldiers half a day to rest. As soon as they set up camp, Immediately send troops to attack the city.
It was also an inefficient siege by the ants, but the fighting power that Guo Huai's army exploded under the desire to survive was completely incomparable to Cao Zhen's army at the north gate.
At this time, when Cao Zhen realized that Guo Huai had arrived, he immediately sent an envoy from the army to contact Guo Huai. At the same time, he launched another attack on Mei County, striving to attack Mei County from both front and rear to defeat Mei County.
As long as Mei County is conquered and the Shu army in Mei County is expelled, the Wei army can still hope to keep the Shu army out of Sanfu by relying on the defenses in Mei County and the Weishui River.
If Zhang He can successfully march into Wuzhangyuan at this time and cut off the Shu army's food and grass supply line, then it is not impossible to counterattack Wuzhangyuan and turn defeat into victory.
Success or failure lies in Mei County.
Facing the attack from the north and the south, Wei Yan found it difficult to deal with it for a while.
This is mainly because Wei Yan occupied Mei County not long ago and he did not have time to make too many preparations to defend the city.
Although the aristocratic families in the city had previously said they were willing to support the Han, that was because Cao Zhen did not have the advantage. Wei Yan believed that these people would not easily choose sides when the situation was unclear. Now the Wei army is attacking from both sides, and their combined strength is About five times that of Wei Yan. Wei Yan is not sure what these aristocratic families are thinking in their hearts now, let alone the private soldiers and resources of the aristocratic families in the city, for fear that these guys will play a trick on you.
Therefore, at this stage, Wei Yan only dared to use his own soldiers to guard the four gates of Mei County, and at the same time he personally commanded from the city tower.
Of course, Wei Yan didn't have any helpers.
Although Wei Yan still had concerns about the two new recruits Wang Shuang and Zhuge Qian, when it came to employing people, Wei Yan had to give them heavy responsibilities and let them be responsible for the defense of the east and west gates of Mei County, which was relatively easy.
The North Gate faced Cao Zhen's attack, and the generals who had no trust and trust were not enough to guard it. Therefore, Wei Yan directly handed over this responsibility to Wu Ban and asked Wu Ban to lead the troops to be responsible for the defense of the North Gate.
Wei Yan himself was in charge of the south gate and fought against Guo Huai's army.
As for the useless flying army under Wang Ping, it was Wei Yan's trump card and would be of great use at critical moments, so Wei Yan kept Wang Ping by his side and could call upon him at any time.
Of course, there is another important point - Wang Ping is good at defense, and his defensive ideas are in perfect harmony with Wei Yan.
Both of them do not advocate relying on the city wall to defend. They believe that the real defense should be to lead the attack while defending, and to take the initiative by oneself.
If you are passively defensive, sooner or later you will be unable to defend.
Wei Yan is really, the more he communicates with Wang Ping, the more he feels that this person has a good temperament. Although Wang Ping is a man and has never read a book, he is much better than those scholars who only know empty talk.
Therefore, under the command of Wei Yan, Wang Ping led Qian Wudang flying troops out of the city from time to time to harass, counterattack, or sneak attack, constantly interrupting Guo Huai's offensive rhythm, delaying Guo Huai's attack preparation time, and causing trouble. Guo Huai felt quite uncomfortable.
It's not like Guo Huai didn't want to set up an ambush and kill this annoying army in one fell swoop.
But... there is one thing to say. The combat effectiveness of this unit is really strong. It can fight against Cao Wei's imperial army on the plains. In addition, this unit seems to be very good at foot power, and the commander is very cautious. If something is slightly wrong, it will be fine. They retreated immediately, but Cao Wei's imperial army was really stunned and couldn't catch up with them.
After several ambushes failed, Guo Huai had no time to waste in competing with this force.
Although this unit has good combat effectiveness, it is still small in number. Guo Huai only needs to keep a reserve team of 1,000 people. When this unit leaves the city, it is sent out to intercept and contain it, so that it will not interfere with Guo Huai's offensive rhythm. Have too big an impact.
Both sides were fighting for wits and courage, but Guo Huai finally gained the upper hand on the South Gate battlefield by relying on his advantage in numbers.
As for the North Gate battlefield, although Cao Zhen is also very capable, he has few troops after all, and he does not have the same sense of urgency of food shortage as Guo Huai's army. Although the attack is very hard, the effect is far less than that of Guo Huai's army.
In addition, Wu Ban was considered a veteran general, and he was cautious and would only stick to the tower and never take risks to fight. Cao Zhen had no good way to deal with the North Gate defenders for a while.
Of course, the biggest problem here is still the problem of time, or in other words, the problem of food and grass supply for Guo Huai Army.
When Cao Zhen got in touch with Guo Huai, Cao Zhen once sent a batch of food and grass to Guo Huai's army.
However, Cao Zhen's army had a small number of people and not much food reserves. In addition to ensuring food for his own army, it was simply beyond his ability to supply an army of nearly 40,000 people.
In addition, Wei Yan would not just watch the two sides connect. As for the transportation of grain and grass supplies, Wei Yan would go out of the city to intercept it at any cost. If the shipment of grain and grass was not escorted by Guan Qiujian with two thousand cavalry, It was really possible that Wei Yan had planned a successful sneak attack.
But even so, the supplies Guo Huai could finally get from Cao Zhen were limited after all. At most, they could only extend the grain reserves for a few days.
When Guo Huai withdrew his troops from Wuzhangyuan, in order to retreat quickly, the entire army only brought about ten days of food supplies. Half of them were used during the march, leaving only five days of food supplies.
Reality is not a game. The soldiers know how much rations are left, and they will not wait until the day when the rations are completely used up before making a fuss. There are only five days of rations left, which is enough for the army sergeants and soldiers to make noises and even make noises. Dispersed.
No matter how highly organized the Cao Wei Forbidden Army was, it was still a feudal army. Fighting on an empty stomach was unthinkable in this era.
Therefore, the batch of grain and grass that Cao Zhen asked Guanqiu Jian to escort was really timely. It could not only alleviate Guo Huai's urgent needs, but the most important role was to allow Guo Huai to stabilize the morale of the army and tell the soldiers that although we were short of food, we still had a lot of food. As long as our friendly forces are still there, we will not run out of food.
In this way, Guo Huai could mobilize these soldiers to launch an attack on Mei County.
But now, Guo Huai has led his army to attack Mei County for five days, and there is still no possibility of capturing Mei County.
Although sometimes, the Wei army could successfully climb the city wall by relying on its large number of people and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Shu army, it usually did not last long and would soon be driven back down by the Shu army. This made Guo Huai quite uneasy. .
Again, if you give Guo Huai ten days and a half more time, Guo Huai is sure to break through Mei County, even if Wei Yan is guarding it.
But... there's really not enough time.
What's more, behind him is the main force of the Shu army.
Guo Huai really didn't know how long Wen Qin could hold off at Wuzhangyuan, nor how long it would take Zhang He to reach Wuzhangyuan and cut off the Shu army's food routes. These things that were beyond his control would not be used by Guo Huai as a basis for his decision-making.
Guo Huai only knew that the main force of the Shu army might appear behind him at any time. After attacking Mei County for five consecutive days but still failed, Guo Huai was already thinking about whether he needed to find a way to retreat.
Retreating 40,000 soldiers is not that simple, especially when the withdrawal route is blocked in Mei County. It is basically unrealistic to retreat with so many soldiers.
This matter not only requires Guo Huai to plan in advance and formulate a withdrawal plan, but also requires Cao Zhen's cooperation.
To this end, Guo Huai personally wrote a letter and asked someone to contact Cao Zhen and ask for Cao Zhen's opinion.
Of course, up to this point, Guo Huai only had the idea of retreating, but it did not mean that Guo Huai had given up the counterattack on Mei County. The next morning, Guo Huai commanded his soldiers to launch an attack on Mei County again.
What really made Guo Huai decide to retreat was when he met Wen Qin, who was released by the Shu army, on the evening of the sixth day of the siege of Mei County.
And Wen Qin brought a very bad news to Guo Huai - in as little as one day, or as slowly as two days, the Shu army will arrive.
(End of chapter)
