Zhuge Liang was brewing a counterattack in Fufeng on the right, while Fengyi and Zhang Xi on the left were defending Chongquan County.
Less than three days after Zhang Xi sent away General Hao Zhao and put them in charge of returning to Gaoling County, Chongquan County was besieged by an army led by Cao Zhen.
Cao Zhen did not hesitate at all this time. He arrived at Chongquan a day later and spent two days building siege equipment. After that, regardless of whether the siege equipment was ready, he directly launched the siege.
Cao Zhen had no choice. Even though he sent Wang Chang and his cavalry to harass the flanks, Wang Chang still did not block the retreat of General Hao Zhao.
Although Wang Chang took advantage of the speed of the cavalry to pursue and defeat the thousands-man troops led by Xiang Chong and Hu Fen, the actual killing effect was not great, and the two men were allowed to retreat to Gaoling with hundreds of troops. direction.
As for Hao Zhao, after Wang Chang defeated the two thousand-man troops of Xiang Chong and Hu Fen, he no longer had time to pursue Hao Zhao. He did not dare to lead the cavalry too far away from Chongquan for fear that it was Zhang Xi's. Therefore, after defeating Xiang Chong and Hu Fenjun, he gave up the pursuit and rushed back to the flank of Chongquan County.
Cao Zhen's main army was blocked in Chongquan, and Wang Chang's mobile troops did not dare to go too far. This made Cao Zhen worried that Zhang Xi would use this hidden method to withdraw his troops again, so he had to immediately launch an siege, completely Contain this main force of Shu thieves.
Therefore, in two days, Cao Zhen's troops only had time to build dozens of hooks and ladders and two rams. The number was obviously insufficient, but Cao Zhen still ordered the entire army to attack the city.
Zhang Xi, on the other hand, needs to defend Chongquan County with 25,000 men to deal with Cao Zhen's attack of 50,000 soldiers.
In terms of the comparison of offensive and defensive forces alone, Zhang Xi occupies the defensive advantage of Chongquan City. Although the forces are weak and there is no guarantee that they can repel the enemy, it is not a problem to hold on for a period of time.
Cao Zhen did not expect that he could really capture Chongquan. He just wanted to delay Zhang Xi's troops in Chongquan County and create conditions for Niu Jin to cut off Zhang Xi's logistics supply line.
And Niu Jin did not disappoint Cao Zhen after all.
On the fourth day after the start of the Chongquan offensive, Niu Jin had already led 15,000 cavalry through Youfufeng, entered Zuofengyi, and according to the original plan, penetrated directly into the junction of Chongquan and Gaoling, using the cavalry's The mobility directly cut off the connection between Chongquan and Gaoling.
Fifteen thousand cavalry were too great a threat on the plain battlefield.
Although the cavalry cannot be used to attack the city, the cavalry has the speed advantage and is good at cutting and encircling. There is no need to attack the city, just cut off the supplies around you. How long can the Shu thieves trapped in the isolated city hold on? !
Under normal circumstances, either Zhang Xi, who was in Chongquan, would choose to attack with heavy troops, break through the cavalry blockade, and reopen his supply channel, or Hu Zun, who was in Gaoling, would find a way to break through the cavalry blockade and send supplies to Chongquan. Necessary supplies.
But neither Zhang Xi nor Hu Zun can do these two methods.
Without him, there would be a serious shortage of troops.
Chongquan, which Zhang Xi was guarding, had to face the siege of Cao Zhen's 50,000-strong army. It was not easy to hold Chongquan. Where would there be any extra troops to re-open the supply channel?
Besides, Niu Jin had 15,000 cavalry, and Zhang Xi had less than 500 cavalry, including the reconnaissance cavalry. How could he possibly break through such a cavalry blockade.
As for Hu Zun, it's even more nonsense. The troops he had on hand, including Hao Zhao and other three generals who had withdrawn to Gaoling, did not exceed 5,000.
What Hu Zun is most worried about now is that Cao Zhen will choose to divide his troops to attack Gaoling. Once Gaoling is lost, it will be meaningless even if Zhangxi can defend Chongquan.
Therefore, Hu Zun's current choice is to stick to one option, and he cannot be expected to find a way to break through Niu Jin's cavalry blockade.
This overall situation finally made Cao Zhen breathe a sigh of relief, and to a certain extent, he became more energetic again.
Over the years, Cao Zhen has been beaten from Longshan to Guanzhong, and from Guanzhong to Guanzhong. Some of the reputation he finally accumulated has been almost exhausted in the successive defeats in the past few years.
Now, Zhang Xi has finally been blocked by Zuo Fengyi, completely cutting off the escape route. What Cao Zhen has to do next is to continue to put pressure on Zhang Xi, not giving Zhang Xi a chance to break out, and finally completely surround Zhang Xi. Died in Zuo Fengyi.
As long as he defeats Zhang Xi, a famous Shu thief general, Cao Zhen can not only regain his reputation, but also attack all the way to retake Guanzhong and even Yongliang.
This is not impossible. Zhang Xi himself is the governor of Yongzhou and the de facto military and political leader of Yongzhou. As long as he is defeated, the entire Yongzhou will definitely have no desire to fight.
According to detailed reports, Chang'an has been almost exhausted. In this case, when the army approaches the city, Cao Zhen does not believe that Jiang Wan and Chen Zhi in Chang'an will choose to continue to resist.
Now Cao Zhen has begun to imagine what kind of rewards he will enjoy when he takes back Guanzhong and even Yongliang Prefecture in the future and returns to the court in victory.
At this time, Zhang Xi did not have as good a mind as Cao Zhen.
Although Zhang Xi saw through Cao Zhen's plan in advance, the time to see through it was too short. Even if Zhang Xi made adjustments and arrangements, he would not be able to mobilize more grain, grass, ordnance to Chongquan County.
Now that the connection between Chongquan County and Gaoling County has been completely severed, Zhang Xi does not have enough troops to re-open the channel. Therefore, he can only rely on the existing grain, grass and ordnance in Chongquan County to fight against the Wei army.
Although Chongquan County at this time is not completely at the end of its rope, if this trend continues, Zhang Xi has calculated that in about another month, the military morale will collapse due to lack of supplies.
One month is neither long nor short. If everything goes well, Zhang Xi feels that he may not need to stick to it for such a long time.
However, if there is an emergency and Zhao Yun is unable to quickly lead troops to help, then Zhang Xi will have to consider how to hold on for a longer period of time.
Therefore, Zhang Xi is preparing for the defense of Chongquan County in accordance with the combat policy of holding on and waiting for reinforcements.
Not only must the consumption of military rations be strictly controlled, but more attention must be paid to the consumption of ordnance, especially some city defense equipment. Zhang Xi even mobilized in advance and prepared to demolish houses to defend the city.
But even so, under the fierce attack by the Wei army's superior force, Zhang Xi and Wei Yan still had a hard time defending.
Zhang Xi personally commanded the defense of Chongquan County. Wei Yan was in charge of the most important south gate and east gate, while Zhang Yi was in charge of the relatively easy west gate and north gate. Wei Yan's general Wang Shuang led the five troops specially separated by Zhang Xi. Thousands of soldiers are specially used for assault out of the city.
Wang Shuangqian was the right candidate for this matter. He was best at rushing into battle, going out to fight in the city at critical moments and burning down the enemy's siege equipment. He was the most suitable candidate.
In this way, in the initial defensive battle of Chongquan, although they were cut off and were besieged, under the command of Zhang Xi, Chongquan's defense line was still defended in a very orderly manner.
Cao Zhen was also surprised by this.
Zhang Xi has always given people the impression that he has been the vanguard of Shu thieves all year round. In addition to being clever, the most important thing for a vanguard is that he is good at attacking.
Cao Zhen always thought that Zhang Xi was the kind of general who valued offense, but now he saw that Zhang Yuanchang was also good at defense? !
He is truly a genius in the world.
Well, we can’t blame Cao Zhen. After all, the battle that made Zhang Xi famous was the Battle of Sichuan. Probably no one except Zhou Yu remembers that Zhang Xi once fought a defensive battle in E County and was forced to retreat with 3,000 troops. Defeated Zhou Yu's attack of 20,000 troops.
In fact, Zhang Xi started out as a defender.
Cao Zhen was surprised that Zhang Xi was good at guarding, but considering Zhang Xi's reputation, this didn't surprise Cao Zhen too much.
The person who really surprised Cao Zhen was Wang Shuang.
Why the hell didn't I realize that Wang Shuang could be so fierce back then? !
It is true that Wang Shuang was promoted by Cao Zhen, but in Cao Zhen's eyes, this Wang Shuang was just a man who had great courage but poor character and tended to follow the crowd.
For such a person, Cao Zhen is willing to give him the opportunity to guard Mei County, which can be regarded as reusing him.
But now, Cao Zhen realized that he had really underestimated Wang Shuang.
During the nearly ten days of launching the siege, Wang Shuang went out to fight twice in the city. Each time, he completed his mission. He led his troops out of the city to kill, dispersed the soldiers protecting the siege equipment, and burned most of the siege equipment. , once forcing Cao Zhen to suspend the attack for a day and rebuild the siege equipment.
Forget it, what's more terrible is that after being prepared for Wang Shuang's bravery for the first time, Cao Zhen once ordered Han De to personally lead the troops to protect the siege equipment. As a result, Wang Shuang went out to fight in the city for the second time, facing The guard troops led by Han De himself easily opened the gap and burned the siege equipment after a sudden attack.
Forget it, the really scary thing is that when Han De faced Wang Shuang's sudden attack, he felt that his martial arts skills were not weak, so he actually launched a counter-attack against Wang Shuang. As a result, Han De himself was chopped down by Wang Shuang's sword and fell from his horse.
If it weren't for the protection of his armor, and if Hande himself had timed to dodge when he saw the situation was going badly, Hande would not have suffered a slight injury to his arm, but his head would be in a different place.
Cao Zhen was very familiar with Hande's martial arts skills, which were far superior to his own. Such martial arts skills could not survive even one round in front of Wang Shuang, which really surprised Cao Zhen.
This is a first-rate warrior with the ability to kill enemies on the spot! ! !
In these days, you can count on two hands the number of powerful generals who are capable of killing an enemy on the spot, and the only generals with such a record are Guan Yu, Huang Zhong, Pang De, Lu Bu and others. Wang Shuang almost did it. arrive.
If I had known earlier that this guy was so powerful, he should have reused it when he was under his command. Now it's better, and I got the advantage of the Shu Thief in vain.
(End of chapter)
