How many days can Tongguan be defended? !
Wei Yan actually asks himself this question almost every day, but in fact he doesn't even know the answer.
Wei Yan only brought 3,000 cavalry into Tongguan and used the 3,000 cavalry as infantry to defend the city. No one knows how long they can defend the city.
It was better at the beginning. There were no enemies behind Tongguan. There were only 10,000 people in front of Tongguan, the combined forces of Wang Chang and Dai Ling. However, these 10,000 people did not rush to attack the city. Instead, they cut down trees and built siege equipment.
In this case, just take daily precautions.
But when Wang Chang and Dai Ling prepared some siege equipment and launched the siege, the days became more and more difficult day by day.
First, facing the siege of 10,000 Wei troops, it was not a big problem. Later, another 10,000 Wei troops came behind Tongguan. Since the pass wall was tall and strong, the problem was not big. When Cao Zhen led 40,000 troops to Tongguan, Wei Yan's life became uncomfortable.
After seven or eight days of defending the city, Wei Yan's troops had suffered seven to eight hundred casualties, with only more than two thousand people holding on. In the next three days, the Wei army's offensive strength was no less than thirty thousand, and they were attacking from both sides. No matter how hard Zhang Xi tried to contain him, the pressure on Wei Yan was always the greatest.
When the number of troops dropped to 1,500, Wei Yan knew that with such battle losses, it would not be unexpected for a mutiny to break out.
Therefore, if you ask how long Wei Yan can defend now, Wei Yan can only return to Zhao Yun - one day is one day if he can defend.
Don't look at the fact that Zhao Yun has brought 800 men to help now, but these 800 men are also cavalry. If they want to defend the city, they will use the cavalry as infantry. At best, they will only have 800 more heads.
For guarding a pass, under the siege of a total of 40,000 Wei troops before and after, there is really no difference between a thousand people and 1,800 people.
The military strength is not enough to fully cope with the two walls fighting at the same time.
As for military morale, although there is no need to worry about it today, what will happen tomorrow? ! What to do the day after tomorrow? !
Because Zhao Yun came to the rescue in time today, this incentive effect can last until at least tomorrow, at least ensuring that there will be no big fluctuation in military morale before sunset tomorrow.
But if it is still a hard battle tomorrow, with casualties still the same as in the past few days, but no one of our own comes to help again, then the morale of the military may not be as stable as it is today.
As the general who defended Tongguan, and also the commander who led this group of Liangzhou cavalry to defend Tongguan for the longest time, Wei Yan actually knew the morale of the army very well.
Therefore, he couldn't answer Zhao Yun's question, so he could only say something stiff.
"If a certain family is here, Tongguan will be here."
But this was not what Zhao Yun wanted to hear.
In fact, Zhao Yun was also very confused.
Judging from the offensive and defensive situation in the past two days, Cao Zhen is also working hard.
After knowing that a large number of reinforcements from the Han army had arrived, Cao Zhen actually invested a large number of siege forces in front of Tongguan. He would rather put himself in danger with inferior troops than to prevent the Han army from assisting Tongguan. This shows that Cao Zhen really wanted to attack Tongguan with all his life. Go to Tongguan and seize your own retreat and way of survival.
This shows that the Wei army's food and fodder must be in short supply.
However, Zhao Yun did not know how many days of food and grass were left in Cao Zhen's army.
Although Cao Zhen held a military training meeting in the morning, the news that the Wei army's food and grass could only last for three days at most would definitely reach the Han army camp through careful preparations, but the two sides were fighting in the early morning, and by the afternoon, Zhao Yun had broken through the siege. Aid has arrived in Tongguan.
Zhang Xi may now know the exact information, knowing that the Wei army's food and grass can only last three days, but Zhao Yun does not know, and he has no way to obtain this information now.
With the current situation in Tongguan, Xizuo has no chance to pass on the information.
Therefore, Zhao Yun was actually worried about whether Tongguan could defend Tongguan for five days if the Wei army's food and grass could still last for five days.
However, through Zhao Yun's actual observation of the situation of the Tongguan garrison, coupled with the statement of the general Wei Yan, Zhao Yun felt that even with the 800 cavalry he brought as reinforcements, Tongguan might not be able to defend Tongguan for three days.
From what Zhao Yun learned, the daily casualties in Tongguan in the past two days were at a rate of about 300 to 500 people. The reinforcements Zhao Yun brought could not even offset the casualties in two days.
In other words, if Zhang Xi cannot break through Cao Zhen's obstruction and bring new reinforcements within two days, then Tongguan will last until the day after tomorrow at most, and the military strength will drop to about a thousand men again.
If this happens again, I'm afraid no one will be able to prevent Tongguan from falling.
As for whether Zhang Xi can break through the Wei army's obstruction in time and lead his troops into Tongguan. Judging from the battle process in the past few days, it may not be that easy.
Cao Zhen is worthy of being a famous general of Wei. If he really wants to fight hard, he will still be very difficult to deal with.
If estimated from this perspective, the key to Tongguan will be within the next two or three days.
If the Wei army can hold on to their supplies for more than three days, then the fall of Tongguan is inevitable and no one can stop it.
And if Wei Jun's food cannot last for more than three days, then it depends on who can last longer.
If the defenders of Tongguan hold on longer, the Wei army will inevitably fall into chaos. At that time, as long as Zhang Xi takes advantage of the chaos of the Wei army and leads his army into Tongguan, then the Wei army in front of Tongguan will not be afraid. As long as he can deal with the rear of Tongguan The Wei army can do it.
But if the Wei army breaks through Tongguan before the grain and grass are exhausted, then all previous efforts will be in vain. After Tongguan changes hands, I am afraid that with the current strength of the Han army, it will be impossible to break through Tongguan.
Therefore, the choice before Zhao Yun is whether to take a gamble and stick to these three days.
Zhao Yun was really hesitant.
Theoretically speaking, since he supported Wei Yan's strategy of "conquering Tongguan", Zhao Yun should not change his mind midway now. After all, if he can hold on for three days, the benefits will be huge. Wei Jun's Sili Army was trapped in Guanzhong. , and Tongguan is in his own hands. In this case, in the future, the attack on Sili and even Luoyang will only need to be pushed all the way. The biggest obstacle is just the Hangu Pass, which has been abandoned for four hundred years.
But if you can't hold on, it doesn't matter if Zhao Yun, an old man, dies in battle. Wei Yan's loss is not mentioned here. The final result is a failure of the battle. Tongguan changes hands, and the Wei army can still defend the pass and defend Sili.
The terrible thing is that no matter how Zhao Yun weighs the pros and cons, he still feels that the possibility of not being able to hold on is greater than the possibility of holding on.
Zhao Yun made a decision when he thought of this.
Since it is more likely that Tongguan cannot be defended, then don't damage the Han's future leading generals and 1,800 cavalry in this place. Talents like Wei Yan are rare, and cavalry are also rare.
It took five years to gather 10,000 cavalry. Only Zhao Yun, the cavalry organizer, knew how hard and difficult it was.
After this war, it is not easy to have half of the people left.
Let's break out.
With the size of 1,800 cavalry, if we give up the breakout of Tongguan, we are actually very confident that we can break through the Wei army's offensive position in the front and retreat from the flank to join Zhang Xi.
Just doing this would be equivalent to giving up the Tongguan Northern Expedition in advance and giving up the strategy of "different Taoists meeting Tongguan".
Zhao Yun believes that if he can bear this responsibility, he must bear it himself.
Therefore, Zhao Yun ordered the entire army to organize their armaments, calm the horses, and prepare to abandon the pass and break out early tomorrow morning.
This military order was opposed by Wei Yan before it was officially issued.
Wei Yan became anxious as soon as he heard that he was about to break out of the encirclement. Once he left, Tongguan fell, and his proposed strategy completely failed.
He thinks that now is not the end of the road, so he can still hold on for a while.
Maybe the Wei army will run out of food tomorrow or early the day after tomorrow? !
Wei Yan is still confident that he will hold on until at least tomorrow or the morning after tomorrow. After all, with the support of more than 800 reinforcements, he will not be unable to hold on for a whole day.
But this kind of luck mentality is no longer the mentality that a qualified commander should have.
As a leading general, his judgment is not based on the actual situation and intelligence, but on ambiguous personal feelings such as "I think" and "maybe". He has lost the calmness that a general should have.
Therefore, Zhao Yun directly rejected Wei Yan's objections, and as General Wei, directly took over the entire Tongguan defense and issued his own military orders.
And when the military order to break out of the encirclement was completely issued, Wei Yan knew that he could no longer stop it.
Wei Yan didn't know what the new eight hundred cavalry thought, and it didn't matter, but the remaining one thousand Liangzhou cavalry who followed him to guard Tongguan had been holding back the thought of abandoning the pass and breaking out for more than a day or two.
In the past, I didn’t dare to run. One of them was afraid of being unable to escape, and the other was somewhat afraid of Wei Yan. Now, it’s better. The military orders issued by General Da Hanwei, the actual commander of the Liangzhou Army, theoretically speaking, whether it is Wei Yan or Zhang Xi, , there is no room for refutation.
Those Liangzhou guys probably have no intention of defending the city anymore.
Seeing that things could no longer be stopped, Wei Yan had to face reality and the failure of his battle plan. But at the same time, he dutifully offered a plan to Zhao Yun.
Anyway, they have to abandon the pass and break out. This Tongguan pass must not be defended. So the military rations, city defense ordnance, etc. that the Wei army had previously hoarded in the Tongguan pass can't be kept? !
There happened to be ready-made fish oil in the warehouse, and there was no need to use much of it when defending the city. It was better to pour fish oil on all the grain, grass and defense weapons and burn them on fire.
It can’t be left to Wei Jun to continue to use it! ! !
To be honest, Tongguan is a pass. Most of them are brick and stone deconstructed pass walls and various arrow towers. There are not many wooden buildings. Otherwise, Wei Yan really wants to burn Tongguan directly.
Anyway, I can't hold it anymore, and you don't want to use it. But unfortunately, I can't do this.
Zhao Yun, on the other hand, adopted Wei Yan's strategy without any hesitation.
What was burned was not the people's rations. Once these military rations were left to the Wei army, they would still be military rations and would not reach the hands of the people.
Although Zhao Yun has always been kind to the people, on the battlefield, Zhao Yun was also a decisive general.
Burn, burn everything that can be burned. After lighting it, everyone abandons the barrier and breaks out.
(End of chapter)
