After a day of guarding the city, Sima Yi was already exhausted.
Today, Jingzhou Shu thieves outside the south gate attacked the city wall more times than in the previous ten days combined. If Sima Yi had not personally visited the south gate tower to personally command the defense and boost morale, even if they could hold on this day, the casualties would have been huge. .
Even so, after a day of fierce fighting at the South City Gate, the casualties were as high as over 500 people.
Obviously, the fire in the city affected the morale of the defenders at the South City Gate to some extent. Even if Sima Yi made response arrangements in the shortest possible time and sent people to put out more than 30 fires in the city, the impact had already been caused. This is Irredeemable.
In addition, because he used his reserve troops to extinguish the fire in the city, Sima Yi had no reserve troops to use. He also forced Sima Yi to use the method of personally visiting the South Gate to command the battle. At the same time, there were no reinforcements for the South Gate guard battle this time. available, which is one of the reasons for greater casualties.
After finally holding on for a day, Sima Yi returned to his mansion and began to deal with the fire in the city.
Because Sima Yi sent out a reserve team to put out the fire in time, the fire in the city did not spread. Although many houses were burned down, compared to a city as big as Wancheng, this loss was not huge.
But the problem is that the fire-fighting team sent out by Sima Yi also has another purpose, which is to block and investigate the "detailed operations" of Shu thieves who sneaked into the city a few days ago. The completion rate of this task is very low.
The "Xizuo" army of the Shu thieves seemed to be very cautious. After lighting the fire, they did not stay at the scene for any longer, and did not ask to expand the fire. They began to retreat as soon as the fire was lit. Therefore, the "Xizuo" army could really be blocked. The army is very small in number.
Three thousand fire-fighting teams were divided into more than thirty groups to contain them, and finally blocked more than a dozen Shu thieves Xizuo, but only five or six Xizao were actually captured.
This little gain really didn't satisfy Sima Yi, but it didn't make Sima Yi too disappointed.
Among these five or six people, there was a squad leader, and from the squad leader's mouth, Sima Yi learned that the purpose of the Shu thieves' battle was to create chaos in the city and cooperate with the Jingzhou army to attack the city head-on.
What they do is really the same as what the fine craftsmen do, but this time there are too many fine craftsmen in Wancheng. Judging from the number and scale of fires today, there are probably hundreds of craftsmen in the city.
From the mouth of the squad leader, Sima Yi also learned a very important thing, that is - the "Xinzuo" army that sneaked into the city had a complete set of contact information.
But the problem is that this set of contact information is not static, and the team leader only knows the meaning of the contact information, but the decision-making power of who gives the instructions and what to do does not lie in the hands of the team leader.
He knew what to do if he saw similar contact information, but he didn't know what means would be used to create chaos tomorrow.
In other words, Sima Yi still has a headache. What kind of trouble will these bastards "Xi Zuo" cause to him tomorrow when he is defending the city.
However, knowing is better than not knowing. Sima Yi asked the squad leader to write down the content of the liaison order he knew. Then the squad leader told Sima Yi more than twenty different code words for the liaison order.
Sima Yi's head is so big. Who is this person, who can come up with so many battle orders, and how do these soldiers remember these complicated code words without knowing any big characters? !
Anyway, Sima Yi really admired the commander and actual organizer of this unit for such a fighting method. Sima Yi really opened his eyes.
But fortunately, with the actual content of these code words, Sima Yi can make targeted arrangements.
For example, Sima Yi had already begun to arrange defenses such as attacking grain and ordnance storage points and attacking city gates. Sima Yi was also prepared for rumors spreading in the city, or orders to assassinate the commander.
The most unacceptable thing for Sima Yi was that among these orders, there were such despicable techniques as poisoning wells and polluting water sources.
Although both sides of the war use all possible means, this method is too corrupting, right? !
The person who came up with such an idea is not afraid of failure? !
While cursing the person who gave such an order, Sima Yi immediately ordered the protection of the water sources in the city. No one was allowed to approach the water sources in the city. Even if the people in the city needed to draw water, they had to rely on the mayor as a guarantee.
But just like this, Sima Yi became a little worried again.
There are not enough troops.
The four gates need to be guarded, especially the south gate. Facing the attack of the main force of the Jingzhou Army, at least 10,000 troops must be deployed there.
Outside the west gate, because of the threat of thousands of Shu thieves, Sima Yi did not dare to take it lightly. Three thousand standing troops were necessary.
As for the north gate and the east gate, although they are in our own direction, it is impossible not to arrange troops to guard them. It is also necessary to guard each gate with two thousand soldiers.
After this calculation, 17,000 people have been divided, and Sima Yi must have at least 3,000 people in reserve in order to deal with emergencies.
Well, after counting the battle losses in the past two days, Sima Yi's troops and horses have all been allocated, and there has even been a negative amount.
But now, because hundreds of elite Shu thieves have infiltrated the city, Sima Yi must allocate troops to guard the grain and armory, and at the same time arrange soldiers and horses to search for enemies in the city, and at the same time protect the water source. There are only two or three thousand troops. , so many things cannot be arranged at all.
There was no other way, Sima Yi could only find a way to dispatch defensive forces.
The guards at the south gate and west gate cannot be withdrawn. There is a real threat there. Therefore, one thousand troops can only be transferred from the east gate and the north gate. One thousand people are responsible for guarding the granaries and arsenals, and one thousand people are responsible for guarding the inside of the city. Protect water sources and at the same time investigate and find lurking spies.
Sima Yi now finally understood the true role of this Shu thieves' "careful" army that lurked in.
Not only can it create all kinds of chaos, but in conjunction with the frontal attack, this small army of only two to three hundred people suddenly involves the deployment and deployment of two thousand troops. This is the greatest value of this army.
This is only two or three hundred "fine work" counties, but it is such a big threat. Outside the west city gate, there are four thousand Shu thieves with the same combat capabilities squatting.
As long as the Shu thieves outside the west city gate are not stupid, he will not send just this few people to infiltrate. In the past few days, they should continue to send these "fine craftsmanship" troops into the city. Once the number of these "fine craftsmanship" troops reaches With a thousand people, Sima Yi didn't even dare to think about the consequences.
This is a consequence that Sima Yi cannot bear.
But under the current situation, Sima Yi didn't have any good solution for a while, except to mobilize troops to strengthen patrols and strictly investigate strangers in the city.
Because, compared to these so-called "careful" troops, Sima Yi also had a greater threat - the Jingzhou Army outside the South City Gate.
When the Jingzhou army pressed on the border, Sima Yi simply did not have enough troops or thoughts to deal with these annoying "rats".
Therefore, Sima Yi now extremely hopes that the more than 20,000 reinforcements led by Cao Zhen can arrive at Wancheng as soon as possible to set up defenses.
For this reason, while Sima Yi hurriedly wrote to the emperor for help, he also wrote a letter to Cao Zhen, hoping that Cao Zhen would not go through such troubles along the way. Wancheng was really in a hurry now.
At this time, Cao Zhen had just reached Henan County, and there were still seven or eight days of marching from Wancheng.
Even if Cao Zhen's stop-and-go marching speed was followed, it might take ten days to reach Wancheng.
Of course, after receiving Sima Yi's urgent military letter, Cao Zhen did want to speed up the march, but even if he slowly restored morale in this stop-and-go way, he still wanted to go to Wancheng to fight. His military morale is really not high.
After all, they had just experienced a disastrous defeat in Guanzhong, and it was considered a good fortune to escape back. As a result, they were transferred to another battlefield in less than half a month. The soldiers were definitely not happy.
Besides, the one who was transferred was the Wancheng battlefield.
In the Guanzhong battlefield, although they were cut off from their retreat and were in short supply of food and fodder, in terms of military strength, the Wei army actually still had the upper hand. Although the Shu bandits attacked fiercely, there were many people, so they could still be more or less united.
But over at the Wancheng battlefield, I heard that hundreds of thousands of Shu thieves are besieging 30,000 people. Now that they can't hold on anymore, they have to go to support. Even if they go to support, adding more than 20,000 people, the number is only more than 50,000 people. That's it, we have to face twice or even three times the number of Shu thieves.
In this kind of war, how can you raise the morale of this group of soldiers who have just escaped? !
It was also difficult for Cao Zhen. He led such a group of soldiers with inconsistent morale and serious lack of morale to save Wancheng. He stopped and stopped along the way. It was not entirely intentional, but if he didn't do this, the morale of the army would be at a loss. It's going to be complete chaos.
Therefore, Cao Zhen could only write a reply to Sima Yi, telling him his actual situation. On the one hand, he hoped that Sima Yi would continue to hold on for a while. On the other hand, Cao Zhen also tried his best to boost the morale of the army and increase the marching speed as soon as possible.
But Cao Zhen couldn't guarantee Sima Yi when he would arrive in Wancheng.
Maybe it will only take five or six days, but it may also be seven or eight days. Of course, the longest will not exceed ten days. Please also ask Sima Yi to try his best to hold on to these ten days! ! !
One thing to say, Cao Zhen's request is really not too much. After all, judging from the current battle situation, Sima Yi will not be able to hold on for ten days.
However, the development of things will not always go as people expect.
(End of chapter)
