Wang Ling finally gave up the idea of taking advantage of the situation to cause trouble.
There are three reasons:
One, it does not comply with military orders.
The military order given by Sima Yi, who was left behind in Luoyang, was to hold on to the enemy everywhere. If he felt that there was an opportunity and took the initiative to send troops to attack the Shu bandits, he would be violating the military order.
Success does not necessarily mean merit, but failure will definitely lead to accountability.
Second, there is insufficient evidence.
Although it seems that there is a possibility of discord between generals and generals Zhuge Liang and Zhang Xi, that is just Wang Ling's wishful thinking without concrete evidence. It would be too risky to send troops rashly.
Third, lack of confidence.
Even if Zhuge Liang and Zhang Xi really have serious differences, they cannot work together, which gives him an opportunity. But after all, the other party has 60,000 people. Counting the 10,000 reinforcements sent by Chen Tai, the total is 20,000. people.
It's okay if the sneak attack succeeds. If it fails and loses troops and generals, Luyang's defense will become very difficult.
Based on three reasons, Wang Ling felt that he should be more conservative and wait until reinforcements from Luoyang arrived before looking for similar opportunities.
Anyway, if Zhuge Liang and Zhang Xi really don't get along, this kind of opportunity will appear again in the future, so don't rush it.
Therefore, Wang Ling ordered the entire army to stand firm and not be able to come out.
At this time, in the Han army camp, Zhuge Liang was also frowning, looking at the map in front of him, thinking about combat strategies.
Zhang Xi, sitting in front of the desk in the military tent, shook his head helplessly.
That Wang Ling was, after all, the person who launched the first rebellion in Huainan in history. Although the whole rebellion process seemed quite anticlimactic, and the ending showed that Wang Ling was greedy for life and afraid of death, but he could make Cao Wei's eastern border rebel collectively. Without some ability, he couldn't do it. .
This kind of little trick will definitely not attract such people to take the initiative to go out to fight in the city.
Yes, the change the day before yesterday was deliberately made by Zhuge Liang. He wanted to show that he did not know how to use troops, so that the Luyang defenders would take advantage of the opportunity and take the initiative to go out of the city for a sneak attack. This way Zhuge Liang could set up an ambush and defeat them in one fell swoop. Luyang defenders.
Zhang Xi actually persuaded Zhuge Liang, telling him that Wang Ling was a man of both civil and military skills, and was not a reckless man without a brain. But Zhuge Liang asked Zhang Xi, if there is no need to trick the enemy into taking the initiative to fight out of the city, is it necessary to fight a difficult siege? !
Or, does Zhang Xi have any good strategy that can make the Luyang defenders take the initiative to fight? !
Zhang Xi didn't know what to do. He really didn't have a better plan, so he just let Zhuge Liang try it.
Anyway, if this strategy fails, there won't be much loss, but if Wang Ling really despises Zhuge Liang and is really deceived, the benefits will be huge.
But now it seems that both Zhuge Liang and Zhang Xi are out of their minds, and Wang Ling is not moved at all.
At this point, Zhuge Liang is not going to give up yet. He emphasizes again that siege warfare is really too difficult. Even if 60,000 troops besiege Luyang, which is guarded by 10,000 people, there is no guarantee of quick victory.
Not to mention that Luyang may have a large number of reinforcements arriving at any time.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang felt that there was no problem with his idea, and he should still attract the Luyang defenders to take the initiative.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang decided to divide his troops with Zhang Xi and move the camp.
Zhang Xi was responsible for leading the army to attack the south gate of Luyang, while Zhuge Liang led half of his troops to attack the west gate of Luyang.
This was not done to contain the defensive focus of the city's defenders. Zhuge Liang did this to deepen Wang Ling's misunderstanding and convince him that there was an irreconcilable conflict between himself and Zhang Xi, so that they could not work together in the same military camp. .
Of course, relying only on such a strategy of dividing troops will obviously not achieve the intended effect. Next, Zhuge Liang will also take a series of deception and inducement measures.
For example, he launched another siege despite the complete siege equipment, but he seemed hesitant during the siege, which deepened Wang Ling's impression that Zhuge Liang was not good at using troops.
At the same time, he asked Zhang Xi not to come to rescue him when he was at a disadvantage in attacking the city, creating the illusion that the two armies were fighting each other, and tempting Wang Ling to believe that the two sides were at odds.
Finally, another incident of bombing the camp at night gave Wang Ling an opportunity to sneak out of the city to attack, and finally defeated the enemy in one fell swoop and captured Luyang.
This set of combo punches, let alone, really confused Wang Ling.
Indeed, when Zhuge Liang chose to move his camp to attack Ximen, although Wang Ling still stood still, he was really muttering in his heart, could it be that the Shu thieves opposite him were really at odds with each other? !
Of course, at this time, Wang Ling just muttered for a moment and did not think about this issue too deeply. After all, splitting his troops to attack two gates and distracting the defenders from the focus of defense is also a common thing in siege warfare.
But the subsequent developments further and further deepened Wang Ling's impression that the Shu thieves and generals were at odds with each other.
First of all, the offensive coordination between the two sides is simply crappy.
Normally, if you divide your forces to attack a city, there is a high probability that the attack will be launched at the same time. This will cause the defenders to be unable to take care of both defenses, thus exposing flaws.
But although the Shu thieves in front of them had divided their forces, only Zhuge Liang's camp was sending troops and horses to tentatively attack the city. Zhang Xi's army outside the south gate simply stood still.
As for Ximen Zhuge Liang's soldiers and horses, saying that they were trying to attack the city would be considered a compliment. Now Wang Ling really began to doubt whether Zhuge Liang would be able to command the battle.
Yes, Zhuge Liang is famous and famous all over the world, but it is mainly due to his ability to manage and assist the government. After Liu Bei's death, he assisted the emperor Liu Chan to achieve the stable and over-the-top military capabilities of the Shu Han. There is really no specific performance.
In my memory, Zhuge Liang led troops to fight against the Xiqiang once, but the problem is that although he led the expedition, it was not his command, so it is still difficult to be sure.
After all, at that time, Zhuge Liang had Zhang Xi, Pang De, Jiang Xu and others assisting him. Even if Zhuge Liang did nothing, Zhang Xi and Pang De's abilities were enough to sweep away the Qiang people.
After all, there are really not many ethnic minorities who can fight these days.
As for the subsequent counterattack in Guanzhong, Zhuge Liang also sat in Chang'an to stabilize people's hearts and did not go to the front line to actually command the battle.
That is to say, they arrived at the Tongguan front line at the end of the battle and brought enough reinforcements to threaten Tongguan, but that was all.
Perhaps, this person is like Guo Jijiu and Xun Shangshu, a counselor with outstanding strategies and good at the overall situation of the prime minister, but not an excellent commander who can command operations on the front line.
Anyway, judging from the fact that he is now directly facing Zhuge Liang's attack, Wang Ling really doesn't think that Zhuge Liang can create enough pressure on him.
On the contrary, the defenders at the west gate of Luyang went out to the city several times to burn the siege equipment of the Shu thieves. Zhuge Liang showed that he did not respond in time and had insufficient response, and the Wei army's counterattack easily succeeded.
This once again deepened Wang Ling's evaluation of Zhuge Liang - he was just a counselor who had an outstanding view of the overall situation, but had no experience in leading troops on the front line.
What made Wang Ling feel that he had an opportunity even more was that during Zhuge Liang's attack, Zhang Xi at the south gate was still struggling to build siege equipment and had no intention of sending troops to contain and harass.
It was as if the war in Ximen had nothing to do with Zhang Xi.
This kind of response is obviously not the reaction that a veteran like Zhang Xi should make.
Then there are probably two explanations.
One is that Zhuge Liang strives for credit and does not allow Zhang Xi to send troops to assist. He must rely on his own ability to capture Luyang and win the first prize in the Northern Expedition.
The other is that Zhang Xi and Zhuge Liang have serious disagreements. Zhang Xi is unwilling to send troops to help Zhuge Liang and sits back and watches Zhuge Liang's success or failure.
There are both possibilities, but no matter which one it is, at least Wang Ling feels that he sees the possibility of defeating the enemy.
Then, a few days later at night, the scouts came to report that the Shu bandits outside the West City had made a camp roar in the middle of the night. After a panic, the Shu bandits retreated ten miles back to camp again in the morning.
At this time, Wang Ling really had no doubt that all this was a trap set by the enemy. In Wang Ling's view, if the continuous attacks did not go smoothly and the troops were lost, the enemy's morale would inevitably be low. Zhuge Liang himself lacked experience in front-line command, and lacked Regarding military camp management, if this is the case, it is completely normal for a camp bombing to occur in the middle of the night.
From this time on, Wang Ling had already believed the fact that the enemy generals were at odds with each other, and began to mobilize 5,000 soldiers, ready to follow him at any time and send troops to attack the Ximen Shu bandit camp at the right time.
Yes, when I face the camp of 60,000 Shu thieves, I really need to consider the risk of sneak attacks out of the city. But now there are only 30,000 people on the opposite side. They have just experienced the bombing of the camp. Their morale is low and they are mentally sensitive. Such a low risk, high If Wang Ling doesn't seize the reward, he will never have a chance to get ahead in his life.
As long as Zhuge Liang's army is defeated, no matter how many enemies are killed, as long as it is defeated, then even if the remaining defeated soldiers take refuge at Zhangxi at the south gate, the threat will not be too great.
Moreover, after this failure, with Zhuge Liang's status, he will definitely not give in easily. In addition, Zhuge Liang and Zhang Xi are not getting along. Zhuge Liang, who retreated to the south gate, might choose to seize Zhang Xi's military power again. Commanding the attack on Luyang is a shameful move.
If this is the case, then Luyang will be much easier to defend.
Yes, in Wang Ling's mind, he had already imagined that he had defeated 60,000 Shu thieves and became famous all over the world.
But unfortunately, Wang Ling no longer has such an opportunity.
It wasn't that Wang Ling didn't wait for his chance to defeat the thief, but that Sima Yi personally led 20,000 Luoyang reinforcements to Luyang.
Moreover, Sima Yi personally took over Lu Yang's military command.
As for going out of the city to attack Zhuge Liang's camp, Sima Yi refused without even thinking about it.
(End of chapter)
