In the south of Wei County, the war on the Eastern Front happened.
After a period of rest and truce, Zhang Xi finally managed to collect ten counterweight catapults.
Originally, the purpose of building a counterweighted catapult was not to attack the city. The real purpose was to attract Sima Yi to take the initiative to go out to fight. Although there were fewer ten catapults, the deterrence was enough.
Next, it's time to formulate a siege plan.
Regardless of whether Sima Yi would take the initiative to go out of the city to attack, Zhang Xi would still make the necessary preparations in advance.
In the direction of the south gate of Wei County, Zhang Xi personally led 30,000 troops and carried counterweight catapults to attack. Wei Yan and Jiang Wei each led 20,000 troops at the east gate and west gate to restrain the enemy troops from attacking from the side gates.
The remaining 10,000 people, led by Wen Qin, served as battlefield reserves.
There was nothing surprising about the attack plan. After all, it was a direct siege, and there was only so much the siege team could do to deal with it.
On the defensive side, Sima Yi can make more changes.
For example, going out of the city to burn the attacker's siege equipment is the most direct way to respond.
But with Sima Yi's IQ, how could he not know the real purpose of Zhang Xi, an old fox, bringing a cross-weighted catapult to attack the city? !
Although Sima Yi had already made plans to go out of the city to rob the counterweight catapult, he still had to wait.
You can't rush out of the city to grab that Zhang Yuanchang who will definitely wait for you with his mouth open as soon as the enemy attack starts.
Therefore, three days before the Han army resumed their siege, Sima Yi still stood still and allowed the Han army's counterweight catapults to exert their power, smashing many of the arrow-blocking planks of the city wall built by Ma Long.
This made Ma Long very anxious.
It's not that Malone feels sorry for these arrow-blocking wooden boards. In fact, these arrow-blocking wooden boards are not very precious in terms of raw materials and manufacturing techniques. But the problem is, they can't afford to be smashed like this.
Yes, there is indeed a wealth of wooden planks in Wei County. It is not that difficult to make another batch of arrow-blocking planks if they are broken. But no matter how rich or easy it is, it is not as abundant as the stones outside the city.
There are many thieves in Shu, and they attack the city by digging out mountains and stones, but the wooden planks in the city will one day be used up.
At that time, what can we do to stop the Shu thieves' arrow attack? !
Moreover, if it continues like this, it will have a great impact on the morale of the military.
Originally, the defenders of Wei County were able to hold on at the top of the city because they had a way to resist the suppression of the Shu thieves' bows and arrows. They could hide behind wooden boards and shoot arrows. But now that this layer of protection was gone, the soldiers recalled the ferocity of the Shu thieves' bows and arrows. It will inevitably affect the confidence of defending the city.
Therefore, Ma Long suggested that Sima Yi, if possible, go out of the city to fight as soon as possible and seize at least one counterweight catapult so that he could imitate and build it to eliminate the threat of the enemy's counterweight catapult.
Of course, Sima Yi could also think of the problems that Ma Long could think of, but he was still waiting for clear news.
Where is the location of the Shu thieves' grain harvest? !
Sima Yi must figure this out.
There were only so many soldiers in his hands. If he simply defended, Sima Yi was not sure whether he would be able to force the Shu thieves back in the end.
After all, in this war, the Shu thieves marched on the Northern Expedition in three groups.
Even if he, Sima Yi, could block Zhang Xi and Wei Yan's Eastern Route Army in Wei County, it would be of no avail if the other two armies of Shu thieves had a breakthrough.
Therefore, what Sima Yi had to do was not only to defend Wei County, but also to defeat the rebel army in front of him as soon as possible, and then send his troops westward to support the war in Hanoi.
Therefore, Sima Yi must choose the right moment to defeat the enemy and use his troops carefully, so that he can have a chance to win with one blow.
Sima Yi also carefully studied the war in Wei County. In the current situation, the Shu thieves are attacking across the river, and the logistics supply line will inevitably be stretched. So the place where the Shu thieves store grain will be their inevitable flaw.
However, Sima Yi still had some doubts in his heart.
After all, the opponent this time is Zhang Xi. This person has always been cautious in using troops. It is impossible that he does not know the importance of the retreat. He will definitely send troops to guard the granary.
Therefore, if Sima Yi wants to take advantage of the Shu thieves' granary, he must act secretly, send troops without arousing Zhang Xi's suspicion, and defeat them in one battle. Only then can he hope to reverse the entire war situation.
Based on the above considerations, Sima Yi must hold his troops temporarily to attract the main force of Shu thieves to continue attacking the city, allowing Zhang Xi to continuously mobilize troops to the front and relax the protection of the rear.
Ma Long's suggestion was rejected by Sima Yi. Even Sima Yi did not explain to Ma Long that Ma Long had joined the army before the battle, and his qualifications and trust were not enough. Sima Yi would not tell him his battle plan easily.
But Guo Huai and Sima Zhao were aware of it. However, these two people also felt that Sima Yi was a little too frustrated to be on guard now. Even if it was for the sake of the overall situation, it would not be a problem to continue to be beaten passively like this! !
But fortunately, such frustrating days did not last too long. The reconnaissance cavalry sent by Sima Yi reported that they had found traces of a suspected Shu bandit's grain farm in the southeast of Fanyang County.
Out of caution, Sima Yi wanted to wait a little longer for a more detailed report from the sentry, for fear of falling into Zhang Xi's scheme.
But, the past ten days of being smashed have damaged a batch of arrow-blocking planks on the city wall. Malone also came to report that there was a shortage of wood in the city. If the second batch of newly-made arrow-blocking planks were If it gets smashed again, I'm afraid it won't be that easy to replenish it in the future.
It’s time to demolish the house and collect lumber! ! !
Demolishing a house is a trivial matter, but the key point is that after being smashed continuously in the past few days, and the suppressive power of the Shu thieves' bows and arrows slowly recovering, the morale of the army has become unstable. After another ten days, I'm afraid the morale of the army will decline. It's going to drop to freezing point.
Therefore, Sima Yi finally had to decide to advance his battle plan.
On the eighth day when Zhang Xi launched a new round of siege, Sima Yi sent Guo Huai and led five thousand troops to take the initiative to fight out of the city. They came out from the south gate and attacked the counterweight catapult position at the south gate, trying to seize this part of the catapult. car.
Zhang Xi was well prepared for this and personally led the troops to block it. At the same time, he ordered Jiang Wei and Wei Yan to gradually close in from the east and west gates, and ordered Wen Qin's reserve team to dispatch to copy Guo Huai's retreat.
Guo Huai failed to snatch away the Shu thieves' catapults, but in the end he allowed him to burn three catapults, then broke out of the siege eastward and withdrew into the city through the east gate.
Ma Long was disappointed with the result of this dispatch, but Sima Yi was not disappointed.
The next day, Sima Yi once again sent his second son Sima Zhao with five thousand troops to continue out of the south gate to attack the Shu bandit's catapult camp. After being intercepted again, Sima Zhao retreated from the west gate to Wei County. ,
On the third day, Sima Yi sent Ma Long to lead 5,000 troops to fight. In the same way, after the attack failed, he switched to the east gate and left.
On the fourth day, Sima Yi went to battle in person.
But the result was actually no different from the previous three times. After the attack failed, they had to temporarily retreat to Wei County.
However, the results were not without success. At least in the first and fourth times, three counterweight catapults were burned down respectively, resulting in Zhang Xi's command now having only four counterweight catapults available.
For this reason, Zhang Xi had to gather his troops, suspend the siege, rebuild a counterweight catapult, and re-formulate the siege plan.
At this time, Sima Yi finally believed that his fighting opportunities were mature.
In fact, Sima Yi's original intention of going out of the city four times to take the initiative to fight was never to burn Zhang Xi's catapult, but to gather troops outside the city without concealing the truth.
Each time he went out of the city to fight, there were five thousand soldiers, but in fact, there were only three thousand soldiers who detoured back to the city. Excluding the soldiers who were damaged in the battle, every time Sima Yi went out of the city, he dispersed to the outside of Wei County, ranging from 1,500 to 1,500 soldiers.
After four battles out of the city, Sima Yi had gathered about 5,000 soldiers outside the city.
And these soldiers are Sima Yi's real trump card. He wants to sneak attack the Shu thieves' granary station and cut off the Shu thieves' food route.
(End of chapter)
