The first letter was sent by Wei Yan from Liangzhou. He had been blocked at Guzang City for dozens of days. He could not attack for a long time and had no other options. He had to plan a long-term siege. Therefore, Yang Qing was asked to find ways to raise food and grass to ensure that he could fight with the enemy. The Wei army fought a war of attrition.
After careful preparations in the early stage, Wei Yan's Fuliang army initially attacked smoothly and won consecutive battles. Many Daxing, Qiang and Hu people came to surrender. However, they did not expect that when the army reached the gate of Guzang City, they suffered setbacks one after another and were hindered for a long time.
The reason is that there is a famous general named Hao Zhao in Guzang City. This person did not meet Zhuge Liang in Chencang in this life, but unexpectedly became Wei Yan's obstacle here in Guzang.
At first, Wei Yan was full of confidence. He believed that his army was so powerful due to its consecutive victories that it would be able to quickly defeat the Wei army in Liangzhou, which was its last support.
In addition, not long after, Ma Dai and Shaodang Qiang King Hung He successfully broke through the capital city of Xiping in Xiping County and killed Luan Ping, the prefect of Xiping in Cao Wei. After successfully taking over the entire Xiping County, they led nearly 10,000 Han and Qiang coalition forces to Guzang to help out.
Later, various Qiang and Hu tribes that raised troops to respond to the Han army also sent troops one after another to join the Wei Yan army at the foot of Guzang City, intending to use all their strength to eradicate Guzang, the home base of the Wei army. As long as Guzang is defeated, the overall situation will be It's settled.
Therefore, Wei Yan now has nearly 30,000 soldiers and horses attacking the city, and the Wei army in the city plus the recruited civilians only have more than 10,000 people. All the generals thought that with the superior strength, it would be very easy to attack Guzang. It went well, but reality poured cold water on them.
Although the Wei army in the city was in an isolated and helpless situation, under the encouragement of Xu Miao and other Wei officials, the defenders tried their best to fight the Han army to the death. In addition, Hao Zhao was very wise and good at defending the city. Even though Wei Yan After exhausting various methods, they failed to break through the city wall of Guzang.
Similar to the situation when Zhuge Liang attacked Chencang in history, Wei Yan and Hao Zhao staged a beautiful offensive and defensive battle for everyone. One of them is good at attacking and the other is good at defending, which seems to mean that they will meet their opponents and meet good talents.
At the beginning, Wei Yan routinely arranged for more than a hundred catapults to hit the Guzang city wall with hammers, so that the Wei troops on the city did not dare to take the lead.
After the morale of the enemy troops on the city dropped, he took out the siege weapon of the ladder and prepared to attack with the entire army.
However, the ladders of the Han army were different from ordinary ladders. Not only did they have wheels underneath, which could be pushed, but they were also equipped with winches, grapples and other equipment to facilitate the siege sergeants to better fix the ladders.
What's even more amazing is that under Ma Jun's improvement, the Han army's ladders were surrounded by wooden boards. Because they looked like a barrel covering the ladder, this type of ladder was also called a barrel ladder.
The Han army set up cloud ladders and besieged them on three sides. Because the protective power of the barrel ladders was extremely strong, the chance of the sergeants being killed by the Wei army was greatly reduced, and the Wei army was rushed to the top of the city in a hurry.
Hao Zhao saw that ordinary arrows, hammers, and boulders were not very harmful to the Han army. He knew that he had to use rockets to burn down the Han army's ladders in order to retreat, so he immediately ordered his sergeants to prepare rockets.
After the rockets and a fire starter were prepared, the sergeants were ordered to shoot at the protective wooden boards of the barrel ladder. In addition, kerosene was used to ignite the fire and support the combustion. For a time, the Han army's ladder was exhausted, and many sergeants on the ladder were burned to death. .
Coupled with the rain of arrows and stones above their heads, the Han troops who climbed the city could no longer hold on. They all withdrew from the ladder and retreated to their own formation in defeat.
Wei Yan originally saw that his army was progressing smoothly, but he didn't expect that Wei Jun's reaction was so fast. He immediately found a way to crack it and used rockets to burn more than half of the barrel ladders.
So he ordered the chariots to be dispatched, intending to concentrate on attacking the city gate of Guzang. As long as the gate was broken, there would be no need to compete with the Wei army for the city wall.
The Han army's charging chariots also greatly enhanced their protection. They not only covered their heads with thick wooden boards, but also covered the outside of the wooden boards with cowhide felt, specifically to prevent the defenders from setting fire to the chariots.
Unexpectedly, Hao Zhao saw that the rocket had little effect, and immediately came up with a way to crack it. He asked the sergeant to first cut holes in the rocks, then tie them with Ge rope through the holes, and throw them back and forth to hit the Han army's chariots.
Sure enough, the wooden rams could not withstand repeated blows from flying rocks, and soon several rams were smashed and destroyed.
When Wei Yan saw that charging the car didn't work, he became furious and used all kinds of methods in the days that followed.
For example, a group of hundred-foot-tall well orchids were built. The sergeants standing on them shot arrows at the top of Guzang City to suppress the Wei army. The sergeants below took the opportunity to fill up the earth wall with soil blocks so that they could directly climb the city wall.
Unexpectedly, Hao Zhao built a wall inside the city, and Wei Yan's plan failed again.
Of course, Wei Yan would never forget the method of tunneling, but Hao Zhao actually dug a horizontal tunnel in the city to intercept it, causing the Han army's night attack to fail again.
The Han army attacked day and night for dozens of days. Although it inflicted considerable casualties on the Wei army, the Guzang city wall could not be breached. Wei Yan had no choice but to plan a long-term siege. When the food supply in the city was cut off, Guzang would not attack.
But as a result, the pressure on the Han army's food and baggage suddenly increased sharply, and as the war dragged on for a long time, there was no guarantee that something would not happen.
Therefore, in the letter, Wei Yan asked Yang Qing to prepare a large amount of military rations, and at the same time, he should also keep an eye on the movements of the Wei army in the east to guard against reinforcements from Cao Wei coming from the northern grasslands. However, what they were afraid of would come, Cao Wei's reinforcements did come.
The second letter Yang Qing received was from Wu Yi, who was in charge of Anding. What the letter said was that the reinforcements sent by Cao Wei to Liangzhou had appeared on the Monan grassland and would pass by Anding soon.
According to internal reports, this Wei army numbered five thousand, and they were all cavalry. They could not match the troops of An Ding County, so Wu Yi asked Yang Qing to send reinforcements to stop this Wei army.
Five thousand cavalry is not a small number. Wu Yi and the others will definitely not be able to stop them. The cavalry is very fast. If the Wei army breaks through, it will be difficult to pursue them. Once these five thousand Wei cavalry are allowed to rush to Liangzhou, Wei Yan and the others will It's dangerous.
Therefore, after thinking clearly, Yang Qing decided to personally lead his troops to Anding to reinforce Wu Yi. He would first deal with the five thousand Wei cavalry, and then follow the trend from Anding southward to attack the Wei army in the northern part of Guanzhong.
As for the matter of raising food and grass mentioned by Wei Yan, Yang Qing ordered Yang Xi, Jiang Yin, and Liang Xu to handle the matter with full authority, and they must ensure that the front line of Liangzhou has sufficient food and grass. Although Wei Yan had a bossy tone in his letter, Yang Qing focused on the overall situation and would not ruin the frontline war because of this.
"Xiuren, have all the cavalry been assembled?" In the governor's mansion, Yang Qing asked Liu Yin, who had just returned from the military camp outside the city.
Liu Yin clasped his fists and said, "Hui Shijun, everyone has gathered. Bo Qi is waiting in the camp and can set off at any time."
This time when going to stabilize the reinforcements, the most important thing was the speed of the troops, so Yang Qing only planned to send out cavalry. Currently, half of the four thousand state soldiers under the Yongzhou governor's command are cavalry, commanded by Sima Tao Gong in the front and Sima Feng Chong in the left.
Yang Qing felt that only two thousand cavalry was too small. After all, Wei's cavalry numbered five thousand, so he ordered Zhang Yi to lead a thousand Tianshui County cavalry to support him, making up the total of three thousand, plus Wu Yi. The men and horses in hand should be able to stop the Wei army.
In the past few months, Zhang Yi has formed a county army in Tianshui with no less than 3,000 soldiers, including these 1,000 cavalry.
Logically speaking, this expedition should have been led by Lei Xiong, a general from Tianshui County, but Zhang Yi had not fought a battle for a long time, so he asked Lei Xiong to stay in Jicheng and personally led the county's cavalry on the expedition.
Yang Qing nodded, turned his head and said to Yang Xi and Jiang Yin: "The military situation is urgent, I will set off immediately, and I will entrust the affairs of the state to you two."
"It reassures you that you don't have to play with all your heart."
Jiang Yin, who was in charge of the government, also handed over his hand and said, "Please rest assured, Yin and Wen Ran should take good care of the family."
"Okay, that makes me feel relieved."
