"PS: Today is not in good shape, the whole family has a cold, and I am too, with a swollen head, headache, sore throat, very uncomfortable. Book friends, please pay attention to the warmth of your clothes."

———— the following text————

"Knock-"

"Knock-"

Amid the sound of war drums, Handan and the rebels in the southern suburbs outside the city exchanged crossbows.

It stands to reason that the walls of Handan are more than five zhang high, that is, about five adult men stacked vertically, and with the height of the terrain, the crossbowmen on Handan City should have the upper hand.

However, the rebel cart broke the situation that should have happened, and when the cart stopped moving forward, dozens of rebel crossbowmen climbed to the top of the cart, stood on a platform no less than the height of Handan City, and fired waves of arrows in the direction of the city wall.

For a while, the archers of Wang Shi and the rebels competed with each other, trying to suppress each other, so that at this moment, there were flying arrows everywhere in the city and under the city, whether it was Yang Wenjun Zhao Bao and others on Wang Shi's side, or Meng Zhong, Le Yi and others on the rebel side, they all honestly hid behind shields and bunkers to avoid being injured by stray arrows.

"Ahh

"Ahh

In the midst of the screams that rang out from time to time, the crossbowmen of the king and the rebels fell from the city wall and from the well cart, even if they did not die from the arrows, they died in this fall.

It seemed to be very intense, but in fact, the casualties of the two armies were not serious, after all, the two armies were shooting at each other across a moat.

Referring to this moat, Wu Ying personally came to ask Meng Zhong: "Why don't you cross the river?" Our army has built a wooden bridge, and is fully capable of pushing the well cart across the moat to the bottom of the city. ”

In Wu Ying's opinion, the combination of the well chariot and the crossbowman is indeed only very lethal, but no matter how fierce it is, it is not as fierce as the combination of the well chariot and the foot soldier - as long as the well chariot successfully reaches the enemy city, and the baffle is lowered to make it a passage with the top layer of the city wall and the well chariot, the wall of the enemy city can be completely regarded as nothing.

And how long will it take to shoot the soldiers of the enemy army in the city with a bow and crossbow like now? Given the distance between the two sides at the moment, hitting one or two of ten arrows is already a good result - and how much help can that help capture the city in front of you?

In this regard, Meng Zhong patiently comforted Wu Ying and said: "Gongzizhang's side is responsible for the main attack, and we are responsible for the feint attack, and the role of the feint attack is nothing more than to disperse the enemy's forces, occasionally scare the other party, so that the other party does not dare to underestimate us and others, and dare not draw troops from here to block Gongzizhang." Not to mention ......"

He glanced at Handan City in the distance, and whispered to Wu Ying: "What's more, it's only the first day, what's the hurry?" ”

Seeing that Meng Zhong seemed to have a plan, Wu Ying didn't say anything more, nodded and left.

On that day, Meng Zhongjun only exchanged a few rounds of shooting with the Wang Shi on Handan City, and then hastily ended the day's attack.

This made Zhang Ji quite surprised, and he asked Meng Zhongdao: "Meng Sima, Anyang Jun ordered you to feint to attack Handan, but your subordinates didn't even cross the moat today, you are too ......."

In fact, Zhang Ji wants to say, you are too perfunctory, right? Aren't you afraid that Gongzi Zhang will blame you?

In this regard, Meng Zhong smiled and said: "Gongzi Zhang is busy attacking the city, how can he take care of me?" ”

Zhang Ji was skeptical, and felt very unbelievable about this.

However, what is even more incredible is that Zhang Ji later learned that such a "perfunctory war" like Meng Zhong was not the first case, as early as before and after the Battle of Quliang, Meng Zhong had "coldly watched" Gongzi Zhang's attack on Quliangyi with 3,000 soldiers, and did not send troops to support from beginning to end.

This made Zhang Ji feel incredible.

On that day, compared with the "perfunctory war" of the Meng Zhong army, the situation on Gongzizhang's side was not optimistic, and the three generals of Wei Yuan, Tian Huang, and Zhai Dan, including the army led by Xu Jun and his subordinate Meng Yu, all participated in the siege of the city on this day, and participated in the battle more than once, but unfortunately the defense on the city of Handan was too tough, so that although the rebels tried their best to attack the city, they could not pose any threat to Handan, at least temporarily.

After withdrawing the troops, Gongzizhang also learned about Meng Zhong and Pang Xuan's achievements today not long after, and he did not have any chagrin after learning about Meng Zhong's perfunctory attitude.

On the contrary, it was Niu Qian, who was very surprised by this, and asked Gongzi Zhang: "Although Meng Zhong is responsible for the feint, but today is perfunctory, didn't Anyang Jun send someone to urge and reprimand?" ”

Hearing this, Gongzi Zhang smiled and said, "The generals can rest assured, Meng Zhong's desire to help me regain the throne is no less than my own...... Don't look at his perfunctory today, if I'm not mistaken, he must be secretly carrying out some kind of strategy......"

“……”

Niu Jian glanced at Gongzizhang with a strange expression, and nodded suspiciously.

I have to say that it may be that the tired plan of the enemy last time made Gongzizhang full of expectations for Meng Zhong, but in fact, as for how to capture Handan, in fact, Meng Zhong has no bottom in his heart at the moment.

The cart may be a strange trick - after all, until the rebels ordered to retreat, Handan did not take the opportunity to pursue the cart that tried to destroy the rebels, which means that no one in Handan City should know how powerful the cart is, and they don't know that this kind of cart can not only make the crossbowmen shoot farther, but also help the foot soldiers quickly seize the city wall.

Therefore, the well chariot should be used as a miracle trick for Meng Zhong, but it is only that - after all, the well chariot is very easy to destroy, and it cannot be used as a killer move when there are nearly 50,000 troops stationed in the enemy city, so Meng Zhong has to find another way.

That night, Meng Zhong personally came to Gongzizhang's camp and invited Gongzizhang to meet him in the handsome tent.

At that time, Gongzi Zhang was discussing ways to break the city with Niu Qian, Tian Buyu, Xu Jun, Wei Yuan, Tian Huang, and Zhai Dan according to the city defense map of Handan City.

When Meng Zhong saw Gongzi Zhang, Gongzi Zhang deliberately said with a straight face: "According to the sergeant who sent the order, the army under your command didn't even cross the moat today......

Seeing Tian Buyu smiling beside him, Meng Zhong knew that Gongzizhang was just joking with him, if it was in the past, he would probably cooperate, but now, he didn't have this interest, and said with a straight face: "Our army is only 5,000 people, and there are nearly 50,000 defenders in the city, even if our army can attack the city, as long as the defenders in the city launch a counterattack, our army will not be able to escape the end of defeat and retreat, in this case, what is the benefit of a strong attack?" ”

Seeing that Meng Zhong didn't cooperate with his intentions, Gongzizhang frowned slightly, and felt a little bored, and asked after nodding, "Then you came here this time, do you have any plan to break the enemy?" ”

"Don't dare to say a plan to break the enemy." Meng Zhong shook his head, and then clenched his fists and said: "I just think that the strength of the Wang Division is not inferior to ours, and with Handan City as its help, if our army chooses to storm the city, our soldiers will inevitably suffer heavy casualties, and we will lose the advantage we have established so far......"

Everyone in the tent nodded thoughtfully, they all felt that Meng Zhong was right, but the problem was that Wang Shi had retreated into Handan City, and they could only attack.

"Could it be that Meng Sima has a clever plan to lure out the king master in the city?" Niu Jian suddenly asked with a smile.

『……』

Meng Zhong glanced at Niu Jian when he heard this, and felt that Niu Qian's gaze at him was a little strange.

Without thinking about it, Meng Zhong said his suggestion in a deep voice: "The next suggestion is that it is better to besiege the city than to storm it!" ”

"Siege?"

Tian Buyu twisted his mustache and said to Meng Zhong with a smile: "Ah Zhong, do you want to cut off the firewood in the city?" ”

“……”

Meng Zhong glanced at Tian Buyu with some surprise, and then nodded and said, "Yes, Tian Xiang." ”

Seeing that Meng Zhong still called himself Tian Xiang, Tian Buyu was not annoyed, but shook his head slightly, and immediately explained to Gongzi Zhang and others: "Childe, there are already 10,000 families in Handan City, and now there are nearly tens of thousands of people stationed in the city, and the daily consumption of firewood is immeasurable......

After a pause, he said: "If the city can't bear it and leads the army out of the city to drive our army, it is exactly what our army wants, and with the help of the cavalry under Niu Jian Sima, our army will definitely be able to defeat the king in one fell swoop." ”

Hearing this, Meng Zhong looked at Tian Buyu with a slightly different expression.

He had to admit that although Tian Buyu was virtuous and unscrupulous in doing things to achieve his ends, this person was indeed wise.

"I see, I ...... so"

After listening to Tian Buyu's explanation of the siege strategy on behalf of Meng Zhong, Gongzi Zhang rubbed his hands and walked back and forth in the tent, as if weighing the pros and cons: whether to storm or besiege the city.

In fact, in his heart, he is more inclined to attack, after all, it is close to October at this time, the weather has gradually turned colder, maybe as long as it takes another month, the sky will fall heavy snow, and at that time, let alone want to conquer Handan again.

Two months, two months maximum!

Gongzizhang desperately hopes to capture Handan before the end of November, otherwise, this war may have to drag on until next year.

And this is extremely disadvantageous for the rebels, who lack warm clothing.

But the problem is that, unlike the perfunctory order given by Meng Zhong when he attacked Handan yesterday, the army under Gongzi Zhang was fully engaged yesterday, but due to the natural superiority of the defenders, the rebels lost many troops yesterday and did not get a corresponding gain.

As Meng Zhong said, there are nearly 50,000 Wang Shi defending Handan City, and even if the rebels continue to wear each other down, Wang Shi will not be the one who suffers - after all, considering the help of the city wall, it must be the rebels' losses that are greater.

Thinking of this, Gongzi Zhang asked Tian Buyu in a deep voice: "No, according to your guess, if our army surrounds Handan, Handan will fall into a situation of no firewood in a few days?" ”

"It's hard to say...... Tian Buyu guessed with his mustache: "Conservative estimate, seven days...... Seven days are almost. ”

"Seven Days ......"

Gongzi Zhang frowned and shook his head when he heard this, obviously feeling that seven days was too long.

Let the rebels take the risk of besieging Handan for seven whole days, but not give the order to attack the city? You must know that at most two months, today's cold winter will hit this land.

As if he had guessed Gongzizhang's thoughts, Tian Buyu said in a low voice: "Childe, we can besiege the city first, and then think about the specific strategy......

Gongzizhang hesitated for a moment, but finally listened to the advice of Meng Zhong and Tian Buyu.

After offering advice to Gongzi Zhang, Meng Zhong left the former's tent and prepared to return to his camp.

Unexpectedly, Niu Jian took the initiative to call him and chatted with him for a while.

"Cutting off the firewood in Handan City, this is really a clever strategy, Meng Sima is young and promising, and his days are unlimited."

"Where is it, Niu Sima, you are serious, when we surround Handan and cut off the firewood of Handan City, the city will definitely send troops to attack, and when the time comes, we will also rely on Niu Sima and Niu Sima's cavalry to help us defeat Wang Shi......"

"Hahaha, it's easy to say."

After some exchange, Niu Jian left with a smile, and it seemed that Meng Zhong's answers made him very satisfied.

But looking at the back of Niu Jian leaving, Meng Zhong felt a little strange.

He felt that Niu Jian seemed to be inexplicably hostile and wary of him, but the strange thing was that when Meng Zhong said, "I still have to rely on Niu Sima and Niu Sima's cavalry", Niu Qian's hearty smile did not look like a hypocrisy.

All in all, very strange.

"That Niu Qian, you don't have to worry about me stealing credit with him, right?"

When this thought flashed in his heart, Meng Zhong was also a little amused that he would have such a thought.

You must know that he and Niu Jian are not at the same level at all, although they call each other Sima, but Meng Zhong's Sima is only the Sima of the Thousand Faith Guards, and Niu Qian's Sima is the Sima who commands more than 10,000 cavalry, although they are both generals who command the soldiers, but the gap between the two is too big.

That's why Meng Zhong laughed at his thoughts: Niu Jian needs to worry about him competing with him? It doesn't need to be okay at all!

The next day, Gongzizhang changed his tactics and ordered the rebels to surround Handan.

How to surround Handan, in fact, is to build a camp outside the moat of Handan City, outside the attack range of Handan City, to block the way out of Handan, so that the Zhao people in Handan City can not go out of the city to cut wood for firewood.

According to the art of war, Gongzi Zhang could obviously send Wei Yuan, Tian Huang and others to the west gate of Handan City, but he deliberately let go of this city gate.

Of course, Gongzizhang's move was not a good intention, he just deliberately set up a bait to lure the Zhao army in the city to go out of the city from the west gate and go to the nearby woods to cut down trees, and once the Zhao army in the city dared to do this, Niu Jian would immediately lead the cavalry to cut off his way back, and on this flat terrain, the Zhao soldiers who went out of the city were killed without leaving a piece of armor.

But then again, it is not an easy task to build a camp under the noses of the Zhao generals in Handan City.

However, this did not bother Meng Zhong, and he ordered his soldiers to cut down the trees, cut off the branches to make logs, and then sharpen the bottom ends, and tie every three logs with hemp rope as a baffle, and then move them to the southern outskirts of Handan City, and erect them one by one, each baffle is also separated by a baffle.

Then the second row of the bezel is misaligned with the first row, and the third row is misaligned with the second row.

As for the purpose, in addition to defending against arrows from the direction of Handan City, it is also to be able to attack Handan more quickly - if there is really any good opportunity.

Behind these rows of baffles used to block arrows, Meng Zhongjun was also slowly building a military camp.

Since the camp was built under the nose of Handan City, of course Handan City would not be blind and blind to this, and immediately, Zhao Cheng, who seemed to be Anpingjun, Li Dui, Fengyangjun, and Zhao Bao, Yangwenjun, gathered together to guess the intentions of the rebels.

At the meeting, Fengyang Jun Li Dui said to the generals present: "Obviously, it was not good for Gongzi Zhang to attack the city yesterday, so he changed his mind and wanted to besiege my Handan and cut off Handan's food, water, firewood, and ......."

For food and water, everyone is not worried, after all, taking grain as an example, not to mention that Handan has just harvested the grain in the nearby fields, Handan's city is also piled up with a lot of grain and grass accumulated in previous years, at least it will not be a problem to survive this winter; As for the water source, there are aqueducts flowing into the city in Handan, and there are many wells in the city, even if the rebels cut off those aqueducts, Handan City will not fall into a situation where there is no water to drink.

The only more troublesome is firewood, after all, whether it is cooking or heating in the city, firewood must be used, tens of thousands of people or even more than 100,000 daily firewood consumption, that number is very amazing, if the rebels cut off Handan's firewood, then in a few days, Handan City will fall into a situation of no firewood for cooking and heating.

"Find a way to expel Meng Zhong and Pang Xuan......"

After thinking about it, Fengyang Jun Li Dui finally decided to pick a soft persimmon, that is, to choose to attack the relatively weak Meng Zhong Army and Pang Xuan Army, but unfortunately, at this time, the Meng Zhong Army had already set up a number of baffles to block arrows in the southern suburbs outside the city, and placed more defensive facilities such as antlers in front of these baffles, so that when Wang Shishi went out of the city to try to expel the Meng Zhong army, before he could attack the camp that the Meng Zhong army was building, he was shot by the rebel crossbowmen.

Especially the six wells, the rebel crossbowmen were condescending, so that the king had nothing to hide.

On September 30, the day after the rebels besieged Handan, Handan sent troops out of the west city gate to the western suburbs to cut down trees and move them to the city as firewood, but unfortunately, they encountered thousands of cavalry led by Niu Jian halfway, so that instead of cutting down a large amount of wood and transporting it back to the city, they were killed by Niu Qian's army for a while, and suffered heavy losses.

In the days that followed, Handan City tried to attack the rebels at night several times, but the rebels had long expected such a reaction from Handan City, so that Handan City's Wang Shi failed to succeed.

During this period, Meng Zhong always paid attention to the cooking smoke in Handan City.

It was not until 5 October that a patrol of the Xinwei soldiers caught more than a dozen spies, and only after questioning did they know that they were the people in Handan City.

According to these people in the city, at this time, all the trees that could be cut down in the city have been cut down in Handan City, which are used for heating and cooking by the king's soldiers, and even sent people to collect firewood in the city, and semi-forcibly asked those people to sell to the army.

And when even demolishing the house could not satisfy their own needs for firewood, some people finally decided to take the risk, either begging the guards or taking advantage of the guards' inattention, to sneak down the ropes from the city walls, hoping to go to the nearby woods to cut some firewood and bring it back to the city.

"Looks like it's almost time......

After hearing the explanations of those people, Meng Zhong thought secretly in his heart.