"PS: The headache is much better, but the throat is still uncomfortable, and the phlegm coughed up is a little greenish yellow, and I have been drinking the medicine to clear heat and detoxify."

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Since ancient times, the purpose of the siege of the city by the great army is nothing more than to isolate the city, so that it will be deprived of food, water, and salary, and only take it when there is chaos in the city.

But having said that, if you want to easily break through Handan with the siege alone, it is too much to underestimate the experience of the Zhao people in Handan City so far accumulated to resist the enemy, because in the early Warring States period after the division of the three families, the Wei State was the strongest, and it was only one step away from dominating the Central Plains.

It is precisely because it has been attacked and threatened many times that Handan of Zhao has also accumulated relevant experience in wars and has done a good job in dealing with it.

For example, in the famous battle of "besieging Wei to save Zhao", Zhao sent envoys to Linzi of Qi to ask for help when Handan was attacked by Wei general Pang Juan, and then Qi general Tian Ji and his military advisor Sun Bin gathered Qi troops, and then rushed to the border of Qi and Wei day and night, and at this time Handan's city (outer city) had just been broken by the Wei army, and the inner city was still resisting - it was under such circumstances that Tian Ji and Sun Bin adopted the strategy of besieging Wei to save Zhao.

This was still when the Qi state intended to weaken Zhao and Wei - at that time, the courtier of the Qi state, "Duan Ganpeng", proposed to the king of Qi Wei, hoping to divide the reinforcements into two, attack the Xiangling of the Wei state all the way, and then rescue the Zhao state after the Wei army broke through Handan.

In other words, it was precisely because of the deliberate actions of the Qi State that the outer city of Handan, the capital of the Zhao king, was broken by the Wei general Pang Juan, otherwise, the Qi army could have carried out a follow-up strategic attack on the Wei State before the outer city of Handan was broken by the Wei army.

According to this calculation, Handan was besieged by the Wei general Pang Juan with 80,000 to 100,000 troops, and held it for at least two months, creating a very favorable environment for the Qi generals Tian Ji and Sun Bin to calculate Pang Juan.

And now, how many rebels are there under Gongzi Zhang? Even if you count the armies of Niu Jian and Xu Jun, it is only between 50,000 and 60,000 when it is full, which is almost close to the number of Wang Division's troops defending in Handan City at this moment.

No matter how you say it, it seems that Zhao Cheng of Anpingjun, Li Dui of Fengyangjun, Zhao Bao of Yangwenjun and others are also courtiers who have been in power since the period of Marquis Suhou of Zhao, but in addition to them, there are also many generals of the young Zhuang Dynasty such as Zhao Yuan, Zhao Ben, and Lian Po in the royal division.

Therefore, it is unrealistic to use a siege to break through Handan, even if it is Meng Zhong, who presented this strategy to Gongzi Zhang, his main purpose is only to force the royal division in the city to go out of the city to fight their rebels - after all, if it is a battle outside the city, the rebels with more than 10,000 cavalry under Niu Jian are almost impossible to lose.

I believe that this is also clear in the city, so unless it is absolutely necessary, the king in the city will not give up the defensive advantage and take the initiative to go out of the city to fight the rebels.

So, what is a last resort?

It's very simple, that is, the firewood in the city is exhausted, and the soldiers and civilians in the city want to go out of the city to cut down trees to replenish firewood, and the rebels surrounding Handan are not allowed to do that, at this time, Wang Shi can only give up the defensive advantage and find a way to break through the encirclement and blockade of the rebels.

As for why it must be that the firewood has to run out? Instead of drinking water or food?

Quite simply, because there are two rivers in Handan, Fushui (Fuyang River) and Shaoshui (Qin River) that flow through the city and are connected to the moat outside the city, so it is difficult to cut off the water supply in Handan - after all, even if a dam is built upstream of these two rivers, it is difficult to completely cut off the flow of water.

As for grain storage, Handan, as the capital of the Zhao dynasty that was often attacked by the Wei State, built many granaries in the city to pile up strategic grain in order to prevent the siege of the city many years ago, not to mention that just after the autumn harvest this year, Handan is still relatively sufficient to eat the grain that survives this winter.

Only firewood.

After all, tens of thousands of city residents plus tens of thousands of troops need to boil water, cook, and heat the firewood needed every day, that is simply an astronomical amount, even if a part of the preparation in the city in advance, it will not last long.

According to Tian Buyu's conservative estimate a few days ago, the firewood in Handan City should be exhausted within seven days, and Meng Zhong's judgment is not much different - the firewood used by the palace and the military in Handan City may not only last for seven days, but the firewood owned by the residents in the city may not be able to support seven days.

No, on the sixth day, there was a group of people in the city who tried to sneak out of the city in an attempt to bring some firewood back to the city, and the appearance of these people meant that the firewood reserves in the city had reached a very serious point.

How to take advantage of the situation and act at the right time, and turn the current situation into a helping way to break through Handan, this is what Meng Zhong has been thinking about these days.

On the same day, after asking more than a dozen people in the city about the situation in the city, Meng Zhong ordered the soldiers to release the dozen or so, and he did not even stop the dozen or so people from going to the nearby woods to cut down trees, and chopping the trees into sections of firewood and bringing them back to the city.

After learning of this, Le Yi also communicated with Meng Zhong in private: "Did you intend for the soldiers to pretend to be the 'salary' Zhao people to infiltrate the city?" ”

At that time, Meng Zhong was also a little surprised: "Is it so obvious? ”

Seeing that he had guessed the intention in Meng Zhong's heart, Le Yi was also very happy, who made Meng Zhong always come up with some incredible strategies, which made Le Yi, Zuo Sima, not far behind-after all, Le Yi was actually an arrogant lord.

He smiled and explained: "Obviously, it's not that much, it's just that you are too treacherous in your use of soldiers, and the kings in the city are extremely wary of you, even if you have no purpose, I'm afraid they can come up with some cranky ideas to scare themselves...... Take this matter as an example, if there is another person, the kings in the city may not be so careful, but because it is you, I am afraid that they will strictly check the Zhao people who enter and leave Handan, and prevent you from instructing the soldiers to pretend to be the Zhao people who are paying salaries, so I think it is not so easy for you to let the soldiers pretend to be ordinary people and blend into the city. ”

"Hmm......"

After listening to Le Yi's words, Meng Zhong also nodded slightly.

Immediately, he smiled and said, "Since this is the case, then we can only find another way." ”

“……”

Looking at Meng Zhong's appearance as if he was a bamboo in his chest, Le Yi felt incredible: "You have made up your mind?" ”

"It's just a premature ploy."

As he spoke, Meng Zhong whispered a few words to Le Yi, only to hear Le Yi's face stunned, and he was stunned for a while before nodding slightly: "This ...... That's right, but I didn't expect ......."

Hearing this, Meng Zhong felt quite excited.

After all, the strategy that even Le Yi didn't think of could be imagined by the generals of the Wang Division in the city.

On that day, as Le Yi guessed, when the dozen or so people in the city returned to Handan City with a basket full of firewood, they were indeed strictly interrogated by the guards of the city.

Even, Yang Wenjun and Zhao Bao took Zhao Ben and Zhao Yuan to watch in person.

In all fairness, whether it is Zhao Bao, or Zhao Ben and Zhao Yuan, it is forbidden for the people in the city to leave the city to cut firewood without permission, firstly, such a move is very dangerous, and once they encounter the rebels outside the city, they are likely to be killed; Second, this move exposed loopholes in the city's defenses and gave the rebels a chance to take advantage of them.

However, the prohibition is prohibited, and when the firewood reserves in the field have bottomed out, Zhao Bao, Zhao Ben, Zhao Yuan and others cannot forcibly prohibit the people in the city from going out without permission, because this will cause public resentment.

You must know that in order to support the army of 50,000 Wang Shi, Wang Shi has collected firewood storage from the people in Handan City - although they have given money, it cannot be denied that this is still a forced way, this move has led to the people in the city have now been forced to the point that they must demolish their houses to get wood and chop firewood, and today these people who venture out of the city may even have demolished the courtyard gate, firewood houses and other unimportant buildings, if they are forbidden to venture out of the city to cut firewood, these people will have to drink raw water and gnaw raw rice, Over time, it will inevitably cause resentment.

Therefore, in this case, the king who guards the city will basically choose to turn a blind eye.

Anyway, it was the decision of these people to take the risk of going out of the city to cut firewood, even if these people were killed by the rebels outside the city, it was their own choice, and it had nothing to do with their guards - but if they stopped these people, it would make these people hate them, so why bother?

Unexpectedly, the dozen or so people who went out of the city to cut firewood without permission today actually came back intact, which surprised the kings and soldiers.

Could it be that these dozen or so people in the city have such great ability to find out the loopholes in the siege of the rebels outside the city?

As a result, I found out that the dozen or so people had just left the city by the rebels not long after, and they had not been brought to a young rebel general for some questioning, but in the end, the young rebel general still released them intact, and did not even prevent them from bringing firewood back to the city.

After asking the interrogating soldiers to relay the confessions of the dozen or so people to Yang Wenjun Zhao Bao, Zhao Ben, Zhao Yuan and others, Yang Wenjun Zhao Bao said with a smile: "Young rebel general, Meng Zhong is undoubtedly ...... Even if these dozen people have a big life, they happened to be Meng Zhong, if they met Gongzizhang's side, they would have been arrested as strong men. ”

Hearing this, Zhao Ben also nodded, and did not refute Yang Wenjun Zhao Bao's words.

Don't look at him and Lian Po suffered several big losses at the hands of Meng Zhong a while ago, but Meng Zhong's character, Zhao Ben still quite recognized, and he didn't have contempt for Meng Zhong because he was committed to the rebels at the moment.

But even so, he still put forward his opinion: "Although Meng Zhong's army has never violated innocent people, I don't believe that I have mercy at such a critical moment, Yang Wenjun, do you think that Meng Zhong did it on purpose?" ”

"How?" Yang Wenjun Zhao Bao asked curiously.

I saw Zhao Ben glanced at the dozen or so people who had walked to the city with firewood on their backs after being interrogated, and said in a low voice: "After these dozen people return to the city, there will definitely be neighbors on the left and right who are vying to ask about the origin of those firewood, and when these people will pass by, there will be many people who are moved and sneak outside the city to cut firewood. ”

"This ......," Yang Wenjun and Zhao Bao stroked their beards and couldn't help but ponder.

After half a ring, he nodded and said, "It's not impossible." But the problem is that at present, even the rebels outside the city do not prohibit the Zhao people in the city from going out of the city to cut firewood, and if we forcibly stop it, it will definitely cause resentment among the people. Once the people's grievances are aroused and the rebels provoke a little bit of trouble, I am afraid that there will be an accident in the city......"

Hearing this, Zhao Ben shook his head and said: "I don't want to stop them, I mean that we must strengthen our precautions in this regard, for example, give these people who go out of the city a password every day, change it every twelve hours, and order these people not to leak it to the rebels......"

"Don't leak it out to the rebels?"

Zhao Yuan next to him couldn't help but sneer when he heard this, after all, according to the confessions of more than a dozen Handan city residents, they had already revealed to the rebels the details of "the firewood in Handan City is exhausted", although this is not confidential information, in fact, the rebels can guess as long as they carefully look at the reality in Handan City, but this is enough to prove that those people in the city may not be able to keep secrets when facing the rebels.

As if he had guessed the thoughts in Zhao Yuan's heart, Yang Wenjun Zhao Bao stroked his beard and said with a smile: "If that Meng Zhong really has the intention of sending soldiers to pretend to be salaried people, then you and I might as well give him a trap, well, how to implement it, for example, the people in the southeast of the city have a password, and the people in the southwest of the city have another password, if there are returning people, their residence and password do not match, it is undoubtedly a rebel fake, and they can be killed immediately!" ”

Hearing this, Zhao Ben and Zhao Yuan glanced at each other, nodded and said, "This plan is good!" It is worthy of Yang Wenjun! ”

"Hahaha." Yang Wenjun Zhao Bao waved his hand and said with a smile: "Old man, you are old, you can only give you young people a little advice now, specifically, Zhao Ben, you and Zhao Yuan can discuss it yourself." ”

"Whoa!"

Zhao Ben and Zhao Yuan hugged their fists in response, and lowered their heads on the side to discuss the correspondence given by Yang Wenjun and Zhao Bao.

And Zhao Bao himself stood on the battlement of the city gate tower, looking at the strict rebel camp not far from the city, guessing Meng Zhong's strategy.

In all fairness, the question raised by Zhao Ben is indeed a hidden danger that cannot be prevented, but Zhao Bao himself does not think that Meng Zhong will choose such a simple strategy, in Zhao Bao's opinion, Meng Zhong's kid is very smart, and often uses some strategies that ordinary people can't think of, which is the reason why he can win by surprise.

Sure enough, just as Zhao Ben guessed, the next day, about two or three hundred people in the city were noisily asking to go out of the camp to cut firewood, and Zhao Ben and Zhao Yuan saw that they could not be dissuaded, so they gave him a password - in fact, it was a password for the people living on a street, using the streets in the city as a password, and then releasing these out of the city.

Subsequently, these more than 100 people came to the rebel camp, it may be that Meng Zhong, Le Yi, Meng Sui and others have already confessed, so those rebel soldiers did not embarrass these people, after a simple search, it was confirmed that the other party did not carry weapons, only a few heavy axes for chopping wood, then waved his hand to signal for release, so that the more than 100 Handan people bypassed the camp along the rebels' defense facilities and went to the south to cut down trees.

At this time, Meng Zhong, who heard the news, led Le Yi and Meng Sui to stand on the watchtower of the camp to watch, during which Meng Sui was quite surprised and said: "It is said that there were only a dozen people yesterday, and there are hundreds of people today......

"So, I'm actually worried." Meng Zhong said with a smile when he heard this: "If I were Zhao Ben, in a few days, I would ask the soldiers in the city to disguise themselves as ordinary people and hide outside the city, this is a strange army, launching a sneak attack at night, and the gods will not know it......"

"What about weapons?" Le Yi asked casually.

"Weapons are not difficult to solve." Meng Zhong Zhengse said: "If it is an elite soldier, even with his bare hands, he can find a way to attack the guards patrolling at night and seize their weapons and armor. No matter how bad it is, you can also look around and get weapons and armor from the corpses on the battlefield that have not had time to be buried......"

"Your idea is really ......" Le Yi listened with great interest, and actually chatted with Meng Zhong carefully, and Meng Sui, who was listening to it, broke into a cold sweat, and hurriedly dissuaded: "Two, two, it's almost enough, you two are not the military Sima and Zuo Sima on Wang Shi's side." ”

Meng Zhong smiled when he heard this: "Sometimes, you have to change your position to guess the other party's intentions. ”

As he spoke, he snorted at the more than 100 people in Handan City who had gradually walked away, and said in a low voice: "You see, Yang Wenjun, Zhao Bao and Zhao Ben, are not worried at all that we may let our soldiers pretend to be these people to return to the city, I guess these people must have some passwords, passwords, and the like." And it's likely that it's multiple codes......"

"Do you want me to send someone to ask?" Le Yi asked casually.

"Forget it, I didn't plan to ...... here" As soon as he said this, Meng Zhong suddenly paused, and then chuckled and said, "Go ahead, it's okay to go and investigate." ”

"I'll go." Meng Sui said a word, and left the camp with the people.

Just as the Yanmen guard Zhao Yuan predicted, those Zhao people in Handan City really couldn't keep any secrets, and the rebel soldiers under the command of Meng Sui only threatened slightly, and told all the passwords they knew, which were the names of certain streets in Handan City.

After a while, Meng Sui returned to Meng Zhong and Le Yi, and said with a smile: "Ah Zhong, as you expected, the people who went out of the city this time did have passwords, and they were different...... How are we going to do that? ”

"Do nothing." Meng Zhong shook his head.

"Nothing?" Meng Sui asked in confusion, "Then what do you want me to ask those people for?" ”

"Scare and scare Yang Wenjun and Zhao Ben." Meng Zhong shrugged.

On that day, because of Meng Zhong's insistence, no rebel soldiers returned to Handan under the guise of salaried civilians, but when the more than 200 salaried civilians returned to the city to be interrogated, they also revealed the fact that "the rebels forced them to ask for passwords", and they also confirmed that the rebels had obtained almost all the passwords.

I have to say that this can scare Zhao Ben and Zhao Yuan a lot.

It turned out that they saw that the passwords of those people corresponded to the direction of their residence, and they thought that there was no problem, but they didn't expect that the rebels saw through their little tricks at a glance and forced out all the passwords.

So, Zhao Ben and Zhao Yuan hurriedly interrogated again, carefully interrogating the people who returned to the city one by one, and finally found that there was a false alarm, and there were no rebel soldiers mixed in - they were purely played by the rebels.

"Meng Zhong, that guy!"

Realizing that he had been tricked by that Meng Zhong, Zhao Ben gritted his teeth angrily.

On the side, Zhao Yuan's expression was extremely solemn.

Thinking about it, they just came up with a countermeasure today, but Meng Zhong on the other side saw through their trick at a glance, which was simply incredible.

How many days later, how will they stop the rebels from infiltrating the city?

In fact, after discussing with Le Yi, Meng Zhong had already given up attacking the South City Gate, because Le Yi had already made it very clear that even if Meng Zhong had no intentions, Zhao Bao and Zhao Ben would inevitably misinterpret his meaning and speculate on Meng Zhong's intentions by scaring himself, in this case, no matter how smart Meng Zhong was, there was nothing he could do.

So, Meng Zhong focused his energy on the side of the West City Gate, and let more than 400 veterans of the Xinwei Army, half of whom were still wearing armor, and half of them wearing the clothes of ordinary people, ambushed in the woods in the western suburbs of Handan.

On October 9, the opportunity came, and in view of the exhaustion of firewood reserves in the city, Wang Shi, who was forced to helpless, finally decided to go out of the city to cut down trees.

Since the eastern, northern, and southern sides of Handan were surrounded by rebels at this time, and there was no rebel blockade only in the west, Wang Shi decided to cut down trees in the western suburbs.

Of course, in fact, Wang Shi also knew that this was a trick of the rebels to encircle the three and one, don't look at the western suburbs There is no rebel blockade, but in fact, there are thousands of cavalry under Niu Jian who often wander here, and it is no exaggeration to say that the western suburbs are the most dangerous.

However, considering that the city was coming out from the east, north, and south, Wang Shi had to break through the rebel blockade first, and if he had to fight with the rebels with many defensive facilities, Wang Shi finally chose to cut down trees from the western suburbs.

On that day, a total of more than 20,000 soldiers and thousands of people in the city went out of the city to cut down trees.

And the facts proved that Wang Shi's judgment was not false at all, when the more than 20,000 Handan soldiers and civilians quickly cut down the forests in the western suburbs, Niu Jian led more than 6,000 cavalry to kill, and soon after, Pang Xuan and Ji Xin in the north, Meng Zhong and Le Yi in the south, also led reinforcements to support Niu Qian.

Under the threat of the army under the command of Niu Qian, Pang Xuan, and Meng Zhong, nearly 20,000 Wang soldiers formed a formation and desperately resisted the attack of the three sides, while the rest of the Wang soldiers and the people in the city carried a forest tree and a basket of firewood and quickly returned to the city.

In the extremely chaotic situation at that time, more than 400 Xinwei soldiers who had been ambushed in the woods by Meng Zhong in advance carried wood and firewood to the team returning to the city without hindrance, and blended into the city very smoothly.

Subsequently, when Niu Jian and Pang Xuan's army were still fighting with Wang Shi's army, Meng Zhong led his army and took the West City Gate.

At that time, not to mention that Wang Shi didn't react, even Niu Jian and Pang Xuan didn't react.

A moment later, when the Wang Shi inside and outside the city reacted and desperately attacked the lost West City Gate, Pang Xuan had already led his army into the city.

Immediately, Niu Jian also had a rather complicated mood and led his cavalry to attack the city.