More than ten miles away in the northern suburbs of Hanging Gourd City, on the bank of the Rushui River, a group of soldiers are harvesting wood, that is, harvesting reeds from the tidal flats and taking them back as firewood, while Xiyang Wang Yuwenwen is surveying the terrain next to him.

Autumn has arrived, it is the flowering period of the reeds, the reeds on both sides of the Rushui are full of reed flowers, and the eyes look at the white expanse, the breeze blows, the tidbits flutter with the wind, and the scene is charming.

From time to time, wild ducks startled, quacked and flew out of the reeds, this is an excellent prey, but Yuwenwen didn't have the heart to hunt at this time, looking at the scenery on both sides of the Rushui River, thinking about how to retreat from the enemy.

The current situation is not as good as expected, the Son of Heaven continues to send edicts to call on the surrounding Haoqiang, local officials Qin Wang, but the number of Qin Wang is actually zero, unexpected, but reasonable.

Yuwen's family, which has become a garbage stock, is there anything wrong with it?

To put it bluntly, if Yu Wenwen is a bystander, he will not risk going bankrupt to buy this junk stock, even if he wants to make a move, he has to wait until the junk stock 'bottoms out', so at this time, Yuwenwen is planning the next big good and reversing the current embarrassing situation.

If you want to ambush the enemy, in terms of topography, it is very suitable to set up an ambush in the reeds by the river, once the enemy brigade of men and horses line up in a column that stretches for several miles, and the ambush soldiers suddenly kill, it is twice the result with half the effort.

But unless the commander of the enemy army is a fool, he must send rangers to fight in advance to find out whether there are ambushes in the reeds on the side of the road, and even set fires.

Therefore, Yuwen Wen is not thinking about his ambush location, but purely carefully surveying the terrain around the Hanging Gourd, actively preparing for the battle, and preparing for the next Hanging Gourd offensive and defensive battle.

The expected scene of heroes from all over the country enthusiastically did not appear, and the embarrassment could only rely on the Anzhou army and the absorbed Yuzhou army to defend the hanging gourd, and the problem faced by Yuwenwen was how to hold the hanging gourd as much as possible, and all factors had to be taken into account.

Or think about it from another perspective, imagine that you are the commander of the enemy army, how to break through the hanging gourd.

The city defense matter is now presided over by Li Yunxin, and the formation and training of the state soldiers are in charge of Yang Su's father and son, so Yu Wenwen has time to empathize, figure out the thoughts of the enemy commander, and probably think about the siege methods that the other party can use.

Defending the city can't be defended just by defending it, this is just a symptom, and the way to cure the root cause is to win a decisive battle in the field, but in this Henan Plain, the troops that Yuwen can invest are far less than that of Yu Chi.

The decisive battle in the plains mainly relied on cavalry, after all, the infantry could not chase after victory, and the Yuwen clan could not retreat after defeat, and the Yuwen clan, which was inferior in the number of cavalry, was not easy to defeat the Wei Chi clan in the decisive battle in the plain area.

From an overall point of view, the hanging gourd is the 'protrusion' of the Yuwen clan in the territory of the Yu Chi clan, like a dagger against the opponent's abdomen, and if this dagger is not pulled out, the Yu Chi clan will not be able to calm down and organize a full-scale attack at all.

It is conceivable that the strength of the army sent by the other party again will not be less, and the strength of the Yuwen clan will be at a disadvantage in comparison.

But no matter how few soldiers there are, they have to hold on, and for the Yuwen clan, using the hanging gourd as a bait to attract the main attack of the Wei Chi clan can buy valuable respite for the rest of their own areas.

Therefore, for the upcoming next round of hanging gourd offensive and defensive battles, Yu Wenwen must try to delay time as much as possible no matter what, and according to the comparison of the strength of the enemy and us, the tactics formulated are "defensive counterattacks".

If you want to fight back, you must first hold it, Yuwenwen must use all means to hold the hanging gourd, and after a few months, the opponent's soldiers are tired and lose their sharpness, and their own reinforcements will wait for the opportunity to counterattack, so that the opponent will retreat.

This kind of thing is easier said than done, but Yu Wenwen is not blindly confident, the counterweight trebuchet and the thunder were 'invented' by him, so there are corresponding restraint measures when defending the city, and the problem is that the other party adopts another siege method in addition to this.

Yu Wenwen stood on a dirt slope, looked at the slowly flowing river in front of him, and asked the Yin World Master on the side: "Yin Sima, in your opinion, if the enemy attacks with water, what are the chances of success?" ”

"King, the hanging gourd is near the water, once the enemy army can't attack in a hurry, it will inevitably think of damming and storing water, and its attacking troops will definitely not be small, and the defenders of the hanging gourd will be powerless to stop it at that time."

"I've just been around the city for a week, and I've seen the base of the hanging gourd city wall, how long do you think the hanging gourd city wall can last?"

"The king, the qualifications of the officials are still shallow, and they have never guarded the city, so I really don't know."

Yin Shishi is telling the truth, although he is unwilling to have too much contact with Yuwen Wen in his heart, but there is no other way now, such as today's son appoints him as Yuzhou Sima to help strengthen the city defense, so it is inevitable to deal with Yuwen Wen.

"The rammed earth city wall, I am afraid of being soaked in water for a long time, if the rammed earth wall is of poor quality, it will collapse even after continuous heavy rain, the hanging city wall has just been repaired last year, Yin Sima can go to ask the relevant personnel."

Yuwen Wen talked eloquently, he didn't care if the Yin Master hated him in his heart, now the public is public, private is private, of course he has to explain, if the Yin Master dares to disobey the Yin, Yuwen Wen doesn't mind killing chickens and monkeys.

"Ask them, where are the hidden dangers of the city wall, especially ask the craftsmen, most of the officials are cunning, they talk about clichés all day long, and they say the same as if they didn't say it, you have to have a few more eyes."

"The subordinate obeys."

Yin Shishi is not a newcomer who has just entered the officialdom, of course he knows that Xu is not easy to deal with, whether he was willing to do it before or not, he is now a person on the boat of the Son of Heaven, no matter how he does, he will be a monk for a day and hit the clock for a day.

"The widow heard that Yin Sima is skilled in martial arts? Have you ever killed someone? ”

"Back to the king, the thief has naturally been killed."

"Have you ever led an army on the battlefield?"

"The lower official is ashamed, and he has never had it."

Yu Wenwen looked at the Yin World Master, looked at this peer with good facial features, and then smiled: "Fame must be taken immediately, but not just any person can make a contribution on the battlefield." ”

"The Son of Heaven is covered with dust, and the society will fall, it is a good opportunity to make contributions, Yin Sima, what do you say?"

"That's what the king said." After saluting, the Yin World Master said, looking as usual, but he didn't know what he was thinking in his heart.

What should be said has been said, if the other party doesn't know what to do, he will bear the consequences, Yu Wenwen focused his attention on Rushui again, he has carefully asked the locals, Rushui is likely to be flooded in the rainy season, and the city has not been flooded in the past.

Of course, this situation is rare and has not happened in recent years, but for Yuwenwen, the probability of the hanging gourd being attacked by water in the next battle will not be small, so it is necessary to be careful.

Today, he went out of the city to survey the terrain, first to the downstream section of the river, and then to the upstream, in order to understand the topography of the Rushui basin, and roughly estimate how high the water level would be if there was a large flood.

The terrain around the Hanging Gourd is generally a plain, but the Hanging Gourd itself is surrounded by Rushui and its tributaries, which is a natural moat for the defenders, but for the attackers, this is both a nuisance and a good opportunity to use water attacks.

If you have a bird's-eye view, you can see the hanging gourd sandwiched by Rushui, probably like a 'medium' character, which can be regarded as a large river island in Rushui.

If the water does not dry up, the enemy will have enough time to attack the enemy, and it is completely possible to attack it with water.

A common method of water attack warfare is to build a dam upstream to store water, and when the amount of water is sufficient, the dam will be broken, and the raging water can engulf the enemy army or camp downstream.

There is also a water attack method, called 'flooding', which is mainly used in siege, that is, to build a dam in the downstream of the city along the river, and form a reservoir in the upstream through water storage, and soak the upstream city.

After a long time, the foundation of the rammed earth city wall was soaked soft, and it naturally collapsed, and before that, the city had turned into a flooded country, wet everywhere, which directly affected the living conditions of the soldiers and civilians defending the city, and the morale would be severely damaged, and even lead to the spread of disease.

In the plains, most of the main cities are located next to rivers because of the availability of important water sources, as well as the use of waterways for transportation, and the venting of excrement in the cities.

It is precisely because the city is close to the water, so it is also common to use water power to attack the city in this era, and the more famous examples of battles in the past hundred years are the battle of the East and West Wei Yingchuan more than 40 years ago.

The Western Wei army defended Yingchuan, and the Eastern Wei army came to attack, and after besieging the city, they built a dam and stored water in Weishui outside the city, directly forming a large reservoir, soaking Yingchuan City in water and turning it into a Zeguo.

With no waist in the city and no reinforcements, the defenders surrendered after holding out for almost a year.

This is a successful example, and there is another example, which happened when Yuan Wei and Xiao Liang faced off.

The Wei army occupied Shouyang, a key place in Huaishui, and the Liang army located downstream wanted to recover Shouyang, but it was difficult to defeat the Wei army with many cavalry in the wilderness and wave warfare, so Emperor Xiao Yan of Liang thought of a way, that is, to flood Shouyang.

Shouyang is located on the south bank of Huaishui, there is a river valley named Fushan Gorge hundreds of miles away from its downstream, Xiao Yan mobilized manpower and material resources to build a dam in Fushan Gorge to block Huai, raise the water level of Huaishui, and flood Shouyang.

The barrage dam built by the Liang army is called Fushan Weir, it is said that more than 200,000 soldiers and civilians were mobilized as laborers, the main body of Fushan Weir is an earthen dam, and tens of millions of catties of iron material are at the bottom, and there is also a spillway, which took two years to build after a lot of hard work.

Fushan weir into a single place, its upstream formed a huge reservoir, hundreds of miles away Shouyang was immediately flooded, the Wei army defending the city had to abandon the city on the Bagong Mountain to station, the Liang army soldiers heard the news and were excited, only to recover Shouyang is just around the corner.

However, the Wei army did not retreat, the rainy season came, the water level of Huaishui soared, and the upstream water level was almost the same as Fushan Weir, so the tragedy occurred, Fushan Weir burst, and the downstream victims were 100,000 people, and Huaishui floated into the sea.

The Liang army tried to flood Shouyang, but the Fushan weir that cost countless manpower and material resources to build collapsed, but it harmed the people in his own country, and it was a failed water attack.

I'm afraid not, now that it's autumn, the rainy season is getting farther and farther away, once the hanging gourd is surrounded and the other party uses the method of 'flooding', I'm afraid there will be no collapse of the river embankment after continuous heavy rain.

The flow of the Huai River is large, and the flow of its tributary Rushui is much smaller, and the barrage is not so easy to burst, Yu Wenwen feels that it is unreliable to burn incense and pray for the enemy's dam to collapse all day, so he has to find another way to solve it.

What's the solution? Very simply, the soldiers came to block the water and cover the earth, moved food and other materials to higher places in the city in advance, and then hoarded sandbags in the city, which was regarded as flood control and flood control.

To solve the problem of water sources, some people may ask, if it is really flooded, there is water everywhere, why are you afraid of no water to drink?

If the hanging gourd is really flooded into a large pond, then all kinds of garbage and even the excrement of people and animals will be soaked in the water, such water is no different from fecal water, and people and animals will definitely get sick if they drink it.

Therefore, the well is necessary, and the wellhead must be heightened, although the well water is bound to be turbid, but in addition to the sediment, there is not so much 'material'.

Li Yunxin, who is in charge of the city defense, is arranging people to do these things, and in addition, there is an equally important thing that is also being carried out at the same time, that is, picking wood (chopping wood).

When it comes to defending a city, many people's first reaction is to have enough food, and on the basis of that, the more soldiers the better, but they often ignore one factor, and that is fuel.

The fuel of this era of course refers to firewood, and a city only has food and people, without firewood can not be kept, the reason is very simple, how to cook without firewood, can not chew wheat, millet, rice?

Not to mention that in the rainy season, you need to make a fire to bake wet clothes and bedding, and in winter, you have to make a fire to keep warm and keep out the cold, and in winter, it will snow!

Yuwenwen wants to defend the hanging gourd and try to delay it as much as possible, so it is very likely that the siege will last until winter or even the spring of the next year, without fuel (firewood), where can the defenders hold on.

History buffs will talk about the Battle of Xiangyang in the Song and Yuan dynasties, and they will say that the use of 'Huihui Cannon' (counterweight trebuchet), coupled with the depletion of food, led to the surrender of the Xiangyang defenders, but in fact this view is too one-sided.

There are two important reasons for the surrender of the Xiangyang defenders, one is that the reinforcements have been cut off, that is to say, the Yuan army has completely surrounded Xiangyang, and the Xiangyang defenders know that there will be no reinforcements in the short term.

The second is the lack of firewood in the city.

The defenders of Xiangyang are somewhat short of food, but they will not run out of food in the short term, the problem is that there is a shortage of firewood, and there is no way to make a fire to cook without firewood (fuel), and it is useless to have any food.

Therefore, Yuwen Wen is now mobilizing the soldiers and civilians in the city to go out of the city to collect wood, and bring everything that can be burned back to the city, as long as it is a soldier who goes out of the city, he is not allowed to come back empty-handed, which is also an important work in preparing for war.

He checked the terrain by the river, and the entourage took knives to cut the reeds on the tidal flats, and Yuwenwen went out of the city with dozens of cavalry this time, one is to ensure safety, and the other is to pick wood.

The army of the Wei Chi clan will be under the city for more than a month, and when the time comes, the hanging gourd will be surrounded like an iron bucket, and all kinds of materials needed by the defenders can only survive by consuming inventory.

If you can survive the initial onslaught, it will be winter in a few months, and the demand for firewood will be greater at that time.

Seeing that everyone has gained a lot, Yuwenwen also knows the terrain of this area well, and is about to get on the horse and return to the city, but he sees a horse galloping on the official road in the north, Yuwenwen took out a clairplane and looked at it, and was overjoyed after a while:

Isn't this Xue Shixiong? Settled your family so quickly?