It was late at night, and Ma Hong had already fallen asleep.

Ma Tan didn't sleep, stayed in front of the fire and thought about what Ma Hong said, that sentence is better than no book, he stretched out his hand into the flames, quickly retracted his hand, looked at the red burn of his hand, slowly stood up, walked outside the camp, Zhang He was on vigil, he stood straight, like a sword in the dark, sharp, as if it could cut a wound in the darkness.

"General Zhang." Ma Jian shouted.

Zhang He looked back at Ma Tan, there was no trace of tiredness in his eyes, he looked at Ma Jian and said, "Don't you sleep yet?" ”

"No sleepiness." Ma Tan replied.

"Hehe, let's go to sleep! You'll be sleepy tomorrow. Zhang He said with a smile.

Ma Jian looked at this man from the north, and couldn't help but feel a trace of warmth in his heart, and said to Zhang He: "General Zhang, I have something to ask you about below." ”

"Don't you dare, please?"

"My brother said, it is better to believe in the book, than to have no book, what does General Zhang think of this sentence? General Zhang is on the battlefield, can he understand this sentence. ”

Zhang He smiled slightly: "Books? Speaking of military books, I haven't read them for a long time. ”

Ma Tan was stunned for a moment and said, "Why is this? ”

Zhang He smiled slightly, took out his long sword and stuck it on the ground and said, "The sword has seen a lot of blood, so it is natural to be able to understand many things that are not in the book. ”

"For example?"

"What do you think of our siege?"

"It's an uphill battle."

Zhang He nodded and said: "It is indeed a hard battle, Sun Tzu's Art of War has a saying, attacking the city is the bottom, attacking the heart is the top, but now it is the siege of the city." ”

"Why did General Zhang say that?"

"According to common sense, the loss of the besieging side is generally much greater than that of the defending side, but in this war, the enemy's losses are not smaller than ours, and as the battle continues, our losses will become smaller and smaller, and their losses will be greater and greater, especially the loss of morale."

"Why? Shall we attack, and the enemy defend? ”

"Haha!" Zhang He smiled and said: "If you want us to attack, it's like taking a stone, running to someone's door, knocking on someone's door, and smashing someone's head." And what about the defending side? They only dare to fight us in front of their own houses, but they dare not go out of their houses to fight us, because they know that if they go out of their homes, they will definitely lose. ”

We always run to their door with a stone and beat them, and even if we are injured by them, then we are also injured by them, and what about them? If they are wounded by us in front of their own house, over time, they will be timid, and they will not dare to go out to meet the battle, and once the opposing soldiers dare not go out of the city to meet the battle, they will lose completely.

Now it's about morale! The fight is to pick up the heart of the stone, and once you put down the stone, you lose your morale.

What Zhang He said was very simple and popular, and Ma Yan understood.

On the second day, as soon as the sky was bright, Wei Yan led his troops to continue the siege of the city, first throwing gunpowder at the city gate with catapults, and then the rocket soldiers detonated the gunpowder, forcing the enemy to dare not gather in front of the city gate, and then Hu Du led the troops to rush and kill three times, back and forth, until noon, Ma Hong ordered him to stop.

At dusk, Zhang He led his troops to continue the siege, and the same method used by Wei Yan to attack the city, and fought until late at night, before the army stopped fighting.

At night, Hu Du used Ma Hong's tired tactics to launch an attack on the enemy army seven times in a row, and retreated just before rushing to the city, and constantly harassed Zhang Renjun all night.

The enemy was tired of being harassed by the fox, at dawn, Zhang Ren ordered 3,000 infantry, went out of the city to attack Ma Hong, Ma Hong saw Zhang Ren out of the city and took the initiative to fight, sent Zhang He to lead the troops to meet the attack, Zhang He broke Zhang Ren in front of the camp, Zhang Ren fled back to the city in defeat, closed the city without fighting.

"Humph! See? Brother Tan, Zhang Ren also saw that it was not the way to stay for a long time, so he took the initiative to attack and wanted to improve his morale. ”

"But he fought a defeated battle, and his morale was not mentioned, but it was as if he had taken a cold shower for his army." Fox Du laughed.

Ma Tan nodded and said, "What should we do next?" Continue the siege? ”

Ma Hong shook his head and looked at Zhang He and said, "General Zhang, what do you think should be done?" ”

Zhang He thought for a while and said, "The last general thinks that we should hurry up and rest now, but we should send a team of soldiers to scold Zhang Ren's army in front of the city, and keep scolding. ”

"Radical plan?"

"Yes." Zhang He said.

"Good!" Ma Hong nodded and said, "Hu Du, you send someone to Zhang Ren to give a gift." ”

"What gifts?"

"Dead rats!"

Ma Hong sent someone to send Zhang Ren a gift, a box, which contained a woman's clothes and a dead mouse.

Zhang Ren was furious, threw his clothes on the ground, stepped on them twice, and said angrily: "This Ma Hong'er is scolding me for being a mouse." ”

"Hmph, is this kid laughing at our Xichuan boys for being rats? Let me go out of the city and lead the troops to fight him! Deng Xian said.

Zhang Ren hurriedly organized Deng Xian and said: "General Deng, no, this Ma Hong'er deliberately led you and me to fight, he couldn't break through the city gate, so he wanted to lure me to attack, but I didn't like him." ”

"General, the enemy soldiers outside are learning to meow in front of the castle tower, and they say that they want to catch mice."

The soldier reported the news.

"Damn! Too much deception. Deng Xian was furious.

Zhang Ren and Deng Xian climbed the city tower together, only to see hundreds of soldiers standing in front of the city tower, those soldiers learned to meow together, and laughed at the Xichuan men for all being mice, and claimed to catch mice.

Deng Xian's face turned dark, but Zhang Ren stopped his anger and looked at the soldiers outside the city thoughtfully,

On the other side, Wu Yi, Liu Xun and Huang Quan led the main force to fight with Huang Zhong, Li Yan and Wang Ping on the bank of the Qujiang River, fifty miles away from the Dianjiang River. Huang Quan originally wanted to swallow Huang Zhong and Li Yan's army with Tian Ji's horse racing strategy, and let Zhang Ren drag Ma Hong, but he didn't expect that Huang Zhong and Li Yan were not fuel-efficient lamps.

"Most of this army is the Jingzhou army led by Li Yan, and most of the Jingzhou army is Liu Biao's old department, but the combat effectiveness of Liu Biao's old department is actually stronger than that of our soldiers in Yizhou, it seems that it is difficult for us to break them."

Wu Yi sighed, he didn't want to say this fact, but he really had no way to face Li Yan and Huang Zhong.

"The enemy has cavalry, occupies the Qujiang Plain, and engages in the plain, which is not good for us." Liu Xun said.

"If you can't break this army and attack Ma Hong with Zhang Ren and Deng Xian in time, I'm afraid it will change over time, and once Zhang Ren is defeated, I'm afraid it will be ......," Huang Quan said.

Wu Yi said: "Zhang Ren and Deng Xian are all fierce generals in Sichuan, and it should not be a problem to resist Ma Hong." ”

"General Wu, don't forget, that Ma Hong has the power to fight a decisive battle with Cao Cao, and the battle of Huayin is inseparable from that Cao Cao." Huang Quandao.

"Therefore, Zhang Ren is definitely not Ma Hong's opponent, and defeat is only a matter of time." Liu Xun said.

Huang Quan nodded and said: "If we can't swallow Huang Zhong's army at this time, we might as well send an army to hold Huang Zhong, and then the main force will swim to Dianjiang and resist Ma Hong together with Zhang Ren." ”

Wu Yi pondered for a while and said, "The military advisor is reasonable. ”

"Leave me 8,000 soldiers, I will contain Huang Zhong and Li Yan, and you will go to help Zhang Ren."

Wu Yi glanced at Huang Quan, and Huang Quan nodded.

Wu Yi said: "Then hand it over to Gongzi." ”

"I'm here, relieved." (To be continued.) )